Did she have something else in mind?
“Before we proceed,” said Nasser, “I suggest we enter Istarinmul with the circus tomorrow and contact the Ghost circle. We are in dire need of better information.”
“Yes,” said Caina, looking at the walls of Istarinmul.
She knew that both Kalgri and Cassander Nilas awaited her within the city.
And Caina did not know if she was strong enough to face them again.
Chapter 14: Still Not Dead
The next morning, the guards at the gate admitted Master Cronmer’s Traveling Circus of Wonders And Marvels to the city of Istarinmul.
After everything that Caina had done to prepare, it was almost anticlimactic.
A hundred of Erghulan Amirasku’s soldiers manned the gate, backed by a score of Immortals in their skull-masked helmets. Malcolm glared at the Immortals until Caina told him to stop, so he settled for glaring at the ground. The soldiers more or less waved Cronmer and his wagons through. One of the soldiers asked Caina a few bored questions about her background. She started to say that her name was Ciara, that her sister had been married in Cyrioch, but soldier only grunted and waved her through.
Caina walked into the Anshani Bazaar, and stopped for a moment to look around. The Bazaar was not as crowded as it had been before the destruction of the Inferno, but rows of booths and stalls still filled the vast space. Merchants sold practically every item under the sun here to travelers. The air smelled of spices and cooking food and animal dung. Over the western side of the Bazaar rose the Shahenshah’s Seat, now half-rebuilt, where Caina had fought the Sifter and met with Nasser a score of times. Even though construction hadn’t finished, the inn was thronged with merchants and guards buying food and drink. Under a false name Caina was a part-owner of the Seat, so she supposed she ought to be pleased it was doing well.
“What is it?” said Kylon in a low voice, hand twitching towards the valikon’s hilt.
“Nothing,” said Caina. “It’s just that…I hate this city. All the slaves, how the Istarish celebrate cruelty. And yet I am so glad to see it again.”
“Because you thought you were going to die,” said Kylon. “Because you thought you would never see it again.”
“I suppose so,” said Caina. “I guess Cassander wasn’t the only one to cheat death.”
“He might have cheated it,” said Kylon, his voice hard, “but he won’t get away from it. I’ll make sure of that.”
“I know,” said Caina, a flicker of guilt going through her. Cassander Nilas, Malik Rolukhan, and Kalgri had arranged for the death of Kylon’s wife. In her shock over Cassander’s survival, she had forgotten that. “But…that’s how I’m different from Cassander.”
“Oh?”
“Cassander didn’t have someone to save him,” said Caina, meeting his eyes.
For a moment they looked at each other. The recollection of last night flashed through her mind, and she smiled at the memory. Gods, but her moods had been veering back and forth lately.
Coming within a hair’s breadth of death seemed to have that effect.
“Well,” said Kylon at last. He stepped closer and offered her his arm. “You have another difference from Cassander.”
“What’s that?” said Caina, threading her arm through his.
“You look nothing like him.”
Caina burst out laughing. “Such high praise, sir, such high praise. Since the Kyracian champion defeated Natalia of the Nine Knives, I suppose it is only fair that he can take her on a walk to see some friends.”
“The Kyracian champion,” said Kylon, “in his anachronistic and inaccurate armor, would be glad to do so.”
“We should say farewell to Cronmer first,” said Caina. “I want to stay on good terms with him. Never know when we might need his help again.”
Kylon nodded, and Caina walked through the crowd of the circus and its wagons, past the bickering carpenters and acrobats. She caught a flash of Vardo’s red coat, and the man’s face turned as crimson as his coat before he ducked behind a wagon. Caina tried not to laugh. For a man who never hesitated to use an innuendo, she seemed ready to die of embarrassment. Or maybe he was just afraid of Kylon.
She found Cronmer and Tiri at the head of the column, both of them arguing, while their eldest son Tozun calmly directed traffic, Timost hovering at his side.
“Master Cronmer!” said Caina, and Cronmer and Tiri looked up. “I fear this is where we must part ways.”
“A pity, my dear,” said Cronmer. “Natalia of the Nine Knives was brilliant. Natalia of the Nine Knives combined with a Kyracian champion…ah, that was splendid! I have rarely heard the crowd cheer so. You are welcome to rejoin us at any time. A pity family business takes precedence.”
Tiri pointed at Kylon. “Look after her, young man.”
Kylon inclined his head. “I’ll do my best.”
“If you come to your senses and decide to rejoin the circus,” said Cronmer, “you can find us at the Inn of the Crescent Moon in the Cyrican Quarter.”
“I remember,” said Caina. “We met there the first time. Isn’t that a little expensive for the entire circus?”
Cronmer grinned behind his bushy mustache. “Not when the hakim of the Bazaar is footing the bill! Our performance was so popular that it has boosted his prestige, and so he has commissioned the circus to stay for another week.”
“May the cheers be loud and the coins abundant,” said Caina.
She left Cronmer and Tiri to resume their argument while Tozun did most of the work, and rejoined Nasser and Annarah and the others. They had taken shelter near the gate, out of the stream of traffic. Morgant looked calm and relaxed, but his pale eyes never stopped roving over the crowds, and his hands were never far from his sword belt.
“We need to take the relics someplace safe,” said Caina.
“One of your safe houses?” said Annarah.
“No,” said Caina. “Kalgri followed me for months. She would know them all. No, it would have to be someplace I visited before I came to the Huntress’s attention.”
“Before we robbed the Maze, then,” said Nasser.
“Aye,” said Caina, and the answer came to her. “The Gilded Throne. Can you still get rooms there?”
“Easily,” said Nasser. “The owner still owes me a favor or three.”
“The Gilded Throne?” said Kylon.
“An inn located in the Masters’ Quarter,” said Caina. “Istarinmul’s finest inn.”
Laertes grunted. “The most expensive, too. Good wine, though.”
“Since it is the place where minor princelings stay when visiting the city,” said Morgant, “I imagine the Teskilati keep close watch over it.”
“They do,” said Caina, “but I’m less worried about the Teskilati and more concerned about the Huntress and Cassander, but the last time I visited the Gilded Throne I had not yet come to Kalgri’s attention and Cassander hadn’t arrived in Istarinmul. They won’t think to look for me there…and more importantly, they won’t think to look for the Staff and the Seal there.”
“A logical plan,” said Nasser. “I can think of nothing better. Though your plan has one flaw.”
Caina frowned. “What is it?”
“What will you be doing?” said Annarah. “I hope you are not thinking of making yourself bait for the Huntress or for Cassander. If…”
“You do,” said Nasser, “have a habit of trying to sacrifice yourself.”
“No, nothing like that,” said Caina. “I need to check in with the Ghost circle, and let them know I’m still alive. They might well have news for us. I’ll rejoin you at the Gilded Throne after sundown.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Kylon.
“Of course you will,” said Morgant.
Nasser’s white smile flashed across a face. “He is the logical choice. Caina remains the Huntress’s chief target. So long as Lord Kylon carries the valikon with him, the Huntress will hesitate before attacking.”
“What about us?” said Nerina.
“You and Malcolm should go back to your shop,” said Caina. “I assume you were contacted once Cassander proclaimed my death?” Both Nerina and Malcolm nodded. “You should have protocols for getting in touch with the rest of the circle. Use them, and let them know I am not dead. Once we know what Cassander is planning, we can get ready to counter it and get the relics on a ship as soon as possible.”
“I suggest we move at once,” said Nasser.
“Wait,” said Nerina.
“What is it?” said Caina.
Nerina swallowed, blinking her pale eyes. “I have to talk to you. Alone.”
Caina nodded. “Of course.”
“Let’s go,” said Nasser. “Mistress Strake, Master Malcolm, a pleasure to see you both again. I am most pleased to see that you are still alive.”
Malcolm grunted and clapped Nasser on the shoulder. “And you, Glasshand. Thought you all were heading to your deaths when you left the city.”
“We came regrettably close to proving you correct a few times,” said Nasser, beckoning. Morgant, Annarah, and Laertes moved after him.
“Suppose the old skeleton in the black coat helped keep you alive, eh?” said Malcolm.
Morgant gave him a cold smile. “You’re dangerously direct, Master Malcolm.”
“A magus damaged my mind when I was a child,” said Malcolm. “What is your excuse?”
Morgant laughed at that, and Caina moved off to the side with Nerina. Kylon watched them, as did Malcolm, but they were far enough away that they would not overhear.
“What is it?” said Caina. “What’s wrong?”
Nerina took a deep breath. “Is your name really Caina Amalas?”
“Yes,” said Caina. “Please don’t tell me I wronged your father and now you have to take vengeance.”
Nerina let out a hiccupping little laugh. “No, no. I detested my father. If you had wronged him, to balance the equation I would have to repay you. I…am very glad you are still alive. I have cried three times in the last seven years. When I thought Malcolm was dead, when we found him against in the Inferno…and when Malcolm told me about the Umbarian proclamation.”
“Nerina Strake,” said Caina. For a moment she was too touched to say anything. “Thank you. You’ve stuck with me through some very dangerous times.”
“I…calculate that you went into something even more dangerous than the Inferno,” said Nerina. “Something bad happened to you, didn’t it?”
Caina swallowed. “How did you know?”
“Your shadow,” said Nerina. “The one I can see around you.”
Caina’s throat went a little drier. “The…wraithblood shadow, you mean?”
She did not know why, but wraithblood addicts saw a shadow around her. Caina had no idea what the shadow was, and she had not been able to find anyone who knew. Even with the eyes of the valikarion, she had not been able to see the shadow, and neither Kylon nor Claudia nor Annarah had been able to detect it with their spells.
Yet it was there. Wraithblood addicts recoiled with fear when they looked at her, screaming in horror at the shadow. The ones so far gone in their addiction that they had lost their sanity started babbling in fear. Nerina was sane, or mostly sane, yet she could see the shadow nonetheless.
“Yes,” said Nerina. “It…has changed.”
“What do you see?” said Caina. “How has it changed?”
“It…is difficult to express in precise mathematical terms,” said Nerina.
“Please try,” said Caina.
“It has gotten…thicker, somehow, and wider,” said Nerina. “Darker, too. The angle…you know how a man stands before a fire, and the length, angle, and depth of his shadow will depend upon his precise location in relation to the fire?” Caina nodded. “It’s like…you’re closer to the fire.” Nerina made a frustrated sound. “I cannot express it more precisely. That is what the shadow resembles. Like you are standing in front of a fire, and you have moved several yards closer to it.”
“I see,” said Caina, trying to make sense of the statement. She had assumed the shadow had something to do with her sensitivity to sorcery, that the wraithblood addicts had somehow been able to see it. Of course, now that she knew what Callatas intended with his Apotheosis, it made more sense. Wraithblood addiction destroyed the mind’s natural resistance to possession, and Callatas intended to use the Staff and the Seal of Iramis to summon and bind thousands of nagataaru, housing them in the bodies of the wraithblood addicts he had created.
Likely her experience in Rumarah, the necromantic poison and the mortal wound and the Elixir Restorata, had altered the way her invisible shadow looked.
And yet, that explanation felt wrong. Something else was happening…
Caina blinked as another thought occurred to her.
She had always sensed a faint sorcerous aura around wraithblood addicts. She felt it from Nerina even now, a slight tingling, crawling sensation against her skin. Yet if Caina was a valikarion, then she should have been able to see a sorcerous aura. But she could see nothing.
Unless…
“Nerina,” said Caina. “Before the wraithblood. What color were your eyes?”
“Green,” said Nerina.
Caina looked into Nerina’s eyes for a moment, nodded, and then closed her eyes. Darkness swallowed her vision, but she could saw the strange white non-light of her pyrikon, the glow surrounding Kylon’s valikon and Morgant’s weapons, the terrible white fire stirring within the Staff and the Seal of Iramis. Yet if she concentrated, she saw more of each of those objects, their auras becoming sharper and clearer to the strange sixth sense she had acquired.
So she focused on Nerina…and realized that she could still see the eerie blue of Nerina’s eyes even with her own eyes closed. It was as if a sphere of pale blue light glimmered behind Nerina’s eyes, filling the inside of her head with that strange light.
Caina blinked her eyes open, stunned. A sharp wave of vertigo went through her, followed by a headache, and she closed her eyes again and pinched the bridge of her nose, waiting for the vertigo to pass.
“Are…you all right?” said Nerina hesitantly. “You closed your eyes and frowned, and probability indicates the likelihood of an unpleasant emotional reaction…”
“I know why your eyes changed color,” said Caina.
“The wraithblood,” said Nerina.
“No, why the wraithblood changed your eyes,” said Caina. “Your eyes didn’t change color at all. It’s an arcane aura that damaged your mind and lowered your resistance to possession, an arcane aura potent enough that people can see it. That’s why your eyes changed. It’s the sorcerous aura of the damage to your mind’s defenses. The entire point of the Apotheosis is that the Grand Master wants to replace humanity with something new. The wraithblood damages your resistance to possession. Remember? That’s why the nagataaru tried to possess you when we fled from the Maze. You were the easiest target.”
“Then if Callatas summons thousands of nagataaru,” said Nerina, “that means…”
“They’ll seek out wraithblood addicts and possess them,” said Caina.
“Oh,” said Nerina. “There are tens of thousands of wraithblood addicts in Istarinmul. That is…that is…” Her face tightened as she did the math. “Very bad.”
“Yes,” said Caina, her mind turning over this new information. There was a secret here, she could tell. Something important, something she hadn’t yet realized. This was another part of that secret, another crack in the armor surrounding it.
Something else started to occur to her, something about the nature of wraithblood.
“You calculated that,” said Nerina, “by closing your eyes?”
“Yes,” said Caina, her mind elsewhere. “I could see the aura with my eyes closed.”
“Oh,” said Nerina. “What exactly happened to you?”
“Well,” said Caina, “I’ll tell you the entire story someday, but suffice to say I was forced to drin
k a lethal poison, stabbed through the chest, and had a building blow up around me.”
“You seem improbably healthy after all that,” said Nerina.
“I agree completely,” said Caina. “Nerina, thank you. I think I just realized something important. We’d better go. Head back to your shop with Malcolm. I’ll be in contact soon – I think we will need your help.”
“The shadow, though,” said Nerina. “Can you calculate its cause? I cannot.”
Caina hesitated. “Not yet.”
They rejoined the others. Nasser, Annarah, Morgant and Laertes left the Bazaar by one street, heading for the Gilded Throne, while Nerina and Malcolm took another, making their way to the Cyrican Quarter. Caina stood next to Kylon, watching them go.
“Where are we going?” said Kylon, rolling his shoulders.
“The House of Agabyzus,” said Caina. “Damla will know how to get in touch with Agabyzus, and he will have been keeping an eye on the Umbarians.”
“You had an idea, though,” Kylon said. “I know that expression.”
Caina nodded. “I know why the wraithblood addicts’ eyes change color. It’s the damage the wraithblood does to their aura, to their minds’ defenses against possession. The damage is so severe that the aura becomes partially visible to the mortal eye…which is why their eyes change color.”
“Truly?” said Kylon.
“That has to be it,” said Caina. “It’s why I never realized it before. It wasn’t until I looked at her just now that I understood the truth.”
“The eyes of the valikarion,” said Kylon.
Caina nodded. “And I realized something else. What’s the best way to damage someone’s aura?”
Kylon shrugged, watching her face.
“The way I know best,” said Caina. “A bloodcrystal. We need to make a stop before the House of Agabyzus.”
“Where?” said Kylon.
Caina gave him a tight smile. “I need to buy some wraithblood.”
###
Kylon walked with Caina through the back allies of the Anshani Quarter.
The Quarter was safe enough during the day, so long as one stayed to the main streets. At night it became far more dangerous, as the various Anshani clans that inhabited the Quarter carried on their endless blood feuds. They were not above robbing and killing anyone who happened to wander into their territory, or taking captives and selling them to the Brotherhood. He had gone with Caina to the Anshani Quarter before, but she had never come here dressed as a woman.
Ghost in the Throne (Ghost Exile #7) Page 21
