Shade and Sorceress

by Catherine Egan

  “Eliza!” gasped her father. His face was bleeding. “Help me!”

  And then she was sucked away fast. There was an awful jolt and she found herself on her knees by the stone table. Foss and Kyreth and Ka were crowded around her, their eyes blazing. Her bound arm was throbbing painfully.

  “My da is in trouble!” she told them.

  Kyreth looked at her for a long moment and then at Foss. “No more trances,” he said.

  ~

  Eliza sipped at her hot chocolate in Kyreth’s study, holding the mug in her good hand. He stared across at her impassively, hands folded on his marble desk. Foss stood behind him, head bowed.

  “It was real,” she said for the tenth or eleventh time.

  Kyreth sighed.

  “I assure you that your father is safe, Eliza. He is with the Sorma. We will try to contact him and arrange a visit. In the meantime, you must trust us.”

  “But I dinnay trust you,” said Eliza bluntly. She repeated, “It was real.”

  Her heart felt like a great chip of ice in her chest. She knew her father was in awful danger, but she also knew that somebody else had been showing this to her. The tiger, whoever that was. She felt certain that this was the message the creature in the tunnels had wanted to give her. For all she knew, the Mancers had already found the messenger and done away with it.

  “The white tiger,” she said. “You told me to pay attention to...animals, a guide...” she didn’t finish. Kyreth cut her off with an angry wave of his hand.

  “That was not your guide,” he said in a grating voice. Then he seemed to calm himself and said, “No more of this, Eliza. It was too early to allow a trance. Your mind simply followed your own worst fears. It was like a nightmare, a distorted, fearful fantasy. It means nothing.”

  “I want to see my da,” said Eliza.

  “And so you shall,” Kyreth promised her. “That is enough. Go. We will do no more today.”

  Eliza rose and left the room, leaving Kyreth and Foss alone. The Supreme Mancer looked long and hard at the Spellmaster. Foss met his gaze steadily.

  “Why did you take her to the Vindensphere?” demanded Kyreth. “You must have known what would happen, that it would give that pythoness an opportunity to make contact with her!”

  “It was thoughtless of me,” said Foss.

  “You are not usually thoughtless, Spellmaster.” Kyreth’s eyes blazed hotter. “Alone, a Mancer is nothing at all. You know we cannot tolerate dissent.”

  “I am as always your obedient servant, Your Eminence,” said Foss calmly.

  “I hope so, my old friend,” said Kyreth. “That is all.”

  “If you will pardon me, there is something else, your Eminence.”

  “Speak.”

  “The boy...Missus Ash’s son.”

  “What of him?”

  “I have been thinking there is something strange about his being here. Of course, he is always here in the holidays, that is the agreement, and yet it began to bother me.”

  “I know what you are thinking,” said Kyreth shortly. “But we can be sure the intruder is only one, and that there is no spell of disguise. The boy and his mother are undoubtedly human.”

  “So I thought too,” agreed Foss. “But there is no one else here, and it seemed strange to me, when I thought of it, that we should have humans among us at all. It is also, you may notice, rather difficult to think about it. As if there is something in the way of wondering about it too much.”

  “Yes,” said Kyreth slowly.

  “I called him into Eliza’s lesson, had her Listen to his thoughts, and while she did so, so did I. There was a pretense of human thought, Your Eminence, but he is no ordinary human boy. He is something else. I do not know what.”

  Kyreth stared at Foss for a long moment. “Are you certain?” he asked.

  “I am,” said Foss.

  ~

  Eliza, Charlie and Nell convened in the tree fort and Eliza told her friends what she had seen in the Vindensphere.

  “I dinnay know what to do,” she said. “Something’s happened to him, but how am I going to find out what?”

  “Lah, is it nay obvious?” said Charlie Ash.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The Xia Sorceress has snatched him up. I mean, the snow, the white tiger...she rides a white tiger, nay? I read that somewhere.”

  “I’ve heard that too,” said Nell. “Oh, Eliza, I think Charlie must be right.”

  “What am I going to do?”

  “She must want something from you, aye,” said Charlie. “You’ll have to find a way to talk to her again.”

  Eliza shivered. “I cannay get into the Treasury without one of the Mancers,” she said.

  “You have to talk to Kyreth again,” said Nell. “They can help you!”

  “They must already know what’s happened,” pointed out Charlie. “And they dinnay want you to know about it.”

  “But why?”

  “To protect you, I spec, or protect whatever it is the Sorceress wants. She’s their enemy. They’re nay going to make any deals with her, and your father is nay important to them. Sorry, but it’s true.”

  “I know,” said Eliza, anger welling up in her, bitter and dark. “We’ve got to get into the Treasury ourselves.”

  The other two were silent. They all knew only the Mancers could get into the Treasury. None of them could make a door.

  “It will have to be through Foss,” decided Eliza. “Kyreth must nay know about it. But Foss...there must be a way to persuade him.”

  “I think I might have a better idea,” said Charlie. “You said this sphere was for finding things, aye. What if something really valuable to them was missing? They’d have to use the sphere to find it. Then one of us could follow them in, and...and get it, aye.”

  “Get it?” said Eliza. “Just grab it? Lah, and how would we ever manage to steal anything valuable from them? Even if we could, I have no idea what’s important enough to them that they’d use the sphere to find it!”

  “We do know one thing that’s very important to them and that they dinnay want to lose,” said Nell.

  “What’s that?” asked Eliza.

  Charlie laughed, understanding Nell’s meaning. “You,” he said.

  ~

  Foss had rushed to the Library and was climbing up a ladder for the Book of Barriers, which they would need shortly, when that little girl, what was her name...Eliza’s friend came bursting in. Her face was streaked with tears, and she was holding... Oh, no.... A cold dread shot through him, for she was holding the barrier star. He leaped from the ladder to the ground.

  “She’s gone,” sobbed the girl. “I found this outside, but she’s gone!”

  Without a word, Foss ran straight for the Treasury. Nell stayed close behind him, clutching the barrier star. He struck the wall to make a door and it opened for the second time that day onto the torch-lit room and the Vindensphere. Nell glanced nervously behind her. Charlie was supposed to create a diversion. Where was he? Just when she was about to panic and try to snatch the Vindensphere herself, a great hairy pig came galloping into the room, butting into Foss and knocking him right off his feet.

  “Now!” shouted Nell.

  Eliza, who had been hiding around the corner, came tearing down the hall and darted past the prone and bewildered Foss to the Vindensphere on its velvet pillow. Where was that little white sliver inside it?

  “Eliza?” Foss staggered to his feet, baffled and relieved. “Thank the Ancients you’re safe!”

  The pig came at him again and he leaped aside. “What is the matter with this beast? Where did it come from?”

  Nell looked at Eliza, who was staring into the Vindensphere with rising desperation. “Hurry,” she said, then bit her tongue, realizing how unhelpful that was.

  The truth dawned on Foss.

  “Eliza...you mustn’t, no!”

  But he was too late. She had found that small flickering light and she plunged into it. Across the
white expanse the tiger loped towards her and spoke:

  “They claim She is looking for you, but that is not true. She found you long ago, long before the Mancers did, when you were just a baby in the desert, rocking in a cradle that hung from an olive tree. She saw you had no power to speak of. You were no use to Her, no threat to Her, and so She left you be,” it said. “But now you reside in the Citadel walls and may be useful in another way.”

  “Where’s my da?” cried Eliza, looking around.

  “Bring Her the Book of Barriers and She will give you your father,” the tiger said. “That is Her price. If you give Her the book, no harm will come to him or you. You have Her word. If you involve the Mancers in any way, your father will...”

  Eliza was jerked away from the Vindensphere by Foss.

  “You foolish girl!” he cried. “Do you not know who it is that is luring you? You are placing yourself in grave danger!” He put the barrier star around her neck again and cupped her face in his huge hands. “Can you not trust that we are trying to protect you?”

  ~

  The pig had vanished somewhere but none of them were paying attention. Foss took the two girls back to their room in the south wing, holding each by the hand and pulling them after him. They had to run to keep their arms from being yanked out of their sockets.

  “Where is the boy?” demanded Foss. “Have you seen him?”

  “Not since this morning,” Nell lied blandly, sparing Eliza, who was not a very good liar.

  Foss made a cursory examination of the room.

  “Stay here,” he said. “Do not take off the barrier star under any circumstances. I cannot stress this enough, Eliza. If you see the boy, I want you to call for help. Do not speak with him.”

  “What?! Why?”

  “All will be explained later, Eliza Tok. Do not fear. I will return soon.”

  Foss shut and locked the door behind him, leaving the two girls alone. Nell jumped up on the bed where Smoky was sleeping, startling the cat awake by scooping him into her lap.

  “What are we going to do now?”

  “I dinnay know. Why did he say that about Charlie?”

  “Because Charlie helped us?” suggested Nell, releasing the struggling cat, who fled under the bed.

  “Nay, I dinnay think that’s it. When I was Listening to his thoughts earlier...it was strange, aye. It wasnay like your mind at all.”

  “Foss said everyone’s mind is different.”

  “I spose.”

  “No one has a mind like mine, Eliza!”

  Eliza laughed in spite of herself. “Lah, you were both great back there. How did Charlie get the pig to go for Foss that way?”

  “I’ve no idea. So what did you see? You did see something, nay?”

  “It was definitely the Xia Sorceress,” said Eliza, lowering her voice. “She said...lah, it was nay her exactly, but this tiger said that I have to bring her the Book of Barriers, whatever that is, and she’ll let my da go, aye. And she said if I tell the Mancers...lah, I didnay get to hear the last bit, but I think she would...hurt my da.” She couldn’t quite bring herself to say kill.

  “Bring her a book? To the Arctic? How?”

  “I dinnay know.” Eliza glumly watched a spider scuttle from under the bed to the door and disappear under it. “I cannay even get into the Library without Foss.”

  “He was in such a rush when I told him you were missing that he left the door there,” said Nell. “It’s probably still open, aye! But Eliza, even if you could get her this book, you cannay trust that she would really let you and your da go. She’s evil.”

  “I know,” said Eliza. “But she said something else... She said she found me when I was just a baby, and it’s just like my da told me, aye. Before my ma died we lived in the desert, and he said they used to hang my cradle from an olive tree. She knew that.”

  “She could have gotten that from your da,” said Nell tersely. “Using that Deep Listening or some mess. You cannay believe her, Eliza.”

  Eliza sat down on the bed and buried her face in her hands with a groan.

  “I cannay find the cat,” said Nell, looking around. “He’s nay under the bed, lah...”

  There was a light rap at the door.

  “Are you in there?”

  It was Charlie’s voice. Eliza hesitated, her mind spinning. Then she made her decision.

  “Everyone’s looking for you, Charlie,” she said. “What’s going on?”

  “Lah, am I in trouble?” He sounded quite unconcerned.

  “Yes. Listen, I need you to do something. And you cannay get caught.”

  “What is it?”

  “Get you to the Old Library. The door Foss made should still be there, aye. I need a book called the Book of Barriers. Ask one of the orbs to find it for you and get it quick. Can you do it?”

  “I can try.”

  “If you find it, hide it in the crow’s nest in our fort. I’ll be watching for you from the window, aye.”

  “Will do. Are you two locked in there? Why are you nay opening the door?”

  “Aye, we’re locked in. Hurry, Charlie, they’re looking for you. This is prize important.”

  “Okay. Dinnay worry.”

  She heard his muffled footsteps disappearing down the hall.

  “Eliza...” said Nell.

  “I couldnay get to the Arctic even if I wanted to,” said Eliza quickly. “But if she’s after that book, I want to have it. At least until I come up with something else.”

  “That’s nay what I was going to say,” said Nell. “The cat is nay in this room. He’s gotten out somehow, aye.”

  “We have other things to worry about than the cat,” said Eliza impatiently. Nell looked shocked – Eliza had never snapped at her before.

  “I know that. But if the cat got out of a locked room with a closed window...there must be a way out we dinnay know about.”

  Eliza’s eyes widened. Nell was right.

  ~

  “Is the boy human?” Kyreth asked the Scrolls. The shining characters unfurled themselves on the parchment: He is as he is.

  “Is his mother human?”

  She is as she is.

  A thought came to him. “Are they the same being?”

  And here he received the most direct and simple answer the Scrolls had ever given him:

  One and the same.

  “Why could we not detect a spell of disguise?”

  There is no disguise.

  He understood all at once, and the instant he understood the spell over him was broken, his memory restored. There was a pounding on the wall. He rose, making the door. It was Foss.

  “She has made contact with the Sorceress again,” said Foss. “I have locked both girls in their room. I cannot find the boy.”

  “How did she make contact?” blazed Kyreth.

  “They tricked me,” said Foss, ashamed. “The friend came to me with the barrier star. I thought Eliza was missing and rushed to the Vindensphere, thinking only to locate her without wasting any time. But they followed me in. There was a pig rushing about...but that is not important. She didn’t have long, but there was some contact, I am sure. I have warned them about the boy and they are safe for the moment. But we must find him.”

  “Or his mother. Or whatever shape he may have taken now,” said Kyreth in a low, furious voice.

  “What do you mean?” asked Foss.

  “We are fools not to have seen it sooner. He is a Shade. He takes whatever shape he pleases. There is no spell of disguise to detect because shape-shifting is in the nature of a Shade. He chose the form of child and mother to appeal to the girl on two fronts, to lure her into trusting one or the other or both. But of course we have never seen them together. He could have entered the Citadel as an insect in her pocket and then worked the Confusion given to him by the Sorceress to cloud our memories, persuading us that the female human and her son had always been among us. But of course, you were right, you began to see through it before any of us: Why
would we have had humans among us?”

  As Kyreth spoke, the spell over Foss broke too.

  “How ludicrously simple,” he said, a bit sadly. “I suppose he was the pig as well.”

  “What pig?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “The Shade has already won her trust, it seems. I wonder if it was her idea or his.”

  “Go and guard the children. I will find the Shade.”

  “Shall we alert the others?”

  “Not yet. He must not know we have discovered him. If he chooses to hide himself it may prove very difficult indeed to find him.”

  ~

  Nell and Eliza searched every inch of the room, pulling the heavy bed away from the wall to look for trapdoors, but they found nothing and could not think how Smoky had escaped. So they sat by the window and waited.

  “There’s Charlie!” cried Nell.

  Charlie was outside, running towards the tree fort. He turned towards the window once, holding up a book triumphantly, and then scampered up the tree and disappeared among the leaves.

  “It better be the right book,” said Eliza.

  Charlie descended the tree without the book and began jogging back towards the south wing of the Citadel. He had almost reached the door when Kyreth burst out of it, striding across the grass towards the boy. Charlie looked up at the Supreme Mancer in surprise, frozen in a moment of indecision. Then he was simply gone. Kyreth moved quickly, his hand reaching out and catching something in the air. They could see his lips moving but could not hear what he was saying. Soon other Mancers were pouring outdoors and circling about him. Nell and Eliza watched in speechless horror until the door opened behind them.