She rose from the table. “I will not say if this counsel is good or bad,” she said. “But I urge you to think on it. We have little else to do, for a while at least.”
LILITH [20]
By their third day of hiding, Ebon began to feel as if he was going mad. Adara’s home was no hovel, but it was no mansion either. He could only stand so much of her four walls and coarse wood floor and Kalem’s sullen glares. And of course Kalem’s presence made time alone with Adara impossible, so there was not even that outlet for relief.
“You are certain no one will find us here?” he said, not because he was dissatisfied with her answers the previous times he had asked, but because there was nothing else to say or to do.
Adara fixed him with a look that told him she was growing annoyed. “Yes,” she said. “Only the others in the Guild of Lovers know of our arrangement, and they will never breathe a word of it. And even if someone did, there is a hiding place beneath the floor. I will stow you there if Mystics should come knocking—or mayhap I will stow you there now, and leave it locked for a while.”
“I am sorry,” said Ebon, and he meant it. “I only wish there was something we could do.”
“I have sent word to your family as you asked, but your family is … inscrutable. It will take time for my note to reach them.”
Then, from across the room, Kalem shot up from the floor. “Alchemy!” he cried, his eyes wild.
Ebon stared at him. “What?”
“Alchemy,” said Kalem, quieter this time. “That is how she did it. Isra, I mean. How she provided the corpse. She found some alchemist—and it must have been a powerful one—who took a corpse, and turned it so that it looked like Isra’s corpse instead. She must have done it almost the moment she kidnapped Erin.”
“So long ago?” said Adara. “That shows incredible foresight. Isra may be devious, but she is only a girl.”
“Likely Gregor had her do it,” said Ebon, glaring at the floor. “Or whoever else in the family Yerrin commands Gregor.”
“At least now we know,” said Kalem. “That is one mystery solved.”
“Can you prove it?” said Ebon, heart racing. “Is there some trace of her magic on the corpse that we can show to another alchemist, and thus establish our innocence?”
“Well, no,” said Kalem. “But we have an answer.”
“Knowledge without a course of action is useless,” said Ebon, scowling. But when Kalem’s hopeful expression fell, he felt guilty and tried to ease his tone. “But you are right, in that at least we have an answer. I am sorry. It is only that I am grown irritable with inaction.”
“Think nothing of it,” said Kalem with a sigh. “I feel much the same.”
Adara stood. “It is time I was going, for the guild will need me tonight. Do not get into trouble before I return—at least not more trouble than you can get yourself out of.”
Ebon rose to see her out. “We will not. Kalem, if you are still bashful about such things, turn away; I have been an annoyance to the love of my heart, and I must kiss her well to make up for it.”
Kalem did indeed turn away, and Adara gave Ebon a wry smile. “What makes you think I want one now? You have not bathed since you arrived.” But she showed her words to be a lie by gripping the front of his robes and pulling him in for a deep kiss. For a long moment they held each other. She put her lips to his ear and whispered, “We will solve this. Together. We share it, as in all things. Even peril.”
“Even peril,” he whispered back. “Thank you.”
Then she was gone.
That left them alone for some hours. To distract himself, Ebon drank, and Kalem joined him at the table and in his cups. Ebon had tried to withhold himself from wine since he arrived; though Adara offered it to him often, and insisted it was no bother, he had no wish to drain her cabinet, which he knew he might do if he gave himself free rein. And besides, who would want to sit drunk in the home of their lover for hours?
But now he and Kalem let themselves relax into one of Adara’s fine vintages. When the bottle was nearly done, Kalem concocted a plan to rescue Theren that involved melting the front door of the Mystics’ station, and Ebon nodded sagely that it was a brilliant idea. Then Ebon, in turn, decided that it would be better to recruit a firemage, some sellsword wizard, and have them burn the place to the ground. Somehow they would get Theren out before the flames and the smoke killed everyone inside.
He knew their ideas were beyond foolish, and he knew that Kalem knew it as well. But after two days of sitting and reflecting on their own hopeless situation, it felt good to speculate upon the ridiculous. Somehow they drank another bottle, though Ebon did not remember getting up to open it—perhaps, he reflected in the back of his mind, Kalem had done it, though he did not remember the boy rising from the table, either.
Much time passed this way before Adara returned. Ebon and Kalem were giggling when they heard the front door’s latch turn, and they both stifled themselves while shushing each other heavily. But when Adara reached the top of the stairs, she was not alone; Lilith stood beside her.
“Lilith,” said Ebon. He shot to his feet, but too quickly—he had to put a hand on the table to steady himself. The sight of her had a sobering effect on him, but not enough, for his head began to spin as soon as he stood. “What are you doing here?”
“She found me,” said Adara quietly. “Theren told her you might be with me.”
“Theren?” cried Kalem. He, too, stood, but he handled himself even worse than Ebon had, and very nearly fell to the floor. Adara took his arm to steady him. Kalem hardly seemed to notice. “You saw her? Could you speak with her? Is she well?”
Lilith glowered, and even Ebon winced at the words. “Well? She is far worse off than you two are, sitting here and getting drunk on your lover’s wine.”
“We did not mean for her to be caught,” said Ebon, slowly, so that he could be sure to say each word clearly. “She sacrificed herself to save us.”
If he thought Lilith would soften at that, he was wrong. “And do you mean to do the same for her?” she said, voice rising. “Or do you mean to sit here until you rot? It has been days since she was taken—three days, Ebon. You know what the Mystics are doing to her. You saw them do it to me. And now they are even more eager for the truth, because Xain is urging them on, desperate to find his son. So how do you mean to fix it?”
Kalem looked doubtfully at Ebon, who avoided Lilith’s gaze. “We … er … we have been trying to think of a way to get her out.”
Lilith folded her arms, and Ebon thought she likely knew just how productive their thoughts on the matter had been. “I hope you have concocted some brilliant strategy. Because no one else will solve this unless it is us—the people in this room, and no others.”
“Mako will find us soon,” said Ebon. “With his help, we will find a way.”
“Theren thought he would cast my life aside easily to protect yours,” said Theren. “Do you think he views her more tenderly? He did not strike me as that sort of man.”
“He might surprise you,” said Ebon. “In any case, I will make him help us rescue Theren—and then he will find Lilith for me. If she has not fled the Seat, anyway. She might have, the same as Gregor.”
“No.” Lilith shook her head. “Gregor left to save his own skin. Isra has never cared to do that before, or she would have fled in the first place, when first you found her. She only wants to destroy the goldbags. And I know how she means to do it. The Goldbag Society she began—that she had me begin”—she paused as a shiver ran up her body—“they are having a secret gathering. An assembly. It is in less than a week. They are keeping it secret from all but their own members.”
“How did you hear of it, then?” said Kalem. “I thought you no longer trucked with their sort.”
“Nella told me. She was worried, though she did not know why. I urged her not to go, and urged her besides to dissuade others from going. But I fear my words, or hers, will have little effect. Isra me
ans to gather them all together, and then she will destroy them. It will be the perfect chance.”
Ebon met Kalem’s eyes. “It must be what she has been waiting for,” he said. “She wanted to strike them down in one fell swoop. We stopped her when she tried to do it using Jia. But that only gave her more time to ensure that all the goldbags will be together.”
“And we are going to stop her,” said Lilith. “All our efforts to find her thus far have failed, but we know she will be there—and we know when.”
“But we cannot re-enter the Academy,” said Kalem. “We will be caught and killed.”
“I know you have a secret way in,” said Lilith. “Or at least, your bodyguard does. Find it, and come. Three days hence.”
Ebon met her gaze. “Very well,” he said. “We will. Though Isra has magestones, and perhaps we will perish in the end. But it is the best chance we will ever have, and I will not let it go by.”
Her eyes softened, and she nodded slowly. “Thank you. I told Theren, too, when I saw her. I asked her—no, I commanded her, to hold on until then. Because after that … well, one way or another, Theren’s innocence will be proven.”
“The same way yours was,” said Ebon heavily. “Though I wish you need not have suffered as you did before then.”
“I survived it,” said Lilith, her voice toneless. “Theren will do the same, for she has always been stronger than I am.”
She turned and made for the stairs leading out. But she paused on the top step, her hand on the bannister. “I will expect you, Drayden. Let us right the many wrongs that have been done in recent weeks.”
“As you say, Yerrin,” said Ebon. “And if we fall in doing so, let that right the wrongs that we could not.”
Lilith gave him a final nod, and left.
thirty-six
MAKO [20]
Mako appeared at last that night.
They had gone to bed, Ebon and Adara together (but chaste) in the bed, and Kalem wrapped in blankets on the floor. Ebon thought his sleep had been deep—until he heard pounding at the door and shot awake at once. He went to rouse Kalem, but the boy was already up. His wide eyes showed their terror in the moonslight that came in through the slats over the windows.
“Into the floor, quickly,” said Adara. She lifted the panel for them, and they climbed in. The space was not large, and very nearly stifled them when she put the panel back down, but they managed to still the sound of their breath.
They heard footsteps as Adara went down the stairs, and then the sound of the door opening. Almost at once, heavy boots came tramping up—but only one set. That made Ebon frown. Then he heard a growling voice from the room just above them: “Come out from hiding, boys. I may be more dangerous than the Mystics, but I am not after your blood. Not yet, anyway.”
“Mako,” said Ebon in relief, pushing the panel up and emerging into the open. The bodyguard’s eyes flashed as he beheld Ebon, though he did not smile. Adara had closed the front door, and soon appeared atop the stairs again, pulling her robes a bit tighter around her and cinching the sash at her waist.
“Apologies, my lady, for the lateness of the hour,” Mako told her, turning and bowing low, the way he had when first they met. But then, as before, he turned to Ebon and scowled. “And what have you been doing the past few days? No doubt sitting around getting drunk, with no plan to save yourself.”
Ebon lifted his chin, though Mako’s words were not far from the truth. “I have had little to do, it seems to me. I was waiting for you to arrive.”
“If everyone waited to be saved, the nine kingdoms would be nothing but graveyards,” said Mako. “Yet here I am after all, and with a scheme. You must ready yourself, Ebon, for soon you will leave the Seat.”
That made Ebon balk. “What? You have secured passage?”
“Not just yet,” said Mako. “It is a tricky thing. We cannot send you in one of our own caravans, for those will be ruthlessly searched. It shall have to be with someone else. Fortunately, many of the lesser merchant families owe us favors, and I have called upon some of them to collect.”
“Thank you, Mako,” said Ebon. “But I cannot take that passage. Theren still rots in a Mystic prison, and, too, we finally have a plan to stop Isra.”
Mako’s brows drew together, but he did not snap back at once. Instead he folded his arms and said, “What plan?”
Ebon told him what Lilith had said, about the gathering in the Academy and the opportunity to stop Isra. Mako listened silently, and when Ebon had finished he shook his head.
“You mean to fight her on her own terms, when she is prepared for it,” he said. “The only safe course would be to find her before then, and attack when she does not expect it. Yet I cannot find her, despite my best efforts—and those efforts are very good indeed.” He paused and looked to Adara. “I imagine, my lady, that even your special friend has had no luck, or else I should have heard of it by now.”
Adara met his gaze, her eyes betraying nothing. “If he has had any more success than you, he has not told me of it.”
Mako waved a hand in her direction, as though he presented a platter of sweetmeats. “And there you have it.”
“We could still take her by surprise,” said Kalem, surprising Ebon with his vehemence. He stepped up beside Ebon and fixed Mako with a glare. “You could, if you meant to. But you do not even care if she kills students within the Academy. Nor do you care about Theren’s torture.”
To Ebon’s surprise, Mako’s scowl softened slightly. “I would not see your friend die under the knives of the Mystics,” he said. “She has proven herself most … resourceful. Useful, even. But you will leave the Seat, Ebon. I will force you if I must, for I have orders from Halab.”
That stopped Ebon cold. “Halab?” He had almost forgotten about her in his worries over Theren and the Academy.
“Yes,” said Mako. “She is worried sick about you—terrified, even. She has not sent word home to your parents, for she fears your mother may go mad with grief and fear. Normally I keep details from her, for her own safety, but she ordered me to tell her everything that has happened to you. I have never seen her this distraught. To ease her mind, there is nothing I would not do. Even kidnap you from here, if I must. But I would rather not. Ready yourself to go.”
For a moment Ebon hesitated. Always Halab had been strong before him: strong and benevolent, as when she arranged for him to attend the Academy; or strong and wrathful, as when she had struck Matami down for threatening him. The thought of that strength now reduced to weakness, the steel in her eyes reduced to terror and tears … it struck him to the heart, making him sick.
And Mako said he would take care of it. He would stop Isra, and if she was exposed, then Theren would be pardoned.
But he thought of Theren. And he thought of how Lilith had looked, when he had visited her. And he remembered Mako’s words to Gregor in the cove, when he had promised to let the man live—the same way he had promised Ebon that he would not kill Isra.
He squared his shoulders. “No.”
Mako’s eyes narrowed. “Say again, boy?”
“No. I will not go with you. I will save my friend. And I will stop Isra before she kills anyone else. The family may be more important to you than anything else, Mako—and for Halab’s sake, I am grateful for that. But I have spent too long worrying after my own safety, and disregarding the consequences to everyone else. Theren would not be in prison if it were not for me. And Isra … well, her deeds are not my fault, yet no one else will stop her now, if I do not.”
If Mako’s face had indeed softened for a moment, now it hardened again, and he grew angrier than before. When he spoke, it was through gritted teeth. “You are boastful, boy. I have told you I will take you from here if I must. That is no idle promise. Ready yourself or not, as you will—two days hence, you leave the Seat. And do not think to try and flee. I will know if you do, and I will track you down.”
He went to the top of the stairs, but then he paused. One las
t time he turned, and gave Adara the same deep bow as when he had arrived. “My lady.”
Then he was gone.
ADARA [21]
They spent a restless day with uneasy thoughts—and then the very next evening, another knock came at Adara’s door. Once again they looked at each other, and once again Ebon felt a ball of fear forming in the pit of his stomach. When she had stowed the boys under the panel in her floor, Adara answered it—but she returned almost immediately, and called them out of hiding.
“It was only a messenger,” she said. In her hand was a letter, the seal of which she had already broken—but Ebon saw the royal insignia upon it. “It is from the Lord Prince. He says he has exhausted all resources to hand, and has found no trace of Isra. If she appears, he will be notified, but for now he has done all that he can. She is not on the Seat.”
Ebon sat down heavily on the bed, putting his face in his hands. “She must be. She must be. Darkness take her,” he muttered. “How? How is it possible that she could be so invisible?”
“Still, we know where she will be,” said Kalem. “We can stop her.”
“Yes, but we cannot remain here in the meanwhile,” said Ebon. “Mako will return here tomorrow night, and he will try to take me before we have a chance at stopping Isra.”
“I can find us another place to hide,” said Adara. “But Mako said he would mark our passing.”
“Can you not command him to leave you alone, Ebon?” said Kalem. “No servant of my family would dare to disobey my order.”
“Your family is not the family Drayden,” said Ebon, shaking his head. “Halab could command him to leave me be, and he would obey her—but he will not heed my word over hers. And I have no way to send her a message and ask for her help.”
Ebon gave a frustrated growl and stood to pace. He ran his fingers through his hair, and then gripped it to tug at it. “None of this would have happened without me. Theren is in danger because of me. I am even the reason Isra is free, for Mako would have killed her if I had not prevented it. Mayhap that would be no happy ending, but at least the Academy would not still be in danger. And in all the time since, we have failed to find her. Where could she hide herself that no one, not even Mako—sky above, not even the Lord Prince!—can track her down?”
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