by Rin Chupeco
“Are other people’s memories all you both think about?” I teased.
“No. We think about heartsglass too.” He grinned at the look on my face. “I was joking. I have not extracted memories from my own heartsglass for days, and my mind is clear. Which is a good time to apologize to you.”
“But why?”
“You might not remember it, but I was the boy who confronted you at the Odalian palace three years ago—the one who accused Dark asha of killing my mother. Master had just taken me on as an apprentice, but back then I was so full of anger. You were the easiest target for me.” He cleared his throat. “I almost didn’t remember what I did—until I recognized myself in one of your memories. I am sorry. I know things have not been easy, and it was unkind of me to add to your problems.”
“Apology accepted, Sir Khalad,” I assured him, smiling, unaware then of the irony of my next words. “If there is one thing I have learned from both our trades, it is that we must always be in the business of forgiveness, lest we become consumed by our anger.”
• • •
We had agreed to make our move on the third day after we returned, to give me ample time to rest and to prepare for the confrontation. Tonight, Mistress Parmina and Lady Shadi had left to attend some parties thrown in my honor, and the old woman intended to drag them to as many of them as they were able. This suited my plans; the longer they stayed out of the Valerian, the better.
I waited until it was close to midnight, then headed downstairs, where Polaire, Lady Mykaela, and Althy waited. We ventured into the scullery, where Kana and Farhi were hard at work cleaning dishes. There were four times the number of visitors calling at the Valerian than was the norm, and so both maids were constantly busy. Mistress Parmina had even dipped into her coffers and hired temporary help to handle the additional workload. The first of them would be arriving in two days, which meant we had little time to act.
The girls looked up with surprise when we entered and both dropped a hurried curtsy despite being up to their elbows in soapy water. “Farhi, we need to talk,” Lady Mykaela’s voice still sounded weak, but with Althy and Polaire at her side, looking grave, it had the desired effect. Farhi visibly gulped, then struggled to dry her hands on the thin apron she wore.
“You, wait in the other room,” Polaire commanded Kana. The girl gave her companion what should have been a comforting, reassuring look but came out frightened and half-relieved that she wasn’t the focus of their ire. She bobbed her head again and fled the scullery.
“You are in trouble, girl,” I heard Lady Mykaela say to Farhi just before I left the kitchen and moved to the room where Kana stood, looking worried. I smiled at her. “Don’t look so scared.”
“It’s just that we’re short of hands as it is, milady,” Kana said, wringing her hands in dismay. She was still warm to the touch from her brief bout of fever, but she insisted she felt better. “We still have a lot of things to do. The extra help won’t come in for another day yet. Did Farhi break something? Did Mistress Parmina learn of the cants you’ve been giving us?”
“It’s a little more serious than that. Lady Mykaela wouldn’t be up for something so trivial as a broken plate. She’ll still need many more months to recover.”
“She shouldn’t be up at all,” Kana agreed. “And Mistress Parmina has ordered the house be cleaned from top to bottom again tomorrow because she said the Empress of Alyx might pay us a visit. The empress!” She tugged hard at her apron for emphasis. “My nana would be thrilled. I asked the mistress if she could come along and watch—only from the street, mind, not even inside the Valerian. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if there was just one more person outside—”
“The empress’s visit is a good reason for causing more mischief,” Zoya said, entering the room. She looked stunning. Her hua glittered golden, and below her waist, white cranes grazed at silver ponds. Her wrap was deceptively simple: a dark-ochre color with no adornments but spun from the softest silk.
“I didn’t think you would come,” I told her.
She shrugged. “Lady Mykaela insisted. I have been to four different parties at four different tearooms tonight, and I needed a break.”
“You also had another motive for coming here, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know what you could possibly mean, Tea.”
“Kana, there’s some tea boiling over the fireplace. Would you be so kind as to pour a bowl for our guest?”
Kana swallowed nervously, then hurried to do just that.
“I’ve been learning a lot about the Faceless in my history lessons,” I continued.
“That is a requirement for all asha, Tea.”
“Some of us learn better than others. I’ve learned that the Faceless can draw runes just as ably. Unlike us, they have certain stones at their disposal that allow them this feat. The seeking stone, for instance. Another stone allows them to speed up the process of raising a daeva so that they do not need to wait years for their resurrection.”
“I took the same lessons you did, Tea. I do not need the lecture.”
“That’s why Mistress Parmina was so insistent that all asha who could potentially enter the asha-ka had to present themselves to the oracle first. The seeress had told her many years ago that a Faceless would try to enter her household, and so she must be vigilant.”
“I don’t see what that has to do with me.”
“Mistress Parmina rejects all applicants who do not pass the oracle’s test. You were one of them, weren’t you?”
Zoya’s heartsglass made a sudden sputter of blue before fading quickly.
“Passing the oracle’s test isn’t a requirement to be an asha, and so House Imperial took you in. House Imperial has a more lustrous history than House Valerian—it was the first asha-ka, founded by Vernasha of the Roses. But you’ve always nursed a grudge against the Valerian, haven’t you? You were Lady Shadi’s childhood friend. Lady Mykaela saw potential in you both and brought the two of you here. Mistress Parmina accepted her but not you. That’s why you resented Lady Shadi—it felt like she had abandoned you—and it’s why you tried to get me in trouble before I was even considered a novice. You were angry.”
Zoya took a deep breath. “I don’t deny it. Yes, I’ve known Shadi all my life. Yes, it was Lady Mykaela who brought me to the Valerian. Mistress Parmina rejected me because I lied to the oracle. But lying to the seeress doesn’t mean I am one of the Faceless. If that were the case, I’d say roughly a quarter of the asha in the Willows are Faceless.”
“Should I l-leave?” Kana stuttered, pouring the tea so quickly that parts of the liquid slopped over the bowl and onto the table.
“It’s telling, isn’t it? You could have hidden the seeking stone at the Falling Leaf, counting on the fact that I was the nearest Dark asha on hand and would succumb to its effects. You were also on hand when the azi wreaked havoc on the darashi oyun—as I recall, you were angry that Lady Shadi had taken the lead role.”
“All other asha were present at the darashi oyun!”
“But you were the only asha present who volunteered to fight the azi with us, excepting Polaire. You’ve never wanted to help us before. What better way to keep an eye on your daeva than to be there with us to head off any obstacles—Lady Aenah?”
Zoya took a deep breath. When she spoke again, she sounded almost admiring. “You thought this out thoroughly, haven’t you? I’m impressed.”
“I had to. Anyone could easily be a suspect if you make a good enough argument for it. And you were the easiest choice.”
“That’s true. I didn’t think about it that way. What about Lady Mykaela or Polaire?”
“Lady Mykaela could have been pretending sickness. When everyone thinks you’re asleep in bed, it’s easier to move about without being seen. You wouldn’t even need an alibi. And like you, Polaire was on the spot for the most part—she could have followed me to the Falling
Leaf without anyone else knowing and planted the seeking stone there. Mistress Parmina could have done it for financial gain. Admittedly, I never really thought about Althy as a suspect.”
“That makes sense. There’s something inherently trustworthy about Altaecia.”
“Miladies?” Kana stammered, confused by the sudden turn our conversation had taken.
“Farhi isn’t in trouble, Kana. Lady Mykaela and Althy are protecting her right now.”
“But I don’t understand.”
“It’s because she’s in danger.”
“In danger? From the empress?”
“No. From you. We are all taught to block our minds from external infiltration by those who can command the Dark and use Compulsion. Even such training may not be successful when facing a strong Faceless, as I had learned. Farhi has no such training, and my sisters are shielding her from you.”
Kana looked at me and blinked. “Me? But why? I’m just a—”
“You’re just a young girl working at the Willows. That’s what you say. A group of people living near the Ankyon marketplace are claiming to be your family. Your father makes a living selling pomegranates at the market, but he doesn’t seem to rely on any of the wholesale suppliers in Ankyo for this.”
“We’re originally from Southeast Kion. My father cuts out the middlemen and makes the trips himself. A friend of my father’s owns a small farm at Amarai and charges him a smaller fee—”
“And what is the name of your father’s friend?”
“Ah—Kel.”
“There is no farmer named Kel in Amarai,” Zoya interrupted.
“That’s not possible. I’ve been to their farm—”
“The lady asha is right,” Kalen said, stepping into the room, followed by Fox. “Several of my fellow Deathseekers made some inquiries, and I can vouch for their credibility. There is, however, a merchant named Jeven, who frequents the Cogswheel Inn at Amarai, who supplies the person you call your father with his pomegranates. That merchant has been arrested by the Deathseekers after confessing to being a spy for Aenah, operating secretly in Kion.”
Kana stopped, holding herself still. “But that’s impossible! I don’t know much about father’s business, and I might have misheard where he gets his pomegranates. But if that merchant was a Faceless, then my father would never have chosen to conduct any business with him had he known about—”
“You claim to be originally from Belaryu, in southeast Kion,” I put in. “Nobody there has heard of you or your family either. None of you thought you would be suspected or that our investigations would be so thorough, did you?”
“You must be mistaken. We have strong roots in Belaryu. My nana’s mother’s family lived there for generations. She took my grandfather’s name when she married; she was a Hescht before that. My grandfather was an outsider; he came from the north—”
“Except you told me months ago that your grandfather’s family had lived in Belaryu for generations, not your nana.”
“You must have misunderstood me. My nana was a—” And then her thoughts bored into mine, so quickly and so effortlessly that I would have caved if I hadn’t been expecting it, if I couldn’t feel Polaire from the other room adding to my strength, helping me put up a shield in my mind to prevent her from tunneling her way in.
Kana snarled. All the light went out of her heartsglass; in one instant, it changed from bright red to an impenetrable black. Her face twisted into a mosaic of rage, and she tried again, only to encounter an impervious barrier of our will. Zoya took advantage of her inattention; a quick rope of Wind held her in place, wrapping around her body.
Frustrated, Kana lashed out again with her mind—but this time, it was directed toward Fox. I felt her in his head as easily as I could feel his, and then his presence was gone from mine.
Fox turned, his face wooden. His blade made a metallic, ringing noise as he slid it out from his scabbard.
“Bricky little girl, you are,” the girl said. She spoke in a different accent, much like those of the Yadoshan merchants I had met. “Give me one reason why I should not simply use Compulsion on you all.”
“You are not a match for this many asha,” Althy countered. “Surrender immediately.”
“I am a match for a dozen of you all at once. In the meantime, I’m thinking I’ll kill this one instead.” It was easy enough to underestimate Aenah in her guise as a sweet-faced maid working in an asha-ka. The girl standing before us now looked nothing like Kana. Her eyes glittered; her mouth twisted into a cruel smile.
“That’s not much of a threat,” Polaire said, “as he’s already dead.”
Aenah laughed. “There is more than one way to die, you fools. Even the dead can feel pain, and I will have him wriggling like live meat on a butcher’s hook for all eternity if you do not grant me safe passage outside of Kion. If not, he will suffer. I will make sure of it.”
“It was you who shadowed me all throughout Ankyo,” I said, struggling to find my link back to Fox. I could see my brother surrounded by a fog of inky blackness, but every time I drew in the rune and directed it toward the mist, I could not break through the Dark barrier. “You were the Drychta woman. You pretended to be the girl who brought me to the Falling Leaf that night. You sent the skeleton after me. When you lost control of the azi, I saw into your mind. I know how you were able to compel me.”
“Perhaps you can enlighten me.”
“The girl from the Falling Leaf told me Lady Shadi would be ‘mad as hops’ if I were late. That’s not a Kion term—it’s a Yadoshan one. You told me you were ‘all poked up’—another Yadoshan term. A guest from Yadosha used another word you used often—cant. I thought you were joking, that the food we smuggled to you was something you ‘can’t’ have. But in Yadosha, it means ‘free food.’ Yet you claimed to be from southeastern Kion—why would you use Yadoshan patter? It was only after I encountered your mind within the azi and realized why it felt so familiar that I put two and two together.”
“Betrayed by the land of my birth, as always. I thought my disguise was perfect.”
“How did you learn to be in two places at once?” Althy asked. “In the spirit of scientific curiosity.”
“I do not require physical form to find you, little girl. I know more about the Dark than your pathetic little asha friends here. I can do things they can only dream of.”
“Including controlling a daeva?” Althy questioned.
“A simple trick. One that I suspect your charge knows all too well.” Aenah smiled at me. “It appears that we are at an impasse, my dears. The question remains: How much do you value this Odalian corpse? It would be very easy for me to sever your connection, Tea, and watch him turn to dust before you.”
I can teach you more, Tea, her thoughts whispered. So much more than what they can offer you.
I don’t believe you!
I can teach you spells beyond imagining. We were meant to rule, young one. It is they who deny us our right because they fear our power. I have seen your true heart. We are alike, you and I. I can teach you to heal your brother, to make him truly alive, not this walking corpse.
I hesitated. You’re lying.
I swear right now, on my blessed mother’s grave, that I do not lie.
I will never join you!
Even after they bleed you dry the way they did your mentor? How long will they let you last in the world of the Willows? Better to die with our will in our blood than their fists around our hearts, child.
“Take one more step,” Aenah warned when Althy tensed, “and I will kill him where he—”
With a loud whinny, Chief broke through the wall right beside Aenah. She turned her head, and for a second, I saw an opening through the fog surrounding Fox. It was enough. I drove my will through it, pushed Aenah’s presence out of his mind. My brother slumped down.
Kalen was the
first to react; his sword came whizzing through the air, but the Faceless reached out and plucked it out of his hands like she was picking flowers along a meadow. Without missing a beat, the Deathseeker sent a ball of Fire toward Aenah’s direction, but she repelled it easily, her hand reaching out to absorb the flames.
Polaire and Althy attacked as one; I could see the runes blaze before them, Fire and Wind streaking toward Aenah, combining to form lightning. The Faceless whirled back and stopped both attacks in midair as well. It sizzled a few inches before her outstretched hand, smoking.
“Too slow,” she sneered. “Your paltry Runic is nothing compared to what I—”
“Stay out of my head,” Fox growled at her feet, rising with his sword in hand. Aenah turned to deflect the blow, the blade skittering across the floor, and I attacked, with Althy, Polaire, and Zoya adding their strength to mine. I used everything I had gleaned from Aenah’s mind about Compulsion and lashed out. While she had sought to corrupt my mind little by little in subtle, underhanded ways for years, I needed no such pretense. I poured into her head, using her own tricks against her. She fought off my invasion but never saw Fox coming until his fist slammed into her face, knocking her out.
“The maid,” Zoya said with some disgust, staring down at her prone form. “How did we not think it would be the maid?”
“We’re too far removed from the time we ourselves worked at our own asha-ka as servants,” Althy said. “She was clever. We’ve assumed often enough that Faceless would choose positions of power and overlooked the people working for us.” She bent down and plucked the fake ruby pin from the Faceless’s hair. As she did, I stumbled back from the strong sense of magic emanating from her. “Not quite so faux, it seems. It helps to hide her magic from others rather than amplify it. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
“But why not simply poison the food at the Valerian?” Kalen asked.
“The girl is strong in the Dark, but too many zivars and spells are woven around the asha-ka, limiting her abilities,” Lady Mykaela said wearily, stepping into the room. “And should someone fall ill or die at the Valerian, she would be easily suspected. She bided her time and waited instead until she could do the most damage—as evidenced when she placed the seeking stone at the Falling Leaf and when she summoned the azi to disrupt the darashi oyun.”
