The Silvered

by Tanya Huff

  “Does it matter?” Annalyse asked. “It’s night.”

  “Not out there,” Tomas told them. “Out there it’s midmorning, and there’s a crowd of people in the palace for a public festival.”

  “But…”

  Captain Reiter cut her off. “The emperor time shifted you, possibly to make it more convenient for him to observe you eating. Probably because he’s insane. Let’s move, people.”

  “Their clothes will give them away.” Mirian grabbed his arm. “Even in the back halls, if a servant sees them…”

  “We don’t have any other clothes,” Danika snapped. “Unless you want us to dress up in bedsheets.”

  “There you go.” The captain pulled free of her grip and dropped to one knee at the edge of the wall. “Tomas! Boost them up.”

  “Wait!”

  Tomas froze, responding to Mirian’s voice. Danika added his reaction to the list of things they had to talk about later. He was far too young to make any kind of a commitment, no matter what he thought the girl smelled like.

  “You have bedsheets?” Mirian asked. “Tomas, the Sisters of Starlight!”

  Tomas grinned. “What was it you said, like they wore sheets over nightgowns?”

  “Who are the Sisters of Starlight?” Danika demanded.

  “A charitable religious order,” he told her.

  “An Imperial charitable religious order.” Mirian grabbed the captain’s sleeve and released him almost immediately. “Would they be noticed in the palace?”

  The captain glanced down at his arm, then up at the girl. “Not today.”

  “Get the sheets…”

  “We also have nightgowns.” Danika bent and picked up the lantern. “Jesine, you’re with me. Stina, Annalyse, jam the door leading to the dark cells. I believe that’s the way the guards arrive, and it has to be nearly morning. We need to delay them.”

  “You need to hurry,” the captain snapped.

  Both Tomas and Mirian made a small sound at the emphasis.

  “Run,” Danika said, and led the way.

  Chapter Sixteen

  WHILE SHEETS OVER NIGHTGOWNS wouldn’t attract any less attention than what the mages had been wearing, Danika assumed it would attract a different kind of attention and with her head through a hole in half a sheet and it hanging down both front and back like an extra long historic tabard, she could only hope people would fill in the blanks in the illusion on their own.

  “Kirstin would be better at this,” Danika muttered as she jerked Captain Reiter’s knife through a piece of leftover sheet. Kirstin took the fashion chances. Kirstin never cared what people thought. Kirstin was dead. Kirstin had to die to convince the captain to free them from the nets. Kirstin died to free them from the nets. She swiped her palm over her cheeks. “There’s no way this will ever look like a shoe.”

  “The Sisters wear white slippers,” Mirian told her dropping to one knee and wrapping a square of fabric around Danika’s right foot. Her nose inches from Danika’s leg, she tied the fake slipper in place with a long strip of sheet—around the ankle, down under the arch, back around the ankle. “And no one,” she added, moving to the left foot and cutting off whatever protest the captain had been about to make, “would go barefoot in the palace. Perception is important.”

  “Getting out before we’re overrun by armed guards is more important,” Reiter grunted, lifting Jesine out of Tomas’ hold and up into the small room. It was crowded already, particularly since none of them would touch the…body…folded up over the chair. Fortunately, Jesine was small. Mirian held up a hand for another square and shuffled over to wrap Jesine’s feet.

  “Forget it, Captain.”

  Danika turned to see Reiter on one knee, holding out his hand to Stina, who, fortunately, looked amused as she added, “Get out of my way, I can manage on my own.”

  When Danika translated, Reiter stood, hands spread, and backed to one side. She considered it a point in his favor that he stayed close enough to lend a hand if necessary.

  It was definitely crowded with Stina in the small room. Danika moved closer to the edge, but maintained a hold on the billowing panels of purple fabric. Sheets weren’t known for traction. Glancing down as Tomas bent to boost Annalyse to the ledge, she saw a fan of light spill into the room below. Before she could speak, Annalyse threw herself forward and out of sight, Tomas right behind her.

  There was a meaty thud and a groan, then Tomas reappeared dragging Adeline.

  The triangle of light disappeared and Annalyse stared up at her, eyes wide, green flecks gleaming. “I hit her with the baton!”

  “Good girl,” Stina called.

  There was light enough to see Annalyse flush.

  “Is she out?” Reiter demanded. He couldn’t look right at Tomas, Danika noticed. Imperials had such strange ideas about skin.

  Tomas showed teeth. “Close enough.”

  Annalyse needed even less help than Stina had, but then she was taller and almost fifteen years younger. Mirian, still on her knees, moved to her feet with the last two squares of sheet while behind her, Stina peered down at her own fake slippers and shook her head.

  “Right, then.” The captain nodded at Tomas. “Let’s go.”

  Tomas changed and trotted to the far end of the room. As he started to run, Danika wondered why it looked so familiar…

  “The Pack! Tomas, stop!”

  His nails raked the floor as he slid.

  “Catch me, I’m coming down! Lord and Lady…” Danika spun around, to find the others staring at her. “…how could I have forgotten. The nets are off!” She turned back to the edge. “We have to get the Pack out!”

  “Stop her!”

  Danika’s foot was in the air when Captain Reiter threw an arm around her waist and dragged her back against his body. She called the wind, more than willing to knock them both down into the room where Tomas waited, but he held her with one arm and grabbed at the wall hangings with the other.

  “Lady Hagen! Stop it!” Mirian grabbed her arm, and Danika got a close look at her eyes. None of the original color remained—only white and pupil—and the edges of her pupils were frayed. It was wrong and frightening. If this was what came of allowing the power to choose, the masters were right and she wanted no part of it.

  When she flinched away, the wind stopped although she wasn’t positive she’d been the one to stop it.

  “Captain Reiter will take you to safety. Tomas and I will free the Pack.”

  “Tomas and you?” Fear sharpened her voice. “You’re children!”

  Mirian released her arm and stepped back, bumping into Jesine. “And you have your child to think about plus another four. Sorry…” She glanced at Stina. “…five. You’re having twins.”

  Stina rolled her eyes. “Oh, joy.”

  “You could tell from touching her?” The gold flecks in Jesine’s eyes glittered.

  “I didn’t mean to,” Mirian muttered. “It’s like first level metals by way of healing. Identify infant.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “And yet…” She shrugged and turned her attention back to Danika, lip curled. Danika suddenly realized this girl would challenge her if it became necessary.

  “They’ve been tortured and starved,” she growled. “What makes you think you can control them?”

  “She has a better chance than you do.” Tomas said.

  Reiter let his grip ease enough that Danika could look down at her brother-in-law. “Tomas, so help me, if you say she smells amazing…”

  “She does. But she also has metal craft, and you don’t. They’re using silver to control them, right? I mean, logically, they have to be.”

  Mirian’s mouth twitched at that although Danika saw nothing to smile about.

  “You’d have to figure out the mechanics, if there’s even a way to get the silver off. Mirian wouldn’t. She can get rid of any silver, fast. And she’s…” He spread his hands although Danika wasn’t sure if words had failed him or he c
onsidered it blindingly obvious that Mirian was his Alpha. And probably Captain Reiter’s as well, although Danika doubted any of them had acknowledged it.

  While age certainly had its place in Pack dynamics, in the end, position came down to power. Not only raw power, but also how that power was used. Ryder was…had been both strong and smart. Danika was the strongest Air-mage in Aydori. Mirian Maylin had made her way from Aydori to save the Mage-pack, even knowing she was the sixth mage Leopald searched for.

  Danika stopped fighting the captain’s hold, and he allowed her to pull free. Meeting the girl’s eyes, forcing herself to focus on the white-on-white in spite of how uneasy it made her feel, she said, “I promised them.”

  “Let me keep your promise for you.”

  After a long moment, Danika tipped her head to one side. Behind her, Annalyse gasped, but the others were silent. Kirstin, who’d challenged and challenged and challenged, would have had something to say. Danika suddenly missed her so much she had to press both fists to her chest to hold in the pain.

  Mirian looked past her to the captain and said, “I’m trusting you.”

  “I’ll get them out.”

  And Danika heard if it’s the last thing I do in Captain Reiter’s voice even if Mirian didn’t. Even if she was too young to realize that by helping them, by doing the right thing, he’d destroyed his own…

  Mirian stepped off the edge.

  Danika choked back a scream.

  “What?” Mirian frowned up her as she floated gently to the lower level. “If I can float a leaf, I can logically float myself.”

  “The Air-master said it was impossible.”

  The frown became pique as she touched down. “Not to me.”

  Stina snorted. “They’ll be fine.”

  * * *

  Mirian was close enough to Tomas when she landed that her skirt wrapped around his legs, the deep burgundy making his skin look even paler than usual. “Your clothes?”

  “I’ll be more use in fur.”

  “Told you you wouldn’t be in a jacket long enough to buy the expensive…” A sudden noise pulled her attention to the far end of the room. The guards weren’t banging on the door, not yet, but they’d definitely realized they couldn’t get it open. Reaching out, she touched Tomas’ shoulder, ran her hand down his arm, and finally laced their fingers together before she glanced up at the emperor’s nasty little room. “Where is he keeping the Pack?”

  “Down the stairs,” Lady Hagen answered. “Turn left and go through a metal door to a row of cells.”

  “Down the stairs behind the door that’s jammed shut and has increasingly frustrated armed guards lined up behind it?”

  “Only two at this hour. They start the day by escorting us one by one to the water room.”

  “Only two.” Although she couldn’t see faces, it wasn’t hard to find Captain Reiter. He was the only one up there not dressed head-to-toe in white. “Next time we do this, we’re coming up with a better plan.”

  “Next time.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “Mirian, the…the Pack…” The smile was gone. “…you have to know, one of them, he ate the other mage.”

  “It was Kirstin’s choice!” Lady Hagen protested.

  Mirian didn’t want to know what the alternative had been.

  “And she convinced him to do it,” Lady Hagen continued. “He was starving, but she convinced him to take her strength.”

  “So he could what?” Mirian asked.

  “Survive. Kirstin couldn’t live as a captive, and it’s not like she knew what the arrival of the sixth mage meant.”

  Jake had told them to hurry. They hadn’t moved fast enough.

  “And now,” Lady Hagen added, “he’s lived long enough for you to save him.”

  “The emperor could have had him shot after we left.” Reiter spread his hands as Lady Hagen turned on him. “We don’t know.”

  Kirstin’s decision sounded crazy to Mirian, but then she hadn’t been locked up by a madman. “It doesn’t matter if he’s been shot. Well, to him, obviously, but he wasn’t alone, was he? He wasn’t the only Pack held captive.”

  “No.”

  “Then thank you for the warning, Captain, but it changes nothing.” At the other end of the room, the guards’ attempt to open the door grew more vigorous. At her feet, the woman taken down by the baton groaned. Mirian bent and touched her. “Sleep.” She looked up again and couldn’t believe they were all still watching. She’d thought Lady Hagen, at least, had more sense. “Get them out, Captain!” Slipping her hand in Tomas’, she dropped her voice into his ear alone. “Leave the lantern and take me to the door.”

  “You can’t…” He grunted when she shifted her grip and pinched the back of his hand. Pulling her close, he turned her toward the other end of the room and under the sound of the Mage-pack finally leaving said, “We have to talk about this.”

  “You could leave with them.”

  He snarled, but kept them moving. “We could leave with them.”

  “No.” She thought about closing her eyes and seeing if it made any difference, then remembered they were crossing a dark room. Maybe her vision wasn’t as bad as she thought. Although it was bad. “I can’t see well enough to adjust to other people reacting up in the palace. If I go with them, I’d endanger their escape. I’d be responsible for the Mage-pack being recaptured. If we go with them, you’ll defend me instead of them. Of course, if you go with them on your own, you’ll be able to help protect them.”

  “You can’t…How much can you see?”

  That would be what he got his teeth into. “When we were standing by the lantern, I could see where you were, but not beyond you.”

  “It’s dark. Really dark,” he added as though that made the difference.

  “I’m afraid…” She took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m afraid that at the rate I’m losing vision, I’ll be blind before I finish what needs to be done.” She was impressed by how calm she sounded. Saying blind like it didn’t mean what it did.

  “So floating down from that upper level wasn’t the sensible thing to do.”

  “I guess not.”

  “You were showing off for Danika.” He sounded amused.

  “Shut up.”

  He stopped, tugged her to a stop beside him. When Mirian stretched out her hand, she felt the wood of the door and the vibrations of the guards banging on the other side. It was either thick enough she couldn’t hear them shouting or they were trying to get through in complete silence. The latter was a little creepy.

  Before she could decide what to do, Tomas wrapped a callused hand around her jaw and turned her face to his. “You don’t need to see beyond me.”

  It took a moment to figure out what he meant. “Because you’ll always be there to be my eyes.” She didn’t mean for it to sound as much like a question as it did. This was absolutely not the time to be questioning…things.

  But Tomas only laughed as though he had complete confidence in her ability to make the right decision. As though he didn’t know she was making it up as she went along. “Both metaphorically and actually.”

  She rubbed her cheek against his hand. “Big words. I’m going to open the door and sleep these guards now.”

  “You sure you can do it on purpose?”

  Skin changed to fur under her hands as she poked him in the side where he was ticklish in both forms, well aware they were whistling in the dark.

  The door had been saturated with water and the wood swollen to the point where the top of the doorjamb had buckled. Mirian moved the water out, then pushed the puddle far enough along the floor it would be out of their way.

  Parting water. Moving water. Logically, it was still nothing more than second level water.

  The door cracked and light from the guard’s lantern traced patterns around and across it. A boot pounded once. Twice…

  Mirian jumped back as the door slammed open and shattered against the wall.

  The guard at the top o
f the stairs managed to clear his weapon from the holster. It fired as he fell, the lead ball flattening against the stone. His weight bowled over the guard behind him. One of the two lanterns went flying, the other landed upright, not only unbroken, but still lit.

  When Mirian could hear again, she heard boots against stone. Running. Running away from the bottom of the stairs. Lady Hagen had been wrong. There were three guards.

  Tomas dove past her.

  Mirian picked up the unbroken lantern and followed, feeling for each step, extinguishing the flames devouring spilled lamp oil as she went.

  * * *

  “Gunfire!” Danika jerked around, the others turning with her as though they were connected by strings.

  Reiter had to move quickly to stop them from racing back. “Keep moving.”

  They weren’t soldiers. They didn’t follow orders. They looked to Danika, not him.

  “If it rouses the palace…”

  “No one hears the sounds that come out of the north wing,” Reiter told her grimly. They locked eyes for a moment—he had to fight to look at her, not the blue flecks—then she nodded. Kirstin may not have screamed, but someone surely had.

  As they reached the end of the short hall, he raised a hand and checked that the way was clear before beckoning the mages forward. Emerging into the larger Imperial shortcut, he was amazed by how much better they looked than they had up in the emperor’s rathole—where they’d looked like women wearing sheets over nightgowns. He started to think they might be able to pull this off.

  “Da…Lady Hagen is weaving a glamour,” the redhead told him quietly, falling into step beside him. Reiter glanced past her. Danika’s lips moved as she walked and the edges of the robes…sheets, the edges of the sheets moved as though in a constant breeze. “She’s telling anyone who looks our way, that they’re seeing Sisters of Starlight. It’s very high level. She’s probably the only Air-mage alive who can…”

  Her voice trailed off and Reiter knew she was thinking of Mirian. Who’d flown, or floated, when that wasn’t apparently possible. He thought of Mirian facing the wolf…thought of turning, of needing to be by her side, thought of the wolf already by her side…