The Golden City

by J. Kathleen Cheney

  She had little left of the things that had been important to her as a child. Her mother had died when Oriana was only twelve. Four years later her father had been exiled for sedition. Oriana had never learned exactly what he’d done or said, but he’d been raised by an indulgent mother who’d taught her only child that he was the equal of any woman on the islands. Unlike most males, he’d even been educated. Oriana’s mother had been proud of her clever mate, no matter his tendency to defy convention. But his political beliefs had clashed with almost everything the government held true, and after his exile Oriana had been left alone to care for her younger sister, Marina. They had aunts who’d taken them in, but weren’t ever close to them. Citing Oriana’s natural talent for calling, those aunts had pushed her relentlessly to join the Ministry of Intelligence, claiming again and again that it was her Destiny to serve her people. Oriana had refused.

  Until three years ago. When Oriana was away visiting their paternal grandmother on the island of Amado, Marina had run away to search for their father. Somewhere along her path to Portugal, she had fallen prey to a merchant ship’s crew.

  Oriana wiped away a tear with the back of one hand. That had been her failure. Marina hadn’t been happy living with their aunts on the island of Quitos, but Oriana hadn’t believed she would take such a desperate step to escape them. Her parents would have expected Oriana to keep Marina safe, but she hadn’t.

  After Marina’s death, Oriana had given in, joining the ministry. She’d hoped to protect her people from the threat of subjugation under human rule. She’d also hoped to extract a small amount of vengeance, but never learned anything further of her sister’s death. The humans she’d met in the past two years had turned out to be no worse than her own people. And she’d seen no firm indication that Prince Fabricio intended to seize control over her people’s islands anytime soon. There were rumors, of course—those were as commonplace as seagulls—just no proof.

  But Prince Fabricio had acted against her people’s interests in the past. The prince had several seers in his entourage, whose words purportedly ruled many of his actions. One of them had prophesied that the prince would be killed by one of the sea folk—the sereia, the selkies, or the otterfolk—and fear of that had led the prince to ban all nonhumans from the shores of Northern Portugal decades before, when Oriana was just a child. That decree had cut her people off from their primary trading partner and crippled their economy. Many of their people had lost their property and their livelihoods. And because of that same ban, Oriana now wore mitts that pinched her webbing, and high collars on even the hottest days.

  It was simply the price she had to pay. Determined to squarely face whatever chapter lay ahead in her life, Oriana rose and set about the business at hand: packing. As her presence was meant to lend Isabel countenance in this ramshackle flight, she needed to look severe but ignorable. That wouldn’t be difficult. She didn’t have Isabel’s beauty to catch male eyes, and once she was mentally classified as a servant, most people dismissed her from their minds.

  That had been helpful over the past year. Her dark eyes were larger than most humans’. Her brown hair, when dry, had a non-Portuguese reddish cast that prompted the maids to whisper that she’d suffered a mishap involving tincture of henna. Those things would have drawn curious eyes if she were a lady, but for a mere companion no one took note. She faded away.

  Oriana changed into a black shirtwaist that, under the borrowed apron, would pass for a housemaid’s. Then she moved her nightstand away from the wall and used her shoehorn to pry up the short floorboard underneath. In an old netted handbag tucked under the board, she’d hidden every last mil-réis she could save. It wasn’t much, but the stash of coins would pay for a place to live while she searched for a new position. She weighed it in her hand, then tucked the small bag into the bottom of the portmanteau and arranged her clothes and hat atop it.

  She closed up her case with a touch of room to spare. She might be able to retrieve her other garments when she returned to the city. She unpinned her hair, combed it out, and braided it, making a simple knot at the nape of her neck. She checked the small mirror on her wall—yes, she did look like a housemaid.

  But at least she would be a housemaid who had seen Paris, the French City of Lights.

  Oriana checked her left sleeve, feeling the reassuring stiffness of the dagger strapped to her wrist. Perhaps Isabel was correct and everything would work out. Even so, it was better to be armed than trusting.

  The clock in the hallway struck ten just as she reached Isabel’s bedroom. She let herself in and was greeted by the sight of Isabel standing proudly by her trunk, all the catches closed and the strap already buckled. “See? I did it all by myself,” Isabel said, a sly look in her eyes. “I know you didn’t think I could manage it.”

  Oriana inclined her head, granting Isabel that point. She didn’t comment on the additional portmanteau half-hidden behind Isabel’s skirts. “I am impressed.”

  Isabel chewed her lower lip. “Now, how do we get these downstairs without the butler noticing?”

  The other servants were all aware that the family needed this marriage in order to pay the bills, but the butler had old-fashioned opinions about what was appropriate for the daughter of an aristocratic family. He’d created one difficulty after another to keep Mr. Efisio away from Isabel.

  “Carlos will help,” Oriana decided. The first footman hated the butler with a passion. He might do it just for spite. “Do you have a couple of mil-réis to spare?”

  Isabel produced them from her little handbag, and Oriana slipped downstairs to bribe the footman. As she’d expected, Carlos was on the back steps of the house, smoking a cigarette. He proved willing to help and, a few minutes later, carried Isabel’s two pieces of luggage out to the corner of the courtyard.

  The court behind the row of houses was private. Beyond the courtyard were the mews that served the wealthy homeowners of the Street of Flowers, and the scent of dust and horses carried in the cool night. Under the streetlamps, it was bright enough to see the whole alleyway, but Oriana couldn’t make out a coach waiting in either direction. She turned to Isabel, who, with her white cap and apron, almost looked the part of a housemaid, although an impudent one. “Where is Mr. Efisio’s coach to meet us?”

  Isabel pointed to the farther end of the block with her chin. “On Formosa Street. His driver is to wait for us there.”

  Oriana groaned. That was several houses away. She should have bribed Carlos to carry the luggage all the way there. Casting about, she spotted the small stair leading from the cobbles down to an old basement entry, the coal room. Reckoning no one would be using that door tonight—no shipment of coal was due for another month at the earliest—she took the two portmanteaus down and tucked them by the steps, where they wouldn’t be seen. Then she and Isabel picked up the trunk between them and began the trek down to the far end of the alley.

  Isabel had thrown herself into the adventure of the moment. She didn’t complain about having to carry her own luggage. She didn’t complain about the weight of the trunk, or how far they had to go. She simply picked up her end and led the way. Oriana had to admire her for that, because the trunk was damnably heavy. They’d nearly reached the end of the alley when a coach approached slowly and eased to a stop.

  “Thanks be to God!” Isabel said passionately, tugging on her end of the trunk to draw Oriana along faster.

  The driver of the coach set the brake and jumped down to help them. They lowered the trunk to the the ground as he opened the coach’s door and folded down the steps. Isabel went to climb inside while Oriana spoke to the burly driver. “I need to go fetch two more bags,” she told him. “I’ll only be a moment.”

  He grunted his assent, and Oriana turned to dash back to the Amarals’ courtyard.

  A hand grabbed her hair, fingers tightening about the braided mass at the nape of her neck. Off balance, Oriana stumbled backward toward her attacker. Before she could cry out, he pressed a cl
oth over her mouth and dragged her against his body.

  Oriana bit down hard. But biting only drove the cloth into her teeth, a strange sweet taste on her tongue and in her gills. She struggled wildly as the fire in her stomach died back into cold fear. The big man had her pinned helpless against him. She kicked at his shins, but her heel tangled in the hem of her skirts, like seaweed wrapping about her legs. It was getting harder to move. All these damned skirts . . .

  The man set her down, shaking the hand she’d bitten. Oriana swayed on her feet. She tried to loosen her shirt cuff to draw her dagger, but her hands wavered in her vision. A surge of nausea rose, leaving her hot, then cold.

  What was wrong with her? She should do something . . .

  As if at a great distance, she heard Isabel cry out. Oriana spun that way, reaching one arm out to her. Then she was tilting, falling toward the night-dark cobbles.

  CHAPTER 2

  Oriana dreamed she was bound. It was dark. Her head ached fiercely, her stomach felt hollow, and everything was wrong.

  Ah, gods, no. It wasn’t a nightmare.

  She was tied firmly in place. She was upside down, seated in a chair, bound fast to it by ropes about her arms and chest and ankles, and that chair was secured to the ceiling. Her wrists were tied, forcing her hands to lie flat on a metal surface—a table or tray. Her ragged breath echoed in the small space.

  She jerked against the ropes, but they didn’t give. Instead, the whole world swayed around her. A whimper escaped her lips. What is happening?

  She couldn’t seem to think straight. I’ve been drugged, haven’t I? There had been something bitter on the cloth the driver held over her mouth. Was he one of the Special Police, the branch dedicated to hunting down nonhumans like her? Had someone turned her in?

  She had to find a way out of this place. She could smell wood and cork, the pungent scents of resins and paint, and, faintly, the river. She held her breath and could hear muted sounds, but nothing that made sense. Her eyes began to adjust to the blackness, better than human eyes for that sort of thing.

  And then she realized she wasn’t alone. Isabel hung in a chair across from her. The cobwebs that cluttered Oriana’s mind blew away in a sudden rush. “Isabel,” she cried. “Wake up!”

  Isabel’s head swayed and her eyelids fluttered, but she didn’t respond. She must have been drugged, too.

  Oriana’s hands curled into fists against the table’s surface. She had to get Isabel out of this place. She yanked against the ropes that bound her arms again, but couldn’t make out how they were tied. The knots must be behind her back.

  She surveyed the shadowy room then, taking stock. She could make out its size now, not much larger than the inside of a coach. The walls looked featureless, dark and plain. There was only her and Isabel and a small round table nestled between them. The ropes pressed her hands down on one side of the table, and Isabel’s hands lay opposite them. Oriana could see that the surface was patterned somehow, but the room was too dark for her to make it out.

  What is this? Why would anyone put us here?

  Her breathing sounded harsh in her own ears, overloud in the tiny room. She forced it down, not wanting to frighten Isabel. She had to come up with a plan. Then she heard a new sound through the walls: the metallic rattle of shifting chains. There had to be someone nearby. “Let her go,” she cried, hoping they would hear. “She didn’t know I’m not human. She’s not a Sympathizer. It’s . . .”

  Everything moved. Oriana had the terrifying sensation of falling, then her body slammed to a stop against the ropes that bound her. She hissed and followed that with every foul word she’d ever heard her aunts say. The initial flare of pain ebbed after a moment. They were on water now. The room bobbed like a boat.

  “It’s me you want,” Oriana screamed into the darkness. “Not her, damn it!”

  There was no response save for the continued clatter of chains.

  Oriana’s breath suddenly went short. This room couldn’t be watertight, not if she’d heard the chains so clearly through the walls. Water was going to fill this space, and quickly. “Isabel, wake up!”

  Isabel moaned in response, her eyes fluttering open. “Where am I?”

  She heard water bubbling into the structure that trapped them. Something was dragging them deeper. They didn’t have much time. “I don’t know. We have to try to get loose.”

  “Oriana? Where are you? I can’t see.” Isabel began to cry helplessly then, like a lost child.

  Oriana tried to keep her voice steady for Isabel’s sake. “It’s very dark, Isabel. That’s why you can’t see. Now listen to me. You have to try to get your arms loose.”

  “I can’t,” Isabel sobbed.

  Oriana couldn’t see the water yet. It was above—no, below—her head, seeping upward. She could hear it and smell it, though. Cold fear knotted in her gut. They were going to run out of time.

  No, she wasn’t going to give up that easily. “I’m going to untie myself,” she told Isabel. “Then I’ll untie you.”

  “How?” she whimpered.

  Oriana didn’t take time to answer. She grasped the edge of the table and shifted in the chair that held her, twisting so her teeth could reach the rope about her right wrist. Her teeth were sharper than a human’s, something that rarely proved an advantage. The rope splintered and shredded in her mouth.

  The water continued to seep upward, inexorable.

  “Oriana? Are you still there? Oriana!”

  Oriana paused. The fear in Isabel’s voice tore at her heart, but she needed to get loose more than Isabel needed an answer, so she kept chewing. But she did stop and glance up when Isabel screamed.

  The water had reached the top of Isabel’s head. Isabel began thrashing wildly. “No!” she screamed. “No!”

  This was cruel. Crueler now that Isabel had figured out the fate planned for them.

  “Isabel, be quiet.” Oriana used her voice to call Isabel, the one magic she possessed. She wove the imperative into her words—not a spell like a human witch might use, but simple desire, yearning. It would have been more successful with a human male, but she could hold almost any human’s attention for a few minutes, and even prompt her to action. The magic drew Isabel’s gaze to her and, although she didn’t think Isabel could see her, it forced Isabel to focus on her words. Oriana hoped she could buy them some time. “Isabel, bend forward as far as you can,” she ordered. “Right before the water gets to your nose, take a deep breath and hold it.”

  Isabel’s ragged breathing was interspersed with sobs, but she obediently bent forward, her dark head almost touching the table.

  Oriana prayed that would be enough. She set her teeth back to the rope. It gave suddenly, and she yanked it with her mouth. It had been wrapped around several times, so she had to pull each loop loose. Chilly water touched the back of her head. Cold fingers of water spread along the back of her housemaid’s costume, grasped her shoulders, climbed up her garments.

  It reached her mouth, and she took it in. Her gills opened involuntarily and her throat closed, stealing her voice. She breathed in the familiar water of the Douro River as she dragged her arm free of the loops of rope.

  No! The rope holding her other arm hadn’t loosened at all. They were separate ropes. She would have to chew through each one individually. She tore at her shirtsleeve, but her wrist was tied too tightly to get her dagger loose, not until she could get that hand free.

  There was no time. Oriana didn’t want to look, but she couldn’t stop herself.

  Across from her in the darkness, Isabel’s eyes were stricken in the pale oval of her face. The water had nearly reached her waist. Oriana didn’t know how long Isabel had been holding her breath, waiting to be rescued.

  If she could just reach Isabel, she could breathe for her. Oriana jerked against the rope trapping her left arm, but it didn’t give an inch. She tried to shove the ropes binding her chest down to her waist, but they tangled in the fabric of her apron.

 
; Isabel’s bow-shaped lips opened. A flood of bubbles streamed from her mouth, the last of her breath. Her body jerked convulsively against the ropes that bound her to the chair. Her eyes were wide with terror.

  Unable to reach her, Oriana pounded her free hand on the surface of the table, setting off painful vibrations through her webbing. She wanted to scream. She wanted to beg Isabel’s forgiveness. But her voice was gone underwater. She reached out her throbbing hand and laid it over Isabel’s fingers. What could she do?

  She couldn’t sing underwater, but she could hum. Oriana wove a call into the tune to comfort Isabel, using her memories of an old lullaby her father had sung to shape the sound. It was all she had to give.

  Isabel’s expression eased, the fear in her eyes fading.

  Then she was still.

  Oriana’s song faltered to a stop, and soundless sobs shook her body. The water had stolen her ability to cry. She could taste Isabel’s death in the water, the sudden tang of a voided bladder—loss of control along with the loss of life. Oriana tugged the silk mitt off her hand with her teeth and spread her fingers wide, stretching the webbing between them. She could feel the vibration of her own heartbeat.

  From Isabel there was nothing.

  And then a glow crept across the surface of the table between them, almost like blood flowing from a wound. Letters imprinted on the surface gave off a pallid light, forming words that made no sense to Oriana’s eyes. A ring of words circled the table’s edge. Inside that was another ring of nonsense symbols, shapes she didn’t recognize, and in the center a third ring held a collection of straight lines. The glow crept to the center of the small table and then stopped as if it had hit a wall.

  The table had come alive in response to Isabel’s death.

  Oriana looked back at her friend. She tried to touch Isabel’s face. Her fingers fell short, so she grasped Isabel’s hand again, as if Isabel could still feel her there. Isabel’s head began to sway loosely with the motion of the water, a single strand of hair floating past her open mouth and snagging against her lips.