Eliza and the gryphon landed in the grounds by the south wing. The early morning sky was bright and cloudless. Her beloved teacher, Foss, was waiting for her, shaking his head.
“You are soaking wet!” he scolded, sounding so motherly that she laughed out loud. He looked rather offended and turned his attention to Abimbola Broom.
“Who is this and why in the worlds have you brought him here, Eliza Tok? A human. And bound with the Onbeweglich Cord! Rather extreme, is it not?”
“I didnay want him being difficult,” said Eliza.
Abimbola Broom spat out the piece of cord that was lodged in his mouth and gaped around him. Although he had never seen a Mancer, he was certain that was what stood before him, towering and gold-skinned with pale hair and eyes like suns.
“Sir,” he began, his voice shaking, “I have been most abominably treated! I have been kidnapped while my family slept and I pray to the Ancients that you in your infinite wisdom will be able to rectify –”
Charlie, who had ceased to be a gryphon and become a boy again as soon as they landed, interrupted this speech by bending down and sticking the bit of cord back into Abimbola’s mouth, silencing him. Being a Shade, Charlie could take any shape he chose, but he kept Eliza company by appearing most frequently as a boy her own age. She thought it was unnecessary and a bit vain of him to insist on being such a good-looking boy but didn’t say so.
“He should be put in the dungeons with a barrier,” said Eliza. “I’ll show you what he’s been doing, aye. Then the Emmisariae can take care of things.”
Foss sighed. “If you want to put a human in the dungeons, Eliza Tok, you will have to speak with Kyreth. He is expecting you, by the way.”
“I know,” said Eliza. “Will you keep an eye on him, Charlie?”
“Aye aye, Cap’n,” said Charlie, settling down in the grass next to Abimbola.
“Dinnay call me that,” said Eliza, and then smiled at him involuntarily. “Nice flight, nay?”
“Wet,” Charlie came back flatly.
“Perhaps you should change into something dry first,” said Foss to Eliza, only just managing to refrain from saying before you catch your death of cold.
“I’m almost dry. But aye, you’re right, I should get cleaned up anyway. Come on, walk with me. Have you nay missed me at all, Foss? I’ve been gone for weeks!” She looked up at his brilliant face, his eyes much brighter than when she had last seen him, and she remembered that they were approaching winter, his strongest season.
“I would have missed you more and worried less if I’d had any idea what you were doing. Although, as it turns out you were terrorizing and kidnapping a human, I think I would have worried even if I had known.”
“He’s been in league with the Cra, Foss,” said Eliza as they made their way into the south wing and up the marble stairs, in the direction of Eliza’s bedroom. “He’s been planning their attacks and making sure they didnay get reported!”
“The Cra.” Foss’s shoulders slumped noticeably. “I have mentioned, I believe, that none of us are terribly happy about you going into battle alone with so little training. And I am understating the case quite dramatically.” He looked as if he was about to say more but decided against it.
“It’s just the Cra,” protested Eliza. “It’s hardly dangerous. And lah, besides, I always have Charlie with me.”
Foss shook his head. “Kyreth will not be pleased,” he said.
Chapter
~2~
Foss was right. Eliza spent the morning rehashing the same argument she always had with the Supreme Mancer Kyreth, which, as usual, left them both even angrier than when they had started.
“It is beyond irresponsible! You are a fool, Eliza, a foolish girl. When you are sufficiently trained and you have a daughter, that is the time to fulfill your duty as the Shang Sorceress. But to put yourself in danger so deliberately – you are too much like your mother, and will meet her fate or worse if you do not learn to obey those who hold your interests at heart!” Kyreth paced back and forth behind his heavy marble desk, hands locked behind his back, his eyes blazing so white-hot that Eliza could not look him in the face. The room hummed with his anger. Behind him one of the blank Scrolls hanging from the wall wrote out swiftly too much like your mother, and another Scroll wrote her fate or worse.
“I was not...in...danger,” Eliza ground out between her teeth for what felt like the twentieth time. “Charlie was with me the whole time, aye. Anyway, I can handle the Cra. I can handle a man. Lah, if the Mancers had ever bothered to deal with the Cra then I wouldnay have had to do it in the first place!”
“Do not be insolent!” Kyreth flashed with rage, making Eliza wince. “Is it your belief, Eliza, that the Mancers spend their days in idleness? Answer me!”
“Of course nay,” she protested. “But –”
“Then is it your belief that to separate the two worlds is an easy task, requiring little of our power?”
“No.” She became sulky now.
“And do you think it is effortless to maintain and build upon the barriers that hold our enemy, that Arctic fiend, a task made infinitely more strenuous since you delivered to her the Book of Barriers?”
This was a sore point. Eliza fell into furious silence. Infinitely more strenuous, wrote one of the Scrolls, as if to rub it in.
“Eliza?” he demanded again.
She could barely get the word out, “No.”
His voice softened. “I know that you mean well. You wish to rid Di Shang of the evil of the Cra and this is most commendable. But there is no end to evil, Eliza. Evil will keep coming. And if you were to perish now, the line of the Shang Sorceress would end. The world would be bereft forever, the power of the Mancers stretched beyond what we can achieve alone. For the time being, the military is responsible for beings that cross over from Tian Xia. The Mancers are responsible for separating the worlds and keeping our terrible enemy imprisoned. You, Eliza, are responsible for learning what you can of Magic, for studying in diligence and obedience. When you are ready, and when you have produced an heir, you will perform your duty and guard the Crossing. But now is not that time.”
“How can I wait until I grow up, while the Cra –”
“Now is not that time,” thundered Kyreth.
Eliza leaped to her feet and found herself slammed back into her chair hard by Kyreth’s Magic, which only angered her further. “Tell that to the mother of some child the Cra have stolen!” she shouted at him. “And dinnay try to tell me you’re just too busy to take care of it. That’s the worst excuse I’ve ever heard in my entire life!”
“Enough!” Kyreth struck his desk with his fists. The room shook and the word Enough spilled down each of the Scrolls on the far wall except one, which wrote, much to Eliza’s surprise, The worst excuse I’ve ever heard. When Kyreth spoke again his voice was very quiet. “Listen to me, Eliza Tok. If the man is what you say, the Emmisariae will arrange to have him prosecuted. We will keep him in one of the guest rooms until then, with a barrier on the door. I will speak to Aysu about the Cra and see what can be done. This is what you wish, is it not? But you must make concessions too. You must accept that we have rules and that there are good reasons for these rules. Eliza, I am most concerned that you have been killing. It is not for you to decide whether a being should live or die.”
“If you only banish them, others just keep coming,” said Eliza unhappily. He was right but she knew no better way to deter the Cra from crossing over. “Lah, if you could make some kind of barrier to stop any of them from ever crossing over...”
“You do not understand what you ask,” said Kyreth impatiently. “If it were so simply done, we would have done it! What can you infer then? Answer me.”
“That it’s nay easy,” said Eliza sullenly.
“Impossible, given the many demands on our Magic,” Kyreth shot back. “I will speak to Aysu about the matter. Now go, Eliza. You hear nothing that I say and I am weary of speaking to you.”
> ~~~
Eliza was still seething when she left Kyreth’s study and went to find Foss in the Old Library. Charlie was with him and they both looked bored.
“I have been instructed to tell you that the Shade cannot have free rein of the Citadel,” Foss said. “If you bring him here, he is to remain supervised at all times.”
Charlie rolled his eyes.
“Fine.” Eliza plunked herself down in a chair. “Where’s Abimbola?”
“Under guard,” said Foss, with a hint of a smile. “I understand Aysu and Kyreth are meeting this afternoon to discuss the matter of the Cra.”
“You know I’m right, Foss,” said Eliza, eager to make her case again. “The Mancers should have done something about the Cra ages ago. I think you’re all too used to relying on a Sorceress, aye. Ever since my mother disappeared, the Mancers have just had these big missions, like finding me, or maintaining the Arctic barriers, or separating the worlds, but you’ve nay paid any attention to evil beings that are still crossing over and hurting people.”
Foss frowned. “Mancer policy is a complicated matter and not for us to dictate,” he said. “But I am interested in your choice of words, Eliza Tok. Do you believe the Cra are evil?”
“They kill babies,” said Eliza, shocked.
“An unsavory practice, to be sure,” said Foss. “Is a human who dines on veal evil, then? What of the wolf who kills the lamb?”
“Wolves are just animals, aye. They dinnay make choices like intelligent beings,” said Eliza. “And eating veal is nay the same as murdering a baby.”
“So the Cra are evil because they are intelligent, self-aware and feed on other intelligent and self-aware beings?”
“I spec so. Foss, I’m tired and I’ve nay had breakfast and I cannay think about this right now. Are you saying you dinnay think the Cra are evil?”
“I have no fondness for them,” said Foss. “A human life is indeed a precious thing and the Cra should be kept from Di Shang, without question.”
“Lah, so?”
“It is a mere matter of definitions. What is evil? Can a thing be evil in nature? Or does evil reside in choice? The Cra are what they are and cannot choose to be otherwise, in spite of their intelligence. Abimbola Broom, on the other hand, made a heinous choice. Are they both evil? Is one, having an irremediable nature, more evil than the other, who goes against his better nature?”
Charlie put his head down on the table with a thud. “I define evil as the pointless debating of philosophical questions while one’s friends slowly starve,” he said.
Eliza laughed but she was troubled. “Lah, evil is just a word. The point is that the Cra murder babies and have to be stopped.” She paused and added, “Kyreth called them evil, too.”
Foss nodded sadly. “Let us go to the kitchens and see if we can find some food for the two of you.”
“Hooray Foss!” cheered Charlie. “You’ll find redemption for your twisted soul yet!”
~~~
Charlie left at dusk. Eliza went out to the grounds with him to say goodbye. A large raven swooped down and landed nearby. It was promptly joined by another.
“You’ll be back in time, nay?” Eliza asked him, glancing at the ravens. “Even a day or two late will throw everything off.”
“You can count on me, Cap’n.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“But it suits you! Dinnay worry, you’ll nay be stuck here.”
“Why dinnay you stay?” she suggested hopefully. “It might be fun, aye. Or relaxing. Like a vacation.”
“A vacation where everybody hates me except you and you’re too busy to spend any time with me. Tempting, but I think I’ll take off for a while.”
Eliza sighed. “Where are you going to go?”
“Just exploring a bit.”
Charlie never told her where he went when he wasn’t with her. She liked to imagine that one day she would be free enough to see more of the worlds with him but that day seemed far in the future. Another raven dropped from the sky and landed at her feet with a sharp squawk.
“I dinnay know how they get through the barriers,” said Eliza, looking at it uneasily. “Kyreth doesnay like it. They’re nay supposed to be here.”
“I think letting you in means letting them in,” commented Charlie, unfazed as three more ravens descended. “Lah, I’ll leave you with your friends. Take care of yourself, Eliza. Nice work with whatsisname, by the way.”
“I couldnay have done it without you. Be careful, Charlie!”
“Self-preservation is what I’m best at,” he said with a wink. His face changed all at once, feathers bursting from his head and neck, his body lengthening out into the golden, muscled body of a lion. Huge wings unfurled from his shoulders. No matter how many times she saw him change, it never ceased to amaze Eliza. She could feel the barriers around the Citadel making way for him. He surged into the air and away, leaving her in the grounds with the six ravens.
For months now they had been appearing around her in twos and threes and sometimes more. At first, she had eagerly assumed that her Guide was being made known to her. Every Sorceress had a Guide that took the form of an animal. In Tian Xia the Faithful had tattooed a raven on her left palm and a dagger pointing towards her on her right. She had tried to speak to the ravens in the Language of First Days but they showed no sign of understanding her and did not respond. Kyreth counseled her to be cautious. It was possible, after all, that they were spies or some new trick of the Xia Sorceress. The Mancers had done what they could to block Nia from contacting Eliza through dreams and visions as she used to do. The idea that the Sorceress might have found another way to watch her made Eliza feel a bit queasy.
They stood now, their feathers bright black, peering at her expectantly. She had no idea what they were expecting, though. She sat down in the grass and looked back at them, waiting, until the sky was entirely dark, pricked with stars.
“Eliza.”
A Mancer was approaching. She could not see his face but from his stride, smooth and confident, and the tenor of his voice, she recognized Obrad of the Emmisariae, manipulator of earth.
“Hello,” she said.
“We are all very glad you have returned,” he said.
“Aye, Kyreth couldnay stop gushing about how happy he was to see me,” said Eliza.
Obrad laughed, rather forcedly, she thought. “He is concerned for your safety, as are we all. And yet what you did was motivated by noble intentions.”
“Thank you.” Eliza was surprised that Obrad, of all the Mancers, should voice such an opinion. She had always felt awkward with him, more so than with the others, because he had been intended for her mother Rea, a great Sorceress before Nia took her power and all her memories. She imagined that he, even more than the others, must feel stingingly how much stronger her Magic would be if he had been her father. Of course, she wouldn’t have been Eliza at all in that case but some other girl, a powerful Sorceress raised with Magic from an early age. Perhaps that non-existent girl would not fight with Kyreth so much. No doubt they would all prefer that girl who didn’t exist. Maybe even Foss.
“I personally will take care of this matter with the man,” he continued. “I have already contacted Judge Adil in Kalla and informed him of the case.”
“Thank you,” said Eliza again. The ravens hopped closer to her, forming a tight little circle. Obrad noticed them but said nothing. She wondered if she was expected to say more, but she couldn’t think of anything.
“It is good to have you back,” said Obrad at last. “Eliza.”
“Thanks.” Eliza was beginning to feel like a broken record.
“Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
The odd conversation left her feeling she needed a bath, so she got up and headed back to the south wing. The ravens hopped aside so she could walk unobstructed and did not follow her, remaining a dark clump on the lawn, watching her disappear into the Citadel.
~~~
It was good to sleep in a bed again. She dreamed of flying, the world far beneath her, and Kyreth’s voice shouting at her the whole time from somewhere she couldn’t see. She woke, or thought she woke, in the middle of the dream to see a woman standing over her. She was dressed all in black, with cropped white hair and darting hazel eyes.
“Why are you so angry?” asked the woman.
Eliza sat up in the bed, reaching instinctively for the dagger under her pillow.
“Who are you?” she demanded, her voice still thick with sleep.
“My skin is full of wool and fleas or I would show you,” the woman said plaintively. “My eyes are full of broken glass and my tongue is caked with earth, I cannot see, I cannot tell. It’s difficult. This is not the finest room. My room is not fine at all. No, I should not say so, it is very fine, very fine indeed, I am like a queen there, queen of what realm? But I do not like stones and I do not like the air much at all, there is no rest, there is no rest.”
Eliza did not know what to make of this strange speech but the woman looked somehow familiar. She had seen her before but could not think where.
“Dinnay I know you?” she asked.
The woman laughed, and then looked startled by the sound she had made. “Did you hear that?” she asked Eliza, and her eyes rolled about wildly in her head. “It was so unexpected. When I am quiet I think I am in the garden and he is kind to me and we have nothing to fear. Silence, silence. I long for it, my ears are buzzing always, there is no rest. How will you get there without a Guide? Oh, you mustn’t get lost in the woods, child. It isn’t safe. All manner of beast will prey on such tender flesh.”
“I’m nobody’s prey,” said Eliza coldly. “It would be a foolish beast who’d take me for such.” But she let go of the dagger.
The Unmaking: The Last Days of Tian Di, Book Two Page 2
