There was nothing in the book about Eliza. She tried to imagine what might be written about her one day, another young Sorceress far in the future perhaps reading about the Sorceress Eliza. She couldn’t think it would be terribly flattering. The first Sorceress without a Guide. Fathered by a mere human. Tricked by Nia into giving her a powerful book. Would she be given credit at least for finding out Abimbola Broom, for combating the Cra? What would be her final battle?
~~~
Eliza was looking through the table at her first lesson with Foss more than two years ago. It wavered unsteadily before her eyes. She could not hear anything but a rush of wind or wings. Foss looked distorted in the image, his eyes shooting out beams of startling light, and she herself looked terribly young and on the verge of laughter. There was a sound behind her and then her grandmother was looking at her through the table.
“No pity, then?” she said sadly, and her face fell away, a chasm rushing up to meet Eliza. She raised her head from the table, gripping its edges to steady herself.
“Pardon my interruption,” said Aysu, standing next to Foss across the table from Eliza. Aysu was considered the strongest of the five Emmisariae. Like Foss, she was a manipulator of water. Winter was her Ascendency and so her power was now at its height. During this season, she was second only to Kyreth. Eliza was surprised to see that she looked weary, her face drawn and her eyes somewhat dimmer than usual.
“I would like to show you something,” she said to Eliza.
Foss and Eliza exchanged a look and followed Aysu out of the Library. She led them in silence down to the ground floor of the north wing, and then further down the winding stone steps that led into the dungeons.
Eliza smelled them before she saw them – the putrid scent of damp feathers and oily skin that she had come to know so well. It made her skin crawl. She did not need to conjure a light, for the brilliance of the Mancers’ eyes lit up the dungeons. The small stone cells were full of the Cra, crouched and hissing and spitting, their wings straining against the invisible barriers that held them, their sharp-clawed fingers pressed up against unseen walls. There were hundreds of them. Eliza knew she should be elated. Instead, her mind was flooded with memories of all those mornings she had crouched by rivers and streams, washing their sticky black blood from her dagger and hands, gagging and weeping with disgust.
“Kyreth will not see you this afternoon,” said Aysu once they had passed right through the dungeons and re-emerged on the ground floor, where the manipulators of water had their chambers. “There is much to do.”
“We will continue our lesson, then,” said Foss. “Perhaps outside. We could use some fresh air.”
Aysu left them and Foss and Eliza walked out into the chill winter air, breathing in deeply to rid their nostrils of the stench of the Cra.
“You have persuaded Kyreth to do a good thing,” said Foss carefully, after allowing several minutes of silence to pass. “But do not think it was indifference that kept him from doing it before. The Emmisariae are powerful and we have been forced to do without them these past many days as they rounded up the Cra. Given the necessity of maintaining the barriers in the Arctic, it was a calculated risk to let them go. Kyreth had been divided on the matter for some time and at last concluded it was necessary for your sake, to keep you from placing yourself in harm’s way and taking justice into your own, may I say, inexperienced hands. That is a dangerous thing to do, Eliza Tok.”
“I know,” said Eliza. She wanted to tell Foss how much she had hated hunting them, how relieved she was to have it finished, but somehow the words wouldn’t come. “I’ve been reading a lot,” she said instead. “About the Sorceresses before me.”
“Yes, you mentioned. The Chronicles.” Foss seemed relieved to have a change of subject. “For some years now I have been working on a Commentary on chapter six of the final volume. You must understand, Eliza, that the earlier texts were written long after the fact and are therefore not entirely reliable. They are myths, essentially, legends passed down for thousands of years. Did Zara ever exist? We believe so but Simathien himself mentions her only once in his Book of the Ancients. Some believe she is a composite of more than one Sorceress. Morhanna is called her twin sister, but how can this be, when each Sorceress bears only one daughter? Were they the first Sorceresses? Have there been two lines of Sorceresses from the beginning, as the Book of Origins suggests, or did one line separate into two at some point? The Chronicles raise as many questions as they answer, in my opinion, but provide fascinating reading all the same. Yours is a complicated heritage, Eliza Tok, and one to be proud of!”
He looked ready to continue for some time and so Eliza had to interject her question quickly, a skill she had perfected by now, “What about these Gehemmis that get mentioned? Sorceresses going to Tian Xia to get them?”
“An example, Eliza Tok, of the unreliability of the Chronicles. The Gehemmis, supposedly, are gifts of the Ancients guarded by the Four Immortal Powers of Tian Xia. They are said to be endowed with the essence of Old Magic, possessing untold power. But do they exist, in fact? In the records of the Mancers you will find that sending a Sorceress on a quest for a Gehemmis has always been terribly controversial, quite simply because many Mancers do not believe in the Gehemmis.” He gave Eliza a sharp look suddenly. “Have you spoken to Kyreth about this?”
“Nay about the Gehemmis, exactly,” she said. “But he told me my gran died of a Faery Curse, aye, and it says in the Chronicles that she was trying to get one of the Gehemmis from the Faeries.”
“Yes,” said Foss, relieved. “And one Sorceress is said to have succeeded and obtained a Gehemmis from the Horogarth four thousand years ago.”
“I read about that. Her name was Lahja,” said Eliza.
“And yet, where is this Gehemmis? If she obtained it, why do we not have it here in the Citadel? And is it possible that a mere Sorceress, pardon me Eliza, could truly face the Horogarth, one of the children of the Ancients, and take something from him? I am skeptical, Eliza Tok, I am very skeptical.”
“Lah, then so am I,” said Eliza, smiling up at him. At that moment, a large raven flew straight at them, screaming, its beak wide. They both ducked, covering their faces, and then it was gone.
“I dinnay think they’re friendly,” said Eliza, her voice shaking, looking around her for the vanished raven.
“It is too soon to say,” replied Foss with a frown. “Let us return to the Library.”
~~~
Early the following morning Kyreth summoned Eliza to his study.
“The Shade approaches,” he said dryly. “Have you made plans?”
Eliza’s heart leaped but she kept her voice steady and answered as politely as she could. “When I asked you in the summer, you gave me permission to spend Winter Festival with my parents and the Sorma. Like last year, aye.”
“I remember,” said Kyreth. “But Winter Festival is still two weeks away.”
“I know. But I’ve nay seen my parents in months and the journey is tiring,” she said.
“The Festival lasts six days, does it not?”
“Yes.”
“That is a long absence, Eliza. And you have only recently returned to us.”
“When I come back, I promise to stay and study without interruption until the summer,” she said.
“I will hold you to that, Eliza. Remember that you are under our protection and need only to call us if you need us.” He indicated the crystal that hung around her neck. Eliza touched her hand to it and nodded.
It was their little ritual. He couldn’t stop her, really. She would not be kept against her will. As long as she was free to come and go, she studied hard. But for the sake of politeness she pretended to ask permission and he pretended to give it. Before leaving the room, she made herself look into his terrible, blazing eyes.
“Thank you for bringing in the Cra,” she said.
Kyreth made a sign in the air and the door swung open behind her.
~~~
The gryphon circled upwards, leaving the Citadel far below, then veered northeast, towards Kalla. Eliza felt lighter by the second. She flattened her body against the gryphon’s back to keep warm. She loved the sense of absolute freedom she got when flying with Charlie and it was only heightened by the fact that nobody knew where they were going. She had not been entirely lying to Kyreth when she said she was going to spend time with her parents. She would indeed go to see them in the desert. Just not immediately.
They took a winding route through the sky, avoiding cities and highly populated areas, flying low over the rich farmland of the interior provinces and stopping frequently to build fires and warm themselves, for the air was bitterly cold. In spite of the gryphon’s speed, it took them a full day to reach the capital. They spent the night in an abandoned barn they had used for shelter before, an hour outside of Kalla. This far north the ground was thickly covered with snow, and even with the blankets they had stored in the barn they had to keep the fire going all night, which meant sleeping in shifts. This didn’t always go as planned. Eliza woke just before dawn, stiff and shivering, the fire dead beside her. Charlie had nodded off.
“Wake up,” she said crossly, nudging him and giving him an angry look. He sat up and looked from her to the dead fire a couple of times.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “Should’ve been a polar bear, aye.”
Shivering uncontrollably, she found the duffel bag they kept hidden in the barn. She pulled out a girl’s school uniform and ducked behind a broken-down tractor to put it on – a navy flared skirt and jacket and a striped silk tie over a crisp white blouse.
“Come on,” she said. “We dinnay want to miss breakfast. Lah, but I’m frozen!”
“Sorry,” Charlie mumbled again. He stumbled out of the barn and morphed into a gryphon, more slowly than usual. Awkward and terribly cold in her skirt, Eliza clambered onto his back and he took off. It was important to reach the school while it was still dark. A girl on a gryphon would hardly go unnoticed in Kalla.
~~~
Ariston Hebe Secondary School, the most prestigious school in the Republic, was a large ivy-walled compound with rolling grounds. They landed in the snowy arboretum and Charlie turned into a boy wearing a navy school uniform. They waited there, shivering, until 6:30. When the breakfast bell rang, they ran for a supply closet window they had jimmied open months earlier, crawled in, and cautiously opened the door. The hall was full of students still putting on their jackets and doing up their ties as they hurried to the Dining Hall. Charlie and Eliza were able to slip into the mob unnoticed. The Dining Hall was a very grand room with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and paintings of famous alumni on the walls. They scanned the crowd hopefully, slowly warming up, until somebody crashed into Eliza with a squeal, crushing her in an embrace. Eliza stumbled and laughed and hugged her best friend back.
While Eliza loved Holburg, it had always been too small for Nell, and she had found her way off the island as soon as possible by winning the only scholarship to Ariston Hebe offered to a student from the archipelago. Eliza had worried at first that her friend would not fit in but Nell took to citified sophistication like a fish to water. She remained top in all her classes, excelled in sports, and had a following of hangers-on as ardent as those she’d left behind in Holburg. Life in the elegant old school, with more students than the entire population of the island she’d grown up on, was a dream come true for Nell, and all of Kalla was just outside the gates. A closed gate and a mere wall were no great impediment for a girl like Nell.
The three friends filled their breakfast trays with eggs and sausages and toast and joined Nell’s class at one of the long mahogany tables. Nell’s school friends were wildly curious about Eliza and Charlie, who turned up on occasion and gave the impression of not having school or parents or homes or anything normal themselves. Only Nell would be so audacious as to steal uniforms for outsiders and then have them in for breakfast. When they asked Nell who these mysterious friends were, giggling about Charlie, who always caused quite a sensation, she said coyly that they lived outside the city but liked to drop by. She could have made up a convincing story about them but it was so much more fun being secretive. Eliza sat next to Nell and Charlie slid into a space across from them, delighting the girls on either side of him.
“Have you heard about Abimbola Broom?” Nell asked meaningfully as they sat down. Her shiny chestnut brown hair was cut in a stylish bob that framed her face perfectly and her violet eyes were sparkling. “His daughter used to go here, aye. Isabella Broom.”
“Basically an imbecile,” one of Nell’s group chimed in, eager to contribute.
“She was pulled out before the trial began,” said Nell. “Nobody knows where she’s gone.”
“Poor girl,” said Eliza.
Nell shrugged. “If he’s so awful, lah, she’s better off without him. Listen, you’re both coming to Holburg for Winter Festival, nay? You have to!”
“I’m going to try my very very best,” said Eliza. Nell pulled a face. Eliza’s very very best was not what she wanted to hear.
“We’ll be there,” said Charlie firmly. Eliza gave him a look. He shrugged and said, “I’ll be there, anyway.”
“It depends on my parents, lah,” said Eliza. “I dinnay know if I can convince them.”
At this, all of Nell’s group looked very curious and waited for more. But there was no more.
“What about your family?” one of Nell’s friends asked Charlie flirtatiously.
“Oh, them,” said Charlie vaguely, and left it at that.
“How have you been getting on at school?” Nell asked Eliza. Their breakfast conversations were always coded in this way.
“Lots of new stuff,” said Eliza. “But Kyreth and I are still arguing a lot.”
“He’s the principal at her school,” Nell tossed off by way of explanation to the others.
“You argue with the principal?” one of the girls asked, perplexed.
“All the time,” said Eliza. “But the librarian is a prize. Lah, but you know what’s strange? I ran into...the agriculture teacher a couple of times, and he was being sort of...friendly, aye.”
By this she meant Obrad, the manipulator of earth. Nell picked up on it immediately.
“Oh-oh,” she said, making a little O with her mouth. “That cannay be good!”
“What do you mean?”
Nell shot Charlie a pointed look. He sighed resignedly and struck up a separate conversation with the girls around them so that Eliza and Nell could talk more freely.
“What do you mean?” hissed Eliza again.
“I mean that he missed his chance with your ma when she snuck off and married your da,” Nell whispered. “But praps he thinks he can still marry a Sorceress. As in, you!”
This had never occurred to Eliza and she was left quite speechless with horror. Charlie heard it even though he was carrying on another conversation, and exploded, “WHAT?”
This caused a number of the students at the tables around theirs, as well as a few breakfast monitors, to look over at them. “What?” he hissed, more quietly.
“That’s how it works, nay?” said Nell. “You are supposed to marry one of them, lah!”
She glared at Charlie, who went back to his conversation with the startled group of girls. “Anyway, the royal family of Boqua doesnay want anybody to know that their son was born with six fingers on each hand because they’re very superstitious about that kind of thing down there...”
“It’s a great honour for the Mancer in question, nay?” Nell whispered into Eliza’s ear, around a mouthful of buttery toast. “You said Obrad wasnay happy about being passed over before. Do they let you have any say in it, lah? Are there any young and handsome Mancers or are they all hundreds of years old and scary looking?”
Eliza had gone quite white. “I feel sick,” she said, pushing her breakfast tray aside. Having finished her own breakfast, Nell piled Eliza’s plate on top of her own
and began on what was left of Eliza’s.
“You should rebel, aye,” said Nell. “Your ma had the right idea.”
“I agree,” said Charlie, interrupting his own story again.
“Lah, and speaking of young and handsome, there’s Julian.” Nell waved over a blond boy with his tie still undone. “He’s my boyfriend, aye. I’ll introduce you.”
“WHAT?” Charlie exploded again.
“Stop it. Everybody’s looking at you. He’s in the year above me. Top in Math in the school, aye, and the fastest swimmer in his year. A coup, nay?”
“Is that...allowed?” asked Eliza, quite unprepared for this. Julian sat down with them, smiling in a friendly, half-awake sort of way. Eliza and Charlie eyed him suspiciously. After that, of course, they had to talk to Julian about the swim team and his plans for Winter Festival.
Nell had classes after breakfast and so Charlie and Eliza rested in her room. When the cleaner came by they hid in the large oak wardrobe, Nell’s dresses hanging down around them, trying not to breathe too loudly. As soon as they heard the door click shut as the cleaner departed, Charlie said, “What did you think of Julian?”
“He seems...nice,” said Eliza uncertainly.
“She’s never mentioned him before, lah.”
The Unmaking: The Last Days of Tian Di, Book Two Page 4
