Yes, that was it.
“She is a valikarion,” said Seb. “An Arvaltyr, Lord Kylon. That is why I am still here. I told you that when I was a child, I wanted to be a valikarion.” Kylon nodded. “Then, of course, I actually met one…and she was nothing like I expected. When I was a child, I thought the valikarion would have been warriors in shining armor, striding into necromancers’ lairs with burning swords in hand.”
“Instead, she’s a spy,” said Kylon.
“Yes,” said Seb. “A spy and a trickster and a liar. But she is still a valikarion. How else was Razdan killed? And if half the stories about the Balarigar are true, she was acting like a valikarion long before she became one. I think…”
He trailed off and laughed a little.
“Maybe I am not a fool,” said Seb, “but I cannot articulate myself very well.”
Kylon shrugged. “Seems like you’re looking for something you can believe in.”
“What I believe in,” said Seb, “is destroying the Umbarian Order.”
“And avenging your wife,” said Kylon.
Seb would have gotten angry, but he knew Kylon understood what losing a wife to murder felt like. “Yes.”
“That’s a good thing to believe in,” said Kylon. “But you can’t live that way forever. I couldn’t, and Caina couldn’t.”
“Which is why you got married, I assume,” said Seb.
Kylon smiled a little. “More or less. I think…”
He trailed off and looked at the door behind the stage. It opened a few seconds later, and Caina and Theodosia emerged. Seb had no interest in Nighmarian opera, but he suspected Theodosia’s costume would have been the height of that art. She had donned another golden dress, this one adorned with black scrollwork on the skirt and bodice, and a fur-trimmed white cloak hung from her shoulders. Jewels flashed on her throat and on her fingers and ears, and the makeup she wore somehow made her look fifteen years younger. Seb suddenly understood where Caina had learned her knack for disguise.
Caina herself wore far simpler clothes, an Ulkaari dress of blue with black sleeves, the collar buttoned to her throat. In her right hand, she held a blue mask that had been adorned with white feathers on either side. Her newly-blond hair had been bound back in a tight, severe tail that made her face look sharper than it already was. She looked like a serving maid. She did not look like a daughter of House Scorneus.
“What do you think?” said Caina to Kylon, and she grinned and did a little twirl.
Seb saw Kylon’s eyes flick down and linger on Caina’s backside for a moment before he met her eyes again. Well, Seb couldn’t blame him for that. Objectively speaking, Caina Kardamnos was an attractive, fit woman. Why shouldn’t Kylon take pleasure in his wife’s appearance? A long time ago, Talmania had told him that men married to satisfy the lusts of the flesh while women married to satisfy their lust for material security, though Seb had thought that cynical then and he still thought it cynical now.
A flicker of melancholy went through Seb. Sometimes when the black moods came over him, Katrina had known how to cheer him up. The sight of her unclad body, followed shortly after by the feel of it, had definitely taken the edge off his dark moods.
Then, of course, Talmania had murdered her, and the civil war had started, and there had been nothing but death and battle since.
“It suits you,” said Kylon.
“Does it?” said Caina, and she smiled. It was a genuine smile, one that made her eyes slightly less cold. “I’m glad. I don’t think blond hair suits me.”
“Whatever hair color you like best is the one that suits you,” said Kylon.
Theodosia laughed and winked at Seb. “The answer of a man who is married, eh?”
“The black does suit you better,” said Kylon.
“Well.” Caina grinned. “I don’t want to outshine Theodosia, do I?”
“Also a good answer,” said Theodosia.
“How much did that dress cost, out of curiosity?” said Seb.
“Now that is an uncouth question,” said Theodosia. She winked again. “Less than you might think, Lord Sebastian. Occasionally a thing that looks like the real thing is almost as good as the real thing.”
“Which is the entire point of this plan, I suppose,” said Seb.
Caina raised one eyebrow. She had even dyed those blond. “Second thoughts?”
“No,” said Seb, looking at Kylon. “We’re going to do this, and we’re going to win.”
“Good speech,” said Caina.
Seb smiled. “Yes, I spent all day rehearsing it. Now let’s…”
The door opened, and Ilona stepped behind Caina and Theodosia.
Seb blinked in surprise. She looked…
When he had met her, he had thought her attractive, but now she looked stunning. She was wearing a red dress that fit her well, and it dipped just low enough in the front to stay within the bounds of Ulkaari propriety. Her black hair had been done up in an elaborate crown, exposing her pale, slender neck, and makeup made her black eyes look larger and her mouth redder.
She looked beautiful. She looked so lovely that Seb’s brain froze up for a moment. A surge of guilt shattered his paralysis. Gods, he had just been thinking about his murdered wife, and now he was staring at a woman he had met a few days ago? He ought to be ashamed of himself. Still, he was only flesh and blood. Seb had thought he would die in the fighting against the Umbarian Order, but suppose he didn’t? Was he going to spend the rest of his life alone?
He wanted to tell Katrina that he was sorry, so sorry.
His eyes met Ilona’s, and he felt heat sing down his nerves. She looked away first, smiling a little as she looked down almost bashfully.
“Seb?” said Caina. She was amused, damn her.
“I thought the point was not to draw attention away from Theodosia,” said Seb. At least Talmania’s brutal teaching style had meant he was able to keep his poise under most circumstances.
“Really, Lord Sebastian?” said Ilona, still smiling. “You think I draw attention?”
“Considering the amount of effort that went into your preparations, madam,” said Seb, “I think you would be offended if you did not draw my attention.”
“A wise answer,” said Ilona. Her eyes sparkled. Seb was entirely sure that she enjoyed his attention. Or, at least, she was good at feigning that she enjoyed his attention. There was no easier way to deceive a man than by flattering him. And for women, the best way to deceive a man was to feign attraction to him. But why would Ilona bother? She was a Ghost nightkeeper. Why flirt with him at all?
He laughed at himself. He might wind up fighting for his life in a few hours, and he was thinking about women.
“I’m glad you think so,” said Seb. “Let me guess. You’re going to sing a duet with Mistress Theodosia, which is why both you and Theodosia have fine clothes. Caina is playing the role of your maid, and while you two sing, she’s going to sneak off and find what we need to discredit Libavya Jordizi.”
“And you got all that from looking at a pretty girl in a red dress. Very clever,” said Theodosia. She looked at Caina. “He really is your brother.”
“Maybe I’m clever,” said Seb, “but let’s hope no one else at the masquerade party is that clever.”
“Let’s find out, shall we?” said Caina.
Seb nodded and turned towards the doors, and Caina, Kylon, and Ilona followed Theodosia as she glided with stately majesty across the theater.
“Good luck tonight, Lord Sebastian,” said Ilona.
Seb inclined his head. “And you, madam.”
She lifted her red mask to her eyes with a flourish and smiled. “It is a masquerade ball, is it not? Perhaps we’ll have the chance to dance together.”
He blinked and felt an uncertain smile go over his face.
If she was only pretending to flirt with him, she was doing a very good job of it.
###
Theodosia had walked to the Voivode’s Castle, but Gregor had been s
o impressed with her performance that he sent one of his own carriages to pick her up. Well, that was only appropriate. Theodosia knew that she was a superb singer, and she had put everything into her performance before the Voivode. In all her life, there had only been two things she had ever really been good at – singing, and spying.
Well. Three things. But Theodosia was getting too old for the third thing. Perhaps once Talmania Scorneus was dead, and Niklos was avenged she could settle down with an elderly yet wealthy nobleman someplace.
Once Theodosia would have said she had been good at four things, but she couldn’t really claim to be a good mother after what had happened to Niklos.
The pain welled through her at the thought, and she looked at Caina and Ilona sitting on the other side of the carriage, wrapped in their cloaks against the chill. Really, she ought to have a word with Ilona about Sebastian Scorneus. The girl’s attraction to him was obvious. Theodosia had never known Ilona to display interest in anyone, save when she needed to persuade a man, so that was unexpected.
But Seb reminded her a great deal of Caina, or at least Caina as she had been when Theodosia had first met her – angry, sad, and full of pain. Best not to toy with the affections of a man like that.
Theodosia’s eyes turned to Caina, who sat looking out the window of the carriage, watching the darkened streets of Ulkaar pass by.
“I do hope Lord Kylon won’t be too cold, riding along outside,” said Theodosia.
“He won’t,” said Caina. “He wanted to watch for any reveniri. And he’s using a spell of water sorcery to keep the chill at bay.”
“How did you know…oh, yes, the vision of the Arvaltyri,” said Ilona. “What is that like? If you do not mind the question. I just have never met an Arvaltyr before.”
“I don’t,” said Caina. “It’s…well, it’s maddening, really. I can see sorcerous auras as if they’re made of light, but the light doesn’t illuminate anything. If I close my physical eyes, I can still see sorcerous auras. It took me a while to learn how to concentrate so it doesn’t overwhelm me. The first few weeks I had problems with dizziness. It helped when the valikarion in Iramis showed me some mental exercises for keeping it under control.”
“How did you become a valikarion, by the by?” said Theodosia. She had skimmed over that in her story.
“Very painfully,” said Caina. A shadow went over her face. “It…is not something I should talk about. It should have killed me. The only reason I survived was because Kylon took an insane gamble to save my life, and it worked.”
Ilona smiled. “Was that before or after he swept you off your feet?”
Caina blinked and then smiled back. “Right before, as it happens. And that is a question I’m not going to answer.”
“Mmm.” Ilona leaned back in the seat, turning her mask over in her fingers. “I wonder what it would be like to have someone you could trust that much. After all, he did prove that you could trust him, did he not? A man who would risk that much for you…you can trust him utterly.”
“Yes,” said Caina. “And I do.”
“Well,” said Theodosia, “we shall have to trust each other to do our parts tonight.” She looked out the window, and a flare of light caught her eye. “And it appears we shall have to start playing our parts right now.”
They had arrived at Lady Libavya Jordizi’s sanitarium.
For a sanitarium, it looked downright festive. The iron gates to the gardens had been thrown wide open, and the frozen gardens themselves had been illuminated by dozens of glowing glass spheres set upon iron stands. For an instant, Theodosia wondered if Libavya was using sunstones to provide light, but then she saw that the spheres were the glass globes enspelled by the Magisterium to give off illumination and then sold by the thousands across the Empire.
Already guests walked through the gardens and heading towards the double doors that led into the sanitarium. Theodosia spotted other carriages parked below the garden’s wall, the horses snorting and flicking their tails as they waited. All the windows on the sanitarium’s lower floors were illuminated, the glow spilling into the gardens. Given that the building had once been Lady Libavya’s ancestral home, it still looked the part of a noble’s mansion hosting a grand banquet.
All the windows on the upper floors were dark.
Theodosia wondered if the patients in the sanitarium were locked in their rooms.
Or if Libavya had killed them all and transformed them into reveniri.
The carriage came to a stop.
“Ready?” said Caina.
Theodosia smiled. “Darling girl, I was ready before either of you were born.”
Caina smiled. “Good to know.”
Then the door swung open, and Kylon looked inside. Theodosia had to admit that he was handsome in an austere sort of way. Like the sort of competent, reliable man you could trust in a crisis. Still, strong arms were more useful than a pretty face. He was wearing chain mail and a leather jerkin beneath a heavy cloak, and an Ulkaari saber hung at his belt since his glowing valikon with its corona of white mist would have been rather noticeable.
“We’re here,” said Kylon.
Caina got out first and then helped both Ilona and Theodosia out. She led the way to the gates, Ilona at her side, Kylon and Caina following her. Years of experience on the stage at the Grand Imperial Opera in Malarae kicked in, and Theodosia walked with a confident stride, arranging her face into a serene, aloof mask. A pity the air was so damned cold. She would need to make sure she talked for a little while first before she sang. Singing while breathing cold air was hell on the voice…
They walked through the gates, and Caina stopped.
“Oh,” she said in a quiet voice, looking around, blue eyes wide. Kylon went rigid, and his hand twitched towards his saber’s hilt before he stopped himself.
“What is it?” said Theodosia.
“I didn’t see it,” murmured Caina, looking around. “It had been too large to see at first, but when I was inside it…”
Ilona frowned. “I think something’s wrong.”
Caina looked at Theodosia. “There is a spell around the sanitarium and its grounds. Some kind of ward, I think. Very powerful, but very subtle.” Theodosia took a quick glance around, beckoned, and they moved away from the main flow of traffic coming through the gate. No one was nearby, but she suspected this was a conversation that ought not to be observed. “It was a masking spell, designed to hide the presence of other spells. Crailov…”
“Crailov?” said Kylon with a frown, staring at the mansion. Theodosia understood his alarm. Antonin Crailov had an extremely dark reputation. Even before Theodosia had left Ulkaar for Malarae for the first time years ago, there had been evil rumors around Crailov.
He hadn’t aged that much in the years since.
“He had a similar spell around his sword, one designed to hide its presence,” said Caina. “There is a powerful masking spell around the sanitarium and its grounds…and now that I’m inside, I can see what it was hiding.”
“What was it hiding?” said Theodosia.
“Necromantic force,” said Kylon. “I can sense it. A lot of it.”
Caina nodded. “It’s hanging over the entire mansion like smoke.” Her eyes flicked back and forth over the building. “It’s like the entire building is an iceberg.”
She and Kylon shared a look.
“Iceberg?” said Theodosia, wondering what icebergs had to do with anything. Ulkaar’s southern reaches bordered on the Inner Sea, and there were no icebergs on the Inner Sea.
“There’s more hidden here,” said Caina, “than is visible to the eye.”
“There’s also a weak spot nearby,” said Kylon.
“Weak spot?” said Theodosia.
“He can sense weak spots in the barrier between the mortal world and the netherworld,” said Caina. “Ulkaar is riddled with them. It’s in the cellar, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Kylon. “How did you know?”
“That
’s where the strongest concentration of necromantic force is,” said Caina. “Somewhere underground beneath the mansion. By the Divine, no wonder Lady Libavya had that masking spell around her mansion. Without it, I would have been able to see the necromantic aura from across Vagraastrad. Any sorcerer within the city who cast the spell to detect sorcerous forces would have sensed it at once.”
“Then Lady Libavya was much more powerful than we thought,” said Theodosia.
“Or she had help from the Temnoti priests,” said Ilona, her dark eyes flashing. She hated the Temnoti the way that Caina had once hated all sorcerers.
“Probably,” said Caina. “Either way, we should keep going.” She looked towards the mansion. “And there is someone with a powerful necromantic aura waiting near the doors.”
“I think that is Lady Libavya herself,” said Theodosia, “and the time has come to greet her. Too much longer and her servants will wonder what we are doing standing here.”
Caina nodded, and Theodosia led the way to the mansion’s doors. The double doors to the mansion stood open, and within Theodosia saw a great hall paved in shining marble, the walls covered with polished wooden paneling. Already dozens of guests in formal clothes stood in the hall, the rich and the powerful of Vagraastrad, though the Voivode himself had not yet arrived. All four hearths lining the hall’s walls were blazing, which would be pleasant once they got inside.
Lady Libavya Jordizi stood at the doors, greeting her guests as they entered, two liveried footmen hovering behind her.
She was a striking woman, about ten years Theodosia’s junior, with long black hair bound in an intricate crown and pale eyes the color of cold steel. She had a heart-shaped face with clear skin and wore a crimson gown that fit her well, a cloak of the same color hanging from her shoulders. The gown, Theodosia noted clinically, was cut low enough to display Lady Libavya’s bosom to good effect. There was a strange vigor to the woman, a peculiar vitality as if her flesh held more energy that it ought to have contained. It made her look almost feverish, and her gray eyes glittered as she considered Theodosia.
Ghost in the Glass Page 17
