Tonight, we would sleep together in the square, under a rotating guard.
Tomorrow, we would begin rebuilding.
Heart heavy at the losses, but resolute in the knowledge that we would build a new city from the ruins of the old, I ordered the Council Hall doors opened. A runner sent to Nan’s home came back with news that she was still alive, and had weathered the attack inside her home with the windows boarded. I cringed at the thought of her breathing all the smoke, especially with the cough, but I knew that Nan was strong. If the city had been filled with people like her, we would have won with determination alone.
Sagging back onto my stool, I thought of Da and Jaret. If the Outer Islanders were correct, they’d been taken from the Ulstat ship before the Waikert attacked. If not, they’d died with seawater in their lungs.
Tentatively, I extended my inner senses, feeling for their spirits in the aether.
Only silence echoed my call.
Chapter Thirty-Five
UNDER THE MIDDAY sun, the city smelled of baking blood. Working with buckets and scrub brushes and watched over by squads of fighters, gutterborn and traders worked together to wash away the stains. Rumors filtered through the crowds that the outlets of the sewers, grates set into bluffs overlooking the southern ocean beaches, ran red. On the former site of the itinerant camp—at the first Waikert warcry, those still encamped had quickly torn down their tents and fled for the inner city—Waikert bodies were piled and burned. The Kiriilti dead were carted and carried to the cemetery where graves waited, dug by those few adults who still had the strength after the night of fighting.
After about an hour’s nap mid-morning, I’d resumed standing atop the platform, ready to deliver answers or offer help where needed.
I’d just finished a lunch of hard biscuits and dried apples when Frask was dragged into the square.
Hands bound, eyes flashing, he marched between six of his former House guards. Seeing him captured, my heart leaped. After the initial assessments of our situation, Jet and Raav had discreetly offered to send out bands of searchers to seek Trader Ulstat and my family. Though not the prize I’d hoped for, Frask’s continued existence this side of death hinted that the others had not been aboard the sinking ships.
Frask sneered when they dragged him before me. “Lilik Boket. From commoner to commander. Astonishing what Istanikers will allow in order to save their pathetic lives.”
Raav, who’d been across the square helping the healers treat the injured, stiffened at the sound of his brother’s voice. Within a few heartbeats, he stood beside me, fist ready to smash his brother’s face.
“Wait,” I said. “I need information first.”
Though he seemed to seethe at the delay, Raav clenched his jaw and stepped back.
“I hope you understand that the city will demand your execution,” I said, staring Frask in the eye. “I’m inclined to plead for a quick death. Provided you help me.”
At that, Frask smiled, a twisting of the lips that looked anything but pleasant. “Isn’t that interesting. You think you’re the one with the power here.”
I made a point of looking around the square and shrugging. “Last I noticed, the army answers to me.”
“And if you care what happens to your family, you’ll ask these men to unhand me.”
My mother’s intake of breath gave her away. Refusing to look at her, I remained still. “I’m not convinced that’s in my interest.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “How good is your eyesight?”
“Good enough to see a rotten snake standing in front of me.”
“Look at the Promontory.”
Though I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, thoughts of my father and brother pulled my eyes to the ridgeline. Though difficult to tell from here, it looked as if a small group of people clustered on the Promontory. After a moment, motion confirmed it.
“I wonder,” Frask said. “Do you really think I was captured? I’m sure my former guardsmen here think they got the best of me, but you can ask my brother if he really believes I’d be so stupid as to wander through the trader district in full daylight.”
“Depends on whether there were whores or liquor involved,” Raav snarled.
Frask shrugged. “Your men thought I was attempting to break into our home. Collect a keepsake or two, maybe. The truth is, I had a hard time actually catching their attention.”
“Why don’t you get to the point, Frask,” I said.
“It’s simple. As you may have guessed, two of the people on the Promontory are your dear brother and father. The guardsmen are treating them well, for now. Though last I heard, your brother complained of a fear of heights. And I’m afraid the man holding him over the drop doesn’t have the strength to keep his grip indefinitely.”
For all I knew, Frask was bluffing about his capture. But he wasn’t lying about the group standing on the Promontory. Frask might be lying about who was up there, but then again, could I afford to ignore the chance to find Da and Jaret? Olev Ulstat might indeed be threatening to throw them over the brink.
“Trader Ulstat told me you were no longer useful. Why should I believe he sent you to deliver this so-called message?”
“Perhaps he reconsidered. You can’t deny the genius of my plan to bring you to him.”
Mother stepped closer to my side. “What does Trader Ulstat want?”
Shrugging free from the guards—as we’d spoken their grips had relaxed—Frask drew himself up. “It’s simple. Given the outcome of his previous meeting with Lilik, he wasn’t inclined toward further negotiations. However, he admits the Waikert attack put him in a difficult position. Enough that he’s willing to resume the conversation.”
“I will not make a deal with that man,” I said.
“Whether or not you come to terms is unimportant to me,” Frask said. “But if you want your family to survive, I suggest you come with me. Alone.”
Eyes narrowed, I considered. There had to be some way to outmaneuver both Frask and the Ulstat prime.
As if in answer, a distant shout caught my attention. Long and low, rising to an incoherent shriek, the yell was followed by a series of thumps. Squinting, I spotted the falling body. Dislodged by the impacts, rocks clattered down. Every thud of the body felt like my own bones were breaking.
“Da,” I whispered.
Frask laughed, a disgusting sound. “No. Just a demonstration.”
Furious, I nodded at the guards. All six stepped back. I glanced at my mother, who laid a protective arm around Katal’s shoulders. Her eyes told me all I needed to know. If something happened to me, she’d look after the orphan boy. She’d abandoned children once. It wouldn’t happen again.
“Forgive me if I don’t feel like freeing your wrists,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Don’t let him walk behind you, Tyrak said as we stepped onto the narrow path that gained the ridge.
“Don’t worry,” I said aloud. “I have no intent of taking my eyes off him.”
Upon hearing me speak, apparently to no one, Frask stiffened. Good. I wanted him nervous.
“So, Frask, what are you expecting after this? The Ulstats are finished. After we rebuild here, I have no doubt that Istanikers will set their sights on Araok. The Trader Council is disbanded as a governing entity. Raav is prime trader for your former House. Oh . . . did you know your mother was killed? It’s your fault, of course.”
As I mentioned Praviili, my thoughts turned to Raav. Maybe the loss of his mother explained his coldness. Regardless of the relationship he had with her, he had to be hurting. Terribly. Maybe the indifference he wore wasn’t directed at me, but rather a mask he put on in order to face the world.
Either way, I owed him the chance to explain. After everything we’d been through, he deserved that much.
At the next switchback, Frask and I briefly faced one another. He smiled falsely, and I glared. Though Raav and his brother had similar features, on Raav they were beautiful. Frask’s face was noth
ing but cruel. I stifled the impulse to spit on him.
As we gained the ridgetop, I hesitated, thinking I’d heard something below. A glance down showed nothing of interest. Rocky outcrops hid much of the trail from sight, and I wondered briefly whether someone was following. Not wanting to give them away by paying too much attention, I quickly turned my eyes to the trail ahead.
“Lead on,” I said, my voice flat.
“Whatever you say, Councilor.”
As we approached the flattened area of the Promontory, I opened my mind. Where before, the voices of our ancestors had been an incoherent babble, now I heard organized discussion. Musings about the future.
Dreven? I asked.
Yes?
Do you remember lifting me? Giving me strength?
Lilik, Tyrak cut in. I wasn’t entirely honest with you.
What? My toe caught on a rock embedded in the packed earth of the trail, and I stumbled.
I told you it was just the strands because I thought it would be easier for you to visualize. But it’s more complicated.
What then?
The strands provide power, but the ability to join them together comes from you. When you open yourself fully, your own spirit expands beyond your body. Because of the magic the aurora worked on your scars, you can tap into the fire—the compressed vitality—that fills your living form and use it to channel the energy present in the aether. With practice, you can learn to wield that force with precision. As long as there are nightstrands nearby to tap into, you can be unstoppable. And the strands can affect the physical world in a way they’ve hungered for since death.
Stopping, I pressed my fingers to my temples. First channeling to communicate, and now this?
But I’m not a life-channeler.
No. Paono also reaches out of himself, but only to speak with others. He has no capacity for channeling the power in the aether for physical tasks.
So basically, I can become ten times stronger by squeezing my spirit out through my scars?
Yes, but you felt the consequences. Too much, and you tatter. It takes time to recover.
“Are you coming?” Frask asked. He’d drawn ahead by around ten paces, and now faced me with an annoyed expression on his face.
“When I’m ready,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Can I do it now? After yesterday?
I don’t know, Lilik. Push too hard, and you might expand too far for your heart to anchor your spirit. But I don’t think you need to be any more than ordinary Lilik to win this.
Right. Just ordinary Lilik against Olev Ulstat and however many men he had guarding him. At least Frask’s hands were still bound. However pathetic, it was an advantage.
Yawning as if bored by the situation, I resumed marching. With a twitch of his lip, Frask turned and continued on.
Whatever other untruths Frask had offered in his life, he hadn’t been lying about my family. Though not dangling over the drop, my brother might as well have been. A guard who probably weighed as much as a horse had Jaret by the shoulders, holding him in an iron grip just a pace from the drop. One shove, and my brother would be gone. Da’s situation was better, but not by much. With a guard on either side and a rope binding his ankles, he would be helpless if Olev Ulstat gave the order to send him to his death.
Sauntering onto the platform, I shoved my hands into my pockets to keep them from trembling. Frask, having delivered me as promised, took a seat on a flat boulder where the trail opened onto the Promontory.
“Welcome back, Councilor Boket,” said Trader Ulstat, his tone somehow both a mockery and pitch-perfect in its courtesy.
“Let’s just skip to the part where you tell me what you want,” I said, narrowly avoiding another glance at my brother.
“Well, first of all, I could use some help getting off this island. As you can see—” He swept his arm out toward the harbor and sea. “—my fleet is rather diminished.”
I’d thought that all the Ulstat ships had been sunk, but from this vantage, I spotted a single, small trading vessel tucked into a harbor on the northern coast. If I were to guess, it was the same anchorage Captain Altak had hidden Zyri’s Promise in when the Ulstats first attacked.
“Looks to me like you have a boat,” I said.
“Indeed. And a dear friend of yours is aboard. Mistress Nyralit, I believe you call her? She’ll be glad to see you.”
“Whatever you might believe, I’m not going with you.”
At my words, Trader Ulstat’s smile melted. He snapped his fingers. The guard holding Jaret shoved my brother to within half a step of the drop. Jaret screamed, his voice cracking.
Though my heart sledged against my ribs, I stood motionless.
“You won’t give away your leverage so easily,” I said.
At that, Trader Ulstat laughed. “Clever, aren’t you. No, I’ll be needing at least one of these two in the months to come. How else will I keep your stubbornness leashed.”
I knew he wanted me to ask what he intended. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“So we’re at an impasse.”
Trader Ulstat snorted. Only the slightest flick of his eyes gave him away. Gravel crunched behind me, and I spun.
Too late.
Hands clamped my arms, and a filthy rag wrapped my face, shoving between my lips. As the Ulstat guards lifted me from the ground, I kicked and squirmed and opened myself wide to the aether. My scars burned. Faded.
Why can’t I expand, Tyrak?
Silence followed my words.
Tyrak?
My eyes shot to the empty sheath on my belt.
“Looking for this?” Olev Ulstat asked, accepting my dagger from one of the guards. The man must have slipped it free while I struggled. But why couldn’t I open myself? Was I too tired? Too tattered?
A loud yell came from the trail along with sound of running feet. Without releasing their grip on me, the Ulstat guards turned to face the new threat.
As soon as we made eye contact, I knew I’d been wrong. Raav still cared for me. It was obvious in his burning eyes, the intense rage on his face. Rushing forward, he slammed his brother, knocking Frask backward.
Hands bound, Frask yelped. He toppled, feet kicking, and rolled off the boulder. For an instant, he teetered on the narrow ledge above the drop, but momentum sent him over. He screamed halfway down to the city, before a particularly sharp outcrop silenced him forever.
For a moment, Raav stood frozen, his face shocked.
“Ah!” Trader Ulstat said. “This just gets better and better. Grab him if you don’t mind.”
Though he dropped into a fighting crouch, Raav didn’t stand a chance against the four men who advanced on him. Within minutes, he was bound hand and foot, with only a new set of cuts and bruises to show for his effort.
Trader Ulstat ordered us lined up atop the platform. Lip curled in a sneer, he surveyed us as if he were examining samples of ore from his mines.
“I had hoped to acquire your assistance in reaching my ship,” he said, “but it won’t be so difficult. The dinghy that brought me ashore will get us there, just in less comfort than we might hope.”
He paced back and forth as he spoke. When the man met my eye, I tried to shout, but the gag swallowed my words.
“In case you’re hoping for rescue, I should let you know that I’m not an idiot. When I sent for my schooner, I specifically requested a cadre of men and women who could blend well with your Istaniker gutterborn. I’m sure those who aren’t perched in ambush over the approaches to our current location are well entrenched in your little army, Councilor Boket. Congratulations on being the first commander to soundly defeat the Waikert, by the way. Unfortunately, soon enough, my agents will begin the process of undermining your city’s rebirth. Not that you’ll be there to see it, of course.”
Though I just glared at him, he pretended to interpret it as a question.
“Oh? Yes, I’ll tell you our destination. Ioene, of course. We’ll join with the remainder of
my forces on Araok and continue shortly after.”
At that, he showed his teeth and turned for the trail. Shoved by the guards and captive along with almost everyone who mattered to me, I had no choice but to follow.
Ioene.
As I walked, I began laying plans to turn this to my advantage.
Some might have considered the situation a failure, but I’d saved the city and destroyed the defense bargain. And as for the Ulstats, I wasn’t beaten yet. Starting with just a handful of desperate gutterborn, I’d managed to build an army strong enough to succeed where the Trader Council had failed for more than a century. Surely I could handle one last trader House, especially one so recently defeated. And to look at it a different way, hadn’t I been fighting this whole time for ships and soldiers I could take to Ioene? Trader Ulstat had just said we were headed for the island. Sure, I’d need to steal the ships—and my dagger—out from under him. Probably turn his most loyal House guards against him. But I’d faced bigger challenges.
As I tramped down the trail, I keep my head high. When Trader Ulstat caught my eye, I grinned. He blinked, confused.
I shrugged. He’d understand soon enough.
Winning was just a matter of perspective.
DUSKWOVEN
Book Three
Shattering of the Nocturnai
Carrie Summers
Chapter One
TOSSED BY THE violent rocking of the hull, the lantern threw wild shadows over the damp wall of my cell. It was night; though the Ulstat schooner was seaworthy, gaps between the upper planks of the wall allowed moonlight past. Frothing waves sprayed seawater through the same cracks. In the first few hours of our journey, I’d tried to scoot away to stay dry. It had done no good. My leg iron kept me shackled too close to the wall to escape the splashing. Trying only caused the cuff to chafe.
A sudden, savage wave sent me lurching across the cabin. My chain snapped tight, the cuff trenching into the skin of my ankle, cutting flesh and bruising bone. The groan of the hull covered my shriek as I tried desperately to worm back toward the wall before the next wave smacked us. Huddled in a ball, my hand around the iron cuff as if I could keep it from hurting me again, I whimpered and waited, sprayed every few seconds by seawater.
Shattering of the Nocturnai Box Set Page 50
