“I think,” he said again, forcing himself to press on. “I think that, sooner or later, Sebastian would have tried to kill you. If Bendarian hadn’t been there, he would have tried something else.”

  “Perhaps.”

  Tommy stood up with a huff, shaking his head as he paced through the grass. “Oh, there ain’t no perhaps about it,” he said. “He hated you, Desa. I never knew he had such malice in his heart.”

  “He showed no sign of it before you left your village?”

  Tommy propped one foot up on the bench across from Desa, folding his arms and staring off into the distance. “He was angry sometimes,” he said. “But who wouldn’t be in his place? The world told him he was vile just because he was different.”

  A glance over his shoulder made him pause.

  Desa was sitting with hands folded, and through the light was dim, he could see the tears on her cheeks. “Just the same,” she muttered. “I’m sorry it ended the way it did.”

  “That means a lot, ma’am.”

  With a sigh, Desa stood up and nodded once. “Shall we go?” she asked. “It’s getting late.”

  “Don’t suppose you could spare enough for me to take a room at the hotel?” Tommy asked. “I reckon Miri doesn’t want to see me right now. And I’m not exactly flush with Aladri cash.”

  “Come on then,” Desa said. “Let’s find you a place to sleep.”

  9

  Gray clouds had settled into the skies above Aladar, threatening to loose a torrent of rain. Threatening but never making good on that promise. The air was still muggy and hot. Uncomfortably so, in Desa’s estimation. Now, when had that happened? She had never minded the heat in her youth. Years of living in Northern Eradia with its forests of pine trees had changed her.

  She walked with Tommy down a narrow street lined with white-bricked townhouses with dark shingles on their roofs. There was no one in sight, no people on the street, no cars driving past.

  Tommy walked with his hands in the pockets of his duster, his mouth compressed into a frown. “You think…” He glanced over his shoulder with worry plain on his face. “You think she’ll forgive me?”

  “I wish I knew.”

  “But-”

  Tossing her head back, Desa rolled her eyes. “Tommy, if you want to know about the Ether, I can answer your questions.” How she wished he would focus on that instead. Why did love turn people into idiots? “But in matters of the heart, I’m somewhat out of my depth.”

  Tommy shrugged. “Well, that about says it all, don’t it?” He pulled the brim of his hat down over his eyes.

  The walk to Miri’s house took another five minutes. As one of the Ka’adri, she had a nice home with a small garden near her front door. There were roses in bloom. Someone else must have planted them. Miri would have been in Glad Meadows when the time was right for it.

  As if the simple act of thinking of the woman summoned her, Miri emerged from the house in a long, dark coat. She looked up and sneered when she saw Tommy. “I have to report to my superiors. I don’t have time to talk.”

  “You may as well hear him out,” Desa urged.

  Miri glared at her.

  Perhaps involving herself in this lovers’ quarrel was a bad idea. Best to keep quiet and avoid the hassle. She had enough problems already. Tommy opened his mouth to say something, but Miri silenced with one look. Ten seconds later, she was gone, stalking off down the street without another word.

  Tommy yanked his hat off, threw it down on the sidewalk and then flattened it beneath his shoe. “Almighty have mercy!”

  Desa stepped up beside him, shaking her head in dismay. “Maybe we should go to the library,” she suggested. “Maybe we’ll learn something useful.”

  “I’m not sure I want to go to the library,” Tommy muttered. “Dalen…”

  “Are you going to avoid him?”

  Blushing hard, Tommy closed his eyes, and a tear slid over his cheek. “I don’t know,” he growled. “I just…”

  Desa put a hand on his forearm, and some of the tension drained out of him. “Then let me buy you some breakfast.” A thought occurred to her, one that seemed to rush to the tip of her tongue. Her rational mind warned her that this was a bad idea, but she pushed on anyway. “You can tell me what happened with Miri, and maybe I can give you some advice.”

  Wiping the tear away, Tommy sniffled. “You sure you want to do that?” he asked. “I thought you said that it wasn’t a subject you knew very much about.”

  “I’m sure.”

  They walked in silence for a while, making their way back to the city centre. Those dark clouds loomed overhead, but a gentle breeze took some of the heat away. Mercy be praised for that.

  This neighbourhood reminded Desa of the one she had grown up in. Before fleeing the city, she had lived with her mother in a house very similar to the one that Miri now occupied. They had wanted for nothing in those days. People started talking about Desa’s remarkable talent for Field Binding when she was only ten years old. She had been a child prodigy, her every need provided for.

  That must have changed after she left.

  The Academy would not continue to pay Leean’s monthly stipend when her daughter was no longer an asset to the city. What would life have been like after that? She felt sick to her stomach at the thought of the hardships that she had inflicted on her mother. “It wasn’t supposed to go this way.”

  “Mrs. Kincaid?”

  Desa stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk, her head hanging with the weight of her shame. “I was supposed to be gone for a few months,” she mumbled. “Not for ten long years.”

  Tommy removed his damaged hat, and the wind ruffled his hair. “You know, I always wondered about that,” he said. “You told me that you lost Bendarian’s trail more than once. So, why didn’t you go home after that?”

  “I couldn’t let him run loose.”

  Tommy looked at her, really looked at her, and there was something in his eyes. Something that made it clear he was putting the pieces together. Icy fingers squeezed Desa’s heart. What would happen when he figured it out? He had only just forgiven her for Sebastian. Could their friendship endure another blow? “Not to argue with you, Desa,” he began. “But there are lots of criminals out there, and if this Azra lady is any indication, some of them can Field Bind. What made Bendarian so special?”

  “He was my responsibility.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it was my fault!” she blurted out. “I’m the one who taught him how to commune with the Ether. Morley, Adele, the long line of corpses Bendarian left in his wake: none of it would have happened if not for me.”

  Tommy’s eyebrows shot up, and then, of all things, he barked a laugh. “Well,” he murmured. “Now, there’s a story if ever I’ve heard one.”

  Desa leaned against a lamppost, closing her eyes and shuddering. “Radharal Bendarian came to us from the mainland,” she said. “He was a young man then, not much older than you are now.”

  Tommy nodded.

  “He claimed that his family died from the Strangler.” Of all the ways to go, that was one of the worst. Desa had seen the effects of the infection first hand. Those who contracted it died gasping as their lungs filled with fluid. Based on her guess, it was bacterial, but she was no physician. And she had been five hundred miles away from Aladar at the time; there was no chance of procuring antibiotics. “He said that he had heard about the wonders of Aladri medicine. How we could cure even the most virulent infections. He wanted to know the secret. The Synod refused, of course, ‘Our secrets are not for the mainlanders.’”

  Tommy looked crestfallen as he stared down at his own shoes. “Nice to know your leaders hold us in such high regard.”

  “It’s not entirely their fault,” Desa explained. “Expeditions from the mainland have tried to take Aladar from us before. We kept them at bay with Field Binding. It was the only thing that allowed us to retain independence. So, you can see why the Synod would be reluctant to share any of our secrets.”

  “I can,” Tommy agreed. “Still don’t make it right.”

  Shutting her eyes tight, Desa stiffened. “Bendarian became obsessed with Field Binding,” she said, starting up the sidewalk again. “I was only fifteen then. I took pity on him. The Synod forbade me from teaching him anything.”

  “But you did it anyway.”

  Rounding on him, Desa looked up at the young man. “Field Binding belongs to everyone!” she growled. “We have no right to hoard such knowledge!”

  Tommy backed away from her with his hands raised defensively, his eyes wide with fright. Perhaps she had been a little too…emphatic. “I agree with you,” he said. “I just wanted to get the facts straight.”

  “I’m sorry,” Desa muttered.

  “Don’t be.”

  “When the Academy realized that Bendarian could find the Ether, they petitioned the Synod to let him stay on the island. I suspect they didn’t want to let him out of their sight. He was with us for several years; I became convinced that he was proof that the mainlanders were ready to learn our secrets.

  “But then people started dying. At first, the police had no idea who to blame. People would just disappear without a trace. Several weeks later, someone would find a corpse. Always in a different place. Bendarian believed that he could Infuse people with a direct connection to the Ether.”

  “I thought that was impossible,” Tommy said.

  Desa turned her back on him, pacing up the sidewalk. “It is,” she replied. “Not only can you not Infuse living things, you can’t Infuse anything that has ever been alive. My leather belt, my cotton shirt: neither one will take an Infusion.”

  “Then why would Bendarian try?”

  “He wanted to wield the power directly,” Desa said. “Without the need to use objects as intermediaries. The Synod thought he was insane. They believed that he would never accomplish his goal.”

  “But, somehow Bendarian found a way. And now Adele has taken that power for herself.”

  They had come to an intersection at the edge of Miri’s neighbourhood. A few cars rushed down a street lined with tall, box-like buildings made of red or white brick. Most had shops on the first floor, shops with large front windows that displayed everything from women’s fashions to hunting equipment.

  As usual, Tommy paused for a moment to admire the city. The sight of Aladar still filled him with wide-eyed wonder. “What I don’t understand,” he said. “This power that Bendarian found…What is it?”

  “He called it the Nether.”

  “Sort of like an anti-Ether.”

  “I suppose.”

  Tommy rushed on ahead, then spun around to face her, walking backwards and gesticulating wildly. “See, this is why I think your people’s history holds the key to defeating Adele,” he said. “Mercy told your ancestors that the Ether is order. A tool that humanity can harness. She warned your ancestors that there were dark magics as well. Ones that offered incredible power at a terrible price.”

  Desa took a deep breath to calm herself. This was all new to Tommy. Patience was a must. “We’ve been over this,” she said gently. “The stories were never meant to be taken literally.”

  Tommy was smiling and shaking his head. “You don’t understand.” He nearly backed into a woman who scooted out of the way at the last second. Did he even realize that she was there? “What do you know about my religion?”

  “Very little,” Desa admitted.

  She breathed a sigh of relief when Tommy chose to halt and continue their conversation in front of the bakery. “The stories about the Almighty are all filled with impossibilities,” he said. “Horses with wings, the sun zipping back-and-forth across the sky. Men who live to be a thousand years old. I have a hard time believing any of it.”

  “I see…”

  “But,” Tommy went on, “we have proof that at least some of your people’s myths are based in fact. The pyramid, the crystal. Mercy warned your people about the dark power, and now we know that’s real too! We’ve seen it!”

  It made a kind of sense. The Tharan Vadria was more than just a collection of stories. Several chapters offered detailed instructions on how one might commune with the Ether. Even if the stories had been embellished, there might be a kernel of truth in them. Something they could use to stop Adele. “I think you’ve convinced me,” she said.

  “Good! Let’s go to the library!”

  She couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. “A sound plan,” she said. “But what about your friend?”

  Tommy tossed his arms up and then let them fall again. He was grinning so fiercely it almost made her laugh. “If you’re willing to translate,” he said, “then I don’t need Dalen, do I?”

  “I suppose not.”

  Something caught her eye. The dim reflection of a hooded figure was suddenly visible in the bakery’s front window. A reflection cast by no object that Desa could see. She gasped.

  “What?” Tommy asked.

  Desa backed away from the window, one hand instinctively reaching for the pistol that she no longer wore on her hip. At first, she cursed her decision to leave it behind. But then what could a gun do against a ghost? “It’s nothing,” she stammered.

  Tommy glanced into the window. “The ghost?” he asked. “I don’t see anything.”

  The shadow slowly faded away, leaving only a transparent reflection of the buildings across the street. She could even see the baker boxing up a loaf of bread inside the store.

  “Perhaps I’m going mad,” Desa muttered.

  Tommy was still staring into the window. If he kept that up, the baker would come out to shoo them away. “No, I don’t think so,” he said, shaking his head. “Kalia said that if you see that thing once, you’ll keep seeing it for the rest of your life. There’s a very real phenomenon at play here; we just don’t understand it.”

  “You’re growing wise, my friend.”

  “Well, it seems to me the best thing we can do is learn as much as we can.”

  “Yes,” Desa agreed. “Yes, I think you’re right.”

  Marcus’s shoe came down on upon the sand, kicking up a puff of dust. In dungarees and a white shirt with its top buttons undone, he walked along a beach where waves lapped at the land.

  Off to his left, the eastern shore of Eradia stretched on with ten miles of water between them. Even with those clouds overhead, the air was still hot and damp. A good morning for a walk.

  He paused to admire the view.

  Marcus stood on the shoreline with his hands folded behind his back, squinting into the distance. “Your work is done,” he told himself. “If Desa leaves again, you do not have to go with her.”

  But he knew he would.

  Baring his teeth with a hiss, Marcus shook his head. “You’re a foolish man, Marcus Von Tayros,” he muttered. “A downright idiotic man.”

  He caught sight of something out on the water. Was that…Yes, that was a boat. The thing was barely big enough to hold two people, and he could just make out a pair of men paddling. They seemed to be coming his way. Odd, that. Eradian ships often sailed through the Strait of Avalas, but they usually steered clear of the island. Fear of Aladri magic kept them at bay. “Well, now,” he said. “What’s all this about?”

  Mainlanders sometimes came to Aladar, but they always entered the city via the harbour. Going any other way might be interpreted as trespassing, and no one wanted to risk that. He decided to follow the beach to the place where they would make landfall.

  It was a short walk to the spot where he would intercept them, and as he made his way along the shore, the boat grew larger and larger. He could see the faces of the two men. Both were pale and a little older than he was.

  “Good morning, gentlemen!” he called out in Eradian.

  They immediately turned their boat around, heading back toward the mainland. What was that about?

  Marcus crossed his arms, scowling as he watched them go. “Eradians,” he said, shaking his head. “An entire continent full of imbeciles.”

  As always, the library had that musty book smell, and Tommy was willing to bet that most of it came from the ancient text he held in his hands. He turned the old, yellow pages of a book that hadn’t been opened in at least fifty years. Another commentary on the Vadir Scrolls. It was hard to focus; thoughts of Miri kept creeping into his head. Eventually, he located the crude drawing of a spear. “Look!”

  He found Desa sitting in the light of a window. She blinked at the sound of his voice. “I’m sorry?” You might have thought she was the one dealing with matters of the heart.

  He passed her the book.

  “The Spear of Vengeance. What of it?”

  Tommy spread his arms wide, smiling and shaking his head. “The weapon of a god,” he said. “Let’s operate under the assumption that this thing that took over Adele is of a similar nature as Mercy and Vengeance.”

  “A big leap,” Desa replied. “But I’ll humour you.”

  Tommy fell into the chair across from her, snatching a toothpick from his pocket and slipping it into his mouth. “Well,” he began. “It seems to me that the weapon of a god can kill a god.”

  Desa was glowering at him with her brows drawn together. A heavy sigh escaped her. “Tommy,” she said. “What did I tell you about making assumptions? First off, we don’t even know that this weapon exists. Second, if it does, we don’t know where to find it. And third, we don’t know that it will do what you claim it will do.”

  Removing the toothpick with two fingers, Tommy felt his eyebrows rising. “You have a better idea?” he countered. “We’ve been hashing out plans for the last two hours. Name one idea we’ve had that doesn’t rely on assumptions.”

  “I can’t.”

  “My point exactly,” Tommy said. “No matter what we do, we’re going to be basing a lot of decisions on guesswork.”

  “I take your point,” Desa whispered. “But let’s try to refine it as much as possible.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37