The Shadowglass (The Bone Witch #3)(24)

“We’ll look after Khalad,” Zoya promised. She’d entered the room long enough to catch the tail end of our conversation. “Where is he now?”

“With her,” Princess Inessa said gently. “Give them as much solitude as he desires but remain ever on alert. Notify us if any other problems arise.”

Zoya’s face fell, adopting the same melancholic expression the Heartforger had worn. Shadi sighed heavily and linked her arm to her sweetheart’s. “We understand, milady. We’ve been staying with her while he was away. It would be good to tell him what happened in his absence.”

“It would be best if you moved into Parmina’s room,” Councilor Ludvig suggested. “It’s the largest in the asha-ka. I have soldiers and volunteers trooping in and out of here at all hours, and it would be best if you talk in more sequestered quarters, where there are fewer strangers to overhear.”

“I’ll help you sort out the logistics, Lord Ludvig,” Fox offered. “There’s enough work here for twice our numbers.”

“As will I,” Princess Inessa interjected, a stubborn tilt to her chin. “Morale ought to increase when the people see me here. I’ve already sent word of our arrival to my mother. She’ll send for me if she needs. What do the current reports say?”

“There was damage to many properties in the business district, but the worst hit was the Willows, Your Majesty,” the old man reported. “Tea, at least, had very good aim. She hit the council house hard—not even a post remains. Many of the asha who’d been inside reported extreme lethargy. It appears they’d been compelled and herded out of the building before the first of the dragonfire hit. Those in nearby asha-ka and cha-khana mention the same experiences. All the runic wards around Kion still stand though. It does little to prevent the azi, but if Tea is still within the city, she would not be able to draw in the Dark and cause more mayhem.”

“She minimized our casualties, at least,” Lord Fox muttered, and I remembered the steps she had taken to prevent the Daanorian soldiers from engaging the Kion army in battle back in Daanoris, the aid to the civilians affected by her invasion.

“Not quite. At the temple of—”

The rest of the conversation was lost as Lady Altaecia guided us into the next room. “Now that we’re all nice and settled,” Lady Altaecia said, “tell me more about her letters. Whatever possessed her to take in a bard, of all people?”

I was wary of relinquishing Lady Tea’s writings, but Lady Altaecia was every inch the authoritarian that the Dark asha had recounted. I handed them over reluctantly, my eyes on her fingers as she rifled through the pages. I was tempted, again, to ask her to skip to the last page, wanting to know the Dark asha’s true ending—but refrained.

Lady Altaecia looked up and chuckled. “I don’t intend to eat them, good sir. Surely you know why I am invested in what she has to say. You may be wondering where the rest of us are. You’ve met Zoya and Shadi. Likh is away, fighting another battle outside of Kion, with all our support. Parmina is expected to arrive in another week. Rahim is somewhere in the city, rallying the people with Chesh. He and the other shopkeepers are coordinating with Alyx’s troops and offering aid to the hardest hit. Have you finished reading these pages?”

“Not all of them, no. Lady Zoya’s control of the ship made it difficult for study. But I read about her meeting with Lord Garindor”—the Drychta nodded in confirmation—“and about your findings in Istera.”

“My king asked her to avenge poor Yarrod’s death,” the old man added dolefully, “little had we known then that it would be many months in the making, with the end still nowhere in sight.”

Lady Altaecia leafed through the sheets. “I didn’t believe her at first,” she murmured. “It was such a fantastic, unvalidated theory, to believe that the elders kept secrets of this magnitude from the rest of us. But Tea proved me wrong, made me trust her. For a time, I even held out hope that she had a motive for this madness. That she had a reason to raise all seven daeva and bind them to her. That she had a reason to travel to Daanoris and upset the kingdom for the price of a Faceless’s heartsglass. She intended to raise shadowglass and take magic from the lands. The elders oppose it for good reason. It is a hard pill to swallow, to go from vaunted silver hearts to the common red, and all their influence gone with it.”

“But why did you believe their words over hers? Did you not consider them your enemies, even then?” I asked. Lady Altaecia had accompanied the Dark asha, had seen all she had. Surely she knew of the elders’ culpability. What could estrange a trusted mentor, cause her to abandon her ward in her hour of need?

The woman turned to me, the grief in her eyes genuine. Pain puckered the skin alongside her crow’s-feet. “Because Tea killed an innocent, my boy.” She spoke softly but with authority. “The darkrot took control, and she slew an innocent, and her brother was there to see it all with his own eyes. I cannot trust a Dark asha on the cusp of darkrot, no matter how deeply I love her. The black has taken hold of her heartsglass, and it is only a matter of time before it corrupts Tea completely, bringing us all down with her. Was not the destruction of Kion—for no other reason than petty vengeance—enough proof?”





6


“The charges are ridiculous,” Zoya complained as we sat down to lunch.