The Shadowglass (The Bone Witch, #3)(91)

The Dark asha’s letter ended there. The rest of the tale was missing.

“You were always impulsive, Zoya,” the bone witch said, “though I would be a hypocrite to criticize you for something I have always been guilty of myself.”

“Let me go,” Zoya told her, “and I can offer you another refresher.”

The Dark asha laughed at that.

“Why hadn’t you thought to tell us before, little uchenik?” Lord Rahim pleaded. “Why such secrecy? Why did you have to burn a mountain?”

“Because there is a traitor among you. I discovered it only recently, after you had all left the safety of Ankyo’s runic wards. I would denounce the betrayer, but what good would that do? You would have never believed me before, and it was more advantageous for me to keep an eye on her where she was, rather than have her flee once more into parts unknown.”

“Who is it?” Lord Fox was tight-lipped and trembling, the sword heavy in his hands. He raised it toward the Dark asha. She did not move, did not compel him. She watched him instead, and somehow that was worse.

“Do you finally believe me, Fox? You were right. I killed Daisy. I might not remember it, but it was my hand that did the deed. But I was not myself. I did not need someone to compel me, to carry out their orders. I made that discovery far too late.” Her voice fell. “And Likh…”

Khalad wept. His sobs were soft, barely discernible; in the quiet, they could cut stone.

“Tea,” King Kance said in a soft, satin timbre. “Tell us. Please.”

These were the songs they would never play at the darashi oyun, the dances Vernasha of the Roses would have burned along with her books. All eyes were on Lady Tea as she took the stage, and a new tale lay poised at her fingertips, the missing pieces eager to fall into place.



“Let me tell you the rest of the story,” she said.





22


The caves of Mithra’s Wall were unlike the caves at Stranger’s Peak; the ground was riddled with limestone stalagmites and the lichen-covered walls were moist to the touch, sticking my hair to the back of my neck and leaving my palms sweaty from the moisture-heavy air. We had raced into the caves after the hooded figure while General Lode covered our backs, defending us from what was left of the blighted men. I could feel my azi already on the offensive, its three mouths aflame. We had no choice. I would be more useful confronting the Faceless inside than I would fighting the terrible beasts outside.

“I can see why these caves are free of tourists,” Zoya grunted, pushing wet hair out of her eyes. The asha wore loose-fitting blouses and traveler’s skirts to make the climb easier, but I smelled heavy clouds of magic wafting from the spells sewn into their clothes. Zoya was in the lead, and runes of Light surrounded her, glowing dimly.

“Quiet now,” Althy cautioned. “It shouldn’t be long before we come to the large pocket chambers that Knox spoke of.”

Mithra’s Wall, I remembered, had been a favorite hideaway of the great hero it was named for. The ranges had supposedly come into being when Mithra commanded the earth to rise, to stop the nanghait from demolishing his beloved Ashi’s hometown of Thanh. But while the caves held little attraction for the average visitor, they were popular for explorers and spelunkers, and those who made the yearly pilgrimage to worship Mithra as a god in his own right.

As Althy had predicted, the narrow passageway soon opened into a large chamber, one I had seen in popular paintings and lithographs. It was the cave where Mithra famously rested after defeating the daeva, considered by many to be a holy place. Any traces of previous habitation had long since disappeared, whatever artifacts left behind no doubt stolen by adventurers over the years. There was nothing beyond a few broken pieces of wood, and a small, dark pool at the farthest wall. Neither Aadil nor the Faceless were present.

“There is something wrong here, Lady Altaecia.” One of the asha, a young woman named Ginrei, spoke up. “This chamber has no exits beyond the one we entered. If Lord Knox is right, and if Lady Tea is positive this passage is where Druj disappeared, then they could not have left without our seeing them.”

I cast my mind briefly toward Kance’s thoughts, scrying swiftly. The decision to ward as many of the Drychta as possible had proven beneficial, I saw. The fight had been speedy, if brutal. Did anyone leave the caves after we entered? I asked him.

He jumped, startled by the unexpected voice in his head. “No. Khalad and I have been watching.”

They’re not in Mithra’s chamber. They must have escaped through some other means. Please ask General Lode to guard the mountain paths and keep further watch, just in case.

“Understood, Lady Tea.”

“Kance and Khalad saw nothing,” I told the rest.

“Surely they couldn’t have gone to another apex in the range this quickly?” Zoya asked. “It would take years to search them all.”

“Can you sense Druj?” Kalen asked me.

“The Faceless is very good at masking his thoughts. I’ve been trying to find him, to no effect.”

Knox cleared his throat. “That’s not quite accurate, actually. That the chamber is a dead end, I mean.”

Althy rounded on him, looking cross. “Now is not the time for riddles, Knox. Out with it.”