The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(11)

“We will continue our lesson, then,” said Foss. “Perhaps outside. We could use some fresh air.”

Aysu left them and Foss and Eliza walked out into the chill winter air, breathing in deeply to rid their nostrils of the stench of the Cra.

“You have persuaded Kyreth to do a good thing,” said Foss carefully, after allowing several minutes of silence to pass. “But do not think it was indifference that kept him from doing it before. The Emmisariae are powerful and we have been forced to do without them these past many days as they rounded up the Cra. Given the necessity of maintaining the barriers in the Arctic, it was a calculated risk to let them go. Kyreth had been divided on the matter for some time and at last concluded it was necessary for your sake, to keep you from placing yourself in harm’s way and taking justice into your own, may I say, inexperienced hands. That is a dangerous thing to do, Eliza Tok.”

“I know,” said Eliza. She wanted to tell Foss how much she had hated hunting them, how relieved she was to have it finished, but somehow the words wouldn’t come. “I’ve been reading a lot,” she said instead. “About the Sorceresses before me.”

“Yes, you mentioned. The Chronicles.” Foss seemed relieved to have a change of subject. “For some years now I have been working on a Commentary on chapter six of the final volume. You must understand, Eliza, that the earlier texts were written long after the fact and are therefore not entirely reliable. They are myths, essentially, legends passed down for thousands of years. Did Zara ever exist? We believe so but Simathien himself mentions her only once in his Book of the Ancients. Some believe she is a composite of more than one Sorceress. Morhanna is called her twin sister, but how can this be, when each Sorceress bears only one daughter? Were they the first Sorceresses? Have there been two lines of Sorceresses from the beginning, as the Book of Origins suggests, or did one line separate into two at some point? The Chronicles raise as many questions as they answer, in my opinion, but provide fascinating reading all the same. Yours is a complicated heritage, Eliza Tok, and one to be proud of!”

He looked ready to continue for some time and so Eliza had to interject her question quickly, a skill she had perfected by now, “What about these Gehemmis that get mentioned? Sorceresses going to Tian Xia to get them?”

“An example, Eliza Tok, of the unreliability of the Chronicles. The Gehemmis, supposedly, are gifts of the Ancients guarded by the Four Immortal Powers of Tian Xia. They are said to be endowed with the essence of Old Magic, possessing untold power. But do they exist, in fact? In the records of the Mancers you will find that sending a Sorceress on a quest for a Gehemmis has always been terribly controversial, quite simply because many Mancers do not believe in the Gehemmis.” He gave Eliza a sharp look suddenly. “Have you spoken to Kyreth about this?”

“Nay about the Gehemmis, exactly,” she said. “But he told me my gran died of a Faery Curse, aye, and it says in the Chronicles that she was trying to get one of the Gehemmis from the Faeries.”

“Yes,” said Foss, relieved. “And one Sorceress is said to have succeeded and obtained a Gehemmis from the Horogarth four thousand years ago.”

“I read about that. Her name was Lahja,” said Eliza.

“And yet, where is this Gehemmis? If she obtained it, why do we not have it here in the Citadel? And is it possible that a mere Sorceress, pardon me Eliza, could truly face the Horogarth, one of the children of the Ancients, and take something from him? I am skeptical, Eliza Tok, I am very skeptical.”

“Lah, then so am I,” said Eliza, smiling up at him. At that moment, a large raven flew straight at them, screaming, its beak wide. They both ducked, covering their faces, and then it was gone.

“I dinnay think they’re friendly,” said Eliza, her voice shaking, looking around her for the vanished raven.

“It is too soon to say,” replied Foss with a frown. “Let us return to the Library.”

~~~

Early the following morning Kyreth summoned Eliza to his study.

“The Shade approaches,” he said dryly. “Have you made plans?”

Eliza’s heart leaped but she kept her voice steady and answered as politely as she could. “When I asked you in the summer, you gave me permission to spend Winter Festival with my parents and the Sorma. Like last year, aye.”

“I remember,” said Kyreth. “But Winter Festival is still two weeks away.”

“I know. But I’ve nay seen my parents in months and the journey is tiring,” she said.

“The Festival lasts six days, does it not?”

“Yes.”

“That is a long absence, Eliza. And you have only recently returned to us.”

“When I come back, I promise to stay and study without interruption until the summer,” she said.

“I will hold you to that, Eliza. Remember that you are under our protection and need only to call us if you need us.” He indicated the crystal that hung around her neck. Eliza touched her hand to it and nodded.

It was their little ritual. He couldn’t stop her, really. She would not be kept against her will. As long as she was free to come and go, she studied hard. But for the sake of politeness she pretended to ask permission and he pretended to give it. Before leaving the room, she made herself look into his terrible, blazing eyes.

“Thank you for bringing in the Cra,” she said.