The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(6)

Charlie never told her where he went when he wasn’t with her. She liked to imagine that one day she would be free enough to see more of the worlds with him but that day seemed far in the future. Another raven dropped from the sky and landed at her feet with a sharp squawk.

“I dinnay know how they get through the barriers,” said Eliza, looking at it uneasily. “Kyreth doesnay like it. They’re nay supposed to be here.”

“I think letting you in means letting them in,” commented Charlie, unfazed as three more ravens descended. “Lah, I’ll leave you with your friends. Take care of yourself, Eliza. Nice work with whatsisname, by the way.”

“I couldnay have done it without you. Be careful, Charlie!”

“Self-preservation is what I’m best at,” he said with a wink. His face changed all at once, feathers bursting from his head and neck, his body lengthening out into the golden, muscled body of a lion. Huge wings unfurled from his shoulders. No matter how many times she saw him change, it never ceased to amaze Eliza. She could feel the barriers around the Citadel making way for him. He surged into the air and away, leaving her in the grounds with the six ravens.

For months now they had been appearing around her in twos and threes and sometimes more. At first, she had eagerly assumed that her Guide was being made known to her. Every Sorceress had a Guide that took the form of an animal. In Tian Xia the Faithful had tattooed a raven on her left palm and a dagger pointing towards her on her right. She had tried to speak to the ravens in the Language of First Days but they showed no sign of understanding her and did not respond. Kyreth counseled her to be cautious. It was possible, after all, that they were spies or some new trick of the Xia Sorceress. The Mancers had done what they could to block Nia from contacting Eliza through dreams and visions as she used to do. The idea that the Sorceress might have found another way to watch her made Eliza feel a bit queasy.

They stood now, their feathers bright black, peering at her expectantly. She had no idea what they were expecting, though. She sat down in the grass and looked back at them, waiting, until the sky was entirely dark, pricked with stars.

“Eliza.”

A Mancer was approaching. She could not see his face but from his stride, smooth and confident, and the tenor of his voice, she recognized Obrad of the Emmisariae, manipulator of earth.

“Hello,” she said.

“We are all very glad you have returned,” he said.

“Aye, Kyreth couldnay stop gushing about how happy he was to see me,” said Eliza.

Obrad laughed, rather forcedly, she thought. “He is concerned for your safety, as are we all. And yet what you did was motivated by noble intentions.”

“Thank you.” Eliza was surprised that Obrad, of all the Mancers, should voice such an opinion. She had always felt awkward with him, more so than with the others, because he had been intended for her mother Rea, a great Sorceress before Nia took her power and all her memories. She imagined that he, even more than the others, must feel stingingly how much stronger her Magic would be if he had been her father. Of course, she wouldn’t have been Eliza at all in that case but some other girl, a powerful Sorceress raised with Magic from an early age. Perhaps that non-existent girl would not fight with Kyreth so much. No doubt they would all prefer that girl who didn’t exist. Maybe even Foss.

“I personally will take care of this matter with the man,” he continued. “I have already contacted Judge Adil in Kalla and informed him of the case.”

“Thank you,” said Eliza again. The ravens hopped closer to her, forming a tight little circle. Obrad noticed them but said nothing. She wondered if she was expected to say more, but she couldn’t think of anything.

“It is good to have you back,” said Obrad at last. “Eliza.”

“Thanks.” Eliza was beginning to feel like a broken record.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

The odd conversation left her feeling she needed a bath, so she got up and headed back to the south wing. The ravens hopped aside so she could walk unobstructed and did not follow her, remaining a dark clump on the lawn, watching her disappear into the Citadel.

~~~

It was good to sleep in a bed again. She dreamed of flying, the world far beneath her, and Kyreth’s voice shouting at her the whole time from somewhere she couldn’t see. She woke, or thought she woke, in the middle of the dream to see a woman standing over her. She was dressed all in black, with cropped white hair and darting hazel eyes.

“Why are you so angry?” asked the woman.

Eliza sat up in the bed, reaching instinctively for the dagger under her pillow.

“Who are you?” she demanded, her voice still thick with sleep.

“My skin is full of wool and fleas or I would show you,” the woman said plaintively. “My eyes are full of broken glass and my tongue is caked with earth, I cannot see, I cannot tell. It’s difficult. This is not the finest room. My room is not fine at all. No, I should not say so, it is very fine, very fine indeed, I am like a queen there, queen of what realm? But I do not like stones and I do not like the air much at all, there is no rest, there is no rest.”

Eliza did not know what to make of this strange speech but the woman looked somehow familiar. She had seen her before but could not think where.

“Dinnay I know you?” she asked.