An hour later, long after the adrenaline had worn off, leaving him shaky and weak, Kane sat on a bench in the cathedral guardhouse and rested his head against the wall behind him. One of the guards had offered him a cot in the back, a sort of makeshift barracks used by men working double shifts, but Kane had declined. Despite his fatigue, he didn't think he'd be able to sleep, not when he saw those teeth every time he closed his eyes.
There were other takers for the cots, though. Logan, for one, had taken quite a blow from the strange woman. When they'd finally been able to wake him, he'd been so dizzy he was ill. They'd had to carry him inside, as he couldn't stand on his own. Another cot held the injured guard from the street. Harvey, who'd been completely fine, returned from checking on the two of them and sat on the bench beside Kane.
"Are you sure you don't need a rest?" Harvey asked. "The cots aren't bad."
"I'm fine," Kane said, hoping his weariness didn't show.
He jumped slightly as the door opened, admitting two guards speaking in hushed tones about the bodies outside, those six young men who had managed to attack the White Quarter despite being dead. Five of them had been among the fifteen missing persons Kane and the others had been reading about the night before. The sixth, another teenage boy, had been a carpenter's apprentice whose master assumed he'd run away home to the countryside eight days ago. Kane didn't like to think about what this could mean for his friends Cole and Felder.
Partly to stop himself from worrying about them, partly to stop himself from eavesdropping on the guards, he turned to Harvey and asked, "How are the others?"
"Oh, Logan is alright, provided he doesn't move his head at all. That guard is worse off. The wound to his shoulder was-"
He stopped, flinching as, across the guardhouse, the voice of the commander rose again. The man had been yelling at Gabriel for nearly a quarter hour. Commander Malcolm knew of the long friendship between Gabriel and Harvey, but what he knew first and foremost was that Harvey was Lord Leiden's heir. "-in the White Quarter without a guard detail?" Malcolm shouted, loud enough that his words were clear even at this distance and through the closed door. Kane remembered the commander's daughter in the theater; clearly, she had inherited her ability to project from him.
Harvey shifted uncomfortably as he looked toward the commander's door. The yelling continued, but the words again became indistinguishable.
"You were saying?" Kane prompted.
"Hmm? Right, yes, the guard. Well, it took time to get the bleeding under control. A long time. He… Nobody likes to admit it, you know, but there's not much we can do for him at this point. He needs white magic. I've… I've sent for your father."
Kane groaned, burying his face in his hands.
"I'm sorry! I couldn't think what else to do!" Harvey said. "The guard's very bad off, Kane. He might not even make it until Lord Redden arrives. They've sent for his mother and everything." He looked at the floor, concern writ plain on his features.
Kane sighed, stifling guilt. Here he was worried about his father yelling at him when that man in the next room might never recover. His thoughts again turned to Cole and Felder, the worry for them more pressing than his worries about his father's wrath.
They sat silently after that, listening to the commander's baritone shout as he continued to berate the sergeant. Kane occasionally picked out whole words and phrases, enough to realize it wasn't just Harvey's presence in the lower town that had earned Malcolm's disapproval, but Kane's presence as well. The heir to the son of Titan was apparently important enough to the people of Melmond that he shouldn't be exposed to unnecessary risks.
She called me that, he thought, remembering again the way the strange woman had frozen him with a look, the terror he'd felt at his inability to move, and the way that harsh voice had reverberated through him as she'd called him a son of Titan. What did she mean? he wondered, unsure whether she had meant anything at all. The woman, if such a creature could be called a woman, had seemed confused. But that hadn't been the only thing she said. "Harvey…?" Kane said tentatively. "That… that woman out there. She said she was looking for her son…"
"She did," the young Leiden said, nodding. He looked at Kane's appraising eyes and snorted. "You can't possibly think I'm it!"
"She seemed to think so," Kane said with a shrug.
"Yes, I heard," Harvey said. "But I assure you, she was mistaken! My mother is alive and well, last I checked, and far less interested in my whereabouts than that thing was."
"Oh? I thought… Forgive me, but when you never spoke of her before, I assumed..."
Harvey barked a laugh. "She lives in the Reach! She and father fight like cats, you see. Arranged marriage, and all that." The shouting from the other room ceased and the door to the commander's office opened. Gabriel tramped out, looking sullen. Harvey sprang up. "Gods, Gabriel! I'm so sorry I got you in trouble! Did he sack you? Don't tell me he sacked you! He can't sack a son of the high families! Why, I'll tell him-"
Gabriel spoke quietly, but his words still stopped Harvey mid-rant. "He didn't sack me." His downcast eyes had a hunted look to them as if sacking might have been preferable to the dressing down he received. "Though if not for my family name, I believe he would have."
Harvey put a hand on Gabriel's shoulder and pushed him gently toward the bench. "You should sit down."
Gabriel nodded. He took Harvey's seat and let his head hang low. "I was so careless… If I'd insisted on a full guard detail like your father wanted-"
"Ridiculous!" Harvey said. "This is all my fault! It was my idea to come to the lower town with you. Besides, you can't have known we'd be attacked by monsters! How often has that happened on your way to work?"
Kane laughed bitterly. "The way your commander talked, you'd think it was a common occurrence around these parts."
Gabriel winced. "Gods, don't tell me you heard all that."
"Not all of it," Kane said, grinning, but then he sighed, unable to maintain a brave face. "Don't worry. I'll get mine shortly. You think your commander can yell? Wait until you hear my father."
And so they waited. They were a silent trio, with Harvey and Gabriel both seeming caught up in their own thoughts. Kane, however, could no longer focus on his own. He rested his head against the wall behind him again, and weariness overcame him like a wave. He'd nearly fallen asleep right there, sitting up, when the guardhouse door banged open and his father strode in followed by a handful of guards. Lord Redden quickly surveyed the room, and when he spied Kane on the bench, he stiffened and frowned.
Here it comes, Kane thought, standing to meet whatever verbal abuse his father cared to dish out.
Instead Redden stepped forward and hugged him, tightly and fiercely. "You idiot boy!" Redden growled, pushing Kane away only to shake him hard before embracing him again. "Fool boy! What were you thinking?" He squeezed Kane painfully, and perhaps would not have let him go had not one of the other guards reminded him that his healing spells were needed in the back room.
That can't be it, Kane thought, staring at his father's back as Redden walked away.
"I was expecting more," Gabriel said, exchanging a look with Harvey.
"So was I," Kane said, dumbfounded. Surely, after the healing the yelling would start.
But when Lord Redden emerged again some time later, having done his best to heal both Logan and the ailing guardsman, he scarcely glanced at Kane. He spoke briefly with the commander, then gathered his men and began escorting Kane, Harvey, and Gabriel back to the house. Lord Redden said not a word as they passed out of the lower town, though Kane was ready for it, tense and waiting. Redden remained silent as they crossed the business district and approached the west gate.
When they reached the west gate guardhouse, Redden stayed there, though a few extra guards joined the boys for their long walk to the manor. As they passed through the fields outside of town, crossing the boundary of Leiden's estates, Kane finally began to relax. He couldn't believe he'd got off so lightly.
Leiden had been yelling for nearly an hour. Lena could feel him, his anger, from the other side of the house, though she couldn't make out his words from where she sat in Orin's room.
Leiden's temper mingled with Orin's distress. The old monk sat in a chair, staring out the window, as Lena sat on the bed reading aloud from an old, battered copy of The Tales of the Knights of Bahamut. She could sense that Orin wasn't listening to her, but she had to admit she wasn't paying much attention to the stories herself, her eyes dancing over the page, her mouth forming the words, but her mind taking none of it in. She read anyway.
Beside her, Thadius was still asleep. Hinton, one of the west gate guards, had brought the boy in, unconscious, earlier that morning. He'd been covered in blood, but none of it was his. Attacked by a black mage, the guard had said. Thad had managed to fight off his assailant and run for help before he'd passed out, seemingly from the shock of his ordeal. "I did the same after my first real fight," Hinton said. "The adrenaline wears off quick." Lena had seen right away that it hadn't been that at all: the boy was empty, his aether reserves entirely depleted. For all that Thad hadn't learned to cast any spells yet, he had to have managed at least one.
They'd cleaned the boy up, carried him to Orin's room, and set him in the over-large bed. Lena read to him. Though she could sense the depth of his sleep and knew he couldn't hear her, she suspected he was soothed by the sound of her voice. At any rate, she wouldn't leave his side - she wanted to be there for him when he awoke - and the book was as good a way as any to occupy her time.
She read, "And when he came into the throne room at last, Bahamut spoke to him, saying, 'Bring me proof of your courage, to receive the honor due a true warrior.'" It was Sir Eden's tale, one of her favorites, but she hadn't noticed coming to it. Her throat was growing scratchy, so she paused to take a drink from the waterglass on the nightstand. The room seemed eerily quiet without her voice filling it. She realized that, across the house, Leiden had finally stopped yelling.
Just then, someone rapped lightly on the door. Gilbert, Leiden's manservant, stepped in. "Lord Orin?" He waited until the old monk turned to face him, then continued, "Lord Leiden requests your attendance in his office." Gilbert retreated into the hall.
Orin said, "Miss Lena, you will stay with him?"
"Yes," she said, nodding when the word came out in a croak.
After he left, she looked down at the book but she didn't start reading again. She couldn't keep her mind on it, busy worrying about Thad, about the presence of black mages in the city, and about one black mage in particular who apparently could scarcely tolerate her company. She sighed, closing the book with a snap and setting it on the nightstand. She went to the window. The rain had moved off completely, making for a bright afternoon. She watched the dragonflies swooping over the patch of lawn Orin's room overlooked until she felt Kane's aura approaching, an unapologetic blur of restless energy. She soon heard the sound of his footsteps as well - heavy boots on the hardwood floor - and she turned to the door as he opened it.
She gasped when she saw the state of him. His clothes were filthy, spattered with mud, and his normally spiky hair was somewhat flattened from the morning's rain, but those were small details compared to the weariness that she could feel in his spirit. "Kane! What happened to you?"
His eyes went straight to the sleeping boy in the bed and he frowned deeply. "I was an idiot," he said.
"Sit down," she said, steering him toward the bed.
He let her push him, his gaze never breaking from Thad's face. "Leiden told me what happened to him," he said.
"Leiden? So it was you he was yelling at?"
Kane nodded. "Me and Harvey and Gabriel."
"What happened?" she asked again.
"We ditched our guards - wanted to go off to the lower town," he said.
Lena nodded. She'd heard Leiden tell them the lower town was off limits.
"And then… Then we were attacked. There's something in this city, Lena, something bad. It killed five people today - it nearly killed Harvey! There was nothing I could do about it!"
She knew that small, helpless feeling - she had felt it many times herself in the years since she'd left home - but she never would have expected to feel it from someone as strong and capable as Kane. She sat down beside him. He was slouching so low that when she put a comforting arm around his shoulders, she didn't even have to reach up despite his superior height.
"I think Cole and Felder are dead," he said quietly.
She stiffened. "Why… why do you think that?"
"Because they're missing," he said. "Do you know about the missing boys in the lower town? The thing that attacked us… It had men with it, dead men. They fought like animals. Logan and I took out four of them, but there were two more on other streets."
Necromancy? Lena shuddered.
Kane went on, "The bodies… the guards say they were some of the missing. If that thing is what's been taking people..." He shook his head. "I don't think we'll find them, Lena."
She wanted to tell him he was wrong, that Cole and Felder could still be out there, that they would find them, but the weight of his despair seemed to have settled right on her throat and she couldn't get the words out.
Kane looked over at Thad again. "And Shipman… I can't believe how close we were to losing him. If he hadn't stabbed that mage… I should have been there. I should have protected him."
"You can't protect us all the time, Kane," Lena said, squeezing his shoulder.
He snorted derisively. "It's starting to feel like I can't protect you at all."
"We don't think that," she said quickly. "I don't think that." She started to say, "Jack doesn't think that," but she stopped. She didn't know that for sure. Maybe he can scarcely tolerate Kane's company either. Instead she said, "Thadius doesn't think that. The boy idolizes you!"
"Idolizes? I've personally arrested him on three separate occasions!"
That made her laugh. "Well, regardless, you're his hero."
He laughed lightly, a pained chuckle, and Lena had never seen his handsome smile look so, so sad. "Oh, Lena, I'm not prepared to be anyone's hero."
There was a light knock on the door before Ruby stepped in, immaculate in a sapphire blue dress and carrying a tray. "Hello? I've brought tea!" She looked between Kane and Lena, her eyes confused but her smile unfaltering.
Lena stood, leaving Kane behind on the bed. "That's very kind of you, Ruby, but Thad still isn't awake."
Ruby bustled to the nightstand, moving the book and the waterglass to the back so she could set the tray down. "Not for him, silly! For you. You've been with him all day. You need to take care of yourself too. It's my own special blend!" she said, picking up the teapot as though it were a fine sculpture and she the artist. She poured a steaming cup and handed it to Lena then swiftly poured another. "Though I suppose it's good I brought an extra cup, just in case." She smiled radiantly as she passed the drink to Kane. "I've that dinner with the Ladies' Charitable League tonight, but I wanted to check on you before I left."
She bent over Thadius, kissing his forehead. "Poor little thing! I hope he isn't traumatized! He seems like such a sweet boy!" Then she straightened and scurried to the door, blue skirts swishing. "I've asked Adelaide to attend on you. She's just outside. Tell her if you need anything. She can bring your dinner to you here if you like."
"Thank you, Ruby. That's very kind," Lena said. She sipped at the tea, noting the taste of musk mallow. A healing herb, she thought, wondering what else the lord's daughter knew about healing.
When Ruby left, Kane stared forlornly after her. Lena felt his emotions: confusion, desire, and guilt, blended together as thoroughly as the tea in his cup. Lena smiled. "She really does look like Princess Sarah, doesn't she?"
Kane nodded, lifting his cup to drink the tea. Lena noticed the nasty cut across his knuckles.
"You're hurt!" she said.
He followed her gaze down, looking at the wound on his hand as though he'd forgotten about it. "This? It's nothing," he said. "Happened during the fight."
"Let me fix it," she said, setting her teacup on the tray and sitting beside him once more.
"You don't have to-" he began.
"Let me," she said firmly, holding her hand out for his. "You're not the only one who feels like a failure, you know. Let me at least do this one thing."
He shrugged, putting his hand in hers, and she laid her other over the top of it. Her hands glowed white with the power of her Cure, and when the glow faded she looked at the injury again, finding it sealed, still a raw pink color, likely a little sensitive, but no longer an open wound. "There now. All better," she said, patting his hand.
But the hand, she knew, was the least of the injuries he'd suffered that day. Oh, Lena, she thought. Always trying to fix people. But it was hard for her to ignore Kane's emotions when he never ignored or suppressed them himself. "You know, Kane…" she said haltingly, feeling out her next words with care. "I'm glad. I'm glad you're here. When we left Cornelia, I was so scared - scared of the prophecy, scared of what was expected of us. I still am, but… If I have to be a Warrior of Light… I'm glad it's with you."
He smiled at her, only a small smile, but it had lost the sadness of a few moments ago. His hand squeezed hers, then he stood. "Thank you," he said. "I should go. I need to bathe before dinner."
"Drink your tea first," Lena said.
He looked at the cup he still held in his other hand, drank it down. "It's good," he said, setting the cup on the tray, striding for the door. "I'll check up on you two later."
She nodded, lifting her own cup and sipping it. It didn't taste like healing potion, but…
"Lena?" Kane said from the doorway.
"Yes?"
"I'm glad you're here, too." He slipped out, shutting the door behind him.
She sat, sipping her tea, unable to decide whether the warmth she felt came from the drink or from his words.
"You should have heard the yelling!" Ruby said. "Father carried on for an hour or more! First at Harvey, then at Gabriel, then at Harvey again, then at Kane, then at all of them at once! Oh, he was like a man possessed!" She paused, adding some tiny yellow flowers to the arrangement she was working on. "Thadius, hand me those scissors. Thank you."
Thad watched as she fussed over her work, a tall vase filled with artfully arranged blooms. The yellow flowers looked exceptionally bright in the morning sunshine that poured through the parlor windows. Morning, Thad thought, shaking his head. He'd slept away nearly the whole of the day before.
It had been dark when he woke, unsure where he was, and he'd cried out in fear. He remembered the fight against the mage, remembered the way the aether had pressed in on him as the man tried to Teleport him away, but he hadn't remembered - not at first, not in the dark - running, making it as far as the guardhouse before… before nothingness. But Lena had been there when he woke, laying in the bed beside him, whispering assurances that he was safe.
He had remembered the guardhouse then. He had remembered that he could call up his aether sight to push the darkness away. When he did, he saw that he was in Orin's room; the monk's deep green aura dusted everything, and the man himself slept in the padded chair near the window. He saw Lena's clear blue aura, a beacon in the night, and he'd cried like a baby in her arms, unable to stop until the sun rose.
Breakfast had been a surreal affair. Orin hadn't been there, but several members of the Lords' Council were present - Leiden often met with them quite early, it seemed - and many had congratulated Thad on bringing down the rogue mage. A dark mage, apparently, a member of the Brotherhood. Thad hadn't known any of that.
"Bring this boy some more eggs!" Lord Hornwood had bellowed to the serving staff. He was a large man with thick legs and a barrel chest who looked more like the lumbermen he employed than like a lord. "A growing warrior needs to keep up his strength!"
Other members of the council had said, "Here! Here!" The servants had smiled as they loaded up his plate.
Thad hadn't killed the mage - that was what the council meeting had been about, the question of what to do with the man. For now, they'd put him in one of the manor's outbuildings. Though he hovered on the brink of death from his injuries, the Lords' Council wouldn't risk keeping him in one of the city jails, all of which were on crowded streets. Thad wasn't sure what the council feared most: the mage harming the people of the city, or the other way around. It had been odd to Thad to think that he was responsible for such an important gathering.
After breakfast, with Orin still off somewhere and Thad not knowing what to do with himself, he walked to the parlor with Lena, Ruby, and the Hornwood girls, who had come to the manor with their father. The guards Thad passed in the hall saluted him as a hero. He didn't feel like a hero, particularly after hearing Ruby's description of Kane's fight against the wandering dead the day before. It sounded far more impressive than anything he had done. He couldn't fathom why Leiden, who had been among those praising Thad that morning, would have disapproved of Kane's actions.
"Well, and it serves them right!" Nicole Hornwood said from across the table. "Imagine going off to the White Quarter without an escort! They're lucky they weren't knifed in the street!" She added yet another bloom to her own arrangement, which was as ostentatious as her dress, a lime green affair full of lace and ribbons. Thad, who had been a tailor's apprentice in Cornelia and knew how much work went into such a garment, hated it on sight.
Nicole's sister, Beatrix, snorted in an unladylike manner from her place on one of the parlor's chairs. "Please! As big as Gabriel and Kane are, I doubt they have anything to fear walking down the street, even in the roughest parts of town!" Her brown dress was plain and straight with no ornamentation at all. Her plain tastes extended to her flower arrangement as well: a single, perfect rose in a tall vase. She had the rest of the flowers Ruby had given her strewn across her lap, and she was weaving them into a crown, like a child might do.
Thad smiled. He liked this one. He hadn't seen many country nobles in master Edward's shop, but the tailor had often praised them as having more common sense than their counterparts in the city. It seemed odd to Thad that it should be considered a country trait when his Pappy had called it "street smarts".
Beatrix caught Thad watching her and she winked. She wandered over to Lena, positioning the crown of white blossoms and green leaves on Lena's head. Lena reached up, startled, but Beatrix gently swatted her hands away. "How does it look?" she said to Thad.
Thad grinned, nodding approval.
"Oh, honestly, Beatrix! You're meant to put them in the vase!" Nicole said, sipping a bubbly drink from a tall glass.
"I think she may have the right idea, actually," Lena said. She'd filled her own vase with simple blooms, nothing showy, but it looked more like she'd plopped them all into the vase together than like she'd arranged them. "I clearly don't have a knack for this."
"Don't be silly!" said Ruby, laughing as she circled the table to Lena's side. "Why, you've almost got it! Just move this bloom over here as a focal point, remove a few of these leaves… See?"
Thad went around the table for a closer look. It was better.
"What?" Lena gaped. "How did you do that?"
"I had a good teacher," Ruby said, smiling.
"Didn't you learn it from that gardener of yours?" Beatrix said, taking a bundle of yellow flowers from the table and returning to her chair.
"Moore," Ruby said, nodding. "He knew everything about plants."
Nicole laughed. "Yes, and he was cute, too! It's a shame what happened to him!"
Ruby's smile faltered.
Lena quickly said, "I believe I'll go and change."
"Change?" Ruby said, shaking off her sad expression so quickly that Thad almost thought he'd imagined it. Almost. "What's wrong with what you're wearing now?"
"I promised Thadius we would go to the hedge maze."
"Oh, did you? I spent some time on the maze's entrance yesterday, before the rain started. You'll have to let me know what you think of it."
Lena nodded. She looked at Thad and said, "Do you want to come upstairs with me, or wait for me here?"
He hesitated, afraid for a moment of being alone, but the fear passed in an instant. That was silly. He wouldn't be alone, not with Ruby and the Hornwoods around. It wasn't as if the white mage could protect him from harm any better than these social puffs could do. "I'll wait."
Lena smiled proudly, almost as if she'd heard his thoughts. "I'll be right back," she said as she headed out.
Thad watched as Ruby continued to fuss with Lena's arrangement, adding a flower here, removing one there, until the vase looked quite as nice as the one she'd been working on, but composed of the flowers Lena favored. As Ruby trimmed a wilted leaf, Thad recalled Oscar's listless behavior the previous morning. He wondered if Ruby might have any advice. "So you know a lot about plants? Can I ask you a question?"
She blushed, but she smiled as she continued to fuss with the flowers on the table. "I like to think I know enough to get by."
"Well," he said, wondering how best to explain without revealing Oscar's species. "I have a pet plant in a pot, but he doesn't seem happy anymore."
"You have a potted plant for a pet? That's adorable!" said Nicole.
"Oh, leave him alone!" Ruby said, still smiling. She looked at Thad. "How do you know it's not happy?"
Thad shrugged. "He just looks kind of… bad, I guess. Like… sleepy?"
"He?" Beatrix said, halfway through weaving another floral crown.
"I named it Oscar."
"So cute!" Nicole said.
Ruby threw a leaf at her. "What kind of plant food have you tried?"
"Um… mostly fish."
"Hmm," Ruby said, tutting. "Fish is usually very good for the soil."
"The soil. Right," Thad said, nodding. Maybe they needed some kind of fertilizer? He hadn't thought of that before.
"Have you repotted it, I mean, him, lately?"
"No," Thad said. "How do I do that?"
"It's very simple," Ruby said. "Just get a pot that's slightly larger than the current one and move the… um, Oscar right over. New soil, plenty of water. Bit of mulch at the base. See if that doesn't fix him up."
"Yeah, simple." Thad nodded, wondering how he'd pull it off. How many men would it take to wrestle all those tentacle-vines into submission? What would they do about that toothy mouth?
As he pondered this enterprise, Jack appeared, standing in the parlor doorway without coming in. He was out of breath, like he'd been running. Perhaps he had been. He had been forced for politeness sake to discuss Leifenish history with Lord and Lady Hornwood, and had only just, it seemed, managed to extricate himself from the dining hall. "There you are!" he said to Thad. "I've been looking everywhere!"
"For me?" Thad said, surprised. He wondered if the mage was angry at him - at breakfast, Lena had sat with Thad, and Thad had seen the way Jack kept looking at her, as though he were disappointed she hadn't sat by him as she usually did. Thad looked at Jack now, trying to guess his mood, but it was hard to determine his expression beneath his scarf.
"Yes," Jack said, sounding friendly enough. "Orin spoke to me before breakfast. He said he had things to see to today. He suggested you might like to come to town with us. Kane and me, I mean. We're going to Seward's."
Thad opened his mouth to say yes, but he hesitated. Part of him did want to go, tempted by the chance to spend a day with both Kane and Jack, but another part of him whispered that town was where all the dark mages were. "I'm… I'm spending the day with Lena," Thad said hesitantly.
Jack stared at him for a long beat, expression unreadable, and Thad worried Jack knew he was afraid, but eventually Jack said, "I suppose she could come along if she likes."
"Come along where?" Lena's voice came from the hallway behind him.
Jack whipped about. He looked at her, or rather at her legs, stunned, then looked away again. Lena was wearing the brown tunic and short pants that Thad knew meant she intended to get in the water. She still wore the crown of flowers, the tiny, white blooms setting off her red hair, and she held in one hand the wrinkled paper with the map to the frog pond that Ruby had drawn for her. She frowned up at the tall black mage.
"My lady," Jack said, bowing slightly. "I was just inviting Thad to join us for lunch at Seward's today. Would you like to come?"
Nicole laughed, snorting on her bubbly drink. "You'd ask her to town when she's dressed like that?"
Jack blushed, but the way his eyes kept darting to Lena's legs and back revealed an inner struggle. "I would ask her whatever she was wearing."
Ruby and Nicole giggled. Beatrix smirked. But Lena looked at her feet, her mouth a thin line. Thad held his breath, worried she would say yes and he would then have to admit he was too cowardly to go, but Lena said, "Thad and I had other plans this morning."
"Yes, he said as much. Perhaps afterwards? We're not leaving just yet..."
He trailed off when the sidedoor to the kitchens opened and Berta, the cook, came in, carrying a basket. She curtsied to Ruby, then walked over to Lena. "Your picnic, miss," she said.
"A picnic?" Thad said, with growing excitement. "You ordered us a picnic?"
"Ah! Forgive me!" said Jack, chuckling. "I didn't realize your plans were such elaborate ones. Can I walk you out, at least?"
Lena nodded. They bid farewell to Ruby and the Hornwood girls, then Thad hurried over to offer Lena his arm before Jack could do the same. She's mine today! Thad thought. I won't give you a chance to change her mind!
A pair of guards - Jack's - followed as they made their way to the house's back door and out of it. As they reached the garden entrance, Jack motioned the guards to wait outside. He walked with Thad and Lena past the fountain, then looked back to make sure the guards were out of earshot. He looked at Lena, and this time he managed to keep his eyes on her face instead of her legs. "It's supposed to be hot again today."
"Yes," said Lena.
"If I may?" he said, motioning toward the picnic basket. Lena raised a questioning eyebrow, but she held the basket out to him. Jack reached in, plucking out a waterskin, and his eyes glowed white with a corona of frost. He tossed the skin lightly to Thad, and Thad nearly dropped it in surprise: inside, it was solid ice. Jack's eyes showed that he was smiling beneath his scarf. "That should keep you cool for awhile," he said with a self-satisfied nod.
"Thank you," Lena said, stepping toward the maze, pulling Thad by his arm.
"Lena?" Jack said behind them. She looked back. "We won't be leaving for at least an hour, if you change your mind."
She hesitated, but Thad waved and cheerfully said, "Bye, Jack!" then he pulled her along into the hedge maze before she could reconsider.
They had more guards today, far more than Jack was used to. Corporal Clyne was there, as were the others he'd come to know - Hector, Bentley, and Chad - but so too were a dozen others. The guards walked both ahead and behind, clearing a path through the sedate Blue Quarter. It was far more guards than was necessary for Jack and Kane alone. Then again, they weren't alone.
"Why are they here?" Jack whispered as they turned onto Seward's street.
Kane rolled his eyes. "Because I invited them."
Ahead of them, Harvey stretched as he yawned, complaining to Sergeant Quincey yet again - albeit good-naturedly - about the early hour, though it was by now close to lunchtime. Jack had kept them all waiting, hoping Lena would change her mind and join them, but his lady hadn't come. He wondered, again, if she was avoiding him, which would only be fair considering he'd been avoiding her since that embarrassing encounter yesterday morning. He'd told himself he would stay away from her until he'd learned better control of the aether, but seeing her there in that short tunic, his resolve had utterly failed him.
Of course, it's just as well she didn't come, Jack thought, watching Quincey and their extra guards warily. "But why did you invite them, exactly?" It wasn't that Jack disliked the cheerful young lord, or even the stern sergeant. It was just that he couldn't be himself around them, forced to pretend he wasn't a mage, that he was nothing more than a bastard scholar. At least without Lena there, he didn't have to worry as much about losing his hold on the aether.
Kane sighed, exasperated. "Because they saw the thing, too, Jack. If you really think Seward's library can tell us anything about that creature, they need to know."
Jack shrugged, but he didn't argue. By his own admission, his education had been unforgivably light on the study of monsters. He knew only of the famous ones described in classical literature, or those that were commonly used as sources of spell components. He'd never heard of any creature that resembled the frightful woman Kane had described.
Seward didn't seem to mind his extra guests, taking it all in stride, a man prepared to talk at length with anyone on any number of subjects, though the presence of their numerous guards did cause Liza the housekeeper to exclaim that she'd nowhere to put all of them.
"Just stick them all in the dining room, my dear. We'll have our lunch on the back terrace," Seward said, leading Jack and his companions toward the library.
"That's kind of you, Lord Unne, but you needn't serve us lunch," Harvey said. "We're only here for a bit of research."
"Nonsense, my boy! Do I look to you to be the sort of man who ever misses the opportunity for a fine meal?" He swept into the huge, book-lined room with the orrery whirring away in the corner, a tiny replica of the world and its moon. Jack sidled casually toward the table he'd been using for his studies, making sure his own notes were tucked out of sight, while Seward walked toward a wall of shelves. "So what sort of research did you have in mind? Some linguistic interest? Or perhaps some historic concern? No - don't tell me! - you'll be wanting to know about that new mine they've just opened on Half-Moon, yes? I have all the reports right-"
The portly lord stopped, appearing to notice he had no listeners. Harvey had gone straight for the orrery, watching its motions with an expression of childish delight. Kane stood with him, pointing out some interesting mechanism, while Sergeant Quincey stood close behind them, scowling.
"For pity's sake," Seward muttered.
"Seward," Jack said, speaking low. "Be careful what you say. These two don't know I'm a mage. I suspect they wouldn't take it well."
"Oh, dear," Seward said. "I wish you'd sent word. I was reading from Miss Lena's spellbook this morning. My notes are all over that table."
Jack looked at the indicated table and cursed. The table was near the window where the light was better, but far enough away that neither of them could go over and tidy up without drawing attention.
"It will be fine, my lad. Just play along," Seward said, moving toward the orrery.
"Is that a machina?" Quincey said, pointing.
Seward rolled his eyes. "My dear boy, I can't imagine what else you'd think it could be."
"A real machina!" Harvey said. "I thought they were illegal!"
"That's because they are," Quincey intoned.
Seward stood with his hands on his hips, managing to look down on the sergeant despite being a full two hands shorter. "Young man, I believe if you check the city code, under statute thirty-six in the mercantile section, you'll find that only the mass production and distribution of machina is illegal in Melmond. I should know - after all, my father is the one who wrote that law. I have a bound copy of the city ordinances here, if you'd like a moment to review it."
"That won't be necessary, Lord Unne!" Harvey said quickly. "I'm sure Gabriel's sorry for insinuating that-"
"Yes," Quincey said, cutting his friend off. "I believe I would like to review it."
Harvey gasped, clearly worried about offending their host, but Seward only laughed. "Oho! Now that's what I like to see from Melmond's finest! Yes, indeed!" He moved to one of the shelves on the side of the room where he kept books of local interests, passing by the table with Lena's book. The sun shone directly onto an aether diagram on the book's open pages, its glittering golden ink catching Jack's eye. His heart skipped a beat, but a glance at Harvey and the sergeant showed that they hadn't noticed the incriminating book. They watched Seward pluck down a thick volume which he quickly flipped through as though he knew its contents quite well. "Here you are," he said, crossing the room and passing it to the sergeant showing the relevant page.
As Quincey read, his scowl was replaced by a contrite frown. "I see," he said, closing the book gently and handing it back. "Forgive my impertinence, sir. I was mistaken."
Seward chuckled. "You're forgiven! You'd be Seymour's son, then? I had heard that Lord Quincey had a son in the corp of some rank, but I didn't realize he'd be so young!"
"Yes, sir," said the sergeant.
Seward handed the law book to Jack with a subtle wink and said, "Jack, would you put that away? Thank you." Then he turned back to the others. "Well, you mentioned some manner of research? Clearly you're not here to discuss machina!"
"Right!" Harvey said. "Jack said you had bestiaries? Some information about dangerous monsters?"
Jack crossed the room, slipping the law book back onto its shelf before turning his attention to the spellbook on its sunny table. He picked it up, pretending it had caught his eye as he was passing. He flipped through a few pages, then shut it, sliding it onto the nearby shelf that held his own spellbook. Then he pretended to idly look through Seward's notes, straightening as he went.
Seward replied, "Indeed, I have! What prompted this line of study, if I may ask?"
"There was an attack in the White Quarter yesterday," said Quincey.
"Yes, I heard about that! Dead men, they say! But you'll not find that in any bestiary. That seems to have been some manner of white magic curse!"
Jack had to stop himself from making an indignant reply. Necromancy was white magic, true, but to call the resultant abominations a "white magic curse" revealed an ignorance of magic that disappointed him, particularly coming from his scholarly friend. It bothered him that even someone as intelligent as Seward, who'd spent the past week studying the most illustrious white magic tome in the world, still distrusted and feared that power, as much as Jack feared speaking up in defense of it in their present company.
It surprised him, therefore, when Sergeant Quincey said, "No. I don't believe that. White magic doesn't work that way."
Seward shrugged. "I'm only repeating what the rumors say."
"Hang the rumors," Quincey muttered.
"Magic or not," Kane said, "there was something else, some other creature there with the dead. That's what we need to know about."
"You saw this creature?" Seward asked.
The others nodded.
"Alright then," Seward said, wandering toward the library's biology section and pulling a fat book from beneath a dusty coeurl skull. Jack continued to gather Seward's papers, stopping when he found another set of notes in a looping, delicate hand. Lena's notes, he realized. He stacked the various papers from the table, keeping hers on top, but he didn't put them away.
Seward said, "We'll start with a dichotomous key. That's a tool for identifying things you've seen when you don't know what they are. Tell me, what do you remember most about this beast?"
"Teeth," Kane and Harvey said together. Harvey shuddered.
"Hmm," Seward said, giving them a flat look over the volume he held. "I'm afraid that doesn't narrow it down at all. What else?"
"It was a woman," Kane said. "Gorgeous, until she wasn't."
"Ah!" Seward said, flipping pages. "That is useful! Believe it or not, there's a whole subsection of animals that resemble gorgeous women. Right up until they eat you, that is! Any other distinguishing characteristics?"
"She could freeze you with a look," Harvey said.
"That's something. Give me a moment," Seward said.
The others waited patiently, Quincey scanning Seward's shelves as their host searched the book, Kane and Harvey watching the orrery in the corner. While they were occupied, Jack looked down at the papers in his hands, wondering what Lena had learned. He hadn't had an opportunity to discuss her studies with her. He could see that she'd translated the story of Ffamran and the dragon, though with many scribbles and mistakes. Nothing wrong with mistakes, he thought. Mistakes lead to knowledge. Her copy of the Dispel aether diagram that accompanied the story, however, was perfect. Has she learned the spell yet? With everything going on he hadn't thought to ask her.
There were several other copied diagrams, some for spells he hadn't heard of, and he realized that at some point along the way, Lena had begun studying the diagrams more than the stories. When was the last time I had a conversation about magic with her? he thought, only to remember it had been here, in this room, when she'd told him she didn't need him as more than a friend. And yet I have permission to kiss her, he thought, wondering how that particular change in their circumstances fit into all of this.
"Here's a promising one!" Seward said, holding his book out to the others. "The lamia! Half woman, half snake."
Jack froze, numb, as a memory flashed across his vision, a memory of fire. He heard its voice: "You're weak, witch! What makes you think you can defeat me?"
Half woman, half snake…
Seward said, "It was first described in Stiltskin's Moogles in the Mist, an old book, mostly discredited. It says here the lamia has the power to charm its victims so that they're powerless against its attacks. Look here. Is that what you saw?"
"I don't think so," Harvey said. "Surely we would have noticed the tail, right? I don't remember seeing one."
"She had legs," Kane said. "Trust me. That dress didn't leave anything to the imagination."
Sergeant Quincey shook his head. "She looked human enough at first glance. But… she did turn into smoke at the end. Does your book have anything like that in it?"
"Hmm, some kind phase-shifting? Yes, there are a few. An elemental, perhaps? They have been known on occasion to appear in humanoid form…" Seward said, rapidly turning pages.
Jack sank into a chair at the sunny table. He stared down at Lena's notes without seeing them, seeing instead that burning forest, his memory recalling the event in crisp detail as though he were still living it, as though fifteen years hadn't passed since that terrible night.
A maid came in to say, "Lunch is ready, my lords."
"Well, we'll continue after we've eaten," Seward said, setting the bestiary down and waving the others ahead of him toward the door.
Jack set Lena's papers facedown on the table and stood, following the others, but he stopped when he reached the bestiary, his curiosity too great to ignore.
"Jack? Are you coming?" Kane said.
"I'm not hungry," he said.
Kane sighed but didn't press further. "Suit yourself," he said. As he and the others left, Jack could hear him mumbling about Jack's poor diet.
He took the bestiary to one of the padded chairs where Seward often took his afternoon naps, but he sat on the chair's edge rather than sinking back into the cushions. He skimmed the book's index, finding what he needed. His heart thumped as he turned to the relevant page.
"Lamia, called also "lilith" by the Leifenish. A distant relative of the naga. While often spoken of in Leifenish texts, the lamia is now believed to be extinct, though the naga can still be found in the caves of Fosshio and of Eburana which border the Eidolon Wastes. Though small of stature, lamia were noted to be deadly because of their ability to hypnotize their victims, leaving them unable to defend themselves."
The illustration was nothing like the thing he remembered. The artist had drawn it with a delicate, heart-shaped face and a rosebud mouth. The coiling tail encircled a knight, and the pale arms of the creature - her human half no bigger than any other young woman - could not even reach all the way around the man's armored chest. She had only two arms, and Jack had trouble imagining them breaking a stout branch, let alone a whole tree.
He released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Silly, he thought. Ridiculous. Why should he be afraid of words in a book? Even if the lamia had been the creature from his memory, it wasn't as if that knowledge would change anything.
He knew he should join the others - he was hungry after all - but something kept him in the chair, some sense of foreboding, and he found himself reading the rest of the passage.
"Lamia were magical creatures by nature, each capable of using their hypnotic spells to varying degrees. But, as with other humanoid monsters, there were occasionally mages born among them. When such creatures lived long enough, prolonged use of the aether could cause physiological changes including dramatic increases in size and the growth of additional limbs…"
Jack stopped, remembering again. Six arms, each holding a sword. Gods… He read on, his stomach sinking.
"This creature, known as the lamia queen, or "marilith" in Leifenish, could purportedly reach heights as tall as three men together, with the strength of behemoths and an appetite to match."
There was no illustration of the marilith, but Jack knew. This was it, the thing that had killed his mother, the thing that had burned him.
It has a name. My nightmare has a name.
"I think he's waking."
Porter drifted into consciousness on a hard cot. He hurt so much. His face, his head, his gut… It took him a moment to remember that that child, the little black mage, had stabbed him. He was sweating. He was sure he'd never felt such a powerful thirst. He tried to speak, to ask where he was, but all that came out was a moan.
A man stood over him, outlined by the light of the open door behind him. Porter couldn't identify his features. The man held a cup to his lips.
"Drink."
Porter did, choking as the man all but poured the liquid down his throat. Water, but with an acrid aftertaste that told him it was drugged. He was so thirsty, he hadn't the energy to care.
It was bright outside, and he blinked against that brightness as he surveyed his surroundings. His cell was small and windowless, the walls wooden. His hands were tied, his arms stretched above his head by the rope which had been looped over a hook high on the wall. He could see guards standing outside, and a green slope that certainly couldn't have been in the city. Had they moved him to the countryside?
He thought there were two men in the room with him, but it was too dark to see clearly. He called up his aether sight, swaying from a sudden dizziness.
The man held a cool hand to Porter's brow, then pulled at his side where the bandages were wound tight. Porter hissed in pain; the man wasn't gentle about it. "Fever," the man said. "The wound's likely infected."
"I have heard that abdominal wounds such as this generally result in a slow and regrettably painful death," another voice said, older and lightly accented.
The first man chuckled. "Sounds a bit petty, coming from you."
"This man attacked young master Shipman. My feelings toward him are more than petty."
"Fair enough. But I need him alive."
"Can you heal this infection without healing the wound?"
"I suppose we'll find out."
Those rough hands glowed. White magic! Porter realized, before he cried out as his wound began to sting. He waited for the Cure to resolve itself and ease the pain, but when the glow faded, the wound was still there, still painful. "Please," Porter begged. "Please!"
"I don't think so, friend," the man said in a decidedly unfriendly tone. "I won't risk healing a man who can apparently Teleport at will. That gut wound is the only thing keeping you here."
"No! Please! I don't know what you're talking about!" Porter lied.
"I think you do. You Teleported three times in eight hours that we know of - twice while hauling six-stone's worth of squirming boy. That shouldn't be possible." The man leaned closer, his hand pressing down on Porter's midsection until Porter saw stars. "But I know a thing or two about Teleport, you see. I know what it does to a body: the force, the pressure? I suspect if you were to try it now, your intestines would come spilling out of this hole the boy stuck in you."
Porter gasped against the pain. When he could steady his voice again, he said, "What kind of white mage are you?"
"I'm not a white mage," the man said. "You should know that. I believe your kind had a hand in wiping them out in these parts."
Not a white mage? But that had been a Cure, hadn't it? Porter tried to focus his watery eyes enough to see the man he was speaking to, tried to focus his mind enough to call up his aether sight. He was growing used to the darkness, could just make out the man's long white hair, the hard angles of his face. Porter had seen this man before, using both black and white spells in that empty theater. "You're the red mage," he said. "The one who stopped the ritual."
"I am," the man said. "And now my associate and I have a few questions to ask you about that."
"Associate?" Porter said, looking toward the other man. His aether sight was slowly coming into view like a faraway ship seen through a spyglass. The man by the door became a bright outline of aether, and then the aether took on the color of his aura, a deep, dark green. The White Wind... Porter moaned. He was dead. He was surely dead.
He tried to flee. It was almost instinctual, that impulse to grab the aether and see what kind of Teleport he could make from it, but when he reached for the power, his vision swam. His head fell back against the hard cot, and he remembered only then that they had drugged him. He whimpered.
The red mage watched him, almost as if he knew Porter had tried to cast a spell. "Now," he said, smiling wickedly. "You can talk to me… Or…" He cocked his head toward the old assassin. "You can talk to him. But let me make one thing clear to you. You're only useful to us as long as you're talking."
Lena sat beside the tranquil frog pond in the shelter of the hedge maze. She had spent a few minutes practicing Dispel, a few more working on her rain-repelling charm. She'd started one of the two-gil novels Ruby had lent her - regrettably, a romance - then she set it down again. She sighed.
"Lena!" Thad said. "Lena, watch this!" He dove under the shallow water, and soon his bare feet stuck out into the air, swaying. His head popped up again. "Did you see? I stood on my hands!"
"Very nice," Lena said, trying to smile encouragingly.
Thad, not seeming to notice her glum mood, came dripping out of the pond and plopped down beside the basket. Berta didn't much care for Lena - Lena didn't know why - but the cook had packed the basket generously, knowing it was for the boy. There was cake, and preserves, and plums, more than the two of them could ever eat, particularly following so close on the heels of their breakfasts, though Thad was managing to demolish the cake quite handily. She was somewhat hungry herself, but then she had only picked at her meal that morning, having other things on her mind. She plucked out a bit of the cake for herself while there was still some left.
"Did you hear?" Thad asked around a mouthful of crumbs. "Kane said I could train with him in the yard tomorrow."
"Yes, I heard. He was very worried about you yesterday." Her words brought a wave of warmth from the boy and she knew he was pleased. Not so much pleased because he wanted Kane to worry, she suspected, but because Kane cared about him enough to do so. Thadius wanted so much for his friends to like him. Lena remembered her conversation with the guardsman the day before, how beaten down he was. If such a brave and gifted warrior doubted himself, she pondered, what chance did a little boy like Thad have? What chance do any of us have, really? she thought.
"Was Jack worried?" Thad said.
"Surely he must have been," Lena said. She could assume that much, couldn't she? But then… I assumed he liked me, she thought. Out loud, she said, "But I didn't see him yesterday, except once in the morning." She did not add that they had been sharing a bed at the time.
She nibbled at her cake, watching as Thad chased frogs through a stand of cattails. She grabbed the waterskin for a drink, but to her surprise, it was still mostly ice. We haven't been here that long, she realized. Jack might not even be gone yet. She found she was tempted to go back to the house.
Instead, she got in the water, letting herself sink to the bottom, and she waited in the cool mud until she could no longer hold her breath. Then she stood, hair dripping, and let everyone else's emotions wash away. It did nothing to ease the ache in her chest, the pained confusion that had settled over her - those feelings were wholly her own.
They left Seward's in the late afternoon, and though they hadn't found the information they'd been looking for, Kane wasn't going back empty handed. In a satchel over his shoulder, he carried the gifts Lord Unne had given him before they departed: a book of machina design, and the little wind-up device on wheels they'd toyed with on his previous visits. Gabriel had made several sarcastic comments about the illegality of machina distribution, but Kane thought him unlikely to arrest anyone over it.
"I quite liked the man!" said Harvey, speaking of Seward. They were nearly back at the manor now, and the young lord was using a thin stick to whack the tops off the tall grasses beside the path, like a child playing at swords.
"You like everyone," Gabriel grumbled.
Kane chuckled at the exchange. He walked behind the two of them, next to Jack. The black mage had been quiet since lunchtime, more than usual even for him. While Kane and the others had looked through dozens of bestiaries, Jack had been conducting research of his own, copying every book's entry on the creature called the lamia and making page after page of notes that he kept looking at as they walked. Kane had tried to ask him about them, but the mage was reticent as always. Kane knew he'd never get it out of him while they were surrounded by their numerous guards.
Harvey went on, speaking casually to Kane over his shoulder. "Such an interesting conversationalist! For a vestigial lord, he seemed well-versed in international affairs. Most I've talked to know little more than their own business! It's part of the reason they squabble so much, father says!"
"Vestigial lord?" Kane asked.
"Well, 'Lord of Half-Moon Mountain' is a minor title, not what it once was. Lord Unne doesn't even have a place on the Lords' Council. The Unnes are still among the high families, of course, but, well, not all that high."
"High enough for you to use his library," Jack muttered. "High enough for you to eat at his table."
"Hush," Kane said. He knew Harvey hadn't meant anything by it, though deep down, he too was offended on Seward's behalf. The man did know a lot about politics, both foreign and local. It seemed a shame that knowledge couldn't be put to use for the good of the city-state somehow.
"About as high as Lord of the West Hills," Gabriel said, throwing Jack such an arch look that Kane knew he'd heard Jack's muttering. Jack met that look with one of his own, emotionless and steady. Kane felt a chill that could have been a breeze, but he doubted it. He'd already noticed that Jack was the only one in their group who wasn't sweating from the summer heat.
Harvey cleared his throat awkwardly. "Indeed! Lord Unne and Lord Carmine are of equal rank, you're right." He let out a forced laugh. "Why, father once told me that when your father and uncle would attend council meetings as young men, the council would make them sit quietly in a corner! Can you imagine? The sons of Titan himself!"
Gabriel sighed. "His rank is equal to Lord Pollendina's," he said, looking at Kane, and Kane knew from his tone that he meant it as an apology. "Technically higher, since the Pollendina family doesn't even have any lands left."
"That's right!" said Harvey. "If Vince weren't Lord Secretary he wouldn't have a place in the council either. It's an elected position, you see, though you do have to be a noble to run for it."
By then, they'd reached the house. Most of their guards stayed outside, though four, one for each of them, followed them up the porch and inside. The one called Bentley stayed with Kane, while Clyne, the one with the odd nose, followed Jack. Harvey said something about dressing for dinner then he and Gabriel headed off toward their respective rooms at the back of the house.
As Kane and Jack walked past the parlor toward the stairs, Jack began to read his notes again. "What's got you so interested?" Kane asked.
"It's nothing," Jack said without looking up.
"Is it?" Kane said, grabbing at the top page as Jack was flipping to the page beneath it.
"Kane!" Jack hissed. "Give it back!"
Kane laughed, dancing out of his reach. He ducked behind Corporal Clyne, satisfied to see that the corporal played along, a crooked smirk on his face as he thwarted Jack's efforts to get by. Kane took a good look at the paper he held. "It's all in Leifenish," he said, disgustedly. "How am I supposed to know all your secrets if you won't use plain speech?"
Jack snatched the paper back. "Serves you right for shamefully neglecting your own studies!" He grumbled a Leifenish phrase as he straightened the stack of pages, trailing off into silence.
Kane crossed his arms and tried to imitate his father's sternest face. "I like to think I've studied enough to know what that phrase-"
"Shh," Jack said, holding up a finger. He was looking toward the parlor door, and Kane soon realized he heard voices, Orin's and one other, a woman. Jack moved closer, stealing a quick glance inside, and Kane followed to do the same.
Orin sat on one of the couches, surrounded by a handful of uniformed men, two Avenue Inspectors and three regular guard corps. The woman stood before him, her back to the door. She seemed frantic, trembling wildly as she spoke. "He ain't been back! Not once all night! No one's seen him! Please, master monk-"
"It's Mrs. Gainsborough," Jack whispered. "The woman I told you about."
"The one whose son-" Kane stopped, remembering Clyne and Bentley, then said, "whose son is friends with Shipman?"
Jack nodded.
"We will do all we can to find your Noah," Orin told her. "I will ask the inspectors to see to it personally. You have my word. Tell me, when did you last see him?"
A hand fell on Kane's shoulder, and he and Jack were pulled away from the door. His father stood behind them, keeping a firm grip on them both. "Aren't you too old for eavesdropping?" he said, adding a mumbled, "A disappointment to your mothers, both of you." He propelled Kane and Jack toward the stairs, and when their guards followed, he barked, "You two! Wait here and ask Lord Orin to join us upstairs when he's finished." The guards stopped where they were, though Clyne made a sour face.
Upstairs in their room, Redden closed the door and locked it behind him, leaning against it in a relaxed pose that seemed to say he was shutting the rest of the world out rather than locking the two of them in. "Alright, what did you find?"
Of course he'd want a report, Kane thought. It had taken a protracted argument for Kane to convince his father to let him out of the manor again, even with as many guards as they'd had, but Lord Redden had agreed that they needed more information about the thing Kane had faced, agreed so strongly that it had been Redden who convinced Lord Leiden to let Harvey and Gabriel go along. Kane leaned against the wall beside the window, mimicking his father's pose. "Nothing useful," he said shrugging. "We searched nearly a dozen bestiaries. Some of the animals seemed promising, but none were exactly right."
"It was magical," said Jack, sitting in a slouch on the bed. "A construct or a familiar. Perhaps a human mage corrupted by extraordinary powers."
Kane cocked his head at that. "How do you figure?"
"As you said, we checked dozens of bestiaries, but Seward's library doesn't have any books on magical creatures. If we didn't find it there, that's why."
"Why didn't you say anything before?" Kane snapped.
"How could I? Do you really want me to start spouting talk of magic in front of your new friends?" Jack said, the last word dripping spite.
Kane sighed. "You're still mad at me for inviting them?"
Redden cleared his throat as if to say, "Can we get on with it?"
Jack turned to Lord Redden. "I took a quick glance at Astos's book while we were there. I thought if it discussed ochus, it might perhaps discuss other magical beasts as well. But I haven't finished translating it yet. It's possible it might contain something-"
"It won't," said Redden, shaking his head. "That beast won't be in any black magic book. Orin and I questioned the dark mage today."
"You what?" Kane barked.
His father held up a hand to silence him. "The thing you fought… I think it was magical, a thing called a vampire."
From the bed, Jack muttered, "Vampire…" as though he were testing the word, rolling it over and over in his mouth. "Vampire…"
"From the Leifenish, yes," said Redden. "Means 'blood drinker'. And they do drink blood. They strike at night, bite their victims in the neck. Leave bruises that look like plague sores."
"The night plague," Jack said.
Redden nodded. "The night plague. They can also Teleport through shadow. They fear sunlight and can paralyze their victims with a look."
Kane remembered the creature's screech as the clouds had parted, letting the sunshine in. He whistled out a breath, running a hand through his hair. "That sounds like our mystery girl. How do we kill it?"
Redden sighed. "That's where it gets complicated. See, vampires aren't ordinary magical creatures. They're made. What Jack called a 'construct'. Things like these, you kill one, another will just takes its place. We have to kill the maker. And this one… Well, a vampire is a necromantic construct."
"Gods," Jack whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. "A necromancer, here?"
Redden nodded. He faced Kane. "You know necromancy is a corruption of white magic. What you don't know is that the longer a necromancer keeps it up, the less power he has. The way white magic works, it uses up their souls. A healthy soul grows back, but not a necromancer's. That is, if the necromancer is a white mage. There's nothing stopping a dark mage from practicing white magic, and using other people's souls to do it. The Brotherhood here in Melmond, they're led by a man named Eldieme. He's been hunting down the white mages in the surrounding countryside for more than a year."
"From the sound of things, he's just found himself another one," Kane said.
Redden nodded again. "Thad's little friend, that boy from the lower town. His mother came looking for him here, hoped he and Thad were together. Leiden doesn't know the boy was a mage; his mother was smart enough to leave that bit out when she spoke to the guards."
"Right after one of them tried to take Thad, they take his friend?" Jack said. "How did Thad take the news?"
Redden raised an eyebrow. "We haven't told him yet. We thought he was with you."
"He didn't go out with us today," said Kane.
Redden turned a penetrating gaze on Jack. "Orin said he asked you to watch him."
"He did!" Jack said quickly. "That is, I invited him, but he and Lena had plans."
"You mean to say you've lost both of them?" Redden said, his frown deepening. Kane found himself frowning as well. "No one's seen either of them since this morning! Everyone assumed they went out with you two!"
Jack's eyes widened. "I didn't lose- I mean, not really! I'm sure they're, or, I think…" He stopped, pinching the space between his eyebrows. After taking a minute to compose himself, he tried again. "I might know where they are."
"In that case," Redden said, flicking the lock open as he stepped away from the door and gestured toward it, "why are you still sitting there?"
Jack stood stiffly and walked out mumbling.
Redden shook his head. "I'll have to talk to him about language again." He looked toward Kane then, raising a critical eyebrow. Kane still leaned against the wall, arms crossed in front of him. Redden pulled out the room's only chair. He moved it closer to the bed and sat down, motioning for Kane to sit on the bed across from him. When Kane did, their knees close enough to bump each other if they weren't careful, Redden said, "I needed to talk to you alone anyway."
Kane said nothing. He waited.
"I was wrong to let you leave today," his father said.
"Just because we didn't find any information on the creature-" Kane began, but his father held up a hand.
"What I meant was I should have kept you with me."
Kane blinked. "With you?"
"When I questioned that dark mage. I should have had you with me."
Kane's lips moved, trying to form the questions firing through his mind, trying to pick to just one. Eventually, he settled on, "Why?"
"It's hard, as a father, to admit your child is a grown man now. I hope you learn that someday. I truly do." Redden smiled ruefully.
"What does that mean?" Kane said.
"It means… that I can't keep protecting you from this," Redden said, shaking his head. "The Brotherhood… Prophecies - yours, mine. When I heard you and Harvey had been attacked by some monster, when you and Jack went off to fight Astos on your own, when I watched you kill Garland… Kane, you don't know how that feels, how it twists me up inside to know my son - my son - is in danger. Every time, I wish I'd been there. Every time, I wish I could keep you safe. But I can't." He leaned forward, gripping Kane's shoulder with one rough hand. "All I can do is fight beside you. So I will. I'm asking you, son: Will you let me?"
Kane sat, stunned, watching his father's face, unsure how to respond. His father, asking something like that? This was the man who negated Kane's wildest ideas, who naysayed his reckless plans. What did it mean, if he was asking to join him now? "Father," Kane said, still formulating his response.
"I want to plan an attack against them," Redden said. He sat back, releasing Kane's shoulder, but Kane still felt the pressure of his hand. "Against the Brotherhood. A trap of some sort. I haven't sorted out the details, but I'll need every capable swordsman I can get. To my mind, that includes you. Fight with me."
Kane sat silently. His father's eyes were still locked on his, waiting for his answer. How much trouble would he have got himself into over the years without his father there to stop him? Then again…
How much bolder would his wild ideas and reckless plans have been if his father had been beside him, helping them along?
And so Kane said, "Yes. Yes, I will."
Rested and refreshed, but with sun-bleary eyes, Lena dug through the picnic basket, searching for Ruby's hand-drawn directions. Though she'd been through the maze many times now, she still had trouble remembering some of the turns. "Have you seen the map?" she asked.
"No," said Thad, chasing frogs. "Not since we got here."
She searched more diligently, moving the remains of their meal aside to look underneath. The cake was gone, but most of the fruit was still there, as was the frozen waterskin Jack had made for them. But no map. "Where could it have got to?"
"I can lead us out!" Thad said brightly, wiping his hands on his trousers. "I can read the aether well enough to follow our trail!"
"Alright," she said, shifting the basket's contents so that it rested more evenly on her arm. "Lead the way!" He beamed at her, zipping through the archway of climbing roses in such high spirits that she laughed as she followed him.
They'd only made three turns before he stopped, looking back and forth in confusion.
"What's wrong?" she said. "You're doing fine so far. I remember that last bit well enough."
"I don't know," he said. "The trail ends here…"
"Ends? What do you mean?"
He shook his head. "It just… ends. I can see the way back to the pond, and I can see that we came through here when we arrived, but right about…" He gestured vaguely toward a bush. "Right about there? There's nothing." He walked forward, squinting, then shook his head, and Lena could feel his frustration. "I'm sorry! I don't know what I did wrong! I really thought I could do it!"
"It's alright, Thadius. You're still new at this." She slipped the picnic basket to the ground and knelt beside it, picking out its contents one by one. "I'm sure I have that map here somewhere," she said, but a few minutes later, she hadn't found it. She sighed, reloading the basket. "Well, I think I can almost remember the way…"
They walked slowly, backtracking often. Thad kept reading the aether all the while; whenever they made a wrong turn, he was able to guide them back to the last intersection. Lena could feel his spirits lifting as she praised his cleverness, but she also had to admit that navigating the maze like this was more fun than following the map.
They laughed as Thad let Lena lead, following her spotty memories of how she thought the maze went, and they came to yet another dead end. "It's a good thing we're not in any hurry," she said, shaking her head at herself. She'd been so certain of that last turn.
"Lena?" a voice called, and moments later, "Thad?"
"Jack?" Thad answered.
"It can't be," she said. "He's gone to town."
But she knew it was him when he shouted again. "Thad! Where in Ramuh's name are you?" He sounded angry.
"We're in the maze!" said Thad.
"I know that!" said Jack. "I meant-" He growled slightly. "Nevermind. Just stay where you are. I'll find you."
Lena could hear the sounds of his progress, the cracking of branches as he forced his way through the overgrowth. As she listened, she realized she could feel him as well. He was worried. About us? she wondered. About me? She dismissed the thought out of hand. Why should he be worried about her? He didn't really like her. Lena sighed, remembering why she had opted to spend her morning in the maze in the first place. She wondered if it was too late to run back to the frog pond and dive in.
Jack turned the corner, and the leaf stuck in his hair would have been comical had not his eyes been blazing with aether, a blue-green corona that completely obscured the upper part of his face. It faded considerably when he saw them, enough that Lena could make out his angry expression beneath the glow. His scarf wrinkled in such a way that it looked like an exaggerated scowl. "What are the two of you doing?" he demanded.
"We were just on our way back to the house," Lena said, her voice shaking a little at his tone.
"Just now?" he asked incredulously.
"We haven't been gone that long!" said Thad, rolling his eyes.
"Yes," Lena said, not bothering to hide her confusion. "What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were going to Seward's for lunch?"
Jack cocked an eyebrow at her. "I did. And now I'm back. It's nearly time for dinner."
"You're joking," she said.
"Do I sound like I'm joking?" he said, standing with his arms crossed.
"But that's not possible!" she said.
Jack only looked at her, and the remains of the corona made his expression seem menacing. "I assure you, it is." He sighed, turning back the way he'd come, and said, "Come on. I'm starving."
Thad shuffled after him, head bowed, but Lena hesitated. She reached into the basket on her arm, where the waterskin sat chilling the items around it. "Jack!" she said, rushing after him. "Wait, please!"
He kept walking. "Lena, it's been a long day. I'm tired. Do you have any idea how much effort it takes to read an aether trail that old?"
"Wait!" she said, grabbing his arm, pulling him to a stop as she pressed the waterskin into his hand. "Jack, I'm telling you, we've only been here a couple of hours."
Jack looked down at the skin, hefting it in his hand. It was still mostly ice. She felt his shock. She saw it in his eyes. They widened, darting quickly between her and Thad. Suddenly, Jack dropped the waterskin to the ground and grabbed Thad roughly by the shoulders. The corona sprang back into full brightness, the blue-green of an intense aether-reading. Thad cried out, squirming, but Jack snapped, "Hold still!"
"You're hurting me!" Thad said.
"Hold still!" Jack said again.
"Jack!" Lena cried. "Jack, stop it! You're scaring him!"
Jack did not relent. Thad whimpered.
Lena grabbed Jack's shoulder and pulled. "You're scaring me! What's going on?"
He looked at her, and she saw in that glowing gaze that he too was afraid. "I think Thad's using the aether to bend time."
Author's Note: 4/6/18 - "There are lots of things it could be besides cancer," the doctor said last month when I failed the preliminary cancer screening. "But we need to rule out cancer first." The first available appointment for an advanced screening was almost three weeks later.
It was a hard three weeks. Three weeks of wondering if I was going to need chemo, lose my hair, be too sick to participate in the Summer Reading Program - I mean, I know I complain about the Summer Reading Program, but I'm pretty sure I prefer it to cancer.
I didn't tell anyone. I didn't want my loved ones to worry if it turned out to be nothing. But then I didn't know what to tell them when they wanted to make plans for the future either.
"Hey, why don't we go to that concert in May?" Um, I don't know if I'll be up for it.
"Have you bought shoes for Dave's wedding?" Am I going to be able to attend the wedding?
"Have you started planning your annual Halloween party yet?" Will I be well enough to have one?
I'm happy to say I don't have cancer. The advanced screening went perfectly and I got the results right away. It was a huge weight off my mind.
That said, it's put me very behind on my writing. For those three weeks, I'd sit down to write and nothing would happen. My brain was too full of reality to even think about Final Fantasy. I went from 20k words a month to 0. I didn't even try. I'm back on it now, but I wanted to let you know in case the next chapter is delayed.
Meanwhile, the world is a beautiful place. And I don't have cancer.
PS - Go back and read this thing from the beginning. See if you can find all the places Thad was bending time. There are plenty. :)