A Gathering of Shadows

  She was standing in the middle of the western arena, the stands awash in silver and black, the Faroan’s pale-green pennant only an accent in the crowd.

  Across from her stood the man himself, Ver-as-Is, an orb of tinted earth in each palm. Lila considered the magician—he was lithe, his limbs long and thin and twined with muscle, his skin the color of char, and his eyes an impossibly pale green, the same as his flag. Set deep into his face, they seemed to glow. But it was the gold that most caught her interest.

  Most of the Faroans she’d seen wore gems on their skin, but Ver-as-Is wore gold. Beneath his mask, which concealed only the top half of his head, beads of the precious metal traced the lines of his face and throat in a skeletal overlay.

  Lila wondered if it was a kind of status symbol, a display of wealth.

  But displaying your wealth was just asking to be robbed of it, and she wondered how hard it would be to remove the beads.

  How did they stay on? Glue? Magic? No, she noticed the ornaments on Ver-as-Is hadn’t been stuck in place, exactly—they’d been buried, each one embedded in the skin. The modification was expertly done, the flesh around the beads barely raised, creating the illusion that the metal had grown straight from his face. But she could see the faint traces of scarring, where flesh and foreign object met.

  That would certainly make robbing difficult.

  And messy.

  “Astal,” said the judge in white and gold. Prepare.

  The crowd stilled, holding its breath.

  The Faroan lifted his orbs, waiting for her to do the same.

  Lila held out her spheres—fire and water—said a quick prayer, and let go.

  * * *

  Alucard filled two glasses from the decanter on the table.

  The glass was halfway to Lila’s lips when he said, “I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.”

  She stopped and peered at the contents. “What is this?”

  “Avise wine … mostly.”

  “Mostly,” she echoed. She squinted, and sure enough, she could see particles of something swirling in the liquid. “What have you put in it?”

  “Red sand.”

  “I assume you contaminated my favorite drink for a reason?”

  “Indeed.”

  He set his own glass back on the table.

  “Tonight, you’re going to learn to influence two elements simultaneously.”

  “I can’t believe you ruined a bottle of avise wine.”

  “I told you magic was a conversation—”

  “You also said it was an ocean,” said Lila. “And a door, and once I think you even called it a cat—”

  “Well, tonight we’re calling it a conversation. We’re simply adding another participant. The same power, different lines.”

  “I’ve never been able to pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time.”

  “Well then, this should be interesting.”

  * * *

  Lila gasped for breath.

  Ver-as-Is was circling, and her body screamed, still aching from the day before. And yet, tired as she was, the magic was there, under her skin, pulsing to get out.

  They were even, six to six.

  Sweat ran into her eyes as she ducked, dodged, leaped, struck. A lucky blow took out the plate on the Faroan’s bicep. Seven to six.

  Water spun before her in a shield, turning to ice every time Ver-as-Is struck. It shattered beneath his blows, but better the shield than her precious plates.

  The ruse didn’t work for long. After the second block, he caught on and followed up his first attack with another. Lila lost two more plates in a matter of seconds. Seven to eight.

  She could feel her strength ebbing, and the Faroan only seemed to get stronger. Faster.

  Fire and water was proving to be a wretched choice. They couldn’t touch; every time they did, they canceled, turning to steam or smoke—

  And that gave her an idea.

  She maneuvered to the nearest boulder, one low enough to scale, and brought the two forces together in her hands. White smoke billowed forth, filling the arena, and in its cover she turned and vaulted up onto the rock. From above, she could see the swirl of air made by Ver-as-Is as he turned, trying to find her. Lila focused, and the steam separated; the water became mist and then ice, freezing around him, while her fire surged up into the air and then rained down. Ver-as-Is got his earth into an arcing shield, but not before she broke two of his plates. Nine to eight.

  Before she could savor the advantage, a spike of earth shot through the air at her and she leaped backward off the boulder.

  And straight into a trap.

  Ver-as-Is was there, inside her guard, four earthen spears hurtling toward her. There was no way to avoid the blows, no time. She was going to lose, but it wasn’t just about the match, not in this moment, because those spears were sharp, as sharp as the ice that had pierced Kell’s shoulder.

  Panic spiked through her, the way it had so many times when a knife came too close and she felt the balance tip, the kiss of danger, the brush of death.

  No. Something surged inside her, something simple and instinctual, and in that moment, the whole world slowed.

  It was magic—it had to be—but unlike anything she’d ever done. For an instant, the space inside the arena seemed to change, slowing her pulse and drawing out the fractions of time within the second, stretching the moment—not much, just long enough for her to dodge, and roll, and strike. One of Ver-as-Is’s spears still grazed her arm, breaking the plate and drawing blood, but it didn’t matter, because Ver-as-Is’s body took an instant—that same, stolen instant—too long to move, and her ice hit him in the side, shattering his final plate.

  And just like that, the moment snapped closed, and everything caught up. She hadn’t noticed the impossible quiet of that suspended second until it collapsed. In its wake, the world was chaos. Her arm was stinging, and the crowd had exploded into cheers, but Lila couldn’t stop staring at Ver-as-Is, who was looking down at himself, as if his body had betrayed him. As if he knew that what had just happened wasn’t possible.

  But if Lila had broken the rules, no one else seemed to notice. Not the judge, or the king, or the cheering stands.

  “Victory goes to Stasion Elsor,” announced the man in white and gold.

  Ver-as-Is glowered at her, but he didn’t call foul. Instead he turned and stormed away. Lila watched him go. She felt something wet against her lip, and tasted copper. When she reached her fingers through the jaws of her mask and touched her nose, they came away red. Her head was spinning. But that was all right; it had been a tough fight.

  And she had won.

  She just wasn’t sure how.

  III

  Rhy was perched on the edge of Kell’s bed, rubbing his collar while Hastra tried to wrap Kell’s shoulder. It was healing, but not fast enough for a ball. “Suck it up, Brother,” he chided the prince. “Tomorrow will be worse.”

  He’d won. It had been close—so close—and not just because beating Kisimyr by anything more than a hair would raise suspicions. No, she was good, she was excellent, maybe even the best. But Kell wasn’t ready to stop fighting yet, wasn’t ready to give up the freedom and the thrill and go back to being a trinket in a box. Kisimyr was strong, but Kell was desperate, and hungry, and he’d scored the tenth point.

  He’d made it to the final nine.

  Three groups of three, squaring off against each other, one at a time, only the holder of the highest points advancing. It wouldn’t be enough to win. Kell would have to win by more than a single hit.

  And he’d drawn the bad card. Tomorrow, he’d have to fight not one, but both matches. He pitied the prince, but there was no going back now.

  Kell had told Rhy about the king’s request that he keep to the palace. Of course, he’d told him after sneaking out to the match.

  “He’s going to have a fit if he finds out,” Rhy warned.

  “Which is why he won’t,” said Kell. Rhy looked unconvinc
ed. For all his rakish play, he’d never been good at disobeying his father. Up until recently, neither had Kell.

  “Speaking of tomorrow,” said Rhy from the bed, “you need to start losing.”

  Kell stiffened, sending a fresh jab of pain through his shoulder. “What? Why?”

  “Do you have any idea how hard this was to plan? To pull off? It’s honestly a miracle we haven’t been found out—”

  Kell got to his feet, testing his shoulder. “Well that’s a vote of confidence—”

  “And I’m not going to let you blow it by winning.”

  “I have no intention of winning the tournament. We’re only to the nines.” Kell felt like he was missing something. The look on Rhy’s face confirmed it.

  “Top thirty-six becomes eighteen,” said Rhy slowly. “Top eighteen becomes nine.”

  “Yes, I can do math,” said Kell, buttoning his tunic.

  “Top nine becomes three,” continued Rhy. “And what happens to those three, wise mathematician Kell?”

  Kell frowned. And then it hit him. “Oh.”

  “Oh,” Rhy parroted, hopping down from the bed.

  “The Unmasking Ceremony,” said Kell.

  “Yes, that,” said his brother.

  The Essen Tasch had few rules when it came to fighting, and fewer still when it came to the guises worn during those fights. Competitors were free to maintain their personas for most of the tournament, but the Unmasking Ceremony required the three finalists to reveal themselves to the crowds and kings, to remove their masks and keep them off for the final match, and the subsequent crowning.

  Like many of the tournament’s rituals, the origin of the Unmasking Ceremony was fading from memory, but Kell knew the story hailed from the earliest days of the peace, when an assassin tried to use the tournament, and the anonymity it afforded, to kill the Faroan royal family. The assassin slew the winning magician and donned his helmet, and when the kings and queens of the three empires invited him onto their dais to receive the prize, he struck, killing the Faroan queen and gravely wounding a young royal before he was stopped. The fledgling peace might have been shattered then and there, but no one was willing to claim the assassin, who died before he could confess. In the end, the peace between the kingdoms held, but the Unmasking Ceremony was born.

  “You cannot advance beyond the nines,” said Rhy, definitively.

  Kell nodded, heart sinking.

  “Cheer up, Brother,” said the prince, pinning the royal seal over his breast. “You’ve still two matches to fight. And who knows, maybe someone will even beat you fairly.”

  Rhy went for the door, and Kell fell in step behind him.

  “Sir,” said Hastra, “a word.”

  Kell stopped. Rhy paused in the doorway and looked back. “Are you coming?”

  “I’ll catch up.”

  “If you don’t show, I’m likely to do something foolish, like throw myself at Aluc—”

  “I won’t miss the stupid ball,” snapped Kell.

  Rhy winked and shut the door behind him.

  Kell turned to his guard. “What is it, Hastra?”

  The guard looked profoundly nervous. “It’s just … while you were competing, I came back to the palace to check on Staff. The king was passing through, and he stopped and asked me how you’d spent the day….” Hastra hesitated, leaving the obvious unspoken: the king wouldn’t have asked such a thing if he’d known of Kell’s ruse. Which meant he didn’t.

  Kell stiffened. “And what did you say?” he asked, bracing himself.

  Hastra’s gaze went to the floor. “I told him that you hadn’t left the palace.”

  “You lied to the king?” asked Kell, his voice carefully even.

  “It wasn’t really a lie,” said Hastra slowly, looking up. “Not in the strictest sense.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, I told him that Kell didn’t leave the palace. I said nothing about Kamerov….”

  Kell stared at the young man in amazement. “Thank you, Hastra. Rhy and I, we shouldn’t have put you in that position.”

  “No,” said Hastra, with surprising firmness, and then quickly, “but I understand why you did.”

  The bells started ringing. The ball had begun. Kell felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, and strongly suspected Rhy of making a point.

  “Well,” he said, heading for the door, “you won’t have to lie much longer.”

  * * *

  That night, Lila had half a mind to go to the ball. Now that she knew the truth, she wanted to see Kell’s face without the mask, as if she might be able to see the deception written in the lines of his frown.

  Instead, she ended up wandering the docks, watching the ships bob up and down, listening to the hush of water against their hulls. Her mask hung from her fingertips, its jaws wide.

  The docks themselves were strangely empty—most of the sailors and dockworkers must have ventured to the pubs and parties, or at least the Night Market. Men at sea loved land more than anyone on shore, and they knew how to make the best of it.

  “That was quite a match today,” said a voice. A moment later Alucard appeared, falling in step beside her.

  She thought of their words that morning, of the hurt in his voice when he asked why she’d done it, stolen Elsor’s identity, put herself—put them all—at risk. And there it was again, that treacherous desire to apologize, to ask for her place back on his ship, or at least in his graces.

  “Following me again?” she asked. “Shouldn’t you be celebrating?”

  Alucard tipped his head back. “I had no taste for it tonight. Besides,” he said, his gaze falling, “I wanted to see what you did that was so much better than balls.”

  “You wanted to make sure I didn’t get into trouble.”

  “I’m not your father, Bard.”

  “I should hope not. Fathers shouldn’t try to seduce their daughters to learn their secrets.”

  He shook his head ruefully. “It was one time.”

  “When I was younger,” she said absently, “I used to walk the docks back in London—my London—looking at all the ships that came in. Some days I imagined what mine would look like. Other days I just tried to imagine one that would take me away.” Alucard was staring at her. “What?”

  “That’s the first time you’ve ever volunteered a piece of information.”

  Lila smiled crookedly. “Don’t get used to it.”

  They walked in silence for a few moments, Lila’s pockets jingling. The Isle shone red beside them, and in the distance, the palace glowed.

  But Alucard had never been good with silence. “So this is what you do instead of dancing,” he said. “Haunt the docks like some sailor’s ghost?”

  “Well, only when I get bored of doing this.” She pulled a fist from her pocket and opened it to reveal a collection of jewelry, coins, trinkets.

  Alucard shook his head, exasperated. “Why?”

  Lila shrugged. Because it was familiar, she might say, and she was good at it. Plus, the contents of people’s pockets were far more interesting in this London. She’d found a dream stone, a fire pebble, and something that looked like a compass, but wasn’t. “Once a thief, always a thief.”

  “What’s this?” he asked, plucking the sliver of white stone from amid the tangle of stolen gems.

  Lila tensed. “That’s mine,” she said. “A souvenir.”

  He shrugged and dropped the shard back onto the pile. “You’re going to get caught.”

  “Then I better have my fun while I still can,” she said, pocketing the lot. “And who knows, maybe the crown will pardon me, too.”

  “I wouldn’t hold your breath.” Alucard had begun rubbing his wrists and, realizing it, stopped and smoothed his coat. “Well, you may content yourself with haunting docks and robbing passersby, but I’d rather have a hot drink and a bit of finery, so …” He gave a sweeping bow. “Can I trust you to stay out of trouble, at least until tomorrow?”

  Lila only smirked. “I’ll try.??
?

  * * *

  Halfway back toward the Wandering Road, Lila knew she was being followed.

  She could hear their steps, smell their magic on the air, feel her heart pick up in that old familiar way. So when she glanced back and saw someone in the narrow road, she wasn’t surprised.

  She didn’t run.

  She should have, should have cut onto a main road when she first noticed them, put herself in public view. Instead, Lila did the one thing she’d promised Alucard she’d try not to do.

  She found trouble.

  When she reached the next turn in the road, an alley, she took it. Something glinted at the far end, and Lila took a step toward it before she realized what it was.

  A knife.

  She twisted out of the way as it came sailing toward her. She was fast, but not quite fast enough—the blade grazed her side before clattering to the ground.

  Lila pressed her palm against her waist.

  The cut was shallow, barely bleeding, and when her gaze flicked back up, she saw a man, his edges blurring into the dark. Lila spun, but the entrance to the alley was being blocked by another shape.

  She shifted her stance, trying to keep her eyes on both at once. But as she stepped into the deeper shadow of the alley wall, a hand grasped her shoulder and she lurched forward as a third figure stepped out of the dark.

  Nowhere to run. She took a step toward the shape at the alley’s mouth, hoping for a drunken sailor, or a thug.

  And then she saw the gold.

  Ver-as-Is wasn’t wearing his helmet, and without it she could see the rest of the pattern that traced up above his eyes and into his hairline.

  “Elsor,” he hissed, his Faroan accent turning the name into a serpentine sound.

  Shit, thought Lila. But all she said was, “You again.”

  “You cheating scum,” he continued in slurring Arnesian. “I don’t know how you did it, but I saw it. I felt it. There was no way you could have—”

  “Don’t be sore,” she interrupted. “It was just a ga—”

  She was cut off as a fist connected with her wounded side and she doubled over, coughing. The blow hadn’t come from Ver-as-Is, but one of the others, their gemmed faces masked by dark cloth. Lila’s grip tightened on the metal-lined mask in her hand and she struck, slamming the helmet into the nearest man’s forehead. He cried out and staggered back, but before Lila could strike again, they were on her, six hands to her two, slamming her into the alley wall. She stumbled forward as one wrenched her arm behind her back. Lila dropped to one knee on instinct and rolled, throwing the man over her shoulder, but before she could stand a boot cracked across her jaw. The darkness exploded into shards of fractured light, and an arm wrapped around her throat from behind, hauling her to her feet.