“Very well, then. Take your bath, then come downstairs, all the way to the bottom. Just follow the corridor to the second room on the right and we’ll have a lovely supper.” With that she kissed him on the brow and swept out of the room.
Mika threw back the down-filled comforter and discovered that all his clothes were gone. He was naked except for the golden amulet he and Master Thero had made and a fresh, clean sling on his arm. He looked around, but there was no sign of his clothes, no clothes chest or wardrobe, either. Crossing the room to the door she’d pointed out, he opened it a crack and peeked through into a small bathing chamber with a fancy wooden tub. A red velvet coat and breeches hung on a rack, with linen drawers and a shirt. It all looked just his size, though he would feel a little silly in velvet. It matched Queen Rhazat’s gown.
The bath felt wonderful. Remembering what Alec had said, he sipped a little of the bathwater from his cupped hand. It was wet, and when he was done scrubbing with the washcloth he was clean. Once again, he wondered if the dark place of thirst and weariness had been a bad dream. But if so, then where was he and how had he gotten here? Queen Rhazat hadn’t really answered his question. When he was dressed he went out the door she’d used and found himself in a workroom sort of like those of Master Thero and their other wizard friends, but this one was dark and cold. There was a stairway on the other side, and light showed up it. He went down two sets of poorly lit stairs through spooky, empty corridors full of shadows and was relieved to at last find the dining room where Lady Rhazat was waiting for him at a round table full of dishes of food. The mingled aromas made his mouth water and he hurried to join her. To his surprise, the different dishes were all favorites of his: spiced carrots, yellow cheese, brown bread with butter, hard-boiled eggs, watercress, and slices of cold ham and beef on a platter, just like his mother served on special feast days. Despite his hunger, however, he remembered his mother’s lessons and sat with his hands folded until bidden to start.
“What a polite boy.” She served him first, then sat back and nodded for him to begin.
“But you don’t have any food, my lady,” he said. There was only one place set at the table.
“I ate while you slept, Mika. Please, have as much as you like.”
Mika took her at her word and had two helpings from every dish and three of bread.
“Where are we, Your Majesty?” he asked when he could eat no more. “I got lost, and then I woke up here.”
“Not far from Menosi. Were you out walking all by yourself?”
“No, my lady. I was in the palace, and then I wasn’t, just like—” He stopped himself. Master Thero had taught him not to speak of Seregil, Alec, or Micum to strangers on account of their secret work.
“Just like who?” asked Lady Rhazat.
“Just like walking from one room into another. What is this place?”
“I told you, dear boy, it’s my home.” She smiled sweetly and took his hand. “And now it’s yours, too.”
Mika stared at her, expecting her to laugh like it was a joke. But she didn’t, just smiled like she was his mother. He pulled his hand away and stood up. “I’m sorry, Majesty. I appreciate your hospitality, but I must get back to Master Thero. He’ll be worried about me.”
“Master Thero?”
“The wizard I’m apprenticed to.” The words slipped out before he thought better of it.
“You’re a wizard’s apprentice?” she exclaimed in delight. “Come, show me a trick.”
Master Thero hated it when anyone said that, but Mika didn’t want to be rude. Besides, he reasoned, if he did as she asked, she’d be more likely to let him go, wouldn’t she?
He looked around, then tried to levitate his wooden fork. Nothing happened. He tried again, then gave up, perplexed. “I can usually do that spell.”
“Perhaps you’re too tired!” she said with a fond, kind smile. “Would you like to see a trick I can do?”
“Yes, please,” he replied meekly.
At a flick of her finger, a great whirlwind roared into being around them, whipping their hair around, knocking dishes from the table, and blowing out all the candles around the room. Plunged into darkness, Mika clung to the seat of his chair, very frightened now.
“Can you light the candles again, dear Mika?” Lady Rhazat asked as the wind died down as suddenly as it had come.
Mika whispered the spell and snapped his fingers, but again, nothing. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty—”
“No matter, my dear.” The candles flared to life around the room and he saw Rhazat sitting where she had been, as if nothing had happened.
“You’re a wizard, too?”
“I am. What fun I’ll have, teaching you all I know! I can tell you’re going to be a very powerful wizard when you grow up—with the right training, of course.”
Mika blinked back tears. “But I want to go back to my master. I want to go home.”
She shook her head sadly. “I’m afraid that’s not possible, my love. Once you come to this place, you cannot leave it. If you run away, you’ll die of hunger and thirst, just as you almost did before I found you and took you in. I wish you could go home, my dear, but alas, that’s how things are.”
She’s lying, Mika realized. Alec had gotten out. So would he, somehow. For now, though, he’d have to be a nightrunner himself, and play the part, as Seregil said.
“Thank you for taking me in, Your Majesty,” he said, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. “I guess I’m your apprentice now.”
She knelt by his chair and hugged him close. “My very first in such a long time! What fun we’ll have, you and I.”
“Mika, get away from her!” Princess Klia strode into the room and pulled him from Queen Rhazat’s arms. Holding him tight, Klia moved to put the table between them and the queen. Klia smelled sort of bad, but he was too glad to see a familiar face to care.
“I hoped you’d join us, Klia,” said Rhazat, taking her seat again.
“What are you doing here?” asked Mika, clinging to her.
Klia appeared to be very angry with the queen. “She brought me here.”
“Don’t be rude, Klia,” Queen Rhazat chided. “Let the poor child eat, and you as well. I know you’re famished.”
“Why did you bring him here?” Klia asked.
“I didn’t. He just showed up. Isn’t that right, Mika? People do sometimes.”
Mika nodded.
“I see,” Klia said, giving him a tight smile. “She’s right, though. We have to eat to keep up our strength.”
“Here, my love, have some of these.” Lady Rhazat uncovered a dish he hadn’t noticed before. It was a plate of honey cakes, his favorite.
“I think it’s time you went to bed now, Mika,” Rhazat said when he’d halfheartedly nibbled most of a cake.
Mika gave Klia a frightened look. “I don’t want to.”
“May he stay in my room?” asked Klia.
“Of course, my dear,” Rhazat answered with her sweetest smile. “Go ahead, child. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I’ll take him up,” said Klia, rising from her chair.
“Oh, do stay. I’d like to speak with you first,” Rhazat purred. Picking up the clay bell by her plate, she rang it and Phania came in, dressed in her uniform and looking the picture of health. “Mika, this is one of Princess Klia’s soldiers. I don’t believe you’ve met Lieutenant Phania.”
A look of relief spread across the boy’s face. “No. Hello, Lieutenant.”
Phania smiled at him as he took her hand, then saluted Klia. For an instant her eyes were the same dead white that Moonshine’s had been.
“Phania will watch over him for you, Klia dear,” Rhazat assured her. “Wait a moment, Mika.” She presented her cheek to be kissed.
Klia caught his eye and gave him a slight nod. Mika returned to the table and dutifully kissed Rhazat on the cheek. She gathered the boy in her arms and Klia’s heart missed a beat as Rhazat kissed his brow and both cheeks, then let him go unharmed. ??
?Off with you now, my love. Tomorrow I have a lovely surprise for you!”
Phania took his hand again and led him from the room.
“He is an adorable boy,” said Rhazat. “It’s so lovely, how fully he trusts you.”
“What did you want to say to me?” Klia demanded, anxious to get Mika away from the dra’gorgos-possessed husk or ghost Phania had become.
“Oh, just something I wanted to show you.” Rhazat waved her hand and a dra’gorgos materialized beside her. It smelled of rotting flesh, and coldness emanated from it.
“It can’t—” Klia began.
The dra’gorgos reached out and ripped the amulet from her neck, then placed it on the table before Rhazat.
“Ah yes, a pity about your pretty bauble, my dear,” said Rhazat, feigning concern as she lifted it up by the broken cord to admire it. “I’m afraid such things don’t work in my realm.”
The dra’gorgos came back and wrapped what passed for a hand around Klia’s throat, squeezing just enough to cut off her breath. The stink and chill of it were horrible; where it touched her felt like someone holding ice to her skin. As she struggled to pull away it reached inside her chest and imprisoned her beating heart in icicle fingers, slowing its rhythm and driving pain through her chest like a sword thrust.
“Shall I have it squeeze harder?” asked Rhazat.
Unable to get the breath to speak, Klia could barely manage to shake her head. It was useless to die like this.
Rhazat broke the spell and the horrific creature disappeared. Klia fell to her knees, hands pressed to her chest, where it still felt like a blade of ice had pierced her heart, which was beating as erratically as a wild thing in a trap now.
“Poor dear. Come, have some tea to warm you up.”
Daring not to try the dyrmagnos’s patience any further, Klia dragged herself back into her chair and sat very still, willing her heartbeat to return to normal. Rhazat poured her a dish of tea and she took it with shaking hands, glad of the warmth regardless of who had served it.
“I’m so glad we had this cozy chat, Klia,” Rhazat said. Sweeping from the room, she called back over her shoulder, “Do give Mika a good-night kiss for me.”
Klia sat alone until the pain passed, then climbed the stairs to her room. Several candles had been lit and Mika sat in the middle of the bed with his knees pulled up under his chin watching Phania, who sat by the bed, apparently telling him a story.
“Leave us,” Klia ordered.
The dead woman rose and saluted her, then gave Mika a parting grin as she went out. Klia joined him on the bed, sitting close together so they could talk in whispers.
“Lieutenant Phania says this is a good place to live, but I don’t like it,” he whispered, pulling at the neck of his red velvet jacket.
“Neither do I, Mika.” Klia stroked the boy’s hair. “Now tell me, how did you get here? Did something bring you?”
“No, I was at the palace with Master Thero and the others, looking for where Alec went into here. We couldn’t find it, not even Alec. I was with Micum, around the corner, and all of a sudden I was in this plane, out in the countryside.”
“Wait, Alec came here?”
“Yes. Right after you left the camp to go back to Deep Harbor. He got in by accident, like me, and got chased and bitten by dogs.”
“But he got out? By himself?”
“Yes. He got chased away from this town and went upriver.”
Phania had steered her away from that direction. Had it been on purpose or just bad odds that they’d gone the wrong way?
“That’s where I was trying to go when Queen Rhazat found me,” Mika explained.
“You mustn’t call her that, Mika. She’s no queen. She’s a—” What to tell a child? “She’s a very wicked necromancer, the worst kind. Don’t let her manner fool you; she’s not your friend.”
“I know. She’s a liar.”
“Yes, she is. Now tell me more about how you came here. Did you feel pulled when you came here?”
Mika shook his head. “I didn’t feel anything. I think I sort of fell through into this plane like Alec did.”
“What did you mean by ‘plane’?”
“That’s what Master Thero said.” He held up his hands, palms facing. “He said they’re two different worlds, close together like this, and sometimes they touch. He thinks that’s how Alec got here, when they touched. Is that how you got here, Klia?”
“She brought me.” Klia left it at that. The boy was scared enough as it was, without tales of dra’gorgos. “Do you still have the amulet you and Thero made?”
He pulled it from the neck of his jacket and showed it to her.
Klia closed her hand around his. “Don’t lose this, Mika, but I have some bad news. These don’t work here.”
“I thought so,” Mika said, surprising her. “Alec had a lightstone with him and said it didn’t work here. And when I tried to show Rhazat some spells, they wouldn’t work, either.”
“I see,” she said, impressed with the boy’s insight. “Then we’ll have to be extra careful.”
“Will she let us leave this place?”
“No, but she thinks we can’t get out. I tried and couldn’t, but if Alec did, then hopefully we can escape the same way he did.”
“Can we go now?”
“Let’s wait a little while. We’ll need food. Do you know how far upriver Alec had to go?”
“Not very far, I think.”
“Good. Now listen carefully. It’s very important that we tell Thero and the others about Rhazat, what she is, and describe her place here, and that your magic doesn’t work. And you need to remember this, too: Rhazat talked about an ancestor of mine, the Hierophant Nhandi. Rhazat said that it was Nhandi who trapped her here. And—this is very important, Mika—” There was no help for it, in case only the boy got out. “Rhazat is really a dyrmagnos.”
“A what?”
“It’s a kind of very bad necromancer. Thero will know. She doesn’t have any mirrors because they show her true appearance. Lady Zella isn’t as she appears, either, if you see her again. She has a dra’gorgos in her, controlling her.”
“I liked her!” Mika whispered.
“So did I. Let’s see, what else?” Klia thought carefully. “Rhazat kills by kissing her victims, she may have prisoners here in dungeons under the tower, and she can’t touch gold, which may be why she didn’t take our amulets. This town is called Zikara.”
“Can we help the prisoners and take them with us?”
“The stairway is hidden. I couldn’t find it. Right now it’s very important to get word out to Thero.”
Mika gave her a considering look. “You think one of us might not get out, don’t you?”
Klia nodded; Thero had chosen his apprentice wisely. “I’m a general, Mika, and a good general always tries to think of all the things that might happen so she can prepare for them. That’s all I’m doing. We’re going to get out together if we can, thanks to you. But if you have a chance to get out without me, go. Do you understand? That’s an order.”
“But—”
“It’s all right. She won’t kill me. She needs me to help her get out. Tell me what we know, what I just told you.”
“The town is Zikara and Rhazat isn’t a queen, she’s a dyrmagnos. Mirrors show what she really looks like. She can’t touch gold. She kills with a kiss. Magic doesn’t work here. She won’t kill you, because she needs you.” He paused, brow furrowed. “And you were pulled in somehow, instead of coming by yourself.”
“Good! Now remember this: Rhazat took me to a cave in the hills behind this tower that looks like the oracle’s cave. There is a golden seal on the wall, set with a black opal. It’s what’s keeping her imprisoned here. Tell him that first, before anything else.”
“I will. But I don’t want to go if you can’t come with me. I don’t want to leave you here!”
Klia took him by the shoulders. “It’s your duty to Skala, Mika. I’m sorry you have
to learn this while you’re still so young, but duty comes first, over friendship or even love. That’s how it has to be. If you don’t leave when you can, even if I can’t go with you, then you’re failing in your duty and that’s a very bad thing. I need for you to give me your most sacred oath that you will obey me.”
Mika pressed his left hand to his heart. “By the Light, by my heart, head, and hands, I swear I will obey you.”
“Good boy,” Klia said, relieved. “One last thing. If I don’t get out with you, tell Thero that I love him and always will, no matter what.”
Mika nodded solemnly.
She hugged him. “Good. Now let’s go see if there’s any supper left.”
She put on her coat and belts, noting the black feather in her dagger sheath. Perhaps Thero could learn something from it.
Rather than skulk and give their intentions away, Klia and Mika walked downstairs as naturally as if they were just looking for a snack. But the candles were out and the table was bare.
“Can’t we get food from the kitchen?” asked Mika, keeping close beside her.
“I haven’t found it yet. Perhaps it’s under the tower, too. Let’s look for the stairs again, shall we?”
They searched the entire ground floor, but found no staircase.
“What are we going to do? We can’t go without food,” Mika whispered.
“We’re going to be very brave and see what happens tomorrow. Eat all you can at breakfast, just in case.”
Later, as they lay curled together in Klia’s bed, she felt that tiny little flicker of movement in her womb again and wondered if she should tell Mika that, too. Tears stung her eyes as she decided not to. If she got out of this place alive, she would tell Thero herself. If only Mika did, then it was kinder for Thero not to know all he’d lost.
LOST in pitch-black darkness, Alec guessed where he was by the chill, the dank air, and the plink plink sound of dripping water. The portal hadn’t been where he’d expected, and now he’d come out in the lowest of the three caves.
The hair on the back of his neck stood up and his heart knocked against his breastbone. He was in the oracle’s innermost cave, the one on his own plane, he guessed by his sodden boots. The dripping water was at the side of the large chamber more or less opposite the tunnel opening, but the way the sound of it echoed, he couldn’t get his bearings. He’d just have to find a wall and follow it. He splashed through the dark, concentrating on keeping his balance and trying hard not to think about the ghost they’d heard when he was last down here, when a sudden cry of anguish froze him in his tracks—a man’s voice. Once again, the echoing chamber made it impossible to tell where the cry was coming from; it seemed to be everywhere at once.