The Witch’s Betrayal
A Short Story
By Cassandra Rose Clarke
When I stepped out of the shadows, the scent of night-blooming flowers overwhelmed me. I wasn't expecting a garden, not this far into the desert, and the sight of it put me on edge. Everything about this commission suggested it was simple, routine -- but these flowers spoke of magic.
I did not want to deal with magic tonight. I wasn't supposed to deal with magic tonight.
I threaded through the garden, coasting on the backs of shadows, the metallic taste of the tracking spell lingering in my throat. The house loomed up ahead, wrapped in heavy ropes of jasmine. It was a simple house, white clay glowing in the moonlight, and it had been simple to track the target here. Simple, as I said. Routine.
The windows were dark, no candles or magic-cast lanterns illuminating the night. Good: the thick shadows made my magic easier. I dissolved into darkness, sliding away from the garden and the scent of flowers and the cold night air. The darkness was a different sort of cold -- death-cold, a friend at the Order always said, and I knew what he meant, because of the way the shadows curl into your nose and mouth and lungs, as if to drown you. But I didn't mind. That drowning cold meant I was hidden. Protected. It meant I could watch unseen from the places people did not look.
I passed through the walls of the house.
I pulled myself out of the darkness.
Something was wrong.
I stopped, half-in, half-out. The air was charged, crackling with residual magic. Through the haze I saw that the garden was not confined to the outside of the house. Shrubs emerged out of the slats in the floorboards, vines grew along the walls, palm fronds hung from the ceiling beams. Every plant was heavy with blossoms, and I could make out the scent of them, heady and unnatural.
Too much magic in too short a time. No one ever intended these plants to grow here, but the magic transformed the house so completely that they did anyway. They were a side-effect, a dangerous one.
Fallout, we called it in the Order.
By instinct, I sank back into the shadows and emerged a safe distance from the house, in the dry desert sands. The house and its garden rippled in the night wind. I took a deep breath, steadying myself. The fallout hadn't begun to affect me, not in that short a time, but no human could stay in that house for long without transforming with the magic. Fallout’s nature was such that it could never be controlled. Not even by someone like me.
I retreated into Kajjil, the Order's secret space between worlds, and cast the tracking spell again. I found my target immediately: he was in the house, still alive and still human.
This wasn't right. If he was in the house, the magic would have subsumed him. If the magic had subsumed him, I would not have been able to track him with my spell.
I cast it again and received the same results. Frustrated, I stepped out of Kajjil and stood in the wind and tried to decide what to do next. My first thought was that this was someone from the Order, a rival, hoping to ruin my commission – that sort of thing happens frequently enough that it was worth the consideration. But the magic in the house was not ack'mora. More likely, the target had received word that was I coming and had escaped -- although I didn't know how he could have heard, or what magic might have confused my tracking spell.
The wind picked up, blowing from the direction of the house and bringing with it the scent of the garden, the scent of living magic. I couldn't leave, not with my commission incomplete. When I am given a target, they must be eradicated. I have no say in the matter. Ever since I was a little boy taken away from his mother, my actions have belonged to the Order, and I’ve learned, over the years, to accept it.
But if I wanted any hope of finding this target, I would need something, some clue, as to how he had evaded me.
I traveled through the shadows. When I was back inside the house, I did not emerge completely, though it was difficult to see. Going inside was dangerous, but I could not go back to the Order empty-handed. Flowers crowded the rooms. The fallout tugged at the edges of the shadows, trying to draw me out. I didn't let it. I worked quickly, moving from room to room. The fallout made things confusing, difficult to latch on to.
And then I found something.
The highest concentration of magic was located in the bedroom. It was so dense and unstable that I didn't dare move beyond the doorway, not even half-wrapped in shadow. But I didn't need to go further to recognize the eerie, glowing white flowers twining around the bed. They were a particular flower, bred by a particular woman. I had seen similar flowers as seedlings. I had walked through a garden of such flowers, side by side with the woman who had grown them.
"Leila," I said, and the shadows took me away.
#
I rapped on Leila's door. She didn't answer. I shouted her name and rapped harder, the door banging in its frame. Still no answer. A discouraging sign.
I stepped away from the door, turned and looked at the empty street. A magic-cast lantern flickered overhead, casting eerie golden-limned shadows along the rows of houses. Despite being in the city, the air here was clean and bright in comparison to the magic-soaked air surrounding the target's house, and I breathed it in, trying to clear my head after the journey through Kajjil.
The stillness settled around me. I turned back to Leila's house and pulled out my sword, banging on the door with its hilt. The sound echoed up and down the street. "Leila!" I shouted. "Let me in!"
A light flickered on in one of the nearby houses. I cursed and sheathed my sword, melting into the shadows. I didn't want to enter Leila's house without permission. That's something I only do with targets. But I couldn’t wait.
When no one came onto the street, I stuck out my foot and kicked her door one last time for good measure. And only then did it slide open, pale light spilling across her porch, illuminating the flowers she grew in ceramic pots, the same ones I'd seen at the target's house.
Her face appeared, beautiful in the moonlight. Her hair curled around her bare shoulders and her eyes were lined with that dark, smoky make-up she wore when she wanted something. It was clear she had not been asleep.
"Oh, well, isn't this a shame?" she called out, peering into the street. "I was certain it was my dear friend Naji at the door, but I don't see anyone here." She pouted. "I guess I'll have to go back inside."
She began to pull her door closed. I stuck my foot out again and it jarred to a stop.
"You know I'm here," I said softly.
Leila turned in the direction of my voice and gazed at a space over my left shoulder. She smiled wickedly, her eyes glinting.
"I can't see you," she said.
Leila always made me nervous, despite my fondness for her. She was not a woman to be charmed by a simple smile, and so hiding myself was one of my ways of keeping the upper hand.
"But you know I'm here." I moved closer to her, staying on the edges of the light. The shadows drifted across her face, and she closed her eyes, and smiled again.
"But I can't see you," she said. "How do I know I'm not simply going mad? This could all be a dream."
"You don't expect me to believe you were asleep."
Something flickered in her expression. I caught it because I was looking for it.
"And what do you think I was doing?"
I emerged then, stepping into the light spilling out of her house. She leaned up against her doorframe and watched me.
"There you are," she said, trailing one hand along my cheek, just as my shadows had done to her. "Always a joy to see your face, Naji."
"May I come in?"
"Of course." She held the door open. I could smell the steely scent of river water coming from inside her house, the scent that followe
d her everywhere. She was saving her money, I knew, in order to move to a new house in the canyon, close to the river where her power would be strongest.
I went inside, and she shut the door behind us.
"So you’re feeling lonely tonight?" she asked, sliding up close to me, slipping her arm in mine. I let her, of course. "Couldn't stand the thought of spending the evening with only those dusty old books?"
"I had a commission."
Her arm stiffened.
"Did you? I take it that it went well, if you're here for a celebratory tumble." She laughed.
I forced myself to ignore her, to not think about the unraveling magic of her touch. "You know it didn't."
"Didn't what?"
"Didn't go well!" I pulled away from her. She blinked up at me, her face guileless. "The target was gone before I got there."
"Are you sure you should be telling me that? I don't think the Order would be glad to know that you let someone beat you to the job--"
"I didn't say he was dead. I said he wasn't there."
She didn't say anything. Her hair fell across her left eye in a way that made me want to push it aside. I didn't.
"The house was drowning in fallout."
"Sounds like he got away, then."
"Someone helped him."
"Oh, Naji, I know it may be hard for you Jadorr'a to understand, but there are people in the Empire with more power than--"
"I saw your damned river flowers all over the place."
She stopped, lifting her chin a little, draping herself against the wall. Her expression changed. It was no longer guileless at all.
"I was hoping they wouldn't send you," she said.
"Where is he?"
She watched me for a few moments without answering. I returned her gaze.
"Did you really think it'd be that easy? That you'd ask and I'd tell you?"
"Darkest night, Leila! I can't go back to the Order unless the commission is completed! This was supposed to be routine."
"So stay here with me." She slid forward and reached out for me. I jerked away from her.
"Where is he?" I asked again, although I knew it was futile trying to intimidate Leila.
She slumped back and sighed. For a moment she looked older than she really was. Ancient. The sight chilled me.
"What made you think this would be simple?" she asked.
"What?"
"This commission. You said it was supposed to be routine. Why would you think that?"
"I didn't think you were going to be involved, for one thing."
Leila narrowed her eyes. "You should never assume that, Naji. And you should never assume a commission is going to be routine."
"Don't tell me how to do my job."
She put her hand on my shoulder. "I really didn't think they'd give him to you." Her voice was soft and stripped bare. I knew she meant it.
"Why not?"
"Because you're young." She looked up at me, her eyes big and luminous. In other circumstances I would have kissed her and finished our conversation in the morning. But not tonight. "Because he's a dangerous man."
"Most people would say I'm a dangerous man."
Leila's face broke open in a smile. Everything about her transformed. "Ah, true enough. But you don't like to hurt people, and he does."
"So why'd you hide him?"
"He paid me." She shrugged. "I've almost got enough to move out of the city." And then she stepped away and I could feel the negative space of her absence. She didn't look at me.
"Fine," I said. "You hid him. You did what he paid you for. I'm assuming he only paid you to hide him once? If the Jadorr'a come after him a second time--"
She looked at me over her shoulder. "Don't," she said, her voice dark. "I told you, he's dangerous. You're in over your head. Go back to the Order and tell them to send someone else."
"I can't do that."
She rolled her eyes and swirled away from me. "You won't be able to find him. I know too much about your tracking spells."
"There are other ways to track someone."
She stopped. Her hand traced along her thigh and her hip, a distracted gesture.
"Leila," I said. "If you're waiting for the rest of his payment, you know I can get that for you."
She didn't answer.
"I'll find him eventually."
Her shoulders hitched, and she looked at me again, her spine curving beneath the thin fabric of her dress. I couldn't look away from her.
She smiled sadly and said, "I'll be praying to the spirits of the river that you don't."
#
After I left Leila's house I slipped through the shadows until I came to a bar on the edge of the city, one that was open despite the late hour. It was also completely empty, and the waiter watched me with alarm as I moved across the room and took a table in the corner, no doubt recognizing the dark robes and carved armor that branded me a member of the Order. That has always been the hardest part of being Jadorr'a. The way people look at you like you're a monster.
I stared at the waiter until he came over and took my order, and then I slouched back in my chair and drummed my fingers against the table. I was putting off communicating with the Order, to be sure, but I also wanted to consider the best way to track the target -- Lisim Sarr. Without my magic, I would have to use his name.
I hated thinking on the names of my targets.
The waiter brought my drink, a slim glass of sugar wine imported from the south. I drank it fast enough that my head spun. I could feel the waiter cowering next to his stack of coffee cups even though I took pains not to look at him.
I supposed I should start by finding out who my target was.
I finished my sugar wine and gestured the waiter over. He picked up the empty glass with trembling hands. "Anything else, sir?"
I pulled out three sheets of pressed copper, twice what the wine cost. "Do you know anyone named Lisim Sarr?"
The waiter stared at me like he thought I was playing a trick.
"Well?" I asked. "Do you?"
"No, sir."
I studied his face carefully, but I saw no hint that he was lying. No matter. I hadn't expected things to go that easily.
"Ah, well," I told him. "Thank you anyway."
I pushed away from my table and walked out of the bar, leaving the waiter shivering in my wake. I needed an inn. It was ridiculous, that I should have to stay in an inn in my own city, but under no circumstances could I return to the Order's manor house unless my commission was complete. And so I traveled through the shadows to the pleasure district, where I would have to endure filthier rooms but fewer questions. I selected an inn close to the docks and requested a room that looked over the sea. The sea and the river aren't the same, of course, but the lapping of the waves reminded me of Leila.
After I paid for my room, I asked the innkeeper the same question I had asked the waiter at the bar.
"Sarr?" he said, caught unawares.
I nodded.
"No, I don't --" His eyes flicked away from me. "I'm afraid I haven't heard of him, no."
I leaned close and drew out the shadows enough that they crawled over the counter. The innkeeper stumbled backward.
"You shouldn't lie to me," I said.
"I ain't lying, honest -- I've heard the name, but I don't -- don't know him. Don't want to know him." He tossed the key at me. I caught it, and the shadows retreated into the light.
"Where have you heard the name?"
"Here and there, you know. The girls don't like him." He jerked his head in the direction of the street. "I always give 'em a free meal if they bring their business here, and I've heard 'em whispering."
"That's it? You've only heard his name from the street girls?"
"Nah, you hear it from others sometimes too. But I don't know nothing about him, I swear. It's just a name."
"Thank you for your cooperation," I said. This had turned out more useful than I might have expected, and it made sense that an innkeepe
r in the pleasure district would know of a dangerous man. If Sarr was indeed as dangerous as Leila was claiming.
Doubtful.
In my room, I locked the door, took off my armor and turned down the sheets on my shabby, creaking bed. I stood in the window and looked out over the ocean glimmering beneath the stars. I was wasting time in every way I could think of. But I knew I couldn't put off contacting the Order forever.