26. Leah
Leah
“Darkness, that’s some rift,” Syrus breathes in my ear.
I perch on the high stone wall, staring out at the doorway to Aradis. I’ve seen it from afar, of course, but I’ve never tried to get this close.
The big battlefield rifts have to be opened quickly, and when the wingers use frames to anchor them, they have to be ones that can be assembled fast. But the government-run trade rift to Aradis is semi-permanent.
It closes and opens to a certain schedule, and its location is fixed, flaring into life each day between the columns of a huge stone archway.
It’s open now, a warm, orange light pouring through the doorway to the ephilium realm, a tiered golden city just visible in the distance.
From here, sitting on the wall of a nearby building, we can only see the highest parts of the rift. The rest is obscured behind a series of walls and fences. What we can see are the busy gates of the rift compound, currently thrown open and manned by ephilium in white uniforms trimmed with gold.
“Maybe Lady Jing has a point about trying to increase our trade with Strata,” Syrus says, and I can feel him behind my eyes, studying the long line of carts and wagons passing through in both directions. “The scale of this is…impressive.”
I snort. “That’s your takeaway? You’re such a politician.”
“Wrong, my dear vulture,” he says, and for some reason hearing him use the mean little nickname sends a note of pleasure thrumming through me. “Politicians have to lie and cheat their way into power, and lie even more to stay there. I’d never stoop to that.”
“Maybe because if you’re born into power, you don’t have to fight so much to keep it,” I point out.
“Being born into power means I have nothing to prove,” he corrects. “I fight for my kingdom because it is my duty, not because I craved glory or greed or some overinflated sense of self that I thought I could find in a title.”
“I suppose there’s a twisted logic to that,” I say, though it doesn’t exactly convince me Strata would be better off with a monarchy again.
“Why thank you,” Syrus says sardonically, turning his awareness once more toward the rift.
“I’ll need to get closer,” I say, jumping in before he can give me any orders. “All the inspections happen inside the compound.” It was my idea to come straight here after visiting the market. We can’t afford to put any stock in Ingold’s tip before we’ve verified it.
“Will it be safe to get past the perimeter?” he asks as I start climbing down the wall.
“Bit late to be asking that, don’t you think?” I tease. “I thought the whole point was human spies can go places demons can’t.”
“It is. I just—”
“Well, it’s true. The fences and walls are mostly to send a message to your lot. Humans aren’t a threat to the ephilium, but the pale-bloods definitely want demons knowing they’re not welcome here.”
I realize I’ve used the demon slang for the ephilium without meaning to. Damn, he’s rubbing off on me in ways I didn’t see coming.
“It makes sense,” Syrus agrees as I move away from the compound gate and the many guards stationed there, instead tracing the outer fence, searching for a way in.
“The more territorial the ephilium are about this area, the more difficult it would be for the demons to get near it without it being seen as a deliberate breach of the Concords.”
“You really think Infernum could have its own rift in Pax?” I ask as I spot an older section of fencing with one of the runners broken at the corner. It provides a useful foothold as I scramble up and over.
“Perhaps. If humans stopped being afraid of us long enough to consider the advantages.”
“Sounds like a you problem,” I offer. I check the coast is clear, then drop lightly down from the other side of the fence.
I’m behind a row of low buildings I suspect are mostly used for storage.
Staying close to the wall of one, I peer round the corner.
“Maybe if demons tried not to be so intimidating—or in your case, terrifying—you’d get somewhere. ”
A caress presses against the back of my neck as Syrus’s voice turns soft. “I don’t believe you’re afraid of me, Leah. Not anymore.”
I fight the urge to close my eyes and lean into that touch.
I’d be an idiot if I wasn’t still wary of him, considering how powerful he is and the control he has over me.
But he’s right that somewhere along the road, the nature of that fear shifted.
Now I’m much more afraid of how he makes me feel than what he might make me do.
There’s something about him, and Infernum, and all of it that I might actually want more than…
well, that thing I’ve been chasing for six long years.
I try to marshal my thoughts as I dart to the next building and peer round the second corner.
We can see the entirety of the rift now.
Ephilium move around it like gleaming beetles on a corpse, their white wings catching the glowing rift light as they swoop away from loaded wagons to ferry cargo to the storage buildings.
There’s a lot of them, and in typical ephilium fashion, even the civilians moving cargo are armed, with gold-handled daggers and axes strapped to their pristine uniforms. We watch them work, and while I’ve not been here before, I can’t help but pick up on a certain tension that doesn’t seem entirely normal.
“Do they seem a bit…jumpy to you?” I ask Syrus.
“Yes. They’ve triple-checked most of the cargo going to Aradis. Though that doesn’t track with what that dealer said about something being smuggled into Pax.”
“You don’t think there’s Morphos water in there, do you?” I ask.
But before Syrus can answer, his presence stills, then reaches out, like an animal sniffing the air.
“There are pale-bloods nearby; you need to move.”
I don’t need him to tell me twice. I duck back behind the building, cutting between two of them and staying low as I creep toward the fence.
The sound of beating wings fills the air.
“Leah,” Syrus says, and the pain in his voice catches me by surprise. “I have to go. If they suspect you’re hosting a demon, the Concords may not be enough to protect you.”
Then he’s gone, just as I lift my head up to see two figures diving out of the sky toward me. Their huge wings kick up an eddy, making my hair fly around my face. I back up against the fence as they land, catching my wide-eyed reflection in the breastplates of their gleaming armor.
“Halt,” says the male ephilium even though I’ve already stopped moving. That doesn’t stop him from lunging toward me, pinning me against the fence with a strong hand against my shoulder.
“This is Lieutenant Magnus Orisus,” says the female soldier, a brown-skinned ephilium with close-cropped black hair. “I’m Captain Pellery Cazele. Identify yourself.”
“Rose Radley,” I say, testing my strength against the lieutenant by giving my shoulder a little jerk. To my surprise, his grip loosens for a moment, but then his brow furrows and he tightens his fingers.
“What are you doing here? The rift compound is reserved for authorized personnel only,” Captain Pellery asks, her brown eyes bright—calculating—as she sizes me up.
I hold up my hands, schooling my features into what I hope is an innocent, frightened expression.
“Look, I made a mistake. I heard some rumors that there might be work here. Please don’t report me to the wardens. My dad said if we don’t make rent by the end of the week, we’ll be up shi—”
“What kind of work requires you to breach Assembly property?” Captain Pellery asks, tilting her head and giving me a sharp glare.
“Well, that’s the thing,” I say, giving them a nervous smile. “I heard you wingers were looking to shift some stuff without the Assembly knowing. You know, a little contraband you don’t want them poking their nose into. But it’s not smuggling if it’s your own loot, right?”
Lieutenant Magnus’s expression darkens, and he grabs my tunic by the shoulder, lifting me off the fence and slamming me back against it.
“Tell the truth!”
“I am,” I groan, not needing to fake my wince as pain radiates through my back. “I wanted to see if I could get a slice of the pie. Obviously, I see that was a stupid idea now.”
Captain Pellery studies me. “Search her,” she says.
I’m glad I handed over my gold to Hodges when I got the chance. Having it on me would poke a giant hole through my poor-girl-trying-to-make-rent story. Although that might be better than what Lieutenant Magnus does find tucked into my waistband.
“Look at these runes,” he says triumphantly as he holds up the knife Syrus gave me. “That’s some fancy Cyrax you’ve got there.”
“I’m a scavenger,” I say quickly. “I got that on the plains.”
“Isn’t scavenging illegal?” the captain asks archly.
“Yeees,” I admit. “But that’s Stratan law. It doesn’t concern you.”
She lifts her eyebrow. “So you’re an expert in jurisdiction, are you?”
“I know enough to be sure that wingers guarding rifts don’t have any business policing minor human crimes,” I say cooly.
Pellery takes the knife off Magnus and lifts it to her nose, appearing to sniff it.
“Does that smell fresh to you?” she asks, holding it under Magnus’s nose.
“Fresh enough.” He grins nastily.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, bucking against Magnus’s hand again. My shoulder is starting to ache, sending shooting pains like little lightning bolts through my body.
“It’s been used recently to sling shadows,” Pellery says. “And there hasn’t been a battle for a week.”
Shit. I didn’t know they could tell something like that, and Syrus definitely did channel shadows through the knife during training a couple of days ago. My panic makes me mouthy. “I thought ephilium could only see the future, not the past?” I snap.
“Watch yourself, you little rat.” Magnus clips me on the head with the handle of the knife, making me curse.
“That’s enough, Lieutenant,” Captain Pellery says sharply. “And let her go before you crush her collarbone.”