52. Kira
Chapter 52
Kira
THERE’S SOMETHING ELSE
“ W hat about Reznyk?” I whisper under my breath.
Lenore nods demurely. We’re sitting together on the shaded upper deck of the barge from Deep’s Crossing, watching as it beats its way slowly up the Ever-Reaching River.
“What about him?” Lenore says, covering her hand with her mouth as she speaks. Her eyes never leave the river. She almost looks like she’s expecting something to rise out of its murky brown surface.
What about him? My hands tremble in my lap, where they’re folded over the perfectly serviceable gray dress one of the maids brought me this morning. She seemed rather put out when she handed it to me; maybe it was one of hers.
I close my eyes for a moment, trying to remember what it was like to bite my tongue in the Towers. To be calm, silent, and invisible.
“What are you going to do?” I whisper. “How are you going to rescue him?”
Lady Lenore barks a laugh that’s quite unladylike. The coach driver escorting us turns to frown at me. Lenore huffs, then fans her face.
“Me?” she whispers. “Rescue him?”
I tuck my hand under my skirts, then ball it into a fist. My nails bite into the skin of my palm. I force myself to take another long breath.
“What’s your plan?” I whisper.
Lenore is quiet for so long I start to worry she isn’t going to respond. Then she sighs, fans her face, and turns to me.
“There are plenty of people in Silver City who oppose the Towers,” she says, under her breath. “You don’t think the Maganti family was happy to hand over Syrus, do you?”
I blink. I’ve never thought about it like that. Don’t the Magantis get to do whatever they want?
“My plan,” she continues, “is to tell my father exactly who kidnapped me, and exactly how my husband let it happen. Once I’m free of that marriage, my plan is to do everything in my considerable power to weaken the Towers’ hold on my city.”
She’s scowling in a way that makes me think she’s not expecting any objections. I swallow hard. My chest feels painfully empty, like I somehow managed to do what that stupid tavern song says and cut out my own heart.
“That’s—great,” I stammer. “But, Reznyk?”
Lenore stares at me like I’ve just hit my head and she’s not sure if I’m going to recover.
“You do come from the Towers, don’t you?” she asks.
I nod.
“And I assume you’re going back there?” she continues. “Or at least, you’re returning to Silver City?”
I’m not sure how to respond, so I nod again.
“So, what’s your plan?” she says. “Out of the two of us, you’re the only one who can walk into the Towers.”
My mouth falls open. “I— I can’t?—”
Lenore frowns at me. “Do you not want to help him?”
“No,” I say. “Gods, I mean, yes. I want to help him. It’s just, what can I do? I’m— I’m nobody.”
Lenore makes a prim little snort, then smooths down the skirt of her dress. It looks much softer than what I’m wearing.
“Nobody,” she says, under her breath. “Reznyk hated the Towers, and yet here you are. A woman from the Towers. Trying to help him.”
I open my mouth, but my throat is suddenly too tight to speak.
“He hid for years,” Lenore continues, “yet somehow, you knew exactly where to find him.”
“Well—” I begin, but my voice dies.
Explaining that I was sent by the Towers to find the Godkiller’s amulet, which I found and brought back to Silver City, and then I paid off a mercenary to join a band of smugglers who dropped me in the middle of mountains, which I know for a fact hold a pack of direwolves, so I could travel alone at night until I returned to Reznyk’s hidden outpost, suddenly doesn’t seem like something a nobody would do. I look down at my feet. I’m still wearing my Guard’s boots from the Towers.
“Ah,” I finish.
“Like I said,” Lenore whispers. “There are places not even an elven king can go. But servants go everywhere.”
My teeth close over my bottom lip. Lenore shades her eyes and stares at the river as it spools past the bow of the barge. Something wild flutters inside my chest, the tiny, feathered start of a plan.
She’s not wrong, this woman Reznyk loves. Guards go everywhere. Even into the hidden cells beneath the Towers.
“Oh!” Lenore cries. She jumps to her feet. “There it is!”
I follow her gaze. The barge moves slowly around a wide bend in the Ever-Reaching River, and suddenly, Silver City appears before us. The white spires of the Towers sparkle against the autumn sky. A great cloud of seagulls rises from the docks, crying and whirling over the water.
This is it, then. Our journey is almost over. I force myself to my feet, turn to Lenore, and say what I’ve been trying to work up the courage to say for days.
“There’s something else,” I whisper.
I can’t quite bring myself to look at her as I speak, so I stare at her beautiful, polished boots instead. They’re as dark as the underside of a stone.
“I think I’m your sister,” I admit. “Or, your half sister. I mean, I think we have the same?—”
Lenore sniffs again, that proper little huff, and I shut up.
“Yes,” she says. “I thought so.”
She stares at the walls and spires of Silver City, the light sparkling off its windows, the smoke rising from its chimneys. The barge shudders and turns as it approaches the docks.
“You what?” I finally manage to say.
Lenore bends her head and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.
“My father isn’t exactly subtle about his mistresses,” she says. “And, when I was younger, my parents told me they’d replace me with a brat from the orphanage if I misbehaved.” She glances at me, then back at the city spread before her. “No offense,” she adds, like an afterthought.
“I— You knew?” I ask.
“I suspected,” she says, her gaze tracing Fyher’s Landing as it rises from Silver City with its glittering mansions and estates. “My parents don’t make empty threats.”
“Shit,” I manage to stammer.
I spent my entire childhood wishing for a family like the Castinacs. I’m still turning over her words when the carriage driver walks up the steps to the raised dais where we’re standing, offers Lenore his white-gloved hand, and walks her toward the dock and the waiting carriage.