Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
T ime was running out for the queen.
Dr. Orella had made that clear when the siblings gathered at their mother’s bedside.
Queen Daro’s breaths were shallower, her skin even more gray than it had been the day before.
In a sympathetic voice, Dr. Orella had informed us that Queen Daro’s life was now measured in hours, possibly stretching into one or two days, but no more.
The horror-stricken look Kason had sent me was something I wasn’t going to be able to scrub from my brain anytime soon.
I left the siblings at their mother’s bedside and returned to Kason’s rooms to dress in something more appropriate for going out into the city.
If Muirin couldn’t come through with news of a temporal witch, then I needed to hunt one down myself.
As I was donning my cloak, a knock sounded at the door.
Opening it, I found a young sprite bearing a note.
I accepted it and gave him a coin for his work, which brightened his severe expression into a smile.
“Thank you, my lord! If you need anything, Dal’s my name.” Still grinning, he turned and scampered down the hall.
Trying not to let the “my lord” get under my skin, I opened the paper he’d handed over. It had been sealed with a plain bit of wax, without an identifying mark.
M,
You’ll find what you’re looking for in the east underground. Jannica.
We’re even.
Red
Well, I’d be damned. Muirin had come through for me. The east underground was the network of tunnels and caverns near the east gate that smugglers used to get things in and out of the city. It was how I entered and left Kardonan on the rare occasions I had needed to visit the city.
At the bottom of the note, I scrawled Be back soon and, before I could stop myself, a heart.
Ugh, ridiculous. But it would look even more ridiculous if I tried to cross it out, so I left it.
Placing it on the table where Kason was sure to see it, I headed out the door to retrieve the temporal witch the queen desperately needed.
The full vastness of the east underground was known only to those who took the time to memorize it.
There were no maps of the warren, and most of the folk who used it knew only one or two of the caverns and corridors that connected them to the exit beyond the wall.
I was one of the few who had studied the entire space—you could never be too careful, after all.
Knowing all the twists and turns didn’t keep me safe from just the guards, but from other undesirables who might want to make an example of me.
I accessed the underground through my preferred entrance in the Slipshod, thankful that it was still there.
Once in the darkness of the tunnel, I called forth a tiny witchlight—enough to light my way, but not enough to ruin my night vision.
The tunnel was clammy and cold, and smelled of slime and disuse, but it wasn’t the worst-smelling part of the underground.
Oh no, that was farther in, where the tunnels dipped into the city’s sewers.
Even thinking about it made me want to gag.
Though Muirin hadn’t provided a specific location for the tempo, I didn’t doubt I’d find them.
The tunnels were deathly silent, devoid of life—mostly, there was the occasional skitter of rats’ paws—and my ears were exceptionally good at directing me toward people in this kind of environment.
I wasn’t quite sure how to describe it. I couldn’t hear heartbeats, but when things were otherwise this quiet, I could pick up on the faintest tells of life, sounds I couldn’t even identify but just knew what they meant.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on what my ears were telling me.
Nothing…nothing…there. Something ahead and to the right.
I continued like that for I don’t know how long, pausing every few minutes to triangulate the sounds of life.
Finally, I rounded a corner to see a faint bit of lamplight emerging from a space ahead.
Extinguishing my own light, I crept forward, careful to keep my steps soft and quiet.
I paused next to the opening to the room, cavern, alcove, whatever it was—and my heart dropped as I finally recognized the sound I’d been following.
A gasping sob.
Shit .
“I’m not here to hurt you,” I said, keeping my voice low and steady as I stepped forward into the light, my hands extended in the universal sign of peace.
It took me only a second to put it all together—a human woman with tan skin, now pale and drawn, her long brown hair unbound and messy, strands of it dragging through the congealing pool of blood under her.
Her clothes were sodden with blood, so much that I couldn’t tell where she was wounded.
Though— fuck —I didn’t think it mattered, not with that much blood on the outside.
“Jannica?” I ventured, hoping, almost praying, she’d say no.
She swallowed hard. “Yes. How—” She coughed, and blood bubbled up to her lips. “Do I know you?”
“No, but I think we have a mutual friend. Muirin the Red.” I moved closer. “I’m Mokido.”
“Heard of you,” she said. “Didn’t realize you were back in—” Another cough cut off her speech.
“What happened?”
“I was away from Kardonan for months on a job,” she wheezed.
“Came back a week ago. Friends who normally stopped by when I was back just didn’t, and then I started hearing about witches disappearing.
Thought it best to get out, but needed help since I couldn’t work to pay my way…
I was resting here, waiting for night, when a pair of men found me. Stabbed me, left me for dead.”
While she spoke, I checked her for injuries and found she’d been run through. Fuck . I didn’t realize I’d said anything aloud until her fingers touched mine, and I looked up to meet her gaze.
“It’s okay,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt anymore. And now I’m not alone.”
“No.” I swallowed, a lump the size of the palace blocking my throat. “You’re not alone. Jannica…are you a tempo?”
She didn’t flinch from the question as I suspected she might have done were she healthy. After a moment, she nodded.
I closed my eyes and let my head fall forward. “Godsdamn it,” I whispered.
Of course I’d find a temporal witch only to discover she was dying.
I considered, briefly, hoisting her up and running for the palace, but even if we didn’t get run down by the city guards before we got a mere block, the chances of Jannica surviving to reach the palace were slim, and then , even if she did, I doubted she’d have the strength to help the queen.
No. We were all fucked.
“Can you use your magic on yourself?” I asked.
One corner of her lips curved upward. “No. Doesn’t work like that. You— You needed my help?”
I nodded, flipping my hand over to grip hers. It was small, cold, and limp. “To help the queen.”
“Oh. I could’ve helped the queen? Fancy.” She coughed, her gaze growing distant, unfocused. “You’re marked. By Rhianough.”
I sensed the goddess, always listening in, perk up at her name.
“I am,” I admitted. “You recognize her symbol?”
“Everyone should know the Unwavering.” Jannica’s eyes drifted closed. “There are no temples for her in the city anymore, did you know that? I wish…”
Between one breath and the next, Rhianough was beside me, her violet hair muted in the low lamplight of the alcove. The twin snakes that lived within her hair swayed and hissed, but they didn’t scare me. They’d already bitten me once, so…
Jannica’s eyes fluttered open. “My lady,” she breathed. “Have you come to escort me?”
“That is not my domain.” Despite the denial, Rhianough’s expression was as soft as I’d ever seen it. For a being known as the Unwavering, she looked downright…motherly at the moment. “But I can make sure Etyx finds you when you close your eyes for the last time.”
“Thank you,” Jannica whispered.
“Do you wish to have a final impact on this world, child?”
“Of course.”
“Give yourself to me. I will pass on your magic to Mokido so he can help the queen, in your name.”
“Yes, my lady.” Jannica’s eyes closed once more, and I knew she wouldn’t be opening them again. “I am yours.”
“So you are, my child.” Rhianough bowed her head, her hair—and her snakes—falling forward to drape over Jannica’s now-motionless body.
Then, without warning, her snakes struck out at me.
One latched onto the side of my neck that was already marked by Rhianough, and the other sank its fangs into the virgin skin on the other side of my neck.
I gasped, shocked more by the energy suddenly spiking through me than the pain from the bites.
“Ow,” I said reflexively. “What?—”
“You have her temporal magic.” Rhianough’s gaze drilled into mine. “For a time. You may use it only once, so I suggest you get back to the palace to help your mother-in-law.”
“My mother—” I broke off, sputtering, at Rhianough’s evil grin. “You mean the queen. Say the queen.”
“Mother-in-law is just as accurate.”
Rather than continue an argument I knew I couldn’t win, I looked down at Jannica, who had left this life. “You guided her to Etyx?” Everyone knew about the goddess of death and roses, but few worshipped her out of fear of calling her attention.
“Yes,” Rhianough stated. “She’s safe. I will take care of this. Go save your mother?—”
“Going.” I pushed to my feet, then paused. “Thank you, Rhianough.”
She waved an imperious hand at me in response, and I raced through the warren, back to the Slipshod.
The new magic buzzed under my skin like a honeybee trying to find its way back to its hive.
The more time passed, the more insistent it became.
I scratched at my arms, absently, knowing it would do nothing to alleviate the annoying feeling, but having to do something .
By the time I made it back to the palace gates, I was ready to expend this magic and get rid of it forever.
As I had before, I showed Kason’s signet ring to the palace guards to gain entry. I expected the same procedure as before—examining the ring to make sure it was legitimate, checking with superiors, and so on.
What I did not expect was for the guard to shout, “Seize him!”
“What—” Before anything else could slip past my lips, my hands were wrenched behind my back and magic-suppressing cuffs were slapped on my wrists. Not the leather type Kason had used. No, these were metal, all but impossible to break out of.
I jerked my hands, but it was too late to escape. If there’d ever been a chance of it. “What’s the meaning of this?” I demanded.
“Mokido Azenas, you are under arrest for the murder of Lord Kason Estosia.”