Chapter 47
The Tower named me fourth.
I would have preferred not to take that personally.
My shoulder took it very much that way.
The Mark that was slowly killing me had lit through my coat when Astra bonded Ashford, which was embarrassing enough, and then the Tower had gone and said my name in front of every person in the hall with ears.
Now the pain sat high and bright under the bone, glowing at the edges, as if my body had decided subtlety was for men with better prospects than a boy who had been dying since he was born.
Across the hall, Astra stood with Ashford at the basin.
Bonded.
Still alive.
And furious.
I was very pleased about two of those things and trying to be civilized about the other.
The black water in Juno’s witness basin faded back to silver. No severance before review. That was what the Tower had said.
There were several ways to hear that.
The cheerful interpretation was that the Tower had prevented Quill from cutting the open lines immediately.
The less cheerful interpretation was that the Tower wanted all the pieces intact when they arrived.
I have always disliked games where I am one of the pieces.
Quill lowered his hand.
“The named Marks will be removed under witness.”
Ah.
The part where the room stopped pretending we were guests and decided we were prisoners.
The students nearest the doors moved back before anyone told them to. Fear teaches manners quickly.
Council stewards came from the side aisles in dark formal coats with no house marks on the cuffs. Not guards. Guards were honest. These were the sort of men a Council called stewards because steward sounded better than thug.
One came toward me.
I smiled at him and he slowed.
I had very few pleasures left. Making large men reconsider their first plan remained reliable.
“Marsh,” he said.
“Unfortunately.”
“You will come with me.”
“Will I?”
His eyes went to my shoulder.
Which was rather rude, if you asked me. Apparently his mother had never taught him not to stare.
The Mark brightened under the attention. Pain moved down my arm and into my fingers.
I kept the smile where it was, though I feared it had turned into a grimace.
“If you intend to touch me,” I said, “I suggest you reconsider.”
His hands stayed at his sides.
A wiser man than he looked.
Across the hall, another steward approached Jonah Hale.
That went even worse.
Hale didn’t move or threaten. He simply glared at the man until the man took three steps back.
Instructor Hale, still giving us an education on combat arts while his Mark burned like the Tower had put a hook through it.
I almost admired him for it.
At the basin, Caspian kept his hand over Astra’s.
Magnus Ashford spoke to Quill too quietly for most of the hall to hear.
Naturally, I was not most of the hall.
“He is my son.”
Quill’s answer was just as quiet.
“He is named.”
That distressed Magnus Ashford enough that I nearly forgave Quill for being the absolute pompous ass overseeing this whole debacle.
Astra’s head turned toward Caspian, and something passed between them that the bond probably made easier.
I hated the bond for that.
I loved it for keeping her standing.
Rev tried to step away from the students along the wall.
Cosima caught her wrist.
Rev looked down at Cosima’s hand and frowned, but Cosima did not let go.
Whatever passed between them happened without words. Rev stayed put. Her face made a promise that everyone in this room would be sorry for later.
I believed she would do everything in her power to keep it.
Juno’s hand left the witness basin at last.
The black water had gone silver again, but it left the room colder. Or maybe that was just the death promise crawling through me.
“Under whose authority are they to be removed?” Juno asked.
Quill looked at her.
“Tower notice.”
“Tower notice requires them to remain under witness. It does not specify removal from the hall.”
Linden spoke before Quill could.
“The great hall is no longer secure.”
Every head turned toward him.
Linden had been writing since the world began, as far as I could tell. He seldom spoke, and hearing him do it now was like watching a hidden knife drawn.
Juno stared at him. “Secure from whom?”
Linden’s expression made it clear he disliked being questioned.
“From the… extraneous witnesses,” he said.
Ah, that.
Too many people had seen too much. The room had become dangerous because the truth had spread into it.
Astra let out a bark of laughter.
I adored her even more for it.
I wished even harder this wasn’t going to end as unpleasantly for us all as I expected it was.
Ashford looked ready to put himself between her and the entire Council, which was gallant and stupid and made him newly less irritating than it had been this morning.
I needed to stop becoming fair-minded. It was ruining my better qualities.
“Where are you taking us?” Astra asked.
Quill turned to her.
“The west antechamber.”
Of course.
One word, and everyone in the hall remembered Delphine Moreau.
I saw it happen. First-years looked toward the west door before they could stop themselves. Rev went still. Cosima stopped looking like she had answers.
Astra’s fingers flexed under Ashford’s hand.
Ashford bent his head toward her.
She said something I couldn’t hear.
He answered just as quietly.
The Pull translated nothing.
Some things should stay theirs. That irritated me too, obviously, but given the situation, I was having a generous half-minute.
The steward near me tried again.
“Marsh.”
“Yes, yes. Named. Removed. Witnessed. Terrible verbs all around.”
I stepped away from the wall.
The room tilted.
Only slightly.
My shoulder punished the first step. My ribs helped. For a moment, the green-gold line in the basin burned so bright that I tasted apples and blood.
Astra noticed my pain through the bond.
The whole room between us, and she still saw.
I gave her the smallest bow I could manage without falling over.
Her eyes narrowed.
Quill lifted his hand toward the west door.
The stewards formed a line around all four of us. No hands on anyone, I noted with the only pleasure I could conjure from the situation.
Ashford noticed. Hale noticed. I noticed.
Astra noticed last, because she was busy staring at the west door as if she could set it on fire with her glare.
They were moving us as a set.
The Tower had said all named Marks.
The Council obeyed.
Ashford stepped away from the basin only when Astra did.
Their hands separated.
The bond between them did not.
Everyone saw that too.
Astra came down from the raised circle with silver water on her fingers and her mother’s wren over her heart. She did not look like a girl being escorted from a formal.
She looked like a girl being taken from one battlefield to another.
I had missed her. I wanted her by my side. I wanted to kiss her again.
Ridiculous thoughts, since she had just been bonded to Caspian Ashford in front of a hundred eyes.
The four of us reached the center aisle at the same time.
Ashford took her right. I took her left. Hale walked three steps ahead, because the stewards did not quite know whether he belonged with us or against us.
Astra turned to me.
“You look terrible.”
“Not everyone can manage to look as ravishing as you while facing their doom.”
“You’re bleeding through your coat.”
I looked down.
The silver-green light at my shoulder had darkened the fabric around it and was seeping through my sleeve. Not blood, then.
Worse.
“Ah,” I said. “That.”
“Can you walk?”
“I can request to be carried, if you would like to make the evening even more memorable. Although it would wound my pride.”
Ashford scoffed at me.
“Do not make her worry more.”
I sighed.
There was the Caspian Ashford I had never guessed existed. The one I was increasingly irritated to find I could not simply despise.
“I will try to suffer less theatrically,” I offered.
“You’re doing a terrible job,” Astra said, and I wanted to kiss her even more for it.
Then the stewards opened the west door.
Cold air rushed through first.
Stone cold. Underground cold.
Delphine had gone through this door.
The thought took the humor out of me so cleanly I nearly missed a step.
Astra did miss one.
Ashford caught her elbow.
Hale turned and looked back over his shoulder.
I reached for her and stopped myself because Ashford already had her and because my right arm had become a poor negotiator.
Astra recovered before any of us could make the mistake of helping too much.
“I’m fine.”
No one believed her.
But no one said so either.
Behind us, the hall watched.
Rev stood with both hands balled into fists at her sides, very still now.
Cosima’s breathing was less maintained than her usual composure.
Juno remained beside the witness basin. Aldric stood with his shoulders squared toward Quill, as if he had decided the next person to move would have to go through him first.
Leave allies in the room.
Take the liabilities into the corridor.
That was how a Council thought.
That was how a Council made mistakes, too.
The west door closed behind us.
The sound was smaller than I expected.
Inconsiderate, really.
A life should make more noise when it changes shape.
The corridor beyond was narrow and white-lit, with no windows and no lilies.
Two stewards walked ahead. Two behind. One at either side.
Astra looked at the walls.
“Delphine came this way.”
No one answered.
That was answer enough.
Her Mark brightened at her wrist.
All three of us felt it.
Ashford drew in a breath.
Hale’s hand flexed once.
My shoulder gave a bright, vicious pulse.
Astra stopped walking.
So did we.
So did the stewards, though they disliked that we had forced them to, judging by their expressions.
She turned slowly to Quill, who had followed at the rear with Linden beside him.
“Where did this corridor take her?”
Quill’s expression did not change.
“The west antechamber.”
“And after that?”
Linden looked at Quill.
Tiny. Fast.
But I saw it.
We all did.
Quill said, “Delphine Moreau’s case is not scheduled for review tonight.”
Astra went still.
Not was.
Is.
Then Quill said, “Walk.”
We followed her down the white corridor, four named Marks under Tower notice, toward the room Delphine Moreau had walked through the day she disappeared.
Being named meant I was close enough to see what they tried to hide next.