Chapter 24 #2
My hands start shaking. I tuck them under the table, pressing them against my thighs to still them. I force myself to examine the rest. The amphitheater is labeled Malvorathis Amphitheater.
The Keep is marked as Neith's Palace. In the bottom corner, faded script reads: Zoila Veneficia, Map Maker of the Veritas Order, circa 1 A.S. Three hundred years ago. Before Constantine. Before the treaty. Before everything went wrong.
"The Sages believe Jordi's been moved to the Hall of Gratitude." My voice is steadier than I expected.
Silence.
"What?" Naima breathes.
"How do they know?" Draven's eyes narrow.
"Freida tried to extract him from the Keep. He'd already been moved."
Draven leans forward. "Why that location? Of all the places they could take him?"
"Jordi got arrested on purpose.”
Draven blinks. "He did what?"
“He wanted to move the memory stones underneath the Hall of Gratitude to prevent deaths once the curse is lifted." I swallow. "I can only assume he was caught trying to do that."
“Goddess strike me,” Naima breathes.
"I suppose I'm staying another night," Draven says quietly.
"Can you get past the wards?” Margot asks.
He shakes his head. “I’ve tried.”
"The wards only cover street level,” Kage announces. "I checked last night while you were at the ceremony."
"We checked," Naima corrects pointedly. "And we saw something near the red doors. Shroudmaidens, maybe."
Kage sighs. "For the hundredth time, we didn't see Shroudmaidens."
"We saw very dark fog," Naima says through gritted teeth. “Moving fog. For all we know, the Shroudmaidens are down there.”
"Do the Sages know how long he’s been there?” Mal asks.
I shake my head, finally meeting his eyes. I’m grateful for the determination I find in them. He glances at the rest of the table.
“We’re going to get him out tonight.” He slides a newer map to the center of the table and hands charcoal pencils to Draven and Kage. He holds my eyes as he offers me the third. “Mark all the entrances to the tunnels that you know of.”
"While we’re planning our inevitable demise, we should talk about secrets,” Kage says, looking at me and my friends. “Naima's been forthcoming enough, but we need to know what gifts the three of you have."
Margot scoffs. "A little too forthcoming, if you ask me."
"Good thing no one asked you,” he says, winking at her.
"We need to strike at midnight," Draven says, ignoring Kage. "That's when the Council's festivities get ... interesting. If we arrive at midnight and leave by half past one, we'll have a window. Sometimes they bring guests to the Hall. I don't know why."
I check the clock. Eight. Four hours to plan. I startle when Kage claps his hands together.
"As I was saying, I'd rather not walk in there and discover one of you can manipulate time or something equally useful that we could've planned around." He spreads his hands on the table. "Who wants to go first?"
My lips twist. "Why don't you start, since you're so eager?"
He shoots me a look. "We'll have to work on that attitude before the wedding."
A low warning sound rumbles from Malachi's direction. Naima snorts. I cast her a silencing glare.
"If that look held any magic, it would kill on contact,” Kage quips.
"Yosh," Draven mutters. "Can we proceed?"
Kage exhales dramatically. "Fine. I can move through shadows. And ..."
He raises a hand. Dark smoke coils from his palm, serpentine and deliberate. It snakes across the table toward me. I lift a hand to bat it away, but the tendril wraps around my wrist and holds firm. I've seen his shadows before. I've never seen them grip.
"How?" I breathe.
He grins. "Imagine what I could do to you in the bed—"
The maps fly off the table and slap him in the face before he can finish the sentence. The shadow dissolves. My hand thumps down onto wood.
Kage glares at Malachi. "Godsdamn it, Bain. I thought you said all of your gifts weren't back."
"They're not."
"All your gifts?" Margot leans forward. "How many do you have?"
"Several,” Kage says. "Unfortunately, the curse limits how long we can hold some of them."
"The curse affects your gifts?"
"Some of our abilities come from the creatures we're bonded to. With the creatures in a slumber, those gifts fade faster than they used to."
"Does using them bring you comfort?" I ask quietly. "Or does it just remind you of what you've lost?"
His smile turns sad. "I try to focus on the comfort it brings."
"What about your other gifts?" Margot presses.
“Some come from gods, as you know. Others from weapons. The scepters are the most powerful, but other weapons have divine powers as well.”
I think of Malachi's sword. Vida. I wonder which god it belongs to.
"Before the curse, four out of ten people manifested natural gifts from the gods." He glances at Draven. "Sound right?"
"Roughly. Maybe a little more than that."
Kage nods. "These days, almost no one in Vindariel is born with any. They can barely maintain basic sorcery. Most of their gifts are used to keep the water clean and the soil alive."
My chest tightens. Again. I've lost count how many times today. How many sacrifices have been made because of one man's greed? Kage slaps the table, pulling me back.
“All this to say, I understand you need to rely on elixirs and incantations for your gifts, but once the curse is lifted, you may get stronger gifts or not need incantations to summon them,” he says.
Margot straightens. "Stronger gifts like what?"
"Like the one I just demonstrated."
"Oh." She looks disappointed for a moment. Then she raises her hand and produces her own tendril of smoke.
Light gray. It drifts to the center of the table, spiraling lazily, then vanishes when she closes her fist.
Kage gapes. "How?"
The three of us laugh. Draven chuckles. Malachi's eyes narrow, calculating.
"I can't make mine grip like yours," Margot admits. "It's more of a distraction. Probably useless in the tunnels."
"The Sages never taught you to solidify it?"
She shakes her head. "They don't have this gift. They did what they could with books, but some things can't be learned from reading."
Kage turns to Naima. "What about you? What are you hiding?"
"You know about the metal forging."
"That's all?"
Her smile is mysterious. "Maybe."
He shakes his head and turns to me. Before he can ask, I open my palm. Fire blooms there, steady and bright.
Kage looks at Malachi. "You knew she could do that?"
"I did,” he says with a pride that makes my chest ache more.
Kage looks at the three of us again and shakes his head in disbelief. “Well, I guess that’s yet another thing the curse didn’t affect here.”
“Can we get to planning now?” Draven asks, getting us back on track.
An hour later, we have something resembling a plan.
Naima, Margot, and Kage leave to gather supplies. Coats. Lanterns. Whatever else Kage insists we'll need.
Draven lasts approximately three seconds after they leave before announcing he needs to go home.
I nearly beg him to stay. Anything to avoid being alone with Malachi before the mission.
But Malachi just looks at my face and tells me to rest. He doesn't push.
I'm out of my chair and through my bedroom door before he can change his mind.
“We’re still having that conversation after we get your brother back,” he calls after me.
I nod, shut the door behind me, and collapse onto my bed.