47. Forty-Seven
Chapter 47
“Temple service begins at sunup,” the veiled guard at the compound gates said. There was only one this time. It was dark, well past sunset, the lanterns along the gate all glowing orange.
“I’m not here for service. I’m here to see someone.”
“I can’t let you in. It’s the rules.”
“I cannot wait for sunup.” I took a step forward, until I was barely inches from his shiny brass breastplate. To his credit, the guard didn’t flinch or even tighten his grip on his spear. He stayed perfectly still, his face covered in the white shroud of the Nameless. “I am a witch, and I was invited to be here, and if you don’t let me through this horned gate, unseen be my witness, I will turn you inside out—”
“Miss, please don’t threaten me,” the guard said. I couldn’t tell if he was calm or just stately and well-trained. His voice didn’t waver, and he still hadn’t moved. “I can’t break the procedures. Temple service begins at sunup. You can enter then.”
I stayed standing just where I was for a moment longer, glaring up at him with my nostrils flaring, but apparently that still didn’t impress him. I was almost tempted to roam through the city, find somebody with unguarded power, and get inside by force. But there wasn’t time for that. And hurting some innocent Nameless wasn’t going to make anything about the situation better.
“Call someone else,” I demanded. “One of the Order. They will let me in. The chancellor asked for me.”
“Have you got a written invitation, or a seal? No?” the guard asked. “If I have to call the night guards, they will arrest you. Please, miss, be on your way.”
“Hello?” I shouted, yelling past him. “It’s Meda, Meda from Nis. I need to come in.”
The Nameless whistled, a splitting sound. To my right I saw two guards round the iron fence at a run.
“Nameless one,” a soft voice said on the other side of the iron gate. “She is known. Let her in.”
The Nameless turned over his shoulder; the witch on the other side nodded. I didn’t say a word as the gate opened and I walked inside.
The witch was small; young and brimming with power, with bright eyes that studied me carefully.
“We saw what happened in Koraica, in the bowl. Did you really write the spell?”
“I need to see Oraik.”
“Master Geov saw you at the gate. I’m to bring you to the great hall.”
“Now,” I clarified. “I need to see him now.” I could not, at that moment, have cared less about the dream I was ignoring. Not with Kalcedon gone, and no certainty how long I had to bring him back. Each second might carry him further from me.
“They won’t be pleased.”
“Do I look like I care?”
Most people would have bristled; she only gave me a small smile and a shrug. Turning, the witch led the way down the compound’s winding street. The burning stink of iron lay heavy in the air, growing as we approached a building with iron lattice across the windows, each glowing gap between the metal shaped like a star.
It was the perfect place to keep someone hunted by fae, but instead of going to the door she led me across the street to another building, stone that did not feel lined with iron.
“Why isn’t Oraik in one of the iron chambers?” I asked as we approached the door, our destination clear.
“He wished to move, once it wasn’t necessary.”
A bad feeling took hold of my stomach. I regarded the back of her head suspiciously.
“Why wasn’t it necessary?”
I could see the sharp, sudden shift in her posture; the straightening as she realized she’d misspoken.
“We saw their ships retreat,” she started to say, turning towards me.
I grabbed her power in fistfuls and slammed her back against the stone wall of the building. She wheezed and twisted her hands.
“Don’t try that,” I snarled. I yanked her towards me, then slammed her back against the wall again. She panted for air, but her trembling fingers didn’t shape sigils.
“Mistress. The Order will be angry—”
I felt her struggling to pull her magic back, but my hands were in it now, and the magic was eager to sink into my blood. I called it towards me, my blood chanting with fury.
“How did you know? How did you know they had what they wanted?” I demanded.
“I told you. We saw—” her lips paled as the magic refused to return to her.
“You’d best start praying. You’re going to need it.”
“It was his life or all of ours.”
“His life ? You idiot.”
“We had no choice,” she gasped.
“Sure. Me neither,” I told her. And then I dragged the rest of the heat from her body. Not all of it; I left a thin spark. Enough to keep her alive. She slid down to the ground as her power burned sourly through me. Without the magic wrapped into a sigil-pattern, my blood couldn’t hold it. It burned away like dry grass.
The door was locked. I pounded, and didn’t stop pounding, until I saw the knob turn.
Oraik stood at the other side, glossy eyed and swaying slightly. He crushed me in a hug.
“Meda! Oh. Was that you?” He let go of me, staring at the unconscious witch a few feet away.
“Pack your things. We’re leaving,” I told him.
“Goodness. Well, come in, my little terror.”
I followed him into a sitting room with a hanging lantern. A folded blanket draped over an embroidered divan. In front of it, a low marble table held a small half-consumed glass of liqueur and an upside-down book, spread wide open to hold its reader’s place. Apart from these few small human details the room felt as empty and ornate as a mausoleum.
He stumbled to a bar and yanked the top from a glass bottle, grabbing one of the tiny liqueur cups.
“You’re drunk,” I observed. That had the potential to make things difficult.
“Drunk?” Oraik turned around, eyes wide. His big hand made the liqueur glass look even smaller. “No, I don’t think so. Perhaps a little.”
“You need to get your things.”
“It’s the middle of the night.” When I didn’t take the cup, Oraik set it down on the table and dropped on the divan. It wheezed in protest under his weight.
“We have to go.”
“Why do you look so angry? Why did you attack that poor tiffa?” He held a hand out towards me. I crossed my arms.
“This place is a joke. Are you coming, or not?”
“Mm… yes,” Oraik said. With a groan he hauled himself up, finished his drink, and grabbed the book off the table. Folding it shut, he tucked it under his arm. “Alright, door’s this way.”
“Put some shoes on,” I said. “And you might want a change of clothes.”
He laughed, vanished into a side room, and reappeared with a pair of sandals on his feet and a bag over his shoulder. My stomach felt like a tangle of knots. I opened my mouth to tell him my plan, what I needed him for, but before I could drag the words out of my chest he was off down another hall and waving me with him. We left the building, back into the night air and the sick scent of iron. The Nameless didn't stop us as we left the compound.
“Where’s your faerie-man? Or didn’t he want to see me?” Oraik frowned my way. “He didn’t want to rescue me, did he? I thought we were finally getting along.”
“They took him,” I said. I bowed my head, following him down one of the sloped streets of the city, crowds thin in the late hour.
“ Who took him?”
“Outlanders. We couldn’t fight them off.”
Oraik tripped over his own feet, stumbling forward until he caught himself and turned on me.
“ What?”
“Four days ago. And two days back the Ward fell.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I. But I’m getting him back.” There wasn’t time to waste. I started striding down the street again.
“Yes, good,” he said, all seriousness. He took after me. Glancing his way, I saw his brow furrow. “From… across?”
“I need your help to do it.”
Oraik yelped and smacked my arm lightly. I stopped again and turned to face him.
“Meda, are you asking permission to murder me?” Oraik wanted to know.
I wrinkled my face at him. “Of course not. I just need a few drops of blood. Fresh blood, or else I’d leave you here.”
He lifted his eyebrows and stared down at me. His weight was still unsteady, so much so that even without moving Oraik began to tilt and had to catch himself.
“So you’re going to break a stone, and cross over the Ward, and bring Kalcedon home,” he said.
“Yes.”
“And you want my blood . So you can break another stone.”
“Could you keep your voice down?”
“Promise you aren’t going to murder me.”
“I wouldn’t,” I protested hotly. “Not you. But if you won’t help, I’ll have to find…”
He held up both hands, stopping me mid-sentence.
“Darling. You’re off to do something incredibly idiotic and probably painful, and make the Temple look foolish in the process. You can’t honestly expect me to stay home?”