4. Chapter 4
Chapter 4
I sabel shifted awkwardly at the back of the study in the Rendran palace, her eyes on the figure of the queen a few feet in front of her.
The queen was dressed in a simple blue gown edged with silver thread, and her dark, graying hair was pulled sharply back from her face. Isabel had only seen the queen from a distance before, but now, up close, she could make out the lines around her eyes and mouth that denoted a deep weariness.
The sun had set by the time they’d made their way into the city, and under the cover of darkness, Isabel had been able to pull enough shadow to cover both her and Karim. There had been no time to think about how they’d traveled across half of Medira and into Rendra. No time to let herself dwell on the terrifying implications of it all .
They’d located Cassandra quickly within the palace. The queen’s shadow had given Karim one measured glance before ushering them into the study they now sat in, with its blue and gold wallpaper. Then she’d covertly sent for the queen.
Now Karim sat on a gold embroidered chair not far from Isabel, looking just as grimy and wild as she was sure she looked.
Cassandra perched on a plush divan beside her sister. For the first time, Isabel realized how much the two women looked alike. Cassandra, almost twenty years younger, was a stronger, slimmer version of the queen. They both boasted high cheekbones, aquiline noses, and thick, dark hair, though Cassandra’s was done in a more casual knot than the queen’s.
“So, from what I understand, you are Karim Saad, and you were part of Amanakar’s plot,” the queen said. She watched Karim with a piercing intensity, as if she could see straight through him. To his credit, Karim didn’t allow his gaze to drop from the queen’s, and Isabel hoped he wouldn’t do something as incredibly stupid as the stunt he’d pulled in Medira. “You’re willing to give Rendra information in order to apprehend your countrymen and bring the rogue chanters to justice. ”
Isabel had given a brief account of what had happened in the dungeons of Medira, of the king’s anger at Karim, of her rash act of saving him. She’d glossed over the strangeness of her shadow magic and how they’d gone from Media to Rendra in a matter of minutes. How the power had rushed out of her and left her in an exhausted heap on the forest floor. How Karim had set up wards to protect them while she slept. None of that was the queen’s concern.
“I am,” Karim said after a stretch of silence. “In exchange for the queen’s protection.”
The queen folded her hands firmly in her lap, then traded a glance with Cassandra. “That can be arranged,” she said.
Karim blinked. “I— Oh. Thank you, Your Royal Highness.”
“Easier than you expected?” Cassandra asked with a grin.
“After what happened in Medira? Yes.” Karim rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
“I am not in the business of hurting those who wish for my help,” the queen said.
A swell of pride moved through Isabel’s chest. At least one sovereign wasn’t self-serving. It was what had made her want to work for the queen. What had made her want to serve her country. Because she knew the queen truly wanted things to be better for her subjects.
“Besides.” Cassandra leaned forward. “I need to thank you for what you did for my husband and me at the enclave. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know that we would have made it out alive.”
“I am glad you made it out,” Karim said earnestly. “On behalf of my people, I’m truly sorry. I should have done something sooner.”
“But you did act,” Cassandra said, “when no one else did.”
The door opened, and a man around Cassandra’s age stepped into the study. He was clean shaven, with a slim waist and broad shoulders. Dark, curling hair shaded brown eyes that twinkled with mischief. His gaze traveled across the group assembled in the room. When it landed on Cassandra, his face visibly softened.
“Arphaxad,” the queen said. “I’m glad you could join us.
Arphaxad Ilin Serra, Cassandra’s husband and the nephew of the king of Medira, gave a quick bow to the queen. Tension eased out of Cassandra’s shoulders as her husband slid onto the divan beside her. He ran a hand lightly across the small of her back, and she smiled up at him .
“Sorry.” He leaned forward so his arms rested on his knees. “I only just received word that my attendance was required. And thank goodness, because you saved me from a mountain of intensely boring paperwork.” His gaze settled on Karim, and he blinked. “Wait. Do I know you from somewhere?”
“I’m surprised you remember at all, dear,” Cassandra said. “You were a bit incapacitated at the time.”
Arphaxad cast a glance at his wife, then suddenly his eyes widened. “The knife,” he said, looking at Karim. “In the cave. You freed us.”
Isabel’s fingers went unconsciously to the knife at her belt. The wards radiated warmth into her fingers as Karim gave a quick nod of acquiescence.
“And how did he come to be here?” Arphaxad asked. After Cassandra filled him in, he shook his head. “That’s all...very concerning.”
Isabel thought it was a little more than concerning.
“It is concerning,” Cassandra said, leaning back against the divan. “What I want to know is why? Why go to all that trouble to free those men?”
Karim sighed, running a hand absently through his hair. The action made it stick up more than it already did. “I don’t know the whole of it,” he said. “We weren’t told much when we were in Medira. But it seems that Gustav escaped the raid in which most of us were captured.”
Cassandra’s hands balled into fists. “I swear, if I ever see that man again, I’m going to rip his head from his shoulders before he realizes what’s happening.”
“Not if I get to him first,” Arphaxad said.
The queen raised her hand. “I presume this Gustav had something to do with the escape?”
Karim nodded. “Yes. He is the most powerful of the ruling chanters in the enclave. He was able to shatter the old wards around the dungeon and open doors to get the other men out.”
“He broke through the old wards?” Arphaxad whistled. “That’s— I thought that was impossible.”
“I did too,” Karim said. “We all did.”
Cassandra shook her head. “How did he do it?”
“I really don’t know.” Karim’s shoulders tensed as he spoke. “I was only in the enclave for two months. We’d barely begun to scratch the surface of what the chanters know.” He let out a slow breath then, suddenly looking very tired. “But he’s jaded. Jaded about the enclave’s position. Jaded that their magic is seen as dangerous.”
“Even though it is,” Cassandra muttered.
“Yes.” There was a chill in Karim’s voice. “He wants something better for the enclave. More power. More recognition for their work. It was part of why he made the deal with Amanakar.”
“And what was it that he was promised in return?” Cassandra asked. “That is what I’ve never fully been able to parse out. The remaining chanters in the enclave have been...cagey at best.”
“Amanakar promised Gustav access to Ineti’s old libraries, where there are texts of deep magic detailing workings that have been lost to time. They’re mostly under the protection of the emperor and of powerful wards. And if Gustav helped Amanakar overthrow the emperor, he would be able to give him access to them.”
Isabel shuddered. There had once been texts of old magic in Rendra and Medira too, but they’d been hidden or destroyed years ago.
“What does he plan to do with access to these old texts?” Cassandra asked quietly. Arphaxad’s shoulders were hunched, and the queen watched Karim with a solemn expression.
“He wants to bring the magic of the old mages back into our world. And the only way to do that is to reforge a path into the realm of shadow.”
Cassandra swore under her breath. Arphaxad slammed a fist down onto the divan, and the queen turned pale. Isabel gaped at Karim. Reforge a path into shadow. That was...madness. The old mages had derived their power from the ancient gates between their world and the shadow realm, but those links had been closed five hundred years ago for a reason. The more power the mages had drawn, the more shadow had slipped through—shadow that was hungry to devour life. Shadow that had taken a ring of the most powerful mages the world had seen to quell.
“That’s why Gustav wanted to free us,” Karim said quietly. “He is powerful, but he can’t do everything he wants alone. Chanting, especially, takes a lot of power, and to create the type of doors the enclave was capable of takes years of study and multiple powerful chanters. Now that Gustav’s been rejected by the enclave and is on the run, those of us in the prison are his best chance of gathering chanters to help him. Now that he’s freed them, they owe him their lives. That’s a powerful incentive for wanted men.” Karim’s mouth twisted.
“But not for you,” the queen said.
“Not for me,” Karim said.
“Do you know where they went?” Cassandra asked. Her eyes were blazing now, and Isabel could see the cogs turning in her head. There was a reason she was the queen’s shadow—she always had a plan .
“I think it’s likely they went to the Alliance lands,” Karim said. “At least for now. Gustav is from the southern reaches, near the ice sheets.”
“Well out of our reach,” Arphaxad said with a sigh.
“I’ll put out some feelers,” Cassandra said. “We have contacts in the Alliance lands. We want to keep as close an eye on him as possible.”
The queen turned her gaze on Karim. “You said you do not want to have anything to do with the chanters again. You refused to go when the chanters came for your men. Does that mean you’ve drawn a target on your back? You have information they don’t want known.”
Karim stared down at his hands. “I think it is likely that they will try to come for me,” he said slowly. Isabel wondered how much that might have to do with his magic affinity over any information he might have. He was powerful—she’d seen that firsthand. Gustav must know that too.
“I see,” the queen said. Then, “He can’t stay here for long.”
“No, he can’t,” Cassandra agreed. “You have a target too firmly on your back—from Medira, from Ineti, and from Gustav. And if Medira finds out that one of our own broke you out—I don’t want to know what it will mean for the alliance between Rendra and Medira.” Her hand found her husband’s and gave it a quick squeeze.
Karim sat rigidly in his chair, his shoulders stiff. Isabel’s heart ached suddenly as she looked at him. He was alone in a foreign land, unable to return home to his family, to the familiar places he had once known. And not only that, but the land that had once been his had turned against him. It seemed incredibly unfair.
“There’s a safe house of sorts at the base of the southern mountains, just north of the Alliance lands,” Cassandra continued. “It’s remote—an ancient Rendran citadel, protected by old wards. The protector who lives there is as loyal to the queen as they come. He can go there for the time being. Until things settle down.”
Until things settle down. That could take months. Years even. But the queen was right that he couldn’t stay in the palace where there were too many prying eyes. The Mediran ambassador to Rendra was a sharp man. Word would make its way back to the king in time.
“Is that amenable to you, Mr. Saad?” the queen asked.
Karim crossed his arms. “It’s better than some of my other options.”
“Good.” The queen cast her gaze around the room then. “Now, as for the matter of who will accompany Mr. Saad— ”
“I can take him,” Isabel said, straightening from where she was leaning against the wall.
All eyes in the room turned toward her. She winced. Damn it. She had just interrupted the queen.
“I feel responsible for him,” she blundered on. “I was the one who broke him out and got him in this predicament. It’s my responsibility to see it through to the end.”
And there weren’t any better candidates anyway. Cassandra was too tied up in the capital for a job like this—since her marriage to Arphaxad and the revelation that she was the queen’s half-sister, she was far too visible. Isabel had taken over the brunt of Cassandra’s old activities in the past few months. This would just be one more.
“I see,” the queen said slowly.
Karim had turned around in his chair and was watching her, an unreadable expression on his face.
“It makes sense to me,” Arphaxad said. He cast a glance at his wife. “Cass?”
“Isabel is more than capable of taking care of this,” Cassandra said, giving Isabel a warm smile. “Though I do miss galivanting through Rendra on my own.”
“You forget, you have me now, dear,” Arphaxad said, draping an arm around her shoulders. Cassandra rolled her eyes, but gave his hand a fond pat .
“Good,” the queen said, looking between Isabel and Karim. “We will find a place for Mr. Saad to rest tonight. You will both leave in the morning.” She shot an unexpectedly impish smile at her younger sister. “And if my understanding of how Isabel came to work for Cassandra is correct, I don’t doubt her ability at all.”
Isabel’s cheeks flooded with heat. The queen knew that story? Her heart gave a panicked thump. The queen knew that story.
Cassandra groaned. “We are not talking about that, Elena.”
“Um, we most certainly are going to talk about that.” Arphaxad pulled his wife playfully against him. “I don’t believe I’ve heard this particular story.”
Cassandra put her hands over her cheeks. “No, no, no, we are not talking about that.”
Isabel couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips. It was a good story. And maybe not her proudest moment. Or maybe it was. She’d never been able to decide. She’d been in a place of desperation, and then she’d seen Cassandra and...it had all fallen stupidly into place.
“It’s Isabel’s story to tell!” Cassandra protested, pressing her hands to her cheeks.
Arphaxad turned to look at Isabel, a pleading, almost puppy-dog look on his face .
“I don’t mind,” Isabel said with a grin.
Karim shot her a look, his eyes gleaming with interest. Isabel’s cheeks flamed, and she yanked her gaze away.
“As I understand it,” the queen said, leaning forward, “Isabel beat Cassandra at her own game. She successfully captured and incapacitated the queen’s shadow with a bucket of dirty dishwater . And then she asked for a job.”
Isabel didn’t think it was possible for her face to turn even redder than it already was. She had been desperate for something, anything, to change in her life, to find a place that didn’t come with the memories of what she’d lost. There wasn’t much in the Rendran capital for a girl from a small farming village with no family and no references. But so much of it had been chance—that she’d happened to see Cassandra in that alley behind the courtier’s residence in which she worked, that she’d recognized her at all, that she happened to be holding that enormous bucket of dishwater...
“I was a little distracted that day,” Cassandra protested.
Arphaxad laughed gleefully. “That is incredible,” he said to Isabel. “I pulled that kind of thing off a few times when I was still working for Medira, but I have heard of no one else who has. I am honored to have you join my ranks.”
“You are insufferable.” Cassandra punched her husband in the arm, but she was grinning too .
Isabel crossed her arms, trying to keep her smile at bay. She couldn’t stop herself from glancing back at Karim. He grinned, and her cheeks flooded with heat again.
“Well then,” the queen said, rising. Cassandra and Arphaxad rose too, with Karim following suit a moment later. “I believe we have a plan in place.”
“Yes, we do,” Cassandra confirmed.
“Isabel will show you to your accommodations,” the queen said to Karim. “If you will excuse me, I have another matter to attend to.”
“Of course, Your Highness,” Karim said with a bow. He seemed far more in awe of the Rendran queen than he had been of the Mediran king.
Cassandra gave Isabel directions to a room at the back of the palace, a room that had old wards on it.
“Thank you, Isabel,” Cassandra said, reaching for her arm. “I don’t know what I would do without you.” Isabel’s heart warmed for a moment, and she gave the older woman a quick nod before following Karim out into the hall.
“Interesting,” Karim said when they were alone.
“What’s interesting?” Isabel said thornily, her shoulders tensing. She didn’t like that introspective look at all. It meant he was about to question something she’d done.
He shrugged. “You didn’t tell them. About the shadow. About what happened back in Medira. How we got here. ”
“ I don’t even know what happened,” she said defensively. “It’s not something they need to know. It’s not relevant to what’s going on now.”
Karim’s brows rose. “They don’t know about your affinity, do they?”
“It’s not something I’m exactly interested in publicizing,” Isabel said tightly. The fact that he hadn’t said anything to them was more than she had expected. But she supposed he’d had no reason to reveal her secrets. He had no reason to reveal his own either.
“You didn’t tell them about mine either,” he said.
“Did you want them knowing about your affinity?” she asked. “I fully believe in the Rendran queen. She has been nothing but good to me. But even a good sovereign must use the tools they have. I don’t think you want that added layer of usefulness to them.”
He looked at her for a long moment, his eyes pensive, assessing. She didn’t like him looking at her like that, as if he were truly considering what she’d said. She’d rather he’d just snap at her and give her a reason to go on disliking him.
She had stopped thinking of him as a traitor, Isabel realized suddenly, which made her want to stomp her foot. It would have been so much easier to just go on that way.
“Look,” she said, letting out a puff of air. “If we’re going to work together, you can’t question me. It’s my job to get you to the citadel. It’s your job to follow. Got that?”
Karim raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “As my lady commands.”
Isabel tossed him her most scathing glare but didn’t bother giving him the satisfaction of a response.
They had a long journey ahead of them. It was time to get some rest. And Isabel knew they both needed it.