Chapter 35
‘So,’ said Sunay, her voice significantly deeper than usual.
‘Do you like me better this way?’ They had decided that since Maura would be expecting Artair, they would have to produce him, and Sunay—as a professional liar and spinner of tall tales—was the best choice to play the monk.
She had used the illusion spell on herself and the sack, filling it with an illusion of the cub.
It was, she had explained to Elver, not quite enough magic to create two living, breathing illusions at once, but she could give Maura a glance inside the sack and hold the image of the cub there for a brief moment. It would have to do.
The illusion of Artair, though, was remarkably convincing.
It was like having him standing in front of her again, although his usual stoicism was missing, replaced with Sunay’s cheery optimism.
It made her miss him. The mage struck a pose, hands on hips and chest thrust out, and despite herself, Elver laughed.
‘I will admit, Sunay, you are suddenly much more appealing.’
‘I knew it.’
The entrance to Prideful Leap was a wide path paved with stones so white they were almost translucent, at the end of which stood an elegant doorway leading into the main building, which looked something like a cathedral made of ivory.
A flock of birds, tiny flecks of black at this distance, moved restlessly around its towers, as though they couldn’t quite bear to touch the sheer white marble.
It was beautiful, and extraordinary, and remarkably out of place in the strange, magic-blasted landscape, as though it had been plucked from some fairy tale city and dumped on the shattered mountain.
Lining the path were statues, also crafted from the shining white stone.
Each of them, Elver realized as they passed, were of Maura, at different ages and in different poses.
Here she was as a young, slim-hipped woman, her hair loose down her back and a lion cub held in her arms. Here, a Maura Elver recognized more readily: an older woman with her hair partially tamed, one hand reaching to the sky as though she wanted to rip the moon from it.
The statues made her uneasy, but it wasn’t until Sunay spoke that she realized the reason why.
‘Not much sign of the Bloody Claw here, is there?’
‘No. That’s odd, isn’t it? You have images of Tisk in your temple, right?’
‘I certainly do. He’d get the hump otherwise, the vain fool. My beloved lord, I mean.’
The last statue they passed was of another version of younger Maura, this time kneeling with her arms around two small children. Elver paused at this one, her stomach churning. Whatever her relationship with her own, Maura had no love for children. Elver was certain of that.
‘We’ve been expecting you.’ They both turned at the voice. A young man dressed in scarlet was coming out of the narrow entranceway. He wore a black silk mask over the lower half of his face and his eyes betrayed no emotion. ‘Although there was only supposed to be one of you.’
‘They’re not easy things to wrangle, monsters,’ said Sunay, briefly holding up the sack so that Maura’s apprentice could see it. ‘I needed help, that’s all.’
‘Very well. Follow me.’
Inside, Prideful Leap gave way to darker stone, and somehow the place felt colder than it had out on the mountain itself.
There were a handful of other men and women dressed in scarlet, who watched them pass with pointed interest. Elver’s heart began to race.
This was it. Soon, she would be in the presence of the woman who five years ago had chosen to throw her to her death.
She felt sick with a strange mixture of dread and excitement; they would get the novices away, and perhaps then she might have a chance to say what she’d always wanted to say to the woman who had killed her.
Perhaps she’d get a chance to show her just how poisonous this monster girl was.
There was little chance the mage would recognize her, and the thought of seeing an expression of shock on Maura’s face was delicious—she only wished that Artair could really be there to see it.
The apprentice mage led them down a set of stone steps and the temperature dropped even further.
There were torches in the sconces burning with a smoky, red light.
Sunay hung back to speak into her ear, and Elver tipped her head away a little to avoid hurting the woman: she didn’t know how the illusion worked, but she didn’t want to accidentally poison her.
‘This place is gloomy, isn’t it? My lord prefers the open air.’
‘I don’t like it,’ said Elver. ‘It feels like walking into a tomb.’
They emerged into an underground cavern, the strong mineral scent of water in the air. At the back of the chamber, there was a semi-circular seating gallery carved from the dark stone, and on it sat Maura.
Elver’s poison blood pulsed in her chest as though it were rising up in anger, or fear. Here, finally. This was the moment—she was facing the woman who had murdered her.
Mother Maura was wearing a white dress made of many layers of thin silk, each heavily embroidered with things Elver couldn’t make out.
Her hair lay against all that white like a spray of fresh blood.
The mage was looking at something she held cradled in her hands, but when they entered the chamber she looked up sharply.
Spotting the pair of them, she leaned back, settling one elbow on the step behind her.
‘Thank you, Warnick,’ she said, gesturing to the apprentice. That voice: a purr that promised violence. It hadn’t changed.
‘We’ve brought you the cub,’ said Sunay, Artair’s voice leaving her throat with confidence. ‘So you can let my people go now.’
Maura nodded, although she made no move to get up. Elver noted that the novices were nowhere to be seen.
‘Show me,’ said Maura.
Sunay walked forward until she was a few feet away from where Mother Maura sat.
Anyone who knew Artair well, Elver thought, would note that he was swinging his hips an unusual amount.
Sunay opened the sack at the neck and revealed the contents to Maura.
The mage’s eyes brushed over the illusion of the cub and returned instead to Elver.
A quick slither of a smile moved over the woman’s mouth, a movement that put Elver in mind of a lizard skittering across a stone.
The apprentice named Warnick came forward and took the sack from Sunay.
‘Very well. A deal is a deal,’ said Maura.
‘I can’t deny that you’ve done what I asked.
’ She stood, placing what had been in her hands on the seat next to her.
It appeared to be a child’s toy; a bear carved from wood and painted with bright colours.
It had little pearl buttons for eyes, and at some point, it had been broken and glued back together with care.
Maura lifted one hand and made a kind of twisting gesture in the air, as though taking hold of an invisible rope, and two portals appeared in the air, just like the one Dalesh had used to get them out of the Temple of Trilot.
Through one of them, she could see a group of people crowded together.
They looked frightened out of their wits but otherwise unharmed.
They all wore the same yellow shirt and robe that Artair had been wearing when he entered the Jih Forest. The other portal looked out onto a peaceful garden; she could see plants in neat rows, and heaps of autumn leaves that had fallen and not been swept away.
The monastery , she thought. Artair’s home.
Maura clapped her hands together three times, startling the group of novices who were staring at her with wide eyes. Suddenly, she had the air of a teacher with little patience left at the end of a long day.
‘Out of one door and into the other!’ She clapped again. ‘Get a move on, children, we don’t have all day.’
Hesitantly, the first of the novices stepped down out of the portal.
The boy paused, glancing shyly at Artair before scampering across to the other fiery door.
Quickly, the rest of them followed. Elver could see from their faces that the garden was known and beloved to them, and she felt a pang of something deep in her chest.
Once they were all through, Maura made the gesture again and both portals vanished in a flash of red fire. We’ve done it , thought Elver. Wherever you are, Artair, we got them home.
‘It seems our business is concluded,’ said Maura smoothly.
Now that she was closer, Elver could see that the white embroidered shapes on her dress were all small human figures—children at play, children sleeping, children chasing each other.
The sight of those tiny pretend children made her skin prickle all over.
‘It’s quite a journey up that mountainside.
The pair of you must be famished. Will you stay for some dinner? ’
Sunay in her form as Artair sketched a deep bow. Careful , thought Elver. Don’t overdo it.
‘Alas, we have other places to be,’ said Sunay. ‘And we must take our leave.’
‘Surely not.’ Maura smiled. Her nails were painted red, obscenely bright against the white of her dress.
‘Such a long journey for a fleeting visit. Prideful Leap isn’t the sort of place you visit without properly taking it in.
’ She turned her head towards Elver slowly, like a bird of prey spotting something that had previously been hiding.
‘Forgive me, but don’t I know you, child?
I’m sure I have seen your face somewhere before.
Although perhaps back then it wasn’t so torn and poorly mended. ’
Elver swallowed. Rage poured into her like a river, flowing through every part of her like the waterways that flowed through Addersport.
‘You should know me,’ she said, each word like venom on her tongue. ‘You killed me, once. Threw me into the sea like I was nothing. I am Elver, the child you murdered to banish the serpents from Addersport.’
To her surprise, Maura did not look shocked. She did not gasp and her eyes didn’t widen. Instead, she turned back to the steps, a sweet little smile on her face. She shook her head a little.
‘Oh Elver,’ she said. ‘What a prize you are. So proud and angry and full of poison. I am so glad you made it. There was always the chance that you’d refuse to leave the forest, or that someone would capture you on the way here—those priests of Trilot are such beasts.
And there is your own cold-blooded mother, your queen , who might have moved against me if I’d struck directly at you.
But no, you’ve fought your way here for the privilege of being used again.
’ Maura laughed, a single bark-like noise that sent cold fingers of dread down Elver’s back.
‘What a cruel little joke your life has been. And your death. Or should I say, deaths.’
Sunay was backing away slowly, heading towards the door on the far side of the chamber.
‘What are you talking about?’ Elver snapped. ‘I came here to help Artair.’
‘You came here because I willed it ,’ said Maura.
‘It’s true that I thought you were dead.
Why would I think anything else? So you can imagine my surprise, after years of searching for the perfect poison sacrifice, when my spells brought me your face.
And now you’ll die for my lord a second time and give me everything I need.
His life, his power, and my…’ For the first time she faltered.
‘My family. Once I am a god, nothing will be denied to me.’
It was a trap. Elver lunged for the mage, her bare hands reaching for the exposed skin of the woman’s face and throat, but Maura snapped her fingers and abruptly she was falling through a hole in the air—one that dumped her back out onto the stone floor of the chamber.
For a moment she lay there, the force of the impact knocking all thought from her head.
‘It might please you to know, Elver, that it cost me five of my best apprentices to perform these little feats of magic for you today. If you don’t stop resisting, I will have to have more killed. Would you like that?’
Elver opened her mouth to spit some sort of acid reply and managed only a wheeze.
‘And you .’ Maura rounded on Sunay, who had been continuing to creep towards the door.
‘Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, Lucian.
I know you’re in there.’ She grinned wolfishly.
‘How have the last few years been? Absolutely horrid, I hope. It was such a treat when my spells revealed just where your soul had ended up. And what a delicious pleasure it is for me to have you witness the success of the plan you thought yourself too good for. In fact, let me put your counterpart to sleep so you can witness its full glory.’
The mage lunged for Sunay, meaning to place her hand—which was suddenly full of ruby fire—on Artair’s forehead, only for her hand to pass through it and beyond, as though Artair were a thing made of air and light.
There was an orange shimmer, a sudden scent of autumn leaves, and Sunay was standing before her instead.
The mage of Tisk raised her hands, grinning sheepishly.
‘So,’ she said. ‘You probably have a few questions.’