House of Curses, page 7
“You are ready to come into the light.”
“Yes. It is time to put aside this facade,” he said, his gaze returning to the street, where his colleagues and peers lived. “Master Bastian will be no more.”
Isa nodded, a slow dangerous smile sliding onto her face. “Good. I am ready.”
10
The Plan
Kerrigan barely slept.
Every time she fell asleep, she was either chased by Isa through the streets or, worse, trapped in a nightmare, walking down the aisle to March. By the time she shook herself out of bed, exhaustion tugged at her and all she wanted to do was crawl back into bed. That wasn’t going to be helpful tonight when she met Cleora for spiritcaster training.
“You were seen!”
Kerrigan nearly jumped out of her skin. She reached for her magic on reflex and stumbled out of bed. Then, she saw Valia in her bedchamber and released it all at once.
“Gods, Valia, a little warning.” She slumped forward with her hands on her knees. “How did you even get in here?”
Valia shrugged. “It’s easy.”
“Right. Spy.”
“Yeah, that,” she grumbled. “Anyway, how could you be stupid enough to be seen? I thought I was clear.”
“It wasn’t my fault. And I handled Isa just fine, thank you. Nothing happened.”
Valia pursed her lips. “One day, you’re not going to be able to handle Isa just fine, and all of this will be for naught.”
“Okay, okay,” she said, reaching for a pair of pants and sliding them on her bare legs. “I hear you. It was a mistake.”
“Good. I’m risking my life to work with you, Kerrigan.”
“I realize that. It’s not like my life wasn’t on the line last night. They killed someone on that stage. That could have been me.”
“Then, you understand why we both need to be more careful.”
“I get it. But can we go back to them killing someone? Did you know that was going to happen?”
She shook her head. The honey-blonde of her hair swinging in front of her face. “I had no idea that the Father could strip someone’s magic.”
“How long have you been working for him?”
“That doesn’t matter.” She evaded effortlessly. “What matters is what we do next. I can’t exactly sneak you into another meeting. They’ll be looking for you in the crowd now. If you had remained anonymous, then we could have kept doing this. We need a different plan.”
Kerrigan groaned. “Right. I hadn’t considered that.” She bit her lip and forced down a yawn. “I don’t feel like me sitting through more Red Masks murders would be that beneficial anyway.”
Valia nodded and crossed her arms. “I suppose not. So, what is our next step?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
She ran a hand back through her hair and tried to piece together the night in her mind. Sleep dragged at her, making it difficult to concentrate. Something was nagging at her, but she couldn’t quite place it.
She snapped her fingers. “The Collector.”
Valia arched an eyebrow. “What about it?”
“It has a memory of all the Red Masks who have touched it. If we could get our hands on it, then we could find a way to extract that information.”
She looked skeptical. “How?”
“I don’t know. We could figure it out together, but we need to get it first. Imagine what it would be like if we had a full list of everyone who agreed with the Father. Imagine if the Father touched it, Valia. We would have proof to take to the Society about all of this.”
“Yeah, but how are we going to steal it?”
“That’s where you come in. You have to figure out where it’s being kept. I can do the break-in.”
“You didn’t even hear me come into your room,” she argued.
“Well, are you going to steal it?”
Valia bit her lip. “No. No, you’re right. If I was caught …”
“We need more information first before we move forward. The Collector feels like the key to everything. If we can get our hands on it, even for an hour, it could change our entire mission.”
“I’ll see what I can do. What are you going to do in the meantime?”
“I’m on research duty.”
“Miss Kerrigan,” Benton said from the other side of the door. “Are you awake? Should we call for breakfast?”
“Yes, please,” she called back.
Valia blended in with the shadows again. “I’ll sneak out later.”
Kerrigan nodded and then brashly banged the door open. She spoke with Benton and Bayton, drawing them into the bathing chambers to help with her bath. She hoped it was enough time for Valia to get out, unseen.
Even though she preferred bathing herself, it was a relief after the night she’d had to let someone else take over. By the time she’d bathed, changed into fresh clothes, and eaten a proper breakfast, she was feeling worlds better. A catnap still would have been preferable, but she didn’t have time.
Her apprenticeship meeting was to take place any minute. She dashed down the halls, evading passing guardsmen and innocuous servants. She shot a smile at Audria as she slid into place. Roake snorted and leaned against the wall.
“Almost late,” Audria called.
“Almost.”
“I heard you had an eventful evening.”
Kerrigan’s smile wavered. What exactly had she heard?
“The Season event,” she offered with an arched eyebrow. “I heard the king and queen invited you to have the wedding at Belcourt.”
“Oh.”
Audria stepped forward. “Still no word from Fordham?”
She shook her head. “I’ve heard nothing.”
“I’m sorry,” she offered, touching her hand.
“It’s fine.”
They both knew it for the lie that what it was.
Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of their mentors.
“Master Bastian,” she said with a wide smile.
“Walk with me, Kerrigan.”
She fell into step beside him as they headed out of the training area and toward the exit to the mountain.
“Where are we going?”
“I prefer the air in the greenhouses,” he said easily. “Do you not?”
Her heart constricted. That was one of the first places that she and Fordham had been together. They hadn’t confessed feelings, but things had gotten heated. She couldn’t even think about the greenhouses without thinking of him. All those years she’d snuck in there with Darby, Hadrian, and Lyam, and now, it was all overlaid with that one beautiful memory of Ford.
“Of course.”
They traversed the lower corridors until they came upon the eastern exit from the mountain grounds. They stepped into the vast greenhouses, containing every manner of plant from all of Alandria. Ancient Fae masters had created the enormous glass windowpanes that made up the main structure of the greenhouses. The air was cooler than it was outside, and a dampness permeated everything.
“What would you like to get out of your apprenticeship, Kerrigan?” Bastian asked, inspecting a flowering bloom.
“Honestly, I want to do good for the people. I want to find a way to help others.”
He nodded approvingly. “Which was why you wanted to work with me.”
“Yes,” she agreed easily. “Your work to get more healers throughout Alandria and a system to prevent fires from taking out whole districts, among so many other endeavors, has shown me how much a council member can do.”
“And you want to be on the council?”
“I wasn’t sure.” She knew Bastian wanted her to speak freely. He’d always been that way. “But I see the value in any modicum of influence. I didn’t ask for all of this to happen to me, but it would be foolish not to accept it as a gift.”
“Indeed. We’ll work together to train you in the Society and government as a whole. There’s so much left for you to learn. I was pleased to see you excel in your studies of these subjects. History illuminates so much of what is to come.”
“I’ve noticed that. History repeating itself.” She took a deep breath. She hadn’t planned to go in this direction with Bastian. But he was from the south, where most magical artifacts had been created. Perhaps he could help her without ever knowing what he was helping her with. “Like magical artifacts.”
He paused over his assessment of a pepper. “How so?”
“They were used in the Great War, and they are being used again even though the illegal ones were supposed to have been secured or destroyed.”
“That is correct.”
“The House of Shadows had them, and I’ve seen them on the streets of Kinkadia despite the Society attempting to eliminate them from the populace.”
He arched an eyebrow. “What are you getting at? If you have a suggestion, then I am willing to hear it.”
“I want to learn more about them. I’m sure there must be a list of all the kinds that have been developed. The ones we have in possession in the Society and the ones still out there to be secured,” she said, hedging around the fact that she was really asking to locate the Collector. “I keep coming up against them. I thought it would be valuable to train against them too.”
Bastian’s eyebrows rose. “That is a large ask.”
“I’m aware. But how are we to get better if we don’t practice against the very things we might come up against?”
His eyes went thoughtful, and then a small smile graced his features, as if a thought had just been perfectly realized. “I would need a specific dispensation from the council to allow the artifacts to be taken out of the vault. I’d likely need a second one for training.”
She swallowed. “Oh.”
“It would be easier to start with the research. Let me work on getting the artifacts out of the Society vault.”
“That would be perfect. Thank you so much.”
Research was good enough for now. If she had a full list of magical artifacts, then maybe she could discover exactly what this Collector did and how to extract its secrets. Stealing it wouldn’t be enough if they couldn’t use it too. With Bastian’s support, she might even figure out how to go up against the remaining artifacts out in the world beyond.
11
The Spirit
A half hour to midnight, Kerrigan snuck out of her rooms. Benton and Bayton weren’t heavy sleepers, but they’d given up on trying to get her to behave like a lady. That clearly was not in Kerrigan’s repertoire.
She arrived in the dragon aerie and touched a hand to Tieran’s side. “Ready?”
He released a soft puff of air in ascent.
She climbed onto his back and let him carry her, soaring out of the mountain. Her stomach fluttered in anticipation, even as the flying settled her. The air whipping through her hair. The cool temperatures as she escaped the summer heat for higher altitudes. The peace that suffused her bones. This was where she belonged. It was hard to remember that with everything else always weighing her down, but she had a dragon. One she loved despite their differences. The only thing she’d ever wanted was access to the skies. It was good to be reminded of that on occasion.
The flight was over too soon as Tieran landed on a nearby peak.
“I could do that every day,” she told him.
Same. We need more training time in the skies and less time dealing with politics.
She laughed. She couldn’t agree more. If only her every waking moment wasn’t already occupied by said politics.
“You sure you want to be here?” she asked.
Tieran blew hot air into her face.
She suppressed a smile. That was answer enough.
Tieran had insisted that he be there as she entered the spirit plane. As they were now tethered, he felt more comfortable, knowing he would be near to pull her back into the physical if anything went wrong. Plus, he protected her physical form while she was out of her body.
The last thing either of them wanted was for her to die. When a dragon and rider were officially bound, if one died, the other died too. Even though they weren’t bound in that way and they knew that wouldn’t happen to them, it didn’t make it any easier. Not when years of conditioning and a year of dragon training had drilled the importance into their head. She’d grown attached to her dragon to say the least.
Kerrigan slid off of Tieran’s back and landed in the mossy grass.
You should let me come with you, he argued again.
“I want you to, but I want to speak to Cleora first.”
I don’t like it.
“I know. I don’t either. Hopefully next time, Tieran.”
How long will you be gone? he asked, changing the subject.
“I’m not sure. Let’s hope it’s not all night. I would like to get some sleep.”
She yawned to make her point. The fitful night before was really catching up to her.
She sank into a cross-legged sit, and Tieran nestled closer to her. She leaned back against his secure body. Only a year earlier, their animosity had been overpowering. Tieran had been so against bonding that he’d resented her for it every step of the way and then resented her more for the bond not working. She was glad that they had grown together during dragon training. Now, she could call him her friend, her partner.
“Here goes nothing,” she muttered.
Kerrigan closed her eyes and settled deeper into herself. She reached into her well of magic, finding the endless basin that contained it. At the bottom, there was almost a rift. A space between one breath and the next that wasn’t quite the same shape as the rest of her magic. It was like a seam in her clothing. If she ripped it at the seam, it opened her to a whole new world.
She picked at the thread. It tore with ease, filling her with spirit magic. The sliver of space became a gap, then a hole, then a chasm. She dropped like a stone in the sea into that abyss like diving into a pool of water. From one moment to the next, she was out of her body and on to the spirit plane.
Billowing clouds drifted all around her in an otherwise endless cerulean sky. Nothing else existed for miles and miles. She lay back, using the puff of a cloud as a cushion and pillow, spreading her arms wide. She could have fallen asleep right then and there in the most comfortable bed of her life. It was incredible that this was even possible. When she’d first entered the spirit plane, tethered to the great dragon Gelryn, everything had gone awry, and she’d drained her magic almost instantly. Now, she had a semblance of control, and she could manage this without much effort.
With a sigh, she pushed away from the cloud. This wasn’t why she was here. She didn’t need to remain among the clouds. Her mission was below.
She tilted her body downward and drifted down beyond the endless sky. After a minute, a great expanse of green filled her vision until there was nothing to see but forest, packed earth, and a beach leading toward an infinite ocean. She had been here once before, drawn in by Cleora’s magic, and already the shape of the world was familiar. Her feet touched down onto hardened ground. A distant mountain range that was unrecognizable compared to her beloved Vert Mountains was off in the distance. She shivered slightly at the sight. It still unnerved her that those mountains could be so unfamiliar. That, in fact, she was no longer in Alandria. Rather on a completely different world.
Cleora had explained it—or tried to explain it—the last time they were together. They were on separate worlds, they crossed at a specific point, and the spirit plane connected them. As if the spirit plane was a folded piece of paper, bringing two separate places into the same set place.
Cleora had heard Kerrigan trying—and failing—to work her spirit magic. The noise had alerted her to a new presence on the plane and they were drawn together. Kerrigan was lucky to have drawn Cleora’s attention, because at the time, she had been burning up with magic sickness. It usually only happened to those advanced in age who never used their magic, and thus, their magic poisoned their blood. It was a mystery to all but her and Helly why it had happened to Kerrigan. Her inability to control her spirit magic was making her magic go wild and unpredictable. Finding a suitable teacher had only happened at her most desperate, at her greatest moment of weakness.
“Well, at least you’re prompt,” Cleora said from behind her.
Kerrigan whirled around. Cleora stood as impossibly tall as ever. Her white-blonde hair was in waves down her back, and she had changed into a crimson cotton dress with the stylized three slashes down both arms instead of the sash she had worn previously.
“Hello again,” Kerrigan said with a smile.
“My apologies about missing our previous engagement. I had something come up at the academy,” Cleora said. She waved her hand, and a sturdy wooden table and two chairs appeared.
Kerrigan’s eyes widened. “Um, wow.”
Cleora arched an eyebrow. “The language must truly be suffering wherever your world is.” She pointed at the table. “Sit.”
Kerrigan sat.
“Well, let’s review what we learned at our last meeting,” Cleora began. “I am Professor Cleora. I teach advanced theoretical casting at the Emperor’s Academy in Himera College in the great city of Rhithymna. Last session, we discussed crux, which you call magic?”
“Yes,” Kerrigan said at once.
“Ah, yes. Well, crux is the technical term, and we’ll use it here. Crux is your life force that you can manipulate into constructs. A construct is a forming of your crux, and they can become bonds based on the force of your intention. Some incredibly powerful crux users can create couplings, which is a construct without a physical form, held by the sheer power they possess. Few people can create couplings, so we won’t work with those. Does that feel satisfactory?”
“Yes,” she repeated. “I … I managed to make a crux bond with my dragon.”
