A Sea of Purple Ink (5 page)

Stay quiet
, Reese thought, gently patting the girl’s back with her free hand.
If it’s just a pair of regular police, we can take them.
She clicked the lock shut and eased her weight back into a defensive position.
Come in the door, I dare you.
The gun would probably scare Lise, but there wasn’t much else she could do.

The door rattled once more. “Leave it,” the first voice said. “It’ll be curfew soon.” Two pairs of footsteps retreated down the alleyway, leaving the shed in silence.

7

Cold wind swept down the little-used side street and tugged at Reese’s headscarf. Beside her, Lise peered up and down the empty road. “When is Papa getting back?” she asked.

“Soon, I hope.” Reese guided the girl back to the wooden crate beside her. “Sit down.” The air smelled of oncoming night.
Keller
, she thought, glancing at the darkening sky,
we’re running out of time.

Lise leaned her elbows on the crate and rocked back and forth. “Is he hurt like my other Papa?”

An old rag, wedged between the tiles of the shop across the street, fluttered as the breeze picked up.

“No.” Reese tightened her grip on her small charge. She could feel Lise shivering in the cold air.
I’ve got to get her out of here. We can hide in the old house until dawn, but then I’ll have to get her out of the Inner Circle in broad daylight.

The breeze shifted.

Reese stood up as Keller and the magician landed on the cold stone of the alley, faces pale, panting for breath. Lise pulled free with a cry of delight.

Keller released his grip on the muscular shifter. “That was the closest I’ve cut it in ages.” He bent double, breathing hard.

“Run into trouble?” Reese asked, her gaze on the gasping magician—his face the picture of exhaustion. Lise clung to his arm.

Keller grimaced. “Enough to make me wonder what Sea Level Prison was like.” He stretched both arms high above his head. “We need to get out of here quick.”

The magician glanced at his daughter, then back at Reese. “I don’t think I have enough in me to get us out of here.” He leaned forward, one hand stroking Lise’s hair. “And we don’t want to be out in the mists.” His gaze fell. “I’m almost out of shifting.”

Sarcasm rose in the back of Reese’s mind.
That’s what happens when you use it on silly tricks instead of running.

The magician gathered his long robes around him. “Is there somewhere we can hide until morning?” he asked.

The mists are making him nervous.
Reese folded her arms. “Being stained isn’t so bad, believe me.” She shivered in her coat and looked down at Lise’s filmy costume.

Beside her, Keller began swinging his arms back and forth. “I’d rather avoid getting marked, all the same,” he said. He peered up at the sky. “If we get moving we should be able to make it out.” He rubbed at his temple. “There’s nowhere to hide around here. This is the Inner Circle.”

“Papa?” Lise asked.

As the father and daughter held a whispered conversation, Reese stepped closer to Keller. “There is a place we can hide,” she murmured. “But I’d rather not use it if we don’t have to.”

Keller’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

Reese nodded, her mind on the wind blowing through the alley.
It’s picking up.

“Well then.” Keller rubbed his hands together. “I’m game for another go at escape.” He glanced at the shifter. “That is, if you are, Grahm. With luck we can make it all the way out.”

The magician lifted the little girl in his arms and swung her onto his back. “I suppose we can only try.” Over his shoulder, Lise smiled through a tangle of dark curls.

The smell of the mists curled into the alley. Reese tensed.
We really don’t have time, do we?

Heavy footsteps sounded on the roadway.

Police. Old house it is.
“Follow me quick,” Reese whispered. She whirled and ran for the opposite end of the alley, careful to keep her footfalls quiet. Keller zipped along beside her, hovering just over the grey stone. The magician followed, his feet slapping on the ground as Lise bounced up and down on his back.

“Keep quiet,” Reese hissed, then darted around the corner and into another side street. They raced along the empty roadway, past the polished walls of the aristocracy. New calculations and memories welled up. Reese pushed them away and focused on running.
Time enough for that later.

They halted beside a high wall of brown-stained marble.

Keller landed, still breathing hard. “Aren’t we running the wrong way?” he asked. “We should be heading out of the Inner Circle. Not into the heart of it!”

“We’re where we need to be,” Reese replied.
I never thought I’d say that.
She indicated the magician. “Take him up and over, Keller.”

The old man stared at her. “And into some nobleman’s garden? You can’t be serious.”

“Do it,” Reese snapped. “I’m in no mood to argue.”

Grahm pushed forward and raised an arm. “No need.” The wall became the ground.

Reese jerked backwards to regain her balance. The strength of the gravity shift was greater than she’d ever dealt with.
Even tired, this man is good.

The four of them ran up the wall, over the edge, and down into the ruins of the once-grand garden. Grass stood as high as their shoulders. Hedges loomed like trees, and dead sticks of what had once been exotic flowers lined the moss-grown stone paths.

“This way,” Reese said, leading the way towards the abandoned house.

The gravity shifter fell into slow step beside her. He walked along, his gaze on the cracked and falling walls of the stone mansion. “Who lived here, I wonder?”

Reese pulled a wooden shutter open. “I did.” She motioned toward the broken window. “Climb on in.”

Grahm’s head whipped around. “You what?” He stared incredulously. “You lived here?”

“Thanks.” Reese gave the shutter another push. “Inside.”

The interior of the mansion was empty and dark. Shadows filled every corner of the once-grand room, and splinters of broken glass from the long line of tall windows lay scattered on the rotting wood floor. Reese took a deep breath and slowly pulled the shutter closed.

The last meal she had eaten in this room had been by herself. With the rain hammering against the glass so hard, it threatened to extinguish the candles if even a drop got inside. The night the law was passed.

“This is incredible…” Keller’s awed voice pulled Reese back to the present.

“Yes,” Reese agreed. “I’m surprised they haven’t burnt it down yet.” She crossed the room to a half-open sliding door. “This way.”

The night breeze whistled through the hallway, rushing in from the old arched entryway. Reese frowned.
One of the roof panels by the front door must have broken.
She turned the other way and followed the flow of air to the curving, upper room stairs.
The study should keep the mists out.

The small group climbed the stairs in the dark, Lise clutching Reese’s hand. A short walk down the upper passage on the damp, smelly carpet, and Reese turned the iron knob of her father’s study. The door stuck.

With a wrench, she pulled the latch free and shoved the door inward. Dust fell in silent clouds. She could feel it on her face.
Father’s private study. Abandoned.
A flicker of anger darted through her mind. “Wait here,” she ordered and stepped into the pitch black room. Five slow steps to the old desk, and around the edge to the corner drawer of candles. Reese tried the handle.
Locked. Fine.
She raised a foot and smashed it down on the edge of the desk. The old wood caved in with an ear-splitting crack.
There
. She shoved a tinge of remorse away and reached in through the new opening.

“You all right, Reese?” Keller whispered hoarsely.

Reese scraped a match across the desktop and held it to a candle. “Yes.” The wick caught and sputtered into a tiny flame. Reese raised the candle and looked across the small, book-filled room. “Bring me that stand in the corner.”

Keller lifted the metal candlestick from a table by the door and brought it to the desk. Reese took it, avoiding eye contact, and jammed the soft candle down onto the securing prong.

“Look at all the books,” Lise gaped, slowly walking into the room. She gazed wide-eyed at the bookshelves lining the wall. “May I read some if I’m really careful?”

Reese slid the candle into the center of the desktop. “Yes.” She looked from Keller to Grahm. “Wait here. I’m going to see if the guns are still hidden.” She removed her long coat and threw it over the chair back.
I doubt anyone’s been meddling in this house. They’d have emptied this room first.

Grahm swept the train of his robe out of the doorway. “Guns? Do you think we’ll need them?”

I hope not.
Reese stepped to the door and slipped out into the hallway. “Always best to be ready.”

She retraced their way down the stairs, fighting to keep control. The last thing she had ever wanted to do was come home. Not like this, and not at all. The memories would play through her head all night long.

The wind blew past her down the hallway, carrying the sweet smell of the growing mists. The first pale hints of moonlight shone on the marble floor of the entryway, cast in sharp lines by the cracks in the ceiling. Reese crossed the giant room and descended the wide cellar steps.
If the king had only realized what he was doing.

The heavy cellar door stood ajar.
If he had just listened to us. Or even to reason.
Reese squeezed through the opening and felt along the wall for the old chest.

Her hand found the polished lid of the trunk, and she heaved it open. A few seconds’ work, and she’d slipped two loaded revolvers into her belt, and a third into her shirt pocket. She grabbed a longer gun, a magazine of cartridges, and let the lid fall. “Don’t dwell on the past,” she whispered into the darkness. “Resolve the present.” She locked the magazine into the gun.

The order of the night was survival, pure and simple. If they weren’t caught, then she could move on to tomorrow.

8

“The best we can do is get them off the island,” Reese muttered. She glanced across the candle-lit room to where Lise lay beside her father, chin in hands, poring over an old book.
And that’s as much as I’m willing to do—
she watched Grahm tracing words on the page
—if he’s the one who killed the police captain.

Keller grunted. “We can’t, unless we dig up transportation somewhere. There aren’t any more swimmers.” He settled from a crouch to a seated position and leaned against the wall.

Reese sat down beside him, mind ticking away. “There have to be more swimmers around here somewhere.”
The irony. We spend years trying to get anyone with an ability off the island, and now we are desperate to have them back.

The old man shrugged. “Maybe.” He rested the back of his head on the wall and closed his eyes. “But I wouldn’t count on them finding us.”

Reese let out a long breath and propped her elbows on her knees. “Give me time,” she said.
Tyrone might smuggle them off in the barges… for a price.
A hard knot settled in her stomach as the data in her mind split off into two trails. One hinging on Grahm’s innocence. The other…

“We could keep him,” Keller said. He rubbed one thin hand against his chin. “As far as I can make out, we’re not in good shape right now.” He opened one eye and let it rest on Reese. “We need the extra hands.” His voice dropped. “Murderer or not.”

Reese wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled them close to her chest.

“If I’d been in his place, I’d have done exactly the same thing,” Keller whispered. He raised his head and looked straight into Reese’s eyes. “I still would, if I were stronger.”

Reese stared back. The room seemed to creep in closer, pushing her focus tighter and tighter on the flyer’s face.
Yes, you would. But that doesn’t make it right.

Fabric swished against the rug. Reese looked up to see Grahm walking towards them. “Lise is asleep,” he said as he approached. His deep voice resonated through the wood paneled room. The shifter lowered himself to a seat in front of them. In the dim light of the candle, the edges of his robe pooled against the floor and reflected an eerie glow.

“She’s not really your daughter, is she?” Reese asked, glad of the distraction.

The shifter hesitated. Slowly, he turned back toward Reese. “No…” he said at last, “she isn’t.” He folded his hands into his long theatrical sleeves. “She was my brother’s.”

The light flickered as the candle flame snapped against the cool air.

“Go on,” Keller said.

Grahm’s gaze traveled down to the stained carpet. “He didn’t have… well, he wasn’t one of us. But Shela was a burner.”

Reese pulled more of her mind to the conversation.
That’s rather rare.
The few burners she had known were haunted, sickly people, struggling to control the strange, buzzing pulses they generated.

Keller straightened. “Palace staff or rebel?” he demanded.

“Palace,” Grahm said. The word hung in the air as his gaze slid from Reese to Keller. “One of the first. She thought she could bargain for her family’s life by allying with the police, but even that wasn’t enough.”

Keller’s hand drifted to his face. He rested his fingertips against a sharp, scabbed-over burn on his forehead.

“It worked for awhile,” Grahm continued. “But she wasn’t ever allowed out to see her family. They kept her there all day, sending their messages down the wires.” The shifter looked down at his hands. “Then, when that shifter killed the police chief, the palace dissolved into chaos.” A hunted look crept into his eyes. “They don’t trust anyone in there. Not even their own.” He bowed his head. “I’m watching out for Lise now and hoping to free her parents soon.”

Interesting plan,
Reese thought.
Not that I’d want to tangle with getting people out of Sea Level Prison.
“And who replaced the police chief?” she asked quietly.

Grahm stiffened. “How would I know?” he retorted. He flung his shoulders back and raised his head, but his gaze rolled to the side, refusing to meet Reese’s. “They don’t tell our kind that sort of information.”

“That’s just what the police do,” Keller spat, obviously thinking about something else. “They pull us in with all their lies, then laugh while we dance.” His body shook with vehemence. “If I were a writer, I’d give the whole crowd of them something to think about.”

Reese tried to ignore the memories Keller’s words brought up. She focused on Grahm. “Then who killed him?” she demanded.

The shifter pushed himself to his feet. “I don’t know,” he said. He stared down at her. The candlelight caught in the folds of his silk robe, sending lines of light along the black. “I’m too busy keeping Lise safe to bother with politics.” He hesitated for a moment, then turned and walked back to the girl.

Reese watched him go.
It’s obvious I hit a nerve somewhere. But where?
She sat still, letting the tired factors play.
This won’t work.
“I’m going to sleep,” she said to Keller. “You good for first watch?”

The old flyer gave her a short nod.

Reese slid farther down the wall and curled into a comfortable ball.
What he said about his relatives sounded legitimate.
The pungent smell of the moldy carpet filled her nose.
Lise’s mother as a burner.
The memories began stirring.
I haven’t met one of them in years.

Rain pattered against the glass windows, tapping, tapping in the night. Reese stared across the dining table at her father’s cold plate of soup. In the blaze of light from the chandeliers, it looked even more red than usual. She swung her feet above the floor and tried not to eavesdrop, but the conversation in the next room was getting louder each minute.

“I tell you, you can’t do this,” her father said. Heavy footsteps crossed and recrossed the receiving room. “Think about what might happen afterward.”

“And think about what might if I don’t,” the new king replied. His voice cracked in anger. “Father’s murderer was an unauthorized shifter. Either I begin to control the situation, or it will control us. They will control us.”

Reese, sitting by herself in the dining room, could tell he was afraid.

“It’s for my people’s own good,” the king went on. “If something were to happen to me—”

“The work of one madman does not reveal the workings of a whole nation,” her father thundered. “Nile, you know what I can do, and what I can see. If you banish them—if you banish us—your kingdom will collapse from the inside.”

Glasses clicked.

Reese eyed a loaf of salted bread, stomach rumbling.

“You know I wouldn’t banish you.” The young king sounded hurt. “You and your family are free to live wherever you wish. It would be my one emendation to the list.”

A deadly silence followed. A long, long silence, full of anger and pent up rage. Then the door swung open, and her father entered, white-faced.

Somewhere in her mind, Reese tried to struggle back to the problem at hand, to let the memories slide to their rest. For one instant she felt the floor beneath her, then she plunged back into sleep.

“Your move,” her father said, looking up from the jeweled chess board.

Reese squinted hard at the map of pieces and let the variations play through her head. She was not going to lose again. She propped herself up in the big desk chair and frowned.

The office door swung open and Reese’s mother appeared, resplendent in a deep fuchsia dress. “Still playing? You should be helping me oversee the packing!”

Reese’s mind spiraled off into packing materials, hourly rates, and the cubic inch capabilities of the average wooden crate. “I’m trying to think,” she groaned. “Can we help later?”

Her father gave her a wink and turned to his wife. “Later,” he said.

“Well,” Reese’s mother snapped, “I’m off to visit some friends anyway. I’ll be back in an hour.” She rustled across the carpet and gave her husband a quick kiss on the cheek.

Reese pulled her attention back to the game. A single knight stood out, white against black. That was the one. She advanced it, then sat back with her arms folded.

As her mother left, her father turned back to the board. “Good move,” he said, scanning the game with his sharp grey eyes.

Reese watched him think, wishing she could calculate as he did.

With a quick move, her father captured the knight. “Try again.” He smiled. “But you’re getting better.”

Ha!
Reese seized her bishop and, with an extra flourish, nailed the black queen. She grinned across the heavy desk. “You think so?”

Her father’s mouth fell open. “You little…” His eyes sparkled. “Rematch.”

Reese shook her head. “No rematch. Play it out.”

He folded his arms. “You want me to get tough on you?”

A sharp knock sounded at the office door.

The laughter vanished from her father’s face, and a wary look crept into his eyes. “Who’s there?” he called.

A heavy blow thundered into the door, and a piece of the wood paneling shattered.

Reese jumped. In a split second, her father lunged across the desk and pushed her toward the floor. “Stay down!” he hissed. Chess pieces rolled across the desktop and dropped to the carpet beside her.

WHAM. The office door burst inward.

Reese caught a glimpse of booted feet through the bottom of the desk.

“You’re under arrest for possession of an illegal and dangerous ability,” a hard voice rasped. “Come with us at once.”

“Get out of my house,” Reese’s father growled. “I have written permission from King Nile himself to remain here as long as I see fit.” Reese could practically feel him drawing himself up.

“Evasion of arrest,” the voice said. “Myles.”

Someone stepped forward.

Reese heard a gasp from her father, then something hit the desk. A rippling, buzzing pulse zapped through Reese. She bit her tongue to keep from crying out. Her eyes watered and her ears rang.

Something heavy fell to the floor.

Her father.

“Bring him,” the man ordered.

Reese stayed huddled behind the desk as the men left.
What do I do?
she demanded, helplessly waiting for the factors to finish computing.
What do I do?

The papers!
She could get the official papers and stop this. Reese scrambled to her feet. That should take care of it.

She felt something crunch beneath her feet. The white king, half crushed to porcelain powder.

We’ll repair it later,
she told herself.
Now I have to get those papers.