Melissa McShane (12 page)

seemed to Zerafine a completely unnecessary maneuver. He looked tired, as if he hadn’t slept well. “Well,
thelis
?” he said, not meeting her eye. “My time is short. Say your piece and move on.”

“I’d like you to explain to me what happens during a banishment,” Zerafine said.

He smiled a smug smile that made Zerafine’s temper rise. “I’m afraid I can’t discuss such sacred matters with someone not of my faith,” he said.

“Then tell me what happens to the apparitions when they’re banished. Surely that can’t be considered a sacred matter?”

Genedirou considered that. “Not at all. Sukman releases them from their hold on our sane

reality, and gathers them into His bosom.” He gave her a pious look that she was positive was faked.

Zerafine sighed. “Genedirou, if you were just going to feed me a line, why have you been

avoiding me? You’ve wasted both our time.”

Genedirou stood, his face flushed. “Are you accusing me of lying?”

“Not yet. You might just be obtuse.”

“How
dare
you come into my temple, into my sanctuary, and make such accusations! Get out at once!” He threw up his arm and pointed dramatically at the door, his pointing finger missing Zerafine’s forehead by a hair’s breadth.

Zerafine didn’t flinch. “I saw what happened, Genedirou—really saw it. I know Sukman

didn’t take that apparition away. I know the elements of it are still there and that they’ve already started reassembling. Don’t you realize your so-called banishments are only temporary? What’s going to happen if one of them comes back?”

“You understand
nothing
,” Genedirou seethed.

“Is that because you refuse to tell me anything?”

“My banishments are a
gift
. What no one realizes is that madness always lurks just beneath the surface. If people understood that, they would not be able to live with that truth. Those things, those apparitions, they exist to allow Sukman to show His power and His mercy to this city. Sukman will not allow His gift to be undone.”

“Are you certain of that? Sukman
is
mad, after all. What if He changes His mind?”

“Blasphemer!” Genedirou was nearly purple now. “I do Sukman’s will for the sake of the

city!”

“And it’s just a happy coincidence that Sukman’s will also enriches your coffers? I don’t think you’re as impartial as you want me to believe.”

“Believe what you will. I am still the only one doing anything about this blight on the city.

And I refuse to stop serving this people just because some upstart unranked
thelis
who—”

“
Shut up
,” Zerafine said, slamming her palms down on Genedirou’s desk. “I don’t care about how you’re building your prestige and I don’t care that you’re lining your temple coffers.

What I do care about is that
you are in my way
. It’s my job to figure out what these apparitions are and put a stop to them, not put on some exotic show to impress the masses. I’ll give you credit for taking action, but your solution is temporary and I think you know that. Go on performing your banishments, but I’m going to find a permanent solution, and when I do, I will shut you down. So enjoy your fame while you can.” She turned on her heel and stormed out of the room, out of the temple, and out of the plaza.

“Slow down, holy avenger,” Gerrard said. “I thought he was going to pop a vein.”

“Slow
down
,” Nacalia said, running beside her. “I can’t keep up and you’re going to get lost.”

“I’m too angry to slow down,” Zerafine said, but cut her pace to a slow lope instead of a brisk trot.

“I hope you’re not going to treat everyone you encounter that way,” Gerrard said. “I think you may be drunk on power.”

“Are you being serious, or joking around?” Zerafine asked.

“A little of both. You were pretty hard on Genedirou.”

“I know.” Zerafine sighed. “I lost my temper. It won’t happen again.”

“It will probably happen again.”

“I know. But I’ll do my best to keep it from being so...violent. Did I just make a huge

mistake?”

Gerrard took her arm, forcing her to stop. “You may have made a personal enemy, but you

weren’t wrong in what you said. Genedirou’s so happy with his newfound importance that he doesn’t really care about the truth. It wouldn’t matter so much except that he’s positioned himself as the authority on apparitions. If you learn something that contradicts him, getting people to believe you will be that much harder. So you’re right, he’s in your way, and he has to understand you aren’t afraid to step over him. Or push him aside.”

“Even so, he just seems so fragile, once you get past the bluster.”

“Let it go. It’s done, and you can’t take it back. So either forget about it or learn from it.”

“That’s very wise.” She stopped. “I forgot where we were going.”

“Home,” Gerrard said. “No, wait.” He took Zerafine’s right hand and looked at the palm.

“We should get that removed. It’s unsettling. To the temple of Kalindi, which thanks to you means backtracking a mile.”

Zerafine made a face at him. “I admit I’ll feel happier when it’s gone,” she said.

It took fifteen minutes to return to Kalindi’s temple and five minutes for a divine healer to remove the brand. She looked uninterested in how a
thelis
of Atenas had come by such a thing.

Zerafine stood outside the temple when it was over, gazing out over the city. The sun had burned away the overcast and the hills cast their long shadows over the streets and houses, gray streaks over white walls and red and black roofs. The temple dome behind her gleamed golden in the afternoon light. Zerafine breathed in the clear air and felt the day’s trials fall away from her shoulders.

“I had someone check out my head, so we can leave whenever you’re ready,” Gerrard said,

coming up behind her.

“That was smart.” She adjusted her cowl, but chose to leave her hood down. “This place

really is beautiful,” she said.

“It’s the oldest city in the known world,” Gerrard said. “It’s seen over nine hundred years of war, plague, expansion, life and death. And it’s still here.”

“Part of me thinks it would be nice to settle here. You know, if Berenica weren’t
tokthelis
.

But I’d hate to give up traveling.”

Gerrard shrugged. “Everyone has to settle down sometime, and this would be as good a

place as any. Better, probably. We could buy adjoining houses and send our children to the same schools.”

Zerafine shivered. The idea of settling down, of children, gave her a strange discomfort that she found she didn’t want to share with Gerrard. Instead she said, “Let’s go home.”

Nacalia was uncharacteristically silent on the walk home. When they were finally indoors, Gerrard said, “Nacalia, is something bothering you?”

Nacalia looked at the floor. “Somebody tried to make me tell them what you were doing.”

“When was this?” asked Zerafine, startled.

“When you were in the temple and I was at the fountain. He came up to me—”

“Who did?”

“Some man.” Nacalia shrugged. “He said, did I want to earn some money, and I said I was

already hired, and he said, extra money, so I said what for.” Nacalia gave them a defiant glare. “I wa’nt going to take it, I just wanted to know should I run away from him. Some men, they want more off runners than just running.”

“I understand,” Zerafine said. The idea made her sick to her stomach.

“He said all I had to do was write out where you go and who you talk to and leave it in a place he’d show me. I said I couldn’t do that, and he must’ve figured I couldn’t write, which I
can
, so he said he would meet me every day and I could tell him and he’d give me a parsis every time.”

“What happened when you told him no?” Gerrard asked, and Nacalia grinned. She seemed

relieved that they hadn’t even considered she might say yes.

“He offered me more money. He was stupid. Should’ve known that would ring all kinds of

bells with a runner. Nobody pays more than they have to.” Nacalia shook her head. “Then he told me if I di’nt, he’d find me and beat me up, but I just laughed at him and said he ha’nt got nobody could get at me with you around.” She included them both in her brilliant smile. “Then I kicked him and ran away, but he was gone next I checked the fountain. So I waited, but then
thelis
was so angry when you came out, I forgot until now.”

Zerafine and Gerrard exchanged looks. “So who do you think would be interested in our

movements?” Zerafine said.

“Well, it definitely wasn’t Genedirou,” said Gerrard. “He’s not that subtle. And if he were going to hire a man to beat someone up, that someone would be you.” He sat down on one of the couches and began pulling off his boots.

“Dakariou? He’s subtle enough, but I keep in contact with him. He’d have to be truly

paranoid to want us followed, too.”

“I don’t know. He’s a political. That might be reason enough.” He nudged Nacalia, who was sitting on the floor following their conversation with interest, with his bare toe, and said, “You need to take yourself off to bed, whelp.”

“But I’m
interested
,” she complained.

“When we figure it all out, we’ll tell you the whole story,” he said. “Scoot.” Nacalia made a face at him, then slouched off toward her room.

“Speaking of politicals,” Zerafine continued, “could it be someone on the Council? We

already know Alita doesn’t want us here. But the same thing applies—we’re already telling them what we find out.” She sat across from Gerrard and put her chin in her hands. “So either

somebody is incredibly paranoid, or somebody is afraid we might turn up a secret, and since the only thing I’ve done since I got here is investigate the apparitions, it’s probably a secret related to them.”

Someone knocked on the door. Aesoron sailed past and opened it before either of them

could even stand. He spoke briefly to the visitor, then closed the door and returned to them, bearing a folded sheet of paper. “For you,
thelis
.”

The paper was heavy cream-colored rag paper sealed with black wax. Zerafine broke the

seal and opened it. “A party?
Tonight
?”

“You’re kidding.” Gerrard took the invitation out of her hands. “Trust Dakariou to give

short notice.”

“Council members, ecclesiastical leaders, wealthy members of the community.... We can’t

not go. If one of those people is behind Nacalia’s mystery man...”

“I’ll send Nacalia for a sedan chair.” From the hallway, Nacalia hooted with delight. Gerrard glared in her direction. “I’m positive the hallway is not your bedroom, whelp.”

Nacalia peeked around the corner. “I never learn things if I do what I’m told.” She bounced over and accepted a handful of coin, then ran out the door. “Be
careful
,” Zerafine called after her. She hadn’t forgotten the stranger’s threat. “I don’t recall agreeing to the sedan chair,” she said to Gerrard.

“Let’s skip to the part where I remind you that this is a fancy party and none of the women will be arriving on foot.”

“I hate it when you’re right.”

“Unfortunately, it’s not our biggest problem. The only thing you have to wear is that green thing, and the only thing
I
have to wear is that orange tunic that makes me look like a pumpkin.”

“Ah, but what we
do
have,” Zerafine said, pointing at Gerrard’s belt pouch, “is an
awful
lot of money.”

“An awful lot of money” turned out to be just enough to convince a clothier’s to reopen just after closing and to pay for two sets of expensive dress clothing. They’d have to exchange more
seicorum
soon. Zerafine leaned toward a tunic and trousers ensemble in red, but at the last minute decided to forgo her usual color and chose a gown of silver gauze over a long violet tunic. Finding clothes to fit Gerrard was much more difficult, but in the end the proprietor unearthed a bespoke, unclaimed pair of black trousers and a thigh-length tunic in midnight blue that was only a little tight across the shoulders. Suitably costumed, they set out for the Capitol.

The Capitol was a handsome building by day, but at night, transformed by the light of five hundred lamps, it glowed. Zerafine, always confident when in her robes of office, now felt intimidated and small beneath the expanse of the dome. A quartet of musicians on the balcony played something modern, barely audible over the conversations below. A cluster of bulbs

shining with Kandra’s light hovered near the top of the dome, illuminating the murals more clearly than they had been in the natural light of day. The gods looked over the gathering below; whether they were pleased or not was impossible to tell.

Zerafine soon realized that without her robes, she was not only intimidated but insignificant.

No one recognized her, not even with Gerrard by her side; it seemed people rarely looked

beyond the robe to the woman wearing it. She had never been this invisible. Gerrard squeezed her hand and was off. They’d agreed to work the room separately, thinking that people might be more forthcoming if neither of them had their formidable companion. Now she wished he’d

stayed by her side.

“Madama
thelis
.” Dakariou greeted her with a pleased and admiring smile. “I would almost not have recognized you, without your robes, had it not been for your exquisite beauty,” he said, offering her a glass of wine. She smiled, acknowledging the flattery. Her heart lifted. Something about his smile made her feel warm inside. “I’m glad you were able to come on such short

notice, but then it was short notice for everyone. There was another banishment this morning. It didn’t go well.”

Zerafine remembered Genedirou’s haggard appearance and felt guilty. “How so?”

“The apparition didn’t go quietly. It took Genedirou some effort to make the ritual come off.

A lot of people were frightened. This impromptu gathering is to reassure the people who matter that the problem is in hand.” Dakariou frowned. “Frankly, I’m not sure it won’t do the opposite.