North Star Guide Me Home (42 page)

As the stonemasons began to close the hole, Isidro went with Alameda and Delphine to take the device back to the workshop. By then, the other mages were reporting for duty, and Isidro detailed the sharpest of their Sensitives to search for more of the hidden passages.

Once the search parties were dispatched, he tried to assist Delphine and Alameda in creating a device to detect the faint field the camouflage device gave off, but soon had to admit he was out of his depth … they were talking of concepts and theories that he had only barely touched on. Delphine tried to explain, but every moment she spent on him meant they were losing time. In the end Isidro left them to it, and joined one of the search parties instead.

Three more passages were found, with two other possibilities detected, though the source of the faint ripples of power couldn’t be ascertained. Isidro explored those two himself, but found nothing, leaving him to wonder if they were sensing some other device hidden nearby. If Sierra were stronger, he’d bring her down to trip the stones into failure, but it was too risky for now.

At noon he returned to the workshops and joined the women for lunch. They’d had only minimal success, for the device they’d crafted was prone to shorting out. The meal was spent in a terse discussion of what might be done to fix the device, to which Isidro listened in silence. The debate was brought to an abrupt end when a nursemaid, escorted by a half-dozen guards, brought a wailing Ilya to Delphine to nurse.

Isidro retreated to the office, where he sat down with a map of the palace and the hidden doors and tried to tease some pattern from them. If they could only find where the wretches were holed up, but for weeks Ardamon had sent patrols into the unused regions of the palace, and they’d turned up nothing at all. Either the Akharians were somehow shielding their workings, or all these devices were being constructed outside of the palace and then smuggled in … which would be simple if they’d placed another hidden doorway in one of the outer walls.

The previous night’s short sleep, combined with the warmth and quiet of his private office, saw him growing drowsy and, though he fought against it, when the
click
of the door and the shuffle of boots on the floor roused him, he found he’d fallen asleep with his head pillowed on the crook of his good arm.

It was Lavani, bringing him a bowl of Delphine’s coffee. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to disturb you. Here, Madame Delphine asked me to bring you this.’

He took the bowl and sipped it with a grimace. It did seem to wake one up. ‘Thanks, Lavani. How’s it going out there?’

‘It’s quiet, sir. Alameda and Madame Delphine have each taken a device to help the search. They couldn’t make it stable enough for any of us new mages, as they need running repairs to keep functioning.’

‘Hmm. Any more found?’

‘No, sir, not in the last few hours. Maybe we’ve got them all?’

He scowled down at the plan.
I doubt it.

‘Will there be anything else, sir?’

Isidro shook his head. ‘Not for now.’

But instead of leaving, Lavani hovered in the doorway, frowning faintly.

‘What is it?’ Isidro asked her.

She bit her lip. ‘That message from yesterday, sir. Did you get a chance to look at it? Only I can see the seal is unbroken.’ She reached for a tablet on the corner of his desk. It was the message she’d brought the day before, moments before he’d felt the attack against Sierra.

‘Oh,’ he said. ‘Blast. I’d forgotten about it.’

‘May I ask how Lady Sierra fares today? I was awake half the night praying for her, and I meant to go make an offering at the temple this morning until I was called in here.’

As he reached for the tablet, it took him a moment to recall the empty phrases from the day before. ‘As well as can be hoped,’ he said. ‘She’s resting a great deal.’

‘We’re praying for her, sir. Well, for all of us, really.’

She made another bow and turned back to the door, as Isidro glanced down at the tablet. It was an ordinary thing made of plain wood, with a strip of leather glued along one side to hinge the two leaves together, but someone had taken the trouble to bind it shut with string and wax. He turned it over to find the seal, pressed with a depiction of a bird taking wing from a swelling flower-bud.

At the sight of it his heart jumped, and a tingling wave swept through him, making his power rise up and pulse in time with his heart. ‘Lavani!’ he called, and she paused with her hand on the door.

‘Sir?’ she asked.

‘Who brought this?’

She frowned. ‘Do you know, I don’t know, sir. I mean, I’d know her again, but I’ve never seen her before, and I thought I knew our mages.’

‘But she was here? In these chambers?’

‘Yes, sir.’ She seemed puzzled and faintly alarmed. ‘Yesterday morning, it was, just before you rushed out to Lady Sierra. She asked me to deliver it to you, and left right away.’

‘What did she look like?’

‘She had a lot of southern blood, sir, like a Mesentreian or one of the light-skinned Akharians, with long, dark hair. But she was a northerner, I’d swear to it. She had braids wrapped around her head like a northern girl and she spoke our tongue like one born to it. She walked like a soldier, straight back and head high.’

Isidro glanced down at the tablet again. ‘Alright. If you see her again, tell me right away.’

‘Yes, sir.’ She made a small bow, and left, pulling the door closed behind her.

Isidro bit his lip as he cut the cord with a sweep of his knife.

Isidro,
the inner leaf read,
yes, this truly is Nirveli. I know you’re wondering how in the Fires Below I came to be here. I can’t tell you now, this message may be discovered, but I will explain everything.

Right now I need to warn you — the Akharians are planning to move against Sierra. I don’t know where, or when, but I know there is an assassin in place. Tell her to be wary, Isidro, and be on your guard. Keep this tablet close. I’ll be in touch again as soon as I can.

Nirveli.

Isidro set it on the table and scrubbed his hand across his brow with a groan. A warning … if only they’d seen it sooner. But no, it wouldn’t have made any difference — by the time the message had reached him it was already too late.

Isidro closed his eyes and reached for Sierra.

She was awake and sitting up in bed, with Rhia, Rasten and Amaya arranged around her.
Isidro?
she said.
Something wrong?

No,
he replied.
No, I just wanted to see how you’re faring.

Better than before.
Through her eyes, he saw her turn to Rasten, and a moment later he joined the conversation.

Isidro, we’re going to take the shaft from her side,
Rasten said.

Already? I thought you said it’d need days to heal.

With their hidden passages discovered I’m worried they’ll make their move sooner rather than later. That thing in her side makes her vulnerable. She’s doing well, the fever is gone and she’s stronger today.

Alright. You know what you’re doing.

How goes the work, Issey?
Sierra asked him.

He opened his eyes to look over the tablet once again.
I’ve done all I can for now. I’m coming back to quarters. I want to see you, and I’ll show you something that just turned up.

Oh?
He felt her go tense.
More bad news?

Not this time,
he told her.

When he reached the royal quarters, the outer chamber was empty, but he could see that Rhia and Rasten had been at the table. One of Rhia’s medical texts lay upon it, and scattered around it were drawings in a bold and steady hand, together with pens and ink. It seemed that Rasten had been correcting Rhia’s book of anatomy.

In the bedchamber, the procedure was done and Rhia was replacing the bandages over Sierra’s ribs. Sierra looked pale and worn, but her colour was better than it had been the night before.

As Rhia tied the bandages off, Sierra gingerly ran a hand over her side. ‘Ye gods, that’s better. It was a horrible feeling, having that wretched thing move whenever I brushed against it.’

‘Now remember,’ Rhia told her sternly, ‘you must be very cautious. If you exert yourself, you will risk reopening the wound to your lung and it may collapse again. You must be as still as possible and rest.’

Sierra nodded impatiently. ‘Yes, yes,’ she said. ‘I know I’m not up to fighting any battles. Just tell the cursed Akharians, would you?’

‘You’re young,’ Rasten told her. ‘You’ll heal fast.’

‘Maybe not fast enough,’ she said with a scowl, settling back against the cushions.

Rhia helped Amaya gather up the last of their cloths and implements and shepherded the girl from the room, Rasten following along behind.

Sierra glanced down at her hands, wringing them briefly together before raising her gaze to his face again, her expression unreadable. ‘I hear you got one of them.’

‘Yes.’ Isidro sat on the bed. ‘Delphine’s kinsman. The one who gave Anoa so much trouble.’

‘She must be relieved to see him done for.’

‘I hope so,’ he said.

‘And Delphine?’

‘She knows what kind of man he was. She’ll mourn the loss of her kin, but not the man himself, I think.’

He’d tucked Nirveli’s tablet into his sash, and now he pulled it out again. ‘Take a look at this. It was brought to me yesterday, but I didn’t see it until just now.’

Frowning, she slowly read the contents, studying it for some moments before letting it fall into her lap. ‘How do we know it’s really her?’

‘I …’ He realised then that he’d never told her about the slip of paper Mira had found. ‘Oh, Black Sun, I never showed you … this isn’t the first we’ve seen of her here. The other one was just a drawing on a scrap of parchment. It turned up in the packs of one of Mira’s supporters from Ruhavera. It was like this, here —’ He pulled the string and seal out of his sash to show her. She reached for it and winced as the movement tugged on her stitches. ‘Ah … but how do we know it’s not forged? Issey, I just can’t see how she could be here — she’s dead, a ghost, a memory trapped in stone. It doesn’t make any sense. They’re trying to trick us.’

‘I don’t understand it either, but I know she wouldn’t give them anything they could use against us. And who knows what those ancient mages were capable of?’

She turned to him with narrowed eyes. ‘Are you saying you trust this cursed thing?’

‘No, I just … I have a hunch that it’s not so simple as that. My gut tells me it’s her, Sirri.’

She held his gaze for a long moment before letting her eyelids drift closed. ‘Alright. Your hunches are sound, Cam always says so.’ She handed tablet and seal to him and slumped back against the cushions, her eyes drifting closed.

‘Do you want me to let you get some rest?’ he said.

She roused herself with a struggle. ‘Do you have work to do?’

‘I … no,’ he said. ‘Not if you want me to stay.’

‘I’d like that,’ she said, her voice very soft. ‘As long as you’re here, Issey, I can believe everything will be alright.’

‘It will be,’ he said. ‘I’ll do everything in my power to make it so.’

She smiled, her eyes closed, and wound her hand into his.

He stayed there long after she fell asleep, watching her chest rise and fall, her eyes flickering beneath the lids, and found himself thinking back on the months he’d spent turning away from her. He caught himself clenching the hand she held, and made himself relax with an effort of will. Why had he wasted so much time? In those weeks and months marching for home he could have had her in his arms. Why did he only see what he truly wanted now, when she was gravely injured and the threat of the Akharians was hovering close?

You weren’t healed enough for that,
he told himself.
You needed more time. There’s no use raging over what can’t be changed, you need to look ahead. Forgive yourself for your failings and move on …

Forgive yourself.
Wasn’t that what Delphine had said to him? He’d been too weary and heartsick to make sense of it at the time, but now it hung in his mind, crisp and clear.
You’ve forgiven Sierra, you’ve even forgiven Rasten, so why can’t you forgive yourself?

He hadn’t just turned Sierra aside on that long march. He’d spurned her, dealt her a punishment she didn’t deserve.

But what good would come of berating himself for it? Cam had compared him to a dog in a snare, snarling at whoever came close. He’d denied it at the time, but looking back, he could see it was true enough. Perhaps it was better to forgive the lapses of a wounded man. He hadn’t set out to harm either of them, but his wounds had been so deep that he’d barely kept himself afloat; he’d had no strength to spare for them. But he was healing at last, and growing stronger. Now he could make things right, now he could make a new start and treat the women he loved as they deserved.

He stayed there for some time, just dozing with the gentle sound of her breath in his ears, until a prickle against his leg roused him again.

He shifted his leg, and when that failed to deal with it, he reached down clumsily with his false hand to rub his calf. But as soon as he settled back down, it was there again, like an insect crawling over his skin.

Rather than disturb Sierra with his twitching, Isidro extracted his good arm from around her shoulders and sat up.

Nirveli’s tablet had been pressed against his leg, and a faint spill of light gleamed between the two leaves.

Isidro went very still. Slowly, holding his breath, he picked it up and took it beyond the curtain, so the glow of light wouldn’t wake Sierra.

The whole thing seemed to pulse in his hand, and when he opened it, bright, clear lines drawn in light glowed through the soot-stained wax. Were those thin slabs of stone set between the wooden leaves and the writing surface? He’d caught no inkling of it before, but he had no doubt that Nirveli was capable of workings he couldn’t comprehend.