Shade and Sorceress (16 page)

“It’s a really terrible idea,” said Nell. “Pure loopiness, lah. Lunatic asylum looped. Ole Mister Tuff running around drunk in the square in his underpants looped.”

Eliza felt her face harden. She stuck her chin out and opened her mouth. She wasn’t sure what was about to come out of it, but Nell added swiftly, “I dinnay have a better idea, though. I’m in.”

“Then meet me back at the tree-fort. Can you get supplies?”

“What are you going to do?”

“There’s something else I need.”

They crossed the grounds and peeled off in different directions, Nell to the kitchens and Eliza to her bedroom. When she opened the door to her room she froze. Foss was sitting on her bed, his head bowed.

“Eliza,” he said sadly.

Her heart sank like a stone.

“I have to,” she whispered. “Oh, Foss, please...I
have
to.”

“Once she has you, she will not let you go,” he said. “She will not let your father go. She is not known for mercy or for keeping her word. She is evil and ruthless, Eliza. If you go anywhere near her she will destroy you, and in so doing she will destroy the line of the Shang Sorceress.”

Eliza groped for words, some way to explain the necessity of it, how meaningless everything he said was to her. “She has my da,” she said.

“You cannot save him,” he said.

“But you’ll nay help me!” she half-shouted, then lowered her voice to a furious whisper. “I’m going to find someone who
will
help me! And you cannay stop me. I’ll
kill
you if you try to stop me!”

Her anger suddenly was like a living thing inside her, a thing with teeth, a thing without fear. She would not allow him or anyone or anything to stand in her way, not now. At that moment, she believed she could tear the Citadel apart stone by stone, rip open the barrier between the worlds and step through, compel the Ancients themselves to help her cause. Foss looked at her and she met his eyes, staring straight into the light, but it did not blind her. Those great flaming discs did not frighten her or hold her at all. They stared at each other in silence for a whole minute, then two, then three. Foss broke his gaze first.

“You should take these,” he said softly. From somewhere in his flowing robes he took out her staff and the black tunic and leggings of the Shang Sorceress. He held them out to her and Eliza took them, speechless.

“I am bound to the Mancers and the will of the Mancers. Without them, my power is nothing. I am not an Emissarius and I cannot leave this place,” said Foss. “The consensus among the Mancers now is that you are just a girl whose inherited power has been too stifled and broken to ever manifest wholly. If that is so, then the line of the Shang Sorceress is finished, and you will perish on this journey, and I will never forgive myself. But perhaps you will prove us all wrong, Eliza Tok. I pray to the Ancients that it may be so.” He gave her a tender look. “How is your arm?”

“It still hurts, aye,” said Eliza.

Foss nodded sadly. He touched a hand to her cheek.

“Did you know what I would see in the Vindensphere?” she asked suddenly.

“Not what,” he said. “Only that there was something to see, and that you had a right to see it.” He paused. “I hope I did right.”

“You did, aye,” she said. “Thank you.”

He shook his head. “Do not thank me,” he said softly. “I am no use to you at all, Eliza. I would beg you not to go, but I think it would be futile.”

She nodded her head. He held her gaze a little longer, then swept out of the room without another word.

Eliza sank to the bed, her knees weak. She realized then what it had taken for her to stand up to him and meet his eyes. Going against Kyreth like this might be the end of him, she knew, but she couldn’t concern herself with that. All that mattered was helping her father. She took off her clothes and put on the tunic and leggings. She put her clothes and a change of clothes for Nell in the satchel her father had brought her. Then she reached under the mattress of her bed for the thing she had come for: her mother’s photograph. She slipped that into the satchel as well. She had become very good at doing things one-handed in the last several days, but tying the staff to the straps of the satchel was difficult, not least because her hand was trembling. At last she slung the bag diagonally across her chest. It was time to go get Charlie Ash, whoever or whatever he really was, out of the dungeons.

~

Eliza met Nell back at the oak tree. The moon was still high in the sky.

“I like your outfit,” said Nell, impressed. Her face was flushed with excitement. She had emptied out a large cloth bag of potatoes in the kitchen and filled it with an odd assortment of things she’d found there: fruit and bread and tins of food and cans of soda. She had also thought to bring cutlery.

“I dinnay spose the Mancers drink soda,” she said thoughtfully. “Is that just for us? Do they eat at all?”

“No idea,” said Eliza. “Get the book, will you? I cannay climb down with it.”

Nell clambered up the tree and fetched the heavy tome from the crow’s nest, clutching it to her chest and climbing back down one-armed. They made their way back to the dungeons and followed Charlie’s singing through the dark winding corridors.

“Let’s get me out of here, aye,” he said eagerly. “Show me the book.”

Eliza hesitated and Charlie heaved an exasperated sigh.

“I may not be as much on your side as you’d like, Eliza,” he said, “but I’m nay trying to trick you. Least, I’m nay trying to trick you
now.
She told me to bring you to the Arctic and she’s nary someone I’d like to cross.”

“Fine.” Eliza sat down close to the voice and bumped up against something. It wasn’t solid exactly, but she couldn’t press beyond it either. It was like the barrier Foss had put around the table as a demonstration on their first day, except this one didn’t fall apart quickly. “We dinnay have a light to read by, though,” she commented.

“That’ll nay be any problem,” said Charlie. “Open the book.”

Eliza did so. The letters within seemed to have been etched into the page with light and were easily visible in the dark.

“I cannay read this,” she said.

“Show me,” said Charlie, and she held the book up. By the light of the letters she could just make him out now, hunched uncomfortably within the invisible barrier.

“They’ve nay given you much space,” she noted.

He laughed. “They dinnay want me changing into anything big, aye,” he said. “This is no good. Show me the next page.”

“Lah, I spec you can do Magic then,” said Nell coldly from just behind Eliza.

“Nary a bit,” said Charlie. “But we have the Book of Barriers and a barrier star. Sometimes it’s just a matter of having the right tools, aye. The last resort of the desperate and powerless.”

“But they said you can become
anything,”
Nell pressed on as Eliza slowly turned the next page for Charlie. “Why cannay you just become a Mancer?”

“I can only
look
like a Mancer, aye,” said Charlie. “I cannay do any
real
Magic no matter what I look like.”

“Lah, good,” said Nell. “What does it mean, anyway...a
Shade?”

“Just be quiet for a bit,” said Charlie impatiently. “I need to concentrate, aye. This could take a while.”

Nell turned away, miffed. It did take a while. Fighting her weariness as the night wore on, Eliza turned the pages when Charlie asked her to and he scanned the book. It became clear that his own ability to read the Language of First Days was shaky at best, and so it was very slow going. Almost two hours passed before he found a suitable spell.

“Perfect,” he said, very relieved. “I thought the sun was going to come up before I found anything. You just need to say
Fuxi Wei Nao,
lah? Undo these bonds. And while you say it, hit the barrier with the barrier star
upside down.
Easy!”

“Foo shi way now?” repeated Eliza.

“Good enough, aye,” said Charlie. “Are you both ready to run for it?”

“The food bag is prize heavy,” complained Nell.

Eliza tucked the book of barriers into her satchel. She took off the barrier star, feeling a little chill of fear as she did so. She was forfeiting the protection of the Mancers now.

“Swing it in slow circles over my head,” Charlie instructed her.

“I cannay see your head. It’s too dark in here.”

“My head is roughly where my voice is,” he said dryly. “Quit stalling, aye. Swing it in circles.”

“Okay,” said Eliza, and began to swing the barrier star. As she did so, a golden glow emanated from it, illuminating a bright membrane around Charlie.

“Can you see the barrier?” he asked her.

“Yes.”

“Hit it hard with the barrier star. The barrier star HAS to hit it upside down. And say
Fuxi Wei Nao.”

Eliza felt an odd sort of prickling in her fingers and on the back of her neck. She remembered, suddenly, the bandit raid in Quan, how she had been huddled against the doorframe of their little house, the sun hot and blinding on her, when a man’s shadow fell over her. She remembered his face, ugly and sweating, the dust in his moustache, his missing teeth as he grinned at her. And her father’s legs as he stepped between them. She struck at the barrier, saying, “foo shi way now.” The pendant bounced off it, almost striking her in the face.

“Why didnay it work?” she said, shaken. Her fingers felt clumsy, hot.

“It was nay upside down, praps. Try again.”

Once more she swung the pendant round, creating the broad glow. The prickling feeling was spreading up her arms now. She thought of golden sand, a too-bright sky full of screaming black birds. She forced the images away, ignored the prickling that was becoming more intense, and struck. The pendant hit the barrier squarely, creating a sudden blaze of light, and she said, “Foo shi way now!” The dungeon was pitch black again.

“Run,”
hissed Charlie Ash, pushing past them.

~ Chapter 9 ~

The three of them bolted
along the corridor and up the stone steps, Nell struggling in the rear with the heavy bag of food. They made it out into the grounds before Eliza heard her name in her head,
Eliza,
as hard as a blow, and stumbled. It was Kyreth’s voice.

“Eliza, dinnay stop.” Nell caught up to her and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her on towards the wood. A chorus of Mancer voices set up chanting in her head. Her limbs felt like lead.

“Charlie, help!” cried Nell.

A hugely muscled man with the head of a dog came charging at her from nowhere. He hoisted Eliza over his shoulder, grabbed the bag from Nell, and made for the dark wood. Nell screamed, and mid-scream realized this must be Charlie in another form. She raced after him. As they entered the wood Eliza felt a stabbing pain shoot up her injured arm.

“I have to go back,” she gasped. “Put me down.”

Something inside her was tearing right open. It was excruciating. She couldn’t remember why they were here, but she knew the pain would stop only if she returned to the Mancers. Their voices filled her head, murmuring, crowding out everything else.

A few moments of crashing through the woods and she was lying on the pale sand where the hound of the Crossing had pinned her and crushed her arm. The voices had ceased.

“They’ll be here soon,” said Charlie, who had returned to the form of a boy. “But they’ll nay be as strong outside of the Citadel.”

Eliza struggled to sit up. Nell was crouched at her side, anxious.

“Are you all right?”

“Aye,” said Eliza, not at all sure that this was true. Her arm was throbbing in the tight bandage, as if it had been freshly torn. She looked fearfully out at the glassy water cloaked in mist. A boat began to take shape in the mist, as if it were being slowly penciled in before their eyes from bottom to top. It was a long wooden sloop, and although there was no wind its pale sails were full and it cut through the still water silently. It touched the shore and the bow of the boat cut a line through the sand, drawing to a halt. A hideous apparition peered over the bow of the boat at them. His skin was translucent, like liquid glass poured over a tangle of bone and vein and knotted muscle. He reached towards them with a pale arm.

“Do you seek passage?” he asked. His voice was an awful scratching of the air. Nell gripped Eliza’s arm, truly afraid of something other than tedium for the first time in her life.

“Yes,” said Eliza, scrambling to her feet.

A silver-white ramp was lowered to the beach. Nell and Eliza followed Charlie aboard the ghostly ship. The Boatman swiveled his gruesome head towards Eliza and asked, “How will you pay for your passage?”

Eliza took the barrier star from her pocket and held it out to him.