The Burning Sky (5 page)

The apartment was vast. Even with the aid of secret passages, it still took him another minute to emerge in the globe room, where a representation of the Earth, fourteen feet across, hovered in midair.

With a swish of his wand, doors shut, drapes drew, and a dense fog rose from the floor. Only the air between the globe and his person remained transparent. Carefully, he touched the half pendant he still wore to the globe. His fingers brushed against something hot and grainy—the Kalahari Desert, probably.

A pulse passed between the pendant and the globe. He drew back and looked up. A bright red dot appeared on the globe, a thousand miles east northeast of where he stood—and very much in the middle of a nonmage realm.

To limit the influence of Exiles,
³
Atlantis had placed a chokehold on travel between mage realms and nonmage realms. Most portals would have been rendered useless. The girl's trunk must employ startlingly unusual magic—or someone had made sure a loophole had been left open for it.

She could have been taken anywhere. But Fortune smiled upon him today, and her current location was within twenty-five miles of his school. With luck, he would find her in the next hour.

Waving away the fog, he summoned Dalbert, his valet and personal spymaster. He must leave immediately, before the Inquisitor put more agents on his tail. 

“Your Highness.” Dalbert appeared at the door, a middle-aged man whose round, pleasant face hid a ferocious talent for intelligence gathering.

He had supplied facts and rumors to Titus in a timely and discreet manner for the past eight years, keeping his master apprised of everything that went on in the Domain and around the world while looking after Titus's personal comforts. The prince, however, had never taken Dalbert into his confidence.

“There is a train getting into Slough in twenty minutes. I plan to be on it. Make it happen.”

“Yes, sire. And, sire, Prince Alectus and Lady Callista await below. They request an audience with Your Highness.”

The regent and his mistress resided in Delamer, the capital, and rarely called upon Titus's mountain keep. 

Titus swore under his breath. “Show them into the throne room—and have Woodkin exercise Marble.”

Dalbert hurried off. Titus took himself two levels below, shrugging into a day coat as he went. He rarely entered the throne room except on the most public of occasions—it was ridiculous for him, essentially a puppet, to be in a room meant to symbolize the justness and might of his position. But today he wished to get rid of his visitors fast, and the throne room discouraged small talk.

The ceiling of the throne room rose fifty feet on two rows of white marble pillars. The obsidian throne was set upon a waist-high dais. Titus walked past it to the arched windows. Beneath him was a drop of a thousand feet to a ravine cut by a blue, glacier-fed river. Beyond, purple peaks shifted like slow waves. 

Alectus and Lady Callista appeared on two of the four low pedestals that transported audience seekers from the reception room to the throne room.

Alectus was the youngest brother of Titus's grandfather, a handsome, morally flexible man of fifty-eight. Lady Callista was a beauty witch—the greatest beauty witch of her generation. Of the last three hundred years, it had been argued.
⁴

She was on the brink of forty. Unlike many other beauty witches, she had not resorted to questionable magic to keep herself looking half her age. Instead, she had aged gracefully, allowing a few wrinkles to spread here and there while maintaining her sway over legions of hearts.

Ever since Alectus had been appointed regent, she had been his mistress. Some whispered that Alectus had even proposed to her, but she had declined. She was the capital's leading hostess, its arbiter of style, a generous patron of the arts—and an agent of Atlantis.

Alectus bowed. Lady Callista curtsied.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” asked Titus, offering neither seats nor refreshment.

His bluntness surprised Alectus, who looked toward his mistress: Alectus had no appetite for confrontation, or any kind of unpleasantness. 

Lady Callista smiled. It was said that to this day, love letters arrived for her by the wheelbarrowful. There was a great deal of skill in her smile, a smile meant to make a boy who had done nothing with his life feel accomplished and remarkable—virile, even.

Titus felt only revulsion—she was most likely the one who had betrayed his mother, informing the Inquisitor of the latter's secret participation in the January Uprising.

“We received a note from the Inquisitor,” she said, her voice a dulcet murmur. “Her Excellency is concerned that she doesn't see enough of you. She's quite fond of you, Your Highness.”

Titus rolled his eyes. “She is getting above herself. What do I care whether she is fond of me? She was a nobody before the Bane plucked her out of obscurity.”

“But now she is the Inquisitor, and can cause much unpleasantness.”

“Why would she do that? Does she wish to incite a new uprising?”

At the word “uprising,” Lady Callista's smile faltered slightly, but she was quickly all warmth and concern again. “Your Highness, of course she does not want that. Once you come of age, the two of you will see a great deal of each other. She hopes for a respectful, productive, and mutually beneficial association.”

“I appreciate your diplomacy,” he said, “but there is no use gilding a turd. I cannot stand that upstart, and she is jealous and resentful of me. Save me the time and tell me what she really wants.”

Alectus choked at Titus's language. Alectus never had problems being deferential to the Inquisitor. He was ill suited to wield power himself, but he yearned toward it as a vine reaches for a higher branch. And parasite that he was, he was probably happier the more powers the Inquisitor concentrated onto herself.

Lady Callista's next smile was strained. Had the Inquisitor been nasty to her? Usually Lady Callista's smiles were entirely effortless. 

“The Inquisitor would like to speak to you about what you saw this afternoon.”

“I saw nothing—I already told her.”

“Nevertheless, she believes that with her help, you might remember more.”

“Will I still be continent when I emerge from her ‘help'?” The Inquisitor's methods were widely feared.

“I'm sure she would treat you with utmost courtesy and consideration, sire.”

Titus assessed his situation. He must leave without delay. Yet the Inquisitor must also be placated somehow. 

“Your spring gala is to take place in a few days. I will attend as the guest of honor. You may invite the Inquisitor. I will grant her a brief audience during the course of the evening.” 

He made appearances at various state and charitable functions during the year, usually those involving children and young people. A gala was not quite the same thing, but he would stir curiosity, not controversy.

Lady Callista opened her mouth. Titus preempted her. “I trust you are grateful that I will take the trouble.”

It was time she remembered that he was still her sovereign.

“Of course,” she murmured, conjuring another smile.

Now they were down to mere formalities before he dismissed them. “Is there anything else that requires my attention?”

“My choice of a new overrobe for the gala,” said Alectus, jolly now that his task had been discharged by his mistress. “I cannot make up my mind, and Lady Callista claims to be far too busy.”

“Thousands of details need to be seen to before the gala,” said Lady Callista, in her you-silly-man-but-of-course-I-love-you-madly tone.

“Close your eyes and make a random selection,” Titus said, forcing himself not to sound too impatient.

“Indeed, indeed,” Alectus agreed, “as good a method as any.”

“I wish you both a good day,” said Titus, his jaw hurting with the strain of remaining civil.

Alectus bowed. Lady Callista curtsied. They stepped on the pedestals and disappeared to the reception room below.

Titus let out a breath. He glanced at his watch: still ten minutes to make the train.

But Lady Callista reappeared, looking suitably apologetic. “I beg your pardon, sire, I seem to have left my fan behind. Ah, there it is.”

What did she want
now
?

“Do you know what curious news I just heard, sire?” she asked. “That by the bolt of lightning you saw, a great elemental mage has revealed herself—a girl of about your age.”

Of course she would ask him about the girl—what good minion of the Inquisitor's would not? He acted bored. “Should I care?”

“She could be very important, this girl.”

“To whom?” 

“Atlantis does not expend its wherewithal on needless concerns. If the Inquisitor is after the girl, she must be valuable in some way.”

“And why are you telling me this, my lady?”

Lady Callista approached him and placed a hand on his arm. This close she smelled of the subtle yet potent fragrance of narcissus. “Does it not concern you, sire, that the Inquisitor is halfway to finding this possibly very significant young woman?”

Very few of his subjects touched him without express permission. Lady Callista dared take the liberty because she had once been Princess Ariadne's dearest friend. Her touch was warm and maternal, her person present and interested in a way that his perpetually preoccupied mother had never been.

Titus yanked away. “Madam, if you seek someone to stand up to the Inquisitor, you are looking at quite the wrong man. I am the heir of a princely house well past its hour of glory. That is burden enough. I am not going to spearhead some quixotic cause for which I have neither the desire nor the talent.”

Lady Callista laughed softly. “Don't be silly, sire. I'm looking for nothing of the sort. My goodness, why should I want anything to destabilize the current situation, which favors me so?”

She walked backward until she was on the pedestal and curtsied again. “However, should you ever decide to spearhead a quixotic cause, sire, you must let me know. Stability does grow tedious after a while.”

CHAPTER 4

A CURIOUS VEHICLE OCCUPIED THE
highest garret of the castle: a black-lacquered private rail coach. Inside, the walls of the coach were covered in sky-blue silk. A pair of padded chairs were upholstered in cream brocade. A porcelain tea service, with steam curling from the spout of the teapot, sat on a side table.

Canary cage in hand, Titus entered the rail coach, the link to his other life. He could almost smell the coal burning at the heart of the yet-distant steam engine, feel the rumble of the wheels on the tracks.

Dalbert brought his luggage, then closed the door of the coach. “Something to drink for the journey, sire?”

“Thank you, but hardly necessary.”

Dalbert glanced at his watch. “Brace yourself, sire.”

He pulled a large lever. The coach shook. The next moment it was no longer in placid storage in the castle's uppermost reach, but a thousand miles away on English soil, part of a train that had departed from Mansion House station, London, three quarters of an hour before.

“Slough in five minutes, sire.”

“Thank you, Dalbert.”

Titus rose from his seat to stand before the window. Outside it drizzled—another wet English spring. The land was green and foggy, the train's motions rhythmic, almost hypnotic.

How strange that when he had first arrived in this nonmage realm, he had hated everything about it—the sooty, offensive smells, the flavorless food, the inexplicable customs. Yet now, after nearly four years at his nonmage school, this world had become a refuge, a place to escape, as far as escape was possible, from the oppression of Atlantis.

And the oppression of his destiny.

Two shrill steam blasts announced the train's arrival in Slough. Dalbert pulled down the window shades and handed Titus his satchel. 

“May Fortune walk with you, sire.”

“May Fortune heed your wish,” replied Titus.

Dalbert bowed. Titus inclined his head—and vaulted.

 

None of the opening spells Iolanthe knew worked. She did not have power over wood. Water was useless here, as was fire. She could keep herself safe from fire, but were she to set the trunk aflame, either from inside or outside, she'd still succumb to smoke inhalation.

Unless someone freed her, she was stuck.

She didn't often give in to panic, but she could feel hysteria rising in her lungs, squeezing out air, squeezing out everything but the need to start screaming and never stop.

She forced her mind to go blank instead, to breathe slowly and try for a measure of calm.

The
Inquisitor
wants me?

Badly.

The Inquisitor was the Bane's de facto viceroy to the Domain. Once, when Iolanthe had been much younger, she'd asked Master Haywood why mages were so afraid of the Inquisitor. His answer she'd never forgotten:
Because sometimes fear is the only appropriate response.

She shuddered. If only she'd listened to Master Haywood. Then the light elixir would have been safe—and she'd never have brought down the lightning.

She dropped her face into her hands. Something cold and heavy pressed into the space between her brows: the pendant the prince had given her before he shoved her on her way. 

A new smidgen of fire revealed the pendant to be a half oval made of a gleaming silver-white metal, with faint tracery on its surface. At first it remained icy to the touch—proximity to her fire made no difference. Then, for no reason she could discern, it warmed to room temperature.

The prince's presence had to be one of the most puzzling aspects of the day, second only to Master Haywood's anguished ignorance.

Master Haywood had known that she should be kept away from the prying eyes of Atlantis. He had prepared a satchel in the event of an emergency evacuation. How could he not know then where she was going or what was in the satchel?

The satchel!

She shoved the pendant into her pocket, called for more fire—taking care that it didn't come near her hair or her clothes—and searched inside the satchel. Her fingers encountered fabric, leather, a silky pouch with jingling coins, and at last, an envelope.

The envelope contained a letter.

 

My dearest Iolanthe,

 

I have just come from your room. You are a week short of your second birthday, sleeping with a sweet gusto under the singing blanket that was still crooning softly to you as I closed the door behind me.

I want a secure, uneventful future for you. It fills me with dread to think of you someday reading this letter, still a child, yet utterly alone, as you must be. 

(I can't help but wonder how your power would have manifested itself. By causing the Delamer River to flow in reverse? Or shearing the air of a sunny day into a cyclone?)

Nightly I pray that we will never come to it. But it has been agreed that for the sake of everyone's safety, I will give up my knowledge of certain events to a memory keeper. After tomorrow, I will only know that I must guard the extent of your powers from the notice of Atlantis, and that if I were to fail, to distance you from immediate harm.

You no doubt crave explanations. Yet explanations I dare not set down in writing, for fear that this letter falls into the wrong hands, despite all my precautions. Only remember this: keep away from any and all agents of Atlantis. Every last mage in pursuit of you seeks to abuse and exploit your powers.

Trust no one. 

Trust no one, that is, except the memory keeper. She will find you. And she will protect you to her dying breath.

To help her, remain where you are for as long as you can—I have been assured that the end-portal will be kept at a secure location. But by all means use caution. You cannot be careful enough.
And whatever you do, do not repeat the action that brought you to Atlantis's notice in the first place. 

Be careful, Iolanthe. Be careful. But do not despair. Help will reach you. 

I want nothing more than to take you into my arms and assure you that all will be well.

But I can only pray ardently that Fortune walks with you, that you discover hitherto unimagined strength in yourself and encounter unexpected friends along this perilous path that you must now tread.

 

All my love,

Horatio

 

P.S. I have applied an Irreproducible Charm to you. No one can capture your likeness—and therefore Atlantis will not be able to disseminate your image.

 

P.P.S. Do not worry about me. 

 

How could she not worry about him? The Inquisitor would be furious when she realized that he'd deliberately given up his memories to foil her. And if—

A thump in the floor—a vibration that shot up Iolanthe's spine—scattered her thoughts. She shoved the letter back into the satchel and extinguished her fire. For a moment she could hear nothing, and then it came again, the thump. Her fingers closed around her wand.

She lifted the disc covering the peephole. Part of the floor lifted. A trapdoor—she was in an attic. Light wafted up from the opening, illuminating crates, chests, and shelves upon which crowded ranks and rows of dusty curiosities. 

The trapdoor rose farther, accompanied by a squeak of the hinge. A lantern made its way into the attic, followed by a woman with a wand. She raised the lantern. It glowed brighter and brighter, rivaling the blinding brilliance of noonday. 

Iolanthe squinted against the glare. The woman was about forty and quite lovely: deep-set eyes, high cheekbones, and wide lips. Her hair was very fair, almost white in the eye-watering light, swept up to the top of her head. Her pale-blue gown was of a fashion Iolanthe had never seen. It buttoned all the way to her chin and cinched to a tiny handspan at the waist, with tight sleeves that ended below her elbows in swishes of lace.

Who was the woman? Was she, by happy chance, the memory keeper who
should
find Iolanthe?

“So, you are finally here,” the woman said, speaking as if through clenched teeth.

Iolanthe's stomach dropped. The woman's tone was grim, hostile even.

The woman pointed her wand at the trunk. Things snapped and clanked to the floor. Locks? No, chains. Iolanthe could see thick metal links from the peephole.

“Aperi,”
said the woman, using the simplest opening spell now that the restraints had been removed.

Some deep-seated instinct made Iolanthe clutch at the latch. She had not moved three times in seven years without learning a thing or two about reading people: whoever this woman was, she did not mean well. 

The latch twitched against Iolanthe's hand, but she kept it in place.

“Aperi,”
the woman repeated.

Again the latch fidgeted.

The woman frowned.
“Aperi maxime.”

This time the latch twisted and bucked like a caught animal bent on escape. Iolanthe's fingers hurt with the strain of keeping it from disengaging.

At last the latch stilled. But she barely caught a breath before the woman called,
“Frangare!”

Frangare
was a mason's spell, used for cleaving boulders in two. The trunk must have been protected: it did not crack open, not even the smallest of fractures.

“Frangare!”
the woman cried again.
“Frangare! Frangare! Frangare!”

Iolanthe's fingers were icy with fear. The trunk remained intact. But for how much longer? She tried to vault—and moved not an inch: no self-respecting mage dwellings allowed vaulting within its perimeters.
⁵

The woman set down the lantern and clutched the bodice of her dress, as if exhausted. “I forgot,” she said slowly. “He made the trunk indestructible so I could not get rid of it.”

So there was a man about. Could
he
help Iolanthe?

“On his deathbed he asked me to swear a blood oath that I would protect you as I would my own child, from the moment I first saw you,” the woman said softly. Then she laughed, a sound that chilled Iolanthe's blood. “He wanted much, did he not?”

The woman lifted her head; her face was cold and blank, her eyes burning with fervor. “For you he gave up his honor,” she said. “For you he destroyed us all.”

Who
was
this madwoman? And why had anyone believed this house to be a secure location?

The woman raised her wand. The chains slammed back into place around the trunk. Her lips moved silently, as if she were praying.

Iolanthe held her breath. For a long minute, nothing seemed to happen. Then the ends of her hair fluttered. The trunk was shut, she herself was still—how could air move? Yet it moved. In only one direction: out of the trunk.

The woman intended to suffocate Iolanthe right in the trunk.

And air was the only element over which Iolanthe had no control whatsoever.

 

Titus's pendant had warmed appreciably as he reached England. It had warmed further after he materialized in London. 

Many Exiles from the Domain, accustomed to the urban life of Delamer, had chosen to settle in London, the closest thing Britain had to an equivalent. The girl had likely arrived at the home of an Exile.

The city was in the throes of one of its infamous fogs. He saw well enough with his fog glasses, but no one on the ground could spot him on his flying carpet. 

Flying carpets were once the fastest, most comfortable, and most luxurious mode of travel. In this age of expedited channels, however, they had become antiques, much admired but little used. Titus's carpet, measuring four feet in length, two in width, and barely a quarter of an inch in thickness, was actually a toy—and not meant for any child to ride on, but for dolls.

He flew over the town house of Rosemary Alhambra, the Exiles' leader, but the pendant did not react further. Next he tried the house of the Heathmoors, considered the most powerful mages among the Exiles—still nothing. He was on his way to the home of Alhambra's lieutenant when the pendant heated abruptly.

He had just passed Hyde Park Corner. The only mage family who lived nearby were the Wintervales.
Surely not.
No one in their right mind would entrust this girl to Lady Wintervale.

But as he circled above the Wintervale house, the pendant grew so hot he had to pull it outside his shirt so it would not scald his skin.

Wintervale House was one of the most tightly secured private dwellings Titus knew. Fortunately—most fortunately—Leander Wintervale, the son of the house, was Titus's schoolmate, and there was a way to access the house from the former's room at school. 

Titus landed on a nearby roof, took off his fog glasses, and rolled the carpet into a tight bundle to carry under his arm. From there he vaulted to his resident house at school. Specifically, into Archer Fairfax's perennially unoccupied room. 

A glance out of Fairfax's window showed Wintervale and Mohandas Kashkari, an Indian boy and Wintervale's good friend, behind the house. The rain had reduced to a mist. Kashkari, the calmer of the two, stood in place; Wintervale paced around him, talking and gesticulating.

Excellent—now Titus did not need to devise a way to get Wintervale away from his room. He opened Fairfax's door a fraction of an inch and peered out. 

Many of the boys had returned. A cluster stood talking at the far end of the passage. But they decided to go to Atkins' to buy some foodstuff and stomped down the stairs.

Once the corridor was empty, Titus dropped the flying carpet on the floor of his own room—after much tinkering he had fortified it enough to carry his weight, but the combined weight of both himself and the girl would keep the carpet grounded. Next he slipped into Wintervale's room four doors down, squeezed inside Wintervale's narrow wardrobe, and closed the door.