The Firemage's Vengeance (29 page)

“Run!” she screamed.

Then she used her magic to seize the front doors and flung them shut.

THOOM

Kalem got to his feet and ran for the doors, where they could hear the sounds of blasts and explosions inside. But Ebon seized the back of his collar and dragged him away.

“We cannot leave her!” said Kalem.

“We will help her!” cried Ebon. “Somehow. But we must run. We must.”

They did—and every time he heard a spell hammer against the iron doors behind him, Ebon hoped it was not the sound of his friend dying.

thirty-five

ADARA [19]

They fled to Adara’s home. When he woke there the next morning, Ebon could not remember why he chose hers, and not his family’s manor. Doubtless Halab would have taken him in. Doubtless she would have protected him. But he could think only of Adara. And by some blessing of the sky, she had been there when they arrived, and ushered them in without question—though she had many questions once they were safely within.

Ebon told her everything. Kalem added a word or two here or there, but mostly the boy sat in the corner and wept. And when he thought Ebon was not looking, he glared. How could Ebon blame him? The right thing to do—the honorable thing—would have been to return to the Academy and throw their lot in with Theren. But Ebon knew that they would never convince the faculty of their innocence—especially not Xain, who had hated him from the first. And mayhap, outside the Academy, they could come to some solution.

Adara left once they had finished their tale, but only to put word out through the lover’s guild. By the next morning they learned that Theren was not dead, but was in custody of the Mystics. Ebon knew full well what that meant. His mind filled with visions of Lilith when he had visited her before, after she had languished under torture for days. The thought of that pain being visited upon Theren … his stomach clenched when he thought of it.

After that first night, Ebon fully expected he would have to find another hiding place. But the moment he mentioned it, Adara shook her head and insisted that he and Kalem remain with her.

“I will not turn you out,” she said. “And I may be of help to you.”

“So might Mako, or others in my family,” said Ebon. “I should return to the manor. I should have gone there from the first.”

Adara arched an eyebrow. “That would have been your death,” she said. “Do you not think that that is the first place the constables and Mystics would have gone to search for you? Doubtless they have agents posted in the streets around it even now.”

Eon frowned, for indeed he had not thought of that. “But still, I only put you in danger by remaining here,” he said. “Mako knew of us, and he cannot be the only one.”

“He very well could be,” said Adara. “Think of it—even the Lord Prince did not know until you appeared by my side, and he has his eyes and ears in every corner of the Seat.”

Kalem straightened where he sat on the floor. “The Lord Prince! He must know that the constables seek for you. He could expose us.”

“I have sent word. He will not intervene, though he is not happy about it,” said Adara flatly. “But while he will not act to harm us, for he believes me when I say that you are innocent, neither will he help us. He will only keep trying to find Isra before she wreaks more havoc. For that is still what is most important, Ebon. Even with Theren’s peril, you cannot forget that. Isra means to kill again.”

“Aye, and she means to kill goldbags,” said Ebon, folding his arms and slumping in his chair. “All of them, if she can. And now none of us are there to stop her, and the faculty do not even believe she is alive.”

“What do you mean to do about it?” said Kalem, a strong current of annoyance in his voice.

“We must flee the Seat,” said Ebon. Kalem gave an angry snort, and Adara looked at him in surprise. Ebon spread his hands. “It is the only way. What else is there? We can never prove our innocence now—not until Isra acts, and that may not be for a long while, until all this furor has died away.”

“You mean to flee?” said Kalem, rising to his feet. “You would leave Theren here, suffering as the Mystics put her to the question? Often I defend your name to others, Ebon, but this is just in line with the dark tales your family seems to attract.”

“Of course we will get Theren first,” said Ebon. He felt the heat of his blood rising in his ears. “Do you think I am so faithless? Stop looking for evil in my heart, Kalem. You are as bad as Xain.”

Kalem glowered, but he lowered his eyes. “How do you mean to get her out?”

“I do not know,” said Ebon quietly. “We need someone who … can do that sort of thing. We might tunnel up from beneath the Mystics’ holding cells, but it is risky, and I would not know how to get there in the sewers. I hope that Mako shows himself soon, though that is one thing I never thought to hear myself say.”

“You mean to abandon the Academy, then?” said Adara. “You will let Isra kill the other children of merchants and royalty within it?”

Ebon could not meet her gaze. “I do not know what else to do,” he said softly. “If we try to stop her, we will only be caught and killed ourselves. Of course I will try to help them, if we can think of a way to do it.”

She rose from the table. “I will not say if this counsel is good or bad,” she said. “But I urge you to think on it. We have little else to do, for a while at least.”

LILITH [20]

By their third day of hiding, Ebon began to feel as if he was going mad. Adara’s home was no hovel, but it was no mansion either. He could only stand so much of her four walls and coarse wood floor and Kalem’s sullen glares. And of course Kalem’s presence made time alone with Adara impossible, so there was not even that outlet for relief.

“You are
certain
no one will find us here?” he said, not because he was dissatisfied with her answers the previous times he had asked, but because there was nothing else to say or to do.

Adara fixed him with a look that told him she was growing annoyed. “Yes,” she said. “Only the others in the Guild of Lovers know of our arrangement, and they will never breathe a word of it. And even if someone did, there is a hiding place beneath the floor. I will stow you there if Mystics should come knocking—or mayhap I will stow you there now, and leave it locked for a while.”

“I am sorry,” said Ebon, and he meant it. “I only wish there was something we could do.”

“I have sent word to your family as you asked, but your family is … inscrutable. It will take time for my note to reach them.”

Then, from across the room, Kalem shot up from the floor. “Alchemy!” he cried, his eyes wild.

Ebon stared at him. “What?”

“Alchemy,” said Kalem, quieter this time. “That is how she did it. Isra, I mean. How she provided the corpse. She found some alchemist—and it must have been a powerful one—who took a corpse, and turned it so that it looked like Isra’s corpse instead. She must have done it almost the moment she kidnapped Erin.”

“So long ago?” said Adara. “That shows incredible foresight. Isra may be devious, but she is only a girl.”

“Likely Gregor had her do it,” said Ebon, glaring at the floor. “Or whoever else in the family Yerrin commands Gregor.”

“At least now we know,” said Kalem. “That is one mystery solved.”

“Can you prove it?” said Ebon, heart racing. “Is there some trace of her magic on the corpse that we can show to another alchemist, and thus establish our innocence?”

“Well, no,” said Kalem. “But we have an answer.”

“Knowledge without a course of action is useless,” said Ebon, scowling. But when Kalem’s hopeful expression fell, he felt guilty and tried to ease his tone. “But you are right, in that at least we have an answer. I am sorry. It is only that I am grown irritable with inaction.”

“Think nothing of it,” said Kalem with a sigh. “I feel much the same.”

Adara stood. “It is time I was going, for the guild will need me tonight. Do not get into trouble before I return—at least not more trouble than you can get yourself out of.”

Ebon rose to see her out. “We will not. Kalem, if you are still bashful about such things, turn away; I have been an annoyance to the love of my heart, and I must kiss her well to make up for it.”

Kalem did indeed turn away, and Adara gave Ebon a wry smile. “What makes you think I want one now? You have not bathed since you arrived.” But she showed her words to be a lie by gripping the front of his robes and pulling him in for a deep kiss. For a long moment they held each other. She put her lips to his ear and whispered, “We will solve this. Together. We share it, as in all things. Even peril.”

“Even peril,” he whispered back. “Thank you.”

Then she was gone.

That left them alone for some hours. To distract himself, Ebon drank, and Kalem joined him at the table and in his cups. Ebon had tried to withhold himself from wine since he arrived; though Adara offered it to him often, and insisted it was no bother, he had no wish to drain her cabinet, which he knew he might do if he gave himself free rein. And besides, who would want to sit drunk in the home of their lover for hours?

But now he and Kalem let themselves relax into one of Adara’s fine vintages. When the bottle was nearly done, Kalem concocted a plan to rescue Theren that involved melting the front door of the Mystics’ station, and Ebon nodded sagely that it was a brilliant idea. Then Ebon, in turn, decided that it would be better to recruit a firemage, some sellsword wizard, and have them burn the place to the ground. Somehow they would get Theren out before the flames and the smoke killed everyone inside.

He knew their ideas were beyond foolish, and he knew that Kalem knew it as well. But after two days of sitting and reflecting on their own hopeless situation, it felt good to speculate upon the ridiculous. Somehow they drank another bottle, though Ebon did not remember getting up to open it—perhaps, he reflected in the back of his mind, Kalem had done it, though he did not remember the boy rising from the table, either.

Much time passed this way before Adara returned. Ebon and Kalem were giggling when they heard the front door’s latch turn, and they both stifled themselves while shushing each other heavily. But when Adara reached the top of the stairs, she was not alone; Lilith stood beside her.

“Lilith,” said Ebon. He shot to his feet, but too quickly—he had to put a hand on the table to steady himself. The sight of her had a sobering effect on him, but not enough, for his head began to spin as soon as he stood. “What are you doing here?”

“She found me,” said Adara quietly. “Theren told her you might be with me.”

“Theren?” cried Kalem. He, too, stood, but he handled himself even worse than Ebon had, and very nearly fell to the floor. Adara took his arm to steady him. Kalem hardly seemed to notice. “You saw her? Could you speak with her? Is she well?”

Lilith glowered, and even Ebon winced at the words. “Well? She is far worse off than you two are, sitting here and getting drunk on your lover’s wine.”

“We did not mean for her to be caught,” said Ebon, slowly, so that he could be sure to say each word clearly. “She sacrificed herself to save us.”

If he thought Lilith would soften at that, he was wrong. “And do you mean to do the same for her?” she said, voice rising. “Or do you mean to sit here until you rot? It has been days since she was taken—three days, Ebon. You know what the Mystics are doing to her. You saw them do it to me. And now they are even more eager for the truth, because Xain is urging them on, desperate to find his son. So how do you mean to fix it?”

Kalem looked doubtfully at Ebon, who avoided Lilith’s gaze. “We … er … we have been trying to think of a way to get her out.”

Lilith folded her arms, and Ebon thought she likely knew just how productive their thoughts on the matter had been. “I hope you have concocted some brilliant strategy. Because no one else will solve this unless it is us—the people in this room, and no others.”

“Mako will find us soon,” said Ebon. “With his help, we will find a way.”

“Theren thought he would cast my life aside easily to protect yours,” said Theren. “Do you think he views her more tenderly? He did not strike me as that sort of man.”

“He might surprise you,” said Ebon. “In any case, I will make him help us rescue Theren—and then he will find Lilith for me. If she has not fled the Seat, anyway. She might have, the same as Gregor.”

“No.” Lilith shook her head. “Gregor left to save his own skin. Isra has never cared to do that before, or she would have fled in the first place, when first you found her. She only wants to destroy the goldbags. And I know how she means to do it. The Goldbag Society she began—that she had me begin”—she paused as a shiver ran up her body—“they are having a secret gathering. An assembly. It is in less than a week. They are keeping it secret from all but their own members.”

“How did you hear of it, then?” said Kalem. “I thought you no longer trucked with their sort.”

“Nella told me. She was worried, though she did not know why. I urged her not to go, and urged her besides to dissuade others from going. But I fear my words, or hers, will have little effect. Isra means to gather them all together, and then she will destroy them. It will be the perfect chance.”