Citadel of the Sky (Thrones of the Firstborn Book 1) (5 page)

K
iar wasn’t surprised
when Tiana didn’t knock on her door until late in the morning. Her cousin was not traditionally a morning person. She much preferred to stay up late indulging her taste for fairy tales and melodramatic plays.

Still, Kiar was surprised to see the dark circles under Tiana’s eyes. Lisette, beside her, looked ragged. It wasn’t that Kiar expected Tiana to have slept well after the day before. It was that both princess and Regent were far more concerned with appearances than Kiar could ever manage to be. That they’d emerged in any kind of disarray was unsettling.

Tiana silently held up the Royal Pendant.

Kiar observed, “You look exhausted.”

Tiana only said, “It was a long night,” and tucked the pendant into the sash around her waist.

Kiar reached out and took Tiana’s hand, letting a sympathetic squeeze say what she couldn’t quite put into words.
Yesterday was so very hard.
Tiana was a dreamer who refused to face reality unless forced to, but they’d grown up together, and Kiar cared for her more than she could say.

Then she turned away. “Here, I’ll get the box. I’ve been studying it. I think it’s been worn smooth through use, somebody touching it over and over.” She folded a crimson piece of silk around the bone box and picked it up.

She considered inquiring after Tiana’s show, but she always took her cues on social encounters from Lisette, and Lisette was very quiet this morning as well. All she said was, “Jerya, Iriss, and the King are in the Southern Solar this morning.”

Violin music drifted out of the ajar doors of the solar. It was a small room, crowded with far more chairs and tables and music stands than Kiar preferred. She did enjoy the three large windows overlooking the Justiciar’s Courtyard, though. At the moment, one of them was blocked by several of the King’s eidolons, and the second was hidden behind the bulk of the Royal Music Master. The guards assigned to Iriss, the Crown Princess’s Regent, were sitting on the edge of chairs, but sprang to their feet when Kiar opened the doors.

Iriss played a viola, while Jerya and King Shonathan played violins. Kiar recognized the remembrance hymn “Memory Moon.” It was traditionally performed at the Mymoria celebration at the end of the year.

The Royal Music Master turned around as “Memory Moon” completed and immediately focused on Tiana. “It’s Her Serene Highness! My dear, have you been practicing? How is your voice?”

Taken aback, Tiana said “Practicing? For what?”

The Music Master was astonished. “Why, for Antecession. It’s quite soon. Her Royal Highness insisted on a lesson today, despite….” He closed his mouth and shook his head.

Bewildered, Tiana said, “What, already? What happened to Kiprin?”

Lisette said, “You spent it hiding from Cathay, remember? You thought he might try to ask you for a Kiprin Favor.”

“Oh, yes,” said Tiana gloomily. Kiar hid a smile. It was easy for her to be amused; as a bastard of the Blood, she wasn’t required to publicly participate in the yearly cycle of holy day rituals the Royal Blood led.

“My dear, the voice is an instrument just as the violin is. You cannot simply expect to,” the Music Master grimaced, “belt out a tune for Antecession.”

Hastily, Tiana said, “Yes, of course. I’m ready! Lisette and I sing every week.” Then, more formally, she said, “Master, I apologize for interrupting your lesson, but I need to speak with my father privately. Perhaps you could visit my cousins while you’re here?”

“Oh?” the Master rumbled. “Yes, I was planning to look in on Her Little Highness while I was here.” He looked between Kiar and Tiana, and then shook his head again. “Of course, of course. I’ll just gather up my notes, shall I?” He perambulated around the room, picking up papers and muttering to himself.

Finally he heaved himself over to the door, which the guards had opened wide. “Yes, well. Watch that fingering, Iriss. I’ll just go see Princess Gisen, shall I? Yes.”

After the Music Master passed through, Slater bowed and closed the door with all four guards outside, leaving the Blood and their Regents in relative privacy.

“He’s a good fellow,” said the King fondly. “Always has the most delightful little stories. But good morning, Tiana, Kiar, Lisette.” He sounded cheerful, but he had the same shadows under his eyes that Tiana had. Jerya, on the other hand, looked flawless. Kiar avoided make-up herself, but she could appreciate Jerya’s mastery of the art of appearance.

Jerya said, “We’ve been playing for an hour. It’s good to have a break. And I think Father is feeling better. Aren’t you, Daddy?” To the others, she explained, “Father had an argument with the Chancellor about a new Regent. He’s quite happy with his manservant for now.”

“Yes, thank you, Jerya. You and Iriss have been very comforting.” A third eidolon drifted out of him and joined the first two by the window. “I miss Tomas but I understand that sometimes these things happen. And I’m not lonely, of course.” He gestured at his eidolons.

Tiana bit her lip. “We went exploring down in the catacombs yesterday. Down to places I don’t think anybody has walked in centuries. And we found… something odd.” She hesitated a long moment and then said, “Daddy, do you know where the Royal Pendant is?”

He frowned and looked around uncertainly, patting the table beside him. The three eidolons all turned to stare at Tiana. Then he looked down his shirt. “I’m wearing it.”

Tiana said, “Are you sure?”

He smiled in a way that was becoming less and less common. “Yes, Tiana. I look at it every day.” He pulled out a twin to the pendant they had found. One of his eidolon companions reached for the pendant, but he lifted it away.

Silently, Tiana let her own pendant dangle from the chain wrapped around her fist. The King cocked his head. “Is that real?” Another of his eidolons drifted forward and Tiana allowed it to brush spectral fingers over the pendant. The King’s eyes flashed to white and then to black again. “How… amazing. You found this in the catacombs?”

Kiar turned her head, comparing the pendants. “They’re the same, Tiana. Look. His is cracked as well.”

The King looked down at the amulet resting on his chest and covered it with his hand. Then he sighed and lifted the pendant over his head. “Yes.”

“Daddy!” said Jerya, surprised. “Has it always been cracked? It hasn’t, has it?” She wrinkled her brow. “You used to wear it on the outside, right after Math died.” Kiar was impressed Jerya remembered that; she couldn’t have been more than three when King Math died. Maybe she’d inherited a touch of King Shonathan’s famously perfect memory.

The King looked ashamed. “It hasn’t. But it cracked many years ago. We didn’t… we didn’t ever tell anyone. Because it was our fault. An artifact from the time of Shin, a symbol of the Blood, and we allowed it to be cracked! I only ever wore it out at the big ceremonies, and, well, everybody was looking at Tomas then, not me. I always meant to tell… someone, but… these things slip away, you see. And then suddenly it’s a confession, and there’s hardly ever a good time for a confession. I thought perhaps I’d tell you, at least, Jerya, someday. If only because how it cracked was interesting. To the monarchs, you understand. That’s what Hook said.”

Jerya shook her head. “It’s just jewelry, it’s not even magically inscribed. But tell us the story, Daddy.”

One of the eidolons snapped, “Let him gather his thoughts, you wretched girl,” while the others grumbled.

The King waved his hand soothingly at his companions. “It’s an ancient family heirloom, they have every right to know the story. To call me to task like an errant child.” His mouth thinned. Then he murmured, “But I do need to gather my thoughts, as it were.”

Iriss ran her fingers lightly over her viola’s strings and said, “Your Majesty, I know a jeweler who might be able to repair the fracture, so please don’t worry about that. He says opals have some unique properties.” She added, “You shouldn’t have to bear such a burden alone. We’re here to help.”

The King drew in a deep breath. “A month after Tiana’s first birthday, Hook—that was the previous Royal Wizard, Tiana—came to me and asked to borrow the Royal Pendant. He thought that it had some kind of connection to, well… the fate of our family, especially the monarchs.” He paused. “Hook was always so polite. He meant our madness. I suppose at another time, I might have needed more convincing, but… I thought that if I could understand our problems, I could please the Queen. So I gave it to him. He had it for five months. I didn’t actually reclaim it from his workshop until after he died. When I found it, it was cracked.”

Jerya said, “Oh, Daddy!” and reached over to squeeze his hand.

“Did he discover anything?” Tiana asked.

Kiar said, “Hook died insane, according to Twist. Very insane.” She tried to remember more.

The King wove the chain between his fingers. “He behaved erratically near the end, it’s true. No, Tiana, if he found anything, he never informed me.”

Tiana said, “Weren’t you afraid to wear it after that?”

A fourth eidolon spawned from the King and drifted to stand in a corner by itself, face to the wall. The King said, “Well, he hadn’t been wearing it. We discussed that part very carefully before I gave it to him. And I wasn’t quite sure what else to do with it. Wearing it seemed to… be the least trouble. Tomas said it was probably just a coincidence and if it wasn’t, well, most monarchs fared much better than poor Hook.”

Tiana said, “What about the one I found? It looks identical, even down to the crack! That’s very mysterious.”

Jerya smiled, “Or just geology. We’re none of us experts. Perhaps they were cut from the same rock.”

Tiana asked, “You don’t think it’s strange? I found it through the phantasmagory.”

Jerya raised her eyebrows. “Not just exploring, then?”

Tiana flushed. “I was looking for the fiend that killed Tomas. I wanted to find it so you’d stop talking about one of us having done it. None of us are Benjen. Ooh, maybe the fiend cracked it?” She frowned. “But I still don’t know how they connect.”

Kiar ground her teeth. Benjen. He had plagued two generations of the Blood, stolen and killed King Math’s son. When most people referred to the Bastard, they still meant him. If people ever talked about her, they thought of him.

She focused on the pendants again. It was a better use of her time. “They don’t look completely identical, although the cracks and the flaw that surrounds them are very similar. The stones are brothers, not twins.”

Tiana said, “Perhaps there are hidden clues. Can you look for traces of the fiend through the Logos?”

Kiar sighed. “And find whatever made Hook die insane?”

“You’re of the Blood, Kiar! Just looking can’t hurt!”

Kiar looked away. “It can. I have to be careful, Tiana. I can’t… I’m not you.”
I can’t just push away bad thoughts,
she couldn’t say.

There was silence, until finally Tiana said, “You really think I should find somebody else?”

She’d find Twist. He was probably reckless enough to experiment, despite the way Hook had died. Kiar rubbed her hands across her face. Then she said, “I hate working under pressure. It’s harder to focus. It takes me forever to get my concentration together when I’m not alone. But I’ll try.”

K
iar sat
on a chair and stared at her hands, letting her eyes lose focus as she tried to bring about the frame of mind that made the Logos comprehensible. The others made it hard—the sound of their breathing, their eyes on her. Her mind kept freezing. She couldn’t do it.

She breathed. She tried to block out sound, block out their presence. Her eidolons naturally manifested as shields. She could keep people out, so she could do this.

Slowly, she pulled the special Logos-vision over her eyes, being careful not to go too far. It was usually easy to get halfway there, to start perceiving the basic component nature of the universe. The problem was resisting going further than halfway. If she didn’t hold it back, it would dominate her vision, turning everything she looked at into an incomprehensible jumble of passive linguistic noise.

She looked at the Logos of her hands and tried to sort the jumble into meaning, into something she could interact with and describe in a way the uninitiated would understand. But she wasn’t ready and comprehension came too easily, moving beyond interpreting into active vocalization. Looking
could
hurt. She clapped her hands over her mouth, her face burning.

They shouldn’t have expected better, she was terrible with the Logos, she was terrible at showing off. Nervousness once again froze her mind, and she felt her mouth stop moving under her hands.

She tried again. This time she progressed slowly, bringing comprehension just into focus. She missed the fine, complex details at this level, but she knew she would not do better in front of her cousins. Her control was inconsistent these days, even when she was alone.

She turned her hands over, staring at the way her dark skin absorbed warmth from the window, and how moving her fingers pushed air aside. She could see the shadow of the phantasmagory just under the flesh and the nacreous glimmer of her life-force that marked her as a member of the Blood and possessor of the Blood’s family magic.

It wasn’t as strong as Tiana’s or the King’s, but through the Logos, there was no denying it was there. Tiana blazed like a fire and the King like coals, while Jerya was the stars’ glow, just like her. Once, she’d looked at Shanasee and turned away, dazzled by the gift her older cousin kept hidden.

Tiana moved beside her and put her hand on Kiar’s shoulder. “It’s all right, we can ask Twist….”

Kiar flinched. “No, I’m there.” She looked up at her cousin. To mundane vision, Tiana was a perfect specimen of traditional Royal Blood, with cinnamon skin and long, black hair. Through the Logos, though, Kiar could see Tiana’s recent use of magic as a smear of darkness obscuring the components that defined her. Jerya, on the other hand, had touched magic much less recently. The King was hardly anything but darkness and glow, with his near-constant use of magic.

Lisette and Iriss had healthy human patterns, without the nacreous glow, although they were marked by their proximity to others’ use of magic. They were comforting to look at. The Blood always made Kiar feel sick if she gazed too long. It was the way they blotted out parts of the fundamental structure of the world.