Iron Kin: A Novel of the Half-Light City (36 page)

I whirled again. The owner of the voice was standing behind me, gray, gray veils covering her face and floating around her body, though there was not a breath of wind to move them. The only color came from the jewels on her hands, rings covering the first knuckle on each of her fingers. Except for her left ring finger. That one was bare.

Or was it?

I blinked as one of the veils swept across her fingers, reminding me exactly who this woman was. The Veiled Queen.

I bowed deeply. “Your Majesty.”

“Pretty manners, for a
hai’salai
.” Her voice was somehow gray too. Gray like granite or storm clouds or the depths of a winter ocean. Full of power and the potential for pain.

I straightened, cautiously. “Might I ask where my companions are, Your Majesty?”

“They are safe enough. I wanted to see you for myself.” She walked a few steps closer and I fought the distinct desire to move backward in response.

“Brave, aren’t you?” the queen said. “Don’t you know the tales about me?” Her veils darkened a little and I fought a shudder. I knew enough to understand that if those veils turned black I probably wasn’t going to leave this place alive.

“I know that you are a great queen,” I said through a mouth gone horribly dry. “That you have worked for the peace we all value so highly and helped the City greatly.”

Her head tilted. “Value? Value so much that someone killed my Speaker?”

“That wasn’t me,” I said hastily. “Or anyone that I know.”

“How do you know?” she said. “Have you seen?” She stretched out a hand toward me, not quite touching me. “Such a muddle inside that head of yours. How did those powers get so twisted? Yet they are strong. Tell me,
hai’salai
, have you seen?”

The visions roared around me then, driving me to my knees with a shuddering gasp. Blood. Fire. And the faces of the DuCaines whirling around me. Saski
a. Guy. Simon. The City blackened and burning. The Treaty Hall exploding and the Speaker falling. Me with my head in my hands and a bottle of brandy, alone in an empty room, tears rolling down my face. And Ignatius smiling through it all. The images speared through my head like shards of jagged glass and I cried out.

Then they vanished, taking the pain with them.

“What did you see?” the queen asked.

I swallowed hard, willing my heart to slow, not certain that the memory of the pain wouldn’t yet make me retch. Then I told her.

“Ignatius Grey,” she said, veils shading darker still. “This one troubles me.”

“Then you should return to the negotiations, Your Majesty. Because otherwise there is little to stop Ignatius Grey from seizing the power he wants.”

She sighed then. A dusty sound like wind across stone. “Why should I care? What has this treaty gained me? Other than death and care and trouble.”

“You lost someone close to you,” I said. “And that is a grief—” More of a grief to a Fae perhaps, who would live many, many years longer than any human. Perhaps the losses eventually grew too hard to bear. “But there will be more losses if you do not return to the negotiations.”

“Not my losses.”

“There are Fae in the City, Your Majesty. Fae who may die.” Or worse. Saskia had told me what Adeline had said about Ignatius taking Fae women. That couldn’t be for any good purpose. But looking at the queen and the deepening gray of her veils, I didn’t feel like raising the subject.

“True. Though your visions are a tangle. Who knows if you even see truly?”

“I may not see the whole truth but I have seen my visions come to pass often enough to know that I see at least a part.”

“Perhaps.” Her head tilted. “And you insist on looking despite the pain. That is interesting.”

“I don’t have a lot of choice in the matter.”

“You wear iron. And you chase them away using other methods. That is a choice of sorts.”

“It doesn’t always work,” I said.

“The question is, what choice would you make if there was no pain? If you had control?”

For a second her veils lightened and I thought I caught a glimpse of greenish eyes, the color reminding me of Holly’s. But it was gone in a flash, the veils turning to writhing dark again.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. If I could choose whether or not to see? Part of me thought I would never look again. But what if control meant clarity . . . a way to be able to truly see—to be able to trust my power? Then my life could be very different.

Or it could drive me mad.

Knowing the future was very overrated.

“Perhaps we will find out.” The queen snapped her fingers and suddenly I was no longer alone. Bryony and Liam and Saskia stood with us.

“Fen!” Saskia hurried to my side. “Where did you go?” She threw her arms around me. “I thought you were lost.”

“Not lost.” The queen’s voice sounded almost amused.

Saskia let me go, stepping back abruptly as though she suddenly remembered where we were. She dropped into a deep curtsy, bowing her head. Bryony did the same and Liam bowed. I stayed straight. The queen had already had me on my knees. She didn’t need any more obeisance from me just now.

“Bryony sa’Eleniel
,
” the queen said. “Why have you sought my counsel?”

Bryony came out of the curtsy with the grace that only a Fae can muster. “My Queen,” she said. “I bring a petition from the human delegation. A plea for you to recommence the negotiations.”

“Have they found the proof I need?”

“No, Your Majesty. But as you will not allow them access to the Treaty Hall, I’m not sure how you expect them to uncover the true culprit behind the explosion.”

The queen’s veils swirled faster. “Your time outside our realm has made you bold, sa’Eleniel.”

Bryony lifted her chin. “My time in the City has taught me to value the humans. They want the treaty and the peace. They need it. They would not put it in jeopardy.”

“No? Even when some of them are pursuing avenues that might be unlawful?”

Fuck. The queen knew about Simon and the cure. My stomach dropped and I glanced at Saskia, who had turned pale.

Bryony, however, seemed unsurprised. “That need not destroy the peace. It may require some . . . adjustment, but the humans do not wish to destroy the Blood.”

Just Ignatius and his cronies.

“Be that as it may, why should I return when those who caused my Speaker’s death go unpunished?”

“Without the treaty there will be more deaths. And little chance of bringing anyone to justice,” Bryony said. “You know this, Your Majesty. Ignatius Grey is grasping for power. He is killing those who oppose him in the Blood Court. Even now there are Blood under Haven in the Templar Brother House. The City needs you. Needs your protection.”

“And what about what I need?”

The words came like a whiplash, raw with pain. Grief again. Deeper, perhaps, than affection for her Speaker would explain. Love might be closer to the truth.

“The humans are willing to assist you in finding justice for your loss. They will do whatever it takes.”

The veils stilled, holding motionless in the air. “Are you asking me to name a price?”

“No, I am telling you that the humans hold true to the bonds of friendship between our races.”

“But what if I do have a price?”

Bryony blinked. “My Queen?”

“If I want something in return for my cooperation?”

“We will of course endeavor to do what is in our power—,” Bryony began.

“What I want is not in your power to grant,” the queen snapped. Her head turned slowly and dread swept over me as her veiled gaze settled on me. “I have need of a seer. My Speaker is lost to me and I need someone who sees truly. I do not trust my court right now.”

“Your Majesty—” Bryony tried again.

“This one.” The queen nodded at me. “If this one will swear service to me, stay with me here in Summerdale, then I will rejoin the negotiations.”

“No!” Saskia’s cry was as pained as the queen’s had been earlier. I met her eyes and then suddenly another vision rolled over me. I saw myself refusing, saw myself leaving with the others. Saw the queen’s veils turning black. And saw the death that would result if I didn’t agree to what she wanted.

Saskia’s death.

The queen had decided she wanted me, for whatever purpose. She would brook no rivals for my loyalty.

Saskia
.

Grief closed my throat. She wouldn’t give up on me. And if she tried, then she would die. I saw it a hundred ways. Knew that there was only one way to stop it.

I had to break her heart. Make her hate me.

Had to lose the hope of a future I had let myself believe in.

There was no other way.

The visions left me in a rush and I knew what I had to do. The smile I summoned made my face hurt, as though my body fought me.

“Of course I will stay, Your Majesty,” I said. “It would be my pleasure.”

“Fen. No!” Saskia’s voice choked and Liam flung an arm around her to hold her back as she lunged toward me.

I stepped back.

Away from her. Toward the queen.

It hurt like walking on broken glass.

“You misunderstand,” I said. “It’s not a case of having to. I want to. Why do you think I came here?” I made the words lazy, careless. “The queen can cure me. Free me.” I made myself smile at the veiled figure with some approximation of pleasure. It was an expression I had practiced many times on the women who flocked to the Swallow. It came easily enough, despite the loathing I felt.

“Besides, she can keep me safe. It’s not a question of choice, Prentice DuCaine. It’s a question of what’s best for me. And what’s best for me is right here. What, did you think I came here out of that same misguided need to save the world that you DuCaines seem to harbor?”

“You—” Saskia spat and Liam pulled her against him, turning her head into his chest so that she didn’t finish the sentence. His face was contemptuous as he stared at me. Bryony’s expression was equally disgusted.

I felt a small sense of victory—they believed me. Which meant Saskia would be safe. Lost to me. But safe. It had to be enough.

I turned back to the queen. “I offer you service, Your Majesty,” I said and dropped to my knees, bowing my head because I couldn’t bear to see Saskia any longer.

“Very well,” the queen said. “You may tell the humans to be ready in three days, sa’Eleniel. I will return then.”

“My Queen, I—” Bryony faltered. I heard her take a single breath. “Very well, Your Majesty. I will tell them.”

“Good. Now leave us.”

There was a sudden tingling of power and I somehow knew that they were gone. I didn’t look up. Couldn’t bear to see the empty space where Saskia had been.

Instead I waited, head bowed. The queen’s footsteps were soft taps on the marble.

“So,
hai’salai
,” she said. “Let us see what you are truly capable of.” Her hands came down on either side of my head and the world went white around me.

Chapter Twenty-two

S
ASKIA

“Saskia?
Is it true?” Holly’s voice came from the doorway of Bryony’s office, where Bryony had left me when I’d refused to go back to my family’s rooms. I wasn’t ready to face anyone just yet. Not until I was sure I could do more than breathe without dissolving in tears.

It had taken all my will during our journey back to the City to do just that. Each breath in and out was an effort when all I wanted to do was stop. To not be. To not
feel
.

Fen
.

I couldn’t stop hearing his words in my head, seeing the pleased smile as he’d turned to the queen. Had I really been such a fool?

And now here was Holly, wanting to know all about it. I hugged my arms tighter around my knees. “It’s true,” I said dully. “Fen stayed in Summerdale.”

“I don’t believe it.”

I lifted my head, saw the expression of shock and disbelief on her face, mirror to what I felt. “Believe it. He wanted safety.”

Holly shook her head. “That’s not Fen.”

“Isn’t it?”

“She must have done something to him.”

“She didn’t even
touch
him.” My words sounded bitter. They tasted bitter. I swallowed.

“She’s the Veiled Queen. She doesn’t need to touch him. Maybe she bound him somehow.”

“No.” I shook my head. I had heard the truth in Fen’s words, seen the look he’d given the queen. “He wanted to stay. Guy was right about him.”

Holly’s expression was stony. “I don’t believe it. She must have done something. You’ve been gone for three days—”

“What?” I straightened, the shock of this information enough to burn through the fog of pain. “We weren’t even there a day.”

We stared at each other.

“Shit,” I breathed. “Bloody Fae.” We’d forgotten that time could move differently in the Veiled World. Nothing had appeared different when we’d exited the Gate and we’d hardly had a chance to check the date anywhere since returning less than half an hour ago. “What day is it?”

“Sunday,” Holly said. “Ignatius’ deadline is up in three more days.”

“The queen said she’d come back in three days. That’s cutting it fine.”

“She’s coming back?”

“Yes. So she says.” I was reluctant to place any faith in the bloody Veiled Queen at this point. She had Fen. My Fen.

I wanted to claw her eyes out.

Which was going to make the negotiations interesting. But even more than her, I wanted to hurt Fen. Hurt him like he’d hurt me. Grief rolled over me again, and I dropped my head back down to my knees.

“He chose her,” I whispered.

“Oh, Sass,” Holly said. “I didn’t realize. I swear, if I get my hands on him, I’ll skin him.”

“You can’t skin him,” I said. “He’s the queen’s pet now.”

“Pet or not, I’m going to—” She broke off as a sob escaped my throat. “I’m sorry. This is my fault.”

“I think it’s Fen’s fault.” My throat burned with his betrayal.

Holly sighed. “He never did know how to show any restraint.”

No. He didn’t. I remembered those unrestrained kisses and the passion of him in my bed all too well.

Stupid, stupid, stupid
.

“All right,” Holly said. “But you can’t mope up here. There’s no time for moping. You can mope after the negotiations. I promise I’ll bring you all the chocolate and champagne a girl could want and help you curse his name. But you have to be strong just now.” She squatted beside me, took my hand in hers. “Can you do that?”

I thought of Fen. And the queen. Thought how they would be amused by my weeping. “Yes,” I said. “I can.”

“Good,” Holly said. “Because I want to show you something.”

* * *

“In here,” Holly said. She pressed her hand against the door of the hospital ward she’d practically dragged me to and I felt the buzz of the other kind of ward shimmer over me. We were still in St. Giles, though in one of the lesser-used wings. Why was the door warded?

The answer was sitting on a chair by the bed, one elbow resting on the sill of the window as she looked out of it.

Reggie.

Her expression was faintly puzzled as she turned toward us.

“Hello,” Holly said. “Do you remember Saskia?”

Reggie frowned, her blue eyes distant. “I . . . maybe. Did I make you a dress? Holly tells me I make dresses.” Her words were slow, her voice lazy, like someone slightly drunk.

I looked at Holly questioningly. She nodded at me. “Reggie’s been ill. She’s lost her memory. But the healers say she’ll get it back.” She crossed the room and leaned down to hug Reggie. “Isn’t that right, sweetie?”

Reggie smiled slowly. “I guess so.”

“Saskia wanted to come and say hello. She’s been worried about you, like all of us. She’s glad you’re getting better. Aren’t you, Saskia?”

“Yes, very glad.” I forced the smile into my voice, my mind whirring with questions. “And you did make me a dress. A beautiful pink dress. You have to get better so you can make lots more.”

“Pink,” Reggie said, with another slight frown. “With your coloring?”

“Pale pink,” I said. “It was lovely.” The ache in my throat burned more fiercely. I remembered how Reggie had tried to dissuade my mother from the pink. Mother, as usual, had insisted. Would Reggie ever make me another? I made myself smile, the expression stiff on my face.

Holly nodded approval at me over Reggie’s head. “It’s time for you to take a nap,” she said to Reggie. “Simon will come and see you soon, with your medicine. I’ll be back later on.”

“All right,” Reggie said placidly. She turned back to the window and I wasn’t entirely sure that she hadn’t completely forgotten that we were in the room with her.

Holly put her finger to her mouth and we left silently.

She shut the door behind us and reactivated the wards. I waited until we were a little way down the corridor before I dragged her into the first vacant room we passed.

“Care to explain what in hell’s name is going on?” I said.

Holly grinned at me. “Just a second.” She waved a hand and I felt an aural ward spring to life. “There.”

“Tell me!” Had Simon found the cure? After all this time?

“I did what Fen wanted,” Holly said. “Asked Simon to talk to Adeline about blood-locking and turning. Apparently something she said gave him an idea.”

“Which was?”

“Adeline said that any of the Trusted being turned are fed blood from only one vampire. Otherwise the ritual usually fails.”

“I don’t understand.”

Holly shrugged. “Neither do I, not entirely. But we know that the Blood become possessive, so by the time somebody is locked, they’ve usually been claimed by a single vampire and would only be consuming that vampire’s blood. Simon wanted to see what would happen if we gave the locked blood from more than one source. Not just Atherton’s blood but the blood of several vampires. Somehow he talked Adeline and some of the others into letting him take some of their blood. And when he gave some to Reggie . . .”

“She woke up? Is she better?”

“She’s improving,” Holly said. “She still needs the blood—less often, but she still gets shaky—but you saw her. She knows who we are and she eats and she’s . . . aware.”

I rather thought that “aware” was too strong a term for the vague girl we’d left back in the ward, but I didn’t want to burst Holly’s bubble. And Reggie definitely seemed better compared to the last time I’d seen her. “What does Simon say?”

“He and Atherton think it has to be something magical. Competing magics weakening whatever has the hold over those who get locked. Simon’s been going mad waiting for Bryony to get back. He wants to see what she thinks. Maybe you can help too.”

“Me?”

“Simon said something about changes in Reggie’s blood. You can sense blood, can’t you?”

“I can sense iron in the blood—at least that’s what Simon says I’m feeling,” I corrected. “He says that’s how I know where my family is, but I’m not sure that’s all there is to it.”

Holly’s face fell and I hurried on. “But of course I can help. I’ll try to do whatever Simon needs.” It would give me something to do other than go crazy.

Holly laughed. “Wonderful. How about we go find him now?”

* * *

The next forty-eight hours passed in a blur of helping the delegates prepare a new venue for the negotiations—the Treaty Hall being out of consideration—and spending time with Simon in the hidden ward.

I didn’t entirely understand the medical jargon he threw at me, but I obediently bent my senses to vial after vial of blood, trying to determine if there was anything unusual I could sense about them. Turned out I could sense the difference between human and vampire blood and also the difference between the blood-locked and an unaddicted human. Reggie’s blood definitely felt different again to me, but I couldn’t tell him why.

Still, it was enough to convince him he was on the right path.

I was glad to be helpful. Because no matter what I did, there was a constant background of pain. Whenever I was alone, the tears came and I was unable to stop them. I didn’t know if I was crying because I’d lost Fen or because I’d been stupid enough to fall for him in the first place, but it hardly mattered.

What mattered was that he was gone.

I worked long into the night with Simon, needing exhaustion to find sleep.

When I finally crawled into bed, I was sure that I’d only been asleep for seconds when my door slammed open. I bolted upright, my heart hammering, fumbling for the lamp on the table beside me.

“Miss Saskia, it’s Liam.”

I saw his face as the lamp flared to life. Saw the sword in his hand. My pulse redoubled. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m here to take you to the Brother House.”

“Why?” I was already scrambling out of bed, grabbing for the first pieces of clothing that came to hand. I pulled pants on, then threw a tunic over my nightgown, not caring what I looked like. “Why?” I repeated, realizing that Liam hadn’t answered me.

“The hospital is under attack,” he said bluntly. “Hurry now.”

* * *

“What about my parents and Hannah?” I panted, jogging after Liam as he led the way down back stairs and into the tunnels.

“Others are fetching them. The attack is only on the main building for now. But we’re defending it.”

“But who?”

“Beast Kind,” Liam said shortly. “We think they’re after the Blood who came here.”

“Shouldn’t they be attacking the Brother House, then?”

“They’re not all in the Brother House. It was overcrowded . . . some of the Blood were put into some of the disused wards. But no one knew about that.” Liam spoke easily as though our pace didn’t bother him.

Bloody Templars.

I was growing soft away from my forge and the rigors of my studies. I hadn’t even had time to pick up a weapon to exercise since I’d joined the delegation. I carried weapons, of course, but I hadn’t needed to use them. Though I was glad enough of the pistol in my hand and the sword at my hip now. I’d forged the sword myself, and it was high in silver content. Any Beast wouldn’t find its bite pleasant.

Liam led me down another flight of stairs and I glanced out of the window—the last chance to do so before we would be belowground. Sure enough, I saw fires around the courtyard and dark figures moving on the grounds. I paused, frozen, not believing it. Why now, so close to the negotiations recommencing?

“Miss Saskia.” Liam’s hand tugged on my arm and I started to turn, but then I saw another flicker of flame out of the corner of my eye.

That wasn’t the main building. That was one of the other wings. I gasped as I suddenly got my bearings. Not just any wing.

“Reggie,” I said. “There’s a fire in Reggie’s wing.”

Liam protested as I turned and started to flee back up the corridor, pounding after me, calling my name, demanding that I come back.

“You said they were defending the main building,” I yelled over my shoulder. “They might not have noticed this yet. We have to get Reggie.”

My heart clutched, thinking of the wards on Reggie’s room. They probably meant that no one could get to her, but neither could she get out if there was a fire. If she was even capable of realizing she was in danger.

Liam caught up with me. “Saskia, Guy will kill me if anything happens to you.”

“Then you’d better make sure that nothing happens to me,” I retorted. I stopped as I reached one of the exit doors, trying to work out the quickest path across the grounds to the other ward. It wasn’t far. A few hundred feet. I had an invisibility charm, the one I used to get to the hidden wards. And, I realized with a sudden surge of relief, I had a second charm, a fresh one that Bryony had pressed into my hands earlier that evening, to replace the one I’d been using, which was nearing the end of its life span.

I grabbed the charms out of my pocket and thrust one of them at Liam. I had no idea which was which. “Do you k
now how to use that?” I asked.

“I’m a sunmage,” he said. “I can manage.”

“Good.”

I triggered my charm, wrenched open the door, and ran out into the night.

The air smelled like smoke and something acrid and oily that made me cough as I drew in a breath. I almost blundered straight into the path of a Beast racing across the courtyard. I pulled up and held my breath, but he was obviously intent on whatever he was pursuing and didn’t falter in his path. I ran on, my heart hammering, hoping that Liam was somewhere behind me.