Melissa McShane (25 page)

“Only one more question, Alita, and I’ll be gone. Just one question. What was the point of all this?”

Alita said, “I don’t have to answer—”

“It gives us power!” Akelliou blurted out. “All our estates, there’s a source on each one.

Luck, wealth, power, anything we want. It makes us better than others.”

“Akelliou, why are you kissing up to the emissary?” Alita said, rounding on him.

“It’s not fair that you’re keeping it all to yourself!” he shouted. “You promised it would be me next, but you’re just saving it all for yourself!”

“Oh, shut up, Akelliou,” Alita said wearily. “As if I would ever have helped someone like you. I may hate your uncle, but he’s three times the man you are.”

“I would agree with that,” Zerafine said. “Goodbye, Alita. Morica, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Alita said.

Zerafine shook her head. “She’s a genius, Alita. And you’ve got her torturing an innocent creature. Do yourself a favor. Take all this apart.”

“How is that a favor to me?” Alita sneered. “I’m not going to give up my power just because some upstart
thelis
from nowhere tries to ride her moral high horse over me.”

“It’s a favor to you,” Zerafine said, “because if you don’t, I will. And I will make sure everyone in your social circle knows what you tried to do. How long do you think your power will last when your peers find out you were trying to gain an unfair advantage over them?”

“I can make sure you never leave this estate,” Alita said.

Zerafine laughed. “Now you’re just embarrassing yourself. Unless you happen to have a few more assassins on tap.” She turned away and let Gerrard precede her out the door. “Let’s leave quickly. Just in case.”

They found Nacalia outside at the front of the house, playing with a litter of kittens, Toria watching over her. “Does Alita know you let us in?” Zerafine asked.

“Not so far,” Toria replied. “But I think she will.”

“If she fires you, come to the shrine. We won’t let you suffer for this.”

“Thanks for that, madama.”

Once on the road, Zerafine breathed easier. The wind had died down, and the clouds

provided a welcome break from the sun’s rays. She’d sounded much more certain than she was.

For all she knew, Alita might have had fifty men in her household guard, and Zerafine had no doubt that she could have made good on her threat. “You could have defeated fifty men, right?”

she asked Gerrard.

He gave her a surprised look. “No.”

“Then I’m glad she didn’t have fifty men waiting outside.”

“I might have been able to handle twenty. Definitely ten.”

“You inspire such confidence.”

He grabbed her around the waist with one arm and lifted her off her feet, and kissed her, startling a few other pedestrians. “I’m not entirely sure I can handle
you
,” he said.

“Put me down, ox! Such unprofessional behavior.”

“Sorry.” He didn’t look sorry. “So. It’s an actual creature. And here I thought that was the impossible scenario.”

“I wonder...” Zerafine began.

“Yes?”

“If it’s a creature, and it’s wounded, I wonder if the
theloi
of Kalindi might be able to do something about it. It certainly seems to have vital energy enough to permit a healing.”

Gerrard scratched his chin. “Would they even be able to perceive it?”

“I don’t know. It’s worth asking, anyway.”

“And we’d have to find a spot where they’d be able to reach it.”

“We’ve got nine of them. Eight, since Alita’s never going to let us back in.”

“True. Do you think she’s going to dismantle her contraption?”

“No. Maybe. I hope so. Who knows what could happen to the creature if this plan works? It might destroy her setup for her.”

Gerrard nodded. “You want to talk to the
Marathelis
of Kalindi now?”

“Is it a woman, then? I never even thought to ask.”

“Her name is Yelenita and Dakariou said she’s a good choice to follow Alestiou. Strong-

willed, a good administrator, maybe not as close to the Goddess as Alestiou was, but a good woman.”

“I’m impressed. You managed to say all that without making the face you always make

when you say Dakariou’s name.” He looked surprised, so she pursed her lips and furrowed her brow and said, “Like that.”

He laughed. “I suppose I no longer feel threatened by him,” he said.

Zerafine grabbed his tunic collar and pulled him down for a kiss. “Now who’s being

unprofessional,” he murmured against her lips. She poked him in the stomach.

They climbed the temple steps--it turned out there were one hundred and sixteen of them—

only to find that they could not see the
Marathelis
, because there was no
Marathelis
yet. More specifically, Yelenita’s investiture would not be held until sunrise the following day, and until then, she was in seclusion to meditate and pray. In fact, the entire temple was closed in preparation for the momentous event. Waiting out a rainstorm in the temple portico, Zerafine drummed her fingers on her arm, then stopped, remembering Morica’s agitation. Her heart was full of compassion for the woman.

“I’m all out of ideas,” she confessed. “And I feel impatient at being balked. It’s going to be nearly twenty-four hours before we can talk to Yelenita, and we can’t even ask one of the
theloi
healers to help because they’re all in seclusion too. Now what?”

“I know something we can do,” Gerrard said, grinning at her.

“In the middle of the day? I think we’d get tired of doing that after only a few hours.”

“I
was
talking about getting food,” he said, his grin broadening. She blushed.

They ate at an outdoor restaurant, Nacalia bouncing in her excitement at sitting with the grown-ups, then let Nacalia lead them on a tour of the city. Zerafine’s appreciation for its beauty grew. She knew it had its darker side. Too many parts of the city were old, decaying, their inhabitants scraping a living any way they could, but it was hard not to appreciate Hanakou’s Palace, a remnant of a two-centuries’-past regime filled with beautiful statuary, or the wild gardens surrounding the temple of Ventus, god of fate. It would not be such a bad place to settle down in. The light wind made the city’s oppressive heat finally bearable.

They returned home for dinner, and then Zerafine and Gerrard retired to Zerafine’s room,

where they found that there was at least one activity they didn’t get tired of for a long time.

***

crowds thronging the plaza for the investiture. Their arrival was almost perfectly timed; they still had to fight the crowds, but most of the traffic had cleared. Despite the now constant wind and occasional rain showers, the plaza had been full that morning as most of Portena turned out for the ceremony. More crowded were the stairs to the temple, as thousands of worshippers

clamored for the
Marathelis
’s vicarious blessing, conveyed through brass tokens stamped with the stylized image of the sun.

The temple of Kalindi was as exquisite on the inside as it was impressive on the outside. The deep portico provided shade for supplicants—or would, on a day less overcast than this—and led directly to the offertory chamber, its floor a vast mosaic of green and gold tesserae, where in normal times worshippers brought items to be blessed, or came to receive blessings themselves, leaving behind a coin or two. Now it was thronged with people trying to reach one of the
theloi
who were handing out blessing tokens.

A
thelis
noticed Zerafine’s red robe and hood and pushed through the crowd toward her.

“Madama
thelis
, how can I help you? Have you come for the
Marathelis
’s gift?” Her face showed moderate dismay that a
thelis
of Atenas might want the blessing of the Queen of Heaven’s representative.

“No, madama
thelis
, I am here to speak with the
Marathelis
,” Zerafine said.

The
thelis
shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s impossible,” she said. “These four days of preparation are arduous, and the
Marathelis
is resting. You’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

“I apologize for my insistence, but my business is quite urgent,” Zerafine said. “As the

representative of Atenar I am
invested
—” she gave the word emphasis to make a comparison with Yelenita’s investiture—“with the authority of the
Marathelos
of Atenas, and as such, I require that I be admitted to the
Marathelis
’s presence. I promise I will not take much of her time, but I will not be denied.”

The
thelis
looked stunned, and Zerafine had a moment’s flash of guilt at bringing all that power to bear on the poor girl’s head—she couldn’t have been more than seventeen—that faded when she remembered why she was there. “I’ll show you the way,” the girl said in a tiny voice, and Zerafine had to quash another moment of guilt. She hoped the girl wouldn’t be blamed for Zerafine’s intrusion.

The
thelis
brought them through a tall door at the back of the chamber, which led onto a long, narrow hallway. More mosaics, these on the walls, showed scenes of Kalindi’s victories over the forces of nature. At the end of the hall was a much smaller door. The
thelis
opened it for them and bowed them inside. The room was paneled to waist height in exotic woods and painted a deep blue above the paneling. Backless couches upholstered in gold silk were scattered

throughout the room atop a wooden floor stained dark to match the paneling. A window opposite the door looked out on the city and Rodennos hill.

A woman stood looking out the window. “It’s a beautiful view,” she said. “I’m not yet

accustomed to it.” She was tall, as tall as Gerrard, and wore her long black hair clasped at her neck with a band bearing Kalindi’s circle. Her simple gown was dyed dark green. She turned to look at them, and seemed first startled, then annoyed. Zerafine saw that her eyes were a dark brown and her face had begun to show lines on her forehead and the corners of her eyes. They were not welcoming eyes.

“
Marathelis
,” Zerafine said. “I apologize for my unannounced arrival.”

“
Thelis
emissary,” Yelenita said. “Please be seated.”

Zerafine chose a couch and Gerrard took his position behind her. Yelenita sat across from her. “I trust you have good reason for intruding on my solitude,” she said.

The abruptness with which the woman leaped past common pleasantries startled Zerafine. “I

—ah, I have a request that is quite extraordinary,” she stammered, “but I hope that you can help.”

“Make your request, and we’ll see.” The
Marathelis
’s tone was neutral, but Zerafine was sure this woman was not the ally Alestiou would have been, and she felt a pang of loss. She launched into her story, explaining what she’d learned from the moment she’d entered the city until the discovery that they were dealing with a creature rather than the idealized spirit of the city. She paused, and the
Marathelis
interjected, “So if I understand the implications of your story, you would like our divine healers to attempt to heal this creature.”

Mildly antagonistic she might be, but stupid she was not. “That’s correct,
Marathelis
,”

Zerafine said. “But my understanding of how a divine healing works is limited. I depend on you to tell me if such an attempt is even possible.”

“Have you—but of course, you received healing yourself. Lenara, the
thelis
who healed you, brought me the information,” she added, when Zerafine looked puzzled. “Then you know that there are two ways we accomplish a healing. The first is to use the patient’s own vital energy to fuel Kalindi’s touch. The second is for the healer to use his or her own energy to do the same.”

“I think the second way would be suicidal. This creature is huge. I don’t think there are enough divine healers in the world to accomplish it.”

“Perhaps.” Yelenita’s face twitched in a slight smile. “But I have my doubts about the first method as well.” She leaned forward just a little, as if inviting Zerafine to share a secret. “You see, Kalindi’s gift only works on creatures with self-awareness on a human level. Trees, insects, fish are all living creatures, but we cannot manipulate their vital energy. Suppose this creature has only enough awareness to respond to stimuli? It’s possibly you may have jumped to

conclusions too quickly.”

Zerafine was determined not to lose her temper. Besides, Yelenita had a good point. Even

so, she wished she could have walked into this room and met someone who would just do as she asked for once. “You’re right. I have no way of knowing what kind of consciousness it has. But wouldn’t it be worth finding out? Whatever it is, it’s creating apparitions that now have the ability to kill, and it
is
clear that those apparitions come from the fractures in its...whatever it has instead of a body. If my guess is right, your healers are the solution.”

Yelenita tilted her head and looked at Zerafine for a long moment. “All right,” she said.

“You will take one of my
theloi
and show them the creature. They will be able to tell me if your plan is worth trying.” She stood up and went to the door. “If so, I will be happy to assist you.”

“Happy” isn’t the word for it, madama.
“Thank you,” Zerafine said, and followed the
Marathelis
down the long hallway and into the offertory chamber. If their initial passage had caused a stir, Yelenita’s appearance caused all activity to come to a complete stop. The

Marathelis
didn’t seem to notice or care. She glanced around the room, said, “Dianya,” and beckoned to the young
thelis
who had brought them to see the
Marathelis
. Dianya came over at a nearly running gait.

“Dianya, please give the
thelis
of Atenas whatever she requires,” she said, and left without another word. Dianya looked stunned and fearful. She made a hasty salute, which Zerafine