The Office of Shadow (20 page)

Silverdun awoke in his shambles of a bed, still dressed in his damp clothes,
though his boots had been removed. His head throbbed; the worst hangover
he'd ever had, with none of the concomitant fun.

Last night was a blur. Something had happened, something bad. What
was it?

Darkness. Torches. Steps. Bones. Ilian's boot.

Ilian!

How much damage had Than managed to do while Silverdun had slept?
He'd murdered the unknown man at the stone clearing. Was that the other
recruit? Had he been drugged just as Silverdun had? Had Than murdered
Jedron as well? Jedron had drunk from the same bottle Silverdun had.

Silverdun bounded to his feet and instantly regretted it. His gorge rose,
but thankfully Silverdun the Professional Drunkard had more control over
his gag reflex than most. He dunked his head into the washbasin on the table
and felt more awake, at least.

He headed toward the closed door, moving silently as Jedron had taught
him. The small bodkin came out of his boot without a sound. Silverdun had
been no mean threat before coming to Whitemount; after six weeks studying
with Jedron, he was now a true menace.

The corridor outside was empty, the witchlight sconces dimmed. The only real light came from the small windows set into the wall, and the wall
was so thick that very little light actually found its way in.

The sound of steps clattered on the stair. Whoever was coming was
making no attempt to mask his approach. Silverdun gripped the knife firmly
but easily and faded back against the wall, unmoving, just as Jedron had
taught him.

A figure reached the top of the steps; Silverdun watched his weak, muted
shadow approach around the curved passage. The figure was holding something. A weapon? Silverdun waited until the figure was just upon him and
then leapt, intending to sweep his opponent's knee and bring the knife to his
throat.

He realized as he was being thrown to the ground, his arm bent backward in a most painful fashion, that his potential assailant was Jedron. Once
he was on the ground, Jedron-for good measure, Silverdun assumedbludgeoned him on the head with what turned out to be a silver tray. The
contents of the tray spilled onto the ground: bread, bacon, coffee.

Jedron stood over him, scowling. "Don't do that to me ever again."

"I thought ...... began Silverdun, confused, and in more pain than ever.

"I know what you thought," said Jedron. "But no worries. I've taken care
of the Ilian problem for the moment. He's in the basement."

"What was he up to last night?" croaked Silverdun. "I saw a man, I
think. He killed a man."

"That's none of your concern," said Jedron. He pointed at the food on the
floor. "There's your breakfast," he added, then turned and walked away.

There is such a thing as too much power.

-Fae proverb

ela awoke full of expectations and impatience. Today she would go downstairs for breakfast, and Everess would meet her there and explain all of
the wonderful things that she was going to do, and then she'd get started
doing them. The Accursed Object hugged her upper arm, feeling more like
a manacle than ever. She wanted it gone, but she was also afraid of losing it,
afraid of knowing what she might do without it.

She was so frustrated she wanted to destroy something. But that
wouldn't have been polite. She'd been taught all about propriety: Don't slurp
your soup; don't speak with your mouth full; don't destroy things simply
because you're impatient. She waited.

A few hours later, Everess finally appeared, with an elderly doctor. The
doctor carried a worn leather bag that smelled familiar, like the hospital wing
of Copperine House. It made her smile. The doctor, however, was not a
pleasant man. Even with the Accursed Object in place, she could sense it.

The doctor looked her over appraisingly. "Amazing," he said finally, reaching out gingerly and touching her face. She wanted to flinch, but did not.

"She seems so tame," said the doctor. "So sane."

"She's a rare find," said Everess.

"She's also right here in the room with you," said Sela. "And she would
prefer if the two of you would speak to her, rather than about her."

The doctor looked at Everess wide-eyed, as if unsure whether it was safe
to laugh. Everess gave him a warm smile, and the doctor let out a chuckle.

"My my," he said. "Simply amazing. Consider my fears allayed, Lord
Everess."

Sela maintained her composure, but inside she fumed. This was exactly
the sort of thing that they'd said about her when she was first brought to
Copperine House, after the horrors of Lord Tanen and Milla. After the deaths
and the loud sounds and the look on Lord Tanen's face at the end.

Everess nodded to the doctor's bag. "So you agree that it's safe?"

The doctor knelt and opened the bag. "Oh, that I cannot guarantee,
milord. But it will do what it was intended to do, that's for certain. And whoever made her this way appears to have succeeded admirably."

"I am right here," said Sela, gritting her teeth. "I am not a thing. I am
not a creation."

The doctor looked again to Everess for guidance, and Everess gave him
that confident smile and put an arm around him. "Perhaps you might wait
outside for a moment," he said. The doctor did so, leaving Sela and Everess
alone.

"It's not proper for the two of us to be alone together, Lord Everess."

Everess waved it away. "Propriety! That's something, indeed."

He motioned her to the bed and she sat. "Now listen here, Sela. I understand that you don't like being poked at and treated like a prize horse. But
you must understand that you are something rare and unique."

"I'm not any kind of thing. I am Fae. That is all I am."

Everess looked at her. Even with the Accursed Object she could sense the
momentary sadness that flashed through him. "You are Fae, yes. But that is
not all you are." He sat next to her.

Everess took her face in his hands, but it was not a tender gesture. "Now
we've gotten off on the wrong foot. The good doctor is here to lift a heavy
burden from you, to give you a present. But you must promise to use it
responsibly."

Sela's eyes widened. A present? Sela did not have a good history with
presents.

"Let's let the doctor come in and go about his business and then you can
see. Fair enough?"

Sela nodded, and Everess let the doctor back into the room. He looked into her eyes with a magnifying glass, blew some kind of powder into her
ears. He pricked her finger with a needle and let a drop of blood fall into a
tiny glass vial. From his bag, he took a small box the size of a stick of butter
and dropped the vial into it. The box rattled for a moment and then produced
a series of musical tones that appeared to satisfy the doctor.

"She's in perfect condition," he said to Everess. "Physically, anyway."

"Then let's do it," said Everess.

The doctor reached into his bag once again and took out a circular object
wrapped in muslin. He held it out in front of her and unwrapped it slowly,
showing it to Sela. "What do you think of this?" he said, finally speaking to her.

Sela looked. It was another Accursed Object. She wanted to cry. This one
was much narrower, and it was trimmed with fine, filigreed silver, unlike the
solid, featureless ring currently encircling her arm.

"What is that?" said Sela.

"Neither the doctor nor I believe that you're ready to have this thing
removed entirely. We're not sure how powerful your Gift is without it, and
I'm not sure I want to find out."

He paused, taking the band from the doctor's outstretched hand, and his
face grew suddenly very serious. "This is power, girl. Power and freedom that
I've decided you're capable of controlling." He held it up for her to see, and
he gripped her forearm tightly. "If you ever, for a moment, abuse this
freedom," he said, "I'll put you down like a buggane in heat."

Sela knew that threats were supposed to be upsetting, and she had seen
others cowed by them. Sela assumed that the portion of the heart that cringed
at being threatened must have been cut out of her. It was at moments such
as this one that Sela frightened herself, when she got glimpses that she was
so very unlike the others around her. She knew she was different, but that
didn't make it any easier.

What passed through her mind next was a list of the ways that she could
kill Everess where he stood. Not that she had any intention of doing so. She
actually quite liked Everess; he was going to teach her how to be useful. But
it made her feel better to think of killing him.

"We should lay her down for this," said the doctor, indicating the bed.
"I imagine she may thrash around a bit."

"Should you give her a physick of some kind?" asked Everess.

The doctor only shrugged in response. He unscrewed the lid from a small
jar and sniffed the contents. The smell seemed to satisfy him. "Lie down," he
said. It was the first time he'd addressed her since he'd entered the room.

Sela did as she was told. Freedom? Power?

The doctor held up the replacement torque in both hands, turned it
around in the light. "Such fine workmanship," he said. He handed Everess
the small jar. "When I give the word, pour this over the existing torque.

"What does it do?" said Everess, sniffing the jar just as the doctor had done.

"It will dissolve the iron; the thing should just fall right off."

The Accursed Object? Fall right off? Surely this wasn't right. The
Accursed Object was never to be removed. Never, never, never!

"No!" she shouted. She jerked herself up off the bed, twisting her arm
out of Everess's grasp. Everess stumbled backward, spilling the liquid contents of the jar onto Sela's shoulder. The liquid ran down her shoulder, and
she scrambled away from Everess and the doctor, screeching, her hands over
her ears.

When the liquid touched the Accursed Object, it began to sizzle and
sputter. Sela looked and saw acrid smoke and a fine red foam erupting wherever the jar's contents touched the Accursed Object. There was a cracking
sound, and she felt something strange, something that made her stomach
drop deep and clouded her vision.

The Accursed Object fell off of her arm.

She felt naked and exposed, but only for an instant. She touched her arm
and the corrosive from the jar burned her fingers, but she didn't care. She felt
the indentation in her skin where the Object had been for as long as she could
remember.

"Get her!" shouted the doctor, and she looked around. Everess and the
doctor were trying to get at her, the doctor in front, holding the Object's
replacement. He was coming at her. He was trying to hurt her. And everything was clear, and everything was bright, and the thing that was inside her
reared up and grinned from imaginary ear to imaginary ear because there was
no more Accursed Object and it was free free free! And it licked out ever so
lightly and ...

The doctor was gone, the only trace of his presence the currents of air
that rushed in to take his place. The air currents were lovely. She could feel
them. She could feel everything. Oh, it was beautiful! She sat back, reveling
in the perfection and the connection of everything and all and ever!

And then she was dragged back from her reverie by Everess, who grabbed
her roughly by the wrist and forced the replacement Object on her arm before
she could react. It encircled her, brought her down, brought her back into
control of herself.

She stood up, wavering. Everess helped her stand. "I've made your doctor
go away," she said. "I'm very sorry."

"It was his own fault," said Everess. "He should have known better."

"Will you send me back to Copperine House now?" she asked, worried.

"No," said Everess. "But you must promise never to do anything like
that again."

Sela looked down at the new Object and gulped. It was very pretty. It felt
nice against her skin. It didn't encircle her as fiercely as the Accursed Object
had. She could think. She could feel. She looked at Everess, and a thread
leapt, leapt out of him, and she could feel him, and for the first time she realized that not only was he frightened of her, he was disgusted by her.