The Path of the Storm (23 page)

Ella spoke the activation sequence, and the symbols lit up, a sparkle of blue travelling up the wand's length until the prism burned with yellow fire. Ignoring the clerk, she turned to the door.

"Please," the clerk said again, and she had to admire his courage. "The records…"

Ella had no intention of destroying the records, but she was going to open this door. "Stand back," she told the clerk, before walking up to the door.

"
Tourahn-ash-tassine
," she said softly, words that would moderate the wand's power.

The prism's radiance dimmed by half. Ella touched the wand to the lock and then called forth a bolt of energy.

She quickly pulled her hand back as the lock liquefied, molten steel bursting out with a spray of sparks.

The door fell open.

Ella deactivated the wand and put it away.

She turned around. The clerk was nowhere to be seen. Ella entered the vault.

Ella had learned the templars' system of filing now, and it took her only a short time to find the records of the orphanage in Seranthia.

She scanned the list of descriptions, ignoring the names; a name could always be changed. Although Killian's name fit him like a glove, she thought.

The arrival records were organised by day, and Ella scanned them swiftly, perplexed when she still saw no mention of Killian. Then she scanned the dates again.

There was one day missing.

Ella calculated how long ago it would have been. Killian looked to be a year or two older than her.

The date matched.

"Scratch it!" Ella cursed. The record was missing. How would she ever find Killian's parents now?

Wait; there was another file, hidden behind this one. It was an extract from the arrivals at one of the Salvation orphanages. Someone must have thought it important enough to take it out of the regular archives and put it here, in the vault.

Scanning the list, Ella's heart thudded in her chest.

The date of the Salvation arrival matched the missing card from the Seranthia orphanage.

"Transfer from Seranthia orphanage. Hair: red. Eyes: blue."

There was nothing else. Whoever had hidden these records had done their job well. Most shocking of all, Killian evidently wasn't from Salvation, land of the templars; he was from Seranthia, capital of the Tingaran Empire.

Ella decided it was time to go to Seranthia.

21

A
FTER
yet another journey, this time north to Seranthia, Ella immediately continued her search. She had little difficulty locating the Assembly-run orphanage. The place was huge, bigger than the Crystal Palace back in Sarostar.

It still existed as an orphanage; if anything, the priests and templars who ran the place had more work than they could handle. The war had torn families apart, and the resulting poverty and disease had led to countless sad stories of children without parents. Even now, two years later, new arrivals were flooding in.

Ella tried the same tactic that had worked for her back in Stonewater, introducing herself and then getting to the point of her visit.

"Can I see your records?" she asked the matronly woman who held a little girl in one arm and a lad's hand in the other.

"Records?" the woman asked, frowning suspiciously. "What for?"

"I'm looking for someone…" Ella said.

"Oh, I see," the matronly woman's eyebrows went up, and Ella realised the woman thought she was looking for a child she'd given up. "Hold on, stay here, I'll be back in a moment."

Ella waited in the reception chamber while the woman disappeared with the children. While she waited a flaxen-haired boy chased a sweet-faced girl into the room, the girl squealing with mock fear and circling back out.

"Now," Ella heard behind her. The matronly woman, now without her charges, held her hands on her hips. "How long ago was the child brought here?"

"He was transferred to the Alma orphanage in Salvation in five twenty-two," Ella said.

The woman snorted. "Are you pulling my leg?"

"No."

"Listen, I've got bad news for you. There was a fire here in five thirty, eight years after that. Nothing survived. No records. Nothing."

Ella's heart sank. She'd come so close. Once, when just a babe, Killian had been brought to this orphanage. He'd stayed here a short while before being transferred to Salvation. Now, the trail had gone cold.

"Oh," Ella said. "I can see you're busy. I won't take more of your time."

Ella left the reception chamber and walked back to the wrought iron gates, the bars reminding her of nothing so much as a prison. The children seemed happy. Still, Ella thought it was a sad place. These children hadn't had a choice; their parents had been taken from them, along with any chance of a normal life.

Something small and wild crashed into Ella from behind.

Ella looked down and saw a child, with long unruly hair and dirt on his cheeks. The child looked up at her and grinned with mischief.

"Come back, Stefan!" a reedy voice called.

Ella took hold of the child by his upper arm, holding him gently as he squealed, while an old man approached.

He looked as ancient as the orphanage itself, with limbs like sticks, thin white hair and dry skin.

"Thank you, young lady," the old man said, taking the squirming boy from Ella.

"Happy to help." Ella looked into the old man's eyes. "Have you worked here long?"

"Thirty-five… No, thirty-six years, I've worked here," he said proudly.

"Can I ask you something? I'm looking for an orphan who arrived here around five twenty-two. He was transferred to the Alma orphanage in Salvation."

The old man barked a laugh. "Do you know how many boys I've seen come through these gates? That's over twenty years ago!"

"He would have been only small, and he had red hair," Ella said. "A strange red, the colour of bright fire. And blue eyes. The bluest you've ever seen."

The old man's eyes slowly widened, and Ella knew she'd struck a nerve.

"They told me the records were destroyed in a fire," Ella said.

"Run along, Stefan," he said, giving the boy a gentle shove. He waited a moment before speaking. "The records were destroyed long before the fire," the old man said. "I remember, though, I do. You never forget something like that. You're in the wrong place, though, young lady. Try the courthouse."

"The courthouse?"

"The Imperial Courthouse, near the palace. That's where you need to look."

Without further explanation, the old man turned away.

~

T
HERE
were three courthouses in Seranthia, each filling a different purpose.

Three blocks from the palace, still in the Imperial Quarter, the Commoners' Courthouse was where the arbiters ruled against thieves and swindlers, brawlers and cut-throats. Occasionally neighbours fought over the line of a fence and merchants fought for the right to display their wares at a certain place. It was guarded during the day by heavily armoured Tingaran legionnaires, and at night muscled dogs patrolled the grounds.

The Military Courthouse nearby was where they tried deserters and men who'd disobeyed the orders of their officers or showed cowardice in battle. In the days of Emperor Xenovere V, there wasn't a day when fresh bodies weren't swinging from the gallows next to the utilitarian building.

By contrast, the Imperial Courthouse was the closest structure to the palace, and the grandest in design. If a lord had an issue to resolve with another lord, perhaps his virginal daughter was engaged to a recently-discovered philanderer, here was where he came. Lords paid their taxes here, and a great deal of gilden was stored in the vaults. The bloodlines of the families were charted and updated here. Even the Emperor's offspring were registered and legitimised by the records stored in the archives.

The Imperial Courthouse wasn't somewhere where Ella could simply walk up and ask to see the records.

During the day it was the scene of constant comings and goings. Any large nation needed bureaucracy, and the Tingaran Empire was the greatest nation the world had known. Rogan Jarvish was trying to have the new Empire seamlessly replace the old, and kept the machine of government running much as it always had. Watching the building, Ella saw that high above the massive doors the Tingaran
raj hada
had been replaced by the new device, the nine-pointed star.

Ella could never enter the Imperial Courthouse by force. She was only blocks from the Imperial Palace, and the last thing Rogan Jarvish needed was another disturbance.

She knew the locks would be magical, rather than mechanical. With her knowledge of the runes, Ella was able to decode complex matrices, even when the activation sequence had been deliberately hidden within the pattern.

Ella was confident she could solve the codes on any locks she found. She decided to visit the Imperial Courthouse at night.

~

T
HE NEXT
day, Ella was brought in front of Rogan Jarvish. He wasn't pleased.

"Why were you trying to break into the Imperial Courthouse, Ella?" Rogan said. "Lord of the Sky, last I knew you were on your way to Ku Kara. I didn't even know you were back in Tingara."

Ella shuffled in her seat, trying to think of the right words to say.

"You know there are wards that can detect shadow," he said. "The Primate might not have had the best knowledge of lore, but the Emperor's people certainly did. We can't have people tampering with official documents now, can we?" He glared at her.

Ella wore her green enchantress's dress, having used its power to slip past the guards at the Imperial Courthouse the previous night. She hadn't expected wards.

She was so close. She wasn't ready to talk to anyone yet.

"I… I'm sorry," Ella said, "but I can't say."

Rogan shook his head. "That's not good enough," he said. "If there's something you need, you should feel you can ask me."

"I'm digging up a secret, but I can't say anything until I know for sure. Not even to you."

"I'm sorry, Ella, but I don't like secrets, and if they're going to be 'dug up', I'd like to know why they were buried in the first place. Do you really want me to put you under house arrest?"

Ella's eyes blazed. "I'd like to see you try."

Rogan Jarvish placed his hands on his desk and slowly stood.

Ella looked up at the tall man and remembered the time, long ago, when Rogan had been trying to track her down in Sarostar to give her Lady Katherine's legacy. With his scarred face and deadly grace he'd scared her then.

Suddenly he scared her now.

"I can have my hand around your throat before you can speak a word," Rogan said calmly. "You think they don't teach bladesingers how to defeat your kind?"

Ella's neck felt terribly exposed.

Rogan sat back down. "Relax, Ella. Now, why don't you tell me what you're trying to achieve?"

Ella took a deep breath. "I spoke to Dain Barden of the Akari. Rogan, one of the Evermen is in Merralya."

Rogan drew back. "Evrin said he wasn't sure, but he asked me to build that wall…"

"Now we know. The essence drained from the pool, the portal opened, and someone crossed. Seeking essence, he went to the Akari. He took several of their necromancers with him, as well as enough essence to build the vats. Right now, he's out there somewhere — an evil creature with incredible power. I believe he will be building an army of revenants. He will come for Seranthia, Rogan. He needs to bring the other Evermen home."

"And he'll be coming when we're at our weakest," Rogan said. "Lord of the Sky, the people won't let go of their belief in the Evermen. What will they do when one shows up?"

"We need to rebuild the machines. Evrin is doing everything he can, he barely sleeps. We need to hold the Empire together, and I know you're doing everything you can. But there's something I can do."

"What is it?"

"It's about Killian."

"Your young man, the one who crossed... the one you say has their powers. I thought it might be. Ella, Evrin Evenstar said you could never bring him back."

"Killian has their power. Trust me in this, Rogan. You won't believe the things he's capable of. When the time comes, we'll need every weapon at our disposal."

"I'm with you so far, but what is it you plan to do?"

"It's a long story, but if I can find Killian's parents, I can find a way to bring him back. The trail leads to the Imperial Courthouse."

"How can you be sure that if you open the portal, more of the Evermen won't cross over?"

"I'll only open it for the shortest time," said Ella. "And I won't be waiting for Killian to simply step through."

"What will you do, then?"

"I'll cross over and get him myself."

Rogan thought for a moment. "All right, Ella. I'll have some of my men take you to the courthouse right now. Just don't go digging up any secrets, not without talking to me first."

Ella nodded. "Of course."

~

W
ITH
the custodian's help, Ella quickly located the records for the years she was interested in. She started at what she guessed would be two years before Killian's birth, methodically searching through birth and marriage certificates, custody battles, divorces and deaths.

After eight hours of searching, she reached the end of the period. She hadn't found anything.

She thought back to the old man at the orphanage. The way he'd spoken, something had happened that was more than just a trivial event, something that involved the destruction of records and the elimination of evidence.

Ella decided to study the criminal trials.

These were the cases that were a matter of death or imprisonment for those convicted — lords and ladies weren't frequently convicted for theft or brawling. These trials were for adultery, murder, and corruption. Surprisingly frequently, nobles were put on trial for treason.

The Emperor had been a man jealous of his power, and from the trial notes Ella read, he wasn't above sentencing those closest to him to death.