KORVO:
Kor knocked softly on Aer’s door. The sound echoed, a subtle apology for waking her hours before he normally would, but the Council had barely listened to his plan. He just wanted to build a school for Magics. Somewhere to keep them off the streets and allow them to learn the things they needed to make it in the world. A real place for education, not the sham of a re-education center like the Refuge.
The wind burst through the crack at the bottom of the door and the handle toggled in his hand, letting the door creak open, but Aer was nowhere to be found. The winds did things like this for her, and as Kor stepped into the small bottom-floor apartment, he immediately felt the bustle of the wind continue circulating. He was always amazed that the wind would stay confined to this small amount of space. That Aer could confine herself to this amount of space. But Magics got paid very little, and she refused any help to get a bigger apartment. He wished she would agree to live with him. But she was independent, and he had to respect that.
“What is it, Kor?” Aer called from behind the curtain Bryce had helped her nail to the wall for some privacy between rooms.
Kor didn’t speak for a second, collecting his thoughts.
“Did they say no?” She put her hand out and pointed at a shirt that was thrown over the back of one of the kitchen chairs.
“No,” he said, putting the light linen shirt in her outstretched hand. He turned to give her more privacy than the flimsy curtain provided. He was already invading her space; he needn’t impose himself anymore. “Not exactly.”
“So what did they say, exactly?” Aer stuck her head out from behind the curtain and looked at him. Her brows furrowed. He raised his hands.
“They wouldn’t listen about the long-term impacts of educating all members of society. They said they wouldn’t give government funds.”
“So, we’re dead in the water.” She pounded her fist into the wall.
“Not quite. They allowed me to get permits to use the old maintenance building near the Wall District.”
“Without any sort of funding, how are we going to run it?”
“We’ll have to figure that out.”
“We?” Aer huffed.
“Of course we,” Korvo said, sitting down. “We ran the numbers. You know that getting people educated is our best chance. When people know how to, they can rise up. And if we run a school, the Refuge loses its most pleasant-sounding aspect of ‘educating’ young Magics.”
“But what if people still don’t care? They don’t care now. What if we teach kids how to read, and they still see us as less? They have to listen to us for any of that to matter. Otherwise, we’re just making nice while they still hate us.”
“Where is this coming from?” Kor asked, but he felt it. It was the safest way, but he couldn’t help feeling the ping of guilt for choosing this course. All the same, he had made his bed, and he would lie in it if it meant Bryce never faced the refuge again.
“The arrests keep growing. The Wall District is getting poorer and poorer. You heard from Merin that they plan on raising taxes again, and you know who that hits the most. Where are you going to get the money for the school?”
“That’s why we need to do this, even if it’s just me every day teaching children everything I know. We’ll get the supplies. We always do.”
Aer nodded, but her eyes were lost somewhere in the corner of the room.
“Did something happen?” Kor asked.
“It’s just … We might finally be able to fight back.” Aer rubbed at the jagged Raven’s head on her neck. “You felt the energy with this new person. Besides, what do we know? You and I can read because Bethlem taught us. We have street smarts, and that’s what is going to give us the edge.”
“Edge in what? I thought we agreed.”
“I did. I do.” She paused and sank into herself. “The world just seems too big. Too heavy to keep carrying on like this. It’s going to kill you, Kor. You can’t keep going on being perfect all the time. There has to be another way.”
“That’s why we hold up the world together.”
“But your plans, they’re long term. Can people hold on that long? Can people try to hold up this mess of a world for that long?”
“If they can’t, they can hold on to hope. It’s so light it floats on your wind,” he said.
Aer smiled. The winds whistled around Korvo.
“And if you think you can’t hold on, then … you can hold on to me.” Kor moved closer.
Aer’s smile faded slightly. He had pushed her too far. He knew it. He turned to stare at the table. Aer didn’t move.
“For a little longer,” Aer said and sat in the chair opposite him. Kor didn’t take his eyes off the grain in the wooden table. The silence dragged on.
“Do you think Merin and Bryce have found who they’re looking for?” he asked finally.
“Still worried?” She leaned her head on her arm, stifling a yawn, and Kor felt worse for waking her up.
“They’re just kids.”
“Two years, Kor. They’re two years younger than us.”
“And two years can be a lifetime,” Kor said. “More than a lifetime,” he mumbled under his breath. Aer pulled her hair back into a bun at the top of her head, revealing the mark etched into her skin. “Much more,” he whispered quietly enough that only the wind floating by Aer would notice.
“They’ll be fine. Just like we were.” She stood and grabbed her jacket.
“You’re right.” Kor followed her. She was. They’d be fine. But no one else needed to end up hardened like they were. He and Aer were the only ones who needed to juggle love, hatred, and the past. He and Aer were the only ones who needed to put their necks on the line for the coming revolution. He just wanted Bryce and Merin to live their lives.
Kor followed her out of the house. They walked without speaking for seven city blocks.
“Who do you think this new person is?” Aer asked when they entered the Garden District.
“Powerful. As long as I read the cards right,” Kor said tapping the leather pouch tied next to his hip.
“You always read the cards right,” she scoffed.
Uneasily, Kor ran his fingers over his bumpy, blotchy skin. “Sometimes things aren’t as clear.”
Aer nodded. Silence overtook them again. Kor could feel the breeze around him grow. He took a step to his left and let Aer have her room. The winds always flocked to her when she was deep in thought.
As they walked, Kor tried to remember the names of the plants Bryce had taught him. They were all different from Hadran. These lost their leaves in the winter and felt like paper to his fingers. Not the waxy lushness of the flora he was used to back home. He shoved his hand under the leather strap to touch the cards in their pouch. He let his thumb rub over their dusty edges, soft from wear and tear. Home. Why had the cards shown him home?
Hadran was somewhere he could never return. Magic was outlawed there. And while Kor had to admit being labeled, taxed, and ignored wasn’t ideal, it was better than what happened in Hadran. That’s what had sent him North. The promise of something better. Somewhere he could lead the fight for Magics. Somewhere the battle hadn’t already been lost in politics that were ingrained in stone.
BRYCE:
The guard stopped Bryce after they let Merin go by. Bryce wanted to blame everything on the mark attached permanently to his ankle, but his clothes were also torn and patched, and Merin’s were not. He knew that she smelled like summer rain and fresh linens, and he smelled like the musty dirt in the garden. He knew that spots of dirt were mixed equally with the freckles that covered his face.
“What is your business here?” The Watcher asked him.
“You’re not going to ask her?” He pretended to be shocked.
“She’s not a Magic. Nothing good comes from a Magic coming to a Watcher.” The Watcher’s hand went to his baton.
“He’s my bodyguard,” Merin said in her commanding voice, a tone that had only taken seven years of school and thousands of her parents’ dollars to create.
“You sure you want a Magic to be your bodyguard? Isn’t that who you’re trying to protect against?”
“Are you going to bring your bare fists to a knife fight?” Bryce said leaning in over Merin’s shoulder to be face to face with the guard.
“I heard there was a Magic brought in this morning that caused a little bit of a stir?” She was reaching. They had no idea if anyone had been brought in. It was a hunch, and it could backfire at any moment.
“Just a little one. But how is that any of your business, Miss?”
“I was called as a healer,” she said without any hesitation. Bryce smiled. She might have had the commanding voice from her parents’ money, but she had the lying on her feet from him. She had come a long way in the year they had known each other.
“Well, alright. I still don’t think you should be so free with the Magics, Miss—”
“My business is my own.” She turned, letting the edge of her braid come defiantly close to the guard’s face without touching him. Bryce followed silently behind.
Once their eyes adjusted to the dark interior of the room, a woman at a desk waved them over. “Please sign in,” she said. Merin signed fake names for them both. Bryce stood a good two feet away, making sure to keep far enough to stop anyone from recognizing him immediately. It would not be ideal if he ended up in a cell next to the Magic they had come to fetch.
“The room you are looking for is third on the left.” The woman gave Merin a pleasant smile. She ignored Bryce completely.
Merin thanked her and headed down the hallway.
Two Watchers in special uniforms lined with gold trim stood outside the door.
“I’m here as a healer. This is my bodyguard,” Merin said. They undid the bolt for her and ushered them inside.
“Are there always special guards for the cells?” Merin whispered.
“Those aren’t special. Those are parade uniforms. Some bigwig must be coming by today. The quicker we get in and out the better it will be for everyone,” Bryce whispered back.
“Agreed.”
The room was cold and bare. There was no one in there except one guard and a small shadow of a shape at the corner of the room.
“Excuse me,” the guard said. This one was in regular uniform. Apparently, they didn’t expect the important people to deal with the prisoners directly. Bryce scoffed. Probably too much dirt to get on their hands.
“I’m here to heal this prisoner,” Merin said. The lie sounded better and better every time she said it. Even Bryce forgot for a minute why they were really there.
“Well, that’s fine. He’s over there.” The guard gestured limply to the shadow hunched over in the corner of the room.
“You can step out now,” Merin suggested.
“Little Miss, I’m not going to do that. It’s too dangerous to leave a young thing like you alone with a Magic.”
“I brought a bodyguard.”
“Still, I don’t think I should leave,” the Watcher said with a laugh.
“Everyone has a right to have a healer without guards present. It’s in the law,” Merin said. Her father was the head lawyer for the City Council, and she knew her fair share of the rules. Merin turned her back on them and headed toward the boy.
“He hasn’t asked for one,” the Watcher laughed again, causing Merin to turn. Bryce knew the game. Watchers were obsessed with power and even Merin’s influence wasn’t enough to let go.
“I doubt that will be a problem,” Merin started, but the muffled laughter from the Watcher cut her off.
“I’m sorry little miss, but he hasn’t spoken a word since someone reported him. I doubt he’s going to start now.”
Bryce looked at the small boy in front of him. His clothes were tattered, and Bryce doubted that was only from the fight. The fabric was faded, but he could see remnants of bright colors. Maroon, yellow, cyan. The kind of fabric Kor was always drawn to when they walked through the shops of the city. His skin was a dark olive color like Kor, too. Only the deep brown eyes marked him as something other than Korvo’s brother. The boy struggled to move away as Bryce and Merin approached, and he flicked his eyes at them. They burned.
“Hadranian?” Bryce asked. The boy’s eyes softened, and he nodded. In Hadran’s language, Bryce asked the boy if he wanted the Watchers to stay in the room. He shook his head no.
“See,” the Watcher said, letting his thumbs slide into the heavy belt that held his club.
“If you want them to leave,” Bryce said in broken and forced Hadranian, “you have to answer ‘yes’ when I say this so they’ll understand.” The boy said nothing for a second and then nodded.
“Do you want them to leave while the healer examines you?” Bryce said so the Watchers could understand him.
“Yeas,” the boy squeaked out. It may have been rough, but it was clear enough that even the most power-hungry Watcher couldn’t deny it now.
“I’ll have to ask you to leave,” Merin said.
With a grumble, the Watcher moved toward the door.
“You really shouldn’t trust Magics that much. It’s not good for you.”
“Good thing she’s a healer,” Bryce said with a smirk.
The Watcher did not respond but slammed the door behind him, making the room shake just a little.
“You really have a knack for people,” Merin said. Bryce smiled.
“At least I noticed our little friend here is from the South.”
“I… I…”
“It’s fine. It’s not like you speak much Hadranian,” Bryce said, sitting opposite the boy. “What is your name?” Bryce asked the boy in Hadranian. He was awfully skinny. His clothes hung loose around him, and they looked like they were hand-me-downs.
“Tiernan,” the boy replied. He stared at Bryce as if he were strange-looking. The boy only broke eye contact when Merin reached out to touch his shoulder, and he flinched.
“Will you tell him I’m trying to help?” Merin said. Bryce attempted. The boy struggled against her, even when she used her most soothing words. “You don’t know the word for help?” Merin scolded the third time Tiernan pulled out of her grasp.
“What can I say? Help doesn’t seem to come up a lot in the discussions I have with Kor about Hadran.”
“Could you say it another way?”
Bryce shrugged. Kor had been teaching him Hadranian in the hope that they could use it to code their conversations, and Bryce wondered if Kor hoped one day to help the people back home. He tried a few combinations of words, but nothing seemed to relax Tiernan.
“Then maybe just let me try to work,” Merin said as Tiernan pulled himself into a ball.
Bryce gave her space and sat down on the bench bolted to the wall. He crossed his leg over his knee; he was kind of enjoying someone disobeying Merin. It wasn’t a sight he was used to.
Suddenly Tiernan relaxed.
“See, I didn’t need you,” she said, sticking her tongue out at Bryce, but Bryce saw Tiernan’s eyes were locked on the Raven tattoo on his ankle. Bryce rolled back the pant leg so it was even more visible and smiled at the little boy. Merin huffed, but got to work on her newly obedient patient.
Bryce watched Merin’s fingers dance over the lump on the boy’s temple as she let her magic flow through him like healing water. She would be feeling the pressure of the blood trying to get oxygen to somewhere that was hurting. Her shoulders slumped a little. Anything near the brain made her job twice as difficult.
When she finished with Tiernan’s head, Merin looked back at Bryce with a small smile, and he couldn’t help but smile back. She was soft and refined. She was everything he would never be.
She flicked her hand at him, and he tossed her the small bag of medical supplies she always kept on her. She put gauze around his knee. No use wasting energy on something that would heal up on its own.
“How are we going to get him out of here?” Merin put on the last bandage.
“I was just thinking about that. I was going to suggest you demand he be taken to the hospital for his head injury, but now that you’ve worked on it, it doesn’t look so bad anymore.”
“True, but I couldn’t leave him like that.” She glanced over the boy, and Bryce wondered how much of her power she’d had to use to help him.
“And they just think I’m some brute and not my most charming self,” Bryce said as the outline of a plan flashed into his head. He tried to make the quick calculations of risk that Kor did endlessly, but he felt the details getting foggy. Best to wing it. He winked at the boy, who was still sitting on the table looking back and forth between them.
“If you were your normal self, you would have gotten yourself thrown into one of the other rooms here and I would have had to get you out, too,” Merin said. Her arms crossed in front of her.
“How likely do you think it is that they checked him for disease before they brought him here?” Bryce asked.
“You mean how likely are the Watchers to actually follow the written law? Not very.”
“Watch.”
Merin swept her skirts behind her as she sat down on the dirty bench and gestured for Bryce to get on with it. His smile cracked into brilliance. A brilliance that soon faded with a dismal game of charades that ended with Bryce having to take his shirt halfway off for Tiernan to do the same. He didn’t have to turn to hear Merin’s laughter muffled by her hand.
“Are we supposed to get the guards to faint from the smell?” Merin asked. Bryce could hear the teasing in her voice, but he had to stop from smelling himself.
“Just wait. You’ll see,” Bryce said.
Bryce stooped to pick up a handful of dirt. Rubbing it back and forth in his palms the dirt became sticky with energy like it did when he walked.
The spots of dirt stuck to the little boy in irregular little spots. When he was satisfied, Bryce turned so Merin could see.
“He looks like he has Bone Fever!” she gasped.
“Told you. Now we get them to let us take him to the hospital,” Bryce said, enjoying his handiwork.
Merin nodded and went for the big silver door. She pounded on it. It slid open.
“Had enough?” one of the Watchers asked.
“I need this boy moved to the Kaybrum hospital now,” Merin said. Her voice was devoid of any of its normal warmth. Cold authority rang through it now. Even Bryce stiffened.
“That boy is bound for the Refuge. His face don’t even look that bad anymore,” the taller of the two sneered.
In two quick steps, Merin’s long legs had moved her back to Tiernan’s side and she lifted his shirt enough for the guards to see the blotches covering his chest.
“Write me a pass to take this child to the hospital and secure transport for the three of us before I report you for failing to check for signs of infection before bringing someone into a government building.”
The men scrambled without a word down the hallway, and Bryce stuck his tongue out at them when they were out of sight.
“What if they report to the hospital that we’re coming?” Bryce asked suddenly.
“Doubting your own plan?” Merin scoffed.
“Didn’t think you were going to scare them so badly,” he teased, but really his mind went back to the risk calculations. Kor would have thought this part through.
“I doubt they’ll make it official. Those two probably haven’t entered any paperwork on Tiernan yet. They’ll just let it slip so there is no trace they didn’t report an infection. Especially if you’re right about there being someone important in the building.”
“I don’t know if that’s all your schooling or the influence you’ve gotten from hanging with us, but I like it.”
“Both,” she said. Bryce felt taller than his five-foot-eight frame.
“When the transport lets us off at the hospital, we’ll just walk from there to meet up with Kor.”
“Do you think he is really the person we were sent to find?” Merin asked as they waited for the transport.
“Does it really matter? Either way, we have to get this kid to Kor.”
KORVO:
Bryce and Merin weren’t in the garden. No one had seen them for hours.
“Do you think you could find them with the wind?” Korvo asked as they headed toward the Wall District.
“I mean, probably. On their own, no. Bryce smells too much like the garden for the wind to tell the difference. Merin smells too much like the rich. The two of them together …” She whispered into the wind in a language that sounded like hurricanes and spring breezes. Kor felt an impatient gust of wind whip by him.
“We’ll see,” she said.
“Do you think they could have already made it to Bethlem’s?” The bright colors of the edge of the Wall District came into view.
“You’re the one tapping into the future,” Aer said.
Kor looked away from her. All day he’d been impatient, checking the cards every few minutes. The cards kept urging him to find Bryce and Merin. All he knew was somehow Hadran was involved. A place he couldn’t quite shake.
A cacophony of wind slammed against Kor.
“That was fast,” Aer said waving her arms around, calming the wind around her. “I guess you shouldn’t worry so much.” Aer doubled the pace toward Bethlem’s. Kor followed quickly behind her.
Inside Bethlem’s, Kor scanned the room for Bryce and Merin, but he didn’t see them. The further he walked in, the more his heart sank thinking Aer had been wrong.
“Looking for someone?” Bryce asked, tapping Kor on the shoulder. The two embraced.
“We weren’t expecting you until later,” Merin said coming from behind the purple silk curtain that cut off the bar from the quieter dining areas.
“Kor was nervous.” Aer slid into the corner booth.
Merin slipped back behind the curtain.
“Can we actually talk in there?” Bryce pointed his head toward where Merin had disappeared. His grin dipped a little at the sides.
“Did something bad happen?” Kor asked as they wound through hallways to the farthest room from the bar.
“Depends on your definition of bad.” Bryce scratched the back of his head.
“You found the person, right?” Aer asked.
“You’d better see for yourself.” Bryce raised the thicker tapestry that acted as the door for the back rooms and disappeared inside.
Kor followed. Bryce leaned against the wall near the door and crossed his arms. Kor noticed the slight twitch in his fingers.
“What is it?” Kor asked before he saw it for himself. A little Hadranian boy stared up at him from where he was cuddled in Merin’s lap.
“Meet Tiernan,” Bryce said, coming to stand next to Korvo.
“Could he really be …” Kor turned to Aer. She nodded.
“The wind says so,” she said, taking a seat across the table from Merin.
“But …” Kor looked around. The cards had been so intense. He was expecting an angry teen. Someone like Bryce without the empathy. Someone he would have to contain.
“He only speaks Hadranian,” Bryce said, walking over to the table. “I talked to him to get him to come with us.”
“It’s a good thing you didn’t screw up your pronunciation like you normally do,” Kor faked levity, while his mind tried to sort everything out into a neat list. No wonder the cards were whispering to him about home. The boy’s skin was darker than his own, but the facial features were eerily similar. After spending years with people who didn’t look like him, it was strange to see such a familiar face.
“Welcome,” Kor said in Hadranian. The thick accent he normally banished from his vernacular came back instantly. He stuck out his right hand to greet the little boy.
Tiernan stuck out his hand cautiously. He eyed Kor’s mangled hand.
“F... fire,” the boy stuttered, pointing at Kor’s hand and jumping up from Merin’s lap.
“No, no fire.” Kor said. “Acid.” He explained in Hadranian. The boy shook his head. He lifted his shirt to show Kor something.
“Fire,” he said again pointing. There on his chest, now cleared from the muddy smudges, was a Phoenix emblem.
“What does it mean?” Bryce leaned close. The mark was hardly noticeable if it wasn’t pointed out. Hardly the place for something like the Raven tattoo they were branded with.
“It’s the Phoenix,” Korvo said, resting his hand on the boy’s chest. He sighed deeply and stood facing Bryce. “It’s given to Magics once they have been declared too dangerous for the world. In Hadran, it is used to mark someone for execution.”
“Execution?” Merin shrieked, pulling Tiernan closer to her, startling him. He pulled away from her hand.
“Tiernan?” Kor asked, squatting down from his six-three frame to the boy’s eye level. “I have it, too. See?” Kor lifted his shirt enough so the boy could see the mark on Kor’s chest. Tiernan’s eyes widened.
“Explain this at once,” Merin said. Her foot stamped and bumped the chair. When they turned to look at her, she turned red.
“I think what Merin is trying to say,” Bryce interrupted, “is that we would all like to know just why the hell you have an execution mark on your chest and none of us knew.”
“I knew,” Aer said quietly.
“Why does Aer get to know?” Bryce asked. His fingers clenched into fists.
“Bryce, get control of yourself. You’re scaring Tiernan,” Kor grumbled. Bryce let his hands drop to his sides. He nodded and resumed leaning against the wall, but the flick of anger hadn’t left.
“Let’s sit,” Aer suggested. She stuck her head out into the hallway and flagged down a worker walking from the back to get them some water.
Kor found himself across from Bryce. He recognized the stocky boy’s furrow. Kor knew he shouldn’t keep secrets from him, but it had seemed like the right idea at the time. He had never planned to put this on their shoulders, but now it couldn’t be helped. He looked around the table with a sigh. Aer sat to Bryce’s left. A cold drink found its way into his hand. He looked to see Merin. He gave her a smile. She beamed back at him.
“Where do you want to start?” Kor locked eyes with Bryce.
“What is that mark, exactly?” Bryce asked.
“Magic is illegal in Hadran. I expect you all know that,” Kor said looking around the table.
They nodded.
“It is less common knowledge that they were exterminating anyone who posed a threat.”
“To the people?” Merin looked at the little boy sitting next to her. Tiernan was playing with some water that had dripped onto the table. He was dragging it around, making little pictures.
“To the people in charge.” Aer slammed her glass down on the table. Bryce and Tiernan both jumped.
“Anyway,” Kor said once everyone had settled, “Magics had no rights, so it didn’t matter if they had decided to kill all of us. Powerful or not.”
“But you wouldn’t hurt anyone.” Merin grasped at the edge of his sleeve. Kor smiled at her and let his left hand rest on hers.
“That wouldn’t matter to anyone.”
“But you just read cards.” Bryce’s voice strained.
“Knowing the future can be just as powerful as your vines or Aer’s wind.” Kor looked off into the corners of the room. “So they branded me with the Phoenix because I posed a problem. A potential problem.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Bryce asked. His fingers tapped the glass.
“I didn’t want to scare you.” Kor looked down at Tiernan and back at Bryce.
“I’m not a little kid, Kor.” Bryce slammed his fist onto the table.
“You were three years ago.” Kor kept a straight face. They locked eyes. Bryce looked away. “You had enough on your plate.”
“How come Aer knows?” Bryce asked indignantly.
“I know because I saw it. Although, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to ask,” she turned away from him. Kor reached out a hand.
“I didn’t know you knew what it meant until now.”
She nodded, taking his right hand in hers.
A gasp from Merin drew his attention back to the matter at hand. Tiernan had a tiny little flame in his hand. It danced. Unlike the flicker of a candle, it turned and moved like a real dancer. Kor watched.
“I told you. You never read the cards wrong,” Aer said softly, breaking him from his concentration.
“Bryce,” Kor said, standing up suddenly, still staring at the flame in Tiernan’s hand. Everyone turned to look at him. Even the flame in Tiernan’s hand stopped. “Tiernan is not to leave your sight. He is not to be left alone. You and any of us who can spare time will be guarding him from now on.” Kor repeated himself in Hadranian so that Tiernan could understand.
“But why?” Bryce asked. “I mean I get he needs our help to stay out of the Refuge, but the twenty-four-hours-a-day thing is a little intense.”
“Do you know why he referred to this mark as fire?” Kor asked, his brow heavy. His finger pointed directly to the mark on his chest. Bryce didn’t answer. He looked down at the table. “It’s because originally it was only for people with his power. People they could turn others against.”
“But why?” Merin asked, standing.
“Are people afraid of you?” Kor asked the room. Bryce and Merin looked away.
“Well,” Merin started. Aer glared at her. She moved closer to Bryce.
“No one likes us, except …”
“When convenient, right?” Kor said. They all nodded. Aer sang at the club for a reason. And Bryce was tolerated in the gardens. Even Kor had non-Magics asking him to look at their cards.
“Fire is almost never convenient,” Kor said. “It might warm you, but it can also burn a house down. Burn the crops. Burn a person.”
“What would have happened to him if…?” Merin left the rest unsaid. They knew what that silence meant. They let it sit for a second. Everyone was lost in thought. Kor watched the two younger kids process. Would it have been better to tell them before? It didn’t matter now.
“We’re lucky that the guards didn’t seem to know.” Bryce rubbed his brow, “And that they probably never filed any paperwork on him.”
“But he’s safe now. Right?” Merin asked. “He won’t be sent back to Hadran or anything if they did?”
“No.” Kor nodded. “He wouldn’t be. Too much trouble.”
“But,” interrupted Bryce, “they don’t have to let you out of the Refuge.”
Kor placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Or worse,” Aer said, “they use fear to turn everyone against us.”
“Then they’ll never close the Refuge.” Merin glanced around the room for someone to say otherwise. Bryce scowled but wouldn’t meet anyone’s gaze.
“Why me? Wouldn’t he be better off with you or Aer?” Bryce still didn’t look up.
“I can’t bring him to the club. And until we know more, he probably shouldn’t be around the council,” Aer said. A silence fell over the room.
In the moment of silence, Tiernan asked Kor questions in rapid-fire Hadranian while Kor answered him carefully.
Bryce sighed. “Can I teach him something other than Hadranian? I’m not going to be much help if it takes me twenty minutes to tell him anything.”
“If you think you can,” Kor laughed. The mood in the room eased. Kor felt the tension begin to seep out from their room through the curtain into the bar. He was happy for the respite, but knew he wouldn’t sleep much.
“Kor?” Bryce said suddenly. Kor turned and looked at him. “I don’t think we’ll be safe if he lives with me in the gardens. And there are too many anti-Magics at the club where Aer sings. And Merin … can’t have us,” he paused. “Can we stay with you?”
“We won’t be able to stay in the lodging house. Too many people. We’ll have to stay somewhere else.” Kor began thinking through the possibilities.
“I think I know a place no one will notice us.” Bryce picked at the edges of his nails. He swallowed hard. Korvo understood what he meant.
“On top of the Refuge?” Kor asked. Bryce closed his eyes and nodded.
Bryce took a deep breath. The vines from earlier reached out of his pocket and twirled up his arm. “I think it’s for the best. Besides, then he has two of us to talk to.”
Kor nodded.
“I hate to break up this party, but I need to start getting ready for work.” Aer stood up from the table. The rest of them gathered their stuff. Tiernan followed them out of the room, holding on to Merin’s skirt again.
“I think he likes you,” Bryce whispered in her ear. She giggled.
“Goodnight, Merin,” Kor said, reaching for Tiernan’s hand. As soon as Tiernan had let go, she waved and disappeared into the hum of the city.
“Kor? Do you think I can keep him safe?”
“Worried about him?” Kor asked.
“Merin would kill me if something happened to him. She gets attached to people pretty quick.”
“I know you can.”
MERIN:
Her house was dark when she came in through the servant’s door. She tiptoed toward the main staircase. Darkened lights throughout the house did not mean that her father wasn’t still up working away in his study. She padded along to the bathroom in order to bathe. Her headache, while mild, had not gone away even though it had been hours since she’d worked on Tiernan. It was enough that she had forgotten to ask Korvo how his meeting with the Council had gone. Although if he didn’t mention it, it probably didn’t go very well.
What a small little boy, she thought, reaching for the handle of the door. His body had caused more trouble for Merin than normal. It wasn’t that he was hurt badly, but his tiny frame wasn’t rejecting the pain like most people do. She felt like her magic had to pry it away from him. Like he was holding on to it. Like it was part of him. She shuddered. The door squeaked under her palm.
“Merin, is that you?” her father’s raspy voice called from his study.
“Yes, Father. I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I would take a bath.” She smiled. She was getting better at lying. Bryce would be proud.
“Could you come here?” her father said through the ornate wooden door. She sighed. There was only one reason her father would want her to come into the study. At least she might learn something about Korvo’s school.
“Father?” She nudged the study door open. His desk was piled high with papers. Her father’s greying hair was pushed up on the sides as if he had been holding his head. “Is everything alright?”
“Just lots of hard decisions the Council has been making for the safety of the country. I’m not sure I could make the decisions they have to make,” her father said, combining the papers in front of him. Merin followed it with her eyes.
“Is there anything I can do?” Merin leaned down and let tendrils of her power soften the knots in her father’s shoulders. She hated using her powers like this, but sometimes when he was relaxed her father would talk to her about Council business.
“A little lower, Merin. It’s a tough world outside these walls.”
“What’s happening, Father?”
“Just promise you’ll keep your … talents hidden.”
“But if I can help people—” Merin protested.
“There is nothing one person can do. And not all people with magic are so helpful, so useful to the society at large.”
“But it’s not their fault. They aren’t allowed in public schools, and few people can afford to pay for private ones. And only your sway in the Council keeps my magic a secret. Couldn’t all of them be just like me?”
“Nonsense. That’s enough. Go sleep.”
“But I just think—”
“Merin, I’ll do the thinking for you. Keep your powers hidden and stay away from the other Magics.”
“Yes, Father,” she said demurely.
“Good girl.”
Merin knew she had been dismissed, so she bowed her head slightly and went out through the heavy wooden door. She didn’t let the bolt click into place and instead listened at the small crack in the door to see if she could hear anything else.
“Only a few more weeks,” her father muttered.
“A few more weeks until what,” Merin whispered on the way back to her bedroom, her bath forgotten.
Merin looked around her room. The white comforter was stiff and straight against the bed frame, tucked into the edges of her bed. The dolls she had received over the years from various estranged relatives who were never allowed to come over to their house sat staring down at her. Merin wanted to push them away. Their beaded eyes looked down with a level of disappointment that was normally reserved for her family.
She had to do something. She couldn’t let good people like Korvo and Bryce live on the streets while she sat around idly and did nothing. But she couldn’t even stand up to her father. She lay across her plush bed and stared at the ceiling. She would help to start Korvo’s school even if she was the only one who taught day and night.
She pulled a pillow over her head for just a second before rolling over to try and get some sleep. Her headache would just have to go away on its own. She couldn’t heal herself.