6

“The charges are ridiculous,” Zoya complained as we sat down to lunch.

The cell I was provided was the cleanest in the Kion dungeons. Kalen had put two soldiers to work scouring and scrubbing. It was bare of furniture and essentials but comfortable enough to while away time. Zoya had solved the former issue by dragging in tables, pillows, and a softer, wide feather cot (“Needs to be big enough for two people, I reckon,” she quipped wickedly, and I blushed), glaring at the guards, daring them to protest. They did not.

Althy and Kalen were still conducting daily Delvings, and our food was carefully monitored, prepared by either Althy or my mother, the latter soon taking over the kitchens in the Valerian asha-ka and shooing the Valerian’s suspicious maid, Farhi, away.

To ensure my good behavior, the association had uprooted my family from Knightscross while my case was pending. My connection to the azi remained intact, however—a secret I kept. More than once, I was tempted to sic it on the elders for the condescending way they had treated my parents and siblings.

“Bone witches aren’t the only suspects. Druj is still running amok.” Zoya slurped her tea and slammed the cup down on the table. “They have little to stand on, and they know it.”

“The elders are doing everything in their power to restrain Tea’s movements,” Shadi reminded her, setting down her own empty cup. “And despite the flimsiness of the evidence, they remain in charge. They’ve successfully argued to withhold their findings until the trial commences.”

“A witch hunt, then,” her lover grunted.

“They want to humiliate me,” I said shortly. “To have my family on hand to watch.”

“Well, they thought wrong,” my mother butted in, adding a plate of eggplant tahdig to the table. My father and brothers had accompanied Kalen to the barracks and weren’t expected back for the rest of the day. “We already know that they’re bullying you for being a bone—a Dark asha. And we won’t let them.”

“Of course not!” Daisy chimed in cheerfully, following with some grilled jujeh. “Buck up and eat something to keep up your strength, Tea bunny. You’re skinny enough as it is.”

Mistress Parmina had been kind to house my family. She and Mykkie went to the association daily to argue my defense. I scowled at my sister, then transferred my grimace to the plate she had set down. Daisy was not known for her cooking talents, and I doubted that my years away from home had improved her skills. “I’m not skinny.”

“Yes, you are. All this magic takes energy.” She smiled brightly at Khalad, who sat beside me. “They say you’re the Heartforger. My sister’s told me stories, though I’ve never quite understood the intricacies of the work you do. It sounds rather noble.”

Khalad blinked, looking up from some complicated work involving vials. “Pardon, Lady Daisy?”

“Don’t bother the man, Daisy.” I was in no hurry to inform her about Khalad’s orientation—she’d learn it soon enough, and there were other things to worry about. Mykkie, Zoya, and Althy had been running themselves ragged investigating Sancha al-Sarim’s murder, and I still didn’t know who she was or why I had allegedly killed her.

“And Fox is with a princess now. Fox!” Mentions of royalty had always rendered my sister awestruck. “I wasn’t expecting—well, I assumed being technically dead would close some doors when it came to relationships, but sweet Anahita of Koshti, the princess of Kion herself—”

“You don’t understand the gravity of the situation, Daisy,” I interrupted. As I expected, the jujeh tasted horrible, but I chewed on valiantly.

“Of course I do.” Daisy refilled our bowls of tea. “I was there when you raised him from the dead, remember? I don’t claim to know anything about asha politics, but this isn’t all that hard to understand. You’re a powerful asha, more powerful than they are, and the Willows don’t want that. I’m happy for Fox, and I’m happy for you. Father has already given his blessing.”

I almost choked on the jujeh. “What?”

“Sir Kalen didn’t ask Father to the barracks just to show him around. Father already suspected he would ask permission to court you.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Though I figured that’s putting the cart before the horse at this point.”

I looked down, a warm glow spreading across my cheeks.

“Ah, I wish I had more of both your luck! My interests have dried up in Knightscross, so to speak.”

“Did they blame you?” I found myself asking before I could stop myself. “Or Mom and Dad?”

Daisy stilled. “For what?”

“The people back home. Did they blame you for me?”

My mother sighed. “There were many who thought bone witches the spawns of the seven hells. But more were afraid than they were hateful. They feared retaliation should Lady Mykaela—or you, for that matter—hear of any mistreatment, and they relied too much on Rose’s and Lily’s services as forest and water witches to be too hypocritical. We knew the townspeople had resentment, but they left us alone and bought from your father’s forge as they always had.”

Daisy grinned. Her heartsglass shone a healthy, cherry red. “You being Dark asha actually elevated us in the community, albeit not in the usual manner. People go out of their way to give due deference, strain their backs as they bend over. Whatever they may personally think of us, they are outwardly respectful.”

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t want that. Knowing they were disliked was worse than receiving false courtesies, polite or not.

My sister shrugged. “We’re a hardy breed, and it’ll take more than a cold shoulder to take us down. I miss talking to you, Tea bunny. It’s been a while since we’ve had any sisterly heart-to-hearts.” Daisy clasped my hand to hers. “We all miss you,” she said earnestly. “Mama wouldn’t stop crying for weeks after you two left, and the only comfort she had was knowing two of her children were leaving, instead of one remaining in the ground.”

“Oh, Daisy.” My mother sighed.

It had been hard growing up these last years without them. In many ways, my family members were almost strangers to me now. The more years standing in between their lives and mine, the fewer chances there were for them to intersect. “It wasn’t smooth sailing for me either, as you can tell. I had to learn to be something I knew nothing about. And Fox had it even worse.”

“But you both made so much of yourselves,” Daisy argued. “More than the rest of us could in Knightscross.”

“I’m in prison, Daisy. That’s not exactly an upgrade.”

“Not for long, I’m sure. You have friends in Princess Inessa and Empress Alyx! I figured occasional arrests came with the territory. Dark asha frequently clash with people in power, just like in the books you used to read. You used to love all those volumes on asha.”

“I was sillier then. Reading about asha was very different from becoming one myself.”

“I knew you’d leave the village sooner or later. Mama’s looking a bit teary eyed again, but it’s true. When Lady Mykaela first arrived and told us you were going to be a novice, it seemed like you were simply fulfilling your purpose.” She smiled. “I was jealous. I thought about leaving Knightscross myself, but it’s hard to give up the safety and comfort of family for the unknown. I don’t have a silver or a purple heartsglass, but do you fancy one of the zivar or dress shops here would be willing to take me on?”

“You want to stay in Kion and work?” I was delighted. “Mama?”

“We talked about it, Tea.” My mother sounded rueful, proud. “Your father and I agreed it was Daisy’s decision to make.”

Daisy made a face. “As I said, I’ve exhausted all my options in Knightscross. Hawk and Wolf can run the forge just fine.”

Khalad looked up, briefly distracted. “Was all that previous talk intended to butter up Tea into giving you a job at the Willows?”

I burst into laughter. “I don’t mind. I really don’t.” The idea that I would have one more sibling in Ankyo with me was marvelous. And whatever flaws Daisy had, this was her way of asking me for my blessing. I responded with a hug. “Chesh’s is the best zivar shop in the city. I accidentally filched one of her assistants, and I can ask her if you can replace him. Or you can work with Rahim Arrakan.”

“Rahim Arrakan?” Daisy was wide eyed. “You know the Rahim Arrakan?”

I had no idea Rahim was popular in Knightscross.

“I’d love that! I appreciate all the money you and Fox send back home, but I’d like to earn one of his dresses with my own money. Besides,” Daisy sighed. “He’s rather handsome in a rough, burly sort of way, don’t you think?”

Khalad and I looked at each other and decided, without needing to voice it aloud, that Daisy should find that out in her own time too.

“And where is our brother anyway, Mr. Heartforger?”

“Sneaking into Hestia’s quarters with Zoya and Shadi.”

“What?” I cried.

“Oh, right.” The Heartforger looked abashed. “I wasn’t supposed to—”

But I had already sent out my mind, touching on the edges of Fox’s as he rummaged through the elder’s study. The wards couldn’t stop that.

What are you doing? I seethed, and he straightened up.

Damn it, Khalad!

Don’t you damn it, Khalad me. Why are you at the Imperial asha-ka?

What does it look like? We’re looking for anything that resembles a Blight rune.

You don’t even know what the Blight rune looks like! And you’re not doing much to hide yourselves!

“Are you talking to Tea?” Zoya asked Fox while she snooped around a heavy stack of papers lying on a table.

“How did you know?”

“Your nose always scrunches when she’s in your head, especially when she’s about to lose her mind.”

I am not losing my mind!

“She is definitely losing her mind,” Fox confirmed.

“Well, tell her not to worry. Shadi’s keeping a lookout, and Mykkie’s keeping nearby asha distracted.”

You brought Mykkie into this?!

“She volunteered, actually,” Fox said, defending them. “This isn’t as harebrained a scheme as you might think, even if Zoya thought it up.”

“Oh, ha. Ha-ha. You’re going to regret that.” Zoya held a book aloft, triumphant. “I take apologies as payment in paloodeh. With extra cantaloupe.”

The Blight rune?

“Well, not exactly,” she admitted when Fox asked, “but we found the next best thing.” She turned the volume over to my brother, and in his mind, I gasped.

“It’s the same unnamed book we found in Istera,” Zoya said. “Not as decrepit as the one there, so I’m guessing this is a later copy. But it’s an unaltered version, with the foreword written by Vernasha of the Roses intact. Hestia can no longer claim ignorance about shadowglass—not only does she have the original legend here, but it also contains Vernasha’s letter in all its bigoted glory.”

• • •

It was evening by the time Lady Mykaela and Mistress Parmina arrived at the dungeons. Neither looked happy. They received Zoya’s revelation with grim satisfaction but, as Althy put it, “it’s enough proof for us to realize their meddling, though not enough for the public to believe the same.” She rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “It’s not enough to accuse the elders of conspiring to steal Mykkie’s heartsglass. The best we can do is obstruction, perhaps, but they can always claim they were withholding information in good faith. Whether or not they were responsible for the blighted is another thing entirely. We can’t accuse them without more objective evidence.”

“They accused Tea without evidence,” Zoya grumbled. “Why can’t we do the same?”

“Because people tend to believe those who are in charge, no matter how ridiculous or corrupt they may be,” Mykaela told her gently. “Who would you believe—an asha council with centuries-old roots in the kingdom and a reputation for justice and order or a bone witch you’ve been taught to fear all your life?”

“I—I would think I’d know the difference.” Zoya looked troubled.

“Most people would like to believe that about themselves, yes.” Mykaela sank wearily into a chair. “But we have been conditioned to obey authority in subtle manners, Zoya. You would be surprised at how very few actually speak up in the face of injustice.”

After a pause, she continued, “We’ve discovered who Sancha al-Sarim is. She was a runeberry picker from Murkwick village.”

“I’ve only been to Murkwick once,” I protested. “Several years ago. You’d taken us there from Knightscross after I’d raised Fox.”

“It only took that one time.” At Mistress Parmina’s imperious gesture, Shadi trotted off to find a cushion. “A few witnesses recounted her slapping you.”

My mouth fell open as I remembered. “I called Mykaela a bone witch, and the girl took offense. But I never knew her name.”

“Well, you know it now. Hestia claims this as your motive for killing her. Though I wonder what possessed you to wait years to exact your revenge after having met her only the once. The Willows haven’t been able to adequately explain that yet. Foul magic transformed the girl. The Deathseekers were forced to kill her before she harmed anyone else. Althy believes it to be the work of this Blight rune you uncovered in Istera. She and Likh are still in Murkwick, drawing Delving runes to ensure none of the other villagers have been compromised.”

Knots formed in my stomach. “I’m sorry,” I said, and Kalen’s hand found mine.

The Valerian mistress dismissed my guilt with a wave, settling against the pillow. “Oh, posh, Tea. You’ve earned me quite a lot of money since you’ve arrived, and it’s only fair that I protect my best investment. Besides, I shall enjoy any chance to tweak Hestia’s nose. But theirs is a heavy accusation nonetheless, even with scant circumstantial evidence.”

“For now, the elders’ main goal is to keep you stationary,” Mykaela noted dryly. “The wards make sure of that.”

“Do they know about what we found in Istera, Mykkie?” Kalen asked.

She shook her head. “As their predecessors believe they destroyed all the compromised books, they might think themselves safe. Quite foolish for Hestia to keep another one in her study. It was good of you to entrust the original book to Lord Garindor. I suspect the elders may pay the Isterans a visit themselves, so at least King Rendorvik has been forewarned.”

Fox smiled briefly at me. “Alyx has granted you leave to go to the oracle, if you’d like. Asha are allowed to present themselves to her for counseling apparently.”

“Alyx?” Shadi drawled. “Are you on a first-name basis with the empress now?”

My brother reddened. “She doesn’t like to be referred to by her title when not in a royal capacity…”

The young asha smiled. “I trust that your relationship is going well, then?”

“It is.” Fox’s face glowed. I didn’t need for him to speak to know why; images trickled through our shared link, the Veiling rune briefly lifting for me to glimpse happy thoughts of him and Inessa.

Mistress Parmina snapped her fan. “You’re a terror, Tea. You’re impulsive and disobedient, and you have a habit of dragging other people into your fights. But you’ve grown on me, and those hags deserve what is coming to them. It’s about time we find better representation in our association. Perhaps I will decide to run for council myself.”

“Wouldn’t you worry that, by joining those hags, you’d become a hag yourself?” Zoya asked.

“Zoya!” Shadi scolded.

“Well, shouldn’t the rules be changed, rather than the enforcer of those rules?”

“What do we do next?” I asked Mykaela, as Zoya and Mistress Parmina fell into a spirited argument.

“I don’t know yet. The Willows are waiting for something.” Mykaela frowned. “And that’s what’s been nagging at me—I don’t know what they’re waiting for. But whatever they have in mind, we’ll fight them. What do you wish to do now?”

“I think,” I said, “that I’d like to take Empress Alyx up on her offer and pay the oracle a visit tomorrow.”

“Good.” Mykkie sighed. “I miss Polaire. She always had a plan.”

“I wish she were here too,” I whispered. Polaire and Mykaela had performed the Heartshare as well, and Mykkie had been with her in her final moments. I couldn’t even begin to know what that loss must have felt like.

“I swear I can still feel her sometimes, at the oddest moments. Heartshare is both a blessing and a curse. I haven’t had my heart back long, but I struggle to know whether this is my heart, whole and true, or if there remains in it parts of her that she left behind.” Mykkie smiled sadly. “Somehow, that brings me much comfort.”

The conversation turned to other matters, and soon it was time for the others to leave, Fox opting to remain behind. “Is Kalen staying with you tonight?”

I nodded. “I told him it wasn’t necessary.”

“Of course it is. I doubt he’d choose a warm bed in the barracks while you’re here.” He paused. “But I can tell you’re worried, and it’s not about that.”

“There is something you need to know about me,” I whispered, dreading my confession.

Fox’s puzzled expression cleared, giving way to worry as I told him about the black specks on my heartsglass, the spells and zivars I’d used to hide my desperation.

“Darkrot?” he asked, giving voice to my own fears.

“I…I don’t know. I mean to tell Mykkie soon, once this is over.”

“Letting her know now would only give credence to the elder ashas’ accusations, will it?”

“Undoubtedly.”

“But you can’t keep this secret. Surely Mykkie would keep quiet, as would Althy.”

I thought about Illara, the girl before me consumed by darkrot, the Dark asha Mykkie had slain. “She would give me over to the association without a thought, Fox, if she didn’t kill me first. She loves me, I know that—but her views on darkrot are uncompromising.” Mykkie killed her charge long before the black showed in her heartsglass, Althy told me. It was the only way.

He was angry, as I had feared. “This is your life we’re talking about. The strange emptiness between us back when you were in Istera—it was your heartsglass and not our distance, wasn’t it?”

“I…don’t know.”

“Something happened in Istera, didn’t it? I know it did.”

“I might have nearly jumped off a tower without realizing it,” I whispered. “And I…saw Kion on fire, in a vision.”

“Tea!” I could feel his panic. “You know what happens with darkrot! Do you seriously want to allow yourself to get worse before you get better?”

“Give me a few more days to sort myself out. Just give me that long. Please?”

My brother closed his eyes, still mad, but willing to compromise as I’d offered a deadline. I could feel the fear he was trying to hide from me; he’d heard Mykkie’s stories of darkrot and madness, and knew all too well what would happen should I fall under the same curse. “Fine. I’ll give you three days, Tea, and then I’ll help you make them see reason. No more delays.”

• • •

Fitful dreams plagued me later that night. I dreamed that I was inside the Ankyo cemetery, the moon staring down at me with all of its judgment and none of the sympathy. Polaire’s grave stood before me in the quiet. I was barefoot and dressed only in my nightclothes. The cold was a cutting knife, its blade skimming against my skin.

A harsh, grating sound broke the silence. The ground underneath me moved. Something had been disturbed in its sleep and now struggled for a way out.

I tried to leave, but my feet refused to obey. The noises grew louder until the earth before me broke apart, freeing its prisoner. The corpse that crawled out looked worse than human. Bits of brown hair clung to the base of its head, but its hollow sockets and yawning mouth gaped back at me from a grotesque skull in the final stages of a great and terrible decomposition. Strips of decay that were once skin dripped from its bony fingers, and remains of yellowed teeth that looked unnaturally bleached against the darkness dotted the remains of a jawline. Ironically, her dress survived when the rest of her had not—a white hua, tattered and stained from dirt and death, the embroidered crest of House Hawkweed still visible on her breast.

The corpse staggered toward me, and I could do nothing but wait, petrified, as it brushed its rotting face against mine.

“Your heart is the key,” it whispered in Polaire’s voice. “Love’s blood soaked through, in a tinsel of sparkled black. Do not let them take your heart.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I cried, terrified. The winds around us picked up, my hair whipping around as we stood in the center of a forming tornado, us at its eye.

The corpse took my heartsglass in a skeletal hand. I looked down to see a swirling miasma of black instead of silver. “No,” I choked out.

“You cannot hide who you are, Tea, my poppet. There is black in all our hearts. We hide it well enough and bring it out on harder nights, when we think no one sees.”

“I don’t want it!”

“There are worse things than black heartsglass, Tea. Silver is just as capable of hate.” She leaned closer then, dead lips against my ear. “Trust your enemies little,” it whispered, “and trust your friends even less.”

I came awake, sweating profusely despite the mild breeze coming in through the half-open window. It was dawn, and the space beside me was empty of Kalen. I twisted and saw him putting on his Deathseekers’ armor.

“Kalen?”

He glanced at me and tried to smile, but his face was grim. “I was hoping to let you rest longer,” he said.

“What do you mean? What happened?”

“There was another suspected Blight attack. This time, it happened in Knightscross.”