Raef tried to bathe a few times a month. It was worth a few coppers to scrub away the grime of the streets. Getting clean enough to pass as a rich merchant at the prince’s party had taken a lot more time, a lot more soap, and had cost him way more skin.
He risked shaving and cut his hair, applying pomade so it fell in spikes where the hat did not cover it. He did not hate its scent, ginger and black pepper. Maurin had come through with a costume. The long coat and the second mask he’d concealed in his hat should be enough to disguise Kinos.
Raef still had some of the gold he’d taken from the chandlers. It should be enough to buy them passage away from Versinae. He wanted to be excited, to imagine sailing off and seeing new lands, like Kinos’s home—but first he had to find Kinos. He had to get him out.
Maurin sat beside him in wide, ruffled skirts. Ready for a pirate queen’s take, she’d sewn pockets throughout to conceal any number of candlesticks, silverware, or purses.
Like him, she wore a black velvet hat, but hers was wide-brimmed with a single, giant feather like a plume of white sea spray. Her mask was white like his, though she’d opted for something edged in pearls. Raef’s was plain plaster and crafted to look aged, the glaze crazed with fine cracks. It left a little of his face exposed.
He’d never owned boots or clothes this fine. In the tower he’d worn a wool robe and sandals. Since then, he’d mostly worn stolen clothes, favoring black, but none had ever been wholly new or unstained.
They’d hired a carriage, a first for him, to carry them the short distance.
“I’m enjoying the ride,” Raef said, leaning close as they bounced along. “But this seems unnecessary.”
“We have to look the part,” Maurin said. “Keep the pitch of your voice higher, and remember to walk like you’ve got a cane up your ass.”
“Language,” Raef teased. “I thought you were playing the part of a proper noblewoman.”
“I am,” she said. “And proper noblewomen don’t want muck on their kidskin boots before they hock them. Hence the carriage.”
Raef turned to the window as they arrived. A gleam of brass caught his eye.
“No . . .”
“What?” Maurin said, though she did not crane her neck.
“Knights,” he said, nodding to the group marching toward the palace. “And the Hierarch is with them.”
Maurin frowned. “It’s not too late to turn back.”
“I can’t,” Raef said. “Kinos is in there. Are you going to run?”
He watched Maurin calculate the odds. Raef was staying. He had to find Kinos, and he really didn’t want to do this without her, but he would understand.
“The score is worth it,” she decided. “I left Simon in charge, just in case. But if we pull this off, I can keep the kids safe through the winter. Maybe even keep them off the streets through the worst of it.”
The carriage came to a halt. Maurin bounced out and shot Raef an impatient look.
He made sure the ribbons that tied his mask on were tight and followed her.
“My lord,” she said, offering her hand.
“My lady,” he said, dredging up a smile though it felt tight.
When had running jobs with Maurin stopped being fun? Raef had changed. Maybe he’d grown. He could not decide if it was a good thing or not, but tension thrummed along his limbs as they waited their turn in the line of bustling nobility. Maurin slid close to him, her hand on his arm.
The stiff-backed porter looked them over. Did they need an invitation?
Focused on the party, Raef swaggered forward, certain to walk as though he belonged. If challenged, he’d either have to risk making a scene or trying to find another way in.
The man stepped aside with a nod. Raef choked back an exhale but he shouldn’t be surprised. Money bought access. These people had never faced a hungry day, never had to risk the Grief creeping into their homes. They deserved for Maurin to loot them into Boat Town.
Opulence swallowed them as they stepped inside. Raef felt filthy despite his bath. All was finery and marble. Even the ceilings and pillars were polished to a perfect gleam. No, he could never belong here.
He did not glance back at the porter as he leaned toward Maurin.
“I can’t believe that worked,” he whispered.
“Why not? This is so ballsy they’d never expect anyone to try it.”
She tugged him to the edge of the dance floor. The crowd thickened around them and he relaxed a little.
Maurin really did look amazing. Feathers, so black they were tinged in blue, lined her skirts. Her bodice sparkled.
“Are those gems real?” Raef asked.
“Glass and paste,” she said. “But I’ll try to pass them off as real when I sell them.”
“Always a plan,” he said as a new song started.
“Always,” she agreed with a sharp smile.
The music was lilting, with strings and a pace set for the graceful, slow dancing that occupied the main room.
Raef tensed.
“I don’t know—”
“Just let me lead,” she said, guiding him with a hand on his back. “You count the knights and guards.”
They went round in circles. He knew he was nowhere as graceful as the nobility, but Maurin had tucked them among the crowd.
“How many?” she asked.
“Six.”
“I count eight. That’s not bad, but you need to hurry. I’ll create a distraction if I think you’re in trouble.”
She laughed delicately, as if he’d told a little joke. Her eyes sparked with genuine mirth. Danger aside, she was having fun.
This was it. They’d be parted. He may never see her again, and realizing it, his heart sank.
“Maurin. I . . .” He closed the distance between them, dancing face-to-face with her and asked, “You’ll be all right?”
“Without you?” She scoffed. Her smiled deepened, part of the ruse, but with a little of her usual edge. “Of course. I’ll be better. With a little luck I’ll be rich.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Raef said. “All you’ve done. Coming here, taking me in . . .”
She smiled, pausing her steps as the beat required. Raef’s heart sank a little further. This was it.
“Just say thank you, Raef.”
The dance ended and she walked him back toward the edge of the crowd.
“Thank you, Maurin. For everything.”
“I spied guards on the main doors, but not the servant passages,” she said. “Go get him and get out of here.”
He nodded and they parted.
Raef was alone.
He hadn’t thought he’d feel so crestfallen, but he could not escape the sense of everything changing. Again. Hopefully, it would not hurt so much this time.
He took a step back, let the dancing crowd spin Maurin away from him. Turning, he collided with a broad, brazen chest.
Raef looked up to see Seth, the eager knight from the crypt. Raef’s stomach tightened. He rocked back on his heel, ready to run. The main door probably wouldn’t work, but he could find another exit. He tensed, ready for Seth to strike him or call the other knights.
“Hi,” Seth said with a smile.
Raef blinked and remembered to breathe.
“Hi,” he echoed.
“I, uh—like your mask,” Seth said nervously.
It disarmed Raef a little, despite his mounting panic. How could it not?
Seth wasn’t trying to burn him. He was trying to what, flirt?
“Thank you,” Raef said. “I like your, uh, helmet.”
Seth wasn’t threatening him. He didn’t seem capable of it, but Raef still tensed. A Knight of Hyperion, no matter how earnest or good-looking, wielded the same fire that had brought the tower down.
Raef had to find Kinos. He had to escape this awkward, confusing conversation.
“I’m Seth.”
His eyes were golden, like summer wine. They matched his fair hair.
“I didn’t realize Knights of Hyperion went to parties,” Raef said. “Or is that a costume?”
“It’s real.” Seth’s smile dropped a bit, though his eyes remained fixed on Raef’s. “We were invited.”
Raef returned Seth’s smile. How could he not? The knight was cheerful, and a little intense in the way he stared into Raef’s eyes.
He’d smiled at a Knight of Hyperion. He must be losing his mind.
“Do you want to dance?” Seth asked.
“I don’t really know how.”
Seth ducked his head.
“Me neither,” he admitted shyly.
Behind him, the crowd parted for the Hierarch. His mask glinted in the candlelight.
Raef’s breath caught as the shadowknife pulsed. It wanted out. It wanted something, vengeance, or maybe just to warn him. The cold it sent through Raef’s arm broke the spell of Seth’s awkward charm.
“I have to go.”
“Did I? I mean . . .” Seth trailed off, his expression confused and sad.
“It truly was nice to meet you, and I’d like to stay, but I really must find my friend.”
“You too.” Seth failed to hide his disappointment as he clasped Raef’s extended hand.
In another place or time, had they not been knight and heretic, if not for Kinos, he would have dragged Seth back to the floor and they could have fumbled their way through a dance.
A lifetime ago, the Knights of Hyperion had been his cousins, worshippers of his goddess’s brother. No one would have batted an eye to see them friends or even more.
But now Phoebe was gone and there was Kinos. At least Raef hoped there was Kinos. He’d disappeared after a kiss and Raef didn’t know why.
Raef had to focus, to remember that the mystery was the thing, the box with the moons, Kinos’s importance to Hyperion and his connection to the carving on Eastlight, his little island.
Raef was used to seeing nobles on the streets. There, they’d had guards, but here they assumed they were among their own. They crowded together, chatting and gossiping, leaving most of the palace for him to explore.
He searched the quieter halls, avoiding the guarded doors until he’d found a way around, the servants’ routes. He hurried while trying to look like he wasn’t in a hurry, hoping that if caught, he could claim he’d been admiring the elaborate landscapes and dour portraits worked into the scrolling woodwork of the ceiling.
Raef found more than one locked door and opened them with the shadowknife. Most sported comfortable beds and private hearths, but no sign of Kinos. He pocketed nothing, though he left the doors unlocked in case Maurin made it this far.
The library gave him pause. It was a decent collection, or what passed for one in these moonless times. He ached to consider all that had been lost. The towers had traded books, shipping them from one to another for copying and distribution, but now all were burned.
How could he have smiled at Seth, found him charming for even a moment? The knights brought only fire and death.
Room by room, he searched. Sometimes he encountered revelers too engaged in each other to notice him and servants who pointedly ignored his presence, but he found no sign of Kinos.
Raef reached for a knob when a voice behind him asked, “Did you expect him to just be locked in a bed chamber?”
Raef narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like that someone had snuck up on him. From the question, the man knew what Raef was searching for.
He was dressed like most of the revelers, with a broad hat and a black mask that covered half his face.
“I’m Cormac.” The man offered a hand. “Captain of the Ino.”
Raef couldn’t easily draw his metal blade, but the shadowknife would serve if it came to a fight.
“I don’t know you.” He did not take the man’s hand. “What do you want?”
“To help,” Cormac said. “The prince isn’t that stupid. You won’t find him up here. But I can tell you where he is.”
“Why?” Raef demanded.
“I can’t just be a good person?” A smile tugged at the corner of Cormac’s mouth.
“This is Versinae,” Raef said. “No one does anything out of the kindness of their heart.”
“True, but we don’t have time for this.”
“Why not?”
“Because the prince is stupid enough to flaunt what he’s stolen. As soon as he does, the Hierarch and the knights will tear this place apart.”
Cormac put a hand to his collar. Raef reached for his knife and paused when Cormac withdrew a leather cord. A little silver crescent dangled on it. A moon.
“That’s an Initiate’s cord,” Raef said, gaping. “Where did you get that?”
“Where do you think?” Cormac asked.
Raef almost reached to touch it. A bit of the tower, a bit of the past, a bit of her. He’d almost been old enough to join the Spring Rites. He would have been initiated the next year.
“Why aren’t you dead?” Raef asked.
“I wasn’t a priest,” Cormac said with a shrug. “And I was at sea when the towers fell.”
“I thought everyone forgot.” Raef hated the sorrow and vulnerability in his voice. “I thought everyone forgot her.”
“I suspect there are more of us than you think, but no one is going to talk about it, especially not with the knights in the city.”
“How did you—” Raef stammered. He had to focus. “Why are you here?”
“I still have the dreams sometimes,” Cormac said. “They told me to come here, to find you and help you.”
Phoebe was the goddess of knowledge, both learned and secret, conscious and not. She’d whispered to her Initiates, sent them prophetic dreams. Perhaps she whispered still. Raef had heard her voice in the crypt, when he’d been close to unconsciousness. That had felt something like a dream. Perhaps sleep was the key.
For now, he had to decide whether or not to trust this man. Raef examined Cormac quickly. Slim, he had a rich voice and black hair tied back in a neat rope behind his head. He had enough lines on his face that Raef would have placed him near forty. Nothing in his eyes said he was lying, but it could be a trap. Raef put his trust in the cord.
“Do you know where Kinos is?” he asked.
“This way,” Cormac said.
Raef kept his hands free, ready to draw his knife from where he’d hidden it in his coat.
“The prince was a pirate once,” Cormac said, leading Raef deeper into the palace.
“I knew that. He bought his title from the Hierarch.”
“Strange isn’t it?” Cormac asked. “That the Hierarch should decide who rules and who doesn’t?”
They took the backstairs, slipped passed a pair of kissing servant girls, going lower and lower.
“There are tunnels leading out to the bay,” Cormac said. “Kinos is there, hidden behind the entrance where the knights won’t find him.”
“How do you know all this?” Raef asked.
Cormac turned and tipped his hat to Raef.
“Pirates tend to run together,” he said.
“You said your ship is the Ino?” Raef asked. He didn’t know it.
“She’s at the docks. If you can reach her, I can get you out of the city.”
They stopped at a wall.
“Here’s the entrance,” Cormac said. “Get him, get out. Don’t go any lower. The shades are thick down there.”
Reaching past Raef, Cormac pressed a point on the stone. A section of the wall swung open.
Raef had to admit that he was impressed.
“Are there guards?” he asked.
“Not at the moment. I’ll try to buy you time.”
“Thank you,” Raef said.
“Don’t you need a light?” Cormac asked, looking to a lantern that hung nearby.
“No,” Raef said.
The wall clicked in place behind him.
No dust or cobwebs marked the floor or walls.
Raef doubted the prince did his own sweeping, so some of the palace servants must know about the tunnels. That meant more chances for someone to tell the Hierarch where Kinos was, for the secret to slip when the knights started throwing their weight around.
He passed supplies, crates of food and barrels of oil. Of course the prince would keep a private stash.
The walls here were rougher stone, far from the painted plaster and tapestries of the halls outside. The floor was cold granite. This was the real palace, the face beneath its mask. This felt more like the rest of Versinae—his Versinae, grayer, dingier—more honest.
He turned a corner, and there was Kinos, sitting in a barred cell. He had a narrow but comfortable-looking bed and a lantern for light. Raef’s guts tensed even as his heart sped up.
“This doesn’t look so bad,” Raef said. “I mean, except for the bars.”
Kinos leaped to his feet. He leaned close, taking Raef in.
“What are you wearing?”
Raef took off his mask, mostly to give himself a chance to break eye contact.
“A disguise.” He nodded to the passage. “There’s a party out there. Are you hurt?”
“No,” Kinos said. “They grabbed me but they didn’t hurt me.”
“Why?” Raef asked. “Why’d you go?”
There wasn’t time to ask, but the question refused to stay bottled.
“I had to see if it was really him, the Hierarch.” Kinos wrapped his hands around the bars. “Then the Watch grabbed me. I’m sorry.”
Raef wasn’t certain he believed it, but he tried the cage door and found it locked.
“We have to hurry,” he said. “The knights are here.”
“What?” Kinos asked, straightening. “Where are we?”
“The prince’s palace. He’s playing games with the Hierarch.” Raef gestured to his clothes. “And throwing a masquerade.”
“That’s really stupid,” Kinos said.
“No kidding. He’s going to get burned alive if he’s not careful.”
Raef could use the shadowknife, but Kinos would see it.
“Close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Just trust me, please?”
And there it was. Had Kinos run away because of where Raef had come from, because he’d shown him the Garden? Raef wasn’t ready to show Kinos more, not if he’d just disappear again.
Kinos closed his eyes and turned to face the wall.
Raef brought out the shadowknife and unlocked the bolt.
“All done,” he said, swinging the door open.
“How do you keep doing that?”
“Practice,” Raef said. He slipped out of his coat, transferring his metal knife to his vest pocket.
He took off his hat and pulled a second, black silk mask from inside it.
“I don’t understand,” Kinos said.
The night before, he’d been ready to share everything, but for now he’d keep the rest of his secrets.
“I’ll tell you later,” Raef said. “But right now, we’re going to walk out the front door, past the Hierarch.”
He tugged the mask over Kinos’s eyes. When Raef reached to place the hat atop his head, Kinos leaned forward and kissed him quickly. Its warmth curled through Raef despite the tendrils of suspicion roiling in his guts.
“You came for me,” Kinos said, shrugging into the coat.
“Always,” Raef said, mostly meaning it.
The kiss didn’t stop the swirl of questions, but it stilled them enough for them to do what they had to do.
They followed the tunnel until it met a wall.
“I think this is an exit,” Raef whispered. He laid his ear to the stone wall and heard loud voices.
“I know you’re hiding him,” a voice on the other side said. “These old walls. What do they conceal?”
Kinos blanched.
“That’s the Hierarch,” he whispered, stepping backward.
Raef wanted to call after Kinos as he retreated down the tunnel.
“Wait!”
“We can’t go out there,” Kinos said, green eyes wide behind the mask. “He’ll find me. He’ll put me back, Raef.”
“We don’t have a lot of options.”
Kinos lifted the lamp in the other direction.
“Where do these lead?”
Raef shuddered. He could practically feel the dead retreat from the light.
“Down. Out to the bay, I think. They’re smuggling tunnels from the prince’s pirate days, but I don’t know what’s down there, or how many shades we’ll find.”
Something hard hammered on the wall behind them. The knights. They’d be through soon.
Raef did not think Cormac or Maurin would be coming this time.
“Come on.”
He took Kinos by the hand and led him into the dark.