Raef flicked his wrist and sent the two coins, a pair of coppers, chasing one another around the bowl. It had taken a bit of practice to master this simple trick with his one daylight hand. Most times, when eating with the shadowhand, the fork still hit his cheek instead of his mouth. His lip curled to know that he still couldn’t write his name any better than a first moon neophyte. It was especially unfair as he’d always been good with a knife in either hand.
The year turned toward winter. Raef pulled his black robe around himself and thanked Phoebe for the heavy cloth, though really he should thank his father since Cormac had gifted it to him. Raef leaned back against the wall, at his post beside the hole Seth and the knights had hammered open for him so he did not have to climb it on sunny days.
The mark, the shadow, slept, waiting for night. Then he’d have two hands again. Then he could run the roofs, do whatever she asked of him.
A golden shape loomed over him. Something heavy dropped into his bowl, dipping it toward the cobbles.
“A golden Hierarch?” Raef asked, looking up from the coin.
Seth smiled down at him. Back in his armor, his hair shorn, he practically glowed. He wore his hammer on his back. The brass inlay caught the light.
He looked good. He always looked good. Raef returned the smile.
“I thought you could use it.”
“I can.”
“Cormac sent me. He’d like to see you at the palace.”
Raef bit the coin and picked himself up. He waved to the priests of Hyperion across the plaza. Some waved back. Others nodded awkwardly, still uncertain how to take the return of a Night Brother. Some looked away.
“How much have you made today?” Seth asked, leading Raef across the plaza toward the palace.
“Including this?” Raef asked, nodding to the coin as he tucked it into a pocket.
“Yes.”
“One golden Hierarch and two coppers.”
“And you’re really doing this the hard way?”
“I’m doing it the right way, thank you,” Raef said. “That’s what Phoebe wants. At least I think it is. She’s less talkative on this side of the Door.”
“She really spoke to you?” Seth asked again, as he had so many times before. His eyes always filled with wonder at the answer.
“Yes, though it’s like a dream now. I can’t remember most of it and what is left is fading.”
Seth slipped his hand into Raef’s.
“For whatever it’s worth, I think it’s the right way too.”
“Too bad we’re not immortal.” Raef squeezed Seth’s hand. “At this rate I’ll have enough to hire masons to clear the rubble in ten years. It should take about two hundred more to rebuild the tower. You’d think people would be more grateful.”
“The city is still recovering, and there are still a lot of ghosts.”
“She can’t take all of them, the ones without any spirit left, any mind. There might always be a little Grief.”
“But the fish have returned with the tides. People can eat.”
“Yes,” Raef agreed.
A few merchants had appeared with goods to sell. Peddlers trickled in, both overland and with the ships. Versinae was ebbing back to life.
Raef spied an urchin working the plaza and flashed an L for “Lost.” The girl rolled her eyes but she flashed it back.
The roads grew safer, so long as you didn’t bleed too much. Tethis remained especially haunted, but after the trouble they’d given Cormac, Raef couldn’t say he sympathized.
He lowered his hood as they passed through the palace gates. A guard tapped the butt of his halberd against the ground in salute.
“I’ll never get used to that,” he said. “I never expected my uncle to acknowledge me. Even if I wanted to go back to stealing, I’d never get away with it. All the guards know me now.”
“At least you’d probably get a nicer cell,” Seth said.
“Not likely. Uncle has acknowledged me, but he’s not fond of me.”
The feeling was mutual. Raef knew too well the difference between how the prince and the people lived. Cormac often reminded him that having Adrian’s ear would allow Raef to negotiate for those in need, so he did his best.
“Your father has acknowledged you too. That should keep you safe enough—if you can stay out of trouble.”
Raef gave Seth a look of mock affront as they approached the granite crenels and green copper spires. They passed into the great hall. A long series of frescoed figures, ancestors he knew nothing about, looked down upon him.
Court wasn’t in session. The servants either ignored Raef and Seth or gave a slight nod in greeting. They weren’t friendly, not exactly, but they accorded him respect and notice. It made the back of his neck itch.
“I wonder if they’d let me stay for dinner.”
“I wonder if they’d let you bathe.”
“I’ve got to say, Sir Knight, I never expected you to have a sense of humor. Or to play errand boy for the palace.”
“It gave me a chance to see you.” Seth let Raef’s hand go and pecked him on the cheek. “Head to your uncle’s solar and I’ll see if I can find some bread and cheese for my beggar priest.”
“Do that, and maybe I’ll take that bath with you.”
Seth blushed and ducked his head. Raef smiled, headed upstairs, and braced himself.
In the solar, Cormac sat beside the prince at a round table laden with letters and maps.
Prince Adrian Deslis, Cormac’s elder by five years, wore a perpetual scowl. Like Cormac, he dressed elegantly, in a doublet of black velvet and a pair of fine rings set with emeralds. A tendency toward the material appeared to be a family trait. Raef may be a raven, but his uncle and father were magpies.
Raef bowed. “Uncle.”
“Bastard,” the prince greeted.
“He has a name,” Cormac snapped.
“And you have a new ship,” the prince said. “You can get back to it at any time.”
“Uncle just wishes me to remember my place,” Raef said. He closed his eyes to tamp down his temper.
It seemed shorter lately. He wondered if his demon blood were to blame or if it was just a side effect of having gained a family.
After a short breath and a quickly whispered prayer, Raef opened his eyes and asked, “You wanted me, Father?”
His uncle opened his mouth, but Cormac cut him off. “We wanted to tell you that the Hierarch has quit the city. He’s returned to Ilium and left Versinae’s temple to the Bishop.”
“So I can watch my back a little less.”
Seth could have told him that, though he probably hadn’t out of his desire that Raef get along with his newly acquired relations. Raef’s knight could be meddlesome when he thought he was up to good.
“What else is there?” Raef asked.
The prince gestured for Raef to sit. He took the chair across from them.
“There is to be a council of the princes.” Adrian waved a hand to the letters scattered around him. “We will meet to discuss the Hierarch’s influence in our affairs, measure it, and consider if it is proper for the representative of Hyperion to exert so much influence over temporal matters.”
Raef sat back in his seat. It was unheard of, but the Hierarch had overstepped. If they were ever going to weaken his influence over Aegea, now was the time.
“You’re finally putting him in his place,” Raef said. “Good.”
“It will not end well for him,” Cormac said. “He tried to incinerate you in front of the entire city. That cost him greatly.”
“It’s worse than that,” the prince added. “With the truth out, the Sun House’s power is broken here. Diminishing the Hierarch has acted as a beacon to every cutpurse in Aegea. It’s not just petty crime. Murders and robberies are surging. This city belongs to the shadows now.”
It might not be that. Raef had brought back Phoebe, but she hadn’t come alone. There were demons in the world again.
If one were responsible, he’d find it, this cousin of his.
He’d do his duty to her, and above all keep the balance.
“It’s not the shadows, not the night or the day,” Raef said. “We can’t survive without Hyperion any more than we can without Phoebe. We need them both.”
“It will take time for the people to find their faith again,” Cormac said.
“I understand how they feel.” If anyone could convince him to forgive Hyperion, it was Seth, but even then, it would take time. “What do you want me to do?”
“Your father tells me you have contacts,” Adrian said. “Friends on the streets. I want you to find out what you can. See who is in charge. Perhaps we can strike a deal with them. If there are interlopers, perhaps our native gangs would assist us in defending their territory.”
Adrian was shrewd, Raef had to give him that.
“I know someone, but she’ll want payment, pardons, and aid for the children she cares for.”
“If she helps, she’ll have all three. You can go.”
Cormac looked offended at the blunt dismissal, but Raef smiled to assure him. He was glad to have a father, but he could fight his own battles.
And they were a family, new as it was, rough as Adrian could be. They would find a balance too.
Seth found him again that night, once the sunset prayers had ended. Raef had answered Hyperion’s priests with one of his own, though he doubted anyone could hear his solitary voice. He imagined doing a solstice procession. It would be rather sad. All the priests of Hyperion would come halfway to the tower ruins, and he’d meet them alone.
Argos dug in the garden below as Raef and Seth sat together atop the wall. Tucked between two of its crenels, they waited. Raef stared toward the east, past the temple dome and the city walls. He needed acolytes, but hopefully not too soon. He had nothing to feed them, no way to clothe them, and no idea what to teach them. The collection of knowledge was her first tenet, but the library was gone. The wisdom of the elder priesthood was gone.
He could try to retrieve Hanel from Drowned Gate, but was not certain how the old man would fare out of the darkness, or how he would care for someone so mad. Nor did he have food or space for Hanel. At least Seth had kept his word and brought Raef bread and cheese for their supper.
Tomorrow Raef would seek out Maurin to bring her Adrian’s terms. He’d find out what she could tell him about the city’s new troublemakers.
“Did you mean it?” Seth asked, pulling Raef from his thoughts.
“Mean what, the sunset prayer? Of course.”
“No, what you told your uncle and father, that we need Hyperion and Phoebe.”
“Eavesdropping, Seth?” Raef spared him a glance though he kept his focus on the horizon. “That’s not very Sun House of you.”
Seth smiled.
“You might be rubbing off on me a little.”
“I meant it,” Raef assured him. “Though I don’t know if I can ever forgive the knights. I know I can never forgive Logrum.”
Seth’s gaze flicked to Raef’s arm. His smile faltered.
“I don’t think I could ask you to.”
Raef had to admit, there was some appeal to a world without a sun. He’d dreamed of it once or twice, an endless night where he never lost his second hand, where he could run and fly without limit.
The world would freeze without Hyperion. A sunless Aegea would be worse than one without a moon. Raef shuddered, shaking off the dream before it could turn into a nightmare.
They stared at the horizon for a while, waiting together.
“What are you thinking about?” Raef asked, because he was curious, because he loved the sound of Seth’s voice, especially when he sang at dawn, his earnest hymns spiraling up the wall.
“Thiva,” Seth said. “You promised we’d go.”
“I meant that too.”
“I was thinking about the tower there, not just the ledgers, but the books. Maybe there’s gold or silver in the vaults. It’s not like that would be stealing. It’s already Phoebe’s coin.”
It was not a bad idea. Raef smiled.
“Do you think the Bishop would give you the time, another pilgrimage?”
“I don’t think she knows exactly what to do with me. I don’t fit into the cadre’s tactics anymore. She’d likely be glad to have a respite from me.”
“I doubt that’s true.”
She was a hard woman, but Raef suspected the Bishop cared for Seth as she seemed to care for all of her knights.
He did not pry too deeply into the politics of Hyperion’s faith, but it seemed Seth would survive the Hierarch’s disgrace. The Inquisitors, likely at pressure from Geldar, mostly pretended that Seth did not exist, that he was just another knight. Another pilgrimage might be just the thing if he were drawing too much attention.
Much remained uncertain, but Raef would not allow anyone to hurt Seth.
“Of course. We’ll go together, whenever you want. And if we have the time, after, I’d like a closer look at Eastlight.”
Seth gave him a worried glance.
“Not for the reason you think,” Raef said. He had no interest in finding Kinos. No one had heard from him since the night Raef had lost his hand, and he’d be happy if that were the end of the youngest Inquisitor.
“That place is special to the gods. I felt it. I’d like to know more.”
“That’s all?” Seth asked.
He reached out, closed his hand over Raef’s wrist.
“That’s all.”
Seth’s thumb felt strange against his severed flesh, but Raef did not pull away. He did not call the shadowhand to cover it. This was who he was. He wouldn’t hide it.
“I’m so sorry I lied to you,” Raef said.
“When?”
“Before, on Thiva.”
“Why are you apologizing now?”
“Confession is good for the soul,” Raef said with a shrug. “Isn’t that what you’re always telling me?”
“I forgave you, remember?” Seth shifted and pulled Raef into his arms until Raef’s back rested against his chest. “You came back to me. That’s all the making up I asked for.”
“I don’t think it’s enough. It doesn’t feel like enough.”
“Then promise me no more secrets.” Seth tightened his embrace. “No more lies. Just tell me everything.”
“There are parts you might not want to hear.”
Seth’s lips brushed Raef’s ear.
“Tell me anyway.”
“All right.” Raef thought carefully, trying to put the truth, the entire truth, in order. He wouldn’t lie, not even by omission, if he could help it.
A silver glow glinted on the horizon.
“The first time I saw you,” he began, “I almost killed you.”