think they’re too far off. Not when the stars who form the foundation of the world are vanishing without a trace.”
“How do you know about—” Alric stopped and took a long breath. “Never mind, I’m not going to ask who told you. It doesn’t really matter. I suppose, then, you’d like to know why the stars are vanishing.”
Miranda nodded. “It would be a start.”
“Then that makes two of us,” Alric said, spreading his hands helplessly. “All I can tell you is that the Shepherdess is the one who calls her stars away. As to the why of it, your guess is as good as mine.”
“But you work for her, don’t you?” Miranda said. “I heard you say it before, in Izo’s camp. The League does the Shepherdess’s work.”
“The Lord of Storms serves the Shepherdess,” Alric said flatly. “And the League serves the Lord. We know only what the Lady sees fit to tell her demon hunter, which has never been as much as most seem to believe.”
“So you don’t know why she’s doing it?” Miranda said hotly. “Why she’s ruining the world she’s supposed to be guiding?”
“No,” Alric’s voice grew sharp and cold. “Only that it is for the best.”
Miranda gaped at him. “How can you possibly believe that?” she cried. “Open your eyes! There is no way this kind of panic is good for the spirits. How do you know she’s not ruining everything and counting on her doctrine of ignorance and fear to discourage questions until it’s too late?”
“I don’t,” Alric said. “But I’ve trusted my life to the Lord of Storms and his mistress for a long, long time now, Lady Rector. In that time, the Shepherdess has done many things I did not agree with or understand, and yet the world has continued.”
“Not like this,” Miranda said. Her anger was boiling now, and her head was full of the memory of the river’s screaming voice.
Gone! Gone! Gone!
She forced herself to stop and take a breath. Only when her temper was firmly back under control did she let herself speak again.
“When I first decided to come here, I meant to demand that the Shepherdess stop whatever she was doing,” she confessed. “But while I was stuck in the air, I had time to calm down and think, and I realized I was asking the impossible. The Shepherdess is the top authority in this world, isn’t she? No one stands up to her, not the Shaper Mountain, not the Lord of the West, no one.”
Not even Eli, her mind whispered, but Miranda forced the thought out of her head. “I am a Spiritualist,” she continued. “My oaths demand that I serve the spirits, protect them from abuse, and try to make the world better for them. I don’t know why the Shepherdess is taking her stars away seemingly without a care for the spirits who depend on them, but I understand now that I can’t stop her. All I can do is try to control the damage as best I can.”
Alric was looking down at his empty desk when she finished, tracing the worn grain of the wood with his fingertip. “That is unexpectedly wise of you, Rector,” he said quietly. “But while I can understand why you came here initially, I don’t yet see what you want from the League now.”
“I want to help,” Miranda said. “I’ve seen the League work twice now, once repairing the damage in Mellinor and once in Izo’s camp. I saw your power firsthand both times, how you calm panicked spirits and repair damage like it never was. I’ve also seen how you can move easily through the world using those white lines. All over the world, on this continent and I’m sure on the Empress’s as well, maybe even in the frozen north, spirits are panicking. With every star that vanishes, the spirits who relied on it lash out in fear and despair, hurting themselves and everything around them. If we don’t stop the panic quickly, the spirits will do enormous harm in their fear. I’ve seen it already with the rivers, and it’s only going to get worse as more stars vanish.”
“It can’t be helped,” Alric said. “Spirits are panicky by nature.”
“Anything would be panicky if it thought the world was ending!” Miranda cried. “The only reason people aren’t tearing their cities apart is because we’re too blind and ignorant to know what’s going on. The Shepherdess holds all the power. The spirits have no choice but to depend on her. How can you fault them for panicking when she rips the floor out from under their feet?”
Alric took a deep breath. “I’m not blaming them,” he said. “Believe it or not, Rector, I’m on your side, but the League has other priorities at the moment. We are not a large organization—”
“I know that,” Miranda said. “It’s not your job to guard the common spirits, but it is mine.” She pulled herself straight in her chair, fixing her gaze solidly on Alric’s. This was it. “The League is small, far too small to deal with a crisis of this scale, but the Spirit Court is over a thousand strong, and every one of us has sworn the same oath to serve the spirits and protect them from harm. What I’m proposing is a partnership. If you will share the League’s powers with the Court for the extent of this emergency, we will take over calming all the panicked spirits gently and with understanding, in accordance with our oaths.”
To her surprise, Alric smiled. “You don’t think we’ll be gentle?”
“I think you’ll be rushed,” Miranda answered. “The League doesn’t have the manpower to handle every panic. We do. If we don’t have to worry about travel time, my Spiritualists will be able to take the care needed with each outburst. With us handling the panic caused by the lost stars, your membership will be free to pursue your ‘other priorities.’ ”
Alric drummed his fingers on his desk, his brows furrowed in thought. “You propose an interesting plan, Lady Rector,” he said at last. “But I wonder, could you follow it through?”
Miranda jerked back. “What?”
“You forget I am well informed,” Alric said, his voice bland. “The Court is fractured, and you are Rector only until those who balked at Banage’s leadership organize to kick you out. Even if it were in my power to wave my hand and give you everything you ask, you’re hardly in a position to be making deals on behalf of the Spirit Court.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Miranda said, holding her head high. “I know which way the Court will go once the situation is properly explained. We may quibble about how the Court is run, but to stand back and abandon the spirits to panic and fear goes against the very nature of our purpose and our oaths. No Spiritualist would allow that, no matter who wears the Rector’s mantle. So long as there are rings on our fingers, we will honor our oaths and do our duty. That I swear to you, Deputy Commander.”
Alric leaned back in his chair, his face closed, considering. “It is a bold offer,” he said at last. “Bolder than I’d ever expect from the Court, but I can find no guile in it.”
“Of course not,” Miranda said, insulted. “I’m not a liar.”
“No, you’re not,” Alric said, looking at her with a faint smile. “Your offer is a good one, Lady Rector, and would actually solve a great number of my problems if you were successful. Unfortunately, the League’s power is not mine to dole out. It, like all else we have, flows from our commander, the Lord of Storms. He’s the one you’ll have to convince.”
Miranda sighed, frustrated. “Fine, when can I talk to him?”
Alric’s smile widened. “I believe he’s already here.”
Miranda started and looked around, but the office was empty. The only change at all was a faint smell of ozone in the air. And then, without warning, the white line opened right in front of her face, and the Lord of Storms filled the room.
Miranda jerked back without thinking, nearly falling out of her chair. Her eyes saw a tall man stepping out of the air between her and Alric, a man with long black hair that fell well past the high collar of his black League coat, pale, intense eyes set in a pale, intense face, and a long, gently curved sword at his side, its hilt somewhere between blue and silver, like a lightning bolt glimpsed suddenly on a clear night.
That was what she saw, anyway, but her other senses were screaming at her that this was wrong. She’d felt the man appear, felt the air thickening, tightening with the anticipation that came just before a storm. The room was still, and yet she could smell the storm on the air, cold and wild and dangerous, and it took every bit of pride she had to resettle herself in her chair instead of running for cover like her body was screaming for.
The Lord of Storms, for who else could it be, was saying something to Alric, but Miranda couldn’t make out the words. They rumbled through her like distant thunder, and then the Lord of Storms turned to look at her, and his lightning-colored eyes narrowed. All at once, the pressure relented and the Lord of Storms seemed to shrink. It was like he was pulling himself in, resettling the human shell that contained the full extent of… whatever he was.
