They did, but I revived him. Damn it. I didn’t want to tell you, because if one of the Ascendants reads your mind, then they’ll discover the truth.
Blackrose hesitated.
I know Sable hates me, Belinda went on, and I understand why.
You had better not be lying to me, the dragon said.
I’m not. Is Sable alive, do you know?
She is.
Belinda gasped in relief. And does she still have the Quadrant?
What Quadrant?
She had a Quadrant when she attacked me. She used it to take Maddie away with her; I assumed you knew.
Belinda felt a rumble of anger rise within the dragon.
You are filling my head with lies and half-truths in order to deceive me, the dragon said. Go. I want nothing more to do with you.
Nothing I have said to you is a lie.
I will see about that.
Blackrose cut the link between them, and Belinda withdrew her vision from the wagon. She didn’t understand. The conversation had been going better than she had hoped, right up until she had mentioned Sable. Then it dawned on her; Sable hadn’t told the dragon about the Quadrant.
Had she ruined everything by telling the dragon the truth – had she spoiled Sable’s plans? Blackrose’s rage with the Holdfast woman would be ferocious if she had been keeping from her the fact that she possessed a Quadrant.
Belinda almost smiled. Sable would finally get what she deserved, and Belinda only hoped she would be there to witness it.
Chapter 6
Playing Along
S toneship, Forted Shore – 21st Tuminch 5252
‘And then,’ Kelsey went on, ‘when Corthie was eight, Karalyn was kicked out of the house again for trying to split up our parents, and Keir and I went to work right away. Without Karalyn to protect him, he was at our mercy. I was a pretty evil ten-year-old, I should add, and Keir was even worse.’ She paused for a moment, and peered at the base of the window bar that she had been unsuccessfully trying to dig out for over a month. ‘Anyway,’ she went on, raising the purloined spoon to begin scraping the mortar again, ‘we started…’
‘I get the picture,’ said Aila from where she sat on the bed pallet. ‘You and your older brother were horrible bullies. I’m not sure why you’re telling me all this; it’s not exactly making me think any better of you.’
Kelsey blew the dust from the base of the bar. ‘I just thought you should know a bit more about Corthie when he was young, that’s all. I don’t care what you think of me.’
‘Why did you hate him so much?’
‘Well, that’s the funny thing; his incessant cheerfulness used to get on my nerves, but I never actually hated him. It was all just a way to get at Karalyn, who we did hate, with a passion. Karalyn used to tell us off all the time for being mean to Corthie, so we kept doing it to annoy her.’
‘What did your parents do about it?’
‘Not much. Mother was away most of the time, governing the Holdings from the capital. Father tried to rein us in, but we used to run rings round him. Pyre’s arse, I regret that now. We were almost as mean to father as we were to Corthie.’ She stopped her work, her eyes cast downwards. ‘I’ll never forgive myself for not telling father how much he meant to me. He died saving my life, and Keir’s too, when a god attacked us. Despite everything we’d done to him, he didn’t hesitate, he just charged right in, and she killed him.’
Aila watched as the young Holdfast woman closed her eyes. ‘That’s awful,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to take anything away from what happened to you, but my father was also killed in front of me.’
‘Was he?’ said Kelsey. ‘Sorry.’
‘Prince Michael executed him for rebelling against the God-King and God-Queen.’
‘Amalia, you mean?’
‘Yeah. She was the all-powerful God-Queen back then.’
‘Did she order it?’
‘She didn’t need to; Prince Michael was really in charge. His divine parents had retired from running the City by that point. She would have known though, and approved.’
Kelsey glanced at her. ‘Do you want to kill her?’
‘I used to, though I would never have imagined being in a position where I would have been able to. She was the most powerful god in the City; she could have killed me with a look.’
Kelsey wiped her eyes and tried to smile. ‘Not while I’m around.’ She clenched the spoon in her fist and got back to work. ‘You should tell me more about the City. I don’t mind telling you stuff, but sometimes, I think that you’re sitting there wondering when I’m going to shut up.’
‘What do you want to know?’
‘Well, about the sky, for a start.’
‘The sky?’
‘Aye. I heard Belinda say that there was something wrong with your world, and that the sun only rises a little way, and then goes down again.’
‘Yes, that’s true.’
‘I’ve been thinking about that.’
‘Why?’
Kelsey paused from her work again. ‘Well, I have a theory. If, right, the sun is pretty much on the horizon, then wouldn’t the sky often look like it’s sunrise or sunset?’
‘Compared to Lostwell, I suppose. The sky is usually pink or red, although it’s blue sometimes. At night, it’s purple, because the sun doesn’t dip too far below the horizon. It never gets completely dark.’
Kelsey nodded. ‘I’d like to see that.’
Aila frowned at her. ‘Don’t say that in front of Amalia; she’d whisk us there in no time.’
The sound of footsteps approached through the thick door, and Kelsey slipped down from the window and hid the spoon under the bed. The door opened, and the young servant walked into the room with a tray.
‘Morning, ladies,’ he said.
‘Good morning,’ said Kelsey. ‘No Maxin today?’
‘He left to go into town,’ the young man said as he placed the tray on the ground.
Kelsey picked up a book and threw it over to him.
