Behind the Strop, blue-white light flickered fitfully as if blown by a distant wind, and Merrick’s body tightened; apparently he was holding Aulis’ shade together by sheer willpower. “Who gave you instruction, then?”
Now his shoulders twitched and swayed, his top half trying to escape the spot his feet were rooted to. However, Aulis couldn’t get away. Raed almost felt sorry for her . . . almost.
“The Unending Knot.” The words were torn from Merrick’s throat like a curse.
Sorcha glanced at Raed blankly, but he only shrugged—the name meant nothing to him either.
“Let me go, let me go,” Aulis’ voice wheezed through the young Deacon’s throat.
Yet now it was Sorcha’s turn to ask a question, and she made it a good one. “Why did the Emperor tell Hastler to only send two Deacons?” She cleared her throat, looking down at her boots for a moment as she wrestled command of her next words. “Is he part of this?”
Merrick’s body heaved with the dry, wracking sobs of an old woman—a truly strange sight. It was even worse when they became a laugh that didn’t seem to stop.
“Can’t hold her much longer,” the young Deacon gasped, pressing his hands over the top of the Strop. The gesture struck Raed as a curiously childlike one. “Answer. Answer or I will swallow you.”
Raed had never heard of such a thing, but it seemed to have the required effect.
“No,” Aulis howled.
“One answer and you can go. The right answer!”
A deadly grin spread on Merrick’s face, a grin that Raed had only just seen on Aulis. The effect was chilling. “You should ask the Grand Duchess Zofiya that question.”
Sorcha jerked back as if hit.
The laughter went on, and the final words were gasped out in terrible dead delight. “You think you’ve won the war? Foolish Deacons—this is just a skirmish. The war will make you wish to be back here . . . with me.”
A long gurgling gasp, a strangled choke from Merrick, and he coughed the smallest hint of white mist back into the air; a slight breeze rose suddenly and dispersed it. Raed didn’t want to know if the spirit was gone to the Otherside or destroyed. That was Deacon business.
Merrick wiped a thin bead of sweat from his forehead. The lad still looked shaky and Raed would have offered the Deacon a shoulder, but he knew fragile pride when he saw it in another man. Instead he gave him a little nod of respect.
“That is what I hate about damn shades.” Sorcha kicked a rock out of her path with ill-concealed rage. “Always with the cryptic answers! What does the Grand Duchess have to do with any of this?”
“I think we can help with that.” Nynnia appeared in the shattered doorway, her father tight under one arm. For such a slight girl she looked like she was holding up much of Kyrix’s weight. The old man had bruises on his face and held his arms half-curled around his belly. Raed recognized the signs of someone who had received a good beating—he’d seen enough of his crew return from shore leave in similar condition.
The expression on Sorcha’s face was priceless; she had no time for the girl and wasn’t afraid to let it show. Maybe she hadn’t wished Nynnia dead under the rubble, but undoubtedly she’d hoped the other had run off. Yet when Raed looked into the woman’s deep brown eyes, he saw nothing like fear. Her mouth was as determinedly set as Sorcha’s.
Merrick darted over to Nynnia and kissed her on the cheek, forgoing her lips in deference to her father’s presence. “Where’d you go?” he asked, lightly touching her hair. “The Hall came down, and—”
Her voice was so soft that Raed strained to hear her answer. “I had to find my father. I’m sorry.”
“It was incredible,” Merrick said, glancing back over his shoulder to where his partner was still glaring at them. “I don’t know what happened. I mean, I should be dead—”
“We should all be dead.” Kyrix brushed blood out of the corner of his mouth and looked through dark eyes at them. “For months I knew something was wrong with Prior Aulis.”
“Well, we’ve taken care of that,” Sorcha snapped. “Merrick here stopped whatever that mad old bat was trying to do. Your daughter would have seen that if she—”
“You are the type of arrogant Deacon that allowed Aulis to prosper.” The old man’s words cut through even the stalwart Sorcha. He raised a trembling hand and patted his daughter’s arm. “You were lucky that Nynnia was here to save your partner.”
Sorcha blinked, her forehead darkening, a dangerous storm drawing in. Raed hoped that the old codger was going to explain himself very quickly.
“It was you?” Merrick was the first to realize, and then he smiled; a broad grin that flashed as bright as his partner’s was dark. “You saved me!”
“A healer, just like her father.” Kyrix straightened with a little wince, though pride beamed from his bruised face.
Raed had seen few miracles in his life, and Nynnia had no weirstone. He could not imagine how the girl had accomplished the feat. “I didn’t think anyone who had lost that much blood could still be walking around.” He glanced at Sorcha and caught the tail end of her own furrowed brow.
The girl glanced away. “I did only what I had to. The important thing is that Father heard more of their plans.”
“And they are much, much wider than this.” Kyrix waved his hands weakly. “This . . . Well, I am afraid this is just the beginning.”
Raed glanced down at the broken form of the former Prior. “Why can’t anything just be simple in my life?” Realizing that everyone was staring at him, he let out a sigh. “Do go on.”
“Come here.” The old man pulled out a sheaf of papers from inside his cloak. “I found Aulis burning these, and I managed to snatch them from the flames—but one of her minions took exception to my actions.” He gestured to his battered face, almost apologetically.
“You shouldn’t have done such a thing.” Nynnia bit her lip.
“Nonsense, child.” Kyrix looked at her sternly. He spread the largest piece of paper out on a fallen column. It was a map showing the countryside immediately around Vermillion.
“In six other locations, six other Priories, the same has happened.” Nynnia’s father pointed. “Seven pairs of Deacons were meant to die tonight, but you did not go quietly.” He bent over and picked up the foci Raed had kicked aside. When he turned it over in his hand, six scorched marks could be seen around the edge of the silver disc.
“Durnis,” Raed heard Sorcha whisper, and saw her face twist in something that could have been anger or despair.
“The Emperor would not let such a thing happen!” Merrick was quick to leap to the defense of his sovereign.
Raed noticed, however, that Sorcha was not. She chewed on the corner of one full lip and stared down at the Gauntlets tucked at her waist. “Presbyter Rictun hands out assignments, Merrick—but it was not he who gave us this one. The dispatch box was from the Emperor himself.”
Despite what that meant for the Empire, Raed felt a warm glow in the pit of his stomach. At last, Kaleva had shown his true colors. Consorting with creatures from the Otherside was not likely to be forgiven by the common folk.
Her partner must have felt some of her doubt across the Bond because he spun around. “Not the Emperor —he’s a great man, Sorcha. Think of all the good he has done!”
“Then why . . .” Sorcha cleared her throat and looked up at him with steel in her eyes. “Why did he instruct the Arch Abbot to send us here alone, Merrick, when he could have sent a Conclave? Can you answer that?”
Merrick pressed a hand into his hair as if his head were going to explode, and Raed’s sympathy forced him to throw him a lifeline. “Let’s not jump to conclusions without any evidence.” By the Bones, defending the Emperor felt very wrong.
Sorcha drummed her fingertips against her thigh. “Indeed. We will need to consult with the Arch Abbot— find some answers if we can, like what part the Emperor’s sister has to play in all of this.”
Nynnia raised her chin and looked the Deacon squarely in the eye—an impressive feat as far as Raed was concerned. Sorcha’s expression was brittle and dangerous, yet the smaller woman spoke with conviction. Raed again found himself wondering at this change in the girl.
“Royal blood is good for many things.” Nynnia’s voice was flinty.
