Nevernight (24 page)

“Practice,
pfft
. If there’s a lock in this place I can’t sweet-talk, I’ve yet to meet it. I just came to ask if you were well enough to come out.”

“Out?” Mia blinked. “Where? What for?”

“Just nosing around. Looking for trouble. You know. Out.”

Mia frowned. “The Revered Mother said we weren’t permitted to leave our rooms after ninebells, remember?”

A freckled smirk lit the girl’s face. “You always do what Mother tells you?”

Mia remembered a cell in the dark. The reek of rot and death, burning her eyes. Shaking hands. A whisper, cold and sharp as steel.

Don’t look.

“No,” she said.

“Well, good. My brother’s no fan of mischief, and every other girl in this place either wants to play the hardcase, brat, or both. So looks like it’s you and me, Corvere.”

“You heard Drusilla. They’ll kick our asses ’til our noses bleed if they catch us.”

“Well, that’ll give us reason not to get caught, neh?”

The girl’s grin was infectious. Picking Mia up and dragging her along for the ride. And as Mister Kindly ate what little was left of her fear, Mia found herself slinging her wounded wing about her neck and grinning back.

“Ladies first,” Ash said, bowing toward the door.

“I don’t see any ladies around here, do you?”

“O, we’re going to get on famously, you and me.”

Still smiling, the girl crept out into the hallway, Mia close behind.

They stole along the corridors, down countless flights of stairs, off through the twisting dark. Mia thought she recognized some of the hallways from her trip to the athenaeum, but she couldn’t be sure. She swore some of the walls had … well …
moved
. The corridors were sparsely decorated, with only stained-glass windows or odd sculptures made from animal bones to break the monotony. And yet Ashlinn charged on in front, quiet as a corpse, never halting for a second. The girl would only pause occasionally, marking the wall with a small piece of red chalk.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Mia asked.

“Nnnnot really.”

“Can you find your way back?”

“If someone doesn’t rub off the chalk, aye.”

“And if they do?”

“We’ll probably get lost and die of starvation in the bowels of the Mountain.”

“Just so you know, if it comes down to cannibalism, you get eaten first.”

“Fair enough, then.”

Mister Kindly roamed in front, hidden in the perpetual darkness. As they passed a particularly grotesque bone statue—something between a bird of prey and a serpent coiled upon itself—Mia felt a shiver in her shadow. Familiar almost. She could sense Mister Kindly’s hackles rising, her own shadow rippling. For second, a sliver of fear pierced her chest, cold and sharp. Mia grabbed Ash’s arm, pulled her behind the statue’s plinth, finger to lips.

Something was coming.

A low growl rumbled along the corridor. A shape moved in the gloom ahead, utterly black, picked out by the window’s dull luminance. Mia squinted into the dark, longing to ask Mister Kindly what was wrong. Daughters, it was almost unthinkable, but for the first time Mia could ever remember, the not-cat seemed … afraid.

“Shit,” Ashlinn whispered. “It’s Eclipse.”

Mia frowned. “What’s—”

The question died in her throat as a dark shape prowled into view. Four feet tall, sleek and utterly silent. Long fangs and sharp claws and no eyes at all. It was a wolf.

A wolf made of shadows.

The creature stopped in its tracks, staring down the hallway toward the girls. They were both pressed against the plinth, holding their breath, sweat gleaming on Ash’s brow. Mia could feel Mister Kindly at her feet, positively trembling now. His fear was infectious, rising into her chest and making her hands shake. For as long as they’d been together, he’d allowed her to conquer her fears. Making her harder, stronger, braver than she could ever have been alone. The things they’d seen. The places they’d been. But now, he seemed more terrified than she.

The not-wolf growled again, the sound reverberating through the floor.

“Eclipse,” said a deep, musical voice. “Be silent.”

Though she didn’t dare breathe, let alone peer out to look, Mia recognized the speaker at once: Lord Cassius. She heard the lightest whisper of cloth, the soft scuff of leather on rock. The Lord of Blades was there; she was sure of it. The head of the entire Red Church. Staring down the corridor right at them—just a few feet of polished stone between them and discovery.

Long moments passed.

Heart thumping in her chest.

Mister Kindly shivering as the shadow wolf growled long and low.

Four Daughters, Cassius is
darkin
.

“Eclipse,” he said. “Adonai awaits. Come.”

A hollow, graveled voice spoke in reply. Tinged with the feminine. Seeming to come from somewhere below the ground.

“…
AS IT PLEASE YOU
…”

One last, low growl. Then footsteps. Whisper-soft. Receding. Mia found her breath, pressed her hand to her breast, felt her heart hammering beneath. Mister Kindly slowly stopped his shivering, and the fear began to fade. Ash grinned, laughing beneath her breath, almost manic.

“Well,
that
was exciting.”

“What in the Mother’s name was that?”

“Eclipse. Lord Cassius’s passenger.” Ashlinn glanced at her shadow, the shapeless shape therein. “Cassius is darkin, you know about them, right?”

Mia nodded. “I’ve a notion.”

“Want to follow him?”

“Follow him? Are you
mad
?”

Ash grinned wider. “A little.”

The girl crept off into the dark, her feet making almost no sound on the stone. Mia reached out to touch her shadow, felt the chill in that liquid black.

“Are you well?” she whispered.

“…
trick question
…?”

“What was that? I’ve never felt you afraid before…”

“…
i could feel him. in my mind. he was … hungry
…”

“Hungry for—”

“Mia!” Ashlinn hissed from the dark ahead. “Come on!”

“…
it is not safe here, mia
…”

Mia sighed. Frowned into the dark at her feet.

“To be continued…”

She stole along behind the girl, regretting her decision to leave her room more and more with every step. But Cassius was
darkin
. All these years, all these miles, and she’d never met another like herself. Goddess, what secrets might he teach her …

Sadly, the Lord of Blades proved as elusive to chase as the dark itself, and somewhere down near Weaver Marielle’s chambers, Cassius had disappeared entirely. At a four-way junction in the labyrinthine dark, Ashlinn sucked her lip, cursed in Vaanian and finally shrugged.

“Slippery as a greased-up sweetboy, that one,” Ash whispered.

“Well, he
is
a master assassin,” Mia hissed.

Ash sighed. “He’s probably leaving the Church. Da said he never stays in one place for long.”

“I can’t say I’m sorry to hear that.”

Ash grinned. “Scared of him?”

“Black Mother, aren’t you?”

“O, aye. But you better get over it. If you graduate, it’s him that’ll anoint you at the initiation ceremony.” Ashlinn looked about them, passageways stretching off into the darkness. “Ah, well. He’ll keep. Come on, I’m hungry.”

The pair stole off into the shadows, leaving the Lord of Blades and his business behind. They found the Hall of Songs, the smell of blood still hanging in the air. Mia’s elbow ached as if remembering, and she felt a surge of familiar anger. Recalling Solis’s face as he raised his sword. The agony of her maiming. With a whispered curse, she slipped back down the twisting stairs. Deep in the Mountain’s belly, they found the doors to the athenaeum, though neither girl thought it would be a good idea to have Chronicler Aelius discover them wandering about after ninebells. And after what seemed an age, a delicious smell drifting down one of the stairwells led them up to the kitchens.

Hot bread was baking in long, coal-fire ovens. The coolrooms were filled with cheeses and fresh fruit. The remnants of last eve’s supper were laid out on long platters. There were no Hands anywhere that Mia could see, so she and Ashlinn each stole a plateful, snuck out onto the now empty Sky Altar. Mia was again struck by the enormity of the blackness beyond the platform. The long drop to the wasteland below. The desert that perfectly mirrored the Ashkahi badlands she and Tric had traveled, somehow dwelling in perpetual night.

She was again overcome with the sense of sanctity about this place. The otherworldliness. She could almost feel the black stare of that statue in the Hall of Eulogies. The goddess, to whom this Church was dedicated.

Marked by the Mother
, Drusilla had said.

But why? For what purpose?

… Maybe Lord Cassius knows?

Ash sat on the railing overlooking the drop, cross-legged, dragging stray blond from her eyes and wolfing down a chunk of bread and cheese. Mia tore at a chicken leg, idly wondering where the Church got the flour to bake bread and where they kept their livestock. The wagon train from Last Hope had contained only arkemical powders and tools and suchlike. Nothing perishable. Nothing alive.

“How do they feed us? Where do they get the stores?”

Ashlinn spoke around her mouthful. “Didn’t your Shahiid teach you about this place?”

“A little,” Mia shrugged. “But he seemed to hold most of the workings as secret. To be earned, not given freely.”

Ashlinn shrugged, scoffed another mouthful. “Wuh vwat wunugd mufuh.”

“… What?”

The girl swallowed, licked her lips. “I said, well, that’s what you’ve got me for. Da told me and my brother everything about this place. Everything he knew, anyway.”

“He’s a Blade?”

“Was. Worked on retainer for the king of Vaan for years.
1
But he got captured on an offering in Liis. Tortured for three weeks in the Thorn Towers of Elai. He escaped, but not before they’d taken his sword hand, one of his eyes and both his bollocks. So the Church retired him.”

“Maw’s teeth,” Mia breathed. “Marielle couldn’t fix his hurts?”

Ash shook her head. “The Leper Priests fed the bits they cut off to the scabdogs. Nothing left to reattach. So Da set to training me and Osrik to replace him.” A shrug. “Couldn’t give the goddess his own life, so he settled for his kin.”

Mia nodded, somehow unsurprised. A lesser man might vow vengeance against the master who had sent him to such a fate. But looking out into the dark waste below the altar, it was easy to understand how this place bred fanatics. She couldn’t help but remember the goddess’s stare in the Hall of Eulogies. The power in it. The majesty.

She glanced down to the shadow at her feet.

Marked for what?

“Did your father tell you anything about Lord Cassius?” she asked.

Ash nodded. “Most wanted man in the Republic. And the most dangerous. More sanctified kills on him than even the Revered Mother. Legend has it he ended his first man at ten. Killed the praetor of the Third Legion in full view of his whole army and got away clean. Murdered the tribune of Dawnspear along with his entire council in the middle of session, and nobody outside chambers heard a whisper.

“He’s been head of the Red Church for years, but like I say, he’s never in one place for long. The Luminatii have been looking to take us down for decades. It’s even worse since the Truedark Massacre. They suppose if they strike the shepherd, the sheep will scatter. So Lord Cassius is top of their list of Things to Do.” Ash took another bite and mumbled. “Finding this place is number two. ’S probably why your master never spoke much about it.”

“And the shadowwolf?”

“Da just told me to stay away from Eclipse.” Ashlinn shrugged. “I’ve heard tell darkin can steal the breath from your lungs. Slip through your shadow and kill you in your dreams. Maw only knows what the daemons who serve them can do.”

“Pfft,” Mia scoffed. “Daemons.”

“O, an expert are we?”

“Not an expert, no. But I know a thing or two.”

“O, really.”

“…
meow
…”

Ashlinn whirled in her seat and reached for the knife in the small of her back. Mister Kindly was sat on the railing, staring at her with tilted head.

“Say hello, Mister Kindly.”

“…
hello, mister kindly
…”

“Maw’s teeth…,” Ashlinn breathed.

“All’s well. He’s no daemon. Couldn’t hurt a fly. And I can’t steal the breath from anyone’s lungs, either. I mean, maybe if I didn’t bathe for a week or three…”
2

Ashlinn crooked one eyebrow at Mia. Nodded slow.

“So. You
are
darkin.”

“… You knew?”

“Figured there was something off after that business with Solis. Didn’t see any shadows move, but it didn’t smell right.” Ash smiled at Mia’s narrowing stare. “You didn’t think I asked you to sneak out just because you seemed like good company, did you?”

Mia tore at her drumstick with her teeth, saying nothing. Ash sat down opposite again, slow and careful. Glanced at the shadowcat. The average citizen would probably try to nail her to a cross if they had an inkling of what she was. Mia wondered if the girl would be blinded by superstition or fear. The smile slowly growing on Ashlinn’s lips gathered all those thoughts, led them down a dark alley, and softly choked them.

“So, what’s it like?” the blonde asked. “Can you walk between the shadows? I heard you can sprout wings and breathe darkness and—”

Mia sent her shadow curling along the flagstones, twisting into a myriad of shapes, horrific, beautiful, abstract. She fixed it around Ashlinn’s feet, tugged gently at her boots.

“Black Mother, that’s amazing,” Ashlinn whispered. “What else can you do?”

“That’s about it.”

“… Really?”

“I can hide. Wrap the shadow around me like a cloak. Makes me hard to spot. But I’m almost blind when I do it. Can’t see more than a few feet in front of me.” Mia shrugged. “Nothing too impressive, I’m afraid.”

“Color me impressed regardless,” Ashlinn winked.