Shadow Scale (28 page)

“How dare you?” cried Josef, stepping between us.

Jannoula lay a hand on his elbow. “Please, Your Grace. I can defend myself from unbelievers.”

“I’ve seen miracles,” said Josef stoutly. “I’ve glimpsed the light of Heaven blazing around her, you soulless fiend.”

I met Jannoula’s eye and held it; she hadn’t told the new Regent that she was my fellow soulless fiend, it seemed. I had the advantage. I said, “It’s true that one of my parents was a dragon.” I pointed at Josef’s holy hermit and her walleyed sidekick, Ingar the Librarian. “It’s true of them as well.”

“You lie!” cried Josef.

I held my tongue, waiting to see how Jannoula would play this, trying to glean something of her purpose from how she treated the new Regent. Her face was inscrutable, a mask.

It was Ingar who broke the silence. “Is this not glorious, Blessed?” he said in Samsamese, clasping his fat hands together. “This is what we’ve been waiting for, the others of our kind.”

Josef turned the tiniest bit green. He swiveled slowly to face Jannoula and said, “Explain yourself.”

Her face became the picture of mournful contrition. I knew that face well; my heart hardened against it. She bowed her head and said, “Seraphina tells the truth, my lord. I … I did not wish you to know. I feared you would reject me, as so many have before. I was imprisoned for what I am, by people who could not see beyond it.”

She undid the silver buttons along the sides of her sleeves and then rolled the material back from her forearms. Even though I knew what I would see, the pity and horror of that day came back to me in a rush; apparently my heart was not as hard as I’d believed. Josef stared at the knotted, scarred skin where she’d been burned.

“They peeled off my scales,” she said softly, “and sealed the wounds with white-hot iron.”

I clapped a hand to my mouth. She’d never told me that part.

Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. “Heaven pitied me, and I lost consciousness. That’s when I saw the Saints, who spoke to me and blessed me.”

Josef’s sharp face had softened into sorrow. He was moved by her story and looked more sympathetic—dare I say human?—than
I’d ever seen him. As I watched, his expression changed again; his eyes widened in awe and his mouth fell open. He gasped and dropped to his knees, his gaze transfixed on the air around and above Jannoula.

Ye gods
, said Abdo, plainly awed.
Her mind-fire is … it’s a conflagration
.

Of course I could see nothing.
Is she manipulating his mind?

Abdo tilted his head sideways, studying the situation.
Not the way you mean; she’s not hooked into him the way she’s hooked into Ingar or me. It’s something else
.

“Forgive me, Blessed,” said Josef, touching the hem of her gown. “Clearly, the Saints chose you in spite of your heritage.”

“Or because of it,” she said, eyeing him narrowly. “To teach you a lesson.”

“Then I will endeavor to be humble and learn it,” he said. He bowed his head and clasped his hands. “As St. Kathanda wrote, ‘Even the most grotesque insect may have divine purpose; gauge not Heaven’s favor by appearance alone.’ ”

This had passed beyond ridiculous. “St. Daan in a pan!” I cried. “You can’t possibly believe she’s—”

“Enough of your doubting and misdirection, Seraphina,” said Josef, getting to his feet and glowering. “Don’t imagine I consider you blessed through association.”

“Heaven forbid,” I said, folding my arms.

“It still remains what to do with you,” he said. “I can’t let you report back to your Queen. You will hand over every quigutl device you have.” When I balked, he added, “I won’t hesitate to have my guards strip you.”

I fished out my charm necklace. To my regret, the St. Capiti medallion Kiggs had given me was strung there with the two thniks. Josef took the chain, his eye scanning my person for anything else. “Your ring,” he said. I handed over Orma’s pinkie ring. He examined it, pinching and prodding the pearl, and I cringed, expecting Orma’s voice to crackle forth at any moment.

Nothing happened, which was both a relief and a disappointment.

Josef handed the ring back. A search of Abdo turned up nothing. “You’re my prisoners,” said the Regent. “Any attempt to contact your Queen or her spies will result in severe—”

“Forgive me, Lord Regent,” said Jannoula, raising her eyebrows mildly, “but you cannot keep Seraphina prisoner. She needs to go to Porphyry.”

Josef stared incredulously. I’m sure I looked no less flabbergasted.

“It’s holy work,” Jannoula insisted. “The Saints tell me not to detain her.”

Josef stood straighter, indignation written in his eyes, and I found myself hoping his truculent nature might prevail—not that I wished to stay locked up in Samsam, but I liked even less how powerful Jannoula’s influence seemed to be. Surely there were lines she couldn’t cross, however dazzlingly she glowed.

“We will discuss this in private, Blessed,” said Josef. His voice held a warning, but I suspected he’d already lost. Jannoula’s lips curled into her sly smile. Josef shouted, “Guards! Escort these two to rooms in the east corridor, for now, and keep them under watch.” The two who’d accompanied Abdo and me through the
city stepped up, and two more from the foyer, absurdly carrying halberds indoors, entered the throne room behind them. Josef gave us over to their supervision.

As Abdo and I were escorted out, I glanced at Jannoula. She stared back intently, a calculating light in her eyes.

Abdo and I were put in separate rooms. My accommodations were quite comfortable, except for the guard at the door. I paced the hearthrug for hours, wondering what would become of us and lamenting the loss of my thniks. Glisselda and Kiggs needed to know about Josef and Jannoula. I finally crawled into the four-poster bed and soothed myself by settling my garden. No sooner had I fallen asleep, or so it seemed, than Jannoula was shaking me awake. I thought I must be dreaming.

“Up,” she said sharply, giving me a pinch. “You need to be on the ship to Porphyry before this headstrong Regent changes his mind again.”

I stumbled into my clothes and followed her out. Ingar waited in the dim hallway, carrying a travel pack of his own, his gaze vague behind square spectacles. Beside him waited Abdo.

Jannoula took my arm; I cringed at her touch, but dared not
pull away. I let her lead me up the corridor and down a spiral stair, into the lower parts of the castle, stealing glances at her all the way. She was a little shorter than me, now that I’d grown to full height, but was no less intimidating for that; her very presence seemed to shrink me, the weight of our history pulling me into myself.

Was she angry with me? Her fine-featured face let nothing slip.

We exited the castle through the harborside gate, and the cold wind off the water woke me fully. Jannoula led us under the pale pink sky, along the harbor wall, down slippery stone steps toward a dinghy, tied to an enormous iron ring. A grizzled oarsman was already aboard, asleep with his oiled rain hat over his eyes; he startled at Jannoula’s shout, knocking one of his oars overboard. “In, quickly, all of you,” she said, handing Abdo aboard. Ingar leaped across the dark channel with surprising agility.

“Ingar’s coming to Porphyry?” I asked.

“I’m sending him to help you,” said Jannoula, rubbing her hands to warm them.

“Why don’t you come, too?” I asked. Not that I wished her to, but it seemed preferable to leaving her here, persuading Josef to who knew what.

She didn’t answer, but I suspected I knew why. Abdo had mentioned the ityasaari priest Paulos Pende untangling her mind-fire from the others. The Porphyrians already knew who she was, and didn’t like her much.

I couldn’t leave with this many unanswered questions. “What do you hope to accomplish by ingratiating yourself with Josef?”

Her nostrils flared. “I’m looking out for our interests, don’t worry,” she said, hugging herself against the stiff breeze. “This Regent is a little … unpredictable. I had no idea he’d want to detain you, but of course I can’t allow it. You’ve got to finish gathering everyone. Ingar will help you stay on task and not let your awful uncle distract you.”

I started, alarmed that she knew where Orma was; she smirked, then leaned in and whispered, “Abdo had an interesting and relevant memory when Josef was examining your pearl ring yesterday. I visited his mind while he was sleeping and found it.”

She tried to shove me toward the dinghy. I resisted, crying, “What are you trying to accomplish here? Why Josef?”

She eased off pushing. “There is no end to your questions. Here I am, helping you along, and you still won’t trust me. What will it take, Seraphina?”

“That’s easy. Release Abdo, Dame Okra, and everyone else whose minds you’ve caught on your hooks, and I’ll consider—”

She shoved me hard, and suddenly there was no embankment below my feet. I fell toward the sea, and her eyes widened as if she were surprised to have unbalanced me.

I landed hard in Ingar’s lap, making the boat buck and violently throw up spray. Ingar, looking mildly astonished, squeaked, “Oh!” Abdo helped me right myself, but I pulled away from him and stood up in the tilting, rocking boat. I shouted at Jannoula, “I’m going to Porphyry for my Queen, not for you. I’m not helping you!”

Jannoula turned her back on me and stiffly climbed the stairs toward the castle, its spires dark against the lightening sky.

The ship was a two-masted Porphyrian merchanteer anchored far out in the water. Ingar had vouchers for our passage, all in order, and so the sailors hauled us up one by one in a sling chair. Abdo pushed off the side of the ship with his feet, so he spun as he ascended; Ingar bumped his way up like a lumpy sack of grain.

I hated to admit Jannoula was helping, but she had gotten us out of Blystane quickly, and at the Regent’s expense. Regardless of her reasons—which I could not possibly trust—we were on our way. This was the final leg of our search. I would find the seven ityasaari in Porphyry, locate my awful uncle, as Jannoula called him, and return home at last.

Home. The word seemed to echo in my heart. I wanted nothing in the world so much as that. Even thoughts of Orma didn’t buoy me the way they usually did.

Abdo missed his home, too, I knew. Simply being on a ship among Porphyrians, listening to them talk, seemed to cheer him immensely. He bounded around the deck, eager to explore; Ingar gamely followed him. I questioned a sailor in my shaky Porphyrian; he eventually understood and led me down a claustrophobic corridor beneath the forecastle to the single, cramped cabin where the three of us would board.

I thanked the man, who departed for his duties, and then I learned the crucial importance of ducking through doorways.

The cabin, I discovered once I’d managed to enter without braining myself, had three narrow bunks: an upper and lower built into the left-hand wall and one to the right atop a chest of
drawers. I claimed the lower left bunk for myself, assuming Abdo would want the top. Ingar could sleep by himself across the room, all of two feet away. I peevishly kicked his empty bunk. I did not want him here; maybe he’d fall in the ocean. I sprawled crookedly, keeping my boots off the scratchy coverlet, and felt the ship roll beneath me.

A feeling rolled inside me, too. I didn’t want to look at it.

My entire expedition seemed to have gone wrong. It had started so wonderfully, with Nedouard and Blanche; I felt they were kindred spirits, and that I’d truly done some good for them. Everything had slowly disintegrated since then. Casually lethal Gianni Patto. Mean Od Fredricka, forced into friendliness through Jannoula’s manipulations. The seizing of Dame Okra and Abdo.

Jannoula, still barred from my head, was free from her old prison, walking the world, and entering the minds of others. She could do all kinds of damage now. Hateful Earl Josef, who’d partly credited her with his ascension, might be only the beginning.

I ground the heels of my hands into my eyes. She wanted me to bring the Porphyrian ityasaari back to Goredd to join the others. How in good conscience could I even ask them, not knowing what she had in mind? Even if Kiggs and Glisselda stopped her bodily at the Goreddi border and locked her up, did it matter where she was if she could reach everyone with her mind?