The Silvered (68 page)

“My mother’s idea.”

Danika looked up to meet the gaze of a girl probably no more than Tomas’ age. Eighteen. Nineteen maybe. Younger by three or four years than Annalyse, who Danika had been thinking of as so very young. “You’re the sixth mage.”

She nodded. “Mirian Maylin. I’ve been following you since you were taken.”

“You should have gone to Lord Hagen…”

“That was the plan, but first I ran into Captain Reiter and then Tomas.”

“I rescued her.”

Mirian smiled pointedly at Tomas. “We rescued each other.”

“So just the two of you?” Jesine moved to stand by Danika’s side. “There must have been someone else.”

“Everyone else is fighting a war. Or dead.”

“If you were captured…How did you get the net off?”

“I heard your warning, Lady Hagen, and I twisted resin and sticks into my hair. It hasn’t been cut in Pack fashion, so there’s more of it.”

Hasn’t been? Hadn’t been. Danika listened to Tomas breathing beside her and thought,
It could be now.

“We could have defeated the net with a hat?” Stina snorted.

“So it seems.” The girl, Mirian, reached back to pull Captain Reiter to the edge. If the skin was still up there, it had been rolled back. “The captain has the artifact to remove the nets.”

“The fork,” Jesine said in Imperial.

“That is what it looks like,” the captain agreed, reaching into an inside pocket and pulling out the small wooden fork they’d used to remove Jesine’s net before cutting into Danika’s chest.

The scar throbbed. She only just managed to stop herself from touching it. He’d been there when it happened. He’d been there when Kirstin died. “Why are you helping us?”

“There’s a difference between serving the needs of your country and supporting a madman.” Because he looked so miserable about realizing it, Danika decided to believe him.

“You didn’t know he was mad when you let Tomas and me go.” Mirian spoke to the captain almost the same way she spoke to Tomas.

He stared at the girl for a long moment then said, “I knew he was
wrong.” But the look on his face told Danika he hadn’t been thinking of Leopald at the time.

“You have no mage marks.” Danika squinted up toward the rathole. Even from here she should be able to see the color in Mirian Maylin’s eyes. “You can’t be the sixth mage without mage marks.”

“My mage marks are white, Lady Hagen.”

Beside her, Tomas made a questioning noise—it seemed as though this was news to him as well—and Danika shook her head. “There’s no such thing.”

“Yes, there is.” Stina spoke in Aydori, but it was clear she’d understood at least the gist what had been said in Imperial. “My mother was from Orin. Most Earth-mages have closer ties to the old country, but that’s neither here nor there. When I was young, she told me stories of mages with white mage marks, mages who could work in all six of the crafts.”

“All six?” Annalyse shook her head. “My professors always said that to divide your power between disciplines would keep you from realizing your full potential.”

Stina snorted and, watching her stare up at Mirian through narrowed eyes, Danika wondered what she knew the rest of them didn’t. “All our professors said that. I suspect it depends on how much power you have and how much you’re willing to let it shape you instead of you shaping it.”

Smiling tightly, Mirian said only, “If you could throw the artifact to Tomas, Captain. It would be best to leave this discussion for another time.”

“Sensible,” Tomas murmured as he caught the fork. He grinned up at the girl, she smiled down at him and Danika could hear history in the word. They’d have a lot to talk about, her and Tomas. Her and Mirian Maylin. Later.

He didn’t give her a chance to tell him to free Jesine first. He shoved the prongs through her hair and forced the net up off her head. There was a flare of pain and then the headache she’d had since that morning on the Trouge Road lifted with it. It felt like a cool drink of water running down a dry throat. Like the first strawberry in the spring. Like stepping out of too-tight shoes. Like a lover’s touch…

“You could have warned me it would feel this good,” she said
quietly to Jesine as Tomas freed first the Healer-mage then Stina and Annalyse.

“I was too distracted the last time to notice,” Jesine reminded her.

“Tomas, boost them up and let’s go. This is the only way I know to get you out,” the captain added as Danika turned her attention to him.

“They can’t go through the palace dressed like that,” Mirian protested. If Mirian wore current Imperial fashion, then she was right. Her wine-colored dress with the bulk of the skirt fabric gathered at the back below a fitted waist and hips looked nothing like the loose, high-waisted dresses they were wearing.

“Does it matter?” Annalyse asked. “It’s night.”

“Not out there,” Tomas told them. “Out there it’s midmorning, and there’s a crowd of people in the palace for a public festival.”

“But…”

Captain Reiter cut her off. “The emperor time shifted you, possibly to make it more convenient for him to observe you eating. Probably because he’s insane. Let’s move, people.”

“Their clothes will give them away.” Mirian grabbed his arm. “Even in the back halls, if a servant sees them…”

“We don’t have any other clothes,” Danika snapped. “Unless you want us to dress up in bedsheets.”

“There you go.” The captain pulled free of her grip and dropped to one knee at the edge of the wall. “Tomas! Boost them up.”

“Wait!”

Tomas froze, responding to Mirian’s voice. Danika added his reaction to the list of things they had to talk about later. He was far too young to make any kind of a commitment, no matter what he thought the girl smelled like.

“You have bedsheets?” Mirian asked. “Tomas, the Sisters of Starlight!”

Tomas grinned. “What was it you said, like they wore sheets over nightgowns?”

“Who are the Sisters of Starlight?” Danika demanded.

“A charitable religious order,” he told her.

“An Imperial charitable religious order.” Mirian grabbed the captain’s sleeve and released him almost immediately. “Would they be noticed in the palace?”

The captain glanced down at his arm, then up at the girl. “Not today.”

“Get the sheets…”

“We also have nightgowns.” Danika bent and picked up the lantern. “Jesine you’re with me. Stina, Annalyse, jam the door leading to the dark cells. I believe that’s the way the guards arrive, and it has to be nearly morning. We need to delay them.”

“You need to
hurry
,” the captain snapped.

Both Tomas and Mirian made a small sound at the emphasis.

“Run,” Danika said, and led the way.

W
HILE SHEETS OVER NIGHTGOWNS wouldn’t attract any less attention than what the mages had been wearing, Danika assumed it would attract a different kind of attention and with her head through a hole in half a sheet and it hanging down both front and back like an extra long historic tabard, she could only hope people would fill in the blanks in the illusion on their own.

“Kirstin would be better at this,” Danika muttered as she jerked Captain Reiter’s knife through a piece of leftover sheet. Kirstin took the fashion chances. Kirstin never cared what people thought. Kirstin was dead. Kirstin had to die to convince the captain to free them from the nets. Kirstin died to free them from the nets. She swiped her palm over her cheeks. “There’s no way this will ever look like a shoe.”

“The Sisters wear white slippers,” Mirian told her dropping to one knee and wrapping a square of fabric around Danika’s right foot. Her nose inches from Danika’s leg, she tied the fake slipper in place with a long strip of sheet—around the ankle, down under the arch, back around the ankle. “And no one,” she added, moving to the left
foot and cutting off whatever protest the captain had been about to make, “would go barefoot in the palace. Perception is important.”

“Getting out before we’re overrun by armed guards is more important,” Reiter grunted, lifting Jesine out of Tomas’ hold and up into the small room. It was crowded already, particularly since none of them would touch the…body…folded up over the chair. Fortunately, Jesine was small. Mirian held up a hand for another square and shuffled over to wrap Jesine’s feet.

“Forget it, Captain.”

Danika turned to see Reiter on one knee, holding out his hand to Stina, who, fortunately, looked amused as she added, “Get out of my way, I can manage on my own.”

When Danika translated, Reiter stood, hands spread, and backed to one side. She considered it a point in his favor that he stayed close enough to lend a hand if necessary.

It was definitely crowded with Stina in the small room. Danika moved closer to the edge, but maintained a hold on the billowing panels of purple fabric. Sheets weren’t known for traction. Glancing down as Tomas bent to boost Annalyse to the ledge, she saw a fan of light spill into the room below. Before she could speak, Annalyse threw herself forward and out of sight, Tomas right behind her.

There was a meaty thud and a groan, then Tomas reappeared dragging Adeline.

The triangle of light disappeared and Annalyse stared up at her, eyes wide, green flecks gleaming. “I hit her with the baton!”

“Good girl,” Stina called.

There was light enough to see Annalyse flush.

“Is she out?” Reiter demanded. He couldn’t look right at Tomas, Danika noticed. Imperials had such strange ideas about skin.

Tomas showed teeth. “Close enough.”

Annalyse needed even less help than Stina had, but then she was taller and almost fifteen years younger. Mirian, still on her knees, moved to her feet with the last two squares of sheet while behind her, Stina peered down at her own fake slippers and shook her head.

“Right, then.” The captain nodded at Tomas. “Let’s go.”

Tomas changed and trotted to the far end of the room. As he started to run, Danika wondered why it looked so familiar…

“The Pack! Tomas, stop!”

His nails raked the floor as he slid.

“Catch me, I’m coming down! Lord and Lady…” Danika spun around, to find the others staring at her. “…how could I have forgotten. The nets are off!” She turned back to the edge. “We have to get the Pack out!”

“Stop her!”

Danika’s foot was in the air when Captain Reiter threw an arm around her waist and dragged her back against his body. She called the wind, more than willing to knock them both down into the room where Tomas waited, but he held her with one arm and grabbed at the wall hangings with the other.

“Lady Hagen! Stop it!” Mirian grabbed her arm, and Danika got a close look at her eyes. None of the original color remained—only white and pupil—and the edges of her pupils were frayed. It was wrong and frightening. If this was what came of allowing the power to choose, the masters were right and she wanted no part of it.

When she flinched away, the wind stopped although she wasn’t positive she’d been the one to stop it.

“Captain Reiter will take you to safety. Tomas and I will free the Pack.”

“Tomas and you?” Fear sharpened her voice. “You’re children!”

Mirian released her arm and stepped back, bumping into Jesine. “And you have your child to think about plus another four. Sorry…” She glanced at Stina. “…five. You’re having twins.”

Stina rolled her eyes. “Oh, joy.”

“You could tell from touching her?” The gold flecks in Jesine’s eyes glittered.

“I didn’t mean to,” Mirian muttered. “It’s like first level metals by way of healing. Identify infant.”

“That’s not possible.”

“And yet…” She shrugged and turned her attention back to Danika, lip curled. Danika suddenly realized this girl would challenge her if it became necessary.

“They’ve been tortured and starved,” she growled. “What makes you think you can control them?”

“She has a better chance than you do.” Tomas said.

Reiter let his grip ease enough that Danika could look down at her brother-in-law. “Tomas, so help me, if you say she smells amazing…”

“She does. But she also has metal craft, and you don’t. They’re using silver to control them, right? I mean, logically, they have to be.”

Mirian’s mouth twitched at that although Danika saw nothing to smile about.

“You’d have to figure out the mechanics, if there’s even a way to get the silver off. Mirian wouldn’t. She can get rid of any silver, fast. And she’s…” He spread his hands although Danika wasn’t sure if words had failed him or he considered it blindingly obvious that Mirian was his Alpha. And probably Captain Reiter’s as well, although Danika doubted any of them had acknowledged it.

While age certainly had its place in Pack dynamics, in the end, position came down to power. Not only raw power, but also how that power was used. Ryder was…had been both strong and smart. Danika was the strongest Air-mage in Aydori. Mirian Maylin had made her way from Aydori to save the Mage-pack, even knowing she was the sixth mage Leopald searched for.

Danika stopped fighting the captain’s hold, and he allowed her to pull free. Meeting the girl’s eyes, forcing herself to focus on the white-on-white in spite of how uneasy it made her feel, she said, “I promised them.”