Shade and Sorceress (31 page)

“Now,” said Nia, looking at the staff disdainfully as if she’d just picked up a piece of trash, “what in the worlds did you bring
this
for?”

Eliza didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She was frozen in the chair, looking up at the Sorceress, waiting for whatever killing blow must be coming next.

“I suppose the Mancers told you it was special or important,” Nia went on. “You know, they were right to try and keep you from me, but if I had a mind to I could teach you a great deal more than they can.”

“Like what?” Eliza managed to ask, just to keep her talking, which Nia seemed more than happy to do.

“Well, for starters, do you see
me
waving a sissy wand about? No, you do not.” And she snapped Eliza’s staff in two over her knee. Eliza felt it like a knife in the gut. She doubled over with a cry.

“That’s their fault, the pain it causes you. Trying to bind you to them with artificial links,” said Nia. “I know it hurts now, little smidgen, but it’ll get better and then you’ll be glad to be rid of it. I’ll bet they told you it was unbreakable. Further evidence of their delusions. But it’s
just like them,
do you see what I mean? All these mystical objects and so on. Power sources, channeling, that’s
their
kind of weak, breakable magic. You and I, we
are
our power. When your mother came to face me she was empty-handed and I liked that, I respected it. She was different from the others, all your dogmatic ancestors. She was
stronger
than them.
We
don’t need toys and trinkets to help us. Like their wretched whatever-it-is sphere.
Why
does it have to be some
particular
ball made out of
special
glass? Of course, you’ll give me the speech about the age of objects and continued use for specific Magic and so on, but I don’t care.
We
can make use of whatever’s on hand. If there’s nothing on hand, we conjure. Look.” She was holding a tall glass of water. Eliza clutched her stomach and stared up at it. The pain was beginning to subside. “What would you like to see? We could have a peek at the Mancers running round trying to make alliances and contingency plans, as if any of that will help them. That’s always good for a laugh.”

“Show me my da,” said Eliza. She knew it was risky but couldn’t help herself. To her surprise, Nia seemed not to mind at all.

“What a one-track mind you have! Here,” she said, and handed Eliza the glass. In it, she could see a watery image of her father standing by a window looking out at the snow. It looked like a hotel room, bleak and impersonal.

“Where is that?” squeaked Eliza, tears springing to her eyes. “Is he here?”

Nia laughed, evidently very pleased with herself. “Do you know, the entire size of my prison is only about fifty square feet. The Mancers aren’t generous with space, are they? And since your father is here too, he’s obviously very close by. The reason you can’t see him, or even the actual size and boundaries of this place, is because within the barriers all is governed by my Illusions. So you see, I’m quite busy keeping all this up. It isn’t easy. I could have just made it one cozy room for me and never changed any of it, but that would have been lazy, sort of like giving up, don’t you think?”

The glass in Eliza’s hand disappeared. The monkey and tea table vanished at the same time. The tiger threw Nia a reproachful glance.

“It would take your Mancers months, all of them chanting away together, to do the kind of thing I can do in a heartbeat,” said Nia scornfully.

Eliza’s mind was reeling with this new knowledge of her father’s proximity. She would have to play this very carefully. Her immediate terror was draining out of her slowly, since in spite of her threats Nia showed no evidence of wanting to kill her right away. She wanted to keep Nia talking in the hopes of getting more information, so she said, “I did learn some things...from the Mancers.”

“Go on, amaze me. What did you do, in your ‘lessons’?”

“We practiced Deep Listening, aye,” said Eliza.

“I used to do a fair bit of that when I was younger,” said Nia dismissively. “But I found myself bored to tears most of the time. Nobody was ever thinking anything worth the effort of eavesdropping on.”

“And potions.”

“Witch-lore meets cookery. Anybody can make a potion.”

“And they were teaching me to make a pencil float.”

Nia boggled at that. “What in the worlds
for?”

“Just...for practice.”

“But what were you
practicing?
That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”

“I couldnay do it, lah,” said Eliza.

“Well, of course not! It’s an entirely purposeless act! Why
should
you be able to do it? I’ve never heard such nonsense. And they pretend to be the great mighty trainers of the Shang Sorceress! The truth is, Smidgen, they’re just desperate for power and relevance. Why do you think they hang about in Di Shang anyway? Altruism? Because they care so deeply about humans? No – it’s because they’re the Big Shots here, whereas in Tian Xia they’re nothing. Oh, don’t mistake me, the Mancers live a very long time, and they know a great many things, and their barriers are the mightiest in the worlds, but when it comes to
power,
unadulterated
power,
they’re nothing to you and me. That’s why they’re so eager to hang on to you.”

“You said I dinnay have any power,” said Eliza.
“Everybody
says I dinnay have any power.”

“I said you had barely any Magic,” Nia corrected her. “That’s not the same as not having any power. Unluckily for you, you can’t use the power you have, so you can’t turn it into Magic. You can thank your dear mother for that.” She paused. “Who do you mean by
everybody?”

“The Mancers, and Swarn, and the Oracle...all of them,” said Eliza.

“I almost wish I could give you the chance to prove them all wrong,” said Nia with a sigh. “Never mind. When I’m free of these barriers and taking revenge, I’ll be sure to mention to them that they were wrong about you. How did the King of the Faeries look to you, by the way?”

Eliza had no idea how to describe the Faery. “He was...shiny,” she stammered. “And mean.”

Nia looked thoughtful and Eliza cast her eyes about the room. The tiger was sprawled in front of a roaring fireplace that she was sure hadn’t been there a moment ago and Charlie was still pinned to the wall. There was no door anywhere to be seen.

“Am I trapped by the barriers too?” asked Eliza.

“Not by barriers,” said Nia, breaking out of her reverie. She gave Eliza such a warm and dazzling smile that Eliza found herself smiling back without meaning to. “The Mancers’ barriers only bind me and my Magic. I prefer Illusion, in the Faery style. You could learn a lot from Faeries, you know, as long as you’re careful never to trust them. If I had tried to enclose you in a barrier you would have ripped your way right out with that dragon claw by now. But to see through my Illusion...well, you’d need Faery blood to undo that! It’s not easy to kill a dragon, but it’s a good sight easier than killing a Faery, believe me.”

“But you can make things appear and disappear so easily,” said Eliza. “Why cannay you just conjure up a dragon claw and get free?”

“Because I haven’t killed a dragon,” said Nia as if this were a very stupid question. “Though in retrospect I should have, as a claw would be very useful. I must say, it never appealed to me, the way Swarn was always off in that foul marsh of hers throwing sharp sticks at brutish, screaming monsters. It struck me as sort of pathetic and, well,
boring.
I never imagined I’d end up in a situation like
this.
Never mind, I’ll be out soon enough. But first, I want you to tell me absolutely
everything
about Tian Xia. I really do miss it terribly.”

Thinking it best to play along, Eliza proceeded to give a halting version of their journey. However, it quickly became obvious that Nia was much more interested in hearing what she herself had to say about Tian Xia, for she interrupted every sentence Eliza began with stories of her own. Eliza half-listened, so that she would be able give appropriate responses and ask questions to keep the Sorceress talking, but her mind was racing. Nia had more than once mentioned killing Eliza but was clearly in no rush to do so. She seemed starved for company – this was possibly the only thing keeping Eliza alive. She had to find some way out of this room, but it was confusing because the room kept changing. Eliza wasn’t sure how the Illusion worked. Perhaps her father was behind the wall, or under the floor, or trapped in one of the paintings (which were now hanging on the walls – the room had become much tidier since her arrival) and how was she to get at him? She had walked through the wall as if it were nothing, but would she be able to walk out the same way? The floor and the sofa were not any realer than the walls, and yet they felt entirely solid.

“You aren’t listening,” said Nia irritably.

“I’m sorry,” said Eliza. “I keep worrying about my da. If I could see him...”

Nia sighed, as if Eliza was being very tedious. “Devotion is charming in a dog, Eliza, but less so in a Sorceress. Well, if you insist, we’ll go look for him, shall we?”

The room changed again. Sliding glass doors led out onto a wide balcony. Eliza gave Charlie a look, hoping he would understand she meant to come back for him, and then followed Nia and the tiger out onto the balcony. Below them a crystal city wound down the hillside to the sea. The streets were paved with gemstones, and the glittering buildings twisted and spiraled upwards in precarious, startling shapes that defied all the laws of engineering. The sky overhead cast a warm rose-gold glow over it all. Nia was wearing a low-cut cream dress now, with high-heeled strappy sandals, enormous sunglasses, and a wide-brimmed white sun-hat. There was a tattoo in the Language of First Days running down the length of her arm. She looked suddenly a little pale.

“There!” she said, gesturing at the city below. “Isn’t it splendid?”

“Did you get your tattoo from the Faithfull as well?” asked Eliza.

“Yes. I was about your age at the time, in fact. I remember being terrified when they drugged me. I had no idea what they were going to do. When I came to my senses I had this line from the Book of the Ancients on my arm.”

“What does it say?” asked Eliza.

Nia smiled wryly. “It says,
See how the mighty have fallen.
You can imagine how I felt about that, at thirteen. Now, will you
look
at my city!”

“It’s prize,” said Eliza, trying to sound enthusiastic. “But where’s my da?”

“Well, down there somewhere, silly. You’ll have to explore. Blast, that’s taken a bit out of me though.”

She unhooked the pendant from around her neck and opened the locket. Inside was a tiny heart-shaped mirror that emanated a pale light. Eliza watched, fascinated, as the Sorceress removed her sunglasses and looked into the tiny mirror. Standing so close to her, Eliza could see minuscule, spidery little wrinkles around Nia’s eyes that vanished as soon as she looked in the mirror. A fresh, youthful glow returned to her skin.

“What is that?” asked Eliza, amazed.

“Isn’t it pretty?” said the Sorceress, handing Eliza the locket to examine. It weighed almost nothing. It was so fine and pure and bright, it was like starlight rendered solid. “It’s Faery gold. Have a look in the mirror.”

Eliza opened the locket. Although the mirror was tiny, no bigger than a fingernail, she seemed to see herself entire, as if in her mind’s eye. She felt an odd relief, and comfort. After all that had happened, here she was, still Eliza, still in one piece.

“How tiresome,” said Nia, regarding Eliza suspiciously. “It didn’t change you at all.”

Eliza snapped the locket shut in alarm. “It
changes
you?” she asked.

“Along with granting eternal youth to the wearer, the mirror has the power to make you appear as you most wish to when you look into it,” said the Sorceress. She gave a short laugh. “I must say, I think your confidence is rather misplaced. I was lying when I said I knew ugly children who had grown up to be good-looking adults, just trying to make you feel better. Besides having been one a very, very long time ago, I don’t have much experience with children.”

“I thought you didnay like...trinkets, you called them,” said Eliza, ignoring the comments on her appearance.

“As a rule, I don’t,” agreed Nia, all too pleased to expound on her philosophy, if such it could be called. “But
this
is special, and one doesn’t turn up one’s nose at a gift from the Faeries. Faeries live for thousands of years in the mortal world and then pass on to another realm when they are ready, but they do not
die,
and they can’t be killed except by the most terrible Magic. This mirror is the only one in existence, granting a Faery’s longevity and eternal beauty to a mortal being. I knew early on that I wasn’t going to be able to achieve all I wanted in one little human life. So my first task, it was evident, was to obtain immortality. And that is something I couldn’t just do by myself. I needed this.”