The Shadow Of What Was Lost (26 page)

Davian inclined his head.
"It can't have been easy, not being able to talk about it." He gave
his friend a considering look. “So why didn’t Karaliene give us asylum? Did
you... pull her hair when you were children or something?”

Wirr grunted. “I did, but that
wasn’t the reason she said no. She figured she couldn’t hide us, and the
Desrielites would take it amiss if they found out she was trying to.” He waved
his hand vaguely. “Said it would start a war or something.”

Davian grinned. “Just the man to
be rewriting the Tenets.”

Wirr smiled wryly, though the
expression was still tinged with sadness. “Any other questions?”

Davian shrugged. “No doubt there
will be more, but for now….” He brightened. “Oh, one very important one.”

Wirr raised an eyebrow. “What’s
that?”

“Should I call you ‘Your Grace’
now?”

Wirr snorted. “No, no. Of course
not. That’s my father.” He paused. “It’s ‘Your Highness’. Or, ‘My Prince’, if
you prefer.”

Davian laughed, but quickly
sobered. “It goes without saying that I won’t tell anyone, Wirr, but I think
you should tell Taeris too. He’s risked his life to get us this far. He
deserves to know.”

Wirr grimaced. “I would have
agreed a few hours ago, but… Karaliene was at his trial, Dav. She says the
evidence against him was stronger than he told us. Witnesses that heard people
screaming. And the men he killed, he supposedly tortured them. Disfigured
them.”

Davian listened in silence. “I
cannot believe that,” he said eventually. “Administration wouldn’t have had any
shortage of willing ‘witnesses’, I’m sure. Still… what do you think?”

Wirr shook his head slowly. “We
know why he killed those men. He certainly doesn’t strike me as the type to
take pleasure in killing, so if I had to guess whether the mutilation part was
truth or an exaggeration… they could have been referring to knife wounds from
the fight, for all we know.” He shrugged. “He saved us. That’s good enough for
me.”

Davian smiled, relieved.
“Agreed.”

Neither boy spoke for a few
moments, and Wirr’s face fell. “Dav, there’s something else. Something big.”
Davian was unsure why, but from Wirr’s expression he suddenly felt a wave of
dread. As if, as awkward as the past few minutes had obviously been for Wirr,
this was what his friend had actually been avoiding.

“What is it?”

Wirr just grimaced.

“I
have some terrible news,” he said quietly.

Asha stared out the window, still
trying to come to grips with everything Elocien had just told her.

"And Wirr - Torin - could
change the Tenets. By himself," she repeated, dazed.

"Only once I die, so
hopefully not too soon," said Elocien wryly. "But yes. We suspect
that's why these attacks have been happening - whoever was searching for him
must have known he was at
a
school, but not which one. The first two
attacks were probably to flush him out." He shook his head, expression
rueful. "Which we knew at the time, and did everything we could to bring
him home quietly... but it looks like we still obliged whoever was looking for
him."

Asha nodded slowly, taking a
moment to compose herself, to digest what the duke had revealed over the past
few minutes. Wirr, the Northwarden's son. It was almost too ludicrous to
contemplate... and yet she knew Elocien was telling her the truth. Now that she
really looked, she could even see the physical resemblance between the two.

She closed her eyes, trying to
sort through her churning emotions. Wirr was the reason Caladel had been
attacked. Why Davian and her other friends had died. Her stomach burned with a
flash of irrational, white-hot anger, which thankfully faded just as quickly.
It was tempting to blame Elocien for bringing that danger to their doorstep,
but it wasn't his fault - nor Wirr's, nor the Tol's. It was the fault of whoever
had attacked. Whoever had targeted her friend in the first place.

"Who would even have known
about his situation?" she asked eventually, trying to keep her voice
steady. "It can't have been a big list."

Elocien shrugged. "Bigger
than you would think - the entire Athian Council, for a start. Nashrel made it
a condition of helping me. Said he wouldn't go behind their backs." He
made a face. "He knew Torin was at Caladel, but everyone else was kept in
the dark about the specific location. That's one of the reasons I've been
reluctant to exchange information with them."

"You think it's one of
them?"

Elocien sighed. "Maybe.
Truth be told, someone could just as easily have slipped up. A stray word near
the wrong ear... it wouldn't have taken much."

Asha responded with an absent
nod, still lost in thought. According to Elocien, Wirr's body hadn't been
amongst the dead at Caladel, which meant that he might still be alive. It was
wonderful news, of course... but even so she found herself frowning a little,
the expression fortunately hidden from the duke's view as she gazed out the
window.

It had only been an hour since
she'd arrived at the palace, and yet as far as she could tell, Elocien had told
her everything.
Everything
. She'd hoped he would be forthcoming, of course,
but this much trust so soon after meeting her for the first time felt...
strange. She couldn't say why, but the entire situation was making her uneasy.

She bit her lip. Perhaps, at
least in part, her discomfort was because the revelations had changed things so
much. She couldn't give the Shadraehin this information - couldn't have Wirr's
plight used against his father, no matter how well-intentioned the Shadows'
purpose. She didn't know what the consequences of withholding the truth from
Scyner might be, but that was something she would have to worry about later.

"I still can't believe
Wirr's your son," she said after a while, even now bemused at the thought.
"Sorry - Torin. It's going to take me a while to get used to that."

"I expect he will too. Assuming...."
Elocien's expression clouded, and he took a deep breath. "I just hope he's
safe. Not knowing if he escaped, or was captured, or...." He shook his
head. "It's been hard, searching for him without knowing who's behind all this,
and especially doing it without Administration's knowledge. My resources have
been more limited than I'm accustomed to."

"What
are
your
resources?" asked Asha curiously.

"I have various people...
some owe me favours, others are friends who have nothing to do with Administration
and are smart enough not to ask questions." Elocien shrugged. "Here
in the palace, there are only three people I trust. They're the ones I want you
to work with." He stood. "Speaking of which - wait here. I'll find
them and make the introductions. We can go from there."

Asha paced for a while once
Elocien had left, still trying to process the implications of what she'd been
told. Even the beauty on show outside the window – the immaculately kept
gardens, and beyond the elegant, clean lines of the city stretching away to the
harbour far below – did little to distract her.

After a few minutes the sound of
voices outside the door stopped her mid-step. She looked up as the duke
entered, followed by three people close to Asha’s age.

Elocien took a seat, gesturing
for Asha to do the same. He stared at her intently for a few moments.

“So. These are the people you
will be working with,” he said eventually. “Ashalia – this is Kol, Fessi, and
Erran. Perhaps the most important people in Ilin Illan right now.”

Asha felt her brow furrow as she
turned to the three, all of whom wore the simple clothing of serving folk.
Erran she recognised as being the mousy-haired boy from earlier that day, the
servant who had been with Elocien in Tol Athian. The one called Kol was
enormous, all muscle; even sitting down he seemed to loom over everyone else in
the room. Still, when he looked at Asha his expression was more anxious than
anything else.

The last of them, Fessi, was a
girl about Asha's age, maybe a year older. She had dark, straight hair and a
plump figure.

In all, they seemed entirely
unremarkable.

“It’s nice to meet you,” said
Asha politely, knowing her confusion was probably evident on her face.

There was a short, slightly
uncomfortable silence, and then Erran gave an awkward cough. “We’re like your
friend Davian,” he explained. “We’re Augurs.”

The silence was longer this time
as Asha stared between the three and Elocien in disbelief.

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about,” she said. It had to be some sort of trick. It
had
to be.

Elocien gave her an apologetic
smile. “Yes, you do. Erran Read you, back at the Tol. I wouldn't have risked
telling you about Torin or any of this otherwise.”

“Sorry,” said Erran, sounding
sincere.

Asha shook her head, perhaps more
dazed now than she had been after learning about Wirr. The duke was using
Augurs
?
“But you’re the Northwarden - an Administrator! I thought….” She trailed off.

Elocien’s smile slipped, and he
sighed. “You thought that I must want the Augurs dead. I understand. I helped
write the Tenets and the Treaty, and I've done things in my past I'm not proud
of. But I'm trying to make up for that now, Ashalia - particularly with what we
are doing here." He grimaced. "As for the other Administrators, I
rein them in where I can. Truly. If I hear about abuses of the Treaty, I punish
those responsible as harshly as the law allows. But the types of people who are
attracted to the job… well, I'm sure you've met enough of them. Let’s just say
it is an uphill battle.”

Asha indicated her provisional
acceptance of Elocien's explanation with a bemused nod, turning her attention
to the three Augurs. The people she was going to be working with. They were so…
young.

Erran glanced sideways at
Elocien, who gave him a grim nod.

"You're not sure whether to
believe us," observed Erran quietly. "Allow me to demonstrate."

Before Asha could react he took
two quick steps forward, placing his hand against her forehead.

The building was quiet.

Asha frowned. Even at this early
hour, before dawn, Administration's main building should have been humming with
activity. There were lights flickering cheerfully in the windows, but no
movement, no noise.

Something was wrong.

She walked inside, going cold as
she saw the body. The young man who had been at the front desk twisted slightly
as the breeze swept in the open front door. His face was purple and black,
swollen, bloated folds of skin almost hiding the noose around his neck.

Asha touched the sword at her
side, bile and unease swirling in her stomach. The motion was mostly for
self-reassurance; whoever had done this, had done it hours ago. She headed
towards the stairs, feet leaden, the utter silence feeding her dread.

Even after what she'd seen below,
she was still unprepared for the sight that met her as she reached the second
floor passageway.

The hallway was lined with
bug-eyed corpses, each one shifting and turning gently in an eerie, slow-motion
dance as they hung from the rafters. Some of the distended faces stared blankly
at her as she steadied herself against the wall, light-headed for a moment.
Eventually, she took a deep breath and started through the gauntlet of the
dead, wincing whenever she had to push a limp, cold limb out of her path.

Most of the rooms she passed had
more hangings. Men and women she knew, some little more than children - all of
whom had been so eager to take the Oath, to come here and serve. She wondered
what they'd thought in those last moments... or if they'd even known what was
happening. There were no signs of struggle, no indication that any of them had
put up a fight. Not anywhere.

Finally Asha reached her office.
Her assistant, Genia, swung listlessly in front of the door. Bile threatened to
rise in Asha's throat again as she remembered asking the young girl to work
late last night.

She looked away, collecting
herself before entering.

At first glance, her office
seemed untouched... until she saw the slip of paper, out of place on the
always-tidy desk. A note.

Hands shaking, she picked it up.
There was only one word on it.

Stop.

She crumpled the piece of paper
and shoved it in her pocket, fear and horror melting away beneath sudden,
white-hot rage. She should have known he was responsible for this.

The Shadraehin had gone too far
this time.

Asha gasped as the scene faded
and the room snapped back into focus.

Erran lowered his hand, giving
her an apologetic look before retreating to the other side of the room. She
stared at him.

"What was that?" she
whispered.

"A memory," said the
duke. "My memory, from not more than a month ago. The Shadraehin's
reaction to our trying to cut off his food supply."

He watched her expectantly.

Asha stared at him in disbelief
for a long few seconds, heart pounding as she suddenly understood.

Erran had Read her at the Tol.
They knew.

"How can I believe
you?" she asked, trying not to let her hands shake. "How do I know
you're not making this up, or that the Shadraehin was even behind it?" She
shook her head. "How could a Shadow, or even a group of Shadows, do what
you just showed me?"

"We don't know, but it
happened. Memories aren't something Erran can create," the duke replied
quietly. "It's not just that attack, though. Since we first heard of the
Shadraehin a year ago, more and more Administrators have been turning up dead.
Regular folk, too, sometimes. Each body is left with a note, explaining why the
Shadraehin believed they had to die." He looked her in the eye. "I
can show them to you. Or you can read the reports, if you need something
further."

Asha stared at them for a few
seconds, stomach churning. "Why are you telling me this?"

"You know the answer. When
Erran Read you, he saw your deal with the Shadraehin. But he convinced me that
you'd entered into the agreement without understanding the man you were dealing
with - that you are, in fact, someone worth trusting." Elocien shrugged.
"That, your history of keeping an Augur's secret, and the fact you were
friends with my son convinced me to let you come this far."

"And now?"

"Now you know the truth, and
you have a choice. Us, or him." Elocien's expression was grave. "I'm
hoping that after what you just saw, you're not going to want to have anything
more to do with him. I'm hoping that now you know about Torin, about what I'm
trying to do for the Gifted, you wouldn't consider letting the Shadraehin use
him as leverage. I'm hoping that my arranging such a prestigious position for
you here will give you another avenue to help the Shadows, one that is less
violent than the alternative he offers."

He sighed. "Under better
circumstances I would ask you to help me capture him, too, but that isn't a
game I have time to play at the moment. The deal is simple: you stay away from
him and his people. You tell them nothing. You have
complete
loyalty to
us."

Elocien hesitated. "And
though your word on that is important, you should also know that Erran will be
Reading you if you give it. Any hint of a doubt on your part, and he will erase
your memory of everything you've been told here. It's tricky, but I've seen him
do it before. You'd stay on as Representative, but would remember nothing of
this. And you would be shut out of the investigation into the attacks
entirely."