The Shadow Of What Was Lost (32 page)

“That’s okay.” Asha rubbed her
face, slowly coming awake. “What time is it?”

“A couple of hours before dawn.”
Erran yawned. “A time no living creature should be awake, I know. But your
Representative is a harder task master than any of us anticipated.”

“You don’t have to tell me that.”
Asha shook her head. “Why are you here?”

Erran made a face, then produced
a slip of paper from his pocket that he handed to Asha.

“Nothing urgent,” he reassured her.
“This was just the only time I could get it to you. If Representative Alac
keeps you this busy, you may be in for more of these late night disturbances,
I’m afraid. It’s not the sort of thing we can just slip under your door.”

Asha nodded. “Of course.”

Erran coughed, then gestured to
the door. “I should let you get back to sleep,” he said apologetically. He
turned.

“Erran.”

The young man stopped. “Yes?”

“I read the other visions last
night. The ones not in the Journal.”

Erran turned, examining her face
for a few moments in silence. “You have questions,” he said eventually.

Asha shook her head, remembering
what Erran had Seen. “How… how do you deal with it?”

Erran bit his lip. “How long
until you need to meet the Representative?”

Asha shrugged. “An hour?”

“Enough time, then. Get dressed.
I want to show you something.”

“Okay.” When Erran didn’t move,
Asha pointedly looked at him, then the door.

“Ah. Sorry.” Erran flushed, then
exited.

Asha dressed hurriedly and soon
joined Erran outside her room.

“So where are we going?”

Erran shook his head, indicating
he didn’t want to say outside of a Lockroom. “You’ll see.”

They walked for a few minutes,
turning down a series of increasingly bare hallways. This section of the palace
was older and evidently less used; before long even the carpet underfoot had
given way to hard grey stone, the occasional windows had vanished, and dust was
evident everywhere. Only Erran’s torch provided any light.

“The palace backs onto Ilin
Tora,” he explained as they walked. “These passages are cut directly into the
mountain – like Tol Athian, but made by regular men, not the Builders.”

Asha nodded; the passageways were
well-made, but the differences were obvious. Suddenly she was reminded of the
similar journey she'd made with Jin, and she swallowed. “What’s back here?”

“The old dungeons. Storage
rooms.” He shrugged. “Nobody uses this section of the palace any more. Some of
the deeper passages collapsed years ago, and given that the space wasn’t
needed, the cost of upkeep outweighed the benefits of having it available.”

Asha looked around, a sudden
chill making her shiver. The walls here were closer, rough, looming in the
shadows cast by the flickering orange torch. “Then why are we here?”

Erran stopped in front of a
large, thick-looking oak door with a keyhole symbol above the doorknob, then
produced a key from his pocket. Despite the obvious age of the door, the key
turned with a well-oiled click, and the door swung open without a sound.

“For this,” said Erran.

Asha stared around in wonder as
she entered the vast chamber, more a warehouse than a room. The torchlight
didn’t reach the roof, and there was no telling how far back the walls went.
Row upon row of shelves stretched out into the darkness, each holding a variety
of objects.

“What is this place?”

Erran shut the door.
“Administration’s stockpile of ‘dangerous’ Gifted artefacts. Every single thing
they’ve confiscated from the schools and the Tols since the beginning of the
war.”

Asha stared at him blankly for a
few seconds. “These are all
Vessels
?” she asked in disbelief, gesturing
to the vast assortment of objects on the shelves.

“Mostly. There are some books
thought too valuable to burn. Plenty of things confiscated for spite rather
than because they posed a threat. But if you pick something up, chances are
it’s a Vessel.”

Asha shook her head, dazed; given
the price Administration put on Vessels, the contents of this room represented
hundreds of thousands of gold pieces. Maybe more. “How do you….”

“One of the many benefits to
having the head of the Administrators on our side. Aside from Elocien, there’s
only one other man who has access – Ionis, Administration’s chief adviser in
the palace. He rarely comes down here though, so we should be safe.”

Asha took a closer look at one of
the shelves. The items on it looked innocuous enough. “What do they do?”

“All sorts of things.
Administration took anything they thought could be used as weapons, but nearly
half were confiscated because the Tols couldn’t give a satisfactory answer as
to what they were for. Some fire bursts of energy, plain and simple. Some can
blow a hole through ten feet of stone, or put people to sleep, or create
illusions.” Erran smiled. “Some allow you to turn invisible.”

Asha paused. “
That’s
why I
didn’t see you come into my room, back at the Tol.” She’d wondered about that a
few times since she’d arrived, but other questions had always taken precedence.

“We didn’t want anyone to know we
were there until we could talk to you.” Erran moved over to a nearby shelf and
picked up a torc. It was similar to the twisting, sinuous shape of a Shackle,
but this one gleamed silver, not black. “This is what we used. We call it a
Veil.”

Asha frowned. “How did Elocien
use it, though? He doesn’t have a Reserve.”

“Neither do I.” Erran gave her a
crooked smile. “As long as these are filled with Essence beforehand, they’ll
work. Without a Reserve to tap into, they last about an hour before the Essence
decays.”

Asha frowned. “What do you mean,
you don’t have a Reserve?”

“None of us Augurs do.” Erran
shrugged. “We can use Essence, but we get it from external sources. We’re not
like the Gifted in that respect.”

“Oh.” Suddenly Davian’s struggles
with Essence made a lot more sense. The thought, as with all involving Davian,
came with a sharp pang of loss. “So… do you have the Mark, then?”

“I don’t – we only get one if we
use quite a large amount of Essence at once. Fessi doesn’t have one either, but
Kol got his before we realised what would happen. He has to keep his arm
covered all the time now.”

“I see.” Asha stared at the torc
in Erran’s hand. She hadn’t missed being Gifted more than at that moment.

Erran bared his forearm, then
touched the open end of the torc to it. Immediately the metal twisted, became
fluid, melding itself to his skin until his arm was rippling silver in the
torchlight.

Then he vanished.

Asha blinked. “Erran?”

“Still here,” came Erran’s voice.
Suddenly he was visible again, the silver torc back in his hand. He held it out
to her with a grin. “Want to try it?”

Asha hesitated. A part of her did
want to – badly – but she knew, deep down, it would just be a disappointment. A
hollow echo of what it was like to use Essence. She shook her head.

“Why did you bring me down here?”
she asked, looking away.

Erran’s smile faded as he saw the
expression on her face. Nodding to himself, he moved over a few shelves and
located a bound book. He handed it to her silently.

“What’s this?”

“The Journal from before the
war.”

Asha stared down at the tome in
her hands. “The…
Augurs’
Journal?”

“Yes.” Erran gently opened the
book for her, then flipped through some pages. “Here. Read some of these.”

Asha did so, her frown deepening
as she scanned through the pages of visions. One entry spoke of an earthquake
in the south, destroying the city of Prythe. Another described a massive fire
in Ilin Illan, with the palace burning to the ground, along with many of the
other buildings in the Upper District. A different vision foretold an assassin
taking Emperor Uphrai’s life, plunging the Eastern Empire into civil war. Each
one was long, detailed, and confirmed by other Augurs.

“None of these happened,” she
said eventually.

Erran nodded. “You want to know
how I deal with what I See?” He gestured to the Journal. “I hope I’m like them.
I hope I’m wrong.”

Asha stared at him, then back at
the book in her hands. “So the invasion you foresaw….”

“No. Don’t get the wrong idea,”
said Erran hurriedly. “Nothing Fessi, Kol or I have Seen has
ever
failed
to come to pass.” He sighed. “Honestly, I don’t think it’s
likely
that
I’m wrong, Ashalia. We have to assume that everything we See will happen. But…
it still gives me hope. And that’s something.”

Asha flipped further through the
book, a little stunned. Her brow furrowed as she came to the end. “There are
pages missing,” she said, pointing to some ragged edges near the spine.

“Quite a few,” agreed Erran. “We
think whoever recovered the Journal after the Night of Ravens must have taken
them before handing it over to Administration. With the Augurs and their Scribe
dead, there was no way to know what was in them.”

Asha nodded. She kept looking
through the book for a while, then handed it back. “Thank-you,” she said
sincerely. Erran had been right. Knowing just how wrong the Augurs had been
once before… it helped, somehow. Made their visions just a sliver less
terrible.

Erran inclined his head. “It’s
only right that you have all the facts, anyway. You’re as much a part of this
as us, now. You need to know it's possible.” He put the Journal back in its
position on the shelf, then gestured to the door. “We should head back before
Representative Alac comes looking for you.”

Asha gave an absent nod, but her
mind was on something else. She stared around at the rows upon rows of Vessels
stretching away from them. “The invasion... wouldn’t some of these be able to
help against whatever is coming?”

Erran shook his head. “The First
Tenet would still prevent the Gifted from using them. Even from charging them,
in most cases – it’s still intent to use Essence against non-Gifted.” He
sighed. “We thought about it long and hard, believe me. But many need a Reserve
to even work, and most of those that don’t still need the mental training to
control them. The Veils are an exception – and there’s only three of them.
Nearly everything else was designed to be used by the Gifted.”

Asha nodded, disappointed. “Of
course.” She hesitated. “One last question before we leave. Who’s Commander
Hael?”

Erran grimaced, taking a few
seconds before replying. “You wouldn’t have seen him, I think - he’s only
around the palace now and then. He’s in the army, as you've probably already
deduced.” He gave an uncomfortable shrug. “I’ve Read him, a couple of times,
just to be sure. He doesn’t even know who I am, and he’s not an especially
violent man. So… I have no idea why he would stab me.” He stared at the ground,
and Asha could tell he didn’t want to talk about it any further.

“Sorry,” said Asha. “I shouldn’t
pry.”

Erran shook his head. “No, it’s
okay. I’ve just never talked about it with anyone before.”

“Not even Kol and Fessi?”

“Especially not them.” Erran
raised an eyebrow. “We can’t discuss our visions, remember? Otherwise this
whole system is pointless.”

“Oh, of course. That… must be
hard.” Asha was silent for a moment. “What about Elocien?”

“Elocien?” Erran seemed not to
understand what she was asking for a second. Then he gave a short laugh. “To
talk to about this sort of thing? No, we never did. It’s just… not the same.”
He shuffled his feet, looking impatient. “We really should hurry. The last
thing we need is the Representative asking questions about where you were at
this time of the morning.”

Asha nodded her agreement. They
exited the room, Erran locking the door behind them, and began walking back
into the main structure of the palace.

Asha was relieved to see that
Michal wasn’t already waiting when they reached her rooms. She said a quick
goodbye to Erran, then slipped inside, wondering if there was time for a quick
nap before Michal arrived.

She’d barely climbed back into
bed when there was a knock on the door.

Muttering to herself, Asha opened
the door to find Michal waiting. He looked at her with a pleased expression.

“You’re already up,” he said with
an approving smile. “Good to see you’re getting into a routine.”

Asha opened her mouth to correct
him, then just gave a resigned nod, falling into step alongside the Elder. “So
what are we studying this morning?”

“Something a little more
practical, actually.” Michal glanced behind them to make sure no-one was
listening, then lowered his voice. “There was an interesting piece of news last
night – it's worrying, but it's also something that could significantly change
our position here. Once it becomes public knowledge, we may get more visitors
than I can handle. I need to prepare you to meet with some of the minor Houses
by yourself.”