The Shadow Of What Was Lost (78 page)

Asha bit her lip, but eventually
gave a reluctant nod. "Have you told Wirr?"

"Yes - we've said our
goodbyes." Davian glanced around nervously as he caught another flash of
blue from the corner of his eye. He was tempting fate by staying this long.
"I know you don't approve of Shen, but... you could come with me. From
what you've been saying, it might be safer for you away from Administration,
away from this Scyner and the Shadraehin."

Asha shook her head. "And be
what - a servant of some kind?" She sighed. "You're right, Dav. We
need to be where we're going to have the most impact, and my place is
here."

Davian's heart sank, but he
nodded. He'd known that would be Asha's answer, knew that they were both making
the right choices. It didn't stop him from desperately wishing that things were
different, though.

"I understand," he
said.

Suddenly he spotted someone in a
red cloak waving to him; he blinked in surprise as the figure came closer.

"Ishelle?" He stood,
helping Asha to her feet too before giving the other Augur a confused smile as
she approached. "What are you doing here?"

Ishelle raised an eyebrow.
"You said you'd give me my answer if I came," she said, expression
serious.

Davian stared at her for a
moment, then laughed as he realised what she was talking about.

Ishelle grinned back, then turned
her gaze to Asha. "I'm Ishelle," she said, her tone cheerful.
"Davian and I met on the road a few days ago."

"Dav told me all about
it," said Asha easily, giving Ishelle a polite nod. "I'm Asha."

Ishelle nodded in return, though
for a moment Davian thought he saw a flash of irritation in her eyes. Then she
turned back to him. "I didn't want to interrupt, but one of my friends
over there " - she nodded towards where a group of red-cloaked Gifted were
gathered - " overheard a couple of Administrators talking about you. They
were becoming a little... agitated, apparently. I thought you might want to know."

Davian grimaced.
"Wonderful." He rubbed his forehead.

Ishelle watched him closely.
"Are you still coming to Tol Shen?"

Davian paused for a moment, then
nodded.

"Then you should join us.
It's a long trip to Prythe; I'm sure you'd prefer not to do it alone."
Ishelle tugged at her cloak. "We have a spare one of these, and we're
leaving straight away. We'll be out of the city before anyone thinks to look
too closely at who is in the group."

Davian hesitated, but Asha laid
her hand gently on his arm. "Go," she said, giving him a small smile.
"We both know you've already stayed longer than you should have. I don't
want you getting caught because of me."

She wrapped him in a sudden,
affectionate embrace. Davian returned it and they stood like that for several
seconds, neither wanting to be the first one to let go.

Eventually there was a polite
cough from Ishelle, and Davian and Asha reluctantly separated.

Asha gave him a final parting
smile, and was about to turn away when she hesitated.

“Wait. There's one more thing.”
She reached into a pocket in her dress, then drew out something that glittered
in the flickering torchlight. She grabbed Davian’s hand and pressed the object
into his palm. “They're eventually going to take this away from me if I hang
onto it. Just... keep it for me.” It might have been Davian's imagination, but
he thought her eyes were glistening. “You can give it back to me when we see
each other next.”

She gave him another tight, brief
hug, then spun and walked off before he could say anything.

He opened his hand slowly.

The ring was silver, three bands
twisted together in a distinctive pattern. Davian stared at it, dazed.

The last time he’d seen this
ring, Malshash had been destroying it in Deilannis.

He hesitated for a long moment.

Then he slipped the ring onto his
finger, shaking his head slightly at the familiar weight. Taking a deep breath,
he nodded to Ishelle and they made their way towards the cluster of red-cloaked
Gifted.

It was time to move on.

Asha leaned against the wall of
the Great Hall, tired eyes squinting against the light as the first rays of
dawn found their way through a nearby window.

She stared around dully at the
gathered nobility, everyone talking in hushed tones as the aftermath of the
battle continued to be assessed. Tol Athian's input into the proceedings hadn't
been needed for a while now; she knew she should go back to her rooms, try and
sleep, but her grief was still too sharp. It had only been a few hours since
the Andarran victory, yet the elation of that moment had already worn off,
rapidly replaced by the heavy knowledge of what had been lost.

She had only just returned from
identifying Michal's body. Her mentor had evidently been slain in the chaotic
flight from the Shields to the palace; her only comfort was that it had been a
single blow, dealt from behind and straight through the chest. He had probably
never even felt the blade go in.

An hour before Michal, Kol's body
had been moved under her watchful gaze and placed into the heartrendingly long
line of those who needed burial. It had been hard to see her friend's lifeless
form again - and even harder to see it alone. Erran and Fessi had been true to
their word; Asha had visited their rooms but they were gone, leaving no sign
that they had ever been in Ilin Illan. Davian had left hours ago. Wirr was
still busy trying to deal with an angry and confused Administration, and
probably would be for days to come.

She knew she'd done the right
thing by staying, knew that this was where she needed to be. It didn't make it
feel any less lonely.

Even as she had the thought,
though, she summoned a small smile as a weary-looking Wirr hurried towards her.

"Representative
Chaedris." He stopped in front of her, and though he smiled back, she
could see the worry in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" she
asked him quietly, heart sinking even lower. She wasn't sure she could handle
more bad news. Not now.

Wirr glanced around, checking
that there was nobody nearby to overhear. "Administration have asked to go
through my father's office. They phrased it as a courtesy to me, of course - to
ease my workload - but they've started to realise that he must have known
something about my being Gifted. They're suspicious, and I couldn't refuse them
without looking like I had something to hide."

Asha paled. "I don't know if
there's anything in there, but...."

"I know." Wirr clasped
Asha's hands in his; he made the gesture seem like a condolence, but Asha felt
the hard, uneven iron of a key slip into her palm. "I can hold them off
for maybe an hour. Make sure you're done by then."

Asha nodded, and Wirr turned to
go. Then he hesitated.

"Be careful, Ash. Try to
stay out of sight if you can," he said in a low voice. "I'm trying to
keep things in Administration under control, but there's more than a little
hysteria about the Shadows right now. It's not official policy, but if an
Administrator sees you and they don't know who you are, I wouldn't be surprised
if they try to detain you. Especially since you're an obvious target at the
moment."

Asha gave a short, rueful nod.
Most of the Shadows had melted away, unnoticed, within the first hour of the
victory - along with their Vessels. By the time it had been brought to anyone's
attention, Asha was one of only a handful of Shadows left in the city.

She watched Wirr hurry away, then
took a deep breath, moving out into a deserted corridor and heading for her
rooms. Once there she quickly retrieved the Veil she'd hidden earlier, slipping
it onto her wrist and watching pensively as it moulded to her skin. Everything
shimmered for a moment, and when she moved over to look in the mirror, only an
empty room stared back at her.

She nodded in satisfaction and
then left again. The palace hallways were still mostly empty, and she had no
trouble avoiding collisions with the few people she came across. Once at
Elocien's office she checked the passageway was clear in both directions, then
used the key Wirr had given her, slipping inside and locking the door behind
her.

She just stood there for a
moment, looking around the room sadly. It felt... odd, to be in here without
the reassuring presence of the duke. Her stomach twisted as she thought of him
- wondered again how many of her conversations had been with him, and how many
with Erran. Or if there was ultimately any difference.

She sighed, then moved over to
Elocien's desk, methodically checking through his drawers and scanning each
piece of paper on his desk. There didn't appear to be anything incriminating,
much to her relief. It seemed that Elocien - or Erran - had thought to be
careful, even in here.

Ten minutes had passed when a key
turned in the lock.

Asha's heart leapt to her throat
and she quietly shut the drawer she'd been searching, moving back into the
corner of the room. Wirr had said an hour, but it couldn't have been more than
half of that since they'd spoken.

She gave a silent sigh of relief
as the door swung open to reveal Laiman Kardai standing in the hallway. The
king's advisor had known about the Augurs, was trustworthy. Was probably there
for the same reasons as her, in fact.

She was just about to remove her
Veil when someone called Laiman's name. Laiman's head turned, and he smiled as
another man came into view.

"Taeris!" Laiman
glanced around to check that no-one else was in the vicinity, then beckoned the
heavily scarred man inside. “They decided not to keep you locked away, I see,”
he said with some amusement.

Asha studied the newcomer's
crisscrossed features as he entered. This was clearly Taeris Sarr - the man
Davian said had orchestrated the attack on him three years ago. She frowned as
she watched Laiman's and Taeris' body language. The two men appeared relaxed
around one other, like old acquaintances.

Taeris smiled back, though his
eyes were tired. “They're still not entirely happy that I deceived them with
the Travel Stones, broke into the Tol, or showed them up as fools. Particularly
the latter. But Caeden’s little performance has changed a few minds, convinced
them that there might at least be some merit to what I've been saying.” He sank
into a nearby chair. “Enough for a reprieve from my cell, anyway.”

There was silence for a few
moments as Laiman walked over to the desk, rifling through papers just as Asha
had been doing. Asha stretched her muscles cautiously, unsure now whether to reveal
herself.

"I hear the king has
recovered," said Taeris.

"He has," said Laiman
absently as he scanned a document, though his tone held a note of reservation.

"You don't sound
happy."

Laiman grimaced, looking up from
what he was reading. "He remembers very little from the past two
months."

Taeris frowned. "Control,
then," he concluded. "We're fortunate they didn't try to take things
further."

"That's what has me
worried." Laiman resumed his search. "If the Blind were really
Controlling him, it doesn't makes sense. I mean, I can see why they wouldn't
want him changing the Tenets. But they could have done
so
much more
damage." He scratched his head. "And the timing of his being
released, too - straight after the Tenets were changed...."

Taeris shrugged. "Maybe the
Blind realised what had happened, and decided he wasn't worth the effort any
more?"

Laiman shook his head in
frustration. "I thought that too at first, but he's the
king
. He
could have ordered the surrender - fates knows what would have happened, exactly,
but I guarantee it wouldn't have been pleasant." He hesitated. "Just
think, for a moment. Given the way things turned out. Who benefited most from
having the king act the way he did?"

"Aside from the Blind?"
Taeris tapped his fingers together as he considered. "Well, the king looks
a fool now, stubborn for not changing the Tenets. There's no proof he was
Controlled, and most people don't even believe that power exists, so it's not
exactly something the palace can claim. So I suppose...." He trailed off,
staring at Laiman in mild disbelief. "
Us
? The Gifted?"

"Tol Shen, to be more
precise," said Laiman, opening another drawer. "It's no secret that
Athian decided to hide in the Tol until the Tenets were changed. Shen, on the
other hand, had people on the Shields healing the wounded from the start."
He paused, rubbing his forehead. "And the only memories the king has that
are recent, are of when Karaliene was away. When I insisted that Lothlar and
some of his people accompany her, despite his protests."

Asha stared at the king's advisor
as he flicked through more papers, stunned that he would even hint at such an
accusation. Taeris' sceptical expression, however, wavered. "You think
they have an Augur?"

"No. If it was an Augur, the
distance wouldn't have mattered - and Kevran wouldn't have had any physical
symptoms, either. But we both know there are Vessels out there that can
simulate Control, and it's my belief that Lothlar has one."

Taeris was silent for a moment,
looking troubled at the thought. "Even if he does, there still has to be
an Augur involved for your theory to make any sense," he pointed out.
"If this all started two months ago, then it was well before the invasion
- which means that Shen knew about the attack before it started. And power-hungry
though they can be, they won't have aligned themselves with the likes of the
Blind. Fates, if they really did plan this, they'd have needed an Augur to tell
them ahead of time that we
won
!"

Laiman flicked the last drawer in
the desk shut. "There is another possibility."

Taeris frowned for a few seconds
in puzzlement, then grunted as he realised what Laiman was hinting at.
"You still think they have the Journal pages."

Laiman gave a grim nod and walked
over to sit opposite Taeris, apparently satisfied with the results of his
search. “You know I’ve always had my suspicions as to who took them. And we
both know that Seeing twenty years ahead wasn't a stretch for the likes of
Jakarris, Eleran or Siks.” He sighed. "There's no proof, of course - Shen
could equally have an Augur working for them. But if they did know this attack
was coming since the war, their political manoeuvring over the past ten years
suddenly has more logic behind it. The Houses they chose to ally with never
really made sense to me until today."

Taeris sat in silence for a few
moments, then nodded reluctantly. “So the king looks like a bigoted fool,
everyone sees how valuable the Gifted truly are, and Shen takes the most
difficult step back towards power. They gain the trust of the people again,
while simultaneously undermining the Loyalists." He sighed. "I can
see what you're saying. It's unlikely Shen got into a position like that by
coincidence.”

"Exactly," said Laiman
quietly.

Still standing motionless in the
corner, Asha stared at the two men in horror. Could it be true? The Journal
Erran had shown her had pages missing; that must be what the king's advisor was
referring to. Though how he thought Tol Shen could rely on those visions, when
the others in the book had been so clearly wrong, she had no idea.

Regardless - she hadn't even
considered, hadn't
imagined
that anyone except the Blind could be
Controlling the king. The very thought made her nauseous.

Taeris, though, just looked
annoyed. “Fates. Shen were playing a dangerous game, even by their
standards." 

“And now it's paying off -
they're going to be more powerful than they have been for a very long time.
When I raised the possibility of the king being Controlled, they went so far as
to suggest that the palace was trying to invent a story to cover up its own
incompetence.” Laiman's lip curled in disgust. “This success has made them
bolder.”

Asha shook her head in disbelief,
almost forgetting for a moment that she was invisible. Tol Shen had used
foreknowledge of the invasion, the deaths of thousands, to play
politics
?
And Davian had left only hours ago to work with them....

"And now Davian, of all
people, has thrown in his lot with them," Taeris noted, echoing Asha's
thoughts. He scowled, rubbing his forehead. “I tried to find him after the
battle, but the lad had already left. He doesn't trust me any more - which is
my fault, I suppose, but it makes it no less of a problem. I still think he’s
the key, Thell. We’ve both read Alchesh. He's as important as Caeden, maybe
moreso.”

 “I agree,” said Laiman, making a
calming motion. “Shen have pursued him more aggressively than I would have
expected; if they really do have the missing Journal pages, that could be
significant in and of itself. All we can do for now, though, is try to find their
purpose for him. Once we know that, we can figure out our next move.” He
paused. “And Taeris? It’s Laiman, now. Always Laiman, even in here.”

Thell
. Asha's brow furrowed, and she
made a mental note of the name. If the king's advisor wasn't using his real
name, it was worth finding out why.