Chapter Fifteen

[cityofthehand]

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Chapter Fifteen


In front of the safehouse, two Red Hand agents sat stationed by a fire pit, wrapped in gray blankets. Maira looked back and Graymere had already disappeared into the sky. She approached them slowly and asked the one on the right, a Dhatan-Rok with green skin and brown braids, “How soon will Captain Lookinghard and Lieutenant Tutenga be back?”

The agent shrugged. “Not sure. The lieu came by a few hours few hours ago to relieve the last shift, didn’t say anything except to stay here and report in if anything happened.”

“Could you send a message that I need to speak to them?”

The Rok considered the other guard and gave a big smile. “Your turn.” With an exaggerated sigh, the other one threw off the blanket they’d been wrapped in and trudged off into the street, headed south.

Maira called her thanks out after the agent and then went inside. She threw herself onto the couch with an exhausted groan and a long sigh. Within moments she found herself rended too sleepy to get up and find a blanket to cover herself with. She curled up and drowsed peacefully until the front door slammed open and shocked her into waking so fast her chest hurt. She fell off the couch in a roll and scrambled to get up and find the source of the oncoming attack.

“Hello? Maira Aialah?” the agent outside called from just inside the door.

“Yes?” she answered.

“Someone’s here to see you, he says it’s urgent.”

Maira blew out a breath to defuse to jitters and walked to the door. Naran stood at the bottom of the steps, held back by the agent. She rolled her eyes at him and kissed her teeth.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Maira, what are you doing?” he demanded. The agent pushed him back with a hand in the middle of his chest. “You have to find the ambassador before she sends those letters.”

A headache sprung up between Maira’s eyes. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and told the guard, “Fine, let him in.” Then she turned her back and went into the house again, hugging herself against the brief excursion into the cold. He stomped in behind her and slammed the door angrily. She faced him by the entrance to the kitchen, arms crossed.

“Do you have any idea what could happen if you don’t tell the ambassador to burn those letters?”

He reached out to grab her arms, and she pointed at him sternly with an angry look. He withdrew his hands.

“It’s taken care of. There’s nothing to worry about.” She went back to the couch and plopped down, pointedly ignoring him.

“Taken care of? What does that mean?”

“It means it isn’t your problem. You can go.”

He angrily crossed his arms over his chest. “No, I can’t. We have to talk about this. I asked you if he said anything and you lied to me. After everything!”

Maira jumped up from the couch with a huff. “I lied? You were setting me up from the beginning!”

“You knew I’d swore I’d take you to Lord Shadow. I never hid that from you.”

“So I was supposed to expect to get ambushed by the fucking Asna’isi when I came to meet you?” she yelled, throwing her hands up in the air. “You didn’t even give me a choice. Fuck you, Naran al-Shahd. I bet everything I saw was some illusion you made up.”

“What I showed you was the absolute truth. I opened everything I had to you. That was my soul,” he said, quieter but sharper.

She shook her head, refusing to feel guilty. “I had no choice. I had to lie.”

“Why?”

“Because people could die. Including you, you simple bastard!”

Silence stretched between them, and she realized they were both breathing faster, harder. He looked as shaken as she felt.

“And what did he tell you?”

“What part of ‘I can’t tell you because you could get killed’ don’t you get?”

“I can take care of myself. You owe me this. I loved him, he was like a father to me. I deserve to know.”

“No.”

“The workhouse really did ruin you, didn’t it? You can’t even pretend to have honor. You’ll lie and steal to get whatever you want. For all I know you’re lying now, just using his name to get what you want. Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t look at your soul, isn’t it? Gods only know what I’d find in there.”

The words cut so deep, she couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe. Maira knew Naran had a vicious streak, a sharp edge to his pride, but the words shocked her no less. All her life she’d stayed alone and felt even lonelier. People passed around her, good people, undamaged ones and she feared that if they looked too long or too close, they’d know she broken and filthy.

“Go stick your dick in a snake’s mouth. We’re done.”

“No, not until you tell me what he said to you. I deserve to know. He was my friend.”

“If I have no honor then what does that matter to me?”

He pressed his hand to his forehead like it hurt. “I didn’t mean that. I shouldn’t have said it, I’m sorry.”

“You meant every word.” Maira put the back of her hand to her trembling lips and smelled the blood and dirt in the bandages, focusing on that just to calm herself. She met his gaze, frowning so deep the bruise on her cheek hurt. “I may be workhouse trash, Naran, but I would never use the worst parts of your life against you like that. Never.”

He cursed under his breath in Rumad. She shook her head and wouldn’t meet his eyes. This was too much. She needed her strength to deal with Yena and Kei-zi and their outrage. Maira turned away and Naran came close, getting around her to block her path to the couch.

“I’m sorry. I really am.”

“Move.”

“That was wrong of me to say. Please, make me understand why won’t you tell me what my friend said in the last moment of his life,” he pleaded. He reached out and took her arms. She winced when he pressed on bruises. He let go instantly, frustration at making things worse flickering across his features. “I shouldn’t have taken my anger with myself out on you. I’m the one with no honor. I deserted my friend when he needed me most, left you to suffer for it. I thought if I took you to Lord Shadow, it would make up for my failure.”

Maira shut her eyes. Borrowed memories and feelings tugged at her, a remnant of the spell that made it impossible not to know he was being genuine, not to experience his shame and grief in a personal way.

“I still can’t. It’s too dangerous.” She covered her face and shook her head. How could talking drain her as much as running from the Asna’isi had?

Naran tenderly wrapped his hands around her wrists and slowly pulled her hands down. “I know I may not look it, but I’m actually pretty strong. I do know a few magic tricks. I can handle whatever it is. As long as it’s not a beautiful woman throwing fruit at me.”

Maira laughed even though she didn’t want to. “I wish I could.”

He pulled her hands toward him until they were pressed his face. “Look in me again. You can.”

A wave of hot and cold rolled over her body, through her core. She melted into that dream place of infinite doors and unhinged time. A door blew open in her face, flooding her with his determination, his thoughts: I’ll get her back, make it right, fix this. One by one others exploded open. Grief. Rage. Betrayal, as well. All the doors opened, offering the ultimate intimacy, utter power to see and know all she wished though he feared every second that she would turn in disgust.

She’d never considered what his side of the spell had been like. Before then, all his thoughts of her shaded to bright, warm tones and soft feelings. Her lie cut him as deep. Deeper than his had cut her.

Naran didn’t wait for her to look. His very essence whirled around her mind, showing rapid glimpses of past accomplishments - spells cast, fights won, awards earned. She watched him wielding swords, knives, talismans, slashing at an opponents, meeting spell for spell, taking staggering blows without staggering. He exuded all his fearless, cunning power at her.

Just as she thought she would have to scream to stop the chaos, he drew

He drew back and the doors closed. Maira’s knees gave and he caught her. She cried out as he grabbed her bruised arms but he didn’t let go until she stood on her own. “I didn’t do the spell,” she mumbled, still trying to center herself again, to remember who she was and what things in her mind were hers and which were his.

“Once you open the door, I can always let you in.”

“That was too much,” she said, with no heat in her voice. “I can’t remember my own mind.”

“It’ll come back to you,” he assured her. “Now you see. I can help you. Tell me.”

Maira nodded. She took a long breath and moved past him to get to the couch before her knees gave out on her again. She sat slowly and stared at the wood floor between her feet a long time, thinking. She looked up and asked, “If you were there, would he have told you?”

“What?”

“If you’d been there, would he have told you instead of me?”

Naran came to the couch and sank down slowly. “Yes. I believe he told you because he had no other resort.”

“He told me to trust no one,” she told him, still focused on the floor and not his face. “But that won’t work much longer. I have to trust someone now. I don’t have a choice.”

“What do you mean?”

“Things are dangerous now. I can’t do this alone. I know he wanted me to, but he had magic and powers. I don’t. I just walked into the middle of all this and I still don’t understand what’s happening. The Professor told me to do two things. I can’t do both. Not now. So, gods of the dead forgive me, but I have to trust someone.”

“Thank you.”

“There is no letter,” she confessed quickly. “The ambassador doesn’t know anything. That’s why I’m waiting for Yena, to apologize. I can’t go back there since I traded on her mother’s name to scare Lord Shadow. I have a feeling they’re both going to be in very bad moods.”

“What?” He was more stunned than angry. “You lied? So, is there no secret?”

“Oh, there’s a secret, but it’s more than that. It’s a device.”

Scooted to the edge of the couch. “What kind of device?”

“I have no idea. It looked like some kind of clock. He said it could make a lord into a god, and it only had one good purpose. After that it would destroy itself. He said it was going to stop something bad, stop someone letting the darkness in.” Maira no longer saw the floor, but the image of the professor’s ruined body under her hands. They burned again as they had that night. She tensed up. “So I did what he told me. I took it and I lied and I ran.”

When she could focus again she looked to Naran, expecting fury but saw only a soft frown or pity. She preferred his anger. Pity made her squirm, like she’d stolen an undeserved prize.

“Where was it in the house?”

“Under a floorboard.”

“How did you get past his house wards?”

“They weren’t there after…after he died,” she said. She gave him a sad, soft look when the grief crossed his face. Losing a friend hurt, no matter how rich and high born you were. Grief treated everyone equally.

His eyes grew watery as he swallowed and took a long breath through his nose. “Where is it now?”

“I can’t. If someone found out there’s no telling what they’d do to you.”

“I can handle myself.”

Maira smiled for a second. Oh, but he did have his touchy pride. “Torture anyone long enough and they’ll break.”

“And you can resist more than I can?”

“No, but there’s no going back for me. He didn’t tell me to give it to you, Naran. He must have had a reason for that. I think he wanted keep you safe. So, I’ll tell you everything. But not that.”

Naran suddenly leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her. Maira stiffened, fearing he would pull her into his soul a third time, but he didn’t. He embraced her and put his cheek on her shoulder. Though she was sore and bruised, she made no move to push him away. She wrapped an arm around him in return.

“Thank you for honoring him like this. Thank you for trusting me.” A wet spot from his tears grew on the collar of her shirt. He pulled back and wiped his eyes with a sniffle. “Where did he want you to take it?”

“Swear - give me your oath - you won’t stop me or take my place. You have to let me do this.”

Naran swore his oath to her very solemnly. She nodded and answered, “He didn’t know who he was meeting. Someone else set the meeting up for him. It’s in Metequ Square, an hour before noon the last market day next week. The signal is three red bands on my right arm.” Maira grabbed her own arm loosely above the elbow to demonstrate.

“And this person will know what to do?”

“That’s what he said. I tried to find out who set the meeting up, but there wasn’t time. I thought -“

“That you could speed things up if you did,” Naran finished for her. “Did he say anything about this person?”

“He said they were in the Tsaqa Tract, there were blue lights and honeysuckle and singing. I went there before Graymere got me, but I didn’t find anything. Thanks to some damn sorcerer.”

He acknowledged the jab with a brief grin. “I see why you ran. He wasn’t wrong to tell you to trust no one. Something like that falling into the wrong hands would be a disaster,” Naran said. He blew out his breath, puffing out his cheeks as he did and scrubbed a hand over his hair. “Before you go to that meeting, tell me everything you can about the device. If he was this desperate, something’s gone very wrong.”

She shrugged. “He tell you anything about it?”

“No. I knew he was working on something secret, but he always projects he didn’t talk about. He had to keep his secrets. Sorcerers with loose lips don’t live very long. Or at least not with their lips intact.”

“If you figured out what it was for, could you do something?”

“I have to try. I owe him that much. Gods, if he’d just told me. If I hadn’t run like a damn coward. If I -”

The front door creaked open, startling them both. They stood at the same time and took defensive stances. When she saw Kei-zi and Yena, Maira gave him an amused look and relaxed.

Yena smirked, too, as she divested of her coat and laid it on the table. “I’m glad to see you alive, Maira. I’ve been getting some very interesting reports about what you did last night.”

Maira's stomach dropped hard at the sight of that smirk and bile splashed the back of her throat as she strained to smile back and not shake.