Page 23 of A Court of Truth and Thorns
“Organizing socks,” said Leaf.
A knock at the door prevented Violet’s retort. The Messenger was here and the joy that his presence was supposed to herald was refusing to show itself.
Leaf kept her eyes lowered as she let the Messenger in and escorted him to the breakfast table, which a maid had already set for two while Violet slept. Eggs, fresh berries, tea. The sight of it turned Violet’s stomach.
Bahir waited for Leaf to depart and for Violet to pull a chair out for him. “Are you feeling better?” he asked, laying a calloused hand on Violet’s cheek before sitting down.
“I’m quite tired, Your Grace,” Violet murmured. A headache was already pressing against the back of her head, and Violet longed for one of Leaf’s droughts to soothe the pain.
“Poor lady.” Bahir moved his hand from Violet’s face to her shoulder. “Your body is treating you poorly these weeks, and it breaks my heart seeing you so.”
Violet nodded and started toward the second chair, but the Messenger’s hand on her shoulder tightened. “I held a vigil last night,” he said, looking into her eyes. “I asked for the Goddess’s guidance for how to ease this ailment that’s befallen you. How to best fill you with her love.”
Violet’s chest tightened. “What guidance did she give you, Your Grace?” If there was another tithe, more that she had to do...
Bahir’s thumb caressed Violet’s skin. “We are healing Dansil, you and I,” he murmured. “We are heralding the ageof love and peace. The Goddess wants us to create life together.”
“I don’t understand.”
Bahir smiled kindly. “A child. Healthy and happy, holy with the Messenger’s seed. That is the gift the Goddess will grant you. And one you will in turn give your people.”
Nausea shifted Violet’s stomach. “I can’t. I—”
“You would deny the Goddess’s will?” Bahir demanded, pulling away his hand.
“I’m bleeding,” Violet said quickly. “My cycle. I—” Acid rose in Violet’s throat before she could finish the words, and she darted from the breakfast table to the chamber pot, heaving up her empty stomach. Violet was still bent over the porcelain when she heard Bahir moving about the suite, shifting things around, before the door opened and closed with his departure.
Stumbling back to the table for a sip of water, Violet found a rose waiting on the white tablecloth. Beside the flower, a note penned in Bahir’s careful hand held three words.
Next week, then.
16
KALI
The three-day journey to River Manor is a haunting mirror of Leaf’s and my carriage ride to Delta, not the least because it is Raza rather than Leaf sitting on the bench beside me. It takes me half a day just to push the thoughts of my sister from my mind enough to breathe normally. I’ve been doing well with not letting the reality of Leaf’s absence conquer my mind, but my tether on that control is slipping more each day.
In place of Dansil’s lush loneliness, Everett bursts with people. They are everywhere, crowding, bending against harsh winds, sucking air from each bit of space. Beggars shiver in the cold. Rich, bundled-up merchants squeeze into tiny tables at busy eateries. And stars, is it freezing. The farther we get from the Dansil border, the sharper the air’s chill, cutting like a knife into my lungs. The last time it snowed in Dansil was before I was born. Here in Everett, we wake up each morning to frost-covered ground, and each night we hope no snowstorm will find our caravan.
If the people and the weather weren’t enough to send my mind spinning, the parade of living crystals that streams by the carriage windows finishes the job. Staffs, jewelry, even building eaves all shine with living crystals. My own reserve of magic is gone, squandered in experiments and training and the occasional loss of control.
“Did you ever see Bahir siphon magic from a crystal?” I ask Alexa and Jasmine, the latter looking pale but way better than I last saw her. The girls have taken it upon themselves to try and tune Leaf’s light and heat crystals into something I might draw magic from. As Rune is busy being everywhere I am not, the girls are my only authority on living crystals and their magic, my only tether to figuring out what being a mage entails. Everything that is squarely in Leaf’s area of study.Let me get Leaf back safe, and I promise never to ignore her magic lectures again,I beg of the stars.
“No.” Alexa fiddles with a lock of hair. “At first, we just tuned small light crystals, the little pebbles that Children sell. Then Bahir started us on more complex crystals and asked us to add triggers into the tunes so that the magic would activate on his command. The older whisperers worked on keeping the Eye of the Goddess shining bright. That was always the priority.”
Right. I finger the living crystal in my hand, Alexa’s latest attempt to tune it to my blood. Wrapping my hand around the crystal, I feel the stinging bees beneath my palm and imagine breathing them in. It doesn’t work. My list of whatdoesn’twork to replenish my magic reserves is quickly growing long enough to fill a scroll. Holding two crystals together doesn’t work; concentrating really hard doesn’t work. Punching a tree in frustration did work, but only to skin my knuckles.
I shake my head at a lantern hanging outside a boarding house, a light crystal instead of a flame flickering inside. “What a waste.” I shove myself away from the window, my palm catching on an errant nail head. I feel skin tearing. “A plain lantern would prove more efficient.”
“The living crystal is a symbol of the inn’s sophistication and luxury.” Raza pulls her hood further over her mangled face. From another, the insight might have sounded helpful, but the princess has a knack for turning each breath into an insult.
I press my dress sleeve against the cut. “No wonder Everett is obsessed with the Sylthia mines. There can never be enough crystals if everyone needs to display one just to keep up their social status.”
“Are you all right, Kal?” Jasmine inserts herself into the conversation before Raza can answer. As if any amount of peacemaking could bridge the gap between the princess and me.
“I’m fine,” I sigh, holding up my hand. Stars, what I wouldn’t give for some privacy. Or to be on horseback with the men instead of trapped here like cattle. The more I learn about Everett, the less I like it.
“Will you try tapping the crystal again, then?” Jasmine asks, holding the crystal out to me with her good arm. Attempt number one hundred forty-two. Give or take a few dozen.
