I dug my fingers and toes into crumbling masonry and pulled myself up to the window. They were shouting again. It was happening more and more. I threw my leg over the sill and straddled it.
“— an education, clothes, healthy meals! You can do what you want to yourself, Cecily, but you have to take responsibility for your son!”
“He won’t be safe until you’ve lost track of him for good,” my mother hissed, glaring. “I know what you want, but you’ll never get it. He’s safe with me — I won’t let you sacrifice him!”
“Kyrchye, Cecily, I don’t want to sacrifice him,” Arlin said, exasperated. He gestured to the box of food next to the door. “I’m trying to take care of him.”
“Liar!” She spat. I bit my bottom lip, looking from one to the other. Mother said Arlin wanted to kill me and that his gifts were poison, but I’d sneaked some once when I’d been especially hungry, and I hadn’t died.
“Listen to yourself, Cecily. You’re irrational. You need help. And so does Axton. You can’t let him run wild like this — Audrey wouldn’t have liked it.”
“Don’t talk about Audrey!”
“I have to talk about him! He’s why I’m here.” Arlin raked his hands through his hair. “I don’t know what to do. You won’t take my money, you won’t take my gifts, you won’t take my advice — and in the meantime, look how you’re living! This is no way for Audrey’s child to grow up.”
“Ax is safe here,” she repeated, her voice flat. “I’m taking care of him. He’s going to be a sentinel, just like Audrey wanted.”
“Not if he gets his throat cut, first! And what are you going to do if he doesn’t manifest? What then?”
“He will.” Mother smiled. “We made sure of it.”
Arlin shook his head, but Mother and Father had told me over and over that I was going to be just like them. They’d taught me everything they could so when I finally manifested I wouldn’t be afraid. Sometimes I tried to do adjuration in secret, to test myself, but it never worked. That was all right. I still had three or four years. I was just hoping it would happen early so I could help Mother.
“Okay, Cecily, what if you’re right? If I can get Axton accepted into the Vigilance school early, will you let him go?”
“No! You want to take him away and lock him up. You don’t work for Audrey anymore. You betrayed him when he died.”
Arlin straightened, stung.
“I did not!”
“Indeed, he didn’t,” said a stranger, opening the door and frowning at us all. “Although it does seem that your loyalty to a dead man is stronger than your loyalty to your living sovereign, Arlin.”
I stared, fascinated. The newcomer was slender, with long curling blond hair, and he wore nice clothes like the people who lived uptown; nicer even than the clothes Arlin wore. Rings glittered on his fingers and a symbol of Kyrchye hung on a chain around his neck, and he carried a gold-hilted rapier, like a Parkside duelist. He was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen.
Arlin drew in a sharp breath and knelt. I bit my lip, suddenly worried. I’d never seen him kneel to anyone except my father, back when Father had been alive and Arlin had served him.
Mother screamed.
“You bastard! You traitor! You led him to us!”
“I didn’t.” Arlin’s fists clenched. “I would never betray Audrey’s son, Cecily.”
Still worried, I slid the rest of the way through the window, grabbing the sharp piece of paving stone I’d knotted in a corner of my shirt. It came loose and I closed my fist around it, feeling the edges dig into my hand.
“Who are you?” I challenged, making my voice hard, like the older boys in the tenement. I planted myself in front of my mother and glared up at the stranger, daring him to pick a fight.
“I might ask the same of you,” the stranger said, his gray eyes widening. He glanced at Arlin. “You said … Audrey’s son?”
“Bastard!” Mother hissed. The stranger gave a short, humorless laugh.
“There’s a bastard here, but it’s not me. What’s your name, woman? Is this your son? What’s his name?”
“He’s what you’ll never be,” she spat. The stranger recoiled. His hand dropped to the hilt of his sword, and I raised my hand to throw the stone at him.
“Wait!” Arlin leaped to his feet and grabbed my wrist. I struggled. “Your highness, you shouldn’t be here. This is unimportant. Your father — he didn’t want anyone to know about this.”
“Know what? That he was fathering bastards on crazy street whores?” He gave my mother such a disdainful look that I would have thrown my rock except Arlin was holding me back.
“She’s a sentinel,” Arlin said. “She comes from a good family. She just … she’s across the Line.”
I looked from one to the other, trying to figure out what they meant. When I stopped fighting him, Arlin released me. I tightened my fist on the stone but waited to see what would happen.
“I see.” The stranger licked his lips. “So, he tried again, did he? But with his usual lack of attention to details, he chose bad breeding stock.”
“The only bad stock here is you,” Mother said, her voice hard. “Mundane. You and your sister — are you really so surprised that he wanted a more powerful heir?”
The man’s jaw tightened, but he slowly lifted his hand away from his sword hilt.
“You may be ill, but if you don’t keep a civil tongue in your mouth, I’ll have you arrested and thrown into Blackstone Asylum. Do not speak of my sovereign sister with such disrespect.” He looked at Arlin. “I heard you were sneaking down to Dockside to sell secrets to our enemies. I didn’t believe it, so I came down to see for myself. I’m relieved to know you’re not a traitor, but this isn’t much better. … Tell me, does my sister know?”
“Of course not.” Arlin swallowed, hard. “I swore to your father that I’d—“
“Protect his dirty secrets,” the stranger said with resignation. “Of course. And Mother? Does she know?”
“I don’t know. Surely you won’t tell her, will you?”
“Well, I can hardly ignore it. This woman needs to be locked up before she hurts someone. And this — this bastard — what the hell am I supposed to do with him?”
“Axton! Run!” Mother grabbed me and yanked me behind her and Arlin a moment before balefire erupted through the room, pouring down on top of the rich stranger.
Arlin tackled her, throwing her to the ground. The fire vanished. The stranger had fallen to his knees, his fancy clothes sizzling and smoldering. As he looked up, his face drawn in shock and pain, I threw my rock at him. It cut him over the eye.
“Go away!” I shouted, triumphantly. Then the door to the flat flew open, and people in uniforms burst in, their swords drawn.
“Your highness!”
“Duke Lament!”
“What’s going on?”
“Axton!”
I turned at my mother’s cry and saw her pushing Arlin away. I grabbed Arlin’s coat and tried to help her. He stumbled and tried to catch my arm. I ducked away and ran to my mother, who pulled me close and swept the room with balefire once more. The soldiers shouted, falling back and raising their arms to protect their faces.
“Arlin!” the stranger shouted as flames licked up around the room. “Stop her!”
“Cecily, don’t!” Arlin’s hands closed around her arms. “You’re only making things worse!”
I hit him, but then the rich stranger’s hands were on me, pulling me away. “Stop it, boy! Do you want us all to die?”
The heat was rising and I heard screams from the other rooms in the tenement. Arlin had dragged one of my mother’s arms behind her back and was shouting in her ear, yelling at her to stop. She shrieked. The air in the room rippled and grew bad, and then a monster lunged through, all spikes and claws and fangs. I raised my voice with hers, half in fear, half in triumph. Mother had called a transient across the Line to save us!
“Kyrchye!” The stranger exclaimed. “She’s going to kill us all!”
“Go away!” I shouted, twisting in his arms. “Go away or we’ll kill you!”
Someone screamed when the monster’s claws sliced through him. Heat beat on my face as flames moved across the floor, crackling closer and closer. The monster fought in the middle of the fire as if the heat didn’t bother it, and none of the soldiers could get close.
“In the name of Kyrchye, this must end.” The stranger pushed me behind him and drew his sword. “Boy, close your eyes.”
“No!” Arlin shouted, still holding my mother’s arms behind her back. “Don’t! Your highness, don’t! I have her!”
“Run, Axton, run!” Mother screamed. But I knew what the stranger was going to do and I threw myself on his back, trying to grab his sword arm. He shook me off and took two quick steps forward. His rapier’s tip whipped across my mother’s throat.
Blood sprayed. I screamed, throwing out my hands as if I could stop the blood with my bare hands. I strained as hard as I could, trying with all my might to throw a balewall across her neck so all her blood would stay inside and she’d be all right. And for one moment I thought I saw a bright, sick-colored light fill the room and I smelled something awful — but then an excruciating pain drilled through my skull and I felt a silent explosion behind my eyes. My mother collapsed in Arlin’s arms, gurgling as she died and the light went dark again.
Arlin staggered, holding Mother’s body and staring at the stranger. His eyes were wide with horror. The flames were gone, and so was the monster my mother had called. It hadn’t saved us, after all.
I ran forward and grabbed my mother. I grabbed her throat and tried to hold the wound shut, my fingers slipping in her hot blood, but it was too late and my own blood was everywhere, too, streaming from my nose into my mouth and mixing with the tears that streaked my face. When I ran out of breath to scream, I choked and started crying.
“I’m sorry, child,” the stranger said, grabbing me by the shoulders and lifting me away. I tried to struggle, but his grip was too strong. “I would have preferred not to do that. But she’d lost control; it was the only way to save us.”
“I’ll kill you!” I screamed, struggling in his grasp. Pain made my head pound, until I could hardly think straight. “I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!”
“Your highness,” Arlin said, slowly lowering my mother to the floor, “don’t hurt him. He’s too young to understand.”
“And you, Arlin? Do you understand? I didn’t have time to do anything else.”
Arlin looked away, then back up at me. I tried to focus on him, but he kept blurring. My mouth tasted like copper.
“I understand, your highness. Let me take him. You can’t raise him in the palace now … not after he saw you kill his mother.”
“Everyone out,” the stranger ordered, still holding me. “All of you — get out, now.”
Salutes and mutters, and the soldiers left, supporting their wounded. I could still hear a furor outside the room, but it was quiet inside.
“I’ll kill you,” I repeated fiercely, holding on to that thought as if it could make everything else go away. I couldn’t bear to look at my mother anymore, but her blood was everywhere my eyes fell.
“Be quiet, Axton,” Arlin said. He sounded frightened.
“I wouldn’t raise him in the palace, anyway. Mother deserves better than that.” The stranger’s fingers dug into my arms. “I’ll find him a berth on a ship, or send him to one of our agents in Ankham and find him a place as a prentice. How much does he know?”
“Too much, now. Your highness, let me take care of him. Please. I promised your father I’d be responsible for the boy’s future.”
“You should have told us about him as soon as Father died. Then none of this would have happened.”
“No, your highness.” Arlin swallowed. “It wouldn’t have. But then I would have broken my promise to the throne.”
For a moment they were silent, staring at each other.
“If you intend to raise him in Cislunar, you’ll have to leave the palace.”
“Yes, your highness.”
“I don’t want any political scandal.”
“I’ll take care of it, your highness. Nobody will know.”
“If he ever tries to avenge his mother or embarrass my family by talking about his parentage, I’ll have him thrown into the deepest dungeon in the city. And if anyone tries to use him against my family, I’ll have him killed.”
“It won’t happen. I promise. I’ll … I’ll deal with him myself, if it ever comes to that.”
The stranger pushed me forward. I slipped in my mother’s blood and fell, staring at her body.
“This is your mess now, Arlin. I don’t want to hear about this boy or my father’s damn obsession ever again.”
“Yes, your highness.” Arlin stood and stepped around my mother to kneel next to me. He put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to his chest. I heard the stranger leave and looked up, my cheek pressed against Arlin’s coat.
“Who was that?” I whispered.
“That was Duke Domenico Lament, Axton. Don’t worry. You’ll never see him again. You’re mine, now. I’m going to be your new father.”
“I’m going to kill him.”
“You can’t.” He rested his cheek against my hair. “I’m sorry, Axton, but you can’t. I won’t let you.”
I shuddered and dug my fingers into the fabric of his fancy coat as if somehow he could make everything make sense again.
The rock was hard against my face, and blood ran down my cheek and between my lips. I closed my fingers around the carved facade and slowly pulled myself up, dazed.
“Ax! Are you all right?”
Droit. I drew in a breath to shout, couldn’t, and tried again.
“I’m … I’m here,” I said, my voice weak and unsteady. My face was wet from tears. I understood what had happened. The bale had taken me into a private little hell of my own; a hell straight out of my memories. The last time I’d been across the Line, it had done the same. But that time, I’d been able to change the course of those memories. I’d fought back and killed my assailants. But this time I hadn’t managed to change a thing. I hadn’t saved my mother.
I hung in place, listening to the cathedral bell until I felt my heart beating steadily again. My leg was sheer agony. I supposed the chances were increasing that I’d be limping the rest of my life.
At last I started to climb up the wall, gritting my teeth. A minute later Droit hit the wall, swearing. He’d jumped higher than me. I pulled myself up to his level. So. The whole memory had only taken seconds, then.
“I really don’t like this place,” he growled. He looked at me. “You have a nosebleed. Did you hit your head on something?”
“It’s possible.” I didn’t want to talk about it. “Are you all right?”
“Better than the last time we were here, anyway. Let’s go. After you.”
I started to climb. The bell was so loud and so close that I could feel it vibrating through the stone beneath my hands and feet.
We were almost to the door when I heard shouts and the children calling my name. I wrapped my arm around the neck of a gargoyle and risked a glance up. Five half-transients were scampering vertically down the wall like grotesque insects, smeared with blood.
“We killed it!” Caro shouted gleefully. “General, we killed it!”
“Good job!” he shouted back. “Killed what?”
“The vines! We found the roots and tore ‘em to shreds, and now it’s not fighting us anymore.”
I sighed. Jon and I had asked each other what ethical guidelines applied to our interactions with the creatures across the Line. The question had seemed speculative, then, but now it was suddenly more urgent.
“Excellent,” Droit said, who didn’t suffer from ethical qualms. “You have a promising career as the king’s shock troops ahead of you.”
“Nobilis Aronson wouldn’t like to hear that you’d killed something,” I said quietly, studying them as they drew nearer. “Was anyone hurt?”
“No.”
“Just some scratches and stuff.”
“I think I sprained my wrist.”
“Open the doors, and we’ll regroup inside,” Droit urged. We pulled ourselves the rest of the way up as the sentinels forced open the small portal-doors and leaped inside. Clawed hands grabbed us and hauled us inside. I promptly sat on the smooth marble floor and clutched my leg, wishing I still had my laudanum.
“You’re hurting again.” Jack scuttled up and laid a malformed hand on my ankle. “Want me to make a splint?”
“Yes. Please.” It wouldn’t do a thing for the pain, but a bale-splint might help keep me from doing any further damage to myself.
“What’s wrong?” Droit dropped next to me, looking at Jack. The boy ignored him, concentrating on shaping the bale around my leg.
“Dr. Hawkins warned me that I had to stop walking on it,” I said, wiping my face with the back of my hand. Droit leaned over and began cleaning my cheeks with his coat sleeve. I sputtered a protest.
“Shut up and sit still. I don’t want the kids thinking I punched you.”
“It’s just a nosebleed,” I said quickly.
“Did you have a bale-vision? When you jumped?”
“A memory.”
“Lucky you.” His smile was humorless. The bell was still ringing, loudly and thunderously.
“Why? What did you see?”
“Hell seems determined to convince me that I’m going to murder everyone I know.”
I bit my lip and took a guess.
“Did you just kill me?”
“It was inconclusive.” He finished cleaning me up and ran his hand over my head, ruffling my short hair. I gave him a hesitant smile, uncertain what the atypical gesture meant. I thought it was a good sign that he was showing affection, though. For both of us.
He nodded, satisfied.
“That’s better.”
“Done,” Jack announced. I looked down and saw another strange, scaled bale-carapace encasing my injured leg. It felt as unpleasant now as it had the first time.
“Thank you,” I said. Droit, turning away, pulled his well-polished boots out of his belt, where he’d cinched them tightly against him, and slid them back on.
“I should have thought of that,” I said with chagrin.
“I thought of it for you.” He removed my shoes from his coat pockets and tossed them into my lap. “Compliments of the retriever. One of your socks slipped through the vines, though. If a sentinel ever calls it across the Line, you’ll start a new philosophy of adjuration.”
I managed to put on one shoe by myself, but the other was too awkward to maneuver around the new bale splint. Droit slid it back into his pocket. The children had let their transient-shapes slip away and were chattering among themselves about their fight.
“Come on,” Finn urged, turning. “Let’s go find the cardinal.”