Threads of Desire (Spellcraft)

Chapter Eleven

Ily stretched and her back cracked. Her body was spent and her mind was a puddle of melted wax. She’d pushed herself too far and would pay for it in the morning. But she was finished for the day and nearly done with the rug. By late afternoon, she’d completed the central pattern, a subtle coiling weave that left the medallion prominent. Everything about the design was intended to direct the eye to the emperor’s crest. A beginner’s mistake to match the colors to the crest. She’d taken the deepest shade and gone one off that to offer some contrast but not enough to overwhelm the eye.

She could have stopped then, probably should have rested, but she’d been a coward. Not quite ready to leave the shelter of this workshop and face Kal again. Their partnership was soon coming to an end and it distressed her greatly. She would have to leave. But she would leave well compensated for her time and talent, able to build a life in another town. Possibly Cresa, rumored to be wild and untamed, well away from the iron grip of the guild.

So very far from Kal and his hard body and smooth tongue. She would miss him, and that realization chased her back into her work. When she was working, there wasn’t room in her mind to consider these disturbing truths. There wasn’t room for anything but the weave, the flow of magic through her body. Pure, good and clean. Dangerous too. It was possible to drift away into the peace of it, lose your concentration, relinquish control and let the magic drain you completely. She would stop herself before that happened. Of course, she would. She’d never been one to give up.

Kal was waiting for her when she opened the door. Leaning against the balcony and looking out over the twilit city. He turned and smiled as if he’d been waiting all day. As if it had been worth every second of the wait.

How did it go today?”

Well. Would you like to see?”

I’d love to.” He followed her inside and made all of the appropriate noises of appreciation. She watched him, entranced by the sleek masculine beauty of his profile. She considered asking him about his night then pushed the thought aside.

You went further than you’d planned.”

She was startled. He’d been listening to her as she rattled on about her plans. She’d thought his attentiveness had been for show. Now he placed two fingers at the edge of the rug, the last thick band before the border.

She shrugged when he looked to her for confirmation. “Sometimes, I get caught up in it.”

True but not the whole truth.

He frowned. “You must be exhausted.”

Yes. It had been close. At the end there, when her control had wavered and the magic called to her so sweetly. “I’ll be fine. Are you staying in tonight?”

I’d hoped to spend the night with you. But if you—”

I’d like that.”

She took his arm and allowed him to lead her into the hall, up the stairs and to his rooms. “You soak, I’ll speak to Rael about getting you some food. Knowing you, I imagine you skipped luncheon.” She didn’t deny it. “Is there anything you’d like?”

Some wine. Bread. Don’t put Jani to any trouble.”

Kal’s cook was a magician, likely a true one but untrained and not quite powerful enough to get swooped up in the guild’s net. Jani’s bread could teach the guild lessons in artistry. Kal nodded and disappeared through the door. She almost grabbed his arm to tell him to forget about food, but he was gone and the bath was waiting. She let her clothes lay where they fell and sank into the steaming water. Another luxury she would miss.

He returned shortly after she stepped from the bath and proceeded to pamper her, plying her with wine, massaging her with scented oils until her muscles were limp and perfectly useless. Then he sprawled beside her on the bed and told her all of his adventures of the night before, which were shockingly tame. But he made even the tedious state dinner sound entertaining with his tales of polite political infighting and the ridiculous foibles of the aristos.

Your world is very different from mine,” she told him.

It’s the same world, Ily. Just one.”

It was an effort to curve her lips. Her eyes would not open, but the room was dark anyway. He’d long since snuffed the candles, only the glow from fire illuminated this sacred place.

Clearly, you have never burrowed into a refuse heap for warmth.”

A fingertip slicked through the oil on her shoulder blade and goose bumps rose on her skin. He kissed the spot and settled beside her. “No. Can you take a break from your work tomorrow? There’s something I’d like to show you.”

Something about his tone roused her, but it couldn’t counteract the weight that was dragging her down. She thought about finishing the rug, completing the work and leaving.

Yes,” she said. “A break would be good.”

* * *

She hadn’t known what to expect when Kal bid her dress after breakfast. Perhaps a trip to the market or a luncheon at the fountains of Risa. She hadn’t expected the dainty white mare, long-legged and graceful, that waited in the courtyard. She hadn’t expected the silk cloak Rael wrapped around her shoulders before he helped her to mount.

Kal looked imposing on the great gray beast he sat atop...fully aristo, no sign of the gentle lover who’d woken her at dawn, coaxing her to open for him, loving her with a determined glint in his eyes. Her breasts were still scraped from the stubble on his jaw, but this man was a stranger.

The slight nod he gave her was hardly encouraging. Rael handed her the reins. “You’re certain you can handle her?”

I rode often at University, and she seems a biddable enough creature.”

Rael smiled fondly. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she? I picked her out myself.”

You did well then.”

A shadow flickered in his eyes and he glanced over at Kal. “He wanted you to have the best.”

They were off, passing through the dragon gates and into the street, moving in a little bubble of peace created by Kal’s guards. He’d had Rael purchase this horse for her? It was worth more than what he was paying her for the rug. She should have demanded more. An ugly thought, reminding her of why she’d come to him in the first place, whispering that this fantasy world he created for them with his wealth was a lie. They were too different. It couldn’t last.

The crowd surrounding them was dirty and loud, jarring after the silence and beauty of Kal’s home. This was where she truly belonged.

The grand estates gave way to the respectable homes of merchants, lined all in a row, neatly as boxes on a shelf. After a time, the streets narrowed. The leaning slums of her old neighborhood rose to either side, blocking out the sun. Kal’s gaze was fixed ahead, his expression remote. He hadn’t told her where they were going. There’d been something off about him all day...tighter, harder. When he’d taken her this morning, there’d been an intensity to him that had terrified her as much as it aroused.

She was anxious now.

She could smell the ocean, brine and fish. The warehouses were nearby, the brothels and the wharfs.

It’s a rough neighborhood, but no one asks questions here.”

Curiosity is a good way to get yourself dead here. I’m familiar with this place.”

His elegant fingers twitched on the reins and his horse lifted its head, snorting in annoyance. “I didn’t want scrutiny, you’ll understand. The building itself, well, I’ve done my best to make it as comfortable as possible.”

A cold suspicion gripped her.

We had to reinforce the structure first,” he continued. “It’s perfectly sound now and there are guards, of course. It’s safe here despite the area.”

She nodded, searching his face.

Are you sending me to a brothel?”

His nostrils flared and the blood drained from his face. “No.” The word choked him and he spat it out. “Do you...you don’t really think that I would do such a thing?”

I don’t know where you’re taking me.”

He gave a tight nod. “I thought it would be better if you saw with your own eyes what I’ve...it doesn’t matter. Here, see for yourself. This is my building.”

It was a warehouse. The façade was worn and dingy and much of the plaster was cracked but unlike its neighbors, this structure stood straight and true. Still, it was a warehouse in the underside of the business district on the poorest side of town. She dismounted when he did, and when he offered her his hand, she took it. He tucked it against his arm and led her up the wide gritty stairs.

You’re trembling,” he murmured. “There’s nothing to fear here.”

So you say.”

Trust me, Ily.” He paused at the door and looked down at her, expression grave. “I am trusting you.”

He opened the door and ushered her inside, through an empty foyer and up a short set of stairs. These stairs weren’t the main ones. They were tucked to one side like a servant’s entrance. She’d half-expected Kal to leave her there at the base and take the other set. The guard took up a position beside the door and when she glanced back, he was watching her soberly.

What is this place?”

Part what it seems,” he said. “This is where my merchandise comes from, mostly rugs and trinkets. Some small jewelry.”

The other part?”

His hand settled comfortingly on the small of her back. Her body trusted him even as her mind was screaming out a warning. “Come, let me show you.”

He pushed through another door and immediately as they stepped inside the large brightly lit room, someone called out his name. A female someone, tall and beautiful. Another aristo by her dress, but perhaps she was only of a wealthy merchant family. Ily sized her up in an instant. The welcoming smile she directed at Kal. The suspicion that narrowed her eyes when they fixed on Ily.

Ily turned away, stiffening as she took it all in. Children, dozens of them, bent over their work. She was...confused. Once she would have believed he was using the children to make money. A few weeks ago she’d believed him to be a proud and callous aristo with no thought for the people who served him. But she knew better now. The Kal she’d come to...care about wouldn’t steal orphan children from the streets and force them to work in his warehouse.

Kal tried to turn her around as the woman he called Cassia came to greet them. Ily couldn’t have moved if she wanted to. Her mind was racing as she tried to make sense of it.

What is this place?”

He squeezed her shoulder. “It’s a school. The street children you think I hand over to Calef? We bring them here, give them a dry bed and regular meals, training.”

Calef said—”

Calef is paid well to keep his mouth shut and not ask questions. Whatever he’s told you is only speculation on his part.”

Kal’s telling you the truth,” Cassia said, but Ily didn’t even glance at her.

It didn’t make sense. Why would he hide this? The aristos might think he was mad but she wouldn’t have thought their opinion would stop him from doing what he truly wanted to do. The worst that could happen was that he’d be swamped by other desperate people looking for help. But a man like Kal could set rules and afford to enforce them. “I don’t understand. Why hide it?”

No one can know about this place, Ily.” There was a clear warning in his tone that knocked her off balance again. “My daughter is here. The guild believes she’s dead. If they find out she’s still alive, they’ll kill her.”

Ily had her own reasons for avoiding the guild, but they weren’t monsters. They were a powerful, prideful and rule-bound organization, but not evil. There was only one reason why they would even consider killing a child.

Your daughter, is she...” Oh, Kal. She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “She’s blind.”

A flicker of pain crossed his face and she turned to face him, wanting to hug him to her chest and run her fingers through his hair. But she kept her hands to herself.

He nodded. “It’s why the University denied her entrance.”

There’s a reason for that.” A good one.

I know it, but I won’t stand aside and allow them to murder her.”

Cassia did touch him to offer comfort, a light pat on his shoulder. Ily saw it and wrestled for a moment with the rage that flared inside her. She would figure out who this woman was to him later. Right now, that was the least of her concerns. Or it should be.

Some would count it a mercy.”

Would you?”

No, but she didn’t answer him directly. She would know the full extent of his deception before she conceded anything.

That’s why you watched me in the market,” she said, hoping for a denial but seeing the truth on his face. “That’s why the commission...everything.”

He’d needed a master weaver and, as far as she knew, she might very well be the only artist at her level that had broken off relations with the guild.

Not everything, Ily. I hope you never believe that.”

What else was she supposed to think? She noticed that he hadn’t denied that her talent was the reason he’d pursued her. And why was she angry? She’d been the one to insist that this was only a business arrangement. She’d known it would end.

She looked around the room again to avoid his searching gaze. It wasn’t a bad place, certainly nicer than any she’d called home until she met Kal. The windows stretched nearly to the floor and looked out over the flat rooftop of the neighboring warehouse. Beyond that was the sea. He’d put in guild-strengthened glass—she could see where they were marked at the corners although he’d left them unadorned. Apprentice work but still costly. The children were gathered in groups around tables, sitting on cushions and speaking quietly with one another. Occasionally, a voice would rise in laughter or rebuke, but they were a remarkably well-behaved group. Of course, they knew the stakes. They knew what waited outside for them if they were tossed from this place. They looked clean and healthy and extremely curious about the arrival of their benefactor and the strange woman he’d brought to see them. But as nice as this place was, it was no palace.

You keep your daughter here?”

The guild knows about her. I took her to the University when the talent first manifested to see if there was anything they could do.”

Stupid. The guild had very serious rules about such things. A death sentence to ignore this particular rule. A blind weaver... You couldn’t form the pattern without holding the image in your mind. If you released your magic without that, you would die along with any number of people you caught within the weave. Certainly anyone in your immediate vicinity but also perhaps anyone your thoughts even touched upon. The guild secretly and humanely put down any of its members who lacked the ability to control their magic—the demented, the old and infirm, the disabled.

I told them she’d been taken by a fever.”

And they believed you?”

Not at first, no, but we buried her in some state. I mourned publicly for months and she disappeared.”

Ily shook her head. He was protecting his child and endangering them all, everyone who lived in this building certainly.

The guildmaster was willing to take her from me as a pupil and train her secretly.”

No.”

Ily said it without thought—shouted it really—immediately and forcefully. Wincing inwardly, she turned her head to see the look of open shock on Cassia’s face. To her credit, the woman schooled her features quickly but wasn’t able to completely hide the speculation in her eyes. There was a marked lack of surprise on Kal’s face. Ily had been one of the guildmaster’s private pupils and would not wish that particular sort of tutelage upon any child. Had he always known the truth about her? What a very great fool she’d been.

Kal didn’t comment, which was a mercy. Or, worse, ask her any stupid questions, which would help no one. Instead, with a gentleness that shook her to the soul, he tugged her closer. His arms came up around her shoulders and pulled her to his chest. For some reason even she didn’t understand, she let him do it. The strength of his body, his scent. His hands smoothing down her spine. She tucked her head beneath his chin and he held her thus until her trembling subsided. Only moments passed as they stood there, but at some point while Ily hid herself in Kal’s strength, Cassia discreetly moved away.

Don’t let him near her,” Ily whispered fiercely.

He kissed the top of her head. “I won’t. But this...this was the only alternative.”

A shudder ran the length of her body. She snaked her arms around his waist and listened to the reassuring beat of his heart. How long had he known that she was running from one particular man? Lanel Hasson, guildmaster for these past dozen years with a taste for young women and not above using his position to coerce them into his bed. Kal had likely suspected something of the sort once he recognized her as a master. There was every advantage to being a guild member and so very few reasons to run. She remembered how circumspectly he’d questioned her about her training.

He’d been planning this for a very long time.

When she lifted her head, he caught her jaw. He searched her face for a long moment and then kissed her deeply. “I’m sorry.”

For kissing me?”

One corner of his mouth pulled up. “No.”

Has it all been a lie then?”

His body stiffened. “No, Ily.”

The rug. The workshop, every generosity great and small. Us?”

I have to stay in the emperor’s good graces. I can’t afford his scrutiny or animosity. Haran likes expensive gifts particularly when they flatter his pride. The rest... I’ve wanted you from the beginning. You wouldn’t have accepted me otherwise.”

No.” He flinched as if she’d slapped him, but she had no care for his distress. Her own anger was all encompassing. She’d thought that he’d come to care for her as she’d come to care for him. But she’d only allowed herself to be duped.

You wanted me to train your daughter.”

Yes. And I wanted you. Simply wanted you.”

She smiled but it was bittersweet. “And of course it would never occur to you that you can’t have everything you want.”

I didn’t lie to you.”

No, but he’d outmaneuvered her at every turn. She’d thought that she could bargain with him and win. She believed he was telling her the truth now. But then, she was a very great fool.

She untangled herself from his arms and stepped back. “I’d like to speak with your daughter.”

Of course.”

* * *

Ily knelt on the cushions across from Kal and his daughter. The girl, about ten years of age, was tucked in his arms. He must have sensed the anger that still simmered in Ily’s heart because there was a plea in his eyes that couldn’t be feigned.

As if she would take out her anger on his innocent child.

Nira,” he said. “This is Ily. She is like you, a weaver. She’s come to consider taking you as a student.”

And then we can live together again, Papa?”

Perhaps,” Kal deflected. “Say hello, love.”

Nira held out her hand and, after a moment’s hesitation, Ily took it. “You can train me? I can’t see, you know. The other masters said I was an...an impossibility.”

Oh, I don’t believe in impossibilities,” Ily said, gaze flickering briefly to meet Kal’s. “Is this what you’re working on now?”

Nira lifted a square of weave, obviously the work of a novice. Many of the threads were looped and snagged yet there was a pattern to the colors. An odd pattern, but if the girl was entirely blind then logically there should be none.

I can’t make the thread lie flat. It always pops up like that.”

She heard the frustration in the small voice and sympathized. “It takes a great deal of practice, keeping the flow consistent. Especially when it is only one of the many things you must concentrate on when working the weave.”

I start to think about the colors and the next thing I know...” She lifted one delicate shoulder and let it fall in a shrug.

Nira, how do you think about the colors?” She glanced at Kal. “Were you not always blind?”

He shook his head. “She was born this way.”

I can hear them. Each has a different sound. Like music.” Nira touched the yellow. “Bright.” Blue. “This one is cool like the water in the fountain at home.”

Pain flickered across Kal’s face, but Ily barely registered it. Her thoughts were flying. The traditional method of training required that you hold the entire image of the work in your mind as you began the weave. The training consisted in large part in building the mental stamina to concentrate, to hold that single intricately detailed image in your mind for an extended period of time. But maybe...

So long as Nira could distinguish between the different threads, did it matter if she held a picture in her mind or a symphony? It was possible, yes. At least theoretically. And what would the finished product look like? This child might be able to create weaves that no one had imagined possible.

Nira’s face scrunched up. “Rael sings about dogs hunting the moon, do you know it?”

Ily started to shake her head but then said aloud, “No, I’ve never heard it.”

You should ask him to sing it to you. It’s my favorite one. He has a very good voice and he was never trained to use it.”

She met Kal’s gaze and smiled. “I’ll be sure to ask him.”

Nira nodded and lifted the sorry scrap of rug. “I tried to weave it, but the melody kept getting away from me.” She twisted in Kal’s arms and placed her small palm to his cheek. “Can Rael come here, Papa, and sing it to me? I think that would help.”

The next time I come, I will bring Rael,” Kal promised.

Soon,” Nira insisted.

Soon.”

Kal looked Ily’s way, brows raised. She knew what he was asking but didn’t have an answer for him yet. “Does she have any musical training?”

He shook his head. “Do you think it would help?”

Yes. If that is the way she perceives the color and the pattern, then that is what we’ll have to work with. We need to strengthen her control and understanding of how the notes work together to create song. Anything that we can do to encourage that is good.”

We?”

She held his gaze. “We.”

Kal hugged Nira to his chest and kissed the top of her head, but his eyes were fixed on Ily. She couldn’t fault him for trying to save his child. She understood the difficulties he faced. The guild believed the girl was dead. Any master would have been honor bound to report the girl’s existence and then she would be killed. Even taking honor out of the equation, every master she’d ever worked with would have rejected a blind child as a pupil. There were some things money couldn’t buy after all.

Finally, she could say that she understood what motivated Kal.

I’ll stay with her here, then.”

That’s not necessary.”

If I’m to be her master then, yes, it is.”

He looked as though he wanted to argue that point but wouldn’t do it in front of the child. Gently, he set Nira on her feet and pointed her in the direction of her nursemaid, who’d been waiting patiently beside the door. “Lunchtime for you. I’ll discuss your lesson plan with Master Ily and we’ll get you started as soon as possible.”

She hugged him tight, kissing him soundly on the cheek, and then ran unerringly to her nurse. Kal helped Ily to her feet. “You’ll do it then?”

Yes.”

You can stay at the villa. I’d like you to stay at the villa.”

Ily began walking toward the door, past the children eating their lunch. They ate far better than she had for the past several years. He didn’t have just one child. He was hiding dozens. Seli waved to her from across the room and she paused. Kal had been bringing them here, a safe place, giving them food and training. The rugs she’d mocked were theirs. She couldn’t sort through the tangle of emotions knotting in her chest.

His hand fell on her shoulder. “You’ll need to at least retrieve your things.”

She really looked at him for the first time since he revealed his secret. An echo of the anguish she felt was there in his eyes but none of the confusion, only stark determination.

There’s nothing there that you haven’t given to me.” Her old clothes had mysteriously disappeared. She strongly suspected that his staff had burned them.

His mouth tightened. “The rug then. You can’t leave it half-finished.”

No, she couldn’t. She would finish what she started, claim the money she’d earned and negotiate a new contract for Nira’s training. This time she’d demand a fortune.

Until the rug is finished.”