I needed to capitalize on that if I could. “If you will stop the assault, I will vow to do everything in my power to help find your brother, just as I have searched for my own.”
Katashi looked down at me. “Protection is a worthy cause, as I told your brave Guardian. And I sense there is a degree of truth in your offer. You would make an effort, though not with all of your will. I do not fault you for only having a mortal’s resolve. But your vow is insufficient; you are but a child.”
The visage folded his arms. His expression seemed...tired. “These attacks will drive the conspirators out of hiding. I have no desire to harm the innocent while battling the wicked, but that is a price I am willing to pay to discover my brother’s location. The longer I wait, the more likely my brother will be harmed.”
I...understood his feelings on that matter all too well.
Katashi shook his head, turning to leave.
“Wait. Please, wait, great visage. I want to help find your brother. Do you have any idea who might have taken him?”
Katashi spun, the segment of his aura closest to him igniting into fire. “Oh, I know quite well where to begin my search. Her name is Vera Corrington. You helped her escape. I am aware you were deceived. That is the only reason I have not destroyed you.”
I lowered my head. “Thank you for your magnanimity, visage. Please forgive my foolishness.”
“You wish for forgiveness? You wish for me to stop these attacks?”
His hands clenched into fists — which, of course, were also on fire. “You ask for much, Cadence. And I am not known for my forgiving side. But there may yet be a way to earn what you ask for. In freeing those prisoners, you may have gained their trust.”
Oh, I did not like where this was going at all.
“You will bring Vera Corrington to me, within the tower. If you agree to be bound to this, I will give this city a reprieve. If you should fail, or try my patience, I will resume the assault. And heed my words; this strike showed great restraint on my part.”
He paused, glaring down at me, his eyes burning with — you guessed it — fire.
“You have seen how many of my winged ones merely gather around the tower; next time, I will send them all. You have seen a scattered few of my ground forces; next time, I will bring every one. You have seen the damage done by a child of the serpent; next time I will bring the Serpent herself.”
I shivered involuntarily, remembering when I’d seen Seiryu in the tower. The God Serpent’s eye had been larger than my entire body.
Mizuchi, one of Seiryu’s children, was already demolishing this section of the city without difficulty. I couldn’t imagine anything managing to even slow Seiryu down. “How much time will I have?”
“You will have one week to find her and bring her to me. She must be alive. I will await you in the chamber in which we first met.”
I winced. “That’s...not much time, great visage. I’m sure you’re aware that my resources are limited, and if you’re right and there are people in our government working against you—”
“This is not a negotiation.”
I extended my right hand. “Then we have a deal.”
Katashi grasped my hand in his and I understood that my gesture had been a mistake when my flesh began to burn. “The Pact is Sealed.”
When he withdrew his hand, I had a mark on the back of my palm.
It was not an attunement. No, I was not nearly so lucky.
It was a brand.
The sigil of Katashi had been burned into my skin. A reminder of our pact — and, more than likely, the sign that I’d been bound with some kind of divine geas.
There were several things horribly wrong with what had just happened.
I’d just agreed to do something I might not be capable of doing and the consequences would hurt far more than just me if I failed.
Moreover, I’d just agreed to hand over someone to an angry visage who might have nothing to do with his brother’s actual disappearance. Vera had stabbed me in the back a little, but she didn’t exactly deserve a visage’s anger if she hadn’t been involved — and I didn’t see much chance of her surviving either way.
I had a pretty good idea of where to find Vera, or at least a place to start. That inventor I’d seen months earlier was named Aloras Corrington. The likelihood of there being multiple people in the city with the surname Corrington, both from Caelford, that were completely unrelated... well, chances were slim.
That was the worst part of all. I knew that because it was fairly obvious — and that meant other people would have figured it out, too. Katashi had told me directly that higher ups in the city knew about this already. The chances that no one in their inner circle had considered asking another Corrington about Vera’s location was also extraordinarily low.
Which meant, more than likely, that someone with power was deliberately hiding her.
I felt my hand burning deeper as Katashi’s wings stretched — and he flew into the cloud of winged figures above, and then through them toward the top of the tower.
They followed immediately, soaring skyward until they disappeared from view.
And as I glanced toward the city, I saw the Mizuchi’s massive form dislodge itself from another building to soar upward toward the sky.
Katashi had kept his side of the bargain.
I wasn’t so sure I’d be able to keep mine.
Chapter XVIII — Reconiassance
I stood staring at the retreating spiral of gargoyles and karvensi, lost in thought until I noticed that one of them was coming down, rather than up.
Vanniv landed next to me, and then turned his own gaze upward with a smug grin. “Hah! See that? Just a few minutes and I’ve got ‘em all running!”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure that’s not why they’re leaving, Vanniv. Also, flying, not running.”
He waved a hand dismissively. “Semantics. The point is that they’re fleeing from my majesty and might.”
I rubbed my forehead. “...right, right. Let’s get back to the others.”