“It was a seeking stone, wasn’t it?” Alsron broke in. “We’d spent hours searching for it in all the rubble. It was Lady Mykaela who found it underneath the floorboards.”
“I felt sick,” I continued. “Dizzy. It was shortly after Lady Zoya danced for us. I remember someone asking me what was wrong, but I couldn’t respond. And then something in my head burst”—I made a gesture—“and before I knew it, there were dead rats streaming in through one of the walls and a skeleton climbing out of a hole in the ground! Prince Kance yanked me on top of one of the tables, and I must have passed out shortly after—”
“And what a sight to see that was,” Brijette countered. “The Prince of Odalia, holding you up by the legs like that! Why, we could see your shift—”
“Impossible,” Lady Shadi said firmly. “Our waist wraps hold our robes securely in place. Was Tea’s waist wrap dislodged in any way?”
“Well, er—yes,” the asha floundered. “I suppose so—”
“I was there, as was pointed out,” Kalen said, “and excepting the fact that she was unconscious, there was nothing wrong with the girl’s clothes.”
Zoya gave her friend a warning look.
“I must have been mistaken,” Brijette withdrew. “It was so hard to keep track of all that was going on.”
“But what happened next?” Ostry demanded.
“Prince Kance lifted Tea onto the table,” Zoya said, “and we got to work trying to stave off as many of those rodents as we could. The skeleton was easier—it was Prince Kance’s own ancestor, imagine that!—but it was a difficult job; we were worried we might accidentally burn down the tearoom if we drew in Fire, and the ground was beginning to cave in. And little miss asha-in-training here slept through it all with a smile on her face!”
“I think you asha exaggerate many parts of the story,” Alsron said, already drunker than the rest. “The length of leg you can display while wearing the standard hua, for instance. I am more interested in investigating that matter further. What if Lady Brijette was right and it is possible to see one’s shift despite the waist wrap?”
Lady Shadi rose demurely to her feet. She tugged lightly at her waist wrap, gathering the cloth from underneath that kept it securely in place, and then lifted her dress to display a pretty ankle. “See how difficult it is just to show you men that much?”
Every male eye in the room was immediately drawn to her. Brijette and Yonca eyed her with thinly disguised scorn, but for a few beats, Zoya’s heartsglass pulsed a deep scarlet.
This was a new side to Lady Shadi that I had never seen before. There was a reason, I realized, why she was popular—and very clever. My story was quickly forgotten.
“Let’s make that a challenge!” Ostry proposed, taking another swig of his drink. “How about we play a round of worm-frog-snake and test Lady Shadi’s claims?”
A round of approval met his words, and I watched, a little bemused, as Ostry started off against the asha, the other boys yelling out, “Worm! Frog! Snake!” in the background like they were eight-year-olds in a schoolyard. Worm beat frog, and soon Ostry was shucking off his shirt amid catcalls. They tried again, but Lady Shadi was either skilled or very lucky, and soon Ostry had to take off his belt. “I surrender,” he said. “I respect Lady Shadi’s skill too much to be losing my pants over it!”
Fortunately, the wine ran out, and since none of the attendants were in sight, I elected, being the most junior of the asha present, to run out and get more. Relieved, I slipped out of the room, pausing at the gardens to gather myself. The Falling Leaf had made some improvements; two more statues were added to that of Anahita’s, this time of Dancing Wind and another Great Hero, Ashi the Swift. I paused for a moment to stare up at the three, taking in the crisp night air to calm myself.
There was a movement to my left, and I saw a dark figure emerge from the gardens. It was clad in black, and its face was obscured by a heavy mask.
We stared at each other. I swore I could feel a presence settle in the corner of my mind that wasn’t Fox—odd feelings of caution and expectation as it tested for a way in, and a telltale trail of annoyance at finding the entrance blocked. The Heartforger’s stone felt hot against my chest.
Without looking away, I bent down and picked up a small garden shovel that had been carefully set behind a large quarry stone.
It fled, and I followed without thinking.
The figure barreled through the carefully trimmed bushes and out the cha-khana’s gates. It moved quickly, but I kept pace behind it, thankful for once for Lady Hami and her leg weights.
“Tea!” I heard my brother call out from somewhere behind me, heard him chasing after me, but I did not stop.
I should go back, I thought.
But another part of me, irritated and annoyed by all the restrictions being placed on my daily life, shrugged off the suggestion and ran faster. I raced into a dark alley, and I felt a surge of exultation upon realizing it was a dead end, with nothing there to hide behind. The figure had stopped, standing motionless before the blank wall. A small lantern hung overhead, and I saw it had no shadow.
“Who are you?” I shouted.
It turned to face me. With deliberate slowness, it reached up and pulled the veil off its head.
What stared back at me was a skeleton, bleached and polished so that no trace of flesh remained. The gaping mouth grinned malice at me; from within the depths of those empty eye sockets, something glinted. The skeleton gave me no time to recover but lunged at me, moving faster in the fifty yards that separated us than it had when I chased it.
My training took over, and I dove to the ground as its bony fingers swiped past, missing me by a few inches. Still on my knees, I swung with the shovel and felt it connect. The skeleton’s legs gave out underneath it, knocking one knee joint loose as it tried to maintain its balance. It lifted its hand again, and I saw its fingers against the moonlight, the bones on each end honed and sharpened like knives.
And then Fox’s sword cleaved the skeleton’s hand, cutting it off at the wrist. The fingers hit the ground with a disturbing rattle, but Fox did not stop, angling his sword so that his next stroke took its head cleanly off its shoulders. The rest of the body disintegrated before his blade could complete its arc, the skeleton’s ashes sending small clouds of dust around us.
“What in a daeva’s teeth is that?” Fox demanded, staring at the skull’s remains.
“This is what’s been following us!” I scrambled to my feet, kicking at the discarded veil and black robes and feeling sick. “I knew it wasn’t human, but I wasn’t expecting this!”
There was no one else in the alley. Fox insisted on checking, but the street we stood on was deserted.
“We’ll have to tell Lady Mykaela when she returns,” he said grimly.
“Only after she returns,” I agreed quickly, “and no one else.” I could only imagine the restrictions Mistress Parmina would place on me if she knew.
“This is more serious than I thought, Tea.”
“I know.” There was someone else in Ankyo who could channel the Dark. And whoever it was, was after me.