Kana looked at me and blinked. “Me? But why? I’m just a—”
“You’re just a young girl working at the Willows. That’s what you say. A group of people living near the Ankyon marketplace are claiming to be your family. Your father makes a living selling pomegranates at the market, but he doesn’t seem to rely on any of the wholesale suppliers in Ankyo for this.”
“We’re originally from Southeast Kion. My father cuts out the middlemen and makes the trips himself. A friend of my father’s owns a small farm at Amarai and charges him a smaller fee—”
“And what is the name of your father’s friend?”
“Ah—Kel.”
“There is no farmer named Kel in Amarai,” Zoya interrupted.
“That’s not possible. I’ve been to their farm—”
“The lady asha is right,” Kalen said, stepping into the room, followed by Fox. “Several of my fellow Deathseekers made some inquiries, and I can vouch for their credibility. There is, however, a merchant named Jeven, who frequents the Cogswheel Inn at Amarai, who supplies the person you call your father with his pomegranates. That merchant has been arrested by the Deathseekers after confessing to being a spy for Aenah, operating secretly in Kion.”
Kana stopped, holding herself still. “But that’s impossible! I don’t know much about father’s business, and I might have misheard where he gets his pomegranates. But if that merchant was a Faceless, then my father would never have chosen to conduct any business with him had he known about—”
“You claim to be originally from Belaryu, in southeast Kion,” I put in. “Nobody there has heard of you or your family either. None of you thought you would be suspected or that our investigations would be so thorough, did you?”
“You must be mistaken. We have strong roots in Belaryu. My nana’s mother’s family lived there for generations. She took my grandfather’s name when she married; she was a Hescht before that. My grandfather was an outsider; he came from the north—”
“Except you told me months ago that your grandfather’s family had lived in Belaryu for generations, not your nana.”
“You must have misunderstood me. My nana was a—” And then her thoughts bored into mine, so quickly and so effortlessly that I would have caved if I hadn’t been expecting it, if I couldn’t feel Polaire from the other room adding to my strength, helping me put up a shield in my mind to prevent her from tunneling her way in.
Kana snarled. All the light went out of her heartsglass; in one instant, it changed from bright red to an impenetrable black. Her face twisted into a mosaic of rage, and she tried again, only to encounter an impervious barrier of our will. Zoya took advantage of her inattention; a quick rope of Wind held her in place, wrapping around her body.
Frustrated, Kana lashed out again with her mind—but this time, it was directed toward Fox. I felt her in his head as easily as I could feel his, and then his presence was gone from mine.
Fox turned, his face wooden. His blade made a metallic, ringing noise as he slid it out from his scabbard.
“Bricky little girl, you are,” the girl said. She spoke in a different accent, much like those of the Yadoshan merchants I had met. “Give me one reason why I should not simply use Compulsion on you all.”
“You are not a match for this many asha,” Althy countered. “Surrender immediately.”
“I am a match for a dozen of you all at once. In the meantime, I’m thinking I’ll kill this one instead.” It was easy enough to underestimate Aenah in her guise as a sweet-faced maid working in an asha-ka. The girl standing before us now looked nothing like Kana. Her eyes glittered; her mouth twisted into a cruel smile.
“That’s not much of a threat,” Polaire said, “as he’s already dead.”
Aenah laughed. “There is more than one way to die, you fools. Even the dead can feel pain, and I will have him wriggling like live meat on a butcher’s hook for all eternity if you do not grant me safe passage outside of Kion. If not, he will suffer. I will make sure of it.”
“It was you who shadowed me all throughout Ankyo,” I said, struggling to find my link back to Fox. I could see my brother surrounded by a fog of inky blackness, but every time I drew in the rune and directed it toward the mist, I could not break through the Dark barrier. “You were the Drychta woman. You pretended to be the girl who brought me to the Falling Leaf that night. You sent the skeleton after me. When you lost control of the azi, I saw into your mind. I know how you were able to compel me.”
“Perhaps you can enlighten me.”
“The girl from the Falling Leaf told me Lady Shadi would be ‘mad as hops’ if I were late. That’s not a Kion term—it’s a Yadoshan one. You told me you were ‘all poked up’—another Yadoshan term. A guest from Yadosha used another word you used often—cant. I thought you were joking, that the food we smuggled to you was something you ‘can’t’ have. But in Yadosha, it means ‘free food.’ Yet you claimed to be from southeastern Kion—why would you use Yadoshan patter? It was only after I encountered your mind within the azi and realized why it felt so familiar that I put two and two together.”
“Betrayed by the land of my birth, as always. I thought my disguise was perfect.”
“How did you learn to be in two places at once?” Althy asked. “In the spirit of scientific curiosity.”
“I do not require physical form to find you, little girl. I know more about the Dark than your pathetic little asha friends here. I can do things they can only dream of.”
“Including controlling a daeva?” Althy questioned.
“A simple trick. One that I suspect your charge knows all too well.” Aenah smiled at me. “It appears that we are at an impasse, my dears. The question remains: How much do you value this Odalian corpse? It would be very easy for me to sever your connection, Tea, and watch him turn to dust before you.”
I can teach you more, Tea, her thoughts whispered. So much more than what they can offer you.
I don’t believe you!
I can teach you spells beyond imagining. We were meant to rule, young one. It is they who deny us our right because they fear our power. I have seen your true heart. We are alike, you and I. I can teach you to heal your brother, to make him truly alive, not this walking corpse.
I hesitated. You’re lying.
I swear right now, on my blessed mother’s grave, that I do not lie.
I will never join you!
Even after they bleed you dry the way they did your mentor? How long will they let you last in the world of the Willows? Better to die with our will in our blood than their fists around our hearts, child.
“Take one more step,” Aenah warned when Althy tensed, “and I will kill him where he—”