The slightest of smirks appears on her lips. “What? He wasn’t proud of his cousin’s achievements today?”
I snort. “Not in a million years.”
Her laugh is haughty and malicious. “He always was a pompous ass, wasn’t he?” Sighing, she adds, “A small man with an ego made from glass. It says a lot about a person who’s threatened by someone else’s victories.”
I can’t argue with that. “If he’d have it his way, I would’ve been bleeding corpses in the catacombs for the rest of my life.”
“Well, thank the Gods that you no longer have to worry about that.” We fall silent, meandering toward the courtyard. We walk down the stone path, my eyes drifting to the collapsed gargoyles with new understanding. I wonder if the outside of the castle is so broken because of demon scourges like the one that occurred the other week, or if it had always been this dilapidated. I wonder just how longer this fortress can stand.
“So, tell me,” she says, eyeing me with otherworldly grace. “How did you convince our rotten cousin to give you your Crusader sigil?”
Instantly, my tongue feels heavier. If I’ve struggled lying to the others, to Dimitri, lying to my sister will prove impossible. She knows me too well. She, of all people, has a keen eye for these sorts of things. It’s one of the reasons she makes such a great Senator.
“I…killed some shadowcreatures,” I admit, keeping it vague so that I’m not outright lying.
She arches a slender brow. “Demons? Multiple?”
My gaze shoots down to the fog. “I don’t know what it was. We’ve learned about some of the other creatures that dwell in the Shadowthorn, but no one’s been able to give this one a name.” I turn toward her, the thrill of the fight sinking into me. “You should have seen it, Kalli. It was so big—I’ve never seen anything that size before.” My brow furrows, pulling up the horrifying memory of it. “I-it didn’t have a face. It was almost skeletal, aside from the thin, black skin stretched over its bones.”
She watches me impassively. I try reading her, to see if she was already aware that such beasts exist, but she’s always been like this. Kalli holds information close to her heart, even the innocuous kind, until she’s certain the time has come to share it.
“And the others?” she asks.
I blanch, at once thinking she means Ryven, Uncle Adrien, and the others they were traveling with. My guilt is too palpable, too irrational. She can’t know that. No one does.
I clear my throat and grip my fear. “W-what others?”
“You said shadowcreatures. Plural. As in, more than one. So tell me about these great monsters that my younger sister disposed of.”
“Oh, yes, well, you see, the others were regular demons. The canine type.”
Her arched eyebrow rises higher. “They hunt in packs, yes?”
I nod, relieved to hear her taking an interest in me for once, but also aware that this feels oddly like an interrogation. Like a nephila spider, Kalli has a knack for spinning a massive web, one that her prey doesn’t even see coming until they’re wrapped up tightly inside it.
“How many of them did you encounter?”
“Four,” I answer promptly.
“And how is it that you killed four demons the first time you were in the Shadowthorn?”
And there it is. The question that I’ve been dreading ever since we left Ashenvale. The Crusaders had been all too eager to celebrate my momentous victory. The other recruits had asked, of course, but their questions were quickly followed by excited imagined tales of heroism and cunning, stories where I ripped spines from the demons’ backs and used them to crack the other demons’ heads clean off their bodies. Their stories only became more elaborate, and by the time they were finished, everyone had lost interest in hearing the real story because they knew the ones they’d told would be better.
Kalli is not the kind to be swept up in excitement. She’s not the kind to miss important details like how a single person, a mostly inexperienced young woman, could kill four demons with nothing more than a battle-axe that is still, at times, too heavy for her to carry.
I’m desperate to change the subject, to keep walking and disappear into the fog and out from her piercing, calculating eyes. I try thinking of a story that might convince her, but even I have no imagination for it.
One thought does come to mind though, the same one I’ve had throughout the last couple of days:
Where was the raven when I needed it? If I have magic over the animals, why did none come to my aid when I was facing death?
All my fear settles to the back of my mind because I realize the story of those demons don’t matter. If Adrien knew what Imryll was, maybe Kalli does too. Maybe he wasn’t the only one with the information I needed. After all, no one was closer to our mother than my elder sister.
Blinking furiously, I summon the courage to gaze into her grey eyes. “Has anything…strange ever happened in your presence?”
Her forehead creases, the question taking her off-guard but enticing her inquiring mind. “Strange in what way?”
“Strange like…” I swallow hard. “Something that could almost be described as magic?”
Cool fury bursts behind her eyes. She glances around the courtyard and grabs my arm. She pulls me into the shadows of the castle wall, tucked behind one of the pillars miraculously still left intact.
“Never speak of such things,” she hisses. “Never. To anyone.”
“I—I know. I’m sorry. I just—”
“Do you know what they’d do to you if they thought you were an abhorrent mage? You’d be hanged, and that’s if you’re lucky. They’ve been sending alleged mages to the coast for months now, to use as bait to convince the Lords of Illashore to consider negotiations.”
“Negotiations?” I scowl. “The Magistrate wouldn’t want to negotiate with mages.”
“That’s beside the point, Halira. Are you even listening to me?” she snaps. “You are not a mage. Don’t ever say that you are. You have no magic. Whatever you think happened to you, didn’t. Ignore it.”
Vigorously, I shake my head. I’ve never seen her so enraged before, but even I can tell the anger is just a mask. Deep down, she’s frightened. Terrified. Which means her words mean nothing. She’s covering something up.
My eyes widen with understanding. “What do you know?” I beg her. “Please, tell me. I—I need to know.”
With an exasperated growl, Kalli peels away, her heavy white locks beating against her back. She paces the area, clutching the bridge of her pale nose, and I await whatever answer she is considering giving me.
But when she finally stops, her breaths grey in the cool, evening air, her words are more unexpected than anticipated.
“Congratulations on your accomplishment today, Halira. Our family would be proud.”
She storms away, the ropes of her white hair smacking against her back as she disappears into the night.
Behind Thin Walls
Castle of Nigh, Arcathain
With nothing left to do but stand outside and freeze, eventually I decide my sister isn’t coming back. At least not tonight. Whatever she’s warring with inside herself, the secret that frightens her so terribly, she’ll probably want to think on it for the evening before we convene again. I can give her that, if I must. After all, I’ve already waited this long.