Jay Kristoff - Darkdawn

Those pitch-black eyes flickered to Ashlinn.

‘I AM,’ Tric replied.

‘He saved my life, Mia,’ Ashlinn murmured behind her. ‘The Ministry ambushed me at the chapel. They took Mercurio back to the Mountain. They were set to steal me, too, but … Tric … he helped me.’

Mia’s stomach sank at the news of Mercurio’s capture.

‘Why?’ she asked. ‘Why help you after what you did to him?’

‘I don’t know.’ Ash put a gentle hand on her shoulder. ‘Mia, I have to tell y—’

‘What’s your game, Tric?’ Mia turned back to the boy, burning with curiosity and indignity. ‘Why save Ashlinn after she killed you? Why save Jonnen and me, then leave us to wander like rats in the dark?’

At the sound of his name, Mia’s brother turned from the black pool. He blinked hard, rubbing his eyes like a boy just woken from sleep. He seemed to notice Tric for the first time, but Mia could see suspicion in his stare instead of fear. Curiosity narrowed his eyes as he looked Ashlinn up and down, and a healthy dose of hatred resurfaced as his gaze fell on her.

Tric’s eyes were fixed on Mia. She realized she hadn’t yet seen him blink.

‘IT’S TRUELIGHT,’ he replied. ‘THE THREE EYES OF AA THE EVERSEEING BURN BRIGHT IN THE SKY ABOVE. MOTHER NIAH IS NEVER SO FAR AWAY FROM THIS WORLD AS SHE IS AT THIS MOMENT. AND IT’S ONLY THROUGH HER WILL THAT I WALK THIS WORLD AT ALL. IT TOOK ALL I HAD TO DO WHAT I DID.’

‘And Mister Kindly?’ Mia asked. ‘Eclipse? Why separate us?’

‘THEY WERE DRAWN HERE WHILE YOU SLEPT.’

Mia looked to that darkened shore, her passengers sitting beside it. Now that the joy of seeing Ashlinn, the shock of seeing Tric, was wearing off, she could still feel the pull of this place thrumming under her skin. The black, intoxicating malice reverberating in that vast black pool. Looking down at her feet, she could see her shadow stretching towards it, despite the lantern’s light. And she realized she wanted to join it.

‘No more riddles, Tric,’ she said. ‘Tell me once and for all what’s going on here.’

‘IT WILL NOT PLEASE YOU.’

‘Fucking speak, damn you!’ she demanded.

The shadow of a smile curled Tric’s bloodless lips. ‘YOU STILL HAVE A STRANGE WAY OF MAKING FRIENDS, PALE DAUGHTER.’

The words made Mia’s heart ache, dispelling any lingering suspicion that this apparition wasn’t her old friend. She remembered their time together, the promises they’d made each other, the way his touch had made her feel …

‘Please,’ she whispered.

The Hearthless boy breathed deep, as if he were about to speak. All the air around him seemed to hush, the whispering stone faces and writhing stone hands at last falling still. His saltlocks swayed like dreaming vipers, the tattered edge of his robe danced in a wind that touched only him.

‘I FELT THE BLADE.’ Tric glanced at Ashlinn. ‘WHEN SHE SLIPPED IT INTO MY CHEST. I FELT THE WIND AS SHE PUSHED ME OFF THE SKY ALTAR, DOWN INTO THE BLACK BEYOND THE QUIET MOUNTAIN. BUT I DIDN’T FEEL THE GROUND.’

Mia sensed Ashlinn beside her, shivering as her lover reached down and took hold of her hand. She realized she couldn’t feel her fingers for the chill in the air. The very world seemed to hold its breath.

‘I WOKE IN A PLACE WITH NO COLOUR,’ Tric continued. ‘BUT IN THE DISTANCE AHEAD, I SAW A FLICKERING FLAME. A HEARTH. I KNEW I’D BE SAFE THERE. I COULD FEEL ITS WARMTH, LIKE A LOVER’S HANDS ON MY SKIN.’ The wraith shook his head. ‘BUT AS I TOOK MY FIRST STEP TOWARDS IT, I HEARD A VOICE BEHIND ME, AS IF FROM FAR AWAY.’

‘What did it say?’ Mia heard herself whisper.

‘THE MANY WERE ONE,’ Tric replied. ‘AND WILL BE AGAIN; ONE BENEATH THE THREE, TO RAISE THE FOUR, FREE THE FIRST, BLIND THE SECOND AND THE THIRD.’

O, Mother, blackest Mother, what have I become?

Mia felt her belly flip, remembering the book that Chronicler Aelius had given her during her tutelage in the Red Church. She’d asked the old man for a tome about the darkin, and he’d returned with a beaten, leather-bound diary.

‘Cleo’s journal,’ she said. ‘Those were her words.’

‘NO,’ the deadboy replied. ‘THEY’RE NIAH’S. SHE SANG THEM TO ME IN THE DARK, THE MUSIC OF HER PROMISES DROWNING OUT THE LIGHT OF THAT TINY HEARTH AND ALL DESIRE TO SIT BESIDE IT. AND WHEN HER LULLABY WAS DONE, THE MOTHER SHOWED ME A PATH, ACROSS THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS. AND THROUGH COLD SO FIERCE IT BURNED, THROUGH A BLACK SO BLEAK IT ALMOST SWALLOWED ME WHOLE, I CLAWED MY WAY BACK.’

Tric pulled up the sleeves of his robe, and Mia saw his hands and forearms were black, spattered, as if he’d dipped his arms in ink all the way to the elbows.

‘AND I BECAME.’

‘Became what?’

‘HER GIFT TO YOU,’ he replied. ‘HER GUIDE.’

Mia simply shook her head in question.

‘YOU’RE LOST,’ Tric said. ‘IT’S AS I ONCE TOLD YOU. YOUR VENGEANCE IS AS THE SUNS, MIA. IT SERVES ONLY TO BLIND YOU.’

Mia swallowed, finishing the words he’d spoken to her in the Galante necropolis.

‘Seek the Crown of the Moon.’

‘… The Crown of the Moon?’ Ashlinn breathed.

Mia turned to the girl beside her, hearing the strange note in her voice.

‘That means something to you?’

Ashlinn’s eyes were still fixed on Tric. She looked as incredulous as Mia felt.

‘… Ash?’

Ashlinn blinked, focusing on Mia’s face.

‘The map,’ she said. ‘The one Duomo hired me to find.’

Mia swallowed, remembering the first time she’d fallen into Ashlinn’s bed. The sweet kisses and cigarillo smoke afterwards, long red hair parting to reveal the intricate inkwerk on her lover’s back. Ashlinn had been hired by Cardinal Duomo to retrieve a map from a ruin on the coast of Old Ashkah. But fearing betrayal, she’d had the map branded on her skin with arkemical ink that would fade in the event of her death – the same kind that was used in the slave brand on Mia’s cheek. In all the chaos leading up to the magni, they’d never truly found time to discuss it.

‘Duomo believed it led to a weapon,’ Ashlinn said softly. ‘A magik that would undo the Church. Scaeva and the Ministry must have believed it, too, or they’d never have sent you to steal it back, Mia. I don’t know the truth of it. But I do know the map leads to a place deep in the Ashkahi wastes. A place called the Crown of the Moon.’

‘WHERE YOU MUST GO,’ Tric said.

‘Why?’ Mia demanded. ‘What the ’byss is this Moon? And why do I give a beggar’s cuss about its fucking crown?’

‘YOU ARE THE MOTHER’S CHOSEN,’ Tric replied.

‘O, bollocks,’ Mia snapped. ‘If I’m chosen of Our Lady of Blessed Murder, why am I running for my life from her own damned assassins? If I’m so la-dee-fucking-da, why have I lived up to my neck in blood and shit for the past eight years?’

‘THE RED CHURCH HAS LOST ITS WAY,’ Tric replied. ‘AND THE MOTHER IS VERY FAR FROM HERE, MIA. BUT SHE HAS DONE WHAT SHE CAN TO SET YOU ON YOUR PATH. SHE SENT YOU SALVATION AS A CHILD THROUGH MERCURIO. SHE SENT YOU CLEO’S JOURNAL THROUGH AELIUS. SHE SENT YOU THE MAP THROUGH …’ Tric’s eyes flashed as he glanced at Ashlinn. ‘… HER. SHE SENT YOU ME. YOU CAN’T IMAGINE THE STRUGGLE IT TOOK TO INFLUENCE THIS WORLD FROM WITHIN THE WALLS OF HER PRISON. BUT STILL, IN WHAT TINY WAY SHE CAN, SHE’S GIVEN YOU ALL THE AID SHE MAY.’

‘But why?’ Mia demanded. ‘Why me ?’

Tric steepled his black fingers at his lips, staring for long, silent moments.

‘IN THE BEGINNING, NIAH AND AA’S MARRIAGE WAS A HAPPY ONE,’ he finally said. ‘THE LIGHT AND THE NIGHT SHARED RULE OF THE SKY EQUALLY, MAKING LOVE AT DAWN AND DUSK. FEARING A RIVAL, AA COMMANDED NIAH BEAR HIM NO SONS, AND DUTIFULLY, SHE GAVE HIM FOUR DAUGHTERS – THE LADIES OF FIRE, EARTH, OCEAN, AND STORMS. BUT IN THE LONG, COLD HOURS OF DARKNESS, NIAH MISSED HER HUSBAND. AND TO EASE HER LONELINESS, SHE BROUGHT A BOYCHILD INTO THE WORLD.’