Empress of Dorsa (The Chronicles of Dorsa)

70

Once she had what she needed, Akella ended the woman, wiped her hands clean on the black cloak of the Order, and walked away. Megs didn’t follow right away. Instead, she watched Linna, who lingered before the body, staring at the blood stains on the white walls. With only Mother Moon providing light, the red looked almost black against the gleam of the building. Linna pressed her lips together tightly and finally turned away.

Megs spared one last backwards glance at the dead witch, then caught up with Linna.

“The women in black, they’re evil. She got what she had coming to her,” Megs whispered at Linna’s back. “Her Order turned my baby brother into a monster – you said so yourself. Or have you forgotten who the enemy is?”

“I’ve forgotten nothing,” Linna replied without turning around. “And I’ve taken the lives of plenty of the Empire’s enemies. You know that. But when we begin to use evil to fight evil…” She shook her head. “The Commander used to say that was a dangerous path.”

“The Commander this, the Commander that,” Akella said from a few paces ahead of them. “You tell me almost five years have passed, but you sound like the same half-grown girl I remember from a few months ago. I didn’t use torture to get information from that sorceress; I used you.”

Linna missed a step. “What?”

Akella dropped back so she could walk beside Linna and Megs. “When Adriel –” The pirate’s voice cracked. She cleared her throat and began again. “When Adriel and I used to interrogate captains, one of us played the role of bloodthirsty pirate, the other played the role of honorable pirate. The bloodthirsty one would threaten the captain with all manner of horrible deeds; the honorable one would try to intervene. The more the honorable one pleads for reason and mercy, the more the prisoner fears what’s coming. In the end, it’s the fear of pain rather than the pain itself that makes them talk.”

“So you never planned to torture that woman?” Linna asked.

Akella shrugged. “Does it matter? I kept my word – she told us what we needed to know; I granted her an easy death. We wouldn’t have left her alive regardless – not even you would have made that mistake.”

Linna frowned and shook her head. But she didn’t argue.

The three of them walked on, moving through the moonlit city swiftly and silently. They used alleyways as much as they were able, occasionally ducking around a corner to hide from one of the Order of Targhan’s two-woman patrols. The women were always dressed the same – black clothes covered by a long black cloak, rapiers at their hips, silver pendant at their collarbone.

Megs gritted her teeth each time a patrol went by. Until they snuck into the cargo ship beyond the Sunrise Mountains, the only Order of Targhan women Megs had ever seen were the ones who stood by as her brother transformed each inhabitant of Druet Village into a shadow-possessed. It took all of Megs’s restraint not to leap into the street and challenge each witch she saw.

But there would be time for justice later. For now, they needed to stay hidden.

As they wound their way up the tiers of the city, climbing ever-closer to the palace silhouetted by moonlight at the mountain’s peak, Megs made the same silent promise to herself that she always did before a battle or a raid: If today was to be her last fight, she would make sure she took at least some of the enemy with her before she fell.

Each of the city’s semi-circular tiers was smaller than the one below. The bottom levels seemed to be composed of mostly workshops, stables, and the kinds of honeypot traps that Akella said her sailors had been drawn into – brothels and inns placed just inside the city’s gates, where outsiders who’d stumbled across the city could be drawn in and then added to the ranks of the shadow infected. But as they ascended, the buildings became more uniform. Soon, every building was a windowless rectangle, two to three stories high, with a plain wooden door facing the street.

The three of them waited in the shadow of one such building as two Order women stepped out of the door of another and closed it behind them.

“What do you suppose is inside all of these?” Linna whispered once they were well out of range.

Akella’s face smoldered with anger. “Slaves. Mindless slaves, their souls trapped in another realm. This city is what he wants your entire Empire to become – and probably the Adessian Islands besides.”

“No,” Linna said. “He won’t stop at the Empire or the Islands. He’ll only stop when he’s taken the whole world.”

Akella met her gaze, and something unspoken passed between them. Linna nodded, and just like that, Megs knew their earlier dispute was resolved.

Akella glanced between Linna and Megs. Her usual humor and mischief was completely absent from her expression. “It ends tonight. Understand? For my crew. For your Empress.” She met Megs’s eyes. “For Milton. Either we die or the king dies, but it ends tonight, one way or another.”

#

They kept climbing, moving ever uphill, snaking through the silent white city until Akella at last signaled for them to stop, crouching behind the base of a huge stone pillar. Megs and Linna followed suit, crouching on either side of her.

“Look,” Akella said. “That has to be it – the compound of the Order.” She lifted a finger, pointing at white archway with closed, coal-black doors taking up its center. “Kind of them to hold my crew inside the place we needed to go anyway.”

Motionless Order guards stood on either side of the doors, so still that Megs took them to be statues until one of their black cloaks fluttered in the wind. A white wall some thirty feet high curved away from the doors in both directions, melding into the rocky edges of the mountain itself where it terminated on either side.

In the distance, the palace loomed above all, a hulking black omen in the moonlight. According to Akella, there was no other way into the palace, at least that she had seen, except through the compound.

“The palace,” Linna breathed. “Gods, it really does look like the one in Port Lorsin. Why?”

Neither Megs nor Akella answered. Who could say why madmen did what they did?

Megs glanced around, searching for a route that would get them to the compound wall without being spotted by the guards at the door. The street they’d followed up had ended behind a pillar nearly as broad as the street itself, and to their left and right were more pillars, each seeming to mark the end of a street, like spokes at the hub of a great wheel. Megs tried to guess at their purpose. Were they meant to be decorative, marking the end of the regular part of the city with their imposing grandiosity, or were they defensive, meant to obstruct carriages and siege machines from approaching the Order? Probably a bit of both.

Akella let out an animalistic growl. “Using my men for breeding stock. Like farm animals. I swear on Preyla’s name, they’ll pay.”

“We have to find a way in first,” Linna whispered. “I’m counting three guards on the walls, plus the two on the main doors.”

Megs peered through the darkness, straining to count the silhouettes backlit by the moon. Linna’s ability to see and hear things at a distance never ceased to amaze her.

At last Megs saw them, three dark shapes pacing the top of the compound wall.

She studied the compound, looking for the best way inside. From what she could see, the gate in front of them was the only way in. Most castles had at least a sally port door; this fortification did not have even that. And like all the other walls that marked the cake tiers of the spiraling city, the compound’s wall was made of smooth white stones, engineered so perfectly that their seams left no real handholds.

Akella must have come to the same conclusion. “The walls are too smooth to climb,” she said. “We’ll have to take out the guards at the door quietly.”

“Maybe there’s a side door we’re not seeing,” Megs said, but she could hear the doubt in her own words.

“Maybe,” Akella agreed. “I suppose we should at least search.”

But Linna was shaking her head. “The walls aren’t too smooth to climb.” She pointed up. “And look – the guard on the left. Her circuit leaves an entire side unguarded and unseen for a solid minute and a half. I can get up there, take her out on her return trip, and throw down a rope for you. Or a ladder.”

Akella studied the spot where Linna had pointed, then shook her head. “Too risky – there’s no way of knowing that there’s a rope or a ladder up there. And even if there is …” She glanced from Linna to the wall. “Only a spider would be able to climb a wall like that.”

“Then I guess you should’ve nicknamed me spider instead of seagull,” Linna said. “I taught myself to climb on walls like those. I know I can do it.” She turned, preparing to leave the cover of the pillar to sneak towards the foot of the wall.

Akella put a hand on her arm. “Wait, Linna. If you’re wrong, if you raise the alarm … they’ll kill you.”

Linna shook off Akella’s hand. “Have a little faith. You taught me to fight like a pirate, didn’t you?” She glanced up at the guard again. “I’m going up there. And I’m taking down the guard at the top, without slowing down to cut off any of her fingers. Then I’ll find a way to get both of you up, one way or another. I swear it by your Preyla.”

Akella still had her hand on Linna’s arm, and by moonlight, Megs could read all the different emotions passing across her face. Affection for Linna, but also fear. Loyalty, determination, protectiveness. Something leapt inside Megs’s heart, but she pushed it away.

“Go,” Akella told Linna at last, letting go of her arm. “Preyla watch over you.”

Linna nodded. Silently, she took off her sword belt and handed it to Megs, tucking her rune-marked dagger into a boot sheath. Like a diver about to plunge into a lake from a great height, Linna drew in a long, deep breath. With a final glance at the top of the wall, she sprinted from the cover of their pillar to the next pillar to their left. She reached its protective shadows just as the guard at the top of the wall turned and gazed down towards the city.

Megs wondered if the Order of Targhan was aware yet that intruders had breached their city. If they weren’t, they would be soon. It was only a matter of time before one of their patrols found the dead witch in the alleyway, one hand bloodied and missing a finger.

Akella must have been holding her breath, because she let it out all at once when it was clear Linna was safe again for the moment.

Megs put a hand on her shoulder. “She may say she blames you, but she doesn’t. She blames herself for the Empress and Commander’s captivity, but it’s easier if she forces you to share that blame. And she’s still getting used to the idea that you’re alive.” Megs paused. “We both are.”

“Her blame is not entirely misplaced, though. That’s the problem,” Akella said. “I ran the last time I was here, leaving my men behind, and now look.” She gestured angrily at the compound. “Used as stud horses by those filthy sorceresses. The injury I took when I fought with the Empress and Commander healed a month ago. I could’ve come back sooner. I might’ve, too, if I’d known that each week lasts months in the regular world.” Akella’s eyes grew distant and she shook her head. “Linna isn’t wrong to think me a coward. I’ve had a lifetime of only fighting battles I know I can win. The ones I can’t win … I don’t fight. The Commander knew that about me. My men have had to learn it the hard way. Now Linna knows it, too.”

“You’re wrong,” Megs said. “You had a sailboat. You could’ve left this place, even before you had healed. Sailed away to your lovely island. What was it called? Perrin … ?”

“Perrintot.” Akella gave Megs a small smile. “You remembered?”

“You could’ve sailed home to Perrintot, but you stayed,” Megs finished. “That’s what I …” She swallowed, stopping herself before the word could form in her mouth. “That’s what I respect about you.”

Their eyes met, and Megs felt her heart flutter once again. How? How had Akella always managed to have this effect on her? Not to mention that it was completely incongruous and inappropriate – feelings like these at a time like this. And for a woman she thought she’d finished grieving years ago. Almost five years ago, with another lifetime and another lover in between. Yet it had only been a few months for Akella – that was a fact Megs was still struggling to comprehend. Megs had been through so much in the intervening years, changed so much, and the ghost of Azza still hung above all.

There was so much Megs wanted to say, so many questions she wanted to ask. But it would have to wait. They both needed to survive at least one more battle before they could start asking such questions.

Akella must have had the same thoughts, because her eyes broke away. She leaned away from Megs and around the pillar, peering towards the compound beyond.

She muttered something in Adessian, tone surprised.

“Look,” she said, pointing towards the wall. “Our girl’s doing it. She really is a spider.”

Megs followed Akella’s gaze. Sure enough, Linna was a black blotch against the smooth white of the compound’s outer wall. She moved relatively slowly, yet in the time it had taken Megs to reassure Akella and wonder over their future, Linna had already made it almost a third of the way up.