A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes 2)

I hang up my weapons and go to the window. The stars are obscured, the purple-black sky promising snow. "I should go to my parents." They heard what Marcus said--everyone on top of that damned rock did, and there's no bigger bunch of gossips than Illustrians. The entire city must know of Marcus's threat to my family.

"Your father came by." Avitas hovers by the door, his Masked face suddenly uncomfortable. I suppress a wince. "He suggested you keep your distance for now. Apparently your sister Hannah is . . . upset."

"You mean she wants to drink my blood." I close my eyes. Poor Hannah. Her future rests in the hands of the one person she trusts the least. Mother will try to soothe her, as will Livia. Father will coax, then coerce, then order her to stop her hysterics. But in the end, they'll all be wondering the same thing: Will I choose my family and the Empire? Or will I choose Elias?

I turn my mind to the mission. North, Dex had said. And the girl is still with him. Why would he take her deeper into the Empire? Even if he had some pressing reason to remain in Martial territory, why put the girl at risk?

It's like he's not making the decisions. But who else would be? The girl? Why would he let her? What could she possibly know about escaping the Empire?

"Blood Shrike." I jump. I'd forgotten that Avitas was in the room--he's so quiet. "Shall I bring you some food? You need to eat. I asked the kitchen slaves to keep some warm for you."

Food--eat--slaves--Cook.

The Cook.

The girl--Laia, the old woman said. Don't touch her.

They must have grown close while enslaved. Maybe the Cook knows something. After all, she figured out how Laia and Elias escaped Serra.

All I have to do is find her.

But if I start looking, someone will inevitably blab that the Blood Shrike is searching for a white-haired, scar-faced woman. The Commandant will hear, and that will be the end of Cook. Not that I care about the old hag's fate. But if she knows anything about Laia, I need her alive.

"Avitas," I say. "Does the Black Guard have contacts in Antium's underground?"

"The Black Market? Of course--"

I shake my head. "The city's unseen. Urchins, beggars, transients."

Avitas frowns. "They're mostly Scholars, and the Commandant's been herding them for enslavement or execution. But I know a few people. What are you thinking?"

"I need to get a message out." I speak carefully. Avitas doesn't know Cook helped me--he'd go straight to the Commandant with such information.

"Singer seeks meal," I finally say.

"Singer seeks meal," Avitas repeats. "That's . . . it?"

Cook seems a bit crazy, but hopefully she'll understand.

"That's it. Get it to as many people as you can, and swiftly," I say. Avitas looks at me quizzically.

"Did I not say I wanted this done quickly?"

A ghost of a frown on his face. Then he's gone.

After he leaves, I pick up Dex's message. Harper didn't read it. But why? I have never sensed malice in him, true. I've never sensed anything at all. And since leaving the Tribal lands, he's been . . . not friendly, exactly, but slightly less opaque. What game is he playing now, I wonder?

I file Dex's message away and drop into my cot, boots still on. Still, I cannot sleep. It will take Avitas hours to get the message out and hours more for Cook to hear it--if she hears it at all. I know this, yet I jump at every sound, expecting the old woman to materialize as suddenly as a wraith. Finally, I drag myself over to my desk, where I read through the old Blood Shrike's files--information he's gathered about some of the highest-ranking men in the Empire.

Many of the reports are straightforward. Others less so. I did not, for instance, know that Gens Cassia had hushed up the murder of a Plebeian servant on their premises. Or that the Mater of Gens Aurelia had four lovers, all Paters of noted Illustrian houses.

The old Shrike kept files about the men of the Black Guard too, and when I spot Avitas's file, my fingers are moving before I can think twice. It's as lean as he is, with just one piece of parchment within.

Avitas Harper: Plebeian

Father: Combat Centurion Arius Harper (Plebeian). Killed in service, age twenty-eight. Avitas age four at time of death. Remained with mother, Renatia Harper (Plebeian), in Jeilum until selection for Blackcliff.

Jeilum is a city west of here, deep in the Nevennes tundra. Isolated as the ten hells.

Mother: Renatia Harper. Died age thirty-two. Avitas age ten at time of death. Subsequently kept by paternal grandparents during school leaves.

Spent four years under Blackcliff Commandant Horatio Laurentius. Remaining Blackcliff training carried out by Commandant Keris Veturia.

Showed great potential as Yearling. Remained average during tenure of Commandant Keris Veturia. Multiple sources report Veturia's interest in Harper from early age.

I turn the paper over, but there is nothing more.

Hours later, just before dawn, I wake with a jerk--I've fallen asleep at my desk. I scan the room for the scraping noise that disturbed me, dagger in hand.

A hooded figure hunches at the window, her glittering eyes hard as sapphires. I throw back my shoulders and lift the blade. Her scarred mouth twists into a nasty smirk.

"That window is thirty feet off the ground, and I locked it," I say. A Mask could get through, certainly. But a Scholar granny?

She ignores my unspoken question. "You should have found him by now," she says. "Unless you don't want to find him."

"He's a bleeding Mask," I say. "He's trained to throw people off his scent. I need you to tell me about the girl."

"Forget the girl," Cook snarls, dropping heavily into my room. "Find him. You should have done it weeks ago, so that you could be back here, keeping an eye on her. Or are you too stupid to see that the Bitch of Blackcliff is planning something? It's big this time, girl. Bigger than her going after Taius."

"The Commandant?" I snort. "Went after the Emperor?"

"Don't tell me you think the Resistance thought of that on their own?"

"They're working with her?"

"They don't know it's her, now do they?" The derision in the Cook's voice slices as sharply as any scim. "Tell me why you want to know about the girl."

"Elias isn't making rational decisions, and the only thing I can think is that she--"

"You don't want to know more about her." Cook almost sounds relieved. "You just want to know where he's going."

"Yes, but--"

"I can tell you where he's going. For a price."

I raise my blade. "How's this for a trade: You tell me, and I don't gut you."

A sharp bark from the Cook makes me thinks she's having some sort of fit--until I realize this is her version of a laugh.

"Someone beat you to it." She pulls up her shirt. Her skin, disfigured from some long-ago torment, is further marred by an enormous, rotting wound. The smell of it hits like a fist, and I gag.

"Bleeding hells."

"Certainly smells like it, doesn't it? Got it from an old friend--just before I killed him. Never tended to it. Heal me, Little Singer, and I'll tell you what you want to know."

"When did this happen?"

"Do you want to catch Elias before you sisters go splat, or do you want a bedtime story? Hurry. Sun's almost up."

"I haven't healed anyone since Laia," I say. "I don't know how I'll--"

"Then I'm wasting my time." She reaches the window with one step and pulls herself up with a grunt.

I step forward and grab her shoulder. Slowly, she comes back down.

"All your weapons on the desk," I say. "And don't you dare hide anything, because I will search you."

She does as I ask, and when I've ensured that she doesn't have any nasty surprises tucked away, I reach for her hand. She snatches it away.

"I have to touch you, you mad old bat," I snap. "It won't work otherwise."