Abbee struggled against the body lock, but Kai’s magic held her fast. It would be seven minutes before her gift ate the lock, and she guessed that was more than enough time for Kai to tamper with her.
“What is it with wizards and erasing memories? Ilo wanted to do the same thing, you know. He didn’t.”
Kai stood up. “Ilo’s judgment has always been suspect. We’re all in this mess because he tried to harness an uncontrollable force.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Abbee said, “but Ilo left my memories alone. He thought—”
“I don’t care,” Kai said.
“Maybe I can find Emma,” Abbee offered. “I can find your daughter.”
Kai snorted. “I doubt that.”
“I found you, didn’t I? Let me go, and I’ll bring her back.”
“I doubt that even more.”
“Wait,” Abbee said, casting about for any scrap Ilo had said that might help. “Ilo seemed to know who attacked me on the train.”
“I know that already,” Kai said. “You said it was a House soldier.” He raised his hand. “Don’t worry. This won’t hurt. At least, I don’t think it’ll hurt.”
“He was blond,” Abbee said. “Had a blond beard. A telepath.”
Kai halted. “A telepath?”
“Yeah,” Abbee said. “He pushed me off the train.” She frowned, remembering. “There was also this weird sense that I wanted crispy bread, and I hate crispy bread.”
Kai blinked. “Wait, what?” He put his hand down and cocked his head at her.
“Yes, it’s terrible. I don’t know why some people like it—”
“He came out to deal with you?” Kai asked. “Why would—” His eyes widened. “Oh.”
“What?” Abbee asked. “What is it? Who’s the telepath? You know, don’t you?”
“Shut up,” Kai muttered. “I’m thinking.”
Abbee hoped he took long enough for her gift to dismantle the body lock. She wiggled her toes but not much else. She still didn’t know what she’d do once she was free, though. If she moved, he’d lock her again, and she’d lose her chance at freedom.
“Still doesn’t tell me why …” Kai muttered. “Tell me everything you told Ilo.”
“It was a couple weeks ago,” Abbee warned.
“Remember,” Kai growled.
“Okay, okay,” Abbee said, thinking. “It took a while to get to the point of talking. They drugged me, and tried to kill me at one point. But we got past that. They wanted to know how I knew Ipsu. I told them he found me in Akken, the night the Tower fell. We—”
“Where?” Kai asked. “Did Ipsu know you were talented when he found you?”
“I’d just presented,” Abbee said. “In a constable precinct. The Yard District. I … I fell into the mover pit there. I presented on the way down.” She recalled the smell of her father’s dead body in the dark. His bowels had loosened. She wrinkled her nose at the memory and focused on Ipsu pulling her up from the mover pit. Slow, with his one arm. She remembered him refusing help from the wizard with him. “I think he knew I was talented. He told the wizard with—”
“Wizard?” Kai broke in. “What wizard?”
“A woman,” Abbee said. “I never got her name. She had a staff, and they both seemed concerned the staff would do something to me. I never got a good look at it, but the staff had something floating on the top of it.”
Kai sucked in a breath. “Round? Black ball?”
“Maybe. It was dark. I couldn’t see well.”
“This wizard,” Kai said. “Brown hair? Maybe in a bun?”
Abbee tried to remember. “The light was behind her head and made her a silhouette. Maybe a bun. I don’t remember lots of hair waving around. I think … I think her staff made me sick. I passed out. When I woke up, Ipsu and I were outside the city, and the wizard was gone. I never saw her again. I do remember … yeah, she mentioned assassins. And forging? Or something like that.”
Pain passed across Kai’s face. “What about assassins?”
“Only that they kept finding her. They seemed to know where she was.”
Kai drew a long, ragged breath. “Ipsu,” he said. “Ipsu knew this wizard?”
“Yes,” Abbee said. “They seemed to know each other. And Marin called her a sentinel. Juna or somebody.”
Kai nodded. “Only sentinels can carry the staff you saw.” He swore. More muttering. “And Ipsu knew one. Why would he …? But he never mentioned it. He—”
“What’s a sentinel?” Abbee asked.
“Something worrying,” Kai said, “especially if Ipsu was friendly with her.”
“You’re being very vague.”
“I’m still thinking.” Kai paced up and down the hallway.
Abbee broke free of the body lock. She flexed her fingers, trying to keep the movement hidden, but Kai saw it and stopped.
“I’m not going to do anything,” Abbee promised. “Please don’t freeze me again.”
“As if,” Kai said. He gestured, and Abbee froze in place again. The wizard resumed his pacing.
Abbee growled in frustration and set to waiting again. Maybe if he thought she was being helpful, he’d form a better opinion of her. Think of her as an ally instead of a threat. “Ilo and Marin seemed to think Ipsu finding me was connected to why you’ve been holed up in Joor. What did they mean?”
Kai waved his hand. “Bah, that’s just a wild Ringer theory. I wasted two years on it.”
“What theory?”
“There’s nothing to it. They’re barking up the wrong tree. It—”
“You know, they didn’t tell me why they sent me to you,” Abbee said. “Even when I asked. Ilo said I was the message. What did he mean?”
“You … Wait …” Kai stopped. His face clouded. Turned pale. “No,” he breathed. “It can’t be.” His eyes darted back and forth, and for a moment, Abbee wished he’d speak the thoughts tumbling through his head. Kai shouted a dark curse. “In all your time with him, did Ipsu ever mention the word society?”
“I … You don’t mean that crazy conspiracy theory, do you? That Society? Ipsu didn’t believe in anything, and especially not in crackpot theories like that.”
“He didn’t have a little rod with a clear stone on the end of it, did he?” Kai asked. “He would’ve been secretive about it.”
Abbee thought about that very object sitting in her jobs case. Ilo and Marin had had no idea what it was, but Kai seemed to know a lot they didn’t. “Yes. I went through his things once when I traveled with him. He beat me bloody for it. Wait, do you know what that is?”
Kai’s face fell. “He … he was—” He walked forward into the sitting room and sagged into an open chair. “I can’t believe it. He … all this time.”
“What?” Abbee asked. She couldn’t move her head, and Kai sat just inside her peripheral vision. “What does it mean?”
Kai drew in a deep, long breath and exhaled slowly. Another one. Abbee recognized the four-count breath. Kai did it one more time and regarded Abbee. “You’ve died before, haven’t you? Your gift. You’ve come back from death.”
Abbee wasn’t talking about that.
Kai took her silence as assent. He shook his head in disbelief. “It was you. It was you all along.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a Class Five,” Kai said, “and … well, wait a minute … hmph. Why wander all over the wilderness with you? That’s the opposite of what—unless … Yes, that might be it.”
“Please make sense,” Abbee said.
“The wizard with the staff,” Kai said, “you truly never saw her again?”
“Never.”
“Did Ipsu ever bring you to Joor when you traveled with him?”
“Twice,” Abbee said. “It was rare. We visited every city multiple times, but we only went to Joor twice. The first time was a sightseeing trip when I was maybe fifteen. I learned the city layout, a little history, that sort of thing. The second time … I don’t want to talk about that. But he abandoned me soon after that second visit.”
Kai’s eyes narrowed. “What happened?”
Abbee had no intention of rehashing her nightmare. “I said—”
“It’s important,” Kai said. “Tell me what happened.”
Abbee suddenly wanted to be very small. She wished she weren’t frozen, so she could tuck her legs up under her and fold her arms around her knees. She settled for looking away from Kai. Stared at a spot on the wall over Kai’s shoulder. “It was the second time we’d gone to the city. I was nineteen. At the evening fire, Ipsu told me he had an errand to run in the city. He said to not follow him. That’s a code. It means follow him and don’t get caught. I was supposed to track him and, at the next evening fire, tell him where he went. It was a game we’d played for years, and I thought this wasn’t any different.”
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“So you tracked him into the city the following morning?”
“Yes. I made it a few blocks and was captured.”
“Captured?”
“Look, is this necessary?” Abbee asked, trying to avoid sounding plaintive. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Please, Abbee,” Kai said. “I think it’s important.”
Abbee disagreed but kept going. “I tracked Ipsu down some street and into an alley. Movers jumped me. Four of them. They took my blades from me and staked me to the ground with them. Put a hood over my head, tied me up, and dragged me off. I tried to pay attention to the turns we made and the sounds I heard, but the hood was a mover hood. It blocked sound as well as sight. I lost track of the turns, but eventually, they took the hood off. I was in a basement or something. They put me in a chair, strapped my arms to a big table, and put a bright light in my face so I couldn’t see very much. The table and my chair must have been nailed to the floor, because it didn’t matter how much I struggled. I wasn’t going anywhere.” Abbee felt a familiar prickle between her shoulder blades. She was frozen. Couldn’t move, couldn’t scratch. “Please let me out.”
“No. Keep going.”
“I really don’t like you.”
“What happened in that basement?”
Abbee willed herself to heal her itch. If anything, the itch only grew stronger. She growled in frustration. “There was a man in the room. Blind, I think.”
“Blind?”
“It was the way he moved,” Abbee said, remembering, happy to focus on a detail that wasn’t her own suffering. “He used his body to find things.” She remembered him touching her, using his fingers to find the right spot for his knife. Her comfort level plummeted. “I couldn’t see any part of him. He wore gloves and a mask.” Abbee trailed off again.
“What did he do?” Kai asked in a quiet tone.
“He brought in people. Poor people, I think. One at a time. He strapped them down to the other side of the table from me. I tried to talk to them at first.” Abbee felt tears well in her eyes. She couldn’t wipe them away. “They were gagged. I wasn’t. I could tell they had no idea what was going on. I didn’t either. Not at first.” She sighed. She didn’t want to say this next part, but she had a feeling Kai was going to keep her there until she did. Maybe if she told him her story, he’d let her out. “The blind man came around behind me and stabbed me in the back with a knife.”
Kai’s eyebrows shot up. “Stabbed you?”
“Through the heart,” Abbee said. “He pulled the knife out and hustled out of the room. My heart stopped, and my gift took over.” She looked away from the spot on the wall. Met Kai’s gaze. The wizard was watching her with a strange mix of curiosity, apprehension, and a bit of empathy. “I murdered those people to stay alive.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think it’s like what happens with my latent,” Abbee said. “I pull energy from things around me. I pull life. A bit like a golem, maybe. You felt it, right?”
Kai nodded. “It wasn’t pleasant.”
“It wasn’t for the people in Joor either,” Abbee said, remembering how they’d thrashed in their bonds. A tear dropped from her eye. Another. “They died. I lived.”
“You healed a knife through the heart?” Kai asked.
“Over and over and over.” The tears were coming faster. Abbee hated Kai right then, for seeing her cry without her permission. “When it was done, somebody said, ‘Again.’ A man’s voice. It was all he ever said. I lost track of how many times he said it.” Rage boiled up in Abbee. Fury at the gray wizard for putting her through her nightmare, and fury at the man sitting here now, prodding her to relive it. “I hope I meet him someday. If I find him”—Abbee’s anger spiked, and she glared at Kai—“he’s going to die in a bad way.”
She lost her temper again. Kai yelped and warped away again with a loud crack as tingles washed over Abbee and the body lock fell apart. Mote streamed from her wrists. Abbee stood up and screamed, a long cry of rage, pain, and loss. She sagged and collapsed to her knees. Her hands slapped the carpet beneath her, and it was all she could do to stay upright. Abbee knelt there and remembered every face from her nightmare. Over and over. She sobbed and wished for the comforting embrace of her mother’s arms. The mere thought of that brought on a fresh wave of sorrow. Abbee wept harder than any time in her memory. She let herself tip over onto her side and lay there, curled into a ball.
Abbee’s sobs lessened and eventually stopped.
“I’m sorry,” Kai said, coming back into the room. “I’m sorry that happened to you. And I’m sorry that I asked you to go there again.”
Abbee looked up and saw him standing in the doorway. His eyes were kind but firm.
“How did you get out?”
“Ipsu,” Abbee croaked. She cleared her throat but stayed in her ball on the floor. “He came and got me out.”
“How did he know where you were?”
“I don’t know,” Abbee said. “All I remember is that he came in at one point. He killed the sightless man and broke me out. Half carried, half dragged me out of the room. I think I passed out at some point in there, because I remember waking up at our camp, outside the city.” Abbee sighed and sat up, putting her back against her chair. She rubbed her face and felt the salt tracks of her tears. Wiped her nose with her sleeve. “I didn’t talk for a long time. Couldn’t. We traveled north from Joor, and he left me outside Akken. He didn’t say much on that trip. Talked a lot less than usual. No teachings at the fire, no sparring either.” Abbee folded her arms across her knees and propped her chin on them. “I think I told myself that he was giving me space. I’d survived a traumatic event, and he was letting me deal with that. But the more I think about it, the more I think he was done. With me, you know? He was done with me. I think he knew he was going to leave, and he did it in a spot where I could find a new life.” Abbee frowned at Kai. “How did you run across him? When you asked him to help you with Emma.”
“I found him in Akken,” Kai said, “at the Tower, of all places. At that monument they have there on the plateau.”
“He was at the monument?” Abbee asked. When Kai nodded, she added, “What was he doing there?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“What were you doing there?”
“Breaking into the Tower basements,” Kai said.
“I thought those were sealed.”
“They are,” Kai said with a lopsided grin, “unless you’re a crafty old bastard like me.” His grin faded. “They’re mostly empty now.” He cocked his head at her. “I think you were being tested. Your ordeal in Joor. I think that was a test.”
“For what?” Abbee demanded. “What could that possibly have been a test for, other than satisfying some lunatic’s fetish to watch people die?”
“Did anything like that happen again?” Kai asked.
“No.”
“Were you ever approached? Anyone come calling or mention what had happened?”
“Never,” Abbee said, shaking her head. “Did … did Ipsu ever say anything about it?”
“No.” He pursed his lips, thinking.
“What?” Abbee asked. “Why did you ask me if Ipsu brought me to Joor?”
Kai stared off into space, still shaking his head from side to side.
“What’s that rod? Is it dangerous?”
“No,” Kai said. “Not from what I’ve read. I’ve never seen one in person.”
“Read about it where?”
“That doesn’t matter. The rod is a diviner, of sorts.”
“A what?”
“It finds things. Or a person, in this case. A suitable subject.”
“Suitable for what?”
Kai shrugged. “Not sure. I didn’t spend much time on it. I was looking in the journals for something else. But I remember seeing an entry and a sketch of the diviner.” He grunted. “I remember the exact book and its position on the shelf, but I can’t remember reading everything on that page with the sketch.”
“Journals? Whose journals?”
Kai squinted at her. “But if he had a diviner and he avoided Joor, then he must have suspected something. He didn’t hand you in. I wonder … unless …” His eyes widened. “Maybe he had a change of heart. Sounds like he did after he rescued you. Interesting … It’s too bad he’s gone. I need to talk to him.”
“For crying out loud!” Abbee said in exasperation. “Will you please make sense? Hand me in?”
Kai regarded her. “I think Ipsu made a mistake, visiting Joor with you that second time. They found you. He got you out, but what I don’t understand is why they never came after you again.”
“What are you talking about?” Abbee demanded. “Who’s ‘they’? What’s in Joor? Wait, you think Ipsu knew who they were?”
“More than knew. The fact that he had a divining rod says that he was working for them at one point. He knew something about them. But probably not much. They’re a very secretive, very compartmentalized group down there. Involved with the sentinels somehow. That woman with the staff you saw, the night you presented? That was a sentinel. They’re involved. How or why, I don’t know. I was curious about it, back when I was on good terms with the Tower. But when I found out how much effort it would be to get in their good graces, I decided I wasn’t that curious.”
“Are you talking about …? Hang on.” Abbee goggled at him. “Are you saying the Society is real?”
Kai smiled. “Maybe. Could be that, or could be something else. But something or somebody is down in Joor, pulling strings in that city. Ipsu seems to have worked with them for a time. But from what you’ve told me, he was done with them when I found him in Akken. I think he wanted a way to disappear, but still remain nearby.” He grunted. “That crafty, clever bastard. I thought he stayed here with me for Emma, but it was for you. He did it to disappear from them, but still be close enough to keep tabs.” He gave her a knowing nod. “And now I know something about the people who took you.”
“What? Who?” Abbee felt like she was on the edge of the truth, but Kai was being maddeningly obtuse about everything. “Wait, what do you mean, be close enough to keep tabs? Where are we?”
Kai nodded. “I’ll tell you everything I know, I promise. But you need to help me first. Find Emma and bring her back.”
“I already offered to do that.”
“Yes, but only because you were desperate. Now I have something you want.”
Kai went into the room where he’d gotten his chair. Abbee heard scuffs, and he came back out with the repeating bolt thrower. He picked up Abbee’s pouch belt and walked into the sitting room, past Abbee, and out through the opposite doorway. He got halfway down that hall and turned back. “Come with me.”
Abbee stood up. “Come where?”
Kai turned a corner and disappeared out of view.
Abbee followed him. She glanced into rooms as she passed. A washroom and a small bedroom. She got to the intersection and saw Kai climbing a set of stone stairs. He got to a landing and turned around. “C’mon.”
Abbee took the stairs two at a time and caught up to him. The stairs went up another flight and ended at a thick wooden door. The ceiling was wood. They were in a house. Kai walked up to the door and opened it. Abbee saw more plaster and wood in the room above, along with oil lamps. She thought that was strange. Magical lights downstairs but mundane lamps above? Abbee climbed up to the door and poked her head out.
She was in a kitchen. A big window overlooked a garden outside. A tall stone wall at the garden’s edge blocked Abbee’s view of their location, but they weren’t in Duskmire. She turned and saw a dining room off the kitchen. To the right, another doorway, and a narrow hallway leading to another thick door. Kai walked down to that door and opened it. Abbee saw a courtyard with cobblestones and a small fountain in the middle. The stone wall went around the courtyard, and there was a big wooden gate at the far end. Above the gate, Abbee saw the roofs of the buildings across the street. Red slate roofs.
Abbee forgot to look at the house’s interior and walked to the open front door. She stood on the threshold and stared. She recognized that slate. She recognized that building. “This … this is Riverbend Street.”
“That’s right,” Kai said, walking across the courtyard toward the big gate. To the right of the gate, set into the wall, was a door. Kai beelined for it.
“This is the River District,” Abbee said. “We’re in Akken.”
“You catch on fast,” Kai called. “I’m sure you’ll find Emma in no time.”
Abbee stood frozen in place, as if she still had a full body lock. She couldn’t believe it. Ipsu was in Akken. He’d been here all along. “He could’ve visited anytime he wanted,” she said aloud. Which meant he hadn’t wanted to. A jumble of emotions crashed over her. She felt bereft in a torrent of hurt and pain. “He could’ve visited!” Abbee shouted. “Anytime he wanted! Why would he abandon me and never come see me?”
Kai hissed, “Keep your voice down. We’re not invisible, you know.”
Abbee didn’t care. She remembered her time in Graywall, and the hard years after, when she’d had to rebuild her life brick by brick. She hated to admit it, even now, but she’d needed Ipsu. Needed his calm, unflappable demeanor. Needed his advice, even if she’d always tried to ignore it. She’d needed him. And he’d been here. Right here.
“Why live right across the stupid river and never tell me?” she yelled. “Why didn’t he let me know he was here? Why?”
Kai rolled his eyes and sighed. He walked back across the courtyard. “I don’t think he could.”
“He could have done anything he wanted,” Abbee snapped, stepping down off the front step and into the sunlight. “He never let anybody tell him otherwise.”
“He did it for you,” Kai said. “I used to think he had given up on you, especially after that business that put you in Graywall, but now I—”
Something hit the ground off to Abbee’s left. It sounded like a rock banging off stone. A flash of gray bounced across the courtyard and knocked into the fountain’s base. It clattered to a halt. It was round and smooth and about as big as Abbee’s palm. A gray stone disk.
Kai frowned. “What was that?”
A person appeared above the disk. A man, dressed in House armor, with his back to Abbee.
Kai let out an unintelligible shout and thrust his hand forward. A bar of orange light snapped out and pierced the soldier’s chest. It went right through him and hit the corner of the house. Wood and stone evaporated as if scrubbed out by a giant eraser. Kai dropped his hand, and the bar vanished. He grunted and put his free hand on his thigh, bent over and breathing hard.
The soldier was unfazed. He turned toward Abbee. She froze. He had a blue sash. No helmet. Blond hair and a beard streaked with gray. Abbee recognized him. She knew him because he was on the Akken Council, had seen his likeness all around town for years. Ekon Togrim. But she also recognized his beard. She’d seen it that night on the train. The assassin. The one with the red blades. The telepath.
“You,” Abbee breathed. “It was you on the train.”
Ekon gave Abbee a disapproving glare. “You know,” the blond telepath said, “a number of shop owners in Ellerton had some unflattering ideas about me. Including some really inappropriate things about my mother. I don’t see why you felt compelled to bring her into this. Speaks volumes about your character, Abbee Danner.”