Chapter Sixteen

Rayna

Ferran and Miquel stood on either side of Rayna as they all watched Vincen hesitantly approach Lady Ona Lequette’s grave, a bouquet of yellow peonies held loosely in his hand. Rayna shifted about uncomfortably as Vincen knelt in the grass and laid the bouquet at the base of Ona’s black marble headstone. The graveyard was perched atop a hill not far outside the village of Marisette, with the quaint town and rolling vineyards stretching away below them, bathed in the early morning sun. Birds chirped softly and somewhere nearby a brook burbled as it flowed gently down the hill on its way to the Santabelle river. It was a far more peaceful and beautiful graveyard than the cramped and dingy places that Rayna was familiar with back in Villamont, but she still hated it. Death was not supposed to be beautiful. Death was infants in the gutters and beggar boys in the bushes. It was debtors in prison and soldiers on far-off battlefields. It was something to avoid, to run from. It was something to fight and struggle against until it eventually - inevitably - caught up with you and dragged you out of this cruel world on one final, miserable journey. Unless you were unfortunate enough to be a twin.

She heard footsteps in the grass behind her and turned to see Kelso approaching. Behind him, she caught a glimpse of Nahuel staring at her from his seat atop the carriage. She scowled - he still creeped her out - and turned back to look at Kelso. He stopped a couple of feet back from her and nodded respectfully. “My Lady,” he said, settling into a resting pose and clasping his hands behind his back. He had stopped wearing his arm sling the previous day, and Rayna was still in awe at how quickly he had healed from his injuries.

Rayna sighed. “I keep telling you, I’m not your Lady.”

“With respect,” one of the creepy twins said, leaning toward her and whispering softly. “You kind of are.”

“Whatever,” she huffed, rolling her eyes and turning back to watch Vincen. He had finished laying out the flowers and was in the process of draping a narrow black cloth atop the headstone. It was richly embroidered with the mark of the Master and the silver and gold threads of the moon and sun sparkled as they caught the sunlight. Rayna frowned. What was the point? Ona was dead, sure, but every single person here could still see and talk with her, so it wasn’t like she was truly gone. Not yet, anyway.

She sighed and glanced at the creepy twin standing to her right. She was pretty sure he was Miquel, but she was also pretty sure it didn’t matter which one he actually was. Their personalities and appearances were so similar it was nearly impossible to tell them apart. Vincen had tried to explain their strange power to her, but his in-depth description of their magic had only made her head hurt. Two bodies, but only one mind? Even as a shade, the thought gave her a headache. “So you guys know Ona too, right?” she asked. “You all went to school together?”

“Yes, my Lady,” he said, though Rayna couldn’t help but notice that they both nodded. “We all started at the same time, though, of course, as a noblewoman Ona had many classes that we did not.”

“You didn’t call her ‘Lady Ona’,” Rayna observed.

“She gets mad at us if we do,” the other twin replied, shaking his head with a slightly wistful look.

Behind them, Kelso cleared his throat. “Yes, well, she’s going to have to get used to it again,” he said, and Rayna turned to look at him, cocking an eyebrow. Ferran and Miquel also turned, and he looked pointedly at the two of them. “We are all Lord Vincen’s retainers now, and I expect you to remember that Lady Ona is Marquess Lequette’s daughter, and our Lord’s future sister-in-law. You will address her as such, regardless of what she says on the matter.”

One of the twins shrugged. “We’ll certainly try, but you know how she is, Kelso.”

Kelso nodded, the edges of his mouth perking up in what might have been the beginnings of a smile. They’d been together for almost a week now and this was the first hint of joy Rayna had seen in him. “In any case,” he said, “at least remember to be respectful when others are around. I would hate for one of us to slip up and embarrass Lord Vincen.”

“I don’t believe he needs our help on that front,” the other twin said, grinning at his brother. Kelso gave them a disapproving glare, but did not contradict them.

Rayna sighed. Noble society had always exhausted her, and in some ways she was glad Father had never officially adopted her. If he had she would have been expected to accompany him to various functions and most likely would have been sent to Albaron City or Savaria to be “introduced” to potential suitors. She would have found the high-class atmosphere oppressive, and the very thought of hiding her magic and other skills made her shudder. It would have been torture. She knew the rules, of course - Othilia had seen to that - and could have played the part of a naive noble daughter well… at least for a while, anyway. She also had to admit that Kelso was right to call her “Lady”, and to insist that the others do the same. It didn’t mean she had to like it, though. “Why don’t you make them call you Lord, then?” Rayna asked, gesturing at the twins. “You’re a nobleman too, right?”

Kelso frowned, then grimaced slightly. “My… position is… complicated,” he said, and the twins glanced at each other before pointedly turning back to watch Vincen. Rayna glanced at them, curious, then turned her attention back to Kelso, drifting a couple of steps closer to the young man. He really was kind of handsome, she thought, with the dark hair and olive skin typical of the southern isles - a look she had rarely seen growing up in Villamont. He also had the easy bearing and toned muscles of a fighter. He could probably give Adrick the challenge he so eagerly wanted, she thought. If he could hold his own with a blade.

“Well?” she asked, crossing her arms and drifting upward a couple inches to look him in the eye.

“I am the oldest son of Edmond Norvil Pierrepont D’ottavio the sixth, Duke of the Emerald Halls and former ruler of the island of Marselle.”

“Ah,” Rayna said, only mildly surprised. He was a political hostage then, held as a retainer to a prominent family to ensure his family’s continued cooperation with the Empire. Marselle had been absorbed into the Albarian Empire relatively peacefully, but the transition still could not have been easy on Kelso or his family. She had thought he seemed a bit out of place, almost as though he were trying too hard to be a perfect servant. Now she knew why. “You’re as much a slave as I am, aren’t you?”

“You are hardly a slave, my Lady.”

Rayna shrugged. “I can’t leave, can’t do anything, really. Wherever he goes, I go. Whatever he wants to do, I’ve gotta tag along. His fate is my fate. Doesn’t really sound all that different from your situation.”

Kelso frowned. “Shades are not slaves.”

“But we’re not free, either.”

Kelso nodded. “True. However, the bond between twins goes far deeper than that of a master and his servant. It is a precious, mysterious thing, and should not be treated lightly.”

Rayna rolled her eyes. “Is that what they teach you at that school? I’ve read some books about the Bond. Father had a few in his library. Nobody really understands it.”

Kelso smiled. It looked good on him. “I’m not talking about the Bond between mages and shades. I’m talking about the love between siblings.”

Rayna felt a knot in her stomach suddenly tighten, and for a moment she couldn’t think of anything to say. “I… I don't even know him yet.”

“He’s a good man.”

“That’s what everyone keeps saying.” She sighed and turned back to face Vincen, shifting to Kelso’s side. They watched in silence for a moment as Vincen bent low and cleared a few stray leaves from atop Ona’s grave.

“Is that why you are avoiding him?” Kelso asked, not unkindly.

“What are you talking about?” she said, suddenly irritated.

“You have been avoiding spending time with Lord Vincen. Is it because you are afraid that he may be cruel, like Borden was?”

The knot in her stomach clenched tighter, which she found ridiculous considering she didn’t even have a stomach anymore. She glowered at Kelso. “Father was many things, but he was never cruel.” She hesitated. “At least, not to me.”

Xavi slowly, ever so slowly, turned his head and stared at her from his cot. She stared back, frozen in place at the doorway, the oppressive warmth of the basement room threatening to engulf her, to draw her in. Xavi blinked, and a single tear fell from his eye.

She shook her head, throwing off the vision. There was nothing she could do for them now. She was a shade. Father had done his work well. “Fine,” she said, standing up straighter and rolling her neck. “You want me to talk to him? Then I’ll talk to him.” She flicked her head, whipping her ponytail around like she would when she was particularly frustrated at Othelia for some petty annoyance. She tried not to frown when she realized that she couldn’t feel the satisfying “thwap” of her hair against her cheeks, but instead saw it drifting far too slowly back down to her shoulder. Whatever, she thought, and flew across the lawn toward Vincen, not even bothering to glance back at Kelso, or even pretend to walk. She was a shade now, and needed to start getting used to the idea before she drove herself mad.

He was deep in thought when she approached, staring hard at Ona’s gravestone with his brow furrowed. She slowed her flight and settled in next to him. “Don’t ever bring me flowers,” she said, and was surprised to find herself disappointed when he didn’t flinch at her voice. Instead he drew in a breath and raised his head, looking at her thoughtfully.

“Is Borden an evil man?”

Rayna blinked and felt the knot in her stomach again. What was it with these people? Couldn't they just let her forget about him? “Uhm,” she said, gulping and licking her lips. “I mean, just look what he did to us. He lied to me my whole life. Maybe that’s why I always hated him. Maybe deep down I always knew.”

“Did he beat you? Or…” he trailed off, clearly uncomfortable. “Was he cruel?”

“I don’t want to talk about him.” Her heart was pounding and her head was beginning to buzz. How was that possible, though? She was a shade…

“I’m sorry,” he said, reaching for her. Then he seemed to remember that she was only a shade and pulled his hand back just a little too quickly. He frowned, then shook his head. “But why you? Why’d he take you instead of me?”

She turned from him and wrapped her arms around her chest, closing her eyes. It didn’t help. Father was there, in her mind’s eye, looking down at her with his pitying gaze, his deep, resonant voice telling her that all he ever wanted was a child, that he only wanted someone to love. That he wanted a daughter. “I dunno,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe he thought you wouldn’t care about losing a girl as much as you would a boy.”

“We all thought my twin was a boy, though.”

She scoffed. “Yeah, of course you did. But if he’d left me behind instead, then what? Your father wouldn’t have had an heir, and people would have taken a lot closer look at the midwives. Someone would have insisted on seeing the body.”

“But why take you at all? It seems like a big risk, without much gain.”

“It worked, though. If I hadn’t died, no one would have ever known.”

Vincen stepped around to face her and gave her an odd look. “How did you die, anyway?” Then he shook his head and waved her off. “Never mind, I’m sorry. I know you can’t answer that. But still…”

Rayna looked up at him, then she pulled back a little. “I told you, I don’t want to talk about this.” But she did. She wanted to tell him about it… desperately. She wanted to tell him all about the room, about the others…. She had been trying to tell him about it all for days now. But she couldn’t. Something deep within always stopped her. It kept her from even thinking the words, much less forming them on her lips… It scared her….

“Yeah..,” Vincen said, looking down. “I know. Really. I’m sorry.”

“Is that another Academy lesson?” Rayna asked, pivoting in the air so as to keep her back to Vincen. “Ask a question, then run away before you get your answer?”

“Look, I said I was sorry…”

“I know, but sorry is rarely enough,” she said, frowning to herself as she realized she had just quoted Master Jan. Had he known the truth of who she was? She pushed the thought away. It didn’t matter anymore, and she didn’t want to fight with Vincen. He was as much a victim of Father’s lies as she was. More or less. “Have you tried out my magic yet?” she asked, hoping to change the subject.

“They’re called Skills,” Vincen said.

“Skills, magic, whatever…” she turned back to face him. The flowers on Ona’s grave really did look nice, she decided. “Have you tried it yet? Consciously, I mean.”

“Alba won’t use Ona’s Skill, you know,” said Vincen, still looking down. “I think she feels guilty for Ona’s death, as if it was somehow her fault. She blames me too. She’s never said it, but I can see it in her eyes when she looks at me.”

Rayna sighed. Did this guy ever stop thinking about Ona? “I’m not talking about them,” she said. “You’ve got your own problems to worry about. You’re too timid, too worried about what other people think. You couldn’t even beat me in a fight right now, never mind Father.”

“Stop calling him that,” Vincen said, quietly. Then he looked up, a determined scowl on his face. She had seen that look before, only not on Vincen but on his father, Prince Andreu. It was a good look on him. That’s more like it, she thought.

“He’s not your father,” he said, his voice stronger, more confident. Rayna pulled back a little as he fixed her with his gaze. “Your father is Prince Andreu Luis Canto, Duke of Selise, fourth son of King Alejandro Luis Canto and brother to King Oriol Luis Canto the second, King of the Great Empire of Albaron. Your mother was Sofia Esmeralda Matias-Canto. You are a Canto, a daughter of the Empire, and my sister.” He took a breath, closing his eyes and clenching his fists. “Look,” he said, opening his eyes and stepping toward her. Rayna thought he would have taken her hands in his, if he could have. “I don’t know why Borden kidnapped you or what his plans were, but I do know this: he is a murderer and a traitor. He is responsible for your death and the deaths of my uncle, my aunt, my cousin and countless of my countrymen. For all I know, he may have even killed our mother. He will pay for his crimes, and I will see to it that whatever Master he prays to gets the chance to damn him to an eternity of suffering.”

Rayna’s heart clenched up in her chest again. She hated Father for what he had done to her, for what he had done to the others down in that basement. But he had raised her, had cared for her and made her strong. He was the only father she had known, the only family she had ever had. She knew that Vincen was right - that Borden was a liar and a traitor - but the way he was looking at her now, the fire in his eyes and the determination in the set of his jaw…. She turned away. “How did Ona die?” she asked, wincing slightly at bringing Ona up again. Still, she’d rather talk about Ona than… than him.

Vincen couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice. “Uhm, What?”

“You said that Alba blames you. Why? What happened? She never told me.” Had Rayna even asked?

“Of course she didn’t,” he said, still a little hesitant at the sudden change in subject. “Shades can’t talk about their own deaths. I thought everyone knew that.”

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Rayna frowned. So much for Othelia’s precious well-rounded education. For how much she had been required to read and study, she kept finding more and more subjects she was woefully ignorant of, particularly regarding shades. “Well, anyway,” she said, turning and nodding towards the grave in front of them. “What happened?”

Vincen sighed and got a far-off look in his eyes. “We were all sitting in class one day when one of our classmates suddenly discovered a new Skill. We weren’t supposed to experiment with our Skills unsupervised, but everyone did it anyway. Unfortunately, this kid’s Skill turned out to be dangerous. He crushed Ona’s heart. We’re pretty sure it was an accident, but…” He paused, blinking, not seeing Rayna. He cleared his throat. “She died instantly. In front of the entire class.”

Rayna had her hand over her mouth. No wonder nobody liked to talk about it. “That’s awful. But still, why’s Alba blame you? It was that other kid’s fault.”

“Probably ‘cause he’s not around anymore. He was whisked away during the chaos and that was it, we never saw him again. I think Alba blames me because I was holding on to her during the Transfer. She was frantically trying to get to Ona, but it had already started, so I held her tight, trying to comfort her. There was nothing she could have done, but I think she feels like I prevented her from helping her sister. It’s not rational, but women rarely…” he stopped, grimacing at Rayna’s wilting glare. “Sorry, uhm, grief can be irrational, I think.”

They stood there in silence for a bit. Vincen’s misogyny aside, Rayna thought she could understand a little how Alba was probably feeling. The Transfer was one thing she had heard about, and everything she had read said it was not a pleasant experience for the surviving twin. She looked at him. “Did you feel it when…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it, so she simply gestured at herself, her hair and cloak fluttering in an unseen and unfelt wind.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m pretty sure I was already unconscious.”

She nodded. “We’ll, regardless, you’ve gotta practice with your new magic. I mean it. I’ve been playing with it my whole life and I’m still figuring out new things I can do with it.”

Vincen shook his head and looked at her, a funny expression in his eyes. “You know, I think I understand Alba a bit more now. She refuses to use Ona’s Skill. She could fly, you know. When she was alive, I mean. Anyway, Alba won’t do it. She always says it feels wrong to her, like she’d be stealing something away from Ona. It drives Ona crazy, of course, but I think I understand.” He smiled, but it was tinged with sadness. “I wish I could have known you when you were alive. It would have been fun.”

Rayna thought she was blushing and hoped that Vincen wouldn’t be able to tell, since she was transparent and gray. She was pretty sure he would be able to see the tears forming in her eyes, though.

He cleared his throat and stood up straight. “But if you really want me to, I’ll use your gift. Maybe you can give me some pointers.”

Rayna blinked back the tears before they could fall from her eyes. She looked him up and down, trying to imagine him standing before Master Jan’s whip. The well-dressed noble lordling in front of her certainly looked determined, but he was no Shade Hunter. Not yet, anyway. She smiled. “Yeah, sure. But I think you’re gonna need all the help you can get.”

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The Sky Train was surprisingly beautiful, in an odd sort of way. The cable that pulled the carriages up the mountain left Marisette and cut straight into the woods, heading for the gas fields that lay in and around the Lake of Fire. Large, oblong balloons floated above each of the carriages, supporting the bulk of the weight of the cargo contained within, while a pipeline ran down the center of the pylons that supported the cable. It was an engineering marvel, and stood in stark contrast to the quaint, quiet village they had just left behind.

Marisette, in many ways, reminded Rayna of Villamont, though in truth there were few similarities between the two cities. Villamont was an old city - old in a way that few people truly understood. It had a few nods toward modernity, such as street cars and gas lamps, yet it had managed to retain its old-world charm; a fact Rayna was only now beginning to appreciate, having finally seen a few of the other cities within the Empire. Where Villamont was cold, hard and enduring, Marisette was serene and timeless. Where Villamont stood guard against the surrounding wilderness, holding back the encroaching wild with its formidable and impenetrable walls, Marisette embraced the natural world, flowing among the hills and valleys as though it had grown out of the earth alongside the wildflowers and grape vines. And yet, despite their differences, both cities were old beyond reckoning. Both had existed before the Empire, and both would surely survive its eventual downfall. No kingdom - no empire - lasts forever. Cities, however… those endure.

Rayna sat atop the balloon of the Sky Train, watching the dark green canopy of the pine forest slip silently along below them as spirit lights occasionally blinked in and among the trees. The only break in the silence was the occasional birdsong and the clunking rasp of the cable as their car passed through the pulleys of the countless pylons that guided the Sky Train on its way to the Lake of Fire, high in the mountains along the eastern border of Albaron. Some people called the mountains the Burning Wall, though Rayna wasn’t certain if the region had received that name because of the flames that dotted the surface of the Lake or because of the vibrant alpenglow the mountains experienced. Their party had boarded the Sky Train shortly after lunch earlier that day, and the sun was just beginning to set behind their carriage as the thick cable pulled them further up the mountain.

The station master in Marisette had explained to Vincen and, by association, the rest of them, that the main purpose of the Sky Train was to facilitate the transfer of supplies and men to and from the facilities at the Lake, which had previously been an extremely arduous and expensive task, since the mountains were too steep for a proper rail line. As such, most of the carriages that made the day-long circuit to and from Marisette were nothing more than cargo containers, with a couple of them modified to carry personnel and their belongings. The carriage they were riding in now was reserved specifically for the nobility and, Vincen had been assured, was far more comfortable than the standard passenger cars.

It had not taken Rayna long to grow tired of the boys’ inane banter and Nahuel’s disturbing presence. The large man rarely spoke, preferring to sit apart from the others and watch them with those strange eyes of his. Whenever his gaze fell upon Rayna she had to look away, unable to meet his eyes. He had not “looked into her soul” again, but the memory of the one time he had was more than enough to make her decide she wanted nothing to do with the man ever again. The Creepy Twins had found a Queens set and quickly immersed themselves in a game, though trying to suss out how that worked made Rayna’s head spin. How could they play against each other if they knew what the other was going to do before he did it? Vincen and Kelso were studying ledgers and folios off in one corner, and Rayna had once again found herself alone and, oddly, feeling a bit claustrophobic in the finely appointed carriage. So, she had made her way to the top of the balloon and watched as the trees flowed along below them and the setting sun cast its glow across the mountain peaks.

A shuffling sound from behind drew Rayna out of her thoughts and she turned to see a service hatch opening in the surface of the balloon. She frowned, hoping that whoever was coming to disturb her solitude was one of the few carriage staff and not one of her companions. She really didn't feel like speaking with anybody right now, and she was finally getting used to the idea that not everybody could see her. She had known it intellectually, of course, but she had spent her first week as a shade in the palace, where well over half the people around her could see and interact with her. Out here in the real world, however, aside from her small group of companions, almost nobody ever knew she was there. That pleased her most of the time. She had always enjoyed her solitude, most likely because that was how she had grown up, spending most of her time alone in her rooms at Father’s house.

The head that emerged from the service hatch was not one of the staff, however, and Rayna sighed. Kelso looked around, a small smile on his lips, and did not seem surprised to see Rayna there, floating on her back a foot or so above the skin of the balloon, her hands folded behind her head as she watched the sunset coloring the mountains.

“Excellent,” he said, pulling himself out of the hatch and clipping a rope to one of the metal rings that were attached to the balloon for that purpose. He closed the hatch and took a couple of careful steps forward, letting the safety rope play out behind him. He drew up next to Rayna and sighed contentedly, looking at the mountains. “They are beautiful, are they not, Lady Rayna?”

“There’s nobody else here, Kelso. You can drop the ‘Lady’.”

Kelso smiled apologetically. “Apologies, my Lady, but I’m not certain I could ever do that.”

Rayna rolled her eyes and sat up, folding her legs under her and wrapping the folds of her cloak around herself, even though she had no idea if the evening breeze was actually cool or not. It just felt like the right thing to do. “Whatever. At least sit down, if you want to watch the sunset.”

“Thank you, my Lady,” he said, and then carefully sat down. The balloon was large enough that the angle of the sturdy cloth surface wasn't really all that steep, but Rayna was sure if she had still been alive she would have also been a bit wary, especially with the way the ground zipped along below them, traveling almost as fast as a steam train on flat land. She was finding death oddly liberating in some rather strange ways. It was nice, for example, to not have to seek out the privy every few hours or worry about what her next meal was going to be, or whether or not she needed a cloak in case it rained or got unexpectedly cold. Of course, in that particular case, she need not worry. All her attempts at removing her cloak had proven fruitless, rendering it a permanent - though entirely useless - accessory.

A small shudder rippled through the balloon as they passed over another pylon, and Kelso placed his hands down to steady himself. He looked at her and smiled, again, apologetically. “It is beautiful, though, also disconcerting. I have never been comfortable with heights.”

She frowned and glanced down at him. “Then why’d you come up here?” He could have stayed in the carriage and let her be, if that was the case.

“I knew the view would be better. I do not know when we may get the chance to see this again, and I did not want to miss it.”

Rayna shrugged and turned back to the view. “The gas industry is important to the Empire, and Vincen is going to be taking charge of the operations, right? I’m sure you'll be coming this way again, probably more often than you’d like.”

“That may be, but no one truly knows what tomorrow could offer.” He looked at her, still smiling but looking a little sad despite it. “I do not have a twin, and so live each day as though it may be my last.”

“That’s… kind of morbid…” she said, not knowing how that made her feel.

“Quite the opposite, my Lady. I know religion is not popular in Albaron, but there is a passage in the Master’s Book that speaks to this: ‘Live unto honor, serve unto death.’ These are my family’s words, and we hold to those ideals as best we can. If each day is lived as though it is your last, then each new day that dawns is filled with possibility, and there can be few regrets.”

She shook her head. “I still don’t know what to think of that, but hey, if it works for you, great.”

Kelso shrugged. “That is not to say I welcome death, I simply understand that it could come at any time, and so, I try to make each moment count. To serve unto death simply means that I must strive to make my life matter. Not just for myself but for everyone around me: my family, my friends, and even those who I do not know but may still affect. Every life matters, and so, I serve.”

“But you’re a prince. Other people should be serving you. At least, they would be, if… well, you know…” She grimaced, realizing how foolish she had sounded.

Kelso smiled, and Rayna realized he had been doing that a lot today. More than she had seen him smile any other day, at least. “Service takes many forms, and we each do what we can with the place we are given. Even kings serve their people, in their own way. At least, good kings do.”

“Was Oriol a good king?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, and she immediately wished she could take them back. She had not wanted to talk about that again; had not wanted to talk about anything that would make her think about Father, about the basement room, or the massacre he had orchestrated. But, she needed to know… She hated Father, hated what he had done to her, but there was still a part of her that hoped, just a little, that what he had done was somehow justified.

“He was not a bad king,” Kelso said, looking thoughtful. “Though, I only met him a few times, and he never spoke to me directly. But he seemed genuine, and his brother, your father, is certainly an honorable man.”

“But they invaded your country, took it over, and enslaved you and your family.”

“If it had not been Albaron, it would have been someone else, eventually. Maybe not in my lifetime, but our land was destined to be taken from us. The world is growing too fast and too small for it to have been any other way. At least with Albaron - and Oriol - there was very little violence, and my family was allowed to continue to govern our people. In truth, it is perhaps the best outcome we could have hoped for.”

“You’re a strange man, Kelso. I don’t think I could just stand aside and let someone else come in and take my country away from me.”

“Yet they did not take us away from our country. We survive. Our homes survive. Our culture is still our own. It may not stay that way forever - in fact, I expect it not to - but all cultures evolve. I suspect that within a generation or two the Marselle that I love will be nothing more than a memory. But what Marselle becomes - what the next generation makes of it - will certainly be beautiful. In its own way.”

“But they took you away. They took you from your family, from your country. They turned you into a slave. How can you still say that Oriol was not a bad king?”

Kelso shook his head. “I am no slave. I serve willingly, so that my people are not made to suffer.”

Rayna groaned and put her face in her hands. “I dunno,” she muttered, her voice muffled. “It still seems crazy.”

“And what do you value more, Lady Rayna?” he asked, standing and stretching his legs. The sun had almost set completely while they were talking, and the alpenglow faded surprisingly quickly as the sun ducked below the horizon. “Your own freedom or that of the people you love?”

She uncovered her face and looked at him. “I don’t have anybody I love. Until a week ago I didn't even know I had a family.”

“Surely you knew you had a twin out there, somewhere? Since you had no shade bound to you. Unless you thought you were a mereologist? One of the few who manifest as a full mage?”

Rayna shook her head. “I don’t know much about mereologists. I never really gave them any thought. We didn’t have any in the Shade Hunters.” She sighed, floating up and extending her legs so that she was standing alongside Kelso. “Yeah, I knew my twin was out there, somewhere. I ran away a couple of times to try and find her.” She glanced at Kelso, somewhat sheepishly. “I thought my twin was a girl, of course. Anyway, Father always said he’d found me in a gutter. It sounds terrible, but it wasn’t actually that uncommon in Villamont. There were a lot of poor people in the city, and a lot of street kids and orphans died every day.” She shuddered, remembering the little boy in the hedges. Then, the words just kept flowing, as if a cork had been pulled and everything she had kept bottled up inside her over the years was finally free to escape. “Anyway, he raised me as his ward, but he kept me locked in my rooms almost all the time. We’d go out sometimes, like, when I needed new clothes or something. And he’d let me eat dinner with him sometimes. But, for the most part, I felt more like a prisoner than a daughter. He said it was because of my poor health.” She glanced at him, realizing she hadn’t mentioned her weakness to anyone yet. With everything else going on, it had simply never come up. “I had bad lungs, you know. I couldn’t run or play like other children. Sometimes I’d get tired just walking up the stairs, and I never knew what might cause me to go into a coughing fit, or cause my chest to cramp up so bad I could hardly breath. So, for a long time, I believed him. I thought he was just looking out for me. But then, as I got older, I became aware of the Shade Hunters that he was always training.”

“You've mentioned them several times. Are those the unregistered mages he brought with him that night?”

Rayana nodded. “Yeah, probably. I only recognized a couple of them before everybody ran off. But anyway, they fascinated me, obviously. What kid wouldn’t get excited watching other people learn to fight with magic? I kept sneaking out of my room to watch. I was getting pretty good with my own powers by then, and could slip through walls like they weren’t even there. It drove Othelia crazy, until Father had the wards put up.” Kelso raised an eyebrow at that and Rayna shrugged. “Yeah, he locked me in again. I was a prisoner in my own house, but it was never my house, not really. It was Father’s house, and I was just his ward. Sometimes he’d talk about wanting to adopt me, to make me his daughter for real, and at first I believed him. But, I dunno, I don't think I did. Not really. I wanted to, but I didn’t. I still found my way out of the rooms sometimes, and I watched the other kids training every chance I got.”

“He was training children as soldiers?” Kelso asked, his voice soft and incredulous.

Rayna nodded. “Of course. Street kids, mostly. Always twins. I think he found some of them himself, but most came to us from other Houses. I never understood how it worked. Hunters would come to us for a while and train. Sometimes they’d stay for a while, but, eventually, they’d always go. I was the only one who never left.”

Kelso’s eyes were wide, and he licked his lips before speaking. “There are others, then? Borden is not the only one who is training up and using these Shade Hunters?”

Rayna shrugged. “I guess so. Like I said, that’s just the way things were. Don’t other nobles keep their own mages on hand?”

Kelso shook his head, as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Yes, of course they do. However, they are Academy trained and generally held as retainers or placed in other positions of honor among their Lord’s staff.”

Rayna rolled her eyes. “I’ve seen twins among the soldiers, both in Villamont and even back at the palace. Master Jan taught us how to spot them. I know the nobility uses us as soldiers all the time.”

“That is still very different from what Borden is doing, and there is a large difference between a mage on a Lord’s personal staff and a common soldier. The mages in our armies and city guards are all Academy trained and held to very strict standards of discipline and training. Each mage who passes through the Academy has their Skills fully documented and their capabilities are well known and understood. The former Duke was building a private army of unregistered mages with unknown Skills, and is seemingly a part of a larger network of other dissidents, each with their own network of unregistereds. I’m sure you can see why this is alarming news.”

Rayna frowned, and a small chill passed through her as she recalled some of things Father had said to her the last time they had spoken. “He wanted me to lead them, you know,” she said, her voice small. Kelso’s brow was furrowed in thought, but he turned and looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

“Have you spoken to Lord Vincen about any of this?”

Rayna shook her head. “A little, but not all of it.”

Kelso sighed. “We must inform him. It could be important to finding Borden and disrupting his plans.”

Rayna nodded slowly. “Yeah, I know. It’s just… It’s hard to explain. I don’t even understand it myself. I hate him. Father, I mean. I hate what he did to me, I hate what he did to…” The strange hesitancy overwhelmed her again, stopping her from saying anything more. She sighed, shaking her head. “I know he needs to be stopped. But, I still can’t stop thinking of him as Father. Despite it all, after everything he did, I still think he loved me. At least a little.”

Kelso nodded, then folded his hands behind his back. “I think I can understand, somewhat. Lord Vincen, however, will have a hard time accepting that.”

“Yeah.” She looked back out at the mountains, which should have been disappearing into the darkening sky as the last light of the day faded away, except that, to her shade-enhanced eyes, they were still as plain to see as if it had been full daylight. They were still beautiful, however, and she was beginning to tell the difference between how night and day looked to her new eyes. The stars were coming out, more vivid here than they ever had been in Villamont. Kelso followed her gaze, and they stood there in silence for some time.

“We should be arriving in another couple of hours,” he said finally, as the moon began to peak over the mountain tops. “The climb will become rather steep before long, and when it does we will know we are getting close.”

“We should probably try and get some sleep then, yeah?”

Kelso actually chuckled. “If you can, my Lady.” He opened the service hatch then turned back to her. “If you desire privacy, might I suggest you hide inside the balloon next time?”

Rayna glared at him. “It’s filled with poisonous gas, you idiot.”

Kelso merely smiled. “And why should that matter to you? Have a good night, my Lady.” He climbed into the hatch and closed it behind him, leaving Rayna alone once more.

End of Chapter Sixteen