Page 65 of This Dark Descent
Eventually they left the fountain for a vendor selling festival cakes on the edge of the square, and Talyana bought her more than she could carry, and they laughed as she tried to balance them in her arms and eat at the same time. The cakes were warm and spiced and molasses sweet, and slowly the memories she’d built with Lochlyn years ago faded just a little bit more in the light of the new ones.
When they were full of sugar and sick from it, Talyana laced her sticky fingers in Mikira’s and dragged her over to a crowd that had gathered before a stage, where actors dressed as the four Harbingers danced to a quick string rhythm.
“You never answered my question,” Talyana said above the speeding music.
Mikira knew what she meant, but she still didn’t know how to answer. She watched as Lyzairin, the Great Serpent, spun about Rach like a rope. “Rezek has done a lot of terrible things to my family, but he’s only one man. What I need isn’t to get rid of Rezek; it’s to have the means to protect my family from more like him.”
“And yet you’re working with Damien Adair.” Talyana didn’t take her eyes off the stage. Rach had broken free, and now stalked Lyzairin across the stage while Skylis, the Burning Light, swirled around them in trails of enchanted fire.
“I don’t have a choice.” The wind picked up, carrying her words away on a chill breeze, and she pulled her jacket tighter against its bite. “Besides, he’s not like Rezek.”
Talyana laughed as Rach tackled Lyzairin, Skylis’s flame encircling them both. “He’s just like Rezek. I’ve heard rumors about an Anthir sergeant investigating him, looking into everything from his finances to business deals. He’s as corrupt as any house lord.”
Mikira thought of the flood of Anthir in the hall, of breaking bone.
Talyana stepped in front of her, forcing their gazes to meet. “Kira, Damien Adair is a murderer.”
At that moment, a roar overtook the stage, and Aslir erupted onto the stage. Dressed in glittering white from the mane of feathers about his neck to the lion’s tail at his back, he reflected the enchanted lights like the bright star whose name he held, his sheer presence bowing the other three into submission.
Mikira studied Talyana, uncertain. “What do you know?”
“Exactly what I said.”
“Do you have proof?”
Talyana bit her lip, the action at once so familiar and so foreign, it twisted something in Mikira’s heart. “There was a time you wouldn’t have asked me that.”
Mikira turned back to the stage, where the performers were bowing to the clapping crowd. “Things have changed.”
CHAPTER 22
ARIELLE
ARI TURNED MIKIRA’Sknives over in her hands. The girl had left them with her for the morning while she and Reid trained, something Ari recognized as a sign of trust on her end. After a week of studying the signatures of other enchantments, she’d spent the last hour comparing the magic in the knives and coming up empty.
Whatever enchantment they held, she’d never seen it before.
Frustrated with her lack of knowledge, she set them aside and picked up her Arkala. Damien had spent the morning taking meetings with House Adair’s bookies, a distiller from their whiskey business, and several district tenants seeking his help, but for the last hour, he’d been deeply engrossed in the spellbook, reinforcing her relief that she’d shared it with him. Not only was he very good at research, but unlike Ari, he could read the old Kinnish, which only just resembled the modern tongue.
She was halfway through a section on the Sages’ theories around Skylis’s desire to walk among humanity as one of them when Damien’s chair scraped against the marble floor and he strode over, a thin leather journal in hand.
“The spellbook is remarkable.” He paused at the edge of the rug. “I haven’t gotten very far—it’s incredibly dense, and my old Kinnish is rusty—but it’s equal parts magic, philosophy, and history, leading me to believe it is a Racari. It’s also very focused on the golems.”
She swung her feet to the ground. “Do you think it’s where the Kinnish learned how to create them?”
Damien’s gaze grew distant as he considered the idea. It was a particular look he got when faced with an interesting question. She liked it— it softened the lines of his face, made her want to trace a finger along his jaw.
“I’m honestly not sure,” he said at last. “We’re bordering on religion now. Both Kinnism and Sendism teach that the Harbingers brought magic to humanity, but where Sendism is centered on the four kinds of enchantments and their stones, Kinnism has always held a much broader definition of magic. With how much knowledge was lost with the Burning, it’s possible magic is capable of far more than we know. New enchantments, additional ways of applying them, perhaps even other gemstones capable of conducting enchantments.”
He flipped the journal around for her to see. “For example, I found information on how to expand and control your abilities as an enchanter.”
Control.Ari nearly snorted at the word. Controlling the magic that came flowing out of her was like trying to control a river. With each new golem she crafted, she balanced on a cliff edge, seconds away from tumbling into darkness—she worried one day it would overpower her.
Do not be afraid of your own power, said the voice.Embrace it.
“You look uncertain,” Damien said.
Her fingers brushed her Saba’s necklace. “What if I can’t control it? I might hurt you.”
