Sneers and snide insults from their audience at seeing her holdher hand out to empty air changed to gasps and startled shouts when Kalun wrapped his icy fingers around hers and shimmered into visibility.
Siora’s grin matched his.I see you, and now they do too.
Zaredis gawked at her and then at Kalun, his mouth moving in soundless exclamation, his eyes nearly bulging from their sockets as he stared at his dead brother, who shook with silent laughter at his sibling’s amazement.
Siora risked a glance at Gharek. He looked as startled as the rest but only for a moment. A calculating glitter brightened his eyes, and he gave a small nod. Whether it was approval or simply an acknowledgment of the truth of her claim, she didn’t know, but she returned the nod with a brief one of her own before returning her attention to the two brothers.
Her fingers were numb from the cold of Kalun’s grasp, but she held on as Zaredis stretched out a tentative hand to touch his sibling. A shadow of despair passed over his features when his fingers passed through Kalun like water, leaving only ripples behind it. Kalun’s grin slipped away at the reminder of his ethereal state.
“What sorcery is this?” Zaredis said, voice thickened by grief.
Siora shook her head. “Not sorcery, only truth. I understand your disbelief. The pretenders are many. I’m not one of them.”
Kalun stared at his brother as intently as Zaredis stared at him. Their likeness was remarkable. Twins were uncommon, but she would wager hard-earned coin that these two men had shared their mother’s womb at the same time. The thought saddened her. Two parts of a whole. Had the general sensed when his brother died? Death of a loved one was difficult for any of the living, but thiswould have been a cleaving of a more profound kind, and some sorrows were harder to bear than others.
Can you hear me?Kalun asked. Zaredis only peered more intensely at his twin as if trying to make out words in the movement of Kalun’s lips.
Siora spoke for him so all could hear. “I can hear you but they can’t. If you have a message for your brother, I’ll tell him for you.”
Before Kalun could say anything more, Zaredis spoke, words stuttered and slowly released as if held down so deep, he labored to dredge them up and past his throat. “Forgive me for failing you. I wasn’t there when you needed me most.”
From the corner of her eye, Siora glimpsed Gharek start, and his bloodied lips nearly disappeared against his teeth as his face tightened.
The softness that had crept into Zaredis’s expression disappeared. “But I can avenge your death.” Hatred turned the fire in his eyes black when his gaze settled on Gharek.
Siora swallowed a gasp, cold fingers clamping down more tightly on Kalun’s hand at Zaredis’s words. “I beg your mercy for the cat’s-paw,” she said. “Surely when the empress sent him to fetch your brother, he didn’t know what she would do.” She went to her knees before Zaredis without letting go of Kalun. It was a weak argument at best. It would be a miracle of untold generosity from the gods if Estred didn’t end up an orphan when this was over.
Kalun’s voice held the memory of agony and the outrage of injustice.He was her cat’s-paw. He knew her well enough to guess what horror she might have in store for us if we couldn’t save her arm. We should have let her die.
“She is dead. I don’t ask mercy for him but for his daughter, whose safety is the reason for all of his deeds.” Siora didn’t expect absolution for Gharek from either brother, but she had to try. Gharek loved Estred with all his being, and Estred needed him. Killing him wouldn’t bring Kalun back to the living.
Kalun didn’t budge.It doesn’t excuse him or absolve him.
“No, it doesn’t. It’s why I ask for mercy instead of forgiveness.”
“What is he saying?” Zaredis snapped.
Kalun gestured for her to rise.You can crawl on your belly and it won’t matter. So you might as well stand.She gained her feet and was about to answer Zaredis when Kalun continued.Tell my brother he didn’t fail. He’s a great general, an even better man, but he isn’t a god to change fate or know what things will come to pass. Tell him I blame him for nothing, that I linger in the world to help him take the throne if I can. The Empire might survive under his rule.
She did as he instructed, making certain to repeat every word exactly as spoken. During that time, Zaredis said nothing, only watched his brother with a yearning as if he’d trade a kingdom just to hear him speak one more time in his own voice. Siora had seen that look on many of the faces of those who paid her to speak with their beloved dead. In those instances—and this one—she was reminded why her mother had always called her macabre ability a gift.
Everyone in the tent jumped when Zaredis finally addressed her. “You can speak with him. Can you bring him back?”
The inevitable question, one she hated as her inevitable answer drained hope and made a mockery of wonder. Even if she could resurrect the dead, she’d lie and deny it. The Spider of Empire might be dead and the Empire itself fast plummeting intolawlessness and chaos, but the latest usurper on the throne had made no attempt to repeal the laws regarding sorcery. Admitting to it, practicing it, were crimes punishable by death, and while shade-speaking wasn’t considered magic, necromancy definitely was.
She shook her head. “I cannot. I’m a shade speaker, not a necromancer. My ability isn’t born of magic.”
Keep speaking for me. Tell him I’m content not to return, Kalun said.Tell him I don’t suffer, and this shadow existence isn’t a trial.His fingers flexed against hers. Strong for a spirit. Icy. She repeated his words to Zaredis.
A cunning glint, not unlike the one still flickering in Gharek’s eyes, lit Zaredis’s gaze. “Kalun was in the summer palace, in the inner sanctum. Does he remember how to get there?”
Kalun shook his head.No. We were hurried down corridors, through locked doors, and up staircases. It’s a maze in that place.Siora conveyed his answer.
Zaredis uttered a salty curse. “Can you go there and come back to tell me?”
Behind Zaredis, Gharek’s eyes narrowed. Siora fancied she could almost hear a plan take shape in his mind. She met Zaredis’s eyes and answered for Kalun. “They who linger don’t possess that kind of power.”
“I know the summer palace as if it were my own home.” Gharek’s voice was even raspier than before and held an enticing note of knowledge, the kind that might buy him a stay of execution, at least for tonight. Siora promised herself that if they made it out of this scenario alive and with all body parts intact, she’d remind him to thank her for her help.