The Power and the Glory

Book 4 Chapter IV: Abi and Ilaran

I don't know. I've constructed the strongest mental shields I'm capable of and they haven't kept you out.

Abi winced. I'm sorry. I suppose this is all my fault.

Surprisingly Ilaran's reply was, I doubt it. You're not that powerful. No, I think this has something to do with Death. Or possibly the parasite.

That wasn't particularly reassuring when Abi knew they would never have met Death -- at least not under those circumstances -- and Ilaran would never gave gotten possessed if it wasn't for her necromancy.

Someone knocked at the door. It took Abi a second to realise it was her door and she wasn't hearing something happening in Ilaran's room.

Yes? she asked, and realised she was still speaking telepathically when she felt Ilaran's confusion. Sorry, I meant to say that to someone else. Aloud she repeated, "Yes?"

The door opened and one of her aunt's ladies-in-waiting stepped in. The woman wore the disapproving, judgemental expression that all of her aunt's servants wore around Abi. She didn't know how much they knew about why she was in trouble, but clearly they knew enough to dislike her.

"A message has arrived from someone calling himself Prince Mirio. I understand he is one of your friends." The woman sniffed disapprovingly, giving the impression that she thought anyone who was friends with Abi was not the sort of person she wanted to have anything to do with. "Here."

She handed over a sheet of paper as gingerly as if it was a live scorpion. As soon as Abi took it the woman left the room with another disdainful sniff. Abi suppressed the urge to ask her if she had a cold.

Ilaran's presence at the back of her mind was faint now that she wasn't actively communicating with him. She got the impression he was doing his best to ignore her existence. Out of curiosity she reached out telepathically and got a strange feeling of reading endless information on crops and expected harvests. She immediately lost interest and turned her attention to Mirio's letter.

It was short and written in Saoridhian. Apparently Mirio had suspected Aunt Jiarlúr would want to read it before allowing it to be delivered to Abi. It also didn't make any sense when she first read it.

Abi, I've found the book you wanted to borrow. I'll give it to you when I next see you.

For an embarrassingly long time Abi puzzled over this message before she remembered the code Azurin and Seitomu had invented years ago. They had written each other messages in Seroyawan, but had added flourishes to the characters that were actually Saoridhian letters. Using this code they'd managed to plan an elaborate prank while in different cities by sending each other seemingly mundane messages. Unfortunately for them they'd forgotten that most of their family spoke Saoridhian, and when one of the letters fell into Kiriyuki's hands... Well, the prank hadn't gone the way they intended.

Abi looked more closely at the letters. Sure enough, they were oddly shaped and ran into each other. Someone unfamiliar with Mirio's writing would assume he was simply not good at writing Saoridhian. Abi knew better. She recognised the apparent mistakes as simplified Seroyawan characters. At once she saw the real message. Come at once. Where we met before. Urgent.

The last time Mirio had described something as urgent, the main palace's roof had been cracked in an earthquake and there was a very real chance it would collapse on top of the politicians' heads. Abi paled as she considered what sort of situation he might describe as urgent this time.

Her aunt was nowhere to be seen, thank all the gods, and the servants looked at her disapprovingly but gave her a wide berth. She got out of the guest palace without any difficulty and made her way to the garden where she'd met Mirio before. She both was and wasn't surprised when she rounded a corner and saw Mirio and Lian waiting together. Neither of them had spotted her yet.