Chapter Eleven
Thea
Ten days. It had been ten days since I had received word that Empress Jade Virillia had escaped the clutches of the Hired Hands. The news had come in the form of a sniveling page boy who, after telling me, had the gaul to hold out his hand for payment. I had Liviticus remove the outstretched hand, then the boy from the Empress's rooms.
In her absence, I had taken up residence in her rooms, a good and properly worried hand-maid. No one, not even the Empress-Mother had bothered to question my reasons. She had simply stroked my hair, then left in a swirl of floral fragrance that even I had to admit was comforting. That comfort had only lasted moments before I had begun picking through the Empress's belongings, searching for anything that would tell me just where she had gone, how she had done it, and why she was so special.
I was missing a puzzle piece to Jade Virillia and I needed to know what that puzzle piece looked like and just how to set it aflame.
The days were getting colder, leaves turning from their usual vibrant greens to oranges, reds, and yellows. Like a painting, they flooded one tree to the next, mixing and turning slowly. As I sat in the courtyard that Jade had yet to overhaul before her kidnapping, I hugged a shawl closer to my small shoulders. Servants past me down the only center walkway, giving small curtsies or bows. The Empress may be missing but I was still her appointed lady's maid, which afforded me some authority in its place.
If only they knew what I could do with just a few muttered words; the power I could wield.
Jade hadn't known. She had seen what everyone was meant to see: a small, obedient daughter of some long standing family. A family I had threatened and bribed for their silence and participation. For all of the stories about Jade Virillia, she really took people far too much as face value. She saw goodness when she should not, and while I certainly wasn't going to look that gift-horse in the mouth, it was disappointing to have so soundly convinced her of my service.
Her mother and Gil, however, were a different story. I found I respected the Empress-Mother for her shrewdness. She was always kind, perhaps too kind, to me, overly attentive some might venture. Her face and eyes never revealed anything except the outward concern for her daughter. Certainly, her concern was very real, but there was something else that I couldn't pinpoint about the woman. She was holding something back and it irked me that I had yet to uncover it. But it meant that I had to constantly check myself in her presence, to make sure she saw only the little Thea, her daughter's companion, who was trying to put on a brave face.
Gil would have none of my attentions. Try as I might to worm into his good graces, I was nothing but a wall ornament now that Jade was gone. I knew they had history, and their recent quarrel was quite public and much to my advantage, but I was not prepared for the lengths he would go to keep her alive in the walls of The Capital. Night and day, he was working. He either sent the 51st out on more patrols, or was down in the depths of the building interrogating anyone who might know about Jade. It was almost heartbreaking to watch: his devotion in the face of her demotion of him. And to know that if he just turned all his efforts in my direction, he just might be onto something. He would never get a word out of me, but I would respect him more for it. As it was, he was making a fool of himself over her.
I picked at the petals of one of the last blooms of the season when I heard the soft swoosh of her gown. The Empress-Mother moved with a grace that however many hours of practice I might try, would never achieve. But I watched, learning from her, for a future when I would wear a crown upon my head and command men with just a glance of my eyes.
She paused at my bench, not even bothering to ask if she could join me. There was tension running through her body. The stiff way she sat and kept her eyes forward. The formal way she had chosen to dress. Nothing the Empress-Mother did was by accident. A bit of me clenched at the unknown. My men were supposed to tell me anything that had changed, even the smallest detail. The fact that I knew nothing about the woman's manner before me, irked me. It put me at a disadvantage and I hated to be at a disadvantage.
"Empress-Mother." I made a show of nodding my head in reverence to her and setting aside the half picked flower. "Is there word?"
"No," the woman admitted, still staring ahead. "My daughter has survived many things, Thea. This too, she will survive and return to us."
I thought it was a bit foolish to believe so fully in such a thing, but her hope was still to my advantage. I was still not prepared with my men to rise to the hole that the young empress had left. There were still pieces to move about the board to ensure a checkmate.
"I've no doubt." I muttered, watching her. As always, I could glean nothing. Stoic as always.
"I'm sure. You've been steadfast." Her hands turned over in her lap, drawing my eyes. "But Jade is strong. Stronger than even she knows." She turned her head toward me, her eyes like a weapon onto themselves. "Stronger than you know."
"I'm sorry?" The hairs on the back of my neck stood.
The corners of her lips curled toward what might have looked like a smile. "You are very good, Thea. You may have fooled my daughter - that girl will see goodness where she shouldn't - but I am not such a person. To whatever end you are working toward know that I will be the wall in which you crash upon."
I stared back at her, determined to still any features on my face into stone. She stood, her navy skirts swirling with the gentle breeze. "I hope you will heed my words. You are young. You have time to turn from whatever means you have pledged yourself."
A servant inched toward us and the Empress-Mother stepped forward into my space to let the poor girl pass, her face morphing into warmth before my eyes. Perhaps I had underestimated her even as I had given her credit. What part of me she knew about, I couldn't be certain, but she knew enough to issue her veiled threat. The spark in the pit of my stomach flared to life. Threats were nothing more than fuel to me.
With the servant passed, the Empress-Mother gave me a once over, hummed and followed in the direction the servant had scrambled off. I watched her go, her back straight and her hair, still beautiful despite her age and the war she had gone through, gently dancing behind her. Beautiful. Deadly. Someone to watch.
When she was gone from the courtyard, I stood, crushing the flower beneath my palm. Liviticus appeared from the corner where he had stowed himself, hovering over my shoulder like a giant. I glanced up at him before walking in the opposite direction the Empress-Mother had left. "I want to know exactly what she knows about me."
"Of course, Mistress." His voice was a low rumble.
"I'll be going into the city. I only need one or two men. Just a pleasure visit." I yanked open the heavy wooden door and handing it off to him.
The sun was beginning to make its way toward the horizon for the evening when I found myself sitting in a quaint little room, the hood of my cape over my head to keep some of the evening wind that had picked up from my ears. Still, I could tell that my little nose had turned pink in the chill.
Several times I had been offered a warm drink by the hostess and each time I declined, politely at first, then harsher when the poor thing wouldn't just make herself scarce. When she came into the room once more, I had half a mind to throw one of my concealed knives past her head to scare her. Instead of opening her mouth to ask me if I wanted a drink yet again, she simply stepped aside to reveal a taller woman who didn't bother to conceal her face.
"That's all, dear," despite her soothing tone in her voice, the hostess still fled from the room like a deer being hunted.
I pushed back my hood. "Mother."
"Amalthea." She greeted, saunting over to take a seat opposite me at the small table the hostess had provided. "Bold of you to come yourself."
"I learned that from you."
She hummed, leaning back into her seat, waiting.
"I thought I paid you well enough, or are your men getting... soft." I didn't have much time before my presence would be missed at The Capital and with the Empress-Mother's threat over my head, appearances were everything.
"Your price, Amalthea, was to remove Jade Virillia from her seat. I've held up my end of the deal. She's still missing, is she not?" The woman, my mother, had a soft smile playing at the corner of her lips.
"She is."
"So we are in agreement."
"On that."
Her eyebrow went up, a silent question.
I shifted in my seat, not used to having to ask my mother for anything. "I need more."
Her sigh was heavy, resigned. It was ugly. "I gave you a healthy supply last time. You know that it can be addicting."
My teeth ground together, and beneath my cloak, my hands balled into fists. "This isn't addiction. I need to See."
My mother leaned forward, scanning me. "You can't See her without it?" It wasn't an accusatory question, but one laced with concern.
Every muscle in my body wanted to run and hide from her prying eyes, but my mind commanded it to stay still. "No."
The woman across from me hummed, thoughtful. For a long, agonizing moment she said nothing, but I knew her. I knew she was going through dozens of scenarios in her mind, working them out until the end. My mother did nothing without calculating risk and whether that risk suited her ends or not. I had learned to do the same from her. It was how I had ended up serving Jade in the first place.
"I have a different proposition for you."
"Of course you do." I groaned.
"Stop. That's not very becoming of a lady's maid." She scolded. I narrowed my eyes but let her go on. "I'll meet you tonight. That courtyard Jade liked to look out on. We'll try together."
I bit my lip. Her offer wasn't one I wanted to accept. It would mean letting her see a part of my carefully analyzed scenarios, and more than likely, including her in the next steps. But I needed to find Jade. My Sight lost her the night the 51st had attempted to free her from the Hired Hands. She was there one moment, and gone the next. If my mother would not provide me with the spice I needed to enhance my Sight, then the only other way was to draw on her power and her experience.
"Fine." I grounded the words out through tight lips. She smiled, triumphant, but my hood was already going up and over my face. I had no desire to spend another moment in her clutches.
I waited until it was properly night before slipping down to the courtyard in my night shift and slippers, a wool robe wrapped around me. The few guards I had come across only bowed their heads to me, ever a lady's maid going about her business in the night hours. I had established my nighttime wanders early when I came to The Capital long before Jade marched down the avenue.
Though the courtyard was enclosed, a nighttime breeze still sifted through, rustling the fading leaves and drying flowers. In another time, I might have found it peaceful. My one solace in the constant shifting of my plans. Tonight, however, the courtyard was nowhere near peaceful. Lurking in the shadows, I knew my mother was waiting, ever the premier assassin. So I waited, standing like a fool at the edge of the doorway.
To the left, the shadows moved, slithering along until Marlena, leader of the Hired Hands, was standing beside me. Her lithe form dressed in slender fitting trousers and a doublet tailored to her figure. I didn't even try to guess how many weapons and where she hid them. I didn't need to count them to know that in a fight, I could never beat her. She had made that abundantly clear throughout my childhood and training.
We greeted each other with a nod before I peered back into the doorway, ensuring that our path was clear. With the hall empty, I strode back the way I had come, confident that my mother could take her own precautions as I led her to the Empress's unused rooms.
Once in the rooms, Jade's trunk still where she left it which had yielded no secrets, the chair still pulled up against the fireplace, I made sure to lock each bolt at the door and yank close the curtains. No one bothered to come to these rooms in any case, not since she was kidnapped, but regardless, I wasn't in the mood to be surprised.
"I had the liberty of a wooden bowl being brought to the room with fresh water. There's wine in the decanter there." I waved to the little table next to Jade's chair. The wooden bowl I retrieved from where I had set it atop the drunk. A kettle was set near the flames of the fireplace, heating the water, little trickles of steam already floating in the air.
"Good. You remembered."
I whirled around. "Of course I remember. Do you take me for a fool?"
My mother smirked. "I take you for a lot of things. But yes, a fool is one of those things. Jade is no trifle rival. She's powerful."
"Yes, yes," I waved her away, ignoring the sting I felt close to my chest at hearing my mother call me a 'fool.' Instead, I set the bowl in the center of the room on the floor. "She has an army. She's an excellent fighter. I've heard the stories. I've spent time with her."
My mother hummed again, a look coming into her eyes but then it was gone in the next blink. She was keeping something from me. Saying nothing else, she went to the water kettle, taking the towel left with the wine to wrap around the handle before pulling it from the fire. Impatiently, she waved me away while she poured the hot liquid into the wooden bowl. When the bowl was full, she set the kettle back. "Do you have the blade?"
I retrieved the small, onyx colored blade from the pocket of my robe and held it aloft for her to inspect. As much as it pained me, I had to defer to my mother in the ways of the Dark Magic. I had an inherent ability to manipulate the veils of our worlds, but so few Dark Witches remained to pass any real knowledge on to me. What was left to me was to rely on my mother when she was bothered to share what she knew.
My mother took the blade, using it to prick the pad of her thumb, then squeezed until a drop of blood welled up. She turned her thumb over letting it hover over the bowl until it dropped, then handed the blade to me. I mimicked her, letting my own blood mix with hers.
The fearful populace of the Empire thought Dark Magic was all sacrifice, slicing of palms, violence and evil. What they failed to realize was that none of that was true. Blood was used to join our powers together but nothing more than a drop was ever needed. And nothing about our powers was "dark." We called ourselves Seers and not witches, our powers The Sight, not Dark Magic. We simply had the ability to peer beyond our world, some of us, like myself, could slice through the veil and step through, or use the ever fickle nature of water to See beyond normal sight. They called us 'witches,' but we simply understood an underlying current that they did not.
With our two, small drops of blood swirling in the bowl of water, my mother clasped my hand, pulling me to my knees with her alongside the bowl. Her free hand grasped the side of the bowl, and she nodded for me to do the same. Under her breath she muttered a string of words in a language she had never taught me. She said them so fast I couldn't make them out to join in, so I simply focused on the water before me. I'd never needed an incantation to See. Once again, it was simply apart of my power, such as it was, to be able to tap into The Sight without uttering a sound.
Slowly, like a painting pulling pieces of the pigments to itself, the water began to reveal images to us. At first none of them made sense. A woman with red, braided hair appeared, and that blasted Lord Icarius who strutted about The Capital like a peacock, then a figure in purple. A dress, no less. The water refused to knit the colors together to form a clear image, but when she turned, dark hair flying with a dagger in her hand, I knew her. "Jade." I whispered.
My mother continued her chanting.
The girl in the purple dress disappeared, flickering in and out of the images like a firefly on a night field. She never solidified in one scene or another, just flashed through them as if she was never really a part of them.
"Why doesn't it stay with her?"
My mother finally finished, rocking back on her heels to watch the images dancing around the bowl. Her face looked pinched in an expression I had never seen before, at least not since she had introduced me to my father when I was ten.
"She isn't here."
"I'm sorry?" I pulled my gaze away from the fading images, the power slowly disappearing into the water now that my mother had stopped. "I saw her there. It just wasn't clear. Maybe another Seer."
She shook her head. "No, Amalthea. What I mean to say is, she isn't here. Now."
"What do you mean?"
The pinched look dripped off my mother, replaced with one of resignation. "I had an opportunity to prevent all this, and in my hubris, I didn't. I thought I could contain that power. Her father thought he could contain that power."
"Mother," I gripped her forearm, surprised that she even let me do it, "what are you talking about."
"I think," she began, "that I told you about Timewalkers."