Draka

The afternoon sun was still high and bright enough that the moment I Shifted my world was reduced to a patch of shadow around me. I quickly sent out a streamer connecting my little island to the shady side of the building where I’d come up, then flowed over the edge. To anyone watching as I poured down the wall and settled on the pavement below, it might have looked like some large bird had lazily passed in front of the sun.

As I flitted along the streets, keeping to the shadowy side, of course, I felt an almost perverse anticipation. I wanted someone to spot me, to cry out in fear or confusion. But no one did. Either the combination of my magic and my instinct for staying hidden were just that good, or anyone who saw a patch of shadow moving in a way that it shouldn’t simply kept their mouths shut. Which made sense, I supposed. I’d been told more than once that my shadow magic was something strange and unknown. Anyone who thought they saw the shadows moving might question their sight or their sanity.

Ah, well. A hue and cry would have been a problem. My sisters were trying to follow someone, and I assumed that they didn’t want to be spotted if they could avoid it. The pair of them stood out as it was, so anything that drew attention to anywhere near them would likely ruin their chances.

Still, it made me bolder in my movements, and I soon caught up to Mak and Herald. The way they kept to the shady side of the street let me see them, and as I got close Herald drifted over towards me. She focused, gathering magic in her heart, and for a moment nothing happened. Then she got a determined look on her face, and an impressive mass of shadow tendrils flowed from her, deepening the darkness around us. She looked around quickly, flashed a smile in my direction, and then burst into a bright glow as she also Shifted.

“We spotted someone in the open session,” she whispered without preamble. “It may be the Blossom. We are not sure.” Then she got a funny look in her eye, and reached out and carefully touched me, or whatever the stuff was that I was currently made of.

For once, it didn’t feel terrible. She didn’t pass through me, either. She just… touched me.

“You look good, big sister. More like yourself than you normally do while Shifted.”

I kind of wiggled at her in appreciation. Whatever had happened to me recently, I still couldn’t speak. She gave me another fond rub on what felt like my neck.

“I need to Shift back, but it is good to have you here. Mak said that she has felt all kinds of things from you, and it had her worried. She was very relieved when we felt you returning to the city.”

With that she looked around, picked her moment, and shifted back, joining Mak closer to the middle of the street. Staying close to them I heard her voice, speaking in a reassuring murmur.

“She looks fine. Healthier, somehow. It is hard to explain. But there is nothing to worry about.”

“Oh, good.” Mak breathed a sigh, then flashed a relieved smile in my general direction.

Along streets and up stairs, through small parks and across little plazas, we followed the perhaps-Blossom into the upper city. Not Cloud Street, where I’d been before, but some other, smaller street. The houses here were still significantly fancier than most in the city, from my limited perspective, but less lavish than where we’d been held months ago.

“They just went into a house on the northern side of the street,” Herald whispered, then, “Across the street from here,” as we presumably passed the house in question. Since it was brightly lit I saw nothing, but I noted the small private sculpture fronting the house on the southern side, which I could see. We never slowed down, continuing and then turning to connect with some other street which took us back down the hill, from where we continued straight to the inn.

Mak grinned where she sat on a barrel in the cellar, her legs dangling.

“Three days of standing around feeling my mind rot. Four hours today of bickering about cloth tariffs and forestry taxes, and I was going to give it the week out and then give up. But finally we may have gotten something out of it! Can’t do anything hasty, since I’m not entirely sure that it’s the right woman, but at least we can take a closer look.”

I snorted in agreement and grinned, feeling a vicious hope take root. “We should have Barro see if he can find out who owns the house, and if he can find anything about them. Then, we can pay them a midnight visit.”

“I cannot believe that you put up with that for three damn days, Mak.” Herald yawned and stretched where she sat on the stairs. “I was ready to give up after that first hour! Arguing about bits on the dragon! I cannot imagine a bigger waste of time!”

I let the “bits on the dragon” thing pass and looked at Mak. “If it’s so boring, why are there so many people at these sessions?”

“It’s a chance to get your voice heard. That’s why it takes so long. Anyone from a Family in the property rolls, like us—” Mak grinned at Herald, who shuffled happily where she sat at the reminder “—can go to the open sessions and ask questions and make suggestions. And if there’s any merit to it, the council will discuss it. Which is why two points of discussion can take four fucking hours!”

“By how packed it was I would say that every cloth trader in the city was there today,” Herald grumbled, though she was still smiling. “Including our woman of interest, who suggested that Marbek may be willing to lower their tariffs on dura-wood if we lower ours on the import of fine wool. Or something like that. Mak?”

“No, you’ve got it. I’d guess her House trades in one of the two.”

“Which means that they must have ships, or at least contacts with someone who does. And warehouses, and perhaps shops. Anything we can do with that?”

“Legally? I doubt it. If we just want to hurt them and don’t mind taking some risks, sure. But let’s make sure we have the right people before we start torching their livelihoods, yeah?”

“I suppose.” Herald turned to me. “So, Draka! Where did you go? What did you do? You were glowing before, but now… something must have happened!”

“Oh, yeah. Herald, you remember how, when I left, I mentioned a need for something that’s been nagging me the last few days? Well…”

We filled Mak in on what we’d found out, how I could set shadows in place to conceal things. Mak was used to impossible things by then, and took us at our word. Instead of protesting, I could see her mind immediately go to work on ways we could use my new ability.

With that out of the way I told them about how I’d been feeling more possessive and jealous lately, skipping the details, and about how the need had been calling me north. They both nodded along. Herald had been with me when I had my crisis the previous day, and Mak had felt my emotions swinging wildly, to the point where she’d been worried for both me and Herald. Mak clearly wasn’t happy about me stalking the troll the way I had, but she didn’t say anything. When I got to the part about the Nest Heart, though, they both exploded with excitement. They glossed over the part about my shadow moving on its own as expected Draka weirdness — it had been calm and still since I returned, anyway — but destroying nest hearts? That was apparently amazing.

“You ate it? You can eat Hearts? And it made you stronger somehow? Could you always do this?” Herald’s face was a mix of amazement and incredulity, while Mak asked, “Like a nest killer? Just like that? Just like a nest killer?”

“Yes, yes, no idea, yes, and yes!” I said, satisfied that I’d kept track of the rapid-fire questions. “Slurped it right up, just like a nest killer. And when I woke up the Need was gone, or at least satisfied, and everything I’ve done with my magic has been just a little easier since then. I haven’t tried linking or setting shadows yet. I wanted to wait until I was back with you. But I imagine that’ll be easier, too.”

“Well?” Mak said, watching me expectantly.

I glanced at Herald, who looked back and hissed, “Don’t you dare!” I ended up demonstrating on a regular old boring barrel, but Mak was suitably impressed anyway. And it was easier, like I’d suspected. Smoother in a way, with less resistance.

Then I told them about going to visit Jekrie and the others, and how they were very excited about the idea of someone clearing out the trolls.

“I’m sure they could get everything they need from Pine Hill and the other villages in the area, but they don’t really have anything to trade, and they seem a little leery about it in general. So I was hoping we could have a repeat of our adventure. Just… probably no big treasure this time. Sorry.”

Mak chewed on her lip and said, “If we’re prepared for trolls, and take the right reagents and containers to harvest their blood, we could make some good money. Herald and me, we both have some new tricks that I at least would love to try out, and if we ask, I’m sure that Tam and Val would be up for it. What do you say, Herald?”

“When are we going?” Herald jumped up with an excited grin, which turned slightly guilty when she turned to Mak. “I, ah… I may have bought some new arrows that I want to try out.”

“New arrows? Oh, no, how much did you—?” Mak sighed. “Bring them.”

It took Herald a minute or two to get upstairs and return with a small sheaf of six arrows. The things were long and fairly thick, with wide heads and long, brown and white striped fletchings.

Mak held one, drawing her finger along the shaft, and gave Herald a knowing look. “What enchantment, and how much?”

“Razor sharp broadheads, and the whole things are unbreakable.”

“How much?”

“A Dragon each?”

Mak’s relief was palpable. “Okay, okay. That’s not so bad. Could be worse. Could have been so much worse. I know it’s your money, but… Yeah. I’m assuming you had Tam with you, to find a deal like that?”

“Yep!” Herald beamed. “Turned out that the seller was an old friend of his and Val’s who just returned from Tavvanar. They just missed each other there, too! He came here when they left! Anyway, he wanted a Dragon and five Eagles each at first, but when Tam showed up and the guy realized that I was his sister he went down to a Dragon!”

“Yeah, okay.” Mak gave Herald a wry smile. “You realize that each of those arrows could have fed all three of us for a year, when you were a kid?”

“I… well…” Herald blushed. “I just always wanted something enchanted.”

As Mak gently scolded Herald while admitting that as splurges went, this wasn’t so bad — at least it was something useful that was unlikely to lose much value — and Herald promised up and down that if she loosed one of her new arrows she wouldn’t return home without it, I just watched. My heart was full to bursting. They both just seemed so… normal. Sure, they were talking about spending gold coins on magic arrows to kill trolls and other monsters, but that was normal, here. Expensive, but normal.

The important thing was that they were both happy and relaxed. Neither of them had struck me as terribly worried, anxious, or fearful for weeks now. I knew that they both still had trouble sleeping, but they were clearly healing. If this lead worked out, or if we got something useful out of Tark when we grabbed him, we should be able to deal with the damned Blossom and finally put that awful chapter behind us. We’d have to deal with the consequences of what had happened, of course, but I liked to think that we, and our relationships, were all stronger for it.

When we got back to the topic of the trolls, Mak brought up one pretty big concern.

“The most pressing problem, except for the trolls themselves, is time.” She had a contemplative look on her face as she spoke. “You told us it was about forty, forty-five miles north of the cave. Assuming that we can follow the Forest Road for most of the distance, we’re looking at sixty miles or so of marching. We’ll need to count two days each way, and add one to be safe. Then, if everything goes well, we’ll still need to count three or four days to deal with the trolls. So we’re looking at eight or nine days away from the city, right after we’ve acquired a big, hit-us-here-to-hurt-us piece of property. Garal and Lalia and the Terriallons have been going above and beyond what we could possibly ask of them, and Rallon is sure to want his cousins back on duty soon.” She bit her thumb and came to a conclusion. “If we’re going, we’ll need guards, so it’ll be in a few days at the soonest. We’ll need to talk to Tam and Val about this.”

Tam and Val were out, since Tam had decided to take his role as part-proprietor seriously and was trying to track down a supplier for a certain wine he liked. “What was the point of owning a tavern,” he’d said, “if you can’t serve whatever you want?” While we waited for them to return, Mak took Herald with her upstairs to do something business related. Mak insisted that Herald should learn to help run the place. Herald was not at all excited about the idea, but she had a hard time resisting her older sister when she was being reasonable.

I spent most of the time until Tam and Val returned catching up first with Kira, and then with Ardek, once he was awake. He’d turned into quite a night owl. “I never used to like the dark too much,” he told me. “But ever since you, uh, recruited me, it’s not so scary anymore, you know?”

It was well into the evening when Mak came down to let me know that Tam and Val were back. They turned up in a fine mood, having found a lead on a supplier for that wine Tam was after. It soured somewhat when I told them about the Heart. After that, they were more than up for hunting some more trolls, if not for the potential money then out of a sense of civic duty.

“When I heard that those refugees had been run out of their homes by trolls,” Tam said, “that was worrying, yeah? A troupe of trolls wandering that far south doesn’t happen, normally. But a Heart? A troll Nest Heart no more than twenty leagues north of the city? I know that we can’t prove it — and no blame on you, Draka. Bless you for dealing with it — but we should report that to the Guild. That’s a serious danger. Even if the one you found is gone, where there’s one there may well be more. Sorrows be kind! Nest Hearts, that close to the city…”

They had some ideas for how we could handle security while we were away, though it might take a day or two to arrange. That wasn’t a problem, though. Tam wanted to meet with his prospective supplier, and the family would need to arrange supplies, as well as whatever it was that they needed to harvest the trolls. All of those would take time, and just as Mak had predicted it would be a few days before they’d be able to go anywhere.

That was fine with me. I hadn’t had a good torpor for… gods, I didn’t even know how long.

When we were all done Tam offered to be the one to let me out. I thought that was a little odd, but I was looking forward to a nice, much too large meal and didn’t worry about it. Then he stopped in front of the doors as the others hurriedly left, then turned around with an anxious look in his eyes. “Before you go,” he said, “can we talk?”

“Nah, yeah, sure,” I said, feeling a little wary. I wasn’t in any hurry, but the whole situation felt off.

“Good. Thank you.” He rubbed his neck awkwardly. “Right. Draka, we’re family now, yeah?”

“Yeah?”

“And if you can’t trust your family, if you can’t let them know what’s going on, who can you trust? Right?”

I had known plenty of people in my life who’d disagree vehemently with that, but arguing the point didn’t seem like it would get us anywhere. “Right.”

“Right. So, I agree completely with the decision to invite you to our Family. I want you to know that. Mak suggested it, but it was a unanimous decision, with no argument. You’ve done so much for us, and asked for so little in return. And I truly believe that you’d sacrifice anything… well, almost anything, to protect us. I don’t think it’s even possible for you to give up anything from your hoard, from what Herald’s told me.”

I shuddered. I tried to imagine giving away some of my treasure, but just thinking about it put ice in my spine, while my stomach started turning somersaults. “Probably not,” I agreed. “But I’ll risk my hide for any of you, if I have to.”

“Right. But trust, yeah? We have to trust each other, let each other know what’s going on. And our sisters have been acting odd since me and Val came back. I know they’ve been through something horrible, but it’s not just that. The way they defer to you… let’s be honest here: The way Mak obeys you, that’s not normal. Herald, maybe, but not Mak. So I’ve been talking to them, but they won’t tell me what’s going on. Say they can’t tell me. You see how that worries me?”

I could see that, yeah. To an outside observer, especially one who loved them and who hadn’t seen the whole process, the change in the sisters’ behavior, Mak’s especially, must be jarring. And they hadn’t even seen Mak at her lowest.

I didn’t want to lie to Tam. I also didn’t want to tell him that, “Hey, I broke your sister’s will and now she’s my unquestioning minion.” How she was literally unable to refuse to do what I told her to, or think ill of me. There were things I thought he could handle without doing irreparable damage to our relationship, and those were not among them. So, for all that we were talking about trust, I decided to be selective with the truth.

“Tam,” I said, settling on the floor, “how much have they told you about what happened to us while you were away?”

“Not much more than what Mak told us when you were there the first night. This Night Blossom’s people grabbed Mak off the street, then Herald when she went looking. They’ve spared us the details. I’d rather not…” His voice shuddered. “Then they captured you, but you got loose. You got Mak out of whatever prison they had you both in, then you both saved Herald together, and you made it to the Wolves. They’ve told us more about what happened afterwards, and Garal and the others have filled us in a little, but…” He raised his hands helplessly.

“All right. There are some things that aren’t mine to tell. Things that happened to Mak and Herald that I’ll leave to them to tell you when they’re ready. But me and Mak, I can tell you most of that.

“What you need to know, the reason that Mak follows me the way she does, is that they broke her. They used Herald to do it. Don’t think about it too much. It was bad. I know what happened, and you’re better off in the dark. But you need to know that they broke her, to the point where she helped them capture me. And after I broke us out, she was so ashamed and remorseful that she swore to do anything to earn my forgiveness and my trust. And then, well, you know about her advancement. She’s bound to me. My strength is hers, and her loyalty is mine.”

As I spoke his face had slowly hardened. Worry and fear turning to anger, first against the Blossom, but then, at the end, towards me. I could see that he was out to speak, to vent that anger, and I continued before he had a chance to say anything unfortunate.

“Listen, Tam. Mak and me, we understand each other. She chose this. I won’t pretend that I’ve completely forgiven her, or that I never treated her poorly. There was a short period, a few days, where my anger made me cruel to her, and she bore it because of her guilt. But I promise you: that is over. I trust her, and I love her. When she invited me into this Family… I don’t think I can explain to you how grateful I was. She doesn’t want me to be her master, or her friend, but her sister. So I will fight for her, like I will for any of you. I will not let anyone take any of you from me, and I will stop anyone who tries.”

“Like you stopped the pirates?” Tam asked, the storm on his face passing.

“Exactly like the pirates. So, does that make you feel better?”

He looked at me silently for a long time before he answered. “What you’ve told me about Mak, it’s hard to swallow. It’s not like I’ve seen you mistreat her or anyone else I care about, but the idea of Mak bending to anyone’s will is just… I’m going to need to talk to her, I think, and see if I can get her side of it. But, yeah. I might not like what you have to tell me, but knowing makes me feel better. Not good, but better.”

He opened the doors for me. I could have done it myself, of course, so it felt kind of symbolic. “Go, with my blessing!” or something like that.

“Talk to her,” I said. Then I walked out into the yard and disappeared around the corner, leaving him with his worries.