Black Bottle Read online

  Is she going to welcome me?

  Despite the chill, the High King’s witch wore a white summer blouse. Ruffled off the shoulder. It revealed too much of her in equal directions, up and down. Taelin found herself staring at the woman’s bare trunk and the gem, like a lustrous black currant, that occupied her bellybutton. A heady mix of sensual physicality and dream-like etherealness volatilized the air. A fever-dream.

  Gods! Those eyes! Empty and glyptic—litmus blue—so different from the billboards and yet—

  Gilver shut the door. The sound tipped Taelin back on her heels. Stiffly, she looked over her shoulder but the butler was gone. When she turned, Sena’s eyes pierced her.

  The High King’s witch held an ancient red book with one hand, vertically, like a ledger pressed into her thigh. The faded black sigil decorating its cover delivered a jolt to the center of Taelin’s head.

  Taelin looked away.

  In the other hand, Sena twirled a fountain pen languorously across her thumb. She was radiant, powerful and relaxed. Taelin began to understand by increments that this was not likely the place or manner in which Sena took most of her appointments. This had been blocked out, carefully. There were no curios. No distractions. Even the anemic lemon-chrome glow of a tiny window, which must have been unique to this quarter hour, kindled a halo around the witch’s head and enflamed the highlights presumably burnt there by the sun. Taelin got the feeling that everything had been perfectly timed and staged.

  Finally Sena stopped spinning her pen. “Lady Rae, would you care to sit down?”

  Taelin managed to keep from curling her lip. “No … your majesty. I wouldn’t dream of taking your stool.”

  Sena smirked, showing spare amusement. “You don’t have to call me that.”

  “What would you like to be called?”

  “Sena.”

  Taelin watched the woman tousle her curls. Pure swagger.

  Then Sena’s neck extended slightly in Taelin’s direction. A feral cat catching the wind. “You smell like apples.”

  Taelin laced her fingers. “Strange. Your priest said the same thing.”

  “My priest?”

  “I assume he was a priest. I visited your temple, what? Over a week ago now, I think.”

  “Really?” Sunlight basted Sena’s naked waist as she leaned back on one arm. “What did you think of that?”

  “It didn’t make me feel like I think a temple ought to make you feel. Let’s put it that way.”

  “Haugh.” Sena pushed her tongue into her upper molars as she made the pensive sound. “Well it isn’t exactly a temple.”

  Taelin sneered. “Then what is it?”

  “It’s a colligation.”

  “My father is an attorney. I—”

  “I know who your father is. He used to come to Sandren.”

  Taelin laughed. “No offense, Miss Iilool, but I doubt you and he were in the same circles back then.”

  “Well, it was only a few years ago. Summer of ’59? Bishop Wilhelm introduced us. I had dinner with your father one night at the Black Couch.” She smiled thinly.

  Taelin’s face turned hot as a lightbulb. “What are you suggesting?”

  “I’m not suggesting anything. I’m just telling you that I know your father.”

  “I doubt it. My father is a good man.”

  “Is he? I’m glad to hear it. You asked about the colligation?”

  “No, I don’t think I did.”

  Sena smiled.

  “I’ve come to build a mission in your city … and to speak with you … candidly.” Taelin took a breath, ready to begin her rehearsed admonition.

  “It’s all right,” said Sena. “You’re not the first impassioned clergy that’s wanted me to publicly disavow all this”—she stirred the air with her finger—”blasphemy.”

  Taelin’s mouth twitched. The witch was hard to read.

  Sena grinned, not maliciously. “You are, however, the first I’ve granted an audience.”

  “Thank you,” stammered Taelin. “Thank you. I … which I, appreciate … of course.” She wrung her hands behind her back. “Why did you grant one to me?”

  “Someone from the south put in a good word for you. And besides, you were called here by Nenuln, weren’t you?”

  “What? Yes.” Taelin had just noticed the faint glimmers that decorated Sena’s waist, tracing the muscular hollows as if a spider had crawled crazy over her skin. She was so distracted by the designs that the question hit her broadside. “Have you? I mean … who is it that you know? From the south?”

  Sena’s eyes moved from where they had been boring holes in one of the room’s featureless walls and centered on Taelin’s face. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Of course.”

  “Does your goddess love me?”

  Taelin fumbled mentally. Finally she said, “Yes. I mean…”

  “Does she love me as much as you loved Aviv … or your son?”

  Taelin’s blush returned. Unfair!

  But before she could respond, Sena’s cool, gravelly voice scraped over her. “Let me tell you what you were sent here to learn.”

  “I wasn’t sent here to lear—”

  “You were sent to learn that I am, in fact, going south. I’ll be passing over Mirayhr, over Skellum, near midnight on the twelfth of Tes. You will be unable to stop me there and I will proceed to Sandren. Send whomever you want. The Stairs will kill them.”

  Taelin felt Sena’s words dissolve reality; the logic of the moment was crumbling into chunks. What’s going on? What is she talking about?

  “From the Stairs, I descend toward Bablemum. If you’re still following me after that, I’m afraid I’ll have to drag you through the jungle.”

  She’s insane. Of course … Taelin felt the Duchy of Stonehold as a political entity wrap itself around her, more sinister and entangling than before. This wasn’t about bringing some power-hungry shakedown artist to repentance. That clearly wasn’t who Sena Iilool was. No. Sena Iilool was crazy. Maybe the king too, if all of this was true. Or maybe … what if? Maybe this was all an act.

  Taelin fixed Sena with a dubious scowl. “I’m sorry … I don’t…”

  “Shh.” Sena put her finger to her lips. “They’ll hear you.”

  “Who will hear me?”

  Sena unleashed the perfect white smile from her billboards. “It belongs to you now. Don’t let them take it.”

  Enough nonsense! “Nenuln sent me here to—”

  “Nenuln sent you here as part of an agreement.”

  Taelin gave up. “I think I should leave.”

  “Only because you’re frightened and you don’t know what to say.”

  “Yes. Exactly.”

  “I’ll keep you safe, Lady Rae. Don’t worry.”

  “Stop it. Stop it!”

  “Better than your grandfather’s amulet…” Sena held out her hand, sideways, fingers extended ambiguously. Whether she was pointing toward it or asking for it, Taelin couldn’t tell. Her hand shot up to protect the demonifuge. “No! You can’t know that. It’s impossible that you know about that!”

  “Impossible? What about the scroll from the Valley of Dust that you translated so painstakingly out of Veyden: Gnor-ak Gnak Zith’yn Auth-ich Aubelle Aubiel Gnak Naen’Uln Thu-ru Ryth-ich El? And what it means to you is: ’In the darkness there are many lights; Nenuln is One that will end an Age of Sadness.’”

  “Stop it. Stop it!” said Taelin. “You can’t know that. It’s impossible! Your holomorphy…”

  “Shh—” Sena hushed her again, gently, as if tending an infant. “We aren’t enemies.” Then she spoke in the Unknown Tongue, which Taelin recognized mostly from those short examples of blasphemy handed out by priests at the church her parents attended, two or three phrases uttered as warnings, as examples of what to fear. The dark glottal sounds popped from Sena’s throat with the sound of volcanic glass cracking.

  Taelin clenched her grandfather’s demonifuge as the panicked sunlig
ht withdrew from the window. A thickening cocoon of shadow concresced over Sena’s body.

  Darker. Sena became a spectral pit of blackness straddling the stool. Instead of sunlight, a halo of dust or smoke obscured the shape that might or might not have been what Taelin was looking at. Taelin felt her eyes being pulled out of her head into the relentless gravity of the thing. Thin platinum lines, like starry charts, fluoresced within the blackness and a pair of burning eyes opened: white and blue.

  Taelin’s heart pounded in her skull. She closed her eyes and began to pray. “Sweet Mother of Light, I have been deceived. Your warmth and glory come around me. Protect me and—”

  Taelin felt her thoughts lose traction. Her fist was numb from clenching her necklace.

  Sena’s cool husky voice penetrated the sanctum of her prayer. “You told me your goddess loved me.”

  Taelin did not dare open her eyes. “Y-yes”—she bit her lip—”she loves you—”

  “Of course she does.” Sena’s voice was right next to her temple, bouncing off her blood vessels. “All the gods love me. You saw their love poems—written on my skin.”

  Taelin opened her eyes. The doors were still shut but the room was empty. The thermal crank had stopped ticking.

  Taelin sank down on her knees and cried.

  CHAPTER

  8

  “If I’s there, I’d a smacked her,” said Palmer. “She got no business treatin’ people like that.”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” said Taelin.

  “Yes, I woulda and you couldn’t a stopped me. She’s nothin, she’s less than nothin. Got her face all over town like it’s somethin special—but it ain’t. What you do is special, Lady Rae. What you done is special. Helpin us.”

  Taelin smiled but the horror of her visit still haunted her. When that awful tangible darkness had surrounded Sena, Taelin had felt it. More than a change in light. It had been a power, a sign, a bellwether. The experience still tingled in her pores.

  For the next few days, Taelin shook off her fear by serving meals and handing out blankets; delivering evening services and passing around flyers. Every day, without fail, she got the questions.

  “You from Pandragor?”

  “Why you come up here?”

  “Must be crazy. Trade that warm sand for snow!”

  She took pride in being from the south and enjoyed the attention. But her escape was short-lived. On the eleventh, a stooped, vile-looking bird planed in through the dreamhole in St. Remora’s steeple where Palmer had been stationed to operate the volucroria. When Palmer rang the bell Taelin darted upstairs, giddy at hearing the signal that meant correspondence had arrived and that Palmer had determined it was important.

  Perhaps it was from the mayor. Or maybe Travis Whittle had decided to support her with a grant.

  She entered the volucroria and boggled at the three pigeons she had purchased from a local duffer. They churned through a series of conniptions inside their cage. The fits looked and sounded more like feathery explosions than anything real birds could accomplish. Taelin marched across the room and wrenched a heavy quilt over the volery.

  “Palmer! You have to cover them when they do that.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Palmer was looking quietly at the sinister bird. Taelin saw it now that the commotion had ended and it gave her pause. The four-foot creature stood on a wooden perch near the dreamhole, shaking out a black ruff with tiny irisated markings. It glared at her. Eyes, dark as blood; the curve of its long ibis-like beak, white—softening into blue near the skull. The creature seemed to know to stand quietly so that she could use an extractor to pull the cruestone from its skull.

  Taelin swallowed and picked up the tool. She approached slowly, wary of the sharp beak that resembled one half of a pair of ice tongs. The thing shrieked at her, revealing the pale pink interior of its mouth, urging her to hurry.

  Taelin steeled herself and untied the bundle from its leg: a message and a hood. She secured the hood first. An eyelet at the top of the skull allowed her to pluck the cruestone out. Freed from the fire, the creature shook its head again.

  Taelin’s heart was pounding, not from the ferocity of the messenger but from the seal on the golden tube.

  Palmer’s voice trembled. “Is that … is it uh…?” He was pointing toward the seal.

  “Yes.” She felt breathless.

  It was the seal of the High King.

  “Fuckin’ ticky,” Palmer mewled.

  She opened the golden tube and pulled out a single sheet of paper. Affixed to the bottom was a gem that would undoubtedly send the bird back whence it had come. Taelin read the few words on the page and felt her entire body flush with a mixture of pride … and fear.

  Madam,

  His Majesty, High King Caliph Howl, welcomes you to the Duchy of Stonehold. It would please the crown to acknowledge your recent charitable efforts here in Isca City with a token of his gratitude this evening at St. Remora at thirteen o’clock.

  Please feel free to use the enclosed cruestone in order to confirm or decline at your earliest convenience.

  Drown Vicunt,

  High Seneschal, Isca Castle

  Taelin’s knees, despite the reason for her coming to Stonehold, promptly gave out. She sat down in a wooden chair, clenching the note as if it had been delivered by Nenuln herself.

  She worried that Sena was behind this but Palmer interrupted her thoughts.

  “Lady Rae?” he whispered. “Lady Rae? Is they shuttin us down? Is that what it says?”

  Taelin made the hand sign for no.

  “He’s coming,” she said, looking at Palmer’s pale, wasted face, which hung in astonished folds like a wet sock back in the shadows of the volucroria. “He’s coming here. Tonight.”

  * * *

  “YOU’LL want an engineer,” said Alani.

  “Sig.”

  “Sigmund Dulgensen?” Alani clarified.

  “There’s only one Sig. He’ll come. He owes me. He owes me for the rest of his natural life.”

  Alani wrote the name on his ledger. “Anyone else?”

  Caliph tugged his lower lip. “I don’t think so.”

  “I suggest we bring Lady Rae,” said Alani, “from the Church of Nenuln.” Dappled, snowy light danced through the office windows and played across the spymaster’s unsmiling features.

  Caliph chuckled. “Why? And why would she agree to come with us?”

  “Because I have it on good authority that her reason for being in Stonehold isn’t to assist the poor.”

  “She’s a spy then?”

  “Worse. An idealist.”

  “I’m an idealist.”

  “Hardly.” Alani’s scoff was brusque. His sharp features peered against the light, out into the city. “Lady Rae isn’t fond of Sena or the fact that there’s a temple in her name.”

  Caliph steered his thoughts away from Sena. “So this Lady Rae is here because she’s upset over some crazies worshiping my—?” He wondered why the daughter of an attorney general had nothing better to do with her life.

  “Precisely,” Alani cut in. “Did you know she had an audience with Sena last Day of Charms?”

  “Sena does a lot I don’t know about.”

  “The priestess left the castle looking flushed. What intrigues me is why Sena granted her the appointment.”

  “I don’t know,” said Caliph. “But if she’s here because she hates Sena, why would we want to invite her—”

  “We don’t care about her on that level,” said Alani. “We care about how we appear to the south and what they print. I’m sure if you make a donation to her church tonight … she’ll see you in person of course in the best possible light … and then I’ll invite her to accompany us tomorrow. Not only will she feel obligated, but I’m sure she’ll also view it as an opportunity to go another round with Sena and perhaps this time get the upper hand.”

  “Not very subtle.”

  “Subtle enough. Did you know she spent time in a mental ward?”<
br />
  Caliph raised his eyebrows. “How do you know she’s free for a visit tonight?”

  “I’ve already made arrangements.”

  Caliph grunted. “You know I don’t like it when you—”

  “Yes. I know.” Alani’s lips formed an immaterial pout.

  Caliph couldn’t help smiling. Just slightly. “I’ll trust you on this. Whatever edge you can get us with the Pandragonians, I’ll happily take.”

  Alani inclined his head slightly, tucked his ledger under one arm and quietly left the room.

  * * *

  WORD of Taelin’s efforts with the poor had fueled a hot controversy. After all, St. Remora was in Lampfire Hills. This wasn’t Maruchine, or Thief Town. Outside of the little cavities of decay along Knife Street and Seething Lane, Lampfire Hills was an upscale borough. Critics were already blaming her for luring unsavory elements out of Winter Fen’s slums and into the proper neighborhoods of Heath Street. Others decided it had become chic for the upper crust to stroll down and serve food at the shelter.

  That the High King was willing to publicly recognize and support her efforts clearly meant that he wasn’t worried about criticism. Even the squatters took pride in scrubbing the church anew, with the understanding that the supreme leader of the duchy would be arriving today: to see them.

  Taelin expected them to utter slurs but, to her surprise, not one of them did. In fact, she began to understand that they did not blame the crown for their lives. Rather they blamed themselves and, in Palmer’s case at least, thought of it as a personal choice.

  Early in the afternoon, Taelin reread the message.

  She still didn’t trust it. This was not Pandragor and Sena Iilool was certainly not her friend. She sorted through her larder for ideas, pulled out a can of freeze-dried berries and sighed. He won’t eat. But I have to put out a spread … something for his bodyguards at least. She guessed there would be journalists and ambrotypists and city watchmen by the dozen.

  Slightly after noon she began to notice that the whole of Knife Street between Mark and Heath was barricaded off.

  His motivation must be purely political.