This story begins HERE.
"Where are we?"
Termillion turned his head to look at the bed. Hester was staring at the ceiling. Her body, decorated with overlapping black sigils, was motionless.
"How do you feel?" Termillion asked, rising from his chair. "Don't try to move."
Her eyes found him. "Kayss?"
He turned away. It took a few seconds for him to respond. "I did what I could to wrap your wounds." His voice was thin, and weak. Hester heard exhaustion, pain, sadness so great there was little left of the man who had just lost his daughter.
"Termillion..."
"No."
The word barely reached her. She thought she had heard the word before, decades ago, when her mother had died. She had asked her father how. Why. It had been days before he could tell her.
"Not now," Termillion said. "We have other things to discuss." He turned back to her, his face a flat mask. "Unless I'm mistaken, Ummi's control over you is broken." Before he could stop her, she lifted one of her arms and looked at the dead sigils. The motion sent pain rolling down her shoulder, but she clenched her teeth and squeezed her hand. The memory of the pain Ummi had put her through was still there, etched inside her mind. Like electric wires wound around her limbs.
They heard a knock, and Termillion opened the door, allowing a white-clad man into the room. The single candle shined off his balding head, and he adjusted his glasses, stepping closer to Hester without a word of greeting.
"Hester, this is Mesthum, a member of the White. Ummi had him under her control as well."
Mesthum set a large bag next to the bed and knelt to both knees. He rolled up his sleeve and showed her a single burnt-out sigil compared to the hundreds covering Hester's skin, skull, and face.
"It forced me to notify her if Termillion or anyone else fighting against her coup arrived at the hospital. Termillion and Kayss-" Hester stiffened, and the motion didn't escape Mesthum. "...When they arrived I denied the pain as long as I could, but it was too great." The doctor looked over his shoulder at Termillion, who was leaning against the wall. "I can't imagine the pain you must have been in. Death must have appeared an incredible gift."
"Yes." Mesthum felt Hester's injuries, and she looked at Termillion without turned her head. "Where are we?"
"A mostly-empty building near the docks," Termillion said. "As far from the clock tower as I could take you." He turned his head, thinking. "Ummi has taken over the Umbris, top to bottom. If there is anybody fighting against her they're doing it from the inside, and they're being careful, or they're being killed."
"Or getting sigils carved into their skin," Hester said. Mesthum showed her a cup with a small amount of thick liquid.
"Drink," he said, and she leaned up a small amount to let the liquid between her lips. The taste and smell made her retch and tremble, but she got it down. "It will dull the pain and help you relax." He paused. "There is less damage to you than it seems. Numerous cuts and bruises, but I suspect most of the pain is the sigils."
"But I thought Ummi's control was severed."
"Her control, yes." Mesthum adjusted his glassed and glanced toward the sigil on his own arm. "The sigils persist. They will continue to cause pain, because that's what Ummi designed them to do. Mine still hurts, but the pain has been lessening as the hours pass."
"How long has it been?" Hester asked Termillion.
"Since the clock tower? A day. A little more. I heard someone on the street calling it 'the day time stopped.'" Termillion's face didn't change from its sorrowful expression.
"Hopefully the sigils will wear off soon," Mesthum said. "I can do little more here, I'm afraid. For now, sleep."
"Thank you, Mesthum," Termillion said. The two men gripped arms. "Stay safe. Ummi is a monster, and I want no more friends dying."
"I'll never tell her a thing. I will lie to her even if she can read my mind," the doctor said. "I have lost friends as well, Termillion. Ask, and I will do anything I can to help you."
He left the room. Hester felt her skin numbing, and tried to sit up. It was slow, and the pain made her pause, but after a few seconds she put her bare feet on the floor.
The room was dark, save the single candle. Blue and black shadows laughed at their pain. A small window showed an empty sea. She rested on the only bed, and even she was nearly too large for it.
She spotted a large form in the darkest corner, and realized it was a small body, shrouded in Termillion's cloak. The dancing orange light revealed a dark red tarnish in the middle of the body, staining the girl's black-wrapped body red, as if she was a murderer.
"I'm sorry, Termillion," Hester said. He said nothing. "I'll do everything I can to help you. Ummi won't get away with this."
"You knew, didn't you?" he said. He looked at her, and she saw his stony face beginning to crack.
"I...had my suspicions."
"The very last thing my daughter said to me was 'I love you too.'"
Hester felt a chill. Termillion continued.
"She knew. Thank God, thank the sea and the sky and the moon she knew. She knew I loved her, and she loved me back. She knew I loved her mother. I hope she knew I did everything I could for her. I found her and brought her to the Umbris, and demanded I be her teacher. I hope she knew every moment I spent with her was a treasure I will keep forever, just like every moment I spent with her mother. 'I love you too' should be the most wonderful sentence we can speak. It should be something that obliterates all aches, and wounds, and sorrows. It shouldn't be this. It shouldn't be an open hole in my heart. It shouldn't be the last thing a man hears his daughter say before she dies."
The cracks were growing larger. "What do we do?" Hester asked, if only to help get his mind off his loss.
He took a moment to respond. "I'm going to visit the magistrate."
Hester lifted a suspicious eyebrow. "And get yourself killed when you walk into a public place in the middle of the day. If Ummi hasn't made the council and the magistrate believe you're a murderous traitor then she's a moron as well as a maniac."
Termillion snorted, but his face remained flat. "It won't be during the day."
Behind a tower of memos, numerous gas lamps filling the room with gold light, Magistrate Lissit read and wrote away. Her mind was already drifting toward the soft covers of her bed, but she could never put this work off. A conflict within the Umbris leading to dozens of deaths and a destroyed clock tower--not to mention collateral damage. The new leader, Ummi, had told her everything. Everything she wanted the magistrate to know, at least.
Lissit was looking over the damage report to buildings surrounding the clock tower when she felt her eyes slipping shut. She reached for the bell-pull to ask Maria for tea. There was a sharp noise, and then Lissit was holding the severed end of the cord. She looked at the wall behind her desk and saw a knife vibrating where it had stuck. She looked forward and rose.
"I will be quick," Termillion said. Somehow, in the brilliant room, he had still found a shadow to bury in. His hood was pulled low over his face. "I assume you know my name."
"Termillion," Lissit said. "The man who killed Master Gos and destroyed the clock tower." She drew a dagger she had on her belt.
"Half right," he said. He went to the door without a sound and smoothed his hand over part of it; when his hand returned to his cloak Lissit saw a piece of paper with a rune stuck to the door's wood. "To prevent interruptions. Put your weapon away, I'm not hear to hurt you. Ummi is a liar and a monster. She is the one who killed Master Gos. She took over the Umbris in a violent coup."
"Of course," Lissit said. "It all makes sense now. I assume she framed you for the clock tower, as well? You are an angelic creature, blameless."
"Shut up," Termillion said. The words, quiet and potent, made Lissit jump. "For simplicity's sake let's say yes, I am responsible for the clock tower. I did it to escape Ummi and her soldiers. In doing so I freed countless others from Ummi's control. She etched controlling runes onto their body. Members of your staff, members of the council, you yourself might have been under her control and not known it. Not until she needed you to act."
"And you saved us."
Termillion's eyes narrowed. "I didn't care about you."
"So then what are you here for?" Lissit didn't try to keep her voice low. If Maria or a guard heard her talking, so be it. "Just to threaten me and tell your version of the story?"
Lissit could see muscles moving in his jaw. She could tell there was a great deal he wanted to shout at her. "I intend to get my revenge on Ummi. I am going to destroy her, from stained feet to demonic crown. If you try to stop me, I will come for you next."
"Threats against the magistrate are high treason."
A moment after she spoke, Termillion smiled. Lissit had never seen such a joyless, hateful, hurting expression. "Then hang me from the turret if you can." He took a step forward, more into the light than before, and Lissit took a step away. His cloak was covered in dark red spots, and Lissit had seen enough shrouds to know why. He looked more tired than she was, pulled tighter, crawling under a heavier load. "When I am done, the Umbris will be no more. If you want, and if you survive, you can build it back up, but you will have to do it from scratch."
Lissit glanced at the bell-pull. It was a bit higher now, but she could still reach it. "And if innocent people die?" she asked. "If you bring down the faultless along with the guilty?"
The smile died. The flat, emotionless face replaced it. "I couldn't give half a shit who else dies," Termillion said. "Not anymore."
Lissit narrowed her eyes at him. "Who was it?" she asked, finally bringing her voice low. "Master Gos? Someone else? Who did Ummi kill?"
Termillion turned away. The room began to feel hotter. Lissit hesitated, then reached up and grabbed the bell-pull before Termillion had a chance to stop her.
He didn't move. When Maria tried to enter the room, she collided with the unmovable door, then pounded on it. "Madam Magistrate?" she called. "Are you all right?"
"Fetch the guard," Lissit called. She waited a moment, listening to Maria's running feet. "I am not against you," she said to Termillion, "not yet. I must appear to be, though. Bring me evidence Ummi is to blame for this chaos and I will use my power to remove her. I'll give you power to do what you wish with the Umbris."
"We'll see," Termillion said. The words barely reached her. Heavy fists rained on the door.
"Madam Magistrate, stand away from the door!"
"Time for you to go," Lissit said.
Termillion snapped his fingers. The gas lamps smoked out in an instant, just as the door flew open. Two guards stumbled and fell to the ground, flying through the doorway and making a clattering din. For a moment, Lissit could see Termillion's eyes glowing in the darkness, and then he was gone.
A few minutes later he stood on the roof of the building next to the magistrate's, listening to the chaos spread. The hunt for him was already on, but there was no way any of the clods, in their heavy, noisy armor, could ever catch up, much less lay a hand on him.
He turned away from the building, and the people inside slipped out of his mind. His injuries from the battle in the clock tower hadn't healed much in the day and a half since, and he found himself taking it slow, even when he wanted to push himself to the breaking point. He wanted to sprint across the roof and leap over the hundred-foot gap without looking down. He wanted to fire his paper rune missiles into the sky, damn wherever they might land.
As it was, all he could do was walk to the edge of the roof and begin to climb down. His leg still hurt from Hester's unwanted betrayal, and he didn't foresee it healing very quickly. Infiltrating the council building, and his quick slip away, had used up most of his frenetic energy. He was looking forward to getting back to the room where Hester recuperated.
"You should use mine," Hester had said, when Termillion had taken his cloak off from Kayss' cold body. "I'm not going to be using it."
"I need this one," Termillion said. It smelled like his daughter, and the iron scent of cold blood. "It fits."
Hester had watched him pull the cloak on with a concerned expression. "You'll be all right?"
"I won't let anyone catch me."
"That isn't what I asked."
He had looked at her, face motionless. Without another word, he exited the door, and Hester heard it lock.
Now he was stumbling through the streets, ears pricked for anyone following him. With his Umbris training, a cat sneezing across the street was like the awful cacophony of the clock tower tumbling down, and not even the darkest shadow could hide. His feet scraped over the cobbles, and he avoided the eyes of the other late night walkers--thugs, prostitutes, thieves. People who looked at the ground and thought about themselves. People like him.
After a few blocks he decided he was far enough from the council building. If he slipped into a shadow no one would be able to find him, so he ducked into a pub to rest his stiff leg and catch his breath.
Those inside gazed at him like he was a dog's mess on the floor, then turned away. He wanted to turn and leave immediately, but it would be too easy to remember him then. He'd have a sit and a drink, then wander back to Hester.
The barmaid brought him an ale and he flipped a coin onto the table without looking up. The barmaid, no doubt used to odd characters, slid the coin off the table and retreated without a word. Taking a drink, Termillion imagined meeting another woman in a pub like this one, almost twenty years ago. He imagined getting to know her, growing to love her, receiving a message telling him she had taken to bed with child, and she couldn't see him anymore. He remembered sitting outside her home and watching her belly's progress, until a squalling infant joined her in the bed.
He remembered hoping neither she, nor the child, would catch the plague. He remembered the dark days and darker nights of civil unrest, culminating in furious riots. The people thought the council was denying them food, medical supplies. The truth was there was none. Termillion remembered being part of the group of Umbris who had to go out each night and try and keep the worst parts of humanity from showing themselves. Rape and murder and theft. He saw men lying in the street, trampled under a thousand boots and begging for help. He saw women leaning against dark walls, pulling their torn clothes back together. He saw homes rise into pillars of flame.
He saw the woman he loved dashed to the ground and left bleeding as the riot pulsed up and down the street toward the magistrate's residence.
He'd dived into the throng, whipping a rune missile out of his cloak to create space. They'd known well enough not to take their anger out on him. He'd bent to his knees, cradled her softened body. She'd seen him for the last time before lifting a mangled hand and pointing to a corner away from the flames and press of bodies. Her eyes had shut themselves, and Termillion had turned on his glowing vision to see the girl, his daughter. Kayss.
He looked through the bottom of his empty mug and considered having another. It was good for the hole in his heart. But he needed to get back to Hester, and the longer he slept the better. His leg felt better; he felt ready to move.
He left the pub. His neck hurt. He had barely moved his entire time inside. He looked at the cold sky and took a deep breath.
He remembered bringing Kayss to the Umbris, and then asking to become a tutor. He remembered confiding in Master Gos, asking to train Kayss when the time came. He remembered watching student after student fail, until it was time for Kayss' training, and pouring every ounce of work into teaching her everything he could. He remembered telling himself he refused to fail her.
He remembered his heart leaping when she had demonstrated her unique ability, something so spectacular and incredible there was no way she could not succeed.
He remembered her using the incredible ability--"shadowwalking," she had called it--to place herself onto the blade Ummi had meant for Termillion.
He felt like screaming. His eyes caught the moon and he wanted to see it crumble to pieces. But he was tired, and so he slogged back to Hester, images of his dead lover and daughter frozen in front of him.
A bolt ran down his spine. Someone was watching him. It wasn't an Umbris, it would have been much more difficult for him to figure it out. Likely it was just a little rat who wanted to cut his purse. He let his ears grow open until he could hear footsteps behind him, furtive, but slow. They were heavy, and followed him without err. It wasn't a pickpocket, it was a mugger.
Termillion accentuated his limp and put a little bit of wander into his walk. The thug had probably seen him exit the pub and thought him an easy mark. Stepping off the main street and into an alley, Termillion faded from view.
The man, rotund but quick on his feet, appeared at the entrance to the alley. He wore sweaty leather, had a mostly-bald head, and his thick fingers fiddled with the hilt of his dagger. The alley ended in a brick wall about twenty feet from the entrance, and the thug's eyes swept from side to side, trying to figure out where Termillion had gone.
Taking form out of a shadow next to him, Termillion snatched the dagger from the thug's belt. He jammed it into the man's neck, and blood sprayed out as the thug collapsed, trying to spit a word through his shredded throat.
Termillion whipped the dagger into his body and left him dying in the darkness. He pulled his hood low over his eyes and returned to the street.
Later, near the docks, Termillion felt someone else trailing him. Another cutpurse, or the thug's friend come to get revenge. Termillion's blank face slipped into a sharp grin, and he let his senses expand.
No.
He ran, pushing the pain in his leg out of his mind. Only his Umbris training helped him hear his pursuer. Even then, the footsteps sounded like a predator stepping on snow.
He flew down a street and turned to the right at an intersection; turning to the left would take him too close to Hester. His eyes began to sharpen; shadows lit up like whorehouses. He felt the presence of the person chasing after him.
He imagined Kayss telling him she loved him. He imagined her mother pointing at her as she lay in Termillion's arms and the riot pulsed around them.
He skidded to a stop and whirled in place, his blood-heavy cloak flaring around him. With a quick motion he fired a rune missile at the person behind him. It slipped out of the way.
It was dark. It had black clothes tight around it, and its skin looked made from smoke and ash. Termillion could barely focus on it, and if he looked away it took concentration to find it again. It was a creature of shadow, and he knew Ummi had sent it after him.
It lunged forward, loping over the ground. Termillion flicked a knife at it and spun to the side, again forcing himself to ignore the pain in his leg. It dodged out of the way of his knife and pushed forward at him, swiping with a short, curved weapon.
Termillion dove over it and rolled to a crouch behind it. He flung another rune missile, and this time he connected.
An explosion of hot air blew his cloak out behind him. It knocked down a rickety wooden balcony and disturbed piles of barrels and boxes stacked nearby. The black figure skidded down the street and rolled to a stop on one of the piers, in the moon's light.
Dark mist flowed off of it as it pulled itself to its feet. It stood slowly, spine extended into a straight line and head coming up last of all. Termillion's sharp vision caught sight of two familiar symbols deep in its black pupil. He has last seen them glowing blue, etched on Hester's skin.
It rushed forward and the sigils disappeared as it moved out of the light. Termillion forced himself backward from the swiping attack, and spun a knife into his hand. He crouched and felt the pain flow up his leg. He welcomed it. Better than seeing his loved ones die again.
The figure thrust itself forward, bouncing off the stones of the street and kicking down at him. Termillion caught the foot and used his knife to slash along its leg. He should have hit it, but his weapon passed through it like smoke.
Still, the figure landed heavy on the ground and rolled up, clutching its leg where Termillion's weapon had hit. Its mouth, obscured behind a piece of cloth, moved and shifted. Termillion caught a glimmer of a sigil.
Termillion snapped his face into a grin, lips pulled wide. He flung three rune missiles. The figure danced past the first one, and found the second headed straight for him, so it flipped out of the way. The third missile seemed to have disappeared, until the figure took a step forward and lost the feeling in its leg.
It crumpled down as the effect of the rune missile turned its body weak. Termillion strode forward as fast as his hurt leg let him, and grabbed the figure by the shirt. He thrust his fist into its face, twice, and relished the stinging in his knuckles. Ripping the cloth from its mouth, Termillion saw thin, bloodless lips and sharp teeth, ground to points and dripping with spittle. He tied the piece of cloth around its wrists, behind its back.
It tried to get to its feet, but it was still too numb. Its legs kicked the stones as Termillion dragged it toward the dock it had rolled across. He went to the end, where the water was deepest, and buried its head in the sea.
It struggled, legs kicking and shoulders shaking. Termillion pressed it in harder, nearly dunking it all the way. It struggled faster, and faster, and then stopped.
Termillion pulled it out, and felt its wrist. No heart. His fingers came away greasy, and when he looked he found black material, almost like ink, covering his hands.
He pulled out one of the slips of paper he used for his rune missiles, and used the material to write a message. It was a bit sloppy, but legible. He left it pinned to the body, and slipped away back to Hester.
"Are you all right?" Hester asked when he unlocked the door and entered the room. "What happened?"
Termillion shut the door and padded to the wall. He pressed his back against it and slid until he was sitting. He kept his eyes on the floor until he pulled off his cloak. He found it dripping with water, blood, and mottled black. He looked at where his daughter's body rested and found one of the bedsheets covering it. He glanced at Hester.
"I couldn't sleep," she said. "Tell me what happened."
Termillion sighed. "I spoke with the magistrate, told my side of the story. She believes me, for now. But I need to prove my innocence. On my way back here something attacked me."
"Something?"
"Ummi used her sigils to...twist somebody. It did nothing but attack me."
"It didn't speak?"
"Not before I drowned it."
Hester's eyes widened. "Are you hurt?"
"No more than before. It was quick, but I got the upper hand. I was lucky I heard it following me. It almost caught me off guard."
"Your hands," Hester said. Termillion looked at them. Among the wrinkles were dark, inky stains.
"Its skin was covered with--or made of--some sort of slick material. I'm not sure what it was."
Hester watched him rub his hands together for a few seconds. He was looking into the past. "What do we do next?"
"Find Ummi, and drive a stake through her heart."
Now Termillion was watching the sheet-covered body in the corner, as if it would rise from its supine position and begin speaking.
"I have a different proposition." Termillion looked at her, face just as emotionless as it had been when he'd left earlier in the night. "A burial." She nodded toward Kayss' body. Termillion nearly pinned her to the wall with his gaze. "She doesn't deserve to rot away in the corner of a room."
Termillion was on his feet, hands in trembling fists. His eyes were wide, catching the single candle, but his expression hadn't shifted. "Listen to me," Hester said, hissing through his fury. "She deserves rest, not being carried around while you exact bloody revenge. At the very least, her body will begin to decay and stink. The docks may smell of fish, but not corpses. Someone will discover us soon."
The cracks appeared on Termillion's face again, and his anger sank back down. He sat. "Where? We cannot simply bring a body to the cemetery and expect no questions."
"You aren't the only one with contacts in the city," Hester said. She shifted and groaned. "But we both need to rest. We'll leave in the morning. I wonder if I'll even be able to wake up without the clock tower marking the dawn."
"How do the sigils feel?" Termillion asked.
"Better. Slightly. It's a slow process but they're working their way out. Look." She lifted her arm. "They're fading."
"Soon you'll just have normal wounds to worry about."
Hester chuckled, thrilled Termillion had found it possible to make a joke. "We'll have to get to the north side of the city," she said, struggling down into a lying position. "Wake me up at dawn, if you can."
"We may want to leave before then," Termillion said. "I left a note with the body."
"What?!" Hester pushed herself up again. "What did you say?!"
Send me another, witch, Ummi read. She let the note flutter back onto the body lying on the docks, then pushed the corpse into the sea with one boot. The fingers on her remaining hand squeezed and extended. The early morning dockside was warming up. She turned around, looking at the Umbris footsoldiers who had come with her. "The Skota tracked him to the docks. He must be close. Find him. Now!"
The sun was over their heads when they reached their destination. Hester, leading the way with the pain from the sigils ebbing in and out, knocked on the door. They both had their hoods up, and Termillion had Kayss' wrapped body in his arms. Wounded and weary, they had made their way from the southern docks to the northernmost part of the city, avoiding crowded areas, open stretches, or anyone who looked like part of Ummi's grapevine.
Hester knocked again, and a minute later an old woman pried open the door. She looked from Hester to Termillion, then to the weight in his arms. "I'll fetch the matron," she said, and opened the door to let them in.
"Hester, it's-" a different old woman said, when she entered the dingy lobby a few minutes later. She stopped, seeing them. Hester, with half her head shaved, and half-faded symbols covering her skin, favoring her right side and Termillion kneeling next to her with Kayss' body in his arms. "Heavens. What's happened?"
"It's a long story, matron," Hester said. "The last few days have been trying. I have a very important favor to ask." She looked at Termillion. "This is Katherine, the matron of the orphanage. We've been friends for a long time. Katherine, this is Termillion."
Katherine took a step back. "I recognize the name."
"You have nothing to fear from him," Hester said, knowing Termillion wouldn't necessarily agree. "All we ask is to care for Kayss."
"She is an orphan?" Katherine asked.
Termillion felt his heart catch in his throat. "Officially," he managed to say. Hester nudged him, and he rose, holding out the small, wrapped body.
Katherine saw his expression and nodded. "Briten, fetch a bier," the matron said to the other woman. She left quietly. "I'm sorry for your loss." She looked over them. "You're tired. If you'd like, you can rest in one of the bedrooms while we prepare the body."
"The children won't mind?" Hester asked.
"We are blessed to be empty, for the most part," the matron said. "Only about a dozen children in this whole, cold building." She led them out of the lobby, past a staircase and down a hallway. The carpet was thin under their feet, and both Hester and Termillion entered the first room Katherine opened for them. Like their room before, it was small and sparse, with a small window in the corner and a bed against the wall. Termillion limped to one side and sat, resting his head against the wall. Hester sat on the bed. "If there's anything you need, be sure to let me know," Katherine said. "I must help Briten prepare the body."
"Paper," Termillion said. "Pen and ink. Bandages if you can."
Katherine nodded and exited. A few minutes later she returned with the items, then left again, easing the door shut with a soft click. Termillion took one of the slips of paper and began writing a message.
"Who are you contacting?" Hester asked.
"Mesthum. I'm telling him what's happened and where we are."
"Is that safe?"
Termillion glanced at her from his spot on the floor. "He knows to be careful. He might be able to help us, and if he can I'd rather he know what we've discovered. I also want to warn him about the creature that attacked me last night. There may be more of them."
Hester watched him scratch at the paper. "How will you get the message to him?"
"A rune," Termillion said. He folded the paper up and turned to the blank side, drawing a swirling design on it. "It also acts as a signature. The rune takes it wherever I send it, within reason. It should work anywhere within the city."
Hester leaned forward. "How does it know where to go?"
Termillion didn't look up. "A magical system of my own device," he said in his flat way. As part of the rune, he drew two circles. "This one contains the name of the recipient, this one contains the location."
"Interesting." Termillion used the wall to pull himself up, and limped to the window. He pushed it open, held the folded message by the corner, and flicked it into the air. It continued spinning, whizzing out of view. He returned to his spot.
"Wake me when Katherine comes back."
"I will," Hester said. A minute later he was asleep, and she took a piece of paper off the small stack Katherine had brought. She wrote her own message, a longer one. It took her some time to put the words in the correct order. When she finished, she folded the page up, flipped it over, and recreated the rune she had studied as Termillion drew it. She wrote the recipient and location, pushed the window open as quietly as she could, and flicked the message into the air. Like Termillion's it spun away, in a different direction.
The graveyard was small, like the bodies buried in it. Clouds had taken over the sun's place when Katherine led Termillion and Hester to the back, past bony tree limbs and leaning stones showing angels taking small forms up to where their parents waited.
They stopped in front of a hole in the ground. The other woman--Briten--and a bent old man with a shovel stood next to a wheeled cart bearing Kayss' wrapped body. It looked more comfortable, wrapped in a child's white funeral shroud. Her limbs were still crooked and bent from the rigor mortis, but to Termillion it was as if she was just sleeping, like their last night listening to the clock tower whirr and bang.
"Would you like me to assist you?" Katherine asked Termillion. He nodded, and went to the top of the corpse. Katherine hoisted the feet, and together they laid his daughter in her grave.
They assembled around the hole. Briten and the grave digger stood aside. Termillion was on one side, Hester the other, and Katherine at the foot. "Today we place Kayss Streetchild on her final path," Katherine said. "May her touch soothe though we cannot feel her, may her words encourage us though we cannot hear her, may her actions build us up though we cannot witness them any longer." Katherine looked at Termillion.
He crouched, bringing himself closer to the body. He stared into the hole for a moment. "You were so courageous." He shut his eyes. "Against the emptiness of life, and all its pain. You stood tall against your enemies, you told Ummi off when she killed Master Gos, and I love you for that if nothing else. Even when you were slipping away from me, you smiled. Smiled and told me you loved me, too. You smiled at death, and your enemies, and mine. You smiled at them until you died and you died with a smile on your face. So why can't I bring myself to smile?"
Termillion felt Hester's hand on his shoulder. "I should have told you sooner. I thought you would be angry at me. I would have liked nothing more than to spend my entire life with you and your mother, but..." A shaky breath passed through his lips. "I hope I was still a father to you. I hope I gave you love enough, and truth enough, and strength enough. I watched you battle the three trials and it made my heart swell enough to burst. And then we had to run, but you made Ummi a laughingstock, at least for a moment."
He could have spoken for a year. He could have apologized, and thanked, and asked. All the words he had left jammed into a mass and made him choke. His throat squeezed tighter, and he put a hand to his mouth. He imagined her shadowwalking into Ummi's blade, and smiling at him as she died in his arms, like her mother.
He rose, eyes burning. Hester put her arm around him, and he heard the gravedigger sniffle. "If we could all love the children like you, Termillion," Katherine said, "there would be no need for orphanages."
Termillion dipped his pen in ink, took a piece of paper off the pile, and drew a design on it. Hester watched as he went from one page to the next. She'd watched him draw the runes before, but these seemed different. She knew they would do the same things: send fists of rock out of the ground, or numb a body, or explode into light, or a thousand other possibilities but the strokes of his pen were sharper, harder.
The moon was out. The orphanage was quiet; the children were in their beds. Hester had spent the rest of the day asleep while Termillion helped the gravedigger pile dirt on top of Kayss despite his wounded leg. He'd limped back to the room just as Hester was waking up. He sat at the desk without a word and began work on his rune missiles, readying himself for the assault on Ummi.
Hester waited until the pile was gone. "What's our plan?"
Termillion looked at her from the corner of his eye. "My plan is to kill Ummi, however possible and preferably painfully. Your plan should be to recuperate."
"I'm not going to let you go through that on your own."
"Unless you can keep up, I don't see how you have a choice."
"Termillion, don't do this." He looked at her. "Ummi will be well-defended, and she'll expect you to strike at her. Don't make yourself a martyr. Don't enter the Umbris compound without expecting to leave again. Kayss would never allow you to think you should die."
His eyes burned when he heard her name. "She did not think you were a monster," Hester said. "Don't become one."
He waited a moment, then slashed his hand across the air. "Of course not. But whatever you say, it still remains your injuries are too great. You won't be able to hold yourself in a fight."
Hester laughed. "Is that what you think? You think a few aches and pains will keep me from knocking anybody who comes against me down?"
"Against trained Umbris? Yes! You can barely stand, Hester!"
"And your leg is healed, I assume?" Hester said. Termillion's eyes narrowed. "You won't need to worry about me. I may not be able to fight that well, but that only becomes necessary if they actually see me. I can still..."
"What? Still what?"
"Still make my way around," Hester said, appearing next to him. The runes were gone, her hair was full, and she stood ready to battle. He started, and then she disappeared. He found her back on the bed, injuries returned. "They only appear for a few seconds, and Umbris vision training sees through them even quicker, but they're enough to give me a chance to slip away or get a lucky strike in."
"Have you always been able to do that?"
Hester shrugged. "This old dog was able to learn a new trick. It wasn't like I was going to use it against you if Hester didn't know about it. Thankfully, her control wasn't that complete."
Termillion was frozen. Hester thought she had said something wrong until, like the sun through storm clouds, he smiled. It wasn't the one brimming over with hate, anger, and sadness. It was real. "Old tricks," he repeated.
"What is it?"
He smoothed his hand over his mouth for a moment. "You said Ummi will be well defended."
"Of course she will be. She'll have the might of the Umbris behind her. Plus, anybody who doesn't agree with her either can't act or is being controlled by sigils. Not to mention that thing you fought last night." Hester scowled at him. "Why?"
"Then I suppose it's time for both of us to learn a new trick."
"The book should still be in Kayss' room," Termillion said. "That's if we're lucky. Ummi may have taken it, or it may have gone back into the archives."
"In which case we might as well not even try," Hester said. The night had stretched on as they came up with their plan to get inside the Umbris compound. "We could spend a year looking and nor find it."
"But if we find it, we gain a powerful tool, one even Umbris will have difficulty countering. You should have seen Kayss in the clock tower. She was shadowwalking circles around Ummi."
"I was there, remember?" Hester said. "Out of my mind with pain, but I was there. I saw her. She was a wonder."
"Plus, taking the time to learn to shadowwalk gives us an opportunity to heal fully."
"Ummi will have no chance to stop us," Hester said. She yawned, patting her hand over her open mouth. "Old dogs still need to sleep, I suppose. Do you want to use the bed tonight?"
"You use it. I've slept on worse," Termillion said, indicating the floor. He felt a chill run down his spine. "Hester."
"I know." She lifted her index finger to her lips and pointed at the ceiling. Termillion drew a rune from his cloak and pressed his other hand against it. It began to glow slightly.
"We can talk," he said, and when he did so the glow intensified for a moment, then returned to its normal level. "But not for long. Another creature like last night."
"We can't let it report back to Ummi," Hester said. "The orphanage must stay safe." She rose from the bed, flexing her limbs. "Don't try to stop me. I want to strike back at Ummi as much as you do. Besides..."
"What better way to test my strength?" an illusion Hester said, standing at the door. "After you."
Moving with all the stealth their tired bodies possessed, they went into the dark hallway. Termillion had to nearly drag his wounded leg, and each step made Hester clench her jaw tighter, but eventually they got to the lobby of the orphanage. "It's still on the roof," Hester whispered. "Will it attack, or is it just a scout?"
"The other one attacked me last night," Termillion said. "But I can't say for certain."
Hester nodded. "The door?"
"No." Termillion gestured toward a window along one wall. "The entrance will be well-lit."
"What's this?"
Termillion and Hester spun in place. A young woman, wearing a smock and and dress of one of the caretakers, was staring at them from the entrance of the lobby, sleep still in her eyes. "Are you our special visitors?" the woman asked, before they could stop her. Hester brought her finger to her lips repeatedly, and the woman jumped. She looked around, eyes wide, but when she found nothing she looked back at them.
Hester went to her as fast as she could. "Keep quiet!" She yanked the woman down. "There is an unfriendly listener about. The more you speak the more danger we are in." The woman clamped a hand over her mouth.
"I'll drive it off," Termillion said. They could barely hear his voice, and they saw the piece of paper glow in his hand. "I'll let you know if I need help."
"What will I be doing?" Hester said.
"Don't hiss at me. We may need to evacuate in case it escapes. Rouse the caretakers and warn them. Quietly."
Hester nodded. "Be safe."
Termillion hoisted the window open and pulled himself out, stiff leg pulling his body into a painful contortion. He eased himself onto the cold grass and looked up. The roof was thirty long feet over his head. He sucked in a breath, imagined his daughter dying, and leapt five feet up the wall.
His fingers latched onto the uneven stones as his leg shrieked. The rune missile he carried ate the sound of him clambering up the wall until he pulled himself over the lip of the slanted roof, shoulders and legs burning. He sank into the night and made his way across the roof, searching for the intruder. He spotted it crouched, as if a gargoyle, on the end of the west section, over their room. If it looked in his direction it would spot him, but no matter what he did, it wouldn't be able to hear him.
He sprinted up the roof, clattering across the shingles until he was less than ten feet from it. It spun, somehow sensing his approach, and he flung himself forward, connecting with it. They fell off the section of the roof and landed on an eave ten feet lower. Termillion felt something in his body sing a note of pain, but he squeezed the figure and held it down. Like the night before, it had a inky, dusty skin, black clothing wrapped around it, and when its mouth opened under the black bandana, all he heard was an animalistic hiss. The moon, above them, shone down into its eyes and revealed sigils embedded inside them.
It threw him off, and he landed hard, sliding down the roof until he was able to stop his fall with a hand. The creature sprang up, flipping to its feet, and then advanced on him while drawing a curved weapon. He rose, and his ankle, on the same leg as his stab wound, made itself known as the injury. He dove a hand into his cloak and held up a rune missile, shutting his eyes. He felt the sudden heat and heard the sharp blast, and the creature hissed, blinded. He let the empty piece of paper fall and lunged at it, it tried to roll away, he moved in its path. It made a blind swing with its weapon but Termillion dodged out of the way without a thought. He caught its arm and brought his other hand against the elbow; he heard a crack and the creature made a hiss of pain.
He found himself dashed against the slope of the roof and had to stop himself. The creature, arm against its body, advanced. It picked the weapon up with its other hand and held it like a long, heavy dagger, ready to plunge through him.
Hester appeared behind it, and it spun, plunging the dagger into her chest. Termillion's heart stopped for a moment, until Hester faded away like a mirage. The real one sprang around the lip of the eave, one of her feet leading the way. Her kick connected with the creature and drove it into the wall of the building, making a dent in the wood. It fell to its stomach as Hester came to her feet. She grabbed Termillion's hand and helped him up. Without a word he went to it, his single remaining knife in his hand, and kneeled on its back. He slit its throat from one ear to the other, holding its head up until it had nothing left to lose.
Standing, he turned, meaning to thank Hester, and instead found her looking at him with shock and fear. His cloak once again dripped with another's blood, and he shook it. "It was a monster."
"We could have gotten information out of it!" Hester said. Her hand indicated the drained body, as if he had forgotten.
"For what? Termillion shouted. "Where Ummi is hiding? What she plan to do? We already know or we don't care! She's in Master Gos' room, enjoying ill-gotten gains, and she plans to hunt us until we, and everyone else who defies her is dead!"
"You shouldn't have done that," Hester said. "Surely it would have been some use to us. At the very least we could discover a weakness."
"I know a weakness," Termillion said. He gestured at the body, like she had, but his gesture was one of dismissal. "A blade across the neck."
"There are children here. What if they saw what you did?"
Termillion looked around. There, on the slanted eave twenty feet up, in the cold darkness, they were alone. "No better time to learn what this world has to offer. I'm going to need help getting down from here." He pointed at his ankle. "I almost got out of this without a scratch."
"There," Hester said. Termillion looked where she pointed and saw a trellis he could use to lower himself to a cluttered patio. "Do you want me to go first and catch you?"
He shot a glance at her and limped toward the trellis, easing his feet onto it and testing its strength. He linked an arm around one of the beams making it up and swung down, landing on his good leg. Hester followed.
"What do we do with the body?" she asked as they found their way inside. "I'm not just going to leave it up there."
Termillion looked up into the dark, toward where the body would be lying. "Get some rest," he told her. "I'll handle it."
Without another word he climbed back to the roof from the trellis. Hester watched him disappear around a corner of the roof and sighed, wondering what he had in mind. She went back inside, the night's length and her exertion crashing into her as soon as the door shut behind her.
She slumped against the wall, darkness taking over her sight. She felt hands support her, and her vision cleared to reveal the young woman who had spotted them leaving. "Are you all right?" the woman said, voice almost too quiet to hear over Hester's pounding heart. "Is it safe?"
"Safe," Hester said, nodding. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired. Termillion is dealing the body."
"Body?" the woman said, looking concerned and, Hester thought, frightened. "Did you kill him?"
Hester sighed. "Termillion did. It's okay, you're safe."
"Thank you," the woman said. "I'll help you to your room."
Some time later, Hester heard the door to the room open, and Termillion creep inside. She was on the bed, mostly asleep, and he buried himself in the corner, not saying a word. It was almost dawn.
"Mistress Ummi."
She whirled around, ending her conversation with another Umbris. "What is it? Has the Skota returned?"
The woman facing her opened her mouth and then closed it. "In a way..."
"Damn it!" Ummi pushed past her. "Where is it? Did he leave another message?"
"It's in the reception room, mistress," the Umbris said. "There was a note attached. But mistress-"
"I'll see to it myself! I'm surrounded by idiots and fools! Even if I grant you more power and skill you can't catch him! He's a sad, injured old man, and he's killing you all off!"
Ummi stormed inside the room to find a head lying on the table, pointed teeth glinting in the light. Shipping paper surrounded it, and there was a note stuck to the Skota's forehead with a pin.
She wrenched the pin out. "Who delivered it? How did it get here? Did it come through one of the normal shipment companies? Tell me!" she said to the Umbris who had come with her. She opened the note.
Today I buried my daughter, it said. Tonight I've buried one of your pets. Tomorrow I bury you.
She crushed it in her one hand, and then sent a pulse of energy to the sigils of the Umbris in the room. They hollered with pain. "Find him! Do you hear me, you foul idiots? FIND HIM!"
"Mistress Ummi!" an Umbris ran into the room, clutching another piece of paper. "A message!"
"Give it to me!" She tore it out of his hand and unfolded it. She smiled, and Hester would have found it all too similar to Termillion's smile.
"Finally. How's your ankle?"
Termillion tested it, applying slow pressure, as he joined her in the shadow. "Sore. I'll live." He took the weight off. "Getting into a fight here is the last thing on my mind," he said. "It's get in, get the book, and get out."
"I'm almost glad you hurt your ankle," Hester said. "I thought you were just going to try and kill her tonight." Termillion looked at her and scowled. "Don't try and deny it, I know you were considering it. You want her dead. I get it. Now isn't the time."
Termillion looked ahead. "I'm still going to kill her if I have the chance. I just won't look for it."
They were huddled in the corner of two roofs, high above the Umbris compound. It was late--not yet midnight, but the city was quiet and dark.
"Where was her room?" Hester asked.
"The trainee facility, of course," Termillion said. "Second level of building four." Hester nodded as he explained. "Here's hoping they haven't had time to sterilize it yet."
"It's only been four days," Hester said. "Ummi's had other things on her mind. I doubt any of Kayss' things have been touched." She looked around. "We should get moving. Eventually a sentry will come across us."
Termillion nodded, and Hester led the way down the building, dropping into an alley. She dashed across the road and pressed against the wall of the compound. Termillion followed, a little less furtive, daring a sentry to spot him.
"Are the sewers really the best way?" he asked as they slipped along the wall. "We could just climb into one of the taller buildings."
"Then we'd have to get to the bottom level and cross the grounds," Hester said, quieter than he. "Too easily seen. The sewers can take us almost anywhere. And need I remind you everybody in the compound has the training we have? Their senses will be much sharper."
"I'm counting on it," Termillion said.
Hester looked at him. "What does that mean? Is that what you were doing while I waited, alone and cold? I thought you were just scouting!"
"I was making it easier for us," Termillion said.
"If you don't tell me what you plan is, it will make it that much more difficult for us."
"It won't be difficult to figure out."
"Termillion, please." He turned back to look at her. "Let me inside, at least a little bit."
He turned away and kept creeping along the wall, through the shadow of the compound. Hester looked behind her for sentries or anyone following them, but saw no one.
"Finally," Termillion said, when they found the sewer grate. "I don't remember the wall being that long."
"That was back when we had functioning limbs," Hester said. Termillion knelt and pulled the grate up. It swung on rusty hinges and smashed into the stones surrounding it. Termillion hoisted himself down, and Hester heard a splash in the darkness. A disgusted sound floated up.
"Come on in, the water's fine," she heard Termillion's emotionless voice say.
"Make way," she said, then dropped down. She harnessed her training and let her eyes forge into the shadows. She saw Termillion standing in what was nominally a knee-high fluid, but looked more viscous than it should have been. They were in a large square area, with multiple low tunnels leading in all directions, numerous metal pipes above their heads, and stone shelves, high enough to stay dry.
"You only have yourself to blame for this," Termillion said. He turned toward the direction of the compound and crouched under a low wall, leading to another tunnel. Their injuries, the darkness, and the cramped environment slowed their speed; by the time they got to the exit of the sewer they wanted, both were thoroughly soaked and annoyed.
Termillion pushed the grate open above them and pulled himself out, moving to the side and letting his clothes dry. Hester appeared a moment later, taking a look around. They were in the wide field the walls ringed, at the edge of the city. The building next to them was one of the housing units for trainee Umbris, but Termillion ignored it. He went around the corner, standing tall in the darkness.
"Keep down," Hester said.
"No. If somebody spots us from a distance and we're acting like we belong here, they won't think anything of it. If they see us crouched and crawling, they'll raise the alarm."
Hester straightened herself up and trailed after him. He forged across the small square around which the trainee buildings were arrayed, toward the one Kayss' room had been in.
He stopped walking, and Hester came up next to him. "Sneaking around in there doesn't seem like an easy prospect," she said. "Either a hundred people see us or it takes us all night."
"I have a third option," Termillion said, and snapped his fingers.
Hester heard a sound like a log splitting under an axe. The same sound, coming from different directions around the walls, repeated almost a half-dozen times, and then she saw plumes of smoke and ash rise, mostly near the group of buildings making up the main compound.
Termillion drew his other hand out of his cloak, holding up a rune missile. It was curling under an unseen heat, and then fell to ash. "An application of the runes I came up a little while ago, but never had the chance to use. I plant runes anywhere I want, hold an identical rune in my other hand, and send the trigger signal.
"What did you do?" Hester asked. It had sounded like explosions.
"A few small blasts to take the attention away from us. I doubt anybody was hurt."
"But you wouldn't care anyway, right?"
Termillion went up to the building Kayss' room was in, and pounded on the door. "Up!" he shouted, raising his voice over the night. "Everyone up!"
The Umbris who guarded the building cracked the door open. "What is it?" he asked, eyeball peering out. "What's happened?"
"It could be an attack," Termillion said. "We need everybody out of their rooms and ready to move."
"Who would be foolish enough to attack the compound?"
"Mistress Ummi has said the Magistrate is unhappy with the takeover. She could be attacking to put Ummi in her place."
The door opened farther. The Umbris was young, only a few years out of training. "Help me wake them," he said.
The Umbris disappeared down the hallway toward the trainee rooms. "You really don't care what happens, do you?" Hester asked. "You could start a civil war in the city. Hundreds could die."
Termillion entered the building and made for the staircase, ignoring the rooms full of sleeping Umbris. On the second level he counted off rooms until stopping before one of them. He tried the door and found it locked. Hester reached into a pocket for a set of lock picks when Termillion put his good foot up and forced it against the wood right next to the handle. It smashed open, nearly tearing off its hinges, and he entered it without looking away.
It felt like it had been years since he'd been inside, when it hadn't even been a week. The smell inside nearly brought him to tears.
"We'd better look fast," Hester said. "Did she describe the book at all?"
"I only heard about it at the trials. She just said it was old, and half-translated." Termillion swept his eyes across the room. It looked like he remembered. He stepped to her bookshelf and pulled the first one down. It was a treatise on stealth, and he let it drop at his feet. The next one was a history of the Umbris, and it landed on top of the first.
Behind him, Hester was checking the bed and table. She lifted the pillow up and threw it off, then upended the mattress. She found a small bound volume between it and the boards, and scooped it up. She flipped through it. Looking at Termillion, who was still making a rough inspection of the bookshelf, she slipped the volume into a pocket of her cloak.
"I think..." Termillion said, and she turned toward him. He was flipping through one of the books. "This might be it." He peered close. "I don't recognize the language. But here, look." She took the book from him. "There are a few translated passages." He took the book back and tucked it under his arm. Turning back to the bookshelf, he said "I'm going to keep looking, just in case."
"If you think you've found it, we need to go," Hester said. "The longer we stay here-"
She stopped. Termillion had turned, and the emotionless mask had slipped. He was going nowhere.
Hester sighed. "Don't delay. We're in danger here, and if they catch us our lives are forfeit."
"I just..." His voice lowered. "I need some time."
"I understand," she said. "But you can mourn elsewhere."
She roved around the small bedroom, waiting for something else to catch her eye. He went through the bookshelf, dropping the volumes at his feet when they failed to meet his standards. To Hester it barely looked like he was reading them, just picking them off the shelf, opening them, and dropping them.
Ten minutes after they entered the room Hester glanced out the window. "The entire compound is awake," she said. "When they find nothing they're going to start looking inside. Termillion."
"I know. I'm finished." He looked her way, and she saw the cracks, deeper than before. "Sometimes I can't tell if-"
"What are you doing in here?" the Umbris they had met at the building's entrance said from the doorway. "Why aren't you getting the students up? What have you done to the door?" He looked at Termillion, and his eyebrows began to narrow.
Hester tried to get there first but Termillion was too fast. He grabbed the Umbris' shirt, kicked him in the shin with the point of his boot. The Umbris stumbled, and Termillion took the opportunity to smash his face into the door jamb. Blood spurted out, and Termillion snapped the head backward against the other jamb, then let the body fall into the hallway. He stepped over the Umbris, and Hester hurried to it. She felt a pulse, but the man was unconscious.
"Don't delay, Hester," Termillion said from the door to the stairs. She heard sounds coming from the rooms around her. He started to descend, and she stepped past the body to follow him.
A dozen sleepy trainees filled the lobby of the building. Termillion pushed through them without a word, and luckily it was too dark to see the blood dripping off his cloak. "Ma'am," one of the trainees said to Hester. "What do we do?"
Hester looked at him and didn't know what to say. She looked out the door and couldn't see Termillion, then turned back to the trainee. "Four of you go to the second floor and take care of what you find there. The rest of you can go back to your rooms. It was a mistake to wake you up."
"But what about the explosions?" a young female asked. "Is someone attacking?"
Hester looked at her, and couldn't help but imagine Kayss. She realized anything she said would be a lie. She left the trainees standing in the lobby, head down and mind roiling.
Termillion was crouched next to the sewer grate, in the shadow of one of the trainee buildings. He was playing with his single remaining knife, spinning and flipping it from one hand to the other. The book he had taken from Kayss' room was balanced on his knee. "Took you long enough," he said. He reached down and pulled grate up, slipping down before she could say anything.
When she joined him in the sewer she found it unchanged, and switched on her Umbris eyes. Termillion's blue form was hunched and folded into itself, but in a moment he straightened up and started wading toward the small opening they'd used on their first trip through the sewers, keeping the book above the liquid.
The silence between them was hard and cold. The entire time they were forging through the tunnel Hester wanted to say something. Anything. Something about what he had done in the trainee building, or about Kayss' room, but she imagined anything she'd say would just bounce off the back of his cloak and sink into the water.
The return trip was long. It felt like hours, but eventually they emerged from the claustrophobic tunnel into the larger intersection they had dropped into.
Two of Ummi's creatures stood under the sewer grate. With their Umbris eyes working, Termillion and Hester could both see sigils burning on their skin. Hester was about to try and ease around them, hoping they couldn't see in the dark, but Termillion kept moving forward. "Cover your eyes."
Hester turned away as he flung the rune missile, and even with her eyes closed and an arm over them, her Umbris eyes took the infinitesimal illumination from the flash of light and turned it into a star in her vision. She heard dual screeching voices, and furious splashing. She wiped tears out of her eyes and looked ahead.
Termillion was running forward, his knife out, and his face shifted. His mouth was a snarl, and his teeth glowed in the aftereffects of his flash missile.
He swung his knife, but his intended target jumped out of the way. Termillion stumbled and nearly fell into the water, and the two creatures moved to circle him. Hester ran forward, pushing through the water with all the energy she could muster, drawing her sword and striking at one of their backs. It heard her and whirled, locking her blade with its own. It was smaller than her, but it still nearly knocked her backward. She floundered, trying to keep her balance, and it advanced.
It brought its sword down over her, Termillion dove forward at the other creature; his target shifted to the side in the water, Hester jumped up to grab one of the pipes above and swung her legs forward, planting both feet in her attacker's chest. It fell under her, hitting the water with a hard splash, and she came down right where it should have been. She hit nothing but water and the stone surface underneath it, and then it erupted behind her. She dove forward to escape a strike she knew was coming.
Termillion pressed forward against the other creature. He kept the point of his knife toward it, and reached his other hand into his cloak, drawing out a rune missile, clamping his fingers in a specific spot to activate it. He threw it at the creature and a blast of intense wind snatched it out of the water, bashing it against the low ceiling. Termillion gave chase but his twice-wounded leg chose the moment to weaken and fail, and he was too slow. The creature sprang back up, foul water dripping off it.
It fired a knife in his direction; he caught it and threw it back, bouncing it off the wall behind the rushing creature. It ran to his side and plunged toward him, swinging its sword at his neck.
Termillion caught its wrist and sent his elbow into its face. He tried to plant his foot on its ankle, but it shifted its feet out of the way, at the same time gaining the leverage to turn and throw him into the water.
The foul sewer contents filled his mouth and nose, and he waved his arms until he found a surface, pushing off from it. His head broke the surface at an angle; he was soaring toward the creature. The pain in his leg felt like a hot brand, and he pulled out another rune missile.
He threw it down at the wide-eyed creature, Hester drove forward with her sword at her combatant, it knocked her weapon away and made an attack of its own, Termillion's target could do nothing but watch the folded piece of paper flip toward it. As soon as the piece of paper touched the creature it burst into flames, quickly engulfing the body. The immediate heat filled the man-made cavern, but the creature dunked itself into the water.
Hester's opponent was pushing her back toward the tunnel they had used to reach the trainee buildings with forceful stabs and wide slashes. She didn't have the energy to keep up; as she grew tired she felt the burn of the runes on her skin, creeping up her neck and tunneling into her brain.
She shoved it away. It was so much easier than before, when Ummi had control over her. If she tried to push it away then she would fall onto her back, the other woman's magically-strengthed will rolling over her, but now she could pack it into a box and hide it inside her consciousness. She would have to unpack it and feel the pain eventually, but she could ignore it, at least for awhile.
She pushed against the pain, and pushed back against the creature Ummi had sent to kill her. The same woman who had dug her hands inside Hester's mind now wanted her dead--Hester would not give her such sick satisfaction. It drove its sword at her, and she wrapped her arm around its. With her free right hand she tried to shove her sword into its chest, but it somehow wafted out of the way, like a creature made of smoke. It reversed the hold on its arm and twisted her arm in its socket. She gritted her teeth, refusing to cry in pain, and shot a leg at it through the water, which slowed the strike just enough to let it move out of the way. They separated for a moment, and then it drove forward again.
Its sword pierced her stomach, and it hissed in joy and triumph, until Hester faded from its vision and the real one attacked from the side, driving her weapon through its arm and ribs. It cried out, but Hester wrenched the sword free, changed her grip, and shot it into its heart, from the back. The body fell flat into the water and disappeared from sight.
Behind her, Termillion wrapped his fingers around the creature's neck and lifted it out of the water. The creature's weapons were lost in the darkness, and its arms were too short to reach him. Hester turned and saw them; in her Umbris vision they appeared to be a blue tableau. Termillion's face was creased with rage and the creature's eyes were wide enough to glow.
Termillion stabbed it in the stomach. He brought his arm back and shot it forward a dozen more times until the creature stopped struggling. He lowered the body and drove his knife into its eyes and face, and then threw it down to its watery grave.
He shook his hands dry, picked the book up from the stone shelf he had placed it on, and went through the water to the street opening. With her enhanced vision, Hester could see the creature's blood glowing on him, washing off his cloak into the water.
"I only wish I could have left a message for Ummi," Termillion said a few minutes later, as they pulled themselves through the alleys back to the orphanage. "Third time's the charm, they say."
Hester, a step behind him, looked at him with concern. Her stomach roiled at the scene she had caught as he killed Ummi's creature. It wasn't the Termillion she remembered. The man she remembered, the man she looked up to for strength and dignity and honesty, would never deliver such brutality, even to an opponent who wanted him dead. The Termillion she remembered would dispatch him quickly, efficiently, and get on with his mission. He wouldn't have left mocking notes, or shredded a corpse, or brutalized a man for doing his job.
Termillion would have charmed, talked his way out of the problem, or simply incapacitated the Umbris who caught them in Kayss' room.
Hester watched him limp forward and wondered if she would ever see the real Termillion again. If this creature in front of her would drop the cracking mask she had seen since waking up a few mornings ago. If there would be anything behind it other than limitless fury or unending sadness--eyes crying forever, or only living to see the world around him burning until it was as empty as he was.
What would this figure in front of her, cloak heavy with the blood of dozens, turn out to be? He would destroy himself along with the world if nothing changed.
They neared the orphanage. Both of their bodies were contraptions of creaking joints and sore muscles. Termillion's limp worsened until Hester felt pity on him, and eased herself under his arm to help him on. He said nothing, but she felt his hand on her shoulder relax. His other hand gripped the book he had found in Kayss' room.
They saw the unexpected light a dozen blocks away, reflecting back at them from the clouds. Termillion understood before her, and took off, pulling his exhaustion after him. Hester hurried in pursuit, and their speed increased when they felt the intense heat.
They raced around a corner, out of an alley, and shut their eyes to the light and pain. The orphanage was a pillar of flame, yellow and orange and blackened ash. The heat was too great to get any closer--Hester could almost feel her skin peeling.
Termillion dropped to his knees. Hester didn't know whether from exhaustion or another reason. He bent forward, putting his forehead against the hot cobblestones.
"She did this." Hester almost didn't hear him speaking. His voice melded with the crackling flames. "She found out where I was. She..." He stopped. He looked up. "No." He rose, and started forward, as if to forge into the flames.
"Termillion...Termillion stop!" Hester said. She wanted to move forward but the heat was too great. The runes on her skin roared to life and she let out a scream, trapped for a moment inside her mind like when Ummi had control over her. She was about to burst, and she fell forward, crawling until she saw Termillion walking at the burning orphanage, each step a trial in itself, each inch another victory, miracle, wonder.
Her limbs rebelled, and she could only watch him disappear as the flames grew too bright.
The next moment she felt arms lift her. Cool cloths fell against her skin, and she shivered. Water wet her lips and they parted, and she tasted sweet purity pour into her mouth. She coughed.
"?"
The words escaped meaning. She cracked her eyes open and saw blurry figures. The fire was smaller, but still hot and bright. She tried to turn her neck and her head erupted in pain. "Termillion."
"!"
Two of the figures were supporting her. One of them, a smaller one, came over and stopped in front of her. "."
The figures settled her on the ground, her back against something hard. Something cold wiped her face, waking her up and sending meaning into her head. After a few moments she tried moving her limbs. The pain from the runes was gone again, but it still hurt to so much as shift.
"Hester."
That was her name. She pried her eyes open. The blurry image in front of her was black, the flames behind it. She tried to say something. "Mmm."
"More water," she heard. The voice was feminine, steady, ready for anything. She knew who this was.
"Magistrate," she said through thick lips.
"Here, drink," Lissit said, and Hester felt the most blessed thing of Earth in her throat. She coughed, and every moment of pain was better then-
"Termillion."
"Where is he?"
"The orphanage. His daughter, buried there."
"We have the body. It's safe."
"Glad-" Hester coughed and groaned. "Glad you got my letter."
"We witnessed Ummi and other Umbris attacking. The council might need some convincing, but I know Termillion is innocent."
"You don't know where he is?"
"No, we-"
"Magistrate!"
Lissit left Hester. She rested against the wall, trying to listen to the talking. The magistrate knelt by her again. "He's coming out of the fire."
"How," Hester said. She shook her head. "Get me up. He needs to see I'm safe, and that you aren't enemies."
"He wouldn't attack all of us."
Had she more energy, Hester would have laughed. As it was, she coughed, and the cough went on for a while. "He would kill all of you without a second thought," she said when she had the air. "And you would never be able to stop him."
Lissit propped her up, and they went forward a little bit. Hester's vision was strengthening, and she saw a black blur approaching. "How."
His clothes were untouched. His skin was unburnt. His eyes were on the ashen ground. His boots caught on the stones, his arms hung limp. He swayed from side to side. His face was emptier than she had ever seen. She wondered if there was anything left inside.
"Termillion," Lissit said, and he brought his eyes up.
There was fire there. Where before was a mad dog lose from its chain, or a monstrous, raw weapon with enough strength to destroy any enemy, now it was a cage, now it was a sheath. Now it was an open faucet pouring lava. Now it was a beast who walked forward through trials and tribulations without a glance to the side. Now it was a man who had lost even the sparse treasures he had been able to retain.
He saw the magistrate, and Hester, and all the other people standing around--soldiers and civilians, and she knew he was wondering which of them he would kill. As hot as she was, Hester felt a chill when she imagined him doing it without any of the cracks showing. There was no mask anymore; his face was alabaster stone, unyielding steel, an unchanging carving. Only his eyes were alive, filled with fire.
Hester pushed off of the magistrate. and stumbled forward. "Termillion! Lissit saved the body! It was Ummi who did this!"
He walked forward toward her. She marveled at his unblemished form. He should have burned up before even getting close. The book from Kayss' room was still in his hand, and even it was unhurt. She stumbled at him, coming close enough to touch.
"She wasn't there," he said. "I...something happened to me. I was empty. I was a vacuum, and the flames and heat rushed in to fill me."
"How did you survive?" Termillion asked. "The heat-"
He lifted his free hand. A piece of paper bearing a rune, looking like untapped ash of a cigar, began to drift apart. "Old dogs."
"Are you all right?"
"I am unhurt."
"Magistrate Lissit has Kayss. They saw Ummi attack. They know everything. They believe you. They know Ummi for the monster she is." Termillion looked over Hester's shoulder at the magistrate, who stood waiting. "I have something for you," Hester said. She reached into her cloak. "I'm afraid it got a little wet in the sewers." She pressed the book she had found under Kayss' mattress into his hands. "It's her journal."
It was slow. Like ants crossing a room. Piece by piece, it chipped away. It fell off, and Termillion's face melted into sadness. He slowly went down to his knees and laid both of the books he carried on the ground, pressing a hand against his eyes. He wept, and the tears shimmered in the firelight.
The mask was gone, and all the sadness buried so far under the condensed rage freed itself, escaping in bigger and bigger waves until Termillion was sobbing, his two treasured books clutched to his chest, and Hester weeping her own way, their heads touching, looking at the ash on the street under them, the magistrate and her soldiers watching, the entire city watching.
TO BE CONTINUED
"Where are we?"
Termillion turned his head to look at the bed. Hester was staring at the ceiling. Her body, decorated with overlapping black sigils, was motionless.
"How do you feel?" Termillion asked, rising from his chair. "Don't try to move."
Her eyes found him. "Kayss?"
He turned away. It took a few seconds for him to respond. "I did what I could to wrap your wounds." His voice was thin, and weak. Hester heard exhaustion, pain, sadness so great there was little left of the man who had just lost his daughter.
"Termillion..."
"No."
The word barely reached her. She thought she had heard the word before, decades ago, when her mother had died. She had asked her father how. Why. It had been days before he could tell her.
"Not now," Termillion said. "We have other things to discuss." He turned back to her, his face a flat mask. "Unless I'm mistaken, Ummi's control over you is broken." Before he could stop her, she lifted one of her arms and looked at the dead sigils. The motion sent pain rolling down her shoulder, but she clenched her teeth and squeezed her hand. The memory of the pain Ummi had put her through was still there, etched inside her mind. Like electric wires wound around her limbs.
They heard a knock, and Termillion opened the door, allowing a white-clad man into the room. The single candle shined off his balding head, and he adjusted his glasses, stepping closer to Hester without a word of greeting.
"Hester, this is Mesthum, a member of the White. Ummi had him under her control as well."
Mesthum set a large bag next to the bed and knelt to both knees. He rolled up his sleeve and showed her a single burnt-out sigil compared to the hundreds covering Hester's skin, skull, and face.
"It forced me to notify her if Termillion or anyone else fighting against her coup arrived at the hospital. Termillion and Kayss-" Hester stiffened, and the motion didn't escape Mesthum. "...When they arrived I denied the pain as long as I could, but it was too great." The doctor looked over his shoulder at Termillion, who was leaning against the wall. "I can't imagine the pain you must have been in. Death must have appeared an incredible gift."
"Yes." Mesthum felt Hester's injuries, and she looked at Termillion without turned her head. "Where are we?"
"A mostly-empty building near the docks," Termillion said. "As far from the clock tower as I could take you." He turned his head, thinking. "Ummi has taken over the Umbris, top to bottom. If there is anybody fighting against her they're doing it from the inside, and they're being careful, or they're being killed."
"Or getting sigils carved into their skin," Hester said. Mesthum showed her a cup with a small amount of thick liquid.
"Drink," he said, and she leaned up a small amount to let the liquid between her lips. The taste and smell made her retch and tremble, but she got it down. "It will dull the pain and help you relax." He paused. "There is less damage to you than it seems. Numerous cuts and bruises, but I suspect most of the pain is the sigils."
"But I thought Ummi's control was severed."
"Her control, yes." Mesthum adjusted his glassed and glanced toward the sigil on his own arm. "The sigils persist. They will continue to cause pain, because that's what Ummi designed them to do. Mine still hurts, but the pain has been lessening as the hours pass."
"How long has it been?" Hester asked Termillion.
"Since the clock tower? A day. A little more. I heard someone on the street calling it 'the day time stopped.'" Termillion's face didn't change from its sorrowful expression.
"Hopefully the sigils will wear off soon," Mesthum said. "I can do little more here, I'm afraid. For now, sleep."
"Thank you, Mesthum," Termillion said. The two men gripped arms. "Stay safe. Ummi is a monster, and I want no more friends dying."
"I'll never tell her a thing. I will lie to her even if she can read my mind," the doctor said. "I have lost friends as well, Termillion. Ask, and I will do anything I can to help you."
He left the room. Hester felt her skin numbing, and tried to sit up. It was slow, and the pain made her pause, but after a few seconds she put her bare feet on the floor.
The room was dark, save the single candle. Blue and black shadows laughed at their pain. A small window showed an empty sea. She rested on the only bed, and even she was nearly too large for it.
She spotted a large form in the darkest corner, and realized it was a small body, shrouded in Termillion's cloak. The dancing orange light revealed a dark red tarnish in the middle of the body, staining the girl's black-wrapped body red, as if she was a murderer.
"I'm sorry, Termillion," Hester said. He said nothing. "I'll do everything I can to help you. Ummi won't get away with this."
"You knew, didn't you?" he said. He looked at her, and she saw his stony face beginning to crack.
"I...had my suspicions."
"The very last thing my daughter said to me was 'I love you too.'"
Hester felt a chill. Termillion continued.
"She knew. Thank God, thank the sea and the sky and the moon she knew. She knew I loved her, and she loved me back. She knew I loved her mother. I hope she knew I did everything I could for her. I found her and brought her to the Umbris, and demanded I be her teacher. I hope she knew every moment I spent with her was a treasure I will keep forever, just like every moment I spent with her mother. 'I love you too' should be the most wonderful sentence we can speak. It should be something that obliterates all aches, and wounds, and sorrows. It shouldn't be this. It shouldn't be an open hole in my heart. It shouldn't be the last thing a man hears his daughter say before she dies."
The cracks were growing larger. "What do we do?" Hester asked, if only to help get his mind off his loss.
He took a moment to respond. "I'm going to visit the magistrate."
Hester lifted a suspicious eyebrow. "And get yourself killed when you walk into a public place in the middle of the day. If Ummi hasn't made the council and the magistrate believe you're a murderous traitor then she's a moron as well as a maniac."
Termillion snorted, but his face remained flat. "It won't be during the day."
Behind a tower of memos, numerous gas lamps filling the room with gold light, Magistrate Lissit read and wrote away. Her mind was already drifting toward the soft covers of her bed, but she could never put this work off. A conflict within the Umbris leading to dozens of deaths and a destroyed clock tower--not to mention collateral damage. The new leader, Ummi, had told her everything. Everything she wanted the magistrate to know, at least.
Lissit was looking over the damage report to buildings surrounding the clock tower when she felt her eyes slipping shut. She reached for the bell-pull to ask Maria for tea. There was a sharp noise, and then Lissit was holding the severed end of the cord. She looked at the wall behind her desk and saw a knife vibrating where it had stuck. She looked forward and rose.
"I will be quick," Termillion said. Somehow, in the brilliant room, he had still found a shadow to bury in. His hood was pulled low over his face. "I assume you know my name."
"Termillion," Lissit said. "The man who killed Master Gos and destroyed the clock tower." She drew a dagger she had on her belt.
"Half right," he said. He went to the door without a sound and smoothed his hand over part of it; when his hand returned to his cloak Lissit saw a piece of paper with a rune stuck to the door's wood. "To prevent interruptions. Put your weapon away, I'm not hear to hurt you. Ummi is a liar and a monster. She is the one who killed Master Gos. She took over the Umbris in a violent coup."
"Of course," Lissit said. "It all makes sense now. I assume she framed you for the clock tower, as well? You are an angelic creature, blameless."
"Shut up," Termillion said. The words, quiet and potent, made Lissit jump. "For simplicity's sake let's say yes, I am responsible for the clock tower. I did it to escape Ummi and her soldiers. In doing so I freed countless others from Ummi's control. She etched controlling runes onto their body. Members of your staff, members of the council, you yourself might have been under her control and not known it. Not until she needed you to act."
"And you saved us."
Termillion's eyes narrowed. "I didn't care about you."
"So then what are you here for?" Lissit didn't try to keep her voice low. If Maria or a guard heard her talking, so be it. "Just to threaten me and tell your version of the story?"
Lissit could see muscles moving in his jaw. She could tell there was a great deal he wanted to shout at her. "I intend to get my revenge on Ummi. I am going to destroy her, from stained feet to demonic crown. If you try to stop me, I will come for you next."
"Threats against the magistrate are high treason."
A moment after she spoke, Termillion smiled. Lissit had never seen such a joyless, hateful, hurting expression. "Then hang me from the turret if you can." He took a step forward, more into the light than before, and Lissit took a step away. His cloak was covered in dark red spots, and Lissit had seen enough shrouds to know why. He looked more tired than she was, pulled tighter, crawling under a heavier load. "When I am done, the Umbris will be no more. If you want, and if you survive, you can build it back up, but you will have to do it from scratch."
Lissit glanced at the bell-pull. It was a bit higher now, but she could still reach it. "And if innocent people die?" she asked. "If you bring down the faultless along with the guilty?"
The smile died. The flat, emotionless face replaced it. "I couldn't give half a shit who else dies," Termillion said. "Not anymore."
Lissit narrowed her eyes at him. "Who was it?" she asked, finally bringing her voice low. "Master Gos? Someone else? Who did Ummi kill?"
Termillion turned away. The room began to feel hotter. Lissit hesitated, then reached up and grabbed the bell-pull before Termillion had a chance to stop her.
He didn't move. When Maria tried to enter the room, she collided with the unmovable door, then pounded on it. "Madam Magistrate?" she called. "Are you all right?"
"Fetch the guard," Lissit called. She waited a moment, listening to Maria's running feet. "I am not against you," she said to Termillion, "not yet. I must appear to be, though. Bring me evidence Ummi is to blame for this chaos and I will use my power to remove her. I'll give you power to do what you wish with the Umbris."
"We'll see," Termillion said. The words barely reached her. Heavy fists rained on the door.
"Madam Magistrate, stand away from the door!"
"Time for you to go," Lissit said.
Termillion snapped his fingers. The gas lamps smoked out in an instant, just as the door flew open. Two guards stumbled and fell to the ground, flying through the doorway and making a clattering din. For a moment, Lissit could see Termillion's eyes glowing in the darkness, and then he was gone.
A few minutes later he stood on the roof of the building next to the magistrate's, listening to the chaos spread. The hunt for him was already on, but there was no way any of the clods, in their heavy, noisy armor, could ever catch up, much less lay a hand on him.
He turned away from the building, and the people inside slipped out of his mind. His injuries from the battle in the clock tower hadn't healed much in the day and a half since, and he found himself taking it slow, even when he wanted to push himself to the breaking point. He wanted to sprint across the roof and leap over the hundred-foot gap without looking down. He wanted to fire his paper rune missiles into the sky, damn wherever they might land.
As it was, all he could do was walk to the edge of the roof and begin to climb down. His leg still hurt from Hester's unwanted betrayal, and he didn't foresee it healing very quickly. Infiltrating the council building, and his quick slip away, had used up most of his frenetic energy. He was looking forward to getting back to the room where Hester recuperated.
"You should use mine," Hester had said, when Termillion had taken his cloak off from Kayss' cold body. "I'm not going to be using it."
"I need this one," Termillion said. It smelled like his daughter, and the iron scent of cold blood. "It fits."
Hester had watched him pull the cloak on with a concerned expression. "You'll be all right?"
"I won't let anyone catch me."
"That isn't what I asked."
He had looked at her, face motionless. Without another word, he exited the door, and Hester heard it lock.
Now he was stumbling through the streets, ears pricked for anyone following him. With his Umbris training, a cat sneezing across the street was like the awful cacophony of the clock tower tumbling down, and not even the darkest shadow could hide. His feet scraped over the cobbles, and he avoided the eyes of the other late night walkers--thugs, prostitutes, thieves. People who looked at the ground and thought about themselves. People like him.
After a few blocks he decided he was far enough from the council building. If he slipped into a shadow no one would be able to find him, so he ducked into a pub to rest his stiff leg and catch his breath.
Those inside gazed at him like he was a dog's mess on the floor, then turned away. He wanted to turn and leave immediately, but it would be too easy to remember him then. He'd have a sit and a drink, then wander back to Hester.
The barmaid brought him an ale and he flipped a coin onto the table without looking up. The barmaid, no doubt used to odd characters, slid the coin off the table and retreated without a word. Taking a drink, Termillion imagined meeting another woman in a pub like this one, almost twenty years ago. He imagined getting to know her, growing to love her, receiving a message telling him she had taken to bed with child, and she couldn't see him anymore. He remembered sitting outside her home and watching her belly's progress, until a squalling infant joined her in the bed.
He remembered hoping neither she, nor the child, would catch the plague. He remembered the dark days and darker nights of civil unrest, culminating in furious riots. The people thought the council was denying them food, medical supplies. The truth was there was none. Termillion remembered being part of the group of Umbris who had to go out each night and try and keep the worst parts of humanity from showing themselves. Rape and murder and theft. He saw men lying in the street, trampled under a thousand boots and begging for help. He saw women leaning against dark walls, pulling their torn clothes back together. He saw homes rise into pillars of flame.
He saw the woman he loved dashed to the ground and left bleeding as the riot pulsed up and down the street toward the magistrate's residence.
He'd dived into the throng, whipping a rune missile out of his cloak to create space. They'd known well enough not to take their anger out on him. He'd bent to his knees, cradled her softened body. She'd seen him for the last time before lifting a mangled hand and pointing to a corner away from the flames and press of bodies. Her eyes had shut themselves, and Termillion had turned on his glowing vision to see the girl, his daughter. Kayss.
He looked through the bottom of his empty mug and considered having another. It was good for the hole in his heart. But he needed to get back to Hester, and the longer he slept the better. His leg felt better; he felt ready to move.
He left the pub. His neck hurt. He had barely moved his entire time inside. He looked at the cold sky and took a deep breath.
He remembered bringing Kayss to the Umbris, and then asking to become a tutor. He remembered confiding in Master Gos, asking to train Kayss when the time came. He remembered watching student after student fail, until it was time for Kayss' training, and pouring every ounce of work into teaching her everything he could. He remembered telling himself he refused to fail her.
He remembered his heart leaping when she had demonstrated her unique ability, something so spectacular and incredible there was no way she could not succeed.
He remembered her using the incredible ability--"shadowwalking," she had called it--to place herself onto the blade Ummi had meant for Termillion.
He felt like screaming. His eyes caught the moon and he wanted to see it crumble to pieces. But he was tired, and so he slogged back to Hester, images of his dead lover and daughter frozen in front of him.
A bolt ran down his spine. Someone was watching him. It wasn't an Umbris, it would have been much more difficult for him to figure it out. Likely it was just a little rat who wanted to cut his purse. He let his ears grow open until he could hear footsteps behind him, furtive, but slow. They were heavy, and followed him without err. It wasn't a pickpocket, it was a mugger.
Termillion accentuated his limp and put a little bit of wander into his walk. The thug had probably seen him exit the pub and thought him an easy mark. Stepping off the main street and into an alley, Termillion faded from view.
The man, rotund but quick on his feet, appeared at the entrance to the alley. He wore sweaty leather, had a mostly-bald head, and his thick fingers fiddled with the hilt of his dagger. The alley ended in a brick wall about twenty feet from the entrance, and the thug's eyes swept from side to side, trying to figure out where Termillion had gone.
Taking form out of a shadow next to him, Termillion snatched the dagger from the thug's belt. He jammed it into the man's neck, and blood sprayed out as the thug collapsed, trying to spit a word through his shredded throat.
Termillion whipped the dagger into his body and left him dying in the darkness. He pulled his hood low over his eyes and returned to the street.
Later, near the docks, Termillion felt someone else trailing him. Another cutpurse, or the thug's friend come to get revenge. Termillion's blank face slipped into a sharp grin, and he let his senses expand.
No.
He ran, pushing the pain in his leg out of his mind. Only his Umbris training helped him hear his pursuer. Even then, the footsteps sounded like a predator stepping on snow.
He flew down a street and turned to the right at an intersection; turning to the left would take him too close to Hester. His eyes began to sharpen; shadows lit up like whorehouses. He felt the presence of the person chasing after him.
He imagined Kayss telling him she loved him. He imagined her mother pointing at her as she lay in Termillion's arms and the riot pulsed around them.
He skidded to a stop and whirled in place, his blood-heavy cloak flaring around him. With a quick motion he fired a rune missile at the person behind him. It slipped out of the way.
It was dark. It had black clothes tight around it, and its skin looked made from smoke and ash. Termillion could barely focus on it, and if he looked away it took concentration to find it again. It was a creature of shadow, and he knew Ummi had sent it after him.
It lunged forward, loping over the ground. Termillion flicked a knife at it and spun to the side, again forcing himself to ignore the pain in his leg. It dodged out of the way of his knife and pushed forward at him, swiping with a short, curved weapon.
Termillion dove over it and rolled to a crouch behind it. He flung another rune missile, and this time he connected.
An explosion of hot air blew his cloak out behind him. It knocked down a rickety wooden balcony and disturbed piles of barrels and boxes stacked nearby. The black figure skidded down the street and rolled to a stop on one of the piers, in the moon's light.
Dark mist flowed off of it as it pulled itself to its feet. It stood slowly, spine extended into a straight line and head coming up last of all. Termillion's sharp vision caught sight of two familiar symbols deep in its black pupil. He has last seen them glowing blue, etched on Hester's skin.
It rushed forward and the sigils disappeared as it moved out of the light. Termillion forced himself backward from the swiping attack, and spun a knife into his hand. He crouched and felt the pain flow up his leg. He welcomed it. Better than seeing his loved ones die again.
The figure thrust itself forward, bouncing off the stones of the street and kicking down at him. Termillion caught the foot and used his knife to slash along its leg. He should have hit it, but his weapon passed through it like smoke.
Still, the figure landed heavy on the ground and rolled up, clutching its leg where Termillion's weapon had hit. Its mouth, obscured behind a piece of cloth, moved and shifted. Termillion caught a glimmer of a sigil.
Termillion snapped his face into a grin, lips pulled wide. He flung three rune missiles. The figure danced past the first one, and found the second headed straight for him, so it flipped out of the way. The third missile seemed to have disappeared, until the figure took a step forward and lost the feeling in its leg.
It crumpled down as the effect of the rune missile turned its body weak. Termillion strode forward as fast as his hurt leg let him, and grabbed the figure by the shirt. He thrust his fist into its face, twice, and relished the stinging in his knuckles. Ripping the cloth from its mouth, Termillion saw thin, bloodless lips and sharp teeth, ground to points and dripping with spittle. He tied the piece of cloth around its wrists, behind its back.
It tried to get to its feet, but it was still too numb. Its legs kicked the stones as Termillion dragged it toward the dock it had rolled across. He went to the end, where the water was deepest, and buried its head in the sea.
It struggled, legs kicking and shoulders shaking. Termillion pressed it in harder, nearly dunking it all the way. It struggled faster, and faster, and then stopped.
Termillion pulled it out, and felt its wrist. No heart. His fingers came away greasy, and when he looked he found black material, almost like ink, covering his hands.
He pulled out one of the slips of paper he used for his rune missiles, and used the material to write a message. It was a bit sloppy, but legible. He left it pinned to the body, and slipped away back to Hester.
"Are you all right?" Hester asked when he unlocked the door and entered the room. "What happened?"
Termillion shut the door and padded to the wall. He pressed his back against it and slid until he was sitting. He kept his eyes on the floor until he pulled off his cloak. He found it dripping with water, blood, and mottled black. He looked at where his daughter's body rested and found one of the bedsheets covering it. He glanced at Hester.
"I couldn't sleep," she said. "Tell me what happened."
Termillion sighed. "I spoke with the magistrate, told my side of the story. She believes me, for now. But I need to prove my innocence. On my way back here something attacked me."
"Something?"
"Ummi used her sigils to...twist somebody. It did nothing but attack me."
"It didn't speak?"
"Not before I drowned it."
Hester's eyes widened. "Are you hurt?"
"No more than before. It was quick, but I got the upper hand. I was lucky I heard it following me. It almost caught me off guard."
"Your hands," Hester said. Termillion looked at them. Among the wrinkles were dark, inky stains.
"Its skin was covered with--or made of--some sort of slick material. I'm not sure what it was."
Hester watched him rub his hands together for a few seconds. He was looking into the past. "What do we do next?"
"Find Ummi, and drive a stake through her heart."
Now Termillion was watching the sheet-covered body in the corner, as if it would rise from its supine position and begin speaking.
"I have a different proposition." Termillion looked at her, face just as emotionless as it had been when he'd left earlier in the night. "A burial." She nodded toward Kayss' body. Termillion nearly pinned her to the wall with his gaze. "She doesn't deserve to rot away in the corner of a room."
Termillion was on his feet, hands in trembling fists. His eyes were wide, catching the single candle, but his expression hadn't shifted. "Listen to me," Hester said, hissing through his fury. "She deserves rest, not being carried around while you exact bloody revenge. At the very least, her body will begin to decay and stink. The docks may smell of fish, but not corpses. Someone will discover us soon."
The cracks appeared on Termillion's face again, and his anger sank back down. He sat. "Where? We cannot simply bring a body to the cemetery and expect no questions."
"You aren't the only one with contacts in the city," Hester said. She shifted and groaned. "But we both need to rest. We'll leave in the morning. I wonder if I'll even be able to wake up without the clock tower marking the dawn."
"How do the sigils feel?" Termillion asked.
"Better. Slightly. It's a slow process but they're working their way out. Look." She lifted her arm. "They're fading."
"Soon you'll just have normal wounds to worry about."
Hester chuckled, thrilled Termillion had found it possible to make a joke. "We'll have to get to the north side of the city," she said, struggling down into a lying position. "Wake me up at dawn, if you can."
"We may want to leave before then," Termillion said. "I left a note with the body."
"What?!" Hester pushed herself up again. "What did you say?!"
Send me another, witch, Ummi read. She let the note flutter back onto the body lying on the docks, then pushed the corpse into the sea with one boot. The fingers on her remaining hand squeezed and extended. The early morning dockside was warming up. She turned around, looking at the Umbris footsoldiers who had come with her. "The Skota tracked him to the docks. He must be close. Find him. Now!"
The sun was over their heads when they reached their destination. Hester, leading the way with the pain from the sigils ebbing in and out, knocked on the door. They both had their hoods up, and Termillion had Kayss' wrapped body in his arms. Wounded and weary, they had made their way from the southern docks to the northernmost part of the city, avoiding crowded areas, open stretches, or anyone who looked like part of Ummi's grapevine.
Hester knocked again, and a minute later an old woman pried open the door. She looked from Hester to Termillion, then to the weight in his arms. "I'll fetch the matron," she said, and opened the door to let them in.
"Hester, it's-" a different old woman said, when she entered the dingy lobby a few minutes later. She stopped, seeing them. Hester, with half her head shaved, and half-faded symbols covering her skin, favoring her right side and Termillion kneeling next to her with Kayss' body in his arms. "Heavens. What's happened?"
"It's a long story, matron," Hester said. "The last few days have been trying. I have a very important favor to ask." She looked at Termillion. "This is Katherine, the matron of the orphanage. We've been friends for a long time. Katherine, this is Termillion."
Katherine took a step back. "I recognize the name."
"You have nothing to fear from him," Hester said, knowing Termillion wouldn't necessarily agree. "All we ask is to care for Kayss."
"She is an orphan?" Katherine asked.
Termillion felt his heart catch in his throat. "Officially," he managed to say. Hester nudged him, and he rose, holding out the small, wrapped body.
Katherine saw his expression and nodded. "Briten, fetch a bier," the matron said to the other woman. She left quietly. "I'm sorry for your loss." She looked over them. "You're tired. If you'd like, you can rest in one of the bedrooms while we prepare the body."
"The children won't mind?" Hester asked.
"We are blessed to be empty, for the most part," the matron said. "Only about a dozen children in this whole, cold building." She led them out of the lobby, past a staircase and down a hallway. The carpet was thin under their feet, and both Hester and Termillion entered the first room Katherine opened for them. Like their room before, it was small and sparse, with a small window in the corner and a bed against the wall. Termillion limped to one side and sat, resting his head against the wall. Hester sat on the bed. "If there's anything you need, be sure to let me know," Katherine said. "I must help Briten prepare the body."
"Paper," Termillion said. "Pen and ink. Bandages if you can."
Katherine nodded and exited. A few minutes later she returned with the items, then left again, easing the door shut with a soft click. Termillion took one of the slips of paper and began writing a message.
"Who are you contacting?" Hester asked.
"Mesthum. I'm telling him what's happened and where we are."
"Is that safe?"
Termillion glanced at her from his spot on the floor. "He knows to be careful. He might be able to help us, and if he can I'd rather he know what we've discovered. I also want to warn him about the creature that attacked me last night. There may be more of them."
Hester watched him scratch at the paper. "How will you get the message to him?"
"A rune," Termillion said. He folded the paper up and turned to the blank side, drawing a swirling design on it. "It also acts as a signature. The rune takes it wherever I send it, within reason. It should work anywhere within the city."
Hester leaned forward. "How does it know where to go?"
Termillion didn't look up. "A magical system of my own device," he said in his flat way. As part of the rune, he drew two circles. "This one contains the name of the recipient, this one contains the location."
"Interesting." Termillion used the wall to pull himself up, and limped to the window. He pushed it open, held the folded message by the corner, and flicked it into the air. It continued spinning, whizzing out of view. He returned to his spot.
"Wake me when Katherine comes back."
"I will," Hester said. A minute later he was asleep, and she took a piece of paper off the small stack Katherine had brought. She wrote her own message, a longer one. It took her some time to put the words in the correct order. When she finished, she folded the page up, flipped it over, and recreated the rune she had studied as Termillion drew it. She wrote the recipient and location, pushed the window open as quietly as she could, and flicked the message into the air. Like Termillion's it spun away, in a different direction.
The graveyard was small, like the bodies buried in it. Clouds had taken over the sun's place when Katherine led Termillion and Hester to the back, past bony tree limbs and leaning stones showing angels taking small forms up to where their parents waited.
They stopped in front of a hole in the ground. The other woman--Briten--and a bent old man with a shovel stood next to a wheeled cart bearing Kayss' wrapped body. It looked more comfortable, wrapped in a child's white funeral shroud. Her limbs were still crooked and bent from the rigor mortis, but to Termillion it was as if she was just sleeping, like their last night listening to the clock tower whirr and bang.
"Would you like me to assist you?" Katherine asked Termillion. He nodded, and went to the top of the corpse. Katherine hoisted the feet, and together they laid his daughter in her grave.
They assembled around the hole. Briten and the grave digger stood aside. Termillion was on one side, Hester the other, and Katherine at the foot. "Today we place Kayss Streetchild on her final path," Katherine said. "May her touch soothe though we cannot feel her, may her words encourage us though we cannot hear her, may her actions build us up though we cannot witness them any longer." Katherine looked at Termillion.
He crouched, bringing himself closer to the body. He stared into the hole for a moment. "You were so courageous." He shut his eyes. "Against the emptiness of life, and all its pain. You stood tall against your enemies, you told Ummi off when she killed Master Gos, and I love you for that if nothing else. Even when you were slipping away from me, you smiled. Smiled and told me you loved me, too. You smiled at death, and your enemies, and mine. You smiled at them until you died and you died with a smile on your face. So why can't I bring myself to smile?"
Termillion felt Hester's hand on his shoulder. "I should have told you sooner. I thought you would be angry at me. I would have liked nothing more than to spend my entire life with you and your mother, but..." A shaky breath passed through his lips. "I hope I was still a father to you. I hope I gave you love enough, and truth enough, and strength enough. I watched you battle the three trials and it made my heart swell enough to burst. And then we had to run, but you made Ummi a laughingstock, at least for a moment."
He could have spoken for a year. He could have apologized, and thanked, and asked. All the words he had left jammed into a mass and made him choke. His throat squeezed tighter, and he put a hand to his mouth. He imagined her shadowwalking into Ummi's blade, and smiling at him as she died in his arms, like her mother.
He rose, eyes burning. Hester put her arm around him, and he heard the gravedigger sniffle. "If we could all love the children like you, Termillion," Katherine said, "there would be no need for orphanages."
Termillion dipped his pen in ink, took a piece of paper off the pile, and drew a design on it. Hester watched as he went from one page to the next. She'd watched him draw the runes before, but these seemed different. She knew they would do the same things: send fists of rock out of the ground, or numb a body, or explode into light, or a thousand other possibilities but the strokes of his pen were sharper, harder.
The moon was out. The orphanage was quiet; the children were in their beds. Hester had spent the rest of the day asleep while Termillion helped the gravedigger pile dirt on top of Kayss despite his wounded leg. He'd limped back to the room just as Hester was waking up. He sat at the desk without a word and began work on his rune missiles, readying himself for the assault on Ummi.
Hester waited until the pile was gone. "What's our plan?"
Termillion looked at her from the corner of his eye. "My plan is to kill Ummi, however possible and preferably painfully. Your plan should be to recuperate."
"I'm not going to let you go through that on your own."
"Unless you can keep up, I don't see how you have a choice."
"Termillion, don't do this." He looked at her. "Ummi will be well-defended, and she'll expect you to strike at her. Don't make yourself a martyr. Don't enter the Umbris compound without expecting to leave again. Kayss would never allow you to think you should die."
His eyes burned when he heard her name. "She did not think you were a monster," Hester said. "Don't become one."
He waited a moment, then slashed his hand across the air. "Of course not. But whatever you say, it still remains your injuries are too great. You won't be able to hold yourself in a fight."
Hester laughed. "Is that what you think? You think a few aches and pains will keep me from knocking anybody who comes against me down?"
"Against trained Umbris? Yes! You can barely stand, Hester!"
"And your leg is healed, I assume?" Hester said. Termillion's eyes narrowed. "You won't need to worry about me. I may not be able to fight that well, but that only becomes necessary if they actually see me. I can still..."
"What? Still what?"
"Still make my way around," Hester said, appearing next to him. The runes were gone, her hair was full, and she stood ready to battle. He started, and then she disappeared. He found her back on the bed, injuries returned. "They only appear for a few seconds, and Umbris vision training sees through them even quicker, but they're enough to give me a chance to slip away or get a lucky strike in."
"Have you always been able to do that?"
Hester shrugged. "This old dog was able to learn a new trick. It wasn't like I was going to use it against you if Hester didn't know about it. Thankfully, her control wasn't that complete."
Termillion was frozen. Hester thought she had said something wrong until, like the sun through storm clouds, he smiled. It wasn't the one brimming over with hate, anger, and sadness. It was real. "Old tricks," he repeated.
"What is it?"
He smoothed his hand over his mouth for a moment. "You said Ummi will be well defended."
"Of course she will be. She'll have the might of the Umbris behind her. Plus, anybody who doesn't agree with her either can't act or is being controlled by sigils. Not to mention that thing you fought last night." Hester scowled at him. "Why?"
"Then I suppose it's time for both of us to learn a new trick."
"The book should still be in Kayss' room," Termillion said. "That's if we're lucky. Ummi may have taken it, or it may have gone back into the archives."
"In which case we might as well not even try," Hester said. The night had stretched on as they came up with their plan to get inside the Umbris compound. "We could spend a year looking and nor find it."
"But if we find it, we gain a powerful tool, one even Umbris will have difficulty countering. You should have seen Kayss in the clock tower. She was shadowwalking circles around Ummi."
"I was there, remember?" Hester said. "Out of my mind with pain, but I was there. I saw her. She was a wonder."
"Plus, taking the time to learn to shadowwalk gives us an opportunity to heal fully."
"Ummi will have no chance to stop us," Hester said. She yawned, patting her hand over her open mouth. "Old dogs still need to sleep, I suppose. Do you want to use the bed tonight?"
"You use it. I've slept on worse," Termillion said, indicating the floor. He felt a chill run down his spine. "Hester."
"I know." She lifted her index finger to her lips and pointed at the ceiling. Termillion drew a rune from his cloak and pressed his other hand against it. It began to glow slightly.
"We can talk," he said, and when he did so the glow intensified for a moment, then returned to its normal level. "But not for long. Another creature like last night."
"We can't let it report back to Ummi," Hester said. "The orphanage must stay safe." She rose from the bed, flexing her limbs. "Don't try to stop me. I want to strike back at Ummi as much as you do. Besides..."
"What better way to test my strength?" an illusion Hester said, standing at the door. "After you."
Moving with all the stealth their tired bodies possessed, they went into the dark hallway. Termillion had to nearly drag his wounded leg, and each step made Hester clench her jaw tighter, but eventually they got to the lobby of the orphanage. "It's still on the roof," Hester whispered. "Will it attack, or is it just a scout?"
"The other one attacked me last night," Termillion said. "But I can't say for certain."
Hester nodded. "The door?"
"No." Termillion gestured toward a window along one wall. "The entrance will be well-lit."
"What's this?"
Termillion and Hester spun in place. A young woman, wearing a smock and and dress of one of the caretakers, was staring at them from the entrance of the lobby, sleep still in her eyes. "Are you our special visitors?" the woman asked, before they could stop her. Hester brought her finger to her lips repeatedly, and the woman jumped. She looked around, eyes wide, but when she found nothing she looked back at them.
Hester went to her as fast as she could. "Keep quiet!" She yanked the woman down. "There is an unfriendly listener about. The more you speak the more danger we are in." The woman clamped a hand over her mouth.
"I'll drive it off," Termillion said. They could barely hear his voice, and they saw the piece of paper glow in his hand. "I'll let you know if I need help."
"What will I be doing?" Hester said.
"Don't hiss at me. We may need to evacuate in case it escapes. Rouse the caretakers and warn them. Quietly."
Hester nodded. "Be safe."
Termillion hoisted the window open and pulled himself out, stiff leg pulling his body into a painful contortion. He eased himself onto the cold grass and looked up. The roof was thirty long feet over his head. He sucked in a breath, imagined his daughter dying, and leapt five feet up the wall.
His fingers latched onto the uneven stones as his leg shrieked. The rune missile he carried ate the sound of him clambering up the wall until he pulled himself over the lip of the slanted roof, shoulders and legs burning. He sank into the night and made his way across the roof, searching for the intruder. He spotted it crouched, as if a gargoyle, on the end of the west section, over their room. If it looked in his direction it would spot him, but no matter what he did, it wouldn't be able to hear him.
He sprinted up the roof, clattering across the shingles until he was less than ten feet from it. It spun, somehow sensing his approach, and he flung himself forward, connecting with it. They fell off the section of the roof and landed on an eave ten feet lower. Termillion felt something in his body sing a note of pain, but he squeezed the figure and held it down. Like the night before, it had a inky, dusty skin, black clothing wrapped around it, and when its mouth opened under the black bandana, all he heard was an animalistic hiss. The moon, above them, shone down into its eyes and revealed sigils embedded inside them.
It threw him off, and he landed hard, sliding down the roof until he was able to stop his fall with a hand. The creature sprang up, flipping to its feet, and then advanced on him while drawing a curved weapon. He rose, and his ankle, on the same leg as his stab wound, made itself known as the injury. He dove a hand into his cloak and held up a rune missile, shutting his eyes. He felt the sudden heat and heard the sharp blast, and the creature hissed, blinded. He let the empty piece of paper fall and lunged at it, it tried to roll away, he moved in its path. It made a blind swing with its weapon but Termillion dodged out of the way without a thought. He caught its arm and brought his other hand against the elbow; he heard a crack and the creature made a hiss of pain.
He found himself dashed against the slope of the roof and had to stop himself. The creature, arm against its body, advanced. It picked the weapon up with its other hand and held it like a long, heavy dagger, ready to plunge through him.
Hester appeared behind it, and it spun, plunging the dagger into her chest. Termillion's heart stopped for a moment, until Hester faded away like a mirage. The real one sprang around the lip of the eave, one of her feet leading the way. Her kick connected with the creature and drove it into the wall of the building, making a dent in the wood. It fell to its stomach as Hester came to her feet. She grabbed Termillion's hand and helped him up. Without a word he went to it, his single remaining knife in his hand, and kneeled on its back. He slit its throat from one ear to the other, holding its head up until it had nothing left to lose.
Standing, he turned, meaning to thank Hester, and instead found her looking at him with shock and fear. His cloak once again dripped with another's blood, and he shook it. "It was a monster."
"We could have gotten information out of it!" Hester said. Her hand indicated the drained body, as if he had forgotten.
"For what? Termillion shouted. "Where Ummi is hiding? What she plan to do? We already know or we don't care! She's in Master Gos' room, enjoying ill-gotten gains, and she plans to hunt us until we, and everyone else who defies her is dead!"
"You shouldn't have done that," Hester said. "Surely it would have been some use to us. At the very least we could discover a weakness."
"I know a weakness," Termillion said. He gestured at the body, like she had, but his gesture was one of dismissal. "A blade across the neck."
"There are children here. What if they saw what you did?"
Termillion looked around. There, on the slanted eave twenty feet up, in the cold darkness, they were alone. "No better time to learn what this world has to offer. I'm going to need help getting down from here." He pointed at his ankle. "I almost got out of this without a scratch."
"There," Hester said. Termillion looked where she pointed and saw a trellis he could use to lower himself to a cluttered patio. "Do you want me to go first and catch you?"
He shot a glance at her and limped toward the trellis, easing his feet onto it and testing its strength. He linked an arm around one of the beams making it up and swung down, landing on his good leg. Hester followed.
"What do we do with the body?" she asked as they found their way inside. "I'm not just going to leave it up there."
Termillion looked up into the dark, toward where the body would be lying. "Get some rest," he told her. "I'll handle it."
Without another word he climbed back to the roof from the trellis. Hester watched him disappear around a corner of the roof and sighed, wondering what he had in mind. She went back inside, the night's length and her exertion crashing into her as soon as the door shut behind her.
She slumped against the wall, darkness taking over her sight. She felt hands support her, and her vision cleared to reveal the young woman who had spotted them leaving. "Are you all right?" the woman said, voice almost too quiet to hear over Hester's pounding heart. "Is it safe?"
"Safe," Hester said, nodding. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired. Termillion is dealing the body."
"Body?" the woman said, looking concerned and, Hester thought, frightened. "Did you kill him?"
Hester sighed. "Termillion did. It's okay, you're safe."
"Thank you," the woman said. "I'll help you to your room."
Some time later, Hester heard the door to the room open, and Termillion creep inside. She was on the bed, mostly asleep, and he buried himself in the corner, not saying a word. It was almost dawn.
"Mistress Ummi."
She whirled around, ending her conversation with another Umbris. "What is it? Has the Skota returned?"
The woman facing her opened her mouth and then closed it. "In a way..."
"Damn it!" Ummi pushed past her. "Where is it? Did he leave another message?"
"It's in the reception room, mistress," the Umbris said. "There was a note attached. But mistress-"
"I'll see to it myself! I'm surrounded by idiots and fools! Even if I grant you more power and skill you can't catch him! He's a sad, injured old man, and he's killing you all off!"
Ummi stormed inside the room to find a head lying on the table, pointed teeth glinting in the light. Shipping paper surrounded it, and there was a note stuck to the Skota's forehead with a pin.
She wrenched the pin out. "Who delivered it? How did it get here? Did it come through one of the normal shipment companies? Tell me!" she said to the Umbris who had come with her. She opened the note.
Today I buried my daughter, it said. Tonight I've buried one of your pets. Tomorrow I bury you.
She crushed it in her one hand, and then sent a pulse of energy to the sigils of the Umbris in the room. They hollered with pain. "Find him! Do you hear me, you foul idiots? FIND HIM!"
"Mistress Ummi!" an Umbris ran into the room, clutching another piece of paper. "A message!"
"Give it to me!" She tore it out of his hand and unfolded it. She smiled, and Hester would have found it all too similar to Termillion's smile.
"Finally. How's your ankle?"
Termillion tested it, applying slow pressure, as he joined her in the shadow. "Sore. I'll live." He took the weight off. "Getting into a fight here is the last thing on my mind," he said. "It's get in, get the book, and get out."
"I'm almost glad you hurt your ankle," Hester said. "I thought you were just going to try and kill her tonight." Termillion looked at her and scowled. "Don't try and deny it, I know you were considering it. You want her dead. I get it. Now isn't the time."
Termillion looked ahead. "I'm still going to kill her if I have the chance. I just won't look for it."
They were huddled in the corner of two roofs, high above the Umbris compound. It was late--not yet midnight, but the city was quiet and dark.
"Where was her room?" Hester asked.
"The trainee facility, of course," Termillion said. "Second level of building four." Hester nodded as he explained. "Here's hoping they haven't had time to sterilize it yet."
"It's only been four days," Hester said. "Ummi's had other things on her mind. I doubt any of Kayss' things have been touched." She looked around. "We should get moving. Eventually a sentry will come across us."
Termillion nodded, and Hester led the way down the building, dropping into an alley. She dashed across the road and pressed against the wall of the compound. Termillion followed, a little less furtive, daring a sentry to spot him.
"Are the sewers really the best way?" he asked as they slipped along the wall. "We could just climb into one of the taller buildings."
"Then we'd have to get to the bottom level and cross the grounds," Hester said, quieter than he. "Too easily seen. The sewers can take us almost anywhere. And need I remind you everybody in the compound has the training we have? Their senses will be much sharper."
"I'm counting on it," Termillion said.
Hester looked at him. "What does that mean? Is that what you were doing while I waited, alone and cold? I thought you were just scouting!"
"I was making it easier for us," Termillion said.
"If you don't tell me what you plan is, it will make it that much more difficult for us."
"It won't be difficult to figure out."
"Termillion, please." He turned back to look at her. "Let me inside, at least a little bit."
He turned away and kept creeping along the wall, through the shadow of the compound. Hester looked behind her for sentries or anyone following them, but saw no one.
"Finally," Termillion said, when they found the sewer grate. "I don't remember the wall being that long."
"That was back when we had functioning limbs," Hester said. Termillion knelt and pulled the grate up. It swung on rusty hinges and smashed into the stones surrounding it. Termillion hoisted himself down, and Hester heard a splash in the darkness. A disgusted sound floated up.
"Come on in, the water's fine," she heard Termillion's emotionless voice say.
"Make way," she said, then dropped down. She harnessed her training and let her eyes forge into the shadows. She saw Termillion standing in what was nominally a knee-high fluid, but looked more viscous than it should have been. They were in a large square area, with multiple low tunnels leading in all directions, numerous metal pipes above their heads, and stone shelves, high enough to stay dry.
"You only have yourself to blame for this," Termillion said. He turned toward the direction of the compound and crouched under a low wall, leading to another tunnel. Their injuries, the darkness, and the cramped environment slowed their speed; by the time they got to the exit of the sewer they wanted, both were thoroughly soaked and annoyed.
Termillion pushed the grate open above them and pulled himself out, moving to the side and letting his clothes dry. Hester appeared a moment later, taking a look around. They were in the wide field the walls ringed, at the edge of the city. The building next to them was one of the housing units for trainee Umbris, but Termillion ignored it. He went around the corner, standing tall in the darkness.
"Keep down," Hester said.
"No. If somebody spots us from a distance and we're acting like we belong here, they won't think anything of it. If they see us crouched and crawling, they'll raise the alarm."
Hester straightened herself up and trailed after him. He forged across the small square around which the trainee buildings were arrayed, toward the one Kayss' room had been in.
He stopped walking, and Hester came up next to him. "Sneaking around in there doesn't seem like an easy prospect," she said. "Either a hundred people see us or it takes us all night."
"I have a third option," Termillion said, and snapped his fingers.
Hester heard a sound like a log splitting under an axe. The same sound, coming from different directions around the walls, repeated almost a half-dozen times, and then she saw plumes of smoke and ash rise, mostly near the group of buildings making up the main compound.
Termillion drew his other hand out of his cloak, holding up a rune missile. It was curling under an unseen heat, and then fell to ash. "An application of the runes I came up a little while ago, but never had the chance to use. I plant runes anywhere I want, hold an identical rune in my other hand, and send the trigger signal.
"What did you do?" Hester asked. It had sounded like explosions.
"A few small blasts to take the attention away from us. I doubt anybody was hurt."
"But you wouldn't care anyway, right?"
Termillion went up to the building Kayss' room was in, and pounded on the door. "Up!" he shouted, raising his voice over the night. "Everyone up!"
The Umbris who guarded the building cracked the door open. "What is it?" he asked, eyeball peering out. "What's happened?"
"It could be an attack," Termillion said. "We need everybody out of their rooms and ready to move."
"Who would be foolish enough to attack the compound?"
"Mistress Ummi has said the Magistrate is unhappy with the takeover. She could be attacking to put Ummi in her place."
The door opened farther. The Umbris was young, only a few years out of training. "Help me wake them," he said.
The Umbris disappeared down the hallway toward the trainee rooms. "You really don't care what happens, do you?" Hester asked. "You could start a civil war in the city. Hundreds could die."
Termillion entered the building and made for the staircase, ignoring the rooms full of sleeping Umbris. On the second level he counted off rooms until stopping before one of them. He tried the door and found it locked. Hester reached into a pocket for a set of lock picks when Termillion put his good foot up and forced it against the wood right next to the handle. It smashed open, nearly tearing off its hinges, and he entered it without looking away.
It felt like it had been years since he'd been inside, when it hadn't even been a week. The smell inside nearly brought him to tears.
"We'd better look fast," Hester said. "Did she describe the book at all?"
"I only heard about it at the trials. She just said it was old, and half-translated." Termillion swept his eyes across the room. It looked like he remembered. He stepped to her bookshelf and pulled the first one down. It was a treatise on stealth, and he let it drop at his feet. The next one was a history of the Umbris, and it landed on top of the first.
Behind him, Hester was checking the bed and table. She lifted the pillow up and threw it off, then upended the mattress. She found a small bound volume between it and the boards, and scooped it up. She flipped through it. Looking at Termillion, who was still making a rough inspection of the bookshelf, she slipped the volume into a pocket of her cloak.
"I think..." Termillion said, and she turned toward him. He was flipping through one of the books. "This might be it." He peered close. "I don't recognize the language. But here, look." She took the book from him. "There are a few translated passages." He took the book back and tucked it under his arm. Turning back to the bookshelf, he said "I'm going to keep looking, just in case."
"If you think you've found it, we need to go," Hester said. "The longer we stay here-"
She stopped. Termillion had turned, and the emotionless mask had slipped. He was going nowhere.
Hester sighed. "Don't delay. We're in danger here, and if they catch us our lives are forfeit."
"I just..." His voice lowered. "I need some time."
"I understand," she said. "But you can mourn elsewhere."
She roved around the small bedroom, waiting for something else to catch her eye. He went through the bookshelf, dropping the volumes at his feet when they failed to meet his standards. To Hester it barely looked like he was reading them, just picking them off the shelf, opening them, and dropping them.
Ten minutes after they entered the room Hester glanced out the window. "The entire compound is awake," she said. "When they find nothing they're going to start looking inside. Termillion."
"I know. I'm finished." He looked her way, and she saw the cracks, deeper than before. "Sometimes I can't tell if-"
"What are you doing in here?" the Umbris they had met at the building's entrance said from the doorway. "Why aren't you getting the students up? What have you done to the door?" He looked at Termillion, and his eyebrows began to narrow.
Hester tried to get there first but Termillion was too fast. He grabbed the Umbris' shirt, kicked him in the shin with the point of his boot. The Umbris stumbled, and Termillion took the opportunity to smash his face into the door jamb. Blood spurted out, and Termillion snapped the head backward against the other jamb, then let the body fall into the hallway. He stepped over the Umbris, and Hester hurried to it. She felt a pulse, but the man was unconscious.
"Don't delay, Hester," Termillion said from the door to the stairs. She heard sounds coming from the rooms around her. He started to descend, and she stepped past the body to follow him.
A dozen sleepy trainees filled the lobby of the building. Termillion pushed through them without a word, and luckily it was too dark to see the blood dripping off his cloak. "Ma'am," one of the trainees said to Hester. "What do we do?"
Hester looked at him and didn't know what to say. She looked out the door and couldn't see Termillion, then turned back to the trainee. "Four of you go to the second floor and take care of what you find there. The rest of you can go back to your rooms. It was a mistake to wake you up."
"But what about the explosions?" a young female asked. "Is someone attacking?"
Hester looked at her, and couldn't help but imagine Kayss. She realized anything she said would be a lie. She left the trainees standing in the lobby, head down and mind roiling.
Termillion was crouched next to the sewer grate, in the shadow of one of the trainee buildings. He was playing with his single remaining knife, spinning and flipping it from one hand to the other. The book he had taken from Kayss' room was balanced on his knee. "Took you long enough," he said. He reached down and pulled grate up, slipping down before she could say anything.
When she joined him in the sewer she found it unchanged, and switched on her Umbris eyes. Termillion's blue form was hunched and folded into itself, but in a moment he straightened up and started wading toward the small opening they'd used on their first trip through the sewers, keeping the book above the liquid.
The silence between them was hard and cold. The entire time they were forging through the tunnel Hester wanted to say something. Anything. Something about what he had done in the trainee building, or about Kayss' room, but she imagined anything she'd say would just bounce off the back of his cloak and sink into the water.
The return trip was long. It felt like hours, but eventually they emerged from the claustrophobic tunnel into the larger intersection they had dropped into.
Two of Ummi's creatures stood under the sewer grate. With their Umbris eyes working, Termillion and Hester could both see sigils burning on their skin. Hester was about to try and ease around them, hoping they couldn't see in the dark, but Termillion kept moving forward. "Cover your eyes."
Hester turned away as he flung the rune missile, and even with her eyes closed and an arm over them, her Umbris eyes took the infinitesimal illumination from the flash of light and turned it into a star in her vision. She heard dual screeching voices, and furious splashing. She wiped tears out of her eyes and looked ahead.
Termillion was running forward, his knife out, and his face shifted. His mouth was a snarl, and his teeth glowed in the aftereffects of his flash missile.
He swung his knife, but his intended target jumped out of the way. Termillion stumbled and nearly fell into the water, and the two creatures moved to circle him. Hester ran forward, pushing through the water with all the energy she could muster, drawing her sword and striking at one of their backs. It heard her and whirled, locking her blade with its own. It was smaller than her, but it still nearly knocked her backward. She floundered, trying to keep her balance, and it advanced.
It brought its sword down over her, Termillion dove forward at the other creature; his target shifted to the side in the water, Hester jumped up to grab one of the pipes above and swung her legs forward, planting both feet in her attacker's chest. It fell under her, hitting the water with a hard splash, and she came down right where it should have been. She hit nothing but water and the stone surface underneath it, and then it erupted behind her. She dove forward to escape a strike she knew was coming.
Termillion pressed forward against the other creature. He kept the point of his knife toward it, and reached his other hand into his cloak, drawing out a rune missile, clamping his fingers in a specific spot to activate it. He threw it at the creature and a blast of intense wind snatched it out of the water, bashing it against the low ceiling. Termillion gave chase but his twice-wounded leg chose the moment to weaken and fail, and he was too slow. The creature sprang back up, foul water dripping off it.
It fired a knife in his direction; he caught it and threw it back, bouncing it off the wall behind the rushing creature. It ran to his side and plunged toward him, swinging its sword at his neck.
Termillion caught its wrist and sent his elbow into its face. He tried to plant his foot on its ankle, but it shifted its feet out of the way, at the same time gaining the leverage to turn and throw him into the water.
The foul sewer contents filled his mouth and nose, and he waved his arms until he found a surface, pushing off from it. His head broke the surface at an angle; he was soaring toward the creature. The pain in his leg felt like a hot brand, and he pulled out another rune missile.
He threw it down at the wide-eyed creature, Hester drove forward with her sword at her combatant, it knocked her weapon away and made an attack of its own, Termillion's target could do nothing but watch the folded piece of paper flip toward it. As soon as the piece of paper touched the creature it burst into flames, quickly engulfing the body. The immediate heat filled the man-made cavern, but the creature dunked itself into the water.
Hester's opponent was pushing her back toward the tunnel they had used to reach the trainee buildings with forceful stabs and wide slashes. She didn't have the energy to keep up; as she grew tired she felt the burn of the runes on her skin, creeping up her neck and tunneling into her brain.
She shoved it away. It was so much easier than before, when Ummi had control over her. If she tried to push it away then she would fall onto her back, the other woman's magically-strengthed will rolling over her, but now she could pack it into a box and hide it inside her consciousness. She would have to unpack it and feel the pain eventually, but she could ignore it, at least for awhile.
She pushed against the pain, and pushed back against the creature Ummi had sent to kill her. The same woman who had dug her hands inside Hester's mind now wanted her dead--Hester would not give her such sick satisfaction. It drove its sword at her, and she wrapped her arm around its. With her free right hand she tried to shove her sword into its chest, but it somehow wafted out of the way, like a creature made of smoke. It reversed the hold on its arm and twisted her arm in its socket. She gritted her teeth, refusing to cry in pain, and shot a leg at it through the water, which slowed the strike just enough to let it move out of the way. They separated for a moment, and then it drove forward again.
Its sword pierced her stomach, and it hissed in joy and triumph, until Hester faded from its vision and the real one attacked from the side, driving her weapon through its arm and ribs. It cried out, but Hester wrenched the sword free, changed her grip, and shot it into its heart, from the back. The body fell flat into the water and disappeared from sight.
Behind her, Termillion wrapped his fingers around the creature's neck and lifted it out of the water. The creature's weapons were lost in the darkness, and its arms were too short to reach him. Hester turned and saw them; in her Umbris vision they appeared to be a blue tableau. Termillion's face was creased with rage and the creature's eyes were wide enough to glow.
Termillion stabbed it in the stomach. He brought his arm back and shot it forward a dozen more times until the creature stopped struggling. He lowered the body and drove his knife into its eyes and face, and then threw it down to its watery grave.
He shook his hands dry, picked the book up from the stone shelf he had placed it on, and went through the water to the street opening. With her enhanced vision, Hester could see the creature's blood glowing on him, washing off his cloak into the water.
"I only wish I could have left a message for Ummi," Termillion said a few minutes later, as they pulled themselves through the alleys back to the orphanage. "Third time's the charm, they say."
Hester, a step behind him, looked at him with concern. Her stomach roiled at the scene she had caught as he killed Ummi's creature. It wasn't the Termillion she remembered. The man she remembered, the man she looked up to for strength and dignity and honesty, would never deliver such brutality, even to an opponent who wanted him dead. The Termillion she remembered would dispatch him quickly, efficiently, and get on with his mission. He wouldn't have left mocking notes, or shredded a corpse, or brutalized a man for doing his job.
Termillion would have charmed, talked his way out of the problem, or simply incapacitated the Umbris who caught them in Kayss' room.
Hester watched him limp forward and wondered if she would ever see the real Termillion again. If this creature in front of her would drop the cracking mask she had seen since waking up a few mornings ago. If there would be anything behind it other than limitless fury or unending sadness--eyes crying forever, or only living to see the world around him burning until it was as empty as he was.
What would this figure in front of her, cloak heavy with the blood of dozens, turn out to be? He would destroy himself along with the world if nothing changed.
They neared the orphanage. Both of their bodies were contraptions of creaking joints and sore muscles. Termillion's limp worsened until Hester felt pity on him, and eased herself under his arm to help him on. He said nothing, but she felt his hand on her shoulder relax. His other hand gripped the book he had found in Kayss' room.
They saw the unexpected light a dozen blocks away, reflecting back at them from the clouds. Termillion understood before her, and took off, pulling his exhaustion after him. Hester hurried in pursuit, and their speed increased when they felt the intense heat.
They raced around a corner, out of an alley, and shut their eyes to the light and pain. The orphanage was a pillar of flame, yellow and orange and blackened ash. The heat was too great to get any closer--Hester could almost feel her skin peeling.
Termillion dropped to his knees. Hester didn't know whether from exhaustion or another reason. He bent forward, putting his forehead against the hot cobblestones.
"She did this." Hester almost didn't hear him speaking. His voice melded with the crackling flames. "She found out where I was. She..." He stopped. He looked up. "No." He rose, and started forward, as if to forge into the flames.
"Termillion...Termillion stop!" Hester said. She wanted to move forward but the heat was too great. The runes on her skin roared to life and she let out a scream, trapped for a moment inside her mind like when Ummi had control over her. She was about to burst, and she fell forward, crawling until she saw Termillion walking at the burning orphanage, each step a trial in itself, each inch another victory, miracle, wonder.
Her limbs rebelled, and she could only watch him disappear as the flames grew too bright.
The next moment she felt arms lift her. Cool cloths fell against her skin, and she shivered. Water wet her lips and they parted, and she tasted sweet purity pour into her mouth. She coughed.
"?"
The words escaped meaning. She cracked her eyes open and saw blurry figures. The fire was smaller, but still hot and bright. She tried to turn her neck and her head erupted in pain. "Termillion."
"!"
Two of the figures were supporting her. One of them, a smaller one, came over and stopped in front of her. "."
The figures settled her on the ground, her back against something hard. Something cold wiped her face, waking her up and sending meaning into her head. After a few moments she tried moving her limbs. The pain from the runes was gone again, but it still hurt to so much as shift.
"Hester."
That was her name. She pried her eyes open. The blurry image in front of her was black, the flames behind it. She tried to say something. "Mmm."
"More water," she heard. The voice was feminine, steady, ready for anything. She knew who this was.
"Magistrate," she said through thick lips.
"Here, drink," Lissit said, and Hester felt the most blessed thing of Earth in her throat. She coughed, and every moment of pain was better then-
"Termillion."
"Where is he?"
"The orphanage. His daughter, buried there."
"We have the body. It's safe."
"Glad-" Hester coughed and groaned. "Glad you got my letter."
"We witnessed Ummi and other Umbris attacking. The council might need some convincing, but I know Termillion is innocent."
"You don't know where he is?"
"No, we-"
"Magistrate!"
Lissit left Hester. She rested against the wall, trying to listen to the talking. The magistrate knelt by her again. "He's coming out of the fire."
"How," Hester said. She shook her head. "Get me up. He needs to see I'm safe, and that you aren't enemies."
"He wouldn't attack all of us."
Had she more energy, Hester would have laughed. As it was, she coughed, and the cough went on for a while. "He would kill all of you without a second thought," she said when she had the air. "And you would never be able to stop him."
Lissit propped her up, and they went forward a little bit. Hester's vision was strengthening, and she saw a black blur approaching. "How."
His clothes were untouched. His skin was unburnt. His eyes were on the ashen ground. His boots caught on the stones, his arms hung limp. He swayed from side to side. His face was emptier than she had ever seen. She wondered if there was anything left inside.
"Termillion," Lissit said, and he brought his eyes up.
There was fire there. Where before was a mad dog lose from its chain, or a monstrous, raw weapon with enough strength to destroy any enemy, now it was a cage, now it was a sheath. Now it was an open faucet pouring lava. Now it was a beast who walked forward through trials and tribulations without a glance to the side. Now it was a man who had lost even the sparse treasures he had been able to retain.
He saw the magistrate, and Hester, and all the other people standing around--soldiers and civilians, and she knew he was wondering which of them he would kill. As hot as she was, Hester felt a chill when she imagined him doing it without any of the cracks showing. There was no mask anymore; his face was alabaster stone, unyielding steel, an unchanging carving. Only his eyes were alive, filled with fire.
Hester pushed off of the magistrate. and stumbled forward. "Termillion! Lissit saved the body! It was Ummi who did this!"
He walked forward toward her. She marveled at his unblemished form. He should have burned up before even getting close. The book from Kayss' room was still in his hand, and even it was unhurt. She stumbled at him, coming close enough to touch.
"She wasn't there," he said. "I...something happened to me. I was empty. I was a vacuum, and the flames and heat rushed in to fill me."
"How did you survive?" Termillion asked. "The heat-"
He lifted his free hand. A piece of paper bearing a rune, looking like untapped ash of a cigar, began to drift apart. "Old dogs."
"Are you all right?"
"I am unhurt."
"Magistrate Lissit has Kayss. They saw Ummi attack. They know everything. They believe you. They know Ummi for the monster she is." Termillion looked over Hester's shoulder at the magistrate, who stood waiting. "I have something for you," Hester said. She reached into her cloak. "I'm afraid it got a little wet in the sewers." She pressed the book she had found under Kayss' mattress into his hands. "It's her journal."
It was slow. Like ants crossing a room. Piece by piece, it chipped away. It fell off, and Termillion's face melted into sadness. He slowly went down to his knees and laid both of the books he carried on the ground, pressing a hand against his eyes. He wept, and the tears shimmered in the firelight.
The mask was gone, and all the sadness buried so far under the condensed rage freed itself, escaping in bigger and bigger waves until Termillion was sobbing, his two treasured books clutched to his chest, and Hester weeping her own way, their heads touching, looking at the ash on the street under them, the magistrate and her soldiers watching, the entire city watching.
TO BE CONTINUED