Chapter Thirteen

Darius thought he might be losing his mind.

The environment was pleasant enough, he supposed. This was an open-air forum, a place for commoners to bring their petitions for aid to their rulers. Adjudicating in this court was a duty mandated for lower ranking demons— by law, Darius's attendance was only required on special sessions held on holy days— but he found it useful to observe these proceedings every few weeks. Usually he did so in disguise, since his presence tended to put people on edge and therefore alter the behavior he was trying to assess, and today was no different. He'd taken his hawk form and was perched atop an entablature of a nearby building at its midpoint between two columns, occasionally preening his feathers so as to not appear to be obviously monitoring the proceedings. There were few better ways to understand the currents of the city, the impacts of its rulers' decisions, than to hear petitions directly from its people.

Today, though, he was regretting his decision to drop in. He'd come here hoping to clear his head, distract himself from the matter of how badly he'd bungled his last conversation with Tanitha. It had been three days ago now, and he hadn't interacted with her since. He couldn't seem to get past the strange feelings of shame she'd woken up in him. Something about admitting that he was surprised at himself for disobeying Naratha's order had left him feeling ill at ease. As if he needed to take time to evaluate if he really was the kind of person he thought of himself as.

Perhaps that was why his mind kept leaping back to Tanitha instead of the petitions going on in the agora beneath him. It didn't help that the petitions themselves were mind-numbing that day. They'd been ground to a halt by the bickering of two olive growers whose lands bordered each other. Apparently some kind of fungus was running rampant among the trees along the border and each landowner was convinced the other's negligence was to blame. Both were demanding compensation from the other.

The two had already presented their cases, but neither had any evidence that conclusively proved the other was to blame— only their own diligence— and at some point the second man's presentation had begun to slide into poorly-veiled insults toward the other.

Darius shifted in place on the nearby rooftop. Hathia, a demon who wore wings that were striated with the colors of the sky at dusk, was usually an efficient arbiter, and he didn't understand why she wasn't moving this along, but that probably meant there was some nuance to this situation that he was missing. He'd have to ask her about it later; most of the arbiters here were accustomed to his habits and seemed pleased that their future king had adopted an interest in the lower courts.

Normally, he found this activity at least somewhat gratifying to observe. Sessions like this were often filled with subjects in real need— earlier that morning, for instance, there had been a saddler whose knee had been shattered by an unlucky kick from a horse some months earlier, requesting continued food from the dole for the infirm. Hathia had granted that, with the stipulation that the man also begin training in a new trade, and had sent orders to the weavers' guild to send representatives to begin that process. It was a good solution, one that would give the man some dignity back.

These two, however… These two were wealthy, petty, spoiled landowners who'd never struggled in their lives, and who apparently felt entitled to taking a significant amount of the court's time while lesser subjects waited. Darius had already stifled the impulse twice to fly down and simply order that the infected trees be burned, and hang compensation, but he had reluctantly reminded himself that most of his annoyance had nothing to do with the proceedings. Besides, he wasn't so irritated yet that he'd forgotten his basic responsibility. Fear was a valuable tool, but if overused, it could easily turn on the hand that wielded it. The people of this city needed to feel that their interests were well-guarded by their leaders. And that requirement generally precluded solutions that involved setting property ablaze.

There was a loud flapping above him and to his left, and he swiveled his head to see an ashen grey scald-crow spreading its wings as it banked to land beside him. Its ink-black eyes stared at him pointedly as it gave its head a meaningful tilt back toward the palace.

Darius looked at the other bird warily. He knew who it was, of course, but demons typically refrained from acting in a way that the average human would mark as abnormal when disguised as animals, and Kai was usually discreet enough to hold to that. Darius took one sideways step away from the scald-crow, his talons gripping the edge of the entablature. The crow hopped closer, then pecked him sharply on his right wing. Darius hissed, flaring his wings, and Kai hopped back a pace before darting forward once more, this time to peck Darius' forehead.

Darius struck him hard with his already-raised wing, sending the crow flying off the rooftop with a loud squawk. A second later Kai was back up, flapping his wings hard to stay directly at Darius' eye level for several seconds. He squawked again, obvious censure in the sound. Down below, in the agora, Hathia sent the two of them an annoyed look before returning her attention to the bickering olive growers. Kai swooped away, but promptly looped back to circle around Darius.

Darius sighed internally, though it wasn't as if his mind had been engaged enough on the proceedings for him to get any benefit from them anyway. He spread his wings once more, taking to the air to follow Kai. Clearly he wasn't going to get any peace until he did.

Kai, keeping to his crow form, led Darius to the same tower where they'd spoken a few days previous. Both shifted to human form the second they landed.

"What was that about?" Kai demanded, kicking a cushion out from underfoot. "Petitions? Today?"

Darius looked at him, perplexed. "It's not that unusual for me to—"

"I told you that I planned to test you daily, and what I would do if I thought you were avoiding me," Kai said, his voice strained.

Darius' body went rigid for an instant before he lunged forward, grabbing Kai's arm.

"Does she know?" he demanded. Gods, if his mother knew, then Tanitha was as good as dead, and the thought sent ice through his blood. " Did you go to her? "

Kai wrenched back, rubbing his arm where Darius had grabbed it. "Almost," he said coldly. "It's only your good luck that I thought to check the forum first." His expression was uncharacteristically grim. "Don't make me come searching for you like that again," he said. "There's too much at stake here."

"You're not my nursemaid," Darius said, though he was too relieved at the news that his mistake hadn't caused Kai to act rashly to put any real force into his words. Still, he couldn't help but add, "I don't need your permission to go about my day."

"You can turn into a frog and eat flies at the Sanctuary's reflection pool for all I care," Kai retorted. "But do it after I've confirmed that you haven't been soul-bound. Hold still."

Darius rolled his eyes. "I'm not soul-bound. She hasn't seen me even in this form. I told you, I'm taking precautions."

"Then this shouldn't be an issue, should it?" Kai asked, his voice tight. "Hold still, I said."

He closed his eyes, laying a hand on Darius' shoulder as his brow furrowed in concentration. Darius let out an annoyed grumble, though it was largely for show. He couldn't very well admit that he was grateful that Kai was taking this precaution, as that would imply that Kai was right to be worried about the possibility of soul-binding.

He gave a quiet exhalation. A demon's true form was a reflection of their innermost self, the truth of their being. Young demons didn't have true forms— their identity was still forming, still malleable— but upon reaching adulthood, demons would find themselves drawn more and more to a particular shape. It often manifested as they slept, as the waking constraints of their lives fell away, leaving only their truest self behind. The problem, of course, was the immense vulnerability that this created. If someone with an inclination toward soul-speaking saw the truth of another soul laid bare, the soul-speaker would have immense power over that person.

There were rumors about this among humans, of course. Whispers that demons were vulnerable when they slept, that that state exposed a weakness, somehow. The truth of the matter wasn't known, though— Darius' people had been extremely thorough in making sure of that. And in fact, most humans didn't pose any great threat, since most could not soul-speak. Demons universally could, with varying degrees of power, which meant that they all exercised great caution toward each other when they slept. Darius had sleeping quarters in the palace, but they lay empty every night. The same was true of Kai, Naratha, and everyone of similar rank. Lesser demons might content themselves with well-fortified rooms of stone, sealed nightly from within, but those with more significant means possessed retreats. Holds, fortified with defenses both physical and magical. Places where only a demon and perhaps a mate might go.

Darius sighed internally. That was the other problem, perhaps the crux of why he found himself so incredibly reluctant to go through with a betrothal. He was supposed to allow a woman to soul-bind him, and to similarly bind her to himself in turn. Making the binding mutual was the only way to remove the danger of being so utterly under another person's sway; he understood that. But it required a level of intimacy, a level of trust, that frankly terrified him.

That, ultimately, had been what had led to the rash action of breaking his last engagement. She'd appeared to be a good match— too good, in fact. He'd had no idea how much of what he saw in her was real and how much was the careful sculpting of persona to appeal to him. Demons already hid their true appearances. He didn't care to be with someone who would hide the truth of her character alongside it.

Kai stepped back, his hand dropping from Darius' shoulder.

"Are you satisfied that my soul is properly unentangled?" Darius asked dryly as Kai's eyes opened.

"Stop acting like I'm being absurd for worrying about this," Kai muttered. "Yes, I'm satisfied. For today, anyway." He shook his head. "I don't like this, Darius. Perhaps you should spend nights in the palace while she's in your Hold."

"That's not any safer, with servants and guards running about," Darius replied.

"The servants and guards aren't suspected soul-speakers bearing prophecies of greatness," Kai said, with the faintest hint of an eyeroll. He dropped his voice, though they were alone. "On that subject… I haven't asked how it went. Did you talk to her about the soul-speaking?"

Darius had to unclench his jaw before answering, though he knew his annoyance was better directed at himself than Kai.

"She didn't take it well," he said at last.

"And?" Kai prompted him, stepping back so that he could lean one shoulder against a wall. Despite the casual posture, his gaze was intensely focused. "Do you think that means she's hiding something?"

Darius sighed. "I think it means she didn't like the implication that she might have survived a few nights ago because of the ability."

Kai was quiet for a second, his brow furrowed as he thought this over, and then he groaned. "Tell me you didn't tell her you thought that was why you spared her." Darius made a noncommittal gesture, and Kai put a hand flat against his own forehead. "Darius, please forgive me for having to be the one to inform you of this, but… you're an idiot."

"What was I supposed to say to her?" Darius asked, affronted. "She said there wasn't any evidence that she had the ability, so I provided some!"

"Ashen Halls, Darius! You can't casually inform a captive woman you're trying to win over that in most circumstances you'd have killed her!" He pushed off from the wall, starting to pace.

"Win over?" Darius asked, startled. "I'm not trying to—"

"You're trying to convince her that we're not her enemies, aren't you? That constitutes winning over as far as I'm concerned. What did you think I meant?" Kai asked with a snort.

Darius decided that he didn't care to answer that. "I'm not going to push the soul-speaking issue right now," he said. Not that he intended to let it go by any means. Originally, when his mother had told him of the oracle's words, he'd proposed shaping Tanitha's greatness in a way that didn't threaten the royal family, and he still thought that was the best path. If Tanitha was magically gifted, it could lead to a way out of this whole mess.

Kai sent him a skeptical look over his shoulder, still pacing. "So you're just going to ignore the most obvious threat she poses?"

"I will find out if she's a soul-speaker," Darius replied. "But she's agitated right now. I'm going to let it be for a few days."

"A few days? How long do you plan to drag this out?" Kai asked, exasperated. "My offer still stands, you know."

Darius ignored this. "The last time we talked about this, you said that if she was hiding it, she'd have good reasons for it," he said. "What kind of reasons were you thinking of?"

"What?" asked Kai, frowning at the change in subject as he turned to face Darius, finally stopping the circuit he'd been making from one side of the room to the other.

"We've made a point of making it in the humans' best interests to tell us if they have that power," Darius said with a shrug, his wings rustling. "Those serving as soul-speakers live in comfort, luxury even, as payment for their services to the Throne. Why would someone turn away from that?"

Kai gave a twisted half smile, returning to his earlier posture of leaning one shoulder against the wall. "Well, it's certainly true that we've made the cage we keep them in very comfortable," he agreed. Darius frowned. "But comfortable or not, it is a cage. Better you don't forget that, even if we prefer that the humans do." He shrugged. "Perhaps she simply wanted to avoid conscription." He folded his arms. "Or perhaps it's nothing so innocuous. Perhaps she actively despises demonkind and has been plotting our downfall for years, and you're being kind enough to play right into her plans."

Darius rolled his eyes. There were a lot of dangerous possibilities facing him, but that one just seemed absurd. "I'm a demon prince, Kai. I'm well-practiced at spotting manipulation." Unfortunately. He thought back to the other matter. Conscription…

"She's a foundling, brought here from Sabria," he said, thinking out loud.

"She's Sabrian ?" Kai asked, appalled. "Gods, Darius. Could you possibly be sheltering someone better formulated to be dangerous?"

"She's not Sabrian, she was just found there," Darius said with a dismissive gesture, though as a matter of fact, he'd been alarmed at the possibility himself when she'd stated her origins. The Sabrians believed demons to be an unholy stain on the earth and deeply despised the fact that a neighboring nation, small as it was, was ruled by them.

"She's a plague survivor," Darius clarified. "The Sabrians would have killed her if one of our agents hadn't found her. She's not overly fond of them."

Kai relaxed slightly. "That's something, at least," he said. "But… brought here as a child, rescued as a child?" he asked, tilting his head. "I don't see any reason someone in that position would hide their abilities."

"No, I don't either," Darius said. The possibility of serving the throne would have been presented as an extremely attractive option, and most children wouldn't truly consider the restrictions that came with it. Most adults wouldn't either, for that matter. "It's not as if she…" He trailed off, then made a quiet noise of realization. "Her sister."

"What?" Kai asked, brow furrowed. "There's a sister?"

"Yes. Younger, and the records indicate high uncertainty about whether they're actually related—they're too close in age to be full siblings, at least— but they care deeply for each other."

He'd sent for the records from the Sanctuary's archives the day before; most of it had matched what Tanitha had said, with the issue of the familial relationship being the sole exception. He'd wondered if he should ask Tanitha about that, but had ultimately decided against it, if only out of fear of bungling another sensitive issue. If she didn't already know that she and the other girl had most likely simply found and clung to each other in a time of danger and fear, he wasn't going to be the one who told her. He could just imagine how questioning the legitimacy of the relationship between her and her obviously beloved sister would go. It didn't matter to him, of course— the foundling rescue efforts meant that demons were of necessity disinterested in blood as a prerequisite to considering someone family— but it might to her.

Kai frowned, looking thoughtful. "So the younger one, she doesn't have abilities in that case, I take it?"

"None," Darius replied. "She never displayed the slightest hint of it. Tanitha did— not soul-speaking, just more standard elemental powers— but they underwent a normal fade as she aged."

"Allegedly."

Darius shrugged. He was trying not to forget the possibility that Tanitha was telling the truth and wasn't a soul-speaker at all, but it fit too well for him to believe that just yet.

"Allegedly," he agreed. "But my point is that she's very attached to her sister, and I imagine that was even more true when they were young. She would have felt extremely protective of her." She still felt very protective of her, obviously.

Kai clicked his tongue in sudden understanding. "Conscription would have meant separation."

"Exactly." Darius said, making a face. Kai was right; he really was an idiot. He should have spotted this from miles away and known better than to push her on the topic like he had. The separation wouldn't have been permanent, but how much could that matter to a frightened child who had no reason to have faith that her sister would be all right in the years that she trained and honed her talent?

"So, this sister," Kai said thoughtfully. "Where does she think Tanitha is right now?"

"The story Sanctuary leaders were told to give is that Tanitha is doing a year in residence at the palace," Darius said reluctantly. "The compensation money for Tanitha's death is being sent to her under that pretense." It was something he'd only thought on briefly, but it disturbed him every time it crossed his mind. His mother might view a lie like that as a mercy, delaying the day when the sister realized that she was never going to see Tanitha again. To Darius, however, the painful questions and uncertainty as weeks became months without hearing from her sister just seemed cruel.

Kai made a noise of consideration. "And she doesn't have any reason to question that Tanitha's alive and well?"

"Not yet. She probably will when she doesn't receive regular word, since they're close."

Kai tilted his head, thinking. "Is there any way the sister could cause trouble if she found out that Tanitha was allegedly sacrificed?" he asked.

Darius gave a shrug. An assistant midwife doing charity work in the Sanctuary? It didn't seem likely.

"What could she do? She's not bearing any problematic prophecies."

Kai sent him a look. "Pretend you have an imagination for a moment. Suppose she finds out that her sister has actually vanished, and begins to cause trouble somehow. Your mother hears of this and decides to nip the problem in the usual way, not realizing that Tanitha herself is still alive. And then somehow Tanitha hears of her sister's untimely demise. She suddenly hates all of our kind and seeks vengeance." He began counting points on his fingers. "Cue royal family destroyed, subsequent rise to greatness, and prophecy fulfilled."

"There were a lot of ‘somehows' in that chain of events," Darius said, trying to look unimpressed. In reality though, Kai's words left him with more than a stirring of discomfort. He was really coming to hate matters of fate and prophecy. Trying to guess what path a looming destiny might take— trying to head off that destiny— was maddening. He glanced at one of the small wooden boxes set by the wall, covered in dust. It contained pieces to a children's game that involved trying to predict an opponent's strategy several moves in advance. He'd been good at that, but now his opponent was fate itself, and that was a very different game.

"All right," Darius said after a moment. "I'll tell Mother today that the sister is under my protection. I'll just tell her it was Tanitha's final request and that I gave my word," he said, forestalling Kai's question. "It's close to being true, actually. She'll respect that," he said. At least, she'd respect it enough to give him time to address things if the sister did ‘somehow' start to look like a problem.

At that moment, the sound of far distant shouts reached Darius' ears. He and Kai glanced at each other before turning toward the room's single small window to face the harbor. The port was abuzz with agitation, and even at this distance, he could hear that the shouts were quickly becoming more like screams. He narrowed his eyes, trying to see the cause of the disturbance.

Very quickly, it became apparent. Near the mouth of the harbor, a huge dorsal fin was slicing through the water. Darius' eyes widened. There was only one type of creature large enough that he'd be able to sight it from here.

"Ashen Halls," Kai breathed. "Is that a leviathan ?"

Darius didn't answer. Instead, he soared out the window in his hawk form. The instant he was clear of the palace, however, he changed once more. His body suddenly grew by orders of magnitude, and seconds later, he was an enormous dragon, his bronze scales gleaming in the sun. He let out a roar, and the screams of the people fleeing the harbor rose in volume. He stretched his wings wide, casting the harbor into shadow. He pulled into a tight loop over it, the wind streaming along his wings and between the knife-sharp ridges of his spine. He'd never seen a leviathan before, but he could imagine what kind of damage one might be able to do to their ships if it became disoriented or agitated in the harbor. On that note though, what was one even doing here? Leviathans were a type of sea-drake, hunters of the darkest ocean depths, and they almost always avoided human vessels.

The creature had reached the center of the harbor, barely outside the shallows. Darius assessed the situation rapidly. Kai, who'd taken his crow form, was circling above Darius, presumably preparing to take a more aggressive form if he felt Darius required assistance. Peculiarly, though, the sea-drake had stopped its advance. It lifted its head, water streaming over its blindingly iridescent blue scales as it turned its neck to look at Darius and Kai, tracking them with eyes like dark pools, eyes far too intelligent to belong to any simple beast.

A suspicion gripped Darius, and he banked sharply to the left, Kai trailing behind him. Spotting an area on the sands by the main docks that the humans had completely abandoned, he swooped down to it. Sand sprayed out from beneath his claws as he landed.

The leviathan dove back down beneath the waves, reappearing moments later in the shallows. It hauled itself from the water on the strand, the sun gleaming off its sapphire scales. Its full length finally visible, Darius realized how uncomfortably near in size it was to his dragon form. Then, suddenly, the creature's appearance began to change. It shrank down rapidly. Where seconds before had been a massive-sea drake, there now stood a tall woman with coal-black hair, the harbor's waves rising and falling around her calves. She wore a sleek dress that shimmered like the scales of the form she'd been using moments before, a scattering of those same iridescent blue scales glittering on her cheekbones. Unusually for a demon, she had chosen to present herself with the wings of a damselfly, their gossamer length shining behind her. She began to walk forward, water streaming down her body.

Darius returned to his usual form, though he kept his dragon scales as bronze armor that melded over his body. Kai landed beside him, also returning to his mainly human form. He moved slightly to one side while watching the newcomer, angling himself to better be able defend Darius if necessary. Darius, for his part, had a fair idea about what was happening, so while he appreciated Kai's proactivity, he doubted there would be a need for it.

"Is that who I think it is?" Kai asked in an undertone as the woman approached. Darius didn't answer, just waiting for the newcomer to speak.

"Prince Darius," she said, giving a sweeping bow. "Apologies for my unorthodox arrival, but I wanted the opportunity to thank you for your assistance myself, in person. It was greatly appreciated."

Darius raised his chin. "Alethia of Zharen, I presume?"