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She put away the bottle, then strode back into the main room and selected a pair of short blades from the wall. I felt a chill and rubbed my shoulders, but she set them on the desk for me to collect.
“Those should be easy enough to hide beneath your cloak, but you’re a better shot, and you can’t just walk around the citadel with a bow.”
“You’ve got something better?” I asked.
She smiled, then reached under her desk, unlatching a hidden drawer. Inside was a miniature crossbow in red velvet, attached to a leather brace.
“That looks like a toy,” I frowned.
“It isn’t,” she strapped it tightly to my wrist. “Six-inch wooden stake. You’d have to be pretty close range, though.”
“Well that defeats the whole point,” I said. “Knives would be faster.”
“Suit yourself,” she said. “Though like I said, poetic. The king designed this for me I believe, or his engineers did. It’s a weapon uniquely suited to killing elite. Perfect for a vampire assassin. But of course, there aren’t any of those, because killing elite is forbidden, and being caught with a weapon like this would be a crime.”
She held my gaze, then tucked the device under the sleeve of my shirt. “When you’re ready,” she said, holding a hand up to my chest. I could feel my heartbeat beneath her palm. “Tuck your fingers into these little sockets, then squeeze your hand into a fist.” I felt her fingertips graze my breast and then she lightly punched me, right over my heart. It was strangely intimate.
“Is that how you killed your husband?” I asked. I couldn’t bring myself to ask the rest of it. My mother was renitent, like me, which meant… this elite could be my actual father, unless it really was just some guy in Algrave. She nodded, but seemed to have run out of words, and was steering me towards the door, her eyes cautious.
“What was his name?” I asked, before she could shove me outside into the hallway.
“I’ll tell you tomorrow,” she said softly. “Trust me, you don’t want all this in your head before a battle.”
“Did my mother ever know the truth, where she was really from?”
“She was just a girl. I doubt she understood all of it. It took me years to piece it together, and realize what must have happened.”
I nodded and opened the door gently. I had so many questions, but I’d already lost too much time. Master Svboda leaned against the desk, facing the room and the racks of weapons along the walls. She looked strangely peaceful in the afternoon light, less rigid and strict than I was used to seeing. I wasn’t sure if she was with me, but at least she wasn’t against me. And that had to count for something.
Then sun moved like the hands of a clock, subtly shifting the shadows of the citadel in the late afternoon. There was something disorienting about daytime in the citadel, when each hour it looked different, depending on the light. I kept my eyes peeled, sticking to the backstreets and avoiding crowds. It still took nearly half an hour to cross the city, heading back to the lab to get more supplies and leave an offering of blood.
There seemed to be an increased guard presence, and I wondered if they were looking for me. Somewhere in this city, my siblings were prisoners. Nigel was scheming for the throne, and Damien was his prisoner. But Nigel and the other elite would have gone underground, hiding from the light. That bought me a little time, until sunset at least. To stack the deck in my favor. But even with Madame Brezing’s help, and Master Svboda’s confidence, I was counting on many things to go right, and all of them depended on what I was about to do next.
Even so, it was difficult to focus on the task at hand. My head was reeling from new revelations, as I played back the conversation with Master Svboda. I never had a reason to doubt my parents, until recently. No concept of arealfather, and no reason to look for him. I should have felt rage, after Master Svboda admitted to killing him. But I couldn’t mourn for someone I’d never known.
I’d asked for my father’s name, but not my mother’s, and I realized I knew neither. My father was a blank slate. The elite were beautiful on the surface but cold, with depths that had simmered for decades. I felt more sympathy for my mother, and an unnerving amount of accidental convergence between her story and my own. She must have been so scared and alone. Her consort thought she’d betrayed him with a mortal lover, because he couldn’t imagine her with his child. It shouldn’t have been possible. Yet somehow, it was, and here I am. Enacting justice for a crime I never even knew about.
Had the king killed her, and blamed it on my father, then forced Master Svboda to kill him so she’d be entangled with the guilt of the crime? It seemed to fit him, even if it was petty and cruel. Or, maybe not that. He didn’t care enough to be cruel. But it was calculated. An elegant, complex solution to a difficult problem, that canceled itself out of existence without so much as a ripple.
I was so distracted, I barely realized I’d nearly returned the lab. I glanced around to make sure I was alone, but foot traffic was scarce. I just had to message Zane and tell him to cut the camera feeds. I was pulling out the device he’d given me when someone grabbed my cloak from the back, spinning me around before slamming me into a cement column.
I stumbled to my knees, then looked up as my attacker stood over me. I’d been expecting a guard, mostly from the force used, but instead it was a pretty girl in a nice suit and fashionable jacket. Mary looked so different it took a moment to place her. Her hair was pinned up in pretty loops, probably for tonight, and expensive jewelry sparkled from her wrists. Life in the citadel had been good for her… or bad. I recognized the influence of elixir; the over-confident gleam in her eyes. She was too lean and thin, with pale skin and faded bruises. Probably not eating enough.
“Now we’re even,” she smirked. “You stabbed me once.”
“You were in my way,” I said, getting up cautiously. “But it seems you didn’t learn the lesson.” I shouldn’t have antagonized her, but I was too close to the lab and couldn’t risk the others getting discovered. I prowled around her to the side, checking the roofs and alleys for more chosen. If she’d followed me from the training center, there could be others.
“I’m sworn to protect my elite,” she said, “And I will die for the privilege.” There was something wild in her eyes, and desperate. I hadn’t seen her in class earlier, but she’d no doubt received more than her fair share of elixir today. I wondered if I’d have time to reach into my pocket and drink a few drops, but I didn’t risk it. I didn’t think she’d pose a real threat, but I needed to keep my hands on my weapons, just in case.
I studied her features in the warm light, wishing I’d known her better growing up in Algrave. I’d only interacted with her a few times, in the citadel, and most of our relationship had revolved around violence. We’d been friendly, to a point, before she tried to kill me in the Trials, but I knew she was being compulsed. Master Svboda said we couldn’t save most of the chosen, but Mary was from Algrave like me; people she cared about were under Nigel’s control. Maybe I could use that. Instead, I focused on her elite.
“If you want to protect him,” I said, “keep him away from the crowning tonight. It’ll be a bloodbath.”
I was trusting her too much, and we both seemed to sense it. Her posture shifted warily.
“You can’t kill the elite,” she said. “They’re too powerful.”
“Tell that to Bryce, and Thomas, and a few others I killed before I learned their names. Besides, don’t you see? We’re exactly the same.”
