Beyond the torches and the guards’ seats was a row of doors fastened from the outside with heavy, iron bolts. The cells. The guard reached for the bolts on the closest, yanking them free of their brackets.

  My heart banged against my ribs. Essa was the other side of this inch of oak.

  The door swung open. The guard grabbed my shoulder and shoved me inside.

  “Hello?” I called out softly, blinking as I tried to make out the inside of the room. There was no window, of course. And the smell of damp and dirt was overwhelming. Poor Essa. She was always so beautifully dressed and clean. This place would be a torture in itself.

  “Essa? Are you there?” I glanced behind me. The door had been left ajar, and the guard had retreated to continue his conversation with his friend. I took another step inside. “I’ve come to get you out.”

  There was a sound from the depths of the room. The poor light illuminated what looked more like a pile of rags than a human being. The rags stirred, releasing a choking stink of filth and blood and ammonia that caught in the back of my throat.

  My heart stopped. This couldn’t be Essa. I’d seen her walk through the gates hours before, as upright and strong as she’d ever been. She couldn’t be reduced to this already. This wasn’t Essa, but whoever was inside, they needed help. And the guards expected me to prepare them, whatever that meant.

  “I’m a friend.” I spoke softly, crouching as I neared the prisoner. “I’m here to help.” It didn’t look as though the prisoner had much energy to fight me if they took me for an enemy, but I said it all the same. “I have fresh clothes for you.” They seemed like they needed food and a bath more than clothing, but that was what I had to offer.

  I reached out to the rags. “Can you stand?” Another glance back. I wondered how long I had before the guards would come to hurry us along. I wondered what the Emperor’s deadline was.

  A racking cough sounded as though it were removing the skin of the cougher’s throat. I winced again and reached for what I thought was a hand stretching towards me through the rags. “Here.”

  The fingers were bone-thin, stiff with cold and grey with dirt. But they closed around mine with more strength than seemed possible.

  “That’s right. Let me help you up.” Hands clasped, I reached for the prisoner’s elbow with my free hand, cupping the bony protrusion in support. Trying to be firm without hurting them, I levered them into a sitting position. Their eyes were fixed on the ground, so all I could see was the messy crow’s-nest of hair that hung down to their shoulders. I had no idea whether I was helping a man or a woman, but at least it wasn’t a child the Emperor had left to rot here.

  “Lea – leave me.” The prisoner’s voice was a broken croak that set off another round of coughing, but I thought the pitch marked him as male. He coughed again.

  The situation was pitiful. I was covered in water, my damp clothes sticking to me, my hair still occasionally dripping onto my shoulders. And yet, I didn’t have a drinkable drop to offer this poor soul.

  “We can help.” Rey’s voice rang in my head. There was a swirl of air, of power. As I watched, the air between me and the prisoner misted over. The mist thickened, and I realised what Rey was doing.

  “Quick. Cup your hands.” I put my arm around the shoulders of the prisoner, my other hand helping him to bring his hands together.

  After a beat he understood, cupping his thin hands one within the other. The mist of water solidified, settling into his curved palm.

  He brought his hands to his face, slurping at the water, giving a sigh of satisfaction when he was done.

  “Thank you,” I told the kings. I put my hand around the prisoner’s shoulders again. “I’m sorry, the Emperor wants to see you. I have to get you ready.”

  A hollow, creaking laugh met that statement. “The Emperor. I knew it wouldn’t be long now.” He reached for me, his grip remarkably strong. “You shouldn’t have come, Kyann. You’re in danger.”

  The walls of the cell swooped around me. He knew my name? Was there something familiar in that scratchy, damaged voice? “Do I know you?”

  “I know you. Even after all this time.” He fell back against the wall, using that to help him straighten. He pushed back the rags that had once been the hood of a cloak.

  My breath stilled in my throat, my teeth clacking together in shock. The face was covered in hair and beard, and older than I remembered, but I recognised it. This face belonged to one I’d believed long-dead. That I’d hoped dead… “Father?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Kyann.” His lined, worn, damaged face softened, eyes glowing. Grey eyes that I only saw now in dreams. “I never thought I’d see my daughters again.”

  My eyes glistened, and I blinked away the moisture. My heart was ripping in two. I didn’t care for my father, not now. I couldn’t let myself. I’d spent years hardening my heart, only for all my walls to fall the moment he stood before me. I didn’t want to feel like this. I wished I hadn’t found him, that my blood hadn’t led me astray. If my father had been brought to this … wreck, by the Emperor, well, that was no less than he deserved for abandoning us.

  My mother’s screams echoed in my head. I closed my eyes. My mother had died to save us. My father had run to save himself.

  “Kyann.”

  I jerked away when his hand touched my sleeve. “Don’t touch me! I wouldn’t have come if I’d known it was you. I didn’t come to rescue you.” Tears streamed down my cheeks and I forced my voice to steadiness. I wanted him to know he wasn’t forgiven. Not by me.

  “Kyann. Sweetheart.” The love in his voice broke my heart in two all over again.

  “You left us,” I managed. “You ran.”

  “Of course I ran.”

  My voice broke. “You’re proud of it!”

  “I ran to waken the kings. My magic could rouse them from their slumber. Your mother and I had it planned out, but the guards came earlier than we expected. The Emperor found us.” He reached out. I couldn’t move. His knuckles met my cheek. I jerked. Then froze. “I had to draw them away, and hope that your mother could get you and Essa to safety.”

  I felt the way I’d felt when I’d swum to Riversedge waterfall, when I’d stuck my head beneath the torrent: overwhelmed, terrified. I’d got it all wrong and hated this man for eight years when he’d been suffering every minute.

  “I thought you’d abandoned us.”

  “Never. I would have given my life for you. Your mother and I, we gambled.” He coughed. “If the very worst happened, I knew you would care for your sister.”

  My heart broke, my words cracking as I forced them out. “Because I was just like my father.”

  “I had to trust you’d learned enough.” He smiled. “If you made it here, I guess that’s true, but leave me now. I don’t matter. You do.”

  “I didn’t know,” I whispered. “I thought you only cared for yourself. I thought you’d fled to save your skin.” My voice was a fine thread. I needed to tell him, but I could hardly speak the words. “I wished you dead. I hoped the Emperor had caught and killed you.”

  He laughed, the sound like rock scraping against a knife. “He cannot kill me. Not yet. He doesn’t dare let me die. If he kills me, he will never discover how to find the kings. If he kills me, that secret passes to my heir.” His eyes met mine, the soft grey turning to flint. “That’s you, Kyann. You mustn’t allow the Emperor to catch you. He will use you as he has me.”

  “I won’t let the Emperor catch either of us,” I promised. This was my chance to make amends. My father had spent the past eight years in hell, but that ended now.

  “Are you ready?” A guard called from outside. I pushed the tears off my cheeks. Their suspicions would be aroused if a servant was crying over a prisoner.

  “Nearly!”

  My father nodded towards the pile of clothes I’d dropped. “I’m ready to face the Emperor.”

  I snatched the woollen covering and helped him on with it. “I won’t let the Emperor hurt you. I promise.”

  He gripped my hand again. “He will steal my magic. He’s done it before.” His intense gaze met mine. “And you will let him. While he is preoccupied with me you can escape. You’re the one who matters, Kyann. You need to get out of here. You must find the kings. When you are ready to take up the role, they will speak to you and tell you how to find them.”

  “They already are talking to me,” I told him. “They’re extremely bossy.”

  His face softened. He nodded. “Then all’s well.” He started towards the door, his shuffling steps painful to watch. I took his emaciated arm, slinging it over my shoulder. Determination swelled through me. “All will be well.” I half-wished the Emperor might appear before us now. I felt I could tear the man apart with my bare hands.

  “About time,” the guard grumbled as we came into sight. “The Emperor’s ready for you.” He peered into my father’s dirty face. “It’s a shame you couldn’t do anything about his looks,” he said.

  “It’s a shame you didn’t do anything about his state of starvation,” I snapped back.

  I expected a blow for my outburst, but the guard just sucked his teeth. “Wants ’em that way. I wouldn’t dare disobey the Emperor’s orders. You’ll learn that if you’re going to last. Come on.”

  I had no intention of hanging around inside the citadel any longer than was needed to rescue my sister and my father, but I didn’t trouble the guard with that knowledge, just followed him back up the stairs.

  Pa was shaking by the time we reached the top.

  “Come on!” The guard waited impatiently ahead of us.

  “The Emperor can wait,” Pa said, his voice low and scratchy. “I’ve seen him angry before. He doesn’t scare me.”

  I smiled, but my heart was thudding with fear. Were the pair of us going to stand in front of the Emperor while he married whatever poor woman he’d persuaded to the match? And how was I going to find Essa after all this?

  “I’m coming!” I called to the guard.

  Half-supporting Pa’s weight, I stepped forward.

  My father staggered and tried to pull away. “Leave me, Kyann. The guard can take me. Just go.”

  “I won’t leave you. Don’t tell me to do that. I lost you once, I won’t lose you again. Come on.”

  I took a determined step forward and my father had no breath left to complain. He needed every morsel of strength he had to set one foot in front of the other.

  The guard led us into a wide antechamber. Guards were posted at various places around the room. Other servants crossed quickly, going about their business. We headed towards a pair of ornately-carved doors, flanked by yet more guards. My heart filled my chest to bursting point at the realisation that this must be where the Emperor was.

  The guard who’d brought us from the cells stopped in front of the doors, barring my way. “The prisoner can go on alone.”

  Fear slid an icy hand around my heart. “No, I –” I tried to think of an acceptable excuse. “Look at him, he’ll fall over if he doesn’t have help.” I wouldn’t desert my father. He’d faced enough alone. I was with him now.

  “No. Go.” Pa’s eyes shone with love. “Be about your business,” he told me.

  I opened my mouth to protest, but his words were enough to remind me of my priorities. I had to find Essa. My father had faced the Emperor alone all these years. And my best tribute to his sacrifice was to get Essa out of here while the Emperor was distracted by our father. But what if the Emperor killed Pa? He was so weak... I blinked back tears. Pa’s determination told me that he knew what lay ahead when he faced the Emperor. He was giving his life for us. Except that this time I knew that’s what he was doing.

  “Take care,” I whispered, and stood back, watching as the guards hustled the frail figure through the flung-wide doors.

  Fists clenching, I took a step towards the door, then halted as the doors swung shut with a slam. I couldn’t follow. So now I had to make Pa’s sacrifice count.

  I turned away, walking purposefully so the guards or other servants wouldn’t find work for me. “Where is Essa?” I muttered again. I had no hope of finding her without the king of water’s ability to track my blood. “Rey? Do you sense my sister?”

  “Yes.” His voice was different to before. Dulled.

  I had to swallow before I could speak again. “Where is she?” Unharmed. She had to be unharmed. She—

  “She’s right ahead of you. She’s inside the reception chamber.”

  My heart clenched. I glanced back to the ornate doors I’d just watched Pa walk through. “She’s with the Emperor?”

  “Yes.”

  And I’d let those doors close with me on the wrong side of them.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “How do I get inside? Show me the way.” I spun back towards the door while I was still talking.

  “You cannot defeat the Emperor. Not on your own.” Three voices rang in unison inside my head.

  My shoulders sagged. “I have to get her out. Please. I can’t leave her.” Inspiration struck, and I knew what to say. “Would you leave each other behind if one of you were captured?”

  A grunt of anger was the clearest reply to that.

  “I will show you a place where you can see into the reception chamber,” Axxon said after a pause. “We will watch and find the best solution.”

  “Thank you.”

  “No thanks are needed. You are the guardian, Kyann. And your sister is now our sister. We shouldn’t have forgotten that others have ties as strong as those we four share.”

  Emotion closed my throat. “I swear, I’ll come to you after this.” Was it as painful for them to see me walk into danger as it was for me to think of Essa doing so? I understood their feelings much better with that in common.

  “We are ready to welcome you,” Vashri said.

  “Turn left,” Axxon prompted. I hurried to comply. The reception chamber was behind me on my right. I had to trust the kings could get me within sight of my sister.

  “Another left.”

  I wrenched my mind back to the present, distracting myself from thoughts of what the Emperor might be doing to my father and Essa. “How do you know your way around the palace?” I asked.

  A rumble of laughter burst through my head. “We were here when the palace was built.”

  “You lived here?”

  “For a short time.” Axxon sounded surprised to be asked the question. “Have the tales faded during our slumber?”

  I coloured and hoped they couldn’t see me or read my embarrassment. “My mother told me stories, but I dismissed them.” I didn’t like to say what I’d thought about the kings when I’d believed them to be myths. “So, it’s true? You were the companions of the Radiant Emperor?”

  “A right turn now.” Rey directed me, then began the tale. “The Empire of Charnrosa was formed by the union of our kingdoms. Our four, warring kingdoms joined as one under the Radiant Emperor. The Empire flourished as we worked together. We had peace, although we couldn’t be sure how long that peace would last.

  “The first Emperor’s daughter was a powerful priestess, her magic enhanced by the goddess herself. The goddess had also blessed the four of us with powerful magic. Using that, we built a bond of enchantments. We swore service to the good of the Empire, and fell into a magical slumber, to awaken when we were needed and work together to restore peace when it had been lost. For safety, a guardian was nominated, a powerful mage who would watch over us while we slept, and who could also help us to channel our magic when we awoke.”

  “I don’t understand. How can I be the guardian of legend? I haven’t been asleep with you.”

  “No. The guardian’s role was not to sleep. The guardian was to watch over us. That role would be passed from parent to child.”

  I stopped, understanding as everything I’d learned came together. “My father was the guardian. That’s why he ran – to awaken you.”

  “Yes. He was the guardian, and now you have the role. Up these stairs.” A stone staircase led upwards on the right-hand side. “Quietly.”

  I nodded and walked up cautiously. Silence wasn’t hard to comply with – I had so much to think about. My father had been guardian to the four kings. He hadn’t been abandoning me and Essa, he’d been trying to ensure the kings would awaken to defeat the Emperor. That must be what made his magic so powerful, and so desirable to the Stalwart Emperor. Except that I didn’t understand how they had decided I was their guardian when my father still lived. And since I had abandoned it, surely the magic had passed to Essa. An uncomfortable sensation slid through me, like a sliver of ice cutting through my vital organs. Had I turned my back on more than magic when I’d sworn not to be like my father? I was sorry for my awful vow, and that I’d refused to acknowledge my magic. If I had continued to practise, how powerful might I be now? Powerful enough to destroy the Emperor?

  I came to the top of the staircase. The light was better here. We were high enough up for windows to cast light into the building. I peered out from the darkness of the stairwell, checking both ways before stepping into the corridor. Silence and stillness met me, a pause, as though the building held an indrawn breath.

  “We should be quick,” I murmured. I had to find my sister before the Emperor harmed her.

  “Head left, and you are looking for a door into the panelling on the right.” I stepped into the corridor, stepping as silently as though I were hunting. The king was right, the walls here weren’t bare stone as they’d been downstairs. They were covered with panelling of dark wood, carved intricately where the panels met.

  My fingers trailed over the wood, burnished as though it had been polished for centuries.

  “There.”

  I stopped at Nashrey’s abrupt instruction.

  “Press in the corner of that panel.”

  To my eyes, this panel looked no different to all the others, but I obeyed. A click sounded, and the wood sprang back, revealing a gap into darkness beyond. I pushed the panel wider. Inside revealed the scent of dust and the echoing nothing of silence.

 

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