Feviona was first through the door, followed quickly by Jorvan. Mikranasta held back, allowing Nin-Akna and the human watchmen to go next. While Zandrue had really wanted to be the first through, this order made more sense.

  “You have three Isyar,” Almais had said when they’d met up with him and his men earlier. “What do you need us for?”

  “Anita felt it was important,” Zandrue said. “For appearances if nothing else.”

  “And they’re all right going inside a church?”

  “They all already did at the memorial, so I guess the damage is done.”

  The door led to the landing in the Tower of Night near where Zandrue had encountered the Tall Man.

  Tall was an understatement, but she didn’t have any other way to refer to him. At seven and a half feet tall, at least, he was taller than Rudiger or even most Volg men. Somehow, he had sneaked up behind her without her noticing. Though the fact she had then been completely unable to move indicated magic use—specifically mentalism, which made his sneakiness not all that surprising.

  But his height was only one way in which he stood out. He wore a thick, black robe with the hood drawn back so that only his head, neck, and hands were visible. His skin was pale, almost grey in colour. He was completely bald, and in the time she had to look at him—which was surprisingly lengthy—it became clear he didn’t have any hair of any kind anywhere on his head, not even a hint of stubble. Indeed, he was a lot like the bodies she’d found at the top of the tower—except taller and...well, alive.

  He had smiled at her—a horrid smile of teeth that were...technically, perfectly normal teeth, except they were in the wrong places—molars and canines at the front, and incisors farther back—and they had large gaps between them. As well as smiling, he had reached out to her with a hand of long, thin fingers, each with a thick, grey nail that came to a sharp point. The nail of his forefinger almost touched her nose, but then he pulled his hand back and just continued to smile at her.

  She had never found a smile so unnerving.

  “Clear!” one of the watchmen called.

  Zandrue and Almais stepped through the door, followed by Mikranasta.

  “Fevionawishtensen is investigating the top of the tower to check on the bodies,” Jorvan said.

  “I suspect they’re gone by now,” Zandrue said. “But doesn’t harm to be on the safe side.”

  “I am detecting no mental presences other than our own,” Mikranasta said. “However, if another of those creatures is here, I will not be able to detect it.”

  Zandrue resisted the urge to make a jab about her being kind of useless. She had not really wanted Mikranasta here at all—for both that reason and personal distaste—but Mikranasta had insisted and it made an annoying sense. The tall man was clearly a mentalist. Felit?a couldn’t do much against him with the shield around her and Hedromornasta needed to maintain the shield, so Mikranasta was the only remaining choice. And as much as Zandrue hated to admit it, Mikranasta was also probably the best choice.

  Zandrue started down the stairs. “The secret door is this way.” Upon reaching the bottom, she went straight to the wall where she’d found the hidden door. After a quick check, she found the outline again and traced out the approximate arc it would make in the room when it opened.

  “Doesn’t leave much room to manoeuvre,” Nin-Akna said, backing to the far wall and levelling her spear. A couple of the watchmen took up positions beside her.

  “To be honest,” Zandrue said, “it might be a moot point if we don’t figure out how to open it. There’s no latch or mechanism that I was able to find. Though to be fair, I didn’t have a lot of time.”

  “Allow me,” Jorvan said.

  Of course. The door was stone. How short-sighted of her. She nodded and stepped aside, her free hand going for the hilt of her sword while she prepared to drop the lantern she was carrying if she needed to.

  Jorvan made a gentle waving motion with his arm and the stone began to shift, accompanied by the same scraping noise Zandrue had heard when it opened the last time she was here.

  The door swung slowly outwards, revealing a space beyond. The ceiling was low, but it was otherwise a fairly large space, roughly rectangular but with a smaller cubby space in the left wall. The room was also almost entirely empty.

  Zandrue knew she was supposed to wait for others to go first, but she walked straight in anyway. Nothing she was seeing was in any way surprising, but it was disappointing.

  Two of the watchmen had to stoop over when they entered, but as Zandrue herself was the tallest out of everyone else, no one else had a problem with the low ceiling—though it was only a couple of inches above hers and Almais’s heads. Always bring short people when investigating secret underground rooms, she supposed.

  That did present an interesting thought: If the Tall Man was using this room, he must have had a very awkward time. The image of how stooped over he would have to be was a little amusing—the barest minimum recompense for how he had humiliated her.

  She did not like the idea of other people in her head. Even her recent experience with Felit?a had left a certain discomfort. It wasn’t Felit?a’s fault, and Zandrue would be forever grateful for what Felit?a had done. But it was still unnerving thinking about how Felit?a had taken full control of her body. The thought sent a shiver down her spine even now.

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  But for what the Tall Man had done to her—immobilised her, altered her memories—she would see him dead, preferably at her own hand.

  Even with her memories restored, she couldn’t quite remember all the details of what had happened to her. He had smiled at her for a disturbingly long length of time, and then things were a blur. She remembered her body moving of its own accord. It hadn’t been like when Felit?a took control. On that occasion, she had consented and her body had obeyed Felit?a like it obeyed her. But the Tall Man had caused her to take jerky motions, bringing her feet down with each step so harshly, it was actually painful.

  Had they come to this room? They had definitely gone to a room, but she didn’t recall the Tall Man stooping, so maybe it was somewhere else.

  She wished she could remember, and was annoyed she couldn’t.

  “There are two possibilities,” Mikranasta had said earlier in regards to why she couldn’t remember everything. “One, Felit?a Asa Folith did not recover all your memories. Two, it is a natural loss of memory. Memory can be fickle at the best of times. You were in a stressful situation, your mind violated. You may have subconsciously blocked your own memories.”

  Of course, Mikranasta had refused to let Felit?a go back in to check again. She had said it was no longer a critical situation. “While the Will-Breaker performed admirably considering her inexperience and lack of knowledge of what she was doing, she did come extremely close to wiping your entire mind. As the immediate emergency is over, there is no longer any reason to sake such a reckless risk.”

  One of the things Zandrue disliked about Mikranasta the most was how often she agreed with her. It would be so much easier if she wasn’t so smugly correct all the time.

  Feviona entered the room, signing to Jorvan.

  “Feviona confirms the bodies are no longer at the top of the tower,” Jorvan said.

  Again, not surprising, but disappointing.

  Feviona headed straight for one of the walls and began tracing her fingers and wing tips along it.

  “Looks like they skipped out,” Almais said.

  Zandrue nodded while raising and moving the lantern to get a better view of the different parts of the room. There was a single wooden table remaining near the back of the room, and in the smaller side room there appeared to be a ratty blanket, and a couple wooden bowls and spoons.

  “There’s a lot of scraping on the floor,” Nin-Akna said. She was kneeling in the middle of the room. “They all lead towards the door. Looks like they dragged some heavy stuff out of here.”

  “Where would they take such things without being seen?” Jorvan asked.

  “Somewhere else in the building?” Nin-Akna suggested, standing up.

  “Could be a lot of places,” Almais said. “These are busy streets and a lot goes on on them. People carrying equipment out of the cathedral wouldn’t have garnered much notice.”

  “Maybe not from people on the street,” Zandrue said, “but surely the clergy would have thought there was something odd about it. Unless they were in on it, of course.” She decided not mention the other possibility: they had been mind-fucked like she had been.

  “Can’t ask them now,” Almais said.

  The bodies of several clergy had been found following the memorial attack. The others, including Bandren, were missing. No one had seen them. Zandrue doubted Bandren was a Darker, but it was possible some of the other missing clergy were. As for Bandren’s location, he might be dead with his body still not found, he might have been taken captive, or he had simply run off from fear. The first seemed most likely. There were apparently still numerous piles of rubble that could conceal bodies.

  “Wouldn’t people removing things be a lot more noticeable now?” Nin-Akna said.

  Almais nodded. “It would, but who says they didn’t leave before the attack? If they knew it was coming, it would make sense to be out of there before they got caught in it.”

  “But this part of the cathedral wasn’t damaged,” Nin-Akna said. “Wouldn’t that make this the perfect hiding place? A secret room under a ruined building?”

  Zandrue shook her head. “Not when there’s me. Tall Guy must have suspected my memories would be restored in time. He might not have expected Felit?a to do it, but he must know about Mikranasta’s presence. They probably started packing up the moment they sent me off believing I hadn’t found anything.”

  Nin-Akna shrugged. “Makes sense, I suppose.”

  “Fevionawishtensen, have you found anything?” Mikranasta said.

  Feviona stopped what she was doing and looked back. She shook her head and signed.

  Jorvan translated, “She says she has found no magical residue of any kind so far. If there ever was any, too much time has passed since it was used. However, she has not yet checked everywhere, though she doubts she will find any.”

  “How long would need to pass for it to vanish?” Zandrue asked.

  “It would depend on the original strength of the magic,” Jorvan said. “Minor spells will fade in minutes. Powerful spells will last longer.”

  “And what was done to me?”

  Jorvan looked to Mikranasta, who responded, “What was done to you required powerful magic. However, it was mentalism which technically doesn’t fade faster, but it is fainter to start. Even powerful mentalism is extremely difficult to detect after a few hours.”

  Zandrue sighed. Another thing that was not at all surprising, but very disappointing. “I don’t think there’s anything we can learn here. Tell Feviona she can stop. We should get going.”

  “She understands you,” Mikranasta said. “I’ve made certain.”

  “Right. Okay, Feviona, you can—”

  Feviona signed something, and Jorvan translated, “She says she will remain here until she has checked the whole room.”

  “She doesn’t have to do that.”

  “She likes to be thorough,” Jorvan said.

  Zandrue shrugged and looked to Feviona. “All right, suit yourself.”

  Feviona nodded and turned back to tracing her fingers and wings along the walls.

  Zandrue took a last look around the room. The trail here was probably cold, but she doubted the Darkers would want to give up any positions they still had at the palace. There had to be something to find there.

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