Maelys

Maelys opened her eyes to sunlight streaming through a window—and a silk cuff encircling her right ankle. She tugged on it, saw that it was ten feet long, with the far end attached to a wooden ring on the dresser. She yanked, hard.

The silk might as well have been steel.

Someone had spelled it.

Worried, now, Maelys climbed out of bed and went to the door. She was just able to turn the knob at the end of her tether. She stuck her head outside. “Hello?”

Immediately, Aneirin stood up. He looked pale. Shaken. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”

“What is this?” Maelys demanded, yanking on the tether with her leg.

“Rees did it,” Aneirin said, peeking inside. “He spent all morning trying to bring you back. He went off to get the Auldheim.”

“Back where?” Maelys said, rubbing her skull. Then she digested the last part of his sentence. “The Auldheim?! What the hell did you do?”

“I almost killed you,” Aneirin whispered. “They might not rank me now.”

“Almost killed me?” Maelys snorted. “I don’t think so.” She went back onto the room and pulled up the rug, flinging it to one side.

Aneirin stepped inside the door, frowning at her. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to escape.” Maelys wiggled her bare toes against the stone floor and touched the wall with her hand. Then, closing her eyes, she opened her mind to the rock around her. It greeted her warmly.

Hello, Maelys said, in return. She fed the rock a flurry of pleasant images, softening it.

Aneirin grabbed her arm, shattering her concentration. “You can’t go anywhere. The Auldheim will want to talk to you about what I did.”

“That fat cow can rot,” Maelys said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” She returned her attention to the stone and sank into its waiting grasp, ignoring Aneirin’s protests.

She emerged in the locked supply room in the basement of the Spyre—still a few levels above the hidden treasure chambers—and began searching the shelves for dried foodstuffs. Hunger was gnawing at her, and she didn’t want to have to deal with the kitchen help. The cow had given them permission to whack on sight, and Maelys still had a bump on the back of her head from a rolling pin.

She was perusing the items on the shelves, munching on dried beef, when Rees flung the door open behind her. “Rockfarmer!” he roared, his voice like the bellow of an angry bull. In a panic, Maelys ran into the wall, which pillowed her and quickly whisked her away with a sense of worry that tingled her subconscious.

Even in another part of the Spyre, one that would take Rees at least half an hour to reach by foot, Maelys had to assure the stone she would be fine before it would release her. Still, a slamming sensation from the store-room door seared her mind, and she felt footsteps trembling upon her skin as the stone recorded Rees’s progress toward her.

Thank you, she whispered to her friends.

The rocks sent back their concern.

Later, after several hours of evading Rees, Maelys found Aneirin seated by himself at dinner. Hungry, she glanced both ways, made sure that no one was watching her, and rushed in to sit down in front of him.

“Whatcha eating?” She peered into his dish of stew and wrinkled her nose. “Is that fish?”

Aneirin’s arm snatched out and a big hand encircled her wrist. In that moment, Aneirin’s image faded, replaced by the graying Auld that had been pursuing her most of the evening. All around them, the images of people eating faded, leaving the two of them alone in an empty hall.

Maelys cursed herself. She had thought it was too late for dinner.

“Do you realize how much trouble you have gotten my veoh-child into?” Rees said.

For the first time, Maelys realized the Auld’s green-blue eyes were hot with fury. She felt a shot of fear and tried to yank her hand away.

“A geas is strictly forbidden to anyone but members of the Circle of Aulds,” Rees said. “As soon as the Vethyles found out, they began calling for his head. Agathe might have to give it to them.”

Maelys felt the struggle leech out of her. “Aneirin’s in trouble?”

“He’s in the dungeon.”

Immediately, she thought about how easy it would be to free him, but Rees’s grip tightened on her arm and he leaned forward. “Don’t you dare. My kin don’t run from their problems. If I see you anywhere near him again, I’ll end you myself.”

The former kindness she had seen in his eyes was completely gone, replaced with disgust. “You could have talked Agathe out of it, could have convinced her it was your doing, but Aneirin took full responsibility. Now he might have his veoh seared out of him.”

Maelys licked her lips. “I’m sorry.”

Rees released her hand viciously. “After all I’ve done for you, you left my veoh-son to face Agathe alone. Get out. You don’t belong here.”

Maelys blinked at him. “What?”

“Leave.” His green eyes were cold jewels. “Go back to the mountains, poke around under the rocks, freeze to death, I don’t care. I won’t follow you.” The old Auld stood up. “The scrying spell’s already gone. Just leave.” He strode from the room, leaving her alone in the empty cafeteria.

Maelys stared after him for long minutes, then went to find Aneirin.

#

Maelys found him deep beneath the Spyre, with two Unmade guarding the door. They didn’t see her as she pulled herself out of the wall beside Aneirin. He looked at her, then looked away, out the barred window overlooking the city.

“Sorry,” Maelys whispered.

Aneirin shook his head. “Not your fault. I was stupid.”

“No,” Maelys said, “I was stupid. Now I’m going to help you.” She reached for his hand.

Aneirin yanked it away, glaring at her. “If I’d really wanted to get out, I could have done it already. I’m staying until the Auldheim decides my punishment.”

Maelys opened her mouth, then shut it again, realizing he was serious. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

He laughed. “Yes I did.”

“I’m getting you out of here.” Maelys reached for his hand again.

He yanked it away, this time shoving her backwards as he stood. “Get away from me. Go play in the treasure-room or something. The only way I’m leaving here is if the Auldheim lets me out.” He glared at her, anger in his eyes.

Maelys bit her lip, then backed up until her shoulder-blades touched the stone. Aneirin said nothing. Maelys let the wall swallow her.

Minutes later, she was walking out the front gates of Siorus. As Rees had promised, this time nobody ran to stop her. Free for the first time since Rees had ushered her naked form through the huge double-doors of Ganlin Hall, Maelys allowed herself to laugh. Finally, she was going home. She could see the foothills of Ganlin territory every time she topped a rise, and knew that somewhere within the snowy peaks behind them she would find her family.

She had walked down the road toward the mountains for almost an entire day before she stopped to look back. The Spyre stood tall above the city of Siorus in the distant morning light, a collection of soaring green towers that were impossibly thin and tall. A spider-webbing of bridges and balconies worked its way between the towers, lacing them together with an elegance that made her chest seize. She studied the diamond-shaped windows, wondering which belonged to Aneirin’s cell.

She had started back towards the Spyre before she realized her feet were moving.

Once going, Maelys could not bring herself to stop. She started to run. Not even thoughts of Rees or the Auldheim would slow her footsteps.

At the front gate of the city, instead of waiting in the long line for the guards to clear her papers, Maelys stepped up to the wall, greeted the stone, and allowed it to take her into its womb. She heard guards shouting behind her, but she was already moving, squeezed and pushed through the stone, feeling like a rat inside a snake’s belly.

It was nightfall again by the time she found herself standing outside the door to the Auldheim’s inner chambers. She had bypassed several spells to get as far as she had, but she didn’t want to breach the final room without permission. She needed the cow to let Aneirin go. She stood at the door and knocked softly.

She listened for several minutes, then knocked again.

The Auldheim left her standing there.

Hungry, miserable, Maelys slid to the floor beside the door to wait.

Perhaps an hour later, the outer door to the Auldheim’s chambers flung open and the fat Auldin stormed through, muttering something under her breath, not seeing Maelys.

Maelys stood, and the Auldheim froze. They looked at each other in silence for several minutes, neither making a move.

Finally, Agathe spoke. “Rees said you left.”

“Aneirin cast the geas on me because I made him.”

Agathe narrowed her eyes and brushed past her, unlocking the inner door and stepping inside. After almost ten minutes of Maelys waiting by the door, the Auldheim snapped, “You may come in, tart.”

Maelys stepped inside and shut the door softly behind her. “It was my fault. I forced him to do it.”

“A true Auld is never forced to do anything,” the Auldheim said. She had taken off her heavy green robes and was left sitting beside her fire in only a nightgown. “It just shows how immature he really is.”

“He is mature,” Maelys insisted. “And I really did force him. He couldn’t have gotten out of that place without me.”

“He got out of there easily enough after he almost killed you,” the Auldheim said, her dark eyes challenging. “Rees caught him carrying you toward his room like you were an injured puppy. Do you realize he didn’t tell anyone what happened because he was afraid of not getting ranked? Does that sound very mature to you?”

“He was trying to help me,” Maelys shot back. “And he didn’t almost kill me.”

The Auldheim laughed and took a sip of wine, saying nothing.

The sheer silence made Maelys nervous. “Did he really?”

“Yes, you little brat. Rees saved your life.”

“I asked him to,” Maelys said stubbornly. “I helped him do it.”

“And that’s the only reason he’s not swinging from a gallows right now,” the Auldheim said.

Maelys swallowed. Then, bowing her head, she said, “I’ll do whatever you want.”

The Auldheim’s green eyes glittered over her goblet, but she said nothing.

“Please let him go,” Maelys muttered. “I’ll do whatever you want.”

The Auldheim got out of her chair suddenly and went to her desk beside the bookcase. She took a ring off the big glossy desk and tossed it to Maelys, then went back to her chair beside the fire.

Maelys caught the ring midair and immediately her skin crawled. Veoh oozed out of its shining red surface, so much that even Maelys could feel it. “What is this?” she whispered. Foreign symbols were inscribed into its surface in deep, dark letters that felt hot against her skin.

“That’s what I made for you after that disappearing act you pulled in my council chambers.”

Maelys looked up, her heart pounding. “You made it for me?” She wanted to drop it, smash it, get away.

“Yes,” the Auldheim said coolly. “It’ll cut you off from your veoh. Make it so you stop squeezing through rocks like dung through a horse’s ass.”

Maelys dropped it.

Watching her, a cruel look came over the Auldheim’s face. “The first thing you can do is put it on. Then we’ll talk.”

Maelys took a step back from the red circle on the floor, her heart thundering. Her every instinct was telling her to embrace the stone at her feet and flee. But, seeing how the Auldheim was watching her, she knew that doing so would seal Aneirin’s fate. Swallowing hard, she said, “If I do, will I be able to get it off?”

“No.”

Agony welled up inside her. Maelys’ eyes were riveted to the thing on the floor, her blood rushing in her ears. Aneirin’s in the dungeon because of me.

“You promise you’ll let Aneirin go?” she asked.

“No,” the Auldheim said.

Maelys’ head shot up. “Then why should I do it?”

“To get on my good side, tart.” When Maelys said nothing, the Auldheim gave her a crooked smile. “That’s why you waited outside the door instead of waiting inside, when waiting inside would have been just as easy and less bruising to your little ego. You need my help and you want me to believe you’ve changed your ways.” The Auldheim nodded at the red circle on the floor. “Well, prove it.”

Maelys almost left right then, almost went back to the road out of town and never looked back. Instead, her fingers trembling, Maelys reached down and plucked the ring off the floor. Taking a deep breath, she slid it onto her finger.

“Excellent,” the Auldheim said, setting her goblet of wine down on a small table beside her chair. She motioned to a leather seat across from her, beside the fire. “Sit down.”

Her hand burning where the ring touched it, Maelys reluctantly did as she was told. The fire warmed her back and side, but she still had gooseflesh under the Auldheim’s stare. It was all she could do not to start ripping at the thing on her hand in despair.

“So,” the Auldheim said, “You want to buy Aneirin’s freedom.”

Maelys nodded, slowly.

“And you’re willing to do anything to get it.”

She nodded again, slowly.

The Auldheim leaned back, lacing her chubby hands against her enormous potbelly. Maelys lowered her head under the stare, waiting for her fate. “I want two things out of you,” the Auldheim said finally.

“What?” Maelys whispered.

“First, I want you to promise me you’ll stop trying to run off. It’s getting tiresome and Rees has better things to do than chase you down. I’m going to put you under a truth spell and I want you to tell me, here and now, that you will never try to run away again.”

The room fell silent as the Auldheim waited.

“I’ll stop running away,” Maelys said, and meant it.

The Auldheim grunted. “The second thing I want is for you to spy on someone for me.”

Maelys’ head came up, anger in her chest. “I’m not a—”

“Not a what, girl?” the Auldheim said sharply. “Because I haven’t heard two sentences about you that didn’t include ‘watching me.’” She smiled pitilessly over her double chins. “Besides. I thought we were bargaining for your friend’s freedom. Are we beyond that?”

Maelys took a shuddering breath and shook her head.

“Say it.”

“I’ll spy on someone for you,” Maelys said, feeling defeated.

“Good. Now return my ring. You’ll tarnish it with those grimy hands of yours.” The Auldheim held out a chubby palm expectantly.

Maelys blinked down at the thing on her hand. Sure enough, when she tugged at it, it slipped easily over her finger, obviously too big for her. “You mean—”

“That’s the Auldheim’s seal, you twit. Of course I didn’t make anything to cut off your veoh. If you knew anything at all about our laws, you’d know I’d be swinging from my own gallows if I had.”

Maelys stared at the fat old woman, feeling angry and ashamed. There isn’t a gallows that could hold you, cow, she thought, viciously. Forcing herself to stay seated, she said, “You’ll let Aneirin go.”

The Auldheim waved a pudgy hand. “He’ll be fine. I’ll leave him in his cell another couple days, let him chew on it awhile, then let him go. We can’t punish him, since nobody taught him how to make a geas in the first place. He pieced it together himself, the little bastard.”

Relieved, Maelys stood up to go. “Thank you.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something, girl?”

Maelys’ face reddened. “You just said you weren’t going to hurt him.”

“Doesn’t change the fact you made me a bargain.”

Maelys opened her mouth, glared as she bit off a string of syllables about pregnant cattle, and said, “What do you want me to do?”

The Auldheim turned toward the fire and her eyes sharpened on something she saw there. “Her name is Laelia. She’s a Vethyle Auldin half as old as Rees and, gods help me, with twice his cunning. I think she’s plotting to kill one of my kin.”