Ten: Crypt

Aside from interrogating a disgraced Orthanian baron, the biggest waste of Nova's time these days was the body Faellian Harkenn kept in the crypt. Though the...thing had been dead for weeks, so that even salt was having trouble holding it together, Harkenn insisted she examine it regularly in case she'd missed something the first hundred times.

When she'd first been brought down to the crypt, back before Harkenn had built her a cell below his chambers, she'd hated it. She hadn't been back since she'd been moved, and it hadn't improved in the intervening time. A cavernous, musty series of chambers, crawling with shadelings and the kind of many-legged horrors that enjoyed dark corners, the crypt snaked underneath the entire castle floor plan and contained the remains of every Harkenn to set foot in Nictaven. She'd seen plaques for the reigning Harkenn's father all the way back to ancestors that had lived before the Isolation, and there was plenty of space for more.

The crypt was also cold and dry, however, so it was the only feasible place for storing a body for any length of time.

Her breath fogged in front of her as she scanned the body again. She had had an encounter with a creature like this while it was alive, and recalled in detail the total lack of aura, the chilling nothingness of it. But when it was half-decayed and missing a crucial puzzle piece – the curved sword it used to overpower Unspoken and kill them – it was little more than a corpse, albeit one of the most disturbing she'd ever seen.

When Harkenn had first explained what he expected her to do, she hadn't known what she might find when the body was revealed. Under the cloak, so mockingly similar to that of the Unspoken they killed, was what appeared to be a human – a human with no eyes and a mouth that had been stitched shut. The body was also marked with several inked symbols that looked like marred runes, though Yddris had been unable to interpret them when he had examined the body.

Most confusing of all, the body was missing several major internal organs.

How the creature – person, thing – had functioned was a mystery. If it hadn't needed its organs to live, how had it succumbed to a mortal wound? Without eyes, how had it found its way around with such accuracy? There were no answers, just as Ethred showed no signs of giving any further answers, yet here she was, again, 'just in case'.

She breathed a sigh of relief when footsteps sounded on the stairs; her shift was over. She covered the mutilated thing over with its linen sheet, trying not to touch its face. She'd seen wounds before, even bad ones, but the deliberate nature of these disturbed her. Even if Harkenn hadn't expressly forbidden her from telling a single other person what she was doing down here, she didn't think she would have been capable of describing it. Not that it stopped Grace Haverford from pestering her about it, but there was very little that stopped Grace Haverford when she wanted something.

The guard stopped at the bottom of the steps. She stepped forward and allowed him to hook a chain to her metal collar. There was no point trying to escape further into the crypt; her time living in it, trying every alcove and chamber for weak points, had convinced her that it was one of the most impregnable parts of the entire castle. One way in, one way out, and many, many ways of getting lost.

The guard led her to Harkenn's study in silence. Though she had expected not to find anything, she always left feeling disappointed. It would feel good to help the Unspoken Guild come a little closer to answers, to give something back to Yddris who had been the only friendly face in the castle for most of her decade living in it. It would have eased some of her frustration at being forced to spend so much time down there, because as far as motivation went, Harkenn could eat shit and die.

When they reached the study door, Nova sensed the presence of Unspoken inside. Yddris and Jordan – or Thorne, as he went by now – sat opposite Harkenn at the large desk, all pausing as she entered.

"I didn't find anything new, my lord," she said at Harkenn's cocked eyebrow. She tried not to sound as tired as she felt.

"Fine." He gestured at her chair in the corner and curtly dismissed the guard, then resumed as if she was nothing more than a draught that had blown through. "So you haven't become privy to anything significant? I don't like how quiet things are."

"Not that anyone's mentioned to me, my lord," Thorne muttered. When she had settled, piling her chain in her lap to stop it dragging at her skin, Nova studied his aura. Every time she saw him she saw more cracks and fractures. They weren't physical, visible things, as such, just subtle changes, flips and variations in the emotions she read from it, like running fingers over cracked stone. "They don't trust me fully yet, and I'm not skilled enough to be more than a run-around. I haven't been to any guild meetings yet."

Exhaustion and fear warred in the air around him. Nova schooled her face into blankness, but frowned inwardly. Thorne was too scared to sleep; that much was apparent. Beside him Yddris's aura of concern and defeat confirmed the severity of the situation.

She shuddered. The stumps of her wings, removed many years ago and just as sensitive as they always had been, prickled in time with her disgust. Harkenn had put the otherworld boy in this situation, not only by blackmailing him to spy on the Devils, but by never offering him the same protection within the castle walls that he had offered Thorne's sister. If Jordan Haverford had manifested the Gift within the privacy of the castle, he could have joined the Guild as anonymously as anyone else, and never have ended up in this position. One day Grace was going to find out what the lord had done to her brother, and Nova hoped that day came with a reckoning.

"Is this normal for them?" Harkenn asked.

"I believe so, my lord," Yddris replied. Beside him, Thorne stared at his feet as if willing the ground to swallow him, and Nova didn't blame him. "I would expect that they're used to people trying to spy on their plans, and at least one Devil knows about Thorne's link to this household."

Harkenn leaned back in his chair. "The city has fallen on hard times that will be affecting everyone. I greatly dislike the apparent lack of action coming out of that dark-damned demon nest across the river when by all accounts they should be more active than ever. I need him in those meetings."

"If I may suggest something," Yddris said. His aura showed his distaste for whatever he was about to say. "If Thorne were to present information that under normal circumstances nobody loyal would repeat, there's a chance we could get him in faster."

Harkenn curled his lip. "The problem with that plan is finding something I can afford to let them ruin. I daresay they already know this castle inside out."

Thorne fidgeted. "I think they do, my lord."

"I will consider that as a last resort," Harkenn muttered. "In the meantime, you are to act the part as well as you can, and report immediately if you overhear something. If you've got nothing by the next time we meet, we'll try something else."

"Yes, my lord." Thorne dipped a bow.

"You may wait outside while I speak with Yddris."

The Unspoken boy hurried from the room like he was being chased. Nova could sense his relief from where she was even after the door closed behind him.

"He's struggling to cope, my lord," Yddris said immediately. It was uncharacteristic of him to speak first. "They're running him harder than even I anticipated, and he still has to make progress in his studies."

"Do you expect me to go and give whatever son of the Pit teaches him from the Devils a stern talking-to?" Harkenn asked. "He has no other option if he wants to stay alive long enough to take the black. And I will not knowingly allow anyone in my employ to serve the Devils unless they're working for me while they do it. You know this." The lord got up and fetched down two glasses from his wall cabinet, then filled both with plum wine from a glass decanter. After a brief hesitation, Yddris sat down opposite him. "If you can think of anything that will help, pray suggest it. I have a vested interest in not having a nervous wreck take over your post, and I've already made compromises. His sister can visit him whenever she wishes, if she has the free time."

"I think," Yddris said, slowly, "it would benefit him greatly if we were permitted to leave for the Guildtown earlier than planned."

Harkenn put his glass down very carefully, and Nova winced at the burning glare she knew was currently focused on the Unspoken. If it bothered Yddris, however, it didn't show in his manner or his aura. "How early are we talking? You're aware that after this past season there might be some difficulties."

"When the dark breaks, or soon after," Yddris replied. "I have spoken to my last apprentice, Nika. He has said he would be willing to stand in for me if you had need of it."

"And the...benefits?"

"This past season has been difficult for everyone. I do understand that." Yddris paused. "Thorne arrived in a new world right at the start, and has had to come to terms with having no way back. On top of that has followed a highly unusual series of events, even by Nictavian standards. He has had no breathing room to settle and accept the way things are. Taking him to the Guildtown would at least take him out from under the Devils' thumb for a while and give him that chance, and this first visit is absolutely crucial for many apprentices to finally accept their place in the Guild. My lord, I really think it would help him."

Nova looked away. She couldn't bear seeing the desperation in a man who normally seemed impenetrable; she had known that apprentices and tutors grew very close within the Unspoken, but seeing it from this vantage point made her feel intrusive. Lord Harkenn saw her as little more than a decoration in the corner of his study, but she knew Yddris didn't feel that way, and felt almost guilty for being present to witness this.

"Others of your Guild plan to leave after the rains pass," Harkenn said. "You have my permission to leave ahead of the storms, provided we have some progress on this situation with the Devils first. If there isn't, he leaves at the agreed time. I won't put a few weeks of misery ahead of the city's best interests."

"Understood, my lord. Thank you."

"Has there been any progress your end on that symbol?"

"Not yet, my lord."

Nova frowned. After being attacked by one of the things in the crypt a few weeks before, Thorne – or more specifically, Thorne's pet – had found an amulet with the same symbol as was found on a coin in the Kelian temple where three bodies went missing. There had to be something linking the two, but it lingered just out of Nova's reach, just enough to be frustrating. She was far too tired now to be trying to puzzle it out.

After the Unspoken had gone, a silence reigned over the study. Nova fiddled with the links of her chain, trying not to think about how Grace would react if she knew how much her brother was struggling. She would be devastated by it. Nova could even picture it, and the thought made her want to curl into a ball at the misery.

"Is it as bad as they claim?" Harkenn asked after a moment. His eyes remained on the door as he swilled the last few drops of wine around the bottom of his glass.

"On his aura, yes, my lord," she said. "He isn't coping, as Yddris said."

He glanced at her. "His sister doesn't seem to be helping."

"She doesn't know about most of it, my lord," Nova said. It took every ounce of effort not to sound sharp. She'd been doing well at avoiding floggings lately. "It would be hard for her to know how to help when she has so little of the full picture."

"Interesting, is it not?" Harkenn said, after another pause. "There was nothing in my contract that technically prevented him telling her. But he hasn't."

Shame, Nova thought. Thorne's aura was always riddled with it. But she wasn't about hand that kind of information to the man who had blackmailed Thorne into two life-ruining contracts.

"So you found nothing," Harkenn said, refocusing his gaze on her. "Again."

She bit down on her anger. It was a miracle the corpse had held together this long, but decomposition had to happen at some stage. The point where she could have determined anything from aura, even in a normal body, was long gone.

"No, my lord," she ground out. "And the body is falling apart now."

"I'm aware," Harken replied in clipped tones. "If we could only find those dark-damned weapons of theirs..."

He retreated into his thoughts for the remainder of the evening. After spending an unreasonable portion of her day poking at a corpse in the crypt, Nova was for once content to be bored. As Faellian sorted through letters and muttered to himself, she stared out of the window at the darkness. Her thoughts inevitably strayed to Grace, as they did far too often these days. It wasn't like she didn't have anything to think about; the lord had as good as put her in charge of solving the mystery of the dead Unspoken, but with no new leads for weeks it was hard to chew over again.

But it wasn't much more helpful to think about Grace Haverford instead.

Before Nova had become abruptly and harshly aware of Jeorge Nerahardt's faults, she had thought about him a lot, but not so much that it preoccupied her. The main difference, she told herself, was that Jeorge had never made any reciprocal moves. The fact that Grace was also interested made the feelings worse; the impatience, the loneliness. Hours chained up in Harkenn's study dragged like they hadn't done for years. She had finally trained herself to stop counting the time, knowing it made it feel longer, but there had been nothing to look forward to back then, aside from not having to look at Harkenn's face for a while. Grace Haverford had singlehandedly dismantled everything Nova thought she knew about herself, and she wasn't certain whether or not she resented it.

The thoughts of sleeping beside her were also incredibly distracting and not at all helpful.

Hope swelled in her chest when Harkenn finally put his pen down and stood up; either he was about to drag her down to the cell below his chambers, or he was going to dismiss her to the kitchens for the night. She schooled her expression to stay uninterested when he glanced at her with a small frown.

"Kitchens," he said, just as she was preparing herself for the worst. "Now."

She tried not to look too eager as she got up and crossed the room. To her surprise, Faellian had not insisted on her having an escort around the castle since his butler, Brillan, had taken leave to recover from a severe head injury. She wasn't about to ruin it, though, and she also wasn't so naïve as to believe he hadn't told every guard in the place to make sure they didn't find her anywhere she shouldn't be.

She had to stop herself running down the servants' passage to the kitchens. Even as she berated herself for getting in too deep, her heart lifted when she saw Grace sitting by the hearth with a wash bucket between her knees. The girl's hair was wild and her face shone with sweat, and the arms that had once been covered in blisters after a day's work were now corded and lean. Nova swallowed. The things she'd heard in the lord's study hovered in the back of her mind, but she tried not to think about it in case Grace read it on her face. Though she couldn't read aura, Nova found it somewhat alarming how adept Grace was getting at reading her moods.

"How long do you think that'll take you?" she asked, and Grace jumped, slopping water over the flagstones.

"You scared the shit out of me, Nova," Grace chuckled, breathing hard, "I was miles away."

Nova sat on the bench beside her, crushing an urge to touch her hand, brush her hair from her face. There were servants watching. She caught the housekeeper Jan's gaze across the room and looked away again just as quickly. Jan was only one of the staff to know about them, and though Nova had no reason to believe she would tell anybody, she still hated that the woman knew. Especially when she took to giving surreptitious relationship advice whenever she thought Grace wasn't listening.

"You done after this?" she asked, tone more pointed. Grace glanced up, a small smile spreading over her face.

"One more shirt," she said. "I have the room to myself tonight. Hetty's baby isn't well so she's gone home early."

Nova bit down on her lip until she tasted blood.