Shade & Sorceress (The Last Days of Tian Di, #1)(8)
Eliza turned hopefully towards Kyreth once more. “But my da will come? I’ll see him?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Soon, Eliza.” He gestured for them to leave, and Eliza followed the woman out the door, which rippled and disappeared when they closed it behind them.
Chapter 3
After taking Eliza back to her room, where she washed her face and brushed her teeth at the porcelain sink in the corner, Missus Ash led her straight outside onto the grounds. It was a sultry day and the garden was full of birdsong. Eliza could see rows of white-robed Mancers heading for the large domed building at the centre of the grounds.
“Is that the Inner Sanctum?” she asked Missus Ash, remembering what Kyreth had said.
Missus Ash nodded her head. “The manipulators of earth live there, and it’s where they all join together to work Great Magic,” she said, with something a little like wonder, or maybe fear, in her voice. “You know what they say about Mancers... It can take them days, or years, or even centuries to work a spell, but once the spell is complete it is nigh unbreakable. Theirs is a slow Magic, but a very strong Magic, aye. Now I spec they’re going to try and find out what caused that siren. If someone besides the Mancers is working Magic here, that can nay mean any good.”
“Well, it was nay me.”
“No,” said Missus Ash thoughtfully, looking Eliza straight in the eyes for the first time. Her eyes were brown and kind. “I dinnay imagine it was.”
“You’re from the archipelago,” said Eliza. “Did you know I’m from Holburg?”
Missus Ash smiled at her. “Lah, so I heard, lass. I hark from Schon, a long time back.”
“How did you end up here?” asked Eliza, but Missus Ash didn’t seem to hear her, pointing out a large red bird watching them from the trees, “You watch for those, aye, they’ll pluck at any shiny thing they see, barrettes or rings or what have ye,” as they walked up the slope towards the lake Eliza had seen from the window. Eliza had more pressing matters on her mind, in any case.
“Do you know anything about the...you know, that one the Mancers imprisoned?” asked Eliza. After Kyreth’s reaction, she didn’t want to say the Xia Sorceress.
“Only that we’re all better off since the Mancers locked her away,” said Missus Ash rather sharply.
“Kyreth said she was looking for me,” said Eliza.
“Lucky for you that the Mancers found you first, then,” said Missus Ash, in a tone that ended the conversation.
Like all children in the Republic, Eliza had grown up knowing the Xia Sorceress to be the most ruthless and terrible and evil being in the worlds. Nobody knew why she had been banished from Tian Xia half a century ago, but no doubt it was for some unspeakable crime. All manner of wicked beast had followed her to Di Shang to support her in her quest to rule this new world, and even the Scarpathians had thrown in their lot with the otherworldly threat. Ten years after the end of the long war, with Scarpatha occupied and under the stern yoke of the Republic, and the Sorceress imprisoned in the Arctic, still she inspired a deep horror in ordinary people. Wherever Eliza and her father went there were whispered rumors about the Sorceress: that she had died, that she had escaped, that she was amassing an army. Every few months there was an official government announcement to the effect that she was still alive and still imprisoned. Eliza’s entire world had been thrown into confusion, but strangest and most horrifying of all was the fact that this bane of two worlds somehow knew about her, had been looking for her.
A gravel trail marked out a pleasant walk towards the lake among flowering trees and bushes, but Eliza’s gaze was repeatedly drawn towards a tangled wood at the far corner of the grounds that didn’t allow any light in at all. Black ivy climbed up the tower behind the wood.
“What’s that place?” she asked Missus Ash, pointing.
“I dinnay rightly know,” said Missus Ash. “A place for a certain kind of Magic, and a dark Magic, I should think. I dinnay ask too many questions.”
“So, are you a witch?”
Eliza’s knowledge of witches was limited, but she knew they sometimes looked like ordinary humans. Stories of witches being discovered in Di Shang, where they did not belong, were not uncommon.
“Me? Nay, I’ve no power at all. They trust me, is all. I take care of a few things need taking care of, food for human guests and the like. Being a person myself, I know what a person needs to be comfortable.”
“Dinnay the Mancers eat?” asked Eliza.
“Lah, but you’re one for questions!” said Missus Ash, amused. “I’ve never seen it, but I dinnay rightly know. Seems to me every kind of being eats something, it’s just the something they eat that differs. Now, I wonder if my Charlie is about somewhere? That boy just disappears sometimes. Nice for him that you’re here now, aye. It’s lonely for a lad, spending his holidays in a place like this.”
“Who’s Charlie?” asked Eliza, hoping Missus Ash wouldn’t comment on her asking another question.
“Charlie’s my own boy, aye. Just about your age, he is. The Mancers arranged a very good education for him and I’m grateful to them for that. Best school in the capital. But I think he’s bored in the holidays, hanging about here without his friends. Oh, he spends some time visiting them too, but I like to see a bit of him myself, aye, and I’ve no home but this one. I can nay leave, you see. That was part of the arrangement.”