Holland tensed.
The statue was alive.
Not in the way of men, perhaps, but alive all the same, in a simple, enduring way, like the grass at his feet. Natural. And yet entirely unnatural.
“Oshoc,” murmured Holland. A word for a piece of magic that broke away, became something more, something with a mind of its own. A will.
The statue said nothing. The wisps of grey smoke watched him from the king’s face, and the thread of green trailed up the dais, wound itself around the oshoc’s throne and over one sculpted boot. Holland found himself stepping forward, until his shoes grazed the bottom of the throne’s platform.
And then, at last, the statue spoke.
Not out loud, but in Holland’s mind.
Antari.
“Who are you?” asked Holland.
I am king.
“Do you have a name?”
Again, the illusion of movement. The faintest gesture: a tightening of fingers on the throne, a tipping of the head, as if this were a riddle. All things have names.
“There was a stone found in my city,” continued Holland, “and it called itself Vitari.”
A smile seemed to flicker like light against the creature’s petrified face. I am not Vitari, he said smoothly. But Vitari was me. Holland frowned, and the creature seemed to relish his confusion. A leaf to a tree, he said, indulgently.
Holland stiffened. The idea that the stone’s power was a mere leaf compared to the thing that sat before him—the thing with its stone face and its calm manner and its eyes as old as the world …
My name, said the creature, is Osaron.
It was an old word, an Antari word, meaning shadow.
Holland opened his mouth to speak, but his air was cut off as another spasm of pain lurched through his chest. The grey smoke twisted.
Your body is weak.
Sweat slid down Holland’s cheek, but he forced himself to straighten.
I saved you.
Holland didn’t know if the oshoc meant that he’d saved his life once, or that he was still saving it. “Why?” he choked.
I was alone. Now we are together.
A shiver went through him. This was the thing that had feasted on an entire world of magicians. And now, somehow, Holland had woken it.
Another spasm of pain, and he felt one knee threaten to buckle.
You live because of me. But you are still dying.
Holland’s vision slid in and out of focus. He swallowed, and tasted blood. “What happened to this world?” he asked.
The statue looked at him levelly. It died.
“Did you kill it?” Holland had always assumed that the Black London plague was something vast and un-fightable, that it was born from weakness and greed and hunger. It had never occurred to him that it could be a thing, an entity. An oshoc.
It died, repeated the shadow. As all things do.
“How?” demanded Holland. “How did it die?”
I … did not know, it said, that humans were such fragile things. I have learned … how to be more careful. But …
But it was too late, thought Holland. There was no one left.
I saved you, it said again, as if making a point.
“What do you want?”
To make a deal. The invisible wind around Holland picked up, and the statue of Osaron seemed to lean forward. What do you want, Antari?
He tried to steel his mind against the question, but answers poured through like smoke. To live. To be free. And then he thought of his world, starving for power, for life. Thought of it dying—not like this place, but slowly, painfully.
What do you want, Holland?
He wanted to save his world. Behind his eyes, the image began to change as London—his London—came back to life. He saw himself on the throne, staring up through a roofless palace at a bright blue sky, the warmth of the sun against his skin, and—
“No,” he snapped, digging his hand into his wounded shoulder, the pain shocking him out of the vision. It was a trick, a trap.
All things come with a cost, said Osaron. That is the nature of the world. Give and take. You can stay here and die for nothing while your world dies, too. Or you can save it. The choice is yours.
“What do you want?” asked Holland.
To live, said the shadow. I can save your life. I can save your world. It is a simple deal, Antari. My power for your body.
“And whose mind?” challenged Holland. “Whose will?”
Ours, purred the king.
Holland’s chest ached. Another binding. Would he never be free?
He closed his eyes, and he was back on that throne, gazing up at that wondrous sky.
Well, asked the shadow king. Do we have a deal?
I
THE ARNESIAN SEA
“Dammit, Bard, you’re going to set the cat on fire.”
Lila’s head snapped up. She was perched on the edge of a chair in Alucard’s cabin, holding a flame between her palms. Her attention must have slipped, because she’d lowered her hands without thinking, letting the fire between them sink toward the floor, and Esa, who’d been sitting there watching with feline intensity.
She sucked in a breath and brought her palms together quickly, extinguishing the flame in time to spare the tip of Esa’s fluffy white tail.
“Sorry,” she muttered, slouching back in the chair. “Must have gotten bored.”
In truth, Lila was exhausted. She had slept even less than usual since Alucard’s announcement, spending every spare moment practicing everything he’d taught her, and a few things he hadn’t. And when she actually tried to sleep, her thoughts invariably turned to London. And the tournament. And Kell.
“Must have,” grumbled Alucard, hoisting Esa up under his arm and depositing her safely on his desk.
“What do you expect?” She yawned. “I was holding that flame for ages.”
“Forty-three minutes by the clock,” he said. “And the whole point of the exercise is to keep your mind from drifting.”
“Well then,” she said, pouring herself a drink, “I suppose I’m just distracted.”
“By my intoxicating presence, or our impending arrival?”
Lila swirled the wine and took a sip. It was rich and sweet, heavier than the usual sort he kept decanted on the table. “Have you ever fought a Veskan before?” she asked, dodging his question.
Alucard took up his own glass. “Behind a tavern, yes. In a tournament, no.”