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This day had probably been the longest day of Nadia’s life, and, from where the sun was, it looked like it was just past noon. Ivan would be able to tell. Where is Ivan? The Darkling’s tent was even grander close up. Under any usual circumstances, Nadia would’ve loved to see the inside. At this moment, she wanted nothing less, which made it even worse when a heartrender stepped out of the tent and waved her, and the soldiers surrounding her, inside. The general went first. Nadia was sure she was supposed to follow. Where is Ivan? She he only managed to get her legs to move when the soldier behind her poked her in the back with his rifle.
The interior of the tent was everything she expected it to be and more. Why did a tent on an army base need chandeliers? Nadia had no idea but the light sparkling off of them was hypnotizing. For a split second, the rich colours and silks and fluffy carpets swallowed the fear she had been feeling just moments ago. Everybody looked so calm. There were Grisha drinking tea and chatting, two people were playing chess. It was a stark contrast to the whirlwind of fear that kicked back up as soon as Nadia remembered why she was here. Why is she here? Where is Ivan?
Most of the Grisha’s conversations slowed to a halt as Raevsky, Nadia and the multiple armed soldiers escorting her passed. By the time the group slowed to a stop, only a few hushed whispers broke the silence. In the quiet, Nadia was pretty sure that even the non-heartrenders in the room could hear her heartbeat. Where is Ivan? Her heartbeat only got louder in her ears as her eyes fell on the Darkling. The woman certainly stood out. Her red hair would be striking anywhere, but surrounded by curtains of dark fabric, the ebony of the chair she was sitting in, and the black kefta she was wearing, it was almost impossible to look anywhere except at her.
Nadia stared, fascination now spinning itself into the fear in her chest. She’s too young. The Darkling had been commanding the second army since before Nadia was born, this woman couldn’t be much older than twenty. She was gorgeous. But something about her felt wrong.
Raevsky walked over to her and leaned down, whispering something in her ear. Her eyes - a bright shade of amber that Nadia had never seen on anybody before - met Nadia’s for a split second and she tilted her head to the side. Then she looked away again. Nadia would have kept staring at the woman but her attention was pulled by a laugh from somewhere in the crowd of Grisha on her left. She recognized the source from the window of the Etherealki coach earlier. He leaned down and whispered something to the chestnut-haired girl standing beside him. She smirked and then they both laughed again. Looking closer, Nadia swore she recognized him from somewhere. Not just the coach earlier that day. Where had she seen him before? Do I know him?
“Bring them inside.”
The Darkling’s voice wasn’t loud but it cut through the laughter like a knife. The boy in blue and his friend went silent. Nadia turned to see several soldiers leading a group of battered and bewildered people down the aisle in the center of the tent. Nadia scanned the crowd for anybody she recognized. The first familiar face she noticed was the Senior Cartographer. Then, one by one, with increasing distress, she recognized each person in the small crowd. They had all been on the sandskiff with her. Where is Ivan? She scanned the crowd again and felt a flood of relief like never before as her eyes met Ivan’s. He was leaning on another, taller tracker, whose name she couldn’t quite remember, bandages peeking out from his bloodied shirt. He looked tired, and beat up, and more afraid than she was pretty sure she’d ever seen him, but he was alive. Nadia wanted nothing more than to shove through the crowd and tackle him in a hug. That would be a bad idea, even if she could, he was injured. So was she.
Ivan’s gaze drifted from Nadia to something behind her. Nadia turned to follow it. Oh, no. The Darkling was, once more, staring directly at her. Raevsky was still whispering to her inaudibly. She nodded and he stopped and straightened up. She shifted in her seat and sat up straight, crossing her right leg over her left and settling her hands on top of one another on her knee.
“Kapitan, report.”
The skiff’s captain stood at attention and answered in an expressionless voice, “Approximately thirty minutes into the crossing, we were set upon by a large flock of volcra. We were pinned down and sustaining heavy casualties. I was fighting on the starboard side of the skiff. At that point, I saw…” he hesitated, and when he spoke again, his voice sounded less sure. “I don’t know exactly what I saw. A blaze of light. Bright as noon, brighter. Like staring into the sun.”
Both the crowd of Grisha and the crowd from the skiff erupted into murmurs. The survivors from the skiff were nodding. Nadia nodded along with them. She had seen the blaze of light too. The description of the events was perfectly accurate, as far as she knew.
“The volcra scattered and the light disappeared. I ordered us back to drydock immediately.” The captain finished.
“And her?” asked the Darkling, gesturing at Nadia with one hand.
“I didn’t see the girl, moi soverenyi.” The captain responded, his voice wavering slightly.
The Darkling hummed a sound of disappointment and turned to the rest of the survivors. “Did anybody actually see what happened?”
The group broke into muttered discussion and then slowly, hesitantly, the Senior Cartographer stepped forward.
“Ah, good. What did you see?” The Darkling asked.
The Cartographer licked his lips. “We … we were under attack.” he said nervously, “There was fighting all around. Such noise. So much blood… One of the boys, Alexei, was taken. It was terrible, terrible.”
Nadia cringed at the mention of Alexei. She still couldn’t believe he was gone. Just like that. If the Senior Cartographer had seen what was happening, why hadn’t he done anything?
The old man cleared his throat. “They were everywhere. I saw one go after her—”
The Darkling held up a hand to pause the Cartographer’s speech. “Who?”
“One of my assistants. Her.”
The familiar boy in the blue kefta leaned over and whispered something to his friend with a smirk. The Darkling shot the boy a glance and he went silent
“Go on.” She pressed.
“One of those things went after her and the tracker.” the Cartographer continued, gesturing at Ivan.
He had seen Alexei get taken and Nadia and Ivan getting attacked by a volcra and done nothing?
“And where were you?” Nadia cringed at how loud her voice came out, the Cartographer jumped, “You saw the volcra attack us - you saw it take Alexei and you did nothing?”
“There was nothing I could do!” he raised his hands, as if in surrender, “They were everywhere. It was chaos!”
“Alexei might still be alive if you’d gotten off your bony ass to help!”
Laughter from the crowd suffocated Nadia’s anger with embarrassment and pity as the Senior Cartographer went pale.
“Enough.” The Darkling raised her voice over the crowd’s noise, “Tell me what you saw.”
The Senior Cartographer licked his lips again. “The tracker went down. She-” he pointed at Nadia, “- was beside him. That thing, the volcra, was coming at them. I saw it on top of her and then she… lit up.”
The crowd of Grisha hummed with chatter once more. Some shock, some disbelief, mostly laughter. Nadia nearly laughed herself. Last she checked, even the Grisha couldn’t make light. And if none of them could do it, she certainly couldn’t either. That and, she was very sure that if she could make light, she would know that by now.
“I saw it!” the Cartographer shouted over the crowd’s noise. “Light came out of her!”
The Grisha’s reactions were split between openly jeering and yelling to let the man keep speaking. He looked around desperately at his fellow survivors. There were a few nods from the small crowd. Were they all completely insane?
“This is crazy!” said a voice from the crowd. It was the familiar boy in blue. “Come on.” he scoffed, “What are you suggesting - that you’ve found us a Sun Summoner?”
“I’m not suggesting anything,” he protested. “I’m only telling you what I saw!”
“It’s not impossible,” nodded a heavyset Grisha in a purple kefta, “There are stories—”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” the boy laughed. “The man’s clearly just had his wits rattled by the volcra!”
Both crowds erupted into argument.
In the chaos of the noise, Nadia realized just how exhausted she was. Her shoulder ached and throbbed where the volcra’s talons had stabbed into her. Everything was too loud and too bright. This was some sort of stupid, time wasting mistake, and Nadia wanted more than anything to get back to her cot and collapse.
“Quiet.” The Darkling ordered, once more hardly needing to raise her voice to abruptly cut off the noise. Nadia was grateful. She was still tired and hurting but at least now it was quiet.
“Tracker.” The woman’s amber eyes shifted to focus on Ivan, “What did you see?”
Ivan’s panicked gaze met Nadia’s for a moment as the crowd turned to stare at him, “Nothing. I didn’t see anything.”
“She was right beside you.” The Darkling tilted her head slightly to the left. “You must have seen something.”
Ivan looked between Nadia and the Darkling, worried, exhausted, angry - as Ivan always was. Nadia wanted more than anything to run to him. The Darkling shifted in her seat, leaning forward. Something about her expression softened, almost imperceptibly.
“Just tell me what you remember.”
Ivan sighed, “I was on my back on the deck. Nadia was next to me, the volcra dove, at us, I said something and-”
“What did you say?”
“I don’t… remember,” Ivan said.
It was clear enough, at least to Nadia, that he was lying. Even if his face hadn’t given it away, Ivan had a good memory, even in a panic. He remembered.
“I smelled the volcra, saw it swooping down on us. Nadia screamed, and then I couldn’t see anything. The world was just… shining.”
“So you didn’t see where the light was coming from?” The Darkling asked.
“Nadia isn’t … She couldn’t …” Ivan shook his head and then winced at the pain the motion caused, “I’ve known her since we were kids. If she could do anything like that, I would know.”
The Darkling stared at Ivan for a long while and then glanced back at Nadia.
“hm… We all have our secrets.”
She leaned back in her chair again. Ivan opened his mouth to speak again but the Darkling held up a hand to silence him. A familiar anger flashed across his face but he shut his mouth, his jaw clenched.
The Darkling stood from her seat and walked down the steps of the dais, shooing the soldiers away as she got to Nadia. The crowd seemed to be collectively holding its breath.
“What do you say?” she asked softly.
Nadia swallowed hard. She could feel her heartbeat in her fingertips and toes.
“There’s been a mistake.” Her voice shook as badly as the rest of her, “I didn’t do anything- I-I don’t know how we survived.”
The Darkling considered Nadia’s words and then, ever so slightly, smiled, “I would like to think that if I had a Sun Summoner living in my own country.”
A wave of quiet murmurs flowed through the crowd. She ignored them.
“But something, or someone, powerful stopped the volcra and saved the King’s skiffs.”
It took everything Nadia had not to roll her eyes, “I didn’t do anything. Not. One. Thing.”
The Darkling blinked slowly.
“Is your memory as faulty as your friend’s?”
She pointed a finger at Ivan.
“I don’t-...” Nadia tried.
She remembered very little of anything, now that she thought about it. It was dark, there was shrieking and screeching and talons. She shuddered.
“Alright.” The Darkling sighed. “Hold out your arm.”
“What?”
She clasped and unclasped her hands before holding one out expectantly.
“I want to try something. It should only take a moment. Your arm?”
A shiver ran down Nadia’s spine, making her shaking worse. There was no way out of this. She held out a shaking arm. The Darkling rolled up Nadia’s sleeve to the elbow, moving delicately but deliberately.
“I didn’t do anything.” Nadia pleaded quietly.
“We’ll see.” The Darkling raised a hand and the shadows in the room seemed to stretch toward her. The darkness stopped for a split second as she whispered, loud enough, perhaps, only for Nadia’s ears, “You aren’t in trouble.” And then the shadows kept moving, swallowing all of the glimmering chandeliers, snuffing every candle, until the room was completely, suffocatingly, dark.
Nadia cried out in terror as the Darkling’s fingers closed around her forearm. The woman’s hands were softer than Nadia expected of a famous general. The fear was quickly blanketed by an eerie sort of calm. Something in her chest rang out like a bell and everything tried to answer its call. Her fingertips buzzed with energy that spread up her arms toward the ringing in her chest.
No.
She pulled the energy back down, to her hands. She didn’t know what would happen if she let it reach its goal but she was sure it would be bad.
I felt a call ring through me and, to my surprise, I felt something in me rise up to answer. I pushed it away, pushed it down. Somehow I knew that if that thing got free, it would destroy me. There was a quiet sigh and Nadia felt something cold against her arm.
“Sorry about this.” The Darkling murmured.
With a spike of fear, Nadia felt the cold thing - a knife, she realized - dig into her arm. The ringing screamed back to life, everything moving faster than she could stop it. The darkness of the room was split by blinding, dazzling light.
The Darkling released her grip on Nadia’s arm and the light vanished abruptly. Everything was still and silent. Nobody dared to move. Neither did Nadia but she had little choice as her legs gave out beneath her. A cloud of darkness condensed and caught her before she hit the ground. Nadia could almost swear she saw a flicker of concern flash in the Darkling’s eyes but it was gone by the time she blinked.
“Mal?”
A tall man in a red coat stepped out of a corner Nadia hadn’t even noticed he was standing in.
“Take her to my coach, I want her surrounded by soldiers at all times.” The Darkling held out a hand to help Nadia up. Nadia brushed her off and forced herself to her feet, still shaking. The Darkling pulled her hand back and turned back to Mal.
“Get her to the Little Palace - stop for nothing. And call for a Healer to see to her wounds.”
Mal nodded and grabbed Nadia firmly by the elbow.
“Wait! Nadia tried, but Mal was already pulling her away. “Please-”
In a desperate attempt to stop herself from getting dragged away, she grabbed onto the Darkling’s arm. Gasps spread through the crowd, Mal groaned. The redhead stopped and turned to face her, pulling her arm away.
“I’m not whatever you think I am. Please.” Nadia begged.
“Don’t be so sure, yet.” The Darkling whispered.
Then, she turned on her heels and walked back up the dais where she was quickly swallowed by a crowd of advisors and ministers, talking so loudly that some were nearly yelling.
“Let’s go.” Mal sighed, and began walking, his hand still tightly fastened around Nadia’s arm.
She nearly tripped over her feet several times trying to keep up with his swift pace, “Listen, listen, listen. I’m not a Grisha! I-I’m a mapmaker- not even a good one, this is a mistake, you’re making a mistake!”
“She doesn’t make mistakes, sorry to say.” Mal’s pace didn’t slow.
Nadia looked back over her shoulder, hoping for some sort of solution to reveal itself. She spotted Ivan in the crowd, looking as afraid as she felt but infinitely angrier. And then he was gone, swept away by the crowd.