The Broken Eye(268)

Nor had she any excellence in her studies. Despite his difficulty reading, Ben-hadad could extemporize, looking at the gears and pulleys and weights and strengths of each luxin and designing machines as if it were play to him. Kip could memorize, and make great intuitive leaps. If study were scrivening, they wrote in a perfect hand, and illuminated their manuscripts for fun while the dullards caught up to them. By contrast, Teia held the quill in her fist.

At the touch of whatever will was animating the cloak, Teia knew two things immediately. First, light splitting at the level of the old mist walkers was as difficult as any magical or mundane skill in the world. It was as difficult as juggling and sprinting and singing at once. Blindfolded. Second—more importantly—it made sense to her.

Simply using this cloak would teach her more than any master could.

She already saw how this cloak was superior to the other. None of the cloaks—not even this one—split light beyond the visible spectrum. Sub-red was too long a wave to be diverted and reformed within the thin layer of fabric, and superviolet was too fine.

Even among lightsplitters, the only people who had a chance to be fully invisible to all spectra would be paryl drafters. A true mist walker might use a shimmercloak to handle visible light while using a paryl mist to handle the last two spectra herself.

And then it was obvious: they were called mist walkers not because they were invisible or could only be seen as though through a mist, but because they walked within their own cloud of paryl, always.

And this cloak would teach her how to do it.

Without ever expecting such a thing, Teia had found her purpose and her excellence. It was quite possible that no one in the world understood this like she did. For the first time in her life, she didn’t feel inferior. She would have started crying if she hadn’t heard the door open around the corner down the hall and Andross Guile grunt something to his Blackguards.

Drafting even a thread of paryl was enough to activate the cloak. Teia threw the hood up and reached to lace it up over her face. But there were no laces. She fumbled, looking for some kind of fasteners, and when she drew the edges close, they snapped shut firmly, as if lodestones were sewn into them. Much faster than the other shimmercloaks. Even with this cloak, though, she couldn’t cover her eyes completely unless she wanted to be blind: no light, no sight. It might be worth covering them in certain situations, but it would also be terrifying. Instead, she would have to rely on taking quick sidelong glances or creeping around at low levels where enemies wouldn’t be looking for eyes.

Being short helped the latter, of course, but she was going to have to take care that she not get overconfident.

The approach of Andross and his guards presented an instant problem. How much did she trust the cloak, really?

She took deep breaths as the three men approached and stood off to the side, sneaking only quick glances at them to keep her eyes hidden. They passed right by her.

A thrill went through her body from head to toe. Invisible!

Andross turned to his Blackguards as they waited for the lift and said, “I’ll be heading to my home. Immediately. Summon a squad of Lightguards to accompany us.”

Of course, they were insulted by that, and of course, they said nothing, taking it like the professionals they were. But what Teia thought was odd was that she couldn’t remember Andross Guile ever going to his home on Big Jasper. Why would he be headed to his home now?

The lift appeared before Teia heard any response, if there was any.

Andross Guile was going to his home on Big Jasper on the very day that his lost grandson showed up at the docks? From how Samite told it, it sounded like the boy was announcing who he was to anyone who would listen. Teia couldn’t imagine Andross Guile going home if the boy was headed to the Chromeria. Andross Guile would go to where the center of action was—or have the action brought to him.

Which meant Andross Guile was having the boy taken to his home, to meet him away from spying eyes.

Well, other than Teia’s.

She suddenly grinned. She leaned out into the lift shaft to see where it stopped. Ground floor.

After waiting half a minute, she stepped onto another ring of the lift mechanism and set the weights. She descended slowly.

At the ground floor, she had to dodge several old luxiats piling into the lift. But they moved slowly, and she made it out with little trouble before they could observe that the weight settings of the lift seemed off.

She searched for Andross Guile then, and couldn’t see him anywhere. She went to the great, open door, soon to be shut for the evening, and spotted him through a swirl of white and black cloaks. He was heading out of the Chromeria. She followed.