Witch Fall(32)

She also remembered her mother and father arguing, their words cutting and hot. Her mother had been offered a place as a Harshen ambassador. Her father wanted to go. Wanted Lilette away from the pressure and demands that came with a child destined to be the next Head of Light. Her mother didn’t think Harshen was safe. In the end, her father had won.

And there was more. Lilette remembered the Creators’ language. The songs. The harmonies. All of it came rushing back. And she knew that she was powerful. One of the most powerful witches alive.

From overheard bits of conversation, Lilette learned that Vorlay’s entire armada had been sunk, down to the last ship. Any Vorlayan soldiers in the city were cut off from any means of support or retreat. It wouldn’t be long before any pockets of resistance would be overpowered. The invasion was over.

With their dark purpose fulfilled, the witches released each other. Cracks spread across the barrier until it exploded in a shower of dying light. The elite rushed in and bound and gagged the witches. Lilette watched, appalled. She knew the women’s power—she held a piece of it inside herself—it was unthinkable that something so strong should be so easily subjugated.

Someone shouted. A woman was struggling against the men holding her—men dressed in the black robes of the eunuchs. “You will pay for this evil you’ve forced us to commit,” she shouted up at the emperor with his impassive face. “The deaths you’ve stained our hands with!”

One of the eunuchs brought his staff up and swung it down on the woman’s head. She collapsed, hitting the brick courtyard so hard that she skidded forward before coming to rest in a heap. As she lay there unmoving, the torchlight caught her face.

“Jolin!” Lilette cried. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she immediately pressed herself flat against the smooth bark, hoping no one had noticed a voice coming from the harem. After a moment, she dared peek around the tree. Elite soldiers were hauling Jolin away, their torches illuminating her head hanging limply from her neck. Blood matted her hair.

The rest of the witches and guardians were herded farther into the gardens until Lilette could no longer see them through the trees. Her breathing came fast and hard. She glanced up and noticed Chen watching the spectacle, his face emotionless.

Hate built inside her chest. He’d taken everything from her—her family, friends, future. Her mother was right. Lilette was a weapon; all these women were. And if she could just find a way to free them, her power would be multiplied a hundredfold.

She waited for hours, until the generals and soldiers had gone, until the garden was dark and quiet. She sang softly for the tree to grow even more. It stretched up and out, until branches cast comforting shadows over the harem wall’s sloping roof, which was about as wide was she was.

Not trusting her reflexes, Lilette lay down and scooted along the length. She dropped down on the wall and pressed herself flat against the rough tiles. For a long time she watched the dark garden, noting the placement of torches and the guard towers spaced along the ramparts. A soft glow of torchlight illuminated the tops of the trees about a hundred paces from where she lay concealed. That must be where they were keeping the witches.

She fingered the knife she’d stuffed in her robe. She’d seen how powerful they were, how strong. All she had to do was cut a few of their gags free. The witches could call down a storm that would bring the city to its knees, just as Lilette and her mother had done long ago. Then they would steal a boat by the docks and escape.

Eventually a pair of guards marched by, their half-moon halberds catching the starlight. They didn’t carry torches, so the shadows would conceal them and make them harder to avoid.

Once they passed, Lilette slid over the side. She hung by her fingertips before she dropped, then pressed her body against the wall. She paused, her heart in her throat, and when no one sounded a cry of alarm, she entwined her fingers inside her wide sleeves and hurried through the garden.

She came to a clearing with a fountain surrounded by flagstones. She remembered this place. Remembered playing for hours with Han in the fountain. Now it held bound and gagged witches. The guardians were nowhere in sight.

A pavilion had been set up above the witches, with a glowing torch on every pole. Elite surrounded the witches in groups of ten, with the whole surrounded by more elite. Desperate to know if Jolin was alright, Lilette tried to pick out her friend among the witches, but they were all huddled together in a tangle of bodies.

Not daring to come closer, Lilette kept to the shadows along the perimeter, counting guards. Two guards per witch. She hadn’t counted on that. She’d figured the witches would be bound and watched by just a handful of guards. Nothing like this. Clearly, Chen and the emperor knew just how dangerous the witches were.