Night of Masks and Knives (The Broken Kingdoms Book 4)

For two nights Kase’s fever came in waves. I was grateful when Tova recovered enough and took over his healing with mesmer. Between her and Niklas, who readily admitted to being an Elixist, the Nightrender was nearly restored.

Niklas and Junius’s home belonged to dozens of other people who came and went as they pleased.

On the third night, a few Kryv slept in corners of the main sitting room. Others sharpened and cleaned their bloody blades. Gunnar smiled at a handful of letters sent to him from the Northern Kingdom. From his mother, he said, and his aunt, wife of the rebel fae king. The woman had a friendship with Junius, so missives were delivered to the Falkyn nest.

I stared at the ewer on the table. Raum kept his end of our bargain and spoke true—Skítkast brӓn was lifechanging because it was disgusting. Like drinking mold.

Tova slipped away to wash, and Raum sat at my side, dragging the point of his blade lazily over his forearm, tracing a faint scar.

Niklas handed out apple ale to wash down the brӓn and nestled next to Junius on a claw-footed couch. A fine piece, one a member of the exclusive Exchange Guild might have. Perhaps, even a noble house.

He caught my eye over the edge of his drinking horn. “Wondering where we get all this junk?”

″Might’ve crossed my mind.”

Niklas set his drink on the wooden table at his side. “Falkyn is simply a fancy name for smugglers, thieves, and all-around shady folk.”

″You steal things?”

″We take back what was stolen and return it to the needy.”

I laughed sincerely. “So, you’re a hero?”

″Don’t insult me.”

A Falkyn with curly blond hair clapped Niklas on the back. “He’s a regular hero.”

″This is Eero,” Niklas said. “The one in this nest who keeps us from taking too many risks.”

″The Falkyns are the Kryv of Skítkast,” Raum explained, but Niklas waved the idea away. “And Niklas can give you loads of advice on your kiss of death mesmer.”

”True,” Niklas said. “I’ve done an abhorrent amount of reading on mesmer, you see. Drives Junie batty.”

″It’s all he talks about,” Eero agreed and took a cup of brӓn from a tray.

″Well, you would too if you had mesmer.”

″Thank the hells I don’t. I’m too busy keeping you alive to worry about mesmer.”

I grinned. “Junie, are you an Alver?”

″Yes. I’m a Profetik with taste. A favorite of kings and nobles for obvious reasons.”

Niklas’s expression twisted into a dark scowl. “Yes, what is it to a king to poison a few Profetiks? Those with mesmer Talents in taste are used for food samplers, you see.”

I’d never considered such thing.

″That isn’t the best part, Junie,” Raum said.

She grinned rather slyly and looked to me. “I taste the lies of others too.”

″Lies? That would be helpful.” Mesmer was fascinating. Being an Anomali, I always made the mistake of thinking I could not be surprised by it.

″It can be burdensome if I’m surrounded by liars,” Junius said. “But, yes, it has proved useful.”

Niklas beamed at his wife like the world existed merely to have her in it. He kissed her head, and I could not help the way thoughts drifted to Kase. He’d been gentler, touched me with tenderness I did not expect, but he was still the Nightrender. Still trapped in shadows.

″Junie couldn’t taste lies until she vowed with you,” Eero said through a gulp of brän. “Something shifted in her mesmer. You, my friend, have simply grown more insufferable.”

Everyone in the room laughed, but the joke escaped me. “What do marital vows have to do with mesmer?”

″You truly don’t know much about being an Alver, do you?” Niklas regarded me with a bit of confusion. “No matter. Let us have a little chat. To answer your question, mesmer can be used in many vows. Contracts sealed with Alver blood are nigh unbreakable, but when two Alvers take vows with each other, their mesmer unites. Not a small decision, and unless both agree to leave the vow, it’s lifelong.”

A furrow gathered in the center of my brow. “What do you mean mesmer unites?”

″When two Alvers vow, they strengthen their Talents by getting a piece of the other. But even more, if I were injured, Junie would know. And if I died—” He paused. “Well, I don’t know what would happen to her. My best theory is she’d be powerless, maybe sickly. Or perhaps she would be as before we took our vows.”

″I’d never be the same,” Junie said, pressing a kiss to Niklas’s neck.

″Alver vows are meticulously arranged in regions to strengthen defenses,” Niklas said. “But I’ve studied this and when choice is removed, and an Alver is forced to vow, the bond is weaker. Call me a romantic, but I think love is what strengthens the bond.”

″I agree,” Fiske said from where he sat against the wall.

″You and Isak are vowed?” I asked. Fiske nodded and wiggled his brows. The idea of such a connection brought a blossoming warmth to my heart. I looked to Niklas again. “Will you laugh at me if I ask how mesmer works in the basic form? What makes Alvers at all?”

″I will laugh at you for many things, but not for that question,” Niklas said. “To other kingdoms, mesmer is called body magic. Inside the body is a system of pathways which lead to different areas in here.” Niklas tapped the side of his head. “Imagine bolts of lightning constantly sparking along these pathways. These charges carry a language all their own to our minds. The different Kinds of mesmer can speak these different languages, control them, take power from them.”

“You mean each Kind of Alver can speak to different parts of the body?”

Niklas nodded, delighted. “Exactly. For example, Profetiks take from the pathway controlling the senses. They use calm and meditation as visionaries like Fiske, or use basic senses like Junie, Raum, and Vali. They’ll see and hear things others can’t, smell and track with the instincts of a silver wolf. Taste poison before it touches their tongue, or like Junie, taste the changes in demeanor, the uptick of blood, the reflexive responses to a lie.

″Now, Profetiks are unique, though, since they use their own senses. Most mesmer connects to other folk. A Mediski must touch a person. From there mesmer connects to the impulse responsible for initiating the tissues and innards to begin healing. Or an Elixist, like me, must take a blood sample to be most effective.”

″Why a blood sample?”

″Because each body is unique, and my mesmer creates specialized elixirs for individuals.” Niklas crossed one ankle over his knee and laced his fingers across his middle. “One elixir might heal a person perfectly, but for someone else the same elixir may not work at all. I can create generic potions, don’t mistake me, but with a sample of blood, I could create a poison that could connect to a weakness in one body, but would have little impact on someone else. Eldrish poison is an example of generic elixing. Developed over the turns to find weaknesses in all Alver blood.”

″Thank the skies Kase is powerful,” Junius said. “In a weaker Alver, we’d have been scraping them off the street.”

I leaned forward with rapt attention. I wanted to know it all. How mesmer worked, how I used my own. Niklas went on about each Kind. Rifters, their mesmer connected to pain. Not bone as I’d always thought. I learned some folk had high tolerance for anguish and could be quite the challenge for a Rifter. Hypnotiks pulled from conscious thought, manipulating, and creating illusions to trick those thoughts like a dream.

″But remember, each Alver has unique ability within their Kind. Take Lynx,” Niklas said. “He convinces the mind to sleep, while Gunnar alters desire. Both Hypnotiks, but unique. What other questions do you have?”

″I don’t understand Anomali Kinds,” I admitted. “No one seems to know exactly how they work.”

″Then they’re not studying well enough.”

Junie rolled her eyes. “Forgive, Niklas. Elixists are known to be scholarly. He gets rather annoyed when others don’t share his love of the written word.”

″A shame,” Niklas muttered. “If folk would research, they’d know Anomalies feed from emotions instead of physical charges in the body. When we feel things, bursts of chemicals rush through our systems. Happiness, fear, hope, nostalgia even. Anomalies find their power in those moments.”

I shook my head, confused. “Do you know anything about memories, then?”

Niklas hesitated. “I know you work in them.”

He spoke slowly, almost as if he wasn’t certain he should. I wondered what he was thinking, and why even Eero raised a brow, like he was seeing me for the first time.

″I suppose you’re wondering how memories have anything to do with emotion,” Niklas pressed.

I paused to consider the idea. “No, I can see it. Memories are riddled in emotion.”

″Right,” he said. “The same way I use a small bit of blood, you use breath and bone. But I’m not convinced breath is always needed.”

″What do you mean?”

Niklas leaned back on the sofa. “I have read about memory workers. From what I’ve gathered there are two specific Talents among them. An old vein of mesmer. Rare. Powerful.”

The Falkyn paused again. I had the odd feeling he was holding back.

″Because they’re oracles,” Eero blurted out. “They’re the Kind who once ruled this bleeding kingdom.”

Niklas’s face paled. “Legends, my friend. We don’t know if they were memory workers exactly.”

My stomach tightened. “Wait, you believe Alvers who stole memories once ruled here?”

The room went too quiet. Sweat on my palms made my skin balmy and I hurried to wipe it away on my trousers.

A muscle popped in Niklas’s jaw. He took an extended drink from his horn, then leaned onto his elbows over his knees. “The histories our governments would have us forget involve a civil strife with the old throne.”

″Civil? As in family fought against family for the throne?”

″In a way, but more magical. Rumors say the royal family could read the past, the present, and the future through memory.”

″How can the future be read through a memory?” I chuckled nervously. “There would be no memory if it had not yet happened.”

″Unless the future came from an omniscient vein of power,” Niklas deadpanned.

″Meaning?”

″The Norns. Fate itself. The myths say the Norns bestowed one family with a gift, a trinket that would let them see bits and pieces of fate’s sight.”

″The queen’s ring,” Eero said.

My brows shot up. “The ring Ivar uses at the masque?”

Niklas shook his head. “I’m sure it is a replica of a legend.”

“But you’re saying those who could read memories could also read what was to come because of a gift from fate?” It was a strange notion. As Niklas said, no doubt more myth than true.

″That is what was believed,” Niklas said. “Thousands of turns ago there were two princes. One brother was blessed with many daughters, the other with many sons. The sagas say the Norns blessed the children of these two princes with unique magic. The sons could change memories and were given the charge to use the gift for good. Take away pain, perhaps lessen the blow of trauma.”

″To alter a memory and leave it would be . . . impossible,” I said. “I can take memories, but it does not change them.”

″Because it is not your Talent,” Lynx offered.

″Exactly,” Niklas said, but there was less conviction in his voice, a touch of nervousness hid amongst his bravado and confidence.

″Don’t stop the tale there,” Raum said, taking a sip of his horn, fully invested in the story. “What of the daughters?”

″The daughters—” Niklas cleared a scratch from his throat. “The daughters were given the gift of controlling complete memories. But also, the gift of seeing forward and backward, as I mentioned before.”

″If someone could see the future, they would be impossible to defeat,” I said, hating how discomposed this conversation made me. I didn’t know why.

″I agree,” Niklas said. “But like all mesmer, I have no doubt the foresight had its limitations. I simply don’t know what they were. Did it depend on a ring? Touch? I don’t know. In the sagas, the daughters performed their gifts through the minds of others. They . . . they could take or give memories when needed.”

Raum blew out a whistle. “Lovey, sounds a great deal like you.”

He’d meant to tease, but the hair lifted on my arms.

″They’re sagas, Raum,” I said as playfully as I could manage. “Most are written with only speckles of truth. Go on,” I told Niklas as if this did not send a sharp rush of apprehension down my spine. “What else would these daughters do?”

He scratched his chin. “Well, you can see how their ability could be powerful. To transfer secret military strategy, one could take a memory from an enemy, make them forget, then bring it to their side to use. Or having foresight of what might come to pass would be powerful. Seeing the future, no matter how small a glimpse, is a mighty gift for a ruler to possess.”

″Is it similar t-t-to Fiske?” Isak asked.

″Nearly,” Niklas said. “You don’t see clear events, true? More feelings.”

Fiske nodded. “In my strongest moments I can sense who will be involved, but I never get specific details. Enough to help us decide to take the risk or not.”

″These daughters, according to the legend, could see actual events,” Niklas said, facing me. “However small, such a thing would be coveted mesmer. To ancient folk, the clear rulers were the daughters who could give and take from memories. Their cousins were second in command. It is a tale as old as time. Greed and jealousy came between the two princes and their families were divided.

″In the end, the prince with the daughters won the throne, and the second prince was disgraced. But the daughters had mercy and kept their cousins in power. The oldest daughter was chosen as queen, and the oldest cousin as regent.” Niklas studied me for a long moment before going on. “Together they ruled our miserly kingdom in peace for centuries. Daughter passing on their gifts to their daughters. Until the same greed which divided them before destroyed the throne through civil war and left our kingdom without a true heir.”

I didn’t know what to think. All of it was unsettling. “So, this would mean my mesmer is some descendant of this long-dead family?”

Niklas shrugged and reached for his horn again. “Who is to say?”

Eero scrunched up his face. He looked irritated. “Who is to say? You have left out part of the tale.”

″I did not know you knew it so well, my friend.” Niklas chuckled and nudged Eero in the ribs.

″I read enough to know it was believed the two royal lines never died off. Their descendants live in hiding, waiting for their queen to arise again,” Eero said. “Why the hells do you think the Lord Magnate has his little game at his masquerade? Fate’s ring was said to belong to the first queen. Only an heir will fit it. But should one come close to winning . . .” Eero dragged his thumb across his throat, not needing to explain more.

The way Eero looked at me it was as though he expected me to pull out a bleeding crown and plop it on my head. A heavy sense of dread pressed against my spine until I could not sit straight.

″I assure you I am no hidden descendant of queens.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed. “My mother was a poor fisherman’s widow who found a bit of luck and caught the eye of a nobleman. She took vows to give her daughter a home. There was nothing royal about us.”

″Exactly,” Niklas said. “It is nothing but a story to explain your mesmer. I have no doubt wars did destroy our throne, but if it involved Alver folk like you, it was coincidence.”

I was grateful he changed the topic. Even Eero seemed placated enough to leave it there.

″Tell me about other Anomalies,” I said. “Like Kase.”

″All rare.” Niklas returned to the blithe host. “Hanna—and your brother as I understand—have a strange Talent too. From what I can tell they act like a shock to the system. The pathways go numb around them. I’m curious how far the block could go if they strengthened their mesmer. How many Alvers could go powerless at once?”

An interesting thought. Could Hagen block many Alvers if he tried? When we found him again, I’d tell him to test the theory.

″As for Kase,” Niklas went on. “He taps into fear. But he does have an opposite. Called a Benevolent. One who harnesses power from happiness and hope.”

″Sounds pleasant, right?” Lynx muttered. “It isn’t.”

″Think about it,” Niklas said. “Our hopes teeter along desperation by a hairsbreadth. The same as Kase manipulates fear to create chaos, a Benevolent might manipulate joy and desire to maintain control. Folk are desperate to avoid their fears and keep whatever they hope for alive. To exploit desperation, well, there’s power there.”

The Kryv who were listening made a few bitter-sounding grunts.

″Do you know a Benevolent?” I asked.

″Just one,” Raum said. “A sod, and I’d rather not talk about him.”

I was curious, but as playful as Raum could be, he wasn’t one to lie. When he said he didn’t want to talk about something, I’d learned by now, it meant he didn’t.

Talk turned to other things, and I was glad. At long last, Niklas insisted we all find a room to sleep, and rest.

I fought the urge to visit Kase again. If anyone needed to rest their wounds it was him, and if I went there again, I did not think I’d have the strength to keep my hands off him.

If he would only let me care for him—hells, if he would let me love him as I did—there were a great many things besides touching I would do to Kase Eriksson. But to be denied would cut worse than hot steel.

For now, I would fall asleep to dreams of all those things I would do. Ragged breaths, skin on skin, and a future. One I’d hunted to find since he was taken from me.

With such a small glimpse beneath his hardened outer edges, I’d fight to pluck him out of his own darkness.