A Magic of Nightfall

The Battle Begun: Karl Vliomani

“ You can still leave via some of the streets to the east of the Nortegate,” Karl told Serafina. “You’ll have to be careful and you’ll have to go quickly, but if you have Varina with you, you and Nico would have protection.”

Karl saw Serafina and Varina already shaking their heads before he finished. “I’m not leaving without Talis,” Serafina said. Nico was sitting on her lap as they sat around the table in the main room of Serafina’s apartment. They had finished a dinner of bread, cheese, and water, though the bread had been stale, the cheese moldy, and the water clouded. They’d eaten it all, though, not knowing when there might be more food.

With the army of the Tehuantin at the western edges of the city and their ships holding the A’Sele, with the army of Firenzcia threatening from the east, Nessantico was panicked. Wild, fantastic rumors about the sack of Karnor and Villembouchure ran through the city, growing darker, grimmer, and more violent with each retelling. The Westlanders, if the stories could be believed, were nothing less than demons spawned by the Moitidi themselves, devoted to rape, torture, and mutilation. The shelves of the stores were nearly bare; the mills had no flour for the bakeries, and there were no carts coming into the markets from the fields outside the city. Even the Avi a’Parete was dark tonight-the light-teni hadn’t made their usual rounds; worse, a fog had crawled over the city from the west, thick and cold. The city trembled in darkness, waiting for the inevitable strike to come. “I thought I’d lost both Talis and Nico once; I’m not doing that again,” Serafina continued.

“He can’t leave,” Karl persisted. “He’s male and young enough to be pressed into service with the Garde Civile. They’d snatch him before you got halfway to the Avi. And with the Archigos in the Bastida… well, the Garde Kralji almost certainly have our descriptions and are already out looking for us. Two women with a young boy-you’d be safe enough, I think. But with Talis and me…”

“I’m not leaving without him,” Serafina persisted. Her voice shook and the hand around Nico’s waist trembled, but her lips pressed firmly together.

“Half the city’s already left-those who can. The rumors about Karnor and Villembouchure… all that could happen here.”

A shrug.

Varina was smiling grimly. Her hand touched his knee under the table. “You’ve lost this argument, Karl,” she said. “With both of us. We’re here. We’re staying, whatever that means.”

Karl looked at Talis, who had been sitting silently on his side of the table. He’d been strangely quiet for the last day and more, since the news had come of the Archigos’ imprisonment, and he spent much time with the scrying bowl. Karl wondered what the man was thinking behind that solemn face. Talis shrugged. “I agree with Karl,” he said to Serafina. “I would rather have you and Nico safe.”

Varina took Karl’s hand, standing. “Come with me,” she told him. “Let Sera and Talis talk this out on their own. We will, too.”

Karl followed Varina into the other room. She closed the door behind them, so that they could only hear the low murmur of voices in conversation. “She loves him,” Varina said. She was still leaning against the door, looking at Karl.

“Yes,” he protested, “and that’s exactly the reason he wants her to leave: because he doesn’t want to lose the people he loves.”

“And that’s exactly the reason she won’t go, because she couldn’t bear not knowing what happened to him.” She crossed her arms under her breasts. “It’s exactly the reason I won’t go either.”

“Varina…”

“Karl, shut up,” she told him. She pushed away from the wall, going to him. Her arms went around him, her lips sought his. There was a desperation in her embrace, in the violence of her kiss. He could hear the sob in her throat, and his hand went to her face to find her cheeks wet. He tried to pull away from her, to ask what was wrong, but she wouldn’t let him. She brought his head back down to hers. Her weight bore him down to the straw-filled mattress on the floor. Then, for a time, he forgot everything.

Afterward, he kissed her, holding her tightly, relishing her warmth. “I love you, Karl,” she whispered into his ear. “I’ve given up pretending anything else.”

He didn’t answer. He wanted to. He wanted to say the words back to her. They filled his throat but stuck there. He felt that if he said them, he’d be betraying Ana and everything she’d meant to him. “Find someone else, she’d told him, long ago. “Go back to your wife, if you like. Or if you fall in love with someone new, that would be fine with me, too. I’d be happy for you because I can’t be what you want me to be, Karl.”

“I…” he began, then stopped. They both heard it at the same time, a whistling shriek and a low growl like thunder, followed almost immediately by others, and the wind-horns on the temples beginning to sound an alarm. Karl rolled away from her. “What is that?” Karl asked, but he suspected that he knew already. They both dressed quickly and rushed into the other room.

“It’s begun,” Talis told them as they entered. He was standing by the door. The door faced south, and from the direction of the A’Sele, they could all see an orange-yellow glow over the rooftops, illuminating the fog that blocked their vision. “Fire,” Talis said. “The nahualli are hurling black sand into the city close to the A’Sele.”

The wind-horns were shrilling, and there were muffled shouts and cries coming from the fog.

Talis closed the door. “It’s too late now,” he said. “Too late.”