Page 84 of Fortress of Ambrose (House of Marionne #3)

Sixty-Eight

Quell

The halls of Dlaminaugh reek of death. Dead rove the halls.

Most of the walls are the color of cement, and the whole place is frigidly cold.

I sit down in a chair in Nore’s office as close to the fire as I can, holding the metal box with the diadem of proper magic.

Jordan lingers behind me, standing, refusing a seat at the table.

Erla is beside me, pulling at the hem of her dress. We wait for some time.

“I hear they are very smart,” she says when maezres enter the room in drab gray linen with stoic stares. Isla Ambrose, Nore’s mother, is on their heels in a deep blue gown with silver stitching. Her plain diadem arced over her head is ornamented with a single gemstone.

I hold my own fidgety hands still and say, “You are smarter.” I whisper to Jordan, “Maybe we should have brought some more of our own.”

“No second-guessing yourself.” He returns to his post just as his brother enters with Nore.

The brothers share a hard glare. A wall of ice can be felt between them all across the room.

Nore, too, is in a bright blue gown with gold buttons and capped sleeves.

A rust sash is sloped across her chest. Nore takes a seat at the head of the long meeting table with Yagrin beside her.

Jordan crosses the room, sticking to the perimeter, giving his brother a wide berth.

I straighten in my seat as Nore updates everyone and makes formal introductions.

“I’ve invited our lead maezres and priests. They are some of the brightest magical minds, House loyalties aside, I’m sure we all agree.”

“What is the plan here?” One of their maezres jumps right in, addressing Isla. But Nore’s mother only has eyes for her daughter. “Will the Sphere be re-created?”

Nore gestures at me.

“The Sphere’s proper magic is secure at the moment.

It’s the other magic that needs to be preserved.

Toushana. It will be held in rings.” I explain my version of Jordan’s plan.

Thirty times more rings than he’d originally planned, so we can make sure many have access to toushana.

I still don’t like the idea of dark magic only being given to a finite number of people, but rings are efficient to make, and we are short on time.

“If the rings work well enough for the toushana, we may move the proper magic to rings in the future to prevent the vessel it’s currently in being stolen.

If magic is housed in many places, it can’t easily be stolen. ”

“The dark magic?” a different maezre with a silver mask sloped over their face says, their beady blue eyes darting around the table.

“Yes,” I go on. “One entrusted to each of the Houses. And a few other new Houses.”

“New Houses? Toushana in rings? Is this your plan?” The maezre turns to Nore.

“Maezre Ogle, we do not have the Sphere’s magic,” she says. “They’ve come to us with it. We can’t just—”

“The desire to hold on to dark magic is deplorable,” a maezre says. “Why not get rid of it?”

I watch Nore carefully, unsure what she thinks of the world to come.

“I don’t have any desire for any magic,” she says. “Does that mean I should get rid of proper magic, too?”

“Toushana has existed just as long,” I say. “Long ago, toushana was not dark. It was feared and treated as forbidden by those in power.” I brandish a stream of dark mist in the air. “My magic has its uses.”

Most backs in the room stiffen. Except Nore’s. She smirks as she rolls up her sleeves and a puff of shadows emerge in her fist. I gasp.

“My mother did everything she could to unearth magic in me,” Nore says, and her mother’s stare hits the ground. “And deposited a seed of this by mistake. I told you, no more secrets. That’s the truth.”

Eyes move to Isla Ambrose. “It is. The greatest regret of my life.”

Ogle is wide-eyed. The others don’t speak.

“I have plans to get this out of me by choice,” Nore went on.

“But these are our only allies.” She shifted.

“It is illogical to ostracize Quell because men who lived hundreds of years ago were scared of what she could do with her fingers.” Nore laughed, breaking the rigid silence.

Only Jordan grinned as he leaned against a wall.

“This discussion is over,” Nore says.

“So we’re not going to come up with a way to get rid of it?” Maezre Ogle asks, apparently hard of hearing.

“Both magics need to exist,” the priest says, coming through the door, finally joining us. “They don’t need each other to exist. But they are each more potent when the other exists. We have to save toushana, too.”

“I wouldn’t agree to getting rid of it even if she said to,” I say to the maezre directly. “This is who I am. You don’t have to like it.”

Nore and I met eyes. “I like you.”

Winkel sits beside her.

“Quell, you have much more experience with toushana than I do, I imagine. So we will follow your lead on how to help secure it safely.” Nore eyes the skepticism around the room. “All of us will follow your lead. Or you can join my brother outside. Any more on that, Quell?”

“The most pressing matter is that the Sphere’s toushana is still inside Jordan.”

Winkel winces. “Oh, that sounds awful, young man.”

“We’ll need to get that out fast and safely. Or it will be lost. To do that we need immortal blood,” I go on, “which is why we are here. That is your specialty.”

Nore pales.

“There’s no such thing,” Ogle says again, determined, turning a bracelet on her dainty wrist. “Everyone here knows that. The secrets were buried by our inaugural Headmistress and have yet to be found.”

“The Scroll—” Nore starts.

“The Scroll will not be discussed so publicly…” Maezre Ogle fumes. “It is sacred. Have we forgotten ourselves?”

“Caera Ambrose was a fraud,” Nore continues, ignoring her, addressing every other face of shock in the room. “Caera finding the Immortality Scroll was a ruse to build her great name.”

“I cannot!” Maezre Ogle shoots up from her seat. “First the toushana. Now this! You are outside of your lane, young lady!” Her fists slam the table, and Nore turns to a Dragun.

“See her out. Walk her all the way to my brother in the forest.” She clears her throat and steeples her hands.

“As I was saying, lying runs in our veins in this House. And I’m frankly sick of it.”

Erla sinks into her chair beside me.

“Caera worked tirelessly to produce replicas and then planted them in the Houses to give them the aura of authenticity. She wrote diaries to herself, journaling lies upon lies about what she did. She fabricated a scavenger hunt, knowing people would die to find her alleged secret. And she did it all to ensure she was revered as the most brilliant Ambroser to ever live. Then she named the House after herself. It’s true.

Yagrin spoke to a Duncan elder who confirmed the original was written on goatskin. I researched the rest myself.”

Winkel shoves his glasses to his nose. “We’ve suspected as much but could never be sure.” He tucks his lip, and his shoulders sink.

Mouths are open all around the table, including mine. But I button it up and bring us back to why we’re here. “If we can find this immortal’s blood,” I say, “the plan is to infuse it into Jordan at the same time that we extract toushana.”

Erla nods.

“Hmm,” a maezre adds. “I’m Maezre Tutom, Nore’s governess when she was small. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Headmistress Marionne. This fellow has to be strong enough. If he isn’t, we can’t risk touching him without some kind of mortality plan.” They stroke their beard. “This is good. Quite good.”

“The blood is a sound plan,” another adds.

“As brilliant as it sounds,” Jordan cuts in, “where are we going to find this immortal?”

“You’re in luck.” Nore’s color returns. “Turns out I know him. Kendall Dorset. My father. The Dragunhead.”

I don’t believe my ears as Nore tells us about her conversation with Winkel, confirming that her father was—is—a man of many faces. Jordan’s grip is white-knuckled on the lapel of his coat. Nore slides a list of names across the table toward me.

“More of his aliases my mother found over the years.”

I skim the list, flip the page, and there are more. “May I borrow this?”

Nore waves a hand in the air. “How do we lure him here?” She taps her chin as she surveys her maezres.

“Use Quell as bait.” Jordan peels himself from the shadows. “He’s wanted her since my time in the brotherhood.”

“Why?” I ask.

“That, I don’t know. But when the Sphere cracked, he told me to go after Beaulah and he’d retrieve you. If you offer a meeting with Quell, he will come. Just a suggestion. I’m not in charge here.” His brother glances at him, then quickly looks away.

I recall the creepy way the Dragunhead didn’t take his eyes off me during our meeting.

“Do it,” I say. “Let’s tell him that I want to meet.”