The Theft of Sunlight by Intisar Khanani (story reading .TXT) 📕

Speaker asks. “I have never heard of anything that could stop the Darkness. There is only the Blessing.”

“Fae magic,” I blurt, because I need some explanation that protects Niya. At least there isn’t a mage here to gainsay me. “I wasn’t sure it would work, but their magic is different from ours. It must have reached into the boy in a way that our wards can’t.”

She nods at once. “Can other such sashes be gotten? They could save so many children.”

They could. They could, except I don’t believe my own lie. Niya said specifically that the protections she had sewn into the sash were against magical attacks. Which means that the Darkness isn’t something that blooms from within a child’s blood. It’s sent against them. The Darkness is an attack.

In a land where magic is so rigidly controlled, there is only one group that could cast such a spell so regularly as to make the Darkness a threat. The answer is terrifying.

“Kelari?”

I blink at the Speaker. Shake my head. “I—I don’t know.” I don’t know anything.

Bren rises and steps between the Speaker and me. “If more sashes can be got, I’ll make sure you are the first to learn of it. I thank you, truly, for coming.”

The Speaker nods and packs up quickly, sparing me a single glance as she moves to the door. But then she looks at Bren and doesn’t say a word. I was right, at least, that thieves and secrets go hand in hand.

Chapter

26

Outside, Bren offers me my sash without a word. For a half moment, I’m so startled by his actions, I can only stare. I thought for certain I would have to fight for it. His lips twitch, and I snatch it from his hand before he changes his mind.

“It’s not Fae magic, is it?” he asks as I wrap the sash about my waist.

I look up, my hands tightening the knot. “What else would it be?”

He considers me silently. I meet his gaze, and the moment draws out a little too long.

“There was something that stopped you back there, when you were answering the Speaker,” he says.

I glance either way down the street, but there’s no one here but the lookouts at the corner, too far to hear. “That’s because, Fae or not, it’s only a ward,” I say. “It shouldn’t have worked, not against something in the boy’s blood.”

Bren’s eyes narrow. “Then how did it stop the Darkness?”

“It’s simple,” I say. “The Darkness isn’t what we thought. If my wards only work against magical attacks, then the Darkness was never within those boys. It was sent.”

“Sent,” Bren repeats, the word sharp and sibilant. There’s an instinctual readiness about him, a looseness to his stance, that speaks to just how deadly he thinks my words are. “Do you know what you’re saying?”

“That there’s only one group who could coordinate a kingdom-wide magical attack upon our children? Yes. It doesn’t seem possible that the Circle of Mages, tasked with protecting all of Menaiya, could be allied with slavers, and yet there is no other explanation.”

Bren rubs a hand across his mouth, glances toward the end of the alley. “If the snatchers are aligned with the mages, then we have a whole different level of trouble on our hands.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” he asks. “No, I don’t think you do. Do you know what men are capable of doing to hide their actions? To keep themselves in power?”

I have an idea. “They’re already selling our children into slavery. I suspect they could easily turn on . . .” On the princess, as well as me. And on my family.

“Very easily. They will destroy anyone who even attempts to uncover their actions. Your royals aren’t going to be able to take out the mages. They’re much more likely to lose the throne in a political coup and have a puppet put on it in their place.”

“The Circle is that powerful?” I ask, my voice dry.

Bren tilts his head. “They were pushing for a spare heir to be named when the prince went missing for a handful of days just a month ago. They got quite close to succeeding, if the rumors are to be believed.”

“Then . . . what do we do?”

We look at each other a moment, and then Bren takes my hand and threads it through his arm, as if we were at court, or sweethearts, and starts forward. “Let’s walk.”

I take a quick half step to catch up with him, and he adjusts his pace with a slight jerk, as if he’d forgotten himself for a moment. I glance at him, but he’s looking ahead. “First, you’ll have to prove this theory of yours. You’ll need to let someone inspect that Fae magic of yours, and correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re not going to allow that, are you?”

I stiffen and then curse myself, because of course he can feel my reaction through my arm. I tug my hand free at once. I should never have let him touch me so casually anyhow, and of course he did it so he could read my reactions better.

He breathes a soft laugh. “It’s nice to know even country girls have secrets. Did a lover give it to you?”

“Oh, shut up,” I say, and my irritation makes the lies I need to protect Niya come more easily. “That’s absurd. I bought it at Spring Fair a year ago. I was told it was Fae magic, though I didn’t quite believe it then. What kind of Fae would enchant a story sash? So no, I don’t know where it came from. But I do know that if the mages are involved, there’s no way I want them to see the one ward that does work against their spells. It has to be built differently. Once they know how, they’ll change what they’re doing to get past this as well.”

“True,” Bren says. “So what will you do?”

I don’t know.

“I don’t recommend destroying our royal family. I’m not a great fan