The Once and Future Queen

I was due back at Oban’s for a fitting the day after. I really needed to catch Devyn before that. To understand what I had done and how to fix it.

Oban and Marina had been terrified. Whatever line I had inadvertently crossed, it was bad. The thought of something happening to the dark-haired urchin was more than I could bear. Devyn had to be around somewhere but how to flush him out? Would the ploy I had used with Felix work a second time, I wondered? It would be infinitely more damaging to be seen flirting with a boy in the forum than it had been in the privacy of my own home at a party. My reputation would definitely suffer this time. Besides which there was no guarantee that Devyn was watching anymore – he had said as much himself – now that I definitely wasn’t the girl he was looking for. I felt strangely bereft at the thought. I shook my head.

In my first class, I asked Ambrose and Ginevra if they had seen him that morning. Ambrose thought he had but the closer I questioned him, the less sure he became. Maybe it hadn’t been Devyn, maybe it had been someone else.

The more people I asked, the stronger this pattern appeared. Some people couldn’t recall seeing him in weeks, others had spoken to him that morning, but the topic escaped them, and then they became less sure they had seen him at all. How did he do that? Under any kind of focus, Devyn became even more mysterious as he deflected such scrutiny.

As I circled the forum at lunch hunting my elusive prey, I spotted that there were some mangos and bananas to be had. Pleased, I broke off my search to acquire a drink.

I thanked the vendor as he handed me the fresh smoothie, tapping my wrist in payment and bringing the straw to my lips with a sigh of pleasure. I loved the tang and exoticness of these fruits that travelled so far to wind up in the Londinium markets; they were expensive but oh so worth it.

“What do you want?”

I jumped at the dark low growl behind me. I turned straight into the solid chest of Devyn Agrestis. I looked up at him as he glowered down from his superior height.

“I need to talk to you,” I said softly back, my lips barely moving, not even removing the straw in the hopes it would obscure my words to anyone who might be watching.

Devyn reached behind me and picked up a mango, turning it in his long fingers, a slight thinning of the lips the only indication he had heard me.

“You have something for me?” he asked lightly with a meaningful emphasis on something.

“No.” I shook my head, before realising he meant the device. My body relaxed slightly; I had something to trade with. He would have to help me. “That is, I mean, yes. Sure, if you help me.”

Still not looking at me, he raised a brow in query.

“I’ve done something stupid,” I confessed under my breath. “That is, I think I have. I bought some cough medicine for someone.”

I broke off as the graceful fingers dropped the mango on the floor, and the vendor exclaimed loudly in wrath at the sight of his delicious and costly wares being so poorly treated.

Devyn apologised profusely before backing away, completely ignoring me. Stunned, I turned back to the vendor who had started to complain loudly about clumsy young men. I shrugged – nothing to do with me – and the vendor turned to his waiting customers, a trapped audience more sympathetic to his plight. Turning, I scowled in annoyance.

Damn it, he was gone.

I hadn’t taken two steps before I felt a light touch on my fingers.

“We can’t talk here,” he said. “Come with me.”

“Where to?” I protested, until he took my hand and, as easily as that, I found myself going with him. Because I wanted his help or because I liked the sensation of his skin touching mine, I did not know.

Any and all attempts to talk as we hurried across the city were silenced immediately by a harsh glare. I trailed behind, no idea where we were going, our direction too directly east to be headed to our usual park, and fumed silently.

I said nothing as we passed through the Bishopsgate – the northeast part of the city had more Christian churches than the Olympian temples nearer the river. I had never been in the area before and grew increasingly nervous as we walked further and further away from the inner wall, the area feeling distinctly seedier than the district Oban lived in. This was the deepest darkest stews, less the busy bustle of those who were poor but struggling to keep themselves above water, more the sinister sluggishness of those who were likelier to pull you down with them than look for a hand up. There were fewer people on the streets which made it seem even odder that nobody approached us to beg, even though with our fine clothes we stood out. A lot. Devyn held my hand firmly as we swept along, his step confident and powerful, his features stronger and more defined. And yet people here barely looked our way.

Finally, Devyn stopped and, pulling a piece of metal from his pocket, he inserted it into a hole in the door and we slipped inside and up the creaky beaten-down stairs until he stopped once more and repeated the exercise.

As we walked through the second door, he released my hand and my sense of security melted away, leaving me bereft and deep inside an area where I would never have agreed to go in the full presence of my wits. I was nervous enough about Oban’s home, only two streets away from the old wall; the outer wall was way beyond my comfort zone.

“Caesar wept.” I looked wildly around the room. “Where in Hades are we? I can’t believe you. My father will kill me if he finds out I’m here.”

I really was in trouble. My parents were reasonably lenient but the northeastern section of the outer wall was most certainly out of bounds. How had he managed to do that? I had just walked across the city, directly into the worst reaches of the stews, because some boy had held my hand.

“Your father would be a little upset at a lot of your recent activities, princess,” Devyn said with a smirk. And then in a testing tone, he added, “Was it me who led you here? Or was it you?”

“What… what does that mean?” I lingered near the door as he strode into the small, dimly lit room.

“Tea? Water?” he offered.

I shook my head. “No, I don’t want a cup of your cursed tea.”

“Please sit down, Cass,” he said, waving at the shabby couch in what I supposed was a kitchen area. It looked like it would most definitely leave a stain on my skirt.

“Uh, no thanks. I’m fine standing.”

Devyn took a step towards me, lifting my hand and drawing me into the room, manoeuvring me until I stood in front of the grubby seat, at which point he pushed lightly on my shoulder and I found myself yet again in a place I hadn’t agreed to be. I looked up at him, smug and so different from the mild Devyn everyone else still saw. He was intelligent and strong, far from the effete elite he affected to be most of the time. I saw through it. I saw him.

A fury I was utterly unfamiliar with overtook me. I was practically shaking with rage as I stood and crossed the room to him.

“Enough.” My voice was sufficiently raised that there was every chance they could hear me back at the forum. “What are you doing to me? Why am I here? Who in Hades are you, Devyn? This is… this isn’t just about that device, you… you’re doing things that aren’t possible. Don’t you dare tell me that I’m imagining it. I know what I’ve seen. You are a lie, a complete and utter fraud. I don’t know how you do it or why but that piece of tech is the least of it.”

I had his tall, lean body backed against the wall but quick as a flash he grabbed me, reversing our positions, so I was the one with my back to the wall, him looming over me.

“Quiet,” he hissed. “Lower your voice.”

I glared mutinously up at him, my mouth opening to begin round two.

“No, Cass. Stop.”

He was now uncomfortably close, my attempts to push away from the wall into the confining space between us bringing our bodies into intimate contact, a fact I was fairly sure he hadn’t missed.

The tension dropped from me as he gently brushed aside the hair that had tumbled across my face and tucked it behind my ear.

“Can you keep your voice down?” he asked gently.

I nodded, and he stepped away with a heavy exhale, running his fingers through his thick hair. A flash of uncertainty briefly crossed his face.

“You can’t shout like that. You’ll draw attention to the flat and after I’ve explained, you’ll understand why that is something we can do without. I’m guessing you’ve already done more than enough.”

He gestured for me to sit again, refraining from manoeuvring me, somehow knowing that repeating his little trick was unlikely to end in the outcome he desired this second time.

“Talk,” he ordered, taking a seat at a shabby table opposite me.

I glanced nervously up at the corners of the room, my awareness of the pervasiveness of the city’s observation more acute now that I had something to hide.

“You can talk freely here,” he advised. “Without raising your voice would be preferable, though.”

I hesitated. Was involving him wise? Or was it the next step in my journey to finding myself in the arena again, only this time on the sands awaiting judgement? I felt suddenly that my life had shifted so far off the rails that my course to those pale ancient sands was the only certainty left. My breath felt shallow. I shook my head as Devyn tensed to stand, to come over to me. No, his touch would not help me think.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

He barked with laughter at my challenge.

“You wish me to prove my credentials as a dissident? Or are you asking if I’m a full-on Codebreaker?” he asked, a twitch of a smile tugging at his lips.

I nodded.

“What is it you’d like me to tell you?”

“How about starting with the device,” I suggested. The tech I understood, the tech was real. Whatever else Devyn was, I was less sure I was ready to face.

“Right, the device.” He was clearly happy to begin there too. “I shouldn’t have brought it into class that day, but the basilicas have terminals that are accessible by students. I was debating what to do next. I needed some information to check what options I have now. I was careless. I’d grown complacent and I took a risk I shouldn’t have. I don’t know how they found out I had it but I’m glad they weren’t the only ones who did.”

At this last, he met my eyes in acknowledgement of my intervention.

“What do you mean options?”

His eyes met mine, assessing.

“The device allows me to introduce some chaos to the Code, creating a blind spot long enough for someone to get through the city’s firewalls. A key, of sorts. The tech simulates an attack like the ones dissidents use to hack in. While the imperial defences are busy investigating the string of chaos, it allows me to slip through some of the less secure sections.”

He was a hacker. What he was describing was a capital offence.

“Why would you need to do that?”

“It can be used to access information about citizens on their databases, or”—his eyes met mine, a provocative light glimmering in his otherwise expressionless face—“to create a gap in the Empire’s security long enough to get someone out of the city.”

“Get someone out?” I repeated. “Of the city?”

My mind whirled with the implications. He wasn’t just some trouble-making boy in possession of black-market technology. Or even a hacker accessing classified files in his search for this lost girl. He was helping people get out of the city without the Empire’s authorisation.

Devyn wasn’t mysterious, he was dangerous. I’d be lucky to end up on the sands of the arena. At least there I could say I hadn’t known what I was getting myself into.

I retreated to the corner of the couch, frantically assessing my escape options. Had he locked the door when we came in?

“Calm down, Cass,” Devyn urged gently, reaching a placating hand towards me.

I scrabbled further back. “Don’t touch me.”

He stepped away, his hands spread wide, dark eyes meeting mine.

“Stop freaking out. You’re not in any danger, I promise.” He paused, correcting himself. “At least, not from me.”

“From who then?”

He gnawed at his lip. “The council, the sentinels, the praetor.”

I huffed a shaky breath. “Yeah, I am now. Because of you, you and your chaos key and whatever it is you’re up to. If I’m in trouble, it’s all your fault.”

“You wanted to know.” He shrugged. “Now why don’t you tell me what it is that you’ve done?”

I shook my head. I needed a minute to think. “Who are you smuggling out of the city?” I demanded. “What have they done?”

“Done? And what did you mean, who am I? Ah, you think I’m helping Codebreakers escape the Empire.” He shook his head ruefully. “That was more Linus’s thing. That’s not what I need the hardware back for.”

A darkness passed behind his eyes. A vulnerable flicker.

“The person I sought is not here. It’s time to leave to continue my search. That’s hard to explain to sentinels.”

He was leaving the city then. Leaving Londinium. Richmond, just west of the city, was the furthest I had ever been from home. He was pretty determined to find this person, whoever they were.

“Who is she?” I chanced. He had given years of his life already and now was planning to search the far corners of the Empire. My curiosity gnawed at me.

“Nobody you need concern yourself with. Now, tell me what is it you’ve done.”

I shook my head. I wouldn’t be put off so easily.

“No,” I stated obstinately. “Not unless you tell me why you’ve been watching me all these years. I don’t feel safe. You’ve made me feel unsafe.”

Liar, my inner voice mocked. Even as he made my world tilt on its axis, his presence in it felt like the one thing I did believe I could hold on to. Those dark eyes considered me impassively, searching for the truth in what I was saying. Fearing that what I was saying held truth. I might not be the girl he was looking for, but it made him uncomfortable to think that I considered him some kind of a stalker. I could practically feel the distaste vibrating off him. I had him.

“Are you sure you want the truth?” he asked again, echoing his previous warning. Once truths were known, there would be no putting them back in a bottle.

I wasn’t sure but nodded anyway.

He studied me for a moment, before lifting a shoulder as he conceded to my pressure.

“You fit certain criteria, Cassandra. Very rare criteria. To be truthful, the kind of criteria that put you in danger. No,” he corrected himself, “you’ve always been in danger, I’m just letting you know.”

I raised my brow. “What’s that supposed to mean? I am not and have never been in any kind of trouble. My father is an important merchant with friends on the council, for the gods’ sake.”

“Yes,” he said cryptically.

I didn’t think I’d ever met anyone I found more frustrating. Ever.

“What?” I pushed, not sure what he was implying. “You clearly have something you want to tell me. Out with it.”

“Your father is not your real father.”

“That’s the big reveal? I’ve always known I was adopted.”

“And that you’re not city born?” Devyn fired back.

The wind tore out of my sails. The world actually spun, or maybe it was the room. I sat forward to let the blood flow back into my head, shrugging off Devyn’s hand as it came down on my shoulder.

Not city born. Not city born. Not…

I was what? A Shadower? I sat up squaring my shoulders.

“There is no way I’m not a citizen.” Citizens of the Empire were privileged. They lived inside the walls, lived by the Code. Shadowers were almost native. They lived in the Province, were tolerated by those inside the walls to farm the lands this side of the Celtic border, but they weren’t citizens. They were in between. Belonging to neither.

“My father is an important merchant,” I stated, in a last futile attempt to find safe ground. “This doesn’t make any sense. My birth parents died in an accident. In the city. I’ve seen the news feeds. There is no way I’m not a citizen… look at me.” I indicated my perfect hair, impeccable style, and state-of-the-art accessories.

Devyn gave me a somewhat exasperated look, followed by a top-to-toe inspection.

“Any stone can be polished and made to look like something it’s not.”

“Like a diamond,” I shot back, “a dull, cloudy lump of carbon infinitely improved upon when cut, shone, and polished.”

“Indeed,” he said drily, “but just because someone has put a shine on it, a stone it remains nonetheless.”

“I don’t care about diamonds,” I said, annoyed to have been so easily countered. “Why do you say I’m not a citizen? How do you know that?”

“I know lots of things,” he replied equably.

Could he not just give me a straight answer?

Did I want a straight answer?

Devyn was clearly involved in crimes more serious than I could have imagined. Meanwhile, my life was just fine. I didn’t need to get myself mixed up with whatever misguided nonsense this was. I could just hand back the device, do whatever was needed to conceal my mistake with the medicine and Marina, and get on with my life. I could graduate, find a nice place to live, marry the man I was matched to, have babies as the Code decreed. A family that was truly my own. This, whatever it was, was likely to mess with that.

I took in my surroundings again.

“Where are we?” Anything rather than continue the conversation in the direction it had taken. A next step that led to a road I hadn’t ever seen coming. “Do you live here?”

“Hardly,” Devyn scoffed. “How would I be able to go to a nice western college if this was my home address?”

“I don’t know. You’re a hacker, and there’s something else, something more.”

I paused, my mind working overtime. How was he doing this? He had been taken from class. How had he managed to convince the sentinels of his innocence when he was so clearly guilty of many, many crimes against the city? What was he up to?

“I don’t know who you are, not really, and now you’re telling me I’m not even a citizen.” I stopped, unable to go on, this was too much. I wasn’t political. I had no idea what motivated someone to hack the city’s firewalls, much less what dissidents railed against. As for his statement that I was not a full citizen, I couldn’t begin to put together the ramifications of what that meant. My mind reeled at the idea.

I ran a hand over my hair, my auburn hair, bright as autumn leaves, seeing the flicker of distaste in my mother’s eyes when she looked at it. But it wasn’t proof enough.

And what was the destroyer-of-the-world-as-I-knew-it doing now, having just delivered a truth of which I would happily have lived my life in ignorance? He was leaning back in his armchair, as relaxed as you please, that irritating penetrating gaze watching me absorb his bombshell.

“Why would you poke holes in the Code that protects the city? Why would anyone want to sneak out? How do you change your appearance, make people barely see you? Seriously, if the sentinels realise you can…”

I waved my hand in the air. I wasn’t sure how he managed to be so unremarkable but I was reasonably sure it wasn’t something most upstanding citizens were capable of. It must be some kind of chemical that worked on pheromones or new augmenting tech.

“Can you please, please stop messing around and give one of my questions a straight answer? Any one of them will do,” I pleaded.

“This room belongs to my friend Linus.”

I screeched.

“No, no.” He laughed softly. “Let me finish. Linus needed to leave the city. He was sick. I helped him get out discreetly. Once he’s better he wants to come back. I’m just keeping the lights on in his absence, so the authorities don’t realise he’s gone.”

“Why didn’t he just get healed here, with proper medicine?” I latched on immediately. Did this Linus have the same illness as Marina?

Devyn’s lips thinned.

“Because medicine and shiny hospitals aren’t as easily accessed when you live at the bottom of the pile. Also, some illnesses do better by not having the attention of the authorities on them.”

“What kind of illness?” I pursued. What was it about the illness Marina had that so scared her and her brother of attracting the eyes of the authorities?

Devyn eyed me speculatively. “Are you unwell, Cass?”

The light in his eyes was almost eager as he leaned towards me.

“No, I’m fine.”

He looked strangely disappointed at this and leaned back again. “But somebody is ill. Cough, fever, fatigue, shakes, getting worse all the time?”

“Yes, well, just the cough that I’m sure of, perhaps a touch of fever, and her movements seem a little jerky. I bought some medicine but they refused to take it. I don’t understand why.”

Devyn glanced sharply at me. “Where did you get the medicine – a pharmacy, a doctor? Did you give them the name of the sick friend? Who exactly is sick? Where are they now?”

His questions came thick and fast, hardly drawing breath between them. I stumbled over the answers.

“I got the medicine in the West End. I didn’t tell them who it was for.” I paused, recollecting my father’s questions the day after. Had he known I’d bought it? Suddenly I was sure he had. “My father knew. He was asking me the next day if I felt well. He was really persistent.”

“I’ll bet he was.” Devyn was unsurprised.

“But it wasn’t for me or one of my friends. It was for the sister of someone I know. Someone this side of the old walls,” I continued.

A dark eyebrow raised at that. “Who do you know in the stews, princess?”

I really hated it when he called me that. What was worse was I could almost predict his smug smile when I told him who I knew.

“Apprentice Oban.”

His look was blank; he didn’t recognise the name. How was that possible?

“The tailor,” I clarified, “from the Mete. The one with the dress.”

Still nothing.

“You did watch and vote Friday before last, didn’t you?” It was unthinkable that he wouldn’t have. Devyn took care not to draw attention to himself and not voting was a significant thing to forget to do.

Devyn’s face showed a slight hint of bewilderment before he shrugged it off.

“A tailor, you say? This is who is sick?”

“No, it’s his sister. She looks like she’s been sick for a while. But when I brought them the medicine, they were horrified.” I looked over at him then. “Why wouldn’t they want the medicine? Why were they afraid of anyone knowing she is sick?”

“I’d guess her problem isn’t what she’s done but what she is,” Devyn said, back to his cryptic self.

I exhaled my frustration. “What does that mean?”

“It means you should stay away from her. There is nothing you can do to help her.”

“I don’t understand.” I stood, walking over to him, the better to see his face in the growing dark of the evening. His face was its usual mask, but those dark eyes occasionally offered a glimpse into the true Devyn. This close, I was aware once again of how deceptive his appearance was. He gave the impression of a long, slight body, an aura of a quiet, diffident soul. Up close, this was a sham. His body was wide at the shoulder, long and lean as he sat in the chair with his back to the wall. The force of his personality crackled in the near dark, as if now that I couldn’t see him so well, my eyes could no longer deceive me as to the reality of him.

I felt compelled to break down his façade completely. I reached out a hand to touch him, my fingers drawn to the strong column of his throat where it met his collarbone. He stood abruptly, causing me to stumble backward. He caught me before I fell, releasing me and hastily putting more space between us before going to stand in what light still came in through the window. The small of my back was electrified by his fleeting touch.

“She’s most likely a latent,” he said, distracting me from my purpose. “Those who are getting ill have some of the old blood in their veins. It doesn’t have to be a lot but it makes them susceptible to this infection.”