They left the Crack at seven in the morning.
Nox carried everything they had. It all fit into one sack. Lin's old jacket, two pieces of cloth that served as blankets, a stub of a candle, flint, a broken knife he had fixed with wire three months ago. Everything. Thirteen years of life in one sack, and it was light.
Lin walked beside him. Silent. She knew how to be silent in different ways. This was the silence of someone who was thinking and did not want to be rushed.
The fog had not yet cleared. That was good. In the fog, it was harder to notice two children with a sack, walking fast and looking at their feet.
«Where are we going,» Lin asked finally.
«I do not know yet.»
«Great plan.»
«Lin.»
«What, Lin. I am just talking.»
Nox did not answer. They turned onto Ash Street. The market was not open yet, only a couple of merchants were laying out their goods under the awnings. No one was looking at them. Good.
Then bad.
Nox saw them before they came out of the alley. Six of them. Black Fangs. The one with the iron rod was walking first. Beside him, two more, built like logs. The rest were behind, cutting off the escape route.
Nox stopped.
Lin stopped beside him. She felt it. She grabbed his sleeve.
«Nox.»
«I see them.»
«There are six of them.»
«I see them, I said.»
The one with the rod smiled. A bad smile, wide, like a man who already knew how this would end.
«Where are you off to in such a hurry,» he said. His voice was lazy, pleased. «Too early for a walk.»
«We need to pass,» Nox said.
«Need to,» the man repeated. He turned to his men. «Did you hear? They need to.» They laughed. «And we need to talk. About what you did to our mutant last night.»
«That was your mutant?»
«We were herding it. Waiting for it to fatten up and come back.» He stepped closer. «And you killed it. So you owe us.»
«It came into our house.»
«So what if it came into your house.» Another step. «You owe us. In money or otherwise.» His gaze fell on Lin. «You have enough of the other.»
Nox felt the cold in his spine jerk. Sharply. The tattoo on his back flared with warmth.
«Do not look at her,» he said quietly.
«What?»
«Do not look at my sister.»
The man with the rod narrowed his eyes. Then he laughed again and stepped forward.
Nox did not think. He just held out his hand.
The shadows under their feet twitched. All at once, as if alive. They darted toward the feet of the man in front, wrapped around his ankles. He stumbled, swore. The others backed away. Someone from the back shouted something.
But the shadows broke free.
Nox felt it immediately. As if he had been holding something in his fist and it had slipped out. The shadows tore sideways, not where he wanted them, not toward the men. One of the Fangs screamed when a shadow covered his face. Another fell on his own, for no reason. A third ran.
But the first man stood firm.
He looked at Nox, and there was no laughter in his eyes anymore. There was fear. But behind the fear, anger. And anger in such people was more dangerous than confidence.
«Shadow,» he hissed. «He has Shadow. Grab him!»
They all rushed at once.
Nox pulled Lin back, but he was not fast enough. Two came from the side, cutting them off. Lin cried out. Nox spun toward her and took a blow to the shoulder. A fist, heavy. The world swayed. He did not fall only because the wall was there.
«Nox!»
He looked up.
And he saw her.
She stood at the end of the alley. Just stood there. Silver hair wet from the light rain and falling over her shoulders. A black wide-brimmed hat cast a shadow over her face, but her eyes were visible. Violet. Bright as two shards of amethyst. She watched what was happening with the expression of someone looking at a boring play they had already seen three times.
Then she took off her left glove.
Slowly. One finger at a time. As if she had all the time in the world.
On her hand was a tattoo. A venous network, dark, spreading from her wrist up her forearm. It pulsed. Slowly, in time with her heart.
She raised her hand.
«Stop,» she said.
One voice. One sound. Quietly. Without shouting.
The Fangs stopped.
All six of them. At once. As if someone had pressed something inside them. The man with the rod opened his mouth. Closed it. He looked at his hand. Opened his fingers. The rod fell to the pavement with a loud clang.
She lowered her hand.
«Go,» she said.
They went. Without words. Without argument. They just turned and walked into the fog. One of them looked back once. But only once.
The alley emptied.
Lin stood and stared at where they had just been. Then she slowly turned to the woman in the hat.
«What did you do to them,» she asked.
«I asked them to leave.»
«They are not the kind of people who listen to requests.»
«All people are that kind,» she answered calmly. «If the request is right.»
Nox rubbed his shoulder. The pain there was dull, nagging. He looked at the woman and felt something strange. Not gratitude. Irritation. He had been saved. He had not asked for it.
«Who are you,» he asked.
She turned to him. She smiled. The smile was beautiful and completely unwarm.
«Sylvana,» she said. «Just Sylvana.»
«What do you want.»
«Right now? Nothing.» She put her glove back on. One finger at a time. «We will talk later.»
«About what.»
«About you.» She took a small object from her coat pocket. She tossed it to Nox. He caught it automatically. He looked at it. It was a piece of cloth, dark, with something written on it. An address. «When you decide you have nowhere else to go, come.»
«I have already decided,» Nox said. «I have nowhere else to go right now.»
«I know.» She smiled again. «That is why I am waiting.»
Lin tugged his sleeve. She said quietly:
«I do not like her.»
Sylvana heard. She had good hearing. She looked at Lin with something like interest.
«A smart girl,» she said. «That is good.»
«I am not a girl,» Lin said. «I am Lin.»
«Lin.» Sylvana tasted the name. She nodded. «Good. Come, Lin. And you, boy with the shadows.»
«I have a name,» Nox said.
«I know.» She was already walking down the alley, not looking back. «Nox. Come.»
Nox watched her back. Then he looked at the address in his hand. Then at Lin.
Lin looked at him.
«She knows your name,» Lin said quietly.
«I know.»
«You did not tell her.»
«I know.»
«And that does not scare you?»
Nox was silent for a moment.
«It does,» he said honestly. «But Mara said to leave. And there is nowhere else to go.»
Lin looked at Sylvana, who was walking farther into the fog. Then she sighed. Heavily, like an adult.
«If she kills us, I will say I knew it all along,» she said and followed.
Nox caught up with them a second later.
♢ ♢ ♢ ♢
They walked for a long time. Sylvana did not talk while they walked. She just led them through the streets, climbing higher, from the lower quarters to the middle ones. Nox noticed how the city changed with each level. Below, houses made of trash and metal. Higher, stone. Even higher, stone and glass. Here the lanterns worked. Here the pavement was even. Here it did not smell so strongly of smoke.
Lin walked and looked around. Silent. But Nox could see how she looked. With that hungry attention you look at something you have never seen before.
Sylvana's house was in a narrow alley in the middle tier. From the outside, nothing special. Stone, dark, with one window on the ground floor. But the door was heavy, oak, with a brass handle. Nox had only seen such doors on factory warehouses.
Sylvana opened it without a key. She just pressed her palm to it, and the door opened.
Inside, it was warm.
Nox did not immediately understand what had changed. Then he understood. Warmth. Real, even, not the kind you get from coal in a stove. Just warmth. Everywhere.
Lin stopped on the threshold. She inhaled through her nose.
«It smells like food in here,» she said.
«Yes,» said Sylvana. «Sit down.»
The room was large. A table, chairs, shelves with books and vials. A fire burned in the fireplace. On the table stood something in a pot, covered with a lid. Nox did not understand where it had come from. She had walked with them the whole time.
Lin was already sitting at the table, staring at the pot.
Nox remained standing.
«Sit down,» Sylvana said. She took off her hat and hung it on a hook by the door. Without the hat, she looked different. Younger. But her eyes were the same. Too calm.
«First tell me why we are here,» Nox said.
«First eat.» She opened the pot. The smell made Nox's stomach clench. «Conversation is better when you are not hungry.»
«I am not hungry.»
Lin looked at him. She said nothing. She just looked.
Nox sat down.
They ate in silence. Lin quickly, without pretense. Nox slowly, not taking his eyes off Sylvana. She sat across from him, drinking something dark from a small cup, and watched him with that same half-smile.
«Stop looking at me like that,» Nox said.
«Like what?»
«As if you already know how this will end.»
«Do I not?» She set down her cup. «You came on your own, Nox. No one dragged you.»
«I had nowhere else to go.»
«That is also a choice.»
Nox put down his spoon. Lin stopped eating and looked at them in turn, as if at a game where you do not know the rules but you watch carefully.
«You know about the curse,» Nox said. «About the Moon Goddess. You know my family name. You know about the tattoo.» He looked at her. «Who are you.»
Sylvana was silent for a moment. Then she said:
«A person who has been looking for you for a long time.»
«Why.»
«Because you are needed.»
«By whom.»
«By me.» Simply. Without explanation. «And not only by me.»
Nox felt the cold in his spine jerk. The tattoo reacted to something. To her words. Or to her magic. He did not understand.
«Nox is not a tool,» he said sharply. «He is a person.»
Sylvana raised an eyebrow.
«Are you speaking about yourself in the third person?»
«When I am angry, yes.»
Lin snorted softly. Nox shot her a look. She put on an innocent face and picked up her spoon again.
«Fine,» Sylvana said. «Ask. Everything you want to know.»
«My family name.»
She opened her mouth. Closed it. Nox had seen this before. With Mara. The word would not come out.
She stood up. She took a small knife from the table, thin, more like a needle. She cut the tip of her finger. A drop of blood fell onto a piece of paper she had laid before her. She moved her finger, and the blood followed, forming letters.
She pushed the paper toward Nox.
He looked.
The word was there. Written in blood. He looked at it for a long time. He read it. And he felt something warm and sharp at the same time, as if he were remembering something he had never truly forgotten.
Lin reached out to look.
Nox covered the paper with his hand. He looked at Sylvana.
«Why can it not be spoken aloud,» he asked quietly.
«The Moon Goddess sealed it,» Sylvana answered. «When she cursed your family, she took the name. She erased it from the language of the living. It is now impossible to say aloud. You can only write it in blood.» A pause. «Yours or mine.»
«Why.»
«Because blood does not lie.» She put away the knife. «Tongues can. Ink can. Blood cannot.»
Silence filled the room. Only the fire in the fireplace crackled.
«Why did the goddess curse our family,» Lin asked.
Sylvana looked at her. Something changed in her gaze. Just a little. Barely noticeably.
«That is a long story,» she said.
«We are not in a hurry,» Lin said.
«You are,» Sylvana countered. «But not right now.» She stood up, walked to a shelf. She took a book, placed it on the table without opening it. «First, the terms.»
«Terms,» Nox repeated.
«Yes.» She looked at him directly. «I offer you shelter, food, training. I will tell you about your family. About the curse. About what you are.» A pause. «In return, you carry out my tasks. When I say, and what I say.»
«What kind of tasks.»
«Various.»
«That is not an answer.»
«That is all I have for now.» She looked at him without a smile. For the first time since they had met. «You can refuse. I will not hold you. The door is there.»
Nox looked at her. She looked at him. Something taut as a string stretched between them.
«Lin too,» he said finally. «She lives here. In safety. That is not negotiable.»
«Of course.»
«And if I do not like a task, I will say so.»
«You will say so,» she agreed. «I will listen.»
«That is not enough.»
«That is all there is for now.» She tilted her head slightly. «Nox. You are a thirteen-year-old boy from the slums with Shadow magic you cannot control. Today you almost killed a random man in an alley when you tried to use your power.»
Nox clenched his teeth.
«The one who fell,» Lin said quietly.
«He is alive,» Sylvana said. «But he might not have been.» A pause. «I can teach you. I can show you what Shadow is. What it does. What it does to those who cannot hold it.» She looked at him calmly. «Or you can leave and learn on your own. On the street. By trial and error.»
Nox was silent.
Lin looked at her brother. She did not rush him. She just waited.
«Fine,» Nox said finally. Quietly. Almost reluctantly. «Fine.»
Sylvana nodded. She picked up her cup. She took a sip.
«Good,» she said simply.
«But I will ask questions.»
«Please do.»
«And you will answer.»
«The ones I can.»
«All of them.»
She looked at him. Then she smiled. The same smile again. Beautiful and cold.
«The ones I can,» she repeated. No apology. Just a fact.
Nox wanted to say something else. Something sharp and precise that would end this conversation on his terms. But the words did not come. He stood up from the table and walked to the window. He looked out at the street.
Lin remained sitting. She looked at Sylvana. Sylvana was looking at Nox.
«You knew our mother,» Lin said quietly. Not a question.
Sylvana slowly turned to her.
She was silent for a long time.
«Yes,» she said finally.
Nox froze by the window. He did not turn around. But he froze.
«Will you tell us,» Lin asked.
«When the time comes.»
«When the time comes means when.»
«Lin,» Nox said from the window. Quietly.
«What, Lin,» she answered. «It is important.»
Sylvana looked at the girl. Something was changing in her violet eyes. Slowly. The way something changes deep underwater.
«Soon,» she said finally. «I promise.»
Lin looked at her for another second. Then she nodded. Once. As if she had noted it but did not fully believe it.
Smart girl.
Then Nox decided he had had enough of being silent by the window. He turned and opened his mouth to say something else important and firm.
Sylvana stood up, walked over to him, and hugged him.
Nox froze.
He just froze. His arms hung at his sides. His mind stopped working. She stood beside him, a head taller, and held him like something she had found and was not going to let go. She smelled of something unfamiliar. Not food, not smoke. Something else. Nox could not tell what.
She said to him quietly, almost in his ear:
«Welcome.»
Nox did not know what to do with his hands. Or his face. Or anything.
Behind him, Lin said with absolute seriousness:
«Brother, your ears are red.»
Nox jerked.
«Shut up.»
«I am just saying.»
«Do not say anything.»
Sylvana let him go. She stepped back. She looked at him with that smile. Nox looked away. At the wall. At the window. Anywhere.
«I will show you your rooms,» Sylvana said evenly, as if nothing had happened.
«Yes,» Nox said. Too quickly.
Lin stood up from the table. She walked over to her brother. She took his hand. She leaned in and said quietly into his ear:
«Your ears are still red.»
«Lin, I will throw you out the window.»
«This is the second floor. It is not high.»
«The first.»
«I would survive anyway.»
Sylvana walked ahead up the stairs. Nox followed her and tried to breathe evenly. He was angry. Not at Lin. Not at Sylvana.
At himself.
Because somewhere beneath the anger was something else. Something he had not felt for a very long time.
Something like the feeling that this place might be safe.
And that scared him more than the Fangs, more than the mutant, more than anything that had come before.