“What sample?”
She stared at me as if I were stupid. “Blood. Yours, like every supernal family bound by The Covenant, is held here.”
The Covenant was the agreement made by several bloodlines to work together to purge Nightsbridge of otherworldly threats. It seemed my mother had provided them with a blood sample from me at some point. I guess having our power blocked and being shunned didn’t exempt us from providing DNA to these fuckers.
“Your meeting begins in half an hour,” Polina reminded me.
I strode past her and through the port.
Once again, it felt as if I were falling, but this time, when the world righted itself, I was thankfully still on my feet. A white stone bridge stretched out before me, spanning what looked like maybe half a mile.
Several groups of students hurried along the bridge, which inclined gently toward the imposing tower of land that housed the Main Building.
“Hurry up!” Polina rushed past me. “Move!”
I joined her in rising above the ocean, reveling in the salty kiss of the wind as it tore at my skin and howled in my ears, competing with the crash of waves against the coast.
The Main Building grew larger as we approached—a multitude of towers and turrets, balconies, and windows…so many windows.
Young supernals, carrying bags and books, hurried passed us.
“How many students are here?”
“Too many,” Polina said bitterly. “Enough to replace all those who die. Makes me glad to be human. I’d rather make beds and do laundry than go into the hot zones.” She threw a sharp glance my way. “You’re crazy for coming here when you didn’t need to. Risking death just to get your magic back. Magic you’ve never had so can’t possibly miss. It’s greedy, and as far as I’m concerned, greedy people deserve to have bad things happen to them.”
She had no fucking idea why I was here. Getting access to the Weave was a means to an end. An end to my curse, and to the stain on my family name. An end to the lie the Arcanum Imperium had woven.
Her derision meant nothing to me. “Well, aren’t you a ray of sunshine.”
She snorted.
God, she was a miserable cow, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t pump her for information. “So…the rumors about conscription are true?”
Her mouth twisted. “The Covenant families are obligated to send children here.”
“You’re from a Covenant family?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because my family needed the money.”
“They sold you into service?”
She snorted again. “Oh, don’t sound so shocked.”
I’d feel sorry for her if her attitude didn’t suck.
We exited the bridge onto a wide path that wound up the side of the mountain toward the Main Building. It was steep and narrow in places, but there was a handrail built into the rock face, so that helped. The high winds did not. I hugged the wall to avoid being blown over the edge, boots slipping several times. Polina kept her distance, not bothering to help, and I thought I heard her laugh a couple of times, but it was difficult to be sure with the howl of wind in my ears.
My thighs ached by the time we reached the top. Here, the ground flattened into a vast garden dotted with stone statues of all shapes and sizes. Some grotesque winged figures, others faceless males with folded wings in various poses. They hid among flowering bushes and sat atop dried-up fountains, and several of them decorated the eaves of the mammoth building that seemed to grow with each step we took toward it.
Polina piloted me along, giving me no time to take in any more than the most basic of details. Up three steps, through double doors, past a cluster of students, and into a gloomy entranceway where vaulted windows let in meager light. Then, through an arch into a network of corridors supported by high ceilings and wooden beams, with walls lined with gilded frames depicting scenes I had no time to study.
Was the library that housed theLibra Veritasbeneath this building, or was it on the mainland? I’d need to make discreet inquiries soon.
“In here,” Polina said, shoving open a door and hurrying into a long room filled with cushioned benches. A platform housed a long judicial desk stretching along the back. Two witness boxes stood on either side of the platform.
