Free The Braided Path: The Weavers of Saramyr, The Skein of Lament and the Ascendancy Veil by Chris Wooding Page B

spectre. Surely, he would have sensed something if
she had been unusual in any way. He had not looked closer at first, because he should have detected it when he first spied on her.
    The night he heard about the Heir-Empress’s dreams, he had used his Mask to search for her, to divine what she truly was. It was something he should have done a long time ago. Yet when he
tried, she was impossible to find. He knew who and where she was, but she was still invisible to him. His consciousness seemed to slip over her; she was unassailable. The rage at his failure was
immense, and cost the lives of three children. All this time, there had been an Aberrant under his very nose but it had taken him eight years to see it.
    He knew now that he was dealing with something unlike anything he had encountered before. He considered what she was and what it might mean, and he feared her.
    And yet still he needed proof, and it must be a proof that could not be connected to him in any way. So he had sent a message to Sonmaga tu Amacha’s Weaver, who had advised the Barak, who
had employed a series of middlemen to obtain a lock of the Heir-Empress’s hair. Anyone who followed the trail would find it led to Sonmaga tu Amacha’s door; the only one who knew of
Vyrrch’s involvement was Sonmaga’s Weaver, Bracch.
    The conclusive proof of Aberration could only be carried out by a Weaver if he were physically within sight of the person, or if he had a piece of the person’s body to study. With the lock
of hair Bracch was able to convince Sonmaga of the truth.
    The girl was a threat that had to be eliminated. Though the situation was yet far from desperate, she had the potential to become a great danger to the Weavers. With good fortune, the Baraks and
high families would deal with her for him, but if not . . . well, maybe then more direct methods would have to be employed.
    The door to the chamber opened then, and the shambling, ragged figures of the three Weavers came inside. To them, he appeared as a floating apparition, barely visible in the dim, flickering
light.
    ‘Daygreet, Weave-lord Vyrrch,’ croaked one, whose mask was a tangle of bark and leaves shaped into a rough semblance of a bearded face. ‘I trust you have news?’
    ‘Grave news, my brothers,’ Vyrrch replied softly. ‘Grave news . . .’

SIX
    The townhouse of Blood Koli was situated on the western flank of the Imperial Quarter of Axekami. The original building had been improved over the years, adding a wing here, a
library there, until the low, wide mass sprawled across the expanse of the compound that protected it. Its roof was of black slate, curved and peaked into ridges; the walls were the colour of
ivory, simple and plain, their uniformity broken up by a few choice angles or an ornamental cross-hatching of narrow wooden beams. Behind the townhouse was a cluster of similarly austere buildings:
quarters for guards, stables, and storage rooms. The remainder of the compound was taken up by a garden, trimmed and neat and severe in its beauty. Curving pebble paths arced around a pond full of
colourful fish, past a sculpted fountain and a shaded bench. The whole was surrounded by a high wall with a single gate, that separated the compound from the wide streets of the Imperial Quarter.
The morning sun beat down on the city, and the air was humid and muggy. Not too distantly, the golden ziggurat of the Imperial Keep loomed at the crest of a hill, highest of all the buildings in
the city.
    Within the townhouse, Mishani tu Koli sat cross-legged at her writing desk and laboured through the last season’s fishing tallies. Blood Koli owned a large fishing fleet that operated out
of Mataxa Bay, and much of their revenue and political power was generated there. It was common knowledge that crabs and lobsters stamped with the mark of Blood Koli were the most tender and
delicious (and hence the most expensive) in Saramyr. It was a benefit of the unique mineral content of