Read The Girl at Midnight for Free Online

people believe crazy things. Magic courses through this world like an unseen ocean. It flows, in and out, like a tide. When the Drakharin felt that tide receding, they wanted someone to blame. Animosity has simmered between our people over petty grievances for millennia, so the Avicen made a convenient target. I doubt it was as calculated as that, but the seed of that idea grew until no one questioned its validity. Now fighting fuels more fighting, and hatred breeds more hatred. It almost doesn’t matter why the war began. We’ve fought for so long that I fear we’ve forgotten how to do anything else. But I know, in my soul, that the tide is changing. The firebird is no simple legend told to little Avicelings before bedtime. It is rising. I can sense it like the surge of a wave on the horizon.”
    “You got some good mileage out of that sea metaphor. I’m impressed,” Echo said.
    The Ala sighed. “Is everything a joke to you?”
    “Only the things that matter.” Echo shrugged. “So, let’s say this firebird thingy is real. What are we going to do about it?”
    “
We
are going to do nothing.” The Ala shook her head, peering around the room. Her eyes came to rest on the dark walnut sideboard so loaded with candles of every size and shape that their combined flames emitted as much light as a roaring fire. “For now, just keep this to yourself. I don’t need the general finding out I have it.”
    “Altair?” Echo asked. “What does he have to do with anything?”
    The Ala pursed her lips and huffed out a frustrated breath. “Let’s just say that Altair has been interested in the firebird for some time now. He’s what one would call a true believer, and searching for the firebird has been a priority of his for over a century. At one time, the other members of the Council of Elders agreed with him, and he managed to sway even the most ardent of skeptics. A vote was held about a hundred years ago that determined the hunt was worthy of a military operation.”
    “Really?” Echo said. “I can’t imagine the councilors in charge of things like food distribution and living arrangements would be game for military shenanigans.”
    The Ala’s expression hardened. “Five of the six councilors voted to send out an operative whose sole mission was to find the firebird. I was the lone dissenter.”
    “Why?” Echo said. “Wouldn’t finding the firebird be a good thing?”
    “Finding it wasn’t what I took issue with,” the Ala said. “I didn’t—and don’t—believe that Altair is the best person to control it. The Avicen government is run by the council, but he can be persuasive when he wants to be. I fear that in his hands, the firebird would become a weapon. I hope that one day this conflict finds its resolution, but I prefer toseek out peace, not more death.” She motioned toward the map. “The notes on that map were written by that operative.” She paused. Sadness flitted across her face for the briefest second before she schooled her features. Echo wanted to ask what was wrong, but the moment passed and the Ala continued. “The last communication we received from her was sent from a safe house in Kyoto that was Avicen-controlled until the Drakharin won that territory from us in the 1920s. After the operative disappeared, the trail of the firebird went cold, and the council lost interest in Altair’s zealous quest soon after. He has sent spies into Kyoto once or twice since then, but the Drakharin have strengthened the wards around their territory so much that it’s practically impossible for Avicen to sneak past them undetected.”
    Echo nodded. The Ala had always been candid with her, but she’d never before shared this much information about the inner workings of the Avicen government. “Okay, my lips are sealed, but if Altair asked you about it, couldn’t you just tell him to mind his own damn business?”
    The Ala sighed. “Unfortunately, dear, that’s not how a government by committee