Page 20 of Born for Lace

“Well, Dahlia.” He reaches out and wipes the wet trail from below my eye. “You’re very brave. The baby, Spero, is a Shadow.”

My chest starts to rise and fall, and as Tomar talks, the walls slowly press in on us. Everything goes deathly quiet, as if the air itself is afraid to move.

“A Shadow is an assassin. They operate above the king, directly for The Trade Master. If they find Spero, he will be sent to a specialised training compound where he will undergo unimaginable torment and stress drills.”

“A baby,” I gasp.

“Yes.” Tomar looks pained. “Meaningful Purpose starts in the womb. That is what they say, isn’t it? The Trade will condition him thoroughly, brainwash him beyond repair, and train him to kill or die for his Meaningful Purpose.”

I cuddle Spero to my chest as a bead of sweat slides down my back.

“At twenty-one,” Tomar clears his throat. “The Shadow will be released into The Cradle to join a menial Trade: Fish Trade, Windmill, Mining, or the like. Anonymous until summoned. Spero will be one of the deadliest creatures in The Cradle.”

“Why him? How do you know all of this?”

“Maple must have the Xin De genus somewhere in her lineage. The Shadow genus is recessive and extremely volatile. Shadows are bred in the laboratories, not often the result of a missed contraceptive.”

She didn’t miss it.

She didn’t brew her tea correctly.

I can’t say this, barely allowing the dangerous thoughts to surface.

“How do they know he’s one of these Shadows?” I ask again. “How do you know this? He is just a little baby, just born.”

“We found you and—” He pauses, the moment of hesitation worrying me. Is he withholding something? “Let’s just say we have connections. We went to the Medical Hub and overheard a man talking about Maple. A Xin De man in a purple tunic spoke Latin to the doctor. I have never seen him in the flesh, but I knew, without a doubt, who he was. Cairo, The Trade Master himself, was in the Half-tower either managing the Marshal takeover or perhaps, just perhaps, he was here for this baby.”

I blink at him, trying to absorb his words. “Maple speaks Latin. Her Ward taught her; she would have heard and understood.”

Her pleas to keep the baby from The Trade finally make sense, but… “Who are you?”

Tomar sighs roughly, eyeing me, diving in, trying to read my intent. “I help people escape.”

“Why?” I ask. Help is not free in The Cradle. Nothing is free in The Cradle.

He lifts his chin. “It’s my Purpose.”

I huff dubiously. “The Trade gave you Meaningful Purpose to help people escape the?—”

“I chose this,” he states, throwing me. “I gave myself this Meaningful Purpose.”

I don’t know how to respond to that. It’s not something I have ever heard before.

“Okay.” I nod. “But how doyouknow he is? I mean, really know. How could anyone know he’s this Shadow… thing, when he is just a baby.”

“They know.” Tomar nods regretfully. “Spero has excessively high iron levels in his blood, Dahlia. I just checked to confirm this.” He pushes back the fabric to show a small red dot on the back of Spero’s hand. His blue eyes meet mine again, an apology shiny from their depths. “I was gentle, I assure you. Levels that high would kill you and me, levels that high interact with the magnetic fields in The Cradle. They pull him and push him and control him like The Cradle itself has tethers to his very veins. He has the Shadow genus for sure, and The Trade will never stop searching for him.”

Never…The pressure of that hits my chest like a punch. I glance down at Spero. Such a sweet, tiny thing. “Does it hurt?”

“What?”

“The iron levels?” I pause, not entirely understanding. I’ve been told that The Crust has its own magnetic fields, the planet spins in the sky or something, and that in the old-world, birds used them to navigate and migrate. Is this similar to what happens to Spero? “The… um, magnetic push and pull. Is he in pain?”

“Not right now.”

“But one day?”

Sadness fills Tomar’s gaze. “It can be painful. That’s how The Trade controls them. This isn’t something people know, Dahlia. Shadows are the biggest secret in The Cradle.”

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