Julia Unbound Read online

  ALSO BY CATHERINE EGAN

  Julia Vanishes

  Julia Defiant

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2018 by Catherine Egan

  Cover art copyright © 2018 by Gustavo Marx (girl), Shutterstock (background)

  Map copyright © 2018 by Robert Lazzaretti

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web! GetUnderlined.com

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 9780553524888 (trade) — ebook ISBN 9780553524901

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

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  Contents

  Cover

  Also by Catherine Egan

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Map

  People, Places, and Things

  Nago Island

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Day 2 to Day 4

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Day 4, Evening

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Day 5

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Day 6

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Day 7

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Day 8

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Day 9

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five

  Chapter Forty-six

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Chapter Forty-eight

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Day 10

  Chapter Fifty-one

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Chapter Fifty-three

  Chapter Fifty-four

  Chapter Fifty-five

  Chapter Fifty-six

  Chapter Fifty-seven

  Day 11

  Chapter Fifty-eight

  Chapter Fifty-nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-one

  Chapter Sixty-two

  Chapter Sixty-three

  Chapter Sixty-four

  Chapter Sixty-five

  Day 12

  Chapter Sixty-six

  Chapter Sixty-seven

  Chapter Sixty-eight

  Chapter Sixty-nine

  Chapter Seventy

  Day 13

  Chapter Seventy-one

  Chapter Seventy-two

  Chapter Seventy-three

  Chapter Seventy-four

  Chapter Seventy-five

  Chapter Seventy-six

  Day 14

  Chapter Seventy-seven

  Chapter Seventy-eight

  Chapter Seventy-nine

  Chapter Eighty

  Chapter Eighty-one

  Chapter Eighty-two

  Chapter Eighty-three

  Chapter Eighty-four

  After the Revolution

  Chapter Eighty-five

  Chapter Eighty-six

  Chapter Eighty-seven

  Chapter Eighty-eight

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  For Gillian—

  All the way through every story

  I am waiting for you under the streetlamp

  Let’s go

  Ammi: A witch; Julia and Benedek’s mother

  Professor Baranyi: A scholar and friend to Mrs. Och; once jailed for heretical writings

  Benedek: Julia’s brother

  Dafne Besnik: A noble girl chosen by Casimir to marry Duke Everard and become queen of Frayne

  Bianka: A witch; Theo’s mother; drowned by Mrs. Och

  Casimir (Lan Camshe): One of the Xianren, seeking to reassemble all three parts of The Book of Disruption

  Csilla: Part of Esme’s gang; a former actress turned con artist; Gregor’s lover

  Esme: Spira City crime boss, now one of the leaders of the burgeoning revolution

  Idir Faruk: A witch; Zara’s ex-tutor and Lady Laroche’s friend

  Frederick: A brilliant young student; Professor Baranyi’s assistant

  Gennady (Zor Gen): Youngest of the Xianren; Theo’s father; imprisoned by Casimir

  Gregor: An ex-aristocrat con man working for Esme; Csilla’s lover

  Agoston Horthy: The prime minister of Frayne

  Lady Laroche: A witch; the head of the Sidhar Coven in Frayne

  Lidari: A general of the Gethin; Marike’s associate

  Liddy: An elderly shoemaker with a large network of mysterious connections; Julia’s friend

  Emil Lorka: A famous artist and Wyn’s hero; a member of the revolutionary set

  Marike: A witch; the first Phar and founder of the Eshriki Empire

  Mrs. Och (Och Farya): Eldest of the Xianren; fatally injured by Julia in Kahge

  Pia: Casimir’s enforcer

  Ragg Rock: A name for both the hill between the world and Kahge and the mud woman guarding it

  Silver Moya: A wit
ch called to act as a gatekeeper between the world and Ragg Rock

  Lord Skaal: Half-man, half–Parnese wolf; in Agoston Horthy’s employ

  Theo: Gennady and Bianka’s toddler son, with a fragment of The Book of Disruption bound to his essence

  Dorje Tsewang: A mysterious Xanuhan woman working for Zara

  Sir Victor: A nobleman forced into a contract with Casimir; his daughter is a hostage in Agoston Horthy’s court; a double agent

  Wyn: An orphan and a crook; Esme’s adopted son; Julia’s ex-lover

  Zara: Claimant to the Fraynish throne and leader of the revolution

  King Zey: The dying king of Frayne

  The Ankh-nu: A double-spouted clay pot made to transfer the essence of a living being from one body to another

  The besilik mirror: A mirror with magical properties, used for searching inside someone’s mind or unearthing memories

  The Book of Disruption: The first written magic and origin of magic in the world, said to have been written by Feo, spirit of fire, and broken into three pieces by the other elemental spirits

  The Eshriki Empire: A powerful witch empire three thousand years ago whose rulers called themselves the Phars

  The Gethin: A now-extinct army of creatures brought into the world from Kahge and given physical form by Marike, the first Eshriki Phar

  Kahge: A magic-infused reflection, shadow, or image imprint of the natural world, created when The Book of Disruption was split into three

  The Lorian Uprising: An unsuccessful revolution in Frayne eighteen years ago, intending to supplant King Zey with his more moderate brother, Roparzh

  The nuyi: A parasite that embeds itself in the brain and conquers the will of its host—used by Casimir to assert control over those in his employ; called his “contract”

  The Sidhar Coven: A Fraynish coven of witches—of which Julia’s mother, Ammi, was a part—involved in the Lorian Uprising

  The Xianren: Immortal siblings, sometimes allies and sometimes enemies, each charged with protecting a portion of The Book of Disruption—Casimir (Lan Camshe), Gennady (Zor Gen), and Mrs. Och (Och Farya)

  I wake up with his hands around my throat.

  She is a burnt husk on the bed, a charred and twisted branch, like something left behind after the fire has raged through. But she is somehow alive, if you can call it that. Her breath comes in and out in slow, laborious rasps; her blackened chest rises and falls. At first I wonder why they don’t cover her, but then I imagine it must be painful to have clothing or blankets touching that seared flesh.

  When her breath rattles to a halt, the two men at her bedside lean forward. And then: another gasp, the burnt chest heaves. They relax—deflate. I call them men, but they are not really men. They are the Xianren, ancient, immortal siblings—or as close to immortal as any living thing can come. There is no true immortality. Their sister dying on the bed is proof of that.

  A hunchbacked woman with fair, graying hair and sad eyes sits in the corner of the room. I know her. The last time we met I fired as many bullets as I had into her, for all the good it did. She has a cartridge pen in her hand, and she is writing in a book that lies open on her lap—writing magic. The room smells of damp earth. Her gaze flickers toward us and rests on me, appraising, curious. The brothers do not look up. It becomes obvious that they did not hear us come in at all—too bent on their sister’s every breath. Pia says, in her broken-glass voice, “Here is Julia.”

  They look up: Casimir, his face livid, all sharp edges and dead stone eyes, and Gennady like a broken lion, huge and golden-hued. I’ve been here a week, but they have been sitting vigil, and I was not summoned to see them until now, no matter how I begged for news of my own brother. I’ve been locked in a tower room playing cards with Pia, waiting. We got in the habit of cards on the long sea journey from Yongguo: King’s Heir, Four Realms, Evil Eights, Diamond Jack. It’s true that I count Pia my enemy, when I pause to count my enemies, but she’s all I’ve had for company for over a month now, and we had to pass the time somehow. One can’t fill every hour counting enemies.

  Casimir rises, a flash of panic on his face that surprises me. Surely he is not afraid of me? But maybe he is. After all, look what I did to his sister.

  “I told you—” he snarls at Pia. Her knees buckle; she steadies herself against the doorframe. The mechanical goggles fixed over her eyes swivel in and out. The hunchbacked witch—I know her only as Shey—looks back and forth between Pia and Casimir. When Casimir speaks again, it is to me, and his voice is unnervingly calm: “You left a mess behind you in Yongguo.”

  “I’m here for Dek,” I say.

  I am waiting for the moment when I can pull this man out of the world and destroy him like I did his sister. I will end him—but her scorched body on the bed and the horrible sound of her breathing shake my resolve more than I’d expected.

  He points a trembling finger at her. His voice might be steady, but he is not steady, not at all.

  “Look at what you have done to her.”

  We all look at her. I used to think about forgiveness. I used to want it for myself. But I’m past all that, and I forgive nothing.

  Her breathing comes to a choking stop again. The silence stretches out. Gennady moans. I make myself watch. If I did this, and if I was right, then I don’t get to look away.

  “Save her,” Casimir says to Shey—somewhere between a plea and a command.

  “I can only ease her pain.”

  “She is not dead yet. You can save her!”

  Shey keeps writing in her book and says, “Not for long, and even if I could, it would cost me too much.”

  His face twists. His voice comes out a shriek: “Do as I say, witch!”

  Shey puts her pen down and looks at him. The color drains from his face. I can see in that moment that he’s afraid; he’s overstepped. She picks up the pen again—a weapon, in her hand.

  A gurgle, a cough, a gasp from the carcass on the bed.

  “She killed Bianka,” I say to Gennady.

  He raises his head slowly, like it’s too heavy for him.

  “Bianka is dead?”

  I nod, and he sags forward. He will blame himself, I reckon, and rightly so. Between the three of them—for they each played a part—the Xianren destroyed Bianka. If not for Gennady, though, she would never have been involved at all.

  “My sister has been asking for you,” says Casimir.

  I can’t quite see how she would manage to ask for anything, but I walk to her bedside. I find her eyes open in what used to be her face. Her hand moves suddenly, like a snake, closing wetly around my wrist, her grip stronger than I would have expected. I stifle a scream. With the next tortured exhalation, she says: “Julia.”

  I’m sorry. That’s what leaps to my lips, but I shut my teeth over the words. I’m not sorry. Die, old thing. Just die.

  “I tried to,” she whispers. “Everything…depends on. You must. The book, Lidari. Don’t let him.”

  And then she stops breathing again, eyes rolling around frantically, and her enemy brothers bend over her, stunned by their grief because death has never truly touched any of them before in all of their thousands of years as sometime allies and sometime foes. But she’s not dead—she’s still holding on to me. I yank my wrist free.

  She heaves another breath.

  “Is that it?” I say.

  Casimir pivots and shoves me away from her so that I stumble backward, nearly falling over. I regain my footing and whip my knife out of my boot. Just instinct, that. We stand staring at each other, and then Casimir says coldly to Pia: “Why is she armed?”

  Pia shrugs. “What is she going to do with a knife? Cut your throat?”

  “Get her out of my sight.” He turns his back on me and my useless knife, bending his long body over his sister again. />
  Shaking, I slide the knife back into my boot lining. Pia’s boot, actually; everything I’m wearing is hers. I could have asked for other clothes once we got here, but the truth is I prefer dressing like her. It feels like wearing a kind of armor. And what am I going to do with a knife? The witch, Shey, watches us go, pen poised. Pia takes me back to the room at the top of the castle where I’ve been passing the days since my arrival.

  I slump in a chair and drop my face into my hands, trying to blot out the sight of Mrs. Och’s ruined body, her eyes still the same in that face that is no longer a face. The book, Lidari. I feel sick at being called Lidari—the monster that may or may not be trapped inside me—and bewildered by her message. Was she asking me not to let Casimir assemble The Book of Disruption? As if I need to be told.

  Pia slings herself into the chair across from me, takes out a pack of cards, cuts and shuffles the deck, deals out.