Theo quickly wrapped his arm around her to hide her confused face. “She’s still having a hard time accepting that Cherish is gone. We all are.”
The rookie’s quick thinking made Makram almost smile. He caught himself. It was good that Theo still had enough sense to keep some of their advantages to himself, even if Cierra had slipped up. He put as much sadness as he could into his voice. “Jaedo, this isn’t our first run in with Karl.”
“It’s not? How do you know him? Is he from your home world?” The Josti seemed intrigued by this new development.
Makram shook his head. “Nothing quite so pleasant as that.” He took the last two rolls from Jaedo, and passed one to Theo.
“So, you’re saying he has a history of doing unsavory things?” Jaedo’s eyes widened.
Quickly glancing at Theo, Makram set up the beginning of the story of how they had run into Karl. He had to hope that Theo had enough sense to catch on. It was time for the rookie to sink or swim. “We were back on Carristoux for a bit a few months ago. A trade deal went south, and…”
“He ended up killing my first love.” Theo felt Cierra try to pull away from him, but he held her close. Under the circumstances, he could claim that it was for the sake of their cover story. The truth was, he was tired of her trying to slip away from him any time Mari was brought up. It was a subject they hadn’t really discussed at length, but Mari was a part of his past now.
“A few months?” Jaedo looked at the couple carefully.
Realizing that the Josti was working out how quickly he must have remarried, Theo felt himself becoming defensive. He wanted to protect Cierra’s reputation, even if he was only pretending to be her husband. “Cierra and I knew each other for years before the incident.”
Jaedo’s eyes opened even wider. “The incident?”
Theo’s heart started to race. Had he said too much? He felt their lies slowly beginning to unravel. To his relief, Cierra spoke up. Her words were muffled by mouthfuls of bread. She hadn’t been able to resist the temptation of food any longer. “Relisse. Karl was responsible for destroying Relisse. My husband died in the fire, too.” She turned her green eyes to Theo, and ran her fingers along his cheek. “We were brought together by tragedy, but by Batumah’s grace, we were able to make something beautiful out of it.”
A sad smile touched the Josti’s lips. “Yes, I can tell when I look at you, you two are meant to be.”
Theo felt his heart warm. The sincerity of Jaedo’s words made him smile briefly. “On Carristoux, we saw him in Yasta monk robes, but we thought he had to be an imposter. We never thought he would actually be in the Yasta brotherhood. When we saw him here, we wanted to say something, but we were only acolytes. Who would believe us over a Brother Yasta that had proven himself in battle?”
“I believe you.” Jaedo reached out to grasp Theo’s hand. “There is something odd about him. I’ve noticed it myself.”
Makram was picking apart his roll. He was trying not to devour the whole thing himself. Cherish would need to eat, as well. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve seen him in training.” Jaedo’s eyes darkened, as he remembered the lessons. “There’s a viciousness about him. It is not the responsibility of the teacher to push the students. It is up to the students to push themselves. That way there’s always trust and discovery. When the teacher pushes hard…well…” His voice trailed off.
“What happened?” Cierra’s voice was almost a whisper, as if she were afraid of the answer.
The Josti’s face saddened. “Several of the students have had emotional and mental breakdowns. Two of them have not returned.” He looked at his friends, and determination replaced the sadness. “I will help you. I’ll bring you more food. Perhaps I will even be able to help you escape during Dargani, when everyone is busy with the festival.”
“Jaedo, please don’t put yourself in danger for us.” Cierra tried to keep the emotion out of her voice. “I don’t think I could stand to lose another person.”
A kindness beamed out of Jaedo’s face at her. “Batumah will take care of those who serve his purpose. He would not want three innocents to suffer in a dungeon like this. I am confident that he will protect me. After all, I am only an extension of Batumah. He has laid it on my hearts to help you.”
“Hearts?” Theo raised a questioning eyebrow.
Cierra hissed at him, and managed to jab a discreet elbow into his side. It seemed the bread had given her back enough strength for that at least. “Josti have two hearts. Don’t offend the one person offering to help us!”
The sound of bells chiming could dimly be heard through the door. Jaedo bowed a hasty goodbye to them. “If I’m not back for meditation, someone will notice. Stay strong, my friends.” As he disappeared, the small glimmer of hope they felt went with him.
It would take a few minutes for their eyes adjust back to the darkness. Until they could see again, they fumbled around by touch. Theo’s hand brushed against Cierra’s. For a small moment, he didn’t feel her pull away. Suddenly, a stirring in the cell beside them made them jump. Cherish raised up from her spot on the floor. Her eyes glowed dimly in the dark. Cierra took a drastic step away from Theo. He felt his heart sink a little. So, she was okay with touching him, as long as no one else knew about it.
Cherish turned her head towards Makram. She was the only one of them that didn’t need to adjust to the darkness. “So, what do we think?”
“I think,” Makram broke his roll in two, and passed half to Cherish, “that you need to eat.”
“You know what I mean.” She took the food eagerly, but wasn’t going to allow the subject to be changed.
He sat down beside her, and crossed his arms over his chest. “About the matriarch?”
“Yes.”
“What, you don’t think she’s still alive?” Theo stumbled over Makram’s outstretched leg on accident. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“Just sit down before you hurt someone.” Makram rolled his eyes, even though only Cherish could see his expression at that point. “It would make sense if they lied about her still being alive.”
Theo wrinkled his forehead together. “What? Why would they do that?”
“Think about it.” Cherish managed to form her words around her mouthful. “There are Brothers Superior coming here from all over the empire. Losing a matriarch this close to the festival could bring about some religious questions. If Batumah couldn’t protect a matriarch that had served him most of her life, in one of his most renowned monasteries, why should they think he would protect them when they went to battle?”
“Isn’t there at least a small chance that she’s still alive, though?” Theo had held an ember of hope in his heart ever since Jaedo mentioned that Grandmother Yasta was only wounded. He clung to it in the darkness of the dungeon. Surely, if she recovered, she would be able to straighten out the question of who had attacked her. On the other hand, if she was still alive, there was a good chance that Karl would try to finish her off.
Cherish’s memories right before her decapitation were spotty at best. She managed to make out a few frames of the grizzly sight from that day. “It’s possible, but her wounds were pretty severe. I don’t know if her gift of healing could have overcome what she suffered.” The same low whirring noise followed by a slight pause caught Makram’s attention again. He was noticing it more and more now that he had picked up on it. The noise made him uneasy.
“You’re wrong.” The resolute tone of Theo’s voice caught them off guard.
“What?” Cherish blinked at him, a little in shock.
“None of you have the healing gift. I do. You don’t know what it’s like. It isn’t something that you have to control all the time. When I was wounded on the climb up here, it just happened. I didn’t have to mentally force it to happen. That was when I had no idea what I was capable of. Grandmother Yasta has had years of experience. I refuse to believe that someone like Karl could just end her life, like snuffing out a candle.”
Cierra ground her teeth together. “Life isn’t always fair. I would think watching Relisse burn would have taught you that at least.” Theo’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough to see her turn away from the rest of the group. “I’m going to sleep for a little bit. Wake me if there’s anything important.”
Theo sighed, and followed her to the other side of the cell. He knew she probably didn’t want to be touched, but he couldn’t stand her feeling alone at a time like this. Even if he just laid down near her, maybe she would feel comforted by his presence. If that was all that he could offer her, at least it was better than nothing.
There was a slight pause while Makram gave Cierra and Theo time to get situated, and hopefully doze off a little. He turned to Cherish, with a worried look. “So, is there anything you want to tell me? Like, is anything going on with you that I should know about?”
“No. I can’t think of anything.” Cherish smiled at him, but one of her dimly glowing eyes flickered for a fraction of a second. As it dimmed, the small whirring sound faltered in the darkness.
Three
Cierra stared into the dark ceiling of the cell. Theo was dragging his hands across the bars in a lazy, but extremely annoying way. Before she even realized how much the repetitive noise was bothering her, she found herself yelling at him. “Theo, if you don’t stop that, I swear to Batumah, I’ll cut off your hands.”
“Go ahead, and try.” He lazily tilted his head to look at her. “I’ll just grow back whatever you cut off.”
Makram raised an interested eyebrow. “Is that offer good for everyone, or just Cierra?”
“Shut up, Makram.” Theo wrinkled his nose, as if he had smelled something unpleasant.
Cierra closed her eyes. “Where’s Jaedo? It’s been days. I can’t take this much more. We need food.” She rolled her head to the side to look at Theo. “Wait, crazy idea. What if we just ate part of Theo? He could just regrow whatever we cut off, right?”
Theo looked at Cierra with worry, and a bit of disgust. “Well, I for one am now terrified to fall asleep next to you. Thanks for that.”
Their small bickering was interrupted by Cherish screaming again. The three of them groaned. Makram moved his leg until the tip of his boot nudged her. “Cherish, wake up.”
Theo leaned his head against the bars of the cell. “How many times is she going to have these dreams?”
Another kick from Makram’s boot woke her up. His voice sounded bored. “You had another nightmare.”
“I’m so sorry, everyone. If I could make them stop, I would.” Cherish rubbed her eyes. Sleeping was becoming a rather unpleasant experience for her—not that any of them were sleeping particularly well in the cell anyway. “I never thought I’d miss the time when I didn’t dream.”
“Trust me. We all miss it.” Makram mumbled under his breath and scratched the layer of stubble on his chin.
“What time is it anyway?” Theo ran his fingers along a crack in the dungeon floor.
Cherish checked her internal clock. “It’s late in the evening. Everyone in the monastery should have already had dinner by now.”
Makram snorted. “Not everyone.”
Cierra rolled to her side to look at Cherish better. “How did you two know when you had a gift? Did you feel any different?” Her mind was still replaying the fight she had with Karl in the matriarch’s bedroom.
Cherish’s finger traced the slivery scar along her throat. “I didn’t even know mine was a gift until Grandmother Yasta told me. I thought I was just having dreams. It was definitely a weird experience because I haven’t dreamt since I was augmented, but other than that, I didn’t feel any different. I guess I’m not much help though. My gift just kind of happens when I’m asleep. I don’t really control it like Theo does.”
“For me, the first time it happened, I didn’t have any control over it.” Theo gently traced his fingers along the spot where Gopa had sliced him on the way up the mountain.
“What about the next time?” Cierra couldn’t hide her interest.
He shrugged. “I guess by that point, the Brothers Superior had already started my training. It wasn’t until they talked me through learning about how the human body works that I really started to feel my gift inside of me. Once I knew how to be aware of myself, I started to have a better chance of controlling my gift. It’s still a little spotty, but I’ve got the hang of it for the most part.”
“How did they teach you that, though? How did you become more aware of it and how to control it?” Cierra was studying his face carefully.
“The lessons were mostly about how tendons and muscles and veins all work together. When I could picture those parts working inside of me, I could visualize the healing process. That’s what really made things click for me. Well, that, and sometimes they would just chop off parts of me, and I would have to learn how to regrow it, or do without. That was terrifying.” Theo winced and wiggled the fingers that he had regrown during one of his lessons.
“You know,” Cherish thought back to her first dream, “looking back, I think my first dream was actually foretelling my death. The golden cloud that died symbolized me. The only problem is that the dreams are more metaphorical and vague than straightforward. It sucks to know that my dreams could be telling me about the future, but I may not even know what they mean until after the events have already happened.”
Theo squinted at Cierra for a moment. “Why so much interest in our gifts all of a sudden?”
Her cheeks turned pink, but in the dim lighting, it was hard for anyone to notice a change. “I…think I may have a gift now.”
“What? Really?” Cherish focused on Cierra with renewed intensity.
Theo was a little surprised that Cierra was only just now saying something. He thought that something had been bothering her since they had been thrown in the cell, but there never seemed to be a good way to ask about it without getting an elbow jabbed in his side. “What gift do you think you have?”
“Maybe…teleportation?” Cierra’s voice was quiet.
“You think you have teleportation, and you’re just now saying something?” Makram’s anger seeped into his voice.
“I’m not even sure I have it.” Cierra raised her voice defensively. “All I know is that one minute, I was fighting Karl, and he had a clear shot at me. Then, the next thing I know, he missed me completely. It was like one of us had moved a foot to the side, but neither of us had physically taken a step.”
Theo thought about his first lessons. “Maybe you should try meditating.”
“Meditating?”
“Yeah, it could help you focus your mind. Maybe you could try to transport yourself to the other side of the bars.” He looked longingly at the space outside of their small cell.
Cherish immediately shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. She might end up wedging herself into the rock wall. Cierra, why don’t you and I just spar? If it happened during a fight, maybe it was triggered by your survival instinct.”
“I don’t know if I have the energy for that.” Cierra tried to pull herself up into a sitting position, but her body was so weak, she just appeared to rock a little back and forth before falling back to the cell floor.
“You’re all a bunch of sellouts.” Makram sneered at them. “You’ve gone your whole lives without Yasta gifts. Now look at you.”
“Oh, shut up, Makram.” Cherish glared at him. “You’re just hungry. If she has a gift, we might be able to use it to our advantage. We just need to know what it is, and how it works.”
Makram chuckled dryly. “Yeah. Because knowing about your stupid dreams, has certainly helped us out here.”
Cherish cocked her head to the side. “Someone’s coming.” Quickly, she threw herself on the ground and adjusted the cloth around her throat. Cherish quickly calmed her breathing to where it was barely visible.
“Maybe it’s Jaedo with some food.” Theo turned his eyes hopefully towards the door.
The door to the dungeon swung open. Through the blinding light from the hallway outside, they were able to make out the outline of someone thundering down the stairs towards them. Cierra felt her heart sink. It wasn’t Jaedo. The figure marching towards them had bristling feathers, and a sharp beak: Aphano.
“Get away from the door, Theo. I’m only hear for one of you. If any of you tries anything, I will not hesitate to kill you.” Aphano puffed up his chest. He waited impatiently for Theo to crawl away from the opening.
Theo moved, but he still wanted to know their situation. “What’s the news? What’s going on out there? How long are we going to be stuck in here?”
Aphano swung open the door and dragged Cierra out of the cell. She cried out in a little bit of pain, but it didn’t stop him. “Shut up, or I’ll give you something to cry about.”
“Where are you taking her?” Theo started to move closer to Cierra, but Aphano drew a blaster from his waist.
“Don’t try to do anything heroic. She’s wanted for questioning.”
“Alright, alright.” Theo held up his hands. “Just don’t hurt her.”
Aphano closed the cell behind him, and locked it. “Whether or not I hurt her is entirely up to her.” He dragged her up the steps towards the door. In a few moments the dungeon door shut, cutting Cierra off from the rest of her team.
Cierra weakly stumbled after Aphano, having been allowed to clamber to her feet. “What’s going on?” The hall was only lit with bioluminescent lamps, but it was still much more than what she had been used to. Her eyes stung a little. Aphano had a grip on some of her matted hair. She felt him tug harder with every question she asked. “Is Grandmother Yasta alive? Did she heal herself? What’s happening with the festival?”
Rage built inside of him with every word that left her lips. Finally, he spun around, unable to take it anymore. Aphano drove his fist into the space where Cierra’s head was. To his surprise, he missed. His fist struck empty air. He looked at her with astonished, but knowing eyes. How could she have a gift if she was against the monks? Aphano took a small, deep breath. Maybe it was Batumah’s way of telling him he had judged her too quickly.
The Relissarium Wars Omnibus Page 38