His beak clicked a few times, as he worked out how to answer her. “The matriarch could only heal others, not herself.”
Cierra found herself a little saddened by his words. Part of her had hoped that if Grandmother Yasta had survived, maybe she could have helped with understanding the strange gift that seemed to be manifesting when Cierra was in mortal danger. Before she could ask any more questions, Aphano opened another door. The room in front of them held a table laden with food. Cierra’s mouth watered just from looking at it. She stepped inside without thinking. The lighting was closer to what she was used to in the dungeon.
A deep voice caught Cierra off guard as a man stepped out of the shadows. “Aphano, please wait outside.” Karl stood at the head of the banquet table.
“You can’t leave me with him!” Cierra spun to look at the Aphian that had brought her out of hell and delivered her to the devil himself. Aphano averted his eyes and stepped outside of the room. Cierra heard the door lock behind him. She turned to face Karl. She was on her own.
“Please, have a seat. I’m sure you’re starving. Why don’t we have a meal together?” Karl smiled at her.
“I’ll pass, thanks.”
“Really? Can you really resist all of this hot, delicious food? I had the kitchen make it especially for you.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Cierra tried to keep her eyes on Karl, but she kept glancing at the dishes on the table.
He let out a small laugh. “It isn’t poisoned, if that’s what you’re afraid of. What kind of man would I be if I laid out a poisoned banquet in front of a starving woman?”
Cierra looked at him warily, and then took the seat farthest from him. As she reached out to load her plate up, she also managed to palm a knife. If nothing else, she would have a weapon against Karl for later, if required. She thought about taking some food back to the others. If she was careful, she might be able to stash something in the folds of her clothing for them. Lifting up a piece of meat, she sank her teeth into it. Juices dripped down her chin. She couldn’t remember anything being as delicious.
Karl smiled, and sat down in the chair at the head of the table. He pulled out his lasana blade and laid it across the wooden table in front of him. “How are you liking your accommodations?”
Cierra looked at him in disgust. “Is that supposed to be some kind of sick joke? It’s a dungeon. How do you think I’m liking it?”
“Well, you have your friends in there with you. That should give you some comfort.” Karl paused for a moment. “Well, at least most of them are there. I think I made a bit of a mess of your cyborg friend. Luckily for me, the oil washed off of my blade as easily as her blood did.”
Cierra shoved more food in her mouth to keep a string of curse words from falling out. It was clear that Karl was still under the impression that he had killed Cherish. She intended to keep it that way. The less she revealed about them, and the more that Karl opened up, the better. All she had to do was let him keep talking.
Karl rolled a piece of fruit around on the table in front of him. “But I guess, you must be getting used to losing teammates by now.”
“Did you only bring me here to gloat?”
“Well, that was part of it.” He smiled, and straightened his robes. “Did you really think that you would get away with it?”
“With what?” Cierra was careful. She didn’t want to accidentally let anything slip with him. Karl was devious. There was no telling what was going on in his mind.
“With killing the matriarch, of course.”
Cierra swallowed her mouthful of food. “You know very well that we did not kill her.”
“Still selling those lies, even after so many days in the dungeon? I hoped that you’d have come to your senses by now. Would you like to know something though?”
“What?” Cierra dug her fingernails into her palm, under the table where Karl couldn’t see anything. Her other hand was busy, grabbing more food that she might be able to hide somewhere on her body.
“You aren’t the only who can sell a lie.”
Her eyes narrowed in confusion, but it didn’t take long for her to realize what he was talking about. Cierra’s throat closed. She gasped for breath. Her body shook, as chills wracked her frame. White foam formed at the corners of her mouth. She clutched at her stomach. Intense pain radiated out from her core.
“You see,” Karl took a few steps towards her, “the food really was poisoned.”
Cierra fell to the ground, trying to force herself to vomit. If there was a chance that she could get some of it out of her, maybe she could still get out of this alive. She’d let her guard down because she was so hungry. Stomach acid burned her throat. Cierra retched. She managed to force out a little bit of her meal. Her shallow gasps for breath were all that she could hear.
Karl stepped over her shivering body. His robes dragged across her, leaving her feeling like an afterthought. He tapped on the door. “Stash her somewhere apart from the others. I want them to sweat for another day. She all but admitted that she was tying to kill the matriarch. My only regret is that I didn’t get there fast enough to keep her from killing such a beautiful servant of Batumah.”
Aphano rushed over to Cierra, and hooked his hands under her arms. “Is she going to be okay?”
“Oh, she will most likely die.” Karl flippantly sneered at the woman writhing in front of him. “Don’t give me that look, Aphano. She’d have died anyway. I’m only having her death serve Batumah’s purpose. She will be an example to anyone who dares to attack one of his followers inside our monastery. Be careful, Aphano. Someone might think you’re a rebel sympathizer.”
Cierra felt rough, scaly hands slip under her. The last thing that she felt were feathers brushing against her face before the darkness that had been hovering around her vision claimed her.
Four
Theo sighed again. “What could they possibly be doing with her?”
His frantic pacing was grating on Cherish’s nerves. She finally exploded with aggravation. “Theo, just sit down! You going back and forth isn’t going to magically wear a hole in the floor and set us free. It isn’t going to make them bring Cierra back any faster, either. The only thing that it’s going to do is wear you out, or quite possibly make me kill you.”
“You wouldn’t kill me.”
“Oh, if you keep that up, I just might. Besides, everyone else thinks I’m dead. No one’ll suspect a dead woman.” Cherish shifted her lasana blade out of her arm, for emphasis.
“Geez, alright. I’ll stop. Just put that thing away.” He stopped pacing, but he was still buzzing with too much anxiety to stay completely still. Theo drummed his fingers on his kneecap. “It’s been hours. What could they possibly be doing with her?” He sat down to Cherish after she shifted her blade back in.
“I have no idea. At least she was with Aphano. I don’t think he would do anything underhanded to her. Even if he believed Karl over us, he’s still a good teacher. He has a moral code.” Cherish tried to give him a reassuring smile, but she could tell by the look on his face that his worry was not eased. If she was being honest with herself, she was on edge, too. It didn’t bode well when team members were separated from one another.
Theo rested his head on the rock of the wall behind him. “I feel so useless here. I hate it. All I want is to get out of here, and get Cierra back. She’s my—” He stopped himself. He had started to forget that he wasn’t just pretending that she was his wife. That near slip of the tongue made him worry about how he was growing attached to her.
“I know.” Cherish stared blankly ahead. She was lost in her thoughts, as her own worries rose to the surface. “Tomorrow is Dargani. Jaedo still hasn’t been back. I’m beginning to worry he isn’t coming. The longer we go without food, the less likely it is that we will be able to successfully escape if we need to. Even if by some chance, Cierra does get us some information, it isn’t likely we will be able to do anything with it. We are running out of time. I
t may be time to revisit the plan of escaping on our own.”
Hearing her words, Makram nodded his blessing. He had been talking less and less, trying to save his energy. The only thing that he had really wanted to do since being thrown in the cell was get out of there. It had taken Cherish a week—and having Cierra separated from them—to reach the same conclusion. Makram fumed silently. They would have been so much better off if the team had just listened to him in the beginning. Maybe he should have asserted himself more. Now, they were down a person, and the three of them that were still in the cell were weakened by starvation and exhaustion. He fought back the urge to rub it in their faces. The more energy he could conserve the better, especially now that they were listening to reason. It was ridiculous that things had to get this bad just to prove that his way was the right way.
Theo pushed his lips together firmly. “I’m all for getting out of here, too. I can’t stand being in here, and not knowing if Cierra is okay. Maybe, if we can’t find her, she’ll have at least managed to teleport herself somewhere safe.” He glanced at his feet, uncertainly. He was frantically grasping at any straws that might make her survival more likely, but his worries didn’t stop there. “There’s something else that’s been bothering me, too. It’s not just Cierra, and being stuck in here, that has me tensed up. I keep having these really terrible dreams. I’ve had the worst dreams of my life since we’ve been put in here.”
“If anyone can relate to terrible dreams, it’s me.” Cherish stretched her legs out in front of her, and contorted her face, as she remembered her most recent dream. “The one I’ve been having recently, is about these four little umaguas that are—”
“Umaguas?” Theo wasn’t familiar with the word.
“They’re like these little round, aquatic, Mithunan lizards.” Cherish took a moment to explain before going back into her story. Something seemed to click in Theo’s mind as she described them. “Anyway, there are four of them in this pond, and a fat, one-eyed man is catching them, one by one. The first one that he catches, he makes the mistake of squeezing it too hard when he picks it up. He drops it back in the water, but it just floats there, dead in the water. Then he sees the second one. He catches it and holds its mouth open until it suffocates, out of the water. The third one, when the man catches it, it goes through some kind of transformation. It turns into an identical version of one-eyed man. The two of them run off greedily to a pond with even more little umaguas, but they forget about the fourth one. It’s a really sad dream, but this is where it starts to get even weirder. The fourth one swims around the first one so quickly that it comes back to life. The two of the living umaguas rush to save the one that suffocated out of the water. Before they can get there, they see suffocated one is already being helped by two more umaguas. Unfortunately, one of the human poachers turns around, and sees the two new ones trying to help the poor little dead one. One of the humans throws a rock, that instantly kills one of the helping umaguas. Then, the dream shifts. Suddenly, there are hundreds of humans! Luckily, the remaining four umaguas escape somehow, but the devastation left behind is just terrible to witness.”
“Wait.” Theo looked at her with wide eyes. “Does a great phaeodactyl swoop down and carry the four fleeing umaguas away in its claws? Like it’s trying to protect them?”
“How…how could you know that?” Cherish’s heart caught in her throat. She hadn’t mentioned anything about the dream to her teammates before. It had been a heavy burden on her heart, and she was afraid to think about what it might mean.
“I think we’ve been having the same dream. I’ve had it for three nights now.”
Cherish nodded. “That’s how long I’ve had it, too.” She was almost speechless by this development.
Makram decided that speaking up was worth the effort at that moment. “Wait, why have both of you been having the same dream?” It made sense for Cherish to have weird dreams, if that was her gift. Having Theo share those dreams was something else altogether.
Cherish watched Makram closely. “I take it, you haven’t been having that dream then?” She felt herself becoming more anxious, knowing that she wasn’t the only one.
“No.” Makram shook his head angrily. “Maybe I’m more focused on wanting to get out of here, instead of on dreaming about umaguas.”
Cherish’s eyes flicked to the door. She didn’t have time to say anything. She immediately fell to the ground, pretending to be dead. Less than a second later, the door to the dungeon was flung open. Karl made his way down the steps. Theo threw himself at the bars before he even realized that he was moving. Karl seemed unfazed.
“Where is Cierra? What have you done with her?” Theo was praying that Karl would get close enough to rip apart.
Makram glared at the Yasta. “I see they’re still letting scum like you walk around freely. Does anyone know you’re here?”
Karl chuckled. He twirled his lasana blade by his side. “Of course, they know I’m here. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. You think too small. That’s what’s wrong with you. Theo, move away from the bars. I’m only here for Makram, but I have no qualms about killing you if you act up.”
Theo glanced at Makram, who gave him the signal to stand down. Makram held out his hands to show they were empty. “You wanted me, Karl. Here I am.”
“Yes, there you are.” Karl opened up the cell. He held Makram at blade point while he exited the cell. Locking the door again, Karl escorted Makram out of the dungeon.
Cherish sat up as soon as the door shut behind Karl. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
“No arguments here.” Theo helped her to her feet. “Where do you think they have Cierra? Do you think she’s…” He couldn’t make himself say the word ‘dead.’ He didn’t think his heart could take it.
She shook her head. “Knowing Karl, if she was dead, he would have told us. Or even worse, he might have brought her dead body back to the cell. You have to remember, they all think I’m a corpse in here with you. No, I think they’re interrogating her somewhere.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Ready?” Cherish shot the lasana blade out of the sheath in her arm.
Theo nodded, and stepped back to give her room to wield the weapon. “Let’s get out of here.”
Five
The first thing Cierra noticed when she opened her eyes was the night sky. Stars twinkled in an inky blackness. Was she dead? Was this the afterlife? Her eyes started to take in more of her surroundings. The terrible ache in her stomach was gone. She managed to see a building under the night sky. Sitting up, she realized she was in an unfamiliar room, and the outside view had been through a large window. The building she could see was the main temple of the monastery. It slowly dawned on her that she must have been in one of the Brother Superior’s quarters. Cierra’s eyes started to move from the outside world, back to the room she was in.
As she turned her head, she saw a figure leap out of the shadows at her. Aphano wielded an infintium blade. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the blade soaring towards Cierra’s face. She closed her eyes and winced, waiting for the impact. After a second, when she didn’t feel the metal’s deadly blow, she opened her eyes again. The infintium blade was embedded in the wall beside her head. Cierra quickly leapt to her feet. The only weapon she had was her body. In one fluid moment, she leapt at Aphano. Her only chance was to move quickly and catch him off guard. She leapt toward him.
While she was airborne, Aphano stepped calmly to the side. Cierra landed awkwardly on the floor beside him. Her eyes were lit with a fire from within. Aphano simply reached out his hand to help her up. “I just wanted to make sure.”
“What?” Cierra was leery about letting him help her up. The last man she had trusted had poisoned her.
“Cierra, you have the gift of deflection.” Aphano’s voice was calm, and reassuring.
Jaedo, previously unnoticed by Cierra, moved from a chair in the corner of the room. He stood beside Aphano, and smiled down at her.
“Is it true that the others have developed gifts, too?”
“Jaedo? What are you doing here? Deflection? I thought my gift was teleportation.”
Aphano and Jaedo laughed good naturedly. Cierra eventually took Aphano’s hand. He helped her up, and guided her back to the bed. “Why don’t you sit down?” He continued after she was situated. “Our gifts are typically a natural process. Think of them like an evolutionary step up for those that Batumah finds worthy.”
Cierra was still trying to take everything in. “What exactly is a gift of deflection? Can you try to explain it a little better?”
Aphano turned to look at Jaedo. “Would you like to try?”
“I would love to.” Jaedo pulled a laser out of the back of his robe, and fired it at Ciera’s head. The blast veered to the side and charred part of the wall behind her.
“Could everyone stop trying to kill me, and use their words?” She looked at the both of them with wide eyes. “Also, earlier, you said that you wanted to make sure I had the gift? Does that mean you threw your sword at me and you weren’t sure I’d would deflect it?”
Aphano opened and closed his beak a few times. “I was ninety-seven percent sure you had it.”
“Well, that’s comforting.” Cierra crossed her arms over her chest in a huff.
Jaedo reached out to put two of his arms on her shoulders. “You’re missing the point. Batumah wouldn’t allow someone responsible for attacking the matriarch to have a gift. You are blessed and worthy. My gift is the ability to change my appearance.” Jaedo morphed his face slowly, from being broad, flat and green to being eerily human like—with skin tone to match.
“My gift is invisibility.” Aphano slowly faded until he couldn’t be seen. Then, just as slowly, he reappeared. “The gifts are natural enhancements, and typically they are geared towards self-protection.”
The Relissarium Wars Omnibus Page 39