The Wretched

by Brad Carsten

  “Where you going?” Quinn shouted. “Look at you, you can hardly walk. You look like master Balfries after the New Spring dance.”

  “I need to find Aylyn, to make sure she's okay. Just wait here for me, and I'll come and find you as soon as I know what in light's going on.”

  He found Kaylyn pacing around the wagons, searching the dark for any sign of the nightspawn. At least, nothing had happened to her.

  “Kaylyn, what are you doing out here? It isn't safe to be outside the wagons like this.”

  “If he's coming after me, I won't allow anything to happen to them. I won't allow it. I'll fight him if I have to. I'll stop him.” She clenched her fists and black energy enveloped her hands. The evil washed over Liam, and his stomach heaved.

  “Kaylyn. Your hands. Kaylyn.”

  She wasn't listening, and he had to take her shoulders to get her to look at him. That close to her, the evil soaked into him, through him, and his legs felt even more unsteady. He quickly took a step back, and then another. Who knows what that could do to him. “Kaylyn. Your hands. You're drawing power.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “I can't stay here. I can't hurt any more people, but if I leave, the hunter may track them instead of me. He’ll tear them to pieces. Even with their dogs, they won't stand a chance, and I can't keep hurting people like this.”

  “Kaylyn. Your hands. Look at your hands.”

  She looked down, blinking at the black flames, as though she didn't quite understand what was happening. Her breath caught, and the flames blinked out.

  “Even with your power, you can't take them all on by yourself.” He pulled her into a hug, carefully, in case her hands combusted again, and she broke down in tears. “I hate it. I hate it so much. It doesn't matter where I go, I just can't get away from it.”

  “It's okay. It's okay. We don't know what happened yet.” Didn't they though? Had she somehow lost control of her power? She'd hardly slept since leaving Brigwell, and she'd warned them that this could happen. And if that happened once, could it happen again? Next time they may not be so fortunate. With that, he had to force himself not to step away from her again.

  He looked up to see Quinn, and Fayre behind him backing away. She must have seen Kaylyn drawing her power. She knew. Liam moved to go after her, but she turned and ran. “Go speak to her,” Liam shouted to Quinn. “I’ll take care of things here.” This was all they needed.

  Seven people were injured, and only three of those with more than a few bumps, but no one died, thank fate. Madam Sage struck her head, when she was thrown from the wagon, but she had been attended to and was asking for Liam. Fayre and Quinn were nowhere to be seen, and Liam wondered if he'd found her in time, or if she had reached someone with the news. He tried to gauge the mood, as he eased his way through the camp. People scurried past, others sorted through the debris and burned carcases. He heard someone saying that the meat was already fettered, and another that much of the fruit and vegetables were spoilt on the branch, but nothing about Kaylyn. No one was paying him more than a passing glance, which meant that word hadn't spread yet, but even without Fayre, it wouldn't take them long to figure it out. He didn't want to leave again in the middle of the night.

  The Sage had been moved into another wagon, where they were trying to keep her in bed, but she wasn't having any of it. “I’m fine. I'm fine. Stop all your fussing and go and make yourselves useful somewhere else. There are things to do, and I don't have time to be lazing about like this.”

  When Liam came in, she chased the others out, looking please for the excuse. “Come on in. Close the door, and help me up, will you? I cannot have this talk with you from the blankets.”

  The side of her face was bruised, and she had a bandage wrapped around her head. Her leg and wrist were also bandaged, and a leg crutch had been propped up in the corner of the tiny wagon.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Don't you start with me as well. Assessing is dangerous at the best of times. I knew what I was getting into, and so any fallout from that is my business and mine alone.”

  “It's dangerous? But we were always told that it's perfectly safe. I mean, isn't that why you can assess children?”

  “Of course it’s dangerous, but we can't exactly tell them that, can we? and now with the nightspawn loose, it's even more so. The patterns have changed, and we’re left to relearn what we thought we knew.” She pointed to a chair in the far corner. “Bring that over here. The bed is far too soft for a serious conversation. That's it. Put it right here.” She settled herself into the chair, looking a lot more dignified, despite the bandages. “I confess though, what happened tonight, I have never seen before.”

  “What happened? All I remember is a bright light, and then being hit by something, and I woke up on the floor with half the wagon missing.” She could have at least warned him that something like that could happen.

  “I'm hoping that you'd help me figure it out. Do you know how assessing works?”

  “Not really. Only that you can find our potential somehow, but they don't explain much more than that.”

  “Well, yes, it's too much to explain to children, and we don't want to plant fear into their hearts. That can influence their behavior, but when you're assessed, you enter Gaharah, the place between this world and the world of the dead, and it's there that your true potential is released. It's like, when you dream, you aren't hindered by that which hinders you in the waking world. Your mind is free to do whatever you want and be whatever you want to be. As assessors, it's our job then to go in with you as an observer and interpret what we see. I don't know if you felt me there with you?”

  Liam shook his head.

  “Well, don't worry about it. There aren't many who can. For most, the world is too strong, too compelling.”

  “Is it real though?”

  “It's as real as this world, but not quite as structured, and the laws are different. There is no distance or marked positions. You can cover a mile in a single step, or never cross it at all, and the land you find there today, is not what you'd find tomorrow, and the year may even be different.”

  “What about the people that were there? Who are they?”

  “Many think that Gaharah is playing out the stories of those that have passed through from this life to the next. They cannot be harmed for they are but a memory, but for us, those memories are real enough for our minds to make them so. I have seen injuries forming on a person's body after they leave, with nothing here that could have caused it, and I have known higher ranking assessors to enter Gaharah and never make it out again. Yes, it's a fascinating place, but dangerous—extremely dangerous.” Her face was graver than ever. “But that doesn't matter. Let us get back to your assessment.”

  Liam drew a deep breath. This was it. This was what he had been waiting for. He settled onto the bed, giving her his full attention.

  “There are two areas I would like to talk about. The first is what I observed about you, and the second is far more serious, I fear, and it involves that companion of yours, Aylyn, but I suspect that isn't her real name anyway.”

  Liam didn't answer, and she didn't push it.

  “I see that you're a sensient, which means that you can commune with the land. Tell me, have you ever worked the land before?”

  “I ran my own farm in Brigwell for about ten years.” Commune with the land? What was she talking about?

  She nodded, as though she suspected as much. “And I imagine you made a small fortune off of it; that your crops were among the best at market. They were brighter, crispier, they lasted longer, were tastier and grew a lot quicker than the others.”

  Liam nodded, slowly. “My farm ran along a river and the soil was really good.”

  “That wasn't the soil. It was this.” She took Liam's hand and pressed it to his heart. “You could farm in a salt pan and achieve the same results. I suspected as much when I saw you and heard that you had bested Fayre. She is one of the most gifted tr
ackers I have ever met, even if her head is often in the clouds. She can follow a knot of soldiers for days without being seen, and yet, you sensed her almost immediately. That's another sign of what you are, that you can sense where things are around you—where people are, where places lie. I imagine, I could mention any town that you've visited and you'd be able to point to it directly.”

  “My father could also do it to a degree.”

  “Yes, our talents are usually passed on through the generations, which is why we find more candidates in the capital cities than in the outlying areas, but when we do find someone there, the ability is often stronger in them. I don't know why that is. Perhaps life and hardship make a stronger forge.”

  “So, you said I’m a sensient,” Liam said, getting back to the assessment. What he wanted to know most of all was whether that would have been enough to qualify him for the kingdom, but he didn't know how to bring it up without asking directly. “Is that common?”

  “Not at all. I've only come across a handful in my life, and none were as strong as you. Not even nearly.”

  “So, were they selected into the Kingdom?”

  She smiled as though she knew why he was asking that. “You want to know if you would have been selected.”

  “Well—”

  “Don't be embarrassed. I imagine it's a question that’s been on your mind for a very long time. A lot of importance is placed on the outcome of the assessments. Too much importance, in fact, but yes, you would have been selected, but where you ended up would have been dependant on what was happening in the kingdom at the time.

  During a time of peace, they may have set you over the king's fields and forests, or they may have sent you off to an outlying area to work the soil. If this was thirty years ago, when the city was expanding, they may have placed you in logistics, where you would help determine which areas needed what resources. Now in a time of war, they may have trained you up as a scout or a tracker, but yes, you would have been selected.”

  Hearing those words at last was both a relief and yet not quite as thrilling as he'd imagined.

  He could have been a farmer, or a tracker among other things? Perhaps some of his excitement for adventure had been lost since leaving Brigwell, but how was that any different to what he was already? He somehow expected something a lot more glamorous, like leading the king’s procession. He had imagined heading back into the capital after a successful campaign, with the kingdom banners flapping above them and people lining the streets to cheer them on. But still, he would have been chosen, and that felt wonderful. The first person he thought about telling was Kaylyn, and that excited him more than the news itself for some reason.

  That reminded him of what the Sage had said earlier about Kaylyn, and his excitement waned. “You said that there were two things you wanted to tell me, and that the second had something to do with K—with Aylyn.”

  “That’s correct. Gaharah, the layer where the assessments are carried out has opened, allowing the tainted ones through, but this has opened up new doors for us as well. We are seeing things that we haven't ever seen before. Your companion, Quinn, is one of them, and it would seem that so are you and the girl. You two are somehow connected. I do not understand it, but while I was assessing you, you somehow drew her into the assessment. You drew that power towards you, and I got to see what she was, and—” she hesitated, “I fear to say this, but the amount of power she holds, I have had few dealings with the syphers, but I have never felt it that unfettered in anyone. She is dangerous. Very dangerous.”

  “I've—I’ve witnessed some of her power,” Liam said, carefully.

  The Sage's face was grim. “It is more than just her power that makes her dangerous though. Her secrets run deep, and this is a warning for you, my young tracker, and I say this with heaviness in my heart, for I was taken in with her charms, but she has evil in her that has nothing to do with her power. I warn you now to tread carefully around her, for she isn't what she seems. When you pulled her in, I got but a glimpse into her heart, before she shut me out, and what I saw left me trembling.”

  Liam hesitated. He wanted to know what she was talking about and yet he knew that once that door was open, it would be very difficult to close again. He was beginning to feel things for her that he hadn't felt for anyone for a long time. A part of him wanted to walk away without betraying those feelings, but he found himself asking her anyway. “What—what did you see?”

  “I don't know exactly. It was only a glimpse, but—” the Sage suddenly looked afraid, which seemed out of place on a stern face such as hers. “I saw that her finger reaches all the way into the palace—into the hearts and the minds of those inside.”

  Liam kept his face straight. She didn't know that Kaylyn was an heir to the throne, and this was now getting too close to the truth. If that was the only revelation, Liam could deal with that, but what she said next left him just as rattled.

  “She was somehow involved in bringing the evil of the tainted ones upon the world.”

  There had to be a mistake. Liam tried to speak, but his throat had constricted, and he had to wrench his collar aside in order to breathe properly. “That's—” he was going to say that it was impossible—that he knew her. He felt his anger and indignation rising, but it retreated just as quickly leaving nothing but emptiness inside of him. He realised he really knew nothing about her at all—no more than what she had told him, and he now wondered if any of that was even true.

  “How—how sure are you of this?”

  “In Gaharah, your heart doesn't lie. It's why we can gauge your potential with absolute certainty. We have never been wrong. Not only was she involved, but she was instrumental in it.”

  “Okay but—have you ever read anyone that you weren't assessing. I mean, I was there, not her. Have you ever seen someone being pulled into the assessment before?” Instrumental in bringing the nightspawn into the land?

  “No. This night has been the first for many things.”

  “So, you may not have read her properly? Or she may have been halfway between the two worlds, so maybe—so maybe that wasn't her.”

  “That's not how it works.”

  “But you haven't seen this before, so tell me that it may be different this time?”

  “It's possible, but tracker, I'm telling you this as a warning about your companion. I know what I saw. Her secrets are dangerous, and if you truly desire to serve the kingdom, you will keep her close, and learn of her plans, while not allowing her into your heart. A woman of her beauty and grace could cloud your judgement, which I fear is already happening.

  “So, what should I do?” He needed time to think.

  “I can't answer that, but if you stay with her, you need to watch her like an eagle ready to hunt, and if her fangs come out, you must be willing to strike.” Liam thought about his dagger, and the last time he had intended to strike, and the thought turned his stomach. “That isn't all. My companions are among the greatest scholars in the kingdom. I told them that the explosion was a bubble of evil escaping through the door that we opened into Gaharah. That will buy you some time, but it's not going to take them long to figure out the truth, and what she is, and for both our sakes, she needs to be long gone by then. I'll arrange a wagon and some food. I don't think you'll need to worry about the tainted ones, but you may have to worry about the lumbrocks.”

  “If she's so dangerous, why are you letting her go?”

  “Killing her solves nothing, and we haven't the men or resources to hold her a prisoner. If we are to unravel the truth, you must figure out what really happened. The answers are somewhere inside of her, and the kingdom needs you to draw them out.”

  “But, if she's really involved with the nightspawn, how am I supposed to do that?”

  “You will have to find the strength inside of you, and if this helps, I cannot see her motive, only her actions. She brought them here, but perhaps she was justified in doing so, I cannot say. If that helps to take her into your confi
dence again, then so be it.”

  How could it? What reason could she have for doing that? If she really did it at all.

  “Straighten your shoulders now, and find your courage before you leave this wagon. Do you hear me? I don't know why she chose you; perhaps fate allowed it, but she is closer to you than anyone. You are the only one who can find out the truth, and perhaps find a way to reverse what has happened to the kingdom. She has the answers, and you need to dig them out of her.”

  “For the kingdom,” Liam said, without conviction. A kingdom that discarded him, because he was too old to be of any use to them. If not for them, then for his village at least, and his father—to prove that some good could come out of his assessment after all. “If I do this, I cannot bring Quinn into it.” He didn't know what to believe, but if Kaylyn was as the Sage said, then he couldn't put Quinn’s life in danger. “This is my burden, not his.”

  The Sage nodded grimly. “I'll take care of your companion. There is much I still need to do with him. He seems taken with young Fayre. I will get her to distract him long enough for you to leave. I give you my word.”

  “Thank you.” As Liam turned to go, she had a final warning for him.

  “Tread carefully, my young tracker, for your life may now balance on a knife's edge.”

  Chapter 18

  Liam found Kaylyn away from the wagons. She had stopped pacing and was sitting slumped over on a rock, looking forlorn. She saw him coming and leapt to her feet. “Liam, what happened? What did she say?” She tried to take his hands, but he busied himself with adjusting his knife belt. It was an excuse to keep a weapon close at hand, until he could sort through it all in his mind.

  Why did she want to know? Was she trying to figure out what the Sage knew, or was she really worried? Was this all just an act until she could find the heir and kill him? “Liam, what's the matter? What happened?”

  “Nothing.” He forced a smile. “I'm just thinking about the assessment, That's all”