by Brad Carsten
He frowned at her, in no hurry at all. “Are you an angel.”
She blinked in surprise. “An angel? Uh yes, yes I am.” She felt guilty right away about lying to him, but she was running out of time. “And I'm here to get you out.”
He whispered a prayer of thanks under his breath.
She withdrew the vial from her pocket. “Drink this. It's magic. You'll feel your body lifting and then it'll be all over. You'll be free.”
She popped the cork, and lifted it to his lips.
He hesitated, but she smiled, fighting back the urge to scream.
The banging was getting louder, and the hinges were starting to give way.
“It's okay. I'm here to get you out. I'm here to rescue you. Just take a sip. It'll restore your strength.”
The knight was mumbling deliriously, but he did as she said. “That's it. That's right. Just drink that. It'll all be okay.” He looked at her, but his eyes weren't quite focused. He tried to speak, but all that came out was something about an angel and then his eyes closed and his head dropped forward.
The door splintered apart. This was it. She pressed the vial to her lips. Thinking of Liam to give her courage, she swallowed. It was thick and bitter, and she had to fight back the urge to bring it up again. She lay on the floor, feeling all shaky inside, and her mind began swirling with colours and shapes like she was in a dream. She heard bootsteps and the room faded.
Chapter 29
Voices swirled around Liam's head, mixed with images of people in cages and giant knights charging towards him.
He couldn't move his leg. It felt pinned down by a boulder. He tried to crawl away, but couldn't. Thousands of people crowded around him... Hands reaching out... The voices swirling closer... Faces leaning in... Mouths opening... Teeth bared...
Light burned in the distance, drawing closer, closer. It hit his eyes, spraying into them with the sound of rushing water. Pain burst through his leg. He screamed, but he couldn't hear his voice.
The light formed into shapes—a table and someone getting up out of a chair. “Liam?” The figure glided towards him.
“Kaylyn?” Where was he? What was he doing here? Slowly, the fog lifted, and he remembered the tower, and falling, and there were prisoners crowding around him. It was all so hazy.
Kaylyn knelt beside his bed, smiling that beautiful smile. “Liam, thank mercy. You've been out for over a day already.” She brushed the hair out of his eyes and kissed his head. “How're you feeling?”
He had to work moisture back into his mouth. “Like I was caught in a stampede.” He tried to sit up, and fresh Pain burst through his leg.
“Be careful. You had a nasty fall. Here, let me help you.” She got him upright and propped some pillows behind his back. “We braced your leg as well as we could, but it's going to take a while to heal.”
He studied her face, with the diffused light of the window spilling across her soft lips, and her concerned frown, and decided if he was forced to see her in this moment forever, he'd die having lived a full life.
He lifted her hand and kissed it.
“Can I get you something to drink?” she said. “Some water perhaps? That's all there is unfortunately. Master Livius thinks that milk is only good for getting mildew off the squash leaves, and he says that wine is a vice.” She rolled her eyes. “The man can be exasperating, but I made a fresh jug of water with mint and lemon. It's how they always served it in the palace.”
“In the palace? Are you trying to refine me?”
“Oh yes, once I'm done with you, you'll be as courtly as a duke. Actually”—she squeezed his hand—“I like you just the way you are.”
“With my leg broken?”
She slapped his chest. “You know what I mean.”
As she was leaving, he called to her. “Kaylyn. I'm glad I met you.”
She smiled that beautiful smile. “Me too.”
He didn't realise how thirsty he was, until he took the first sip.
Kaylyn chatted away happily, and he stole a look at her, thinking how lucky he'd been to find her. He thought about all that had happened on the roof outside the tower, and how she'd opened up to him about what she'd done. That took a lot of courage—as much courage as facing lord Bowen and those ten-foot knights without casting. She was determined not to use her power again, which was the right decision. Since leaving Luthengard, he could see a change in her, as though the darkness had lifted, and a part of the real her was shining through. He liked the new Kaylyn. To think how many times he'd almost walked away. He'd have to make it up to her now. He imagined running away together and eventually finding their way to the island of Petu which she had such fond memories of as a child. It was a pleasant thought—one that was worth holding on to, but he guided his mind back to her, back to what she was saying.
She was filling him in on what happened in the tower after he broke his leg, and how she'd just managed to lock the door when those creatures slammed into it.
“What was it like up there?”
“Like the rest of the tower, except it was empty which felt strange after squeezing through everything to get there. There were only four cells at the top, which is where they must have kept the worst of the prisoners. The first door was hanging open and my heart began beating. I was so afraid that I wouldn't find anything that I almost couldn't go any further. The first cell was empty and so was the second and the third. I had almost given up hope when...” she paused for dramatic effect.
“What? What did you find?”
A smile crept across her lips.
“Was he there? Did you find him?” Liam straightened, and fresh pain burst through his leg.
“Yes, yes. I found him. Just keep still before you pass out again.”
“Forget my leg. Was he still alive? Did you speak to him? Did you manage to get him out?”
She nodded excitedly. “But he's in very bad shape. He came around a few hours ago, and I tried to speak to him, but he wasn't making sense. I don't think he knows what happened yet, or that he's even out of the tower. I think it's going to take a while before I'll know anything for sure. Oh, I wish I didn't have to wait. It feels like I'm going to burst. I have half a mind to go in there and empty a bucket of water over his head.”
“Just be careful, whatever you do. We still don't know why he was in the tower. He could be dangerous.”
“I know. Master Livius and I were talking about that earlier. We tied him up, which should hold him for now, but if he had something to do with my father's... Oh, I don't even want to think about that right now.”
Liam stayed in bed for most of the day, drifting in and out of sleep. His body ached, but he didn't have the energy to get up.
He awoke a few hours later with shouts drifting in through the window.
Liam wondered what in Fate's name was going on. He sat up, slowly this time, careful not to move his leg. Despite the bad weather, the sky was growing darker. It must have been late afternoon already. Outside, the rain was drumming the roof of an oversized wagon that looked a lot like the archive.
'Quinn,' he realised with a start.
He slipped out of bed, using the side table for support. Master Livius had set his leg with bandages and a wooden brace, but every step jolted through him, and he had to force back the bile in his throat.
“Quinn?” Liam shouted down to him. “What are you doing here?”
“Liam? Thank Fate I found you.” His wet hair was plastered to his face, and he had a desperate look in his eyes. “Get Kaylyn. Quickly. It's Fayre.” He backed off towards the wagon, his boots splashing in the mud.
“What's wrong? Is she okay?”
“Just get Kaylyn.”
He emerged from the wagon a moment later with Fayre hanging limply in his arms. It took a lot to unsettle Liam, but seeing her like that frightened the boots off of him.
The old drawbridge hit the bank, and Kaylyn ran out to help.
Liam looked around for a broom or something that
he could use as a crutch, but there was nothing, and so he made his way over to the door using the furniture for support. By the time he reached it, Quinn was already coming up the stairs with Fayre in his arms.
“She's dying,” he shouted.
“Quickly, get her onto the bed.” Up close, she looked even worse, but at least she was still breathing. For how much longer though, he couldn't say. She reminded him of Tarla, in those final hours when her body began to fail.
Quinn carried her to the bed, and Liam began his long journey back along the furniture.
“Quinn, why did you bring her here? She would have been better off in the infirmary?”
“Because you and Kaylyn can heal her.”
Kaylyn was entering the room behind Quinn carrying a jug of water and a cloth, and she gave Liam a puzzled look. “Quinn, Gaharah's destructive. If I could heal her I would, but—you know it doesn't work like that.”
“No, there's another source of power and it's not destructive.”
“Another source?” Liam said. Livius had mentioned the same thing; he'd said that long ago their power wasn't just destructive, and that they could create items of power as well. But what was that about HIM and Kaylyn healing her? What did he have to do with any of this?
“Yes, another source, and would you hurry up already?” He put his arm under Liam's and helped him to the bed. “Look,” Quinn scratched the back of his head in frustration. “The scribes aren't just looking for knowledge, they're looking for books—books that the syphers hid away a long time ago.”
“The mystic tomes,” Kaylyn said. “I've heard of them. It's the lost writings of the syphers, but that's a fable?” She wrung out the cloth and held it to Fayre's forehead.
“No, it's real,” Quinn said, “because I've seen it. I visited it. It's in Gaharah.”
“What do you mean you visited it?” Kaylyn said. Her voice weighed heavy in the stillness around them.
“Fayre told me where it was. It's in the archive. Well, not the archive, it's in the reflection of the archive, and that's where they're keeping the books.”
“And you saw this place?”
“Yes, I saw it. I was there. That's what I'm trying to tell you. There was a creature guarding it. He was huge,” Quinn stretched out his arms, “and he was made of stone.”
“The Willocks? But that's impossible.”
“You've heard of them?” Liam asked. A rock monster? Secret books stashed away in the reflection of the archive? It was a lot to wrap his head around.
Kaylyn looked rattled. “They were supposedly servants of the syphers, but they were hard to control and were violent. They'd crush cities and attack anyone they came across, until a huge army rose against them and they were driven back into Gaharah. They aren't common knowledge, even for the scribes, I'd imagine. There's no way you would have known about them unless...”
“Unless I saw it for myself,” Quinn finished. “Look, I don't know if they were violent or not, but I spoke to one in the wagon. He's been locked in it for the last few hundred years and has read every book in there. He explained how it worked. There's two layers, like snow on the ground, and if you reach through the snow, you'll hit the next layer. There's another layer underneath Gaharah that you can use to create and heal. Kaylyn, don't you understand? You can heal.”
“Oh, Quinn, even if that's true, even if the syphers could create things and heal people, that was a long time ago. I don't know how they did it. I know everything about Gaharah, I've lived with it my whole life, and I've never felt anything but evil in it, and it runs so deep. Even if you can reach through it, that would be like reaching into a well with your bare hands and expecting to touch the water.”
“That's because you were never supposed to cast on your own.”
Quinn put her hand on top of Liam's. “He said on your own you can only reach Gaharah, you can't go any further than that, but if you cast through Liam you can reach it. Remember when we were at the stone spans, you couldn't get through it but when Liam touched you, it worked. It worked Kaylyn. If you cast through Liam, you can reach this other place.”
“But Quinn, that doesn't make sense. Why would I have to cast through Liam?”
“Because he's a sensient. He said that syphers always cast through a sensient to protect them from Gaharah, and when I asked him what that was, he said that they were people who could commune with the land.” He looked at Liam. “That's what the Sage said about you. I know it is, because I read the journal, and when I asked him if they were good trackers, he said the best. They can feel directions and mountains, and could find their way through a forest at night. He also said that their senses grew stronger when they were around syphers.”
The words struck Liam like a hammer to his temple. That could explain why his senses had grown so much since he'd met Kaylyn. Quinn wouldn't have known about that, and he was right, Kaylyn shouldn't have been able to get through the stone spans—not with that much of Gaharah flowing through her.
“Why do you think you can do all those things?” Quinn said, “It's because you can reach the source of life, and so can Kaylyn if she reaches through you. Kaylyn, you mentioned a well. Right now, you are trying to draw water by hammering a bucket against the floor. It's impossible, but Liam is already touching the source of life. He is that well, and with him there, you can throw the bucket in and reach the water without a problem. You just need to cast through him. Please”—his voice cracked—“I need your help.”
Kaylyn stood like a lost child in a busy market. She didn't know what to do. “But what if he's wrong and...” She looked at Fayre, lying on the bed, and her words trailed off.
“Kaylyn. She's dying,” Quinn said.
“But what about the hunters? They could find the scent again. And Liam—his body's too weak. It could kill him. No, we can't just rush into this.”
“If you weren't drawing from Gaharah,” Liam said, would you still leave a trail?” This was crazy, but somehow it made sense.
“I don't know.” Kaylyn turned away, and when she spoke it was in a soft voice.
“Liam, I'll do it if you ask me, but please don't ask this of me. Please don't.”
She had just begun to heal, and Liam had given her his word, but what if any of this was true? What if she could heal Fayre? What if she could reclaim her life, and find her joy again?
“Kaylyn.” He touched her shoulder, and her breath shuddered. “I've seen what Gaharah has done to you, and if there's a chance that you can reach past it, and draw from the source of life, and if that can help you see yourself the way that I see you, then I'll risk it a thousand times over, but I won't ask it of you.”
As she searched his eyes, something shifted inside of her. He couldn't hear her thoughts, but he could see it in the way her eyes softened, and her shoulders relaxed, like they had when he took her into his arms that night at the scribes wagons.
“If I do this,” she said, at last, “then I do it for Fayre. She shouldn't have been brought into this, but I can't do it for me. I'm not ready for that yet.”
“That's fine. That's a good enough reason to try. I just hope this works.”
“Me too.”
She reached towards him, but clenched her fingers at the last moment.
“It's okay,” he whispered. “We can do this.”
She tried again, and this time, her hand settled on his forehead.
“I'm sorry.” She screwed up her face. Her hair blew back and evil, like pitch, slammed into him. The room lightened, and he was left in a murky void.
Black veins spread up Kaylyn's neck into her face, and creatures began gathering around the window, their claws scratching at the shutters to get inside.
Those black veins reached her eyes, turning them yellow.
The door blew open, and the creatures flooded into the room. They crawled around Kaylyn like vines wrapping around her legs. Others took hold of her, trying to draw her away.
Her eyes shut, and she leaned back into th
em.
“Get away from her,” Liam shouted, but it was like shouting into a storm. Anger bubbled up inside of him, and when he shouted, his voice rang out like a city gong. “I said get away from her!” Gaharah had already destroyed her and her confidence, and now it was seducing her again. He grabbed her arm, and something hooked into his chest. It stretched into him and through him.
She gasped as though plunged into ice cold water. The evil exploded, the creatures disintegrated, and their dust blew out like water hitting a rock.
Kaylyn's back arched.
A warm light swept out of his chest and as it hit his leg, the bone clicked back into place.
Kaylyn's eyes snapped open.
He could feel everything she was feeling. He could hear every thought running through her mind.
“What is this?” she said. Her lips didn't move, but it echoed deep in his mind. “Was Quinn right? But that's impossible. What's happening here?”
“You're free,” he thought, and her eyes snapped onto his. “Did you hear that?” She giggled in delight. “Could it really be real?”
Doubt entered her mind, and she began pulling away. “No, it can't. I don't deserve this. I don't deserve you.”
“No, Kaylyn, no. Don't go there again.” Why couldn't she see what he saw in her? “I want to be with you.” His words hit into a wall.
Her mind was throwing up reason after reason why Quinn was wrong about her power, and why Liam wouldn't want to be with her. The thoughts came so quickly, he couldn't focus on any one of them.
“Listen to me dammit. What more do I have to do to show you how I feel? You're not what people have said about you.” His thoughts hit into that wall.
“Look at me.” He brushed the hair out of her face. “Look at me.”
She stopped struggling, and her eyes turned to his.
“You are all I think about when I wake up in the morning and when I go to sleep at night. You make me want to stand tall and be a better person. You give me a reason to get up every day and to fight for something greater than just myself. I don't care what happened in your past; I don't care what others have said about you. I want to be with you...”