by Paul Barrett
“As prisons go, it could be worse,” Corby said. He sat on a couch on the other side of the room, head resting against a cushion.
Blink, where are you?
“Behind you,” Blink said.
Erick turned to his familiar. “Are you okay?”
“Considering what they could have done, fine,” Blink said. “Headache, just like you.”
“Where’s Elissia?”
“On a fool’s errand,” Corby told him. “Be ready to comfort her when she comes back.”
“What do you mean?”
Before Corby could speak, the door opened, and Elissia ran in. A burly man shut the door behind her and threw the lock. Tears ran down Elissia’s face; her cheeks burned dark against her olive skin.
She ran over and threw herself onto the couch beside Corby and buried her head in a pillow, muffling the sobs that poured out. Erick pushed aside the hurt by telling himself Elissia had known her cousin far longer than she had known him. Her choice wasn’t a rejection so much as a need for the familiar.
“I tried to tell you,” Corby said as he rubbed his cousin’s back.
“I know,” Elissia said, her voice muted by the pillow. “I should have listened to you. I just thought—just--”
“Shhh,” Corby said. “I know what you thought, and I told you what would happen. You excel at offering counsel to others, but you’re not so adept at accepting it.”
Elissia rolled onto to her side as Corby shifted his hand to gently rub her arm. “Is that the scholar’s way of saying ‘I told you so?’” She offered a weak smile and wiped at her face.
Corby shrugged. “It’s my way of saying I would never tell you something to hurt you, only to keep you from being hurt.”
Erick couldn’t take it any longer. “What happened?”
“I tried to talk to my father,” Elissia said.
“Why?”
She paused as if considering her words. “I wanted to explain things to him. About me, about you. He wouldn’t even see me.”
“After how your brother treated us, did you expect any different?” Erick said.
“Yes. Although I guess I shouldn’t have. Marcus is another lock to pick.”
“Marcus is an asshole,” Blink said from behind Erick.
Elissia sat up. Most of her composure had returned. “He can be. But he has his reasons.”
Erick didn’t know how to react. How could she defend someone who had so callously betrayed her? He tried to imagine what he would do if Blink had done something similar to him, assuming such a thing was even possible.
He realized he would react the same way. For some reason, the thought gave him comfort. “So what happens now?”
“We wait. If they wanted us dead, we’d be dead. My guess is we’re waiting for Azinor’s master, whoever that is. Then, who knows?”
“Can we escape?” he asked.
Elissia shook her head. “Not without help.”
Erick sighed. “If Azinor is who he says he is, then he is going to give me to his head priest. Chances are they’ll sacrifice me to Eligos, which will make him stronger and that much harder for the other Necromancers to destroy.”
He looked at Blink, and then at Elissia and Corby. “If they come for us, we have to try and run. If I die in the attempt, so be it. Better that than what they have planned. I want all of you to promise that if you have to, and you can, you’ll kill me before you let them take me.”
“You know I will,” Blink said.
Corby nodded, his face grim, and ran a hand across his hair.
Elissia swallowed. “I don’t know if I could.”
“You have to. Better my soul is released with a chance to go to the Heaven of Caros than consumed and perverted by Eligos.”
She blinked her eyes and wiped at them. Then she nodded. “Let’s see if we can keep that from happening.”
“I’d like that,” Erick said, but at the moment he couldn’t see how. If they had Geran, maybe.
To take his mind off their situation, and because he didn’t know if they would ever have another chance, he asked Elissia, “Remember all those times I asked you about your past, and you said, ‘some other time’?”
“Yes,” Elissia answered with a resigned voice.
“I think now is about the best time.”
Elissia sighed. Corby nodded at her questioning glance, so she walked over, sat beside Erick, and took his hand. “Like every other Procurer’s child, I trained from the age of five to do the things thieves do. That was fine; I enjoyed the training and even thrived on it.
“When I turned twelve, I began to develop into a woman. The boys all started noticing me, and my father noticed them. That must have been when the idea started forming in his twisted brain.”
“What idea?”
“Shortly after my thirteenth birthday, he sent me to train as an acolyte to Amare. What do you know about Amare?”
Erick shrugged. “Only that he is the god of love and his acolytes promote kindness and love among all people.”
Elissia gave a soft chuckle. “That’s the romanticized version of it. I suppose it’s true to a certain extent, but what acolytes of Amare really do is have sex with worshippers. And a worshiper is anyone who has the money to pay the temple fees.”
Erick’s face grew warm as he remembered the temple with the half-nude women standing outside. “Is that wrong?”
“Of course it’s wrong,” Elissia glared at him. “Didn’t your parents teach you anything?”
Erick held an angry retort. “They taught me that sex is between two people who care about each other.”
Sex should be because you love someone, not because you pay them for it. Do you think it’s right?”
Erick feared he might have stepped into a delicate situation from which he would find no easy way out. “I don’t know. If Amare has sanctioned it, it can’t be completely wrong.”
Elissia looked ready to argue, but she stopped, swallowed, and said, “Perhaps, although I think it has more to do with the priests and their greed than it does with the god. But becoming an acolyte should be a choice, shouldn’t it?”
“Of course,” Erick said. “The Tome of the Father and Mother says ‘the gods choose the call; the person chooses the answer’”
“I had no choice. My father told me I was going to become an acolyte, or I could find shelter with someone other than the Procurers. So I did what he told me to do.”
“Why did your father want you to become an acolyte?”
Elissia gave a grim smile. “He decided I could make more money that way. Some worshippers like to unburden their guilt to Amare’s acolytes, confess their crimes or other indiscretions. The Love Temple has a reputation of silence where such things are concerned. Such confessions are worth money. I would hear my companion’s secrets and report them to father, who would use the information for blackmail.”
“But wouldn’t that only work if the person had money?”
Elissia nodded. “That’s why father donated to ensure I got the courtesan training. I would attend the wealthiest customers.
“For three months I trained in the ways of sex, or ‘Amare’s Blessings’ as they call it.”
Erick shifted uncomfortably as ideas of Elissia training went through his mind. He found the images both erotic and disturbing. Again, he wished he could talk to his parents, who had left him woefully unprepared for the emotions roiling through him.
Some of his feelings must have shown. Elissia said, “Don’t worry, it was all instruction and observation. I didn’t have to participate until my final initiation. That’s when things went wrong.”
“What happened?”
“Other initiates took me into the priest’s chamber and undressed me. As he walked toward me, naked, I lost my composure. Maybe there’s some Zakerin in me somewhere, because I just couldn’t let him take me. I want my first time to be with someone I love, not some old, overweight cleric. I told him that. He grew irate and asked me why I had w
asted their time if I did not hold true to the belief.
“That’s when it all poured out of me. I couldn’t help it. I told him about being a Procurer and spilled father’s plan to him. ‘That’s okay, my child,’ he said, sitting next to me with his cock still pointing like a weather vane. ‘Amare forgives you, and so do I.’ Then the bastard tried to force himself on me.”
Anger at the unknown cleric flashed through Erick’s mind. How dare someone try to take advantage of her. “What did you do?”
“I ran my fingernails across his prick and ran as he fell away bleeding.”
Erick gave an empathic shudder at the man’s fate even as he thrilled at Elissia’s escape.
“I came back home and confessed what happened. I apologized and told father I would do anything to help the Procurers, but I couldn’t do that. Instead of forgiving me, he screamed loud enough to stir the whole warren. He called me things I can’t even repeat.” Elissia’s voice choked. Her twisted face relayed the bitter memory of that final conversation. His awkward questions had brought it all back, slicing open an old wound. He put his arm around Elissia's shoulders. She pressed her face against his chest.
“I’m sorry," he said. "I didn’t know it would hurt you so much.”
“It’s okay,” Elissia said, her voice muffled against his chest. “It all worked out for the best because I met you.”
Erick wondered if it truly was for the best, considering what had happened. “Maybe that’s what Caros and Denech intended all along.”
“Maybe,” Elissia agreed, wiping a tear away. “But I wish they could have picked a less painful way to do it. Anyway, Father held a convocation and banished me in front of the entire Society.”
“What about your mother? Didn’t she have anything to say about it?”
“Mother?” Elissia laughed bitterly. “No, she didn’t even watch me leave. I love her, but she wouldn’t raise her voice to a flea on a cat’s ass. That's how she ended up saddled with my father.”
Erick held her, offering what comfort he could. It struck him that, somewhere between leaving Draymed and arriving in this room, he had fallen in love with Elissia. It wasn’t at all like the storybooks. There had been no spark or locking of eyes, no swooning. But there had been hours of delightful conversation, friendly smiles, mutual joy, and shared pain. His mother’s torrid romances said nothing about these things, but they seemed to Erick the true actions of love. And Elissia’s resolve to hold to her beliefs at all costs made him care for her even more.
It’s about time you admitted it, Blink thought. I knew it days ago.
Shut up, Erick thought back.
“His plan wouldn't have worked,” Corby said. “Not in the long term. Someone would have gone to the temple and told, and the priests would have deduced who was selling the information.”
Elissia shrugged. “I’m sure father had a plan for that eventuality. You get to his position by being a ruthless bastard, not by being stupid.”
“So what made you think he would talk to you now?” Erick asked, his voice gentle.
“People change. At least, they’re supposed to. Father wasn’t why I wanted to come back anyway. It was always about Marcus.”
Erick said nothing, not wanting to upset her, but something had happened in the time she had been away to make her lose her brother.
Corby didn’t have the same reservations. “People do change, but I don’t think your father or Marcus changed for the better.”
Elissia tensed, and Erick braced for her angry reply, but noise at the front door caught their attention. Scuffling, some grunts, several thuds, and two heavy thumps as something hit the floor. Elissia jumped up, grabbed the lamp on the nearest table, and reared back, ready to throw. The lock on the door clicked; the door flew open.
Marcus stepped in. He wore a tight-fitting royal blue shirt with a high collar to hide the red ring around his neck, charcoal-colored serge pants, and gray soft leather shoes. He held a cudgel in one hand and a large key ring in the other. Four older boys followed him, faces grim, weapons ready. Erick glimpsed two men lying on the floor.
“Don’t stand there gawking,” Marcus said. “Let’s get the hell out of here while we can.”
20
“The smallest pebble can cause the biggest rockslide” is an ancient Makern proverb. So it came to be with us. It started with Erick, a young man on a little-regarded island, but it grew to encompass the entire world.
-Corberin of Draymed, Introduction, To Twr Krinnik and Back.
Elissia set the lamp down, and Marcus tossed her the key ring. “Free the creature.”
“His name is Blink,” Elissia said as she caught the ring.
“I don’t care if his name is King of Sewage Row, just get him down so we can get out of here.” He walked into the room. The other four thieves dragged the two guards in and shoved them into a corner, then two of them stood in the hallway while the other two stayed in the room.
“What’s going on?” Erick asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Marcus said. “We’re getting you out of here.”
Erick had no idea what had happened to change Marcus’s manner, but he would worry about it later. He noticed a large bruise had formed around the thief’s left eye. “What happened to you?”
Marcus shrugged. “I was clumsy, and father didn’t approve.”
“He hit you?”
“Beats the alternative.” Marcus touched his neck gingerly. “But his reaction made this decision easier.”
“Was there a point when the decision wasn’t easy?” Elissia asked as she freed Blink.
“No,” Marcus said. “But offering it to father as a ‘fuck you’ makes it that much sweeter. You ready?”
“Ready,” Elissia said.
Blink stepped away from the wall, leapt into the air, and landed on Marcus, slamming the small boy to the ground. He brought his barbed tail around and poised it above Marcus’s face. “Give me a reason I shouldn’t pump you full.” He glared at the other thieves, who had drawn their knives. “One step closer and I’ll stab his eye out.”
“What are you doing?” Elissia said. “He’s helping us.”
“It’s his fault we’re here in the first place,” Erick said. “He could have warned us, helped us get away.”
“You’re as stupid as the bat here is ugly,” Marcus told Erick. “I couldn’t warn you, not with Darius and his cronies all over us.”
“You threatened to kill Elissia.”
“You’ve never played cards, have you? It’s called a bluff.”
Elissia ran over and pushed at Blink. “Get off him.”
Blink stepped away from Marcus but kept his tail poised.
“A bluff?” Erick asked. “Why?”
“This isn’t the time to explain it,” Marcus said as he stood up. “Let’s wait until—oof.”
Elissia had thrown herself around Marcus and hugged him tightly. “You bastard,” she said, a catch in her voice. “I could kill you for that, but I knew you wouldn’t abandon me.”
Marcus returned her hug, tears in his eyes. “I’ve missed you, Lissi, and I’ll explain everything, but right now we have to leave.”
As they reluctantly broke the hug and Marcus wiped at his eyes, Erick’s estimation of the thief rose.
“How do we know you won’t just lead us into the dark and kill us,” Blink said.
Marcus cocked his eyebrow, a gesture reminiscent of his sister, and said, “You want to think that one through for a minute?”
“If he wanted us dead, he wouldn’t have to take us somewhere,” Erick said. “He could have done it while we were unconscious.”
Marcus smiled and gave Erick a thumb up. “Maybe you aren’t so dumb.”
“He’s smart enough to keep from getting himself nearly hanged,” Blink grumbled, but he lowered his tail.
The boy’s smile widened. “Can’t argue with that. Hello, cousin, happy to meet you,” he said to Corby.
“Would have preferred i
t to be without the drugging and kidnapping,” Corby said.
Marcus winked at him. “Some things can’t be helped.”
He walked to the door and stopped. “Be as quiet as you can,” he told them. “Most of the warren is asleep or away, but your buddy Azinor has things stirred up more than usual. We know the least traveled ways, but if we run into anybody, let us handle it.”
“I don’t suppose you have our weapons,” Elissia said.
“I have someone working on it.” Marcus nodded to the other two thieves. The taller one opened the door and stepped aside. “Follow me.”
The group followed, Erick behind Marcus and the other two thieves taking up the rear. Being led around by people he didn’t know had begun to irritate Erick.
They moved through empty hallways decorated in tapestries and soft rugs and lit at regular intervals by small lanterns. Doors lined the walls on either side. Erick tensed every time he passed one, waiting for someone to jump out and grab him, or for Marcus to turn, say it was all a cruel prank, and shove him into a room outfitted like a true prison cell.
Marcus and the other thieves moved with sure, soft steps and walked on the balls of their feet, slightly crouched with their arms to the side. Erick glanced back and noticed Elissia had adopted the same posture. He tried to copy them but almost fell after five feet.
“Idiot,” Marcus whispered after Erick stumbled into him. “It takes years to get it right, so don’t even try. If we live through this, get Lissi to teach you.”
A few minutes brought them to a dead-end corridor. An ornate mirror, trimmed in gold etched with curlicue patterns, took up the wall. A tapestry hung on either side, depicting violent battles.
“Do all thieves live this well?” Erick asked.
“We live better than many,” Marcus admitted. “Because we have to crawl through sewers to get in and out of home, we try to make home as comfortable as possible. Oh, and don’t call us thieves. It’s insulting.”
“It’s what you are, isn’t it?” Blink asked.
“And you’re an unnatural creation formed from jizz and blood, but I bet you don’t like to be reminded of that, do you?”