They stared at her, surprised that she was talking to them in an even slightly respectful manner. "You don't know?"
"No. I can't remember."
"It's too late to play dumb. We've already seen into your head enough to know this. There's no use hiding it."
"I'm not hiding anything. I really don't know."
"Well, let's just say there's a prophecy that means you will help our side win the war."
Jaklyn looked at him and tried to extend some magic to find out if he was telling the truth. It was one of the few things she was still sure she knew about.
"You're lying. That's not what it says."
"Ah, well. Maybe not directly, but there isn't another way that it seems it will be able to end up now."
"Who are you?"
"I'm a soldier."
"From where?"
"Tyiku."
"Ty… i… ku. It sounds familiar."
They laughed at her. "Does it now?"
"Yeah. It's the name of something."
"It's the name of the country we're in, Annette."
"My name is Annette?"
"Yep."
"That doesn't... seem right." She used her magic again, wary of it getting more out of hand. "You're lying. You're trying to confuse me."
He laughed. "You bet I am. It's damn amusing." He slid his hand up her leg. She tried to kick him but he was too strong and his hand reached her crotch. She couldn't twist away from him in the small space.
"Get away from me. I don't care who you are."
"Aw. I hoped that maybe I could confuse you into thinking something else."
"Seriously, you should probably stop," the other one told him. "You're going to get us both a trip to the noose or chopping block. Leave her alone until we hear word from our headquarters."
"Fine. But if we're allowed to do what we want with her, I'm going first."
"Whatever."
He moved away from her and left, chuckling. The other man followed him out the door.
And so Jaklyn was alone, not even accompanied by her memories and with only partial access to her knowledge.
Night came. Jaklyn shivered in the dark as the metal of the cuffs dug into her wrists. She wondered if she could manage sleep standing up. It was one of the few moments in her life that she honestly felt like she was tired enough to manage it.
There was a continuous tapping on the door to the room. She blamed her exhaustion. Her mind was creating noises.
Jaklyn! a voice called.
No, not a literal voice, she realized. It was a thought. A person's mind was calling for a girl named 'Jaklyn'. It took the person forming a mental image of the girl for Jaklyn to realize it was her they were calling for.
"Hello? Who's there?" Her voice was only a whisper in the chamber’s stillness.
Lyn! the voice said. Lyn, where are you?
She couldn't remember how to respond without speaking and wasn't sure she wanted to do anything with her magic at this point. "I'm here. Follow my voice. I don't remember the way to where I'm at."
Lyn! Can you hear me?
The person whose mind was calling for her couldn't hear her talk. She forced her voice to become louder.
"Hello?! Who is it? I can't move. You're going to have to find me!"
The voice stopped.
I heard you that time. Where are you?
"I don't know. I can't give directions. I also can't come to you. I'm chained to the wall."
The voice became an actual voice. Jaklyn could hear the man shouting.
"Lyn! I hear you! Are you okay? I'm coming to find you!"
"I don't know. I really don't know if I'm alright. I'll tell you about it when you get here!"
The door opened.
A Tyikian guard entered.
His voice whispered "Lyn."
Hers whispered "Who are you?"
"What?" He was confused.
She felt like she was missing something really obvious but couldn't quite grasp it. She was tired and felt the weight of her eyes growing; her resolve against the cuffs faded. She didn't think she'd stay conscious much longer. "I can't… I don't… The magic…" she yawned, and the intake of breath made her already aching body throb to an excruciating level. Tears came from her eyes. The confusion and the pain combined was too much for her to handle at that moment.
She could tell she hurt him, but it didn't help her remember anything.
"Shhh, Lyn. It's okay. You can explain later." He dug something long and metal out of a pocket. "This is a lock pick. I'll take you out of the chains. It'll be okay." Alikos rescued his Jaklyn once again, and she lost consciousness as he fled the enemy's building with her in his arms.
Chapter 11
She awoke with the sun streaming into her face through a crack in a tent. The soldier who had rescued her sat next to her and watched her as her eyes opened.
She rubbed her head and swallowed, ignoring the tears that came from her eyes. She tried to swallow but her mouth was too dry for it to be any help.
"Could you… please… water…?" Alikos placed a jug into her hands. Her hands shook as she lifted it to her mouth and some of it splashed down her front. "Thank you."
His eyes watched her intently. "It's no problem."
She focused on breathing for several minutes. The magic wouldn't remove from her brain. She could feel it but it had been the exhaustion causing the pain, not the magic itself.
"Lyn?" the guard prodded.
She looked over at the sudden noise.
"Don't you remember who I am?"
She swallowed and took another drink of water. "I… can't."
It crushed him. She felt bad for causing her rescuer pain. She bit her lip. It was dry, and the action made it bleed.
She wasn't sure how to explain her lapse in memory. She didn't know whether he would understand, but she began anyway. "I had to use my magic. They were stealing information from my mind. I had to block them out. It went wrong. I can't remember anything at all."
She couldn't tell whether he thought this was a legitimate excuse. "What do you need? What can I do to help it?"
"I need someone to unblock it for me. I need a mind mage to clear it away."
"Alright. I'll ask Minndi to contact Ezra-"
That name was familiar from some point since the mind block. "No. Wait. What does Ezra look like?"
He looked at her for a moment. She didn't try to see what he was thinking. He didn't seem to mean her any harm, and she didn't see a reason to try her magic again at this point. "She's old, dark-skinned, and short. She wears bright colors a lot."
"No. Don't get her. She was the one who went into my mind."
"She did?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?" He didn't seem to want to believe it.
"I'm almost positive. I could tell you for sure if I saw a picture."
“I’m not going to support you going into my mind to figure it out at the moment."
"I'm not either."
"I'll pass on what you've said." He looked her over. "You don't remember anything?"
"Nothing that happened before the block was put up. I think that it's still there… I just can't access it." She looked at his face and felt sick to her stomach for the pain this was causing him. "I'm sorry."
"I don't blame you," he told her, yet he was silent.
I do, she replied only in her head.
"I highly suggest that you take up an apprenticeship before you try constructing a block again."
"Agreed. I didn't have much of a choice though. Or… I don't think I did. I probably didn't if I did that magic."
"I know. That's the way you are."
She smiled at him, but it was radiating sadness. She averted her eyes. She didn't know how to handle the situation.
"I have a question," she finally started, "You mentioned someone else awhile ago. Her name started with an 'M'. I think it was 'Min' something. Who is that?"
"Minndi. That's the Empress's name."<
br />
"The Empress of," she struggled to bring back the name her captors had used to describe the place they were in, "Tyiku?"
He nodded. "Yes. I am a soldier in her army. You and I are on the same side. The people who took you captive are trying to take away her throne for themselves."
"Is that what this is about?"
He looked hopeless. "Yes. Would you like me to explain everything, or…?"
"No, it's alright. If you could just find someone to take off the block from my mind, I'll probably remember it all and feel stupid. So, could you please find someone?"
"Sure."
She took a chance. She didn't think it mattered that much at this point. "I feel bad asking you to do something else after you saved me when I can't even remember who you are."
His eyes looked at her fiercely and something she couldn't quite identify blazed from behind his deep brown irises. "Never feel bad about asking me for something. I'll go find help. You should sleep, okay? You look tired."
"Okay. I'll sleep." She was falling into it already. She didn't see him leave the tent but at some level knew that he would take care of everything. Nothing frightened her any more.
She woke not too long later, it seemed. Someone she didn't recognize stood over her, but that didn't mean she didn't know them. They were telling her something. She focused on the words with significant effort.
"I want you to think about your life when you were a child."
Jaklyn thought back. There was a large white space where her memories should have been; it was a tangible, uncomfortable feeling that frustrated her.
"I know it's hard. I've had to do this before. Try not to get too agitated though. It'll be okay. Just focus on the white spot so that I can find it more easily."
She did as she was told. The white faded away, and a scene appeared in her mind. A small, dirty house. It smelled of whiskey. An older man sat in a chair muttering something. She focused on him. My father, she realized. She shuddered slightly as the old memories regained a foothold.
This was the manner that the mage standing over her began her healing. He asked her to think of different things and watched as her memories resurfaced one by one. She relived her entire remembered life in a manner of hours. It was painful to see places of her childhood, but as she watched the story unfold she became absorbed in remembering who she was.
Then she saw Cadmus. As he came into focus her emotions caught up almost immediately. She started screaming.
"No. I don't want to. Stop. Stop." She twisted from side to side at her memory of him. She tried to think about something else, but she felt his hand slipping under her top. "I don't want to remember this. Leave it white."
Someone spoke from an unknown corner of the tent. "Jaklyn, don't be ridiculous. This is important."
"Please…"
"Lyn. I promise that it doesn't get much worse. I was there."
She swallowed. "Ok. Fine." In her mind, his hand was sliding down. A voice called at the end of the alleyway. It was black.
She held her hand to her mouth in horror.
"Why did he…?"
"Because he's him," the soldier told her. "He got put away. Watch. You'll see."
She went through the next memories. Things unfolded piece by piece.
"Alikos!" she exclaimed.
He smiled. His brown eyes smiled. She thought to herself that they were pretty when sparkling. She hoped she wasn't getting delirious.
"Thanks for saving me," she mumbled.
"Anytime." He wasn't entirely pleased with the conclusion she had reached so far.
She thought more, her memories coming back in waves.
She stopped breathing as she suddenly understood all of his emotions.
"Alikos. Alikos. Alikos. I'm sorry." She started shaking back and forth and let the tears fall.
"Lyn. Be quiet, okay. Focus on your memories. It will be fine."
"But… no… I… No… I'm sorry…"
"I'm not mad at you. I'm just relieved that you did no permanent damage to your memory. Focus on the white. Remember your life."
She nodded. "Alright." She watched the rest of her story happen before her eyes.
Minndi was furious. She blamed the soldiers, she blamed Jaklyn, she blamed every person in the crowd at her speech. Most of all, she blamed Alikos.
"You failed me, Phoenix. You failed me, and they could have killed Jaklyn. Do you have the slightest idea what could have happened if she died, or if they read her mind, or...? And then you fucking dared to go in after her despite direct orders to wait for people to help you. Alikos, that is treason. I could rightfully have you hanged." As her voice rose in anger, her body shook and she ran at him, hitting his arms, his chest, and finally, his face.
He grabbed her arm and stared straight into her eyes for a long moment before dropping it.
"Don't you dare manhandle me, you brute."
Jaklyn walked in, holding a mug of a warm chai she'd gotten in the kitchens. She yawned, making her nightdress sway with her movement. "What's going on?"
"Your treasonous failure of a guardian has taken to physically attacking me."
"That's nonsense and you know it."
Jaklyn slipped her magic forward and stopped herself. It frightened her these days. Even she wasn't sure that every part of her memory had returned in pristine condition, and it seemed dangerous to even locate the magic, let alone use it.
Minndi held up a hand. "You can see the red mark. Do you deny you caused it? Are you planning to add lying to your list of offenses? I swear to the goddess-"
"You know what, never mind. I'm going to go back to bed."
"Jaklyn, stay-"
"No, I'm going to go unless there's an excellent reason I should stay here," she interrupted Alikos.
Silence.
"Alright, I'm going. Bye." She turned around and swayed out.
If she was telling the truth, her body did not yearn for sleep. Her mind did, perhaps, but she wouldn't be able to give it that even if she tried.
When she'd first arrived at the palace, Minndi had given her a quick tour, outlining the most important areas of the grounds. As expected, however, the tour was short and had been for formality to begin with.
She felt they owed her a more thorough knowledge of the building, and in her discontent, she took it upon herself to grant that tour.
Nothing about the castle was particularly surprising; it was simply decadence, rooms upon rooms filled with hand-carved furniture, velvet, and portraits of people she didn’t recognize but guessed were somehow historically significant. It was nice to be “by herself” for awhile, if nothing else.
Walking down a corridor, she noticed something peculiar. There appeared to be a crack in the wall. She wasn't sure how old the building was, and cracks happened from time to time, but it almost seemed as if a light shone from behind the crack.
She peeked into it, curious what room was on the other side. No one would leave her alone these days, why shouldn't she be privy to people's secrets?
With her hand on the wall and her eye to the crack, she felt a movement. The crack became larger.
The wall had slid.
Curiouser, curiouser.
She could now push her fingers into the slot in the wall. She did so and pushed. It slid out of place.
The first thing Jaklyn noticed about the room was that it was grey. The walls, the ceiling, and the floor were the same shade of dirty slate.
In her surprise, she let down her guard. Even as she stared forward, she heard the whispered screams that only a frightened mind could emit.
"Hello?" she whispered into the room. A whimper from the corner drew her attention to the most beautiful woman she had ever laid eyes on, gagged and bound in metal chains.
Summere, ruler of Sralossa, was being held hostage by Minndi.
Jaklyn laughed. Not a giggle, but a huge burst of laughter that bounced off the walls. This was way too much for her mind to wrap itself around.
&
nbsp; Look, if you're going to laugh at me, you should shut the door. Minndi will be furious if she finds out you know I'm here.
Jaklyn paused. She knew she hadn't been touching her magic. Without further hesitation, she shut the door, then looked at Summere.
She took a deep breath and removed the cloth from the blonde's mouth. The captive gasped for air before looking over at Jaklyn.
"Thank you," she said. And tears ran from her amber eyes, down her porcelain cheeks and onto the dirty floor. "Thank you."
Jaklyn appraised her. Her eyes, though still beautiful, showed her exhaustion. Her skin was dirty, her hair oily, as if she had not bathed in over a month. For a moment, Jaklyn pitied her. Then she remembered that her people had taken her hostage intending to harm her, and her mercy dissolved.
"Your people have not put on a very kind showing," she said simply.
"I know. I am vexed with them. I came to propose a treaty and to dissolve the international strife between us. I thought all of my companions were prepared to comply with my plans."
"All due respect, I don't trust you."
Summere bit her lip. She was still crying, and her tears sped up for a minute. "I know you don't. You have little reason to."
Jaklyn sat in the middle of the room and drew her legs to her chest. She peeked over her knees at Summere, who watched her from her chair.
"How long have you been in here?"
"About a month. Since the ball."
"You've been in here since the ball?"
"I have. Minndi believes I was behind the attack on her life." She smiled sadly. "We have a less-than-cordial history."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. I understand that you read minds. If you'd like, I can help you see what I mean-"
"No!” Jaklyn paused. “I mean, um, no thanks."
"You're afraid to."
"What do you mean, I'm afraid to?"
"I mean... you're afraid of your magic. Something bad happened to you because of it..."
"How do you know...? If you've been in here since...?"
"Trust me on this. There is nothing to be gained from lying to you now."
The Traitor of Tyiku Page 10