The Last Empath of Doctsland

by Leah Putz

  “Stop!” Vik didn’t shout, but his voice had a commanding timber that made Jion and Siofra both clamp their mouths shut straight away. “We’ll take a handful of soldiers, less than what we brought before due to the length of the trip. Jion, round up four soldiers tonight and have them prepare for departure tomorrow. That will bring our party to eight, which is manageable for traveling but formidable enough if need be. We’ll leave before sun up. I don’t want to spend two nights away unless we absolutely have to, so let’s get going as early as possible.”

  As soon as the plans were decided, preparations began at once. Each individual was responsible for making their own pack for food and water, under the directive of bringing enough for two full days. We set everything in the center of camp near the fire, planning to meet there early tomorrow morning to have a quick meal before our departure. It was only a bit after sundown when I went to bed, wanting to get the maximum amount of rest possible before the journey ahead.

  The trip the next day was fairly uneventful. We were accompanied by a sorted mix of soldiers, one of our original crew, two from the first village, and one from Cessam (though not one of the two I had cautioned Vik and Jion about). Small talk helped ease the boredom of the journey, though we’d only been on two full walkabouts thus far it was already starting to get a bit old, particularly for Viktor, Jion, Siofra, and me. We had surely spent far too much time together in the past two months. It was weighing on Jion and Siofra in particular, whose bickering had increased tenfold, if it can be imagined.

  When it was nearing dusk we began to search for a place to camp for the night. We had made significant progress, and I sensed we were ahead of schedule, on track for an arrival early the next morning. After informing Viktor of this, he seemed overjoyed, and we quickly found an alcove surrounded by some thick trees that would serve as a decent spot to camp for the night. Once we stopped, I put up my walls to protect my head and Viktor directed us to clear an area for a fire. “I don’t want to waste the time and energy it will take to build a shelter for just a night,” he explained. We got to work right away, moving any brush or debris from an area large enough for a fire and eight sleepers.

  “Lis, can you help me with the fire?” Jion asked, gathering as many dry sticks and leaves as possible. It wasn’t too challenging a task, considering the semi-arid landscape we were approaching the further from camp we got. The temperature was dropping, so once the fire was roaring we all sat crowded closely around it.

  Viktor took his seat beside me, and as the night went on and grew ever more chilly, we huddled closer and closer. His proximity made me shiver, and it wasn’t due to the chill in the air.

  “Are you alright?” he asked, and I glanced to find his face closer to mine than I expected, causing me to start. Concern was evident in his eyes, and he was close enough that I noticed dark stubble on his chin. He must have lost his razor in the shipwreck. I should ask around and try to find another one for him, I thought.

  Shaking my head, I tried to remember what he had asked me, but failed. “What?” I asked, feeling somewhat dazed.

  He smiled kindly. “You shivered. Are you alright, or are you cold? Do you need another blanket?” He stretched out his arm, opening the blanket that was surrounding him. I blushed and shook my head. I knew it was just a kind gesture, but the idea of nestling close enough to him to share a blanket made my cheeks feel hot.

  “I’m fine, thank you though,” I said, though I scooted slightly closer anyway. Before I knew it I was drifting off, my head falling to rest on his shoulder. The next morning I only briefly recalled him laying me down and spreading both blankets over my sleeping form.

  ***

  Again we rose before the sun and were swiftly packed up and on our way. Just as I had predicted, we had reached our destination an hour or so after we set out on the second day. Siofra entered the town alone, and we watched eagerly for her signal. Seeing no one in the town square, she entered into a tavern. Shortly after, she exited the tavern, appearing to just need a breath of fresh air, but we recognised the signal.

  “Alright,” Viktor said, turning to the additional guards we brought with us. “We’re going to go into town, please stay here and keep an eye out. We will be back as soon as possible.”

  “Yes sir,” they replied, all assuming a watchful position.

  “Ready?” Vik asked Jion and I. With his gaze, he implored me to give him a signal that we weren’t walking into any hostility. I opened my mind quickly, getting a sense of everything around me. While I felt nothing of concern, I couldn’t help but feel anxious in a way I had not felt before the other excursions, much more so than I had felt in Cessam. For a moment I wrestled with telling Viktor, but I worried he would be dismissive. Just that moment was all Vik needed to sense something was wrong.

  Gently grabbing my arm, he pulled me off to the side and out of earshot of our companions. “What is it? We have to be quick, we can’t just leave Siofra out there alone.”

  “I know, I just-”

  “Do you sense something?” he implored earnestly.

  I shook my head. “Not exactly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Sighing, I tried to explain myself. “I don’t sense anything specific to be concerned about. I just have this feeling. A foreboding feeling.”

  His frustration was clear in the hard set of his mouth. “Lis, we can’t just stop everything we’re doing or not accept people because of any stray feeling you may have.”

  “I-” I started, only for him to cut me off.

  “If you feel hostility coming from someone, actual hostility, then please let me know. Otherwise, we’re moving forward.”

  I clamped my lips shut, feeling furious at his condescending dismissal, and he took my silence as acquiescence.

  “Come on, let’s go,” he said, heading out towards the town. Jion gave me a questioning look, which I returned with a scowl. Shrugging, and sure Vik or I would fill him in on the discussion later, he followed his prince.

  I stood for a moment longer, seething, before heading out after them. As upset as I was that Viktor not only refused to listen to me but spoke to me like I was a child misbehaving, I knew that they would need me and my unique abilities with them. We rejoined Siofra, who brought us inside and introduced us to the individuals she had been conversing with. From here, things went much the same as they had the previous two times. Viktor, the ‘envoy’, explained our situation, our struggle, and our goal before imploring the small council for assistance. This town appeared much smaller than Cessam, in fact it was barely bigger than the first village we’d been to. A group of three town leaders listened to Viktor’s spiel astutely before stepping aside to speak together privately. Opening my mind, I sensed their desire to join us, but hesitation at the guarantee of danger. When they came back to the table we were sharing, they justified their apprehension.

  “We sympathize with your cause,” an elderly man explained. “Our main concern here is our proximity to Nul. Though our village seems small and insignificant, we are a mere day’s march away from Nul. Should Siglind win this war, his wrath against those who betrayed him will be mighty. Our whole village will suffer, and will likely be decimated. The closer to Nul, the greater the danger. I’m not entirely sure it’s a risk we’re able to take.”

  Viktor nodded solemnly, trying not to make his disappointment painfully obvious, though I could feel it pouring from him like sweat. “I understand. We appreciate the thought you’ve put into this. And we would also appreciate your discretion on this matter.”

  “Of course. Though we aren’t able to join in your fight, we do very much dislike Siglind and his manner of ruling. Terror and violence is not the way to people’s hearts. Our discretion is all that we can offer, but we give it gladly, and wish you the best of luck on your quest.”

  We followed Viktor’s lead as he stood to bow. “Thank you kindly,” he said, and we moved to exit the pub.

  Suddenly the doors flew open and a larg
e group of soldiers entered. Royal soldiers burst in, a much different sort than the fierce, but local Loyalists we’d run into previously. They were decked head to toe in armor black as night, as if it had been dipped in tar, and they surrounded us at once.

  I was stunned, as we all are, but I couldn’t understand how I hadn’t seen this coming. I’d had my mind open the entire time. Why did I not sense anything?

  “What is this?” Viktor’s voice boomed from beside me. I turned to look at him to find that he had drawn his sword, as had Jion and Siofra. The question seemed to be directed towards no one in particular, and yet everyone. The men we’d been conversing with, the soldiers who had just burst in, and most of all me; he was asking why I had not warned him.

  Tears stung my eyes as I saw the betrayed look on his face, but all I could do was utter a small but desperate, “I felt nothing.”

  A tall man stepped forward, an evil grin splitting his pale face. With horror I realized I had seen him before, telling soldiers to mutilate and murder a defenseless boy in front of his mother. “I am Captain Carthoc of the Nul army infantry. And you must be the envoy we’ve heard so much about.”

  “Who sent you?” Viktor seethed.

  Captain Carthoc’s twisted smile grew as he cocked his head. “Surely you know who… And don’t look for saving from the pitiful soldiers you left on the edge of town. They have been destroyed.” With those words he signalled his force to move. “Do not kill the strangers, please. We need their information.” His voice had a bored lilt to it that boiled my blood, but I didn’t have time to linger on it when the Nulian soldiers began charging at us from seemingly all sides.

  They were overwhelming and terrifying in their attack. Summoning as much bravery as I could manage, I pulled Gaisgea from its sheath and tried my best to defend myself. I felled the first soldier that charged towards me with a side-step and a slash, but my luck ran out there.

  The next was more agile, and predicted my movements. When I swung to block him, he grabbed my arm, twisting it until Gaisgea fell from my grasp and a scream was yanked from my lips. I fought to peel myself away from his grasp, but he was much too strong. He pushed me to the ground, and drove his knee into my back to hold me there as he roughly tied my hands together. I looked around in horror at the scene surrounding us. The small party we had been speaking with, who had had no weapons due to Siglind’s law, had all been killed mercilessly regardless. We had been surrounded and we were grossly overpowered, despite the fearsome warriors we had among us.

  Jion, in particular, was putting up a vicious fight. He was surrounded by three men, his sword moving more swiftly than I’d ever seen. Finally one of his opponents sliced his sword arm open, causing him to drop his blade. Howling in pain, he collapsed on the ground and cradled his injured arm close to his broad chest. A soldier grabbed Gaisgea from the ground where I had dropped it, and Viktor growled watching his mother’s blade get confiscated by the enemy.

  “You didn’t need to kill them. They weren’t helping us,” Viktor said, seeing the dead mean that had so recently declined to assist us in favor of keeping their town and themselves safe. Guilt twisted his face as he spoke. “They were loyal to the king.”

  “Ahh,” The captain replied as his soldiers worked on restraining each of us with rope. “But you’re wrong. They betrayed our king the second they let an envoy of Doctsland into their town without killing him. Although I am glad they didn’t kill you. King Siglind will reward the man who brings such an enemy to his court. And what information I might glean from you to please him.” He smiled wickedly, and I could feel my heart freeze over, for when I opened my mind to try to read them, I felt that same icy nothingness I had felt from the two men from Cessam. I knew at once who had doubled crossed us.

  The Nul soldiers ruthlessly strung us together in a line with Vik and Jion at the helm, Siofra and I at the rear. It seems they thought of us as less of a threat due to our gender, which, knowing Siofra, I hoped would be a mistake. Then, we began to march.

  Having no concept of the geography of Bushand, I couldn’t be sure where they were leading us, but my best guess was Nul. If that proved true, and we were delivered to Siglind there, that would certainly prove to be a disastrous end to our quest. Whatever happened, we could not let it come to that.

  I remembered the townspeople mentioning they were only a day’s march from Nul. By this point it was already well past midday. In fact, dusk was fast approaching. Our best hope was that they would not march overnight and deliver us by morning, but that they would stop to camp. That would give us a bit more time, perhaps even the possibility of escape. I held on to that hope with all the strength I had in me. As if he could read my mind, Viktor turned to whisper to me as we were driven along with the troop, “Can you tell where they’re taking us?” I tried once again to open my mind and get a reading on any of the soldiers around us, but I could only get a clear sense of my three comrades. I had to shut my mind at once. Viktor’s panic, distress, and sense of failure was overpowering to the point where I physically flinched.

  “No,” I whispered back, shaking my head.

  One of the guards must have heard me, for a whip cracked right by my ear, and I felt a sharp pain on my right cheek. “No talking!” he shouted, and I couldn’t help but cower, though I hated the weakness it made me feel. Without the use of my power I felt completely helpless, not to mention useless.

  They marched, dragging us behind them at a merciless pace, and it was well after dark before we finally stopped for a rest. Huddling close together against the cold of the night, we dared not speak for fear of repercussions, The need to scramble for an escape was evident in each other’s eyes. Bound and without weapons or a clear manner of communication, someone was going to have to get very creative and stealthy in order to come up with a plan, and quickly. At this point we were probably only half a day from Nul, and if we made it there we would surely be doomed.

  Siofra wasted not a second. Though stripped of her weapons, she was still adorned in her characteristic armour, which was sharp, albeit feminine. She jerked her head towards Jion, silently asking him to move slightly in front of her, shielding her a bit from view, though not enough to raise alarm. Jion understood immediately- for two people who bickered as though they hated each other, they worked remarkably well under pressure. A fitting pair for a king’s guard, I thought. From there I couldn’t tell what her plan was, or even if she had one in particular. Jion was partially blocking her from my point of view, but I thought I could make out her rubbing the rope against the edge of her armored breastplate.

  My mind stayed racing. It was as dire of a situation as we’d been in so far; in fact, as I’d been in in my life thus far. They had wound the ropes so tightly around my hands that I could barely move them. The skin on my wrists burned and reddened as the rope scratched and twisted the flesh. One glance at the intricate knot told me it wouldn’t be easy to undo, and the rope was far too dense to try to bite through or snap with any amount of force I could muster.

  I glanced over at Viktor, wondering if our captors had any clue who he truly was. The idea made me feel sick. His head was hung, and though I couldn’t see the expression on his face, I could tell by the clench in his sharp jaw that he was enraged and desperate. As Captain Carthoc approached, Vik looked up, a wild ferocity in his gaze.

  “Now comes the time to gather that precious information you’re holding, envoy.” Carthoc spit the word with malice, mocking it’s typical peaceful meaning.

  A smile so sinister that even I felt intimidated grew across Vik’s face. “I will tell you nothing.”

  Carthoc response was a chilling laughter. “I love when people say that. It makes getting you to talk so much more fun.” He summoned several soldiers and directed them to bring Viktor into a makeshift tent they had erected, and that’s when it finally dawned on my naive mind that they intended to torture him.

  I froze at his words, panicked and wondering what they were possibly going to do to
him. Knowing Viktor’s utmost importance to our mission, I knew that no matter what happened, he needed to be protected as the only hope standing between our amicable country and the barbarous dictator of Bushand. If any one of us were to make it out of this predicament alive and relatively unhurt, it needed to be the prince. The thought barely crossed into my mind before the exclamation came from my mouth. “I am an empath!”

  Everyone, Carthoc, his minions, Viktor, all froze at once. “Ahh, so the rumors are true,” Carthoc said, in a viciously happy lilt. “There is an empath in your midst.”

  “No! She’s lying!” Viktor shouted in a desperate attempt to redirect Carthoc and save me from his wicked intentions, whatever they may be.

  Carthoc, focused entirely on me now, ignoring him completely. Striding forward, he leaned over my small form menacingly, grabbing my chin and peering in to my eyes. “Are you lying?” he asked. Rather than answer, I summoned all my courage and fixed him with a defiant gaze, only to hear another one of his chilling laughs in response.

  “Forget the envoy,” he said to his men. “Take the empath.” I watched Viktor’s eyes widen in panic as he began to thrash, trying to escape his bounds and protesting. It mattered not. My mission had succeeded, and the prince was being left in relative peace, at least for the time being. I could only hope that whatever Siofra was up to would pay off in time.

  I felt as though I was in a daze, nearly frozen in fear as three men grabbed me and dragged me into the tent a mere fifty feet from where my friends lay huddled near the fire. It was sparsely furnished. There was a makeshift bed, and a lone chair next to a small fire. The guards pushed me into the chair before securing me to it with more of the same thick rope. I barely had enough time to wonder what was to come of me before Captain Carthoc strolled inside. He was short, so short, in fact, that he barely had to crouch to fix me with his malicious gaze, black hair falling slightly over his eyes.

  “I don’t know why you’re so keen on protecting that envoy of yours. Surely you have some idea of what is to happen.” His dark brown eyes flickered back and forth, searching my face. Trying to keep my expression neutral, I shifted my gaze to the ground, refusing to look at him. “It doesn’t have to be that way, though,” he continued. “King Siglind could very well use an empath. Tell us what we need to know, and join our cause. Despite what these Doctsland rats have told you, our king is merely trying to fight for what is rightfully his. Is that so wrong?”