A King's Ransom

by Lia Black

  Veyl felt the line split as one barb slithered free from his heart. It left a hollow place, something so empty that he wondered how he could exist around it and not even know it was there. He looked back to see the blackness; waiting, welcoming. He'd wanted to go there once, he believed. It seemed safe, and the hollow piece inside yawned open when he considered what this might mean.

  Another barb ripped, shredded and dropped free. Veyl's body jerked as the fabric that held the hollow place closed frayed wider, splitting him open and ripping to let loose yet another barb. Another thread snapped from the anchoring line, and each time, the pain became less as he began to go numb.

  "Veyl…"

  His name? He'd thought he'd heard someone calling it, and he turned back to the almost imperceptible point of light through which the line disappeared. He wasn't certain what was on the other side anymore. He knew it was bright, and whenever he'd ventured too closely before, he'd been overcome by too much stimulation of mind and spirit. Just like a moment ago—or was it years?—Just before the barbs began to pull free.

  Some small part of him understood that these two worlds were life and death, and he understood from the pain of one, he'd been seeking the other for a long time.

  The light flickered and another vicious rip—this one more painful and larger than the others--sent pain shuddering through him. The line began to go slack. It would be so easy now. All he had to do was try to shove backwards. Maybe like kicking through water, he could rip the rest of the anchors and be free of the line. The darkness promised him the absence of everything. The sweetest oblivion. But the light—despite the fear he felt when facing it—continued to enchant.

  Only one barb remained. Beyond the searing pain of that last hook, his body had again returned to nothing. The hollow place was so wide that if he could see, he was certain he could look right through and see how empty he was.

  "Veyl…I love you…"

  The line snapped, and he began to move away, becoming numb, becoming the hollowness itself. But then something wasn't ready. Some little piece that still saw the light and craved it for all of its torment and pain. He remembered that there was something more, perhaps something worth the suffering.

  Panicking, Veyl reached out and snagged the frayed threads of the line.

  They burned him like fire and the barbs scratched at his skin, whipping around in an angry sea of black. Veyl cried out in soundless agony, but he held tighter, spinning his arm to wind the threads of broken glass around him, feeling his flesh being stripped off layer by layer. The pressure in his head was so strong, he was certain it would crush his skull. But still he fought, despite the tempting reasons not to. There was someone beyond this place who needed him, who wanted him, and for once, he was not so afraid to fail.

  Veyl pulled himself ever closer to that flickering pin-hole of light. With pain spreading through him the farther away that he moved from the darkness, he nearly considered giving up. But when his fingertip breached the opening, he got the sensation of a warm summer wind, arms around him, his heart beating. He tasted spicy sweet kisses of honeyed-mead, heard the deep laughter of his lover's delight, and smelled the scent of his skin. Memories.

  This dark and hollow place would always be here for him—but not yet. With one last great burst of effort, Veyl ripped open the darkness and pushed himself back into the light.

  *~*~*

  Kaidos could see Veyl lying on the ground. He was too still, too pale, and yet all Kaidos wanted was for him to wait a little longer. Of course dying together always sounded romantic when spun with music in a Wanderer's ballad. This was damned uncomfortable and downright maddening. He was so close, only a few more yards and he could touch Veyl, but the chamberlain was in his way—ranting about broken crystals, dead kings, and some nonsense about swapping souls. If that weren't bad enough, it had begun to rain again.

  The guard who'd attacked him was lying on the ground, wheezing as the handle of Kaidos' blade barely protruded from his belly. Kaidos hadn't wanted to kill the man, but it was obvious that no one here shared the same feelings towards him. The only small consolation was that this guard was one he remembered escorting him to the dungeon. The very one who had shoved him into his cell.

  "You! It's all your fault!" The chamberlain's yelling drew him back to the present. "You should have been dead before reaching Dandre! You fucking Wanderer scum!"

  Kaidos couldn't react fast enough to the foot that found his midsection. Most of his side took the blow, but it still hurt and had him curling up with a cough.

  It wasn't going to be enough to keep him from trying to reach Veyl. Despite the burning in his side and the dull, icy throb of his shattered ankle, Kaidos got to his hands and knees once more and continued to crawl.

  The next kick was better planned, right to his broken bones. Pain came down on top of him like an avalanche and Kaidos screamed. When he fell, the arrow shaft protruding from his arm snapped, tearing through the muscle. Another kick to Kaidos' midsection took his breath away and he tried unsuccessfully to grab hold of the man to make him stop.

  The guard behind him let out a thin, choking whine, momentarily drawing the chamberlain's attention there. He stormed over to the man and tried to rip Kaidos' knife from his guts. The man cried out and clutched at the wound. Apparently changing his mind, the chamberlain tossed the knife aside and fought to unsheathe the guard's sword from his scabbard. When he couldn't pull it free any other way, he dropped down on his butt and grasped the hilt, then shoved the man through the wide embrasure with his feet, letting the weight of the earth loosen the blade.

  The chamberlain stumbled forward under the awkward weight of the heavy weapon. Kaidos rolled just in time and yelped as he landed on his wounded arm, swallowing back the vomit that had come up into his throat. He managed to get onto one knee, bracing himself with one hand. Even an accidental hit would be enough to do some damage. On the next wild swing, black spots began to gather in front of Kaidos' eyes. He misjudged his dodge and slipped off the side of the tower platform, managing to squeeze his fingers into a seam near the crenel at the last moment.

  Kaidos blinked, trying to clear his vision as he scanned the area below for some kind of foothold. He was not surprised to see that there was none. He struggled to try and get a better grip to at least pull himself up, knowing the effort was futile. But he refused to die without touching Veyl one last time. He let out what should have been a chuckle but was a choking sob as he realized how much that meant to him. Death didn't scare him. It was not having the chance to say goodbye.

  The chamberlain's face was an ugly rictus as he walked towards Kaidos with the sword. The man was out of breath and sweating, but apparently had just enough energy to raise the blade and bring it down across Kaidos' head or throat or any number of other places that would assure he would die a miserable death laying in pieces on the ground below. Instinctively, Kaidos grabbed at his ankle.

  "Let go!" The chamberlain wobbled and nearly dropped the blade as he caught himself on one of the crenels. Turning the blade, he managed to stab Kaidos in the forearm, trying to make him let go. It worked, and Kaidos fought to regain his earlier grip into the crack just as the chamberlain got the bright idea that stabbing down was much easier than swinging the blade. Fortunately, he was still too clumsy with his aim, mostly glancing the blade off the stone, but Kaidos would not be able to hold on indefinitely, and the chamberlain's stabs were bound to hit him sooner or later.

  *~*~*

  Veyl woke to the sound of a familiar voice crying out in pain. Kaidos. He might have thought he'd heard the sound from a dream, if it wasn't for the fact that he was outside in the rain, on some cold, hard surface, with the sounds of a fight coming from nearby. He could hear metal scraping and clanging off of stone, further jarring him back into the real world.

  He struggled to open his eyes, which felt as though they had been nailed shut. His blood moved sluggishly through his veins, as thick as honey, as he fought his way to wakeful
ness and tried to make his body move.

  When he finally got his eyes open, it took him a moment to understand what he was seeing. A large, black shape was lumbering before him, and something—a flash of metal—appeared and vanished as it was moved around. There was something else—something that the black shape was closing in on.

  Veyl squinted though the rain and suddenly everything came to him with startling clarity. It was a hand, the fingers digging into a seam between stones in an attempt to hold on. Veyl sat up, noticing cloudy sky all around without a hint of landscape, meaning that they must be very high up and that the man holding on—Kaidos?—was clinging to dear life.

  The black shape instantly took a meaningful form for him. Veyl recognized Chamberlain Rheton's robes now, and that what he was swinging was a sword.

  Veyl tried to cry out and draw his attention, but his voice was so weak that it was easily drowned out by the light patter of rain on the stones.

  Although every muscle and bone ached from disuse, Veyl managed to crawl forward. His eyes caught a flash of bloodied steel on the ground, and he recognized it as one of Kaidos' throwing knives. Keeping one eye on Rheton, he reached out and grabbed the blade, sticky with blood, then struggled to his feet.

  Veyl watched the chamberlain trying to wield a sword that was far too large and heavy for someone who had never used one to swing accurately. But he didn't have to be accurate—just lucky, and when Veyl heard Kaidos' voice—grunting from the pain of one of those lucky blows—it felt like a knife through his own heart.

  Kaidos belonged to him. Rheton had already lied to Veyl and told him Kaidos was dead, and Veyl had nearly given up by believing it. But he'd found that link, he'd seen Kaidos, and whether it was a dream or fantasy didn't matter—Kaidos was here now, but if Veyl didn't do something fast, he truly would be lost to him forever.

  "Rheton…" he growled, swaying where he stood.

  The chamberlain stopped swinging and turned his face, looking at Veyl with eyes full of surprise. "M-Majesty? King Herran? Is that you? D-Did it work?"

  And then Veyl remembered— transference—that was why they had brought him here, so that the mage could rob him of his very soul and fill his body with the foulness of a man whose blood he unfortunately shared. But the mage hadn't completed the procedure. Why he hadn't, Veyl wasn't certain. He only knew that Aegeus had been the one to tell him that Kaidos was not dead, and so he had to assume that the mage had experienced a change of heart, or at least circumstance, to prevent the transference from becoming complete. Whatever the case, it was not so obvious to Rheton, that the person staring through Veyl's eyes was not his beloved tyrant.

  Veyl took a few staggering steps forward. "Rheton…" He reached out a trembling hand, asking for the man to come to his aid.

  "Majesty!" Rheton turned completely towards him, dropping the sword on the ground as he rushed to his side. "It is so good to know that it has worked! That foul offspring of yours was eliminated and the mage is dead! He'll not have his revenge in this lifetime."

  Rheton was nearly beaming with pride and Veyl felt the weight of rage settling upon him.

  "The boy…Finn?" Veyl asked softly, keeping the edge of anger free from his tone. Surely, they would not hurt a child…

  "No need to keep him alive, Your Majesty. Once we get you back inside I can quietly have him, and that troublesome female elf, put to death. In fact," Rheton glanced back at the hands that still clung to the stone, "I was just about to eliminate that man who caused us so much trouble—the thief we hired to bring your new body home to us."

  "Leave him," Veyl said as he sensed Rheton was making ready to turn. He was getting light headed from the sudden heat of anger in his blood and his body's quickly weakening state. "Come…here…" He held out his hand once more.

  "At once, my King!" Rheton rushed to him, gently wrapping an arm around him to support his weight. "We must get you inside so that you can rest…" He began to escort Veyl to the staircase.

  "Wait…let me catch my breath," Veyl said as they reached the top and Rheton paused to let Veyl do so. Gathering up all of the force and rage he could muster, Veyl let it all out in one swift blow, bringing Kaidos' knife into Rheton's belly, and then thrusting upwards until the blade got caught up under his ribs.

  "Give my regards to my father," Veyl growled into Rheton's ear as the chamberlain choked and clutched at the gaping wound in his mid-section. Veyl gave the blade one last twist, feeling the hot blood and viscera spill out over his hand, and then shoved the man down the stairs as hard as he could.

  The man's shrieks echoed down through the tower as he tumbled down and out of sight. Veyl fell back on his rear-end, his teeth clacking painfully together as he landed. The effort had left him light-headed and even weaker than he'd been before, but he had to get to Kaidos.

  *~*~*

  Kaidos had heard some commotion and realized that the crazy chamberlain was no longer swinging a blade at him, but it didn't matter much now. His consciousness was fading, and it was only a matter of time before his fingers loosened of their own accord and his body would plummet to the ground.

  Dazed, Kaidos felt hands grabbing at his own as someone tried to pull him up.

  "Kai!"

  Kaidos lifted his face to see Veyl, still as white as a corpse, shaking as he held Kaidos' hand and tried to keep him from falling off the edge. There were tears streaming from his eyes and his thin fingers, covered with blood, clung to his wrist, trying to hold on.

  "Veyl…" Kaidos' voice stopped working. He knew there was no way that Veyl could hold his weight. His face was white from shock and contorted with the agony of his burning muscles as he tried to maintain a grip.

  "No! No!" Veyl cried out, his entire body shuddering from the effort.

  "Veyl," Kaidos rasped, "it's okay to let go…"

  "No!"

  Kaidos' arms were going numb, and he could feel the weight of the earth below dragging him down. There was no chance of pulling Veyl off because Veyl would have no choice to let go once his muscles seized from weakness, yet he couldn't be certain that Veyl might not come after him. He didn't want that. Veyl finally had a life that he could control. Kaidos looked up into that beautiful, tragic expression as blood roared in his ears. "Gods, I love you so much."

  Veyl's trembling wracked his body, and he moaned in anguish as his grip began to fail him.

  "Veyl…" Kaidos wasn't certain what he'd been trying to say as his tongue went thick in his mouth. The darkness began to spread like ink through his vision. He heard Veyl choking out a scream as he lost the battle to hold on. Kaidos wondered abstractly if it would hurt when he hit the ground, or if that brief few moments of flight would be enough to ease him into a comfortable numbness.

  But he didn't fall. Someone grabbed his arm, near where the arrow was lodged, and the pain snapped through Kaidos' skull. Another set of hands grabbed his other arm and hauled him up and onto the roof. Kaidos sucked in a noisy breath and his eyes flew open, as every injury he'd sustained was bumped and jostled.

  "Damn it, Vailinn. You're not dragging me all this way just so you can die!"

  Through the red haze of pain, Kaidos heard Ahrn Engel's voice. And then that familiar comforting smell with a hint of exotic flowers as Veyl curled against him, holding him, and sobbing into his chest.

  CHAPTER FORTY SIX

  Goodbyes

  The chaos that had been occurring within the castle walls had easily allowed Engel and the Archduke's party to enter the gates, and with allied forces already visible on the horizon, convincing a surrender from the now leaderless troops was not a problem. It seemed, not surprisingly, that the majority of the king's army would just as soon not go to war.

  Veyl sat in the throne room among many new and familiar faces but his mind was elsewhere. It had been ten hours since the small invasion on Castle Dandre had been successful and he was officially the new king.

  Veyl had wanted to remain with Kaidos, but the healing the elves had worked har
d to achieve had taken a toll on Kaidos. He currently slept in the same room as some gargantuan man who had also been badly injured during Veyl's rescue, and a dark-eyed elf who would not leave the big man's side.

  It humbled Veyl that so many strangers would come to his aid. It would have been much easier for the archduke to attack the castle after hearing the news of his brother's condition, but instead he had come with one of his own sons to help Kaidos and Engel save Veyl's life.

  "Are you listening, Your Majesty?"

  "Hm, what?" Veyl shook out of his thoughts as he realized someone had been addressing him. It was one of the soldiers from the former king's military—high-ranking, from what he could tell. Veyl would not yet ascribe fault to too many of these men because they were acting under the orders of a tyrant. Just the same, he was happy that Ahrn and the Archduke's men were standing by closely, hands on the hilts of their blades.

  The officer smiled at him kindly, though Veyl found it mollifying and fought back his irritation.

  "I said, Your Majesty, that everyone has been accounted for—the living advisors to the previous king have been jailed, the king's body is being prepared for burial, and the wounded have been tended. However, there are two who were not among any of the numbers of living or dead. The magus and his young assistant are as yet unaccounted for."

  Veyl shivered and pulled the heavy cloak Ahrn had given him tighter around his body. He looked at Melina whose eyes were red and puffy from crying. Apparently she had received the news earlier.

  Despite what the mage had been hired to do, Veyl understood that in the end, he had tried to help him. And the child, Finn, who never should have been involved, had been such an odd and sweet little boy that his master could not have been truly evil.