Alisiyad

by Sarah R. Suleski

  “I’m sorry,” Russ mumbled, looking away, thinking of the guard, Currun’s tackle . . . he couldn’t say he himself hadn’t done it, though. If the King didn’t know about Currun yet, chances were he and Alisiya had gotten away. He couldn’t alert Leeton to them now.

  “You are sorry. I will pass that message on to the devastated family,” Leeton replied coldly. “Now,” he turned back to Prosporin, “leave us for a little while, please.”

  “But—”

  “And the guards.” Leeton jerked his head at them. “I want to talk to the prisoner alone.”

  “Very well.” The man bowed, motioned to the guards, and the three of them left. Russ shifted nervously in his chair, but tried to keep his chin up. Leeton seemed to find him interesting for the time being, and he wasn’t being killed yet. That had to be good.

  When they were alone, Leeton said, “Stand up.”

  Russ stood, and swallowed. He met Leeton’s eyes. The King put his hands behind his back and started to circle Russ, looking him up and down. “Do you travel?” he asked unexpectedly.

  “Um. No,” Russ said. “Not till now, anyway. It was sort of an accident.” He coughed.

  “An accident. I think that you are lying,” Leeton said. He seemed to have gotten over his initial surprise and spoke calmly. Russ found it even more unsettling. “When a Gate is closed, or broken if you’d like, there is no way a novice Key can simply stumble through it unawares. Though you do look like the stumbling kind.”

  “Thanks,” Russ said without exhaling.

  Leeton shook his head. “Yet that is impossible. I made it so. I made it so even those who try cannot get through.” He rounded Russ and came to a stop in front of him again. “How did you get through my Gate? If you are a Key so strong that you could enter a Gate I have closed, these chains would be nothing to you,” he said, eyes flickering in puzzlement. “Yet that you are an otherworlder I’ve no doubt. An otherworlder or an excellent actor.”

  “I . . . .”

  “And yet my homeworld.” Leeton’s fists clenched. “So close to my home state.” He shook his head. “It was in France I found my first Gate, but I spent my early boyhood in Illinois. It took me thirty years of travelling to reach Alisiya, and here you stumble right into it from a Gate practically in my old backyard. I have been trying understand the rhyme and reason of the worlds all my life, and one thing I know is this—”

  Russ fought the urge to squirm, waiting for Leeton to finish.

  “No one, no one stumbles through a Gate by accident. So do not play stupid with me. I have shut all the Gates leading in and out of Alisiya; otherworlders with your technology and your magic and your wars are not welcome. You are a trespasser in my world and I can have you executed for it. So consider well your answer; how and why are you here?”

  Russ was silent, but his mind raced. The memories of crossing over from the Mill were confusing and vague, especially after all that had happened since. Leeton seemed to believe that he knew more about “gates” and “keys” and “worlds” than he actually did, but he couldn’t decide if this was a good thing or not. Finally he said, “It brought me here. Whatever that light was, it’s what got me here. And Liseli, too. Or maybe I brought Liseli when it grabbed me. I’m not sure. But it was alive, I think.”

  “Who is Liseli?” Leeton asked, almost off hand. He had been regarding Russ thoughtfully but what he thought of the half-explanation Russ didn’t know. The casual question threw him for a moment, and he stared blankly.

  Then he narrowed his eyes and tried to respond with equal indifference; “A friend of mine.” Leeton raised an eyebrow, and Russ shifted with a cough. He felt a flare of annoyance, and added, “Actually she’s my girlfriend. But you already tried to kill us once, so I thought you knew all this already.”

  “Try to kill you?” Leeton scoffed. “I’ve never met you nor heard of you before in my life.”

  “You sent your dogs to maul me!” said Russ, louder than before. He frowned. “And they did.”

  “My dogs?” Leeton started. “You’ve seen my dogs? Charlie and Bruto? Where are they?”

  “Dead,” Russ said as firmly as he could. “They’re dead.”

  “Ha.” Leeton didn’t believe him. “If Charlie and Bruto attacked you for some reason, you would be the dead one.”

  Russ shrugged and looked away, setting his jaw as he remembered the pain. “You sent them to kill me and Liseli just like you sent them to kill Byzauki and Ilia,” he said recklessly, growing tired of the questions. He didn’t know if Leeton was going to kill him or not, be he hated the thought of being drilled to death and called a liar before being offed.

  “What do you know of that?” Leeton asked harshly, taking a step toward him.

  “I know a lot of things,” Russ muttered.

  Leeton took another step. “Enlighten me.”

  Russ leaned back a little, lifting his head so he could look at Leeton under his half-closed eyelids. He had a feeling what he was about to say wouldn’t go over well, but he said quietly, “I know about Aysha, and the River, and your feud with the Erykumyn.”

  “Is that all.” Leeton surprised him with his level tone and unflinching face.

  Russ didn’t answer.

  “So you’re another one of Arlic’s messiahs,” Leeton grunted, relaxing. “I should have known. His standards have gotten quite low. So you broke into my palace to assassinate me, did you?”

  “Maybe.”

  Leeton snorted. He shook his head. “What about my dogs? Charlie and Bruto. If they are dead, who killed them? You?” He looked doubtful.

  “Not sure,” Russ realized. “I was kind of out of it. Mauled and all,” he added dryly.

  “Where are your scars? My dogs go for the throat, I don’t see any scars.” Leeton reached out and took his chin again, pushing his head up and side to side.

  Russ clenched his fists. “River water,” was all he could say.

  Leeton let him go with a jerk. “The River is broken,” he said. “My dogs didn’t attack you. Why would they? I gave no such order. I knew nothing of your presence till now.”

  “Then where the hell are your dogs?” Russ snapped, quickly falling silent as Leeton glared at him.

  “I don’t know,” the King said. “They disappeared a few days ago. But they of all my dogs were the least vicious. They were my pets. I find it hard to believe that they would run off and start attacking people.”

  Least vicious my chewed up ass. Russ didn’t respond. Leeton started to pace, shaking his head.

  “Why were you in my garden?”

  Russ looked at his feet.

  “Why? Did Arlic send you?”

  “Maybe.”

  Leeton shoved him back down onto the chair. It almost tipped over, but Leeton gripped his shoulder and kept him upright. “There is only one person in all the worlds that my dogs would obey, besides me.” He pointed with his other hand. “Give me one good reason why she would want you dead.”

  She? “Alisiya,” Russ said under her breath, then snapped his mouth shut. He shook his head. No, it didn’t make sense. Why would she send the dogs? Why would she want him and Liseli to . . . no, the dogs had passed Liseli by. Why would she want just him dead? He felt cold. Why would she want Liseli? Liseli without him? What could Liseli do for her? he wondered blankly.

  Leeton was watching him. “You were in my garden after my daughter,” he said coldly. “How did you know about her?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Leeton slapped him, driving his head to the side. “You were trying to get into the tombs! For what? There’s nothing there. But her. But my daughter. Did you come here to steal her, kill her, expose her to the world? What?”

  Russ lifted his head slowly, wincing. “She asked me to come.”

  “She asked you,” Leeton scoffed. “She sent Charlie and Bruto to kill you and then allowed her River to heal you, and then just ‘asked you to come.’ Is that so.”

 
; “Her River?” Russ echoed.

  “Yes, her River. You don’t know as much as you claim, do you? Either that or you insist on playing stupid,” Leeton said angrily. “Ever since her birth the River has loved her; this whole world loves her. It obeys her.”

  Russ frowned. “It’s just water.”

  “No it isn’t. It’s not ‘just water’ and it never has been. This world is alive, and every now and then during the course of history it has reared up and bitten the people. Only my daughter keeps it in check, these days, limiting the deadliness to the Chaiorra. I have figured that out, even if everyone else believes in their fool ‘curse.’ I suppose you thought you were an anointed one who would kill me and ‘heal the River,’ didn’t you? That’s what Arlic told you, I’m sure.” Leeton poked him in the chest. “You just stop believing that right now, because there is no curse.”

  “Except when Alisiya wants there to be,” said Russ, feeling his guts wrench.

  Leeton suddenly grabbed his hair and pulled his head back. “What does that mean? Why have you come here? And come to think of it, how did you speak to my daughter . . . as you claim?”

  “The Child,” Russ gasped as his already tender head smacked against the chair back. “I’ve seen her as . . . the Child. She said . . . she said she was a ‘sending.’ Of herself.”

  “Yes. I’ve long suspected she and the Child are one in the same. But no one has ever told of hearing her talk, since that day she spoke the prophecy,” Leeton didn’t let go. “But why did she tell you to come? And why did you come?”

  “She wanted to be free!” Russ tried to jerk his head away. Leeton held fast. “And she told me she would help Liseli if I freed her. So I came to . . . to try. But I’ve failed.”

  “Help Liseli?” Leeton echoed, twisted his hair. “Why does this Liseli of yours need help?”

  Russ glowered as his scalp screamed in pain. “Let go of me, dammit!” he burst. “If you’re gonna kill me just fucking do it! If you wanna question me I’m getting sick of being yanked around!”

  Leeton released him roughly, shoving his chin down and pulling his hair before letting go. He stepped away. “Tell me, then.”

  Russ shook his hair out of his eyes. He wished he could break out of his chains and sock Leeton in the jaw before getting the hell away. Instead he forced his temper down and said, “When we first came here, I had a cold, and then I got even more sick. I almost died. Then the River healed me up. Completely. So when your dogs tore the shit out of me, Liseli went down to the River to get water to help me again. She ended up almost drowning in it, but Eliasha — Arlic’s granddaughter — pulled her out. Only, she’s been in a coma since then. Since Thursday.” He took a deep breath. “Alisiya appeared to me, and told me that if I came here and freed her, she’d be able to revive Liseli. So here I am. That what you want to hear?”

  “Alisiya doesn’t need freeing,” Leeton crossed his arms, his eyes like holes in ice. “If my daughter wanted to escape, she could do it without your help. I will always bring her back to me, but do you honestly think that she needs a fool like you to help her leave this place? No. If Alisiya asked you here it wasn’t just to free her.”

  “That’s what she told me,” Russ shrugged.

  “Hm,” Leeton snorted. “Well. Can’t this ‘girlfriend’ of yours swim? I suppose the both of you can drink from the River without harm, that’s how the prophecy goes,” he bit the air with his words.

  “I don’t know,” Russ snapped. “I don’t know if she can swim. I never asked her. But she’s in a coma right now and Alisiya told me it was because she was under your spell.”

  Leeton barked out a laugh. “My spell? I stopped working spells ninety years ago. The last spell I cast was the birth of my daughter.”

  “Then why—” Russ stopped, realizing the answer to his question: Alisiya would have to wake Liseli up because Alisiya had put her to sleep. Fuck. You should have known.

  Leeton nodded, as if reading his thoughts. “Perhaps we should be asking Alisiya what all this is about.”

  “No.” Russ heard his voice squeak. “I mean . . . that’s not . . . necessary.”

  “Really. Don’t you want to meet Alisiya, as she really is?” Leeton shook his head, with a sardonic smile. “We will. We’ll go down to her rooms and find out what she’s up to.” Leeton hooked a hand under his shoulder and pulled him up. “That will clear this whole matter up far better, I think, than we are this way.”

  Chapter 23 ~ Mother’s Day

  Liseli awoke to a nightmare. First she heard sounds, disturbing her walk through the gray. The dusk faded, and still the sounds came. Quiet, human sounds, wet sounds, breathing and choking sounds. She knew then that she was sleeping, not dead, and could open her eyes.

  She rolled over onto her side and saw the curtains in orange evening light, a chair overturned, and Eliasha on her knees. Her first thought: Russ. She was in his room, but he wasn’t there. Only after a moment did she notice the puddle of bile and blood in front of Eliasha, as the girl doubled over, clutching her stomach and choking.

  “What’s the matter?” Liseli sat up, unsteadily. She stared wide-eyed at Eliasha, but half of her still lingered in a world where the gray pictures changed and shifted and meant nothing at all. “Eliasha?” Is this real?

  Eliasha took one hand from her stomach and steadied herself, slamming it down into the mess on the floor. She didn’t seem to notice. Liseli struggled to her knees on the bed, weak and wobbly. “What . . . .”

  “I’m being punished.” Eliasha looked up. Her eyes were dark and sunken, and they shifted to something over Liseli’s shoulder.

  “I . . . I don’t understand,” Liseli leaned forward. “Are you sick? I should get someone, I should . . . do something . . . .” She turned and saw a figure standing on the other side of her bed. Her hand slipped on the mattress and she fell back, opening her mouth to scream. Her breath stuck in her throat soundlessly. The figure was hooded and cloaked, a dark shadow in the fiery light seeping through the curtains.

  “You.” Trying to get away, Liseli rolled back over and slithered off the bed to land beside Eliasha. She knew who it was. It did not look like The Child anymore, but that didn’t matter. Alisiya had been in her head too many times not to recognize her.

  But Eliasha’s distress was too distracting, she had to turn back to the girl on the floor. “Eli—”

  “I’m all right.” Eliasha straightened, and sat back on her legs. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, wincing. “It’s passed. My punishment.”

  “For what? I don’t understand!” Liseli could remember only some things, and little of it had to do with Eliasha. She felt the wetness under her knees seeping into her nightshift, and reached out to touch Eliasha.

  Eliasha swallowed, her shoulders trembling. “I don’t know. I’ve done something . . . wrong. I can’t remember, but—” she looked into Liseli’s eyes, curiously, “—why are you doing that?”

  “What?”

  “Changing your face.”

  Liseli blinked helplessly. “I’m not.”

  Eliasha reached out with her clean hand, and touched Liseli’s face. “It’s like you’re spinning and . . . shifting . . . but you feel the same . . . .”

  “I am the same.” Liseli touched her own face as Eliasha drew back.

  The girl stared at her hand a moment, wonderingly. “Everything’s spinning . . . .” She dropped her gaze, almost touching her chin to her chest. Her body started to shake even more, and Liseli looked around the room again, seeing the dark figure and no one else. “I need to get help,” she said. “You’re sick, I need to . . . I’ll be right back.”

  “No.” Eliasha wrapped a trembling hand around Liseli’s wrist. She stared at it. “I don’t feel it,” she said. “Your arm.”

  Liseli tried to free herself, twisting her arm and pulling away. “I have to get Halla. Or someone! Let me go.”

  Eliasha’s figures dug in. “I can’t,” she gasped. “I can’t feel anythi
ng. Don’t leave me alone with her.” She looked up with sudden terror, and Liseli followed her gaze.

  The hooded figure shifted, rustling its cloak faintly, but remained where it was.

  “What do you mean? Nothing?” Liseli forced her head back around, swallowing. She brushed matted black hair out of Eliasha’s eyes, trying to calm her. “Can you feel my hand?”

  “No.” Eliasha’s voice broke. “I don’t know. I think I feel my heart beating.”

  “That’s good!” Her hand shook and got tangled in the hair. “That’s good.”

  “Is it? It hurts.” Wetness dripped onto Liseli’s arm.

  “Don’t . . . don’t cry, please, it’s okay,” Liseli said, trying to pat her head, stroke her hair, hug her shoulders; do something to stop the trembling body, the rivers pouring down Eliasha’s face.

  “Am I?” Eliasha choked, lifting her head. “‘O K’?” She opened her mouth again, and blood spilled out. It ran over her chin and splashed onto the floor. Liseli jerked as it spattered her. Eliasha’s mouth kept moving, but she breathed blood instead of words.

  “Stop it!” Liseli cried. Eliasha’s eyes widened and she shut her mouth, but twin rivers began to run from her nostrils. She gasped for breath. Her hand turned to a vice on Liseli’s arm and she grabbed out with the other. Her shakes became jerks, water mingling with the blood.

  Liseli wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. She stared at Eliasha, watching her choke, feeling like she herself was choking, holding her breath, her screams frozen somewhere in her mind. Eliasha’s face contorted in pain and loomed monster-like in front of her. She couldn’t feel her right hand anymore, but she felt powerless to do anything about it. Then Eliasha’s fingers relaxed and her hands slipped from Liseli’s wrist, into her own lap. Her head drooped and she fell forward. Liseli caught her. The trembling stopped. Eliasha’s body went heavy and limp in her arms, her face pressed into Liseli’s shoulder.