diviners curse

by Nicolette Andrews

  I lowered my gaze. "What good is this power if I cannot stop anything? Why know what may happen if I cannot influence it?"

  "Is that the only reason for your power, then, to influence the future? Why can we also look into the past and see the present, then?" she replied, and I felt like a chastised child.

  "I don't know." I lowered my gaze to the ground but did not loosen the grip of my fists. I want to help people, not continue to look on as everyone I care about is hurt.

  "You still have much to learn." She reached out to touch me, and I took a step back, unwilling to let that cold hand brush my skin.

  "And who would teach me? I am the last!" I wanted nothing more of her dire warnings and inescapable truths.

  She circled me, and I felt uneasy, like a caged animal. "There are those that would teach you, but you are going in the wrong direction."

  The palace at Keisan disappeared, and in its place we stood upon a crossroad. "You have a choice, blood of my blood. Chase these dreams or become what you are destined to be."

  At one end I saw the specter looming in the distance and, behind it, great mountain peaks capped with snow. In the other direction, Sarelle beckoned to me, the royal palace of Sanore looming behind her.

  "She is connected to you, more than you realize. You and she share a destiny that you must discover."

  "Why can you not tell me, then? Will it change Johai's fate? What more is there to learn?"

  She shook her head. "I am a guide. I can only give clues, as you know. This journey is yours. Now which will you choose?"

  I looked in each direction, torn in two. "You would have me choose between honor and intrigue?"

  She nodded slowly. "Choose wisely, blood of my blood."

  Chapter Four

  THE NEXT MORNING, I rose and went about the motions of breaking camp. My movements were slower than I wanted because my mind was racing. I looked back several times in the distance down the long dusty road on which we had come. Sanore lay beyond several leagues' distance and rolling hills and a few villages. I could not go back. I refused to go back—despite what the first diviner instructed me. Saving Johai was paramount. I was stubbornly holding onto that hope that I could save him despite all odds. I was still rolling my bed and packing my few possessions I had taken out the night before when Johai came around with the horses on their leads.

  "You are not prepared to leave yet?" he asked with an arched brow.

  "No, I was distracted," I said as I hurriedly rolled up my sleeping blankets and tied them into a ball. I then proceeded to shove my few possessions into a pack.

  Johai grabbed my pack and tied it to my mount, something I should have been doing for myself. I glanced over my shoulder, expecting the caravan master to be there, barking at us for lagging behind.

  "Is anything the matter?" Johai asked as he finished adjusting the saddle straps on our mounts.

  I shook my head. "Nothing at all." I took the reins from him and led my horse away from his in order to mount. Several of the lead wagons had already begun a creaky start, and the dust was kicked up into the air. Oxen lowed and horses whickered as the caravan began its journey for the day.

  Johai was never one to press me if I did not wish to speak, because often times he was reserved in his manner. However, I could tell from the way his eyes lingered on me that he was concerned. I pretended to ignore his questioning gaze and swung into the saddle and smiled at him. He joined me, astride his own mount, and we kicked our animals into motion and took a lead over the wagon we had been trailing the day prior.

  Beau had risen with the sun and was already making rounds up and down the line, helping to get the caravan moving. I was impressed by his work ethic and more over his willingness to follow us into dangers unknown, and for what, I could not say.

  I was preparing to ask Johai about it when the caravan came to a groaning stop. Horses neighed, and hooves pawed the ground. Voices were raised in protest, demanding answers as to why we had stopped. I pulled back on my horse and saw the caravan master walking down the line towards us. His broad arms were swinging, and his face was red, and his mouth a grim line.

  "Why have we stopped?" Johai asked when he drew up close to us.

  "Danhadine blockade on the road ahead," he snarled. "It appears they are inspecting caravans going into Jerauch from Neaux. Stay here until it's over; shouldn't be too long."

  I grabbed my cloak and pulled it closer around me. My heart leapt into my throat. I thought we were safe once we'd left Sanore; I had been wrong. We were instructed to line up, and every man woman and child was forced from their carts and awaited inspection. Since we were near the end of the caravan, I could watch the inspection from down the line. It was five Danhadine soldiers. They strode together in pairs, and a fifth stood back as the other four searched inside of wagons and opened barrels of apples and bags of spices. My stomach was churning and heaving to the point that I thought by the time they reached me I would evacuate the contents onto the soldiers' feet.

  "What should we do?" I whispered to Johai.

  A couple of Jerauchian men, who drove the wagon in front of us in line, were chatting casually without a care in the world. Beau was nowhere to be seen, and I wondered where he was. From the easy way the soldiers walked, I suspected they had not found anything of interest, yet.

  "They're searching for us, I suspect," Johai murmured back to me. "I could cloak us with invisibility, and they will look over us as if we are not here."

  "What about our horses and Beau?" I asked, but that was not my real concern; just a small spell to direct the soldiers' eyes away at the gate had affected Johai. I knew it, even if he denied it. How much more damage could an invisibility spell do? What if that was the final straw and I lost him to the specter at last?

  "We will be safe. I promise," Johai said, and he reached out to squeeze my hand. I took it and squeezed back.

  The soldiers were not far away now. I could see their features. The closest one had dark brown hair that was clubbed at the nape of his neck and a square jaw. The fifth man was wearing a seal on his breastplate, and it was the blue shield with the encircled silver tree, Adair's symbol and that of the Order of the Oak.

  I took a deep breath and prayed a silent prayer. I had to have faith. There was no other way.

  "Do it," I breathed.

  Johai spoke an incantation under his breath. The words were melodic in nature and weaved in and out of one another like a chant. I felt a cloak settle upon me, similar to the tingling sensation of the spell before but more like a bath of cold water poured over me. I lifted up my hand, expecting it to be transparent. It was just as solid as before. I looked to Johai, and he seemed to be just as solid as ever.

  One of the men nearby exclaimed, "That couple is gone. They disappeared right before my eyes."

  "Your eyes must be going." His companion laughed. "They must have moved."

  "No, I watched. One moment they were there, and the next they were gone."

  Their conversation carried over to the soldiers, who looked up with interest and skipped over a wagon and quite a few packs to question the men.

  The captain, who I assumed was the fifth man with the Order's emblem, questioned them. "What is this commotion about?"

  "There was a young couple here, and they disappeared into thin air!" the first man shouted, waving his hands in our direction.

  I squeezed Johai's hand for reassurance, and he clung to me tightly enough that I began to lose feeling in my hand.

  "That is nonsense," one of the subordinates said in reply to the man. "People do not just vanish."

  "But they did!" the Jerauchian merchant insisted.

  The soldiers scoffed and were preparing to turn away and continue their search. Their captain, however, looked in our direction, and for a chilling second, I thought his eyes had locked onto me. You do not see me. You will walk away, I silently commanded.

  After a few breathless minutes, the captain turned and followed his comrades down the l
ine. I exhaled in relief and tried to unwind my fingers from Johai's, but he held me fast.

  I looked up to question him and saw the face of a different man looking down at me. His eyes were black, bottomless pools. My breath caught in my throat. I could not breathe. I was drowning. I reached a hand up to my collapsed windpipe. A shadow had passed over him, and his downturned mouth and severe brows made him seem much more menacing than the Johai I knew.

  "Foolish diviner, to what lengths will you press your luck before it is too late? Each spell he casts, each selfish decision you make brings Johai closer to me. You cannot stop this now. He has belonged to me from the beginning. You would have done better to heed the first diviner's advice."

  I gasped as he twisted my wrist. "How?"

  "Do you think I cannot see into your dreams? You and I are connected, diviner. You are mine as much as he is."

  "I do not belong to you or anyone, and neither does Johai," I spat and attempted to wrench my arm free. His grip was iron tight upon me, and I could not wrest my hand free.

  "Deny it all you want, but the truth is inevitable!" He laughed. Johai stood above me with a cruel twisted face, and I was afraid of him. Afraid of what I would unleash if I did not save him or kill him.

  Without warning, he released me from his grip. I stumbled backward and fell onto my rear. Men shouted behind me. Their voices were muffled by the drumming in my ears. Rough hands grabbed me and questioned me. I did not respond. Instead I was gazing at the spot where I knew Johai stood. The invisibility spell held. Whoever had grabbed me was dragging me away, and it was then that my focus cleared and the drumming faded away.

  I whipped my head around, bewildered, and saw the gleaming metal of a Danhadine soldier's armor.

  "Unhand me!" I shouted and beat upon the metal on his chest. It did nothing but hurt my hands.

  The soldier laughed. "You thought you could run, sorceress. The king's justice is great. You will pay for King Dallin's life and those you took in the bay."

  "I don't know what you're talking about. What have I done wrong?" I lied, hoping they would doubt.

  He cuffed me, and my skull rattled under the blow. "Shut your mouth unless you want another taste of that."

  I bit down on my tongue and prevented myself from saying anything to further incur his wrath. I knew when my words were falling on deaf ears. I looked back over my shoulder and saw Johai had reappeared. The soldiers were so busy with me, they did not notice him. Johai had fallen to his knees. His face was one of stricken pain. He rose to his feet as if he would come after me, but I shook my head sharply. I would not have him be captured as well.

  He seemed torn between chasing after me and obeying, but in the end, he stayed. It was better this way. If I hoped for rescue, they would need to remain free. The soldier dragged me to their mounts past the line of the caravan. The merchants and their families peered out the back of their wagons at me and whispered to one another. I spotted Beau among the crowd. I tried to catch his eye, but he looked past me. It probably is better if we do not appear to know one another. I was hoisted up and shoved into the saddle of a gelding. My captor swung into the saddle behind me.

  "You will not speak of what you have seen here," he said to the crowd.

  They peered up at us with wide eyes. How do these Danhadine soldiers have power enough to take captives and to stop a caravan?

  The soldier dug his heels into the gelding, and we took off down the line of the caravan, back in the direction from which I had come. The other four soldiers followed behind, indicated by the pounding of their mounts' hooves.

  "May I ask where you are taking me? Surely you cannot take me back to Danhad like this," I said.

  The soldier flicked the reins of his horse. His arms, which were around me, brushed against me, and I shifted out of his grasp. We galloped down a hillside, and perched on the front of the saddle, I bounced around and slammed into the soldier's chest.

  He did not seem to notice as he responded, "I am taking you to Sanore and the ambassador. It will be he who decides your fate from there."

  Had I the chance, I would have tried to escape. The soldier seemed to anticipate this, and he kept one arm wrapped around my torso. It would seem the choice had been made for me after all. I was returning to Sanore.

  The ride back to the city was much quicker with a small company of horses than with a large caravan, and we arrived at the city gates before nightfall. My back ached from sharing the saddle, and my hands hurt from clenching them in fear. I was disappointed and relieved that Johai had not pursued us. I hoped he would, for once, take the selfish route and escape without me, though I doubted he would.

  We arrived at the city gates. We stopped at the southern gate, and a Neaux soldier in a crimson cape stopped us before we could enter.

  "State your business," he said.

  "We have a prisoner to take to the Danhadine ambassador," the captain said from behind me. The reverberation of his voice echoed through me. I did not meet the soldier's gaze, but I could feel him looking at me.

  "Your kind are not to enter the city without orders from the palace," the gate guard said.

  "I know that. However, we have a traitor that must be taken to the ambassador," the captain insisted.

  The gate guard looked at our party and then walked away to converse with another guard. After a few minutes he returned. "You can take the girl to the ambassador's villa but only you and no one else."

  "My orders were to bring my patrol with me to report."

  "Your orders don't mean anything inside my city. What, are you afraid to bring one woman to the ambassador? Afraid she'll overpower you?" He laughed.

  The horse danced beneath us, and its hooves rang out on the stone and echoed off the walls around us. The gate guard scowled at the captain, and I suspected the captain was doing the same, though I dared not look back.

  "Very well, I will take the girl there myself."

  The gate guard stood back to let us pass.

  "Stay here. Wait for my return," the captain instructed his men.

  We passed through the portcullis and into the lower district. The noise of the city echoed through my skull—the shout of merchants making last attempts at sales before the day ended, wives greeting their husbands as they returned from their day's labors, and the growing sounds of a city settling in for the night.

  We passed through the lower districts, which is where the smaller houses lay. These were the homes of the common working folk. People on their way home stopped to gawk. We must have seemed strange, me sharing a mount with a Danhadine soldier. We hurried along and soon made it through to the second district, which was closer to the palace. The homes were larger here and much more opulent. Greenery spilled over garden walls from hidden courtyards in the center of villas. The homes had balconies that looked out onto the street and folding doors opened to let the breeze through.

  A couple on their balcony watched me being taken to the ambassador's home with interest. The woman was round of hips and had a full, round face. Her sable curls were piled high on her head, and she wore a bright fuschia gown, which clashed with her olive skin. She whispered to her companion, and then he let his eyes drift down towards me. He had a fair complexion and dark hair. He seemed bored with the proceeding, but the woman was gesturing and waving to me. I looked down to the swaying head of the horse I was riding and avoided further ridicule. It was bad enough I had been captured. I did not want to be mocked as well.

  The ambassador's villa was not far from there, and it was a modest building compared to those that surrounded it. The front was styled much like many of the Neaux homes. There were large wooden shutters on the windows, painted a bright blue, and the walls were white plaster. The roof was a slate color, and high walls surrounded the exterior. A wrought-iron gate opened into a garden beyond.

  We rode past the gate and down an alleyway. There were stables here and room for perhaps half a dozen horses to stay. The captain jumped out of the saddle, and I was
grabbed and pulled onto my feet. I wobbled a bit before finding my balance. As soon as I was upright, he marched through a back door beside the stables and up a narrow staircase.

  When we reached the main floor, I was shown to a room. It was simply decorated. A tapestry hung on the far wall that showed the Oak of Danhad against a blue field. The windows were draped in heavy gray curtains, and there was a table and a set of chairs set beside a small fireplace.

  "Wait here," the captain said before closing the door, leaving me alone.

  I waited for his footsteps to recede down the hall before trying the door, just in case. It did not budge, and someone banged on the door, hearing my rattling the knob. I was locked in, and a man was left to guard me. What do they think I can do, a lone woman?

  I paced back and forth for a few minutes, attempted to sit down but could not get comfortable, and decided to pace again. After a long stretch, the door opened. I whipped my head in that direction and clung to the fabric of my bodice tightly enough that I feared I would rip it.

  Jon Sixton stepped into the room. A grin spread across his handsome face. "Lady Diranel, how strange to run into you here."

  I blinked at him for a moment. His greeting had stolen all of the accusations or defenses I could have offered.

  He strolled past me and took a seat in one of the chairs by the fire. "Please have a seat."

  Without much other choice, I did as he requested.

  Jon Sixton sat forward in his seat and regarded me with that same benign expression. "Are you comfortable? Can I offer you any refreshment?"

  "Why are you doing this?" I asked with a narrowed look. "I should be your prisoner; I am a convicted traitor."

  He leaned back and crossed his legs, laying his ankle over his opposite knee. "Are you now? I hadn't heard." He smirked once more.

  He was toying with me. What I couldn't fathom was why. He had let me go the other day at the inn, as well. "I am in no mood for games. Why are Danhadine soldiers here in Sanore? Why are they searching caravans and guarding the gates?"