Exsanguinated

by D. K. Holmberg

The smells within the city were different. There was a pungency, like that of animals, and a stink of dung that hung in the air. Every so often, she was convinced that she heard animal sounds, though she wasn’t sure.

  And now, she stared at these walls. It was too dark in the room to make out much detail, but there was a bed and a basin of water. Nothing else. And she wasn’t bound. That surprised her.

  They had taken her cloak and with it everything that was in the pockets. That included the easar paper and the vial of Alec’s blood. Without that, she had no way of augmenting herself other than ones she could place on her own. Those augmentations were useful, but not nearly as effective as the combined Kaver and Scribe blood written on easar paper.

  If they found that, what would they use it for? Would they use it against Alec?

  That idea troubled her.

  And they had taken her canal staff.

  She imagined it broken, tossed aside as they carried her into the city. The canal staff was a part of her and losing it left her feeling almost as naked as not having her cloak. Were she to have to choose, she would prefer to have the staff rather than her cloak. She would almost rather have the staff than any clothing. At least if she were to have her staff, she could fight. Without it…

  Sam didn’t know what she was without it.

  The sound of footsteps faded.

  Maybe it was nothing more than a patrol.

  There was a regularity to those footsteps, and she wished she had a better way of keeping track of how often they came past. If she could figure that out, she might be able to figure out how to time an escape. She wouldn’t give up on the idea that she would escape. She was determined to do so, and return to Alec, but now that she was here, now that she was a captive of the Thelns, she had to believe there was some way of finding Tray. She had to be able to reach him, didn’t she?

  When she was convinced the steps were gone, she made her way to the door and tested it. It was locked, and without any way of picking the lock, she doubted she would be able to escape, not easily.

  What about with an augmentation?

  She focused on strength. It was the only one she focused on. If it worked, and if she managed to get herself free, she could try for other augmentations, but strength first. With enough strength, she could tear the door off, much the same way as she had torn the door off when Jessup had captured her.

  The feeling of the augmentation came, washing through her with a cold wave.

  Much like the last strength augmentation she’d placed on herself, this one felt more powerful than what she had expected. Could it just be that she hadn’t tried in quite some time? Or was there more to it? Maybe she really wasn’t any more powerfully augmented than normal, it only felt that way. It could be dangerous for her to believe she had a greater augmentation than she did.

  When the augmentation took hold, she grabbed the door and jerked.

  Nothing happened.

  She tried pushing, shoving on the door, but there was nothing. Whatever augmentations they’d placed on the door prevented her from doing anything other than wasting the augmentation.

  What about the walls?

  Sam tapped on the orange wall. It was a solid sound. She pushed against it and realized that it wasn’t painted wood at all, but stone. As she made her way around the room, she discovered that each of the walls was stone. The paint had only masked that, making them appear to be wood.

  She had no way out.

  She had already been trapped, so that realization didn’t trouble her any more than knowing that her augmentation failed her so spectacularly.

  If they knew how to suppress her augmentations so efficiently, would there ever be any way for her to escape?

  The sound of footsteps came from outside the door again, and Sam stepped back, moving against the wall and not wanting to be too close to the door were it to open.

  When they made their way past, she turned her focus to the symbols on the door again. Maybe there was something there that she could determine, some way she could counteract the augmentations the Thelns had placed.

  But she couldn’t figure out any way to do so. Even attempting to pick at the symbols, trying to weaken them in some way, failed her.

  Footsteps returned, sooner than they should have.

  Kyza! She hurried back, getting out of the way, and was just in time.

  The door opened.

  Sam expected Thelns to greet her, so she was surprised to see a thin man with graying hair, wearing a flowing jacket striped with colors. He frowned when he saw her.

  “You. You are to come with me.” He had an accented voice and a clipped way of speaking.

  “I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on.”

  The man glanced back at her. “It’s my understanding that the chamyn captured you?”

  “It didn’t capture me—”

  “You were carried here out of the forest?”

  Sam frowned but decided to go along with it. “I was. I was looking for my—”

  The man turned away and started off down the hallway. Sam stayed in the room, but a pair of muscular men stepped inside and stood off to either side of the door, giving her no choice but to go along with the other man. He didn’t strike her as a Theln, certainly not like Ralun or the others who had attacked the city, or even like the Thelns who had captured her and brought her here.

  At the end of the hallway, the man stopped and looked back at Sam. He waited with his hands clasped in front of him for her to join him. She looked over her shoulder and saw the two others waiting. They did not appear to be armed, but they were considerably larger than she was, and she doubted she would be able to escape them easily.

  Sam hurried off down the hallway after the thin man. She glanced at the walls as she made her way through the hall, frowning to herself. They were vividly painted like her room, as was the tile that she walked on, all in orange and red and yellows. Paintings on the walls were done in the same bright colors. There was a brightness to everything around her.

  It didn’t fit what she had expected of the Thelns, though Sam no longer knew what she should have expected of them. She thought about the strange creature that had dragged her to that field nearby, and then seemingly returned with Thelns and more cats. Were they that well trained? There was so much she didn’t know about this land.

  She continued to follow the man and occasionally glanced back, looking over her shoulder, realizing there was no way for her to escape. Any attempt to do so would be thwarted by the two men who trailed her. Every so often, she encountered others in the hallway, what she assumed to be guards much like the other two and standing at attention, as if barricading the doors.

  Were they keeping people out, or were they preventing those inside from escaping?

  Maybe others were being held here against their will.

  She hadn’t considered the possibility that there would be other Kavers here. If she could find them and free them, they could work together, and they could break free of the Theln lands and return to the city. There might even be Scribes she could help, and if she could free them, maybe this could be about more than finding her brother. It could be a rescue mission.

  The smallish man stopped in front of a set of double doors and waited until she reached him. The two men standing behind her, preventing her from running, took a position on either side of the door.

  “When you go in, you will be polite,” he said.

  “Polite?” Sam frowned.

  “Do not make the mistake of thinking that your abilities will allow you to attack. If you try, you will find that the chamyn will prevent you from going very far.”

  Confusion washed through her, and Sam could only nod dumbly.

  What was this about?

  The small man pushed the door open and waited for Sam to enter.

  She glanced at him before heading inside, and half expected to find Ralun waiting for her on the other side. What she saw was nothing like what she expected.<
br />
  A petite woman sat in a chair near a fireplace, holding a mug of tea, a book open on her lap. She looked up from the book when Sam entered. Much like the man who had guided her here, she wore a long, flowing robe that was striped in as many colors as his. She closed the book and looked over at Sam. “Thank you, Belden.”

  The man bowed. “Of course, Your Grace. I must advise you—”

  The woman waved her hand, and Sam recognized a dismissal. She had received many of them herself over the years. “There is no need for you to advise me on anything. I am well aware of what she is.”

  “And the chamyn?”

  “I trust that you will see to their reward?”

  “Of course, Your Grace. It’s just—”

  “It’s just nothing, Belden.”

  The man glanced over at Sam and frowned. “I will make certain that you have the necessary protection.”

  The woman shrugged. “You may do as you see fit, as you often do, Belden.”

  The man took his leave, pulling the door closed behind him. When he was gone, the woman stood and approached Sam. There was a certain grace to the way she moved. It wasn’t like an augmentation, at least not entirely, and she studied Sam with an appraising eye that reminded her of the way that Alec would study someone.

  “What are you doing in Asalar?”

  Sam frowned. “Is that where I am? I wasn’t trying to reach Asalar, I was trying to reach—”

  The woman stopped in front of Sam. She was taller than she had appeared when seated, though not much. Her shiny dark hair was pulled back and tied with a lace ribbon. She smelled of mint, or perhaps another spice, something that Sam couldn’t quite place. Alec would have been able to.

  “I know what you were trying to reach. You have reached Asalar.”

  Sam knew nothing of the lands outside the city. All she knew was that they were dangerous. Everyone in the city knew that. It was why they were protected where they were, and considering some of the dangers present within the city, the outside world would have to be deadly dangerous.

  But this place did not strike her as terrifyingly dangerous as rumors depicted the outside world.

  “Where am I?”

  “You are where you attempted to come. You are not the first.”

  “What happened to the others?”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Many of them have departed.”

  “And where have they gone?”

  “I was hoping you would provide that answer,” the woman said.

  Was she talking about the Kavers who had returned to the city? If that was it, then it meant the Thelns had known all along what the Kavers were up to. Maybe the Thelns had allowed Kavers to observe.

  That idea troubled Sam, but mostly because it meant the Thelns had not bothered the Kavers. If they had known they were there and didn’t do anything, perhaps she knew even less about Thelns than she realized.

  “Who are you?”

  The woman stared at her for a moment, and the smile faded from her face. It was replaced by a frown, and the woman cocked her head to the side, watching Sam with what she could only think was irritation or amusement.

  “You come to my lands, and you question who I am?”

  “I was only looking for someone. I didn’t mean to come and threaten.”

  “You have not threatened at all. I don’t know why you would even make such a suggestion.”

  She was so dismissive that Sam was almost taken aback.

  “Then why have you captured me?”

  “Because you were brought here by chamyn.”

  Sam shook her head. “So?”

  “How is it that you know so little about Asalar?”

  “Why don’t you explain it to me.”

  “It is unfortunate that I must. The chamyn brought you here, which means they found you as no threat.”

  “It didn’t feel that way when the creature was dragging me through the forest.”

  “I imagine not. For that, he is sorry.”

  “He? How do you know he’s sorry?”

  The woman turned and looked at the back of the room. Sam followed her gaze and realized that one of the creatures sat there, curled up on a carpet. Kyza. How had she overlooked that? The cursed thing was here all along.

  Sam took a step back, feeling incredibly uneasy.

  “Why would it bring me here?”

  “Because you have returned. Why should you not be welcomed back, cousin?”

  23

  Lost Cousins

  Sam could scarcely breathe. She looked at the strange woman who stood so serenely in front of her, her hands clasped together, the multicolored robe flowing around her. “Cousin?”

  “You didn’t know?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  The woman smiled. She waved for Sam to follow and started out of the room. The two men who had followed her through the building took up position on either side of them as they strode through the hallways. Sam had a strange feeling as she went through the halls and a sinking sensation.

  What was this woman going to show her?

  “Who are you?” Sam asked.

  “I think the better question would be, who are you?”

  “I know who I am.”

  “It is possible that you do not. If you knew who you were, you wouldn’t have come here. You wouldn’t have questioned.”

  They continued along the hallway and reached what appeared to be a massive and ornate entryway that opened to the outside. The tiles were the same bright colors and stretched along walls arching overhead. Carved lanterns marked either side of the door, and Sam realized they were shaped like the symbols that had been used on the doorway.

  The woman guided her outside of the building, and Sam stopped, unable to take another step.

  They stood in a vibrant, grassy courtyard. An enormous garden stretched before them, filling the air with its fragrance. When she managed to drag her attention away from it, she noticed two pillars rising on either side of the garden. They were made of gleaming white stone, but each was inset with colorful tiles that matched what she had seen inside the entryway.

  “Where am I?” she asked.

  “Asalar.”

  “I was looking for Thelns. I was looking for my brother.”

  “And who is your brother?”

  “Trayson. Ralun captured him and—”

  The woman turned to Sam. “How is he your brother?”

  Sam couldn’t take her eyes off of the pillars or the garden. She looked from one to the other, feeling overwhelmed. The palace in Verdholm was amazing, as was the university, but neither was anything quite as striking as this. Everything around her was wondrous, beautiful, and…

  Squeezing her eyes shut, she forced the vision from her mind. It was all designed to distract her. She felt that with a sudden certainty, and she knew that whatever else was happening here, the building and the garden were designed to distract her from what she needed to do.

  “It’s a long story. We were raised together, and we believe that we were brother and sister, and—”

  “So, you are not his sister?”

  Sam’s eyes snapped open. “I’m his sister as much as anyone can be. I would do anything for Tray.”

  “Anything? You would fight on behalf of your ‘brother’?”

  “Don’t say it like that,” Sam said.

  “How would you have me say it? Is that not what you have said?”

  “I’m done answering questions. Tell me, who are you and where am I?”

  The woman smiled. “I have already told you where you are. As to who I am, that is perhaps less important. You may call me the Master of Records.”

  “What kind of title is that?”

  “What kind of title is Kaver?”

  The woman knew who she was, knew what she was, and Sam wasn’t certain what to make of it. How much should that concern her?

  “Who are the Thelns?”

  “I believe you already have experience wit
h them. If you need me to help you better understand who they are and what they can do, I will gladly do it, but I would have thought your previous experience would be enough.”

  “That’s not what I’m asking. Who are they to you?”

  Sam glanced back to the door that they had come out of. The two guards were enormous and muscular, but they didn’t have the same build as the Thelns. Why would this woman have guards like that, mainly if this Asalar was somehow situated in the Theln lands?

  “It amazes me how little you know.”

  “What is there to know? I know the sections of my city. I know the city itself. I know how to navigate it.”

  “And yet you know so little of anything beyond its borders.”

  “I’ve traveled the swamp and the forest, and I’ve walked across the steam fields. I think I have done more than enough to know the land beyond my city.”

  “You speak of the places around your city, but nothing beyond that. Can you have such a narrow-minded view of your home that you don’t recognize that there are places beyond it?”

  Sam bit back a response. She knew there were other places outside the city. They had ships that came in and out of the harbor, often with trade from outside places, though it was difficult, and those ships were infrequent. There were plenty of others in the city who represented those outside of the city, enough that she knew the places beyond their borders, even if she had never ventured there herself.

  “Everywhere outside the city is dangerous.”

  The woman laughed. “Are they? Or is it the city you call home that is dangerous?”

  The woman turned back toward the building and started inside. Sam took one more look around the garden and at the spires of the building and shook herself before turning and following the woman inside.

  When she entered, she expected to go back the way they had come. But the woman led her another direction, pausing at what seemed to be a throne room with a gilded chair and nothing else in it, almost as if she wanted to demonstrate her power and authority, but she turned away and headed down a narrow hall. Sam passed a few people in colorful clothes, some in bright orange gowns and some in yellow, while others wore striped clothing much like this Master of Records.