"You will help me take Torvid's Rest," said Drei. "Then we will talk about your... Veni."
"Why keep Les and Aia here? Let them go, at least."
"They will be useful. Do not worry. I know what I am doing." She leaned against the table with the candle, casting her shadow over them. She snapped a finger at one of the men nearby and said something to them in Kaldari. "My men will bring you the girl. It is my... good faith. I show you that she is alive and well. Then you go."
One of the men moved towards Teveres with shackles in hand. He turned around cooperatively, offering his hands to the soldier. The chains snapped around his wrists tightly, making him cringe.
Aia heard steps coming up the stairs, and caught the first glimpse o wast glimf Veni as she was escorted towards the group. She was pale, small-boned and thin, with bright blue eyes and long, black hair. She was wearing clothes of the Kaldari, plain brown pants and a tunic, but she was clearly no fighter. There was a hollow, pained look on her face, her bones prominent against sallow cheeks. The Kaldari warrior beside her held a knife tight against her throat. Aia could discern no outward appearance of pregnancy, but when she felt for life it was there - the Kaldari had not lied. Aia repressed the harsh and irrational cut of jealousy at the thought of Veni carrying Teveres's child.
When Veni saw Teveres she halted. Teveres locked eyes with hers, and relief visibly washed through him. "Veni," he breathed, "Are you alright?"
Jaw set, Veni's words were barely loud enough to be heard. "I have nothing to say to you," she looked at one of the warriors standing next to her, "Take me back."
"Veni, I'm sorry," Teveres said before she could turn away, "I won't let them hurt you. I promise I won't let them hurt you."
Veni hesitated, her thoughts spinning in circles. How could I let him be the father of my child, why did I ever love him, why won't they just let me go, I just want to go home - home - home...
"I never should have been with you," she said, her words laced with spite, "You were a mistake. This is a mistake. I want to go home! They won't let me go home!" She was near hysterics when one of the soldiers took her forcibly by the arms. Her teeth clenched with all the rage of her kidnapping focused squarely on him. "I hope you burn alive for everything you've done."
If her words hurt him, Teveres didn't show it. Without looking away from her, he addressed Drei. "You kept your word."
"Our god is merciless, not deceptive," said Drei. She waved off the soldiers in custody of Veni, "She will go away until this is finished."
Veni disappeared back down the stairs from whence she came silently. Teveres moved towards her just slightly, as if he had something else he wanted to say. There was no room for sentimentality. Drei was about business, and until business was finished there was time for nothing else.
"Now, I have something that you want. You must give me what I want. Inside the temple is Torvid's tomb. My men cannot cross the clergy and no Kaldari can open the tomb. Garren and four warriors will go with you. You will bring the items from the tomb to me, and I will give you the girl." Drei rested her hands at her hips, "My men will handle the settlement. Then we talk about what happens next."
"You can take Torvid's Rest, but you'll never take Nivenea," Aia reasoned aloud. "You don't have the numbers to face the Justices. It makes no sense."
Drei turned on her heel and slapped Aia across the face. The burn of Drei's hand awakened memories from Seldat and the outline of her mother's hand; the sting was more sim.g was mhocking than painful. Teveres hissed through his teeth, muscles poised to attack but his hands still bound behind his back. Les grabbed Aia's shoulders protectively.
"The healer will speak when she is told," Drei snapped. "She knows nothing." Drei barked a series of orders at Garren in Kaldari. Male and female warriors rearranged themselves throughout the room, the sound of weapons being drawn and actions being discussed resounded through the loft. Drei turned her back on the Deldri to finish her discussion with the higher-ranked officers.
Garren escorted Les, Aia and Teveres back to the first floor of the lodge. His rough exterior was additionally bristly; he was pure Kaldari, and he served his people, but he did not condone cruelty. There was no censorship to hide the disgust in his features.
"We have only a few minutes," Garren whispered to them. "Go get your things from downstairs. I will speak to Alex. Teveres, you will stay here. Veni is to be taken somewhere until this evening. We have one day to find the tomb before Drei returns here and she is executed. Drei has trusted me with keeping track of the three of you..." for the first time, Garren hesitated. "I do not think I have to describe what will happen to me if any of you cause problems."
Aia nodded, processing all of the events as quickly as she could. Although she had waited for days for events to take place, the fa
ct that things were moving so fast somehow caught her off-guard. The idea of Veni's execution, while grave, did not worry Aia nearly as much as the implications of Teveres's rage. She kept eyes on Teveres with his calm, blank mask while Garren talked.
Do you have a plan for this? Aia thought at Teveres. She's crazy.
Hi reply was without explanation. So am I.
Chapter 8
While Garren, Aia and Les were downstairs gathering supplies, Teveres was joined by the four Kaldari warriors assigned to him. There were three men - one with very short hair and two with shoulder-length hair adorned with two braids. None of them seemed to speak Leyvada, but by their posture Teveres gathered that the braided men were of higher rank. The fourth warrior was a pale-skinned woman, taller and broader than himself, hair in elaborate braids atop her head. She stood to the side, arms crossed, glaring a hole through his chest.
Teveres sighed, making efforts to ignore his chaperones. He was beginning to feel the pain of the capping receding, his sensory abilities returning just as slowly. What Garren had done to him was far less severe than the capping he underwent in Nivenea, perhaps because Garren was not a Justice. The chains wrapped about his wrists cut into skin. It was a constant sensation that he was able to hold on to while he waited.
He caught a final glimpse of Veni just before she and Drei hustled out wi the front door. They were getting a solid running start into the woods, for good reason. If they ran off beyond his reach he was more likely to cooperate in the short term and less likely to go after Drei's blood. Cooperating, for the moment, won him control. He would take whatever sliver of control he could find until a cogent plan presented itself. No one was dead yet, and that was his personal victory.
On her way out of the lodge Veni gave him a sidelong look so casually hurtful that he marveled at her skill. She had every right to hate him. He was relatively certain that she believed he was the one who killed his family. The scene she stumbled onto so many weeks ago was inexplicable; she could have come to any number of erroneous conclusions. Any ill-conceived hope of forgiveness was gone the moment he laid eyes on her. Once she was free, he imagined that he would never see her or their child again. She would disappear back to Ilvan, where her father would never let her out of his sight. Teveres couldn't begin to imagine where he might be once she was free. His intricate plan to hide in Nivenea forever was already off to a worse start than he expected - and he hadn't expected much.
He thought he could bear the silence no longer when Les, Aia and Garren finally showed up next to him, their gear in tow. Aia innocently placed a hand on his shoulder, a thin current of healing emanating from her fingertips, just subtle enough that no one would notice. The modest relief made him feel lighter all over.
Thank you, he sent the thought out where she could find it.
It's what I do.
"Can you..." Garren struggled for the wording, "Are you able to go?"
Teveres nodded. "I will need you to remove the restraints."
"Have you been to this place before?" Garren asked as he moved to un-shackle Teveres, much to the surprise of the Kaldari guards. What they didn't know was what Garren understood - Teve
res's abilities had nothing to do with physical prowess.
"Once, for training. I know many of the priests here." His hands untied, he massaged the red welts forming on his wrists. "I think we can do this with minimal bloodshed."
Garren raised his eyebrows. "I don't think Drei would approve. The clergy are obstacle to the Kaldari. We need them removed."
"Drei will get exactly what she asked for. Nothing more." He didn't much care for what Garren wanted, either.
"He's right, though," said Aia. "I have been here before as well. The temple is open to visitors and most of the clergy are asleep. We should be able to lock most of them into quarters... if we do this right. If we don't approach them like we're storming them."
Garren gave Aia a thoughtful look. He shrugged. "We will see." Garren spoke to the warriors in their native tongue, and the group set out into the deep night.
The streets of Torvid's Rest were dead-quiet. The Kaldari warriors sent to contain the village were surely out there, but they made no sound and walked in shadow. There would be no resistance from the farmers or Ce ftly what sfamilies. The Land of Elseth was not a place of war, and it made no attempt to masquerade as such.
By Temed's moon they could see the temple stairs clearly, leading to the cavernous landmark built into the mountain. The temple at Torvid's Rest was second in size only to Layvin's temple in Nivenea, with a far more interesting configuration. It took years of hard labor to carve out the temple around Torvid's tomb; with all the time they invested, those who built the temple lavished the halls in marble and created two large atria and a central garden inside the mountain. Teveres could still remember the wonder he felt on the day he visited when he was 13, Torvid's Rest a stark contrast to the small Temple of Radath in Ilvan.
The long trek up the stairs limited verbal conversation. Instead, Aia filled his head with her words.
She's very pretty. Aia's thoughts were hesitant. How long were you together?
Aia had been mercifully quiet about the situation for the three days they spent together in the lodge. He could hardly blame her for the questions, as much as he wanted to.
A year.
That's a long time.
Is there a point to this?
I'm trying to keep your mind off of things.
If you thought that this was the way to do it then you're mistaken. Though she was behind him, her miffed emotions thrummed through their connection. Feeling like he had punched a kitten, he continued the conversation with a self-serving question. Why don't you tell me about your lover?
Amusement, this time, flooded his senses. My mother nearly killed Derek and since then I haven't had much time.
Young men are untrustworthy. I'm sure your mother was looking out for you.
The silence that greeted him was ominous. He realized, stupidly, that she had never spoken of her mother since they met, though she told many stories of her grandmother in Nivenea. When she replied, her words had a familiarity to them, reflecting a depth of callousness that he had only ever seen in himself.
He may have been untrustworthy, but my mother never looked out for me.
They were three-quarters of the way to the top now, and he wished he could stop to explore the issue. Her anger excited and intrigued him, a strange concoction of sympathy and awe. He was successfully distracted from his grim task, but knew that any distraction was temporary. The time to horrify all of his most recent acquaintances was upon him. All he could manage was a simple I'm sorry.
Two kelspar torches greeted them at the top of the steps. As they caught their breath, Teveres took time Ces , thoughto appreciate the artistry on the door to the mountain-temple. It was large, made of a deep red stone with elaborate carvings. It was said that the carvings were an illustration of life, from birth to the shattering of the essence. A soul created from the remnants of many shattered essences became a child, then an adult with its own children, culminating in old age and finally death, where the soul splits into countless pieces and is reshaped with all the other remnant souls to begin the cycle anew. As healers, students of Torvid were the gatekeepers to the cycle of life. They brought children into the world, guided the living through illness, and hastened death when the time was right.
The capping had resolved entirely, leaving him with only a lingering headache. Teveres addressed Garren. "Tell them to stay behind me and move only when I move." He glanced at Aia and Les, "That goes for you too."
Les, who had been quiet for a very long time, gave Teveres a reassuring nod. He was emanating the kind of synthetic serenity that Teveres appreciated in a good leader. Beneath the surface, Les was truly fearful. His facade was so convincing that even Teveres's empathic abilities could barely perceive the difference.
Donning a mask of lazy indifference, Teveres took hold of the unreasonably heavy doors and heaved them open. The place had not changed a bit since visited 12 years ago. The entry room, lit on the periphery by night-dimmed kelspar, was filled with lounge furniture fit for entertaining various impressive guests. Four sofas made of polished wood and soft green pillows were set up in a square in the middle of the room around a large marble table, matching chairs stationed at each corner. An ornately crafted crest of the healer, a gold 16-pointed star with an amethyst center, decorated the high ceiling. There was a substantial opening at the opposite end of the room where the library began, and to the left and right were tall doors draped in tapestries leading to living quarters. The polished, beige stone walls and floors were so clean that they glistened softly in the crystal's light.
The setting made Teveres momentarily breathless. It was almost a year since he set foot in a temple of any kind. In all his years spent in sacred spaces, he always felt displaced. He never belonged there. After his schism with the Order of the Divine, the energy on holy ground became not just uncomfortable, but combative. It was not just that he did not belong; he was no longer wanted there.
Only two clergy, an older male and female, sat talking in the expanse. They quieted and looked up as he entered. He immediately recognized Fara, a fair-haired priestess who typically worked with children, and Michel, a dark-skinned priest who served as counsel to healers in crisis. Both had been there when he was a boy visiting the temple. He could see at once that they knew who he was, and it concerned them. Straining to hear their inner dialogues, he caught Michel's thought; It can't be true.
"Teveres?" Fara, who knew him best, spoke first. Now in her 50's, Fara tended to the clergy children even when he was a young boy. She stood up slowly, hands loose on the hem of her tunic. "It's been a... a very long time. I remember when you were half your size."
Behind him, Aia and Les stood propping up the doors, not nearly as intimid Cly "> thating as the Kaldari who waited in the shadows. Noticing the others, Michel also stood, strategically placing himself away from Fara. They were already anticipating violence.
"Better times," Teveres hedged. "I hope you both are well."
"What do you want, Teveres?" Michel asked, circling around towards Teveres slowly. "Who are your companions?"
"Michel, he's a friend," Fara said, not taking her eyes off of Teveres. "You should not be so quick to judge. We don't know what happened."
We don't know who really killed the High Priest of Ilvan. Teveres just nodded, holding his ground with metaphorical hackles raised.
"The Kaldari have come to Torvid's Rest," he stated factually. "They intend to take what's in the tomb, and they've asked me to come open it. I suggest that both of you leave."
Michel's eyebrows rose, "You're working with the Kaldari now? You betrayed the clergy, and now you betray our people?"
"I'm giving you a choice. You and Fara can quietly retrieve as many children as you can find and get the hell out of here, or we can do this the way the Kaldari want it. Those are the choices. If it wasn't me, it would have been someone else, and they wouldn't have given you the option."
Michel's lips curved upwards slightly, his body poised and ready to pounce. There was a sur
ge in Michel's divinity, the electric charge in the air which strengthened the clergy's muscle. He opened his mouth, and Teveres knew before he heard a sound that Michel was about to shriek for help.
Rage, like a caged animal, released from the core of Teveres's being. As it left his body it scorched his skin, leaving behind a sizzle of pain and pleasure. When he manipulated minds, he handled living resonance like a musical instrument; the strings of Michel's soul were too tight for that, too well-tempered by years of meditation and devotion. Teveres's energy violently clashed with Michel's resonance, snapping the tender thread which bound body to spirit.
Though the time that passed was slow and pained for Teveres, it would have been quick in the eyes of the others. Michel's skull hit the floor in an instant, before he was able to shout. From the corner of his vision Teveres saw Aia, mortified, both hands clasped over her mouth. Les jerked as if bitten by a snake. Teveres did not let them see the way the kill calmed his nerves, the release of power a cool balm to the anger burning inside his flesh.
Fara stole a bar of kelspar off of the wall and made an offensive run at Teveres. She was well-trained, but her short stature and advanced age betrayed her. Unfortunately for her, Teveres was fresh off the high of the kill with his energy tangled up in hers, ready to take her life as well. When she went for a blow to his head he grabbed her wrist, channeling her energy towards the ground in an arch. She went head over feet, landing on her back with the kelspar twisted from her grip. She grimaced, staring up at him with pleading green eyes. She could have tried to roll away, gain traction to conti Ctio hands clnue the fight, but she was not stupid. She was well outside her prime with little fight left in her. Even using her divinity would be futile, cowed by Teveres's superior abilities. She wanted to live, so she would not struggle.
"Now is not the time to question my sincerity," Teveres told her. His arms trembled almost imperceptively as he held back his powers. Shoving her arm back into her possession, he glanced back at the others. Aia had already rushed over to Michel, who was far beyond her help. "Garren, have one of the warriors escort her to the children's room. She and the children will leave unharmed."
Tragedy (Forsaken Lands) Page 12