Ed swiped the paper off the table and read it: a series of mundane questions, nothing that would expose him. If Araa didn’t make it home, if her body was found, he’d raise all hell to spare Predt, but if not… If her body wasn’t found, Predt would be hung for his…what? Weakness? Compassion? ‘The right thing to do,’ didn’t seem the smartest thing to do anymore. What the hell was he thinking? Rules existed for a reason, Ed knew that. General Order One existed for a reason. No liabilities. And now, not only was Predt’s life in danger but news of the Beast might get out…and that was the worst part. What would the Empire do? Ed closed his eyes, refusing to answer that question. “What happened to this soldier I once knew?”
***
Mend woke not to the sounds of Nurse Lora’s irritating humming, but to dull tapping of Josie’s leather clad slippers. He felt her near him, hovering over him like a dark cloud about to zap him with lightening. He risked peeking his eyes open and saw her standing over him, arms crossed, with a pensive frown like a guard impatiently waiting for his prisoners to file into their death chambers. Except, Mend had to endure Josie, a fate worse than death.
“Goddess! You’re finally wake. Can you understand me?”
“Who can’t,” Mend said, groggily; it was meant to be an insult. He felt as though he had just ended a night of heavy drinking, except no fun, no pockets full of pilfered goods, and a few whacks from the local guard. Thankfully, he was already in bed and his body begged for nothing else but more sleep. But that menacing thunder cloud wouldn’t pass. Who knows what else she would do to him. “Tired of sticking needles in me, bitch?”
“You’ve got a foul mouth, Mend. You better keep it shut until we get you out of here or you will get more needles poking your skin.”
“Like that’ll stop you,” Mend snorted. “Ugh, I’m so damn exhausted. What did you do to me?”
“We shoved a ton of sedatives into you. You’ve been asleep for two days.”
“We? …You did, bitch.”
“Mend, I’m not going to warn you about your mouth again.”
Mend tried rolling over to his side but couldn’t even lift his arms.
“What now,” he asked. “When can we leave?”
“Well, things got complicated,” she answered, walking behind him to the counter. Story of my life. He heard glass on glass and some shuffling of cabinet drawers. “Since you’ve been asleep, that woman, the Chief Engineer has been wanting to see you. She doesn’t look happy. Considering its about you, I’m not surprised. I can’t even guess what you did to her.” She paused, probably wanting Mend to explain, but he kept his mouth shut. It was what Josie ‘ordered’ him to do, right? “That Master of Servants, Cyne, comes here every day, too. Trouble, that one. Definitely more to him than Sig’s people-pusher, and he’s from the King-Maker’s Lands. Has his blessing too.” She then chuckled. “I overheard they want to hire you for a job. One you can’t fail. Now imagine that.”
“I’ll try to surprise them.”
“Won’t have to try very hard.” She returned and sat at the edge of the bed with a syringe of blue liquid in her hand. That didn’t surprise Mend; he should have known Josie was a sadist. He eyed the needle as Josie continued, “Listen, if I’m going to help you, I have to know what the Chief Engineer wanted. Run some cover for you.” That damn emperor, that’s what Sera wanted. She was probably angry with him for pinning his own story on her and her brother Glen. So stupid! But what else could he have done? The emperor’s mind-raping ability gave him little choice. Sell out Princess Zana and Roach would kill him or sell out Roach and Roach would still kill him. Sorry Chief. She probably kept her brother a secret, too. He had to be one of the other Prince Brothers’ subjects, the only possible explanation. How many more lives can Mend ruin today? Almighty, don’t answer that!
“It’s fine, Josie,” Mend said, following her orders to keep ‘his mouth shut.’ “It’s not important.”
She rose an eyebrow but surprisingly didn’t press him on it. “Well, it’s already night,” she said. “Glad you woke up before I had to check out.” Night already? A needle pressed against his neck, cool liquid flowing into his veins. He would have flinched if he could, but if he could to that, he would gone through with his head-butt idea.
Josie hovered over him. “Sorry,” she said. “This stuff has your medicine and something to keep you asleep till I check back in tomorrow. For your own good. I’m not going to let you screw things up here for the Shadows.”
Mend tried to mouth a curse but darkness took him too quickly.
19
Mend on the Mend, Araa’s Ordeal, and Ed’s Trials
“A body befitting me, I command you to make. As grand as the sky and as terrible as the sun, as deep as the night and awesome as the white fire splitting the heavens. The Whirlwind will be my seat, the Stars my crown. From such place, I will spread myself out like the icy breath of a mountain wind. Ruinous is all around me now, and I must leave our home. My brethren trust in service? In life so weak, they don’t understand even themselves, fooled for thinking my brethren love them. Their knowledge incomplete; their substance fallible. To what end? In atonement for what they’ve done to the Almighty in that place? How they have forgotten their greatness! But if they have shrugged off the dignity of godhood, then they can join their ignorant worshipers. The Great Silence is all around me, consuming, ending, destroying, emptying all things into no-thing. I will not be devoured.”
-Except from the Book ‘Voices of the Dark Well,’ as divined by Necromancer Empress Sybilia Casmarus, Champion of Ragnarok
Mend woke to screaming —no, shouting. He recognized it right away: the dominate presumptuous scorn of a superior.
“I cannot believe he’s still sedated,” a man’s voice roared. Doctor Yah’v? “How much did you put in him!”
“I…I don’t know—”
“That is not an answer, Nurse Lora. You are supposed to know!” Mend would have smiled, but he knew that bitch Josie was just acting. She was aiming at something. Maybe she really wanted to kill him, making it look like an accident and then sending her sympathies to Roach. But he couldn’t be that lucky.
“Thirty mills, I think” she answered, her voice whimpering —of course. “I’ve given him his medicine just as you’ve said every day. I’ve checked his vitals—”
Mend heard ruffling papers. “Look at this,” the doctor continued, his voice softening. No, don’t lose your nerve! Yell at her more! Hit her, too! She’s killed older men then you; she can take it! “His heart rate hasn’t risen about 40. I don’t believe it’s from His Majesty’s serum—”
“Serum?”
The doctor groaned. “Nurse Lora,” he whined.
“Doctor. If I’m going to help our patient. I need to know what’s in the emperor’s remedy. There might be some kind of reaction to his food, his other meds—”
“It’s a serum,” the doctor said sternly. “That’s all you need to know.” Serum? As in to inoculate? Mend was infected? He felt…well, he felt horrible. “Draw out ten mills of his blood. I’ll need to look at it. Perhaps His Majesty will know why the sedatives were so powerful on him. Why he’s always sleeping.” Its! Because! Of! Her! Hit her, just for me! She’s not a lady; she’s a demon!
“I’m so sorry, doctor,” Josie said, with the perfect combination of frustration and sadness. Bitch.
“It’s alright, nurse,” Doctor Yah’v replied with predictable pity. “It’s not your fault. It isn’t easy administering to a patient in the dark like this.”
“Would you please ask His Majesty if I can, you know, be out of the dark?” Mend cringed inwardly. Too obvious, Josie. He’s not going to fall for it. She was probably showing him a little cleavage all this time, too. And why not? Josie was capable anything: jabbing people in the neck with needles, drowning baby birds. He wouldn’t put it past her that she would sleep with the doctor to get what she wants. But for her to just come out and say it? Bad move, Josie. All she did was stir up the doc
tor’s suspicion—
“Yes, good idea; I’ll ask him.” What! No! “Having blind assistants can lead to more problems. Prepare your papers, Nurse Lora. I’ll set up the interviews. I’m sure His Majesty wouldn’t mind.”
“Oh, thank you, Doctor Yah’v,” she squealed. Bile gurgled up Mend’s throat. “I’ve always wanted to make a difference. Now I can!”
“No, no need to hug me, now.” Of course, she needed to hug him. Just make sure she didn’t leave a knife back there. “Draw out his blood and keep our patient comfortable. I’ll be back later.”
“Right away, Doctor,” Josie exclaimed. And then the door closed and suddenly, the room felt a little hotter, a little closer to hell. The Dark Well overflows, Mend heard people say, and demons walk the world. Now, he knew it was all true.
“I know your awake,” the demon said. “I can hear your breathing and you’re heart rate’s up. Don’t ever think you can eaves drop on the Shadows.”
Mend opened his eyes, seeing the demon across the room, her face lit up in ecstasy on her recent fresh kill. “Well done, Josie. Will you sleep with him too? Or do plan on getting off on torturing him instead?”
She laughed, skipping over to the counter behind him. “Aw, still sour about all those needles?”
“No, I actually enjoy getting drugged up. Being healthy is so boring.”
“Now, now,” she said, making clicking and glass scraping noise behind him. Setting up another needle, probably. “Thanks to you, I’m going to complete my mission too. Ironic, isn’t it?” She rolled a high tray by his bed, a syringe in her hand attached to a thin tube that ran up to the hidden tray top. She tilted her head and pouted her lips in cruel mockery. “Sorry, Mend,” she said with a vicious frown. “Gotta poke you again.”
“Bitch,” was all he could say. It wasn’t as if Mend was in the position to fight her off.
“Go on, curse, but I’m way too happy right now to be angry. Now if only Roe would show up, we can leave this damn island together.” The needle poked through his skin, red blood seeping up the tube and onto tray top. “Don’t worry,” she winked. “I won’t take all of it.”
“That’s a shame, kinda hoped you would.”
“Moody again? Fine by me.” She started humming—
“Stop, please just stop. It was bad enough when ‘Lora’ sang it.”
But of course, she didn’t stop, so Mend decided to talk again. Who knows, maybe she’d tell him something he wasn’t supposed to know. “So—”
“No,” she said, smiling.
“You didn’t even know what I was going to say.”
“You’re as transparent as air, Mend.” She repositioned the tube on the tray top. “I’m not answering any of your questions.”
“I can still talk, can’t I? What’s my blood for?”
She continued humming.
Mend debated whether to pry anyway? Was there a difference between a happy demon and an angry one? Why not find out. “You want Sig’s remedy, I can tell that,” he begin. “You guys finally found a way to wake the Veiled Goddess?”
She grimaced, her humming becoming course. “Well, it’s no secret,” she said. Victory! “Rochelle probably told you.”
“Ha ha, I got you to talk to me.”
Josie twisted the needle, but his arm was too numb feel it.
“Can’t feel it,” Mend said, happily.
“You will later,” she replied.
“Honestly, Josie. At least tell me you’re gonna make a fortune on this mission —oh right, you guys don’t work for ‘mere’ money. It’s all about ‘the Goddess’ and ‘fighting for a cause,” he scoffed. “You know, the world’s been fine long before the Coming Shadows, it’ll do just fine long after.”
She frowned at him. “You know, maybe if you believed in something other than your own stupidity, you wouldn’t be caught up in these messes and actually make a difference in this sorry world.”
“Why would I want to do that? No money in it. Besides, I always seem to get out of those messes before.”
“Because of Rochelle,” she said, anger escaping her voice. She then lowered her face down to his, staring eye to eye like a vicious cobra about to lunge in for a bite. He recoiled his head back into the pillow, no where to escape. “One day,” she whispered. “She’s not going to be able to get you out of trouble and when that happens, I will be laughing. All. The. Way. To. Your. Grave.”
“Assuming there’s a body,” was all he could think. Damn, lousy.
Josie smirked, before returning her attention to the tray top.
“I never realize you hated me so much.”
She let out a long sighed. “It’s not hatred, Mend,” she said. “You’re incompetent, unreliable, unserious, unprofessional, living in Rochelle’s shadow like a tot who never grew up. No wonder your parents abandoned you; you were born under a bad star. Do I hate you? No, I’m afraid. I’m afraid that if you don’t fall from one of your own screw ups, …I’ll pity the person who does because of you.”
Mend winched, turning his gaze to the ceiling. Her words sounded prepared as if she was waiting for this one chance to tell him…or maybe she had spoken those words before to others. Was that how everyone saw him? Worse than useless? A danger to other? Wasn’t that why he always preferred to be alone? Sure, he wasn’t a paragon of the nightly-arts but he still pulled a profit. That was good enough, right?
“Aw, did I hit a nerve with that needle?”
“Bitch,” he replied, deciding he was done talking.
Josie smiled as she continued her work for a while longer before removing the needle and placing a bandage over the pinprick hole. She then slid the tray to the door before opening it.
“See you tomorrow, Glen. I’ve got to prepare for an interview with the emperor. I’m so excited! Wish me luck!”
But Mend remained silent, staring up at the ceiling. The door closed, and he was left alone…alone with his thoughts. “I am not…a tot.”
***
With another night of no sleep and no food, Roe hugged her knees for warmth as she stared listlessly across the jagged plain they had just crossed, her sense of vulnerability gone. Even with the waning moon and the shadows of the forest behind her, the darkness did little to comfort her. On the edge of those two extremes, exposure of the plains and the invisibility of the forest, she found herself wondering if it had been worth it? Not just this mission, but joining the Shadows, trying to wake the Veiled Goddess and over throw the One-King…all those who had to die…all those she hurt. Yes, it had to be. Years from now, her country would be free. She imaged a slow recovery; they all did. A country couldn't go from a suppression to prosperity in a day. They might never be like Ladress, or even like the Islanders. But they would be free. No more birth registries. No more quotas. No more stolen people and never seeing them again. No more stone-hounds snarling at the villages’ ends. No more fear. Her parents. Her brother. Her two siblings still left back there. It’ll be worth it, she told self, sniffling and wiping a cold tear from her cheek. Yes, it would be worth the guilt she carried. “After that, I can sleep,” she breathed. If she made it that far.
Papp’s snore grabbed her attention. He slept loudly but deeply against a fallen tree bough oblivious to the dangers around him. Wild animals, infected or not. Outlaws, slavers, even Landrie’s patrols. At any moment, they could spring up on them and… —she turned away, frowning across the plain again. Papp’s peaceful sleep was beginning to irritate her.
“Stay hidden,” she whispered, recalling that voice. “Don’t go back home.” It wasn’t a voice, she realized. It was more like her own voice inside her head. She recalled what the Major had said back in her cell. She’d hear voices. “Just another symptom to deal with,” she told herself. But that other symptom —that waking dream she experienced in the cell— would be harder to deal with to say the least. Her stomach growled suddenly and then twitched, making her long for her old salted fish meals. But at least her muscle cramps had almost dis
appeared.
Papp rolled onto his back, startling Roe again. She snickered. The boy could sleep anywhere, but Roe had to be smart. She couldn’t let her guard down. If Papp knew about her escape, then it wouldn’t be long before someone came looking. But it wasn’t anyone from Ruby City she was really worried about, but that man and woman saw in her cell; those two who gave her that blue drink. It seemed to have done nothing to her, and that worried. Even if Zeth’s potions worked, she should have felt something, shouldn’t she? Maybe her other symptoms masked it? Either way, if she was them, she’d shadow her mark until she knew for certain she was dead. Yes, they had to be around.
Roe scanned around her, the dark dawn making it difficult to see. Faf’r was on the other side of he forest, at least according to Papp. If Roe could see in the dark like Josie, she’d have left hours ago, leaving the poor sap Papp sleeping. But, no; she had to ‘work’ for that blessing. Whatever that meant.
In a few hours, they’d be in the city and Papp would lead her to his carriage with hopefully more than two horses. If less, she’d just steal one and be gone. But first…. She looked over Papp, searching for the blade, but couldn’t find it. He must be laying on it. Realizing she’d have to wake him, she decided not to steal it just yet.
Instead, she groaned, pulling her knees up tighter and hugging them. “At least you’re getting better,” she told herself. Maybe by the time he wakes, she could walk on her own.
“Araa,” Papp stirred. “You say something?” Good, he’s awake.
She mustered her strength, and stood, her legs shaking and balance wobbly. But she stood, and remained standing.
Smiling, she said, “Come on, Papp. I really want to get going.”
Call of the Chosen- Broken Kingdoms Page 45