by Anne Logston
Kayli gasped as if struck. How could she not have seen it? That a Bregondish slave child should escape her master and stumble into Kayli’s very path, that she should be familiar with the temples and their rituals, all the better to secure a position close to Kayli—it should have been obvious. But Seba was the very picture of an innocent victim.
And how ironic that of the maids Kayli had loved so dearly, only Seba had survived to escape the raid that—
—the raid that—
“No,” Kayli whispered. “Oh, by the Flame, no.”
“You begin to see,” Vayavara said grimly. “You and your lord had been confirmed rulers of Agrond. You had conceived his child. Even Terralt’s supporters were warming to you. There remained only one way to avert the alliance.”
Kayli covered her eyes with her hands as if by doing so she could hide from her sight the horror of the truth. It would be simple. A short message to Sarkond would suffice. Raiders frequently captured Bregondish clothing, weapons, and horses. And raiders dressed in Bregondish garb could travel through Bregond without detection, easily eluding border patrols to complete their deadly task.
But how could Brisi be certain that Kayli would be spared? Had the High Priestess consented to sacrifice her at last? Kayli groaned and shook her head. Again, there was no risk. Brisi could fire-scry, know exactly what transpired. Kayli and Randon had assumed that the grass fire was set by the Sarkondish to finish any survivors, but why should the Sarkondish set a fire to burn into Bregond when they thought their quarry had fled into Agrond? No. Fire was Brisi’s element, and if she could start it, she could stop it. That fire would ensure that no raiders would pursue the pupil she wished left alive.
“But why?” Kayli whispered. “Why is it so important that I live?”
In response, Vayavara only shrugged.
“You were Brisi’s pupil and malleable to her will. One day she would see you placed on the throne of Bregond, where you would serve the interests of the Order. Even your child, after you conceived, served her purpose, for a child conceived by so powerful a ritual would surely be touched by the Flame, and would come to this Order to study—would come under Brisi’s influence, just as you did.”
Kayli was numb now, incapable of even surprise at Vayavara’s words. Two thoughts circled endlessly in her mind. I should have known. 1 should have known. And: My father. My mother. My sisters.
Then another thought pushed its way to the surface, almost unwelcome: Randon.
“Why have you told me this?” Kayli asked slowly. “What do you want from me?”
“I offer you two things, besides the information I have already given,” Vayavara told her. “I will wake your lord, and I will set the two of you free of this place.”
“A Gate?” Kayli asked.
Vayavara shook her head.
“Such powerful fire magic as a Gate I could not conceal from Brisi. I can give you horses, money, food. There will be other aid when you have left these walls.”
“And in return?” Kayli pressed.
“You know the answer to that.” Vayavara’s eyes bored into Kayli’s. “If it lies within your power, set me in Brisi’s place. My skill is second only to hers in this Order.”
“Why?” Kayli asked softly. “Why betray your High Priestess, why help me? And do not tell me it is loyalty to your country, for I do not think even you believe that.”
Vayavara’s eyes narrowed.
“I was second only to Brisi,” she said coldly. “But it was you she chose to succeed her, and that only because she could manipulate you as she could not manipulate me. You were the daughter of the High Lord, who in her scheme would one day claim great power, while I was but an ikada herder’s child. You were to be given as a gift what I had earned many times over. Brisi is the betrayer, not me, or do you not agree?”
Kayli took a deep breath, but somehow she could not bring herself to recite, even in her mind, one of the calming rituals Brisi had taught her.
“Very well,” she said at last. “If I find your words true, I will grant your request if I can. But answer one last question.”
“What question?” The eagerness, almost greed, in Vayavara’ s eyes troubled Kayli deeply.
“The other Orders,” Kayli said softly. “Were they together with Brisi in this?” Please, she thought. Not Endra. Not Kairi. Oh, bright Flame, spare me that at least.
Vayavara shook her head.
“Of that I know nothing,” she said. “Messages were sent and received, but I was not privy to them. That High Lord Terendal sickened and died so conveniently, that Brisi’s agent in Agrond had so great a skill in poisons, that carries the flavor of one of the healing Orders. I believe other Orders share Brisi’s goals, but she could have accomplished all with no aid. If any acted with her, I do not know it.”
The answer did not reassure Kayli, but she nodded.
“Thank you,” she said. “When can you wake Randon?”
“Tonight, when the others sleep,” Vayavara told her. “In the meantime go to the third meditation chamber. Tell any who ask that you will mourn your family. No one will interrupt you. Tonight I will meet you there.”
The meditation chamber was just as she remembered it, a simple bare room with a woven mat and an oil lamp. Kayli knelt on the mat and lit the lamp, gazing into the small flame. How could she focus her thoughts when a thousand questions whirled in her head like a dust storm? How could she compose herself when her world had been burned to ash around her?
How could any of Vayavara’s words be true? And yet there was no lie in the priestess’s eyes. Every fiber of Kayli’s soul wanted to deny what she had heard, yet Randon’s magical sleep and his neglected state proved that Brisi had lied to her.
And what motivation did Vayavara have to lie? For if what she had said was false, Kayli had no further place in the Order, and in the natural course of time Vayavara would succeed Brisi as High Priestess anyway. She would have no need of Kayli’s assistance—unless what she had said was true.
“Father, Mother, forgive me,” Kayli whispered. They had sent her to Agrond to end centuries of hostility between their countries; instead, through her self-focused naïveté, she had allowed herself to become the spark that might set both countries aflame. How she had shamed her parents!
And yet when Kayli closed her eyes it was Kairi’s face she saw. Was Kairi alive? And if Kairi had been a part of Brisi’s plot, the Kairi that Kayli had loved so dearly, Kayli thought sickly that she would rather her sister were dead. Was this pain in her heart what Randon felt when he wondered whether Terralt had been the one to betray him?
Resolutely Kayli focused on the flame of the lamp. One by one, she visualized her concerns and let the image of the flame burn each to ash as she had been taught; then she summoned the vision of a sweet fresh breeze blowing in from the plains to waft the ashes away, leaving her mind clear and calm.
For the first time in months Kayli felt peace. There was little enough she could do at this point, but one step she could take—she could bring her own power back under her control. If she could do that much, then she and Randon would have that tool—or weapon—at their disposal.
She focused on the lamp flame. She could feel it at the back of her mind, a small pleasurable tickling sensation. Carefully Kayli sent that small flame deeper inside her, letting her own spark of the Flame pull it inward. She followed the small flame deep within until she felt light ahead of her—and a scent of burning grass. The small flame darted into the greater light as if shot from a bow, and it seemed to Kayli that the bright light grew stronger as the smaller flame was absorbed.
It took Kayli a few moments for her “eyes” to adjust, even in a visualization; however, when the brilliance no longer dazzled her, she could see before her a huge fire burning white-hot, smaller flames flickering out to the sides and sparks spraying outward to light smaller fires nearby. Although the sight was alarming, Kayli was reassured. Yes, the visualization was a good one, solid and true.
Kayli emerged slowly from her meditative trance to the sound of a quiet scratching at the door. She stood slowly, stretching her muscles and groaning as her numb feet came painfully awake, and hobbled to the door, opening it just wide enough to see Vayavara standing outside.
“Follow me,” the priestess said quietly. “All has been prepared.”
To Kayli’s amazement, the temple was dark and still and the halls were empty; it had been some time since she spent so many hours in meditation. But at least she had not spent the whole time worrying and pacing the small chamber.
Vayavara led her unerringly through the corridors despite the darkness, and Kayli wistfully recalled a time when the temple—at least the sections to which she had had access—had been as familiar to her. She followed Vayavara down the stairs they had descended before, and once again the priestess unlocked and opened the door to the room where Randon slept.
Randon lay exactly as he had before. This time Kayli stood back while Vayavara stepped into the doorway, raising her hands. The priestess recited no ritual—at the priestess’s level of skill, Kayli would have been surprised if she had required any formal ritual at all—and abruptly the light of the runes winked out, although the torches burned as before. Vayavara traced a last symbol in the air with her fingertip, then stepped briskly into the room, motioning for Kayli to follow her.
Kayli knelt at Randon’s side, folding his cold, still hand between her own. Her heart ached to see him so pale and motionless, the rise and fall of his chest so shallow and slow. She could barely feel his heartbeat in his wrist.
Vayavara laid her hand briefly over Randon’s eyes, then removed it. Kayli was overjoyed to see him stir then, and his breathing grew deeper and more frequent, but he still did not wake. Kayli glanced worriedly at Vayavara.
“His spark has been banked for many hours,” the priestess said impatiently. “You can fan it alight better than I.”
Kayli stifled a flash of impatience of her own—how was she supposed to know how to deal with such magic?—but she bent to press her lips to Randon, putting all the desire she could into her kiss, at the same time flexing her new control to allow a tongue of her own Flame to flicker through her to him. Immediately a shudder went through Randon’s body, and when she sat back on her heels, his eyes opened. Kayli sighed with a double relief; she had wondered whether Vayavara actually expected her to couple with Randon then and there.
Randon’s eyes slowly focused on her face.
“Kayli?” he murmured groggily. “I can’t—don’t—what’s hap—”
“Not now, Randon,” Kayli said hurriedly, easing her arm under his shoulders to help him sit up. “We are in danger, great danger. Can you walk?”
“Danger?” He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “I can walk. I think. If it’s not far.” He glanced around blearily. “But isn’t this—”
“Not now,” Kayli insisted. “Come, let us be away from here quickly.”
In the end, however, Vayavara had to loop Randon’s free arm over her shoulder and help him stumble down the hall. Kayli remained silent, but she worried when Vayavara led them deeper into the cellars, not back up the way they had come. At last, however, Vayavara pressed a spot on the stone wall and a section of the stone swung silently aside, revealing a dark, narrow passage leading steeply upward.
“Here I leave you,” she said, lifting Randon’s arm from her shoulder. “This passage ends in the stable. Your horses are saddled and packed. I suggest,” Vayavara added wryly, “that you proceed with haste.”
“Thank you.” Kayli bowed her head slightly in lieu of a proper bow acknowledging the priestess’s rank. “I will consider all you have said, and when I know the truth of what you have told me, I will keep my word to you as best I can.”
Vayavara inclined her head slightly, but said nothing. A moment later she had vanished back into the dark corridor.
Randon pulled his arm from around Kayli’s neck, although his hand still clutched her shoulder and Kayli could feel him swaying slightly on his feet.
“I think I can walk now,” he said. “But what’s happened? We’re still at the temple, aren’t we? What’s wrong?”
“Please, not now,” Kayli said, leading him into the narrow passageway. How she could explain what she had learned, she did not know, nor what she could say if Randon disagreed with her conclusions. If she once began to doubt herself, she would never manage the courage to leave, so she must do it now before she thought about it too much.
“All right, then.” Randon’s voice was still so weary that it wrenched at Kayli’s heart, and she realized guiltily that he had had neither food nor water since before the Gate, and she did not know if he had even truly rested in his magical sleep.
The passage ended in a wooden door, Kayli pushed on it until it slid smoothly aside, and to her surprise they emerged inside one of the stalls. Kayli helped Randon past the drowsing horse, and once they were out of the stall, she found two horses saddled and ready. She was grateful to see that Vayavara had chosen the swiftest horses in the stable, but wondered whether that really mattered; if Brisi wanted to track or pursue them, she had means far swifter and more sure than horses.
Saddlebags already hung at the horses’ sides, but Kayli took the time to inspect the contents before she helped Randon to mount. The warm cloaks her father had given her had been brushed and packed, and there was food and water, but nothing else—no tent, no sword or bow. Olhavar was, of course, only a short ride from the Order, but Kayli wondered uneasily whether they would require weapons before reaching their goal. Unfortunately there were no weapons kept at the Order except—
Except—
Kayli made certain that Randon sat steadily on his horse, then hurried to the back of the stable, feeling on the shelf for the bundle of oiled leather containing her hunting bow and arrows. There! She fastened the bundle to her saddle, carefully not wondering whether she could bring herself to fire those arrows at any Bregondish warriors who might see her and, not knowing who she was, attack what must surely appear to be spies from Agrond.
“All right,” Randon said tiredly. “Let’s go if we’re going. But I wish you’d tell me where we’re going, and why.”
“As to where, there is only one place,” Kayli said as they rode out of the stable. “The palace—my father’s palace in Olhavar. And as to why, I will tell you as we ride.”
Randon remained silent as she talked, asking no question. Kayli told him all that Vayavara had said, omitting only the priestess’s speculation about High Lord Terendal’s death. Vayavara’s other accusations could be proved or disproved with time; any hint that High Lord Terendal had been murdered could likely never be proven now and would only anger Randon needlessly. When Kayli finished, Randon rode without speaking, apparently considering her words.
“This priestess, this Vayavara,” Randon said slowly at last. “Do you believe her?”
Kayli shook her head.
“I know not what to believe,” she said just as slowly. “But I dare not discount her words completely. The state in which I found you was proof in itself.”
“This priestess could have arranged that, if her ambitions are as great as you say,” Randon said after a moment’s thought.
“Why didn’t you confront the High Priestess with these questions? You said she’d been your teacher for years.”
A pang shot through Kayli’s heart.
“For myself, I might have taken that risk,” Kayli said quietly. “Even if what Vayavara said of High Priestess Brisi was true, I would be of no use to her unwilling, and I cannot believe she would ever do me harm. But you—”
“If it was true,” Randon said slowly, “she might have used me to control you. Or she might have killed me—or simply let me die sleeping down there—to at least be certain the alliance fell apart.”
“Oh, to the darkness with the alliance,” Kayli exploded. “It is not worth the price we have paid for it already, much less the demands it makes of us now and in the future.” She ruthlessly swallowed back a few bitter tears.
Randon nudged his horse forward so that he could reach out and touch Kayli’s hand.
“This is the second time you’ve given up your Order for me,” he said gently, “and this time it was by your own choke. I don’t know that I’ve done anything to earn that kind of loyalty from you, but I swear by the Bright Ones, if we survive this, somehow I’ll find a way to make you glad you chose as you did.”
Kayli said nothing. There was nothing, in fact, to say. Months ago she had taken her leave of the Order; tonight she had simply made that separation irrevocable. There was no doubt in her mind that some part of her would grieve over that choice forever, just as there was no doubt that no other decision was possible. Her marriage vows and the baby growing in her belly bound her more securely than the pledges she had once made to the Order. And remembering Randon’s eyes on hers as he had drunk Brisi’s potion, the same potion that might have meant his death, Kayli knew that she could never regret her choice. She twisted the temple ring on her finger; at last she quietly removed it, tucking it into her pocket.
“Kayli?” Randon pulled his horse to a stop; Kayli reined in beside him. “What’s that?”
Starlight sparkled on a shining surface, and Kayli squinted at it puzzledly. Was it metal, polished brightly?