by K. C. May
“I know nothing else, Your Majesty.” She patted Feanna’s feet dry, flung the cloths across one shoulder, and began to gather her tools. “Your feet are softer now, Your Majesty. I hope they feel better. I’ll be back with your noon meal.”
“You don’t want to stay longer and talk to me, Eriska?” Feanna asked with feigned outrage. “I’m deeply offended.”
The girl burst into tears. “I’m—I’m so sorry, Your Majesty. I’ll stay if you wish it, but I haven’t any more news. I’ve nothing worthwhile to say, and I didn’t want to bore you.”
Feanna rolled her eyes. “No, go on. I’m teasing you. Don’t be so sensitive.”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty.” She curtseyed hastily, picked up the two buckets and left, sloshing water onto the floor. “Oh gracious! I’m sorry! I’ll just...” She set the buckets down, dropped to her knees and wiped up the spill. “So sorry.” The door shut behind her, and the key rattled the lock.
With her head leaned back against the chair, she imagined Edan getting red over what she had told Eriska. If he was the intelligent man he liked people to think, he would get rid of that wretch Keturah today. If he didn’t, she would sneak into Iriel’s room that night, and handle it herself with cold fingers around that soft throat.
Feanna flexed her toes and admired her pretty feet. She should have had Eriska give her a manicure too.
Chapter 24
“Shall I bring the other one, Wibbon?” the warden asked.
And kill him too? Gavin thought.
“Now you know what to expect,” Daia said. “You’ll be successful this time.”
Gavin shook his head doubtfully. “I can’t keep sacrificing men to save the bastard who ravished my wife.”
“Wibbon’s already due to be executed for his crimes,” Daia said. “You’d be giving him the chance to help Thendylath before he dies. If he were zhi or whatever you call it, wouldn’t he want that? If you were in his position, wouldn’t you?”
He rubbed his brow, knowing that he should look at this rationally. She had a point. What man wouldn’t want a chance to redeem himself before he died? Only the kho-bent, because they didn’t value redemption. He did, though. “Awright,” he said to the warden. “Bring Wibbon.”
“Kill ’em all if you want,” Adro said. “Long as I get to watch. Best entertainment I’ve had in months. ’Cept for bedding your wife, of course.”
Before Gavin had a chance to react, Daia shouted, “That does it.” She unsheathed her dagger and hopped up onto the dais. With fear in his eyes, Adro tried to lean away from her. She took him by the arm and cut the left sleeve off his tunic while lecturing him about the proper way to talk to the King of Thendylath. She threw the dagger into the grass and then used the sleeve as a gag, yanking it hard and tying it so tightly around the back of Adro’s head that his eyes watered.
Gavin gave her an appreciative nod and unhooked Hapstone’s shackles from the dais, picked up the limp body, and carried him over one shoulder to a spot near the fence and set him down on the dirt. Daia had tried to convince him to let her and Cirang do that, but in times of stress, he hungered for physical labor. Doing this task himself gave his muscles a taste of what they craved.
The warden returned, leading a short, muscular man with thick red hair and an intensely dark haze. Judging by the way the warden leaned away, Gavin guessed that others, even those without the ability to see the khozhi in hazes, sensed the man’s khoness. He watched, fascinated, as Daia and Cirang shifted slightly on their feet when Wibbon walked past, seemingly unaware of their instinct to distance themselves.
The gaoler passed Gavin the papers, and with dread and nervousness trembling his hand, he signed the attainder. Another man was about to die, but would one be saved in return?
When Wibbon climbed the dais, the hairs on the back of Gavin’s neck stood up. The buck’s khoness was as strong as Cirang’s had been—virtually pure kho, like the beyonders. The warden made the prisoner kneel facing Adro and hooked his shackled wrists to the iron ring.
“You must work quickly, Emtor,” the Guardians said. “Don’t become distracted when the body collapses. That is a normal part of the process. The heart won’t stop unless you pull too much and delay too long.”
Gavin took a deep breath. He’d get it right this time. He knew how quickly the essence drained, and he knew what to expect once it did. It wouldn’t defeat him this time. He had King Arek’s powerful magic at his command and a mystical conduit as his champion. He could do this. “I’m ready.”
“Any last words?” the warden asked.
Wibbon looked up at Gavin with a smile so cold that his breath was frosty. “Heard you’re going to be a papa.” He turned his golden-brown eyes to Adro. “Congratulations, Fiendsbane.”
Gavin’s spine felt like it had hardened to steel. The blood drained from his face, filling his hands as they curled into fists. He trembled with the urge to beat the man to a pulp, to sit on his chest and choke the life out of him, to rip that black heart out with his bare hands and shove it into Adro’s smirking mouth.
It was happening again, the sudden surge of anger and loathing he’d felt at Jennalia’s house. Feanna must have been having some sport with him. He had to get away before he did something he would regret. He spun around and went down the few steps of the dais where he paced, spitting curses under his breath and clenching his muscles again and again. She couldn’t keep it up for long. He just had to hold on and ride it out, like a horse being ridden for the first time. Why hadn’t Edan taken his warrant tag from her? She should’ve reached Tern by now.
“Gavin? Are you all right?” Daia asked.
He nodded but held up a hand to caution her not to come near. When at last the feelings dissipated, he shook himself off, cracked his neck, and rotated his shoulders to loosen the tension there. He went back up onto the dais and gave Wibbon the same speech he’d given Hapstone.
As before, he used Daia’s conduit to increase his strength, but this time, when he pulled Wibbon’s haze into the brown jasper, he did it more quickly. Time was of the essence, and he couldn’t screw around this time. The gem filled, and Wibbon fell almost the same way Hapstone had, but Gavin didn’t let it distract him. He immediately started pulling Adro’s haze into the black onyx.
“I’m feeling dizzy,” Adro said through the gag.
“Shut up,” Daia hissed.
After a moment, Adro’s body toppled to the dais, emptied of his haze.
“Now the rune, Emtor. Quickly.”
“Kembishyrad,” he whispered. He sensed an odd shudder ripple down the sword’s length, though he felt nothing with his hand where he held it. “Now what?”
The Guardians didn’t answer. Something unexpected was happening. The haze from the Nal Disi was flowing into the two bodies. What the hell?
“No!”
He let go of the two hazes he was holding in the gems, expecting to see them flow back into the bodies. Instead, the gems dulled, their mystical glow fading. The Guardians’ haze split like a snake’s tongue and flowed towards the bodies like smoke. “Adro!” He squatted beside Adro and shook him. The body was limp, lifeless. With magic enhancing his sense of touch, Adro’s death felt like a skin covering the body, cold and final. He snatched his hand back, surprised by the direful sensation.
“What happened?” Daia asked.
“We are sorry, Emtor,” the Guardians said. “They have both died. We don’t know what went wrong.”
“The hell you don’t!” Gavin yelled, standing. “You did that. You tried to take over their bodies. Why?”
“You held onto their hazes too long, Emtor. We were simply trying to help keep the bodies alive until you released them.”
“Trying to help?” Gavin asked, scrunching the scarred side of his face. “I almost had it, and now three people are dead.”
“You drained their essences, Emtor. We tried to tell you to release them, but you didn’t hear. We are sorry. Next time, you’ll surely find succ
ess.”
He shook his head and sat down wearily on the edge of the dais, feet dangling over the side. There was no next time. That was the only thing he knew to try, and he had failed miserably. Killing more people trying to get it right wasn’t the answer. His shoulders slumped in defeat. Feanna and dozens of other citizens were doomed to a life of turmoil and darkness, and it was his fault for letting Cirang out of her cage instead of executing her as he should have. And for what? Because he was curious about a damned wellspring, even after King Arek had begged him to leave it alone. I’m sorry, Feanna. I failed you again. My son...
He buried his face in his hands. His son was growing in a kho womb with no hope of relief for another five months. Gavin had felt the hatred that Feanna directed towards the prince. Even if she didn’t try to hurt him physically, how could he possibly come into the world unscarred in spirit? Gavin’s heart ached to think of his poor baby suffering every moment of his life, and there was nothing Gavin could do about it. Would it be a kindness to end him now, to spare the tiny baby from what had to be an unbearable horror? A sob choked him, and his eyes burned with unshed tears.
“Gavin,” Daia said gently, “don’t do that to yourself. There’s got to be a way.”
When had he become so easy to read?
“Why not try again with that Slopsmeller buck?”
“No, I don’t know how to do it, and there’s nobody to teach me.”
“Perhaps not now, Emtor,” the Guardians said, “but there was. You have a Rune of the Past. You can travel to the violet realm’s past and talk to Carthis herself.”
Chapter 25
Gavin should’ve consulted the zhi-pure of the violet realm before entrusting the lives of three people to the Guardians, though he had forgotten that he’d brought the Rune of the Past with him. “Give me my knapsack,” he said to Cirang. She stepped forward and handed it to him, and he dug into it with one hand, feeling past the Nal Disi, past his spare shirts and trousers for the smooth stone at the bottom. He tossed it into the air and caught it again. “Should’ve thought of this myself.”
“Isn’t that your back-traveling rune?” Daia asked.
“Yeh. I’m going to the past to talk to Carthis, the one who discovered the runes.”
“He’ll know how to swap the hazes?”
“I think Carthis was a female, but yeh. She’s the one who inspired the Guardians to try combining their hazes, so she’s my best option. Where is Carthis?” he asked them.
“She lives in the violet realm, Emtor,” the Guardians said.
“I know that,” he snapped, “but the world’s a big place. When I go to the violet realm and back-travel to the time when Carthis lived, where will I find her? How far will I have to travel to get there?”
“You won’t need to travel at all, Emtor. She’ll come to you.”
“Huh?” Even if she could sense the arrival of the Wayfarer, did she have wings to fly across the mountains or seas? Or did she happen to live in the same place in her realm as Ambryce was? Nothing in his life had ever been that convenient.
“The Hahlia of the violet realm will sense your arrival and come to greet you. They’ll send for her.”
“Are they bird people or something?” he asked.
“They move across the world unlike anyone in your realm.”
Gavin thought for a moment. “So I could go there right now, from right here, and talk to Carthis?”
“Yes, Emtor.”
Hell, why didn’t they suggest that before he’d killed Adro? He rolled his eyes skyward, trying not to lose his patience. They were trying to help, but they weren’t as wise as he’d given them credit for, despite their many years of existence. That, too, was his fault—trusting them before they’d properly earned it. “Awright, I’ll try it. When did Carthis live?”
“She was slain about twenty years before we were born, which was six-hundred eight years ago, so you should travel at least six-hundred twenty eight years into the past.”
Gavin didn’t realize the Guardians were so old. He calculated the year based on the current date. “That means afore the year 1017 on our calendar. I’ll go to the thirtieth o’Renovare 1015, to be sure.”
Daia dug her ring out of her coin purse and slid it onto her left ring finger. “I’m ready when you are.”
Gavin put on his ring as well. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”
“It’s all right,” she said, hopping up onto the dais. “If we’re not here when you return, we’re probably eating and will hurry back as soon as I feel you connect with me.”
“I might connect with you for other reasons than opening the vortex. If you’re not here, I’ll find you. No need to drop your spoon halfway to your mouth.” He relaxed his gaze and looked for the vortex. It spun through the yellow, green, and blue. Violet would be coming soon.
“Good luck, King Gavin,” Cirang said.
“Remember, Emtor, don’t enter the white portal.”
“I know, I know.”
Not wanting to accidentally step through too late and enter the white realm, he let the vortex cycle around once more to refine his timing. With the date firmly in his mind, he watched the colors spin by. The moment indigo faded to violet, he whispered the rune’s name and leapt into the vortex.
Dizziness tipped him first to one side and then to the other. He tripped over his feet and fell into a patch of the softest grass he’d ever felt. He lay on his chest for a moment, enjoying the pleasant scent of the grass and the feel of its soft blades on the side of his face. It wasn’t like lying on the ground, so comfortable it was. He shut his eyes, waiting for the world to stop spinning, and opened them when a shadow moved over him, blocking out the sun. He lifted his head and gazed upon the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. Was this the Hahlia?
The being was definitely male, with a warmth about him that reminded Gavin of family. He wasn’t exactly portly but soft of body like someone unused to physical labor. His skin had a pale violet hue, and his face was round and his cheeks full, framed by long, thick hair so black, it looked blue. His nose was barely a bump above his mouth and without a bridge to speak of. But it was his eyes that captivated Gavin. They were silver. Not gray like Feanna’s eyes, but sparkling silver like Aldras Gar’s blade, as if they had slivers of steel in them.
“Greetings, friend,” the being said in a voice that reminded Gavin of a babbling brook, soothing and inviting. “I see you’re a newcomer to our realm. Welcome.” Though his mouth moved, his purple lips didn’t match what Gavin heard. “I’m Shin the Watcher.” He extended a soft hand to help Gavin up. His grip was sure yet gentle.
Gavin stood, vaguely aware that the dizziness was gone, though he felt oddly displaced, like he’d stepped out of his body and back into it and everything wasn’t quite lined up again.
“I’m Gavin Kinshield,” he said, looking up into Shin’s eyes. Were all Hahlia so tall?
“Welcome, Gavin Kinshield,” voices said all around him. When he turned around, he found himself surrounded by perhaps twenty of them, all gazing at him with twinkling, silver eyes. Though they didn’t smile, he felt their kindness and warmth. They were all tall and chubby, with black hair and skins that were various shades of purple rather than brown or beige.
“We are thrilled you have come,” one said. “It is an honor and pleasure to meet you.”
“Yes, thrilled,” the others echoed. “A very great honor.”
“Thank you. I guess you figured out I’m the Wayfarer now.”
“That’s quite curious,” Shin said. “Forgive me, but we know Carthis as the Wayfarer. We were unaware there could be two Wayfarers.”
Several more of their kind arrived, fading into view like the Guardians did, except that these people weren’t images in his mind. They were flesh and bone. They wore long dresses, the males too, some with cowls, others with folds of fabric draped across the shoulders and neckline. All had long, flowing sleeves that Gavin couldn’t help but think would get in
the way.
Shin put an arm around Gavin’s shoulders. “We would like to welcome you to our realm with a feast. Will you be our guest?”
That was when Gavin noticed that his hair wasn’t like human hair. It was as fine, but it moved of its own accord so that it didn’t get trapped between Shin’s body and Gavin’s.
Gavin looked around, but he saw no buildings or roads, only willowy trees with long leaves and tall grass. “I’d love to. Lead on.”
They began to hike through the forest, but the Hahlia seemed to know where they were going despite not having a trail to follow. “I was in the middle of nowhere. How did you find me?” he asked.
Shin smiled. “We felt the disturbance when you arrived, and we wanted to be the first to greet you.”
As they walked, Shin chattered about all he’d learned about humans from Carthis, mostly about their strong bodies and their tendency to focus on the physical rather than the mystical. After about a quarter hour’s walk, they reached the edge of a village or small city populated by neat, five-sided buildings made of white brick topped with pavilion roofs. Plants of all kinds hedged the walls, some with colorful flowers, some without. Purple people came out of their homes to smile and wave at him, calling out greetings as he passed. Many fell into step behind him, creating a following. All around him, they radiated such warmth and caring that all the worries plaguing him were lighter somehow. His thoughts were clear and sharp, his body relaxed. Being among them was the most uplifting experience of his life. Would they miss him in his own realm if he stayed?
Another Hahlia appeared, gorgeous blue and yellow robes flowing behind her before settling into place. “Greetings, friend,” she said, extending her hands for his. Her touch was warm and conveyed love and respect. “I’ve kenned the most wondrous news and had to come meet you. You’re a Wayfarer?”
He looked into her sparkling silver eyes, captivated by their beauty. She was a comely woman with luminescent lavender skin and fat strands of hair that reached to her knees. She radiated sincerity and benevolence. “I am now. I’ve traveled backwards through time using one of the Runes of Carthis.”