by Ian Gregoire
There was understanding on Ari’s face. “There’s nothing to forgive, old friend.” he said. “I know how much Marit’s death has hurt you. And I promise you, when the time comes to mete out retribution against his murderers, you will be there. But you should know, Kenit has also been deeply affected by Marit’s death. He blames himself. Consequently, he has consistently refused to leave Temis Rulan to carry out any duty for the Order—no matter how innocuous. He’s a broken young man, of no use to anyone in his current state, which has left the Council with a dilemma.
“Attempts to permanently purge the memory of events in Anzarmenia from Kenit’s mind have proven unsuccessful; the memories keep resurfacing. Some members of the Council feel that it would be best to bind his Zarantar and release him from the Order, while others feel he should be given an instructor’s position at one of the campuses. I consider the former option to be premature, whereas the latter is not really an option, given Kenit lacks the necessary experience to be an instructor of young apprentices.
“It is my hope that while we have you here in Temis Rulan you can do something to set him right again. So, do you think you’re up to the challenge?”
A smile threatened to breakout on Fay’s sullen face. “Would you have asked me if I wasn’t?” she asked rhetorically. After a brief silence she continued. “Perhaps the best way to help Kenit is to force him to confront both his actions and his inactions on the night Marit was killed. It is likely he’s been torturing himself about what he could and should have done differently; he probably wishes he could go back and change what happened. So, I’m going to give him the chance to do things over. I might even get it done tonight.”
Ari smiled appreciatively. “Thank you, old friend.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “And once again, my condolences for the death of Marit. And my apologies for not letting you know sooner.”
Fay leaned into Ari, wrapping her arms around him, giving him a fervent hug that he reciprocated. Eventually, she reluctantly released him from her embrace.
“Now,” said Ari. “Why don’t we sit back down? I’d like to discuss your apprentice.”
Fay followed in Ari’s wake as he led her back to the sofa. They sat down together and she waited for him to speak once more.
“I plan to take Kayden on a hike this evening,” he said, “just the two of us, ostensibly to get to know her better. But before I meet her I need you to tell me everything there is to know about her—and don’t leave anything out.”
“Yes, of course,” Fay replied. “But there is only so much I can tell you. Kayden is not an open book.”
Kayden sat in Fay’s quarters trying, but failing, to become engrossed in the book she had loved on the two previous occasions she had read it. But it wasn’t boredom derailing her reading pleasure; it was restlessness. Fay had been gone a while with no guarantee she would be back, though the real problem was that Kayden was growing impatient, not to mention anxious, about meeting Master Ari Shinadu. She glanced over her shoulder to look at the grandfather clock; the time was fast approaching half past Eighteenth Hour.
With a sigh Kayden closed the book, set it down on the tea table in front of her, then stood up. She cast her gaze around Fay’s quarters and her eyes eventually settled on the open doorway to the bedchamber. Maybe lying down for a little while wasn’t such a bad idea. She ambled into Fay’s bedchamber, heading straight for the four-poster bed—she had never slept in one before. She clambered onto the bed then rolled onto her back to lay down, her hands beneath her head, staring up at the canopy.
It was only a matter of minutes before Kayden’s restlessness forced her off the bed. It was pointless trying to relax, she was simply too anxious. So she stood, glancing around the room. There was no other option. She would have to while away the time by rummaging through Fay’s room. It’s not as though she would likely have another opportunity to do so. And what better way to gain more insight into Fay, and what makes her tick, than going through all her personal belongings?
Kayden moved first to the closets lining the far wall of the bedchamber. She slid open one of the doors to reveal several identical, three shades of grey and black uniforms. She slid the door shut then opened the door of the next closet along. Contained within was an assortment of plain, casual attire in muted colours, equally as dull as the uniforms. Boring, she thought. Though what was she really expecting to find? Fay didn’t strike her as the type to be interested in the frivolous fashions favoured by the nobility of the Nine Kingdoms. She slid the door shut then opened the door of the next closet along. This time she was surprised at the contents of the closet. Hanging inside were scores of dresses. They weren’t excessively lavish garments by any means; nonetheless, Kayden had never seen Fay wearing a dress before. She could just about picture the woman wearing one of the long, flowing formal dresses at a social gathering, but those frilly, floral-patterned summer dresses…? She tried to imagine Fay skipping barefoot through a field of buttercups while wearing one. She almost laughed out loud; it was a ridiculous image.
As she slid the door shut, Kayden considered not bothering with the final closet; she was unlikely to find anything interesting. But she slid the door open anyway. What she saw provoked a sharp, audible intake of breath. “Oh my—” she gasped. Her assumption that Fay was not the type of woman who would be interested in the expensive fashions of the Nine Kingdoms’ nobility was misplaced. Before her eyes were several stunning dresses and gowns made from the finest fabrics, fit for a noblewoman. And, unlike the dresses hanging inside the previous closet, these garments were surely not intended to be worn in public—the designs were too risqué, to say the least.
One dress in particular grabbed Kayden’s attention. She reached for it and gently pulled it out. The sheer black dress, made from silk and lace, felt exquisite to the touch; its elaborate, provocative design was decidedly elegant. How and why did Fay come to own such a creation? Kayden wondered. This was the kind of head-turning garment a noblewoman would wear for an intimate evening indoors while entertaining close friends; or a ‘close friend’.
Kayden carried the dress slowly to the nearby tall mirror. As she held the dress up against herself to observe her reflection, she realised the garment was a little more revealing than she initially thought. It had a backless design that required lacing up, and the sleeves were translucent, as was the triangular panel at the front of the dress at chest height. Then there was the slit along the left side, going up almost to the waist, entailing the exposure of one leg up to the thigh while walking. So, wearing the dress basically meant showing off one’s arms, back, cleavage and leg, leaving little to the imagination—the latter two being too much for Kayden to even contemplate; she didn’t need or want the kind of attention that would inevitably come as a result.
Once again, she briefly pondered why Fay would own such a garment, though the answer was obvious. Kayden grudgingly had to acknowledge that Fay was a very attractive woman. Beautiful, in fact. She could pull off wearing such a dress just as well as any highborn lady of the Nine Kingdoms, probably better. If not for her long-lived dislike of the woman, Fay was someone Kayden could happily entertain inappropriate thoughts about while lying in bed at night, relieving her ‘tension’.
She stepped away from the mirror to return the dress to its place in the closet. As interesting as Fay’s wardrobe eventually proved to be, Kayden knew she wasn’t going to learn anything of true import about the woman from her choice of clothing. It was time to rummage about elsewhere. She proceeded to go through all of Fay’s drawers. After several minutes the only thing out of the ordinary she had discovered was a phallic-shaped sculpture made from marble. Kayden had occasionally heard other female apprentices speaking facetiously of such objects; they were allegedly used by women from the southern lands of Karlandria to pleasure themselves. But she had always dismissed the gossip as a tall tale of the variety people were prone to making up about foreigners from strange and distant lands. It no
w appeared she needed to revise her stance; there seemed to be a kernel of truth in this particular story, after all.
Kayden did her best to rearrange the drawers as they had been, so Fay wouldn’t know she had been snooping. She then perched on the edge of the bed with a sigh, frustrated at not finding anything worthwhile. She was ready to give up and leave the bedchamber when it dawned on her she hadn’t yet looked under the bed. She sank to her knees to rectify the oversight.
Peering beneath the bed she spied a lone, small chest, which she promptly pulled out from below. She set it upon the bed then tried to flip open the lid. It was locked. No matter! She casually waved a hand over the box; the invocation of Yuksaydan caused the lock to tumble with an audible click, allowing her to open the chest. A cursory examination of the contents revealed a few inexpensive trinkets, in addition to several finely handwritten letters. What a complete waste of time!
But, wait. Surely there must be something of significance in the letters; why else would they be kept locked away inside a box hidden under the bed?
Kayden snatched up all the letters then sat on the edge of Fay’s bed to peruse each one. The correspondence appeared to be nothing more than love letters and poetry to Fay—presumably from her late husband. Judging from the sappy poetic compositions, he was either hopelessly in love with her when he wrote them, or he was desperate to get between her legs. Whatever the case, Kayden was only prepared to read so many declarations of love, or deferential claims to being unworthy of Fay’s affections, or comparisons of Fay’s beauty to this, that or the other. If she didn’t come across something that was actually worth reading, soon, she’d be tempted to gouge out her own eyes.
As Kayden placed another vomit-inducing ditty about Fay’s sweet kisses back in the chest, ready to call it a day, the next letter she picked up instantly re-ignited her interest.
Dearest Fay,
I deeply regret leaving Temis Rulan in the manner that I did, without so much as a word of explanation, my actions no doubt confirming your fears as to how I would react to your candour. I hope you understand that given the nature of your revelation it was necessary to have some time and space to process everything you told me, that is why I requested the assignment to Shintana. To say that I was a shocked to hear about your past would be a significant understatement on my part. While we all may have skeletons in our closet, I could never have guessed at yours. No one could.
These past few days may have caused you to conclude that I wish to break our engagement and bring an end to our courtship. Please allow me to allay those fears, my love. Knowing what I now know about you has not in any way changed how I feel about you. On the contrary, your willingness to risk sharing your darkest secret with me has only deepened my affection for you. That you would trust me to such an extent, knowing the scandal that would ensue if I were to betray that trust only vindicates my desire to be your husband, if you still wish to be my wife.
I shall be returning to Temis Rulan a fortnight after this letter reaches you. I anxiously await seeing your beautiful face once more, and holding you in my arms. Being so far away from you has become more than I can bear.
Yours always,
Ren
Well, well, well. Miss I’m So Perfect, You Will Idolise Me, is not so perfect after all, thought Kayden, feeling a perverse sense of gratification at the discovery. She was concealing a scandalous skeleton in her closet, one she feared revealing to the man she eventually married.
Kayden briefly wondered what Fay’s dark secret could be, then realised she couldn’t imagine the administrator doing anything improper. The woman was such a straight arrow. Her idea of wrongdoing probably amounted to no more than purchasing a cake from a bakery and being given too much change in return, so choosing to pocket it.
Three knocks at the door of Fay’s quarters broke Kayden’s ruminations. She hastily began putting the contents of the chest back where they belonged, then stopped. It obviously couldn’t be Fay at the door; she wouldn’t need to knock. She sat stock still on the bed, waiting. Hopefully, whoever it was would just go away when no one opened the door.
Three knocks were repeated.
Maybe not.
She finished returning the letters to the chest, locked it then slid it back under the bed. She dashed out of the bedchamber, through the sitting area to find out who was at the door. With any luck it was someone to escort her to see Master Ari. If not, Kayden would quickly send whoever it was on their way. She yanked the door open to reveal a tall, middle-aged Sanatsai standing at the threshold. He wore an amethyst pendant, pinned below his collarbone—its significance lost on her—and carried a knapsack on his back, while holding a second one in his left hand, dangling about his ankles. Whoever he was, his complexion and tightly curled hair betrayed his mixed ethnic heritage; one of his parents originally hailed from somewhere in Yantasha.
“Greetings, my young friend,” said the Sanatsai, with a smile. “I—”
“If you’re here to see Fay Annis,” Kayden interjected, “she’s not in at the moment. And I don’t know when she’ll be back.”
“That’s quite all right,” he replied jovially. “I’m here to see you actually, assuming you’re Kayden Jayta—Fay’s apprentice.” He made a small movement forward, as if to enter Fay’s quarters. “May I come in?”
Kayden pointedly refused to stand aside to allow him inside. “Well, that depends.”
“Depends on what?”
“Who you are.”
“Well, who do I need to be in order to come in?”
Kayden suppressed a groan. Whoever this person was she just knew he was going to be one of those awkward people who effortlessly got on her last nerve. “For a start, you could try not being someone who answers questions with questions.”
“What makes you think I am such a person?”
She raised her eyebrows at the interloper as if to say, ‘are you serious?’
“Oh, did I just do it again?” the Sanatsai said with a chuckle.
“Look,” began Kayden, “unless you are here to escort me to see Master Ari Shinadu, you need to leave…now.”
“Temis Rulan is the safest place I know, why would you need an escort?”
“Hey! Now you’re doing it on purpose.” Kayden was becoming tetchy. “I don’t have the time or patience for your personality quirk, so if you don’t tell me what you want I’m going to close this door.”
“Did I not already mention that I wanted to see Fay’s apprentice, Kayden Jayta?” He had to be trying to get a rise out of her “And that is you, is it not?”
It suddenly dawned on Kayden who her tormentor was, and what he was really after. “Hold on a moment! I see what this is,” she said. “You’re a friend of that poor excuse for a Sanatsai, Kassano Whatever-His-Name-Is.
“Did you figure you could come up here and succeed where he failed, is that it? Prove that I am Fay’s secret lover, maybe even catch us in the act? Or maybe…you knew she wasn’t in. Perhaps you thought you could try your luck with me, too; find out just how insatiable and skilled a lover I really am, all for yourself. Have a thing for younger women do you?”
The startled expression on the stranger’s face made Kayden realise her accusations were not only ill conceived, they were also wildly off the mark. No matter! It was time to slam the door in his face irrespective of who he was and why he wished to see her.
Before Kayden could do any such thing, the elderly Jaymidari, Idelle, appeared in the doorway to stand alongside the unwelcome visitor.
“Sister Idelle,” said the Sanatsai in greeting.
“I see you’ve met Kayden,” observed Idelle.
“Yes, we were just getting acquainted.”
“Well I’m glad I caught you before you departed. Fay has just been to see me to make some serious allegations about the conduct of Turan Kodi.”
Kayden blanched at the mention of Master Turan’s name. What exactly had Fay told Idelle about Turan? Did the Sister know she had blackmailed
the lowlife Sanatsai after his failed attempt to assault her?
“Given the nature of these allegations I would like to convene a meeting of the Council at Tenth Hour, tomorrow morning, to discuss the matter. I just wanted to know if you would be back by then.”
“If things go as I hope,” replied the Sanatsai, “I should be back in time. So, please, go ahead and convene the members of the Council.”
Oh no! Kayden had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach concerning the identity of the mystery Sanatsai. Please don’t let him be who I think he is.
“Very well, we shall see you tomorrow.” Idelle placed her hand on the Sanatsai’s arm. “And good luck for tonight, Ari,” she added, before departing with a silent smile for Kayden.
Kayden’s world seemed to move in slow motion. It was probably too much to hope that her Sanatsai visitor was not Master Ari. She was mortified and couldn’t keep it from showing on her face. It was typical of her luck that she would get off on the wrong foot with the leader of the Order. She hoped against hope that this was a different Ari, altogether; it was a common enough boys name in both Mirtana and Darmitana. Then she hoped she would wake up, and the poor first impression she had just made was just a bad dream.
No such luck.
“Master Ari!” Kayden exclaimed. “Please, do come in.” She stood aside to allow the Sanatsai to enter Fay’s quarters. “I hope you’ll forgive my rudeness just now, I… I…” What excuse could she use?
“Oh, think nothing of it, my young friend,” said Ari in placation, as he entered through the door. “So, you are Fay’s apprentice then?”
Kayden closed the door. “Yes, Master Ari,” she said deferentially. “And if I’d known who you are I would never have been so discourteous, or levelled such awful accusations against you.” She followed Ari to the sitting area. “It’s just that…well, in the short time I have been here I’ve already had to endure inappropriate behaviour from two people, as well as listen to insulting gossip about myself from others.”