Sea Born (Chaos and Retribution Book 3)

by Eric T Knight

  “I don’t think so. What I am is angry. You have stalled long enough, child. Now I’m going to send Ilsith to kill your mother.” He raised his hand.

  “Don’t!” Aislin cried. “I’ll get it for you!”

  She turned and walked slowly toward the open doors of the vault, her thoughts racing. She shouldn’t do this. Even if he killed everyone she loved, it would be better than what would happen if he gave the artifact to the Devourers. But the thought of Mama dying was unbearable.

  She entered the vault. There was the artifact sitting on the pedestal, glowing brightly. The cold-eyed thing pretending to be a man had moved to where he could see her and he called out then.

  “Bring it to me and this will all be over. You can keep your mother and the rest of them safe.”

  The artifact looked like she remembered, red as a ruby, but without the facets of a gem. About the size of her hand, one side was curved in a semi-circle, the other side jagged, as if it had been broken from a larger piece.

  A moment later she realized that it had been. He had mentioned the pieces of the key. This then, was only part of the key. That made her feel a little bit better. Even if she gave him this piece, he would still not have the whole thing. He could still be stopped, maybe by one of the other children Ya’Shi had told her about.

  She looked over her shoulder. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

  “Of course you can.”

  “The last time I touched it, it knocked me down. It hurt.”

  “But it didn’t kill you, that’s what counts. On the other hand, if you don’t bring it to me right now, I will kill your mother. Think about that.”

  Aislin turned back to the artifact. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “But I can’t let him kill Mama.”

  Hesitantly, she touched the artifact with one finger. It glowed brighter and she jerked back as a shock went through her, painful but not unbearable. This time it didn’t knock her across the room anyway.

  Taking a deep breath, she picked it up. It was cool and surprisingly heavy. She wondered what it did. What was it the key to?

  “Now bring it to me,” he said.

  With slow steps and a heavy heart she made her way across the vault. There’d been no answer to her call. She was going to have to give the artifact to him. She thought about closing the door and staying in here.

  “Why didn’t you come in and get it yourself?” she asked.

  “Something to do with these,” he said, pointing to one of the eel-like things moving under his skin. “Anything with chaos power in it can’t get near the vaults. The masters’ doing, I expect. Quit stalling and bring it to me.”

  She left the vault and stepped back into the cavern. There was no going back now. She crossed the cavern to where the cold-eyed thing that was not a man waited. His eyes, fixed greedily on the artifact, reflected its red glow.

  She held out the artifact and he reached for it—

  But right then she felt something approaching fast and knew her call had been answered after all.

  She pulled the artifact back before he could touch it. His face twisted with rage. “Don’t challenge me now!” he hissed. “I’ll have Ilsith cut you into a hundred pieces before you hit the floor.” He lunged for her.

  The stone covering the tunnel exploded inwards. Shards of rock flew everywhere. He spun, disbelief on his face when he saw the huge figure enter the room. “You?!” he exclaimed.

  It was Gaz.

  He reached out to the shadow creature. “Ils—”

  But before he could finish the name, the zhoulin crossed the few paces between them. Gaz hit him with a mighty, two-handed blow. There was a cracking noise and he was thrown across the cavern, slamming up against the rock wall with bone-shattering force.

  He slumped to the floor. Before he could rise, Gaz was on him again. She picked him up in one huge hand and bit his face. He screamed as her teeth shredded the flesh. One cheek and half of his jaw were ripped away. There was no blood, only a handful of red sparks.

  “Ilsith!” he screamed, the name coming out garbled and barely distinguishable.

  As Gaz bent to bite him again, the shadowy form of Ilsith wrapped around him. The shadow swirled and faded and Gaz’s jaws closed on nothing.

  Chapter Nine: Karliss

  “Hey, what are you doing over here? Don’t you know there’s a party going on?” Batu asked.

  Karliss looked up to see Batu and Hulagu standing over him. He’d been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard them approach. Batu had a mug in his hand and was weaving slightly.

  “I know,” Karliss said. “I only wanted to sit down for a moment.” Which wasn’t exactly true.

  “That sounds like a good idea,” Batu said. He lost his balance while trying to sit down, and Hulagu had to catch him. Once safely on the ground, Batu tilted his head back to take a drink from the mug, but it was empty. He peered into its depths suspiciously, then turned it upside down to verify that it really was empty.

  “What happened to my achai?” he said, referring to the fermented yak’s milk that the Sertithians drank.

  “You drank it already,” Hulagu said. “We had this conversation a minute ago, remember?”

  Batu pondered this. “Did we? Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  Batu made an effort to get to his feet. “Maybe I should go get some more, then.”

  Hulagu grabbed his arm and held him down. “I think you’ve had enough, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know,” Batu said seriously. “This is the first time I ever drank achai.” There was a whole barrel of the alcoholic drink on one of the tables near the fire. As blooded warriors now, Batu and Hulagu were allowed to drink achai. Hulagu drank only a little of it, but Batu had finished two mugs already. It was getting late and Batu wasn’t the only one who was having difficulties. A number of warriors had already slumped over and were snoring on the ground.

  “I think just a little bit more,” Batu said. He tried to get up again, but Hulagu kept hold of his arm and he got nowhere. “I can’t get up with you doing that,” he complained.

  “I know.” Hulagu didn’t let go of his arm.

  “Can I have a drink of your achai?”

  “You could,” Hulagu replied, “but I don’t have any more.”

  “Why not? Aren’t you going to celebrate our great victory?”

  “I am celebrating. I had two whole swallows of achai. It was horrible.”

  “It is horrible,” Batu said, nodding. “It’s spoiled yak’s milk. But if you keep drinking it, after a while it gets better.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.” Hulagu looked up at a warrior who was staggering toward them. The man was on the verge of falling down. “We’re sitting here,” he called out. “Don’t step on us.” The man mumbled something and weaved his way past them.

  Batu gave up trying to stand. Even if he hadn’t been drinking he wouldn’t have been able to get free of Hulagu’s grip. Hulagu was strong, with broad shoulders and big hands, and though he was only fourteen, he was already bigger than many of the adults.

  Batu turned to Karliss and blinked owlishly at him. “Why so quiet?” he asked loudly. “Don’t you…don’t you want to celebrate our glorious victory over Kasai?” It was only that afternoon that they’d defeated the invading force the Guardian Kasai sent against them. While the warriors fought off a band of huge bestial men riding monstrous wolf-things, a man riding a giant raven, with flames burning in his eye sockets, had attacked the camp. Karliss barely managed to defeat the man, but only with the aid of Batu and Hulagu, who were nearly killed during the fight.

  Karliss sighed. “I don’t feel very much like celebrating.” He’d tried to stick it out, to pretend he was enjoying himself, but finally he couldn’t keep up the charade anymore and he walked away from the jubilant camp to sit alone and try to sort through how he felt.

  “But…we defeated the man with the burning eyes,” Batu said, frowning as he tried to m
ake sense of Karliss’ strange behavior. He jabbed the air with an imaginary spear. “Took care of him good.” He jabbed a couple more times.

  “We did,” Karliss agreed, though privately he wasn’t so sure. What did they really win, but a temporary reprieve?

  “What’s bothering you?” Hulagu asked.

  “Nothing. I’m just tired is all.”

  Hulagu leaned over and smacked Karliss on the shoulder, hard enough to knock him sideways a bit. “You know that’s not going to work with me, right?”

  Karliss looked over at him. In the dim light from the fire he could see the concerned look on Hulagu’s face. He glanced at Batu. Batu was also looking at him, but he was blinking a lot. “Having a little trouble here,” he said. He put his hand over one eye and his face lit up with a smile. “Now I can see you fine,” he said.

  “So what’s wrong?” Hulagu asked.

  Karliss looked over to the far side of the celebration, where a handful of women and children sat, their janus wrapped around their faces so that only their eyes were showing. They were the family members of those who had fallen in the fighting. They would wear the long scarves wrapped around their faces for the three-day period of mourning.

  Hulagu turned his head to see what he was looking at. Then he looked back at Karliss. “I hope you’re not blaming yourself. You did everything you could.”

  “True!” Batu yelped. “You were like a hero out of one of the old stories. The way you finished off that guy at the end…” He waved his arms. “Bang! You knocked him clear across the camp!” The other two both ignored him.

  “Did I?” Karliss asked.

  “You did. No one could have done more.”

  “It’s not the battle I’m thinking about,” Karliss admitted. “It’s what I did before.”

  “I don’t understand what’s going on,” Batu complained. “You guys need to slow down.”

  “I’ll explain it to you tomorrow,” Hulagu said. “What did you do before, Karliss?”

  “I drew Kasai’s attention, when I rode the spirit to spy on him,” Karliss said, his tone suddenly bitter. “I got too close and he saw me. That’s why he attacked. If I hadn’t done that, he never would have noticed us. He would have left us alone and those people would still be alive.”

  Batu was staring at him openmouthed. “You’re not making any sense, Karliss.” He looked at Hulagu for confirmation. “He’s not, is he?”

  “No, he’s not,” Hulagu said grimly. “He’s leaving out the part where the terl told him to ride the spirit and learn anything he could about Kasai. He’s also leaving out the part where that creature killed a whole clan already.”

  “Because they invaded his lands,” Karliss said.

  Hulagu waved this off. “No one blames you, Karliss. Don’t do this to yourself.”

  “Yeah,” Batu chimed in. “You’re a hero. You defeated Kasai. That’s worth celebrating.”

  Karliss thought of the massive city he’d seen that night when he rode the aranti and spied on Kasai. How many tens of thousands of people lived there? And today they’d faced a force of what, thirty men? “Kasai is a long way from defeated,” he said. “A long way.”

  “Well, if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll stay away from us from now on,” Batu said stoutly. He shook his head. “I still can’t believe those things you did. The tornado that protected you from his fire? And when you hit him with that blast of air that knocked him across the camp? I knew you were good, but I didn’t know you were that good.”

  “You’re not the only one who’s been practicing,” Karliss said. It was true. In the last year since the role of tlacti was thrust on him, Karliss had spent quite a lot of time off by himself practicing his skills.

  “The war is not over yet, it’s true,” Hulagu said soberly, “but that does not mean we should not celebrate our victories.”

  Batu gave Hulagu a surprised look. “When did you get so wise?”

  Hulagu grinned and gave him a shove. Batu toppled over. It took him a moment to struggle back upright. He brushed grass out of his hair. “Watch who you’re shoving! I’m a hero too, you know.”

  “Hero?” Hulagu snorted. “You got lucky, that’s all.”

  “Yeah, lucky,” Batu said, touching the side of his face gingerly. The skin on one whole side of his face was red and blistered. The eyebrow on that side was completely burned away, along with a fair bit of his hair. He’d narrowly avoided being killed by a burst of flame from the man’s staff. “Being a hero hurts more than I thought it would.” He looked down at Hulagu’s leg.

  Hulagu grimaced as he shifted his position. “The healer said it’s not broken, only strained. So there’s that.”

  “That was pretty incredible, what we did, wasn’t it?” Karliss said.

  “More than pretty incredible,” Batu crowed. “It was amazing. Old burning eyes never had a chance. Not against us!” He threw his fist in the air. “Here’s to us!” he yelled. The other two only looked at him, shaking their heads. “C’mon, you two,” he growled with mock ferocity, his fist still thrust into the air. “Don’t leave me here all alone.”

  Karliss and Hulagu eyed each other, then thrust their fists in the air also. “Here’s to the heroes Karliss and Hulagu,” Hulagu said, “and their faithful sidekick Batu!”

  Batu squawked and shoved Hulagu, who fell over laughing. Karliss smiled at their antics. It felt good to smile. They were right about one thing at least. There was time enough to worry about what Kasai would do next tomorrow. For today they had won and that had to be enough.

  ╬ ╬ ╬

  A few minutes later Hulagu stood up and pulled Batu to his feet. “How about I help you get to your yurt?” Hulagu asked him.

  “I’m not ready to go to bed yet,” Batu said. “I’m still having fun.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better to sleep in your bed than on the ground?”

  Batu thought about this. “Probably.”

  “Then let’s go.” Hulagu half-carried Batu off toward his yurt. As they walked away, Batu yelled good night over his shoulder to Karliss.

  Karliss headed back over to the fire. It was late and the celebration was starting to die down. His mother and father were standing near the fire, their arms around each other.

  “I’m glad to see you looking more cheerful,” Munkhe, Karliss’ mother said. “I was worried about you.”

  “Well, my friends kind of reminded me that this is supposed to be a party,” Karliss said. “So I’m trying.”

  Ganzorig put his hand on Karliss’ shoulder. “It’s normal to feel a little crazy after a battle.”

  “It is?”

  “Killing takes something out of you. It does something to you.”

  “I never knew that.”

  Ganzorig gestured around the camp. “Why do you think so many of them are drunk?”

  “You’re not drunk.”

  “I have my own way of dealing with it.”

  Karliss’ next words slipped out unexpectedly. “He was here to kill me.”

  “Who was?” his mother asked.

  “The man on the bird.”

  “Why do you say that?” his father asked.

  “He kept heading straight for me. He only attacked other people when they got in his way.”

  “Oh, Karliss,” his mother said sadly.

  “You’ve spent the whole night thinking that people died because of you,” his father said.

  Karliss hung his head.

  Ganzorig shrugged. “Maybe they did.”

  Karliss twitched under the impact of his father’s words. He’d been hoping his father would reassure him, tell him he was worrying about nothing.

  “But that doesn’t change anything,” Ganzorig continued. “Don’t you see?”

  “No, I don’t,” Karliss said bitterly.

  “Look around you. This clan is your family. What would you sacrifice for them?”

  “Anything. Everything,” Karliss said without hesitation.

  �
��And what would you do if someone came for one of them?”

  “I’d fight,” Karliss said. “He’d have to go through me.”

  “So there you have it. What comes for one of us, comes for all of us. That’s what it means to be clan. If Kasai wants you, he’ll have to come through all of us. You can feel bad about that if you want, but it won’t change anything.”

  Karliss blinked back tears that threatened suddenly. “I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

  “No. You didn’t. But then, you’re young still and I’m your father. That’s my job.” His expression grew more serious. “This is something you’re going to have to deal with again, so you better learn how.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Clearly you are the only one of us who is a real threat to Kasai. That means he’s going to come after you again.”

  “Which is why I should leave,” Karliss said, feeling sick inside.

  “And leave your people defenseless?” his father asked. “Is that really what you want to do? Because you’re the only one who can fight Kasai. If you leave, we have no chance. Look what happened to Long-striding Antelope Clan.”

  “But if I leave, Kasai won’t attack us again.”

  “You don’t know that,” Munkhe said.

  “Stop torturing yourself, son,” Ganzorig said. “Accept the fact that you are our tlacti. Kasai will come after you again, and your clan will do everything in our power to protect you. Because we need you to protect us.”

  ╬ ╬ ╬

  Karliss wandered around the camp for a while after his parents went to bed. He did his best to stay cheerful and spoke to those who spoke to him, but inside he was still wrestling with what his father had said. He didn’t know that he ever would actually understand.

  At one point Ganbold came strutting up. In one hand he had a mug of achai and in the other he was carrying a tulwar taken off a dead enemy. The sword was too big for him and the tip was dragging in the dirt. He saw Karliss and changed course to intercept him.

  “Karliss!” he called. “Brother!”

  Karliss stopped and waited for him.

  “I’m glad I found you, Karliss. I’ve been looking all over for you, you know that?”