by May, K. C.
He looked around, wide-eyed. “Yah. I thought it would be... I don’t know. Not as scary. I couldn’t even feel my feet on the ground.”
“I know. It’ll take some getting used to. Recite something in your head to occupy your mind. Trust me. I’ll lead you out of here to safety.”
During the trip back up the coast to Jolver, Jora learned about Korlan and his friendship with Boden. She learned about the godfruit and how the soldiers were heavily pressured to eat it every morning so that if they fell in battle that day, they would relive to fight again. Her impression, from the way he talked about the godfruit in a hushed tone, was that the experience of being Relived wasn’t one he’d have wanted to repeat, even if it were possible.
“Boden was Relived,” she said under her breath, wondering whether his becoming an ally had anything to do with the godfruit.
“He was? Damn it.” He chewed his lip for a moment, eyes directed at his hands. “It was my fault. I saw some men smuggling godfruit and engaged them. Boden had to come to my aid and ended up killing two of them. Turounce was livid. Everyone could hear him shouting. He must’ve done it. He must’ve killed Boden.”
Jora felt sick. That blood stain on the floor. It had been Boden’s. She’d stood in the very room where her friend had first died. “Justice was served,” she said quietly. “Turounce has paid for his crimes.”
Korlan studied her for a moment. “You were a Truth Sayer. Why did you leave?”
She summarized the events of the last week, starting with the murder of Elder Kassyl and the theft of her two books and ending with learning how to command creatures that lived in the other helix.
“Like Po Teng?”
“Right. And the one pulling the dinghy. There are many others like him, each one different, each one... grotesque.”
Korlan nodded. “I know. When I died, I saw them.” He shuddered. “So Elder Sonnis wants to be able to summon them. Why?”
Jora shrugged. “I suppose so he can have more minions to kill people.”
“Why did you?”
It was a good question. “I needed to. Doing nothing to combat evil is the same as doing evil oneself.” She thought of Gunnar and his concern about whether killing could possibly serve the greater good.
“I’d have killed them, too, if I’d been you,” Korlan said. “They declared war on you and your people. How is it any different than Mangend declaring war on us?”
“The people of Kaild were defenseless. They were slaughtered in their sleep.”
He pressed his lips together and looked at her with compassion in his eyes. “You did the right thing.”
“I hope so,” Jora said. As much as she hated the notion of facing Sonnis alone, she didn’t want Korlan to think he had no choice for himself. “Listen, Korlan, this isn’t your battle. If you—”
“Don’t say it. I’m alive because of you. If we survive the coming day, then I’ll figure out where I want to go and what to do, but until then, my service is yours. We both have a better chance standing together.”
“I hate the thought of you sacrificing yourself for what I feel I must do.”
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of sacrificing myself. I’m here to help you get justice. That’s important to me, and I’ll be upset if you try to deny me that.” He squeezed her forearm. “Besides, I owe Boden. My rash actions on one fateful day ultimately got him killed, got your whole town killed, and changed your life forever. I have to do whatever it takes to set things right again.”
She smiled at him. “Boden was lucky to have you as a friend.”
“That’s debatable, but like it or not, good or bad, that luck is yours now.”
They continued sailing through the day, slipping into the ’twixt as needed to avoid being spotted by other ships. Korlan was an inquisitive fellow and wanted to know exactly what was happening during those times he was required to suffer the solitude of nothingness. Jora explained the best she could about the realm of perception.
“Think of it like a tube,” she said. “The inside of the tube is the realm of existence. Everything that exists is there—you, me, this boat, Aerta, and the sun and moon. Now imagine that inside the tube is a ladder. Each of the long sides is a realm of perception, what Sundancer calls a helix. That’s where we are right now, sitting on one side of that ladder.”
“What’s on the other side?” he asked.
“The other realm of perception, where I first found Po Teng and Zhokaw. The rungs of the ladder are the gateways that open at dawn and dusk every day. Those are the only times I can cross to bring one of them over.”
“But Po Teng can cross back and forth whenever you call him, can’t he?”
“No,” Jora said. “I think he’s stuck in the ’twixt now, waiting for me to invite him into our realm of perception—our side of the ladder. I’m new to all this, too, so I might have it wrong. The more tones from Elder Kassyl’s book I translate, the more I’ll know.”
On the ebb side of dusk, the travelers reached the same cove where Jora had rested on her way to the Isle. They agreed to sleep on the beach and rise early enough to be at the Justice Bureau by dawn.
“Are you going to be able to sleep?” Korlan asked, settling onto the adepts’ robe she’d laid down for him. His stomach grumbled loudly, tempting hers to echo its complaint.
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. She crossed her ankles and lowered her body to sit cross-legged on the purple robe. Imagined visions of the coming hours dominated her thoughts, and she felt the excitement building in her body. “I can’t stop thinking about what lies ahead.”
“Me neither. We’re likely to encounter soldiers and the city watch, plus all the Truth Sayers at the Justice Bureau and their enforcers. What’s the plan?”
She looked at him blankly. “Plan?”
“We can’t just walk into the city, sneak past the guards, stroll into the Justice Bureau, and kill Elder Sonnis.”
“Why not? I did it to Turounce, and he was surrounded by soldiers.”
Korlan chuckled. “I can see why Boden loved you. You’re adorable.”
Heat flooded her face, but she couldn’t find the words to reprimand him for the compliment.
“By now, Adept Orfeo has warned them that you’d managed to simply walk in and slay the commander without alerting the dozens of soldiers in the camp.”
“Yes, but how are they going to prepare for what they can’t see?”
He held up one finger. “Never underestimate your enemy. You don’t know what weapons they have, what skills, what plans.”
Skills. Jora had been taught the skill disciples learned—the barring hood—but she didn’t know what skills elders learned. Korlan was right. She didn’t know what she was walking into.
“Can you observe someone? Maybe read the command board?”
Jora snapped her fingers. “Yes, I can. The Truth Sayers can’t be observed, but I can see the command board... which they know,” she added, dejected.
“You’re right. Anything they post there would be suspect.”
She thought about Captain Kyear. “There’s a Legion officer in Jolver who might have been told something. The Sayers don’t know that I know him, so they wouldn’t have any reason not to tell him what they’re planning.”
“Good,” Korlan said. “Give him a try.”
Jora closed her eyes and opened the Mindstream. After finding the captain’s thread, she traced it backward, searching for instances in the last few days where he’d received a message or spoken directly to a Truth Sayer. None of his messages had anything to do with her or Turounce. None of the people he spoke to were of the Order or even the temple, and his conversations were unrelated to her recent activities. “I’m not seeing anything. Elder Sonnis disobeyed his order, so I suppose I’m not terribly surprised that they didn’t turn to him when everything blew up in their faces.” She closed the Mindstream again. “How do we make a plan if we don’t know what we need to avoid?” she asked.
&nbs
p; “We can anticipate some things, such as a contingent of enforcers or dogs at the entrances, or a physical barricade of some kind.”
“If they block the way, traveling in the ’twixt won’t help us. We’ll still be in the realm of existence.”
“Are there any windows we could climb through or walls we could scale?”
The back wall, behind the dormitory and privy, was crumbling in places and could be scaled. A few minutes of having to put up with the stench wouldn’t hurt them. “Yah, I know of a wall in the back. We could go in at night, but I suspect enforcers will be standing guard in and around the dormitory, especially outside Sonnis’s room.” Then it occurred to her that Sonnis always rose early for the Changing of the Tones. They wouldn’t need to go to him. He would come outside to them.
Chapter 25
Something rustled behind her. She turned in time to see Elder Sonnis grab her from behind. She tried to call for Po Teng, but she couldn’t. Her mouth was gagged, her lips unable to call his name. The wicked sting of a knife sliced across her throat.
“No!” She sat upright, arms flailing. She hit something—a warm body. Korlan.
“Jora? Are you all right?” he asked.
A dream. It was just a dream. She lay back down and shut her eyes again, taking in a deep, steadying breath. “Sorry about that. Nightmare.”
“Do you want to reconsider our plan?”
“No, it’s a good one. How much more time do we have?”
“Moon’s up. I’d say it’s two, maybe three hours before sunrise.”
“We should get going, then.” She got to her feet and shook the sand off the green robe she’d been sleeping on before stuffing it into her bag.
Korlan stood as well. “Put this on,” he said, flapping the sand off the purple robe. “A soldier traveling with a bald woman in normal clothes would look suspicious, but one traveling with a Truth Sayer wouldn’t.”
“Good idea.” She pulled the robe on and raised the hood over her head so that the stubble of her growing hair wouldn’t be noticed. “Ready.”
The two climbed into the boat, and with Zhokur’s assistance, sailed the rest of the way to Jolver, arriving at the docks as the eastern sky was starting to lighten. She tied the dinghy up at the same post where she’d found it, hoping its owner hadn’t noticed it missing. It was likely she wouldn’t have need of it further.
“All right, give me your hand,” Jora said. Alone, Korlan probably wouldn’t draw attention, but the Justice Bureau would surely have painted Jora as a fugitive, alerting the city guard to be on the watch for her. At least no one was observing Korlan at present, but if they did, they would assume she was with him. “Let’s walk through the ’twixt so they won’t know we’re coming.”
“I was afraid you might say that,” Korlan said with a wry smile.
“It’ll be fine. Just don’t let go.”
She led him by the hand through the city, using the Mindstream to navigate the nearly empty streets and alleys, taking the route that she and Gilon used to walk. A few roosters crowed, and while she couldn’t hear them with her ears, she was aware of their bellowings and of the occasional bark of a dog.
The closer they got, the more scared she became. She wasn’t afraid of dying as much as she was afraid of having been wrong about slaying the assassins, the enforcers, and the march commander. When was death the proper solution to anything? And chances were good she would kill more by the time this day was half over.
If she wasn’t dead herself.
About a block shy of the Justice Bureau, a dozen enforcers stepped into her path, each one brandishing a sword. Though they wouldn’t be able to see Jora and Korlan, they blocked the way as if they’d known the travelers were there. A man in a yellow robe stepped out from around a building and stood in Jora’s path, holding a staff.
“Give yourself up, Novice,” he called.
How did he know she was there? Jora pulled Korlan to the right, thinking to dodge the elder and his enforcers.
Another elder, a woman, stepped around a corner, backed by another half-dozen enforcers. “There’s no escape, Novice.”
She turned to go back the way she’d come, but the way was blocked by five more enforcers and another elder.
“You continue to surprise us, Novice Jora.”
“Elder Gastone.” Jora gaped at him, finally understanding. The skill granted to the elders was the power to leave the realm of perception. “How did you know I was here?”
“There are limitations to the barring hood, Novice,” he said. “It falls down when you use the Mindstream, enabling others, such as myself, to piggy back on your stream. Leaving the realm of perception is the same. We watched you from the time you arrived at the docks. Of course, you’d have known that had you continued your studies and not gone rogue. I implore you to turn yourself in, Novice. The crimes you’ve already committed are serious enough. Don’t make it worse for yourself and your companion.”
“What crimes?” she asked. “I’ve done nothing but defend myself.”
He took a few steps toward her, closing in. “You weren’t in danger when you killed March Commander Turounce or threatened Adept Orfeo. You think yourself above the law, Novice?”
“No,” she said, horrified that he could interpret her actions that way. “Of course not.”
“You think yourself worthy of the ranks of Adept, Elder, and Enforcer? Pronouncing guilt or innocence, deciding a sentence, and executing it, and after only a few weeks as a novice. How superior you must be.”
She shivered. “No. That’s not true. I saw a crime had been committed, and I had to use my best judgment—”
“That’s exactly right, Novice,” Gastone said. “You used your judgment, your sensibilities to execute people acting under direct orders. You acted as if your judgment is beyond reproach, as if your judgment is higher than that of the entire Justice Bureau and the centuries of knowledge we would have bestowed upon you had you put in the time required to earn it. No, you took it for yourself,” he said, making a fist in front of him. “Like a child who doesn’t understand the concept of earning one’s due. You took it because you deemed yourself above the law, beyond reproach, and superior to the king and all the rest of us combined.”
Jora began to cry. That wasn’t it at all. He had it all wrong.
Or did he?
Don’t listen to him, she warned herself. He was trying to manipulate her into letting them get away with the slaughter of two thousand innocent people. She knew those responsible wouldn’t face justice if she turned herself in.
“You know I’m right,” Gastone said. He put both hands back onto the staff. “Don’t do something you’ll regret. Don’t do something you haven’t the wisdom to regret.”
“I won’t.” She started to whistle for Po Teng.
Gastone swung the staff sharply downward. It struck her hand where it clasped Korlan’s. The power of the blow ripped their hands apart.
Korlan left the ’twixt.
“No!” she cried, reaching for him to pull him back into the ‘twixt and outside the enforcers’ perception.
The enforcers were too fast. One of them grabbed Korlan by the arm and yanked him beyond her reach. Taken completely off guard, he stumbled to the ground. They surrounded him, barring her from getting to him.
Gastone swung again, and his staff hit her squarely in the temple. She felt no pain, but the force of the blow knocked her body to the ground. The satchel’s strap fell off her shoulder, and the bag returned to the helix as well. One of the enforcers snatched it and tossed it into their circle.
“Your companion is at the mercy of my enforcers now,” Gastone said, standing over her menacingly with the staff. He was old and frail, and his chest heaved from the exertion, but the two others were younger, and they were striding toward her, staves in hand. Even if she bested Gastone, they would easily defeat her. “It’s over. Turn yourself over to me, and I promise your friend will receive a fair court-martial for his desertion.
”
She whistled and called to Po Teng, and he materialized.
“God’s Challenger,” Gastone said, staring at Po Teng. “Adept Orfeo was right. You’ve learned how to harness the power of the Gatekeeper.”
Gatekeeper. The word sounded too big, like baggy trousers sewn for a man twice her size.
“That doesn’t make you worthy of it, Novice,” Gastone said.
“Sleep him,” she said.
But the ally shook his head, looking at her with sad eyes, unable to act against her enemy in the ’twixt. “Kaa-not here.”
Gastone chuckled. “You don’t understand your own power. You’re like a toddler who’s stumbled upon a very sharp knife, able to do damage without considering the consequences.”
At that moment, she couldn’t have agreed more. She’d let Korlan get captured. She was powerless to stop Elder Gastone from arresting her. How had she ever thought she would stop Elder Sonnis?
Po Teng’s eyes pleaded with her. He had no trouble touching people in the helix. Then that was what she had to do. There in the ’twixt, they were safe from Po Teng while she was vulnerable to their attacks.
“Perhaps you’re right, Elder,” she said. And with that, she grabbed the staff and kicked one foot up at him, hitting his hands. She yanked it from his grasp and then left the ’twixt while swinging the staff wildly back and forth, not trying to hurt the old man but hoping he would back away and not attack her barehanded.
An enforcer turned toward her, reaching out to grab the staff. The two other elders materialized, each rushing at her, staves raised to strike.
“Stop them,” she told Po Teng.
The enforcer froze in place with his hand around the staff. She let go, afraid she might turn to stone through her contact with it.
Both elders stopped mid-stride, their faces locked in expressions of fierce determination. One by one, the enforcers stopped what they were doing, frozen in place. Others uttered a surprised, “Huh?” before turning to stone themselves, mouths agape. The elders and enforcers were as white as alabaster and as hard as granite. Even their clothes and hair were stark-white and stiff.