I paused, then shook my head. “It was my fault that he was captured at all.”
“There are more valuable things than freedom,” Tobias replied confidently.
I frowned. It sounded so wrong, but I couldn’t think of how to explain why. “Well, goodbye then,” I said.
“Goodbye. Be careful. And don’t talk to anyone the way you talked to me.”
I nodded quickly. “Goodbye, Fauna,” I said.
Tobias smiled at her. After a moment they trotted off. I turned around.
The soldier on the horse behind me pointed strictly to the door. I walked towards it and knocked like Sergeant Marx had instructed.
I was surprised when it was opened by a woman. She wore full battle armor, clearly Akadian in red and yellow.
“Who are you?” she asked, glaring down at my clothes.
I was distracted from answering by the sight of the people inside the wagon. The light that showed through the slats was dim, but it was enough to reveal the faces that were so familiar. Their clothes, though torn, were the type I was accustomed to seeing. A woman held a child in her arms; I knew its name.
“Another Shaundakulian?” the female soldier asked.
“She’s a hostage,” the rider behind me answered. “Tobias just dropped her off.”
The woman sighed. “Great. Just what we needed, less space.” She stepped back and gestured me in.
As the door shut behind me, I tried to hide my face. I hadn’t foreseen any of the people recognizing me. I was thankful that it was so dim inside. The captives considered me, but no one said anything; they went back to resting their heads in their hands or crying. I wondered if I looked so different without my usual clothes.
“You’ll have to sit on the floor,” the female soldier said. She gestured to the clearest spot, against a wall. She herself stood in a corner.
Taking an unsteady breath I sat down. I wrapped my hands over my knees. A child started whimpering. Its mother shushed it. An old man tried to peek through a slat in the wagon wall.
I thought of Cyric, and hoped he was alive and on his way closer to me. Then I thought of Tobias and what he had said about freedom. Were there more important things? Looking around the wagon, I wasn’t so sure. If I had it in my power, I would free Cyric. And then I would free all of my people. Most of all I would make sure that the ones who had taken away our freedom paid.
*
CYRIC:
*
I woke up in pitch darkness. My head hurt like nothing else; I moaned as I brought my hand up to touch it. The ground beneath me shook and I heard the rolling of wheels against rubble all around.
“You awake, boy?” someone asked.
I instinctively jerked away because it had appeared so close and out of nowhere.
“It’s alright,” he said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I’m on your side. See?”
I blinked.
See? I didn’t see anything. I felt a piece of cloth touch my hand and looked down. There may have been a purple glow there.
“You’re from Shaundakul,” I guessed. Then I tried to look around again—because it wasn’t pitch black as I had thought.
There was a subtle difference between real darkness and the darkness I saw when other people claimed they could still see. The sages in Shaundakul called it night-blindness. For me it was just the way things were.
The man didn’t respond, so I assumed he’d nodded. All I could make out was a blur of dim colors that wouldn’t stay still.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Shh. The guards don’t like talking.” He bent closer. “I’d say halfway across the dessert plains by now. But all you can see anymore is flat land and sky.”
Carefully, I wrapped a hand up the wall behind me. It was wood. I found its edge and felt the breeze of moving air. We were outside.
“I heard tell we’re being taken to Akadia,” he added.
Someone coughed to my right. My muscles went taut. I reached over and felt another body. From the armor it was clearly not the one I was looking for. “Who else is here with us?” I demanded.
The man took a moment to answer. “Other prisoners. Two Akadian soldiers.”
“Are there any women?” I asked.
I saw a quick flux of light in front of me and I knew he was waving his hand to test my sight. I ignored it. “None,” he answered.
My nails scraped against the wood floor.
“Did you lose someone?” he whispered. “Don’t worry, boy. They took all the women to Akadia. If you can keep yourself alive, you will see her there.”
“Hey. You two,” a voice shouted harshly. “Quiet.”
I felt for the crown on my forearm. It was still there. I pushed it up even further.
“Just remember,” the man beside me whispered. “We’re all under the same sky. It cannot be so dark when we still have the stars to look to.”
He exhaled; it held an unexpected calm.
I leaned my head back and looked upwards, but all I saw was darkness.
*
ELLIA:
*
We rode in the wagon for what seemed like days. My mind stayed on those around me and I longed to think of words to comfort them, but nothing came to me. I was not like my father, who always knew just what to say to sway people’s hearts. I felt no power to help.
We’d been on a harsh path for a while, but now it became smooth and tilted upwards all at once. I saw lights through the slats of the wagon—deep red firelight—high above and down below as if we were floating in a sea of wisps. Abruptly we stopped and the female soldier in the wagon opened the back door and walked out.
There was shouting. I watched the terror in the eyes of my people around me. A large horn sounded, then there was a cranking of metal and a rumbling louder than any I had ever heard. It lasted for half a minute, then the soldier returned. The wagon began to move again.
“We are in Akadia,” she said.
A captive in the wagon immediately wailed. Everyone watched her.
“Stop that,” the soldier said, “You’ve not been abused. Akadia is a great city. It is an honor for anyone to enter it.”
The captive couldn’t seem to stop, but a woman beside her tried to quiet her with comforting. I looked back at the soldier, and in the soft glow of yellow lights around us, I saw that she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. Her hair was long and braided. Her brow dark and her lashes thick. It seemed she must have been wearing make-up only I could tell she wasn’t. Even in the armor her figure was well-defined and womanly.
She caught me staring. I lifted my chin, then looked away.
We rolled on for many twists and turns, the space getting brighter around us. We couldn’t hear much, I imagined because it was so late, but every once in a while a door would open or slam closeby.
When we stopped the beautiful soldier opened the door, leaned outside, and then came back, gesturing to the closest captive. “Alright. All of the women and children out. Starting with you.” She gestured to an old woman at the front. “Follow in line and obey orders.”
The old woman rose unsteadily. The soldier backed away so that she could walk. I watched a man clasp the old woman’s hand and whisper something to her as she left. Tears streaked her cheeks, but he pushed her on.
The wagon cleared out quickly after that. I came out somewhere in the middle.
The first thing I noticed was the stars; they looked absolutely ill. They were covered in a hazy purplish color and not half of them that should have been were even visible. As my eyes traveled downwards there were towers of lights, but not like Shaundakul. They were all knotted together into one high building that I could only faintly make out as a shadow against the night sky. There was a deep wall of red rock between it and the buildings closest to us, all of which were much shorter.
The woman in front of me moved and I followed her down a ramp. To my left and right lines of rugged, dirty women and children walked off wagons towards a mutual line at t
he front of a stone building. There was a good amount of crying and there were guards in stark red and yellow everywhere. I remained wary of these, some looked tired but most had hard, cold expressions that didn’t allow for any emotion to be seen.
I was in the midst of the crowd when the wagons pulled away. Guards from the tops of the walls and buildings dropped torches down to the newly arrived soldiers. Another female guard stood at the front of the line, wearing a plumed red helmet. She lifted her torch and headed inside. The other soldiers prodded us on. The entrance was not a door, but a long archway that continued like a finely cut cave. There was metal along the corners, and stone—patterned into designs and painted—on the walls, ceiling, and floors.
There were rooms to the left and right; a quick look produced the sight of beds with clean white blankets. I thought of my bed at home, with its thick feather blankets and silk canopy and yearned for it.
The soldiers led us past all this, into a round courtyard that opened up to the sky. It was surrounded by two-story walls lined with stairs, on top of which more soldiers patrolling with red torches.
The helmeted woman stopped and we huddled in around her. There were maybe a hundred of us. I prayed silently that there were more somewhere. “This is the new citizens district,” she announced. “Until you’re properly introduced to Akadia and sorted, you’ll sleep here. Some of you will remain after that. Some of you won’t.”
She looked around, taking in many faces as if to confirm that they’d heard her. The guards around did the same. It was strange that I got the feeling this was not the first time they had done this. Everything ran like a well-oiled machine. A new citizens district? Can they just have built that in preparation of destroying Shaundakul? And why wasn’t it a slaves district then?
“I know that you are all tired and hungry,” she continued, “but you can’t have food or sleep until you’re clean. There are showers down the east hall,” She gestured to an exit on our right. “The quicker you wash and do what you’re told, the quicker you’ll get food and rest. Do you understand?” Her tone left no room for argument. No one did. Some nodded. I thought that all of them were probably happily surprised at the idea of getting a bath and food.
I was nervous as we walked towards the showers. I had never had anyone but the royal handmaidens help me dress, but thankfully none of the male soldiers came with us. They walked back in the direction of the wagon or up the stairs. One kissed a female soldier before leaving, letting his hand linger in her hair. I found myself staring after them.
The shower was a natural wall of rock with falling water. A sort of cave. In places where the rock jutted out, streams of water slid out and fell to the floor. Manmade holes worked as drains at the edges. The soldiers made us take off our clothes and get in the water. It was lukewarm and not unpleasant. A woman came around with bars of gritty soap and made us wash with it, and then we were given clothes, long dresses of plain white linen. The young boys were given pants that matched.
As we lined up to leave, I saw a few of the soldiers undressing and getting into the showers themselves. They splashed water at each other and laughed. They were no less astounding in their appearance than the soldier in the wagon had been. I recognized one as the woman the male soldier had kissed. Her hair was long and red.
They led us through a line to receive a meal of bread and cheese. We ate quickly, and then we were taken back to the large rooms off the first hall. The walls and ceilings were no less ornate inside. Although the beds were on the floor, there were coves for more along the walls, and alcoves where torches stood and lit the room.
The Akadians divided us up so that there were twenty or thirty in each room. They let us pick our own beds. I chose one in the corner. A small boy was in the bed beside me. His mother was in the next bed with an even younger daughter in her arms. A group of guards talked in the corner, where it looked like they might stay all night. One soldier went around the room snuffing torches out. It soon became very dim.
I lay down in my bed. The ceiling was the same tile as the hall. Patterned, beautiful, red and cream. I was clean. I was fed. The people around me seemed taken care of.
Maybe it all should have made me feel better; instead I felt a knot in my chest. My rest was not easy.
*
CYRIC:
*
I jerked awake with the tossing of the wagon to the sound of hooves and wheels. They kicked up dust that glowed gold against a cloudless sky.
I sat up to find that the prisoners I hadn’t been able to see the night before were a sight better missed. There were about a dozen of them. They were covered in dirt. None of them were free of bloody cuts and bruises. The soldier guarding us had his gaze turned off intently. I followed it to a view that I just hadn’t been expecting.
We were surrounded on all sides by red rock. High up on the left side and dropping down to a chasm on the right. But across the chasm was a manmade wall that went on as far as I could see backwards and forwards. It was lined with guard towers and soldiers. Behind it was a city of glowing gold and red stone. Every inch of it was lit with the sun. It was enormous. The farthest section was built up much higher than the rest, on top of a red rock cliff.
In front of us I saw the gates of the city. More wagons and horse-riding soldiers followed behind.
“The city of Akadia,” a familiar voice said.
I turned to the man beside me. He was not unlike I’d imagined he would be when he’d spoken to me last night. Old, dirty, too fragile to be wearing armor let alone riding in the back of a wagon.
“I’ve seen it once before in my lifetime,” he continued. “I found it much more to my liking while on a carriage of Shaundakul.”
I had to squint my eyes to keep looking at it. “It’s huge,” I said.
I felt his hand on my shoulder. “Do you think so now? Wait till you see the rest of the city. Most of it is underground. You know that the Akadians are miners of the earth?” he asked.
I nodded. “Big on metal and all that.”
“Yes, metal. You will hear them talk of nothing so much as their beloved metals.”
I didn’t say anything, but I considered the Akadian soldiers at the front of the wagon, with their thick plate armor, compared to the soldiers of Shaundakul around me, in the usual warrior’s garb of thick leather, and I thought that the Akadians could be doing more foolish things than bragging about their metals.
A loud horn sounded and the gates ahead of us wheeled open. They were as thick as Shaundakul trees. I couldn’t imagine how they moved so much weight, but I saw it involved chains and wheels formed into contraptions of a magnitude I’d never seen.
We drove into a city that was alive and bustling. If Uldin Keep had a way of always feeling abandoned (and it did, no matter how many people were present) this place was just the opposite. The sound of shouting filled the streets. There were booths set up with food and jewels and trinkets. Almost every building had another level being added to it by a crew of workers. Then there were high guard-posts, with soldiers on every one in their bright red and yellow armor.
The people were made up of many different races. Most of them had tan skin, but some were pale, some were dark, some had red hair, black hair, blonde hair.
“Keep inside the wagon boy!” snapped a guard.
It took a slap on the wrist with a stick before I realized that he was talking to me—I had been leaning over the edge in my staring.
I pulled back into the wagon, shaking the pain out of my hand. I was quickly distracted by the sight of a giant lizard trekking past us through the street. It wasn’t the only animal; there were horses absolutely everywhere, like maybe every human in Akadia owned a horse. And chickens and exotic birds. Most of all it was bright. Everything was so bright.
“There’s something frightening about that look in your eye, boy,” my companion told me. He didn’t have to whisper anymore; the city drowned out our voices.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
<
br /> “You remember you’re here against your will,” he muttered.
I laughed shortly, then my lips formed a smile. “If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be.” I leaned over the edge to watch a parrot fly by.
The man grumbled. “Well, the daylight certainly changes your attitude. You remember last night, you were so worried about your woman?”
“I didn’t forget about her,” I stated. The guard gave me another slap on the wrist. I backed away. “And she’s not my woman. She’s just my responsibility.”
“You are an odd soldier,” he said. “Are you sure you’re from Shaundakul?”
I looked at him; my lips slowly formed a smile. “People ask me that all the time.”
For the first time I started to wonder how much it mattered.
#
They took us to a building to shower next. Really it was more of a cave with water sliding down one wall, but I was happy enough to get my dirty clothes off. I took care to retrieve the figurine from my pockets first. Stupidly, I didn’t think of my only actually valuable possession until a soldier came around with a bar of soap.
“Hey, what’s that there?” he asked, pointing to my arm.
I immediately cursed myself for forgetting the crown. He stretched my arm out to get a look.
I was sure that once he saw the fist-sized turquoise jewel the thing was going to be gone for good, but to my surprise he tapped it and said, “Hnh. Looks good on you; go ahead and keep it.”
“Pass the soap on when you’re done,” he added. He left the bar and walked away.
I narrowed at him, then down looked at the crown. My eyes went wide.
There was nothing there. Well, there was a silver band, but the jewel was gone. If I hadn’t known better I would have thought the jewel had fallen off, but it just wasn’t shaped like that.
I tapped it twice, then gave up trying to figure it out and started washing up like the soldier had instructed.
After we’d all been dressed in fresh clothes, we started on again. They walked us through a maze of tunnels and causeways. They gave us food to eat along the way. We ended up running into a line of other prisoners, just more men though. Every step we took brought us closer to the high section of the city and I kept my eye on it. If Ellia had let on that she was the princess, I could only assume that that was where she would have been taken. I was probably going to end up having to scale the huge red wall.
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