The Captive Twin

by R. J. Francis

  “What has King Seir told you so far?” Alethea asked.

  “He’s refused to talk,” said Sima, “but I can see into his mind, and every hour that goes by I grasp the plot more clearly. Panei Eleina, last night Panei Althea told me how her nurse was able to sustain her deception, and the plan to wipe out the Arran court, by drinking a certain potion daily. Do you know anything more about this substance?”

  “No,” Elaina said. “Nastasha, the royal advisor, found the written formula in the nurse’s lab. If only Nastasha were here…”

  “I suspect,” Sima said, “that Seir was using the formula as well. It’s the only way he could have concealed his plans from me. Now his mind is clearing, allowing me to perceive the conspiracy. This may be because the substance is wearing off. Panei Eleina, do you think your healing touch can purge him of the substance entirely?”

  “I don’t know,” Elaina said. “It usually only works when someone is close to death, but I’ll certainly try.”

  “Seir isn’t a mender, is he?” Alethea asked. “I shall not put Elaina at risk for this.”

  “Seir was never known to be a mender,” said Sima.

  “I’m not afraid of him,” said Elaina.

  Sima called in the guards, who twisted a mechanism to unlatch a heavy steel door, and Sima, Elaina, and Alethea entered King Seir’s holding cell. The guards secured the door behind them. Elaina felt a sense of panic—she couldn’t stand being locked in. “Do you have to lock the door?” she asked the guards.

  “Open it back up,” Sima told the guards, and they did. “Just stand watch.”

  Diffuse light was entering the cell through a broad, barred window, higher on the wall than a man could reach. The Audician king sat on a polished iron chair, loosely chained to it, facing away. Sima circled the prisoner slowly and knelt before him, while Elaina approached the chair from behind. Alethea watched from the shadows.

  “He’s asleep,” Sima whispered. “Let me see his thoughts first.”

  “Tell me when you’re ready,” Elaina whispered back.

  Sima closed his eyes and breathed deeply, nodding every five seconds or so. Suddenly, the king stirred and began to speak to Sima. “I’ve f…failed,” the king said. “Take my life.”

  Sima bowed. “Your Majesty,” he said, “you are our king, good and holy. How have you failed?”

  Seir blinked his eyes open. “You’re alive,” he said. He spoke hoarsely, as if there were something lodged in his throat. “You were all supposed to die. And you lived.”

  “Why did you want us dead?” Sima asked.

  “I didn’t want you dead,” the king snarled. “That was the task.”

  “You hid yourself from all of us, then,” Sima said. “Even me.”

  “Yes, my friend. Every night I ate the paste on my bread. It tasted like tree nuts.”

  “Who gave you this formula?”

  The king’s head twitched as if he’d been jabbed with a sharp point. Sima was affected as well, and he staggered backward and clasped his hands to his forehead, grimacing. Alethea approached to help, but Sima raised his hand to stop her. “I…don’t…remember,” King Seir cried out. Elaina quietly watched.

  “Who gave you the task, then?” Sima asked, bracing for another shock.

  “Aaaeeegh!” screamed the king. “Aaeeegh, ayayayaya!” His shrill cries reverberated off the hard stone walls, penetrating Elaina to her core. She shuddered. Maybe she was afraid of this man, after all.

  Sima squeezed his forearms against his temples, in obvious pain. “It’s okay,” Sima yelled. “Your Majesty, you don’t have to say.” Sima and the king relaxed at the same time, and they recovered, panting. Sima lifted his face and addressed Alethea: “He’s not allowed to say; in fact, I fear he will die if he tries to. Some sort of mental snare. Panuserea, His Majesty is not guilty.”

  “I am guilty,” whispered the king. “I can’t bear the shame of my weakness. Please do away with me.”

  “No, my friend,” Sima said.

  “Then I shall do away with myself,” the king said. “The person you are looking for is…ta…teh…” His eyes shot wide open with intense pain.

  Sima, cringing again, signaled for Elaina to step forward and commence her healing. Her hands were already glowing white. She crept up behind His Majesty and laid her healing light on his shoulders.

  The king’s soul welcomed the relief. It poured into him.

  “Not too fast,” Sima told Elaina. “I’m losing his memories. They’re vanishing into your light.”

  “I can’t contain it!” Elaina exclaimed.

  “What if you step away?” Alethea asked.

  “Can’t,” she said. “We’re bound.” Elaina could feel the warm, white light surging through her, locking her soul and Seir’s. Her heart raced.

  “Who is it?” Sima begged of the king. “Who are you afraid of?”

  In just a few more seconds, King Seir was completely healed. The monarch slumped, suddenly asleep. His skin ceased glowing, and Elaina was able to let go and step back. Alethea held her.

  “Did you see? Who did this to him?” Alethea asked.

  Sima and Elaina looked at each other and whispered at the same time, “The tutor.”

  “Who’s that?” Alethea asked.

  “A man—I don’t know,” Elaina said. She was trying to retain in her mind the image and the feeling of the man she’d sensed was behind all this.

  Elaina had recently confronted evil when she’d faced off with a man called Devon and his daughter Raquel. Theirs was a grotesque, hurtful evil—easy to hate, and easy to comprehend. The evil died when they died.

  But the evil she’d just sensed in the “tutor” was something entirely different. It was subtle, manipulative, and multilayered. And it was nothing Elaina ever wanted to confront directly. Elaina was a simple, honest girl, and, in her view, no match for the diabolical.

  And she had the strong sense that even if the tutor physically died, the evil would remain. He had to be undone, not slain. She went back to her room and meditated on this, until she got tired and fell asleep.

  Alessa’s knocking woke Elaina from her nap. Elaina opened the door wearing a dazed, absent expression.

  “Having a tough time?” Alessa asked.

  “Been thinking about what we’re up against,” Elaina said. “Come in.”

  “Ah, yes. Me too. My sister just updated me on what’s happening. King Seir has abdicated and has gone into hiding for his own safety. The Audician ministers will run the kingdom until Seir’s brother, Prince Eirskin, returns and assumes the throne.”

  “Where is this prince now?”

  “South Seas. He’ll be in for a surprise when he gets back and finds he’s at war.”

  “This Kalmise is hard,” Elaina said. She and Alessa sat down together on the edge of the bed.

  “Hearing voices?” Alessa asked. “Unfamiliar thoughts that you follow for what seems like hours? Seeing visions? Crying one moment, laughing the next? Seeing everything you thought you knew in a different light?”

  Elaina nodded.

  “Perfectly normal.”

  “How long does it last?” Elaina asked.

  “I told you, it doesn’t change, you change.”

  “I miss the way I used to be,” Elaina said.

  “You’ll learn to see beyond the chaos,” Alessa said. “There’s a certain calm there, a layer of serenity. You’ll find it.”

  “Is Jem going through the same thing?”

  “I’m sure he is.”

  “I guess I need to toughen up. The sooner I adapt to this, the better.”

  Alessa laughed. “Good girl. That was my strategy. It takes longer if you fight it. I didn’t suffer too long. Use your sense of natural curiosity to turn it all into something positive. After all, it’s an adventure being so connected to the universe. And don’t tell me you don’t like adventure.”

  “What’s real is just so…different. It’s all so foreign,” Elaina said. “It’s
like you think you have the world reasonably figured out and then, suddenly, everything’s new.”

  “It is new,” Alessa said. “But sooner or later the new becomes more familiar, and you’ll learn to navigate. Use what you’ve seen before, where you’ve been, and what you’ve felt to get your bearings. You’ll find where you need to go, and find your way home again.”

  “With you to watch over me,” Elaina said, “I can do it.”

  “It is good to have a mentor—especially now. My sister Alethea was mine.”

  “Sometimes I feel like I’m going places, or speaking with people in my mind. I don’t want to mess anything up because I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t want to get stuck in some other place for days. I don’t want to hurt anyone with my words.”

  “If I told you you had nothing to worry about, I’d be lying,” Alessa said. “There is no safe zone—what you do can always affect yourself and others.”

  “I was afraid of that.”

  “But that’s because it’s real. When you close your eyes and hear others’ thoughts…when you feel their joy and anguish…when you see things from different places and times, and you follow them, it’s not just some dream. That’s what makes it wonderful. Don’t worry. I know you have the strength to stay safe.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because for nineteen years I’ve been toughening you up.”

  Nastasha had been up all night with the rescue of the children, and had tried to carry on with the next day’s duties, but found she couldn’t keep her eyes open. Jaimin was just as exhausted, and he was only able to persuade Nastasha to get some rest by telling her that if she took a break, he would as well.

  When she awoke, she had no idea what time it was, and she didn’t rush to find out. She felt utterly relaxed for the first time in many days. She closed her eyes and let her mind wander. Her first thoughts were of the lovely Celmarean children she had rescued. Especially the brave Nikoleta.

  Next, her thoughts turned to the Celmareans in general and how lucky they were to be connected to the divine spirit and the spirit worlds. What knowledge must be available to them! And to be able to read others’ thoughts? And see into their minds? How thrilling this must be for them! Nastasha, compulsive seeker of knowledge and more curious than even Elaina, wanted access to this universal storehouse of thought for herself.

  I want to be a Celmarean, she admitted to herself. She indulged in this thought because it was just a thought—and she was entitled to have crazy thoughts if she wanted to. To be able to read Jaimin’s mind. Elaina’s. That loopy Alessa’s. That was just a start. To manipulate water like they do… What power! And to travel among the spirit worlds!

  It was too much. They are just humans, like me, Nastasha thought. Their culture has been around tens of thousands of years. Even so, could their minds really have changed in such a short time to allow for this flow of divine knowledge? Or was it something they learned? And if they can learn it, can I?

  You can, said a male voice in her head.

  It sounded like Jaimin’s voice, but when she asked him about it later he had no recollection of saying it.

  She got up, and was thinking so intently about so many things she spent a half hour brushing her hair.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  T hat night, Alessa showed up at Makias’s door wearing a special necklace. Its silver pendant was shaped like a wave, speckled with tiny diamonds in the places one would expect to see foam. Alessa’s hair was down, and she wore a simple black dress.

  Makias was also wearing all black. “Welcome,” he said. “Welcome back.”

  She smiled brightly and embraced him. They both closed their eyes, took in the warmth of each other’s touch, and inhaled each other’s scent. On the spiritual level, they both dropped their defenses and opened their souls to whatever the divine spirit desired for them. When the hug had gone on too long for a hello, she looked him in the eyes briefly and nervously, and then looked past him. “What have you made for yourself here?” she asked. He stepped aside and showed her in.

  Makias’s living quarters were decked out like a museum. Framed watercolor paintings and exquisite sculptures, thoughtfully positioned here and there, were lit by wells of warm electric light. The artworks were nature-themed, with mostly avian or marine subjects, or both. The furniture, rich and luxurious, was fashioned from dark woods and sensual leathers.

  Indigo, gold, and violet accents in the many pillows and flower arrangements harmonized with the vibrant hues of birds, fish, corals, and blossoms set against blues and deep greens in the paintings. Sculptures in painted and gilded ivorystone clay depicted juvenile whales playfully intertwined; a terta—the long-plumed, resplendent national bird of Audicia—perched in a verdant bough; and a Celmarean grandmother and granddaughter writing in sand with their toes. For Alessa, the sight of it all was an absolute treat, and she didn’t have to be told that Makias had created all of the art himself.

  “You are a master,” she said, rounding the living room. She was nearly moved to tears on realizing that the artistic traditions of her culture were not dead after all, and that Makias was more than capable of carrying them forward.

  “Waiting for you has given me the time to create,” he said.

  She smiled.

  Far off, in front of the window, a small table was set for two, lit by two ivory tapers. “Are you really leaving tomorrow?” Makias asked.

  “We’ll see,” she said.

  “By land?”

  “It will have to be. The Arran fleet has retreated into Audician waters. The sea south of the border is no longer safe for a lone vessel.”

  Alethea had insisted that Alessa and Makias take a break from the frantic war preparations to spend a few hours with each other. “I need to sit,” Alessa declared. Makias sat with her on his long, leather couch.

  She examined his face, his forehead, the lines of his cheeks, and his strong shoulders. There were slight changes from what she remembered—after all, so many years had gone by—but his dark eyes had the same depth and strength that she had seen in them at fifteen. “How many times,” she asked, “have we seen each other in the world of the spirit?”

  “Three,” he said. Since they had parted ways, the divine spirit had granted them three occasions of contact. He looked down at her necklace. “May I touch the necklace?” he asked. She nodded.

  “You never told me where you got it,” Alessa said. “I always wondered.”

  “Panei Andiena made it.” He turned the pendant so that it caught the candlelight. At fifteen, he had taken it out and stared at it every night for months while he built up the nerve to give it to Alessa.

  “Really? How special!”

  A timer chimed. “Excuse me,” he said. “There’s something I don’t want to burn.”

  While she waited for him, Alessa traveled back in her mind to the day she and Makias had parted.

  On that chilly autumn day, the coach in the center of the courtyard of Arra’s castle was nearly packed and ready to take sixteen-year-old Alessa and the toddler Elaina to their new homes. Alessa was explaining the order of the day to Elaina when she saw Makias emerge from the castle’s north wing. She scooped up Elaina in her arms and fled toward the colonnade near the Royal Academy.

  Of course, Makias saw and followed her.

  Knowing full well there was no place to hide, Alessa stopped in the shadows among the columns. Elaina was calmly nibbling on a small cake, dropping crumbs onto Alessa’s dress. Tears began forming in Alessa’s eyes.

  Makias rounded a column, appearing right before them. “You weren’t going to say good-bye?” he asked.

  Alessa’s heart jumped. She looked at him. She had to face this—she owed him that. Elaina looked at him too, slightly curious.

  “Good bye, Makias,” Alessa said, weakly. “I hope you find all the happiness you deserve.”

  She could see his eyes tearing up too. “Is there any possibility? Is there any future for…us?”
he asked, staying a respectful distance from her.

  “Elaina needs me,” Alessa said. “It’s my duty.”

  “I told you I would stay and help you with your task.”

  “There’s no place for you here,” Alessa said. “You wouldn’t be safe. We wouldn’t be safe if you stayed.”

  “Is…is there someone else who has your heart?”

  “Yes. Yes, there is. She’s right here in my arms.”

  “She’s the only one?”

  “Of course. And I must raise her, Makias. I must raise her alone.”

  “I’ll wait for you,” he said.

  Alessa blinked hard, which caused tears to speed down her face. “That could be twenty years,” she said.

  “I’ll visit you,” he proposed.

  “That would be too complicated.”

  “Then I’ll contact you in the spirit—in a few years it will be possible.”

  “Makias,” Alessa said, “I want you to have a normal, full life. Become the incredible man I know you will be. You can’t do that if you’re sharing my burden.” Elaina was now fingering the tears that were running down Alessa’s face, and getting a few crumbs stuck in them.

  “If two people are meant to be together for all time,” Makias said, “then even twenty years is like a day.”

  Alessa took time to digest this concept. She knew he was right—it resonated with everything she had been taught, but it wasn’t easy to accept. She said: “If you’re right, there’s no way out of this, is there? You’re just as much my fate as Elaina here is.”

  “Twenty years…like a day…” Makias said.

  “I can’t make any promises whatsoever, Makias,” Alessa said. “I just can’t.”

  “Maybe love doesn’t require promises,” he said to her. “Maybe it just is or it isn’t.”

  She closed the distance and hugged him with one arm. “Go with the divine spirit. Be safe. Contact me once you reach Kalmise,” she said.