It didn’t make any sense. She wasn’t in a Jlantrian stockade or a White Dragon Army tent, but in someone’s house. Maybe Bordrec owned the place and he’d secured her there after the Jlantrians had almost captured her…that would have made sense, but for reason she doubted that was what had happened.
Weak and wary and more frightened than she wanted to admit, Ijanna walked up to the door. It wasn’t locked, so she carefully eased it open and looked out into a short and narrow hallway. The air was dim, lit only by a soft glow from the depths of a nearby staircase…and a candle held by the little girl standing right outside. She was very pretty, with straight dark hair and a doll-like face, and she wore a simple blue nightdress over her short and slender frame.
The girl’s eyes widened with terror. She made to scream, but Ijanna quickly put a hand over her mouth.
“Please,” she said. “I won’t hurt you.”
Surprisingly, the girl immediately quieted, and her expressive blue eyes locked with Ijanna’s in a challenging stare. Ijanna slowly removed her hand. This girl was surprisingly brave, for she just stood there, pensive but intent, her expression both accusing and bewildered.
“What’s your name?” the girl asked.
“Ijanna,” she replied quietly. “Um…and yours?”
“I don’t give my name to strangers,” the girl said matter-of-factly. She looked ready to run. Ijanna took a step back into the room to show she wasn’t hostile, and she’d no more than put her heel down when the child bolted down the hall. By the time Ijanna chased her down and gently took hold of her arm she’d already screamed “The lady’s awake!” a half-dozen times.
Someone was running towards them. Ijanna let the girl go and raced back to the room. Her dulled senses didn’t warn her in time to avoid running into a behemoth of a man as he came around the corner. He was dressed as a worker, but he was larger than any Jlantrian she’d ever seen. The impact threw them both back, but while Ijanna quickly found her balance the man – No, a boy, she realized, eighteen or twenty years old at the most – teetered at the top of the nearby steps. Head ringing, she threw out a hand to keep the giant from falling, and he desperately took it. His touch was warm and vibrant, and her insides twisted with dark exhilaration.
Ijanna let go the moment he was no longer in danger. She fell back against the wall, shaken.
It was her power flowing through the boy. She’d touched him with her magic once already, and it hung across his soul like a shroud.
He stood at the top of the stairs, as shocked and as frightened as she was. He had broad shoulders and a square jaw, thick brown hair and extremely large hands. In a flash she remembered him, and she realized what had happened…and what she’d done.
No…what the Veil has done.
Kath – that was his name, she knew it as surely as she knew her own – stood stunned, but he pulled himself together quickly. He was big enough to snap her in half, but she knew he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He held his hands up, palms out, and gestured to indicate he meant no harm.
“Easy, Ijanna,” he said, confused, because before that moment he surely hadn’t even known her name. “I…I’m not…”
“Going to hurt me,” she finished. “I know.”
Kath didn’t seem to know what to do, so he just stood there, hesitant and confused. “All right,” he said uncertainly. “That’s good. I…uh…you’re feeling better, it seems.”
A man’s shout came from downstairs. Ijanna heard more running and doors being flung wide.
“Who’s that?” she asked.
“Drogan. My father. I’ll deal with him.” Kath watched her like he was afraid to look away. “Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked. He took a step toward her.
“Please!” Ijanna said sharply. She pressed herself against the wall to avoid his hand. “Don’t touch me, Kath. It’s…it’s just better that you don’t. Trust me.” Her heart sank at the look in his eyes. She remembered him, the dying boy in the Jlantrian camp, but she only vaguely recollected healing him, like it had happened in a dream. What was going on now was the Veil’s doing.
Damn it. He was entranced, and there wasn’t a thing either of them could do. He was bound to her in a way she could never explain or understand. Or escape.
The sound of his father thundering up the stairs drew Kath’s attention away. Ijanna seized the opportunity to race back into the room and slam the door shut. Kath didn’t pursue her, and after a moment she heard his heavy footsteps fade down the stairs.
Ijanna waited by the door, trembling. She wanted to run, wanted to go out the window and scale down to the street, but she couldn’t. Not now. She rested her back against the wall, slid down and buried her face in her knees. She tried her best to fight her nausea. Worry ate through her like a worm.
She hadn’t been able to stop it from happening again. Memories long buried rushed back at her. She saw the fires in the night and the cage door, saw the bodies buried in the blood-soaked mud. She saw him lying face down on the path, the blade in his back.
Tears ran down her face. Ijanna fell in on herself, wracked with the painful knowledge of all she’d lost, and would never have again.
Thirty-Four
Drogan Cardrezhej was quiet and reserved, even when things were at their worst. He’d taken news of his wife’s death with quiet dignity, and he’d dealt with his son’s various mishaps within the Ebonmark City Watch with an even temper and a calm demeanor. But now his rage had taken over, and Kath had never seen him so furious.
“I’m getting the Watch!” Drogan yelled. “I can’t believe I allowed you to bring that…creature into my house! How dare she lay a hand on my daughter, and how dare you put your sister in jeopardy like that!”
Drogan shook with anger, as did Kath. He tried to focus, to force himself to be calm, but his nerves were alight.
“I’m sorry,” Kath blurted out. “I didn’t think…”
“What?” Drogan said, exasperated, not quite as loud as before but no less angry. “You didn’t think what, Kath? That she was dangerous? That maybe it wasn’t a good idea to bring her here?” Drogan fixed Kath with a stare and waited for his son’s response.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said. “I…I was just trying to help her.”
“No. Kath, this isn’t right.” Drogan paced nervously. “I shouldn’t have let you bring her here. I don’t know what she did to you, but it isn’t natural. It’s magic, boy, and she’s one of…one of them.”
They stood silent. Kath felt himself getting angrier.
The only time we talk to each other is when something has gone horribly wrong.
Drogan was absolutely right – she was dangerous. Kath couldn’t imagine she would ever hurt Julei or anyone else in the house, but that was something he felt more than knew. Her presence had burned into his mind, and his every instinct told him to help her, to protect her.
“I told Calestra I’d take Ijanna away from here as soon as I could. I…” Kath’s voice was quiet. He felt weak and exhausted. The emotional pain of the last three years weighed on him.
It’s happening again. Only this time it’s happening to me. I endangered Julei…Goddess, what’s happening?
“Ijanna?” Drogan asked him coldly. “So you know her name now?”
“I’ll take her away. Tonight.”
Drogan walked over to him in a hurry. For a moment Kath thought his father was going to strike him and he stiffened for the blow, even though Drogan had never done such a thing, would never do such a thing.
“Take her where, Kath? Where will you go?” He watched Kath intently. He looked ready to break into tears.
“Yes, Kath,” Calestra said from the open doorway. Kath hadn’t heard her enter. “Where will you go?” Her lips trembled.
“Where’s Julei?” Drogan asked.
“She’s fine. She’s in the shop, reading. She’s shaken, but she’ll be all right.”
“She shouldn’t be alone,” Drogan snapped.
/> “We’re leaving,” Kath said again. “I don’t know where we’re going. But I’ll take Ijanna and get out of your way.” He started towards the door.
“No,” Calestra said. She planted herself in his path. The room was already stuffed with shelves and stacks of books and Drogan’s desk, so the three of them practically stood on top of each another. “She’s used the Veil on you, brother, and she’s dangerous, whether you can see it or not.”
“I know she used magic,” Kath said. “That doesn’t change anything. I have to help her.”
“You will NOT!” Drogan shouted. “I lost your mother to the Veil – I won’t lose you, too! Don’t you see…it’s happening again!” Drogan clenched Kath’s arms. “They did this to your mother, Kath! And then she was gone, and I’ve had to live without her ever since!” There were tears in his eyes, sudden and thick. Kath stood quiet, and fought back tears of his own. “You’re not going!” Drogan said firmly. “If you leave with her, you’ll wind up dead, do you understand?! Don’t you know what that means? We need you, Son! We need you, not her! Goddess, what did we do to deserve this?!”
Drogan let go of Kath, and Calestra barely caught him before he fell to the floor, sobbing and weak. Her eyes turned to Kath while she held their weeping father in her arms. “Why does this keep happening to us?” she asked Kath softly. “First Mother, and now you.”
“I have to go,” Kath said quietly. “I have to help her.”
“Why?” Calestra asked.
“Because she helped me. I know that something…magical has happened to me, but I don’t care. I have to protect her. I…I’m sorry I ever brought her here. That was a mistake.”
Especially after what happened to Mother.
Long nights had passed since Illistra had died after falling in love with a stranger, a man she thought needed her help, a man who stole her away from her family with his charm and his promises. It was later they learned it was the man’s magic that had seduced her. The One Goddess abhorred magic, and the Cardrezhej family had learned why the hard way. The world lived on the Veil like it was a drug, a sweet poison. The man who’d seduced Illistra – Malath – had taken her away from Ebonmark, and while she was in the wilderness with him she was captured and killed and her head was stuck on a pole. Her death had taken place far away and her body had never been recovered, but Kath still had nightmares about his mother’s face, staring out from a mask of dead flesh that used to be filled with laughter and love. Malath had stolen her away.
Just like Ijanna is doing to you now.
“Please,” Calestra said. “Kath. Fight it.” Her voice was broken. “Don’t leave me alone.”
“I have to,” he said. He felt numb.
Kath looked at his father. The man had once seemed so tall and powerful. He’d been everything to Kath’s world, but now he wept like a lost and frightened little boy. Kath wanted so much to hold him, to stay with him, but he couldn’t.
Nothing can heal us. The hurt runs too deep. Only Julei was even nearly whole, for she’d been too young when her mother had vanished to remember anything about her.
“I don’t know how to fight it,” Kath said. “I don’t think I can. But I can keep all of you safe. I shouldn’t have brought her here…I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do, or where else to go. I can’t believe she would hurt any of you. That might be the magic poisoning my brain, I don’t know. All I do know is I have to take her away from here.” Drogan and Calestra were quiet. They looked afraid, and small. Broken. “I didn’t mean any harm,” he said weakly. “I was…I was just trying to help someone.”
“It’s magic, son,” Drogan muttered. “Evil.”
“I don’t think its evil,” Kath said. “But if I’m wrong I don’t want to bring any more harm to my family. I have to go. I feel like something terrible will happen if I don’t.”
He turned and walked away. Calestra said something as he went, but he never heard what.
Kath found Ijanna where he’d left her, alone and quiet in a room that used to be his. She sat in the corner, her face cold and stoic. Kath quietly lit the table lamp, and faint and flickering light filled the room. He quietly walked over to her.
“Stop,” she said. Her eyes were locked on something distant. “Don’t touch me.” Her voice was calm but stern. Kath’s heart raced. She was angry with him, but he wasn’t sure what he’d done.
“I’m sorry…” he began, but she cut him off.
“Don’t apologize. You have no idea what’s happened to you. I do.” She looked at him. Her red eyes were like orbs of fire. “Trust me…it’s better for us not to touch.”
Kath’s heart sank – he wanted to touch her, to be near her – but he stepped back. “I’ll protect you,” he said. “I’ll save you, like you saved me.”
“Kath,” she said. “I’m sorry. I wish I could undo this. I really do. I…” She hesitated. “Will you get my belongings – the swords? We need to go.”
Energy and warmth rushed through his body. He felt invincible. He was meant to serve her, to help her. He couldn’t remember ever wanting to do anything else. “Where are we going?” he asked.
“To visit a friend.”
Thirty-Five
The Jlantrians believe in hell, Ijanna thought. If they’re right, and it exists, then I’ll burn there.
Ijanna didn’t know much about Kath aside from his name and what she’d overheard from his arguments with his family…enough to know how broken they were. The odds of her having found this boy, whose own mother had died in the same terrible event that had nearly driven Ijanna herself to madness, were next to impossible…and yet there she was. Maybe that was the why the Veil had driven her to heal him, to choose him. To bind him.
If young Kath’s family had been broken before, they’d be shattered now. He was bound to serve and defend Ijanna, just as Garroth had been. Kath had no choice in the matter…and now neither did she, for to deny him his duty would be to kill him.
But to allow him to come with me is just as good as killing him. There’s no saving me, Kath.
No…that wasn’t true, and she knew it. There was hope yet. Ijanna had the thar’koon – identical swords with stark white blades and ebon hilts – and with them she could find the last Skullborn. She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d do when she found her, but it was better than succumbing to her fate and timidly going to Chul Gaerog, whose pull she felt growing stronger every day. One way or another Ijanna knew she’d eventually find herself at the Black Tower. The Veil always won.
But I’ll be going there on my terms.
Kath stood with her, as prepared as he could be. The large boy wore a suit of simple leather and chain armor and a pack stuffed with blankets, bandages, flasks of oil, a length of rope, cooking and eating utensils, and tinder and twig. He was surprisingly well prepared, as none of his equipment had been provided by the White Dragon Army or the Watch, he’d explained, but collected on his own. He carried a one-handed axe with a broad and wickedly curved blade and a crossbow he admitted to being a terrible shot with.
He’s so young, Ijanna thought. So eager to prove himself. It made her sick to think of what she’d done to him. No – what the Veil has done to him.
They were inseparable now – she and the Veil, she and Kath, she and her destiny, which had loomed over her like a death shroud ever since she’d been old enough to walk.
“Are we ready?” Kath asked. He spoke to her with reverence. He was ready to protect her, to die for her, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She adjusted the twin blades strapped across her back. She sensed someone watching her and looked to the doorway to Kath’s bedroom. The little girl Julei stood unmoving in the hall, watching them. She was crying.
“Julei?” Kath said, and his sister crossed the room and embraced him. Kath seemed at a loss. Ijanna left them alone.
Kath’s other sister, Calestra, was in the hall. She looked exhausted, and her eyes burned into Ijanna with hate. Ijanna wanted to t
ell her the truth of it, tell her how she was just as much a captive to the situation as Kath was, but she couldn’t. She’d done enough harm.
After a time Kath came out of the room, his cloak donned and his eyes moist. Calestra didn’t look at him at all but went straight to Julei. Kath’s father was nowhere in sight.
They walked down the stairs without another word and left the broken house behind them.
Thirty-Six
Miles of empty tunnel stretched behind them. Dane had escaped tons of rock debris only to walk down a passageway with no end. Kruje, Cavus and Gulg worked to clear away a crumbling pile of loose mortar blocking their path, likely the remains of some ancient wall.
They were trapped in a labyrinth of ice-covered stone. The explosion that had sealed them in the maze of subterranean corridors had collapsed the floors of Targo’s secret complex. By all accounts they should have been dead. The tall tunnels of the arena led down to slave pits and holding cells, but the unstable stone had proved incapable of withstanding the force of the explosion, so the entire structure had literally fallen apart.
Somehow the five of them were still alive – Dane, Kruje, Maddox, and Maddox’s brainless henchmen Cavus and Gulg. Wounded and weary and trapped at the far end of a passageway that hadn’t seen use in ages, the survivors were blocked off from the surface and had little choice but to follow the corridor, even though none of them had any idea where it led.
They’d wandered for what felt like days through eye-numbing darkness, searching in vain for a way to escape the bone-chilling cold. Dane’s muscles ached and his mind was numb. He wondered which would happen first: they’d either die at the hands of something living down there or finally just kill each other out of sheer boredom.
Artur Maddox stood back and shouted insults in what Dane assumed was a misguided effort to make his men work faster. Maddox was neither a patient man nor a pleasant one, and Dane, ever the trusting soul, kept a sharper eye on the slaver than he did on either of his hired thugs. Maddox’s eyes – one was bloated and strange and looked ready to pop out of his head – were frenzied, and he looked more haggard and despondent than the rest of them.
City of Scars (The Skullborn Trilogy, Book 1) Page 17