by Lyn Lowe
Judah shoved Kaie aside and pulled another chair around to face Tovan. The giant leaned forward with clear concern. “I’m second lieutenant Judah Fisher. What’s your name, solider?”
The boy sat up straight so suddenly it was like a rod was shoved up his back. “Private First Class Tovan, sir.”
“At ease, Private First Class. You look like you’ve come quite a way.”
Tovan’s shoulders relaxed, and the hint of a smirk found its way back to his lips, but his eyes traveled cautiously between Kaie and Judah. “Yes sir. From Lindel, sir. I have to speak to the Ninth Rit.”
“He’s not here then?”
“You just missed him. He’s meeting with the Lady Autumnsong today. Why don’t you wait for him here? We can get you fed and cleaned up.”
“She’s arrived then? How long ago?”
“She got in at dawn.”
Tovan’s smile grew. It looked so much like the one the man was wearing when he stroked the little girl’s hair, years ago, that it took Kaie right back into that moment. “It’s too late to stop, then. That is terrible news.”
A cold certainty slid through Kaie’s gut. Something terrible was coming. “What’s happened, Tovan?” Kaie asked lowly.
Worry crossed the boy’s face. He might enjoy delivering bad news to the Rit, but Kaie was sure he felt a lot differently about upsetting a Thorn.
“It’s his sister, sir. Kissa. She’s been Hollowed.”
Eighteen
Hours passed in an unending blur. Judah bustled about, seeing that Tovan was cleaned up and fed. All the while, Kaie kept thinking about that flat mask Gregor wore when he was furious. Would it break apart, when he learned of Kissa? Would the great tactician reveal his vulnerable underbelly with this news? Kaie wanted to believe he wouldn’t. The letter Kaie brought with him was likely the first Gregor heard from her in years. Surely, if she was terribly important to him, Gregor would have spoken of her before.
But Kaie couldn’t believe it. One of the side effects of having nothing but three years of memories was that those he did have were startlingly clear. He could remember the feel of Kissa’s fingers in his hair, the way she leaned so close that, for a moment, he thought she was going to kiss him. He remembered what she said about the fate of mages, and how certain she was that Gregor would help him. He hated her, would always hate her, for the roll she played in violating his mind. But before the Namers wrapped her in their foul magics, he was certain she was a good person. The Rit would notice the loss of that girl.
He couldn’t fix this, couldn’t protect his friend from it. For the first time in years, Kaie felt utterly helpless. He was desperate to interrogate Tovan, to rip the knowledge he lacked out of the boy’s skull if that’s what it took. As though understanding how this came to pass would change something. He kept his mouth shut, though. Tovan wasn’t interested in fixing things, though. The kid wasn’t going to provide any answers. Not even for him.
Judah was different. He wouldn’t know the specifics about what happened to Kissa, but he could explain how something like this could happen. He could help figure out what to do next. It wasn’t what Kaie wanted, but it was what he would settle for. So, when he was certain Tovan was eating, he all but dragged the second lieutenant out to the gardens – the one place he could be certain no servants would intrude on them.
The giant deposited himself on one of the stone benches, leaning back until his face was pointed directly at the sun, and closed his eyes. For a second, and for no reason he could explain, Kaie wanted to hit him.
“Well?”
“Well what?” Judah asked without moving at all.
“Well, what do we do? How do we get her out of there?”
Judah sighed, a sound too sad to belong to the man. “We don’t, Kale. I can’t even get in the door of the Hollow house.”
“If you said Gregor sent you –“
“I’d get sent away and reported for lying. Hollows are for Captains and higher. No exceptions. That comes straight from the Empress. And even if we could get in, we can’t get her out again. Not even Gregor can do that.”
Not unless she was wearing the Aulis. Judah didn’t say it, but Kaie knew they were both thinking it. There was a chance, a good chance, that Gregor would take it from him for this. Kaie wouldn’t even blame him for it. If it was Peren or Keegan in that building, he would take it away without a second thought. It wouldn’t matter that they were gone, that their bodies were empty husks. That would be enough.
Kaie shoved the thought aside. He couldn’t think about how perilous this made his personal situation. If Gregor cast him off, he would deal with it. Right now all that mattered was figuring out a way to help with Kissa.
“She was a Namer. How did this happen.”
Judah tilted his head just a bit, and peered at Kaie through a squinting eye. “You act like there’s some law against a Namer being Hollowed.”
“Isn’t there?” He demanded, pacing the length of the pool.
“The only rule with magic in the empire is that you don’t want to have it. Anyone with a brand is made a Hollow, even us with the rings. Not that it’s written anywhere, far as I know. But everyone else? Not even the gods know how they’re going to end up.” Judah sighed and rubbed at his face. “They all get shipped off somewhere for years. No one I’ve talked to knows where. Then they either sign up to be Namers, or they’re made Hollow too. Then they’re apprenticed to a Namer. If they don’t please their masters, they’re made Hollow. Once they’re made Namers in their own right, they have to do as their told or they’re made Hollow.”
“So none of us are safe.”
Judah sat up straight and opened both eyes, locking them onto Kaie with a very unwelcome intensity. “You are.”
Kaie scowled at him. “That’s not helping.”
“I noticed. Think I said that yesterday, actually.”
He only noticed his hands were clenched into fists when he took a step forward, ready to ruin the other man’s face. It would be easy. Judah’s reactions were slow, else their adventure that morning would have gone much differently. There was no doubt in Kaie’s mind that he could do damage to this man. But that wouldn’t help anything. It took a great deal of effort, and several deep breaths, before he was able to relax his fingers.
“We have to figure out what to do. There’s got to be a way to get her out. There’s always a way.”
Judah chuckled. It was dripping with bitterness. “I shouldn’t be surprised. You are stubborn as shit. There’s nothing to be done, Kale. Neither one of us is to walk out the door until Gregor gets back, no matter how much we both want to. I have my orders, and bad as this is, it doesn’t change them.”
Kaie reconsidered his decision not to hit the man. “Abyss take you, I’m not going to sit back and do nothing when Gregor needs help and doesn’t even know it yet!”
“What Gregor needs,” Judah said slowly, eyes still boring holes into Kaie’s chest, “is a lot of booze and a long damn time to mourn. He sold himself for that girl, and he took the rings for that girl, and he’s held this great plan of his until he knew she was a full Namer and safe from retribution. Now it’s all for nothing. But a gods damned noble is here. He can’t be a man, he’s got to be the Ninth Rit.”
It came like a lighting strike. Kaie almost smiled. Without another word, he turned back to the manse. He wanted to run to the kitchen, but managed to keep his pace even. Judah was right behind him, up until they reached the kitchen.
The door, the one the giant was so concerned about, was just a few feet further down. Judah assumed that was where he was headed. Even after Kaie turned off to the left and entered the empty room, the soldier continued on and took a post in front of the door. Kaie wasted enough time to be sure the other man wasn’t likely to change his mind and come see what was going on before he started knocking on the wall the way Callo did.
He worked for what felt like hours, tapping every inch, listening for any difference in the sound it m
ade. Kaie wasn’t entirely sure what he was listening for, until the moment he found it. Where the rest of the wall sounded like the solid stone it was supposed to be, this stretch almost seemed to echo.
Muted excitement bubbling in his throat, he probed the surface for any seam. It looked solid, but after just a few minutes he was able to find the smallest crack, running from the vaulted ceiling all the way down to the floor. After another minute, he found a parallel one just a few feet away. Before he saw the all as a whole, but now the separate piece stuck out just as obviously as his hair did.
First, he tried to pry the slab open by shoving his fingers into the cracks. It took almost removing the nail from his pinky before he gave up that idea. Next, he shoved either side, then the center. Still, the large block refused to budge. Kaie tried shoving every inch of the wall around it, in the hopes of finding some secret latch, slammed his fist into it once or twice, and finally snarled curses at it.
Once he was out of obscenities, Kaie took several steps backward and forced himself to consider the problem calmly. It was harder to do than it should be. If he was going to be any help to Gregor at all, he couldn’t afford to lose his ability to think rationally. Once the blood stopped pumping through his ears, he let himself think about the situation again.
His difficulty didn’t make sense. Not because he possessed any great skill in breaking into places, or any deep understanding of architecture, but because this door was used by the servants daily. No matter how often they used it, or how well trained they were, they wouldn’t be able to vanish as quickly as they did if the door had a complex locking mechanism. Moreover, such a mechanism would invariably require some sort of regular repair from a locksmith or a stonemason. More than even the most skilled apprentices could be responsible for.
The solution, therefor, had to be simple. Something he was missing. He combed his mind, looking for anything he missed. After a moment, he approached the door again, daring a smile.
Kaie, like most Urazins, thought of doors opening from the sides. The doors into every building in Hudukul were the same, so it seemed the people of the city did as well. But those were the doors made by the artisan caste. The castes all approached life from very different mindsets. Artisans were highly ranked, and bowed to very few. The servants were one of the lowest, and they bowed to nearly everyone. One of the most important parts of their daily lives was to stay hidden from the higher castes. And when he wanted to stay hidden, he stayed low.
Dropping to his knees, Kaie probed the floor carefully, mindful of his throbbing pinky. It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for. It was a gap, significantly larger than the cracks in the wall, though still small enough to avoid notice. His fingers slid underneath with ease and tugged. The stone flew upward, moving with far less effort than he expected, and almost cracked him in the face as it swung out into the room.
Kaie eyed the opening warily, prepared for an angry servant to jump out and kill him for uncovering their secrets. When no one emerged from the dark hole, he climbed to his feet and, with a quick glance around the room, stepped inside.
The door was held in place by some sort of peg system, so that it would swing back and forth from the bottom, but only a bit from the top. No doubt, it was designed to draw as little attention to itself as possible. He figured it was easy to maintain, but could help but wonder what the servants did if the pegs broke. It didn’t matter, not for his purposes, so after a moment of consideration, Kaie moved on.
The passageway was lit only by flickering lamps hanging from the walls, spaced too far apart to do anything but cast a dull glow. He could see several other passes branching off from the one he was walking, but he didn’t turn down any of them. Curious as he was about where so many different paths might lead, Kaie wasn’t going to risk getting lost. The walls seemed to be made out of the same strange, solid stone as every other building in Hudukul, and appeared to be well cared for. There was no sign of ruin or decay, and not a single crack or shift he could see in the walls or floor.
After a short distance, his passage dropped down with a set of steep stairs. He considered going back to the kitchen, but he didn’t think he was far enough to be outside the confines of the manse yet. If he couldn’t establish that they went into the city itself, he couldn’t count on them helping get Gregor’s sister out of the Hollow house. So he walked down, his right hand pressed firmly against the wall for balance.
He walked until his body was slick with sweat and his calves were starting to burn. By his estimation, it was about half of an hour since he first stepped inside. That would take him deep into the city, no matter which direction he was traveling. All along his trek, he came across similar steep stairways just off the main passage, these all thinner and leading back up. He climbed one now, disliking the open space to the right almost as much as how thin the steps were. One foot placed wrong would send him toppling down, and the stone floor didn’t strike him as likely to provide a forgiving landing.
Kaie needed to crouch as he reached the top. It didn’t open into another passage, like he expected, but ended at the very roof. When he was high enough that he could investigate without losing his balance, he found another doorway, this one in the ceiling, held close by a small lip. It was well designed, with the crux close enough to the other end that it would be impossible for anything as big as a naturally placed foot to tip the door open. Silently praying that no one would happen to be walking past, he pressed his shoulders against the stone and pushed up.
Again, the slab of stone moved with less effort than he expected. Kaie tumbled forward, his leg slipping off the staircase and dangling precariously as he caught himself on the edge of the hole he opened. It took a second to right himself and calm his thundering heart, but when he did Kaie laughed out loud.
He knew exactly four places in the whole damn city. Just four. Somehow, despite all the monumental odds against it, he found himself in one of those four.
It was the small courtyard, where Mola confronted him. The abused statue was gave it away instantly. In fact, he figured there was a damn good chance the place he was hanging was where he stood during that very memorable encounter. If he really tried at it, he could even find his way back to the manse in a reasonable amount of time. The barracks were less likely, but he wouldn’t need to get to those. Not today, at any rate.
Tonight, he amended with a glance at the darkening sky. Under normal circumstances, it would only be another hour or so before Gregor got home. If the Rit wasn’t back already. It seemed wise to consider his time more than used up and head back. He climbed out a little further, to reach the stone and pull it back. As he did, a hooded figure stepped into the courtyard. Kaie froze.
The stooped man walked right up to him, staring from the depths with light brown eyes ringed by an eerie, unnatural purple. “You’re here.”
Kaie looked up, taking note of the unhealthy skin color and scarred face, suddenly wrapped up in the memory of his dream but unsure why. He opened his mouth to answer the observation, but no words came out.
“Of course you’re here. You can’t be haunting me unless you’re here, can you?”
The voice, thick and gravely, like two stones scraping against each other, sent a shiver down his spine. “I don’t know.”
The man staggered backward like Kaie hit him. He took several gasping breaths, which led to a fit of wet sounding coughs. “You’re real!”
“Uh,” Kaie could actually taste the sweetness on his tongue, like in the dream. But this was not the old man, not the red-haired man, not even the bad man who was nothing more than a voice. “I’ve always thought so.”
“No!” The man bellowed, throwing his arms up over his head. “No! You won’t bring Sojun back! He’s gone! Dead, dead, dead! He has to stay that way!”
Kaie almost reached forward, wanting to comfort the man even more than he wanted to run. “Alright. I won’t?”
The man eyed Kaie, the purple rings catching the light of the settin
g sun and reflecting it in a way that made them seem like something out of a nightmare. His hands dropped slowly, and a sly smile replaced the look of panic. “I’m going to tell my love about you, you know. Even if I didn’t want to, I would tell her. But I want to. You’re supposed to be dead. It’s better when you are. Sojun is quiet then, dead too.”
Kaie didn’t know how to react to that. He didn’t even know if the guy actually knew who he was, or if it was all just the mutterings of a madman. The latter was far more likely, but instinct screamed at him to be concerned, maybe even frightened. “Who is your love?”
“My love? My nightmare. My Mistress.”
“That doesn’t sound like someone I’d like knowing anything about me,” Kaie said carefully.
“She’s all that matters. My love, her goddess, and her empire. Not you. Not anymore. She told me to take care of the empty thing, so I did. She told me to remind the boy what he promised to do for her, so I did. She told me to learn the dirty city, so that’s what I’m doing. She didn’t tell me to find you. No one’s supposed to find you. You’re supposed to be dead.”
“I’m not. Dead, I mean. Or supposed to be. I think you’re confused.”
“No, no, no, no. I know how to focus now. I know what I am now. You’re not going to confuse me. You’re not going to bring the fog back.” The man took several steps backward. He hesitated on the cusp of the alley, where a crowd of people were having a conversation that kept their attention away from the drama behind them. “I’m going to tell her, and she’s going to set it right. Then Sojun will stay dead, and it will just be her voice in my head again. The way it’s supposed to be.”
Kaie bit down on his tongue to keep from calling out, from demanding the lunatic stay just a moment longer. He didn’t know why he wanted that. It wasn’t because he thought he could stop the man from telling that love of his about him. For all he knew, she was just a fantasy. But whatever reason he was so reluctant to let this man vanish into the crowds of Hudukul, it was a bad idea.