Forgotten

by Lyn Lowe

  Kaie let go of the smile with a slow sigh. His giddiness over the healing faded quickly. “Just be there when I come for you, Vaughan. Whatever it takes, just make sure you’re there.”

  “I will. I swear, I will.”

  Twenty-Two

  Kaie didn’t waste any time. Vaughan was right, the doctor would notice the changes, and it would cause trouble. It didn’t matter if there was a Namer in the city the reaction to magic wouldn’t be positive. Even Gregor’s most loyal soldiers wouldn’t appreciate the idea of a mage in their midst. Even Judah, who was actually one of them, recognized the need to hide. He wasn’t about wait to see how doctor Alex dealt with it.

  Kaie slid out of the cot and crossed the small room, hugging the wall as he went. He could hear Alex elsewhere in the building, but the shape of the place made it hard to tell where. Her voice echoed around the curved walls that the Huduku seemed so fond of. He crouched in the doorway to his room, trying to guess at the floor plan as much as watching for the doctor.

  The trouble, he decided, was that he didn’t go into enough places. The manse was as different from this building as the hospital was from the shack he and Peren shared. And the barracks Judah stayed in was originally a warehouse, not designed for aesthetics in mind. He suspected that there was a commonalty to the homes, as the exteriors were all shaped the same, and each one seemed have the same number of windows. But this was his first house.

  He would give anything for some semblance of a sense of direction. Anything that would give him some idea which way the street might be.

  Alex was humming. It seemed to be coming from one side of the house more than the other. Good enough. He took a deep breath, locked his excuse for walking about firmly in his mind, Kaie stepped out into the main room.

  There were more cots. Lots of them. They were all empty. Back when it was a house, the room probably served as a dining room. The circular walls made the place feel almost cozy, while the great domed ceiling still gave the impression of endless amounts of space.

  Directly across from his room was another doorway. The humming was definitely coming from that direction. For all he knew, the opening led to the only other room in the house, and he was about to stumble into the doctor. Still, there was nowhere else to go.

  He moved forward, resisting the urge to drop into a crouch, run across the room, or stay against the walls. If Alex did come in, such behavior would give him away. She might be helping him, but Kaie doubted she would be willing to let him escape on her watch. He felt bad, bringing down trouble on her after everything she was doing for him. But he didn’t see any other choice.

  The room on the other side of the doorway did not, thank the gods, contain the doctor. It was significantly smaller than the one he just crossed. Several crates were stacked against the rounded walls. Green leaves poked out from a couple, probably filled with herbs. Opposite from him, there was yet another doorway. It was where the humming was coming from. More importantly, to his left there was an actual door. It was circular and painted bright green.

  Kaie moved slowly now. This was the first part of his escape he couldn’t explain away. If Alex raised the alarm too soon, his whole plan would fall to pieces around him. He needed to be lost in the city before she realized he was gone. Gregor might be able to figure out where he was going. He needed to be there and gone before the Rit learned any of it.

  He didn’t bother praying. He begged them for help, when Silvertongue was hurting him, and the only answer he received was the man’s horrible hissing laughter. If the gods were listening, all he could only count on for was suffering. Instead, Kaie took a deep breath, counted to five, then darted for door. It pulled open easily and without any noise. A second later, he was sucked into the bustle of the city.

  Kaie knew he stood out. No one spent more than a handful of days in the desert without learning the need to keep themselves covered. The long gown he wore was the smoothest thing he could possibly imagine, and so light it might as well be air, but it offered no protection from the sun. It was the same garb all the servants wore, and came down only to the lower part of his calf, just above his knees. Even if it wasn’t drawing curious looks from all the people around him, it left too much of his skin exposed. Fair as he was, it wouldn’t take much time for him to get sun sick. He needed a change of clothing.

  Without an iron penny, save the one around his neck, that was something of a problem. He was forced to follow along with the crowd for some time before he found what he was looking for: a line of clothes hanging in an alley low enough that he could reach it. Pressing against the bodies around him, Kaie made his way over and pulled them down as furtively as possible. There was no doubt people saw it, but no one raised a cry over the stolen attire. He jerked on the pants and long, dark green cloak as quickly as he could, taking great care to position the hood to hide as much of his hair as possible. By the time he returned to the street, no one was paying him any mind.

  The city was not as he remembered it. Or, rather, it was, but with a new layer added. One that distorted the crowded, colorful streets of only a week ago. Now there were piles of refuse scattered about in every corner. It was not limited to the inorganic, either. Kaie spotted bodies, living and dead, amid the trash. The smell was trapped amid the cramped and twisted pathways, and threatened to bring bile spilling past his lips with every turn. It took every bit of self-control not to gawp at the changes made in such a short amount of time.

  It didn’t take Kaie long to find the source of these changes. In the years since taking Hudukul, Gregor never made any effort to assert his military presence in the city. He knew the people were upset enough, and didn’t want to risk open revolt when he was trying to form an alliance. Now, however, there were men and women in uniform at every corner.

  The surge of traffic gave them all a wide berth, but Kaie drew close enough to to see that none wore the iron fist on their shoulders, which would mark them as part of the Twelfth. Instead, there was a small golden star. He didn’t know enough about the Rits of the empire to identify the sigil, but he realized the meaning easily enough. The Twelfth wasn’t the only force controlling Hudukul anymore. The speed of the transformation was astounding, but not unexpected. Gregor made no secret of the Urazian forces approaching the city, and they both talked at length about what would happen when one arrived.

  With luck, the new conditions would reinforce the idea that the Ninth Rit was the best chance the for people of Hudukul. It could be the catalyst needed to cement the alliance and finally give Gregor the strength of position he needed. Or, and Kaie feared more likely, it would reinforce the hatred the people hid beneath their friendly words and cooperative smiles.

  Finding his way to the barracks was easy. It seemed he chose a very fortuitous day to set his plan in motion. A ship carrying goods from some nearby nation was just arriving, and everyone in the city was eager to see it dock. The push of the crowd drew him straight to the river in little time at all. His path from there was a little more challenging, as he was pushing against the flow of traffic, but not unmanageable. By the time he crossed one of the many bridges spanning the water, he was recognizing the signs filled with foreign words and strange pictures from his previous trips.

  He paused in front of the bright red door to the first barracks building. Judah would be inside. Maybe Tovan too. It was even possible that they would help him. Gregor wasn’t likely to share what happened. The Rit was too private for that. If even one man agreed to help now, it would make the whole plan so much easier.

  He scowled and moved on. It didn’t matter how much easier they could make things. They weren’t needed, not yet. Bringing them in would mean trusting him.

  Four of the waterfront warehouses were converted for military use, as well as four along the wall and two near the manor. They were just points on a map he didn’t have access to. The building used for the barracks was the key he needed.

  The next two doors were blue. One was dark, the other bright. The ne
xt door was dusky yellow. That was the one he wanted. Three doors down from the barracks, with an yellow door. Both Gregor and Judah mentioned it. Kaie remembered the words like they were burnt into his mind. It was the place he was supposed to be.

  He couldn’t see any soldiers. That seemed odd, but he wasn’t going to take it for granted that they weren’t around. He slowed, ignoring the unpleasant comments from the people walking behind him, and scanned the area. Kaie found another of Hudukul’s endless side streets just another two buildings down. He slipped down it and, as he expected, found himself in a courtyard very similar to the one with the broken statue; it was almost identical.

  The woman in the fountain had both her arms, though her head was missing. There were more red letters scrawled across her breasts, though they looked different than those on the other statue. Despite the risk every minute he was visible, Kaie leaned forward to brush his fingertips against the angry writing. It was too much coincidence that the two courtyards would be so alike. The markings, the broken statues, they could be markers; signposts for anyone navigating the passes.

  Hoping he was right about the correlation, Kaie bent down. Crouched over where, in the other courtyard, the door to the passes opened, he pressed his fingers against the street. Inch by inch, he searched. He was prepared for the search to take as long as his hunt in the kitchen did, but this time the reward came quickly. The slat of street tipped down, the other end lifting just enough for him to get his other hand around it and lift up.

  Kaie hurried down another perilous staircase. As he came to the bottom, he thought he caught a glimpse movement ahead of him. He entered the pass cautiously, but didn’t see anyone else.

  By his estimation, nearly three hours were gone since he left the hospital. Gregor would surely know of his escape and, if the Rit suspected where he was going, could be close by now. So, hoping no Huduku was about to come up behind him and plunge a knife into his back, he entered the main pass.

  It took a second to get his bearings. He couldn’t see far enough ahead to determine if the main pass ended at the river, but that wasn’t necessary. Kaie counted each step he took, taking care to match his stride exactly with how he walked above. 23 steps to reach the end of the side street. Then a left turn. 106 steps to get to the building with the yellow door. He found another staircase close by and headed up again.

  Just like in the manse, the pass ended in a wall. He pushed against the bottom and, sure enough it swung open easily. The smell of unwashed bodies hit him hard enough to make his eyes water, but he pushed forward. He wasn’t sure what the room on the other side was intended to be, but now it contained swords and spears piled up with no more concern than the garbage in the streets.

  The next room was huge. It was too large for the walls alone to support the weight of the ceiling. There were several posts scattered throughout to assist that purpose. And the room was full to bursting.

  Panic held Kaie in place as he waited for one of the hundreds of heads to turn in his direction. When none of them did, he looked a little closer.

  Hollows. Each and every one of them.

  Kaie expected them here. It was the Hollow house. This was where they all ended up while they waited for some battle that would send them to the front lines and kill them off in droves. But he never imagined that there were so many. And this was just the Twelfth! Gregor turned away as many as he could. If this was a smaller amount, there would have to be thousands in all the Urazian armies. Maybe hundreds of thousands. It was almost beyond his comprehension.

  How could there be so many? Why would they do this to so many people? It didn’t make sense. With an available pool of recruits this large, the Namers shouldn’t be so scarce. Judah implied that there weren’t more than a few hundred scattered throughout the Urazin Empire. They were wasting a massive numerical advantage, destroying so many. But even if the interest in power wasn’t there, they were tasked with controlling the slaves with magic. He knew first-hand they weren’t as successful at that as they could be. Why would they give up such opportunity? Why was the Empress allowing so many weapons being turned into nothing more than a living shield? Even if the Namers didn’t see it, surely one of her Rits realized the potential.

  He almost gave up his plan there. It was more than just the impossibility of finding a single Hollow amidst all the filthy bodies milling around the one room. These people all used to be a part of a family. They were once just like him. Unwashed, underfed, with little more than scraps of clothing to spare them some small amount of dignity.

  For the first time since waking up in that miserable cell back in Lindel, Kaie realized how unimportant he was. His need to be free, to have his quiet little family, even his plans for revenge, they were small. This was the real evil of the empire: allowing – facilitating – the destruction of so many for no purpose. Nothing Kaie could do would ever be enough to avenge this one room. And it was just the smallest part of the atrocity.

  Distant grunting brought him back to himself. He heard it when he first walked in, but it took him a while to realize what he was listening to. Someone was fucking in this house.

  More than one, actually. Once he paid attention to the noises, he heard three distinct voices. Only one was female, but that wasn’t surprising. Gregor had a fairly even number of male and female officers. It was disgusting, and made the memories of his own experience far too near the surface of his thoughts. But it did remind him of his purpose. His target wasn’t among the shuffling masses.

  Kaie couldn’t decide if it was better to breath from his nose or mouth as he pushed his way along the wall. Either way, whenever one of the Hollows got too close he would end up gaging. But he did move along quickly. The Hollows didn’t put up any resistance to his passing, and Kaie felt no need to hide himself.

  Kaie slowed as he reached the top of the stairs. The grunting noises were louder here. He crept along slowly, pausing at each door to press his ear against the wood. The woman was obviously behind the first door, one of the men behind the second. The next two rooms were empty, save for a pair of worn mattresses. That left two rooms, and at least one more grunter.

  He pushed open the door. His heart dropped. The room was empty. The one he was looking for was in one of the occupied rooms, and he was going to have to wait down among the Hollows until they were gone.

  Except…

  Not sure what it was that caught his attention, Kaie turned back to look the room over one more time. The walls were unpainted, the floor uncovered. There was no decoration or furniture save the worn bed in the center of the room.

  His eyes narrowed. There was a blanket on this mattress. There was someone underneath it. Ready to flee at any second, Kaie slowly pushed the door closed behind him and crossed the small room to peer at the head sticking out from beneath the blanket.

  Cold gray eyes stared through him, locked on some distant point past the ceiling. Her hair was still short, but much longer now, and her face wasn’t round anymore. It was unrecognizable, devoid of any hint of the life that used to animate it. But he would never forget the scar on her eyelid, where lashes didn’t grow.

  Kaie let out a slow sigh and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. He was surprised to discover himself drained of his hatred. Even on the way to this room, he held it close, nursed the low flame back to a biting blaze. This was supposed to be part of his revenge. His punishment for the part she played in breaking his mind, and his theft of something Gregor loved. But now, looking down at her empty eyes, all he felt was sorrow.

  “You didn’t deserve much,” he murmured. “But you deserved better than this, Kissa.”

  He did what he came to do.

  Kaie wrapped his hands around Kissa’s throat, pressing down against the soft part with his thumbs. She gasped and fought to get air around his grip, but she didn’t struggle. He imagined it a quick death, but it wasn’t. He could feel her body working for air even as the whites of her eyes turned red and blood trickled out of her right nostr
il. Her face turned a frightening color of purple. He nearly let go, horrified at what he was doing to her, but then her lips twisted into a smile. Her head twitched, and Kaie was certain it was a nod.

  He kept his hold a minute or two after he felt the pulse in her neck stop, just to be sure. Kaie leaned down and brushed his lips against her forehead lightly. He didn’t know what compelled him to do it, only that it seemed wrong not to offer her some small measure of comfort. He straightened the blanket until it covered her naked body, giving her what little dignity he could manage.

  Twenty-Three

  He was tempted to try to make his way back to the manse underground. But Kaie returned to the streets and hiked his way back through the crowds. He risked being recognized, but it was slightly less likely that he would lose his way if he could see more than two feet in front of him. He did his best to navigate the crowded city. His sense of direction was far from perfect and reversing the directions wasn’t as easy as he hoped. But he was reasonably sure he was heading the right way. Or he was up until the point he stumbled into a strange plaza that was disturbingly empty.

  Kaie nearly darted back down the path he was on before he even took in the scene before him. Getting away from the Hollow house without a seeing a single soldier seemed impossible. He more than half expected to stumble into a trap set by the Ninth Rit. The sudden shift of the crowd caused a creeping anxiety to start forming at the base of his spine. Before he could turn around something caught his eye.

  It took him several seconds to identify what caught his attention. Scanning the plaza his gaze soon came to rest on a burst of dark red hair amid a knot of soldiers wearing that strange gold star on their shoulders. There was no reason for the surge of kinship he felt to the kid. Rare as it was, their hair color was no true connection. But he could not reason the feeling away.

  The men were pushing in close to the huddled form. They were a few seconds, breaths really, away from doing the kid serious harm. The boy was no small, helpless prey, but they were going to rip him apart all the same. Before he could think through the stupidity of his actions, Kaie was moving forward. He didn’t beat the first punch thrown, nor the one from behind that knocked the kid to the ground. But he was there for the second and the third. And a good handful after that.