"What? Why didn't you tell us this before we left the room?" K'lrsa leaned against the wall, arms crossed. She was so tired of there always being one more thing.
The Lady smiled. "Peace, child. The conditions are simple and if you choose not to follow them you may return the object now and never be subject to them."
"Hm. I see. So you let us choose an object, get us outside the room, and then impose conditions we won't want to follow so that we return the object before we get a chance to use it?"
"Ah, K'lrsa, don't you trust us just a little?" Before K'lrsa could answer no, the Lady continued. "The conditions are simple. You will never allow another to use the object you have chosen. It is yours and yours alone. Only you have been deemed worthy to wield it and only you shall."
"And if we violate this?"
"We will take it back. Neither of the objects you chose were so powerful that it would allow you to stand against us."
K'lrsa looked at the now-closed door. "Were there objects in there that would?" K'lrsa thought about it and laughed. "Of course. The wooden staff. That's why you were so scared I'd take it."
"It destroyed an entire people! Isn't that enough?"
"But that wasn't your fear. Your fear was that I'd choose it and be able to stand against you."
The Lady ignored her. "The other condition is that the artifact will return here when you die. It is yours and yours alone."
"What's to prevent someone from coming here after I die and claiming it again?"
"Nothing. But they will have to come here of their own will and make their way through the labyrinth and the object will have to appear to them in the choosing room. If all that happens, they can have it. But I can tell you it's rare. There are some who've stepped through those doors and had no choice at all."
"But I thought it responded to your need?"
"That. And it also responds to your strength. So? Do you agree to these terms?"
Vedhe nodded. K'lrsa shrugged.
"Good. Then it's time to say farewell. Follow me."
She led them back down the hallway to where Badru and the others waited.
Chapter 89
K'lrsa wiped her sweaty palms on her pants as they approached the cushioned room where everyone was waiting for them. Her heart pounded in her ears and she couldn't seem to get enough air into her lungs. Why was she so nervous about this when she hadn't been about selecting an object that could save everyone's lives?
As they paused on the threshold to the room, Vedhe held the lens to her eye and studied everyone, but put it away with a disappointed sigh. "It doesn't work on the dead."
The Lady patted her on the shoulder before stepping into the space.
Everyone turned to look at them.
Badru was the first to his feet. "What did you choose?"
Herin joined him. "Was it the orb of fire? That would be the best weapon."
"Only if you were as cruel as Aran." Lodie stepped up next to Herin, shaking her head. "Please tell me you didn't choose the orb of fire."
"I almost did," Vedhe said. Everyone turned to look at her. "But K'lrsa said she'd choose something to counter me if I did."
"Why would you choose that?" Lodie asked.
"To destroy those who hurt me."
Herin turned on K'lrsa. "And you were going to stand against her. Pzah, girl. What kind of fool are you?"
"The kind who doesn't believe in punishing the innocent."
Herin snorted. "Good luck with that. You'll see what happens when you hold back with your enemies. And so will your people."
K'lrsa crossed her arms, trying not to second-guess her choice.
Her father patted her on the arm. "So what did you choose?"
K'lrsa held up the pendant around her neck. "It allows me to go anywhere I want, immediately. And I can take others with me."
"And how is that going to defeat an entire army, you fool?" Herin spat.
"I don't have to defeat them. I just have to move them somewhere the tribes aren't. I'll take them all back to Crossroads and tell them if they return again, I'll leave them in the deepest desert next time."
"And you think that'll be enough to keep them at bay?"
She shrugged. "It'll have to. Because I'm not going to kill men who were just following orders. Or children who have no fault for where they were born."
Herin walked away in disgust, muttering to herself.
Badru turned to Vedhe, his eyes wide with alarm. "And you? What did you bring back from there?"
Vedhe held up the onyx tube. "It allows me to see the truth of someone. If they're good or bad."
"And how do you plan to use that?" Herin called.
"If someone is bad, I'll kill them. If they're good, I won't."
Herin snorted. "So simple is it?"
Badru looked back and forth between them, shaking his head.
"What? Say what it is you want to say." K'lrsa crossed her arms, waiting for the rebuke he so clearly wanted to give.
He opened his mouth and closed it again and then leaned forward, studying her. "So, you went into a room filled with powerful weapons out of legend, and you came back with a necklace that can take you anywhere you want and a viewing tube that lets you see if people are bad?"
K'lrsa's father threw an arm around her shoulders. "Well I, for one, am proud of you. For seeing that not everything requires brute force and open war."
"You're proud of her? Will you be proud of her when she dies like you did because she underestimated her enemy?"
"Badru! That's not fair. And don't you dare speak to my father like that."
"It's the truth. Clearly you don't understand the threat Aran represents if you think this will defeat him."
"I don't want to defeat him, Badru. I just want him to leave us alone."
Badru grabbed his hair in his hands. "You don't get it! Aran won't leave you alone. Ever. Not until he's found this place and made his way to that room and taken the most dangerous, deadly weapon he can. You will never be safe from him until he's destroyed. None of us will."
"You will. You're already dead."
Badru shook his head. "If Aran finds his way here, we won't be safe either."
K'lrsa looked away. "I'm sorry if I didn't pick the weapon any of you would have. But I'm the one that has to live with using it, not you. And I made the choice that worked for me. If that doesn't work for you, well, I'm sorry, but the choice has been made. And it's time for Vedhe and me to leave."
"You'll come back after?" Badru asked, staring at her with those beautiful blue eyes of his.
K'lrsa chewed on her lip.
At last she said, "I don't know. I…I want to, to see what it is between us. But I made a promise to M'lara that I wouldn't leave her again."
He seemed to sink in on himself. "Oh."
"Badru." She grabbed his hand, but he snatched it away.
"No. Go. You're right. I, I understand."
He walked down the hall and out of sight, never looking back.
K'lrsa started to follow, but her father stopped her. "Let him go."
"But…"
"K'lrsa. What could you say to him right now that would change things?"
"But I do love him."
"And he'll be here if you change your mind. I'll talk to him for you. Now come here. Give me a hug." He pulled her into his arms and for one brief moment she let herself pretend that he was alive and she wasn't about to leave him and everyone else she cared about behind forever.
"I love you, Dad."
"I love you, too. And know that whatever you do, I'm proud of you."
She nodded, suddenly scared. "I don't want to lose you again. Will you be here if I come back?"
"You won't lose me. You carry me with you everywhere you go."
It's not the same, she wanted to wail, but she just nodded, too close to tears to speak.
"Trust in yourself, K'lrsa."
She hugged him one last time.
She turned to her mother and hugge
d her. Her mother tucked a piece of hair back into K'lrsa's braid. "Tell everyone I love them. And take care of them for me."
K'lrsa nodded, too emotional to speak.
Her parents walked away, hands joined.
She pressed her lips tight together, finally letting herself feel just a bit of the anger that threatened to overwhelm her.
It wasn't fair.
They got to go to paradise and she had to return to a life that was barely worth living. A life without Badru or her father or her mother. All because no one else was there to do what needed done.
What had she done to deserve this?
K'lrsa turned to the Lady. "I'm ready. Where are Fallion and Kriger?"
"They can't travel with you, not this way."
"But we will get them back?"
The Lady nodded. "They'll find you again."
K'lrsa gripped the pendant around her neck and held out her hand to Vedhe. "Ready?"
"Ready."
Vedhe put her hand in K'lrsa's and they looked around the room one last time. K'lrsa closed her eyes and pictured the platform in the center of the gathering grounds and willed herself to go there.
Her body was wrenched into nothingness. For one long moment it felt like she was being torn apart, stretched between two impossibly distant points, and then she stumbled forward and fell to her knees in the exact center of the platform.
She gasped, every breath so painful she wanted to scream. She coughed and spat blood. Vedhe huddled next to her, gasping for air.
"Here." K'lrsa offered her a hand and Vedhe took it.
They stood, surveying what they could see of the camp.
It was the middle of the night, the moon hung above them, full and ripe. There were no campfires within the gathering grounds—probably not enough wood to fuel them—but a ring of fires marked the edge of the grounds where the Daliph's troops waited for the tribes to surrender or starve.
K'lrsa touched the necklace at her throat, wondering if maybe she should've chosen the orb of fire or that staff. But it was too late for that now.
Chapter 90
No one stirred as K'lrsa and Vedhe walked through the nearest cluster of tents. There were no guards posted, no one watching or waiting for their return. As they stepped out of the space between the Tall Bluff Tribe tents and the White Horse Tribe tents, K'lrsa saw someone sneaking through the night, dodging from the shadow of one tent to the next, coming from the direction of the enemy encampment.
She ran forward, grabbing the person's arm before they spotted her. The woman she'd grabbed cried out in pain, but quickly muffled the sound.
"F'lia?" K'lrsa asked as she dragged the woman into the moonlight.
"Let me go. If they see me, they'll kill me." She struggled to free herself, but she'd never been as physically strong as K'lrsa.
K'lrsa didn't let go but she moved them back into the shadow of another tent. "Who will kill you?"
"The Black Horse Tribe."
"What are you doing?"
"Smuggling food in. I do it each night so the tribes won't starve."
"How long have we been gone?"
She shrugged. "Ten days. D'lan and the others have been talking about fighting their way out."
"Ten days! But…" K'lrsa shook her head. Just one more lie of the gods.
"You have to let me go, K'lrsa. They'll think I've been captured."
She started to release F'lia, but stopped. Shaking, she looked to Vedhe. "Can you look at her? Can you see?"
K'lrsa had never wanted to believe that F'lia might have known about her father. But…She could never be sure. And what if F'lia was lying now? Maybe she wasn't bringing food to the tribes. Maybe she was spying on them.
Vedhe raised the small tube to her eye and studied F'lia. "She wants things too much. And she uses men. Uses her beauty. But she'd never kill for it. Or harm others for it. Or want others to cause harm for her. And she is trying to help."
K'lrsa let go of F'lia. "Can you take us to D'lan?"
F'lia hesitated, but then she nodded. "Keep to the shadows and don't speak."
They darted around the edge of the camp, from the shadow of one tent to the next, in silence.
Eventually, they made their way to the base of the rock formation where the shadows were deep and dark. F'lia whistled softly and someone answered. She crept forward, looking both ways, and a man stepped forward to meet her.
K'lrsa followed.
D'lan reached for the knife at his belt before he recognized her and let his hand fall away again. "You're back."
She nodded.
"And did you bring a weapon to wipe these traitors from the face of the earth?"
"It won't kill them. But it will get rid of them."
He crossed his arms and glared at her. "Not good enough. They'll just come back until we finally kill them all."
Vedhe raised the tube to study D'lan.
"What do you see?" K'lrsa asked.
"A good man." She lowered it and studied him with her own eyes. "Vain. Arrogant. Scared. Angry. But a good man."
D'lan frowned at her. "Who asked you?"
"D'lan, enough. We're back and we have a way to end this."
"How?"
"I can send them back to the Daliphate."
"How? By asking them nicely?"
K'lrsa tilted her head to the side and studied him for a long moment. "You know, I don't have to explain myself to you. I'm the one with the way to save us and I'm going to use it. What you think of that is not my problem. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need rest. So does Vedhe. We'll see you in the morning."
"K'lrsa!"
She ignored him.
She was done letting others tell her what to do or second-guessing her.
Chapter 91
K'lrsa was awake at dawn. She paced the small area in front of her tent, worried about what had to happen next. It was simple in theory. She'd go out there and send all those soldiers to Toreem.
But the reality of it was far more frightening. When just she and Vedhe had traveled from the Hidden City, she'd ended up coughing up blood and Vedhe still wasn't breathing quite right.
And that was just the two of them.
What was it going to be like to transport hundreds at once? And across that great a distance?
She'd chosen the necklace because it wouldn't murder hundreds, but she'd been wrong.
She paced the tent, opening and closing her fists, over and over again, thinking, pacing, wondering what to do. For a brief moment she longed for the wooden staff and the ability to just shove a mountain range between the plains and the Daliphana. But that would've never worked either.
Vedhe coughed into her hand as she emerged from the other tent. She had dark circles under her eyes.
"Are you alright? How do you feel?"
She smiled weakly. "I think I'll stay here when you go to Toreem. Traveling that way once was enough for me."
K'lrsa nodded as Vedhe fixed herself a cup of peppermint tea and sat down.
"I'm worried if I try to transport so many it'll kill them."
Vedhe nodded. "Yes. And maybe you as well."
K'lrsa chewed on her lip. Vedhe was right.
Vedhe sipped her tea. "You could make an example."
"How?"
"Take ten through. I'm sure at least one will die."
"If I just take ten?"
Vedhe nodded, taking another sip of the tea. "Take them through. Bring the dead one back. Tell them you'll take more of them through and that more of them will die if you do. Or they can choose to leave peacefully."
"I'm not sure I can survive two more trips."
"Maybe you don't have to go?"
K'lrsa frowned. There was so much she didn't know about the pendant. What it did. How it worked. What she could or couldn't do with it.
The gods. Were all their gifts traps?
Once she'd saved the tribes she wanted nothing more to do with them. Ever.
She paced some more, clutching the pen
dant, thinking, trying to figure out if Vedhe was right. If she could send the men without going there herself. "Well. It's worth a try at least."
She settled onto a stool next to Vedhe and rooted around in her bag. Just her luck, she still had one of Garzel's travel bars. "Want some?"
Vedhe grimaced, but she took half.
Chapter 92
K'lrsa walked to the edge of the gathering grounds, Vedhe trailing along behind her. Others, seeing them, followed.
Word had spread while she was gone that she'd left to find a way to save them.
But here she was. No obvious weapon. Badru no longer by her side. Herin, Garzel, and Lodie gone, too, although K'lrsa wasn't sure anyone had really cared much about them.
"Who is your leader?" K'lrsa shouted towards the men who'd gathered on the other side of the invisible line that separated the safety of the gathering grounds from their camp.
"Why? Gonna shoot him?" one of the men asked, making a rude gesture in her direction.
She felt fury course through her body.
That one gesture reminded her of every single man in the Daliphana who'd treated her like she was nothing, sneered at her, or made her feel dirty as their eyes roved over her body. She grasped the pendant, focused on the man, and willed him to Toreem.
He disappeared and the men nearby backed away, muttering curses. One dropped to his knees, praying.
"Did it hurt?" Vedhe whispered.
"Not at all." K'lrsa smiled and one of the men who'd stepped forward to challenge her, fell back. "Where's your leader? Bring him to me now."
She glared at the men, her hand clutched around the pendant, almost wishing someone would challenge her. All the frustration and fear of the last weeks and of the months she'd spent in Toreem threatened to overwhelm her.
She desperately wanted a target to take it out on.
A man pushed through the crowd, a multi-colored sash tied around his waist. "What do you want, little girl?"
Anger flashed through her like water on a hot pan as the man smiled at her, running his eyes up and down her body.
Rider's Rescue (The Rider's Revenge Trilogy Book 2) Page 28