by Narro, B. T.
It was late, so she figured he would try to take her to his bedroom if she didn’t come up with an excuse.
“My father was very ill,” she said as they went up the stairs to the floor containing their bedrooms.
Tauwin’s pace didn’t change as he gripped the railing firmly, still looking annoyed at the news of how long it might take for Kyrro to be his. “I hope he’s all right,” Tauwin lied.
“I think he will be, but I’d like to see him again tomorrow to make sure. I’m planning to go early in the morning, so tonight I’d like to speak with your chemists to see if there’s anything I can bring him.” She stopped on the stairs, showing she wanted to go back down.
Tauwin frowned. “Very well.” He started downstairs with her.
“I don’t want to trouble you,” she said, wondering why he was opting to go with her.
“I’m just going down because I need to speak with Cheot.”
To bring Cheot’s daughter to bed with him. Tauwin hardly hid the fact that he shared his bed with some woman each night, but this was the first time that he’d chosen a psychic. It worried Sanya. If Tauwin wanted, he could end their engagement on a whim.
She did a quick calculation, then affectionately touched his arm. “One week,” she told him.
“What?”
“We should set the wedding for one week from tomorrow. That will give me and your mother enough time to plan, and enough time for my father to recover.”
He stopped and smiled. She felt a surge of arousal from him as he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in for a kiss. She was beginning to hate the taste of his lips. She’d better make sure Kyrro was taken by the time they were wed.
*****
The next morning, Sanya left the castle early. She brought a potion she knew her father wouldn’t need. She’d never been to the capital of Kyrro when she was younger, so it was difficult to tell if the quiet streets were usually filled with busy, working people or if this was common and had nothing to do with the recent change in leadership or the war.
She strolled into the Takary mansion, the guards only giving her a cursory look. She beamed with excitement as she made her way to her father’s room. Her mother was finally going to come back to the world of the living, and her father was finally going to be punished for what he’d done to her and Sanya’s sister.
Spiro actually looked ill, to Sanya’s surprise. But it had been a lie when he’d told her he was sick. What did this mean?
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked, hoping to figure out this riddle but knowing he would give her little information, as he always did.
“Something from the food, I believe.”
Another lie. This was the body her mother was to use soon, yet it looked weak as Spiro moved toward Sanya for the perfunctory hug he always gave her when they hadn’t seen each other in a while. Her touch pained him greatly, though he said nothing of it.
“I tried to convince Tauwin to let you live at the castle,” she lied, “but you know how stubborn he can be.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Her father sounded so defeated.
She closed the door and went to lock it, except the lock had been broken off. She gave him a puzzled look as she gestured at it.
“A fit of rage,” Spiro admitted with a bit of shame. “Never mind it. Here, drink this.”
He put a potion to her lips. She closed her mouth tightly and leaned away. “I told you, I’ve taken my last potion from you.”
“This is the last one, I promise you!” His expression was as if he’d invented an elixir that would make her immortal. At least he seemed more energetic than before. “I’ve done it, Sanya. You’ll be able to feel and control bastial energy once you drink it.”
“Like the last one, which kept me awake for two nights straight? Or the one before that, which sent me into a depression so deep that I tried to kill myself? You think you’ve done it every time. I told you I’m done!” She shoved away his hand, spilling the potion on the rug.
She expected him to yell at her as he usually did, but instead his shoulders sank in quiet disappointment. She used psyche to sense an overwhelming fatigue, but below that was some kind of secret, something he didn’t want her to know.
She let it out of her mind. A secret was nothing new.
Sanya sensed someone standing outside the door. Then she felt the sting of a psychic trying to read her emotions. She let her fear and excitement be read plainly. Whoever was out there wouldn’t stop her from getting her father to the spiritual world.
Soon, the psychic left. Sanya convinced herself it was just a curious inhabitant of the mansion. No lock on the door was concerning, but there would be no better time than now.
She drew the box from her pocket, then took out the akorell bracelet. Spiro gasped and reached for it.
“Where did you find one?”
She stepped back and drew her dagger. He stared at it, confused. He asked her a question, but she didn’t hear as she concentrated on opening a portal to the spiritual world.
“What in all holy—?”
“Get in.” Sanya gestured with her dagger, making sure to stand between her father and the doorway in case he tried to escape.
“Are you threatening me?” He seemed amused. “Is that what’s happening?”
“Yes.” She wanted him to be scared. “Go, or I’ll cut you.”
“Cut me?” His face fell, though there was still a hint of entertainment in his eyes. “You’re angry with me?”
“Go.” She didn’t want him to know how strenuous it was to keep the portal open, so she made her face relax.
He slowly walked toward its entrance, the bright spiritual world visible on the other side. Sanya swiftly moved behind him and shoved him in, then jumped in right after.
He seemed alarmed by the warm ground that changed color beneath him, hopping as if his feet might burn. Then he slowly came to rest and let out a laugh of amazement.
“Incredible, Sanya! Where have you taken me?”
No, he would not enjoy this. She put herself between him and the exit, ignoring his question.
“I’ve been a psychic for many years, Father. It might’ve had to do with your constant tests and experiments, but don’t let that give you any pride. I was the one who did all the work.”
Her words didn’t seem to matter; she could see him beaming with arrogance, clearly taking credit for what he’d created.
“Stop that,” she insisted. “I was a miserable child, and I’m miserable now. I’ve murdered, Father. I’ve killed people who didn’t deserve to die. I’m as heinous as Tauwin himself.” Finally she could see her words sinking in, his pride faltering. “As heinous as you,” she added and watched him grimace as if she’d stuck him with a knife.
But just as quickly as her words had hurt him, he seemed to recover. With deep lines in his forehead, he looked around. “Where in god’s world did you take us?”
“The land of the dead.” She called her mother’s spirit over to them. “Can you feel her, Father? This is Lori.” Sanya gestured at the approaching cloud of energy.
“Lori?” He reached out as if to touch her spirit. She drifted out of his reach, obviously frightened.
“Don’t startle her, you monster. You’ve already done enough by sending her here.”
“Sending her here? Are you saying I killed her?”
“If you didn’t, then you were completely responsible.”
He looked as if he was about to deny it, but then changed his mind. “I suppose there’s no point in withholding the truth anymore.”
“That’s right,” Sanya agreed. “For years, I’ve been able to tell when you’re lying to me. I know you killed her. I knew as soon as she didn’t show up.”
What Sanya had told Basen the night Nick died wasn’t quite the truth. Her mother hadn’t taken the news of Spiro’s experimentations on Sanya lightly. Lori had formed a plan as soon as Sanya told her during one of their monthly visits. Sanya fled Tenr
ed during the night. She crossed through the Fjallejon Pathway and into Kyrro at just twelve years old. Lori was supposed to meet her at the Academy, where Lori figured they would be safe until they found a new home. But she never showed up.
Sanya waited at the Academy for three nights. She’d given a false name to Terren, who’d handed her off to the master mage instructor, a gentle woman by the name of Marie Fyremore who Sanya later heard died during the war.
Spiro had informed King Tegry Hiller that his daughter was missing, and he’d sent hundreds of men out, some of whom came to the Academy and dragged her back.
Sanya had changed greatly since that time, both physically and mentally. Sometimes she wondered what kind of woman she would’ve become if her mother had made it to the Academy. There was no doubt in her mind she would’ve had a chance to be a better person.
“It was an accident,” Spiro explained, looking between Sanya and Lori’s spirit. “Can she hear me?”
“Yes,” Sanya said, though she wasn’t quite sure if it was true.
“Lori, I’m sorry. But you shouldn’t have done what you did. You left the guards outside your bedchamber no choice when you refused to go back in your room.”
“What happened?” Sanya asked. She hadn’t seen her mother’s body after she was killed. “I know her heart didn’t just stop, like you said it did.”
“She was stabbed during a scuffle that she started with the guards.”
“The guards that you put there to keep her from leaving! She was a slave to you, not a wife.”
“Because she didn’t understand!” Spiro shouted back. “And look what I’ve accomplished because she couldn’t interfere. Look where we are. Look at what you can do.” He gestured around them at the rolling hills of hardened energy. “You are extraordinary, as I claimed you would be.”
“As you claimed my sister would be, yet you killed her with the same experiments.”
That stopped him and made his shoulders sink. “So you’ve brought me here to kill me?”
“Yes.” Sanya longed to instill fear, to make him suffer, but he just looked at her sadly. “Lori will be taking your body upon your death, Father. She deserves life, while you don’t.”
He surprised her by laughing, but sputtering coughs interrupted him. “This body?” He rolled up his sleeves, wincing as he uncovered blood-red boils on his skin.
He snickered at her, and she realized she was making a face of horror.
“What have you done to yourself?”
“How sweet this is!” He raised his fist in triumph. “I’m dying, Sanya. This body is dying, anyway. So go ahead and kill me, and then put your mother…” He laughed without humor. “In this body.”
“It was an experiment, wasn’t it? You never learn!” She wanted to stab him as he cackled.
“I was bored nearly to the point of suicide in that damn palace,” he said. “They gave me nothing that I requested. I was forced to search for ingredients in the forest and couldn’t always decipher which plant I’d collected. I made a mistake, but now I’m glad I did.”
He showed her his stomach. It was bruised on the sides, as if someone had given him a beating. “I wasn’t ready to tell you yesterday because I thought you might be upset.” He chuckled. “Now I’m glad I waited. You never would’ve taken me here.” He lifted up his arms and twirled. “I couldn’t ask for anything better before I die.”
Her mother’s spirit floated about indifferently. Perhaps she couldn’t understand them after all, for how could this evoke no emotion from her? What would Sanya do with her now that her father’s body couldn’t be used? Was Lori destined to disappear like Sanya’s sister? She cursed her father as she came at him, then sliced open his disgusting arm out of anger.
He let out a sharp scream and fell backward as blood and puss poured out. As she stomped after him, he slowly pushed himself up, clearly weakened by whatever had sickened him.
“I was embarrassed to tell you that I had nothing to leave you.” He covered his wound with his shirt and then spat. His saliva was darkened by blood. “Not anymore. It brings me joy to tell you that, by accident, I even destroyed the akorell stone that had been in our family for generations.” He laughed merrily. “And I’m going to destroy that one as well.” He pointed with one hand and fished something out of his pocket with the other.
Sanya quickly turned away from him to guard the stone. She was shocked to find Bliss standing within her father’s bedroom on the other side of the portal. She must’ve followed me from the castle, probably on Tauwin’s orders. He suspects me of something? Oh, she must’ve been the psychic I sensed earlier.
There was no more time to think. She glanced over her shoulder to see her father rushing toward her with a vial in his hand. He stopped short as she swung at him, her blade just missing his chest. His eyes were focused on the akorell bracelet around her wrist. She shot a look behind her just as Bliss hesitantly walked through the portal.
“What is this?” the young woman asked with a mix of awe and fear.
There was no time to deal with the stupid woman when Sanya was too busy dodging her father’s attempts at tackling her. She couldn’t think what to do. Should she just kill Spiro as she’d planned? If not, he might ruin the akorell bracelet. Her mother’s spirit was quickly moving away like a startled animal.
Sanya reached out her palm and focused to begin pulling her father’s spirit out of his body, for it seemed to be the easiest way to end him, and the least messy. He screamed and grabbed his head as she got a good grip on his spirit. This was nothing like taking out the dog’s spirit. Sanya gritted her teeth and heaved, but a shooting pain throughout her entire body stopped her as she fell to the ground.
The psychic. Sanya fought back the spell easily, but her father was on top of her before she could rise. She stabbed him in the stomach and the chest as he screamed and made no motion to defend himself. Instead, he put his last efforts into pouring the contents of his vial onto her akorell bracelet. The psychic screamed for Sanya to stop but didn’t seem to be doing much else, thankfully.
She kicked Spiro off her, then tried to wipe the sticky liquid from her bracelet. It was no use, the substance quickly seeping into the rock covering the gem.
Her father lay sprawled on his back, smiling. It was a strain for him to speak, but that didn’t stop him. “I really did…create something…exceptional.”
Then he was gone. His spirit floated up from his body, hovering there as if not wanting to move.
Whatever he’d done to the akorell stone, it looked to be useless now, as it no longer glowed. Sanya would never have another chance to get to the spiritual world unless she got hold of another akorell stone. She wasn’t about to put any hope on that.
She eyed the psychic. “Tauwin told you to spy on me, didn’t he?”
Bliss turned and ran for the portal. Sanya caught hold of her spirit and stopped her as if she’d grabbed hold of her hair. She’d had enough practice removing her father’s spirit to make it easy this time. Bliss shrieked as Sanya ripped it out of her body.
All was quiet.
Bliss’ spirit jittered around, but Sanya paid it no mind. She looked at the two bodies and muttered a curse. There was only one way to bring her mother back now.
Sanya beckoned for Lori’s spirit to come.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
They came to a split path. Jackrie did the same thing as she had each time before, motioning for Basen to use his sword to strike the inner wall in the left pathway first.
His weapon made a sharp ding that echoed throughout the cavern. They waited to hear if there would be a response, but there was none. Basen struck his sword against the wall of rock a few more times and waited a bit longer, but still they heard nothing.
He went back to the split in the path and this time walked into the cave to his right and struck the wall. A dajrik deep within let out a roar.
Without a word needing to be spoken, they followed Jackrie to the left.
&
nbsp; It hadn’t taken long for their group to adopt this strategy. Annah told them that dajriks had exceptional hearing, and this was how they used it against them.
“How do you know?” Basen had asked Annah.
“I visited the Slugari colony to see the dajrik and learn as much as I could about him and the Slugari. You never went?”
She posed the question as if he would’ve been a fool not to. I was too busy working so I wouldn’t starve.
“Oh.” Annah put her hand over her mouth, then dropped it. “Sorry.”
“Yeah.” At least this meant his friends didn’t constantly think of his past, even though they all knew it.
They walked through the caverns for hours. They tried to stay to one direction, but avoiding the sound of dajriks and the glow of akorell metal over their heads sometimes led them astray.
Fortunately Basen’s stomach was full of dajrik meat. Once cooked over the lava, it had been edible enough. It was surprisingly salty and so hard to chew that his jaw still ached. When he’d finished, it became a struggle not to gulp down the last of his water. There was only a sip left in his water skin, and his parched throat urged him to drink it.
During long stretches of silence, Basen’s mind wandered to Sanya. He’d made a portal, one of enormous size compared to the others. Had she felt it even though they’d been within the Fjallejon Mountains? Was she now searching for him to fulfill her threat? He felt as if he should be afraid, but he was numb after everything that had happened.
Alabell had done good work treating everyone’s injuries, though their party still moved slowly. They licked their dry lips and hardly said a word. Basen could walk on his injured leg, but he didn’t think he could run for long if they encountered a couple dajriks.
Slowly, their choice of routes led them to inclines, and eventually, finally, they came to an opening. Too tired to be thrilled, Basen could only smile with the rest of his party. But then disappointment struck him when he saw where they were.
The opening was a hole in the side of a mountain, meaning they’d been underground. They were one or two hundred feet above the ground now, and the mountain sloped down steeply to it. Climbing down seemed to be their only option, not that it would be safe.