Until All Curses Are Lifted

by Tim Frankovich

  Marshal dropped his sword and lunged. He caught Talinir’s wrist and held it tight. Talinir looked up at him in despair. “Let go,” he whispered.

  Shake is no. Marshal shook his head firmly.

  “You don’t understand.” Talinir’s voice trembled. “I need the starshine. Without it, I’ll never be who I truly am.”

  Still holding Talinir’s wrist, Marshal drew his own dagger. He showed it to Talinir and them aimed it at his own chest.

  “Why would you do that? You can’t hurt yourself that way, anyway.”

  Marshal shook Talinir’s wrist and then his own. How else could he communicate? Talinir needed to know that he did understand.

  Marshal dropped the dagger. He pointed emphatically to his own mouth and throat, then ran his fingers along the scars on his face. Then he picked up the dagger and pointed it at his own heart again.

  “You… your curse. It makes you want to… kill yourself?”

  Nod is yes. This was the most he had ever been able to communicate.

  Talinir’s eyes searched Marshal’s face and peered into his eyes. Despair and desperation slowly faded, leaving only resignation and exhaustion. Talinir dropped the dagger. Marshal let go of his wrist. Talinir nodded, then stretched himself back out on his bedroll.

  Marshal picked up the dagger and set it aside. He felt confused. When his own thoughts drove him near the same point Talinir had just faced, he didn’t want anyone to talk him out of it. Yet he had now done that for someone else. Maybe he did want someone to stop him, after all. It occurred to him Talinir also led a solitary life, away from others. He wasn’t cursed, but his job as a warden kept him from being around anyone else that might care for him.

  For the rest of the day, he did not let Talinir out of his sight. When Aelia and Victor returned in the early evening, he welcomed them, but continued his vigil. Talinir had shown friendship to him and he would do the same.

  •••••

  Talinir seemed improved the next morning. He wasn’t his old self yet, and acted exceptionally tired, but got to his feet first thing. He insisted on moving on, and Aelia agreed this time. They broke camp and headed east, guided by the warden.

  Marshal felt extra tired himself. He had slept little. Someone had to keep an eye on Talinir, and he was the only one who understood the threat.

  The day passed. They made steady but slow progress. Talinir seemed unsure of himself more often than not. Aelia helped him keep his focus on moving east.

  Somewhere around midday, Marshal caught a glimpse of movement in the trees to his left. He stopped and let the other three keep moving. A shadow shifted behind a tree. He stared at the tree, but nothing else happened. Cautious, he moved on.

  Around an hour later, Marshal again saw movement out of the corner of his eye. This time, he pretended not to notice and waited until he saw it again. He stopped and bent down as if he had discovered a problem with his boot. While adjusting it, he tilted his head until he got a clearer look.

  An eidolon stood five feet away.

  Marshal jumped back up and drew his sword. At his movement, the shadowy creature darted away and vanished among the trees again.

  “Marshal! Are you coming?” Victor called.

  He sheathed his sword and hurried to catch up. Victor waited for him. Marshal considered trying to explain, but decided against it. Too complicated. He would have to keep his own watch.

  The rest of the day proceeded without incident. Marshal did not see any more of the eidolon.

  When evening came, Talinir announced he would be taking the first watch while the others slept. Aelia looked at him skeptically, but agreed.

  Marshal prepared as if he were going to sleep, but once Aelia and Victor were down, he sat back up. Talinir noticed right away.

  “You don’t have to watch me, Marshal,” he said.

  Marshal looked at him.

  Talinir gave him a smile that spoke of pain and resignation. “I promise you. I will not try to harm myself.”

  Marshal raised an eyebrow.

  “I have told you how important an Eldani promise is, haven’t I? To break it would be like trying to break the Binding between you and Victor.”

  Marshal accepted that and returned to his bedroll. For now, he would trust the warden. Even so, he slept lightly, troubled by visions of shadowy figures.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  CHANGE SEEMED TO come to Zes Sivas on a far too regular basis. Seri wondered if it had always been like this. Surely not. But things had been so crazy since she arrived. Historic, really. She arrived here hoping to make history by becoming the first female Master mage. Meanwhile, history had its own ideas. It hurried along with many other things that didn’t even necessarily include her.

  “That’s so rude,” she said aloud.

  “What did I say?” Adhi asked, looking up anxiously.

  “Not you.” Seri sighed. The new acolyte could be so nervous, so afraid to offend.

  “Seri speaks like that sometimes,” Jamana said, gesturing with a broom. “She speaks to others not in the room, I am thinking.”

  Seri stuck out her tongue at him. Jamana chuckled. Adhi only looked confused. The three of them had been assigned to clean the special chambers set aside for the Lords who would be arriving soon for the Passing. Each of the suites had an antechamber for meetings, a second room that could be used for any purpose, and a large bedroom.

  Adhi wiped down a large desk. “This is much better than the work I’ve had for the past few days,” he said, glancing around to see if they heard him.

  “Copying names of dead people? Been there!” Seri sang out. She fluffed a pillow and set it in place. “Whose room is this again?”

  “Lord Varion of Varioch!” Jamana said. “You should pay more attention.”

  “Oh, right. He’s the one who asked for special meals delivered privately,” Seri recalled. “I guess he’s too good to eat with the other Lords and Masters.”

  “Master Ganak says all of the Lords are selfish and obnoxious,” Adhi said. He articulated everything slowly and carefully, as if he were afraid of using the wrong word.

  “Let’s see,” Seri said. “They each have incredible magical power at their beck and call. They each rule over hundreds of thousands of people. And they’re each completely free of the curses that threaten everyone else in Antises. How could they possibly be selfish and obnoxious?”

  “You… are being sarcastic, yes?”

  “Yes, Adhi. That was sarcasm.” She shot a look at Jamana, who shrugged. Adhi was incredibly clueless at times. It made him so difficult to like.

  Master Hain had tried approaching Ganak again regarding Dravid, but to no avail. The new Master insisted that Adhi was his one and only acolyte. He took no interest in Dravid or his fate. Angered by this attitude, Master Hain had taken over Dravid’s training. They were working together right now, while Seri worked on this assignment.

  Seri looked at the top of a bookcase. How did so much dust accumulate in only one year’s time? “I wonder…” she mused. “If I infused the wood with just the right amount of magic, maybe all of the dirt would vibrate right off.”

  “And maybe you would blow it up!” Jamana said. “This is not the time to be experimenting, Seri-Belit!”

  “Seri… Belit?” Adhi repeated.

  Seri clenched her teeth. “Adhi. You are to forget you ever heard that name. Jamana. When you least expect it, you should be expecting your undergarments drawer to blow up in your face.”

  “I should expect it when I least expect it?”

  “Exactly.”

  Jamana chuckled and continued to move the broom.

  “I think we’re pretty much done in here,” Adhi said after a few minutes. He looked around. “Unless you can see anything else?”

  Seri took a look around the room. Her eyes were drawn a small metal grid in the wall near the ceiling. She and Dravid had looked down into one of these rooms through one of those grids. The crawl tunnels circled ove
r all of them. That might be interesting.

  “No, let’s move on to the next one.”

  Jamana led the way out and down the hall to the next suite of rooms. “This one is for Lord Enuru of Arazu,” he said, throwing the door open.

  “And Lady Lilitu,” Seri added.

  “He’ll bring his wife with him?” Adhi asked. “Is that… normal?”

  Seri bit her lip and let Jamana respond. “Is not unusual,” he said. “Some Lords bring their whole families. Plus servants and so on. Master Korda called it poorly controlled chaos. I am looking forward to it.”

  “Because this place is so quiet, otherwise,” Seri said. Pause. “That was sarcasm too, Adhi.”

  “Yes, I understood that one.”

  Seri grimaced and set to work. This room would be spotless when she was done. Nothing less would work for the Lady Lilitu. Seri still read her encouraging note almost every morning. The lady was an inspiration and always would be. She had single-handedly reformed Arazu’s entire education system. If not for her changes, Seri would not have been able to graduate and seek her current position.

  “Lilitu,” Adhi said. “I have heard that name. Isn’t she the one they say consults spirits?”

  Seri bristled. “That’s a slanderous lie!” she snapped. “People are just jealous of her success!”

  Adhi backed away. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he said in a rush. “It was just something I heard. I’m so sorry!”

  “You should be. You don’t hear me repeating stories about Kuktarma’s royal family. Theon knows I’ve heard enough of them.”

  “Actually, in Kuktarma, we take great delight in repeating stories of Lord Meluhha’s family. His sons are famous for the number of women they, ah, have, um…” Adhi trailed off.

  They worked in silence for a while. Seri was dusting again when she felt a sudden vibration gently push her feather duster. She looked in the direction from which it came. Jamana lowered his hand and tipped his head toward Adhi.

  The new acolyte scrubbed at a desk as hard as he could, but he was hunched over, looking like a dog afraid of getting whipped. Seri sighed.

  “Adhi, I’m sorry too,” she said. “We have cultural and personal differences that we don’t know about. They may seem strange, but it’s part of what makes us different. We shouldn’t assume things about others’ intent. I’m sorry for being offended.”

  “Oh. Ah, thank you. I was just thinking about how hard it will be for the new King to deal with things like this. Do you suppose he’ll have special advisors to help him understand all of the cultures?”

  Seri blinked. She had assumed Adhi was cowering because of her anger, but he had already moved past it to contemplate deeper things. There was a mind hiding behind that narrow face.

  •••••

  As it turned out, Lord Rajwir of Ch’olan was the first to arrive. He reached Zes Sivas a full two and a half weeks before the Passing.

  Seri regretted that she knew so little of Ch’olan society and customs. She found them fascinating. The most isolated of the six lands, Ch’olan had long kept to itself with little interaction with the others. Lord Rajwir was reportedly working to diminish that isolation. By arriving early, he no doubt intended to signal his receptivity to negotiation with the other Lords.

  The Lord stepped off the boat clothed simply but regally. He wore an enormous red feather headdress, a simple robe open at the chest, a breechclout, and elaborate sandals. Myriads of precious gems decorated all of his clothing. Enormous jade earrings completed the ensemble.

  Before greeting any of the Masters, Lord Rajwir stepped back and allowed his wife to debark. She stepped in front of him and glared at those assembled.

  Seri caught her breath. In historical readings, she had sometimes come across a description of someone as a “warrior queen.” Lady Ajaw of Ch’olan owned that title.

  Like her husband, she wore a large feather headdress, though hers was primarily green. Her calf-length skirt was simple, but not restrictive. Her upper chest was wrapped firmly in place, leaving her stomach bare down to her hips. Seri swallowed hard at the scandal of it. She carried a large, round battle shield painted in swirls of green and orange. Her right hand rested on the pommel of a short sword tucked into her belt. She wore no shoes.

  “If we didn’t have a group of Master mages standing between us and her,” Dravid whispered, “I’d be terrified right now.”

  “I am terrified even with them standing over there,” Jamana said.

  “Stop. She’s magnificent,” Seri said.

  Six or seven attendants and scribes, all male, followed the Lord and Lady. But four females, armed similar to their Lady, stayed close, apparently as bodyguards. Seri wondered if one or more of them would be guarding Master Tzoyet. It had been weeks since the Masters had requested protection.

  Master Tzoyet stepped forward to greet them and was treated with great deference. He introduced the other Masters, and the group made its way into the citadel. The acolytes stood aside and watched them.

  “The power…” Dravid said.

  Seri nodded. As Lord Rajwir passed by, she felt an immense magical power radiating from him. It wasn’t quite as strong as the power of Zes Sivas itself, but felt very similar. Not at all like the maelstrom of Curasir. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen the Eldani for days.

  “Imagine what it is like when he’s at home,” Jamana said. “Here, he is weakened.”

  Dravid gaped at him. “That was weak?”

  Jamana nodded. “The Lords have strong Bindings toward their homes, stronger than the average person. That makes them weaker when they come here.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Seri said. Her own Binding toward home had faded almost completely away weeks ago.

  The warrior girls passed by the acolytes. Seri caught the eye of one of them, a black-haired young woman who fixed her gaze on Seri, then nodded as if in approval.

  “If the rest of the arrivals are this dramatic, it will be an interesting time for sure,” Jamana said.

  “Just wait until Lord Tyrr arrives with the new King,” Dravid said. “That will make this look like nothing.”

  Seri looked back out across the sea. For her part, she couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

  •••••

  Seri examined the book on her stand. She had worked her way through most ofThe Vicissitudes of Wild Magic and its Practitioners, and wasn’t much interested in anything else Master Sekou had to say. She had something else in mind now. Earlier, Master Hain had casually mentioned how the magic of Zes Sivas penetrated everything on the island, and thus everything absorbed some of that magic to one degree or another. In her earliest days of learning magic, she would not even be able to detect such a thing. But now, it might be different.

  She blinked a few times and activated her star-sight. It seemed to be getting easier and easier to control. She leaned in close to the book and stared at it. For a long time, she saw nothing. A movement near the book’s spine caught her attention. She squinted and looked closer. A pair of tiny beams of light radiated out from the book’s spine. Barely an inch long, they faded in and out from view.

  Seri reached out and twisted the nearest beam, bright yellow, onto her finger and pulled. It faded into her finger with a tremor. Immediately, she felt a strong sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. At the same time, an image of an elderly hand closing the book flashed into her mind. Was this Master Sekou completing the book? His satisfaction at accomplishing this task?

  Thrilled, Seri grabbed for the second beam, dark blue. At once, a new image flashed across her mind, an image of an old man in mage’s robes writing at a desk. He consulted some other open books, then continued his own writing.

  Seri gasped and stepped back. It was Master Sekou! It had to be! The yellow beam had shown his happiness, his emotion, while the dark blue had shown the actual act. Amazing!

  The applications of this magic could be enormous. Seri could find out the history of a
nything on the island, if it had absorbed enough magic. She could uncover mysteries that… She stopped as a thrilling but terrifying thought struck her.

  Anything that had absorbed magic. Mysteries.

  Seri wrapped her arms around herself to stop a tremble. Could it actually be that simple? There was only one way to find out, but the prospect frightened her more than she wanted to admit. She glanced out her bedroom window and saw the darkness of early evening. At this time, almost everyone in the citadel would be in their own rooms, studying or preparing for bed.

  She took a deep breath and picked up a lantern. Leaving her room, she made her way down one hallway after another. The confusing tangle of the citadel’s passages almost comforted her, teasing that she might never make it to her destination. Maybe that would be for the best.

  As she passed near the Masters’ quarters, she tried to keep her footsteps quiet. Disturbing one of them would unnerve her enough to abandon this idea. She wished she could have brought Jamana along for support, but he might try to talk her out of it.

  Beyond the stairs to the Inner Sanctum, beyond the Lords’ temporary quarters, she entered the Citadel of Kings. Even though nothing changed, she felt a shiver run through her body. Almost no one entered this building. No one needed to, after all. But the basement storage room she sought was here.

  She lost her way, but returned back through two intersections and finally found her destination. Standing at the top of a tall, dark stairway, she tried to stifle more trembles. This must be the place. She took one step down and then another. Step by step, she descended. She couldn’t be sure, but this seemed like the lowest basement in the entire complex.

  That actually made sense, considering its current usage. At the bottom of the steps, Seri lifted her lantern high. The small basement was empty except for a single table, on which lay a long, tightly bound body.