The Lure of Fools

by Jason James King

  “How do you know when you are weary?” Kairah walked to a vanity in the corner of the bath chamber and began to examine the various soaps and perfumes.

  “You don’t seem tired,” she said, turning in the tub to follow Kairah’s movements.

  “It is an inner weariness,” she sighed again. “Hard to explain to one who has not experienced it themselves.”

  “Can you take energy from talises? If you’re running out, I mean.”

  “Such a thing is not possible.” Kairah shook her head while examining a bottle of White Rose perfume. Extremely expensive, but the best Maely had ever smelled. She had ordered it as part of her effort to deliberately spend as much of Kairah’s coin as she could. She knew it was spiteful and childish, but she didn’t care.

  “Apeiron can only exist in its pure form inside the crystalline formations you call wells.”

  “You call them something different?” Maely asked.

  Kairah nodded. “Aeose. It means heart of life. Every talis has a shard harvested from an Aeose, which allows it to draw from an Apeira well, the size and quality of the cut affecting how much that shard can hold. Talises are crafted to use the same spells repeatedly and they draw their energy from the shard in order to do so. The energy is poured directly into the spell, at which point it is expended.”

  “But you draw from wells too. Do you have a shard inside you?”

  “After a manner of speaking,” Kairah said as she unstopped the glass vile of White Rose and sniffed at it. “Allosian blood contains an uncountable number of tiny Aeose shards. This allows us to draw on an Aeose and hold a charge until we expend it.” She re-stoppered the vile and set it back down on the vanity.

  Maely opened her mouth to ask another question, but Kairah cut her off. “Why did you persuade Jekaran not to help me?”

  That soured her mood in spite of the bath. “Because he’s only a sixteen-year-old farmer!” she snapped. “He’s never been to the capital and he doesn’t know how to fight!”

  “You saw firsthand that, with his sword talis, Jekaran is more than a match for even the fiercest warriors.”

  “But using it isn’t good for him.” Maely felt her cheeks redden and not from the hot bath water. “You said so yourself.”

  Kairah shook her head. “No. I said it would be dangerous if he did not learn to restrain himself. I could help him achieve some degree of control over the talis.”

  Maely didn’t know how to answer, so she retorted, “Why do you want his help?”

  “I have already explained my reasons to you—twice.”

  “I-I,” Maely stammered.

  Kairah turned to look at her again. “I assure you, Maely, I am not competing against you for Jekaran’s affections.”

  Maely was dumbstruck. How did she know? “That’s not why,” she quickly denied. “Jek’s like my brother.”

  “Then why do you not wish him to travel with me?”

  Damn you! She felt like a cornered animal. “It’s just not right.” The excuse sounded weak, even to her ears.

  Kairah sighed and left the room.

  That night Maely lay awake, unable to sleep, despite the thoroughly relaxing bath. She had refused to speak another word to Kairah, so that the Allosian woman would have a perfect understanding of just how angry she was.

  How dare she speak to me as if I’m a love-struck child!

  Never mind Kairah was almost a century old, or that she was exactly right.

  Maely turned her head on her pillow to check on the Allosian woman. Her eyes were shut, and her breathing steady, but Maely had no other indication if she was really sleeping. When it was just the two of them traveling, Kairah always had a difficult time finding sleep, claiming she wasn’t used to it.

  How can someone not be used to sleep? Maely scoffed. Still, she had waited an extra hour just to be sure.

  Satisfied, Maely slipped out of bed and quietly made her way over to the wall by the room’s door. Hanging on a peg was Kairah’s sable cloak. Maely shot a furtive glance back at her while she found the cloak’s outer pockets. After a thorough search, she checked the inside of the fur cloak. It had four small pockets, a selling point the shopkeeper had continued to remind Maely of when she had taken it from him. When under her power, the man had seemed almost desperate to please her.

  Maely checked inside the first pocket, then the second pocket, and then she found it! She pulled out her mother’s ring and hurried back to her bed.

  None too soon, because she heard Kairah ask, “What are you doing up?”

  “Privy,” Maely breathed out quickly, then rolled over in her bed so her back was to her.

  I have it back! She exulted. Not to use it on Jekaran, she told herself, but because it’s all I have left of my mother.

  The lie didn’t alleviate any of Maely’s guilt. She knew why she wanted the ring, and it stung, but she buried the guilt within more self-deceptions.

  The next morning, she was wakened by stern knocking on their chamber door. She looked over to find Kairah lifting her head from the pillow.

  We both overslept, she realized. I guess that means she’s not so perfect after all.

  “Hey!” Jekaran called. “We got to get to the docks early if we want to find anything nicer than a fishing boat.”

  Maely jumped out of bed, remembering at the last moment she still had her mother’s ring clenched in her fist. She hid her hand beneath a set of new clothes the servants had brought to her the night before and ran into the bath chamber where she slammed the door closed.

  She heard Kairah let Jekaran into the room. She didn’t like to leave the two of them alone, but it couldn’t be helped. She placed her mother’s ring on the vanity and lifted her shift over her head to pull on a fresh set of underclothes. She stuffed herself into a corset, and then a knee length, sky blue sundress. Settling onto the toilet, she pulled stockings up her legs and slipped into some new lady’s boots. A choker wrapped around her neck, and then she began to tie a ribbon in her hair.

  She stopped and looked at the ribbon, realizing buying it had been a waste as she no longer had hair long enough to wear it.

  Oh well, she shrugged and tossed the ribbon onto the floor; it was Kairah’s money, not hers anyway.

  When finished, she slipped the ring into a pocket and examined herself in the mirror. She had planned to apply face paint, but she would have to let that go because of the time. She turned, looking at her back in the mirror before turning back and smiling at her reflection in approval.

  She had made certain to pick clothes that would make her look decidedly feminine again.

  Now to see if Jek would notice.

  She opened the door and unobtrusively stepped out of the bath chamber. Jekaran was casually shouldering their supply pack and talking to Kairah with that fool look in his eyes again, the one that meant he had fallen under the spell of her beauty.

  Maely pointedly cleared her throat and they both turned to look at her.

  Jekaran raised his eyebrows. “Tired of looking like a boy, huh?”

  Not exactly what she had hoped he would say, but at least he noticed.

  Idiot boy!

  “Let’s get going,” she said as she grabbed Kairah’s cloak from off of the wall and tossed it to her.

  Well, more tossed at than tossed to. Of course, the Allosian woman gracefully caught it. Too bad, she thought.

  “Has Karak already left?” Maely asked.

  “Just before dawn,” Jekaran said. “He’ll be waiting for us a mile or so out of the city.”

  The three of them stepped out of the room and Jekaran stepped aside for Kairah to take the lead. She dipped her head deferentially and walked out. Maely was about to do the same when Jekaran stepped right in front of her and moved to walk at Kairah’s side.

  Maely clenched her teeth as she surreptitiously felt in her pocket for her mother’s ring. She had half a mind to put it on and command Kairah to mess herself in front of Jekaran. See how beautiful he would think she
was when she reeked like a latrine.

  She didn’t do it of course, but the fact that she could made her smile.

  Jekaran inhaled indulgently. The smell of the sea combined with the call of gulls, and the gentle morning breeze was glorious. “I think I was born to be a sailor!”

  Maely snorted.

  That nettled him. “You don’t think I could do it?” he asked sharply.

  “I think,” Mae said, “that any man who longs to spend months at a time alone with other men at sea is the same kind of man who likes to wear his mother’s lace and face paint.”

  He couldn’t help but laugh. “I’d never thought of it that way.”

  Mae’s expression softened and she turned her face to hide a reluctant smile from him.

  They were walking the docks now, making their way toward a large ship called the Queen’s Honor.

  Did Aiestal even have a queen? Jekaran wondered. He guessed it was just a name to make people think it was vessel for lords and ladies. That’s what drew Jekaran to it when he had checked the daily roster, and so far it appeared to live up to its name. The ship looked cleaner and better cared for than many of the other vessels.

  Traveling by sea wasn’t the only way to reach Aiested, but it was the fastest, and likely the safest. While piracy was always a danger, it was much less likely that your ship would be boarded than you would be waylaid while traveling the roads.

  He idly wondered if his uncle had ever been a pirate. Did the Rikujo attack ships? The thought brought his worries for Ez’s, and now Mull’s, safety back to the forefront of his thoughts. I hope Irvis has found them. I hope they’re ok.

  Jekaran, the sword suddenly said to his mind. Danger!

  He froze, hand immediately going to the bag on his back. It had actually spoken to him again, this time calling him by name. That was something it never had done before.

  “Jek,” he heard Maely scold. “Stop gawking at those ships!”

  He was about to call for both women to stop so he could tell them what had just happened when a familiar, nasally voice made his heart sink.

  “Thought you could escape by sea, did you?” Gymal said from behind him.

  Jekaran whipped around to see the short, balding man emerge from a crowd of sailors. Five armored soldiers, one of which was Hort., flanked him.

  “Jekaran!” He heard Mae shout.

  “You look surprised to see me, Jekaran.” Gymal smirked.

  A sudden urge to draw the sword from his pack assailed Jekaran, but he beat it back with a mental countdown starting from one thousand and decrementing by three’s just as Kairah had instructed.

  “How did you find me?” he said as he took a step back, surreptitiously waving a hand for Maely and Kairah to do the same.

  Gymal held up a small rod with a needle sticking out of the top and a round amethyst capping its bottom. Jekaran’s hand shot to the back of his neck where Gymal had pricked him with the talis. Just in case you slip away, he remembered Gymal saying to him.

  “This is a Blood Seeker.” Gymal stared at the rod in his hand. “Once it tastes your blood, it will allow its bearer to track you anywhere in the world. Up until now, I’ve only used it to find escaped ghern, but I am told it was made for tracking people. I’d say it works rather well, wouldn’t you?”

  “I don’t want any trouble,” Jekaran said as he shot a glance at Hort. The man grinned, and for the first time Jekaran noticed the mercenary’s nose was crooked in a way it hadn’t been before. Did I do that?

  “Jek,” he heard Mae squeak.

  He turned to look at her. She was looking at something beyond Gymal and his soldiers. Jekaran followed her gaze and inwardly cringed when he realized she was looking at armored soldiers, at least twenty of them, quickly pushing through the crowd as they made their way toward him.

  Apparently Gymal had noticed what Jekaran was looking at, because he smiled and said, “After hearing what you did to my men when you escaped, I decided to take some extra precautions. So, I enlisted the aid of the Imarin city guard.”

  Jekaran’s fear slowly began evolving into anger.

  Fight, the sword told him.

  “Nine hundred sixty-seven, nine hundred sixty-four,” Jekaran found himself whispering.

  “Jekaran.” Mae anxiously grabbed his elbow.

  “Nine hundred sixty-one,” he said a bit louder.

  “Jekaran,” Kairah said warningly, “Remember, you, not it, are in control.”

  “Nine hundred fifty-eight,” he raised his voice louder.

  Gymal’s smile slowly faded “What is this you are saying?”

  “Nine hundred fifty-five,” Jekaran shouted.

  Gymal nervously backed away, “Take them!”

  “NINE HUNDRED FIFTY-TWO!” he screamed and drew the sword from over his shoulder in one quick motion.

  He was just about to leap forward into an attack when an explosion erupted from behind Gymal’s men. Screams broke out as people on the docks started scrambling away from the flames. A second explosion erupted, throwing armored bodies into the air and scattering the Imarin city guard, a few of which had been set on fire and were running to dive into the ocean. More screams and chaos followed and the wooden boardwalk of the docks themselves were now aflame. Sailors and dock workers were running about and shouting “fire!” and calling for help.

  That’s when a wave of cold, primal fear stabbed Jekaran in the chest, so strong he stumbled backward, a furious thumping in his chest rising to pound his eardrums. Sweat ran down the small of his back as he trembled, and it felt as though he couldn’t inhale enough air. All Jekaran wanted to do was fall to the ground and curl into a ball.

  He did fall to the ground, but didn’t curl up. Instead, he went down on one knee, as though he were bowing before royalty, his body and mind were paralyzed with fear and panic.

  Somewhere in a world far away, he heard Maely scream. Jekaran managed to force his head up and that’s when he saw a figure walking straight out of the flames in front of him, as though the man were a demon from hell itself. It was the man with the mismatched eyes—Kaul.

  How did he know to follow me? Did he torture it out of Ez? Was Ez dead? Those thoughts only served to augment the panic Jekaran already felt, and it was all he could do to keep from retching.

  Kaul grinned as he raised an open hand, the palm aimed at Jekaran. An eruption of fire burst from Kaul’s hand and roared toward his face; he could feel the heat radiated by the fireball intensify as it flew at him.

  Time slowed down and Jekaran felt himself launching from the ground. Independent of his own power to physically command his body, Jekaran’s right arm whipped the sword up in a sharp, vertical motion.

  Heat seared Jekaran’s face as the fireball exploded only a foot in front of him. He was hurled backward to the ground by the force of the blast, and felt his head strike cobblestone. He quickly opened his eyes and his face felt as it did when he took too much sun in the fields. Had the fireball hit him in the face? No, he realized. If it had, my face would be charred.

  Then what had happened?

  He looked to the sword that he still clutched in his hand. While unmarred, the blade was smoldering. Divine Mother! I caught the fireball on my sword.

  Jekaran quickly rose to find Kaul striding toward him. The man’s grin was gone, replaced by a look of rage as hot as the fire he threw.

  Jekaran was about to leap at him when the cold fear again gripped him by the heart, a vice-like pressure holding him in place. Kaul raised his hand and launched another ball of fire at him. It flew five feet before slamming into an invisible wall and exploding.

  Abruptly, the intense fear was gone and Jekaran could breathe freely again. He looked to his right where he found Kairah standing, a look of prayerful concentration on her face.

  She was spell-casting to shield them from Kaul’s attack.

  “I am sorry, Jekaran. That man’s fear aura caught me off guard,” she said in a distracted tone.

  “Fear au
ra?” Kaul was using a talis to make him afraid? It made sense. That had been what he had felt the first time he saw the man back in Genra, except this was much more potent.

  “I am countering it,” she said as they both backed away.

  “We have to run!” Mae said as she yanked on Jekaran’s left arm.

  FIGHT the sword urged.

  Another fireball crashed into Kairah’s invisible shield.

  “No!” Jekaran hissed as he twirled the sword in his hand and made to sprint toward Kaul. “I’m going to kill him!” His voice was far more eager than he expected. I’m in control, he told himself.

  “No!” Kairah snapped.

  Jekaran looked at her. “I can take him!”

  “But I do not have unlimited energy in this place,” Kairah said while keeping her eyes forward, her brow creased from mental exertion. “These spells are taking a lot of my Apeiron and I sense this man is unusually formidable.”

  Jekaran looked back at Kaul and gritted his teeth as he fought back the waves of temptation the sword was continually throwing at him. That’s when he saw Hort and three mercenaries charge Kaul from behind. How had they overcome Kaul’s fear magic? Perhaps it had something to do with their training as soldiers, he thought. Could I learn to do that?

  To Jekaran’s horror, Kaul did not fall to Hort’s attack. He didn’t even flinch when the big mercenary brought his sword down on his shoulder. There had been a flash of purple light and Hort’s sword bounced back as though the man had struck a rock. Hort stumbled backward, his face the very picture of shock.

  “Divine Mother!” Jekaran heard Maely swear.

  Just as the first of Hort’s men made to strike, Kaul spun to his left and backhanded the soldier. The man cried out as he crashed to the ground, his cheek bearing a severe burn. The next soldier swung, and although his blade caught Kaul on the arm, a manifestation of crackling purple light hovering an inch above Kaul’s skin prevented it from making contact. The man’s eyes widened and Jekaran saw Kaul shoulder into him as he rammed his right fist into the man’s chest plate. There was an explosion, and the soldier was thrown back into the man behind him. When he landed, Jekaran could see that his breastplate bore a blackened scorch mark.