The Lure of Fools

by Jason James King

  Kairah found herself vomiting on the polished marble floor of Shivara’s study. Tears poured down her cheeks and blood ran from her nose. She looked up to find Shivara staring down at her. There was no empathy or even the slightest bit of concern in the oracle’s face–just coldness.

  “Did you see him, Kairah?”

  An invisible dagger of ice stabbed Kairah square in the chest. She now knew why the face of the blonde woman from the vision looked so familiar; it was the very same face she was staring at.

  Mulladin stared down at Jekaran’s catatonic face. His eyes blinked but were unfocused and empty. He breathed, but with it came drool bubbling out the side of his mouth. It made Mulladin want to weep. He’d always looked up to Jekaran, a man younger than he was, but someone who always treated him like a brother. Jekaran defended Mulladin when the other children in the village bullied him. He wrestled with Mulladin and helped him with his chores. He never showed irritation with Mulladin, though he knew that in his dim state he’d sometimes been overbearing and needy. Jekaran was a true friend, his best friend. It was heartbreaking to see the normally active, vibrant, and expressive young man lying in a state of living death.

  That is one handsome guy, the sword said.

  Mulladin would’ve laughed if he weren’t fighting so hard to choke back tears.

  “Mulladin, how did you find that?” Irvis motioned at the sword. “How did you find us? Where’s Karak?”

  Mulladin shook his head. “We don’t have time for the story. We’ve got over a dozen Allosian soldiers hunting for us, and they are probably pretty angry. As soon as they figure out where we’ve gone they’ll be here in a flash…literally.”

  Irvis’s face paled. “What have you done?”

  Mulladin flashed Irvis a wicked grin and then knelt next to Jekaran’s body. Gymal’s muscular mercenary put a non-threatening, but very firm hand on Mulladin’s shoulder. “What’re you about, boy?”

  Boy?

  Mulladin threw off the mercenary’s hand and stared him down. “I’m trying to help him.” He glanced about the garden. “Where’s Kairah?”

  “We haven’t seen her in days,” Graelle said.

  “Damn it!” Mulladin shouted.

  “Mulladin.” Irvis knelt beside him. “We tried to have Jekaran healed, and Allose’s most powerful healers couldn’t restore him. They said there was a piece of his mind that was missing.”

  “I know!” Mulladin held up the sword. “It’s in here!”

  Irvis glanced at Graelle. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s true,” Keesa said. “My cousin’s soul is trapped within the blade.”

  “Did she say cousin?” Irvis asked.

  “And just who are you, anyway?” Gymal snapped.

  “I’m the one who helped save your ass!” Keesa glanced down at the little lord, who was standing only a few paces away. The contrast was humorous, but again Mulladin didn’t feel like laughing, not after seeing Jek like this.

  To his credit, Gymal didn’t back down. “And I’m the one who helped save yours!”

  “We don’t have time for this!” Mulladin shouted. His anger was rising quickly and frayed nerves, exhaustion, and eighteen years’ worth of new emotions all at once was making it very difficult to control.

  As if to punctuate his words, a talis mounted above the entrance to the atrium chimed and a disembodied voice asked, “Lady Kairah?”

  “Divine Mother! They’ve found us!” He glanced down at the silver bracelet he wore on his skinny wrist–one of their stolen displacement talises. Gymal looked up with wide eyes and a paling face. “Someone’s activated a warding stone. We’re trapped!”

  “We can’t teleport out, but that also means they can’t teleport in,” Keesa said.

  “Until they’ve assessed our situation and are ready to strike,” Hort said.

  “You, girl.” Graelle pointed at Keesa. “Go answer that and pretend to be Kairah.”

  “What?” Keesa shot an incredulous look at Mulladin. “I don’t even know the woman!”

  “Just talk like a noble!” Graelle snapped. “And try to convince them we’re not here. Stall them as long as possible.”

  Keesa’s ponytail wagged as she nodded and hurried off.

  “Lord Gymal.” Graelle pointed at the weaselly little lord. “Go search this place for talises. Find something we can use to defend ourselves.”

  Hort met Mulladin’s eyes. “He has the sword. Can’t we use that?”

  Mulladin shook his head. “We’re going to need it to heal Jek.”

  Gymal scowled at Graelle but moved off to do as she’d ordered. “Come help me, mercenary,” he called back.

  “Find them your own damn self!”

  Gymal stopped, turned, and shot a surprised look at Hort. It disappeared as the little lord’s face reddened. “How dare you defy me? I hired you to―”

  “I resign!” Hort shouted.

  Gymal blinked stupidly. “You what?”

  Hort turned around and took a threatening step toward Gymal. “I’ve had enough of you, you whiney little troll! I’m done!”

  Gymal lingered, his expression vacillating between rage and shock.

  “Now get your bugger-lovin’ ass out there and find us talises!”

  That made Gymal turn and hurry out of the atrium.

  Oh, that was delicious! The sword chuckled. I think I’m starting to like that big mercenary.

  Mulladin set the sword on Jekaran’s chest and picked up his hand and placed it on the handle.

  Nothing happened.

  Mull? What’re you doing?

  “Come on!” He’d hoped simple contact in the presence of an Apeira well would re-bond Jekaran to the sword and fix his mind. “Come on, Jek! We need you!”

  He grimaced. Was he bonded to the sword? Did they need to break the bond before Jekaran could reconnect with it? Linked to the sword he was, but it was a tenuous connection and Jek could withdraw his consciousness at any time, especially when… “Ez!” Mulladin blurted out.

  As always, the psychic presence of the sword’s consciousness winked out, and Mulladin was left alone with his thoughts. He waited patiently for the sword to reawaken, but when the round amethyst started to glow again, nothing changed. “Come on!”

  “No, they doth not be with me here in my domicile,” Keesa intoned from several feet away.

  “By Rasheera’s breasts!” Graelle swore. “She’s as terrible as a first week girl feigning ecstasy. They’ll know we’re here for sure!”

  Irvis placed a hand on Mulladin’s shoulder. “I might be able to help.”

  Mulladin looked up at the chubby monk. “How?”

  Irvis produced a small sliver ring from his trouser pocket. It was a unique design, with etched flowers on the band. Mulladin recognized it immediately. “That’s the ring that healed me.”

  Irvis nodded. “It didn’t work the first time we tried it on him, but maybe now that you’ve brought the sword back…”

  Mulladin stood. “Do it!”

  Irvis sucked in a deep breath and nodded. He twisted the ring onto a chubby finger and then knelt next to Jekaran and placed a hand on the boy’s forehead. Irvis closed his eyes and furrowed his brow. Mulladin held his breath and watched as Irvis ministered for a full minute before the monk exhaled and sat back on his haunches. He shook his head.

  “Dammit!” Mulladin tore a branch off a small tree and hurled it at a glass wall. The glass didn’t shatter or even crack, which only aggravated his anger.

  “I’m sorry.” A tear rolled down Irvis’s cheek. “I can sense that all the fragments of his mind are there, they just won’t fuse back together. I don’t understand why.”

  Mulladin fell to his knees. “All that for nothing!” He bent over and hugged his middle, trying to warm away the sudden onset of cold nausea.

  What’s wrong, Mull? The sword asked.

  Why could he still hear it? Hadn’t he broken their link? Mulladin’s ignorance of talis-craft and the arc
ane in general had never been so humiliating.

  “I need you to rejoin with your body.”

  My body is a sword.

  Mulladin pointed at Jekaran’s still form. “No, that’s your body!”

  You’re talking crazy, Mull.

  “Don’t you remember being human? Don’t you remember growing up with me and Maely in Genra? Have you forgotten our lives together? How can you not remember Harvest Festival three years ago when you had me help you pour a bucket of freezing water on Ez, and…”

  The sword’s presence again vanished from Mulladin’s mind. He shot a look at Irvis.

  “What?” the chubby monk asked.

  “Every time I mention Ez to the sword, it retreats from my mind for a moment. When it returns, it’s like it’s forgotten recent events and everything except who I am.”

  “It’s the trauma of causing Argentus’s death.” Irvis nodded to himself. “I’ve seen something like this before. A man brought his wife to the monastery. She was catatonic, and he explained she’d been that way since accidentally smothering her newborn child in her sleep.”

  “How’d you help her?”

  “Well, a regular talis healing wouldn’t work. They never do on ailments of the mind. So we summoned the handmaidens from the Rasha convent, and they took her in and cared for her until the brotherhood could requisition a soul speaker–a kind of talis that lets humans communicate psychically.”

  “Did that work?”

  Irvis shook his head. “The monk who went inside her mind found that she did not want to come back from her broken state. To do so, she’d have to face the pain and guilt of what she’d done.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “She eventually died while still young. The sorrow was just too much for her.”

  “Well, that’s not very encouraging.”

  Irvis frowned at him. “Jekaran is made of stronger stuff. If we could communicate with his core consciousness, and convince him that Argentus’s death wasn’t his fault, he might come back to us.”

  Mulladin pounded the ground with a fist. “Only we don’t have a soul speaker!”

  Irvis stared at the sword resting on Jekaran’s chest. “We may not need one.”

  Mulladin followed his gaze to the sword. “I just told you! Every time I bring up Ez, Jekaran hides and forgets.”

  Keesa ran over to them. “They saw through my rouse. Peacekeepers are already on their way.”

  “Well maybe if you would’ve left out the word domicile! I thought you were training to impersonate a noble?”

  “My focus was on the education. I hadn’t learned the acting part yet!”

  Mull! The sword said as it reawakened.

  Irvis grabbed Mulladin’s hand and placed it on the amethyst jewel in the pommel of the sword. Then he brought Jekaran’s hand up and similarly positioned it.

  “What are you doing?”

  Irvis laid his hand adorned with the silver ring on top of both Jek’s and Mulladin’s hands. “I’m going to start infusing the sword with energy.”

  “You can’t do that with a talis,” Keesa objected.

  “I can with this one!” Irvis met Mulladin’s eyes. “I’m going to try to heal the connection. If this works, you might be able to communicate with Jekaran. If so, then try to convince him to let me heal him. If he allows it, I think I can bring him back.”

  “That’s a lot of ifs, Irvis.”

  Another chime from the speaking stone rang through the atrium.

  Mulladin glanced at Keesa and then back at the round-faced monk. “Do it!”

  The world went white.

  Mulladin found himself walking into a forest clearing. Gone was Kairah’s garden, Keesa, Irvis, and the others. He was alone. Mulladin glanced around and immediately recognized the place.

  This is where Jek and I come to wrestle.

  Movement from behind.

  Mulladin whirled just in time to see Jekaran jog out of the trees. He smiled broadly at Mulladin. “You beat me here.”

  Mulladin just stared. “Jek…”

  Jekaran hardily slapped him on the back. “You’re different.”

  “Yeah. Irvis healed…” Disorientation faded and Mulladin remembered that he wasn’t actually back in Genra, but inside Jek’s mind. “It worked.”

  “I’ll say it did! You sound like a regular man.” Jekaran laughed. “Incredible!”

  “Listen, Jek, I need you to come back.”

  Jekaran frowned. “But we just got here. We go back now and Maely will make you muck the cattle stalls.”

  “That’s not what I mean.” Mulladin gestured to the trees and sky. “This place isn’t real. We’re actually in Kairah’s garden. Your mind broke apart and we’re trying to put it back together.”

  Jekaran forced a laugh. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Right.” Mulladin nodded to himself. “Tell me, what’s the last thing you remember?”

  Jekaran’s smile disappeared. “Racing you here?”

  “No, before that.”

  “You okay, Mull? You’re not making any sense.”

  Mulladin kneaded his forehead with the heel of his hand. “Do you remember your trip to Aiested?”

  “Yeah! That city is incredible!”

  “Do you remember what happened there?”

  Jek’s eyes flicked to the ground. “Mull, why’re you going on like this?”

  “Do you remember fighting the king’s guards?”

  Jekaran stepped further into the clearing. “Come on, let’s start. I learned a new hold from Hyric that I think you’ll―”

  “Do you remember killing Ez?”

  Jekaran froze, his back still to Mulladin.

  “You do, don’t you?” Mulladin took a step toward him.

  Jekaran shook his head. “Ez went into town to get a cut of―”

  “Ez died!” Mulladin shouted. “You ran him through with the sword.”

  “Nice try, Mull.” Jekaran spun around and forced a smile. “But you’ll have to come up with something better if you’re going to fool me. And next time don’t be so morbid.”

  Mulladin stepped up to Jekaran and gently grabbed his shoulders. “It wasn’t your fault.”

  Jekaran surprised him by shoving him away. “Stop trying to prank me.”

  “If this really is a joke, then why are you getting upset? I’ve never seen you get angry over a prank.”

  Jekaran didn’t answer.

  “It was the sword, Jek. It had you in a battle frenzy and Ez just got in the way.”

  Jekaran grabbed the sides of his head with his hands. “No!”

  Mulladin stepped in again. “You need to face this and forgive yourself. If you don’t, then you’ll die. And we need your help right now! Kairah’s missing, the world is falling apart, and we’re about to be captured!”

  “I don’t think I’m in the mood to wrestle anymore.” Jek turned to leave the clearing, but Mulladin grabbed his arm.

  Jekaran scowled down at Mulladin’s hand. “Let go of me, Mull!”

  “Jek, please listen. Ez told me something before he died.”

  Jekaran yanked his arm free.

  “He told me about the Lure of Fools poem. He told me he taught it to you to try to keep you from following in his footsteps.”

  “Adventure is the Lure of Fools…” Jekaran murmured.

  Mulladin nodded. “That’s the one. But what he didn’t tell you is that there was another part of it;

  But closely resemble they one another, both heroes and fools at first, and it’s only at the fork of destiny’s road that the truth will at last emerge. For while the fool always looks to his own regard, the hero for others is er’ aware. And will suffer and die when called upon, even for strangers in his care.

  “He said that he was proud of you for only using the sword to protect others. He said that you were not a fool, but a hero.”

  Jekaran shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Ez is―�
��

  “Dead Jekaran. Ez is dead!”

  “Get out.”

  “Jek please. We need your―”

  “I said get out!” Jekaran shoved him hard in the chest.

  Mulladin found himself staring up at the atrium’s glass dome. He was lying on the stone walkway of Kairah’s garden, the back of his head throbbing. Keesa looked down at him, her eyes wide.

  “Mull?” she asked, her voice on the edge of hysteria.

  Irvis’s round face appeared. “Are you okay, boy?”

  Keesa helped Mulladin sit up. He was no longer near Jekaran’s body, but on the ground, ten paces now separating them. “What happened?”

  “The sword flashed and you were thrown back,” Keesa said.

  Mulladin touched the side of his head and nodded. “We were in Genra, and he acted like everything was normal until I brought up Ez. Then he got angry and told me to leave.” Mulladin stood.

  Irvis glanced back at Jekaran. “It sounds like he’s lost inside his memories.”

  Mulladin shook his head. “Not lost. He’s hiding.”

  He strode back and knelt again at Jekaran’s side. He stretched out his hand and reached for the sword. As soon as his fingers touched the hilt, pain exploded in his mind. He snapped his hand back and the pain abruptly vanished.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “He’s shut me out.”

  Gymal burst into the atrium carrying two objects: a three-foot long rod of polished obsidian capped with an amethyst jewel, and a choker made of gold. “This is the best I could find.” He tossed Hort the black rod, and the choker to Graelle.

  Hort’s eyes widened and he grinned. “A void scepter.”

  Gymal nodded and pointed at Graelle. “And that’s a shield talis. I figured out how to lock the outside doors, but I don’t think that’ll keep the peacekeepers out.” He looked down at Jekaran. “Can you help him?”

  Mulladin shook his head. “He won’t let us.”

  The speaking stone mounted above the atrium door chimed again and a disembodied voice announced, “Human vandals. We know Lady Kairah is absent, and that you are hiding in her chambers. Dispossess yourself of talises and open the doors or we will force our way in.”