by Laura R Cole
*
Katya dabbed a finger to her lip and held it up to the window so that the moonlight shone down onto it. It was stained red; her mouth was still bleeding. For all the magic that was around in this place, they still had resorted to a good old-fashioned beating to try and extract information from her.
They already knew from Slade’s betrayal that she wasn’t who she had said she was, but that wasn’t what they were interested in. They wanted to know everything that she knew about the Bloodstone, further reinforcing her feeling that something awful was going on.
The glow from the window suddenly dulled and Katya’s head whipped up. Someone was blocking the opening.
“Katya?” Gareth’s whispered voice drifted in.
“What are you doing here, Gareth? You’ll probably get in trouble just for talking to me. Unless you’re just here for information like Slade,” she added bitterly.
“That double-crossing…” Gareth mumbled a few uncomplimentary names and grunted. “No, I wouldn’t work for the Elders if my life depended on it. And I don’t care if I get in trouble.” He fell silent and Katya wondered why he had come. “I do have a few questions though…for me, not for the Elders.”
“What questions?” she asked guardedly.
“The armband you wear, where did you get it?”
“How do you know about it?” she countered.
“After your fight with Slade, everyone was talking about it and several of the young women commented that you had a very unique piece of jewelry in the shape of a snake that seemed to come alive and dance on your arm while you were fighting. Is it true?”
Katya was caught off-guard by this inquiry. After hours of being drilled about the Bloodstone, she couldn’t figure out why Marak would be of importance to him. Since she didn’t know where she had originally gotten him, she saw no harm in telling him so. “I don’t know, I’ve just always had him.”
“Him?” Gareth repeated. “May I see him?”
Katya hesitated, but finally relented. If Gareth tried to make off with Marak, he could certainly defend himself. She held out her arm and pulled back her sleeve, positioning him into the moonlight for Gareth. He leaned in as close as the bars would allow.
“Hmm.”
“Hmm, what?”
“Interesting design, you’re sure you don’t know how you came across it? Who you may have purchased it from?”
“Why do you care?”
“It’s nothing, I was just curious. It’s a very impressive piece.”
Katya didn’t believe him for a second and Marak was making faint vibrating motions. She wondered what he was trying to tell her. “Alright, don’t tell me. Did you come all this way just to ask me about some jewelry?”
“No, I…”
“Yes?” she prompted, bracing herself for the real question, where he revealed that he was going to betray her as well.
“I just wanted to warn you not to tell them you aren’t from the tribes.”
They sat in silence a moment. “What do you mean?” she finally asked. She had already gotten the impression that telling them would be dangerous by Slade’s alarm at the possibility – which was why she had backtracked. How Gareth might have known that she really wasn’t, she didn’t – she paused her thought as the realization struck her. My memories…
“I know you aren’t a Dena’ina, nor from any of the other tribes. You’re from the Lost Lands, aren’t you? Or at least, you’ve spent time there. That will be enough for them.” When she didn’t immediately answer he went on, “Doesn’t matter if you tell me or not, I know, but if the Elders find out…” he sighed, “It wouldn’t be good. I’m afraid we’ve gotten a bit too fanatical about some of our beliefs about the Lost.”
Katya didn’t answer right away. “Thanks,” she finally said, choosing to believe he was on her side. The pain from Slade’s duplicity still stung, but she just couldn’t see Gareth allowing the Elders to manipulate him into doing anything for them. Not willingly anyway…
“Have you been drinking your tea?” she asked, her thoughts wandering back to the control spell they seemed to have on him. Perhaps they could be using him after all.
“No,” Gareth answered with disgust in his voice. “You were right about it. The day that you switched it for water my mind was suddenly much clearer. I was able to locate the compulsion spell they had on me to keep drinking it. Luckily, it was just herbs to make me more docile and compliant.”
“They worked so well,” Katya commented sarcastically.
“Very funny,” he replied. “They had no right. I guess they still don’t trust me.”
“Why don’t they trust you?”
He actually looked contrite. “I went a bit mad for a short time. But I was well justified. The things they do…” he stared darkly into the night. “I attacked the statue in the commons.”
That jarred Katya’s memory. “I thought I remembered there being a stone in the woman’s hand the other day,” she commented, “but now the arm is missing. Is that what you mean?”
Gareth stared at her for a long moment. “Yes, I blew the stone straight out of her arm. Her and her twisted ideals.” He glowered into the night once more and then fell silent, not bothering to explain further. Katya was rather used to it.
“How would I have known she once held a stone?” she asked instead.
Gareth was thoughtful for a moment. “Perhaps you picked up on some of my memories while we were performing the regression. Entirely possible, especially if you were trying to hide something from me and were attempting to make your memories more suitable for the part you were playing.” He raised a knowing eyebrow at her.
She changed the subject. “So what’s going on out there? Are they starting some new ritual now that they have the Bloodstone?”
“I don’t know,” Gareth shrugged, “the lot of them bustled off excitedly towards the child’s chamber and they haven’t come out yet. With the shielding on all of the buildings, there’s no telling what they’re doing inside.”
“Do you have any ideas?”
Gareth thought for a moment, but all she got in reply was a grunted, “Hmph.”
“Nothing good…” Katya supplied.
“I would say not.”