Chapter Six
Under Isaac’s tutelage, Kado read book after book. He learned history—from the founding of the four nations, to the fall of the Delian Dynasty that had ruled before the Kyrean Conquest. They riddled nightly, and Kado began not only answering Isaac’s, but creating his own. The more he learned, the more Kado thirsted for more. It was as if Isaac had awoken a dormant part of his mind—the part that dreamed, thought, and wondered. His cell was still dank; his future was unchanged. Yet, having something to look forward to, something to succeed at, eased his suffering.
Kado hoped their friendship gave Isaac the same peace. They never spoke of why he was imprisoned. Kado had asked, but Isaac demurred. As Kado’s knowledge and confidence grew, so did his curiosity. One morning—or, at least Kado thought it was morning—he asked again.
Isaac closed Myths of the Forgotten Age. “There are things of which I cannot speak, dear boy.”
“I’d never tell anyone.” Kado chewed his lip. He trusted Isaac. It stung that those feelings were not returned.
“Of course you wouldn’t.” Isaac sighed. “It’s not your honor I suspect. Do you think Terayan ignorant of our friendship?”
Kado had wondered whether the guards would inform the Councilor that his plan to intimidate Isaac had failed. He'd worried Isaac would be moved, but so far they'd been left in relative peace—aside from when they took Isaac away for questioning. “You’re suggesting that we’ve been allowed to bond in hopes that you might disclose something to me?”
“Precisely. You must understand, Terayan is more than a powerful politician, he has abilities. We must assume everything we say, he could hear.”
“But that means he could hear us now! He’d know that we know and—”
Isaac’s throaty chuckle cut Kado off. “Terayan knows I’m aware of his surveillance. He is simply hoping that in my dotage, I’ll make a mistake.”
“Oh.” Kado wiped chalk dust from the slate resting by his hand.
“I have no idea how long we will be allowed to continue, so shall we turn our attentions to something I can speak of? Here’s your next riddle.” Isaac cleared his throat. “The more you have of me, the less you see.”
Kado scratched his head. He'd become adept at answering Isaac’s questions, but this one vexed him. Just as he felt he might be nearing the answer, the cell block door flew open.
“Darkness.” Councilor Terayan preceded his guards. “Obviously.”
The torches flared with unnatural brightness, and Kado had to close his eyes. By the time he could open them again, Terayan stood in front of his and Isaac’s cells.
“You’ve had two weeks together, and this is the best he can do? Perhaps you’re losing your touch, old friend.” Terayan grinned at Isaac.
“What do you want, Tallis?” Isaac struggled to his feet. All the days spent in a damp cell with little food had taken its toll on his aging body. In the brighter light, hollows curved beneath Isaac’s cheeks, and bruise-colored shadows pillowed his piercing blue eyes. Kado wondered what he must have looked like himself.
“What was it you liked to say? Why ask questions to which you already know the answer?” Terayan motioned to the two guards and they unlocked the door to Isaac’s cell.
“Stop.” The word left Kado’s mouth before he registered the thought.
Terayan turned slowly. The golden circlet threading his hair caught the firelight, and again Kado turned away from the light.
“Dear little wolf pup. Your instinct to grow attached hasn’t waned it seems, even if you’ve been abandoned by your own people.”
“He wasn’t abandoned. He was stolen.” Isaac gripped the bars to stay standing.
“You mean sold. Didn’t he tell you? His own father sold him to me.”
“He wasn’t my father!” Kado roared, slamming into the cell door.
The Councilor did not flinch, though he was barely an arm’s length away from Kado. “True, but your whore mother had him fooled for years, didn’t she? Until you gave her up. Enzo Aronak told me everything.”
Deep within him, walled in by the Monil’s magic, the wolf howled for Terayan’s blood. “I’ll kill you!”
Terayan laughed, backhanding Isaac across the face.
The old man folded to the ground with barely a grunt.
“Leave him alone!”
The guards lifted Isaac between them. His head lolled and eyelids fluttered. “Kado…quiet. You’ll only make it worse.”
“Listen to him, boy. He’s a wise man, you know.” Terayan inclined his head to Kado and left the cell.
His men followed, dragging Isaac.
“No!” Kado hit his cell door over and over after he was alone. By the time he stopped, pain pulsed through his shoulders. He was alone. Again. Isaac’s books were still where he left them by the dividing wall, within Kado’s reach. But he could not bring himself to touch them without his mentor there. All he could think about was what Terayan and his men were doing to Isaac. What could Isaac possibly know that was important enough to endure Terayan’s interrogations?
Hours passed into days, and Kado did nothing save the minimum needed to stay alive. He did not know why he bothered to eat his scraps. Starvation would be preferable to isolation, but he could not force himself to ignore his food. His foolish body pushed him to live, no matter how hard his mind fought to give up. He found himself wishing Terayan had ordered both him and Lonian killed in the arena. At least then he would have been spared the confusion of the last few weeks. He'd thought himself broken before, but after a taste of hope, friendship, and kindness, the return to darkness pained him all the more.
One day—by his count six feeding,s or about a week after Isaac was taken away—something broke the monotony of his existence. The door to the cell block opened almost soundlessly. A figure darted inside. Kado squinted through the near-darkness. Whoever he was, the stranger was no guard. He was far too thin and wearing rags like Kado’s—he was a prisoner.
The man ran down the hall, ignoring, or possibly not seeing, Kado where he crouched. When he reached the solid wall at the cell block’s end, the prisoner cursed.
“There’s no way out,” Kado called.
The prisoner spun around. “Damn it, damn it. I thought for sure—” he cut off as he approached Kado’s cell. The man was young beneath his wild dark beard, mid-twenties perhaps. Black marks coated his arms and chest—marks almost identical to Lonian Kemar’s.
“You’re Sylrian?” Kado asked.
The man’s eyes narrowed. It was impossible to make out their color in the low light, but his expression was unmistakable—hatred.
“You.” The Sylrian grabbed Kado by his hair, knocking his head into the bars separating them. “You killed my uncle!”
Stars burst in Kado’s vision. He struggled to pull away, but the Sylrian held him fast. “I—I didn’t!”
The Sylrian smashed him against the bars again. Did he mean to kill him this way? “Don’t lie to me! I was there. I saw Lonian bleed to death!”
Kado said nothing at first. His ears rang. Blood trickled down his temple. He ought to let this man—Lonian’s nephew—kill him. He deserved no better, but his cowardly survival instinct forced him to speak through his delirium. “Lonian killed himself. He made it look…to save me.”
Lonian’s nephew dropped his hold and Kado tumbled to the ground. He spat and coughed. When he looked up again through streaming eyes, the Sylrian knelt in front of him.
“He killed himself?”
Kado nodded. “When I realized he wasn’t fighting back, I couldn’t bring myself to hurt him. The Kyreans would’ve killed us both, so Lonian gave me his knife, and fell upon it. I don’t understand why he died for me.”
“Are you lying to me?”
“No!”
The Sylrian’s arm slid through the bars. Kado flinched, but instead of hurting him again, the other man grasped him by the elbow, helping him up. “I know why.”
They stood face-to-face. The Sy
lrian was taller, though he hunched. “Figures. That old superstitious fool.” A hysterical laugh punctuated his words. “You’re Fenearen and your wolf form is pure white.”
Isaac had mentioned the color of his bestial form as well. Why was that so significant? “Why should that matter?”
Kellan narrowed his eyes. “You really don’t know?” He shrugged. “Every Fenearen I’ve ever heard of has a wolf form roughly the same color as their hair. But even those whose hair has gone white with age don’t take a pure white form.”
“So? It’s only fur.”
“Aye, but men like my uncle—who believe in things they should’ve outgrown—would tell you such an anomaly is a holy sign—a blessing from the gods. Even if you are what I’ve heard you are, that would still be enough for him.”
A blessing? His other form was nothing but a curse he could not control, not even to save his mother. “What have you heard I am?” he asked.
Kellan sighed. “That you’re the deadliest fighter the arena’s seen in years. You have no idea how much they charged for the fight between you and my uncle.”
Kado blinked. The deadliest fighter in years? How many men had he killed? They all blurred together in a swarm of instinct, fear, and blood. “That may be true, but I didn’t kill your uncle. I’m sorry.”
“Kellan.”
“What?”
“That’s my name. I’m to be your next victim in the arena, I believe. This is my escape attempt.” He laughed so loudly, Kado backed away. “And instead of finding the exit? What should I find but my executioner?”
“I won’t kill you, either.”
“Well.” Kellan smiled. “I suppose the Republic will lose its star fighter. I’m not my uncle. I plan on surviving as long as I can, signs from the gods be damned.”
Kado gulped. “You could kill me now.”
“Do you want that?”
“I deserve it.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Kado looked to the floor. Drops of blood splattered the stones nearest him. “You could still try to escape. We’re on the west side of the prison, but that’s all I know.”
Kellan eyed him. “You want to die, but you’re too scared. You hate yourself for it.”
“Everyone’s afraid to die.”
The Sylrian nodded. “Especially those who know what they deserve.”
Shouts and the clatter of boots sounded from outside the door. “You should go.”
“Why bother when I have nowhere to run?”
As Kellan spoke, several guards burst into the block. The Sylrian raised his arms in surrender. Five men surrounded him. Two held his hands, as the others set about beating him and dragging him toward the exit.
“I’ll see you soon, Kado Aronak!” Kellan called over his shoulder.
The door slammed. Silence and loneliness returned. Kado’s temple oozed, but the worst of the bleeding had stopped. Kellan had called him his executioner. That meant he would soon be returning to the ring, for the last time. Either Kellan would kill him, or, if like his uncle before him he could not bring himself to do the deed, they would both die. Either way, it would all end soon.
Kado’s decision brought him something like peace, though perhaps numbness was a more apt word. He still feared death, but he was resigned to it. He tried to comfort himself with thoughts of seeing his mother again, but deep down he knew that was impossible. Whatever happened after death, wherever souls went, he was sure the deadliest arena fighter in years would never earn the same paradise his mother had, regardless of what some old stories said about his fur color.
Kado sat with his arms curled around his knees for a long time. He slipped between sleeping and waking, his nightmares sometimes taking shape and haunting his cell. His head ached, preventing a restful slumber, but still it must have been almost a full day later when the cell block’s door opened again.
A single guard dragged a body. Kado jumped to his feet.
Isaac slumped, eyes closed, as the guard shoved him into the cell and left without a word.
“No!” Confusion and nausea ran through him. He fell beside the bars separating him from Isaac’s unmoving form. As Kado wondered why they would bring Isaac’s corpse back to the cell, the older man stirred.
“Isaac, you’re alive!”
Isaac groaned. His eyelids fluttered open, revealing unfocused light blue eyes. “Kado?”
“I’m here.” Kado squeezed Isaac’s age-spotted hand. “What did they do to you?”
“Tallis—” A violent cough wracked his body. “He knows.”
“Your secret?”
“No.” Isaac pulled himself up using the bars between them. “It’s as I told you, I cannot speak of it. There’s a spell to keep me from divulging it. Tallis has been trying to break it, to break me. But now he knows he can’t. He might try once more, but I won’t survive another session.”
“A spell?” Kado had read stories of mages, but they were said to be exceedingly rare. “Are you—?”
Isaac shook his head. He dabbed at his mouth with his sleeve. “It wasn’t I that created the spell.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, dear boy. But you will soon be on your own.”
“I’ll protect you,” said Kado. They were empty, ash-tasting words.
“You can’t, but Kado, if you have the chance to save yourself, promise me you’ll take it.”
Kado swallowed. He'd already accepted his death—promising Isaac to try and make a better life would be dishonest. “I’ll never have a chance. We’re both already dead, Isaac. We’re ghosts, but it was nice to pretend.”
Isaac said nothing. He squeezed Kado’s hand.
Kado stared at the cobwebbed ceiling. Kellan’s words echoed in his mind: I’ll see you soon, Kado Aronak.
Indeed he would, but what would happen when they met again?
Chapter Seven
Channon tossed a spare waterskin into his pack. He looked up as Roxen, Gar, and Pike entered his den.
I hope you’re all ready to leave immediately. We may be able to catch up with them before they get too far. Mina is sure to slow them down. Channon pushed past the others to the exit.
We Trues have no need of supplies. We leave as soon you two-legs are ready, Pike yipped sharply as they followed Channon toward Roxen’s den.
As the Beta made his hurried preparations, Channon paced the earth in rapid circles.
Gar and Pike followed his every jerky move. Their heads darted back and forth as he pounded the ground.
At this rate he’ll be exhausted before we set out, Gar grumbled to Pike as Roxen reemerged.
All right, let’s get moving.
Not so fast. A sharp bark grabbed their attention as a black wolf approached them. She shifted into a young woman. It took Channon a moment to recall her name. Haerian, one of Roxen’s former short-lived romances.
She tucked a black wave behind her ear. Where are you going in such a hurry?
None of your business, Haerian, Channon growled as his claws extended. They did not have time for this.
Put your claws away, Channon. Don’t you have a scarred-up redhead to stalk? She smiled toothily. Although, why you still want her after Rhael's hands have been all over her, I couldn't guess.
Roxen held Channon in place. Haerian, please. We’re under special orders from the Alphena. Go about your duties.
Haerian rolled her eyes. I’m sorry. I Didn’t realize the Alphena was involved, sir. I am sure whatever useless mission she has assigned you is infinitely more important than little, mid-rank me.
The Alphena’s orders are far more important than you! Pike barked.
Beside him Gar’s hackles rolled up in a wave over his spine. Your words reek of insubordination.
Do they? A shame—I was going for dominance..
What is that supposed to mean? Channon stepped forward, willing his eyes to bore into her as cold and hard as flint.
Haerian smiled before re-taking her wolf form and trotting part them. I suppose you�
�ll find out when you return from this important mission.
Does she really think she can challenge Silver? I hope the Alphena tears her to shreds. Channon clenched his teeth. Let's go.
Roxen nodded, but his eyes betrayed indecision as they trailed after Haerian.
“Rox, Silver can take of herself. I hardly think some presumptuous girl you courted for a week is a problem for her. We have our orders. We must follow them,” said Channon.
“You’re right.” Roxen shook his head before taking his auburn-furred shape. Channon followed his lead and, together with the Trues, they sped out of the densite.
Following the girls’ scent through Fenear proved easy enough. They mostly kept to the trails, cutting a path straight toward the Maenoren border. Mina may have slowed them down, but they still had a full night's head-start. He refused to rest for more than a few moments, because Rayna would surely enforce the same on her companions. Channon knew no one more determined than Rayna, so if he were going to catch her, he'd have to think like her.
But Channon’s mind burned with one question: Once they caught up to Rayna, Mina, and Katrine, how would they compel them to turn back? Wolnor had never blessed Osterna with three more stubborn souls. Convincing them to give up their mission would not be easy.
Channon glanced over at Roxen as they ran through a muddy stream. Rayna had always looked up to Roxen as an older brother. Perhaps she'd listen to him. Mina, too, had developed an affection for the Beta; that certainly would not hurt their cause.
Whether or not it would hurt Roxen, though, remained to be seen. Rox had a tendency to fall in love quickly, out of it faster. But in the months since Mina had joined the Southern Densite, Channon had seen a different side to Roxen. He found any excuse to spend time with Mina, and though he'd not yet admitted it, Channon could tell that Mina was more than a passing fancy to the Beta. Maybe Mina felt the same way, and maybe that would be enough to sway her to return to Fenear.
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