by Jason Tesar
Saba made eye contact and gave her a questioning look.
Maeryn returned his gaze and placed her hand on Saba’s arm. “Well, I guess it’s time for you to meet him,” she said, giving Saba a wrinkled brow as an answer. Taking Kael by the hand, she led them across the courtyard, toward the house.
Before they reached the garden steps, Lemus stepped out from behind the servants’ quarters and leaned against the building, exuding the arrogance that Maeryn had come to expect from him. “Come introduce yourselves,” he ordered.
Saba slowed his pace as if he knew, just by looking, what type of man this was.
Lemus straightened himself and came out onto the steps, stopping just before the bottom. His face was beaming with forced happiness, and he appeared to wait patiently while the three crossed the courtyard and stopped at the bottom of the steps.
Lemus towered above Maeryn and Kael with the added height of the steps upon which he was standing. But he was still only level with Saba. It was obvious that he was uncomfortable with this arrangement; it defeated the whole purpose of standing where he was.
“I am Saba,” stated the old man, looking directly into Lemus’ eyes. After a few seconds of silence, it was apparent that Kael didn’t feel like introducing himself. “And this is Kael,” Saba added.
Lemus looked down at the child and waited for him to say something. When nothing happened, he bent down and waved a hand in front of Kael’s face.
Kael only stared back without blinking.
“Is your child deaf?”
Maeryn decided not to acknowledge the question.
“Or just a half-wit perhaps,” Lemus continued with a sneer.
“It is difficult for a child to know what to say when confronted with a man of such power and majesty as yourself,” Saba observed. The statement was obviously sarcastic to those who knew the old man, but the serious way he delivered it confused Lemus, who took a moment to decide whether or not he agreed.
“Very well, then,” Lemus replied. “Come inside. You must tell me what you’ve been up to.” The four walked through the garden and into the house together, but Lemus led the way and missed the smiles shared between the others.
CHAPTER 10
Maeryn pulled a chair out onto the balcony that had become her refuge. There was something soothing about watching the ocean glitter in the sunlight. Lemus went into the city just after sunrise and she hadn’t seen him since. She felt safer when he was gone. He was so unpredictable. She tried to shake the thoughts out of her head and think about more positive things, but it was difficult. Her thoughts kept returning to Adair and why he had abandoned his family.
He didn’t abandon you, or anybody else for that matter! she reminded herself. That’s not the kind of person he is.
She was worn out by the emotional drain of wavering between bitterness about her situation and anxiety about the safety of Adair. She closed her eyes to picture Adair’s face. It came instantly. His deep brown eyes. Strong jaw. His dark hair.
The sound of screaming jolted her from her thoughts. The vision of Adair vanished. Maeryn listened for a second, realizing that it was coming from the courtyard on the other side of the house. Maeryn jumped to her feet and hurried through her bedroom. She ran down the stairs, following the screams. Somehow, she knew it was related to Lemus.
* * * *
When the screams reached his ears, Kael had been watching a grasshopper cling to a blade of grass on the side of the road, just outside of the wall that surrounded the hilltop estate. He knew it was Ajani as soon as he heard it. Though the servant boy hadn’t ever screamed about anything as far as Kael could remember, he knew his voice well. Kael immediately rose to his feet and ran between the two guards who were standing at attention on either side of the entrance into the courtyard. Once inside, Kael darted across the gravel landscape and headed for the garden. He took the short flight of stairs at the entrance in two leaps and skidded to a halt. What he saw on the other side of the garden made his body go weak with fear.
Lemus was crouched over Ajani. The servant boy was lying on his side, trying to shield his face. The screaming had stopped, but the dull thud of Lemus’ fists pounding the body of the child underneath him was even worse.
“I’ll teach you to talk back to me,” grunted Lemus between excited breaths.
“Stop it,” screamed Kael, but Lemus didn’t listen. He just kept hitting Ajani, who had now stopped moving altogether. “Stop it!” he yelled again in the loudest voice he could manage, but Lemus didn’t even seem to know he was there.
The paralyzing effects of fear quickly gave way to empowering feelings of anger. I have to stop him! Kael ran back down the steps and reached the supply shed in seconds. He threw open the doors and stepped inside, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. Seeing a pitchfork leaning against the wall, he grabbed it and ran back toward Ajani as quickly as his little feet would carry him.
When Kael reached Ajani, there was an eerie silence in the garden. Lemus was facing away from Kael, his head up to the sky. His arms hung limp at his sides, blood dripping from his knuckles. Ajani was covered in blood and lay on the ground, unmoving.
Rage welled up inside Kael and he ran at Lemus, bracing the pitchfork in front of him.
Lemus continued to stare at the sky until the last second, when he turned and jumped to the side.
One tine of the pitchfork punctured his right thigh and he yelped as Kael kept charging, driving it into his leg. When it hit something hard, Kael let go and took a few steps back, realizing what he had just done.
Lemus yelled at the top of his lungs as he grabbed the gardening tool and angrily ripped it from his leg. Without pausing, he grabbed the shaft with both hands and lurched forward, swinging the handle at Kael.
Kael wasn’t fast enough to dodge it and could only put his hands up to guard himself. The thick wooden handle crashed into his forearm and then his face, breaking through the useless defense. Kael felt his head thrown to one side and his feet lifted off the ground before his whole body hit the dirt.
* * * *
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Maeryn screamed as she saw Kael’s tiny body thrown to the ground.
Lemus looked to the guards just coming in through the gate, ignoring Maeryn as if she hadn’t said anything at all. “Put that brat in restraints,” he ordered.
The two soldiers ran to Kael’s limp body and each grabbed an arm.
Maeryn came down the steps from the house. “Don’t you dare touch him!” she shouted.
“Stay back or you’ll be put to death as well.”
Maeryn stopped dead in her tracks and turned to Lemus, who she now realized had a bloody pitchfork in his hand. He looked as though he was waiting for an opportunity to use it. It took her a second to realize what he had said.
“As well?”
“Any attack on an Orudan soldier is punishable by death,” Lemus quoted the law. He threw the pitchfork across the garden and it clanged off the stone building.
It was only then that Maeryn realized what had happened. She saw the body of Ajani lying in the dirt. The blood running down Lemus’ leg. The pitchfork. And Kael being dragged away.
“But he’s just a child,” she pleaded, tears now running down her face.
Lemus repeated himself. “Any attack is punishable by death.” It was a well-known law throughout the Empire, but no one had ever heard of it being applied to a child. Of course, no child had ever attacked an Orudan soldier.
“But …” she began, not really knowing how to argue the matter.
Lemus jabbed his finger at her and spoke loudly over the sound of her voice. “You are both under my custody and therefore my property. If you wish to join your son in death, by all means, keep talking.”
“NO!” Maeryn screamed with everything that was in her. She felt panic take over her mind and body, telling her to run after Kael. He needed her protection, but she knew that Lemus would kill her. She began to shake, overwhelm
ed by emotions that she couldn’t act on. The internal conflict was too much, and she felt her knees start to wobble.
Another pair of guards entered the courtyard.
“Go fetch me a doctor,” Lemus said to one of the men. “And you … give me a hand.” The other soldier quickly ran to his aid, throwing his arm around his superior and helping him limp his way out of the garden.
Maeryn’s knees gave out and she collapsed in the dirt. Her sobbing drowned out everything around her.
~
She lay in the garden for some time in a trance, vaguely aware of what was going on around her. Someone must have taken Ajani away because he was gone by the time she gained enough strength to lift her head. She remembered one of the servants offering to help her and she had shooed him away, but she didn’t remember how long ago that had been.
Maeryn feebly climbed to her feet. The drag marks from Kael’s feet ran next to her and she traced their path with her eyes. They led toward the courtyard and disappeared around the servants’ quarters.
She started moving. Her eyes were still wet with tears, but she was disconnected from them. When she came to her senses, she found herself in the kitchen. She was holding a butcher knife and wasn’t sure exactly how it came to be in her hand. It felt comforting there, resting heavily in her clenched fist. She felt powerful, unlike the past couple of weeks. She looked at the long blade and the idea to kill him made sense.
Adair is dead. Kael will be executed. I’ve lost everything now! If Lemus ever intends to get rid of me, I should at least take him with me. I won’t be able to do it during the day. He’s too strong for that. No, I’ll wait until he sleeps.
Of course, she would be executed as soon as they found out who did it, but it seemed a fitting end to everything that had occurred in the last few weeks.
“There are better ways to get back at him, mistress.”
Maeryn turned around to find Zula standing in the corner of the kitchen. The servant woman was in charge of the whole house and had been with their family for several years. Maeryn hadn’t heard ten words from her in the entire time Zula served them, and it was strange to hear her speak now.
“What?”
“I know what you feel, mistress. If you kill this man, you will be put to death. That would not be enough punishment for what he has done.”
“You don’t understand,” Maeryn countered, trying to sound as authoritative as possible. As soon as she said it, she regretted her words. Although she wasn’t his mother, Zula had raised Ajani from a baby.
“I understand better than you, mistress!” the woman shot back. “I have seen more trials in my life than you will ever see, even if you were to live ten lifetimes.” As Zula spoke, her intense, dark eyes fought back the tears that had every right to spill down her face. There was an incredible ferocity in her that Maeryn had never noticed before, but when she spoke again, her words were softer. “You are a strong woman who has lived an easy life. But that has changed. You will see how the rest of the world lives now.” She paused. “There are better ways to get back at a man, especially one of such power.” Zula turned around and started to walk out of the kitchen.
“He’s going to kill him,” Maeryn called after the servant woman. Tears ran down her face again and she suddenly felt embarrassed for crying in front of a woman who had seen so much heartache. “Did you see what he did to Ajani?”
“Yes, mistress. I did,” the dark-skinned woman said flatly, turning back to Maeryn.
Maeryn wiped the tears from her eyes. “How can you just stand there as if nothing has happened?”
“Because it is useless to do anything about it! And I have had much practice pretending nothing has happened.”
A moment of silence followed as Maeryn imagined all the trials that Zula had suffered.
“Before your husband, I had another master. He was a cruel man.” She paused, unable to speak what she was thinking. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but her eyes never faltered. “There were many things he did to me and the others. There was nothing we could do. That was my whole life until I met your husband. After a while, you learn to hold it in.”
“But why should I hold it in?” Maeryn asked.
When Zula continued, her voice was almost a whisper. “Because it’s a gift. It’ll make you stronger than you ever thought possible. It’ll make you smarter. It’ll build inside you until the moment comes when you find a way to make him suffer. Suffer in such a way that it repays all of the things he’s done to you.” Her voice was low and her eyes were fixed on Maeryn’s.
It was clear that she was speaking directly out of her past. Maeryn was at once intrigued and frightened.
“You are a strong woman, mistress,” Zula said, her voice now sounding normal. “Don’t let him break you.” She turned and walked away, the conversation ending just as abruptly as it had begun.
Maeryn was speechless. Not only had Zula spoken as eloquently as any educated woman, but it was unheard of for a servant to speak so boldly to her master. She risked her own safety in order to share the honest truth. It was a much-needed message.
And she’s right. It’s not enough to kill him while he sleeps, especially when I would forfeit my own life in the process. No! There is more that can be done. I can watch. I can wait for that moment.
CHAPTER 11
Saba walked quickly down the dark hallway toward Lemus’ study. The guard standing at attention outside the door straightened up as Saba neared. It seemed odd that the usual faces were not seen anymore in the mansion, having been replaced immediately as Lemus took control. But that was the least of Saba’s worries on this night.
“I need to speak with him,” he told the guard.
The soldier nodded and opened the door behind him, disappearing momentarily. His muffled voice could be heard through the door. There was a pause before he came back and tilted his head toward the room. Saba pushed the door open and strode into the room, his temper already rising.
Lemus sat at his desk, the glow of candlelight illuminating piles of parchment in front of him. Some were stacked neatly. Others were spread out haphazardly, like a strong wind had blown through the room. Lemus lifted his head and motioned for Saba to come closer. “Come in. I’ve been meaning to have a few words with you.”
Saba walked to the front of the desk, ignoring the few empty chairs along the wall. “I want to talk with you about Kael.”
“Yes. I’m sure you do,” Lemus replied, sitting back in his chair. “My guards at the jail tell me that you have been over there, bothering them constantly to let the boy go.”
“Yes. Of course I have. How could I do anything different?”
Lemus smiled at this. “Well, I have a few ideas. To start with, you will stay away from the jail. The boy attacked me and his actions were punishable by death. He has already been executed, so you are wasting your time. I understand that you were his tutor?”
“Am his tutor,” Saba corrected.
Lemus laughed. “If you are indeed smart enough to call yourself anyone’s tutor, then you should know that when someone is dead, it is no longer appropriate to speak of them in the present.”
Saba gave no reaction.
“Well, isn’t that interesting? A teacher with nothing to say. That’s good. You’re finally starting to learn.” Lemus paused while he scooted his chair back and stood up to look Saba in the eyes. “I do have something to say to you, however. Your room has been emptied and its contents packed in boxes. I have provided a cart and a mule to carry your belongings. You will find everything waiting for you in the courtyard. I suggest that you take advantage of my generosity and leave the city tonight. I understand that you have many connections in the surrounding regions; I’m sure that you will find a place to stay.”
“You have no right,” Saba replied, his voice suddenly rising above the normal conversational tone. “This has been my home, and these people my family, long before anyone had ever heard of you—”
“I have every ri
ght,” Lemus shot back, interrupting. “This is my home now, and I do not wish to take care of old men who have the ability to take care of themselves. But more importantly, I no longer require the services of a tutor.”
Saba opened his mouth to say more, but Lemus kept talking.
“If you’ve heard nothing of what I have said this night, hear this. My soldiers have orders to kill you on sight if you are ever found in this city again. Take your belongings and leave. This is your last chance!”
Saba stood motionless for a moment, glaring into the eyes of Lemus. He had so many things to say, but none of them would accomplish anything except to risk his own life. After a few seconds, he spun on his heels and stormed out of the room. As he walked down the hallway, he overheard Lemus’ voice.
“No more visitors.”
“Yes, my lord,” the guard replied.
* * * *
Kael found himself lying facedown on the floor of a small, dimly-lit room. It was a stone floor with layers of dust covering everything except a few scuffled footprints and a small area in front of his face, cleared by his breath. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see that the walls and the ceiling were the same color as the floor, and he assumed that they, too, were stone. At the other end of the room, he could barely make out dark vertical stripes that had the look of iron bars.
He lifted his head to get a better look at the room, but his vision began to swim and he suddenly felt nauseous. Laying his head back down on the dirty floor, Kael took deep breaths and waited for the nausea to pass. The floor felt cold against his hot face, which seemed to pulse with its own heartbeat. After his stomach settled, Kael managed to lift a hand to the side of his head where Lemus had struck him. It felt swollen. The tips of his fingers passed over crusted areas of dried blood. The skin was bruised and sensitive to the touch.
Kael closed his eyes and rested his weary body, letting his ears explore the surroundings that his eyes were not yet able to. After a while, he could make out the sound of water dripping. Someone coughed, and it sounded far away. Suddenly, he heard a loud creak and a metal clang, like a door closing.
Footsteps could be heard, faintly at first, but growing louder with every step. Eventually they stopped in front of the metal bars of his cell. Kael opened his eyes and squinted to see who it was, but his vision was blurry. He couldn’t focus on anything beyond the metal bars. He blinked a few times, but it didn’t seem to help much. He dared not lift his head again, so he waited to see what would happen.
