Daughter of Ashes

by Esther Mitchell

  Jebodatha thought for a long moment, her sharp gaze travelling between Telyn and Nacaris before, with a small sigh of regret, she shook her head. "I fear not."

  Nacaris took a step forward. "He may have called himself by another name. Limbdigger, or even Pel Brun."

  Mistress Jebodatha's eyes snapped wide, and Telyn winced. This was where everything went wrong. She could sense it. "Pel Brun-Gild?"

  Telyn forced herself to nod. "Have you seen him recently?"

  A smile broke over the older woman's face. "Oh, yes. Master Brun-Gild was here a mere fortnight ago, seeking Majikal supplies. In fact, he left his apprentice for further training, saying that he was going on a contemplative journey into the mountains, and didn't wish to disturb her training in the meantime."

  Telyn drew in a sharp breath of surprise. Were they about to come face-to-face with the missing Mistress? "May we speak with her?"

  "Certainly. When we are done here, I will have someone fetch her to you."

  "What sort of Majikal supplies did Master Brun-Gild request from you?" Nacaris wanted to know. "Can you recall what they were?"

  Mistress Jebodatha laughed. "I don't think I'll ever forget. I've never heard such a strange request."

  Telyn's gut twisted painfully. This didn't sound good at all. "What was it?"

  "He asked for blessed wood, candles, and a flint arrowhead, along with several Firestones. That last, I admit I found odd. I would have expected that the Master of Raiador wouldn't travel without a few Firestones of his own -- and much better quality than what we get here. Their potency dies out over time and distance, you know."

  Telyn suppressed her grin. At last, they caught a break. Apparently, Brun-Gild hadn't had time to grab anything in his flight from Raiador. But that knowledge didn't get them any closer to finding him -- especially not if Mistress Jebodatha gave him the supplies he requested.

  "Mistress, please pardon me, but have you not heard that Pel Brun was disgraced of the House of Gild shortly before Mistress Sele's disappearance? If you aided him, that could bode ill for you and your Order, as well."

  Jebodatha's face went ashen. "I would never have imagined... Are you suggesting that he kidnapped that young woman?"

  "We have it on pretty good authority that he's done exactly that," Nacaris put in.

  "We really need to speak with the apprentice he left in your keeping." Telyn stressed the words with urgency. "There's a chance she may actually be Mistress Sele."

  Jebodatha was on her feet in an instant. "Of course. Please, wait here. I'll send someone to fetch her directly."

  Once Mistres Jebodatha was gone, Nacaris touched Telyn's arm lightly, drawing her attention. "What if it isn't Sele?"

  Telyn shrugged helplessly. "I really have no idea who else it could be. If he didn't have time to gather ritual items, he certainly wouldn't have time to summon an acolyte, right?"

  "Let's hope you're right," he murmured. "Let's just hope."

  Telyn's stomach knotted at those words. They mirrored her own uncertainty. She had no idea just what Pelarius Brunnari was capable of, but she'd seen him enthrall Miners before.

  Before she had a chance to voice her own disquiet, Jebodatha was back. "I've sent someone to fetch the young lady. I just can't believe all this dreadful business, yet I know you speak only the truth. I just don't understand how he could have so easily fooled me."

  Sympathy wrenched Telyn. It still irked her that Brunnari used her, too. "He fooled us all. And when he fled Raiador, he hadn't yet been officially disgraced, so he could easily speak that lie and make anyone believe it the truth. Do you have any idea where we can find him? Did he mention where he might be headed?"

  The older woman shook her head, clearly still stunned by Telyn's revelation. "Not much. He spoke briefly of a tower near here, but there are no towers in the Carmata Range, according to local explorers. Still, I believe he spoke the truth, whatever he meant by it."

  Telyn nodded. "Thank you for that. I wish we'd come in better times and for happier reasons--"

  The door opened, admitting two young women -- one dressed in robes of a similar fashion to Jebodatha, and the other... Telyn gasped.

  "Rori!"

  How had the young acolyte from Raiador found Brun-Gild after he fled? She stared at the girl, and a sick feeling grew inside of her as Rori stared back with the eyes of the dead, looking right through her.

  "Rori?" Telyn approached the girl, reaching out to lay her hand on one frail shoulder. She felt the tremble beneath her hand, even as cold rage engulfed the girl's face.

  "Whore!" Rori lashed out at her, yanking away as though Telyn was diseased. "The Master offered you everything, and what did you do? Roll around with the first mongrel to come along!"

  Telyn backpedalled in surprise. She hadn't expected this. Last time she spoke with Rori, the girl had been frightened, but alert. Now, she was a thrall -- little more than a puppet under Pelarius Brunnari's control.

  "Rori, you don't know what you're talking about." Nacaris stepped forward, his voice gentle. His expression mirrored Telyn's concern, though she doubted he yet recognized the true significance of Rori's accusation. Telyn had. If Rori knew that she and Nacaris shared a bed, then someone had watched them all along. And that could only mean that Brunnari had powers she didn't understand, yet.

  "Take me." Rori pulled open the top of her robes, flashing her naked chest at Nacaris.

  "Shh. You don't mean that." Gently, Nacaris tugged the robes closed and enfolded the girl in a gentle, restraining embrace, his concerned gaze clashing with Telyn's. This was worse than they'd imagined.

  "You slept with that whore. Why not me?" Rori's wail was plaintive, her motions restless against Nacaris' restraint.

  Jebodatha moved forward a step. "What is she talking about? Why is she acting this way? She was such a quiet child, when she came to us..."

  Telyn sighed. "She's in thrall. It's pretty clear to me that she was sent to slow us down."

  "Or me, at any rate," Nacaris agreed, his expression one of disgust. "How could Brunnari think this child would appeal to me?"

  "Because her type appeals to him." Telyn met Nacaris' surprised gaze with a grim, level expression. "I know."

  She watched understanding dawn in his eyes before they darkened, and she knew that she owed him more of an explanation than they had time for right now.

  Rori had finally quieted, breaking down in tiny sobs and murmurs that she would die if she failed. Telyn moved forward, drawing the girl from Nacaris' embrace to hug her gently. "You've done nothing wrong. Don't worry, Rori, these women will care for you and protect you, and I promise you that Master Brun-Gild will never harm you again."

  Rori's frail arms crept up, slowly encircling Telyn to cling to her with a fierce, begging grasp as tears wracked her thin frame. Telyn held her, rocking her like the child she truly was inside, until Jebodatha stepped forward to ease the girl away.

  "Come, child," she murmured consolingly. "Let Yasa take you to the steam rooms. You will feel much better for it."

  Rori, her head hanging and soft sobs still wracking her frame, didn't fight the other girl's lead as Yasa led her from the room. Once they were gone, Jebodatha turned a stern gaze on Telyn and Nacaris. "You must find this monster. I might not have wanted to believe he was the demon you claimed, but it is clear to me that he tortured that child mercilessly. He must face Justice's wrath for his crimes."

  "Don't worry," Nacaris assured her through clenched teeth. "He'll be feeling that sting soon enough."

  This time, Telyn didn't bother to correct him. After what she just witnessed, she knew beyond any doubt that she had only barely escaped Raiador before the insanity descended in truth, all those cycles ago.

  Chapter Seventeen

  "Tell me what he did to you."

  Telyn sighed, her head resting against Nacaris' naked chest and the reassuring beat of his heart beneath her ear. She'd known this was coming. Ever since they left the Cloister earlier, she'd sens
ed Nacaris' withdrawal, the pensive air that hung around him. And when they'd made love, just now, there was something more between them, as if he sought to erase some terrible memory she was unable to share. The truth wasn't nearly so terrible -- not for her.

  "It wasn't me." She lifted her head to look at him, and offered him a reassuring smile, even as she felt his fingers stroke the length of her bare back. "I don't think he could bring himself to touch me. Not in that way. I can only assume, now, that he was feeding off my energy all along, and that he feared that tainting my innocence would somehow taint the energy, as well."

  "You said you knew." He didn't look convinced.

  She nodded, and sighed as she turned to her back and sat up, her arms clasped around upraised knees beneath the bedcovers. "I did. I do."

  "How?"

  Telyn stared into the darkness as memories played before her eyes. Muffled crying in the dark of night, a girl swept away from them suddenly, missing for nearly a cycle, and then returning just as abruptly, but with haunted eyes that were never quite the same again. "There was a girl there, not much older than I. She was the daughter of a Lahrasian pirate, captured in a raid gone wrong. When I first arrived, she was full of spirit and fight, always determined to chart her own course. She kept talking about how her father's people would come for her, one day, of how she'd escape from our life of slavery and return to the sea. I believed her. She was strong, indomitable. She gave the rest of us hope."

  Nacaris' hand was still against her back. His comforting warmth staved off the chill that wracked her soul. "What happened to her?"

  Telyn shuddered. "One night, Brun-Gild came to the Miners' quarters. I was told it wasn't unusual, but we'd never seen him in our bunkroom. He had men with him -- not Minegards. These were different -- mercenaries, most likely, though at the time all I knew was that they looked dangerous. He pointed to the girl, Sherisan, and told them to bring her. I don't know where they took her -- all I remember is her fighting and spitting and swearing at them as they carried her away."

  "You never saw her again?"

  A bitter laugh escaped Telyn as the images played out within her memory. "Oh, we saw her again. At next light, she was back in our bunkroom. But she wasn't the same. She was silent, and looked as if she'd been crying. She kept to herself, didn't venture opinions or ideas. She seemed to be in her own world. And that night, the men came for her again. This time, she barely resisted. When they returned her, she just curled up in her bunk and covered her head with her pillow. But I could hear her crying.

  "Then, she started getting sick all the time. Especially in the mornings. And she got more withdrawn, this terrified look in her eyes." She shuddered again. "It was terrible."

  Nacaris shifted in the bed, and his arms came around her from behind, holding her close. Telyn sank into his embrace, grateful for the strength of his presence as she bared the horror buried so deep in her soul.

  "One day, the men came to take her away. This time, they didn't bring her back. We were sure she'd been killed."

  "But she wasn't?"

  Telyn shook her head against him. "She was gone for almost a cycle. We kept dreading the day we stumbled over her body in the mines, sure that those men had tortured and killed her. Then, one night, there was this terrible screaming -- it sounded as if someone was being ripped apart by a Ceteraktou and it just went on and on, for hours. After it grew silent, we were all terrified, certain that someone else had died, now. But the next morning, Sherisan was back, her eyes hollow and a sadness there that didn't make any sense. She wouldn't tell us where she'd been, or what had happened. She wouldn't say anything."

  His arms tightened comfortingly. "What happened to her?"

  Telyn choked on the words, at first, even as the bloody images played out before her eyes. "She threw herself from the upper mines, and died at the base of the mountain. It was...was..."

  She couldn't finish. The dam inside of her that held back all those terrible memories, held her emotions suppressed behind them, crumbled around her and she could do nothing but sob, buried within Nacaris' embrace, for long moments, as every gruesome, heart-rending memory of her time in the Mines crashed over her.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity in the Underworld, Telyn finally calmed, and drew away enough to wipe her eyes and look up at Nacaris. "It wasn't until after I left the Mines that I stumbled across the truth. Sherisan had been taken to Brun-Gild, every night before she disappeared. They took her away because she was pregnant, and he wanted her child for some twisted design. To this day, I believe he killed that babe to sustain his own life, so that he wouldn't grow older or die."

  "Shh." Nacaris bent his head and trailed soft kisses over her face, even as his war-callused fingers smoothed away her tears. "He'll pay for all his sins, Telyn. We'll be sure of that."

  Turning her face up, she met his lips with her own, and let herself drown in the sea of flames that flared to life within her heart and soul. Nacaris was with her. For now, that was enough.

  *****

  Helios had barely begun His climb into the morning sky when Telyn awoke, the prickling sensation of being watched crawling over her bare skin. Easing away from Nacaris' warmth, she sought around for her clothes, and then rose from the bed as her night-friendly eyes searched the shadows for the source of her feeling.

  The dying embers in the fireplace flared up, and she followed them, settling on the stones that surrounded the base of the fireplace. "Sala?"

  It's about time!

  That annoyed little voice brought a gurgle of laughter to the surface that Telyn smothered with one hand, so as not to disturb Nacaris. The longer she was acquainted with the small Elemental, the more she realized how given Sala was to the dramatic, and that it was better to just ignore her outbursts.

  "What do you need?"

  You must leave now.

  Telyn sighed. "We've got a plan, Sala. We're leaving later today."

  No. Sala flared adamantly, shooting up from the embers to dance angrily in the air. If you do not leave now, the Phoenix Book will be gone.

  Telyn jerked up straight. "It's here? In Ulambara?"

  Sala shimmered in the air. No. But the man who knows where it is will soon be gone, if you do not hurry and find his hiding place.

  And they were back to Brunnari, again. Telyn sighed, and rubbed the back of her neck in exhaustion. Bad enough she hadn't slept well. Did Sala really have to level this on her now? "I don't know where he is, Sala. No one does."

  He is in the mountains. The Mistress you spoke with yesterday told you as much.

  "Sala, there's no telling he didn't lie to her as well." Telyn shifted, seating herself cross-legged in front of the fireplace. "She only told us what she was told. And it wasn't bloody much. All he told her was that he was going into the mountains."

  Sala flared and flickered. Remember what I told you about the Aerai Majin.

  Telyn sought among her memories of the conversations they'd had about the Aerai Majin in the past, but came up blank. "Remind me."

  Sala's gusty sigh spit sparks into the lightening room. His resting place and tower are in the mountains here.

  Telyn's heart leapt up and pounded against her ribs. Was it possible? "You're saying Brunnari intends to awaken him?"

  Impossible. Only the Chosen can do that, and only together. One man alone -- particularly one with a soul as dark as this man -- cannot break the seals the Aerai Majin set. No, I believe he intends to drain the Aerai Majin's power for his own uses.

  And that, Telyn conceded with a shiver, was perhaps the most disturbing truth of all.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sala's words continued to plague Telyn later that day as she and Nacaris met up with their companions for the trek into the mountains. She'd confided to Nacaris her conversation with the Elemental, and her concerns about what Brunnari might be about to do with the Aerai Majin's power. Thus far he'd kept his own counsel on the matter, and she wondered about his thoughts. The tension s
at like a heavy knot in her gut.

  It was close to evening when the companions finally headed out, and once they cleared the city, Nacaris eyed the mountains before them with wary skepticism. Telyn could sense his disbelief, and her heart sank, even before he spoke.

  "Sala really thinks he's out here?"

  She shrugged. Ever since she told him what she learned, his silence had roused doubts within her. Sala wasn't exactly unbiased, after all -- a trait that never ceased to amaze Telyn, coming from a supposedly older and wiser being.

  "At very least, she's convinced that the Aerai Majin stashed himself out here, and that Brunnari is going to try and siphon off his energy."

  "Which gives me a chill, frankly," Lysha muttered from Telyn's other side as the Borderlander made a sign against evil. "I say we can' afford ta be ignorin' the mite."

  "Agreed." Marat stopped, cocking his head to one side as he studied Helios' descent through the sky. "We should head East."

  Surprise jolted Telyn. This was the first time Marat had ventured an opinion about anything since he joined them. She glanced from Marat to Nacaris and back, wishing she could remember the Mummer better -- particularly how much she should trust him. "Why?"

  "Maji always begin ritual salutations in the East, to garner Helios' blessing on their rites. It stands to reason that the Aerai Majin would build his tower at the start of Salutation."

  It was a logical argument, but she still wasn't sure. She glanced at Nacaris again, who merely shrugged and ventured, "Makes sense to me."

  With a sigh, and a nod, Telyn led the party off into the mountains, heading away from Helios' descent. She could only pray to all her father's ancestors that they found Brunnari before he succeeded in destroying the Aerai Majin, and the entire world with him.

  *****

  A week's trek through the Purat mountain range significantly dampened Telyn's optimism, and increased her fears that they might already be too late. By the end of the eighth day, Telyn's patience was wearing thin, and the restlessness that gripped her made her temper short. This search was little better than hunting for a needle in a hayfield.