by Ian Gregoire
Making no effort to conceal the derision in her voice, Kayden retorted, “And who exactly is going to stop me? You?”
“Kai Delano. What’s going on out here?”
The measured male voice came from the entrance, now wide open behind the antagonistic sentry. Kayden spied a third Sanatsai standing in the doorway, significantly older than his two counterparts outside, possessing the air of authority that spoke of a higher rank.
Without taking his eyes off her to peer back at his senior colleague, Kai Delano answered, “This apprentice is making a nuisance of herself.” The way he spat the word apprentice suggested he wanted to call her something else, something derogatory and offensive. “She refuses to state what business she has inside, and she has an attitude problem, too.”
“Just let her in before you cause a scene.”
The displeasure on the younger Sanatsai’s face said everything about what he thought of that command. It amused Kayden, knowing he would have no choice but to obey whether he liked it or not. Nevertheless, he pointedly refused to stand aside for her. Not that it mattered. She stepped past him, making sure she shoulder-barged him in doing so, and marched confidently to the open doorway where she stopped long enough to peer back at the obnoxious dunderhead to give him a condescending smirk. It was a gesture she hadn’t directed at anyone for far too long, making it feel like a guilty pleasure—one that felt so good and so right.
Gratified by the brief expression of mockery, she crossed the threshold into the building. She noted that the Sanatsai who permitted her to enter was one of two present in the lobby, and he fell into step beside her as she strolled towards the reception desk. Glancing sideways at him, she expected to be questioned, but he remained silent. It took an effort not to make a quip about him following her like a lost puppy. At the reception desk, the middle-aged receptionist, Marla, was on duty as usual, but she had been joined by a younger woman whom Kayden had never seen before, beavering away in the background. Even more unusual, the door in the wall behind the reception was wide open, allowing Kayden to see an office space beyond, where a handful of scribes were writing at desks. She had never previously given any thought to what was behind the door, but now it appeared to be the place where all the campus’ record-keeping was done.
“Twice in one day,” chirped the affable receptionist, with a smile. “What can I do for you this time, my lovely?”
“I’m here to see Master Fay, again.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth, Marla was peering down at the leather-bound journal before her, scanning the pages with her forefinger. Rolling her eyes, Kayden suppressed a groan. Did the woman really have to do that every time she paid Fay a visit? “No, I don’t have an appointment,” she interjected, doing her best to keep the annoyance out of her voice. “And no, she isn’t expecting me.”
Marla looked a little flustered as she peered up at the Sanatsai standing watchfully beside Kayden. “Master Luka?” she intoned meekly, clearly hoping for guidance on how to respond.
“The administrator is currently receiving VIPs from the Order,” offered Master Luka. “If she’s not expecting your arrival you’ll have to come back later.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” blurted Kayden, glancing sideways at him, incredulous at the suggestion. “Master Fay won’t object to my intrusion.” She returned her attention to the receptionist. “Marla, could you please explain things to him while I let myself up to Master Fay’s office.” Stepping nonchalantly away from the reception desk, intending to make her way to the nearby staircase, she found her way blocked by Master Luka.
“The administrator gave strict instructions that she is not to be disturbed by anyone, until further notice.”
Letting out a sigh, Kayden stared pointedly at Master Luka. “With all due respect, Master, she didn’t mean me.”
“Until I hear otherwise, anyone also includes you.”
Again, Kayden was at a loss to explain the hostility she was picking up on. It was clear from the Sanatsai’s tone, as well as the look etched upon his face, that whatever problem he had with her was personal in nature. How that could be the case eluded her. She was certain their paths had never crossed before.
“Look, if you inform Master Fay I’m here to see her, I know she will make time for me,” she said calmly. “Why don’t you go upstairs and find out for yourself?”
“Apprentice, I’ve already told you the administrator doesn’t wish to be disturbed, so I’m going to ask you to leave the building.” He placed his left hand on her upper arm, and gestured towards the exit with his right.
Kayden aggressively shrugged her shoulder to remove Master Luka’s hand as he attempted to usher her out of the building. “Would you cool your boots!” she snapped. “Do you have any idea who I am?” Without looking at the receptionist, she added, “Marla, please tell this dunderhead who I am.”
“I don’t care who you think you are,” said Master Luka. “But if you refuse to leave the building, I will have you forcibly removed.”
Pursing her lips, readying a suitably cutting response, Kayden’s retort died on the end of her tongue when she saw, out of the corner of her eye, the lobby’s other Sanatsai sentry approaching her position. She glanced sideways at him, and noted that he, too, wore a hostile expression on his face as he halted by her side.
“What is the matter with you people?” exclaimed Kayden, unable to keep the exasperation from her rising voice. “I am not the enemy!”
“Escort her out of the building,” Master Luka ordered his younger colleague.
The subordinate wasted no time obeying, grabbing Kayden tightly by the arm. “With pleasure,” he replied. The emphasis on the uttering of pleasure betrayed just how excited he was at the prospect of throwing her out of the building—if it wasn’t already apparent from the gleeful look on his eager face.
Almost faster than her eyes could see, Kayden reflexively spun around to face her assailant, jabbing him swiftly in the throat with straight fingers, forcing him to relinquish the hold on her arm. The surprise attack was followed, instantly, by a three-punch combination to the face, before Kayden kicked the Sanatsai’s legs out from under him. Back-pedalling quickly, she prepared herself for the inevitable response from Master Luka, her ability to sense Zarantar giving her advanced warning of his imminent retaliation.
The hurtling concussion orb unleashed against her blinked out of existence almost the instant it materialised. Master Luka’s invocation of Turmiraydan was neutralised by Kayden’s opposing invocation of Yuksaydan. The surprise and confusion on the Sanatsai’s face precipitated a momentary hesitation of which Kayden took full advantage. She invoked Yuksaydan again, unleashing an invisible blast that lifted him off his feet, sending him skidding several yards across the polished floor of the lobby.
“Oh! Oh! Oh!” Marla cried out hysterically, rising to her feet behind the reception desk. “What are you doing?”
The entrance door burst open and in charged the two Sanatsai on sentry duty outside. Both men drew the shilla swords from the scabbards on their backs upon seeing their two floored colleagues scrambling back onto their feet. Kayden squared up to the pair as they pointed their blades at her.
“Stand down, apprentice!” barked Master Luka, drawing his own weapon. “Don’t force us to kill you.”
Indignation at being threatened with lethal force quickly gave way when Kayden remembered how much hot water she was already in with Fay. The last thing she needed was to compound that trouble by becoming embroiled in bloodshed in the lobby. As the four sword-wielding men cautiously circled around her, she let out a sigh and reluctantly raised both hands in the air.
“All right, cool your boots,” she muttered. “I’ll leave now and come back later.”
Sheathing his sword behind his right shoulder, Master Luka silently gestured for his subordinates to do the same. A quick glance told Kayden that two of the three were conspicuously reluctant to do so. The sentry who’d been on the receiving end of
her fists moments earlier had his left hand clamped over his nose while his right hand retained a firm grip of his shilla—the two-handed, single edged weapon unwavering as its blade pointed in her direction. It seemed as though the injured man’s piercing eyes were daring her to resume hostilities, while the sneering scowl of Kai Delano, who’d been rude to her outside, would have succeeded in provoking her to do so if either party had further delayed disarming.
As it was, once the first of the three sword-wielding Sanatsai obeyed Master Luka’s command, the more hostile two followed suit, albeit reluctantly.
“Kai Ruzano, get yourself to the infirmary,” said Master Luka, “and let the Sisters see to your nose.”
Still holding his hand to his face, staunching the flow of blood from his nose, Kai Ruzano silently nodded at his superior then glared daggers at Kayden before departing towards the exit.
“Gentlemen, would kindly escort this… troublemaker out of the building.” Master Luka’s voice took on a stern edge to address Kayden. “And, young lady, be assured the administrator will be hearing about this incident.”
Kayden wanted to retort by proudly announcing she was Fay’s favourite apprentice—rubbing it in Master Luka’s face that she wouldn’t get into any trouble on account of her actions in the lobby—but under the present circumstances, she was no longer entirely confident about either assertion so she held her tongue. Her attention was drawn back to the two sentries who had come in from outside. Both men moved towards her, gleefully reaching out to grab hold of her, no doubt intending to physically throw her out of the administration building. She began flapping her arms wildly to fend the pair off. “I know how to walk,” she snapped. When they stood aside, she promptly headed for the exit.
A shove in the back caused Kayden to stumble, though she kept her footing. The needless provocation annoyed her, but it was hearing her rude aggressor mutter, “Well get a move on, then, hussy!” that prompted her to halt abruptly. With an effort, she resisted the urge to spin around and deck the reprobate. Instead, she pursed her lips and continued to the exit with the two Sanatsai close on her heels. Stepping back out into the warm air of the campus grounds, Kayden was of a mind to cut her losses and simply head back to the mess hall to rejoin Neryssa and Yanina for lunch. But, once again, a comment by the ill-mannered Kai Delano, stopped her in her tracks before she’d taken even a dozen paces away from the administration building.
“Too bad she gave up so easily in there,” she overheard him say to his colleague. “I’d like nothing better than to smack that Vaidasovian bitch around, and put her in her place.”
Slowly, Kayden turned round to glare at them, now reclaiming their sentry positions on either side of the entrance. No! she thought. Why should she skulk off to the mess hall? She came to the administration building to have it out with Master Fay about the unfair disciplinary action taken against Sister Daria, and she wasn’t going to give a low-ranked dunderhead like Kai Delano the satisfaction of chasing her away.
“Be on your way, apprentice,” he called out, taking a threatening step forward.
It was easy enough to ignore the attempt at intimidation, but Kayden required all her willpower to not be provoked by the sense of superiority permeating the Sanatsai’s words. Her silent reply was a dismissive smirk as she pulled the hood of her cloak over head, invoking Raytandushay to make herself invisible. A flash of alarm on the faces of the sentries was Kayden’s reward, but she wasn’t finished yet—not by a long shot. She invoked Makfayshulat to levitate invisibly several feet above the ground, to look down upon the Sanatsai duo, figuratively and literally.
“If you think you can sneak past us, apprentice,” growled Kai Delano, “you’re making a big mistake.”
She watched in amusement as he thrust out an arm, invoking Yuksaydan in a futile attempt to locate and seize hold of her with ‘the unseen hand’, oblivious to her floating in the air. The clueless dunderhead no doubt believed it impossible for any Sanatsai to invoke a second application of Zarantar while invoking Raytandushay. While the assumption was almost correct, Kayden knew better. She was aware that the Order’s teaching that there were only three classes of Sanatsai wasn’t entirely true. There was a fourth, anomalous class of Sanatsai, insignificant in number but more powerful than the others, able to utilise Zarantar in ways deemed to be impossible. She derived great satisfaction from the knowledge that—unofficially at least—she was one of these elite Sanatsai, especially as only three such individuals were currently to be found within the ranks of the Order.
“You can stop that now,” said the second sentry to Kai Delano. “She’s probably tiptoed away already, hoping to make us paranoid about whether she managed to slip past us or not.”
“Clearly you haven’t heard about this apprentice,” he countered. “She’s not going to stop trying to get into the building. Believe me, that slant-eyed bitch is nothing but trouble. I already told you she had something to do with the attack on campus last night.”
Kayden was irked by the slur. Oh, how she wanted to drop like a stone on top of the disrespectful Sanatsai and stomp on his head. But she wouldn’t allow any provocation distract her from the objective at hand. She wanted to enter the administration building and make her way to Fay’s office, and that was exactly what she was going to do.
Tearing her gaze away from the two sentries beneath her, Kayden peered up at the top storey of the building, levitating until she came level. As she floated there, it dawned on her that she was again about to pull off three simultaneous applications of Zarantar, which she had only done once before: last night. But she didn’t doubt for a moment her ability to repeat the feat, and there was no time like the present to confirm it. She drifted slowly towards the grey brickwork of the building, waiting until the last moment to invoke Naymutandushay. The air around her briefly appeared to ripple like water as she became intangible, breezing silently through the wall into the administration building.
On the other side of the wall, she alighted in an empty living quarters, immaculately furnished. Panicking momentarily, Kayden wondered where she was; then she remembered that the top floor housed several guest quarters for visiting dignitaries. She allowed herself a quick glance around the room to admire its expensive looking furnishings: an ornate four-poster bed, an upholstered sofa with a matching armchair, a polished mahogany wardrobe and chest of drawers, the crushed velvet curtains hanging open on either side of the window, and the painted landscapes adorning the walls. It was impossible not to think how ridiculous it was for rooms that were used a handful of times during the course of the year to be so lavishly furnished, while the always in use dorm rooms in which the apprentices resided were graced with cheap junk, by comparison.
Remembering her reason for being there, Kayden ceased her invocations, becoming both visible and corporeal once more. Though the Sanatsai sentries she had eluded were incapable of sensing her use of Zarantar, Kayden knew that Fay was the one Sanatsai on campus who could and would detect someone moving invisibly within the building. And, of course, there were the Jaymidari staff members, all of whom could likewise sense the use of Zarantar, if close enough, though there were unlikely to be any Sisters present on the top floor.
She promptly paced to the door, and pressed an ear to the smooth wooden surface, listening for any indication that someone was roaming the corridor on the other side; it would be difficult to explain why she was in one of the VIP guest quarters if she was caught sneaking out. In a matter of seconds, Kayden determined that the coast was clear. Slowly and cautiously she opened the door, sticking her head out into the corridor—first peering to the right, then to the left—where she caught sight of a diminutive, grey-haired Jaymidari about to disappear round the corner of the corridor. The woman halted in her tracks, and Kayden instinctively knew the Sister was going to peer back in her direction. She retreated quickly back into the guest quarters, closing the door as silently as possible.
While she stood at the door, still as a statue,
Kayden couldn’t shake the suspicion that the Jaymidari in the corridor was, in fact, Sister Idelle Silavas. As unlikely as it may be for the elderly head of the Sisterhood to be present on campus, Kayden recalled being told in the lobby that Fay was receiving VIP guests from the Order, and Idelle certainly qualified as such.
Kayden waited a couple of minutes, until she was absolutely sure Idelle—assuming it was her—had continued on her way to Fay’s office. Once again she cautiously opened the door and peered out into the corridor. The coast was clear, as anticipated, so she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her. Pacing confidently along the route Idelle must have taken, she was no longer overly concerned about the need to move through the building unseen. Nobody would question or object to her presence, making her way to the administrator’s office. Well, no one other than the four dunderheads who had aggravated her in the lobby.
A short while later, Kayden’s carefree march brought her to the door of Fay’s office, without incident. She raised a hand to knock, announcing her arrival, but was forestalled when hearing a male voice emanating from the other side. The voice belonged to Master Ari, addressing Sister Idelle. When Master Luka mentioned Fay receiving VIPs from the Order, he had, somewhat, understated the matter.
Despite her certainty that neither Fay nor Ari and Idelle would be displeased to see her, Kayden refrained from seeking entry to the office. The occupants had just begun an important conversation. What she was overhearing wasn’t for her ears, so making her presence known would simply bring a halt to the discussion. Instead, she gently pressed an ear to the door so she could better eavesdrop on what was being said.
Fay had been grateful when three knocks on the door brought an end to the increasingly stilted conversation with Ari. The timely arrival of Idelle meant there was no more cause for delay; the truth about their visit to Temis Rulan would finally be revealed. After admitting the wizened Jaymidari into the office and ushering her to the armchair beside Ari, she had poured some tea for the Sister before reclaiming her own seat opposite her two colleagues. With everyone settled in their respective armchairs, she had waited expectantly for the truth. Ari obliged her at once. He explained how the Order had acquired new intelligence, the previous day, about the cult of Yosarian in southern Anzarmenia. That information impacted the plans made for eliminating the group, because it would preclude Fay’s participation in the upcoming mission.
