by Ian Gregoire
Kayden let out a weary sigh. Surely Zarina couldn’t be that gullible, could she? “There is no Master Yosarian, you dumb bitch,” she murmured. “That man is Josario Sandolari…”
Something behind her had drawn Zarina’s gaze, prompting the young woman to lower her head in obeisance and take several backward steps. Kayden’s heart sank. It could only mean the return of Josario. He duly walked into view from behind her, accompanied by Vartan.
“Morning, my pretty.”
Josario halted in front of Kayden, while Zarina and Vartan dutifully positioned themselves a little behind him, on either side. “I see you’ve been getting reacquainted with Zarina,” he continued. “She informed me yesterday that we have you to thank for providing her the opportunity to kill off a potential rival who had seized control of the neighbouring province. And to think I only sent her to Sevdanor to identify the pretender.” The smile on his face disappeared, and his expression became deadly serious. “Now, let’s get back to the question you’ve been stubbornly refusing to answer. Tell me what I want to know.”
A wave of nausea swept over Kayden. The day in which her short life would come to an end had arrived. It didn’t matter whether or not she answered Josario’s question; the end result would be the same. She closed her eyes. Despite the strange compulsion in his voice, urging her to reveal the truth, Kayden decided she’d rather die without giving Josario the satisfaction of yielding to him. Even in death she would have the consolation of knowing that he would be killed by the Order in a matter of days.
“Please,” she implored in a weak voice. “Just kill me now. I’m never going to give you what you’re asking for.”
“If you want your suffering to end, all you have to do is tell me where the Order is holding my beloved captive.”
There was an underlying anger in Josario’s voice that betrayed a growing frustration with Kayden’s intransigence. It was the first time she had heard it. She hoped it would be enough to push him into killing her without subjecting her to further torture, but that hope died moments later. An agonising pain overwhelmed her, inducing convulsions as her body became rigid and all her muscles seemed to spasm uncontrollably. Her mouth opened in a silent scream, and though her eyes remained closed Kayden heard the crackling sound of Zarantar-induced lightning crawling over her body. Respite was long in coming, but when it came she was left hanging limply in her restraints, breathing hard.
Keeping her eyes shut, Kayden heard Zarina say, “Master, the short time I spent in her company tells me that she won’t give you the answer you seek. You should put her out of her misery now.”
“Everybody has a breaking point, Zarina,” replied Josario, “including her. She will tell me what I want to know.”
Again, the torture resumed. It was worse than before, and Kayden was unable to hold back her piercing screams. Every second was an eternity of torment without respite. Finally, something broke inside of her, separating her mind from her body. She no longer felt pain. Although the assault on her physical form was unrelenting, her incorporeal psyche was now free. In her mind’s eye she saw Fay standing in front of her, smiling with arms outstretched in welcome. Knowing instinctively that she was close to death, Kayden took comfort in the vision of her master, though she thought it strange that it wasn’t her mother she was seeing. It was frequently said that people close to death thought about their mothers right at the end, but this was her second time knocking on death’s door, and as before she found herself envisioning Fay.
The pieces of the puzzle suddenly came together. How something so obvious could have eluded her for so long was a mystery to Kayden. At last, it all made sense. She now understood why it was Fay she was thinking of in her final moments, and how it also explained why her late mother had not been in her thoughts all year. Life had given her a surrogate mother as she made the transition to adulthood. Fay wasn’t just a mentor, teacher, and friend. She was also a mother figure. The dawning reality that she would never see Fay again hit Kayden hard, as did the knowledge that once Fay read the letter left in Sister Daria’s care she would live the rest of her life blaming herself for the death of her apprentice. But it was the possibility that Fay might believe she’d died while being angry with her that stabbed at the heart.
Unable to contain her emotions, Kayden wept.
“Ah, diddums! The little baby is crying.” The intrusion of Vartan’s mocking voice sounded far away.
Kayden’s mind and body merged once more; her eyes slowly fluttered open. Standing before her was Josario, looking both confused and intrigued as he reached out to wipe a tear from her cheek.
“Why the tears, my pretty?” he asked in a gentle tone. “What is it that upsets you? Tell me.”
Still weeping uncontrollably, Kayden didn’t reply.
“Master Yosarian, you said everyone has a breaking point,” Zarina interjected. “Maybe she has finally reached hers, and that’s why she’s crying.”
“No, Zarina, it’s something else. She’s had some kind of awakening. A revelation. I felt it.” Addressing Kayden, he added, “Tell me what has provoked your tears, and I will grant you a day’s relief from further interrogation.”
In her weakened, vulnerable state Kayden could no longer resist whatever it was in Josario’s voice that made her want to do anything he asked of her. “I’m never going to see her again. She’s going to be so upset,” she said between sobs. “She will blame herself for my death, but it’s all my fault—not hers.”
“Who are you talking about?”
“My master.”
“And who is your master?” The underlying excitement in Josario’s voice suggested anticipation of a hitherto unknown piece of information.
“I already told you,” Kayden whimpered. “I let you see her face in my mind.”
Josario was silent for a moment, frowning as he scrutinised her intently. “My beloved is truly your master?”
“Yes.”
“So she’s not being held captive by the Order?”
“No.”
Without warning Josario grabbed her around the throat. “Are you claiming it was she who sent you to kill me?” A restrained anger simmered beneath the surface of his words.
“No,” croaked Kayden. The grip around her throat loosened, allowing her to speak freely. “Killing you was my idea. She has no idea where I am.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to accomplish something she hasn’t done, so I don’t need to live in her shadow any more.”
Slowly, Josario’s hand fell away from Kayden’s throat. He continued to scrutinise her, seemingly as though trying to decide what to make of what he’d been told.
“This is ridiculous!” blurted Vartan. “Master, surely you’re not buying what she’s saying. Can’t you see she’s just telling you whatever she thinks will keep her alive?”
“Silence!” snapped the cult leader. “She is being truthful. But she isn’t telling me everything.” He stared deeply into Kayden’s eyes. “You are keeping secrets from me, aren’t you, my pretty?
In spite of herself, Kayden silently nodded.
“I think it’s time I took a look for myself what you are hiding.” Josario grabbed Kayden by the head, pressing the fingers of both hands to either side of her face. “Show me the secret you least want to reveal to me.”
All of a sudden, Kayden was no longer in the underground cavity with Josario, Zarina, and Vartan. She was at the edge of a circular clearing in a forest. The location was familiar, yet something was wrong. She couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that it should be nighttime, though it was unmistakeably daytime. Several yards ahead of her, she saw a black-clad, hooded figure kneeling on the grass at the centre of the clearing. Whoever it was had their back to her, but she didn’t want to get any closer to the person. Inexplicably, she began moving towards the figure even though she wasn’t walking, and hadn’t made a conscious decision to approach. Looking down at where her feet should have been, she finally realised that she was
completely disembodied—that she wasn’t physically present in the clearing, only her sight was. Now it dawned on her that she was simply witnessing what Josario was seeing inside her mind.
As they moved ever closer to the middle of the clearing, the mysterious, black-clad figure slowly stood upright. Somehow, Kayden could feel Josario’s anticipation as they came to a halt behind the lone figure. She could hear his thoughts pondering the person’s identity. Though she was certain she knew who it was, Kayden couldn’t understand why Josario was seeing this particular scene in her mind. As far as she was concerned the secret she least wanted to reveal to him was the fact that Fay was actually a legendary, high-ranking member of the Order. If Josario knew that his so-called ‘beloved’ was now his enemy, he’d have no reason to keep his captive alive any longer.
“Who are you? Show yourself!” she heard Josario say to the black-clad figure.
Kayden tried to shout out a warning to Josario, but she had no voice. She was immediately gripped by fear: things would not end well if the hooded figure turned around to face them.
“Patience, old man,” replied a familiar, androgynous voice. “The whole world will know who I am soon enough.”
A gusty wind rose up out of nowhere, and nightfall descended rapidly to chase daylight away, plunging the forest clearing into darkness. The black-clad figure spun around at an inhumanly fast speed. As anticipated, Kayden saw her own face staring back at her from beneath the hood of her rogue doppelgänger.
“My time will come!”
The hissed words from the lips of her other self presaged a blinding flash of white light that assailed her eyes. Suddenly, she was back in the pit, still a prisoner in restraints. Before her eyes Josario hurtled backwards and collided with the wall of earth behind him. Staring in wide-eyed disbelief as her captor landed in a heap, Kayden was at a loss to explain what was happening, or why a kaleidoscope of glowing red glyphs had appeared on the walls, floor, and ceiling of the pseudo-dungeon. Josario looked as dumbfounded as she felt, and when the glyphs faded from view there was fear in his eyes as he stared back at her. Taken aback, something at the periphery of Kayden’s vision warned her that she was about to pay the ultimate price for what had just happened. She turned her head to face the danger, and time seemed to stand still as the incendiary orb unleashed by Vartan made its short journey towards her from his outstretched hand.
“No!”
Zarina’s yell coincided with the halting of the fiery projectile mere inches from Kayden’s chest. The flaming orb was uncomfortably close, causing Kayden to squirm in her restraints, all too aware that she could still be blown to pieces if it detonated. She was granted immediate relief when the orb blinked out of existence. Glancing to her left she saw an agitated Zarina with her hand outstretched.
“What’s the matter with you?” snapped Zarina to Vartan. “An incendiary orb detonating in a confined space like this would probably kill all of us.”
The sound of a blade being drawn from its sheath drew Kayden’s eyes back to Vartan. He was advancing towards her with a dagger in his hand.
“Fine! I’ll use this,” he said in retort to his counterpart.
Kayden tried in vain to back away, but her restraints kept her in place. There was nothing she could do to prevent him from grabbing her around the throat with his left hand, and raising the dagger in his right hand, readying to plunge the blade into her chest.
“Wait!”
The bellowed command from Josario stopped Vartan dead in his tracks. He looked reluctant to spare her life, but lowered his weapon before peering back over his shoulder to look at his floored master. No words were exchanged, yet Vartan dutifully removed his hand from her throat, and stood to one side. Once he was out of her direct line of sight, Kayden had an unobstructed view of Josario. The spry old man was rising to his feet, and as she watched him watching her, the expression on his face shifted from fearful to wary to intrigued to pleased. As for what had pleased him she couldn’t say, but she was disturbed by the contented chuckle that issued from his mouth.
“Oh, she chose you well, my pretty,” he said with excitement.
Kayden wasn’t sure what he meant, though the admiration in his voice suggested it was a reference to Fay. He silently beckoned for Zarina to approach, and she promptly obeyed. The Jaymidari turncoat listened intently as her master whispered in her ear. Whatever instructions were conveyed from one to the other, Kayden couldn’t hear, but she watched Zarina hurriedly depart, walking past her and out of sight.
With an almost predatory look upon his face, Josario ambled towards Kayden. “This is all starting to make sense now,” he mused as he halted in front of her. “It seems I owe you an apology for… pressing you for answers. Not that you will receive one, of course. You sought me out, intending to take my life, and my people would have lost respect for me had I not made you suffer as a consequence. But that’s in the past. As far as I’m concerned, the score has been settled. Let us, instead, focus on the present and future.”
If everything was starting to make sense, as Josario claimed, thought Kayden, then she was failing to discern how. Was he going to spare her life and release her from captivity?
“You told me that my beloved doesn’t know about your coming here,” continued Josario, “and you were being truthful. However, I now have reason to believe that your master is already in Anzarmenia, looking for you as we speak. Earlier in the week, I received a report from one of my spies in the capital that leads me to believe she was in Nerezan a few days ago. In light of everything that has transpired since then, I am now able to understand a dream that has been plaguing my sleep for several weeks.”
Was Fay really in Anzarmenia to rescue her? Kayden wondered hopefully. If so, what did Josario’s dreams have to do with it?
“In this dream, a black-clad figure travels south from the Kingdom of Mirtana to thwart my plans in here Anzarmenia, and bring about my demise. I had originally suspected you of being the person from my dream, but it now seems clear that it was my beloved all along.” Josario’s expression shifted slightly; he looked contemplative. “Obviously, it doesn’t make sense that she could be the death of me,” he mused, “but the tears you shed when you thought you’d never see her again tells me that the two of you have become very close. Perhaps close enough that ending your life would be sufficient provocation for her to kill me. Needless to say, I won’t be taking your life. In fact, you are no longer my prisoner; you are a guest. Though, for the time being, you will have to remain here until I arrange for you to be taken to our primary commune.”
“Master Yosarian,” Vartan interjected. “You promised that when you were done with her she would be mine, to do with as I please. You can’t now free her and treat her like a guest, then expect me to just accept it. When your recruiters came to me a year and a half ago, I had to leave my homeland and my family to join you here in Anzarmenia. My sole reason for agreeing to do so was the opportunity to have my Zarantar unbound and my Sanatsai training completed so that, someday, I could hunt her down and kill her for ruining my life. Now that fate has delivered her to me, I am not going to let her go just because she claims to be friends with an old flame of yours.”
Kayden noted the subtle anger on Josario’s face, indicating his displeasure at Vartan’s insubordination. “Mr. Pazarian, if you have a problem with being denied your petty vengeance,” he said, “I suggest you take it up with Kayden’s master when she arrives. However, I warn you… My beloved does not like to share what belongs to her.”
Both men were distracted by something behind Kayden. She heard the sound of several pairs of feet entering the underground cavity, and halting behind her.
“Vartan, return to the commune at once,” said Josario. “I will speak to you about your problem later.”
Grudgingly, the sour-faced dunderhead did as he was told. He trudged away, giving Kayden a venomous look as he went past her, out of sight. Moments later, Zarina walked back into view, accompanied by fiv
e other women and a tall, athletic man. It was safe to assume they were all cultists, but while the man had to be a Sanatsai, the women could be a group of Jaymidari, a group of Sanatsai, or a mixture of both. Kayden deemed the first option to be most likely so she chose to view the women as Jaymidari turncoats.
“Take up your positions,” said Josario to the women.
A couple of the new arrivals promptly moved to stand in the corners of the pit directly ahead of Kayden, two stood against the walls on either side of her, while Zarina and the remaining woman walked back out of view. Kayden peered back over her left shoulder to see Zarina take up a position in the rear left corner, and a glance over her right shoulder confirmed that the other woman was in the opposite corner.
Kayden’s attention was drawn back to Josario as he addressed the Sanatsai man.
“She is not to leave here until I’m ready to release her,” he said in a hushed tone. “Only let her out of her restraints if she needs to pee or poop.”
“Understood,” replied the subordinate.
Josario turned his attention to Kayden. “So,” he said. “I need to make preparations to greet the arrival of your master. Based on her visit to Nerezan earlier in the week, my expectation is that she will find you in the next two or three days. For the time being, you’ll have to be patient and remain here. But don’t worry, I’ll have you taken to the commune before my beloved comes for you.”
There seemed little point in protesting her continued captivity if she was going to be set free soon, so Kayden held her tongue. She watched Josario walk past her, and out of view, leaving her in the underground prison to ponder why six female cultists were surrounding her while a hostile looking Sanatsai watched over her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
A Strong Connection
Sitting cross-legged on the grass in the middle of a copse of rowan trees, Fay was subdued while quiet conversations went on around her. Lindo Karteris and the other five Sanatsai of the Order she’d encountered on the road had already changed out of their disguises, and were now dressed in civilian clothing as they ate their rations of dried fruit and nuts for breakfast. Upon arrival at the copse, they had been greeted by six other Sanatsai, who comprised the rest of the search party led by Karteris. Now that Fay had been found, only four of the six remained, as two had left to make the return journey south to the farmstead staging area for the pending mission. It was decided that the party should leave in pairs, at half-hour intervals, to avoid travelling as a large group that might draw unnecessary attention.
