Valbore (Tasks of the Nakairi Book 1)

by K. E. Young

  Dagresh had been busy doing something. Her screams brought me into focus. The odd wavering in the air in the center of the room had intensified and now something else was there, a shadow that shouldn't exist, and it had eyes. The eyes scared me. Whatever it was, it… hated. That hate scared me more than the scary scarred dragonlord had, more than Carlos did, more than Fanul.

  The little girl's screams grated on my nerves and I pulled on my bindings. My soul was screaming 'unnatural' and 'evil'. Whatever it was, it was worse than anything I had ever encountered.

  Dagresh called out to the shadow thing and its attention snapped into focus. I could feel the hate from where I lay. Despite my grogginess, I panicked. Her screams echoed from the walls around me.

  Those screams heightened when Dagresh brought out his knife. The girl's screams went from fear to agony as Dagresh carved a line from her neck, down her sternum and belly, to her groin, branching out to trace down her arms and legs and circled her wrists and ankles. The shadow in the circle paid rapt attention, chittering in excitement to the girl as she screamed her pain and fear. After a particularly piercing scream, the shadow parroted her scream back at her then chittered in glee.

  Then Dagresh coolly skinned her. The leather belt around my wrists gave me no purchase to get away. Only Fanul's lessons kept me from adding my own cries of fear to hers.

  Even Carlos at his worst hadn't tried to skin me alive.

  I could see the blood running through channels carved in the edge of the table to drip into catch basins. Blood spattered Dagresh as she struggled. Her screams grew harsh and breathy as her vocal chords ruptured. The sound of it echoed in the room to come at me from every direction. I had always been alone in my torment. I never had to experience another's. It was far worse than enduring it myself. I vomited and the dregs of Dagresh' drugged cup mixed with bile slid greasily through the bars of the grate I lay on.

  Eventually, the screams died out. After that, the shadow calmed down. Dagresh slit the girl's throat and drained whatever blood she had left into the basins. Fanul hoisted the first basin up and carefully poured the blood into that brighter patch of the curtain. I don't know where the blood went. It didn't land on the floor inside the circle so it had to go somewhere else. The second basin followed the first. Meanwhile, Dagresh finished skinning the child then wrapped her remains and her hide in a length of canvas.

  The basin clunked down on the ground, and the sound rang like a bell through my bones. They had fed the little girl to the shadow monster and now they would do the same to me. Is this what the Goddess had brought me here for? Tears burned my cheeks and blurred my vision. I didn't want to die. Not like this, not screaming in pain as they skinned me and fed me to a monster. If the Goddess wanted me dead, why couldn't she have left me where I was?

  I prayed to her in those moments I had left as Dagresh and Fanul untied me and dragged me to the table. My internal turmoil had caused the collar to lock my muscles, so now when I had finally found the will to fight instead of enduring, I couldn't.

  The mage placed his hand on my forehead as he had the girl's. I felt an odd sensation, fingers in my mind prodding at me. His head jerked in shock.

  "She's an earth mage. You said nothing of her being this strong. If we use her, the valbore will break free now. We aren't ready for that. Our protections aren't in place yet. It'll take a few more days."

  Dagresh glared at Fanul before replying. "However, we need to feed the valbore more now. The child wasn't enough. We have nothing else available."

  "Commander, if we feed this female to the valbore now, everyone here dies and there's nothing to stop it. If you want to live, you must not feed her to it."

  Another man stepped from the shadows, flipping his hood back to reveal deep red hair glistening like blood in the dim light. "Then we do not feed her to it. At least, not all of her." He had a slight accent.

  Dagresh straightened, his face registering dismay. "Master, you shouldn't be here. It's not safe."

  The man's smile was indulgent. "I'll be fine Dagresh. The dragonmen aren't here and don't have a clue. I wished to see the means of their downfall is all." He turned to the mage. "Bind her to it. Let her be its steed. Give the dragonmen more of a challenge."

  He looked down at me clinically. "Fanul can't play with her anymore though. He's too hard on his toys."

  Dagresh chuckled at Fanul's sour expression. "Serves him right. He's the one who told me she had magic. Said he saw her practicing in the garden. Tell me Fanul, did you know she was an earth mage?"

  Fanul addressed him with righteous anger. "She stole power that should have been someone else's. She deserves punishment."

  Dagresh' expression hardened. "So you did know. How you consider yourself Arboren when you harbor the superstitious ramblings of those Dogaren animals is beyond me. I have to wonder how useful you truly are." He breathed out a gusty sigh. "Stay away from the female. She is no longer your concern."

  "I don't take orders from you."

  Dagresh was hard as stone. "No, you take the orders of the Master, as I do. If you plan to survive long enough to become king of Therys, you will follow those orders now. I warn you, if I feel you've become a threat to your own people, I will end you. I am the hand of the Master here, not you."

  Fanul was silent as Dagresh turned his attention to me. "Congratulations, you live another day. I almost feel sorry for you though. It seems your fate is far worse than death. Don't worry, I will take good care of you until it's time. You are our means of getting rid of those annoying dragonmen. When the red moon rises full, you will be the valbore's steed and the Arboren will have their long withheld birthright. We will take our rightful place as the gods of this world."

  He calmly turned to pick up the same knife he had used to skin the child and slid it into my forearm. The drug dulled the knife's bite but didn't stop the deep ache I felt as my blood dribbled into the basin Fanul held to catch it. When the mage said, "That's enough," Dagresh used the leather belt he had bound my wrists with earlier to bind the wound.

  As he had done before, Fanul carefully poured the blood into that bright swirling spot in the air. As it drained out of the basin, I felt a deeper ache build, in not just my body but also my mind. I heard the chittering of the monster with more than my ears and felt a presence in my head. The presence burned like acid and left me screaming as the little girl had. The collar locked my muscles down and my screams fragmented in my mind's desperate attempts to reject this anathema.

  I had wondered what might be worse than Carlos. Now I knew. This… this was worse than Carlos. This was worse than anything else could ever be. I wouldn't dream of Carlos setting my broken body on fire anymore. I would dream of these moments when my mind touched the mind of a monster, a demon who hated indiscriminately and wanted nothing more than to destroy what it hated. A demon bearing a mind insane with hunger and rage, a mind that needed to inflict pain and fear as much as I needed to breathe.

  I screamed and struggled in my mind until the mage closed that bright swirling link to the demon's prison. When he did, the presence snapped out as if it had never been, leaving me exhausted and drained.

  I understood what that disturbance in the air was now. I hadn't truly met that thing yet. It was still locked away and I was desperately grateful for that. That shimmering disturbance was simply where the monster's prison touched this world. However, Dagresh wanted to free it and I wanted to avoid that fate with everything in my being. The man had said I would be its 'steed'. A steed is something you ride. I didn't know what it meant in this context, but I knew I would rather die than let it happen.

  Dagresh dragged me off the table and pulled me to my feet. My stomach rebelled but my heaving was unrewarded by even bile. I stumbled after Dagresh when he tugged on the leash, my mind still frozen in shock at the foul violation I had experienced. A whining hiss filled my ears, deafening me to Dagresh and Fanul's conversation. I was as quiet now as Fanul would wish. Not even tears came although I knew
they would in time.

  I remembered nothing of our trek back to Fanul's mansion. My next memory was of the mute girl pushing me down onto the cot before giving me a cup of water to drink. When I had choked it down, she removed the leather belt binding the cut on my arm. She washed the cut then bound it firmly with bandages, putting pressure on it to staunch the blood still seeping in a sluggish trickle from the wound despite the binding.

  The hiss in my ears was fading and I shivered again. The memories of the demon and the little girl's screams repeated in my mind. I rocked back and forth in the mute girl's arms as my mind rebelled at the memories.

  Dragos: 29th of Hunting, 3837

  "So, we leave first thing in the morning?" Kaio sounded as if he couldn't believe Urash was letting them go. Dragos knew he wanted to get away from the court. His arguments with his father had been worse than usual.

  Dragos nodded. "He agreed that with a Nakairu there, our presence may be necessary. Urash isn't stupid. Perhaps the Nakairi are the only ones who can do these Tasks, but he says it's foolish to withhold support for the sake of politics and fashion."

  Kaio blew out an explosive breath. "Thank the Goddess. We've been away too long as it is."

  Dragos gave him a level look. "You feel it too?"

  Kaio looked away and nodded rather than speaking.

  Dragos was silent for a time as Kaio refilled his wine cup, not sure how to broach the subject. He had heard a few rumors and wondered how much truth there was to them. He refilled his own cup. "So, what's this I hear about you Challenging your father?

  Kaio vented a heavy sigh. He had apparently been hoping Dragos wouldn't bring up the subject. "Urash has disallowed my Challenge." Kaio's expression was mutinous as he kicked at the table leg.

  Again, Dragos was silent for a time, allowing Kaio to calm before returning to the subject. "That does not answer the question of why you would pit your dragon against your father's in combat."

  Kaio stared down into his glass for a long while before tightly stating. "He called Mother a whore."

  Ren's stupidity stunned Dragos. He understood Kaio's anger now. The rumor mill had been buzzing about Kaio's denied Challenge, but there wasn't even a whisper why. For something like that, Kaio was certainly justified. So why had Urash denied it?

  Frowning in his attempt to understand the full situation, Dragos asked, "Did he say it in your mother's hearing?"

  Kaio shook his head. "No. We were arguing again about his latest attempts to force me into marriage. This time, it's one of Pandonea's granddaughters. Again. He wasn't taking no for an answer. The argument was… worse than usual. He said I would be the ruination of the clan and he shouldn't have expected anything less of the son of a whore."

  "So your mother doesn't know?"

  "No."

  Dragos thought he understood now. To Urash, his aunt Zenra had been like a second mother. He wouldn't have wanted her hurt. A Challenge would have required announcing the justification. By denying the Challenge, he protected her from the pain of finding her bond-mate of twenty-five years thought so little of her.

  Ren really was an idiot.

  Sara: 29th of Hunting, 3837

  After an unknown period, I stopped shivering and the girl urged me to lie down. The numbness of the drugs faded and my injuries reasserted themselves. My hell was complete. My one comfort was the girl who sat beside me petting my hair until the guard arrived.

  He swiftly bound my hands to the ring as usual. Then he grabbed me by the jaw and poured a pulpy liquid into my mouth. The familiar taste of the leaves coated my tongue. The guard held my nose and stroked my throat as I would giving a pill to a cat. He had done this before. He forced me to swallow the sludge even before I could gather myself to resist. He let go then left.

  I was still groggy from the drug Dagresh had forced down my throat. It didn't stop me from poking a finger down my throat to bring up the stuff I was certain kept me from using my magic.

  Afterwards, the expected tears came as my mind came back online. I sobbed helplessly on my cot reliving the little girl's screams and the thing's chittering laughter. The mute servant girl patted my hair as tears of her own slipped down her face.

  The guard stepped back into the room and yelled, "Shut her up!"

  I tried to muffle my crying but I failed. As I looked into the girl's eyes, I saw her face harden in determination. I felt a thread of dread as she stood and turned to the guard. I couldn't help it. I cried out in denial as she tackled the guard.

  He froze in shock for a moment before he struck. In moments, she was on the ground, wrapping around herself in a futile try at protection. He hit her over and over, and I could hear her ribs snap. Her inarticulate cries punctuated his grunts. I covered my mouth with both hands to muffle my own cries.

  Eventually, he ran out of energy and came to a stop. He spat on her huddled remains and stalked out.

  When his steps had faded, her huddled frame stirred. She labored to drag her broken body towards me, leaving a wet trail of blood behind her. I pulled as hard on my bindings as I could in my efforts to reach her.

  Her strength didn't last. When she could pull herself no closer she reached out her hand and showed me the key she had stolen from the guard. It was the key to my collar. She gave me the sweetest smile and then she was dead.

  She had escaped this hell. In doing so, she had given me the means to make my own escape. If my body didn't betray me. Or my mind. That was even more important now. It was necessary I keep in mind I wasn't escaping. I was merely trying to reach the girl. If I didn't, the collar would stop me.

  I turned back to my bound hands. Escaping wasn't an option anymore. It was a necessity. I didn't even know her name, but she had died to give me a chance. I couldn't let her down. Death was preferable to being used by Dagresh's monster. I had to move fast, there wasn't much time.

  The guard had been careless when he tied me. Perhaps he had relied too much on me remaining compliant under the hold of the drugs. My struggles to get to the girl had opened my skin and blood slicked the rope. I leaned closer and grasped it with my teeth. Then pushing in on the base of my left thumb with my right, I pulled on my left hand as hard as I could. My thumb joint grated and slid sickeningly under the skin as I dislocated it. The collar forced me to freeze for a few moments when my thoughts strayed towards my escape, delaying me. Success rewarded my efforts though. The rope scraped the back and side of my hand but I pulled it free.

  I put my thumb between my teeth and pulled to pop it back into joint. The pain of it was so much less than my other hurts that I barely noticed it. My thumb didn't have much strength, but at least I could use it.

  The other hand came free with little effort. I stood and almost fainted. It had been too long since I had eaten. When the black spots had faded from my vision, I took up the key she had stolen for me and removed the collar, keeping firmly in mind I was just seeing if I could turn a piece of metal in a hole. I wasn't unlocking anything. I couldn't afford to think about escape as I acted. My relief as it slid loose and fell to the floor brought fresh tears to my eyes. I was free… for the moment.

  I picked the collar up again. Fanul wouldn't use it on anyone else. It would go into the first cesspit, sewer, or river I came across. I stroked the girl's hair a moment, said a quiet prayer for her, and crept to the door.

  The hallway outside was quiet at the moment so I moved swiftly towards the stairs that would give me access to those portions of the mansion above ground. I reached the ground floor without being seen and wondered why no one was about.

  I reasoned that if the room we had passed the previous day faced the courtyard, a room on the opposite side might lead to a room with an outside window. Instead, it led to a narrow room with a door on the opposite side that led to another hallway. On the far side of the hallway, I finally found a room with an outside view. The last shreds of daylight showed at the window and I realized the reason I had met no one was that they were at dinner.

  I
opened the window and slipped out into the snow. My lack of clothing or shoes didn't slow me. I had to get out!

  The streets in this neighborhood were empty and my run from the mansion went unobserved. I made it to a less prosperous street before the cold on my bare feet forced me to pause.

  I ducked into the alleyway between the closest home and its neighbor. At the back of the home, I found the expected courtyard. Jackpot! I tossed the hated collar into the well with relish. A few houses down hung lines of drying laundry including tunics, drawstring pants, and socks. They were still a little damp but it offered more protection than bare skin. They also made me less conspicuous. I looked out over the city at the palace on the hill, judging distance. I pulled a second tunic and pair of socks off the line and put them on as well. It was a long walk.

  It took hours and my feet were numb with cold despite the two pairs of heavy socks I was wearing. As I walked, I went over in my head what I would say to the guards. I hadn't forgotten some of them still answered to Fanul. Had they helped Fanul to take me? Had they passed information?

  I couldn't trust them so I wasn't sure how I would get past the palace gate.

  I needn't have worried. Perhaps the Goddess was aiding me. Perhaps my luck was changing. Except for a lone sentry, the guards huddled in the gatehouse out of the cold. I crept through when the sentry stepped inside to accept a mug of hot tea from his companion.

  Inside the palace grounds, I made my way to a small lesser-used entrance. Once there, I crept into a darkened room to wait until everyone had gone to sleep. There were enough people in the halls now that if I moved around someone would spot me. I could hear them nearby.

  The servants used the room to store cleaning gear, extra glassware, and other common items. There was also a ratty couch. A small, high window kept it from complete darkness. I drank my fill from a spigot used to fill mop buckets then crawled under the couch so no one would see me if they came in. I fell into a light sleep. The floor was hard, but at least it was warm.