How do I go down into the Blindness?
“If you want to go, you will get there,” Dahni replied. “Feel for the hunters, because you may not survive an encounter with them. They are attracted to strong emotions. Remember, you can find safety in the Void because they cannot rise above the Blindness.”
She felt Dahni’s anxiety and concern.
I will search for them.I’m not sure what I’ll do if I find them. With that ambivalent decision, she dove for the Blindness without a plan, and without a hope.
•••
It seemed like she’d wandered the Blindness forever. The sizzling and roaring that surrounded her no longer bothered her; she’d learned to filter out the random thoughts and dreams of others. When the hunters swam past, she shied away and made her mind go blank so they couldn’t sense her. She could feel their hunger as they glided and slithered around in the Blindness looking for prey, searching for thoughts and emotions. Fear excited and attracted them.
Eventually she felt a thread of familiarity, the memories of a bushy beard and a hearty laugh. She followed the thread, feeling a presence with a different flavor: the person she never knew, a person with suicidal desperation. Focusing upon Berin, she followed him in his sweeps.
Like a string of beads, she could feel others trailing behind him. Taalo held on to Berin, then there was another she didn’t know, and another, and another—she counted six souls strung along, the lifeline back to their physical bodies.
She circled them like a hunter, while she decided what to do. The way the conspirators chained themselves together reminded her of a children’s game called Fortress, where she held hands with her team and tried to withstand an attacker taking a run at the line of defenders and breaking them up. Usually the attacker was given time to size up the defensive wall and try to determine where it was weakest, looking for a smaller child that might not be so strong, or trying to break off an end defender. To offset that, each team tried to intersperse weaker and smaller members among the stronger ones.
But she had no way to judge the strength of the links in this chain, and she suspected she’d have only one chance to make this work. In the end, she made the same decision as if she were eight years old and running against defenders that were all stronger than her. She chose to try to break off the last person in the chain: Berin, who ranged out front and only held on to Taalo. Perhaps the fear and hatred she’d seen in Taalo’s eyes would aid her, weakening the link between him and his leader.
She dove at the tenuous glowing line that held them together, moving deliberately and keeping her mind on cutting the connection. She hit the link and like a blow to her mind, felt the thoughts of both men. The Blindness momentarily cleared below the three of them, exposing the sight of a ship’s hull breaking upon rocks that stood like a fence against a desert shore. The Danilo Ana had reached the end of her journey.
No! Like the hunter she pretended to be, she tore into the link, ravaging it. Perhaps it was her fear, perhaps the aura of doom that rose from that hull helped also, but the link glowed and finally snapped. Berin floated away from the chain and she felt him reaching—but they were more inhibited than she was, because she blocked Berin from Taalo with a thought. Berin thrashed.
Then Taalo and the others that made up Berin’s safety chain were gone, so suddenly she was shocked. Berin also stopped moving. He floated in the Blindness and she felt him casting his senses around. She hadn’t thought to shield herself from Berin, like she had from the hunters.
“Draius!” Berin’s thought came through the Blindness like the crack of a whip. He sensed her.
Berin, there are bigger issues than your revenge.War is coming. As her mind flickered to Dahni’s words, she felt him become enraged.
“Those creatures let my family die!” She heard his thoughts as speech, but he seemed incoherent with madness. Perhaps the interminable time spent wandering around the Blindness had unhinged him, or maybe this was magnified frustration and rage. Berin rushed her and she felt the collision of two minds occupying a point where only one mind should be.
And you abducted my son! Her bitterness formed a poison cloud as she struggled with him, buoyed by her own anger. Berin’s mind felt like a sharp knife digging into her. She pushed back in the same manner and felt him give way. Suddenly, she knew she was stronger than him here.
Their struggle attracted hunters and she felt them circling, waiting, hoping to feed after they weakened each other. There’d be no end, and no reasoning with Berin now. She knew that. One creature passed close, brushing her mind with inhuman hunger and malice. She screamed soundlessly at the touch.
She began to fight differently, trying to contain Berin. It was harder to hold onto him than to strike out, but they wouldn’t live through this if she didn’t get them both out of the Blindness—quickly. She tried to pull him into the Void where the hunters couldn’t go, but he tied her to the Blindness like an anchor. She’d lose him if she fled to the Void.
She again changed her tactics abruptly, heading for her body and hoping to get Berin back as well. She dove, holding him close to her and shielding him from the hunters like a child in her arms. She took the things by surprise; they swooped after her in pursuit. Berin struggled, but it was becoming easier to constrain him. What saved them were the hunters fighting among themselves to be the first to get to their prey. She felt one come close, only to be headed off by another; they started ripping each other apart. She tried to ignore them while she rushed toward her physical body.
With a shock that felt like dropping into ice water, she dove into her body. Shards of light and sound buffeted her, until she realized that she was receiving her senses from her eyes and ears again. She struggled to remember how her eyelids worked. Cool water drops fell on her face as she remembered how to breathe. She smelled smoke, heard rain sizzle. Rain? Wasn’t she under cover?
She was alive again. The falling drops melted into mist as she opened her eyes, squinting against the light. She was surrounded by violence and chaos.
chapter Thirty-Three
Payment of Life-Debt
I chose this solitary life, so I approach my death with only pen and paper as my companions. I helped my master hide a powerful evil and unfortunately, we couldn’t anticipate the tools men would invent, nor what ends powerful men would employ to find it. Now I know what my master tried to hide from me, even upon his deathbed. I will not have peace in death. I will be pulled from the Stars and tortured for my knowledge, and when men unearth this evil, the phrenic circle will be broken and savage warfare will erupt…
—The Prophesies of Sorcerer-Apprentice Lahna, from the private Meran-Viisi Library, tentatively dated T.Y. 1071 (New Calendar)
Figures fought in and around the stone arches, and out onto the quay. Lantern light cast garish shadows of grappling shapes onto the walls, columns, and ceiling. Berin lay near her feet beside the boy, who still breathed shallowly. Draius coughed from the smoke. Something hot weighed on her chest and her clothing smoldered, but luckily, she was soaking wet. Actually, everybody, everything was wet and the puddles about the quay reflected the lamplight. She was still strapped in the chair while everyone fought around her, ignoring her. She felt like a bubble of air, caught between rocks as a waterfall roared past her.
Robed figures clashed with ruffians, but ruffians who were skilled with weapons. The back of a tall, broad-shouldered man to her left looked familiar, and when he pushed away a robed figure to get room to use his sword, she recognized Jan. He was using his service saber, and his moves and stance were familiar.
Farther away, a man with long brown braids was pulling a robed figure off a smaller individual. The smaller person twisted and, with a petite hand and arm, thrust a long dagger into the chest of the robed attacker. Miina and Lornis? What were they doing here?
She looked around while she struggled to get her arms out of their bonds. Her limbs were weak and lethargic; she seemed to be moving in molasses, while the struggling forms ar
ound her sped up. The entire Office of Investigation was here, but none wore the City Guard uniform. She caught sight of Ponteva, fighting doggedly with his back against a wall, facing two berserk opponents.
Her dreamlike state ended as two men fell across her chair. She screamed as they crushed her right arm into the wood of the armrest, bending her wrist the wrong way. The man on top stabbed the lower man’s chest while she was squeezed against the back of the seat. She felt the impact of the knife as it ground between the bones in his chest and she stared into the victim’s crazed face, his hood thrown back, as he died. The man on top pushed himself upright and she looked up into cold gray eyes. Haversar. He turned back to the fighting, leaving the body lying across her body, with warm blood seeping onto her lap and legs.
She arched her back to push away the heavy limp corpse, trying several times before it slowly rolled off of her. It fell onto Berin’s legs. Berin still didn’t move. She was soaked with the man’s blood and she no longer smelled smoke, only gore.
All of Berin’s followers were fighting with a wild frenzy, otherwise they wouldn’t have had much chance against trained Guard and Haversar’s men. She finally got her left arm free, but she couldn’t move her right hand without feeling sharp, grinding pain. Something was broken. Fumbling with the knots using her left hand, she felt the brush of power on her skin. It raised prickles on her neck. Could everyone feel that? What was causing this insanity?
Someone had to save Peri! Disregarding the agony, she viciously pulled her right hand free of its bond. She tried to stand, kick her feet outward, but found her lower legs were also tied to the chair. Fear clutched her, gave her nausea. The woman watching Peri—what would she do?
“Jan!” She had to be heard above the clanging weapons, shouts, grunts, and screams. “Jan!”
Jan’s opponent crumpled to the ground, and he turned toward Draius.
“Peri! Over there!” She pointed with her good arm toward the small door. Jan nodded as the figure on the ground reached up and clung to his leg. He slashed downward, hitting the back with a dull crunch. She turned her attention to her bound feet, knowing that Jan would do whatever was necessary to get to their son.
The power in the room still tickled her skin and as she fumbled one-handed with the bonds, she cast about with her senses, just as she had done in the Blindness.
Suddenly she was galloping down the streets of Betarr Serasa. The air was clean from the rain and the night sky was clear, shining with her people. Behind her flashed the silver and green of the King’s Guard, as well as Perinon, pushing his horse to keep up.
We are coming. The voice in her head was Dahni’s, the view of the world she saw came from the creature’s eyes.
“Draius?” Lornis knelt beside her chair, his hand on her knee. His face was lit by green light, making his cheekbones sharper than normal.
“Are you hurt?” He looked at the blood, trying to see if it came from her wounds.
She could only shake her head. How long had she been caught in that vision? The fighting had stopped and the quay seemed unnaturally quiet. Crumpled bodies lay scattered about, and she heard faint moans. The smell of oil from capsized lamps overwhelmed the smell of rain, smoke, and blood. The blood on her lap and thighs was drying. One of Haversar’s men was freeing the nunetton boy and binding his wounds. The boy looked to be unconscious, but alive.
Jan stood near, holding Peri across his arms. Peri’s head lolled against his chest in deep, unnatural sleep. Jan stared at Draius, or more specifically, at her chest. She looked down and saw the locket front had burst, or perhaps melted. The Kaskea shard flared with bright green light. As she watched, the light faded until the shard looked like a dull piece of slate again.
A movement behind Jan caught her eye. Haversar bent over a robed figure and cut its throat. Several of his men were looting other bodies.
“Jan, stop him!” she said. “He hasn’t the right to mete out King’s Justice.”
Jan looked at her for a moment, and then jerked his head toward the wounded nunetton boy. “He hasn’t the right, after this was done to one of his own?”
“If any of these people are alive, we need information from them. Believe me, they’ll pay for this. Necromancy is punishable by worse than death.”
Jan considered her words for a moment. He leaned over Berin’s body and gently laid Peri on her lap. She gasped as she moved to hold him, pain shooting up her from her right wrist, but she hugged her son fiercely with her good arm. Other than the deep sleep, he appeared to be unharmed.
Jan walked over to Haversar and they argued in low tones. Haversar’s men stopped rifling among the bodies.
“The King will soon be here with his Guard,” she called.
Both Jan and Haversar jerked their heads to look at Draius.
“How do you know?” Haversar’s voice was low and dark, chilling her.
“I saw them passing through the marketplace.” Then, when they looked unconvinced, she added, “I saw them through Dahni’s eyes.” She knew what that meant, and why people now drew back from her.
Lornis stopped untying her ankles and nodded toward Haversar. “It’s only through his help that we were able to find you. His people know many of the forgotten places.”
“Do you know who he is?” Draius asked.
“I’ve a good idea. But I’m not going to worry about that now.” He went back to untying her bonds. Only Lornis seemed to be unaffected by her obvious rapport with the Phrenii.
Haversar’s men melted away, carrying the boy and two of their wounded with them. If the men died, they would be found floating in the canals, stripped of everything. Depending upon their notoriety with the King’s Law, their heads might have all identifying features removed or smashed: a symbol of service to Haversar, of a sort.
This left only the small group around Draius and some twenty bodies on the floor. The door and stairs on the other side of the canal suddenly exploded with green and silver. The King. Everyone but Draius went down onto one knee.
Dahni slipped through the door, down the stairs, and over the bridge. The creature started making its way to Draius, stepping daintily over bodies.
“Battlefield protocol, everyone,” called Perinon’s crisp voice. Everyone stood. Ponteva, Miina, and Lornis stood to one side of Draius, all looking studiously at their feet. Jan stood on the other side.
Draius still had Peri on her lap and, unfortunately, one leg still bound to the chair. She watched Perinon examine the quay littered with bodies, then look carefully at the group about Draius. Miina shivered, and everyone’s wet clothes were stained with blood.
“Quite a bit of carnage for the four of you,” Perinon said. He apparently discounted Draius, still trussed up in the chair.
“Yes, Sire,” Jan said.
Trust Jan to give the easy lie. Her staff members all carefully examined their boots.
Gaflis appeared, with his assistant, and they attended the wounded. Dahni now stood in front of her. Jan, Ponteva, and Miina all moved back, away from the creature, while Lornis knelt again to remove her remaining bonds.
“We know you well,” Dahni said, looking at Lornis.
“You healed me,” Lornis replied. “My eternal gratitude, Phrenii.”
“We remain to serve,” came the ritual response. The creature looked into her eyes. “We can heal you also, Draius.”
“No healing. What—?” She bit her lip and took deep breaths as she glanced from person to person.
As soon as Dahni came within a couple paces, her eyes saw more than the superficial skin of those around her. She looked down to her lap and saw Peri shining with innocence. She looked at Miina and also saw innocence, but it was virginal and not at all childlike. Feeling like she’d violated Miina’s privacy, she looked away. Ponteva had both darkness and light coiled within him, the darkness like tree roots, necessary for strength, and the light radiated loyalty.
Jan also had a coiled darkness, dangerous and self-serving, with few glin
ts of light. Somehow, Draius knew the glints of light were for Peri and not for her. Last, she looked down at Lornis. She could see that some of his light came from Dahni, from the healing. The light shining from him was intense. He had smudges of darkness also, but not a disturbing kind like Jan’s.
All mortals are a struggle between light and darkness; their nature is made clearer by our presence. Dahni’s voice was inside her head. The creature moved back and the effect faded.
She looked up and saw Perinon staring at her. Their gray eyes met. With a shock, she realized why Tyrran kings fought so hard to marry for love, and it had nothing to do with pleasing the romantic inclinations of the populace. What would it be like to marry a woman who didn’t care for you, when you had to see her feelings so blatantly every time the Phrenii were near? And the Phrenii were always near the King. She wouldn’t be able to stand looking at Jan, day after day, seeing the dangerous darkness inside him and knowing how little he cared for her.
“Take this thing off me.” She swallowed hard and almost choked. “I don’t like what it’s doing to me.”
Lornis reached to take off the Kaskea, but Perinon’s bitter laugh stopped him.
“Taking it off won’t change anything, cousin. The Kaskea is bound to you and you will feel its effects even if you throw the shard into the deepest part of the sea. No one else can use that shard until you die.” The finality of Perinon’s words hit her like a hammer, more effective because she felt the truth in them.
Jan lifted Peri off her lap and Lornis removed the rest of her bonds, but she couldn’t move because both her legs were numb. Gaflis started splinting her lower arm and pain shot up to her shoulder.
Dahni was suddenly in her mind, softening her pain.
“No. Stay out. No healing.” She felt Dahni fade and the pain spike again.
Berin mumbled something. Gaflis had examined him and pronounced him singed, but unharmed, and now he was regaining consciousness. His eyes were unfocused as he struggled to sit up. Lornis and Ponteva drew their weapons and circled to stand behind Berin’s large shoulders.
A Charm for Draius: A Novel of the Broken Kaskea (The Broken Kaskea Series Book 1) Page 32
