by S Kaeth
“We did not know,” Taunos roared, the veins of his neck bulging with his fury.
“Your stupidity should not be our problem.” Answer glared at him.
“Silence!” thundered the leader again. “Lady Answer, your composure, if you please.”
Ra’ael hid her smile as Answer was chastened. She sighed her anger out, lest they misinterpret her trembling, and turned to the Elder. “Great Elder of this Council of Kamalti, please, have mercy. If Eian’s alive, where would he be? And let us retrieve our friend’s body so we may put her to rest.”
Taunos bowed his head so abruptly Ra’ael feared he’d collapse. She reached up to put her hand on his shoulder, willing him comfort.
“Some barbaric ritual, no doubt,” muttered Answer. More clearly, she said, “It is not possible. No one can go down there.”
“What in the lands could you be afraid of?” Ra’ael breathed. “We must have her body. We cannot leave her down here, cut off from the sky.”
Answer scowled at her.
The leader stood. “It is as Lady Answer has said—impossible.”
“Then tell us what you did with Eian, at least,” Takiyah urged.
“Impossible, or you do not want to? Or you’re too afraid?” Ra’ael challenged, talking over Takiyah.
“Bind her,” snapped Answer.
Two of the guards dug strong fingers into her arms. Ra’ael broke their grip with a sharp tug downward. “Get off me!”
The Justice rang the crystal again. “There will be order here!”
“Ra’ael,” Takiyah shouted. “Please, everyone, calm down. This is foolish.”
“She’s my sister! She must be put to rest properly!”
Ra’ael’s voice cracked with anguish. “Her soul will wander in suffering if it’s not freed. Do you not see? She must be accorded the proper rituals, she must. Not even the vilest of people go without. At the very least, she must be engulfed in flame to release her spirit!”
Answer gasped and stepped back, horror clear in her face and bearing. The other Kamalti showed the same reaction, revulsion in their faces. “In fire? How barbaric!” someone muttered.
The guards again seized Ra’ael’s arms, and again she ripped free of their grasp. How dare they stop her? She was ehreideikae, priestess of Torkae, and this was her responsibility, the last thing she could do for her best friend.
The guards tackled her. Her head slammed against the floor.
~
Taunos held his breath, fearing the worst.
Ra’ael rose with fury, shaking off the guards like so many bugs.
“Oh no,” Takiyah murmured.
The other four guards ran to help their fellows, and Ra’ael met them as they came, smashing their heads together or throwing them into the wall. They drew knives, and she faced them unarmed but far from defenseless. Ra’ael’s form as she fought was beautiful to behold, graceful and efficient.
Screaming, spectators fled the room, trampling each other as they shoved their way through the doors. Two of the guards shielded the leaders from the fight and the stampeding crowd. A bell was ringing—an alarm. For a moment, in the chaos Ra’ael caused, they were unguarded.
The fight only lasted moments before the last person standing in front of Ra’ael was Answer. Ra’ael advanced. Answer retreated. The woman was shaking, her face as white as her dress, as she backed up slowly. Vicious anticipation welled up inside him. Answer would get her due, and he would get to witness it.
Strength isn’t causing harm, Taunos. Real strength is defending the defenseless, no matter who they are or even if you like them or agree with them. How many times had his parents uttered those words, sending him to train with Galod when his play became too rough or edged toward bullying?
Shamefully, Taunos hesitated.
Answer’s eyes were wide with terror, and her mouth opened wordlessly. Her raised, empty hands shook. His shoulders sagged. She had no weapon, no defense. Hateful as she was, she was not the one who had killed his sister. It would dishonor the memory of his parents—and of his sister—to allow Ra’ael to do such a thing. Kaemada would be so disappointed in him if he did nothing.
He broke, giving in to his long years of training.
Just as Ra’ael reached Answer, Taunos leapt between them. Ra’ael’s punch knocked him backward before he could block it, driving the air from his lungs. He barely dodged Ra’ael’s next blow, diverting another, though her fist came far too close to him. He tried to force her backward, wariness screaming with an enemy at his back, but Ra’ael was fast and strong. And unlike him, she wasn’t worried about who she hurt.
Coming from behind Ra’ael, Takiyah wrapped her arms around her neck. Ra’ael threw her over her head and into Taunos, then pressed forward, beating them with fists and feet. Taunos rolled clear and charged forward while Ra’ael kicked Takiyah. He came up behind her, hooking one arm around her neck in a practiced motion. With a squeeze, he sent her to sleep, though she elbowed him hard in the ribs before she went.
Taunos collapsed on the floor beside her, gasping to catch his breath, one hand to his bruised ribs. Takiyah sat up, rolling her shoulder and panting, and nodded to him. Two of the guards had staggered to their feet, and they immediately chained Ra’ael, though she was no longer a threat.
Justice Havmis drew himself to his full height, surrounded by the other Justices and a cluster of guards, some nursing injuries from Ra’ael’s brief rampage. He looked down at them as if on misbehaving children while spectators continued to flee the room. “It is unprecedented for violence to take place here. It is unpardonable! Where is your sense of civility?”
“What?” Taunos exchanged a weary look with Takiyah. Ra’ael had just attacked them, and their first concern was propriety and civility? These people were insane.
Takiyah winced as she stood. “Ra’ael has the blood rage! She loses all sight of friend or foe and fights until knocked senseless.”
“So, this is not her fault, just as the Sleep was not the fault of the one who fell.” He frowned at them, obviously unimpressed. “You Outsiders are as children, always with an excuse. Where is your decorum?”
“What sort of civilized people discount the motives or circumstances of the people on trial?” Taunos cautiously regained his feet, rubbing the new bruises on his arms.
“Enough! There will be silence in this hall,” the leader demanded, ringing the crystal. Havmis paced, his steps agitated. “These trespassers will suffer for their violence according to the Law, with a sentence of ebrid to last for one circulation, dependent on behavior.”
He paused, glaring at them. “That means you will remain here, under the guardianship of a noble family, doing as you are told to make up for your crimes.”
The man raised his chin, addressing the room once more. “Afterward, we will send them on to the City as protocol dictates. Send out the word and let any who wish to claim an ebr convene here at the luncheon hour.”
Takiyah and Taunos exchanged a glance. Taunos clenched his fists, struggling to keep a firm rein on his temper. They needed to find Eian, despite these troublesome Kamalti. He had already lost his sister. He must find her son.
As protocol dictates. It was difficult to think through his rage, and it took several moments to understand the world of meaning in that phrase. Could they really have sent Eian to some other city? His chest hurt, both from Ra’ael’s blows and from the struggle to hope. Impatience flowed through him like the rushing of a river swollen by spring floods. He needed to rescue Eian, to defend his people from the danger posed by these Kamalti. He needed to grieve.
“How much time is a circulation?” Takiyah asked.
One of the judges scoffed at their ignorance. “A circulation is the time it takes for the Outside world to complete a full set of seasons.”
“A summer.” Takiyah gaped.
“But what of Eian? What of my sister’s son, the whole reason we came?” The words broke from him, raw and weeping.
The Ju
stice frowned, then lowered his gaze to the table. He was ignoring them, just as all these people had ignored them. Taunos’s shoulders slumped.
“A boy was brought through recently, yes,” the Justice said. “And since he did not break any Laws, he was returned to his people. You can surely rejoin him after you serve your punishment.”
Eian was alive. A giddy grin spread across his face, and he trembled with relief. But an entire summer? How could he wait an entire summer? And yet, the voice of experience whispered, reminding him that escaping a city of enemies was folly. Running or fighting to break out rarely worked, while wit and biding time had better chances. Besides, he’d already tried that, tried to give Ra’ael and Takiyah a chance to get Kaemada out. Much good that had done them.
At least if Eian was back among their people, he would be well taken care of. Rinaryn always cared for children, regardless of who the parents were.
“Thank you.” The soft, choked words came from Takiyah, whose arms were wrapped tightly around herself as if to hold herself together.
“Justice Havmis, there is another matter,” Answer spoke, her composure regained. “The guard who threw the prisoner into the Great Divide.”
She nodded to another guard, and he brought in the man who had thrown Kaemada into the ravine, bound in the same way the Rinaryn were. Taunos stared at him, fists clenching and unclenching.
Justice Havmis waved his hands in dismissal. “This madness must end. He shall share in their sentence. Let him think long before acting without thought again.”
HAETH
Chapter Eight
The Rinaryns have a primitive penal system. Breaking their laws may bring one a severe scolding by the village elders or perhaps a whipping if the infraction was severe enough. Only the most heinous crimes are punished by banishment—they call it “being Fallen.” Fallen may be hunted by any Rinaryn without repercussion, for the people consider them too dangerous to live near society. Many Fallen, it seems, gather at the last remaining Rinaryn city, the City of the Lost. It’s said the gate is guarded by great statues that annihilate any large creature moving outward from the city, effectively making it a prison. I have not been able to confirm this, as no Rinaryn will answer me as to the location of the city, and my explorations have thus far been fruitless.
-journal excerpt
Kaemada plummeted, breathless, unable to scream as the stone around her shot upward. Fear choked her, drowning all thought, paralyzing her. After an eternity of falling, a mind found hers. It forced its way past her battered walls and bruised defenses to her innermost thoughts and memories, scrutinizing them one by one with complete disregard for her comfort. With her abilities lost to her, defending herself was like trying to run on broken legs. Panic engulfed her as she struggled to rid her mind of the intruder. More minds came, ripping into her, tearing her apart. She screamed soundlessly, helpless against the onslaught, until the foreign minds were all she knew.
She woke on packed dirt, her limbs at odd angles as if she had been tossed there. Her injured side ached and her head pounded. The world spun around her as she sat up.
The fear came back first, and then the rest of it rushed back like a rockslide. The fall. The minds. The way she’d been overpowered and invaded. She shuddered again, feeling filthy. On reflex, she reached for Tannevar. Emptiness gaped in her mind where Tannevar usually was. He’d fallen into the chasm. Tannevar was dead. Tears stung her eyes and her breath came in ragged gasps. He had been torn from her, and she wanted only to curl up in the muck and sob with heartache.
She pushed it down, denying the pain and the fear, refusing to face it, for it was too much. How was she alive? How had she ended up here? Where was “here”? She looked around tentatively, trembling with grief and exhaustion as she climbed to her feet.
Deep shadow surrounded her. The stone of the mountains rose behind her, and dirt walls closed in on either side, blocking the light from the sun. She stood in an alley between two houses, surrounded by waste. Scrambling forward, her movements clumsy as her left arm and leg refused to work properly, she made her way to the street and stopped.
A tall rock wall sliced through the landscape, running on as far as she could see to the north and south. Small huts crouched along it, with more lining haphazardly twisting roads. People hurried past, their gazes suspicious and wary as they stayed well clear of the alley she had stumbled out of. Nothing looked familiar.
She trembled again, the grief and terror like a whirlwind deep within her. She pushed it firmly down, turned her back on it. Eian needed her. With a groan, she leaned against a wall. The left side of her body burned with the stabs of thousands of invisible needles inside, and her left leg didn’t want to hold her weight.
The alley loomed around her while the wall at the other end beckoned. Her stomach twisted painfully at the discord. Was there a door there? She should go and check, to return to her search for Eian. The tremors took over. Her leg gave way, dropping her in the dirt. The abyss of terror yawned open and swallowed her.
By the time she forced herself, stumbling, into the alleyway again, the sun had noticeably progressed on its journey across the sky. She clung to her intention: find Eian. He had disappeared into the mountain somehow. Tannevar had told her where to look. Her brother and friends had enabled her to continue her search.
How would she find him without them?
Gasping, she forced herself to breathe, blinking fiercely as the walls pressed in on her. She crawled the last few paces, the light dimming, the panic rising so she could barely think. She ran her hands across the stone again and again before she managed to focus on her task. Was there a crack in the stone, a door she could open?
Terror forced her back out of the alley, panting for breath. She checked the sun—had it moved, or was that her imagination? Breath rasping, she sank to the ground in front of the alley, looking back along its depths. She hadn’t found a crack in the stone, but perhaps claustrophobia had blinded her. Her teeth chattered and she bit her tongue. Bitter bile mixed with the salty tang of blood. She couldn’t force herself back there again. Not yet. She needed to take stock, as her brother would tell her to do. It didn’t take long—all she had were her clothes, boots, and cloak.
Blinking tears out of her eyes, Kaemada stared at the great wall that stretched out to either side and the vast array of dwellings—square instead of round. The mountains rose up around the city, reaching toward the blue sky. A city, surrounded on three sides by mountains. There was only one remaining city in Rinara.
Even as she reached that thought, she shook her head. She couldn’t be in the City of the Lost. She didn’t belong in the city for criminals. She couldn’t be surrounded by the Fallen, trapped in this relic of a lost age! Eian. She grasped onto that thought instead of the horror she could do nothing about. She had to find Eian. How could he survive on his own? He needed to see his fifth summer. She wanted to celebrate with him at his yah, to dance at his wedding. There was so much he hadn’t done yet, so many more memories to make with him.
Only last summer, Takiyah had taken Eian with her and raided a beehive. Eian had come back to the kaetal with a honeycomb in his hand, triumphantly shouting, “Sticky, sticky, sticky, sticky!” She smiled, even as her heart lurched. Tears scalded her eyes, burning tracks down her cheeks.
She surrendered to grief and hopelessness for some time, weeping. Tannevar was gone, and she would never again feel the coarse reassurance of his presence by her side, see his intelligent brown eyes, hear the way he sneezed when he was happy, or feel his warmth in her mind. He had fallen into the chasm, just as she had, and their bond had snapped. How had she survived that fall, the fall which surely killed Tannevar? Could it be that since she survived, he might have as well? But surely if he had survived, she would feel it.
People continued to pass by, avoiding her. No one paused or spoke words of consolation or assistance. She could see no warmth, no comfort here. But eventually, she had no more tears to shed, so she stood and
wiped her reddened eyes and runny nose, careless of the dirt staining her face. She pulled in a deep breath. First, she needed water and to find her bearings. The stone wall was a good landmark, rising high to touch the oddly shimmering sky. She took another deep breath, shoving her grief and fear away. She would not let this beat her.
Kaemada followed the wall, picking the direction at random since either choice seemed as good as the other. The people here were different from any Rinaryn she had seen before. Their clothes were ragged, stained, and ill-fitted, often patched and patched again where the fabric was worn through. Most of the women wore large scraps of cloth over their heads. When she tried to greet them or even smile a hello, they glared at her with suspicion and scurried away, holding tight to their belongings. Many shooed her away from their dwellings when she got too close. Even the children were distrustful, stopping their play when she came into view and watching, poised to flee until she passed.
The hair at the back of her neck prickled with unease. Many of these people were disfigured in some way. What could they have done to deserve such sorrow? If they were Fallen, they had committed crimes so terrible they had been forced from Rinaryn society. She shoved the thought away. It couldn’t be the City of the Lost. What were children doing here? Again she shook her head, muttering to herself.
She longed for Tannevar’s reassuring presence, always nearby in mind if not in body. Could it be that Eian and Tannevar had ended up here as well, even if she could not feel the wolf? That hope was her only guide. Each time she saw or heard a small child, her heart leapt. Each time, she was disappointed, and several times, hot tears of frustration rolled down her cheeks. Exhaustion slowed her steps, and she kept tripping over the uneven ground, her left side weak and unwilling to obey her. How could she get out of this place? Was Eian also a victim of whatever horrible mistake had placed her here? She couldn’t even walk very far without needing to stop and rest. Frustration turned to impotent rage at her crippled body.
