The Immortal Walker

by McKellon Meyer

  His mind shut down at that point and Kaislyn stopped, trembling. Then he began to question her out loud. How she answered him without babbling about everything else, she didn’t know. And then he’d left her! Took his precious princess and left.

  The fear, the confusion Kaislyn had suffered through the last three years, clinging—always clinging—to the hope that if she could only catch Hezere alone all would be well left when he abandoned her in that room.

  Ah, ah, ah. Come! I will show to you all the wonders that a Shift holds. The mountains and the cities are our playthings. Ikaros’ words echoed over and over in her mind.

  Hezere’s accusation: Did you grow bored playing in Ti-em?

  Blazes, she wished she remembered which city was Ti-em!

  The cities are our playthings...

  The cities were her parents’ playthings. They barreled through them, wreaking havoc in some glorious venture to put Hezere’s princess on the throne. Leaving Kaislyn behind, figuratively and literally. Left to listen to their stories, left to be raised into a miniature version of Drazan and Sveka. How long had they been training her with a sword before she met Ikaros?

  Did you grow bored?

  Hezere with his dark schemes. Secretly harboring the phoenix after the First Bloody Year. Secretly looking for Raina.

  What had gone wrong?

  Everything.

  Kaislyn’s thoughts spiraled ever deeper, ever more tightly into each other. She didn’t emerge from them, didn’t notice time had passed until Hezere returned to arrest her too. How many days had passed?

  But he had not come to help her. It was only to discover what she knew about Ariana and Ikaros. Decide for himself how much of a threat she was to Ariana. Stupid thought. She’d been living with the lost princess for three years and never said a single word. But that was Hezere all over. Fixated on his own elaborate schemes.

  Kaislyn darted around a wagon and into a side street, hoping the wagon would keep her pursuers from knowing she’d changed directions.

  When they arrived at the guardhouse to find it exploding in flames, Kaislyn took advantage of the guards’ shock and ran. They should have been too distracted by the burning building to concern themselves about her.

  The guards followed her down the side street. Kaislyn knew enough to realize that they were herding her into a corner, into a section of the city where she would not be able to run from them.

  She bolted onto the main street of the city and ran along its length into the deserted gardens between city and pyramid. Between the city and the Royal Wadi.

  Glancing behind her, Kaislyn saw the guards were gaining. She sprinted down the road, turned away from the pyramid and headed for the Royal Wadi. She didn’t falter as she passed the yellow stone statues guarding the cursed canyon, did not slow her step until a bend hid the entrance from view. Only then did she stop, bending double in exhaustion. As she’d hoped, the guards had stopped at the entrance.

  No, hadn’t stopped. Had turned around and fled back the way they’d come. There was no mistaking the retreating sounds, of the piecemeal bursts of prayers. Dread filling her, Kaislyn retraced her steps, just enough to see what had prevented the guards from pursuing her further.

  A white figure stood in the entrance of the Royal Wadi. Its masked face pointed away from her, watching the fleeing guards. A slippered foot tapped the ground irritably. The Dead didn’t like anyone to enter their hallowed burial ground.

  As stealthily as she could, Kaislyn backed away. She ducked low into the shadows and concealed herself behind a boulder. The rocky ground dug into her legs and when she leaned her back against the boulder a sharp jab against her neck made her lean forward again. She waited. It was still in the wadi.

  Kaislyn’s hammering heart sounded louder than a drum. She felt dizzy as her chest tightened in pain.

  It was not as dark as she first thought. Toward the entrance of the wadi the sky was paler, pink and orange from the fire. She tried to pick out a few stars but was unable to do so. Surely by now the white figure was gone? Kaislyn crept from around the boulder.

  The Dead still stood in the entrance. Only now, instead of watching the city, the Dead had turned and was watching her.

  Kaislyn swallowed hard.

  “Was there something fascinating behind that rock, Immortal Walker? I thought I would have to drag you out, kicking and swearing.”

  Kaislyn shivered. Not so much at the Dead’s cold, floating voice but at the sarcasm.

  “I would never do... do such a thing,” she managed. She stopped just out of reach of the Dead. This close, she could see the figure was that of a woman, tall and thin. A gold, ceremonial mask covered her face, revealing only blackness beyond the eyeholes. The mask was etched with feathers and scales.

  Kaislyn pressed white and shaking hands against her thighs and bowed low. “I beg your pardon for disturbing your rest and for intruding where I was not invited. May I have your permission to leave and bother you no more?”

  The Dead recoiled in astonishment. “I do not recall politeness ever being a trait of yours.”

  Kaislyn straightened. The force of holding onto a suddenly rising temper made her next words much sharper than was wise. “I was running from the City Guards. They were going to kill me.”

  “Kill you?” The Dead’s laughter sounded like wind blowing across hollowed reeds. Or, Kaislyn corrected herself, a skeleton’s ribcage. “Have you developed a sense of humor since last time we met as well?”

  Kaislyn took a step back. “We’ve never met.”

  The Dead stopped laughing and looked at Kaislyn, as if uncertain of her. “You are younger.”

  “I’m fifteen.”

  The Dead waved a dismissive hand. “That is not what I meant. The guards cannot kill you. I have seen them—not these, a different set long ago—kill you. It did not... work out very well.” Another laugh.

  “What you say is impossible.” It sounded too much like something Ikaros would tell her. She curled and uncurled tingling toes. Why did the Dead scare her so much?

  “You do not have to take my word for it. You died in your own fashion behind that boulder.”

  “Did a rock fall on my head?” The sarcasm leapt from her mouth before she could stop it.

  The Dead didn’t seem to notice. “Come.”

  Kaislyn lurched out of the way as the white figure stalked past her toward her hiding spot. She didn’t follow. Instead, she darted for the cleared entrance. She didn’t know what game the Dead was playing, and she didn’t want to find out.

  The Royal Wadi echoed with the Dead’s furious cry behind her. “Immortal Walker! Stop!”

  She ran faster. Her feet felt swollen in her slippers, making it harder to stay upright on the path.

  “Daughter of the Son Slayer!”

  She was almost at the statues.

  “Damnation, Kaislyn! If you make me chase you all the way back to Aratsi, I will kill you myself!”

  Kaislyn froze. She was between the two statues. All she had to do was take one more step. One more step and she was safe from the Dead. Safe from the Dead who knew her real name.

  She turned.

  The Dead stood directly behind her.

  “Blazing river of blood!” Kaislyn swore, springing backwards in fright. “Is that your plan? Scare me to death? How do you know my name?”

  “Have I not been calling you by your name since we first began speaking, Immortal Walker?”

  “That is not my name. It’s Kaislyn. No one knows that. No one!” Kaislyn’s shout echoed against the wadi walls. Her echoing voice gave her energy, triggered the flood that had grown inside her since Hezere’s betrayal. “Are you going to start questioning me too? Why aren’t I in Ti-em? Why am I playing here? Are you? Well, maybe I like being enslaved! Maybe I like dancing and looking useless and pretty and—”

  The Dead marched up to her and slapped her across the face.

  Her face buzzed.

  “Hysterics are beneath you,�
�� the Dead snapped.

  “You’d have hysterics too if you had to endure the same years I have and then, at the end of them get betrayed by your parents’ dear old friend and...” Kaislyn yelped and skipped away as the Dead tried to slap her again. “Stop it! I’m not being hysterical. I’m angry. Blazing, furiously angry!”

  The Dead hesitated, hand still raised. With a decisive gesture, the Dead removed the golden mask.

  Kaislyn swore long and hard.

  Athalia had died in her early fifties, still retaining much of her youthful appearance of high cheekbones and black eyes in a delicate, flawless face, unnaturally smooth. Long brown hair was amassed regally on her head. The dead queen’s red lips pursed together in exasperation.

  “Really, Kaislyn, what is wrong with you?”

  The familiarity of the dead queen’s address, the presence of someone who seemed to know who she was and wanted to listen was enough.

  “My parents never told me who Ikaros was! In all the stories they told of the First and Second Bloody Years,” Athalia’s perfectly shaped eyebrows rose at this, “they never once mentioned Ikaros. I had no idea who he was when I met him. I’d just Shifted for the first time by accident. He was kind to me. Explained what had happened, even taught me some tricks about Shifts. And then he tricked me. Sold me to the Fourth City as a slave girl.”

  “The old king is a law unto himself,” Athalia said. Even dead, the former queen spoke cautiously of her infamous father.

  “No. My parents are. If they had told me...”

  “If they had told you, you would not have been tricked? The old king has had many years to plan ways of outwitting you.”

  Kaislyn closed her mouth. “Maybe,” she admitted. “But I would have been a sacrificial victim who knew she was being led up the steps to her death. Not a sacrificial victim who smiled and thanked the priest even as he killed her!”

  “How poetic.”

  Kaislyn glared at Athalia, only now noticing both her hands were full. One held her mask. The other held something short and thick. “Why do you have a dead snake?”

  Athalia looked down at her hand, as if surprised to see it there as well. “This is the snake that bit you behind the rock. Its poison is fatal.”

  “Nothing bit me.”

  “Your pupils are dilated, your hands are swollen, and your breath short as if you have been running.”

  “Because I have been running!” Kaislyn yelled. She glanced down at her hands. It was just the darkness that made her hands look swollen. Her toes still tingled, though, and as the minutes passed, Kaislyn noticed she wasn’t regaining her breath back as she should be. She looked again at the snake.

  “Was I really poisoned?” she asked, subdued.

  “You may enjoy immunity from dying, Kaislyn, but that does not mean you do not suffer the side effects. Come.” Tossing the snake and mask aside, Athalia brushed her hands together. “You want to go home and I would like to have my peaceful wadi back. There is a cave system at the other end of the wadi. If you like, I will walk with you.”

  “Why are you helping me?”

  “Because, despite the fact you are very annoying, you saved my kingdom and such services deserve rewards. Our other scores remain to be decided.”

  “I haven’t done anything.”

  Athalia smiled. “The demon king is right to fear you, and the old king was right to plot your ruin. Me? I thought I would try friendship.”

  “Are you mocking me?”

  “You are the one that stands in the entrance of my wadi, in fear of me.”

  “I’m not scared of you,” Kaislyn said. It was mostly true.

  “Then walk with me.”

  Trapped by her own words, Kaislyn took a step closer. “I will.” She was oddly relieved that her pounding heart and tingling limbs were due to a venom trying to kill her instead of being afraid of the Dead.

  Athalia turned and walked away from her. Walked back into the Royal Wadi.

  Kaislyn stared as the white figure passed the stone statues guarding the entrance. Guarded what everyone took for granted as the protective line between the Dead in the Royal Wadi and the rest of the city.

  The Dead could leave the Royal Wadi.

  Maybe her pounding heart wasn’t just the poison after all, Kaislyn decided. She followed Athalia into the wadi and toward home.

  Part Two: The Second City

  1 | Sorcery

  Kaislyn perched on the rock, chin planted in the palm of her hand as she watched the goats browse along the steep slope. She still didn’t like goats, but doing shepherd duty was preferable to any number of chores in the village. At least out here, she could explore.

  The breeze brushed against her face and Kaislyn’s sigh of contentment turned into a snort of disgust. She wrinkled her nose.

  “You know, there is such a thing as soap and water.” She watched Ikaros from her peripheral vision as he selected a rock near her and sat. He looked wilder today, beard overgrown, face and robe blackened and burnt. His feet were bare. At least that was something. He always seemed less crazed when he wasn’t dressed properly.

  “Here.” She rummaged in a pack at her feet and withdrew a half-used cream bar. She threw it at Ikaros.

  He yelped and ducked, toppling off his rock.

  Kaislyn burst into laughter. “It’s just soap.”

  Glaring at her, Ikaros picked up the soap and reseated himself. “I thought it was Black Sand.”

  “Because Black Sand is small, white, and hard?”

  He dug a nail into the soap. “It’s difficult to tell what color something is when it’s flying through the air at your head.”

  “You should be used to things flying through the air at you.”

  Ikaros didn’t answer as he continued to grate the soap with his nails.

  Kaislyn frowned. “Are you going blind?”

  Ikaros turned the soap over. A small pile of shavings was forming at his feet.

  “Just how old are you?”

  “Too old,” he retorted. “You’re annoyingly young and bloodthirsty today. Throwing things at me.”

  Kaislyn was glad she’d formed the habit of always Shifting out of her birth life when she left Grehesh’s village. She never knew when Ikaros would make an appearance. She hated him but he also fascinated her. It was the way he completely disregarded his own hatred for her, ignored the fact they kept score on killing each other, and simply sat down to talk as if they were centuries-old friends. As if there was no other person in the entire world who could sympathize with him. Sympathize with her. It could change in an instant, but those moments were there and they both intrigued and scared her.

  “You’re the one who showed up out of nowhere to chat.”

  He shrugged. “I haven’t seen you for a long time.”

  “You drowned like a rat in the river yesterday!” Kaislyn exclaimed.

  “You are young today.” Ikaros sounded disappointed. “That would have been when you last met me. Not when I met you. There is a difference, Immortal Walker! Do try to remember that.” He scraped his nails across the soap. When he next spoke, it was as if to himself. “When I last saw you, you’d just come from razing Semte.”

  Semte was one of the Five Cities. “As if I would believe anything you say.” It didn’t sound as convincing as she would have liked.

  Ikaros ignored her, still focused on the soap. “You were... happy. So very happy,” he added to himself.

  She shivered. “I want you to leave.”

  “Don’t want to. These are my mountains. Not yours.”

  Kaislyn stood and advanced on him. Ikaros slid off his rock and retreated. “You’re a bully. I’ve done nothing wrong.” He let her get within arm’s reach before throwing the soap at her head. Kaislyn ducked and grabbed Ikaros’ arm.

  “You... are... leaving...” she panted and Shifted. The two of them landed on the hillside in late evening several years past. The sky was heavy and grey and snow swirled in thick bursts around them. Kais
lyn slipped in the snow that covered the ground and fell.

  Ikaros wrapped his arms around himself, shivering. “How did you do that?” he screeched at her. His placidity from a mere minute ago was gone, replaced by rage.

  “Do what?” Kaislyn brushed snow off her wet clothes.

  He danced in a small circle, arms still clutched around himself. “This!” he yelled.

  “The snow? I can’t control the weather!”

  Ikaros pranced up and down, trying to keep his bare feet out of the snow for as long as possible. Kaislyn snickered.

  “Bad enough you mock me with my own possessions,” Ikaros snarled, unwrapping long enough to point at her necklace, “but to drag me about as if I am no more than a... than a goat!”

  “As I recall, you dragged me to the Fourth City.” Kaislyn didn’t understand why Ikaros was so furious.

  “Drag? Oh, no! I had to wheedle and lure you! Get you to Shift one painful misstep at a time! Did you really think if I could, I wouldn’t have dragged you? That would have been so much more satisfying!”

  She played with her necklace and watched the Sorcerer hop from cold and outrage. She’d taken his earring and Shifted. She’d taken his Black Sand and Shifted. Now she’d taken him and Shifted him away from her peaceful hillside.

  It was snowing harder, making him a black shape in the swirling white. Was it true? Was it true that he couldn’t take anything but himself in a Shift? There was an easy way to find out.

  “You can’t take me through a Shift!” She shouted to be heard over his ranting. “You can’t take anything, but I can. I can take you. I can take whatever I want. Who’s the stronger one here?”

  Ikaros stopped talking, stopped hopping. He was a still, black shadow in the snow. The falling snow muffled the world around them.

  “Who rules the mountains now, Ikaros? The Immortal Walker or the Sorcerer?”

  Ikaros swore at her in the Old Language and Shifted.

  Chuckling to herself, Kaislyn Shifted to her goats.

  She arrived in a mound of snow. It was heaped up past her ankles. A goat sniffed the snow, tasted it, and wandered away. Kaislyn stared stupidly at the snow. It began to shrink in the warm, afternoon light.