The Immortal Walker

by McKellon Meyer

  “Good.”

  “Good,” sneered Ikaros. “How did you subvert the girl queen? You’re doing it right now in my city!”

  Kaislyn glanced from the mountain-shadowed Ti-em to Ikaros. “I think you’re mixing me up with you. I don’t corrupt the royal family to do what I want. That’s your department.”

  They’re very similar, girl.

  Kaislyn pushed the unwelcome words away. “How’d you find me anyway?”

  Ikaros’ lips curled. “I can always find you. Selling you as a dance slave was too good for you. I should have just kept you to dote on me.”

  “I’d love to see you try,” Kaislyn said, her own lip curling.

  Ikaros rushed at her. Kaislyn took a step back, bracing herself. She was not going to get knocked into the snow and soaked again. Dying of pneumonia once was more than enough. She grabbed his arm as he pressed in against her, preparing to Shift. Dump him in a blizzard maybe? His helpless rage over the fact she could drag him places was always satisfying.

  Something plunging into her chest. Shocked, Kaislyn looked down at the dagger buried in her heart. Ikaros stepped back in triumph. “If I’m going to hurt, then you’re going to hurt even more,” he cried.

  “That’s... that’s cheating,” Kaislyn ripped the dagger out of her chest. Her vision turned black before settling in a shaky white blur on Ikaros. They’d never used weapons against each other. It wasn’t... wasn’t clever enough. Ikaros was shouting at her. He shouted a lot.

  “As if I don’t know about the dagger in that abominable hair of yours! Just waiting for a chance to whip it out and stab me! You thought you could meddle in my cities? No more, Immortal Walker!”

  Kaislyn watched her shirt turn red. And red some more. Her vision dipped between white, red, and black.

  Not here. She couldn’t lose consciousness here, not with Ikaros.

  “How... did you find me?”

  “I always know where you are,” Ikaros screeched. “You don’t deserve the gifts of my house! You—”

  Ikaros’ voice buzzing in her ears, Kaislyn Shifted. The snow vanished and she stumbled in the tall, waving grass, dropping her discarded layers. She left them where they fell.

  She was in her own Second City time, but Kaislyn didn’t dare stay in the mountains. Ikaros’ threat reverberated with each painful step she took. Could he really find her in any Shift? She didn’t want to find out if it was true. His very appearance after getting banished seemed to indicate he was telling the truth. It was closer and safer to get to the Second City than to find a mountain village.

  She still held the dagger Ikaros had used. Stuffing it in her belt, her other hand pressed against her wound in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding, she started the long, horribly long, walk back to the Second City.

  She should have known this was coming, Kaislyn realized, bloody fingers slipping against her shoulder. Her Shift attack in front of Zarif the other night had felt like she’d been stabbed.

  “Damn him,” Kaislyn muttered, not knowing if she meant Zarif or Ikaros. At least that attack had siphoned off some of the pain she was now experiencing. She could walk. And talk. The blood loss was going to be a problem soon.

  Kaislyn made it about halfway to the Second City before passing out in a disused lean-to at the edge of a empty pasture.

  Part Three: Dying

  1 | Mountain Shifts

  Kaislyn woke all at once. She didn’t move right away, relishing each pain-free breath she took. How dare Ikaros stab her? She hadn’t even done anything! That was all Raina banishing him. Madman on a mountain.

  Licking dry lips, she cracked crusty eyelids apart and forced herself to a sitting position. Mists shrouded the sloping pasture outside her shelter. The grey pallor of the sky indicated it would be morning soon. How many mornings had gone by?

  Kaislyn stood. She looked at her blood-dried shirt. At the blood and dirt caked over her arms and hands. She could easily imagine what her face looked like.

  “Well, this is going to be interesting. I probably look as crazy as Ikaros.”

  Despite the lingering darkness, the road to the Second City was already filling with farmers and merchants. After one too many stares, she detoured around the next few farms until she found something to cover herself with. It proved to be a man’s shirt that fell to her knees, but it cut back on some of the attention she was drawing to herself. She washed her face and hair as best she could in a nearby pond.

  Kaislyn skulked through the Second City gates, scanning for Drazan and Sveka. It would be just her luck if they were at this particular gate. They weren’t, and she turned her attention to navigating the streets without drawing too much attention to herself.

  Her path took her near the main temple of the city and Kaislyn paused when she reached its block-sized courtyard.

  The gates remained open permanently, allowing the priests’ followers to come and go freely. It was bustling inside as much as any marketplace. Of course, it was a market of sorts, selling offerings and incenses to any worshipper who wanted a sacrifice made.

  Beyond the courtyard was the temple itself, rising three stories high with broad walkways and bright tapestries and banners hanging from every available space. It was bigger than the temple in the Royal City had been. In the center rose steps to an altar. A steady stream of people went up and down it, either bearing their sacrifices up, or returning, business complete. The sacrificial priests wore white robes, to more easily show their holiness by the blood that stained their clothes. The lesser priests wore brown.

  Kaislyn stationed herself in the shade of a building across the street and watched the activity. She scratched her skin absently. Had there been something in the shirt? She pushed up the sleeves. Each time she rubbed her skin, it peeled away in patches, much like a snake skin.

  Blazes! Another Shift attack. She felt like she was burning from the inside out.

  Focus on something else. Anything else.

  The temple. The priests.

  Why hadn’t Raina destroyed the priesthood when she took command of the cities? Instead, she’d left them largely alone. The only thing Kaislyn could think of, short of asking, and that was entirely out of the question, was that Raina either didn’t notice or didn’t care. How, when she’d been a dance slave and performed for their ceremonies for so many years?

  But the priests? They were the one group who had survived undamaged from one ruler to the next. Kaislyn considered this. Perhaps that was the answer. They’d survived when no one else had. Their system was familiar and unthreatening. Well, except for when they needed a bigger sacrifice than a chicken.

  They provided stability.

  The gods provided stability.

  Wiping sweat from her face, she was about to move toward the palace once more when she saw a familiar figure, two, passing out of the temple and into the city.

  Kaislyn drew farther back into the shadows. She didn’t like the way Drazan looked. Both her parents looked worn out, but Drazan’s limp was more noticeable than it had been when Kaislyn left the city a few days ago. Had something else happened while she was gone?

  A flicker of brown caught her eye and she turned to see Kam trotting out of a side street. He halted, scanning the area. Their gazes met and he altered his course to join her. Kaislyn made a face and moved farther away from him.

  He opened his mouth to speak and stopped, taking in her ragged, wild appearance. “What happened to you?”

  “I had a bad day.” Her clothes were soaked with sweat from the continuing Shift attack and she was seriously considering skipping back to the mountains and finding a nice, cold blizzard.

  They were both distracted a moment later by a loud priest who ran up to the Royal Assassins, gesturing. Soon Drazan was responding in kind. Sveka folded her arms and tapped an impatient foot.

  “Even you’re afraid of them,” Kam said, watching the argument with interest.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” said Kaislyn.

 
“They’re your parents aren’t they?”

  Her silence answered him.

  “Jaden figured it out and told me.”

  “I’m not afraid of them.”

  “Then why are you hiding here instead of saying hello? You’ve been gone a while. Surely they’d be pleased to see you.”

  Kaislyn’s jaw tightened.

  “But then... maybe not. I’ve heard you seduced the royal captain so you can come and go as you please.”

  She burst into laughter. If Kam was trying to needle her, he’d just gone the wrong way. “It’d be easier to seduce a rock.”

  “Jaden won’t be happy,” Kam continued. He seemed fascinated by Drazan and Sveka, his gaze never leaving them as he spoke to Kaislyn.

  Her amusement vanished. “I haven’t seen Jaden in well over a year. I don’t care what he does, and what I choose to do is none of his concern.”

  Kam finally looked away from her parents. “What? But I thought you two were...” His face paled. “Blazes!”

  Kaislyn drew farther back from Kam. “What have you done?”

  He forced a shrug and pointed back across the street. A crowd of curious spectators had gathered around her arguing parents and the priest.

  “It’s not good to argue with a priest. They’re the only thing that survived from changing regime to changing regime.” Kam’s words were uncomfortably similar to her own thoughts a few minutes ago.

  “Who cares?” said Kaislyn. “They’re as fanatical as everyone else.”

  A nasty chuckle escaped Kam. “That’s true.”

  The crowd pressed in closer as the voices continued to rise in anger. Kaislyn couldn’t see her parents anymore. She took a step toward them. Kam grabbed her arm.

  “Let go, you idiot!” she cried as her burning skin smarted under the pressure of his grip.

  “Wait,” said Kam.

  “If you don’t let me go you pathetic—”

  Someone screamed.

  Kaislyn turned back to the street.

  The crowd around her parents changed, became a seething, confusing mass of fighting. She couldn’t see Drazan or Sveka, couldn’t see what had happened to them. All she could see was that there was suddenly a large number of heavily-armed merchants. A gap in the fighting revealed the priest in a crumpled heap on the ground, a red pool forming under him.

  “And now a Royal Assassin has killed a priest of the temple. That’s not going to end well,” commented Kam.

  Kaislyn spun toward the pudgy thief and punched him. Kam reeled back, releasing her arm. His hand went to his broken nose.

  “Stoth,” he said thickly as Kaislyn moved away from him. The entire street was a seething riot of fighting. She saw priests and City Guards and regular citizens. Some fighting with the Royal Assassins, some fighting against them.

  “I hith Black Santh. I coulth set it off.”

  Kaislyn drew Ikaros’ dagger that was tucked into her belt. It still had her blood on it. “Tell me who helped you do this and how,” she ordered quietly, stepping closer to him.

  Kam eyed the dagger cross-eyed.

  “You aren’t smart enough to do this all by yourself. And Black Sand? That’s a bluff! Jaden had the last remaining bits of it and he would never waste it on someone like—”

  An explosion rocked the street and sent Kaislyn tumbling into Kam. They hit the street together. She shoved against him, scrambled to her feet, turned.

  The open gates of the temple were twisted, burning ruins. People were screaming and running. Smoke filled the air. She couldn’t see her parents.

  “I’ll kill you Kam! I really will!” Kaislyn shouted, turning.

  The thief was gone.

  Kaislyn swore.

  The Black Sand had broken up the fighting more effectively than anything else and if someone had thought of resuming the fight, a large, red form gliding down the street would have stopped them.

  Biting back her next words, Kaislyn ducked her head as the phoenix swept by. As soon as it had passed, she resumed her anxious search for her parents. Her breath snagged in her throat. Drazan lay on the street, Sveka kneeling beside him with several City Guards on alert around them. She was pressing her hands against his side. His entire shirt was dark red, contrasting horribly with his white face.

  Kaislyn scrambled across the street. The guards stiffened and moved to block her way. Drazan saw her and mumbled something to Sveka.

  Sveka looked up. “Let her through. He’ll be all right,” she added to Kaislyn, but her voice shook.

  Kaislyn blinked her eyes.

  “The phoenix will heal him,” said Sveka.

  “If it’s not fatal,” Kaislyn said and instantly hated herself for saying it.

  Sveka didn’t respond.

  It wasn’t Kam that did this. It was Ikaros. It had to be. Jaden wouldn’t give Kam Black Sand. How had Ikaros known to use Kam? To coordinate an attack through him, keeping her in the dark and clueless? No one with telltale blue eyes.

  Ikaros had always hated her parents. Had always hated Captain Hezere and his Royal Assassins who protected and guarded the Phoenix Queen. He was going after those closest to Raina. Weary them with ambush after ambush. He’d keep at them until they finally missed, turned too slowly, deflected too late. With them gone, he’d have more avenues of attack on the queen and the infant heir.

  “Kaislyn?” Sveka’s voice was unusually soft.

  Kaislyn angrily dashed the tears from her face. “He won’t stop. He’ll never stop.” Turning, she ran. The phoenix passed overhead, gliding toward the fallen Royal Assassin.

  She Shifted the moment she hit the mountain line.

  “Where are you, Ikaros?” she screamed, spinning in a circle.

  Ikaros’ boast that he could track her in the mountains might be true, but if he could do it, then Kaislyn could do it too. She Shifted again, landing in a late summer afternoon.

  “Ikaros!” Her voice echoed down the empty, peaceful slopes, bright green and dotted with tiny white Weeping flowers. Her back was beginning to sting, as if she’d fallen into very long, thick thorns. Part of the same Shift attack or a new one? She wasn’t going to let it stop her. Not this time.

  She hiked into the mountains, Shifting at random, searching for Ikaros. She stopped for a rest when she was surrounded by peaks on every side. In the distance, she could see a lake, the water perfectly still, reflecting the white slopes behind it. The cold, clear air brushed against her face.

  She Shifted, sneezing violently at the sulfur this time.

  No Ikaros.

  She Shifted again.

  The days flowed around her. The years moved back and forth. Kaislyn lost track of how many Shifts she made, lost track of how many nights she spent sleeping in different villages.

  She thought she’d almost found Ikaros during a winter storm, but it turned out to be a burnt stump and she only caught pneumonia instead. She spent several days recovering from that death. It made breathing more difficult in the mountains afterwards. As if she couldn’t take a deep breath anymore.

  “It’s amazing how much it hurts not to die, isn’t it?” Ikaros’ words from the waterfall mocked her. “And this will never go away for you. Not dying injuries always come back. You can’t ever heal completely from them.”

  Kaislyn wiped her dripping nose on a sleeve. “Blazes.” She was too reckless. Clutching her necklace for luck, she Shifted.

  Mid afternoon in late spring. Her nose twitched at the wet dirt smell, but there was no Ikaros. Frustrated, she turned to walk up the hill and stopped.

  Ikaros blinked wild blue eyes at her in surprise. “How’d you do that?”

  How... she didn’t know why this time was different, but she now there were two gold markers in her head amongst the innumerable grey ones. One gold marker for where she was in the mountains and one for Ikaros. She had him now!

  She let go of her necklace and Ikaros’ eyes narrowed as he saw the gold earring hanging there. He looked weary and old to her. More teeth w
ere missing than usual and his beard was almost completely grey instead of the usual black.

  The immediate anger she had felt over his attack on her parents had faded during her fruitless hunt. Now, seeing him, it rushed back to her.

  “You had no right to go after my parents! They have nothing to do with us!”

  “Oh, do go away,” Ikaros said irritably. “I don’t feel like talking to you today.”

  “No!”

  He Shifted.

  Furious, Kaislyn focused on where the new gold marker had moved in her head and Shifted.

  The air shimmered. The intense heat of a Shift increased around her. Accelerated. Her skin began to burn even as her hair fried. The grass beneath her feet erupted into flames. Sulfur stung her nose. It felt as though her head was spinning. Faster and faster, separate from her burning body.

  Kaislyn took a step and crashed into the ground. Flames caught her clothes. Sneezing violently, she rolled through the grass until the flames were gone. She pressed her head into the damp earth, waiting for her head to stop spinning.

  Feeling stable at last, she tried to sit up. The world rocked around her and her vision blurred. She blinked her eyes to clear them but the blurriness remained.

  Two black forms lurched in front of her, squatted on cracking knees.

  “I told you I wanted to be left alone,” Ikaros gloated.

  “What happened?” Kaislyn blinked watering eyes and tried to focus on Ikaros. Which was the real one?

  “You claim to own these mountains, Immortal Walker, but you do not. I do. I will always know more about them than you.” His two heads tilted to the side. “One place can’t hold two of you.”

  She knew better than to try and leave the mountains if she was also technically in one of the cities. She’d tried that once, heading for the Second City while she was actually in the Third City with her parents. It’d been physically impossible for her to step out of the mountain proper. “But... I can Shift in the mountains to any time I want.”