The Immortal Walker

by McKellon Meyer

  Torchlight flickered at the gates, making Kaislyn’s eyes hurt. She tried to think of something to do. She couldn’t let Kam take her to the mountains, but, worse than that, she was trapped in her birth life here. After everything she’d been through, she wasn’t about to let herself get killed by Kam.

  In preparation of nightfall, one of the gates was already shut and only a few people were using the open one yet. She eyed the guards hopefully. Hadn’t Davol said he kept his guards on the alert for her? When they saw her... her hopes faded. They would be accustomed to seeing her sneaking in and out of the city looking the worse for wear. They would probably think she was in cohorts with Kam.

  Kaislyn didn’t stop to consider what she did next. As they drew parallel with the gate, she dropped from underneath Kam’s arm. He tripped in surprise at her sudden disappearance. Clutching the knife she kept in her boot, she staggered upright. Kam turned toward her with a muted curse, stepping between her and the city beyond them.

  He thought she was trying to escape. The last thing Kaislyn wanted was to escape. Instead, she ran at the nearest guard and stabbed him in the arm. He stumbled back in astonishment.

  “Arrest me. Quick,” she panted.

  He shoved her and Kaislyn nearly blacked out as she rolled onto her bad shoulder. The other guards were shouting and surging forward, but Kam was still closer to her than any of the other guards. Vision blurry, she saw him rushing at her. She lifted her arm to protect her face, forgetting she still held her knife. It buried into Kam’s chest as his own knife sliced down her arm.

  Their gazes met. His face twisted into surprise and he collapsed on top of her.

  Bursts of pain shot all through her at the force of his body and her vision turned completely black. She heard someone wailing and guards yelling. The pressure of Kam’s body disappeared. She struggled to open her eyes as she was lifted upwards. The effort was too much and she passed out.

  Kaislyn stirred to loud voices above her. Arguing.

  “She stabbed Ree!”

  “She grazed him. She’s the one drenched in blood.”

  Kaislyn squinted her eyes against the bright light. Gradually, her surroundings came into focus. She was lying on a bed in a small room. A window, high in the wall showed it was night outside. Standing in the remaining space was Zarif and Davol.

  “I didn’t mean to.”

  Both captains turned toward her. Davol’s usual smile was absent. Zarif looked like he was trying hard not to smile.

  “You attacked Ree with a knife!” snapped the city captain.

  Kaislyn sat up. “I was trying to get away from Kam. Where is he?”

  “Was he the greasy, fat fellow with you? He’s dead,” said Davol.

  “Oh. Did you kill him?”

  “No, you did!” said Davol. “You don’t even remember?”

  She looked down at her shoulder and her makeshift bandage. “Well, I have lost a great deal of blood.”

  “I don’t think much of your male companions, Kaislyn,” added Zarif.

  Kaislyn looked up sharply at him. “I’ll keep that in mind, Captain.”

  He grinned at her.

  “Just what did you think you were doing?” demanded Davol.

  “I needed help.”

  “So your first thought was to attack someone?”

  “Sounds like Kaislyn to me,” said Drazan as he and Sveka entered the room followed by Nisken and Raina.

  The small room was suddenly much too crowded and Kaislyn scooted back on the bed so she was propped up against the wall and as far as she could get from all of them.

  Everyone looked at her. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said, sulkily.

  “You were gone for six months and then you come back and attack a guard,” said Sveka.

  Six months? Well, that explained why Zarif and everyone else was back in the Second City at least. “Yes, well... I was trying to get away from Kam.”

  “Just what were the two of you doing?” said Drazan.

  “Nothing. Thief stuff.”

  “I’ve just come from interviewing a hysterical palace servant,” said Raina in a quiet voice. “I suggest you tell the truth.”

  “Whatever Keera told you won’t be the truth. Just what she thinks is the truth.”

  No one replied and Kaislyn swallowed. “Kam is stupid. He thinks he’s working for Jaden but I killed Jaden months ago. We were headed to the mountains just now to meet Ikaros. I warned Kam. I told him I’d kill him too.”

  “You were the one to kill Jaden?”

  “You can’t just confess to murder like it’s not anything!” objected Davol.

  “From what Silas reports, it wasn’t ‘anything’” Davol,” Drazan rumbled.

  “Why did you want to kill Kam?”

  Nisken had asked the question but Kaislyn kept her gaze on Drazan as she answered. “He went after someone he shouldn’t have.”

  “Revenge, Kaislyn?” Sveka murmured.

  “It was supposed to be, but apparently I killed him by accident.”

  Raina’s voice stilled the next bursts of questions. “Why was he taking you under duress to Ikaros? You see him often enough.”

  Kaislyn gestured at herself, disgustedly. “Because I’m stupid too and I’m in my birth life. I was vulnerable.”

  “I see,” said Raina. She fell silent, tapping a foot thoughtfully.

  “Why hasn’t my daughter been attended to, Davol? She’s bleeding all over the place,” said Sveka.

  “Forget that,” said Drazan. “Raina’s here. Where’s that bird of yours? It can heal Kaislyn far better than a physician.”

  “No.”

  “Look at her! She needs help.”

  Raina let her gaze swing between Drazan and Kaislyn. “Your daughter has gotten into enough trouble. I warned her to leave my guards alone.”

  “I thought that was just the palace guards,” Kaislyn tried to joke.

  Raina’s black gaze fastened on Kaislyn now and she winced. “Let your punishment be to heal more slowly. It will also keep you from interfering.”

  “Interfere with what?” Kaislyn tried to get out of bed and fell back as a wave of dizziness engulfed her.

  Raina studied her coolly. “I’ve had enough of Ikaros threatening and harming my family. I’m going to find him and put a curse on him.”

  Kaislyn wasn’t sure if the dizziness was from the loss of blood anymore. “You’re crazier than I am! Curse Ikaros? Again? The first time didn’t work that well. What makes you think a second time will? You march into the mountains and you’ll be giving him exactly what he wants. All of you! The mountains are his. You can’t stop him. Only I can stop him.”

  “And yet, here you are, half dead from getting stabbed. Presumably by Ikaros,” Raina replied.

  “Gives me an advantage over him that you don’t have. I don’t die easily. You all can. And will. Have you forgotten what he did to Athalia, Raina? To your own family? A curse won’t stop him!”

  “A curse stopped him twice before.”

  “Twice? You cursed him twice? Does that mean he gets to stab me again? Because if that’s how this is going to work then I—”

  “Kaislyn,” Sveka ordered, voice sharp. “You’re babbling and it’s rude.”

  “Rude? Rude!”

  “And a bit hysterical too,” Sveka added, making Kaislyn splutter with outrage. “The second curse Raina refers to was the one Aamir placed on Ikaros. It prevents him from entering any mountain village.”

  “Why would... oh.” It kept her mother safe from Ikaros while Grehesh took care of her. Kept Kaislyn safe too. She shook her head. “That’s all very well, but cursing Ikaros won’t change anything in the long run. He’ll find a way around whatever you do. He always does!”

  Raina turned away from her. “Send for a physician and set a guard on her door should she recover sooner than I think she can.”

  “You can’t go! None of you can!” Kaislyn cried as they filed out.

  Zarif linger
ed behind with Davol. “I’ll be along,” he said to the other captain.

  Davol folded his arms. “I’ll wait.”

  They stared at each other for a long moment before Zarif shrugged and turned away from him and to her. His face softened ever so slightly. “We’re going to have a lengthy chat about your idea of the dramatic, Kaislyn. Then we’re going to have a lengthy chat about letting Ikaros win so many times. Then...” he let out a frustrated breath and didn’t finish.

  “Zarif, you have to stop them.”

  “You need to get better, Kaislyn. Fast.” He left her and a physician arrived a few minutes later to clean and bind her shoulder. Kaislyn lost consciousness again.

  Someone was prodding her. In her shoulder. It hurt. Opening her eyes took several attempts before her crusty lids opened to a fuzzy world. Something red loomed above her.

  Kaislyn shrieked and punched it.

  The phoenix fell off the bed with a shriek of its own. It floundered on the floor as Kaislyn sat up and rubbed her eyes hard, trying to clear her vision. The bird righted itself and ruffled its wings angrily.

  “What are you doing here?”

  The phoenix made a growling, croaking sound.

  Kaislyn peeled back her bandages and saw new, pink skin. “You were healing me, weren’t you?”

  The phoenix turned toward her, but its eyes were closed.

  Kaislyn had never seen it with its eyes closed except when it was sleeping. “What’s wrong with you?”

  The phoenix tried to hop around the bed and crashed into a table instead.

  Realization dawned on Kaislyn. “Raina doesn’t know you’re here does she? And she can’t know so long as you can’t see? And she’s trying to stop Ikaros and so are my parents and...” Kaislyn tripped over her blankets trying to get out of bed and fell on the floor near the phoenix. It squawked and hopped blindly away from her own thrashings.

  “Stand still,” she ordered the phoenix. To her surprise, it obeyed. Kaislyn picked it up and carried it to the windowsill. It was heavier than it looked.

  “Have they already left for their stupid plan?”

  The phoenix nodded its head.

  “Right.” She looked at the phoenix for a long moment. “Thank you for healing me. I didn’t know you could go against Raina like that.”

  The phoenix ruffled its wings again and took off from the window, leaving long claw marks in the wood.

  Right. She didn’t have much time. She rushed to find her boots.

  Kaislyn had forgotten Raina’s orders for guards at her door. Zarif had obeyed and left two of his best guards. Kaislyn greeted Marn and Aiden cheerfully when she saw them.

  “Zarif set you two to keep me under arrest, eh?”

  “He didn’t say,” said Marn. “His exact words were ‘Watch her.’ He said nothing about arresting you. Um... do you want to be arrested?”

  “You have a very smart captain, Marn,” said Kaislyn with a grin. “Come along then. I could use some help in case I run into any trouble.”

  “Trouble? That doesn’t sound like you at all,” said Aiden solemnly.

  “Where are we going?” Marn asked.

  “To play a game,” Kaislyn said with a fierce smile.

  Kaislyn caught up with Raina and her party in the foothills close to the mountain line. They’d already dismounted and several servants held the horses as Kaislyn arrived. Her parents, Nisken, Zarif, and a small escort of guards made up the remainder of the group that would continue on foot. The phoenix coasted in the sky, its form disappearing and reappearing above the thin copse of trees they’d halted in.

  The surprise and choked expletives as Kaislyn rode up to them, Aiden and Marn behind her, almost made her laugh. Almost.

  “As I was saying before,” she said, dismounting and giving her horse’s reins to the nearest servant, “Ikaros is my business.”

  “How?” asked Nisken.

  Drazan shook his head ruefully. “Darling, you’re even more stubborn than your mother.”

  Sveka’s face tightened in displeasure but she said nothing.

  Raina, dressed in a formal riding costume of red and gold, remained silent as well. Her gaze swung speculatively to the phoenix flying in innocent circles.

  Zarif simply acknowledged the salutes of his newly-arrived guards.

  “I cannot fight all of you and Ikaros,” Kaislyn said, marching to the front of the group, positioning herself between them and the mountain proper. She could feel the edge of the mountains behind her. Just out of reach.

  “Let me deal with him now. I should only be gone for a few minutes and if it turns out to be longer, then, well, I won’t exactly be around to stop you from trying to curse Ikaros. There really isn’t any point—”

  “Well, well, well, this is a sight. I would be flattered if I didn’t hate you so much.”

  “Damnation!” said Kaislyn.

  Her parents and Nisken were instantly on alert, swords drawn. Raina’s guards fell into a protective formation around her before she pushed the front ones out of her way so she could see. Zarif tensed, taking a step closer. Kaislyn blinked. To her. Not to Raina.

  Kaislyn turned very deliberately to look at Ikaros standing a few feet from her. He’d dressed in a spotless black robe, bare feet, a single gold earring hanging from one ear.

  “Your hatred is your own doing,” said Raina.

  “Not everything is about you, young queen. I quite like you. I’ve even kept the gift you gave me.” He waved his tattooed and scarred wrist at them. The rubies flashed in the light.“You’re unwise to come here. This is my territory and I’m free to do as I like in it.”

  “No,” Kaislyn said. “The mountains are mine and I decide what happens in them. Have you forgotten so soon, Ikaros? I claimed them as my own when I gave the phoenix to Athalia.”

  His face contorted in sudden fury. “You stole that bird from me and made a mockery of my kingship!” he screamed at her.

  Everyone drew back from him. Kaislyn heard Drazan and Nisken swearing softly. She tapped her foot, waiting for him to finish. Perhaps it was good her family was here after all. At least they could see, if only once, what she’d been fighting against for so long. What, in a twisted way, Ikaros had turned her into.

  Ikaros regained control of himself. Or the appearance of it. “Your mountains? How utterly absurd. You’re not even in them right now. Scared to come closer?” His eyes glinted at Kaislyn. “How the mighty fall! Was it not yesterday, Immortal Walker, that you mocked me for my own royal escorts into the mountain and here you come? Parading better than a peacock? You are as arrogant as the young queen who wears my crown and rules my cities.”

  “And you’re as batty as an old king.” At one time his taunting would have made her lose her temper and attack him. When had she changed?

  Ikaros noticed too and frowned at her lack of response. He waved a single burnt finger at her. “No matter. I have waited long for this. How nice of you to bring witnesses to your death.” He stepped to the side, Shifted, vanished.

  Kaislyn sneezed violently at the burst of sulfur, eyes watering. She heard a crack behind her and a yell of, “Look out!”

  Still sneezing, Kaislyn caught a glimpse of a tree falling. She leapt out of the way and crossed into the mountain proper.

  Someone grabbed her from behind, spinning her about. Ikaros’ arms wrapped around her and a foot slammed on top of hers, pinning it in place, keeping her from Shifting. A knife pressed against her throat.

  Kaislyn flinched from the touch. Not of the sharp blade scraping against her skin, but of Ikaros’ hot and grimy skin brushing against her, of the perfume poorly masking his smell of rotting animal.

  “You take another step closer and I slit her throat,” Ikaros screeched.

  Nisken and Drazan, swords drawn, froze in their advance. Sveka had remained where she was, face suddenly white and ashen. Kaislyn’s gaze passed from the Royal Assassins to Zarif, as blank faced as ever. A vein pulsed in his temple. The other guards
, her friends, stared at her in horror. Raina stood with a hand half raised in determination.

  “Il elt,” she began.

  “I can kill her far faster than any precious little words you can utter, young queen!” Ikaros yelled at her. “So unless you want that to happen, stay quiet while I talk to my Immortal Walker. I have spent too many years waiting to catch her in her birth life. I won’t have any of you ruining it now!”

  Raina’s face flushed and she did not lower her hand. But she didn’t finish what she’d started to say either. The phoenix floated down from above, seeming to take interest for the first time in events and came to rest on Raina’s shoulder. Wings half outstretched, it looked annoyed.

  “This is it for you, Immortal Walker,” Ikaros panted in her ear, drawing Kaislyn’s attention back to him. “The mountains and cities will be mine forever!”

  “Don’t do this, Ikaros,” Raina spoke again, urgently. “We can come to... some kind of agreement.”

  “Agreement, young queen? Now you would barter over my cities when the offspring of your precious guardians is about to die?”

  Kaislyn tried to wriggle her foot free and was rewarded with a trickle of blood at her throat. She had to stop this. Somehow.

  “Ah, ah, ah,” Ikaros warned her.

  “Sorcerer.”

  Kaislyn was pivoted a little so that Ikaros could get a better look at the speaker. Sveka—Kaislyn blinked—was on her knees, hands held empty at her sides. “Please,” her mother begged. “I will give you everything you want.”

  “You have nothing I could want.”

  “I have the Serpent House,” Sveka countered, voice steady. “I have Mael. I will give them to you.”

  “Those are mere trifles to me now,” Ikaros sneered.

  “Killing Raina’s son will not make you the heir again.”

  Ikaros trembled. “What?”

  “I know what your son did after he vanished in the Second Bloody Year.”

  Ikaros’ trembling grew violent. “He didn’t!”