Advent of Ruin (The Qaehl Cycle Book 1)

by Allene Lowrey

  The cup she set aside – drugged or not, she couldn’t bring herself to dump it out – and dropped the bread on the floor. The edge of the tray was rounded, but it was all she had to hand. She used the tray and set to sawing at the base of one of the bars. If I can free them from their sockets… I can… well, I don’t know what I’ll do once I get a bar free, but it’s progress… right? She sawed, and sawed, and sawed, but the dent she managed to cause with the rounded edge of the tray never grew.

  This was getting her nowhere. Chandi’s frustrated yell echoed around her cell. Might as well make some noise; maybe then someone would open the door. She threw the tray down with a clang for good measure and dented it. A shuffling noise came from the other side of the door.

  “Psssst. Hey!” It was a boy’s voice.

  “Who’s there? Will you help me?”

  “Be quiet! You’re gonna get us both caught. Relax. You ain’t the first I’ve sprung.”

  “I’m not?” She remembered to whisper this time.

  “Better. Step back from the door a bit. Name’s Jit.”

  She heard low, scraping sounds from the other side of the door followed by a click. The door swung open out into the hall, revealing a boy about her age who clearly hadn’t bathed in months, if ever. He had sharp eyes, though, and a cocky grin.

  “That is the most unfortunate name I’ve ever heard. Your father must not have liked you very much.”

  “Shows what you know. ‘Ts the name of a conquering hero.” He puffed up his chest and planted a fist on his hip. It was almost like he was trying to make her laugh. “Now come on. We need to hurry before someone comes back.”

  “Right now you’re my hero, anyway. But that’s not what the name means.” She managed not to run out into the hall by trotting instead. “Hey. I don’t suppose you could work that magic on my fetters, could you?”

  “Once we’re out of here I can try. You can keep up like that, can’t you?”

  “Probably.”

  “Let’s go, then.”

  She followed him to the end of the hallway, trotting as softly as he did. He crouched against a wall and peered down the intersection.

  “So what does my name mean, if you’re so smart?” He kept his voice to a whisper, so she did the same.

  “A jit is a type of biting mite that likes to hide in camel hair.” She stifled a giggle.

  “Humph. Ain’t you lucky I’m nice.” He waved her forward, down the left-hand passage. She thought she could hear shouting from somewhere. “And I suppose your name is something awesome and regal? Hah. Bet it’s something silly like Niloofer.”

  “Ugh, no! I’m Chandi.” He actually paused and glanced over his shoulder at her.

  “Chandi. Huh.” Then they were trotting along again, and all the while the sound of shouting grew nearer.

  “I wonder what’s going on out there?”

  “I don’t know, but I bet it’s why we haven’t seen anyone else around. I’d avoid it if I could, but the larder’s on the other side.”

  “The larder?”

  “Why do you think I was sneaking around back here? I don’t risk my neck in their hideout just to keep pretty girls out of slavery.”

  “And yet you let me out?”

  “Yeah, well, it ain’t right, so sometimes if there’s a spunky one I’ll spring ‘em.” He motioned her to silence and poked his head through a door.

  “Okay. Up the ladder, then we go along a catwalk and down the other side, then the larder’s not far an’ I’ll get you to the other exit.”

  “The other exit?”

  “Yeah, the one I didn’t come in by. Don’t want to sneak past this twice. Be quiet when we’re up there.”

  “Sure.” Then they were clattering up the wooden ladder. The hall was loud enough the slavers wouldn’t notice… hopefully. She really had been lucky for once. If the boy had two entrances, and his only purpose was stealing food, why had he taken the longer route in? She thought she could hear clashing steel now, and her stomach tied itself in a knot.

  “Hey, Jit?” She whispered up. “Do these guys fight amongst themselves a lot?”

  “Not a lot, no.” Even at a whisper he sounded grim. “Keep quiet and keep your head down. No matter what you see, just keep going, all right?” Jit was at the top of the ladder now. She heard the latch click, and then she was up and following him onto what was more like a rafter than a catwalk, a path maybe five inches thick that spanned the entirety of the great room below.

  Below them was chaos. It looked as though one man had come in and begun laying waste to the room and anyone in it. She hurried across the beam as quickly as she could, but the fetters threw off her balance and slowed her down. She saw one man stumble back into a group and knock them over. When they got back up they were streaked with blood. The man at the center of the chaos lay about himself with a khanda, and his roar of rage was audible above all the rest. There was a familiar timbre to the voice. She paused for a better look, and in a moment of stillness she saw Ravi’s face contorted like a beast’s.

  She screamed. She screamed for the horror below her, for the murder that was done and the monster unleashed, and there was no other response possible to her. She didn’t know if Jit was still on the beam or not; all she saw was raw fury on Ravi’s face as he destroyed the slavers in their own den. No one looked up.

  “What are you doing?” Jit’s voice hissed into her ear. “Get a move on. If they see us up here it’s all over for both of us.” She didn’t need to be told twice, but it was harder than she would have believed to tear her eyes from the carnage below. When she did it was only so she could see where to put her feet as she moved on Jit’s heels, as quickly as either of them could manage without falling. She wanted to run. Serpents, why can’t this path be any wider? Jit undid the latch.

  “Please, Jit, I need to get down there. Is there a way?”

  “You want to go into that? Best to just leave it alone. It’ll be over soon enough anyway.” The door swung open, and Jit hopped down onto the ladder on the other side.

  “You don’t understand! You saw the man running amok down there?” She swung over onto the top of the ladder and then realized the problem with the belemen skirt. “Look up and I’ll kick you in the face.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it. But yeah. He won’t be for long, I don’t think.”

  “He’s my guardian.”

  “You know that maniac?”

  “You know what they say about the anger of a quiet man, right? I have to stop him.”

  “How? As soon as you step in the room they’ll have a hostage.” The ladder stopped moving below her. “Come on down.”

  “There has to be a way to distract them. Please, Jit.”

  The boy sighed noisily. “All right, fine. You’re an awful lot of trouble to rescue, you know that?”

  “Sorry. And thanks.” She smiled her nicest smile for him. He really was going to a lot of trouble for her.

  “You owe me for this.”

  “I’ll remember.” Not that she knew when she’d be able to repay him.

  “Okay, so here’s the plan.”

  * * *

  Chandi waited outside the doorway Jit had described to her. When he got back it would be time to go in. She still heard the clash of steel on the other side, and the roar of voices. Sometimes Ravi’s carried over the top of the din, demanding that they give up the girl, or declaring that he would destroy them. She never once heard him say that doing the first would stop the second. What is taking so long? She fidgeted like a youngling, hopping back and forth from foot to foot. A wordless scream of rage emanated from the fight just moments before Jit ran around the corner.

  “If you’re going, go now! This’ll catch us, too, you know!” She nodded even as she turned to slam open the door and run through.

  “Ravi! Stop!” She called at the top of her lungs, looking around the room to see the knot that would mark him even as she did. “Enough!” She thought she heard a clangor of bell
s from somewhere outside.

  She wasn’t the only one who heard the bells. Somehow they were more troublesome than the swordsman in their midst. The slavers on the outside of the melee scrambled for an exit. Some of them ran right past Chandi and Jit without a second glance.

  “Ravi! I’m all right!”

  Several of the slavers tripped and fell over a body rolling away from the melee, clearing a path between them. Ravi’s gaze swept past her and snapped back. He was a bloody mess. A lot of it was probably his. He stared for what seemed like a long time, but couldn’t have been. The people who had fallen were just beginning to rise when he started pushing his way to the edge of the room, shoving past slavers with the flat of his blade as often as his arms or shoulders. The slavers were all paying more attention to the clangor from outside.

  Then Ravi was on his knees, embracing her like Papa had when he thought her lost. Ravi’s khanda clattered to the floor as he squeezed hard enough to wind her.

  “Aditi…” She thought that’s what he whispered, anyway, before he pulled back to grip her shoulders and shook his head.

  “You’re really all right? They didn’t… do anything to you?”

  “No. I’m fine.” Is he… crying? “Who’s Aditi?”

  “Hey. As touching as this is, we do not want to be here when the fire brigade shows up.”

  “Who’s this?”

  “Jit’s the one who freed me. Come on, we can talk later!” She dragged Ravi to his feet and ran after Jit, who was waving them on from the hallway behind them.

  Once they were outside the hideout, Jit led them down two or three alleys. The resin smell of smoke tickled her nose as she caught her breath. Her legs felt like jelly.

  “Now. Hold still.” He pulled out a clip of wire from somewhere and set to work on the bands about her ankles.

  “Thank you, Jit, for getting her out of there safely. How can I repay you?”

  Jit clucked his tongue. “Don’t talk to me now – gotta do this just so or I’ll botch the whole thing.”

  Ravi shrugged and turned to Chandi.

  “You’re sure you’re all right?”

  “As far as I can tell they didn’t touch me. I’ve still got a headache from their knockout drug-"

  “Somzhè,” Jit put in.

  “And my hands are a mess, but that’s my own doing.” There was a click from her right ankle and one of the fetters fell away. “What’s somzhè?”

  “Refined teraima. Potent stuff.” The scratching sound started back up at her other ankle.

  “Chandi, I’m sorry. I should have paid more attention, or…”

  “Or what? You did what you could.” She felt drained, and her voice was flat.

  “…You shouldn’t have had to see that.” He was blinking furiously. Was there something wrong with his eyes?

  “Maybe not.” A click at her ankle drew her attention downward to the strangely helpful local boy.

  “There we are. Free as a bird. Now then, good sir, if you want to do something for me a good meal wouldn’t go – by all the absent – !” Jit lunged, and Chandi followed the movement to see Ravi crumpling to the ground. His tunic was sodden; she could have kicked herself for not realizing earlier. She lunged, too, and made it just a moment after Jit had caught his weight by a shoulder. Chandi took the other arm.

  “Shoulda known,” Jit grumbled. “Come on, I know a guy who can help. Won’t go blabbering, neither.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Ye’re rescue don’t mean much if’n you just end up like me. Ready?”

  She nodded.

  “All right. Steady, now, don’t drop him, but walk fast.” They started down the alley, dragging the unconscious Ravi along behind them as best they could. Chandi had never before realized just how heavy an adult was.

  * * *

  The srana that Jit took them to – thankfully not many minutes’ walk away, even burdened – had a tannery on one side and a butcher on the other. Chandi looked over Ravi’s slumping head at Jit and raised an eyebrow.

  “Yeah, that’s his. Trust me, the location’s a benefit.”

  “Huh.” She hoped he heard ‘if you say so.’ She meant him to.

  Once inside, she found she could smell neither the tannery nor the butcher. In fact, the only smell was a slight trace of antiseptic herbs. While Chandi stood gaping, Jit was calling for the sran.

  “Hello? Anyone home? We have a patient. Hello?!”

  “Yes, yes, no need to shout, I’m coming.” The sran’s voice was smoothly nasal and light even for a tenor, and he was cleaning his hands on a towel as he stepped into the room. “…Oh, my. Take him to the cot, Jit, and take off his tunic. I’ll be right over.”

  “Thanks, Basu. C’mon, this way.”

  Ravi seemed even heavier now that they were moving again. She could hear Basu muttering to himself. It sounded like he was listing items off, but he was quiet enough that she couldn’t tell exactly what. She had other matters right in front of her, anyway, like the fact that the smaller wounds had already scabbed over and were stuck to his tunic. She started tugging gently at them like Auntie Nikita sometimes had her do for the younglings. Jit stopped her.

  “Hey, Basu, he’s already lost a lot of blood, and it’s stuck. No saving it anyway, you may as well just cut it.” Jit was right, of course, on both counts. Even if there wasn’t bloodstaining to account for it would take her days on the road to stitch it back up. Assuming they had days on the road; those slavers were going to come after them once they found each other again, and someone was sure to have noticed two kids dragging along an unconscious, bleeding man.

  “Move over, then.” Slender Basu moved between them and set to work when Jit was barely out of the way and Chandi had only begun to step backwards. “Why don’t one of you tell me what happened? A little conversation’s good for the nerves.”

  “We were out resupplying when I got captured-"

  “She got darted by Zartosht’s goons. I happened by when she was trying to escape. On the way out, we saw this fool trying to cut his way through their guild hall to get her out. The entire guild hall, mind you. She says he’s her guardian.”

  “He is my guardian, at least until I find out if anyone else in the caravan survived.” Chandi hated how defensive she sounded just there.

  “Hah! I thought you looked Chèin’ii.” Jit sounded pleased with himself for that bit of reasoning. “Anyway, not too long after we got out of there, he passed out an’ we brought him straight here.”

  “Oh, is that why they were ringing the bells just a bit ago?” Basu didn’t look up from his stitching and cutting. “You’re too reckless, Jit. I keep telling you-”

  “Yes, yes, I know. But what was I supposed to do? Let her go to the streets, here? Weren’t no point in that, she’d just be caught again.”

  “Talk proper, Jit. Street talk’s a bad habit to get into.”

  “But lets me lay lower.”

  “Is he your…?” Chandi pointed at the srana.

  “What, my dad? No, I haven’t talked to that seyyed in years… But I guess he is, in a way. Basu takes care of all us street kids an’ we do chores for him. An’ one day us kids’ll take over this town and get rid of all those rat-bastards.”

  Chandi cocked her head to look at him, not quite believing what she heard. Is this kid for real? She laughed a little. “What kind of story do you think this is?” She laughed harder.

  “You think I don’t know it’ll be hard?”

  “I mean,” Another giggle escaped. "…If everything were… that easy…” Only now she couldn’t tell if she was laughing or crying, gulping back tears and trying not to sob.

  “I’ll take her into the back, Basu. Looks like it all got to her a bit.”

  The srana nodded again without looking up.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “You alright now?” Jit spoke quietly as he reentered the back room.

  Chandi was sitting against a wall with her knees pulled up to her chest,
the crown of her head resting on the plaster. “Think so. Not sure what came over me.”

  “Had you ever seen ‘im do that before?” He sat down a few paces away.

  “…No. I knew he could use that thing, but…”

  Jit just nodded. “Reaction caught up with you. Happens.”

  “Right.” She stared at a spider web floating in the joint between the wall and the ceiling opposite her. It was easier than turning her head.

  “So Basu thinks he’ll pull through, but it’s gonna take a few days. You’re just passing through, right? Where are your things?”

  “The Simin Parvana.”

  “That dump?”

  “Ravi said it would be secure.”

  “Well, it is that. Their Mistress’s death on stealing. We need to get your things brought over, an’ we need to get Zartosht’s guys off your trail… And you’re just going to go along with anything I say right now, aren’t you.”

  She smiled sheepishly.

  “Never mind. Just leave the planning to me, and fer snake tongues, if yer tired, sleep!” Jit stood back up, ready to leave.

  “Jit?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Why are you helping us?”

  He turned that rakish grin from before on her again. “Gotta finish what I started, don’t I?”

  * * *

  “I think I’ve got it, Chandi!” Jit came barging into Basu’s and was promptly shushed. It had only been a day since his daring rescue.

  “Sorry. Anyway, I think I’ve got a plan, but I’m gonna need you to pull it off.”

  “A plan for which part?”

  “Both.” He grinned again. “One simple, beautiful plan to fix both at once.”

  “All right. I’m listening.”

  “Will you two take it outside? You’ll disturb the patient,” Basu snapped over his shoulder. “…Oh, but Jit? Do be careful for once in your life?”