The mages’ light fell upon Kiran, and they checked, falling silent. Their hands raised, amulets around their necks glowing bright, they stared at Kiran for a long, startled moment.
Curse his eyes! If the Alathians realized the truth, he might get Melly away, but he’d never get Dev and Cara.
“Hold onto my belt,” he ordered Melly. He wanted both his hands free.
She did as he asked, but whispered fiercely, “Don’t take me away, Kiran. You have to wait.”
He had no intention of leaving without finding out what had happened to Dev and Cara. He called to the mages, “I’ve no wish to see Melly injured. I’ll surrender to you if you let her and my other friends go free, right here and now.”
The mages exchanged swift glances. The one in the lead, a scar-faced woman who bore a captain’s braid around the seal of the Council on her uniform, said, “So you did not come alone. Is it Devan na soliin who attacked our camp? We would trade Cara ap Denion and the child for you and him.”
If they hadn’t captured Dev, where was he? All Kiran sensed through the bond was darkness and silence.
A far larger form crashed through the undergrowth, though Kiran saw no glimmer of ikilhia. The captain whirled, shouting to her companions.
A livid orange ember arced out of the forest. Fire exploded up in front of the Alathians. Cara burst out of the trees, running with Dev slung limp over one shoulder and Kiran’s old amulet glowing bright on its chain around her neck.
Melly shouted to urge Cara on, still gripping Kiran’s belt. Kiran strained forward, stretching his hand to Cara even as darkness bloomed over his sight.
But the Alathians struck. Their spell stabbed through the flames to envelop Cara, and she had no inner barriers to protect her. She fell, but as she toppled, she flung out her arm in a desperate reach. Her fingers brushed Kiran’s; he caught them, yanked her close enough to snatch at Dev’s dangling arm, and pulled all three friends with him into the demon realm.
Color exploded over his sight. But while Melly was a dim but healthy spark at his side, Dev’s ikilhia was muffled in a thick weave of Alathian magic, and Cara’s, he could barely sense at all. Kiran reached in haste for the familiar cool silver of Lena’s distant ikilhia, very glad that he’d arranged for Lena and Teo to be waiting at an earth-current in case of injuries.
A bare instant later, he pulled his human cargo into the barren darkness of a cavern deep beneath the Khalat.
The cavern wasn’t wholly dark. A ring of lanterns glowed golden around Teo and Lena, and a shining thread of earth-fire was a lifeline in the rock beneath. But the cavern felt so shockingly dead of magic after the demon realm that Kiran nearly crumpled to the stone beside Dev and Cara. His control wavered, his soul on the verge of retreating into the demon realm’s sustaining currents.
He was dimly aware of Teo and Lena crowding close, opening satchels and pulling out vials and healing charms, while Melly’s voice rose high in a worried babble of questions. Lena bent over Dev and chanted in steady rhythm. Tendrils of magic curled out from her ikilhia to pry at the weave of the spell encasing his.
The taste of her casting, clear and cool as water from a mountain stream, helped Kiran resist the demon realm’s pull. Teo was saying gently to Melly, “You needn’t fear. Lena is breaking the spell on Dev, and Cara merely needs a replenishment of her body’s energies.” He tapped the charm he’d set on Cara’s chest, which was sending warm veins of power threading throughout her body. “With proper care, they should both recover.”
Should. Maybe it was foolish to read so much uncertainty into that word, but Kiran couldn’t help worrying. Melly too was biting her lip nervously.
“When will they wake up?” she asked.
“I hope it won’t be long,” Teo said. “Afterward, they’ll still need plenty of rest as well as potions to rebalance their humors. I’d prefer that to be in the collegium where we can care for them properly.”
He was looking at Kiran, apologetic. Kiran regretted more than ever his lack of physical flesh. He could not accompany Dev and Cara to the collegium, high atop the inert rock of the Khalat.
“Bet you’ll have to sit on Dev to keep him in bed,” Melly said. And then, in wonder, “Oh. Kiran—Kiran, look!”
She was gaping past the warm circle of lanternlight at the cavern beyond. Past a shelf of rock, a narrow lake stretched away into darkness, its utterly still water a perfect mirror for thousands of blue-green pinpoints of light sprinkled over the cavern roof, outlining every wrinkle and hanging dagger of stone.
“What are those lights?” Melly asked, hushed. “Are they magic?”
“No,” Janek’s thin voice said. His ikilhia was a little spark behind Kiran; dim but oddly warm, as all human ikilhias felt to him now.
Kiran turned. Janek was standing beside a lump of stone that was fluted into improbably delicate patterns. He looked far different from the ragged orphan Kiran remembered. His trousers and sashed tunic were made of finest silk, and charms glittered on his thin wrists. His curls formed a soft halo around a face clean of dirt, his chin raised high and his eyes clear and delighted.
Janek said to Melly, “The lights are bugs, or so Yashad says. But she calls this the Cave of Stars, which sounds much nicer than the Cave of Bugs.” Abruptly grave, he bowed to Melly, so deeply his curls brushed the stone. “I prayed to every one of the thousand gods for you, and my prayers are answered.”
Melly yelled in delight and grabbed him up in a hug, heedless of his fine clothes. Janek abandoned formality and clutched her right back, burying his head in her shoulder.
Teo said softly, “Now that does my heart good to see.”
It gladdened Kiran as well, though he couldn’t relax until Dev and Cara woke. Lena was still chanting; the spell wrapping Dev’s ikilhia had grown gossamer-thin. Cara’s ikilhia was strengthening under the influence of Teo’s charm, but painfully slowly.
Kiran focused on Janek again, seeking distraction from the agony of waiting.
“Janek, are you certain you wish to stay with Yashad?”
Janek pulled away from Melly. “I am. Kiran, she’s not so awful as you think. She’s been kind to me, and she’s working really hard to fix the city. Not just fix it, but make it a better place for everyone. Look at this cave—nobody but the Zhan-davi had ever seen it, and Yashad’s going to open it to all who want to visit.”
It would be nice to think Janek’s rosy assessment of Yashad was right, but at Janek’s age Kiran would have insisted Ruslan was equally wonderful. He glanced at Teo in question.
Teo said, “I don’t say Yashad is any model of virtue, but I’ll grant that she has spurned the Zhan-davi’s nonsense about blood and birthlines. So far as I’ve seen, she’s dealt fairly with all the city’s survivors. Zadikah and Raishal say the same.”
His mention of Raishal sparked a new thread of hope. “Has Raishal forgiven you?”
Teo sighed. “She no longer leaves a room the moment I enter it. She even speaks to me on occasion. That’s more than I expected.”
Janek said, “Matria Trenell offered Teo a place in the collegium. Zadikah wants him to take it. I do, too.” He gazed at Teo, all big-eyed entreaty.
Melly giggled. “Look at that face, Teo. How can you resist?”
Teo flapped a hand at Janek. “Stop that. I said I’m considering it.”
“I hope you’ll stay in Prosul Akheba,” Kiran said. “Janek may need a friend like you.” One who has the morals Yashad lacks, he didn’t say; but from Teo’s thoughtful look at him, he thought Teo heard it just the same.
Shyly, Janek said to Melly, “I was thinking you could stay, too. With me, I mean. If you wanted. Yashad said she would be glad to adopt you into our house. I know you miss having a family, and…will you be my sister? Please?”
Teo made a strangled noise that he hastily turned into a cough. Kiran swallowed his own protest, glad Dev wasn’t awake to hear Janek’s plea. He could well imagine Dev’s outrage at the very idea of Yashad adopting
Melly. Yet Melly deserved the chance to make her own decision.
Melly touched Janek’s cheek. “I wish you could be my brother, but I don’t want to live with Yashad. I want to stay with Dev and Cara. They’re my family now.”
Kiran was deeply relieved. Yet his heart went out to Janek, who looked stricken.
“I don’t want you to go,” he said to Melly in the gulping voice of someone trying very hard not to burst into sobs.
“Maybe I don’t have to,” Melly told him. “When Dev and Cara wake up, I’ll ask if they want to live here instead of Ninavel. The Whitefires aren’t so far away. Maybe…”
Kiran said, apologetic, “Once Dev wakes, he’ll want to return to Ninavel. He intends to search out all the city’s handlers and use the coin and charms we took from Ruslan’s vaults to buy their Tainters. He’ll return those children he can to their families, and for those that haven’t any kin who want them, he’ll set up a new kind of den for them so they can grow up safe.”
“He should go to Red Dal first,” Melly said. “Ness and Alsa and all my denmates will be feeling so awful without the Taint, and I want them safe. Oh, Kiran…I want to help Dev in Ninavel, but I don’t want to leave Janek, either…” She threw an agonized glance at Janek, who was swiping furtively at his eyes.
Teo said, “Even if Dev and Cara wish to live in Ninavel, perhaps they’ll let you visit on occasion. I’d be glad to care for you in their stead.”
“That’s right,” Melly said, brightening. “Kiran can whoosh me here like—” She snapped her fingers and grinned at Janek. “I’ll visit you lots.”
Teo murmured to Kiran, “You’d best practice saying no, or she’ll be treating you as her personal translocation charm.” He paused. “Dev’s plan to help the city’s children is a good one. What is yours?”
Kiran still had much he needed to accomplish. Marten and Mikail remained prisoners at the Alathian embassy in Ninavel, and he didn’t intend to leave either of them to the Council’s mercy. But he knew Teo was speaking in larger terms.
“If I can learn to wield magic as demons do, I hope to do more for the untalented in Ninavel. Cast upon the lake so its water stays fresh and never dries. Help in any other way I can. I have…a lot to make up for.” Ruslan might have been the one to burn cities and murder innocents, but Kiran could not simply wash his hands of responsibility for their deaths.
Teo said, “I hope you’ll think long and hard on the best way to aid Ninavel. You realize that you can’t simply transmute the confluence and expect all the city’s evils to vanish? There’s a chance for change, but it’ll take work to make it happen. Hard work. Otherwise, Lord Sechaveh and those like him will simply find different ways to maintain their power.”
Having met Sechaveh, Kiran didn’t doubt it. “At least you admit change is possible. Is that Zadikah’s influence?”
Teo’s dry smile reappeared. “Yours as well as hers. Do you remember how you insisted that together she and I might find a better path? I’ve seen that Zadikah is trying to change. And I…I am seeking to understand how I might best serve the goddess. I can’t change what waits for me in death, but I can choose how to spend the remaining days of my life.”
If Teo’s goddess was so cruel as to condemn him to eternal suffering for a single broken promise, Kiran did not think she deserved worship. Not even Ruslan had been so harsh. But he didn’t want to offend Teo by saying so.
“I hope you won’t turn aside from any chances at happiness,” Kiran said. “You—” His attention was caught by Cara, who stirred, her eyelids fluttering. “Melly, she’s waking!”
Melly rushed to Cara’s side. Kiran hung back, not wanting to get in Teo’s way. Teo took the charm from Cara’s chest and eased her up to sitting. Her eyes slitted open; Teo lifted a vial to her lips.
“Here. This will help the headache.”
“Thank Khalmet for that,” Cara said hoarsely, and downed the vial’s contents. “Teo, you’ve no idea how glad I am to see you instead of a bunch of angry Alathians. But Dev—is he—” She twisted and caught sight of Dev lying still and silent under Lena’s hands. “Oh, gods! We were running when he dropped like a stone. I couldn’t find a wound, couldn’t rouse him, could barely feel a pulse—”
“I’ve broken the sleep-binding.” Lena patted Dev’s chest. “He’s so stubborn he’ll wake right away, but have a care with him. Especially you, Kiran. No whisking him off to Ninavel, not yet. The demon realm is too hard on even an untalented man’s soulfire. He needs time to recover.”
“I’ll see he gets that time,” Kiran promised. Dev was stirring, the silent darkness of his mind shifting into groggy confusion. If Kiran’s heart were not as illusory as the rest of his body, it would have leapt for joy. Cara gave Lena a smile as bright as a mountain sunrise.
“You,” she said to Lena, “are wonderful. You too, Kiran…” She looked around for him.
Kiran bowed his head to hide the blaze of his eyes. Foolish of him, maybe, but if Cara hadn’t noticed anything odd in those final desperate moments in Alathia, he didn’t want her to realize it just yet. He hated the horrified dismay his transformation had provoked in Dev, Lena, even Teo. He didn’t want to tarnish Cara’s happiness so quickly.
Cara said, “Melly and I heard the labyrinth was destroyed, but we didn’t know who might’ve died with it. When Dev showed up alive in that camp, I could barely breathe for thanking the gods—and when he said you were waiting for us, Kiran…I tell you, I owe Khalmet one hell of an offering.”
Dev mumbled something slurred. Cara bent to him and eased his head onto her lap. Melly hovered over them, bouncing from foot to foot with eager impatience.
Dev’s eyes opened. He blinked at Cara, then Melly, and the delight dawning in his mind outshone the glory of the demon realm. Cara pulled Dev up into her arms, and Melly hugged them both, already chattering away.
Kiran wanted nothing more than to join them. Instead, he retreated a few reluctant steps and clamped down on his bond to Dev, withdrawing as much as he could.
He muttered to Lena, “The best way to make sure Dev stays resting in the collegium is for me to leave so he must wait for me.” Best of all would be for Kiran to leave before Dev could start arguing otherwise. No matter how Kiran’s heart cried out against leaving.
“Tell Dev…” He looked at Dev, who was wrapped in Cara’s arms, listening with Teo and Janek to an excited Melly relating the tale of her assault on the gate chamber. “Tell him I must go to Ninavel to check on Marten. The mages who struck down Cara saw my eyes and unshielded ikilhia.” Dev would understand the implications. When Varellian heard the mages’ report, she would guess the truth of Kiran’s nature. She could be sending a message right now to the Alathian ambassador in Ninavel, ordering that Marten and Mikail be moved out of Kiran’s reach.
Lena looked at him, grave. “Marten is not the only reason you’re hurrying off to the embassy.”
She saw to the heart of him, as she always had. “No,” Kiran admitted. “Mikail…I can’t leave him to the Council.”
“I won’t argue, much as I might wish to,” Lena said. “I will ask you to consider carefully what you choose. Mikail’s magic may be gone, but magic is not the only way a man can hurt people.”
“I know,” Kiran said, sorrow welling deep.
Lena said, “If Marten is conscious, assure him that I will not let him face the Council’s judgment alone.”
“What? You can’t—Lena, I know how you feel about duty and honor, but returning to Alathia is no better than suicide. The Council will be looking for someone to punish for their wards’ destruction. They won’t listen to you. They’ll only condemn you.”
“Marten has been my friend far longer than he has been my commanding officer. When I left Alathia knowing he would face the Council without my aid, it was one of the darkest days of my life. I will not abandon him again.”
“I’m not asking you to,” Kiran said. “You don’t have to fear for Marten. I’ll offer him my help—resc
ue if he wants it, or anything else he should ask of me. But I know one thing he would never want: for you to be mindburned or executed.”
Lena looked away. “This isn’t only about Marten. He would understand as you do not: I’ve dedicated my life to my country. I can’t just walk away from that.”
That might be true, but remembering what he’d seen of Lena’s mind when they broke Ruslan’s compulsion, Kiran suspected a deeper truth behind her protest. Like him, she hadn’t been able to think past defeating Ruslan. She wasn’t sure what to do with her new-found freedom, and so she fell back on familiar paths. But if he could suggest a new one…
“Lena. You can’t help Alathia anymore; the Council won’t let you. But Ninavel, you can. Teo was telling me I should work to help the city change, but I’m not certain what to do. I don’t know anything about a better way to live, or how a city could create that better way. You do. And wouldn’t a better Ninavel be a safer neighbor for Alathia?”
Lena was silent, looking out over the blue-starred mirror of the lake. She didn’t appear entirely convinced, but the thoughtful crease between her brows said she wasn’t rejecting his words out of hand.
Hey. What’s going on? Dev was squinting past Melly at them. His thoughts remained sluggish, but he was pushing to see more of Kiran’s mind, confused as to why Kiran had retreated rather than sharing in the joy of reunion.
I’m trying to convince Lena to help me in Ninavel instead of giving herself up to the Council. No, don’t start yelling about how awful the Council is—that won’t help. She needs time to consider.
Dev said, Well, Cara and I will back you up. We’ll tell Lena just how badly you could do with her help.
He wasn’t thinking of Ninavel. He was thinking of Kiran himself, trapped in the demon realm without a body.
Kiran bridled at that. The demon realm was no prison. He missed his physical body, sometimes very badly. But there was also relief in knowing no human enemy could touch him, that he need never fear another mage like Ruslan or Simon might enslave him.
The Labyrinth of Flame (The Shattered Sigil Book 3) Page 63
