“I arrived at the center, what they call the court, after a long walk. And the Gyudi were waiting for me. They sat on their thrones, and there were so many other people watching, some in masks, some not. It was the strangest spectacle. The Gyudi introduced themselves. Sella, Olive, and Daemon. I remember I was so excited that they never asked my family name, didn’t care about who my parents were. They just talked about my art, my paintings of the Fire Eye, and how they wanted me to do more, and larger. I met all the others down there. It was like a huge party. Plenty of wine and good food. Everybody seemed happy. A few, the Chosen who’d been there the longest, looked a little wary of Jyurik and the Atoned. That was what they called the ones who went through the ceremony. At first you were an Acolyte. Then, if they wanted you to, you could become an Atoned. They never take their masks off. Most of my friends had no interest and there wasn’t much pressure. We were content with…” She trailed off awkwardly.
“Drugs,” Kay said quietly. “Whether you did them willingly or not isn’t important.” She ignored a dirty look from Bola. “But what were they? That’s important.”
“It was crystal shroud. Sometimes we had to take it. Usually it was just around and everyone took it during our downtime. I…lost some time to it when I first arrived. I might still be down there, but one day I was coming back to one of the dormitories, and I saw them taking out a body. And they just opened a door and threw it in. Like trash. I saw where I was headed. Maybe for the first time I saw where I’d gotten myself trapped.
“After that I stuck mostly to wine. By then I’d caught Jyurik’s attention, and he was coming to me more and more to paint. The idea of being defenseless with him around…” She shuddered and turned to Kay. “He plays the fool, but he’s more like a general. He runs the Atoned, and I think he gives them all that horrible Kallaha Test.” She looked around the room, seeming to shrink under the weight of everyone’s eyes. “But that all sounds so clear. Down there it was so murky. I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t deserve any of this, Jenna. Did everyone use names? Did you meet a girl named Cora Creshlan?”
“I met a Cora. I never got her last name.”
“Shoulder-length hair, tall, small mole on her chin?”
“Yes.”
“What about a girl named Melanie Dedite, short, stocky, long, curly, black hair?”
“Yes.”
“A boy named Marlo Lammet, tall, short hair, a tattoo of a blackbird on his neck?”
“Yes.”
“What about a girl named Leah Jordene?” An old name, a made-up one, to test if the girl was lying.
Jenna frowned. “No,” she said hesitantly, “but people were always coming and going. And we slept in different areas. I didn’t know everyone.”
“Okay, keep going,” Kay said, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “You’re doing great.”
Jenna gave her a grateful look. “They had dormitories for us to sleep in, quite nice actually. And unlimited food and drink. Most of us were young. And there was a lot of idle time. Lots of, well, lots of new relationships. And drinking. There were no punishments for drinking all day. They had different people lecturing us sometimes about the importance of the Gyudi family, but we ignored them. The only time we had to do exactly as asked was when they were holding court. All the Acolytes would put on our masks and stand at attention. It was like a show. Sometimes they’d bring people in from outside and put on a kind of performance for them. And they kept asking me to paint, a lot of masks and walls down there. Then they started to lead me up to an empty street or an alley, an escort of the masked men, and point to a wall, and I would have an hour or two to make a huge painting of the Fire Eye. It was scary, but kind of exciting.
“The feeling something was really wrong there kept growing. I knew Mom and Dad would be really worried. I knew Mina would be missing me. I asked if I could leave, and didn’t let it go when they gave their usual excuses about needing to stay secret. I really pushed, and the Atoned finally sent for Jyurik. He made it very clear that it would be a big deal, a big inconvenience, and I was a valued member of the Chosen. He said all that, but I saw something frightening in his eye. I saw that I would be in big trouble if I pressed any harder. Not, like, punishment trouble. Like, might be murdered kind of trouble. Others had gone home, or at least before then I thought they had, but now I wasn’t so sure. Maybe he just made them disappear. Had their bodies thrown in a room like they were just trash. And they had made leaving impossible anyway. They didn’t always guard the doors, but they didn’t have to. It was a maze down there and no matter how hard I tried to memorize the routes, I could never have retraced my steps to get back to the surface. We always took a different way up and back down, and it was so dark and confusing. When I was outside, they always had the masked men around me. I was trapped.
“So it went on that way for a long time. I felt helpless. So I surrendered to it. It couldn’t last forever, though it sometimes felt like that. But I was too scared, too worried. So I did what the others did. I drank, I used the liquid crystal when they passed it out, and I painted when I was asked, which became almost every night towards the end.
“Then one night close to the opening of the Fire Eye, which was obviously a big deal to them, they brought someone in, roughly, like a prisoner, with a mask over his face. Threw him on his knees. He gave his name as Councilor Huang, and he argued with them. He said they would never replace the Melor Dynasty and kept arguing with them, until Sella ordered him to be executed on the spot. Jyurik slit his throat right there on the circle. After that, the court sessions changed. There were nearly always prisoners, sometimes three or four in a night. Sometimes they killed them, sometimes they released them. Sometimes Jyurik gave the Kallaha Test and they would collapse after he terrorized them for a while, the whole time that horrible Olive speaking about their fears.” Jenna looked down shyly, then over to Kay. “And then they brought you in front of the court.
“She started off by shattering the mask they’d stuck to her face and—” Jenna turned and met Kay’s eyes. Kay gave the slightest shake of her head. There was little doubt the others in the room saw it, but some things needed to stay in the Court of the Gyudi Dynasty, especially what she’d done with the smoke. “And, uh,” Jenna struggled to recover her thread, “she said she had a message, and she reminded me about the trees I hadn’t finished painting with Mina. And then they took her away.” Jenna voice grew thick with tears. “And I thought they’d killed her, they were so angry. I thought she’d died because she was looking for me. And so I decided the least I could do was give it a chance. To find the courage to escape.
“Last night, I put an extra jar of paint in my kit. They took me out to a deserted alley and had me paint the Fire Eye as usual. Only this time, when we left, I let myself fall behind. Not so much it would alarm them, just a few paces. And inside my cloak, I held the jar of paint in one hand, and a paintbrush in the other. And I left a blue line, as low as I could reach without looking suspicious, all the way from the surface down to the Court. Every time they turned back to check on me, and I’d see that floating Fire Eye looking my way through the darkness, I was certain I’d be discovered. But I never was, and I stopped once I recognized the tunnels closest to the Court. I put the paint back as usual and joined the others. Later, when everyone fell asleep…” The teacup started rattling again in her hand. Kay reached over and gently took it from her. “When everyone fell asleep, I snuck out of the dormitory, and I stole a lantern. I found the blue line of paint again, and I followed it all the way back to the surface. Alone in the tunnels. It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done, and when I finally reached the daylight and saw someone on the street, I just started screaming.”
She looked around the room filled with loved ones and strangers alike. “And a few hours later I was back here. Back home.”
Chapter 16. The Alley
The questioning had run on another two hours before Kay slipped into the alley near the family
home to find Yamar smoking a cigarette in the dim light. Something to his silhouette, or the way he stood faced away from her, brought her back to Joah waiting at Ewan Silas’s crime scene, patient and unhappy.
“They’ll never let her out again,” he said without turning, the smoke curling up from his hand.
Kay watched his back cautiously. “Why should she come out?”
He turned and looked at her. “To show you where the blue line ends. So you can follow it back to them.”
“Why would I want to do that? Because I had so much fun the first time?”
“Because Cora Creshlan, Melanie Dedite, and Marlo Lammet. And every other youth currently unnamed.”
She nodded slowly. “And Ewan Silas. I figured out earlier tonight, they were the ones that killed him.”
He was facing away again, drawing on his cigarette. She thought about how much to tell him. Yamar, taller than anyone else in the room yet still somehow gentler and less intimidating to Jenna. He stood so straight. A lifelong devotion to the Dynasty had that effect. Never any reason to run, hide, dig at your prison floor until your fingers bled. When the lines grew blurred and the decisions got harder, whose side would he be on? If Enos turned rotten, if the Gol decided the wet in her blood gave them the right to her. She remembered Yamar had stood at the back of the council chambers when she’d been dragged in. Abi had told her he’d brought word of Kay’s distress. Said he’d run up the stairs. And then he’d found her before the dinner and reassured her that her work wasn’t compromised. She decided to trust him, for now.
“Jyurik came to see me earlier tonight.” Yamar stiffened at Kay’s words. “Drew me outside the gates. Spoke with the Pathfinders. He’s making alliances, setting the groundwork for a change in Dynasty. He seems to have a lot of confidence. He as much as confessed to Ewan’s murder.”
“Why the Pathfinders?”
“I don’t know. But it was a savvy move. You know how dissatisfied they are with the Melor. I don’t believe they’d lift a finger to help that madman, but there could be a hundred other groups like theirs. Everyone who feels the Dynasty doesn’t give them their due will listen to his bullshit.” She rubbed her eyes, tired from the long day. “Is there any chance they can get to the Dynasty? Any chance at all?”
“I don’t see how. We hold every asset in Celest. The Dynasty are guarded incredibly well, and that was the case even before they introduced a new threat. Since then, we’ve tripled the Palace guard. Even if some sort of rebellion came in force, they couldn’t hope to overrun it.”
“Well, they’ve got something in mind. Something they believe will work. And soon. Any luck in the tunnels?”
“No. It’s impossible. We found no maps. Nothing but dead ends and locked doors. We found a door at the end of the tunnel you stumbled out of. It took an hour to break it down and follow it to another tunnel with four or five exit points. That girl was right when she called it a maze. It took more than half a day to get half a mile, and that’s with no idea if we’re headed in the right direction. You said you were carried for a long time, they could have crossed the entire city.”
“So we need the blue line.”
“We need the blue line. We just have to get enough from her to find it ourselves. And hope the Chosen haven’t found it. If they have, it’ll have been erased, or lead right into an ambush.” He looked into her eyes, the kindness he’d displayed to Jenna replaced by a hard gaze as the shadows painted his long face. “I don’t like that they can find you.”
“Neither do I.”
“Are you leaving?” He glanced over her shoulder back at the Weiss manor. “I don’t trust anyone else to manage this, but…you should take a Wrang escort.”
“No, thanks.”
“You shouldn’t be alone.”
“I’ve got the help I need. And I’ve got business to attend to.”
“What business?”
“I need to visit the Creshlans, Dedites, and Lammets.”
He gave a soft laugh. “I should have known.” He was still looking past her at the manor. “I’m glad it worked out that you got some credit in there. You deserved it.” His eyes were sad. “But it won’t stick. The idea of being helped by a wetblood doesn't fit their world view. And they'll find a way to think it went down differently. That doesn’t change that you saved that girl.”
“I know, Yamar. I’ve seen it a thousand times before.” She nodded, but was too weary to summon any real indignation. As she glanced back over her shoulder, Joah slipped into the alley behind her. “We’ve got to go. Make sure they let the girl get some rest.”
“Make sure you get some yourself.”
“Soon. Not quite yet.”
Chapter 17. Law Waiting
Tucked in the corner of the alley across the street, Kay stood staring at the single lit candle in the window of her office. It was a signal. Joah was inside. No one else would have known to light that particular candle. And something was wrong. It wasn’t safe to approach.
She’d been to see the Creshlan and Dedite families. Both had taken time to walk through a journey of hope and disappointment. Hearing their daughters were likely alive was elating. Hearing they were in the hands of an anti-Dynasty cult was both baffling and terrifying. They’d wanted assurances that Kay couldn’t offer and were reluctant to allow her to leave without them. She’d sent Joah to the Lammets, and he’d predictably beat her back to the office, having had to lead the journey only one time around. Now the sun was close to rising, the early morning chill was coaxing her broken arm back into aching, and she wanted her sofa. Why had he lit the candle?
She scanned the street carefully, paying extra attention to the determined shadows which fought the rising morning light. There. Back in the alley next to the office, a Home Guard carriage, three visible heads. As she watched, the cherry of a cigarette bloomed in the darkness.
She should have little to fear from the Home Guard. She was on friendly terms with most of them, and the rest were aware of her Dynasty support, for better or worse. But still, the candle. Joah must have seen them or even spoken with them, and he didn’t like what he’d learned.
Kay stood, unmoving aside from the restless twitch of her fingers, eager of their own accord to raise a spark, and watched the carriage for a few minutes. Two horses waited patiently, tethered to the front. Why had they parked in the shadows? If they were waiting for her, why not do it openly? Another carriage passed by, finally breaking the silence of the early morning. Kay watched the heads disappear as they ducked. When the carriage was gone, the heads returned. She was liking this less and less.
She looked up at the window, at the single flickering candle whispering of danger. She should just go. Find someplace else to catch up on her sleep. But that meant leaving Joah behind, still in the center of whatever this trap was. She decided to spring it, but from the inside rather than the outside. She slowly rubbed the fingers of her right hand together, preparing herself. She’d practiced this before. It stretched her abilities to their limit, but she’d been feeling stronger since the Fire Eye had taken its place above Celest. She directed her spark out, across and above the lonely street, towards the candle flame. When she could almost feel its heat in her hand, she made a slight wave and sent the flame jumping to one of the other candles. They’d set up a series, each one with a different meaning. The one she’d shifted the flame to told Joah to come outside.
Kay reluctantly lowered her hand, never liking the sensation of releasing her hold on the fire, and reached into her belt to draw her baton. She quietly swore as it got entangled in the sling holding her broken arm. She wasn’t going to be of much value in this fight. Doubts crept in as she awkwardly slid the baton back into the loop on her belt and instead started fussing with the jar holding her supply of demonlord. This too was uncomfortable, removing the lid with one hand and passing it to the other, less mobile one. She fished out a large handful of the pepper, feeling her fingers immediately go numb, a precursor to the burn which woul
d soon follow.
Across the street, Joah opened the door to her office stairs and stepped out. He looked around quickly, and when he didn’t immediately see Kay, turned and began walking away. The three Home Guard hopped out of the carriage, moving in his direction. Kay could see Joah’s hands resting close to his knives.
“Hold there,” one of them was calling, causing Joah to turn. “You said she’d be back soon.”
“You’re still here?” he replied without breaking his pace. When they called after him again, he slowed. “No, I didn’t. I said she might be. Sometimes she doesn’t come by the office for weeks. I don’t know where she is.” The pack was drawing near, spreading out to encircle Joah.
Something in the way they walked confirmed to Kay that these weren’t Home Guard. These men had violence in their step, but not authority. They were all Gol, and all unshaven, so they’d gotten that much right, but their uniforms were incomplete. Whoever had assembled this deception had gone as far as stealing a Home Guard carriage and a set of cloaks, or finding them on the black market, but the men wore unmatched shirts and pants.
With their attention turned inwards on Joah, Kay stepped out into the open, crossing the street, moving towards them.
“It’s past time you tell us what you do know.” The leader drew a knife and pointed it at Joah. “We’ve waited long enough. Where’s the fetch?”
The Fire Eye Chosen_Sequel to The Fire Eye Refugee Page 13
