Loyalty and War

by Devon Vesper

  “Wake him up,” a man said irritably. “He’s fallen into a vision.”

  “Take care,” someone else said. Valis had a momentary recollection and gasped as he realized it was the Sovereign Priest of Qos’s voice. “We don’t want to harm him unnecessarily.”

  “He’s waking on his own,” a woman said. Then Valis felt a hand crack against his cheek so hard he saw stars. “Wake!”

  Someone sighed, and Valis thought it might be the Sovereign Priest of Qos, but he couldn’t be certain.

  Unlike in his dream, when Valis’s vision came back, he saw every feature of the Sovereign Priest of Qos’s face. The Sovereign Priest of Qos—Kaphir—smiled softly. “Ah, you have come,” he said in a gentle, almost fond tone.

  Someone kicked the back of Valis’s knee, and he went down hard. “You will kneel before your Sovereign Priest, boy!”

  Valis shuddered and thought, My Sovereign Priest? Not in this lifetime.

  “Bring him closer. I wish to see the young man who has caused us so much trouble.”

  Valis renewed his struggles. Anything to keep from going nearer to the man Valis feared more than he had his father. But with several pairs of hands on him, Valis’s efforts failed him. Those holding him didn’t even let Valis get his legs under him. They dragged him forward until he knelt at Kaphir’s feet, glaring up at his adversary.

  Kaphir had what appeared to be a kind face, gentle green eyes. His golden-brown hair framed his face in light waves that looked soft. His high cheekbones, straight nose, and full lips made him seem young, beautiful. No wonder Darolen had caved. Kaphir had shown the only kindness Darolen had encountered in who-knew-how-long, and he appeared kindly, like he wasn’t the monster who had tainted the god jars.

  “Such fire in your eyes.” Kaphir grinned. His straight white teeth were almost blinding. He reached for Valis and grabbed his chin in a bruising grip, his hands stronger than Valis had given him credit for. Valis tried to break away, but several sets of hands held him still. The Sovereign Priest of Qos lightly ran his thumb over Valis’s swollen cheek. “You will learn your place, Child. I think a lesson in obedience is in order.”

  Valis tried hard to remember his dream. If he was right, Kaphir would order his bonds removed so he could try and battle Valis into submission. But something felt off.

  Take care, my son, Roba muttered. He is known for manipulation and grievous atrocities. Reinforce your mental shields.

  Valis didn’t answer, but he immediately tried to obey.

  He tried to put a shield up around his mind with the parameters of invulnerability, permanence, and impermeability. When he failed, his heart sank.

  They are still negating my magic. I can’t shield anything, dad.

  You are strong, my boy. Break the bonds.

  How?

  Your will must be stronger than theirs, Roba said. Remember what I taught you. Remember what you taught the reliquary guards and other Aesriphos. And do it soon before he breaks you.

  The moment Roba finished speaking, Valis cringed, biting back a scream as a spike of unbearable pain made his head feel like it was being crushed by Rasera’s hooves. He tried to compartmentalize the pain, but the harder he tried, the more agony Valis suffered.

  “You will not win this battle, young Aesriphos,” Kaphir said, his voice holding a serene quality to it that, if it had been anyone else, Valis would have gravitated toward him in any kind of social interaction. No matter how evil the man had become, he still had a gentle way about him that gave Valis pause. Kaphir gave him a gentle smile and trailed a finger down Valis’s jaw. “Please. Do give up before I break you. I’d rather not cause you pain.”

  Valis gritted his teeth against another wave of agony. “Do you even know what you’re doing?”

  “What is that?” Kaphir said, his tone interested but bored.

  “Qos is still part of Sovras, and having his jar away from the other nine has tainted the other jars, and is now tainting Sovras as a whole,” Valis said through clenched teeth. “If his jar isn’t purified and returned soon, Sovras as a whole will start a reign of terror that would make you and your priests seem like a bad joke. The world will end as we know it, and not even you will be safe from Sovras’s wrath.”

  The corners of Kaphir’s lips quirked up, his green eyes twinkling with what appeared to be nothing more than boyish mischief. “You have quite the imagination, young man.”

  “Yet you know I’m not lying,” Valis stressed.

  Kaphir shrugged negligently and smirked. “Either way, I will be happy with the outcome. Perhaps a ‘reign of terror’ is just what we need to purify this world and make our enemies pay for the wrongs they have committed.”

  Valis choked on a laugh. “Really?” He cleared his throat and let out another, softer chuckle. “Sovras knows who is behind the pain he’s in. Do you really think you and your priests will be safe from his wrath? Even if he isn’t cognizant of it, he’ll search you out and destroy you for what you’ve done.”

  “Perhaps,” Kaphir mused. “Perhaps not. We will just have to wait and see for ourselves.”

  “Or you could release me and fight me,” Valis said. “Just you and me.” He gritted his teeth against another flare of head-splitting pain and tried to keep the snarl out of his voice. “Or are you a coward who is afraid of an Aesriphos who is just a small fraction of your age and has only been studying magic for a little over a year? I’m only twenty-one. Surely you’re not afraid to take me on in a one-on-one battle.”

  Kaphir’s eyes widened, especially when Valis gave him a feral grin—all teeth and hard eyes. “Do you think I am stupid, child?” He laughed, a surprisingly pleasant sound that made Valis shiver in revulsion. “As you should be aware, one should never underestimate your opponent. Though, having you fighting as one of my acolytes would be amusing.”

  Was this man serious? “I’ll never—”

  Valis’s vision whited out, and his whole body cringed back into the hands holding him as he tried to get away from the pain. The agony was like nothing he had ever experienced, and when he tried to shield his mind again, he heard laughter all around him, though it was all Kaphir’s voice, as if the man had multiplied himself and filled the entire hall.

  Again, Valis fought to compartmentalize the pain. Aenali had taught him well. Now he just had to use it under extreme duress. Nothing he’d ever done had prepared him for this. The pain spread from his forehead to his temples, making his whole head pulse with waves of misery.

  “Be a good child and give in,” Kaphir said in a gentle, soothing tone that seemed to bounce around inside Valis’s skull. “I do so hate to break my toys.”

  Ignoring him, Valis focused inward. He drew in a deep breath and let his mind become a long hallway with doors on either side. Instead of meditating as he would to have private meetings with his ghostly dad, turning himself inward, Valis focused all of his energy on opening the doors. It took him what felt like hours, but he managed to shove his pain into one room and slam the door, locking it and moving to the next. In that one, he focused on math lessons Tavros had drilled into him, using complex equations, not caring whether his answers were right or not. What mattered was keeping his mind busy to confuse and irritate his torturer. He used those numbers and equations as another form of meditation and almost grinned when he heard Kaphir curse.

  “You will not win this battle, Valis,” Kaphir cooed. Valis heard the anger in his gentle tone, and it made Valis want to crow with the tiny victory. He continued staring at the Sovereign Priest of Qos. Sweat beaded Valis’s brow and ran into his eyes and down the sides of his face, stuck his hair to the back of his neck. Valis opened another mental door wide, cast his temperature regulation spell, and slammed that door closed as he moved on.

  With each mental door he closed, relief slowly trickled in. And all throughout, Kaphir’s eyes never left Valis’s, and the quirk to his lips never faltered as if he were endlessly amused by Valis’s attempts to resist.

  Valis
even put Roba in his own little corner of his mind, shielding him from Kaphir’s torment just in case the Sovereign Priest before him discovered his dad and decided to use him against Valis. If he could protect no one else, he hoped he could at least protect his dad and keep himself sane.

  In the last, Valis kept his focus. He searched for his magic, finally delving deep inside himself, even if only for a moment. His magic lake, for lack of a better term, roiled with power, both light and dark. Nothing seemed to be blocking it. But if that were the case, how were the Qos Priests able to block him from using any of this power?

  Valis kept most of his attention on Kaphir. If he split his focus too much, he’d tip off the Sovereign Priest of Qos, and he didn’t want to think about what would happen if he was caught.

  “You cannot hide from me,” Kaphir said, his voice one of infinite patience with a touch of amusement. “My will has been honed for millennia. You will not resist me for long.”

  Another spike of pain threw open the door of Valis’s mind, flooding his head like an overturned vat of acid. Valis clenched his teeth against an agonized scream.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Unable to help himself, Valis unleashed the scream. It echoed through the room, reverberated in his head. It made his throat ache, made his mouth and throat go dry. It made his lungs feel as if they were being scoured by a violent sandstorm. If he died like this, he’d be pissed.

  “You cannot resist me,” Kaphir said, his voice holding an almost musical quality. Valis felt magic wash over him, and the revulsion should have snapped him out of his haze, but the more Valis tried to resist, the more Kaphir’s gentle, melodic voice crept into his subconscious, driving his will into the deepest parts of his mind.

  Just as Valis felt his control slipping, something lightened his soul. A gentle, loving wave passed over his mind, seeming familiar. With it came the scent of citrus and warmth. Aenali?

  He felt the “doors” of his mind closing, taking with it the pain. Once again, Valis was able to control his mind, even as he struggled against the grasp of those who held him on his knees. Aenali…

  It’s me, she chirped. Get your head on straight. I can’t keep him out for long, or he’ll realize someone else is in here with you.

  How—Are you in here?

  I’m still at camp, she said. I just felt you slipping. You have to stay strong, Valis! Tavros needs you.

  Do you know how to get me out of these damned magic-negating mitts they have me in? I looked inside myself, but nothing seems to be hampering me. My magic is there, waiting to be used.

  That’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own, Aenali said, sounding far too grown up. Just remember to lock the doors you shut when you’re compartmentalizing. You can do this.

  I can, Valis said. Thank you, dollface.

  She didn’t say anything else. Her presence lingered in his mind for a few breaths before slowly slipping away.

  Valis risked a glance up at Kaphir, and the bastard smirked down at Valis, looking pleased with himself, like a cat with a dead bird in its jaws. Valis shoved the pain into one of the compartments in his mind, and as Aenali said, he locked the door, mentally barring it. He didn’t need magic for this, just a stronger will than he was used to. He needed to be stronger. The entire monastery of Avristin—almost every single mage who resided there—had fed him their magic. The Light of Phaerith even graced the scene, adding the god’s own magic to Valis’s reserves, expanding those reserves from a stagnant puddle into a lake in a raging storm, always expanding because Valis was always draining Qos adherents for their black magic.

  Now he had to use everything he had to get free. That was the only way to save his army—the only way to save Tavros. The only thing standing in his way was how dumbfounded he was as he inwardly stared at the roiling lake of his magic. It was there. It was full. But he couldn’t feel it, as if there were a thick wall of glass between himself and his magic, encasing it in some kind of impenetrable sphere.

  Valis spared a thought to let his father out of the compartment he’d shoved Roba’s essence into. Seconds later, Valis glanced over and held his hand out to his dad. “I’ve got a problem.”

  Roba glanced at the lake of magic and sighed. “It appears you do.”

  “Do you know how to remove the mitts?” Valis asked.

  “I wish I did,” Roba muttered as he took Valis’s hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze that made Valis’s heart ache. “Unfortunately, all I had ever done was cast the spell to put the negation mitts on others. I have never had them on me.”

  Valis frowned and went back to staring at his roiling magic. “They’re only mitts, right? I should be able to cast without using my hands. I normally do that, anyway. How is this affecting my entire body when only my hands and forearms are encased in the negation mitts?”

  Roba shook his head. “I honestly have no idea, my son.”

  It took Valis a moment, but he glanced over at his father. “Can you access my magic? I know you were able to when I was taken out of my body to speak with Sovras. Do you think you could do that now?”

  He didn’t expect his father to answer, so he wasn’t surprised when Roba went quiet. Valis could feel Roba trying to access his magic. But after a few moments of solid effort, he glanced over at Valis. “I can feel it, but I cannot access it.”

  “Well, shit.”

  Roba let out an indelicate snort but remained quiet otherwise.

  “You cannot resist me forever,” Kaphir taunted. “I will break you if you continue.”

  Valis shuddered with another wave of pain. He gritted out, “If my sire hadn’t broken me, I doubt anyone else can. Keep trying. I can do this all day.”

  Do not antagonize him, Roba said. He groaned. Foolish child.

  Valis let a splinter of his mind delve back to his lake of power and pounded against the barrier. He was just about to try something when a tortured scream pierced Valis’s consciousness.

  “Tav! No! Fuck, let me go! What are you doing to him?”

  Kaphir chuckled, finally sounding somewhat evil. “We are always prepared to use everything at our disposal to get what we desire.” He rolled his hand toward a corner, and when Valis followed his gaze, his heart clenched. Tavros’s arm hung at an unnatural angle. His uniform tunic seemed to be holding it together.

  Then he saw the blood dripping from the sleeve, and Valis saw red. It grew from the edges of his vision and started to cloud the scene.

  No, Valis! Do not lose yourself. Roba called. Get back here and figure out your magic situation. Tavros is an adult. A warrior. A broken arm is not going to break him.

  Valis fought against the urge to let the bloody haze take over his thoughts and actions. He couldn’t lose control. Not here. Not now. Not when so many people depended on him. The whole world was at stake. The whole world would fall into darkness with Sovras as the terror in the center of the maelstrom of evil.

  That’s it, my son, Roba said, his voice low and soothing. Do not let that man win.

  Another agonized cry split the air, dividing Valis’s mental battle. He shuddered as he glanced over, and when he saw several robed figures squeezing Tavros’s injured arm, manipulating it, Valis almost lost himself. It was when a man approached Tavros’s left side with a steel mallet in his hand and a sinister grin that Valis lost his entire shit.

  Valis, no!

  Roba’s voice echoed around Valis’s consciousness, but Valis couldn’t answer. Instead, he let himself shatter. When he gave up the fight to retain control, his magic exploded within him. Whatever that barrier was, it lay splintered, and Valis absorbed the magic from it.

  He willed his magic to remain invisible as he shoved massive amounts of power into the negation mitts. After a few seconds, he absorbed the black magic from them and replaced the mitts with his own black magic, making sure it was visible as the negation mitts were.

  It took another few heartbeats before Valis regained some semblance of control. He glared up at the Sover
eign Priest of Qos and bared his teeth before seething, his words coming out as sharp hisses and low growls. “Touch my husband again, and I will—”

  “Do absolutely nothing,” Kaphir said, again with that amused tone that matched the mirth sparkling in his eyes. “You really are fascinating. Magic negated, but I still cannot break into your mind. You have the highest pain tolerance I have ever seen in one so young.”

  Valis huffed a soft laugh but said nothing. He couldn’t tell anyone that his pain tolerance came from twenty years of his father’s fury—fists, belts, shoving him down flights of stairs—his father had rained down terror every day of Valis’s childhood. At least now that pain tolerance worked for him instead of against him. And if he even thought about how he had gained such a high pain tolerance, all it would do would be hurt his dad’s feelings. Roba didn’t deserve that. Not anymore.

  He wriggled his fingers and forced himself to wince to keep the illusion of his captivity from slipping. He needed them to keep believing he was bound and helpless.

  If he can do it, so can I.

  Roba groaned. What are you thinking, my son?

  You just wait and see.

  Damn. Just be careful.

  Valis inwardly smiled. Promise.

  After a few moments to prepare himself, Valis stared directly into Kaphir’s eyes again, his own gaze defiant. The Sovereign Priest of Qos let out a musical laugh that had Valis’s hackles rising.

  “Such fire! Oh, child, you are such a stunning specimen. I really wish you would reconsider my offer.”

  “Fuck you.”

  Kaphir grinned. “That offer is not off the table, either.”

  Cringing, Valis had to force himself not to break eye contact. Instead, he focused his mind and tried to remember each time Thyran and Aenali had entered his mind. He’d never—that he knew of—initiated a mental link before. Now, it seemed to come to him easily. And while that terrified him, Valis focused hard to keep himself from announcing his plans.