Anathema

by Megg Jensen

  “And it was that simple? I told you to find her after my best soldiers have spent the last couple of months searching. It only took you, a soldier fresh off his training, two days? Seems unlikely, doesn’t it?”

  “His family,” Mark said pointing to Roc, “was hiding her. It was a simple matter of explaining to them the tortures he would suffer if they didn’t turn her in. Within two hours she was in my custody. It’s obvious they know each other.”

  I wrenched my eyes from the arguing men as I heard a smattering of applause from behind the door. A slippered foot stepped through the doorway followed by a woman in an elegant dress. I turned away in disgust, assuming she was Kandek’s bride.

  A gasp from Mark forced my eyes back to the woman. But it was no woman. It was a young girl my age. Ivy.

  “Didn’t I tell you he’d come back with her?” Ivy asked. “They’re such fools, aren’t they?”

  Ivy placed her hand on Kandek’s arm and the anger faded out of his eyes. He turned to her with a blank expression on his face, the fire in his eyes extinguished and replaced with blind submission.

  “Why don’t you go sit in the other room for a few minutes while I talk to them?” Ivy suggested.

  “Of course, my dear,” Kandek said. He turned to me, “I

  believe you know my bride.”

  20

  “How did you do that?” Mark demanded when the door closed behind Kandek. His hands balled up at his sides.

  Ivy laughed at him as if he were only a silly child. She flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder, stalked over to me, and rubbed my short hair. I smacked her hand away, hard enough to sting the back of my hand. She jumped back but quickly composed herself.

  “Still refusing to wear a wig, I see,” she said.

  “What are you doing? Doesn’t everyone here recognize you?” I asked, stunned to see my former friend set higher than any slave could ever hope. In fact, her new status was illegal. Serenians and Malborn commoners were not allowed to marry, and the nobles could only marry other nobles. It was a law punishable by death. Was her gift really so strong she could overcome all of Kandek’s senses?

  “No one knows who I am except Kandek and he’s not telling anyone,” she paused. “He can’t. I won’t let him.”

  A laugh escaped her throat. The sound was throaty and deep, nothing like the muffled giggles we’d shared as girls. Had anything about Ivy been real all those years? My heart broke into a million pieces. I had to separate my best friend from the woman standing before me. Trying to reconcile them as the same person was tearing me in two.

  “You’re a soother,” I said. “You make people feel better about themselves. How have you done this?”

  “You’d be amazed what else can be done with that gift, my old friend,” Ivy said. She swept the voluminous sides of her skirt up in her hands and sat gracefully in another chair. After draping the fabric over the arms, Ivy crossed her tiny feet on the floor. “Not only can I calm people down, but after enough time I can also reduce their will to disagree with me at all. Kandek proved to be an easier target than I imagined. Within a few days I had him eating out of my hand.”

  “But the guard out front said the two of you fight constantly,” Mark countered.

  Ivy laughed again, her voice echoing off the stone walls.

  “Once in a while, I lay off the soothing and he becomes agitated, as I’m sure you can imagine. He kept me prisoner as a slave for all those years. Now he knows how it feels,” she said.

  “You’re cruel,” I said. Roc’s hands shook in mine as Ivy laughed again. Had she soothed him beyond all reasoning too? Why had I let him come here? It wasn’t worth the cost.

  “Me? Cruel? After spending your life as a slave to this man you call me cruel? Reychel, you never did get it did you? There’s so much you don’t know.”

  Ivy stalked across the room to Roc. She put her hand under his chin and lifted his head. She looked into his eyes. “Now you have repaid me.”

  Roc turned his head to look at me for the first time, tears welling up in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Reychel, I’m so sorry,” he said. He shook his head back and forth, grabbing at his hair. With wild eyes he glared at Ivy.

  “I don’t understand,” I looked from Roc to Ivy to Mark. Mark’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Roc, his right hand grabbing the hilt of his sword.

  “You betrayed us,” he snarled at Roc. I ran to his side and with my bound hands, pushed his hand away from the sword. He was focusing on the wrong enemy.

  “I couldn’t help it,” Roc pleaded. He pointed at Ivy. “She came to me in my cell. When she touched my arm, my worries about leaving Bree and the kids dissipated. She talked to me with such kindness and I confided in her.

  “She found out I was part of The Sons. I told her you and I had met.” Roc turned away from Mark’s accusing eyes. “She knew you were coming here. I told her our plan.”

  “And she found a way to use you to get back at Reychel,” Mark said.

  Roc nodded his head. He wouldn’t, or couldn’t, look at me. Despite everything he said, I wanted to reach out and hug him. This hulking man, a warrior in a secret band of rogues, had been bested by Ivy’s gifted manipulations. He sat beaten as if he lost an entire army on the battlefield.

  “Did you ever find out what your gift is?” Ivy asked me, apparently done humiliating Roc.

  I stared at the girl who had once been my best friend and I couldn’t find one familiar thing about her. The kindness in her eyes, gone. The sparkle of her personality that drew everyone to her, gone. Nothing remained but darkness and anger.

  “I did,” I said, holding my bounds hands out to Mark.

  “Reychel, don’t,” Mark unsheathed his sword and cut my bindings loose. “Don’t tell her.”

  I tossed the ropes on the floor, kicked them to the side and rubbed my wrists. The skin wasn’t rubbed raw, but it was red and tender.

  “Does everyone know?” she asked, surveying the three of us.

  “Aren’t you a little concerned about your own safety right now?” Mark asked her, raising his sword until the point was touching the hollow of her throat.

  “There are plenty of soldiers outside the door in the hallway. If I so much as sniffle, they’ll break down the door and kill you all. I don’t think that’s how you want this to end,” she said. Mark held his sword steady, pushing slightly on her neck. Ivy gasped quietly but didn’t back away.

  “Put it down, Mark,” I said. “She’s right. We don’t have the advantage here.”

  He lowered his sword to his side, but did not sheathe it. A small drop of blood dripped from Ivy’s neck. She wiped it away as if it were only a harmless drop of water, leaving a faint pink mark.

  “Now, about your amazing gift,” Ivy said, turning back to me. “Tell me, my friend. Just like when we were little girls giggling under the blanket at night.”

  “My gift is deception,” I said, staring into Ivy’s eyes. “The spark in my eyes glows brighter than everyone because I want it to appear that way. My storytelling was all about lying and so were my feelings for Mark.”

  “Deception?” Ivy asked, one eyebrow raised. “Interesting, but I’m not sure I believe you.”

  “I don’t really care what you believe,” I said. We stared at each other a moment longer, neither of us willing to back down.

  “What are you going to do with us?” Mark asked.

  “For now I’m going to put you all in the dungeon. After all, I have a wedding to attend,” she laughed. “Once Kandek’s castle is mine, I can begin my ascent to power.”

  Ivy snapped her fingers and the door burst open, six guards spilled in the room. I counted two for each of us. No one could accuse Ivy of not being prepared.

  One of the guards snatched Mark’s sword before he could fight back as the others bound his hands. I struggled with the two assigned to me, but fighting back was useless. They were bigger, stronger, and more heavily armed. Roc stood with no resistance, mere
ly following his guards out the door.

  “Oh, and Reychel,” Ivy said. My guards stopped and forced me to turn around and look at her. “Don’t even think about your good friend Tania coming to rescue you. I’ve already got her stashed away in a cell and her special cloak is safe in my room.”

  The guards pushed me out the door and I could still hear Ivy’s laughter echoing as we were forced down the hallway. Tania captured, Mark and I captured. My pounding heart sank into my chest.

  “What do we do now?” I whispered to Mark, who was only a few steps ahead of me.

  “Quiet, slave,” the guard said, knocking me on the back of the head. I glanced around, woozy from the impact, unable to focus. The guards grabbed my arms, dragging me along behind Mark.

  As my vision refocused I looked down the hallway. It was the same walk I’d taken after angering Kandek the morning of my birthday. Kandek, I remembered suddenly, knew my secret, my gift. He knew my gift and yet he hadn’t shared it with Ivy if she was asking me about it. Obviously her skills weren’t as powerful as she thought.

  I didn’t struggle as a guard shoved me into a cell, one that was already occupied.

  “Reychel?” I heard a voice whisper. “Oh Eloh, Reychel, it is you.”

  I felt myself enveloped in a hug. Even in the dark, I recognized Tania’s grip, strong and sure. I pulled back, looking into her face. My friend’s eyes were heavy lidded and her mouth turned down. Sadness, an expression I never thought to see on her face.

  “How long have you been here?” I asked, squeezing her shoulders.

  “Just a couple of days. It was after Mark brought Roc in. Ivy must have sent them after me,” Tania said. “Did she tell you she took my cloak?”

  I nodded.

  “I think she forgot that I have two,” Tania said. “When the guards stormed in, they demanded I bring the cloak with me. Not wanting to meet the sharp side of a sword, I agreed. They only said to bring the cloak, not the cloaks.”

  We sat down on the damp stone bench. I could feel the coolness seep through my gown as goose pimples sprung on my arms.

  “What about Jon?” I asked. “Where was he? Couldn’t he stop them?”

  “He’s been gone this week,” Tania answered. “I don’t even know when he’s supposed to get home. Some secret mission with Nemison.”

  “So he won’t know where you are?” I asked.

  Tania smiled.

  “If he gets home before the wedding, he can help us,” she said.

  “But how?” I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Yes, Nemison knew where Mark and I were headed, but he didn’t know any of us had been captured. How would Jon know any more than him if he

  hadn’t seen his wife all week?

  “Jon’s gift,” Tania said. “It’s very unusual, but it gives him the ability to see what happened in any given place as long as there are trees nearby. It’s like reading someone’s memory, but instead he’s reading the memory of trees.”

  “Trees have memories?” I asked, shaking my head.

  “It’s a little more complicated than that,” Tania said, “but in a way, yes. The important thing is that Jon will come for us. If he gets home in time.”

  I looked at the optimism shining in Tania’s eyes. I felt we’d already had too many good breaks, was it ridiculous to hope for another?

  “Which one of you is Reychel?” a guard bellowed through the grated window high in the door.

  “I am,” I sighed.

  “Come with me,” he said.

  Tania squeezed my hand as I rose and walked to the open door.

  21

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked the guard.

  “Slaves aren’t supposed to talk to guards,” he grunted, squeezing his grip on my arm tighter.

  “I’m not a slave anymore,” I said. It was true. Maybe I was a captive, but I knew in my heart I would never be a slave, not like before. There would be no more long days of acquiescing. I would fight with everything I had to be free again instead of accepting my lot in life.

  “We’ll see what you say after this conversation,” he snarled, a cruel smile spreading across his face.

  He led me to Kandek’s chambers again. This time I found Kandek alone in his chair, just like the many times I’d visited him over the years. The clouds were gone from his eyes. I wondered if he was out of Ivy’s spell for the moment.

  “Where’s Ivy?” I asked, looking around.

  “Off getting ready for the wedding,” he said with a sigh.

  “Does everyone know you’re marrying a slave?” I retorted.

  He shook his head. “No one knows who she is. She fooled everyone to get her way in here. Fooled me too at first. Once I realized who she was it was too late.”

  “Too late?” I asked.

  Kandek waved his hand in the air, dismissing my comment.

  “Why did you come back?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “I’ve been after you for months. Why now?”

  “To free the prisoners you’re holding,” I said. “Your proclamation said you would set them free if I was turned in. I assume you’re still a man of your word.”

  “They weren’t my words,” he said.

  “Ivy?”

  Kandek nodded, his head falling into his hands.

  “I don’t understand,” I kneeled at the side of his chair. Forgetting all the cruel things I knew about Kandek, I only saw the man who had been kind to me and listened to my stories. “Can’t you tell me what hold Ivy has over you?”

  Kandek lifted his head and looked me in the eyes. He took my hand in his.

  “Don’t you see it?” he asked me.

  I studied his face, looking for the clue I knew must be there somewhere. I looked at his eyes, the only part of him I ever found any emotion in. His dark, amber eyes.

  “Oh Eloh,” I said, stumbling backward. All those years I hadn’t noticed what was right in front of me. I had no cause to, but now it all made sense. “Your eyes.”

  “So like my daughter’s,” he said. “I’m surprised it took you so long to see it.”

  I closed my eyes, picturing the color of his eyes and the color of mine. It was unmistakable. Nothing else gave way to a resemblance of any kind. His hair russet, mine jet black. His nose small and thin, mine pert and upturned.

  “How?” I asked, my hand running through my hair. I found comfort in the curls, my mark of freedom. “My mother, where is my mother?”

  “She’s gone,” he said. “I knew you were mine, but I couldn’t claim you. I was just beginning my career. I visited you as often as I could, brought your mother money, that sort of thing. She was a slave, a Serenian. It was against the law for me to associate with her on a personal level, much less impregnate her. It was when you began to talk that I could see what you were capable of.”

  Kandek paused.

  “I discovered your gift before anyone else.”

  “What happened to my mother?” I asked again, anger filling up every part of my being. “I was always told she died. Did she die? What happened to her?”

  Kandek only looked me in the eyes, unspeaking. I saw tears begin to form in the corners.

  “What did you do to her?” My hands shook, followed quickly by the rest of my body.

  “He killed her, Reychel,” Ivy said, walking into the room unannounced.

  “Is this your big secret?” I screamed, whipping around to face Ivy. “How long have you known?”

  “Years,” she said. “Kandek was the first person I learned to soothe. It happened by accident when I was brought to the household. I was introduced to him and as I took his hand to kiss his ring, he mellowed considerably. I felt it too, but quickly withdrew my hand from his. It was my moment of revelation that I was special. But I had no idea I was gifted until Tania told me that day in the market.”

  “How did you find out? What happened?” I asked, trying to control my anger. I had to know now. I needed to know everything.

  “Days later, I served him his
dinner. In handing him his bowl, I touched his hand and smiled. Later he invited me back to his quarters for the evening. It didn’t take much time to learn why he treated you the way he did. Why do you think I was your best friend? Your only friend? Who do you think started all of those rumors about his intentions toward you?” Ivy laughed.

  I felt rooted in place. My heart pounded as my world crumbled around me.

  “Why did you kill her?” I roared at Kandek, allowing my emotions to take over.

  “I knew what you were and what you could do. You made my career. You made all of this,” he said, holding both arms in the air. “I wanted to share it with you, but how could I explain your presence?

  “If I told anyone you were my child, you would have been killed. Procreating with a Serenian is against the law,” he said. “They would have killed me too.”

  It was true. Malborns were not allowed to mingle with my people. He saved me and doomed me at the same time. I glared at Kandek, who still sat in his chair. But my anger was rising and it wasn’t Kandek who would bear the brunt of it. I turned to Ivy, who stood by with a smirk on her face.

  “How long have you been planning this?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  “Years.”

  “And our escape,” I asked, “how did that fit in your grand plan?”

  “It didn’t,” Ivy said. “That was just a fortunate coincidence. It enabled me to find out what I was and what I was capable of. It also put me in touch with some very interesting people.”

  “Who?” I demanded.

  “I assume you met that council Johna is in?”

  I gasped. “How did you know about them?”

  “I spent a lot of my time in the shop going through Johna’s things, of course. You were stuck in the back bedroom away from everyone and I was free to roam about the cottage. I found some very interesting books. From there it wasn’t too hard to contact a few people.”

  “Who?”

  “Me,” a voice said from the doorway. I craned my neck out, trying to get a glimpse of the man hiding in the other room.

  “You can come out,” Ivy said. “She’s not going to bite you.”