“I led the armies of the Kosad Plains to their defeat at the hands of the High Tazmin.” Who would have thought that Rusk was such an orator? He seemed almost more himself as he spoke, like he was putting on a coat he had owned for years. “It is the Tazminera who holds the power to bring the lightnings.”
A voice called from behind Kjexx and he raised a hand. Had I ever heard a language so full of harsh rasping? The voice called again and he snarled back to the speaker before examining us carefully.
“You are chained. Do you serve this Tazminera, War Leader?”
“I am her san’lelion, sworn to…”
Rusk’s words cut off as Kjexx lunged forward, his sword raised high and descending in an arc towards our tether. Rusk’s own spatha caught the blade, diverting it in another direction just in time.
“Please! Don’t cut our tether!”
“Give me one reason not to free you?” He was breathing hard, his entire chest lifting with every breath. Why was he so passionate about our chains?
“It will kill him,” I said. They needed to stop talking as if I wasn’t there. “It will kill us both.”
Kjexx pointed his sword at me. I swallowed. “Your death is necessary, girl. We will kill you quickly and hang your body from that door as a sign to anyone from your world who tries to enter ours that we want no more of your evil kind.”
“Not while I breathe,” Rusk said, stepping between us.
I snarled. Why did I find myself defenseless now when I needed the lightnings more than ever? I reached for Ra’shara, gasping with relief when I entered it, only to feel something akin to a shove and find myself back in the real world. Was the dark man keeping me out? And what was happening to An’alepp? I needed to get back to Ra’shara — not just to access the Common but to free her from his grasp.
“No one else is coming through that door.” I had to raise my voice to be heard over the wind. Flurries of snow kicked up where it rushed across the landscape. Who would have known that anywhere could be so cold? “No one has gone through in thousands of years and no one will be coming through again.”
Kjexx laughed. “A thousand years? Tell that to the armies of Catane, the men who were so eager to capture you!”
“This Catane came through the door?” Rusk shifted from one foot to the other.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know.” From behind Kjexx the grey beast snuffled. His breath blew flurries of snow in every direction. “She wields the lightnings, just as he does.”
My eyes felt like they would go dry they were open so wide. Someone else could unweave? Someone who had come through this very door? How in the world could it be?
“After the devastation he has brought upon us, I’d rather die than see a person come through that door and live. I hate to kill you, War Leader, but this is as it was written.”
“But we aren’t his allies,” I protested. “Didn’t you see how hard he tried to kill us before you came to our rescue?”
“Evil has a way of blinding the eyes of the noble. I cannot trust what I saw.” He raised his voice loud enough for his followers to all here. “None shall live who wield the lightnings and come through that door.”
“But you haven’t succeeded in killing Catane and hanging his body over the door, have you?” How could I convince him to let us live? “Your best efforts have yet to achieve that.”
He cocked his head to the side.
Could I convince you to side with me? I asked the great beast. It had heard me before. Perhaps we could be friends. I felt a pang in my heart. Alsoon and I had been the best of friends and before this, he was the only creature I had ever spoken with mind-to-mind.
It snorted loudly, great gusts of steam flooding from its beak and swirling around Kjexx.
“Stop trying to turn my Saurs against me,” Kjexx said. He crossed his arms over his chest, his blades still in his hands.
“Saurs? They seem like birds,” Rusk said, but his voice sounded far away. The brown Saur was looking him right in the eye, tilting its head back and forth.
“The Saurs? They are ancient lizards. Feathered, but flightless. Our texts say that the ancients called them ‘dinosaurs’ but Saurs is easier to say in our tongue.” Kjexx motioned again and his men fanned out around us.
I shifted my weight from side to side. Why were they circling us? Rusk’s gaze was still locked onto the brown Saur. I swallowed, trying to think of my options. Could I run? There was nowhere to go. Desperately I clawed at Ra’shara.
“Rusk…” I began.
He didn’t even seem to hear me. “Why do you fight the men in black?”
“The Veen Empire has outlawed the old ways and the old wisdom. They build an army now to conquer the stars. As sons of the stars we stand guard against this heresy.”
I fought to get back into Ra’shara. Every time I entered, I was violently thrown out. Where was An’alepp? What was happening to her?
Kjexx leapt so suddenly that I stumbled backwards landing squarely on my behind in the snow. He took Rusk by surprise, hitting him hard on the head with the grip of his sword.
Kjexx’s men rushed in like a closing net and I was shoved face first into the sharp ice, my hands yanked behind me and roughly tied. Rusk moaned beside me. Was he badly hurt? Were they going to try again to sever the tether that bound us together?
There’s no use having great power if you can’t access it. I screamed in frustration, pounding the snow with my feet. They were going to kill me and hang my body up as a sign to any who followed. Mud in a bowl! There had to be a way to stop it!
Kjexx leaned down so that I could see his face, even though mine was held tight against the ice.
“Your man reminded me that I’m of the Black Talon. I think I may have a more important duty than killing you just now. I must admit, that now that I’ve grown used to your strange appearance, I find you rather beautiful. I don’t like killing beautiful women.”
His face vanished from view and then I was heaved upwards and onto someone’s shoulder. The man who lifted me smelled of fish and leather and the feathers tied to his back got in my nose and made me sneeze. His shoulder dug into my belly as he hauled me up, complaining in a language I didn’t know, but that had too many fricatives. The tether tugged painfully against my wrist. At least they couldn’t separate us. Where were they taking us? Had they tied Rusk, too? I shivered.
I arched my back, trying to see something more than snow and boots, but a cuff from my captor and a protest stilled my fight. What point was there in fighting? If I managed to get free I’d still have Rusk to help and he’d be unconscious and far too heavy to lift. In the middle of a battlefield. With my one defense inaccessible. I could just about kill this Catane myself.
Jostling, grunts, a series of curses and a swaying sensation ended abruptly when the guard slid me off his shoulder. I was in a large woven basket strapped to the side of the brown Saur. He was looking over his shoulder at me, his large yellow iris reminding me of a hawk — only a hawk large enough to tear one of the minarets off the High Tazmin’s tower.
Rusk lay unconscious on the floor of the basket. I dove to his side, running my hands over his head. There was a large lump on his forehead, but no bleeding. I kissed his cheek gently. Was he breathing evenly? How was his leg? I tugged his pack off, rummaging through it. Surely there would be bandages in an emergency supply pack. Here! The slice wasn’t too deep, but I bandaged it carefully. They hadn’t bothered to tie Rusk’s hands. Was that neglectfulness or respect?
At least the basket was warm. We were out of the cutting wind, and something on the far side of the basket was radiating heat. What was that, exactly? I couldn’t quite reach it. The tether didn’t go far enough.
“Warm embers in a metal pot. Don’t spill them or you’ll fall out of the basket.” Kjexx leaned over the side of the Saur. His tone was surprisingly friendly for someone who had just captured me. “The Saurs need them to keep warm. They weren’t made for this cold.”
As
he spoke the basket began to sway — slowly at first and then with rapid rhythm.
“Are you off to do your more important duty? Are we going back into battle?”
“The Black Talon will decide what to do with you.” His smile was attractive. If he wasn’t ghostly pale and trying to kill me I would have noticed sooner. “We’ll leave the battle to my brothers once I’ve done my part and hurry to them.”
“That name sounds ominous.”
He grinned and winked. “I think it is meant to. How did you capture this War Leader?”
“My father gifted Rusk to me after he was defeated in battle.”
His grin widened. “So, when you lose in battle where you come from, you are given to beautiful women? What keeps all your warriors from throwing down their arms?”
“Why can you speak English, but not your soldiers?” If he thought he could ask all the questions he could think again.
“English? You mean Command? The language of leaders? I learned as a child. My clan always knew I was born to lead. Were you born to lead, girl?”
“It’s Tazminera. And yes. It seems that I was.”
He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. “Too many leaders aren’t good for a clan.”
“Then maybe you should have left us alone.” I crossed my arms over my chest, but I felt powerless. This man didn’t even know who I was. “What is the Black Talon?”
“Our ancestors.”
Great. As if my ancestors weren’t trouble enough, now I had to deal with his as well.
“Are we going there now?”
“Don’t be too eager to die! We have to win this battle first!” He raised an eyebrow, stuck his tongue out at me and then disappeared from view.
Over the next few hours I wasn’t sure if I was fortunate to be blind to what was happening or not. The Saur wove and roared, spun and lunged, enough to make me ill from the swaying of the basket, but I couldn’t see over the edge for long enough to tell what was happening around us. Every time I pulled myself far enough up to see the battle another motion of the Saur knocked me over. The clash of steel and the screams of the injured and roar of the beasts was ever-present. I barely kept down my gorge, sipping sparingly on the water from Rusk’s pack. I couldn’t get mine off with my hands tied.
Saur? I called. Graxx?
There was no answer. When was the last time I had been completely alone? Not since that night that Jakinda marched me back up to my rooms in the Silken Gardens. Certainly not since Rusk became mine. I reached a hand over and let it settle on his shoulder. Rusk was fortunate enough not to awaken, but darkness had fallen and when the clamour settled down, the warmth of the ember pots and the gentle rocking of the Saur’s even pace eventually put me to sleep.
Chapter Five: Dead City
I woke to a gentle kiss on my temple and warmth against my back.
“Rusk?”
“Wild Girl, are you hurt?”
I rubbed my eyes. How long had I been sleeping? “No. How do you feel?”
“Like kicking someone. Preferably Kjexx although the Saurs like him.”
Did I want to kick Kjexx? Certainly — although he fascinated me. I got the feeling that if Death came calling he’d wink at the spectre. “Can you speak to them? Does that mean they are birds?”
He reached an arm around me tugging me in tight and I relaxed into his warmth. I could barely make out his honey eyes in the moonlight. Was he really okay? He’d been wounded and that hit on his head couldn’t have helped.
“I can speak to them, but they aren’t exactly birds. Related to birds, maybe. This is just one variety. Their voices are loud in my mind. What’s wrong with your arms?”
“Tied.”
He worked to untie my hands, finally freeing them, and then laying his cheek against the top of my head before whispering, “I’m glad you’re alive.”
“Rusk?” Did I dare ask? Wouldn’t it make it all too real? “Do you think there is another way home?”
“I don’t know.”
I felt a tear slide down my face and I hurriedly sniffed to keep my nose from running. It was too cold to cry. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”
“Hush,” he said, pulling me tight into his chest. He felt warm and safe. He should be angry with me because I couldn’t get us back through the door. I would be if I were in his shoes. Why did Rusk have so much compassion for me?
His kisses started gently, accompanied by tender, stroking hands that made my blood heat and my heart feel hollow, like it wasn’t enough to hold all the love I felt. Slowly, they became more urgent and intense, leaving me breathless and desperate to lose myself in his affection, even just for a moment. Soon, I could think of nothing else but his heady smell and warm nearness. I wanted to give my whole self to him — every part, every flaw as if he could hand it back to me mended and clean. I wanted to forget that anything else existed and lose track of my sorrows in his embrace. If hatred had the power to destroy a person completely, couldn’t love have the power to recreate them?
A cough sounded even louder for its unexpectedness and we broke apart, panting. I felt like there was an even stronger, deeper cord than the one on our wrists, and this one ran from heart to heart, refusing to let me pull away.
“Ah, the kisses of a beautiful woman. Perhaps I shall taste them soon,” Kjexx called down from above. He whistled a strange little tune and then shook himself as if he’d forgotten we were there. “Almost there. Prepare yourselves to meet the test to come.”
Did he always sound so cheerful, or only when he was threatening people?
“Test?” Rusk asked.
“There’s always a test,” I said. “Or a ceremony. Someone always finds a way to make a spectacle out of delivering pain.”
Kjexx vaulted into our basket, lantern in hand. He produced a knife. Rusk shot to his feet, but Kjexx laughed.
“Do you like your woman tied up, War Leader? I could leave her that way if you think it is best.”
“I already untied her.”
He laughed and put his knife away. “We’re at the sacred grounds. Follow me.”
There was a jostling and nauseating movement as the Saur stopped walking and settled into a different positon — almost as if he was sitting or lying down. Kjexx climbed up the side of the basket, gripping a rope just above the rim and then sliding over the edge. Rusk grabbed my hand and whispered in my ear.
“Don’t trust him. Don’t do what he wants. We’ll keep our eyes out for an opening and then run.”
“I don’t think there will be much of a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
I frowned. “What if we could make him an ally?”
“He wants you dead,” Rusk hissed.
“What is the hold up? There’s no time for kissing games!” Kjexx called from below.
With a sigh, I scrambled up the side of the basket. I could feel Rusk’s displeasure, but what other option did I have? We knew no one in this whole world. We had no weapons, few supplies — although I noted that Rusk had retrieved his pack and I still had mine — and no idea where anything was or where we should be going. Why had I ever thought it was a good idea to come to this place? I should have had a plan, should have thought about things better ahead of time. Now I didn’t even have a clue to go on. I didn’t even have An’alepp. Despite all the times she had annoyed me, I was missing her. What would she say about Kjexx? Would she think he was crazy, or would she think I could win him over as an ally?
As soon as I left the basket, I froze, trying to take it all in. The Saurs stood all around, stomping their huge feet and preening feathers with their beaks. The air was still as if the wind was afraid to blow here, and the moon hung low, fat and white, illuminating everything. Just one moon. It felt so lonely all on its own. And it felt too weak compared to our double moons on Everturn.
Kjexx stood at the foot of a statue at least twenty times his own height. She was missing her head, which lay on its cheek a little way away. He
r expression made me think of Amandera, my not-so-beloved step-mother. At least she wasn’t here with us. The woman’s clothing was foreign, and she was depicted with one hand stretched forward, fingers up, as if warding off evil or granting a blessing. Char marks and stains coated the sides of the statue to the knees and snow drifted around her, covering her feet. Had she been a great lady? What would it take for a people who had cared enough to carve it to abandon it later? Perhaps the people we were going to meet were destitute or had regressed to barbarism.
As my eyes adjusted to the light, I made out more in the shadows beyond. By the look of things, we were in a ruin that had once been a great city. Crumbling walls and ragged towers jutted out of the drifting snow. Not a fire burned, not a smoke trail rose from anywhere but the small band of Saurs and riders who had arrived with us. Their lively banter and the constant movement of the Saurs felt out of place in this shell of a city.
This city was rotten and shrivelled. There was no life here. Ornately carved arches hung half-missing, and carved cornices ended abruptly. Some great cataclysm had leveled this city, leaving only what we were now seeing. Would Al’Karida look like this if I did not find a solution to the cataclysm? The Silken Gardens? Al’Toan? I shivered.
“I will allow you to test me, Kjexx,” I said. “But when I am done and have passed your test, you will set us free. We have business to be about and you are keeping us from it.”
Rusk’s shifting at my side told me he wasn’t pleased. What had he expected? Sulky resistance? Someone ought to tell him about the old proverb, ‘You catch more rats with sugar cane.’
Kjexx laughed. “You don’t deal with me, Tazminera. You deal with the Black Talon.”
“Then stop lounging around wasting time, and bring me to the Black Talon.”
“I fought a battle today. I have earned my rest.”
“Rest when you’re dead,” I challenged.
Lightning Strikes Twice (Unweaving Chronicles Book 2) Page 3
