“Do you like my guards? I see you admiring their comportment. I call them ‘The Black Brigade’ for a reason.”
I spun to see Catane leaning against a wall. So, that’s who dragged me into Ra’shara. He was more dangerous than I had feared. Before this, only An’alepp and Amandera had managed that.
“What do you want, Catane?”
He smiled, but his smile didn’t reach his penetrating gaze. “What I’ve always wanted.”
“That’s cute,” I said, lifting my chin to look down my nose at him. “Do you practice sounding cryptic in the mirror?”
“You don’t want to know what I want? I thought knowledge of your enemy was power.” His tone was mocking, and he crossed his arms, flexing his biceps to accentuate the golden tattoos.
“Did it hurt to get those?”
He shrugged. “Pain means nothing to me.”
“Adorable. I bet you have a notebook full of those expressions written with flair in red ink. No, wait… it’s gold ink, isn’t it?”
“I want everything, Tylira.” His eyes told me that he wasn’t amused. “Everything.”
“Ambitious. What will you do when you get it all?” My heart was hammering in my chest, despite my show of bravado.
In the real world, Rusk was shifting closer to me as the guards walked around us, inspecting our faces and apparel. Kjexx gestured grandly, spinning some tale. I let my expression in the real world stay neutral and peaceful. This talk with Catane was too important to risk leaving it, even with guards all around us in Eleninsk.
“You jest, little girl, but I think the answer is obvious. Study my Empire as you travel through it, and tell me what you think I’ll do when you get here.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He leaned in close, far too close for comfort. He was so large! He made Rusk seem small. His hands looked large enough to break my wrists with a single twist. I swallowed hard, refusing to allow my expression to show fear.
“I think you do, little girl. I think you’re coming to me and when you do, I will take you, along with everything you love.”
I shivered.
He placed a spectral hand on the small of my back, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “I will have everything, Tylira. I’m setting this world on fire.”
I bit my lip, and realized I was doing it in the real world, too, when I tasted blood.
“Come on, Tylira,” Rusk whispered, and Ra’shara vanished as he spoke. I carefully exhaled. I hadn’t even realized that I’d been holding my breath.
I allowed him to guide me away from the guards, following Kjexx, not trusting my own feet or reeling mind to direct me. We exited the gatehouse into the bustling hubbub of Eleninsk, but it felt like a dream compared with the bright, terrifying world I’d just left. Catane knew I was coming, and he was ready. He had plans to take everything from me and to destroy this entire world. I shook at the thought of it.
Kjexx and Rusk edged in close on either side of me. Why were they being so protective? The crowd pushed on every side, everyone frowning as they glanced at our belts.
“What are they looking for?” I asked Kjexx.
“Look,” Rusk answered instead. “They’re all wearing leaves in their belts.”
Kjexx nodded. “There’s a vendor over there selling copper leaves. We should buy some so we don’t stick out. Especially after what I told the guards.”
Rusk stiffened at his words. What had Kjexx told them while I spoke to Catane? It must have been quite the story.
We pushed our way past a woman peddling hot pies from a hand cart, and through a knot of men yelling at another group. Everywhere insults and shaking fists told me this city was not at rest. The ko above their heads fizzled and spat as if they were vats of boiling oil.
The vendor selling leaves had two kinds on his cart: birch leaves and oak leaves. A chalked sign gave the prices. Ten copper coins for a birch leaf, five for an oak leaf. Kjexx hastily brought out his purse, and began to count out coins, handing them to the fat, squinting woman behind the cart.
“Oaks, it is,” she said, handing us each an oak leaf badge. I slid it over my outer belt, while Kjexx and Rusk did the same. “A brave choice, but a dangerous one.”
“Brave?” I asked, but Kjexx pulled me away from the vendor.
“Hurry, we need to get to an inn,” Kjexx said. He pointed over the jostling crowd to a red wooden sign swinging in the cold wind. It depicted a bubbling mug and a feather. “I see one at the crossroads ahead.”
“Hand me one of those coins,” Rusk said.
Kjexx gave him one with a frown. “Take care. My funds are limited. Why do you think I chose the oak leaf?”
Did it make a difference? I scanned the crowd as Rusk gave the coin to a small, grimy girl who was tugging at his pants. Someone nodded to us as he passed, a look of approval on his face. He wore an oak leaf on his belt.
“It’s a bad sign when children beg in the streets.” Rusk’s eyes followed the little girl anxiously as she disappeared into the crowd. “In Kosad we provided for our people. Someone needs to do something about this.”
“Why do you think we’re doing this?” Kjexx asked absently, still pulling me along behind him. Rusk still gripped my other hand, but his face spoke of his concern for the children of Eleninsk.
A pang of affection filled me, so strong it almost hurt. He really did care about the people of this strange city. It bothered him that they weren’t cared for. All that talk about honor wasn’t just him forcing his standards on me. There was something more to it than that.
A shoulder smacked me hard in the face, and I stumbled to the side, my eyes seeking the culprit. A group of young men with birch leaves on their belts snickered as they hurried past. Oh. Suddenly, it all made sense. The city was divided into factions, and those factions were arguing and insulting each other on the streets. The leaves showed which faction you were in.
“Here we are, The Golden Boar.” Kjexx sounded relieved. “Let’s get inside.”
He pulled us into the red door, but my mind was preoccupied with a single question. What had we chosen when we slid these oak leaves on our belts?
Chapter Seventeen: A Proposal
THE GOLDEN BOAR BROUGHT back memories of The Blue Feather, where I first met Rusk, as I pushed through the door into the press of bodies on the other side. A singer was up on a stage at the far end of the common room, accompanied by a tin whistle. All around us, the crowd stomped and clapped in tune with the merry song, oblivious to the conflict outside. We stepped around pools of sticky fluid and jostling elbows up to the bar. I couldn’t stop looking around. Did people spend their days doing this? At noon? Did none of them have occupations?
The Blue Feather had been so refined and sedate, and I hadn’t been able to see most of it with Jakinda carefully watching my every move. This place was nothing like it. Despite myself, I was flushing with the excitement and energy. This was my kind of inn! I couldn’t have chosen better.
“Three meat pies with beer,” Kjexx announced to the ruby-faced innkeeper behind the bar. “And two rooms.”
“Show yer badges.”
Good thing we’d bought some. I fingered mine nervously. Would they be the correct leaf for this establishment?
Kjexx stepped back, pointing at the badge on his belt.
“All of yez.”
Rusk and I followed suit.
“Alright then. The food yez can have, but I’ve only one room for yez and yer lucky to get it with the crowd in town.”
“What crowd might that be?” I asked. The innkeeper cocked his head and then laughed as if I were pulling his leg.
“Funny girl yez have. I’ll be back with the beer.”
I scanned the crowd from the bar, still clinging to Rusk’s hand, not just to hide our tether, but to discourage any friendliness from the crowd. They were almost all male, though the singer was a slip of a girl with long golden hair, and most of the crowd was worse for drink. A few of them le
ered at me before they noticed Kjexx and Rusk and then they quickly looked away. They all wore their oak leaf badges where they could be easily seen.
“I heard rumors about this,” Kjexx said in a quiet tone, motioning to Rusk and me to crowd close to him against the bar. “There are warring factions in Veen and things are heating up. It’s all because Emperor Catane had King Jerome strung up by his thumbs and gutted last month.”
His casual tone was horrifying.
“Who was Jerome?” Rusk asked.
“A Lander leader in these lands before Emperor Catane arrived. Astrex’s brother. He’s been on parole since his kingdom was taken, but Catane discovered he was plotting with several other powerful families. He slaughtered them all in the Veen Memorial Square.”
“And which side have you signed us up for?” I asked, fingering the badge.
He shrugged. Did he really think it was of no consequence? From the look of things, it would determine everything from here on in.
There was a line of books on the shelf and with some relief I realized that I could read the spines. The Great Cataclysm was written on the spine of one of them in gold lettering.
“Can I see that book on the cataclysm?” I asked the innkeeper, as he set down our steaming plates.
He winked at me. “Good choice for a conspirator. See if you can find us a clue for dealing with our present Emperor.”
Ah. So, we’d chosen rebel emblems. Well, at least that explained why they cost the least in the streets. I took the book, flipping through it as we ate.
“Why are there so many people in Eleninsk right now?” Rusk asked him while I read.
“It’s time to act. Even the rural folks know that now. Ten years of oppression is too long. But yez knows that or yez wouldn’t be wearing the oak leaf. Do you travel to the capitol?”
“Yes,” Kjexx said. Was he really admitting that to a stranger? “We’d prefer a speedier method of travel than our feet. Any tips?”
The innkeeper grunted. “For one who wears the oak, I do. Can’t leave here myself, but I have a friend who can help. He breeds horse stock for the army. Be at the bar at first light tomorrow and he’ll take you with him for only the labor of helping him tend the mounts.”
“Thanks, friend.”
I couldn’t concentrate on more. The text of the book seized me. I was still flipping through the pages, reading as quickly as I could when we finished eating:
And so it was that those in contact with the strange other world broke our world to pieces. Artifacts from the time before were destroyed, great monuments smashed, and multitudinous cities swallowed up by the earth. In Kandaroth… I skipped the description. I didn’t know any of the places mentioned. …When the last of the unweavers died, we thought it was over, but it was only Yerletta’s use of the scintellex that saved us. For she saw what no one else could see…
The book was snatched from my hands.
“It’s for sale if yez wants it.”
“How much?” I asked.
“One hundred gold pieces.” He looked worse smiling than he did when he frowned.
I glanced at Kjexx, but he shook his head. We didn’t have one hundred gold pieces. I clenched my jaw. If I had just been able to read a bit more maybe I would have learned how they used the scintellex. At least it confirmed the idea that I was chasing the right thing.
“Let’s go see our room,” Kjexx suggested.
The tiny room contained two cots with straw tick mattresses and woolen blankets, a wash basin and pot, a hot brazier, and a small window to the outside. The shadows outside were growing long as evening approached, but I threw the window open anyway. It was far too crowded in the room with all three of us. Kjexx sat down on one of the cots.
“I hope you two can bunk together. I’d offer to share my cot, but I’m not tied to anyone.” His grin was almost unbearable.
“We’ll be fine,” Rusk said curtly. He shrugged off his warm clothing, hanging it on hooks by the ember filled brazier to the side of the room. How long would that little pot of embers keep us warm? Would it last the night?
Rusk stretched out on the cot, careful to leave me room to sit, and closed his eyes. Was he really going to sleep already? He seemed on edge for someone who planned to nap. I sat awkwardly on the side of the bed.
“I’d ask you to go dancing with me and leave him here…” Kjexx’s eyes danced as he reached over and ran his fingers along our tether.
Rusk tugged it to the side, his eyes still shut, pulling me to him. I clenched my teeth, biting back a groan of pain. Did he have to do that? It hurt when he tugged.
“I know what it’s like to have great responsibilities. I know you do, too. You didn’t choose this fate but it chose you” Kjexx said, taking one of my hands and looking in my eyes like he was trying to say more than his words could convey.
“The fact that you poisoned me makes me less interested in what we might have in commiserating.” What was he doing?
He laughed as if it was a joke. “I’m not looking for commiseration. I want you to know that I understand. The only thing I’ve ever wanted was to be free. I want to just ride off on a Saur to wherever the wind takes me and go look for things no one has found.” His free hand made a wide sweep, matching the faraway look in his eyes, as if he were riding off into the sunset even now. “But I can’t go until my people are safe. And neither can you, right?”
“Yes,” I agreed, feeling my cheeks heating. The look he gave me with that crooked half-grin sent little hot spikes into my spine…even with Rusk only a few feet away. I glanced at Rusk, relieved when I saw his eyes were still closed.
“Neither of us care about ideals or high standards. We just want this to be done. So, don’t hold it against me that I did what I had to.”
“You could give me the antidote now.”
“Ha! That’s a good one. I won’t give you the antidote, but I have something even better to give you.” His face took on a sincere look. Did I dare to trust him?
“You’ll set me free from my vow to you?”
“I’ll give you an army you can use to save both our worlds.” He sounded like he was really offering it.
“And how will you do that?”
Rusk was so quiet that I knew he was listening intently, despite pretending to nap. What would he think about a possible army commanded by us?
“My army is hereditary. They follow me because of my blood and valor. I will lead them until I die and they will follow me until they do.”
“It doesn’t sound like you can just walk away from that.”
He grinned. “I’m not planning to. It’s the saving the world part of things that is so difficult, not the leading part. I’m happy to lead them. And you could be, too.”
“You’d give me your army?”
“In a manner of speaking.” His grin grew broader, as if he knew a joke that I didn’t.
I rolled my eyes. “Is there a point to all this?”
“Marry me, Tylira, and together well save both our worlds. I have an army, you have supernatural power. What wouldn’t be good about that?”
Rusk twitched, flicking the tether involuntarily. My eyes were huge. Had he just asked me to marry him with Rusk only inches away?
“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m chained to another man.”
“Temporarily.” His eyes danced with mischief. “And we can wait to share intimacies. But you must admit that a marriage would be good for us both. Besides, I think you like me. I think that if you’d met me before you were chained to him, that you’d have picked me.” He startled me by kissing me, quick and soft. His kiss was so innocent that it was startling. “Think about it.”
He left the room, and his footsteps echoed down the hall and faded out before I dared to look at Rusk.
Chapter Eighteen: Only a Dream
RUSK SAT UP SO quickly that I startled. What was he going to say about that? I chewed at my bottom lip, but he was just shaking his head slowly, his mouth twisting b
itterly.
“Don’t look at me like that! It’s not like I asked him to propose marriage.”
“Or kiss you?”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“Shove him! Tell him to forget about it.” He was already raising his voice and we hadn’t even begun to fight.
I stood up and walked to the other side of the room, as far as the tether would reach. I crossed my arms protectively over my chest.
“I can’t afford to alienate him. He has the antidote!”
“So, you’re going to marry him so you can get it? Is that what it takes to earn your loyalty? Maybe I should buy some poison from a street vendor.” He launched himself out of the bed, pacing back and forth across the small room.
“With what money? We can’t even function in this world without Kjexx. We don’t have any money or assets of our own. If it weren’t for you I never would have been poisoned at all. We wouldn’t even be here with Kjexx, we would have ridden here on Graxx and left him behind!” Why did I have to be logical one? None of this was my fault!
“You can use your lightings to get what we need.”
I scoffed. “Yes, Rusk. I’ll just go around zapping anyone who doesn’t give me what I want. Like Catane. I bet we could oppress these people twice as well as he can.”
He sighed. “That’s not what I meant.”
I didn’t want to hear it. “You’re just jealous and you’re taking it out on me.”
“Because what he said was right, Tylira.” He stopped, his shoulders slumping forward in defeat. I hadn’t seen such a bitter curl in his lip since he told me about the day he killed my mother. “If we had met in any other circumstance you would have picked him. He’s everything that you love, and I’m not. I feel the weight of duty on me every day and I can’t just be carefree about it like he can.”
“It’s not the same thing.”
“I can’t go around proposing marriage.”
Lightning Strikes Twice (Unweaving Chronicles Book 2) Page 11
