Divided

by Rae Brooks

  He twisted his body, changing directions to head toward that wall. Calis crossed his mind briefly, and panic threatened to consume him. Inevitably, as Taeru’s pace had slowed with the passage of time, an arrow caught the back of his calf. He let out a sharp cry and staggered along the length of the rooftop. He worked to right himself, managing just before he fell to the ground. Then, as expected, the stillness of his form allowed another of the arrows to hit his shoulder.

  Whimpering, his body writhed—trying to escape pain that was attached to it, and he felt the surface beneath his feet vanish. Gravity shifted, and he could feel the way the world spun around him for a few short seconds before his arm and side were crushed by an only partially expected force. The ground. Dark District buildings were low, though the blow accompanied with the arrows created a dizzy sensation.

  Still, knowing that he was in danger, Taeru worked to reclaim his feet. He could hear the footsteps approaching him, and he managed to right himself once again. Staring forward, he staggered only once more before setting his pace, moving towards one of the alleyways. He cleared the wall before him, ending up in another alley and continuing. His leg and shoulder burned with agony that he tried to ignore. After a few more movements, though, Taeru realized why the footsteps had sounded so completely quicker than his own. A large, pale brown horse stood before him, with a man in a full suit of armor atop it. Taeru stumbled, managing to move back as the man swung his sword. Looking east and west, Taeru realized that more horses were crowding him.

  Narrowing his eyes, he darted forward again, pushing around the man on the pale horse just enough so that he was given a free space to run in. “This guy is incredible,” he heard one of the men mutter in annoyance. “Circle that way!”

  Taeru wished he knew which way that was. He kept moving, though, knowing that any slowing of his speed would get him killed. His leg burned, and his vision was obscuring as the pain became more of an issue in his mind. His breath was running short, and his body begged him for reprieve. At last, a body slammed into his side, wrestling him to the ground in a quick motion.

  Taeru growled, fighting with every ounce of strength he had left in his body. The guard spoke harshly in Taeru’s ear, working to restrain his wrists. Then, he was calling to the other guards, and Taeru knew he had to get away now, or he wasn’t going to get away at all. By some miracle, he managed to free one of his hands enough to reach up and bring his fingernails across his assailant’s cheek. When the guard jerked back in pain, Taeru brought his good leg up into a kick that sent the man scuttling backwards.

  Then, Taeru twisted up onto his feet once again. He only managed to get a short ways, though, before another man slammed him with untold force against the very wall that he had been trying to reach. Taeru reacted, pushing away from the wall and managing a swift blow to the man’s teeth. A hard shock caught him across the jaw, though, and then his back was slammed against the stone again. When he fought further, the slamming motion repeated. After three evenly spaced punches to his jaw had his head spinning, his body was twisted and smashed viciously against the wall a final time—this time with his face slamming against it first. The final impact brought a fog into Taeru’s head, bobbing in and out.

  Somehow, he realized that he’d fallen to the ground, and there was a heavy weight pressed against his back. When he tried to move, the insurrection was met with a powerful force against his ribs. His arms were immobile, caught behind him. He realized belatedly that his stomach was against the ground, and the man behind him was binding his wrists unnecessarily tightly. “Oh-h, look at this.” With cruel force, someone yanked the ring off Taeru’s finger. Putting that on was probably the most foolish thing I’ve ever done.

  Someone grabbed the back of his head and pressed his face against the dirt mercilessly. He closed his eyes and mouth to ensure that he wasn’t eating it. “I’m sure this is worth a good sum of gold over in Cathalar, huh?” the man mocked cheerlessly. Taeru growled.

  Vaguely, he could hear voices, but his ears were ringing from hitting the wall so hard. Inevitably, though, a few of them came into focus. “Where is your brother?” one man asked warily.

  “I’m not sure,” someone else answered. “He was chasing after you all when I went another direction.” Taeru knew that they were talking about Calis. Despite being unable to form words, he did manage a thought.

  Coward.

  “What do you want us to do with him?” The force on the back of Taeru’s head had been released, though he’d determined that keeping his head lower to the ground was the safest way to keep from having the process repeated.

  An unforgiving kick crashed into his ribs, and his head swam again. When another one followed it, he let out a startled whimper. “Bind his ankles too—he is apparently quite skilled with his feet.” Taeru could feel the moment someone began obeying that order. His heart pounded against his aching head. How had he let this happen? What had he done? No—no, he couldn’t panic. He had to remain calm. If he fell to pieces, then he would be much easier to interrogate.

  Surely, Lavus would contact Cathalar about this. There was no other means of proceeding forward. Still, Veyron ought to know it was a trap—perhaps Ryo could stop him. Perhaps they wouldn’t want to go to war while Aela was still missing. Oh, Aela… Taeru had failed in a very big way.

  A third kick brought Taeru’s vision back into clear focus. There were several men standing about, idly. He was obviously on the ground, and someone was on top of him, straddling him—while someone else bound his ankles together.

  “Father is going to be so pleased,” another man remarked. Whoever had been on top of Taeru got off, and someone else moved to take the spot, though rather than sitting on him—they put a knee into the center of his back, just above his hands.

  Suddenly, noise erupted through the area. Taeru could see the men who had been idle scrambling to get their weapons. Managing to turn his head weakly, he saw the cause of the commotion. Someone flung a sword across the throat of one of the guards, and with a slew of blood, the man fell to the ground—silenced. Taeru felt his heart accelerate. Calis. Calis had just murdered one of the guards!

  Then, Calis turned and ran his sword through one of the others. He made short work of all of the men who had gone to stop him. They fell by the wayside as though they were nothing more than children. Calis was merciless, and Taeru was in awe. He hadn’t known Calis was so formidable. Nor that Calis would kill so readily.

  “Stop, brother,” Tareth hissed. Taeru realized that Tareth’s knee was the one pressing into his back. Then, Tareth grabbed his hair, pulling hard so that his head was tilted upwards. A sharp, stinging bite pierced his neck, then. The warmth spread, spilling outwards. Blood—Tareth had the sword to his throat. He was going to die, he realized dismally. Working to keep his breath steady, he closed one eye, then both, then he opened one again. “I’ll slit his throat right now,” Tareth menaced.

  Oddly, Calis did stop. Though, Taeru wasn’t sure why he should be surprised. After all, Calis had just been murdering guards without thought, presumably to reach Taeru. “Leave him alone, Tareth. This isn’t about him.” Calis’s voice did not sound at all as expected. Taeru had assumed it would match the ruthless demeanor with which he’d slain at least seven men. But, no, Calis sounded frightened, vulnerable.

  “Oh, this is very much about him. A Cathalari prince has been living in Telandus for—we have no idea how long! This is huge, and I am going to get credit for personally bringing him to our father.”

  Calis looked sick. He took a weak step forward, and there was a plea in his eyes. He was deliberately not looking at Taeru. Perhaps he harbored resentment, after all? Though, it appeared his chivalry wasn’t letting him back down. “All you want is for Father to favor you. I’ll tell him that I was still seeing a commoner. He’ll hate me for it. I’ll say you discovered me, and that is why I’m confessing. You don’t have to hurt him.” He sounded so horrified, and the sound bothered Taeru immensely. Calis should
never sound that way.

  “Oh, but imagine how much more he’d favor me if I brought him Taeru bloody Lassau.” The sword moved deeper against Taeru’s skin. His body twitched, but he worked to calm himself. He was trembling, though, and Tareth surely felt that.

  “Please,” Calis begged. “Tareth. I am your brother. You don’t understand. That boy hasn’t done anything to you. I will tell Father that I was seeing the prince—that he got away because of me. I am begging you, Tareth, do not do this!” Calis’s voice cracked over his final words. Finally, and rather abruptly, Calis’s eyes dropped to look at Taeru. An odd, sort of strangled noise escaped him as he opened his mouth.

  “Are you crying, Calis?” Tareth sneered. Taeru felt a very strong hatred for Tareth in that moment. How could he do this to his own brother? Then, with unprecedented horror, Taeru realized that Calis was crying. “Drop the sword, now,” Tareth demanded venomously.

  To Taeru’s dismay, Calis obeyed, dropping the sword, which clattered to the ground. The moment he did, though, one of the soldiers slammed him up against the same wall that Taeru had been forced against. As Calis fought to get away from the several people who had grabbed him, Tareth yanked his sword very lightly over Taeru’s throat. His world spun, and another blunt force to the back of his head sent him spiraling into absolute darkness.

  As he felt his consciousness abandoning him, he heard one, solitary, agonized cry. “Kilik!”

  “Oblivious to his own worth, and that was his weakness. She had always known that would be his weakness.”

  -A Hero’s Peace v.ii

  Chapter xxxix

  Calis Tsrali

  Calis yanked against the restraints on his hands with strength that he hadn’t realized he had. His lying, cowardly, pathetic excuse for a brother. Tareth was gone, though, off to retrieve Lavus—no doubt. Though, Calis’s anger felt oddly weak. All he could see when he closed his eyes were those uncertain, unfathomable blue ones staring at him. Kilik. Taeru. Whatever his bloody name was. Calis felt terrified out of his mind. What had he done? Oh, if he had only responded differently. Rather than staring at the boy like a raving moron, he should have held him—assured him that Calis had truly meant that nothing Kilik, or Taeru, said would ever change the way Calis felt.

  In that moment, he had been shocked, clearly. Of all the things he had anticipated, he had not thought that Kilik was Taeru Lassau. Oh—and the way Kilik had flinched! He’d thought Calis was going to hit him—he’d been trembling. Calis ought to have held him then, promised him it was alright—but he’d waited. Waited because the shock of taking everything Calis had ever idolized, and making it better was still ringing in his head. Why was there something so alluring about the fact that Kilik was Taeru? That this vulnerable person had acted on an instinct to help everyone—gotten up the courage to leave his homeland—and travel to Telandus? Calis’s shock at who Taeru was had ended moments before Tareth’s arrival, though his shock at himself—for enjoying the truth—continued to do so.

  Kilik—Taeru was so small, so innocent. Every action he’d ever endeavored to commit had been guileless. No wonder the Magister of Manipulation was so easily able to confuse him—Taeru didn’t have a manipulative bone in his body. Oh, the way he’d constantly shrank back from Calis’s revealing of castle secrets. He was so innocent of any crime, so innocent in all things… and yet… and now… because of Calis—what were they going to do to him? No, no… no. Calis fought against the restraints. “Don’t make me hit you again, sir,” one of the guards said.

  Calis let out a low growl, and unsurprisingly, the coward backed away. Even with his hands bound, he could probably have fought better than the fools in this room. A few moments later, Lavus appeared with his deceitful and hard eyes. Calis glared back at him, and for once in his life, he felt no fear. Despite having thought that his life had not been in fear of Lavus, at this moment, nothing Lavus did to him mattered. But what of what he does to Taeru? Fear strangled Calis, then.

  The blow to Calis’s face was quick, instant, and Calis responded by spitting upwards, directly into his father’s face. Lavus hit him again, and this time, Calis just brought his head back into position with a glare. “He has no information. You will gain nothing from keeping him here. He’s renounced his own name. Prove, for once, that you are a man and not a beast, Lavus.” The words were a snarl, and he emphasized the name that his father had so often said for him never to use.

  “You lied. I ought to have seen this coming. You insolent, pathetic, knave. You fell in love! And as if the concept itself wasn’t pathetic enough, you fell in love with our sworn enemy.” His words were harsh, and Calis steeled himself for another strike across his face.

  “Your sworn enemy,” Calis said sharply, and the blow he had anticipated came quickly and effectively. Calis could feel, more than see, his cowardly, sniveling brother over in the corner. Oh, if only he knew that this would bring him no favor of Lavus’s. “He is no longer a Lassau. You have no reason to keep him here!”

  “Oh, but he has information. Information that you could have obtained if you had not been so foolish in your feelings for him,” Lavus returned with a snap. Calis’s eyes narrowed, but fear pulsed through him, renewed. Taeru wasn’t going to give any information on his family, and Calis knew that. No, they would torture him. Every nightmare that Calis had ever had seized his body, and he started to tremble.

  He needed any way, anything, to try and get Taeru away from these people. “Then, let me go get it now.”

  “You think me a fool, boy?” Lavus shouted. Calis thought about shouting that he thought Lavus far worse than a fool. Unfortunately, Taeru’s well-being was hanging in the balance. Calis’s body twitched as he thought of that small form on the ground—the bruises that had already started to form along his face. Kilik had watched him with such intensity, then, so frightened and worried. “I ought to have you hanged, too.”

  Too? Calis’s body sagged in disbelief. No. No, this could not happen. This could not be happening. This was all his fault. Why hadn’t he been able to protect Taeru—Kilik? The person that he’d fallen in love with? Why? “What do you have to gain from hanging him? No one knows who he is. He hasn’t tried to do anything wrong!” Calis choked.

  Lavus growled in disgust, and then he glanced to one of the soldiers in the room. “Go get his advisor,” he said shortly. Lee—oh, this couldn’t end well. Of course, if only Lee had realized that Tareth had replaced the feeble, weak guards with stronger ones—if only they had realized it was Tareth at all, maybe they could have stopped this. How could they be expected to, though? After all, Tareth had never acted so cleverly before.

  A few moments later, Lee walked in, and his eyes widened only briefly as they glanced at Calis. They seemed much calmer than Calis had expected. “What is this?” he asked, sounding legitimately confused.

  “Your master was seeing a commoner, were you aware of this fact?”

  Lee blinked for a few moments. He blinked quite a lot for those few moments, Calis thought. What would Lee say? “I knew he was spending time in Dark District, I hoped he was there for the same reason I was, to gather important information—though, I had my suspicions.” Calis’s eyes widened. Lee intended to betray him, now?

  “Well, it just so happens that he was. He was fraternizing, and the very commoner that he fancied happens to be Prince Taeru Lassau.” There was a flash in Lee’s eyes, a strange one, and then the shock appeared, on cue. He let out a strangled breath, and he stared at Calis as though the blond had betrayed him personally. Calis narrowed his eyes, gritting his teeth as he regarded Lee.

  “The Cathalari?” Lee spat. His eyes flashed a little when they met Calis’s. He looked shocked, and to Calis, he looked like a traitor. Calis tried to assure himself that nothing Lee did now would help either of them, but being forsaken so quickly felt a bit like salt in the wound. In a moment of annoyance, Calis jerked his head away. “Where is he now?” Lee asked. There was trepidation in his voice.

&
nbsp; “The prince?” Lavus asked.

  Lee nodded once, though Calis refused to look his former friend in the eye again. Oh, what he wouldn’t have given to run a sword through the throat of everyone in this room. His teeth ground painfully against one another, threatening to abrade into oblivion. Taeru, Kilik, Taeru, Taeru…

  Nothing mattered here if Calis couldn’t get these restraints off his hands. If Calis couldn’t find some way to get to that bloody dungeon. How had this happened? “I believe Tareth had one of the guards take him to the dungeon.” Calis worked to force the words away from his brain, so that panic would not become him entirely.

  “Oh,” Lee said. He seemed to relax a little, though Calis wasn’t going to risk a glance at his traitorous friend to see if he had. “What of Calis, though? Surely he did not know the commoner that he was dating was… an enemy?” Lee sounded perplexed, and Calis longed to break his jaw.

  Tareth let out a laugh. Calis’s anger found that its obsession with Lee faded at the sound of Tareth’s voice. He let his eyes move to his brother, seeing that smile on his face. If only he realized that he would be nothing—ever. The ruby that Calis had bought him still dangled from his neck, and Calis wondered if Tareth was even aware. Wearing a gift from your enemy. You really are a fool, Tareth.

  Another moment passed, and Calis was sure Tareth was trying to create a dramatic silence. It was failing, Calis thought irately. “Calis defended him. My own brother killed my men in order to try and get the prince freed!” Tareth pretended to be aghast, but Calis knew that he enjoyed speaking every word.

  Once again, Lee feigned shock. Perhaps he wasn’t feigning it. Perhaps he really hadn’t known Calis well enough to understand that Calis would have killed every man, woman, and child in the kingdom if it meant that Taeru wouldn’t come to harm. “Surely not!” Lee said. Calis thought he sounded humorously cavalier about it.