HALORIN
Dorfil Shopa (F), innkeeper in Halorin.
Mozor Kardel (F), Mayor of Halorin.
SEFFA
Jozan Tuane (F), age 19, heir to Minol, Nalin’s friend, murdered by Stellet Arspas in Fractured.
Elsba Tuane (F), holder of Minol, Jozan and Bala’s father.
Bala Tuane (F), age 16, heir to Minol after Jozan’s death.
Tak (F), the Tuanes’ head servant.
Plaket (F), Tuane driver sent with Nalin and Lisen to Rossla.
ROSSLA HAVEN
Teran (F), hermit, necropath, guides Lisen safely through dispossession.
THRISTAS
Ondra (T), age 24, old friend of Korin’s.
Rika (T), age 24, Ondra’s spouse, also old friend of Korin’s.
Hozia (T), Elder in Mesa Terses, helps train Lisen.
Tronin (T), the oldest Elder in Mesa Terses, greets Korin on arrival to mesa.
Paken (T), Elder in Mesa Terses.
Larus (T), Elder in Mesa Terses.
Barok (T), Elder in Mesa Terses.
Askrolo (T), Elder in Mesa Terses.
Hakor, deceased, Korin’s father, family color is orange.
Enka Rosarel, deceased, Korin’s mother, captain in the Emperi Guard.
EARTH
Daisy (Dr. Marguerite) Holt, neurosurgeon at UCLA Medical Center, married to Simon Holt, Lisen’s co-guardian from age 10 to age 17.
Simon Holt, Ph.D. in linguistics, professor at UCLA, married to Daisy Holt, Lisen’s co-guardian from age 10 to age 17.
Betsy, Lisen’s best friend.
Rusty, Lisen’s other best friend, got her into Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
DEDICATION
For Malala Yousafzai,
a young female hero who is no fantasy.
.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Again, as in Fractured, to the Wednesday morning writing workshop at the Joslyn Center in Claremont. A constant and perfect balance of critical skills focused on whatever any one of us presents. I bow to the endurance and commitment of this band of merry storytellers.
To Barbara Smythe, one of those storytellers, for the line-by-line read of what became Fractured and Tainted.
To my beta readers:
Nancy Mueller, a friend who protested when I asked her to join my betas. She does, however, have the best memory for detail I’ve ever known.
Deb Spittle, a coworker who will read anything and has been bugging me for an entire year to get the next book done. Now she’s going to be bugging me for the next one.
To Daniella Franco, my canary in the coal mine, never failing to point out plot blunders.
To Brian Tyler, for his soundtrack to what was then the “SciFi” channel’s Children of Dune.
To my family, for putting up with me.
MAP OF GARLA
For a clearer copy of the map of Garla, go to the author’s web site at http://dhartstmartin.weebly.com/links-and-downloads.html and click on “Map of Garla PDF File.” You can use the image from there for reference, or you have the author’s permission to download it to your computer or your device.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After the publication of Fractured, D. Hart St. Martin returned to her work on Tainted. She also sold the house her parents had owned for fifty years (a duty completed in partnership with her sister) and did the best she could marketing Fractured. Then, with her proceeds from the house, she decided to retire from a life tied to the computer trying to make sense of other people’s words as a medical transcriptionist and start making sense of her own words full time.
Since she’s only been at this retirement thing for a very short time, she hasn’t reached the point where she can comment on its pluses and minuses. One plus she anticipates is the time available to her now to devote to the final book in the series, Blooded, for which no previous draft exists.
Her cats still run her life and would prefer that she give all her time to them instead of to that ridiculous, useless thing that she pounds on incessantly in the morning, but she stands firm. She will complete Lisen’s story because she certainly can’t leave the poor young woman in the state she finds herself in at the end of Tainted.
You can catch up with Ms. St. Martin and Blooded’s progress on the web at:
http://dhartstmartin.weebly.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LisenOfSolsta
Follow her on Twitter: @hartstm
Blog: http://dhartstmartin.wordpress.com/
Other Books by Ms. St. Martin:
Fractured
Blooded
BLOODED
AVAILABLE NOW
Blooded picks up immediately following the end of Tainted. Abandoned by Korin and realizing her new life is a lonely one, Lisen steps into her role as the Empir of Garla committed to do the very best that she can. But she is scarred and weakened; her soul has suffered the deep wound of stepping off the high moral road in favor of saving others. Thus begins Blooded, the final book in the Lisen of Solsta trilogy.
CHAPTER ONE
BLOOD SPORT
I am Ariannas Ilazer.Lisen doesn’t live here anymore.
After leaving the Empir’s office, heroffice, she’d followed Captain Palla down the tight dark stairs to the Keep’s dungeon, and the entire time all her mind could offer was a litany of duties to be performed with a request for the order in which to do them.Deal with the watcher.Explain yourself to the Council.Set the tone for your reign.Stand up straight.Be an example.Put the murder behind you.
At that last one, her stomach turned as she took her place beside Hermit Eloise, the mad sooth who had set her on this path to insanity.And here, in the same cell where she’d nearly died only an hour ago, and even with Eloise beside her, she stood alone.
This is what it means to be the Empir, to forevermore stand alone.Why had she leaped so far and so high to achieve this horrible station?Because, you dumb twit, they obligated you to do it.
She had planned very carefully for the defining moment.She had struggled through it over and over, straining to find a way to triumph without self-destruction.She’d convinced herself it wasn’t herfault her brother was such an ass.Practical, her solution.Workable, her solution.Economical, her solution.A little messy, but—
There went her stomach again.
But he’d practiced for years with the sword and the knife.Korin had said her brother had shown no interest in the art of the skill, but he hadpracticed.Her?She’d had a few months.How could a few months compete with so many years?This had forced her to find another solution—the push.
So, in the end, she had pushed.Pushed him to end it.
Put the damn murder behind you, the voice within ordered.
But I was wrong.The dagger cannot be unstabbed, the push cannot be unpushed.What’s done is done.Lisen doesn’t live here anymore.
Before her, manacled to the wall, stood the woman who got caught up in something greater than even her wily mind could envision.Lisen and Eloise were about to discover if it were possible to wipe out the memories, the strength and the power, to neutralize the essence of this woman whose reason for existing had always resided in this gift to manipulate others to do what she wanted, her skill with the push.And I’m going to do it the same freaking way I just murdered my brother.
Enough with the murder! the not-so-small-voice in her head screamed.
“Lisen?”
Ariannas surfaced at the sound of Eloise’s voice, realizing as she did so that she’d been standing there for several minutes staring at Opseth but not really seeing the rogue while her mind wandered through a reality she didn’t comprehend. If she wasn’t Lisen, then who was she? Because this Ariannas she was supposed to become bore no resemblance to Lisen of Solsta nor Lisen Holt. She did, however, look very much like the not-Lisen she was now.
“Yes?” Ariannas responded, confusion her new best friend because confusion didn’t demand understanding.
“Any thoughts?” Eloise said, Ariannas only realizing a
fter the fact that Eloise had said this before.
Thoughts. Oh, she had thoughts. None sharable, however.
“I thought you’d know what to do. You’re the manipulator. Manipulate her,” Ariannas finally replied, nodding in their prisoner’s direction.
Eloise was not her friend, had never been her friend, no matter how many times the hermit claimed to be. Eloise had stolen her off to Solsta Haven to hide her from a brother who might not have turned out to be such a putz if Eloise hadn’t poisoned the mind of their mother, Empir Flandari, against the boy from the beginning. But for now, she needed Eloise.
“No,” the hermit replied. “You are the one. I manipulate events. You manipulate minds.”
Ariannas realized the watcher was staring at her. “What’s your name?” she asked the woman, compelling her to reply whether she wanted to or not.
“Opseth. Opseth Geranda.”
“Ah, Opseth.” Ariannas clasped her hands behind her back and began to pace slowly in front of the woman. “My brother paid you well, didn’t he.” She raised her hand and waved off a response. “No, no. That wasn’t a question.”
“Don’t toy with her.”
Ariannas whirled on the hermit. “I’m not toying! And don’t tell me what to do when you claim to know nothing.”
Eloise touched Ariannas’ arm and tilted her head towards the other side of the cell. The two of them stepped away from their quarry. With their backs to the manacled woman, they whispered urgently back and forth.
“We must get into her mind,” Eloise began.
“I’ve been there. I can return.”
“Get in there and confuse her.”
Ariannas sighed. “And what the hell does that mean? How do I do that?”
“I’ll guide you.”
“That boosts my confidence.”
“Amateurs,” the watcher scoffed.
They both turned in her direction, Ariannas glaring. Time to prove her wrong. A few steps later, she stood in front of Opseth. “Table’s turned, hunh?” The watcher held further comment. “I killed your employer. Doubt you’ll get that last paycheck.” And still the woman would not react, not even to her new Empir’s use of a foreign term.
Ariannas snorted and reached a hand to Opseth’s face. Her mind wandered momentarily to the Vulcan mind meld, but she only placed her palm and fingers flat on the woman’s cheek. “Eloise, put your hand on mine.”
Eloise stepped up beside her, and after placing one hand on Ariannas’ shoulder, she cupped her other hand over Ariannas’ on Opseth’s cheek. “Do what you must.”
Ariannas—not Lisen anymore, she reminded herself—reached into the rogue’s mind. She met resistance at first, but Eloise opened the way. Like a ship plowing through arctic ice, she breached, layer by layer, the defenses Opseth had put up. Years’ worth of walls first ruptured, then crumbled under Eloise’s unfettered will. Ariannas had never experienced such strength, such power. It was as though the hermit had saved up all she had for this moment. Which, of course, she likely had.
At the edge of perception, Ariannas could hear Opseth whimper. Wall upon wall came crashing down, and yet they still didn’t approach her. She had prepared well for such an attack. Perhaps she had feared hermits finding her out and taking action not dissimilar to what Ariannas and Eloise proposed to do, but Ariannas was sure she hadn’t expected this from the two doing it now.
“Don’t…hurt…my family,” the rogue croaked. Neither Ariannas nor Eloise responded. Of course, they wouldn’t hurt her family. Unless her family were somehow involved. But Ariannas had sensed only one presence when this one had reached out to her.
A headache like a knife plunged into her temple assailed the new Empir. Opseth had found her own opening, and Ariannas knew she must close it before she could continue. She sensed Eloise’s mind inserting itself between the two forces, and Ariannas’ headache abated. She tightened her defenses, patched up the hole and urged Eloise to step aside. It was time to be done with this.
Ariannas conjured a mind wind, a great blow of a mental tornado. She allowed it to touch down in the brain of this woman whose cyclonic machinations had ripped away so much from the minds of others. Where it made contact, the woman’s thoughts began circling up in small and large elements. Her entire existence imploded as the whirlwind had its way. What once had seemed solid, unmovable, broke into pieces and floated away. Memories, skills, training—all fragments carried up and out by Ariannas’ wind.
And when the sky cleared, all that was left were fragments of a life, indistinguishable from one another—a picture here, a beloved bauble there. Nothing coherent. Ariannas stood in the center of the mental destruction and could see Eloise off in the distance, in a place spared by the storm, and Eloise nodded at her.
“It is done. Retreat slowly,” Eloise whispered in her ear.
One last thing, Ariannas thought. She invited an image into her mind—an image she’d found impossible to forget. Solsta’s infirmary some three months ago. A woman writhing in pain.
Then another. Solsta’s receiving yard. A loyal servant betrayed by betrayal, dead on the ground.
And finally, the Empir’s bedchamber. A boy-man driven by greed and abuse, soaking in a bath of his own blood.
She filled the rogue’s empty mind with these images of its handiwork, leaving her with nothing other than that.
Remember, she ordered this Opseth. And as she imprinted all of this on the rogue, she pressed it into Eloise as well. Don’t you forget either.
She felt Eloise’s hand pull away from hers on the cheek. She felt the hermit’s other hand let go of her shoulder. She heard one footstep in retreat and allowed herself to disengage from the rogue. Then she whirled on Eloise.
“You will take her with you back to Solsta,” she pronounced, feeling the force of her power and will full upon her. “You and the others will guard her. She must never regain what we’ve taken, and she must never leave Solsta, ever.”
“Yes, my Liege.”
“As for you, Sooth, I never want to see you again. Because of you, my mother is dead. Because of you, my brother didn’t stand a chance. Because of you, I have committed such acts that no one should ever witness, much less participate in. You will go and never return. No letters, no contact whatsoever. Do you understand?”
Eloise nodded slowly. “I understood all along.”
The rage in Ariannas’ soul erupted, and she pushed Eloise away with both hands. “You…you…bitch. This is what I mean. You knew it all, all of it, all along. You knew my mother would die. You knew that the servant would die. You knew that I’d need to be able to break all the rules, so you took me away from the haven just when I would have started feeling committed. You knew Korin and I…. Well, you knew what we’d do out in the desert, and God knows why that had to happen. And you knew I’d have to kill my own brother. Damn you!” She paused before finding the last blow. “I bet you even knew Jozan would die.”
“No, that’s the one thing I never saw,” the hermit replied softly.
“Would it have changed anything?”
“I can’t say. I don’t think so.”
Ariannas looked at the watcher. The woman was barely conscious. “Let her sleep it off, and then go.” She turned to leave and was stomping out of the door when Eloise called out to her.
“My Liege, what about Hermit Titus?”
Ariannas stopped and turned back. “What about him?”
“He’s down here, too.”
Ariannas dismissed her with a brush of her hand. “Take him. Yet another one of your pawns.”
“Aye, my Liege.”
And before Eloise could say anything else, protest anything else, Ariannas marched out of the cell. She had to find room for sleep sometime tonight, but first she would insist on a bath.
I’ve been here before. Ariannas laid her head back on the side of the giant tiled bath, amazed at her power to roust servants out of their beds in the middle of the night to heat up the water and attend
to her needs for towels and the like. I’ve been here before. Blood and grime to wash off. A soul to be purged, though this time it was her soul alone and it was guilty as sin.
I could just slip down under the water. It would look like I’d drowned in a bath larger than most pools on Earth.
No.
I’ve been here before. At the Tuanes, mad and channeling Little Alex. It lingered like vapor in her memory but it remained. Singing in the echoing room. She looked around and knew this room would echo, too, but she had no desire. Singing time was over.
Funny. She’d thought she’d feel better than this—heady with victory or some such. Not without its regrets, of course, but feeling something. She felt only numb. Not a feeling left in her. She’d murdered her brother. How could she feel numb about that? Yet…she did.
She’d shooed away all the servants. She required quiet to make her peace with the loneliness that now would be hers alone.
I’ve been here before. Yet she felt as sane as the washing cloth in her hand, as the Ilazer green and gold tiles that made up the bath. She’d set out to regain that which had been decreed hers, and she’d succeeded. A touch of a lie in her explanation to the Council in the morning, and she’d be done with it. How easy it all was.
But what of Lorain Zanlot? She dropped back in the water to allow her newly shorn hair to soak clean. Upon surfacing, she heard that small voice that she’d relied on to guide her. What of her? She’ll fight, but she’ll never win.
Ariannas Ilazer sat bathing, the grime and blood washed away. Tomorrow—well, it was tomorrow already—tomorrow she would take on Lorain.
Tainted (Lisen of Solsta Book 2) Page 32
