by Viola Grace
“Interesting. Who did you think about?”
Leythana clenched her fist. “I don’t know. It is almost there, but it is like it has been painted over so many times, it is sealed.”
Duulahar ate her meal and was nearly done when she got the question she had been dreading.
“How long has it been since my retirement? I remember being at the podium and then nothing.”
Duulahar understood why no charges had ever been filed. If she legitimately couldn’t recall the event, she couldn’t testify.
“I am not sure that you want to know.”
Leythana brought one hand to life with an energy crackle. “I am fairly sure I do.”
“Twenty-four years. Give or take.”
Leythana’s eyes went wide, and then, she bent over and vomited. Duulahar got to her feet and quickly went to assist.
When her adoptive mother was tidied up, Leythana looked at her in surprise. “I know you. Or you know me.”
Duulahar went to take some water to rinse out the cloth she had used to help Leythana. “I have known you all my life. I was adopted by you and Minos after your retirement, and ten years ago, when I was a teenager, you began to deteriorate. Your mind simply surrendered to dementia.”
Leythana frowned. “What did my family say?”
Duulahar blinked. “I didn’t know you had family.”
“They never came to visit?”
“No. We didn’t get visitors at the farm.”
“Wait. My farm? He moved into my farm? That rat bastard.”
Duulahar didn’t know what to say. “That is where we got the horses.”
Leythana looked around, and she quirked her lips. “How did you get me out? And why?”
“I was being set up. I could feel it. He wanted me to grocery shop for items that were already in the house and to take his sports car. Even I could guess at what would happen next.”
“I would have a stress-related stroke, or you would have attacked me, and he would be the grieving partner.”
“Husband. You two married before I was in with you.”
“Asshole.”
Duulahar smiled. She had never heard Leythana curse.
“Is it possible that he kept you under his control all these years?”
Leythana suddenly looked tired. “It is definitely possible. With restricted contact with the outside world, his focus would be completely on me. He could set a hypnotic suggestion, and it would ride until I slept. Let me guess he always came home at night.”
Duulahar nodded. “He made a point to be there before you rose every morning. His was the first face you saw when you woke.”
“That is his pattern. Damn. Wait, how do I look?”
“You look amazing. Not a day over forty.”
Leythana grimaced. “I don’t remember forty.”
“I baked you a cake decorated with fresh berries. Though I think your birthday is actually in the winter, Minos wanted to celebrate it in the summer.”
“That sounds like him. Damn. So, well, if we adopted you, I am assuming you are some kind of gifted. Being resistant to Minos is great, but it isn’t much power.”
Duulahar held out her hands. “I make small port holes to other places, other worlds.”
“How small?”
“A few inches.”
Leythana scraped out the last of the oatmeal in the pan. “Show me.”
“What do you want? Water? Rain? Vacuum? Starlight?”
“Water. Ocean water.”
Duulahar held her hand out at her side, and she aimed the hole away from Leythana. She opened the port, and a strong jet of salt water sprayed the tree behind Leythana.
She stuck her hand into the stream and tasted it, spitting. “Very well done.”
Duulahar shut off the rift.
Leythana smiled. “Is that the best part? I mean, it is pretty good. But can you do anything else?”
Duulahar generated two holes, stuck her hand into one, and she grabbed Leythana’s coffee cup with the other, pulling it back through. She handed it to Leythana when the ports closed.
“Here you go.”
Leythana looked at the cup. “You just pulled that through space. What is the greatest distance that you can work with?”
Duulahar frowned. “I have to have it in my eyeline or know it absolutely. You don’t want to stick your hand through someone’s chest.”
“Well, you don’t. It will take me close to a week to shake his influence, so if you don’t mind, I would like to stay out here. Is there any way he can track us?”
“No, I removed the trackers on you years ago, and the ones on me were dropped when I left my room.”
“He had trackers in me?”
“You did tend to wander. I didn’t think anything of it, but I saw you slowly degrading. The wandering looked like a symptom.”
“What was happening right before I degraded?”
Duulahar frowned. “You and Minos were fighting. You said you couldn’t remember why you were with him. The next day, you couldn’t remember me.”
“The next day? Huh, yeah, that sounds like him.” She rubbed her forehead. “He must have spent a lot of time leaning on me.”
“Why aren’t you angrier?”
Leythana smiled tightly. “I will be. Right now, I don’t know who you are, and I am only slightly positive who I am. I will get better, but I have to stay away from him. He has worn the pathways of my memory so hard that the thoughts I used to have have been paved over. Stomped flat.”
“I am sorry.”
“Don’t be. It is Minos that will be sorry. If I can recover, I can get the full control of my gifts back.”
Duulahar looked at her and nodded. “I will keep you safe until you recover, even if I have to face him myself.”
“It shouldn’t come to that, but if he comes and I am not back to myself, I want you to run. He used me as a weapon on our missions when I wasn’t acting fast enough for him. That was when I knew he had gotten into my head. He can use me as an attack dog, and I can’t do anything. If he tells me you are the enemy, you are the enemy.”
Duulahar nodded. “Of course. I am amazed you are as coherent as you are.”
“I have known that he was using me for years. Then came the retirement meeting. That is where my memory ends. Do you know what happened next?”
The earnest silver eyes looked at her with the hope that there was hidden information that Duulahar would impart.
Duulahar took a deep breath and looked at her adoptive mother. “Things got complicated.”
Chapter Three
“It began after you announced your retirement. Minos was at your side.”
“Of course, he was, I was his glowing trophy.” Leythana shrugged.
“A woman rushed the stage, screaming about him forcing her and getting her pregnant.” Duulahar winced as she tried to phrase the next part. “Minos got mad. He lifted your hand and used a pressure point, turning you into a gun. He shot the woman in the head.”
Leythana covered her mouth. “Oh, dear gods. What about the baby?”
“You used your blasts to cut through the belly and deliver the baby. The child survived.” Duulahar smiled. “I have only recently seen the entire video.”
“Why would you have seen it at all?”
“Minos liked to remind me that you had killed my mother. The clipped version only showed your hand sending the blast.”
“You’re the baby.” Her eyes welled with tears.
“Yes, but I was confused as to why there isn’t any trace of charges for anyone that day. You or Minos.”
“He can do blanket hypnosis for traumatic events.” Leythana got up and started pacing. “He had a child?”
“Yes. I don’t see the resemblance.” Duulahar shrugged.
Leythana clued into what she had said. “Oh, goodness. You are the baby.”
Duulahar remained seated as Leythana knelt in front of her, t
aking her hands. “I am so sorry.”
“You haven’t done anything to be sorry for. You held me at your wedding.” Duulahar smiled. “I never felt the lack of love from you. From him, yes. From you? There was nothing but care and affection.”
“And when you were a teenager, you gave it back to me.”
“Of course. It was what you would do.”
Leythana kissed her cheek. “Yes. Did he educate you, at least?”
“He gave me access to online school. I have recently become a lawyer. That is when I got access to the files. It was odd. Someone sent them to me.”
Leythana chuckled. “That settles it. I want to know more about my life, so we are going to a place I never shared with anyone. Get the horses ready, I will strike the camp, and we will get going.”
“What are we going to do for food? I only have enough for three days or so.”
“I can hunt for us. Consider it a mother-daughter camping trip.” Leythana moved quickly around the site, emptying dishes, scrubbing the cooking pot, and pouring the water into the small fire.
It took them ten minutes to get ready, and then, Leythana was leading the way through the foothills and forests.
Duulahar was still a little sore from the ride of the previous day, but Leythana was coming alive with every passing moment, and that was the goal of the day. Her butt could take it.
Four hours later, they were deep in the heart of the mountains, and the thick forest hid them from any aerial view. They stopped for lunch and then continued on until Duulahar was swaying in the saddle.
“Here it is. There is space for the horses inside, and we can bring them the tree hay.” Leythana dismounted and led her horse into the mountainside where there was no sign of a crevice.
When Duulahar followed, she saw the wide opening that curled around. Her horse balked, but there was enough fresh air coming through and the scent of its companion, that it stepped in, and as they made it around the corner, the huge inner cavern with the crystal ceiling was definitely a good place to hide out.
“What is this?”
“This place is called a resonance. No gifted can work their talent in this space. It is a completely calm and vibrating zone.” She giggled. “It does have a weird side effect. When you leave here, all the power that you would have expended kind of soaks into you, and it is like uncorking a carbonated bottle the first time you use it.” She chortled. “Even if Minos finds us, his gift will be useless in here.”
Duulahar smiled slowly. “Good. I think I can work with that.”
“What have you been up to?”
“Training in Cohal. The hand that takes care of the animals knew the basics, and I kept working on it via online teaching. Whenever you were safe and he was away for a while, I was practicing.”
Leythana grinned. “Excellent. Show me what you’ve got.”
“What?”
“I might be lacking muscle tone, but I still have good reflexes. I can help you with technique if nothing else. Cohal training was part of our team basics.”
“Let’s get the animals set up first, and then, we can see if we are up for it. I will go out and get some leaves for them.”
Leythana smiled. “Make sure the leaves are non-toxic.”
She took the saddles off and set them aside, grabbing one of the knives from the pack, and she left to go and gather some green and bushy non-toxic leaves for the horses. There was water in the cavern, so that was already settled.
There were no signs or sounds of anyone in the vicinity when she crept out. It took her the better part of an hour, but she managed to bundle together several bushy branches filled with thorns that the horses loved. When she returned to the cavern, the horses perked up as she approached. She split her find into two batches, giving them one and taking the other with her, deeper into the cavern.
Leythana blinked. “What happened to you? You are a mess.”
“I got gorse bushes. It took a while to find them and longer to sever their branches, but the horses are enjoying them. I even beat them with a rock to soften them up a bit. This is just a dose of them for tomorrow. I don’t want the horses getting bloated.”
“So, you know how to care for them.”
Duulahar nodded. “You made sure of it, even if Minos wanted them dead.”
“They aren’t the same horses I had twenty years ago.”
“No, but they are both the daughters of Limika. It was a gift to you, as the animals helped your grip on your memory. The gift was public, so Minos couldn’t just dispose of them.”
She put the gorse down, and then, she went into the other room to wash the sticky sap from her hands.
When she came back, Leythana was standing and lost in thought.
Duulahar smiled and stepped into the centre of the space. “I am up for sparring if you are.”
Leythana nodded. “I think that is a good idea. I really need to try and hit something right about now.”
“Bring it.” Duulahar stood and watched Leythana prepare herself, and then, the attack was on.
Hands flailed, fists pounded, and Duulahar dodged them all without a counterattack. She really didn’t want to hit her mom.
Duulahar dodged until Leythana was exhausted. She set her friend down near the spot they had been arranging for a fire, and she lit a small blaze while Leythana shook her head. “I didn’t hit you once.”
“Nope.”
“Either I am out of practice, or you are very good.”
Duulahar chuckled. “Both.”
Leythana smiled sadly and reached out to take Duulahar’s hand. “I am so sorry you have become wrapped up in all this.”
“I won’t say it is all right, but it is my path, and I am walking it.” She quirked her lips. “If you wake up blank tomorrow, I am glad we had today.”
Her hand was squeezed tight before Leythana whispered, “Me too.”
They had dinner, settled in their blankets, and after a lot of forced light-hearted conversations, they fell asleep.
Duulahar closed her eyes and hoped that Leythana was truly getting better when they woke.
There was the feeling of being watched when she woke up. She pushed the bedding aside, and she looked over to where Leythana was staring at her. She waved the long stick that she was using to prod the fire. “Who are you?”
“I am the baby.” It was a summation of everything she had said the previous day.
Leythana dropped her stick. “It has been that long?”
“Yes. It has been that long. To sum up, Minos raped a woman, got her pregnant, she came to tell you and yell at him in public where she felt she would be safe. He used you to kill her, and then, he began supressing your memories from that point onward, turning you into a dementia patient ten years ago. I found he was planning to kill you or maybe me, so I broke you out, and you led us here. Horses in the front room, mountains outside the door. We can’t use our gifts in here.”
Leythana blinked and frowned. Her brain was scrambling. “Duulahar?”
Shock must have shown on her face.
Leythana smiled. “You were a very round baby. Happy that you grew out of it.”
“You remember?”
“I remember a baby with your hair and your eyes. My hands show the passing of decades, so, yes. You are my daughter, and I remember you.”
Duulahar chuckled. “Sort of. I did grow out of my chubby phase, but it took ten years.”
She sighed. “I wish I could have seen the photos, but I am guessing Minos would have burned them by now.”
“I made copies. I copied everything in the house and save it to an off-site server.”
“I am so proud right now. Should I make breakfast?”
“If you would. I will get some water and check on the horses.”
The horses focused on her when she came in with the gorse. They were relaxed, happy, and hadn’t even finished the food from the previous day.
She w
alked to the mouth of the water supply and held the receptacle under it until it was full.
Leythana was getting the coals ready when she returned, and they sat down and had a nice chat while Leythana caught up on her own history.
They were cleaning up after, and Leythana gave her a sidelong glance. “I don’t suppose you know why I am sore.”
“Cohal. I was on the defense, and I didn’t try and make contact. You are just out of practice.”
Leythana nodded. “I think we should change that. Shall we go again?”
“Can we wait an hour? I don’t think I should kick your butt on a full stomach.”
“Come on, squirt. To your feet or you are grounded.”
It was twisted that in the middle of nowhere, underground, with a woman who didn’t remember her, felt like the most relaxing place in the universe. This was home.
The outer world was hell where a demon waited.
Chapter Four
A week had been what Leythana needed to get her mind and memories back completely.
Duulahar knew the plan that they had for the moment they left the cave, and she was terrified. Well, the moment Duulahar left the cave. Leythana was going to remain until law enforcement could be brought to her. They had a plan for Minos as well, and she had gotten in a lot of practice on what she would need to do.
Late at night, she would dream about a life where her mother was healthy and Minos was a scowling memory. That was the dream, the reality was going to be painful, humiliating, and make her question everything she knew about her life. Duulahar held the horse’s bridle and led her out of the cave. It was a good thing that Duulahar knew what she was getting into. Otherwise, she would be terrified.
Leythana was inside the inner cavern with her horse. They had already said their goodbyes.
Duulahar got out of the caverns, and she led the horse a good way before she mounted up, got a sun-based orientation, and headed north. It was as far away from Minos as she could get. Help might lie to the north; she hoped that Leythana’s old friends were loyal. It would take three days to reach her destination, and the clock was going to be ticking down each and every second. She was in a run for their lives.
