by Ada Haynes
A laugh in her head.
Oh, don’t worry; I have taken care of that. He will have no doubt about his paternity. Now, one last thing, then I’ll let you shock those lazy children of mine by surviving against all their expectations!
Shona felt an intense heat on her lower back. This time she screamed. It was as if all the heat she had been fighting earlier was suddenly concentrated in the one spot.
Correct in that. Don’t ever forget your oath, Kimiel Malcolm Keh Niriel. And if you do, look at the mark I left you. What I give, I can take back. ‘Bye now! Behave!
Shona moved, slowly, cautiously. Her whole body was hurting and she wanted to drink gallons and gallons of water.
Had she dreamed all this? A latent pain on her lower back informed her that, nope, it had all been true.
Then she felt the movement in her belly. She finally managed to sit. Put a hand on her stomach. There it was. A faint but somehow familiar move under her fingers. She felt like crying. Looked at the Lake in front of her instead. It was still dark around her, but she could see the water.
She was going to keep her promise. She had two reasons to live from now on.
44
Ekbeth was resting, trying to understand what had happened at the temple, when he heard the news. Kimiel had survived Ara’s trial. That was just not possible! He stood up.
“Uncle! You have to rest!”
“I’ve rested enough, Lyas! Where is she?”
Lyas bit on her lip, but when she saw he had decided to go she relented.
“At the Na Saoilcheachs’ house.”
Ekbeth got dressed, and they both went to the doctors’ house. Ekbeth wanted to see Kimiel with his own eyes. He needed to see her alive to believe the incredible news.
There was quite a crowd around the building. Ekbeth caught some word exchanges while trying to get to the entrance doors. Everyone was just as surprised as he was.
There were a few guards in front of the house—the Aramalinyia had apparently taken no risk this time—but they moved aside to let Ekbeth and Lyas enter. Sometimes being an Akeneires’el had its privileges.
It was less crowded inside the entrance hall, but still crowded enough to make progress difficult. Ekbeth recognized the other Akeneires’elin, with one or two other members of their families. Asking the same questions as the crowd outside: how come Ara had not taken the life of this lawbreaker?
The Aramalinyia, the Goddess’s voice, was nowhere to be seen. Ekbeth was preparing to ask about her when Bers’el na Saoilcheach entered the room from the other side and zoomed towards him. “Ekbeth! I was going to send someone for you, but you’re already here. Good.”
Why was the old man looking for him specifically? Conscious of being the center of attention, Bers’el smiled mysteriously. “If you’d please follow me? This is not for everyone’s ears. At least, not yet.”
Ekbeth followed him outside of the hall, before anyone could start asking questions. Despite the intensity of the situation, he managed to speak teasingly. “Bers’el! That was really nasty of you! You know they can’t bear secrets!”
The old man laughed. “Oh, they’ll hear about the news soon enough. Don’t worry.”
“Has Kimiel really survived? How bad is the damage?”
Bers’el grumbled. “Actually, surprisingly minimal. Some people will think the Aramalinyia diluted the drug. Or replaced it with something less lethal.”
“Why would she do that?”
“She didn’t, but she knows some people will doubt her and she’s asked me to check the remainder of Ara’s water that she collected earlier on. There’s nothing wrong with it. As concentrated as my previous tests. Though I’m certain my results won’t stop the gossips. And that’s not why I was looking for you. Did you know Kimiel was pregnant?”
That stopped Ekbeth’s progress. Lyas, who had been following them, hissed in shock. “Pregnant? But that means…”
Bers’el nodded gravely. “That we’ve put that baby through a lot of pain. Indeed. She—it’s a baby girl—seems fine, though it’s maybe too early to say. She’s very active for a fetus of so few months. I have some drugs that can help, but a nurse suggested something else. I was hoping you could help.”
Ekbeth was getting over the shock. “Me? Help? How?”
Instead of answering, Bers’el pushed a door and they entered one of the patient rooms. Kimiel was laying on the bed, apparently asleep, apparently unscathed. The Aramalinyia was at her side, one hand on Kimiel’s brow, muttering something he could not make out. Ekbeth still did not want to believe it. It was so unfair, was his first thought. Unfair for Lyrian and Kalem.
Bers’el told him, hesitantly, “I think I know what provoked that mental scream and your fainting, Akeneires’el.”
Ekbeth knew what Bers’el was about to say and ask him to do. As’mir parents had a strong mental link with their children, even the unborn ones. It would be the final proof.
He needed to know.
He looked at Kimiel’s flat stomach. There was nothing to see. Even covered with blankets, it was flat. He put a tentative hand on its surface. Something resonated in his head. Kimiel’s face relaxed. Her stomach under his fingers relaxed.
Lyas was the first to react.
“Oh my! That baby is yours, Uncle! She’s reacting to you. She was the one screaming for help! And only you could hear it!”
Ekbeth could only imagine what the baby had gone through. He remembered the screaming in his head. Burning pain. Panic. So small, and already put to the worse suffering any As’mir knew! His daughter.
The Aramalinyia was looking at him, he realized, but her face was carefully neutral.
She asked him in a hushed tone, “Did you know?”
Ekbeth felt like shouting at her. What was she thinking? That he would inflict this torture to an unborn child because of his feelings against her mother?
But she was the Aramalinyia. She had a right to ask. He sighed. “No, I did not. It’s not like I’ve been seeing Kimiel a lot recently, Aramalinyia.”
The old woman looked at him for a long moment, as if trying to read his mind, but finally shook her head and got on her feet. “I need to talk to the community. Ara has decided to be merciful, for once. She refused to explain to me why, but I’m sure we’ll soon find out her reasons. She must have some. In the meantime, would you mind staying here until Kimiel wakes up? Someone has to keep an eye on her and I don’t trust anyone but you at the moment. You and Bers’el, but I need him as a witness that the trial was fair.”
Ekbeth nodded and put himself in the chair the Aramalinyia had just vacated. The next moment, he was alone with a sleeping Kimiel, and a tiny heart beating under his fingers. His daughter. He dared not speak, or move, but in his head, thousands of thoughts were coming and going.
Had anyone told him he was soon going to be a father, he would have laughed out loud. He had always been careful to avoid paternity. Not that he did not want children. It had just never seemed the right moment. And most of his mistresses did not want the burden either. A perfect arrangement.
How had it come to that? He knew exactly how it had happened! One hour of fun with this woman! One single hour! His worst decision ever!
Since then, his whole busy but settled life had been totally turned upside down.
Kalem almost killed. His cousin Lyrian psychically unstable. His business almost bankrupt. Duncan McLean, dead. The whole community in uproar.
And himself. Now soon to be a father.
He suddenly started laughing. Those were just too many consequences for a little slip out of his rather boring life routine. It would have been so much simpler if Kimiel had died.
He looked at the woman’s face. So innocent looking. At his mercy. He could easily strangle her if he wanted to. It was tempting. No one would reproach him for the act.
Only, she was bearing his child. And the Goddess had decided she was to live.
Why had Ara let her live?
45
“How do you feel, Kimiel?”
She relaxed a bit, recognizing him. Ekbeth! And it came back to her. The Trial, Ara, the baby…
She immediately put a hand on her belly. Searching.
Nothing.
“Our daughter is all right, Kimiel. At least, that’s what the doctors are saying.”
She frowned. “A daughter? How do you know?”
“The doctors told me. And, we… connect, she and I.”
She did not know what to say. The situation was a bit awkward. He probably shared her feeling, because he pushed the chair a little away from her, saying, “I’m sorry, I was not supposed to fall asleep like this, but it has been a long day for me…”
“Where am I?’
“In the Na Saoilcheachs’ house. Our hospital. They brought you here after you survived the Trial.”
She looked at him with a half smile. “You sound angry, Ekbeth.”
He nodded. “You were supposed to die during that trial, Kimiel.”
Oh, he hated her, alright. She stretched her legs cautiously. “Well, sorry, but I did not die. Your Goddess had other plans for me. She decided to spare me because of this baby, mainly.”
He scowled. He looked really ferocious when he scowled. “Did you know you were pregnant before the trial, Kimiel?”
Her scowl probably matched his, she was so indignant. “What do you take me for, Ekbeth? Do you really think I would have let anyone pour that liquid into me if that was the case? Of course I did not know!”
“You fought the Caller all the way to the temple, Kimiel!”
“Because I did not want to be tried at all! But believe me, no one would have poured anything in me if I had known! I would have told everyone about the baby!”
Clearly, he did not believe her. “You’re… what? almost four months pregnant? Surely you’ve noticed.”
She looked at him gravely. “Ekbeth. Believe me. This tiny girl inside me is as important to me as to you. Maybe even more. Some doctors told me three years ago that they had me sterilized. And another confirmed it later. I had indeed all the symptoms, morning sickness and all, but never considered that diagnosis because it was just impossible. Now would you care to explain to me how this miracle has happened?”
His face relaxed a bit. “I don’t know. You could ask one of the Na Saoilcheachs. They are the doctors.”
Mmh. Not very helpful.
She stretched her legs again. Yawned. Ekbeth was not ready to hear the great news yet, she decided. He was mad at her, and probably still getting over the news of the baby. She decided she would inform him later about Ara’s will.
“So, the bad girl has survived,” she said. “What happens next?”
He was obviously doing his best to keep his expression neutral. “Nothing. You’re free to go.”
Good! She was going to go back to the Castle, then, and further her plans to get Toshio out of jail!
She tried to leave the bed. Her head spun when she sat, but she had expected it. Give it a moment, and she should be able to stand.
“What are you doing, Kimiel?”
“You told me I’m free to go, Ekbeth. I’m leaving.”
She realized she was not wearing anything. “Where can I find some clothes, Ekbeth?”
“But…”
She tried to stand. She was not going to listen to his arguments. But as soon as she managed to get on her feet, a terrible pain racked her whole body, but mostly around her stomach, forcing her down again. It was so painful that she could not breathe. It was the trial all over again!
“Kimiel! Don’t fight it! Breathe! Damn it!”
She vaguely heard a door open, then some shouts. Hands made her lie down again. More shouts. Pain on her face. Someone was slapping her!
She managed to get hold of that person’s hand. Then she squeezed. Hard! She felt how the bones crushed under her fingers… Her lower back erupted in pain.
You promised!
That pain and the voice in her head took her out of her panic attack. She released the hand. Opened her eyes. Met the face of a furious woman with long violet hair, who was holding her wrist as if it had just been broken.
“Next time, Kimiel, I will give you some sedative! I don’t care if you’re allergic to them or not!”
Shona closed her eyes again. Damn! She had botched it again!
“I’m sorry! I don’t know what happened.”
The woman was still furious but she explained, “You need to lie down for at least two more days. You may have survived the trial, but Ara’s water is still in your body. If we believe the survivors’ tales in the Chronicles, it takes about forty-eight hours to be completely eliminated. In the meantime, the best you can do is stay in bed. Moving increases the elimination speed, but with the accompanying pain.”
Two days trapped here!
She reopened her eyes and searched for Ekbeth. He was not far away.
“I’m not so free to go, it would seem.”
He shook his head. “You did not let me explain.”
“Can someone at least send a message to Jeffrey Matheson, Ekbeth? Tell him that I’m alive?”
Ekbeth nodded. “I’ll get a message to Matheson. If you give me his number. Now, you rest.”
“Wait a minute before you do that, Kimiel Keh Niriel. Akeneires’el? Thank you for keeping watch over Kimiel. If you don’t mind, I need to talk to this woman in private.”
Shona did not recognize the man’s voice. She was fast falling asleep, but made an effort to stay awake. The fattest man she’d ever seen in her life came into view. Her instinct made her move away from him. His weird hair, violet, showing in tufts here and there on his skull, did nothing to make her feel more comfortable.
He smiled at her. “Don’t be afraid of me, Kimiel. I only want to have a little discussion with you. And hopefully help.”
She managed to utter, “Who are you?”
“Bers’el na Saoilcheach. The poisons expert of the Valley. Now, I happened to hear my cousin Kes’alri saying that you are allergic to sedatives, and that interests me enormously. I like challenges, you see. Would you mind if I conduct some experiments?”
“Experiments” was a word she had learned to loathe. And she suddenly realized that what he had in his hand was a syringe. She hissed, “You’re not injecting anything in my blood, bastard.”
His smile did not waver at the insult. “Oh. I was not thinking of injecting anything into you. More like taking a blood sample. It should be enough for my studies.”
“What do you want to study exactly?”
“How your blood reacts to sedatives. Maybe there’s one you’re not allergic to.”
“I just heard my body is still full of that green poison. Wouldn’t it be better to wait until it is gone?”
He shook his head. “I know how to distinguish Ara’s water from the rest. A few shakes of the tube normally do the trick.”
She still did not trust him. But what harm could a small donation of blood do? She opened her hand. “Give me that syringe.”
He did not ask why. Just handed it over.
Now, Shona had to think. Her veins were not in as bad a state as twelve years ago, but some of them were still pretty much dead. She studied her left arm for a moment, and finally located a vein near her armpit.
Bers’el had a funny expression on his face when she gave him back the full syringe.
“You’re using drugs?”
She closed her eyes.
“Kimiel. I’m not going to tell anyone, I swear. But I need to know, for the experiments.”
She opened her eyes again. “I was using, Bers’el. Heroin. More or less for fifteen years. But that’s some time ago now. Happy?”
He shook his head.
“Is this the reason you’re allergic to sedatives?”
“No. Drugs have fucked up my body for sure. But dust is not why I’m allergic.”
He hesitated, but finally asked something that took her by surprise. “It is true then? That some mad scientist used you as a guinea pig, Kimiel?”
She looked at him for a long time, wondering how he knew this. Finally she asked,
“What gave you this idea?”
“I told you I’m the poison expert here, Kimiel. I am interested in everything related to poisons. Sometimes I talk to our ancestors, the Ke’As’mirin. They can’t keep their mouths shut if you know how to flatter them. They told me a bit about you. I know not all the testing on the Other Side is conducted in an ethical way. Especially in Asia, where you apparently lived for some time. I heard of a lab in Thailand, for example. It was closed down two years ago, but I managed to get some reports of their experiments.”
She should be afraid, she thought. She was far too weak to fight such an enormous man if he wanted to kill her.
He only patted her arm. “Your secret is safe with me, Kimiel. Between you and me, I never approved of experiments on human beings. Certainly not the way those developers were conducting them.”
He left her on those words. Alone, at last.
She did not feel like sleeping anymore now.
This conversation had brought back too many bad memories.
46
Ekbeth asked Nukri to transfer him back to his house in Zurich. He hoped to tackle a few urgent tasks before returning to the Valley. He did not feel like working, but if it kept his mind off everything else…
He needed to make some decisions about Kimiel and the baby. But not now. Not when he was still so confused.
Unfortunately, Lyrian was waiting for him. “And? Did she suffer a lot before she died?”
Ekbeth had hoped this conversation would happen later. He shook his head.
Lyrian frowned. “No? You mean she did not suffer?”
“I mean she did not die, Lyrian.”
Lyrian exploded. “What?”
Ekbeth put his hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “No need to shout. It came to us as a surprise as well. But Ara has decided to let her live, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
