Quest for the Sun Orb

by Laura Jo Phillips

“I will, and again, thank you,” Zakiel said. “Your ability to see auras may aid in convincing Marl of his own worth.”

  “This reminds me,” Tomas said, “I wonder if you would mind if I spoke to you two on a matter of some seriousness.”

  “Of course not, Tomas,” Zakiel said. “What’s on your mind?”

  “It’s about Saigar,” Tomas said. He had thought on this for many days now, and had long since decided to do as Tiari had suggested. He’d put it off only because he hadn’t found a time that seemed right for it.

  “What about him?” Zakiel asked, his voice understandably frosty. After all, Saigar had attempted to murder Karma in her bed.

  “First, I want to apologize to both of you,” Tomas said. “I always believed him to be an honorable man. One I trusted above all others. I swear, if I’d ever had the faintest suspicion of what he really was, friend or not, I would have told you, Zakiel.”

  “I know that, Tomas,” Zakiel said. “Now I know it. I confess that I was suspicious of you at first. I apologize for that.”

  Tomas shook his head. “Of course you were suspicious. How could you not be? You need not apologize to me for that.”

  “Nor need you apologize to us for what another did,” Zakiel said. “As you said, you had no idea.”

  “No, I didn’t, and that is my problem. How is that I didn’t know? I knew that man for over half my life. I was with him nearly every single day, I fought beside him. I trusted him to guard my back. What is wrong with me that I could live side by side with a cin sahib and not even know it?”

  By the time he was finished they could all hear the pain in Tomas’s voice, see the anguish and self-reproach in his eyes. Tiari reached out and ran a soothing hand along his forearm.

  “Tomas,” Zakiel said, “I understand why this is difficult for you, truly I do. But you must remember that Saigar knew you as well as you knew him. He knew how to fool you, and he did. Aside from that, I don’t think there are any answers to be had.”

  “Actually, there are,” Karma said suddenly.

  “There are?” Zakiel asked in surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that Saigar is here, now, asking that I allow him to speak with Tomas, and you, Zakiel. He wants to explain what happened.”

  “How do you know that he’s not trying to stir up more trouble from beyond?” Zakiel asked suspiciously.

  “Because Samyi is with him, advising me to advise you to listen to what Saigar has to say.”

  “It’s up to you, Cousin,” Zakiel said to Tomas. “However, I will say that Samyi is to be trusted. She was the first Lady Techu, and we have always followed her advice before.”

  “In that case, I think we should follow her advice now,” Tomas said, uncertain whether he was happy with this development, or not. There was a large part of him that missed his friend, and was eager to speak with him again. But there was an equally large part of him that was angry and distrustful of Saigar.

  “What does he have to say?” he asked Karma.

  “The best way to do this would be for me to use the Ti-Ank so that we can all see and hear Saigar,” Karma said. “However, Samyi is asking that Nikura be present, and he’s off hunting somewhere right now.”

  “Will they return later so that we can meet in our tent this evening?” Zakiel asked.

  Karma turned her head slightly to look at an empty space in front of where they all sat. “Yes, they’ll return as soon as they hear my call,” she said after a moment.

  “Does Samyi say why she wants Nikura present?” Zakiel asked.

  “No, but I didn’t asked her, either,” Karma said. “They’re gone now.”

  Zakiel nodded, then turned to Tomas. “Don’t worry, Cousin,” he said. “I don’t believe Samyi would support Saigar if he were evil.”

  “I did not think so,” Tomas said. “Otherwise, I can’t imagine you and Karma trusting her. Which is precisely what worries me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Tiari said. “I don’t understand.”

  “If Saigar is not evil, then how did he come to be cin sahib?”

  “Good question,” Zakiel said. “Hopefully we will learn the answer before this night ends.”

  “Yes,” Tomas said, then rose to his feet and held a hand out to Tiari. “In the meantime, let’s spar.”

  Tiari reached eagerly for his hand. “You sure you don’t mind?” she asked as he helped her to her feet. “If you want to take a day off, I won’t object.”

  “No, you would not object,” Tomas said. “And no, I do not mind. I find that I very much enjoy teaching you to defend yourself.”

  “Will you enjoy it if she becomes better than her teacher?” Karma asked with a grin.

  “Absolutely,” Tomas said at once. “I am an indifferent swordsman, but I want Tiari to be an excellent one.”

  “I know what you mean,” Zakiel said. “I never would have imagined the feeling of pride and satisfaction I get from knowing Karma is better than anyone I’ve ever seen with that staff of hers. Including myself.”

  “I would not have understood that comment a few weeks ago,” Tomas said. “Now, I do. Tiari is rapidly approaching my own level of skill both with and without her eyesight. I will soon be looking for a better swordsman to teach her what I cannot.”

  “I would be honored if you would allow me to take over her lessons at that time,” Zakiel offered.

  Tomas was not as surprised by the offer as he once would have been. For all that he had grown up with Zakiel, he’d learned more about the man over the past weeks than he’d learned in all the previous years. “It would be our honor, Highness,” he said, smiling. “Thank you. I cannot think of anyone I would trust more to teach Tiari, or anyone better.”

  ***

  Tomas entered the women’s tent a few minutes after Kapia retired to speak with Bredon. “Are you ready?” he asked Tiari, who nodded and rose gracefully to her feet. It always amazed him that she could move as gracefully and as confidently at night, when she couldn’t see at all, as she did during the day when she could see.

  “Are you ready?” she asked, and he knew her question was slightly different than his had been.

  “I’m not sure,” he said. “On the one hand, I feel hopeful. On the other, I’m afraid to hope. Mostly I just want to get it over with.”

  “Let’s go then,” Tiari said, holding her hand out for his. He took her small, soft hand in his own hardened one, her trust and unhesitating support meaning more to him in that moment than anything Saigar could possibly say. He vowed silently to never do anything to betray that trust.

  He led the way into the next tent, then paused just inside. “Are you ready for us or would you like more time?” he asked Zakiel.

  “We’re ready for you,” Zakiel replied. “Come, have a seat.”

  Tomas saw that the usual circle of cushions had been rearranged to form a half circle. Zakiel had taken a cushion beside Karma, so he led Tiari to the cushion on Karma’s other side, then took the one beside her for himself.

  “Nikura will be here in a moment,” Karma said, explaining the fifth cushion on the other side of Zakiel. “I will use the Ti-Ank so that all of us will be able to hear Nikura, as well Samyi, and Saigar. You will also be able to see Samyi and Saigar, so do not be alarmed.”

  “We’ll try not to be,” Tomas said. “I’ve never heard the Sphin speak before, though. This might be interesting.”

  “What does he expect me to do, recite poetry?” Nikura asked as he sauntered into the tent and took his cushion.

  “Be nice, Nikura,” Karma admonished. “This is his first time with all of this, and Tiari’s too.”

  Nikura raised one paw and started to lick it before stopping himself. He lowered the paw back to the cushion and curled his tail around his feet. Karma tried very hard not to snicker. “I’ll make a deal with you, Nikura,” she said. “I won’t say anything about you washing your face with spit, if you’ll be nice to Tiari and Tomas.”

  Nikura’s whiskers
twitched but he did not deign to reply. Karma shrugged.

  “Greetings, Lady Techu,” Samyi said, appearing in front of them. “I see that Nikura is one of his snits.”

  “I am not in a snit,” Nikura said irritably. “Whatever a snit may be. Is Saigar planning to join us?”

  “I am here,” Saigar said, appearing beside Samyi. He was dressed in his Hunter uniform of black leather pants, short leather vest, and the leather bracers decorated with Tomas’s color. He even wore his egora.

  “Greetings, Samyi, Saigar,” Karma said as politely as she could manage. Since the last time she’d seen him he was doing his best to kill her husband, she thought she did fairly well.

  Saigar bowed politely, and Karma noted a sadness in the man’s eyes. She steeled herself against it.

  “If you will give me a moment,” she said. Samyi nodded and Saigar followed her lead.

  She fed a thread of energy into the Ti-Ank and concentrated for a moment. “That should do it,” she said.

  “Can everyone hear me?” Samyi said.

  “Yes, and see you as well,” Tomas said. He looked at Saigar for a long moment, trying to decide what to say to his old friend turned traitor. “Saigar,” he said at last, and left it at that.

  “Tomas,” Saigar said. “I know you have no reason to trust me. It is my hope that you will at least understand my actions, if not forgive them.”

  “That is why I am here,” Tomas said, grateful for the small, warm hand that slipped beneath his arm and begun rubbing lightly in a soothing motion.

  “Please begin, Saigar,” Zakiel said. “Lady Techu is strong, but she is holding you, Samyi, and Nikura tonight. Her strength is not endless.”

  “Yes, Highness,” Saigar said. “Tomas, I was a foolish boy, and a foolish man, but never was I evil. Not until my foolishness trapped me in a situation from which I had no escape, and no choice.”

  “Are you saying you were made cin-sahib against your will?” Nikura asked.

  “Yes,” Saigar replied. Samyi arched a brow at him, and he dropped his eyes. “Yes, and no,” he amended. “Tomas, as you know, there was one woman for whom I was more of a fool than any other.”

  “Marene,” Tomas breathed in surprise. Saigar had always admired Marene’s beauty, but as far as he knew, he’d never even spoken to the woman. She barely acknowledged Tomas’s existence as an orphaned cousin to the Prince and Princess.

  “Tell me it was not Marene,” Tomas said, knowing somehow that it was.

  “It was,” Saigar said. “Do you remember, I went ahead of you to the palace when we heard rumors that the Orb Quest was being organized?”

  “Yes, of course,” Tomas said. He’d been two days travel from the palace island, Ka-Teru, when the rumors had reached him. He’d been unable to conclude his business for at least another day, so he’d sent Saigar ahead.

  “I ran into her, literally, in the palace late at night, right after I arrived,” Saigar said. “She was quite angry with me at first, but then she seemed to cool off and asked if I would mind walking her back to her quarters. She claimed that I’d stepped on her foot, though I hadn’t, and insisted that she was not really angry with me, but needed assistance. So I helped her.”

  Saigar shook his head. “I was worse than a fool. I believed all that she said to me. I behaved like a besotted youngling. She seduced me, and I not only allowed it, I drank it up along with the drugged wine she poured into me. Before long I barely knew where I was, let alone what I was doing. She drugged me, and she tricked me, and I must confess that I knew it, or at least suspected it, but did not try to evade either.”

  Saigar ran one hand through his hair, a habit that was so familiar to Tomas that it made his heart ache to watch it in this pale, misty version of his boyhood friend.

  “I will not disgust you with the details,” Tomas said. “They are unimportant. What matters is that, in the end, Marene wrung a promise from me to do anything for her in return for a certain...relief. It was that promise which sealed my fate.”

  “Had she tortured you with pain instead of pleasure, you would have died before giving such a promise,” Tomas said, shaking his head at the irony.

  “Was keeping your word to Marene more important to you than allowing yourself to become cin-sahib?” Zakiel asked. “I know that abiding by one’s word is important, but I confess that I would not have honored such a promise had I made it.”

  “No, Highness,” Saigar said. “I would have broken that promise had I been able. You are correct, in comparison to becoming cin-sahib, a broken promise is as nothing.”

  “You were unable to break the promise?” Karma asked.

  “She used her dark magic to bind me to my word,” Saigar said. “I fought her, I did, this I swear. I fought as I had never fought before once I realized what she was doing. But I had no chance. I know now that she used our joining, along with her dark magic, to seal that promise into my very flesh and bone.”

  “Could you not have told me of it later, when you were away from her?” Tomas asked.

  “I didn’t remember it,” Saigar said with such anguish that his sincerity could not be denied. “Once I left her chambers, I had no memory of what had happened. I believed I’d slept in the Hunter’s barracks that night. I had no knowledge of what she’d done with that damned promise until my body died, releasing my spirit from the vessel she had tainted with her dark magic. She had a hold on my body only, not my soul. Only then did I remember fully all that had happened that night.”

  Tomas felt as though a gigantic weight had been lifted from his chest. Saigar had not been evil after all. The relief was so enormous that he felt dizzy for a moment. “I thank you for telling me this,” he said to Saigar. “I agree that what you did was foolish, Saigar. But foolish is not evil.”

  “Thank you, Tomas,” Saigar said. “Perhaps now I may find some peace.”

  Karma glanced at Nikura, and then at Samyi. There was more to this, she was certain. Samyi had not called this meeting simply to relieve Saigar’s conscience, or to relieve Tomas’s mind, as grateful as she was for that.

  As soon as Tomas finished speaking, Samyi turned toward Karma. “The portion of this discussion that concerns Sir Tomas is complete,” she said.

  “Thank you, Saigar, and you as well, Hara Samyi,” Tomas said, bowing politely. Karma accepted his thanks as well, and bid both him and Tiari goodnight with only half her attention. She was too curious about what Samyi had to say next.

  When Tiari and Tomas were gone, she reached over and put her hand in Zakiel’s. “All right, Samyi, let’s have it.”

  “I am aware of your theories concerning demons and Djinn,” she began. “I’ve given the matter much thought, and I believe you are on the right path. It explains many things.”

  “I’m not sure whether that is good news or not,” Karma said.

  “Knowledge is always good, Lady Techu,” Samyi said with a smile. “What concerns me most about what happened to Saigar is the fact that he was made cin-sahib in direct opposition to his will. Never have I heard of such a thing happening, and I find it most troubling.”

  Karma turned to Nikura, who sat motionlessly on the cushion, his ears cocked back slightly, eyes distant as though deep in thought.

  “Nikura?” she asked.

  “We have always believed that one may only be possessed by their own choice,” Nikura said. “That was disproved when you, Lady Techu, were seeded by the demon tree. Then again, when Marene took up residence within Bredon’s body and mind. We assumed, since neither of you became cin-sahib, that our original supposition stood. Now, with this story of Saigar’s, we are once again proven wrong.”

  “Yes, it seems there are ways to get around just about everything,” Karma said.

  Nikura’s ears stood up straight as he thought about that. “Perhaps,” he said after a moment. “That may be all it is. Different ways of getting around the rules, so to speak.”

  “Or?” Karma asked.

  “Or we are
wrong, and always have been,” Nikura said. “If that is the case, how do we prevent the Djinn from making anyone cin-sahib at any time they choose?”

  “If they were capable of doing that, there would be few humans left who were not cin-sahib,” Samyi said. “They’ve had a thousand years to convert people unchecked.”

  “That is true,” Nikura said with a slow nod. “The truth must lie somewhere in the middle.”

  “That’s not something I want to think too hard or long on,” Karma said. “Not tonight anyway. I’ve had enough for one evening.”

  “Yes, I agree,” Samyi said. “I thought it important enough to bring to your attention.”

  “We thank you, Samyi,” Zakiel said. “It is important, and we will keep it in mind.”

  Samyi bowed and a moment later both she and Saigar were gone. Karma sighed tiredly after she cut the thread of energy she’d been feeding into the Ti-Ank and retracted the staff.

  “Are you all right?” Zakiel asked, looking at her with worried eyes.

  “I’m fine,” she replied. “Just tired and frustrated. It seems that with every step forward that we take, we get knocked back twice as far. Too much more of this and I’m afraid I’ll go crazy.”

  “That’s a frightening thought,” Nikura said. “I thought you’d already made that trip.”

  “Nikura, did you just make a joke?” Karma asked in surprise.

  “Of course not,” Nikura said. “I’m certain I heard someone say that Sphin do not have a sense of humor. Now, if you will excuse me, I think I shall go find a rodent to chase.”

  Karma’s eyes narrowed as she watched the Sphin stalk from the tent, his long tail straight up in the air. Once he was gone she turned her gaze on Zakiel. He was ready for her.

  “I was telling Tomas about cats and rodents,” he said. “I didn’t say anything to Nikura, but apparently he has very keen hearing.”

  “You think?” Karma asked archly. “With ears that big? Surely not.”

  “That is sarcasm, correct?”

  Karma rose to her feet and headed for the bathing chamber. Her bath probably wasn’t ready yet, but she decided not to let that stop her exit.