After a couple of hours of riding, Khaya insisted on a break. She slid from the saddle, her thighs aching and body stiff. She walked to the trickling stream and scooped a few handfuls of water into her mouth. “I think it’s time for some explanations,” she said, her back still to Derrin.
Silence met her words and she turned. “Since there seems to be a whole host of people – and apparently angels too – who want me dead, I think I deserve to know why.”
Derrin’s lips compressed into a thin line. “The Company wants you dead. They say it’s because you are doomed to lose your mind.”
“You don’t believe this?”
“No.”
Khaya expelled a pent–up breath. She didn’t know why it was important that he didn’t believe it. But it was.
“I think it is because they fear you. Two abilities, especially the type of abilities you have, makes you powerful. More powerful than they can control.”
She mulled this over and nodded after a while. “That’s possible, but only speculation at this point. I guess I am less concerned about them than about why angels would want me dead. Did I do something terrible? It must be something awful if angels are coming after me.”
“It’s not something you did,” he said after some time.
“Why then?” she asked. She’d been thinking about it and she could not fathom a reason. “Do they often target an individual?”
“No. These angels at least, never do.”
She threw her hands in the air. “Do you know why?”
His jaw tightened. “You do know!” she cried. She strode up to him and gripped his arm. “Tell me.”
The scene before her dissolved. She was once again a little girl, sitting in her favourite tree and looking up at a clear blue sky visible through the leafy canopy. She wondered if there was a tree so high that she could touch a star. She glanced down. This one must be close to high enough. She’d come back up at night to try it.
Her mother came out of the house. “Khaya! I’ve told you twice already. It’s lunchtime. Come down right this instant.” Her mother didn’t wait for a response but stormed back into the house, slamming the door behind her.
With a sigh, Khaya started clambering down. Her foot slipped and her stomach lurched. Her hands reached desperately, trying to grab onto the branch above. The bark scraped her palms as they slipped. She twisted in the air. Her head smacked into a branch and she was looking up at the blue sky again. It was moving further away from her. Or was she still falling? Then the sky went black.
Khaya screamed.
“Khaya, what’s wrong?”
She looked about, bewildered. “I fell from a tree.” Her hand went to the scar above her eye. “That’s how I got this. Why do I keep seeing that whenever I touch you?”
“Do you remember anything else?”
“My mother called me inside. She was upset with me. I slipped and as I fell I struck my head.” She paused, her brow furrowing. “I was so high up, how did I survive a fall like that?”
“You say you were little. Maybe you weren’t up as high as you remember.”
She shook her head. She was sure. “It was high.” Her eyes fixed him to the spot. “Why do I keep getting flashbacks to that day when I touch you?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure.”
She chewed her bottom lip as she studied him, unsure if he was telling the truth. “Are you sure about that?”
He nodded.
She wasn’t convinced, but decided to let the matter lie. For now. “So, you have no idea why angels are after me?”
“I guess it might have something to do with your abilities,” Derrin said, rubbing his ear. “I don’t want to speculate. At this point all we know for certain is that you’re in danger.”
They travelled on until nightfall when they reached the edge of Renwood Forest. Had they taken the main routes around Arroe, they would have reached the forest hours earlier, but the risk of discovery was too great and so they’d travelled along the deserted back roads.
Sitting by the fire, Khaya stared into the flames. “What’s on your mind?” he asked.
“What is the plan? Am I to spend the rest of my life on the run from the Company and the angels?”
“I’ve been trying to find a solution to that. I’m pretty sure that if you started afresh elsewhere – new name, wipe the slate clean – the angels won’t be able to find you.”
“Pretty sure?” she said with a cocked eyebrow.
“Their normal tracking system doesn’t work with you. They can’t see you as they can see others.”
“What do you mean?”
“They locate and identify people based on their aura. Yours isn’t identifiable.”
“Why not?” She thought his eyes flickered to the scar above her eye.
“I’m not sure.”
“You don’t seem to be very sure about many things.” She’d meant to say it lightly, but the words came out sharply.
His eyes narrowed. “We are not dealing in absolutes here. These aren’t normal circumstances. How many people do you know who are being hunted by two different entities?”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I'm scared. I wish I knew what was going on.”
For a moment it seemed as though Derrin would say something more, but he pursed his lips, locking the words inside. “I think,” he said instead after a pause, “finding out why the Company wants you dead should be our first priority. I’ll go into the library tonight, see what I can find out.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“Absolutely not,” he said with a wave of his hand. “There is no reason for you to endanger your life. I can get in and out without being seen.”
“Not if the angels are there too. Waiting and watching. Besides, I know where to look for the information. It will be much quicker if I go along.”
“No.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I must have missed the part where I asked for your permission. I am going.” Khaya made her face hard. She couldn’t allow him to know how insecure she felt.
“Fine, but we go tomorrow night then. We’ll need to allow more time for travelling if you are coming.”
Chapter Seventeen
Surprising Ties
Khaya kept waking. Each time, the vapours of a dream haunting her. She turned to her other side, pulling her blanket over her head. It wasn’t long before she woke again. This time she was sure she’d dreamt of Derrin. The scene felt familiar somehow. She tried to remember more of it, but it was useless.
Dawn was a relief. She sat up. Derrin was sitting with his back to her, staring off into the distance, his broad back rigid. Had he stayed awake through the whole night? “Good morning,” he said without turning.
“Morning.”
“Bad dreams?”
“I can’t remember them. I think it was just one, though. The same thing again and again.”
“If you can’t remember them,” he asked, turning with a lopsided grin, “how do you know they were the same dream?”
She shrugged. “Just a feeling.”
He turned back, looking into the distance. “I think we should move through the forest and get as close to the library as we can.”
It took the best part of the day to make the journey. Khaya was grateful they had the horse. She sat behind Derrin, her arms folded around his middle. She still found it strange that he could be so real to her, yet no one else could even see him.
To while away the time, she tried to practise her Insight. Thus far, she had to look at her subject in order to see inside. When she probed at the forest around her, the trees and shrubs, the deer and mice, and everything in between seemed like a single giant organism. But when she focused on one individual subject, her Insight enabled her to sense the heartbeat of an animal and even to see the inside workings of an ancient oak tree. It was amazing and breathtaking.
She turned her attention to Derrin. Would it work on him? He was, after all, technically not alive. At lea
st that meant she couldn’t do him any harm. She stared at his back, using her Insight to penetrate his inner being.
It was quiet. No heart beating to pump blood around, no nerve impulses being fired, not even… No. He did breathe. She heard air trickle into his lungs and then seep back out.
Just as she thought there was nothing else to find, she found what she could only describe as the source of his being.
His soul.
Once seen, she could not believe she had nearly missed it. The nearest parallel she could draw would be to a raging river. A torrent. Powerful and beautiful.
“Find anything?”
She jerked. His words shocked her from her Insight. “I… I…”
“I would appreciate if you did not do that without asking.”
Without seeing his face, she couldn’t tell if he was angry. His voice was level, but his body had stiffened. “I apologise,” she said. “That was thoughtless of me.”
The horse’s hooves started clopping down a hard-packed dirt road and she realised the sun was setting. “Should we not stay off the main roads?”
“It will be dark soon. We need to make haste.”
She recognised the area. The forest on their right was thinning and in the distance to their left was Inarepmi Mountain. Woods covered the lower section of it. At this distance, it appeared as a green blanket covering its base. The top was flat rock with sparse trees dotted here and there. Since she’d moved to Arroe, she’d wanted to climb that mountain. She’d never had the time and now she might never get the chance.
She caught herself just before resting her head on Derrin’s back. She felt her cheeks go crimson even though she’d stopped herself in time. She shook her head. Pull yourself together.
By the time they reached the town border, it was full dark. He turned the horse towards the forest. “Best to leave the horse here,” he said, dismounting.
“Are you joking?” she asked, staying in her seat. “We’ll be much quicker on the horse and besides, if we need to get away quickly, we’ll need it.”
“I don’t plan for us to get into a situation where we have to leave in a hurry. The way we achieve that is by not being seen. Much easier to do that on foot.”
Khaya stubbornly remained on the horse until Derrin tied it to a tree and started off towards the town. “I’d be much happier going on my own, anyway,” he said without turning.
With a grunt and a few muttered curses, she slid down and hurried to catch up, lifting her dress to keep from tripping over it. She slowed as she reached him, hoping he didn’t realise that he’d managed to get her to run after him. He didn’t say anything, but he was grinning. Gritting her teeth, she stared straight ahead.
They stayed close to buildings, walking in the deepest shadows. Derrin kept looking around, watching for danger. He reminded her of a wolf, skulking, but dangerous, ready for a fight. They reached the library without incident and no sign of being followed. They stood in the alley adjacent to the front door. “How do we get in?” Khaya whispered.
“I will go in, make sure there is no one there and then open from the inside.”
She nodded and he disappeared. That was still disconcerting.
Every sound made her jump. She glanced out from the alley, looking up and down the streets. All was quiet.
A shuffling noise behind her. She jumped and spun round, her heart thundering.
By the dim moonlight, she saw the rear end of a cat darting out of the alley and around the corner. She leaned back against the wall, tittering.
Rain started pattering around her. Her breath caught at a creak from close by until she realised it was Derrin opening the library door.
She rushed in, grateful to be inside. It was surreal climbing up those stairs again. The first week or so of working at the library had been exciting, an unknown world had opened up to her. She’d soon realised her days were to be filled with reading document after document, hoping not to have a foretelling. And if they did come, her nights were inevitably plagued by headaches. When she’d told Peater about them, he’d shrugged and told her that was the price she had to pay for being ‘special’.
She shook her head to clear the memory away. At the top of the stairs, they took the door on their right, entering her former workplace. She almost expected her colleagues to be there. Even Leena and Merrit. Everything that had happened still felt unreal. As if it might be a bad dream she could wake from.
She lit the lamp that was kept at the entrance and walked straight to Peater’s office, passing Merrit’s old desk on the way. She couldn’t bring herself to look at it. Even so, guilt-driven bile rose in the back of her throat. She’d got him mixed up in all this. His death was her fault. She swallowed.
As always, Peater’s office was in disarray. Papers were strewn everywhere. How he kept track of anything in there, she didn’t know. She puffed up her cheeks and blew out through her mouth. Of course, Peater would have you believe he knew exactly where everything was at any given moment.
Documents littered the desk, the oak peeking through here and there. With a sigh, Khaya set to work, riffling through the papers, looking for anything that made reference to her or anyone having two abilities. Derrin headed for the bookcase along the far wall. It spanned the entire width and height of the wall. He looked the books over and then said over his shoulder, “At least he’s not going to be able to tell someone had gone through his things. These books are not in any sort of order that I can see.”
“Oh, yes, you’ve got the short end of the stick,” Khaya said, waving a hand at the chaos in front of her.
He chuckled. “You picked it.”
Starting at one end, she worked her way across the desk systematically. Despite what Derrin had said, she made every effort to put everything back exactly where they’d been. She progressed faster than she thought she would and soon started going through the drawers. There was one that was locked. She rattled it, hoping it was merely stuck. It didn’t budge.
“Locked?” he asked.
She nodded, wondering if she could use her Insight to open it. He put the book he was leafing through down and pulled two short piece of twisted wire from his pocket as he made his way over. He’d certainly come prepared. He stuck the wire into the keyhole and twisted this way and that.
Click.
With a mischievous grin, he opened it. It contained a flask and a few coins. Khaya took a whiff of the contents of the flask and grimaced. Strong rum. She flung the drawer shut.
She cast around, considering where to look next. The bin by her feet was full of scraps of paper and she plopped down beside it, her dress pooling around her. She tipped it over, spilling the contents on the floor. One by one she went through the notes.
Most appeared to be memos Peater had written, reminding himself of menial tasks he needed to do.
She unfurled another. It was not written in Peater’s scrawling hand. She cannot be saved, she read. They will not allow it. No matter what follows. If you value your life, stop asking questions and cooperate with any and all of their requests.
“Derrin, I think this refers to me.” She handed the paper to him.
As he read, a frown lined his brow. “Do you recognise the handwriting?”
“I think so,” she said. “I think it’s Phalio’s.”
“It sounds like he is also following orders.”
“Whose orders?”
Derrin pursed his lips and his mouth pulled down at the corners. “We need to find out.”
He handed the note back to Khaya and she stuck it into her coat pocket. She picked up another note. Peater, she read, This girl is younger than usual, but she will be critical to us in future. Make sure to convince her that staying with the Company will be in her best interests. Her mother must be disposed of, but I think for the moment, it would be more useful to keep the mother somewhere… safe. I think you’ll find the girl more malleable that way. Phalio.
Her nose wrinkled in disgust. They were truly willing to
sink to immeasurable depths to gain what they wanted. Holding this note, something resonated within her. She could get a foretelling from this. She closed her eyes and opened herself up to it.
A man with short, black hair, sprinkled with grey, glared at a young girl. She had a heavy fringe and dirty hair. Her mouth was pursed defiantly, but fear dulled her eyes. “Remember why you are doing this,” the man said, his finger jabbing towards the girl, “and what will happen if you don’t obey. Have no doubt we will keep true to our threats.”
After a moment, the girl nodded, tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes. She clenched her jaw, trying to keep herself from crying.
“Khaya?” Derrin’s voice broke in. “Did you have a foretelling?”
She nodded, swallowing. “Some girl,” Khaya hissed in annoyance, “I just had the image of her face in front of me and now it’s gone. She was young and afraid. She was being threatened. I don’t know by whom, or why.”
Try as she might, she couldn’t remember anything else. “I’ll keep trying,” she said.
With renewed vigour, they resumed their search. When they didn’t find anything else of use in the room, they headed down to the basement. They used the lamp to light the torch at the top of the stairs and took it from its bracket, carrying it down with them.
The torch cast an unsteady glow around them. They used it to light several more torches before setting to work. A number of small desks stood in two rows along one wall. It didn’t take long to search these. A neat stack of notes sat on each desk and they had no drawers.
Derrin had to make use of his wire again to open the locked drawers of a tall cabinet. Khaya found herself watching him. He wore a frown, the muscles in his forearm rippling as he riffled through the folders in the drawer. He turned towards her. “Have you found something?”
She quickly looked away and continued through the pile of papers in front of her. “Not yet. You?”
“Nothi−” He cut off.
Khaya dropped what she was doing and rushed over to him. He was holding what looked like official correspondence. An emblem of a solar eclipse was at the top of the page with the words ‘Power in Knowledge - Authority in Wisdom’ underneath it.
Riddle of Fate Page 11
