Heavy boot steps approached, and the lock clicked before the door swung inward. The man who had come looking for Kaddan not long ago entered the cell, carrying a limp and unconscious body over his shoulder. All Mariah could see was a long, lean form and a mess of black hair. They were followed by an older, bald man with skin even darker than Ruby’s. He was armed as well and held one hand casually on a gem-encrusted sword hilt, but he made no move to draw the weapon. He nodded at Mariah with a warm smile as the first man, still not acknowledging them, laid the prisoner out onto the floor at the back of the cell. The bald man turned to nod at Shira and paused, his hazel eyes narrowing at her. Shira’s brow furrowed as well, and they stared at one another for a long moment.
Shira finally opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the first man.
“Councilor. We need to get back.”
Shira’s head spun toward the speaker. “Don’t you think you owe us some answers?”
The shorter man looked at Shira sharply, but he didn’t respond and instead turned back to the dark man, his eyes questioning.
The man he had called Councilor reached out and brushed Shira’s cheek, and Mariah thought she heard him murmur, “Too many years.”
Shira stepped back, though in surprise or alarm Mariah couldn’t tell.
The old man seemed to come back to himself, straightening and pulling his arm back. He spoke clearly, and his tone was friendly. “I will see that you have your answers soon.”
“Can we at least get some water? And maybe something to eat?” Mariah asked softly.
The councilor raised his eyebrows at his companion, who bristled but didn’t protest.
“I’ll send Kaddan with a tray,” he grumbled.
And with that, the two armed men exited the cell, locking the door behind them.
Mariah and Shira stared at the door until the sound of their steps faded completely. Then, Mariah turned to her friend. “What in the gods’ names was that about?”
Shira was still staring at the door. “That Lishorani,” she said. “He … he looked so familiar.”
Mariah looked at the door and then back at Shira. “Well, he seemed to think the same thing about you. Who was he?”
Shira shook her head. “I don’t know. If I do know him, I don’t remember from where.”
Mariah sighed and turned to the back of the cell, where the other prisoner lay face down. “At least we’re not alone anymore. But that’s definitely not Han.” The body on the floor was too slender and not nearly tall enough. She wondered if their new cellmate had darts in him too. She took a few steps in his direction. A part of her wanted to find out and remove them. She wouldn’t wish that headache on anyone, but then they would be stuck in a locked cell with someone conscious who might also be dangerous.
Shira, always the bolder one, passed her and knelt on the floor to examine the prisoner’s face and head. Mariah finally spotted the dart but didn’t understand the look of shock and horror on Shira’s face. “Mother of gods, how … You were supposed to be safe from all this.” She turned toward Mariah, her face angry and accusing. “I thought he was in Cillian, where he would be safe!”
“What are you—”
Popping the dart out of the back of the man’s neck, Shira tossed it aside and then pushed him onto his back. It wasn’t a man after all. There, on the floor of their cell, lay a teenage boy with angular features and hair so black it seemed to glint blue in the flickering torchlight. Mariah’s hand flew to her mouth, and her stomach twisted.
How on earth had Xae ended up here?
Chapter Twenty
The Banished One
Xae was still unconscious when Kaddan returned to their cell, this time approaching from the front. She slid their tray through the door via a thin opening near the floor that Mariah hadn’t noticed before.
Ignoring the tray at first, Mariah caught the girl’s attention.
“Kaddan, what can you—”
“I can’t stay, miss. My mother said to come right back.”
“But—”
The girl leaned in toward the door. “I’ll come back later.” She nodded her head in the direction of the hole she had come out of earlier.
She waited just long enough for Mariah to nod before she disappeared again.
Mariah sighed, her head beginning to ache in frustration. Here they were, stuck in a cell with no answers, with one of their companions missing and Xae mysteriously appearing when he should be far across the Granite Sea or perhaps in Grof. She turned back to the inside of the cell and found Shira gently brushing the boy’s hair out of his face and muttering, “Stupid bird brain. Whatever it was brought you here, you shoulda stayed at home.”
“I sent him a message, remember? To check on your parents and Grelem?”
Mariah picked up the tray and brought it over. She set it on the floor near Shira and settled down next to it. There were three mugs of what appeared to be water along with three small loaves of bread. It wouldn’t be enough to sate her hunger for long, but Mariah was grateful for it nonetheless.
Shira’s face had screwed up, and Mariah could see the worry in her features. “That doesn’t explain why he’s here.”
“Everything about this place is confusing,” Mariah muttered before taking a drink of her water. She would pace herself and make it last as long as she could, she decided.
Shira paused for a long moment before she finally spoke in a tone that was completely unconvincing. “The old man said we’d have answers soon.”
Mariah hoped Xae would wake up before then so he could give them some answers as well. She nibbled on her portion of bread. What if the Sovereign decided they were a threat before they even had a chance to defend or explain themselves? Only little Kaddan seemed interested in anything they had to say.
* * *
Mariah found it impossible to tell the time of day in the awful, windowless cell. She kept wondering just how long it would be before Kaddan returned. Xae still slept, and Shira sat vigil beside him, strangely quiet for once. Although she knew that they had been captured sometime in the afternoon, Mariah had no idea if it was the same day as they had been captured or if days had passed while they were unconscious.
Shaking her head at the hopelessness of it all, she swiveled around back toward her companions, her arms wrapped around her knees. “He looks good,” she said to Shira. “I mean, it doesn’t look like he was hurt.”
Shira kept her eyes on Xae and nodded. “I keep thinkin’ about why he’s here. It can’t be good.”
“I don’t know,” Mariah answered honestly. “He wanted to come with me, but I made him stay. Maybe once he checked on your folks, he decided to try to find us.”
“He wanted to come?”
Mariah nodded. “Yes, but I didn’t want to do that to poor Simone, to the girls. I mean, take him away again. They lived without him for long enough.” A memory of her own parents surfaced followed by memories of Gwyn, Bria, Zach, and their children. Her gaze toward the floor, she sighed but refused to let herself be pulled into despair. “Any luck remembering who that man, that councilor, was?”
“No, but it seems like the answer’s waitin’ here”—she tapped her head—“just waiting for me to stop wonderin’, you know?”
She did. Why did all of the answers evade them when they needed them most?
Except for Xae’s portion, the food was gone, and Mariah wasn’t at all tired. There was nothing to do but wait, so she rose and began to pace, thinking through everything one more time. If these were the people her mother had intended to send her to, perhaps Ashanya had sorely misjudged them. Some of them at least were openly Ceo San, yet they had imprisoned their own kind without hesitation. According to Kaddan, the Sovereign claimed that they needed to be able to trust Mariah and Shira, to know that they wouldn’t go “running back” to the king. Did they think her a
slave? She wore no cuff, but although it made her shudder to think of it, she supposed there could be spies, Ceo San working for the king who were voluntarily loyal to him, Ceo San who needed no cuff to serve. How could—
The sound of scratching deep in the wall made her whole body go rigid. Was it Kaddan? Shira was already staring at the spot in the wall they’d covered up earlier. Mariah hurried to check the doorway and the hall beyond and was relieved to find that all was quiet and empty. The little creature that was Kaddan made short work of the dirt covering her earlier entry and was soon sitting before them, all smiles and pale blond hair.
“Just what are you?” Shira stared at her. “I’ve never seen anything like you.”
Kaddan smiled hugely, her teeth slightly crooked. “My ma is from Eseth, you see, and my godly form comes from there. At least that’s what she says. I’ve never been. She calls us wombies.”
Shira cocked her head for a moment before shaking it. “Well, I never—”
“I wonder who he is,” Kaddan interrupted, gesturing toward Xae.
Mariah was reluctant to confess yet that they knew him, worried that their ties might make him more vulnerable somehow. The Sovereign should have been their allies, but instead they were holding them prisoner. Fortunately, Kaddan continued to ramble, and she didn’t have to say anything.
“I heard he’s a black bird and that he was circling around the ravine, near the entrance to the Cellar. Mellar shot him down with a dart and caught him before he hit the ground. There’s not a better shot among the Sovereign. I just wish he wasn’t such a grouch.” She grimaced, screwing up her face and looking toward the door.
Mellar must have been the man who had come to their cell twice now, the one who had yelled for Kaddan and later brought Xae.
“Kaddan,” Mariah began. “Could you tell us more about your people? We still don’t understand why we’re being held prisoner.”
Shira began to speak before she had even finished. “Yeah. Tell us what you mean by Sovereign.”
Kaddan’s black eyes blinked at them for a moment. “I already told you we’re sovereign from the king, from his kingdom, because of the way he treats the Blessed, you know.”
“Blessed?” Mariah asked.
“The Ceo San,” Kaddan replied. Her tone of voice clearly conveyed that she thought they were a little dim.
“But they know that we’re Ceo San, too,” Mariah pressed on. “Why are they holding us against our will?”
Sighing, Kaddan crossed her legs and took a deep breath, as if she were about to explain something simple to a very slow-witted friend. “There are Ceo San who are loyal to the king.”
“Yes, those with the cuffs,” Mariah said.
Kaddan shook her head. “No. My ma says that’s not loyalty; it’s slavery. They’ve been magicked into obeying. Once they’re cuffed, there’s no hope. It’s serve or die.” Her voice dramatic, she let the word hang in the air, and Mariah was certain that she’d gotten the tale from others.
Mariah swallowed the lump in her throat. Was there no way to free the ones who were already cuffed? Or was it just a story these people told to their children to scare them into being careful? That owl man who had attacked her had seemed relieved that she had delivered him a mortal wound. Was that truly the only way out?
Before she could follow that line of thought any further, Kaddan continued. “That’s why we try to find them while they’re still young, while they’re still free. We’ve got spies all over the kingdom. But there are some who have never been cuffed but who serve the king anyway. They still believe he holds the blessings of the Althamir. Some even say the Althamir serve him. So, they think if they serve the king, they’re serving the gods.”
Although it was cool in the cave, beads of sweat formed on Mariah’s forehead. The possibility that the king was not going against the gods, that his actions were justified in their eyes, carved out a hollow ache in her chest.
“Rubbish, of course,” Kaddan muttered. “Least that’s what Ma says. Anyway, you’re both old enough you should have already been found and offered sanctuary here. So, that’s why we can’t trust you just yet. You might be spies for the king …” she trailed off, a little smile pushing up the corners of her lips.
“Or?” Mariah pressed.
Kaddan looked straight at her, coming up onto her knees and bouncing a bit as if she couldn’t hold herself still. “Or you could be the one we’ve been waiting for!”
As Mariah stared, Shira scooted closer to the girl. “Whaddya mean, child?”
“See, there’s this prophecy,” she began, obviously not sharing her people’s distrust, “about the one who will finally free the Ceo San, the one who will defeat the king and bring harmony to the land again.” She had calmed and was now looking straight at Mariah.
“But there’s no such thing as prophecy … not really. People can only guess …” She was the one who wanted to squirm now.
Shira turned to Mariah and cleared her throat. “My ma told me that there’s been some Keepers with the gift. They didn’t tell her much, but she believes it.”
“Nonetheless—,” she began, rising to her feet, putting a hand out to the wall as his words came back to her. You, Mariah, will be our emissary. The Ceo San need a leader, a leader to break them free of the slavery that Rothgar has imposed so that they may fulfill their purpose. The words Old Cat Eyes had spoken rang in her mind, but she did not share them with her companions.
Shira spoke in her place. “Go on, girl. Tell us the rest.”
Kaddan spoke as if reciting something she had been taught, something she had memorized. “The one who has been banished, the one who has fled from his power, the one he cannot hold—she will return on silver wings, carrying freedom in her wake.” She paused as if for effect and then pronounced, “My ma says that when she comes, the Sovereign will emerge into the open air and follow her. We will fight, and many will die, but we will reclaim our homeland for the glory of the Althamir.”
On the other side of the cell, Mariah sank to the ground, her back to them and the burden of the girl’s words along with those of Old Cat Eyes heavy on her heart.
Kaddan’s voice was more timid now, maybe in reaction to her, and Mariah could barely make out her words. “They don’t all believe you’re the one, but I do … and I … my mama says I have a gift for that kind of thing, for knowin’, but Mellar and the others, they think I’m just a little girl. That I don’t know anything. But Ma says they’re afraid, that they feel safe here and don’t want to leave the Cellar, that they don’t want to die. They say they won’t let you out until they know for sure that you’re the one. And then there’s some don’t believe the prophecy at all.”
“What about that other one? The councilor? He came in here when they brought the boy.” Shira’s voice was calm and steady, but Mariah could almost feel her friend’s gaze boring through her back.
“Oh! Councilor Berg? He—”
“Berg? Are you sure, girl? That’s his name?” Urgency filled Shira’s words.
The name tickled something in Mariah’s mind, but whatever it was couldn’t break through the weight of the fog around her. Their words faded from her consciousness. She wanted to be like those who didn’t believe the prophecy. Old Cat Eyes had said she must return, and she had refused him. Yet, here she was, serving his purpose as if it had been her own idea. Hadn’t it been?
To be a ripple in the pond, like Gwyn said, she could handle that, but to be the tidal wave that emptied it? She wasn’t strong enough for something like that. She pressed her hands against the sides of her head and squeezed her eyes shut, wanting to run away more than anything.
Gwyn’s image rose in her mind, and then her father’s appeared next to it. They reached out to her, touched her face gently, lifted her up, filled her with love, with strength. The overwhelming sense of burden, of loneliness, of weakness that sh
e had felt just a moment ago began to fade, and she remembered. She was not alone. Shira was with her, and by some miracle, so was Xae. There were people willing to follow her, people willing to help her.
And there were people, her people, children even, that were alone, alone and enslaved. Even if she wasn’t this Banished One, those people deserved everything she could give them. That cold, calculating fire she’d felt in Direstrand began to rise again. She would fight as long as she was able.
She took a deep breath and looked toward Shira. Her friend was whispering furiously to Kaddan. Between them and Mariah, Xae lay with his face toward her, his eyes open and staring right at her, tired but questioning. Struggling not to cry out and rush forward to hug him, she slowly put up a finger of the hand nearest to him, asking him to wait.
“Thank you, Kaddan,” she spoke aloud, interrupting her conversation with Shira. “You have given us much to think about.”
“But—” Shira protested, clearly not finished.
She met her friend’s eyes directly as she spoke to the girl. “I think we should get some sleep now, and you’ll want to go before you get in trouble.” She turned her gaze to Kaddan and tried to give her an encouraging look. She found herself not wanting to disappoint the girl.
Kaddan nodded. “Of course, ma’am.” She changed in a flash and disappeared back the way she had come.
Chapter Twenty-One
Reunion
When Kaddan had fully disappeared, Shira began filling the hole once again, her back to Mariah. “I don’t know why you had to go and do that. Do you realize what this means?”
Mariah ignored her and turned back to Xae, who was starting to move. She put out a hand and helped him sit up before pulling him into a great hug.
“I thought we were never going to find you,” he murmured into her hair, returning the embrace with fervor.
Revelation of the Dragon Page 19
