by Narro, B. T.
Alabell’s instincts were to argue against that idea, but she stopped herself. What else could he really do?
“Just make sure you’re well protected.”
“I will.”
“Whatever I can do, let me know.”
He pressed his lips together, showing her an uneasy look. “There is something. I want you to watch Sanya tonight, but only if you feel safe. Someone needs to see if she leaves her house.”
Alabell swallowed, nerves already churning. “I can do it.”
CHAPTER FOUR
The day of battle training had filled Sanya’s mind with formations, commands, and other strategies—all things Tauwin’s army commander would kill to know. She hadn’t decided how much she would reveal when it was finally time to leave the Academy. She wanted to seem informative, yet she didn’t want to share everything she knew. She’d done the same with the coded letters she’d been sending to her father. He and Tauwin hopefully thought she was telling them all she could to make the takeover go smoothly, but she hadn’t really done much to give them an advantage greater than the one they already had.
Basen had made everything so complicated. At least she’d managed to do everything she came to the Academy to do, and now killing him was the last thing that needed to be taken care of before she could leave. Basen was smart, however, and now he would be cautious. He wouldn’t make this easy.
She ate quickly in the dining hall. No one sat alone during lunch or supper, so she was thankful for Cleve’s silent companionship so she wouldn’t stand out. She’d gotten this far by pretending to be normal even though she was far from it, and she just had to deceive everyone a little while longer.
She finished her meal and said goodbye to Cleve, needing time to enact her plan. She’d hidden her secret belongings outside of her student house in case the headmaster’s searchers actually found the compartment in her room. Hours after being forced to kill Alex, she’d buried the akorell stone she’d taken from Chemist Master Jack beneath the sand of the Group Twenty mage training area, figuring no one would dig around there. She’d also stashed the potion there that she’d created from the stolen safli flowers. She’d dug a third hole for her silver dagger. It was the last one she’d brought with her, and the final one she’d need.
Her loose-fitting black robe and cloak were the most difficult to hide. Eventually she came to the decision that she no longer needed them. Once she killed Basen, she could leave the Academy, and hiding her physical appearance would be pointless. So she’d wadded up the bloody garments and tossed them in a randomly chosen mage classroom, ensuring it was far from the Group Twenty training area where she’d hidden her other possessions. The sight of her black garments would cause confusion, but they couldn’t be linked back to her.
Cleve hadn’t offered to train with her that night as he had most others, so she trained on Warrior’s Field alone as she waited for nightfall. Her arms and feet went through the motions of switching stances and practicing techniques as her mind focused on her plan.
She’d hoped to see Basen in the dining hall during lunch or supper, but each group was given a break to eat at different times, and their groups hadn’t overlapped that day. She wanted to know how much he suspected her.
I’ll find out soon enough.
By the time the sky filled with stars, with the bright moon dwarfing them all, the other warriors who’d been scattered about the enormous grass field had left. Sanya was supposed to be home, too, and not alone, but there was no one within the Academy’s walls more dangerous and scarier than she was. She was perfectly safe.
She hustled to the mage training area to retrieve the akorell stone and safli potions.
As she uncovered the bracelet, the akorell stone at its center glowed, its heat fighting against the bite of the cold night air. She waved her hands, grasping the bastial energy all around her and pulling it apart with her mind until it could no longer be called bastial energy.
As her hands came to rest, the glow of the stone faded. The bittersweet smell caused by the dispersal of energy was unmistakable, like a sweet tea that had been lit on fire. It brought her back to her childhood, when she’d discovered she could manipulate bastial energy in ways no one else could.
Her father still didn’t know all that she was capable of. He would just credit it to his heinous experimentations on me.
However, part of Sanya wondered if his experiments and constant training were responsible for her abilities with bastial energy, and that just angered her more. She wasn’t happy as a child, and she wasn’t happy now, but none of that mattered to her father. And it still doesn’t.
She would be happy soon, though. She reminded herself of this as she headed home. Once the Academy was taken and she could complete the rest of her plan, all of her hard work would lead to a well-deserved reward.
Alabell was unfortunately awake and immediately pestered Sanya when she arrived. “Where have you been? There must be no one else out there, and you’re not supposed to be alone.”
Sanya squeezed the akorell bracelet in her pants pocket. It wouldn’t emit light for at least a few hours as it slowly drew in bastial energy from the air and her body, but the inquisitive healer might ask about it if she caught sight of the awkward bulge. Meanwhile, the silver dagger in the ankle holster hidden by Sanya’s pants was just as likely to be noticed. She had to get out of this conversation as soon as possible.
“Training like usual,” she said in her feigned playful voice as she walked toward her room. She stopped as she sensed the bastial energy coming off Alabell. She’s suspicious. Turning with a bright smile, Sanya said, “You shouldn’t worry about me.”
“I know.” Alabell’s apologetic expression looked fake.
Sanya stared. Psyche couldn’t tell her if Alabell knew Sanya had seen through her pretense. It was too specific a thought. Sanya sensed that staring only compounded Alabell’s suspicion, her bastial energy now as pungent as a rotting carcass.
There were many ways to read bastial energy. Associating an imagined smell, sound, color, or shape was common, and psychics usually stuck with whichever association came to them naturally. Sanya, however, knew many ways to read the energy. All of them told her Alabell didn’t trust her like she used to.
“Were you staying awake to wait for me?” Sanya asked.
“No.” Alabell’s gaze darted back and forth as if she was searching for something to say. This woman is a terrible liar. I don’t even need psyche. “Are you going to sleep…right now?”
Sanya executed a perfect yawn. “I suppose so. I’m quite tired, but I’ve been worried about Basen so I was thinking of checking to see if he’s awake. Have you spoken to him today?”
Alabell’s energy spiked with a surge of nervousness. “I have.”
Sanya waited, but Alabell said no more.
“How did he seem?”
“Um, tired and not well.”
Sanya feigned confusion. “Is something wrong, Alabell? You’re acting strangely.”
She shifted her feet. “I’m just tired and worried.”
Sanya pretended to show offense. “You think I’m the murderer, don’t you?”
“No, of course not!”
It wasn’t the truth, but it wasn’t completely a lie. Perhaps Sanya was getting through Alabell’s suspicion by confronting her.
“It’s the noise you heard in my room last night, isn’t it? You think I killed Alex and then came in through the window.”
“No, Sanya, I would never think that about you.” Alabell’s doubtful emotions kept her bastial energy at the same shape, somewhere between the truth and a lie. She could be swayed.
“You’re not a good liar,” Sanya told her, then lifted her hand as Alabell opened her mouth to object. “It’s all right that you’re suspicious. I do match the height that Terren described, and you know what you heard from my room last night. Anyone smart enough would be suspicious.” She heaved a great sigh. “I suppose I need to tell you the truth.”
Alabell took a step back, her sweet and caring eyes wide with fear. Sanya pitied the healer. All she wanted to do was help people, but Tauwin would have her killed first thing after taking the Academy. She clearly wasn’t a threat to him or his army, but that didn’t matter to Tauwin. She was the last Kerr, and that’s all he would care about. His rampage wouldn’t end until Kyrro was his or he was dead.
“I was outside, and I did come back in through my window,” Sanya admitted. “You heard correctly, but I wasn’t out there murdering. If I’d known what had happened that night, I would’ve been truthful with you as soon as you came into my room, but I was embarrassed about what I was actually doing.”
She subtly and carefully molded Alabell’s BE toward the feeling of trust. It needed to seem completely natural in case Alabell had any training in detecting or resisting psyche. “I’m still embarrassed about it, but it’s better than my closest friend thinking I killed Alex.”
With her fingertips over her heart, Alabell sadly tilted her head. “I’m so sorry. You’re my closest friend also. I’m sure whatever you were doing isn’t as embarrassing as you’re making it seem.”
“I went to Basen’s window. I wanted to see him, but I didn’t know if anything would happen.” Sanya looked down, pretending to be ashamed. “Though I’m sure I would’ve welcomed some physical comfort, if it came to that.”
“I…I didn’t know you felt that way about him.”
Sanya shook her head. She already knew Alabell cared for Basen in ways she never could. It didn’t take psyche to figure that out. Surely Alabell could understand another woman’s attraction to him.
“I was just lonely, scared, and unable to sleep. I shared a bed with Basen after Nick was killed, and I was missing his touch.”
Alabell came forward. “You should’ve come into my room. We could’ve shared a bed.”
“A man’s attention was what I wanted that night. Do you understand?”
“Oh.”
“It was just an instinct. He wasn’t home anyway, and now we know why.” Sanya finally felt that she could take her hand out of her pocket. Alabell fully trusted her now and would only be curious at the sight of the bulge, not suspicious.
The healer could change her mind later, but then it would be too late to matter.
Suddenly someone opened a portal! Sanya felt her mother’s spirit struggling to stay together. It had to be Basen, yet the energy wasn’t being drawn to his house but farther north, far enough for Sanya to be certain he was in or near the faculty houses.
Probably heavily guarded, she thought as she panicked.
“I think I’m going to sleep now,” Sanya told Alabell.
“Goodnight, then.”
The portal closed just as unexpectedly as it had opened. Sanya felt that she could breathe again.
“I might see Basen later tonight,” she said. When he returns home after practicing. “Do you want me to tell you when I’m leaving in case you’re worried?” She needed to keep Alabell’s trust for this to work.
“No, it’s fine. But would you mind sleeping with your door open? I’d feel better being able to check on you.”
This caught Sanya off guard. Unable to think of an excuse, she agreed with a pretend chuckle. “All right, but there’s nothing for you to worry about. The murderer’s going after Basen, not me.”
“I know.”
Sanya could sense that some of Alabell’s suspicion had returned. She probably promised Basen she would watch me. This was getting more difficult by the moment.
Another portal opened. Sanya gritted her teeth. She walked to her room as calmly as she could while knowing that her mother’s spirit could rip apart at any moment, especially if Basen’s akorell stone had been charged enough for him to create a large portal.
She began to close her door out of reflex, then angrily remembered Alabell’s request. The healer had gone to her bedroom, but there was a straight hallway between the two rooms. In the night, not much could be seen except for shadows, but noise would travel through freely.
Sanya needed to stabilize her mother’s spirit until Basen was done training. She figured the fastest way was to make her own portal to the spiritual world by using the akorell stone she’d taken from Jack Rose. But it wasn’t charged with nearly enough energy. Even if it had been, Sanya had never created a portal with it before and didn’t know if it was possible. She had to rely on her safli potion instead.
She removed her shoes but kept everything else on as she got beneath her covers. As she twisted the vial of safli potion out of her pocket, she remembered that her room had been searched again along with everyone’s in the Academy. But she didn’t have time to check to see if they’d found the hidden compartment beneath her wardrobe.
She swallowed a gulp of the tart potion as the second portal closed and a third opened. Is he practicing, or is he baiting me into attacking? No matter which it was, she wasn’t stupid enough to find out.
Years ago, she’d discovered she could drift into the spiritual world during deep sleep. In what felt like a dream state, she could visit her mother—at least what remained of her mother. But it took an hour, sometimes longer, to reach this deep sleep, and Sanya didn’t have the time to get there naturally right now.
The safli potion took her mind there quickly, but she knew that every time she used it, falling asleep without a dose and getting to the deepest stage of sleep would be more difficult. As she fell toward complete slumber, she eased her nerves by reminding herself that soon she wouldn’t need to enter the spiritual world any longer. She would get her mother out in a few days.
A fourth portal opened, sucking at the energy of the spiritual world and damaging her mother. Even with the safli dragging her toward sleep, Sanya needed to relax to get there. Her body already had begun to resist the potion after she’d used it just a few times.
She exhaled slowly as she used psyche to calm her anger and worry. The pull of sleep was heavy, and she let it take her.
The transition into the spiritual world was like a daydream. She couldn’t remember entering or how long she’d been there; she was just suddenly aware of her surroundings. She was a ghost here, light as a bird. She had no bones, no flesh, no muscle. Her body was a blurred effigy of herself, made entirely of bastial energy. But this BE was different than that of the physical world. She thought she’d known what pure bastial energy was, but then she’d come here for the first time and found out she’d been wrong for years. It was like drinking nothing but muddy water and then finally coming to a clear stream.
The energy here was all bastial, not sartious, and the world here was completely composed of it. The ground was crimson and sizzling. It had taken Sanya quite some time to get used to the sound. She figured it was hot in most places, especially where it moved in waves as if alive, but she couldn’t feel it against her feet when she tested it. In fact, she could feel none of the terrain made out of energy. The only thing she could feel were the thousands of spirits around her. They were like leaves in the fall, many similar to each other but none identical. They drifted about as if carried by an unseen wind, all of them calm until another portal opened.
Basen was creating holes without knowing it, and there was no way for Sanya to tell him without revealing who she was. Each hole lasted only until the portal was closed, but the suction power of even small holes could rip apart spirits a mile away. Sanya couldn’t keep track of all the spirits, but it was clear thousands had faded in the last few months.
The deep red land stretched for a hundred, sometimes two hundred yards between spirits. It was sunken more in areas where bastial energy had been gathered for spells over the years, though some of the chasms had been formed in a single day. The great battle between Kyrro and Tenred had resulted in a twisting fissure starting near the Academy’s eastern wall and snaking toward Lake Kayvol for miles. Of course she couldn’t see the Academy’s wall in this world, nor anything else that had been built by any mortal. But the water of t
he enormous lake, she could. It shimmered and seemed to defy color, a swirling mix of brilliant oranges and yellows as if a sun had melted.
It was difficult to communicate with the spirits, as she was able to sense only their emotions. The strongest feelings were those of her mother’s spirit, who Sanya always found to be nearby when she entered this world. She figured her mother was able to feel Sanya’s presence in the same way, even when they were separated between the physical and spiritual worlds. Now that they were in the same world, however, Sanya could feel Lori as if she were still alive. It was comforting every time she was back in her mother’s presence, but it wouldn’t compare to when she finally brought Lori back into a body and could feel her touch.
Sanya wanted to tell her mother to travel away from this area in case she failed to kill Basen. But it didn’t seem as if Lori could hear her. Every time Sanya had spoken, her mother’s energy hadn’t changed. All Sanya could do was convey fear and then love. Her mother always had the same response to that: comfort and a heavy sense of peace, as if nothing could bother Lori and she wanted Sanya to feel the same.
She wants me to know that everything’s going to be fine. It’s what she always told me when I was a child, even when my father separated us so he could continue his experiments without interference.
Another portal opened, stretching her mother’s energy toward it along with all the other spirits Sanya could sense. She cared about none of them but Lori’s, holding it steady.
Lori’s spirit would’ve disintegrated by now like the others that had entered this world around the same time, but Sanya had been repairing her mother’s energy, replenishing her life as if Sanya were nursing a child. Lori needed so little, and Sanya could replenish her own in the physical world by eating and sleeping, so there was no risk of running out. She just wished she’d come to her abilities sooner so she could’ve kept her sister’s spirit alive as well.
