Serpent's Lair (The Forgotten: Book 1)

by Laura R Cole

  *

  Katya took the tea that the woman was holding out for Gareth and she bustled off gratefully, glad to have someone else dealing with the grumpy old man for a change. Katya watched her go, and then turned her attention to the tea. She poked her finger into it.

  “Hey!” Gareth complained, “I have to drink that! I don’t want your grubby fingers all over in it.” He tried to grab it from her, but she moved it out of his reach.

  “I think they put something in it that makes you sleepy all the time,” she said in a low voice, glancing around to make sure none of the helpers were near.

  “I have to drink my tea,” Gareth said in a strangely monotone voice, and Katya now looked at him in alarm. Focusing her magesight on him, she could see that her keeping the tea from him was causing a particular flare-up in the powers surrounding him. There was obviously some sort of enchantment on him to keep him drinking whatever was in the tea.

  She dumped it out and went to the center of the room to where a table was set out with a pot of tea and other foods for the inhabitants that liked to graze throughout the day. She refilled the cup with plain water after examining even this closely with her talent, and returned to his side.

  He was getting more and more fussy, the power causing a pressure, and she handed him the cup. Despite it not being the tea it was supposed to be, this seemed to calm him, releasing the trigger of the spell and it sunk back into his subconscious.

  He seemed to forget the entire episode immediately, never commenting on her revelation, but he did stay awake for their entire session which was a vast improvement. She also felt that they made some excellent progress.

  “There!” he exclaimed triumphantly when he had withdrawn from her mind. “I think we’ve almost unlocked your deepest darkest secrets, my dear. Just don’t complain to me when you find out you’re really your uncle’s child or some such nonsense.”

  “I won’t,” Katya assured him and rose to leave.

  “I think you just need something to trigger it and it will all come back.”

  “Thank you,” she told him earnestly and laid a hand gently on his shoulder. He looked uncharacteristically glad for the contact for a moment – but only a moment. Then he brushed her hand away.

  “Off you go now, can’t have you wasting all my time.”

  She smiled at him and left him to his afternoon, though the fact that the helpers in the place were apparently keeping him subdued was disturbing. She supposed it could have been simply for his own good, but she had a rather strong aversion to other people controlling one’s mind…

  Later that afternoon, she found herself once again in Slade’s presence. She had found that no matter how hard she tried to avoid him, he always seemed to be around. Not to mention the fact that he was constantly putting himself in danger. It was better for her to be near him to protect him…or so she told herself.

  He was pointing out all of the different plant life to Katya on a walk, but she couldn’t concentrate on his words. She was too distracted wondering what the Elders were up to with their plans for the Bloodstone. She had asked Gareth about it, but he surprisingly did not have any answers for her, which made her even more concerned. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. No one who sought out the Bloodstone had good intentions.

  “Do you know why the Elders want the heart?” she asked Slade suddenly, interrupting his lesson on the latest vegetation in front of them.

  He stopped short and turned to face her. “Why do you ask?” he responded warily.

  “Because I don’t think they know what they’re looking for. Either that, or they’re up to something very, very bad.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. “I thought you didn’t have any idea what the heart was.”

  She made a guilty face.

  “What do you know about it?” he asked, his tone masked.

  “Enough to know that it’s not something you should dig up and use. It’s dangerous and it’s evil. It’s made more than one man do horrible things.”

  “The Elders would never do something evil. I’m sure they have their reasons. I should never have told you what we were looking for.”

  “Please, Slade, they have to be stopped. The Bloodstone has almost destroyed the world twice now, we don’t need more people messing with it.”

  “The Bloodstone?”

  Katya cursed the slip. “The heart they’re looking for, it’s Nuko’s heart, the Sleeping God, one of the original dragons…”

  He stared at her blankly. “You know an awful lot about this Bloodstone.”

  “Yes, and I know that it’s not something good people should be looking for.”

  “Why do you know so much?”

  “What? That’s not the point, the point is that you need to convince the Elders that it’s dangerous and just to leave it alone!” The stone was growing hot in her pocket. It was mostly quiet nowadays since being pierced by Leoht and Nuko himself banished from the world. However, just as there were some remnants of power left within it, every now and again Katya felt as though she could sense His presence as well. Now was one of those times, and as the stone suddenly pulsed, a bright white light flashed outwards from its hiding spot, immediately drawing Slade’s attention.

  She swore. Bloody Nuko, even after he’s gone… Slade was staring at her pocket.

  “What’s that?” he demanded, reaching towards her. Sighing, she reached into the folds of her clothing and brought it out. It shone eerily with a bright red light.

  Slade’s eyes widened. “Is that…”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you…” his brows scrunched together. “Did you find it when I took you with me that one time and somehow sneak it out without me knowing?” he accused. “I could have been the one to have found it!”

  “No,” Katya protested, “it was never there for any of you to find. I’ve always had it.” She looked skywards and nodded her head to the side. “At least since the incident at Fire Mountain.”

  “You’ve always had it,” Slade repeated incredulously.

  She looked him square in the eye. “And you cannot tell the Elders,” she ordered. “It is not a tool to be used in whatever experiment they are doing. It’s bad enough they’re stealing babies…”

  “Who are you?” Slade interjected with an affronted look, “you’re questioning the wisdom of the Elders? And you have the Bloodstone…with your very own name for it?”

  “It’s not important,” Katya growled. “Promise you won’t tell.”

  Slade’s eyes darted back and forth, focusing first on one of her staring eyes and then the other. She tried to tame the magic around them enough to see what he was feeling with her power, but between his own strength and the lack of stable magic, she couldn’t tell. Finally he spoke. “Fine. I promise.” He clenched his teeth together. “I’m not feeling much like walking anymore, let’s go back.”

  He strode out ahead of her, not bothering to look back and see if she was following. She did so reluctantly, not completely satisfied with his agreement of her views.

  When they reached the village, Katya looked up at the fountain forlornly. The statue’s broken arm made her seem lacking, missing the final piece. Just like my life. She sighed, but then furrowed her brow as a memory popped into her head. An image floated to the surface; that of the statue. But in this image the arm was complete…and holding a stone in her hand up to the heavens. She didn’t have time to contemplate this as Slade reached the bottom of the staircase and her thoughts were pulled into the more pressing matters at hand.

  He pulled open the door to the stairway that led above and held it open for her, but did not say a word, nor did he look at her. At the top, she headed for her quarters and he branched off, heading towards his area without even so much as a ‘goodnight’.

  She spent the night half expecting the Elders to come knocking at her door, but when the first rays of sunlight streamed
in the windows with no disturbance she let herself relax a tiny bit. She hoped that Slade would be able to convince them that the Bloodstone wasn’t something to be trifled with without telling them where he got the information. She had already told him that she had done a lot of traveling; she could always say that she had heard stories. And somehow ended up with it because…she snorted to herself. Even this group of people who kept secrets as a part of their daily lives would demand an answer of how she had obtained it.

  As she was pulling on a fresh shirt for the day, someone knocked. Katya turned the knob slowly and opened it.

  Slade stood there, looking like he hadn’t slept at all, and he gave her a small smile. “Forgive me?” he implored. “I was a bit overwhelmed yesterday and may have overreacted a little.”

  She opened the door wider and gestured for him to come in. “So you believe me?” she asked in hushed tones.

  “Yes,” he agreed, “but I don’t know how we’re going to convince the Elders that this Bloodstone of yours isn’t what they want. They’ve already determined that it is what they need for their spell and it will be very difficult to convince them otherwise.”

  “Even if using it could spell the end of everyone?”

  “‘Could’ being the operative word there. To make them completely abandon the plan they’ve been working on forever, we’d have to convince them that it will. I need to know everything. Who are you?”

  Katya didn’t answer, but bit her lower lip.

  “You owe me that much,” Slade persisted, “Is Katya even your real name?”

  She sighed. He was right. He knew she wasn’t who she said she was. She needed to tell him the truth. Or at least some of it. “Promise you won’t tell?’

  “I promise.”

  “Yes, my real name is Katya,” she paused and took a deep breath, “but I’m not from the Dena’ina tribe. In fact, I’m not from any tribe at all.”

  “What do you mean?” The alarm was plain to hear in his tone and Katya quickly backtracked.

  “I mean I don’t really feel that I belong with the Dena’ina or any tribe. I haven’t been active in any tribal dealings for as long as I can remember. I’ve spent more time with the Myaamia than any others. My memory problems are real, I don’t know what happened to me as a child…but for as long as I can remember I’ve been on my own,” this was sort-of true, she had only had herself to rely on. “I’ve been wandering around the Plains and the Barren Lands and happened to be at Fire Mountain when it exploded.” Also basically true. “I came across the Bloodstone after the fact, and my journeys took me close to the Lost Lands and I heard stories about what it was. I didn’t want to just leave it for anyone to find. It sounded too dangerous, so I’ve just been carrying it around.”

  “That’s it? Why did you come here?”

  “Honestly, I just happened upon you. When Lorcan appeared on the Plains I wasn’t expecting there to be anyone around, and when he suggested that I must be here for some Arrival, I just agreed with him. I know it was wrong, but it was nice to be accepted.”

  Slade growled, “Lorcan, inviting strangers into our village.” He seemed to catch himself. “I don’t mean…”

  “I understand. I did lie to you, and I’m sorry.”

  “So what else do you know about the Bloodstone?”

  “Not much,” she lied, “Just what I heard: that it is the essence of the dragon god, Nuko, who the new Queen in the Lost Lands vanquished so he couldn’t spread his evil. That the evil within it is what caused the Dark King to do what he did, and that it needed to never be used again.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it,” she confirmed.

  No sooner had she done so, than people suddenly stormed into the room, filling it to the brink. Katya looked around claustrophobically. She gave Slade a dismayed look. “Why bother promising you wouldn’t tell?”

  Slade stared at her with dull eyes. “You already proved to me that you can outfight me, so I had to get you back to the village. After I told them, they wanted me to find out what else you knew. Sorry, but I do believe in the Elders. And I don’t believe that you’ve been telling us the truth.” He didn’t look very sorry. He looked rather smug.

  “We know all about you Dena’ina,” one of the people said. “We’ve known all along you couldn’t be trusted. I can’t believe you had the gall to come here at all.”

  Katya felt many binding spells being placed upon her, and she didn’t bother trying to resist. There were simply too many of them. One of them wrenched her hands behind her back and tethered them together. One of the Elders, the woman with braided hair that seemed to be the leader, reached into Katya’s tunic and withdrew the Bloodstone, holding it out in front of her with awe written plainly on her face. Katya watched her with disgust, the power lust in the woman’s eyes plainly evident to Katya, but apparently everyone else in this place was blinded to it.

  The woman tore her eyes from the stone and she looked elatedly around the room at the onlookers. “We’ll perform the final spell tomorrow.” She waved a hand towards Katya. “Get her out of here.”

  Katya snarled at Slade as they led her out of the room, even as her heart was breaking, “How could you?! I trusted you!”

  “Your mistake,” he replied coldly.