Entering the hall and realizing that they had no idea where Tat was, they decided to split up and search, figuring they’d cover more of the area that way.
Most of the room doors were open, making it easier to tell she wasn’t in them. After walking several corridors, Aidan neared a room that was shut. He could clearly hear her sobbing inside. Strangely enough, it had been bolted from the outside.
Why would someone lock Tat in a room, and if they intended to lock them in, why hadn’t they locked their doors as well? He unbolted it and she sat in a chair at a small desk, crying and writing something.
“Tat, are you okay?”
“Huh, oh Aidan... yes, I’m fine,” she sniffled, looking back at him and then returned to what she was writing. He waited a moment to see if she had anything else to say.
“Your door was locked from the outside.”
“Oh yes, I know,” she said dismissively.
“You know?” he stepped into the room to make sure she was actually ok.
“Yes, Brother Timms said it was customary to lock all the female visitors doors, and that someone would let me out when the bells sound.”
“And you didn’t think that was strange?”
“No. I don’t know how things work around here, why would I think it was strange?” she shrugged.
Aidan sighed. “Never mind. Well, what are you writing?”
“I was told that I could write a letter if I wanted. Brother Timms said he’d get it in the post for me. I hadn’t written Ba and Da at all since we left. I don’t know why, it just didn’t occur to me to do it, and I guess I was too afraid to. I just didn’t give it much thought, really. But now I thought I should at least let them know we’ve arrived in Breah Dorn and everything that’s happened, and that I’ve lost Tok and the cloak and pack.”
He thought about trying to console her, but instead decided to just let her write. Finishing up she blotted the ink and folded the paper, then scribbled something on the front. Holding the folded letter in her hand, she began crying more.
“If you’re fine, then why are you crying?”
“I dunno. I mean, I guess... I mean they sacrificed so much for me, you know? All those years that they kept me hidden. And then I lost their keystone disobeying them. And now I’ve lost the cloak and the pack they gave me too. Plus Tok’s gone… and Tybor…”
“Well I still have the pack and cloak they gave me. I can give it to you if it will make you feel better.”
“No. Da gave that to you. It’s yours. Besides, it’s not just that. I mean I know Tok is a smart cat, and I know she can get around well enough and doesn’t really need me, and I knew Tybor was going to leave us and all…
“Just like Rowen’s going to leave and go back to his grandba, and you’re going to go back to the Otherworld once you get your seal back... I guess it’s only right.
“I just don’t know what I’m going to do afterwards. I can’t go back to ba and da. You heard what that minion person said, the Annokai eradicates everyone in the Errata’s life. I can’t put them in jeopardy like that.”
She stared at Aidan for a moment. “Do you think they’re going to give me a seal? I mean I never had one, but you did – so they should give you one back. But I don’t know what they’re going to do to me,” she whimpered.
“I... well, to be honest…” He struggled to come up with what to say. “I hadn’t really thought about it. Maybe you shouldn’t have come here with me. When Rowen and Tybor started helping out, maybe I should’ve just sent you home.”
“Sent me home? What am I? A dog?” she snapped back at him. “Besides; Tybor said I was supposed to be here. That we all had a part to play in this... he said the Fates said so—”
“The Fates?” Rowen asked as he entered the room. He’d heard them talking from the end of the hall, it was easy to hear them the way the area was designed and being so empty everything seemed to echo in it.
“Oh,” she bit her lip. “I wasn’t supposed to have told either of you about that.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Rowen raised his voice and demanded to know. “First the minions mentioned something about missions from the Fates and now you’re going on about it.”
“I can’t say. Tybor will be mad.”
“Tybor’s not here. He left us to deal with this shit on our own. So spill it,” Rowen screamed at her.
“Cut it out Rowen,” Aidan warned. “There’s no need to take anything out on her.”
“She knows something dammit and I want to know what. She’s going to tell us one way or another,” he stepped towards her.
“I said knock it off!” Aidan stepped in front of him, putting himself between them, letting Rowen know he wasn’t going to let him near her.
“You don’t even want to be here, man!” Rowen screamed at Aidan. “Remember, you’re thinking of staying in this world and this was all just a big waste of time. We almost died several times over and for what? You don’t even want to go back!”
“You don’t want to go back?” Tat questioned.
“That’s not important right now,” Aidan replied.
“Yeah, what’s important is that your girlfriend tells us what she means about Tybor saying the Fates said we were all supposed to be here.”
“She’s not my girlfriend!”
“Whatever man. Just make her tell us what we need to know.”
“Oh, so now you want me to make her tell us something!”
“Boys! Stop it!” Tat ordered rising from the desk chair, her words roared from her and hit them like a shockwave, shaking the walls. When she spoke, it was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room, then flooded back in tenfold.
Her hair seemed to come alive and flow as if wind were blowing through it, her eyes flickered as if there was literal fire burning in them. She levitated for just a moment hovering above them.
“What – the – fuck!” Rowen felt like he’d been hit in the stomach. Aidan reached out for her just as she fell, fainting again.
“What the fuck was that man?” he repeated.
“I don’t know, but she’s out. Something ain’t right. We need to go.”
“So you’re not going to try to find out where Serendi’s at?”
“Not here. My gut tells me we need to get out of here. Tybor said we should go back to Yon’s Pass if we needed to, and I think we need to.”
“How? It’s not like he left us money to go back.”
“We’ll figure that out later. Right now, you need to go back to the rooms and get our packs. I’ll try to get Tat to wake up,” he took the letter from her hand and shoved it in his pocket then laid her on the bed.
“I don’t know about this, but whatever.”
Aidan called to her, but she didn’t respond. He tried to set her up, but she went limp. Scared, but thankful she had a pulse and was breathing, he brushed her soft face with his fingers. Not knowing what to do, he decided to try something he remembered seeing in old movies when women fainted and lightly slapped her face. She flinched. Then her eyes fluttered open.
“Aidan...” she said with the tiniest voice. “What... what’s happened?”
“I don’t know. You yelled and did something weird, then fainted.”
“What?”
“Like I said, I don’t know. Something isn’t right. I think it has something to do with this place. Can you stand?”
“I’m not sure, maybe,” she said pushing herself up. She tried standing but was too weak. Aidan slipped his arm around her back and under her arm lifting her up.
“Just lean on me, we need to go now.”
“Go? We can’t go. No. We’re staying, you have to commune with Serendi.” Tat tried to move back to the bed.
“No, we’re going. I’ll carry you if I have to. There is something really wrong about this place. It’s doing something to us, making us all act weird or something. Especially you. And Tybor said if things didn’t work out like we expected to get out, and that’s what we’re doing.
We’re not staying.”
“No. He said we had to be here, the Fates said so.”
“Just shut up and come on!” he yelled as he began dragging her out. He saw Rowen coming down the hall toward them. Just as the bell sounded several acolytes and sister Amara entered from the other end of the corridor.
“Children, where are you going?” Amara called in her ethereal musical voice, which eerily echoed from the walls. “You wanted sanctuary didn’t you?”
“We... just wanted to get some fresh air,” Rowen lied.
“Well perhaps after our assembly I can have someone take you to the inner courtyard.”
“Thanks all the same, I think we’ll just go to town and–”
“No! You can’t leave,” the tone of her voice changed, she raised a hand and some peculiar sounding bells began ringing. Two of the acolytes pulled giant iron levers on either side of the door they entered. The sound of every door in the place slammed, echoing like a thunderclap.
“You! You are the Children of Khaos and have come to activate the prophecy. You must be stopped. You mustn’t loose Khaos from his prison! You will bring peril to us all and the worlds will end!” the Sister shouted. “Bring Kierse here, Brothers. He will put an end to this.”
“Kierse! That’s what one of the doves called the other one that I saw on the zypher. We’ve got to get out of here now,” Rowen yelled at Aidan and Tat, doing his best to catch up to them.
“Now do you believe me?” Aidan sarcastically yelled at Tat, and she did her best to pick up the pace as they began running.
Tat began panting heavy. No, no, no! This wasn’t the time for her to have another panic attack. But she couldn’t breathe. It was like fire was building in her chest. Her limbs ached. She was paralyzed with fear. The dream of her birth mother that she’d had on the ship flashed in her mind. Why that? Why now?
Aidan could feel heat emanating from Tat. It was as if she had a really bad fever. What was going on? Seeing that Tat was immobilized Rowen hooked the packs over one shoulder and hurried to help Aidan who already had her by one arm. Rowen reached under the other one and they both moved her forward.
An invisible force yanked her up like a puppet master pulling on strings and she was hovering again. Her head fell backwards. They were doing everything they could to hold on to her. It was as if a vacuum had sprung up around them and the boys struggled for air. Sucking the air completely out of their lungs, they almost completely let go of her. The space around them crackled like shattering glass as light refracted everywhere, blinding them. Everything became a complete blur.
Aidan tightened his grip, then Tatyana fainted again. The world spun around them as if it were trying to consume them. The ground spun out of control under their feet. In an instant flash, the ground was firm again and everything was still. Rowen let go of Tat, dropped the packs and tried to get his bearings. Aidan collapsed to his knees. Tat slumped over onto his shoulders.
Staring at his feet, Rowen noticed that the ground beneath him had changed. The cobbled floor was now hard packed earth. He looked up; they were no longer in the temple. An Annokai hovered above them. This one looked different though, especially since he wasn’t wearing the typical Black Dove uniform.
“Uhm, guys–” Rowen tried getting their attention, not realizing that Tat had fainted again.
This Annokai was dressed in a simple one-piece leather jumpsuit, the same one-piece outfit the other Minions of Khaos wore, minus the trench. His wavy, long black hair matched his wings and cropped his well-groomed bearded pale face.
“Will that do Sir?” A voice from behind asked.
“Dat’ll do Seth,” Tybor answered.
Aidan looked up and saw that they were in some kind of well-lit cave. Around them stood three Minions of Khaos, and an enormously muscular Annokai flapping his giant black feathery wings just a few feet from his head.
He heard Tybor’s voice, but for some reason it wasn’t very reassuring. Aidan carefully laid Tat on the ground and stood up, taking a fighting stance.
Tybor stepped forward. “Whoa dere Hoss. Dey’s friendly.”
“Tybor?” Rowen gritted his teeth and stood up, hands clenched into tight fists.
“I’m guessing you’re Rowen?” one of the minions commented. “The Boss said you were feisty.”
“What’s going on?” Aidan questioned.
“What’s going on is, you’ve been in the vortex for days and we finally got you free,” the voice from behind answered.
Chapter Nineteen
The Seer
A idan’s mind buzzed. He couldn’t fully get his head around what was happening – or rather what had happened. Days passed. How was that possible? It felt like seconds ago.
“You’re a Black Dove!” Rowen yelled at the winged soldier.
“Was. I am not anymore, I’m a Daemon, a Brother of the Minions of Khaos. Forgive me, I suppose I should introduce myself and explain. I am Jeriah,” he announced, landing in front of them.
“But you have your wings,” Aidan interjected.
“Yes, some of us left the regime with wings intact after the first insurrection. I am one such of that number, as are many of our brothers.”
Aidan relaxed. He wasn’t sure if they should trust him but Tybor was here and Jeriah didn’t seem to be making any advances to do them harm.
“Dese are de rest of my squad, and from now on will be de one’s in charge of you’n,” Tybor halfway explained. “Rowen, Jeriah here will be keepin’ you’s safe. Tobias will watch over Aidan,” he pointed out a very stout looking wingless Daemon who was nonchalantly leaning against the cave wall.
Tobias appeared to be a young Annokai, although his skin tone and eye coloring made him resemble more of a Braegin. His dark brown hair was shaved on one side but swept over on top to look long on the other, then pulled into several small braids that met loosely at the nape of his neck. His face was covered in scruffy stubble as if he hadn’t shaved in a few weeks.
Tobias twirled a small dagger through his fingers, displaying a long winding tribal tattoo originating from the top of his hand and curling up his muscular arm tapering upwards to his shoulder. Seeing Aidan stare, he waved.
“Seth will watch over Tatyana,” he pointed to the Daemon that was behind them wearing a long white lab coat over his jumpsuit. Turning, Aidan realized that Seth was the one responsible for bringing them there. He seemed smaller and a bit younger than the rest.
If Aidan didn’t know better, he would almost confuse Seth for a human that wasn’t much older than he was. His somewhat curly hair was a light brown, nearly blonde, and he wore his much shorter than the rest.
“We don’t need babysitters,” Rowen scowled.
“Really? You do realize if I hadn’t gotten you out of that vortex you would have disappeared forever?” the one called Seth spoke up.
“Well, I’s says you’n do an I’s ‘xpect all three of you’n to do as yer tol’ and trust me.”
“Trust you!” Rowen angrily stomped on the ground with each word, “you - fucking - jerk!”
“I’s dun tol’ you boy, I’s dun wanna hear no more of dat mouf. You’s dun have no idea what’s goin’ on here. Now shut up an’ listen!”
“Ok, so who’s that then?” Aidan interrupted, probably to keep them from going at one another’s throats. He pointed to the last one in the room that hadn’t been introduced yet, a young, robust looking Braegin with brownish-copper hair and green eyes.
He had a similar tattoo to the one called Tobias, except this one was on his throat and wrapped around his neck. He wore a crew cut hairstyle that was short on top and tapered to a long braid in the back and he looked every part the Braegin he was.
“I guess you can say,” the one he pointed to stepped forward, “if they’s the babysitters, I’m the housekeeper. You met Kynen, well I’m his apprentice. I make sure the den’s maintained, keep the base informed of what’s going on and keep up with orders and such. Name’s Cirklan, and no, before
you ask – I’ve never been no damned Annokai.”
“Yup, Cirklan doesn’t need a glimmer stone when we go out, he is an asshole Braegin,” Tobias quipped with a sneer. Cirklan, a rather large fellow; almost as big as Jeriah, mockingly jumped toward Tobias, with a ticked off look on his face. Tobias laughed.
“So not all of the Minions of Khaos are former Annokai?” Aidan continued questioning, seeing that Rowen was still way too steamed to do anything and he didn’t want to have to watch Tybor kill him right now.
“Nope, Tybor and Moira takes in any reject they can find that can hold up to their training and will stand against them,” Tobias answered.
Aidan looked confused. “Stand against who?”
“The ruling Fates. You did say they knew our history, right Boss? Tobias asked.
“‘Nuff of dis, ya’ll can get caught up wid it all later.”
“Well I agree with Rowen,” Aidan decided to be brave. “We don’t need bodyguards or anyone watching after us, but if someone could help Tat,” Aidan said gesturing towards her.
“Seth?” Tybor motioned him to tend to her.
Kneeling, Seth held his hands inches above her and mumbled words so low that neither Aidan nor Rowen could hear. His hands glowed a whitish-blue. A few seconds later it faded.
“Sir, her mind and soul are still in the loop. I can try to retrieve her, but I don’t know what will happen really.”
“What the hell?” Rowen asked.
“Seth is a Seer. He has certain abilities that allow him to manipulate psychic and spiritual energy,” Jeriah explained.
“Right now your friend’s soul is trapped in a time loop,” Seth said. “This is why it took us so long to bring you out of the vortex. We managed to get you two out, and her body, since you three were physically touching each other; but her mind and soul are still in the vortex.”
“So what are you saying?” Aidan grabbed Tat’s limp hand.
Seth tried to explain further, “Her spiritual makeup is different than yours. Different than any humans I’ve ever seen to be honest. If it weren’t for that fact, it wouldn’t have taken nearly as long. I can go into the loop too, but it’s tricky. If I’m not careful, we might both be lost.”
The Fateless: Errata Page 25
