Truth in blue, p.12
Truth in Blue, page 12
As he neared the gates of Colasia, Sanar’s heart drummed in his ears.
It was late in the evening. He could see a detachment of knights camping at the forest’s edge. Most likely, they had decided to halt for the night before charging into the town and resuming their search. Sanar could not afford such luxury. He forced his exhausted horse to carry on, careful not to alert them.
A team of twelve knights was problematic enough, but what bothered Sanar was the woman leading them.
Reva...
“I HAVE TO LEAVE!”
He sounded frantic, and his voice made Una’s heart ache with a sorrow no one should feel for a stranger.
Since she was transported into this vision, she’d started feeling a sense of nostalgia. This wasn’t a dream, for Una was definitely awake when this happened; it couldn’t be a memory because she had never visited this town before. Una decided to stop struggling to understand it and concentrated on the man’s words instead.
The sun was yet to rise, allowing the dying streetlights to cast long shadows.
“I’m sorry to have asked you out here at this hour. But I needed to say goodbye,” he said. Seeing her other-self look as confused as Una felt was almost a relief.
“What’s goin’ on? Why’re you leavin’ so suddenly? I thought I was comin’ with you and your friend ‘til the Siremann’s Trail?” she asked with the same urgency.
The night was nearly silent save for a few vagrants snoring on the stone benches. He looked around as if he was anticipating trouble. “I’ve been hesitating for a while, but it’s crystal clear that it’ll be too dangerous for you to come along. Just forget we ever met.”
“Tell me what’s wrong! Lemme help. Who’re you runnin’ from?” she insisted.
He paused and sighed. “You want to know?”
She nodded.
In a grave voice, he said. “I’m a fugitive, Una. The knights are coming after my friend and me. Do you see why my company is the last place you should be?” He started walking away without waiting for her reply. Una's mouth had hung open. Both of their mouths. A fugitive! Another one...
Her other-self hesitated for a moment before her prana lashed out; dark blue ropes bound him and stopped him from moving. He looked shocked and angry while he struggled to turn and face her. “You are restraining me! Why? To gain the knights’ favor? He told me this would happen—the moment you knew the truth, you’d betray me. I didn’t believe him!” His voice shook with disappointment.
His muscles strained against the magic, and just as Una’s doppelganger reached him, he broke through her Mover magic. Una watched in shock. This man did not use any prana to counter it. How strong is he?
“You don’t owe me any explanation,” her other-self said in a strangled voice, “you didn’t promise me nothin’ either. I won’t stand in your way, but...please, tell me how to help you.”
His eyes widened. “Why?”
Before she could reply, he shoved her to the side and lunged forward. With a scream that pierced through the night’s silence, a man holding a sword crumpled behind her; the vagrants woke up and started running away, their yells adding more fuel to the chaos.
But Una wasn’t paying attention to that, for the grace with which he moved and disarmed the soldier stunned her. That’s who she’d briefly remembered during Reapers’—how!?
Though her other-self missed the fight behind her, which lasted barely a second, Una had witnessed it all. When the man silently crept up behind other-Una, he had pushed her aside to put himself between the two, then crossed his elbow around the other man’s stretched arm holding the sword, applied pressure at the joint, twisting it and disarming him—all in one smooth motion. The hapless knight barely managed a scream before he struck the man’s jaw with the heel of his palm, rendering him unconscious.
This was not a regular fight. The fluid movements were beyond the skills of anyone Una had seen, and that list included Kai.
However, the danger was not over.
The knight had a partner who leapt up from the darkness and charged toward them.
It was the other-Una who stopped him; not everyone was as inhumanly strong as the stranger to resist a Mover’s magic. The knight struggled against her blue magic that pushed him away from them while she used another strand of her prana to pick up a rock from the side of the street to hit him. “Una, be careful!” the green-eyed man alerted her a fraction of a second too late. The knight battling her magic slipped on the cobbled streets, impaling himself with his own sword.
They stood in horror, watching the thick dark blood smear the already colorful street red, becoming redder with every passing moment as the sun started peeking through the clouds.
“Oh no! Nonononono!” her other-self cried out while Una was frozen in shock. She killed—
They could hear the town waking up. Soon they would get overrun by soldiers and knights. He grabbed her hand and said, “Run!”
Una had no choice but to hurry behind them, through alleys, lanes, and corners; she didn’t know where she was in the town anymore and prayed that she’d be back in her room once this bizarre vision was over.
“I killed a man!” She heard herself sink to the ground, unable to run any further.
“You did not.” He stopped as well, pulling her into an embrace. “It was an accident. But those homeless men might have seen you; they could identify you.” He looked miserable. “This is my fault! Una, we need to leave town immediately. Once out of here, I promise to leave you alone; you’ll be safer if I’m not around. But, for now, please trust me.”
His green eyes caught the sun, the sandy hair swaying with the morning breeze as he held the sobbing girl in his arms. “I swear on all I am that I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
Una’s heart clenched and unclenched at his words.
She believed him.
Then, he pulled her other-self from the ground and said, “If those two were in the town, Reva can’t be far behind. We must hurry. Let’s go inside.”
Una turned her gaze to see they were in front of a seedy tavern. The sign at the top of the bar was hanging sideways, with the letters stuck at odd angles. It could be saying: the Rouge or the Rogue.
Her brain had barely begun processing the revelation when the tavern and the two people vanished before Una’s eyes.
Then, she was dragged through the foggy corridor and pushed out of a spectral door, only to find herself inside the Rouge, where she could hear the others talking and drinking tea downstairs. Am I still seein’ things?
“Where have you been? I didn’t see you when I woke up,” Amaryllis waved at her.
Before Una could untangle her vision from reality, the door to the bar opened with a bang, and a disheveled man ran into the room. “Malakai, we’ve got to go! Reva’s here.”
TIME STARTED TO MOVE very slowly.
Una turned toward the door, a tiny spark of hope coming to life within her before a darkness more absolute than the night smothered the fleeting light.
The man looked nothing like him.
With shoulder-long unkempt dark hair, warm beige skin, and soft hazel eyes, he looked like a disoriented scholar who had forgotten to comb his hair or tuck in his shirt hurrying to the library. The one thing that marred this image was the enormous broadsword inside a scabbard hanging loosely from his back.
“Sanar!” Peg had run out of the kitchen at the sound of the door banging. “Reva is here already? I’ll fix up the travel provisions. Malakai, get your things and pick up some weapons from my stash.” The room broke into a frenzy of activity with the innkeeper barking orders like a seasoned general, getting packs prepared for them, and waking up the stable boy to ready their horses.
A mortified Kai, however, just stood there. Time lurched forward to catch up with the events unfolding before her. “They called you...” Una recognized the name.
“Who are you?” Amaryllis asked sharply. “Was everything else a lie as well?”
“None of it was a lie,” he nearly begged. “I was a King’s Knight by training and profession. And I am currently on the run from the king. Nothing has changed.”
“Nothing’s changed!” Una exclaimed. “You’re the prince of Castellon! How trivial d’you think that is?” She couldn’t stop herself from yelling at the man she should be bowing to.
He did not look offended at her insolence. “Una, I had no choice. How could I give my real name to the people I didn't know, especially in the circumstances we had met? After that, it was easier to be just Kai.”
“Your brother? He’s your brother?” Amaryllis could not find words. Suddenly, Una’s anger at being misled melted away. Everything he’d been through, all at the hands of his only living family; she could not imagine the bleak desolation he must be feeling.
Malakai didn’t reply. There was nothing more to say.
Peg rushed in with their bags. “Everything’s ready. May the Guardians be with you!”
Once more, Una felt like she was spiraling out of her own life, dragged around by a riptide with no straw to grasp.
She knew Kai and Amaryllis had planned to get the Sa'ore away from the king and return it to Fenderan. However, it had seemed far away; nothing would’ve happened until they reached Castle. Una and Dom had plenty of time to change their minds and the course of their journey before that.
But now, as soon as they ran from the knights, they would essentially align with Malakai and against the king. “I’m not goin’ with you. I’m sorry.” She felt horrible even to consider abandoning Malakai and Amaryllis to their fates. Was the vision earlier a premonition? Am I supposed to be helping ‘em?
If she were by herself, like she constantly was growing up, Una wouldn’t have hesitated to take on the world. But she was not alone anymore. Watching the terrified face of the young boy next to her, Una knew her priorities had changed. Becoming a knight to save her country or fighting the knights to save her country, whatever it was going to be, she would choose to protect Dom.
However, before Malakai or Amaryllis could say anything, Peg did. “Una...if Reva finds you and Dom here, she’ll interrogate you to discover everything you know about Malakai. You're in danger now that he’s told you his side of the story. Maybe even more than him. I am sorry, my children; it’s not safe for you to stay. And you can’t escape Reva alone.”
With the harsh reality settling in, Una turned to Dom and took his hands into hers. “We leave with ‘em just this once. Dom, I’ll keep you safe, okay?” Her words hauntingly echoed the blond man’s parting promise.
Dom’s face regained some color as he smiled at her.
REVA KNEW SHE WAS TOO late the second she entered the Rouge.
She walked up to the lone older man at the counter while the twelve knights accompanying her waited at the back. While the regular knights wore shining chain mail without helmets and carried standard swords on their hips, the King’s Knights had no uniforms. In comfortable riding breeches, her long ash-brown hair neatly plaited, Reva was an attractive young woman in her mid-twenties. At first glance, there was nothing formidable about her.
At a second glance, people would suppress a shiver without knowing why.
“Where is he?” she asked in a dangerously low tone.
Peg shrugged and replied, “No one’s here but me.”
“Peg, where’s he headed?”
The portly innkeeper nonchalantly resumed cleaning his wine glasses. “Hmm...Vaneda sounds like the best bet. The weather there’s just perfect for sunbathing right now. Won’t you agree?”
Reva had to stop herself from swearing. “Is he returning to Castle?” she insisted. “Or has he stooped low enough to consider betraying his country to Aldoria?”
His ordinarily cheerful face twisted momentarily. Then Peg asked, “Reva, did you know that until ten years ago, King Arden of Aldoria used to visit Castellon with his wife and daughter every winter?”
Reva was a little thrown off by this random question. She shook her head.
Peg sighed. “Princess Eloise used to play with Malakai and Ciaran in the courtyard. Queen Xynthia always hosted the royal family.”
Reva knew he was distracting her in order to give Malakai a better head start, but she couldn’t help herself. “What happened to make things go so bad?”
Peg put the drying cloth away before turning back to her. A deep sorrow clouded the older man’s eyes. “The queen passed away.” He paused to collect himself, then continued, “Before her death, Queen Xynthia had agreed to help Aldoria build underground transportation to Vaneda through Castellon. The far-reaching benefits of this arrangement were obvious to everyone but Malville.” Frustration shook his voice as Peg continued the story. “The relationship Castellon had with Aldoria for centuries, the friendship Xynthia had nurtured for years, was destroyed by one young man’s towering ego and bottomless stupidity. He has not stopped since!”
Reva processed the information and inquired, “Is this your way of telling me that Malakai might choose to seek asylum in Aldoria after all?”
Peg smiled. “This is simply an old man telling you a story. We tend to do that.”
She had had enough. “Answer me, Peg. By withholding information from a King’s Knight, you are committing treason against the kingdom,” Reva hissed.
Peg narrowed his eyes. “Have you looked around your kingdom lately, my revered King’s Knight? Mages going rogue to avoid being worked to death by their Lords and Ladies? Those leaders who rape and terrorize helpless people in their provinces? Those who have made it impossible for common people to employ a Healer to save their lives without spending their life’s savings?” Peg breathed heavily as he tried to rein in the anger he appeared to have suppressed for years. “One single King’s Knight would’ve been enough to drag these despicable nobles to the town square and end their atrocities. Do you know why that never happens?”
“Shut up!” Reva screamed, startling the knights waiting at a distance.
Peg kept pushing regardless. “Did you ever bother to ask these questions? Why does the king let these Lo—?”
She couldn't take it anymore. Her hands glowed yellow as the Bender closed her fist. Peg gasped and doubled over, his hands clutching his throat while his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Struggling for a single breath, Peg’s lips started turning blue.
“Give me one answer, Peg. Just a nod. Is he going to the north?” Reva pleaded.
Instead of a nod, Peg tried to smile; his dried lips cracked and bled.
“Damn you!” Reva tightened her grip. The air was not only gone from his vicinity, but it started to get drawn out from his lungs as well, choking him from the inside out. The knights glanced at each other but did not dare interfere.
“Please, Peg...please!” Reva begged the thrashing man to submit and end this torture. His eyes had started to show throbbing red veins, yet he didn’t capitulate.
She gave up, and the older man dropped to the floor when she let him loose.
“Is he dead?” one of the knights finally asked.
Reva nearly chuckled. “He is Dempegus, the former General of Castellon. The one who trained our current General—he’s tougher than all of us combined.” She knelt beside him and gently wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. “Forgive me, Peg. This is goodbye! I’ll miss your peacocktails.”
“My doors will never close for any of you, Reva.” He opened his reddened eyes. “This is not a goodbye.”
Chapter 14
Beyond the shadow of a doubt
TRISTEN WAITED FOR her to be alone.
He had been stalking her for a day now as they rode across the gravel roads of Castellon, with fields of golden corn and green beans lining one side of the streets and thick groves of elm, birch, willow, and hickory shadowing the other. Tristen had recognized the woman riding next to the Mover. As shocked as he was to see the reigning Mesmer Queen wandering around in Amon, he was even more stunned to realize that the humans and the fae seemed to be getting along quite well.
They camped for the night, oblivious of the Assassin of Tarderan hovering in and out of the shadows.
The women set up the tents while the men prepared dinner. It looked like the distribution of chores might have reversed in the mortal world since Tristen was alive, or maybe only in this particular group.
“You’ve got four livin’ Cirrah at Fenderan!” the Mover exclaimed.
The prince and his companion were too far away, getting water from the stream, and no one else was around. But Murasaki hushed her, nevertheless. “Una, could you not announce it to the entire Amon? Yes, they happen to be very rare.”
“I think your definition of rare’s a little off. We’ve none!” Una commented, this time more discreetly.
Murasaki chuckled softly. “We are talking about a realm where everyone is a mage. And only four of them are Cirrah. That qualifies as rare.”
Una hesitated, “Amy, d’you know how one becomes a Cirrah?”
Amaryllis frowned. “In Fenderan, one is born a Cirrah. Both cores are usually activated at the same time. Why do you ask?” she inquired suspiciously.
Instead of answering her, Una doled out another question, “But CirrahDion wasn’t born as one. Does that mean someone can be made a Cirrah?”
Murasaki looked uncertain. “As far as I know, humans can barely handle access to one prana. CirrahDion was considered to be exceptional for enduring the burden of two. Even though it’s the energy of life, if the vessel is not ready or isn’t enough...it’d overflow and burn the person from within.” She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. “Also, there’s the matter of incompatibility between human prana. Or so I’ve heard.”
