Descent (31 page)

The ride was a blur for Jane. She could vaguely remember the painful dash across the planes, thundering through towns and villages, Fern and Altor flanking her the whole way until finally, close to sunset, they came to Karangul. There was no resistance when they got there, only a strange pity in the eyes of the soldiers.

‘Where is he?’ she snapped when they came to the biggest building. The soldier standing guard pointed to the hallway behind him and stepped out of the way. Jane ran down the corridor until she came to a room at the end, heedless of Fern and Altor behind her. The door was open. Jane came to a halt, frozen by what she could see within.

Anna wept softly by the side of the bed, looking near death herself. Ria stood by the window and a tall man with red hair was standing on the other side of the bed, his arm bandaged heavily. There was a man who looked like a healer there too, but Jane’s eyes were held by only one person.

Luca was unconscious on the bed, looking small with the blankets piled around him.

Ria gasped as she caught sight of Fern, and turned paler than she already was. She sat down heavily, transfixed as if he were a ghost. Anna barely noticed him—she was staring at Jane, who crossed the room quickly. They hung onto each other desperately.

‘It’s going to be fine,’ Jane whispered into her hair. ‘He’ll be fine, An, I promise.’

Keeping her hand clasped tightly around Anna’s, Jane turned to the rest of the people in the room. ‘What happened?’ she asked roughly, looking for anyone who would answer her. Nobody did. ‘
What happened?
’ she snapped more loudly.

‘My lady, he’s been tortured,’ the red-haired man said, running his good hand through his hair.

‘I can see that,’ Jane hissed. ‘By whom—and why?’

‘He came here to assassinate Vezzet, but he killed the wrong man and they captured him!’ Anna said, her voice shaking.

The words resounded in her ears. Why the hell would Luca have tried to assassinate someone? Why would he have thought himself capable of that?

‘
Who
captured him?’

‘Vezzet and his guards. I was only just in time to stop them killing him.’

‘Who are you?’

‘Captain Adon Bayard of Karangul, my lady,’ he replied. ‘And you?’

‘Jane—I’m a friend of Luca’s,’ she said. Bayard seemed to compose himself, and then nodded. He looked at Fern and Altor. ‘There will be time for our introductions later,’ Fern said quietly.

‘Captain, why did you save Luca if you work for Vezzet—and where is he?’ Jane went on briskly.

‘I realised, somewhat too late, my lady, that Vezzet’s cause was not my own, and I could not stand by and watch him torture an innocent man. Vezzet is dead.’

‘Are you all right?’ Blood was seeping through the bandaging on his arm.

Bayard nodded firmly. ‘I’m fine. It is merely what I deserve for my own stupidity.’

Jane took a breath. ‘What exactly has been done to Luca?’

‘Broken bones. Cuts and burns on his chest and back. And ... and something I don’t know how to name. A dark magic.’

‘They electrocuted him, Jane,’ Anna sobbed.

‘What does that mean?’ Altor asked quickly. Jane didn’t even know how to begin explaining.

‘And they broke his fingers,’ Ria whispered. Jane felt herself turn cold.

Silently she knelt at Luca’s side. ‘What’s been done to help him?’ she asked faintly.

‘I’ve cleaned and stitched all the wounds, my lady,’ the healer said. ‘Physically he is healed, but he will not wake up. I fear he is too mentally scarred to recover.’

Jane swallowed. ‘How long has it been?’

‘A day, almost.’

Jane stood again. If she stayed brisk, if she focused on the problems at hand, then she might just be able to hold it together. ‘I need a moment alone with him.’

‘What can you do?’ Anna asked. ‘You aren’t a doctor!’

‘No. But I can try something.’ A thought had occurred to her, but she had no idea if it would work, nor if she would be strong enough to do it.

No one moved. Jane threw a desperate look at the two princes by the door. It was Altor who came through in the end. His low voice snaked into the room, ‘
All of you out. Now.
’

They moved quickly then.

Once she was alone, Jane pulled a stool up to the bed and sat down. Slowly she looked down at Luca. There were scars and burn marks all over his skin, but the broken bones and lacerations had been healed. Gently she ran her hands over the raw burns on his chest,
and then up to his face, which was, strangely, perfectly untouched and just as handsome as ever.

She looked at him, at her closest friend in all the worlds, in all her lives, and she felt ... wrecked. Because even more than the wounds he had been dealt last night, she could see the pain that had been there before. His face, even in sleep, held immeasurable pain.

Jane ran her hand through his hair and kissed him gently. Then she moved her hands to take hold of his fingers. They weren’t the same as the rest of his wounds. Anguish was threaded throughout the broken pieces of bone. They may be functional one day; but no longer would he have the beautiful hands that so many women had fallen in love with. The hands that made such sounds on his guitar as she had never heard before.

Hands that once upon a time—what seemed like a lifetime ago—Jane had told him she loved.

‘Then they are yours forever,’ he’d laughed and she had understood, in that moment, how he loved her.

And now they lay before her, irreparable.

Jane kissed them and willed them to straighten. But they didn’t change, they didn’t heal, and she knew they never would.

Still holding his hands in her own, Jane moved so that her face was above his. Carefully, gently, using the link she and her friends had forged, she sent a probe from her mind to his. But as soon as it entered his mind, Jane was barraged with a series of images, sights that blasted her senses and terrified her. Dark slashings of colour, screams and blood and pain, a man’s cruel laughter, the sound of steel on steel and the crunch of bones. They pummelled into her mind, all the bad things in the world, all the images that haunted Luca. The boy she knew was gone. All there was instead was chaos and pain, fear and bitterness. Jane gasped, wrenching her mind away from
his as she stumbled back from the bed. She realised then that she wouldn’t be able to do anything to help him, even with an ability like hers.

Luca moaned. Jane stared at him, terrified, not sure if she wanted him to wake just yet, not sure how he would be with a mind like that.

After a while she sat down next to his bed again and watched him sleep, waiting. She must have been beside him for hours by the time he woke. The only warning she had was a slight change in the rhythm of his breathing. Then his eyes snapped open, and they looked around the room, unable to focus. They came to rest on her, and there was confusion in them.

‘Luca?’ she said, uncertainly.

He didn’t reply. Panic clutched at her. ‘Luca, it’s me, Jane. You know me.’

He started to breathe faster, and she knew he was getting frightened.

‘It’s all right,’ she said desperately, ‘I’m here, you’re safe now,’ but Luca had begun to scream. Guttural sounds tore through the room, loud and maniacal, and that was when Jane realised that Luca was insane.

She recoiled in horror as he thrashed around the bed, trying to get away from her. Her shaking hand covered her mouth as she backed away from him, realising that he was petrified of her.

‘It’s all right,’ she tried to say again, but she could barely hear her voice over the sound of his screams.

The door burst open and a swarm of people rushed into the room. Luca’s eyes bulged as he saw the bodies surging towards him. He moved from the bed and lunged towards the window.

‘Fern!’ Jane yelled. Fern moved to intercept Luca, taking his comparatively small body in his strong grip. The boy screamed in terror at the contact.

Fern struggled to get him to the bed again, where the man—Bayard—was positioned, ready to hold Luca down with his one good arm.

Jane didn’t know what to do—she’d never dealt with someone this damaged. The two men held him, though he struggled for a long time.

Jane turned to Anna and Ria. ‘Give us another minute. We’re frightening him.’ Anna had begun crying again, almost hysterically now, and Ria stared at Luca in horror. They looked at Jane, both shell-shocked, and then after a moment they left the room.

Jane stood very still and watched, somehow knowing she must bare witness. Luca finally stopped struggling, utterly exhausted, and slumped back on the bed.

The two men held him there until they were sure that he wouldn’t stir again. Jane went forward and slowly sat down next to him.

‘Luca,’ she whispered carefully.

He didn’t look at her this time; his eyes were hazy and vacant. Then he started to laugh, and the sound frightened her more than his screams. He laughed and laughed, loud, high-pitched and out of control. Jane looked to Fern, but the prince’s eyes were locked on Luca in a kind of stricken trance.

‘Luca,’ she said again, loudly this time, and he stopped laughing abruptly. He held up his hands and looked at his fingers. The joints were swollen and red, his fingers crooked and ugly.

‘We tried to fix them, but...’ Jane stammered.

Slowly he let his hands drop to the bed, and allowed himself to sink wearily into the pillow. He closed his eyes, and whispered, ‘We tried to fix them for you, but...’

Jane didn’t understand how to deal with any of this.

She could save the world, but she couldn’t save Luca.

‘Bayard rescued you. He killed Vezzet and brought you here,’ she said, thinking that maybe she could provide Luca with some semblance of understanding.

‘Bayard,’ he repeated. Then he laughed again.

Jane looked at the red-haired man. ‘Best not to talk to him about me. I ... he has issues with me,’ was all he said. Jane turned back to Luca. He had fallen asleep.

And then he spoke in his sleep, and it was the most lucid thing Jane had heard from him.

‘You got yourself caught, you fool. There’s blood on your hands. You deserve this,’ he muttered so quietly that they had to strain to hear.

‘Did he just say he deserves this?’ she asked shakily.

Fern came to stand next to her.

‘What do I do?’ she asked.

Fern shook his head helplessly. He reached down and put his arm around her. Quickly she shrugged him off. There wasn’t time to fall apart. She had to be strong.

But she truly didn’t know what to do.

Bayard stared at the sleeping man. ‘All right,’ he said, his voice clear and calm. ‘Here’s what we do. I will have the door and windows barred, and all dangerous objects removed from the room. However long this lasts,’ he said firmly, ‘we here at Karangul will care for him until he can be moved. This may only be temporary. Until he has time to come to terms with what happened.’

Right then Jane loved Bayard more than anything in the world.

‘Bayard, what
did
happen down there
?
’

He shook his head. ‘I was too late to stop it. But Vezzet—he seeks not information, but to break minds. I’ve never seen anyone else survive the torturing. Luca is the first man Vezzet didn’t push to his death.’

‘I would give anything to just go back and kill the man when I threatened to,’ Jane said bitterly. ‘I could
have killed him at the battle. Any one of us could have. We could have stopped this.’

‘Don’t,’ Fern warned. ‘Recriminations are pointless and unhelpful.’

‘I’ll have to tell the others,’ Jane said.

‘I’ll do it, if you want,’ Fern offered, but she shook her head. She turned to Bayard. ‘Can you have a man brought in here to watch Luca while he sleeps, and to tell us when he wakes? Also, can you get a harp or something and put it next to his bed? Music might help.’

Bayard nodded and the three of them left the room hesitantly.

Anna flew to her feet and threw herself on top of Jane, and the two of them hugged for a long time. To see her, to have her here ... Jane was more grateful than she’d ever been just to be able to hold her friend. After a moment it was Anna who pulled away and looked at Jane, her eyes older than they had been, but just as gentle and warming. Jane felt a wave of strength as they clutched hands and turned to the others together.

Ria looked frightened. Altor stood in the corner, staring at the floor, his face expressionless.

‘His mind is damaged,’ Jane told them. ‘I’m fairly sure he’s ... not himself.’

Bayard recounted what he had said in the room, and halfway through, Jane started trembling.

Fern led her to a seat and wiped the hair from her face.

‘You woke him up. How did you do that?’ he asked her softly.

‘I don’t think it was me. All I did was look inside his head...’ Jane closed her eyes against a shudder. ‘It was terrifying, Fern. He was totally ruined.’

‘You cannot expect him to be normal straight away. He will need time. Like the Captain said, this is probably
only temporary. That’s what we have to focus on, and help him through it.’

Bayard was leaning against the wall, cradling his arm and looking as exhausted as Jane felt. ‘He was so strong,’ the big man murmured. ‘Vezzet played cruel mind games with all his victims, games that can break anyone. But Luca didn’t say a word the entire time. The boy is as tough as anyone I’ve ever met.’

A small sound came from Anna’s throat and she leant against the wall for support.

‘Have you contacted the others to tell them?’ Jane asked her, and Anna shook her head. ‘Okay, I’ll do that. For now, I think you need to tell us, Bayard, why you were working for Vezzet in the first place.’

The big man visibly stiffened. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

‘About nine years ago, when High King Gaddemar raised the taxes, he formed a team of ruthless soldiers, and he used these men to slaughter the families who could not pay. It was a horrendous time. My father was one of these soldiers, and he happened to come across Vezzet’s family, when the boy was about fifteen. His father, mother and two sisters were killed, but the king ordered that all men fourteen years or older were to be brought to Amalia to be trained for the army. So Vezzet was spared, and he rose through the ranks to become the Chancellor’s assistant. And, well, you know the rest of that story.’ Bayard paused and shook his head.