Forgotten (24 page)

Kaie pursed his lips against the questions on the other side of them and shook his head. “Talk later. Move now.”

Vaughan pulled back into himself, tightening his hold on his legs and turning his head away. “Go. I can’t… I lost control. Without control, I’m too dangerous. And what I’ve done…”

“Gods damn it, Vaughan, I wasn’t asking your thoughts on the matter,” Kaie growled. “I told you to move. If you think I dragged my ass halfway across the city just to have you tell me you’d rather sit here and turn my plan to shit, you’re in for a real surprise.”

Vaughan glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes and grimaced.
“A plan?”

“That’s right.
A plan.
One that will get me out of this
gods
damned city and see me bathing in the blood of my enemies in short order. And, if you can get your shit together long enough to quit hindering me, should even keep you and your sister alive.”

“Peren?”
He dropped his hold on his knees and, for the first time, looked like he might actually cooperate. “You know where Peren went?”

“Of course I do.” He wasn’t going to think about the alternative. He did not accept the possibility that she was one of the bodies. “I’d really like to get her now. If you can quit slowing me down long enough for me to get the both of you out.”

“It’s too dangerous.” Despite his words, Kaie could see he was winning this battle. Vaughan was shifting toward the door, albeit slowly. “I’m too dangerous. I’ve lost control, Kaie. I still feel the
Jhoda
there, thrumming in my head, ready to spin out of me again.”

“Are you going to set a mist of bees on me, Vaughan?”

His brows knit. “No! I wouldn’t… I won’t hurt you. Not ever.”

“Well then. If you’re telling me that I’m perfectly safe, but that anyone we bump into is likely to be stung all the way to the Abyss, I’m not sure I see a problem.”

Vaughan shook his head. “I can’t…”

“Either you’re walking out of that door with me, or I’m going to beat you to death. You decide. Help me save your sister, or die painfully and bloody here in this room. Want my advice?”

For a moment, Vaughan looked like he was going to argue. Maybe even outright refuse. Then he blinked again, and his head dropped against his knees. A second later, he stood. Kaie was so relieved he almost laughed.

Vaughan didn’t ask what the plan was. Kaie was grateful. Whatever
sliver
of independence and self-confidence the man showed in the hospital, it was gone now. For the first time, Kaie could understand exactly what it was Vaughan went through in Peter Autumnsong’s care. He understood what it would do, even to the strongest soul. And Vaughan was not that.

They headed down the stairs quickly. Kaie made sure he didn’t glance around. If Vaughan didn’t know how many he’d killed, better for everyone. It took a little exploring through the house filled with horrors, but he managed to lead them to the kitchen.

Kaie was pleased to discover that he was getting good at spotting the hidden doors. He ran his fingers over the empty spaces and, in little time at all he found the tiny cracks. He went down to his knees, dropping a bit faster than he meant to. His head was spinning and, for a second, he thought the change in altitude was going to make him pass out. He forced his way through it and pressed the bottom of the door. Vaughan gasped as the wall slid open. Peren wasn’t waiting just inside the door. There was no corpse either, and he tried to believe that was a good sign. There was something in his chest though, something frozen solid and about to shatter. It whispered how likely it was that she was one of the bodies. He needed to find her.

Vaughan’s
scramble
to grab the door sent a racket of skittering and gasps through the pass. Kaie was glad for the effort. This was not like the other passes he found; there were no lamps in this section. The only light came from the hole Vaughan was holding open. Kaie’s heart clawed at his throat, trying to make its way out of him. Nothing good came out of such darkness.

“Stay there,” he ordered. Vaughan made some weak mewling noise he took to be agreement.

Kaie moved forward slowly, testing each step before he put his full weight on the foot. He wasn’t about to go toppling and die here. It was hard keeping his paces careful, with the constant ticking away of each second in the back of his mind, but he managed.

“Peren?”

No answer came. The icy mass in his chest whispered again, louder this time. He did all he could to ignore it.
“Peren!”

Then, weak enough to be a dying gasp, he heard it. “Here.”

Kaie almost leapt forward, chasing after that sound. At the last second, he pulled his lunge short. It wasn’t soon enough to keep his foot from meeting nothing but air, but he did manage to catch himself on the wall of the tunnel before he fell. Gritting his teeth again, he took the stairs slowly.

He stepped on something at the bottom of the stairs. Despite his certainty that it was a human body that nearly tripped him, no shout of pain was raised. That did nothing to ease the quiet panic pulsing through him.
“Peren?”

“Kaie!”

Light flared up so quickly it brought tears to his eyes. When his vision cleared, he couldn’t help a burst of giddy laughter. Peren was there, looking for
all the
world like he just woke her from a good sleep. She held a lamp in one hand, a large brown shirt in the other. He understood, now, why it was so dark in the tunnel.

There were two others with her. One was an older woman in a dress that was probably quite nice once. She was wearing a couple of welts on her face, and her eyes were wide with fear.
The Lady Autumnsong.

The second one was a surprise.

“Judah?”

The giant didn’t answer. There was a rash of welts all over his naked chest and arms, only a couple on his face. His was the body Kaie stepped on. He was unconscious, but Kaie didn’t think the stings were responsible for it. One of his arms was bent at an odd angle, and his position suggested a fall down the stairs like the one Kaie just avoided.

Kaie dropped down and felt for a pulse at the man’s throat. It was weak. But it was there. Judah didn’t need to be whole, but he needed the man alive.

“You found me.”

He turned back to Peren and smiled. “I told you I would. Your trick with the lamp made it more challenging than I expected.” She watched him without a hint of emotion. “Are you okay?”

“I hurt my ankle, when the soldier fell, but I’m fine. So is my Mistress.”

He looked the noblewoman up and down, suspecting that wasn’t exactly the case. The woman looked like she her heart was half a second away from stopping altogether. She didn’t even seem to be aware of what was going on.

“Vaughan’s waiting for us up top. Can you walk?”

Peren considered it for a moment, her lips pressed into a thin line. Finally, she shook her head. “I can stand, I think.
But the stairs…
I’m sorry.”

“
It’s
fine,” Kaie assured her, surprised at how awkward the conversation was. Rather than think about it, he scooped her up into his arms, lamp and all. The Lady Autumnsong made a mouse-like squeak and scuttled backward.

Peren wrapped her arms around his neck as she looked down at other woman. “It’s alright, Mistress. This is the man I told you about, the one who’s come to save us. You can trust him.”

She smiled to Kaie apologetically. “The Mistress is afraid of the dark,” she explained. “Even back in Lindel, she needed her rooms lit like it was day all the time. She’ll be better, once we’re out of this place.”

“She better be,” Kaie muttered.

Holding Peren felt good. Just as good as it did in the manse. Her smell filled his nose with each breath, and her slight body pressed against his filled him with warmth that he missed for the last two years. But it wasn’t the same. There were places in him she couldn’t reach now, and he didn’t want her to try. Having
her this
close, it risked her discovering them. She would make him weak. He needed to get away from her.

The trip back up took less than half the time it took to get down. They made it in silence. Every time he started to ask something, he would worry that she might ask questions of her own, and the words would simply vanish from his mind. It was a relief, when they made it back to Vaughan and he could let her down again.

The Lady Autumnsong was better once she walked through the door. Almost as though someone threw a lever, her breeding returned in force. Her posture straightened and the breathy whimpers stopped. She started trying to straighten her hair and her gown, and if
her hands shook Kaie wasn’t going to hold that against her. But she stayed well away from Vaughan.

Vaughan immediately moved to examine Peren, but Kaie pulled him away before he could use any of his magic to heal her. Kaie offered Peren an apologetic smile, by way of apology, then took the lamp from her and all but shoved him back down the passage. He sputtered and protested, but went along without much real fight.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Kaie pointed him at Judah. “You’re a healer. Heal. We need him walking.”

Vaughan’s eyes got wide. “I don’t think…”

“I didn’t ask you to think. I told you to heal.”

His eyes darted around again, as he knelt down beside the doctor. “Kaie, this is… beyond me.”

“You’ve got magics. Use them.”

Vaughan laughed lowly, bitterly. “It doesn’t work like that. I’ve told you it doesn’t. I don’t control the magic.
The
Jhoda
.
It does as my heart asks, not my head. I used so much power today, I don’t think I can channel much more. And I want to heal my sister, not this man.”

Vaughan was supposed to be the game changer. It wasn’t going to count for much if he needed to coax the man along every step of the way. He let out a slow breath, fighting back the urge to hit everything until he felt better. “So don’t try to heal a stranger. Try to do something for me.
Something that will save me.
I need this, Vaughan.”

It was a safe bet, relying on Vaughan’s need to please. Kaie didn’t know what he did to win this man so firmly to his side, but every encounter the guy tripped all over himself to prove it. Kaie couldn’t trust it, but he could use it.

It worked. Vaughan released his fingers after just a second, and then put both hands on Judah’s chest. The soldier groaned, a less than comforting sign of life, and flinched away from the touch. An instant later, he screamed.

After a while Judah’s screams stopped. Kaie’s breath caught in his throat while he waited.
For the explosion of fire, for the soldier to leap to his feet and do a jig, for anything.
He was watching the man so intently when Vaughan placed a hand on his shoulder he jumped and nearly shouted in surprise.

“He’ll be able to walk. I think.”

Kaie nodded, not trusting the words crouched on the tip of his tongue. He reached out to shake Judah awake. Eyes fluttered open, and there was fear in them. Kaie could see the man swallowing more screams, fighting against irrational terror. Before the soldier could lose that battle, he grabbed the man’s chin and forced him to meet his eyes.

“I’m not playing our game anymore. Gregor is dead and Hudukul is in open rebellion. It’s gone well past fixing. If his plan was ever going to work, now is the time. I don’t have any illusions about my position here. The Twelfth won’t accept me without someone speaking for me. I’m aware that we don’t like each other, but Gregor trusted us both. And I need you. So what will it be?”

The soldier blinked and pulled back from Kaie, eyes drifting around the small space at the base of the stairs. Before they could find Vaughan and react the way the Lady Autumnsong did, he locked his hand back around the man’s jaw and jerked the man’s attention back where it belonged. “I need an answer. Are you with me?”

Judah shoved his hand away and scowled. “I’ve got to secure the Lady Autumnsong and report back.”

Kaie bit back his frustration, recognizing that anger wasn’t going to help here. “I’ve got her. She’s safe.
For now.
But there’s no one left to report to, unless you mean to tell the soldiers with the gold stars. I wasn’t lying. Gregor died in my arms.”

It was close enough to the truth. Maybe Judah saw it. Or maybe the man just realized that the Ninth Rit was too good to leave a bargaining piece as powerful as the Lady Autumnsong alone for long. If he was alive, he wouldn’t wait around when Judah didn’t report back. He would rip the city apart looking for her.
Just like Kaie was prepared to do, until Peren arrived and solved the problem for him.
He saw the dark understanding slide beneath Judah’s sunny features. It put a shadow behind the man’s eyes that Kaie suspected would be there for a long time.

“What do you have in mind?” The soldier asked grimly. It wasn’t an answer, but Kaie could sense that it was as far as Judah would be pushed right now.

“Where were you supposed to go, once you had Autumnsong secured?”

“A warehouse near the wall.
We secured it last month.
Unofficially.
When Gregor learned the Empress was sending someone, he thought something might happen. We’re all to make our way there in small groups, no more than four at a time. He will – would – come after nightfall, buying us all us all as much time as he could to sneak away by being seen publicly until then.”