Forgotten (30 page)

She smiled, and once again, the light caught her teeth. It lent a glow to her eyes as well, transforming her beauty into something straight out of the Abyss. He shuddered.

“Yesterday was for the girl upstairs,” she purred. Her dagger returned to his flesh, this time tracing a light line down his chest. “Tonight is for Mola. She will make Kale forget all about his pale, whimpering leech.”

“Don’t you talk about
her!
” He hissed.

She
laughed,
the same throaty laugh from before. “Does the boy think he can stop Mola?”

He grabbed the wrist holding the knife and twisted it backward. He held it, putting a slow pressure on the joint, until her pain filled her face and the dagger dropped with a clatter. Then, without another thought to the Lady Dau or the seconds ticking away, Kaie tugged her gown over her head and pressed his lips back against hers.

And, for quite a while, she did make him forget all about Peren.

When he was done with her, he tugged his pants back on and jerked his cloak out from beneath her sprawled body. Kaie couldn’t remember putting it beneath her, or when they made it to the bottom of the stairs. She smiled up at him lazily, making no efforts to hide her nudity. He let himself enjoy the view for a moment before tying the cloak around his neck.

His knuckle brushed against wetness under his jaw, and the stinging there reminded him suddenly of the knife she held to his throat. He pulled back his hand and stared at the blood there for a second. “You cut me.”

“The girl thought about stabbing Kale,” she murmured, rooting around the gloom for her own clothing. “Would he prefer that next time?”

He shook his head. “Henry’s right. You’re a crazy.”

She laughed and slid back into her gown, strapping her daggers back against her hip. She brushed past him and sauntered down the passage without a backward glance. Kaie still couldn’t see a single sign marking where they were or what direction they were traveling in, but Mola walked with such certainty that it seemed likely she knew both. So he followed.

Time was irrelevant in the passes. One lamp looked identical to the next and the turns they took made it impossible to sort out how to get back. For all he knew, she was leading them around in circles. Still, Kaie kept count of each second. At 9,542 – just a bit shy of three hours – she stopped and pointed up.

Kaie walked up. The door at the top wasn’t in good shape. It wasn’t closed as seamlessly as he expected, the bottom stuck out as much as an inch, and there were scorch marks along the edges that were visible even in the low lighting. This wasn’t the condition he would expect from the door leading to one of the most important people in Hudukul.

Mola was still sitting at the base of the stairs, leaning her back against the wall just beneath the lamp. It looked like she was picking her fingernails with one of her daggers. He was on his own.

With a deep breath, Kaie pressed against the door. It was more difficult than any of the others. When it finally gave, he toppled forward and landed hands first into a pile of ash. He climbed to his feet slowly, the misgivings turning into all-out dread. Kaie knew where he was.

“I am sorry I’ve made you return to this place.” A soft feminine voice drifted across the kitchen. “I’m sure you’ve realized by now that fate does favor circles.”

He blinked several times, clearing his eyes of ghosts and sought out the speaker. The woman wasn’t nearly as frail as he remembered, though she was every bit as old. Without all the heaps of golden jewelry weighing her down, the lady seemed almost spritely as she crossed the room. Her back was straight and the gown she wore was just as simple as Mola’s, rather than the brightly colored dress that made her look washed out. Her endless white hair was pulled up into a bun, wisps sticking out in every direction. There was no
undoing the weather-beaten look to her skin, but her brown eyes were more focused and there was no shaking in her hands anymore. Lady Dau wore adversity well.

“I’m sure that’s meant to sound profound, but all I’m hearing is an old woman spewing nonsense.”

She smiled. Even her teeth looked like they were whiter and straighter, though Kaie figured that was most likely just his imagination. “And to think Tou Callo was worried you would try to charm me.”

He grimaced. “Any chance of that was out as soon as you chose this place.”

“Was it truly so horrible for you here?”

“Yes,” he answered flatly. “But you know that. That’s why you picked it. You’re hoping this place will make me easy prey.”

“If it was my intention, this is your way of telling me it won’t work?”

“It is.” He smiled viciously. “I’m going to be very difficult.”

Dau laughed softly and shook her head. “You’re more charming than you realize. Tou was right to warn me.” She composed herself after a moment, though her eyes still sparkled with laughter. “You can set your mind at ease. I didn’t choose this place to hurt you. I didn’t choose it at all, actually. It was selected before I was even born, and you can imagine how long a time that is.”

His brows knit. “What in the Abyss are you talking about?”

“Fate, Kaie the Unbroken.” She held up one stick-like finger before he could object. “I’m sorry. Is it Kale the Whore King now?”

“How do you know that name?” He hissed.

Her mouth quirked.
“I listen.
Very, very well.
I would suggest you try it, but I expect you are usually too busy talking to hear. But it’s no matter. I’m here, you’re here,
the prophesy
can unfold as it’s meant to.”

“What?” Kaie shook his head. Confusing only began to describe the sensation of talking to this crazy old bat.

“Didn’t anyone bother to tell you? That is a shame. This was all foretold, Kaie.
Kale.
Really, will you tell me which one you prefer?”

“Kale,” he answered automatically. “What’s been foretold?
By who?”

“Oh, by a child of Fate, I suppose. No one bothered to keep the name. But Lemme’s bloodline was one of the strongest in Elysium, back in my grandfather’s day. And I’ve never heard of a seer coming from any other. I figure it must have been a son, since it wasn’t cloaked in any of the usual metaphors one expects from a daughter. In the end, it’s of no
matter. My grandfather knew it for truth, and he told it to his daughter. She told it to me. And here we are, just as Fate intended. As I said, she seems to have a fondness for circles; ending things where they began and beginning things where they ended.”

“I don’t understand,” Kaie confessed. Dau smiled.

“Which part?”

“Any of it!”
He considered for just a moment. “What’s this prophesy about?”

“It’s not very informative for you, I’m afraid. I knew that I would meet you and that I would do it here, where my grandfather forged his city. But if he knew what we would discuss, he didn’t share it with my mother. Or, maybe she decided not to share it with me. The result is the same.”

“Really?”
He scoffed. “A seer wasted the time to say that the two of us had to talk here, in this burnt out shell?”

“Actually,” Dau answered, “she said we would talk in the garden.”

Kaie felt the blood drain from his face. “No.”

“I’m sorry Kale. “

“I’m not going in there.”

“You are. I’m afraid I have to insist.”

“Then we’re done here,” he snarled, crossing his arms over his chest so that she wouldn’t see his hands shaking.

“That would be a mistake. If you leave now, the one Tou called Silvertongue will find you.”

Kaie stumbled several steps backward. He threw out his hands without thinking, catching himself on the slightly raised edges of the door. It shut and squeezed the flesh of his palm into the seam. It hurt, but he couldn’t summon the air to curse.

“He’s looking for me?” Kaie croaked when he managed a breath.

She frowned, just a little. Like a storm cloud passing over the desert sun. “Hunting might be a better word for it. I’m told he checks the hair of each man he finds. That might be a coincidence, of course, but I think we both know better.”

He nodded slowly. “And you’re sure?
That he’ll find me if I don’t cooperate?”

“Quite sure.”

“
The prophesy
?”

“No. Nothing
so
sensational as that. I’d prefer to do this civilly. But if you refuse to cooperate and insist on ending our conversation prematurely, then I will make sure that man knows exactly where to find you.”

And, in an instant, Kaie was better. Not good.
Worlds away from good.
But better. This wasn’t some divine finger pressing against him, maneuvering him back into Silvertongue’s possession. This was extortion. That was something he could handle.

“Alright,” he said, letting out a slow stream of air through clenched teeth.
“Garden then.”

The garden wasn’t how he left it. The fire was never meant to reach so far. How it destroyed the kitchen, blackened the walls of the hall, and consumed every single plant was beyond him. He never intended it to reach beyond the room. The blaze looked to have taken half the manse.

There was no mistaking the pool in the center. He could smell the fresh, clean water – such a boon in this land. He remembered the feel of the cool liquid soaking into his skin, could almost feel it peeling away the layers of grime and easing the balls of tension all throughout his back.

His stomach lurched. His mind went blank as his eyes locked on the spot.
The
spot
.
There was no sign of what happened here. But he knew it was there.
Beneath the surface.
The stain was too deep to be cleaned away. Not even fire could remove it. He could taste the copper of his own blood on his lips, could feel the jerk of the Aulis drawing tight against his throat, the blinding pain from where his face was slammed into the stone, Silvertongue’s hand digging into the small of his back …

“I’m sorry, Kale. I didn’t realize.”

Her voice came across a great distance, sliding through the things he needed to forget like a golden lifeline. He grasped at it, pulling himself away from that night with savage desperation.

“Didn’t realize what?” He hated the quiver in his voice.

“I assumed you hated this place because of your pride. But I was wrong, wasn’t I? Something terrible happened here…”

A shudder ran through his spine and, for one really bad moment, his vision swam with the memories he’d only just managed to drag himself free of. “Your city’s drowning in places where something terrible happened,” he managed at last. With colossal effort, he found his anger buried deep beneath the fear and pain. It wrapped around him like a warm blanket, replacing the rolling storm in his stomach with an icy hatred.

He could handle this.

Dau frowned. “You’re not wrong.”

“No,” Kaie agreed flatly. “I’m not. Now, since I’m busy being cooperative, do you think you can manage to answer a question or two straightly?”

She sat down on a blackened bench, folding her hands in her lap and crossing her ankles. She looked the picture of aged refinement. No doubt it was intended to put him at ease. Kaie was unmoved. Dau gave no answer, but he decided to take her silence as permission to proceed.

“Start with why you’re talking like
a
Urazian.”

She laughed again, that same soft sound. It belonged to a much younger woman. “I didn’t realize the Great Empire owned this kind of speech.”

“You know what I mean!”

“I suppose I do. You know what I am, Kale. I sit on the council because I spent my life as a courtesan. In Hudukul, that’s more than simply providing a few moments of pleasure. It is my responsibility to be a companion, a friend, a confidant, as well as a lover. When I speak, I chose my words to bring comfort to whomever I’m speaking to. Today, it is you. And you talk like
a
Urazian.”

He scowled. It seemed like an honest answer, but Kaie didn’t like it. He was hoping for a lie, he realized, and an obvious one. Something he could use to get the upper hand on this woman.

“I could speak normally, if you prefer.”

Kaie shook his head, unwilling to admit to her that it was something of a relief. “And
this prophesy
? What makes you so sure it’s me you’re meant to annoy tonight?”

“You are the one responsible for the massacre that began this war, aren’t you?”

That was disconcerting. Not even Judah suspected the
roll
he played. “Why would you think that? Don’t tell me!
The prophesy
warned you that red hair is the mark of a demon! The Abyss spat me up to bring untold suffering and grief down upon your people.”

Almond eyes narrowed, and Kaie got the distinct impression she was laughing at him again. “You are very melodramatic, aren’t you?”

“It makes conversations more fun. Stop avoiding the question.”

“Or what, I wonder?” She shook her head. “No, I learned of your involvement from much more mundane means. Did you think that none of the people who saw you defend the boy would survive, or only that they wouldn’t speak of it?”

He hadn’t thought of them at all
, actually
. Pushing through the crowds that once filled Hudukul made it easy to think of the people as mindless.
Cattle, moving from one place to another.
He couldn’t afford such stupid mistakes.

“Alright,” he said. “So you know who I am and what I did. But what kind of prophesy is ‘you’ll meet with some guy who starts a war in your city and chat in the garden for a while’?”

Another laugh.
“It was told to my grandfather a bit differently. ‘On the 111,432
nd
Tialmo
Lro’t
, the greatest city will know war within its walls for the first time. On the next anniversary of your death, the last of your bloodline will speak with the last of another. He will be the one who started the war, but he will not be the cause of it. They will meet beside the pond you will build to please your daughter, and will speak for less than an hour. For
that time, all
Ellysum
will hold its breath. When they leave, everything will change.’ Does that sound better?”

“No,” Kaie snapped. It was specific enough that he couldn’t find a point to argue. That didn’t sit well with him at all. It also didn’t tell him a damn thing. “Wait.
111,432
nd
Tialmo
Lro’t
?
I thought you said your grandfather forged this city?”

She smiled. “I’m glad to see you are capable of listening after all. Yes, my grandfather built this city. I called him Grandfather, but most in this world called him
Takuu
.”

Kaie scoured his mind. The name rang a cord in him, when so few names did.
“
Takuu
?
As in the god of order,
Takuu
?”

Her smile stretched from ear to ear.
“One and the same.
Impressive, right?
I imagine a courtesan being called the heart of Hudukul makes a bit more sense to you now?”

“If I believe it,” he muttered. But he did. Against all logic, he did. “Well that’s a perfectly useless prophesy. I’m no expert, but you’d think the guy would bother to mention something of actual value.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Dau mused. “I find it’s always helpful to be prepared for world-changing conversations, don’t you?”

He scowled at her.
“About that.
At any time in this ‘less than an hour’ we’ve got, were you planning to actually talk about why we’re really here?”

“You mean the alliance you’re hoping to win.”

“It was what I had in mind, yeah.”

She smiled, and for the first time since meeting her, Kaie saw a crack. The stretch in her lips was on the verge of a grimace. She didn’t like what was coming. “The Huduku are leaving the city, aren’t they?”

That surprised her, but she covered it quickly. “I didn’t realize we were being so obvious about it.”

“You’re not,” he allowed. “So far as I know, no one else in the Twelfth has noticed. They’re all plenty distracted with fighting the Fourth. I’m assuming you’ve left enough fighters to help with the distraction?”

“How did you know?” It wasn’t an answer, but it gave him the information he wanted anyway.

“I’ve been wondering for a while,” he admitted. “Mola is gone longer each time she goes to find our supplies, and I haven’t seen any new faces helping her bring them back in weeks. None of my squads have reported observing any encounters between Huduku and the Fourth in at least as long. And the city seems to get quieter by the hour. But it wasn’t until today that I was sure.”

“Oh?”

“Mola wouldn’t take me down into the passes at first. She made a bunch of noise about it being sacred or something. But Tou Callo was the one who told me about them in the first place, and I’m sure he knows I’ve used them since. Mola tried to claim that he violated some god-made rule about letting outsiders into them, but I don’t believe that. Callo isn’t the type to defy the gods for the sake of some foreign slave, not even one he finds charming. Then, just hours after threatening to kill me rather than let me set foot underground, the girl drags me down there and all but strips me naked with her teeth. I’m not complaining, but bedding men she hates isn’t the sort of thing a girl like Mola does in sacred places. That crap means something to her.”

“I heard you were skilled at reading people,” Dau murmured.

Kaie brushed it off. “That’s less about reading people than common sense. Anyway, there had to be another reason she wouldn’t let me into the place during daylight that she dragged me come the night. I gave it some thought, and could only come up with one that seemed likely.”

“There were others passing through the section of the passes close to where your people are hiding until after nightfall,” she allowed.

He nodded. “How many are leaving?”

Dau shook her head.

Another non-answer.
It confirmed the one before it. All of them, or as close to it as she could manage. The Huduku couldn’t possibly expect to disappear from their city without the Fourth noticing. Even occupied with the Twelfth, there was no way the Fourth’s Rit was going to ignore the exodus completely. He would send at least a token force to track them and alert the
empire’s
nearby forces. They would need one hell of a distraction.

“That’s the real purpose of the passes, isn’t it?”

She hesitated for a second,
then
nodded. “If my grandfather had but one skill, it was planning. He knew that, no matter how great he built it, there is always an enemy who finds a way to breach any wall. So, long before he brought his wife and her people here to live, he built the tunnels running for miles and miles in any direction, so that his children would always be able to flee. As the city grew, he made sure they were always cared for, always improved, and always hidden from outsiders. My mother and I have each done the same, in our time. Of course, keeping such a secret is impossible. So we came up with a story to conceal their true purpose. Before today, I don’t know that any outsider has known the truth.”

“I feel so special.” He didn’t even try to keep his eyes from rolling.

“You must see that a true alliance between our people was always impossible,” she continued. “My people fighting against the empire is simply a matter of locals resisting an invading army,” she continued. “The Empress will seek to put a stop to it, of course. But any
punishment will be minor; she will show mercy in an attempt to foster good will.
Just as she has done countless times before.
But with your Twelfth Brigade…”

“It’s a revolt,” Kaie
suppled
.

She nodded.
“A revolt from one of
Urazan’s
most successful brigades.
That’s not something the Empress can afford to be merciful about, nor will it be dealt with by ordering a handful of executions.”

“No,” he agreed. “It will be handled as swiftly and violently as possible. They’ll take deserters, I expect, but only until the rest of us are defeated. Then she’ll order every last one who wore the iron fist put down. Anyone known to aide us too, I bet.”

“That’s how we see the situation, yes.”

“So you plan to offer us as bait, hoping it will keep the Fourth occupied long enough for you to disappear.”

Dau sighed. “What else would you have us do? We are already giving you more food than we can spare. And, with your people there, the Empress will have to either abandon her war on Jorander to hunt us down or risk looking weak against insurrection from her own army.”

None of this was news to him. He sorted it out long before Autumnsong’s ship was first spotted coming in from the ocean. He and Gregor spent a great deal of time talking about the best way to deal with it, and they even came up with something approaching a passable plan. But that was when they thought the gates and the bay were the only ways out of the city. They counted on the people of Hudukul being trapped inside with them. The passes changed everything, and there was no move Kaie could make here to counter that.

“You haven’t told me anything new, lady. Even Judah will figure out what you’re up to in another day or two, and he’s blinded by thoughts of honor and goodness. So I can’t help but wonder why you asked me here. Was it just to talk about your useless
prophesy
?”

“I want to ease my conscious,” she said. “Your people have helped us when they could, and we won’t forget that. We try to forgive you all for claiming a city that was never yours, and we try to forgive you, personally, for starting a massacre that weakened us beyond telling. But that isn’t enough to balance what we’re doing to you. I called you here to warn you, Kaie the Unbroken, so that you might have the chance to save as many of your people as possible.”