Kinshield's Redemption (Book 4) (41 page)

“Hard to tell,” a man answered, “but maybe half an hour ago. Some of us were here afore the cat-people came, but they ain’t taking people in the order they arrive.”

“Neither o’the other two Elyle taken were your complement?” he asked the female.

“No, he didn’t come with me. Why can I not hear his thoughts in my mind?”

Gavin figured it was the same reason that kept him from finding Daia’s conduit without their rings. “We’re in another realm—the yellow realm.” The Elyle gasped and shrank back. “I’ll try to get you home.” He offered his hand as he rose to his feet, and she took it hesitantly, eyeing the other humans with fear-filled yellow eyes.

Amid the sudden gasps to his right came a heavy rumbling sound as part of the wall split open and pulled apart. Two Clout stood in the doorway behind a Caller. From where he stood, Gavin didn’t see whether the Caller was wearing a mask, so shadowed was its face by its hood. Only its yellow eyes were visible, peering out from the blackness.

Aldras Gar
, whispered Gavin’s sword in his mind.

“Please don’t let them take me,” the Elyle said. She ducked down so that her height wouldn’t give her away.

The Caller floated towards them, attention on the Elyle. The Clout stayed close behind, leaving the doorway unattended. Gavin put himself between the Caller and its target and backed up, forcing the Elyle to back up as well. People made room for them.

“Bring that one forward,” the Caller said in its raspy voice. It sounded like every other Caller he’d heard speak. “The zhi-pure one.”

“Can you understand him?” Edan asked. “Gavin, is he asking for you?”

“No, not me. The Elyle.” If they took the Elyle first, then they were probably taking people in order of their khozhi balance. The more docile people would go first.

With the Clouts’ attention diverted, someone darted out the door. Gavin winced.
Bad idea
. Moments later, they all heard screams.

“We have a volunteer,” the Caller said with amusement coloring its tone. “We’ll return for the zhi-pure next.”

To Gavin’s surprise, they turned their backs on the crowd and headed for the door. His instinct was to attack right then, but he had a better plan. When they were gone and the wall was closed, he used his ring to connect to Daia’s conduit.

“You’re the Wayfarer,” the Elyle said, her eyes greenish blue. “You were not brought here as we were.”

“Yeh. I came to find my wife, and I found you people here instead.”

“You came here on purpose?” someone asked. “Can you leave whenever you want?”

“I can take two at a time, but the Elyle’s in danger. She’s got to go first.”

“If you rescue cat-person first,” a Farthan woman said in a thick accent, “they take another instead. Leave her and save your own kind.”

He wouldn’t sacrifice anyone if he could help it, but he saw her point. He identified the two most zhi-bent.

“You have the Nal Disi. How did you get it?” the Elyle asked.

Gavin didn’t have time to answer a thousand questions. “It’s a long story. Let’s get you—”

“You must leave the Nal Disi in the midrealm,” the Elyle said. “It does not belong here.”

Then the screaming began. Everyone hung their heads, and a few covered their ears. It was heart wrenching to hear.

With his hidden eye, he saw the man who’d escaped strapped down to a table, surrounded by four Callers. Each of the callers had one hand on the man, and the other on a barbed rod, which connected to a pair of huge crystals suspended roughly twenty-five feet above them: an amethyst and a carnelian. The essence flowed through the Callers and into the crystals—zhi to the purple and kho to the red—brightening their natural color and radiance bit by bit.

He had to hurry.

“Save us,” cried the woman beside him. “I’ve five children at home. Please.”

The most zhi-bent had to go first. “You,” he said, taking the Elyle by the wrist. “And you.” He took the Cyprindian emissary whose essence was strongly zhi-bent.

“Take the women first,” Calinor said. “We’ll hold ’em off.”

“No,” Gavin said. “They’ll be taken in order of zhi. Don’t draw your weapons unless they choose you.” He didn’t think Calinor would be chosen for a while yet, nor Edan, presuming he was right about the Caller’s order of selection. “If you try to fight them, they’ll kill you.”

With Daia’s help, he opened a portal to the green realm and pulled his first two rescuees through.

Chapter 54

“Wait,” Feanna called. “I’m here.” She was too late. Gavin vanished. A stunned hush fell over the room. Immediately, people began to clamor, demanding or begging to be returned home. People bumped and jostled her as they advanced on Edan and Calinor.

She was certain they’d had no mail or weapons when they arrived. Tokpah’s pole-arm and knife had been confiscated right away, but now Edan and Calinor were armed, their disguises gone. People reached for Edan’s bow, still unstrung in a special sheath on his back, and for his sword, and even the arrows in his quiver. Calinor was fighting them off as well, swinging his fists. Tennara grabbed people and pulled them off the men, flinging them into the crowd.

Feanna shrank into the back of the room. The captors would be back soon to choose their next victim. Let them take one of the lesser people. She was the queen, and she only had to survive long enough for Gavin to return for her. She pressed her hand over the amulet, reassuring herself it was still there. She would go unnoticed, and those floating wizards wouldn’t choose her.

“Stop!” Edan shouted. “King Gavin will be back.” He turned first left, then right, swinging with his fists like Calinor did, until he was able to clear enough room to draw his sword. He and Calinor moved to the back corner of the room where they pointed their weapons at the panicked crowd. Feanna watched excitedly. If they killed someone, the floating mage fellow might punish them.

“Listen to me,” Edan shouted. “King Gavin’s coming back for us all. He can only take two at a time, so we must all be patient. Let’s await his return. He knows the order people are being chosen, and so he’s saving you in the order of danger.”

Someone said, “That only puts someone else in danger who could’ve been saved if he worked in the reverse order.”

“The king’ll do as he thinks best,” Calinor said. “If you get the power to save everyone here, then you can make the decisions. Until then, shut up and wait your bloody turn.”

Calinor was often a jackass, but sometimes Feanna liked him. Perhaps when they returned home, she would reward him. Right now, she had to make sure Gavin took her home before he saved the rest of these boors.

The rumbling crank of the wall opening drew everyone’s attention away from the battlers and their weapons. The floating fellow in the black robe hesitated a moment before speaking in a raspy voice. What was he saying? Feanna looked for Kaoque in the crowd, expecting him to respond. Though she spotted Tokpah—his height made him plainly visible over the heads of the others—she saw no sign of the emissary. The captor spoke again, and again he was answered with silence. As the only one in the room who understood them, Kaoque should have stepped forward to answer Floaty. How pathetic. The only man present who could serve as translator was probably hiding behind his battler, pissing himself in fear. Some emissary he turned out to be.

“Kaoque Ewhirk,” Feanna shouted. “Tell us what he said.”

Now all heads turned to her. Edan’s mouth dropped open, and Calinor’s eyes widened. Still, Kaoque didn’t step forward.

“My Queen,” Tennara cried. The battler started pushing her way through the crowd towards her with an expression of fierce determination.

Floaty raised a black-robed arm and pointed at Feanna with a long, bony finger. He said something unintelligible.

“No, I’m not the one you want,” she said. A glimmer of apprehension raised the pitch of her voice. “It’s Kaoque. He can understand you.”

The crowd parted and shifted away from her, leaving her exposed. Tennara stepped in front of her, guarding her from their captors with her fists raised as though to engage them in a brawl. The floating wizard tamped his staff on the floor. Tennara stopped in place, and then a cold breeze hit Feanna. She felt heavy and thick. She couldn’t move, couldn’t cry out.

One of the two bare-chested brutes pushed Tennara out of his way, and she toppled over like a wooden toy, landing with a thud and a soft grunt.

“No,” Edan cried. In the blink of an eye, he had an arrow knocked and his bowstring pulled. Just when his fingers released the string, the arrow shot forward and stopped, hovering harmlessly a few inches from the smooth, perfect chest of one of the brutes, who then plucked it out of the air. Edan’s bow flew through the air towards Floaty, who caught it deftly, as did Calinor’s sword and then Edan’s. Calinor’s hand closed on air. Edan reached for the knife strapped to his calf, and it, too, was pulled from his reach, confiscated by the mage.

Floaty’s attention returned to Feanna, and with that bony finger, he beckoned her. A brute took her by the arm and, still unable to move, she slid across the floor towards the opening in the wall. She tried to push against the force that immobilized her, but she had no strength to resist it. No, this wasn’t supposed to happen. She was the queen, damn it.

Gavin, help me.

Chapter 55

Gavin and his two rescuees found themselves in a forest of blue-green shrubs and trees and very little grass. A hush settled over them, and he felt the eyes of forest inhabitants eyeing them suspiciously.

“I hear him!” the Elyle cried. “My complement is here.” She trilled a laugh. “He was worried about me, but he pretends he was not. Now he’s only angry that I was gone.”

Kaoque spread his arms to regain his balance, though he dared a look around. “Is this the midrealm?”

“Yeh, home o’the Elyle. Can you find your way home?” Gavin asked.

“Yes, Emtor,” the Elyle said. “I can run from here. Thank you for saving my life. Will you give the Nal Disi to me so that our elders can keep it safe?”

“What is the Nal Disi?” Kaoque asked.

Gavin raised his eyebrows in surprise. Kaoque understood the Elyle? That could be useful. “It’s a crystal that caused a terrible illness in my country.”

“You must not entrust the Nal Disi to anyone in this realm,” the Guardians said. “The kho-bent will wrestle it from the zhi-bent and draw from our essence to perform their magic.”

“The Guardians caution me against leaving it here. I’ll talk to the elders myself, once I get the other people safely home.”

The Elyle bowed and chirped a pleasant good-bye before running to the east with long, graceful strides and disappearing through the trees.

With a firm grip on the Cyprindian’s wrist, he went to the blue realm. They found themselves in a forest of mostly pines of various types with willow oaks, sycamores, sweet gums, and sugar maples. Gavin bent over, propping himself up with his palms against his knees. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to the dizziness of crossing the realm boundaries.

Kaoque fell to his hands and knees. “This is unpleasant.”

“It’ll pass.” Gavin wanted to pause a minute to let the dizziness subside before going back for the next pair, but he felt a sense of urgency.

“Why did the cat-person beg you to leave the Nal Disi in the midrealm?”

“Because that’s where it belongs.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because it’s the key to curing the illness.”

“Is it responsible for bringing people to that other realm?”

Gavin didn’t want to answer that. The fault, like so many others before it, was his own.

“How many other people will you sacrifice to save your own?” Kaoque asked.

Frustration and urgency tensed Gavin’s muscles. It was a fair question, but what was he supposed to do? Give up on curing the ones affected by the water? “Look, I said I’ll take it back, awright? I’m trying to manage one crisis at a time.” He didn’t have time for this.

“Good men, innocent men were slain by those creatures,” said Kaoque, his voice loud and accusing.