The Bonded: The Allseer Trilogy Book I (21 page)

Ian was dead. The Darkness was a lie. Her head spun, her heart aching in a way she never thought possible. A flurry of emotion lashed at her, pulling her thoughts and feelings in so many directions that she felt ill. Everything she thought she knew about the world was shattering around her like one of their illusions.

Tomias sat on the bed in front of her, disheveled and covered in sweat. Strands of white hair stuck to his forehead and there were dark circles under his eye, a testament to the long nights spent trying to save her. Trista and Fenir stood at the far side of the room, watching her with sad eyes. They too showed signs of long nights and lack of hope. Without them, Kirheen would have been lost in that place, locked in an eternal struggle against…a lie. She shuddered at the thought, wrapping her arms around her knees.

Tomias reached out a hand and placed it gently on her arm. It was strange how reassuring his touch could be at times like these.  “Kir, I know this is a lot to take in. Are you alright,” he asked, leaning forward. She looked into his eyes and as much as she tried to hide it, she knew he saw the truth. She was crumbling, breaking away under the weight of reality. It was too much. Tears stung her eyes and he slid closer, nudging her legs out of the way so he could pull her close. “I’m sorry,” he whispered against her hair. “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. If I had known…”

“This is all because of me. I was so stupid and now… now Ian is dead,” she cried, clutching tightly to his robes. “What is going to happen to us? What are we going to do?”

Tomias sighed. “Nyson wants you on the Council. I can only piece together so much but he wants to use us as fodder against an outside enemy, a real enemy. The Darkness might not be real but in his head the threat is just as bad. Kirheen, if I let this truth come out, I’m putting all of our lives at stake. But I also can’t sit by and just let this play out. He’s dangling your lives from a string and I won’t let him do that to my students. I think our only option is to flee from here.”

Kirheen pulled back away from him, drying her eyes with her sleeve. The thought never crossed her mind that they might just run from this. It didn’t seem like a possibility. There was too much at stake and so little they knew. The Darkness might not be real but there was still danger out in the beyond.  “Flee? Where would we go? We don’t exactly know what’s out there!”

“I don’t know, Kirheen. I’m not even sure it’s safe for us out there. If Sanctuary was founded because our kind was in danger than there is no telling what is beyond those mountains. We’d be running into the unknown. Unless everyone agreed to leave, this could get chaotic fast.”

“Not everyone would agree to leave, even if they knew. You know that. Not just that, but there has to be others loyal to Nyson!”

“I know, I know. That’s the problem. It would become a power struggle and it would be the students caught in the middle. Nothing about this is going to be easy. If we could slip out a few people without tipping off Nyson, we could find out what is beyond and maybe we could get help. If we all try to leave, this is going to turn into a battle and one I’m not sure we’ve enough numbers on our side to win.”

“But who would go? How can we possibly make that choice?”

He frowned, his lips cinched together as if he were afraid of the words that might come out. Kirheen tried to meet his gaze but his eyes drifted to the bed. Was it guilt she saw on his face? Hesitation? Trista stepped to the edge of the bed, expression dour. “Right now, only you and Garild know about this and as such, you’re at risk. If we can sneak you out of here, Nyson will have no choice but to claim you were both sent away. If he told everyone the truth about your whereabouts, he’d be exposing the lie for what it is and he won’t do that. He’s worked much too hard to let that slip over two students.”

She felt her jaw drop before the pain of those words registered. She glanced between Tomias and Trista hoping desperately that one of them would save her from the whirlpool of emotions she was being sucked down into. “No…”

“Kirheen…”

“No! You can’t just send me away! I can’t leave like this. This was all my fault and I need to help fix it!”

Trista threw her hands up. “What choice do we have? You want to risk starting a damned war with Nyson? Is that what you want? Think of how many casualties there will be if that happens. We don’t have the numbers on our side, Kirheen. We pick this fight and we all lose. At least if you flee there may be a chance.”

“This can’t be the only way. Tomias, tell me there is another way!”

He raised his eyes to look at her, a flicker of sadness flashing through them like a spark. It disappeared as quickly as it came and his demeanor changed. His jaw was rigid, his eyes flat. “There isn’t. We have to get you both out of here. If it means keeping you both safe, then we’re willing to play along with Nyson. We’re willing to make that sacrifice. Now you need to do the same.”

She felt like she’d been punched. This was her mentor, her friend. He was asking her to leave them all behind, to leave them there while she went off in search of help that might not exist.  “You can’t ask me to do this. I can’t just leave everyone…I can’t leave without…without you.”

His hardened expression melted, revealing the conflicting emotions beneath. “You can and you will, Kirheen. I need you to do this for me. For all of us. We’re living under the thumb of a mad man. If someone learns of this on the outside, maybe they’ll help. Please do this for me…”

She didn’t think she could feel any more pain, but there it was. She hugged herself, trying to keep from falling apart. With a shaky breath, she gave her answer. “I’ll do my part. Does Garild know what you intend to do? Does he know?” She hadn’t seen Garild since the celebration and she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to. Her actions had probably devastated his entire world. He’d be angry. As much as she wanted to shy away from it, she needed to face that anger and try to apologize. It might not fix anything but if she could patch his heart, even a little, she would.

The mention of his name brought a concerned expression to every face in the room. Tomias looked briefly at the window, at the slants of light pouring through and filling the room with a warm glow. Trista followed his gaze and her eyes went wide. “The trial!”

Fenir was already moving towards the other room. He returned a moment later, shaking his head.

“Damn it,” Tomias spat, standing from the bed.

“What is going on,” Kirheen choked.

Tomias rubbed at his forehead. “The trial for Garild and Isa is supposed to happen this morning. Supposed to be happening now! For all I know, they could already be there. We’ve no time to plan. Trista, get the supplies together as we discussed. Kirheen, Fenir, we’re going to have to get Garild out of there.”

“Won’t this start the very conflict we were trying to avoid?”

“Yes, damn it! Unless someone has something really clever, I don’t think we’re getting out of this one peacefully. Come on, we need to move.”

Days spent sitting in bed had taken their toll on Kirheen. Too quick a movement and pain would shoot through her skull and her eyes would grow fuzzy. Her muscles ached and her lungs burned as she tried to keep pace with the long strides of her mentors. There was no time for rest, no time to stop and catch her breath. Despite her discomfort, she was driven by a need to protect. She’d save Garild. She owed him that much. She just hoped they weren’t too late.

At the edge of the Temple of Trials, they stopped, all three feeling a strange excess of power in the air around them. It made her hair stand on end. “What is that?”

Fenir grunted.
“I don’t like this.”

“We need to get him out, now,” Tomias demanded, approaching the steps with confident strides. Kirheen stayed on his heels, trying to scramble together enough focus to be of any use if it came down to a fight. Tomias flung the doors open and they launched into the room.

It was a strange sight. In the center of the room, Garild and Isa stood rigid, as if they’d both frozen mid step. The only movement came from Herzin and she stood in front of Garild, her hands pressed to either side of his face. At the sound of the door, she looked over, green eyes blazing.

Kirheen didn’t even hesitate. She knew the damage Herzin could cause and she wasn’t about to let Garild be her next victim. Prepared for the mental anguish that would follow, she flung out a blast of power, hammering it against Herzin’s mind with as much force as she could muster. The blast hit home, sending her staggering back away from Garild.

The backlash was immense and it forced Kirheen to her knees. Her body and mind weren’t prepared to handle that much power. She was still too weak. Fenir stepped to her side, reaching down and pulling her to her feet with little effort. He reached into the pocket of his robe and drew out a vial filled with a fiery red liquid.

Tomias looked alarmed. “Is that what I think---” He didn’t have time to finish. The vial was chucked across the room where it landed near Nyson. There was a high pitched whistling and then the vial exploded, sending plumes of red smoke to every corner of the room. The temple became a foggy dream world, her vision painted red by the smoke in the air. All sense of direction was lost and she would have stumbled if it weren’t for Fenir still holding onto her sleeve. He tugged her back towards what she hoped was the exit, tendrils of red smoke curling around them like a cloak. 

There was shouting behind her and then she was pulled out into the daylight, coughing and wheezing as she went. Tomias flew out of the red cloud a moment later, hauling Garild along with him. “Go, go, go!”

They continued running until they were out of sight and then Fenir pulled them into the trees. Then and only then did they slow their pace. All of them were breathing hard, the strange red cloud having filled their lungs with its potency.

“We don’t have much time,” Tomias said, bent over with his hands on his knees. “Garild, are you alright?”

Garild looked stricken by fear, his face pale and eyes distant. He took a moment to gather himself. “I’m…I’m alright. But…Herzin… she did something in there, something to Isa. We were never going to the work camps of our own free will. She was just going to break our minds and make us slaves.”

Tomias and Fenir exchanged a glance. “What are you talking about, Garild?”

“She said she was just going to help us, to shut off our minds for a while so we could recover. All she did was touch Isa and it was like she sucked the life out of her, made her just like the workers. No, Allseer, they can’t all be that way…”

“They are all that way and I’m a fool for not seeing it sooner. Allseer, damn them both. This is unforgiveable! She’s been unbinding them and a second later and you would have joined them.”

There was a familiarity to that word, a question she’d tucked away and forgotten about long ago. Hearing it again brought it back to the forefront of her mind. “You mentioned that before, back when Herzin attacked me. What is it?”

Tomias glanced through the trees nervously. “Listen, unbinding is normally something naturally occurring. It’s a breaking of the mind often caused by severe stress or damage. It doesn’t kill you but it leaves you as good as dead. When Herzin attacked you, I always thought it was just the force of the attack that nearly did you in. I never thought…”

“She is doing this...unbinding intentionally?”

“She
can
do it intentionally which is precisely the problem! I don’t know how, but she’s been breaking their minds and I can only assume it’s so they are easier to control. Can’t exactly have a rebellion if half your subjects can’t even think for themselves.”

There was a shout from far away. It carried through the trees, reverberating off the glowing behemoths like icy warnings. “We’re out of time. I can only hope Trista has your things together. We’re going to need help now more than ever.”

“You can’t seriously still think this is a good idea! If Herzin is really doing this then we all need to escape!”

Tomias shook his head. “And what of all those people who’ve already been broken? How do you intend to take them with us? I refuse to leave them behind. We can’t do this alone, Kir. We can’t. Now you both need to go. We’ll hold them off as long we can, but you won’t get much of a head start.”

Kirheen didn’t like the tone of his voice. There was a sense of finality in his gaze, in the rigid set of his jaw. She could have sworn she heard his heart shatter as they made eye contact. It was a wordless goodbye, silent and dreadful.

“Tomias, you can’t…”

“Take care of each other,” he said and then he turned, Fenir on his heels. They crashed through the underbrush, rushing off in the opposite direction to lure away those pursuing them. They were buying them time and even though it broke her heart to even think about it, she couldn’t let their sacrifice be in vain.

We’ll come back for you…

Kirheen turned, urging Garild to keep running. The activity of the morning was starting to catch up with her but she couldn’t bring herself to slow down, not with so much at stake. She slowed near Trista’s hut, approaching from the back so they wouldn’t be seen off the main trail. She pounded lightly on the back window, hoping the only recipient of the noise would be Trista herself.

Trista appeared around the corner a moment later, carrying two overly full packs. She glanced between them. “Where are Tomias and Fenir,” she all but demanded.