The Bonded: The Allseer Trilogy Book I (26 page)

Garild was drugged and the amputation was performed. Kirheen had asked to sit in the hallway but Leann had forced her outside claiming she didn’t need to hear or see what would happen. She didn’t need those memories. Kirheen wondered if she knew how right she was.

They sat out on the porch, the gentle glow of a lantern between them. Therin joined them, handing a steaming mug of tea to Kirheen. She sipped at it gingerly, decided it was too hot and set it to the side. Leann was the first to speak.

“Kirheen, I am so sorry for this. It sounds like things have already been tough enough for you on your journey here.”

“This is all my fault,” Kirheen said, resting her head in her hands. “I forced all of this and now Garild is paying the price.”

“This is the price of change, Kirheen. It is high but it is often necessary,” Therin said softly, taking a seat next to her. “It is a price I know well. It’s been years since anyone has come through the cave there in the mountains and yet here you both are. I didn’t think I’d be alive to see it.”

Kirheen raised her head. “You speak as if you know what lies beyond?”

Leann smiled a sad smile. “We do. Before we came to live here…we were Bonded. Sanctuary was our home.” She flipped over her left hand so her palm was facing the sky. Kirheen saw for the first time a puckered patch of skin on her wrist, and in that scar she could barely make out the faded remnants of a tattoo.

The words hit Kirheen like a ton of bricks. She was equal parts incredulous and angry. “You’re kidding me. You’ve known this whole time what has been happening there? You’ve known and done nothing?”

Therin and Leann exchanged a troubled glance. “Kirheen, it’s been years since we left Sanctuary behind. It had a purpose then, but I didn’t want that life. I didn’t want a life lived for revenge,” Therin said.

Leann shook her head. “I think it might be best if you explain the world you grew up in. Much has changed, both here and in Sanctuary. I’d like to know what we left behind.”

And so Kirheen told them everything. She spoke of her childhood, raised communally and taught to fear the world outside. She told them of the ritual that bound her and Garild, told them of her fear of her powers, of letting someone in her mind. Herzin and her anger, the lies her whole world had been built on, her betrayal and having to leave behind her friends in order to save them. By the end, she was shaking, so filled with anger she could barely contain it. “And you left us to that!”

When she regained her composure she saw that Leann was crying and Therin was dreadfully pale, even with the warm glow of the lantern. “This…this is not what I wanted to hear,” Therin said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. He rubbed at his face, sighing deeply as he did. “I am so sorry. If I had known my brother would fall to such madness, if I had known he would go to such lengths… I would have never let him continue on.”

Kirheen’s breath caught in her throat. She felt a flutter in her heart. “What are you saying?”

“Nyson and I are blood brothers. We’re related. Heh, you probably don’t even know the word. I guess you really have no concept of what it means to be a family. It was our grandfather that founded Sanctuary, our grandfather that first led our kind through the caves and found a safe haven for our kind.”

Leann took over the story, her voice bringing to life a tale Kirheen had never heard. “There was a time when our powers were considered a gift. We were considered blessed by Riel the Lightbringer herself. The Allseer, as you call her. We had the power to heal and change the world around us, but some began to see it as a threat. Those without powers had always been uneasy around our kind, but it came to a boiling point when the Zekaren Royal Family took the throne. They decreed that our powers were an abomination. They worked the land into a frenzied blood lust and then they began hunting us. Our kind were tortured, murdered in the streets, chained and burned for all to see. At the height of the massacre, his grandfather gathered a group of individuals wanting to start a new life and followed old tales that hinted at a place to the North, a place where our powers originated. They made it through the caves and Sanctuary was formed.”

“It was a hard life for them at first, but slowly they began to grow as did their desire for revenge. A large group, his grandfather included, wanted to cultivate our powers. They wanted to shape them for the future so that they could one day strike back against those that had nearly wiped them out. That philosophy took root and it slowly began to shape itself into the world that you grew up knowing. When we came of age, we were Bonded by their father. I was Bonded to Nyson, a man I did not love and forced into a life I did not desire. And Therin was Bonded to Herzin, a woman he did not wish to spend his life with. The truth was, we were in love with each other. Always had been.”

“And there were those that desired freedom as well. There were those that didn’t want powers, that didn’t want to spend their whole lives waiting for bloodshed that they had no desire to see. And so we gathered those willing to rebel and we left Sanctuary behind. We’ve found a freedom here that you have never known, but I fear you have all paid the price for it.”

Kirheen sat quietly, taking in the overwhelming amount of information she’d just heard. It was shocking to hear how her childhood had been shaped by events years before her time. A twisted desire for revenge and the pain of a broken bond had shaped Nyson into the cruel man he’d become. The lies he’d told to keep them close, his desperate bids for control, the cruelty Herzin had showed her at the first spark of her own rebelliousness, it all was starting to make sense. The reasons were there in front of her, she need only grasp them to understand the entirety of her life. This had been a struggle that had gone on long before she had existed, but it was a struggle she intended to end.

“Nyson has gone mad,” Kirheen said. “I can’t let him keep doing what he’s doing. He’s taken things even further, taking those unable to be part of his elite council and stripping them of their powers, breaking their minds and using his powers to control them. He’s turned my friends into husks and kept us all locked away in a safe little cage so he could accomplish the task his elders set him on. I came here to seek help and I fully intend to return to Sanctuary and stop him.”

Leann looked alarmed. “You want to go back?”

“What choice do I have, Leann? I left behind the only people in my life I’ve ever cared about. I left them behind with a promise that I’d come back and save them. I don’t intend to go back on that promise. I don’t intent to just leave them to suffer for my mistakes. What Herzin is doing to people, I can’t let that happen to those I left behind.”

Therin whispered softly. “She’s been unbinding them…Allseer help us, I never thought it would come to that.”

“Unbinding. What is it exactly?”

“It’s a branch of power not very often seen amongst our kind. It’s a strategic breaking of the mind. Before we left, it was only ever used against those that abused their powers. It’s an unstable power though. A wrong move while performing the unbinding can permanently break a mind and the only mercy left for those is a swift death.”

“Can it be reversed? If you can unbind someone couldn’t you reverse that process?”

Therin sighed. “In some cases, yes, but it has risks of its own and requires a delicate use of our power. Again, a wrong move and you break their mind beyond use. While you may be able to bring someone back, they aren’t always the same person they were before the unbinding. The longer the mind stays in that state, the worse the deterioration. I’d say it isn’t worth the risk most of the time.”

“They’ve been unbinding so many people. I’ve always wondered where the adults go after the birthing age, but I think I know now. Allseer, I feel sick. This isn’t right what they are doing. They need to be stopped.”

“And you think this can be done,” Leann asked, reaching forward to touch Kirheen lightly on the knee.

Kirheen turned towards her, all the pain and rage she felt burning in her eyes. “It must.”

Kirheen was by his side when her bond mate finally woke from his slumber. He looked confused, his eyes searching the small room, picking apart the dusty shelves and linen sacks until they came to rest on the bandaged stump that had once been his hand. There was a moment of disbelief, his mouth falling open as he looked for what should have been there.

The pain of the wound and the realization seemed to hit him at the same time. His eyes filled with angry tears as the fingers of his good hand crawled over the bandages, trying desperately to feel what had been taken from him. It took everything Kirheen had not to look away when his eyes finally met hers.

“What did they do,” he asked, pawing the blanket away from him. “Kirheen, what happened to me?”

Kirheen tried to push him back down on the bed but he struggled against her, the full brunt of his anger driving his strength. “Don’t touch me,” he growled. “Tell me what happened now!”

“Garild, your hand was infected. That snake that bit you…it was too late. If they hadn’t taken your hand you would…you would have died. I’m sorry...”

“Maybe that would have been better,” he yelled. Kirheen winced at the words and stood, taking a few steps back from his bed to avoid his flailing arms. There was nothing she could do for him, she knew that. No matter how guilt ridden she was, it wasn’t going to bring his hand back. There was nothing left to be done for Garild, but she could help save the others. She had earned his anger and she would deal with it in time, but she had other matters to focus on.

“I’m leaving in the next couple days,” she stated, trying to keep her voice level. “Therin and Leann have agreed to help me.”

“I’m going with you,” Garild said suddenly, a look of mild panic crossing his face. He swung his legs off the bed. “You can’t do this without me.”

“I can and I will. You need to heal and you can’t do that by going with us. You need to stay here and rest and come to terms with what has happened.”

“You caused this! If it wasn’t for you, I’d still have my hand! We’d still be back in Sanctuary and none of this would have ever been a problem!”

Kirheen squeezed her eyes shut and bit her tongue, hoping pain would still the words that so desperately were trying to push their way past her lips. She met his eyes one last time, her expression unreadable. His face was all torment and grief, anger and defeat. “I’m sorry, Garild. I hope to see you again soon. Keep us in your thoughts.”

She turned away from him then and quickly slipped out of the room. She lowered the bar over the door as she closed it, keeping Garild locked inside. The healer had demanded that he stay behind, that he get rest, even if it meant locking him away until they could depart. She’d promised to look after him, promised to keep him safe. It felt strange to be leaving that job to another.

Kirheen jumped as Garild began to pound on the door behind her. “Kirheen? Kirheen! Don’t leave me in here! Don’t leave me like this! Please! Please!”

Grinding her teeth, she forced herself down the hallway and out the front door, trying to keep the tears from spilling down her cheeks. It was all wrong. It shouldn’t have happened like this. He hadn’t deserved what happened to him and he didn’t deserve her abandoning him in a time of need. If there had been another way…

But they were out of time. Her attention was demanded back in Sanctuary and there were dozens of others that needed her. Garild would have to wait.

Leann was waiting for her on the steps outside. Night had fallen and the air outside was cool, the moon big and bright overhead. The long grasses of the plain swayed in the breeze and they seemed to glow in the light of moon. It reminded her of Sanctuary, the place that until recently she’d considered home.

She sat down with a sigh, rubbing her hands over her face, agitated by the events unraveling around her. Leann let her have a moment before speaking. “He’ll forgive you someday. It may not be as soon as you’d like, but he’ll come around. Time heals all things.”

“How I wish that were true. If I could just plant myself here and let time settle what’s happening back home, I’d happily oblige.”

Leann let out a soft chuckle. “Alright, well it may not fix everything but in this matter, it is the only thing that will help. He has been traumatized, Kirheen. It will take time before he is himself again. Just be his friend and he’ll come back to you.”

“I can’t even see that far ahead. Every part of me is consumed with what must be done. I can’t even be certain I’ll return from this. There is so much to do… I don’t know if I can handle this.”

“You made it all the way here with not much but the clothes on your back. You stood by your friend during his suffering, stood by him through his hatred. You had the courage and the strength to leave Sanctuary, to do what you had to do in order to have even the possibility of saving the rest of them. You are a wonderful young woman, and now you have the backing of all of us here to right our wrongs. Don’t doubt our success, Kirheen. Don’t doubt your ability to pull this off. You made it this far, you can make it a bit further.”

“Thank you so much, Leann. I don’t know what would have happened to us if Therin hadn’t noticed me that day. You’ve taken us in without question and shown us incredible kindness. I’ll never be able to repay you for this.”

“If we succeed, it’ll be payment enough.”

Kirheen smiled. “I suppose so.”

“He’s calling the meeting tomorrow. Not everyone is likely to join your cause, but these are good men and woman. Many of them will be willing to take up arms. You were right when you said we left you to that fate. The least we can do is free you from it.”

“A rebellion,” Kirheen huffed. “Who would have thought.” She turned her gaze to the moon overhead, its icy blue glow so like the wraith wood trees of Sanctuary. She’d be back amongst them in a few days, back to free her friends from the bonds of Nyson. She only hoped she wasn’t too late.