The Hidden Fire (Book 2) (8 page)

He
pulled a pistol and used it as a pointer.  “So yes, it comes to this, but you
don’t know what
this
is.  This is my way out.  I’m going to make enough
money off of
this
to retire.  And not to a one-room cottage — more like
a cozy villa in the Syrolian Alps.”

He
waved away a circling fly and lowered his voice.  “Look, I know this is a
shitty job.  But it’s only a matter of grit your teeth and get through it, and
then it will be raining gold.  So do us all a favor, Candy.  Take the oath and
make your mark and we can get on with it.”

Aiyan
stared at him.  “What makes you think that a decent man could tolerate this for
even a minute?  You’re trafficking in human lives, kidnapping innocent folk and
sacrificing them so you can make a kandar.  It’s an abomination.”

Lerica
glanced sidelong at Kyric, a touch of panic in her eyes. 
What was Aiyan
doing
?

“And
my name isn’t Candy.  I am Sir Aiyan Dubern of the Order of the Flaming Blade.”

Thurlun
let out a short bark of a laugh.  “That’s the worse lie I’ve ever heard.  They
don’t give knighthoods to war criminals.  And that’s what we were — and still
are — guilty, but pardoned.”

“That
was fifteen years ago,” said Aiyan.  “A man can make much of himself in that
time if he hasn’t poisoned his own spirit.  But I really don’t care if you
believe me.  I’ve lost all the respect I ever had for you.”

Thurlun
stiffened.  “You think you’re all high and mighty now, do you?  A decent man,
you say?  Well I can look into your eyes and see that you’re still a killer,
and that you never stopped being one.  I recognized it right away back then, when
you first asked to sign on; that’s why I took you despite your youth.  You want
to know the real reason they called you Candy?  It wasn’t about the peppermint
sticks.  It was so they didn’t have to call you Killer, because they could all
see how easy it was for you.  But I saw one thing the others didn’t.  When you
would get the shakes after a raid, everyone thought it was just regular nerves,
but I knew it was the backlash of the thrill.  For you, it was better than
having a woman, and you would bide your time till the next one.”

He
turned to Kyric.  “Hey, arrow boy.  How long have you been working for this
man?”

Kyric
shrugged.  He was happy to let Thurlun think him a hireling.  “A few months.”

“And
how many men has he killed in that time?”

Kyric
couldn’t help but think about it.  In less than a fortnight Aiyan had killed
eight men in Aeva.  But they were all men who had sided with evil.  And he had
to judge himself before he could judge Aiyan.  He had killed three in a matter
of minutes.

Kyric
didn’t say anything, and Thurlun looked at him more closely.  “I see.  You’re
one of us as well.  A killer in training.  Bet you never killed anyone till you
met
him
.”

He
turned back to Aiyan.  “You’re even passing it on to the next generation.  Like
a decent man would.”

Aiyan
didn’t move.  “At least we don’t do it for
money
.”  He spat out the last
word.

“We’ll
see what you do it for,” Thurlun said with a rising fury.  He slammed down the
dogs on his pistol and pointed it at Aiyan.

Aiyan
simply stood there, looking at Kyric.  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.  “It is
the moment of the tower.”

“Guppy! 
Harlon!  Get out here now and bring a pair of manacles.”

Thurlun
went to stand behind Aiyan, but the silver locket dangling below Aiyan’s sash
caught his eye.  He fingered it for a moment, then asked, “Pocket watch?”  When
Aiyan said nothing he tried to open it.  He removed the chain from around Aiyan’s
neck and looked at the locket closely, feeling all over it for a secret clasp.

“How
do you open it?”

Aiyan
wouldn’t even look at him.

“What
is in this?” Thurlun snapped.

“The
hidden fire of the spirit,” Aiyan said.  “The only place you will ever see it
is on the edge of my sword.”

Guppy
and Harlon came out with the irons.  Thurlun told them, “You two chain
Candy
to the stump by his left wrist.  He’ll need his killing hand free.”

The
smoothly sawed-off stump of a great canopy tree lay in the middle of the camp,
a huge iron ring fixed in its center.  They manacled Aiyan there, with Guppy, a
mountain of a man, bucking the tails of the rivets with one blow of his
hammer.  They gave him just enough chain to take one step.

“The
game begins in the morning, Candy,” Thurlun called to him, still holding the
locket.  “And we will all see what you are.  Before this is over, you will kill
an innocent man in order to save the guilty.”

“It
is him,” Lerica whispered, her voice cold as the grave.

“Who?”

“The
Cutter.  It is him.”

The
stump lay on ground that didn’t see shade until the shadows grew long.  As the
sun swung low the overseers clapped and the slaves went into a bustle,
finishing their work and putting away their tools as if a boogey man would soon
come out.

Ral
and Guppy busied themselves at a tree opposite the little island.  Rigging like
that on a ship’s mast ran from the top of the tree.  A rope led to one block
and tackle, looped through another one and ended at a long object that leaned
over the water.  It was a drawbridge.  They lowered it and the slaves walked
across it in ones and twos, Ral cursing and telling them to hurry.

Thurlun
came over to Kyric and Lerica.  “Before I untie you, I want you to know that
the crocodiles are very active at night.  They’re big, and they’re man-eaters. 
Do not go near the water’s edge at night.”

Kyric
looked him in the eyes.  The man wasn’t lying.

Tebble,
the one Kyric had fought with, came rushing out of nowhere growling, “You
fucking son of a bitch,” throwing a haymaker swing aimed right for his nose.

Thurlun
stepped in and caught his arm.  “Whoa.  What’s this about?”

Tebble
was unusually red on his forehead and around his right eye.  “He rubbed
something in my face.  It’s killing me.”

“You’ll
live,” said Thurlun.  “Go smear mud on it like the natives do.”

Harlon
led them to the bridge.  It was a stripped tree-trunk that had been split and
folded back, with a few rough planks set crossways to hold it together.  They
were the last to cross.  It was narrow, and it wobbled.  The waters of the
swamp rippled.  Creatures moved beneath the surface as twilight began to fall.

The
Terrulans all stared in wonder at Kyric.  A foreigner akin to their captors,
thrown in with slaves.  They stepped aside as he walked among them.  Then a
skinny old woman with close-cut hair stood before him, surprise on her face as
she greeted him in Cor’el.

‘
You
are even younger here than on the other side
,’ she said-signed.  ‘
With
your power, I thought you would be older than me
.’

‘
Who
are you
?’ he returned.

‘
I
am the one who dreamed you here.  I am Rolirra
.’

Kyric
blinked and looked again.  It was her, only she was thirty years older.  “I
knew you were real,” he said, though she didn’t understand him.

‘
How
is it
,’ he said-signed, ‘
that we have walked together in our dreams
?’

‘
We
are Ilven
,’ she replied.  ‘
We are the clan of dreamers
.’  She smiled
wearily.  ‘
Everyone is tired and hungry.  We will talk at the meeting place
after we have eaten
.’

Beneath
a group of trees in the middle of the island, a cooking table had been fashioned
out of tree limbs and mud.  Above a bed of coals in its center, thick slabs of
fish roasted on a buccan of green wood.  Rolirra said some sort of blessing
over it, which was echoed by the circle of Terrulans, then it was handed out,
with palm leaves for plates.

It
was bland, yet fishy in taste, but otherwise alright.  Suddenly mad with
hunger, Kyric wolfed his down and licked the remaining flakes from his leaf. 
Someone brought him more.  Apparently there wasn’t any shortage of fish around
here.

“Why
do I get the feeling,” he said to Lerica, “that we’re eating fillet of angel
ray?”

She
didn’t say anything.  She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and licked
it clean.  “What in
hell
is wrong with Aiyan?” she whispered savagely. 
“All he had to do was agree to work for them — “

“I
know, I know.”  Kyric let out a heavy sigh.  “I don’t know why he didn’t do
that.”

Clouds
of mosquitoes gathered over the island.  A big round moon began to peek over
the treetops as the last light faded in the west.  “Great,” said Lerica.  “The
moon will be full tomorrow night.”

“And
will you turn into a bird and fly away?” he said, thinking of the fairy tale
about the woodcutter.

“No
bird.  But I might fly.”

He
was about to ask her what she meant by that, when Rolirra came over and sat
down beside him.

‘
I
do not know how I found you on the other side
,’ she said-signed.  ‘
I was
looking for another, the dream master of our clan.  But you are like a — ‘

She
used a sign Kyric didn’t know.

Lerica
translated.  “Sinkhole.”

‘
— a sinkhole that draws all the waters around it.  How is it that you can —
’ she searched
for simple signs, ‘
— carry things from one side to the other?
’  She
showed him a discolored patch on her leg.  ‘
This is from the firebird.  It
came from the other side.  This is called —
‘ she said the word, “Ti’ilve.” 
‘
Only the elder dreamers from the time before the days of cold could do this
.’

Kyric
held out his hands.  ‘
It is nothing I try to do.  When I was young, I was
—
‘ he couldn’t think of the right sign-sounds, ‘
— I was touched by a power
that cannot be known.
’

She
was quiet for a moment.  ‘
I am sorry.  All this time I thought you were a
master dreamer, knowingly coming to aid us.  You always found a new way, even
when I was lost.
’  She laid on her back then, patting the ground next to
her.  ‘
Come.  We shall see if we can go to the meeting place together
.’

Apparently,
the meeting place was in the dream world.  All around the cluster of trees, the
other Terrulans were bedding down in small groups.  He laid next to her and
closed his eyes.  She covered the tip of his little finger with hers.

After a day like today, he knew he
couldn’t easily fall asleep.  He didn’t understand what Aiyan was doing.  If he
had no respect for Thurlun, then he had nothing to prove.  Had he simply lost
his temper?  Wasn’t their freedom and safety worth one day of working with
slave-takers?  If it was only a trick to get away, it wouldn’t make them real
slavers, would it? 
Would it?
”

“It
poisons your heart the first time you allow another to treat a person as
property,” said Rolirra

They
sat in the shade of a great tree beneath a mild summer sky.  The wind blew, and
sunlight ran in iridescent waves across a grassy slope leading down to a
village, one of a chain of villages surrounding the hill, all connected by
gardens thick with fruited trees and blossoming vines.

“But
they would use your people as slaves whether I was among them or not.  It
wouldn’t change what is happening.”  He looked at her.  She was young and
beautiful as she was in the other dreams, and he was older and stronger once
again.

“It
would change what is happening to
you
.  You would have to send men to
their deaths.  If you thought in your heart that you were not a slaver, you would
still be one with your hands.  And how would you wash that blood away?”

He
remembered the river of blood.

“I
see,” he said.  And he repeated what Aiyan had told him:  “All battles are
battles of the spirit.”

“That
is wisdom.”

“Not
my words.”

The
trunk of the tree had a girth of many arm spans, splitting into dozens of
branches that arched far into the field.  Shining golden moss ran in patterns
through the wrinkled bark, and the leaves glowed like green lights.  There were
others sitting beneath it as well, and Kyric recognized many as slaves from the
camp.  Some of them stood and went down the hill.

“I
am glad we could come here together,” Rolirra said.  The dream tree lies very
close to the other side.  For those of my clan, this is the beginning place.  I
was surprised when I went through and found myself in the desert of light.”

“Why
didn’t you speak of this when we first met?”

“The
farther you go, the more the memory fades.  If you go deep enough, you lose
your other self.  It is the same on both sides.”

He
nodded.  “In the desert, I didn’t realize I was dreaming.  It felt like I was
in the waking world.”

She
looked at him seriously.  “You do not understand.  It is
all
a dream. 
Only there are two aspects to it.  One balances the other.  This is the first
lesson we teach to our children.”

She
stood and picked a leaf from the tree.  It shone even brighter in her hand. 
She blew on it and it floated upward, caught on a current of air, and drifted
away like a feather.

“We
must find a way to free our other selves,” she said, “or we will die there.  Then
we could only be here.”

Kyric
grinned in surprise.  “Are you saying that when we die there, we do not die
here
?”

“Yes. 
It is the same on both sides of the dream.”

She
led him around to the other side of the tree.  The trunk had split open,
revealing a hollow inside.  It was wide enough for a man to pass.

“This
is the first door,” she said.  “It leads to the caves of many ways.  From there
you can find many places.  I want you to come with me to the rainland plateau.”

“Why?”

“So
that you can bring rain to the other side.”

He
smiled sheepishly.  “You know that when I carry things to the other side, they
become much less that what they were.  The fire breath of the salamanders came
across only as a sunburn.”

“The
rains of the plateau are punishing.”

A
breeze shook the dream tree and the glowing leaves twinkled.  The light danced
in Rolirra’s eyes.

“What
good would the rain do?” Kyric asked.

“It
would drive them away.  The river would rise, and the swamp would rise.  When
they overflowed, the evil men would have to go.  They would have to take their
evil treasure and leave, or else drown.  They were on the verge of this when
the wet season ended.  It would not take many days of rain.”

“Wouldn’t
you drown as well?”

“No,”
she said simply.  “The island will hold us up.  It will ride on the water.”

She
was obviously getting confused, mixing what could happen in the dream world
with the real.  “Maybe it would here,” he said, “but on the other side, earth
doesn’t float.”

She
placed her hands on her hips.  “It does.”

With
his memory of the real world intact now, he suddenly felt uncomfortable with
Rolirra’s near nakedness.  She’s really an old woman, he told himself, but he
had to look away nonetheless.

“Listen
to me,” he said.  “The man they have chained in the camp will free us soon.  It
looks bad now, but Aiyan is an extraordinary man.  He is a true warrior and a
master of weird arts.  The rain is not needed.  So do not worry — when the time
is right, Aiyan will see us rescued and the slavers undone.”

Rolirra
was unconvinced.  “That may be so.  But it may not.  Their leader is clever as
a demon.  He has a power.”

Thurlun
did seem to have a way of looking right into you, Kyric thought.

He
threw himself down in the grass.  “Come.  Let’s just lie here for a while.  It’s
been a hard day.”

She
knelt beside him and patted his hand.  “Tomorrow will be even harder.”