Ki Book One (3 page)

“
Are a myth,” his mouth moved slowly around
the word, hinting at derision, but his gaze was at odds with the
move. Perhaps there was more to this Ashkan than anger and
arrogance after all. “Now keep moving.”

She watched him pocket the device, her gaze
not moving from it.

“
You’re not going to stand here and stare
at my pocket all day,” he turned her around.

“
You don’t know what you’re dealing with,”
she resisted, trying to twist back to plead with him.

“
A Tarkan weapon. Don’t worry, I’ve dealt
with many before,” though the boom and bluster were gone from his
words, he kept pushing her forward.

They had travelled through most of the field
now, and she could see the farmhouse clearly. Run down in sections,
it still looked comfortable. One story with several chimneys, it
reminded her of her own family home. Though she had joined the
priestess clan at the age of nine, she could still remember her
life before.

As they approached, the door opened, a woman
walking out slowly and resting her hand on one of the large veranda
posts. Chin dimpling as she frowned, she cocked her head to the
side.

“
Get inside, Laura, get the kids too. Find
me a chair and some rope,” his voice kicked up now. The arrogance
replaced with a tight vigilance.

The woman, Laura, straightened up, her
hands dropping to her sides. “What are you talking about, Jackson,
what’s going on? Who is that woman?”

“
She’s a Tarkan spy.”

Jackson. So her persecutor had a name.

“
I’m not a spy,” she shifted against his
grip. With the farmhouse looming before them, her situation was
becoming even more desperate. Jackson had the device and soon she
would be tied up.

She had spent months planning her escape,
and now it would come to naught. All because she had fallen into
Ashka in front of this horrible man.

“
Shut up,” his head dipped low by her ear,
his voice a whisper. “If you do anything to my
family....”

“
You’ll kill me. Because you have no
problem in murdering an unarmed, injured woman. I understand that
perfectly.”

Laura took several steps back, her thick
boots loud over the wooden floorboards of the
veranda
.
“Jackson?”

“
Go inside and find some rope. Do it
now.”

Laura turned around, fleeing inside, her
long skirts billowing out behind her at the speed of her move. With
her lips drawing in and her cheeks slackening, it was clear she was
afraid.

In fact, the emotion washed off her and
lapped at Ki like the swell from a storm.

All priestesses could sense emotion. Though
they were taught to control their own, they were schooled in
reading those of others.

He walked her off the grass and onto the
path that led up to the house. Made of roughly-hewn stone, it dug
into the tender flesh of her feet.

“
Don’t do this. Don’t get your wife and
children involved.”

“
Laura is my sister, and the kids are hers.
But they are my family. And you are not going to do anything to
hurt them,” he pushed her up the steps, pausing as they reached the
front door.

She could see inside. It was a large
house, and despite its outward appearance, it was clean and
well-kept inside. A carved, wooden table rested near the door, a
lamp and a lace runner arranged neatly on the top.

Photos hung on the wall above the table.
There were pictures of the house, of a large family, and one or two
she instantly recognized as Jackson in the garb of a soldier. It
was yet more evidence he was proud of his military history and that
he would likely never forgive her for being Tarkan, let alone help
her.

She had to look for a way to escape. Soon.
Before the Others came. The Zeneethian Scouts. The same group that
had kidnapped her more than a year ago.

Thinking about them made her skin chill. A
cold, damp sensation spread through her chest and down her arms. It
made it hard to breathe.

She would go back to the facility.
Surrounded by those sleek white walls, they would continue their
experiments on her.

Despite her attempts to regain emotional
control, tears began to streak down her cheeks, collecting against
her chin and running down her neck.

“
Move over here,” Jackson pulled her
through the hall and towards an open room at the back of the house.
It had boxes and tools and a simple wooden chair seated at a desk.
The desk was covered in papers, pens, and various
devices.

Jackson pulled at the chair with his foot,
turning it around, and pushing her into it, two strong hands
weighing down on her shoulders. “Laura, the rope, where is
it?”

Ki began to shake. Her heartbeat became
erratic, that pressure in her chest building.

There were two large windows in this room,
one over the desk and one just before her. She could see out it
easily. It showed a path leading out from the back of the house
towards a road beyond. There were two vehicles parked within view,
one large, old, rusted truck, the other a sleek new car.

In the monastery, she’d had no need for a
car, and in Zeneethia they had no need either; they lived in the
skies. They flew. From their cities to their ships, everything
floated.

She heard Laura approach and watched as she
handed Jackson the rope. Hand trembling, the young woman stared at
Ki.

“
Jackson... she’s crying, what have you
done to her?” Laura clutched at the simple silver pendant around
her neck, lips creasing into a confused frown.

Jackson finished tying the rope, placing his
boot on the chair, anchoring it as he tied off the knot as tight as
he could. Then he moved around.

Ki looked up at him as he looked down at
her.

“
She’s Tarkan,” he hardly moved his mouth
as he spoke, and quickly looked away.

“
But...” Laura rubbed her hands nervously,
that confused frown still drawing down her cheeks.

“
She’s a Tarkan spy, Laura. Now you have to
do something for me. Go into town, find the nearest Guard post.
There’s one opposite the bakery. Tell them to get here as quickly
as they can.” Jackson moved towards his sister, fixing his hands on
her shoulders gently as he clearly tried to center her
attention.

“
Okay,” Laura nodded, her soft brown locks
falling over her shoulder.

As Ki watched, she couldn’t help but
sympathize with Laura. She could feel the woman’s fear and
confusion.

She was right to be afraid, but not of
Ki.

“
Take your children,” Ki
interrupted.

“
What?” Laura’s skin paled
further.

Jackson snapped around, pushing against
the chair with his foot. “Shut up.”

“
Take your children. They aren’t safe here.
Others will come to take me. They will kill anyone who gets in
their way.” Ki stared at Laura, never letting her gaze waver.
Despite her pain-addled body, her bruised arm, and her throbbing
feet, she could appreciate how innocent this woman was. She and her
children did not deserve to be caught up in this simply because her
brother could not listen.

“
I said shut up,” Jackson took a step,
placing himself between his sister and Ki.

“
Jackson, what is she talking about?”
Laura’s voice shook, her pupils shifting wildly, her eyes watery
and wide.

“
Just go to the Guard post,” Jackson
returned his hands to his sister’s shoulders.

“
Take your children,” Ki tried to shift
forward on the chair, but her arms were too weak to fight against
the ropes.

Laura took several steps back, gaze darting
from Jackson to Ki. With her hand still latched on her pendant, she
nodded. Then she called out two names.

Her children. As they ran to her side from
various rooms in the house, Ki gave a sigh. Though the kids glanced
at Ki curiously, their mother quickly hurried them out of the room
and out of the house. Seconds later Ki saw them pile into the old
truck.

Tipping her head back, indulging in closing
her eyes, Ki sighed again. The move travelled deep into her chest.
It would likely be her last moment of relief in months.

“
You shouldn’t have scared her like
that.”

She blinked open one eye to see Jackson
looming over her, arms crossed. His sleeves were pulled up, his
muscles tight against the fabric.

She was no match for him physically. He’d
made that point clear. The only hope she had was now firmly tucked
in his pocket.

Unable to stop herself, she glanced down
towards the device. As she did, he followed her gaze and plucked it
out seconds later. Turning it around in his palm, he held it up to
the light, a frown tugging at his mouth. “What is it?”

She looked up at him, tearing her eyes off
the latticed crystal
.
“It’s a levitation device.”

He shook his head, giving a sharp,
scornful laugh
. “Of
course it is.”

“
It’s the truth. It’s a levitation device,”
she could feel her expression deaden as that cold feeling of dread
weighed her down further. With no hope of escape, her fight dried
up.

“
And it belongs to the Zeneethians, does
it? The same Zeneethians that are coming to take you back? Why did
they give it to you?” he continued to turn the device around in his
grip. Though his words were dismissive, his voice wavered. His
shoulders also rounded, dropping in. If he had been anyone else,
she would have assumed he was having second thoughts. That guilt or
reason, or some mix of the two, were finally catching up with
him.

“
They didn’t give it to me. I stole it so I
could get away,” she looked down at her hands. They were locked in
her lap, the rope tight around her middle. Though her feet were
covered in toe rings and anklets, her fingers and wrists were bare
save for the two prominent tattoos on the backs of her hands. They
were sacred symbols from the ancient Tarkan language, and they were
meant to afford one protection and peace.

They obviously weren’t working.

“
Of course you did. And now they’re coming
to take you back, and this too, presumably,” he threw the device up
and caught it easily.

If her expression had been a deadened one
before, it sharpened in an instant. “They will pull this house
apart looking for that. If you take it to your village, they will
turn it to rubble to get it back. You should just leave. Get away
while you can.”

“
I’m not going to fall for that old trap,”
he stood taller, though his shoulders were still rounded and his
heart didn’t seem to be in it.

“
This old trap? How many other times have
you come across a kidnapped Tarkan priestess who has stolen a
levitation device to get away from the Zeneethians?”

“
I’m not going to fall for your
lies
,” he
clarified.

She stared at him for one more second, then
turned away, determined not to look at him again. She could not
reach him. His fate would now be his own.

“
So what is this device really?”

She did not reply.

“
Who are you really?”

She closed her eyes.

“
The Guards will find a way to make you
talk.”

She surrendered to her situation. She no
longer fought the turgid emotions building within; she let them
flow. Tears streaked down her cheeks faster, her chest shifting
back and forth as soft sobs escaped her lips.

“
Crying isn’t going to affect me,” Jackson
snapped.

No doubt the particle rifles of the
Zeneethians would though. Jackson could bluster all he liked now,
but when the scouts burst through their door with their advanced
weaponry and armor, he would stop.

They would kill him and pluck the device
from his pocket. Then they would take her back. This time they
would watch her all day and all night. She would never have another
opportunity to escape.

It was time to turn her mind within to
engage in whatever meditation she could. She had to gather forth
the scraps of emotional control she had left before the inevitable
onslaught coming for her arrived.

Jackson tried to ask her several more
questions before he gave up.

She heard him leave the room, only to return
with a chair that he sat in roughly.

Then they waited.

Though they did not wait long.

Chapter Three

It was when he was sitting there in a
kitchen chair staring at her that he heard something.

At first he thought it was his sister
returning, but as he strained his neck to stare through the window
above his desk, he realized her truck wasn’t turning down the
driveway. Plus, whatever hum he now heard was distinctly different
from the rumble of that old rust bucket.

It sounded like thousands of insects. He’d
been unlucky enough to see a swarm of locusts once, and the buzz
that now filled the house reminded him of it distinctly.

Standing up, he snapped his head towards the
Tarkan spy, Ki, as she claimed to be called. She opened her eyes,
her chest lurching forward as she gasped in clear shock. With eyes
pressed open, her cheeks practically dropped from her face as her
mouth slackened, lips limp.