Kinshield's Redemption (Book 4) (23 page)

He crooked one eyebrow.

“When you leave this realm, or apparently this time, you cease to exist as far as certain kinds of magic are concerned. Feanna’s empathy can’t reach you, and the gargoyle lock unlocked itself.”

“As if I were dead,” he said under his breath.

“I was curious and took one of the runes out to look at it. Edan happened by and saw me, and he begged me to give it to him so that he could draw the rune’s shape in the encyclopaedia. You know how he is about recording knowledge in that book.”

King Gavin nodded, more relaxed now but still standing over her.

“You came back before he returned the rune, and we made plans to take Cirang to the farmhouse. He gave it back to me later that day, and I intended to return it to the chest, but he convinced me to bring it in case you needed it. I knew that if I’d told you I was bringing it along, you’d insist on leaving it behind, and so I put it in my knapsack. If you didn’t need it, no harm done. But if you did...”

“And I do,” he said.

“Then you’d be ever so grateful.” Daia smiled sweetly.

King Gavin put a hand on the back of her neck and squeezed. “My thanks, but swear to me you won’t ever do something like that behind my back again.”

“Not even if I’m sure you’ll thank me later?”

He gave her an impatient look.

“Fine,” she said. “I promise.”

“Awright, let’s do this.”

They continued on towards the gaol, their footsteps invigorated. Cirang couldn’t help but sense King Gavin’s excitement, though she had no idea what was to come.

“What, exactly, are we doing?” Daia asked, her strides nearly long enough to match his. “You never did explain what Carthis told you.”

He grinned at her and wagged his eyebrows. “The idea I had about swapping one person’s essence with another was almost right. The essences have to be complements, and our complements are in the yellow realm.”

“Yellow? Isn’t that one of the kho realms?” Daia asked.

“Yeh. Carthis gave me a spell that lets me imprint a person’s essence in a gem, like pressing your finger into clay to get the fingerprint. I can use the gems in my sword for that.”

Cirang nodded along with Daia. She didn’t truly understand magic, but she followed his explanation so far.

“Then you find someone in the yellow realm who’s the opposite of Hennah or Feanna?”

“Not quite,” Gavin said. “Hennah’s khozhi balance was reversed by the water, so I have to find someone whose essence matches hers. If Hennah used to be, say, two-thirds zhi and one-third kho, drinking the water made her two-thirds kho and one-third zhi. When I find someone in the yellow realm with that balance, I summon him here, swap their essences, and send him home again.”

Daia tapped her chin thoughtfully. “And if Hennah drinks the water again, that turns her new essence from two-thirds kho to two-thirds zhi?”

“Exactly. Puts it back to the way it was.”

“What about the yellow-realm person? He gets her corrupted essence.”

“Yeh. He’s no different than he was, except that now he’s immune to the water’s effect. Everyone wins.”

Cirang understood now, and she shared his fervor. If this worked, her debt would soon be paid. She wasn’t counting on being released—the king had stated his intention to execute her several times—but he was a kind man, generous and, maybe, possibly, forgiving.

Inside the gaol, the warden unlocked the inner door, escorted them down the dim corridor, and then unlocked and opened one of the cell doors.

The battler inside looked like a wild animal with her matted, grayish-brown hair and her filthy face and hands. Even her clothes were grimy and smelly, though it had only been a week since Cirang had fed her the tainted water. “What do you want?” Hennah asked, sitting up on her cot. Her large mouth and nose were too close together, making her chin look huge, and her brown eyes were smaller and set farther apart than most. Her forehead looked rounded and seemed to end at the highest point of her head. She wasn’t a woman who turned heads like Daia did, or at least not in the same way.

Cirang and Hennah had known each other for a few years in the Viragon Sisterhood. As someone who’d looked for reasons to laugh at others, Cirang had always enjoyed Hennah’s self-deprecating sense of humor. Though Hennah had been quiet, preferring the company of her horse to other people, she had a way with children, breaking the ice by making fun of her own appearance.

The king drew his sword.

“Hey, now,” Hennah said, raising her hands, palms out.

“Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.” He held the weapon as if to show her the carved snakes that made up the hilt or the gems that decorated it. His eyes rolled back under his lids until only a sliver of the brown iris showed, then they quivered a moment before returning to normal. She’d seen him do that before, and it concerned her now as it had the first time, but he seemed to suffer no ill effects. “We’ll be back shortly.”

Cirang and Daia shared a confused look before following him back up the corridor. The sound of the cell door being locked behind them was followed by the warden’s footsteps as they all followed King Gavin back outside.

“What now?” Daia asked.

“Now we go to find her complement.”

“We?”

“This time, you’re coming with me.”

“I am?” Daia asked, blinking hard. “You mean, all this time I could’ve come with you? Damn it, Gavin.” She glared at him with those icy blue eyes that had always made Cirang a bit uncomfortable. “It’s my job, my purpose—”

“Calm yourself,” Gavin said. “Carthis reminded me yesterday that I could bring others with me.”

“Reminded you? How could you forget something like that? You’ve only been traveling to other realms for a few months.”

He shook his head. “Never mind. The point is that you can come with me from now on.”

Daia’s gaze drifted away while her eyebrows knitted, seemingly to puzzle out his words.

“Forget it,” he said with a grin. He sorted through his knapsack and pulled out a rune.

“What about her?” She pointed a thumb at Cirang.

Gavin looked her up and down.

“I won’t run off, I swear,” Cirang said. If she had to, she would drop to her knees and beg him not to make her wait in a gaol cell.

He looked at the warden. “Anya’s mail and weapons.”

“We’ve got them in storage.” The warden held up a finger and then went inside.

“You’re not going to arm her,” Daia said warily.

“Where we’re going is a bit dangerous, and they’ll want to kill me to become Wayfarer. I’ll be more comfortable with two battlers at my back.”

Chapter 29

Gavin ran the edge of his thumb and middle finger under the strap across his chest to make sure it was snug. He hoped he wouldn’t need to use his sword, but if he did, he wanted it ready. He put the summoning rune Daia had given him into his knapsack and slung it onto his right shoulder.

“You’re bringing everything?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Why not? Who knows what I’ll need when we get there? Isn’t that what you just told me by bringing along the summoning rune?”

Daia smiled and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “All right. I only worry that the Guardians’ crystal might be highly sought after.”

“Nobody’ll know I have it. Besides, I worry about leaving it here unattended.”

The warden brought a sword, dagger, and mail shirt formerly worn by one of the three imprisoned First Royal Guards and handed them to Cirang. She dressed herself in the armor and weapons, looking brighter and not so glum.

“I’m glad for the opportunity to help and protect you as a battler.” She went to one knee and bowed her head. “My service is yours in whatever capacity you desire for as long as you have need of it.”

Daia grabbed her arm and tried to pull her to her feet. “Get up. You’re still a prisoner. Don’t forget that.”

Cirang complied, though she met Gavin’s eyes with an earnest expression. “Be that as it may, my pledge of fealty stands.”

He nodded once. “Awright, then. Are you ready?”

“How does this work?” Daia asked.

“I guess I got to hold onto both o’you as I go through. Let’s hope we don’t land in the middle of a crowd o’people.”

He took them both by the wrist, used Daia’s orange tendril to strengthen his mystical vision, and when the vortex appeared, he watched it go through its colors. “Get ready.” The instant it changed to yellow, he stepped through, pulling Daia and Cirang with him.

As a threesome, they were immensely heavy for the instant they transitioned through the portal. Had he not had a good grip on their wrists, he’d have lost them. He dared not wonder what would’ve happened if he had.

The three of them fell to their knees on a wooden floor. It was dark, though Gavin’s magic-enhanced vision enabled him to see the sacks of what was likely grain stacked haphazardly along three walls. Wooden stairs led to a double door.

“Is anyone else dizzy?” Cirang asked. “Or only me?”

“Oh, sorry,” Gavin said. “Forgot to warn you about that. It’ll pass.”

“Where are we?” Daia whispered. “I can’t see a damned thing.”

He stood and offered a hand to Daia to help her up and then created a light ball for his two protectors and gave it to Cirang to carry. She was the first to stand and tiptoe up the steps to the door. With her ear pressed against it, she listened for a moment. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Awright, time to see what’s out there.” When they tried the door, it didn’t budge. From the sound of it and the way the two doors moved an inch or two before stopping, he guessed there was some kind of lock on it. “One second. Let me see something.”

He opened his hidden eye and sent it through the door. They seemed to be within a city, though the nearest hazes, most slightly more kho than zhi, were at least a dozen yards away. He moved his eye down to get a look at how the door was locked and found a chain wrapped around two handles.

“It’s chained shut.” They could go home, move about six paces south and come back, or he could try to break it from here. “Let me try something.” He put his palms flat on the two doors and then used his hidden eye to examine the door from the outside. He identified the end of the chain, pictured it in his mind and, with his magic, pulled. It whapped against the wood. Too strong. More gently, he pulled it to the right, tugged it downward to slide under the handles, and then back over the top. It was working. It took concentration and effort, but he unwrapped the chain by pushing and pulling the end link, unwinding it from the handles. At last, it was free, and he let it drop to the ground. “Got it.”

“Nicely done, Kinshield,” Daia said. “Don’t you dare use that method to unlace my corset.”

Laughing, he pushed the two doors open and blinked in the bright sunshine. The first thing he noticed about this realm was the stench. The heavy air, alien in his lungs, stank like shit and rotting corpses.

Daia and Cirang wormed past him, both women checking ahead and to each side for danger. “It’s clear,” Daia said. “Where to?”

“I guess we should wander around,” Gavin said. He didn’t know where they would find Hennah’s complement, only that he or she would be here. “Supposedly I’ll hear it when Aldras Gar gets close to the right person.”

“The smell is pretty awful,” Cirang said.

“Not only that, the air’s hard to breathe,” Daia said, pressing a palm to her chest. “It feels foul in my lungs, like I might drown in it.”

Beneath his feet, the hard-packed dirt road was gray and dull, littered with scraps of cloth, bits of leather, broken sticks and tools. Wooden barrels and crates, some broken into pieces, sat along the dirty walls of the red brick buildings. It looked like their own realm but for the filthiness. It was worse than the poorest and ugliest part of Ambryce had ever been.

“Look,” Daia said, pointing to the right.

Aldras Gar
, his sword whispered in his mind.

Someone about the size of a five year old was sprinting towards them. Brown haired, dressed in torn clothing, it looked like a boy. A human boy. Why would his sword warn him about a child? The boy tossed a look over his shoulder. Then three big dogs came racing around the corner of a building after him, mouths open, ears back.