Blades of the Old Empire (19 page)

“Do you think Kyth and Kara are still in Aknabar?” Egey Bashi asked.

Raishan shook his head. “Kara would move as fast as possible. The only way we could have caught them would have been by a lizardbeast relay.”

“Lizardbeast relay? What’s that?”

“When the need is urgent,” Raishan said, “the Guildmaster sends ravens out to ensure that the Majat messengers get fresh lizardbeasts every fifty miles. If you don’t stop to sleep you can travel two hundred miles a day, a lot faster than with horses.”

“Yes,” Egey Bashi told him, “the Keepers do that too. We call it ‘breakneck run’. Except, we can rarely afford to change mounts every fifty miles. Not lizardbeasts, for sure.”

“It’s a considerable expense,” Raishan agreed, “but seeing how Master Oden Lan was all worked up about this one, I’m certain he sent the Black Diamond by relay. If Kara’s shadow was at the Fortress when that happened, she would be dead already. But since Master Abib was kind enough to tell us that the only available Diamond other than me was Han, I’m fairly sure it didn’t happen. Let’s hope she still has some time.”

Egey Bashi looked grim as he rode for a while in silence.

“We need to leave our mounts,” he finally said, “and get the necessary gear, so that we can pay a visit to the Monastery. There’s an inn in the city, run by a man who is loyal to the Order of Keepers and could probably help us, but it’s all the way on the other side of the Holy Hills. Ideally, we should find something a bit closer to the Monastery. Any thoughts, Aghat?”

Raishan glanced at him, sidelong.

“There’s an inn fairly close by that’s paid for by the Majat Guild. You remember it, don’t you?”

Egey Bashi nodded. “You mean the one run by that good woman who looks more like a troll?”

Raishan smiled. “Mistress Yba. Her inn may not be that cozy, but it’s served the Guild well for over twenty years. I’m sure she’ll have what we need.”

They navigated through the narrow streets drowned in the afternoon smoke of burning trash. By the time Raishan pulled his horse to a stop in front of a beaten sign with a picture of a white mountain flower, Egey Bashi felt that his face had become as soot-stained as the words, barely visible underneath.

“‘Wild Aemrock’,” he read. “So, your Mistress Yba has a feminine side after all. At least, she likes flowers.”

“It was named by me father,” came a low, thick voice from the inn’s doorway. “They call it ‘Emrock’ down south. Never liked the name meself. Most of me customers can’t even say it right.”

Mistress Yba emerged through the doorway, coming into full view. She was large and chubby, with knobby elbows, a pudding-like torso, and bold features that didn’t provide any clues about the gender of their owner. The only feminine thing about her was the fact that she wore a dress, a misshapen woolen garment that fit over her like an oversized sack.

Egey Bashi dismounted and looked her up and down.

“Of course not, Mistress Yba,” he said. “Forgive the suggestion.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Do I know you?”

“He’s with me,” Raishan said, stepping up to the Keeper’s side.

Mistress Yba’s face dawned with recognition, her irritated expression dissolving into a grimace she probably considered to be a smile.

“Aghat Raishan,” she said, her thick voice sweet and sticky like treacle. “What an honor. Please come this way.”

She threw open a small side gate and led them into a narrow back yard. The stench of manure hit the nostrils with eye-opening force. Egey Bashi twitched his nose as he followed Raishan to a stall at the back, covered by a piece of sail cloth stretched overhead to protect from the rain. They left their mounts in the care of a thin, nervous stable boy and entered a small back door into the inn’s main room.

“Now,” Mistress Yba said, folding her large hands over her chest. “I assume you’ll need room and board for you and your companion, Aghat. How else may I be of service?”

Raishan pointed to the Keeper rummaging in his pack.

“I have a priest’s robe,” Egey Bashi said, bringing a folded bundle out into the open. “But you’ll need one too, Aghat. I also suggest you take a less conspicuous weapon. Your sword would be difficult to conceal.”

“Let me worry about my sword, Magister.” Raishan turned to the innkeeper, who was watching him with reverence. “Do you think you can get me a black hooded robe, Mistress Yba?”

Her lips stretched into another smile-like grimace. “Of course, Aghat. When do you need it by?”

“After sunset,” Egey Bashi said. “That’s always a good time to venture into the Holy Monastery.”

The sharp crescent of the new moon shimmered just above the horizon as they entered the stone maze around the main temple. Keeping to the shadows of the columns surrounding each of the endless monastery courtyards, they crept deeper and deeper into the compound. Every time Egey Bashi glanced at Raishan, he couldn’t help envying the Majat’s stealth. The Magister felt like a trampling bull next to a sleek Grassland antelope.

They passed through a low archway that, by Egey Bashi’s calculations, should have led to the Reverend’s inner sanctum. The stone courtyard in front of them, awash with moonlight, led straight to the next archway. The shadows beyond gaped at them like a dark eye, daring the intruders to move even deeper into the heart of the monastery.

Egey Bashi started toward it, but Raishan’s hand shot up, freezing him in his tracks. They stood still, listening. It took the Keeper several moments to catch what Raishan, with his sharp Majat senses, must have heard right away. The sounds of a quiet conversation from ahead. Now that he knew where to look, Egey Bashi also spotted a faint flicker of light, a reddish glow through the opening of a narrow passage ahead.

Raishan lowered his hand and slid along the wall, his cloaked shape blending with the shadows. Egey Bashi followed. They passed through the arched gate into a vaulted passage that ended in a doorway. The voices were coming from inside.

They crept closer. From here they could clearly make out two voices. One was low and rich, its rumbling undertones reverberating with a dark, unsettling timbre. The other was soft. It seemed vaguely familiar.

“…to the Grasslands,” the deep voice was saying. “Thanks to your careful planning, Kaddim Nimos, they’ll all arrive there at about the same time to take care of our little problem once and for all.”

Kaddim Nimos?
Egey Bashi suppressed a shiver, stretching his neck to see through the cracks of the half-opened door. The man the speaker was addressing had his back turned, but his slight shape looked familiar indeed.

A chill ran down Egey Bashi’s spine. He should have made the connection when Nimos was gloating back in the Majat Guild about the way he had managed to take care of Kara because she was immune to their powers. While this, and the fact that Nimos’s companions carried orbens, suggested a parallel with the man who had attacked Prince Kythar back in the Crown City, hearing this title, cursed and forgotten centuries ago, was bad news all over again. Was the ancient Kaddim brotherhood truly on the rise? And if so, what were its members doing here in the heart of the Holy Monastery?

“We have very little time,” Nimos said. “We must follow the Black Diamond very closely and capture Prince Kythar as soon as Aghat Kara is out of the way. We must not lose a moment. There’s no way of telling how much the boy can figure out about his gift, and we can’t afford to allow him to learn enough to resist us. Even the Reincarnate himself doesn’t know what the boy is truly capable of.”

Reincarnate.
Egey Bashi held his breath. Supreme Grandmaster of the Kaddim order had gone by this title in the old days to reflect his origins. Reincarnation of Ghaz Kadan, the Cursed Destroyer in the flesh.
Blast it
.

How could the Keepers have possibly missed this coming?

“The boy is that powerful?” Nimos’s companion asked doubtfully.

“If we capture his power and find a key to his gift, there’ll be no stopping the Brotherhood.”

“Your plan is brilliant indeed, Kaddim Nimos,” the other man said. “And it’s working well. But it seems a waste to kill that woman, Kara. We could have used her to get insights into the special talents of a Diamond Majat. Perhaps their gift could be captured as well? It would help us immensely in the training of the Warriors of Kadan.”

Nimos shifted in place, his robe rustling against the cold stone floor. “Not Kara. As much as I regret having someone like her put to waste, we have no choice. With her ability to resist us, we have no means to deal with her. But if things stay on schedule, we can take the one the Guild sent after her.”

The other man nodded. “He will do. The Reincarnate will be pleased.”

Nimos looked up. His hood folded away, letting the torchlight lick his hollow cheek. It painted his pale skin with a reddish glow, stopping just short of the dark eye sockets.

“Since we began our attempts to capture Prince Kythar,” he said, “the Reincarnate has also expressed a particular interest in his foster brother, Alder. Apparently, he is the latest consort of the Forest Mother.”

The other man hesitated. “But he has no gift. What use could he possibly be to us?”

“He has something that made the Forest Mother choose him for a mate. The Reincarnate wishes to study him further. Given the opportunity, we should capture both boys.” He turned, giving Egey Bashi a full view of his hooded face, the dark pits of his eyes gleaming with a deep fire. It seemed that these eyes could penetrate the shadows behind the doorway, to see him and Raishan pressed against the wall. But before the Keeper could wonder, a chuckle behind him rang clearly through the stone gallery.

Egey Bashi froze and slowly turned around.

A robed figure took shape against the darkness of the column vault and came out into the patch of moonlight.

“Magister Egey Bashi. Aghat Raishan. What a surprise.” The newcomer’s soft, insinuating voice crept straight into the gut, making the hair on the back of the Magister’s neck stand on end.

“Reverend
Haghos
?” he asked slowly.

The former Reverend of the Church, displaced from his high post by an impressive showdown that also put King Evan on the throne and restored Kyth’s position as his rightful heir. Didn’t the Keepers expel the man for good?

Haghos chuckled. “I’m so glad you recognize me, Magister. And it’s Kaddim Haghos, thank you very much.”

Of course. How silly of me not to guess.
Egey Bashi narrowed his eyes. Was Haghos a Kaddim Brother all along? Or did his exile, after a failed attempt to usurp the throne, drive him to the Brotherhood?

“What’re you doing here?” he asked.

Haghos’s smile widened. “You’d really like to know, wouldn’t you, Magister? No wonder you’re snooping around. And speaking of that, did you really think a Diamond Majat could protect you within our walls?”

Our walls.
With the ancient brotherhood infesting the Monastery things were much worse than he thought.
Does the new Reverend Cyrros know?

Is he one of them?

The thought was too disturbing to dwell on.

“I was under the impression I was venturing into holy grounds,” Egey Bashi said. “If I’d known I was walking into a lair of Ghaz Kadan worshippers–”

“Don’t speak the sacred name in vain.” Haghos threw his hood off, revealing a tonsured head and a pale bony face. His eyes gleamed with a feverish glow. Behind, Nimos and his companion emerged from the open doorway, blocking the way to escape.

“You have no idea what you’re up against, do you, Magister?” Haghos said. “How about a small demonstration? Kaddim Farros?” He nodded to Nimos’s companion.

The hooded man nodded and stretched out his palms, parallel to the ground. A silent thunder shook the air, pressing on the eardrums with an invisible force. The blast brushed past the Magister and hit Raishan full in the face. The Diamond swayed. His face became deadly pale. A thin streak of blood appeared from his nostril. He struggled to keep upright, then, after a terrifyingly long moment, he sank down to his knees onto the stones of the courtyard.

The hooded man lowered his hands. The pressure subsided, but Raishan did not rise. Egey Bashi resisted the urge to help him up as he watched the deadliest fighter that ever walked the earth grovel on the ground like a drunken man. His heart quivered.

A smile twitched Haghos’s pale lips. “That blast would have killed you, Magister.”

Egey Bashi met his gaze. “Let him go. You don’t want to quarrel with the Majat, do you?”

Haghos shook his head. “When we are done, the Majat won’t matter anymore. But…” he looked past Egey Bashi to the silent shapes of Nimos and his companion, “as much as I’d like to continue this demonstration, we are in a hurry. Our little session with you will have to wait. In the meantime, you can perhaps provide some company for our poor old Reverend Boydos. Ex-reverend, I should say.” He laughed, then clapped his hands. Hooded figures appeared from the shadows at his back, surrounding Egey Bashi and Raishan. The Magister’s arms were grabbed from behind and a bond that felt like wet leather pulled his wrists together, making his hands go numb.

As the men approached Raishan, the Diamond pushed off, sliding behind a stone column. A blast from the hooded Kaddim Brother shook the air, but missed its target. Before Raishan could make his way across the yard, all three Kaddim Brothers rushed forward, stretching out their palms. Force reverberated in the narrow space between the columns. Raishan fell on the cobbles face-down, twitched, and went still.

Egey Bashi watched with a sinking heart. Up until now he hoped against hope that other Diamonds, like Kara, could develop immunity to the Kaddim. But, as he looked at Raishan’s limp shape sprawled on the cobblestones, he was fighting a feeling of helplessness. With Raishan disabled and Kara about to be assassinated by her own kind, what hope could they possibly have?

Their captors tied Raishan’s hands behind his back with force that seemed enough to dislocate his shoulders. The Kaddim Brothers’ faces showed relief. Despite his sorry condition, Egey Bashi made a mental note of it. Something in this short scene troubled them, and the source of that trouble might well hold the key to their escape. The Keeper just had to find out what it was.

“It has been a pleasure, Magister,” Haghos said. “Perhaps we’ll see each other again, but I can’t guarantee that you will still know who I am. Our inquisitors know their job.”

He nodded, the three Kaddim Brothers brushing past toward the exit at the end of the gallery. Robes rustled on the cold stone and the three figures blended with the shadows, melting away into the distance of the monastery courtyards.

Hands grasped Egey Bashi from behind with such severe deliberation that there was no use in fighting. He relaxed against their hold, concentrating his efforts on making himself as much of a burden as possible. His mind raced.

Raishan seemed badly hurt. When the robed men pulled him upright, the Majat’s head lolled and Egey Bashi noticed a smear of blood on his face. It was clear that Raishan was in no position to offer any help. He was the one that needed saving.

The men turned Egey Bashi toward the side courtyard exit, where a gaping doorway led into a darker passage. From his previous assignments he knew his way around the monastery pretty well, but this part was unfamiliar. By the position of the moon he was guessing they were facing the northeast corner of the compound, housing the deep dungeons and the inquisitors’ grounds. They were going to be tortured and mutilated. And then, they were going to be left to rot until the Kaddim Brothers returned from their hunt for Kyth.

Egey Bashi couldn’t allow this to happen. He had to get out and find his way to the Grasslands in time. Except, what could he possibly do against men who could disable a Diamond Majat so easily?

A commotion around Raishan drew his attention. The robed men were having trouble keeping the Majat upright. His injuries were apparently far worse than any of his captors imagined. As the Keeper watched in a horrified silence, Raishan fell sideways, collapsing against the man next to him. The man cursed, struggling to keep the limp body of his captive from sinking to the ground. Another hooded man hurried to help.

As they steadied Raishan, he suddenly came to life, pushing against his captors’ arms. As they stumbled back, overbalanced, he sprung forward, his momentum carrying him onto the other captors with dizzying speed. His knee shot up and caught the man in front right below the belt. The man doubled over with a satisfying grunt. Raishan continued his movement, landing on one foot and swinging out the other so fast that the air around him whistled. Bones cracked, followed by short screams as two men at his back collapsed, grasping their legs. The last man backed off toward Egey Bashi’s group, but he wasn’t fast enough. Raishan completed the spin, his heel catching the man on the chin. The man fell backward onto the stones of the courtyard, splattering blood.

Egey Bashi let out a breath, watching the men crouched on the ground with horrible injuries that had taken Raishan seconds to inflict. One of them was clutching at his groin. Two others lay flat on their backs, whimpering, their out-turned knees suggesting really bad breaks. The fourth one was still.

A blade pressed against Egey Bashi’s neck.

“Tell your friend to stop, Magister,” said a voice by his ear.

Egey Bashi took a breath. “Aghat Raishan,” he said quickly. “If they kill me, you must go and help Kyth. This is my dying wish.” He gasped as the blade pierced the skin. But it didn’t go any deeper. The events in front of them unraveled too fast.

Raishan’s muscles rippled. A dark blade slid out of his sleeve into his hands, tied behind his back. Steel glinted in the moonlight and the tight ropes holding his arms together up to the elbows snapped loose. Raishan shook his hands, flicking them to the sides as he faced the remaining enemies. His eyes had a ruthless, frightening glint that echoed in the set of his features. A long, dark stiletto geamed in his hand.

The men around Egey Bashi backed off, holding the Keeper in front like a shield. Raishan leapt forward, his blade sweeping by so fast that it blurred. Egey Bashi felt the hold on him released as the body by his side sunk to the ground like a deflating sack. He stumbled and Raishan caught him by the shoulder and pulled him over to his side, cutting the ropes around the Keeper’s wrists in one short move.

Egey Bashi flexed his fingers, feeling slowly returning to his numb hands.

“Are you hurt, Magister?” Raishan asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Then let’s get the hell out of here.”

They turned and ran.

The sounds of pursuit grew fainter as they sped through the stone courtyards like two dark shadows. They didn’t stop as they saw the wall ahead of them, whipping out their grappler hooks as they ran. In no time they were over, running along the cobbled street on the other side into the maze of alleys leading down the Holy Hills toward the port.

After the monastery wall was out of sight, Egey Bashi paused to catch his breath. Raishan waited. They eyed each other in silence, then started down the street at a fast walk.