Legacy of the Blood (The Threshold Trilogy) (10 page)

“You say you grew up in the south, yet you look as though you
belong with your companions,” he commented with a questioning glance.

“I am L’avan by blood, but I was raised far away from them. I
returned when I grew older.”

Jahan nodded his approval. “Yes, it is good to see the world, but
is it also good to be among kindred spirits.”

“Yes, it is.”

Than’os and Mar’sal were carefully watching the bard. Ravi, on the
other hand, seemed completely at ease.

“From where do you hail?” asked the Rashad.

Jahan looked astonished. Few people outside of the L’avan knew
anything about the Rashad, and so it was understandable that he was surprised
to see an enormous feline talk.

He recovered quickly, though, and gave a frank answer. “I was born
in a tiny village on Banolf—the nation across the sea to the north. I left
there when I was a very young man, and I have wandered ever since. I made my
way cleaning out stables or chopping wood at first, and then a musician took me
under his wing and trained me to be what I am today.”

After a brief pause, the old man turned to Ravi. “I have seen many
wondrous creatures during my travels, but I have never met a non-human that
could speak. Are you a result of your master’s magic?”

The Rashad replied good-humoredly, “I suppose one could say that,
but my people were created long before the L’avan.”

Jahan was clearly fascinated. “I must return to my music, but I
would enjoy further discussion. Would you allow me to question you some other
time?”

This inquiry was directed at all of them.

Adesina glanced at Ravi, and he inclined his head. “We would be
glad to talk to you again,” she said sincerely.

He gave a wide grin and bowed with another flourish. “Until we
speak again, then.”

The bard walked back to his lute and began playing a tune that was
both lively and playful. He was clearly pleased to have made their
acquaintance.

Kendan finished up his discussion with the innkeeper as well, and
he turned to them with a carefully neutral expression on his face.

“Come,” he said. “Let us go down to the docks.”

The boats that were moored in the northern half of the harbor
seemed to be local vessels, used for fishing and gathering the sea emerald
plant. The ships in the southern half of the harbor were clearly the property
of much more wealthy patrons. They consisted of the merchant vessels and
similar transport ships.

Kendan led the way up the southern slope, through the wealthy half
of Emerald Harbor, and then down a series of winding paths down to the merchant
docks. From there they split up to speak to the various workers.

Adesina spoke to half a dozen men and women with no results. She
was beginning to feel very disheartened when she met up with Kendan again.

“I am looking for two people,” he was saying to a grizzled man who
sat braiding rope. “One of them is a woman in her late twenties, short blonde
hair, blunt features, black clothing like mine. The other is a man wearing a
grey mask.”

The rope-braider paused and scratched his beard. “Wolfish mask?”

Adesina felt her heart leap at his words. “Yes!”

They both looked up at her in surprise, and the man glanced at
Kendan to make sure that he wanted the information shared. “I seen ’em. ‘Bout
three days back. Got on a ship first thing.”

“What was the destination of that ship?” asked Kendan calmly.

A sly look passed over the rope-braider’s face. “Well, now, I
cannot be sure I reckon…”

Ravi gave a low growl, and the old man glared right back.

“T’would be a shame to get et before I can recall.”

Adesina placed a hand on the Rashad’s back, and she gave the man
an icy stare as she reached into her pouch and pulled out a couple of copper
coins.

He snatched them up with alacrity and grinned. “They were headed
for Zonne, mistress. Headed out with spice merchants.”

Zonne was the continent southeast of Sehar, right along the
equator. There were few civilizations there, due to the arid and hostile
climate, and most of them were nomadic. The only reason a ship would travel
there would be to trade for the rare spices that only a desert could produce.
That would limit the chances of the L’avan following Basha anytime soon.

Kendan exchanged a concerned glance with Adesina before
questioning the old man further. “Would you happen to know when there will be
another vessel sailing for Zonne?”

The rope-braider shrugged and continued his work. “You would have
to ask the Dock Keeper.”

He jerked his head in the direction of a small hut that overlooked
the docks, and they began walking towards it.

“Ravi,” said Adesina quietly, “would you please find Than’os and
Mar’sal? Tell them where we are, and that we have the information we need.”

Her guardian gave a single nod and loped off with graceful ease.

Kendan and Adesina made their way up the warped wooden stairs to
the one-roomed shanty. Their knock was met with the curt command to enter.

A plump woman with thick coils of chestnut hair was sitting at a
table overflowing with maps of tides, registers, and scraps of paper that
looked like the sort that came from carrier birds. She appraised them with a
single sweep of her eyes, and immediately went back to her tasks. “How may I
help ye?”

“We seek transportation to Zonne,” stated Kendan. “We can pay
handsomely.”

The Dock Keeper snorted. “It do not matter what ye can pay, lad.
There be no ship headed there for at least a week.”

Adesina paled. “A week? Are you certain?”

The woman raised an eyebrow. “Do ye think I do not know my trade?”

“Of course you do,” hurried Kendan. “We would never question
that.”

She grunted in satisfaction. “I do, indeed. The merchant vessel
Fair
Tides
sailed out three days ago, and the next one should be the
Zephyr
.
She arrives next week from Korander, and will sail to Zonne from here.”

“Thank you for your assistance,” Kendan said as he placed a hand
on Adesina’s elbow and led her from the hut.

Ravi was waiting outside with Mar’sal and Than’os. They walked up
the docks to a small alcove where they could discuss their situation in
private.

“Well?” asked Mar’sal impatiently. “What did you find?”

Adesina was still too distressed to speak clearly, so Kendan
answered the question.

“L’iam and Basha were here three days ago. They boarded a merchant
ship headed for Zonne.”

The two soldiers were aghast.

“Zonne?” repeated Than’os. “That is more than a week’s travel by
ship, if there are favorable winds the entire way.”

Kendan nodded. “And there will not be another ship heading for
that destination for several days.”

“But we are already three days behind,” protested Mar’sal. “How
will we catch up to them?”

“Perhaps,” said Ravi slowly, “I may be of assistance.”

The three L’avan looked at him in surprise. Kendan and Maizah
could not understand what he was saying because he was speaking in the L’avan
tongue.

“How?” asked Adesina in the same language.

The Rashad looked strangely reluctant as he explained his meaning.
“Ma’eve, do you remember when we first left the High City and we were in the
L’avan fort? I spent the night away from you, and I told you it was so I could
see the stars.”

Adesina could only vaguely recall. She had dismissed it as one of
the many quirks of her guardian.

“The truth was that I wanted to commune with them.”

She frowned in confusion. “The stars?”

“Yes.”

Than’os and Mar’sal looked as though they understood, but Adesina
was still baffled.

“What do you mean?”

“All Rashad have the commonly known gifts—invisibility, Dreams,
languages, and so forth—but each of us also have one or two gifts that are
unique to the individual.”

The young queen finally understood. “And yours is that you can
talk to the stars?”

“Not just the stars. I can communicate with anything that bears
even the slightest trace of
vyala
.”

Although Adesina had lived among the L’avan for five years, there
was still a lot she didn’t know about them. She had spent most of her time
learning about the government and military, and how to command her
vyala
to do as she wished. There were some subjects, however, that she had not taken
the time to learn yet.

She had a basic idea of the source of their magical abilities, but
that was it. She knew that
vyala
was the life force of the earth, and
that everything possessed some degree of it. The L’avan had higher levels of
vyala
than other humans, and their magic was based on each individual’s ability to
amplify their inherent gifts.

“So, you can communicate with rocks and trees?” Adesina asked.

He inclined his head. “Yes, but more importantly, I can
communicate with water and wind.”

The full import of his words washed over Adesina’s mind.

“Do you mean you can stop Basha’s ship?”

The Rashad smiled. “No, but I believe I can slow it. I can also
try to speed the arrival of our own transportation.”

Relief lifted Adesina’s heart until she felt giddy.

Kendan watched this entire exchange with a frown on his face. “I
doubt you need to be told that it is rude to purposefully exclude your
companions from this conversation.”

Before she could say anything, Ravi spoke. “I told them that we
can do nothing but wait. We should return to the inn and decide how to best
spend our time in this city.”

Adesina was unprepared to hear her guardian tell a blatant lie,
but she kept her face impassive. Judging from Kendan’s expression, he also knew
that Ravi’s words were not true—or, at least, the entire truth—but he was not
about to call an enormous feline a liar.

They began walking back towards The Black Cat, and Adesina lowered
her voice to a level that only Ravi could hear.

“Why do you not wish for Kendan to know about your gift?”

Ravi’s ear twitched in displeasure at the thought of sharing such
information with the former Shimat. “A Rashad’s unique gifts are very personal.
We rarely speak of them in the company of others. That is why I have never told
you before now.”

“How will you explain to him the sudden arrival of the
Zephyr
and the delay of the
Fair Tides
?”

“I do not need to explain anything to him,” replied Ravi. “Weather
is an unpredictable thing.”

There was a brief pause before Adesina spoke again. “Are you
certain you can do it?”

“No,” Ravi said frankly. “Wind is difficult to communicate with,
due to its hurried nature. It has little patience to speak to anyone. I will do
what I can, but it will only close the gap between us by a handful of days, at
best.”

The young queen tried not to get her hopes up, but it was not easy
to do.

“There is something else that you should know,” continued her
guardian in an even quieter voice. “Kendan is keeping some important
information from you.”

She looked at him in astonishment. “How do you know that?”

He fixed his gaze on the young man leading their group through the
streets of Emerald Harbor. “His thoughts are unusually loud. It is difficult
not
to overhear such things.”

Adesina felt her fists clench in anger. It seemed that every time
she began to build some sort of trust or reliance on Kendan, he found a way to
prove that he didn’t deserve it.  “What is he keeping from us?”

A soft growl escaped Ravi’s throat as he spoke. “He knows why
Basha chose L’iam, and what she intends to do with him.”

Her expression turned cold. “I thought it was an act of revenge.”

“Partially,” admitted Ravi, “but that is not all. There is a
darker purpose behind her actions.”

“Can you tell me what Kendan knows?”

The Rashad shook his head. “I only know that the information is
there.”

Adesina had the overwhelming urge to go and beat the information
out of him, but she held herself in check. She knew Kendan well enough to know
that he would react to her hostility by becoming even more determined to keep
things from her.

She took a calming breath, and another, and another.

“I will speak to him tonight.”

Basha stared at the dark water with a mixture of uneasiness and
fascination. She had seen the ocean before, of course, but she had never
ventured out onto its boundless depths. In the moonlight it looked like an
endless abyss, waiting to swallow them up.

“Did you hear what I said?” asked the man standing next to her.

She turned her eyes to his craggy face and noted the arrogance
there. She should have chosen someone else to be her second in command.

“I heard you, Breyen,” she said sharply. “However, I do not feel
that it is necessary to keep the magic-user hidden. He is wearing a mask.”

It was true that Breyen was the natural choice for her second. He
was second to the Sharifal, so he held a great deal of power and influence. He
also was a brilliant strategist and a master manipulator—important traits for
what they were doing. All the same, Basha hated the man.

“Besides,” she added in a petulant tone, “we would be completely
hidden from the magic-users if you gave back that pendant.”

During her mission to kidnap the L’avan king she had been given a
talisman made from the blood of magic-users. It hid her presence from magical
detection, making it possible to sneak up on the unsuspecting L’avan.

As soon as the mission was completed, Breyen had taken the pendant
back.

“I already told you,” he said with great patience, “that talisman
belonged to the Sharifal. She would have noticed if it was gone for too long,
and that would have exposed our entire operation.”

There was a brief pause before Breyen continued.

“We chose you to lead us because you are a visionary,” he said
softly, watching her face closely. “You are a natural warrior and you are
fearless. But no organization is simply its leader. You have many able Shimat
to offer different strengths, and you must not ignore them. You have trusted my
counsel before, and I have not let you down. Please, trust me again.”

Basha nodded reluctantly and turned her eyes back to the water.
From the corner of her eye she thought she saw a flash of malicious
satisfaction cross Breyen’s face when he saw the effect of his words, but the
expression was gone in an instant.

Perhaps she was imagining things.

“I did not realize that you would be meeting me on this ship,” she
said sulkily. “You said that this was my mission alone.”

The older Shimat shrugged casually. “Someone needed to arrange
passage, and I have some business in Zonne.”

“You did not feel the need to keep an eye on me?” Suspicion was
clear in Basha’s voice.

“Certainly not,” Breyen replied smoothly. “We would not have asked
you to lead us if we did not trust you.”

Her chest puffed out in pride, and her chin lifted confidently.
“Then you will leave the next part of the journey to me.”

“I had not considered any other option,” he said in a tone that
rang of truth. “I will conduct my business and then return to Sehar.”

“Very well,” she concluded, her expression haughty. “The winds
have been favorable thus far, and I have no doubt of such conditions continuing.
We should reach Zonne’s port in less than four days. Until then, I suggest we
see little of each other.”

Breyen gave a half bow and walked away.

Basha waited for him to disappear below deck before returning to
her own quarters. It wasn’t that he didn’t know where to find her, but she
didn’t want him following her.

Her sleeping space was nothing more than a storage room with two
hammocks hung from the ceiling. The captain had promised that they would have
privacy during the journey, but an inventory would be taken before they could
disembark—to make sure they hadn’t stolen anything.

The magic-user was sitting on one of the crates, completely still.
One might think he was sleeping, but it appeared that someone under the
influence of the potion she had given him did not need to sleep at all. He
didn’t react to her entrance. He simply sat and stared until given an order.

Over the years, Basha had considered many different ways to exact
revenge on her oldest enemy.
Her
loathing for Adesina ran deep, so when Breyan had approached her with his plan
she had been pleased to take the lead.
She relished the agony that Adesina must be feeling, knowing that
her precious husband was in the hands of her nemesis.

What made Basha even more gleeful was the knowledge that Adesina
had no idea what was in store for her mate. She would not know until it was too
late.

The magic-users probably saw the abduction as a simple kidnapping,
like so many that had taken place before, but it was so much more than that. By
the time Basha accomplished her task, the L’avan would wish they had taken
their own king’s life rather than allowing him to fall into the hands of the
Shimat.

She reached into her bag and pulled out an ancient book, stroking
its spine lovingly. Its leather binding was cracked and worn with age, and the
parchment was faded and brittle. This was the key to endless power and her
ultimate dominion.

“Entertain me,” she commanded her slave, wanting to feel the rush
that came from the mindless obedience of her magic-user.

He created several balls of light and began to juggle them. The
shadows that fell across his wolf-like mask gave it an eerie appearance. It had
been split in two from the confrontation with Kendan and Adesina, but she had
commanded her slave to mend it using his powers. There was still a scar that
ran down the length of the mask, but there was no other mark to show it had
been damaged.

Perhaps it had been a mistake to force such a confrontation, Basha
mused as she watched the dancing lights before her. But how could she have
known that Kendan was with them?
Kendan
. The Sharifal’s own nephew.

Breyen had been quite pleased with the information. He said that
her nephew’s betrayal would blind the Sharifal to the activities of Basha and
those who followed her. They were at a critical stage of their plans, and they
could not afford to have interference now.

Basha closed her eyes and imagined the expression of absolute
despair on Adesina’s face as Basha and her puppet magic-user had left her to
die on that hillside by the twin lakes.

The Shimat smiled with pleasure.

Perhaps it was more satisfying now that Adesina knew the fate of
her husband, and would be haunted by what might happen next.

When Breyen had learned about the fight that had taken place near
the Shimat post where the alchemist had been held prisoner, he warned Basha not
to count on Adesina’s death. Basha had been unable to defeat Kendan, and so she
must assume that he found a way to revive his companions.

Curse the traitor!

Kendan had seemed so eager to return to the good graces of his
aunt after the disaster in the fortress five years ago, during which several
L’avan test subjects escaped and years of research was destroyed.

Now he was helping Adesina, and there was no knowing how much he
knew about Basha’s objectives.

The magic-user was now creating moving pictures from light. Basha
tried to find pleasure in her power over him, but instead she felt irritated.

“Stop,” she demanded, and he immediately obeyed.

It didn’t matter now, she reassured herself. The would-be rescuers
of the L’avan king were days behind, and there was no way to follow her. She
would reach the portal long before they could ever catch up, and then it would
be too late. Nothing would be able to stop her.

***

Breyen wrapped himself in his woolen blankets and allowed the
motion of the ship to rock him gently in his hammock. He was not sleepy, but he
knew that his aging body could use some rest. The most frustrating thing about
his advancing years was the slow and unstoppable degeneration of his strength.
He was glad to have years of experience and wisdom at his aid, but the waning
of his physical abilities was a bur in his side.

In a way, that is what led him to his current path. He had
reasoned that not all myths were complete fiction. That is to say, there had to
be at least a sliver of truth in those fantastical tales that served as the
foundation. After all, there were still magic-users in the world, so why would
there not be a way to access the benefits enjoyed by certain mythological mortals?

He could not help but smile to himself as he considered the state
of his plans. Everything was going perfectly.

For a while he had wondered if it had been wise for him to oversee
this journey himself, but his presence was the spur that Basha needed to rush
forward without too much thought.

That foolish girl was starting to think far too much.

It was essential that she continue under the impression that she
was the leader of their group. After all, someone had to be the target of any
unfortunate repercussions that may occur. Still, she was a great annoyance, and
her arrogance was difficult to swallow.

It was only a matter of time before the charade would no longer be
necessary.

Basha was willing to do anything to have revenge on Adesina, and
she was not intelligent enough to know when to question an action. To her, the
details didn’t matter. Only the result.

Well, the result would be the death of the L’avan king. That was
enough for her.

Breyen, on the other hand, had much higher goals.

He was not satisfied with revenge or even control over the Shimat
order. There had been a time when those had been his sole aspirations, and that
is how he had been ensnared by the current Sharifal’s schemes.

She had promised him power and respect and worldly pleasures—all
of which he had received. It had taken him years to realize how empty it all
truly was.

He wanted more.

True, his current actions would eventually give him the title of
Sharifal, but that was only a side note to what he would really gain.

The world itself would be his, as long as they stayed on the path
he had carefully crafted for them. As long as there were no deviations, no
unexpected problems that he had not already accounted for.

The world would be his.