Light the Reign (The Forgotten: Book 3) (10 page)

CHAPTER 6

Kali disguised her features and rapped on the
front door of the Lost One’s house. The stupid little man had done
exactly what she’d expected him to. Her choice in sharing the
information with him had proved fruitful. Moments later a young
girl appeared, one of the servants the Lost Ones had; making others
do their bidding for them.

She stated her business to the woman and then
followed her into the dining room where the Lost One she had come
to see was. The servant girl kept glancing back over her shoulder
and increasing her pace, no doubt worried that Kali had not done as
she’d asked and waited by the door while she announced her
presence.

Kali neither knew nor cared what the customs
of these disgusting people were. She just wanted to get her
business over with and be out of the company of the vile
creatures.

He was sitting in his dining room chewing on
the remains of his dinner when the maid rushed forward into the
room, spitting out the words so quickly as to hardly be understood
that someone was calling. He pushed the plate away from him and
downed the last of his wine.

“Send them in,” he demanded, but Kali was
already striding into the room. He raised an eyebrow at her in
annoyance and glanced at the servant, who swiftly absented herself
from the room with his empty plate. “Lady Kali,” the Lost One
greeted her, obnoxiously adding their ridiculous title to her
name.

She ignored the greeting. “Were you able to
locate the man I told you of?”

He nodded. “I was, and we’ve moved him into
the countryside where we can contain the outbreak. It was very
lucky that you happened to notice him before he spread it even
farther.”

“You didn’t tell Gelendan about it did you?”
she asked, hoping he didn’t hear her disgust at having to use the
Lost Ones’ term for the place.

“No,” he said, but the way he drew out the
word made her wonder if there was a ‘but’ that was going to follow
it. She thought quickly. He continued, “I do agree that we should
have our own experiments into a cure going on here, I simply do not
trust the Gelendan Queen. And having such a potential weapon
completely under their control may give them the edge they need to
convince the Ieldran to concede to more than they would have
otherwise.” He paused, “But though the idea of using the Bricrui
against the tribes is tempting, and having the power of their
threat behind me is appealing, I’m just not sure that it’s right to
simply keep them contained like cattle. It feels wrong.”

Kali almost laughed out loud when he spoke of
using the Bricrui against the tribes, as if they would even be able
to find them. Although, with the traitors in her tribe listening to
the preposterous ideas of the outsiders. Her amusement turned dark.
Actually, she wouldn’t mind it in the least if they did set against
the tribe. Then they would see that she was right all along.

“They won’t be kept as cattle,” she assured
him, “You are simply taking the initiative to keep the disease from
running wild in Treymayne. If it hadn’t been for you, it could be
halfway across the country by now.” Kali knew this wasn’t true as
the two women who had been caring for the man had smartly moved him
into a cave outside of town and by some stroke of luck on their
part the one who made the trips to town did not have an ounce of
the Dark King in her. The man would have become a raving beast and
probably eaten his wife out in the middle of nowhere, and no one
would have been the wiser. Now that the Lost One had moved him into
a wing at one of his manors, he was infecting people even as they
spoke. She had convinced him that only by direct contact would the
curse spread, and he had been stupid enough to believe it. Blinded
by his desire to be the hero and contain it on his own, and then
further by her suggestions that his control of such a disease would
make him very powerful. His initial lust for power seemed to be
weakening, however, as he realized the consequences. She hadn’t
expected that of the Lost One. She’d have to slightly adjust her
tactic again. If there was one thing Kali was good at, it was
improvising.

She continued, “Besides, the Treymayne mages
have not been able to find a cure because they haven’t been able to
study the curse itself, only work with descriptions by the Gelendan
people. I’m sure that our much more talented mages would be able to
find a cure if they are given access to the actual infected.”

This seemed to do the trick, the worry lines
in his face smoothed. “That’s true,” he agreed, “There’s no doubt
that if we were given the chance to work with the infected we could
find a way to break it. Those on the manor won’t ever even progress
to a stage that it would be dangerous to them, but rather just
enough that I can use it to gain an advantage over the rest of the
council to make them see how idiotic it would be to join with
Gelendan.”

Kali fought to contain her amusement once
more. Little did he know that every time she went to the manor to
help find the ‘cure’, she was actually trying to figure out how to
make the disease progress faster. She was onto something, and soon
would implement the same in the city of Lost Ones. The palace may
be well-defended against her magic, but the rest of the city
wasn’t.

“That’s right,” Kali spurred him on, “that’s
probably what Gelendan is doing, keeping this plague to themselves
so that only they can find the cure and then they’ll probably set
it loose upon us!”

“Queen Layna and King Gryffon are well known
for their high talents,” he said nervously, “I wouldn’t want them
to find out.”

“All the more reason not to mention this
little experiment to anyone until we have come up with the cure.
Then, the threat of them unleashing the Bricrui upon us will be
nonexistent, and any threats they make against you will simply spur
the rest of the council to see how evil they are and defend
you.”

“I suppose,” he said, but did not look
entirely convinced.

“Besides, they are currently taking
chokeroot, are they not? It will prevent them from using magic
against you.” Treymayne had sent out parties to collect the plant
from the Plains for Gelendan, and Kali had been surprised that a
few of them were successful. She had to laugh, however, that
several had confused it with its poisonous cousin. If luck was with
her, perhaps this Queen Layna would ingest that one instead.

“And the stones? If the stones are found and
the curse broken that way, they will have no more reason to take
the chokeroot and Gelendan will once again be in possession of the
only cure and their talents will be back in full force.”

“The stones will never be used,” Kali
scoffed. She realized now that she would never have been able to
get them. The tribes all guarded them too carefully for her to have
stolen them. “You don’t need to worry about that,” she promised. A
small smile spread across her lips. “It will simply serve to keep
them occupied while you come up with the real cure. Then, when
Gelendan has seen what the Bricrui can do, and you have found a way
to be in complete control of it…Treymayne will have the upper
hand.”

“I don’t know why Lady Aria wants to unite
with them anyway,” the man grumbled, “I think maybe she’s in on it
with Lord Gryffon. Or maybe Queen Layna has them both spelled
somehow. Two Treymaynians looking to unite with Gelendan. Bah!”

Kali grew tired of the conversation. She
could tell that he would continue with their plans. She cared not
whether the Lost Lands combined into one big foolish country. They
would all pay no matter what they called themselves.

They would all pay.

*

“So does anyone have any ideas how we might
find this elusive field of flowers?” Katya asked the group as a
whole. The plant was described as a large yellow flower, and Katya
was rather doubtful that a field full of such a thing would be
missed by so many searchers if it did indeed exist. Rather, she
thought it seemed like a good way for the Kanza to have gotten rid
of them.

The Dena’ina leader seemed convinced of its
existence, however, and spoke up, seeming to read her mind. “The
fact that no one has since seen this field, though described as
quite a breathtaking sight, suggests to me that the plants do not
normally appear as such. Perhaps only during a certain time of
year, or even magically camouflaged to keep from being eaten by
animals?”

Katya couldn’t argue with that. But it didn’t
help them get any closer to finding them. She glanced at Petra out
of the corner of her eye. The woman had bowed to her wish to have
her join their group as a regular member, rather than hide her face
behind the confines of the cart. So far, other than her features
not seeming to be quite as sharply defined as they had been back at
the Kanza village, she looked very normal to Katya. She
half-wondered if their self-image wasn’t just a bit skewed from
years of thinking they would change.

“The man did mention it being in a valley,”
Hunter spoke up, “and I don’t see many hills and valleys around
here. That should narrow it down some.”

“To the north it becomes very mountainous
very quickly,” Petra supplied. “And though there is much land to
cover, the amount that could be termed ‘valley’ before becoming
more cliff-like does narrow it down some.”

“So is our plan just to walk to the north and
then follow the edge of the mountains one way or the other and hope
we stumble upon it?” Katya asked skeptically.

Petra opened her eyes wide and bit her lip,
and Hunter simply shrugged.

“I have faith,” the Dena’ina leader stated
calmly.

“That makes one of us,” Katya murmured.

As they walked farther, Katya found herself
staring at Petra. Her body seemed to be now rapidly changing and
Katya no longer held onto the thought that the changes were
exaggerated. At first, while Katya watched, she could have sworn
that the woman’s shirt was getting longer in the back. Then
suddenly it turned to feathers, the colors of the fabric moving to
form definite feather shapes. Her legs grew thinner and something
sprouted from the woman’s back.

All this happened without the woman’s
apparent notice. She just kept walking as if she wasn’t turning
into a bird before their very eyes. Almost everyone’s gaze in the
group was centered on her, though those from the Dena’ina did not
seem surprised, only curious at the actual transformation. Since
Petra said that the changed-form was her normal one when living
with the Dena’ina, she supposed this shouldn’t have been
unexpected. Seeing the woman as she was in the Kanza village would
have been more unusual to them.

The wings which had sprouted from the woman’s
back grew larger, as did her nose, jutting out sharply like a beak.
Her eyes grew darker and her hair slicked itself back on her head
and formed feathers, the rest of her body shimmering and forming
feathers out of skin and cloth alike as the magic of the Kanza
powerstone wore off. Soon, Petra stood before them more bird than
human.

Katya thought the result was rather beautiful
herself, but the downward curve of the eyes and sharp claws which
now protruded from knobby hands betrayed the more sinister
intentions of the creators. The purpose had undoubtedly been for
intimidation and killing. She felt an immediate bond with the girl.
Though the situations were very different, both of them had been
shaped into killing machines. Katya through her mind control, and
this girl through changes in her very flesh.

The girl turned and caught Katya’s eyes. The
black orbs sparkled and she smiled. She retained much of her human
face, with only her elongated nose and shape and color of her eyes
resembling the bird features, but keeping her human mouth.

Katya smiled back and Petra seemed to relax.
No doubt she had been tensed for any number of reactions. The rest
of the party took the transformation in stride as well, and though
Katya caught Slade staring at the girl wide-eyed behind her back a
few times, none seemed overly concerned by the change. Even the
group of Knights that had ridden out with them did not make any
comment. The rest of the Knights had stayed back with the Myaamia
both for continued information as well as protection against any
who might still be following Kali’s ways. They certainly didn’t
need another attack from a few errant followers…or Kali
herself.

Their party soon came to the edge of the
mountainous region, and they adjusted their trek to parallel it. It
soon became apparent, however, that they would have to find a new
method of searching. Though their initial thought that the valley
was likely to lie somewhere between these first hills and the
mountains beyond, their estimation of the ‘hills’ turned out to be
much too small.

There was a steep cliff face between them and
the track of land beyond which they had determined had a high
chance of being the home of this elusive plant. The reason for its
remaining a secret was now more apparent. They spent hours trying
to figure out how to get up and over the cliffs, to no avail.

Finally, exhausted and frustrated, Katya
threw up her hands. “I don’t suppose you can use those things?” she
exclaimed, waving towards Petra’s wing-like arms. She immediately
regretted the rhetorical question, hoping she did not insult the
girl.

“Not for very long distances,” she answered
Katya, shrugging noncommittally, “but, yes, I can. A little. Not
very well,” she didn’t seem very sure of her abilities. The
Dena’ina leader, however, was smiling broadly.

“May I see?” Katya asked, taking her cue from
the leader’s expression.

The girl threw out her arms in response,
launching herself into the air. The entire party stepped back in
surprised unison as Petra rose above them. She fluttered back down
to the ground, and they all stood staring at her with dropped jaws.
She smiled shyly at them.