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

“And who knows if the Forgotten will try
again,” Layna added, “perhaps this time they will target you
because you seem disinclined to do anything about it. We already
have people stationed near the tribes to find out how they could
unleash such a curse on us. If and when they attack you, would it
not be beneficial to have access to all the knowledge we have
already gained?” She cringed as the words came out of her mouth. He
had goaded her into a rather threatening stance, and she hoped the
rest of the Ieldran wouldn’t take it that way. Being politically
correct in all situations was still a part of the job she was
getting used to.

The man looked disgruntled, and simply
grunted in reply.

“Can we please get back to the matters that
we were supposed to be discussing?” Lady Aria put in gently, and
several other members burst into conversation about the integration
of taxation. Layna sent her a grateful look.

After the meeting was over, and they were
alone once more, Layna buried her head in Gryffon’s shoulder for a
long moment, drawing comfort from the embrace. He rubbed his hand
over the small of her back, sending shivers down her spine.

“That went well,” he commented with a hint of
sarcasm as she released him.

“Heinrich certainly has it out for us,
doesn’t he?”

Gryffon sighed. “He’s just worried,” he said,
“they all are. These are extremely unpleasant events, and while
we’ve been swept along with them for some time now, we have to
remember not to place blame on those who are hesitant to join the
whirlwind voluntarily.”

“I suppose…” she answered thoughtfully,
intertwining her fingers through his, “but I don’t have to like
it.”

He chuckled. “No, me neither.”

*

Katya took out the Dragonstone – formerly the
Bloodstone that had held Nuko’s essence before the Dena’ina had
cleansed it for her – and peered into it. It was strange, but ever
since Layna and Gryffon had performed the spell to create a dome
around the capital city with it, she had sworn she’d been able to
see a tiny representation of Naoham within its depths. Though she
had healed enough that she would have been fine with it being left
in the palace if the spell required it, she had been happily
surprised that Layna had returned it to her after performing
it.

She rubbed it in her hands a moment, drawing
strength from the memories and caught Hunter staring at her. She
held up the stone in one hand apologetically before shoving it back
into her pocket. “Sorry, old habits die hard.”

“No need to apologize,” Hunter shrugged, but
Katya felt the need anyway. She felt as though she was flaunting
another man in front of him. Though Nathair was long dead and
should never have captured her heart in the first place, she still
had loved him. No one could tell her heart what to do.

She fell silent, watching the parade of
people in front of them. The leader of the Dena’ina tribe walked
ahead, surrounded by ten of his tribesmen. She had been slightly
surprised that he had chosen to approach them. She and Hunter had
been with the Knights stationed in the forest when the Dena’ina had
shown up. She’d known that it was their plan to send a party to
confront the Myaamia, but had not expected that they would have
invited their group of ‘Lost Ones’ to be included in this. Seeing
as how the Knights had been stationed there in order to find
information about the tribes, they saw this as a unique
opportunity.

Katya was rather unconvinced that the Elders
of the Myaamia tribe would part with any information simply by
asking, but was willing to give it a try. Perhaps having another of
the tribes tell the people of the Myaamia that what their Elders
were doing was wrong would go over better than having a stranger
say so. She wasn’t particularly looking forward to returning to the
place she had twice now escaped, but the Dena’ina leader assured
her that under tribal customs, as his guest, they would be unable
to touch her.
But that’s only if they respect that custom
,
Katya thought. So far, she hadn’t been impressed by their moral
standards.

The section of forest came up on them quickly
and their group tightened unconsciously as they entered the realm
of the Myaamia. A member of the Forest Guard intercepted them and,
surprisingly, escorted them to the city. Katya had more expected a
fight. Perhaps the influence of the Dena’ina would make the
difference, after all. The inner circle of Elders had only spread
the vague rumor that the Dena’ina were on the outs with the other
tribes to the majority of the people, with only a select few having
been told the false story that they had willingly murdered other
tribesmen. As they walked into the clearing that marked the Myaamia
village, with the statue of their founder in the center, they were
greeted by shouting voices.

“Halt!” commanded Slade, looking back and
forth from Katya and Hunter to the Dena’ina tribesmen. “How dare
you come back here,” he growled to the former, finally deciding to
give them his attention first.

Katya smiled at him mockingly. “We were told
that if I delivered the stone, we’d be forgiven our crimes and set
free.”

Before he could answer, the Dena’ina leader
held up his hand, “They are honored guests of the Dena’ina and will
be treated according to our customs.”

This custom had apparently also been how the
colony of the marked within the Dena’ina tribe had started; their
Elders had agreed that the practice of exiling any with the mark
was outdated and incorrect. They believed the mark was not a symbol
of the Dark King’s purpose, only his bloodline. And this bloodline
also contained improvements which would only benefit the human race
as a whole. By offering any of the marked who were exiled from the
other tribes honorary guest status, they were to be protected by
tribal law.

Unfortunately, the other tribes – and the
Myaamia in particular – did not take kindly to this sanctuary. A
small group of the Myaamia Elders had responded by sending in
assassins to take care of the matter. This had resulted in what the
Myaamia called the ‘incident’. Regrettably, the assassins had met
their end while attempting to kill the marked, but not until after
succeeding in killing several beforehand. Those who knew of the
event at all in the Myaamia tribe thought that the Dena’ina had
viciously murdered their tribesmen, having no idea that they had
been the ones sent on a murderous mission.

Another voice suddenly cut through the clamor
that their arrival had caused, and Katya saw a familiar face in the
crowd. Her friend, Lorcan, was rushing forward towards them, and
she smiled. Her expression soon wavered, however, as she saw the
look in his eyes. He was out for blood, and he wasn’t focused on
her. He was glaring at the leader of the Dena’ina.

“You killed my parents!” he yelled hoarsely
as he leapt through the air. A gleam of metal caught Katya’s eye
and she belatedly realized he was holding a blade out in front of
himself. With no time to knock the knife from his hands or
intercept it, Katya threw herself in front of the man.

Lorcan’s body collided roughly with hers, and
the blade slid in through her ribs, slicing through skin and flesh.
She choked on her breath and collapsed into a heap, panting
laboriously.

Several people rushed to her aid immediately
from the Dena’ina party, and before she knew it, she had been
whisked away and into a small dwelling on the ground.
Someone
needs to tell Lorcan the truth
, she thought absently as her
mind shut down to shut out the pain. Marak was busily injecting her
with painkillers and he wound around her body worriedly, tensing as
other hands touched her.

She felt magic being used on her and could
sense the wrongness of her wound slowly being righted. She drifted
in and out of consciousness as the mages healed her flesh. She
should have seen that coming, should have realized that if Lorcan
had been told the same lies that Kali had spread he might try
something. But she hadn’t anticipated such a violent response from
her young friend. Her thoughts faded into nothingness.

Some time later, she blinked open her eyes.
Lorcan stood before her looking contrite. “Are you alright?” he
asked hurriedly as soon as he saw the fluttering of her
eyelids.

“I’m fine,” she waved off his concern, “but
what in the Gods names did you think you were doing?”

His expression of shame deepened, but it was
still tinged with anger. “Slade told me that our parents were
killed in the incident with the Dena’ina; that they killed them…”
he trailed off.

“That’s not what happened,” she whispered
softly to him.

“That’s what they were just saying,” he
agreed, but did not look convinced. Katya understood the mixture of
emotion now. He must have had weeks to build up the rage towards
the ones who were responsible for his parents’ deaths, and to have
someone now tell you that the anger was misplaced – and worse yet
that it was your parents who were responsible for others’ deaths
and indirectly their own – she couldn’t imagine the turmoil he was
going through.

She relaxed. “Well,” she told him, “lucky for
you, they seem to have patched me back up good as new, so we can
forget the whole thing happened.” She paused a moment awkwardly,
never having been one for understanding her own emotions, much less
someone else’s. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He squirmed uncomfortably. “I don’t know what
to think anymore,” he confessed, “I think I just need to let it all
sink in.”

Katya nodded, relieved. “What’s going on out
there?”

“The Dena’ina have told their story about the
events that have gone on between the tribes, including the
incident.” He paused and looked closely at her. “Are you really
Gareth’s daughter?”

She glanced quizzically at him. “I had just
found out before you helped me escape and he got shot by an arrow.
I had thought he had died, or else I would have come back for
him…”

“He would not have blamed you,” Lorcan
said.

“When Hunter told me…” she trailed off,
unsure of her voice. Lorcan seemed to understand and remained
silent. “Yes,” she said finally, “he was my father. My memory came
back in pieces, more when I recovered a memory stone Gareth had
left for me, and then as a flood when I found Hunter – who was my
childhood friend. I remember growing up here, and Gareth, and my
mother. I was a Myaamia once.” She felt a tear forming in the
corner of her eye and brushed it away, annoyed. It was one thing
she definitely did not care for that came along with all these
emotions. She seemed to cry at the most inopportune times.

“So you really have a mark?” he asked, this
time the emotion behind his words was fear.

“I really do,” she agreed, moving her hair
out of the way and facing away from him so he could see where the
scar covering it was. He moved away almost imperceptibly.

“The Dena’ina are using what you just did to
try and convince people that the Dark King’s ancestors aren’t all
like him.” He said it as a statement, but there was a question
behind his words.

Well, how many people did I kill as an
assassin for Karl?
She wondered, pondering her own morality.
But is that on my conscience or his? And did I not fall in love
with the man trying to take over the world?
Out loud she said
firmly, “Queen Layna of Gelendan has the mark…and she is the most
non-evil person I have ever met. Having the mark does not mean you
are necessarily like the Dark King.”
But it doesn’t mean I don’t
have some of his traits too…
the voice in the back of her head
added. She ignored it. She was comfortable with who she was.

Ever since finding Hunter once again, she
held on to the memories of who she had been before the priests had
taken her and allowed her to be corrupted by Karl. Still, she
didn’t think that her actions were the best ones to be comparing
all of the marked to…

“Did the Three really talk to her in her
head?”

“They did,” Katya answered simply. They both
fell silent for a long moment.

“I don’t think you’re an evil person either,”
Lorcan told her and she smiled. He glanced at the ground for a
while. His eyes flitted up to meet hers, then dropped. “Gareth was
a really important man, until…”

“Until they made him throw his wife and
daughter out of the tribe?”

“Yes,” he bobbed his head up and down. “I’ve
been doing a ton of research on our histories, and after finding
out that he was somehow connected to the incident, I started
looking him up too. He did a lot for all the tribes, and was one of
the only tribesmen who bothered to keep in touch with the others.
But then after…” he shrugged his shoulder to the side and widened
his eyes to indicate the event again, “…he started speaking out
against the practice of exiling children. He disappeared for a
while, I think looking for you, and Kali really started to take
over. He eventually returned, but was different. Then, when the
incident happened, he blew the stone straight out of the statue’s
hand in anger. I had thought that it was because he was upset with
the Dena’ina, but now understand that it was what Kali was doing
that he disapproved of. He got so worked up about it that he began
to have problems with his heart and the other Elders stripped him
of his position and suggested that he spend the remainder of his
days with the infirm.”

“Is that why he was there,” Katya stated more
than asked. Privately, she speculated that perhaps the other Elders
were what had caused Gareth’s ailing health. She wouldn’t be
surprised in the least, given what they were capable of.

Someone tapped on the door and Katya called
out that they were free to come in. The door opened and the leader
of the Dena’ina stood in the doorway. He glanced over at Lorcan,
who stared resolutely down at the ground.