Rout of the Dem-Shyr (The Ascendant Series) (14 page)

The Wrym female stood rooted in place as Kyr approached her and took her by the upper arms. Leo watched with a slack jaw, but made no move to intervene.

Kyr tried again. “Please, Zasha. Please tell me where Ty is. Where is
Dem-Shyr
TaeDane?”

“Ma’jah,” Leo said in a hoarse voice. “This cannot be.”

Frustration made Kyr want to shout, but she knew anyone could be outside the doors and listening. Drawing on her abilities, she centered herself and sent calming thoughts to Zasha and Leo. She needed their help.

“I’m fine, Leo. You can see that. Please tell me where I can find the
Dem-Shyr
.”

Leo swallowed audibly before he replied, “I’m sorry to say that he’s been banished to the Dark Lands, Ma’jah.”

Kyr sifted through her still-muddy memories of her home planet. “The Dark Lands?” she repeated. “But I thought only murderers are sent there. It’s the punishment of eternal exile.”

“Yes, Ma’jah,” Leo whispered.

Emotion rose within Kyr. Disbelief. Horror. Anguish. Her gaze moved between Leo and Zasha, reading only truth in their thoughts and expressions.

“But…who did he kill?” she asked at last.

“You, Ma’jah,” Zasha answered with tears in her eyes. “He killed you.”

Memories returned to Kyr in harsh flashes. Being discovered in her bed with Ty. Him lying to the Guardians to try and protect her. Her lying to Vycor to try and protect him. Him being led into the judgment chamber. Her shoving Vycor to the side so she could be the one to enter the chamber.

Ty’s eyes, filled with tears and anguish as he watched her die at his own hands.

In that moment, Kyr hated Vycor with more passion than any being had ever hated another.

Instinct had her throwing up mental blocks around Zasha and Leo. There was no telling how much they had inadvertently shared with anyone who might be tuning into their thoughts. Leo, at least, should be protected through her previous efforts, but Zasha had no such shielding. Kyr’s focus was now on self-preservation while she figured out what the hell was going on.

Apparently, she had risen from the dead. That was a huge revelation that she couldn’t afford to dwell on right then. All she knew was that it was in her best interests to stay dead.

You saw a shadow
, she thought to both of them.
Only a shadow. Everything is fine. You’re leaving flowers because you’re grieving
.

Oh, thank Yen-Ki
, Zasha thought.
It was only a shadow
.

The light is playing tricks with my eyes
, Leo thought at the same time.

Pleased with her progress, Kyr conveyed,
Tell me everything you know about what happened to Ty. When was he sent to the Dark Lands?

Leo and Zasha stood without moving, holding her gaze.
TaeDane was transported to the Dark Lands three days ago, after he killed you, Ma’jah
.

Their response was odd…different from anything she’d experienced before. It took her a moment to determine that they weren’t consciously feeding her information. She was in their minds.

Ty’s warnings about mind manipulation occurred to her, but this was more important. Ty had been forced to
kill her
. Not even the Great Yen-Ki would stand between her and the answers she needed to find him.

Ignoring the warning, she dove back in.
Was he…punished?

He was banished to the Dark Lands.

Yes, you’ve said that. But were any other punishments imposed?

No. His abilities had already been taken from him by the Guardians, so they didn’t have to be repressed like an Outcast’s typically would. Advisor Vycor wanted the murderer removed from the palace with all haste.

Relief had Kyr’s shoulders slumping. As bad as things were, at least Ty hadn’t had to endure the sterilization or marking. She would hope that whatever he encountered in the Dark Lands proved a little easier to bear.

Why haven’t I been buried yet?
she wondered. A shudder ran through her when she considered how fortunate she was to have awoken in the palace.

The people wish to pay their respects while you lay in state
.
The Guardians also wanted to wait for those traveling from the other megais to attend your burial. It will take place tomorrow
.

That didn’t leave her much time.
Tell me about the Dark Lands. How can I get there?

I don’t know. No one has ever been there and returned. The pilots who travel there have their memories erased. No one wants to go there. Only murderers and violent criminals are banished to the Dark Lands
.

Kyr frowned as they started repeating themselves. She wasn’t going to get any helpful information from these two. Studying them for a moment, she made a quick decision.

Help me lift this lid back onto the death box
.

Without hesitating, Leo and Zasha both bent to help her return the lid to the top of the box. Kyr was relieved to note that it wasn’t unusually scuffed or scratched, and thanked her lucky stars for the thick rug under their feet.

Help me clean up the mess from the flowers. You were startled when you saw a shadow in the flickering light and dropped the flowers, but you did what you could to salvage them
.

Yes
, they agreed.

They scooped up all of the loose dirt that they could and added it back to the cracked container holding the flowers. Once Zasha added the flowers to the large pile around the death box, the fact that they were broken wasn’t noticeable to the naked eye.

Grabbing their hands, Kyr once again drew on her abilities.
You never saw me. You were just startled by the shadows and secretly wish I was still alive. No one who reads your minds will retrieve the truth
.

When she was sure her mental blocks were impenetrable, she let them go and sent them from the room. Hearing the door close shook her resolve. But she couldn’t afford to trust anyone. Ty needed her.

Until she was sure who she could trust, she was on her own.

Chapter 18

That thought really hit Kyr as she stood beside her death box and considered what to do next. This was the first time she’d been alone in her entire life. Even when she had been away at her life lessons, Ty and her Kyndred had always been with her, even if observing from a distance. Avana and Sem had been her constant companions back on Earth, watching over her without her knowledge.

Now, she had no one to consult. No one to help her decide what to do. It was more than a little terrifying.

Okay, Kyr. Focus. Think of Ty
.

She took a deep breath as she looked around the room. There were two different entrances. If people were dropping by to pay their respects, there was every possibility someone else could walk in at any moment. She had to get out of the room.

Glancing down at herself, she made a face. She was dressed in a black burial shroud. She’d stand out like a sore thumb if anyone saw her.

Not to mention she was supposed to be dead.

That thought freaked her out, so she hurried over to the door that Zasha and Leo had used. She pressed her ear against it and listened. Voices and the sounds of people walking by reached her through the thick wood. It sounded like a public area. That wasn’t going to work.

Picking up the trailing shroud, she padded in her bare feet to the door on the other side of the room. Once again, she pressed her ear to the door. She didn’t hear anything.

Her heart pounded as she reached for the door handle. Then she hesitated. Wouldn’t they have guards at each entrance?

Frustrated with herself for almost screwing up already, she opened her mind. It didn’t take her long to isolate the mental signatures on the other side of the door. As she thought, there were two Mynder guards standing there.

Now what?

Her eyes fell on the column she had hidden behind when Zasha and Leo walked in. It gave her an idea.

Hurrying over to the column, she tapped into her abilities and connected with the minds of the guards by the second door. Influencing wasn’t something she had really practiced, but there was no time like the present to give it a shot.

She sent out the suggestion that there was something wrong inside the room. The guards had a bad feeling and they really needed to check things out.

The door opened and the two guards stepped inside. She hurriedly amended the thought to direct them to the other side of the room, where she told them to explore the shadowy corner near her death box. As soon as their backs were turned, she fled from the room.

It only took her a moment to recognize the private hallway as she stepped out into it. Ty used it all the time to take her from her chambers to the training room. The real question was where in the palace was she standing right now?

“I don’t see anything.”

Kyr’s eyes widened as the Mynder guard’s voice reached her from inside the room. She didn’t have time to dawdle. Turning to the left, she started in that direction. She made it around the bend in the hallway before the guards returned to their posts. Once she was out of sight, she paused to catch her breath. Her mental efforts were costing her in energy. It couldn’t help matters that she had apparently spent the past three days in a death box.

The white hallway was so nondescript that she didn’t have a clue where she was or where to go. At least it wasn’t heavily traveled. She felt like a fly on a wedding cake in her black shroud.

Closing her eyes, she tuned into the thoughts around her. After adjusting the influx of “voices” in her mind to a select few, she was able to reason out her approximate location. That helped her figure out where to go.

Her good fortune continued as she made her way to the training room. She didn’t encounter anyone in the hall. When she tried to open the door and found it locked, though, she knew her luck had run out.

Damn it
.

She should have known. Ty always carried a key on him.

Thinking of Ty and what Vycor had done to him made her chest hurt so much it brought tears to her eyes. Suddenly, the locked door wasn’t just a small obstacle. It was everything that stood between her and getting to Ty.

Using her anger to fuel her, she brought forth her abilities and once again grasped the door handle. This time, she snapped the handle from its moorings. The door swung open.

She hurried inside and tossed the door handle to the floor. The door wouldn’t fully close, but she propped it closed enough that a casual observer probably wouldn’t notice. Hopefully no one would happen to walk by.

Her first stop was the armor cabinet. She stripped out of the shroud on her way over to it, opening the cabinet doors as the last of the black fabric slid from her shoulders. She grabbed the armor and boots designed for her and put them on. The armor was the spare lightweight set that Ty insisted she keep in the training room in case they ever decided to engage in an unplanned training session. She had only used it once before, but it wasn’t hard to adorn. She was fully armored within a couple minutes.

Then she moved over to the weapons rack. Her eyes fell on the Ora blades. Nodding to herself, she went in search of the dual scabbards meant for the blades. Because she had shown so much interest in the weapons, Ty had demonstrated how the scabbards worked. He wanted her to know how to access the weapons when they were secured to her body.

Thank you, Ty
, she thought as she found the scabbards and strapped them around her hips. It made her feel better to talk to him, even though she knew he couldn’t hear her.

Fighting another rush of tears, she walked back to the blades and slid them into the scabbards. She was as ready as she was going to be if she was forced to defend herself. Now she had to figure out what to do with the black shroud. After giving it a moment’s thought, she stuffed it into the back of the armor cabinet. She doubted anyone would think to look back there anytime soon.

Now what?

Movement out of the corner of her eye made her jump a foot and reach for her swords. She almost laughed hysterically when she registered that she had caught her own image in the wall-length mirror to her right. Her heart tried to fight its way out of her throat as she moved closer to her reflection.

She was so pale. So thin. Someone had done her makeup with a heavy hand, obviously trying to give her corpse the look of life. With her hair pulled back from her face, she looked like a gruesome caricature of herself.

Her hand shook as she reached up to touch her cheek. Had she really died? If so, how had she come back to life? Was she even really alive? Maybe she was a ghost or a zombie.

But she felt alive. Her heart beat in her chest just like it always had. Pain over what she and Ty had endured sat with her like a constant companion. She was even hungry, which surprised her. Of course, it had apparently been days since she last had anything to eat or drink.

Okay, Kyr. Time to move on
.

Seeing her reflection reminded her that she was still too recognizable. If she wanted to keep her survival a secret, she couldn’t be seen. Since she would have to walk through public areas to get the information she needed to find Ty, she would have to blend in. There was only one place she knew where she could change her appearance that dramatically.

She slipped out of the training room and pulled the door closed as far as it would go. Then she headed to her bedchambers. Halfway there, she heard voices. Shadows preceded two Mynder guards.

She had nowhere to go.

Out of desperation, she brought forth her abilities and sent out the thought that the Mynders didn’t see her. Power surged through her as she clung to the wall and pretended she was a statue. The guards passed without looking at her. One of them nearly hit her foot as he passed.

She maintained the mental suggestion until she could no longer hear them. The moment she released the thought, a wave of dizziness overtook her.