Sapient Salvation 1: The Selection (Sapient Salvation Series) (23 page)

I swallowed hard. I had a feeling she would find a way to punish me for this special treatment later, though I couldn’t understand why she would care so deeply whether I walked with this guard or with the rest of the Obligates back to my quarters.

The guard and I drew many stares as we walked through the hallways of the palace. When we finally reached my quarters, I felt nearly weak with relief.

“Keep the door locked,” the guard said gruffly. His dark brown face was etched in stone, but I thought I saw a hint of kindness in his pale gray eyes. “Don’t open it for anyone but your Tournament guide.”

“Thank you for escorting me.” For a moment I wondered if I should curtsy. After all, he was Calistan and I was Earthen. But he was a guard, not a nobleman or royalty, so I just gave him a nod.

I was hoping Iris would be waiting for me. She hadn’t been at the party—none of the guides had—but I wished to tell her about the evening, ask her opinion on my conversation with Lord Toric, and see if she knew anything about why he was called away.

I was exhausted but not yet ready to sleep. I sat on my bed, looking around the small room and suddenly feeling extremely alone. I bent down and removed my shoes from my throbbing feet.

I had no idea what was coming next. We hadn’t been told when the next challenge of the Tournament would begin, or whether we would have to gather in the throne room again to review our ranks of favor, or . . . anything. I felt like a puppet in a show, a game piece getting scooted around a board.

My mind swam and my heart ached. In the span of a couple of days, I had lost everything I knew of my life and passed through a portal to a strange land. I’d fought death, watched others die, and then dressed up like a princess and listened to music with an alien Lord.

The alien Lord Toric . . .

Curling up on my side, I drew my knees to my chest. In addition to my swimming mind and aching heart, my stomach fluttered whenever I remembered Lord Toric’s eyes boring into me. He looked at me as if he saw more than just my face, my hair, and my dress.

Or maybe I was just imagining things? Perhaps I only wanted to believe he favored me because I wanted so badly to survive? Any maybe I wanted more than just survival . . . there was something about
him
I wanted.

I pressed my hand into my stomach, my mouth suddenly dry.

Something was happening, something had been set in motion. I could not describe it and did not understand it, but I knew it all the same.

I closed my eyes and drifted on this new swirl of emotions and fears and uncertainties . . .

“Maya.”

I opened my eyes, disoriented. I’d fallen asleep in my clothes with the lamp still lit.

I sat up and my heart hammered in alarm. A man stood near the door, his face in shadow. I gasped. For a moment I thought it might be Lord Toric but then he stepped forward.

“Sir Jeric?” I swung my feet to the floor, suddenly glad that I hadn’t changed out of my clothes.

But what was he doing here? I thought of the guard’s warning, and my eyes flicked to the door.

“I did not mean to alarm you.” He held one hand out, palm down, as if to try to soothe me. “But what I told you before, about communicating with your sister—”

“You can take me to speak to Lana?” My heart was beating almost painfully from surprise at Jeric’s presence in my room and the prospect of talking to my twin.

“Yes.” He took two long strides toward me, and his gaze bore down like a weight. “But if you ever tell anyone that I offered you this opportunity, if you invoke my name in any way, it will mean death for you and exile for me. I want to do this for you, but this is strictly forbidden by the word of the sacred texts.”

I nodded, though trepidation pinged through me. “I promise I will not tell.”

“No matter what?”

“No matter what.” I swallowed hard. My intuition was sending out little warnings, but I shoved them away. I could not turn down a chance to speak to my sister, and I didn’t care that it was forbidden by the Calistans’ sacred texts. After all, it was not my religion.

“There is a man, a servant, who will be waiting outside. After I leave, wait for a count of ten and then open the door. He will take you to speak with your Lana.”

Taking a deep breath to try to calm my speeding pulse, I managed a smile. “Thank you, Sir Jeric. You have no idea how much this means to me. Thank you for this kindness.”

When I said “kindness,” his lips twitched in a tiny smile, but his eyes darkened.

He turned to leave, and I took a step and stretched out my hand. “Wait. Why are you doing this for me?”

He stopped at the door and his face softened. For a moment his eyes reminded me of Lord Toric’s. But then his eyes hardened and any warmth that may have been there disappeared. “Because I may need you to do something for me. This is my first demonstration that I can give you the things you desire. And I can keep doing so if you are willing help me in turn.”

And then he was through the door and gone before I could press him further.

Something important for the brother of the Lord? What could I possibly offer?

With shaking hands I pulled on the flat shoes that I’d worn from Earthenfell while I counted slowly to ten. When I opened the door, a Calistan man was there. He was dressed more like a guard than a servant—in ankle-high boots, gray trousers, and a white military-cut jacket.

He handed me a strange bonnet-style hat with a deep brim. “Put this on and keep your head down. You must hide your face as much as possible.”

I slipped it over my head and tied it under my chin. Then he held out a plain navy trench coat. I pushed my arms into the sleeves and secured the three large buttons in front.

“Keep quiet,” he said, and then he was off at a swift pace.

I nearly had to run to keep up with his much longer legs. We took many turns, a winding route through what appeared to be little-used minor hallways, and climbed staircases. Twice we got into elevators that shot us upward at stomach-dropping speed. The few times we passed anyone I dared not look up, and the man leading me never hesitated or slowed.

Finally, he stopped and I peeked left and right. We had reached the end of a silent corridor.

“Go up that staircase.” He pointed to a narrow set of stairs that wound out of sight in a tight spiral. “At the top, go through the door and wait.”

I stared at him a moment, hoping for more information. But he just stared back, obviously waiting for me to depart.

I nodded and began climbing the stairs. Every six steps or so, there was a tiny light built into the wall, and those were the only illumination in the windowless staircase. The ceiling was low and claustrophobic, and I had the sensation of being very high up. Perhaps even in one of the pointed spires that I’d seen from the ground when I’d first arrived on Calisto.

My leg muscles burning from the long climb, I stopped abruptly when I realized the staircase ended in a few more steps, at a door. I turned the handle and it swung inward. On the other side was an empty round room with two high windows a couple of feet above my head.

I pulled off my hat, dropped it, and turned a slow circle. How was I supposed to communicate with Lana?

My chest tightened as I began to wonder if it had been a trick. No one except Jeric and the man who’d guided me even knew where I was.

I ran to the door but too late realized there was no handle on my side. Sliding my fingers along its smooth surface, I searched for a way to open it.

With panic rising through me, I spun to search the room itself. It was growing brighter, but not from light coming through the windows. A bright pulsing ball the size of my fist hung in the middle of the room.

I pressed back against the door as the light brightened and swelled to the size of my head. It grew too bright to watch, and I slid to the floor and hid my eyes behind my arms.

Too scared to cry out, I huddled against the door.

Then the painful flare subsided. I cracked one eyelid open to find a ring of light hanging in the air. But it wasn’t just a ring of light. It was like looking through a window. There were trees, a bird flitted by, and . . .

I scrambled to my feet. “Lana!”

My sister was there, sitting at the base of a tree with her skeins of colored thread. She was still piling up the colorful bundles as if she’d just arrived in the orchard at the start of the work day.

Her hands froze and she raised her head at the sound of her name. Then her hands began to tremble and her head whipped left and right. “M—Maya?” she whispered. “Is that you?”

I ran toward the ring of light. “Yes, it’s me! I can see you. I’m looking at you through a portal. I—I don’t know how, but—” My voice faltered and I blinked back tears. “Oh Lana, I miss you so terribly.”

“Are you okay? How are you able to do this?” She rose to her knees but didn’t stand.

“Yes, I’m fine,” I said, brushing tears from my cheeks. “Sir Jer—I mean, someone offered to let me talk to you, and of course I jumped at the chance. How are you? How is Mother? Is Rand collecting for you?”

“Rand and a few others helped with my collections yesterday and are helping today too. Court even said he would pitch in. Maybe he truly does feel bad about what he did to you. Mother is . . . she’s devastated, of course.” Lana shook her head. “I just can’t believe I’m talking to you right now.”

My mind reeled as images and faces from home rushed through my thoughts. It felt like I’d been gone for years, but this was probably only Lana’s second day back at work after the Selection and Departure ceremonies.

“I know, I can’t believe it either.” I lifted one hand, wishing I could reach through the portal to touch Lana’s arm, to dig my fingers in the brown earth.

I sucked in a breath. The window was shrinking. “I think it’s disappearing.” I said. “Wait, not yet! Lana!”

I stumbled backward as the border of the portal contracted and formed a white ball of light that finally forced me to squeeze my eyes closed.

I turned at the sound of the door opening. Blinking rapidly, I tried to see who it was, but I was blinded by the blotches dotting my vision.

Rough hands slammed some sort of cover over my head. I struggled, lashing out and clawing at the arms that held me.

Then something hit the side of my head with such force that the crack against my skull was the last thing I registered before everything slipped away.

*

I felt my body moving, but it wasn’t under my power. Hands were under my arms and grasping my legs. Then I was lying on a mat or perhaps on the floor. My nerves seemed partially numbed, my senses only somewhat useful in telling me what was happening, and my muscles completely slack.

There were voices, but my brain was too slow to try to pick out more than a word or two here and there.

Lana.

I remembered seeing my sister through the portal.

I should have tried to climb through the ring of light. Even if I burned up in the blue-white glow, it would have been worth trying.

Hands rolled me onto one side, and then there was a sharp zing at the back of my neck.

Darkness crowded in and numbed me from the world.

16

Toric

WHEN VICTOR WOKE me to inform me that Akantha needed to speak to me urgently, I couldn’t imagine what the emergency might be. I pulled on clothes and went to my receiving room, where the Mistress of Tournament had come to inform me that Maya was missing. My first thought was that Calvin had failed, that he and Maya had been attacked.

But as I pushed the fog of sleep from my brain, I realized that didn’t make sense. Calvin had escorted Maya to her room just as I’d asked. At least five hours had passed since he’d reported back to me after leaving her safely. He did not know that since giving that order I’d decided she needed constant guard, so he’d left her in her locked room, and another guard had arrived later to stay outside her door.

I took a deep breath in through my nose to try sharpen my mind, to catch up.

Maya. She was in danger.

“How could she be missing?” I was unable to keep emotion from my voice.

The Mistress of Tournament lifted a shoulder. She was trying to make me believe that the entire situation bored her, but I saw the dark spark of pleasure in her eyes. “Her room is empty.”

There were a few minutes, maybe even half an hour, between when Calvin had left her and the new guard, Dorn, had arrived. I had not instructed Dorn to check on Maya, as I assumed she would be asleep. In any case I preferred not to alert her to the fact that she was under watch. But in that short time, someone had taken her.

I gave Akantha a hard, narrow-eyed stare and barreled toward her. “You seem none too concerned.” Her eyes popped wide, and she backed up to the wall. I towered over her, seething. “Did you have something to do with her disappearance? Is there something you’re not telling me, Akantha?”

She shook her head vehemently. “No, my Lord. Of course not.”

I wasn’t sure I believed her.

Pushing past her, I went to the door.

“Alert the Master of the Guard,” I said to the two men posted just inside. “One of the Offered has been abducted from her room. Her name is Maya, and she must not be harmed.”

The guards didn’t completely mask their surprise at the level of concern I was showing for an Earthen woman who wasn’t even part of my harem. I was too frantic to care.

“Maybe she simply tried to run away.” Akantha’s smug voice made my blood run hot with rage.

I whirled around. “Get out, if you have nothing useful to offer.
Get out
!” I stormed at her.

She ducked her head and scurried away.

My pulse was pounding in my temples as my fury at Akantha and dread over Maya’s fate mingled, sending adrenaline surging through me.

Calvin arrived, standing between me and the open chamber door. He was touching his earpiece, likely calling for a second guard. Quick heavy footsteps approached and Dorn arrived, his face ashen.