The Labyrinth of Destiny (30 page)

Adesina stared blankly at the
cooking fire.

Ravi was lying stretched out on the
ground behind her, sleeping. She leaned back against him, as if she would have
toppled over without him there.

She may have been taught how to
revive her energy, but her mind was still exhausted. The last several hours had
been very taxing, and it wasn’t going to get easier anytime soon.

The Seharan and L’avan armies had
been able to retreat, and now they were traveling north as quickly as they
could. The Shimat army—much larger and more cumbersome than their opponents—had
sent a harrying force to nip at the heels of the L’avan and Seharan, while the
remainder of the army followed at a more controlled pace.

Adesina had led the cavalry to fend
off the smaller force while the rest of the L’avan and Seharans had gotten
enough distance to make escape possible. However, the mercenaries had pursued
them relentlessly until well after the sun had set. They had only just been
able to pause to rest for the night.

The young L’avan queen heard
footsteps approaching, and she looked up to see Kendan enter the light of her
campfire. Maizah followed close behind, her eyes fixed steadily on the ground.

Maizah was formerly a slave of the
Shimat organization, and Kendan had taken her with him when he had deserted.
Kendan had shown her kindness, and she had become devoted to him. She had
rarely left his side during the journey through Zonne, and L’iam had told
Adesina that Maizah had chosen to go with Kendan when he had left the L’avan
settlement. Maizah was mute, as all Shimat slaves were, but she could
communicate well enough, when she chose to do so.

Kendan smiled uncertainly, his
intent gaze studying Adesina’s face.

“May we join you?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

He sat on the ground with his legs
folded underneath him, moving with the grace that was typical of someone
trained by the Shimat organization. Maizah did the same, keeping her gaze
lowered in humility. Adesina’s eyes narrowed as she watched Kendan. There was
something about his expression that was strange, but she couldn’t quite
identify it.

“You have changed since we last saw
each other.”

Kendan looked at her, and his
eyebrows rose slightly. “Oh?”

Adesina nodded again. “I am not
sure what it is, but you are different.”

A smile twitched at the corners of
his lips. “Perhaps you are remembering me wrong.”

She chuckled. Such a challenge
would have angered her as a teenager, but now she felt only fond amusement.
“Well, time has been different for me than it has been for you. I feel I saw
you only a couple of months ago, whereas it has been almost a year for you.”

Kendan leaned forward with
interest. “Why is that?”

Adesina remembered that Kendan had
no knowledge of what happened to her after she had left him in the antechamber
of the Threshold of Zonne.

“I passed over the Threshold into
another realm, and time passed differently there. I returned to this world in a
matter of hours, but I found that many months had passed here.”

“Fascinating,” mused Kendan,
resting his chin on his fist. “Entire worlds beyond our own, and all with their
own natural laws. Is that where you gained your new allies?”

His eyes flicked toward Sitara and
Ruon, who were standing several campfires over, conversing quietly.

Maizah, who had remained still and
unresponsive up to that point, shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the
Serraf and the Laithur. Her eyes darted in their direction but she quickly
looked away, as if she had been forced to look directly into the sun.

Adesina inclined her head. “Yes,
there are many races trapped there. They are waiting for the time when they can
return to their home realm.”

“Where is their home?” asked
Kendan.

The L’avan queen smiled. “This
world is their home.”

Kendan’s eyes widened. “You mean to
say that when this conflict is over our world will be overrun with returning
exiles?”

“I would not say overrun,” amended
Adesina. “There are less than eight thousand of them.”

The former Shar seemed to take
comfort from that clarification. “Even so, it will not be an easy adjustment
for humankind.”

Adesina shrugged. “There are many
changes in the future, but they need not happen immediately. Humankind will
have plenty of time to ease into the new world.”

Kendan rubbed a finger against his
lips and his brow furrowed in thought. “There will be many who will be opposed
to any change at all.”

“There always are,” Adesina replied
ruefully.

“Tell me more about what happened
after you left me in the antechamber,” encouraged Kendan.

Adesina shook her head
good-naturedly. “No, I want to hear about you first. Where have you been? And
who are your followers?”

Kendan’s dark eyes were filled with
amusement. “Would you like to meet them?”

“Certainly,” she replied.

Adesina got to her feet, doing her
best not to jostle Ravi’s sleeping form. He was very tired, and he needed the
rest.

Kendan and Maizah also stood, and
they led the way through the camp. As they walked, Kendan gave an explanation
of his activities.

First he told her about the vision
he had seen of the truth of Signe and his parents while in the antechamber of
the Threshold. Adesina had known that Signe was willing to kill and manipulate
in order to achieve her goals, but it was still painful to hear what she had
done to Kendan and his family.

“I waited for you to emerge from
the room with the Threshold for quite a while,” Kendan went on. “Eventually,
L’iam found me and told me that you were gone. He told me what he had seen and
the conclusions he had formed about what had happened to you. I traveled back
from Zonne with L’iam and the others. They told me about the demon and the
danger that the world faced. We arrived back in Sehar, and they immediately
began preparing for war. L’iam asked me to stay and help, but I knew there was
something that needed my attention first.”

He paused for a moment, and Adesina
prompted him.

“What was that?”

Kendan turned his dark eyes to
hers. “First I had to face Signe.”

Adesina felt a wave of frustration.
“The world is in danger and you went seeking after revenge?”

Kendan’s expression was stony.
“Yes.”

Adesina shook her head in
exasperation. “I cannot believe you.”

The former Shar was unapologetic.
“Signe was a serious threat to any just cause. You may think me selfish, but my
actions benefitted you as well.”

Adesina suppressed a sigh. “Did you
succeed?”

“By the time I returned to the
Shimat fortress, I found that it had been taken over by Cha-sak. Signe had been
overthrown, and she had fled with her loyal followers. The demon was in
complete control of the Shimat organization, using Basha as a front. All Shimat
were recalled from their positions around the world, and any who did not swear
loyalty to the new leadership were executed.”

“How did you escape?” asked Adesina
with a frown.

“By keeping my presence hidden,”
answered Kendan simply. “I did not move openly from the moment I entered Shimat
territory. Maizah waited for me in a nearby forest, and I gathered information
through stealth. Once I realized Signe had fled, I went after her. I knew
exactly where she would be hiding, because I had helped her to build that safe
haven.”

“You confronted her there,”
surmised Adesina.

Kendan nodded. “Yes. I told her
that I knew the truth of what had happened to my parents, and she did not deny
it. I avenged the deaths of my mother and father.”

He sounded so grim and yet so
satisfied. Adesina looked at him and realized that she had learned the reason
for the change in him. Kendan was different because he was free of the burden
that his aunt had placed on him.

It was difficult for Adesina to
accept that Signe was dead. The woman had raised Adesina from the time she was
a baby until she began her Shimat training. Even after that time, the Sharifal
had been a fixed part of Adesina’s life as a student. The knowledge that Signe
was gone seemed unnatural.

“What did you do then?” inquired
Adesina quietly.

Kendan’s handsome face was filled
with determination. “I gathered together the Matshi.”

The young queen gave him a
quizzical glance. She had heard him use that term once before, but she had no
idea what it meant.

“Who are the Matshi?”

“They are those who have chosen to
join me,” was Kendan’s unhelpful reply.

They were approaching their
destination at the opposite side of the camp from where Adesina had been
resting. Kendan and his followers had set up their tents a short distance from
the rest of the army. They seemed to be purposefully keeping themselves
separate from the other allies.

As they slowed, Kendan spoke in a
low voice.

“I knew the truth about the Shimat
from a very young age. Signe was preparing me to be her right hand—the one she
could trust in all things. I was going to replace Breyen as second in command
as soon as I had enough experience. I suppose eventually I would have been her
replacement as Sharifal, but she was always careful not to encourage the wrong
kind of ambition in me. She did not want me striving to overthrow her power.”

“How old were you when she told you
about the Shimat?” asked Adesina.

Kendan’s brow creased as he thought
back. “It seems like I have always known, but I suppose I was eleven or twelve
years old. It was not long after I began my training as a Shi. I was sworn to
secrecy, of course, but I was told that the Shimat were the power behind
governments and world events. I was told that we were spies and
assassins—really, anything that was needed to keep control in our grasp. To a
young boy, such things sound exciting. I was enthusiastic to be a part of it
because I did not understand what it truly meant.”

Adesina had never seen her former
Shar so open. He had always been guarded in what he said, even in moments of
honesty. She was taken aback by this sudden change, but eager to learn more.

“When did that enthusiasm start to
fade?”

Kendan’s smile was bitter. “It is easy
to idealize the Shimat organization as a student. The Shi rarely leave the
fortress, and never go far from the immediate vicinity. The fortress is
isolated, and therefore it is easy to control the world view of those who
reside there. I felt superior to my fellow Shi because I felt I knew the truth,
but I was still fed the stories of noble intention by my instructors. It was
not until I was sent out on my first mission that I truly understood what the
Shimat are. Signe did not shield me from unsavory assignments because I already
knew the truth and she wanted me to become as stained and hardened as she was.
I remained loyal and dutiful to her, but it is impossible to be enthusiastic
when you spend your days lying to friends and your nights committing murder and
treason.”

“Did you never consider leaving?”
inquired Adesina softly.

Kendan gave a harsh laugh. “No.
That life was all I knew, and I did not have a loving family to show me a
different way.”

Adesina knew that his words were
directed at her, and she realized that he envied her.

“Besides,” he continued, “I told
myself that I had been warned about what I was taking part in. Although the
reality of my role was more difficult than I imagined, I had taken it on
willingly.”

They came to a stop as they arrived
at the edge of the Matshi camp. Kendan looked at the people crouched around
cooking fires or going about other duties. Adesina saw a slightly wistful
expression in his eyes.

“Even then, I could not help but
wish that the Shimat were what we pretended to be. I wished that we were
peacekeepers and humanitarians.”

Adesina followed his gaze and
studied the men and women in the camp before her. After a moment, her eyes
widened in surprise.

She recognized some of the faces
there. She spotted the aged face of Shar Per, one of her former instructors.
She saw a Shimat who had graduated the year before she had. She saw Zadok, the
fortress’s blacksmith.

“These are all Shimat,” Adesina
stated in shock.

Kendan nodded slowly. “Yes. They
fled the fortress with Signe when Basha and her demon took over. They were
hiding at the safe haven when I went to confront Signe, and I took charge after
I killed her.”

“But…why are they here?” stammered
Adesina.

“Some of them left because they
were absolutely loyal to Signe, but most of them left because they wanted
nothing to do with the evil plans of Basha and Cha-sak,” explained Kendan. “You
see, the difficult thing about an organization such as the Shimat is that there
are those who remain loyal only because of the lies they have been told. There
are people like your friend Lanil who would never become a cold-hearted killer
but could still be useful to the Shimat order. The solution is to put them in
positions where they can benefit the organization without coming in contact with
situations that might strain their loyalty.”

Adesina’s head whipped around at
the mention of her childhood friend. “Is Lanil here?”

Kendan smiled. “No, but she is
safe. She is with the other Shimat who are in charge of caring for the children
who escaped the fortress.”

A sense of relief swept through
Adesina. She had often wondered what had become of her friend, and she was glad
to hear that Lanil was alive and well.

The L’avan queen turned her mind
back to the matter at hand. “So, these are the Shimat who still believed the
lies that they had been told as students?”

“They never had reason to believe
otherwise,” said Kendan. “They were kept at the fortress where they could be
isolated and controlled, or they were sent to the Shimat farms where they did
nothing but grow food or manufacture materials that were needed.”