Chapter Eleven

You Were There

~*~

 

 

 

The house was burning.

“I told you not to come to here again,” Kelvaran said.

“I can't leave you here,” Kazia told him. “You don't deserve this.”

“You don't know what I deserve. You don't know me.”

“Fair enough,” Kazia said. “But I know that Amelys would not love you as she does if you had done anything to deserve this.”

“Amelys...” he said absently.

He seemed to consider her words, looking back to the burning manor as the scene reset itself again.

Kazia turned away from the manor to survey the area behind her. There was nothing to be seen there, only an inky blackness that looked almost solid, but still held the feeling of open space.

“Come with me,” she said, taking his hand and pulling him toward that darkness. “There has to be somewhere better.”

“No, Kazia!” he shouted. “You can't go in there. There is nothing there. It will just swallow you.”

“If you think I fear that, then it's you who doesn't know me,” she said.

She looked back to pull him along, and saw the manor house behind them fade out of existence to be replaced with more of that eerie darkness.

A room materialized around them, stopping them both in their tracks. They were in the grand hall of a manor house, decorated as though for a ball.

“I know this place,” Kelvaran said. “I've been here.”

“I think I know it too,” Kazia told him. “I can't place it though.”

“My parents,” Kelvaran whispered, staring past Kazia.

She turned and saw that there were people appearing around the hall, all dressed in formal evening attire. The air around them filled with the sounds of music and chatter and the clinking of champagne glasses.

A couple stood where Kelvaran pointed, and a girl of about Neiphi's age alongside them.

“My sister, Nereyna,” he said wistfully. “She should be the Princess of Meratha now. No, she should be Queen of Valesk now.”

“Kelvaran,” Kazia whispered. She could not feel his pain in this place, but she could imagine it, and she ached for him.

“Well met, Halany,” a deep voice boomed.

Kazia froze. It was the voice of her father.

“Please meet my daughter, Kazia.”

Kelvaran gave her a sharp look, and they both crept forward toward the voice. It came from a small office off the side of the open hall.

As they neared the door, they came upon a small boy peeking out from behind a curtain across the arched doorway. Kazia nudged Kelvaran and pointed the boy out to him.

“Is that you?” she asked. “I think I remember this. You were here?”

Kelvaran's face had gone cold.

“Kazia is very special, Halany,” Gorvan was saying. “She will be our greatest asset when our time comes. I will fashion her into the greatest hero Valesk has ever seen. There will be songs sung about her. Would you like songs sung about you, Kazia?”

The little girl in the room with them shrank away in fear and shook her head.

“Isn't the point of spies that no one knows who they are?” Halany said with a laugh. “She's just a scared little child, Gorvan. What makes her so special?”

“Laugh now, Halany, but you will see,” Gorvan answered hotly. “Some of it is a family secret, but I can show you a part of her power. Come here, girl.” He held a hand out to her. “Like we've practiced now. Just a little show.”

The child stood trembling, on the verge of tears. She shook her head.

“Do it!” Gorvan commanded.

She put out a shaking little hand and drew her fingers across her father's palm. Nothing happened. Gorvan laughed shortly in Halany's direction.

“It helps if she's a little angry,” he said.

He suddenly struck the girl hard across her face.

Kazia jumped next to Kelvaran, and he put a hand on her shoulder.

Gorvan caught the child before she could fall, then held his hand out to her again.

“Do it!” he demanded.

Choking back tears, she again drew her fingers over his hand, this time drawing a small orb of ethereal energy out of his palm.

Kelvaran's hand clenched around Kazia's shoulder.

“Hah!” Halany cried. “Good man, Gorvan! I have known the best Alchemists in the world and have never seen such a thing. This is how it will work?”

“This is how it will work,” Gorvan answered, sitting and shaking his hand in the air. “I'll tell you even that little bit takes something out of a man. When she's grown, she will be quite the killer.”

Kazia shrugged Kelvaran's hand away, then turned and ran.

She wheeled around when Kelvaran caught up to her and grasped her arm.

“I don't do that,” she said, shaking her head and struggling for breath. “I don't ever do that. Oh, Gods, this is why you think... you think I'm- you were there.”

“Kazia, breathe...” Kelvaran said gently.

“Don't look at me!” she shouted and turned to run again.

Kelvaran tried to stop her, but she pushed him away roughly and he began to fall backward.

~~~*~~~

Kelvaran awoke in darkness. He lay in a soft bed, and he felt strange. His body felt smaller, and lighter. Enough moonlight streamed in through a window to see his way around, so he rose to examine his surroundings.

Walking was difficult. His center of gravity seemed off, and he was wearing a very long night shirt that tangled around his legs. As he passed by a dressing table, he glanced into its tall mirror to see Kazia's image reflected there.

Panic shook him. The world shifted sideways, and he fell into darkness.

~~~*~~~

The darkness gave way to a harrowing scene.

Kelvaran stood behind Kazia, looking into a room so brightly lit that his eyes watered. The room was crammed full of medical equipment surrounding a long, marble-topped table.

On the table, a pre-teen aged Kazia lay prone and uncovered from the waist up. Her head turned to the side staring vacantly, slack lips leaking saliva onto the marble.

An elderly Alchemist bent over her, inserting a large needle into her spine.

“Kazia,” Kelvaran breathed, horrified.

He touched her shoulder and she jumped as she turned her pale and tear-streaked face to him in terror.

“Are we in my Hell now?” she whispered shakily.

“No, this isn't Hell,” he said in a rush. “I know what this is now. I am not dead. I am unconscious somewhere, and someone is using me to see through your eyes. You need to wake up, and you cannot come back here, do you understand me? This could kill you.”

“No, that would be would be forbidden to Alchemists,” she said.

“This isn't Alchemy,” he replied. “It's a curse. When you wake up, you must look for an amulet, or a doll, something of that nature. It will be somewhere that you spend a lot of time. Your lab, or your bedroom. When you find it, you must burn it, and tell Amelys. Now you have to wake up. Now!”

“Kelvaran...”

“Wake up, Kazia!”

He pushed her as she had done to him before.

“Wake up!”

 

~~~*~~~