Chapter Twelve

Stupid and Reckless

Part One

~*~

 

 

 

“Mistress!”

Kazia pounded on Amelys' door for the third time.

Madame Brandra emerged from her apartment still pulling a wrapper over her nightdress.

“Kazia, the hour!” she scolded. “What is the matter?”

“It can't wait,” Kazia responded. “Kelvaran is alive.”

The door opened then and Amelys appeared, half asleep still, with a lantern in her hand.

“Mistress,” Kazia said desperately, “Kelvaran is alive.”

“I guess you'd better come in,” Amelys said, yawning and standing aside as Kazia and Brandra both came through.

Amelys sat patiently, giving no reaction, as Kazia described all that had transpired. Brandra added sounds of amazement and shock at intervals.

“Mistress, this isn't possible, is it?” Brandra asked when Kazia had finished.

Kazia sighed. They didn't seem to believe her. She stretched her head to one side. She had awakened on the floor in her bedroom to a pain in one shoulder and a throbbing headache.

“Kazia, didn't Sir Palanaida's exhibit include some old folk magic relics?” Amelys asked.

“It did!” she answered excitedly. “Do you think it's related? Perhaps something from the Archive could be helpful?”

“What you've described sounds like old magic,” Amelys said. “Valeskan Walspa magic. Didn't your mother practice such?”

“She would never do such a dark thing as that!” Kazia protested.

“No,” Amelys agreed. “But that party in your dream, I believe it took place shortly after her death.”

“I don't really remember,” Kazia said. “But, Mistress, I don't follow...”

“Sometimes a new loss can resurface memories of old losses. I think we must allow that your sleeping mind may be conflating the passing of Kelvaran with Eaphan and your mother, pulling together your remembrances of them all.”

Kazia shook her head.

“It was real,” she insisted.

But she was beginning to doubt. She put her face into her hands.

“It felt real. I don't know, perhaps you're right.”

“Kazia, the agents listening to the transmitter heard his murder, and then nothing since.”

“I just.. he can't be gone.”

Kazia covered her face as the tears came.

“I'm so sorry Kazia,” Amelys said, reaching a hand to Kazia's shoulder. “I can't help but feel that I put him in your path, and brought you to this heartbreak.”

“No,” Kazia sobbed.

“I'm not dismissing your dreams out of hand. I'll do some research, just in case,” Amelys promised. “For now, let's all get back to bed.”

“I'll walk you up,” Brandra said. “I have a tea that will give you a dreamless sleep.”

“Thank you, but no teas. I'll be fine,” Kazia replied, wiping at her face.

Back in her room again, Kazia looked under the bed before climbing in. She had done so already when she woke up on the floor, and she still saw nothing there.

Frantically, she pulled all the blankets and sheets away from the bed, shaking each one before tossing it on the floor, upending all of the pillows out of their cases. There was nothing there.

She piled the blankets back onto the bed, quickly giving up on straightening them. She climbed into bed and nestled into the pile, pulling a corner of one wayward blanket over herself.

The pillow she stuffed under her head felt rough against her cheek with no case, but she was too tired to care about that.

She was just too tired.

 

~~~*~~~

Kelvaran opened his eyes to see Yilina's face hovering over him.

She lay stretched out on her side against him, propped on one elbow, her hair brushing over his bare shoulder.

“Did you have sweet dreams?” she said, a taunt in her voice.

“What happened?” he whispered.

His voice didn't want to work and he coughed. Raising his hand to cover it was difficult, but when he managed, he saw a set of red puncture marks down his arm to the back of his hand.

His whole body ached, so he just lay still in the soft bed.

“My darling,” Yilina answered, “you have performed an admirable service to your country. Aren't you pleased?”

“You didn't kill me?”

She pushed at his shoulder playfully.

“Of course not, Kel,” she laughed. “Although everyone thinks I did. Not to worry, though, we have big plans. You will be resurrected, and everyone will know of your heroism. Once Lady Devratha is safe again in the arms of her loving father. Wins all around!”

“You saw?” he asked. “The dreams?”

“Oh, Gods, no! That spell doesn't work like that - and who would even want to watch that kind of travesty?” she laughed. “My eyes in Elisaen have told us all about her oh, so dramatic unrequited love for you.”

She traced a finger around his chest and glared at him.

“It is unrequited, isn't it?” she added coldly.

“Of course,” he scoffed. His voice had been slowly returning each time he spoke and he was now able to speak normally. “That woman has been a tiresome thorn in my side since I laid eyes on her.”

He reached a hand up, stiff though his arm was, to caress Yilina's cheek, gazing at her lips.

“Good job on your part, though,” she said. “Love makes people stupid, and reckless. You would know all about that, wouldn't you?”

He began to sit up and as she helped him, he moved to kiss her. She ducked to avoid him and jumped up out of the bed.

“Get up!” she said cheerfully.

“Yilina, I can barely move,” he complained.

His head began to throb as he rose.

“Well, you've been asleep for two weeks,” she explained.

“Two weeks? How am I still alive?”

At the moment he almost wished she'd just killed him.

“I'm that good,” she smirked. “Don't worry, the drug to wake you up should take full effect in a few minutes.”

Kelvaran lowered his forehead into his hands and groaned.

“Come on!” Yilina chirped happily. “Get dressed. We have people to meet downstairs. Big plans to make.”

~~~*~~~

For several days, Kazia systematically made a mess of her laboratory, searching for anything that could match what Kelvaran had told her to find. If he really had, of course.

She still wasn't sure, and Amelys was probably right. She'd had no more of those dreams, but she couldn't bring herself to give up yet.

Neiphi came into the lab as Kazia had just turned a box of junked Artifact parts out onto the floor and she heaved an audible sigh. Kazia knew that Neiphi was becoming increasingly frustrated with having to reorganize everything in Kazia's wake.

“Neiphi, why don't you take the day off?” Kazia said, arranging herself cross-legged on the floor. “I will clean up after myself, I promise.”

“I'm cleaning your apartment today,” Neiphi replied.

“No, Neiphi, that's not your job.

“Well, you won't let the staff in to do it, and it's gone too far. You're going to get mice.”

“I can't have anything moved yet.”

“Well, maybe the mice will clean up when they come.”

Kazia glared at Neiphi for a moment, then laughed.

“I'm at least going to return all your library books,” Neiphi said. “That will make a good start. I brought a cart.”

Kazia nodded.

“Alright,” she said. “But don't move anything else.”

Neiphi disappeared into the apartment and Kazia returned to sorting through the pile on the floor, examining each item before returning it to the box. She was halfway through the pile when Neiphi returned in a state of alarm.

“Kazia! Come!” she said before running back into the apartment.

Kazia stood up and brushed her skirt off while following Neiphi to her bedroom.

“Could that be it? It was under the books,” Neiphi said, pointing to where the stack of books had fallen from the bedside table onto the floor.

At the top of the pile lay a small bag of lace mesh, its opening tied with a bow of ribbon. Kazia leaned over it with some trepidation to examine it closely. Through the mesh, she could see a figure of sticks tied together, with bundles of dried flowers and leaves stuffed around it. The whole thing had been flattened under the weight of the books atop it.

Kazia put out a finger to touch it, but recoiled. This was definitely what she'd been searching for. Its deliberate ill intent was immediately evident.

“What do we do?” Neiphi asked, wide eyed.

Kazia could feel her fear. She took a pencil from her dressing table and caught a loop of the ribbon on it to lift the bag. She carried it slowly into the sitting room, careful not to drop it off of the pencil, and threw it into the fire.

As it caught, a wave of malevolence sent Kazia reeling back until she dropped down on the settee. She looked at Neiphi. Cold fear gripped her heart, but there was a hot anger rising up in her as well.

“It was real,” she said.

“Lord Meratha is alive then?” Neiphi asked.

Kazia stood and crossed the room to open a chest beside the fireplace. She withdrew a dagger and attached its sheath to her belt, then tucked two more daggers into her boots.

“Mistress?” Neiphi said.

“Neiphi, go tell Mistress Amelys,” Kazia said.

She took two vials of Seamist and stuffed them into her skirt pockets as she headed back to the laboratory.

Kazia could tell that her Apprentice was confused and apprehensive, but she couldn't be distracted just now.

Neiphi followed her to the corner where Kelvaran's battery and the portal both stood.

“Tell Mistress Amelys that I've gone to find him,” she said, and put her hands out to both Artifacts.

 

~~~*~~~