Chapter Fourteen

You Came Back

~*~

 

 

 

Kazia had indeed come out of the portal into a kitchen.

For a long while she just lay still on the floor, the cool tile soothing against her cheek. She could feel no other human presence, nor hear any movement. She seemed to be quite alone here.

Eventually, she crawled to the work table in the center of the room and pulled herself up to stand. She lurched to the sink and ran the water, drinking from her hands and splashing the water over her face. She turned and leaned against the sink to assess the kitchen.

Kelvaran had said that she would find what she needed here. The kitchen was well equipped, and everything was neatly organized and arranged for efficiency. She opened the largest cupboard and found it to contain an extensive apothecary, perhaps a hundred glass jars, all clearly labeled in Kelvaran's even hand, and shelved in alphabetical order.

It wouldn't do, though. Seamist took a week to distill properly. She could manage a decoction of the ingredients quickly, but it wouldn't be nearly as strong.

She lay down on the floor again. Perhaps if she just stayed there long enough her suffering would end eventually, one way or another.

“No,” she said aloud to herself, trying to shake the fog from her mind. “I can do this. I can.”

Kazia forced herself upright again and lit the stove, then filled a small copper pot with water and set it to boil. She found all of the ingredients she needed in the cupboard and measured them all out carefully before adding them into the pot.

She had trouble with the seeds that must be ground in the pestle. Her arms felt so heavy. She poured them in half ground and hoped for the best.

When everything had boiled together, she removed the pot to the central table. A swell of vertigo went through her and she slumped down to the floor again, sitting back against the cupboard.

The decoction would need time to cool, and she was exhausted, and now her right arm ached from the grinding.

She unbuttoned her waistcoat and pulled it off, then unbuttoned her blouse and skirt. With some effort, she unhooked the busk of her corset and pulled it away behind her.

Relaxing against the cupboard, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Kazia knew she should be concerned about where she was, and if she really was safe here. Wherever this was it was quiet, though, and for the moment that was enough.

~~~*~~~

“I had her subdued!” Yilina railed. “Gorvan said she was useless! How did she get out?”

All of her soldiers and Alchemists were out sweeping the grounds for Kazia, but she held Kelvaran behind out of suspicion.

“If she is nowhere on the grounds, then it had to be Amelys,” Kelvaran said.

“Or you.”

“I've been with you all this time. You were there when last I saw her.”

Yilina considered this, pausing to mentally calculate.

“You really think a little old woman came into my dungeon and took my prisoner?” she said finally. “It's absurd. She's never been here. She wouldn't know where to cast the portal.”

“When we took Lady Devratha from Essyl, I saw Amelys cast an immense orb that selectively incapacitated your mercenaries while leaving the rest of us untouched,” Kelvaran said. “I would not underestimate her. There is a reason she is Mistress of Alchemists to a Queen.”

“Gorvan will kill me,” she said.

She allowed Kelvaran to pull her into his arms and stroke her hair.

“We will think of something,” he said. He backed away to look into her fearful eyes. “Yilina, we will think of something.”

“I could blame you anyway,” she threatened.

“You still need me,” he told her. “I don't think she'll give up trying to bring me away from you. She'll be back. Better prepared perhaps, but we can plan for it.”

“Yes!” Yilina said. “That's what we'll tell him. We'll get her back.”

“Let me go look for her,” Kelvaran said. “There are a few people I could talk to. Just a little reconnaissance to be certain it was Amelys.”

Yilina narrowed her eyes.

“I don't trust you,” she said.

“Trust your own ability to keep me in line,” he replied before he pulled her close and kissed her hard.

She allowed that as well, for a moment, before pushing him away.

“You have to stop that, Kel. I'm marrying Gorvan's son, and after this I'll have to be extra dutiful.” She turned to leave the room. “Do what you like, but if you abandon me to Gorvan I will find you and kill you myself, even if I'm dead.”

“I believe you could do it,” he called after her.

~~~*~~~

Kelvaran found Kazia sprawled on the kitchen floor and rushed to her side. He tried to rouse her, but she only opened her eyes briefly before going limp again.

“Kazia, wake up,” he said, pulling her into a sitting position.

He patted her cheeks, then shook her by the shoulders.

She grimaced and pushed his hands away to rub at her right shoulder. She looked at him then with unfocused eyes and pointed up to the countertop.

Kelvaran stood and surveyed the arrangement on the table. This combination of ingredients would suppress ethereal energy in a person, he noted. A strong tincture of them would probably render a novice Alchemist powerless.

He poured the mixture through a strainer into a bowl and then offered some to Kazia on a teaspoon. She grasped the bowl, though, and brought it to her lips, drinking deeply.

“I'll need to eat,” she said, pushing the bowl away. “This will have its own side effects.”

“I'll get you something,” he told her, returning the decoction to the table.

When he turned back to her she had fallen asleep again.

He lifted Kazia and carried her through the house to an upstairs bedroom. He laid her down gently, waving a hand to light a gas lamp in the wall next to the door.

Kazia lay motionless, barely seeming to breathe.

Kelvaran removed her boots, but hesitated regarding her skirt. Her waistcoat and corset had been left on the kitchen floor. She appeared to be wearing a long chemise under everything, so despite his uncertainty, he began to pull the skirt slowly down over her hips.

An inappropriate tension began to rise within him, and he wondered if Kazia was aware enough to tell.

He realized then that she had always been able to tell, and he flushed with shame.

She opened her eyes and he flinched.

“Kelvaran?” she whispered.

“Don't be alarmed,” he answered. “I'm only making you comfortable.”

She nodded, and he pulled her skirt away. He took a blanket from the foot of the bed and began to cover her when she turned away from him onto her side.

Her chemise slipped down, revealing a long pink stripe on the back of her shoulder. Kelvaran anxiously sat on the bed to investigate it. He drew Kazia's chemise down further and found more of the same.

They were scars, old ones. The further he drew her chemise down, the more there were. Along her spine were the indented scars of puncture wounds and he remembered what he'd seen in the dreamscape.

He was horrified, and a hot anger bloomed in his chest.

Kazia groaned and pulled her chemise up.

“Please,” she said drowsily, “Calm yourself. It's too...”

Kelvaran jumped up from the bed.

“I must go,” he told her. “I'll leave your preparation and some food here on the table. Can you manage on your own for a while?”

“I think so,” she replied.

“I'll come for you when I'm able,” he said. “It may be some time. Getting away is difficult. If I can't come, I'll send someone.”

There was no answer but the deep, even breath of sleep.

Kelvaran went back to the kitchen and loaded a tray with everything Kazia might need until she could get up again. He left it on her bedside table. It didn't seem enough, but it would have to do for now.

He cast a portal on the bedroom door, and came out again in the hall at Vaksim Castle.

“You came back,” Yilina said.

She had a half empty decanter of wine on the table, and was possibly a little drunk.

“I'll always come back,” he replied, pulling up a chair next to her and pouring himself a glass. “How can I make you believe that?”

“I'll think of something.”

“I've told you why I'm here.”

“And if you can't have what you came for?” she asked, narrowing her slightly unfocused eyes at him. “What then?”

“I don't know,” he answered, feigning dejection. “I'll think of something.”

~~~*~~~