Chapter Twenty-nine

Special Skills

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Kelvaran dropped back onto the bed and drew Kazia down with him, where she splayed limply across his body, her head tucked under his chin. They lay like this for a long time, just listening to one another's labored breathing until it slowed again and calmed into soft whispers of contentment.

Then he rolled them both over and leaned down to kiss her gently.

Her face was still flushed and shining with sweat and he smoothed back the strands of hair sticking to her cheeks and forehead.

She smiled, feeling euphorically warm and dizzy, and raised a hand to touch his face as well. As she did, her heart clenched, causing his own to respond in kind.

“What is it about this that frightens you?' he asked softly.

Her brow furrowed in confusion.

“I'm not afraid,” she answered.

“Have you forgotten that I can tell?” he said with a smile.

He examined her face studiously, searching her half-closed and gleaming eyes, trying to pinpoint that fear behind her feelings of love.

“Did a lover mistreat you?” he guessed aloud.

Her heart startled and she turned her face away. Her lips moved without speaking for a moment before she turned her anxious eyes to him again.

“No,” she said quietly. “He died.”

“Oh,” Kelvaran said with some surprise. “I... didn't think things had progressed that far...”

Kazia's confused expression returned.

“With Eaphan?” Kelvaran said tentatively.

“Oh, no!” Kazia said emphatically, shaking her head. “I didn't mean Eaphan. He and I were not...”

She gave him a bitter smile as she felt him follow her into sadness.

“His name was Janek,” she told him. “He tended my horses on the Estate.”

Kelvaran raised an eyebrow. “You fell in love with an Estate hand?”

“Not love,” she said sadly. “I don't think, though I couldn't have named any of this back then. Certainly compared to this, I don't think it was love. I could... feel his attraction to me, and it was interesting. Exciting.”

Her face twisted into a wry expression.

“From a very early age, I've been able to tell the depravity some men can feel when looking at women, even very young girls. But Janek wasn't like that. What he felt was gentle, even respectful, at the same time that it was quite passionate. Much like you.”

She smiled up at Kelvaran sweetly.

“I don't know how respectful I've been toward you...” he said, his face reddening.

“Mmm...” Kazia replied, her sweet smile becoming a bit suggestive. “You know when to be ashamed of yourself. Anyway, he made me curious. I wanted to know more about those feelings. I suppose it was... an experiment.”

“So you had an affair with him?”

“That's a good way of calling it. It didn't last long, though. One day I went to look for him and he couldn't be found.”

“He left you?” Kelvaran said with some sympathy.

“Sometimes I like to think that's what happened,” Kazia replied, her tone darkening. “I wish that he had left me. I should have told him to leave.”

“What did happen?”

Kazia drew a deep breath. Her aura filled with pain and Kelvaran held her more tightly.

“People go missing on our Estate,” she said, “and in the surrounding villages. People who have come from afar looking for work, who have no families, no one who will come looking for them... they are all fair game for Gorvan, when he must vent his frustrations.”

“Kazia...” Kelvaran murmured gently, but a cold shock gripped him. “You think your father killed him?”

“I'm certain of it,” she whispered. “It's just what he does.”

Understanding began to dawn in Kelvaran's mind.

“And he was probably responsible for Eaphan's death as well,” he said.

“Kel,” Kazia said plaintively, “Eaphan and I were not lovers.”

Kelvaran sighed. Their reciprocal mood became increasingly morose.

“He was falling in love with you,” Kelvaran said gently.

“But I was already falling in love with you,” she replied, brushing her fingers through his hair.

She smiled at him sadly.

“The last time I saw Eaphan, before he died, he encouraged me to be more understanding of you. I think he knew that you and I were already becoming like this.”

Kelvaran nodded. “He said much the same to me.”

Kazia echoed his sigh as he brushed her cheek with his thumb, wiping away a tear forming at the corner of her eye.

“I never did tell you how sorry I was for you,” she whispered. “He was a good friend to you. I know you don't have many of those here. It's a terrible loss.”

Her sadness suddenly shifted into anger.

“I don't want you to go back to Valesk, but something must be done. They can't get away with this.”

“You're afraid that your father will kill me,” he said.

“How could I not fear that?” she whispered.

“He won't, not as long as he believes that I can bring you back.”

“That can work for a while,” she countered, “but if he decides it's not working and that he has no use for you-”

“Halany has a use for me,” he reassured her. “And now that he and his inner circle think I'm working for them, Gorvan would have to explain to them if he killed me. He may enjoy his cruelties, but he's not stupid enough to indulge them at the expense of his ambition.”

Kazia thought about this for a moment, and nodded.

“Besides,” Kelvaran continued, “he's so determined to retrieve you, I doubt he'd be so quick to abandon any avenue.”

“Mistress Amelys told me that there's some Artifact he needs me for,” Kazia said.

“Mm,” he replied. “He didn't say what it is, but he told me that it requires your 'special skills'. Do you know what he could mean by that?”

Kazia suddenly pushed him aside and jumped off of the bed.

“Come with me,” she said, tossing his shirt to him before plucking her wrapper from a wall hook. “I wanted to show you this anyway.”

She left the room and he swiftly followed, both still fastening their clothing. Kazia led him through the office and into the lab. She paused in the doorway, but pointed him to a far worktable holding the artifact she'd been working on.

“Go sit there,” she directed.

He looked at her quizzically.

“I should stay here out of range,” she added. “Go on.”

Kelvaran went to the table she indicated and sat behind it. He looked over the Artifact. It was one of the antiques from the University, and he couldn't really tell what its use would be. He peered at its documentation lying nearby.

“Don't look,” Kazia said. “Just feel it.”

He looked up at her again in continued puzzlement.

“Put your hands on the Artifact,” she said.

He obeyed, lightly placing his fingers on the machine's casing, and almost jumped as the ethereal energy of the Artifact immediately interacted with his own. He glanced up at Kazia sharply, and she smiled.

“You feel it?” she asked.

Kelvaran nodded in amazement.

“Now, if you follow the ethereal energy down into the Artifact, you might be able to feel the Maker's intention, trace the path the energy is supposed to follow. You may be able to tell its purpose.”

As he concentrated, he did indeed feel those pathways. They seemed to shine like brightly lit corridors, weaving an intricate labyrinth throughout the machine, all leading to the heart of the Artifact's purpose. He could see in the patterns that this item would measure weather conditions.

He happened upon one place where it seemed the energy should continue, but had come to a standstill.

“There's a... dead end,” he mused.

“A blockage in the energy,” Kazia agreed. “Something is damaged, and you've just found where.”

He looked up at her again with an expression of awe.

“This is just... this is how you're so good with the Artifacts?”

Kazia blushed deeply, but smiled broadly. That only lasted a moment before her face fell.

“If there's an Artifact of importance to Gorvan, this is probably why he wants me so badly.”

Kelvaran stood and came over to wrap his arms around her waist as she leaned against the door frame.

“Then we only have to keep you away,” he said. “which is already my intention.”

“I need to find out what it is, though,” she replied. “He said it would assure peace and prosperity for Valesk? His ideas of peace and prosperity for Valesk usually mean death and destruction for others. If it's something only I can solve, then staying away will be sufficient. But between him and Halany, talented Alchemists are abundant, and who's to say they can't solve it without me?”

“I'll find out,” he assured her. “I'm working on it. For now, though...”

He leaned in and kissed her against the door frame until she was breathless again and her knees went weak. When he pulled away, she lay her head back, eyes closed, for a long moment, but suddenly snapped to attention.

“I'm starving,” she said, and ducked out of his arms, heading quickly for the sitting room where she began to pick over the snacks on the occasional table.

“Are you already becoming resistant to my charms?” he asked, following her into the room.

“I don't think that will ever happen,” she answered. “We both do seem to have become more resistant to your potion, though.”

“It's beginning to wear away now,” he informed her.

She turned and held a cube of cheese toward him.

“Here you are, Mr. Lab Rat,” she teased. “You have endured the experiment, so here is your reward.”

He took her in his arms again and his eyes glowered.

“It seems to me that you were the one with all the endurance,” he said lowly.

Kazia feigned shock and said, “And here I thought you were a gentleman.”

Kelvaran took the cheese into his mouth, sucking in her fingers as he did.

“If a lab rat is rewarded with cheese, then what reward do you have for a gentleman?” he asked.

Still holding her hand and kissing her fingertips, he began to move backwards toward the bedroom.

Smiling mischievously, Kazia quickly grabbed a full plate from the table and hurried to follow him.

 

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