Araman

  Chapter Twenty

  Raliena was waiting in a tent for Jaya to arrive and tell her what was going on. They had fed her a lavish meal and Raliena had managed to persuade them to give her some more inconspicuous clothes than the purple and gold dress. She now wore plain brown breaches with a black blouse and brown waistcoat with a warm furry collar; she turned her cloak inside out so it showed the brown inside lining instead of the gold, but people still bowed to her as she passed them, despite being dressed down. Her best efforts at requesting they didn’t, failed; the only person who didn’t bow to her was Zinib, who was also supposed to be meeting her in the tent.

  It was the largest of the camp. The second largest had been given to her in the centre of the others, making it feel like she had been placed in a protective circle.

  Raliena hadn’t made much sense of anything whilst being there and was eager to find out more. She had asked very little questions, preferring to observe cautiously. There were no children in the camp and it was clearly well stocked for war. Carts of weapons were kept in plain sight, as was the smoke from the fires dotted between the tents. When Raliena asked how the camp had been concealed from her, they simply answered ‘the Unisayan’.

  From their faint accents and bronze skin, Raliena discerned that these people were from the East, though she knew of no villages that were in use there. Not since the Eastern Kingdom was lost and surely these could not be the same civilisation.

  The only thing that kept her here was what they had said about Dergen, if they were starting a war against him then she wanted to be part of it. It certainly was not finding her father that stopped her from heading back to Verxia.

  Her mother had mentioned very little about him but Raliena knew that he was not liked and there was a reason he had not accompanied her pregnant mother to Verxia. He evidently knew about her and Chasra’s powers and perhaps that was why she had left him.

  Zinib was the first to arrive and strolled into the tent, not pausing to look at Raliena, and sat on the edge of the table that had been placed in the centre of the tent.

  Raliena turned away from him indifferently and stayed silent while they waited for the others to arrive.

  “I need a demonstration of how far your abilities have grown.” Zinib suddenly said, without feeling. “I doubt you have been using them much, but if you had them from a child they should be fully developed already.”

  Raliena didn’t turn to look at him but continued to stare out the open flap of the tent. There wasn’t much to see, just more tents and people cooking, washing clothes or playing games on the ground, but it distracted her from having to acknowledge the man who was supposedly her father.

  “You will get no such thing.” She replied coolly, crossing her bare arms to shield her from the cold draft that ran through the fabric. She had stupidly left her cloak in her tent which was not far from this one and considered retrieving it when she felt a sharp pain in her left arm. She looked down to see blood beginning to pour out of a deep wound, dark and thick.

  Instinctively, before the pain could fully register, she put her other hand over it and healed herself, then turned to face Zinib who was watching her with interest.

  “You will do.” He said, his face expressionless as he cleaned his daughter’s blood from his dagger and replaced it at his hip.

  “You will regret that.” Raliena gritted her teeth and reached for her sword which of course wasn’t there. She swore at herself for not getting one while she was here.

  “If you were an Armon worth my time, you would not need a sword.” Her father lent against the table again and scrutinised her.

  “Pity,” he added. “You have inherited your mother’s weak spirit.”

  Raliena was about to step forward and find out if she could replicate what she did to Dergen when the tent flaps opened wider.

  Jaya and two women, one much older than the other, entered. They bowed to her as they walked in apart from the older looking lady, dressed in green, who smiled sweetly instead. Raliena almost felt that she was required to bow to this woman, she also noticed how Zinib rolled his eyes at their greeting.

  “Armon Raliena let me introduce Yaline, our second in command.” Jaya indicated to the woman who Raliena had first met when she entered the camp. Yaline nodded, she still looked dressed ready to kill something with her long hair tied back again and a sword always at her hip.

  “And Armon Lozni.”

  The green dressed lady looked embarrassed.

  “You are like me?” Raliena asked feeling a thrill at not being the only one. She had had barely enough time to process that her own powers had been inherited without thinking that there could be more people with her abilities.

  “I used to be.” Lozni replied. Her voice sounded so much younger than she looked.

  “What happened?” Jaya exclaimed, noticing the now dried blood covering Raliena’s arm.

  “I needed confirmation.” Zinib brushed off the concern for Raliena.

  “You did this to her?” Jaya accused in a gruff voice.

  Zinib shrugged unconcerned.

  Without warning Yaline pulled out her sword and furiously launched herself at Zinib, holding the sword against his throat and backing him up against the table.

  “You touch her again, Sinner!” Yaline threatened pressing the sword harder.

  “You have no authority over me girl.” Zinib put one hand on the hilt of Yaline’s sword and pushed it away with little resistance, then placed his other around her throat and turned to hold her against the table. Yaline looked shocked by his sudden strength.

  “Zinib,” Jaya said calmly. “You know the conditions of you being here.”

  “They are hard to remember sometimes.” Zinib muttered, releasing Yaline who was made to reluctantly sheath her sword at one look from Jaya.

  “Why am I here?” Raliena asked feeling frustrated.

  They all paused to look at her. Jaya was the first to explain.

  “We have reason to believe that the man you call Dergen is gathering an army for an unknown purpose. We suspect he wishes to destroy us, the Lagania, and he needs you to help him do that.”

  “But we found you first.” Yaline added stepping forward. “We have been searching for you for a long time.”

  “The Unisayan were sent to find you. Well, find someone with the potential to become an Armon and unlock their power and then bring you to us. It was fortunate that you found them.” Jaya continued.

  “You knew of Verxia’s tradition of hunting them and you still sent them to their deaths?” Raliena was appalled by the concept.

  “If only.” Zinib muttered.

  Raliena gave him a sharp look and he smiled smugly at something. None of the others had heard him speak. It was another test of her ability, how advanced her senses were.

  She turned back to Jaya who looked just as appalled as she did by the concept of Unisayan being killed.

  “We would never do such a thing.” Jaya exclaimed. “Unisayan do not die when they lose their horns. It just takes longer for them to heal. Not that what Verxia does is in anyway acceptable, another reason why we must head there, but the Unisayan are free spirits, we do not tend to them and they have their own reasons for approaching an Araman of Verxia unknown to us.”

  Raliena’s mind was reeling. All this time she thought she would be the cause of a Unisayan’s death and hated the sport the King had so enjoyed. She could have avoided running from it after all. But that still would not have returned them their horns and there was still Dergen to contend with.

  “What does Dergen want of me?”

  “That is something I must explain if I may?” Lozni spoke, her voice soft and elegant. Jaya smiled at her and gestured for her to continue.

  “You are what these people call an Armon. We have the power to both heal and to hurt. As far as we have discovered ou
r power was gifted to our ancestors by the Unisayan to protect them from the growing population of mankind. You are born with this power but only a Unisayan can unlock it in you.

  “Dergen learnt from his father what your mother was and knew you would be too. We have no doubt he encouraged the King to make you Araman so that you would unlock your power and he could use you.”

  “Who is he?” Raliena asked.

  “He is as I am.” Zinib cut in pushing himself from the table. “We are called the Sinners. We can take away an Armon’s will and make it our own, becoming Master Sinners.”

  “We call them Sinners because what they do is against nature.” Yaline said staring at Zinib with uncontained hatred. Zinib simply smiled back.

  “Armon, many years ago, discovered that if they pledged themselves to someone they cared about, their ability became dramatically more powerful.” Lozni’s calm voice was a welcome interruption. “But men are easily corruptible when it comes to power and they discovered a way to bind the devoted Armon to them, which only death could break.”

  “The binding gave them complete control over the Armon; she could not resist doing everything the Master Sinner bid her to.” Yaline spat in disgust.

  “But she must go willingly, or she cannot be bound.” Jaya added, diplomatically stepping between Yaline and Zinib. “The Sinners are Master manipulators and over many centuries you were only one through birth. They would be physically stronger than any Armon, as long as they were close to one.”

  Raliena remembered how she had not been able to push Dergen off her when he had kissed her.

  “The knowledge of how to bind an Armon is passed on through the generations.” Jaya continued. “Dergen’s family line has been leached into the nobility of Verxia for a very long time. We believe they were the ones who started the tradition of Unisayan hunting in the hope of finding an Armon and using them and introduced the concept of removing their horns so that they could not communicate with us.”

  “The Lagania have had to intervene before but the family have always eluded us.” Yaline said.

  “Dergen’s father realised who your mother was but it is not possible to be bound by more than one person, so he taught Dergen what he knew before he died and made sure you mother could not run again or warn you when you were old enough.” Jaya finished solemnly.

  “He killed her.” Raliena stated plainly, confirming what she already suspected.

  Jaya nodded in sympathy.

  “We suspect so.”

  “She was of no use to him.” Zinib added, though for the first time he averted his pitiless stare.

  “The chain...” Raliena whispered, remembering the necklace her mother would never remove - because she couldn’t.

  “She was bound to you.” Raliena looked accusingly at Zinib who crossed his arms and smiled.

  “Of her own free will,” he said coolly.

  Raliena looked back at the others. “I will not allow Dergen to have that kind of power over me.”

  “We are glad to hear it, but he won’t be able to once you are pledged to Zinib.” Jaya replied looking awkward suddenly.

  Raliena looked at all of them and saw that they were serious about the idea, even if it made them all look highly uncomfortable.

  “You really think I would do that after what you have just told me?” Raliena exclaimed.

  “If you do not wish to see your Kingdom burn, you will.” Zinib said stepping towards her. “Think of the power you will have to stop him from destroying what you love.”

  Think of the power? Raliena thought.

  It reminded her of something Dergen had said in the ballroom and everything finally sank into order in her mind.

  “You are the reason she ran away.” She said wild eyed. “She did it to break the bond between you after she escaped to Verxia, to keep you from me.”

  “And again her disobedience failed.” Zinib answered with malice.

  Raliena punched him hard in the jaw putting all her force behind it. She felt his bones crunch under her fist and then swiftly left the tent, pleased at hearing him moan in pain.

  Raliena made for the trees, not sure where she was going but needing to get away. How could they ask her to do such a thing? There were other ways of bringing down a traitor, even one as calculating as Dergen.

  She stopped finally when she reached the forest and sat on the ground, breathing heavily. She had no idea what she had been thinking when she mounted that Unisayan and rode away from her responsibility. And now she had found even more things that were expected of her, thrown on her shoulders.

  It was true she did not want to see the Kingdom burn, especially by Dergen, and she had people she cared for that she wanted to protect. What would Dergen do when she did not return from the hunt? What had happened to Kassen?

  It was midday and she felt like she had been sitting under the trees for hours when Lozni silently appeared next to Raliena. She did not say anything but sat down near her, with an ease not natural for her years and quietly watched the leaves blow in the breeze.

  “Why him?” Raliena finally asked; she had been playing with a blade of grass between her fingers.

  “He found us.” Lozni replied, knowing Raliena was talking about Zinib.

  Raliena looked quizzically at the Armon who sighed heavily.

  “These people are from what is thought to be the lost Kingdom of Lagania. They were the original people chosen by the Unisayan to be their protectors. They were peaceful people, close to nature and beauty, unlike the warriors you see here now. The Sinners corrupted them and as the power struggle began between differing Master Sinners and their bound Armon, they destroyed themselves. The ones that were left went into hiding, like my great grandmother. Most managed to escape their Sinners, once they realised how they had been betrayed, but many died trying to find ways to break the bond.

  “The Sinners had to find new ways to gain the Armon’s trust. They became, manipulative, scheming and their control over us is always present but resistible. A few Armon fell in love with their Master Sinner and lived happily, using their gift to protect the people around them, but they lost most of what they had learnt from the Unisayan and they in turn lost their trust in us. I cannot blame them for that.” Lozni sighed again and looked directly at Raliena.

  “Your father never left the Lagania and he did love your mother and I believe she loved him too, once. He is bitter that she left him and I do not know what happened between them, perhaps your mother did not want to raise you to then become a slave to a Sinner and he was unwilling to leave. But he came with us when we realised what Dergen was planning, in the hope to find an Armon to bind with. There are very few of us left after the destruction that occurred.”

  “Why have I not heard of this?”

  “The Lagania is far to the East and difficult to find if you do not know the way.”

  Raliena looked back at the tents and carts. This could not be all of the Lagania, especially as there were no children among them but the woman appeared to be willing to fight just as much as the men. “Why so many people to take one man?”

  “It is a little more complicated.” Lozni answered. “We have been watching him for a while and suspect that he may be gathering an army but we do not know when or which direction he plans to send it so we came prepared.”

  It made sense but Raliena thought it unlikely that Dergen could gather an army in Verxia without them knowing, though he had hidden everything else so well.

  “What did you mean when you said you used to be like me?” Raliena asked Lozni, trying not to think about the possibility that Verxia could come under attack. She could do nothing about it without these people’s help if it did.

  “I was bound and like your mother it was of my own will. I trusted the man and the town where I lived was always being attacked after the Kingdom fell. I needed a way to prot
ect them, so I bound myself to him and used the power it gave me to drive away the barbarians and heal the people in the town. We lived together peacefully after that, and safely, but only death could unbind me, it also unbinds us from our powers. They die with us, or the Sinner.”

  “How did it happen?” Raliena asked delicately.

  “There are many things I must teach you about being an Armon, many things which only the closest to us know. The man I was bound to fell in love with me and I told him some of those secrets. I thought I loved him too.” Lozni sobered from the memory. “You cannot be ordered to kill someone you love. He knew this and he loved me, but did not believe I loved him in return, I thought I did, and told him repeatedly. So, he ordered me to kill him... We were both wrong.” Lozni went silent and looked at the floor.

  “I am sorry.”

  Lozni shook her head. “I did not love him.”

  “That does not mean you did not care for him.”

  Lozni smiled at her. “Your mother was wise like that too. She always knew what was in someone’s heart.” Lozni stroked Raliena’s cheek lovingly. “It is a shame the dominance over an Armon also works with inheritance. The children will always look more like the father.”

  Raliena turned her head away at the thought of looking like Zinib. Lozni turned her chin back towards her.

  “But you are still just as beautiful as your mother, and she lives on in you. Never be ashamed of that.”