Rout of the Dem-Shyr (The Ascendant Series)

  Why haven’t I been buried yet? she wondered. A shudder ran through her when she considered how fortunate she was to have awoken in the palace.

  The people wish to pay their respects while you lay in state. The Guardians also wanted to wait for those traveling from the other megais to attend your burial. It will take place tomorrow.

  That didn’t leave her much time. Tell me about the Dark Lands. How can I get there?

  I don’t know. No one has ever been there and returned. The pilots who travel there have their memories erased. No one wants to go there. Only murderers and violent criminals are banished to the Dark Lands.

  Kyr frowned as they started repeating themselves. She wasn’t going to get any helpful information from these two. Studying them for a moment, she made a quick decision.

  Help me lift this lid back onto the death box.

  Without hesitating, Leo and Zasha both bent to help her return the lid to the top of the box. Kyr was relieved to note that it wasn’t unusually scuffed or scratched, and thanked her lucky stars for the thick rug under their feet.

  Help me clean up the mess from the flowers. You were startled when you saw a shadow in the flickering light and dropped the flowers, but you did what you could to salvage them.

  Yes, they agreed.

  They scooped up all of the loose dirt that they could and added it back to the cracked container holding the flowers. Once Zasha added the flowers to the large pile around the death box, the fact that they were broken wasn’t noticeable to the naked eye.

  Grabbing their hands, Kyr once again drew on her abilities. You never saw me. You were just startled by the shadows and secretly wish I was still alive. No one who reads your minds will retrieve the truth.

  When she was sure her mental blocks were impenetrable, she let them go and sent them from the room. Hearing the door close shook her resolve. But she couldn’t afford to trust anyone. Ty needed her.

  Until she was sure who she could trust, she was on her own.

  Chapter 18

  That thought really hit Kyr as she stood beside her death box and considered what to do next. This was the first time she’d been alone in her entire life. Even when she had been away at her life lessons, Ty and her Kyndred had always been with her, even if observing from a distance. Avana and Sem had been her constant companions back on Earth, watching over her without her knowledge.

  Now, she had no one to consult. No one to help her decide what to do. It was more than a little terrifying.

  Okay, Kyr. Focus. Think of Ty.

  She took a deep breath as she looked around the room. There were two different entrances. If people were dropping by to pay their respects, there was every possibility someone else could walk in at any moment. She had to get out of the room.

  Glancing down at herself, she made a face. She was dressed in a black burial shroud. She’d stand out like a sore thumb if anyone saw her.

  Not to mention she was supposed to be dead.

  That thought freaked her out, so she hurried over to the door that Zasha and Leo had used. She pressed her ear against it and listened. Voices and the sounds of people walking by reached her through the thick wood. It sounded like a public area. That wasn’t going to work.

  Picking up the trailing shroud, she padded in her bare feet to the door on the other side of the room. Once again, she pressed her ear to the door. She didn’t hear anything.

  Her heart pounded as she reached for the door handle. Then she hesitated. Wouldn’t they have guards at each entrance?

  Frustrated with herself for almost screwing up already, she opened her mind. It didn’t take her long to isolate the mental signatures on the other side of the door. As she thought, there were two Mynder guards standing there.

  Now what?

  Her eyes fell on the column she had hidden behind when Zasha and Leo walked in. It gave her an idea.

  Hurrying over to the column, she tapped into her abilities and connected with the minds of the guards by the second door. Influencing wasn’t something she had really practiced, but there was no time like the present to give it a shot.

  She sent out the suggestion that there was something wrong inside the room. The guards had a bad feeling and they really needed to check things out.

  The door opened and the two guards stepped inside. She hurriedly amended the thought to direct them to the other side of the room, where she told them to explore the shadowy corner near her death box. As soon as their backs were turned, she fled from the room.

  It only took her a moment to recognize the private hallway as she stepped out into it. Ty used it all the time to take her from her chambers to the training room. The real question was where in the palace was she standing right now?

  “I don’t see anything.”

  Kyr’s eyes widened as the Mynder guard’s voice reached her from inside the room. She didn’t have time to dawdle. Turning to the left, she started in that direction. She made it around the bend in the hallway before the guards returned to their posts. Once she was out of sight, she paused to catch her breath. Her mental efforts were costing her in energy. It couldn’t help matters that she had apparently spent the past three days in a death box.

  The white hallway was so nondescript that she didn’t have a clue where she was or where to go. At least it wasn’t heavily traveled. She felt like a fly on a wedding cake in her black shroud.

  Closing her eyes, she tuned into the thoughts around her. After adjusting the influx of “voices” in her mind to a select few, she was able to reason out her approximate location. That helped her figure out where to go.

  Her good fortune continued as she made her way to the training room. She didn’t encounter anyone in the hall. When she tried to open the door and found it locked, though, she knew her luck had run out.

  Damn it.

  She should have known. Ty always carried a key on him.

  Thinking of Ty and what Vycor had done to him made her chest hurt so much it brought tears to her eyes. Suddenly, the locked door wasn’t just a small obstacle. It was everything that stood between her and getting to Ty.

  Using her anger to fuel her, she brought forth her abilities and once again grasped the door handle. This time, she snapped the handle from its moorings. The door swung open.

  She hurried inside and tossed the door handle to the floor. The door wouldn’t fully close, but she propped it closed enough that a casual observer probably wouldn’t notice. Hopefully no one would happen to walk by.

  Her first stop was the armor cabinet. She stripped out of the shroud on her way over to it, opening the cabinet doors as the last of the black fabric slid from her shoulders. She grabbed the armor and boots designed for her and put them on. The armor was the spare lightweight set that Ty insisted she keep in the training room in case they ever decided to engage in an unplanned training session. She had only used it once before, but it wasn’t hard to adorn. She was fully armored within a couple minutes.

  Then she moved over to the weapons rack. Her eyes fell on the Ora blades. Nodding to herself, she went in search of the dual scabbards meant for the blades. Because she had shown so much interest in the weapons, Ty had demonstrated how the scabbards worked. He wanted her to know how to access the weapons when they were secured to her body.

  Thank you, Ty, she thought as she found the scabbards and strapped them around her hips. It made her feel better to talk to him, even though she knew he couldn’t hear her.

  Fighting another rush of tears, she walked back to the blades and slid them into the scabbards. She was as ready as she was going to be if she was forced to defend herself. Now she had to figure out what to do with the black shroud. After giving it a moment’s thought, she stuffed it into the back of the armor cabinet. She doubted anyone would think to look back there anytime soon.

  Now what?

  Movement out of the corner of her eye made her jump a foot and reach for her swords. She almost laughed hysterically when she registered that she had caught her own
image in the wall-length mirror to her right. Her heart tried to fight its way out of her throat as she moved closer to her reflection.

  She was so pale. So thin. Someone had done her makeup with a heavy hand, obviously trying to give her corpse the look of life. With her hair pulled back from her face, she looked like a gruesome caricature of herself.

  Her hand shook as she reached up to touch her cheek. Had she really died? If so, how had she come back to life? Was she even really alive? Maybe she was a ghost or a zombie.

  But she felt alive. Her heart beat in her chest just like it always had. Pain over what she and Ty had endured sat with her like a constant companion. She was even hungry, which surprised her. Of course, it had apparently been days since she last had anything to eat or drink.

  Okay, Kyr. Time to move on.

  Seeing her reflection reminded her that she was still too recognizable. If she wanted to keep her survival a secret, she couldn’t be seen. Since she would have to walk through public areas to get the information she needed to find Ty, she would have to blend in. There was only one place she knew where she could change her appearance that dramatically.

  She slipped out of the training room and pulled the door closed as far as it would go. Then she headed to her bedchambers. Halfway there, she heard voices. Shadows preceded two Mynder guards.

  She had nowhere to go.

  Out of desperation, she brought forth her abilities and sent out the thought that the Mynders didn’t see her. Power surged through her as she clung to the wall and pretended she was a statue. The guards passed without looking at her. One of them nearly hit her foot as he passed.

  She maintained the mental suggestion until she could no longer hear them. The moment she released the thought, a wave of dizziness overtook her.

  Ty’s warning about the consequences of using her mental abilities once again ran through her mind. She knew he had been right. Even though her powers were growing, she couldn’t use them without paying a price.

  That thought brought to mind another one: the prediction set forth by the Great Divyner shortly after her return to Alametria.

  You will be challenged in body, in mind, and in soul.

  This was definitely a challenge of the mind. Maybe even of the body and the soul all rolled into one. She would have to speak with Madame Caelys once she got through this mess. She’d stress the importance of offering more specifics during her predictions. Considering what she and Ty were going through right now, the word “challenged” was an enormous understatement.

  But none of that mattered right now. She would rise to any challenge if it stood between her and Ty.

  Pushing away from the wall, she continued down the hallway until she neared the secret door that led into her closet. She wondered if the Mynders she had passed were the roving patrol that typically guarded this part of the palace. It seemed unlikely the Guardians would bother posting anyone here. What was there to protect at this point?

  She was dead.

  The macabre thought made her shiver. She considered the best way to open the locked door since it didn’t have a traditional handle. It was made to look like the wall around it. As far as she knew, only Ty had a key.

  Eventually, she decided her only choice was forced entry. She stepped back and called forth her abilities. Much like it had done while she pushed her way out of the death box, her body felt charged with extra strength. This door stood between her and Ty, she told herself. It had to go.

  Three solid kicks did the trick. Unfortunately, the effort made her fall on her ass once she allowed her abilities to subside. Her head felt like someone was drilling a hole in it. A few drops of blood dripped from her nose. She wiped them on her armor and shoved herself to her feet so she could get out of the hallway. A headache wasn’t about to stop her.

  She noticed that she left a few indents in the wall from the thick heels of her combat boots. She rubbed at them in an effort to erase them, but it didn’t do much good. If anyone knew to look for them, they would see them. There wasn’t anything she could do about it now, though.

  She closed the door and made her way into the closet. For the first time she could ever remember, the space was dark. The doors must be closed.

  So how could she still see?

  It was the weirdest thing. Everything in the room looked black or gray, but she could maneuver without any problem. She’d never been able to see in the dark before.

  But Ty could.

  She thought of the transfer that Vycor and Shaya had mentioned. It appeared that she really had assumed a number of Ty’s abilities during their coupling.

  Fortunately, this allowed her to hunt for and then put on the simple purple gown that she had worn off the ship that delivered her from Earth. The Wrym had kept it, not realizing that Shaya hated the unadorned gown and would have preferred that it be burned. It suited Kyr’s needs perfectly, though. It was a little big, so she could wear it over her armor.

  Her blades were too noticeable, though. She solved that problem by tying a decorative scarf around her waist. It made her look hippy, which added to her disguise. She grabbed a second scarf that she planned to tie over her hair in the manner of the Wrym.

  While she was in the closet, she changed her boots. The combat boots were practical, but they were flat. Instead, she chose the pair of boots with the highest heels she had. They would add four inches to her height, making her much more average.

  The rest of her disguise had to be done in the bathing chamber. Praying there wasn’t anyone outside the closet, she approached the doors and took a few minutes to listen with her ears. Her head continued to pound, so she decided to risk opening the door without checking for mental signatures. She moved slowly and carefully, easing the door open. Nothing unusual awaited her. There were even a few glowing wall sconces to light her way.

  Relief rushed through her as she headed to the bathing chamber. She gathered the implements she needed and got to work.

  First was her hair. The deep, dark red was unlike anyone else’s hair color. Since she didn’t have any wigs, she had to change it another way. She opted to try the solution that she remembered being used on her before she was sent off-planet. Although she wasn’t exactly sure how it worked, she knew it would change her hair color in a way that could only be changed back with a different solution. It took her several rinses, but she finally managed to get the color a more acceptable light red.

  Next came her facial features. The wand used by the Wrym to make changes to her appearance terrified her, but she knew this had to be done. Taking a deep breath, she activated the wand and ran it over her left cheekbone. She forced herself not to react as the skin and muscle tissue moved in accordance with the wand’s command.

  Think of Ty, she told herself. Think of Ty.

  Sweat beaded on her brow by the time she was done. She hadn’t been able to stomach making too many changes, but even the subtle differences in the curve of her chin, shape of her hairline, and slope of her cheekbones made a difference. If someone saw her walking the palace grounds right now, they wouldn’t instantly know who she was.

  Unless they looked into her eyes.

  Kyr lifted the last wand and tried to work up the courage to use it. It had hurt when the Wrym returned her eyes to their normal color. What if she accidentally blinded herself while trying to use the thing on herself?

  Come on, Kyr. You can do this. You came back to life, for goodness’ sake. You’ll surely heal from something as paltry as blindness.

  Her pep talk failed to convince her hand to bring the wand closer to her face. Being blind even temporarily would be a significant handicap. It could lead to her being discovered. Could she blend in well enough without changing her distinctive eye color?

  The decision was taken from her when she heard the main doors to her chambers open. She dropped the wand in her surprise. It fell to the vanity counter with a loud clatter.

  Cursing, she looked for a place to hide. The wall next to the door was he
r only hope. She gave it her best shot, running for the shadows.

  But she was too late. Before she could get out of sight, she found herself at the burning end of a de’llum.

  Chapter 19

  “How the hell did you get in here?”

  Kyr instantly recognized Gren’s voice. The deep, rumbling timber was unforgettable. She wanted to sag with relief, but she forced herself to think this through.

  Use caution and logic when making decisions, not sentiment.

  Her first instinct when he cornered her was to lower her gaze so he couldn’t easily see her eye color. Before she looked up at him and revealed herself, she had to be sure it was a wise thing to do. She drew upon her abilities and tapped into his consciousness.

  His thoughts were clear enough. Who is this female? How did she get in here? Why won’t she answer me? Why can’t I read her thoughts?

  At the same time, his emotions flowed through her. Seething anger. An unclear sense of duty. Questioned loyalties. And nearly overwhelming sorrow.

  It took her only a moment to make her decision.

  Blocking his thoughts from others, she lifted her eyes and said, “I used the closet entrance.”

  Gren’s face drained of color. He staggered back, nearly stumbling into the bathing pool. She lunged forward and grabbed his arm to steady him. She sent out calming thoughts to try and make the shock a little easier on him.

  It’s me, Gren. I’m sorry to surprise you like this.

  What—how—?

  That was all she picked up. His thoughts tumbled over each other as he tried to reason out how she had come to be there.

  I woke up in the death box a short time ago, she explained, keeping her thoughts level and clear as she held his gaze. ZashaWrym and LeoVawn came into the viewing room right after I got out of the box. I found out what happened from them.

  To help add credibility to her thoughts, she shared her most recent memories, from waking up and fighting her way out of the death box to breaking into her own closet. Gren had many years of training to guard his reactions, but she saw moisture in his eyes by the time she was done.