Descent

  It had barely begun, however, before Bayard stopped, his sword raised. Something caught his eye, a glimpse of the side of a face. His knights halted behind him, waiting to see what he was doing, and the entire tavern seemed to freeze, breaths held, not understanding what was happening.

  ‘Adon?’ a woman gasped, standing up from her seat.

  ‘Ria? What are you doing here?’ Bayard rasped.

  ‘I am eating with my friend! What are you doing here?’ She looked with horror at his sword.

  ‘I...’ the captain tried, but chaos broke loose once more. Bayard leapt towards Ria, thinking to drag her away from danger. He failed to see the flash of movement, right before something slammed into his body.

  The breath was knocked out of him as he was pummelled to the ground. The next thing that happened astounded him. Bayard was a big man—solid and muscular—but whoever had driven him to the floor was now lifting him up by his shirt collar and carrying him outside as if he was naught but a child. The man threw him to the ground, placing a heavy boot on Bayard’s neck, holding him in place.

  The captain looked up, sucking air into his lungs and trying to understand how someone could have such strength. In the darkness it was hard to make out the man’s face; plus he seemed to be wearing a hood.

  ‘What in hell are you doing?’ Bayard spat.

  ‘It would be far more appropriate to be asking you the same thing, scum,’ the man told him calmly. Bayard had heard that voice before.

  Ria came running outside and was looking between the two men. ‘What’s going on?’ she exclaimed. ‘Luca—don’t hurt him!’

  Luca. The Bright One. All the air left Bayard’s lungs again, like a tidal wave rushing from his body.

  If this was a Bright One, then there was no chance that this could be a Follower’s bar.

  ‘Tell me what you’re doing here,’ Luca ordered, and there was that same eerie calm in his voice.

  ‘We at Karangul had word that this was a Follower’s bar. And we came to eradicate it. I must have been very mistaken...’

  ‘Indeed,’ Luca murmured, his voice whispering out of the cloak. ‘Vezzet sent you on those grounds? Followers?’

  ‘Yes, my lord. We were to take everyone here to a detention centre for correction,’ he said with a growl. Luca looked at him a moment longer and then removed his foot. Bayard winced, rubbing his neck and climbing to his feet.

  ‘There were no Followers at the last three bars you have raided,’ Luca said. ‘There is no use in lying, Captain. I know you have been selling your victims into the slave trade.’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’

  Luca drew back his hood and gave him a measured stare, his eyes hauntingly empty. ‘Captain, each one of your raids has been in the name of slavery. The men and women have been sold over the seas. There is no such correction centre, and your master, Vezzet, is the last person in the world who would be funding such activities—he is a Follower himself, and always has been. How you could be so ignorant to the ways of the world? Unless, of course, you’re a little slow.’

  Bayard was silent. Finally, after running his hand through his hair several times, he looked at the Stranger ‘Maybe I am. For I certainly did not know that I have been raiding innocent people for the slave trade. If I had known the truth—’

  ‘You are quick to trust someone you’ve met once,’ Luca said, eyebrows raised.

  ‘You are a Bright One,’ Bayard said simply. If there is anyone in this world more set against Followers, I have not heard of them. There was once a time when I was suspicious of my own actions, but Vezzet assured me what I was doing was right. I was a fool to be netted by such lies.’

  ‘You are not the only one Vezzet has caught,’ Luca conceded, less harshly. ‘He’s a master of deceit. You need to call off your men and let these people go.’

  Bayard’s jaw clenched tightly as he nodded.

  ‘Come with us, Adon,’ Ria said. ‘You don’t need to go back to him. You could serve the king instead.’

  Ria had told him, when they first met, that she did not trust Vezzet. He hadn’t listened to her.

  ‘It is with deepest regret that I must return to him,’ Bayard said heavily.

  ‘What?’ Ria exclaimed. ‘He lied! He’s betrayed you!’

  ‘Yes, and he will pay dearly for that. But I made a deal with him a long time ago, and I cannot go back on my word. There is something ... you can have no knowledge of, something that happened a very long time ago, and it will not allow me to leave. But it may be the very thing that enables me to change him, if anyone can.’

  ‘Change him?’ Ria spat. ‘How could you be so naïve? He will never change!’

  They didn’t understand. But it didn’t matter. He had his own reasons, and he certainly had his fair share of guilt. It would be his actions alone that could save him now. He said softly, his voice deadly. ‘I swear on the soul of my dead father, I will make this right.’

  Luca nodded before disappearing back into the tavern, and Bayard sensed that the young man had looked into the words, and beyond them. Shivering slightly, the captain turned and walked away.

  She had said his name without thinking of the implications. A kind of knee-jerk reaction, a cry torn from her chest. Now Ria followed him from the tavern, wreathed in confusion, into the strangely fresh night. The cold air of late winter felt wrong against her skin—it was too calming after what had happened. She was very aware that she and Luca had come close to dying inside. It made her feel off balance, like she was walking through air thick with uncertainty.

  He was standing next to his beautiful horse, running his hands slowly through her mane. He looked subdued, or perhaps even sad. He turned to her in the dark and she could only make out his silhouette, plus a hint of the red in his hair, glinting in the moonlight.

  ‘What the hell is going on?’ she asked, hot with anger. When he spoke, she knew she had been wrong. He was not sad, or subdued—he was furious.

  ‘You heard what was said,’ he growled.

  ‘I told you he was not to be trusted!’ she said, barely keeping her voice from a scream. ‘But you refused to listen! I don’t understand, Adon. Why work for him?’

  ‘I have to.’ he snapped. ‘Just leave it, Ria. You’re better off not knowing me.’ He turned back to mount his horse.

  ‘Perhaps that’s true!’ she yelled after him.

  Ria del Torr stood in the dark street outside the tavern, watching the horse disappear into the dark. A thought flashed unbidden to her mind, of how neither she nor Luca had ever tried to find each other after the battle. They had given up, and look where that had led.

  Ria clenched her teeth and ran around the tavern to her horse. She and Luca had ridden to Luglio for a simple meal—little did she expect for this to happen! Gripping the reins, she charged up the cobblestones and into the darkness.

  Glancing into the sky, she knew it wasn’t far to the edge of the dream protectors, but she was certain Adon wouldn’t go beyond them at night.

  Ria pushed on down the road in the direction of Karangul, a kind of madness overtaking her as she headed fast towards the glittering threads. She was not at all prepared for him to be standing on the side of the road, just inside the dream protectors, staring up at the night sky. She almost charged straight past him, but something made her look down in that last instant to see his eyes shining up at her.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she asked, reigning her horse hard.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he asked, anger still clear in his voice.

  ‘Looking for you! Honestly, Adon, this is stupid!’ She dismounted from the agitated horse and stopped in front of him. They were in a field filled with wild flowers, unploughed and beautiful, with soft grass as high as their waists. The two moons were bright in the sky, and music was drifting from the town behind them. The music capitol of the world, she knew.

  The threads were awfully close, and through the twinkle of the moonlight they could both make out the flickering shadows
trying to get in.

  ‘I didn’t know the man well, Adon,’ she said, taking a breath, ‘I only spoke with him once or twice. But what Vezzet did was so awful that I can hate him for all the others. Why can’t you do the same?’

  ‘You cannot bend everyone to your will, Ria,’ Adon said through clenched teeth.

  ‘I’m not trying to—I just don’t understand! I can’t let you ride away and leave this as it is,’ she tried, her anger waning. ‘I know there’s something going on beyond what I understand.’

  It was so dark, away from the lights of the town. The blue moon, Jael, passed behind a cloud, so that Lindel shone even brighter and they were wreathed in an eerie red mist. Bayard lowered his head and looked at his horse.

  ‘I’ve seen that horse somewhere,’ Ria murmured, distracted.

  ‘She had a life before me,’ he said quietly, stroking her mane. His red hair was even brighter in the moonlight. ‘Perhaps you met her.’

  Bayard mounted up again. ‘I was waiting for my men,’ he said briskly, ‘but I suppose I must fetch them.’

  ‘They’ll come,’ she said firmly. ‘You have a moment to listen to me. I want you to know that I hate what you’re doing. I hate that man, and I hate what he stands for but I do not hate ... you.’

  ‘You do not hate me?’ he asked slowly. ‘In the name of Freyja, what a confession!’ he growled.

  ‘Look, Adon. I’ve done this before with a man I cared for. We just let go. I don’t want that to happen now.’

  He looked at her, expressionless. ‘That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You don’t want the same thing to happen again, because it would mean that you’ve failed twice. You’ve been comparing me to him the whole time. Do not bother lying—I see it at every turn. Every look you give him—you’re like an open book.’

  Ria felt sick. Why was he saying these things? And how had this turned from a question of who Bayard worked for, into how Ria felt about Luca? ‘You’re wrong,’ she said, her voice breaking slightly.

  ‘Prove it. Make me believe you,’ he said, unwavering in his severity.

  ‘I came out here to tell you I don’t want to just give up. I was going to ride out of the protectors to find you! Isn’t that proof enough?’

  ‘It’s proof only that you have fevered blood running through your veins—something I have known all along. Explain to me what you do not want to give up.’

  Ria shook her head, flushed. ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘I’m leaving right now unless you speak something worth the breath it takes to say!’ He was almost shouting now, and she was shocked by the suddenness of his temper.

  ‘It’s not so easy for me. What more do you want from me?’ she asked as a sudden urge to cry came upon her.

  The night seemed very still as he considered the question. Eventually Adon shrugged and sighed. ‘I don’t know. I’ve a foolish, greedy heart.’ He shook his head dismissively. ‘Listen, Ria. I don’t know what this is, nor what you want it to be, but it just cannot work. Not after what has happened, after what I’ve learnt. I have to focus my energy on other things. You know that.’

  She looked at him and felt a sudden pain in her chest. Not because she was reminded of another man. But because when she looked at Adon, she thought about him, and the simple closeness of him made her happy.

  In all the names of the gods, how had she let this happen again?

  ‘How can we be allowed to love each other, with two such men standing between us?’ he asked softly, and finally, after so many years of holding it all in, it was the hurt in this man’s voice that broke her, and Ria del Torr began to cry.

  ‘You’re letting them stand between us,’ she told him softly through the tears.

  ‘Maybe,’ he said heavily. ‘But perhaps that’s simply because I know the truth—I understand that you cannot do this.’

  ‘Adon—’

  He shook his head. ‘We’ve both known it all along. You’ve suffered too much. It’s too hard for you, so you fight me with every breath. And I don’t have time for games. Maybe when this is over, but not now, Ria.’

  Ria felt her legs begin to shake. The mist was around her again—that same, slow-moving mist that made everything harder to understand. Maybe it was a sort of blanket. A numbing blanket that might actually help her through this. Maybe she should embrace it.

  ‘I don’t want you to try and find me—it is far too dangerous at the moment,’ he said, then ran a hand through his hair, a mannerism she had begun to recognise. Just then his men thundered past, kicking clouds of dust behind them. They stopped to wait for him nearby. A vague kind of fear descended upon her as without another word, Adon Bayard put his cap on his head and, with his knights, galloped through the protectors and out onto the dark plains.

  Ria stood for a long time, until the two moons had nearly dissapeared over the horizon. He had left her there, on her own, because she was too damaged. He didn’t think she knew how to love. What did that mean for her? What did that mean she was?

  Chapter 25

  ‘Did I have any children?’ Mia asked.

  ‘No. You were never married either.’

  ‘Did I have a boyfriend or anything?’

  There was a slight hesitation. ‘Not as far as I know.’ Tye shrugged. Mia was interrogating him as they stood on the balcony. It was a bit like putting a puzzle together, but having to search around for the pieces before she could even begin.

  ‘So you were the person that knew the most about me?’

  ‘I don’t know, Mia. I am not so arrogant as to presume that you told me everything, nor that I was perceptive enough to see every working of your mind. But ... we knew each other well. I would be surprised if there was much you kept from me.’

  Mia nodded. That seemed slightly depressing to her—didn’t she have any friends aside from her servant? ‘Am I the same now as I used to be?’ she asked curiously.

  Tye smiled. ‘There are parts of you that are the same, and parts that are new. You are much younger. And less sure of yourself. But knowledge and majesty will come to you. I think it’s nice that you’ve regained your innocence.’

  Mia thought her next question was the most important, the question that would explain the most about who Nayana really was. ‘What did I want, Tye?’

  ‘A city of equals,’ he said without hesitation, ‘where all people could live together happily.’

  She nodded, but couldn’t help looking at him more closely. ‘Yes, I get that bit. But Tye ... what did I want, for me? Deep down, what did I want out of my own life?’

  Tye frowned, meeting her eyes. ‘I don’t understand.’

  She smiled, a little sadly. ‘I guess that’s the answer.’ Before he could say anything more, feeling a bit silly for asking the question aloud, Mia changed the subject.

  ‘I need to contact my friends,’ she said. ‘I haven’t spoken to them for days.’

  ‘I will have a message sent out straight away.’

  ‘No need,’ she grinned. ‘I have a much cooler way to talk to them. I can’t believe I forgot to tell you about this. Just wait a sec. They’re pretty far away so I’ll have to focus.’

  Tye looked confused but didn’t say a word, so Mia shut her eyes and reached out to Anna. She could feel herself being drained instantly—the huge distance was taking its toll before she’d even made contact.

  Anna?

  I’m here. Are you ok?

  Yeah, I’m fine but I need you to come and visit me.

  I’d love to, sweetie, but I can’t—I’m headed to Cynis Witron to find Jane.

  Mia whined in disappointment. But I seriously need to talk to you—so much has happened!

  What is it?

  I can’t even begin to tell you right now ... I’m too weak ... I didn’t realise this would take so much out of me. But as soon as she had spoken, Mia felt a sudden strengthening of her link with Anna, and knew she’d be able to speak all day if she wanted.

  What is that? she asked, trying to
feel where all the extra energy was coming from.

  I don’t know.

  It’s me, said a third voice, and Mia was shocked to realise the strength and clarity of Jane’s voice in her mind.

  How are you doing that?

  Dunno. I just am.

  Christ, J. You must have some serious strength if you can connect to both of us this clearly, Anna said.

  If you think this is good, then you should see what I did yesterday, Jane replied wryly.

  Will you come and visit me, Janie? Mia asked. I’m freaking out!

  I can’t right now, Mia. I’m in the Elvish city, trying to help them figure out what to do about the Valkyries.

  You’ve been there for ages though! We don’t have any Valkyries here, so it’s safer here anyway!

  Jane laughed a little. Mia, I can’t. The Elves have a kind of magic that the Valkyries can’t get through—you know the dream protectors? Well I’m thinking it might give us a clue as to how to beat them on a larger scale, instead of just repelling them.

  It’s a good idea, J. I’ll be there very soon to help you, Anna promised. There was a kind of ripple in the mind-link, and Mia realised it was Anna’s sly laugh. Is it the only reason you’re in the Elvish city? I know of a certain prince who just happens to be alive again...

  Mia grinned. Oh my god I can’t believe I forgot about that, I’m so in need of some girl talk! Janie—you aren’t really going out with that guy are you? He is so gorgeous I can’t even believe it! I think I would actually die if he looked at me with those grey eyes!

  There was a silence, and Mia had the feeling it was not a comfortable one.

  I’m not going out with him, Mia, Jane said softly. And he is not the reason I’m here. Far from it.

  Oh no! Did you two have another fight? Anna asked quickly. You’ll be fine—you fight more than any other couple I’ve ever met.

  No. Look, can we not talk about it? Jane asked shortly. If Mia had been able to, she would have shot Anna a quizzical look.

  Okay, sure, sorry, Anna said. Are you okay though?

  I’m fine, Jane sighed. I just miss you guys. I can’t wait to see you, An.