The Duelist 11, page 2
“It’s beautiful, Maya,” Shay told the oryx-woman. “I could scarcely believe it. And it’s almost perfect. The carvings, the historical records… they even have memory stones.”
I could see Amaya and Jenner looked about ready to explode from sheer excitement, and the normally-calm Anwaar didn’t seem too far behind, which was even stranger.
“We know how to get into the temple now,” I told them. “So we can easily take you to see for yourselves sometime, but we have bigger priorities right now.”
“Eng,” Jenner said with a nod, and the excitable scholar was suddenly pushed aside to make way for the rational father figure. “And keeping Vel-Rala out of the Order’s clutches.”
“Yes,” I said. “And… no. We have something else, too.”
“Ah,” Jenner said, and his ears drooped. “Unfortunately, we have had no luck in translating the diary from Nova’s mother. Sha-Kane speaks some Lakuna, but there are so few written records that very few people can match the spoken words to the written characters.”
“I… wasn’t going to ask about that,” I said blankly, and I momentarily felt the urge to facepalm, because how could I have forgotten about Krev Alda and his obsession with the Prophetess and the Lakuna? Instead of facepalming, though, I reached out my other arm to hug Nova to me, and I kissed the top of her dark hair. “But we’ll figure it out eventually, don’t you worry.”
“I know,” Nova said with a smile. “What are you going to say?”
“I was going to--” I began but then stopped and frowned. “Actually, uh, where’s Sha-Kane? He should probably be here for this.”
At the mention of Sha-Kane’s name, Horus’ expression darkened, and even Shay’s face turned a little less joyful. I understood, though. Sha-Kane was a Councilman, and they’d recently found out a great deal about the Council.
Of course, I had my own reasons to believe Sha-Kane was, in fact, totally trustworthy, and hopefully the osprey-man would finally agree to come clean so the others could know those reasons, too.
“Did someone say my name?”
As if on cue, Councilman Sha-Kane walked into the entrance hall, and he stopped short at the sight of Shay and her wings. I watched as he seemed to struggle for several seconds, caught between the desire to rush toward her, congratulate her, and see the wings up close, and the knowledge that from Shay’s perspective, they weren’t close, and he needed to be respectful.
“Shale-Lea,” he breathed at last. “You… your wings.”
“I know,” Shay said with a giddy laugh. “I can hardly believe it.”
“Nor can I,” the osprey-man answered with a fatherly smile. “But you look… beautiful. Radiant, even. I take it, then, you were successful?”
“Aventoll will never have to worry about demons ever again,” Horus said firmly, and I noticed the falcon-man had shifted slightly so he was standing between Sha-Kane and Shay.
“He’s right,” I said in as calm a tone of voice as I could manage. “But we know the Council has issues with that.”
“I would expect as much,” the osprey-man said with a frown. “The elevated status of Duelists is, of course, dependent on the threat of the Scourge. Do you think they know about your plans to heal the Heart of Aventoll?”
“We know they do,” Horus said, and his eyes were focused like lasers on Sha-Kane, as if he expected the osprey-man to suddenly lunge for Shay or me. “They sent one of their own to kill us.”
“What?” Sha-Kane asked sharply.
“Teivel Tas,” I told him, and I pulled my Duelist stone out from under my shirt to show it to the osprey-man. It glowed in the low light of the entrance hall, and the design etched onto the rock was perfectly clear.
When I’d first gained my Duelist status, in the fight against Dagmar, I’d become a Rank Three, and my stone had borne a shield with three fish swimming around it. After becoming a Rank Six, the shield became a star, and there had been only one fish. Now there were two fish, but the star became a sword.
“Warrior class…” the osprey-man muttered, and then he looked up at me with a stunned expression. “You’re a Rank Twelve?”
“Teivel was,” I said. “Then I challenged him to a Duel, and I killed him.”
“The Council sent someone to kill you?” Sha-Kane continued to stare at me. “This is why I wanted to come with you! You should have let me come. I would have been able to better defend you against their assassin.”
“We managed just fine, Councilman, you don’t need to worry,” I reassured him.
“You expect us to believe we can trust a Councilman to protect us against another Councilman?” Horus asked in an acidic tone. “They wanted Alex dead, the Incarnate and the supposed ‘Prophetess’ Amaya back in their possession. They desecrated the most holy part of the most holy temple in Aventoll with innocent blood.”
“Someone died?” Amaya asked in a small voice, and when she looked up at me, her rain-colored eyes were suddenly sad and worried. “Who?”
“A… guardian, I think,” I said. “Of the temple. She looked hu-- she looked like me. Like a Traveler. I think she was a memory, though. A sort of ghost constructed by the temple, or the spirit of a real person fueled by the temple’s power. But she died to protect me. She took a blade to the chest and died in my arms.”
“Innocent blood on holy ground,” Horus said in a low voice. “And the bastard they sent after us didn’t even care.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I killed that fucker,” I said. “But the fact I have his seat now means we can go to Alem and figure out just what the fuck is going on with the Council.”
“I don’t understand,” Sha-Kane said with a frown. “Why would a Councilman risk his seat and his status like that? The Tas family were ranked comparatively low, admittedly, but still.”
“They’re just that desperate, I guess,” I said with a shrug. “The ‘upstart Traveler’ has been causing them problems, and they want me dead before I upend the entire system.”
“Too late,” Zoie said with a smile, and she hugged Shay’s arm as she looked at me. “Whether or not they kill you now, the demons are gone, thanks to Shay. But obviously I would prefer it if they didn’t kill you.”
“Me, too,” I snorted.
“But how?” Sha-Kane insisted. “How did Teivel know you were coming here? And how did he even get here?”
“Apparently, Ashers of Blood are among the blessed few who can travel the straight path across Aventoll,” I said, and the osprey-man pursed his lips in a way that suggested he didn’t think that was true, but he didn’t argue against it.
“I agree, though,” Horus then said. “How did Teivel Tas know Alex and the rest of us were coming to the Island of Hearts? Surely that’s not something the Council would just find out. Not without someone telling them.”
Teivel hadn’t mentioned the Council having any kind of informant when we’d been down in the cave, but he hadn’t struck me as the sort of person who would know to keep quiet about a mole. He’d given me the impression of someone who would loudly brag about every advantage, no matter how secret, but seeing as I knew something about Sha-Kane that Horus didn’t, I could understand the falcon-man’s suspicion.
“Horus…” Sha-Kane sounded wounded. “You don’t truly think I would betray all of you to help the Council, do you?”
“You’re a member of the Council,” Horus snapped as his feathers ruffled. “One of the most decorated Duelists in Aventoll, but you’ve been spending weeks gallivanting around with us, with Alex. Why not stay on Om with Overseer Kohen? Why not continue your own travels by yourself? Why not stay on Alem, where the Council lives in utmost luxury?”
“I told you when I met you both for the first time,” Sha-Kane said. “I understood why stories of Alex Brightwood had spread so quickly. Is it so hard to believe more stories spread to the Council without my help?”
“How would the Council have known about the Island of Hearts?” Horus demanded. He was very obviously standing between Sha-Kane and Shay now, and he had his arms slightly raised as if to shield his sister from the osprey-man. “How would they have known what we were doing if someone-- if you-- hadn’t told them?”
Everyone else in the room was stunned into silence.
“You also said you personally volunteered for the chance to see the Traveler who’d been causing the Council so much trouble,” the falcon-man went on, and he pointed at Sha-Kane accusingly. “Was it for this? Was it so you could become a spy and try to sabotage us in case we got too close to invalidating the Council?”
“Never,” Sha-Kane said, and his voice was stony enough that Horus faltered for a moment. I tried to reconcile this Horus with the one who’d first met Sha-Kane. The young man who’d averted his eyes and tried not to look at the Councilman directly. “The Council has never been my concern. It was only a means to an end.”
“Power?” Horus spat, and Sha-Kane actually flinched.
“Horus,” I said in a careful tone, and the falcon-man looked at me.
“What?” he asked when I didn’t say anything. “You don’t mean to defend him, do you? He’s working with the Council for his own gains. He just wants the power that comes with a Duelist stone and a demon Scourge.”
“He doesn’t, Horus, I know he doesn’t,” I said, and I looked toward the osprey-man. I thought about saying something to him, but I had no idea what to say, so I just looked at him.
And that was enough.
Sha-Kane bowed his feathered head in such a tired, defeated nod that for a moment he looked twice his age. Zoie cast me a knowing look, but it wasn’t smug or triumphant. It was just pitying. She knew this was a tragedy, this was something going in all the wrong ways, but it needed to happen if this Crew was going to be able to work together against the Council.
And we would need to work together.
“Horus,” Sha-Kane sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Shale-Lea. I… I would like to speak with you both. In private, if I may.”
“Absolutely not,” Horus said at once.
“I trust him, H,” I told the falcon-man. “I promise. Whatever he has to tell you, you can trust him. He won’t hurt you or Shay.”
Horus looked at Sha-Kane very hard, for a very long time. He was still standing between the osprey-man and Shay, like a human shield. Or rather, an Aventollian shield.
“I have something to tell you both,” the Councilman added.
Horus narrowed his eyes even further at the man and then glanced at Shay. The phoenix-woman looked upset but not distressed, and she swallowed hard before she stepped out of her embrace with Zoie and nodded to Horus.
Horus looked back at Sha-Kane and stepped sideways to take Shay’s hand, and they stood before the Councilman like children in a fairytale facing down a witch.
“Alright,” the falcon-man said at last. “We’ll hear you out.”
Chapter 2
Everyone watched in curious silence as Sha-Kane walked out of the entrance hall and toward the family room. There were several seconds of hesitation before Shay finally started to follow the osprey-man, but she turned back to look at Horus, and he sighed before he, too, began to follow.
I was so focused on the Natavian siblings that I didn’t notice Zoie had sidled up beside me until I felt her hands around my arm and her cheek leaning on my shoulder.
“You should go with them,” she said in a knowing voice.
“No, I shouldn’t,” I replied, and I didn’t look away from Shay and Horus as they approached the door to the family room like it was the door to the ninth circle of hell. “It’s a family matter.”
“You’re their family,” the cat-woman reminded me. “Her husband, his brother. You might not be blood, but that will probably help. And more than that, you’re their friend, too. I think they’ll need a friend in there. They all will.”
I was surprised Zoie thought to consider Sha-Kane’s feelings in all of this. Not because she was cruel-- because she definitely wasn’t-- but because she’d made her position on the matter quite clear when she’d found out about the osprey-man and his true relationship to Shay and Horus. She’d been furious and had demanded Sha-Kane tell them right then. But now, it seemed her attitude had softened a little. Even if she still didn’t agree Sha-Kane had been in the right to hide everything for so long, she could sympathize with why he’d chosen to do it.
As could I. I’d been similarly insistent for the osprey-man to tell his children that, well, they were his children, and even though I understood Sha-Kane’s reasons for keeping quiet, it had frustrated me. It was awful trying to keep such an important secret from people you loved so much.
“It will be easier if there’s someone… neutral,” Zoie went on. She was subconsciously rubbing her cheekbone along my shoulder, like she was trying to mark me with her scent.
I wondered, if we ever went to Vartha, if that would be necessary to let other Varthan women know I was already claimed.
Everyone in Aventoll was clearly pretty chill about a husband having multiple wives, and apparently, in the days of warriors like Namir, wives having multiple husbands had been fine, too. But somehow, I suspected if another Varthan woman approached me, Zoie would not be happy about it. She adored Nova and Amaya, and she loved Shay like I did, but I reckoned another Varthan would feel too close to home, and she would probably want to keep them at bay, especially while she was pregnant and getting broodier every day.
Not that I wanted another wife at the moment, or another Varthan at all. Zoie was perfect, and she was all I could ever want or need from a partner.
“Someone in the middle will stop things from getting too heated,” Amaya then said, and I realized she’d snuck up on my other side and was hugging my other arm.
I really must have been deep in my thoughts if I hadn’t noticed her. Zoie had cat-like stealth and Varthan warrior training, but Amaya, lovely as she was, was an augur with no combat training at all.
“You think so?” I asked both women, and I felt them nod against me. I had to believe that was the right choice, because Zoie knew what Sha-Kane was going to tell Horus and Shay, and Amaya didn’t.
“Shay is our wife, and Horus is our brother,” Zoie said as she nuzzled me again, and I suspected the hormones of pregnancy were starting to take a stronger effect. “We need to show them we will be there for them, whatever storms they have to weather.”
“I trust Sha-Kane not to try and… kill them where they stand, or anything like that,” Amaya said. “But whatever he has to say to them, it will be easier to hear if they have someone to rely upon.”
At that, Zoie gave me an especially knowing look. Amaya didn’t have the full context of the situation, but she knew the important bits, and having someone ‘neutral’ to rely upon was a genuinely good idea.
“They’ll find out eventually,” Zoie then said to me, and I knew she was right.
And I knew I would much rather be there to tell Horus and Shay myself than have Sha-Kane tell them I’d known for weeks and had said nothing. Even if the osprey-man explained he’d all but begged me to keep it secret, Horus and Shay would feel hurt, and they would have every right to.
If Amaya was confused by Zoie’s words, she didn’t say anything, but then the oryx-woman had always possessed a tendency to get stuck in her head or take vague things at face value. One of the many things I loved about Amaya was how non-judgmental she was, and if she did have any thoughts about something Zoie and I clearly knew, and that Amaya just as clearly didn’t know, she kept them to herself.
“Right,” I muttered, as much to myself as to Zoie, and the two women let go of my arms so I could walk into the family room.
When I knocked and entered, I saw Horus and Shay were both sitting on one of the couches with stiff posture that reminded me of schoolchildren being sent to a notoriously strict principal. Sha-Kane was standing before the couch and pacing back and forth, and clearly the osprey-man was trying to figure out a way to start, but didn’t have any idea.
“Hi,” I said to the three of them. I felt more than a little awkward, and the fact this was my house only made it feel more awkward. “Uh… mind if I… um… observe?”
God, that sounded creepy and invasive. Like I was trying to pry into an insanely personal moment for my own enjoyment. I cringed as I said it.
“I mean,” I tried again. “Can I, uh… join you? Um… help?”
“Please,” Sha-Kane said after a moment. “Please, sit. Join us.”
His voice sounded slightly strangled, and he looked more than a little nervous. It was such a far cry from the carefully composed Councilman in black robes I’d met all those months ago, the man to whom even Gavlain Mec had shown utter deference. Honestly, it took me a few seconds to remember this was the same man.
I glanced over at Horus and Shay, and they also looked uncomfortable and slightly nervous, so I sat down on the couch with Shay wedged between Horus and me. With her new wings, it was more of a squeeze than it would have been ordinarily, but the phoenix-woman seemed to relax a little now that she was bracketed by her husband and her brother, like she was now ready to take on anything.
“So,” Sha-Kane then said, and he finally stopped pacing to stand before the three of us. His hands were clasped behind his back, and now I felt like a schoolchild who’d been sent to a notoriously nonthreatening principal. Like it was his first day on the job, and the teenagers could smell his fear. “Erm… I suppose… I suppose I should begin at… at the beginning.”
“I find that always helps,” Shay told him in an encouraging tone. “Makes everything easier to understand.”
Horus propped one elbow on the arm of the couch and grunted indifferently as he gazed off to the side. This didn’t help me break away from feeling like a student in the principal’s office.
But I could see the phoenix-woman was a little apprehensive. She didn’t know exactly what Sha-Kane had to say, but she knew it was important. I had to admire her for being willing to lock herself in a room with the osprey-man, when she had good reason to believe he was working with people who wanted her captured, and her husband and brother dead.
