Desert Rising (30 page)

“There are other ways of being taken by a deity than your pathetic Ceremony,” he said, and gripped Dani's arm.

Dani cried out, his face a mask of anguish, and collapsed at the Templar's feet. His cloak was now the color of blood. Sulis couldn't tell if he was breathing.

Luella pushed Sulis behind her and blocked the doorway, her sword ready in front of her. Djinn stood between Sulis and Luella, the fur on his ruff standing up, growling.

Luella crossed swords with the Templar, vainly trying to hold her ground against his superior strength. He forced her back as Sulis watched helplessly. With a quick twist of his sword, Luella's blade skittered away from her, loud on the stone floors. She stumbled, and the Templar grabbed her arm. Luella's face contorted, fighting against him. She cried out once, then screamed as his will tore through hers. When she fell to the ground, her cloak was red, but blood streamed out of her nose and ears. Her eyes were open, blank with death.

As the Templar approached Sulis, she backed up until she was against the wall of the hallway, still trying to distract him from the other pledges.

“You are a blight on the Temple,” he spat. “And just as the Templar before me cut out the rot that was your mother, so, too, will I rid the Temple of your evil influence.”

Djinn growled, holding his ground before Sulis.

“Get away. Begone, beast.” He waved his blade at Djinn, who squalled and lashed out. The Templar thrust at the great cat, who dove toward him, slashing him below the knee.

“No! No, Djinn,” Sulis cried, knowing her
feli
was no match for an experienced swordsman. She started forward to attack the Templar with her dagger. But it was already too late. His sword caught Djinn in the side, piercing the great feline and laying open his soft belly. Sulis screamed as Djinn collapsed onto his side, utterly still.

Her shock was her undoing. She stared at the bodies of her two friends and inched along the wall, wondering if she could make it out the south door. Terror at Djinn's death, terror for what the Templar would do to the rest of her friends. The Templar kept coming, and she could feel the will of Voras inside him, possessing him. Pounding waves of hatred assaulted her, and her hands shook as she tried to bring up her knife. Time seemed to slow, and he grinned fiercely, enjoying her terror. He batted aside her dagger as though it were a toy. She only had time to flinch as he grabbed her shoulder and the deadly silver blade plunged towards her ribs. Then sight fled her as she felt the sword slide into her body.

K
ADAR WAS ONE
step behind Ashraf when they dispatched the soldier and ran through the hallway. Kadar was stumbling and almost blind with Sulis's fear and anger. He tripped over a red-­cloaked body sprawled in the hallway and looked up in time to see his sister impaled on the Templar's sword. He screamed with Sulis, sharing her agony through their link. He fell to his knees, struggling to separate himself from her so that he could get to his feet, go to her.

It was Ashraf who beheaded the Templar as the man pulled his sword from Sulis's side. Kadar pushed himself to his feet and stumbled to her body, covering the gaping wound with his hands desperately, but all the while knowing it was futile. He looked up, crying for help—­any help.

A woman ran across the Temple to him, flinging a flask to the ground. She was whispering to herself, and Kadar caught only the last words as her voice rose into a shout: “Unto your hands I give myself for eternity! Fill this empty vessel and make it yours! One, help me now! I beg of you!”

He
felt
the light come through the woman more than he saw it, though her cloak glowed gold in this dim corner of the Temple. She pushed Kadar's hands away, and he felt a jolt of that power before it surged into Sulis. Both women's cloaks glowed a burnished gold, so bright that his eyes watered as he squinted.

Sulis's eyes opened for a moment. “Alannah,” she whispered. Her eyes fluttered closed again.

The glow dimmed as Alannah collapsed over his sister. Her robes were gold, a contrast to Sulis's gray ones. Ashraf was by Alannah's side in an instant, supporting her.

“It's the best I could do,” she whispered. “She will live; I could do that. But she is not healed, not fully. Get her to safety. Go now—­the others are coming. I can feel them.”

Ashraf gently lifted Sulis into his arms. Kadar looked around for her
feli,
but all he found was a trail of blood leading out the temple door. The poor beast must have taken himself off to die. He heard an exclamation and saw a stooped man in scholar's robes looking around the Temple in shock. Kadar followed Ashraf out the door, looking back once to see the Scholar bending over Alannah, helping her to her feet. The red-­cloaked male pledge in the hallway they'd stumbled over was stirring as they walked by, but the woman lay still. They hurried past, leaving the Temple and the horror within to the landed folk. They would take their clanswoman home to the desert.

 

Chapter 20

K
ADAR RAN AHEAD
of Ashraf. He pounded into the courtyard and rushed into the house, startling his cousin, Simon, whom he sent running off for the healer.

Uncle Aaron came running from the stables, alerted by the commotion, and Aunt Raella came from the kitchen, with Farrah behind her.

“It's Sulis. It's all a mess. She was run through, with a sword,” he told them.

Aunt Raella gasped and sank onto a bench, but Kadar pushed on.

“She's alive—­the One mostly healed her—­but Ashraf is carrying her, and he killed the Templar to save her,” Kadar finished, realizing how disjointed he sounded but unable to weave a coherent tale. The night was catching up with him. He stopped abruptly and just stood there, with his family staring at him.

Farrah was the first one to move. “You need to sit,” she said, pushing him firmly down on the bench. “Where should we put Sulis?” she asked.

“I'll fetch a sleeping mat. That way she'll be down here for the healer,” Uncle Aaron said, slipping from the room. Kadar understood what he didn't say—­that it would be easier to move her from downstairs if they all had to flee to the desert.

Ashraf came through the doorway as Uncle Aaron placed the sleeping mat down on the floor. The healer, Nala, followed close behind. Ashraf placed Sulis gently on the mat. Her limp body seemed boneless under her clothing. The only indication that she was alive was the slight motion of her chest. Nala and Aunt Raella closed in on either side of her.

Uncle Aaron pulled on Kadar's and Ashraf's shoulders, indicating they should follow him to the courtyard.

“I need to know what happened tonight,” he said urgently.

Uncle Tarik ran in, his color high as though he'd been out drinking. “There's trouble at the Temple,” he reported, then sucked in a breath when he saw Kadar's and Ashraf's bloodstained clothing.

Kadar started with what he knew, but faltered trying to describe the fight with Voras's soldier. Ashraf took up the thread, describing the fight and what had happened in the Temple.

“You killed a soldier of Voras and Voras's Voice,” Uncle Aaron said, his tone flat. “They will be after you. That will lead them to us. We all may need to pack and run,”

“Perhaps not,” a woman said from behind them.

The men spun, Uncle Tarik drawing his dagger.

“Please put that away. There's been enough bloodshed this evening,” the woman said.

The woman wore a cloak of gold, but she was much older than Alannah. “I am Elida, Counselor of the One. Alannah tells me that Sulis lives. Is it true?”

The men looked at each other, unwilling to give this woman from the Temple information she did not already know.

“You can trust me though I can certainly see why you would not. Sulis was healed by the One; Alannah told me that, and what she saw of the fight between the Templar and pledges. Alannah and Scholar Ranly have stated publicly that a stranger killed the Templar when he attacked the pledges during the ceremony. Alannah is proclaiming that the stranger was a Vrishni who was directed by the One to protect them. The Vrishni took Sulis to see if she could be healed. Only Voras himself could say differently, but he won't want to admit he'd set his Templar on the pledges and will state the Templar was acting as a human, without his orders.

She nodded to the men. “However, that story is for naught if they find Sulis here with you. You must leave by morning. Voras's soldiers are lost in confusion over the death of their Templar. That will not last long. Voras will choose a new Voice, and Sulis must be out of the city before then. We have searched for her
feli
but have not found him, and the One has given us no guidance as to where he might be. The amount of blood on the floor leads us to believe he has gone off to die on his own. With her
feli
gone, Sulis is no longer protected by the Temple.”

“She wasn't protected by the Temple while she was paired,” Uncle Aaron said bitterly. “Why should now be different?”

The Counselor bowed her head at his words. “There is no help for that now,” she said. “I tried to protect her, but she chose to put herself in danger. The One will exact a heavy price from the deities for allowing pledges to be killed because of the deities' scheming.”

She turned to Kadar, who leaned against the wall, white with shock.

“Do you still feel what she feels?” she asked.

He nodded.

“What is she feeling now?”

“Pain. Despair. Loss,” Kadar said, his voice rough with exhaustion.

“You must send hope to her. When she regains her strength, she still will have a great role to play. The Temple is changing, and she has ushered in a new era of choice and bonding for the pledges. All of the pledges she worked with were taken by the deity of their choice. Though it was not without cost. Luella is dead, and we will have to wait and see if Dani has been damaged by his forced bonding. You must keep Sulis alive with your own energy as you flee to the desert.”

That snapped Kadar out of the fatigue that had ensnared him. “What? Leave? I can't go.” He looked around for Farrah. “I can't leave.”

Farrah came to his side and put her arms around him. “You must, Kadar. You are your sister's best hope. She won't survive without you there. She's started calling for you and her
feli
. And it seems that you are the only one of those two left to her.”

“Then you'll come with me,” Kadar told her.

“I can't—­not without a pass from Parasu. If you were stopped because of me, it would ruin everything.” She put a hand over his mouth to stop his protests and lowered her voice. “You know why I will not leave. I've told you before I won't leave my ­people.”

Kadar shook his head. “Farrah, no. It's normally a week's journey, but it'll be more this time. We'll have to pause at way stations. Sulis won't heal if we travel without stopping. I'll have to stay with her until she's out of danger, then summer will be upon us. I won't able to come back until fall. I won't be here when our child is born.”

“I will go in his place,” Ashraf offered.

The Counselor shook her head. “It must be Kadar. He has the bond with her.”

“Kadar, Sulis didn't hesitate to save you, even when it almost killed her,” Farrah said. “She brought you back to me. You have to do the same for her.” When he shook his head, she grabbed his shoulders. “Women have been giving birth for centuries. I will be safe here with your family.”

At that, Kadar met Ashraf's worried eyes. “Take care of her,” Kadar told him, holding out his hand.

“I will,” Ashraf promised, clasping his hand in bond. “Take care of Sulis. Speak of me often as she recovers, so she might think fondly of me when she is well.”

“Ashraf will look after me in your absence, and you will look after Sulis in his absence. That way both of you will worry, and neither of you will be happy,” Farrah said, trying to make her tone light. She pushed him into the house, and he went to Sulis, who was trembling on the mats, muttering incoherently.

Uncle Aaron ducked in from gathering supplies. “Tarik and I are going down to the stables to get two wagons, hitch the mules, and come back here to pick you up. I'll drive the sleeping wagon and have Simon follow with a supply wagon. Farrah, grab the cook and gather food and healing supplies like you would for our longer caravan runs. I want enough supplies that if we have to miss a ­couple of towns, we'll be fine. Have Nala direct you on what herbs you'll need. Kadar, stay with Sulis until we are ready to move her.”

The Counselor, who had also gone into the house, nodded. “I will go back to the Temple. They will be looking for me, especially with so much discord. Alannah will need guidance. She is the youngest Counselor the One has ever chosen.”

“Counselor, when Alannah was healing Sulis, both of them were surrounded with gold light,” Kadar said. “But once the light faded, only Alannah's robe stayed gold. Why didn't Sulis stay chosen by the One like Alannah?”

The Counselor shook her head, looking troubled. “I don't know, Kadar. Alannah told me the same thing. Perhaps Sulis's
feli
died before the One-­bond was made. Perhaps it was an effect of the extensive healing the One had to do for her. But I believe it could be a sign that the One has a special interest in her; which is why you need to keep her alive.”

Kadar nodded and looked over at his sister's prone form. The Counselor reached out her hand and squeezed his shoulder sympathetically.

“May the One speed your journey and watch over you and Sulis,” she said. She slipped out the door and disappeared into the night.

Kadar knelt beside Sulis where she lay on the cushions. She was unconscious, but moaned and thrashed and tried to pull her hand from Aunt Raella's. The healer, Nala, sat on her other side. Aunt Raella looked up.

“She's been calling for you—­you and Djinn. Her brow is feverish, but Nala says that her internal wounds are closed. There was much bleeding, and she will be weak and likely to take sick.”

“We must leave by morning,” Kadar said. She started to protest, and he cut her off. “The Counselor of the One said they would come after her for the death of the Templar. Uncle Aaron is hitching two of our best wagons from the caravan.” He took Sulis's other hand and projected soothing thoughts through their link. Immediately, she calmed, her brow smoothing in sleep.

Nala let out a breath. “You will need better healing supplies than I have here at hand. I will run home and prepare tisanes that will help her insides heal more quickly on the road. My house is on the way out of town. Stop by, and I will have them prepared.”

Kadar watched as she hurried out the side door, thinking about the journey ahead and Farrah's absence on the road. He looked over to see his aunt staring at him.

“Farrah won't come with me,” he said, his voice cracking. “Take care of her, Aunt Raella. Make sure nothing will happen to her.”

“She'll be fine here,” Aunt Raella said, smiling gently at him. “A caravan on the run carrying the sick and the worried is no place for a pregnant woman who needs her rest. Nala will see her through the birth, and you'll be back before your child is even talking. Take care of your sister, Kadar. Losing her
feli
will be a terrible blow. I will go help gather supplies.”

Kadar gripped Sulis's hand, struggling to control his fear and anguish as Sulis began to twist and call out again in her sleep. He put a hand on her brow, as he could remember their mother doing when they were feverish as younglings. “Sleep, Sulis. Everything will be fine,” he murmured, focusing on projecting soothing feelings and letting his love for his sister move through their bond.

He wasn't aware of the time passing until he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked into Ashraf's concerned face.

“The caravan is ready for her,” Ashraf said.

Kadar's knees were stiff from kneeling and creaked as he stood. Ashraf grasped one side of the long mat Sulis lay upon, and Kadar grasped the other end, creating a makeshift stretcher. They carried her to the courtyard and carefully pulled the mat into the caravan, placing her on a bottom bunk. Kadar was surprised to see that the courtyard, lighted by torches, was filled with neighbors, who silently placed food and other offerings in the supply wagon that would follow their covered sleeping wagon. Kadar's oldest cousin, Simon, sat in the driver's seat, his expression serious as Uncle Tarik gave him last-­minute orders.

Ashraf slapped Kadar on the back and clasped his arm. “I wish I could go with you,” he said. “Take care of her, as I will take care of Farrah until your return.”

Kadar nodded solemnly, and then Farrah was in his arms, kissing him. He held her close to him until Uncle Aaron called for them to move out.

“I love you,” he whispered in her ear.

“Come back to me,” she said. A tear trickled out of the corner of her eye. She pushed herself out of his arms and walked to the door of the kitchen without looking back.

Kadar swung up to sit beside Sulis, gripping her hand in his own as he sat beside her bunk. Uncle Aaron clucked to the mules, and the team swung out, Simon following behind with his wagon.

They stopped only for a moment at Nala's, where they received a large pouch of herbs, a satchel of food, and another passenger.

“Aneka is my apprentice,” Nala said, as the girl disappeared into the back of the caravan. “I've been wanting to send her to your grandmother for finishing, and this seems the perfect time. She's as stubborn as your sister, so the two will be a match. Will you have enough food, or do I need to gather more?”

Uncle Aaron shook his head. “I think they put in supplies to feed an army for a month,” he said. “It's a relief to have a healer with us.”

The two wagons rolled past the gates of Illian and were into the grassy hills as the sun broke over the grassy plains. Uncle Aaron was pushing the mule team hard on the first leg of the journey. Kadar looked back to see the white city receding behind them. Once again, they were moving—­always moving. His heart was split in two, but still, he was traveling home, to the desert where he had been born.