The Labyrinth of Destiny (27 page)

L’iam looked at the circlet in his
hand and frowned. When he had pulled it from the Shimat’s head, the assassin
had become visible. Was it also the reason his
vyala
had not been able
to touch him?

L’iam tried one more time to drain
the energy of the Shimat attacker. This time it did not bend around him, but it
did not render him unconscious either. L’iam could tell that his attack was
only a shadow of what it should have been, and he could not understand why.

The Shimat dropped to one knee
unexpectedly. His widened eyes seemed to say that he had not planned on L’avan
magic being a problem for him. Savir’s blade sped toward the Shimat’s heart, and
the assassin was only just able to deflect it. The cold metal still pierced the
Shimat’s chest, but the blow was not immediately fatal.

Savir was about to attack again,
but he did not get the chance.

The Shimat drove his knife into
Savir’s lunging leg and then turned and fled from the tent. L’iam was about to
run after him, but the sound of a quiet moan brought him up short.

Me’shan lay on the ground in a pool
of blood.

L’iam clutched his own wounded side
as he hurried to kneel beside his father-in-law. Me’shan had not escaped that
first, deadly blow of the Shimat’s blade. Blood flowed from between Me’shan’s
fingers, which were pressed against his throat.

“Guards,” shouted L’iam in panic
and desperation. “Healers! Anybody!”

Savir dragged himself over to try
and help stop the flow of blood from Me’shan’s neck. The Henka’s face was grave
as he pressed his hands over Me’shan’s.

Me’shan’s lips began to move, but
no sound came out. L’iam leaned forward, his eyes filling with tears.

The man’s words were barely a whisper.

“E’rian…has…come…for…me…”

With a smile on his pale lips,
Me’shan closed his eyes and let out his last breath with a sigh.

***

The Shimat ran through the camp,
keeping to the perimeter and avoiding any source of light.

He could feel his life ebbing from
him, no matter how hard he tried to staunch the flow of blood from his chest
wound.

There was just one last thing that
he had to do before he died.

He could have escaped the L’avan
camp and gotten back to his fellow Shimat in time to receive healing. He might
have even survived. Maybe. However, the Shimat knew that there would be no
point in returning to Cha-sak without doing everything in his power to
accomplish his mission.

The demon did not look kindly on
failure.

So, the Shimat ran on. Based on the
information he had gathered, he could assume that the L’avan queen was in one
of the Healers’ tents. It did not take him long to reach that part of the camp,
and it was not difficult to identify which tent belonged to the queen. L’avan
guards had been posted at the entrance.

The Shimat’s heart took on a
sputtering rhythm, and he slowed to a stop. His body was betraying him. He
still had one thing to do before he could allow it to give up.

The Shimat approached the tent
silently, watching the L’avan guards with a sense of disgust.

The fools.

In a tent, every wall was a
potential entrance. They could not protect their queen by simply standing by
the opening.

He was breathing heavier now. He
struggled to keep all sound to a minimum, but it was difficult when the air
seemed to be escaping his lungs.

The Shimat used his remaining knife
to quietly slice through the fabric at the back of the tent. He gently parted
the wall and looked carefully for any sign of a guard or Healer within the
interior.

A dimmed lamp sat on a stool near
the entrance, but the tent was empty save the form of the queen on a padded
cot.

The Shimat slipped into the tent
and raised his knife. He silently approached the sleeping figure and stood over
her with a sense of satisfaction.

He had been sent to kidnap the
L’avan queen and to return her to Cha-sak, but the demon lord had said that
killing her would be the next best thing. Perhaps the Shimat would have been
more successful in kidnapping her if he had decided to ignore the second part
of his orders—to kill her family.

The Shimat had thought that killing
the husband and the father would be easy, and then in the chaos that followed
he could have carried off the queen with no interruptions.

Well, even the best of plans meant
nothing once they were put into action.

The Shimat paused and frowned.

Something was wrong.

He flipped back the blanket that
covered the cot, and bit back a curse.

The cot held nothing more than a
rolled up pad.

Some unseen force knocked him to
the ground, causing the pain in his chest to soar to unbearable levels. The
Shimat could feel himself starting to black out, and he desperately hoped that
he died from blood loss before they could take him prisoner.

“You were right,” said a deep voice
standing over him.

“Of course I was right,” hissed
another voice that was strangely sibilant. “I am never wrong, Rashad.”

“As soon as we dispatch of the
assassin, we can return Adesina to the care of the Healers.”

“Yes,” said the second voice, “she
will be safe now.”

The Shimat didn’t know how they
could have possibly known that he would be there, but he supposed it did not
matter. He had failed Lord Cha-sak, and his life was forfeit.

The demon would just have to find
another way to get what he wanted.

Adesina slowly opened her eyes.

At first she wasn’t certain where
she was, and she half-sat up in alarm. Then she spotted Ruon sitting next to
her and her heart stopped racing.

“Do not be afraid,” the Laithur
said softly. “You are safe.”

Adesina relaxed back against the
cot. “What happened?”

Ruon’s eyes were filled with
meaning, but he said very little. “You were injured.”

Memories flooded into Adesina mind.
“I was shot with an arrow.”

The Laithur nodded his oval head.

She reached up and felt her neck.
There was no bandage and no sign of any sort of wound. “Was I healed?”

Ruon nodded again.

Adesina looked at him intently.
“You were there to save me.”

His glittering eyes turned downward
at his clasped hands. “I merely arranged for you to be brought back to camp.”

She shook her head stubbornly. “I
saw you before I was wounded. Why were you on the battlefield?”

“I Saw you being injured,” he
stated calmly. “I had to protect you.”

A wry smile crossed her face. “It
would seem that you arrived too late.”

“No,” Ruon disagreed, “I arrived in
plenty of time.”

Adesina frowned in confusion. “What
do you mean?”

The Laithur sighed in irritation.
“I dislike repeating myself, and I already explained this once. You are
Immortal. A simple thing such as an arrow would not have any real effect on
you. I was there to protect you from being taken by Cha-sak’s followers.”

Adesina felt a chill run through
her. “The Shimat were going to capture me?”

“They would be fools if they did
not try,” responded Ruon. “You are the single most important person in the
world right now. If Cha-sak were to get his hands on the Threshold Child…”

He trailed off, leaving the rest to
her imagination.

Adesina understood completely. It
would be beyond a disaster if she were to be captured by the demon and his
followers.

“Thank you,” she said softly and
sincerely.

Ruon shrugged his slender
shoulders. “I do it out of self-interest. You are needed to restore balance to
the world.”

“You did not do it to save
humankind?” she asked teasingly.

Ruon did not smile. Instead, his
expression darkened.

“No.”

Adesina grew more serious. “Why do
you hate them so?”

A slow hiss escaped the Laithur,
and for several moments it seemed that he would not answer her question.
Finally, he lifted one of his lithe hands and pointed to the slight bulge in
the middle of his forehead.

“Do you see this?”

Adesina nodded.

“The Laithur were not born with
this,” Ruon explained. “It was a gift given to us by the Seer.”

The young queen’s brow furrowed.
“What is it?”

“It is sometimes called the Third
Eye or the Seer Stone. It is a special talisman that was planted directly into
our heads by the Seer. It is what allows us to connect to Him and See the
future.”

Adesina found herself staring at
the Laithur in fascination. “How does that work?”

Ruon gave a small smile at her
obvious interest. “It simply does, and that is all you need to know.”

“Why are you telling me this?” she
inquired.

Ruon continued his narrative,
ignoring her question. “Several centuries ago, it was discovered that the Seer
Stone could be used by others to see into the future as well. I do not know how
this was learned or who was the first to learn it, but the nature of the Seer
Stone became widely known.”

“How would that be possible?” asked
Adesina in confusion.

“It is only possible,” replied Ruon
with a voice that was heavy with bitterness, “if the Seer Stone is removed from
the head of a Laithur. Mortals could then gaze into the Stone themselves and
seek to understand.”

A sickening sensation spread
through Adesina’s chest. “Do the Laithur…survive…the process?”

“No.”

The word was laden with pain and
grief that had hardened into hatred.

Ruon cleared his throat and went
on. “Humans began hunting the Laithur in order to obtain Seer Stones. They
practically sold their souls so they could gain the power necessary to capture
my brothers and sisters and slaughter them.”

Adesina was completely speechless.
She stared at Ruon with sorrow in her eyes, wishing she could say something to
comfort him.

His small black eyes were fixed on
some point at the other side of the tent. It was almost as if he had forgotten
that she was there. “That was when the Laithur turned from the Light. If the
Light could be so concerned with protecting and prospering such selfish and
violent creatures as humans, then it is better to be an ally of the Dark.”

Adesina reached over and placed her
hand on his. “Ruon, you cannot blame all of humankind for the choices of that
one group. Yes, humans are flawed and some of them choose to embrace evil, but
there are also those who devote their lives to doing good.”

Ruon snorted softly. “You sound
like Sitara.”

The young queen sat up on her cot,
bringing her face level with the Laithur’s. “The difference is that I know what
it is like to be a human,” she said deliberately.

This statement finally brought
Ruon’s eyes to her face, and she could see that she had his attention.

“The L’avan are a uniquely
fortunate people. They have historical accounts and their faith to guide them
and give them a sense of purpose. They know who they are, and that is a great
gift.”

Adesina could see that Ruon was
about to interrupt, and she spoke over him.

“But I was not raised by the
L’avan.”

The Laithur quieted his objection
and waited for her to go on.

“I was raised by the Shimat
organization, which is run by means of lies and murder and corruption. I did
not always know the true purpose of the Shimat, but that amount of darkness
cannot leave any participant untouched. Ravi or L’iam or E’nes can tell you how
difficult it was for me to face the truth, but they helped me to understand
that although I had been raised and taught by those who embraced evil, that did
not mean that
I
was evil. I still had a choice, and I chose the Light.”

Ruon gave a small, stubborn smile.
“You are the Threshold Child. I daresay that your experiences are different
than the average human’s.”

Adesina shook her head. “I honestly
do not think that they are. Every person—human or not—will find themselves
faced with the choices that will either lead them to do good or evil. The form
those choices take will vary from person to person, but the choices are always
there.”

There was a brief pause before she
went on.

“I chose to find my way to the
Light, and it was not an easy journey. I often feel that I am
still
struggling to break free from my Shimat teachings.” Adesina looked at Ruon
intently. “I believe that I am exactly like the average human. More
importantly, I believe that the large majority of humans choose to seek after
good rather than evil.”

Ruon was silent for several moments
as he considered her words.

“You have given me much to think
about,” he said as he got to his feet. “Perhaps we can continue this discussion
after I come to some conclusions.”

Without another word, he walked out
of the tent, leaving Adesina with a mixture of emotions. She finally understood
Ruon’s bitterness toward the human race, and her heart ached when she thought
of the events that had caused him to turn from the Light. Even so, she felt a
ray of hope that the Laithur would not always be lost in the Darkness.

Adesina was not alone with her
thoughts for long. Ravi and L’iam ducked through the opening of the tent less
than a minute after Ruon left. Adesina gave them a wide smile, happy to see
them. They tried to smile in return, but tears filled both sets of eyes.

Adesina’s smile faded as a chill
passed over her heart. Something terrible had happened while she slept.

***

There was no funeral for Me’shan.

Not yet, at least. There would be a
memorial service for all the soldiers who had fallen, but they had to win the
war first.

His body was cremated, along with
the others who had been killed that day. There were just too many of them to be
buried, and there was nowhere to store the bodies until they could be taken
back home.

Adesina watched the flames of the
pyres climb higher and higher into the sky. It was as if they were reaching for
heaven.

L’iam had spoken a few words, as he
always did before the fires were lit each night, and those who had attended had
said their farewells and left. Ri’sel had lingered a bit longer, looking lost
without his older brother. Eventually, he also turned and walked away.

Now Adesina stood alone, save for
Ravi and L’iam. Even they gave her some distance, respecting her need to mourn.

She knew that death wasn’t the end.
After all, she had had countless conversations with her mother, who had died on
the day Adesina was born. Even so, Adesina’s heart was heavy with sorrow that
she would not see her father every day as she used to.

With her Dreams barred from
invasion from Cha-sak, Adesina would not have a chance to talk to her father
until after the demon had been defeated.

She would not have the chance to
say goodbye.

Tears streamed down her cheeks, and
her shoulders began to shake. Me’shan had been a source of guidance and love
from the moment she had met him. He had never acted like they were strangers,
and so she had never felt that way. It had been as if they were simply picking
up from where they left off, rather than starting from the beginning.

Other thoughts began to creep into
her mind, and she resented their presence.

Adesina was not only a daughter.
She was also a queen. Me’shan had been an important military leader, and now he
was gone. It would be difficult to find someone to take his place.

She hated herself for thinking of
such things, but she knew that it had to be done. She could take more time to
mourn when the war with Cha-sak was over. For now, there was work to do.

“L’iam?”

Her husband closed the few steps
between them so he could stand by her side. “Yes, my love?”

“We can go now. I am ready to
return to my duties.”

L’iam took her hand gently. “There
is no rush. You can take an evening for yourself.”

She smiled up at him, her heart
swelling with love for his patience and understanding. “Thank you, but I cannot.
Cha-sak is certainly not resting, and we have much to do before morning.”

Ravi joined them. “The others are
waiting in the command tent.”

Adesina nodded and turned away from
the flames of the pyre.