"I was thinking I would give you another plunge into that tub of water if you weren't going to come around. Lucky for you." The deep voice sounded crisp, every vowel clipped short, every consonant clearly pronounced. His eyes never left hers and she became acutely aware that his hand rested on the back of her neck, neither pulling her towards him nor pushing her away. Just there. In spite of the warmth of his hand she shivered. The rough ridge of calluses on the inside of his palm scratched her skin.
He released her and she stepped away from him only to bump into the water tub behind her.
He stood several inches taller than her, broad-shouldered and dressed in black from head to toe. When he pushed a damp strand of her hair off her face, his hand brushed the top of her shoulder. She stiffened as his touch made something skitter inside her even though his eyes mesmerized her. The rich color of his irises stirred something pleasant in her mind. Just keep looking into his eyes.
There was a fireplace near her, and from the half-light of the fire, she noticed a bed with rumpled sheets at the opposite end of where she stood. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She curled her bare toes into the hard, earthen floor.
"I know you don't remember anything. You've had an accident. Lost your memory. But I'm here to help you. You are Shai Eli from Lael. I've chosen you to be with me. To give me an heir. It's the happiest day of your life."
She blinked back a sudden prickling of tears and took a deep breath to calm the panic that leaped into her throat.
"And I know you?" She didn’t recognize her own voice, but it vibrated in her throat.
His mouth twisted into that smile again, but she stared into his eyes until her racing pulse slowed down.
"Of course, my love. I'm Samael. Just say my name and you will remember me."
Her tongue felt thick in her mouth, foreign. How could she have forgotten what her own tongue felt like?
She tried to speak his name, sliding the first letter across her lips and making a hissing sound. He smiled wider. White teeth, so white the sight of them made her head hurt. He nodded.
She tried again. "Sssss...sss...am...a...el." Each syllable she drew out evoked a look of pleasure from him.
"Again." He whispered and moved closer to her.
"Sam...a...el." His name slid across her tongue like a sharp blade against soft skin. Her heart fluttered inside her chest, and a chill grew in her stomach, filling an ache she was vaguely aware of. She breathed in deeply and watched as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back with a look of ecstasy.
Maybe I do know him. Maybe I do want to be with him. She probed herself for the happiness he spoke of. But the cold, achy feeling stretched into something deeper: a desperate desire to be wanted, to belong. But he must want me or I wouldn't be here. She pushed herself to remember. To make herself believe what he told her.
Then the cloudiness in her mind shifted, a shaft of light broke through. A figure stood behind Samael. Someone tall and lean with shoulder-length hair and a scar across one cheek. He entered the room and the lights came on in her mind. I know who he is. She mouthed his name. Remiel.
Samael's eyes darkened, and the muscles in his jaw twitched. The pulse in his neck jumped as he turned to look at his uninvited guest. One minute Remiel and Samael were across the room from each the other, the next they were grappling on the floor. Their bodies twisted and writhed around each other until Shai couldn’t tell them apart.
A sudden loathing rose up in her stomach and pushed up her throat like acid. Samael. I remember him. She looked around the room for a weapon and spotted a small table littered with an assortment of objects glinting in the light of the fire. A small hammer, a saw the length of her hand, a chisel, a long-handled pair of scissors. Her captor's objects of torture or pleasure? Her eyes fell on a knife with a long curving blade.
The sounds of the fight behind her diminished as she curled the fingers of both hands around the hilt of the weapon. She raised it above her head just as the weight of someone's hand on her shoulder turned her around.
She cried out as she turned, swinging the blade across the face there. Every muscle, every tissue pulsed. Alive with revulsion and hatred for Samael. The blade connected with soft skin, and cut through the cheek, flaying it open like a gutted fish. She watched his mouth fill with blood and he coughed, splattering the front of her dark crimson. The whites of his exposed back teeth turned red. He reached out and grabbed her arm. The sleeve of her once pretty, lemon-yellow shirt tore as he fell.
With slurred words he said, "I will die for you." His blazing blue eyes shone like pools of truth. Proof of his love for her. Remiel!
"Noooo!" She reached for him but missed. He collapsed to the ground at her feet just as a pain exploded in the back of her head, and everything was swallowed up in darkness.
CHAPTER 61
Aliah
The crowd parted to let the wild girl through. Pale-faced and glassy-eyed she streaked towards Aliah. The pendant at her throat caught the overhead electric light, reflecting it back to him in miniature rainbows.
She had Shai's face, Shai's hair and her slender body, but the eyes weren't the familiar pale shade of blue. These eyes looked so dark he thought they might be coal-black. His heart sunk to his knees.
It was Shai. How she came to be here in the Core he didn't know. Why she was covered in blood-splatter was a disturbing thought he'd rather not analyze now. In a moment she'd be on him, and quite possibly, he'd be sliced to pieces, judging from the look in her eyes.
"Shai!" A voice smooth as velvet yet hard as steel made Aliah jump and Shai stopped, her right arm still over her head, the long blade dripping thick crimson drops into her hair.
Aliah couldn't see who spoke. Shai completely filled his line of vision, but the tenor of it reached into the recesses of his mind and pulled on a memory like someone flipped a switch.
The memory was of a man whose face was like chiseled stone: angular, grooved and brown. His hair fell to his shoulders in soft white waves. Eyes as clear and deep a blue as a late summer sky. He was neither tall nor short, fat nor thin. And his age couldn't be told just by looking at him.
It was that same man that walked towards Shai now. He moved with precision, head straight, shoulders back, hands behind his back. He looked like a man who'd led a thousand countries into war and emerged the victor. No one moved and no one spoke. His presence seemed to fill the Core.
Shai's eyes focused on Aliah's and he saw a flash of recognition before she fell at his feet. The light had gone from her wide-open eyes, but the movement of her chest said she was still alive. The blade rolled from her open hand and Aliah kicked it aside, the smell of it so strong he could taste it.
The white-haired man knelt beside Shai and the blood from her hands stained his garments. He took her hand in his and kissed it while he stroked back the dirty matted hair from her face. Her eyes stared upwards, unblinking.
The man stood and looked at Aliah. A bloody smear near his mouth. "She's fighting hard. Her mind has already been wiped and Samael's already started reconditioning her. But she's fighting with everything in her." He turned and motioned to a few men standing around.
"Get her into my chambers. Do it quickly."
"Elchai." The name caught in Aliah's throat. It had been too long since they'd seen each other. The memories too new since the truth had come.
The older man gripped Aliah's shoulder, marking him with blood. "I was with her a moment ago. She seemed fine. Well, not fine, but not like this." He looked at the ground, at the bloody blade a few feet away, at the spot Shai had fallen and the red smear on Elchai's face.
"All this blood..." His stomach heaved.
"Son, go to my chambers and stay with her. She has crossed over. Something has happened on the other side. She needs you to watch her from this side so something like that doesn't happen again. Let Remiel take care of what's happening in Gershom." Elchai's voice softened.
Aliah shook the older man's hand off
his shoulder. "I'm not your son. And what good am I if I stay here while Remiel is off doing whatever's he's doing in Gershom?" He didn't care if his tone was sarcastic. Didn't care that Elchai's mouth dipped down. He had wanted to see Elchai earlier, to talk to him about the Book in order to win back Shai's trust. But with Elchai standing in front of him, Aliah discovered he hated the Book as much as he hated the pendants. The Book had been responsible for the Laws and punishments in Lael, and it was the cause of Sileas's death.
The crowd had dispersed now that Shai had been carried off. Someone came to remove the knife and sweep the dirt, erasing the stain of blood on the ground without complaint or comment. A strange thought flitted through Aliah’s mind. Kentites are warriors. They are used to seeing blood.
Aliah walked back the way he came. His steps surer, his back straighter. He would go to Gershom. If he stayed here he'd want to plunge that curved blade deep into Elchai's neck or cut off each of his fingers that were responsible for writing the Book. In Gershom he could find the Book and put the page back. If Shai had crossed over into Gershom the three of them would be together. The Coalition could happen. He had to make it happen. Couldn't Elchai see that?
Heavy footsteps in the corridor behind him made him turn around. The whites of Elchai's eyes seemed to glow in the dim light, his hair a shimmery halo around his head.
"You can't go to Gershom. The Son of Thunder is the one the Book describes. The one who'll die to save the many."
"It's because of your damn Book that I have to go to Gershom! I have a page of it, Elchai! I can't sit here and let the future die! Why can't you see that!"
"It's you who can't see. Gershom is in another realm. In order to put the page back you'd have to cross over. That means facing Death. You won't come back if you go there.” Elchai touched Aliah's arm. "Shai is dying. And everyone in Lael will too if you don't let Remiel do what he needs to do. Samael only wants revenge against me. To take everything he can from me. Remiel has gone to trade his life for Shai's and all of Lael's. Life for life. Don't go."
Aliah jerked his arm away from Elchai then turned and ran.
Elchai's voice rang out in the corridor. "Only love is stronger than death. If you die for any other reason you'll lose your life as well as Shai's. Don't go!"
The pounding of Aliah's feet thundered in his ears and matched the pounding of his heart against his ribs.
"I'm going Elchai, and you can't stop me. I'm going to talk to my father! Maybe you should've written that in your Book!"
He wasn't certain, but if the echo didn't lie Elchai said, "one son's death is enough."
If Aliah had to die to set things right, it was a price he was willing to pay. He had nothing to lose. And going to Gershom had nothing to do with Remiel. He was still angry with Remiel for leaving. He was going for Shai, and for Lael. To fix what he had done.
CHAPTER 62
Shai
A deep red hue burned through her closed eyelids. Her cheeks warmed from the heat of a lantern, or something, held close to her face. Soft voices, the rustle of garments, and then the gentle pressure of someone touching her, first her face then her hands. Sounds of water dripping and the moist heat of a damp cloth wiping her face and her hands. Single words filtered into her foggy mind, none of them making sense on their own: crossed over, reset, pendant. Then a deeper voice, the same voice that had called to her earlier, whose depth and resonance had stopped her from jabbing the knife between those pretty, green eyes.
She trembled. The voice spoke in soft tones, but her body responded as though he had yelled. Reconditioned. Remiel.
Her legs suddenly jerked, and her arms bumped against her sides in violent pulses. Her head thrashed from side to side. She couldn't control anything. A sharp pain in the side of her tongue and the taste of blood filled her mouth. She bit her tongue and the inside of her lip until the blood flowed and tears ran. A narrow tunnel opened up in front of her. The voices grew quieter, the light dimmer, as the darkness reached for her and pulled her back in.
Remiel. It was her first conscious thought when she opened her eyes.
She turned her head and saw she was back in Samael’s room. Remiel was strapped to a chair across the room near the fire with his arms behind his back. The dirty rag tied across his mouth had turned bright red from his bloody wound.
She exhaled as relief washed over her. He didn't die. I didn't kill him. She hadn't meant to hurt him. The knife was meant for Samael.
She was laying on the big bed she had seen earlier. The back of her head hurt. She tried to touch it, but couldn’t move. Her wrists had been bound together and tied to the bed frame above her head. The knots in the rope burned her wrists. She jerked her arms back and forth, back and forth until her shoulders ached and her flesh chafed.
Exhausted, she leaned back against the bed. She glimpsed movement near Remiel and angled her body to look. Remiel’s eyes were fixed on something near her, just out of her line of sight.
A shadow fell across the bed at the same moment she felt the heat of a whisper in her ear, "Are you ready?"
Ready for what? Her heart raced and her palms grew clammy. Her vision swirled as adrenaline pumped into her bloodstream.
"Tonight's the night. While lover-boy watches, you will give me an heir."
Samael.
She shivered when his feverishly hot skin touched hers as he climbed onto the bed to lie beside her. He stroked her face. Bitter bile mixed with the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. She swallowed and turned her face away from him.
"I always thought revenge was my energy, my very life.” His rancid breath made her cheek moist. “I can take you away from Aliah, or Elchai’s sons away from him, but in the end revenge won’t satisfy me. I need power. Tell me where the Book is!”
She shook her head. "I don't know!"
He caressed her cheek again then suddenly squeezed her face between his fingers and thumb, until the insides of her cheeks pressed against each other. His nails pierced her flesh, and drew blood that ran down her chin.
"Then we'll do this the hard way. Maybe Remiel over there can help you by telling me where the Book is. Oh, wait. He can’t. You messed up his face." Samael’s lips twisted into a fleeting grin before he released her face. He slid off the bed, then removed his trousers. Hot tears ran down her face making her cheeks sting. Her throat tightened. She thrashed against the restraints, twisting her body while ignoring the searing pain in her hands. A guttural groaning came from Remiel and cut into Shai’s heart.
Samael slid closer to her and she squeezed her eyes shut, still thrashing. He gripped her inner thigh and twisted the sensitive skin there. Screams tore her throat, but the excruciating pain in her leg forced her to be still. She pressed her lips together and tensed as he breathed against her neck and into her hair. Then suddenly his weight was on top of her. The pressure of his mouth against hers added more pain. He kissed her, brutally crushing her lips between his teeth. She arched her back in a violent twisting motion as his fingers groped along the edge of her tunic while his other hand twisted into her hair and yanked her head back. He wound his leg under her and pulled her rigid body tight against his.
She gagged, coughed, then vomited against his mouth. Blood and bile dribbled down her chin and neck.
He jerked away then laughed. "That won’t stop me." He slapped her face and when she refused to cry he slapped her again, harder. Her eyes stung and her nose felt detached from her face like there was nothing left but a gaping hole.
A crash across the room made Samael turn and Shai pulled both her legs to her chest, then kicked him in the side. He teetered then began to fall, but caught himself. He turned towards her, his face purple and shaking with rage.
"Enough!" Spit flew from his mouth. He straddled her, then yanked the neck of her shirt. The buttons popped and the fabric ripped across her left shoulder. Samael grinned and grabbed the remainder of the fabric in both hands.
But then his eyes narrowed. A strange
look was frozen on his face as he leaned in to stare at the exposed skin of her shoulder and the top of her breast. He trembled as he traced the birthmark on her chest with one skinny finger.
"I’ve seen this mark before. On your friend."
Aliah?
Another crash and Remiel suddenly stood behind Samael with his arms lifted high over his head. Shai gasped as she saw in Remiel’s hands the jagged remains of the chair he had been tied to. A splintering sound of breaking wood filled the room as the chair connected with Samael's skull, followed by a dull thud as he hit the ground.
CHAPTER 63
Aliah
His lungs screamed for oxygen in the dense air of the corridor, but he forced himself on. He focused on the smooth control of his body. His muscles tightened and relaxed rhythmically as he ran. The empty corridors echoed back the sound of his pounding feet.
The same guard stood watch, a silent sentinel at the bottom of the stairs. He didn't react when Aliah snatched a short-bladed knife from the weapons table.
He took the stairs two at a time, running blindly up the dark stairwell, his feet finding each step from memory.
The blazing sun had finally set outside, cooling the air. The moonlight sharpened the angles of the towering factories and stretched their eerie shadows along the ground.
He ran with nothing but the knife in his hand and the page from the Book. He'd looked enough times at the page to know the map by heart. After the jagged Sector Seven terrain, the land became smooth and flat further west. On the map its label was simply the Outerlands. Gershom wasn't on the map. If the entrance to Gershom was through Death then he would face it. Even if he had to run forever. He would run until he stumbled into Gershom.
Memory after memory slammed into his consciousness. The next thought climbed on top of the previous thought, each one vying for attention. He shoved them all down and kept running.