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Chapter 44. The Ultimatum |
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nce Zhou arrived on the island, he lost his struggle with exhaustion and staggered to his knees. Through some miracle, Ebony kept him upright, but his eyes were heavy and uncooperative. He heard Ebony speaking to someone and the sounds of feet scuffing over the worn stones of the sigil pad. Only the lanterns of the watch pierced the veil of night and drew a warm golden circle around them. The last thing he remembered was Xiang Yi’s voice calling his name through the fog of his weariness. His mind filled with the warmth of his friends’ delight and concern and he fell back into it as if it were the softest bed. Vaguely he remembered his dust caked clothes being removed and the grime and sweat of travel washed away. He awakened again to bird song as the first soft light of dawn poured through the window of a strange bedroom. Shikai stirred beside him, the warmth of her body pressed against his side and her cheek resting on his shoulder. She clutched his hand tightly as he turned to kiss her brow. A soft chuckle of joy emerged from his throat as she sat up beside him and stroked his face. Tears gleamed upon her cheeks as he smiled up at her. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I never meant for this to happen.” “I know,” she whispered, “I thought I would never see you again. I wanted to find you but there was nothing I could do.” He tried to roll onto his side but she hushed him and lay back down beside him. Her warm breath curled against his jaw and he could not suppress the smile of delight or his own tears of sorrow and gratitude. Shikai had once told him that the worst thing one could do to a dragon was render it powerless. Better to be dead, she had told him, for the knowledge of what it was and what it had lost would destroy it from the inside out. “Would you have allowed yourself to go free if I had not returned?” “So long as I knew you were alive, I would endure.” “Even when Pendaran could not find me? Even when I turned him away?” “Even then.” He opened his mouth to speak but she hushed him, kissing him tenderly upon the lips when he at last lay back and closed his eyes. Sleep claimed him quickly and it was late afternoon when he opened his eyes again and gazed around his new home. The babble of servants drew his eyes to a steaming tray of rice porridge and a pot of jasmine tea. Shikai smiled at him and urged the servants to help her prop him up against a mound of pillows. After devouring everything he was offered, he waited until the servants had departed before speaking. “Where is Peng Ren?” If there was one thing he knew about Pendaran it was that he would have been at Zhou’s bedside the moment he learned he was home. He wanted to see his treasured adept for there was an emptiness now where their connection had once dwelt. Shikai rose from the chair she had pulled up at his bedside and went to stand at the window. In the warm sunlight she was the most beautiful woman he could imagine. Her delicate features were framed with a curtain of silky black hair that cascaded unbound over her back and shoulders. He longed to lose himself in that river of midnight, to know once more the sweetness of her lips. Then he felt her sadness and he realized before she said it what her answer would be. “Peng Ren is lost to us,” Shikai said. “How?” he demanded, horror knifing through his chest at her words. Shikai believed him dead and she was seldom wrong in such matters. She cleared her throat and looked away, her shoulders sloping with despair. He sensed her shame, that she had failed him somehow. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse with emotion but it did not waver. Shikai spoke of Pendaran’s madness and the loss of Uriel. And how her death had lead to Morisedd’s inconsolable rage and grief, leading him to betray Pendaran. Anger and bitterness laced her voice as she described Belenus preying upon Pendaran’s sense of duty and guilt to lead him to his doom. She spoke of the search, of Morisedd returning home to report the loss of Mog, Lemony and Keisha. Then she was silent, but he sensed she was not done. There was something else, something terrible that she could not speak of for fear of losing her composure. Zhou waited, her grief overflowing at last. “Belenus returned and attempted to break into Pendaran’s apartment. Mabane struck him down, but he did so at great cost to himself. He lies at Grenth’s feet.” Zhou said nothing for a time. If only he had been home none of this might have happened. “Why?” “We don’t know. Mabane had Pendaran’s rapier. He burned himself with chaos magic trying to use the illusionary weapon enchantment Pendaran won on the island. We suspect he succumbed to a hex or a spell cast by Belenus.” “Mabane knew there would be an attack.” “It would seem so.” “And no one else knew?” “It has been difficult trying to gather information. Teleri is not coping well and Mabane will not awaken. Xiang Yi believes his mind is damaged but we have not had the heart to tell his mother. His spirit is dislocated somehow, but I have not had adequate time alone with him to question the spirits in his presence.” “I wish to see him.” Shikai folded her arms as if fighting off a chill. “Teleri blames you. She grows hysterical if I draw near and I surmise she will react even more strongly to you.” “I failed Pendaran. Of course she is angry at me.” “This was not your fault,” Shikai replied bitterly, “You did not kidnap Pendaran, you did not send an evil man to break into their home and face a frightened boy.” “But I was Pendaran’s Master. I did not know until it was too late that he was suffering possession and it was my business to know that. If I had done right by him he might never have gone mad and none of them might have ended up in Torment.” Shikai glared at him, then turned away. Zhou slowly pushed the blankets aside and wobbled to his feet. She gasped and moved toward him. “My love, I am quite capable of walking short distances. Please take me to Mabane.” Shikai insisted that he don a gray silk robe over his tunic and loose trousers despite the fact that the sultry summer afternoon was making him sweat. He leaned on her, relaxing into her grace and vitality. Shikai’s delicate face was grim as they moved slowly down the dim paneled corridor and came at last to the rooms where Pendaran had once dwelt with his family. He leaned wearily against the wall as Shikai rapped softly on the door. After many long minutes, the door creaked open and an elderly servant poked her head through the narrow gap. “Teleri is sleeping now. She asked to keep everyone away.” Zhou knew the servant was too polite to admit Teleri had specifically told her to keep Shikai and possibly himself away. “I need to see the boy,” he said quietly and the woman lowered her eyes, torn between Teleri’s screaming tearful rages and the master of the house. Without a word the old woman stood aside and gestured toward the bedroom where Mabane now lay. Zhou braced himself for what was to come. The boy was waxen, his chest barely rising and falling to indicate he lived. The room was dim as a crypt with its curtains draped and a pair of candles flickering on a side table beside a little shrine to Dwayna and Grenth. A linen sheet was drawn up over the boy’s chest, his arms exposed and his right hand wrapped in bandages. His black hair clung to his forehead and temples and fell untidily upon the pillow. Zhou closed his eyes, concentrating, extending outward and focusing even though he was physically weak and unable to sustain his mental probing for very long. No doubt someone with mesmeric talents had already been asked to do this, but he had to know for himself. There was nothing, only a void where the child’s once luminous and curious mind had once dwelt. He had to sit down and dropped bitterly onto the chair pulled up at Mabane’s bedside. No doubt his mother had put it there. His poor tormented mother. Shikai stood behind him and folded her arms gently around his shoulders, kissing his crown as he wept. He had awakened to a nightmare, strangely familiar and yet too horrible to be true. “I dreamed this,” he croaked after a time, “When I first went into the cave and the mask was placed upon me. I saw a boy lying asleep on a bed and his mother was sitting here crying. I assumed he was dead and I did not know it was Mabane and Teleri.” “How can that be?” Shikai asked, “This happened two nights ago.” “If there is even a remote chance that I can talk to him and discover what he knew before this happened…” Shikai stiffened and Zhou glanced at the door. Teleri’s voice rose above the submissive apologies of the servant as her feet stormed toward them. “Get away from my son!” Teleri shrieked. Zhou gazed up at Teleri, his eyes locking with hers as she prepared to launch into a tirade. Her rage was palpable, a seething mass of fire that limned her willowy form. Her golden hair was wild and tattered, like a beast that had been harried and tormented by the hunter’s hounds. “I am sorry, Teleri. I never intended for any of this to happen.” For a moment she hesitated, blinking angry tears from her eyes. And then she spat at him. The full pitch and fury of her anger translated into incomprehensible shrieks and curses. Shikai swiftly intervened, thrusting herself between them before Teleri could throttle him. Her desire for his suffering and death beat upon his psyche. Shikai struggled with her, wincing as the woman pounded and clawed, her hatred diverted and renewed. Servants rushed into the room and hauled Teleri back, still kicking and flailing as they attempted to restrain her. It took burly Chen Li, Xiang Yi, Ai Mi, and Jian Xu to finally subdue her, at which point Teleri burst into shuddering sobs and grew limp in their arms. Her despair was far worse than her rage and Zhou had to fight to remain calm and resist its ensnaring darkness. Shikai came back to his side, her golden skin scored with cuts and darkening with bruises. “Please, Mistress Kai, be calm and I will bring your daughter to see you,” Ai Mi said softly, drawing Teleri out of her grief and back into the crowded room. The pain of being parted from her baby was almost too much, but Zhou knew it was ultimately a kindness to both mother and child. She simply was not fit to care for a baby, she could scarcely care for herself now. A hot, desperate madness clung to her spirit like sweat. “Teleri, will you hear me?” Zhou asked after wiping the spittle from his face. The servants were now easing up on her and she turned her back to Zhou and pressed her face into Xiang Yi’s breast. The gentle monk embraced her like a father, stroking her back as she continued to weep. “I hate you,” she coughed, “You betrayed my husband. You destroyed my only hope for happiness.” “I made a terrible mistake. I wish I could go back and undo it.” Shikai held his hand and he could sense she objected to his shame and willingness to accept Teleri’s verdict. For a long time the only sound in the room was Teleri’s muffled sobs and Xiang Yi’s small comforting sounds. “I believe I can save Mabane,” Zhou said at last, “I know it is hard for you to trust me, but I also believe that if I do not, he will die.” Shikai’s grip tightened on him and he felt a flurry of confusion and doubt. Teleri grew quiet. “If he dies, by the Five, I will kill you.” “Then you must give me a chance to redeem myself in some small way. Let me return your son to you. Please. Pendaran may well be lost, but Mabane is not lost yet. We have very little time now.” Teleri struggled with the desire to rebuke him and save her son. She believed Zhou, or at least knew that if it were possible, he was her last hope. “Save him, then,” Teleri said coldly. |
