Part 18 (2/2)

”That . . . that's horrible,” she uttered.

For a time she contemplated the ordeal he must have endured, but soon another question forced the thoughts aside.

”Lain. Desmeres . . . He told you about the book,” Myranda a.s.sumed.

”The one you stole from me. He did,” came the reply.

”I found the page . . . the entry with Sam Rinthorne. The one from the day of the ma.s.sacre. There was one beneath it. I couldn't read it . . . but it was in Kenvard,” she said.

Lain was silent.

”Lain . . . after the ma.s.sacre, Kenvard was gone. How could . . . ” she began.

Her voice was being choked off by a knot forming in her throat. Her vision was blurred by tears.

”It happened during the ma.s.sacre,” he said.

”What . . . who?” Myranda managed to ask.

”Rinthorne had hired me to find and seal the leak. Shortly after I recovered the intelligence, I was found. One of the Elites. They had been searching for me for years by that time. The man who found me. He was your father,” Lain said.

The words shot like a bolt of lightning through Myranda's mind.

”He captured me. Before bringing me in, he found the intelligence. He read it. He seemed to think that something was wrong with it. A bargain was made. I was to be released, and he would destroy any information they had acc.u.mulated about me. In exchange, I was to go to Kenvard and save his family from the coming siege. When I reached the city walls, the gates had already been breached. The building he had told me to search was empty. In the chaos I managed to locate two blood relatives by scent. You and your uncle. I cleared an exit, your uncle found it. Despite the fact I could not save the others, your father kept his word. Overnight the hunt for me came to a halt, the trail rendered cold. I learned shortly after that his treachery was discovered. He was put in the dungeon in Northern Capital,” Lain said.

Myranda was silent. She felt numb, and not because of the cold. The cold, the night, the world, they were all a thousand miles away. Her mind was burning his words. Lain, all those years ago, had spoken to her father. It was his doing that she had survived that horrible day, and if only her mother had stayed in her home, she too would be alive. And her father . . . the dungeon. She had heard tales of it. Everyone had. It was legendary. Buried beneath the capital, it extended downward and outward like a system of mines. The worst of criminals were kept there. A man inside was as good as in his grave. He would never see the sun again. Prisoners there were forgotten, erased from the world. All of these years Myranda had feared that her father had been killed in battle. Now she wished he had. He couldn't have survived this long in such a place. Starvation, disease, torture . . . . He had come to a terrible end there. It was foolishness to think otherwise. He was dead now, perhaps after years alone in that wretched hole in the ground.

The girl's tortured mind was still struggling with this terrible revelation when Lain stopped and set down his load. There was no shelter to speak of, and the winds at the foot of the mountainside were constant. The icy fingers of night were the first things to break through the veil of agony her mind had erected. Surely he didn't mean to rest now. They would be in plain sight of anyone who might pa.s.s by.

”You don't intend for us to spend the night here, do you?” Myranda asked.

”I felt her stir. Ivy is waking,” he said.

It was true. The creature was moving her head and groaning. She tried to sit up, and succeeded with the help of Lain. Her eyes slowly opened. She sniffed and threw her mouth wide in a long, deep yawn. She saw Myranda before her and smiled sleepily. Then she turned to see Lain. His hand was on her shoulder. She pulled back slightly, the hint of fear in her eyes. She sniffed and seemed to calm slightly, the fear turning to confusion or even recognition.

”Myranda . . . w-who is this?” Ivy asked.

”This is Lain. He is a friend,” She said.

”Lain . . . I know that name too,” she said, looking nervously at Lain. ”They said it a lot. He is a friend?”

She mustered a meek smile again. Suddenly it dropped away.

”A friend like Ether?” she asked suspiciously.

”No, better than Ether,” Myranda said with a smile.

Lain cast a questioning look at Myranda.

”Ether is the name I've given to the shape s.h.i.+fter,” Myranda explained.

”Then the shape s.h.i.+fter managed to find you,” Lain said.

”I'm hungry,” Ivy interrupted.

Lain looked to Myn. She was still holding a now partially frozen prize from her earlier hunt. She proudly presented it to him. It was a rather meager offering, hardly enough for one. The two creatures exchanged glances and, without a word, rushed off into the night.

”Where are they going?” she asked.

”I imagine they are going to hunt down a fresher meal,” Myranda said.

”You aren't going to go with them, are you?” Ivy asked, looking nervously into the blackness that surrounded them.

”I don't think I would be of much help. Ivy, tell me. What do you remember about our encounter outside the fort,” Myranda asked.

Ivy shuddered.

”I remember I was scared. Myn was scared too. Then I heard you scream. I couldn't hold onto her, she ran out after you. I didn't want to, but, I knew he would kill you. I tried to help, but he got me and . . . then light . . . then dark,” she said.

She shut her eyes tight. It was as though it hurt her to remember.

”You were hurt then. I saw the blood . . . why aren't you hurt now?” she asked.

”I am something of a healer,” Myranda said.

”Healer . . . but . . . how long have I been asleep?” she asked, looking up to Myranda.

”A bit under two days,” Myranda said.

”How could you heal so quickly?” she asked.

”A spell,” she said.

”You mean . . . magic. I thought magic only made things worse. All they ever tried to teach me was how to hurt things,” she said.

”They tried to teach you magic?” Myranda asked.

”A little. Near the beginning. I was no good at it. I'm no good at anything, but I was so bad they stopped trying to teach me. They started using it on me,” she said.

Her eyes shut tight again and the pained look returned.

”What other things did they try to teach you?” Myranda asked.

”Everything. Too much. I don't want to think about it,” she said.

She tried to stand, but even with Myranda's hand to steady her, she dropped dizzily to the ground again.

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