I looked around and noticed a large outcropping of rock a few feet away. Reaching down, I took hold of Reichis as gently as I could. He groaned from the pain of his broken ribs. At least he’s alive. Now keep him that way. I crawled, slowly, quietly, towards the rocks.
‘I wish my sons were more like you,’ Ra’meth said. ‘For all I’ve given them, they are little more than dull-witted bullies. They giggle and preen like complacent fools, content for others to be weak rather than making the sacrifice to become powerful themselves.’ He turned and fired another spell that struck me in the side. Suddenly I was rolling on the ground, trying to protect Reichis. When the force dissipated, I continued my pathetic, almost instinctive effort to reach the dubious safety of the rocks.
‘I could make something of you, you know,’ he called out as I cowered behind them. ‘You’ve earned that opportunity, with your cleverness and your daring. Besides, our people always love a good story about the brave young orphan boy taken in by the master of a great house. We just need to make you an orphan first.’
How about I make your sons orphans instead? I removed my pack and reached inside for Ferius’s deck of steel cards. Every shield spell has gaps. Maybe if I flung the cards fast enough, at different parts of the shield, one might slip through. The odds weren’t good of course, but I was all out of ideas.
‘I know I should kill you, Kellen. It’s always better to wipe every last trace of your enemy off the face of the earth. We should have done that with the Mahdek centuries ago. Now we jump in our beds at every mention of their name, fearing that somewhere out there lurks one more, waiting for their chance.’
I laid the cards out in front of me. I’d have to time things perfectly, Even then, will it do any good? Ra’meth could just keep his shield spell up until I ran out of cards.
‘But damn it all, boy, I really think you and I could make a go of it. I need an enforcer for my house. Ra’fan hides behind the work of others. Ra’dir has the stomach for violence but not the intellect, and Tennat … well, let’s just say that if you feel you must kill him in order to accept my offer, it wouldn’t be a deal-breaker.’
Who talks about their children this way? I was in serious danger of sympathising with Tennat.
A creeping motion from the shadows caught my eye and I saw a squirrel cat – not Reichis – crawling on its belly towards us. The creature was bleeding from wounds all over its body, and its fur was charred by fire. The poor thing is looking for a place to die, I thought, and picked up one of the cards. Did I have the nerve to give it a quick death? The squirrel cat got close to me and I recognised her as Reichis’s mother.
I reached out a hand to help her reach the protection of the rocks, only to have her sink her teeth into my forearm. ‘Damn it!’ I swore. I was getting tired of being bitten.
‘Forgive me,’ she said in a mix of chitters and desperate gasps for air.
I can understand her, I realised. Maybe it was through breaking the skin, getting their saliva into your bloodstream, that the squirrel cats created whatever bond allowed communication with a human.
‘My name is Chitra,’ she said, and slunk a little closer to Reichis. I understood without her having to tell me that she was using her last moments of life so that she could die next to her son.
‘Well, Kellen?’ Ra’meth called out. ‘What do you think? Let’s do this: you kill your father for me, and I’ll kill Tennat for you. We both win, and the world will be a better place for it.’
Chitra gave a cough that sent blood dripping down her chin. ‘Humans …’ she said as she dragged herself a little closer, ‘… are something of a disappointment, at times.’
I reached out to her. ‘What can I do?’
She nuzzled my hand. ‘Take what I have to give.’
My hand came away bloody. ‘I … I don’t understand.’
‘The red powder,’ she said. ‘Mix my blood in it.’
I pulled the pouches out from my pockets and reached into the one with the red powder. ‘What will this do?’
Chitra ignored the question, instead collapsing next to Reichis. She extended a paw and placed it on his muzzle. ‘He will be so full of anger, this one. You must be his caution, as he will be your courage. You will teach him when to flee and he will teach you when to fight.’
‘I …’ What could I say to her? We were about to die, and Reichis could barely tolerate me. ‘I will,’ I said finally. ‘I promise.’
She gave a strange little cough, and more blood dripped from her mouth. It took me a moment to realise she’d laughed. ‘Perhaps you should have him teach you how to lie too. You don’t seem to be very good at it.’ The sides of her mouth pulled up a little bit, making a weary smile. ‘You must be firm negotiating with him. He will steal the rest from you, anyway.’
Reichis’s eyes blinked open for a moment, the little black orbs finally seeming to understand what he saw. He let out a moan then, so full of pain and sorrow it pulled me into it, drowning me. I had never known love, I realised then, and now could only watch as it slipped away.
‘Keep him from extortion and blackmail, if you can,’ Chitra went on, her chitters almost inaudible over the crackling of the flames around us. ‘He has many bad habits, this one.’ She lay her muzzle down on his. ‘But every once in a while he makes his mother so very proud.’
My hand wouldn’t stop shaking, even as I tried to mix her blood in with the red powder. ‘I don’t understand,’ I said, blinded by the tears filling my eyes as I watched the life fade from her. ‘What am I supposed to do?’
‘The Mahdek believed that magic should be used to give voice to the spirits of the world,’ she said, barely a whisper now. ‘Let yours speak for me.’ Chitra let out one last sigh, in which everything that was left of her settled upon the dying earth. Inside the pouch at my side, the red powder glistened and smouldered with a heat that threatened to set it aflame.
A blast of fire lit the air above my head. ‘I don’t believe you’re taking my offer seriously, Kellen.’
‘No, really, I’m considering it,’ I said. I was lying of course, but so was Ra’meth. This was all a game for him – one last little piece to take from Ke’heops. When he killed my father, he wanted to be able to look down at him and say, ‘See? Your son betrayed you. He was willing to murder you in your own house in exchange for a room in mine.’
I looked down to where Reichis still lay on the ground next to his dead mother. His own breathing was shallow, his eyes flat as they looked up at me.