Why can’t we just make them stay with us. We need their numbers. This is so stupid. Why do I even have to guard her? No one is going to do anything. And she’s not one of us yet. I haven’t even slept. Being in bed with Lax would be way better than this.
Who’s that? Has someone woken up? Has my shift ended? No, it’s too early for that.
“Kredon, it’s time for her to awake.”
Oh, it’s Umara. “Of course.” Come on key. Go in! “There you go. Shall I stay out here?”
“Yes.”
Man, that was embarrassing.
“Hello, Umara. I didn’t think it was time for me to leave yet.”
“What are you doing up there!” Umara stumbled back when she noticed me. If she knew about me she shouldn’t be surprised. I guess she lied about how much she knows.
“I knew someone was coming and I didn’t want to be caught off guard. So I went up here just before you came in.” Not the whole truth but I can’t have the all knowing seer actually know everything. Especially since no one is supposed to know I can read minds. Or that I can change little bits of myself rather than only everything.
“You knew I was coming? How would you have managed that when there’s a barrier currently around the building?” Oh. Maybe I should have pretended to be asleep.
“I know there’s more to you,” she continued smugly. “For starters, no one just appears in an alleyway, watching an execution. You were wearing strange clothes and had to look around and check lots of things that you should have already known. There were many occasions in my first few looks of you where you were completely still and blank.
“Eventually, I stopped seeing those but every time it happened nothing important seemed to happen. But things could have happened. You managed to avoid all questions about your past before that first day and always avoided the officials. And when we caught you and I opened the bag, you knew exactly where to go and weren’t surprised. You knew way more than you should have. The bag had been warded too.
“So, who are you really and what have you been doing?”
Well crap. I have no idea how to get out of this one. I can’t even look into her head because she’ll know I’m up to something. I'll have to tell the truth. Well, some of it.
“I can’t tell you. No one knows and no one can know. Every time I do this I have to fit in and pretend I was never there when I return. I face death if someone learns of what I do, of who I am. I have done this many times. I have lived many lives and every time I always wish I could tell at least one person.” Subtly changing my legs, I dropped down to the floor, almost exactly the same as yesterday.
“Someone would kill a child for letting a secret slip? I don’t believe that. You will tell me what you are hiding. Whether it’s now or in a few years, I will know everything.”
She sneered, pushing me to the floor with a shove to my chest and stomped the floor. Before I could react, five men rushed through the door and tied me up. I started struggling, trying all I could to stop them and to get out but I was no match.
“Now I know you could easily get out of these but I’m hoping you would be nice and have honour by being a good girl and staying in there.” She grinned down at me as I was gagged. “Plus these should stop you from shifting anyway because of a nice little ward woven into them. Let’s go.”
The men picked me up with one at my feet, one at my hips and one at my shoulders. The final two trailed behind as Umara led us out of the building and into the night. A night that was slowly melting away as the sky purpled. Great. My team would be making a move soon.
They marched me along to the docks and onto a small boat. After dumping me on the floor, they climbed aboard. Umara and one of the guards sat at the bow while we were in the middle and the final guard stood at the stern. As soon as everyone was seated and in position, the boat started gliding forward, if I were to guess the guy at the back had some sort of wind or water element Folixpa.
As the sky lightened further I wondered what my friends were up to and hoped they wouldn’t go looking for me and stumble across these people. I had told Charlotte that we went east but after arriving at the village I noticed that we were south-east of our camp.
Before I could dwell on it any further I decided that it would probably be better if I focused on my own situation. I needed to find a way to escape these people. I hadn’t been lying when I’d said I would be killed for telling my secret. Though it wouldn’t matter if they killed me now. I would just come back. What mattered was if they learnt and kept the information, protecting it until I was born and they found me. If I died as me, it would be final.
My Folixpa was amazing. I could go to other worlds and other times. I could become one of the inhabitants of it and make a living however I wanted. It had a whole identity prepared and my Tragmilshif allowed me to look however I wanted.
While I was using the main part of the Folixpa I became essentially immortal. If I died I just returned as someone else and my body would only receive a scar from the fatal blows.
That was the first limitation. If someone looked into it they could always figure it all out. I wasn’t the greatest actress so it would be easy.
That’s why I had to be careful. And since this was my first go in my own world I had to be even more careful. Anyone could write down my true name or what my Folixpa does and everything would be ruined. I could go back and end up being made to go to certain times or my power blocked. They could investigate it and learn everything. But if that happened and the knowledge became widely known, our jobs will become even harder to do. People will be suspicious of anyone new or ask to know all about certain events. Sometimes that would be good because the history books can tend to be incorrect but some things need to stay hidden.
That’s why I can’t let anyone know. I will be killing everyone who comes after me. Including my future identities.
I must have ended up falling asleep at one point as soon enough I woke to the guards getting out of the boat to beach it. Once it was on stage ground they lifted me out and covered it up with some branches. When they finished it looked like it had been abandoned there for years.
We left the boat and river behind, heading towards one of the mountains on the edge of the Daeterkia Range. I tried reaching out to my friends, wondering if we might have somehow ended up near them, but I didn’t get anything. Looking around me, I discovered that we were now even further south.
By the end of the day, we had reached the base of a mountain and the guards set up camp. At some point, they dug a hole and placed wood along the floor and edges before shoving me in and placing more wood above. I heard them hammering it into the ground while finally becoming talkative.
I attempted to change my ears so I could listen and was surprised when it actually worked. Testing my limits I used it on all parts of my body but discovered that it didn’t work where the rope bound me. I racked my brain for any species that could help me cut the ropes and came across the Verpitav. Their fingers were crazy sharp and should be able to bend far enough to cut.
Quickly shifting everything to my Verpitav form I adjusted to the new strength I had and flicked my fingers up. The claws scraped against the rope but didn’t make a single mark.
I searched for something that had stronger claws. I couldn’t think of anything so gritting my teeth I tried again. The move I did should have cut into my wrists but my fingers bounced back as soon as they hit the rope. This wasn’t going to work. But I have to try. There’s nothing else I can do anyway.
I spent an hour trying to figure out how to break or even just make a mark on the bindings. But each attempt failed. During that time I continued listening to the chatter above. They mostly talked about normal things, barely mentioning anything worthwhile. But at one point the conversation moved to a topic I was interested in. They talked about me. What they thought of me. What they thought I could be. Who I might be. And what I may be able to do. Some of their ideas were far fetched and completely off. But some came pretty close. Unfortunately, they didn’t give any indications as to what was going to happen or where we were going.
Eventually, I grew bored and decided to get some sleep. I’ll need to be rested so I’m ready for anything that might happen. Before I settled down I adjusted my ears and brain to listen to their conversations and process them while I slept. It was a useful but hard trick I’d picked up and involved different sections of a few different animals. I’d used it most nights so I was always aware. Barely anyone ever managed to sneak on me when I did it.
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