Forgotten (32 page)

The rest of their tired march was remarkable only because it wasn’t. Mola was clearly disappointed, but the rest of them were grateful for the small miracle. They found both Tania and Hail’s squads with little difficulty. Neither was at the place selected for the meeting. But despite Judah’s faith in them, the two squads were gathered within two miles of the place. They seemed to be in the middle of a heated debate.

There was no question what the soldiers were discussing. The looks they got when they stumbled into what used to be a jeweler’s shop said it all. Guilt and fear was written plainly on almost all of the eleven faces.

Not Alex’s, though.

The doctor flashed a smile that seemed genuine at their arrival,
then
scrambled to her feet. She eyed each one of them, giving Mola a great deal of scrutiny. “How much of that is your blood?”

The brown-eyed girl glanced down at her once-white dress and shrugged. “Not much.”

Alex nodded, as if she were expecting that answer, and turned to Henry. The stream running down his right side most certainly belonged to the soldier, and he said so. With another nod, she directed him to sit on one of the tables and within a second Henry was lost to her fussing.

Certain it wouldn’t be long before she finished with Henry and turned her attention to him and
Judah,
Kaie cleared his throat and grabbed every eye in the building.

“It’s time to gather the squads. Once the doctor is done with him, Henry will tell your runners where they’re going.” Before they split their numbers, he and Judah made sure to put in place a method of drawing everyone back together. There was a designated runner in each squad, and they were each tasked with meeting two other squads, and so would the runners from those two squads. The plan was that all fifteen squads would be contacted within six hours, and could be safely gathered in less than twelve. “I need several others to run an errand for me”

For a second, Kaie thought he wasn’t going to get any volunteers. His whole body tensed, as though some kind of physical reaction could change that. If they wouldn’t follow him then everything would fall apart. He needed these people, for at least a little while longer.

One man stepped forward. Thank the gods.

The guy was small and wiry, built a lot like Vaughan. There wasn’t a bit that looked like a soldier. For his life, Kaie couldn’t remember the man’s name. But he knew that the man was one of the most important components in nearly all Gregor’s victories: one of the Ironfist
sappers. Three more soldiers joined the sapper. Kaie nodded to signal that was enough, struggling to keep a relieved smile off his face.

“I need you four to find every clothier in the area. Mola will help.” He cast a quick glance at the woman at his left, winning a glare but no argument. “Grab every drop of brown and black dye you can find.
Brown and black, especially.
Paint too.
As much as you can find.
If you can think of any other places that might have some, hit them too. I want enough here for every one of the Twelfth to bathe in by the time all the squads are gathered.”

The sapper’s eyebrow lifted, but not one of them said anything more than ‘yes sir’ before heading out with Mola in tow.

Judah waited exactly as long as it took the door to shut behind them before he turned on Kaie, tired face set in a firm expression.

Kaie didn’t let the giant ask. He grabbed Judah’s arm and led the soldier as far away from everyone else as the small shop would allow.

“They’re not going to help us,” he murmured.

Judah’s eyes widened, but the giant didn’t say anything. Quickly as he could, Kaie laid out the situation. He left out any mention of
the prophesy
. Judah, even with his magic, was not a fan of anything he couldn’t explain.

“I’ve never been bait before,” Judah muttered when he was finished. Kaie
grimaced
his commiseration. “It won’t work.”

“What won’t?”

The giant frowned. “Their great escape plan. The city is not the prize the empire’s after.
Not the whole of it, anyway.”

Kaie only needed to think about it for a moment. Gregor’s words echoed clearly in his mind, almost as if the man was standing beside him and speaking them. The empire needs bodies. Their whole approach to war was to throw endless streams of people into the conflict, until their enemies were overrun by sheer numbers. This city already cost Urazin a whole battalion, and to replace that number with fresh lives would require an influx of new slaves to take the place of the old ones recruited. It was more than that, though. The Empress couldn’t allow a population the size of
Huduku’s
to simply walk away from her. She couldn’t afford that, any more than she could let the
Twelfth
escape. With or without them, Lady Dau was going to find her people hunted to the very edges of the Abyss.

“You’re done with Mola.”

Kaie blinked, drawing himself back to the conversation. Judah’s face was hard and blank. “I am?”

The giant crossed his arms over his chest. “You just said she’s helping her people betray us. Find another way to entertain yourself.”

“One that doesn’t upset Peren so much, maybe?”
Kaie sneered. Judah’s arms dropped and for a second, they both knew the man was going to hit him. A yelp from where Alex was tending Henry broke the tension before it happened.
With an
effort, Kaie let the moment slide away. He sighed and leaned back against the wall. “I know what I’m doing.”

Judah scowled, but folded his arms up again. “I’m finding that increasingly unlikely.”

“You’re right, she’s betraying us. But she doesn’t know I know. She didn’t even see the old lady. So long as I don’t give the game away, we can keep her away from her people for the next few days and watch for the first sign of it. Unless you know of a better way to figure out when this whole ‘leave the city’ plan of theirs reaches the final stages?”

The giant was silent for a time, his expression thoughtful. Finally, his eyes peered out from beneath shaggy hair and met Kaie’s. “You’ve got a plan then.”

Kaie grinned. “I’ve always got a plan, Judah.”

Before anything else could be said, the doctor appeared beside them, as if with magic, and insisted on treating Judah’s lip and a host of other injuries. Kaie was soon subjected to the same treatment. When Alex was done with him, she insisted he get some rest and dragged him to the upper level of the shop where several cots were set up. It wasn’t until his head hit the cloth that Kaie realized just how exhausted he was. Within minutes of lying down, he was asleep.

He woke with a warm weight pressed against his right side. It added to the stale heat of the room and made him sticky with sweat. Kaie opened his eyes slowly, not convinced he was ready to resume consciousness just yet.

Almond eyes watched from beside him, delicate fingers reaching up to slide through his hair. “Did Kale miss the girl?”

“Yeah,” he agreed groggily. Kaie shifted so that he could wrap his arms around her shoulders and draw her closer still. “I actually did. Aren’t you supposed to be helping my volunteers?”

Mola snuggled her head against his chest, her hair tickling his nose. “This girl helped. She told them where to look and sent them on their way. Then she decided to do something less boring.”

Kaie considered being upset about that, but decided it wasn’t worth it. He took a second to glance around the room, pleased to find they were alone. “Did I sleep so long they left me behind, or did you chase everyone out?”

She
giggled,
the same sound she made when she was covered in blood. It was chilling, that giggle. Chilling and exciting.

“Which would make her boy happier?”

His eyebrow arched. “Since when do you worry about my being happy? Aren’t you here to punish me for my wickedness?”

She looked up at him, her dark lips twisting into a smile that sent a shot of lust through him.
“That too.
This girl wonders
if she can make Kale shout her name so loud that all his little soldiers rush up to see that wickedness.”

Kaie opened his mouth, not sure what he was going to say. ‘Don’t’ maybe. Or, more likely, ‘oh gods yes’ and ‘please’. Before he could get out a word, though, her hand left his hair and traveled downward. All that made it out of his lips was a gasp.

She wiggled and shifted, each movement sending jolts through his every nerve. Before he realized what was happening, his clothes were off and she was crouched between his legs. For a second, a bad second, Kaie remembered the last time someone looked up at him from that position. But then she giggled again, and moved her hand a bit more, and he slammed that door closed.

All of a sudden, she stopped. He could still feel her legs pressed against the inside of his thighs, but her hands vanished. Kaie moaned something that might be words begging her to continue, or simply a sound of frustration. He wasn’t sure.

And then something cold slid into his side.

Kaie gasped, black specks floating across his vision. His hands flew to the spot just below his ribs.
The place where the dagger was lodged.

Mola’s weight left the cot, and she moved to tower over him. Her beautiful lips were still wearing that excited, enticing grin. “Will Kale shout for her?”

His body curled up around the pain spreading through his stomach. Kaie fought against the pounding need to rip the metal out of his body, some small part of his mind still alive enough to tell him to leave it. Leave it there, call for Vaughan. Vaughan.

His lips worked, but he couldn’t get the word out.

She giggled.
That same giggle.
Mola lifted a
hand,
one covered in blood – his blood – and grabbed a fistful of his hair. With a swift jerk, she used her other dagger to cut off a hunk and tucking it into the purse at her hip. She slipped the dagger back into place and raised her hand again, wiggling each of her fingers. Then she turned and ran for the shuttered window. She reached it in an instant,
then
threw herself through it with a clatter of breaking wood.

It was a long fall, he knew.

It wouldn’t kill her. He knew that too.

As if her flight released a cork from inside him, Kaie finally managed to make a sound. But he didn’t shout.

He laughed.

“You need to be still!”

Kaie shoved the doctor’s hands away and swung his legs off the cot. His head swam and he nearly collapsed, but managed to save face at the last second by leaning over and yanking his clothes from the floor and dropping back down as if it was always his intention to do so. Struggling not to gasp or breathe heavily, he thrust his body into the material and waited for his head to stop swimming. “No time,” he muttered.

Alex harrumphed and placed
herself
firmly in his way. “I’ve followed you and yours around for months now, because the Ninth Rit asked for my loyalty, and I made a promise. But let me make something perfectly clear. I don’t give a fig for your great plans, Kale Whoreson! I will let this whole damn army of yours fall to pieces before I let you undo all my hard work putting you back together!”

“You don’t understand!” Kaie hated the whine he heard in his voice, but didn’t know how to be rid of it. The seconds were ticking away again, louder than ever. He needed to
move
!

Her eyes narrowed into points as sharp as the dagger so recently inside him. “You’re damn right I don’t. And I’m not interested. BE STILL!”

Kaie tried to stand again but her hand darted out and slammed into his shoulder, trying to topple him back into the cot before his legs even felt the weight. He caught it without thinking. His eyes widened with surprise as confused images washed over him.

Alex jerked her hand away and scowled up at him.
“Gods dammit!
You died once already today! You’re going to kill yourself again!”

He shook free of the oddness running through his head and matched her glare. “I’d rather do it myself than wait for what’s coming.”

It took too much effort to make it down the stairs. He was panting as if he just finished a race, and his whole body was shaking. It was wrong, all wrong.

The shop was almost empty. Only Judah, Vaughan and Peren were there, sitting in a small circle, heads bent close together and muttering. Kaie stared at them, trying desperately to sort out what happened to all his soldiers. Did they turn on him? When Mola slid her knife into him, did she convince the Twelfth that he wasn’t fit to lead them? Did Judah tell them about what the Huduku were about to do, driving them to flee in panic?

Vaughan was the first to spot him. The blonde was at his side in an instant, hands poised as if to catch him. Kaie would find it irritating if he could convince himself he wasn’t actually on the verge of collapsing.

“I’m sorry,
Bruhani
! That doctor, she wouldn’t let me near you!” Vaughan shot Judah a dark
glare,
and Kaie immediately got the impression the giant was the one who carried out the doctor’s will.

“It’s fine. Where is everyone?”

Judah climbed to his feet slowly and offered Kaie a lopsided grin. “You didn’t expect everyone to cram in here, did you?”

Kaie shook his head, surprised at himself. Of course they wouldn’t be here. Even if the shop was large enough to accommodate the remnants of Gregor’s army, it was sure to attract attention. He should’ve realized that immediately.

“They’re spread out in a couple buildings in the area. Henry is getting them settled and checking up on that paint and dye you wanted. He should be back in a few minutes. Glad to see you’re too stubborn to stay dead, because I haven’t a clue what you need it for.”

Kaie nodded absently and shuffled to a wall, sliding down it slowly in an attempt to hide how weak he was feeling. Alex came down the stairs behind him, looking like she wanted nothing more than to put the knife back in him.

From what he pieced together in the short bursts of consciousness, she spent a lot of time working to sew him up. He saw the stain on the floor, knew how much blood he lost. Kaie didn’t doubt her insistence that he was dead for a full minute or two while she labored away. The pain wasn’t as bad as the first time he woke up in her care, though it was a near thing.

It was the worst possible timing.
Which was why Mola chose that moment.
She intended to kill him, and for the death to stick. But she was too good to think it impossible he survive. Mola was a master at death. He didn’t think she knew how much Dau told him, but she would still take steps to make sure he didn’t interfere with their plans. Death, so narrowly escaped, would be returning for a second go at him any minute. And she left him too weak to fight it off.

There were only two tricks left to him. One would take time. The other was Vaughan.

It was lucky that the blonde refused to use magic for so long. Mola knew he was a mage, of course. She overheard enough to put it together, even if she managed to miss the boy’s display in that last battle. But she didn’t know he could heal. He never asked Vaughan to repair any of the wounds they took since the day of the bee fumes. Healing magics were something of a rarity. Mola had no reason to suspect Vaughan possessed them.

“I need you to heal me.”

Vaughan nodded, grim determination oozing from his every pore.
Alex made a noise like she was going to object. Kaie silenced her with a warning look, then gritted his teeth and prepared for the agony that went along with the process.

It was worse than he remembered. If he could scream, he would. Enemies
be
damned. At some point, Vaughan lifted his shirt and scowled down at his stitches. A second later, the blonde cut
them
open with a blade that seemed to materialize in his hands. That was about the time Kaie decided he didn’t give care how weak he looked and just passed out.

When he opened his eyes again, Peren was sitting beside him. She was patting his forehead with a wet rag. The water was warm and the rag was dirty. It was wonderful. When she saw that he was awake, she gave him a shaky smile and tucked her hair behind her ear.

“You left.”

He couldn’t think of anything to say to that, so he just grunted.

“You came back.”

“I promised, didn’t I?”

She laughed then. It wasn’t the same as before. It wasn’t full and deep, like it used to be. She didn’t snort. It was light, cautious. Like some broken thing that wasn’t quite put back together again.

That was his fault.

Kaie shoved her away, gently, and sat up. He tested his side with probing fingers, relieved to find it whole again, with no trace of the tread that was holding him together. Climbing to his feet was not as easy as it used to be – the dizziness wasn’t gone – but he managed not to collapse and counted that good enough.

Henry was back and eager to give his report. The Twelfth was gathered. They numbered less than a hundred now. The losses would number much higher before things were done.

His sapper and the other volunteers came in with Henry, each lugging several sacks of paint and dye. A weight lifted off his chest at the sight. He was afraid they wouldn’t find any. Kaie looked through the loot, growing more confident with each sack he went through. There was so much brown!
Far more than he dared to hope for.
When he looked up, every eye was on him.

“Alright.
This is going to take some organizing. There are three parts to this step, and I need one squad for each one. The first will be dying our shirts. I want them as colorful as any Huduku outfit you’ve ever seen. The second squad is going to handle hair. Take the brown and black dyes to them. Everyone who’s already got brown or black hair is good to go, but the rest of us need some improvement. It’ll take some time. But there aren’t too many of us and it doesn’t have to be perfect.”

They were still staring at him, not a soul in the place catching on to what he intended. “The last squad is going to be a lot busier. They’re going to paint everyone’s face and hands with the brown paint.”

Everyone kept staring at him. A second passed.
Two.
Then Henry burst out laughing. “Gods damn it!” The man gasped. “That was my idea!”

Kaie did grin now. “I don’t need a crown, but you can feel free to call me King.”

“I don’t get it.” Judah looked between them, waiting for an explanation. Henry beat him to it.

“The Whore King over there, he’s fixing to pass us off as Huduku!”

Understanding lit everyone’s face.

Judah frowned. “You think dye and paint is going to make anyone looking close believe we’re natives?”

“Of course not.
I don’t think they’ll even need to look close to figure it out. Not in daylight, anyway. But in the passes, at a distance…”

The giant chuckled. “That Callo was right, you do have a brass set on you. You don’t expect them to let us keep up the act for long, do you?”

“I expect they won’t be paying too much attention. They’ll be busy leaving us to die. So long as we stay far enough away, they shouldn’t even notice. Besides, abandoning us and slaughtering us themselves are two different things.” A twinge at his side reminded him that not all of the Huduku would agree with him on that point. Still, Lady Dau made it clear she wanted them to survive. He was sure she wouldn’t order them put down. “Even if they figure out what’s going on, they won’t turn on us. We’ll take a different way out of the city, just in case.”

“You sure about that?
I thought we were supposed to be their distraction.”

“I’m sure. Trust me, the Huduku have another distraction in mind.” He couldn’t explain his certainty, even to himself. He only knew that the image of Mola lighting the city on fire wouldn’t shake loose.

“I don’t understand,” the sapper said softly. “Why are we leaving? Wouldn’t it be safer just to hide and wait for the Fourth to follow them?”

So Judah told them. “We can’t stay here. This city is doomed. Namers are coming.”

That got results. No one wanted to wander around the Jorander desert, but even people without any first-hand experience knew it was better than facing the Namers.

It took hours. Kaie managed to sit through the dying of his hair, eyebrows and the scruff on his chin. He sat through being painted. His head itched and the skin of his face and hands felt tight and dry. But it was the waiting that was driving him mad.

It was taking too long. Mola’s assault meant that the Huduku were leaving
right now
. And she took his hair. There was only one reason he could think of for her to do that. They all needed to be gone before the sun set, and he needed to be the first one out. But he was
the only one who seemed to feel any of the urgency. He knew that the joking and laughter all around him was not due to a lack of motivation. It was gallows humor. But each time one of the soldiers called him Whore King and smacked his shoulder affectionately, he wanted to grab the offender and shake all the joviality out of them.

The sun set.
Peren brought an armful of brightly colored shirts. They kept waiting. Kaie paced. The city grew dark. Still, they were waiting.

When they finally began moving out, it was full dark. The city was so silent Kaie’s breathing echoed loudly in his ears.

He was still weak. Vaughan repaired the damage, but the blonde muttered something about being unable to replace what was lost. Kaie took that to mean all his blood spilled out over the floor. So while he was able to walk and talk just like normal, the world was still prone to an alarming degree of spinning if he moved too quickly or too long.

Luckily, the first leg of their trip wasn’t a long one. After Kaie was attacked, Judah and Henry tracked Mola to another courtyard some quarter mile away. They both realized it was pointless to try to find her down in the passes, but it did give them an entrance point. Once they were hidden underneath the city, he would feel so much better.

Judah led the way. The giant was as good at directions as Kaie was bad. But Kaie was close at his heels. He was the only one who knew where to look for the doorway. He would be up front, no matter what, but it was nice to have the excuse.

They made good time, considering that 82 people were trying to shove themselves through streets only wide enough for three at once. Kaie was just starting reach his limit when he and Judah arrived at the courtyard.

The statue here was whole. She bore more of the angry scrawl across her breast, but not even a finger was missing. Water trickled from a vase clutched in her right hand, which was also new. Dropping to his knees, he probed the street in the center. He found it easily, flipped the door open, and dropped down before the gods got the chance to stop him.

The instant he was at the bottom of the stairs, the smell hit him again. It was much fainter than the last time. It tugged at Kaie, daring him to place it. He almost could. He heard Judah shouting to the soldiers above, getting them organized for an orderly descent. He hurried out of the way, intending to relax against the far wall while he waited for his army to join him.

He never made it.

Thick fingers wrapped into his hair from behind and jerk him backward. He tried to shout. Another sweaty hand wrapped itself around his mouth. He swung hard, fighting to catch his feet on the smooth floor and stop his backward momentum. His elbow connected with something solid, but it gained him nothing. His captor never even slowed. In moments, he was pulled into one of the pathways, around a corner sharp enough to hide them.