The Undying God (34 page)

“What sickness is it?” Arxu
asked.

“Achiovillis. An affliction of the
mind,” he replied. The expression on Balthasar’s face didn’t match
his voice. Suddenly, he snapped, “Are you an agent of Gaelithea?”
If this tactic was meant to put Arxu on the defensive, he didn’t
even flinch. Several guards observed the escalating situation,
remaining faceless behind their helmets. One of the two discretely
let his hand slip toward his blade. Balthasar continued his heated
tirade.

“I seriously doubt your claims. Who’s
to know you aren’t diverting our watch so you can incite crime? Or
make us more vulnerable to attack? Who am I to place so much trust
in your words, this fantasy?” he ranted. He rose from his seat and
pointed at Arxu to assert some authority over him.

“I am obligated to protect the people.
There’s a malevolent sickness beyond those gates, and I won’t risk
you unleashing it!
Now get out!
”

Arxu turned his back on Balthasar and
left. He had to restrain himself from cursing the impertinent man.
Nishka slammed the door behind her, not realizing she left
Hrioshango inside.

The captain of the guard looked
awkwardly at the darkling. The peculiar creature smiled
mischievously.

“I’ve never been much of a law-abiding
citizen,” Hrioshango confessed. “I’m going to sell illegal goods
today, perhaps rob someone. Feel free to intervene.”

Arxu stomped his foot in indignation
outside of the guardhouse.

“He’s not telling us everything,”
Nishka said. “There’s more to this than Balthasar is willing to
reveal.”

“I can sense it, too,” Arxu said,
staring into the distance toward the temple quarter. He would not
accept the man’s strange explanation. In fact, their meeting fueled
his determination to slip through the quarantine.

“
How were they able to
evacuate an entire quarter?” Nishka asked rhetorically.

“
From my understanding, it
is the smallest quarter in Eternitas, with a population of less
than six hundred. Still, I can’t even fathom how they managed to
accomplish it.”

* * *

The pounding resonated like a siege
machine assaulting the temple. Ethan almost mistook it for thunder,
but it continued unabated, relentlessly pummeling the doors. It
shattered the silence he so cherished as he knelt before the
candles in prayer.

He studied the doors with
indecisiveness, anticipating a horde of people breaking the lock
and tumbling inside. Ethan couldn’t see any guards stationed by the
entrance to address the disturbance. He presumed they were acting
under new orders to shadow the clerics as their personal
bodyguards. The duty would fall to him to investigate whatever
menace threatened the temple.

As Ethan reached for the ornate
handles, something slammed against the temple again. This time he
could hear voices vibrating with anger. Years ago, they had faced
riots from the public when a murderer fled to the temple for
sanctuary. He had no desire to witness an encore of that
scenario.

They were ultimately forced to
relinquish the thief like a sacrifice to appease the raging masses.
Once the deed was done, Ethan sealed the doors to avoid witnessing
the vulgar display of vigilante justice.

Despite the chill running up his spine,
he unbolted the doors and forced them open. A dozen women dressed
in pale gowns stood outside, hardly the rabble Ethan was expecting.
In fact, he recognized them as devout disciples who complied with
the evacuation last night.

“We must be let back in!” a woman
wailed. “Please, we have come to show our devotion to Astalla.” A
disciple with raven hair swept toward Ethan. He barred her from
entry, turning his body into a human shield.

“No! This is a mistake!” he said.
“Please, your lives may be in danger! I beseech you to seek
sanctuary elsewhere! You will not be safe within the
temple!”

“We must go inside!” the woman
proclaimed. “You will not separate us from our demigoddess!” They
would not turn away and leave the temple, he knew. Nothing short of
a blockade would break their conviction.

She looked intensely into his eyes,
revealing a depth of fanaticism that Ethan couldn’t
crush.

“There is nothing for you here,” Ethan
said, knowing his words would fall on deaf ears. They shouldered
past him in defiance, casting him aside as a mere annoyance. Ethan
could only watch in dismay.

* * *

Arxu emerged from the inn to the sound
of merchants haggling, blacksmiths tinkering with metal, and
livestock bleating. Everyone around him was fulfilling their duty
to the city, acting with purpose.

He felt a void in that place that so
often gave him purpose, now simmering with restlessness and
agitation. The authorities forbade him from going anywhere near the
temples, compounding the threat with a suspicious quarantine. He
yearned to know what they were concealing beyond those
walls.

He vowed to bypass the quarantine and
expose the truth, no matter how heinous it may be. Before he could
act on that ambition, a graceful figure attired in armor approached
him.

Nishka flashed him a smile and said,
“Arxu, I want you to come with me.”

“What? Have you found a way into the
temple quarter?” He nearly leaped forward, hungry for the
opportunity to defy Balthasar.

Nishka just laughed, denying him the
satisfaction of an answer. They traversed the streets with little
interaction from guards and citizens alike. Nishka waved away a
simple merchant trying to entice her with baubles. Arxu was
perplexed when they approached a small, humble dwelling.

“I don’t understand,” he said. Instead
of enlightening him, Nishka knocked on the door. Muffled voices
answered and a few moments later, the door cracked open to reveal a
man inside. A thick mane of brown hair settled around his shoulders
and his eyes housed a certain spark that most people
lacked.

“Ah, here you are! I received word you
might show up at my door. Please, come in!” He welcomed her inside
and Arxu naturally followed. As he entered the abode, he noticed a
middle-aged woman and a young girl. What business they had with a
common family, he could only imagine. Furthermore, how did the man
know to expect Nishka?

Arxu caught her eyes, suspicious of her
motives.

“What brings you here?” the father
asked as he beckoned them to sit. “As I said, word has reached me
that a foreigner has been looking for me. So tell me, what brings
you here, young lady?”

“Please call me Nishka,” she said.
“Several weeks ago, I journeyed to Gaelithea to sell my father’s
wares. While I was exploring the city, I encountered a boy named
Adrian.” The mother shot straight up at the sound of the
name.

“What happened? Is Adrian okay?” Nishka
looked apologetically at her, steeling herself for their
reactions.

“He has lost his mother.” She gave them
a moment to absorb the tragic knowledge. “His mother was imprisoned
for stealing food to feed Adrian. It was an act of
desperation.”

“Eva was imprisoned? That means… Oh
Gods…”

“I tried to help Adrian. He said he had
family in Eternitas and I offered to bring him here. Moments later,
he fled at the sight of several guards.”

“I hope he is safe,” the mother
said.

“I was unable to find him again. I’m
sorry.” With paternal instinct, the father took Nishka’s hand in
his own, and he reminded her so much of Matthias.

“I will journey to Gaelithea as soon as
possible and bring him here,” he assured her.

“Thank you.”

“You must be weary from traveling so
far. Please, take this.” To Arxu’s surprise, the man produced
several coins from his pockets.

Nishka smiled, “I didn’t do this
expecting pay. It would be wrong for me to accept this.”

“I wish we could repay you in some
way.”

“Consider taking care of Adrian as my
payment.” Again her voice drifted as though lost in her thoughts.
Thoughts of her own loss.

The mother embraced Nishka and said,
“Gods bless you.”

“We’ll never forget what you’ve done
for us.” The father and daughter joined in, as if to welcome her
into their family. “And you—” the father said, turning to
acknowledge Arxu. “Thank you. You deserve our praise for your
kindheartedness.” Arxu almost fell back a step, struck by the
meaning of the words. He didn’t have the faintest idea how to
respond to gratitude. Nishka walked past him and indicated it was
time to leave. With a lingering glance toward the family, Arxu
followed.

He left the house feeling different, a
subtle shift in his identity. Nishka just looked at him with a
disarming smile. Arxu tried to clear his thoughts from the strange
experience. He retired to the inn to unlock the truths Nishka held
in that smile.

Chapter 35

Nishka drifted through the labyrinth
grove, beckoning Arxu toward a fountain. Its dark waters burbled in
the courtyard, whispering secrets in the quiet of night.

Nishka peeked inside the basin and,
through the shadows, she could see markings outlined in precious
silver. She dipped her fingers in the cool water and traced the
sigils, wondering what mysteries the architect
inscribed.

She glanced at Arxu as he settled next
to her. Nishka couldn’t deny it any longer; her feelings for him
had evolved beyond friendship. She enjoyed his company, but she
wished he was capable of being more than just a friend.

His repressed personality made that
connection unlikely, but she couldn’t help hoping he would change.
She didn’t know if it was possible to express this, if there was
any way to make him understand her feelings.

“Why did you do that?” Nishka froze.
Heat flowed to her cheeks and she wondered if he knew what she
imagining.

“Do what?”

“Help that child.” Nishka almost burst
into relieved laughter. She wasn’t expecting him to question her
about Adrian. In fact, the abrupt reference to the orphan perplexed
her.

“He reminded me of myself when I lost
my mother.”

“Did you do it for the boy or for
yourself?” His razor-sharp eyes may as well have stripped her down
to her soul.

“What do you mean?”

“Did you do it to close a painful
chapter in your life? To live your own fulfillment through
him?”

She settled her icy gaze on the
Nightwalker.

“I did it for Adrian.”

Arxu turned away with nothing more to
add to his interrogation. However, Nishka’s focus remained fixed on
him.

“Now I want to ask you something. Why
were you murdered?” Arxu tightened his grip on his staff. “Why did
it kill you?”

He instinctively reached for the
pendant dangling around his neck, the blackened stone where part of
his soul once resided. His eyes looked fainter in the dark as his
mind traveled to another time and place.

“Neither did I have a mother in my
childhood,” he confessed. He slumped down by the fountain, sitting
on the edge of the basin. “I was found on the streets by a common
beggar.”

“You were an orphan?” Nishka said in
disbelief.

Arxu looked silently at the stone
between his fingers, stroking its perpetually cold
surface.

“
She raised me as if I were
her flesh and blood, teaching me the art of stealth and survival. I
accompanied her during her operations. She had numerous ways of
acquiring coin in the city, performing tasks for clients who would
pay outrageous sums of gold.”

“What kind of tasks?”

“Theft. I helped her infiltrate
everything from the guardhouse to the city treasury. Sometimes we
took objects of value, sometimes information from journals and
logs. I suspect she was doing the bidding of a politician who hoped
to blackmail someone in the city.

“One day, she vanished. I fear she was
imprisoned by the guards or someone caught on to her ruse and
exacted punishment. I attempted several times to approach the
garrison to learn her fate, but there were too many close calls. A
year passed and I was forced to survive on my own. I formed a few
alliances with petty thieves, hoping to join a criminal syndicate
to build myself up. However, I couldn’t blend in with the commoners
because of my skin. I couldn’t traverse the city without alerting
the guards.” Arxu’s eyes darted furtively like an
animal.

“I learned to fear something worse than
the city guards and the executioner’s block. I learned that people
with wealth are immune to the law.” He could still remember that
vile face, a sight that portended torment. It was a face he thought
forgotten.

“Each day, a nobleman’s son would
torment me for the pale color of my skin. He said my mother must
have been a whore and he labeled me a product of disease. Every day
brought another insult worse than the last. I did nothing to
provoke this boy but he felt compelled to hurt me.”