Page 67 of Veil of Vasara (Fate of the Five #1)

CHAPTER 67- SHADAE

I ’d lost count of the number of days I’d been in Vasara’s prison cells. Going by the sunrises and sunsets, it had been two, or three, perhaps. But I had fallen asleep for a large amount of that time, drifting in and out of consciousness.

Despite their discomfort, they were still a far cry from the quarters I’d had as a Vessel. Here at least, I had a makeshift bed to sleep on, the floor was covered in straw, and we were even fed, and given water, at regular intervals.

It seemed like a luxury to me.

But not to the others I was locked up with.

To my right, a middle-aged woman was behind bars. She had been yelling and protesting her innocence every hour of every day, even in the middle of the night.

I’d just woken up to her attempts at garnering sympathy from the guards once again.

“Please! Pleasssseeeee, I tell ya, I didn’t do anything! Listen here! Please, I have children! I have…I have four children!”

“You ain’t got children you hag! Shut it!” The prisoner locked up to her right shouted, an older man.

“I do! I do have children! Who are you, heh? How would you know? You following me you fucking creep? I bet that’s what you’re here for, you fucking pervert!”

“As if I’d want the likes of you, you deluded bitch!” the man retorted.

I refrained from commenting. Even here, I got far more sleep than I ever did as a Vessel.

A young man was locked up to my left, his long dark hair skimming the ground he sat on. “Can’t you tell her to be quiet?” he hissed at me.

I sat up slowly and turned to him. The gaps between the bars were slimmer at the sides than the front, but still large enough to look through.

“You think that would work, do you?” I said, not hiding the irritation in my voice.

“You haven’t spoken once. It’s worth a try, who knows, maybe she’ll listen to another woman.”

I snorted and tutted at the same time.

And maybe we’ll all be released tomorrow and there’ll be no more poverty or war or ridiculous suggestions in the world.

“What? Too good to get involved with the rest of us?” the man spat.

“Too tired,” I replied.

“That’s because we’re not getting any fucking sleep thanks to that bitch.”

“You tell her then,” I insisted.

“I’ve already tried! Are you stupid or something?”

“That’s a sure good way to get me to do you a favour.” I smiled at him sarcastically.

I hadn’t meant to engage in conversation with any of these people, but this man was starting to press on a nerve I didn’t know was irritated.

“What do you want me to kiss your ass now?” he asked.

“I just want you to leave me alone.”

“Selfish bitch,” the man mumbled under his breath.

Selfish? Are you the stupid one? I’m in the cell adjacent to this woman. I’m locked up here with the rest of you.

“Scum like you should stay where they belong,” he added proudly.

And…there it is.

I laughed, “Congratulations!”

“What? What are you going on about?” The man sounded baffled.

“You lasted for longer than most people when it comes to bringing up the fact that I’m a sorcerer.” I gestured to my tattered and dirtied tracker uniform.

“That’s because…” But the man stopped speaking as the sound of the gates opening at the end of the corridor travelled with a large creak to our ears.

A few sets of footsteps could be heard, traversing the hallway.

“Your Majesty!” the woman in the adjacent cell squealed. “I’m innocent! Please! Please, I have children! Five children!”

I rolled my eyes.

Seconds later, the gates to my cell swung open, and three people stepped inside it.

The King, the guard who’d accused me of murder, and Lord Elias.

The man to my left sat forwards watching the scene with interest. The King heard his scuffling and turned to look at him. He backed away instantly.

I sympathised with him on that at least. There was something dreadfully disturbing about the King’s cold eyes.

Which were now fixed upon my face.

“It’s her.” The guard nodded enthusiastically. “She gave him that thing!”

I glanced at Elias, he was watching me quietly. He looked me up and down. I turned away, feeling conscious under his gaze.

The King took a few steps forwards. An overwhelming unease overcame me, and I instinctively backed away, pressing my back to the wall.

“Did you?” the King asked.

I glanced at Elias again, as if he were some sort of focal point, but his face was unreadable.

I found the courage to look into the King’s pale eyes.

“It’s not like that…I—"

“Don’t try to get around it! You gave it to him! I was there you—"

The King turned over his shoulder and silenced the man instantly with one glance. He looked back at me.

“It’s not like what?” the King inquired.

“Please, Your Majesty let me explain.” I held up my palm in a pacifying gesture.

“I am waiting for you to begin,” he said softly.

I dropped my palm and placed both of them on my thighs, rubbing them anxiously.

I looked at my legs as I spoke. “I did give it to him, but only because he…” I lost my words “It’s like this…I took the thing from the body of a sorcerer I’d killed because…”

Because I what? Felt guilty about his death? That sounds terrible. But I can hardly say I took it as a keepsake. Now I’m being silent, and it looks even more suspicious. Say something! That man was right, I am stupid!

“Because?” the King urged me on.

I looked up, I may as well tell the truth, I decided, since no other explanation made sense.

“I felt guilty, Your Majesty, for killing him. I know that I’m not supposed to, and it won’t…it doesn’t affect my ability to do my job. I mean…I killed him anyway and I’d…I’d do it again but, I’d never killed before, and I felt…unusual about it, so I took his necklace, but I swear, I didn’t know what it was.” I rushed the words out.

The King watched me as if I were a deeply ancient and interesting artefact.

“And then"— I tore my eyes away from his studious glare — “after that mission, I went to the draining centre. I wanted to bargain for the body of one of the trackers so I could bury her. That’s not unpermitted, is it? I mean not officially.”

I didn’t wait for him to answer that question as I blurted out, “But since I didn’t have any money at the time, they asked me to hand over a treasured possession of mine to keep hold of, until I could return, and pay them the money they requested for her corpse.”

“That’s not true!” the guard interrupted. “I…we never asked you for any money! You…you stole that body!”

“She didn't,” Elias said languidly. “I was there afterwards. I saw her with it. She’d clearly just been given it.”

The King glanced at his cousin and nodded, trusting his words.

I glanced at Elias, once again. I tried to convey my gratitude with my eyes, but he appeared almost bored.

I continued. “It’s not… that it was a treasured possession, the necklace, I didn’t even know what it was…it’s just, it’s the only thing I had on me that meant anything in particular. I didn’t know what else to give them, and her body was about to go…there, and I wanted to get it before it decayed because I knew I’d have to carry it…somewhere…” My voice trailed off as I realised my explanation was beginning to sound chaotic.

The King was silent, processing my words for a moment, then he said, “Lord Elias has told me you are quite knowledgeable about sorcery.”

Do I…confirm or deny that? Which is worse?

“Therefore, I find it difficult to believe you had no notion of the nature of the object you took from the body of that sorcerer.”

Lord Elias, you’ve dropped me in shit… once again.

“It’s true, Your Majesty, I know… a fair amount, but I was not able to gather the relevance behind that object until we…” I looked at Elias. Did the King know we had gone there for a second time?

But the King seemed to gather my meaning regardless. “It is also suspicious that you gave the object to an overseer.”

My heart started to beat faster, as if wishing to escape my ribs, my fate. This was not how any of this had meant to go. I had formed a plan, to get my brothers out, albeit a loose plan. But I had never meant to be roped into Elias’ quests or…jail.

“Your Majesty…respectfully, and if you’ll permit me to say… if I’d wanted to kill an overseer what would be the point?” I laughed nervously.

“Perhaps he wronged you.”

In that case I would have killed them all.

Don’t say that. That definitely won’t help.

“Even if that were the case, why would I give him this object in the presence of another guard who could easily identify me?” I gestured at the other guard.

“Perhaps you had planned to end his life as well but were stopped from doing so.”

My lips parted in surprise. He was so suspicious of me. Of us.

“But… if that had been my plan, why would I risk ending their lives separately?”

“Perhaps such objects take time to create or acquire.” Each of his proposals was said with leisure, simplistically, as if they were basic facts like water is a drink , not attempts to accuse me of murder.

“I only acquired the first one by chance, Your Majesty, how would I have been able to acquire a second?”

“Perhaps you planned to end his life in a different way.”

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. Perhaps I’m actually innocent!

Gods, if I say that, I’ll sound like that woman with an ever-increasing number of children.

“Your Majesty…it would not be worth the risk.”

“I do not know what you deem to be worth the risk. I do not know what value you place on your own life.”

“If I placed little value on it, why would I attempt to protest my innocence at all, Your Majesty?”

The King seemed to dwell on this for a second.

“I didn’t intend to kill him. I didn’t,” I pleaded. “And…and if by your suppositions I had planned to kill the witness, then why would I wait so long? Why wouldn't I make sure he was dead immediately after the first man had died?”

“You were called to the festival at short notice, but initially, you were scheduled to have that day to yourself. It would have been the perfect opportunity for you to end the witnesses’ life.”

Wonderful. It all matches up, timing, motive, tools. Just brilliant.

But still I grasped at whatever thread of reason I could.

“How? Your Majesty…. Even if you’re right and the timing matched up, I still would have had to actually kill him, and if my intention was to cover my tracks, then I would also have…. needed to hide any evidence and…get away with the crime. Also… since the schedule of the overseers changes so often, from what I recall, I wouldn’t have been able to… guarantee he wouldn’t be working that day, and even if he hadn’t been, how would I have known where to find him? I haven’t had the time or ability to follow him or his movements.”

My words were both fretful and confident at the same time. I raised my head, trying to appear self-assured, but I was trembling slightly.

“You may have. How am I to know?” the King asked.

Why do you look like you’re enjoying this interrogation?

“The Commander. You can ask him. He has been with me most of the time, Your Majesty.”

“But not all of the time.”

“The rest of the time I have been with Lord Elias,” I said.

“But not all of the time,” the King repeated.

He seemed adamant that I was guilty already.

“But… the rest of that time would have been during sleeping hours. Even if I had been able to follow the…witness, what use would there have been in knowing where he slept, if I planned to kill him during the day?”

The King, to my surprise, smiled. He held his right elbow with his left hand and grabbed his chin with his right.

“That is true.” His eyes flickered with an almost mad satisfaction.

“Your Majesty she’s lying! She’s deceiving you! You can’t trust these people!” the guard exclaimed.

The King was still looking at me. “It has nothing to do with trust. Only logic.”

He moved his chin away from his hand and looked over his shoulder at Elias.

“I believe her,” Elias said.

I raised my eyebrows at him. He met my eyes briefly then returned them to the King’s.

The King nodded slowly. “As do I.”

The King faced me again. “However, regardless of whether or not your crime was intentional, it was still a crime. A man is dead because of your actions. You are not devoid of punishment.”

Just then, a fourth man stepped into the cell, and my heart rate increased even more.

Parthias, one of the worst of the overseers.

It’s hardly as if there’s a pristine collection to choose from.

“Sorry I’m late, Your Highness.” His serpent-like voice made me shudder.

The King waved over his shoulder in a gesture of ease. “Lord Elias needs you for now, and so your punishment will be delayed.”

I outstretched my palms against my thighs. “What punishment, Your Majesty?”

“If you were a human, it would be incarceration, but you are a sorcerer, and we cannot waste your core, and so, you will return to being a Vessel once—"

I stood sharply. “No!”

Lord Elias looked at me not entirely surprised. The King raised his eyebrows very slightly.

I shook my head. “Your Majesty, please…”

“It is not for you to decide what His Majesty does.” Parthias’ sleazy voice cut through the air.

The King turned to Elias.

“Let her try,” Elias said.

Try what? You better not have agreed to something awful on my behalf again. Although, what could be worse than being a Vessel? No, don't think about that, there are probably worse things.

“Lord Elias seems to have faith in your ability as a tracker,” the King said. He didn’t sound bothered about my interruption at all. “However, you will still need to be punished, and so, we will have to think of an alternative way to do so, should you prove capable.”

Parthias chuckled. “There are a few people I can think of who can take any punishment in her place.”

I couldn’t see my own face, but I could imagine I had paled at that statement.

Just as swiftly as I had stood, I dropped to my feet, prostrating in front of the King at the lowest ground level possible. My forehead made contact with the floor, as did my palms.

“Please, Your Majesty, I beg you, don’t…don’t…Let me accept punishment now, whatever that may be, I can be…whipped or hurt or…take an eye or an ear…but please…please…” I could hear tears starting to form at the back of my throat, stinging it, scratching at it. I cleared it in an attempt to quell them.

The King’s voice came from above my head. “Please what?”

Please don’t touch my brothers. Please do not involve them in this. Do whatever you want to me but don’t hurt them. I beg you.

The King didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. If I told him of my brothers, wouldn’t it only give him the idea to use them in my stead?

Lord Elias however, understood somehow, and spoke.

“Nobody will take your punishment but you. The King’s justice does not operate that way and can only be enacted by the King alone. Anyone who is willing to take or give the punishment to another on your behalf will be punished themselves. You will take the punishment, you can be sure of that, so there’s no need to rush.”

His tone was forceful, and his words had been disguised as a semi-threat, but he hadn’t been speaking to me, those words had undoubtedly been directed at Parthias.

I gingerly slid upwards into a kneeled position and looked at him.

“The King will decide when he decides, no sooner,” Elias’ voice became calmer.

I nodded slowly.

The King and Elias looked at each other and nodded. The King turned to leave with Parthias and the guard. Elias remained in place as the gate closed behind him.

He crouched in front of me. “Who’s worth an eye?” He sounded sceptical.

I was too afraid to tell him.

I looked away at the ground.

He sighed loudly. “You need to stop protecting people, and burying people, and giving people deadly cursed objects.”

Why again must you act as if I deliberately immerse myself into these situations?

I turned towards him. “Why…”

Why do you care? Was on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t, for some reason, have the heart to finish the question.

“Why do I care?” Elias finished it for me. “Because we have a task to do, and we can’t do it when you’re sitting in your shit in this cell.”

“I’m not!” I looked around and pointed defensively at the makeshift toilet. “Sitting in my own shit!”

Elias smiled slightly. I suddenly felt ridiculous at having had an impulse to prove that point.

The woman from the cell to my right took the silence as an opportunity to plead her case again.

“Sir! Sir! I’m innocent, please My Lord! I have six children!”

Elias turned over his shoulder to look through the bars. “Wasn’t it five? Did you have another one in your cell just now?”

I chuckled under my breath, then quickly stopped.

Laughing at a joke he made? The intensity of that interrogation and the fear of imminent death must have damaged my mind.

The woman gulped. “It’s six! It’s six! I’m just…I’m delirious from the hunger!”

“You’re just plain delirious,” the man to the cell on her right shouted.

“No! No! Sir, I’m innocent, please! You…you helped that girl just now, so please help me! You can ask the King on my behalf!”

Elias scowled. “Ask the King on your behalf? You’re here because you gouged your own husband’s eyes out. I saw it in the records before I came here. There were four witnesses.”

Even the man to her right was silent about that.

“He! He was looking at another woman! It’s his own fault!”

“I’m not surprised,” I mumbled.

Elias side-eyed me and smirked. “Besides this woman helped herself, it had nothing to do with me.”

He stood and opened the gate to my cell.

“Let’s go.”

The woman continued to protest as I followed him. Her pleas gradually ebbed in volume as we walked down towards the main gate.

“Where are we going this time?”

This time…that sounded…far too, how was it the Lord described it? Familiar?

But Elias did not answer. He waited until we got further away from the cells and were walking down passageways which were quiet and unoccupied before he spoke.

He stopped and turned to me, but he looked at the ground, crossing his arms as he replied.

“We’re going to visit my mother.”

I was right. There are things worse than being a Vessel.