Circle of Death (12 page)

“I know it. And I’m ready.”

“Knowing that you are back will encourage my people. You know you can count on the Fae as unconditional allies, lady.”

“Thank you. I’ll remember it, Avés.” I answered softly before hanging up.

Lucio’s contact was Avés. If I believed in coincidences I would say that was one, as the sidhe had always been my friend among the Fae. It was nice to know he was around, Avés was someone I trusted with my life, and I knew I could count on him when things got hard. And, now that he knew who I was, all the Fae would know. They would stand beside me no matter what happened.

I didn’t dream that night, but I already knew that, sooner or later, it would be my turn to face the Nameless again.

Even after all that time, I knew how to get to Death’s Sanctuary without any problems. The area had changed, the huge trees spreading all around, their roots and branches covering the rock formations, passing over the small waterfalls and hiding their true height. There was no sound besides the running water and the noise of the wind in the leaves, and there was no animal anywhere around.

That was Death’s garden. A piece of land that no one who didn’t have a right to be there could find, even though it was in the middle of an area filled with tourists.

The old path was still visible for anyone who knew how to look for it. A long time ago, it had once been a riverbed, dry since before the first time I had been there. My people had covered it with rocks, and that was the only sign of any kind of civilization.

The cave entrance was now partially hidden behind towering trees, but there was no way to mistake the way. Once inside, I remembered the first time I had been there, and how I had spent hours appreciating the beauty of each hall. Now, even after so much time, the faces hidden in the rock formations weren’t enough for me to stop. I crossed the five halls in few minutes, with the quick steps of someone who had walked that way too many times.

As I remembered, at the back of the fifth hall stood the imposing entrance to Death’s Sanctuary. I didn’t know if the gate had been made of gold or coated in it, but even after so much time without anyone taking care of it, it still shone with the faintest light. The symbols engraved in bas-relief on the entire length of the doors were of protection and imprisonment, their exact meaning still unknown.

The gate opened easily, but that could be because I was the Keeper. I entered, waiting a few seconds until I got used to the strange light in there, to which not even a vampire’s eyes could adapt quickly. The bluish flames of the candles, which were never worn and never went out, gave a strange hue to the place.

It was as if no time had passed there. The carved golden candlesticks were in their usual places, the ivory images as if they had just been polished. Only the slight fading of the tapestries spoke of the centuries that had passed since the Sanctuary had been open. Now only those of us who served could enter it.

I went deeper into the entrance hall, until I found the hidden stairs that would take me to the lower levels. There, the light seemed to turn everything into shades of gray, showing that I had crossed into Death’s domains. In the golden years of the Sanctuary that level had always been bustling, those who were sworn to the temple occupying all the rooms with their studies and tasks. Now, everything was empty…

I didn’t linger and kept going down, until I was in front of what I came looking for: the Nameless’ chamber. The doors were made of gold and black marble, following the same style of the Sanctuary’s entrance. But there were different symbols here, of final death. They weren’t always visible, and the fact that they were clear against the doors wasn’t a good sign.

I hesitated for a second before going inside, and the doors closed silently behind me. I tried to discern the Nameless’ silhouette in the strange light, the fog that was always present in the room coiling around my feet. He wasn’t visible, which allowed me a moment of relief. That meant he hadn’t fully recovered, hadn’t broken the first imprisonment as I feared.

Only then I moved deeper into the chamber, until the very back, where the large mirror stood on the wall. Its frame was of some kind of dark rock with silver veins, simple but refined, a work of art that I had always admired, even though it wasn’t there for its beauty. My image appeared, in a room that wasn’t full of fog, but I knew it wasn’t my reflection. After a couple of seconds where I didn’t move or speak, the image changed until it showed a shorter man, with long white hair in a braid, but who still looked young; maybe a man in his thirties with prematurely white hair. He was dressed in modern clothes, and for a moment I wondered at how he had been able to keep up to date with what was going on outside the Sanctuary.

“Hello, young man. I knew you would come back.” Even his voice sounded young.

“Yes, though maybe not for the reason you expected.”

“No. You came back to check my prison. But tell me, what will happen when I free myself from this mirror? Will one Keeper be enough to hold me here?

“I hope we won’t need to test it.” I replied, carefully avoiding his challenge. “But I think it would be enough, or you wouldn’t be trying so hard to get rid of me.”

“I wouldn’t try to destroy one of my own children.”

“No, you would have someone else do it. Death wouldn’t give powers to Seth, not after he abandoned the Sanctuary.”

“But not even Death can destroy you now.” He smiled, diverting the subject without confirming or denying my suspicions. “You managed to make a deal with the White Hand, and this is a surprise. I didn’t know my ungrateful daughter walked in life again, but her touch is clear on your protection.

White Hand? Ungrateful daughter? What was he talking about? I kept my expression impassive, but probably wasn’t fast enough to hide my surprise. With a slow smile, he went on.

“Don’t tell me she said she was just a Hand! No, my Kelene is far more than this, she is the White Hand the most powerful among all the Hands, the one charged with killing the most powerful spirits, and the only person to whom Death owes anything. I would really like to know what she made Death pay to have her back.

My Kelene? Ungrateful daughter?!

Kelene was the Nameless’ daughter? Was that possible? And the White Hand… That was something I believed, actually I already suspected it. But the Nameless’ daughter? My expression certainly showed my surprised, because he laughed.

“You became her ally, but she would never tell you the whole truth. Don’t you think is time to rethink your choices?”

He was baiting me, but I didn’t answer. Instead, I just made sure I would remember his words, as I needed to think about it all. I had no reason to stay there any longer, I needed to check the prison and had already done it.

“Wait, K’inich.” He noticed the signs that I was about to leave, and by his use of my old name I knew he wouldn’t say anything I would like. That name was long gone, forgotten, as was the man I had been. “Release me, and I’ll reward you. You can have you family and your people back. Erase the mistakes of your past.

I forced myself to meet his gaze for a moment. He knew exactly what my weaknesses were. My people was destroyed because of me. If I could change that, go back in time and don’t make those mistakes… But Kelene’s words were clear in my mind. “Anything he offers now will be only an illusion”. Keeping her words close, I turned my back to the mirror and left.

Lucio came back two days later, at sunset. I was sitting on the lawn, playing guitar and singing with the guys from the complex, but stopped as soon as I saw his face. It seemed my attempts to hid the truth had been useless. The Nameless had spoken about me, if I was reading Lucio’s expression correctly. Quickly, I passed the guitar to one of the guys and got up, barely hearing Alice’s comments about my haste.

I stopped in front of the building almost at the same time he did.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lucio asked, and I could hear the anger he was trying to hide.

“The last person who knew that much about me tried to destroy me. Do you really think I would tell me secrets easily after that? I sighed before continuing, making sure I didn’t sound so harsh. “Let’s go up.”

He nodded and we went up to my apartment. I was glad to notice he didn’t carry the Nameless’ mark. At least he hadn’t made any deal with him. It was a relief, I feared the Nameless’ plans for him.

I locked the door and sat down while he went to his bedroom. Lucio was probably still trying to understand all that the Nameless had told him. A couple of minutes later he came back, walking slowly, and sat down beside me.

“What are you, Kelene? Only a Hand?” He asked, his expression unreadable.

“No,” I gathered all my strength to be able to tell the whole truth. “I’m the White Hand, and the Nameless’ daughter.”

He stared at me, silent, and for a fleeting moment I saw the hurt in his eyes. Surprised, I realized what bothered him was that I didn’t trust him enough to tell my secret before, and not the fact that I was the Nameless’ daughter.

I didn’t know how to react to that. I never thought he wouldn’t care about who my father was, as everyone who knew what the Nameless had done hated everything connected to him.

But I knew how
I
felt about it.

“Do you think I’m proud of it? That I like knowing I’m the daughter of the man who almost destroyed everything humanity had built? That I’m proud of being the one who takes everyone who try to escape their deaths and follow their dreams for a little longer? Do you really think that, if I had any choice, anyone would know it? Do you…”

Wordlessly, Lucio pulled me to him and hugged me, not holding me so tight that I couldn’t move away if I wanted, but tight enough to make me feel wanted. I put my hands against his chest but didn’t move away. Instead, I tried to get my feelings under control. I don’t know for how long I stayed like that, but I didn’t move until I felt I wasn’t about to fall apart again.

“I’m sorry. I learned to accept what I am, but it doesn’t mean I like it.”

“Then learn to like it, Kelene, because that is what turned you into who you are today.” Lucio whispered, surprising me, and I nodded, knowing he was right.

“I’ll tell you the whole story.” I said, moving away and taking a deep breath. “Do you remember the last time the Nameless escaped?” In the Middle Age, using the chaos of that time to hide what he was doing.

“Yes”

“He is still human, despite the powers he stole and being immortal. When he escaped the last time he didn’t start killing straight away. He wanted to wait until Death stopped hunting him, and hid in a small village. There, he met my mother and they got married. She died in childbirth and he raised me until I was ten, when he decided he had waited long enough and disappeared from the village. I was lucky one of my mother’s friends accepted me in her home and took care of me.”

“This doesn’t make sense.”

I smiled. It wouldn’t make sense until he heard it all. And I wondered what would be his reaction when he realized we had met before.

“It was just after he left that I started to notice I wasn’t like everybody else. There was something different, something I could do and that no one understood, or even believe. I had inherited something more from my father, one of his powers. The elements obeyed me – it was subtle, but they
did
obey. Do you remember the fire circle?” I waited until he nodded. “I was making the fire follow us.”

“And you were singing one of the old chants, the ones used in the most powerful rituals.” He added softly.

I didn’t answer. He knew he was right.

“Back then, when I realized what was happening… It was a nightmare. That’s when I found out about the Otherworld. The Fae had a village hidden not very far from where I lived, in the woods. I don’t know how they discovered what I could do, but a young man from the village approached me one day, a sidhe. The Nameless had been gone for almost a year, and I thought I was going crazy. It was Avés, the same one you asked to protect me. The same one who always protected me, since then. He taught me how to control this power, and told me about what the Nameless had been doing since he left the village. All those meaningless deaths, villages and cities destroyed… And then, when Avés realized he was moving toward the Fae’s village, he asked for my help. I was fifteen then, a strange orphan no one wanted to marry.” I smiled. Now that sounded funny, but back then it had been all I could think about.

Kelene hid her shoes in a bush and went into the woods barefoot. Her adoptive mother would be mad if she saw her like that, after all, she was already fifteen and should behave if she wanted to get married. But she was going to the Fae’s village, hidden in the woods, and it would be rude to arrive there wearing shoes.

As soon as she was into the woods, the girls stopped and tied her skirts between her legs and above her knees, so that it wouldn’t get in the way, and almost run toward the village. They had sent her an urgent message, and she wondered what had happened, what was the emergency, as Avés had never sent a message like that before. Only when she was already on the edge of the flower fields that surrounded the village she released her skirts and slowed, now carefully choosing her path between the flowers.

Avés was waiting for her at the edge of the village, his expression telling her that there really was an emergency. He greeted her with a wordless hug and took her to the square in the middle of the village, where many other Fae waited.

“What happened?” Kelene asked.

“The Nameless is coming toward us.” Avés told her. “And this time, he will destroy us. We need your help to stop him.”

She hesitated, remembering how she had been happy with her father, how he had given her more freedom than any other girl her age ever had, and how he had talked to her as an equal. But she trusted the Fae, and trusted Avés. They had kept her sane when her father walked away. And, after everything her father had been doing… She sighed.

“What do I need to do?”