Lichgates: Book One of the Grimoire Saga (an Epic Fantasy Adventure) (13 page)

“What are you?!”

“Look, Twin, I’m sorry—”

“How—why did you make me relive that?”

“What did I just see?”

Twin’s wide eyes quivered until she threw an arm over her face to hide the tears. She pushed herself to her feet and used the wall to regain her balance before she bolted from the room, tripping over her own legs in the process. She ran out and left the door open.

“Twin! Wait!”

Kara’s body still ached, but she hurried for the door and stared out into the empty hallway. Thick red carpet with gold detail covered the floor. Red and gold wallpaper lined the walls, and countless wooden doors filled the corridor. Framed portraits of regal men and women in furs and silks hung in the space between each door, and two open staircases with thick railings descended from either end of the hallway. At the far end was a larger door, with green filigree etched into its frame. The air outside her room was still and undisturbed, without even a soul on the stairway. Twin was gone.

“I need to learn to control that,” Kara said to herself.

She slapped the doorframe in her frustration, but the thick wood swallowed the noise. She shut the door and headed for the bathroom, grabbing the dress as she walked by the mirror. A sash fell onto a pair of boots, so she grabbed whatever clothing she could find and threw it all in a pile in the restroom before she closed that door as well.

White tile covered the floor and walls of the bathroom, which held a tub, a wooden dresser with several drawers, and a sink. The bathtub was nestled into a corner of the room, its edges lined with perfumes and soaps. There was no faucet—no way to add water at all, actually—and yet it was somehow filled to the brim. She combed her fingers through the clear water and grimaced. It was lukewarm, just barely hot enough for a bath, but the dried blood on her arms and neck cracked with her every movement. The simple fact was that she smelled like old sweat and this bath was not just for her own benefit.

The topmost dresser drawer sat slightly open and contained two white towels, so she pulled them out and sat on the edge of the tub. She braced herself and began removing her bandages, the linen pulling at her healing cuts as she unwound each one. Tattered cloth after tattered cloth piled beneath her until all of her scabbed-over wounds were exposed. She unzipped her jeans, yanked off what remained of her shirt, and slipped into the water.

The lukewarm bath soothed the hot skin around her scrapes and cuts, even if it did make her want to shudder in discomfort. She leaned back and stared at the ceiling, reliving the murder that Twin had witnessed.

Kara had an unconscious guess that the woman had been Twin’s sister, though she didn’t know quite how she could tell. She had sensed a similar bond between Braeden and the woman in his memory; the jarring panic at their deaths gave the familial relationship away.

The man in Twin’s memory, however, remained a mystery. His skin had smoked, which suggested that he was a Stelian, but there was no way to know for sure unless Twin confirmed it, and that wasn’t likely to happen. Kara blew bubbles beneath the water to distract herself from the guilt.

Water lapped over her nose as she soaked. The currents flowing over her skin grew colder, until she finally couldn’t stomach it any longer and pulled herself out of the bathtub.

Droplets of water splattered on the white tile as she wrapped one towel around her body and rubbed her hair with the other in an effort to dry it as much as possible. She slipped into the green dress and tied the sash, doing her best to keep it from flopping, but each try made the tails more uneven. She gave up, took a deep breath, and opened the bathroom door.

Twin sat alone on the bed, her head hung, but blinked away her deep, heartbroken meditation as Kara walked into the room.

“What are you?” Twin repeated.

“I’m the Vagabond.”

The girl nodded and glanced Kara over. “I heard rumors about your return, but I never thought you would be a woman. The Vagabond is supposed to be a heroic warrior, and you, well—”

Kara scoffed and folded her arms. “Don’t flatter me or anything.”

Twin shrugged. “You forced me to relive the most horrifying memory I have, so I’m not altogether fond of you at the moment.”

“I can’t control it yet. I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you.” Twin examined Kara’s dress and forced a laugh. “You look ridiculous.”

Kara curtsied. “Thank you.”

The Hillsidian smiled and walked over. She set her hands on Kara’s temples. A rush of heat flew from her fingers, and the excess water in Kara’s hair evaporated with a hiss. Twin turned her around to adjust the hopeless sash.

“Thank you,” Kara said again, but she meant it this time. She ran her hands through her clean, dry hair.

“You’re welcome.”

“So, uh, is this a bad time to ask for pants?”

“I think it’s unbecoming for a woman to wear pants, but you are an exception, I suppose. Give me the chance to look for something. Few women wear pants here, so a pair that fits you won’t be easy to find.”

“Thanks, Twin.”

Kara looked over her shoulder to find the girl staring at the floor, her eyes out of focus while her hands tied the bow with practiced ease.

“That woman in my memory was my older sister,” she confessed in a soft voice. “My real name is Moranna, but everyone calls me Twin because I look just like her. Everyone loved her, since she was fierce and powerful, but she and I were always complete opposites. One of the Queen’s generals had promoted her days before she was killed.”

Kara swallowed her questions and let Twin speak. A year of silence weighed on the girl’s face, straining her voice and creating frustrated wrinkles on her otherwise smooth skin.

“We were walking along some trails beyond Hillside because she wanted to teach me not to fear the woods. Out of nowhere, she stopped talking and suddenly froze. I asked her what was wrong, but she shoved me into the bushes. And, well—”

“—and I saw the rest,” Kara finished.

“I haven’t left Hillside since.”

“Have you ever told anyone else about this?”

“Only the Queen and her generals. I was forbidden to say anything more out of fear that it would induce panic. I’m supposed to say she died on a mission.”

“I’m sorry.” Kara pulled the girl into a hug. Twin flinched, but when the memory didn’t return, she wrapped her arms around Kara and hugged back.

Tears sprung into Twin’s eyes again. “He murdered her for a key to the kingdom. That’s what scares me most.”

“Is that what that key on her neck was?”

Twin pushed away and slapped her hands over her mouth. Her eyes widened, and she gasped.

“I shouldn’t have told you that!”

“Does everyone have a key?”

“I—oh, Bloods,” she cursed and sat on the bed. “No. Only a select few are ever allowed the freedom to leave without Blood approval. If you want to explore the world outside, you have to have a guide with a key. Some people never leave Hillside in their entire lives.”

“Then I hope this place is bigger than it looks.”

“It is. I have to ask, though, why was I forced to relive that memory in particular?”

“I can’t control it, remember? I just see the moment that most defines who you are now. It just happens.”

“You should buy gloves, then.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Well, it’s only fair that you tell me your memory.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Kara laughed, but her smile faded. She couldn’t have told anyone her memory if she’d wanted to. She didn’t know it.

Someone knocked on the door and opened it before either of them could answer. Braeden looked in and paused, eyeing Kara as she stood by the window. He had a patch of gauze on his cheek. A bit of green bled through its center.

“Dresses become you,” he said.

“Well look at that.” Twin poked Kara’s rib and smiled. “Apparently, even girls who never wear dresses look good in them.”

With Braeden’s arrival, the dark lines on Twin’s face dissolved, and she laughed like she had when she first brought in the dress. Kara leaned back and caught her breath at how easily the girl had slipped back into her old self. The smile was forced, though, and her shoulders still slouched as she curtseyed and hurried through the door.

Kara pointed to the gauze on Braeden’s jaw. “What happened to your face?”

“Ah, right. Well, brothers fight a lot.”

“Why were you fighting, and why is it stained green?”

“We were sparring, and Hillsidian blood is green.”

She nodded at his subtle hint and kept silent. He must have gotten cut while they were sparring and used someone else’s blood to line the gauze after he healed too quickly. She wondered how he’d gotten the green blood.

“Would you be interested in a tour of the city, Kara?”

“Anything to get out of this room.”

She walked into the hallway, and he led her toward the large door at the end of the passage.

“Braeden, Twin knows about me.”

“How?”

“That weird memory thing I do.”

“
Bloods
. Please try not to touch anyone else, will you? That sort of knowledge over someone’s deepest thoughts could make people fear you. Touch only clothing. We might need to get you gloves.”

“Man, you too?”

He grumbled something she couldn’t hear and opened the door with the green filigree. She shielded her eyes at the sudden sunlight, waiting for her vision to adjust to the bright day outside. A platform extended a few feet from the threshold, and from there, a bridge crossed into the open air. The bridge’s ropes had been nailed to the trunk and glued with a rosy, gleaming substance.

The rope bridge ended in a massive tree, which rose into the sky across from her and was so wide that its edges were cut off as she stared at it through the doorway. Dozens of bridges crossed to it from various places above and below, swinging gently as Hillsidians walked along them. She glanced down to the ground at least sixty feet below, but when she glanced upward, the tree’s branches didn’t even begin for a hundred feet. Its leaves rustled in a massive canopy hundreds of feet above that.

“That must be the biggest tree in the world!”

“That’s the smallest of the five trees that make up the castle. We are standing in the largest one.”

“The castle is made of five trees this big? This is amazing!” She stared at the ground and giggled.

He laughed. “I like it, too.”

She raced out onto the bridge without testing it and stopped only when she was halfway across. The bridge swayed in small strokes beneath her, but it was the view that made her stomach churn with a rush of adrenaline and joy.

Two dozen roads stretched out from the castle like the rays of a sun, their edges lined with massive trees. Each tree was dozens of stories tall and as thick and round as a house, with windows that circled the trunk every ten feet or so to mark each new floor. Their branches pushed against their neighbors, creating a canopy that stretched in a perfect line along a bustling road that went on for miles.

The crisp, sweet air rushed along her face and nipped her neck. Hillsidians on the bridges waved to each other and shouted greetings before they slipped through the dozens of doors along the bark-covered castle walls.

“The Blood asked to speak with you, but the meeting isn’t supposed to start for another hour,” Braeden said, stopping beside her. “Let me show you a bit of my home.”

Ten minutes later, after more bridges and a maze of hallways, Kara followed Braeden out into the large cobblestone courtyard from which the city’s roads began. Each of the wide roads went on for a mile or more and ended in a tall golden gate in the distance. The courtyard itself, however, was massive and wide enough to encompass the main doors of two of the castle’s five trees. These two trees stood in front of the other three, so that the castle was a close-knit clump of bark and branches tied together with rope bridges.

Hundreds of Hillsidians walked through the courtyard, and thousands more strolled along its neighboring streets. Children ran through the crowds, ducking lightly around the throngs of people, while the shoppers meandered by the stores on each avenue and enjoyed the afternoon heat. The crowds were ablaze with gossip. Men and women alike grinned and sniggered as they chattered about everything and nothing all at once.