The Reach Between Worlds (The Arclight Saga, Book 1) (19 page)

Patient 41

When Moira said Kadia was in a hospital, Taro expected a clean, bustling building full of doctors and nurses tending the sick. But this was no ordinary hospital.

The paint on the sigh outside was faded, and rust obscured what once had read clear as day: ‘Aldor’s Asylum for the Criminally Insane.’

The asylum sat on a hill outside of more populated areas. Its three buildings formed a perfect triangle, and fourteen chimneys bellowed smoke into the frigid air. Its façade cracked, its shutters hung off their hinges, and its bricks crumbled into a lawn piled high with snow.

A young nurse answered; she was a foot shorter than Taro, but at least ten years older.

“Yes?” she said, cracking the door just an inch. When she got a good look at him, she opened the door the rest of the way. “Magister?”

She apparently couldn’t tell the difference between a magister’s and an artificer’s uniform. He decided to use this to his advantage.

He puffed up his chest and tried to sound like he had some authority. “Is Dr. Halric in?”

“Dr. Bourne is attending right now. Shall I fetch him?”

“That won’t be necessary. I spoke with Halric a few days ago, and I’m here to see a Ms. Kadia Andurin about a new treatment we’ve been developing at the Magisterium.”

The nurse let Taro inside. The place was a dump; the ugly wallpaper peeled, and the floral carpet was dirty and frayed. The poor nurse looked horribly overworked, and her desk was overflowing with files and schedules.

She searched through them, speaking a mile a minute. “We haven’t had anyone from the Magisterium visit in years.”

As she gathered the records together, Taro approached the double doors opposite the reception desk. Muted screams and inane laughs filled the rooms on the other side.

“How many patients do you have here?”

“Forty-nine,” she said.

“How big’s your staff?”

“Six, not including the cleaners.”

“That doesn’t seem like much.”

“Tell me about it.” She finished her search and handed a bound stack of papers to Taro. “Here’s all we have on Kadia. She’s our youngest resident.”

The nurse opened the double-doors and lead Taro further into the asylum. Down the carpeted hall another attendant pushed a wooden cart with empty food trays on it.

“Stand directly in the middle,” she said to Taro. “Getting too close to the doors can get some of them excited. You don’t want them throwing anything at you.”

“Like food?”

“Like what used to be food.”

Taro followed behind her in a perfect line. “Does Kadia get many visitors?”

“There used to be a girl that stopped by. Blonde hair, green eyes, very pretty. She was training to be a magister, so maybe she just got too busy with her workload.”

“Does Dr. Halric see her?”

“Oh yes, all the time. She’s his favorite patient. She’s quiet as a church mouse for a week after he visits.”

There was an eerie silence about the entire building punctuated by patients hollering incoherently. They shouted through the tiny windows on their door: one man pleaded for them to let him out because his food was trying to eat him. One said that his skin was turning into bark, and that he was taking root to the floor.

They seemed well cared for. They had plenty of food and their rooms were regularly cleaned. Kadia was in room 14C. Hanging on the door was various information about her. Her age, 23, her name, and details on her psychosis. Her mother was listed as unknown, but her father was named Valros Andurin.

“Here we are, Patient 41. Will you need my assistance?”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“I’ll be across the hall if you need anything.”

She placed the key to Kadia’s room into his hand before she left. The walls inside were bare stone, the furniture and fixtures had been removed, and there was only a thin mat for sleeping tucked away in the corner. Kadia faced the wall with her arms wrapped around her knees. She rocked back and forth, muttering to herself.

“Rattle the cage, snakes in the skin, down to the wire, the cage doesn’t end,” she rambled. “Doctor, doctor, doctor. Why doesn’t it understand? No life. No light. Nothing.”

Taro inched towards her. “Kadia,” he said softly.

She turned sharply and glared up at him. From this angle, he saw long black tattoos covering the tops of her arms and around her collarbone. They were identical to Vexis’ and seemed to be some sort of profane magistry, altogether unsettling.

Taro picked a lock of the hair from the floor. “What are you doing to yourself?”

“Once he’s inside you, you have to lose something.”

Taro spoke loudly, hoping some hidden bit of sanity might peak from her broken mind. “I need to ask you a question about Vexis.”

At the mention of her sister, Kadia went rabid. She screamed at the top of her lungs, and her face turned red. She covered her ears and beat her head against the wall. “She never got rid of him. He talks all the time. I hear him.”

Taro crouched beside her. “What does he say?”

Kadia’s eyes darkened. “He wants her to kill them all. Kill... kill... KILL... KILL THEM ALL.”

Taro took one step back, and glanced sideways at the door.

“You don’t believe me.” Kadia collapsed onto her stomach. “He said no one would.” She banged on the side of her head with her fist. “It won’t stop. The voice from the Reach.”

“What did you say?”

She continued to bang her head, and Taro stepped towards the door. Just as he grabbed the knob from behind his back, she leapt to her feet and seized him by the throat. Her templary was fairly strong for being years out of practice. She easily could’ve rip the throat from his neck. Instead, she rubbed his cheek and put her head onto his heart.

“You need to see.”

“I’m just stepping out for a second. I’ll be right back.” He tried to stay calm and polite.

Kadia placed her hand over his mouth. Tears swelled in her eyes. “I have to give myself to him so you can see.”

A thick, back shadow slithered from her fingertips. It was identical to Vexis’ shadow magic. It crept up her arms and into her mouth and eyes. She gurgled and screamed as it entered her pours. When it consumed her, she fell back and cradled her face.

Taro pulled at the door, but it didn’t budge. The room was suddenly freezing cold; the walls iced over and Taro could see his own breath. There was an aura about the room, a crushing darkness that surrounded him like an ocean.

Kadia scurried up the wall and perched in the corner. Her face was wreathed in shadow and her eyes shined out of the darkness like two yellow fog lights. Her lips moved and a voice came, but it wasn’t hers. A blood-chilling voice spoke through her.

“Valon uru danik-es.” It was some form of ancient Deific.

Realizing the door wasn’t going to open, Taro summoned the strength to speak. “What are you?”

Kadia crept along the walls, leaving a trail of shadows behind her. She was now so close it could’ve reached out and touched him. Her teeth were like razors, and her face was like a bottomless pit.

“Don’t hurt me,” Taro said. He was a hair away from begging. “I work for Vexis. I’m on your side.”

It stopped and tilted its head. “Ith-harus.” It got into a stance like it was about to pounce, but before it could the door opened and light poured into the room. Someone pulled Taro out by the arms, while another slammed the door.

Taro felt like he’d come up from a deep-sea dive. His chest heaved, and his skin regained its color. The nurse checked his pulse, and helped him up.

Dr. Halric smacked Taro’s his cheek with his wrinkled hand. “Snap out of it, boy.” When he settled, Halric glanced at the nurse. “Leave us. You didn’t see anything.”

She didn’t hesitate to comply, as if she was used such requests.

“Do you have a death wish?” Halric asked.

Taro’s eyes were still in a haze.

“She’s a paranoid schizophrenic and a tribune-level artificer,” he continued. “I don’t know how you found out about her, but had I not been here you she would’ve ripped you apart.”

“I didn’t know Vexis had a sister.”

“I’ve been working with her to try to bring her back from her madness. If Vexis knew you were here, I doubt she’d very forgiving.”

“Are you going to tell her?”

Halric crossed his boney arms. “Not this time. I will give you one warning and one warning only: forget about her. Forget about this place. Never return. Is that clear?”

Halric didn’t need to ask. Why would anyone want to come back to a place like this?

“I trust you know the way out,” he said.

Taro staggered down the hallway past wailing patients.

“Wait,” Halric called. Taro turned to face him. “Did she say anything?”

The words blazed through Taro’s mind. Though he didn’t, he’d never forget anything that awful voice said.

“No. Nothing.”

Proper Endrans

Taro woke to his bedroom walls shaking under the weight of someone pounding at the door. He slid out of bed in a weary daze and searched for a clean shirt. It had to be 4 o’clock in the morning.

The knock came again, louder this time. Three warders waited for him on the other side. Taro fumbled to get his shirt on and look slightly presentable.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“You’re Taro?”

He nodded. “Is there something wrong?”

“We’re to escort you to the Magisterium for court martial.”

Taro felt like he’d just downed a gallon of coffee. He was now completely awake and his mind raced. Had his connection to Vexis been discovered? His cheating in the trial?

He forced himself to appear calm. “What are the charges?”

“Everything will be made clear once we get to the Magisterium.” The head warder moved from the doorway. “Please follow me.”

The warders were strangely polite and made no attempts to restrain him. Taro even got to ride in the unlocked window seat of their carriage. The court martial chamber was arranged like a circular theater; there were four rows of wooden seating on an incline overlooking a single chair in the center. The chair had restraints on the arms and legs, and a strap that went around the chest.

The outer rows were packed with tired magisters finishing off tall mugs of coffee. Ross sat at a raised podium, leafing through mountains of papers.

The Sun King sat tucked between two warders. His face was gray and his eyes bloodshot. Kyra was two rows in front of him, craning her neck to check on him.

Ross stared down at Taro. “Take a seat.”

Taro’s body shook as he approached the chair in the middle of the room.

“Not there,” Ross corrected. “You may sit with the magisters.”

Kyra made some room for him to sit beside her.

Ross cleared her throat. “Bring in the accused.”

A warder escorted Sikes into the antechamber. His hands and feet were in shackles, and he looked like he’d taken quite a beating. The warder unlocked him from his restraints, only to force him to sit and latch him into new ones.

“Mr. Sikes is accused of high treason,” Ross said.

“It’s the Vexis fiasco all over again?” Magister Briego said.

“I’ve long suspected a cancer in the Magisterium. I believe Mr. Sikes has been working for Vexis all along.”

“You have evidence of this?” the Sun King asked.

“Vexis and Mr. Sikes are both Helian. Sikes is, in fact, the only Helian currently in the Magisterium.”

Kyra looked incredulous and spoke out of turn. “That’s not a crime.”

Ross ignored her. “Taro, you and Mr. Sikes are both from Ashwick, are you not?”

“Yes, Imperator,” Taro said.

“Did you know him before his admission into the Magisterium?

“I’d seen him around town.”

“Did he have a job?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“In fact, according to the authorities in Ashwick, not only has Sikes never held work, but his parents have been dead for many years. Despite this, he was somehow able to afford a fifty crown tuition. I don’t know about the rest of you, but that strikes me as odd.”

“I’ve had financial troubles too.” Taro realized that maybe drawing suspicion to himself wasn’t the wisest idea.

“I know about your troubles,” Ross said. “And you’ve certainly not been legitimate in some of your dealings — pawning a book that didn’t belong to you, for example.”

Taro’s face went red. He was suddenly very glad Moira wasn’t there.

“Or your aurom. Yet, you acquired work at Crissom Foundry. You pushed to pay off your debts. These things are not uncommon amongst recruits of lesser means.”

Ross fished the promissory note Mr. Mathan gave Sikes. “Tuition paid for in full by a man named Victor Mathan.” She held up another piece of vellum. “This was Vexis’ promissory note during her time here. They’re identical.”

Taro finally understood something Mathan had said long ago: “You both look like fine, upstart children. Those Helian slum-kids attract too much attention, but you’re clean, you’re well-spoken. Proper Endrans.”

Mathan’s entire reason for choosing them was that they wouldn’t attract attention. If that were the case, why would he allow a Helian to come along? Why pay for his tuition but not theirs? The reason was frightfully simple: Sikes was the fall guy.

“Maybe you should bring Mathan in for questioning then,” the Briego said.

The Sun King leaned forward in his chair. “This seems like flimsy logic to accuse a promising young artificer of treason.”

“We haven’t gotten to the meat of the evidence yet.” Ross stepped from her podium clutching the same orb she’d shown the recruits at the beginning of their trial. She unlatched a tiny opening on the side, slid out a smooth green crystal, and replaced it with a new one.

Rays of light shot from it and reproduced the trial area in remarkable detail: Taro stood opposite of Sikes. Sikes held the blade to his neck and just before he could stab himself, Taro smashed the artifact. This was the point that Taro had lost consciousness.

The image paused and Ross spoke again. “As you can see, at this point Mr. Sikes has been released from the effects of the artifact. Can you confirm that, Taro?”

“I can’t tell you what his state of mind was,” Taro said.

“What about your own?”

“The hallucinations I saw disappeared when the artifact was destroyed,” Taro conceded.

The recording continued. Sikes walked up to Taro’s unconscious body, checked his pulse, and went straight to the back of the room. He yanked a panel off the wall, exposing power nodes and crystalline circuits. He slipped an object out of his pocket and attached it to the nodes. The recording ended.

Ross pulled the mouth strap off of Sikes. “We recovered the device you planted. It caused the blackout that facilitated Vexis’ escape. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Sikes kept his mouth shut.

“No defense? Then I have a question.” Ross held up the device Sikes had used to sabotage the power node. It had a smooth white case, and two copper bars jetting out the sides. It looked very much like the device Aris had given him to break into Ross’ office. “Where did you get this?”

For a fraction of a second, Sikes’ eyes met Taro’s. Sikes was many things, but he was no idiot. By now he’d already figured out everything Taro had. This was the way Mathan designed it all to unfold, and there was nothing either of them could do to change it.

Sikes swallowed hard. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”