The Threshold Child (25 page)

Adesina wanted to shake them and demand that they tell her what
they saw. She was so tired of unanswered questions and repressed doubts. If
anyone could help her piece together the puzzle of her life, it would be these
people who bore an uncomfortable resemblance to herself.

The silver haired man spoke in a voice that relayed his disbelief,
but it was in the language he had used earlier. “Rabeth!”

Against her better judgment, Adesina replied quietly in the common
tongue, “I do not understand.”

The golden haired man’s expression turned from troubled to
thoughtful. For a brief moment it seemed as if his eyes were glowing. She was
reminded that her prisoners were magic users, and she tensed to defend herself.
When nothing happened after several moments, she relaxed slowly. One of them
seemed about to speak, but Adesina deliberately turned her back on them to
discourage any hope of discussion.

She kept her hands and eyes busy as her mind turned over the
situation, trying to make a decision. At one point the silver haired man
whispered a question to his companion and was given a slow shake of the head in
return.

As time passed, Adesina grew increasingly anxious. Ravi remained a
distance from the prisoners, refusing to look her in the eye. Adesina’s two
most dominant thoughts kept fighting for her attention. One said that she had
to contact the Shimat, the other said she needed to talk to Ravi. Maybe he had
some answers.

Neither thought was able to win over the other, and so Adesina
continued to sit frozen in inaction. It had almost become unbearable when an
alarm sounded in the back of her mind.

Something was wrong.

She looked at her prisoners’ body language. It was tense,
expectant. Then she detected the almost silent approach of something behind
her. Adesina eased a dart from her belt and took a calming breath. She shut out
all distractions, focusing solely on the one…no, two figures creeping up behind
her. She pulled another dart from her belt.

She took a very careful mental aim and spun around, letting her
darts loose. The first mysteriously flew off course at the last moment, as if
caught in a strong wind. The second struck the younger of the two in the
shoulder rather than the chest, where she had been aiming, but the effect was
the same. He looked stunned for a moment before toppling forward.

Adesina snatched her last dart and was about to throw it when a
huge invisible force flung her backwards. She would have gone a good distance
if she had not collided with the large tree beside her captives.

She hit her head as she fell, and she could feel a trickle of
blood down the side of her face. She had not felt any bones break, however, and
her initial reaction was to get back on her feet. Her limbs felt strangely
numb, and she found that she could not move as quickly as normal. She looked
down and saw her own dart sticking out of her arm.

Adesina pulled it out as quickly as her drugged mind allowed, but
it was not fast enough. She struggled to stand, and found that she couldn’t.
Her vision was fading rapidly, and her actions were sluggish. Her last coherent
thought was that she had to find some way to regain the upper hand before
losing consciousness. Then all went black.

Adesina awoke to find herself in a small windowless room. She took
a breath to clear her mind before assessing the situation. The wound on her
head had been carefully bandaged, implying that her life wasn’t in immediate
danger. Her captors wouldn’t bother to care for her injuries if they intended
her harm. However, that could change quickly. Her wrists and ankles were
heavily shackled, and her scarf and hood had been removed. Adesina sat up
carefully and checked herself to see if any of her tools or weapons had been
overlooked.

Nothing. Even the lock pick she kept in her boot was gone.

As she finished this search, the door opened to admit the young
silver-haired man and the older man who had apparently knocked her out. The
older man looked quite similar to the man that Adesina had captured. She
guessed that they were brothers, or some other close relation. He was probably
in his early forties, with a face that spoke of much experience and sorrow.
Like the golden-haired young man, he wore a black ribbon around his neck.

Both men surveyed her suspiciously, even hostilely. The older man
took a small step forward to speak. “What is your name, Shimat?”

Adesina carefully got to her feet, and stood with her arms folded
across her chest. The weighty shackles hindered her movements, but she ignored
their sharp clinking. She raised her chin slightly and glared at them, proud
and silent—daring them to underestimate her.

“Are you choosing to not cooperate?”

His voice was ominous, but Adesina was not intimidated. Part of
her final year of Shimat training had included how to withstand torture.

The young man placed a hand on the older man’s arm, and the older
man responded by taking a step back. The young man extended his other hand,
which held the dagger that Horas had given Adesina.

“Where did you get this?”

He caught the flicker in Adesina’s eyes and looked as if he had
his answer. “This dagger belonged to my father. A man that looks very similar
to him.” He pointed to the older man, studying Adesina’s face intently. “Have
you seen the man I describe?”

She still refused to speak, and continued to glare at them
stubbornly. So what if the man she captured had a son and a brother? She was
not concerned with the families of dangerous cult members.

There was a soft knock at the door, which was answered by the older
man. There was a murmured conversation, and then the door was swung wide open.
The golden haired young man stood framed in the doorway. He spoke with a voice
of authority to the two men who were questioning the young Shimat.

“Before you continue your questioning, there is someone you need
to see.”

He stepped back and gestured for this unseen guest to enter. Ravi
walked into the room, and the silver haired young man stared in astonishment.

“Ravi!”

Adesina was completely dumbfounded. “You can see him?” she
blurted.

An idea seemed to take hold in the young man’s mind. His brow
furrowed as he spoke. “Ravi, dear friend, what are you doing here?”

The Rashad gave his feline smile. “Before I can answer any
questions, E’nes, I must ask that you release this young woman. I cannot allow
even you to hold her captive.”

The older man immediately shook his head. “Absolutely not. She is
too dangerous to be set free.”

Ravi gave him a questioning glance. “Is my word not enough
assurance?”

The golden haired man intervened. “The word of a Rashad always
bears weight, but she is a Shimat. You cannot control her actions, and we do
not know if her words bear the same honor as yours.”

Her guardian did not argue anymore, even though it was clear by
his expression that he did not agree. The shackles on Adesina’s wrists clanged
conspicuously as she dropped her defiant pose. Her purple eyes locked on Ravi’s
golden ones.

“Why can they see you?”

“Because they are accustomed to seeing me.”

Adesina felt her throat constrict. “You are one of them,” she
accused.

He cocked his head slightly to one side. “As are you.”

Part of her had known that this revelation was coming, but she
didn’t want to hear it. She shook her head obstinately. “That is impossible.”

Ravi turned his attention the three men in the room. “Lords of the
L’avan, I present to you the daughter of E’rian.”

Disbelief flooded the room and shone on every face. Adesina stood
stricken, trying to comprehend that Ravi had been a spy this whole time and
that he was now telling them about her Dreams of her mother.

The one called E’nes was staring at Adesina with an impossible
spark of hope springing to life in his eyes. The older man still looked
suspicious, but his expression also was pained. The golden haired young man
merely looked sad.

E’nes was the first to speak. “I should have seen it before. You
look very much like her. But after all these years, I did not dare hope.”

The young Shimat felt a sense of dread rising. “You knew E’rian?”

His eyes searched her face, taking in each of her features that
bore a resemblance. “She was my mother.”

“So that would make you my…”

Adesina couldn’t say it. She didn’t want to say it. She didn’t
want to be connected to any of these people. Not after what she had been told
by Kendan.

“Brother.” E’nes whispered in amazement.

He moved towards her, but Adesina took an instinctive step back.
He stopped, looking sad but understanding. “My name is E’nes.” He pointed first
to the older man, then to the golden haired man. “This is Ri’sel, our uncle,
and this is L’iam. He is…an old friend, and the leader of this company.”

Both men wore unreadable expressions, but nodded to Adesina when
their names were said. E’nes turned back to his newfound sister. “What is your
name?”

After a moment of debating, she decided that it wouldn’t matter if
they knew her name. It took some effort for her to get her voice to work.
“Adesina.”

E’nes looked at her hesitantly. “You know, Mother had chosen a
name for you. It was Ma’eve.”

Adesina’s glance flashed towards Ravi for a fraction of a second
before setting her jaw. “I do not care. My name is Adesina.”

The young man nodded quickly. “Of course. I just thought you might
like to know.”

Ri’sel broke in with a hardened voice. “You say you are the
daughter of E’rian, but what proof do you have to offer?”

E’nes was surprised by the hostility in Ri’sel’s voice. “Uncle!”

“We have seen some of the experiments that those
people
have
performed. How do we know that she is not simply another one of their
creations?”

Adesina’s temper flared. “You say that as if we were barbarians.”

“The Shimat are a plague on this earth,” he spat.

Her expression became murderous. “We are warriors—keepers of the
peace. You may not agree with our tactics, but I would choose the Shimat a
hundred times over before your
cult
.”

Ri’sel was about to retort when L’iam’s strong voice cut in. “We
are not a cult, Adesina,” he explained gently. “We are simply a race different
from the rest of the world. They do not understand us, and therefore they are
afraid of us.”

The silence in the room was heavy. Adesina shook her head,
indicating confusion.

L’iam took a deep breath. “We are magic users, but we are still
human. Outsiders do not understand our gifts, so they attribute them to dark
alliances.”

The skeptic in Adesina began to rise. “Dark alliances?”

“Evil spirits and so forth,” he clarified. “However, nothing could
be further from the truth. We are born with our gifts, and we are very careful
in how we use them. We are not the evil oppressors that the Shimat say we are.”

Adesina didn’t know how to respond. Part of her was planning an
escape, and another part of her yearned for the answers she had been craving
her entire life. She carefully weighed her desire for information against her
compulsion to free herself. Curiosity won out in the end, and she reasoned that
she could always escape later.

E’nes saw the slight softening in her expression and tried
speaking again. “I was five years old when my mother disappeared. I never got
the chance to say goodbye. I always wondered what happened to her…”

She didn’t really want to give any more information than she had
to, but decided that there was no harm in sharing the story of her mother.
After all, they would probably be more likely to share information with her if
she seemed just as willing.

“I was told that she was found wandering not far from the Shimat
fortress. She was very ill and close to giving birth. The Shimat took her in
and cared for her until I was born. Just before she died, she said my father
would come for me.”

A quiet murmur went through the room, but Adesina was too
distracted to take note. Her eyes fixed on the dagger in E’nes’s hand—the one
that Horas had given her. E’nes had told her that it belonged to her father,
the man she had been searching for her entire life. The man she had turned over
to the Shimat with barely a second thought. Little had she suspected that by
achieving one of her life’s goals she would be betraying another.

 
“Father,” she whispered.

Her brother saw the direction of her gaze and lifted his hand
slightly. “Did you see him taken?”

The young Shimat felt numb. “I was the one who took him.”

L’iam leaned forward urgently. “Where is he?”

Adesina stared into his gold and green eyes without really seeing
them. “I turned him over to my superiors. He could be anywhere by now.”

The three men began quietly conversing in their native language.
Ravi bumped his head against her hand, trying to comfort her.