Rebel Revelations

Pain. Darkness. More pain. The memories of the past year blended into one another in a great rushing wave of torment that finally broke on the soft smooth linen shores of Iskendar’s royal infirmary. Kai emerged with a coughing squeal from dark dreams of imprisonment to find herself not shackled on a filthy cold stone floor, but lying on what had to have been the softest bed in all the world.

She looked about herself in a daze, noting that things certainly had taken a turn up for the books. Instead of slime dripping walls and the howls of other prisoners, there were warm wooden walls lined with shelves upon which potions and poultices were stacked. It was so quiet too, peaceful, the only sounds being the cheerful chirping of the love bird in a wicker cage by the window, and beyond that the low hum of Iskendar’s citizenry going about their daily lives.

“Good, you’re awake,” an elderly medicine woman dressed in light purple robes welcomed Kai back to the land of the living with a warm smile and a gentle touch. “You’ve come through the sickness well.”

Blinking in the low light of the afternoon, Kai tried to remember the recent past. There was an escape, a horrible sickness and Lucy. Oh lord Lucy. She’d thought she would never see her face again, and yet she’d come to her. The moment she’d heard of Kai’s freedom, she’d come to be by her side. She was still beautiful too, as beautiful, innocent and foolhardy as ever. For a year, the memory of Lucy had been the single thread by which Kai’s sanity and life had hung. To have laid eyes on her once more, to have been in her presence, it had been worth the escape, it had been worth everything.

Kai managed a smile through cracked, dry lips as the medicine woman helped her sit up in bed. “Take it easy, go slowly, you’re recovered from the illness, but it is going to take some time for your body to completely heal,” she said, handing Kai a bowl of delicious chicken soup. As she gazed at the broth in silent glee Kai saw real chicken pieces floating about. It was a far cry from the sloppy gruel she’d been occasionally fed in the dungeons and she discovered that contrary to her old assumptions, the desire to eat had not left her forever. She wasted no time in spooning the broth into her mouth, reveling in the sensation of good food traveling to her belly. It was only once her hunger was half sated that she found the inclination to inquire as to what was going on.

“How…” Kai only half formed the question but apparently that was enough for the medicine woman.

“How are you not in prison? You have Queen Rael to thank for that. She was not well pleased when she learned of your treatment. Lucien has had a great deal to answer for, ” the medicine woman said grimly, her wrinkled face taut with disapproval.

“Huh.” So Rael had come to her aid. A year too late, but better late than never, Kai mused as she slurped down her soup.

“You’re very lucky. A few more days and you might not have made it,” the medicine woman noted, sitting at the end of the bed with a benevolent expression.

Kai grinned as her mood soared. “It’s nothing to do with luck. It’s skill my dear, all skill.”

The medicine woman smiled at her, evidently amused at being called ‘my dear’ by her patient. “I am Illana.”

“I am Kai,” Kai replied. “Nice to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” the medicine woman’s eyes twinkled as she spoke.

Now that she was conscious and fed, there was but one cause on Kai’s mind. She must find Lucy, explain to her what had happened in the forest. There’d never been a chance. One moment Jach was holding her prisoner, the next he was dead, Lucy was carried away by the loutish guard and she’d been clapped in irons and tossed in the darkest cell Lucien could find for her. There were so many wrongs to be righted, and Kai intended to right them all.

“I want to go and find Lucy, can I see her?” She didn’t really care if she was allowed to see Lucy or not, she would see her regardless. Still, it wouldn’t do to annoy everyone immediately. The memory of the dungeons was still hideously fresh in her mind, encouraging caution.

“Try your legs first, the sickness can affect the muscles,” Illana cautioned.

Kai swung her legs out of bed and stood up unsteadily for a moment before her legs betrayed her and she sank down onto the bed once more.

“Am I to be a cripple!?” she exclaimed in dismay.

Illana shook her head. “I told you to take things slowly, did I not? Strength will return in time.”

“Bugger time. I need my legs now,” Kai muttered.

“Kai, please, rest,” Illana suggested, but Kai paid her no mind. The next few hours were spent standing and falling, standing and falling until at last Illana handed her a walking stick and bade her rest her weight on that. It was galling to be reduced to such measures, but it worked and Kai found herself able to limp along.

“I am told that Lucy spends a great deal of time in the courtyard these days,” Illana winked as she imparted the tip.

“Thanks,” Kai grinned, setting off at a slow limp. The courtyard made itself easy to find, being in the center of the castle, lined with spruce trees and flowers. It was the perfect isolated haven for aristocrats and royalty too spoiled to deal with nature outside towering walls, Kai thought scornfully as she limped towards one of the archways leading the the courtyard.

There were several people in the large open space, a space larger than the town square in the village where Kai had grown up. She saw a couple of ladies dressed in beautiful velvet gowns walking arm in arm across the velvet green grass carpet, a few fellows taking a fencing lesson with shouts of mock aggression, and over in the far corner, sitting on one of a circle of concrete benches, the top of a red head was visible bent over a heavy tome. Kai’s heart leapt. She would recognize Lucy anywhere, any part of Lucy, any time.

With a broad smile, she began to cut across the lawn to get to her beloved, her vision tunneling as she focused all her attention, all her will on making it to Lucy. The sickness had left her weakened, but every last ounce of energy was dedicated to being with the one she loved.

She was half way across the lawn when she ran into a solid dark object that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

“Ow!” Kai exclaimed as she stumbled back and shamefully lost her balance as her weak legs became tangled with her walking stick. She fell on her backside and glared up at the object, which had resolved itself into a tall blonde woman wearing the sort of black leather suiting Kai would have died for back when she was active in her trade.

“Watch where you’re going lady!” Kai exclaimed, trying to scramble up, but failing miserably. Clearly her legs had gone as far as they were going to go for the moment.

Cold blue eyes gazed down at her as the woman adopted an authoritarian pose, her hands on her hips, highlighting her strong muscled curves. “I think perhaps it is you who should watch where she is going.”

“I hobbled right into you, did I?” Kai sneered.

“As a matter of fact, you did,” the woman replied. “But that is not the pressing matter at hand, the pressing matter is who let you out of the infirmary?”

Kai frowned. The woman seemed to know who she was. “I let myself out actually, thanks for your concern.”

“Then you must be returned immediately, you could infect others,” the woman bent down to scoop Kai up, but stopped as Kai threatened her with the knobbly end of her walking stick.

“Illana said I could come out and see Lucy,” Kai declared through gritted teeth. “You will not stop me.”

As she crouched before Kai, the woman’s expression grew more vehement, her well formed mouth drawing tight and stony. “You will not be seeing Lucy.”

“The hell I won’t! Who are you to stop me?” Kai fumed.

The woman cocked her head. “You don’t remember do you?”

“Remember what?”

“The night of your little escape. The night you tempted Lucy out to the fields.”

Kai frowned, trying to remember. What had happened? It was mostly a blur of time spent trying not to dry retch, but slowly a memory did emerge from her mind, the memory of a strange female guard, a female guard who’d dropped like a stone after a quick dart to the neck.

“Ohhhhh,” Kai barely managed to restrain a grin.

“Ah, you do remember,” the woman replied. She was not smiling.

“I remember a fairly incompetent excuse for a bodyguard who managed to get herself dropped, I remember that,” Kai grinned broadly now. As impressive as the woman looked, she was no match for Kai.

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “You got lucky, urchin.”

“Oh, urchin, I’m stung,” Kai snapped back.

The woman shook her head. “You are fortunate you were not well enough to have been placed in my care along with Lucy.”

“I think you were fortunate, Lady,” Kai smirked. These Iskendari guards were all show and no substance. The number of times she’d slipped past these people whilst they stood there like stuffed animals was nigh infinite. “I’m going to see Lucy, you can’t stop me.”

“Oh yes I can.”

Kai shouted in outrage as the woman scooped her up and strode away with quick long steps out of the courtyard, hoping that Lucy would hear her, but Lucy’s head never rose from her book, it was as if Kai didn’t even exist.

“Put me down! You will pay for this!” Kai growled, fighting back tears of frustration as the woman carried her to the infirmary as if she weighed nothing at all.

The woman ignored her completely, indeed, she did not speak another word to Kai. She had plenty of words for Illana once they reached the infirmary however.

“I found this in the courtyard,” she said grimly, depositing Kai on the bed she’d woken up on that morning.

Illana waved her concern away. “And what of it Lady Constance?”

“I don’t want this one anywhere near Lucy. She is preparing for the lunar ceremony, she must not be disturbed.”

Kai’s ears pricked up at that. So they’d managed to bully Lucy back into pretending to be priestess, had they?

“I am not a jailer, I am a healer,” Illana said calmly. “Miss Kai has free reign of the castle as per the Queen’s orders, Lady Constance.”

Kai stifled a giggle as Illana emphasized the words ‘Queen’ and ‘Lady’. It was a delightfully subtle way of telling the overbearing blonde that she was outranked.

“We shall see about that,” Constance said grimly as she turned to Kai. “Don’t let me catch you near Lucy, girl.”

Kai smirked. “Oh I’m pretty sure you couldn’t catch a cold, let alone catch me.”

Constance loomed over her and for a moment, Kai felt a trickle of fear down her spine. She was still weak, too weak and this woman had the bearing of one who knew the value of ruthlessness. Kai could smell death on her, see it in her eyes, but it was not death she was being threatened with, rather it was the strong palms Constance was rubbing together with a hungry expression.

“You will keep, little girl,” she said eventually. “But I do not have time for this now. Heed my warning. I give it but once.” She turned and stalked out of the infirmary.

“Heed my warning, blah blah blah,” Kai mimicked at the closed door.

Illana smiled. “I would wait until you are quite well recovered before tangling with that woman. She is quite the force to be reckoned with.”

“Yeah?” Kai said, her eyes lighting up with the promise of a good battle. “So am I.”