A Warrior's Path (The Castes and the OutCastes) (46 page)

“Are you sure,” Amma asked.

Rukh Blended, disappearing from their vision.

“Oh, Devesh, what have you become,” Amma asked, looking horrified.

Rukh
instantly let go of the Blend.  His heart tightened with fear at her words and expression.  Would his own mother disown him?

Something in his face must have given
her insight into what he was thinking.  Amma stood and hugged him.  “I will always love you,” she said.  “No matter what happens.  Your abilities caught me by surprise, but I will never stop being your amma.”

“We all love you,” Nanna
said.  “You might be different in some ways, but what your amma means is we will always see you as our son.  Nothing can change how we feel.”

“You’re still my brother,” Jaresh said.

“And mine as well,” Bree vowed.

Rukh felt his heart unclench as his fears melted away.  His family still loved him.  They
always would.  He gave a great shuddering sigh of relief.  But then again, how would they react to the rest of what he had to say?

“There’s
more.” Rukh said.

“How can there be
more?” Rector asked.  “Isn’t your Tainting…”  He noticed the angry glares shot his way.  “Fine.  Isn’t this
change
in you more than enough for one person to experience?”

“I wish it was,” Rukh said, going on to explain
how he and the other Ashokans had tracked the Chimeras to the plains of the Hunters Flats.  “We had them all in our sight,” Rukh explained.  “The senior commanders of the Fan Lor Kum.  I was about to order a strike on them…”

“Just the four of you,” Rector asked, sounding dubious.

Rukh wished the man would shut up.  “Yes, just the four of us,” Rukh answered.  “We had the element of surprise.  It would have been a hit and run.”  He stared Rector in the eyes.  “And we could all Blend,” he said, willing the Watcher to acknowledge the tactical advantage of such an ability.  “We could have completely decimated the command and control of the Fan Lor Kum.  They would have been set back for years.”

“What stopped you,” Mira asked.

“The Queen arrived.  Suwraith Herself.”

“The
Sorrow Bringer was out there with you?” Amma asked, her eyes large.  “What were you thinking?  You should have run.”

“
Run where?  How?  She’s faster than any horse ever born,” Rukh said.  “Besides, we were Blended.  She couldn’t see us.  And learning Her orders seemed worth the risk.”

“And what did you learn?” Nanna asked
, his voice smooth as a silken throw.

“She has plans for Ashoka.  The Baels were ordered to breed up the Chim ranks.  She wants three Plagues ready by next spring to march on the city.”

“Devesh help us,” Mira breathed.

“And this is where it becomes confusing and unbelievable.”

“As if what you’ve already told us isn’t?” Rector asked.

Rukh sighed.
“Believe me.  It becomes much stranger.”  He explained what happened later, after Suwraith left.

“The
Baels plan on betraying Her?” Sophy asked in disbelief.  “How do you know this wasn’t some elaborate ruse on their part?”

“The Baels don’t
plan
on betraying Her,” Rukh corrected.  “They’ve already done so.  They have been actively undermining Her will ever since the fall of Hammer.  I know this because of what happened next.”

Bree mock-shivered
.  “I’m not sure I can take anymore.”

Rukh
smiled.  “You’ll have to, Princess,” he said, calling her by the old nickname he and Jaresh used to tease her with when they were children.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

Rukh grinned at the moment of levity before going on to describe all he had heard and learned after Suwraith left; all of it from Jessira’s appearance, to the battle with the Tigons, and the discovery of other ghrinas.  “They call themselves OutCastes, by the way,” Rukh said.  “They don’t call themselves ghrinas or abominations.”  And finally, he described the Queen’s return.

“Somehow She learned the
actions of the Baels.  It must have made Her even angrier than usual.  She ended up pouring Her madness into the Fan Lor Kum – all but the Baels.  We could hear the cries of Chimeras from ten miles away as they murdered one another.  During all of it, the Queen was sane.  She knew the Baels had betrayed Her, and when She returned to where we had come across them, She killed them all.  They were just gone.  It was like a giant fist had punched a hole in the ground.”

Nanna’s face was ashen.  “
Suwraith is sane?” he asked in dismay.

Rukh shrugged.  “I don’t know,” he said.  “She was when She killed the Baels, but afterward, maybe not.”

He continued his review of the prior four months, going over how the Ashokans and the OutCastes had saved the two Baels at the request of the SarpanKum, and how immediately afterward, the Shylows had attacked.

“Keemo and Brand died,” Rukh said, forcing himself to speak past the catch in his throat and the tears in his eyes.  “And the rest of us were scattered.  The Chimeras were everywhere.  I was lucky just to
escape.  Afterward, Li-Choke – one of the Baels we saved – said the Queen couldn’t use the Fan Lor Kum as a vessel for all of Her madness.  They would have kept on killing one another until they were all dead, and She would have become insane again.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” Jaresh replied.

“Neither do I,” Mira added.

“Anyway, Choke
thinks She is still insane, but less so than before.  He wasn’t able to say what it might mean long term, though,” Rukh said.

“And that’s everything, right?” Bree asked.

Rukh hesitated.

Amma noticed.  “There’s more?” she asked in disbelief.  “What else could have happened to you out there?”

“Jessira got clawed pretty badly during the Shylow’s attack.  The wounds got infected, and she was dying.  We were a few days from Ashoka, an area northeast of the Flats when one of the cats, a young female by the name of Aia, walked into our camp.  She taught me to Heal.  They call themselves Kesarins.”

Rector barked
laughter.  “What cats?  A Shylow?  And they call themselves Kesarins and know how to Heal?”  He sounded relieved.  “This has all been some kind of joke then.  Is that it?”

“Devesh save him, but he doesn’t look like he’s joking,” Sophy said with a grimace.  “Just tell us
the rest.”

Rukh described everything Aia had taught him about the Kesarin
s.  “They speak with their minds, but only a few like Aia can speak with other sentient creatures.  She took Jessira’s knowledge of Healing and passed it to me.  It’s how I saved her.”

Amma muttered a curse under her breath, while Jaresh studied
Rukh, an expression of disbelief on his face.

“And that’s everything?” Nanna asked, sounding hopeful, as if he couldn’t take any more surprises.

Rukh nodded.

Nanna leaned back in his chair looking stunned.  They all did.

The room was silent as the others tried to make sense of what Rukh had just explained.  His words overthrew just about everything they knew of the Fan Lor Kum, the Queen, the Baels, and the Kesarins, not to mention the existence of the OutCastes.  It was a lot to digest.

“
All this really happened?” Jaresh asked him.

“
Since I experienced it, then obviously, yes.”

“And her role?” Mira asked,
gesturing to Jessira.

“As I said, she was injured
when the Kesarins attacked.  She is from a city of OutCastes, a place called Stronghold.  I think it’s hidden somewhere in the Privation Mountains.  Her brother risked his life to save Farn’s.  I couldn’t do any less.”

“And Brand and Keemo are dead.  You’re sure of it?” Nanna asked.

Rukh nodded.

Nanna sighed.  “We have a lot to discuss,” he said.  “You and the…girl look worn out.  Get some rest, both of you.”

Rector stiffened.  “She has been Healed,” he said.  “We owe her nothing more.  The law is clear on this matter.  She should be removed from the city immediately.  Morality demands it.”

Rukh wanted to level him.  Sanctimonious prick.

Nanna rubbed his eyes.  “The law is clear, but the survival of our city is not,” he said.  “The Magisterium needs to hear of all of this, from Rukh’s lips as well as hers.”

“But…”

“But nothing, Bryce!  This is too important a decision for me to make on my own,” Nanna said, his voice rising, and Nanna rarely shouted.  “The Magistrates will decide her fate.”

Rector
looked like he wanted to continue to press his point, but Bree whispered urgently in his ear and eventually he nodded agreement with whatever she said, albeit reluctantly.

Rukh wondered what might be going on between his sister and the
Watch captain. He prayed the two of them weren’t in a relationship because right now, Rector Bryce was one of his least favorite people in the world.  And it looked like his feelings for the Watch captain were shared by at least one other person.  He had noticed the expression of distaste Mira had directed Rector’s way on more than one occasion.  At least Sophy’s daughter showed some good sense.

Amma stood and came to him.  “The girl needs fresh clothes.  She can borrow some of Bree’s.  The two of them are about the same height.”

His sister frowned, looking less than pleased, but nevertheless, she agreed.  “Fine,” she said, sounding irritated by the matter.  “I’ll take her to my room and she can try on a few things.”

“Make sure to burn them afterward,” Rector muttered.  At the looks of annoyance shot his way from Amma and Nanna, he threw his hands in the air.  “Fine.  Treat her as if she were a real person,” he said.  “But the First Mother and First Father tell us what her kind truly are.  As it is said in
The Word and Deed
: S
uffer not those who have lineage from two Castes.  Know them for the truth.  They are Ghrinas, abominations.
”

Jessira stepped
out from behind Rukh, glaring with revulsion and fury at Bryce.  “And
The Book of All Souls
tells us this:
Across the world, the Lord stretched forth His hand and caused Life.  And those whom he gave understanding, He named as brothers and sisters. 
I have knowledge, and I speak.  According to Devesh’s own words, I am a sister to everyone here,” Jessira said, glancing around before focusing her attention back on Rector.  “Or will you disobey the Lord Himself?” she challenged.

Bryce had no answer.  He turned away, his teeth clenched in anger.

Bree rolled her eyes as she turned to Jessira.  “Thank you for the philosophy lesson,” she said.  “Now cover your face.  None of the servants can know who you are yet.”

“You mean
what
I am,” Jessira snapped before turning to the others.  “I don’t care if you approve or disapprove of me.  Label me an abomination, a ghrina if you want to.  My people long ago gave up any hope that the Purebloods would show us even the smallest amount of charity. Say the word, and I’ll be gone from this fragging city before sunrise.”

Someone, Mira
maybe, inhaled sharply at Jessira’s words, no doubt scandalized by her use of vulgarity.  It was considered undignified for a woman to speak like that.  But Rukh was secretly proud of Jessira.

Rector was about to retort angrily, but Nanna merely glanced at him in warning, and he
subsided.

“The girl certainly has courage,” Amma murmured.

Bree snorted.  “If she wasn’t what she was, I think I might like her.”

*****

L
ater in the evening, after a long soak in a bathtub and a change into fresh, clean clothes, Jessira felt better than she had in weeks.  The Shiyen had cured her of most of the weakness and stiffness in her shoulder.  Even the aching was gone and it was no longer infected– a minor miracle. Rukh’s boasts about the Shiyens had proven to be true.  The cranky old physician had Healed her up and had even managed to save her arm.  She was more grateful than words could express.

He
r one concern – and it was a major one – was the city in which she found herself.

Ashoka.  From what she had seen so far, it was lovely enough
; far larger than Stronghold with wide streets and beautiful, expansive parks.  None of it mattered, though.  Not for her.  The nature of the place couldn’t be hidden away beneath a patina of loveliness.  In the end, Ashoka was still a city of Purebloods.  For Jessira, it meant the place was a cesspool.

And the
n there were the attitudes of the people here.  The Shiyen physician hadn’t seemed to care about Jessira’s background, but Rector Bryce and Sophy Terrell certainly had, and it had been in a hateful way.  And apparently Rukh’s sister, Bree, shared their attitude.  The clothes she had offered to Jessira had been given over without any pretense at good manners or courtesy.  The woman had rummaged around in her wardrobe for a bit and pulled out a pair of pants, a shirt, and an undershirt, throwing them in Jessira’ direction with a haughty warning not to dirty them.  Only for Rukh’s sake had Jessira held back from punching the girl.