The Ring Keeper, page 29
She was going to have a baby.
Allia collapsed onto the bed and cried. What was she going to do? Haldreth had fathered this child. What would he do when he found out? Allia was a prisoner, trapped in this room. Would he continue to hurt and manipulate both of them? Or would he take the baby away from her and raise it to be just like him?
Allia sat in a chair, looking out the window. Spring was passing, and her condition had become obvious. Despite the circumstances, she loved the baby growing inside her.
She hadn’t seen Haldreth since she had showed him the gate pin months ago, before the snow melted. The absence of his visits to her room had been a blessed relief, but what would he do when he found out she was pregnant?
The sound of the door being unlocked startled her out of her thoughts. Then Haldreth entered her room, unannounced as usual and without knocking.
She pulled a blanket into her arms, clutching it against herself as she stared at him. He came nearer.
“Get up,” he ordered, pulling her to her feet.
Haldreth pulled the blanket away and stared at the curve of her belly. He laughed. “So it’s true. I heard from the guards. Didn’t you want to tell me the good news yourself? This is… perfect.”
Allia stared back at him, saying nothing. If he was happy about her pregnancy, that couldn’t be good for her.
“Don’t worry,” Haldreth said. “People have babies every day. There’s an excellent midwife in the village. I’ll send her to see you.”
When he’d gone, Allia couldn’t think of anything except what Haldreth was going to do to them. Of course, he would weave this into his plans.
To Allia’s surprise, Haldreth kept his word. A few days later, he sent the midwife to see her. She was a tall woman, wearing the plain dress of a villager. Her hair was dark, streaked with gray, and her face was lined with experience.
After spending some time with Allia, she reassured her, “Everything’s going to be fine, my dear.”
The midwife’s gentle expression and calming presence made Allia’s eyes fill with tears. How long had it been since anyone had been kind to her?
“You don’t understand. Everything is not fine. I’m a prisoner here, and I need help.”
“I didn’t realize…”
“Please, is there anything you can do?”
The midwife put her hand over Allia’s, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I will try.”
Allia watched her leave, feeling the first spark of hope she’d felt since coming to Hakvere.
Over the next few weeks, the quality of the food Haldreth provided improved. He must want Allia to have a healthy child.
The long weeks passed slowly, and the time for the baby to arrive drew near. Allia wished bitterly for some means of escape, but she was in no condition to run away. The sympathetic midwife was a comfort to her, but had found no way to get Allia away from the fortress.
“Can you take the child with you when it’s born to keep it out of Haldreth’s hands?”
Shaking her head, the midwife said, “He’ll find me and kill my family. I’m sorry. I wish there was more I could do.”
Giving birth to the child would only make Allia and the baby both more vulnerable to Haldreth. But what else could she do?
One summer morning, she woke to feel a pain in her belly. It eased after a few moments, but then it returned. As the pains came and went, ever closer together and increasingly more intense, Allia knew the baby was coming.
She went to the door and pounded on it. There would be a guard there. She had never tried to ask Haldreth’s men for anything, but now she called for them to bring the midwife. No one answered, and she waited a long time as the pains came and went.
The midwife arrived in the middle of the worst pain so far. Allia was panting, her hands clutching the bedding. The woman came through the door and walked to her bedside. After checking her over, the midwife put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Breathe. Just breathe, my dear. It will be all right.”
Allia did her best to obey.
The woman walked back to the door and knocked for the guards again. “Bring hot water,” she instructed them. She returned to Allia’s side. “It won’t be long now.”
The labor pains came and went, ever increasing in magnitude and frequency. Allia had used the ring enough to know what life-threatening pain felt like. “Am I dying?” she asked the midwife.
“No, dear,” the woman said. “But the baby will be here soon, and then it will be over. Keep breathing. Try to relax.”
Relax? She couldn’t be serious. Allia clutched handfuls of the blanket in her fists as she pushed. Everything seemed to be happening from a distance, except the pain. It shoved other things into the background and continued to worsen until it suddenly eased. As Allia lay back, trying to catch her breath, she heard a baby crying.
Her baby. She struggled to lift herself and saw the midwife cleaning and wrapping a tiny wriggling body. “You have a daughter.”
When the midwife wrapped the child and put her in Allia’s arms, Allia felt the first scrap of joy she had known since she came here. The baby was so beautiful. Her tiny fingers were perfect, her face lovely. Soft, downy hair covered her head. She looked up at Allia with wise, calm eyes, and when Allia held out her finger, the baby seized it with a surprisingly strong grip.
“You’re beautiful,” Allia whispered. “Cirana. My Cirana.”
For several days, Allia rested and enjoyed caring for her baby. Haldreth had not appeared yet, but she knew he would come.
When Cirana was two weeks old, Haldreth entered Allia’s room, unannounced as always. A stout woman with a grim face followed him.
“I am working on something important,” Haldreth said. “And I will require your services.”
“My services?” she asked, holding her baby a little closer. This was exactly what she’d feared. What was he working on?
“Come with me,” he commanded. “Give me the child.”
She didn’t want to do it, but he would only force her if she refused, and tiny Cirana might be hurt. Reluctantly, she handed him the child. He looked at the baby with interest for a moment. “Is it a boy or a girl?”
“A girl. I named her Cirana after my grandmother.”
“How touching,” he said sarcastically. He brusquely handed Cirana to the grim-faced woman. “She will be taken care of while you are gone. Come with me.”
With her stomach clenched in fear, Allia followed him out the door. He led her down many stairs and dark passageways, past what appeared to be dungeons and caverns, until they came to a large, dim room. She had never seen this part of the fortress before. A fire lit one end, and someone had pushed the furniture against the walls. Flickering candlelight created shadows around the room, which was dominated by a large black circle, four or five paces across, painted onto the stone floor.
It was an unpleasant place, and Allia became even more afraid when they entered, even though everything was quiet and there was nothing obvious to fear.
Haldreth shut and locked a heavy wooden door behind them, then pointed to a chair against the wall. “Sit down,” he said. “It will be nightfall soon. Everything is almost ready.”
She sat down in the chair. “What…” Her voice faltered. “What are you going to do?”
“I am about to achieve power beyond imagining, power to defeat anyone who stands in my way. And you’re going to help me.”
Allia jumped to her feet. “No! I won’t!”
Haldreth reached for her shoulder and pushed her back into the chair. “Yes, you will.”
“No!”
“Remember your child upstairs, and you will do as I ask.” The threat behind his words was plain.
“Haldreth, she is your child too. You wouldn’t hurt her?”
“I will do what I must to convince you to help me.”
“But she’s an innocent baby!” Allia cried. How foolish she had been to think he might care, even a little, for the child he had fathered.
“I will do what you force me to do,” Haldreth said. “No one will stand in my way. Not you, not the child. I need the power of the ring. If you refuse to help me, you are expendable. I am prepared to find out what happens when someone else wears it.”
He had won. Allia knew it, and so did he. She couldn’t bear to see her baby hurt. The last thing she wanted was for him to gain more power, but he’d threatened her with the one thing that would truly force her to obey.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked in a small voice, staring at the floor.
Haldreth laughed. “I knew you’d see reason. You will stay close to me,” he said. “And you will be silent, watching and waiting. I will perform the ritual that will bring a creature of dark power into being. Do not touch it or let it touch you. Make sure nothing breaks the circle. The ritual will tear open my heart, and you will use the ring to heal me. You must do it quickly, for this dark creature will be under my control alone, and only I will be able to prevent it from killing you. If I do not return alive and well by midnight, my soldiers will kill the child. You cannot let me fail.”
Icy dread settled on Allia like a weight. As she came to stand by Haldreth, she could sense his triumph and iron determination. He spoke words she couldn’t understand and took out a familiar black cylinder, gripping it in his hand. The gate pin. Haldreth must have discovered how to use it.
His voice droned on and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, a look of concentration on his face. She heard a strange sound, like someone screaming a long way off. She couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but the sound terrified her. Afraid to move or speak, she waited, and Haldreth’s chanting continued, growing louder as the shrieking grew closer.
The air in the center of the circle shimmered. As Allia looked on, terrified, a spot appeared, growing into a hole in the air just above the center of the circle. The sound came from it.
The voice screamed in fury while Haldreth kept speaking, concentrating on that spot. He trembled.
The fissure grew, and Allia glanced from it to Haldreth, hoping he would fail in this unholy attempt but sure that his failure would kill them both. But then she thought of Cirana. Her infant daughter’s life depended on her, and she couldn’t let him fail.
Haldreth was bleeding. He had opened a wound in the air that was reflected in his own flesh. Blood soaked through the front of his shirt.
Something moved in the hole, and slowly, a large black shape emerged. It shrieked in rage. There were words in its cry, but Allia couldn’t understand them. The sound of its voice sent shivers through her.
As the creature emerged, Allia sensed a terrifyingly empty darkness unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. The figure craved to consume every living thing. What else could it be, but a demon? In a moment, it tore itself free of the opening, which vanished.
Beside her, Haldreth screamed in agony. Blood poured from a gaping rent in his chest, and he fell. The black thing was coming for them fast and, fighting to control her panic, Allia reached for Haldreth.
The pain was unimaginable. She screamed, feeling her body torn apart. She could not tell if she was feeling Haldreth’s pain or the long claws of the black creature.
Finally, oblivion claimed her.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Year of Warding 22, Hakvere, Ara
Allia
ALLIA AWOKE with a feeling of revulsion. She didn’t know how long it had been since Haldreth had summoned the demon. Looking around, she saw her room. She didn’t have the strength to rise. Was Cirana safe?
Her eyes fell on the cradle near her bed, where her child was quietly sleeping. Cirana was alive. Allia’s head fell back in relief. Haldreth had kept his promise. The baby was safe, but at what cost? He had done something unspeakable, and she had helped him do it.
Two more days passed before Allia could take care of Cirana on her own again. She hated hearing the infant cry and not being able to go to her. The grim-faced woman came from time to time to help, but sometimes the baby cried for hours before she arrived, and Allia could do nothing.
Her strength came back slowly. When she left her bed, her bones ached and her muscles felt stiff. She rested and held Cirana every moment she could.
The very evening she was able to get up, Haldreth came. He seemed healthy and triumphant. Whatever he was attempting, it must be working. Allia’s heart sank.
“I want to show you something,” he said. Again, they walked down the stairs to the room where Haldreth practiced his magic. “Stay close to me,” he ordered.
Against the far wall of the room, she saw two men in chains. One was sitting, his back resting against the wall, the other lay on the floor. They wore the dark-green tunics of Sarine’s army. Allia’s insides seemed to shrink with horror when she saw them. Did she know them? One of the soldiers looked their way, and she was sure she had seen him before, back in the White City. She followed Haldreth as he crossed the room toward the men.
Drawing nearer, Allia saw that the seated man appeared unharmed, while the man on the floor had beads of sweat standing on his forehead. His eyes were closed, but he didn’t rest quietly. He muttered and twitched.
“Please! He needs help!” The soldier nodded toward his friend.
Haldreth ignored his plea. “These men dared to violate my borders. They will die.”
“No!” she cried, clutching his arm. “Don’t do it. Let them go.”
“I want you to see how the poison works. Venom has always been an interest of mine. And this one is even more deadly than the worst kind of spider bite.” Haldreth’s voice was casual, uncaring. He knelt beside the soldier and pulled up the hem of his bloodstained tunic to expose three long gashes wrapping from his side around to his belly. The wounds were badly swollen, the liquid oozing from them a sickly black color.
Allia gasped, horrified. She could sense the man’s pain.
“I could have allowed my demon to tear him apart,” Haldreth said. “But I wanted you to see this. Even a tiny scratch from its claws is lethal. And there’s no cure for it, unless… Perhaps, you.”
Allia met his cold gaze. “How could you do this?” She meant the injured soldier, but even more, she couldn’t believe he had brought an evil like this into the world. She looked down at the suffering man again. “Please, let me heal him. Let them both go. They haven’t harmed you.”
A flash of hope crossed the unharmed soldier’s face.
But Haldreth laughed. “No.” He glanced toward the doorway, where a black figure had appeared. It spoke in a voice that made Allia want to run. She couldn’t understand the words, but the sound entered her mind, threatening to overthrow her reason.
At a nod from Haldreth, it advanced upon the prisoners. The unharmed man stared at it, frozen, the muscles of his jaw clenching. The black figure raised a clawed hand, and with lightning quickness, slashed him across the face. Blood ran down his cheek.
The demon turned back toward Haldreth, standing still, waiting for orders. He smiled and addressed it. “I need you to do something else for me. Find my brother Callonen and kill him.”
“No!” Allia screamed, seizing the front of his shirt. “Please! He’s your brother. You can’t do this!”
But the black figure had already stalked out the door.
“It’s time to continue our work,” Haldreth said, pulling her hands free. “It’s too late for my brother, and for these soldiers. But you can still save your child. Or the same thing could happen to her.”
Allia sank to the floor, curled into a ball of agony. Callonen. Where was Cal? The demons would destroy him, and she couldn’t stop it. It would be better to be dead than to live with having helped Haldreth cause that. She had nothing left. Nothing except Cirana.
Haldreth came over and prodded her with his boot. “Get up. I need you. It’s time to continue our work.”
“No!” she cried.
“Very well,” he said. “It’s time to kill the child.” He stared down at her, waiting for the response she couldn’t help giving. He knew she couldn’t bear it.
“No! Please don’t!” She had no choice but to help him.
Again, Allia watched, transfixed with horror, as he began his terrifying ritual. And again, she healed him as he was torn apart. The pain surpassed anything she had ever experienced, and when she woke days later, she felt all but dead.
As soon as she could, she dragged herself to the window and looked out. She wondered where Callonen and his men were. Maybe the demons had killed every one of them. They were creatures of darkness, and their touch was poisonous. Stories from her childhood crept into her mind. Creatures just like this had destroyed the old kingdom. They had a name. Shekkar.
Callonen
BY LATE SUMMER, Callonen felt fit again. Only a slight limp remained in his left leg, but he couldn’t leave Iron Bridge and go back to the White City. What he wanted was to find a way into Hakvere. Talon wouldn’t be happy about that plan, but Callonen had already decided to go, with or without him. He found Talon sharpening his weapons.
Callonen took a seat across from his friend. “I’m going out again.”
Talon put down his sharpening stone and stared back at Callonen.
“You can come with me or not, but I am going.” Callonen refused to back down.
“We didn’t get shot enough on the last trip?” Talon raised one eyebrow.
Callonen’s recovery had been long and painful. “I intend to be more careful. I don’t want anyone to be injured this time.”
“What if we’re dead this time?” Talon asked bluntly. He slid his sword into its sheath. “What would your father do without you?”
“We will do everything we can to stay safe,” Callonen promised, “but I can’t give up and leave Allia to suffer. Will you come?”
“How do you even know she’s still alive?”
“I know she is. My brother won’t have killed her.”
Finally, Talon nodded. “I’ll come on one condition.”
