"I'm sorry Kiram, but we do not have time to argue. Not now and not here." Alizadeh hissed a word that Kiram didn't recognize. Suddenly a throbbing sensation shot through Kiram's arm, as if he'd been stung by a bee. Kiram tried to pull his arm back from Alizadeh but a wave of numb surged through him. He stepped forward in a daze.
Kiram was aware that he walked beside Alizadeh. His body moved like some mechanism, striding ahead regardless of Kiram's will to stop. He recognized banners and bright tents as he passed them. He even heard Javier call his name. But sounds, sights and sensations came to him as if he were in the midst of another man's dream-he marched onward, little more than a mute puppet in Alizadeh's grip.
Soon he and Alizadeh reached the Irabiim camp. Horses were already hitched to wagons. Only embers and thin trails of smoke remained from the cooking fires. They were leaving.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kiram resisted with all his will. He concentrated on flexing the muscles of his legs and digging his heels into the wet ground. Focusing all his strength, he managed to slow the strides of his body to clumsy stumbling steps.
"You willful Kir-Zakis never make it easy, do you?" Alizadeh grumbled as he dragged Kiram forward into the Irabiim camp. Irabiim women watched them with curious expressions. Young men looked away as Kiram staggered past. Rafie met them a few feet from the wagon where they had slept the night before. He glanced briefly between Alizadeh and Kiram and then scowled.
"Kiram, you swore you wouldn't try to run away," Rafie said.
"He didn't," Alizadeh replied. "At least he hasn't yet."
"Then why are you're holding him in a thrall?"
"Bait to trap for a certain duke," Alizadeh replied. Kiram had expected a different answer and clearly so had Rafie.
"What do you want with the Cadeleonian duke?"
"He opened the shajdi this morning." Alizadeh didn't release his grip on Kiram's wrist as he sagged back against the wall of the wagon. Sweat beaded his brow.
"That's not possible, is it?" Rafie asked and then he lowered his voice to a whisper. "You told me yourself that the craft of forging portals was locked away by the Bahiim."
"It was and it remains so." Alizadeh's voice was equally low. "Somehow Calixto Tornesal discovered the secret, found a sacrifice, and forged a portal. That's what the Tornesal's white hell is."
"So that's what the man on the hill is after," Rafie said quietly. "Not just a dukedom but the power of a shajdi as well."
Alizadeh nodded. "We can't allow a shajdi to fall into the hands of the Cadeleonian church, especially not the royal bishop."
Hope surged in Kiram's heart. Maybe Alizadeh would intercede on Javier's behalf after all.
"Hopefully the duke is young enough that his link with the shajdi is weak and I'll be able to break it," Alizadeh said.
Hope turned to horror. The white hell-the shajdi that powered it-was all that protected Javier from the curse. If Alizadeh broke that then Javier would die just as his mother and father had.
Kiram concentrated on jerking his arm back from Alizadeh's grasp. He felt his forearm flex. A shudder passed through Alizadeh.
"Something wrong?" Rafie asked Alizadeh.
"Ybur nephew's not any easier to enthrall than you were when we were in Hidras," Alizadeh said to Rafie.
"We're a stubborn family." Rafie glanced to Kiram. "You shouldn't fight Alizadeh. He's doing what's right."
"N…no." Kiram's lips felt like lead slabs as he struggled to form words that eventually emerged as a groan. "You'll. kill.. Javier."
"Should I fetch Nakiesh or Liahn?" Rafie asked.
"No…" Alizadeh frowned out at the distant groups of Irabiim. "They really might kill the duke. It would be the easiest way to close the portal and the Irabiim could flee to other lands before the Cadeleonians mounted a reprisal. No, we need to keep this among ourselves."
"So, what can I do?" Rafie asked.
"A draught to put your nephew to sleep would help me greatly." Alizadeh looked out past Kiram. "I don't think I'm going to have much time to prepare before the duke arrives and I'm going to need my strength."
"I'll mix a few drams of duera. That should take Kiram off your hands."
"Thank you, my dear." Alizadeh smiled and Rafie leaned close to kiss his cheek.
"Don't scowl like that, Kiram," Rafie said gently. "This is for the best, and honestly you look like you could use the sleep." Then Rafie turned and bounded into the wagon.
Kiram struggled to pull out of Alizadeh's grasp. He didn't have much time if he was going to make his escape. Alizadeh's grip tightened around his wrist and his fingers suddenly felt like brands of fire.
Be calm, Kiram. I will not harm you or your young duke. Alizadeh's voice filtered through Kiram's thoughts.
Yes, you will! Kiram could only think the words. He trembled with the frustration at his numb, mute body. He wanted to scream at Alizadeh. You'll strip Javier of the only protection he has against the curse and he'll die. He'll die in agony!
"If he no longer possesses the white hell then the man on the hill may not bother to maintain the curse," Alizadeh answered though Kiram had said nothing aloud.
You don't believe that. Kiram concentrated on Alizadeh, and the burning sensation of Alizadeh' grasp seemed to roll up from his arm to engulf his entire body. He had felt something like this, when Javier had opened the white hell for him. Javier's presence in his mind had been hot as well, but sensual and inviting. Alizadeh was a scouring flame, searing into Kiram's thoughts.
Despite the discomfort, Kiram pushed his consciousness into the scorching presence and thought hard.
I can tell from your expression. You know you're condemning Javier. You're condemning him the same way that Nazario Sagrada condemned innocent Haldiim to their deaths. You're as bad as him.
"Perhaps, but Kiram," Alizadeh looked suddenly deeply tired and Kiram was glad to have affected him, "there is more at stake here than one man's life. A shajdi is not some plaything. It is a locus where all death becomes life. It is power, pure and formless. The very soul of creation. When a shajdi comes under the dominion of humanity it changes. Over time it takes form, becoming what they will it to be. The shajdi that your friend possesses is probably already deeply corrupted by the generations of Tornesals. It is becoming the hell they have imagined it to be. If it remains in your friend's control it will bring forth the devils of his religion. He will give them form and the shajdi will give them life. They will enter our world. They will be a plague upon all living things. That must not happen. Do you understand?"
Kiram did understand, but he still couldn't accept the sacrifice of Javier's life.
Alizadeh seemed to see Kiram's resistance. His green eyes narrowed in anger.
"Do you know why King Nazario Sagrada tortured and murdered so many Haldiim, Kiram?" Alizadeh didn't wait for Kiram's response. "He and his bishops wanted to possess a shajdi. Had they succeeded in their quest they would have brought the tortures of the Cadeleonian church out into this world and conquered all nations. Countless Bahiim died to keep that from happening. We endured his tortures and we destroyed our own writings. At the very last we locked the knowledge away, depriving even our own people of the shajdi's healing powers rather than allowing them to become perverted. All those deaths, all that sacrifice can't have been for nothing. This shajdi must not become a Cadeleonian hell."
Kiram thought: But you're condemning Javier for something that he hasn't done. You don't know how he sees the white hell. I do. It isn't full of devils. It's light and beautiful. I saw a Bahiim tree there and words but nothing else. Javier isn't creating some terrible Cadeleonian hell with the shajdi. It's a refuge for him. If anything, that's what he'll make it into. A place of peace. Please, Alizadeh, you have to believe me.