Elantris - Brandon Sanderson [83]
The escape was accomplished in the reverse order of the incursion. Raoden went first, sliding through the still open doors, and Karata followed, pulling them closed behind her. In all, Raoden was relieved at how easily the night was going—or, at least, he was relieved right up to the moment when he slipped through the door to that final hallway outside Iadon’s chamber.
A man stood on the other side of the door, his hand frozen in the act of reaching for the doorknob. He regarded them with a startled expression.
Karata pushed past Raoden. She wrapped her arm around the man’s neck, clamping his mouth closed in a smooth motion, then grabbed his wrist as he reached for the sword at his side. The man, however, was larger and stronger than Karata’s weakened Elantrian form, and he broke her grip, blocking her leg with his own as she tried to trip him.
“Stop!” Raoden snapped quietly, his hand held before him menacingly.
Both of their eyes flickered at him in annoyance, but then they stopped struggling as they saw what he was doing.
Raoden’s finger moved through the air, an illuminated line appearing behind it. Raoden continued to write, curving and tracing until he had finished a single character. Aon Sheo, the symbol for death.
“If you move,” Raoden said quietly, “you will die.”
The guard’s eyes widened in horror. The Aon sat glowing above his chest, casting harsh light on the otherwise caliginous room, throwing shadows across the walls. The character flashed as they always did, then disappeared. However, the light had been enough to illuminate Raoden’s black-spotted Elantrian face.
“You know what we are.”
“Merciful Domi …” the man whispered.
“That Aon will remain for the next hour,” Raoden lied. “It will hang where I drew it, unseen, waiting for you to so much as quiver. If you do, it will destroy you. Do you understand?”
The man didn’t move, sweat beading on his terrified face.
Raoden reached down and undid the man’s sword belt, then tied the weapon around his own waist.
“Come,” Raoden said to Karata.
The woman still squatted next to the wall where the guard had pushed her, regarding Raoden with an indecipherable look.
“Come,” Raoden repeated, a bit more urgently.
Karata nodded, regaining her composure. She pulled open the king’s door, and the two of them vanished the way they had come.
“He didn’t recognize me,” Karata said to herself, her voice amused yet sorrowful.
“Who?” Raoden asked. The two of them squatted in the doorway of a shop near the middle of Kae, resting for a moment before continuing their trek back to Elantris.
“That guard. He was my husband, during another life.”
“Your husband?”
Karata nodded. “We lived together for twelve years, and now he’s forgotten me.”
Raoden did some quick connecting of events. “That means the room we entered …”
“That was my daughter,” Karata said. “I doubt anyone ever told her what happened to me. I just … wanted her to know.”
“You left her a note?”
“A note and a keepsake,” Karata explained with a sad voice, though no tears could fall from her Elantrian eyes. “My necklace. I managed to sneak it past the priests a year ago. I wanted her to have it—I always intended to give it to her. They took me so quickly…. I never said goodbye.”
“I know,” Raoden said putting his arm around the woman comfortingly. “I know.”
“It takes them all from us. It takes everything, and leaves us with nothing.” Her voice was laced with vehemence.
“As Domi wills.”
“How can you say that?” she demanded harshly. “How can you invoke His name after all that He has done to us?”
“I don’t know,” Raoden confessed, feeling inadequate. “I just know we need to keep going, as everyone does. At least you got to see her again.”
“Yes,” Karata said. “Thank you. You have done me a great service this night, my prince.”
Raoden froze.
“Yes, I know you. I lived in the palace for years, with my husband, protecting your father and your family. I watched you from your childhood, Prince Raoden.”
“You knew all this time?”
“Not the entire time,” Karata