The Winds of Khalakovo - Bradley P. Beaulieu [199]
Iaros’s head jerked back and his eyes widened momentarily. “Pardon me?”
“Perhaps such a thing is hard for you to believe, but it is so.”
“Does he return your love?”
“Nyet,” she said flatly. “I do not think he does.”
“Then why? Why risk everything for a man who cares less for you than you care for him?”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand. Nikandr was a bridge. A bridge I needed to return to myself. Strangely enough, Atiana served in much the same manner. I can no longer follow the path of revenge and hatred. I must follow the path of healing, for Nikandr, for my daughter, even for you.”
“So kind of you.”
“I don’t care whether you appreciate it or not.”
“Well, forgive me if I find this all difficult to believe, but perhaps there is a way to determine whether you’re telling the truth.”
“How?”
“We’ll ask Nikandr about it when we see him.”
She glanced at the door, hearing more men gathering behind it. “And how will we do that?”
Iaros nodded toward the door that would lead back down to the caverns. “Why, the same way you entered.”
CHAPTER 60
Nikandr knew that a soulstone had been placed into his palm—there was no mistaking the feeling of a stone once it touches the skin—but he had to admit that it didn’t feel like his. He knew enough to keep it hidden until Atiana and Grigory had left, though in an attempt to appear nonchalant, and after the beating he’d received from the streltsi, he nearly dropped it. His hands didn’t completely betray him, however, and soon, thankfully, they had left.
He waited for what felt like an interminable period of time, convinced that the moment he looked at what he now held in his hand the gaoler would peer inside the room and discover it the very same moment he did.
He did not speak. That had been the excuse the gaoler had needed the last time to enter the room and beat him senseless with two Bolgravyan streltsi. Ashan had pleaded for them to stop, but the only thing that had done was to shift some of their attention to him. They had exercised some restraint with the older man, and for that Nikandr was glad.
As the minutes passed he realized that the stone was indeed his, but it had been tainted, and it didn’t take much to figure out why. Grigory, that baseless spawn of a goat, had worn it. He had done it so that Nikandr could feel his presence, so that he would always feel it. It would fade with time, as the memories would, but there would always be a part of Grigory imprinted upon the stone.
He could feel something else as well. Nasim... He was not imprinted upon the stone as Grigory was. Rather, it was more like Victania described the aether, how she could feel others at a distance though they were hundreds of leagues apart. This was how it felt with Nasim—as though he could call out and Nasim would answer. The only trouble was that he had no idea how to do such a thing.
He turned his back toward the door and opened his palm carefully. And there it lay. His stone. As alive as it had been after Nasim had somehow reawakened it. He wondered where the boy was now. The Maharraht wanted to use him to widen the rift, to create a gap that would lay waste to Uyadensk and perhaps the entire archipelago.
He could not risk speaking with Ashan. Not now. The only real course of action was the one that Atiana had given him: he had to reach his mother. You should have foreseen it, she had said, as well as your mother and father. She had clearly been referring to the attack that would be launched against Radiskoye. Her words were a warning to get out of this fort tonight, not only because they were apparently ready to move him but because an attack was imminent.
He gripped the stone tightly and closed his eyes, calling out to his mother. As always, he felt nothing in return. He never knew whether his calls had been heard until a rook found him or she told him so later. It was the nature of the aether, and there was more than a small chance that she would not hear him at all. The blockade had surely taken its toll. She had most likely been riding the winds for