Cursed: Traitor's Trail

Chapter 16 part 1

Jaob looked at the two Magi before him. One, his most loyal friend, and the other, the woman who was supposed to be confined. With guards. Had his word lost so much force that none remained obedient?

“What happened to her guards?” he asked, rubbing his face, trying desperately to stimulate something other than exhausted frustration. He needed a night of solid sleep, but pacing the floor had been all he was capable of. At least until these two appeared with the news of a vision and half hidden footprint in the wasteland. The added worry, at last, wiped him free of the anxiety of evacuating into Sheathra's steppes, leaving him with a heavy, tired feeling. He lowered himself to his pallet.

“They are still guarding the hollow as far as I know, believing Aya is within and asleep.”

Why didn't that surprise him? Herders did not make professional warriors, or guards. With Bane's help, it would have required little effort for her to escape.

He sighed audibly and studied her. For a moment, beneath his gaze, it looked as though she paled. A trick of the light he supposed.

“You are certain this was a vision and not a dream?” Jaob asked, but he guessed the answer even before Bane dragged her forward into the light, revealing angry looking bruises in the shape of a man's hands on her upper arms. The king's hands, if her vision proved true.

“This doesn't happen in dreams,” Bane pointed out.

“True enough,” Jaob admitted. “So you're power can take you to Naiven to spy on Theron?”

Aya shook her head. “It wasn't my power that did it. I caused the second vision, except it was more like a memory, something that happened in the past. But I didn't bring myself to the stone room to begin with.”

Unbidden, a bit of solace worked itself into his mind. Someone used their power to pull Aya into...whatever she experienced. Which meant it could not be Sheathra's king. Theron most certainly was not Magi. More likely, their traitor tried to scare her away from whatever she discovered.

But, his mind recalled, Theron had been collecting Magi for some purpose. He remembered the rescued girl and her clan's attempt to sell her to the king's men. What if the king had begun associating with Magi, using them for his own purposes?

“There is no way we can know for certain who is behind the vision?”

“It was the king. I saw inside his mind. He was...punishing the man who was with me at the ruins where Bane found me.” Aya blanched and Jaob wondered what kind of punishment she witnessed.

“But if you were inside of his mind, was he not also in yours? He did not take your body. Perhaps he took some details from your memories, to better intimidate you.”

Aya looked uncertain; she tilted her head, thinking.

“It could be, I suppose. It would explain why the person disguised himself as you.”

Jaob's heart leaped at her words. His gaze flew to Bane's, his friend shook his head imperceptibly. Bane was the only one who knew his secret, and he had not told Aya. Yet somehow she knew.