yhel (yel) noun

a place where one feels safe

Archaic; from the song about the first Oracle coming home

***

Nascha now knew why Alika was present when they took Karei out into the desert. She took the woman back and placed her here. But why? Did she kill Karei? For what?

Somehow, a part of her knew. Nascha felt sick just thinking about it as she gazed at Karei's unmoving form on that stone. She looked at peace. But she should not be dead. She was too young, had not even yet lived to her twenty-first rain to be with her rayeshka, a young man in the village who may now believe his wife was dying in the desert.

"Why?" The question rolled out in a whisper as soon as they took her gag off. No one answered her. Alika was just staring at her with her perpetual stern look. Kalesch was silent beside her, not looking at Nascha, but at the two priests. He gave a slight nod, and they walked away. Nascha was still bound, standing helplessly in front of them.

"You'll need her to be willing," Kalesch said to Alika.

The woman only nodded, stepping forward. "To be here tonight is an honor, Nascha."

Did she mean she, Alika, was honored to be in front of Nascha, the Oracle?

"Not everyone is given the honor of serving the king in the afterlife."

Blood drained down her face as she realized what Alika meant. Her eyes darted from Alika to Karei, then to Kalesch. The bastard! He took her here! He planned all this!

"No," was all she could muster. She stepped back, the little her binds would allow. "No!"

A flash of anger and irritation crossed Alika's beautiful face. Kalesch stepped forward. "I'll talk to her," he said to Alika.

"No, it's my duty as the priestess—"

He took Alika's hand and squeezed. Gentle, like a man would touch his lover. "I'll talk to her." Alika conceded with a smile before she turned. Nascha's jaw tightened at the sight, at the betrayal. How did she kill Kalesch in her stories again? She really hoped it was tonight, she thought, as he took another step toward her.

"Don't come near me," she warned.

Kalesch stood close, towering over her. "I'll tell you everything in the arnucc," he whispered.

"I don't want to go with you," she said, looking at the side to where Alika patiently stood.

"You want to," Kalesch gritted out. It was only then that his words sank in. The arnucc.

Hope, a tiny bit of it, sparked within her. Was this a part of his plan? If it was, then he was a genius! She did not say a word, and he took it as a yes. His hand wrapped around her arm. "I can't walk," she said. She was bound down to her thighs. He bent down, untied her, and straightened to full height, but leaving the binds around her wrists. She could run now, but the two priests could be outside standing guard.

This man was her rayeshka. They may not be the friendliest, but they should be a part of each other. There may be no love between them, but they were bound by Tomesh and the god of the desert, like the sands to their land, like the sun to the dunes. She should trust him blindly. Or, in this case, boundly.

"You don't have to take her away," Alika said as Kalesch led her by the hand.

"I have to," he said. "I need to show her something in the arnucc."

"She knows everything in the arnucc. She carved its walls. She knows what the king has to go through in the afterlife."

Kalesch stopped and turned to Alika. "She needs to understand." For a moment, the two of them just stared at each other, lovers who could not yet be together. "Please." That one word from Kalesch and she nodded.

They walked toward the opening that led down to the vimati. Nascha's legs shook as they climbed down, and before her feet landed on the last step, her eyes were closed. The king was here and she did not want to see him.

"He's inside a coffin," Kalesch's voice said.

She opened her eyes and, as he said, the golden coffin stood on a slab of stone in the middle of the room. The perfection to her father's pristine work. And it was sad he could not see it. Who would have thought that something dead could make this place whole?

"We have to hurry."

Kalesch turned to her, eyes darting over her shoulder. She felt his breath as he took her bound hands and freed them. Then he took the right one and guided her further down the path. She looked down. They were holding hands. Like in her dream, he was leading her somewhere. Hopefully, not over an air pocket. No, of course not. He led her to the opening that she had walked through too many times. Never had she ever imagined she would ever feel surreal doing it again.

"What's happening, Kalesch?" she asked.

"You told me to find a way to get inside and I did."

"By offering me as a sacrifice?" she hissed behind him.

He stopped, looked over his shoulder, and said, "Yes."

She tugged at her hand and waited for him to continue down the stairs. The arnucc was empty. Just as she left it. Kalesch was already looking down, his face filled with disbelief. "And no one saw this?"

She shrugged. "No one expects to find something remarkable on the ground."

"This is not remarkable," he said, shaking his head, dashing forward to the far left corner. "Dragons?" he asked over his shoulder.

She looked down and read the words at the tip of her toe. "And snakes that could swim through the sands." She looked up and found him staring at her. "Kalesch, what's happening? What's Karei doing here?"

His jaw tightened.

"This is insane!" she hissed, walking over. "You're taking women as sacrifice!"

He did not look as horrified. He knew about this. Maybe also half of the village. Did her father? "How long has this... this monstrosity been going on?"

"Since time."

She shook her head. "And I don't know about it?"

"Because it's a secret only known to the priests and scholars. The secrecy is part of the ritual."

"Because it's evil!"

"It's tradition."

"You're killing people."

Kalesch sighed, stared at her with patience, like he did when he tried to explain to Laku for the fifth time that they would board a ship disguised as friends traveling together. "Nascha, the priests do not kill the maidens."

She frowned, not understanding what he meant. His eyes told her the rest of the words. "They kill themselves." She swallowed the ugly taste in her tongue. "But why?"

"It's an honor to be serving the king."

"He's dead! How do you serve a dead king who can't eat or move?"

"He can't journey the afterlife alone."

"And I won't join him there!" She growled. "What was Karei thinking? That she would come back to life with him? When?"

Kalesch bent down to catch her gaze and silence her. "You're not joining him if you don't want to."

"If I don't want to? Of course, I don't want to! Why do you even consider it?" Her eyes widened in disbelief. "I bet you want me to. So you can be with her!"

"Who?"

"Alika!"

He blinked at her in confusion. "She's a friend."

"And once I'm dead, I'm certain she won't stay a friend."

"What are you talking about?" He shook his head. "You always talk about the silliest things." He looked down and clucked his tongue. "And apparently, you also write about them." As she formulated a rebuttal, he added, "Take in everything you can. We have to remember everything you carved."

"What?"

He looked at her again. "Memorize what you carved, Nascha."

"I can't memorize everything!"

"They're your stories. You can memorize them."

"Well, not everything!"

"I'll take the first half and you take the rest."

She swept her gaze across the floor. "Can't we just break them?"

"If we destroy these and your stories keep coming true, what do we do then?" he asked. "We have something to come back to now that we know the way to the tomb. But if we destroy these, there will be nothing left for us if we need to find more things from these stories."

"You're thinking we might have to go back?"

"Probably," he murmured, bending down to read a text. "You wrote very specific details. We won't be able to get all of them right. A floating island with waterfalls draining into the ocean?"

She grinned. "Cranash, the city in the sky."

He was not smiling. He was already at work, studying her stories. Nascha remained standing where she was, looking at him. He perused her carvings with brows fused together in concentration. "Kalesch," she said, moistening her lips.

"Hm?" It did not sound like the way her father would absently utter the sound around her mother, or her. It just sounded like how Kalesch would utter it to someone who should be doing something more important than standing in the middle of a chamber while a priestess was not far away, waiting for her to kill herself.

"You're not going to let her kill me, are you?"

Kalesch turned to her. "Of course not. They can't kill you."

"Then we can walk out of here?"

She froze when she read the uncertainty on his face. And before she could erupt again, he said, "We're going to walk out of here."

"She will allow that?"

"What makes you think otherwise?"

Nascha rolled her eyes. "Has anyone said anything about getting a proposition to kill themselves so they can serve a dead royal? No. It only means every maiden died and I don't believe they all said yes." When he just looked at her without his face telling her she was being irrational, Nascha gasped and started to breathe harder. "Oh god, she's going to kill me anyway, isn't she? She hates me for marrying you. This is going to be her revenge!"

"Don't be silly," Kalesch said. "Alika will not kill you."

"No, I don't think she'll let me survive—"

"Nascha. Stop," he said, coming toward her. "We're getting out of here. Focus on what we have to do first."

Nascha swallowed and looked him in the eye. "You will not let anything happen to me."

He nodded, eyes on her. "No, I won't."

She believed him then. And so, for the next minutes, Nascha read through her stories. She did not have to read slow like Kalesch because as she skimmed through each tablet, she was reminded of the details. However, she stopped once when she realized her thoughts were drifting away again. Her eyes went back to her husband. "Does this mean we're also not leaving Tomesh?"

"No. We still have to go to Kgosi."

"But if we tell the queen, she'll understand."

"No, she'll have you beheaded."

She gulped. "Then this stays a secret?"

"Have you told anyone else?"

She shook her head.

"Then this stays between us."

"And what will we do in Kgosi? That's where the war starts, Kalesch."

"That's why we have to go there before it happens—if it happens. We need to get to the temple."

"What temple?"

"The Eye."

She blinked. "The temple of the last Oracle? Why?"

He looked at her. "Finish what we came here for. I'll tell you more about it when we get out of here."

She looked at him in awe. "So you have a plan."

This time, his gaze lingered. "Nascha, you're my rayeshka. I can't let anything happen to anyone because of you." Of course, because it meant he would also suffer the consequences. "And I can't let anything happen to you." He turned around and focused on his task as if he said nothing that caused her to eyes to blink in surprise and her heart to stutter.

Nascha finished the rest of her stories, keeping everything she could in memory. Once, she commented that he should have at least brought paper and ink, but Kalesch said, "And risk everything coming to life?"

"Then you don't think they'd all come true?"

He studied the stories again. "You wrote flood covered Kgosi after the king's death. That did not happen. It skipped right to the rain here in Tomesh."

"You're right," she said, nodding with relief. "So the war may not happen."

"But it's not something we should risk," he said. He turned to her, and she fell quiet. It was time to leave and face Alika.

***

Laku did not believe Tia when she said she was just getting some fresh air. Who would travel for miles to get fresh air and come upon a camp and find a prince? No one, save for a princess who could not wait to spend another night with the said prince. If it was not for the weird situation he found himself in upon waking up—which was waking up with everyone else gone—he would have invited her into his tent. But everyone left him in their camp... Why?

She said the two guards took Nascha and Kalesch went after them. His advisor should have at least woken him up, but he didn't. Again, why? He threw Tia a sideway glance. The two of them were outside his father's tomb, hiding from view, back to where they first met.

There were two priests standing outside the tomb.

"Do you know about the hidden doorway?" Tia asked.

"Of course," he said. "I was there when my father designed his tomb."

"Is that a known feature?"

"I assume. How do you think we'll get out of the tomb once we come back from the dead?"

She frowned at him, her face beautiful in the moonlight. "You really think you'll survive the afterlife?"

He blinked at her in disbelief. "I'm one of the best with swords. And I have high precision with arrows. I will survive the afterlife."

"What good would those do if you'll be in the land of the dead where everything is dead? Who would you kill with swords and arrows?"

He opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. "Good point," he murmured. "Then maybe I should stock my arnucc with incense and enchanted stones. And a few horses to ride so I can get away from—Where are you going?" She had suddenly sprinted, bent low to her waist toward the hidden doorway. His eyes widened as she stealthily did so.

And before he could blink again, she was gone, climbing down the doorway on the ground. Laku stole the two priests a look. One was standing close to the block of stone door of the tomb, too high up to see the doorway below. The other was inspecting the black marble jars, gifts from the people of Achnus. As the priest bent over the opening, Laku dashed after Tia and climbed down the narrow stone steps.

Why was he even here? He should be sleeping in a tent. "Tia!" he hissed, searching for her. "Tia?" he whispered again. Then he found her standing beside an open vestibule that led into a golden chamber. He was about to speak, but she silenced him by signaling with her finger over her mouth.

He inched his way to the other side of the vestibule and realized they were not alone. Voices echoed from inside the chamber. A woman and Kalesch.

"...he needs an Oracle in the afterlife. She can assist him back into the living world, Kalesch. Don't you see? He'll be the first of the royals to do it! Then everything we do here will be validated. Everything we believe in will be acknowledged by everyone else. Tomesh will no longer be just the desert of the dead."

"She isn't willing," Kalesch said. "She's as much needed here in the living world as she is in the afterlife."

"But you took her here. You want her gone!" A ringing silence followed. Faint footsteps. "Unless you needed her to be here for something else."

"No, she's—"

"What did you do, Nascha?" the woman demanded. "What is it with the tomb that you needed to get?"

"Alika, there's nothing. I didn't want to be here and I don't want to die for the king!"

"No! You must be with the king. If you are who they say you are, then he needs you."

"I refuse to be sacrificed for one man," Nascha's voice replied.

"You're both hiding something. What is it?"

"There's nothing to hide, Alika," Kalesch's calm voice replied. "We'll talk more. I'll return after I take Nascha back to camp."

"No, you're going away with her. You're leaving me here."

Everything confused Laku at this point. What was going on? Sacrifice? What were they talking about? He relayed his silent questions at Tia, who just looked at him with a clueless look. Ah, they were not yet on the stage where they could reach each other's mind.

"We'll talk, Alika. When I get back."

No, he mouthed at Tia when she poked her cloth-wrapped head out of her hiding place to look. But then he wondered why they had to hide. If he came out now, he was almost sure the priestess would do nothing to him.

On the other hand, if he based his actions on the tone coming from the golden chamber, he should probably stay hidden. There were less words, but the silence and the lack of any other sounds felt like the situation was growing seriously tense. Then came the footsteps. His heart thudded. What if they were found out? And so? He was the prince. He could get away with anything. If there was anyone who should feel nervous, it would be everyone in that room. They left him in the middle of the desert alone!

"What are you doing?" Nascha demanded, her voice now frantic.

"Alika, let her go," Kalesch said.

At that moment, Laku realized something serious was really going on. And perhaps Tia did too because she finally came out of her hiding place holding a... dagger? Where did she get a dagger? Wide-eyed, mouth hanging open, Laku consciously—or maybe unconsciously—followed. And the sight that greeted them made him stop. A woman in a white dress was holding Nascha from behind, holding a dagger against Nascha's throat. Kalesch stood in front of them, arms stretched before him, palms open as if to calm the woman down. And in the middle of the golden chamber that flickered with lights from the torches, another woman lay asleep on a stone bed. "What's going on here?" He did not mean to ask it aloud, but the words came out so loud that it echoed around the chamber.

That distracted the woman in white, and Tia, warrior princess from Achnus, dashed toward the woman, grabbed her hand holding the dagger, simultaneously kicking Nascha behind one knee. The stealth move caused Nascha to fall on the ground, giving Tia enough room to hurl the priestess on the ground by her arm. And all hell broke loose.

Kalesch reached for Nascha and pulled her to her feet. Tia had her back on the priestess, having discovered the woman lying on the stone bed which, Laku now believe, must be dead. Otherwise, she would have woken up from all the noise. Tia did the most unexpected thing. She jumped to the side, dropping her dagger, looking scared. Her hands flew to her face as she shook and stumbled back. Was she crying?

The priestess was unexpectedly quite capable. She shot back to her feet, all the while grabbing the dagger from the ground and rushing toward Nascha, eyes wide with fury and intent, dagger rising in the air as she launched herself forward.

"No!" Laku screamed. Kalesch looked over his shoulder and before Laku could take a step, he whirled around, arms around Nascha, carrying her with him to use his own body to block the priestess' attack. His back arched, his eyes wide. "No!" Nascha screamed as she fell. Kalesch did, too, right above her.

At that moment, Laku could not move as he stared at Kalesch. The priestess stumbled back, shaking her head. She dropped the dagger, now stained with blood, and screamed at her bloodied hand. "N-No."

"What have you done?" Laku asked, slowly moving toward Kalesch.

"Kalesch?" Nascha was saying, pushing her rayeshka until he rolled to the side and on his back.

"What's happening?" Tia heard Zaria ask and she realized she was not on the spot. She knew Zaria was in control, and the woman stumbled back in fear. Gaining control, she pulled Zaria back and like donning a pair of gloves, she got her body back. Her eyes swept across the room: at the dying advisor, the crying Nascha, the stunned Laku. And the priestess whose hand was covered in blood.

Pushing Zaria and Nym aside, she grabbed her dagger from where Nym dropped it earlier when he accidentally took over. She straightened and rushed forward. One step, then another. And before anyone—those inside her head and out—could say anything, she slashed the priestess' throat. "Meet Amatif in the afterlife," she whispered in the woman's ear. "And tell him Umoji is ours."

"Kalesch?" Nascha's voice echoed in the chamber. Tia dropped the priestess gurgling in her own blood and looked at Kalesch. He was blinking rapidly, swallowing hard, trying to consume another second of life, and then another. "We have to get help," Nascha told Laku, who was staring at Tia with eyes wide in horror. "Prince Laku!" Nascha's scream finally gave him the sense to move and kneel beside his dying advisor. "Get help!" Nascha screamed.

Tia only had a few seconds more to think.

Let's go, Tia, Zaria said.

Yes. I'm scared, said Nym.

Tia, don't, Zaria warned, tone serious. Don't do it.

Her eyes flew to the dead woman on the stone bed—the sacrifice. Then she looked around the room. The fires danced from their torches, the only constant life in this bloody chamber. She stepped over the dead priestess, ignoring Zaria and Nym's pleas. If Nym had not accidentally taken the spot earlier, she would not have lost her momentum. If Zaria did not follow after Nym, Tia would have had enough time to kill the priestess before she attacked Nascha and Kalesch. The accidental switching rarely happened, and of all time and place, it happened tonight, she bitterly thought.

This is our fault, she silently thought.

I don't care. They're all going to die anyway. Once your brothers succeed, Zaria reasoned. There's too much blood here, Tia. I don't like it.

"He can't die," Nascha told Laku. He was not even saying anything. He should move and call for help, but he was too stunned after he witnessed too many deaths in a matter of seconds.

Useless man.

"I can help him," Tia spoke, coming near. Nascha looked at her, eyes wide with desperation, tears streaming down her face. "But on one condition."

"What?" Laku asked in disbelief. Finally, his face showed something other than shock. He looked at her with disgust and outrage. "You just killed that woman, a man is dying, and you're making bargains?"

"She was trying to kill her," Tia said, pointing at Nascha, staring Laku in the eye. "Saving this man will require a sacrifice from me. I'm willing to do that if you take me with you to Kgosi."

He blinked and shook his head incredulously.

"We'll take you," Nascha said. "Please, save him!" She bent over the dying man, holding his hand, shoulders shaking. The silver strands of her hair clung to her tear-stained face. Tia finally realized what the priestess meant earlier about this woman being the Oracle. And now she knew why they were traveling back to Kgosi. "Please!" Nascha, the Oracle, cried.

"Give me your word," Tia said to Laku.

His jaw tightened. Tia glimpsed a different side of him. One that could be dangerous and ruthless like the kings before him. "We need him," Nascha begged Laku, her words filled with meaning. "I need—please."

Laku's gaze held Tia's. "Save him and I'll take you anywhere you want."

Tia nodded.

This is stupid, Zaria hissed.

She ignored the voice and blocked Nym's incessant plea to escape to safety. She stepped forward and knelt beside the advisor. Then she turned to Laku and with one swift move, she knocked him unconscious with the base of her dagger. "Relax, he's not dead," she said to Nascha. "Let go of him." The woman's hands tightened around Kalesch's. "Let go. He's going away fast. I can't save him if he's dead."

Nascha warily let go, swallowing tears.

Tia stood and dragged Laku's limp body beside Kalesch. "I can't give him back his body," she said. "Not until it's fully healed." She looked Nascha in the eye. "And not until I get to Kgosi."

The woman looked confused, but she nodded anyway. She was that desperate, Tia thought. She had witnessed the same desperation too many times before, back in Achnus, when she cared for their dying. Some of them she saved, but the rest were just too keen to go.

Zaria and Nym were silent. They knew they could do nothing now that Tia had made up her mind. With her thought space fully her own, Tia knelt between the two men—one dying, the other sleeping. Then she reached for the wrap around her head and pulled, freeing her silver curls. Tia Nascha's tiny gasp of surprise, tugging on two silver strands. She tied one around Kalesch's wrist, the other around Laku's. Then she tied the two strands together, connecting the two men. She did not have to do this, but it helped. Like a horse with its reins, she needed a guide.

Closing her eyes, she searched for the soul she needed to save. And there he was, sitting in the center of his own mind, face covered by his hands. She could read his thoughts just as she could Zaria and Nym's. "Kalesch Djozeh," Tia called. He did not hear her at first. They often did not. "Kalesch," she tried again, and this time he lifted his head. He was not wearing a wrap around his head. His hair was long, tied at the nape. "You have to go if you want to live."

He sounded confused. He did not want to die. He was thinking about a war, about Laku. And he was thinking about his rayeshka, the Oracle of Tomesh and his vow to keep her safe. "Come," Tia invited.

"Where?"

She focused on the two silver hair strands that pulled her toward Laku. She reached for Kalesch. "A new home."