The Seer (Blood & Fire Saga Book 1) Read online

  Sojun wasn’t exaggerating. Kaie was surprised by how many children there were. Everyone around him was at least two years younger than him. It didn’t make any sense. Even if the Finders chose to leave the adults, he couldn’t understand how they could so accurately target an age range in a population close to six hundred. Or why they would bother. Adults had to be better suited to hard labor than six–year–old children.

  No answers were coming. Not from Dorri, the boy gripping his hand hard enough to cut off circulation, and not from the soldiers who slammed the back of the wagon shut just after shoving him inside. Kaie was no more enlightened about what was waiting for him at the other end of this wagon ride then he was when he first woke in the tent.

  He muttered platitudes. He told them not to be afraid, and promised that things would be alright. That Mother Lemme would not let her children suffer more than they could survive. He filled his mouth with lies that tasted worse than the vomit and whispered them as loudly as his damaged throat would allow. They pressed in closer, more of them each time he opened his lips. For a while, some of the crying would stop. But never long enough.

  There were people waiting outside the door when the wagon finally opened. Kaie was one of the closest to the door, more by luck than design, so he was among the first ones the heavy men grabbed when they reached into the blinking mass. Their hands were hard and unforgiving. They jerked him forward, ripping him away from the clinging children. The boy desperately squeezed his hand. He tried to shout something to make the kid let go. The hoarse cry wasn’t enough. One of the men caught the boy’s head in a backhand that echoed in Kaie’s teeth. Dorri fell backward and was swallowed by the mass of bodies. He was sick with the certainty he would never see those terrified eyes staring up at him again.

  Free of his anchor, Kaie was pulled out of the wagon. Before his own eyes could adjust to the light, more hands grabbed and tugged, propelling him onward. Shapes and blurred colors flowed past through the haze. The sound of clothing ripping and the shock of air against his bare body nudged his instincts out of their stupor.

  He was in a room. It was huge and built from some unfamiliar, pure white wood, with no seams he could see. The floor felt like stone to his bare feet but it was a solid, smooth slab. There were nine other children with him. He couldn’t remember any of their names. In a calmer time, he would likely recall each of them and their parents as well. Now he just watched numbly as, one by one, they were stripped of their clothing while a bone–thin woman frowned and scratched a paper with a piece of charcoal.

  When she was done, she gestured to the big man stealing their clothes. He tossed his armful into a huge pile in the far corner and grabbed the small boy at the end of their line, dragging him out the door directly across from Kaie. The woman followed on their heels.

  The man came back into the strange room carrying another armful of cloth. The small boy wasn’t with him and neither was the skinny woman. There were four others though. Three more men and a woman followed him in, all of them lugging large metal buckets sloshing with liquid in either hand. A second later, a splash of cold water struck him with a force that made him stumble backward. Kaie gasped. Then he shouted. It wasn’t just water rolling down his face and shoulders. His head itched, like insects were crawling all over it. The same sensation rolled over his entire body. Dark red hair spilled out across his feet. In just a few moments every bit of his hair was on the ground, rolling toward the middle of the room. It joined browns of all shades, mixing and vanishing down the hole waiting there.

  All eight of them were now completely hairless. The grunting man tossed them each some of the cloth in his arms as the bucket carriers left. They were pants. Not the comfortable hide ones he wore every day of his life. These were made of some different material, something soft, thin and useless for walking through woods or staying warm. Kaie and the others put them on anyway. They were better than nothing, barely.

  The man grabbed Kaie’s arm and jerked him out of line, gesturing for the others to follow. He was dragged down a hallway to another strange room. It was identical to the last one, except this one didn’t have a pile of clothes. Instead, there was a fire pit built into the wall itself. Made out of red and brown stones, it held a fire hotter than any his family would consider keeping in their homes, sucking the chill from his body in an instant. The smoke rolled up through a tunnel of the same stone leading right through the roof.

  There were dark stains on the strange floor.

  The thin woman was waiting for them there. She scuttled right to him, her sharp black eyes narrowing as she drew close. “You are the one called Kaie?”

  Kaie swallowed hard, trying to sort out what was going on. “Err… yes?” he croaked.

  She pursed her lips and nodded. Then she pressed her stick of charcoal against the top of his now–hairless head and drew a big X. Kaie lifted his hand to touch it, but she slapped it down. He got the message. She nodded to the man holding him and left.

  His captor released him and followed. Again, all eight boys were alone and clueless as to what was expected of them. Before he could think of anything to do, someone else joined them.

  It was another woman. She wasn’t alone. Two other meaty men trailed in her wake as she headed straight for the fire pit. She was thick and unimpressive, the scowl she sent in their direction falling short of intimidating. Now, the long metal bar in her hand, that was intimidating. She shoved it into the fire, leaving it there until the tip turned bright orange. When she pulled it out he couldn’t look away from the odd shape at the end of it.

  He didn’t understand at first. When the men appeared on either side of him, grabbing his arms and pressing him down, it didn’t immediately register that their actions were connected with hers. When she reached down to place her free hand into the middle of his back, pinning him against the floor, things slammed into place. His struggles and screams came far too late and accomplished nothing. And when she pressed the cherry metal against the flesh of his right shoulder, his world exploded in scorching white fire.

  ***

  Cold water fell down on him, thrusting him back into consciousness with sputtering and flailing. His hair… but no. This water didn’t itch. And there wasn’t any left, in any case.

  The woman and her metal bar were occupied at the fire pit. Of the other boys, only two were still standing, all blood drained from their faces. He was grateful, in a grim way, that he was first and wasn’t enduring that extra torment.

  Another was standing over him now, bucket in one hand and a thin white cloth in the other. Seeing that he was awake the man tossed him the latter. Kaie nearly mistook it for a towel. Though it was made out of the same material as his new pants, it wasn’t at all the right shape for clothing. When he sat there staring at it rather than put it on the man grew irritated. A moment later the cloth was yanked out of his hands and shoved down over his head. He winced as the fabric brushed against his right shoulder, but he refused to cry out again.

  The shirt was odder than he’d realized. There was only one sleeve. The neck simply continued on to swallow his arm and half his chest, leaving the other side bare.

  The man moved on to the next boy. Kaie was left with nothing to do but watch as, one after the other, each boy was treated to the same as he was. It was finished in short order. Each boy was handed a pair of soft shoes. Then they were all driven out the door like cattle. Once again Kaie was first out and held by the arm with a grip that brooked no argument.

  At the front of the building he was handed off to the scowling woman. She appraised him with an unattractive squint and a sniff of irritation. “You’re Kaie then?”

  It was making him nervous, how concerned they all were with his identity.

  She scooped up two bags from the ground and dropped them into his arms. One of them smelled distinctly of meat and set his mouth watering. The woman gestured to her left. “Stand there. You lot are hard to tell apart when you first get out.” Kaie did as he was told. She
handed out two bags to each of the other boys. Then she grabbed his arm, just like the others before her, and steered the line away from the building.

  He didn’t see much of the place. There were some buildings in the distance, and a clump of trees too organized to be natural. Most of what he saw was massive fields of corn and wheat. Ones that were so big, half his village would’ve fit inside them. She marched them past without a word, to the buildings that lay beyond.

  The whole area was a mockery of a village. There were twelve shacks built into a large stone hill. They were all built out of a shoddy, pale wood that looked like it was pieced together in an hour. They had only two walls each, the back nothing more than the hill, and the front covered up by large, worn animal skins. There were odd stone constructions, looking a lot like the strange tunnel coming out of the fire pit in the room he just left. There were two for each house, one on either end, and a few of them were spewing out smoke.

  There was a well between the sixth and seventh. The road leading to it from either direction was little more than mud. There were small patches of green between some of the homes. He couldn’t see for sure but they looked like gardens. Sad, small little gardens.

  The woman directed him to the first house.

  “This is East Field,” she said to the group. “This is where you live. You’ve got food for two weeks. You will not receive more until that time is up. Don’t ask for it. Don’t steal from your house–mates or anyone else. Don’t leave your homes unless someone comes to get you. Don’t fight. Don’t burn down your homes. I am Boss Josephine. If you need anything, find me. Don’t need anything.”

  Then she shoved him through the hide wall of the first building.

  It was even smaller inside than out. A big part of that was because the building was divided by a shoddy birch screen and some carefully hung blankets. There was hardly room for two people to lie down. For the first time, Kaie was grateful that he was small.

  Across the room a form stirred. He didn’t recognize her when she first crawled out from underneath the blankets. Her head was bald and all the color was leeched out of her skin, leaving her as pallid as the strange clothes they were both wearing. But when she turned her dark hazel eyes on him, Kaie saw all the features he spent his childhood memorizing. “Amorette!”

  Her eyes filled with tears and in an instant she was on her feet and flying into his arms. He felt her tears spilling onto his new shirt and the shudders running through her frame as she cried, but there was no sound to accompany them. He wished he could cry with her. She was mourning their family, their lives. He should be joining her. But Kaie couldn’t summon up the tears. They weren’t there. He was just empty.

  She pulled away slowly. He could see the questions on her face. Stupid of him, to think he would be enough, that she wouldn’t ask the question that would rip him up all over again. Then she would hate him, because he couldn’t even manage to cry.

  “Where is he? She told me…That woman who came to see me, with the big dress, she said she would give me Sojun if I cooperated. She said she wanted you. I didn’t think…”

  Kaie dropped his gaze. “He took my place. She came for me. Like she told you. But he wouldn’t let me go. He made her take him instead.” He should tell her the rest, the part where he was offered the chance to give the two of them some small piece of happiness. The part when he hesitated. The part where he didn’t stop it.

  He didn’t need to tell her. Amorette knew. He could hear it in the way her breathing caught, could see it in the way she leaned away from him. She knew them both, better than anyone else.

  “I’m sorry.” He needed to force the words past a thick blockage in his throat. They were hardly a squeak.

  Ten

  Someone came for her in the morning. It was a tiny girl of all sharp angles and splotchy red skin. She peered at Kaie from underneath long white–blond hair. Her dark blue eyes caught him in an odd way. Like she was seeing right through him. He smiled at her but she didn’t say a word. Just reached out a hand for Amorette and led her away.

  No one came for Kaie. He waited, watching the door with a mixture of apprehension and anticipation. At some point, he realized no one would.

  At first, he spent the time trying to figure out improvements to make to their new home. One of their house–mates, Ren explained the strange fire pit – he called it a fireplace – to him the night before and he thought he understood it. But it didn’t seem especially safe. Some of the stones looked like they were on the verge of falling out, and the inside was a terrible mess. He could gather some grasses to make a mat for the floor. It was warm enough now, but fall was still new. Eventually it would get cold. When it did, a mat would be much nicer than the bare earth he was sitting on now.

  All those plans took about twenty minutes.

  There was a small bucket in the corner by the fireplace. Deciding that, if they were going to forget him, he could forget the “stay in your house” rule, Kaie grabbed it and headed out to the well. No one else was there. All the houses were silent. Not a single puff of smoke streamed out of what Ren called chimneys. Not even the sound of a barking dog broke up the stillness.

  His body still ached from the beatings it took. It was hard work dragging the bucket back up. But Kaie found himself biting back his strained grunts. Something about this quiet felt wrong to break.

  Back in his new home, Kaie went to work cleaning out the fireplace. He found a pot discarded there, along with a contraption like the one Ren’s wife Silvy used to hold her own in the fire. Both were dented, abused and filthy. When the fireplace was cleaned out he went to work on them. It took two more trips out to the well, one of the blankets, and most of the daylight, but he got all three more or less serviceable. Then he went to the spot Ren described the night before to gather wood set aside for the slaves of East Field.

  When Amorette returned he was nursing a fire to life to cook a stew like the one Ren and Silvy had shared the night before. She said nothing. She continued to say nothing through dinner, then laid down on one of the blankets with her back to him and went to sleep. As much as it hurt he couldn’t blame her for it.

  The next day the blond girl came again. He smiled and she stared. Amorette left without a word. Ren and Silvy left without a word. No one came for him.

  Kaie cleaned the pot and fireplace. He washed himself and his clothes. He arranged the blankets. It took about an hour and a half. Then there was nothing to do.

  The day after that was even worse.

  He thought about going crazy. There was nothing to do, nothing to plan. Kaie didn’t know how to deal with it. His mind spun around in circles, going over puzzles he would never solve. Or dwelling on memories of his parents and Sojun, prodding at the pain with the mindless obsession of a tongue poking at a bitten lip. Insanity seemed a perfectly valid way of dealing with it.

  That was the day the healer came to see him.

  The boy knocked on the side of the wall as he came in, interrupting Kaie’s silent meditation of the long–cold coals at the bottom of the fireplace. He was carrying a small bundle and offered a smile that never reached his eyes. “I’m glad to see you escaped Lady Autumnsong’s attention, Bruhani.”

  Kaie scowled. “Glad someone is.” It was more than he intended to say. The words just sort of spilled out before he thought about it.

  “I’ve brought you and your girl more clothing.”

  Kaie took the offered bundle without thinking, casting an uninterested glance inside. “What’s with all the shirts here? Do they leave off the right side because they think the gods have some special affection for that shoulder or something?”

  The boy made an odd face. “You’re kidding?”

  He shook his head. “I spent a few hours trying to figure it out yesterday. That’s the best I could do.”

  He expected a chuckle, but the kid didn’t take the bait. “How could they be certain who you belong to, if they can’t see your brand?”

  And, just like
that, it wasn’t funny anymore.

  “Are you here to take me to work?”

  The boy’s head shook again. “You’re injured. Less than they think, of course, but you need time to heal. I told them a month. You’ll likely only get three weeks, but that’s just a bit more than you really need. You’re a waste of money until you’re put to a task. The Mistress only tolerates waste to a point.” The boy flashed another sad smile. “I thought you would appreciate the time to adjust.”

  Kaie tried not to grimace. “Thanks.” He thought it best to leave things at that but, lack of conversation was overriding his better judgment. “I would rather be doing something. I don’t do well, sitting around by myself all day with nothing to occupy my time but contemplating the dirt under my nails. I was almost sold on the losing my mind plan, before you showed up.”

  The boy’s eyes widened in such a clear expression of surprise it was actually comical. “You don’t meditate?”

  Kaie swallowed his laugh when he realized it wasn’t meant to be a joke. “Gods no. What would I do that for?”

  “I thought everyone who can touch the Jhoda – old magic – meditates. It helps to focus our abilities, to control the wild aspects of ourselves that would make the power dangerous. You’re the strongest I’ve ever heard of… How do you manage, without meditation?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t.” It was an honest answer but he could clearly read the boy’s dissatisfaction.

  The boy’s head shook one more time. In amazement or disparagement, Kaie couldn’t tell. “Well, I guess I’m sorry then, Bruhani. I don’t know what to tell you. I could try to visit, if it would help. I doubt I could manage every day, but the Mistress’s son isn’t so bad. I’m sure I can slip away for a few hours every couple days.”