Chapter 28: CHAPTER 28

Delilee grew rigid.

“That’s madness,” she said as she squared her shoulders. “I’m Jalice, chieftess of the Unified Tribes.” She glowered at her accuser. “And the Sachem will find me. He’s got tracker wards on me that’ll lead him straight to this secret camp of yours. I’d run if I were you—after you release me unharmed, of course.”

An amused chuckle murmured through the flames. “We’ve been watching Jalice for some time. If the Sachem couldn’t be harmed, our next target was going to be his Tecalica. But she remained in the Fortress, and our spies behind the wall never lasted long enough to execute a plan against her. Too many loyalists ready to report suspected rebels.”

The eyes behind the mask swirled with the fire’s flames. “But then something remarkable happened. Someone tried to abduct the Tecalica during the night, and the culprit was none other than her cousin—the decoy.” The woman emphasized the last words, relishing them like tasteful spices. “And a tillishu defector. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t succeed, and the chieftess was recovered unharmed while the traitors fled.” The sitting figure leaned back, and her poncho settled around her shoulders. “But we were watching. First, we noticed a small change: your missing ring. The real Tecalica wouldn’t be caught dead without it.”

“My abductors took my ring,” lied Delilee. “The Sachem said he would replace it.”

“Is that so?” asked the masked woman. “We also noticed your incessant scratching when you thought no one was looking, and your frequent dismissal of your talimai. Alone, these minor changes meant nothing. But taken together, they revealed a switch had occurred.”

Delilee remained silent even as despair overwhelmed her. Dying stars, they know.

“So, who are you?” asked the woman. “Some of us think you’re Delilee, the Tecalica’s cousin. Others wonder if you’re the defective tillishu who slayed the warriors that night.” She raised her hands in a sweeping motion. “Perhaps you’re someone else entirely—murdered the chieftess after she was recovered safely, by taking advantage of the chaos.”

Delilee bit her lower lip. If they know, does that mean the Sachem knows, too? She wished for Annilasia’s coy way of deflecting attention, but instead Delilee struggled to come up with an answer that would fit her narrative. She grasped onto the final straw that might lead to her release without completely betraying her guise.

“It doesn’t matter who I am,” she stated firmly. “I’ve got wards, and the Sachem will find me if you don’t release me soon.”

“So, you admit that you’re not Jalice?” asked the masked woman. She chuckled lightly. “Our eyes in the Fortress are good for their word it seems.”

“Please, you have to let me go,” Delilee pleaded. “I’m doing everything I can to stay alive, and I can’t be distracted by some secret rebellion. You’ve put me at risk by kidnapping me. If he connects me to you, I’ll die.”

“We know,” said the woman with a solemn tone. “We’re all in danger right now. Let’s not waste more time. We need your help. You heard the Sachem’s announcement tonight. He’s planning something, and it isn’t as pure as he presented to his tribe. Fusing the Realms will require a vibrational shift, which hasn’t been previously accomplished other than by the Stones of Elation. Yet the Stones themselves failed during the Delirium, and the fusion between the Realms broke. Something happened with the Stone of the Ikaul territory.”

Delilee frowned. “What do you mean? The Stone is sealed away in the Temple.”

The woman in the grimalkin mask shook her head. “It wasn’t always hidden. There was a time when the Ikaul would bask in the soothing vibrations of the Stone. It eased the mind and healed the soul. I’m sure the Vekuuv did the same with their Stone. But the Sachem decreed that the Stones of both tribes be hidden, and fed us the tale of the mirajin’s betrayal of humankind. Then the Delirium occurred. Strangely, only the Sachem knew what to do, and thus enacted the Purge.”

Delilee shuddered at the mention of the genocide. She knew of the Sachem’s prejudice against the mirajin, and she knew the Ikaul Stone had been hidden away in the Temple. But the reason for the Stone’s entombment was a revelation. It had happened during the Delirium, when she had still resided in her homeland, Vekuuv—before she’d been forced into her role as a decoy.

“What are you getting at?” Delilee asked impatiently. “What does the Stone have to do with the Sachem’s plan, and why have you kidnapped me?”

“It’s all connected,” said the masked woman. “The Stone, the Sachem, the Delirium—and the terrible events to come. The Sachem wants to fuse the Realms again—like the Stones did. But why did the Realms tear apart to begin with? You were alive during their union—we could translate with incredible ease and could wield aether while remaining conscious in our Terrestrial Realm.”

A dark tone ebbed into the stranger’s voice. “But then something changed, and the Realms tore apart. We lost the innate ability to translate, and morality eroded with this loss. Now it takes incredible meditation to enter the Apparition Realm naturally, or blasphemous methods using tainted aether.”

The masked woman lifted her hand from her poncho. “The Sachem altered the Stones’ emissions somehow, and I believe he needs the Stones in order to fuse the Realms again.”

Delilee’s brow furrowed. “But why would he want to fuse the Realms together again if he’s to blame for breaking them apart?”

“I’m not the Sachem,” her captor grunted. “I don’t claim to understand his methods. But if you can believe me—that he has orchestrated everything from the Realms’ split to the Delirium, to the Purge—then it isn’t a far leap to deduce this next event will be no less catastrophic.”

A heavy silence settled between them again. Only the crackle of the fire could be heard. Delilee stared into the flames. Her captor’s convictions reeked of madness. Conspiracies about the Stones and the Delirium—it sounded a lot like Annilasia’s rantings. Delilee had agreed that the Sachem needed to be usurped, but she’d never bought into the outlandish accusations Annilasia proposed.

Yet it seemed Annilasia wasn’t alone in her suspicions. Clearly these Vekaul seemed to agree with the sentiment. Delilee was beginning to feel like she was the only sane one.

She grimaced and looked to the grimalkin mask peeking through the fire.

“What is it you need from me?” asked Delilee. “I’ve been gone too long. I don’t have time for any more of this.”

“We need to steal the Stone in the Ikaul Temple before the Sachem moves it for his nefarious purposes.”

Delilee scoffed. “You’ve got spies in the Fortress. Why can’t they do this?”

“I can count on one hand the spies we have, and none of them would make it past the first set of stairs before being slain on the spot. Entering the Temple is incredibly dangerous. It’s guarded by hirishu, and aethertwisters wander its halls. But with you, we could make it inside.”

Delilee groaned as the itch across her arms burned. She needed to get to the Fortress before the Sachem.

“I can’t help you,” she said. “I don’t even know where the Stone would be. Are you sure it’s still in there?”

“I’ve got my reasons for believing the Ikaul Stone is still in the Temple,” said the masked woman. “As for your role, we just need you to get us inside without someone questioning our presence. Once we’re inside, we can take it from there.”

“What if I don’t want any part in this?” Delilee countered as she cocked her head. “I’m already taking a major risk by posing as the Tecalica. Doing anything more than that would be asking for death.”

The trio of masked assailants stared back at her, and Delilee wondered if she’d pushed too far. These people had killed her guards after all. They’d even managed to slay Eerish, an aethertwister. Gambling her life over such a simple request might not be her best move.

“If you don’t do this, we’ll have no choice but to use your . . . circumstances as a distraction,” came the jaded response. “There’d be plenty of commotion if the tribe discovered their chieftess was a fraud. While they sorted out your fate, we would sneak into the Temple with its less focused resistance.”

Delilee squirmed fervently as her itch worsened. “Would you really turn me in? Do you know what they’d do to me?”

“Anyone unwilling to challenge the Sachem is endorsing him. We’re giving you a chance to do something more than play pretend like a child. Isn’t that why you took her place? Isn’t that what Annilasia wants you to do?”

Delilee’s mouth dropped. “How do you know Annilasia?”

The masked woman simply shrugged. “Just think of what Annilasia would advise. She would tell you to do anything necessary to overthrow that madman.”

The words echoed in Delilee’s head. She broke her gaze to stare blankly into the fire. How this stranger knew of Annilasia’s plan for Delilee was a mystery, but the masked woman was right. Jalice hadn’t been willing to make a difference, so Annilasia had replaced her with Delilee to ensure change occurred.

The truth in these accusations produced a wave of shame at her own incompetence. She had nothing to show for her time as Tecalica. Annilasia could return any day, and Delilee would need to have something worthwhile for the tillishu.

“Besides, we can’t let you go that easily,” added one of the male captors. He stepped closer to Delilee. “If we let you go now, you’d be liable to report our little tribe to the Sachem. You’d have to come up with some excuse for your unexpected absence and the death of your protectors. Selling us out would be the easiest version of the truth that still preserved your guise. We can’t have that.”

Delilee stiffened at the mention of her protectors. “Geshar, my talimai,” she blurted. “Did you harm her?”

A strange pause occurred, and Delilee feared the coming response. The woman in the mask stirred. She stretched out her arms from her oversized poncho and lifted the grimalkin mask.

Delilee gasped. “Geshar . . .”

“Yes, it’s me,” said the talimai. She tossed her mask on the ground. “You seem surprised.”

“Why did you hide yourself until now?” Delilee asked. “You didn’t have to kill anyone to talk to me. There were countless times you could have approached me. In my chamber room, or at the bathing pools . . .”

“I wasn’t sure of your loyalties,” said Geshar. “Nor could I be sure of my suspicion that you weren’t really Jalice. I saw signs that perhaps you were an imposter, but I couldn’t compromise my placement inside the Fortress. If I were wrong, it would have come at that cost. But with the Sachem’s announcement, it was deemed necessary to risk it now. Time no longer allowed for caution.”

“This has been a waste of time,” huffed Delilee. “I can’t get into the Fortress now without answering for my absence. How do I get back in without admitting to a detour?”

“I suppose it depends on if I can assume you plan to assist us,” said Geshar sternly.

Delilee winced. Involving herself in a conspiracy plot of which she had no proof seemed rash and foolish. The risk of exposing her disguise would increase by throwing in her lot with these Vekaul. Yet she couldn’t escape Geshar’s earlier words.

Isn’t that what Annilasia wants you to do? Anything necessary to overthrow that madman?

“I’ll get you in,” Delilee said. The words on her lips sounded foreign, like they belonged to someone else. “That’s it.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “When do you plan to do this?”

“Tonight.”

Delilee’s eyes widened, mouth agape. “Are you mad? This can’t happen tonight. We haven’t made a real plan.”

“We’ll get you back inside the Fortress. We have a man ready to take the place of your guards. That aethertwister we killed—Eerish—was a last-minute addition to your escort, and no one at the Fortress should be expecting a twister at your side. It’ll be you, our warrior, and me as the expected talimai. You’ll arrive as planned and face no trouble getting in.”

Delilee gulped. “This won’t work. Why must it be tonight?”

“If we don’t do this tonight, we may never see the Stone again. The stars have aligned for this. The tribe is enraptured in celebration, which means fewer eyes to catch us. But we are on the heels of the Sachem’s announcement—he’ll move the Stone soon.”

“I can’t do this,” said Delilee. She shook her head. “It’s too risky.”

“Time is running out,” Geshar pressed. “Will you do this for your tribe? For the good of all tribes, we cannot let the Sachem execute his plan.”

Delilee squirmed and scowled into the fire. What else was she to do? She couldn’t have her cover exposed by these people. Besides, all she had to do was get them into the Temple. Geshar promised they’d handle the rest.

“Yes,” Delilee finally stated. Such a dull word for such a binding agreement—one that held the risk of death. “But I won’t stay around to watch you get caught.”

Geshar grinned with obvious triumph. Delilee closed her eyes and whispered a short prayer. May Sahruum’s stars watch over our souls and keep us safe.