Alisiyad Chapter 19 ~ Assignment

“How did you get in here?”  Russ glanced toward the balcony windows.

The Child shook its head.  “No, not that way.”  It watched him in silence.

“Well, then how?”

It looked him in the eye, which he found unsettling, but he didn’t turn away.  It began to smile.  “I did not ‘get in.’  I’m not really here.”

“What?”

“See;” the Child lifted a hand from its lap and slowly turned toward Liseli, still eyeing Russ.  It reached out as if to touch Liseli’s face.

“Hey—” Russ lurched forward and put his hand out between them.  “Don’t tou . . . .”  His voice faded away as he looked down to see the Child’s hand pass through his arm. He pulled back quickly, as if he’d been burned, even though he felt nothing.  It rested its palm on Liseli’s forehead, but it wasn’t touching her.  Now that Russ was closer to it, the Child looked different to him.  There was something faintly transparent about the pale brown skin.  If he looked closely he could Liseli’s face beneath the hand.

“What are you?”

The Child was looking at Liseli, and did not reply at first.  Russ wanted to take the hand away from Liseli’s face, but he couldn’t touch it.  “You may call me Alisiya,” the Child said, looking up at him again.  “Will you listen to what I have to say?”

Russ hesitated, then sat down next to Liseli and pulled her toward him, away from Alisiya.

She drew back her hand.  “Well?”

He held Liseli with one arm around her shoulders.  Her head rested against his chest.  “Do you know what’s the matter with her?”

Alisiya nodded.  She looked at Liseli with a small worried frown.  “She’s under a spell.  The River’s spell.”

“How do you know?” Russ didn’t like the sound of that.

Alisiya slid off the bed without disturbing the blankets.  “I see many things.  And I know about the River.  I am connected to it.”

“Yeah?  Then you can break the spell.”

She smiled, looking down.  “I could . . . but not now.  Not like this.”  She spread out her arms.  “That is where you come in.”

“How?”

“Well, if I am not here I must somewhere else.”

“Wait a minute, back up.”  Russ lifted his hand, and Liseli listed to the side.  “How are you here if you’re not . . . here?”

“This is only a vision of me,” she said patiently.  “Not my body, but my consciousness.  My being.  When I am here, my body is sleeping.  My consciousness can only be in one place at a time, and without my body I can do very little.  But I can appear and speak to whom I will — to speak to your mind, not your ears.  And you see me not with your eyes.  Understand?”

Russ blinked and opened his mouth to ask all the tangled questions that came to his mind.  But he stopped, and instead came out with; “I’ll say yes.  So . . . where is your body?”

“Varaneshe.  It is the city to the south, along the sea.  That is where King Leeton lives, and where he keeps me imprisoned.  You must go there and free me, so that I can be here in body and mind.  Only then can I help Liseli.”

Russ tried to focus on what he knew already.  This was making very little sense, but he tried to grasp it.  He remembered one thing; it suddenly seemed very important.  “Currun told me about Eliasha’s parents.  You . . . you told her mother they wouldn’t die, but they did.”

Alisiya bit her lip and looked away for a moment, then nodded slowly.  “Leeton killed them, just as he almost killed you and Liseli . . . .  But Liseli is not even out of the woods — if she stays like this for much longer she will die.  She cannot eat; she cannot drink.  She will wither away.”

“No,” Russ said.  He shook his head, looking down at Liseli.  Withering away.  No . . . I’m not letting that happen.  He turned and picked up the jug by its handle with his right hand, still supporting Liseli with his left.  He poured water into the cup and tried to get Liseli to drink from it.  He could get her mouth open and pour the water in, but she would not swallow, and it dribbled out the corner of her mouth.  Alisiya watched.

“This is my father’s doing,” she said, eyeing Russ.  He looked up.

“Who?”

“My father.  Leeton.  King Leeton.”

“Oh.”  Russ shook his head, feeling distracted, not knowing whether to give Alisiya all his attention or keep trying to make Liseli drink.

“The River is poisoned by him,” Alisiya continued, demanding his attention.  “It’s his spell she is under.  I am the only one who can counter his spell, because I was born a part of it.  Do you understand?”

Russ shook his head.

“Have they told you how Aysha died?”

“No.  Your mother?”

“Yes.  She drowned.  In the Chaiorra.”  Alisiya turned around and hovered a hand on the bedpost with her back to him.  “I was born after that.  I was . . . I had to be cut from her after they pulled her from the water.  I almost died.  It was my father who caused her to drown.”

“Why?” Russ was taken aback.

“Because he is selfish, and blind.  Nothing ever mattered to him more than his spells and potions and the power he holds over this land.”  Alisiya turned back around, touching the post with her other hand and lifting her head stiffly.  Her voice was bitter.  “Even his wife and unborn child were nothing more to him than experiments.  He wanted to create a super human.  He fed my mother poisons and lies, and in the end she went mad.  She was . . . .”  She stopped and looked down.  “She was afraid of me.  I was the monster of my father’s creation, and she feared . . . she killed herself because my birth was coming and she didn’t want it to happen. She threw herself from the North Bridge and drown in the River, because she would not bring a monster into the world.”

“I’m sorry,” Russ said, thinking it sounded inane but not knowing how else to react.  Her shoulders were stiff, and the hand over the bedpost tightened into a fist, before relaxing to tap each finger against the wood.  Or was he just imagining that?  Was she really touching the wood?  If she wasn’t there and he wasn’t really seeing her with his eyes . . . .  He stopped thinking about it.

“I was an unnatural child,” she said, “thanks to my father.  I knew things before I was born, I understood things and I remember it.  I became aware of the world while still in my mother’s womb.  And I grew with abnormal speed.”  Alisiya seemed to calm, and shrugged.  “But I am not a monster.  My mother was delusional, driven mad by my father.  That is why he is to blame.”

“I . . . see . . . .”  He nodded slowly.  What kind of a man could do such things to his family?  As if they were guinea pigs or lab rats instead of people?  Russ shook his head, finding his way back to the burning question: “What about the River?  I mean . . . why is it poison?  How?”

“You have been wondering that since they said so, haven’t you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Why didn’t you ask them?”

“I . . . what?” Russ started to grow impatient.  “I’m asking you.”

She smiled briefly, then her expression turned grim again.  “My father’s potions and spells.  They went wrong.  Simply wrong.”  She folded her hands and looked him in the eye.  He believed her.

“So why hasn’t it poisoned us?”  He looked down into Liseli’s sleeping face.  He wasn’t sure that it hadn’t.

The smile returned, and stayed.  “You’re otherworlders.  You’re special.  You’re . . . different.”

Russ looked up.  He found that a smile was on his face despite his worry.  “Really?  That’s all?  What about . . . .”

“Byzauki and Ilia?  They were special in their own time.  Being special is not being one of a kind,” Alisiya admonished.  “They were not invincible, and neither are you.  That’s why you must be careful.”

He nodded.  “Of course.  But . . . what do I have to do?  For Liseli I mean . . . .”

“For Liseli,” her smile widened, and he thought it bright and sympathetic.  “I told you.  You have to free me.  After my birth my father decided that I was a monster, as well.  The monster . . . called me . . . a monster.  He has kept me locked away in his palace ever since.  You must go there, and release me.”

Russ stared at her.  “Well yeah . . . but . . . how?”

“Take Currun with you.  He used to live in Varaneshe; he was under my father’s command.  He left when his sister died.”  Alisiya’s face turned serious, and she stepped closer.  “He knows the city.  He knows the palace.  In his youth he was trained as a soldier in the special forces of Adayzjia.  You must have him show you the way.”

“I . . . .”  Russ wondered how he would do that.  Currun may have been in the special forces once, but now . . . now he was a drunk.

“Do not let his current state fool you,” said Alisiya.  “He can still help you better than anyone else.  You need him.  But you must make sure that it is only the two of you.  My father is not stupid enough to let an army march on him.  Don’t let Pillari or Arlic come, or send men with you.  This is stealth, do you understand?” Alisiya leaned in earnestly.  Russ tried not to let the glow of hinted transparency distract him.

“Yes.  We have to sneak in to get you.”

She smiled again.  “That’s it.  Get me out of Varaneshe without my father knowing.  Now listen carefully: in order to find me, you must search out Aysha.  I am with Aysha.”

“But—”

“My mother’s body has never rotted.  Her grave is my home.  Do you understand?”

“Um . . . .”

Alisiya sighed briefly, but then seemed to choke down impatience, and explained.  “Here in Arlic’s home they have a small memorial, with a statue.  It is in the garden.  In Varaneshe there is a great hall, a shrine, which is her tomb.  It is also in the garden.  My home is hidden within, and that is where you have to go.  Tell Currun this, he will know where it is.”

“Alright.”  Doubt crept in.  “Are you sure . . . I mean . . . Currun might be trained, but I don’t even know where—”

“Russell—” she smiled, and reached out to put a small hand on his knee.  He didn’t feel it.  “You are the only person who has reason enough to risk entering Leeton’s city and his very palace.  Currun has the training, but you are the only one who needs to free me.  I believe that you will do whatever you can, which is better than the half-efforts of a stronger man.  Currun alone wouldn’t do it, and you alone couldn’t do it.  That is why I need the two of you.  It is up to you to ensure that Currun will help you.”

“I—”

“I know you will do this for me.”  Alisiya withdrew her hand and pointed at him.  “It is the only way to free me.  So it must happen.”

He wasn’t that confident.  But as he looked first at her and then Liseli, he realized that it was the only thing he could do besides watch Liseli die.  So he had to at least attempt it.

“Alright.  I’ll . . . I’ll try to come get you.  You can wake Liseli up once you’re here?”

She nodded, and smiled faintly.  “I will undo what my father has done . . . to her.”

“Okay . . . ” he gave Liseli’s limp body a squeeze.  “Okay.  Do you . . . do you really think I can do this?”

“Yes.  I know it.  For Liseli.  She is—” Alisiya paused, her face darkened for the briefest moment, but did not waver “—she is lucky to have you right now.”  She nodded.  “Very lucky.”

He smiled.  He could almost believe it when she said those things with such confidence.  She believed in him.  She—

The door opened.  He looked up and saw two servants entering, one carrying a tray of food and the other a ceramic pitcher.  Russ glanced down at Alisiya, but she was gone.  He blinked and looked around, but there was no sign of her.