Alisiyad Chapter 23 ~ Mother’s Day (Part 3)

Liseli remembered little of the journey to the Adayzjian Valley.  They left Arlic’s house in the twilight mist, walking through the quiet, gray garden till they came to the hole in the wall, where two dead guards kept watch.  Outside the city one of Leeton’s huge, feral dogs waited, and Liseli balked, but Alisiya mounted the dog like a horse and made Liseli sit behind her.

Then they took off, and Liseli closed her eyes, wishing that she could be dead to the world again.  Her nightmares of death had been muted, entrancing, they didn’t hurt like being alive and awake.  What had happened?  It was only Saturday night.  Not even a week had gone by since she’d been living safe behind the fortress of mundane routines, in a mundane world . . . .  That life had been like the dreams of death, in its own way.  Gray, with feelings dulled.  She would give anything to be back there again, even thinking so foolishly, so naively, that she had anything to complain about.

The dog alternately raced and walked across miles of land, going northwest across the river, through the foothills and up toward the mountains in the dark.  It saw with its eerie orange eyes, glowing and blinking in the night.  Alisiya let them rest only seldom, but Liseli didn’t care.  She wasn’t hungry and being tired meant nothing.  Once Alisiya was done with her . . . once she had done whatever incomprehensible thing Alisiya expected of her, then she would be left alone.  Completely.  She had no one who would care about her; the Erykumyn would not care, they had Eliasha to mourn.  There was her family back home, but she didn’t know how to get home.  There was nothing for her here, and nothing for her as long as she was trapped here.  She didn’t know what she was going to do when Alisiya released her.

It was beginning to get light again when Alisiya announced that they were nearing their destination.  Liseli looked out at her surroundings, peering through the purple blue morning light, and found herself riding through a narrow valley.  To the north across the open grass she could see buildings just being touched by the rising sun behind her, a little town nestled amongst the rocks and hardy mountain trees. 

This must be, she thought dispassionately, where Pillari and the rest came from . . . where they were travelling from when we met them, only a few days ago.  Wednesday.  That was the day I kissed Russ . . . for the first time . . . .

“ . . . Nearly a hundred years ago,” Alisiya was saying.  Her dark hair blew in the breeze and tickled Liseli’s face.  “They had to escape Adayzjia because of the Ricallyn.  They wanted to kill my father, and use his blood for their potions and rituals.  The Ricallyn were always obsessed with the idea of travelling to other worlds, so my mother’s writings say . . . .  But of course, only someone who is a Key can open the Gates, and you can’t become a Key, you have to be born one.  According to my father.”

Liseli closed her eyes and gritted her teeth.  She couldn’t believe Alisiya’s nerve, chatting away as if nothing was wrong.  She was just about to say something, anything, to make her shut up, when Alisiya said, “Even so, the Ricallyn believe they can make themselves into Keys by drinking a Key’s blood . . . or at least, they think that will make their children born Keys.  The Byzaukyn King handed my father over to them, but Arlic and the rest came to his rescue.  They were so high minded,” she added bitterly.

Liseli straightened, and even though she hated herself for talking to the beast, she asked, “A Key . . . .  Is that what I am?  That’s why you’ve brought me here?  To be a . . . a Key?”  Something about that sounded wrong.

“Yes.”  Alisiya paused.  “My father is the expert on the subject,” she said dryly, “being a powerful and well traveled Key.  By powerful, I mean that he could take many people and things with him through the gates.  It takes strength in the gift, or well-honed abilities, to transport more than just oneself through.  He could take large packs of dogs, or groups of people with him.”  She sighed, noiselessly, but Liseli riding close behind her could feel it. 

“According to him, the gift often runs in families.  But that’s no guarantee.  Obviously.  I have known all my life that I did not inherit his ability.  I am . . . I am my mother’s daughter,” her voice darkened, and hardened.  “I am all that is left of her.”

They rode along the southern rim of the valley, falling into silence.  Liseli shut her eyes and tried not to think about anything.  She ended up thinking of Russ.  She saw his face in her mind, and wondered if she would forget what it looked like, since she had no picture of him to remind her.  She clenched her teeth and fought back tears, then wondered if she could kill Alisiya by suddenly reaching out to snap her neck, or choke her from behind . . . .  But she thought of the dog underneath them, who seemed to obey Alisiya with complete devotion, and thought better of it.

“There is something I can do, though,” Alisiya broke the silence, as if there had been none since she last spoke.  “Most people who are not Keys cannot even see or sense where there is a Gate.  I can see them.  They are like glass walls to me.  That is how I saw you through the Gate by your Mill.  I watched you through the glass.  So far I have visited the Gates only in my Child form . . . even so, if I were a true Key my soul could pass through the worlds without my body, as I’ve walked through this world without it.”

Liseli didn’t reply.  She only wished that Alisiya would be silent and leave her alone.  She would not encourage her to speak more.  She had nothing to say to her.

Alisiya moved her head back and forth, gazing all around her.  Liseli realized that she was happy!  The monster was glad to be out and about, in the flesh.  She ground her teeth together to swallow her anger.

“It is different, this way,” Alisiya observed.  “When I sent myself out I could see and hear the world, but I could never really feel it . . . .  It was always like a dream.  But this is real.”  She took a deep breath.  “I could get used to this, the air, the warmth of the rising sun, the whole . . . the feel of it.”

“Being alive,” Liseli let out the words in a whoosh of air.  “Russ . . . and Eliasha . . . liked to be alive.”

“So did my mother.”  Alisiya tightened her hands in the hair on the dog’s neck.

“So?  Did they kill her?” Liseli’s voice broke.

“No, but their deaths serve my purpose, to make my father pay for my mother’s death, which he caused,” Alisiya said calmly.

Liseli shook her head, fighting the urge wrap her hands around the neck before her and squeeze.  “Rot.  In.  Hell.”

“Be quiet,” said Alisiya, and Liseli felt as if something bit down on her mouth.  She winced, and stifled a cry.  “We’re nearing a place where people live.  The Gate is up by the waterfall, and we must skirt the village to reach it.  We cannot be seen.”

Liseli shut her eyes and reminded herself that she would be free once Alisiya was through her precious gate.  She stopped herself from thinking about anything beyond that, and put her hands to her eyes, finding pain and solace in remembering Russ, who did not live in her world anymore, because she had let him down.