The Black Prism

Chapter 76

Judging from the cold air licking his skin, it was well after midnight when Kip was escorted through some kind of gate. He had to judge from the temperature because he was wearing a blindfold, along with a black sack over his head, a noose around his neck, hands bound behind his back.

One of the guards who was accompanying him was cursing, quietly but constantly, awed by something apparently called Brightwater Wall. They passed through slowly, stopping and starting, some military sounding voice barking, "Don't stand there and pick your butts. Move deeper into camp. You're blocking everyone else." Kip heard the crack of a whip like a pistol shot, and the line started moving again.

The last couple of days had been like this. Kip had woken in darkness-darkness that turned out to be a blindfold, his hands bound at his sides. When he struggled to get it off, men had come. They removed the blindfold, one stared at his eyes, pulling them wide open with rough fingers, then they blindfolded him again. His left hand was agony. That first day-if it was just a day-they had dosed his wine with something foul that dulled his pain and his senses.

They'd taken him to see Lord Omnichrome, withholding Kip's dosed wine so he would be lucid, but they never removed the blindfold. They'd sat in a tent with many voices for hours, with Kip in agony, and then they'd left. Apparently the lord was too busy to see him.

After a while, Kip heard his guards arguing. A clever man would have figured out some way to exploit their divisions. Kip just stood quietly, wondering when his next dose would be. His hand was throbbing.

They handed him off to someone else-literally handing over the noose around his neck.

"Aren't you going to give him the poppy wine?" one of his guards asked.

"Why waste good poppy on bad blubber?" the other guard asked. "I like poppy wine my own self."

"Oh, that stuff tastes foul," the first said. Kip could agree with that.

"I don't drink it for the taste," the guard said, laughing. Kip could agree with that too. "Let's go. I saw some women a ways back. With your charm and my poppy wine…" He laughed again.

Kip was pulled into a wagon. He stumbled up the steps and nearly strangled on the noose, but soon found his seat. The door was closed behind him.

Someone loosened his noose, pulled it off, took off his hood, pulled off his blindfold. "Kip?" she asked.

Kip blinked. Though the light in the violet room was dim, after two days in total darkness it made his eyes water nonetheless. But through the blear of his tears, he made out Karris White Oak.

"Karris?" he asked. Stupid question. Of course it's her, you're looking at her, you idiot.

"Kip, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to rescue you," he said. Then he laughed.

"Kip, how much poppy wine did they give you?"

It had been hours since they'd given him wine, but he just laughed harder. Karris guided Kip to her pallet in the wagon. He fell asleep instantly. She stared at him. A hard, mean part of her wanted to hate him.

My son would be Kip's age. Hell, Kip could be my son. He does have blue eyes, and my grandmother was Parian.

What, you think brown skin and kinky hair skips a generation? Like twins?

Karris rubbed her face. It was an idle fantasy and she knew it. The son she'd abandoned was Kip's half brother, but any similarities they shared would be because they shared Gavin as a father. And what a father he'd been, to both boys.

She had to get out of here. She was thinking too much.

Karris watched Kip sleep, seeing the Guile blood in the shape of his brow and his nose, and she couldn't even name the feelings in her heart.

Eventually, she covered him with her blanket.