Chapter 28

28.

         ranos
         what are you
         are you
         what are you
         ranos
         are you doing
         what
         ranos
         what are you
         you
         what are you
         ranos
         you doing
         ranos
         what are you doing-
         With a body twisted like a drowning man, Ranos returned to the world.
         He expected to be dead. He had no idea why he wasn’t. His eyes were already open, but there wasn’t much to see. An oppressive sense of being boxed in led him to believe he was in a room, however small. For a minute, he lay there, letting the gauzy stillness of the room settle over him, allowing his vision to adjust to the grey air. He was on his back, resting on softness, with one arm dangling over an edge and his knuckles nearly brushing the floor. A bed, then, he surmised, shifting and hearing a creak of springs. That was clear enough. He was on a bed in a room.
         Very well, then how did I get here? It didn’t feel like an illusion, but if his captors had enough time to craft a sophisticated one, he might not be able to tell until it was too late. Either way, there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. If it was an illusion, then he would simply have to wait until the proper opening appeared. Experimentally, Ranos moved his legs and arms, finding nothing apparently wrong with them. His head felt shredded, like someone had taken sandpaper to the inside of it in an attempt to scour away all the rough edges, leaving no surface for his thoughts and memories to grasp.
         Self examination finished, he swung his legs off the bed and rose to his feet. The mass exodus of blood from his head to his lower body staggered him for a moment and he had to sit back down or risk reaching the ground in another, less pleasant fashion. Overall he felt strangely weak, but he couldn’t remember undergoing the kind of effort that would make him feel this way. Something’s wrong , he thought, staring at the closed door before him, barely visible in the soupy darkness. Something happened. Raking thick fingers through his memories, the last proper recollection was of the fight with the other mindbender. Tolin. The name came unbidden, but not much else with it. Tristian had been there too. Tristian, who he could not sense at the moment. Yet his mind stank of the man, offal splattered against the interior of his mind, a bag of foulness torn open and left there to rot. The feeling was of a corrupted wound, long festering, the numbness wearing off and the pain now rising to the surface. It wasn’t an old pain.
         You were in my mind, Tristian, Ranos said silently. And not just to look. But that isn’t possible. Clearly, something terrible had occurred during his blackout period. But he felt fine, or at least he was intact. What had happened to Tristian? Where was he? Ranos was surprised to find just how much the loss distressed him. Having been separated for so many years, their partnership severed, he didn’t realize how much their reunion, however tenuous and strained, meant. Ranos very much wished that Tristian had not been harmed, but he was getting the feeling that it wasn’t the case and he had somehow been an instrument of that harm.
         But all of this was speculation. He had too few facts to be making these assumptions. Working with this little information was maddening and it was crucial that he figured out where he was and what was going on before he made any other moves. Tristian could be perfectly fine and searching for him even as he sat there uselessly pondering. It would be like the man. But Ranos couldn’t shake the feeling that the battle they had been engaged in hadn’t turned out well. For either of them.
         Then first I have to-
         A knock on the door intersected his thoughts. For a second Ranos didn’t move, his mind racing with all the potential scenarios about to unfold. A quick glance around the room revealed his spartan decoration. There wasn’t even a window and no place to hide himself. It was too soon to do anything strenuous, he would have to stall for time until he was able to gather enough strength for a teleport or something as complicated as that. But what to do? Should he attack? Clearly they knew he was awake, or wouldn’t have come knocking. Was this a trick? It didn’t make sense otherwise, to come to him with ruses when he was already in their power. They had all the advantages.
         Except maybe he hadn’t been captured. Perhaps he had simply found his way to a random villager’s home and was now being taken care of by them. It wouldn’t be the first time, if his memory was not mistaken. He had a habit of falling into those types of situations.
         Tentatively, he reached out and tried to read the person behind the door, who so far had not knocked again. It was almost too easy to slip in and he nearly pulled back for fear of walking into a trap. It was obviously not a mindbender, there was no evidence of barriers at all, and even the most open mindbender would be unable to eliminate at least some resistance to penetration. Curiously he found very little there, a spacious expanse, a scattering of trivial thoughts and impressions, all fleeting, all wrapped around what seemed like empty space, as if the person had no deeper emotions whatsoever. That can’t be right. Like crumbs skittering across a blank table before disappearing over the edge, Ranos had the sense that the person was about to leave. That didn’t strike him as a good idea. It was time to take control of his situation.
         Still, it didn’t mean he had to take chances. Lightly grasping from the door from his position on the bed, he braced himself and turned the doorknob, slowly letting the door creak open.
         To his surprise, the opening of the portal only revealed a slim, young woman, her sudden confusion oddly pretty and yet disconcerting, like she was befuddled and wasn’t exactly sure why. Her hand was near the space where the doorknob had been a second before and it just hovered there, as if waiting for a command.
         “Oh,” she said, pleasantly startled, “now that’s an interesting trick. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.”
         Ranos blinked, stared across the room at her. She smiled at him but didn’t make any moves into the room. He couldn’t read anything hostile off of her, although that meant nothing. Once he had encountered a person who had scoured the area for sociopaths and used them as proxies. Not having any sense of right or wrong meant it had been impossible to gauge what they were going to do by emotion alone. It would be very easy for her to plunge a knife into his chest the second he walked up to her, without any warning at all. But it still meant nothing. Her lack of hostility could be just that.
         But the woman was staring at him like she expected him to say something in response. Ranos decided he’d best play along with whatever was going on until he found himself on better footing. For the moment, it was probably appropriate to assume he had been captured.
         “It’s a trick that, ah, that takes some practice,” he replied noncommitally to the woman, standing up from the bed. The motion again caused his blood to redistribute itself but he was more prepared this time and only swayed a little. His vision fizzed with sudden static and then returned, leaving behind a faint echo of a headache. Physically, he was just fine. Just as long as he didn’t have to do anything strenuous.
         “Well I thought it was pretty impressive,” the woman said cheerfully. “Certainly not a common thing.” If she was a liar she was a good one, or she completely believed what she was saying. Ranos couldn’t rule that out. If they were able, he didn’t put them above tampering with memories. Taking a step back, she said, “Are you feeling okay enough to walk around a bit? She’s been wanting to see you for a while.”
         “She?” Ranos asked, remaining where he was.
         “Of course,” the woman replied, without elaborating.
         “Do I want to see her?” Ranos ventured, taking a step closer to the woman in the hopes that his greater height might serve to intimidate her. He briefly toyed with the notion of sparking a sense of fear in her in order to make her somewhat more forthcoming, but he doubts that it would work. Her mind was as smooth as glass. Nothing would adhere. Not fear. Not anything.
         “I imagine you would,” she said with a guileless smile. “Otherwise she’ll just rape your mind to the point where you can’t even put a thought together without pissing yourself and then leave you for your friends to find, if they even recognize you.” Her expression and tone had never changed throughout the entire statement. Ranos stiffened on hearing the words, and braced himself for an attack of some sort.
         A second passed. Nothing came. Ranos didn’t move.
         Brightly, the woman said, “Well? You’re going to just get tired standing there all day like that.” She gestured, indicating for him to come forward and follow her. “She’s really looking forward to seeing you. Come on.”
         Ranos hesitated, and the woman darted forward, cheerfully grabbing his wrist and pulling him out of the room. “Come on,” she insisted. He tensed, tempted to resist and perhaps subdue her, but he wasn’t sure what good that would do. Besides, now he was becoming curious about the nature of all of this. He was sure that he was being toyed with, if not outright mocked, and he wanted to know where this was all going to lead. Probably nowhere good but he had sustained worse in the past year or two. A clear head and a deliberate response would see him through, no doubt. It was just a matter of waiting for the right moment.
         The room led into a long hallway that looked down on a spacious ground floor, which was far more opulently decorated than his meager quarters had been. What appeared to be a skylight allowed ample moonlight to peek through, giving the whole setting a washed out look, with all the colors drained and sent somewhere else. He could see that the stretch of walkway he was on led around a corner, and on the opposite point there were stairs that led down. He could see no one else around. There were doors all along the wall, the majority of them closed tightly.
         The woman walked ahead of him, one hand on the railing. He thought he saw a small bandage peeking out from under her sleeve. “You’re the first visitor she’s been interested in for a long time now . . . most of them she just complains about . . . I’m not sure why she even lets them in the house . . .” the woman chatted amiably. “Not that it’s any of my business, honestly. I just do what I’m told.” Something in the spaces between her words told Ranos that there might be more truth to that statement than it seemed. “I’m grateful that you’re here, really. Because she’s really sharp still and everyone who comes, they just treat her like an old lady and I don’t think that’s fair . . . they don’t understand her and act like she’s already gone senile.” She cast a glance back at him. “I can’t imagine you will though,” she told him, with a twinkle in her eye that only chilled Ranos’ heart. “I think you’ve both on the same level.”
         “And what . . . exactly does she want to see me for?” Ranos asked, debating throwing himself off the railing. It wasn’t that far down, no more than a story. He had enough strength to ensure that he could land safely, but whether he could get any further was doubtful. It might not be worth the risk. Every instinct was telling him to flee, but for some reason he had the sense that was exactly what was expected of him. Someone wanted him to run, just to see how far he thought he could get. If one thing permeated the surroundings, it was an unwavering confidence. Ranos needed to find out if that seemingly irrational confidence was based in anything else before he tried to make his escape. At that point, however, he would do more than escape. He would strike.
         “Oh, just to chat, I’m sure,” the woman said, nodding to herself. “You’re the first new one in a long time, really. I can imagine she has all sorts of things to talk about with you. She’ll probably keep you there for hours, knowing her. Just humor her, if you can. After a while she’ll just get tired.”
         “I see,” Ranos said neutrally, sliding his mind in and out of the doors as they passed them, finding absolutely nothing of note. They seemed to be the only two people in the house. That was odd. But then that went along with everything else so far. “And after she is done speaking with me . . . then what?”
         “Oh, I imagine she’ll kill you,” came the reply, as the woman took his wrist to pull him along, just as friendly as before. “I can’t see what use she’ll have for you once she’s turned your head inside out. If you don’t kill yourself afterwards, that is.”
         “That sounds . . . interesting,” Ranos said, despite himself feeling how cool the young woman’s touch was. He was liking this less and less. This woman didn’t seem in control of her own words. Yet he didn’t sense any controlling influence. She knew exactly what she was saying, it just wasn’t registering. “And what do you think of all this?”
         She only shrugged. “It’s always nice having visitors . . . I mean, some of them can be a lot of bother sometimes, with all their demands and everything . . . really, they act like I have ten hands and can be in five places at once . . .” she prattled on about various other inanities, acting like Ranos had asked her a completely different question.
         Enough of this, then. He might have to stand here and accept this attempt at intimidation, but he certainly wasn’t some novice that was so easily cowed. If this woman thought he might simply accede to whatever mad wishes she had without any sort of argument or struggle, she was sadly mistaken. Tensing, he flexed invisible muscles, wincing at the vestiges of strain still holding him back. Still, he had enough strength to do a good amount of damage, physical or otherwise. The woman, first, as an example.
         He gathered himself, prepared to render the woman senseless and give him room to think of something else. Already several possible plans were coming together in his head, the result of years of working at this sort of thing. If Tristian had taught him one important thing, it was to always think to the next step. Assume everything will succeed, or that you’ll be able to do something else, and you’d always be ahead. Together with him or apart, it had served Ranos well over the years. It was time to put that to use.
         At that moment, the woman stopped at a door down at the end of the hallway, just before it turned, set strangely in the corner. Pushing it open with one hand, she pulled Ranos into the doorway with the other, showing off surprising strength, jerking him forward violently so that he nearly stumbled into the room and fell on his face in the process.
         He spun quickly to see the woman’s silhouette disappearing into a slit of light as the door shut. “I’ll come rescue you when she’s all done,” the woman promised, and her gleaming smile was all he could see.
         Then the door shut, and the room was plunged into nearly absolute darkness.
         It took far too long for his eyes to adjust. Vague shadows and fluid shapes taunted his vision, and he didn’t dare move, not knowing what he might run into. Even the notion of a teleport made his mind quail, although he very much wanted to perform one. Casting his mind out, and erecting the densest shield he could manage, Ranos readied himself for any kind of attack.
         Again, nothing came.
         But there was someone in the room with him.
         “Your reputation precedes you,” a cracked voice rasped to him from the depths of the room. He heard the faintest creak of a mattress and the rustling of thin covers. Another bedroom. He had the sense of a frail form pointing a claw-like hand at him. But shapes meant nothing. The room was impossible to discern. He was getting the impression that this darkness wasn’t completely natural.
         “By now, judging from all the stories, I thought you would have brought this entire house down around our ears, and then sent the remains rocketing into space purely for fun,” the old woman said, cackling a bit as her sentence fell apart. Ranos felt her gaze wash over him like an ice shower, but he stood his ground and tried to stare at where he thought she was. “Oddly enough, you’re taller than they say. Perhaps you’ve grown recently?”
         “Not that I can recall, no,” Ranos replied politely, feeling the woman’s essence soaked into the very air of the room, stuffing the molecules full to bursting. So there were stories about him. That was nothing new. Perhaps it was time to start acting like them. In a firm voice, he added, “But as you noted, I’m not without skill and have very little time to waste with you. While your hospitality, if that’s what you choose to call it, was generous-“
         A moist laugh echoed from the darkness. The mattress shuddered as the woman quietly convulsed with mirth. “Hospitality?” she chortled. “Is that what you call it? Boy, I tried to kill you as best I could, and take your friend with you.” The woman coughed roughly and appeared to settle deeper into the bed. “When that failed, I figured I might as well not miss the opportunity to speak with a legend. After all, there are so few of you around these days. Legends, I mean. The truly skilled. The life expectancy isn’t that high, is it now?”
         “I’ve survived,” Ranos said. “For how long, I can’t say but I certainly don’t intend to die today.” It occurred to him suddenly that he was only facing an old woman, he could simply walk up to the bed and snap her neck and then leave without any problem. None of this should be posing any sort of dilemma at all. So why hadn’t he done it? Why did he keep engaging this madwoman in conversation. It was simple to leave. Just to walk up and kill her. So simple. He could do it.
         Ranos made no move.
         But why didn’t he?
         Why can’t I?
         Why?
         “I imagine you don’t,” the woman said offhandedly. “People rarely choose the day, though it’s chosen for them often enough.” She shifted on the bed again, her thin wasted body lost among the suffocating sheets. “I know that my day would have been picked long ago . . .” Ranos felt his heart beating faster as her gaze settled over him like oil, smothering his impulses. This wasn’t right. What did she do? “But it certainly won’t be today, will it, Ranos?”
         I can still walk out. Just stall for time.
         “We did not come here for conflict,” Ranos said tightly, doing his best to divert the subject. “Yet you and your comrades apparently insist on provoking a struggle, for no good reason.”
         “Oh, we have plenty of reason, Ranos,” the woman said smugly. “That’s not really the problem at the moment. I think the problem is that you came here thinking you would effortlessly gain the upper hand and now that blood might be spilled, you find you don’t have the stomach for it.” The words were spit out as a barbed taunt, though to what end Ranos couldn’t say. “You should have learned already, we do not go quietly, or easily.”
         “Mandras did,” Ranos shot back, remembering what he had done to the man, knowing how easily he could do it to her, if he only had the will remaining. It was not a thing done lightly. Mandras’ final plea still haunted him sometimes, these scant months later. “Because in the end, he was wrong and his inability to see past that was his downfall.”
         “So the fool got what he deserved, eh?” the woman laughed, a sound that ripped right through Ranos. “Excellent. See, I’m learning all sorts of things from you already, Ranos.” Her near toothless grin blended in with the darkness. His eyes should have adjusted by now. She was doing this. Somehow. He couldn’t tell. But it was her. He knew it. “Mandras relied on allies that wouldn’t help him when he needed it. I could have told him that, if he had asked me.”
         “He wasn’t one for accepting advice,” Ranos admitted slowly, with narrowed eyes. His voice became briefly dangerous. “Are you any better? Because you are not dealing with gentle people, and if pushed, they will kill you.” He carried a dagger at all times. He had used it to kill his father, long ago. The edge was still sharp. It would do the job, it would get him out of here. But he didn’t move. “That includes me. None of us are strangers to bloodshed. This is not a conflict you are capable of winning. Do not repeat the mistakes of Mandras.”
         “Does the Time Patrol actually pay you to say those bombastic things, Ranos?” the woman mocked, sniffing with thinly veiled disgust. “Because the outcome here isn’t the question. You sought to strike at us, we have repelled you, three times already. If you persist, we’ll ensure that you don’t find it worth the effort. Do you see? Why do you stay, when all else is futile?” Her voice tore across him with physical force, causing him to flinch. In the darkness, he didn’t know if she could see it. “Turn around and leave and preserve what little dignity you have left.” She didn’t mean him. He wasn’t going anywhere. The sweet tone in her voice was gut wrenching. “It’s as simple as that, really.”
         “We will not retreat while you have hostages,” Ranos accused. “We will not leave them behind.” Not for the first time Ranos wished he had some inkling of where the others were. There was so much they didn’t know here. How many mindbenders were there even? He could account for three now, including this old woman, but that didn’t give him any clues as to how many there actually were. There could be four, or two dozen. Or another hundred. Nobody had been able to count how many were in the camp before Belmodeus got to it. Nobody had bothered to count the bodies, either. There had been too much else to consider.
         “That’s funny, because we’re not giving them up,” the woman said simply, tautly. “Not until certain conditions are met.”
         “Nobody will agree to them,” Ranos said darkly, his hand reaching for the dagger now. This had gone on for too long, with no good purpose. It was time to end it. Here. “You are only assuring your death and the deaths of your fellows.”
         “I almost killed you once, Ranos,” the woman reminded him harshly. “You and your fellow came close to dying. Very close. Would you like to dance that close to the edge again? Because I’d be more than happy to lead.” Her glee was immediately obvious, and more than a little disturbing.
         “You failed once, and that was with the advantage of surprise,” he said matter of factly, drawing the dagger out of his robes. The edge caught what little light there was and glittered hungrily. His movements felt slow, hesitant, caught in a strange sort of jelly, every motion a struggle. This wasn’t right. Something wasn’t right.
         The woman’s barking laughter startled him. “Is that what you thought? Is that it?” She chuckled again, stopping only when she became short of breath. Recovering quickly, she continued, “The only reason I failed, Ranos, is because of an unforeseen interference.”
         Behind him the door creaked open, allowing a sliver of light entrance. Ranos turned slightly, the dagger now in his hand. A slim shadow fell inside the room. Both of them, he thought grimly, tightening his grip on the weapon. If necessary. Both of them.
         “A problem I have since taken care of,” the woman murmured, as the person outside the door stepped fully into the room. Ranos’ eyes narrowed, filtering her features from the shapeless mixture of darkness and weak light.
         Then his eyes went wide as he saw.
         By all the gods.
         Ranos stared at the young woman, who regarded him without actually seeing him. Woman, you will not win, he vowed silently, even as a futile rage built inside of him, an anger that he knew would dissipate all too quickly, without a target to strike at, without any available outlet. Before it saw any results, it would be gone.
         “What did you do to her?” Ranos demanded of the old woman. “Tell me!” Her smile was a cold thing in the dark heart of the room. It was her only reply. The only one he would get. Suddenly desperate, spinning back to the unseeing girl, his voice hoarse, almost pleading, he said, “Kara, what has she done to you?”