|3|
Kaleth woke on his back.
As he blinked, slowly bringing the world into focus, a sea of deep, purple-blue sky came into view above him. A dark blanket, sprinkled with winking gems of white. The moon hung high and bright overhead, not a single cloud available to tarnish its light.
He opened his mouth, moving as if to sit up as he did, but instead of the question he intended to ask, little more than a tattered groan crawled up out of his throat and he shut his eyes again as pain spiked through his body, giving up momentarily on moving. The sound alone, apparently, was enough, though, because a moment later he heard the soft shuffle of paper and clink of other unidentifiable objects being moved, immediately proceeded by quiet footsteps.
"Oh good," Issavan's voice greeted, "you're awake. I was beginning to worry you wouldn't reach consciousness in time. Your body is so
stubborn." Fingers snapped over the bride of Kaleth's nose, his eyes still shut – though not by choice – and something incredibly fine and vaguely warm sprinkled down over his closed eyelids. The effect was instantaneous.
His lungs dragged in a ragged, choking breath, so deep his lungs could barely hold the air, as though he'd been underwater for a lifetime and was suddenly offered his first chance to
breathe. Every muscle in his body seemed to ripple, instinctively shaking free a thousand invisible shackles which had, in that instant, dematerialized, disintegrating in a moment from iron to dust. When he jerked upright, snatching forward and seizing the first thing his fingers landed on – Issavan's wrist and shirt front, respectively – Issavan's spare hand went to the center of his chest, fingers splayed as though to pacify him.
"Shhhh," his brother cautioned, "slowly, or you'll make yourself dizz-"
Kaleth slammed him into the earth, half grateful and half irritated that the soft grass and giving soil severely dampened the impact. "What did you do to-" Unfortunately, at that point his vision swam as Issavan foretold, his head spinning dizzily and strength buckling under the onslaught. When he swayed, eyes flitting to half mast and then closed, Issavan's hand on his chest tightened to a closed-fingered grip and steadied him.
"Careful…deep breaths," he coached, waiting and holding his hand firm as Kaleth fought off the after effects of whatever Issa had given him previously. Eventually, when most of it seemed to finally die off, he chastened with a surprisingly patient tone, "I did warn you…" and Kaleth forced his eyes open again, made himself focus on his brother's face below him. Issavan looked uncharacteristically gentle – sympathetic, even – and as patient as he sounded.
Kaleth wondered what he was playing at. "What…" he began, and then swallowed the lingering dryness in his throat. "What…did you do to me?"
"Perhaps we ought to start with you letting me up," Issavan suggested not unkindly, "and then I will explain everything you need to know."
"Everything," Kaleth growled, and Issavan raised his eyebrows. "Not everything I 'need to know'…everything."
Issavan offered him a thin smile. "I'm afraid, brother, 'everything' encompasses far more than I could hope to explain in the time we have allotted. Now, if you would be so kind…"
A moment longer, Kaleth hesitated. For days now, Issa had dragged him in circles, lead him along like luring a cat with a feather toy, and mocking him the entire way. He had kissed him, and
poisoned him, and now Kaleth had him under him, trapped to the cool earth. "No more games," Kaleth demanded.
"None of the sort you don't like," Issavan promised cryptically, and Kaleth wondered what sort of an answer that was, if any.
"You'll tell me why you poisoned me."
"I didn't poison-"
"You
did-"
"I
drugged you," Issavan said. "It was not poison. If it were, you would be dead, or certainly sick, and neither of those means contribute to the ends I wish to accomplish."
Kaleth pursed his lips, still unsatisfied, but content enough to let his brother up, if begrudgingly. As Kaleth sat back, rubbing his hand sorely behind his neck, Issavan rose primly as though nothing had occurred and pinched an invisible speck of dust from his hair. Silence lingered between them. Night bugs chirped.
"Well?" Kaleth prompted at last, and Issavan glanced over.
"Ah, yes." He paused, seeming to consider a moment before continuing. "Very well. I'll start with several of the questions you asked before I put you under, shall I?"
Without waiting for Kaleth to respond, he stood, moving over to a small stack of goods – likely those he'd left when Kaleth woke – and Kaleth didn't bother asking where they'd come from or how he'd transported them.
"I've been leading you along because the fact that fathe-" He frowned, correcting quickly, "Othir sending you after me as opposed to one of his lackeys has provided me with an opportunity to prove my innocence…but I need your help."
"Innocence?" Kaleth blinked, suddenly confused, and stood, following after his brother. "But…you aren't…? You
did use sorcery…did you not?"
"Of course I did," Issavan said, lifting a small, rich purple pouch from among his things, "but that doesn't mean I can't prove that I didn't. It was Eloise that cursed you with the sickness-"
"
Why-?"
"She wanted me to leave with her. Flee, now that I've come fully of age, and take off for someplace more accommodating to those with a Gift…" Issavan hesitated, obviously considering his words carefully before saying, "She thinks I've grown too attached to you…too fond of you, for all that we're not truly brothers, and when I refused, she put the blame on you. I assume she thought I would protect my secret and watch you die rather than put my own life in jeopardy, and that with you gone, I would have nothing to tie me down…"
"But that failed."
"That failed," Issavan agreed. "There
is however, one plant in existence which could have negated her curse without magical interference on my part if I had had the resources to get it to you on time…which I didn't, as your condition was rapidly deteriorating and it grows in one place, and one place only."
Realization hit. "Here," Kaleth blurted.
"Yes," Issavan said, "here. At the bottom of this very lake, in fact, and with it, I will be able to prove to Othir that magic of my own was not necessary to cure you. It has all the required properties inherent in its makeup."
Kaleth frowned, puzzled again. "What, then, do you need me for?"
Still holding his small pouch, Issavan approached the edge of the lake, stopping only when the tips of his toes bordered the edge of the shore and folding his arms neatly. "This is no ordinary lake…nor is it an ordinary plant. It is a fungi, technically…a mushroom, and it grows only at the lowest point in this water…"
As Kaleth came up beside him and looked out onto the water, it looked impenetrable—dark, and infinitely more ominous than in the day.
"It must be picked at the peak of night," Issa said, "when its magic is most potent, or its effect will not be adequate…and it is nearly a half-hour swim to the bottom, even for a strong swimmer."
Kaleth nearly choked. "A half-? How could one
possibly-"
"The lake is bewitched," Issavan continued unperturbed, "and the plant was not meant to be collected. I drugged you so that I could work a spell on you which would allow you to perform freely underwater without drawing breath. The effect persists for exactly five hours after the spell is cast. The first three hours would have subjected you to excruciating pain which – though not damaging to you physically – would have been a miserable experience, and I thought you would have rather slept through it."
Kaleth couldn't decide whether to be grateful or furious. He opted to decide later. "So I now have two hours to…fetch this plant?"
"One and a half," Issavan replied. "You slept longer than I intended, and the longer we talk, the more time you waste. Due to your body's natural buoyancy, it should be a quicker swim up than down, but for safety's sake I would allow at least equal time for both trips, particularly when you take fatigue into account."
"Surely the pressure-"
"Will not affect you. For as long as my spell protects you, you will be safe."
Safe. Still eyeing the water, Kaleth frowned. It did not look even remotely 'safe'. Running out of arguments, though, he fell back on his final one. "It's the dead of night, brother. Even at the surface, the water is black. How will I-"
Before he could finish that question, Issavan unfolded his arms and dripped his fingers into the purple pouch he'd brought to the lakeside, drawing out a single, ink black bead. As Kaleth watched, he whispered something unintelligible over its surface and then immediately tossed it out. The instant it touched water, it lit up. Brilliantly.
As it sank – a very gradual descent, Kaleth noted – shards of light, like spires of the morning sun cutting through dust, lit up the water all around it, and for a surreal moment, Kaleth decided it looked like a sinking star, beautiful and sharp and impossibly luminous. It was breathtaking.
"How will you see?" Issavan asked, predicting the end of Kaleth's unfinished question and Kaleth shook his head.
"I don't suppose I'll have that issue."
"I will drop one for you every five minutes until you return to the surface," Issavan said. "At the rate they fall, they should make an easy to follow trail from bottom to top and provide enough light for you to see well to the bottom by the time you reach it. The mushroom itself is also luminous – a pale violet in color, with a ruffled fringe like lace on the underside and tiny, sprinkled white spots like powdered sugar on its top. After you pluck it, it will remain alight, and even if you lose track of the light stones, it will keep you out of the darkness for your journey up."
Kaleth thought about the task his brother was presenting him with. Travel alone, half an hour down through cold, dark, bewitched water to the bottom of a lake to retrieve a glowing plant he'd never before seen and – however unlikely, given its odd description – might not even be able to identify, and then cart it another half an hour swim back up.
There was nothing but lit magical pebbles and instinct to guide him. Nothing but Issavan's word for him to trust in. Anything could go wrong.
Everything could go wrong. One mistake, and he would die at the bottom of a cold lake, miles from home, where no one would ever know he existed. Issavan might even be plotting that, though that also seemed unlikely due to all the effort he'd apparently put into such a grand scheme thus far. But even one unplanned error could mean Kaleth's end, then and there, that very night.
He rubbed a hand over his arm, realizing a chill had given rise to shiver bumps on his arms, and his heartbeat felt unnaturally fast in his chest. When he glanced to his side, he found Issavan's eyes on him—cool, grey, and beautiful. As enchanting as the man himself.
"Will you help me?" Issa asked.
Now he asked. After all of this time, all of his games,
now Issavan chose to ask for Kaleth's consent and aid, and Kaleth wondered if he had a choice, even now. Then, he realized it didn't matter whether or not he had one. His decision would be the same regardless.
"Of course I'll help you."
"Time is wasting."
Time was wasting, but Kaleth let it waste, taking what he considered might well be his last moments above the surface to eye his brother in earnest. Issavan looked small again, like this, standing on the lake's bank bathed in the ethereal light of the midnight moon. A child of magic and mist. Looking at him like this, critically and detail by detail, he found it a wonder he ever truly believed they'd been born of the same mother and father.
Where Kaleth was tall and stocky, built like dirt and stone with brown eyes and brown hair that was rich like wood in the winter and almost blonde – like a mix of twigs and hay – in the summer, Issa was slight and unimposing from all physical standpoints. Like a willow. Like a reed in a stream, or simply a gust of breeze, his entire body a tapestry of contrasts. Where Kaleth's skin was a healthy, deep tan, Issa's looked as though the sun's rays feared to touch it, and Kaleth was a warrior. A man of simple concepts. Honest, but simple. Rights and wrongs, good and evil.
Issa was everything undetermined. Everything that could not be pinned down. Could not be classified or decoded. If Kaleth was the earth or an oak in the woods – steadfast, predictable, and durable – then Issa was dust and shadows.
His eyes flicked to his brother's lips, and immediately his mind drew up the memory of that mouth on his, pressing up against him – could that really have been only hours before? – opening under his own. Without allowing himself to think, Kaleth reached out, catching his fingers under Issavan's chin and tilting it upwards to face him. Issa made no move to resist, no move to withdraw, even when Kaleth dipped, moving down only to hover hesitatingly an inch before contact.
"Will you poison me again," Kaleth asked, "if I kiss you?"
Perhaps he imagined the spark of amusement in Issa's eyes. When Issa answered, his lips were so close that the breath of his words sent a warm breeze tumbling over Kaleth's own. "I've never poisoned you in my life."
Kaleth snorted, but caved, shutting his eyes and closing the remaining distance. There was no bitter surprise on Issavan's lips this time. No strange flavor. Only heat and breath and – when Kaleth slid his hand back, resting his thumb at the hinge of Issa's neck and jaw and threading his fingers gently into the soft hair at his nape, licking over the seam of his lips – Issavan's mouth opened, surrendering without a hint of resistance and submitting to Kaleth's kiss in ways he never did in other ventures.
Kaleth wanted nothing more than this. Give him this moment for all of eternity, and he would never be found wanting. Then, Issavan shivered – a tenor moan of sound falling from him when Kaleth sucked his tongue into his mouth – and Kaleth wanted
so much more than this.
"Time," Issavan reminded him, a sharp, horrible word, like a needle in Kaleth's side even though it sounded soft and winded when Issa said it. Somehow, he managed to gather the will to draw back, though one look at his brother nearly broke that resolve again the instant it formed.
He forced himself to speak instead. "If I am to die, I am happier to do it knowing I have taken at least one proper kiss from you."
Issavan met his stare evenly, and by the time he spoke, he did so without falter. "You are foolish…and sentimental to a fault."
Kaleth took a step back, putting his first foot in the water, and the chill hit him instantly, skittering up his bones like lightning along a metal pole. He steeled himself so as not to grit his teeth against the cold. "I love you."
Issavan's expression was clinical and unreadable as Kaleth waded backwards. Step by step, foot by foot Kaleth progressed deeper out into the lake. "Of course you do," Issavan replied quietly, and the water climbed up Kaleth's body as he went—to his calves, his knees, his thighs, his waist. "Oh, and Kaleth?" Issavan called out when the water was high, just beneath his shoulders. Kaleth waited. "Whatever you do, do
not drink the water…"
They were the last words Kaleth heard before going under, because immediately after speaking them – certainly not waiting for a reply – Issa drew out another light stone from his pouch, lifting and tossing it, and as soon as it hit the surface, sending bright brushstrokes of light in a thousand different directions into the water, Kaleth dove.
A/N: Short chapter, my bad, but I thought this was a pretty good place for a cut off. Hope you enjoyed it. :)
