Chapter 10
Varum was sure there was more to the stories Kalyani told, but he wouldn’t press her yet.
He needed to show her that he could be trusted.
She had asked for honesty earlier, and he had given it.
As he spoke the truth, he hadn’t known how she would react.
To his surprise, she’d faced it head-on.
Things would be easier now that he knew how to approach her.
“What happened to the ship Jai commandeered?” Varum asked.
Kalyani set aside the comb. “I’m not sure. I never asked about it, but if I know Jai, he still has it somewhere.”
That might come in handy later. Varum set that aside for the moment. “How did the Masters learn the names of those involved in Shaldorn and Mortham?”
“No one seems to know.”
“They’ve not looked into it?”
“Dain said—”
“Dain?” he interrupted. That was a new name, and the way she smiled when she said it caught his attention.
Kalyani’s brow furrowed as she tilted her head to the side. “Have I not mentioned him yet?”
“You’ve not. Who is he?”
“Dain is…well, Dain.” She laughed softly. “He’s unlike anyone I’ve met before.”
Varum tapped a finger on his thigh. “What makes him different?”
She looked around as if struggling to find words. The longer she took, the more intrigued he became. Who was this Dain who could make the feisty Kalyani lose her words? His gaze moved to the dark strands of her hair curling around her face as they dried.
“He’s dangerous.”
Her words snapped him out of his thoughts. “Plenty of people are dangerous.”
“Not like Dain. He exudes a different kind of danger.”
“And your brother allows you to be around such a male?”
She grinned. “Dain is a friend. He was there at Shaldorn. And at Mortham—twice.”
So, this Dain, who made her smile so secretively, was an elf. But which race? “Twice how?”
Kalyani’s expression turned serious. “I told you how my sister and others were taken from my village. What I didn’t tell you was that Rohan was the leader. Losing our people was killing him, but Lata’s disappearance broke him. He was desperate, and in that desperation, he came up with a wild plan.”
She paused, and Varum caught himself before he pressed her for more.
Her gaze was on the floor, and she gripped the edge of her tunic, absently fiddling with the hem.
He knew without asking that she was reliving painful memories.
He didn’t like that he had pushed her there, but he would do it again if it meant saving others.
Suddenly, she drew in a breath. “He and some others were taken as prisoners bound for Mortham. They were working with insurgents within the compound to set off a bomb to cause chaos. That would allow Rohan to capture one of the guards and force them to bring him to Lata.”
“I take it things didn’t go according to plan if your brother is with you.”
“Things went as well as they could. The bomb exploded, and Rohan found his prisoner in a Wood Elf named Farah.”
Varum vaguely remembered Kalyani mentioning that name earlier. He waited, impatient to hear the rest.
“The bomb worked as planned, but Farah was badly injured. He brought her to the village to heal her, unaware that she was an undercover DIA agent, who was at Mortham looking for her missing sister.”
“Incredible,” he murmured.
Kalyani’s dark eyes lifted to his. “It was. They worked together and got back inside Mortham. Turned out Farah’s sister had aligned with the Masters.
She captured Rohan and tortured him to lure Farah there.
The sisters battled, and Farah was the one who walked out.
Rohan and Farah got Lata and a large number of our people out that night with Dain, Jai, and Arya’s help.
But that put Farah’s and Rohan’s names on the Masters’ list.”
“Why speak so highly of Dain if all he does is help at the end?”
“Dain does much more than that. He’s also part of the CCD.”
So, he was a Dark Elf. It was unusual to find three aligning with other elves and humans. Unexpected. At least from what he knew of the Dark.
“He has connections,” Kalyani continued. “He’s the one who brought the intel about Stonemore to the DIA. In some ways, he’s the leader in all of this.”
“Forgive me, but it is odd to hear that a Dark is close to others outside of his race.”
She gave him a flat look. “You mean humans. Just say it.”
“I mean exactly what I said. The Dark are similar to us in that they prefer their own kind. And they don’t function well in sunlight.”
“Yet Dain, Arya, and Jai are with us.”
While she might believe it, Varum wasn’t convinced. “Could they be undercover for the Masters?”
“Nay,” she answered firmly and quickly.
“You sound very sure of that.”
She tucked one leg under the other. “I am. Everyone has put their lives on the line against the Masters time and again. They’re looking for me.”
Perhaps she hoped that Dain would find her. Varum knew she would be disappointed. Dark Elves kept away from the water just as Sea Elves kept out of the underground. “All you’ve told me so far is that you know people who have stood against the Masters.”
“There is one more story. Manu and Inej’s. One of the Masters’ favorites, a Moon Elf named Gita, once ran Shaldorn. She sent Inej to the Dangerous Peaks to kill Manu. None of the Masters’ mercenaries survived in the peaks, so they sent a human, knowing Manu would help.”
“And did he?” Varum pressed.
Kalyani nodded.
“Did this human…what was her name? Inej? Did she succeed?”
Kalyani chuckled and gently shook her head. “They ended up defeating more mercenaries together. They remain in the Dangerous Peaks, where Manu continues to thwart the Masters. It also gives us an ally in the mountains, should we need it again.”
“Are there any more stories?”
“Nay. That’s it.”
He stretched his arms along the back of the sofa. “A Sun Elf, three Dark Elves, a Wood Elf, and now a Mountain Elf. I’m impressed that such a grouping would come together.”
“You left out the humans. Yasmin, Rohan, and Inej.”
“What about you?”
Kalyani flicked her hair over her shoulder. “What about me? I’m fighting with them. Or I try. Rohan is…protective.”
“As he should be. He already lost one sister. The gods smiled upon him and allowed her to return. Knowing that, you still ignored his wishes to tell him when you went into the water.”
“I don’t need you to remind me of that.”
He snorted. “Seems someone should. I cannot imagine what he’s going through right now.”
“I can,” she murmured as she looked away, regret filling her eyes.
“It’s amazing that none of you has been found by the Masters yet. But it’s only a matter of time.”
Her head snapped back to him. “We have allies.”
“Who?”
“As courageous as Ravi, Yaz, Arya, Jai, Rohan, Farah, Manu, and Inej are, they didn’t do anything alone. They always had help. If it wasn’t Dain directly, he sent someone to them. Others in the DIA are also involved.”
Varum quirked a brow at the way she continued to set Dain on a pedestal. “The larger your group gets, the easier it’ll be for the Masters to infiltrate it.”
“We know that. Only certain individuals know where we live. The point of those stories was to tell you that the Masters aren’t impossible to get to. The group got into Mortham twice. And they got out twice.”
“I doubt that would happen again.”
She shrugged. “So what? They shut down Shaldorn.”
“And another is being built. From the rumors I’ve heard, it’s somewhere in the ocean.”
Her lips twisted as she nodded. “We heard another was being built, but we didn’t know where. Do you have its location?”
“I’m attempting to gather that information.”
“Can they even do something like that without the Sea Elves’ permission?”
He looked at the ceiling. “Did the Masters get permission from the Mountain Elves to build Shaldorn?”
“Point taken,” she agreed softly.
Varum lowered his gaze to her. “Why disregard your brother’s wishes about the water?”
“It isn’t just Rohan. I did the same to my father. The look of disappointment on their faces never goes away. Rohan loosened the restrictions, thinking I would adhere to them, but I can’t.”
“Why?” Varum asked, his voice a whisper.
She looked away and returned to fiddling with the hem of her tunic.
“Rohan used to tell me that I headed to the water the minute I could walk. A wave struck and pulled me out into the bay before Dad could reach me. He was frantic, terrified that I would drown. Rohan said that when Dad managed to bring me to the surface, I was smiling and none the worse for wear.” Her shoulders lifted as she drew in a deep breath.
“I can no more stay out of the water than I can still my own beating heart.”
“Are there others like you in your village?”
Her sad smile was fleeting. “I know of no others like me.”
Varum should probably stop questioning her, but he wanted to see if she would share more. He kept his voice soft, his words gentle as he asked, “How deep do you swim?”
“I don’t know. Deeper than Rohan knows about. I go where I’m pulled.” Her gaze slid back to him. “Sometimes, I’m drawn to animals. Other times, it’s the currents themselves.”
Varum’s brows snapped together as he stared at her. “The currents? You hear them?” he asked incredulously. That couldn’t be possible. Only the Sea Elves could discern such a thing.
“I don’t know what I hear, or even if I hear anything. It’s more what I feel.”
“You…feel it?” Feeling the currents was even more special. That meant the ocean was communicating directly with Kalyani. He thought again of the gills he had seen and felt behind her ears—the same gills that seemed to have vanished.
Who was this human? What made her so unique from others of her kind?
“You’re staring,” she said and looked away nervously.
Varum dropped his arms and scooted to the edge of the cushion. “Do you have the names of anyone involved with the Masters besides the Moon Elf, Gita?”
“One.”
“What is their name?”
“One.”
He flattened his lips. “I heard you. I need a name.”
“And I’m telling you the name that he goes by. It’s One.”
“His name is One?”
Kalyani’s distaste for the individual was obvious.
“He worked at Shaldorn under Gita. One, Two, and Three. They were known as the Trinity to Yasmin and the other enslaved. They carried out Gita’s orders and dished out their own kind of cruelty and torment.
Ravi and Dain killed Two and Three at Shaldorn, but One actually helped Ravi. ”
“Helped, you say?”
“Odd, I know. I doubted it, too, but he did. He was also in Mortham and healed Arya when she was injured.”
“He’s a Star Elf?”
She grimaced. “I must have left that out. Aye, he’s a Star Elf.”
“If he aided Ravi and then Arya, he must be trying to get in with your group to work undercover for the Masters.”
“He’s not asked for anything.”
Varum made a noise at the back of his throat. “He will. It’s simply a matter of time. You can’t trust him.”
“I never would.”
“One isn’t a name I can track. He’s likely using that so no one can find him. He has a name, though.”
Kalyani grinned. “Dain said the same thing. He’s been searching for him since Shaldorn. They know what he looks like, but so far, they have come up empty.”
“It looks like I’ll have to focus my attention on Gita.”
“How?” Kalyani asked. “It isn’t like she’s visiting Tarangarh.”
Varum hated to admit that she had a point. He might not get to the surface, but he knew someone who did.