Chapter 15 Kidan
KIDAN
The dean hosted Kidan and her friends in her tea-drinking room.
Dressed in her sharp green blazer, Dean Faris poured a steady stream of tea—lemongrass.
They each took a cup. Kidan and Slen didn’t sip. Yusef enjoyed his drink while reaching for the small pastries filled with chopped nuts. The dean’s lips appeared to curve behind her own cup.
She began with an apology. “I always prefer to be the first person that delivers information on Lusidio. You will receive access after this conversation.”
Lusidio… an alert must have gone out to the Sicions when Kidan looked him up. Kidan exchanged a glance with Slen. Both of them were curious but the mystery and sudden invitation had them on edge.
“First, why do you think I host tea in this room?” the dean asked. “What do you know of Faris House?”
Kidan didn’t know much. Slen’s flat eyes appeared to be working, though. Darting to the dean’s face, then around the room, gleaning information. The curtains whirred and Kidan could have sworn she heard a whispering sound. Like ghosts haunted this place. She shivered.
Dean Faris’s bronze skin appeared young under the chandelier of candles but there was nothing soft about the woman. She was alert, watchful. Even the raven symbol pinned to her expensive blazer seemed to stare at them with an oily pupil, its wings sleek under the flames.
“My father told me about what happened in Faris House.” Slen spoke in a stripped tone. The mention of her father always removed all life from her voice.
“Go on,” the dean said.
“A vampire lost control. He killed three of your children during their first year at Uxlay. He was a rogue.”
The house dipped into an unforgiving chill. Perhaps it was only Kidan who sensed the floorboards grow ice, an ancient coldness spreading to her spine, then to the nape of her neck. She couldn’t imagine such a heartbreaking loss.
Yusef spoke softly, wincing. “I heard… it was to send a message. To incite a war with the rogues.”
“Yes. That vampire served under Lusidio,” the dean said. “Lusidio ordered the attack.”
A startling fire built inside Kidan, behind her eyes, as if she was stealing light from the candles suspended above them.
“Did you go to war?”
It was Kidan who asked the question, though she didn’t recognize the edge to her tone.
The dean studied her for a second, sipped her tea. “No. If I’d taken the bait, many lives would have been lost.”
Kidan’s mouth thinned. “So you did nothing?”
“What would you have done?”
“You have an army of vampires. Use them.” She didn’t realize her voice had risen until Yusef laid a hand on her arm. She exhaled, trying to calm down.
“Vampires are not mindless tools to be wielded. They’re not weapons. They’re our equals.” Dean Faris’s hawklike eyes narrowed.
Kidan pulled her attention away, fisting her hands. This reminded her of her own parents. Killed and unavenged. And Slen’s unaffected gaze told her she agreed with the dean.
“Three children… not one.” A flash of unexpected pain tremored Kidan’s words. “You should have avenged them.”
The cup in the dean’s right hand shook and yet she remained otherwise composed. “And every soul in Uxlay is someone’s child. They are under my protection as well. Should I abandon them because I want revenge?”
Kidan shook her head, her braids bouncing around her shoulders.
The anger possessing her was sharp, and she couldn’t unlock her jaw.
Kidan would do anything for her loved ones, and she could not understand how someone as powerful as the dean would let this go unpunished.
Lusidio should have been destroyed. She paused.
That must be what Susenyos was trying to do.
Yusef regarded the table with a quiet sorrow. Slen, on the other hand, studied the dean like an interesting concept.
The dean spoke carefully. “Since you are graduates, it is time you learn more about rogue vampires. Most are scattered, choosing to live alone. But there are communities of them. The largest of which is led by the tyrant Lusidio. He remains our greatest threat, hiding in a place protected like Uxlay.”
A ripple skirted on the surface of Kidan’s tea as if the house itself shuddered. Uxlay had used the universal law—no unauthorized person, human or vampire could find Uxlay—for generations now.
Kidan’s forehead creased. “But you need actis to form a boundary law. Masters from Border Houses.”
“Yes. There were once eighty acti bloodlines. Twelve make up Uxlay. Thirty-one make up the Lusidios.”
All their eyes stretched wide. Kidan stopped breathing, anger deserting her.
“That many? Why would the acti families ever work with him…” Slen’s words drifted as realization darkened her features.
The dean confirmed it for them. “Some choose to do so, believing it is more natural that a vampire lead our society. And some of the families are forced. They’re blood slaves.”
Her tone tightened at the word, and the curtains of the Faris mansion rustled.
Once, the dean had reprimanded Kidan for using that word.
Because Kidan had used it to refer to Uxlay, instead of where it should have been directed.
Now the ugly word made her skin tense. Samson wasn’t the worst creature to exist out there.
And if Lusidio discovers the blade artifact before you, what then?
Those were the words that made Susenyos stop her from killing Samson. Kidan set her cup down.
Yusef shuddered. “So the horror camp stories are all true?”
The dean nodded grimly. “Only graduates like yourselves know the true extent of what waits outside. We do our best to protect actis from such a life. Lusidio has made a universal law using the thirty-one houses, along with his vampires, to forcibly feed and torture actis.”
“That’s sick.” Slen’s lip curled.
Finally, Kidan thought. Slen found this horrifying too.
“Upon your request, Uxlay has recently allowed Samson Sagad, Arin Tawendyo, and Warde Wesfin into its gates as your companions.”
They froze, waiting to see where this was going. Did the dean know why they’d struck a deal with the Nefrasi?
Kidan could almost hear Slen in her mind.
Calm down.
“I wonder,” the dean continued. “Did you all know the Nefrasi were once under Lusidio’s command?”
A light of surprise parted Slen’s granite eyes. Kidan, on the other hand, had gone utterly still.
In Susenyos’s memories she’d glimpsed a darkness, long black fingers of shadows eliciting horrible screams and endless torture. She had wondered what it was.
“Many vampires suffer greatly under Lusidio’s torture.
But only a select few have escaped from his hold and been granted refuge in Uxlay.
Two of your companions, Kidan, once served under the animal that ordered the execution of my children.
If I avenge them as you say, what do you think I should do to Susenyos and Samson Sagad? ”
Kidan’s mouth parted slightly and shut. “I—I don’t know.”
The dean held her gaze for a long time. “Be very careful of leading with your rage.”
Slen spoke slowly. “Why were rogues allowed into Uxlay at all?”
“Good question. Kidan’s grandmother, the previous dean, was insistent on giving refuge to those who suffered.
Eight rogues were allowed in along with Susenyos, Taj, and Iniko.
Some of whom are invaluable to us now. Naturally, after the attack on my family, I wanted to remove them.
” The dean paused, her eyes briefly sliding to a portrait hung on the back wall.
It was an oil painting of three young students, looking serious.
Omar Umil had painted it. “Those that proved themselves were allowed to remain. And these new Nefrasi will have to prove themselves before Uxlay can truly accept them. My companion is already spending a lot of time with the three. However, if you tell me they’re here to harm Uxlay, I’ll have my Sicions cut them down tonight. ”
Yusef fiddled with the edge of his mustard-colored sweater. He’d make an awful poker player. Kidan wasn’t that much better, though. She was unnerved by what she’d learned about Susenyos’s past. Still, she tried to keep her chin steady.
They had to think of GK.
And admitting they had knowingly brought in dangerous rogues could land them in the Mot Zebeya Courts. Still, Kidan felt the inexplicable urge to tell the truth. Something inside her chest was being pulled out against her will.
Slen, luckily, spoke. “The rogues told us they were here to join Uxlay, not harm it.”
After a long while, Dean Faris sipped her bitter tea. “Very well. Let’s return to my first question, then. Why do I spend most of my time here?”
Slen sent a browsing look over the ivory curtains, the heights of Uxlay and Arat Towers waiting past them. She paused for a moment. “Did it happen in this room?”
The dean set her cup down, satisfied. “Yes, this is where my pain resides. It carries my worst memories. The rogue vampire sat me here, just as you and I are, and killed each of my children. He relayed Lusidio’s message to me.
How Uxlay would fall. How it was a desecration that I lead it, and vampires would be free of the binds once more. ”
The image that came to Kidan’s mind was a wicked face, monstrous fangs, skin drenched in children’s blood. She shut her eyes, grieving for the leader of Uxlay.
When she opened them, Kidan saw Dean Faris in a new, terrifying light. Unbreakable as iron.
“Yet you always have tea in this room,” Kidan said.
“Exactly. This is the level of control required of your mind to command a house. To imprint your will and to inherit your ancestors’ culture. As you begin your studies, I want you to remember this. The sacrifices expected of you as members of Uxlay.”
All of them looked like they’d swallowed acid. But the dean appeared to have wanted this reaction. She wanted them cautious, alert.
“You’ve been in Adane House long enough, Kidan. What is the written law?”
Kidan didn’t expect the sudden subject change. The dean was fishing for a reaction. Again, there was that pull to trust the dean with this knowledge. Kidan dug her fingers into her thigh.
She couldn’t tell anyone about the law.
Remarkably, her voice remained even. “It still hasn’t been revealed to me.”
A ghost of a smile moved over the dean’s face. She did not believe her.
“I see. Perhaps your sister will be more successful.”
Kidan dropped her gaze to the gleaming teapot. If June read the house law, how long before she told Samson or the dean?
“Can we leave?” Kidan asked. The heavy lemongrass tea was making her head fuzzy.
“Yes, good luck with your studies.”
Kidan tracked the floor as they exited. Only a swirl of dark green skirt made her look up.
June was here and she was just as surprised. The two stared at one another in the shrinking hall.
Yusef cleared his throat. “You must be June. I’m Yusef—”
“Yusef,” Slen said firmly. He stopped talking.
June’s eyes traveled over them as if trying to figure out who they were.
“June,” the dean called from her chair. “Come in.”
June walked past her. Again, Kidan reacted without thought. Grabbed her arm and pulled her close.
“Careful what you tell her.” Kidan’s warning was nothing but ice.
Her sister looked straight ahead, not making a sound. A red Uxlay scarf, new and odorless, lay curled around her neck. She really was going to be a student here.
It was both Slen’s and Yusef’s hands that made Kidan let go. June entered past the engraved door and shut it behind her. Kidan felt another pair of eyes and turned to find Warde watching. A chain of bones around his thick neck. Had Samson instructed him to follow June around?
As Kidan passed him, Warde slightly tipped his head forward, making his bones crinkle. It felt like a greeting and a warning.