Kaya had remained virtually prone on her back for next to an hour. Between planeswalking twice in a day and planeswalking with Rat, she was thoroughly exhausted.
Rat had seemed to recover slightly faster and was soon sitting up, removing diamonds from her pockets to calculate the value of her haul.
Watching her, Teyo had asked, “Are those really worth something on Ravnica?”
“Oh, yeah,” Rat had said, her eyes sparkling as much as the diamonds.
Kaya had added, “The cargo of a single pocket would be worth a fortune on almost any plane but Gobakhan.”
Why in Keru’s name didn’t I pick up any myself? There’s a lot of freedom in that many stones.
“I’ll split ’em with you,” Rat had said, probably reading her a bit.
“They’re yours, Rat. I’m not going to take—”
“I’d need help fencing them anyway, you know? We might as well split the profits.” She had looked up at Teyo then. “Three ways.”
Kaya had nodded. “All right. A three-way split. A third each for me and both of my partners.”
Rat had squealed unintelligibly, punched Teyo in the arm and said, “You hear that? We’re her partners!”
“Ow. Could you at least hit me in another spot? I think my arm is turning permanently purple right there.”
“Sorry,” she had said, still grinning broadly.
Honestly, it raised Kaya’s spirits. She had feared Teyo would miss Gobakhan, but he seemed happy—even relieved to be traveling with her and Rat.
Well, I know why he’s happy to travel with Rat. I probably know it better than he does. For now.
And Rat was just, well, blossoming on this journey. Kaya had also worried that at least a part of Rat might be jealous of her solitude. Certainly, Kaya knew Rat was lonely and craved relationships. But adjusting to constant companionship can be quite a strain. (It was a bit of a strain at times for Kaya, and she had never been nearly as isolated as Araithia Shokta.) But Rat seemed to soak up the camaraderie, perhaps making up for lost time.
More than that—and to Kaya’s sincere delight—she found she was truly taking pleasure in their company. If someone had told her even a week ago that she’d relish time spent in the constant company of two teenagers, she’d never have believed it. And yet, it was a joy to be with them both. There was such a lack of…jadedness about them. Of course, Teyo’s innocence was easy to understand. Just a few hours on Gobakhan had revealed the place to be—at least from Kaya’s point of view—a true backwater of a plane. But given Rat’s condition, the girl would have earned (even in her short sixteen years) every cynical impulse that might have struck her. And yet, Araithia Shokta was the furthest thing from cynical.
Between the two of them, I think they actually give me hope for the Multiverse.
She had found herself laughing.
Teyo had looked at her questioningly.
A smiling Rat had just gone on counting her diamonds, saying, “We love you, too, mistress.”
Kaya had said, “Please, Rat, if you love me, can’t you call me Kaya?”
Rat had looked up—almost panicked. “No, mistress. No. Can’t do that. It’s hard enough for me to not call Teyo, Mister Verada.”
Teyo had given her the eye. “It is not.”
She had giggled then. “No, it’s not. Saying Mister Verada just now sounded kinda silly. You’re just Teyo, I guess. Like Hekara was just Hekara.”
“Then why can’t I just be Kaya?”
Rat had shaken her head. “That’s not how we met. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I just can’t do it.”
“Yet,” Kaya had said.
A musing Teyo eventually said to Rat, “So we both love Kaya, huh? Does that mean all three of us love each other?”
She had punched him in response.
“Ow.”
I swear the boy must like getting hit.
Now Kaya, Teyo and Rat were carefully heading toward the mansion, with Rat in the lead, acting as an advance scout.
Kaya whispered a warning: “Remember, Rat, this is a different world, and you may not be as invisible here as you are on Ravnica.”
Without looking back, Rat offered up another of her shrugs and said, “Gobakhan was a different world, too, and I was just as insignificant there as anywhere I’ve ever been. Not that I’ve been many wheres. But still, you know? Anyway, I’ll be right back.” She scurried on ahead, leaving Kaya alone with Teyo.
The boy had been silent ever since they had set out. More than once, he’d started to speak—only to swallow the words. It happened again, and Kaya—though she had a pretty good idea of what was coming—said, “Okay, Teyo, spit it out.”
He looked a little surprised. He had grown accustomed to Rat reading him. But hadn’t expected it from Kaya.
She prompted him to get it over with: “You’ve made it clear you’re not thrilled with this mission.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Kaya. Please know I’m happy to be traveling with you and Rat, but this…It doesn’t seem right. We’ve come to kill Liliana for collaborating with the dragon, but she switched sides.”
“And she’s the one who actually killed Nicol Bolas.”
“Yes, exactly. I mean, maybe she’s worthy of redemption. Or maybe she should stand trial for her crimes. But simply to kill her…”
“Teyo, I know you’re not a killer. By Keru’s Grave, you never even killed an Eternal. And I want you to understand that I’m not going to let you become a killer now. This job, this mission, it’s on me. I appreciate you and Rat having my back—in fact, I’m pretty much counting on the two of you protecting me—but I’m the assassin here. And this employment is not new to me. My usual targets have been ghosts and the undead, entities that needed to move on and leave life to the living. But I’ve also known plenty of the living that needed to die, and I haven’t been shy about killing them, either. Though I’ve never done it lightly. I have a code. It hasn’t always been terribly consistent, but I make decisions in the moment, and there are few of those decisions that I regret. At least, not on this topic.”
“But Liliana…”
“Liliana Vess killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Ravnicans and Planeswalkers before switching sides. I’m not saying she doesn’t have her excuses. I’m not even saying she wasn’t coerced. But in the end, she made choices. Choices she has to live with. Choices she’ll have to die for.”
From the trees, Rat hissed, “Over here.”
Kaya looked at Teyo, who looked back and then nodded. They moved to catch up to Rat together.
“There’s the mansion,” Rat said. “But it’s not the way Miss Ballard described it.”
That was true. Jaya had described a ruin. Something that was barely standing. The House of Vess was nothing like that. It was in good repair, elegant and recently painted. Torches lit the entryway, and noblemen and -women were entering what seemed from outside—sounded from outside—to be a rather boisterous party.
Teyo whispered, “Are we sure this is the right place?”
“It’s the right place,” Rat said. She pointed toward another group of people. Servants, apparently, wearing gold collars, who even at night were working to repair a broken gutter. Others brought food and even flowers inside for the party. “I went up close to the servants and eavesdropped. They’re not really servants. They’re pretty much prisoners, controlled somehow by those shiny collars they wear. First time I’ve ever seen something shiny or sparkly that I didn’t want. Oh, and I heard them whispering about their mistress…it’s Liliana. Miss Raven-Hair herself.”
Kaya looked to Teyo and said, “So Liliana Vess fled the carnage on Ravnica and returned to her home on Dominaria, where she imprisoned the locals and set herself up in grand evil style. I think that confirms she’s one of the living that needs to die.”
Teyo said nothing, but he nodded minutely.
Kaya turned back to Rat, “I assume Liliana’s at the party.”
“Sounds that way. Stay put. I’ll find a safe way into the mansion.” Once again, she scurried off, leaving Teyo and Kaya alone.
Kaya said, “I don’t want you to think I enjoy this.”
“No, I don’t think that. I don’t want you to think I’m going to fight you on this. I see your point of view. But is it all right if it makes me sad?”
“It’s very all right. If this ever gets easy or pleasant for either of us, then we’ve definitely taken the wrong path.” He offered up a sad smile, and she grasped his shoulder. “We’ll keep each other honest,” she said. “Agreed?”
“Yes. Agreed.”
They waited a bit longer. He sniffed the air and scowled.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Something seems…familiar, smells familiar. But I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
“Maybe it’s just a tree or plant common to Gobakhan and Dominaria.”
He looked around the swampy environs. “That seems unlikely. Wait, I thought this place was called Caligo.”
“This place is called Caligo. This plane is Dominaria.”
“Oh, I had that backward.”
“It’s understandable. You’ve had a lot thrown at you over the last couple of days.”
He exhaled. “Well, that’s true. Do you know when I first met you, I thought your name was Jaya. I thought she was Kaya.”
“Yes, as your abbot pointed out, it’s awkward for us to travel together.”
Teyo paused and then said, “He’s not as bad as you think.”
“I hope not.”
They were silent again until Rat returned. “There’s something you both need to see.”
She waved for them to follow her, and they did. She took the long way round the back of the mansion until they came upon a plot of land, a garden not unlike the abbot’s garden at the monastery. As with the repair work on the mansion, Liliana’s servants—her prisoners—were working the garden even at night.
There were three women there, each methodically weeding or planting or something. (Kaya didn’t know much about gardening.) Eventually, two of the women picked up baskets of what appeared to be cucumbers and headed off, leaving the last woman to work the soil alone.
Hidden in the trees, Kaya turned to Rat and asked, “Why are we here?”
“The woman. The last servant there. Look.”
Kaya took another look at the collared woman. Her back was to them at the moment, but Kaya was now fairly certain she was pulling a weed, then inching back half a foot or so before pulling another, and so forth. “I don’t understand. Is it something about the weeds?”
“Wait. Wait for her to turn.”
When the woman came to the end of the row, she turned around to start back down the next. She lifted her head to wipe her brow, and the moonlight shone down upon her face.
The face of Liliana Vess!