KAI

by Draeconin Istraith

An Original Work

The boy stood, in shock.

His town, only just big enough to avoid the label of 'village', had mustered everyone capable of wielding a sword, no matter how ineptly, to stand against the invaders. And he, not having yet seen his fifteenth year, though the date of his birth was close at hand, had been handed a sword and a wooden shield, and told to go stand in line 'with the other soldiers'.

Only Kai wasn't a soldier; he was a quiet, scholarly boy. He was strong because everyone must work to support the village, but his strength wasn't expressed in muscle mass, but in his muscles becoming more dense. As a result, many thought him weaker than he was. He was put to work in the fields tending food plants, or goats, or pumping the bellows for the forge, or any of dozens of other tasks that needed doing. But in those times when he had no work assigned to him, apart from the occasional time he spent swimming or walking in the woods, he had read, and studied.

Yes, Kai was a loner, but not entirely by choice. After the rest of his family had died of a mysterious illness, Kai was considered 'marked by the fates'. It didn't help that there was an indefinable quality to him that somehow said 'different', causing the other boys to avoid his company.

The battle hadn't gone well. The town militia and townsmen had made a good showing for themselves, but were simply overwhelmed by superior training and numbers.

The battlefield was now empty, only a few human scavengers moving about around the outskirts of it, looting the dead and finishing off those too badly wounded to survive. The sun beat down hotly on the scene, flies buzzing around, the stench of blood, urine and feces filling the air, and Kai, somehow the only 'soldier' left standing. His skin and shoulder-length dark hair were liberally coated with blood, as was what was left of his tunic and sandals, only a little of which was his own from minor cuts.

The top of his tunic had been torn from his shoulder during the battle, and he was now bare from the waist up. He had lost his shield sometime in the melee, and now held only the sword that had been issued to him dangling limply from his fist.

A small group of horsemen made their way toward him, over the dead. The leader of the group, Kai assumed by his dress, a man who appeared to be in his late thirties, spoke to him.

"Drop your sword, boy, and no harm will come to you."

Kai hadn't moved at their approach anyway. Now he opened his hand, though it took an effort of will since it seemed his fingers had almost frozen in their grip on the hilt, and let the sword fall. He was too tired, too exhausted to try to fight, and one boy on foot didn't stand a chance against a group of well-armed horsemen. Resistance would be suicide, and despite Kai's shock and depression, he wasn't ready to die, yet.

One of the other horsemen dismounted and approached him, circling the boy once to ascertain his injuries. Once he was sure Kai's hurts were minor, he grabbed one of Kai's hands and slipped a loop of thong over it, then tightly lashed his other hand to it.

"Not so tightly, Gand," the leader admonished. "You'll cut off the circulation, and he'll need his hands, later."

"Yes, sir," the man replied with resentment in his voice. The boy had fought against them; killed at least a couple of good men, though the gods only knew how, with the awful flailing he had used: no training or style at all. He deserved to lose his hands! Nevertheless he followed his orders and loosened the bonds enough to allow blood to flow, then mounted his horse and yanked the boy up over his horse' withers.

The leader brought his horse over to Gand.

"Give me the boy," he ordered. When the horseman known as Gand had complied, the leader said, "We are Observers. If you've lost so much objectivity that you would mistreat an unarmed boy who offers no fight, perhaps you would do better as a scribe."

Gand glared at his group leader, Pinr, then silently dropped his eyes and bowed his head, accepting the reprimand.

Sometime later that day they stopped by the side of a creek, and Kai was allowed - indeed, had been ordered - to wash the sweat and blood off himself and his sandals, but he was given no chance to run. His tunic was a total loss, and the spare tossed him by the smallest of the group still was much too large.

"What's your name, boy?" Pinr asked.

Kai didn't look up, but gave the man his name.

"Well, Kai, do you know who we are?"

Kai shook his head. He had heard the man call them all 'observers', but he had a pressing question to which he wanted the answer.

"What are you going to do with me?" Kai asked.

"We are called 'Observers'," Pinr said, ignoring Kai's question. "We are the keepers of history, taking part in no conflicts, owing allegiance to none, and not interfering in any way. In this way all can know that the tales they hear from us are naught but the truth, influenced by no loyalties or preconceptions."

Kai glanced at Gand.

"He was once a countryman of those you fought. It was, perhaps, a mistake to send him with us for this," Pinr said in response. "We are taught to leave all ties behind, but it seems such teachings did not take as well as it might, with him."

"Where are you taking me?" Kai asked, trying again to gain some information.

"Where you can be taught," Pinr answered obliquely.

And although Kai asked more questions, they were not answered. Still, he now knew that whatever they planned to do with him, he would live. What he would be taught was a subject that rather worried him, however. He hoped he wasn't to be trained as a slave or pleasure boy.

The men treated him well over the next fifteen days of travel, even Gand's ire dissipating after a couple of days. Kai was given the same portions to eat as everyone else, a spare blanket was found for him to sleep in at night, and he was not approached for the pleasure of any. At the same time he was given no answers to his questions, and he was watched closely. He was given no chance to escape.

Although Kai had heard of the mountains, he had never seen them, having never gone more than a day's travel from the village. But now, two weeks into their travel, they were high up into the mountains, craggy cliffs rising about them. A heavy woolen cloak had been bought for him in the last village they'd passed through before reaching the mountains, else Kai would have been miserable with the cold at night, although the days were mostly comfortably warm.

On their last day of travel Pinr guided them to the narrow entrance of an offshoot of the canyon they had been following for the last two days. It was so narrow that they had to dismount their horses and lead them through. A hundred yards of twisting passageway later the side canyon opened out, but was still narrow, being only about twenty yards wide at its widest, ten to fifteen yards in width being a rough average. Boulders of every shape and size littered the canyon floor. Vegetation was limited to small plants and tough, woody bushes, but there was a path through it all, proving that this way was used fairly regularly.

They were about three-quarters of the way along its length when they again stopped and dismounted, then led their horses into a mass of boulders that didn't look any different than any of the many others they had passed. But there was a narrow passage through them that ended at the entrance to a cave that was just tall and wide enough to allow a mounted man through, if he was crouching on the horse. But nobody remounted, and they continued to lead their horses into the cave. A torch was lit, and they wound their way deeper into it, ignoring the occasional offshoot.

Eventually they did take a left into an offshoot whose entrance looked as though the stone had melted at one point before setting up again. A hundred yards down this passage was a black wall about five feet wide and seven feet in height. Only even the blackest wall will reflect a little light if there's any present, and this one didn't. Pinr spoke a few words that Kai didn't understand, causing the edges of the wall to briefly glow a dull red before settling into a dim grey shimmer. The rest of the wall remained that empty black color. And then Pinr, leading his horse, walked into the wall and disappeared!

Kai panicked as the next man went into the wall with the same results. Gand took great pleasure in slowly forcing Kai towards the wall as Kai became more and more afraid, before thrusting him into it. Although the others looked at him disapprovingly, they didn't say anything.

o~*~o

The 'black wall' turned out to be a portal and nothing to be afraid of, though Kai had no way of knowing that, nor had he ever even heard of such a thing. Gand's last-minute cruelty worked against him, however, and he did wind up being demoted to scribe status. An Observer had to remain impartial, and Gand had proven he couldn't.

Kai, on the other hand, was handed off to servants who bathed him, fed him, and tended to his hurts, then was taken to a room that housed five other boys. The next day he was taken to a room full of many other boys and introduced to a man there who turned out to be a teacher. For the next three weeks Kai was given an intensive education in how to behave in the society he and other boys would now be living in; how to tell a merchant from a stall keeper, a farmer from a herder, the ranks of every member of society from the highest to the lowest, and how to act in, and react to their presence, whether lower on the social scale, or equals or superiors.

When a boy could prove he knew how to behave in their society, no matter how short or long a time it took, he was taken to learn the skills he would need to know in order to make himself useful in it, and wasn't seen there again.

When Kai's turn came he was taken to another building in the same complex. The simple cotton shift he had been wearing was replaced with a sleeveless, light gray, fine lamb's wool garment that, when worn properly, came down only to mid-thigh. He still had the heavy cloak that had been bought for him by Pinr, though, so he wasn't worried about the weather, if it turned cold.

In his new quarters Kai found that he had his own room, and had a servant that was shared between him and three others. The servant was not a personal servant however, but only took care of cleaning and maintaining the boys' rooms, and making sure that their clothing and bedding was clean and in good repair. Such a servant was needed because the boys were kept busy fourteen out of sixteen hours, being allowed half an hour per meal, and half an hour for anything else that needed doing - more, if they were willing to take it out of their sleep time.

Kai was assigned to a teacher who only had two other students. What he would be learning came as a great shock to Kai. He was to be a mage. It was his ability to tap the power called magic that had allowed him to survive the battle his town had been involved in with so few wounds, and those minor, even if he wasn't aware of manipulating the energy at the time. In fact his being relatively unharmed when all around him had died, had shown he had quite a strong affinity and ability with it.

As the 'new boy' it was Kai's duty at the end of the day to scrub out the pots, cauldrons, alembics, mortars, and any other equipment that got used, and then sweep the room before he was allowed to get his evening meal. Often in those first weeks Kai ate his evening meals cold, but he was never made to go hungry.

Eventually though, Kai learned enough to open and tap his power centers. The first thing he made sure to do, predictably enough, was find a way to use that power to help with his cleaning chores. His meals tasted much better at the temperature they were supposed to be.

o~*~o

About five weeks after that, when Kai showed up for another day of instruction, he found only his teacher, the other two boys being absent. He was told to go take a thorough bath, including making sure his hair was clean, then get dressed in the tunic he'd find on his bed. The instructions, except for the tunic, weren't needed. Kai bathed a minimum of three times a week: more often if he had the time and energy. Back home he'd swum, or at least submerged himself in a deep spot in the nearby stream every night to remove the dirt and sweat accumulated during the day.

The bathing pool was fed by a natural hot springs and was irregularly shaped, but was approximately ten feet wide, seven feet long, and four feet deep, with a sandy bottom. It seemed likely that the building had been built around it.

Kai, along with the five other boys who were there, all approximately his own age, used a rather slimey substance made from animal fat and the concentrated, strained water from boiled ashes to wash his hair. Then after scooping some sand from the bottom of the pool and mixing more of the cleansing slime with that, he stepped out of the pool and used the mixture to wash his body, which was only now sprouting pubic hair - the only other body hair he had being on his head. He used some more of the unsanded slime to wash his genitals and crack, then stepped back into the pool to rinse it all off.

Once dried with a rough linen towel, he dressed again in his shift and made his way to his room. There he found a white cotton shift on his bed, one short sleeve of which was dyed a dark blue. He dressed in it, tied the waist with the thin, white cotton rope that was provided, and not knowing what else to do, made his way back to his teacher.

The other, older boys still weren't there, but Kai's teacher was waiting for him, and escorted him to a building he'd never been to before. They wound up in a room that was about forty feet on a side, and had several lines of boys about Kai's own age standing there. The lines were about six feet apart, and each boy in line stood about two feet from each other. Kai was placed in the third row back, and told to stand relaxed, but to keep quiet. Kai's teacher then went and stood against the wall with those others who had been previously chosen as witnesses.

Kai wasn't the last boy to get there, but there were only five or six more before they stopped coming. Kai was curious, and a little nervous. He had absolutely no idea why he was there, or what was going on. Why hadn't his teacher's other students had to come? Had he failed some test he hadn't known was being given? Was he about to be transferred to another kind of training? It wouldn't surprise him. He still couldn't see himself as a mage. It seemed a ridiculous idea, even though he had managed to use a little magic to help him with his chores.

A door opened at the front of the room and to the right; a door that Kai hadn't noticed before because a tapestry had been hanging over it, hiding it. Two men in light blue robes stepped through, their heads shaved. They stepped one to each side of the doorway, and a boy with long, dark blond hair in a mid-calf-length, purplish-blue robe came through behind them, with two more shave-headed men behind him. Those two stayed behind the boy as he arrogantly stalked towards the first line of boys. At the same time, he looked rather bored.

"No - no - no... no - no - yes..." The blond, who looked to be a little younger than Kai, was walking by the boys in line. Those whom he pointed to with a 'no' were told by the men following him to go back to their teachers. The few he said 'yes' about were told to stay where they were.

Kai later found out that the ones the boy chose were put into a temporary 'harem', and served for anywhere from three to six months before they went back to finish their original training. It didn't matter whether J'lal, the blond, used them or not, as long as the harem existed. Truth be told, J'lal had made use of his harem, but not often. He had no wish to bed females, but he found little more than physical release with those boys. He chose them because they appealed to him, but... still the experience left him feeling empty.

As J'lal looked Kai in the eyes, he had a feeling that was about to change - and that was a vast understatement. He had always been pampered and catered to, and had taken his power over others for granted. This dark-haired boy's eyes had sucked that power from him, leaving him for the first time with the need to submit himself to another. With a great effort of will he hid his reaction, but it was a strain which he wasn't sure he could maintain.

"Tell them all to go; all but this one," J'lal told his attendants.

That announcement had varying degrees of surprise appear on the face of every witness there.

Kai had felt the connection when J'lal had met his eyes, and for the first time in his life he had an uncontrollable sexual response to someone else. Oh, he had admired both men and boys, and despaired over his lack of response to females. He had fantasized about this man or that boy as he pleasured himself, but in their presence he had always been able to control his response - until now.

Addressing Kai, J'lal said, "Follow me." With those words, he turned and strode towards the door he had come in by without looking back, sure he would be obeyed.

Kai shot a half-panicked look at his teacher, who gestured that Kai should go with the boy. Troubled and unsure of himself, Kai obeyed.

It was good he had, for J'lal's attendants had been about to forcefully carry out his orders, and would have tied Kai up and carried him to the boy if it had been necessary. They followed closely behind him to protect the other boy, for even now it was possible, in their minds, that Kai would attack J'lal.

The halls and stairs they traversed had a richly decorated carpet running down the middle of them, bare marble floors to either side of it. Tapestries were interspersed with rich drapes and torches. J'lal didn't look back once, which Kai was almost grateful for. Not only would it have heightened his nervousness, but J'lal's looking back might have caught Kai's eyes returning their attention all too often to J'lal's buttocks.

Copyright © 2006 by Shamyn Whitehawk