“Would you rather her find out years down the line, when she notices the similarities between you and any child I birth from your seed? It might not be so easy to explain at that point.”
“Years down the line…” Ari sighed and shook his head. “I somehow doubt that I’ll have to worry about that.”
Maybe it was the cinnamon liquor, or maybe it was just because of how tired he was. Ari saw the way Rin reacted to his expression, and instantly knew that he’d let his guard down a little too far.
“I’ve seen those eyes before,” said Rin. “You have the eyes of a dying man, chala.”
Ari forced himself to look at her and hold her gaze, hoping that by being brazen in his denial he might convince her otherwise. It had the opposite effect, and he watched Rin’s face shift from a mask of confusion into something far more sensitive and sympathetic.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Ari.
Rin held his gaze, and the pity Ari saw in her expression was like a cold knife through his heart.
“How long do you have?” she whispered. “You don’t look wounded. Is it an injury from the means you use for enchanting? Or some kind of natural sickness?”
Her questions were a little too real for him, a little too close to the hopeless, infuriating truth. He shook his head, taking a slow breath and trying not to be overwhelmed by the fear that he’d so expertly been evading over the past few days.
“Mud and blood,” he muttered. “It’s… nothing you need to know about.”
Rin stepped in closer to him. She pulled him into an embrace from the side, wrapping both her arms and her wings around his form.
“You haven’t told either of them, have you?” she whispered.
He hated her a little for how accurate her assumptions were, while simultaneously feeling a strange sense of liberation at the fact that he’d found someone to share the burden of the truth with. Even if it was Rin, and even if there was nothing she could do.
“Keep this to yourself,” said Ari. “I haven’t told anyone because it’s not currently relevant. We’re focused on surviving each day and each night. It would be pointless to worry them about something that we might not even live to see come to pass.”
Rin pulled away from him and crossed her arms, examining him with eyes that were a critical mixture of pity and dark humor.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, chala,” she said with a tiny smile. “Is this not more reason to consider my offer? What sense is there in dying without leaving behind a legacy, especially in the form of a child who could one day lead and protect others?”
It was a good point, although it fell on hollow ears. Ari had no intention of accepting Rin’s proposition regardless of how hard she argued for it. He let one of his hands drift toward the inner pocket of his tunic, where he’d stored the kerbal root the Vereshi had given him.
He hesitated, feeling a perversely strong conviction against taking the path of least resistance and deceiving Rin. He had less than a year left to live. Was this truly one of the actions he would want to be remembered for?
“Your sister doesn’t want you to birth a hybrid child,” said Ari.
“True enough, but she’ll come around,” said Rin.
Ari pulled the leather pouch out of his pocket and offered it to her. “She gave this to me. Kerbal root, an herbal medicine designed to make a man’s seed temporarily infertile.”
“She gave you this?” Rin stared at the pouch. “Truly?”
“Yeah, and I already took some,” lied Ari. “I’m not sure why I told you. It would have made for an interesting night to repeatedly dry shoot my bow into your, erm, target.”
Again, Ari was given a glimpse of Rin’s expression. She glared and pouted for a couple of seconds before blinking and softening her face with a small, defeated sigh.
“You give me the truth, chala,” said Rin. “I feel I should do the same. My sister… has no true intention of letting you stay in Varnas-Rav for the long term. Or even the… how do you say, medium term?”
“I figured as much,” said Ari.
He ran a hand through his hair and looked back over toward the fire. Kerys was right where he’d left her. Eva was dancing again, this time across from a young and not-unattractive Ravarian male. Ari watched them for a couple of seconds before turning his attention back to Rin.
“Her place as the leader of our flock is one that is more fragile than it looks,” said Rin. “She’d gone unchallenged for so long that it’s hard to get a sense of her true strength.”
“I’d think that would be more reason to keep me around,” said Ari. “I’m aware of how much value I could provide. With my enchantments, with my tower, and even with Eva and Azurelight.”
“Yes,” said Rin. “But to whom would you provide this power?”
She gave him a knowing, conspiratorial look that made Ari wonder if he’d blundered by telling her about the herbal medicine. He shook his head and was about to preemptively shoot down whatever scheme she was about to pitch when a loud scream came from back by the fire.
Eva was no longer dancing. She held the handsome Ravarian who’d been her dancing partner a few minutes earlier by the hair, and was pushing his face toward the edge of the fire. The Ravarian’s arm was broken in a way that left a hideous shard of bone jutting out from the skin.
She wasn’t done, either. Ari hesitated for only a second before breaking into a sprint, seeing the way she was shifting the screaming man’s body forward in an attempt to toss him headfirst into the flames.
“Eva!” he shouted. “No!”
She didn’t stop. She didn’t even seem to hear him. Ari threw his hand forward in her direction, pushing out his will in an attempt to do the one thing that he knew would defuse the situation.
He tried to summon Eva to his hand as a sword. He felt her resisting and had to muster the full breadth of his will to overwhelm her spirit. Light flashed, Eva disappeared, and Azurelight appeared in Ari’s hand.
The gaze of every Ravarian around the fire snapped in his direction. The whispers and mutters were of a tone that Ari didn’t need to speak the language to understand. A few people hurried over to the man whose arm Eva had broken, and then the shouts and accusations began in earnest.
CHAPTER 29
It was all Ari could do to hurry to Kerys and pull her near him before the crowd around the fire evolved into a furious, unyielding mob. Rin stayed near them, doing her best to insert herself between Ari and her own people as a voice of reason and physical barrier.
Ari led Kerys back to the tree hut as quickly as he possibly could. He sheathed Azurelight as soon as he had the opportunity, knowing that waving it around in front of a crowd of hundreds of angry people was essentially begging to be torn limb from limb.
The small, canvas-walled hut offered no protection outside of a modicum of privacy, but Ari could hear Rin shouting to the crowd outside and doing her best to urge them to be understanding. He hugged Kerys and set her down gently on the bed before pulling his sword back out and placing it next to her.
Light flashed, and Eva appeared in the weapon’s place. She stared straight ahead, her expression crestfallen and ashamed. Ari had prepared a vicious rebuke on the way back from the bonfire, but seeing her in that state made it seem rather unnecessary.
“Just tell me what happened,” he said.
Eva blinked, and then gave him a sad sort of smile that Ari never wanted to see again.
“Nothing, milord,” she said.
“Nothing?” Ari shook his head and felt his anger flare. “I saw that man’s arm, Eva! If I hadn’t stepped in when I did, you would have—”
“Aristial!” said Kerys. “She’s just upset. Give her a minute.”
“She would have killed him, Kerys,” said Ari. “Over what? Did he attack you? Did he try to touch you inappropriately?”
“Nothing happened,” said Eva.
She met his gaze with a stare so cold that Ari almost didn’t reco
gnize her.
“That’s not good enough,” said Ari. “We’re already staying here on borrowed time. Eva, talk to me. Tell me what’s going on.”
He reached a hand out, intending to take hers into his. She took his wrist instead of his hand, twisting it to the side in a blurred and extremely painful motion. Ari didn’t have time to shout, or even gasp, before she’d flipped him onto the ground and pinned her knee against his neck.
“It—was—nothing!” sobbed Eva. “Nothing!”
“Evastria!” Kerys threw herself onto Eva’s back.
For an instant, it seemed as though Eva was about to flip her down and punish her similarly. Ari saw her blinking and could almost pinpoint the moment in which she came back to herself.
Light flashed, and Azurelight seemed to hang in the air for an instant before dropping to the ground, the weapon bouncing slightly before going still.
Ari stared at the sword, expecting it to flash and turn back into Eva at any moment. It didn’t, and that made him furious.
“Eva!” he shouted. “You can’t just run away from this!”
He picked up the sword, unsure of what he was about to do with it. His hands tightened on the hilt, and he wondered if she could feel him squeezing. Kerys rose and moved to stand next to him, setting one hand on top of both of his.
“Ari,” she whispered. “Maybe she just needs some time?”
Ari shook his head. He could still hear the sound of what remained of the angry mob waiting outside of the tree hut. It seemed so unfair for Eva to pick right then, of all times, to withdraw into her own world.
“I need her,” he said, hating the way the words sounded. “We aren’t out of the woods yet, Kerys.”
“Figuratively and literally,” she replied. Her lips quivered, and she broke into a small, nervous spout of self-induced giggles.
It was enough to save Ari from his mood, though a part of him wanted to drag his feet on the way. He sighed and put an arm around Kerys, sliding his sword, sliding Eva, back into the sheath across his back.
“We need to figure out what to do next,” he said. “We can’t stay here. Not now. Probably not even if this hadn’t happened.”
“What’s to stop us from sneaking away?” asked Kerys. “Waiting until the mob gets tired and making our way back to the tower?”
“The Vereshi, along with whoever she assigns to watch us,” said Ari. “The tower is also the first place they’ll come to search for us.”
He rubbed a finger along the length of his chin, grudgingly admitting to himself that it was still probably their best bet. If the situation cooled down enough to give him room to sneak out of the tree hut without being seen, he might be able to make it back to the enchanting altar in Varnas-Rav. And if he could make it there, he could drain the essence he’d left in it, which would help to reactivate the tower’s teleportation wards.
“It might end up being our only option, anyway,” said Ari. “I’m not sure there’s much else we can do other than wait for now and hope Rin manages to calm her people down.”
Kerys nodded, shaking her head slightly with the movement in a way that caused a few strands of blonde hair to fall across her face.
“I trust you, Ari,” she said. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
Kerys shrugged. “For being you. I’m scared right now, but not as scared as I probably should be.”
“Doesn’t admitting that kind of mess with the illusion of safety?” asked Ari.
Kerys glowered at him, and he sneaked a quick kiss. She put her arms around him, and he couldn’t help but notice how one of her hands flinched away as it glanced over the scabbard across his back.
The next few hours passed by at a painfully slow crawl. The mob of Ravarians shouting in a language that neither Ari nor Kerys understood a single word of seemed to trickle away, one by one. Ari didn’t trust the first few minutes of silence when the air finally went still late in the night. He waited for more than an hour before finally taking a chance and putting their plan into action.
Kerys stayed in the tree hut while he slipped outside. The darkness was interspersed with a rainbow of interestingly colored fireflies, which Ari took great care to avoid as he made his way through the trees. He only vaguely remembered the way back to the enchanting altar, but the ruins stood out from the surrounding trees, ancient and obvious.
The was a slight chill in the air, and he pulled his cloak tighter around him as he slipped into the old, stone building foundation. Someone was waiting there for him, and Ari bit back a curse as he recognized the tiny, stunted wings of their silhouette.
“My watcher told me when you left,” she said, in a bemused voice. “If you’d moved faster, you could have beaten me here.”
“How did you know I wasn’t heading for the wall?” asked Ari. “I also could have escaped and left you waiting for nothing.”
“You left your woman behind,” said the Vereshi.
A few silent seconds followed, broken only by the sounds of ruffling grass, and a half muffled cough. More Ravarians moving into position and preparing to attack him if he tried anything stupid, most likely.
“Let us go,” said Ari. “I’ll take Kerys and Eva and leave without causing any trouble. I already made you a useful enchantment, and I didn’t play into Rin’s hands. That should be enough to justify some goodwill on your part.”
He expected the Vereshi to shake her head, to shoot down his suggestion based on an emotional sense of winning and losing, as people in power often did. Instead, she gave him a very small nod.
“That’s essentially what I had in mind,” she said.
“You’ll… let us go?” asked Ari.
She took a step away from him, turning so that she was facing the one wall of the ruined building which was still standing in some form.
“There was a time when my people were more accepting of the Hume,” said the Vereshi. “Not too long ago, in fact. Over a decade ago, before I rose to leadership, but still within recent memory.”
Ari nodded, sensing that she had more to say and giving her room to continue.
“There is a city called Cliffhaven far to the north,” she said. “It’s the last true bastion of your people, at least of those who inhabit the surface. Varnas-Rav and Cliffhaven once had amiable relations. Open trade. Diplomatic relations between our leaders. We’d even occasionally host the far-flung adventurer or traveler, though they often came to us in desperate straits, the conditions being what they are.”
“Trade?” asked Ari. “How? Were your people flying bundles back and forth or something?”
“There are ships that travel the sea between Cliffhaven and the northern tip of this island,” said the Vereshi. “The Fairweather Fleet. They are an… eccentric people. But I digress—my point is that it’s been a very long time since we’ve looked outward to the degree we once did.”
“What happened?” asked Ari. “There must have been some event that changed things.”
“Yes,” she said. “A new baron took power in Cliffhaven. He was a very prejudiced man. He viewed us as animals and the people of the Fairweather Fleet as impish freaks. He murdered the Ravarians within his city when he took over, along with the next group of ambassadors we sent. He provided… evidence of the act, along with a letter severing our trade relations in rather crude terms.”
“Why?” asked Ari. “What did he have to gain? Who turns away allies in this kind of world?”
The Vereshi shrugged. “It’s a question with an answer that I can only speculate at. We still remember the names of the Ravarians Baron Ogwell murdered, and teach them to our youths.”
Ari saw her jaw tense, along with a visible quiver of anger. She shook her head, mastering herself.
“Again, I stray from my point,” she said. “I told you earlier that I believe you came here for a reason. The account you brought of this Mordus, this intelligent Weatherblight, makes me think that the time for change is upon us. I would like you to go to Cliffhave
n as part of a new diplomatic mission.”
Ari furrowed his brow.
“How do you expect that’s going to work?” he asked. “If you’re assuming that I could use my tower to get there, it’s not exactly a predictable means of transport.”
“No, of course not, and I would not be so foolish as to ask you to attempt such an impossible journey on foot, either. The relations between Cliffhaven and the Fairweather Fleet have warmed over the past few months. They’ve begun trading again, and I’ve sent a missive to the Sailmaster offering to pay the price for passage to the city.”
“That’s a start,” said Ari. “But what, exactly, are you expecting here? You want me to go to Cliffhaven and negotiate on behalf of the Ravarians?”
“No,” said the Vereshi. “I would not trust you with that responsibility. I don’t intend offense with those words, it’s just a matter of basic reason. My sister, Rin, will serve as my personal representative, and Leyehl will travel with you as guardian.”
“I’m not leaving Kerys behind, if that’s what you’re thinking,” said Ari.
“You’re looking for a trap where there is none to be found,” said the Vereshi. “Your woman will be allowed to leave with you. I’m offering you a deal, Aristial. Passage to Cliffhaven in exchange for you serving my interests within the city, namely making contact with Baron Ogwell’s people and arranging a meeting under promise of safe conduct.”
Cliffhaven. Ever since Rin had first mentioned the existence of the city, Ari had wondered what it was like. Even now, he was tempted to ask the Vereshi for more information about it, what it looked like, and how the people who lived there managed to survive. He shook off his curiosity, knowing that now wasn’t the time to indulge in those sorts of questions.
“You mentioned this Fairweather Fleet,” said Ari. “Why don’t you just have them send word? Why do you need me?”
“The Fairweather Fleet is a very insular group,” said the Vereshi. “Perhaps I might trust them to deliver a missive, but I need someone in the city. Someone who can move about Cliffhaven without arousing suspicion and can confirm that this really is the time to attempt to make contact.”
Vision Voyage (The Weatherblight Saga Book 2) Page 17