by J. M. Miller
He turned his face with an amused grin. “Something like that.”
“It must have been dangerous then.”
Unable to control my audacity, I coughed. Haidee’s face snapped to the side, shooting me a hardened glare while Caulden’s back stiffened.
“It was. But the trek wasn’t the most dangerous part of the evening,” Caulden recovered. “That was where the assassins attacked. My Guards, as you’ve seen, handled the situation admirably.”
“Yes, I have seen their skills. Admirable indeed,” the princess admitted as the horses stopped a few paces from the manor’s front door. Without waiting for Caulden, she dropped from her horse expertly then slid her eyes to me, openly staring. “Is there any news on the one your people are calling The Shadow?” she asked, keeping her eyes on me while the rest of us dismounted.
“None. I’m rather hoping we scared him away,” Caulden replied. “That is probably wishful thinking, though.”
“Well,” the princess said, turning back to him. “I for one wish the same. Otherwise, the departing ball your mother plans to throw us when we do leave might be affected. As with the Guard Trials you mentioned.”
I bit down on my lips, feeling the slap of those words strike the permanent hollow in my chest. They had talked about the Trials. And that meant they had talked more about being together. About him leaving. I glanced sideways at Haidee and found her already looking at me, her eyebrows pulled together a fraction. She knew. She had probably heard. That was why she had brought it all up this morning. I pinned back my shoulders and stood straighter, cramming the emotions deep and waiting for my orders. I was being ridiculous. I’d already come to terms with what could happen. There was no reason for all of it to affect me, and certainly not my ability to perform my duties.
“Yes.” Caulden’s response was slow as he handed his reins to a lone worker staged to welcome us, taking the princess’ and repeating the process. “The faster he’s caught, the better.” After a moment, he turned around. “Haidee, I think we’ll walk out here some first then go inside.”
“Yes, Highness,” she replied, then turned to me and handed over her horse’s reins. “Watch the wood.”
I nodded as she moved toward Leint to give him and the others their orders. They hitched their own horses on the north side of the house, and I followed the vineyard worker to the south side to do the same.
“Interesting day,” the worker commented as I walked behind him. His tunic, pants, and boots were plain but in nice enough condition to show his work was likely inside the manor, not on the grounds.
“Yes,” I agreed neutrally.
“I suppose quite a few have been lately,” he continued in his smooth tone, stopping at the posts at the corner of the manor to tie the reins.
“I suppose they have.” I moved around him and the prince’s horse, eyeing the back of him more closely as I went. The top of his brown tunic was taut, spreading thinly across his shoulders. His hair was clipped close at his neck, which bowed a little as he looked down to tie the reins. I moved to the side and got to work on the other horses, catching glimpses of his movements over my horse’s head as she bent to drink from the trough hanging below her.
“Do you also suppose they will continue?” A bold question for a vineyard worker. As if he’d known he’d overstepped, he added, “Everyone is curious, it seems. Mostly on whether the prince will choose to go. But also if the one they seek will be found or if he will continue to elude them.”
I studied his movements in broken glances. He backed up farther in a bent position, leaving only the dark hair atop his head visible until his hand reached up and ran along the horse’s back in a soothing movement. The skin of his hand was smooth and a sandy gray color like the inside of a freshly split log of oak. “Why are you so interested in the affairs of the royals?”
“Everyone is interested right now. It could be good and bad. Wouldn’t it be a shame to lose the prince to another kingdom?”
It would be. Though, it wasn’t exactly as the prince had much choice. After witnessing the queens converse at the arrival, I was certain the only one making the decision was Queen Meirin. Now that Queen Meirin already knew she’d have the island either way, it was probably up to Princess Anja to choose whether or not she’d have Prince Caulden. No matter what he wished. What I wished. But I would not offer up that or any other information to a worker for paying gossip. “Indeed,” I agreed simply. “Please, leave the horses here. It’s uncertain how long the prince will stay,” I added as a clear end to our exchange and took a few strides toward the wood. Despite Haidee’s withholdings about the prince and princess’ exchanges during our morning conversation, she had offered up good insight as to what might happen should the queen and princess find whatever they are looking for, be it information about our farming … or something else. They might choose to leave Garlin alone. Finding and catching Xavyn would help ease that pressure too. But then, he had stated they might be looking for something that would affect us in some other way, affect not just us but others. I wasn’t sure what to think. I didn’t have nearly enough information.
The stillness within the wood was reassuring in its normalcy. I walked the edge, peering back out onto the vineyard first as Haidee, Prince Caulden, and Princess Anja lazily made their way down the middle of the vineyard, the princess plucking grapes along the way. Then I turned my attention to the thicket of trees, their branches spreading and twisting a massive barrier, fog lolling over them, filling the gaps throughout.
“So …” The worker’s voice was so close I instinctively grabbed the hilt of my sword and spun around. “You’re one of the prince’s Guards. Are you participating in the Trials they mentioned?”
Looking directly upon his face for the first time, I studied him closely. Dark brown hair rolled backward in a thick wave, sides clipped short like the back I’d seen moments before. His cheeks more narrow than wide, curved down into a strong jaw. His eyebrows lifted slightly in question above a staring set of brown eyes flecked with an array of different shades of the same color. The shape of everything looked familiar, the resemblance hanging somewhere on the edge of my mind, yet not close enough to place him.
I shook my head, released my readied grip on the sword, and scanned the area again for anything unusual. He was no threat, but he was too curious for my liking. Most people, after taking a single glance at me, made an effort to stay as far away as possible, not seek me out. Even for answers. “Is there something else you should be doing? Perhaps getting refreshments for the prince and his guest?”
He laughed lightly and the tone of it registered as familiar too. Had he worked in the chateau at one time? “Shouldn’t that be ‘the prince and the princess’?”
I snapped my eyes back to him. “Watch yourself,” I warned at his challenge.
“A mere correction, Guard. No need to get worked up. I won’t tell them if you won’t.”
“I suggest you go on about your business.”
“What if I don’t?”
“Then you’ll be impeding my duties, and you’ll be treated as a threat. The lord of the manor might be burdened a bit when I hand over his dead servant, but I’m willing to bet he won’t have trouble finding a replacement.”
“And how exactly will I die, Guard? Do you have some other tricks up your covered sleeves or will you just burn me?”
I advanced on him, grabbing the front of his tunic with one hand and drawing my sword with the other so quickly he had no time to retreat. Pressing the blade to his neck, I sneered and watched his lips pull back into a fiendish grin before his skin began to ripple, its sandy gray color … changing.
FOURTEEN
“What’s wrong, Vala? No longer feel like cooking me and dumping me on the manor’s doorstep?”
“What—” I held tight even though every part of my body screamed to release him and run. There was movement in his skin, a river of something below his flesh, something wanting to come out.
“I’
m sure that captain of yours would be so happy if you ended their search,” he continued, his words soft and very close to my ear.
Xavyn. It was him.
But …
“Ah,” he said, an amused smile lightening his tone. “That look in your eyes is so telling. You’ve finally placed me.”
“Your skin, it—”
“No, I’m not like you. But I can be. And that’s what makes this all so curious. Did you find out more about yourself? I know you’ve been searching, and I’d love for you to share.”
My grip tightened, my body still frozen in place, watching the skin under the edge of my blade harden into the likeness of my own then soften and pale into smooth flesh again.
He lifted his eyes to the sky and bared his teeth, sucking air between them.
“What are you?”
“What are you?” he replied, tipping his face down to look at me again. “You’re not supposed to be here. Humans are the only ones who should be here, and you are not human.”
“How do you know I’m not?”
“How don’t you? Did they tell you something else? Raise you to think something different? But I think you’ve known all along. You just haven’t admitted it to yourself. Or do you fear what they might do to you if they found out? They already know you can burn living flesh. They seem to have tolerated that along with the physical appearance of your skin. Do they know what lies beneath this skin, though? And do they know how the flames speak to you?”
My eyes darted behind him, frantically searching for Caulden, for Haidee. If they saw … if they heard …
“You’re afraid. I can feel your heart beating. They don’t know, do they? They don’t know about that humming beneath the crackles of a flame, the tingle under the skin.”
I hissed at him, seething that he’d spill my secrets out into the open air, allowing the fog to carry them away. “How do you know this? Are you in my head?”
“Ha!” He laughed, and I pushed my sword harder against his neck, a droplet of blood popping out from beneath, coating the edge of the blade. Red blood. Same blood. After seeing his skin change, I half expected his to be different. What was he?
“You will be quiet,” I said with a growl. “And you will tell me, or I will turn you in … or kill you right here.” My feet began to pull us backward, moving us closer to the cover of the stone building that stored barrels of wine.
“I’m not in your head, no.” He had to bend as he moved with me, not daring to stumble with the blade at his neck. “But as you have seen, I can change.”
The corner of the building provided enough cover, especially with the wood at our backs and the distance of fog blanketing the grounds. It gave me time, and I was hoping it would be enough to get more information, to make a decision. “Tell me more,” I demanded, forcing his back against the stone wall after securing our position, making sure we couldn’t be seen from the front of the vineyard.
“You tell me more. Have you heard what the queen might be here for? What they’re interested in?”
I huffed out a breath, releasing some of my frustration, knowing I had to give him something to make him talk. “They are jealous of our crops. They want our soil for their own. They will take this place whether the princess chooses Prince Caulden or not. We don’t have the forces to fight them, and they know it.” There it was, a heap of truth for someone I didn’t know, someone I shouldn’t even trust. But that need for more information ran deep enough to relinquish truths that were nearly common knowledge as it was.
“So they want to know why your crops are so good. Why are they?”
“What do you care?”
“I already told you why I care. It’s not just Garlin that has to worry if they get what they want.” His teeth clenched as more ripples crossed his face, charring then softening again. “There has to be more,” he said in almost a snarl from pain or his own frustration.
“I haven’t heard anything,” I admitted, loosening my grip and backing off the pressure on the blade.
His eyes widened, realizing my slip. “You sure you want to risk that, Vala?”
“If you wanted to fight me, you would have already. You would have killed me when we were on Trader’s Row.”
My answer received an eyebrow quirk. “I almost killed you. I should have.”
“So why didn’t you? Whoever sent you will surely be displeased at your failure to kill me, to kill the prince.”
“I’m not exactly bound by the same rules you might be, like getting whipped for protecting a prince.”
My grip tightened again and I scowled at the memory of the lashings. He knew. “If you know so much, why seek me out for information? You should just get what you came for and leave. But if you attempt to end anyone, that courtesy ends and I take your life.”
One side of his lips pulled into a humored grin. “I’ve already explained that my plans changed as soon as I saw you—someone who shouldn’t be here and has no idea who she is. And I’m free to change plans if needed. I only fail if I can’t find the information she wants. Finding something extra might be beneficial to me.”
Ah. “And who might she be?” I pressed. If I was something extra, and possibly beneficial, he needed to give me more in return.
“Lower your blade all the way first.”
I stole a glance around the corner of the building. No one was in sight, which only made my heart beat faster. But I still lowered my blade and backed a single, reluctant step away from Xavyn, hoping it wouldn’t be the most foolish step I’d ever taken.
“Her name is Elige. And she, like me, is from Vaenen.”
“That’s not possible. All the stories say that no one can travel there.”
“And yet, here I am,” he replied in almost a bored tone. “Someone who you can’t explain because you can’t even explain yourself.”
It was a truth I couldn’t debate. “How then? And can others? Are there more?” Garlin’s people vocalized no ideas or theories where this was concerned as far as I knew. We believed magic to be dead. But Islain was closer. Was it possible that they knew?
“No, no others can come here. But that’s a conversation for another time. Look, I will promise not to harm or kill your prince, or anyone else unprovoked, but you have to promise that you will help me. There are things I can’t see or hear. I need you to listen to what the visiting queen wants, what she is looking for. Anything. Even things that are nonspecific.”
“How do you even know that she’s looking for something? She might just be here to seize our island, to take us whether it comes with her daughter’s marriage or not.”
“There is more to the visit. I know she has been searching through historical documents and collecting things from hundreds of years ago, especially focused on the war, when magic was killed and the world divided.” He gritted his teeth again, the muscles in his jaw flexing hard as a wave of char rippled over his skin. “I can’t hold this form around you. My energy … wants yours more than human. I’ve been practicing these last few days, trying to control it all more but—”
More than human?
A crack of a nearby branch silenced us both. Our heads pivoted for signs of movement, neither of us daring to breathe. I couldn’t risk being found with him, especially like this, talking as if we were friends. And if his skin changed in front of them? I would likely be screaming my truths into Revelation Wood on the death march to Crypt Cliff, as many other criminals had.
“I should go,” he said, studying the shock so clearly written upon my face. “You are going to let me go, right? I don’t have to kill my way out of here?”
My eyes, still wide, looked into his, reading his same concern. He had a goal and needed my help. Without it, perhaps it wouldn’t only be him who failed. I nodded with a surrendering blink.
“Then I’ll see you again soon, Vala.” He flashed a smirk and ran to the wood on the far side of the building, disappearing into the thicket.
After letting the shock settle, I colle
cted myself and walked toward the manor house, passing the horses. As I turned the corner, I was met by Leint. His arms crossed at his chest, hands tucked neatly in to hold the position that looked alarmingly comfortable.
“Where have you been?” he asked, strands of his orange hair shifting over his forehead as his face tilted to assess me. Our exchanges had always been edged with competition. He had wanted my position—now Haidee’s position—and made no effort to hide the fact. So him having any reason to report me wasn’t good. Especially after he’d barely gotten reprimanded for his part in aiding the prince on Prince’s Night, while I was tied up and …
I stopped in front of him and scowled, as I normally would at his questioning me. “That’s none of your concern.”
Those crystal-colored eyes narrowed briefly then looked toward the vineyard’s horizon. “Haidee made it my concern when she asked me to find you.”
I breathed in calmly, hoping my heart would slow its pace in turn. Had he seen me? “So you ignored the lead’s order and stood here instead?”
“I didn’t want to catch you at a bad moment.” My heart paused as his words did. “I’m not one who enjoys disrupting someone tending to their … personal needs. So I waited.” I sighed inwardly. “Transton and Prins went inside with them. I knew you had the back covered, with or without your pants down.” He flashed a humorous smirk, and I found myself smiling in return, catching a surprised glance from those crystals. He couldn’t see my mouth, but he obviously saw the amusement in my eyes. It was rare for us to share that kind of exchange. I wondered if the strain between us had softened a bit after Prince’s Night. “They won’t be much longer.”
“Good,” I replied as the relief rushed through my body and I took a position that mirrored his on the other side of the door.
Even through my scrambled thoughts about Xavyn—what had just occurred, what he was asking of me, what he could possibly be—I looked out over the vineyard and took in the silence, feeling the peace fill me. Maybe something inside begged it of me, knowing it could be the last time I might enjoy that kind of calm, my life splitting, no longer aimed to a single goal, the direction no longer as clear as it had once been. As much as every ingrained part of my being wanted to hate Xavyn, what he could be, the fear of it all, I couldn’t ignore the voice inside that knew he was right about me. I was different. I always had been. As much as I resented the people of this island for fearing me, my skin, I realized I resented myself more for feeling the truth, knowing that I was something else but being too fearful of what others might think to seek answers. I was naive, like Xavyn had said. I knew only what had been told to me, and I believed it all, never asking questions. Fear, blind trust, and anger imprisoning me. And now … all of those same things from different angles, steering me down another path. One that didn’t have an end already in sight.