The now dirty bath water swirled around her calves. She couldn’t see her feet. Selia glanced around. In a corner by the fireplace she spotted a cloth for drying.
She stepped out of the bath and moved the table closer to the fire. After placing the soap on the floor next to her boots and knife, she picked up the cloth. Underneath was a pair of leggings and a tunic. Selia smiled and held them up. Ari?
The clothes were a little large, but not by much, and made for a man. But then, she’d worn Oren’s old clothes all her life.
After dressing, she brushed her fingers through her wet, curly hair as best she could, braided it into a single coil and contemplated her filthy boots. Those would require a stiff brush and patience, neither of which she had right now. Jaden’s knife. Where else could she hide it?
Her stomach rumbled again. She picked up the soap, dried it and tucked it in her pocket. One never knew when a good bar of soap would come in handy. She held the knife in her palm and unsheathed it. She wasn’t a stranger to weapons and this one was well made, but definitely not crafted by humans. It was elegant and simple, with a lighter colored inlay on the hilt. The blade stretched the length of her hand, double-sided and curved. When she held the knife, it seemed an extension of her hand.
Jaden. Most likely she’d never see him again. Pain sliced her chest. He’s just another scar. It’s for the best. Who’d ever heard of a Svistra and human friendship?
But they had been friends. He’d saved her life more than once. According to him, the Blind Weaver had joined their lives.
Selia slammed the boots against the wall as hard as she could and then laced them on, the leather stiff and cold against her feet. She tucked Jaden’s knife into the side. An ache tightened her throat. She’d lost her mother’s picture and gained a knife. The gods had a sense of humor.
When she opened the door, Ari jumped. He’d been leaning on the opposite wall. His face tinted pink under the bristle.
“Thanks for the clothes,” she said.
Ari nodded and didn’t quite meet her gaze. “Are you hungry?”
“Like a mountain cat. What time is it?”
“It’s a little past midday.”
Selia followed Ari back down the curved hall.
“Did you really escape from the Svistra?” he asked.
Selia nodded. She didn’t want to go into it again, but fortunately Ari shook his head and asked no more questions.
“Are there…” Selia began. How to ask, have your men kidnapped any villagers lately?
Ari’s eyes narrowed.
“…new recruits from the villages here?”
“Some.” Something in the blue eyes snapped shut. She’d get no answer from him.
They crossed the cavern then re-entered the tunnel in the opposite wall. They stopped before another of the generic wooden doors.
How did they know which room was which? Did they count?
Ari knocked.
“Come.” Nathan’s voice.
Ari opened the door then stepped aside. Selia entered, a little self-conscious.
“You look…better.”
“I feel human, if that’s what you mean.”
Nathan waved Ari away. “It will take a while for some of those bruises to fade.”
He didn’t know the half of them.
Ari closed the door. She should have known food came at a price.
“Hungry?” he asked.
“Yes.” There was no use denying it.
“Sit.” Nathan rose and removed a piece of cloth on his desk to display a platter of bread and a wedge of cheese. “Not much, but probably better than the Svistra gave you.”
“The Svistra didn’t give me anything.” She tore off a piece of bread and tried not to shove the whole thing in her mouth at once. She was starving.
Nathan watched her eat. “At all?”
“No. They knocked me unconscious. Tied me up, dragged me into camp where they bound me to a tree and left me there.”
“How did you escape?”
“One of the knots was loose.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
“Why you?”
“Why not me?”
“I’ve seen what they do to women. Why’d they let you live?”
Selia swallowed. Oh fuck. “Because I’m a virgin, and apparently that’s a Svistra delicacy.”
Nathan coughed into his hand.
She glared at him, daring him to press the issue. “You want to me to prove it?”
“No. Shit. No.” He ran a hand through his hair. “In a few days, I’ll send you south with a few of my men.”
Selia stopped midchew then swallowed. “I don’t want to go south.”
“I didn’t ask—”
“Send me south, and I’ll just come back until I find Oren.”
To her surprise, Nathan smiled as he muttered under his breath. “He’s here.”
“Here?” Cool waves of relief washed over her.
“Yes. As soon as you eat, I’ll have him brought up.”
Selia was already on her feet. “He’s okay?”
Nathan nodded.
“Where is he?” She felt as though she could burst. Oren was here. Safe.
Nathan took out a knife and began slicing the cheese. “He was about as anxious as you, but I told him you needed your rest and he’s not going anywhere. Eat, Selia.”
She hesitated. Her appetite had fled, but she took a piece of cheese and put it in her mouth, her curiosity getting the better of her. “Did you know who he was?” Then another thought. “Did you order the kidnappings?”
“No. When Oren reached Eagle Rock, I recognized him.”
“And you kept him?” Outrage warmed her blood.
Nathan’s eyes shone. “I offered all the men a chance to return to their homes. Oren said he didn’t know the way, so he stayed. After the first practice session, we realized he…was no soldier. He asked to help in the kitchens, and I let him.” The commander moved a few documents on his desk. “He also said you would come for him.”
Selia smiled.
“I didn’t believe him. It appears I was wrong.” Nathan’s nostrils flared and his eyes seemed to look inward for a moment then he pointed to the bread. “Oren made that.”
Dark smudges lined the commander’s eyes. Finding out your enemy was camping two days away had to be a blow. Was he going to attack? The full consequences of that action hit her all at once. Jaden.
“Tell me about the woman.” Keldar stormed into the tent.
Jaden sat in a corner. He’d long since been stripped of all his weapons—most of them had been human-made and worthless anyway—and denied every comfort, but still his half-brother sat like he was granting an audience. Keldar’s nostrils flared.
He didn’t rise from his position but looked up and shrugged. “Typical human female. Well, except she was a virgin.”
“A typical female who managed to escape unaided from a Svistra camp and find her way toward the human fortress?” Keldar glared at his half-brother. “Where did you find her?” The question had kept him from sleep yet again. Did the woman have some worth in the human world, a king’s daughter? Some kind of training? Or was she, as Jaden claimed, just a female?
“In the woods, south of here.”
Keldar narrowed his gaze. Jaden didn’t appear to be lying, but he doubted he was getting the full story, and that made him nervous. “Alone?”
“Yes.”
“And you call that typical?”
Jaden again shrugged. “I didn’t interview her. I just took her.”
“Without a fight?”
Jaden laughed. “Oh, no. There was a fight. She can be…stubborn.”
“You’re not telling me something.” Keldar’s eyes narrowed. Jaden was still, too still.
“What could I possibly not be telling you?”
That was exactly what worried him. “We’ll find her and bring her back.”
“Why? There are more female humans. Has it really be
en so long since you’ve had a virgin offering?” Jaden’s eyes widened before his face softened in apparent compassion. “Oh, yes. You’ve probably never had a virgin offering.”
Keldar’s temper burned. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You have power, for now, but who honors you, Keldar?”
“Is that a threat?”
Jaden smiled, but his eyes were steel. “I don’t make threats.”
Keldar saw black. When his vision cleared, the edge of his sword bit into Jaden’s neck. “What’s to stop me from killing you now and having done with it?”
Chapter Twenty
Nathan noticed all color had drained from Selia’s face.
Interesting. What did I say? There was more to this woman than met the eye. “I’ll take you to him. Gods know you’ve come far enough.”
Selia seemed a little unsteady on her feet as she stood. He moved to help her. Even dressed as a man, there was something feminine about her. In the close office, she stood only a hand’s breadth away.
He cleared his throat and motioned toward the door. “Then let’s go.”
Her dark eyes lit, and she almost smiled.
Nathan’s breath caught in his throat. The expression so transformed her face, even bruised, that for a moment he froze and then realized he was blocking her. He tore his gaze away, stepped to one side and opened the door.
She walked into the hall, following him to the great cavern and out through the dining room, where men sat nursing steaming cups. Those in the hall nodded to him and stared after Selia with a hungry curiosity. This was definitely not the place for a woman. If she noticed, it didn’t seem to bother her.
“Commander, what are you going to do about the Svistra?” she asked.
Suspicion raised its head. “Why?”
“Because I was there, among them.”
Though reasonable, he sensed a lie in her statement. “I haven’t decided yet,” Nathan said and that wasn’t entirely the truth either.
At a narrow hall, Nathan nodded to a guard standing before a wooden door before stepping through into bright sunshine. A freestanding wooden structure stood a short distance away, its chimney bellowing smoke into the blue sky. He carefully shut the door. “This remains shut at all times,” he warned, listening for a plank sliding back into place.
Selia nodded.
Why did I tell her that? The door was the weakest part of the fortress. It wasn’t like him to let one smile steal his good sense. Still, it was a pleasant change to be part of something that caused joy.
He led her to the wooden building. “The kitchens,” he said, then opened the door and stepped to one side.
“Oren.” The word was scarcely out of her mouth before she disappeared beneath Oren’s crushing embrace. “Oren, you’re breaking my back.” But Selia smiled as she said it, and Nathan was once again struck by how the simple gesture transformed her face.
“I’m sorry.” Oren held her at arm’s length. “It’s so good to see you.” Then his expression changed. Eyebrows drawn, he pursed his mouth. “What happened to your face?”
“A lot of things. I’m okay.”
“Commander Nathan says you shouldn’t have come. It’s dangerous.”
Nathan fought a smile.
Selia glanced toward Nathan then whispered loud enough for him to hear. “Since when have I listened to people who tell me not to do something because it’s dangerous?”
Oren laughed. “That’s true.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Oren appeared confused. “Why wouldn’t I be? Oh? Because of that mean captain? I’d told him he’d just have to wait until you got back, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Then I was here. Not here in the kitchen, but some other place. He wasn’t very nice.”
“I know. I’m sorry, Oren.”
Oren bent over, his face serious, and whispered something in Selia’s ear that Nathan didn’t catch.
Her smile faded, but she didn’t let go of Oren’s hand. She shook her head and then turned to Nathan. “Can you spare him, just for a bit?” Selia asked. “I’d like to talk to him.”
Nathan nodded. “Just don’t leave the outer wall.”
“We wouldn’t, Commander Nathan,” Oren said, his tone serious. “You told me not to, and I don’t disobey like Selia.”
Nathan managed to keep his face stern. “I know, Oren.”
The commander stood at the door, his arms folded and watching them with a curious expression on his face. Selia could tell he was attempting not to smile and in that moment, her hatred of him lessened. He stepped aside.
She took Oren’s hand. “Come on, let’s find a quiet place, and you can tell me all your adventures and I’ll tell you mine.”
They walked past the practice square, where two men exchanged blows, and continued toward the vegetable garden. “There’s a bench there.” Oren pointed past the garden. “I sit there sometimes and feed the birds. Don’t tell anyone. We’re not supposed to but they’re always so hungry.”
“I won’t tell.”
What Oren called a bench was actually a rotted log but Selia sat, pulling Oren down next to her. She studied his face. He seemed older somehow, and a pale white scar decorated his once clear forehead. “You gave me a scare.”
“I’m sorry, Selia, I didn’t mean to.”
“I know. No more apologies. We’re together now, and everything is going to be okay.” How she wished she believed her words.
Oren smiled then whispered, “Now can you tell me what happened to Jaden?”
She took a deep breath. “He came north with me, looking for you.”
“I heard some men wondering how you got so far. I told them they didn’t know you.”
“And they don’t know Jaden helped either. Commander Nathan is nice, but he wouldn’t understand.”
“I know that.” He let his breath out in a huff. “What did you tell him?”
“That I made it alone.”
“You could have.” Oren sounded confident.
Selia remembered the White Forest and slowly shook her head. Nathan may have misgivings that she wasn’t telling the whole story, but even in the short time they’d spent together, she knew he’d never suspect the truth and, eventually because she was female, write his misgivings off as inconsequential.
“Where is Jaden now?”
She shook her head. “We were captured by Svistra. They aren’t all as nice as Jaden.”
Oren nodded with vehemence. “That’s what Commander Nathan says. He says they’re demons, devils.” His expression turned serious. “But they aren’t. Jaden’s not. All humans aren’t as mean as that captain either.”
She patted his hand. She wished more people thought like Oren. “Jaden helped me escape, but he’s still with the Svistra.”
“Does he want to be?”
“I don’t think so.”
Oren chewed on the side of thumb. “He’ll get away. Jaden’s smart.”
“I hope so.”
Oren looked thoughtful for a moment then smiled. “You said Jaden was nice. Does that mean you like him now?”
Did she like Jaden? Good question. There were too many conflicting emotions surrounding that particular person for her to define the way she felt, but she was sure that one of the emotions was like, so she nodded. “Yes, you were right about Jaden. I like him.”
“Good, because I know he likes you.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“Don’t be silly. I can tell by the way he looked at you.”
She thought of Jaden’s arms circling her and felt her skin warm. “I don’t think…”
Oren’s look clearly stated he wouldn’t believe any denial.
“Okay. It’s nice to have friends.”
“Yes it is,” he agreed. “Can we go home now?”
Selia took Oren’s hand again. She was so glad to see him, but even after sleeping so long, her eyes would barely stay open. “Soon, Oren. I need to rest first.”
“I missed you. I’m glad you’re here with me,” Oren said.
“I missed you too.” She closed her eyes and allowed herself the momentary peace and comfort their joined hands brought.
Jaden remained motionless. A trickle of blood traced his neck to his collarbone. Had he pushed Keldar too far?
“Well? I could say you rushed me and I defended myself.” Keldar smiled. “I could say anything I want and come away from this with my honor intact.”
“Like you did with Father?”
“Enough!” Keldar yelled then lowered his voice, almost as if he were thinking aloud. “There really is no reason I shouldn’t kill you now.”
“But you won’t.” A voice sounded from the tent’s opening. Noe walked in, her gaze moving from Keldar, down his arm to the sword and then to Jaden. She laughed. “Are you boys still doing this? I thought you were past the age for such things. Have either of you yet left your mother’s dwelling?”
Keldar re-sheathed the sword. Jaw clenched, he turned to Noe. “Do you have something of use to say, woman?”
“The warriors are back. They’ve studied the fortress. It can be breached.” She smiled. “And I thought you should see this.” She handed him a letter with the seal torn.
Anger boiled in Keldar’s eyes.
Jaden glanced toward Noe, but she refused to meet his gaze. She was playing a dangerous game.
Keldar read the missive and then laughed. “Where did you get this?”
“In Jaden’s pack.” She held the item up in her other hand.
Jaden’s stomach hollowed. How could he have forgotten about the letter? Pain momentarily blinded him as the muscles of his body clenched.
“Do you doubt now I have the gods’ favor?”
Noe smiled, but didn’t respond.
Keldar whirled back to Jaden. “So you’ve been intercepting messages?” He shook his head. “Will you tell me about the girl?”
Jaden met his brother’s gaze but remained silent.
Altered Destiny Page 18