“What did you think you were doing?” Though her voice remained low, the harsh tone in it made the depth of her anger known. She stood. The stiffness of her spine matched the stiffness on her face. “The Elders—”
“I don't give a damn about the Elders.”
“You should.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “Keeping peace in Ærenden depends on a symbiotic relationship with them. They represent and rule the Guardians, nearly a quarter of the population. What do you think would happen to our roles as leaders if they decided we didn't have the people's best interests in mind?”
He scoffed. “It's your role, not mine.”
She uncrossed her arms to plant her hands on her hips. “It took me a month to convince them to hold your coronation, and even though they did, they still consider you on probation. They're just waiting for you to screw up so they can dethrone you. Are you trying to give them an excuse?”
The thought had never occurred to him. He frowned, wondering if losing his position would be such a bad thing. He wondered, too, if Adelina might be happier if her husband returned to his old life on the other side of the kingdom. Rather than offer the option, he thought it wiser to say nothing.
“You're impossible,” she muttered. “How am I supposed to trust you to do anything if you skip out on the simplest things? Why don't you ever do as you're told?”
“I'm not a puppet,” he snapped. Her face flushed increased anger, and he narrowed his eyes, casting the words he knew would add fuel to her fire. “My Queen.”
“I hate that,” she hissed. Her hands shook at her sides and she tightened them into fists. “You're not one of my subjects. We're—”
“Equals?” he finished her sentence. They had fought this argument before. “Hardly. You hide me in a corner until you think I might be useful, and then you parade me in front of your subjects like some freak of nature. I'm not a toy, Adelina. I have more to offer than banal conversation at dinners.”
Adelina threw her hands up, and turned from him. He circled her so she faced him again. “If we're truly equals, then why do you keep things from me? Why do you send my people to slaughter without the courtesy of at least telling me you intend to destroy my kind?”
“Slaughter?” she echoed. Her eyes widened. “Where did you get—”
He grabbed her arms, silencing her. “You thought I wouldn't find out? That I wouldn't know about your betrayal?” The last word tasted bitter to him, laced with the hate surging within him. She had not needed to confirm anything. Guilt lined her face. “How could you? These people are my tribe, my kinsmen. When you wipe them out, you wipe out my culture. You wipe out my history.”
“I wouldn't do that,” she protested.
He dropped his hands and looked away from her, focusing on the open patio door and the direction of home.
“I couldn't.” Desperation filled her voice. She gripped his arm. “Ed, you have to believe me.”
“No, I don't.” He glanced back at her, not bothering to mask the anger in his scorching glare and she dropped her hand. “A letter came for me today from my cousin. He told me how happy he is that he fights for me, that the tribe has joined the army for me. How could you send them to battle using my name? How could you let them think I'd sacrifice them?”
Adelina shook her head. “I didn't.”
“You didn't what?”
“I didn't tell him it was your idea,” she whispered. “He must have assumed that.”
For a brief second, he debated if he could throttle her and escape without being caught, but he banished the thought. It had never been in his nature to murder, and he would not give in to that urge now. He would not let her change him. Crossing the room, he entered his bedroom. He could hear her footsteps behind him, but ignored them in favor of focusing on an old duffel bag. He began filling it with clothes.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I won't allow you to kill my people,” he responded. “I'm taking them from your kingdom. We can survive in the Barren Lands.”
“No one can live in the Barren.”
He did not respond and she pressed her fingers to her temples, a telltale stress reaction. He had seen it many times before, though she would never use it around anyone but him. Usually he allowed it to calm their fights, but this time he refused to care. Grabbing a cloak from a hanger, he added it to the top of the bag. He travelled light. A single outfit, besides the one he wore, would suffice. Now he just needed supplies. He opened a drawer to remove a small medical kit, grateful Adelina's Guardian had insisted each room have one, and tossed it on top of the cloak. Then he closed the bag and hitched it over his shoulder.
“Ed, please,” Adelina said, placing her hand on his wrist. He shook off her touch and stepped around her, but froze at her next words.
“I'm sorry.”
He turned around to stare at her. He may not have known her long, but he knew her well enough to realize that no matter how desperate she became, or how wrong she was, she rarely apologized. She loathed showing the weakness.
“Let me explain.”
He eased his bag to the floor at his feet. “Fine, but be wise about what you say.”
“I should have told you. I just,” she hesitated and sank down onto the bed, “I just didn't want you to worry.”
“I'm not a child, Adelina. I can handle being worried.”
She nodded. “I know.”
“Then why did you keep this from me? And why did you drag my people into your fight?”
“I didn't.” She drew her hands to her temples again. “Your cousin sent me a letter. Since the outlaws first appeared, they've driven your tribe away from two settlements. Your people were already fighting them.”
“Outlaws?”
“A soldier in the army recognized one of them. The men are criminals, banned from the kingdom as part of their punishment. No one expected them to survive, but they did. They've made their way back across the borders.”
Ed frowned and sat down next to her on the bed. “How long have you known about this?”
“Which part? Your tribe or the outlaws?”
“Both.”
“I just found out about the outlaws today. I received the letter from your cousin a month ago.”
“A month ago,” he echoed, and cursed. “I had a right to know about this the minute you got that letter.”
“I know,” she repeated, but kept her gaze pinned to her lap. “He wanted to help, and frankly, I wasn't in a position to turn him down. In the beginning, there were only about forty outlaws. I thought rounding them up would be easy, but we couldn't catch them. The few times we found them, they overpowered our soldiers or escaped without leaving a trace. At first we thought they had figured out a way to revive their powers, allowing them to teleport. Then I realized their tactics were similar to those of the Zeiihbu armies.”
“The wilderness gives them power in a way,” Ed said. “It's not difficult to avoid someone or fight a person who doesn't know the territory. And for those of us who live within the forests and mountains, the wilderness is as easy to navigate as your village streets.” He raised a finger to her chin, guiding her to look at him. “That's why you enlisted my people in the army. I understand the strategy, but it wasn't the right thing to do.”
“I didn't enlist them,” Adelina insisted. “At least, not in the way you think. Half my army is there to protect them.”
“My cousin would never agree to that. The tribe wouldn't either. They can protect themselves.”
“I have no doubt they can, but I didn't want them to die trying. I asked them to serve as scouts.”
“Scouts?”
“Yes. Because they know the wilderness so well, they're able to find the outlaws without being seen. Once they do, they report locations back to the army.” She paused, and he realized she waited for a reaction. He nodded for her to continue. “I told them everyone starts in the army as scouts. They seemed to accept that reason.”
Ed studied her for a moment, noted the sincerity in her face, and the anger and anxiety that had clutched him all afternoon dissolved. In its place, respect grew. Removing one of her hands from her lap, he brought it to his lips. “Thank you,” he said.
The corners of Adelina's lips turned up. “You'll stay then?”
“As soon as I've helped capture the rest of the outlaws, I'll return. My tribe won't tolerate having the army around much longer.” Releasing his hold on her, Ed stood. “What's the protocol for commanding my Guardian to the border?”
Adelina's smile fell. “You can't be serious. You can't go to the border. You have duties here.”
“Parties and dinners?” he asked and frowned. “Those are hardly duties, Adelina. I have a responsibility to my people and I intend to honor it. Even if it means the Elders strip me of my title.”
Adelina's eyes widened. Her mouth tightened into a hard line, and he tensed for a fight, but it never came. Instead, she nodded one last time, and left the room.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THIS NEEDS some of your spirit,” Ed muttered.
Cal chuckled and lifted a tin cup to his lips, taking a hearty gulp. Ed's sips held less zeal. The camp cook had called it coffee, but Ed had his doubts. He grimaced when thick sludge hit his tongue. Oil might have tasted better. Or mud.
“I don't see why you're in such a good mood,” Ed continued. “There's nothing around here but wilderness.”
Cal refilled his cup and set the kettle beside the fire. A steady drizzle had not seemed to dampen the flames or the man's mood, but it had done nothing but sour Ed's. He peered through the hazy rain drops at the endless rows of muted brown and green trees and frowned. He wanted to be anywhere but here. He wanted to be home with Adelina. The realization both surprised him and darkened his sense of unease.
“I thought you grew up here,” Cal responded.
“In the mountains,” Ed said. “It's a lot nicer up there. The terrain varies. There are lakes, other people.”
“Other people?” Cal asked and raised a knowing eyebrow. “Or are you thinking of one person in particular who, incidentally, isn't in the mountains.”
Ed grunted, and set his cup aside. “I'm just tired of seeing your ugly mug.”
Cal only chuckled again in response. Ed sighed and drew his eyes back to the forest. Time had not quite switched from morning to afternoon, yet semi-darkness filled the sky and blanketed the ground with thick clouds. Soldiers held posts along the edge of the thicket, each man tense in anticipation and vigilance.
“Have you heard from your cousin?” Cal asked, keeping his tone light, though he set his cup aside. A shadow had darkened the blackness of the woods to their right.
Ed stood and stretched, feigning the movement to better view the woods. “I sent the tribe home.”
A lie, they both knew. Ed's cousin and a few of the tribe's best men hid in the trees, waiting. Two more shadows joined the first. Cal leaned back in his seat, his action casual, though it put his sword within reach of his hand. The Guardian's eyes trailed to the mid-line of a close pine and he nodded.
Four men dropped from the trees and an instant later, the same number of synchronized arrows flew in the direction of the shadows. Ed's tribesmen were fast, but the enemy appeared to be faster. Only one arrow found its mark. A guttural scream pierced the foliage. Then the other shadows streaked into the forest.
Ed did not hesitate. Grabbing his sword from the ground, he charged after them.
“Ed!” Cal's command roared through the air and he ignored it. He had promised he would not fight this time, but it had been a promise he had never intended to keep. He would not allow anyone else to fight his battles for him.
He crossed the tree line and darkness enveloped him, cutting his visibility down to an arm's length. Cal's panting came from behind, though far enough away for Ed to know he outpaced the Guardian. His eyes adjusted and shadows gave way to details. Pines flanked him. Bushes and scrub brush blocked most paths. And two men practically flew in front of him, their speed almost unnatural.
Ed pushed his muscles harder. He could not let them escape. He had missed them on their last attack, and he refused to make that mistake twice. The trail up ahead forked and one of the men banked to the left. Ed did not bother to pursue him. A tribesman sat in wait from a tree along the enemy's path. The man took no more than a dozen steps before he fell to the ground, an arrow protruding from his back.
Ed jumped over a bush and veered to the right, pushing through thick underbrush after the second man. Branches scratched his arms and tore at his face, but his focus held strong on the last traitor. Ed knew these woods. He had explored them over the past few weeks, learning their secrets and shortcuts, and he had seen his chance.
He pushed his way onto an overgrown path, cut through a blanket of vines with his sword, and then broke through the trees into a small clearing. The last man exited the forest into the same clearing only a few steps ahead of Ed.
Adrenaline pushed Ed's speed faster and with a calculated strike, he caught the enemy. The sickening crunch of bones breaking, the warm spurt of blood, and the hollow cry that followed told Ed his blow had been fatal. The man crumpled to the ground and Ed skidded to a stop beside him.
Sunlight had broken through the clouds, highlighting the ashen face of his enemy, though he barely had time to process the scene before a primal howl echoed through the trees. Instinct tightened Ed's hands on the hilt of his sword. He raised it and turned, ready to fend off an animal, but the reaction came too late as agonizing pain seared through his shoulder. He barely saw the wood handle of a spear and the gray face of his attacker before he collapsed to the ground.
§
“PUT HIM on the bed.”
May's voice broke through Ed's unconsciousness and he pried open his eyes to find the redheaded Guardian staring at him from across Adelina's bedroom. Hard muscle pressed against his side and he looked up at Cal's stern face.
“Welcome back,” the Guardian said with no hint of happiness. “You're an idiot.”
Ed opened his mouth to object, but cried out instead when Cal dropped him on Adelina's bed with no hint of even attempting delicacy. Pain streaked through his body and Ed sought the source of it, remembering what had happened as soon as he saw the wood spear protruding from his shoulder. It rose only a foot into the air, rather than several feet as it had before.
“What the hell happened?” May continued and Ed focused on her again. “He's in bad shape.”
“He only has himself to blame,” Cal muttered. “He chased after the outlaws and ran right into a trap. He'd be dead if I hadn't caught up with him.”
“You should've moved faster,” Ed complained. “As my Guardian—”
“Acting Guardian,” Cal snapped. “If I was your real Guardian, I would've been able to sense you instead of wasting time tracking you through the woods.”
“What are you talking about?” Adelina's voice came from the doorway and Ed's gaze shot toward her. She looked pale. Her hand shook as she placed it against the jamb. “Where's Malven?”
“He's—”
“Now's not the time,” May interrupted. “Adelina, we need your help. Stand beside Ed.”
Adelina nodded and moved across the room. Ed tried to focus on her, but failed when May pulled him forward to look at his back. His world spun. He thought he might throw up from the agony of the movement, then May eased him back again and his stomach settled.
“The spear didn't pierce all the way through,” May said. “We need to pull it out, but that will cause more bleeding. He'll need accelerated healing.”
“Is it really that bad?” Cal asked.
May nodded, flicking somber eyes toward Ed, and panic welled within him.
“What's...?” he started to ask, but lost his words when May's fingers prodded the edge of his wound. His stomach surged once more and he clamped his mouth shut to avoid the full reaction.
May studied his face for a moment, and th
en frowned, turning her focus back to Cal. “He should be in more pain,” she said. “Did you give him jicab root to chew?”
Cal coughed. “Of course not. It's illegal.”
“The truth, Cal.”
“Yeah, maybe,” he admitted. “He was screaming. I couldn't stand to see him like that.”
“Good. It will help with this. He handles the root better than most.”
Cal shrugged. “He's used to drinking.”
May shot a glare in Cal's direction, but the small smile cresting her lips belied the reprimand. “Adelina,” she said, turning serious again. “Please help me brace Ed while Cal removes the spear.”
Although Adelina's hands still shook, she held them firm against Ed's chest and uninjured shoulder. May placed a hand on his other shoulder, to one side of the spear, and then used her free arm to pin him down at the waist. When she nodded to Cal, the Guardian wrapped his large hands around the spear's wood shaft and Ed could no longer control his panic. It boiled within him, filling every fiber of his body so his breathing came rapidly and his muscles turned to stone. He closed his eyes, preparing for intense pain, and then opened them when none came. To his surprise, everyone stared at him.
“Are you okay?” May asked him. “You're shaking.”
His gaze met hers. He wanted to tell her to continue, but could not find the courage. He barely found the strength to bring air into his lungs.
“Ed,” Adelina whispered. “Talk to me.”
He forced a long breath and held it. He had faced death many times in his life, and pain more times than he could count. Yet he had never been so terrified. Adelina slipped a hand into his, and he clung to it.
“Just tell me what's happening,” he finally said. “I need to know.”
“Everything will be okay,” May responded and the kindness in her voice surprised him. She had never offered it to him before. “I'm not going to lie to you. There isn't enough time for me to heal you if I use my normal power so I have to speed up the process. It's tricky and it's going to hurt.”
Aerenden: The Gildonae Alliance (Ærenden Book 2) Page 5