She pressed against my barriers. Whether this was some test or whether she had Read something else she thought she needed, I was determined not to fail, pushing just as hard against her. A sense of her amusement slipped past; it mixed with a hint of annoyance.
“Not much I know about Della,” Nord answered.
Cael turned and looked at him but I still felt her focus upon me, digging at my barriers, trying to slip past or over. Being around her was dangerous. No secrets.
“Rumors, mostly. A name whispered in certain circles for men in need. Said to be a great healer, one gifted by the Great Watcher in ways only her kind—”
“She is of Elaeavn?” Cael interrupted. There was surprise in her voice. That meant she hadn’t managed to Read me completely. Nord nodded. “What else do you know of this Della?”
When Nord shrugged, she turned to me again.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. Della. Not just a gifted healer but someone with a secret of her own. It was a secret she fought hard to hide, one that I would be damned if I would reveal, even to Cael. Especially to Cael, I decided. As one of the Elvraeth, one whose family ruled over Elaeavn, she couldn’t know more about Della.
But how could I reveal that to Cael without angering her? How to let her know that there were some secrets I had to keep. In her mind, there were no such secrets, but as a Reader, she didn’t have to share the same way others did. If it worked both ways, then it might be a different matter, but Cael was nearly just as much a mystery to me now as she was when I first met her. In some ways, even more.
Already I saw that Cael wanted to help Nord. After all, he had only tried to rob us.
“What happened to him?” I asked Cael.
She frowned. I knew she expected me to tell her what I knew about Della, but I kept my barriers in place, determined to keep her from knowing anything more about her than necessary. There were some that still lived in Elaeavn I remained loyal to, no matter that I had been exiled. There were certain favors you could never forget, certain debts always owed.
When I didn’t say anything more, Cael just shook her head. “It is not clear. Some sort of sickness. I see a tree but do not know its name.”
My heart fluttered in my chest just a little, fearing what would come next.
“Bakka trees,” Nord said, nodding. He frowned. “How did you know?”
Bakka.
Already I knew what was wrong with Nord. Now that he said it, I recognized the signs. The wasting look to his face, the fevers that burned at his skin, boiling through his blood. The strange lines where he had once been scalded. Depending on how long ago he was exposed, he shouldn’t have much longer to live.
“What are bakka trees?” Cael asked.
I took a deep breath. “A twisted tree. I know of only a few places where they are found. They have a dark power to them, feeding off blood and pain. They grow near water—lakes or ponds, rarely anything moving—and taint the water. Anything that drinks from the water gets sick. Most die.”
I did not look over at Nord as I spoke, but from the edge of my vision I saw him nod.
“Have you used this?” she asked me.
“No.”
Bakka was not specific enough for what I needed. Too many died. That just wasn’t how I operated.
I made sure those thoughts slipped through my barrier. Cael nodded, signaling that she understood.
“But you know of it?” she asked.
That wasn’t the question she wanted answered. Just like when she asked Nord about Della.
“I know of it,” I said.
I hadn’t thought of bakka in years. Not since I was trying to establish myself in Eban and had been asked about the strange trees growing along the edge of the Yiln River to the south. Bakka were one of the few plants my mentor Isander never used, though he made certain to demonstrate the effects. And I had been foolish enough share that knowledge, thinking there was little harm in letting the fledgling thief-master learn about the trees.
“Was it—” she started.
My nod cut her off. I didn’t say his name.
Or course it would be Orly.
Had he sent Nord after us? The timing seemed wrong. We hadn’t even been gone a week. Not enough time for Orly to have sent someone like him after us. And Nord would have been an unlikely person sent after me, but maybe that was the point.
Even here, far outside the city, I couldn’t really get away from Orly.
Thinking back to when I had shared with Orly what I knew of the bakka, I hadn’t known if he had used what he had learned until now. I had my suspicions. His swift rise in Eban was difficult to explain otherwise; some of the other thief-masters had to die for him to move up. I had killed one myself. But to take the kind of control he had managed in such a short period of time had taken a different type of targeting, one that I had been unwilling to partake in. There had been an unsettled suspicion that he had used what I had shared to get rid of his competition, but I had not know with certainty.
I let out a long sigh, shaking my head.
If not for me, Orly wouldn’t have learned what he needed to use the bakka trees to poison the water. If not for me, Nord wouldn’t be dying.
Nord had been looking from Cael to me, his eyes going ever wider. Sunken as they were in his sickly face, the effect was almost grotesque. He wiped a thick hand across his face, smearing the sheen of sweat across the sleeve of his dark cloak. Now that I knew it was bakka poisoning, I wondered just how much pain he was in to have such sweats. Amazing that he still sat so comfortably and had moved as gracefully as he had with the sword. A marker of his desperation, I was certain.
“You know of bakka?” The question came out in a whisper. “In the years since my exposure, I haven’t found any others that know of it. Can you reverse its effects?”
“You were exposed years ago?” I asked.
When he nodded, I knew that it must have been Orly. The timing would have been right.
“How is it that you are still alive?” I asked.
Nord blinked slowly. His face changed. “I-I’ve been lucky,” he answered.
I saw the lie on his face.
Cael would have Read it. She shook her head. “You have been more than lucky,” she said softly. She leaned forward, the front of her travel-worn dress falling forward.
I couldn’t help it that my eyes fell to her cleavage. Even knowing the effect she had on me, knowing the emotions she pushed at me without realizing it, I still couldn’t control the urges I felt around her. Nord had more restraint. I wished that I could manage the same.
He nodded and took a long, stuttering breath. “The Yiln was tainted. I lost a friend when we tried to keep it from reaching the town but weren’t fast enough. Everyone got sick.” His voice grew thick and he bit back a heavy sob. “The whole town died. I don’t know how I survived.”
Cael looked at him with an expression of deep concern. “You lost someone you care about.”
Nord nodded. “She was the reason I was there. Wasn’t even ’sposed to be in town by then, but I met Savel.” He swallowed and took a steadying breath. “She was one of the first that died. I shoulda left when the others got sick, but I couldn’t. It was my fault.” His voice trailed off. “My fault,” he said again.
The fire crackled softly. The night had a chill to the air but Nord didn’t seem to notice. He was withdrawn for a different reason. Whatever he had seen haunted him. I recognized the expression. There were many things that haunted me the same way.
“How are you still alive?” I asked.
Exposure years ago should have killed him, just like it had killed the rest of the town—but somehow he lived. I needed to know why.
Nord looked from me to Cael, desperation coming to his eyes. He didn’t want to say why he had survived when he should have been dead, but neither of us offered him the reprieve that he sought.
“The one who poisoned me doles out an antidote, but only if I do certain jobs for him. I should have sto
pped doing the jobs long ago. I could have said no at any time, but…”
An antidote. I did not think there was a good antidote for bakka poisoning. Not one that lasted like this. Could Orly have learned another secret? One that protected him while so many others fell ill?
And if he’d been working for Orly, how was it that I hadn’t seen him before now? With someone like him working in Eban, I should have seen him before.
“You weren’t ready to die,” Cael said.
Nord shook his head. “Is anyone ever ready to die?”
“Some are,” I said. I had seen many that were ready. Too many that seemed eager for death, almost as if they chased it.
Nord just blinked. “Can’t keep doing the jobs,” he said. “Not anymore. I been lookin’ for someone else that could help me. Maybe find another source of the antidote…” He sighed. “I came across a few healers, but none had ever heard of bakka. Anything I been offered never works, not like the antidote I get when I do the jobs. Even that is not working like it once did. I need real healing.”
“How did you hear of Della?” I asked. I shouldn’t bring her up again around Cael, but I needed to know what sort of information was out there. Cael wasn’t the only one I wanted to protect. Just the most recent.
Cael looked at me, a curl of a smile on her full lips. Her deep green eyes flashed and I felt the pressure of her trying to Read me again. I pushed back.
“There was a name a few of the healers knew. Rumors, mostly. Most I never thought were true. Heard her name a few times before I began to wonder if there might be more to the rumors. Then I started to look for her.”
I sniffed. If Della’s name was mentioned in Eban, then she wanted it known. I wondered why that would be.
“You won’t find Della unless she wants you to find her,” I said.
“You know her?” Nord asked.
Damn. I should have kept silent.
“Please—you have to help me find her! I need to get away from—” He cut himself off. “I need to be healed,” he said, trying to speak reasonably. “I can’t keep living this way. Never knowing if I will get enough of the medicine to make it through the next week. Never knowing if my skin is going to boil off. Never knowing when the bleeding is going to start.”
I looked away. The bleeding would be the worst. Coming out both ends, dying that way was a horrible death. How many had Nord seen die in such a way? Had it really been a whole town? What purpose would Orly have had in poisoning an entire town?
“I can’t help you,” I said.
Nord’s eyes pleaded with me. Cael scratched at my barriers, digging for information, trying to Read what I knew of Della. I would make neither happy.
“What do you know of the bakka trees?” Cael asked me.
I frowned. “Just what I have told you.”
She shook her head. “Do you know of this antidote?”
“No.”
“Tell the truth.”
The words carried the ring of command. Even though I knew what it was that she did, I could not ignore the command. That was Cael’s gift, part of her ability.
“There is an antidote. I do not know how he would know of it. The making of it is difficult, possibly more difficult than I could manage. It is inefficient and should not have kept him alive this long.” That wasn’t entirely true, but maybe it was. With Cael compelling me to speak the truth, I had little choice in what I said.
“Will you take him to Della?” she asked.
I felt the command in her voice again. “No.”
I waited, hoping that she wouldn’t make me tell her about Della, but that command never came. At least, not yet.
“Then you will help him find this cure.”
I took a breath, trying to fight the demand she placed upon me. “You must be returned safely. If you don’t make it back—”
Cael shook her head, stopping anything else I might have said. “You will help him find his cure.”
The urge to start off on a search for the antidote struck me in such a way that I started away from the fire before realizing what it was that I was doing. With a great effort, I turned back and made a show of standing before Cael. I looked into her eyes, pushing the anger out of my voice before I said anything to her.
“Do not Compel me, Cael,” I said between gritted teeth.
She blinked as if she did nothing wrong. Only the corner of her eyes betrayed her anxiety. “Galen—”
I shook my head.
“You had a hand in this,” she whispered. “Don’t claim you did not. And you want to help him. I couldn’t force that.”
Whatever hand I had was distant, but still there. “Possibly.”
“Can you really leave him to suffer?”
I glanced at Nord. I could not imagine the years of suffering he had already experienced, the suffering he continued to feel as Orly demanded more and more from him.
In my dealings with Orly, I had always been able to say no. Nord had no such luxury.
“If I am to help, then we need for you to reach safety,” I said.
She nodded, not bothering to hide the trace of a smile on her face.
It didn’t matter what I said to Cael. She had already decided what she would do.
10
That night was difficult for me. While Cael rested comfortably, I didn’t sleep. Already tired from days of staying on edge, while sitting watch, my mind churned, keeping me awake and standing on the edge of a sharpened knife.
Nord crashed on the other side of the fire, curling up near his friend—a man named Thayer—who lay motionless, the effect of the terad still working through him. All night, Nord moved, his sleep fitful and restless. Occasionally he would moan or call out. During those times I could not help but agree with Cael that we needed to help him end his suffering.
Other times, I felt different. Watching Cael, seeing the way her face seemed so peaceful and trusting, even while she slept, I knew that regardless of what she said, she needed me to keep her safe. The crystal she carried with her, still hidden somewhere, was more valuable than any coins we had on us. If someone were to steal it…
Cael knew the value of the crystal. It was she who had set out after losing it during her Saenr. But I doubted she was the only one who understood why the crystal was valuable.
I watched as the fire gradually faded. When Thayer started stirring, I dosed him with another dart of diluted terad. We may be taking on Nord and helping him, but I was determined not to let these men have equal numbers on us. Besides, I had seen the jumpy way that Thayer had looked at me. He would likely as not send a knife into my ribs, even if it was by accident. Better that he remain motionless, the terad keeping him controlled.
“You said it will wear off,” Nord asked me when he woke in the morning. He sat up and, for the first time, checked on Thayer.
He pocketed a pair of the man’s knives, thinking himself to be discreet. Whatever Cael thought she had Read of him, there was still a part of Nord that could not be trusted. A dying man was a risk; the only thing he could be counted on was doing whatever it took to save his own skin.
“In time,” I answered.
“How are we gonna bring him with us?” Nord asked, looking from Cael to me. He didn’t know who was in charge. In truth, neither did I.
“We’re not.”
“What do you mean? Can’t just leave him here!”
I only stared.
“You gonna leave a man just lying on the side of the road? There’s no place around for nearly two days!”
“Not my man. Not my problem,” I said.
I widened my stance, making certain that Nord saw me as a threat. If he thought we were bringing Thayer with us, that meant he thought we were working as some sort of team. He needed to know that while Cael might want to help him, I still was not fully decided. If he pulled a few more tricks like pocketing extra knives, I just might see that a dart accidentally sank into his back.
“Galen?”
Cael lo
oked over at me. I saw from her face that she had been Reading me. I hadn’t been particularly careful with protecting my thoughts. She needed to know where I stood. My primary concern would be her safety.
“I won’t have us bringing another man on this,” I said. “Nord’s man will be fine soon enough. By that time, we will be far enough down the road that he won’t be able to follow us or interfere.”
“Thayer’s a good kid,” Nord said. Even this early in the morning, sweat was pouring down his face. “Jus’ wants to help me.”
“You sure of that?” I asked. I had my doubts about the pairing from the moment I saw them. Now that I knew that Nord had been working for Orly—no matter how reluctantly—I wasn’t about to have another of Orly’s men with us. The price on Cael’s head was over twenty gold. The one on mine was twice that amount. That much money at stake would make any man do something foolish. “How long have you been working with him?”
Nord frowned and wiped his arm across his face. “A couple of months. Long enough to know that he only wants to help.”
I shook my head slightly. “Long enough for him to gain your trust.”
Nord shook his head. A shiver shook him and he wrapped his cloak more tightly around himself.
“How long have you been without the antidote?” I asked.
“A few days,” he admitted.
Since they set out on the road. That gave me a hint of the timing.
We’d been gone a few days as well. Either this was a coincidence… or Orly had sent them. I suspected the latter, regardless of what Nord claimed.
“How long between dosings have you been going?”
“A little over a week. Why?”
I did the math quickly. Figure he had been on the road for two or three days. Another three days and he would be needing the antidote. Maybe one or two more before it was too late. Not enough time.
“This isn’t going to work. You need to get back to the city. Get the antidote. I’ll do what I can and then we’ll find you.”
Thankfully, Cael didn’t say anything in response to my lie. It would take us too long to get to Elaeavn, and then there was no guarantee I’d return, especially with Orly after me. I might be able to find Della—if she were willing to see me again—but would I risk myself for this man?
The Forgotten (The Sighted Assassin Book 2) Page 7