This Dark Mirror

by Tricia Owens

  "We’re nearly there!"

  Caled nodded as if he’d known all along how close they were. "Unless they’ve moved camp, they should be in the area."

  Hadrian marveled at the other man. He’d been blindly following Caled, hoping the other man wasn’t toying with him because Hadrian wouldn’t know any better. Every tree looked like the last, every rock was identical to the next. "How are you able to find your way so easily? I’ve been lost since we left the boat."

  Caled snorted as he paused to uncork his waterskin and drink from it. Rivulets of water spilled over his chin and down his sweating neck. Hadrian tried not to stare.

  "That’s because you’re as knowledgeable as a boot." The mercenary wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. "I know infants who can find their way across land better than you can."

  Hadrian gave him an annoyed look, his admiration swiftly fading. "I don’t know less than you do; I know different things."

  Caled laughed. "That’s an interesting take on it, Hades. Pray tell what it is you know that is comparable to knowing how to tell direction? To telling which way is north when you can’t see the sun? What would be as important as knowing where to find fresh water if you’re dying of thirst?" The mercenary retied the waterskin to his belt without offering Hadrian any. "What do you know, Hades? How best to raze the land with fire? The fastest way to turn a man into a bag of bones?"

  The mockery hurt. Hadrian couldn’t share what he knew because in truth the bulk of his knowledge was of a magickal nature, and confessing that was the surest way to begin an argument. "I know how to endure someone like you," he retorted.

  Caled arched an eyebrow. He stepped up to Hadrian until they were toe to toe and he had to lower his head slightly to meet Hadrian’s eyes. "I’m someone to endure, am I? An interesting comment, coming from a murderer and a liar. Someone who should be dead by my hand."

  Caled’s quiet warning made Hadrian’s skin prickle. He watched a bead of sweat roll down the side of the older man’s throat and disappear beneath the neck of his tunic. Hadrian found himself breathing faster. His heart throbbed a half beat quicker. He should be frightened, but Caled when he was like this reminded him of Caled under the influence of the Dimorada’s aphrodisiac. He was danger and lust, though the lust was purely Hadrian’s.

  "We’re bound," Hadrian reminded him. It surprised him how much it hurt when Caled’s face clouded over. "You can’t take my life."

  "No, I can’t, by the gods." Caled’s eyes were dark. Opaque. Hadrian could see nothing in them before Caled abruptly turned on his heel and strode ahead. "Come on, Hades. Let’s find Manix so I can thank him yet again for this ‘gift’ he’s bestowed upon us."

  Two hours later, Caled held up his hand, motioning for Hadrian to stop. Hadrian waited quietly, his black cloak wrapped around him, hood up, as the mercenary turned his head this way and that, listening. Hadrian could hear nothing beside the usual. The forest was noisy with the movement of animals and insects.

  Caled dropped a hand to his waist, fingers lightly curving around the hilt of a dagger there. "Why are there so many?" He suddenly threw his free arm back, pushing Hadrian behind the nearest tree. "Hide!"

  It took Hadrian another half minute before he felt the rumble of hooves. Caled, crouched before him, turned his head enough to say, "Remember those lessons you wanted? Now might be the perfect time to put them into practice."

  Hadrian gulped when he realized what Caled meant. He reached for his own dagger—and found it missing. He must have lost it in the water.

  "Caled—”

  "Quiet!"

  A group of riders burst from between the trees. The two men riding in front pulled up their mounts directly in front of where Hadrian and Caled were hiding.

  "I thought I saw movement here," Hadrian heard one of them complain. He thought the voice sounded familiar.

  "By the gods." Caled stepped out from behind the tree. "What are you two doing out here?"

  Hadrian followed, not wanting to cower while Caled appeared so brave. He immediately saw the reason for Caled’s attitude when he stepped from behind the mercenary.

  "You’re from the inn!" Hadrian blurted in surprise. "From Tagwar."

  The one-eyed thieves, Gam and Lio, exchanged a grin. "We certainly are," said the copper-haired one with the hazel eye—Gam. The thief scratched absently at the scar that ran down his cheek. "Glad we made such an impression on you, oh, mighty Scourge."

  "Enough of that," Caled snapped before Hadrian could. "None of this is a joke. If you say that name aloud again you’ll likely get us all killed. We’ve already had a run-in with a village full of crazies. There’s no telling who else knows of Rhiad and would consider us accomplices for traveling with him."

  "Sorry, sorry." Gam raised both hands. "I won’t say it again. Geez, Caled. I thought you’d be happier to see your old friends."

  "Yeah," said the green-eyed thief, Lio. Hadrian noticed the thief stealing glances at him. Recalling what had happened the last time the four of them all been together, Hadrian hastily looked away so as not to encourage the other man.

  "Your friends came for more than a social visit," spoke up Manix as he urged his horse up alongside the one-eyed thieves’. Syellen hovered on her mount behind the Elder, straining back and forth in her saddle to see if they’d survived with all limbs intact. Caled and Hadrian’s mounts trailed behind the group.

  The Elder smiled warmly at them. "I am extremely pleased to see you both well."

  "We didn’t find Gavedon," Caled said curtly.

  Manix shrugged. "So I have presumed. Another day. You two look tired and the four of us have been riding in circles with little else to do while we waited. What say we all break for a meal? Your friends brought treats from Tagwar."

  Grinning, Gam held up a sack.

  Hadrian didn’t care what it held, even if it were rotting apples. "I’m famished," he confessed.

  Manix’s eyes crinkled. "Let us eat then, and we shall exchange our information. Gam and Lio have something very interesting to share with you."

  ~~~~~

  Caled told them about the Dimorada, explaining that the rumor which had led their group to the cliff-dwellers had been a trap set by Gavedon and that he and Hadrian had barely escaped with their lives. He very carefully avoided any mention of the aphrodisiac and anything he and Hadrian had done to each other while under its influence. That was no one’s business but their own, and Caled absolutely did not want to see that smug, satisfied look come over Manix’s face that appeared whenever the Elder thought he and Hadrian were fighting a losing battle against their mutual attraction.

  Thankfully Hadrian was wise enough to keep his mouth shut except to answer the occasional question directed his way. To Caled, it seemed the sorcerer wished the entire episode with the Dimorada had never occurred. Hadrian had been shaken by it, perhaps more so than had Caled, and that was saying quite a lot. Nor did the black-haired sorcerer seem to have been impressed by what had occurred between them once they’d escaped the Dimorada. It bruised Caled’s ego somewhat, though he knew he should face the truth: he had assaulted Hadrian in that boat. The only one who had enjoyed the experience had been himself.

  "What a heartless bastard," Gam breathed in amazement after Caled had finished. "You and I have more in common than I thought," he said to Hadrian with a laugh. "How could our parents want to kill off such handsome lads as ourselves, eh?"

  Hadrian stiffened, his eyes slanting uneasily to the thief. Caled found his reaction curious, but didn’t comment on it.

  "I admit I had not expected a trap as you described," Manix told them, drawing all eyes, "but that is an error I will not repeat. Clearly Gavedon will stop at nothing to drive us off his scent. We must be exceedingly cautious from now on."

  Yes, Caled thought, leaning back against the tree behind him. If Gavedon can set his own son up for a death by stoning, there’s no telling to what lengths he’ll go to eliminate the rest of us.

  "Related
to that..." Gam paused until Caled gave the thief his full attention. "Lio and I didn’t ride all the way out here for a friendly roll with you, Caled. Though I hope we do have opportunity for that later," the thief added with a wink.

  Caled smiled obligingly. "Why are you here then, if it’s not to sample my charms?"

  "Someone is looking for Hadrian," Lio said quietly, his one green eye pinned on the sorcerer.

  Caled found it amusing that his thief friend still seemed fascinated by Hadrian even after the sorcerer had rejected him in Tagwar. Good luck, Caled wished the green-eyed thief. You’ll need it to crack that ice.

  Hadrian, for his part, studiously avoided looking at Lio. Caled found their interaction highly entertaining, but now was not the time to indulge in it.

  "Who’s looking for him?" Caled prodded when Lio seemed content to simply stare at Hadrian. "You bothered to ride out all this way—why the urgency?"

  Lio shifted, taking a small step closer to Hadrian, who reacted by taking an equally small step in the opposite direction. Lio frowned

  "This man claims to know you," Lio said, speaking directly to Hadrian. "He says you and he are friends."

  Caled didn’t know why the concept of Hadrian having friends came as a surprise to him, but it did. Because of the black-haired man’s reserve around other people, Caled felt as though he was the only one who knew Hadrian. Something dark pricked him. By the gods, was he actually jealous?

  "A friend, Hades?" Caled tried to keep his tone neutral but worried that he’d failed. He couldn’t imagine Hadrian laughing and sharing a pint with another fellow. The thought of a female friend seemed even less likely, so it must be a man. A knot of tension built at the base of Caled’s skull as he tried to picture what this friend might be like, or how anyone could be friends with Hadrian and not want more.

  "Is one of your fellow murderers hoping to share a good laugh with you over the tale of how you burned down Rhiad? Perhaps congratulate you and clap you on the back for a deed well done?" The words came out harshly. Caled was annoyed with himself for covering up his jealously with cruel taunting, but he couldn’t help it. He suddenly cared intensely about who this mysterious friend could be. "Come, Hades. Don’t be shy. Tell us about this fellow of yours."

  Hadrian, however, had blanched at the news.

  "I don’t know who it is.” He pulled his cloak around him as if it would hide him. He looked at each of them in turn. "I don’t have any friends who would come looking for me. My father kept them away from the other members."

  "What do you mean, he kept them away?" Manix asked before Caled could. "Why would he do such a thing?"

  Hadrian grew tense within his cloak. "He wanted me to be a good student. I suppose the other members were instructed not to distract me from my studies. I did everything alone. Studying. Practicing. Eating."

  Caled regarded him skeptically, not believing the isolation Hadrian was implying. It did make sense, considering Hadrian’s poor social skills, but Caled didn’t want to believe it. It would require that he feel sorry for the boy that Hadrian had been, and Caled would not allow that.

  "This person claims to know you, so either you’re lying or he is," Caled declared, which elicited an icy glare from Hadrian. Caled prodded his thief friends. "Tell me everything. What did he look like? How did you learn of him? How did he say he knows Hadrian?"

  Around the mouthful of cheese he’d brought along from Tagwar, Gam said, "He bought Lio and me a round of drinks five or six days after you left. I think he’d been asking around and heard that you and Hadrian had shared a room with us."

  Caled ground his teeth together. He should have realized that by involving his friends he would endanger them. "Go on."

  "He wore a hood the entire time, refused to show us his face." Gam shrugged. "We could have demanded he lower it, but we wanted to hear what he had to say and he seemed uneasy being in public in the first place."

  "Do you suppose he’s scarred?" Syellen piped up, her eyes round. "Maybe he’s hideously deformed and didn’t want you to be afraid of him."

  Caled wished he hadn’t tossed his apple core into the bushes else he would have thrown it at her.

  "He said he was looking for Hadrian ni Leyanon," Lio continued the story, his sole eye fixed on the sorcerer. "He said he was important to Hadrian. Said he used to be a member of the Order of the White Shard—"

  "—but he wasn’t any longer," Gam finished with a nod. "He said he needed to tell Hadrian some important things about the Order. He was real shifty, wouldn’t tell us any specifics, just that his news was for Hadrian only."

  Caled digested the information. "Sounds like another trap. Did you believe him?"

  Gam shared a look with Lio. "He sounded scared." Gam shrugged. "So yeah, we believe him. He acts like he ran from the Order and believes they aren’t too pleased about it."

  "If he speaks the truth, this could be an opportunity," Manix said. "A refugee of the Order might supply us with information on their most recent plans and destination. We need to find this person and find out all that he knows. He may be the key to finding Gavedon."

  "But I didn’t have any friends within the Order," Hadrian insisted again. He clutched his cloak tighter about his shoulders. "This must be a trick. I don’t know anyone who would want to speak to me, much less willingly betray my father. No one would dare defy Gavedon."

  But Caled noticed Hadrian’s eyes widen slightly as he spoke the last, as though he’d just remembered something. Hadrian quickly turned away, as if too upset or irritated to face them all, but Caled wondered at his behavior. Had he remembered someone brave enough to go against Gavedon’s wishes? There was only one way to find out.

  "We’re meeting him," the mercenary announced, watching Hadrian’s back stiffen. The look Hadrian sent him from over his shoulder would have cut glass. Caled just smiled placidly in return. "You should be thanking me, Hades. I’m helping you reunite with long-lost friends. Who knows what will come of it?"

  Hadrian seemed to have an idea by the ill look on his face, and it only made Caled more eager to unravel this mystery.

  ~~~~~

  Hadrian wasn’t fond of the dark. Too many days and nights spent locked in the cellars beneath the kitchen had infused him with a healthy fear of complete darkness. It shouldn’t have been so dark—they were outside and the stars should have provided ample light—but in Tagwar the smoke of burning wood and oil hovered over the town like a blackbird with outstretched wings. Standing in the street behind Caled, fighting the urge to press nearer the mercenary to gain a sense of security, Hadrian wished for courage.

  He hoped he didn’t make a fool of himself.

  The mysterious contact had claimed he would wait in Tagwar for news of Hadrian. Gam and Lio had thought it best that they make an appearance in town on their own to flush out the man. Hadrian was to be kept hidden until a meeting could be arranged that Manix found safe and acceptable. The meeting was indeed arranged, but Hadrian didn’t feel safe.

  He was all but positive he knew who was trying to find him. Only one person had come close to befriending him, or at least shown an interest in him beyond worshiping him for being the Son of the One. Only one person had shown him a temporary kindness. But Hadrian did not want to see that person again. What news he had for Hadrian could only stem from one terrible thing they shared in common: a secret set of choices that this man had presented to Hadrian on Shard’s Point Isle. Hadrian was not ready for anyone to know that the decision to burn down Rhiad, though made under duress, had been a choice he had made deliberately. He had chosen to act based on what this man had shown him about the future. In the tiniest of ways, it had brought him comfort to know he had chosen the better of two awful options.

  But to learn that the information he had believed to be true and upon which he had based his decision might in fact be false...was too horrific to consider.

  Ahead of him, Caled practically melted into the shadows surrounding him and Hadrian. Again, Hadrian w
as in awe of how confident and skilled the mercenary was in areas of which Hadrian knew nothing. Perhaps one day he could coax Caled to teach him again—this time not knife fighting, but how to navigate the land and how to become one with the shadows. It would be nice to be on equal footing with the mercenary, rather than having to rely so heavily upon him for everything. And maybe someday, the knowledge might help Hadrian disappear for good.

  "Someone’s coming," Caled murmured, his voice a low burr.

  Hadrian shook off the effects the intimate voice had on his senses. "Is it only one man? Can you tell if he’s armed?"

  "He’s cloaked and hooded. If anyone were following him, Gam or Lio would have signaled." The thieves were perched on the rooftops of the nearby buildings.

  "And if he’s armed, it won’t matter," Caled continued, his voice like steel. "He won’t have time to draw any weapons, trust me."

  Hadrian did.

  He waited tensely behind the taller man, wishing he could see the approaching figure. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Caled suddenly called out loudly, "Stop where you are."

  "Are you with him?" The voice of the stranger was muffled. Hadrian wished the blood would stop pounding in his ears so he could hear better.

  "What do you want with him?"

  "I need to speak with him. I won’t say what I have to say to anyone but him."

  Caled said nothing in return. He let the stranger stew. Hadrian’s anxiety built until the mercenary finally turned his head slightly and asked, "Do you recognize his voice?"

  "No," Hadrian admitted. "But—it’s alright. He’s alone and you’re here. Let us hear what he has to say."

  Again, Caled remained silent as he considered the situation. He turned back to the figure waiting in the dark.

  "Lower your hood," he ordered. "When you do that, I’ll send him forward. Remain where you are. He’ll come to you."

  Hadrian heard the rustle of fabric. His heart jumped. Caled turned his head again.

  "Come, Hades. Walk forward a bit. As soon as you see his face, I want you to stop. If it’s no one you recognize, tug on your cloak and step directly to your right."