“You didn’t kill him.”
“I could not.”
“The knife?”
She held out empty hands to me. “I didn’t keep it.”
“Then how?” I asked, turning to look at her.
“I’m not completely defenseless,” she said.
Her eyes suddenly flared a bright green and I felt her within my head. Whatever she did was cold and angry, tearing through my skull.
“Enough,” I said.
The sense shifted, softening. No longer painful now it was almost…pleasurable. I felt it linger, like her lips on my forehead, and I shivered again.
“Enough!”
She smiled and her eyes faded, leaving only flecks of green.
“Lorst is gone, then.”
“For now,” she agreed. “He managed to Slide away as I touched his mind. It left him injured but he will heal. We always heal.”
“Unless we don’t.” I wouldn’t have been as kind to Lorst. “You could have stopped Lorst sooner.”
“Possibly,” she shrugged. “I don’t know. Even in Elaeavn, the name Lorst is feared.”
Lorst. Not Galen. And I had thought us equals.
“Galen has never slain one of the Elvraeth,” she said.
I wouldn’t have dared. Even exiled, I respected the power of the Elvraeth family. And that was before I had ever experienced it firsthand. Now that I had met Cael, had seen what she was capable of doing, I couldn’t imagine attacking one of the Elvraeth.
“That’s not your only reason,” Cael said.
I met her eyes and wished for a moment that I’d never met her. This was to have been an easy job. Now it appeared to be my last—at least in Eban.
“Can you walk?” she asked.
I flexed my legs, surprised that I was able to move them. Muscles in my arm twitched. The wound in my stomach ached but didn’t hurt as expected. Perhaps the tchinth was not as diluted as I had thought. I laughed, holding my stomach as I did. Cael’s eyes flared briefly as she watched me. I wondered if she ever talked to someone without Reading them.
“You are not as easy to Read as you think,” she said. She tilted her head, eyes flaring for a moment. “Why do you laugh?”
“I’ve met Orly many times. Each time he tests me, attempting to kill me, always failing. This time he did more than that. He saved me. Us.”
Cael tilted her head, smiling. “Fortunate that he acquired the tchinth. I understand that it’s quite rare.”
I nodded. Tchinth was rare. I’d not been able to acquire any in nearly two years, though I didn’t have Orly’s resources. Still, there was something about the way Cael mentioned the tchinth powder.
I felt shaky and weak as I stood. Worse I felt vulnerable. I doubted that I could manage to defend either of us were it to come to that. Thankfully, Lorst had given us the key to escaping the city.
“I will be of little use until I regain my strength,” I told Cael as we slipped back into the shadows.
“Then, for now, I’ll protect you.”
She placed her arm around my waist, giving me just enough support to keep upright, almost as if we were little more than intoxicated lovers of the sort I’d seen at the Durven. Were life only so simple.
I felt her smile and heard a soft chuckle.
Damn.
“There are things that are meant to be private,” I said as we neared a bend in the road.
“Why private?” she asked. “It’s not as if your thoughts are particularly quiet.”
I grunted. “It’s not as if I am strong enough to keep them quiet.” I had never thought of myself as particularly weak until I met Cael.
She nodded agreement. “I’ll try to refrain,” she said and paused, looking over at me. “What will you do now?”
In darkness where only one of the Sighted could see, I saw her face. Soft, delicate, eyes pale with none of her strength now visible. Her dress tattered, ripped in places from scooting away from Lorst. The small cut on her arm now faded, only the hint of dried blood as evidence that she had been injured. A wide rip in the middle of her dress exposed the pale flesh of her stomach.
She chuckled soft and low. I did not cringe.
“Lorst will return.”
She nodded.
“You will return to Elaeavn.”
“You know that I must.”
The crystal must return to Elaeavn. One day I would learn how Orly had acquired one of the crystals. “Does Lorst know about the crystal?”
Darkness clouded her face. “Yes.”
“This was about more than the gold for him. We would not be here,” I said, sweeping my arm around the night, “if that were all this was. He would simply have killed you or taken you to Orly.”
She nodded.
I realized then that as much as she Read me, as transparent as I was to Cael, I knew little about her. There was more to this than simply obtaining the crystal. Cael had needed me. How much of this had she planned? Could she have planned?
Damn Elvraeth politics. Somehow I had been pulled into it again. At least I couldn’t get exiled again. Once had been enough. Other than abandoning Cael to travel alone, there was little I could do except go along.
As I looked at her soft face, I felt a surge of conflicting emotions. She stared back at me with eyes so pale that it seemed unlikely that she Read me, but still I couldn’t be certain.
Cael came and slid her arm behind me and helped me to walk. I felt a reserved longing with her touch and struggled to keep my mind clear from her influence.
In the light of the moon overhead I saw her smile.
I was going home.
And, with her arm around me, I didn’t mind.
A Poisoned Deceit
My skin still burned where the knife had cut me and I flexed it, looking over to where Cael lay near the small crackling fire, eyes now closed, her dark hair tousled around her and pooling on the hard path. Fatigue had overwhelmed her nearly as soon as we stopped. Days without adequate food and water would do that. Too much longer like this and we would be forced to find a village to stop in and rest. I knew such delays would be dangerous, understanding only too well the type of person that hunted us. Men like me.
Once I had been hired to kill her. Now I was committed to keeping her safe. Only, to do so meant doing returning to my home, a place I had long ago been exiled from.
I glanced from Cael to the two others sitting by the fire. Thin smoke drifted into the darkness of the night. With my Sight, I saw the trail easily, noted how it twisted toward the clouds, blowing back toward Eban. Lights were still visible as distant spots, barely more than pinpricks in the night. I hated that I had to leave, but the price on my head would be nearly the same as was on Cael. For me, there was no return to Eban.
The older man, thick and flabby, looked back at me, eyes flickering constantly. He had the look of sickness to him that his heavy brown cloak tried to hide. Without my Sight I probably would not have seen it. Sallow eyes seemed sunken in his face. Hair was thin and filmy, not simply greasy as if unwashed. Strange lines worked into his forehead and exposed flesh, lines that likely few saw. Only his gray eyes appeared well, darting and looking at everything with bright interest.
The younger was thin and tall, his face already going ruddy from too much drink, red lines working along his nose, making it appear quite prominent. Rather than a travel cloak, he wore simply brown breaches and a loose-fitting shirt. Nervous hands touched his pants periodically.
That they happened across us as we camped had been unfortunate. I had done enough killing today.
“You said you came from Eban?” the younger of the two asked.
I crouched just on the edge of the fire, not close enough to let the light distort my Sight and not so far as to leave Cael in danger. Without protection, a woman traveling alone would almost always be in danger—especially one that looked like Cael.
She shifted slightly, legs moving slightly along the ground, and I suppressed a soft laugh. Not as as
leep as she seemed. I wondered again how much she had Read me. Most Readers I could block. Not Cael, though. Already I had a glimpse of her ability—abilities that came directly from the Great Watcher himself, gifted to the original Elvraeth family—and knew that my simple barriers were not enough, not around Cael.
I nodded, just a simple tip of my head. One hand worked inside my cloak, flipping back the top of my pouch and rustling through the small glass vials I had stored within. The darts could be loaded with poison by feel. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, but I wanted to be ready.
“Don’ talk much, do you?” he went on.
I shrugged. Just a few more moments and the darts would be ready.
“What you travelin’ so late for? Mos’ woulda been camped for a while.”
Shifting on my feet so that I was closer to Cael, I looked over at him from across the fire. In spite of the cool night, his narrow face beaded with a thin sheen of sweat. Hands grabbed at his clothes again. Occasionally he would glance over at the older man, almost looking for reassurance.
“You going to pull one of those knives?” I asked. Now that my darts were ready, I didn’t fear confrontation. Best to get it over with if that was what it would come to. The terad I’d mixed was diluted. If they were lucky, they’d only be incapacitated rather than killed.
The older man stiffened. He hadn’t expected me to notice. The younger man was too jumpy not to notice. They hadn’t been doing this long.
“Not sure what you talkin’ bout,” the younger man said. His words had a slow pitch to them that I did not recognize.
Making sure to keep Cael protected, I stood. A knife appeared in my hand from beneath my cloak, the other hand fingering the two darts. I hoped it wouldn’t come to knives. Not after what we had already been through. The older man glanced at the knife and blinked slowly. The younger man just sat next to the fire, unmoving.
Faster than I would have thought possible, the older man unsheathed a sword from somewhere under his cloak. He held it casually, his stance letting me know that he knew how to use the sword. I decided then that I might have misjudged. The younger one hadn’t been doing this long. Unfortunate that he had been brought along. More unfortunate that he wouldn’t have any answers.
“You don’t want to be doing that, boss,” the older man said.
He spoke softly and with an accent I couldn’t place. Possibly Cort or even farther north. I wondered why he was here, this far south of Eban, only the forest ahead of us.
“We can make this easy. Just need your coin.”
I tilted my head. The flames would obscure my eyes from them, otherwise I wondered if they would still have pressed the attack.
“Not much coin,” I said.
The older man’s face split into a soft smile. He was missing some of his teeth and his tongue darted through them to lick his lips. “I said we could make this easy,” he said.
A pair of knives had appeared in the younger man’s hands. He held them too tightly for someone accustomed to using them well. Firelight glinted off the blade. Faint scratches etched the surface. Not even good steel.
With a flick of my wrist I could send the knife I held through his throat, but I’d prefer if I could keep from killing again. I hated that Cael had already seen so much around me.
“The lady there is too well dressed for you to have an empty purse. Likely she hired you to accompany her on the road.” He looked at me for confirmation. When none came, he narrowed his eyes, his thick brow furrowing and casting more shadows across his face. “We will take what she paid you and whatever she has left on her.”
“Just the coin and you’ll leave us?” I asked. I knew how these men thought. Let them think I would give up the coin for safety. Most men would.
The older man tipped his head in assent.
I shifted closer to Cael. Now I was near enough that I could smell her, the perfume of lilacs or some other sweet flower subtle around her. Somehow, even the filth of the road hadn’t spoiled her scent. Like always, when I got too close to her I felt a sense of longing. She claimed she did nothing to push the emotion upon me, but with her abilities I was never certain.
“Why do you need the coin?” I asked.
I could tell from his face he had not expected that question. “What does it matter to you?”
“It matters.”
The younger man shifted, separating from the older man. His hands were twitchy, the knives still tight in his grip. Much longer and he would do something foolish. I didn’t worry about myself, but I would not let something happen to Cael because of their stupidity.
With a flourish, I spun the knife and shoved it back under my cloak. The older man started to relax, thinking they had won. Then, with a quick flick, I sent one of my darts flying across the fire. It stuck in the younger man’s leg.
He had enough time to feel it stick before muscles failed. Knives fell in a soft clatter. As he sank to the ground, his mouth went wide as he worked uselessly to say something.
The older man glanced over at the man, now lying motionless on the ground, while maintaining his attention on me. I half expected him to run over to him and check to see if he still breathed. When he didn’t, that told me a bit more about him.
“What did you do?” the man asked. His voice was deep but soft, as if he didn’t use it very often anymore.
“Put the sword away,” I said.
“Is he dead?”
I shrugged. “Probably not.” Mixing the terad blindly made me slightly less certain than usual, but I knew that it shouldn’t be fatal. That was one advantage of terad. Reversibility was another. That had saved my life once. “The sword.”
“And if I don’t?”
“You’ll get the same. In your weakened state, I’m not sure you will survive the toxin.”
The man’s breath caught for a moment before he sighed. “How did you know?” he asked. There was defiance in his tone but he sheathed the sword anyway.
“You’ve got the look about you,” I said.
“What look?”
“One of a man who knows his days are behind him. Can’t figure why you’d be out on the road.”
Whatever strength was left in him faded suddenly and he slumped to the ground. “Does it matter?” he asked. “You’re just going to kill me.”
I bit back a laugh. “Only if it needs doing,” I said. “You going to tell me what you need? You could have passed us by but you made a point of following us.” I wouldn’t have been any good to Cael if I didn’t pay attention to such things.
“How long did you know?”
“At least the last few hours,” I said. I hadn’t paid enough attention to know when they first came onto the road, only that once they had, they turned in the same direction as Cael and I traveled. Weakened as we were, our travels were slow. Probably she knew they were here as well, but after what she had been through, so far Cael let me handle interactions with others. I suspected she did it mostly to humor me. With her abilities, she could just as easily keep us safe.
The older man ran a hand through his hair and let out a soft breath. “You got any food?” he asked.
“You want to check on your man?”
“Will it change anything?”
I shook my head. The effect of the terad would last as long as it lasted. Diluted as it was, I figured he had two hours or more before he came around. Even then he would be weakened.
“Then it don’ matter much, do it?” he asked.
I watched this man, the casual way he moved. With his size, such grace impressed me. But something was off. How much longer did he have before whatever it was that ate at him finished him off? What would drive such a man to venture out on the road?
I waved him closer, making sure to keep myself between him and Cael. “We don’t have much,” I admitted. Our trip hadn’t exactly been planned, mostly just happened to us.
Had it not been for the assassin that tried to kill us both, we would still be stranded in Eban, trying
to find a way out of the city. He was still out there, chased away by whatever trick Cael had used on him. I wondered if the right price would draw him back or if he simply followed, waiting for the right moment to attack. That he was still out there—knowing exactly where we headed—made sleeping difficult.
“I’m Del,” he said. He took a seat on the opposite side of the fire, careful not to look at where Cael rested.
I nodded.
“You gonna tell me your name?”
“No.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “Now, about that food?”
I thought about what stores we had. I had managed to catch a hare two nights ago but most of the meat was gone, eaten that first night. I didn’t dare venture away from Cael long enough to hunt something larger, no matter how she protested that she would be fine. That left the strips of jerky we had found on our first night. The farmhouse had been dark when I snuck in, taking whatever I could to stock us for the journey. The coins I left behind would be more than enough to pay for what was taken.
I tossed him two strips of the meat. That didn’t leave us much.
“You going to tell me what you’re doing out here?” I asked.
He pulled off a large bite, chewing heavily. His breath huffed as he chewed. “Same as you. Moving south.”
“What’s south for you?” I asked.
Del chewed a few more bites before pausing and taking a long swig of water from a skin he pulled from beneath his cloak. “Hope.”
I frowned. “Asador?” I asked. The massive city was likely weeks away by horse. I couldn’t imagine how long it would take to reach by foot.
“Not Asador,” he said in between bites.
I could press him but wasn’t sure it would matter. Now that he was here, I had to figure out what to do with him. A terad-tipped dart would make sure we were left alone, but I hadn’t been lying to him when I told him that I wasn’t sure he would survive the dart.
“What kind of hope are you looking for?” I asked.
“Same as any,” Del said. “A chance to live.”
Cael sat up as he spoke. She brushed her dark hair away from her face. Deep green eyes were bright and clear. She had not been sleeping. She shuffled closer to me, staring across the fire at Del.
The Forgotten: A story in the world of The Dark Ability Page 5