I hated that I felt her presence so clearly. I hated more that she would laugh if I told her to stop pushing the emotion onto me. As far as she believed, she wasn’t doing anything. That meant the emotion was my own. I knew better than to let such emotion get the best of me, especially with one like her, one of the Elvraeth.
“Lady,” Del said. He had started in on a second strip of jerky and looked over to me. “Don’ worry. Your man here kept you safe.”
Cael smiled. When she smiled like that, her face looked even more lovely.
At least to me. I wondered what glamour Del saw. Cael had shown me once, but I didn’t know if she bothered to maintain the glamour now that we were out of Eban.
“You let him live, Galen,” she said.
I shrugged.
“The other?”
“He’ll live,” I said.
Cael’s smile deepened. “You don’t need to sound so disappointed.”
I shook my head but knew better than to say anything more. Already I knew that she had Read what had happened. Likely she knew more than I did about what these men were after. It was clear to me that this was about more than coin.
She turned to Del and looked over the fire at him. What color did her eyes look to him? Did she flare the bright green—the distinctive mark of one born of Elaeavn—or did her glamour hide even that?
“Where is the healer?” Cael asked.
To me, the question sounded more like a command. Even I could not imagine him not answering.
Del blinked. “Not sure where she is, lady. Only know that she’s in the south. A great one, name Della. Powerful healing,” he said. His words came out in a tumble. They were for my benefit; Cael already had Read all she needed to know.
Della.
I hadn’t heard the name for years. Not since I left Elaeavn. I hadn’t even known that she still lived. If Del had heard of her, I suspected that she did.
Cael looked over at me, a curious look to her face. I shook my head slightly, knowing that I didn’t need to for her to know what I was thinking. We had enough trouble on our own, we didn’t need to take on extra. We couldn’t help.
“Who is Della?” Cael asked Del, but the question was not for him. Not really.
I tried to make my mind go blank but failed. Everything came to mind in a rush. With a prominent fluttering in my mind, I knew Cael was Reading me. She made no attempt to hide that fact.
With a force of will, I slammed up the barriers in my mind, hating that I had to do so.
Cael looked at me with a frown. She bit her lower lip, eyes narrowed. A thick strand of black curls fell in front of her face and she looked past it, completely ignoring it as she fixed her eyes fully on me.
I felt the full weight of her ability then.
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 that mixed with a hint of annoyance.
“Not much I know about Della,” Del 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 in ways that only she had ever managed to do. 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. Del nodded. “What else do you know of this Della?” she asked.
When Del shrugged, she turned to me again.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. Della. Not just a gift 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 if it were 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 Del. 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 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,” Del said, nodding. He frowned. “How did you know?”
Bakka.
Already I knew what was wrong with Del. 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 Del 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 Del 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 Del after us? The timing seemed wrong. We had only been gone a week. Not enough time for Orly to have sent him after us. And Del 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.
I knew that I would be helping Del. 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, De
l wouldn’t be dying.
Del 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.
Del 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 looked over and 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. Del 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,” she said.
Del’s head 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 Del 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.
Del 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 stopped 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?
“You weren’t ready to die,” Cael said.
Del shook his head. “Is anyone ever ready to die?” he asked.
“Some are,” I said. I had seen many that were ready. Too many that seemed eager for death, almost as if they chased it.
Del 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.
Del watched us. “You know of her,” he said. I didn’t answer. Anything I said was more than I wanted Cael to know. Del shrugged. “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?” Del 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 Del 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.
Del’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. An innocent smile crossed her mouth. Only the corner of her eyes betrayed her anxiety. “Galen—”
I shook my head.
“You had a hand in this,” she whispered. “Do not claim you did not.”
Whatever hand I had was distant, but still there. “Possibly,” I said.
“Can you really leave him to suffer?”
I glanced at Del. 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. Del 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.
* * *
That night was difficult for me. While Cael rested comfortably, I slept little. Already tired from days of staying on edge, this new piece sent my mind churning, keeping me awake and standing on the edge of a sharpened knife.
Del crashed on the other side of the fire, curling up near where his friend—a man named Thom—still lay motionless, the effect of the terad still working through him. All night Del 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, hidden still somewhere, was more valuable than any coins we had on us. If someone were to steal the crystal from us…
Cael knew the value of the crystal. It was she who had set out after the crystal after losing it during her Saenr. I knew little of such things—the ceremony was reserved for those born to the Elvraeth family—but I knew the value of the crystal. I had lived too long within Elaeavn, too long around the seedier side of Elaeavn, not to know of the crystals.
I watched as the fire gradually faded. When Thom started stirring, I dosed him with another dart of diluted terad. We may be taking on Del 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 Thom 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,” Del asked me when he woke in the morning. He sat up and, for the first time, checked on Thom.
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 Del 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.
The Forgotten: A story in the world of The Dark Ability Page 6