“What game are you playing?” Gerlach demanded, furious that Carter was now grinning. They laid Briar on the ground, her blood spilling into the earth, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Heat, wild and unfettered, rushed my veins, and I saw only red.
“More a test than a game,” Carter answered, his voice a hollow sound far off. Sadness swelled in my chest, ballooning out until I couldn’t breathe. Would all I love be taken? Would all I want be torn from me? Was I not allowed one friend...one soul to care for in my worthless life?
I forgot the men. In my anger, they vanished as vapor, one with the brewing storm above and the tempest raging in my heart. My lips parted in a scream, and the world went white.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ETAN
The horses sensed it first, rearing back and struggling against our lead.
From the west came a wild wind, forceful and sweltering. We tugged our reins, battling to keep control of the animals. But as quickly as the tempest arrived, it died away.
Stunned silence fell over our riders. Never before had any one of us experienced such a rush of violence on the air. Tree limbs cracked and fell, tumbling to a leaf-littered ground. Fear pierced my chest. I knew without question what had produced that power. Maledin had described a weak captive. But clearly whatever held her at bay had been stripped back, and there was nothing for us to do but find and destroy her.
“Forward men,” instructed Aldred. “Be steady.”
We pushed on, keeping a wary eye on the surrounding wood. In later days, the men on that ride told me of their fears. Of the creatures they’d expected while searching the dark. The beasts their minds had conjured. But as we rode on toward the border, my sharp eyes expected to see a youth.
After a hard ride, nearly half an hour beyond the last encampment of soldiers, we came upon an abandoned wooden cart that lay on its side, its contents scattered across the ground. Two nervous horses lay hitched to the front, trembling, trying with all their might to break free of the harness that bound them. Maledin took one look at the scene and heeled his horse into a run, aiming for the boundary of the forest and Sithian territory. Aldred ordered two men to follow.
I slid from my mount, and together the remaining soldiers and I helped free the horses. They ran off into the trees, too overcome to recognize their wounds.
Just beyond the toppled cart, we found a steel cage lying upright on the ground. It was large enough to house a lion or bear, but there was no evidence of a beast inside. A thick, black fabric hung from a branch just above, dangling in shreds.
“What do you make of it?” asked Aldred.
I knelt before the cage door and pulled a clump of long, dark hair from the hinge.
“They were kept here,” I answered. “For some time, if the stench is any indication.”
My blood heated, knowing what kind of transport this was. I’d known of such things all my life. Only days ago, countless numbers were ripped from their village in the northern mountains, and we’d been too busy battling the enemy to see their sleight of hand. But to stand before such a blatant example of human trading, to touch the bars meant to keep a life in bondage…
Even a diavok was still human to some degree.
“We should follow Maledin,” Aldred said begrudgingly. “Not that I want to find myself in the middle of his family’s affairs. Did you know about his brother?”
There was something of suspicion in his tone. I didn’t like being misjudged, not after all I’d done to prove myself. I kept my back turned to hide my irritation and answered, “I know as much as you.”
He answered in a grunt.
A flash of lightning illuminated the sky, and my gaze found something else. I moved to the side of the cage, stretching my hand toward small indents in two of the bars. A chill raced my spine as I made contact with the imprints. I ran my fingers over the grooves, trying to reason out what I was feeling. Slowly, I gripped the bars, sliding both hands over the metal.
“What is it? A maker’s mark?”
“I’m not sure,” I murmured, fixated on finding an answer.
I turned my side to the cage and slipped an arm inside a few bars down. Reaching forward from within, I again gripped the grooves. No sooner had I felt the placement then my hand sprung open and I stepped back. I’d witnessed power in the last days, beyond anything I knew to be possible. I’d seen and felt enough of evil to recognize its mark.
Those were handprints, small but unmistakably real. What kind of creature could leave their impression in cold, steel bars? What kind of power would they need to possess?
The same power, I thought, that summons fire at will. The same power that allows a foot soldier to penetrate a raging battlefield without coming to harm. Creating an invisible wall between him and his enemies.
No sooner had I shown Aldred the prints, then a long, heart wrenching cry came from the west, a piercing scream that nearly raised the skin from my bones. The air rippled with it, thick and suffocating as a high summer heat.
“Right the cart and fix the cage on it again,” Aldred shouted to the remaining men. “We may have need of it.”
We leapt to our saddles and took the winding path toward the forest’s edge. A deep echo of thunder scattered through the trees, racing away only to be chased by another powerful boom. The sky rumbled and quaked, as if provoked by the screaming. As we cleared the last of the canopy, the clouds split open, and rain fell heavy on our bare heads.
As I quickly dismounted, drenched and pulse thrumming in my head, I first saw the woman. She sat with her back to us, shining black hair stuck to her tunic and arms, slick under steady streams of rain. Compassion propelling me forward, until I saw the bodies. Men with all degrees of injury lying in the fresh spring grass, scattered and groaning. Some dead.
The earth itself, weeds and soil, leaned away from the woman, who sat in the center with her head drooped forward, strong shoulders rocking with heavy sobs. Was this the diavok? Surely, she must be, if all other life suffered in her wake. I drew my sword, earning a silent scolding from Aldred. But he didn’t understand the threat as I did. He’d not fought these creatures as I had. I knew better. Understood more completely what she was capable of.
Only then did I become aware of Maledin as he peeled his body from the dirt. The heel of his hand pressed at his temple, but when he saw my battle-ready stance, he leapt to his feet.
“Put your sword away,” he insisted. “She means no harm.”
All around, soldiers dragged themselves up, slipping on the ground where they’d been rendered unconscious. I scowled unbelieving at Maledin, which only made him angry. He stalked to me and took hold of my arm.
“Have I not earned your trust?” he said over the beat of rain. “Did I not carry the boy out of Bryn to be buried? I know what you fear, but she will not harm us. Not intentionally. We must take her to the king for questioning.”
I shook him off, stepping back and looking again to the woman nestled at the center of a mess of scattered bodies. That image, her back bowing forward as she collapsed under the weight of guilt and torrential rain, would stay with me always. Less because of the pity I felt for her. More because of what I would say next.
“She must die.”
Maledin squared his shoulders and took his place between the woman and me.
“You will not touch her.”
He’d seen the carnage at Gregthain. From his own mouth, he’d recounted carrying the boy who wielded fire to his grave. He knew what we were up against, that they used innocence and pity to draw in prey. Still, he defended her.
“She’s a monster—”
“—she’s afraid.”
“As she should be! Look what she’s done.” I gestured wildly to the fallen. “This is wickedness, Maledin, and it must be punished.”
His sword glistened sharp under the night sky. White rays pierced the storm clouds, washing the field in pale light. Behind him, the woman turned her face toward the glow, and I caught a glimpse of her
beauty. It sickened me; I believed her beauty to be a lie. I saw nothing of her grief or sorrow or the terror crippling her. In fear and arrogance, I grew blind.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
ERIS
My fingers curled tighter around my dead friend, burrowing in the folds of her filthy dress. With a turn of my neck, I listened past the rain, past the pounding of my heart. Words strayed to my ear in pieces...only fragments of sounds.
Monster.
Die.
Punished.
All truth. All things I deserved.
The knights continued arguing, but no one approached me. I’d created a line they feared crossing: a boundary drawn in mangled bodies and cracked bone. My limbs shuddered, still releasing power in surges. With every wave of grief, my hands buzzed. Anger boiled whatever ran through my veins, whatever poison made me this way. I choked on the rain, gasping it into my lungs in bitter sobs.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, drawing Briar’s face near to mine. Did her soul hear me? Would her spirit catch the words as she left? I’d failed to protect her, and in the end, her life was sacrificed to reveal me.
“What is your name?” came a voice a few paces back. I knew it to be Carter’s brother. Maledin. Did he see my captor dead in the brush, lying on his face in the rising mud?
“Don’t let her speak to you,” the other knight insisted. But Maledin didn’t listen.
“I wish to help you. I wish...I wish to apologize for my cowardice. For leaving.”
I sensed his regret. Heard it in the inflections of his voice. He was sorry, but so was I. I’d learned long ago not to place my trust in any man. Had I listened to my own experience, perhaps his leaving wouldn’t have upset me, rattling loose a lurking darkness. And this beast would have remained at bay in my body.
Every muscle inside me tightened.
“Get away,” I replied in a hoarse whisper. “I can’t control it.”
“You can,” he urged. “Let us help you.”
“You can’t help me!” The words came alive on the air, and I know he felt them. His breath hitched as they passed.
A groan rose from the flooding field. Carter lifted from the mud, crawling up on his hands and knees. My heart sank, and I hugged Briar closer to me. I’d thought he was dead. I’d hoped it. He staggered to his feet caked in mud, and from the slick earth he drew up his long knife.
His mad eyes found me, deranged by bloodlust.
“Carter!” Maledin called. “Hold there. Let me help you.”
The young knight ran past the boundary of bodies, entering my ring of death. Had it not been for his voice, I wouldn’t have known it was him; the rain drowned his features. Despite myself, seeing him brought a pang of relief. But Carter shoved him off, aiming the knife at his brother’s chest.
“I know what you’re about, brother. You’ve come to gloat.” He keeled to the side, but when Maledin jumped forward to catch him, Carter swung a wild arm to keep him off.
Another knight ran to Maledin’s side. He was taller and broader, though as rain soaked as his friend. The wind was colder now, and it battered us as harshly as the water. The two young men stood poised before Carter, and I couldn’t tell if they were blocking his path to me or simply trying to calm him. But it didn’t matter. My bones still burned. My muscles taut like a pressed spring. There was nothing any of them could do if I lost control again. There was nothing I could do.
The second knight kept glancing back at me, as if I might jump at him without warning. But all I wanted was for Briar to live. For my breath to be given to bring her back. In her innocence, she’d believed I couldn’t be what they said. But why else had Rowyn warned me all those years before? Why go to so much trouble to speak of blood and destiny if I carried no curse?
With Briar cradled against my chest, I lifted my hands to a brief glow of moonlight and gazed at the lines drawn on my palms, wondering with a crushing grief how my life would end.
“She summons the moonlight. Don’t you see, Maledin...you were right to fear her.”
“Who said I feared her? Did I? I only wanted to search out her motives, Carter. And to free her from your prison.”
Carter wheezed a laugh and gestured to a third knight, who trudged over with his weapon free of its hold. This man dwarfed all the others, as large as the brute I’d failed to kill.
“Is that why you’ve brought half the army to fetch her?”
“We came,” the third knight rumbled, “to drag your hide to the dungeons. What kind of man keeps women in a cage?” He stood over Carter as a parent over a wayward child.
Carter moved nervously, attempting to stand his ground against the towering knight, but failing miserably as he always did. I took pleasure in watching him crumble.
“If you knew what she was,” he screeched, “you wouldn’t stand in her defense.”
Maledin lunged forward, causing his brother to stumble back and fall. “It was I who warned you of the diavok. Don’t pretend you were acting in the interest of others. You do this…”
He paused, slowly straightening, and turned to the larger knight with a look of pained regret.
“I have known, for some time, of my brother’s sins. Forgive me, Aldred. I was a coward to keep it hidden.”
With a shout of rage, Carter heaved his body off the soggy ground and leapt for his brother. With little effort, Maledin took hold of Carter’s arm and swung him around, slamming him chest down in the mud. The eldest brother cursed the younger, but he could do nothing to regain the upper hand. He’d come to the end of himself. His undoing.
Aldred, older and seemingly wiser than the others, took one more long look over the situation and said, “Bring him. We’ll deal with you both later, out of this wretched storm.”
The two young knights hoisted Carter to his feet. I felt for Maledin; it was clear he cared for his brother. But he obeyed Aldred, the two leading the defeated trader to their horses.
I was left to Aldred. He stood several feet before me, looking out across the field, toward Sithia. With no one else at my front, I wasn’t afraid to watch him. Nehemiah’s reports came to mind of the battle waged at Gregthain only days before. I wondered, as I watched his profile in the murky dark, if these men were among the soldiers who’d fought.
Abruptly he turned, shifting the attention back to the things I’d done. I tried to hold on his gaze, but his stare was heavy, and it pushed my eyes downward, to where Briar lay, the color washing away from her skin.
I heard his footfalls and the slide of his sword returning to its sheath.
Would he kill me with his hands? Had I fallen so far, I no longer deserved a swift death?
“Who’s the girl?” he asked me.
A tremor shook my lips as I quietly answered, “My friend.”
Aldred crouched before me in an attempt to draw my eyes to his. But I steeled my jaw and refused. I knew my shame. I didn’t need a knight’s judgment to inform me.
“That’s not what I asked,” he said, softer than I expected. “Who is she? What do you know?”
Several other soldiers pushed in, reminding me of the morning of my capture. Of the gang of men laughing over me as I bled. These men would take Briar from me. Maledin had already tried before the others arrived.
I braved a look at Aldred. His scowl told me he was displeased with the situation…but not unkind. Not without reason.
“Briar,” I answered, pushing strength into my voice. They must take her. And I must allow it. “She is Briar of Loryn.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ETAN
“You’re wrong about her.”
Maledin had a knack for knowing my thoughts before I spoke them.
A sinking dragged at my stomach, but as much as I felt guilty for condemning her so quickly, I didn’t take it back. She was responsible for these deaths, and for all we knew, she was in league with Dreonine, sent to wreak havoc with all the other creatures of her kind. I’d seen too much in too short of time.
“Senti
mental fool,” grumbled Carter, standing with us between the horses, hands roped at his back. “Always weak to a doe eyed woman.”
“Whether I am or not, I’d never cage them as you do.” Maledin grabbed Carter’s shirt and yanked him close. “Did you not learn from our father’s sins? Did the price he paid not sink past your thick skull?”
Carter spat in Maledin’s face, and my friend shoved his brother back and out of range. Wiping the spit from his cheek with his sleeve, Maledin pointed a warning finger.
“Fix your attitude before you enter the king’s presence.”
Carter smirked. “I thought the king was always good? Isn’t that what they say of him?”
“He may be good,” I cut in defensively, “but he is also just.” He made the king sound weak...docile.
Carter feigned regret. “I hit a nerve. I apologize. I’ve been so long gone from nobility, I’d forgotten how sensitive such men could be.”
His words hit me as a blow. I was not noble, at least not by birth. And not in feeling either. If anything, I felt so far removed from the men I fought with, the distance between us seemed as a chasm. I turned back to Aldred and the other men who stood around the one reason we were all gathered. Aldred took hold of the young woman’s arm and raised her to her feet. With a shudder, she released the dead princess to another.
The conversation behind me slowly rose in volume.
“Etan is not like other knights. You shouldn’t speak of what you don’t understand.”
“You’re all the same. Exchange blind loyalty for glory and power. Spill your blood to wave a title in the faces of lesser men.”
“Is that what you think of me?”
“I think father would die again for the shame of what you are…a preening fool.”
Songs in the Night: Book One Page 12