A Veil of Secrets (16 page)

“Good.” He relaxed, his head falling back to rest against the wall.

“Can you stay here while I scout ahead?” The alley was empty, and I could see the pens the girl had mentioned. The breeze shifted, bringing the stench of urine and feces with it. My eyes watered. I choked, tucking my face against my bare arm to mask the smell. There was nothing for it. I put down my arm and checked to make sure no one was coming. “Don’t move. I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

“I’ll be here.” His eyes closed, wings drooping.

I darted through the alley toward the pens. Behind the buildings were a series of smaller shops, a large pen with a roof covering it and a deep trough filled with water. Voices carried across the yard. I glanced left to right but spotted no one. As quietly as I could, I crept toward the pens. The stink here was overwhelming, but movement drew me to the fence. Five Araneaeans huddled at one end of the enclosure. Their hair was matted, and they were covered in their own filth. A sixth stood by himself.

The sight of Asher sent relief surging through my tired limbs.

“Asher.” I called his name softly.

My heart sank when he failed to respond, but on the third attempt, he lifted his head.

“Marne?” He shoved his grimy hair away from his face, cast a sharp look to his right and joined me at the fence. “Did you find Edan?” He peered behind me. “How did you escape from Idra?”

“We can talk later.” I took his hand. “How did you get here?”

His jaw flexed. “You mean after you sent me back?”

“I wanted you safe.” I squeezed his fingers. “Can you blame me for that?”

The anger in his expression broke. “I find I am too happy seeing you to hold a proper grudge.”

He rolled up his sleeve and exposed a sigil strapped to his upper arm. Its legs were bound and its face and stinger covered by thick fabric. Its thorax contacted his skin. That was all that touched him.

“You are a very clever male,” I praised him.

“I try.” He rolled his sleeve down over the bound-and-gagged creature.

“Good.” I studied the layout of the pen. “How do I get you out?”

“You don’t,” a voice said from behind me. “He’s my property.”

I faced a female who must be the butcher and glared. “He’s mine. I brought him here with me.”

“Who says?” The slender female balled her fists at her hips. “I found him wandering the streets alone. You know the law. Any who wander here must be silenced before they share our secrets.”

“We got separated.” I pointed toward the buildings. “I have witnesses he came with me.”

She smirked. “If you wanted him, you should have kept a tighter leash on him.”

I stepped forward, claws bared. “Oh, I want him.”

“Marne,” Asher warned.

The butcher stretched her wings to their full height and width. I was not intimidated.

“Take him if you—” She gasped, placed a hand over her chest and withdrew bloody fingers.

Her wings fell limp and her knees gave. She collapsed, revealing Edan behind her with a cleaver in one hand and a butcher’s knife sticking from her back. He kicked aside her corpse and grimaced.

I blinked at his casual violence. To know he was a warrior and to see him kill without flinching were two separate things.

“There’s a disturbance in town.” He reclaimed the knife from her body. “We have to leave.”

I glanced from him to the body and then back to Asher.

“All right.” I spun toward the pen and worked my way toward the gate. A pressure latch had me asking Edan for help to spring the lock. Combining our strength, we popped the gate open, and Asher met me with an embrace that left my stomach trembling. His quick, chaste kiss made my lips tingle.

A fevered growl rose behind us. Asher cursed and shoved me from him. I fell onto the ground.

Edan ran past me at Asher with his blades lifted and murder in his eyes.

I barely had time to scream before it was over.

Chapter Eighteen

Edan glared at me through his good eye. I ignored him and gripped Asher’s hand tighter. Two of his knuckles broke during the scuffle, but thanks to his quick thinking he had survived. Edan’s eye was fine. The skin around it was swelling, obscuring his vision and hampering his ability to glare at us properly. I couldn’t decide if he was more enraged by seeing proof of my fondness for Asher or by the fact Asher had survived by flinging a handful of gods only knew what in Edan’s eyes to blind him long enough for us to disarm him. Those knives now clanked on Asher’s belt while he walked.

I was wedged between them in an attempt to keep the two separated.

“Stop it,” I fussed at Edan. “You’re behaving like a child.”

His arm was around my shoulder again, and my arm was helping to hold him steady. He moved better now than he had before. The fight must have invigorated him, even considering the outcome.

“Let him be.” Asher stared ahead. “He’s earned the right to be ornery.”

“I have earned the right,” Edan snapped. “The problem is you seem to think you’ve earned some rights while I was away. Tell me. Did you run to her the second you thought I was dead? Did you?”

Asher took satisfaction in saying, “I know you’re siblings.”

Edan let his pinched mouth be his response.

Withdrawal was setting in, and Edan’s face was flushed with fever. His skin burned mine where we touched. A dip in the cold river might help, if we could get him that far. White willow tea would do the rest. After that, it was a matter of pouring broth down his throat and giving him an injection.

With Edan dependent on our dwindling supply, I had no choice but to do as Idra had instructed. I shivered. I would have to bond with the sigil Asher had salvaged and pray its venom sustained me.

Asher scowled at the rush of bodies away from town. “What do you think is happening?”

“Idra is dead.” Edan squeezed my shoulder.

“You killed her?” Asher asked us both.

“No.” Our hands were bloody, but we hadn’t made the kill. “We left her to her own end.”

“That explains it.” He urged us faster. “It won’t take long for one of the Necrita to decide she is the rightful heir to Idra’s legacy. We don’t want to be here when the fighting breaks out. They might expect you or Edan to put in your bid for power, especially since you two were there when she died.”

“I want no part of this place.” I would call myself fortunate to never see it again.

“Nor do I.” Edan slowed despite Asher’s insistence. “What’s wrong with the road?”

Several feet ahead a signpost was carved with letters I couldn’t read. It marked a four-way pass. To our right and left, the road wound its way through parts of the town we had no desire to explore. Ahead of us, the path ended in a thick wall of swirling mists. The veil must lay beyond that marker, and I was eager for us to reach it. Whether it was Asher’s presence or a natural gateway, we took our chances.

Heat rippled over my skin as we left the crossroads and entered the far side of the veil. In the time it took for me to turn my head, the town had faded from view. The slightest outline of that same post remained. That was all. In a blink, that vanished as well.

Energy ebbed and flowed around us, surging against us, nudging us from the wide-open area and back onto the road. We rode the powerful tide, letting it caress us while we made our final trek into the southlands.

Our first step onto sundried grasses scraped the weight of the world off my shoulders. We’d made it back. All of us were alive, mostly whole. We had faced the worst and survived. Thank the gods.

Asher brought his hand to his eyes to block the sun. “What is that?”

I inhaled. “It’s smoke.” I didn’t need to see the black plume rising. “Beltania is burning.”

“You don’t sound surprised.” Asher glanced between me and Edan.

“Idra sent a covey of harbingers to destroy the cure.” My stomach dropped. “We’re too late.”

“We won’t know that until we reach the city.” Asher wiped a hand down his face. “I could reach them faster if I traveled alone, but I can’t leave you and Edan unprotected. He’s in no condition to fight.”

“I killed your guard and set you free.” Edan released me. “Something you had failed to do.”

“There’s nothing you could do against the harbingers that I can’t.” I faced the males. “I’m going to fly into the city. Asher, you’re going to get Edan someplace safe.” I patted my thigh. “I have more than enough poison to take down the covey. I didn’t use a drop in the crossroads. I’ll be faster on my own, and I’ll feel better if I know you’re both safe. Please, Asher. Take Edan and wait for me.”

Asher worked his jaw. “I can’t convince you to stay, can I?”

“No.” I had to help the Salticidae. “If those flowers are destroyed, then the cure dies with them.”

Edan’s glares were easier and easier to ignore. “Then we’ll die too.”

“Exactly.” I crossed to Edan. “I have to try. We’ve come too far to give up now.”

He embraced me, his thick arms tightening until my wings crunched. “Protecting us is my job.”

“Not anymore.” I hugged him back. “It was wrong of me to let you shoulder the burden alone all this time. I’m not a child any longer. It’s past time I learned to take care of myself. Let me do this.”

“I can’t stop you.” He held me at arm’s length. “I can see you’ve made up your mind.”

“I have.” I patted his chest. “Be nice to Asher.” I lowered my voice. “I care for him.”

His lip curled. “I can tell.”

Breaking from his arms, I turned and found Asher looming behind me.

He captured my face between his hands. “Come back to me.”

“I will.” I looped my hands behind his neck, brought his face to mine and tasted his sweet lips.

He broke our kiss, his eyes searching mine. “Marne, if anything happens to you…”

“It won’t.” I covered his hands with mine and lowered them. “I have to go.”

Before either gave me reason to stay, I stretched my wings and leapt for the sky.

Ground scrolled beneath me. I pumped my wings harder, faster, until the city came into view.

I hovered on the fringes while gaining my bearings. The house where Edan and I had stayed was smoldering. The main street was a gap-toothed grin. Some buildings were engulfed in flames. Others were untouched. Yet more were charred remains. What chilled me most were the empty streets.

I saw not a single Salticidae, male or female, anywhere. No bodies were a good sign, right?

While I puzzled over the sight, a lone female loped into view and whirled toward me. Her dress had been hacked off below her knees. Her blue hair was tied in a knot atop her head. She spotted me and reached for an arrow from the quiver at her shoulder. She took her aim before I found my voice.

“Pascale.” I darted higher, I hoped out of her range. “It’s me—Marne.”

She wiped her brow with the back of her hand. “Thank the gods. Where are the others?”

“Edan is…” I choked on the words, “…he’s injured. I left Asher to guard him.”

“Hurry up then.” She pointed toward a small, forking road. “The harbingers are in the fields. The clan is there helping.” She held up a pouch. “I had to come back for supplies. Do you have any left?”

“The poison?” I touched my thigh. “I didn’t use a drop.”

“Perfect.” Her grin turned feral. “Stay close to me. You can cover my back.”

“How many are left?” I drifted lower, dropping to the ground lest they mistake me for the enemy.

“There were twelve.” She counted on her fingers. “There are five left.”

I tripped over my own feet. “You killed seven harbingers?”

She patted her upswept hair. “As much as I would like to take all the credit, Lleu helped.”

“The poison works that well?” That was good to know.

“Yes, it does.” She smirked. “He uses his hawser. He had caught three harbingers before I left.”

Unsure what a hawser was, I decided the weapon didn’t matter as long as the outcome was the same.

“Three against five,” I said, catching her enthusiasm. “It hardly seems fair.”

Wild laughter trailed her as she bolted down the path, and I followed her.

When the trees gave way to wide-open fields, I marveled at the rows upon rows of pale flowers. Not a single stalk was burned or singed or even withered from the heat. The fields were pristine, full of richly tilled dirt, not scorched earth. Yet on their fringes, the surrounding grasses were blackened.

“How is this possible?” The fields should have been as burned as the buildings.

“That you will have to ask Old Father.” She ran past the first field without sparing it a glance.

The next field was the same. Blue flowers in bloom. Soil undisturbed. Only now I heard them.

In a third plot of earth that faired poorer than the others, the missing clan gathered together.

They held hands around the perimeter of the field. Old Father stood in the center, barefoot, with his toes dug into the dirt. He chanted a soulful plea to the gods that his people be spared. Around him the others picked up his words and lifted them high. Above them, far above them, I spied harbingers.

Three hovered over Old Father’s head, hissing and spitting, but none of them dove at him.

“I don’t understand,” I panted. “Why aren’t they attacking?”

“They can’t.” She paused to catch her breath. “The ground is blessed.”

I watched the spectacle. “Beltania was attacked before, wasn’t it?”

“It was, but as Old Father says, ‘A feline’s claw can’t pierce a varanus.’”

I frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Something about knowing your enemy so you can prepare an effective defense.” Her laughter was winded. “He took great offense to their first attack.”

Offending Old Father moved several positions higher on my list of things never to do.

“What do we do now?” A quick scan of the faces in the field showed no Mimetidae.

“The blessing only works for those who believe.” She waved me toward a copse of trees. Ahead the forest rolled smoothly toward the river. We must have crossed the whole of their cultivated soil. “The rest of us are holed up here. Trees give us cover, but they’re kindling if they decide to light us up.”

Once we brushed through the limbs, I spotted our allies. A handful of Salticidae males who were grim and armed. Several more Mimetidae, grinning like fools and armed to the teeth. And then Lleu.

His grin might have been the widest of them all.

“Look who I found,” Pascale called.

All eyes turned toward us, latched on to me, and the male nearest me drew a sword.

“You brought one of those monsters here?” The look he cast her said she was insane.

“This is Marne.” She stepped neatly between me and the blade aimed at my heart. “She is a very special friend of my brother’s—and mine—and seeing as how you are all being paid with Araneidae gold, it seems to me that you might want to show such a friend the respect she is due.” She snapped her fingers at me. “Give me your arm.” She drew a knife from her belt. “I do apologize for this.” She sliced a line across my forearm and squeezed until red blood welled. “As you can see, she bleeds red the same as the rest of us. Harm her, and you will answer to Lourdes.”

The small assembly grumbled, but the male sheathed his sword.

His lips peeled from his teeth and leaned close to me. “Accidents can happen in battle.”

“Oops.” Pascale walked up to him and sank the tip of her blade into his side. “Well look at that. You’re right.”

The male roared and lunged, but Lleu intercepted him with a punch that knocked him out cold.

He plucked the weapon from her hand and pocketed it. “Was that necessary?”

“I’m not sure,” she said brightly, “but it was fun.”

The others took a cautious step back as she passed, dragging me behind her.

Lleu trailed us to a small corner and backed Pascale against a tree trunk.

“Those males are fighting for our lives.” He clamped his hand around her neck. “Do me a favor and don’t maim what few allies we have left.” His thumb caressed her pulse. “Can you play nice?”

“He would have skewered Marne.” She lifted her bow. “For the record, I
was
playing nice.”

“Keep running that mouth, tyrant, and not even your poisons will save you.”

I cleared my throat. “I counted three harbingers in the field. Where are the other two?”

“Scouting.” He released Pascale. “Trying to figure out how many of us are left.”

That was a heartening thought. “What is your plan?”

“Now that you’re here?” He scratched his chin. “How good are you in a fight?”

I raised my chin. “I can take care of myself.”

He chuffed. “That usually means
not good
or
send me in there, and I’ll get my arse kicked.
”

I flushed. “I have some of Pascale’s poison and a few of her darts.”

“Have you ever used a blowpipe?” He crossed his arms. “How’s your aim?”

“I haven’t, but seeing as how they’re meant for close range, how hard can it be?”

“I once told my father the exact same thing.” Pascale laughed. “I couldn’t sit for a week after.”

“She does have an advantage.” Lleu shrugged. “She wants to fight. I say we let her.”

“I agree.” Pascale approached a stack of crates and pried the lid off the top one. “This might be a bit more your speed.” She withdrew a short sword with a brownish blade. “It’s covered in poison. I wouldn’t let the blade touch any open wounds if I were you. The sword is light. You can wield it from the air, but you’ll have to get in close to use it.”

“I’ll take it.” I rucked up my skirt and unfastened the leather holster. “Here. You might need it.”

“Now, as for the plan.” Pascale patted Lleu’s forearm. “You aren’t going to like this…”