Heart Song (37 page)

Marren entered the room first, taking my hand and standing beside me. Then Naloud came in, with a strangely familiar boy. His eyes, black as onyx, his hair looked as though he kept it short but only recently decided to let it grow. His smile reminded me of a familiar face. I scrunched my eyebrows together and cocked my head to the side as I tried to figure it out.

“Guess who?” he said with a tone of arrogance that grated on my nerves.

I shook my head squeezing Marren's hand. He cleared his throat. “Better make this a little easier on your mother.”

“Mom,” Naloud said,
then
smiled while looking up at him. She held onto his hand and practically bounced in her spot.

Oh great, she has it bad.

Just listen.

“I'd like for you to meet Serid,” she finished.

It hit me with the force a wave hits the side of a cliff. “It can't be!” I laughed and walked towards him. I wrapped him in my arms and then held him at their length. “You've grown up!”

“I have, indeed.” He flashed a smile that was full of danger and warning.

“Well, how did you find us?” I asked, trying hard to force back the growl that was rising to my throat. 

“I was walking through the woods in search of berries, and a rabbit or two, when I found Naloud,” he looked down at her with a smile much like the kind Marren gives me.

Oh my.

“And we’ve seen each other every day since,” Naloud finished excitedly. Her long brown curls bounced with her enthusiasm. Even her onyx eyes shone with more light than I’d ever seen her hold in them. Her smile, how bright it was. I felt all my anger ebb away. I couldn't be mad at her or Serid. You can't always choose what the heart desires.

“Come,” Marren interrupted, “let's discuss all the details over lunch.”

I watched as Serid walked, holding himself high and tall, like a Prince. I couldn't help an eyebrow from lifting. I felt Marren's hand on my back as he escorted me to the table. I knew if I said anything to him, in our private way or otherwise, he wouldn't believe me. He'd disregard my feelings as those belonging to a worried mother.

After we were all seated, Marren started with a toast. “To Serid, a man back from the dead.” He smiled as he lifted his goblet in the air towards Serid, who was seated across from me, next to Naloud. Marren, as always, was at the head.

I thought I heard Serid mutter something under his breath as Naloud and Marren started talking happily. It sounded like “You have no idea...” My eyes met his. The cold dark depths of the Netherworld stared back.

Much of the food
had been eaten and it wasn't nearly as dried out as I had thought. The ale warmed my blood and had put me in a better mood than before. Not enough to have clouded my judgment by leaving Naloud and Serid alone, as per Marren's suggestion.

“No,” I said firmly walking out of the dining hall, into the ball room, and to my sword. It had taken nearly the entire time we'd been back just to recreate a portion of the swords that were taken. Luckily, the Cyrs didn't get all of them, and I still had my sword. The one Marren gave to me the first time we sparred.

“Relena, don’t be so insistent upon not going. Serid is like a nephew to me. I promise he won't do anything to Naloud while we are gone.”

“Don't care.” I pulled my hilt from its sheath and started to swing it in the air. On my third downward thrust, my hand was caught at the wrist. Marren's deep onyx eyes peered so deeply into mine, he saw my soul, and what burned within me.

He sighed. “Please.” It came out soft as a whisper with more implied than just a walk. It meant there was something he needed to say to me but couldn't do it there.

I yanked my hand free,
then
turned sharply to place my sword back in its sheath and strap it to my waist. I pulled the bottom of my shirt over the belt and tugged on the end of my vest. “Fine, but I'm practicing while were out,” I finally said then left him standing in the middle of the floor.

***

It took several moments for Marren to catch up with me. My thoughts had propelled me much further than I had anticipated. Fueled by the words Serid had told over lunch. They didn't add up, and worse, they bothered me to no end. So caught up in them, so fueled by them, Marren's thoughts wouldn't penetrate.

Serid had told us that he crossed over with Okelo when everyone else did. He couldn't say when exactly because he was too young. I knew it was impossible. I scoured each and every face for the hours it took to move the debris and had never seen his. That was the only time that Okelo could've escaped. The only time that Serid could've been seen.

Then, he told us that it was only a matter of days after crossing over that his mother died. They had traveled all the way to Ghadel, moving around outside the borders of the city, looking for a place he could only guess at. She had become ill from the extreme travels and collapsed from exhaustion at the base of a tree. He said that he was near starving and almost died himself. He cried for days with no relief. Only then, did a woman hear his cries from within the walls of the city.

That woman was Ardren, the Princess of Ghadel. I recognized her name the moment I heard it. She had apparently been betrothed to a Lord in a neighboring city I’d never heard of. The Lord moved into her castle, married her, and she was unable to bear a child—until she heard Serid's cries. They took him in, raised him as their own, and made him Prince.

“Are you going to tell me soon what has gotten your mind so consumed that you won't respond to me?”

Hearing Marren's voice finally penetrated the fog in my mind, I looked at him. He walked beside me with his sword strapped to his waist and a cloak over his shoulders. “What's the cloak for?”

“You didn't answer my question.”

“You wouldn't believe me if I told you.”

He stopped walking, mid-step, and grabbed my arm. I stopped turning my head to glare from over my shoulder. “Try me.” His tone was pleading.

I rolled my eyes and stomped my foot like a disobedient child, but said.
“Oh, alright.”
I opened my mouth to voice my thoughts but Marren's eyes caught something behind me. He squinted and stiffened his posture. I followed his gaze. 

A hunched over figure, fully cloaked, walked with a
disjointed
gait. He was alone on the road. Immediately, I felt as though we’d walked into a trap. I gripped my sword, prepared for anyone else to jump out at us from within the sheltering woods that lined both sides of the road and for this man to straighten himself and try to fight us.

Marren caught my arm. I met his gaze as he slowly shook his head.
Not a good move. We need to know what he's doing here and why he's alone.

Fine.
Be my guest, brave and noble one.

Marren's eyes shot a cold stare at me. Clearly he didn't find that funny. He approached slowly. The man startled at Marren's approach. He cowered away slightly as he looked into Marren's face. Then fell to his knees grasping onto Marren's cloak and hands.

I stepped closer. The man was aged, worn, and badly beaten. I noticed that his cloak was
opened,
he suffered from a horrible wound. His clothes were tattered. The only thing on him that looked decent was his cloak.

Marren fell to his knees with the man and tried to comfort him. The man's voice shook as he tried to say something
to Marren
I couldn't understand. Marren would respond with short and gentle phrases in his native tongue. The man didn't strike me as a werewolf. His eyes were the shade of storm clouds, his skin the shade of the wood of a tree. His hair was dark with strings of silver and white. It stuck out in spots from under his hood.

The man said one last final word through gurgled gasps as blood rose to his mouth, he uttered in common.
“Lernn.
Find Lernn.”

I didn't notice until the man's body went limp that his eyes were fixed on me. Sending a straight shot of cold chill through my body and clutching my spine that would last much longer than any winter's chill. He spoke to me. He told me I had to find Lernn.

“Who is Lernn?” I asked Marren. My voice cracked and felt as though all the moisture had left my throat.

“I don't know. But there's something else.”

“What?”

“I don't know yet, it doesn't make sense. We need to get back and find Naloud.”

Fear clutched at my heart. It was a fear that wasn't my own and it was only a faded moment. Marren was afraid and he was trying desperately to keep it from me. Instead of fighting with him about it, I turned on my heels and ran for home.

***

When I approached the door, I knew immediately something was wrong. It was open into the foyer, an eerie silence coming from within. Tacked to the front door with a dagger was a note. I ignored it, desperately running through every room and every hiding spot Naloud used to use until I exhausted all means of finding her inside. Then I ran through the garden and the nearby woods behind the house.
Nowhere.
I couldn't smell her. I couldn't sense her. My heart pounded frantically, its beats echoing loudly in my mind. I ran back to the front door just as Marren stepped slowly into the foyer. He grasped the note on the door and pulled it free from the dagger.

He read the letter to me in his mind.

I warned that you would pay for your folly! You have paid with the life of your child!

His hands shook and his knees gave out from under him.
I was wrong. It can't be. I was wrong!

I ran to him, wrapping my arms around him and trying to console him the best I could.
It's not your fault. Don't blame yourself. Please. We have to hurry. I think we can still find her.

But you don't understand. Serid...he's...
He shook his head and started to sway back and forth.

“What Marren? What about Serid?”

He sighed. It shuddered on the way out. “Serid,” he paused to clear his throat, “is Naloud's heart song.”

The world could have come down upon my shoulders and it would have made more sense than what Marren had just said. “What?
But how?”

“Naloud is an Ancient descendant. It runs in her blood.”

“Yes but I thought it only happened to very few, and very far in between,” I said.

“My mother was the only one that didn't have a heart song. She's the only one it skipped. And even then, none of us could be sure.”

“I don't understand.”

“Serid couldn't possibly hurt Naloud if they share a heart song. It's not possible. When it happens—when people who share a heart song find each other—there's no separating them. Each one depends on the other for survival.”

“Marren, I already know this. What does this have to do with Serid?”

With defeat clear in his words, he said, “Because it was Serid who has taken Naloud to Jiren.”

***

I managed to talk Marren out of blaming himself for not seeing what I saw or at least listening to my worries. We packed what we could carry on our backs. A few daggers, a couple sets of clothes, and some food—all stuffed into large leather bags. We changed into our black hooded robes.

Taking the woods, we walked near the road, keeping alert to any movement that didn't belong. The first city we came across was Hafton. I knew there wouldn't be a way Naloud would be there and I really didn't want to go back. Instead, we moved forward, traveling along the major trade route that acts as the most direct way between cities.

By the time we reached Verora, I was worn and in need of a place to stay. Marren agreed that we could stop for some rest and see if anyone had seen our daughter recently. Our plans would prove unrealized.

We were greeted with wide eyes, full of alarm and fear. Many of the people stopped what they were in the middle of doing to stare at us. Many of the people we approached in question of our daughter shook their heads wildly and ran as fast as their legs could carry them.

“What is wrong with these people?” I asked.

“The man said that Jiren had deceived them all. He had crossed over after the fight that claimed so many lives
and started to warn people of creatures he saw in the woods. Creatures that look human during the day but like beasts at night. Jiren told them they had eyes blacker than the abyss and would use mind tricks to lure humans into their trap to be eaten.”

“Gross,” I replied. It was difficult to keep the bile from rising into my mouth.

“He also said that the king had believed Jiren so completely that anyone caught speaking to these creatures would be killed along with them.”

“Enid! We haven't heard from him, what if he's dead?”

“Let's not worry about that until we have something to prove his death.” Marren tried to speak as calmly as he could, but his words were still tinged with worry.

“We better leave then before we both get killed.”

“That's an excellent idea,”
came
a voice from within the crowd. It was exuberantly deep and full of warning.