Memory's Wake Omnibus: The Complete Illustrated YA Fantasy Series (56 page)

He hit the ground hard, landing with a splash in the gutter. The block of wood lay just near his head, and he snatched it up, knowing it would be his only weapon, his only defense.

The third man, missing an ear and most of his teeth, lunged at Roen before he had a chance to get on his feet. Roen swung the wood at him, blocking the dagger and with a second hit, knocking away a few more of the man’s teeth. The man stumbled and slumped against a wall. There was only one man left on that side who’d already thrown his dagger. Roen rolled to his feet and ran at him, trying to break past.

Roen barged through and made a run for the end of the alleyway. Almost there, his leg gave out beneath him. It bled freely and hurt too much to keep his weight on. The wound was worse than he first thought.

Roen managed to turn around in time to block the sword aimed for his back. The three men were right behind him. The bald man walked leisurely, matching Roen’s hobbled attempts to flee. He jabbed his short sword playfully at Roen. Roen blocked and parried with the piece of wood, but every movement seemed to tug and tear at the cut in his thigh. Sweat ran onto his lips and he breathed hard to try and stay focused.

The bald man fumbled his sword. Roen took the chance to knock it away with the wood. He realized his error too late. The man had bluffed, letting his weapon go so Roen would over extend. The block of wood was snatched from Roen’s hands and smashed into his face.

“We’re going to enjoy this,” was all he heard before he lost consciousness.

Eloryn knew nothing about the girl who stood in front of her, working up the courage to say something. Something important, it seemed.

“Maeve, really, it’s okay,” Eloryn encouraged.

The word, Memory’s word, made Maeve smile and seemed to give her the courage to speak. “As you know, the princess has been doing so much for us. I don’t know what we’d do without her and her shelter. So I wanted to ask, your majesty, respectfully, with apologies, whether it is true, the rumor I’ve heard?”

Eloryn was lost. “Rumor?”

Maeve looked distraught at being pressed to give details. She lowered her head some more. “That you and Master Hayes are going to shut down the shelter.”

Eloryn shook her head. She’d heard nothing about it. She hadn’t even known what Memory was doing in the city for these children, let alone anything about closing down the shelter.

She wanted to give her assurances that she’d want nothing of the kind to happen, but she didn’t know enough, about what Memory had set up, or whether Hayes truly had some objection to it. She looked around to see if Roen was returning yet since he seemed to know at least a little more about it.

Her eyes found Roen at the entrance of an alley across the square, stumbling backwards. Her heart launched into a gallop when she saw he was fighting off a group of rough-looking men.

Eloryn tried to run to him. Her guards, seeing what she saw, held her back. Maeve gathered the younger girls to her side and rushed them away protectively.

Eloryn cried out in frustration at her guards, ordering them to release her.

“You must return to the castle, majesty. This is not safe,” one said, grabbing her around the wrist.

She knew they were only trying to protect her, that was their job, but she had to help Roen. He and the men had disappeared, back into the alleyway.

Erec, at the front of the group, tripped and fell, taking the other guards down with him. Eloryn took the chance to break free. She spoke a behest to weave the guards clothes together, one guard’s to another’s until they were caught tied in a mess. She swore she saw Erec wink at her as she lifted her skirts and dashed after Roen.

Reaching the alley, there was no sign left of him or his assailants. Words fell from her mouth, the same behest she’d used to track Memory when she went after Thayl. The wet ground glittered, a group of footsteps forming, leading away at walking pace.

“Deann-ruith,” Eloryn said.
Faster
. The glowing steps increased their pace and Eloryn followed at a jog. “Deann-ruith!”

Eloryn ran through the streets, into the long shadows of a cluttered warehouse district. Ankle-deep mud covered the road, sliced into by cart tracks. Half of the buildings appeared disused, closed up and cold. The buildings backed the river and a moldering fishy smell tainted the air.

The footsteps led Eloryn to the side door of a smaller warehouse. She ended the behest there, to not alert those inside to her presence. Peeking through a crack in a boarded up window, she could see four men circling Roen.

They had him hanging by the wrists in the center of the room. He’d been stripped of his jacket, which one man held, searching through the pockets, and his shirt had been torn down so it hung about his waist.

The men laughed and mocked Roen. Eloryn heard every second thing they said.

“Let’s see if he lasts till the money arrives.”

“The bounty does say alive
or
dead.”

The bald man lifted his arm, and the crack of a whip echoed.

I have to help him. How can I help him on my own?
Eloryn put her palms on her forehead, trying to still her panic and think.
Memory would know what to do. I just have to think creatively, like she said. Then I can do anything.

She assessed the room to see what could be used. Shafts of light from just a few high grimy windows broke the darkness. A desiccated pig corpse hung not far from Roen, and Eloryn guessed this must have once been a butcher’s storehouse. On the sawdust strewn floor, rats moved about without concern for the men. There was plenty throughout the space she could use. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that. She was queen. That should be enough.

Eloryn pushed the door open without knocking and strode in with her chin raised. Sawdust stirred under her feet, tossing rancid odors and dust motes into the air. It took a while before they noticed her. Another strike with the whip, before they turned to take in her presence. Eloryn seethed.

“I am your queen, and I demand you free him,” she announced.

Eloryn caught Roen’s eye. He frowned hard but gave her a short nod which she returned. Red welts marked his chest and blood ran from one of his legs, dripping onto the floor at a speed that worried Eloryn.

The men stared at her then looked to a wiry man with an eye-patch for direction, whispering amongst themselves.

“He weren’t joking about knowing the queen after all,” said the man in the eye-patch.

One man tried to run, and the largest of them put a firm hand on his shoulder and said, “You think she’s just going to leave us be after this? Think she and her kind won’t hunt us down wherever we run?”

The men shot anxious glances around their group, gauging their options. Eloryn thought to tell them she’d let them be free if they left now but saw the bloody whip and knew it would be a lie. A place deep in her churning stomach wanted them to fight.

“Not matter what we do, they’ll hunt us down,” the skittish man said.

“She’s here alone. I say we finish them both off before anyone else knows what’s happened. Get rid of the bodies.” The large bald man snapped the whip between his hands.

The man in the eye-patch nodded and drew a sword. “No one left that seen our faces. No one won’t even know where to start looking.”

The four men circled around her, penning her and closing in.

Eloryn narrowed her eyes. She breathed a deep breath then spoke her words of magic, behest running into behest, commanding help from her environment.

Her very first spell meant the men had time to draw closer, but it had to be made first before she dealt with them. Seeing it done, she turned her attention to the cruel bounty hunters.

The bald man struck the whip at Eloryn. It crumbled in the air, brittle as old bone.

Chains with hooked ends like the one Roen hung from grew long, catching up the man with the eye-patch and one other, wrapping them tight. Eloryn made no effort to make their bonds gentle.

The coward with missing teeth who thought to flee at the presence of the queen tried again. He found the hinges on the doors had fused shut. His terror multiplied as the floor beneath him became spongy, sucking him in up to his neck.

The dried pig carcass swung across the room and slammed Eloryn hard into her chest, winding her and knocking her down. Her words became useless gasps.

Someone wrenched her up to her feet. The large bald man dusted the remains of the whip from his hands menacingly. Eloryn’s breath returned, but she barely managed a syllable before the man wrapped his hands around her throat and lifted her off her feet, crushing her neck. Eloryn’s eyes watered.

A wet crunching sound was followed by a shudder that ran up the man’s arms and into his hands around Eloryn’s throat. His grip loosened and Eloryn landed back on her feet.

The man crashed to the ground.

Behind him stood Roen, half a brick bloodied in his hand.

Her first behest had been to free him. She had to free him first. No matter what happened to her, he had to be freed.

Roen took a step toward her around the fallen giant then crumpled to his knees. Eloryn dropped into the sawdust beside him and started checking his wounds.

Roen raised an arm slowly, stopping her, then put that arm around her waist and rested his head softly on her shoulder. He pulled her into his chest. She could feel his breath on her neck.

“El,” he whispered. “You came for me.”

“Of course,” she whispered back.

“Of course,” Roen repeated in reply, laughter in his voice. He winced then stilled again.

“You were amazing,” he said.

“The fear of losing you proved to be great inspiration.” Eloryn tried to chuckle lightly, but it sounded a little like a sob.

“It’s okay, I’m not going anywhere.” Roen gave her another squeeze. “Back at Elder’s Bridge inn, when I’d been caught and called out, I had been ready to die. I told you and Mem what I really was because I wanted you to hate me like I hated myself. I wanted you to leave me there to my fate. At the time, I thought I deserved it.”

Eloryn’s head shook in fierce denial.

“Today, I could only think about how much I needed to live. Even if everyone knows the truth of my past. It seems as though at some point I have stopped hating myself. I don’t know when, or how, but I suspect it has more than a little to do with you and your sister.” Roen’s mouth lifted into a half smile and he pulled back to look to her fully. Eloryn reached for his hands and he continued.

“There are things I’ve done I’m not proud of, things I must make amends for, but everything I have done has shaped who I am now, and I value that. I’m not just… a thief. I need to live long enough to show you who I really am.”

Eloryn touched his cheek lightly. “I can already see.”

Eloryn had seen the skills of Roen’s criminal trade, she’d seen him play the flirt, and she’d seen him behind a formal polite façade. She’d seen his courage, his shame, and his passion. He was not any one of those things, but all of them and more. There was not one part of him that Eloryn didn’t love.

Her head tilted back. She lifted her mouth to his. A look of confusion, relief, desperation, and desire, all rolled together, flashed across his features. He bent his face to meet hers.

Their lips didn’t meet.

The sound of thudding footsteps and guards calling for their queen broke them apart.

Eloryn quickly got to her feet to meet her escort. “Take these men into custody, for hunting an illegal bounty and attempted regicide.”

The men she’d caught were all watching her. She flushed, angered and embarrassed they had been present during her moment with Roen.

Erec tied a quick bandage to apply pressure to the gash in Roen’s thigh until he could be healed magically, then pulled Roen to his feet and gave him his guard’s jacket. Eloryn bit her tongue to try and slow her heart and remind herself there was more occurring of importance than Roen, shirtless, in uniform.

The other guards extracted the mercenaries from their bonds and dragged them from the building.

Erec ran his hand through his hair and laughed breathily. “It is a great relief to see how well you can handle yourself, your majesty. Otherwise I might have been in real trouble. I am supposed to be protecting you, not hindering your protectors.”