To Darkness Fled (8 page)

"There's no shame in it, Sparrow," Achan said quickly. "We need you as much as you need us. If not for you, who would patch us up when we're half dead?"

Sparrow folded his arms, but his lips curved up a bit.

"Now, Your Highness, that's not fair." Sir Caleb pulled his pack onto his lap. "If not for Vrell, we might not have survived those black knights, isn't that right, Gavin?"

"Aye. What concerns me is how they're finding us."

"Are you keeping your mind shielded, Your Majesty?" Sir Caleb asked.

"That shouldn't matter, Caleb," Sir Gavin said. "I sensed no ability to bloodvoice from the
ebens
or black knights. They found us by other means."

"Both attacks came in the morning. Ebens are good trackers. And black knights may have used gowzals. They can speak to them, you know, use them as messengers."

Achan recalled seeing through the bird's eyes. Guilt festered in his stomach. "I opened my mind after Sir Caleb's lesson that first night."

Every set of eyes focused on him.

"I know I shielded myself well. None of you sensed me. I...saw through a bird. It had information for its master. Made no sense to me at the time. Thought it might be Darkness messing with--"

"A gowzal, then," Sir Caleb said. "We must keep watch for the beast birds. The black knights are using them to track us."

* * *

Vrell opened her eyes to a black void. A hand nudged her side and she bolted upright.

"Vrell," Sir Gavin's whisper floated down from the darkness, "'tis our watch."

Vrell blinked her stinging eyes. Her back ached from sleeping on the ground. Oh, how she longed for a steamy, rose-leaf bath and her feather bed. "I am awake."

A blue torchlight whizzed to life, illuminating Sir Gavin's whiskered face. "Join me over here a moment, if you will." He walked away, his body blocking most of the blue light.

Vrell heaved to her feet and trudged after the faint glow, each step waking her further and bringing more and more of her circumstances to mind.

Sir Gavin stopped far enough away that she could no longer see the camp. Her heart thudded. She didn't like being so far from the others, but the light felt safer than the lack of it.

The Great Whitewolf stared down, the torchlight sinking into the surface of his skin, sharpening every wrinkle into deep gouges of shadow. "Who are you really?"

The question hung in the dark surrounding them. Arman, help her. Vrell pursed her lips and dropped her focus to her feet, though the torch did not cast enough light for her to see them. Tears pricked her eyes. She blinked them back. She had to keep control.

"I need the truth, lad." Sir Gavin softened his tone. "How is it you know such advanced bloodvoicing battle methods? I can't imagine Macoun taught it to you, fool though he is."

Battle
method? She'd been dreading Sir Gavin's promise of a confrontation. Sir Caleb's veil warrior praise had only added to her apprehension. What had Mother done?

"You
will
answer me. I have no qualms about binding you and leaving you for dead. So tell me, do you mean us ill will?"

Tears flooded Vrell's vision despite her efforts to hold them back. "I cannot..." She lifted her fingers to cover her trembling lower lip. "Please don't..." A sob burst past her defenses.

"Aw, don't cry, now. I've no desire to see you hurt, but I've a responsibility to see Achan take the throne. I must know if anyone stands in my way. Are you Esek's spy? Macoun's?"

Vrell jerked her chin up, eyes wide. "No. N-Nothing like that, sir, I promise you. I am on your side. I follow Arman too. And I-I want Achan to be king more than anything."

"Then tell me what you hide."

Vrell fought to stifle her tears. "I...do not think I can."

"You will."

Vrell glanced in the direction of the camp, her breathing ragged. "Will you tell...the others?"

"Not unless I have reason."

Vrell licked her cracked lips and met Sir Gavin's mismatched eyes. She wanted to contact Mother, ask what to do, but she couldn't very well go glassy-eyed in front of Sir Gavin. Her gaze darted from his blue eye to his brown one.

Enough misery. Exposing the truth must be Arman's will.

Vrell's voice came in a near whisper. "I am Lady Averella Amal of Carmine."

Sir Gavin's bushy white eyebrows sank over his eyes.

Before he could reply, she hurried on. "Prince Gidon--beg your pardon..." Vrell swallowed and took a deep breath. "
Esek
petitioned Mother for my hand last winter. She refused, but he would not accept her answer. His pressure grew so intense that Mother deemed it best I go into hiding. Only Lady Coraline Orthrop of Walden's Watch knew the truth of me. But while she was away, Jax and Khai arrived to escort me to Mahanaim. Macoun Hadar had sensed my bloodvoice ability and wanted me as his apprentice. I had no choice but to go.

"Lord Orthrop and the knights believed I was a stray boy with no rights. If I had revealed myself...well, I feared they would force me to marry the prince--Esek, I mean. And I could not marry him. He did not care for me. He only wants control of Carm. He is a horrible person. I pity the girl who becomes his wife. And I will die before I meet such a fate."

An ache seized Vrell's stomach. She gulped and wiped tears from her cheeks. How terrifying to admit the truth after so long, yet so freeing. She had only intended to pause, then explain how she had come into Macoun's service and eventually met up with Achan, but now that she had stopped, the tears would not. She hugged herself and let them come, gasping and sniffing to keep her nose from watering.

"Eben's breath." Sir Gavin drew her into an awkward, stiff-armed embrace. Vrell cried harder, her body shaking with sobs. Sir Gavin slapped her back. "Poor child. Why didn't you confide in me? I could've left you in Prince Oren's care."

Vrell clutched her sides and wailed. Staying with Prince Oren had been her greatest hope. She choked and coughed, trying to stop the tears long enough to answer. Her words came in slurred bursts. "I did not know...who to trust. I had planned to tell...Sir Rigil, but...when I found Achan and Sir Caleb...in the secret passage...Sir Rigil had gone." Vrell sucked in a breath. "Achan's cheeks were bleeding. He needed aid. I thought I could serve my king a bit longer."

Sir Gavin nodded, as if putting the pieces together. "You were going to reveal yourself to the Council on your mother's behalf so Achan would have his votes. Did she ask you to?"

"No, sir. She did not wish it. Not with Esek there."

"She was wise not to risk you." Sir Gavin groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. "My dear lady, you're a brave soul. To think I let Achan strike you this night. I'm ashamed of myself."

Vrell welcomed the excuse to smile. "Well, I must learn to fight, sir. It has been horrible all this time not being able to protect myself. I felt so weak and vulnerable. So useless."

"Aye. And you've joined a perilous journey, my lady. Did your mother teach you to storm? What you did with the black knight?"

"I know nothing of what my mother did. I blacked out. I called out to her for help and she jumped through me. Then...I saw nothing."

Sir Gavin spoke to himself, "Aye. Nitsa helped him once. I had forgotten."

Vrell straightened. "Helped who?"

"
Eag
--forgive me. 'Tis not my tale to share but something to ask your mother." Sir Gavin sniffed and stroked his beard braid. "What is your wish, my lady? How can an Old Kingsguard knight be of service?"

"My only wish is to go home. But Macoun Hadar and Khai Mageia know who I am. They told Esek. Now Esek has placed a bounty on both our heads. Mine and Achan's."

Sir Gavin tipped back his head, eyes narrowing. "Perhaps that's why so many small parties hunt us. They're after the reward." He gripped Vrell's shoulder. "We'll get you home, brave lady. Unfortunately it will not be soon. You're certain you don't want the others to know? It'll be easier on you."

Vrell drew her bottom lip between her teeth. "I never meant to deceive Achan. I had hoped to slip away without him finding out who I really am. Is that wrong of me?"

Sir Gavin stroked his moustache over the curve of his top lip. "I cannot say. Either way, 'tis probably best you stay dressed as a boy. It isn't proper for Achan to travel with a woman, no more than for you to travel with four men." He sniffed in a long breath. "We'll keep your identity between us. It won't ease your burden, though I'll try to help where I can."

Vrell shook her tears away and lifted her chin. "Please, do not interfere with my training. I never want to be unprepared in battle again. If I am going to survive, I must learn."

"I've never met a braver lady." Sir Gavin's eyes widened. "Eben's breath! No wonder you didn't want help with your leeches. Oh, my lady. I thank you, deeply, on behalf of our king for your service these past weeks. You saved his life after the Poroo battle, cared for him in the dungeons, called me to his aid, and sacrificed your own safety for his benefit. You should be commended." He shuffled his feet, threw up his hands, and sighed. "I'm sorry I cannot offer more than words."

Vrell hugged Sir Gavin, his prickly beard tickling her face. "It is a great comfort to finally have a confidant. Your kindness means so much, Sir Gavin. I can never repay you for it."

"I'd never accept it if you tried. 'Tis my duty as a knight to see you safely home, my lady. That I promise to do."

"Sir Gavin, please. I do not understand what Mother did. And Sir Caleb is bragging me up as a veil warrior. All I remember was concentrating. I heard a song and all my pain vanished. I felt as if I had floated in the air. And then nothing."

"When I found you, you were cold. I fear we almost lost your mind to the Veil. Though I appreciate your mother's assistance, you must not help her again 'til you learn properly. The Veil is a dangerous place for one untrained to navigate it. We'll tell the men you helped me by accident, that you didn't know what you were doing. 'Tis mostly true."

"How can one enter the Veil whilst they are still living?" Vrell had always understood that a man who entered the Veil was on the brink of death.

"It is done using bloodvoicing. A gifted man may leave his body and enter the Veil, or he may cast another man--gifted or not--into the Veil, which is the essence of storming. A man's soul was not created for Er'Rets, you see. It was created for Shamayim and longs for the peace and joy of that eternal home. Trust me, Vrell. You do not want to tempt your soul to the Veil before Arman pulls it there."

Vrell shivered. Without realizing it, she had gone into the Veil before, when Macoun had asked her to seek out Esek and Achan drew her into his mind. "So my mother sent the mage to the Veil? Is he still there?"

"I cannot say. People can be brought back, but only by those who know how."

"And do you know how, Sir Gavin?"

"I do, but I'm too old to risk it. 'Tis not a wise task for a man so close to Arman's final call."

8

Achan woke with a stiff back. He sat up and scanned the camp,
Eagan
's Elk poking into the grass behind him. The knights were packing up. "Where's Sparrow?"

Sir Caleb combed his fingers through his wild mane and yawned. "Watering the nearest tree, I imagine."

Achan pushed himself to one knee and rolled up his leather bed. His stiff legs and back ached, and his belt had cut a groove into his waist overnight that had left the area without blood flow. He scratched his waistline and heaved to his feet.

"From now on, Your Highness, do not wear your belt and sword when you sleep." Sir Caleb's owlish eyes glimmered in the torchlight. "It's wise to keep it close by, but how could you draw if you're sleeping on it?"

Achan grunted in response. No doubt
Eagan
's Elk was to blame for the majority of his stiffness as he'd slept on his back to keep the hilt reachable.

He crossed the dead grass to where Sir Gavin knelt, attaching his bedroll to his pack. Achan crouched beside the knight. "So? Did you speak to Sparrow?"

Sir Gavin cinched the leather cords on the bedroll. "I did."

"And?"

"'Tis none of your concern."

Achan's eagerness faded. "He's not hiding anything?"

Sir Gavin drew the pack over his shoulders and groaned as he heaved it on and stood in one motion. Achan stood with him and received his piercing gaze. "What Vrell hides is his own business and no threat to you. Leave him be about it."

Leave him be? "Yes, sir."

Sir Gavin clapped Achan's shoulder, his calloused hand scratching Achan's leather doublet. "Please, lad. You must not call me sir. You're my prince. I say 'yes, sir' to you."

Achan nodded, though frustration seared through his veins. Sir Gavin wanted him to be prince but kept secrets. Sparrow
was
hiding something, threat or not. Achan had met the boy first. Were they not friends? Didn't Sparrow trust him?

Sparrow bounded into the light and looped his satchel over his head and arm. They each took their place along Sir Caleb's rope and set off in the dark. Achan traipsed along, more comfortable blindly trusting Sir Gavin to lead on this third day of the journey. Truly? Had three days passed already? They'd slept before the giants attacked, then in the rocky clearing where the black knights had appeared, then last night in the field. That made this day four. Without the sun to rise and fall, it all seemed like one long night.

Their boots scraped over crusty grass. To keep their minds from wandering, Sir Caleb told a story of how Allowntown had come to be.

"Were my parents staying in Allowntown when they were killed?" Achan asked after some time.

"Nay, they were just arriving from Mahanaim. When your father traveled, he reveled well into the morning with his men and his minstrels. Your mother, not wanting to expose you to such behavior at your young age, had come along."

"She sounds like a prudent woman and a loving mother," Sparrow said.

Achan grinned at the thought of his father wanting to include him in the merrymaking at age three and his mother's desire to tuck him into bed.

"I'd never seen a prouder papa than King Axel," Sir Caleb said. "You lived on his shoulders if you weren't in your mother's arms. I'm surprised you learned to walk."

Achan's grin sobered, knowing this story didn't end well. "So they were killed when they reached Allowntown?"

"As Sir Gavin said the other night, when we awoke, the king and queen had already left. We had barely started out from Mahanaim when your father cried out."

"No one in Allowntown saw what happened?"

"Nay. If you recall, the fortress is small. Normally, when the king and queen traveled, a messenger would ride ahead to announce their arrival. This would have given the staff in Allowntown a chance to welcome the king properly. My brother, Lord Agros, said no messenger came that day."