Daybreak (15 page)

It was only a very small victory. Elena was locked in a furious chess match with the Countess, one that could only end in death. She was careful to keep Aerilyn close at every moment — close enough that any arrow that went through her chest would pierce the merchant’s daughter, as well. It was her only chance to reach Lakeshore alive.

And she
would
reach it, before the end. They might both very well wind up dead … but Elena swore D’Mere’s body would strike the ground first.

So she was patient. No matter how Aerilyn grated against her nerves, she forced herself to be calm.

The merchant’s daughter chattered endlessly during the day and at night, she sobbed. Elena only allowed herself a few minutes of sleep every hour. Even then, she slept so lightly that the rustle of an owl’s feathers would’ve woken her — and the further they went from the seas, the less sleep she got.

Each time she managed to drift off, the sharp noise of Aerilyn’s sniffling jolted her awake.

“What in Kingdom’s name are you whimpering about?” Elena growled.

“I’m not whimpering,” Aerilyn said thickly from beside her. “I miss them. I miss them so much I can hardly stand it.”

“Who?”

“Lysander and Dante. I’m worried sick over them.”

Had she not been so exhausted, Elena might’ve fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Your husband is off squabbling over coin in Harborville. The only thing he’s likely to die of is boredom. And I’m sure the child is fine.”

“How could you possibly be
sure
?” she huffed. “What if he’s hungry?”

“He has a whole village of nurses looking after him — and you left him in the care of a giantess. You’ll be lucky if he fits in his crib once she’s done with him.”

“Well, what if he’s ill?”

“Then I’m sure the Uncle will send his ships out in every direction to get what he needs. He’ll empty his coffers, if he has to.”

“But what if he misses me?” Aerilyn took in a shuddering breath. “What if he … forgets me?”

“He’s an infant,” Elena said evenly. “He can’t even remember if his napkin’s on or not, let alone who his mother is. The important thing is that you’re alive. You mean to return. You’ll be back before he even starts to care.”

She rolled away from Aerilyn, glaring against the things that swarmed inside her chest. The merchant’s daughter had no idea how bitter life could be. Not all infants were cared for. Not all were loved. There were some who grew up without their mothers.

And at least one had taken a mother who tried to slip a dagger between her ribs.

She slept little that night. At dawn, they saddled Braver and set out again. They were only a few days from Lakeshore, now. The trails Elena followed were as familiar to her as the soles of her boots. While Braver plodded along, she thought carefully about what she would do to Countess D’Mere — or at least, she tried to.

“What’s rattling back there?” she snapped, when the noise broke her concentration.

For some reason, Aerilyn wore two quivers: the one that hung from her belt contained plain arrows, while the arrows on her back had fletching that was bright red. Combined with the bulk of her bow, she was a constant, rattling mess — and today’s rattling was more obnoxious than usual.

“We’ve been riding for ages. My whole bottom half is numb. I simply adjusted my quivers a bit to keep the rest of me from aching.”

“Why do you even need those things?”

Aerilyn paused. “Well, I brought one along to hunt with. But since you refuse to let me off this blasted animal until nightfall, I haven’t been able to use it.”

Elena doubted she
could
use it. “What about the other one?”

“This one is for … trouble,” she said, tugging on the strap across her chest.

“What sort of trouble?”

“The sort we need to end quickly. Jake enchanted it for me, if that tells you anything.”

A strange numbness filled Elena’s limbs, swelling in the echo of his name. All the edges of her mind fled backwards. They sunk down to her memories and pooled, leaving her mind without its strength.

“Elena?”

She blinked the memories back when Aerilyn grabbed her shoulders. Her lungs gasped as if she’d just woken from a nightmare. She still wasn’t entirely sure if she stood in the real world, or the realm of dreams.

 
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped, shrugging Aerilyn away.

“You were tipping over! You nearly fell off. If I hadn’t grabbed you —”

“Don’t
touch
me.”

Elena punched out every word, careful to give them each their own bite. Things were frightening enough as it was. She didn’t need Aerilyn pawing at her the rest of the way to Lakeshore. What she needed was a distraction — a taste of blood to bring her focus back.

Their numbers weren’t overwhelming quite yet. The Countess’s agents could do with some thinning.

Braver snorted when she pulled him to a halt. “All right, I think we’ve gone far enough for one day.”

Aerilyn’s brows arched high. “We have? But it’s hardly afternoon.”

“You were just complaining about being in the saddle. Now you don’t have to be.” Elena slid down and held out her hands. “Let’s move, lady merchant.”

Aerilyn glowered at her. “I thought you didn’t want me touching you.”

Elena moved her hands to Braver’s straps. “You can climb down on your own, or you can fall off with the saddle. It’s entirely up to you.”

Aerilyn swung her leg around and dismounted on the other side — but not before she’d shot Elena an icy glare. 

She hardly noticed. Aerilyn’s look wasn’t nearly as potent as her mother’s.

“Well, if we’re stopping for the day, then I’m going on a hunt. I’m sick of dried meat and stale biscuits.”

Elena shrugged, careful to keep her eyes away. “I couldn’t care less what you do, lady merchant.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“Then stop behaving like every little inconvenience marks the end of your perfect world.”

Aerilyn spun around mid-stomp and cried: “I never liked you, Elena —”

“I’m shocked.”

“— but I loved you for Jake. I was prepared to ignore how horrible you are because you made him happy. But now you’ve broken his heart and chased him away, and no matter what I do, you insist on being horrid.” She un-slung her bow and leveled its blunt end at Elena’s face. “I’ve been traveling these roads since I was a child. I know how to get to Lakeshore. I don’t need your help, and I certainly don’t need your blades.”

Elena flung the saddle onto the ground — or rather, she told herself that she had. The truth was that her limbs had gone so numb she thought she might’ve simply dropped it. “Then why did you beg me to come with you, if I’m such a horrible person?”

“I asked because I thought … I
hoped
I could change your mind about Jake.” Aerilyn’s mouth wavered, but her chin jutted out defiantly. “I know what it’s like to be uncertain about love. I was uncertain about Lysander, at first. But then a very dear friend showed me the truth — he showed me all the goodness behind the pirate, and I’ve felt silly every day since for thumbing my nose at him in the first place.

“It seems obvious now, but there was a time when I wasn’t sure. Had my dear friend not pushed me, I don’t know that I would’ve ever seen it.” She lowered her bow, but her chin stayed sharp. “I’d hoped to be that friend for you, Elena. But now I’ve changed my mind — I don’t want you to see the good in Jake. I don’t want you to believe, even for a moment, that you deserve him.”

She’d gone to stomp away when Elena thought of something. “Aerilyn — wait.”

“What?”

“If you insist on playing hunter,” she held out the reins, “why don’t you make yourself useful and find Braver something to drink?”

She snatched the reins and stormed away. As she led him into the thicket, Elena could hear her ranting to the poor horse about all the many flaws of his mistress.

While they marched off, Elena got ready. Her fingers slid down her bandolier of throwing knives, dragging across each of the seven hilts. Slight and Shadow were strapped to her upper arms. Their smooth, blackened pommels reassured her as she touched them. They calmed her nerves and chased the numbness back — bringing her limbs alive with her mind’s strength.

If she closed her eyes, she could hear them better: the many pairs of footsteps heading her way. They moved fractions at a time, careful not to stir a single twig or leaf. But their silence gave them away.

Elena could feel the pressure of their focus upon her chest, her back — against the thick vein beneath her throat. They might as well have lunged for her, the way their eyes grabbed. But though they ringed the entire clearing, her heart kept a calm, steady beat.

“All right, gentlemen,” she called into the trees. “Let’s get this over with.”

Aerilyn’s mood didn’t improve.
 

She’d finally lost her temper. After days of putting up with Elena’s constant grumping and snide remarks, she found she could no longer hold it in — and the moment she’d dragged Braver into the woods, the words came spilling out.

“I can’t believe her! No one could possibly be so horrid — a
witch
would’ve blushed at the things she’s said. What Jake could ever see in such a woman is completely beyond me.”

Beside her, Braver watched with his large, brown-eyed stare.

Aerilyn frowned at him. “You’re decent enough, for a horse. What do you see in her, then?” she asked as she led him to the edge of a trickling stream. “What isn’t she telling me?”

Braver dipped his mouth into the waters, grasping at them with his lips. Aerilyn watched for a moment. She brushed the dirt from the short hairs on his neck, and found the warmth beneath his skin to be rather soothing.

In any case, it reminded her that there were more important things to worry about.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter,” she said, thinking. “We’ll be at Lakeshore in a few days’ time. Once I’ve convinced the Countess to speak to the King on our behalf, the seas will be saved. And we can put all this behind … behind …”

No, it wasn’t any good. Her worries had been building up, pressing against the back of her eyes. She’d managed to keep them pinned behind a wall of other things — other worries that she’d convinced herself were far more important. But now that Elena wasn’t around to attack her for it, she found she had no defense.

“I don’t know what to do! What
am
I going to do? I’ve got no chance at all. I can’t stop the King. There’s going to be a war …”
 

Aerilyn pressed the hem of her tunic against her eyes, hoping it would staunch the flow of tears. But it didn’t. There were too many of them, each one was too full. They would spill out until they’d run their course.

Nobody would listen to her. Everyone she’d spoken to was convinced that the trouble in the seas was nothing more than a merchant’s squabble, that the election of a new high chancellor would solve everything. They seemed to think that Chaucer had simply run away, or that the council had quietly deposed him.
 

Nobody believed the rumor that the heads of Midlan’s soldiers had been stuffed into a bag, or that the servants had seen the castle guards dumping their corpses off the bridge — the council swore that the King’s envoy had left of their own accord. Nobody believed the Countess had anything at all to do with it.

But Aerilyn knew very well what D’Mere was capable of … and she didn’t doubt it for a moment.

Still, Lysander couldn’t be convinced. He thought all of their problems ended with the council’s bickering. Even Thelred didn’t believe her — and he’d blasted well
seen
D’Mere at the castle! He’d heard how she threatened them.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” he’d snapped at her. “She’s stood by Crevan all this time. He’s got every last shred of power. Why in Kingdom’s name would she suddenly turn against him?”

Aerilyn hadn’t been able to answer them, and so they’d sailed off: Thelred to the chancellor’s castle, and Lysander to Harborville — leaving her with no choice but to turn to Elena.

As miserable as that forest woman made the air around her, Aerilyn needed her help. She had to reach Lakeshore alive … and Elena was her best chance.

Braver stood patiently while Aerilyn crumpled down beside him. His ears twitched at the noise of her sobs before he bent to nibble at the tufts of grass near her boots.

It was strange, but having a good cry about something always seemed to clear her mind — like the sunlight after a rain. She didn’t know why she put it off, why she sat around in the haze. For it was in the moments she felt the lowest that she heard her father’s voice:

Dry those tears, my darling. Feeling sorry for yourself doesn’t help anybody else — and there are plenty of people who deserve to cry more than you
.

Aerilyn’s chest shuddered as she took a deep breath; the bottom of her tunic was positively soaked from her tears. But she knew her father was right — he’d always been right. There were women in the Kingdom who’d lost their children and husbands, who would never have the chance to see them again.

Aerilyn was apart from those she loved, yes. But she hadn’t lost anything. In fact, she had a chance to
save
everything. If she couldn’t convince the Countess to help the seas, there would be more death, more tears. She had no choice but to save it.

But she would need Elena’s help.

Braver seemed to be enjoying himself, so rather than dragging him back through the thicket, she hung his reins upon a tree. “I’ll be back in a moment. Try to stay out of trouble, will you?”

The grass at his nose flattened against his snort.

The undergrowth was horribly spiny. She supposed she hadn’t noticed it before because she’d been so furious. But now she had to pick her way through briar and thorn, lifting her boots to her knees in some places just to inch across.

Her quivers kept getting snagged, her bow kept lodging its end into every tangle of roots she passed. Aerilyn finally slung the blasted thing from her shoulder and held it above her head. She was a half-dozen paces from the clearing when she heard the noise of someone screaming.