Daybreak (16 page)

It was a man: he shrieked as if he’d just been badly hurt, and the terror in his voice made Aerilyn take a lurching step forward. But at the last moment, she forced herself to stop.

You don’t know what’s on the other side of those shrubs
, she thought, trying to stay calm even as the screams grew more desperate.
Take a good look before you jump out into the open
.

Slowly, she crouched and slid forward, clenching her teeth against the screams. There were other, fainter sounds coming from the clearing: grunts and thuds, and the clanging of steel.

When Aerilyn found a hole to watch through, she had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep from gasping at what she saw.

It was Elena — Elena against a horde of men. They swarmed so closely around her that Aerilyn could only catch a few glimpses here and there: the fall of her black daggers, the spray of red behind them; the armored heel of her boot thrust from the swarm, knocking one of the men to the ground with a yelp.

Elena slid among her attackers like a shadow, moving so fluidly that she seemed to be doing nothing more than whipping her hands past them or tapping her fists against their throats. Yet, their bodies fell at an alarming rate.

In the few moments Aerilyn watched, the horde thinned considerably. Men would come charging into the center and a half-second later, stumble straight out the other side — a desperate grip on their spurting throats. She caught a full look at Elena’s body when she rolled herself over a man’s shoulder … and flinched when three arrows thudded into his chest.

Elena held the man’s body up like a shield as she charged towards the place where the arrows had come from. The horde followed close behind her — but not closely enough to save the archers.

The man who screamed now crouched alone where the circle had been. He clutched a bloodied hand to his chest and shrieked at the little objects scattered across the ground around him.

Aerilyn hoped they weren’t fingers. Oh, she hoped to the seas that they weren’t fingers. But when the man raised his hand out before him and she saw that all but his thumb was missing, she knew that was
precisely
what they were.

His eyes were crazed and white around their edges. As he leapt to his feet and came charging towards her, Aerilyn saw the crest emblazoned upon his tunic. Even through the blood, she could make out the twisted oak tree of the Grandforest — the mark of Countess D’Mere.

These men must be her agents. But then why were they attacking Elena? She’d thought … no, she’d been
certain
…

A hollow
thud
broke Aerilyn from her shock. One of the black daggers dropped the wounded man mere paces from the clearing’s edge, buried to its hilt inside his back. Elena cut through what little remained of the horde and stepped across their bodies — not so much as a drop of red upon her armor.

She’d reached the middle of the clearing when a noise stopped her short.
 

An archer stepped out of the bushes on her left. His bow was drawn, his hand steady. One of his eyes was already locked upon Elena’s chest.

Even from a distance, Aerilyn heard her heavy sigh. Elena looked at the archer as if he’d just said something stupid — no more concerned with his arrow than a slight hurled from across the room. Her hand went to her bandolier and Aerilyn flinched, expecting a dagger to go bursting through the archer’s chest at any moment. But it didn’t.

For some reason, Elena wasn’t moving — not even when the archer tugged his arrow back its full length did she flinch. The dark brows above her mask, usually so sharp and taut, fell slack. Her hand dropped from her chest and the black dagger she carried fell from the other.

The arrow flew.

Elena stood still.

Aerilyn felt a scream tear from her throat. She watched in horror as Elena fell to her knees — gaping at the arrow that hung from her chest.
 

The archer laughed. He flung his bow aside and drew the dagger from his belt. “The Countess wants you skinned alive. She wants your hide for her floors. Where should I start, eh? At the ankles … or the wrists?”

Something fierce came over Aerilyn. She watched that archer stalk towards Elena and didn’t remember even getting to her feet. She was vaguely aware of the fletching beneath her chin, and just remembered to brace herself for the blast.

Still, when the arrow struck and the archer’s body exploded, the force knocked her off her feet.

“Elena?” Her ears rang so badly that she couldn’t hear if she’d actually
said
her name — perhaps she’d only thought it. The ringing made her head spin too terribly to concentrate. She knew better than to fire at such close range. A normal arrow would’ve done her just as well.

Why hadn’t she just taken a moment to
think
before she shot?

Slowly, Aerilyn pulled herself from the brush and stumbled into the clearing. There was little more than a blackened smudge where the archer had stood. She tried not to look at it too closely, tried not to wonder about all the charred bits scattered around its edges. Instead, she kept her eyes fixed upon Elena.

The forest woman had managed to prop herself up on one elbow. Her other hand was wrapped absently around the shaft that hung from her chest, just below her shoulder. Aerilyn knew by the way her dark brows rose above her mask that she must be in pain.

“Elena! Oh, does it hurt terribly? Are you all r —?”

“
What
in the bloody under-realm was that?” Elena howled. There were charred bits of archer stuck to her face and in the loose strands of her hair. When she twisted to look at Aerilyn, shock ringed the darks of her eyes.

“Well, I did warn you — I told you those arrows were for dealing trouble.”

“
Dealing
with it? Is this what
dealing
means to you?” Elena flopped onto her back, turning her shock upon the high arches of the trees. “You could’ve missed. I could’ve been blown into a thousand pieces.”

Aerilyn thought she was being slightly ridiculous. “He shot you! What was I supposed to do? Just stand back and let him skin you? And my aim is excellent, I’ll have you know. I make it a point to practice at least once a week.”

Elena groaned.

Aerilyn frowned at her before she turned to the wound. Blood welled at the arrow’s base, but she didn’t think there was
too
much blood — not enough to cost Elena her life, surely. Still, the skin above her mask had gone frightfully pale, and she seemed to be breathing quite a bit more heavily than usual.

“Are you …? Will you live, do you think?”

Elena looked at her as if that was the stupidest question she’d ever heard — which assured her more than anything. “Yes. I’m going to live. That idiot missed my heart.”

“I should hope he did. Why didn’t you move?”

Elena didn’t answer. Her scowl turned dark. “Just be careful when you pull it out, all right? I don’t want the head to get loose —”

“You want
me
to pull it out?” Aerilyn’s stomach lurched when she nodded. The tips of her fingers went numb.

“There was poison on the arrow — no, it’s not that kind of poison,” Elena snapped in the middle of her gasp. “This poison only affects whisperers. It takes my strength away, for a while. I don’t trust myself to pull it out cleanly. So … you’ll have to do it.”

*******

Elena was surprised at how quickly she agreed. She was surprised about a lot of things, actually: the confidence with which Aerilyn had drawn her bow, the straight flight of her arrow — the bone-rattling blast that’d followed. But what surprised her most was the fact that she seemed completely unbothered by it all.

The look in Aerilyn’s eyes as she gripped the arrow was so calm that it was almost … unsettling.

A blinding pain, a jolt that made her cry out and brimmed her eyes with tears, and the arrow was gone. Elena lay very still as the ferocity of her wound clogged her ears. She heard the sound of ripping fabric, then felt such a burst of agony inside her wound that she had to shut her eyes just to stay conscious.

Slowly, her flesh stopped screaming. The pressure of Aerilyn’s hands dulled the pain to a steady thud. “I wish Kael were here. He’d have this sealed up in no time.”

“Well, he isn’t. So we’re going to have to wrap it in something else.”

She heard the sound of more ripping fabric beneath Aerilyn’s muttering. “I told you we should’ve packed some binding.”

“If it’d been left up to you, we would’ve packed half the mansion. Why did you come back?” Elena said, cutting off whatever indignant reply Aerilyn had at the ready. “I thought you were off playing hunter.”

“Well, I … all that ended rather quickly when I heard the yelling and clanging coming from over here. And I wasn’t playing — I really
do
know how to hunt. Turn over.”

Elena sat up and tried to be still while Aerilyn fumbled her way through the wrapping. “You’re going to have to bind my arm to my chest.”

“Is it broken?”

“No,” Elena tried to speak slowly, “but if you don’t brace it, the wound’s likely to tear. Wrap it beneath my elbow. You’re going to have to make it tight —”

“You need stitching,” Aerilyn growled, pressing the fabric against the wound. “Pinewatch isn’t too far from here, and we have an excellent healer.”

Elena’s pain numbed with her dread. “No. Not there. I told you I didn’t want to stop in and spend days sitting around while you chat with your people,” she said when Aerilyn frowned.

“We haven’t exactly got a choice, have we? Pinewatch is the closest village … and I don’t think you want to stop in at Lakeshore for a healer.”

She stood and wiped her hands across her trousers. There was so much material missing from the hem of her tunic that an arch of her skin showed out its bottom. “Why wouldn’t I want to go to Lakeshore?”

“I know who you are, Elena. She doesn’t bring you out often, but I’ve seen you in the Countess’s court. It would take more than a mask to fool me,” Aerilyn added wryly. “When you first showed up in the plains, I thought D’Mere might’ve … sent you to look after me. Even when you went away, I always assumed you were somewhere close by. I planned to confront her about it when we reached Lakeshore. I planned to tell her that all of her games were at an end — that you’d already told me everything and were willing to speak about it before the King.

“I know the sort of work you must’ve done for her,” Aerilyn went on, careful to keep her eyes from Elena. “After seeing the way you handle those blades, it isn’t difficult to imagine. And I thought the Countess would be so desperate to keep you that she’d listen to whatever I had to say. But you don’t work for her anymore, do you?”

There was a flash of cold behind her smirk. Though the ice wasn’t meant for Elena, she still felt its bite.

Aerilyn gazed over her shoulder at the bodies scattered around them; her grim smile never wavered. “D’Mere might’ve sent you after me in the beginning — to watch me or bring me back to the Grandforest, I’ll never know. But whatever she sent you to do, it looks as if you’ve had a change of heart.” 

She wound her fingers tightly in what remained of her tunic and bit down on her lip.
 

Elena knew what was about to happen. “Don’t. Please don’t —”

“And even though you knew she would kill you, you were still willing to take me!” Aerilyn cried. “You’ve been so brave while I’ve done nothing but hurt you.
I’m
the horrible one. I’ve been so busy turning my nose up at you that I couldn’t see what all you’ve done — for my friends, for the Kingdom … for me.” Tears streamed from her eyes and left wet trails down her cheeks. “I know she must have forced you to do some terrible things, but I want you to know that I don’t care anymore. Whatever you were before, it doesn’t matter. It’s obvious now that you love us. And I’m … I’m going to try harder to deserve it.”

Elena managed to keep her face calm — but inwardly, she sighed in relief. Aerilyn had been so close to guessing the truth. She’d come right to the doorway and stopped just before she reached it. While she was a bit surprised that the merchant’s daughter had been hoping to use her against the Countess, it didn’t change anything.

Elena would keep to her plan.

“There’s no point in sobbing over it. Let’s just get to Lakeshore — I know another way in,” she said when she saw the argument on Aerilyn’s face. “The Countess won’t know we’re there until it’s too late.”

“But what about your wound? I don’t want you suffering the whole —”

“I’ve suffered worse.” Slowly, she dragged herself to her feet, wincing against the way her skin pulled on her wound. “Help me find the rest of my throwing knives, will you? Two are stuck in those corpses over there.”

Aerilyn wrinkled her nose, but did as she was told — with a great deal of squealing.

Even after nightfall, Kael’s blood didn’t cool. He listened to the rhythm of Kyleigh’s wings as they rose and fell, as she carried them towards the mountains. But his eyes stayed fixed on the clouds below.

There were breaks every now and then, darkened gaps between the rifts that the stars couldn’t touch. Kael wasn’t quite sure what he searched for: a glimpse of torchlight, the flash of a spell — any sign that Midlan was following them. He hoped it was. He hoped Crevan sent the full force of his army into the Valley.

If they passed through the Cleft, they weren’t likely to return.

The warrior in him began to stir with this thought. It cleaved to the memories of what they’d done at Midlan and howled for more. Kael’s muscles tensed at the faded bursts of the mages’ spells, the echoes of the soldiers’ worried cries. The night air glanced across his teeth as he broke into an involuntary grin at the memory of Kyleigh’s fire — the ferocity of its heat, the danger wrought in each bright yellow line of flame …

A low, rumbling growl cut through his thoughts. The scales across Kyleigh’s back bunched together as her muscles coiled. 

Kael realized that she must’ve been able to see the things he saw, to feel the wonder radiating through his grip. He knew he shouldn’t spur her on, but the wildness of his heart won out over the warning of his mind. So he placed his hands very firmly against her back and let one thought rise to the front of his mind — words that gave a name to all the fiery, prideful things that burst within him: