Frey Saga Book II: Pieces of Eight (7 page)

“
What?” I
was on the defense again. Her eyes narrowed. She suspected
I’d
done something to the
girl? I should. But then I looked back at them, Steed and the girl,
and suddenly I knew, I
had
done something to her. But not what Ruby thought,
not magic from where I sat. I had been in her head. Like the
birds.

But ugh, the pain was
horrible! Not like the birds, like the cats. Only worse. Harder,
more exhausting, more painful. She was coming to now; they helped
her sit up. She looked weak, tired. I lay back down and covered my
head to think. Or maybe
not
think.

I was asleep so fast I
might have blacked out. My dreams were darkness but not still.
Swirling blackness surrounded me, enveloping. And then there were
voices. None of them I recognized, but one of them I knew. It was
familiar, though I couldn’t place exactly who it belonged to. “…
they are like dumb animals… weak… she could get through to them…
think of the possibilities…” I knew he was talking about me. He was
talking about me and them. Was he comparing me to a dumb animal?
Anger flooded me and the darkness turned to water as I struggled to
reach the surface, unable to breathe.

I woke gasping and expected
to find Ruby there, watching me. What I saw instead was almost as
shocking as the dreams.

“
There, there.” Steed was
trying to comfort me, brush my bangs from my face. I jerked a
little at his touch. “Rough one, was it?”

Was he teasing me?
I might have glared at him. He laughed. I looked
for Ruby and Chevelle. They were several yards away, watching me,
pretending not to. I wanted to groan when I saw Chevelle’s tight
jaw.

I sat up, wrapping my arms
around my knees to bury my head. As I became fully awake, I
wondered if Steed had been teasing me all along, trying to irritate
me for fun. Surely he had no real interest in that human girl
(curse the thought trying to surface that
I
was part human). I wondered how I
could have such distaste for someone who was so like me. I lifted
my eyes just enough to peer over my forearms. I looked for the girl
and found her, sitting as far away as possible without being
considered outside of the camp, with her puppy.

No, she was not like
me.

Out of the corner of my
eye, I noticed Steed’s grin as he watched me scrutinize her. I
glared at him full force in response. All I received in reply was a
light laugh as he got up and trotted across the camp to play with
the puppy. I vowed not to give him the satisfaction of watching
them.

But, apparently, I wasn’t
one to hold to my word. Because when I saw him close to her,
talking low and calling her my sunny nicknames, I found myself
acting without regard to anything like dignity.

Everyone in the camp turned
to stare in astonishment as the small blonde girl smacked Steed
with all her might across the face. Everyone but me… because I had
already been focused on them. I only had a moment to enjoy it
before the pain and blackness came again.

When I woke this time, Ruby
was beside me. I forced myself to sit up so I could find them. The
girl was sitting alone, looking completely confused and ashamed,
and rubbing her temples. Steed was standing away from both of us,
talking to Grey, turned mostly with his back toward me. I could see
the edge of a bright red welt on his cheek.

I smiled with satisfaction
as I lay back down to recover.

Though no one could have
known it was me, I was quiet the next few days. My attack seemed to
have quelled the interest of the others in the human and I couldn’t
have been happier about it. Silence was the easiest way to mask my
contentment.

I knew they’d be getting
rid of her soon, though I’d not heard any more discussion on the
matter. I tried not to wonder how much longer I had before we found
the council, or they us. I could see a few of them now, but I
couldn’t recall their names or anything about them. Only random
images had returned. I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone; it seemed
hardly worth the commotion it caused. Commotion made my head
ache.

The grass thickened and the
trees began to look more like those of the village, though not near
as large. We’d stopped near a pond to camp and I was considering
going in as Ruby took the girl for her evening’s privacy. The men
gathered nearby, talking in hushed voices. I decided it wasn’t
worth eavesdropping so I looked out over the water, watching the
dragonflies bounce just above the surface.

Their discussion became
heated and I absentmindedly turned toward them. My eyes caught a
flicker of movement past them, in a tree line several yards away
and then, suddenly, Chevelle was gone and Steed and Grey were
posted in front of me protectively before I had a chance to see
what it was. Or who it was. Why hadn’t we heard the wolves
signal?

Panic washed through me
before I could think rationally. Who had come for us? For
me?

But I knew, even if
it
was
council
,
that
was who we were looking for. I cursed myself again for insisting I
come along. The seconds dragged on as I waited. After a few
eternities, I heard a voice I recognized. Junnie. She was speaking
with Chevelle in a rush, her voice low. As they drew near, Steed
and Anvil relaxed slightly in front of me, Anvil stepping a pace to
the side. I realized I was standing, Steed’s arm so close it was
almost touching my chest as he stood, still half in front of me. As
I stared past him, I noticed his muscles were tensed and I wondered
why he’d still be protecting me.

And then I remembered
Junnie was council. And my mother’s aunt. Confusion took over and I
clutched Steed’s arm in an attempt to focus. I had no idea how to
react to her. She was still speaking to Chevelle, a flood of words
running together, she hadn’t even seemed to notice me.

When she finally looked my
direction, it was not at me. I barely had time to turn and see Ruby
approaching before it happened. The spots in my vision came just as
fast. Through them, I saw a flash of Junnie’s cloak flying past as
she picked up the limp body of the girl. The human.

Chapter Four

Paranoia

I should have caught on by
then that the fainting was a protection mechanism. But I didn’t
often think rationally. And shock wasn’t exactly an easily
controlled reaction. It was just that I missed so much every time I
blacked out. All the important stuff.

Before my eyes opened the
first time, I heard someone. “… she took Snickers…” Recognition
came. The puppy. And confusion was back. Junnie had seen the girl,
the human, and her reaction was so fierce. I’d heard a low oath
just before the girl’s body hit the ground with a thud. She hadn’t
even waited for an explanation. My stomach churned. I hadn’t even
tried.

My eyelids fluttered and
the blackness came again. But this time, there were
dreams.

I was in the practice
rooms. A tall, dark man with a large scar across his brow was
threatening me, or pushing me too far, I couldn’t be sure. There
was darkness again; it was creeping in on us, closer and closer.
And then I was alone in the darkness as it swirled around me. But I
couldn't have been alone because I heard voices. My chest tightened
as I realized what they were saying about me. Comparing me to them,
like dumb animals. It ached. How could he? I didn’t understand. I
ran to my mother, she had been right.

It was a long time after I
woke before I could bear to open my eyes. When I did, they were all
quiet. But I didn’t question them. And I’d forgotten about the
girl, about Junnie. All I could think of was the dream. It had
twisted my reality. I couldn’t get it to fall in place in my
thoughts. I had known the voice this time. But it couldn’t be
right. My grandfather must have been killed in the massacre, he
hadn’t ruled since. He
must
have been gone.

But the man in my dream was
not gone.

Lord Asher.

My mother’s father, the one
who had driven her to the massacre, the man who had pushed us both.
I felt the pain associated with the memory. It couldn’t have been.
How could that man have been the same Asher, the same man that had
met with Chevelle? I remembered the first time I had seen him. The
look he’d given me, the way his knuckles whitened as he gripped the
staff, his shabby cloak. I remembered thinking it must have been a
disguise because of the way he carried himself, and then chastising
myself for being so paranoid.

I realized I was staring at
Chevelle as I recalled their meeting. He was watching me, concern
on his face. A thought flashed that maybe he knew that I was on to
him
.
But it was
all so wrong.

My head spun and I closed
my eyes. I tried to find something to grasp, something to steady me
before I blacked out again. I needed a way to fix the conflict.
Asher couldn’t have been my grandfather
.
I struggled to sit up long enough
to reach my pack. I felt around for the only thing real I had. My
fingers finally caught the edge of the binding and I pulled the
diary out, clutching it tight as if someone might try and take it
from me.

I couldn’t make myself look
at the others, but I knew what they’d be thinking. It was a few
minutes before I could focus well enough to read. I flipped through
the first pages: my mother as a child; her father’s
prize.

A tear tracked down my
cheek and I wiped at it absentmindedly. And then I felt their eyes
on me so I hardened, biting down, determined to keep another from
escaping.

I scanned back through,
searching for mention of him, but I kept getting caught in the
story. It was all so different now, now that it wasn’t a stranger.
It was my mother’s story, my story. And Asher’s?

Lord Asher.

Page after page I kept my
nose buried in the diary. No one asked me to move. But they kept
close. I could feel them watching, waiting. Eventually, exhaustion
won out and the dreams were back.

The next day, I was almost
certain the dreams were not just dreams, they were memories. And
Asher was
Lord
Asher. But what I could not reconcile was how he was alive,
how he could have met with Chevelle, and why.

My thoughts were clearer
now but that made them all the more distressing. I felt like
secrets were everywhere, swallowing me.

I recalled each time I had
seen him. I focused on the day we all had seen him in the tree
line: how they had reacted to his single nod. I could see his braid
swing behind him as he turned and disappeared into the brush. I
struggled to understand and I couldn’t help but remember what had
happened just before, a memory I’d not returned to willingly. I
could still hear the sickening thud as the council tracker’s head
landed on the ground. The sight of it rolling to a stop, the blood
on my blade.

Yet I could not
understand.

And so I forced myself to
stop thinking of it. It was the only way to put an end to the
screeching pain in my head. But when I finally calmed it to a dull
throb, I could begin to feel the ache in my chest. It was tough to
breathe.
How could they…
But I couldn’t even finish the thought before the
other pain returned.

It was some time later that
I broke, unable to stand the conflict in my own mind, the pain I
was causing myself. The pain they were causing me? No, I wouldn’t
think it. When I finally gave, I found solace in the mind of the
hawk as it hovered above us, floating on the current of the wind. I
stayed there, void of all other thoughts, until I surrendered and
returned to my own tortured body.

In time, I found a
compromise with myself. I would only allow a set amount of
concentration, a set amount of worry, each day to feed my concern
and distress. The rest would be devoted to the one thing I was
positive of: we… no,
I
needed to find council, to release my mind from the bonds that
felt like they were killing me.

I could only hope that it
would release the memories as well, remove all of the unanswered
questions, erase the doubt. Doubt that was even now creeping into
every thought I had. How could they? And always, why?

Finally, I was in control
of myself enough to continue. Our task was my first priority now.
Find council. I focused on my memories of them, the images of their
faces. It was all I had but at least it was something.

Ruby scrutinized me,
obviously concerned, as we rode through a field of tall grass. I
ignored her, pretending to watch my horse steal bites along the
way, struggling to keep a steady pace as his head bent sideways
securing generous mouthfuls.

She couldn’t stand it for
long. “Frey?”

I looked at her blankly.
Her eyes went wide. Well, I’d thought it was
blankly
.
I tried
to smooth out my face. “Hmm?”

She must not have planned
it out, because she apparently had nothing to say. Her face looked
slightly tortured. I wondered what she was reading on
mine.