"Why do you help that brute?"
A shadow passed over his face. "I was helping you—" He clamped his mouth and stood up facing the lighter horizon.
"Helping?" She stood up with him, intending to pry answers out of him before he could leave again. Leave to transform. "Since you first appeared I've had nothing but trouble. How do I know it wasn't you that caused it?"
He scowled at the horizon.
"You don't even deny it. That proves it!" Proves that he was Faldon in disguise. Faldon, who caused all this trouble.
"It proves nothing!" His retort startled her into quiet. "You have no idea the mess you've stepped into and no right to interfere."
"I wasn't interfering! I didn't ask to step into any mess. I only came to heal the king of this land, who, as I understand, Faldon gave his support to." She crossed her arms with a self-righteous air. He couldn't deny the truth in her statement.
He strode away without a word.
"Where are you going?" She ran after him.
"I have better things to do."
"Like what? Why don't you answer my questions?"
Without looking back, he lifted a hand and waved, a clear dismissal of her questions.
Selina crossed her arms and glared at his receding back. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of chasing him down. Why couldn't he cooperate? She only demanded answers.
He'd be back soon.
Now, to eat. Her stomach rumbled, and she sat down. Her pile of fruit had grown. Selina looked up to catch the stranger, but he vanished into the woods. Maybe she had been too harsh.
No. If he was Faldon, he deserved it.
She ate quickly, glad for the juicy fruits, but needing something more to sustain her. She craved meat, but the stranger apparently didn't bother to hunt. Not surprising.
When Faldon reappeared, Selina watched him. She said nothing. What if she was wrong? She didn't want to know if what she suspected about his curse was the truth. The man showed some semblance of hospitality. This way she could still hate Faldon the feyquin.
Anxious to return to her friends and continue her journey, she started out on the road with the feyquin.
Before the sun reached its zenith, the first faint pillars of smoke rose into the sky. Excited by the prospects of civilization, she climbed to the top of the nearest hill.
From there, she spotted a town, if the couple dozen wood-shingled roofs and other structures within the low stone wall could be called a town. What luck! It had to be Willowbrook. It might take half a morning, but she would reach it.
She hurried towards it without consideration for her feyquin escort. In fact, she wished they would leave her alone.
However, their steps followed her not far behind.
Faldon made no attempt to stop her, but neither did he speak to her. His presence grated on her nerves, perhaps more because of his silence. Or was he afraid she'd confirm the truth?
After a short time, she stopped. "Leave me alone!"
"No."
"I don't need you. I won't go back. Why do you follow me?"
"To find the truth."
"What truth?" Now what did he want?
"The real reason he sent for you."
"Who? The White Prince? I don't know. If it's other than to cure the king, I've no idea." Was this the reason for his quiet all morning—to think about how to stop her from continuing to the Ivory Palace? She doubted any other reason, after all the ways he tried to stop her.
"He has the best medics in any land. Why would King Antorin need a
Na'Y'dom
?" Faldon lowered his head, his ears up, and looked her in the eyes. "Sorvin would sooner kill his father, as he did Prince Kemmon, to assure his inheritance of the throne. I would have endorsed Kemmon. He knew that. He sent his sisters to marry overseas. With his father gone and any other heirs out of the way, he would be assured succession.
"Curing Antorin is a ruse. His only other purpose is the curse. I suspect you're a key to a cure. If he's learned how, I
must
know."
"Me? How could I undo a demon's curse?"
"I don't know. But I'll learn. If one of us is cured, the other can never be. That is the nature of our curse. I bet he hopes to cure himself so I am damned the rest of my years."
Selina stared at the dark gray face, uncertain now of her purpose. Was this a trick to keep her back, a game to amuse the feyquin, or the truth? Sorvin was also cursed?
She didn't want to believe the feyquin, but something in her agreed with him. She answered the call of those in need of healing. But was curing either Faldon or the prince the right thing? Cure one and leave the other damned the rest of his life—how could she make that choice? Could the rumors of the White Prince's atrocities be believed?
She didn't know what to do. "Is Antorin sick?"
"According to servants' gossip, he is bedridden and frail from illness," Meris said.
"Then I'll go to him. I have a duty to heal the sick until my life is gone." None of them said a word. Her eyes fixed on Faldon in expectance of another argument.
Instead, his ears flattened and he turned away with his head down. The other two joined him and made sounds she guessed to be their own language.
She looked ahead to the town, where her friends most likely took rest. Her body ached for the same respite.
But she couldn't help wondering if Faldon spoke the truth. She had saved murderers before, but not anyone who would kill their own family. The thought of being used by someone that power-hungry sickened and angered her. She almost felt sorry for the feyquin.
Almost.
If she cured the king, Sorvin fay Renald would lose any power he claimed in his father's stead. Antorin could take the steps necessary to prevent his son from causing any other atrocities.
Selina sighed. Whether Sorvin called her to heal the king or himself was not her concern. Her reason for agreeing to come remained the same. She would heal the king, whether Faldon let her continue or not. Whether Sorvin intended it or not.
A sudden deep squeal startled her from her thoughts. Selina whirled.
Faldon's rear hooves thudded hard against Dewel's ribs. The red feyquin tucked his tail and raced out of reach, but Faldon stopped a couple strides from where he started, his ears flat back.
She stared, her pulse pounding in her ears. "Why did you kick him like that?"
"Our ways are not yours, human!" Despite his angry tone, Faldon held his ears forward.
Even in her few days with the feyquin, she knew it meant something. Their ways were certainly not like those of humans, but she learned.
What was she thinking? Why would she want to learn the ways of the feyquin? After healing the king, she would have little time left to live. And these creatures were brutes. Why waste it learning about them?
Because Faldon is the stranger, and you're attracted to the human side.
The truth made her warm under her collar. She scowled at herself for considering such thoughts. Faldon didn't deserve her favor.
"No, we would never hurt our own kind." She mumbled the words with a sour tone, hoping he overheard.
He heard, and pinned his ears flat to his neck. "Do not mock me!" After a few seconds, he walked around her.
She followed him. "Why are you so angry?"
Faldon said nothing but stood with his head up, ears erect, staring away.
Steady steps came from behind. Dewel appeared on her left and Meris on her right. Both watched the gray.
Faldon glanced back once before walking away along the road. When the two others followed, Selina had no choice. She jogged up beside Dewel, who walked with his head low.
"Are you all right? Can I help?" She'd never done it, but she guessed she could heal the feyquin. Her powers had worked on felipar and a few other animals she practiced on.
"I'm fine."
"But he kicked you hard. I heard it. You didn't do anything to him to deserve that."
"You don't understand our ways." He let out a soft groan.
"Of course not. If no one tells me anything, how can I?"
He walked in silence for several steps. She waited for an answer, but none of them said anything. Selina let out her frustration in a huff. "If that's the way you want to be, then no one will ever understand."
"It hurts to breathe, to explain," Dewel said.
Anger melted from her, pulling her shoulders down in pity. "Why not let me help?"
"No...Thank you. Save your strength for your friend."
"I have plenty of strength for both." She reached out for the bump growing on his side, but he sidled away.
"No!"
She shook her head and huffed out her breath. "Have it your way. I won't touch you."
They walked in silence, until the thunder of hooves alerted her to another feyquin. Faldon stopped, like Dewel and Meris on each side of her. She stood tense like them. One of the others who had chased away her carriage met Faldon, his nostrils flared and sweat over his black neck and chest.
They spoke in their own language. She hated that.
"Your friends are safe," Meris said. "Grem stayed behind. He's waiting for us."
"Why?"
"It's a courtesy."
"Courtesy?
Now
you show some concern?"
"Faldon said it already—feyquin do
not
kill. Nor do we intend harm. When harm comes to another because of our actions, we will atone." Irritation rang in Meris's voice.
"How?" She hoped he said they would leave her alone once she reached her friends and let her continue her journey to the Ivory Palace.
Meris's ears flattened, but before he could act, Faldon jumped between them. He bared his teeth at Meris. "Enough!"
Faldon turned to Selina. "You'll be with your friends soon, but they have no carriage for you." Satisfaction lifted his tone at the last part.
Her eyes narrowed, but he turned away. She knew what he meant to imply, but she wouldn't give up.
"For one who approved Antorin, I'd think he would want the king healed." She followed Faldon and the black she ruled out as Bastien.
"It's not so simple."
She frowned at Dewel. "Why?"
"Faldon lost everything because of Sorvin's greed. If not for the curse, he would still have the herd. A human caused his suffering." Dewel took a deep breath, his eyes pinching shut for a moment. Selina winced at the groan escaping when he breathed.
"Long ago, he tried to bring the feyquin together with the human's domain, hoping we could live together in peace. For three generations, he gave his blessings to the new heir of Vastorn, after they proved their hearts. Sorvin failed in every way but demanded the blessing, for the strength of the feyquin's alliance and what that means to the people. As the leader of the feyquin, Faldon refused to endorse the White Prince. His choice was young Kemmon. Sorvin knew that."
"Faldon, a peacemaker?" They could kick her outright and she wouldn't have believed it. "Wait...
Three
generations, of the fay Renald family?"