Promising Light (29 page)

“Why? Because Lisbeth said you
could?”

“Why couldn’t I?” She tried to
keep her voice steady. “Goodness, you’ve been treating me like a
child ever since that man at the tavern.”

“Then stop acting like one,” Dar
said in a low voice.

“But what about before that?”
Grace demanded. “When you acted like—”

A knock sounded at the door, and
Grace fell silent. She wanted to say, ‘When you acted like we were
equals, like we were best friends, like you trusted me.’ Instead,
she turned around and opened the door. Sierra and Evan stood in the
hallway.

“Everything going okay?” Sierra
asked.

“Come in,” Dar called.

Sierra and Evan came in, and Grace
shut the door behind them.

“And how do I know you two are who
you say you are?” Dar asked.

Evan swung his bag off his shoulder
and brought out an iron manacle. “Sashe let me keep this.” He held
it out to Dar. “You can feel the Mahri magic when you hold
it.”

Dar took it and turned it over in
his hands. He held it out for Grace, who just stared at him. Who
else would know about their night in Belisha? “Go on, take it,” Dar
pressed.

She snatched it from him. Her
fingers tingled, and she started. Nothing happened to her, though,
and she looked at Dar steadily. “Satisfied?”

Sierra took it next, then it went
back into Evan’s bag. “So, what did you two decide?” Sierra asked,
looking from Dar to Grace.

Dar looked at Grace with a frown.
“Nothing, really.”

Grace took a breath. “Maybe I
should have stayed. But I just couldn’t believe they’d consider
those things… and my father was entertaining it all… I didn’t feel
safe there. I knew if I wanted to help the Avialies, I had to get
out of there.” She paused, then repeated, “I can’t lie
anymore.”

“So, what then?” Dar asked. “You
want to help them find the ancient texts?”

Grace glanced at Sierra and Evan,
who waited for her to respond. After a moment of hesitation, she
said, “Honestly, I don’t know how much we should tell
you.”

Dar stared at her.
“What?”

“If you’re just going to run and
tell the prince or the Protectors where we’re going—”

“Why would I do that?”

Grace let out a sardonic laugh. “I
don’t know, why did you make the deal with them to never see me
again? Why did you lie to your family? To protect me,
right?”

Dar frowned. “Their mercy with
Avialie sympathizers only goes so far. They’ll kill you if I say
anything. If they don’t kill me first.”

“They weren’t going to kill me
yesterday—”

“They were talking to your father,
of course they weren’t going to say that killing you was one of
their ideas,” he said.

The thought made Grace’s hair stand
on end.

“And that was before you left in
the middle of the night and rode with the two of them to come find
me,” he added.

After a moment, Grace asked, “So?
That means you won’t tell them?”

“I—”

Grace stepped closer. She had to be
sure she could trust him. “You won’t try to get me to go back? You
won’t turn me back over to the prince or the Protectors after
making some deal that they won’t hurt me?”

“Grace—”

“I came here to warn you that they
might kill you,” Grace said, her voice breaking. “They know how
much you mean to me. I hate to think about that happening. It… I
don’t know what I’d do… .but I know I can’t force you to do
anything. So, you can do whatever you want. But I won’t tell you
anything unless I’m sure I can trust you.”

Dar groaned. “Grace, I told
you—”

Evan cleared his throat. “I agree
with her. You’ve done a lot with the Protectors; we have to know
you’re still on our side.”

Dar turned to Evan, a hurt look on
his face. “Evan, I only did what I had to with the Protectors to
help you three.”

“You’re such a martyr,” Sierra
said, rolling her eyes. “It’s like Grace said; you can come with us
if we’re absolutely sure we can trust you. Or you can go on your
way and try to hide from the Protectors. Because they’ll probably
be looking for you as soon as they realize she’s gone.”

Dar looked over the three of them,
his gaze lingering on Grace.

She remembered wondering things
like what their children may look like if they had any. Dar’s dark
eyes, her light hair? His stature, her skin tone? It seemed so
silly now.

“I tried to prevent this,” he
said, “but things have obviously changed. I want to go with you and
help. If I pay for a Cosa to conceal us, will that help you trust
me?”

Grace looked to Sierra and Evan.
Sierra nodded her approval, her arms crossed. Evan hesitated
longer, staring at Dar as if he’d never seen him before. Grace
wondered what their relationship had been like. “That works for
me,” Evan finally said.

“Me, too,” Grace said with a nod.
“Let’s go.”

* * *

The four of them left the room. Dar
couldn’t believe it had come to this. What Grace said about blaming
him lingered in his mind. He’d wondered everyday since the
kidnapping what he could have done to prevent all this. He paid the
innkeeper and followed the others outside. Watching Grace’s blonde
hair as they went to the stables, he wondered if he would take it
back. Would he erase those six months if it meant protecting their
lives?

Dar paid the stable boy after
getting their horses.

“Are there any Cosas in town?”
Grace asked once they were out of earshot of the boy. She mounted
her horse, and the bags under her eyes made Dar frown. Evan, too,
was pale and breathless.

“Have you been riding all night?”
Dar asked.

“Yes,” Grace said, yawning behind
her hand.

“Maybe we should rest,” Dar
said.

“No.” She met his eyes. “The
Protectors will probably start looking for you once they find out I
left,” She glanced away. “Besides, we should find the Cosas
first.”

Dar nodded, mounting his horse. “I
know where one is in town.”

He led them down the main road to a
small cottage next to a church. “This is where she lives.” He
didn’t want to bring Sierra and Evan in to see Matilda, but they
didn’t trust him to go alone. “Grace can come with me, and we’ll be
back in a minute.”

Grace left her horse with Sierra
and Evan, who stopped in front of the church. “Don’t try to talk me
out of this,” she said as they walked up the path to the
cottage.

“And what if I did?” Dar knocked
on the door, hoping it wasn’t too early. A grumpy Matilda would be
much harder to work with.

Grace looked at him coolly, but
didn’t respond.

A moment later, they heard a yell
and someone flung open the door. “Who the hell—” Matilda broke off
when she saw Dar and smirked. She wore a robe that hardly concealed
her breasts and her dark red curls were wild, as usual. “Oh, it’s
you.” She glanced over Dar’s shoulder and said, “Come on
in.”

She turned, and Grace raised her
eyebrows at Matilda as they walked in. Her cottage seemed even
smaller on the inside. Matilda lit a few candles on the small table
next to the stove, and the flames shed light on a few pieces of
furniture and the shelves lining the walls. Dar had been here
before; the books spoke of Mahri spells, and the bowls held
ingredients for potions. She used the small cauldrons almost daily,
smoked the tobacco when she was stressed, and she was ready to
leave as soon as the Protectors came sniffing around. He’d seen
this same setup in half a dozen other houses.

“Who’s your friend?” Matilda
asked, motioning to Grace.

“Do you need to know?” Dar wasn’t
sure whether he trusted Matilda, especially if the Protectors came
asking around.

“Depends on what you need.”
Matilda stepped closer, putting her hand on her hip. Dar could
smell her perfume, the stuff she’d worn for years. Had she slept
with it on?

“Just a few concealing spells,”
Dar replied. “We don’t want any Protectors looking for
us.”

Matilda cocked her head. “What kind
of trouble have you got into this time?”

“How much will it
cost?”

She turned to one of the shelves.
She pulled down a book and half-glanced at Grace before flipping
through the pages. “You an Avialie?”

“No.” Grace shook her
head.

“There are four of us,” Dar said.
“Two Avialies, two not.”

“Male, female?” Matilda
asked.

“Two and two.” He hoped she didn’t
need to see the other two; the last time she and Sierra had seen
each other, they’d nearly killed each other. The two of them had
been friends at one point, but their relationship had
disintegrated. The battle that had killed Seth and Evan had turned
them against each other once and for all before Sierra’s
disappearance.

Sierra had nearly killed Matilda
that day, convinced she was the one who told the Protectors about
Lisbeth’s first attempt at fulfilling the prophecy. But Dar knew
Matilda hated the Protectors and there were other Avialies working
for the Protectors. Sierra claimed he was blinded because he was in
love with her. But that was two years ago.

Matilda met Dar’s eyes. “So, what
do you want? No trail, no magic, complete invisibility?”

“No magic, no trail,” Dar said. He
looked at Grace, about to ask where they were going, but he didn’t
think Matilda needed to know, and he half-doubted Grace had any
idea, either. “And concealed conversation when our hands are
joined. At least a week, we’ll find someone else when it
fades.”

“That’ll be a hundred ryrels,”
Matilda said.

Dar made an exasperated sound; that
was twice as much as he was expecting. “A hundred ryrels?” he
repeated, then paused. “You can’t give me a discount?”

Matilda laughed. “What a sweet
talker. Ninety, that’s my last offer.”

Dar had little other choice. The
next Cosa was in Jin, two hours from here. Too risky. He pulled the
gold coins out of his bag and held them out for her. He glanced at
Grace as Matilda weighed them; Grace gave him a curious look, one
that two months ago meant, ‘You have to tell me all about this
later.’ She seemed to catch herself and glanced away. He looked at
her for a moment longer, then asked Matilda, “What sort of potions
do you have?”

Matilda mumbled a few words, and
the coins in her hand disappeared. “You’re all right with spending
more money?” She smirked at him. “I’ve got a truth potion, sleep
syrup, a mild love potion.”

“I’ll take all three,” Dar said.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Grace glancing at him in
surprise. Whether at their existence or because he wanted them, he
wasn’t sure.

“Seventy more,” Matilda said,
holding out her hand. After exchanging the potions for the ryrels,
she asked, “So where are the other two?”

“They’re outside.” He cleared his
throat. “Do you have to see them?”

With a roll of her eyes, Matilda
said, “You know how this works. Bring them in.”

Dar hesitated, scratching the back
of his neck. “It’s Sierra and Evan.”

Matilda sputtered for a moment,
then spit out, “Evan’s dead.”

“The Protectors kept him alive,
just let him go a few days ago.” Dar narrowed his eyes. “You’re not
going to cause any problems, are you?”

Her blue eyes flashed. “Me? Why,
you—” Matilda fell silent, fuming. Slapping her hand down on the
table in front of her, she said, “Of course you’d side with
her.”

“We need to be on our way, so
don’t be any trouble.”

“Tell
her
that,” Matilda
scoffed.

“I’ll be back.” Dar turned away
and went to the door. It was only as he was opening the door did he
realize Grace wasn’t following him. He looked over his shoulder at
Grace, who was looking at the books along the shelves.

“Go on, I’m not going to bite
her,” Matilda told him.

Grace nodded to him, and he went
outside, squinting from the bright morning light. Sierra and Evan
were sitting by the horses, talking quietly.

“Come on, she needs to see all
four of us,” Dar said. As they got up, he said, “We, um… it’s
Matilda.”

Sierra froze. “What?”

Dar grimaced; he knew this wasn’t
going to be easy. “The next Cosa is two hours away.”

“You trust her?”

“What other choice do we
have?”

“And you left Grace in there with
her?” Sierra strode into the cottage.

Dar glanced at Evan; a couple years
ago, they may have exchanged amused looks, but Evan avoided his
eyes, and they walked in quietly. Dar couldn’t believe how
different Evan was, and how painful it was being with him, nearly
every motion reminding him of Seth. He’d grown used to their
absence, and now Evan was back, but there was a hole where Seth
used to be.