Promising Light (34 page)

“I followed you. Good thing, too,
or you’d be stuck here with the Protectors.”

“Why did you follow
us?”

“Because I’m going to
help.”

“You don’t even know what we’re
doing.”

“Well, I may have listened to that
conversation by the woods.”

“What
? You—”

Matilda huffed. “Yeah, yeah, I
know. I’m a dishonorable Cosa. Do you want to get out of here or
not?”

“I don’t trust you.”

“We’ll make a great pair, then.”
Matilda bent down and started untying the rope around Sierra’s
ankles.

“How do I even know it’s
you?”

Matilda paused, but didn’t stop
tugging at the rope to untie it. “Ask me something.”

Sierra rubbed her forehead,
thinking of something only Matilda would know. “What’s the last
thing I said to you at the battle?” One other person had been
there: Dar. But that wasn’t something he’d tell just
anyone.

“‘
If you ever
touch me again, I will kill you,’” Matilda replied in a light
voice. The rope fell away from her ankles. “Charming, really. Give
me your hands.”

Sierra held them out, silent. Once
she’d untied it, she rubbed the chaffed skin of her wrists. Matilda
put her finger over her mouth. “Stay quiet, just in
case.”

Sierra nodded, standing. Her body
was stiff from the awkward position she’d been in, and she
stretched her back. She looked over at Arlan warily. His figure was
still on the couch, but Sierra couldn’t tell in the dark if he was
sleeping or not. Matilda walked to the door, Sierra behind
her.

“What about Vin and Amina?” Sierra
asked.

“I can’t do all of us,” Matilda
said. “There’s already a Cosa around here working against my magic,
and he’s going to suspect I’m here if I do anything stronger.” She
opened the door. “We’ll have to come back for them
later.”

Sierra swallowed, glancing in the
direction of the bedroom, where they were keeping Vin and Amina.
She hated to leave them behind, but she wanted to find Evan. She
wouldn’t let him fall into the Protectors’ hands again. She wiped
sweaty palms on her dress as Matilda slipped outside. Sierra
stepped out after her and closed the door quietly. She turned and
nearly walked straight into one of the guards. She sidestepped him,
holding her breath.

Matilda stood at the edge of the
garden. “Come on,” she urged Sierra. “Where are the
others?”

“Evan went ahead to Belisha to
talk to Jeshro while we came here. Grace and Dar were in an
underground cave that leads to tunnels to Belisha,” Sierra followed
Matilda around the house. It was brisk outside, and she wished she
would have grabbed her cloak. She shivered. “They sent three men
down there as soon as Vin told them where they were, but they never
came back. Just before night, Arlan sent a man down there… and he
found three dead bodies.”

Matilda stopped by the horses. “The
men they sent?”

Sierra nodded. “Yeah. They decided
to keep the men to guard us and wait for Grace and Dar at the other
end of the tunnels.”

“Do they know where the opening
is?”

“They just know it’s somewhere
near Belisha, and that’s where the prince and rest of the
Protectors were headed already to speak to Jeshro and
Lisbeth.”

Matilda didn’t respond for a
moment.

“We need to get to Belisha. That’s
where Evan is.”

“I know,” Matilda said, impatience
in her voice. “I’m just trying to figure out the easiest way to get
there.”

Sierra looked at the horses. The
ones Sashe had given them were tied up next to the Protectors’
horses. “How did you get here?”

“My horse is a little bit out of
town,” Matilda said. “We’ll have to go through the forest. It’s the
quickest way.”

Sierra nodded. The Cosa forest
formed a barrier between Belisha and the west roads. It was a
stronghold in their war against the Zinnas and everyone who passed
through could be stopped and questioned to make sure they weren’t
Zinna spies.

Matilda enchanted Sierra’s horse so
others wouldn’t see him, and they met Matilda’s at the edge of the
village. Soon, they were riding east to Belisha. The cold air
whipped past, sending chills through her, but the riding kept her
temperature up. She tired not long after they left, but her worry
for Evan, Dar, and Grace kept her pushing forward.

When they reached the edge of the
forest, the sun was just coming up, lightening the east side of the
sky. They dismounted to walk through, and Sierra pulled the horse’s
blanket tighter around her. Though her dress had long sleeves, they
were thin, and she’d spent all night with it wrapped around
her.

“If anything happens, just keep
quiet,” Matilda told her.

Sierra pursed her lips. She had
gotten this far with Matilda without anything happening, but she
couldn’t help her distrust. She would never forget some of the
things Matilda did to her. Or the things she did to Matilda, things
for which she may still be looking for revenge. There were times
after Evan’s death when Sierra wondered if her loss was some kind
of punishment for her treatment of Matilda. A few times, she’d
irrationally think that she’d do anything to make amends with the
Cosa, but once Sierra saw her again, the familiar feelings of
hostility arose.

They walked into the forest, and
the trees quickly closed in on them. The path narrowed as they
moved along, and the air around them quieted. The last time she’d
been through this forest, she’d been traveling to Nyad. She’d just
left the Belisha manor after a fight with Lisbeth. It hadn’t been
long after her and Sashe’s miscarriages, and yet Lisbeth wanted
them to try to get pregnant again. Sierra found out about the old
woman’s lies about the vision and yelled at her, furious. All of
them started fighting, and Jeshro kicked them out. They traveled to
the safe house in Nyad that day because there were rumors that the
Protectors had heard about the prophecy. It was some of her last
days with Seth.

The air about them changed,
thickening, pushing down on Sierra’s shoulders. It lightened again,
and Matilda looked over her shoulder. “Cosa magic,” she muttered.
“Everything’s revealed now.”

Sierra nodded in acknowledgment,
and they walked on.

A few minutes passed, and then
someone stepped onto the path. A woman with white blonde hair stood
in front of Matilda, planting her feet and putting her hands on her
hips. She wore a blue dress that ended at her knees. The color
brought out her eyes, which swept over them in a scrutinizing
gaze.

Matilda stopped and inclined her
head. “We wish to pass to Jeshro and Lisbeth’s manor.”

The woman walked forward. “Are you
with the Protectors or the Avialies?”

“The Avialies,” Matilda
said.

The woman moved past Matilda and
walked straight to Sierra. She stopped inches from her, and Sierra
took a step back. The woman peered at her. “Are you an
Avialie?”

Sierra shook her head.
“No.”

“Why do you travel to the
manor?”

“I’m seeking my
husband.”

The woman nodded, half-smiling.
“Evan? The disturbed one?”

Sierra’s eyes widened. “How do you
know him?”

“He’s here,” the woman said.
“Follow me.”

She turned and disappeared onto a
thin path. Sierra only half-glanced at Matilda, then followed. The
path wasn’t wide enough for her horse, so she called ahead, “Wait!
If we leave our horses, will they be stolen?”

The woman looked over her shoulder.
She was nearly concealed by the trees. “Do you want to see him or
not?”

“Maybe you should stay here with
them,” Sierra told Matilda.

“No, you shouldn’t go alone,”
Matilda said, tying her horse to a nearby tree. She grabbed her
bag.

Sierra gritted her teeth and tied
her horse as well. She shed her blanket and stepped onto the path.
She jogged to catch up with the woman, who was deep in the trees
now. Sierra pushed aside branches and bushes as she walked. She
swallowed as she thought of what the woman had called Evan: the
disturbed one. Was he okay? Was he even worse than when they’d
separated?

The woman led them to a small
clearing with three huts and a few campfires. She walked to the hut
in the middle and pushed aside the flap without a word. Sierra and
Matilda ducked inside.

The hut was larger than it looked
on the outside. Grass mats covered most of the packed dirt floors,
and crude furniture lay around the first room: chairs, tables. In
the second room, Evan lay tied to a wooden bed frame. He was
asleep, but ropes were tied around his chest, wrists, knees, and
ankles.

“Why did you tie him up?” Sierra
asked, dropping to her knees next to him.

“We weren’t sure if he was a spy
or not,” the woman responded. “We trust no one blindly.”

“What’s your name?” Matilda
asked.

“Billa,” the Cosa
responded.

Sierra gently shook Evan’s
shoulder, whispering his name. He awoke quickly, his eyelids
shooting open and his body struggling against the ropes. When he
saw Sierra, he froze. “Sierra.”

“Hey,” she said softly. She turned
to Billa. “Will you untie him?”

Billa paused, glancing from Evan to
Matilda. “Who’s your family?” she asked Matilda.

“My mother was Kendra.”

Billa raised her eyebrows and
leaned closer to Matilda. “I see the resemblance… why are you
here?”

“It’s Avialie business,” Matilda
said. “We’re helping them with the Protectors. He only needed to
pass through to reach us.”

Billa nodded to Sierra. “You may
untie him, and I will lead you out.”

Sierra had already been working at
the ropes. She pulled them off while behind her Matilda and Billa
spoke about Matilda’s mother, a Cosa who’d lived in
Shyra.

“What happened?” Evan asked, his
eyes red and wide. “Jeshro said Protectors were at Vin and Amina’s.
Where are Dar and Grace? How did you escape?”

Sierra explained what happened
while untying his ropes: the Protectors’ arrival, the dead bodies
in the tunnels, Matilda’s help. Evan stared at Matilda like he’d
never seen her before.

“What happened with you?” Sierra
asked. “Did you tell Jeshro?”

Evan nodded. “I’ll tell you
everything once we’re out of the forest.”

She took off the last ropes, and he
grabbed her from the side. She jumped from surprise, and he
whispered an apology in her ear, brushing her hair away. She smiled
as she hugged him back.

Billa escorted them out of the
forest. They didn’t see any other Cosas on the way out. Near the
other side of the forest, Billa stopped them. “Be careful.
Protectors are crawling all around here. Tisha’s at the manor right
now.”

“Thank you,” Matilda told
her.

Evan glared at Billa as she turned
and left. Sierra touched his arm. “You need to tell us what
happened.”

They left the forest, but sparse
trees lined the road to the manor, still a mile away. They stopped
by a cluster of oak trees. He turned to Matilda. “What are you
doing here?”

“I want to help you find the
ancient texts,” she replied.

Evan stared at Sierra. “You told
her?”

“No, she was listening,” Sierra
said, shooting a look at Matilda, who remained
unperturbed.

Evan paused for a long period of
time, studying Matilda. “Are you sure it’s her?”

Sierra nodded. “In the forest,
everything was revealed. It’s her.”

He began pacing his hands fidgeting
at his sides. “Okay. I arrived yesterday morning, as you know. I
asked Jeshro about the ancient texts. He has no idea where they
are, he only knows that thing about the tigers. That’s what his
father told him, what his father’s father told him, and they don’t
know what it means anymore.”

“Really?” Sierra asked, her eyes
wide. “He doesn’t know anything else?”

Evan shook his head with a frown.
“But if we could find a Boren—”

“Wait, how did you get out of the
house?”

“I wanted to go back to find you,
but they insisted I rest. They drugged me with sleep syrup and I
slept most of the day. When I woke up, as soon as Lisbeth heard the
Protectors had shown up at Vin and Amina’s, she got me out of the
house.” He crossed his arms. “I can’t believe they’d drug
me.”

“I asked them to,” Sierra said
quietly.

“You what?” He stared at
her.

“I didn’t want you traveling. I
know you’d been going all night, and—”

“Why do you doubt me?” he asked,
pulling at his hair.

“I don’t doubt you! But Evan,
you’ve been tortured for two years and you’re—”

“I’m not strong, I’m weak, I
know.”

She frowned. “Physically, yes, but
you just needed some time to recuperate.” She motioned to him. “I’m
sure you’re fine now.”