The Scorched Earth (The Chaos Born) (20 page)

She had stayed to lead and serve the clan, and they resented her for it. It was irrational, illogical, unfair. She knew some even thought that Shalana was to blame for driving away the Stone Spirits’s greatest champion.

And in a way, I did. But I’m also the one who brought him back
. Somehow, she doubted she would ever be given credit for that.

She heard a familiar thumping coming from outside the tent—the sound of Terramon rapping his cane against the tent’s hide entrance flap, pulled taut to keep out the winter chill. Her father didn’t visit often, and when he did he only came to criticize. But at least he came. The same could rarely be said of her thanes or the rest of the clan. Outside of the official business of the Long Hall, they rarely sought her counsel or company.

Gritting her teeth, she rose from the warm pelts lining the ground and pulled aside the flap to let him in.

“Why are you always sitting in the dark?” he grumbled as he made his way inside, leaning heavily on his cane.

Shalana didn’t answer but left the flap open a sliver so the dim light from the peat fire outside could shine through.

“You are the clan chief,” Terramon reminded her. “You should have a lamp and oil to light this tent.”

“Why waste the oil?” she countered. “I can find my way around in the dark.”

Terramon gingerly lowered himself to the ground. He was only in his fifties, but nagging injuries from a thousand battles and three decades of campaigns through the dead of winter had taken a harsh toll on his joints and bones.

“I warned you not to pay Norr’s ransom,” he said once he was settled.

“The Ice Fangs would have killed him,” she said, her voice flat and tired.

“So? He abandoned us. He abandoned you. Why is his fate your responsibility?”

“I’m not so bitter that I would let a good man die out of spite.”

“There are more important things you should be focused on,” Terramon reminded her. “Hadawas has called a Conclave. We shouldn’t be wasting time with this foolishness!”

“The Conclave is still two weeks away,” she reminded her father. “We will be there. We have time.”

“The clan must always come first,” her father insisted, as if he hadn’t even heard her words. “We must look after our own.”

“Norr is one of our own,” Shalana reminded him. After a moment she added, “The clan still loves him.”

“Do you?” her father demanded.

Shalana didn’t bother to answer.

“Is that why you paid the ransom?” Terramon pressed. “Is that
why you tried to force him to marry you? Because your head is still ruled by a young girl’s foolish heart?”

“He made a promise,” she whispered, her voice too low for her father’s aged ears to hear. “He should honor it.”

“Speak up!” Terramon chided.

“I knew there were some among the clan who would rather see Norr as chief,” she answered in a louder voice, trying to use logic to defend her actions. “I thought if we were wed, they would look at us as a united front.”

“And you believed Norr would simply bow down to your demands?” Terramon snorted. “He didn’t come back to serve; he came back to rule!”

I don’t believe that
, Shalana thought.
He’s not like you
.

“You should have told me you were going to bring him before the thanes,” her father chided. “I could have warned you this would happen. We could have prepared and planned instead of walking into his trap!”

“Such a tragedy that I lack your great wisdom,” Shalana sneered.

“You are in no position to mock me,” he reminded her. “Not after you left yourself open to being challenged in the Long Hall.”

“What other choice did I have?” Shalana asked. “Bring him bound and gagged like a prisoner to stand trial for deserting us?”

“Yes!” Terramon blurted out. “You let the clan and the thanes see him as their long-lost hero making a triumphant return! You should have brought him in on his knees, like the cur he is!”

“Humiliating him would not win me any friends.”

“You care too much what others think of you,” her father lectured. “A clan chief doesn’t need friends. The thanes answer to you, not the other way around. You worry to much about pleasing them.”

Shalana laughed, harsh and bitter.

“This, coming from the man who chose Norr to be his successor over his own daughter!”

“Is that why you think I picked him?” Terramon asked, clearly surprised. “To appease the thanes?” Now it was the old man’s turn to laugh.

“Then why?” Shalana demanded.

“I knew my days as chief were over, but you were not ready to take my place.

“Living with Norr’s family had made you soft,” he continued. “You had the physical skills to be a great warrior but lacked the will to lead. As did Norr.

“We are born in the winters of the Frozen East,” he continued. “We are the Stone Spirits: We must be hard and cold to survive.

“Your feelings for Norr made you weak. Foolish. But I knew you were my daughter; I knew my blood still flowed in your veins.

“I knew you would challenge Norr. I knew you would fight for what was rightfully yours. And I knew it would make you strong.”

“You thought I could beat him?” Shalana asked, taken aback. Despite Norr’s size and strength, she’d always believed she was the more skilled warrior. Yet she’d always felt the rest of the clan, including Terramon, underestimated her.

Terramon shrugged. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. In the end it did not matter which one of you was the victor. By pitting you against each other, I forced you both to see the truth. Your feelings were weak and childish. Strength is the only thing that matters. No matter who emerged victorious, the clan would have a leader who was strong.”

“But Norr refused to play your game,” Shalana muttered wearily. “He left instead.”

She wasn’t shocked by her father’s admission. She wasn’t surprised by his indifference to her feelings or his callous manipulation of her emotions. She wasn’t even angry. Too much time had passed for her to be upset by what he had done, too much had changed.

I’ve become too much like him
.

“My plan still worked,” Terramon insisted, his voice smug. “When Norr left, you hardened your heart and became the leader we needed. You continued the work I began. You made the other clans bow down and fed the glory of the Stone Spirits.

“Now that Norr is back,” he added after a brief pause, “I only hope you stay strong enough to defeat him.”

Shalana snorted. “Did you see his leg? He can barely stand.”

“Don’t underestimate him,” Terramon cautioned, leaning on his staff as he struggled back to his feet. Shalana made no effort to help him up.

“Norr may appear vulnerable,” her father added, “but he consorts with Outlanders. They are devious people who have no honor. Beware of their treachery.”

As he left the tent, the irony of his warning was not lost on Shalana.

Scythe reached out a trembling hand and placed it on Keegan’s naked shoulder, sending a shiver down his spine. In the night shadows she was little more than a silhouette, but to the young man’s eyes she had never been more beautiful
.

Too overwhelmed to speak her name, he reached out and drew her naked body in close to his, his heart beating so fast it ached in his chest
.

“Keegan,” she breathed in a soft whisper, “can you hear me?”

The question seemed odd, given the situation. It caught him off guard and caused his romantic anticipation to falter
.

A confused, “What?” was all he could reply
.

“Keegan,” Scythe said again, still whispering but louder and more insistent. “Are you up?”

In an instant, the dream was shredded and torn apart, the pieces falling away like the tatters of an old blanket.

Keegan rolled over, his eyes trying to pierce the darkness of his small tent as he pushed away the last vestiges of sleep. The hide flap keeping out the night’s chill was open, and by the dim light of the smoldering peat fire outside he could just make out Scythe’s lithe form crouched near the entrance.

“It’s cold out here,” she said. “Can I come in?”

The young man nodded and scooted over to give her room, grateful the darkness hid the bright red flush of embarrassment he felt crawling across his features.

She doesn’t know you were dreaming about her. That you dream about her most nights
.

There wasn’t much room in the tent, and her leg brushed up against his as she crawled inside, causing his pulse to race. He felt a familiar stirring below his belt and began to blush even harder, praying to the Old Gods and the New that Scythe wouldn’t notice the effect her presence was having.

It’s the middle of the night
, he thought, trying to calm himself by keeping his breathing slow and steady.
Why is she here?

“It’s Norr,” she said. “If we don’t help him, he’s going to lose.”

Keegan knew exactly what she was talking about. In two days Norr was scheduled to face Shalana in single combat, a duel to determine who would be Chief of the Stone Spirit clan. Immediately after the meeting with Shalana and her thanes, the big man had explained to all of them what was to come and what was at stake.

Scythe had made it very clear she wasn’t happy about it, but there didn’t seem to be any other options.

“I don’t think we’re allowed to help him,” Keegan said, his mind still groggy from being woken up in the middle of the night. “It’s a duel. Single combat.”

“You don’t seem that worried about it,” Scythe said, her tone exasperated.

Even if he loses, Shalana has promised to help us
, he thought, but he knew better than to say it out loud. That wasn’t why Scythe was here.

“He’s going to lose that duel,” she insisted. “And when he does, he’s just stupid enough to keep his promise to marry that spear-carrying cow!”

Keegan wanted to put a comforting hand on her arm or give her a reassuring hug. But he didn’t trust his body not to betray him if he made physical contact. Instead, he had to resort to awkward, empty words.

“Norr knows how to fight,” Keegan offered. “Maybe he’ll win.”

Scythe gave a dismissive snort.

“Not with that bad knee. That’s the only reason Shalana ever agreed to it. She knows he can barely stand.

“And he hasn’t even picked up a weapon in five years,” she added. “I don’t care how great a warrior he used to be—he’s out of practice. He doesn’t stand a chance.”

“We’ve been over this, Scythe,” Keegan reminded her. “Norr doesn’t have a choice. None of us do. He has to fight.”

“Yeah,” Scythe conceded, “but he doesn’t have to fight fair!”

“What do you mean?”

“You know,” she said, and through the darkness he could just make out her silhouette holding up her fingers and twiddling them in the air. “Maybe you can cast a spell to help him out.”

“Even if we could get the Ring away from Jerrod,” Keegan cautioned, “I think it’s too dangerous to use it for something like this.”

“Not the Ring. Just you. You’re a wizard, right? You know how to do magic.”

“Barely,” Keegan admitted sullenly. “I’m still an apprentice.”
And now I’m a cripple, too
, he thought as he rubbed the stump of his missing hand.

“That storm that almost wiped out Torian wasn’t something an apprentice could pull off.”

“That was different,” Keegan said. “I didn’t control that. It just … happened.”
Because you poured a massive overdose of witchroot down my throat and almost killed me
, he silently added.

“Please,” Scythe implored, reaching out and placing a hand on Keegan’s bare shoulder, stirring up memories of his recent dream.

Struggling to ignore his body’s eagerness to respond, he paused to collect his thoughts. Even if he wanted to help, there wasn’t much he could do. They didn’t have any witchroot to open his mind and they had no talismans or charms he could draw on. Plus, he had no idea what kind of spell or ritual would be able to shape the Chaos to help Norr win the duel without alerting the entire clan.

And if Norr loses, we still get the clan’s help. He just has to marry Shalana
.

In some ways, that was the perfect outcome for Keegan. Scythe would be upset at first. But with Norr out of the way she might someday start to feel for Keegan what he already felt for her.

It’s like fate is bringing us together. I just have to tell her there’s nothing I can do
.

Instead, when he opened his mouth he told her, “We can’t do this alone. We need to speak with someone who knows way more about magic than I do.”

“I’m not a wizard!” Vaaler protested. “You know that, Keegan. We studied together for two years!”

“And in that time you memorized everything Rexol taught us: every chant, every rune, every ritual.”

It had been difficult to avoid physical contact with Scythe while the two of them shared Keegan’s small tent. Now, with all three of them crammed into Vaaler’s, it was impossible to avoid
pressing up against her. But Keegan was excited enough about their plan to stay focused on why they were really here.

“It took me weeks to learn a new spell,” he continued, trying to build up his friend’s confidence. “But you could do it in a single day. You know how to summon, shape, and control Chaos better than I ever will.

“With Rexol gone,” Keegan concluded, “you probably understand the fundamental theories and tenets of magic better than any mage in the Southlands.”

“But all that knowledge doesn’t help me,” Vaaler insisted, “because I’m not a wizard! I can’t summon Chaos!”

“You don’t have to,” Scythe chimed in. “You just have to show Keegan how to do it, then he casts the spell.”

“If I’m ever going to learn to control the Ring, then I need someone to teach me all the things Rexol never got around to,” the young mage added.

Vaaler was silent for a few seconds before trying another argument against them.

“Scythe, you know that Norr doesn’t love Shalana anymore, right?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” she snapped, a bit too quickly.

“If he marries her, it will be in name only,” Vaaler assured her. “It’s purely political. She just needs him as her husband to legitimize her claim as chief. That’s all it is. You two can still be together.”