Eva shuddered and wiped the bottom of her eyelids that had become wet with tears. She didn’t dare ask how he had been killed, for she was certain that he had been beheaded just like the others who had died by the Raiders’ hand.
“Then how?” Stasis asked, responding to Jahn’s statement.
“The words are still on the wind,” Jahn replied, letting his eyes drift through the inn, looking for more of the report of Ian’s death. “But I fear that something even worse has come upon us.”
His eyes halted, freezing on Eva. She looked away, wiping a few more streams off her face. “What might that be, Kibitzer?” Eva sobbed, afraid to call him Jahn.
“We have been followed,” Jahn said, smoke seeping between his lips.
“I thought we covered our tracks,” said Stasis.
“Indeed we did,” Jahn replied. His eyebrows lifted as his gaze attached to her.
“Then how are we still being followed,” she asked.
Immediately, Eva thought of the old woman, Kingi. How that woman had managed to follow them this far away from Shady Peninsula, Eva did not know. That night at the peninsula should have gone much differently than it did. Eva should have never decided to rest. She should have never convinced Stasis to stay with that bag of a wench. For now, Kingi had tracked them deep beyond Winter Hills. That black gunk in the tea must not have been sugar but Empyrean, she thought. “I can’t believe that the old woman had him killed,” Eva muttered through a few final sobs.
“Oh, Madam Genie, I wish it were.” The fire crackled behind him, giving him an eerie silhouette that peeked over the top of his beret.
The innkeeper polished off the bar table behind Eva, and every time she looked back at him, he seemed to be staring at her. It did not matter though, not since Ian had been murdered. “What do you mean, ‘you wish it were’?” Eva asked.
Jahn looked over his pipe, tilting it to either side. He was holding back something as tightly as a dam, but Eva could tell that whatever he was going to say would surely flood her heart. The palms of her hands sweated, and she nervously pushed a few hairs off her brow. She breathed uneasily, waiting.
“The voices on the wind were not speaking clearly. In fact, their words have been slurred ever since Winter Hills. I guessed that it was because of my own doing, too much talking and not enough listening,” he said, tapping himself on his temple.
“What made you start listening again?” Eva asked.
“Madam Genie, do not interrupt a Kibitzer when he is Kibitzing.”
The cold-hearted, broken-up old man whom she had known from before had returned. His tone was as sharp as a spadroon, and his eyes were like little daggers. “Yes, Kibitzer.”
“Though a Kibitzer is never wrong, he may be…misinformed,” he said.
“What does this have to do with Ian’s death,” Wolf asked.
“Everything,” Jahn replied. His voice peaked and faded. “We have been looking for the witch, but she has been with us the entire time.” His eyes, filled with rage, sliced up to Stasis. “You, Madam Stasis, are the traitor.”
Stasis gasped. “How dare you accuse me. I have done nothing but good for you all, especially Eva.”
Jahn frowned. “I would hardly call it good. You have silently had your blade in Madam Genie’s back this entire time. Do not do us the disservice of denying it.”
“Stasis couldn’t possibly be a Wielder,” Wolf replied. “I’m a Hunter. She could have never hidden from me.”
Stasis grabbed the sides of her head with her elbows on the table, sobbing. “How could you accuse me? After all I’ve done? How could you?” Her voice was scratchy.
Eva rubbed Stasis’s back, not meeting glances with Jahn. “Perhaps the Kibitzer is misinformed this time?” Eva offered.
“No longer,” Jahn replied. “It has gone on for months, the darkness in my thoughts, the slurs in the words of the stars. Madam Stasis is indeed the culprit, the Wielder who cast the spell on you so many years ago.”
Wolf twisted his axe, thinking. “She’s not the one, Kibitzer. You must have misheard.”
“Must I have?” he asked, pipe hanging from the corner of his lip.
Stasis dried her eyes, pushing her blonde hair down her back. “I don’t deserve this.”
“How else could the Raiders have discovered Ian?” Jahn asked. “It was only days ago that we mentioned the informant, and just days after he is dead!” Jahn banged his aged hand against the table.
Eva jumped and glanced back at the innkeeper who was still polishing the counter. He had to have heard the outburst. Perhaps he was not as concerned about the loudness of their conversation after all.
“Kibitzer, calm yourself,” Wolf said sternly. He had since stopped spinning his axe. “Perhaps the stress of the journey is weighing on you. A good rest might do us all well.”
He pointed a bent finger at Stasis. “I do not need rest; I need justice. That woman is the witch!”
Eva could feel her defiance coming back to her, the same defiance that she had displayed when Jahn had come to console Maria after Tyel’s death. “Jahn, stop your complaining!” she demanded. “Stasis has been far from evil, she–”
“She’s closer to evil than evil itself!” He coughed and thick swirls of smoke spewed from his mouth.
Stasis clenched her teeth, the muscles in her jaw tightening. “You may be a Kibitzer, but I don’t have to stand for this.” Stasis got out of her chair, ramming it against the table as she stood.
Jahn sprang up. “You will not defy me!” he yelled. Reaching out his hand, lightning swirled around his fingers and leapt from his fingertips, striking Stasis in the back.
She fell to the ground, quivering from the shock. Eva dropped to the floor to help her.
“Stay away from her, Madam Genie! She does not mean well,” he warned, shaking his head, beret near to toppling off.
Eva pursed her lips together, forgetting about the innkeeper. “What is wrong with you, old man!”
She cradled Stasis’s head in her arms, rocking back and forth to ease the quivering woman. Foam bubbled up from Stasis's lips as she tried to speak, but she could say nothing, silenced by Jahn’s aggressive accusations.
“As far as I’m concerned, you’re the witch, old man,” Eva said, not looking at him. She panted between words, furious. Her hands trembled from her anger. The people only believed that the Kibitzer could not be wrong, but on the authority of whom? He had certainly misjudged Stasis who had been with Eva ever since Maria’s death.
Picking herself off the floor, Stasis limped weakly, wiping her nose with the palm of her hand, leaking mucus from the lightning. Her hair was dry, spread apart into single strands from the strike and sticking up, blowzy. Her heavy eyes found Wolf, though it seemed that she should have been looking for Jahn.
She pointed a sharp finger at Wolf, staring down the edge of her fingertip. “You let him do this to me.”
“Stasis,” he replied, the jar of his voice emptied of molasses.
“Don’t!” Stasis threw her hand up and limped outside.
Jahn raised his hand to strike her again, but Eva leapt in front. She glared from Wolf to Jahn, waiting for a response. Wolf made no move, but Jahn fixed his cloak and started after Stasis. “You will keep away from her,” Eva demanded, jerking her dagger from its sheath and aiming at him.
A wide-eyed fear enveloped the man when he saw the blade, and he kept his gaze on the tip, expecting something to happen. Eva kept the edge pointed at him and warned him that if he followed her, she would do whatever she had to do to protect Stasis.
“You are protecting a woman who wishes you ill, Madam Genie.” Jahn tightened his lips about his pipe, keeping it firm in the corner of his mouth.
“You struck down a woman with your…your magic, and you claim that she’s the Wielder.” Eva shook her head. “How can a man who claims to see everything be so blind?” She kept the dagger facing him.
His eyes did not stray from monitoring the tip, but h
e patted the air softly to calm her. “If you knew what kind of power a Wielder has—”
“If a Wielder is as powerful as you say…then why would you ever attempt to strike one down?” He had no answer for that, save for trembling lips that tried to form words. “You’re wrong, Jahn.”
Straightaway, she sauntered backwards, keeping the dagger in the air until she was outside. “Stasis, wait!” she called out.
At first she couldn’t find her. Through the darkness, there were only a few stragglers in the streets. The others were in the town’s center dancing and singing to the upbeat tempo of the fiddler. Eva called after her a few more times, cutting through allies between the houses and crossing over the streets until she noticed a woman weakly stumbling between two juxtaposed houses. The sound of the fiddle and the clapping continued in distance. The moonlight settled on Stasis’s face, its rays making their way through her electrified hair. Stasis turned, eyes red from the tears and the blast. “You can’t leave. Not now.” Eva hurried to catch up with her.
Stasis’s compassion returned. “They don’t want me here. Not even…Jevar.” She hung onto his name, unsure if she should admit her care for him, but Eva had already heard of their love for one another months ago.
“Why does Jahn get to decide whether you come or go?” Eva asked.
“Because the people are afraid of him. That’s why!” Stasis flailed her arms out to the side and shifted her weight, the rocks beneath her heels crunching against each other. “They fear that the Kibitzer might use his powers to speak some ill maledict over their lives, some curse that they can never reverse. They do not respect him. They fear him.”
Eva thought back to all the times that she had seen people bow in forced humility to the man, Jahn. She remembered all of the “Yes, Kibitzers” and the “No, Kibitzers.” Jahn had unduly cast his dread into their hearts.
The conversation that Jahn had had with her several weeks before about how he showed his evil side to people so that they would not pull on him for his knowledge, it was all lies – or at least a truth that he had conformed to his own liking. He was rude and arrogant and he used his powers to crush people. Eva had seen it. It was burned into Stasis’s body from the lightning strike. Her electrified hair told the tale of how the man, Jahn the Kibitzer, had tormented the innocent with this magical tyranny.
“If people fear him, then why have you followed him this far?” Eva asked.
Stasis shrugged hopelessly, wiping her nose again looking into the night sky and shaking her head. “Because we need him. We cannot find the Black Lands without him.”
In the ally between the two houses, Eva hesitated at her next question, not wanting to indirectly accuse Stasis, but she herself had to know. “If he is a true Kibitzer, then how can he be wrong…about you?” she asked.
“It’s just a rumor. Kibitzers can be as wrong as either you or I when it comes to stars and fortunes. They are just more attuned to being right. But once the people stop believing in them, then what else will the people have to put their trust in?”
Thinking back to how Jahn had treated her mother, Eva said, “I would certainly not place my life in the fate of the words of a Kibitzer.”
“Then you would be unlike most. If people can trust in the Kibitzer, then they do not have to be responsible for their own lives. They follow whatever he says, not wanting something vile to come upon them.” Stasis’s face turned sour. “But what happens when he is wrong?”
Eva did not reply, for Stasis was not asking a question. She was making a point, and a grim one at that. If the Kibitzer could indeed be wrong, then how could anyone ever trust that what he was saying was true? A faint thought crossed her mind. If I have the qualities of a Kibitzer, how can it be that I am always right?
The question itself convinced her of Jahn's fallacies. Eva had been wrong often in her life, and she had suffered for it. Others had suffered as well. Her thoughts drifted slowly back to Stasis who stood watching Eva as Eva journeyed through her silent conversational reverie. “Do you know what happened to Ian?” Eva asked. She only hoped that Stasis’s reply would further validate her innocence.
Stasis shook her head. “I wish I did, then I could prove myself to both the Kibitzer and to Jevar, but as it stands, neither of them will believe me.”
“Jevar stood up for you. He told Jahn that you were not the Wielder.”
“His actions did not validate his words. I could see Jahn's accusation burning in Jevar's eyes.”
Eva’s face turned cold. “So then you are not coming with us to the Black Lands…”
“I cannot.” Stasis threw her arms out to the side and they landed on her thighs, making a slapping sound. “Not after what just happened. Those two will accuse me until we arrive, and who knows where their accusations will lead. Jahn has already scorched me. Besides, you don’t need me to break the curse. Just don’t let anything stop you from getting there. Our kingdom depends on it. As long as the Beast is within you, the king will hunt you to use you as a weapon to destroy the surrounding the kingdoms.”
“The king will hunt me no matter what,” Eva replied.
“With the Beast gone, at least if he were to capture you, then there would be no gain.” Stasis was able to mention “capture” more easily than before. The once vivacious Stasis was now calm and depleted.
Eva fell silent, afraid that anything she said would push Stasis further away. She held her hands together sheepishly.
Stasis must have recognized Eva’s solemnity, so she put both of her hands on Eva’s cheeks, staring into her eyes. “You don't need me or anyone else to be free. Go to the Black Lands yourself. Leave us and break free from the curse.”
“What?” Eva asked, pulling away from Stasis. “I couldn't possibly make it to the Black Lands alone. Besides, you said that we needed Jahn to find the lands.”
“Many people have found the Black Lands without a Kibitzer, though they might have searched for years. But Jahn himself claims that you have the Kibitzer in you. You have the power to find the Black Lands, to break the curse.”
Eva folded her arms over her chest, looking away. “I don't think I should. Wolf and Jahn could protect me, especially if I encountered another Helion. What would I–”
Stasis interrupted her, grabbing her by the shoulders. “You did what the three of us could not. You killed the Helion yourself, saving all of us.”
“I have no reason not to trust them.”
Stasis held out hands, showing Eva the backs of them. “Look at this,” she said. Burn lines from where the lightning had cavorted up her arms down to the tips of her fingers left black scars that seemed they would take years to heal. Stasis touched the side of her jaw, rubbing her finger over another scar just below the bone of her cheek. “I cannot imagine what the Kibitzer,” she said his name distastefully, “has done to my face,” and she spat out “face” forcefully. “Jevar and I were in love, and he watched me writhe on the floor in pain. And to think that I nearly left the Water Walkers for him.”
Eva could sense Stasis’s hurt. Wolf had certainly watched the entire burning unfold. He had only said a few words in Stasis’s defense, but the powerful man who had rescued Eva’s life so many times had just watched Stasis get burned.
But Wolf had saved Eva’s life, many times in fact. What ill will would he have had towards her? She had no reason to distrust him, and Jahn, as harsh as he was, had looked after Eva for years, even farther back than Eva could remember.
Then there was Stasis. This woman had been by her side ever since the death of her mother. She had watched over Eva and had paid her way countless times over the past months to whatever inn or meal she needed. Stasis was a true sister, not like Sekah who had wanted to murder Eva in cold-blood. “What makes you think that Jevar and Jahn are so bad?” Eva asked, looking for something to hook her confidence onto.
“You see the scars. If Jevar would let the Kibitzer burn me, then what about you? How could you ever be safe with those two? Think...
about...the…Beast. Once Jahn sees you as a threat, he will turn on you, just like he did to me.”
Eva swallowed a huge breath, gasping.
What if Stasis was right? Jahn and Wolf had warred against her turning herself into the Raiders, and they had certainly made it seem that they would do everything in their power to keep the king from using her as a weapon.
Stasis had only wanted to turn her over to the consul, so that Stasis could be with Wolf. Love could do that to a woman perhaps — make her think and do things even though her heart warned her of the consequences.
But Wolf had insisted. He had wanted Eva to stay with him, to keep her under his protection for some noble cause. Jahn could have removed the curse years ago, or at least taken her to the Black Lands before now.
Yet Jahn had said that he had not known of the Black Land’s ability to set Eva free from the curse. Or was that a lie – a deception to keep Eva by his side? He had been lying for many years after all. He had pretended to be harsh and stern when there was a compassionate man buried beneath. Perhaps that compassionate man was also a selfish man, a man who did not care for Eva but for himself. “What if–”
Stasis interrupted her. “There are no ‘what ifs.’” Her tone was hard, but her brow lowered sadly, dulling the blow. Her eyes tossed over to the hut from which the two of them had come. “Jevar came looking for me years ago, when I was just a young girl, having only fourteen or fifteen years, much like yourself. Believe it or not, he wasn’t nearly as handsome then. His shoulders were thin, and his voice higher, almost like a chirping bird’s.” The corners of her lips reached up to grab a smile that her tone would not allow.
“You were a Water Walker then?” Eva asked.
Stasis nodded. “Yes, but I was not allowed to have my own carriage at the time. I followed Carolyn’s mother, working and selling for her. I met Jevar on one of our runs near Winter Hills. I saw the scraggly little fellow toting two buckets, one in each hand, hoping to buy some water from me. I knew that he couldn’t carry them both by himself, so I offered to help.”
“How were you able to aid a grown man with his water duties?”
The Girl with the Scar (Dark Connection Saga Book 1) Page 23
