“The change looks nice on you,” she complimented.
I looked at her with surprise. “You mean it?”
She smiled and ran her fingers through my hair. “Of course I do.”
I looked down at the ground. “I thought you’d be disappointed in me.”
She laughed. “You’re my daughter. You could never disappoint me. It took great courage to do what you did, and for that I couldn’t be prouder.”
“Yeah, courage…” I let my gaze drift over the ground, and my hands reached for my side that still ached with pain.
“How bad is it?” my mother asked.
I sighed and pulled my hands back to my lap. “Pretty bad. The worse punishment I’ll probably ever give myself.”
“Deep?”
I nodded. “And on both sides.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry, Eira.”
I shook my head. “Don’t be. It was my choice, and not one I made lightly.”
“Well at least you don’t pity yourself.”
I snorted. “This is me we’re talking about.”
My mother laughed. “True. Oh, I have something for you.”
I looked at her with confusion. She had something for me? I watched her as she rummaged through a bag tied to her belt and pulled out a plain white box. I stared at it as she handed it to me.
“Well, a gift really,” she corrected. “Sorry for the plain box. It was all I could find.”
A gift? It wasn’t every day she gave me something. In truth she rarely gave me anything, but that was because no one ever had anything to give.
Slowly, I opened the box. My eyes lit up in awe at the sight inside. “Mother, it’s beautiful.”
“You like it?” she asked.
I pulled out the hair clip and held it up to the sun. It sparked brilliantly and brought a smile to my face.
“I love it,” I looked at her. “But where did you get it?”
She half-smiled and pulled a red hair clip out of the same pouch she had pulled my gift from. “Well, in all honesty, I’ve had it for a while, but I misplaced it and only found it recently.” She smiled. “Perfect timing, really. It’s part of a matching set, from your father. He had them made for us. I didn’t like how mine looked with my long hair, so I never wore it, only carried it with me.”
My gaze on the beautiful emerald hair clip darkened, and I put it back in the box. “I don’t want it.”
My mother looked at me with surprise when I handed it back to her. “But, Eira—”
“I said I don’t want it!” I shouted. She looked at me sadly. “I don’t want anything from that liar.”
“He’s not a liar, Eira,” she insisted. “He really did care. He promised—”
“Stop it, mother!” I sighed. “When are you going to stop believing in fairytales? When are you going to see the truth? He lied for the political gain of his clan, or whatever he calls it. He never cared, and never will. I want nothing to do with that.”
My mother pushed the box back to me. “Eira, he loved me, and I loved him. That was no lie, and what he promised is no lie either. One of these days you’ll understand. You’ll see some day.”
I snorted. “Love is a fairytale. The only thing I’ll see is death, due to some ill accused imperfection.”
She shook her head. “One of these days, Eira, you’ll be free and you’ll find someone who will prove to you that love is something to believe in.”
I snorted again. “I’ll believe that when I can fly.”
My mother chuckled. “And he will teach you. That is how you’ll know it’s not a lie.”
I sighed and walked off. “You need to open your eyes, mother. No one can love a monster, not that there is any love in this world that can be given.”
She exhaled and spoke quietly. “You’re so wrong in so many ways, my dear. You’re so misguided. You will come to the realization of the truth I speak in time but… I fear I won’t be around to see that day…”
I stopped by the tree and clenched the box in my hand. “Don’t say things like that, mom. I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”
My mother exhaled. “All things die, Eira. It’s just a matter of when.”
I sighed. “I will wear it, but not because of him. You gave it to me, therefore it is from you and not him. I will wear this for you.”
“Thank you.”
Chapter 2
My hair clip sparkled in the low morning light as I held it up in the air. The light summer breeze tousled my free hair, and I tried from time to time to tame it behind my ears.
“Did you really care, Father, or am I right and it was all just political gain to save your clan?” I sighed and leaned back on one hand. Why did it matter? Mom was dead and he was nowhere to be found. All his promises had been lies, and for all it was worth, he was dead to me.
The sound of crumbling stone caught my attention. I looked over at the ledge where the path led up, and watched Raikidan climb his way up.
“You’re still here,” he observed.
I snickered. “Don’t tell me you thought I left. I left my bag with you.”
“This is you we’re talking about,” he said. “You’d leave your bag here to make me think you were coming back so I’d wait all day for nothing.”
“All right, you win that one.” I grinned. “Though I have to admit I didn’t think of that, so thanks for the idea.”
Raikidan sighed. “Great.”
I laughed and held up two recently-killed rabbits. “Come and eat so we can head out. We have a long way to go, and I have a feeling we’re not going to have a friendly welcome-home party.”
Raikidan nodded and sat down next to me, placing my bag between us. He took the rabbit and immediately ripped into its fur to get to the flesh underneath. Pulling the other rabbit into my lap, I reached for my hair to pull it back, but Raikidan stopped eating just long enough to stop me. I gave him a funny look.
“Don’t put it up yet,” he told me. “It looks nice down.” I pulled away from him and went back to putting my hair up. “Eira, did I say something wrong?”
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s a personal thing. Just… don’t ask me to keep my hair down, please.”
“All right.” He pointed to my rabbit. “You might want to eat that, though, before I take it from you as my own.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
Raikidan chuckled. “Eat it and you won’t have to find out.”
I grunted and tore into the rabbit.
“Hey, Eira?” Raikidan asked.
“Hmm?” I asked through a mouthful of meat.
“I asked you this once before, but you didn’t answer the question fully, or at least I don’t feel like you did, so I’m going to ask again. How did you get that hair clip?”
I chuckled and put the rabbit down. “Yeah, I remember you asking that and you’re right, I didn’t answer it completely. I just told you it was a gift, which it was, but the full truth is that it was a gift from my mom.”
He chuckled. “So you really were special to someone.”
I looked down at the rabbit in my hands and grunted. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“See, you’re not a monster,” Raikidan remarked.
I snorted. “Don’t start with that. You’re not going to win.”
Raikidan rolled his eyes. “Fine, but answer me this, will you? You told me you guys didn’t have much to give each other, so how was she able to give you something so nice?”
“She had it made for me,” I lied. “Someone in the North owed her a favor so she had him get a jewelcrafter to make this and a matching ruby one. She gave this one to me and kept the ruby one for herself to carry around, instead of to wear, since she thought her hair was too long to
have it look good in her hair.”
“Why didn’t she just cut her hair?” he asked. “You did tell me human hair grows all the time.”
I shrugged. “She liked having it long, not that it was overly long in the first place. It was shorter than mine, at least.”
Raikidan looked at me skeptically. “You had long hair once?”
I laughed. “What, can’t picture it?”
“No.”
“Do you remember that picture of me and her that I have?” He nodded. “Well that was taken a few weeks after I cut it. My hair used to flow past my waist.”
Raikidan shook his head. “I can’t picture that.”
I chuckled. “Don’t try too hard. I hated having my hair so long. It was a pain putting up to keep it out of the way, so I’m sure I’ll never have it much longer than it is now.”
“It looks good at the length it is,” he complimented.
I looked down at my rabbit again and tried furiously to hide the small blush that had crept onto my face. No one had ever told me my hair looked nice at this length, except my mother, but she also didn’t hate anything I did, so she didn’t really count. Everyone had always told me I should grow it back out. Even Rylan had told me to grow it back. I could never win anyone’s approval with anything I did.
Raikidan lightly touched the tips of my hair. “It might even look better a little shorter, but what do I know? Not like my opinion matters much. It’s your hair. You do what you want with it.”
“Except color it?” I teased.
My jest caught Raikidan off-guard, but he recovered quickly and grunted. “That dye just makes you smell awful, that’s all. If it didn’t smell so bad, I wouldn’t care.”
I looked at him with a doubtful expression and voiced it slightly. For some reason, I couldn’t find it in me to believe him on that.
“Let’s just finish eating so we can leave,” he said.
I eyed him for a few moments before digging back into my meal. He was hiding something, but whatever it was would have to wait until later. First we’d have to get back to camp and face the wrath of one temperamental lightning shaman.
I gulped as the scary, light skinned, blue-haired elven woman in front of me stared Raikidan and me down with livid crystal-blue eyes. I wasn’t afraid of Shva’sika, not in the slightest. But when she was mad at you, you knew it, and it was best to make sure you never ended up in that situation.
Ryoko chewed on a fingernail and resisted twirling a strand of her brunette hair, as her golden eyes darted from Shva’sika to Raikidan and me. Rylan ran his fingers through his white hair in an effort to stay calm, but his blue and gold heterochromic eyes gave away his fear. The sun peeked through the forest canopy, splattering light across the tan skin the two had in common.
“I can’t believe you two!” Shva’sika exploded. “Do you know how worried I was? The two of you leave in the middle of the night, leave no note explaining where you’re going or how long you’ll be gone, and I’m stuck here worried you’ve been captured…”
“Elarinya.” I said, hoping her elven name would grab her attention better than her shaman one.
“…or injured…”
“Elarinya.”
“…or maybe even gotten yourself into trouble—”
“Shva’sika!” I shouted, giving up on my calm attempt.
She stared at me with slight shock. “What?”
“Shut up so I can explain.” She glared at me but stayed quiet, and I sighed with slight relief. “One, I’m sorry we upset you, but we didn’t know it would take so long. Two, you can blame this mostly on Raikidan since this was his idea, and I had no idea what we were doing, or where we were going, for that matter. It was also his fault there wasn’t a note, and he’s the one who made us leave in the middle of the night.”
“Hey!” Raikidan exclaimed in defense.
I glared at him and he lowered his gaze. He knew it was his fault and he couldn’t deny it.
“And three, you’re not going to be as mad when you hear about the alliance we made,” I finished.
Shva’sika blinked. “Alliance? What are you talking about?”
I walked past her and sat down by the fire pit. “Sit down and I’ll tell you.”
Everyone gathered around the empty fire pit to listen to what I had to say. Shva’sika showed her impatience when I didn’t speak immediately. “Well?”
I chuckled. “Raikidan and I had business in the South, and in the end came out with two more allies than anticipated to aid us in our rebellion.”
“Allies?” Ryoko mused. “You can’t be serious.”
“Ryoko’s right. Who in their right mind would want to help us?” Rylan asked.
“Anyone who is sick of living in fear of Zarda,” I said.
Shva’sika gasped. “It can’t be. You didn’t… I can’t believe you did!”
Ryoko looked at her funny. “Danika, what are you talking about?”
“Before I left the West Tribe, I had heard rumors the other tribes were planning on breaking from the pact they had with Zarda, and were going to fight back, even if it killed them all,” Shva’sika explained. “Rumor said they had found someone in the home city who they were going to convince to allow them to help. I never thought it was true.”
I nodded. “It is. They came to me with hopes I would say yes immediately, but I turned them down. At the time, I figured the less involved they were, the safer it would be for them, but while we were gone, I found out that wasn’t the case, and chose to take the offer. But there was a catch to it. They already had an alliance, and if I was to ally with the South Tribe, I was also to ally with a red dragon clan as well.”
“You can’t be serious,” Shva’sika said.
“Quite.”
“I was expecting you to say the druid clan that lived close to the South Tribe.” She laughed. “A dragon clan was the last thing I thought you’d say.”
I grunted. “They were the last thing I expected to run into on our little adventure.”
Rylan scratched his head. “Can we back up a moment? Why would the shamans come to you in the city? Why not someone else?”
“Why not choose her?” Shva’sika countered. “She is a shaman, after all, and with her connection to the rebellion she was the best choice.”
Rylan nodded. “I can see that.”
Shva’sika looked at me again. “I’m impressed with what you’ve done, Laz, but you do know the other tribe will expect to be given that same chance, right?”
I nodded. “I know, and I’m fine with that. We need help. I won’t deny that, and any help will get us closer to our goal. I don’t know what the dragons can do for us, but the shamans will be a great asset.”
Shva’sika smiled. “This is a good day. I’ll forgive you for leaving without a word, although, I’d like to know what you two were doing down there initially.”
I glanced at Raikidan who was more occupied with the sky. “I don’t know. Ask Raikidan. As far as I can tell, we never ended up making it to the destination.”
Shva’sika looked at Raikidan expectantly, but he continued to scan the sky, completely oblivious of the current topic. She sighed in defeat.
Ryoko clapped her hands together and stood up. “I’m bored. Let’s go hiking.”
“I think it would be best to let Laz and Raikidan rest,” Shva’sika advised.
I shook my head and stood up. “I’m up for a walk.”
“Are you sure?” Shva’sika questioned. “The South Tribe is a long ways from here.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Besides, walking is good for you.”
Ryoko squealed happily and ran off in a random direction. Chuckling, I followed, but turned around when Raikidan was the only one left not following.
“C’m
on.” I grabbed him by the arm. “What are you looking at anyway?”
Raikidan shook his head. “It’s nothing. Where are we going?”
I snickered. “Well if you were paying attention, you would know we’re going on a hike.”
“Shouldn’t we be resting?” He questioned.
I grinned. “What, tired?”
Raikidan snorted. “I was thinking more about your energy level.”
I grunted. “Sure you were. But if you must know, I’m fine. I’m accustomed to long walks like that.”
“Right.”
I sighed when he went back to gazing at the sky. “Seriously, Raikidan, what is so interesting about the sky? There are no clouds, no birds, nothing. It’s just big and blue.”
“I thought I heard something,” he admitted. “But every time I go to look, nothing.”
“You’re going crazy,” I muttered. “Maybe you should stay behind and rest. You might get some of your sanity back.”
Raikidan snorted. “Even if I wanted to stay behind, I don’t think you’d let me.”
I looked down and realized I was still pulling him. I let go and put a little space between us. That was embarrassing.
“C’mon, slow pokes!” Ryoko yelled. “We’re going to race to the top of this little waterfall!”
“Not much of a race if Laz just scales the thing,” Rylan muttered. “And don’t say she won’t, because you know she will.”
Ryoko huffed and I laughed. Picking up my pace, I joined the three and looked up at the small cliff face. It wasn’t at all impressive, but I knew it was because I had already seen bigger on my little journey with Raikidan.
“Any rules?” Raikidan asked.
“No cheating, no cheating, and no cheating,” Ryoko said. “Oh, and no shapeshifting.”
Raikidan muttered to himself as if he were hoping she’d forget that.
“Define cheating,” I stated.
“Um…” She thought for a moment. “…no killing?”
“Since that was a given, anything goes, right?” I asked slyly.
Secrets Page 2
