by J B Cantwell
"Why?"
"Because if I do, she will try to kill Arte, and I have no desire to hurt her."
I looked over at Duna, saw her eyes squint with anger, not toward Angus, but toward Arte.
She didn't feel threatened by Angus, I realized. What had I missed?
I didn't lower my knives.
"Bree," Connell said. "Let him speak."
I stared in Connell's direction, incredulous.
"He saved my life," he said. "Not to mention the lives of everyone left in this tribe."
I glared between them, and I didn't relent.
"Okay," Angus said. “I’ll tell you my story here, though the others have already heard it."
Already heard it. And they believed him?
I wondered how a group that had been so deserted, not to mention lied to, had welcomed back their leader along with his evil brother.
"It must be very convincing," I said.
Connell blew out his breath, and Duna laughed.
"Okay then," I said. "Start talking."
Angus sighed, then began to speak.
"I've lived in these mountains for a long, long time. Back when I was young, I did terrible things at the whims of Torin. But when it became time to kill my brother, my twin, I couldn't do it. He was half of me, you see. The better half, I suppose. I didn't have it in me to take the life of this one man, and yet I happily murdered the rest of my family. I'm not proud of it, nor should anyone be, but I didn't have any choice."
"Clearly, you did have a choice," I said. "You kept him alive." I nodded my head toward Arte.
"That was different. I tried to kill him, actually, a couple of times. But my power was useless against him. So you see, I wasn’t innocent in the fact that he was spared. I was only a failure, not a hero. Then, when the massacre was over and Torin began tossing giants off of a nearby cliff, I hid. That's one of my better abilities, hiding."
"I know someone who can hide," I said. “But I trust her.”
"I misspoke," he said. "Hide isn't the right word. It's more that I'm able to become invisible to anyone who seeks to find me by using my power as a guide. That, and I'm able to extend that power to protect anyone I choose within a reasonable distance. It doesn't tire me. I have extended my protection over everyone from the village, or who's left of them."
He looked behind him at the tired, ragged giants. Several were sleeping, but a couple of them were listening to the conversation. They didn't try to hide it.
"If you're such an honorable man, why have you hidden for hundreds of years? Why didn't you help the tribe each time they were attacked by Howlers?"
“I wasn’t here most times,” he said. “After Torin cursed the skies, I left these mountains and spent years, centuries, hiding in the foothills. I worried what would happen if Torin were to find me, worried that he would turn me into some sort of beast.”
“You mean someone worse than you already are?” I snapped.
He let out a breath, clearly trying to show patience.
“I know it doesn’t sound like much, but I waited for death as a man might. I didn’t die, though. I lived on and on, every year torturing me with the memories of what I’d done to my family. Several times over the years I’ve tried to return to Ezvar, but I was too ashamed, too scared to show myself.”
"That's not a good enough reason," Duna said. "You could've helped so many of your people and so many times. Where were you the other night when nearly half of our numbers were decimated?"
This question hung in the air. We all knew that there was simply no excuse for what he had done, or rather what he hadn't.
"I think you should listen to my part of the story before you pass judgment on Angus," Arte said, cutting in.
"And you," I said. "I'm sure everyone here would love to hear your story."
"The giants are a forgiving people," he said.
I scoffed. "I guess that works out nicely for you, now doesn't it?"
"Bree…" Connell said. "Just let him…"
"Go ahead," Duna said. "Tell her."
Arte glared at her, then took a deep breath.
"I couldn't do it," he said. "I couldn't face the rest of the tribe when I’d failed them so badly. So I left. I didn't really have anywhere to go, so I just walked away. I suppose I thought I might be killed, but soon I found myself heading back to the village. I figured if I was going to die, I wanted to do it at home. I made it back without incident, and that was when Angus found me."
He looked up at his brother, and while I didn't believe Angus's story, there was something about Arte's that was ringing true.
"I was terrified at first. He stood outside my door and knocked, just as if he were a friendly neighbor. I’d been drinking, and I was not myself. Still, when I opened the door, I screamed, though there was no one left to come protect me. That was when he told me his part of the story. I suggest you hear it."
I looked at Angus, and for a moment, I began to lower my knives. I would have if it were not for Duna's words in my ear.
"Careful, girl."
“I’ve watched Arte for generations," Angus said. "But I was too ashamed, even scared, to help him or any of you when you needed it most. It was only when I knew he was completely alone that I dared approach. For many hundreds of years, I kept my story to myself, but when I saw Arte that night, I spilled it. I told him everything. About how we had been possessed by Torin, taught only to do the evilest deeds with our magic. I, for one, was one of the more useful in the group. I was able to hide everyone, and when the village was sleeping, it was I who provided the stealth our group needed to commit the most terrible of atrocities."
He looked down at his brother.
"But then, just a few nights ago now, Arte surprised me. He forgave me."
"And it became obvious that we were both ashamed,” Arte said. “That we weren’t alone in that. Together, we decided to strike out again and find you. We're better together." He looked up at his brother. "We’re… kinder."
"And that's when they decided they would come and take over our little expedition," Duna said. She reached her hands out to her sides, and I knew what she meant by the gesture. They had taken what they could of her magic away from her.
"Why do you have her wand?" I asked. "If you're so good, maybe you should start acting like it."
Arte looked up at Duna and then over at Angus, nodding. Angus withdrew the wand from his robes and handed it back to Duna.
Immediately, she struck them both with a green jet of flame from the end of the wood. But before the magic was able to strike them down, Angus waved his hand in front of him and his brother, protecting both of them from the attack.
"What about the others?” I asked, looking around. “Where are Tosia and Trina?"
"They're watching the entrance to the cave," Angus said calmly. "It's only Duna whose wand I required. The others are more trusting."
"I don't trust either of you as far as I can throw you," Duna spat. "Let down your shield and fight me."
"I have no desire to fight you or anyone here," Angus said. "But I will let down my guard."
He looked at me, and there was a sadness in his face I didn't see before. It gave me pause.
With a quick gesture, Angus removed the protection he'd placed for him and Arte. But when Duna raised her wand to strike again, I reached out for her wrist.
"He hasn't killed any of us yet," I said. "Right?"
Duna growled. "Not yet."
"It will take a lot more than this for me to trust you," I said.
"I understand," Angus said. "What can I do?"
There was only one thing, and yet it was one of the more dangerous and most needed things.
"Protect us," I said. "Our journey is long, and we need everyone we can get, no matter how… unsavory they may be."
His look of concern faded.
"I believe that, in time, you’ll meet others like me," he said. "For the time being, I can help you."
"Will you take us to the
elephant?"
His face grew stern, resolved.
"I don't know what we will find there. The sons of Torin have been wreaking havoc on this place of late. As if it could be destroyed any more than it already has been."
"Take us to the elephant," I said. "Then we can talk more about trust."
Chapter 24
When we emerged from the mountain, the rain had stopped. We were as surefooted as we could be as we made our way down into the valley. This was a new place to me, to all of us; the paths within the mountain had taken us somewhere different from where we'd entered.
Angus and Arte were at the front of the pack. Aside from Trina flying above, the others with magic were dispersed amongst the giants. Duna and I brought up the rear; I wasn’t willing to have Angus walking at my back, no matter how much Connell trusted him.
"We could take him out right now," Duna said quietly. "He would never see us coming."
I doubted this, though. Anyone who was able to self-preserve for thousands of years while Torin searched for him was probably able to sense the feeble magic from two relatively untrained sorceresses.
And I had to admit, though I didn't want to, that if he was telling the truth, it could change everything for our journey. He could be a huge boon to all of our safety against Phalen.
If he was telling the truth.
Be careful.
None of the other giants seemed concerned at all. On the contrary, they seemed happy to have their leader back. This incensed me, and I suspected Duna felt the same way. It seemed to me that Arte had a lot of lost time to make up for with these people. And yet, they only showed relief that their leader had returned.
When we made it to the valley floor and started to walk on level ground again, Kaelin fell into step beside me.
"How are you doing?" he asked.
I scoffed. Then, not quite knowing what to say, I stayed quiet and let him speak first.
"I know it's unusual," he said. "But what he didn't tell you was that he saved us. When we made it out to the mountainside, we were found by a group of Wicks trying to make their way to you. When Angus and Arte arrived, we found they also had Connell with them. Angus was able to extend his protection to the rest of us, and eventually, the Wicks gave up and flew away. We'd be dead if it weren't for him."
I was starting to feel cornered, like my decision about Angus needed to come more quickly than I was willing to let it. But I knew very well that anyone could be a good liar and that stories were stories, easily made up.
But what sort of proof would I need?
"It's true," Duna said. "But you can't give me a good reason for him having disarmed me, especially with everything that's been going on. For all we knew, you might've been dead in there. And that would've left me alone to protect them." She laughed, a barking, nasty sound. "Can you imagine?"
She’d been walking with her wand raised slightly in her hand for over an hour. She playfully pointed it at Angus's back, but instead of unleashing fire upon him, she made a little sound, presumably the sound the wand might've made if she'd struck him.
Pop.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Still, though I was unwilling to walk with Angus behind me, he seemed not to share the same fears about us. Probably, he was protected by his own magic. And probably, I assumed, his protection spread out to encompass the entire group.
Probably.
Up ahead, Connell stopped walking and waited for us to catch up. When he did, he joined us on Kaelin's other side.
"So what do you think?" he asked. "He did save me. And them as well."
I walked along quietly for a while, unable to decide how to answer his question.
"I'm not sure, actually," I finally said. "I can't get it off my mind, trying to figure out what it is he wants."
Everyone fell silent, and I realized that I wasn't the only one who wondered this. They couldn't deny that it was possible he could be after something more villainous than he was letting on, no matter how many people he'd saved.
"Well," Connell said, "I just have to go with my gut feeling here. He saved me, and the power that he gave me was a huge boon. And besides, why else would he have hidden for so long other than to protect his brother from Torin?"
"He's right," Kaelin said. "If he’d joined with Torin, wouldn't we have known it before now? He's had a thousand years to kill us all."
"You seem to be forgetting about the people he did kill," Duna said. "That duo of brothers seem to be cut from the same cloth in many ways. It's not like Arte is innocent in all this. Why else would he have run?"
"He came back," Connell argued.
"But why?" I asked. "We don't really know that, do we?"
Silence fell once again, and Connell sped up to get away from the group. Soon, Kaelin joined him, but before he did, he had a few choice words for us.
"Arte isn’t a bad man," he said. "Just because his brother did terrible things doesn't make Arte evil. He may be a coward, but you must understand what he went through to save our race."
He walked away, leaving just Duna and me. But we didn't speak much, either. The others were so certain, and I was decidedly not.
No. I had to get back to my original plan, my focus. My goal upon entering the Shadow Mountains was simply to make it through to the other side. I hadn't expected the entire journey to be easy, but the dangers I had faced were so great, they left me floundering.
Your job is to make it to Brista. That's all.
Yes. When I made it to Brista, I would learn so much more. I hadn't forgotten the advice of the tortoise Keeper that an army waited for me on the other side. In the beginning, I hadn't wanted to come on this journey at all. If I'd been welcomed back home, I would've made my way north to Eagleview with my father and the children.
Instead, I'd made the choice to continue on by myself. It was that stupid book that got me into all this trouble. It was that stupid book I couldn't ignore. Knowing that if Torin found out that my name was within it, I’d soon be dead was doing nothing for my ability to trust the others, especially Angus.
But even though I didn’t like what he had to say of late, I was certain that I trusted Connell, though I couldn't quite tell why. Maybe it was because I knew him from home. I found that I trusted him more than most, though I had come to believe in Duna as well. And Kaelin. It was just a feeling I got, this trust—a gut reaction. And I'd learned long ago to trust my gut.
Both Angus and Arte had a long way to go before I’d be able to trust them, much less call them friends. I would follow them toward the elephant and maybe all the way out of the mountains. But I'd keep one eye open and on their backs until we were all safe on the other side.
I was antsy. The group had stopped to rest, and Duna and I sat together, Connell and the others apart from us. It wasn't that they weren't welcome, but I didn't see the point of having the same conversation again.
"Look at how easily they follow him," Duna said quietly. "Even after they heard his terrible story, they still trust Arte, not to mention his terrible brother. What has gotten into this tribe?"
"I don't think they know whom to follow," I said. "Apparently, I'm not doing a very good job being their leader, myself."
"You're the best leader we've had around these parts for as long as I can remember," she said.
"Well, there is only one person to compare me to."
Arte.
"Hmph. That old man has been parading around the village for ages. He may or may not be innocent, but you can't deny that he's enjoyed his power over us."
"But that story," I said. "Maybe he really was just trying to protect you."
"Maybe. But I'll tell you one thing: you've shown me enough of yourself in a few days that I’d follow you anywhere. The others don't understand; they can't understand what it's like to live your whole life and not be able to use the one thing you're best at."
I could relate well to this. The only thing I'd ever wanted, or rather the thing I'd wanted most, was to be accept
ed and allowed to use my magic freely. Out here in the world, I could do so. But it left me with no home.
Home was gone.
"Maybe we should just go off by ourselves," Duna said quietly.
"But what about the others? Tosia and Trina…"
She shrugged. "I guess I could talk to them, but the more people we tell, the less privacy we'll have."
There was no doubt that the protection of the other sorcerers was beneficial to my success. Crucial, even. But I couldn't follow them blindly, and I couldn't deny that Duna's idea to leave was a good one.
Then again, what would happen if I were to abandon the giants? Would that make me no better than Arte? They weren't my people, that was true. But in the short time I'd known them, we'd all gone through a lot together.
What I needed was a test, some way to determine where their loyalties lay. I just needed to figure out how to do it. At first I thought it seemed it needed to be violent, something convincing. If I could kill Angus, I would be proven wrong; his death would mean that he had given up, unwilling to fight me. There was no doubt he was a far more powerful sorcerer than I. For him to hold back and let me win would be a great sacrifice. Not just of his life, but of his name, and I would prove myself a traitor to the giants.
On the other hand, if he were to fight me, hurt me, my point would've been made. He would've exposed himself as an enemy. I had no doubt that if that were true, I’d meet my end sooner than later.
Duna's idea was starting to sound better and better the more I thought about it. The others could follow Angus and Arte, and if they were truly good leaders, when we all reached the other side, we’d join together once more.
"In your tribe, what do you do when people break the law?" I asked.
"The law?"
"I mean, what do you do when someone does something wrong?"
"I know what law is," Duna said brusquely. "I'm not an idiot. But we so seldom have anybody causing trouble that there's no use for punishment. Besides, for us to survive, we must join together frequently against the Howlers. I think that's why everyone trusts Arte. It's been many years since a single giant has died during an attack."
