Phoenix Heart: Episode Two: Secret Keeper

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Phoenix Heart: Episode 2 "Secret Keeper"

  Phoenix Heart, Volume 2

  Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Published by Sarah K. L. Wilson, 2021.

  Phoenix Heart

  Season One

  Episode Two

  “Secret Keeper”

  (Version 1 for Patreon, April 19, 2021)

  Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Copyright 2021

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Note to the Reader:

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Behind the Scenes:

  OTHER BOOK SERIES BY SARAH K. L. WILSON

  For my little phoenixes.

  Note to the Reader:

  Phoenix Heart is a series very much like your favorite streaming tv. There are seasons and episodes. These episodes are designed to be read in roughly two hours, though fast readers will read more quickly and those of you who really like to absorb the story may take longer. They’re intended to be fast-paced, exciting, and they release frequently so that you can keep up with the story even if you have a very busy schedule. Perfect for lunch breaks, a single evening of enjoyment, or younger readers who like bite-sized chunks, this story will keep you wanting more.

  I’d like to also offer you a prequel short story for free download when you join my subscribers.

  Also of note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Enjoy!

  Chapter One

  Dawn came and with it the sense that I’d lost something precious. I would never love the light of day the way I had before. Not now that Kazmerev ruled my nights and emptiness my days.

  “The ground is too hard,” Nessy complained beside me in the gathering light. The village had decided to bury the dead immediately. If more raiders came, we didn’t want them counting bodies and knowing what we’d done. Easier to look innocent with the evidence covered up. “I don’t know how they expect us to dig graves when it’s still tight with frost. We might as well be hacking at ice.”

  She was exaggerating. We’d buried Veela and we could bury these raiders. I kept working alongside the others, carving a place for them in the hillside. I couldn’t really dig with one arm bandaged and stitched, but I could help carry buckets of clay and help move things out of the way of wheelbarrows. My arm ached where the arrow had grazed it – but that was all it had done. At least it hadn’t lodged in the flesh and left me with a ruined arm. This wound would heal quickly once it could rest. And if it couldn’t rest it would still heal, just with an angry scar. That’s how flesh wounds were.

  I didn’t like the furtive glances the townsfolk kept stealing at me. No one wanted to work beside me except for Nessy and when I hurried to bring them tools or clear the ground nearby for wheelbarrows, the townsfolk moved too, keeping the distance between us.

  “Fire,” I’d heard whispered and “phoenix.” And I couldn’t tell if they thought that my efforts to save our village had succeeded or doomed us all. Some of those eyes glittered with wariness – eyes that had never really looked at me before.

  Just as bad, their glances couldn’t help but drift by me as they watched Tyndale and Mally arguing very publicly beside us.

  “You can’t go anywhere with him no matter what he says,” Tyndale said for what felt like the hundredth time. I could probably set a rhythm to him saying that and dig this whole hillside out in time with it. The dawn light painted his features in stark relief. “He’s making this up. None of us have ever heard of this thing he says you are.”

  “Ai’sletta,” Mally said. She wasn’t saying much. She never did when she was really mad – and she was really mad at him. I could see how her eyes were flashing whenever she looked at him. “It means Chosen One.”

  “Chosen by him, maybe. But you’re my betrothed and I’m not giving you up.”

  He was wasting his time. With her chin jutted out like that, Mally had already made her decision. She was going. She’d break their betrothal. She’d walk away from him. She didn’t love him enough to stay.

  I felt sick at the thought as I carved my own part of the hillside up with the heavy work of digging into clay with one arm. No one loved me like that. No one would beg me to stay anywhere. None of these people – my family, my town – had so much as objected when Aunt Danna suggested offering me to the raiders. If they’d taken me away or killed me, the town would have breathed a sigh of relief. Even now, when we were burying the ones who attacked us instead of burying our own, they still gave me a wide berth.

  I gritted my teeth as Tyndale paused and his sad speech cut into my heart in a way that kept it from being able to harden.

  “Please, Mally.” And with those words, he suddenly wasn’t fighting. He was pleading. “You were going to marry me. We were going to have children together. A home. Just like we promised each other. Please.”

  I risked a glance in her direction. She was looking away, her face inscrutable. The only sound in the air was the sound of picks and shovels on hard clay.

  When she finally spoke, the whole town was waiting to hear her words. “I guess we won’t now.”

  She dropped her shovel as if she didn’t need it and walked away, leaving the rest of us to bury those who had come looking for her.

  I sighed as Tyndale picked up her shovel and with the energy of a man with nothing to lose, tore into the hillside.

  I wasn’t the only one keeping her gaze to herself and blinking back tears when Uncle Llynd and Gandy arrived a moment later bringing the last of the dead in a wheelbarrow. We’d already buried our own. We’d done that first. And said proper words over them. I shivered at the sight of these raiders. They could have been the rest of us, although I didn’t think the raiders would have been kind enough to dig graves.

  But if it hadn’t been for Kazmerev and Judicus Franzer Irault, that would have been us for sure.

  As if I’d spoken his name, the rope worker appeared before me, the wind battering his dark cloak and swirling it around him. Someone had cleaned his fine coat and shirt, but they hadn’t been able to fully remove the bloodstains from it or had time to patch the hole where the sword had been buried into his side.

  He stood there, swaying for a moment before he found me in the crowd. One finger crooked as he beckoned to me. He was barely on his feet, his dark eyes ringed with purple.

  I planted my shovel in the ground and hurried to obey. This is what I’d been waiting for – some sign from him of what came next. Kazmerev had said we’d be part of his coterie now and we’d travel away from here, but he hadn’t known more than that, and Judicus had been too ill to tell me.

  Now, my hands tingled, and my mouth felt dry at the idea that I was finally going to hear it for myself. I stole a furtive glance over my shoulder and saw the town watching me like they’d watched Mally and Tyndale and I knew one thing for sure – whatever came next, I couldn’t stay in my village. Not now. In fact, the sooner I left the better. And that thought left a cold
stone in my belly that made me feel like I needed to sit down.

  A few days ago, I’d been willing to be an apprentice to anyone who would have me just to get out of this town but now that I had my chance, I was beginning to realize something worrisome: I wasn’t ready.

  Chapter Two

  I chewed on my lip, suddenly both anxious and excited. I almost felt like I could feel change in the air, like a shift of the wind or a turn of the tide.

  “Can we speak together?” Judicus asked me gently.

  He had an odd scar running down his temple, old and aged. I’d hardly noticed it in the close sickroom, but here in the light of morning it stood out. At my nod, he tried to turn, clutching his belly.

  I slipped my arm under his shoulder and helped him walk. He still shouldn’t be out of bed. He needed weeks more to recover. But I understood his urgency. There were more raiders out there. The town’s best chance of survival was for us to leave. And this was my chance, too, if I dared to take it.

  His face flushed pink in the gathering light. “Or, I suppose I shouldn’t say speak.”

  He looked flustered and I offered him an ironic smile. People always stuttered over how to approach the fact that I couldn’t speak to them. Whether my voicelessness was magically induced, or the result of the trauma that had happened to me as a child, I didn’t know. It didn’t matter to me. I was fine living without a voice and it didn’t need fixing – or blushing about.

  “I’ll learn your signs if I’m given enough time to try,” he said, much more confidently. “And, of course, I can understand yes and no.”

  I nodded at that, laughing silently to myself.

  “I sound like a fool,” he said ruefully, running a hand through his hair. “But that’s why we need to talk. Can we sit together?”

  I nodded again, steering him toward a clearing between the hillside and the town where we usually cleaned fish. There was room all around it, so no one would eavesdrop on what he was saying. And there would be somewhere for him to sit. He shouldn’t be walking so far.

  He settled on the fish cleaning bench and ran a hand over his face again. Maybe he was just as worried as I was.

  “I promised you that you would be my secret keeper,” he said, looking at me with concern in his eyes. “But you don’t have to come with me if you don’t want.”

  I shook my head. I did have to go with him. Scared or not. Ready or not. After riding a phoenix through town, I certainly couldn’t stay here. No one here wanted that kind of power anywhere nearby. They knew it would draw trouble. So did I.

  “It’s the ai’sletta that the raiders are after – though I don’t know how they knew she was here. It was my theory. My research.” His brow furrowed. “Unless I was followed, but Veela would have noticed. I’m sure of it. She didn’t say anything about being followed.”

  He bit his lip looking away and then back to me.

  “Because you are Kazmerev’s new Flame Rider, you can have a place in my coterie. Do you want that?”

  I nodded firmly. I didn’t have a choice. I tried to keep my hands in my skirts so he wouldn’t see them shaking.

  “Does Kazmerev want that?”

  I nodded again, trying a slight smile to put him at his ease.

  He sighed and looked like he was trying to compose his thoughts.

  “I feel bad dragging you into this mess.” He shot a side-eyed look at me and I kept my face straight. As far as I was concerned, this was all very straight-forward, and he was making it more complicated than it needed to be. “Seriously, you don’t have to join me. There’s ... I think there’s more at work in all of this than just raiders attacking a town and saying they want the ai’sletta. No one would judge you for staying here.”

  I rolled my eyes and he blushed again.

  “Okay, I guess you’ve decided you’re with me. Right?” He ran a nervous hand through his hair.

  I nodded patiently.

  “I suppose I should at least give you some kind of background if you’re going to stay with me. I’m from Calicarn.” He paused, watching me. A little bird began to sing as blithely as if this wasn’t the most important conversation of my life.

  I nodded gravely. All I knew about Calicarn was that it was two full nations south of us. It didn’t matter. He could be taking me to the other side of the world and it wouldn’t matter. I glanced back at the hillside and caught more than one person leaning on a shovel and looking in our direction. I couldn’t stay here.

  “Our Grand Hadri has a Hunt every five years and if you’re young and noble you can round up a group of people to go with you on the Hunt – talented helpers are in the coterie and there can be guards or armsmen with the party, too. Are you with me so far?”

  I nodded but my mind was full of questions. What was a Grand Hadri? And did that mean Judicus was a noble? He certainly dressed like one.

  “This year, we were supposed to find the ai’sletta. No one expected us to do it. They’ve been hunting for her for two generations. But I had a theory. A lot of theories. And they led me all the way up here to find the barmaid.”

  I smirked. Mally wouldn’t want to be called that.

  He looked guilty. “Here’s the thing. I need to get her back to the Grand Hadri with me. But the minute anyone knows who she is, her life will be in danger. So, we have to go in secret and with great care.”

  I was burning to ask him why this Grand Hadri wanted her. I’d have to be patient because he’d already moved on. Patience was something you learned when you had no voice.

  “And, of course, I owe it to you to teach you what I know of Flame Riders. But you don’t actually have to join my coterie. It was Veela who swore to me, not Kazmerev. So, you aren’t tied to me if you don’t want to be, and I’ll be honest – you don’t want to be.” He was rambling. It was a thing people did to protect themselves as if many words could form a shield between themselves and discomfort. He squared his shoulders like he didn’t want to say this part. “I’m a mostly un-trained rope worker with limited funds, no transportation, a name that is in ruins in my own land, and absolutely no connection in other lands. A complete wild card. You’d be better off with almost anything. The most I can offer you is an equal share of both danger and reward. I’m ... well, I’m not very good at this.”

  He looked so downhearted. His head slumped down into his hands and his eyes were tightly shut.

  I touched his shoulder and when he still didn’t look up, I tightened my grip until he did. Then I pointed at myself and then put my hand on his chest.

  I was going with him no matter how little confidence he had in himself. I couldn’t stay here. Kazmerev had been clear that he wouldn’t stay either, and the two of us were as tied together as if we had been married. If I had to go, I’d rather go with Judicus. He’d proven himself to be honorable and kind and I’d never met someone like that in Landsfall. Even this conversation where he was treating me like a full equal who should get a say in her future – well, that was new.

  And oddly, his lack of confidence seemed to make me feel stronger – like I had to stand a little taller so I could help him. I could do this. I could.

  I watched him shyly as he looked down at my hand and then nodded, pushing his long hair back.

  “Okay. Then, I guess I’ll make my side of the vow. You can’t say the words for yours, but if you agree to stick by me and be part of my coterie then hold my hand while I make the vow and it will count for both of us.”

  I took his hand firmly in mine. He was so worried that it made me afraid he’d change his mind. I held on tightly so he couldn’t squirm away as he said his vow.

  His voice had a small hitch as he said, “My honor to keep you. My wealth to succor you. My conscience to guide you. My glory is yours.”

  Not a bad vow. I squeezed his hand and smiled encouragingly, and he blew a long breath out before letting go of my hand.

  “Well, I guess what’s done is done. We’re tied now, secret keeper,” he gave me a rueful smile. “So
, I guess now that you’re bound to share my counsel and keep my secrets – did I mention that’s what a secret keeper is? My closest advisor?” I shook my head, but I was secretly pleased. I was just glad it wasn’t a reference to my voicelessness. “Well, I can tell you I’m worried. I’ve never seen raiders attack like they did here. I’ve never heard of them looking for the ai’sletta before. And I have a bad feeling they’re going to hunt us all the way down the coast. There are other things I should tell you. So many.” He looked around him as if he was suddenly worried someone might be listening and when his eyes caught on a solitary raven hopping from a tree to peck at the ground, he shook his head. “But not here. Not in this town. I’ll tell you when we leave this place.”

  Chapter Three

  I don’t know everything a Secret Keeper does, but I know Judicus seemed a lot lighter after he told me that much.

  “Come on. We need to go convince your family,” he said when he was done. I didn’t think Mally would need much convincing after this morning, but I thought the rest of her family might feel differently.

  We found her with my aunt Danna.

  “Already done burying all the dead?” my aunt asked me with a pointed look. She wasn’t happy to see us. Mally was working beside her cleaning the common room of the inn and we’d walked right into an argument. I could tell by the way they both had identical flashing eyes and innocent looks on their faces.

  I shook my head and gestured to Judicus, indicating he had something to say.

  “The raiders will be back, honored innkeeper,” he said to my aunt and his accent seemed just a little thicker. Was he doing that on purpose? “But only if I and the ai’sletta remain here. We need to leave. As soon as possible.”

  “Mally can stay right here,” my aunt said, her words tight and sharp. I knew better than to push her when she was in a mood like this but Judicus didn’t.