I nodded dutifully then sucked in a breath to stop any emotion from getting through in my voice. “Okay, I'm gonna go for real now.”
“Alright.” He lifted one brow lingeringly. “I'll see you later.”
I pursed my lips. “Right.” Later than he thinks. I forced a firm nod. “Goodbye, Jaden.”
And then I was off again. No hesitation this time, no extended looks, or glances back. I knew I wouldn't have the heart to leave him if I did. . . .
By the time I got outside, I had succeeded in perking myself up a bit about the trip. What was bothering me anyways besides an unfounded “daunting” and the whole Jaden issue . . . both were stupid. Really, I was lucky to have Ikovos going with me, and this could be a fun trip, an exciting few days. Plus the weather was still nice: silver and fiercely windy now.
God, I’m in such denial.
When I rounded the corner Ikovos was already waiting by the fence.
“Sorry,” I said, greeting him with a smile.
He shrugged. “You're fine, I was early.”
I stopped close by him. He looked at me speculatively for a moment, in a way that made me wonder if the ordeal with Jaden was still apparent on my face, then he held out a hand.
“Can I see the map again?” he asked.
“Oh.” I nodded quickly. “Sure.”
It was still in my pocket. I reached back, passed it to him, then waited as he examined it. My attention turned to the wind-rustled trees, such massive trees. I eventually switched to the lodge. The wood appeared rich and opaque in the clear, overcast, lighting. Large glass windows reflecting crisply. I'd seen Trevor and Nathan this morning at least, I hoped they'd be okay.
“Alright,” said Ikovos, drawing my attention back. He was folding the map up into his pocket. “You ready?”
I nodded once with a smile. “Yes, sir.”
He matched me and we started, heading first along the path that led to Adzamaruha's shop.
For a long while in the beginning, we talked about the Gaeln, and what might happen once we get to our destination. He had me describe some more of the book to him. We moved off the path before passing the store. The woods were easily sparse enough to walk through. We kept on like this for a long time.
When we hit the edge of the forest, a long stretch of rich, green, grass, clearing ahead of us, the wind started to get to me. Not because I didn't like it, I loved it, more because I'd just worn the tank-top.
I rubbed my arms shakily with my hands, stopping when a coat fell over them.
“Here,” said Ikovos, who was now without a coat.
I put my arms through and smiled at him, knowing it wouldn't do any good to argue, then we continued on.
I was amazed immediately at the number of small holes and ridges in the field. It was like an obstacle course for me to get through it. Before we were even fifty feet in, Ikovos had already had to grab my arm at least four times. The jacket didn’t help my balance. It was over-sized and heavy . . . and of course it reminded me of the jacket Jaden had given me in the Meoden dimension.
“So, how did the scouting go this morning?” I asked Ikovos in an attempt to distract myself. I jumped past a hole as I said it.
“Pretty basic,” he answered, smirking at my leap. Then there was a pause. “We did run into one group, but we came out of it without much trouble.”
My eyes narrowed on him. “You told Cornelius it was uneventful.”
“We were in a rush.”
The answer didn't satisfy me. “It's not fair, you can heal yourself so well that I never know when you've been in a fight.”
His mouth lifted, messy hair blowing with a strong gust that rushed by us. It had gotten a bit longer in the past weeks. I guess no one has time to cut their hair in the midst of a war. It covered the top half of his ears now, and often times fell past his eyes.
“Oh,” he said suddenly. “I never told you how Jaden was.”
I stiffened, forcing my expression to indifference.
His eyes skewered on me. “Not interested?”
“No, I . . .” I pursed my lips, brow furrowing. “I just already saw him.”
“What? You mean today?” he asked, holding my arm again to keep me from falling.
I nodded.
He looked shocked. “He wasn't supposed to be back till tomorrow.” Then Ikovos stopped abruptly, turning to me with an incredulous expression. “Wait, why isn't he here then?”
“What? What do you mean?” My face widened. “With us?”
He nodded in an “of course” sort of way.
“How could he be here? He didn't know.” My features were dark.
Ikovos’s eyes widened in realization. “You didn't tell him?”
It was more like a proposed declaration. I got defensive.
“No, I . . . I didn't know I was supposed to. I didn't think you'd want me to.”
He scoffed. “Should that matter?”
“What? “ My features perplexed. “Why wouldn’t it matter?”
He narrowed his eyes at me disbelievingly, as if I was missing something obvious. I just stared back, utterly confused He looked ahead as if he might drop the whole thing, but then turned back hard, sighing.
“You're leaving for a week and you don't think you owe it to him to tell him?” he asked.
“He would never have let us go,” I argued, taken off-guard. “Wait, you didn’t tell him.”
He put a finger up. “First of all, I didn’t know he was back. And secondly . . .” he let out the slight breath of a smirk “. . . sort of a big difference there.”
My throat constricted.
“A difference?” I repeated incredulously.
His eyes hit me fully. Then his features softened, almost sympathetic. “Yeah . . . a difference.”
My brow dropped slowly. I felt painfully vulnerable and the open space and penetrating wind wasn’t helping. I sighed then starting walking forward. “There’s not a difference . . .”
He followed along. “It’s not like we could go back now anyways.”
That was good, sounds like the end of it. I crossed my arms and stepped on dutifully.
“Will he be upset when he—”
“Oh, he’ll kill you,” he answered matter-of-factly. “And me.”
My brow knit.
For the next hour I tried to steer the conversation off of the absent boy, but he would unavoidable come up in other topics. I guess because we were getting away from the whole scene, Ikovos was being more open with me about what was happening with the Meoden. I learned, for one, that the number of magic users in the Meoden’s ranks had increased dramatically. I hadn’t really heard a lot about the magic that the Meoden controlled, though I’d seen it firsthand. Again, I started to worry about Adzamaruha’s warning.
When it was beginning to get dark, Ikovos decided that we would stop at the next available spot. It wasn’t possible for us to reach our destination tonight, and tomorrow there would be plenty of time to get there. Besides, we knew the last leg of the trip involved an upward climb and that wouldn’t be possible in the dark.
It took about thirty minutes to find a shelter that would be isolated enough to shield us from the wind. It was a cropping of rocks between the edge of the forest and an open field. There was a steep piece on one side that jabbed out at a high angle. We settled under this.
Ikovos walked off straight away to gather some wood, while I dropped down onto a rock, opening my pack to check on Tanis. He was still rather immovable in the bundle.
“Hey, baby.” He shifted a little as I ran a finger down his back. “It’s almost night-time, then you can wake up for a while.”
He cooed under my soft strokes.
I looked ahead at the empty field in front of us, open with an engulfing view of the sky. It was very dark for dusk. Wherever the sun was setting, it couldn’t be seen.
“Wanna do the honors?” asked Ikovos, dropping the logs into a pile and holding the last out to me.
I ey
ed him once, then the wood . . . He wanted me to light it, but I couldn’t. . . . Finally my eyes met his again, darkly.
“What is it?” He lowered the wood as the disappointment rose in my stomach.
“I can’t,” was all I got out, then I rubbed my hand.
He narrowed. “What? You mean the spell?”
I pursed my lips lamely, turning back up to him. “Not since the Meoden . . . since we got back from Rizenn.”
He frowned, mouth drawing to match mine. Then we both looked over at the darkening sky.
“Well, I’m sure it’ll come back soon,” he said lightly. “It’s not really something you forget.”
I smiled in response. “I hope so.” Then I nodded to the circle. “Until then are we going to have to freeze?”
He followed my gesture then looked back brightly.
“Nope.” Big grin. “I brought matches.” He straightened up and walked over to his pack then, pulling out the matches and setting the wood up like a triangle.
“Is there food in the?—”
“Smallest bag,” he clarified.
I went over to it and pulled out the contents. Eggs, meat, bread, cheese, fruit, nuts . . . lots of options. I looked back as him as the fire struck, somehow sparking up warmly right away. It created a comforting glow against the dark back drop.
“Can we have eggs?” I asked.
He didn’t respond to the matter of consent, but I guessed he wouldn’t. “Interesting choice for dinner.”
I brought a few over, along with some meat. “We’ll be in too much of a hurry to cook them in the morning.”
He put the matches back into his bag, then sat down cross-legged at the opposite side of the fire to me. I was still below eye-level to him despite the fact that I was sitting on my knees.
“Will we now?” he tested.
I nodded slowly. Then he smirked at me. Sufficiently warming, I tucked some hair behind my ears and turned back down to cooking.
For the next hour, we ate and talked together. Tanis came out. He seemed to be feeling much better. He liked the rock shelter, crawling about it wildly enough to give me several small heart attacks. It reminded me a lot of the night me and Ikovos had spent together in the cave.
As we sat next to each other, staring out at the star-filled, moonless, sky, my gaze turned to his face. Calm and crystal-eyed. There was such a raw simplicity about him . . . but I knew better now than to think that that meant he was weak or naïve. I couldn’t help myself from girling-out and running through all the times we’d spent together. My lips turned up.
“What?” he asked after looking over.
There wasn’t much light as the fire was mostly down to coals now. My head shook, ponytail following and eyes turning back to the sky. “Nothing.”
“So secretive . . . ,” he drawled with a sigh.
I smiled and looked over. Just then a heavy breeze blew past, knocking the fire out almost completely and taking some of the smaller stones off the rock wall with it. It chilled me through to my bones.
“We better get some sleep,” Ikovos nodded to me. Then he looked up. “And pray it doesn’t rain.”
I followed. “Probably a good idea considering . . .”
He laughed shortly and I slipped under my blanket. Tanis jumped down off the rock immediately to come curl up beside me, he must have been cold. When I looked over at Ikovos, he’d laid his bed out, but he wasn’t in it. Instead he sat up looking out at the field. I knew what he was doing, keeping us safe. I just hoped he didn’t do it all night . . .
The wind blew roughly again and his eyes moved to me, checking. I tightened the blanket and smiled. “Night.”
“Night, Evelyn,” he replied. The look he gave me when he said it made my chest hurt. Strange and unexpected . . . but not exactly unpleasant. . . . Either way it confused me, so I didn’t dwell on it.
I turned my body to the side and quickly fell asleep.
*
The night wasn’t a good one. For the first time since the three days that Ikovos and Jaden had left, I had nightmares. Those same nightmares. With Meoden and . . . worst of all Sylvanus, who I hadn’t really thought of since all this had started. Weird how dreams could bring something back to the forefront like that.
The single blanket proved too minimal, once I had woken up once, I couldn’t get warm again. Still, I never came to complete consciousness. Not until light had broke the sky, silver again. My eyes opened groggily, un-rested and puffy. I didn’t yawn as usually. Too tired, too cold. My gaze slipped to the bed beside me though.
Ikovos wasn’t there. It made me shoot up instantly, heart still pounding from the most recent dream. My head spun around in all directions, he wasn’t anywhere else either. I put a hand up to my hair, eyes dipping anxiously.
“Whoa,” came a voice above me. He was up on the rock looking down, quite awake. “I’m right here.”
My chest rose, bottom lip beginning to quiver, then I plopped back down dejectedly.
“Oh. . . .” I squeaked out.
His brow lowered and he dropped down from the ledge, bending beside me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
My head shook. “That’s okay . . . I was just . . .” I looked over to the trees.
“Nightmare?” he asked.
I frowned, then nodded to him, surprised at his quick guess. He seemed to catch this.
“Yeah, I ah . . . saw you tossing, but I didn’t know whether to wake you or not.”
My face flushed a little, embarrassed that I’d been that obvious, but more than that, the reaction of it was still making my blood pump quicker.
“It seemed pretty bad . . . you wanna talk about it?” His face was searching and sympathetic, enough to make me feel better in and of itself.
“No,” I said, smiling bravely. “I hate talking about dreams, they never make sense to anyone but yourself.”
His mouth lifted a bit, then he started to lean up.
“But, Ikovos?” I said, stopping him with a hand to his arm. He waited expectantly. “Since the Meoden broke the treaty . . . have you heard anything about Sylvanus?” I couldn’t keep the effect from my voice.
He narrowed immediately, obviously realizing at least a piece of what my nightmare included. Then his head shook. “No. I haven’t heard anything about him since that fight he had with Jaden . . .” He leaned closer to me. “I never asked you about that, was it?—”
That’s right, Ikovos still doesn’t know that Sylvanus was the one that first found me . . .
“It was fine,” I said, interrupting him with a quick shake of my head. Then I forced a smile. “I don’t know why I’m even asking about him.”
Ikovos straightened, sighing. “He’s not much of a fighter - too cowardly. He wouldn’t show up until much later in the game.”
I “Assuming that later in the game means we lose.”
Ikovos reproached himself immediately. “Shoot, I didn’t mean it like that. We—”
I lifted my head to meet his eyes, they were strained and disconcerted and I knew we were thinking the same thing.
He swallowed hard and I put my hands on the ground beside me.
“That’s why we have to fine the Gaeln,” I said, and propelled myself up.
His gaze followed me. Then he stood straight and I was the one looking up. He wasn’t smiling, but the face he held was, for me, just as reassuring. “Alright, let’s hurry then.”
We ate a quick breakfast of fruit and cheese, packed up, then started on into the trees. The morning was cold, very cold. I could tell it would be overcast again. It was dim enough that the air from our lips came out white and foggy. Ikovos once again lent me his coat.
Before too long we reached the base of the mountain. The summit at the top was our supposed destination. Why did it always have to work that way? We started up fervently anyways, doing a bit less talking today then yesterday. My mind was still on my dreams, on Sylvanus, but I didn’t want to bring it up with Ikovos anymore.<
br />
The sky grew to a fairly bright silver, but there was nothing warming about it. When we’d gone up at least five miles, probably getting close to noon now, I asked for a break, shrugging the jacket off to set on a boulder along the path.
“Oh, sorry, I forgot,” he said, nodding dumbly. “I should have had us do that sooner.”
High pine trees surrounded us, allowing for a quite a cleared space below. A mix of rocks, shrubs, and uneven terrain.
“Of course you should have,” I declared wryly as he sat across from me on a tall rock. “I’m a girl and couldn’t possibly be expected to go on for more than a few hours without a break.”
He smirked at my easy catch of his unintended insinuation. “They could be expected to, they just shouldn’t be.” His chest lifted, obviously somewhat exerted himself. He’s stripped down to his white undershirt at this point. “Big difference.”
My smile tightened. “Such a gentlemen.
He bowed playfully and we both looked up at the trees in unison, a heavy breeze rushing through them.
“How far do you think we are from the top?” I asked. It was impossible to tell from here.
“I don’t know,” he answered. Then he checked up and down either direction. “It might be a good idea to find out though.”
“And how are we going to do that?”
He looked to a tall pine beside us. “Climb a tree.” Then back at me, grinning. “You wanna do it?”
They were really tall, with hardly any branches. Even with magic I wasn’t going to be able to get up there.
Plus, I was beat.
“You go for it,” I said, then stood up. “I’m gonna run back to that spring we passed really quickly. I forgot I had Tanis, and he doesn’t like bottled water.”
Ikovos eyed down the path, sighed, then pursed his lips at me.
“I’ll be fine,” I smiled.
He nodded. “Be careful.” Then he turned to the tree and I headed down with Tanis.
It was just about fifty feet back and a bit off the road. We’d seen it, but didn’t stop as we already had our own drinks.
I hopped down briskly, wishing that I hadn’t left my coat since my heart-rate was starting to slow again. Tanis was on my shoulder, unquestioningly feeling much better from his sickness. I kneeled at the base of the spring surrounded by a grove of rocks. The side to the left was an especially high wall. It reminded me of the glowing pool near the lodge.
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