Divided

by Rae Brooks

  His eyes narrowed as he regarded her. “I would prefer you never speaking to me again than to have to bear the thought that you are dead because of me.”

  “It will never be because of you,” Aela said.

  Leif clenched his fists and thrust his arms outwards as he advanced on her. He looked as though he were ready to strike her down himself. “That will be of little consequence if you die!” he said shortly.

  “You think me so incompetent?” she snarled.

  He blanched, and then a low growl escaped him. “No, I know you are competent. Your life, though, is far too valuable to play such frivolous games with—no matter your skill.”

  “Allow me to quote my brother,” she hissed, “if my life is so precious that it cannot aid in the protection of my people, then it truly holds no value at all.”

  Leif’s jaw clenched. “Taeru would hang himself if he’d known you would use his words as an excuse to risk your own life.”

  “I’m no child.”

  “I… I know that. But you are important to…” His pause was long. “…the kingdom.”

  The moment passed, though Aela had the distinct impression that Leif was going to kiss her then. Of course, he did nothing of the sort. “I appreciate your concern, Leif, truly. But I will be careful. Let me help you, please.”

  “Help me?” Leif scoffed. “How do you intend to help me? Perhaps you can take a killing blow for me?” he asked sardonically.

  She frowned, though the thought hadn’t occurred to her until just then. She would most certainly have taken the killing blow for Leif, but the fact that he might do the same, and her presence could be the reason for his death was a little alarming. Though, if she thought like that, then she would certainly be a hindrance. “Stop thinking of me as the princess. Just think of me as another weapon to aid you. I might be of some use yet.”

  Leif sighed. “Ael—” Aela leapt forward and covered his mouth with her hands. Her teeth gritted together. “Aelic,” he said when she removed her hand. “I am just worried about you. I want you to be safe. I should not have let you leave Cathalar.”

  “Do you not understand that I would have been miserable? Taeru, and then you having left me—sitting in Cathalar in the safety of my oversized room, and knowing that both of you could be dead? How do you think I would have felt?”

  Leif let out a long breath, and then a smug grin made its way onto his face. “I knew you liked me, sir,” he said.

  “Do not flatter yourself. I would feel the same about anyone else in this position.”

  “I doubt it,” Leif said wryly. “But, is it possible th-”

  “Sir, we’ve gotten enough to start a fire. I suppose you’re already done setting up camp?” Teral said as he entered the campsite and effectively cut off Leif’s voice, as though he had hit the young spy in the face.

  Leif stared dryly at the man who had just interrupted him, and for the first time since they had struck out, Leif seemed to desire to be alone with Aela for a moment. That was further evidenced in the way his voice sounded. “No, Teral, this is an illusion. I haven’t set up camp at all.”

  Teral grinned, despite the fact that Leif wasn’t trying to be nice. The dark-haired noblemen never was directly rude, after all. When he and Aela had fought, he always held that sarcastic, needling sense of humor that made you unsure whether to laugh or cry. “No need to be callous,” Teral said as a few of the other men entered the camp.

  “Indeed,” Leif said wistfully, and then he went to work helping the rest of the men set up the fire.

  Darkness approached quickly as the fire started to burn. They all feared that the rain would start before they had a chance to cook any of the game they had killed. Travelers tended to have only bread, cheese, and other products that could not be freely claimed by a hunter. Aela supposed that made sense, but she hated that meant that she was expected to hunt.

  She was not very good at it. She knew how to wield a bow, and she knew how to strike down a man—but moving silently through a field to sneak up on some overly alert animal was never easy. She had done well to kill the few rabbits and ducks that she’d found. No one had faulted her for it, though, as she was the only one who even had a bow.

  They roasted the rabbit and a turkey that she had been fortunate enough to kill. The men ate the turkey with incredible vigor, and Aela found herself fighting for selections of the meat that she had killed. She thought about informing all of them about this, and that they should wait until she knew what she wanted—but again, that sounded very princess-like.

  Then again, she thought triumphantly, princesses didn’t often know how to hunt for themselves. There was a swell of pride as she took a bite of the turkey leg. Leif was watching her now, with growing amusement, and she felt her cheeks rise in temperature.

  The heat could be easily contributed to the fire, though, so she pretended Leif had no effect on her at all. “Thank goodness you can hunt, Aelic,” one of the men, the name of which escaped Aela, told her. “I might go mad out here with no meat to sate me.”

  Leif frowned. “I told you that meat would be a rarity on the trip, Gragresh,” he said. He looked genuinely displeased with this statement. Perhaps he didn’t like that the other men seemed to disagree that Aela added no value. Things were never as they seemed with Leif Firenz, though, ever. That was one of the many things that Aela hated about him.

  “That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate that you were wrong. When did you decide to come along, Aelic? A fortunate decision, that was,” Gragresh turned to Aela with a cheerful grin on his face, which was marred a little by the turkey juice splattered across his face.

  She hadn’t thought about the answer to that question, but she needed to think of one quickly. “I… I don’t know. I just felt like I’d rather be with you all than sitting around on idle patrols, so I told the captain the moon before the caravan left that I’d like to help. He agreed.” Leif’s eyes flashed with amusement at her story.

  Well, he could laugh if he wanted, but she thought it was a rather convincing alibi. The other men seemed to agree as they all nodded their heads and were soon occupied with other matters, such as eating the turkey that she’d provided for them. “We ought to be careful now,” Patea said lowly, “I saw the first group of Telandan guards. Apparently, Lavus—the bastard—is trying to extend his territory.”

  “Well, all he’ll extend to is weeds and animals. I doubt even animals would want much to do with Lavus’s poor leadership skills,” Teral answered with a low growl. Lavus was very much disliked among the Cathalari military, even more so than he was among the regular citizens of Cathalar. Mostly because Lavus’s foolish desires to make Veyron mad had cost these soldiers lives of friends that they held very close.

  Aela took a long breath. “I am very interested to know why it is he seems to desire to piss off our kingdom so badly. Surely he realizes that none of the neighboring kingdoms have any inclination to keep Telandus from falling.” Her words were strict, and she made sure to keep her voice lower than it was naturally.

  “There is something unnatural about it,” Leif agreed. Normally, when Aela spoke, Leif chose to ignore her entirely, but after their brief talk, Leif had obviously opened up to the idea that Aela was here to stay. He was probably still patting himself on the back thinking she had feelings for him. Well, let him think that if it made him feel better. “But Lavus has always been lesser than human to our people. Perhaps we will find things are different than expected in Telandus,” he said.

  They had traded for a few bottles of wine, and Leif took a drink of it, then. Aela had never been much for wine at the castle, but the taste of something sweet—with flavor—out here was always welcome. She held out her tankard and Leif filled it obligingly. “Perhaps,” she agreed. She thought back to Taeru, then.

  She had held some hope that perhaps they would run into him. Every single sun she thought about it, about the possibility that he would be in one of the towns they stopped in, or even that h
e would be a trader. Unfortunately, he had not been, and though her hope had not vanished, she felt it growing less every sun. If he was out here, the odds that she would run into him while trying to stay off the main roads was—well—unlikely at best.

  The problem was that her mind didn’t seem to think that. Her mind wanted her to believe that if she didn’t run into Taeru, then that meant that her brother was dead. Yet, if she’d let herself think that, then she would certainly have burst into tears and looked like a fool in front of all of these men.

  No, she had to believe that Taeru was out here somewhere, and that even if she didn’t run into him, that he was alive. Taeru was too intelligent to have let himself be killed by the wilderness, and guards and bandits had very little reason to attack a lone traveler. With that thought, she pushed the idea of her brother’s death from her mind and focused on eating the rest of the turkey leg. That wasn’t hard, as they didn’t get to eat often, and she’d found that she better eat food when it was offered or she might not get it at all.

  Once they had polished off the turkey, a few of the men stood from their perches and stretched. “That meal will keep me going for suns!” Patea said cheerfully. “We appreciate it, Aelic.”

  Aela just nodded her head at the acknowledgement. There was no need to gloat over what she’d done for them, for she had done it as much for herself than for any of them. She picked at the remainder of the turkey, trying to get as much food into her system as she could, and the other men did another quick check of the camp. “Perhaps I ought to hunt before we set off again tomorrow,” Aela said, noticing a dropping on the ground. “This place seems like a good one.”

  “Rain might draw them out too,” Leif said thoughtfully. “If you get up early enough, that might not be a bad idea.”

  “Guess I ought to get to sleep, then,” Aela said. She stood from where she had been comfortably sitting for the duration of the evening and stretched her own legs. She couldn’t help looking forward to the sun they arrived in Telandus. Even if they were in unwelcome lands, surely there would be comfortable inns in which they could sleep.

  There was a certain fearfulness to sleeping on the ground in the middle of somewhere she didn’t know well. She couldn’t help worrying every sun that she would wake up in some tiger’s mouth. The frightful stories she’d heard of demons as a child plagued her still, and then there were the fabled dragons. There were so many things that could get to her now that she was no longer behind city walls.

  She longed for another town, and she longed for this to be over. As she turned to the tent that they had declared to be the one she would stay in, she ducked under the sticks and unrolled her sleep skin. They had allowed themselves a little more comfort in the skins that they slept in, and the soft warmth hugged her body so that she felt a fleeting sense of security.

  Aela had yet to imagine what would happen if they had found some terrible secret in Telandus that meant that Cathalar couldn’t win the war. She had not yet faced the reality that there would be a reason in the world that Cathalar should fall. It was superior in every way to Telandus, and she knew that not only because she lived there, but because she felt it with every fiber of her being. The knowledge was widespread, and there was not a single nation—except possibly Dokak—that didn’t want to see Telandus on its knees.

  If Telandus were to win this war, then there would surely be infinite repercussions. Lavus couldn’t be allowed any more power than what he already had, and she knew that as well as anyone in Elyst. Veyron was a king as any ordinary man could be. He loved the power, but he didn’t let it control him, and he retained his sense of humanity as he ruled. He let himself feel superior, but not to the degree of which Lavus seemed guilty. If whatever Lavus was planning involved some way for his nation to win the war against all the others, then Aela knew she would die sooner than she would have it unleashed.

  However, the stranger thought was that there would be nothing there—that Lavus had no means of defeating Cathalar, and that the foolish man was simply attempting to start a war that he knew he couldn’t win. Either way, no matter what, there would be a war—and many lives would be lost. Why did Lavus want that when he knew the inevitability would be the loss of his power?

  That didn’t make sense, and Aela knew that there was no way she could accept that he was simply that insane. No man alive was that crazy, and even if Lavus was, he was too worried with retaining his power to let that be how he expressed himself. No, if there were no secret weapon lying behind the walls of Telandus, then she was sure that there must be something greater at work. Something possibly even more frightening.

  In her dreams, she walked the streets of Telandus. The buildings gleamed red with blood, and the people around her emitted misery into the air. She knew that she ought not be here, and that she wanted to leave, but there was a purpose for her walking the streets. She walked them, even as they became soaked with blood from people that were dying in the distance.

  Her feet moved her, though, as though a voice was calling to her from somewhere in the distance. Telandus. This was the city that she had been taught was filled with hate. It burned underneath her feet, but she knew there was something in this wretched place that she should find. The city, though, was becoming twisted as she walked through it.

  The people were no longer people, and they morphed into terrifying monsters. Even children twisted into black creatures that all watched Aela, as if they knew that she shouldn’t be there. They did know, but Aela was aware that there was nothing they could do to her. She had to continue, or else she wouldn’t get to her goal. If she didn’t reach her destination, then she might have to stay in this Lightless place forever.

  When she reached the end of the street, the blood-soaked buildings gave way and the walls seemed to evaporate in front of her. She stood in a field of flowers, only the red of the flowers was frightening. Nervousness crept up her spine, but she kept moving and saw a silhouette a little bit ahead of her. “Excuse me,” she said instinctively.

  She wanted her voice back, surely she shouldn’t have been speaking so freely in a place such as this, but she was sure that the figure meant her no harm. In fact, she wanted to go to it—she was afraid for the person before her. That was why she had walked, because she had known that despite her own safety in this place—this individual was not safe.

  The form turned to answer her call, and she saw the soft, blue eyes of her brother. He stood in front of some frightfully monstrous structure. A twisted obelisk that seemed to wind up into the air and pull at the sky itself. The blue eyes were bright, but they were afraid, and they looked exhausted. Taeru. “Taeru!” she shouted. She began to run towards him, and suddenly, her movements seemed slowed.

  He said nothing, and instead just watched her with growing fear as she approached. He was afraid of her, and he seemed afraid of everything. He didn’t want to be there, and yet he seemed rooted to where he stood. “Taeru, what are you doing?” she asked. Her voice seemed warped by the air, twisting all around her and tossed about on the wind.

  “Aela,” he finally spoke with a weak voice. The voice was his, but he sounded as though he’d just endured an unending beating. When she looked more closely, she could see the bruises along his jawline—the marks along his neck. “I’m sorry,” he said anxiously.

  “No. Why are you sorry?” she asked him gently. She couldn’t keep moving, but at least they could talk to one another now. Still, he needed to get away from the obelisk, of that much she was certain, though her body and mouth seemed unable to provide that singular thought to him.

  His eyes softened, and he just shook his head, as if he didn’t want to answer the question. The creation behind him was moving, and Aela thought she saw tentacles. If Taeru didn’t move, they were going to grab him. “Get away from there!” she finally forced her mouth to say. The sound was obscured far worse this time.

  “I can’t,” Taeru said weakly. He glanced back to the obelisk, and when he turned to the thing be
hind him, Aela could see him begin to tremble. When he turned back around, he looked more worried about her, though. “Wake up, Aela.”

  “Taeru! Taeru, you have to get away from there! It’s going to kill you.”

  His lips pressed into a thin line, and then he gritted his teeth. “You have to wake up,” he informed her again. The fear was still there, but it was fading, and he was staring at her with very genuine purpose.

  “Taeru! Please! Listen to me!” she cried.

  “Wake up!” he cried, and this time his voice was distorted. She saw a tentacle from the obelisk reach up and grab him by the arm. He pulled against it, and then he gave her one last imploring look. “Aela, wake up!”

  “Taeru! NO!”

  “Aela! Wake up! Please!” The voice wasn’t Taeru’s anymore, and now it wasn’t distorted, but rather it was a whisper. Her eyes fluttered open and she jolted forward.

  “Taeru!” she cried desperately. No, that had only been a dream. The field, the blood, all of Telandus had only been a dream, and yet she found herself more terrified than ever for her brother’s safety.

  Leif was with her, now, but he looked panicked. She was sure that he wasn’t just worried about her dream, and this was emphasized by the way he’d slammed his hand over her mouth. “Telandan guards,” he said. He held her bow out and thrust it into her hands. “We have to fight.”

  Aela’s eyes widened at the realization. Being thrown from such a horrifying dream into this moment was the worst thing that could have happened, because no matter what, the image of Taeru fighting against that monstrous, black pylon would not leave her. She was forced to leave it, though, when one of the guards slammed into the tent and Leif jumped to her defense.

  His sword caught the guard, and Leif thrust the man backwards. She grabbed her quiver and pulled it onto her back as she aimed an arrow at another man who tried to enter the tent. With a few more parries, Leif managed to cut the first man’s throat, and he fell to the ground. Blood soaked the dirt, and Aela made a pained whimper at the sight of the dying man.