by K L Hagaman
With care she pulled back his jacket and pulled up his shirt, helping him free his arm from both, noting its stiffness. And then with gentle hands, she peeled back the bandaging.
No gasps were heard. No squeals at the grotesque. She said nothing. She made no expression save for the tenderness she kept in her eyes for him of late. Her light fingers, cold from the night, trailed over his marbled skin, tattered and twisted by a bullet meant for her.
His eyes closed as he steadied his breath, her touch feeling surprisingly welcomed by his wound.
“What have they been doing for it?” she asked in gentle curiosity.
When he looked upon her next, there was something there, something more breathing behind his eyes. “Lilja…” He didn’t even know how to tell her. How this conversation was to even start…
“A balm,” he began simply. “I’ve brought some with me until I can get back.”
Good, that was good, she felt.
“And…”
Her almond eyes swept into his at that, fingers stopping over his skin in attention.
His hand met hers over his shoulder. “They told me—they showed me something—” he trailed off, all the words he could think of feeling funny in his mouth or silly in his head.
“What is it, Kaden?” Lilja wondered carefully.
“It turns out I am…I’m able to heal…a bit better than most.”
Her brow rose a bit. “What? How’s that?” What was he getting at? And he was getting at something. He was terrible when it came to things like this.
“Out with it,” she puffed in a bit of a nervous chuckle.
“Lilja, they told me I’m Towen,” Kaden breathed—releasing the insane revelation he’d been living with for the past few days. His eyes batted around hers after the words with a bit of apprehension he didn’t want to give reason to.
His Princess gave a quirky smile, almost unbelieving. “What?” she questioned breathlessly. She didn’t understand. “How? What makes them think that?” she quizzed. That was no light thing, being a Towen. Her eyes cast about him anew, as if she’d be able to see such a thing written on his skin one way or another.
And maybe it was. Literally.
“I dunno. It may have been my father was one of them.” And that was all he knew—all the reasoning he had for his making.
“But your mother?”
“Still a weaver,” so much as he knew.
“So,” she hedged, questions tumbling about behind her dark eyes. “What does…that mean, exactly?”
“It means I’m the same man I’ve always been,” he answered easily.
“Kaden,” she hushed him, shaking her head. No, no it didn’t. And that realization and all it carried started to overwhelm her.
“Lilja,” he stopped her, fingers tightening around hers.
But she was upset. If all this was true…he would outlive her by a century. He’d belong in Shinrin with the other Towen. He deserved to live that life and know who and what he was. To be home…
He couldn’t stay with her…
“Lilja, stop,” Kaden hushed her hastily, knowing her thoughts as they hung on her lips as words yet to be. He didn’t want to hear them.
“I’m not a weaver. And I’m not a Towen. I’m not a Keeper, even,” he told her, repeating something as much for himself as he did for her. Though the world was trying to tell him who to be and what that meant, only he could decide that. And he’d made up his mind. “I’m yours, my moon. I’m just…” his brow sprang in a hopefully convincing plea. “Yours.”
Her own brow knit, tears filling her eyes as she slipped her arms around his neck and rested her head against his good shoulder as a flurry of thoughts and fears flocked her. But, “…And I’m yours,” she whispered in a faint voice after a time of thought. She could not bear to think of herself as anything else.
Kaden’s eyes closed in relief and his nose rooted gently about her hair. They had this. They could make this work. They would make this work.
They were stubborn like that.
Chapter Fifteen
The Interruption
The next morning, Lilja helped Kaden put the salve over his shoulder, careful and thoughtful as to how she worked the balm, as they spent the moments catching up a bit more before heading out again.
Lilja shared with Kaden everything that had transpired in Dorai, from her talks with Suna to those of the Accordance, and even about Joss, her faux Keeper. But what she wanted to talk most about was him. How had his time been in Shinrin? What were the Towen really like? And this Haleth he spoke of that had set his veins literally aglow, who’d helped him, what was she like?
But Lilja was careful not to ask when he thought he might permanently be able to return to her. She wondered solely in her heart how long he’d need to remain in Shinrin…or want to, when their scouting was finished. He had every right to stay, and for as long as he deemed fit. He needed to heal, and she wanted that for him. But what was more was her need, along with his, for him to understand his true nature. Everyone deserved that. And certainly her Keeper did.
Still, she did not want to think of how long she’d be forced to miss him…
So, he’d answered the lesser, but spoken questions of her heart with stories of the nests hanging from thick redwoods and swinging bridges, of his time with Haleth and Seeva, few as those moments with the latter were. But truthfully, he’d not had the strength to do much more in Shinrin other than rest and try
to wrap his head around the revelations found there.
It was a curious feeling, being so close yet so far away from certain understandings.
“And you glowed?” she asked for what had to be the tenth time. “Like a firefly?” The Princess was trying to grasp the sort of bioluminescence her Keeper spoke of.
“No,” he chuckled almost shyly, rubbing his eye. “More like…trails of lava¬.”
“Lava? So the fisherman’s tale grows,” she commented with a cheeky air as she sat back, done working on his shoulder but looking it over to be certain.
Kaden cut his eyes at her and gave a funny grin, but then those eyes lingered, as they’d done more often of late, and a softness was felt through the air.
“Here,” he started gently, holding out his arms, one slightly lower than the other, realizing how best to appease her question.
Lilja watched as Kaden closed his eyes and breathed in and out a few steady breaths, quieting himself as he focused on a voice and that part of himself that had long lay dormant. Haleth’s words rang there in the dark of his mind, how magic wasn’t to be wielded, but lived.
Kaden didn’t have to look for such power, he simply had to free it.
He breathed it in around him, remembering the feeling of the energy coursing through his veins—how a part of….everything he’d felt in that moment. How connected. How in tune. How intertwined. How free…
From the outside, the once dim tent tucked into the scrawny trees of the higher mountains, began to glow from a life within.
Veins shining, irradiated by the magic that had always been rooted inside him, sleeping and waiting to be roused, Lilja’s eyes washed over his flesh anew.
It was like nothing she’d ever seen. She’d always thought Kaden beautiful, but in that moment, he completely transcended any description words could give—nothing could describe her heart and its depth of awe.
When the Keeper opened his eyes, Lilja’s met them, and perhaps that was what she’d found most…soul shaking in the most delightful way. Something about what she saw there was like seeing Kaden fully for the first time. How she’d always wished to see him. It was raw and true.
Around his pupils, there among the vibrant green, ebbed an electric sapphire. There…that was what she loved. His life, his energy, it was all right there somehow and breathtaking in ways unimaginable. And suddenly she’d understood what he’d meant back when they’d been in his home after Oscine’s. It really was an energy that drew them together…
And t
hat foolish grin that grew as he saw the way she looked at him…
“Don’t ruin this,” she warned quietly in slight jest, eyes narrowing.
“Ruin what?” he fished in an equal hush, leaning a little closer.
Oh, he was dastardly. But who was she to deny the Keeper of her heart?
“You know you’re lovely,” she breathed low as he slipped closer. She didn’t budge however. The Princess always held her ground.
“Mhm,” was all he said, tilting his head as his nose brushed against hers. “And don’t forget modest.”
The laughter that trickled off her tongue was soon enough silenced by his own.
After a few more sweet moments, they corrected their course with their mission in mind, and packed up camp to head out.
The plan was to take a post at the peak of an adjacent summit to keep keen eyes on the mountains across those they knew the Tokū to be mining, according to Masuku’s intel.
The hike was a steep one, and slowly, trees started to thin until they ceased to be present. Next to go were the shrubs. Soon, they were left with nothing more than rocky terra crunching beneath their feet. At a certain elevation, their breaths began clouding the instant they left their warm lips and hit the chilling air, and more and more breaks became necessary as the air thinned.
Eventually, huffing and puffing, Princess and Keeper made it to the barren apex.
“You good?” Kaden asked, propping his pack next to a boulder.
Lilja gave a nod.
They sat, catching their breath as the cold mountain wind drifted freely around them, exposed as they were there on the rock face. But for all that, they were far from prying eyes still. It was a good position—the Commander had done well picking the location.
The mountain face in front of them to be scouted was barren. Stripped and carved, the land looked like a wide scar on the earth as a result of harsh mining. The garish gash was a wild contrast to the living earth around it. But death, regardless of its form, always did look such a way.
Ugly. Broken. Unnatural.
It was obvious now as to why Masuku had made the request to investigate. Such savage plundering was most unlike the Tokū, who usually practiced such mindfulness of their earth.
Lilja looked to Kaden, the breeze dancing about her hair, pulling the loose strands around her face into something akin to a random but graceful performance.
“First impressions?” she asked.
Kaden returned a glance. “Well,” he breathed, looking back over the mountains. “They’re definitely eager to have whatever’s in there.”
Lilja hummed and looked back at the mines for a moment before she swung the pack off her back and onto the ground in front of her before beginning to rifle through it. She drew out some high-focus binoculars and aimed her eyes through them towards the mines, adjusting the lenses with a few deft clicks of her thumb.
“We’ll take shifts watching,” she started with her orders a bit distantly as she focused her examination.
Kaden nodded. As much activity as there was, it was still hard to tell just what was being moved in or out. And they had to be certain of what they saw, for better or for worse, before they manifested any sort of declaration.
✽✽✽
Time spun on, and somewhere along Kaden’s shift, after the sun had dipped low along with the temperatures and the activity on the mountain they scouted slowed to a crawl, he gave an inadvertent shiver.
“You cold?” Lilja asked, looking over her shoulder at him.
“M’fine,” he muttered, eyes steady through the scopes.
The shuffle next to him had Kaden tossing a quick glance beside him just in time to see Lilja slip a blanket from her shoulders and drape the covering around his. He parted his mouth in protest, but she reminded him there was another if she felt need of it.
Argument diffused and after a tick of thanks, Kaden took his focus back to the mines.
He’d not been looking longer than a few seconds when he straightened. His shift in posture had Lilja mimicking apprehensively.
“What is it?” she asked of him in a low tone, sensing the change about him, looking at the mountain herself though she could make out little without the scope and thanks to the dimming hour.
“I think…” he muttered, squinting through the binoculars to be sure, tinkering with the focus. “Look,” he ended on, handing off the lenses. She needed to check what his eyes had seen.
Lilja made quick work of lining up the specs.
“Stones…” she breathed in a heavy tone, more than slightly dismayed. “How many do you think there are?” she wondered aloud to her Keeper a bit breathlessly.
They watched as a steady train of cars rolled out from the different tunnels sprinkled about the base of the mountain.
“No idea. But I’d wager calling it ‘too many’ would suffice.”
“Do you think it’s all true then?” Everything her uncle had said...
Kaden didn’t answer right away, taking his time to piece together a few thoughts.
“We need to get closer.”
“What do you mean?” the Princess ticked. “We know they have the stones now, Kaden. And a lot of them.” Regardless of intent, this wasn’t good. They’d kept the findings from the Accordance when they knew the laws.
He looked at her for a time, calculating the risk. And in the end—
“But we could follow the mine cars and find out just how many more there are and maybe find out what they’re doing with them for certain—If they are trying to…” he trailed off for a minute in a bit of a rambling thought. “And we could check for weavers,” he added, taking his eyes back to the mountain.
Lilja’s shoulders fell a little, and for a time she was simply quiet, watching him as he gazed at the mines in silence.
“Alright.”
Kaden looked up at her with an expression of unspoken gratitude that sang to her soul. Such a quick agreement from her…
“Keeper,” Lilja started softly with a wondering smile. Did he not know what she’d do for him?
Her sentiments were cut short however, when his gaze swept behind her at a note of movement, and his face fell, panic writ in his eyes.
Chapter Sixteen
The Wanderer
“Get down!” the Keeper shouted as he sprang from the ground and dove for the Princess. They collided and hit the rocks behind the boulder he’d dropped his pack at none-to-kindly, but it was better than the arrow she’d have received in her back.
As he looked down at her beneath him, face grimaced with arrows flying over his head, Lilja looked up at him startled.
And then, all fell quiet.
He mouthed to her. “Are you whole?”
She nodded, panting as the adrenaline started to kick in.
“That was a warning shot!” came a deep voice some ways off. “Declare yourselves and your purpose here!”
For a moment, the eyes of the Keeper and Princess danced together, both understanding the predicament. They had no cover beyond this boulder. If they ran, they’d be shot. If they stayed they’d be forced out and then shot. But if they came out, even waving a white flag, there was no guarantee of safety. Not to mention those accosting would know, or rather quickly find out if they didn’t recognize her off the bat, who Lilja was. Who knew what would happen then…
But they had zero options that blew the winds in their favor. They’d have to settle their sails against the one least likely to capsize them. And without discussion, they both knew which that was.
He rose off the ground, arm smarting and hanging a bit limp though he made no fuss of
something relatively trivial, and pulled his Princess up along with him by his good arm, looking her over despite her assurances. He held her face for a moment before he paused, kissed her forehead, and took her hand.
After one more stolen moment, and one more warning claiming to be the last they’d receive, Lilja rose their joined hands up from behind the rock.
“That’s it! Step on out! Slowly now!” they were directed.
Lilja’s free hand was just as high as the other, and Kaden’s was resting rather low against his side as that was as far as he could lift it at the moment, but overall, their actions displayed submission.
The Princess’s eyes glanced over her Keeper as they followed the instructions given but did a double take at the sight of his notable injury with more worry in her gaze for him than over the matter at hand—a worry that Kaden could feel, though he no more than cut his eyes at her for a moment in assurance before he spoke.
“We’re of Wys,” the Keeper claimed honestly as they rounded the boulder steadily.
Two men were there, dressed in the silt-colored uniforms of the Tokū that helped in masking soldiers through the terrain of their territory, standing rigid, with bows poised and tensed at the ready.
“And your purpose?” one said as the Tokū looked the foreign pair over cautiously, working to sniff out trouble.
There was no sense in lying. It was obvious what they were doing given their location and equipment.
“We’re here scouting the mountains you mine,” Lilja stated.
“That’s far enough,” the soldier addressed them when they were a few yards off.
They stopped as ordered as the two men exchanged a look. One lowered his bow and came a bit closer, circling the pair in further investigation.
He stopped behind Lilja in a way Kaden didn’t like, and something flurried in the Keeper’s chest protectively.
“Names?” the Tokū finally questioned.
“I am Princess and Commander of Wys, Lilja Tani Ade, and this is my Keeper, Kaden Ashe,” she replied easily, unnerved by what was obviously a crude attempt to intimidate her.
“Princess?” a soldier scoffed, obviously not believing the perceived ruse for a second. Trespassers made all sorts of claims to try and avoid trouble.
Kaden wasn’t so passive however and let go of Lilja’s hand as he stepped back pointedly, planting a foot between the soldier and his Princess. His green eyes carried a warning that, had the soldier any sense, would have made him wet himself.
