Curse and Whisper

by A J Gala

  “The man with three ears,” Allanis mumbled. “You were talking about Rhett. He’s been spying on us!”

  “He didn’t hear anything good.” Mariette folded her little arms like an adult. “He didn’t get what he wanted. I made sure.”

  Rori sniffled. “Alor’s going to get better now, right Lazarus? The daemon’s gone. That’s all this was, right?”

  “I’m not a daemonologist, but I can tell you that’s not supposed to happen. That’s not normal.” He pointed at Alor’s back. “But neither is attaching a daemon to a child! He’s lucky to be alive, but the Malauris did something, transferred something to him—”

  “Like a disease?” Allanis looked up at him. “People can be cured of diseases. The Hesperans. Or we go to Yzen Vale to the Guild of El’Mina for a cure, or—” she wet her lips and gestured to the doorway, “—or you can fix it. Can’t you?”

  “What? By doing the thing you want to have me exiled for?”

  “Hold on!” Rori stiffened her back. “What thing? What is he talking about, Allanis?”

  She waved her away. “Don’t worry about it, Rori.”

  “The problem is that I don’t know what that is,” Lazarus said. “I don’t know what he’s sick with. All I can tell you is that it came from the daemon.”

  Rori could feel the boy shivering and held him tighter. She heard her brother and sister speculating beside her but couldn’t bear to listen to it anymore. She should have left Alor in Sila’Karia, she thought. She should have left him in his home with Raphael and the High Elves. This was her fault.

  No. She stopped the drowning thoughts before they dragged her to the bottom. None of this was her fault. Her blood ran hot.

  “Rhett would know.”

  “It’s likely,” Lazarus said. “Alli, we’re going to have to hunt him down.”

  Mariette cleared her throat, and all eyes were on her daunting little smile. “You won’t. He’s afraid. All you have to do is wait.”

  Allanis put her hands on her hips. “Mari, we don’t have time to—”

  “Mommy woke up this morning.” She was still smiling as the others choked on something to say. “She’s asleep again, but you should say hello. Somebody gave her a way back.”

  The news hit them all hard, but Allanis pushed through the shock first. She was gone in an instant, leaving without any parting words.

  Tizzy woke later than planned. The quiet lull of early morning had almost passed by the time she had readied herself for the day and left the room. She couldn’t even remember falling asleep; she’d been up so late reading the book Naia had lent her. She’d never read anything like it before.

  She sat down at the bar, a thick plot of mystery and heist still fresh in her mind. Kenway came out of the kitchen to greet her, a barely noticeable sashay in his step and a mug of dark, muddy tea in each hand.

  “Good morning.” He raised one to her and handed it over.

  “Morning, Kenway. What’s this?” It smelled bitter like it had steeped too long.

  “It’s good for you,” he said. “It’ll wake you right up. I drink it every day.”

  “Yeah?” She took a sip and found it was even more bitter than it smelled. “You’ve got a big day today or something?”

  “Heading into town. Your town, in fact. I’m going to pick up more spell stones.”

  She took in a nervous breath and let it out. “I wish I could tell you what to expect right now, but who knows what state the place is in since I left?”

  “What about you? You look ready for an adventurous day. Got your sword on and everything.”

  She grunted into the mug and took another sip. “Chasing after Dark and Stormy like usual. Seen him around today?”

  “Tripped on some things on his way out this morning.” Kenway paused for a long drink, then shook his head. “Guess he needed some space.”

  “Weird. He seemed fine last night.”

  She finished as much of the tea as she could tolerate, then left Sheerspine through the back door in the kitchen.

  A faint mist covered the forest floor. Tizzy knew there was a bite in the air, but it didn’t feel as cold as she expected. She thought back to the year before, recalling the thick, wool-lined cloak she would don on her outings before the month of Vayven had even come. Perhaps she’d toughened up to it, she mused, padding through the brush. She could sense that Aleth wasn’t far.

  The sense felt like she was being drawn in by a rope. She let it lead her, and soon she could hear the current of the Sheerspine River. And then heaving.

  “Oh boy.”

  She approached the silty riverbank with caution. Her brother was there, sitting on the water’s edge without a shirt, splashing frigid water on his face with a soaked towel draped around his shoulders. If he knew she was near, he gave no indication. In fact, it irritated her that he didn’t even turn around.

  “Rough night?”

  Her voice cut through the air, stabbing at his nerves. She didn’t have a clue the night he’d had once he’d closed his eyes to sleep. The irksome sound of Adeska’s sobs was burned into his mind.

  “Go away.”

  She was taken aback. “Excuse me! Why do you say things that you know are just going to make me mad?”

  “And why can’t you ever just let me be alone?”

  “I don’t want you to run off again!”

  “Don’t make your trust issues my problem!” He ran the end of the towel over his face, pressing his fingers in hard. “I’ll come back when I’m ready.”

  Tizzy rolled her eyes and sat down on the ground with all the petulance she could muster. “Fine. You could try being nice the next time you want something.”

  He glared at her from over his shoulder. “When’s the last time you ever took that advice yourself?”

  Everything he had said to her so far had hurt, but her stubbornness fought to bury it.

  “What is the matter with you? You were so fun and stupid last night. What happened?” She could feel him seething with anger as he buried his face in the towel again.

  He knew she expected an easy answer, something concrete and easy to pinpoint. But the truth was overwhelming. Each terrible thing that piled up was something he couldn’t even act on. When he’d first woken up, nauseous and shivering, he wasn’t sure if it was from the drinking or from his dream with Adeska. Both sank his spirits. But when he escaped to the river, things only got worse.

  “Tizzy—” He clenched his fists over his eyes. “I can’t feel the cold, the water, the air, any of it. And the sun is making me itchy. I’m not ready for this shit.”

  She felt the chill of his words, and her irritation faded away. Suddenly she was only filled with pity and scooted closer until she was right beside him. Carefully, she reached up, brushing her hand on his cheek.

  “Look at me. Are you having an impulse?” She didn’t know what to look for but knew that his were a little different from her own. Where she would get crippling headaches, his moods grew more impulsive, dangerous, and intense. His eyes darted away from her.

  “Probably,” he grumbled.

  “That doesn’t make any sense. I know you’ve been feeding, I’ve seen it in everything you drink. And there was that Hunter—”

  “I know!” he snapped.

  She bit her lip before it turned to a pout. “The sun?”

  “Yes, Tizzy! The sun!” He stood up and rubbed his eyes. “I never cared about growing weak to silver. Being confined to darkness was the part that scared me. I never should have listened to all of you. I shouldn’t have drained that Hunter, I should’ve kept pushing away and stuck to—”

  “No.” She rose and stood in front of him with folded arms. “No running, no hiding, Aleth. None of us get to have the life we want. But you’re strong.” She took his hands in hers. “You’re getting stronger, and all of this is just the gods growing fearful. They’ve got to instill balance somehow, don’t they?”

  “You’d be smart not to talk about gods that way
, especially since at least one of them has us on a shit list.”

  She grinned. “Guess I’m not as smart as you tell everyone. Come on, why don’t we do something? Without Lilu around, I’ve been left itching for a good spar.”

  “I’m hungover. I do not want to spar.” He went to a tree branch where the rest of his clothes were hanging and slipped on his shirt.

  “What else is the matter?” she asked.

  “Being hungover and facing a life-changing weakness isn’t enough?”

  “It can be. But is it?”

  She studied his face as he continued dressing. She could tell he was lying before the words even came out of his mouth.

  “It’s plenty enough. You don’t always have to be so worried, you know.”

  She knew her options. She wanted to question him then and there and get it out of him, but she decided to take Kenway’s advice and gave him his space instead.

  “I know,” she said. “I can’t help it, though. I’m always going to be worried about you.”

  She was surprised to see his Hallenar pendant dangling off the branch beside his cloak. He reached for it and put it on, hiding it under his shirt.

  “There’ll be enough to worry about down the road. Have you developed any of your ‘allergies’ yet?”

  “You mentioned you couldn’t feel the cold. Neither can I. Is that what it is?”

  He fastened the cloak. “Some bloodkin will sell it to you like we’re impervious to extreme temperatures, but somehow it feels a lot more depressing than that. Hope you weren’t attached to those cool, blustery autumn days I know you used to love.”

  “I was.”

  He found her hand and held it tight. He wished he hadn’t snapped and yelled at her and took a moment to sort through things the way he should have said them. Eventually, he found the only thing worth saying at all.

  “Sorry.”

  Her shoulders relaxed. “You want to head back?”

  “Let’s go. I think I’ll even make some of Kenway’s gross tea for this hangover.”

  They started back, but Tizzy still felt hollow. “We’re not going to burst into flames in the sun, are we?”

  “Not yet. I don’t know how fast we can expect to see something like that happen. Torah’s not even there yet, and he’s advanced into his nightwalker state more than anyone else I’ve known. Saw a vampire burst into flames in sunlight, though!”

  Tizzy didn’t know how to bring up the fact that Korrena was at the Convent, and though she was curious whether or not he knew of her, she didn’t want to drive the conversation toward one of her least favorite people. So she stayed quiet.

  “We were heading to a dragonkind town by the East Coast.” He sighed. “It was early in the day, but it was completely overcast, so we thought it would be safe to cross the Orion Plains.”

  “Who’s ‘we?’”

  “Me and Torah.”

  “You don’t have to—”

  “I know, Tizzy, but I’ve got to be okay one of these days.” He chewed on his lip before going on. “The clouds cleared up with hours of daylight still left, and Torah’s skin started to burn and blister. I kept trying to cover him with my cloak, but it wasn’t working, so I gave up and dug him a hole in the ground, and he hid there till the sun set.”

  He laughed, but it was a cruel laugh she hadn’t heard from him before.

  “I was so worried for him back then, but now it’s just pathetic.”

  “Am I going to have to dig a hole for you?”

  “I’d rather you just left me out to die, Tizzy.”

  “Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” she said, sweeping her arm out into the air.

  Aleth knew she was holding something back. It wasn’t like her to let him keep secrets, and he knew he hadn’t truly convinced her that nothing else was bothering him. Despite the nagging thoughts about Adeska, he went back to faking good spirits for her and didn’t mention his dreams at all.

  11

  The Raven on the Coast

  “Alli, she needs to rest.”

  With a growing knot in her stomach, Allanis stood in the infirmary doorway, staring inside. Lazarus rested his hand on her shoulder.

  “Alli.”

  “But I have to talk to her! I need to know how she feels.”

  They could see Adeska’s sleeping silhouette on a yellow curtain that separated her bed from the others in the room. It was backlit by a nightstand full of lit candles that gently, dutifully flickered away.

  “I’ll tell you exactly how she feels,” Lazarus said. “She feels severe exhaustion and pain in her abdomen. She woke, Alli. She woke, she looked at you, she smiled, and she went back to sleep. Now that we know she’s conscious again, we know there’ll be time to talk later.”

  With every new sentiment coming out of his mouth, Allanis could not help but take it with a grain of salt. No matter how sound his reasoning, how clear his logic, she couldn’t take his word for it. The sight of the Maw had ruined something, and she couldn’t get it back.

  “I’ll be staying by her side until she wakes again,” she said. “Go to Rori’s room and check on Alor. See if there’s anything they need.”

  He fought the urge to sigh and left without a word, down the hall and toward Rori’s room as he’d been told.

  Even after he was no longer in sight, Allanis felt stuck in the doorway, unable to go forward or backward. Her nerves rattled just beneath her skin.

  “I know he’s at least right about that part,” she whispered to Adeska, knowing she’d never hear it. “I know I should let you rest. But I can’t.”

  Swallowing hard, she forced herself to finally take a step. She was greeted by the powerful scent of an herbal poultice that had been applied to the wound earlier. There wasn’t anything pleasant or floral about it. Allanis thought it was noxious enough to wake the dead.

  She tiptoed up to Adeska’s bed, laying her eyes on the woman still in it. A tiny smile curled onto Adeska’s lips, and Allanis gasped.

  “Why are you two fighting?”

  Allanis grabbed Adeska’s hand and squeezed it hard. Her heart beat so fast with relief, she struggled to speak. “We weren’t!”

  “Lazarus doesn’t have to yell to argue.” Her voice was soft, barely there. “You’ve been fighting while I’ve been out?”

  She finally opened her dark blue eyes and stared up at Allanis. Sad, weary, scared… and something else Allanis couldn’t put her finger on.

  “There’s been some arguing. All around,” she admitted. “I’m sorry to say we’re only human. How do you feel?”

  Adeska had woken up to her world of responsibilities. She knew there could be nothing but bad news around every corner, yet she couldn’t wipe a dumb smile off her heart. And it had absolutely no right to be there, she thought. Because even away from the real world, in a world of shared dreams, she had been made to face painful, agonizing guilt for everything she had done, everything she had chosen to do…

  But she was awake. Alive. Aleth had thrown her in the water. He must have been familiar enough with Talora’s dreams to know it could force her awake. He’d woken her.

  He’d forgiven her.

  “I feel okay,” she said, swallowing down a smile. “But it feels like it’s been so long. I’m ready to get back to my life. How long has it been? How are Alor and Mariette?”

  Allanis drew in a painful breath and held it in for a long moment before letting it out. “You’ve been unconscious for eight days. Mariette is good. Alor is… is sick.”

  “And he’s not here in the infirmary?”

  “No.” It wasn’t that kind of sickness, but she wasn’t ready to say it yet. “A lot has happened. I’ll fill you in, don’t worry. But it will take time. We should go slow.”

  “Allanis—”

  “You are in no condition to be overwhelmed by House Hallenar’s current events!” Allanis raised her finger. She regretted not listening to Lazarus.

  “Will you at least tell me what you’ve done with C
enta?”

  Allanis curled her hands up in her lap, then fidgeted with them. “He’s… he’s been in the cells. But he’s had food and water, and Phio has been visiting, keeping him company. It isn’t that bad.”

  She did not dwell on the fact that Lazarus had gone down and siphoned his energy out of him with the Maw.

  “How much longer are you planning on keeping him there?”

  “Adeska, he attacked you. He stabbed you. You almost died! I’m almost convinced I should keep him there!”

  Adeska craned her neck up as far as she could before the pain stopped her. “Allanis! You can’t be serious! It was an accident!”

  “Just because he didn’t intend to attack you does not make the attack any less intentional!” Allanis yelled. “And did you forget who it was intended for? It was intended for Lazarus! Not some Hunter or an intruder or a daemon—no, your brother!”

  Suddenly, there was a knock on the doorframe. Both women glanced over, and Prince Ashbel of Saunterton gave them a sheepish wave.

  “Excuse me.” He wet his lips. “Hello Lady Adeska, Queen Allanis. Might I come in? I have some urgent news.”

  Allanis had more argument on the tip of her tongue, but she beckoned him in anyway. She had a feeling there would be more opportunities to defend her decisions, anyway.

  “What’s wrong, Ash?” she asked.

  The young prince came in and stood beside Allanis, folding his arms. They waited for him to speak, but his brow furrowed, and his frown tightened over the words.

  Allanis raised her eyebrow. “For news so urgent, it sure is taking you a long time to say it.”

  His nostrils flared with a huff. “Ana is engaged. To Duke Orin of Davrkton.”

  Allanis gasped and clapped her hands together. “Ash! Oh, Ash, that’s wonderful!”

  “It’s not.” He stared at the ground. “I’ve never trusted Orin. I’d been trying to get between him and Ana since the day he came to Lovell Keep. She said she was going to kick him out and make him go back to Davrkton! The next thing I know, I’m receiving a letter saying she’s going to marry him.”