Shatter (The Children of Man)

by Elizabeth C. Mock

  Eve’s eyes went flat and cold. “He had unrestricted access to the townhouse. He fled the night she was murdered. He was the last thing she saw. What other proof do you need?”

  Sheridan closed her eyes and inhaled with a deliberate calm. “Find him. We can’t know for certain what happened here unless we find him. You need to leave as soon as possible. He was last seen four days ago. He’s got a significant lead on you and he knows how to stay lost if he doesn’t want to be found. I’ll stay and see what else I can uncover. The other missing Daniyelan, Gareth Burke, is still unaccounted for. Finding him may answer a lot of questions. Just don’t jump to any conclusions. There are several possibilities to explain this evidence. I don’t think Kaedman did this, Eve.”

  Eve ignored her sister’s final statement and smiled with a restrained savagery. “The murderer will be brought to justice. Our cousin’s death will not go unpunished.”

  Sheridan bit her lip. “I’ll find you when I’m done here. He's a good man, Eve. Just remember that. I don’t want to lose them both unless I have to.”

  *****

  Chapter Six

  Darkness surrounded Faela, no sound, no sight, just nothingness. She floated until a single noise vibrated through the emptiness. The splashing of running water broke through the darkness that trapped her. She could not suppress the now rushing water; it remained. Invited by the sound’s incursion, more invaders crept into the vacant expanse.

  A moist chill caressed her skin. She felt herself shivering. The featureless void began to waver and dissipate as light rose and fell filling the emptiness. She groaned. Her eyes fluttered and she squinted in the dim light.

  A fire burned near the mouth of a cave, providing only a fickle glow. The rain hid anything beyond its entrance, which Faela had mistaken for a waterfall. Flexing her back muscles, pain shot through her head and side.

  “Bad idea,” she mumbled to herself as she slumped back, examining the damp ceiling of the cave.

  “Faela, you’re awake.” The voice chirped at her from the direction of the fire.

  “Noise bad.” Faela slurred her words. “Noise, definitely bad.”

  Jair crouched at her side and pulled her coat up around her shoulders to lessen her shivering. “How’re you feeling?”

  “Everything hurts.” She blinked, her eyes struggling to focus. “Jair? What time is it?”

  “Late evening.” Jair's eyes looked sunken and his skin sallow. “You’ve been out for a while.”

  “How many days?” Faela rubbed her temples in a vain attempt to alleviate the pressure that threatened to squish her head like an overripe fruit.

  “Days? It’s still the same day, Faela. You were out for a long time, but it’s still the same day.”

  “That can’t be right.” She pushed herself into a sitting position. Her head spun and she rocked forward into her knees. Jair put his hand at the small of her back to steady her. She rested a hand on his arm. “I’m all right. I’ll be fine, but that can’t be right.”

  “But it’s true.”

  “No.” She shook her head. Her hair cascaded over her knees veiling her face. “Healing something that severe should’ve put me out for days. It’s not possible.”

  Jair shrugged. “Well, you weren’t, but you do look awful.”

  Glaring through her fingers up at Jair, she grimaced. “You know just what to say to make a girl feel special.”

  “I do try.” Jair smiled his cheeks dimpling. “But you seem to be feeling better.”

  “I’ll feel better once I eat; I’m ravenous. Hand me my bag.”

  Jair leaned over, grabbed her pack, and passed it to Faela who drew it into her lap. Groping inside, she pulled out another green apple and a fresh shirt. She bit into the apple and held it in her mouth.

  Shirt in hand and apple in mouth, she pointed. “Jair, turn around so I change,” she commanded though the clarity of her speech was greatly impeded by the apple gripped between her teeth.

  Sighing, Jair walked over to the fire and sat down, his long legs stretched out before him. “You take the fun out of everything.”

  Faela swallowed a bite of apple and set it on top of her bag. Sliding off her torn and muddied shirt, she winced. The fabric stuck as it pulled away from the wound at her side reopening the gash.

  She sat for a moment, her forehead resting on her knees, while she slowed her breathing down to control the pain. Purple bruises discolored her shoulder and collarbones where the bandit had kicked her. They ached and throbbed with every breath. She blinked away the tears that had formed in her eyes. That had been a little too close.

  Wiping the tears off her cheeks, Faela used the ruined shirt to staunch the bleeding and placed her palm over the wound. Her hand flashed red and the blood clotted forming a thin scab. Feeling woozy from even that minor amount of healing, she drew on the clean shirt. To keep from reopening her injured side further, she held her right arm bent.

  Picking up her apple, she took another bite. Some of the juice dribbled down her fingers. Her hair caught underneath the shirt, she pushed against the cool, lichen-encrusted wall so she could stand. On unsteady legs, she teetered to Kade’s inert body.

  “I’m decent, Jair,” she informed the lanky man. She sank to the floor with an awkward half fall and knelt over Kade. She pulled back the blanket that covered him to examine the wound. Her fingertips pressed lightly on the skin around the puncture. It was hot to the touch and moist. The wound itself burned an angry red. Pushing back his dark, sweat-soaked hair, Faela rested her palm on his forehead. He felt like hot coals.

  “He’s been like this since I moved him,” Jair said from the entrance. “What’s wrong with him? I mean besides having a gaping hole in his chest.”

  “The wound’s poisoned,” she answered, “and he’s running a high fever.”

  She chewed on her lip, thinking. The fever meant his body was doing most of the work for his recovery, which was good, but the poison concerned her. She had diluted its effect when she repaired his lung, but it would continue to feed the fever and the cold and musty conditions of a cave were not ideal surroundings for successful healing.

  Examining the wound again, she prodded the area gently with her fingertips. At her touch, Kade sucked in too much air and coughed, his body seizing. Grabbing Faela’s hand, his eyes opened and he rolled onto his side, spitting out blood.

  “What’d you think you’re doing?” His voice sounded raw. He tried to catch her gaze, but she looked away.

  “Treating your wound,” she replied with a snap. “What does it look like? Painting?”

  Kade’s face went from confusion to anger in a matter of seconds. “Where is he?”

  “Where’s who?” Faela asked returning to a steady and soothing tone, her hand still captured in his.

  He grasped her hand, crushing her fingers together. “Where’s the book?”

  “I don’t know what you mean. What book?” Her expression never registered the pain though her lips paled.

  Kade’s glazed eyes roamed until he located Jair who had crept toward the entrance of the cave. “You.” His voice carried over the rain low and dangerous. “Where’s my bag?”

  Kade released Faela’s hand and pushed himself off the gritty floor and advanced on Jair. Jair stood still, but his eyes darted around the cave as if searching for escape, but he found no relief, only jagged rocks and water and darkness stretching down behind them.

  “Kade, sit down.” Her voice commanded calmly, yet firmly.

  Stumbling, Kade wheezed, but he pulled himself back onto his feet. Faela saw a line of blood trickle down his back.

  “You’re ripping your wound wide open, you idiot. You need to sit.”

  “The bag, mate. The one I hid under the pine, it had the temple tokens in it. It’s gone and I know you took it.” Kade collapsed against the side of the cave panting. His face was flushed and his eyes stared, unable to focus.

  “Jair, do you know what he’s raving about?” Faela hovere
d near the delirious man without touching him for fear of injuring him further. “If you do, by the blessed Light, please tell him. He’s going to kill himself, if he doesn’t sit back down.”

  “The logbook.” Kade’s speech slurred and he shook his head fighting to remain conscious. “The logbook in the bag, do you have it?”

  Jair looked from Kade and back to Faela. Without a word, he walked over to his pack and removed a smaller satchel. On the flap was the emblem of a sword in flames. Approaching Kade, he offered him the orange leather bag.

  “Jair,” Faela asked her voice slow and even despite her rising panic, “why do you have an Daniyelan circuit kit?”

  Jair studied his boots, his eyes avoiding Faela. He opened his mouth then closed it, as if reconsidering his answer. Rubbing the back of his neck, his shoulders slumped. He grabbed his coat before he walked out of the cave into the rain-filled night without an explanation.

  Kade ripped open the clasp and pulled out a tattered leather book. He flipped through the pages and the frenzied alarm left his face. Closing his eyes, he allowed himself to sink down the wall of the cave.

  “For the love of the Light,” Faela whispered, terror overtaking her flat gray eyes, “I had to save a Daniyelan, didn’t I?”

  Lowering her head so that her hair veiled her face, she crawled back to her possessions and considered her options. Regardless of who this man was, she needed to treat his wounds and her own. By now, Jair probably had a raging headache, but nothing that required her immediate attention. He would be fine. At least she tried to convince herself that he would be fine. She pulled out her dagger from its boot sheath and started cutting her ruined shirt into strips for makeshift bandages. Distracted by her own anxiety, she abandoned the cloth after making only three and removed from her gear a cook pot and a small, blue-and-white-checkered, cloth packet.

  Still drained and unable to move freely, she propped her shoulder against the wall and shambled her way to the mouth of the cave. Curtains of water poured down the sides of the entrance. Thrusting the pot under the water, it overflowed in a matter of moments and drenched her hand in the process. Before she could use any of the strips, she needed to boil and treat the dirty fabric.

  Taking slow, methodical steps toward the fire, Faela flopped to the floor without any grace. She edged a flat rock half into the fire with her foot and set the pot on the rock. Untying the packet, she dumped the contents into the water her hands trembling. Exhausted from the effort, she breathed shallowly, but she forced herself to keep moving.

  Returning to the tatters of her shirt, she picked up the dagger once more. With an aggressive cut, she sliced through the fabric with a tearing sound. When she set the strip on her overcoat, she noticed the rip where the bandit’s sword had slashed through its thick fabric. One more thing to fix. This was going to be a long night.

  His vision blurry with sleep, Kade blinked and rubbed his eye with the base of his palm. He breathed in deeply through his nose, which triggered a new coughing fit. It felt like someone sat on the right side of his chest. To relieve the rasping within his lungs, he tried to keep his breaths shallow.

  His arms curled around himself, to lessen the pain, he brushed strips of cloth wrapped around his ribcage. Hints of lavender and a musky spice he had not smelled in years scented the bandages.

  He heard scuffling noises and the aroma of crushed cinnamon drifted around him. Sitting cross-legged next to the fire, a familiar silhouette of a woman wearing a rancher’s hat poked at the contents of a pot as the late morning sunlight streamed into the interior of the cave. His hand fumbled along the ground until he felt the corner of a leather book. He sighed in relief; it was safe.

  To test his injuries, Kade moved slightly. When he failed to incur any immediate repercussions, he used his forearms to lift himself into a sitting position with a painful wheeze. As he picked up the book, a slip of parchment fell from its pages and into his lap.

  Scrawled hastily on the paper was a note.

  Finally got that hunting cabin. You know where to find me. — CDM

  He placed the scrap in a pocket sewn into the book’s cover and set it down.

  “Is that ready?” Kade croaked, his throat parched.

  The person by the fire did not answer, just dished some porridge into a bowl and grabbed some tack bread. The figure stood and walked toward Kade with the food. Wavy reddish-gold hair flowed out from under her hat. Without a word, Faela handed the bowl and the bread to Kade, then sank to his side and began checking the entry wound at his back with a light touch. He felt tingling warmth on his skin. The wound seemed to itch.

  Shoveling the porridge into his mouth with the bread, Kade’s mind mulled over the events of the past few days. No matter how hard he tried to avoid it, his thoughts kept returning to the image of her silver eyes. He began to wonder if it had merely been a feverish delusion from the shock. He studied her in his peripheral vision, but the combination of her hair and hat effectively hid her eyes.

  Faela circled from behind him. “Move your arms.”

  Kade raised an eyebrow, but complied. Faela loosened the bandages and laid her fingertips on the already closed gash. Red light flared from the vial hanging from her neck and pulsed from her palm up to her fingertips. Kade felt another tickling rush of heat.

  Faela’s body moved closer to his as she examined the injury. He could feel warmth radiating from her. Her proximity caused Kade’s curiosity to seize control of him. He had to know if he had imagined it. Staring down at her, he made a decision.

  “You seem to be over the worst of it.” She replaced the bandages with the deft touch of competence, but its gentleness surprised him. “It’s healing nicely. As soon as I’m sure the risk of infection has passed, you’re on your own.”

  As she rocked forward onto her toes to leave, Kade seized her wrist stopping her. His gaze intent, he drew off her hat. Feral with terror, Faela’s silver eyes stared back at him.

  She pulled against his grip. “Let go.”

  “It wasn’t a fever dream.” His voice echoed in the cave as if lost in thought. “Darkness, you really are Gray.” His hand dropped her wrist and slipped to his side.

  Faela jerked her hat out of his grasp and yanked it back on, her heart drumming in her ears. “Figure that out all by yourself, did you?” Her voice was cold, but her body trembled. “And here I was under the impression that independent thinking was discouraged within the Daniyelans.”

  “You have a strange way of showing gratitude.” Her biting words jolted Kade back into the present.

  “Typical, self-righteous Daniyelan,” Faela said almost to herself. “Did I ever ask for your help?”

  “You would have died,” he said with a definitive starkness. “That’s not arrogance, sweetheart – that’s fact.”

  “I had it under control.” Faela’s eyes bore a deep pain as she rose to her feet to leave. As she stood, the ground seemed to move beneath her. A rush of heat washed over her, leaving behind an icy chill in its wake. Her stomach tightened and she gagged, just barely holding back her breakfast. Her vision narrowed as she watched the ceiling move further away. Knees buckling, she collapsed into a heap.

  Kade shoved himself off the ground and hobbled to Faela’s crumpled body. Stooping, he swept back her hair that had fallen sprawled across her pallid face. She had livid bruises along her jaw and collarbones and her skin burned to the touch and left his hand wet. Her limbs twitched as she shivered.

  Looking around, he noticed a nest of blankets and lifted Faela off the ground. He cradled her against his chest. She was lighter than he expected and small in his arms like a child. Careful not to jar her, he set her down. His breath wheezed with an odd hiss from the effort.

  Her eyes flickered and she writhed against the blankets. Her shirt scrunched up revealing the bruised, untreated gash in her side. The edges of the wound burned red with the same poison his had.

  Kade searched the cave and located his water skin. Fumbling for the contai
ner, he grasped the strap and dragged it toward him. He picked up the tatters of his shirt and balled up an edge. Pouring water into the fabric, he began to dab the wound.

  Faela gasped in pain regaining consciousness. She knocked his hand away. “Don’t touch me,” she commanded her eyes rolling back as she tried to recover control of her body.

  Ignoring her, Kade captured her wrists, held them, and continued to clean the wound. “While I realize you’re a woman,” he tore the shirt into strips, “please try not to act so daft. You’re a mess and if you refuse to do anything about it, I will.”

  “You don’t need to do that.”

  “I don’t want to make your injuries worse,” he locked gazes with her, “but if you don’t stop moving, I will be forced to hold you down. You’re no good to me dead.”

  “I’m talking about the shirt, jackass,” she said not bothering to hide her annoyance and anger. “There’s a pile of bandages by the fire.”

  “Too late now,” he said tearing another strip. “If you already have bandages prepared, why haven’t you treated this? You’ve clearly the knowledge and skill. Are you really as stupid as you’re acting?”

  “I get it, you know. Why you want me alive.” Faela’s eyes narrowed. “What Daniyelan wouldn’t want the prestige of bringing a mythical Gray under judgment? I get that, I do. But could you please spare me the condescending arrogance?”

  “Darkness, you really aren’t very bright.” Kade released her wrists. “Think. Just think for a moment. Do I look like a Daniyelan on circuit?”

  As he began wrapping the strips of cloth around her stomach, Faela stared up at him in belligerent silence. Kade tied off the strips with a tug and pulled down her shirt. He stood and without turning to look at her. “Just get some rest.”

  Clucking his tongue, Caleb kneed his stallion up the incline. Before he stepped up onto the loose shale shelf, his horse shook his black mane in protest.