Souls of Aredyrah 1 - The Fire and the Light

by Tracy A. Akers

  Reiv leapt up, hot-faced and furious. He dug his toes into the dirt and clenched his fists at his side. He could have struck her down, he had the right to, but he reached to regain his hold on the braid instead.

  Alicine jerked her head and flung the braid from his reach. “I’m tired of you latching your dirty hands onto my hair!” She glared at his gloves, then at his face, the face that was struggling to regain some semblance of authority.

  “You will do as I say, girl!” Reiv ordered.

  “I don’t even know you,” Alicine snapped. “So why should I? You’re no one to me, just some ridiculous boy who has nothing better to do than pick on innocent people.”

  “Ridiculous boy? I am foreman over these fields, and as such I am obligated to turn you over to the authorities for trespassing and thievery. As for your so-called innocence, the authorities will decide that issue. I think the evidence will speak for itself.”

  “Evidence? Ha!” Alicine said. “When the authorities, whoever they are, hear our story you’ll come out looking like the fool you are.”

  “I have had enough of your insolence,” Reiv said, exasperation creeping into his voice. He grabbed hold of the braid once more and pulled her toward the horse. “Now, settle yourself down and—”

  “And what?” Alicine said. “You have a horse and a knife and could run us down in an instant. I don’t think it’s necessary for you to leash me like an animal.”

  Reiv looked down at the braid clutched in his hand. Perhaps it wasn’t necessary to hold onto it the entire way back. It was slowing them down, and he had grown weary of it. He took a controlling breath and considered the possibility of a more diplomatic approach. After all, he had not forgotten all of his princely training. A bit of diplomacy might go a long way, though it was something he never thought he would use with a Jecta.

  “Very well,” he said, letting the braid drop. “You may walk unfettered. But not next to him.” He motioned to Dayn who was now standing just steps away.

  “Fine,” Alicine said, tossing her braid over her back. She turned and walked a few paces ahead, then stopped, her arms crossed and her back to the boys.

  “Well,” she barked over her shoulder, “are we going or not?”

  “I told you . . .” Dayn mumbled, as he resumed his place on the other side of the horse.

  They walked for hours, no one speaking a word, and took an occasional break, but only to tend to personal needs. At first Reiv was nervous whenever Alicine slipped into the privacy of the shrubbery, but he soon relaxed his fears as he came to realize she would never leave Dayn, who was kept at Reiv’s side whenever she was gone.

  “Why is it so hot here?” Alicine grumbled, tugging the lace at her neck as she plodded back from her most recent visit to the bushes.

  “Well, why do you wear such ridiculous—ridiculous—” Reiv waved his hand in the direction of her dress and shook his head in bewilderment.

  “And why do you wear nothing at all?” Alicine sneered, eyeing him up and down.

  Reiv steered the horse close to her. He leaned down and placed his lips near her ear. “Who was it that was complaining of the heat, eh?” he said. He reined the horse aside and moved back a few paces, then stared hard at her back, hoping she would sense his telepathic attack. She stiffened her shoulders and marched on, offering him no satisfaction as to whether or not she did.

  Night soon fell, and Reiv began to feel uneasy. The sun, which was barely over the peaks of the mountains when he first encountered the two strangers, was now almost vanished behind the horizon. Although the moon was bright, Reiv did not like the idea of making his way back to the city at night with two Jecta in tow. His nerves, however, were not nearly as apparent as those of the prisoners. The boy and girl looked frightened and could not seem to keep their eyes off the increasing shadows.

  “What are you afraid of?” Reiv asked. It was a stupid question, of course, as there was plenty for them to be afraid of, thanks to him. But the discomfort of their expressions compelled him to ask anyway.

  “Do—do the demons come here?” Dayn asked, his eyes darting around.

  “Demons? What demons?” Reiv replied. He looked in the direction of Dayn’s wide-eyed gaze, but saw nothing unusual.

  “Well, if you don’t know, then there must not be any,” Dayn said. His voice sounded relieved, but he and Alicine exchanged nervous glances nonetheless.

  Reiv cocked his head and watched them warily, then decided it was nothing more than a Jecta superstition. “Do not slow your pace,” he said, “but do feel free to tell me if you see a demon.”

  Their arrival at the outskirts of the city of Tearia was marked by a sudden stop and a loud gasp from Dayn. Down the winding road, between a stand of shimmering poplars, the city could be seen nestled like an enormous opal in the hillside. The moon was high in the sky now, its light blanketing everything in silvery shades of blue and lavender.

  Dayn stared at the city as though in a dream, the reflection of it playing off his eyes. “Is that Pobu?” he asked.

  Reiv thought to be angry, to accuse the boy of lying again, but then he thought better of it. The strange Jecta was clearly entranced by the sight of the city, and there was no hint of a lie on his awe-stuck face. Reiv found himself wondering if the girl was right. Perhaps Dayn truly did not know how to lie. Perhaps the boy was some kind of idiot.

  “No, that is not Pobu,” Reiv said. “It is Tearia.”

  “So Pobu is a city and Tearia is a city,” Dayn said.

  “Yes, and Tearia is also everything else.”

  “Everything else?”

  “Yes, you know . . . everything else,” Reiv said impatiently.

  “I think he means like Kirador is everything else,” Alicine said to Dayn.

  “Oh,” Dayn said. He faced the road ahead and said nothing more.

  “You there. Dayn. When we get to the gates, you keep quiet, understand?” Reiv said. “And girl, I would recommend that you not attempt your temper with the guards. They are far better equipped to subdue it than I was earlier. It would not be pleasant, I assure you.”

  Alicine and Dayn looked back at him and nodded, then turned their attentions to the spiraling towers that flanked the massive gate before them. Two guards with spears in hand stepped forward and demanded that they stop.

  “Why do you bar my path?” Reiv said crossly. “I have passage.”

  “You will not pass until you have been authorized to do so,” a guard said.

  “And who, may I ask, has the authority?” Reiv asked.

  “I do,” a voice from the shadows replied. A tall, golden-haired guard stepped out, a cruel grin stretched across white teeth, his blue eyes gleaming like hot stars. He marched over to Reiv and crossed his arms across his chest. “Well, if it is not the princeling.”

  “Crymm,” Reiv said. “So you are still ordering the little man around.”

  “If you are referring to yourself, then yes,” Crymm replied.

  “No, I was referring to the less than illustrious guard under your command.” Reiv curled his lip in the direction of the two guards flanking Crymm, both less than stellar examples of the military unit.

  Crymm’s grin turned to a frown. “What were you doing outside the gates, Reiv? The Guard had orders you were not to leave. I was notified you rode out of here this morning on a stolen horse.”

  “Gitta is under my care. You may ask Labhras if you have any doubts regarding that minor detail. As for my riding out of here, I received word there were trespassers in the fields and, holiday or not, it was my responsibility. As you can see, I have brought the thieves back with me. Do you intend to keep me from my duties? I do not think Labhras would appreciate it.”

  Crymm walked over to Dayn and regarded him with a puzzled expression, then crossed to Alicine who returned his critical stare with an icy one of her own.

  “She looks too much for you to handle, princeling,” Crymm said, laughing. “Perhaps you should leave the girl to me. I will see to
it she gets to Labhras. Eventually.” He turned to the other guards who readily understood his implications. They returned his laughter with snickers of their own.

  Dayn took a sudden step toward Crymm, but Reiv leapt from the horse, waylaying any intention Dayn had of defending her.

  Reiv shoved Crymm back and leaned in, nose to nose, with him. “You will stay away from her,” he hissed.

  Crymm saw Reiv finger the hilt at his waist. “What are you doing with that weapon?” he said, moving his hand to the regulation sword at his own hip.

  “Ask Whyn. That is, if you wish to risk questioning your Prince’s judgment,” Reiv said. “As for the weapon at your own side, I suggest you keep it hidden. I do not think you would like your legacy to be that of my murder. Or is that the ballad you would like to have sung of you?”

  Crymm growled and stepped back, then lifted his head with a renewed air of authority. “You may pass, but rest assured, if I find that you speak lies—”

  “Then you may have my title,” Reiv said as he remounted his horse.

  They passed through without further interference from the guards, but Reiv could feel their stares bore into his back as they filed by. Crymm would check out his story with Labhras, but there was nothing to fear. He was, after all, taking the two straight away to Guard Headquarters where they would be detained and questioned. But a knot made its way into his gut as he realized a great flaw in his plan. The Jecta would have to be escorted through the city; the main headquarters was located near its center. It occurred to him that this was the last eve of the marriage festivities. Tonight would be the biggest gathering of all in the inner quadrant, and the streets would be teeming with revelers. The marriage of Whyn and Cinnia would have been consummated by now, the topic on everyone’s lips whether or not a royal heir had already been conceived. For Reiv to go marching through the merriment would be seen as an act of defiance. True, he had planned to stop the wedding earlier. But his head was clearer now. He knew such a bold disruption could hold dire consequences, not only for himself, but for the Jecta in his care. No, he would have to wait until morning, then he could transport them through the city. He groaned to himself as hopes of being free of the two prisoners evaporated.

  Reiv directed Dayn and Alicine toward the stables where he ordered them to halt. He dismounted Gitta and hurriedly led her to her stall. Motioning the prisoners to stand against the wall, he got the horse settled and latched the half-door behind her. He hated that he didn’t have time to tend to her properly, but there was water in a trough inside, and he had scooped out a bucket of feed and set it in front of her.

  He instructed his charges to turn left when they exited the stables, then directed them through a narrow street and down an alleyway.

  Dayn, his face paler than moonlight, looked back at Reiv. “What’s going to happen to us?”

  “What happens to all Jecta thieves,” Reiv said.

  “What’s that?” Alicine asked, fear in her voice.

  For a moment Reiv did not respond. How could he tell her that thieves usually lost a hand, or in some cases their lives? He felt an unexpected pang of guilt. Did she and the boy deserve such a fate as that? Other than their thievery, they seemed decent enough. He rolled the unpleasant taste of regret around in his mouth, then spat it out. Why should he care? It wasn’t his fault they were criminals.

  “What happens, Reiv?” Alicine repeated.

  “You will find out soon enough,” Reiv said. “You will be transported to Guard Headquarters in the morning. I will do what I can to encourage leniency, but I make you no promises.”

  He said nothing more and motioned them to the left, down a main corridor, and then to the right. The side street was deserted and quiet, and the moonlight left menacing shapes in its wake. They eventually halted before a thick, wooden door that was stripped of paint. Reiv reached around them and pushed it open, then motioned for them to enter ahead of him.

  Dayn and Alicine hesitated in the doorway.

  “Well, go on!” Reiv barked.

  “It’s dark in there,” Alicine said.

  “I like it that way,” Reiv replied. Then he shoved them into the blackness that was his apartment.

  Return to Table of Contents

  Chapter 13: Out of Control

  Dayn shuffled through the threshold and into the darkness, his arms thrust out before him. The insistent shove of Alicine’s palm against his back prodded him forward a step or two, where shin quickly met cross-legged stool. He cursed, rubbing the latest in a series of injuries, and threw an invisible glare over his shoulder.

  “Slow down, Alicine,” he said. “I can’t see where I’m going as it is.”

  The door slammed behind them. “Do not go anywhere,” Reiv ordered.

  “Where do you think we would go?” Dayn muttered. The assault of Reiv’s shoulder against his made it perfectly clear the remark had not been appreciated.

  Alicine stood next to Dayn, clutching his sleeve as though in terror of losing him. “It’s as dark as the cave in here,” she whispered.

  Dayn wrapped his arm around her. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine, you’ll see.” He couldn’t see her face, but he was certain her eyes were searching for his. Impatience welled in his chest. “Don’t you have any light in this hole?” he called out. He struggled to focus his eyes, but could make out no shapes at all.

  A sudden flash directed his attention to a corner. Reiv’s face could now be seen aglow, his features lit in a pattern of illumination projected from the lantern in his hand. Dayn recognized the boy’s expression of dissatisfaction and wondered whether his own rude remark had been the cause of it. But Reiv made no reference to it, so Dayn turned his gaze to survey what little of the room there was to see.

  “Further away from the door,” Reiv instructed. He motioned them toward the center of what appeared to be the living area, a manageable distance from the open kitchen where he stood, and flicked Dayn a look of annoyance. “This hole, as you call it, is where you will be spending the night, so you had best get used to it.”

  Dayn winced at the remark, then guided Alicine to where they had been instructed. He kept his eyes and ears attuned to Reiv, but more specifically to the weapon hanging at the boy’s waist.

  Reiv’s piercing eyes remained raised to them, his brows knitted as he set the lantern in the middle of the table. “Are you thirsty?” he asked. His tone was flat and his face stern, as though the simple question was a gravely serious one. He turned his body to the side, his gaze fully upon them as he went about his task. He reached up to a cabinet along the wall, removed three mismatched mugs from its shelf, and poured an unknown drink into them from a jug. He then set two of the mugs at the end of the table nearest Dayn and Alicine while keeping the third for himself.

  “I said, are you thirsty,” he repeated. “I will not ask you again.”

  To Dayn the boy’s simple act of offering drinks seemed out of place, as though he had not seen Reiv as a real person before, but some sort of cruel enigma, incapable of common courtesies. Then Dayn realized his own manners, or lack of them, and replied, “Yes. Thank you.”

  Reiv instructed them to come to the kitchen table, its low, elongated benches tucked beneath it. He did not appear to want them to sit, only to drink their drinks and return to where they had been standing.

  Alicine dallied for a moment, sniffing her mug with a crinkled nose. She dipped the tip of her tongue into it, then asked straight out if it was poison. Reiv puffed up and went to grab for her drink, but she plucked it from his outreached hand and sipped, eyeing him slyly. Dayn, on the other hand, gulped his down in one great swallow, delighted by the cool wetness sliding down his parched throat. If it was poison, so be it. At least it was wet.

  Dayn wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked around the room with curiosity. He could see a few more pieces of furniture here and there, a few more odds and ends. It was clear they were in the strange boy’s home, not some far worse place of confin
ement. The apartment was sparsely furnished and there was no sign that anyone else lived there, certainly no feminine touches. Yet Dayn detected the sweet scent of herbs and flowers, reminding him of the way their own kitchen smelled when Alicine and their mother started a season of potion making. Surely potion-making was not a craft a boy like Reiv would ever dabble in. But sure enough, along shelves and counters, tucked into every corner of the kitchen, were bottles and jars of various shapes and sizes, all containing potions of some unknown nature.

  Reiv scowled as Dayn and Alicine eyed the contents of the room, seeming particularly annoyed when their attentions lingered on the bottles and jars. He ordered Alicine to finish her drink.

  Alicine set her empty mug on the table next to Dayn’s. The two of them stepped back to the room where they had been before. As they anticipated Reiv’s next command, Alicine shifted her weight from foot to foot, tugging at Dayn’s sleeve.

  “What?” Dayn mouthed.

  Alicine stared into his face with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. Dayn twisted his mouth with confusion. No doubt she was trying to communicate some sort of secret message, but her meaning was all but lost to him. Glancing over at Reiv, Dayn leaned his ear closer to her and whispered out the side of his mouth, “What is it?”

  “Dayn, I can’t wait,” she said softly.

  He then became aware of his sister’s legs crossing and bending in an obvious display of bodily discomfort. “Oh, by the Maker, Alicine,” he said.

  Dayn scanned the room. There were few areas of privacy, but the back part of the place was dark. Surely there was someplace... He turned his attention to Reiv, who was now removing the belt that held the weapon, and realized he did not feel comfortable approaching the unpredictable boy just yet.

  “You’re going to have to wait,” he whispered to Alicine.

  “I can’t.”

  Dayn puffed out his cheeks and released a slow breath. He was tired of them being watched every time nature called, and was becoming increasingly concerned for his sister’s virtue. “Very well. I’ll see what I can do.” He took a step forward, contemplating a means of negotiation.