"I didn't mean to," he said. "Eryn, I'm sorry." He stepped towards her, but she backed away. "It was during the last full moon. I went to visit with him after returning with Master Lewyn. I found him out in his stables, with a jug of something foul. He held it out to me, and told me I was a yellow toad if I wouldn't drink it. So I drank it."
Eryn couldn't believe what she was hearing. She couldn't believe her own brother had been the one to spill her secret. That he had been the one who caused the soldiers to come, and for her parents to be laying dead in a field, their house burned to the ground. Constable Yarrow, and even their horse.
"The drink, it... made me say things. Tell secrets. It made us both tell secrets. That's how I knew Edwyn was taking a liking to you, at least until he found out what you were."
"I can't believe you did that. I can't believe you would be so irresponsible." Her voice was beginning to rise, and Roddin put his finger to his lips.
"The next day, I made him promise not to tell. He swore that he wouldn't, because we were best friends, and he wouldn't want to hurt me. I thought that was the end of it. He broke his promise to me."
Roddin walked towards her, and tried to give her a hug.
"You broke your promise to me!" Eryn didn't think, she just acted, pulling back her arm and slapping him in the face, as hard as she could.
She had more muscle and more strength than a typical fourteen year-old girl. The slap echoed into the night, and Roddin's head jerked to the side. He fell to the ground, doubled over in pain.
"They're dead because of you," she said.
"I know," he replied, his voice heavy and quiet. "It's all my fault."
"It is all your fault." The words didn't come from Eryn. The voice was a woman's voice. Both of their heads turned in the direction of the speaker.
She was standing in the clearing, only a dozen feet away. They had never heard her coming. She had long golden hair that framed her delicate face, and crystal blue eyes. She was wearing a shimmering black dress that hugged against her body, covered by a heavy black cloak. A long staff of shining metal rested in her hand. The top of the staff was shaped like the claw of a raptor, holding a glowing blue crystal in its teeth.
Roddin thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I am Lia. I've come for you, Eryn," she said. "I've come to help you."
Eryn didn't know what she meant. Help her? Who was this strange woman?
"Help me?" She was barely able to speak, and the words fell out nearly silent, but Lia heard them all the same.
"Yes. You have the Curse."
That was when she saw it. Almost hidden below her neck, holding her cloak to her, was a red crystal clasp in the shape of an eye.
"You're one of his," she said. The realization hung in the air between them.
"You shouldn't have run, Eryn," Lia said. "We can't take you when you run. He doesn't approve."
Roddin got to his feet, taking his knife from his hip. "Leave her alone," he said, snapping out of whatever trance her beauty had put him under.
Lia smiled at him. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm sorry it has to be this way."
She lifted the staff and pointed the crystal at him. A blue bolt of lightning shot from the tip, hitting Roddin in the chest and throwing him backwards.
"Roddin!" Eryn forgot about the woman and ran to her brother, leaning over him. The lightning had gone right through his leathers, leaving them smoking. She rushed to pull them off, frantic to help him. "Roddin."
His eyes were open, looking up at her. She got them off, and then gasped.
There was a hole through his body, and she could see the grass beneath him. He wasn't looking at her. He was dead.
Eryn whipped her head around to look at the woman, her body filling with rage. "You killed him," she shouted.
She didn't care if the soldiers came back. What did it matter, if they had already been discovered? What did it matter, if her entire family was dead?
"I'm sorry," Lia repeated.
Eryn saw that she had a tear in her eye. A tear of blood.
"You're Cursed?" All of the anger fled her, and she was left with nothing but confusion.
Lia didn't answer. She turned the staff, pointing it at Eryn.
In that instant, Eryn's mind took her to another place. She traveled back in time, to the day that had started so perfect and had ended so awful. To her life before this day, this moment, when she had unlocked her Curse in order to save Roddin from being trampled to death.
In that instant, she remembered what it was like to feel the tingle in her ears, to will the power to come, to wish and hope beyond hope that she could change the inevitable.
She didn't know what she did, and she could hardly recall what happened after. She remembered seeing the glow of the crystal become more intense, and she remembered feeling the tingling in her ears. After that, the entire world had gone dark.
Chapter 7
"Well, Silas," Penticott said. "I didn't think you had it in you."
Silas was sitting on his straw bed, looking up at the Constable. Two soldiers were wrapping the body of Aziz in a cloth so they could take him out to be burned.
"I didn't do it," Silas said. "He slipped or something, and hit his head on the wall. He almost killed me. Who was he?"
Penticott looked back at Aziz's body. "Nobody," he said. "A criminal."
"He said his soldiers killed his family."
"They might have, if someone in his family was Cursed, and they were protecting them. You know that."
Silas nodded. "I just don't know why he attacked me for it. I've never been a soldier, have I?"
Penticott laughed. "No. You haven't. I'm sure of it."
"How do you know?" Silas was sure he hadn't been, but he wanted someone else to confirm it.
"His soldiers serve for life. That is the oath we take when we join. When we're too old to be out in the field, we move on to do whatever we're capable of doing, whether that's as a steward of one of the provinces, or a cook in a barracks kitchen."
"What if you don't want to serve for life?"
Penticott gave him a strange look then, as though he couldn't even fathom the question. "We always serve for life," he said. "It is a noble and just service, and we are well cared for. Nobody has ever changed their mind."
Silas sat there, thinking about it. There was something in him that wasn't so sure Penticott was right, but maybe that was his hangover. He watched the soldiers take Aziz away.
"I'll send a healer down to with a salve for your bruises, and to make sure nothing is broken," Penticott said. "I can't have you looking such a mess when Roque arrives. For now, just rest."
Silas laid back down on the straw and stared up at the ceiling. Constable Penticott left him, locking the cell door as he did. If Silas had been looking, he would have seen the questioning stare the man gave him before leaving the dungeon.
***
The healer came down a few hours later with bandages and a smelly, oily substance that he spread liberally across Silas' chest and stomach. He had gasped when he had seen the scar running across his upper body, and remarked that he had never seen anyone survive such a nasty looking wound. For his part, Silas remained silent. He was lost inside himself, searching for answers to questions he had never known to ask.
He woke up a few hours after the healer had left, his body trembling uncontrollably and his mind racing out of control. The shaking was painful on its own, but even more so with the injuries Aziz had given him. He cried out in agony and begged for someone to come and help him, but of course nobody could hear him, and nobody came. He closed his eyes and held them shut tight, praying to Amman that the tremors would stop, even though he never prayed to Amman, and didn't even believe he existed. After the prayers didn't help, he began to cry, leaving his eyes blurry and sore.
After that, he began to hear voices.
He didn't know who they belonged to, but at first,
there were two of them, a man and a woman. They were arguing, these two voices, arguing about rumors and hope, about an ocean and a ship and a land far away from theirs. They were arguing about life and death, about freedom and tyranny, and about justice. In the end, the woman said she was leaving, and that she wished for him to stay and die.
He stayed, and a least a part of him died.
His mind returned to the seashore, to the ship sailing out across the blue waters. He realized then that the male voice had been his, and the other, his wife's.
Next came another voice, the voice of a soldier, a commander, ordering men out into a village. He could see what was happening now, see it as though it were right in front of him. He didn't know how he had gotten here, but it was so real. He was riding a large white destrier, and he had a torch in his hand. When he got close enough to each building, he would hold the torch out against its thatch roof, sliding it along the distance until it was well aflame. Then he would move on to another, and another, until the entire village was on fire, and many of the villagers dead. He had helped them burn it all down.
No, he had done more than that. The voice was his own. He had commanded it.
More voices followed, each a memory that had been locked inside the bottle, now free to bubble out and into his delirious state. He could only understand some of what they were saying, and some of what he was doing. He would open his eyes sometimes, and he would be in some other place and time, and sometimes he would be on the straw bed staring up at the stone ceiling, shivering and shaking and trembling.
During both occasions he would cry out in pain and ask for it to stop. He would beg for a drink; of the healer, of Penticott, of the devils in his nightmares. He would beg for the bottle to be stoppered once more, so that he didn't have to relive the terror and the agony and the cold hard truth.
He was a murderer.
***
Silas opened his eyes. At first, he wasn't sure if he was awake or not, because he wasn't trembling. For once, his body was still. He took a deep breath, and tried to figure out what had happened to him. Everything was so jumbled together into one giant mess of memory and emotion. The only thing he knew for sure was that he didn't know anything for sure. He stared at the ceiling, and waited.
The jailor came down a few hours later, finding Silas staring ahead, unblinking. He unlocked the cell and walked in, then went to kick the old man in the ribs.
Silas surprised him, turning his body and catching the jailor's foot, then shoving with a grunt. The jailor tumbled backwards and fell to the floor.
"Tt... Ti...Time to wake up, Morningstar," the jailor said, stumbling back to his feet. "Constable Penticott ordered me to bring you to the bath and make sure you clean yourself up."
Silas glared at him. "If you ever try to touch me again, I'll kill you," he said. He shook his head, trying to clear it. "How long have I been in here?"
"Six days," the jailor replied. "You were sick. Had a fever or something. Healer's been to see you, and so has the Constable. You were mumbling the whole time, something about a ship, and a kid, and being a murderer. I don't know, I didn't hear that much. Anyway, he sent me down here to get you. Roque rode in this morning, and they're eager to get their hands on the Cursed boy."
Silas held his head in his hands. He couldn't remember most of what he had thought he'd seen and heard. He did remember coming to the Constable's office to turn in a Cursed. He took a deep breath of himself, his nose clear for once. He smelled worse than a fertilizer cart.
"A bath sounds like a good idea."
He got up and followed the jailor out of the cell and to the right, down a small stone hallway to another room. This room had a series of clay pipes running along the ceiling and down the walls into the floor, suspended by thin metal brackets. In the corner of the room was a stone ledge with a hole through it, and in the center was a large pool of water. Silas had never seen anything like it before.
"It's the one benefit to rotting in the dungeon," the jailor said, puffing out his chest with pride, even though he had nothing to do with the room's construction. "The pipes carry the water in from the river, past the ovens where we cook the food for the barracks to heat the water, and then to different pools throughout the grounds." He pointed at the ledge with the hole. "Another pipe carries the waste out to a pit a a few miles away."
It may have been interesting, but Silas didn't care that much. He was thirsty. Not for ale. For water.
The jailor shoved him in, handed him the razor and soap, and then started closing the door. "I'll be right back with your new clothes. You have one hour to get cleaned up."
Silas had removed his clothes and thrown them into the corner before the door had finished closing. He carried the razor and the soap over to the raised basin and stuck his finger in, finding it comfortably warmed. He looked down at the bandages wrapping his body, found the end, and unraveled them, noting that most of the bruising had begun to fade, from a dark purple to a less horrible brown. Once again, he ran his finger across the scar.
Murderer.
He heard Aziz's voice in his head. He closed his eyes. He remembered that much. He had murdered people. He had ordered their deaths. Innocent, unarmed people. Farmers and merchants, mothers and fathers. Even children. He didn't remember the details, but he knew that it was so. The thought made him sick.
He leaned over the water, looking at his reflection, at the wild hair covering his face. "This won't do," he said. He dug the blade of the razor into the soap, and began to shave.
Silas had just finished removing the hair from his face when the jailor returned, carrying a bundle of cloth. "You almost look human," he said. He put the clothes on the floor near the door and left.
Silas decided to take that as a complement. He put his hands on the edge of the bath and lifted himself up and over. The jailor had been right, it was one good benefit. He leaned back in the warm water and closed his eyes, ready to enjoy the moment.
He didn't have the chance. No sooner had he closed his eyes then he was overcome with emotion, an emotion that rose from old memories that he couldn't bring back to mind.
Murderer.
It was Aziz's voice.
Murderer.
It was his wife's.
Murderer.
His son's?
Murderer.
His own.
Silas opened his eyes. Whatever had happened to him, whatever would happen to him, he knew one thing. He had to stop the Mediator from taking Calum Hess.
Chapter 8
When Eryn first woke, she thought she had died and gone to be with her family in the Fields of Amman. The sun was shining bright overhead, and she could hear birds chirping all around her. She could feel the coolness of the grass beneath her head, and a soft, fresh breeze washing over her body. Laying there, she was completely at peace.
Then she noticed the itch.
She sat up, looking down at the palm of her hand. It was bumpy and red and it itched beyond reason, an effect of the ivy's poison. She stared at it and struggled to resist scratching. Roddin had said he could make a salve for it.
Roddin.
It all came back to her in a tide of emotion. Her brother was dead. Her mother and father were dead. His soldiers had killed them, all of them. No, that wasn't right. Her brother had been killed by a woman, a Cursed, bearing his sigil.
The woman.
She had said her name was Lia, and the last thing Eryn remembered was having the staff pointed at her, the crystal at the tip glowing an intense blue.
She got to her feet and spun around. There was the great big tree, there was the branch they had hid behind, there was her brother. She ran over to him. His eyes still stared up at the heavens.
"Roddin, I'm sorry."
It had been her fault they had been found. Because she was angry. Because he had told her secret.
Eryn put her hand over her brother's eyes and pushed the lids closed. "May you rest in the light and peace of Amman," she said. I
t was a simple prayer, but one she had seen Timor, the village's Priest of Amman say whenever one of the villagers had passed on, before burning them on a pyre and then burying them in the ground. The ashes would fertilize the fields, it was believed, and ensure the survival of their village.
She sat with him then, and gave herself time to mourn. She leaned over him, filled with wracking sobs, missing him and Mother and Papa. He had made a mistake, and it had cost them all so dearly. Still, she couldn't find it in her heart to not forgive him. He hadn't meant to harm her, or them. He hadn't meant to cause this trouble. Like he had said while they fled the soldiers, it was his fault. Mother had said the same.
Eryn didn't know how much time passed while she sat over her brother and cried. Eventually, her body was too tired and too dry for the tears to keep falling. She realized then how dry her mouth was. She had promised she would survive, and somehow so far she had. She needed to find some water.
She got to her feet and looked back at the fallen tree. She had the strength to dig a hole to bury her brother in, but she didn't have the tools. The tree had dislodged a lot of earth when the roots had been pulled, so she decided she would place him there, and cover him with the dirt. Once he was buried, she would try to find her way back to the stream they had crossed.
"I'm not stealing from you," she said, leaning down and taking Roddin's knife from where it lay by his side. "But I need this."
She picked up the knife and turned in the direction of the tree's base. She nearly choked at what she saw.
The grass near the base was black and scarred, as though it had been struck by lightning. The trees out beyond it had scars as well, marks cut deep into the bark like someone had started to cut them down with an axe, and then changed their mind. There were three bodies there, two in the distance near the trees, and another much closer, near the center of the clearing. The body looked as though it had already been on a funeral pyre, though it wasn't completely charred.
Bound (The Divine, Book Four) Page 34
