Souls of Aredyrah 2 - The Search for the Unnamed One

by Akers, Tracy A.

  “Well, I have to give it to her sometime, don’t I?” he said. Then he grinned and headed out the door.

  He resumed his place before Alicine and stood in silence for a long, clumsy moment. It occurred to him that she might not like the bracelet, that she might actually reject his token of affection.

  “What do you have in your hand?” Alicine asked, interrupting his thoughts.

  “Something I made…for you.”

  “Well, let me see it.”

  “Of course. Here.” Reiv opened his fist and thrust the bracelet out to her.

  A soft gasp whispered from her throat. “Oh, Reiv. It’s beautiful. You made this?” She took it from his hand and held it up, admiring its iridescent pink and gray swirls. A glistening came to her eyes as she pulled it over her hand and adjusted it at her wrist.

  “Of course, I made it,” Reiv said. Then he added hastily, “Well, Kerrik helped me…but I was completely in charge.”

  “As always,” she said with a laugh.

  Reiv gathered her hands in his, then stammered, “Would you—would you allow me to sin one more time?”

  Alicine’s blush rose to match his and she nodded, then raised herself on tiptoes and tilted her face to his.

  He kissed her on the lips, not hard and passionately like he had the time before, but gently and with a sweetness reflective of his feelings for her. She returned it, and he felt his heart soar. How in the world could such a beautiful thing be considered a sin?

  “Be happy,” he whispered.

  “I will,” she said as she wrapped her arms around him. Every time I think of you.

  * * * *

  Dayn watched from the doorway as his sister and cousin said their goodbyes. He glanced over his shoulder at Jensa who was busying herself in the kitchen. “Jensa,” he said, “may I speak with you for a moment?”

  She walked toward him, drying her hands on her skirt, and followed him outside and away from the hut. Dayn shifted his weight and folded his arms. “About what happened outside the cave…”

  “Don’t give it another thought,” she said.

  “But I want to thank you.”

  “Thank me? Whatever for?”

  “Because I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. You’re one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen and I felt honored that you even wanted to—with me I mean.”

  Jensa smiled. “The honor was all mine, Dayn. I’ve grown up being stared at and groped by men, but you’re…well…different.”

  “I am?”

  “Yes. You’re sweet.”

  “Oh…sweet,” he muttered.

  “I’d hoped we could get to know each other better,” Jensa said, “but I guess it was not meant to be.”

  “You know, if I’d planned to stay, things might have been different, but the fact is, I’m going back to Kirador for a reason other than to take my sister.”

  “Your parents?”

  “No.”

  “Ah, the other girl then?”

  Dayn smiled. “Falyn means everything to me, and I’m going back for her.”

  “Well, Dayn, you go back and find this girl and don’t let go. She’d be a fool not to love you.”

  “Well, I don’t know, but I guess I have to find out.”

  Then Jensa leaned in and whispered in his ear, “Just kiss her the way you did me and she’ll be yours forever.”

  Dayn’s eyes widened and he looked at his feet bashfully. But as they walked back toward the hut, he had a newfound bounce in his step.

  They all congregated by the horses, hugging and saying their farewells. Brina found it particularly difficult and could not seem to pry her arms from around Dayn’s waist. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, the first he had ever given her, and gently squirmed from her grasp. But his expression reflected regret at having had to do so.

  Dayn and Alicine mounted their horses and gathered up the reins.

  “Remember what I told you about the valley,” Reiv said.

  Dayn reached down and clasped Reiv’s hand in his. “I’ll remember. Thanks, cousin, for everything.”

  Alicine looked at Reiv one last time, but said not a word and turned her horse and headed slowly up the road.

  Dayn glanced over his shoulder toward his sister, then back at Reiv. “We’ll meet again, Reiv.”

  “Of course we will.”

  Dayn kicked his heels and urged his horse up to Alicine. They headed into the distance as the others stood silently watching.

  Jensa and Torin excused themselves while Brina stood with her body leaned against Reiv’s. He put his arm around her and held her tight. A sob burst from her throat and she pulled away to run back to the hut. Reiv and Kerrik were then left alone to watch the fading images of Dayn and Alicine.

  Kerrik tugged at Reiv’s arm. “Are they going very far away?”

  “Not so far,” Reiv replied.

  “But they’re coming back sometime aren’t they?”

  “We will meet them again.”

  “Good! Come on, let’s go. You can’t even see them anymore.”

  “I can see them.”

  Kerrik twisted his mouth and narrowed his eyes toward the horizon. “No you can’t. Come on!”

  Reiv sighed with exasperation and looked at the antsy boy. “Very well. Now, was there something we were supposed to do today?”

  Kerrik jumped up and down excitedly. “Yes! You were going to teach me to fight with the dirk. You’ve been promising me forever.”

  “It has not been forever, Kerrik.”

  “Yes it has. Gods, I’m almost eight. How long do you expect me to wait?”

  Reiv laughed. “Well, you still have some healing to do and may not be strong enough yet.”

  Kerrik lifted his good arm and flexed his muscle. “Stronger than you,” he declared.

  Reiv looked him up and down. With one arm splinted and the other barely able to lift a weapon, the boy with the crooked foot did not look much like a warrior. But the determination that beamed in his eyes erased all doubt. Reiv smiled. “Perhaps you are stronger than me,” he said. “Perhaps you truly are.”

  Reiv wrapped his fingers around the tiny arm, finding plenty of room to spare. He took Kerrik’s hand in his.

  It was time for the lesson to begin.

  BACK TO ToC

  The Saga Continues in

  The Taking of the Dawn: Book Three of the Souls of Aredyrah Series

  Preview of Book Three: The Taking of the Dawn

  Chapter 1: Oblivion

  Dayn stood atop a rocky outcrop, silhouetted against an iridescent palette of molten fire. As far as he could see, a mesmerizing splendor stretched, a great river of lava from which sparkling channels crept down the mountainside in brightly braided patterns. Trees in the paths of melted rock ignited like thousands of flaming candles. Some evaporated into white-hot oblivion; others were turned to ebonized shapes, gruesomely posed.

  Dayn reached for his sister’s hand, squeezing it so tight the tips of her fingers turned white. But she didn’t complain. She probably didn’t even notice.

  “Have you ever seen such a thing,” Alicine whispered.

  “I’m not sure I’m seeing it now,” Dayn replied.

  Alicine frowned. “Now what are we going to do?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I took us the wrong way.” Dayn shook his head. “We’ll have to go back.”

  “You don’t mean all the way back.”

  “No…I don’t know. But we sure can’t go this way.”

  “But Reiv said--”

  “Well, he obviously didn’t know about this…or maybe I misunderstood him. Don’t worry, we’ll get home. I probably just didn’t take us far enough north or something.”

  Dayn pulled in a breath, then released it slowly. It didn’t matter whether his cousin Reiv had told them wrong. It didn’t matter whether they had gone too far one way or the other. The vale before them was impassable, or would be by the time they reached it. Turning back was not a difficult deci
sion. Where they went next was.

  The wind shifted in their direction, wrapping them in a veil of vapor that reeked of sulfur and smoke. Dayn covered his nose with his free hand and pulled his sister along with the other. “Come on,” he said. “The horses are getting nervous, and we can’t afford to lose them.”

  Dayn scrambled down the slope, but a stab to his heel suddenly sent him hopping. He cursed the ground, the rocks, and everything else he could think of at the moment. His feet were already aching, and this was yet another in a long series of attacks upon them. It was time to put his boots back on, and he dreaded it.

  Where he and his sister were from, no one ever went without their boots. And for most of the past fifteen and a half of Dayn’s sixteen-year-old life, he hadn’t either. The terrain in Kirador was mountainous and the temperatures almost always cool, if not downright frigid. To go with bare feet was something no sensible Kiradyn would do. But Dayn had not worn his boots for months now, preferring to go barefoot. That was what the Jecta of Tearia did. And that was what he considered himself now--Jecta.

  He pulled up his foot to inspect it, finding an indention with a tiny white pebble lodged within. He picked it out, then limped to the horse, grumbling as he yanked a bundle from its back.

  “Don’t tell me,” Alicine said with amusement, “you’re actually putting your boots on.”

  “Well, I have to some time, don’t I? I’m tired of having to dance around every time I get off the horse. It’s a lot rockier here than back home--I mean, back in Tearia.”

  “A lot rockier and a lot colder. I’m surprised your feet aren’t blue.” Alicine scolded him with her eyes, once again acting as if she were the older, then pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders. It was the last defense she had against the decreasing temperatures, other than the ratty blanket she had been using as a bedroll.

  Dayn glanced at his sister, noting the cold-swept features of her face and the stiffness of her body. The dress she wore should have been warmer; it was long sleeved and high collared, its full skirt reaching to her ankles in yards of gold-colored material. But the fabric had been selected for its beauty, not its practicality. It was a dress embroidered with hundreds of tiny white flowers--a dress for a Summer Maiden, not a girl trudging through the mountains. No, its weave wasn’t enough to stave off this kind of cold. Even the molten fire on the other side of the ridge did little to warm the environment.

  “Where’s your coat?” Alicine asked.

  “In my pack. But one thing at a time. Boots first…coat later,” Dayn said.

  Alicine sighed. “Suit yourself, but that tunic of yours is not going to keep you warm for long.”

  Dayn shrugged his shoulders against the rough, green wool of his tunic. At one time he had worn it in comfort, but it felt itchy to him now. For too many months in Tearia he had gone bare-chested, with nothing against his skin but a kilt around his hips. Now he had on long sleeves and thick trousers, the scratchy material pressed against every part of his body.

  He pulled the boots from his pack and plopped to the ground, frowning with annoyance at his feet. They were stained with dirt and rough with calluses from months of going barefoot. But the boots, he knew, would bring blisters to his toes no matter how tough his feet had become. He scowled and yanked on his socks, then the brown leather boots, shiny new when he had left Kirador, now scuffed and worn with travel. He snaked the long laces up his calves without regard to pattern and tied them in a knot, then stood up and groaned. The things were miserable.

  Alicine laughed. “You loved those boots when you first got them. Couldn’t wait to wear them as I recall. Worked extra chores at home and helped Jorge at the smithy to earn the coin to buy them. And now…”

  Dayn cocked his brow. “And who is it that keeps tugging at her collar? Hmmm?”

  Alicine arched her neck and ran a finger beneath the lace of the collar that stopped just below her jaw line. Ever since she had donned the dress for the return trip home, she had tugged and fidgeted at the material almost as much as Dayn had his.

  “I don’t know how I ever thought this dress was comfortable,” she said. “But I guess we’d better get used to dressing like Kiradyns again. I doubt the climate or our neighbors' icy attitudes will allow us to go around showing our arms and legs.”

  Dayn turned away and checked the strapping of the packs on the back of his horse. “There’s a lot of things we won’t be allowed,” he muttered.

  “What’d you say?” Alicine asked.

  “I said, won’t Father and Mother be pleased that we’re bringing two horses back with us?” He stepped over to his sister and lifted her onto one of the horses. “Come on. There isn’t much daylight left, and I want us to get as far away from here as possible before we set up camp for the night. I’d hate to wake up and find us in the path of that,” he said, motioning to the glow of roiling fire on the other side of the ridge.

  Dayn mounted his horse, a broad-backed chestnut with a patch of black on its face. It was a beautiful animal, nothing like the old hag of a horse their father owned. But then again, their father probably didn’t own a horse anymore. Alicine had ridden out of Kirador with the only one he had when she’d gone looking for Dayn the day he ran away. They’d left the animal grazing near the cave that had taken them to the other side of the world, and it was doubtful the old gray had found its way home. The poor beast was probably still wandering the mountains somewhere, or else dead by now. Regardless, Father would be pleased to see his children riding home after all these months. Perhaps the new horses would settle his temper, once the happy emotions of the reunion faded and the reality of what Dayn and Alicine had put him through set in. But it wasn’t likely.

  Dayn took the lead and urged his horse down the embankment to an open space near the trees below. There wasn’t exactly a path to follow, no humans had been there for centuries, but he and his sister had learned to navigate the rugged terrain by working their way through only the barest patches of landscape. The going had been slow, and they’d oftentimes found themselves having to retrace their steps. As a result, it was taking much longer than expected to make their way to the other side of the mountain range. The shortcut through the cave that had taken them to Tearia was no longer an option. It was destroyed by the violence of an angry mountain, taking evidence of Kiradyn and Tearian history with it.

  It had been several days since they had left Tearia, a great region with a namesake city in the southeastern region of their island world. It was a place Dayn and Alicine had not known existed until recently. The western side of the mountains was supposed to have been destroyed long ago, plunged into the sea by an angry god, or so the Kiradyns believed. But now Dayn and Alicine knew the truth of it, though the people of Kirador would not likely welcome that truth. Of even more concern was the fact that they would not likely welcome Dayn either.

  They turned their horses northward, neither of them saying a word for quite some time. There wasn’t much to talk about; all best and worst case scenarios regarding the reunion with their parents had already been discussed. Dayn felt certain the homecoming would be an unpleasant one, at least for him, but Alicine refused to see it that way. As a result, their conversations had begun to end in more and more arguments. Father will be so glad to see you he won’t even care that you ran away or that I left with his horse, Alicine said over and over. But Dayn knew there was more to the issue than that. While his sister imagined hugs and kisses upon their arrival, Dayn expected only angry words and accusations. Someone would be storming out of the house when all was said and done, and it would probably be him. His father owed him an explanation, as did his mother, but there weren’t enough words in the world to explain it all to him. What words could explain why a man would steal a child and claim it as his own? What words could justify why two people would lie to that child and everyone else about who he really was?

  “What are you thinking?” Alicine asked.

  Her question yanked Dayn back to the present.
His mouth compressed, then he said, “I was thinking about what I’m going to say to Father and Mother when I get home.”

  Alicine turned her attention to the path in front of her. “Do you have to hang onto all this anger, Dayn? Can’t you just start over? I mean--”

  “No. I can’t just start over. It’ll never be right for me there and you know it.”

  “It could get better. When we tell them what we know and…” Alicine paused, the scowl on Dayn’s face a clear indication that he was not receptive to her suggestions. “Well, there’s always Falyn to look forward to,” she offered cheerfully.

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Dayn grumbled. He kicked his heels into the horse’s ribs, urging it ahead.

  “I’m sorry, Dayn. I won’t mention it again,” Alicine said to his back.

  “Good,” he retorted.

  * * * *

  That night they camped in a gully beneath an overhang of willows. Bright moonlight distorted the surrounding landscape into patterns of black and silver and gray. Trees creaked and swayed, morphing from ghostly shadows to skeletal shapes. At one time, Dayn would have been terrified to be in a place like this after dark. He had been raised to believe demons lived in the mountains and that they would make a meal out of a man if so inclined. But now Dayn knew the truth of things, and he wasn’t afraid anymore. There were no demons, at least not the kind he had read about in the Written Word. That was another thing he looked forward to telling his parents.

  Dayn strolled over to Alicine who was sitting and staring into the campfire. He sat down cross-legged next to her, but she didn’t acknowledge his presence and continued to stare at the fire.

  Dayn stabbed at the coals with a stick. He shifted his gaze to her. “So…” he said, waiting for a reaction. But there was none coming. “So…” he repeated slowly. “Do you think Reiv has—”