Fear of Fire and Shadow

by S. Young

  L told me she knew about Haydyn and the sleeping disease. None of them looked particularly worried by that, and I realized it was because it didn’t really affect them way up here where the evocation didn’t reach. But as L went on, I gathered they realized the importance of the evocation for the rest of our world. Although my own opinion on the evocation had changed with this journey, I was still determined to save Haydyn’s life.

  The Mosses saw this. They knew there was no stopping me.

  And I could see in L’s eyes that she knew for me it was personal—that I felt about Haydyn the way she felt about Jr.

  “So, the Pool of Phaedra.” L shook her head. By now I knew she was nineteen, Haydyn’s age, but she spoke to me like I was twenty years her junior. “Quite a quest. Ye’ve certainly made a muddle o’ it so far, hasn’t ye.”

  “L, be polite,” Jonas scolded.

  “Just sayin’.”

  “I’m doing my best. I won’t stop until I get that plant, even if I have to face a million mountain men to get it.”

  I watched L’s eyes glimmer with a hint of respect.

  “Well, I be gettin’ an idea,” Sarah piped up. “Our L is as tough as they come, knows these here mountains better than anyone. If ye follow yer magic to the Pool, L will be keepin’ ye safe and right.”

  “Although I don’t appreciate bein’ offered up as a guide without my say-so, I do see the wisdom in the suggestion,” L agreed. “I’ll do it.”

  I rather liked the idea of having a savvy, crossbow-toting mountain girl with me but I didn’t want to endanger anyone else. “I appreciate the offer, but you don’t have to help me. You’ve already done so much.”

  L scowled. “I don’t offer help unless I be wantin’ to. I’m comin’. Isn’t no ‘yes thank ye, no thank ye’ about it. I leave yer lily-white ass to saunter through these here mountains, and Phaedra will be doomed—ye eaten alive by the Aran, and Phaedra fallin’ to nothin’ without that princezna o’ yers.”

  Minutes before, I’d thought having her along might be a wonderful idea. Now I grimaced. With L’s obnoxious, superior attitude, I might as I well have brought Wolfe along.

  Then I remembered the mountain man.

  I eyed L’s crossbow leaning against the wall near the fire.

  I pasted on a strained smile. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

  We left soon after, both of us outfitted in warm jackets, each with a pack of supplies.

  L carried her crossbow, and I carried one of Jonas’s hunting knives. I’d lost my pack and dagger at the stream when the mountain man had taken me.

  We took off at a brisk pace, and I marveled at how rejuvenated I was, as if I had never undergone such horror at the mountain man’s hands.

  The boots didn’t begin to rub as quickly as my previous pair, but when I did eventually feel a niggle of discomfort, I ignored it.

  Our march upward was silent until we broke for a late lunch. Sweat soaked my back already. As we sat to eat the biscuits and bread Sarah provided, L decided she was bored with the silence.

  “Ye don’t talk much for a fancy person with fancy learnin’.”

  I shrugged.

  I thought that would be the end of it, but as we walked again, L encouraged me to tell her about my “fancy” society life. Anything I said or explained was answered with phrases such as, “Well, that just sounds stupid” and “What would ye be wantin’ to do that for?”

  Surprisingly, I enjoyed L’s chatter. Her speech may have been of the mountain people but her rough slaughter of our language belied a keen mind and sharp wit. I couldn’t help but agree with her assessments when I told her about the scandalous things society members got up to.

  L was pragmatic and straightforward, much as I’d always thought I was. She knew the mountains well, traipsing through them without a care, physically stronger than I. I puffed a little to keep up. She wondered aloud how I’d survived this far without her, especially after I squatted to relieve myself and she saved me just in time from squatting on poisonous leaves.

  After that, L pointed out the different species of plants in the forest, what each of them was called and what their properties were. I was amazed by how knowledgeable she was on the subject, and she told me her grandfather had taught her before he died a few years ago.

  When we stopped for the night, my magic vibrating through me stronger than ever, L didn’t build us a fire.

  When I asked why, shivering in my jacket, she told me it would attract the mountain dogs. My heart had thundered as I remembered warnings from Brint about the dogs. I was glad L said we should huddle together for heat.

  We fell asleep with our arms tight around one another.

  “Who’s Wolfe?” L asked as I tripped over a tree root I hadn’t seen.

  I picked myself up, dusting the soil off my hands. It was early morning, we’d already eaten, and we’d been walking for half an hour.

  I glanced sharply at L.

  She smirked, her young, fresh face bright with amusement. “Ye said his name in yer sleep last night. And the night before.”

  Whatever she saw on my face made her laugh. “Ah, I be seein’. I just got a wee picture o’ ye kissin’ a fine-looking specimen o’ a man. Wee bit soft perhaps, but mighty fine.”

  I felt the heat of indignation. “Wolfe is anything but soft,” I snapped.

  L grinned mischievously. “He yer man, then? Yer betrothed?”

  Like a thirteen-year-old, I blushed, shaking my head. “It’s complicated.”

  I was rewarded with a scowl. “I can be keepin’ up.”

  With a weary sigh, I went on to tell L about my family, about what Syracen had done to them. That Wolfe was Syracen’s son. How all these years I’d thought Wolfe had been after revenge. How I had recently discovered what Syracen had done to Wolfe. That Wolfe had feelings for me. That I had feelings for Wolfe but I knew that acting on them was a betrayal of my family.

  I talked myself hoarse, surprised by how much I’d come to trust this girl in so little time. L listened patiently, her eyes betraying her interest and her sympathy.

  Still, when I finished, she scratched her cheek and said gruffly, “Well, I isn’t no expert on these here things, but from what ye be tellin’ me, sounds to me as if ye be gettin’ things a wee bit backward.”

  “Backward?” I puffed out a breath, glaring at her back. L turned and caught the look. She chuckled at my expression as we dug our feet into the hill, the incline growing steeper.

  “Well, yer parents tried to protect ye, told ye to run. They died for ye.”

  “Yes,” I replied through clenched teeth, hissing the s.

  “Well, that be sayin’ to me that they was good folks. They just wanted ye to be free and happy.”

  I frowned, wondering at the direction of her point, and if she was ever going to make it. “Yes?”

  “If this Wolfe man—ha ha, wolfman.” She chortled and then noticed my belligerent expression. “Never mind. If this Wolfe makes ye feel free, makes ye happy, isn’t that all that be matterin’ to yer parents?”

  “But his father killed my parents. Being with his son would be a betrayal of their memory.”

  “That don’t be makin’ no kind o’ sense. Ye brought yer parents murderer to justice, Rogan, and ye saved Wolfe and his mother from a life o’ misery at that evil-doer’s hands. And this Wolfe person, he sounds like he be an upright kind o’ fella. And don’t he be some kind o’ nobility?”

  I wiped the sweat off my forehead, my fingers trembling. “A vikomt.”

  L grunted. “Lass, ye be gettin’ yerself a rich man. That’s every parent’s dream,” she joked.

  When I didn’t respond, she threw me a wicked smile that transformed her from ordinary to pretty. “Ye joined giblets with yer Wolfe, then?”

  I frowned, searching my brain for a translation.

  L laughed at my confusion. “Has he bedded ye, Rogan?”

  I grimaced at her forthright question, my cheeks flushing hotly. “No,�
�� I bit out.

  L sobered quite abruptly. “Ye a maiden, then?”

  “Yes. Aren’t you?”

  “O’ course.”

  I nodded, having expected as much.

  “Think on this then, Rogan …” She stopped to freeze me in her guileless stare. “What if I had no’ got to ye? Is that how ye would have wanted it? Raped and abused by a stranger in these here mountains, instead of it bein’ right and true with the man ye love?”

  I was instantly chilled at the thought.

  Then panicky, hot flutters melted the ice she’d created inside me with her directness.

  “If there be one thing these here mountains learn us, Rogan, it be life is often harsh … and always temporary. Don’t run from love because ye lost so much o’ it as a child. Instead … love while ye can.”

  Gulping back the emotion clogging my throat, I somehow managed to respond, “Is that what you intend to do, L?”

  She threw me another quick grin before turning back up the mountain. “As soon as I be finding love like Ma and Papa’s.”

  As I followed her, I found myself drowning in L’s practicality. I had been since the moment I met her, and now her pragmatism was starting to make sense. And with Wolfe, I didn’t want it to make sense.

  “My plan wasn’t to marry—ever.”

  “My plan for this week was to show Jr. how to be layin’ a trap without takin’ his hands off. Instead I’m stuck up in these here mountains with the dumbest smart person I ever be meetin’.”

  “You know, L, I’m feeling overwhelmed by your kindness and charm.”

  “I try to leash the potency of the charm but it’s too exhaustin’.” L grinned crookedly over her shoulder.

  I shook my head and burst into reluctant laughter.

  By the third day, we had made it up through the Alvernian Mountains with little mishap.

  We’d heard a few howls in the distance that had given us pause, but so far, we hadn’t come across the mountain dogs.

  My magic told me we were close. Very close.

  It was midafternoon, and the mountain had already begun to plateau under our feet. L drew to a stop as a new scent drifted by on the wind—lilacs and damp moss.

  “I guess we be here.” L smiled at me. At my confused look, she pointed. I walked around her, my feet throbbing. Light sparkled through the trees in front of me, and I grinned in relief.

  “We’re here.”

  Together we took off at a run and burst out of the trees into the bright light. Before us the grass at our feet slid down toward a glistening lake, enclosed on all sides by higher ground. A small waterfall cascaded from one of the mountains, descending into the lake, causing puffs of foam to rise in the water. Fresh lilacs and orchids bloomed around the lake’s edge, interspersed with dewy plants and buttercups. I stared in amazement. It was the most enchanting place I’d ever seen.

  “Wow.” L nudged my shoulder. “Impressive.”

  I nodded, smiling in awe. “The Pool of Phaedra.”

  I was finally here. My lips trembled and tears prickled behind my eyes.

  “Yer no’ be gettin’ all watery, are ye?” L teased.

  I gave her a little push, and she laughed. I didn’t know what I would have done without her. Impulsively, and so unlike me, I threw my arms around her and pulled her into a hug. At first she tensed with surprise … and then tentatively, she returned my embrace. When I eventually released her, she gave me a mock look of bemusement. I grinned and then walked away, following the tug of my magic.

  It took me behind a large rock by the edge of the lake. There grew a blue plant, the color of the lake itself, vivid and alien, the sweet smell of molasses drifting out of it.

  “The Somna plant?” L asked from behind me.

  I nodded, reaching for it.

  “No’ much left.”

  No, there wasn’t. “I’m taking it all,” I whispered, reaching for my pack. “We have alchemists back in Silvera who might be able to plant this to grow more crops. Mayhap they can withdraw its properties and discover other uses for it.”

  She glanced around warily. “Alchemists. Properties. Who cares, Rogan, just be gettin’ the damn thing and put it in yer pack.”

  I frowned as I pulled the plants out by the roots and wrapped them in cloth. “What’s wrong?” I asked as I carefully stashed them in my pack.

  L exhaled shakily. “Well, I don’t be wantin’ to alarm ye but I be sensin’ we might be hittin’ a spot o’ trouble on the way back down.”

  My heart thumped, visions of the mountain man making me dizzy. “Trouble? What kind of trouble?”

  She shook her head, her eyes narrowed in frustration. “I don’t be knowin’ yet. Sometimes my gift, as Ma calls it, has a warped sense o’ humor.”

  With one last longing look at the Pool of Phaedra, L and I hurried back into the woods.

  I trusted that L had been paying attention to the route we’d taken but that didn’t mean I hadn’t been paying attention either. L led us back the way we’d come without faltering.

  We were both tense and anxious as we moved swiftly through the Arans. All I wanted now that I had the plant was to get back to Silvera and Haydyn as quickly as possible.

  When the woods creaked and cracked around us, we would pause, warily cocking our heads, our eyes wide as we stared through the trees, searching for signs of danger. There would be nothing. We’d look at each other, surmise we were safe to carry on, and we’d head off again, our departure faster downhill that it had been going up.

  Dusk passed into dark and still we strode through the woods, desperate to get back to L’s home. For now, L searched the woods, looking for the perfect place to bed down for the night. When more time passed, my feet aching and stomach growling, and still L hadn’t stopped, it was almost on the tip of my tongue to beg L to just choose somewhere already, when the hair on the back of my neck rose.

  A low growl sounded from my left and I drew to an abrupt halt. L heard it, too, and spun around. Her eyes followed the sound.

  “Mountain dog,” she whispered. Slowly, silently, she took her crossbow and brought it up, aiming it somewhere to my left. “I thought we might be comin’ upon one o’ these dung-bred lowlifes.”

  Frightened but needing to see for myself, I turned my head. My eyes widened at the sight of the large dog mere yards from me. Its body was skinny but muscular, its coat rough with bald patches here and there. Its muzzle was pulled back over its sharp teeth, saliva dripping from his rotting gums.

  Its eyes were feral.

  “We’ve got to be takin’ this mutt down and then be goin’. Its pack can’t be too far behind.”

  Just as the dog moved to attack, L shot the arrow. It plunged with perfect aim into the dog’s flesh. It whined and collapsed mid jump. I exhaled in relief and turned to thank L, only to yell out as another dog lunged out of the woods at her.

  It took L down, clamping its jaws into her shoulder as she struggled beneath it, attempting to reach for her crossbow, which had fallen from her hands.

  I acted without thought.

  With the hunting knife in hand, I leapt on the dog, plunging the blade deep and up into its belly. It snapped out at me, missing me by an inch, before it whined and slumped unconscious on top of L. I grabbed her biceps and pulled her out from under it. The dog’s blood stained her trousers.

  Her own stained her jacket where the dog had ripped it open and tore into the muscles of her shoulder. The bite was deep. She swayed a little, and I reached to catch her. In her usual gruffness, L batted me away.

  “We need to go.”

  When she took off at a run, I followed, anxiety gripping me. L was running on adrenaline. When that dissipated, I needed to get her home to Sarah as soon as possible.

  Finally, L drew to a stop, the pallor of her skin worrying. I pulled out the cloth the Somna plant was wrapped in and put the plant back into the pack. With a briskness I knew L would appreciate, I removed her jacket and shirt, using the cloth to tie a
tourniquet over the awkward wound. It would stem the flow of blood, but that was about it.

  Hastily, I put her shirt back on as she lolled in my arms. Next her jacket. I forced a couple of sugary biscuits into her mouth, followed by water. And then I wrapped my arms around her, watching as I attempted to keep her from slipping into unconsciousness.

  Chapter 27

  I’d never been so thankful in my life to see a house.

  With L growing weaker by the hour, we weren’t as quick as I would have liked in returning her to the Mosses’. I was glad I’d paid attention to the route we’d taken, for L was disoriented. In those hours spent looking after her, keeping her conscious, I was more like myself again. This person, this young woman in control, was me. And with my old determination, I pushed both L and I to our limits, not stopping for food or rest until I had her back to Sarah. I wasn’t letting anything happen to the girl who had saved my life twice without ever asking for anything in return.

  As if she’d sensed us, the door to the shack flew open, and Sarah rushed to meet us as I dragged L up the garden path.

  “What happened?” Sarah’s eyes blazed with anxiety.

  “Mountain dog,” I bit out, relief making me weak. Thankfully Sarah took hold of L and carried her the rest of the way into the house.

  When I stepped over the threshold, I took in Jr. staring wide-eyed at his mother as she laid L on the table.

  “Jr., heat some water,” Sarah threw over her shoulder as she ripped L’s clothes away. She hissed at the sight of the wound and I flinched seeing how putrid it had grown with infection. Sarah stroked her daughter’s face tenderly. L barely registered the touch. “L, my love, ye got yerself a fever. I’m goin’ to be sortin’ that out, all right, honey?”