CHAPTER 23
The Strangers
They entered the small space without a care for Cade's weapon, which was either very brave or very foolish. And they did not seem to mind the ball of Fire in Elaina's outstretched hand that bathed the clearing in an unearthly glow, which made them one of two things. Either they were ashendari, or . . .
The beautiful woman with long, raven-black hair calmly held up a twig, which suddenly twisted and grew until it was a cage around Elaina and Cade. She held it only a moment before making it wither and die, collapsing around them back into twigs and leaves. The equally handsome man with hair like burnished gold bowed courteously, and the large stones in the clearing groaned against the earth to level themselves out and move into a circle around them.
They were both casters, strong and experienced enough to fully control the pillars they could touch. So the man had Earth at the least, and the woman had Air and Earth and Water.
I’ll stick with Fire then, so they cannot be sure I am even a complete caster. Elaina didn't bother to brush off the leaves and twigs that now littered her hair and shoulders. Tiny licks of flame leapt up just long enough to burn them to cinders. Elaina's smile was cold and decidedly unwelcoming. Cade had not moved an inch.
"I'm Darin Cirshan, and this is Miranya Sarith." The gold-haired man introduced them arrogantly. "This is one of our campsites. Miranya has a gift with growing things, she has convinced the trees to leave this spot alone." He explained, waiting for their names.
"I am called Maile." Elaina said at last, using the name she and Cade had agreed on in advance. That 'conversation' consisted of him saying they needed aliases and each of them saying a new name.
"This is Dominic." she was forced to add when Cade neither spoke nor moved. Elaina noticed that Miranya was watching him closely. Sometimes she forgot that Cade was so handsome. Silly woman, he is not that sort of man.
"I see you are a fire caster, Maile. How long since the Changing?" He asked politely. Elaina thought it a little odd, but she supposed it was common enough to ask a swordsman how long he’d had a weapon.
"In the fall. And you both?"
"Mine was eight years ago, I think." He said casually, flashing her a confident smile. Elaina supposed he thought her impressed. Foolish popinjay.
Miranya tore her eyes from Cade to say, "I'm younger, only five years."
"Where do you travel?" Darin asked solicitously, taking a seat on one large stones now gathered around and laying level. This time Elaina waited for Cade to speak. Their three-line conversation had not covered this.
"We head south." Cade said. Sheathing his sword at last, he took a seat on the far side of the ring of stones from Darin, and Elaina split the difference between them. Miranya sat across from her, though decidedly closer to Cade than to her companion.
"Southeast, I hope, Dominic," Darin rejoined with a laugh, "Hennelea is the safest place to visit in the Southlands. The Fiandish are still smarting under the Empire and Antral is overrun with savages."
Elaina saw no reaction from Cade, but Miranya looked up sharply. Darin stared boldly at Elaina and didn't notice his companion’s glare. Perhaps Miranya was from Antral like Cade. Elaina filed the thought away, smiling politely at Darin.
Cade continued to stare indifferently into the dirt. Miranya continued to stare at him. Elaina suppressed a giggle of amusement. He was totally unmoved by the woman, which she'd likely never experienced before, lovely as she was.
"Well, you are welcome to stay here, or to travel with us if you wish." Darin offered. "Company is always welcome, and the company of another caster is always interesting—I'm sure there is much we could teach each other."
His promising smile made Elaina uneasy. She had no desire to learn anything from this man, and didn't dare risk them noticing the depth of her ability. As it was, he knew only that she could draw Fire and maybe Air. Unless it was an especial skill of his, he would know no more than that until she cast something else.
She held onto Fire, just skimming the surface so she would be ready if she had to be. It was difficult to keep from plunging as deep into her power as she could, she’d been without it for so long. The thought only made her more careful. Never again would she wear a collar, anyone's collar.
Cade watched from the corner of his eye as Darin did his best to seduce Elaina. It gave him a twist of pleasure to see her so aloof and cautious. He'd worried that with her so angry with him, she might do something dangerous to just for spite. Cade could admit he had underestimated her—suspicion was a wise policy.
Beside him, he felt rather than saw Miranya inch closer to him. She was pretty, he supposed, and her eyes certainly lingered on him in a willing sort of way, but that was beside the point.
She was a meddling web-caster, a cat that found a mouse it particularly wanted to play with. He kept his face blank. If she tried anything, she would find he was ill suited to playing the mouse, even for a beautiful woman with an Antralian name.
"Where do you hail from?" Darin asked softly, shifting closer as if to catch Elaina's answer. Cade held back a snort—if he was able to hear from across the clearing, Darin's ears were not the motive for his move.
"A trading town, Donlin, in north Amanheld."
"I fear I’ve never heard of it. I am from Matriem, in Newythe. Perhaps you have been there?"
"No—" Elaina began and was cut off,
"Oh but by the Truth! It is the loveliest city in the world, Maile! All the buildings are painted every color of the rainbow, with arches and spires like lace. Canals run deep into the city, with little bridges all over. Even the docks are enchanting—the whole city smells of flowers in the springtime and the sea in the winter. It is the city of lovers. I will take you there sometime." He smiled winningly.
Cade's eyes narrowed at that, but quiet alarm and annoyance flickered on her features. Clearly, Elaina was not impressed with this caster's soft words and sensuous smiles. Good girl.
As night darkened, conversation continued mostly between Darin and Elaina, though Miranya joined them periodically and Cade found himself dragged in by her direct questions. Darin ignored him, no doubt wondering what he was to Elaina other than traveling companion, and Elaina didn't seem to care if he wanted to be silent.
Miranya and Darin produced a fine meal and invited them both to help themselves. A Fire was cast, and the conversation lagged as they all ate. Cade was pleased to see Elaina wasn't shy, taking what she wanted with Darin's profuse encouragement. She was still far too thin, and she'd be needing her strength.
Neither Darin nor Miranya said anything about their guests not eating or drinking until they had themselves, though Cade was sure they noticed the suspicion of poison.
To sleep, Darin and Miranya produced two hammocks from their packs and hung them from the trees with little trouble—Miranya had apparently prepared the trees for the task in the past.
Cade had seen hammocks before. They were invented by the Fiandish, who once sent a fine one to the Palace in Alcondar for the royal family. Corin slept in it as often as the weather allowed when he was young, and when he played with his toy soldiers, he would arrange them in a Fiandish sleep circle of hammocks before bed. The thought made Cade sigh. Corin is gone, and the Palace and the city that put swampy Matriem to shame is a pile of charred rubble.
Elaina, however, had never seen a hammock before and was shyly fascinated. Watching closely how they were set up, she drew the line when Darin invited her to sleep on his for the evening—the assurance that he would sleep on the ground added two beats too late. Cade found himself trying not to smile at Darin’s vexation.
Her suspicion was increasingly evident and quite strong; he noticed Elaina took care to set up her blankets on the far side of the circle from Darin, with Cade between them. As she laid them out, Cade came over and asked quietly,
"Does he trouble you?" Elaina shrugged one shoulder. "If you wish to get rid of him, we may act closer than Watcher and Wielder." He offered tonelessly a
nd slipped away. It is an offer for her protection, nothing more, and if she decides to take enormous offense I do not want to be too close. Her surprise was evident in her sudden stillness, but she neither responded nor moved any closer to him.
I suppose that is a no. Well, if she wants to tempt the man that is her business. Scowling, he shoved away the memory of how pleasant it had been to wake up beside a warm body in the chill of the morning, as they had in that blizzard.
That is not my motive, he told himself harshly as he laid back and rolled up in his blankets. As if it could be, the way that morning went!
She had sulked for days after—he had felt like a monster every time she glowered at him with that embarrassed, shocked, violated expression. He hadn't done anything! No matter how much time he had spent in Hurndrith and elsewhere, there was no getting used to the strangeness of Northerners. Or the strangeness of women!
Elaina was the last one up the following day, when the crackling of the fire and the near-constant sound of Darin's low voice finally intruded in her sleep. The others were sitting as they had the night before, Cade across from Darin and Miranya as close to Cade as she could manage without looking it.
Despite his peculiar offer of the night before, Elaina was glad to see that Cade was still between her and Darin. Nothing in her Truthing proved Darin false, but she still didn't trust him. The idea of that man being nearby while she slept had been unsettling enough that she had almost accepted last night. Well, not quite almost—she remembered the awkwardness of waking up with someone who held her like it was some kind of duty.
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she rose and shuffled to the warmth of the fire, still clutching her blankets around her.
"Good morning, my dear!" Darin greeted her with a winning smile. She managed to nod and smile in his direction. His dear!
"We will leave as soon as you are ready." Cade said quietly. Elaina felt herself bristle at the implication that she was slowing them down, but that was absurd—I am slowing us down. This wasn't the time to make anything of it, either: Darin might decide to interfere. So instead of scowling, she smiled at him and took the hot sausages and hard travel bread he offered, settling in right beside him to eat.
For a moment he looked at her blankly, then those dark eyes flicked to their audience and a warm smile followed. Elaina found herself staring at him and jerked her eyes away with a blush.
Hopefully, that would look like a shy lover to Darin and Miranya. It hadn't been just the surprise of seeing an expression on the Watcher that startled her. Sometimes she was so angry with him, she forgot just how gorgeous he was. When he smiles that way . . .
Elaina wolfed down her food as fast as she could manage without burning her mouth. Anything to take her mind off of that uncomfortable feeling.
True spirits, I hope he can’t tell exactly what just happened! It certainly is not my fault he has a face that can make a girl melt when he catches her by surprise. Not my fault at all.
"Our thanks for your hospitality, but we must press on." Cade announced as soon as Elaina was finished, which came quickly the way she'd been eating. Once or twice, she thought Darin had looked startled by her appetite. Well, perhaps that will make him lose interest, with Miranya so slender.
Elaina mounted and followed Cade out of the clearing with only the barest civilities to the casters, just enough to not occasion comment. Since she was avoiding looking at Cade either in case she start mooning at him like a love-struck cow, Elaina spent much of the departure considering her horse and the scenery.
Not long after they parted ways with Darin and Miryana, Cade began talking as they picked their way through the trees.
"Darin seemed quite taken with you." He noted in an offhand manner. If he had said more than three unnecessary words to her in a week, it might have been as casual as it seemed. Since he hadn't, Elaina gaped at him until he turned halfway around in the saddle to see why she didn't answer. Closing her mouth so fast her teeth clicked, she hastily replied,
"Oh. Yes. He was friendly, to be sure. Miranya wasn't upset by your company either." She added. The accused twitched one shoulder in a shrug.
"It was good of you to be suspicious of him—you can't trust people the way you are used to, Elaina." The pleasant feeling she'd had about being spoken to more than the horses evaporated. How much older is he anyway? He has no right to talk down to me that way! What does he know of how I used to be, or how I am now for that?!
"When I send you to the Brethren, you must take care whom you speak to and how—I won't be there to protect you like this morning." Cade continued, apparently unaware of her rising anger. He ought to have paid more attention to her thorny silence, but it was too late by the end of that sentence.
"Send me? Protect me! Like this morning? What are you talking about?" she sputtered.
"Come now, you have never sat so close to me before—Darin frightened you. You needn't have worried, I would not have let him trouble you." He assured her. It was too much for Elaina.
"Frightened me?! I'm not some fainting flower! I could have crushed that upstart caster in an instant!" Cade turned to look at her incredulously. She snapped.
"What? You disagree? Well, you have only ever seen me when I'm chained to unnatural creatures like yourself! You think he frightened me? The most frightening thing I’ve ever met is you!" Elaina had reined in her mare to yell at him, and Cade wheeled his own mount to face her.
"I am the most powerful caster you'll ever meet it isn't worth being ordered about like a dog, staying with you. I believe they made you incapable of human emotion. Is that all you know how to do? Give orders or take them?" The vague surprise on his face was fast fading to stony stillness as she went on,
"As if I would flee to you from Darin! And last night! Ha! Here's a tip for you, Cade: next time you ask a woman to your blankets, don't make it sound like it is some kind of penance you've set yourself!" She paused only to draw another breath,
"I can make it to Hennelea by myself, Watcher. Good bye!" With that she spurred her bay right past him, chin in the air and color high on her cheeks. A triumphant smile grew on her lips when Cade did not move to follow.
At last, I am free!
For a few long minutes, Darin watched Dominic, or Cade as he appeared to be called, through the screen of trees. Head down, he had not moved since Maile—Elaina, apparently—had thrown her fit and rode off to the south.
If I’m lucky, this fellow will go off someplace else and leave that scrumptious little treat to me. If she thinks she is the more powerful, it will be that much easier.
Darin smiled. He never used all his power in those greeting demonstrations—better to have everyone underestimate you. This tart has underestimated me quite a bit if she thinks she doesn’t need protecting. Even if she was the stronger, unlikely though that was, he knew a great deal more about webs than a caster not a year old. Oh, will she be surprised!
Peeking out at the black-clothed man, Darin could see the tension in his shoulders, the clench of his jaw. At last, he straightened, and Darin held his breath.
To his delight, Dominic-Cade pulled his horse in a tight circle and headed off to the west. The caster grinned, stepping out from behind the trees. In this dense forest, she would not be going much faster than he was on foot, and she would never see him coming. Setting a quick pace, he followed her south. Now that the dark one is out of the way, this will be much, much easier. It is never too early in the day for some fun.
Elaina's happiness had not worn off by the time she stole across the Ronam Road. In a few short hours she would be across the river, that much closer to Hennelea and that much farther from the Drethlords. Soon she would need to recast Zulor's web, just in case it she was getting near the edges of her first attempt.
At least Cade was safe from them without her help. She didn't know where he was going, but no matter how she felt about him, she didn't want the Drethlords to catch him. Beyond the fact that Elaina wouldn't wish that
on anyone, he was the only person who had a realistic chance of finding her now, so long as she was very careful and a little lucky.
Free to stop as she pleased, Elaina took contrary delight in halting for a leisurely lunch by a creek. She sat on a mossy log to nibble her travel bread and drank as long as she liked from the cold stream. Relaxed and pleased, Elaina was lying on her back smiling to herself when there was a rustle nearby. Seizing Fire and Air, she sat up.
“Who's there?" she demanded, scanning the woods with narrowed eyes, "Show yourself!"
"Maile?" A voice called from the undergrowth. Darin emerged from behind the sagging branches of a bearded pine. Elaina was tensely suspicious. How did he find me? Was he following?
Cade's warning echoed in her ears, but she was careful not to draw as deeply as she wanted to. No one can know how strong I am unless they are going to be a span under the ground by nightfall. As nervous as Darin makes me, I am not ready to kill him.
"Maile, it is you!" he said happily, "Has Dominic gone hunting?" Elaina merely shook her head, moving to sit on the log again.
"What coincidence, you finding me here!" she said in warm welcome, watching his reaction.
"Indeed! It seems trackless, this forest, but really everything and everyone follows similar paths—the easiest ones, with the widest space between the trees." He rambled pleasantly, taking a seat beside her on the log.
"Where is Miranya?" Elaina asked as casually as she could. Darin shrugged.
"No idea. She mentioned Filyamin, but I didn't ask."
"Were you casting?" he asked with a hopeful smile. Elaina nodded, unable to think of another reason she would be holding a half-finished web of Fire and Air. She couldn’t really just say, Yes, I was about to turn you into charcoal.
"Don't stop on my account, please!" Darin encouraged. "What did you have in mind?" he asked innocently, but Elaina was very aware of his leaning in towards her.
"Ah, well, you know—just an old thing I picked up." She babbled, trying to come up with something else with Fire and Air while her brain was spinning about anxiously. His open curiosity forced her to go on, and Elaina hit on it at last.
"Scattering the Winds, that's what it's called."
"Really? That sounds like an old one. Hiding from someone, are you?" he asked mischievously, voice low as he moved closer.
"Oh, no one in particular, just a precaution," Elaina added hastily, voice getting higher pitched as Darin moved closer. She could feel his breath on her neck.
Sitting too close in not an offense deserving death, she reminded herself, and shifted the web back into Zulor’s. It had been sliding into a death web for Darin.
"Perhaps you could give me a . . . demonstration of your skills," he whispered in her ear, lips moving to her neck. Alarmed, Elaina pulled back. Fire? No, not yet, it would be murder. Get him away though, have to get him away!
"Darin!" she protested, "What's the matter with you?" Grinning wickedly, he closed the space between them again. Taking her wrists in his hands, he said,
"Let me show you," and leaned forward to trace his way across her collarbone with his lips. Elaina jerked back, yanking her hands from his grip to rise to her feet. She kept her hands out in warning, backing towards her horse. That unfinished web shifted back into a weapon of Fire and Air. Charcoal it is.
"I think you have mistaken me, Master Darin. I'll be going now." She said coldly. He chuckled confidently.
"I'm afraid it's you who are mistaken, Miss Elaina," he replied, "You'll stay." Without warning, a stabbing pain shot through her skull, daggers behind her eyes. Elaina felt her knees give out, saw the ground rush up to meet her, but she could do nothing. Her hold on the pillars weakened and slipped away with her concentration—there wasn't room in her head for anything but the searing pain.
Elaina felt Darin's hands on her shoulders, turning her over. Looking up into his twisted face as he wedged a knee between hers, Elaina was unable to do anything but scream. The daggers in her head grew and multiplied until her piercing cry was reduced to a whimper.
"You're a tease whoever you are, so talkative in the evening, so standoffish in the morning. Well, I'm not the sort of man to go merrily on my way, little sorceress." He growled, yanking at the laces of her dress. Vaguely, Elaina saw her arms rise to push him away, but without any strength.
It was like watching a nightmare, everything moving slowly, dimly, outside her control. Hot tears trickled down into her hair. With one hand still tugging at her bodice and the other tangled in her skirts, Darin froze, grimacing a maniacal smile.
Three inches of black steel glittered wetly where it protruded from his chest.
The pain in her head disappeared, and Darin's body slumped forward, pinning her to the ground until she could scramble out from underneath the dead weight.
A quick dark stain spread across the back of Darin’s tunic. Elaina's eyes drifted from her blood-smeared hands, following the sword up to the black-shrouded man holding it.
Cade yanked his blade free and knelt down beside Elaina, an arm behind her shoulders lifting until she sat upright. Automatically, her arms went to hold up her dress. She stared into concerned brown-black eyes.
"Elaina?" Cade said quietly, searching her face. "Did he hurt you?" Elaina began to shake her head no, but found herself nodding. Cade pulled her close to him, and suddenly she was sobbing into his shoulder as he stroked her hair.
For a few minutes she didn't care who he was or what he'd done—he was there, and she was scared. She wept until his tunic was damp with tears. Once she had recovered, Cade moved enough to look down into her face.
"What happened? Why didn't you crush him?" Elaina did not meet his eyes. She tried to wipe her hands on the grass one at a time.
"I thought I could wait—make sure. I was already holding Fire, but I didn't want to kill him just for trying a kiss . . . and then, that’s not . . . that’s not what he wanted." Shakily, she wiped her hands on the grass began retying the laces up the front of her dress.
"He's so much older, he knew exactly what to do, and I didn't even know enough to worry about it. His web made it impossible to concentrate, I couldn't hold on, and then I couldn't do anything." Elaina finished in a childlike voice. In a moment she asked quietly,
"You followed me?"
"Not at first. I was angry. Then I remembered my oath and tried to head you off at the road, thinking it would be easier to see you there than in this mess." Cade explained, "When I heard a scream I came as quickly as I could. My horse is somewhere back that way," he gestured, "I could move faster on foot."
"I'm sorry. Thank you for coming back," Elaina said with difficulty, breathing harder than he was, she noticed, though he was the one who had run through the woods to kill a man when all she had done was collapse.
She was never very good at being meek, but this was certainly a time to try. Cade shook his head as he leaned over to cut a section of Darin's tunic off and dipped it in the brook.
"Don't think anything of it." He said brusquely, "I swore an oath." Elaina recoiled from the harshness of his tone. Reading the hurt in her face, he sighed and amended, "I never should have left. You were right—I am not very good at . . . this." He admitted, taking her hands and cleaning them on the cloth. "I will improve, if you help me."
Elaina did her best to keep her eyes in her head. That was a turn-around! Hearing a Watcher apologize was astonishing, like watching a sheep and a wolf curl up together in front of a fire. Cade didn't notice, now wiping off the black steel blade with the rag and tossing it back to its owner.
"Help you?" she managed.
"Yes, tell me when I am doing something wrong—or tell me what it is, since it is clear when you're angry." Cade observed, "I got used to giving orders, but you are the Wielder, I am the Watcher. I will leave the commands to you." He finished, resolute.
As gratifying as that sounded, Elaina didn't think it was practical. Cade could force himself into an obedient Watcher, but t
hey had just escaped from a life like that. There was little sense in simply reversing the leash. She would not be anyone's Keravel, and he deserved the chance to really live, even with the link.
"I have a better idea, Cade. I will show you how to be a friend." His expression was inscrutable, studying her.
"A friend." He repeated, "I have never had a friend. Only a brother." Letting her go, Cade stood. "I think you might be the strangest person I've ever met." He said at last and offered his hand with a tiny, encouraging smile.
"Come then, friend, it's time to leave." Grinning broadly, Elaina took it and pulled herself up.
"That was exactly right."