50. RIEKA
50
RIEKA
99 days until Marian 1st
T he Runners weren't exactly surprised to see me.
Amida burst out laughing, demanding her husband Jordry pay up, Eleen swore before apologising when one of the kids claimed she’d said a bad word, whilst Mal simply rolled his eyes and took Ghena in his already full hands to leave me to the glare of his commander.
After about a minute Rhydian finally spoke. Or rather he grunted. Like an angry child who had just been scolded. He rummaged through his jacket, pulled out a looping device and placed it on my collar, giving me forty-eight hours before I was forced back on the train.
Rhydian turned to leave but halted when he heard my inner voice.
“Just answer me one question?”
He remained with his back turned to me, but didn’t move further. I took that as a willingness to listen. “Are you selling them?”
His head snapped back around at me, his expression one of utter disgust and— disbelief?
I watched his jaw clench as his inner voice gave me an order. “Stay close, stay quiet.”
We’d walked a few minutes in the direction the train left when to my utter astonishment, we happened upon Frey. Amusing himself with a small ember of fire that he weaved between his fingers like a coin. Frey looked up from his spot beneath a tree, and upon seeing us simply stood and lifted his pack over his shoulder. Not a single degree of shock on his face at our arrival, as though he was expecting us.
This had to be some convoluted plan, but for what ends—
No one told me anything as Frey joined us in our trek. It was clear something else was going on, but all I could do was speculate as we walked a further thirty minutes into the woods.
It was in a gulley, covered in branches and leaves that we came upon three vehicles.
They were odd. They were cylindrical rather than boxed as I was accustomed to, and there were no doors and no wheels.
I watched as Mal touched where the door ought to be and had to contain my shock when the wall of the vehicle popped outward and up. One by one the Runners moved all the children into the three vehicles. I climbed into the same one as Rhydian, sitting beside him, taking a weak and tired Ghena onto my lap. The little she-wolf now entirely human, snuggled into my chest as Rhydian pressed a button on the dashboard.
A topographical map appeared on what looked to be a tech board, floating just in front of Rhydian. He touched the screen, sliding his fingers across the black glass to adjust the image. He tapped the screen twice and a series of Lycoan letters and numbers appeared, after which he typed in some kind of sequence which caused the panel to beep and the map to vanish. The vehicle vibrated beneath me and a moment later the world outside the vehicle dropped. I turned to look out the back window and saw the other two vehicles now levitated above the forest floor.
No engine rumble, no tyres breaking earth beneath us. We were entirely silent as the vehicle moved through the forest.
Rhydian had also taken to giving me the silent treatment. For two hours, he just stared out the windows and ignored me. Even when we passed through a pair of ruined towers, he said nothing.
The anger I’d witnessed in The Bathhouse was preferential to his silent treatment.
Wherever it was we were going, it required us to walk the last hour on foot. Rhydian took possession of Ghena, lifting her into his arms since she didn’t have the strength to walk herself, and led the group from the front.
When we crested a hill ten minutes later, the first thing I saw was the turrets of a castle. Like a grey giant dozing on a hill, the castle loomed over a large valley. Beyond were dozens of fields spreading out perpendicular to a village that was situated at the base of the castle.
The scent of freshly turned soil and pine from the forest beyond mixed with the scent of the village, where their thatched roofs peaked out from behind a great stone wall in the middle of construction.
And right outside the wall, in various forms of use were half a dozen trucks like the ones from Old Kings Town.
If the trucks were here, did that mean we were still in Kensilla?
Large steel doors built into the stone wall stood open. Beyond them the village. Blessed-made buildings of stone and timber forked out from those large doors all the way to the castle whose own walls ran in a series of circles, each wall taller and thicker than the one before it.
As we encroached on the village, I saw Blessed by the dozens, working and chatting, passing in and out of the gates and into the outer village beyond. Most to my surprise, greeted us in Seja.
A familiar scent niggled at my senses—s piced mead and peppercorns? My gaze was drawn to three figures walking down the village road.
A man with black waves, a thick beard, and carrying a single axe that he casually rested on his shoulder passed through the gates. I recognised him as Rhydian’s friend, the Tahzi tribesman Jonah. Beside him walked another man, slightly shorter, with a thinner frame and a pair of brown feathered Talon wings on his back.
Taren! He looked healthy. His face was fuller, his hair more vibrant. There was a new purple-dyed hide strip in his hair, and the scabbing around his neck was now a pink ring. And he was smiling.
But it was who he was smiling at that caused me to run.
A woman stood between the two men. A very petite and tiny woman, with a laugh like a hissing cat and hair as white as the place she was born.
“ Kris? ”
She scented me before I’d even called her name. The basket she’d been carrying was discarded into Jonah’s arms and she too bolted into a run. We collided at the base of the hill, the grass cushioning our fall as we embraced in a joyous fit of hysterics.
She was here, she was alive. Kris was alive.
“I’ve missed you,” I finally said as Kris attempted to wipe my tears from my cheeks.
“Your hair’s changing back,” she noted with a smile, gently pulling on the strands hanging from my brow.
“I’m so sorry Kris,” I murmured as I wiped at her tears.
“Nonsense.” She frowned as she dusted the grass from my coat. “You can do whatever you like with your hair.”
Gods I’d missed her!
I’d convinced myself, that even if I managed to leave the train, managed to remove my collar, there was such a slim chance of finding Krisenya, that I’d likely spend the rest of my life searching. I’d lost all hope.
“Thank you for bringing her back to me.”
Rhydian, Ghena still in his arms, froze at Kris’ address. He turned, expression pensive and pursed his lips.
“I didn’t.” He cleared his throat. “Your friend brought herself.”
Kris, apparently confused by his comment, repeated his statement to me, to which I replied, “I did indeed bring myself. Though where I was coming to, I did not know since Rhydian had not seen fit to divulge that part.”
For the first time in hours, Rhydian looked me in the eyes. “I did not divulge it because I had sworn to another not to. And I don’t break my promises.” I failed to be unaffected by his comment.
“And since I hadn’t removed your collar, as I’d intended...” His voice seemed to catch in his throat as his eyes fell upon my collar. “I did not think it was worth the pain of knowing about this place and being unable to remain here. I was saving you the pain.” Then, for the shortest of moments, his gaze dropped to my lips. “I see now it was a mistake.”
Rhydian adjusted his grip on Ghena. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to get her inside. I’ll leave her in your care, Krisenya.”
What did he mean he intended to remove my collar? What did he mean he had sworn not to speak of this place? What was this place? How dare he just walk away from me without saying another word.
“I see what Taren means.” Kris sniffed at the air where Rhydian had just been.
“See what?”
Her gaze was inquisitive, almost amused. Taren, who had just arrived beside his sister provided me with the answer. “You and Rhydian. Your scents spike around one another. They react to each other’s presence.”
“Of course they would. They’re married.” Taren and Kris both turned to Jonah, brows knitted, expressions identical to one another.
“Did neither of you know that?” said the Bear-Blessed Brute, all three of them turning to me for an answer.
I spent the rest of the morning trying to clarify the information the three of them possessed regarding my situation. In the end I’d worked out that whilst all three became recently aware of how Taren and Kris came to be in the village, and under what circumstances, Jonah was the only one who knew of my marriage to Rhydian, and who believed it to be real.
I’d even managed to get Jonah to divulge that the children were all brought here because their parents had been the ones to request it. The parents.
But that didn’t explain Frey or his banishment.
“It was Rhydian’s plan. He knew the kids wouldn’t trust a group of strangers, so he asked Frey to come here.” He’d then gone on to say that they couldn’t take Frey like the other children. His mother was on the council and refused to let him leave, even with the sickness on board the train. Then Jonah said the most surprising part.
“Some Pazgari offered to help.”
The only Pazgari that had anything to do with the situation was Saska. Stoic, silent, artist-loving Saska was in on it.
This all made my guilt over accusing Rhydian so much heavier.
“You’re quiet,” Kris said to me a little while after the men had left to tend to their village chores. She’d taken it upon herself to show me around Gerhold. That’s what they called this place, this haven for Blessed.
We walked back up the hill, past a group of buildings that were still being built. The Blessed there were wielding air and metal to construct the frames.
“I feel like I should apologise.”
“And for what part of this entire situation do you feel guilt over?” Kris said, curiosity coating her tone. “You certainly weren’t to blame for Taren getting captured. You told him to stay put and he chose to ignore you. And as for my being here—that was all on Rhydian. You’re only crime Rieka was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She paused and came to a stop outside an old stone building. “Tiny certainly would not wish for you to wallow in his death.”
Kris had cried with me when I had told her of my brother’s passing, of what he had done to save me and of what I had done—what that dark part of me had done in vengeance for his death. There had been no shame. Just the embrace of one who loved and accepted me and all my faults. And I had been grateful for her and her odd words of prayer to her silent gods. The way my body seemed to relax at the idea that Tiny had joined her Eldertides was unexpectedly comforting. For the first time in many months, I was able to bring forth his grouchy old-man face to the surface of my thoughts without the hollow ache in my chest threatening to cave it in.
Kris’ presence was a long-awaited breath after being submerged under water. Unexpected and euphoric. But after euphoria comes the ever-present crashing down of reality, and Krisenya Tenamai was nothing if not a realist.
“So I must conclude that it is the fact you are in love with him that is plaguing you.”
I kept my eyes on the stone building as I answered. “I’m not in love with Rhydian.”
Kris scoffed. “Even the Eldertides would not believe you.”
I walked over to the building. I’d concluded it was a temple, the stone looked much older than the current buildings being constructed. Perhaps it was part of the original village before Rhydian had settled it. Jonah had divulged that piece of information to me a few hours ago. It was founded years ago by Rhydian’s mother Eydis and had been used as a haven for rescued and freed Thralls ever since. Lycoa didn’t even know we were here.
The fact I was in Prea wasn’t lost on me. “See, I got you here in the end,” Kris had joked when they’d told me. They also breezed over the part where the council didn’t know about it. They knew it existed, but as far as Jonah knew, the council on the train were entirely unaware of Rhydian’s intentions with it.
To be a home for the passengers when they were free.
Everything clicked for me in that moment. Every decision Rhydian had made, every action. Why he worked as a Bloodhound, why he fought so hard to protect the passengers, to steal supplies, to free the Thralls. He’d been fighting to free the passengers all along.
The only part I didn’t understand was my position in all this.
I changed the subject. “What is this place?”
Kris barely looked at the building as she answered. “A temple to The Nine. The people who lived here before wielded it from the ground in their honour.”
I ran my hand over the outer stone wall. No seam, no edges, as if the rock had been moulded in one singular piece. “And what about after the Fall, what was it then?”
“Nothing. This estate belonged to a family called Imaris. They were culled in the Marian 1 st Massacre. Until recently it was abandoned, now they’re planning on turning it into the School House.” Sensing I was about to ask another question, Kris interjected. “Rieka, changing the subject will not erase the issue.”
I stepped into the temple. “How can I love a man I do not trust, a man I do not know?”
It was oddly warm for a ruin. The grey stone shone under the afternoon sun. Wide glassless windows welcomed the evening air. Gods’ Tongue scripture that spoke of worship and sacrifice carved into the floor. A single bench lined one wall. I sat there as Kris wandered in after me.
“I do not think you are being fair to him,” she said
My gaze slowly lifted to where she stood by the window, her gaze on the figures outside. On Jonah who stood chopping firewood to stoke the village hearths. Frostfall was only a few weeks away, and the air had already taken on the winter chill.
“I have known you for six months Rieka and even I do not know the truth about why you fled Deos. Nor did I care. But then I was not in love with you.”
Her words cut. A long slithering tear around my heart.
Slow strides lead Kris to take the seat beside me. “I know why it is he kidnapped me from Keltjar, Rieka. It is not something I have told Taren, because it is something only Rhydian and I share. A shame he has asked me to keep. He came to me some time ago. Until then I’d spent months here unaware my sudden departure from Keltjar was his doing. He came to tell me the truth, and in recompense, I asked him to bring me you.”
My eyes widen. Did that mean?
Kris shook her head. “I am not the one who he made the deal with, that was made long before he and I met, and long before I suspect his feelings for you developed. We Kanahari know two things about love. That it takes time and does not work without truth. You say you don’t trust him, but perhaps it is yourself you do not trust.”
Tears began to well in my eyes. My fingers fidgeted with the tie of my gloves, brushing over the place where my worship marks were hidden, a constant reminder of where my trust had led me.
“I cannot love him, Kris. I am a broken creature who has only ever destroyed the people I have loved.” My breath caught as I looked at her, my anguish clawing at my throat. “I will destroy him and I cannot, will not be the reason he ceases to be in the world.”
She grasped my hand, stilling my tremors. Her forehead came to rest on mine. A rarity amongst different species of Brute. But Kris was a rare woman. She squeezed my hand in comfort. “Do you not think, that is his choice to make?”