Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Merrill didn’t move as Katla buried her face in her hands and sobbed. He had never been good at watching women cry. Usually , he tried to offer comfort, but he wasn’t sure she would want it from him. He debated whether to walk away when she finally lifted her head.
Her dark lashes were spiked from the tears that had left trails down her face. She jerked at the sight of him. “ Why are you still here?”
“ You are no’ the only one who wants to see Villette punished.”
Katla shook her head and wiped her cheeks. “ I don’t need anyone’s help.”
“ I didna say you did, lass.”
Instead of arguing, she walked to the stream and knelt along the shore. There , she splashed water onto her face a couple of times, then flicked her hands and wiped them on her clothes as she stared across the stream at the trees beyond. Merrill ran a hand down his face, wondering if he had made the right decision. He’d made so many wrong ones of late that it was hard to know.
If he had been able to convince Katla to go to Iron Hall , he would have. But he recognized her stubbornness. Mainly because he had the same obstinate streak. Her first goal had been the children and their well-being. Merrill knew she had assumed he would accompany the bairns to Iron Hall . He hadn’t dissuaded her of that notion because there would have been a clash. By remaining quiet, she had been able to focus solely on the children.
Katla got to her feet and spun. She strode past him to the fire without even looking in his direction. Merrill turned with her. The misery that had been etched into her face was gone, carefully disguised behind a mask of aloofness. She believed hiding her pain would protect her. But nothing could shield someone from such misery.
“ You will see them again,” he told her.
She waved her hand over the flames, dousing them instantly. “ I doubt that.”
“ We would never keep the bairns from you. Or you from them.”
“ You should return to your people.”
He didn’t like that she refused to look at him. “ I can no’.”
“ I’m not someone in need of saving,” she snapped.
“ I never thought you were.”
Her stormy eyes lifted and flashed dangerously. “ Then why have you remained?”
“ You say you want redemption. Well , so do I . I willingly remained at Stonemore with Villette . I didna know what she was, nor did I know her machinations. All I knew was that I couldna return to my brethren. I didna reach out to them, and I didna even care that none of them tried to contact me. I wanted to be on my own. Away from them.”
She stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.
“ I became suspicious of Villette verra soon, yet still did nothing. I contemplated leaving, but I didna. Varek , my closest friend, said I wouldna have been able to, even if I had tried. He may be right, or he may have said that to make me feel better. But that isna the point. The point is I didna gather information. I didna follow her. I did nothing for weeks. No ’ until Alasdair and Lotti came to Stonemore to find me. They interrupted Villette’s magic enough that Alasdair got through and told me who Villette was. But I didna leave with him. I said I would remain and learn what I could.” Merrill twisted his lips. “ It wasn’t an outright lie. I stayed because I wanted to. Even after I knew who Villette was.”
Katla shoved her hair over her shoulder. “ You’re angry.”
“ You’re bloody right, I am.”
“ If that’s the worst you’ve done, then you have nothing to worry about.”
He snorted and looked away. “ We’ll have to disagree on that.”
“ You didn’t lure dragons into a trap. You stayed at Stonemore and didn’t reach out to the dragons. That’s nothing.”
“ I was her lover.”
Katla stilled, the action showing her surprise. “ If she hates dragons as much as you say, why did she take you to her bed? Why not kill you?”
“ She planned to use me against my kin.”
“ Villette is good at that. It’s why she needs to pay for her crimes.”
Merrill nodded. “ Aye , she does. We have a better chance of success if we work together.”
“ You don’t want to be around me. Everything I touch ends up destroyed.”
“ No ’ those bairns. You saved them.”
She huffed and shook her head. “ They were practically starving. I might have gotten them away from Miena , but I didn’t improve their situation.”
“ They would disagree. So would I ,” he replied.
“ I plan to spend what time I have left making amends for the lives I’ve taken. I won’t stop looking for Villette . No matter how long it takes.”
He held her stony gaze. “ I doona intend to stop looking either.”
“ You have people to go back to. Return to them. Find some peace while I handle Villette .”
“ I’m no’ sure there will ever be peace for me. And you willna be able to fight her on your own.”
Katla shrugged one shoulder. “ So you’ve said. But I almost killed Villette . All I need to do is get close again.”
“ She willna let you,” Merrill called when Katla turned and started walking away. He blew out a frustrated breath and followed.
The Ferdon Woods was heavily trafficked, but she kept off the main road. If Katla had a direction in mind, she kept it to herself. Merrill guessed that she was likely just walking to cover ground. Her footfalls were soft, her tread light. She stayed several paces ahead of him and didn’t look back once.
She only veered from her path to avoid an animal or if she spotted some berries. She ate them by the handfuls, particularly the pale-yellow ones. To his surprise, she didn’t stop for lunch.
Her strides didn’t slow, even when the forest eventually gave way to miles of open grassland as far as the eye could see. A herd of some horned, hoofed animals spooked at the sight of them and bounded off. Merrill looked over his shoulder at the cover of the trees they’d left behind, then glanced at the clear sky and bright sun. It would help warm up the temperatures slightly. He eyed Katla’s thin shirt. It would do nothing to protect her from the weather. But if she was cold, she gave no indication.
The afternoon crawled as they trekked through the boundless waist-high grass. It was a soft gold color, but he bet it was a vibrant green in the spring. It would likely be a sight to behold. Merrill studied the area, but other than the occasional bird, there wasn’t another person or animal anywhere. The city of Orgate was somewhere to the east, but after Varek’s imprisonment there, it was better to avoid it. Thankfully , Katla kept to her northern direction.
The sun was near the horizon when her steps suddenly slowed. Merrill looked around her and spied the tops of some buildings ahead. She diverted slightly to the northwest and headed straight for them. He made out their dilapidated state before they reached the village. Even when she saw nothing but ruins remained, Katla continued into the town.
Merrill eyed what was left of a decent-sized community. It was close enough to Stonemore that it wasn’t much of a stretch to believe the village had been attacked by Villette’s army like so many others had. There was no one left inside the half-burned buildings. How many lives had been lost? How many more had been forced to relocate to Stonemore , only to starve on the streets? He feared what the answer might be.
Katla stopped next to a building with a door that stood ajar. The structure was the least damaged of those still standing. She walked under the overhang and gently pushed the door open to peer inside. He made his way around the structure to get a better look at all the sides. There were scorch marks at the back that reached up to the roof, but other than that, the building looked surprisingly sturdy.
Katla was inside by the time he returned to the front. Merrill cautiously walked through the doorway and halted as he regarded the splintered pieces of wood on the floor and the thick dust covering everything. He followed her footprints into the first room on the left and paused when he found her standing in the middle of the room, holding something in her hands.
“ This was someone’s home,” she said, turning as she held up a drawing of a man and woman with a baby.
Merrill took in the broken furniture that lay scattered across the floor. “ I’m sure they willna mind if we use it for the night.”
“ What happened here? Where did they go?”
He began stacking remnants of wood to the side. “ After Villette trapped Miena , she got complete power over Stonemore . She wanted more than that, however, and sent her army out. They attacked cities and killed those who stood against them. Whoever was left was ordered to Stonemore . Her army grew each time. But so did the number of those within the cities’ walls.”
“ That explains the overcrowding I saw. But I don’t understand sending everyone there. She had to know there wasn’t enough food.”
Merrill dusted his hands as he stacked the last of the wood and straightened. “ She didna care about food or housing. She only cares about power. Those at Stonemore had to bow to her wishes.”
Katla sighed. “ I don’t know how to find her.”
“ We didna know how to locate Miena either. She found us.”
“ I’d rather have the advantage.”
“ I’m no’ sure that’s possible.”
Katla nodded absently, still holding on to the drawing. “ She told me she’s trimmed back the human population several times before. I couldn’t bring myself to ask how.”
“ It’s probably better if you doona know.”
“ She made me believe there were no more of my people anywhere, and I never ventured out to see if it was true.”
Merrill walked over to her. “ You saw everyone wiped out. Had you ever left your village before?”
She slowly shook her head. “ I stayed right there for fifteen hundred years. I shouldn’t have lived so long. I shouldn’t be alive now .”
“ But you are. Wondering why willna change that fact.”
“ Villette told me to remain in the valley. I did everything she asked without question.”
Merrill watched the play of emotions on her face. “ You were vulnerable, and she took advantage of that.”
“ It was more than that.” Katla looked down at the drawing again. “ Hatred kept me going. Hate doesn’t need to be fed. It thrives on its own, growing until it consumes everything.”
“ You are no’ in the valley anymore. You got out.”
“ Have I ? Sometimes , I’m not sure.”
Merrill looked into her gray eyes. “ You’re free.”
“ How many others did she trap like me?”
“ It willna do you any good to think like that.”
She leaned back against the wall. “ Why have none of her other siblings stopped her?”
“ I’ve concluded that the majority of them doona care about anything but themselves.”
“ You’re probably right.”
Merrill spotted an unbroken chair across the hall. He brought it back to Katla and motioned for her to use it. “ That means it’s up to us to do something about her.”