Chapter 5
Five
Avalon
The village we rode into the following day could hardly even be called such a thing.
It was a collection of rundown huts, made of stone and thickly thatched roofs.
If Kian hadn’t been so sure, I would’ve thought the place was abandoned.
There wasn’t even any smoke curling from the chimneys.
How could you survive out here without a fire running for most of the day?
“How did you say you found this place again?” I asked Kian.
“Returning from a meeting in Fortaare. It was… a lot, and I wasn’t in a hurry to return to Rewill, so I decided to travel around the edges of our Barony.
I happened to stumble past it. Thought it was abandoned, but would make a decent place to rest for the night.
I was wrong on both accounts.” That should have sounded ominous, except he was smiling.
Who lived here that made my brother smile so fondly?
Stopping in front of the most damaged of the houses, Kian swung down from his horse, holding out an arm so Powell could slide down after him. He stood there until the other man was steady on his feet, then went up to the abandoned door and knocked twice.
Nothing happened. The knock echoed around the mountains, caught on the howling wind. We stood there for an endless minute, during which I assessed whether my brother had succumbed to the stress of being Heir and lost his mind.
Then the door creaked open. Kian smiled and stepped inside, and we all slid from our horses to follow him, despite the fact it was creepy as hell.
I held Vox’s hand as we stepped over the threshold, and it was like walking into an entirely different place. It was warm and light, with a fire crackling in the hearth and a wrinkled old woman smiling up at my brother as if he was her long-lost grandson.
“Kian Halhed! You have gotten even more handsome,” she cooed, and my brother blushed, even though the woman must have been eighty. “And I see you’ve brought friends.”
Inclining his head, Kian’s face fell into the solemn expression I knew so well. “I have. They would seek refuge, if you’re inclined to give it, Meela.”
She raised a single brow. “To all of you?”
“No, just two of them.”
She appraised us, and somehow, I knew she saw too much. She lifted her chin at Lierick. “This one has the look of the Hanovans. Has the Second Line finally come home?”
The silence around the room was so thick, it was hard to draw breath past it.
Iker shook his head. “How could you—”
Meela waved a hand. “If we get into the hows and whys, we’ll be standing here all night. Come in; you’ll all need food and lodging for at least tonight. There’ll be time for questions once you’re all warm.”
We followed her further into the house, and I tried to hold in my surprise when she stopped beside a threadbare rug, grabbed a big brass ring, and lifted a giant, heavy trapdoor. She shouldn’t have been able to do it without First Line magic, or maybe Third Line magic, but I sensed nothing.
I gave my brother wide eyes as I walked past him, and he had the audacity to grin back with a shrug.
Meela led us down a set of sturdy stone stairs. “Reeba, we have guests.”
“Guests?” someone echoed from further into the darkness. “At this time of night?”
At the base of the stairs, the room opened up into a home. It was huge and reminded me a little of the rebel hideout in Cyne, maybe even the repository of information in Doend.
Meela laughed. “I can see you connecting all the dots over there, girl. More like your ancestors than you thought, eh?” She turned back to the darkness. “Yes, Reeba. Guests at this time. But you’ll be happy that it’s your favorite Ninth Line son.”
The infamous Reeba appeared, and while she was younger than Meela, it wasn’t by much. “Kian is here?” She looked to the back of our group and smiled widely. “Young Halhed! It’s so good to see you.”
How often did Kian visit these two?
“Good to see you too, Reeba. I’ve brought friends, including my sister, Avalon.”
Reeba turned toward me, and I noticed her eyes were completely white and unseeing. She was blind?
“Avalon Halhed. Your brother speaks highly of you,” she said warmly, and I flushed.
I raised an eyebrow. “I’d like to say the same, but he’s been very closed-lipped about you two.”
Meela cackled. “As it should be, girl.”
Hayle cleared his throat. “Not to be impolite, but what is this place?”
Meela had left our group standing in the entrance of the room and was now fussing with a big pot over the stove. Reeba cocked her head at Hayle. “The little Taeme Heir. Did you see this, Meela?”
“I’m not the one who’s blind, Reeba,” the elderly woman tutted back. “Also the Heir to the First Line. Quite the fancy delegation you’ve brought to our door today, Kian.”
Reeba was definitely blind—Meela had just said as much—so how had she known Hayle was from the Third Line?
These two were an interesting pair.
Kian grunted. “They’re all right, I guess. Not nearly as exciting as me, though, right?”
Reeba cackled and patted his head with unerring accuracy.
“Always the favorite, Kian, especially after you brought that bottle of whisky on your last visit. Meela was as blind drunk as I was—emphasis on blind!” She was chortling now, and Kian looked at her so warmly, it made something in my chest twist.
Meela waved a big ladle at us. “Sit, sit. You can’t eat standing; it’s bad for digestion.” We filtered over to the long wooden table, sitting down on the bench seats. It looked almost out of place in the room with the two small women. There was enough space for a dozen people here.
Meela slapped plates in front of us all, urging us to eat and warm our bones, and I downed some kind of bean soup, as if it really would warm me from the inside out. We had run out of rations last night, so I was actually starving.
Reeba tutted. “Poor little lambs.” I assumed she was referring to our group, but she was looking at Powell and Celis in particular. She rested her hands over theirs. “You’ll be safe here now, son of Cyne and daughter of the Seas.”
My gaze flickered to Lierick. Celis was from Bine? The Seventh Line rarely stepped foot on mainland Ebrus, happy to live on their little island home and explore the Alutian Sea. How had she ended up in the hands of Yaron Vylan?
Celis’s lip trembled for a second, before she began sobbing, like her soul was shattering in her chest. Powell looked frantic, clearly unsure what to do, but Meela just tutted, pulling the girl out of her seat and into her arms, like she was far taller than her five-foot height.
Celis leaned down onto the elderly woman’s shoulder and wept.
“Cry the poison out, sweet creature. When the salt dries on your cheeks, you’ll be born anew.” She whispered the words into Celis’s hair, and I swallowed down the lump of emotion that was threatening to choke me.
Meela didn’t usher her away somewhere more private. Didn’t try and hush her. She just let her cry ugly tears and let us all bear witness. There was no hiding from this pain.
When Celis finally pulled back with hiccuping sobs, Meela smiled at her softly.
“Come, little one. You too, boy,” she said, curling a finger at Powell.
“We’ll find a place for you to grieve tonight, and we’ll bury the memories in a midnight grave.
Tomorrow, you begin again. Your demons can’t stand in the light of a new dawn. ”
Who were these women?
She bustled them out of the room, and we were left with the heaviness of what we’d witnessed.
Shaking her head sadly, Reeba pointed a spoon at us. “Eat up. There is not enough food in these mountains to waste what we’ve been given.”
As one, we began eating again, but it tasted like ash. Reeba continued to spoon her own stew toward her face, occasionally missing her mouth. Such an enigma.
Finally, she cleared her throat. “Two sons of the Second Line, right here in their ancestral lands. I didn’t think I would see the day.”
I couldn’t help it anymore. “How do you know?” It burst out of me almost unbidden, making the old woman cackle again.
“Because I’m blind?”
I shook my head, then hesitated. “I mean, yes. But also, they don’t look any different to Kian, or Hayle.”
She smiled a wide, toothy smile. “But they taste different. Everyone does.”
Well, that’s not creepy at all.
Meela swept back into the room, her eyes taking in the rest of the table. “Are you doing that thing again, Reeba? I swear, this is why no one ever visits.”
“Kian visits,” Reeba said stubbornly, and Meela rolled her eyes, easing back onto her seat.
“Old bones aren’t what they used to be,” she muttered. “Ask your questions, children. It’s almost my bedtime.”
Vox, who’d been silent for this entire interaction, lifted his chin. “Who are you?”
Meela gave a similarly sharp smile, an echo of Reeba’s. “We are the soul of Ebrus.”