31. Answers in the stars
Answers in the stars
T he blurry shapes of the Veilcrag Mountains grew steadily larger on the horizon all day.
Although they did not find another keep to spend the night in, it turned out the ruins of long abandoned structures littered the Surgelands.
At sunset they reached the remains of some kind of stable or farmhouse.
It no longer had a roof, but the crumbling stone walls shielded them from the wind that relentlessly blew across the landscape.
Felix cleared debris from the largest open space in the centre, arranging a circle of stones for a fire. Leif sat nearby, playing with Biscuit.
Isolde leaned against a wall, staring off into nothingness. The distant mountains were faintly visible, the twilight sky silhouetting them in purple. She wondered, not for the first time, what might wait for her at their feet. Salvation? Destiny? Doom? Revelation, or nothing but more questions?
She had come a long way since their hasty departure from Azuill.
She was no longer stumbling blindly in the dark, uncontrolled and terrified, praying for answers nobody had.
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t scared. So much was a mystery, and today had created almost infinitely more.
Her gaze lifted to look at Felix, crouched by the fire.
She was glad he hadn’t lied to her about Mia, or talked around it.
Not that she had expected him to, but it still removed that tiny piece of needless doubt from her mind.
It strengthened the thread of trust between them.
But everything else… Mia could not influence him.
Isolde’s own magic had barely affected him, even when she put enough force into it that it would have pushed back a much heavier person.
Instead, it had created this strange connection between them again.
Just like that first time she had reached out, to see if she was right about everyone having some kind of magic.
She had never tried reaching out to someone else in that way.
What if it was because of her; and anyone she connected with would grow to resist magic?
She should test it. But then, that connection had been…
intimate. She couldn’t imagine looking into Mia’s mind like that, or Leif’s.
Certainly not Luella or Garren. The thought alone made her cringe with discomfort.
A person’s inner memories and thoughts were private, and invading them was wrong. But with Felix, it felt right.
But what if it was something unique to him? If she wanted to find out, she’d have no choice but to try. Isolde sighed deeply.
“Everything alright?” Felix asked quietly.
“Yes, sorry,” she replied, pushing the palms of her hands into her eyes. “I’m fine. I just… wish I had more answers, or fewer questions. Or someone who could answer them, at least.”
Felix poked at the fire with a stick. “Well,” he said, his voice low, “if we run into people with answers, chances are they want us dead.”
Isolde let her hands fall from her face and looked over at him again. The firelight flickered across his features. “Good point,” she said wryly. “Maybe we’d better stay away from people with answers.”
Leif reclined on his back nearby, Biscuit curled up beside him. “My father used to say the only people with all the answers were either liars or dead. The rest of us just muddle through life doing our best not to make things worse.”
“Wise man,” Felix said.
“Sometimes. He also regularly fell into the pond after too much mead.”
Isolde and Felix burst out laughing at Leif’s matter-of-fact tone .
“I’ve never really thought about it like that before,” Isolde said, once the mirth wore off.
“Like what?” Felix asked.
“That there is no one who has the entire picture,” she said. “Everyone is pretending. Some people just pretend better than others.” She looked up at the sky, where the first stars were visible.
Felix rose to his feet and walked around the fire to sit down next to her. He was like a comforting wall of warmth at her side, and she leaned in and let his presence ground her.
“As far as I’m concerned,” Felix said, “the only person actually qualified to give you answers would be another leytouched. And since you are the only one…” He shrugged. “We’ll just have to make do with what we have.”
Isolde quirked an eyebrow at him. “And what do we have?”
“Each other, I guess.” He smiled as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, then let his fingertips trail along the side of her face. Isolde closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.
How does he do that? Make me feel safe, despite everything?
“Gag,” Leif muttered from his spot on the floor, covering his face with one hand. “Really, in front of Biscuit? No shame.”
Felix threw a pebble at him. “You’re welcome to go build your own bloody fire and sleep somewhere else.”
“I can’t move; Biscuit is sleeping,” Leif countered, pointing at the puppy snuggled up against his side.
“I can help with that,” Felix said with a grin as he picked up another stone and threatened to throw it at Biscuit.
“Don’t you dare!” Isolde said, smiling at the little dog, who made small yipping noises and twitched occasionally in his sleep.
Felix laughed quietly and snaked his arm around her back, pulling her closer. “As my lady commands,” he murmured into her hair.
The moment was peaceful. Light, even. As Isolde gazed up at the sky, watching it slowly shift from violet to deep, dark purple, she could almost imagine they were simply on a journey for the joy of it, for the sake of adventure and wanderlust.
** *
It didn’t last, of course. Luella appeared in the circle of firelight, followed on her heels by Mia and Garren. Her breathing was uneven, and she pushed back the hood of her cloak.
“There’s a group of them heading our way, coming from the north. Mercenaries, armed. Led by a mage. An hour away, two at most.”
Felix was already on his feet. Isolde’s heart clenched as the quiet changed abruptly from tranquil to oppressive. Mia and Leif shifted uncomfortably, glancing at her. Garren stepped forward and took a breath as if to say something, but Isolde was quicker.
“It’s alright,” she said as she stood up. “We knew this was coming. We are heading straight for them, after all. We would have run into them at some point.” She kept her voice steady, but her fingers twisted together nervously. Felix glanced down at her hands.
Isolde bit the inside of her cheek. What was wisdom?
Flee, fight, hide? Her father had once told her, in one of his rare moments of attempting to connect, that it was always best to keep one’s enemies close.
That way, they could never sneak up on you.
She nodded to herself. This once, she would take his advice.
She caught Luella’s eyes. “Would you go meet them and lead them to us?”
Luella hesitated, glancing over at Garren and Felix. “You… want me to bring them here?”
“Yes,” Isolde said. “We might as well encounter them on our terms, instead of having them surprise us in the middle of the night with everyone asleep. One mage, you said?”
“One mage. Eight mercenaries,” Luella answered.
“And they are coming from the Nexus, you think?”
“They are moving north to south. I can’t imagine where else they came from.”
Isolde looked at the surrounding terrain.
There was a lot of rocky debris. The walls could provide cover.
Her eyes slid over the sword at Garren’s side, the bow on Luella’s back, then landed on the dagger strapped to Felix’s forearm.
When her gaze travelled up to meet his, his smirk was sharp and wicked.
“You’re thinking we can take them,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
She pursed her lips and nodded. “If we have to.”
He huffed out a laugh and ran a hand through his hair. “You are absolutely terrifying.”
The teasing compliment made her insides flutter with something very different from fear. For a heartbeat there was only him, cast in the warm glow of firelight, grinning like none of this was even the least bit scary at all.
“When you two are done,” Luella cut in loudly, arms crossed, one foot tapping on the stones.
“Right,” Isolde said, flushing. “So, um, will you?”
“Alright,” Luella agreed. She pulled her hood back up and made to leave.
Garren stepped forward. “I’ll come with you.”
“Me, too,” Mia said. She sniffed and waved a hand dismissively at everyone’s surprised faces. “What are those two going to do if some form of diplomacy is required?”
“If they turn out to be hostile…” Isolde began.
“We’ll retreat and regroup here,” Garren said simply. “But these people should, by all accounts, be on our side.”
Luella nodded. “Very well. Let’s go.”
***
It was an hour or two at most before they returned, but it may as well have been days. Leif kept nervously patrolling the outer edge of the camp, and Felix and Isolde sat together in tense silence.
It started as a faint buzzing in the back of her head. She stood up abruptly, startling Felix and Leif.
“They’re here,” she said, and sure enough, Garren and Luella crested the ridge at her words. Several wary-looking mercenaries followed behind. Felix was between her and the group in the blink of an eye, hands at his sides but ready. Always ready, always watching.
Behind the mercenaries came Mia, walking side by side with a mage.
He was young, younger than she expected, around her own age.
He was tall, dressed in rich, if dusty, crimson robes.
His colouring was distinctly Medraj, and she felt the magic in him, like she could feel it in Mia if she concentrated.
But he had so much of it, swirling right there under the surface, and there was an odd wrongness about it.
The current in her wanted to take it, to drain it out of him, because it did not belong there.
“Huh,” Leif remarked under his breath, flicking a glance from Felix to the mage and back again. “He’s like your fancier brother.”
Felix scowled. “Thanks, Leif.”