15. Night Singing
Night Singing
R halyf tracked Declan’s progress from the table to the bar then into the back room. He heard Lily’s request that Declan head outside. Somehow Rhalyf wasn’t surprised when he saw the two Aravae–a man and a woman who had been staring daggers at Declan the moment he appeared in front of the king–silently leave the building, too. They went out the side door, but Rhalyf had no doubt as to where they were going. Or what they intended on doing: rough up the presumptuous Vulluin who dared to gaze upon their king with such dark longing.
Yet Declan was not like other humans.
Rhalyf was certain he was not human at all.
And those foolish Sun Elves would find this out the hard way. But would Declan truly take care of them? Would he understand that defending himself–roughing them up–wouldn’t end the problem they posed, but intensify it? That it would bring yet more attention to him and his differences? That people might draw the connection between him being sensitive to the light and him being able to take down five orcs with ease? That he could only be one thing? And if one Kindreth were found to be masquerading as another race in the Empire how long would it take for even Aquilan to look for others closer to home?
Yet Rhalyf was not altogether certain that Declan would do what he should.
Declan was intense. He moved like a killer. A liquid-hipped killer who clung to shadows like lovers. But there was something innocent about him, too. When he looked at Aquilan it was as if… as if he had never seen anything or anyone more beautiful and pure. A full stone-cold Kindreth wouldn’t look like that. Couldn’t look like that. They would be incapable of recognizing Aquilan’s goodness as anything but a weakness. But Declan didn’t see weakness when he gazed upon the Sun King. He looked as if he’d seen… Well, something else entirely.
Not to mention that Declan had shown his strength with the orcs and his weakness to the Sun. Foolish things that a trained and deadly Kindreth would hardly do. Declan was just full of contradictions. It was immensely irritating when he was trying to decide whether Declan had to go or not.
“Where are you off to, Rhalyf?” Aquilan asked, noticing that Rhalyf had risen from his chair.
“I need the facilities. Too much Chelios. I’ll be back in a moment.” Rhalyf pressed a hand on Aquilan’s nearest shoulder and gave it a companionable squeeze.
Aquilan grinned. “I’ll be sure to have another carafe here by the time you return so that you can fill up again.”
Rhalyf took a bow. “I look forward to it.”
He then headed in the direction of the bathroom, but veered to the right at the last moment to head out the door after the Aravae. He was faintly annoyed when he realized that while Aquilan and the rest of the party at the table hadn’t noticed where he was going Finley had. Those glasses made Finley’s eyes look like bright coins in the darkness.
Stay where you are, little scholar. Unless you want to know who and what your friend really is, Rhalyf thought.
Then he was outside. He whispered a tracking spell and passed his right hand, palm-side down, over the ground where the Aravae would have had to have stepped. The two Aravae’s footprints stood out in bright, neon yellow leading around the side of the inn and not out into the avenue. Rhalyf guessed that Declan had gone around to the stables and the Aravae had crept around the outside of the inn likely to hem him in. Rhalyf did not follow their footsteps, instead he lightly leaped up and caught the edge of the lower floor’s roof and pulled himself up onto it.
The Dawn was shaped like a horseshoe with the stables in the middle hollow part. The first floor stuck out beyond the second so there was plenty of roof for him to traverse. He naturally moved silently–even for a Kindreth–but he had spelled himself to be even harder to hear or spot. He was essentially invisible.
Therefore, he made no more sound than the passage of the wind as he crouch-walked along the outside edge of the roof around to the stables, passing by the inn’s rented rooms. But if anyone was in their beds, attempting to sleep through the ruckus downstairs, they wouldn’t have heard him pass by regardless.
So, unheard and unseen, he made it to the roof overhanging the stables. One of the Aravae’s voices rose up to alert him to exactly where they were before he even saw them. Silent and invisible, he perched above the three of them. Watching. What would Declan do? And then what would he do?
“ Vulluin ,” the female Aravae hissed the Katyr word for human: magic-less , “you need to stay away from our king.”
Declan’s back was to her. He was holding onto a barrel of wine. The heavy, sweet scent of alcohol drifted up to Rhalyf: Tavistock red. Not his favorite, but a hearty red wine that burned the tongue and went well with beef. Declan was very still. He didn’t turn around or gasp at the unexpected arrival of the two Aravae. He was well-aware that both were there.
Vulluin? What a joke that is!
“You need,” Declan’s voice was low and steady, “to go home.”
Rhalyf drew in a sharp breath. Declan’s voice wasn’t menacing, but he swore he felt the knife-blade threat in every word. Declan was making a simple declaration: I am dangerous. Stay and you will discover this or leave now and save yourselves. Rhalyf frowned. He had been in rooms with the noblest of Kindreth–which meant the deadliest of his people–and Declan put most of them to shame.
Such a contradiction you are, Declan!
“What? We need to leave?! I think not, Vulluin ! It is your kind that needs to know their place! Especially with our king!” The male Aravae’s voice rose in derision.
Declan remained standing still as stone. The female Aravae was just two feet behind him. She was up on the balls of her feet, her arms loose at her sides, ready to strike. The male Aravae was to the right side of Declan, a foot away from the barrel of wine the young man held.
You think you have him, but he has you, Rhalyf tutted internally.
“You need to go home,” Declan repeated. No anger. No fear. Just acceptance of whatever was to come based on the Aravaes’ decisions, which surely he already knew would be bad.
“We know you aren’t what you seem, Vulluin . We’ve heard about the orcs and the Leviathan,” the female Aravae hissed.
Orcs and Leviathan? So the stories about Declan are common knowledge. Yet more foolishness to allow them to get around, Rhalyf thought, again annoyed and perplexed by what he saw as sloppiness by Declan. But Declan didn’t seem sloppy at all. Not at this moment anyways. Then again, before I actually met him and saw him keeling over in the Sun, I assumed those stories were just that: stories. Tales to make humans feel less helpless than they actually are.
Declan might have sighed then. “If you know that then why have you approached me like this?”
“Because we’re far more formidable than a Leviathan or some orcs,” the female Aravae mocked. “We know something is wrong with you and we won’t allow you to bring that wrongness near our king.”
“ Wrong ?” Declan repeated the word as if it had a taste: quaint and piquant. “A human who is strong and able to fight is wrong ? That is what you think of humans?”
Of course, they did. Aravae liked to put things into boxes. The dwarves were tireless miners and clever smiths. The goblins would cheat anyone out of their last copper but then lose it in a game of chance. The orcs were incredibly strong, but paid for it with lack of brains. The fairies would fight to the death over the mildest of insults. Well, the last really was true. The fairies were crazy and loved bloodshed. What these two Aravae should have been thinking is what box Declan belonged in. He was no dwarf, goblin, orc or fairy. So what was he to do the things people claimed he could do? Not human. Not Vulluin . Yet they insisted with the insult.
But he already knew why they hadn’t yet figured it out. It was what allowed him to stay hidden in plain sight with a clever glamour to hide the color of his hair and eyes. The Kindreth had become legendary, more myth than anything else. And, of course, the box that the Aravae had put them in was baby-killing, blood-drinking, insane creatures. They surely couldn’t behave like civilized elves or humans for that matter.
“It doesn’t matter what you are. We won’t let you harm our king,” the female Aravae stated.
Oh, dust and ashes, you are idiots!
Declan was still holding onto the barrel. He hadn’t shifted at all. Nor were there any of the usual magical cues that he was preparing a spell. And yet Rhalyf felt magic. Deep as Under Dark roots and older than the crumbled remnants of the civilizations they found there. It surrounded Declan like a cloak with tendrils running off on either side of him. Declan’s magic hadn’t been apparent to Rhalyf before now. It was primal and familiar and yet… who else could do this? Who else used magic in this almost natural way as if they weren’t even aware of it serving them at all?
“I would never hurt King Aquilan,” Declan finally answered.
“We will not give you the chance,” the male Aravae growled.
“I do not believe King Aquilan would want you to do this,” Declan said, and that was very true.
“You won’t speak to our king. You won’t touch him. You won’t even look at him!” the male Aravae snarled.
“We’re going to give you just a taste of what you’ll receive if you don’t do as we say,” the female Aravae said.
“This is a mistake,” Declan sighed for definite this time. “You should go home .”
And Rhalyf wondered if he meant the Lieran Plain. But would that be far enough away from Declan? He thought not.
And then Declan moved .
Declan shoved the barrel into the male Aravae’s chest and then brought it up to crack the elf under the chin. There was an oomph and painful clack as his teeth came together hard. The male Aravae went down in a daze. Blood spurted from his mouth, likely from biting his tongue.
At the same, Declan swept his right leg back and took out the feet from under the female Aravae. She toppled back onto her ass, unable to recover in time. Declan then brought his leg back around and clocked her hard, but not hard enough to kill or even seriously injure, across the cheek. Then Declan slammed the barrel of wine down on the male Aravae’s chest, pinning him in place while he did the same with his right foot on the female. Both Aravae were groaning, but went silent when Declan spoke.
“You will never return to the Dawn,” Declan said calmly, not even breathing hard.
“Our–our king,” the male Aravae sounded half strangled.
“Does not need the help of such dishonorable weaklings,” Declan scoffed. Then there was a pause and Declan’s voice was soft and clear as he asked, “Does he, Lord Neres?”
Rhalyf froze. Declan hadn’t turned his head to look up at where Rhalyf crouched. His magic should have kept him invisible. But then he saw them. A few tendrils of Declan’s “cloak of magic” had touched him. Rhalyf hadn’t even noticed. That was unnerving.
Contradictions. Contradictions. Well, I’m outed now. Got to make the best of it. Make it seem I meant to be caught all along.
“Indeed, he does not,” Rhalyf said and lightly hopped down onto the ground between the two fallen Aravae. He conjured a golden light mote and had it drift by each of the Aravae’s faces. “Hmmmm, you are both quite the mess. Serves you right, of course.”
“We are protecting the king!” the female Aravae croaked out.
“You are being bullies and racists as far as I can tell,” Rhalyf stated flatly.
It was true. Whatever he suspected of Declan, it was based on actual knowledge . These two idiots saw a human that wasn’t what they expected a human to be and they’d decided to stomp on him for it.
Not the same thing at all.
“He’s–he’s a d-danger!” She coughed out.
Had Declan increased the pressure on her chest with the boot? He could have easily snapped her neck. Declan should be snapping her neck. Was he not doing so because Rhalyf was there? Rhalyf looked up at his handsome, inscrutable face. No emotions to read there.
“You know nothing about me,” Declan said flatly, but he removed the foot from her chest and hoisted the barrel he’d been using to crush the male Aravae over his shoulder. He was turning as if to go in and leave Rhalyf alone with these two to question them.
“Are you just leaving ?” Rhalyf asked, blinking.
“Lily needs help behind the bar.”
“This is your mess!” Rhalyf protested.
“It’s you they want to talk to. Not me,” Declan answered simply.
“Yes, these two are going to badmouth you to me and have me tell the king. Do you want me to tell the king, Declan?” Rhalyf’s voice was light, but there was a lilt of threat there.
But Declan didn’t fall for it. “If you wish to listen to fairy stories about how a Vulluin is capable of harming the Sun King that’s your time to waste,” Declan answered, but was there a touch of dull acceptance in his tone as if this knowledge being imparted to Rhalyf–and hence Aquilan–was inevitable? “And the king will think what the king will think of me.”
Because, of course, with him showing up like this, it was inevitable. Declan couldn’t kill these two even if he’d wanted to. But Rhalyf wondered if he would have regardless.
“Hold up a moment, I would talk with you, Declan, outside of the hubbub in the Dawn,” Rhalyf said, allowing some of the old Kindreth command come back into his voice.
Declan stopped, but didn’t turn around. The two Aravae had gotten to their feet. Both were bleeding and bruised. There was a distinctly sullen quality to their silence. They’d been so eager to tell him about Declan’s “dangerousness” to the king before, but now they clearly felt the wounds he had dealt them.
“But first, I would hear what you two have to say. What is so objectionable about this young man you intended to beat him senseless?” Rhalyf demanded of the two Aravae.
The female Aravae studied him from under her golden lashes. “You’re… you’re Lord Rhalyf Neres ?”
“Yes, Master Mage and best friend of the Sun King, at your service,” Rhalyf’s smile was tight. There was something in the way she said his name that he was pretty sure he didn’t like. A brief glance at Declan showed the young man had half turned to observe the confrontation. He turned back to the female Aravae. “Well? I’m waiting. My wine is waiting too.”
“He killed a Leviathan,” she finally said. “No Vulluin can do that.”
“Really?” He arched an eyebrow. “You saw him do this, did you?”
He knew she had not. No one had. It was all rumor and innuendo. It was undoubtedly true, but that was beside the point as to what she knew.
She shifted from foot to foot uncertainly. “N-no, but he survived the initial Leviathan assault.”
“Did the other two survivors kill Leviathan, too? There were three , weren’t there? I believe one was a child. Did the child also kill a Leviathan as well?” Rhalyf demanded to know. “Maybe she took out two or three Leviathan. Please, let me know.”
She jerked back at his words. “No, of course not, that’s absurd–”
“Yes, is is absurd.”
“But he–”
“Is that your only proof that Declan killed a Leviathan that he survived?” Rhalyf asked. She said nothing. So, of course, it was. “Declan survived just like those two others did. But we’ve just established that you don’t believe, at least, that the child killed Leviathan, too, so I’m not really following your logic here.”
“He took out five orcs in a fight. I saw him do that.” She lifted her chin.
Rhalyf let out a delighted laugh, which had Declan frowning.
“Why are you laughing at her, Neres?” The male Aravae hissed, balling his left hand into a fist and advancing towards Rhalyf. He spat blood at the end of it and his words were a little sloppy. The bitten tongue was still bleeding and painful.
Good.
“Are you sure of what you saw?” Rhalyf asked her.
She frowned. “Yes, I–”
“A fight? A real fight? Not something carefully choreographed and paid for?” Rhalyf suggested.
Understanding started to tug at her small brain. “Are you saying that the fight wasn’t real?”
“Yes.”
“But why would he do that?” The male Aravae pointed at Declan.
“Oh, I’m sure he didn’t set it up,” Rhalyf chuckled.
“But then–”
“ Helgrom ,” Rhalyf lied. “Good old Helgrom! I can’t believe he pulled that trick again. And that it was believed !” He slapped Declan on the shoulder. “I mean one human against five orcs and he had you win ? Goodness! It should have been one orc who was heavily inebriated and that maybe you brained him with something. But five ? Totally unbelievable!” Rhalyf shook his head and tutted. “But, then again, I suppose these two believed it so I guess you can fool some of the people all of the time.”
“What do you mean?” the female Aravae snapped, her cheeks a hectic red of embarrassment. All of the sudden, her proof of Declan’s specialness was crumbling before her eyes.
Rhalyf let out another warm chuckle as he elaborated on the lie, “It’s very hard to keep order in a dwarven tavern at the best of times. Helgrom needs people to fear his bartenders so he occasionally stages fights for them to win. Five orcs though! What a riot! And people still believe it when one orc still hangs out with you, Declan? Well, well, well.”
The female Aravae’s cheeks flushed a darker red and her jaw was now set. She was doubting everything she thought she knew. She felt like a fool and her back was up. So she countered, “But you saw what he did to us ! He can fight!”
“Yes,” Rhalyf yawned.
The two Aravae exchanged looks and then glared at him simultaneously.
“He’s one Vulluin –”
“He’s a very skilled one, to be sure. I would expect no less for a bartender at the Dawn.” Rhalyf polished the nails of his right hand against his tunic. They were calling Declan a Vulluin now without that extra sneer, which meant that they believed he was human. “And the two of you…” Here, he shrugged. “Well, I’m sure that fighting isn’t your regular job.”
The female Aravae lunged towards him, but her male counterpart stuck a hand out in front of her. That was the smartest thing he’d done that night. Rhalyf regarded them both with hooded eyes though he was still smiling.
“We’re trying to warn you about the king’s safety,” the male Aravae ground out, clearly aggrieved. “You’re not taking this seriously.”
“No, I’m not. Because it isn’t serious,” Rhalyf suddenly snapped.
His good humor vanished. He was standing up tall instead of slouching. His eyes burned with anger. The two Aravae actually cowered away from him. Declan fully turned to face him. Quiet and unreadable.
“You have dishonored yourselves and, more importantly, the king with your pathetic attempts to sneak up on a single young man and beat him in the dark,” Rhalyf snarled. “Aquilan doesn’t need your protection . He doesn’t need your concern . He needs people like you to get out of his sight and never step back into it. Do you understand?”
The two were definitely cowering now. His magic flowed out of him in cold waves. They took a few steps back and then they turned on their heels and ran off into the forested area behind the Dawn. Rhalyf waited until he was sure that they weren’t going to double back, not yet anyways, before he let the magic go and turned to face Declan with a rather jaunty smile on his lips.
“That’s handled.” Rhalyf brushed his hands together. “All in a good night’s work. Well, aren’t you going to thank me?”
“For what?” Declan asked flatly.
“They’re certainly not going to darken the Dawn’s door again and, more importantly, they aren’t going to be telling anyone how you are not a Vulluin ,” Rhalyf put extra emphasis on the Katyr word.
Declan stared at him without blinking. “Why did you lie to them?”
“Lie? I don’t recall lying–”
“Helgrom did not set up that fight with the orcs,” Declan stated flatly. “You know this.”
“Do I know this? How can you be sure?” Rhalyf countered. Did the young man not see what a gift he had just given him? “You should hope I believe it.”
“King Aquilan knows that I’m no threat to him,” Declan said quietly. “I have no intention of… going anywhere near him.”
“Except to bring him wine, stare at him longingly, have him–”
“That was a mistake! I…” Declan grimaced.
“You promised to take care of him before you left on this folly of a mission.” Rhalyf narrowed his eyes.
“To bring him wine and food. Like you said earlier. That’s all. I’m a bartender. He’s a king. How often will he come to the Dawn?” Declan almost sounded like he wanted Rhalyf to tell him lies.
“Helgrom is his good friend. I imagine he will come here often,” Rhalyf said truthfully.
And where did that leave him? This young man with the powerful magic was dangerous. But was he dangerous to Aquilan? No. But he could be dangerous to Rhalyf. Yet getting rid of Declan… He remembered the look in Aquilan’s eyes. The affection. The fondness. The tenderness. If Declan met an untimely end Aquilan would not let that go.
What if he just mysteriously disappeared?
Aquilan would not let that go either. So death or disappearance were out. What did that leave?
Maybe I am just getting soft.
“Which means that you need to take better care to keep your– yourself ,” Rhalyf gestured to him generally, “from drawing so much attention. No more orc fights, if you can help it. No more going out into the Sun and collapsing. Don’t you have an Adiva? ”
Declan stared at him as if he had two heads. “What is an Adiva ?”
Rhalyf studied him. Was Declan playing dumb? He honestly seemed not to know. The magical cloak was gone around him too as if it had never been. He nearly touched his own Adiva , the gold and ruby necklace he wore. It kept his glamour firmly in place and protected him from the Sun’s rays.
The more I help him protect himself, the more he will wonder how I know how to do this, Rhalyf thought.
But, at the same time, Declan couldn’t be hiding from sunlight like a vampire–or a Kindreth–forever either. Did he really not know what it was? He’d been young when brought here. Maybe truly young. No full-grown Kindreth would put themselves in greater harm’s way by becoming the child of two humans.
So perhaps he had been placed with them because he actually had been a child when brought here. But what Kindreth parent would do that with their child? If they didn’t want a child, they would kill it. But if they did…
Maybe they had hidden Declan with the humans for a time, intending to retrieve him after finding a new home outside of the Under Dark like he had. There must be a glamour on the young man, though he couldn’t even sense it, which just showed how carefully done it had been. So someone had cared. Someone had wanted to keep Declan safe. But why hadn’t they come back?
For some reason, he thought of Vulre Vultorus then. But the Blood Knight had no children as far as he was aware. Though he had run the Venomthorn. Could Declan be from there? An orphan of the Venomthorn? It was all madness.
Yet what if it was true?
What if Declan had been left here as a child and he had no idea what he really was? Perhaps trauma or a spell had kept him like this. The people who should have come back for him hadn’t because… because they couldn’t. Again, Vulre’s very dead face floated in front of his mind’s eye. And so Declan grew up, thinking he was human until things started to fall apart as he grew older.
That would mean Declan was completely clueless about himself, his powers, and the dangers he posed.
I should really get rid of him regardless of Aquilan pining. A child like this? There’s too much to teach him. And the more I say and do, the worse it will get for me .
But Lament lay dormant on his thigh. His magic remained at a low ebb.
I really am getting soft.
“You do know that the Sun weakens you. It could actually kill you given time, don’t you?” Rhalyf asked carefully.
“How do you know that?” Declan’s nostrils flared not with anger, but with alarm.
“I saw you outside, remember?”
“Yes, but the Sun can’t do that to a human–”
“No, it can’t.”
That sentence just lay between them like a block of ice. Neither of them addressed it.
“You need an Adiva . I assume because you don’t know what that is, that you don’t have one and don’t know how to make one?” Rhalyf asked.
“I–”
But Declan got no further words out. His head had snapped towards the forest in the direction of where the two Aravae had run off. Surely, they had not decided to return so quickly! But Rhalyf didn’t think so. Declan was staring out into the darkness with the intensity of a pointer dog. Rhalyf spun around fully towards the forest. He felt nothing even as he allowed his magical sense to flow outwards. But then he realized that the night insects had stopped singing. The world was silent.
“Do you see him?” Declan whispered.
“Him?” Rhalyf asked, his eyes frantically searching the light and shadowy patches between the trees.
“He has… antlers in his hair,” Declan murmured. “A crown of them.”
Rhalyf opened his lips, about to say that Declan clearly was thinking of the song the Forever Hunt, and had antlers on the brain, but then… then he saw the man too. Just a silhouette of him with a massive antler crown. Just for a moment. Passing between two trees. Gliding. And then he was gone.
Declan started towards the woods, but Rhalyf clamped a hand down on his nearest forearm. Declan’s head snapped towards him.
“ No ,” Rhalyf said.
“There’s someone out there–”
“Not anymore. The insects are singing,” Rhalyf said even as he pulled his magic in so tight against himself that it might have become physical armor if he’d wished it. But the insects were singing. The night had returned to normal. Had it ever been anything else?
“Then why are you still afraid if he is no longer there?” Declan demanded.
Rhalyf dragged his gaze back to Declan. Whatever he was going to say–and what had he been thinking of–was lost as Finley and Snaglak suddenly burst out of the back door.
“Declan! Oh, and you ,” Finley said, his mouth puckering as he noticed Rhalyf. “What’s going on? Lily was worried about you. And I think the king was, too.”
The last was an afterthought. As if Aquilan could ever be an afterthought.
“Let’s go inside,” Declan said, not lying to his best friend, but clearly redirecting him.
“Want me to carry the barrel, Declan? I can carry lots of wine,” Snaglak offered eagerly.
“And you can drink lots of wine, too, can’t you, big guy?” Declan smiled. “I’ve got it. Let’s go in.”
Not that Rhalyf disagreed with that sentiment. The night was fine and beautiful. They were in Tyrael. The war was over. The night insects were singing. But inside the Dawn was infinitely better. Infinitely. He and Finley were the last to go in. His gaze still moving over the woods looking for an antler crown.
Story Continues in Book 2!