10. Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
Valda
T here is a considerable difference between knowing the man who captured you is a werw?lfe and seeing him actually transform. Having stolen a sample of his strength is no comfort when I see how much more he has.
I am using all that strength to row as quickly as I can, and it’s not the mutineers I’m fleeing from.
Eloise sits demurely across from me, clutching her satchel and petting her pigeon. Her face is placid, but her pale complexion gives away her fear. I believe her almost yellow-green eyes are also indicative since I have heard that certain magic allows eye color to change with emotions. Though, now that I think about it, that applies to kin magic, which is exclusive to elves . . .
The girl keeps trying to peer over my shoulders while I work despite my attempts to shield her from the carnage. My vater is the oldest estrie in Constantinium, but he shielded me from the sight of bloodshed until I was of age.
“Oh, good,” Eloise whispers. “He’s not tearing them apart. He got so sick the last time he did that.”
I nearly drop the oars. “ Last time?” Except, I know there was a last time, or else my vater would never have known about Konrad. Somehow, though, I forgot about the description of the corpses when I met Konrad and could not imagine such a mild-mannered mercenary being responsible for the alleged carnage.
It is a little easier to imagine now.
“He wept for a fortnight.” Eloise clicks her tongue and goes back to petting her pigeon, her eyes reverting to the sea green shade they were when I first met her.
“Do you think he’ll . . . come find us?”
The sky darkens with an oncoming storm, giving me relief from the sun. But it also adds to the dread in my gut.
Eloise raises her eyebrow. “I’m his daughter now. He’ll always come find me. Once we get to the island, I’ll lay out an outfit for him to wear, and he’ll come find us when he’s dressed.”
“Is this a habit between you two?” The island isn’t much farther. Being in abject fear did wonders for my rowing speed.
“Not really. He doesn’t shift if he can help it, and he’s shy when he does.”
That’s something else I can use . . .
Rowing gets more difficult as the ground rises and jagged rocks protrude from the waves more and more the closer we approach.
I secure the rows and step out into the water, soaking my skirt to my knees. Eloise climbs out to help me push the boat onto the beach.
Eloise abandons me to pull the boat onto the sand by myself. Thankfully, I’m no longer living, so I don’t feel the burn of my muscles any longer.
“It’s so pretty!”
At Eloise’s excitement, I turn to behold the island we’re more or less marooned on. It’s large enough that I cannot see the ocean directly across from where we’re standing though narrow enough that I see the shore to my left and right .
The beach is large enough for me to lie down vertically without my feet getting wet. And just above it is a conglomeration of trees so tight that the island really could be tiny and I wouldn’t know until passing through this forest. Except, I think I see a hill, so it might not be so small after all.
“We should seek shelter.” Eloise comes to stand beside me, still clutching her satchel with a pigeon on her shoulder.
“You don’t want to wait for your father?”
“I told you— he’s shy.” Eloise takes a step toward the trees before pausing and glancing back at me, her eyes forest green now. “Wait a moment— I know why I care for him. But why do you ? Isn’t he the bad guy in your story?”
“But I like bad guys.” I wink at her.
Eloise just stares at me in confusion.
I clear my throat. “That is, I love my vater , and cannot bear the thought of any little girl being separated from her loving paternal figure.”
“Oh. Well, I definitely do not want to be orphaned again, too.”
With that happy statement, Eloise skips into the tree line.
Picking up my heavy skirts, I follow, clutching Konrad’s coat and saber and doing my best to focus on surviving the moment, not guilt over what is to come.
I have to use that saber to slice my way through quite a few hills as I do my best to follow the nimble little thing. She could be an elfling with how at ease she is, scampering about in nature . . .
I reach out with my blood magic to detect what flows through her veins. She is definitely a child of the kinfolk. How could I have not noticed before?
Likely because I was distracted by her rugged father. Her mother must have been an elf, because he certainly isn’t .
Swallowing hard, I remain where I am for a moment, letting Eloise get far ahead. There are no animals who will attack her, anyway. Not when they sense what I am and are cowering in fear as wild creatures tend to do when facing a greater predator.
Eloise is in no danger from them. But as for me . . .
The least I could do to her is orphan her a second time.
“Over here!” Eloise calls through the dense foliage. “I found a cave!”
I close the distance between us and find her at the base of the hill, happily gesturing to a cave formed within.
“Stay here,” I order, stooping into the cave and sensing if there are sources of blood lurking within.
“What are you doing?” Eloise asks, nearly breaking my concentration.
“Checking for wild animals.” I turn from her to reach deeper into the cave.
“From all the way out here?”
I slowly turn to Eloise and find her watching me over crossed arms. Even the bird on her shoulder looks like it’s judging me.
Forcing a smile I’m sure looks far from pleasant, I gesture for her to remain where she is. Then I duck into the cave to make more of a show of searching.
I detect no life, and then I feel the stone wall of the cave marking its end. Back here is far enough from the entrance that the shadows disguise the wall completely from view.
It’s terribly demeaning, but I have to crawl back out. Eloise might be able to stand upright in the cave, but I cannot. It is long enough for her, Konrad, and me to all be able to lie vertically and horizontally and find a modicum of comfort.
Emerging, I nod. “It’s safe.”
“Of course it is.” Eloise skips inside, and I was right about her not needing to duck. “I wouldn’t lead you to danger.”
I nod sagely. “You’d only lead me into abduction. ”
Eloise startles and then turns to plant her hands on her tiny hips. “It’s nothing personal.”
“Just vengeance,” I agree, my words and tone agreeing with her even though my attitude does not. “That’s never personal.”
Eloise huffs and points at a cluster of bushes just within sight of the cave. “I think I see huckleberries. Thankfully for you, I know which plants are edible and which are not.”
“That sounds like a threat, but be my guest.” I gesture toward the bushes. “Just don’t wander too far.”
“I can wander wherever I please. You aren’t my mother.”
“Just your captive, I know.”
Eloise sticks her tongue out at me. Then she saunters toward the bushes, that pigeon still perched on her shoulder.
I stick my tongue out at her retreating form. Konrad must have the patience of a saint.
Konrad!
Since Eloise is distracted inspecting the deep blue clusters growing in the bushes, I make a dash back toward the beach. Konrad’s coat flows behind me.
Thankfully, the sand strip is not long. It’s not difficult at all to locate the half-naked man lying face down on the shore.
Since he is now in mortal form instead of a wolf, I slide the open saber into the belt of my dress and approach. “Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”
Konrad groans and lifts his face enough to stare blearily at me. Sand sticks to his wet beard. “Valda?”
“Not you as a person, of course, considering you abducted me against my will and placed me in mortal danger, but . . .” I let my gaze trail over the muscles of his broad, exposed back and the tattered remnants of breeches barely covering his upper legs. “But your body is certainly a sight.”
He groans and looks ready to collapse face-first on the sand again. “Eloise . . . ”
“Is picking berries. We found a cave to shelter us for the night.” I glance up, noticing the dark storm clouds gathering above us. “It looks like we’ll need it.” Then I glance toward the outline of the ship. “Will we be followed?” Did you devour them all?
“Only if they are mad fools.” Konrad wearily points at his coat.
I toss it at him and turn my back. “I’ve had men go feral for want of my hand in marriage, but this is the first time a man has become a beast on account of my finger.”
“I told you I would let no harm befall you.”
Without waiting for him to declare himself decent, I turn to find him standing. Wet hair clings to his face along with the sand, and he has his coat pulled tightly over his form. It is open enough at the top, though, to reveal the planes of his sculpted chest.
He must catch me staring, because he pulls his coat tighter around him. Then he turns and strides toward the forest.
I hurry to keep pace with him. “Do you want me to lead the way to Eloise?”
“I can smell her,” he says, his voice so low it’s practically a growl.
“Do I also have a scent, wolfman?” I already know he’s been tracking me village to village, but I want to hear him admit it for some strange reason. Mayhap to hear confirmation that his werw?lfe abilities aren’t contained to his wolf form.
“Yes.” He keeps walking.
And I keep following. From my understanding, Konrad will have to rest before being able to morph again, so I don’t have to fear him transforming from rage. I’m still a bit more nervous than any living thing should make me. “Which is? ”
Groaning, he turns to face me, and I walk into that sculpted chest. Completely on purpose, but he certainly doesn’t need to know that.
Konrad grasps my shoulders and pushes me back a step before releasing me. “You smell like lavender, violets, and bleeding heart.”
So, he only smells the mage’s perfume. How dreadfully boring.
Then Konrad leans closer, hovering just over me. “And something else I can’t quite place. Something incorporeal.” He inhales deeply. “Something not unlike the smell of the storm approaching us now, like you are a threat not yet realized.”
Narrowing his eyes, Konrad steps back. He studies me for a long moment before turning on his heel and continuing his quest.
I follow in silence, not daring to confirm his words. Because I am a threat— the greatest threat he has faced until this point and will ever face again.
In the name of my vengeance and something far older and deeper, I shall be his undoing.