30. Books and Weapons
Books and Weapons
Anara
By the time the sun shone on Anara’s wings, they’d entered the heart of Smaragd territory. The city of Treheim was only a few miles away. For a people whose ancestral galdr was the ability to heal, their decision to side with Shiko had harmed so many.
Anara swerved in the sky, directing Larissa to hide Helga in the close-knit trees on the side of the road. She dove through the branches and landed with a muffled thump in the back of the truck bed just as Helga came to a stop.
Though Kai jumped at her appearance, Halla smiled. “Anara! Finally, someone I can actually talk to.”
Halla’s words were clearly pointed at the dark-haired boy who refused to look her way.
Kai threw his hands in the air. “I don’t even know what you’re mad about!”
“Ugh, boys!” Halla leaned back against Helga’s side, not bothering to respond further.
Interesting , Anara thought. She huddled next to Halla and grabbed the blanket that covered the smaller girl’s legs. “Scoot over; it’s freezing up there.”
Halla scooted and covered them both.
“Everything alright back here?” Anara asked.
“Fine,” Halla answered shortly.
The tailgate of the truck shuddered open as Larissa unlatched the lock.
Following her heightened sense of smell, Anara kicked the large black jug filled with gas toward Darien as he walked into sight.
“Might as well fill her up for the return journey. We’re only a few miles out from the city.
Any closer and we’re asking for someone to notice us.
If all goes well, I’ll be back before sundown.
Unless Larissa came up with a better plan? ”
The look on Larissa’s face was enough of an answer. With a deep yawn, Darien snatched up the jug, walking around to Helga’s side.
“We just what? Wait here and hope no one spots us?” Fear and exhaustion made Larissa’s voice harsh. Anara had heard her use the same tone with Halla more than once.
“Pretty much, and if someone does spot you, you hightail it out of here as if you were the moon that Fenrir was chasing.” Anara’s lips twitched, then stilled at the way Halla’s body stiffened beside her.
With her head tilted down, Anara caught the silvery scar peeking out from beneath Halla’s hair that Fenris had branded her with.
“Oh, Halla, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. ”
“It’s okay.” But as Halla pulled her knees into her chest, Anara cursed her sharp tongue that often spoke thoughts better left unsaid.
Though Kai looked as though he wanted to say something, the boy did manage to hold his tongue.
Having finished fueling Helga, Darien laid an arm on Anara’s shoulder. “One addendum to your plan. If you’re not back by sundown, we’re coming in after you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If I don’t make it out, there’s no way you’re making it in.”
Darien shrugged. “You searched for us for decades. We wouldn’t be here without you. It’s a risk we’d be willing to take.”
Anara shook her head in exasperation that was only partly real. “Guess I better make it back before sundown for your sake then.”
Feathers sprouted from her pores as her body shrank.
With a final caw, Anara shimmied off the blanket and winged over the treetops.
Flying had always proven an excellent distraction from the realities of life, but as Helga shrank and then disappeared from her view altogether, Anara’s disquiet grew.
She would be quick, she promised herself.
It wasn’t like the last time she’d been separated from Larissa and Darien.
They would still be there when she returned.
But Anara’s wings burned as she flapped harder, determined to make it back before sundown.
Anara drifted toward the luminous city, overgrown with trees that refused to be tamed by the Empress’ mandated walls.
Even Treheim’s Outer Wall was harder to make out from the air with the abundance of flora growing on the streets and on rooftops.
Smaragd had clearly flourished under the Empress’ reign, its people’s pacifism granting them security at the cost of their freedom.
A draft of wind carried Anara closer to the city.
Like Lystheim in Perle, Treheim was built of three levels, progressively getting larger the further they stretched from the center. Unlike Lystheim, which was built on a hill, Treheim was entirely flat and consumed in green.
Anara flapped her wings, fighting the exhaustion that had always seemed to plague her whenever she visited Treheim.
She wondered if it was her own aversion to Smaragd that made her so eager to leave, but even as a child, she’d been uncomfortable in visiting the Myrkvier Forest and the kingdom within.
There was something about the forest that dulled her senses, making her feel off-balanced.
She ruffled her feathers, attempting to dislodge the fog settling in her mind.
By the time she reached the palace in the innermost circle, Anara’s wings burned with the effort, but she could hardly afford to rest then. She circled around, stopping on balconies to stare into windows, until she found what she was looking for.
Princess Kiah, or Regent Kiah now, sat in her office with her back toward her open window.
Anara didn’t need to see her face to know it was her.
She resisted the urge to fly in and peck at the woman’s perfectly styled curls.
Not hard enough to do severe damage, of course, but enough to bring her discomfort for several days.
Darien’s words stopped her. She was there to make friends, not enemies. If ravens could sigh, she would have.
She wondered if it might be better to skip Kiah entirely and search instead for the library she’d once heard about from a Smaragdian refugee.
Perhaps it would hold clues to the Norn’s location.
Anara hadn’t mentioned her backup plan to the others, knowing the Norn had told Larissa to seek out Kiah first.
Ugh, gods . Resistance flooded her thoughts.
With one hand, Kiah rifled through papers on her desk; with the other, she scratched under the chin of the large skogkatt lounging in her lap.
The forest cats were bountiful in Smaragd; just another reason Anara hated to visit.
Due to their larger-than-normal size, skogkatts deluded themselves into a false sense of ferocity which had left Anara on the wrong end of many pouncing incidents as a young child.
Anara landed on the balcony and tucked in her wings, letting out a warning caw as the skogkatt in Kiah’s lap leapt up to the desk to stare at the bird.
Though there was no one else in the spacious room, Kiah’s shoulders stiffened.
Anara swooped from the balcony, through the window frame and landed in her human form before Kiah, her feet muted on the thick carpets.
The skogkatt hissed, laying its ears flat against its head. Anara hissed back.
Kiah rose from her desk in equal measures of alarm and peace as her eyes widened.
Her fingers soothed the skogkatt as they ran down the cat’s spine.
Anara’s irritation increased at the sight of the woman’s obvious health.
Kiah’s vivid green dress complimented her bare, dark arms and shoulders.
The emerald ring on her finger sparkled with her slow movements, a reminder of the power of the gods that lay within her blood.
Her face, though aged beyond Anara’s with lines that creased her eyes, still held the youth associated with the frequent use of galdr .
Yet even with that power, she’d still chosen to roll over and play lapdog to the deranged Empress.
Anara ground her teeth, but the knowing look in Kiah’s eyes told Anara she wasn’t hiding her dislike nearly as much as she thought she was.
“Anara,” she said, her tone conversational, as though they were old friends speaking over tea. “What are you doing here?”
“Not surprised to see me alive?”
Kiah’s lips twitched. “There were rumors. Besides, you’ve always been a survivor.”
“No thanks to you.” The words cracked over her tongue before Anara could stop them.
“Have a seat.” Kiah gestured to the chair across from her as she sat back down, laying her palms flat on the desk before her.
Even her nails were manicured. Anara nearly growled at the sight of such luxury and peace.
How many deaths could have been prevented if Smaragd had held their ground?
But no, Anara’s nails had been bathed in blood while Kiah had sat atop her tower.
“Why are you here?” Kiah asked again, an edge of steel now laced into her words. “I hardly think you need me to remind you what would happen if any of the sentries caught you here.”
Anara snorted. “A mess for you to clean up while I fly away free.”
Kiah raised an eyebrow, unamused. “What’s to stop me from calling my own guards?”
“Spare me the empty threats. We both know if you did that, I’d still get away, and you’d bring Shiko’s attention to your city. How many of your people would become collateral damage as she searched for my whereabouts?”
Anara breathed in as Kiah’s lips tightened; her ears tingled as they sharpened into points, and tufts of fur erupted along the edges.
Kiah wasn’t stupid enough to reveal Anara, but that didn’t mean Anara wanted any unwelcome surprises either.
Anara turned slightly as the curtains on the far end of the room rustled in the wind.
She breathed deep, smelling something floral and woodsy, but it was all overwhelmed by the incense that burned on Kiah’s desk. They were alone.
“What do you want?” Kiah asked.
“I need you to tell me where I can find the Norn.”
Kiah’s fingers tapped the desk. “Never took you as one to rely on the gods, Anara.”
“I’m not,” she admitted easily enough.
“Then why?”
“Does it matter?”
“Not particularly.” Kiah shrugged. “I never could understand you, even when you were a girl. So much violence with Rubinians. I’m not surprised where it led your people.”