22. Ghosts of the Past
Ghosts of the Past
Darien
H elga rattled over the bridge, shaking Darien like a dog in the passenger seat. He could only imagine how much worse it must be for Larissa and Halla in the back. Surely they’d all be black and blue by the time they reached Perle.
Anara’s hand relaxed out the open window, catching beams of sunlight between her fingertips. Sól climbed a steady pace up the sky, infusing warmth into the late morning. Under the bridge, Darien caught sight of the rushing waters.
“This river marks the boundary lines between Safír and Perle,” Anara explained. “The shore we just left is still Safír; that shore up there is Perle. We’ll drive a couple miles down the the river and then stop to eat and bathe.”
“Bathe?” Darien asked.
Anara wrinkled her nose. “Let’s just say I’m done riding with any of you until I can breathe fresh air again.”
Looking down at himself, Darien noted the ash and blood still clinging to his clothes.
Now that Anara had mentioned it, there was a general smell rising from his jacket.
It occurred to him then that Anara had rolled down her window the moment they’d gotten in the truck hours ago.
Darien leaned further away from Anara, but the movement only emphasized how gritty his clothes felt chafing against his skin.
As promised, Anara pulled the truck off the road a few miles past the bridge and parked behind a clump of trees. Darien followed her toward the back of the truck where Larissa and Halla waited on the tailgate. Halla scratched at her clothes, while Larissa stood stiff in her own.
“The riverbank is just through those trees,” Anara said, taking her bag from the bed. “Grab a change of clothes.”
“Oh, thank the gods!” Halla cried. She reached past Larissa, scrambling to grab a bag and rush after Anara.
With Halla’s sudden absence, Darien wasn’t sure where to look.
Larissa was searching through the supplies for her own bag.
Darien could see where Anara had tossed his own, right beside Larissa.
She crouched down as her shifting jacket revealed the gun tucked into her waistband.
Darien had nearly forgotten it, but its presence reminded him of the burning barn and Larissa’s screams of terror.
Shaking off the thoughts, he leaned in; his fingertips grabbed his bag at the same time they brushed Larissa’s calf. She recoiled from his touch, backing further into the truck bed.
“Sorry,” he muttered, snatching his hand and bag out of the truck.
Larissa shook her head. “No, it’s fine.”
Darien’s fingers tapped against his leg as he tried not to let his mind slip back into his memory of the Jóltide Festival or to think of how soft Lovisa’s hair had been tickling the tips of his fingers.
Would she ever allow herself to remember?
Or was it better if she forced herself to forget?
Then she would never remember how he had left her after swearing he wouldn’t.
Larissa hopped down, slamming the tailgate behind her, but her eyes refused to meet his. “We should catch up with the others.”
He nodded, cursing his tongue for its silence.
The trees disappeared a little farther in, and the dirt turned to pebbles beneath their feet at the shore of the Klar?lven River.
Water flowed downstream, not hurriedly or sluggishly, but at its own intentional pace.
A couple hundred yards down, it bubbled over and passed through a collection of large boulders and rocks.
Anara and Halla were pulling clothing from their bags. Darien breathed in the air. It was not the salty smell he associated with home, but it was familiar all the same.
“I remember this,” he said. “We used to come here as children.”
“It’s where I learned to swim,” Larissa murmured.
Darien stared at her, but Larissa had already dropped her glare to the ground, an angry red flush contrasting with the harsh white scar on her cheek.
Halla clapped her hands together. “Lara, you’re remembering more!”
She kicked at a pebble, nonresponsive.
Anara looped her arm through Halla’s, who had opened her mouth again but shut it at Anara’s touch.
“Let’s head over to those boulders for a little bit of privacy.
If you want to sit with me in that truck again, you better get yourself cleaned up, Darien.
Not even your good looks can mask your smell. ”
Anara led the girls away far beyond the shelter of the boulders. Darien worked to stifle the hope still burning within him. Larissa would remember or she wouldn’t. There was nothing he could do. At least, that was what he kept telling himself.
He walked to the water’s edge. Anara had been right about the smell.
He dropped his bag, careful to hold his breath, and stripped off his bloodstained clothes.
His body was smeared with a mixture of dirt, blood, and ash.
A bruise that covered the entire left side of his chest and ribs was beginning to fade from blue to yellow.
The scratches along his arms had scabbed over, some of them already shiny from new skin.
Mentally, he thanked whatever it was that Anara had given him to heal the wounds.
He toed the water with his bare foot, then yanked it from the icy current, debating his actions.
Was it really necessary to jump all the way in?
He sniffed himself again. The answer was an undeniable yes.
Though the sun was still high in the sky, Darien would rather be long done in the river before the sun started its downward descent.
A loud splash and then a sharp squeal echoed over the water, followed by high peals of laughter. Darien grinned, wondering if it had been Larissa or Anara who had thrown Halla in. If she could bear the cold, so could he. He sucked in a breath, then leapt into the water.
It was worse than he thought. Gritting his teeth to keep them from chattering, Darien scrubbed at his body furiously, rubbing off the layers of dirt and blood.
Without mercy, he ducked his head under the water, scratching his fingers through his hair and feeling flakes of blood dissolve.
After several dunks, with his toes going numb, he decided it would have to be good enough.
He dried himself off and, grabbing a new set of clothes from his bag, moved back into the cover of the woods to change.
He could still hear the voices of the others coming from downstream.
Darien sat on the rocky beach, letting the fading sun dry his hair and pulling down the sleeves of the jacket to his fingertips.
He twisted the ring on his hand, feeling the cold stone underneath his fingertips.
Let me show you how it’s done , brother.
Darien did not flinch at the voice in his mind; he welcomed it like the sun on his face. It was not a hallucination, as those had stopped ever since he had remembered who he was. No, this was just a memory, and yet it played out before his eyes like pictures on the page of a book.
F our children stood on the riverside. Aeron, the oldest and tallest, bounced a pebble in his hand. Lovisa was still searching for her own on the ground. Mini-Darien offered her the one in his own hand, while Anara watched from the sidelines.
“Alright, form up,” Anara ordered in a lazy tone.
Aeron toed the water. “Let me show you how it’s done, brother.”
With a flick, Aeron’s pebble flew over the surface of the water, bouncing four times and sinking on its fifth.
Darien went next, his stone sinking on the third skip.
Then Lovisa moved into place. A yellow glow hummed around her finger tips, encasing the smooth white pebble. When she sent it flying, it skipped nine times across the water.
Anara laughed. “A clear winner, again.”
“Only because she used her galdr ,“ Aeron protested.
Lovisa snorted. “I could beat you without galdr and my hands tied behind my back.”
Darien gathered more stones and handed one to Lovisa. His eyes held a challenge. “Best two out of three!”
A eron’s laughter rippled across Darien’s mind as the children slipped from his vision. The shoreline was the same, but Darien knew that even if all of his memories returned, he never would be. Not without Aeron. His hands clenched into fists as his eyes burned behind his closed eyelids.
I’ll find out who killed you, Aeron , he thought. I’ll make Shiko pay; I promise you that .
“You alright? Your face looks weird.”
Darien opened his eyes to find Anara standing over him, blocking the sun. He cleared his throat, forcing his hands to relax. “I happen to like my face, thanks. You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that. What if I hadn’t realized it was you?”
Anara shrugged, but Darien caught the glimpse of a smile as she sat next to him on the rocky bank. “Like you could take me. Larissa and Halla are finishing up; they needed a minute alone.”
The silence lengthened. Darien sighed. “I was remembering Aeron.”
She looked around. “He loved it here; we all did.”
“I’m going to get justice for what happened to him.”
Anara nudged his shoulder. “I’ll help you.”
Darien nudged her back, more grateful than he could put into words. Pulling at the cuffs of his sleeves, he noticed a faint scar on his wrist. With Aagen, he had always assumed the bite mark had come from some small animal when he was a child. Now, he wasn’t so sure. “Anara?”
“Hmm?”
“I remembered something interesting. Something about someone taking a game too seriously.” He raised the wrist at her. “You wouldn’t happen to remember how I got this scar, would you?
Anara’s eyes were wide and innocent, too innocent. “I’m sure I wouldn’t know.”
“I’m pretty sure—“
“Here they come.” Anara stood, brushing the dirt from her pants.
Larissa and Halla walked back toward them, stopping every few feet to pick up pebbles. The sisters examined each one, then discarded it for another. Eventually, they settled on one before joining Darien and Anara. Halla’s small fingers curled around the smooth pale stone in her hand.
“What’s that, kiddo?” Darien gestured at the rock.
Halla shared a look with Larissa. There was a long silence. “It’s a family thing.”
“We’ll need to get back on the road soon,” Anara offered the awkward silence. “We should eat first, though. Halla, will you help me get something out of the truck?”
Darien watched the small girl trail after Anara, her hand still clutched around the stone. He didn’t even notice Larissa’s approach until she spoke.
“It reminds her of our parents.”
“The rock?”
She nodded; her voice tightened. “When Pappa would do the produce runs, he would stop by the seashore and bring her back a pebble. Every time. He called it her own little piece of the outside world.”
He thought again of Aeron. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Larissa shrugged, but tears gathered in her eyes. “If I’m really Lovisa, do I have the right to call it my loss?”
“They were still your parents, just like Aagen is mine. The Norn placed us with them for a reason.”
“The Norn .” Derision coated Larissa’s voice. “If the Norn are so wise and powerful, why did they let this happen?”
Darien was saved from answering by the return of Anara and Halla.
They’d brought back a small box filled with an assortment of canned and fresh produce that they quickly portioned out.
When they all sat down and began to eat, Larissa and Halla both looked at the berries in their laps in silence.
It was all too easy to guess who they were thinking about.
Setting down the food, Larissa turned toward Anara. “I need to know more about the Vienám and how they can protect Halla.”
“I’ll tell you in the truck; you can ride with me.”
“I’m not getting back in the truck until you answer my questions.”
Anara pinched the bridge of her nose, then exhaled through gritted teeth. “At least your stubbornness is intact. Fine, but eat while I talk.” When she spoke, it wasn’t to Larissa, but to Darien. “First thing, Darien, your father is alive.”