Chapter 9 A Bargain for Truth #2
He leans closer, the light around him seeming to grow and expand until it's almost too searing to look at. "That sort of power is not for a mortal to wield, nymph or not."
I almost snap back at him and demand to know why he believes he has the right to wield it but then bite my tongue, remembering. A god, trapped in a man's body, who can't go home until he's righted his wrong.
In this we have an understanding, but he can't know that or he'll never believe me.
Never believe that I would give it up. My eyes flit from his face, down to the bare muscular skin of his torso, covered in dried blood that I doubt is his own.
The lean muscle in his arms flex and I catch the sight of strange glowing blue patterns, like runes, set in a line along his inner forearms before he crosses them.
"How did you know to look here?"
"An old woman. She gave me a map—before you ask, she wouldn't tell me where she got it."
"And what did you find in the cave?" he asks slowly after taking in a deep breath, moving away to regain that careful composure. The sunlight dims.
Flashes of the siren go through my head.
I flinch at the memory of her cold touch and stinging bite.
"A monster," I whisper, wishing I could hug myself but the chains stop me.
"I found a way through the fall using the berry bushes.
There was a treacherous stone bridge that led down to another cave near a deep lake.
The second cave was empty, though, and then a creature attacked from the water.
She bit my shoulder. I barely escaped. When I heard Solomon and Harlow talking on the other side of the fall, I knew I needed to wait and hide or Harlow would kill me. You know the rest."
"And your friend here?" He gestures towards Rowan who shifts beneath the attention, shrinking slightly.
"I met her when I washed up on the shore and was forced into Blossom House Orphanage. She’s a novitiate of the Sisterhood and felt it her sacred duty to try to keep me from danger when I stupidly told her my plan to come here. She's innocent in all of this."
His face darkens. "No one is innocent." He turns away again and starts for Briggs and Solomon.
"Wait! You said you would heal her."
"Yes." He pauses. "For the truth, and yet you keep lying to me.
Go sit with her until I'm finished dealing with Solomon.
" He doesn't wait for my response, simply continues on his path to the men waiting in the water.
Solomon's fallen forward so that Briggs has to hold him up by the back of his jacket, keeping him from drowning, though the sea spray still hits his face.
I curse and kick at the sand, storming to Rowan who's hovered beneath the canopy, clutching her shoulder and breathing sharply.
"Rowan—"
"Tell me you got it. Tell me this was worth something, at least." From another mouth the whisper might sound hostile, but there's only pure concern on her face.
I glance around, feel the stares of the crew slip over us and away. There's so many of them and now that they've wrecked their ship, what's to be done?
A solemn nod from me has her breathing out a soft breath. She presses back into the crates behind her, still clutching her shoulder.
"And what's your plan now? You said he has the other and the third belongs to the mad queen in Staygia.
You're strong, Vale, but strength can only get you so far.
No one survives her trials—that bloodbath.
" A visible shiver shakes her. "And I don't think he plans on simply handing his over.
" Her eyes flick to Crow still trading words with Briggs.
I follow her gaze and feel the furrow in my brow.
"There are other ways, apart from asking nicely."
She blanches, pale to an almost impossible shade. "A scorn upon the triple goddess' creations is a scorn upon the goddess herself. Violence is the antithesis of the Hush; every soul is tried and deemed sacred in the Great Abyss."
I frown. "Stop quoting the Book of Hush. I've read it, too, and it's bullshit. The Sisters don't even follow their own rules."
Her mouth tumbles open and some color rises to her cheeks. "The Sisters have achieved Enlightenment, they are not bound by the same laws—"
"Of their goddess?" I rise, dusting the sand off my blood speckled pants.
Her cheeks turn redder still. "I won't have this argument again, not here."
"Good," I sigh. "It would be wasted on me. Nothing will change my mind about those vile bitches."
A throat cleared from behind stops my backward shifting not a second before I would have slammed into Crow's bare chest.
"Did I interrupt something?"
"No, but you're just in time to heal Rowan’s shoulder and send her home.
" My eyes flicker to Briggs who now has Solomon thrown over his shoulder in a motionless heap, heading for where the others have regrouped near the base of the rocky hills.
I have to wonder what happened to the esteemed Lord Black.
Shock maybe, from losing for the first time in his life.
There's an impression of Crow's smirk, fleeting, replaced by a subtle darkness. Strangely, the look makes me wonder if the world has ever been kind to him. If happiness has ever been anything more than a ghost on his face.
As if sensing the thought, his expression becomes cold granite.
"Unfortunately, due to your interesting display in the cave, the rear has completely collapsed, rendering it impassible.
With the bastard Black on the loose, who will surely run home to daddy, and the protégé youngest Black brother in the north, we have no choice but to bring you along to meet up with the rest of the crew.
From there we'll sail and eventually return to confirm your claims when there's more time to dig a path through to the waterfall.
If it's not there, you'll be free to go. "
"Sail?" My gaze grates against the burning skyline, where the fire has started to send up embers from the smoldering ships.
He nods wordlessly and starts to move by me. I find the courage to grab his arm but instantly regret it and let go when he turns back. The dark runes carved into his skin begin to glow starkly.
My mouth is bone dry, but I manage to open it, "I told you, I don't know where the crown is. It wasn't there, I swear it."
Those midnight blue eyes churn, storm-like, daunting.
“Understand this, Nymph. I did not save you from Harlow. I took you from him.” His jaw clenches and unclenches, and he brings his hand up to rest on my móeir’s hunting blade, which he seized the moment we climbed astride his dark horse.
“When I felt the anger boiling off of you on those plains, I was of the mind that you intended to end Harlow’s life.
Instead you let him go, and that means I do not have time to sit here and argue about the crown piece.
But rest assured, I know a half-truth when I hear it. You are not telling me everything."
I feel the sneer pull across my face before I can quell it. "So because you don't believe me you're going to, what, take me prisoner?"
His gaze roams over me, contemplative. "You board my ship, willingly or unwillingly, sail the Dread Sea to Staygia, and in the meantime think about what the piece is truly worth to you.
Your life? Your friend's life? Your soul? All three belong to me until I have each piece of the crown in my hand and I’m ascending from this gods forsaken realm.
" He leans an inch closer so that I can see the swirling midnight blue shift like turbulent clouds when he whispers, "Our fates are entwined. For better or worse, you are mine, Nymph.”