Chapter 12
“What do you mean, no?” Anelize blinked at the absolute gall of this man.
He crossed his arms over his chest, regarding her closely.
“It’s exactly as I said. It’s too dangerous, and unlike the rest of us, you have next to no control over your power.
” Anelize shot Adan a glare and he smirked.
Rat. “If it comes down to needing to defend yourself, you’ll not succeed against the king’s men.
It’s a risk I’m not willing to take. There is too much at stake. ”
“You said so yourself, you have no way of getting to the book within that hour. How else do you expect to do it. Moments ago, you asked me to join you in this fight against the king. Now you won’t consider letting me help with this?”
“And what makes you think you can do it?” Adan challenged. “I saw you in that alley backed against the wall like a quivering pup. You could have easily disposed of all of them with a simple wave of your hand and even so, you barely managed to slow them down.”
“I’m sorry for not being as bloodthirsty as you. I’m a healer, it’s all I’ve been trained to be, not a fighter by any means.” she said through gritted teeth.
His smile was a cruel sneer. His tone mocking as he said in challenge, “Funny how your gift does the exact opposite of that, nevit.”
“Adan!” Zara scolded, this time her voice stern. But the damage had already been done.
Anelize spun on her heel and stalked toward the door, leaving the Dobrins to chastise the dolt who looked confused as he watched her storm out of the parlor.
No one stopped her as she slammed the door behind her, stalking down the corridor with her heart in her throat.
A heavy weight starting in her chest, constricting her lungs.
He knew nothing, nothing at all, about the burden being a nevit, of all things, had done to her.
Yet, the words had been said, and they were suddenly all she could think of.
When she was a child, she’d never cared about her gift.
Hadn’t been taught or encouraged to do anything with it other than stifle it entirely, extinguish the flame that constantly burned through her veins.
To this day she can still hear her father’s voice warning her against it.
The first time she’d thought to use it had been when she and Enid had played in the garden behind their shop.
The temperature had been warmer than the usual bone-chilling winds and flurries that had turned Elvir frostbitten.
Anelize was eight, a few days away from adding one more name day to her age, while she tended to the garden, using her shears to cut at the dried leaves that had yet to fall.
Wishing that the herbs she’d planted would sprout so she could show them to her father.
Enid had always stuck close to her skirts at that age, toddling about behind her wherever she went.
It was because of Enid that she noticed a bird with a broken wing laying at the base of their tree.
The poor thing had been in so much pain it continued crying out as she scooped it up between her hands.
It had fallen out of its nest; the bone having snapped in two as blood oozed from its torn flesh.
Enid had started to cry, tugging at her to do something for the creature.
But what could she have done save for put it out of its misery?
What sort of life would it have had if she’d helped it heal? Never using its wings to fly again…
The instinct had come to her naturally. Her blood pulsing to life as it reacted to the tragic suffering before her.
She ushered Enid inside the shop, promising to help the bird before closing the door behind her.
Then she placed it down on the ground, black wings and blood laid out across the snow as she brought the shears to her hand and cut a line down her palm.
It hadn’t taken much to slow its heart as it had already been dying.
Anelize had held her hand over the bird and curled her fingers into a loose fist after she’d found the slow pulsing of its heart.
Saw the quickly fading light of its life.
The crying had stopped. Its wings no longer fluttering about. Its heartbeat no more.
The sound of the door behind her had creaked open and when she looked over her shoulder, she found her father standing in the threshold. Holding Enid in his arms as he watched her, then looked to the bird. The blood on her hand.
“Anelize, what have you done?”
She’d never forgotten the look on his face, even now as so many years had passed. The look of horror and disgust that plagued her whenever she thought of using her gift. As if she had become a stranger to her father. A monster.
It had been the first time she’d truly despised being a Vedran.
Walking past the opened hall that overlooked the rest of the tavern below, she continued down the hall until she spotted the door to the room where she’d slept in.
If Zara and Henry wanted her out, then so be it, but for now she needed to be alone where she could drown in her worries and sorrows of the last few days.
She barely managed to open the door before a hand landed on it, easing it closed. Warmth enveloped her back even as he didn’t touch her, but she knew who was standing behind her.
The Vedran clicked his tongue, the sound making her tense as he murmured, “That temper will get you into trouble, you know. As much as I admire you for going toe-to-toe with Adan, you really should learn when to pick your battles.”
Anelize threw her elbow back as hard as she could, ramming it into his side where she knew his stitches were still healing, unless he got an avit to get rid of them.
She smiled with satisfaction that her hunch had been correct as he released a grunt of pain, dropping his hand from the door as he took a step back.
Turning around, she spotted him hunched lower, his hand on his abdomen and his face twisted in pain.
“That was a low blow, don’t you think?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Not nearly low enough.” She leaned against the door. “If I’d known you were a filthy Watchman, I would have left you out to die that night.”
“You flatter me. That’s what? The second time you’ve gotten a hit in?
” He lifted a hand as if imploring that she’d grant him a moment to compose himself before she decided to attack him again.
When he finally managed to stand to his full height once more, he released a breath.
The Vedran raised his hands in defeat. “All right. Let’s start over, shall we? ”
She crossed her arms, glaring down her nose at him. “What do you want?”
“For starters, how about your name?” At her silence he laughed, the sound rich and deep, “Very well, can’t blame me for trying.”
“You have the gall to make jests with me. After everything?”
He leaned a shoulder against the wall, staring her down, “Believe me, I am anything but amused by the circumstances of our little...reunion. Unfortunately, there is not much I can do to rectify the situation now. What I can say is that I will ensure Wellyn and your sister remain together.”
“What an enormous comfort,” Anelize laughed bitterly, “that should excuse the torment and fear you and your Watchmen have instilled into countless others.”
The Vedran arched a brow in challenge, “Perhaps none of this would have happened if you had remained home like a good little apothecary. Trouble finds those who seek it out, after all. Did you stop to consider that?”
Her blood seared through her veins as she held up a finger, “Do not condescend to me. You are the last person who has a right to say such a thing when it was you we found in that alley moments away from meeting death. You look down your nose at me with self-righteousness, regardless of the suffering your men have brought onto others. Onto my sister…yet you expect me to be anything other than rage personified?”
His face became difficult to read, the deep blue of his eyes appearing to grow darker as he stared at her. As if gauging how to approach a feral beast that was moments away from ripping him to shreds.
Then he said, so calmly that it grated on her already fraying nerves further. “You are in your right to feel however you wish. I am not here to try to endear myself to you. The reason I am here, however, is to propose a bargain.”
Anelize scoffed. “You’ve truly gone mad if you think I’d strike a bargain with you.”
“Hear me out. I’m not foolish enough to wonder why you’re so eager to go to Castle Rime.
I’d have done the same if I were in your shoes.
But I wasn’t lying to you when I said it would be dangerous.
There are more than just Watchmen to worry about in there.
With your particularly limited skillset—ah, let me finish.
” He held out a hand before she could speak.
“I can’t take on the chance of risking your life as well as the men who are following me down this path.
The Dobrins, Castian, the children left orphaned on the streets, the countless Vedrans lying in hiding in the most horrid places you can imagine.
All of them depend on this working. There is too much at stake. However…”
She waited, the silence stretching between them maddening, until he said, “Learn to control your gift, train with Henry and Zara. They will teach you all they can. If I could bring you a nevit to teach you I would, but there are none. The Senin is in four weeks. Give yourself time to relearn what you’ve lost, and me to plan everything.
Do this, and then maybe I can find a way to slip you inside. ”
If the cost of being able to find Enid comes at the risk of losing herself to the wicked curse of her power, then so be it. She would do anything to have the chance to hold her in her arms again where she will be safe.
Decided, she gave him a curt nod. “Fine.”
The Vedran smiled. “Good. We have ourselves a bargain then. I’ll see you soon, Temperance.”
As he turned to walk away, she said, “That’s not my name, and you know it.”
“Isn’t it? I think it a rather fitting contradiction. Seeing as you hadn’t given me a name before, I had to improvise. Unless you wish to grant me the honor now?” He arched a dark brow in both question and challenge.
A cold smile crept over her lips. “You must have heard it plenty of times from the others by now.”
“Call me a glutton. I like being given what I most crave, not taking that which isn’t granted to me freely.”
“What’s your name then?” she retorted much like a petulant child would. Whatever game it was they were playing now, she was clearly on the losing end of it.
“Been wondering that for a while then, have you?”
“Ass.”
He chuckled. “Aeric Maren. Your turn.”
She was silent for a long moment, repeating his name to herself. A slow lingering song that echoed and took form within her mind. She made him wait before she spoke again, her pride ever present when it comes to him apparently. Then she finally said, “Anelize Yarrow.”
“So it is.” Aeric hummed to himself as he turned to walk away, back down the hall. Before she could spew an insult at him for wasting her time for his own sense of entertainment, he called over his shoulder, “I think I prefer Temperance better.”
Sleep had not come for her as easily as she would have liked. After missing two days and all that she’d come to find out about the rebels, she found she wasn’t tired at all.
Henry and Zara eventually came to wish her good night, the former feeding more logs to the fire for her.
It seemed as though both him and Zara had been told that she’d agreed to train with them for they had each pulled her into an embrace before slipping out of the room with the promise to see her tomorrow.
Anelize took to pacing the length of the room in her thoughts.
Wandering every now and then to the window to watch the patrols stalking up and down the streets.
Dozens of torches illuminating the city beyond as far as she could see.
Confirming that Aeric hadn’t been lying to her about stirring up trouble in the port.
Her pacing lasted until her bones started to ache and a shiver ran down her spine.
She slowly made her way to the hearth, sinking onto the floor to welcome the warmth emanating from the floor.
She stared into the dancing flames until her eyes burned from exhaustion as the logs cracked amidst the stifling heat.
Thoughts of Enid spinning around in her mind like twine. There was no stopping them.
Eventually, she turned toward the bed and sank onto the soft covers, tucking her legs close to her chest as sleep forced her to finally close her eyes.
Still, she couldn’t stop thinking about Enid.
Had she been locked away in a dungeon with the others?
Or was she kept separated, forced to endure horrors of her own?
Had she eaten or been given something to stay warm?
Her wandering thoughts left her laying there until all sorts of images haunted her, making her sick to her stomach and her head to pound.
It was only when she thought of her standing in the shop, promising to be there when she would return, that the tears had come.
Pressing her face into the soft pillow, they spilled down the sides of her face.
Crying for Enid, for Wellyn, and even for herself.
The tears did not stop even as she succumbed to a dreamless sleep.