Chapter 68
Dae
Two days of travel, hitching rides in the backs of wagons, and prowling in my shifted form at night brought me quickly to Basemount. The small town at the base of the southernmost mountain range separating the land from the sea was only occupied by a couple hundred villagers.
Moonlight bathed mud and straw rooftops in blue, and oil lamps in windows hinted at who might be awake.
If I had arrived during the day, I would’ve had to wait until the cover of night regardless to seek out my brothers—if they were still here.
In my shifted form, my sense of smell heightened to levels more proficient for tracking than human eyesight.
Wild forest surrounded the village, but I’d already spent a couple hours searching to no avail. The only scents there led me to a group of teenagers drinking stolen ale around a campfire and dry humping each other. My brothers, luckily, were not among them.
Though, I supposed they were older than the last time I’d seen them. Matured into men some time ago. How many years had it been? Three? Four? My heart splintered at the lost time.
A trickling stream weaved through the rolling hills, and I hid myself as best I could, creeping along the tall marsh grasses and reeds.
Several families remained awake, some baking bread at the late hour, others roasting meat.
The aromas bled from their chimneys, but when I ventured closer to their homes, I sensed how many were inside, whether they were sleeping or awake.
No sign of my brothers. A large bird shadowed against the night sky, a hard distraction to adjust to. Life had been essentially non-existent up north, and the scurrying squirrels and rabbits in the woods gave me more things to be mindful of.
A dozen houses lay before me, stretched over the prairie land. Hope dwindled like the staunch of blood flow from a clotting wound. Without Delia, I wouldn’t know the group’s most likely next move, where they’d go after Basemount. That was, if The Order hadn’t finally caught up with them.
If my search tonight ended fruitlessly, I would need to question the villagers in the morning. A caravan rolling in and out of their tiny village at the edge of the kingdom would certainly be the biggest gossip for weeks.
With primed focus, I continued stalking the stream, winding my way to the last houses. With each one revealing no more than three sleeping occupants, I was brought closer to the reality I’d been fighting not to face.
Then a familiar scent drifted on the breeze. My feline nostrils flared. The beat of my heart became frantic when the scent strengthened with every prowling step.
Stealth was abandoned for speed. My lethal paws slammed into the ground as I raced across the plain to the property I knew contained my brothers.
They weren’t in the house, but I tracked them to the rickety shed that sat at the back of the property. Their scents were here, tangled among several others.
I shifted, standing on two legs, barely able to breathe. There was no padlock, allowing me to pry open the door. In the darkness, I beheld nothing but tools lining the shadow cloaked walls.
It couldn’t be true. I’d detected several people. Even if they had been here earlier, I wouldn’t have picked up their scents that strongly.
My gaze drifted to the hay bale randomly stowed in the small space. Why keep a bale here when they’re usually kept with the livestock? I picked up the bale by the string keeping it together and set it outside.
On the floor, barely visible in the night, a metal handle refracted the sliver of light from the sky.
I crouched, reaching out, praying all the while.
My grip was gentle, like this moment was something breakable and I wouldn’t take the chance.
The wood groaned and creaked, but the slat lifted, revealing a dimly lit set of stairs.
A cellar. A burrow in the ground, like a fox’s den. My mind was a flurry of hope and fear, but I stepped in and closed the doors behind me. I descended silently toward the future I never dreamed I’d have, and I found my knees growing weary, hesitant.
Shuffling sounds echoed off the stone lined walls.
I held my hands up in supplication as I stepped into view.
Several bodies lay on thin rugs on the dirt floor, a few others standing with weapons aimed in my direction.
Torchlight danced in the underground hole, a few hung on the walls.
I scanned the faces until landing on one that had the back of my eyes burning with emotion.
Jai stood there, poised with an axe aimed at me. His cheeks had thinned, a mature version of the teenage boy I’d last seen years ago with a face our mother had loved to pinch. Scruffy facial hair painted him as a man, and I saw a glimpse of our father in the cut of his jaw.
His brow furrowed beneath the mop of dark curls, like he questioned if his eyes were playing tricks. He still held a whisper of youth in his appearance, especially with the silver hoops in each nostril, entering his twenties by now.
“Jai.” My lungs crumpled like bunched up paper, stealing any other words I might have thought to say.
He simply used his foot to kick the sleeping body at his feet. Kaval turned, one sleepy eye annoyingly assessing his assaulter. Jai didn’t look down, so Kaval followed his line of sight. He shot up, blinking fiercely to clear his vision. “Dae?” he whispered.
Kaval hadn’t lost the softness in his face, the spitting image of our mother. His dark hair even held the same curls she had, a few of them wayward from sleep. Seven years older than Jai and only a couple behind me, my heart swelled to see how he'd taken care of raising our youngest brother.
“Hi,” was all I could manage to say, emotion clogging my throat. Kaval sprung up, laughing from joyous disbelief. He bound me in a firm hug, which I gladly returned. Over Kaval’s shoulder, Jai slowly lowered the weapon, though the crease between his eyes didn’t slip.
“I was starting to think we’d never see you again,” Kaval said.
“Starting?” I quipped. I’d let that hope dwindle long ago.
“Ah, well, you know I’d never fully lose hope for you, brother.” He smacked my back with the classic firmness of a man, then pulled back to assess me. “The longer hair looks good on you. You never used to let it grow past your ears.”
“Yeah, well, access to a decent barber has been limited.” I cupped his face. “Gods, you look like mother.”
He snickered. “What every adult man wants to hear.”
I clapped a hand on his arm, dragging my gaze to Jai who now stood, arms crossed, in the same spot. “You’re looking good, too, brother.” I swallowed against the knot in my throat for missing his developmental years into adulthood.
“You look like shit,” he said, coldly.
“Jai, could you ease up for like ten seconds maybe for the brother we owe everything to?” Kaval asked in an exhausted manner, rubbing his temple.
“Feisty as ever, I see.” Of all us boys, Jai had always been the outgoing, loud, raucous one.
Kaval had been friendly, sweet, and patient.
Mother used to joke that I left all my energy behind in the womb, since I’d often been considered quiet and reserved, and Kaval had been too polite to take much, leaving it all for Jai.
“Yeah, thanks for everything,” Jai sarcastically replied while glancing around the underground quarters.
“I’m happy you got the messages. I couldn’t have done it without Delia’s help. She let me know of your coded language and network,” I told Kaval.
A boy no older than sixteen sat up. “My mother? Where is she? Is she with you?”
The resemblance was striking. Same eye color, hair color. Even the shape of his nose was a replica of hers. “I wish she was, but before I left, I helped her escape. It will probably take more than another week for her to make it this far by foot.”
Kaval slapped my back. “Not everyone can run with the speed of lightning, eh brother?”
“Why did it take you so long to leave?” Jai interrupted, no falter in his challenge. Seemed like my answer would determine how heated he was about to become. Within minutes we might end up throwing punches.
“It was better I stayed there to monitor their movements, otherwise we wouldn’t have had the upper hand. I was able to throw them off your trail a couple times after I first arrived, then Delia and I worked together to keep you informed of their searches.”
“Don’t you think we would have had a better chance if you were here to fight with us?” Clearly this had been something Jai stewed over for a long time.
“No, I don’t, Jai. I’ve seen what they’re capable of firsthand.
It’s…terrifying. None of us stand a chance.
Even members outside of The Eleven are magically juiced.
I’ve seen strong, well-trained men and women fall within seconds to the dark power they wield.
Cut down like they were no more a threat than an injured bird.
The best thing I could have done for you was stay away. ”
His chest rose and fell rapidly as he grappled with the truth, but I could see what lay behind it. I cautiously stepped closer.
His jaw ticked, but I moved again, until finally I wrapped my arms around him. He didn’t have to reciprocate, but I needed my brother to know that all of it truly was for him, because I loved him deeply.
I found myself unable to let go, my hold on him only growing stronger the longer I remained.
Seconds ticked by, probably awkward for everyone watching, but I couldn’t care.
Too many nights I’d woken from nightmares where I’d lost them, too many days I’d accepted my inevitable death for my betrayal against The Order, leaving them to fend for themselves.
Years of lost hope and sadness convinced me this moment would never exist. So I would embrace my brothers, angered and resentful or not.