CHAPTER 27 #2
I know her well enough to know that she would have already gone to Niya if she felt the fea could be swayed. But I am no fea, and if the naiad will not see reason, I am fairly certain that death will render the bargain void.
I’m not entirely shocked when Awri announces she will be sleeping in the general’s room with me until he returns.
It feels a little presumptuous to stay in his large suite, but the male had moved all my clothes here without even asking.
He more than doubled the guard in the hall before his departure, and there are at least fifteen soldiers patrolling the grounds outside his windows.
I haven’t had the stomach to show Awri and Riah my new daggers.
It feels a little like bragging, and a little like I am admitting that he and I have become something more.
So, I keep them sheathed and fold my leathers into a neat pile, pushing them to the far side of my nightstand where they are not easily within reach.
Despite the sparring, my mind can’t seem to let go of the bloody image of the woman I scarred long ago.
We settle in for the night and only briefly do I debate lying awake until morning, before I am pulled into the dark abyss of my dreams.
Awri is in the bath when I’m stirred awake by a bony finger in the side the next morning. I don’t have to open my eyes to know it’s Eon. The breathy whispers of the sisters flit across my ears and Tig would never jar me awake in such a rude fashion.
I’m thrilled when I find that they have brought the male with them. He introduces himself as Rej, and thanks me profusely for bringing him to the mate he sought. The male doesn’t know a single word of the human tongue, but Tig seems happy to take up the task of translating what I do not understand.
The water shuts off in the washroom before I’ve been able to ask the male any of the long list of questions I have for him. Before the sisters can disappear, I snag hold of Tig’s wrist.
“Can you meet me in the forest in half an hour?”
The sprite nods, a quizzical look on her face.
“Thank you,” I whisper, releasing the fea just as Awri bursts through the door.
I glance up and offer her a quick smile, the sisters vanishing with the male through an open window.
I slide into my leathers, tying a deep crimson gown below my hip, and pull two thin cloaks from the closet, handing one to my friend.
“We are going for a ride,” I announce.
“We’re supposed to meet with Riah,” she says with a dip in her brow.
“She can come.”
It doesn’t take me long to convince Riah to saddle a horse of her own, Awri on the other hand eyes me suspiciously as I throw my leg over my mare.
The less I explain, the better. All I really need is a quick word with the sisters, but they don’t seem keen on showing themselves to my friends.
As I’m never alone anymore, something needs to be done.
I stop at the edge of the forest and Awri is still staring at me with a pensive tilt to her head.
“I need a moment alone,” I announce, dismounting and tying the mare to a nearby birch.
“Absolutely not,” Awri says sternly, “Xey will kill me if I let anything happen to you.”
“Nothing is going to happen to me,” I argue, “The La’tari are most certainly not hiding in a forest filled with deadly fea.”
Awri throws her feet to the ground and stomps toward me as she says, “Under no circumstances are you going into that forest alone.”
I look to Riah for support, but the female is looking at the sky like it’s the most interesting thing she’s ever seen, clearly uninterested in picking a side.
“I am going into the forest alone,” I point to the trees, “And you can either stand here and wait for me or drag me back to the palace and put me under house arrest.”
I know I shouldn’t have said it when she looks at me like it’s the better of the two options, so I add, “In which case I will make my way back here the first moment you aren’t looking and then you won’t be standing twenty feet away if the land itself decides to devour me.”
She clenches her jaw, crossing her arms over her chest, refusing to meet my eyes.
I take it as a tense sort of approval, or as close as I’ll get, and walk into the forest, alone.
I’ve made it less than twenty feet through the dense brush when something grabs my arm, and I suppress a scream.
I look down to see Tig’s hand sticking out from inside a colorful bush.
The sprite is clearly pleased she has startled me. Ignoring her gloating smile, I tell her about the naiad, about the general’s gift, and that he’d given up a portion to save my life. She asks for the fea’s name, and when I tell her, I can see by the look on her face that they are familiar.
“My friend says that Niya could give the gift back if she chose. Do you know what she might accept in trade?” I ask.
The simple question is my sole purpose in meeting the sprite today. She will tell me, and I will provide it, whatever it is.
“No trade,” she says simply, “We go.”
She starts pulling me deeper into the forest and I dig my heels into the dirt. The sprite points north, the frustration she feels evident on her face.
“I can’t leave the others,” I explain, “What do you mean no trade?”
“Sa Tha’haynah,” she says, tugging my arm. Take the old blood.
“You can’t take me there now. I’ll meet you there before midday. I’ll try to come alone, but the others may be nearby—”
“Shivaria!” Awri yells.
“I’m coming!” I yell over my shoulder and when I turn back, Tig is gone.
Awri is practically seething when I emerge from the brush and what I have to say to her is nearly stuck in my throat.
“Don’t get too upset,” I begin, “you’ll need a little of that when I tell you where we’re going.”
“We are going back to the palace,” Awri says forcefully while Riah picks at the dirt under her nails.
“We are going to see Niya,” I correct.
“There is no veil in Terr in which I will allow you anywhere near that naiad again. Xey may have bargained for your life but a fea can still hold a grudge and you stabbed her, Shivaria.”
“You stabbed her?!” Riah shouts.
“Thank you for joining the conversation,” I quip. “Yes, I stabbed her, because she was trying to drown me.”
“I’d listen to Awri,” Riah says, eyes wide, “Naiads are nasty business when they’re angry.”
“So am I,” I reply, swinging up into my saddle. “I’m going with or without you, but either way I’m not coming back until she restores the general’s gift.”
We ride in silence, Riah’s hand loose at her side where I imagine she would have normally worn a sword, if I’d given her proper warning as to what the day would entail.
Awri won’t meet my eyes, and I don’t blame her.
I have abused the trust she placed in me, using it to get what I wanted without including her in the decision.
I’m a hisht friend, and the sooner she realizes it the better.
I recognize the old camp where we stopped for lunch the day I ran after the boar. The river is just up ahead, and I need to go alone to be sure of Tig’s help.
“Wait here,” I say. Only to stop my mount five paces into the brush when Awri and Riah follow after me. I open my mouth to protest and Awri cuts me off.
“Since you refuse to have a civil conversation, I won’t bother explaining why I refuse to simply let you wander off into Niya’s territory, again.”
I open my mouth to argue with the female when I hear the sprites. It’s not the musical laughter I’m accustomed to, this is a chilling guttural fury, the likes of which I’ve never witnessed from the sisters.
My head whips toward the sound and I click my tongue until my mare is flying through the forest and I’m dodging low hanging branches to stay astride. I jump off my mount before the beast comes to a full stop, prepared to defend the sprites from the naiad, or anything else they’ve come upon.
The sisters don’t break from their aggression when Riah and Awri burst into the clearing behind me.
I’m shocked to find Tig straddling a lovely fea with long, billowing sea moss hair.
Her green eyes glint like brilliant emeralds in the sunlight breaking through the thick canopy above.
Her lip quivers as Eon tugs at her hair, teeth bared in a ferocious snarl.
“Tha’haynah vathai,” Tig says angrily, pointing to me.
The strange fea wails mournfully reaching a hand toward me in pleading.
“Stars,” Awri gasps, “Niya.”
Niya? Certainly not the version I met in the river.
“Meh’a!” the naiad yells, “Meh’a!”
Tig seems pleased with the fea’s reply, though the language is not of the sprites and the meaning of her words is lost to me.
Tig lifts her weight off the poor creature, as Eon releases her hair.
Shuffling toward me on her knees, the naiad reaches her hand up in supplication when she finds herself at my feet.
“Forgive me,” the fea says softly, a weak tremor in her voice, “I did not know.”
I don’t bother asking what she is talking about. I’ve come for one reason and won’t risk losing the submission the sisters have childishly tortured into her.
“What will you take in exchange for Xeyvian’s gift?” I ask flatly.
Tig begins to argue in her windy sprite tongue. She doesn’t want me giving her a thing, but I trust what Awri said about the fea and I can’t bring myself to force the creature if I can give her something in exchange.
“My spring was dying,” Niya says, “I needed the strength of his gift to make it strong again.”
“What if I find you another spring?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “This spring feeds life into the forest, it guards the borders of our lands and all the fea who reside within. I cannot abandon it, Tha’haynah.”
“There must be another way,” I insist.
“I—” she hesitates. “I can feel that which you’ve already given in part. A piece of the binding. Grant me a small piece as well, that is what I will exchange for the gift you seek.”
“Done.”
Just as it was years before, I don’t have to think about it. I’ve already made the bargain once and it hadn’t done a thing to me. Whatever these fea strip from me, it is a phantom. Nothing I’ve ever known.
The naiad offers me her hand and when I take it, darkness blooms between our palms, pulling at the light in the small clearing.
It grows, twisting into a vortex that draws winds from afar and darkens the sky.
And then, nothing. Nothing but the familiar feeling of the demon inside me. Only it’s more, and it feels like home.
“How do I return it to him?” I ask.
“The gift is bound to the life it was born into,” she answers, “and it will always seek to reunite with the one to whom it belongs. A simple touch will free the gift, that is all that is required.”
“Thank you,” I say, and her eyebrows raise in surprise.
“Anything for tha’haynah vathai,” she says, “If you need me, you know where to find me.”
My blood runs cold when the title slips past her lips, and my stomach twists itself into a knot. It takes everything I have not to ask what she means. But I can’t. Not here. Not in the presence of the females who refuse to leave my side and who will surely report back to the general.
The sprites are gone when I rise to my feet. Awri and Riah look a little like they’ve seen the silly fairy horse in the children’s books with the magical horn. The naiad slinks back into the river as I mount my horse and turn for the palace, my companions following quickly after me.
“I take it we can all agree to keep this to ourselves?” I ask, utterly aware that there is no veil in Terr in which Awri will not tell the general the moment he returns.
I’m not sure why I care or even bother asking. Perhaps in part because I still feel protective of the sisters, and I never meant for them to reveal themselves to my companions.
“I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not entirely sure what just happened,” Riah chuckles. “What was it that she called you? Thay nah vaiti?”
“Tha’haynah vathai,” I correct.
“What does it mean?” she asks.
“I don’t know,” I lie.
I wish I didn’t. I will need to ask Tig what she meant by it, but I don’t care to speculate.
Tha’haynah vathai. The old blood of the fea.