Chapter 4 #4
‘You’re going to have to stop doing that too,’ I tell her as we walk on. ‘The humans here don’t keep their eyes lowered. It marks you as…different.’
She snorts softly but then stops short as a small group of men who are probably walking to the tavern pass us. They ignore me mostly, though one of them nods in greeting. Bryn turns and stares after them, and a couple of them glance back to look at her.
I watch them until they turn back around and go on their way.
She doesn’t speak again, but I notice that she’s looking around Halsford with much more interest as we make our way to the home I share with the others. Hopefully, they’ve made it at least somewhat livable again over the past couple of weeks after the months of no one being here.
‘Jak and Morgan live here too,’ I tell her.
I climb the pair of stone steps to the stoop and push open the door. I’m hit by a wall of warm air that smells of roast chicken.
Stepping inside, I find Jak and Morgan sitting at the table.
‘Enough food for us?’ I ask, gesturing at the pot in the hearth.
Morgan lets out a sound of derision. ‘For her, not for you.’
Right. Should have expected that.
Morgan stands and plods forward slowly, ushering a wary-looking Bryn inside and closing the door securely.
‘Has she been given leave to stay by Dane?’
‘Not exactly,’ I mutter.
He looks past me to Bryn who’s now standing in the middle of the room, looking a bit lost.
Her eyes find mine and then Morgan’s and Jak’s.
‘This really is the Light Realm?’ she asks faintly.
We nod.
‘It’s not a trick? The humans here are actually free? Those men we saw?’
‘Yes, Bryn,’ I say. ‘Freefolk.’
She falters, stepping back and hitting the wall by the door with a dull thud.
‘After everything…I thought…I thought you’d never really bring me here,’ she whispers, not looking at me.
She closes her eyes as they become glassy.
‘I know,’ I say quietly, my chest aching.
She slides to the floor and covers her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking.
‘Bryn,’ Jak says, stepping closer. ‘Please don’t cry. You’re safe here.’
But when she takes her hands away to look up at him, I see a smile on her face. She’s laughing so hard she begins to hiccup. Tears leak from her eyes and roll down her cheeks.
‘I’m here,’ she manages to choke out. ‘I’m actually here.’
I allow myself a smile, but it’s short lived because she now does cover her face with her hands and begins to sob. But she pushes Jak away when he touches her shoulder, so we leave her alone.
We sit at the table, and I regard my friends with unease. We’ve already spoken since they found us in Merediea. Gods, was that only yesterday? But I know, after what I did, this is far from over.
I start first. ‘I’m sorry?—’
But Morgan lets out a low snarl that has me shutting my mouth, sitting back in my chair, and tensing in case he launches himself across the table and goes right for my throat.
I knew they’d be angry, but I’ve never seen either of them like this. I’d assumed that they would forgive me given time, but looking at them now, I’m not so sure.
Jak puts his hand on Morgan’s shoulder to stay whatever he’s thinking of doing to me.
‘What did Dane say?’ he asks through clenched teeth, changing the subject to something less incendiary than my actions. ‘When will the Council convene?’
I glance at Bryn, wondering if she’s listening. ‘Tomorrow. Dane couldn’t give her leave to stay, though, not without an interview. They’ll talk to her tomorrow. Make sure she’s not too,’ I clear my throat, ‘Dark Realm.’
‘Dane will be the one speaking to her?’ Morgan asks.
I shake my head. ‘Underhill law states it must be an enforcer, now. Dane isn’t allowed, but he says it’ll be Avendel.’
‘We should make sure we’re with her,’ Jak says. ‘Avendel isn’t as…enthusiastic in his duties, but I don’t like the idea of her closed in a room with spies from the Underhill who aren’t us.’
I nod in agreement, though I’m not sure it’ll be allowed. I don’t say that to them, though. They’re both already on tender hooks as it is.
‘Have they heard from Soreno and Tori yet?’ Morgan asks, breathing in and out deeply through his nose in some sort of effort not to beat me to a pulp.
‘Don’t know. Dane didn’t say. If they had, he probably would have mentioned something, though.’
Jak stands, casting an eye over Bryn, who’s still in the corner, and frowning. ‘Do you think we’ll have a problem with the enforcers, the Council? What about the rest of the village?’
‘She’s not the only Dark Realmer here,’ Morgan argues. ‘There’s me and Gwen, Drakar, and Grim live just along the way.’
I nod. ‘They’ve made their lives here and no one has a problem with them,’ I reply, hoping I sound more confident than I feel, but Jak shakes his head.
‘They don’t live in Halsford anymore,’ he states.
‘What? Since when?’ I ask.
I notice Morgan out of the corner of my eye also looking confused.
‘Four months ago, I heard. She’s not been in the apothecary at all, which is why it and the healer's rooms were in such a state when I got back.’
I frown. ‘Where did they go?’
Morgan walks to the hearth and turns the vegetables that are cooking on the wire rack with the chicken.
‘Why did they go?’ he rumbles low.
‘They’re in the valley over the next ridge apparently. Built another cabin there. About a half-day’s ride. As to the why of it, I don’t know. Haven’t been able to get to the bottom of it yet.’
Jak’s eyes bore into the back of Morgan’s head. ‘You haven’t noticed any differences since we returned?’
Morgan stiffens and turns to face us, looking a bit sheepish. ‘I thought perhaps it was my imagination. I mean, Tom and the others working on the cottages invited me to the tavern the other evening. They were friendly enough, bought me a pint.’
‘But?’ I probe.
‘There were humans who were friendly with me, used to speak to me. They don’t now.
They pull their children out of my path as if I’m going to eat them.
I’m sure I heard someone call me a dirty Dark Realm beast as I walked by the Trading Post last week, but I don’t know who it was.
And I might have had some stones thrown in my direction by children.
Quite big ones. They haven’t hit me but… ’
‘It’s not your imagination,’ Jak sighs. ‘There’s talk about violence toward Dark Realmers.
I heard it in the tavern. It’s quiet but I think it’s been slowly growing louder since the fire and, since we’ve been gone, it seems to have gotten markedly worse.
I think that’s why Gwen, Drakar, and Grim left. ’
I look over at Bryn who’s still sitting slumped against the wall with her head in her hands, though she seems to have stopped crying.
Morgan snorts.
‘Drakar and Gwen used to be on the Council,’ he mutters. ‘They practically built this place with Lia, Dane, Grey, and Kal.’
‘Well they aren’t on it anymore. Haven’t been since the fire,’ I reply. ‘They were replaced with Calder and Tavish. Remember?’
‘Aye,’ Morgan spits. ‘I remember. One of the Council Five and a trader who’s never even set foot in the Dark Realms, if you believe his talk. Light Realm through and though, he swears.’
I stand and go to the cupboard, taking a bottle from within and pouring myself a dram of rum. I offer it to the others, but they both shake their heads.
‘Can I… I’m tired,’ Bryn says quietly, getting to her feet stiffly.
I point to the next room. ‘You can sleep in there, Bryn,’ I say.
I raise my brows at Jak. ‘I assume you put fresh sheets on the bed.’
He nods. ‘The room should be warm, too. I lit a fire in the grate earlier.’
‘Where will you sleep?’ she asks us.
‘Jak and I are upstairs,’ Morgan replies, giving her a smile that she doesn’t seem to notice.
‘And you?’ she asks me.
‘I’ll sleep out here.’
She nods, turns away without another word, and goes into my chamber. She doesn’t close the door and we all watch from the corners of our eyes as she lays on the bed facing away from us.
‘We think you’re a cunt, you know,’ Jak hisses in my ear. ‘Gods, I considered you a brother and now I don’t know if I’ll ever trust you again. Mark my words. I will never, never, go out on a mission with you in charge again. I want you to know that.’
‘Aye,’ Morgan rumbles quietly from the table, blatantly watching Bryn as if she’s going to be whisked away by the enforcers at any moment. ‘I, too, thought we were at least friends.’
‘We are friends,’ I say quietly, unable to look either of them in the face.
‘No, Locke,’ Jak snarls low. ‘You don’t wipe your friends’ memories of a woman they…
care about. Gods, we just left her. Didn’t even look back.
How did that look to her? We didn’t remember her for weeks!
And, then, you didn’t keep her safe. You took her to that place where she had to survive for what, two months in their time? ’
I don’t offer any excuses. There’s nothing I can do or say that will make this better quickly. But Morgan still gets to his feet as if I’ve tried to justify my actions, his dark countenance like a volcano ready to erupt at any moment.
‘Tell us what happened,’ Jak demands, giving Morgan a look that has him sitting back down with a huff. ‘Everything from when you sent us away.’
I let out a heavy sigh and I down my drink, pouring myself another before I begin.
‘I… The mission was paramount. I?—’
Morgan snarls and my eyes flash.
‘No!’ I grind out more loudly than I wanted and my eyes fly to the bed to make sure I haven’t disturbed Bryn.
When she doesn’t stir, I take a seat back at the table.
‘No,’ I say again more quietly. ‘You ask the questions. Fine! But you listen to all of my words, not just the bits that show my guilt.’
I pause, waiting for both of them to nod.
Jak sits at the table with us, and now he does pour himself a large rum. He gives one to Morgan, too, and the huge half orc takes the barest sip.
‘Go on then,’ he says. ‘Give us your excuses, but when you are finished, I’ll still take you outside and beat you bloody again. It’s the least you deserve.’
I don’t disagree, but I don’t say it.