Chapter Seventeen
Ellyn turned her head and buried her face in the crook of my neck. I tightened my grip around her, and I held her protectively against my chest as I braced for what he was about to uncover.
Iro must have touched something, because he quickly ducked his head under the bed until half of his torso was hidden beneath the frame.
“Hell’s taint,” I heard the armored soldier mutter as he began to shuffle out from under the bed.
I braced myself and got ready to answer a multitude of questions I didn’t want to have the answers to. Nuro entered the room like a shadow and towered over Iro expectantly, and even Aila poked her head around the door as she waited for something to be revealed.
This was the reason they’d come to Gladewood. Once they had it, they could go back to their opulent quarters in Emberstone and be rid of our small, humble town.
I squeezed my eyes shut to avoid the inevitable and heard something heavy scrape across the floor.
“What in the hells is that?” Nuro asked in an accusatory tone.
Not the reaction I’d expected to something as glaringly obvious as the shard.
I peeked one eye open, and when I glanced at Iro, it wasn’t the shard he was holding in his hands, but…
“My dad’s old musket?” I voiced aloud as I stared at the rusted weapon in shock.
My dad had enjoyed taking part in civil war reenactments after he’d trained me on the farm. Mom said it was just an excuse for him to escape the livestock and run around a field with a fake gun for a few days, but he’d always returned home with an unwavering grin on his face.
Iro turned the heavy weapon in his hands for a few moments before he offered it to Nuro. The commander snatched the rusted weapon and inspected it with a close eye.
“This is like the other strange weapons you wield,” he commented as he tested its weight in his gloved hands. “Why hide something we have already seen?”
“It’s… sentimental,” I said the half-truth quickly. “It was my father’s. And it doesn’t work anymore.”
Nuro didn’t seem convinced. He tossed the gun back to Iro, who managed to catch it before it fell to the floor at the price of the long neck whacking him in the face.
“A little respect would be nice,” I spat. “That was my father’s.”
“Look again, Iro,” Nuro said as he ignored me. “Crawl under the damn thing if you have to.”
“Y-Yes, Commander,” the soldier stuttered as he laid flat on his stomach and crawled under the bed.
Iro’s strained grunts filled the awkward silence in the room, and while he dug for something that clearly wasn’t there anymore, I met Nuro’s glare of agitation with a blank look.
Somehow, the shard had escaped. I had no idea how, but I wasn’t going to take that for granted right now.
“Anything?” Nuro demanded as he crossed his arms with a clink of metal.
“Just boxes full of old clothes, Commander Nuro,” Iro’s muffled voice said. “There’s nothing here.”
“Then get out,” Nuro growled as he turned his head away from the embarrassing scene. “You look like a fool.”
Iro shimmied out from under the bed like a worm and promptly stood to his feet. He readjusted his armor that had shifted from the movement with a red blush on his cheeks. Then, to my surprise, he bowed his head at Ellyn and me before he turned his gaze to his commander.
“What now, Sir?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“Now, you leave my farm alone,” I cut in before Nuro could even open his mouth. “You haven’t found what you were looking for. So, why don’t you save yourselves and me some time and go back to Gladewood? Another attack could be imminent.”
“One day, that mouth of yours will put you in hot water, Noah,” the Commander said in a low, eerie voice before he motioned for Iro to leave.
The dark-haired half-elf quickly scurried out of the room, and Nuro eyed me up one more time before he turned on his heel and marched out, too.
As soon as they were out of my sight, I released a long breath and let my shoulders relax.
“Noah,” Ellyn whispered as she tugged on my sleeve. “How did it…”
I pressed my finger to her lips to silence her. Some of the soldiers were elves, which meant they had much better hearing than me. If they heard even the slightest mention of the shard, our little charade would be over.
But I also wanted to know the answer to the question she was asking. I glanced around the room, but it was only when a soft breeze rushed in through the open window that I realized how the shard had escaped.
I walked over to the window and stuck my head out of it.
There was no sign of the shard anywhere outside. All I could see was the back of my fields and the vine wall towering above.
For now, it being gone was a good thing, but a pit of unease rested in my stomach like a lump of tungsten, and until the shard was back in front of me, that feeling wasn’t going to go away.
“Let’s make sure they leave,” I muttered to my wife as I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of our house.
Iro, Aila, and Nuro were climbing back onto their horses when we exited through the front door.
“Thank you for your hospitality, Noah,” Nuro drawled sarcastically. “We’re sorry to have been such a bother.”
“Don’t think I’ll extend the same courtesy next time you want to come onto my land and trample my crops,” I said. “There’s nothing for you here.”
“Evidently,” Nuro said through gritted teeth. “Hands, return to Gladewood. The town needs our presence. Without it, they are vulnerable.”
I scoffed at him underestimating my people, yet again, but I didn’t have the energy for another argument with the proud commander.
Nuro steered his horse down the trail leading out of my farm, and the other soldiers followed shortly after.
But rather than trailing after her cohort, Aila remained behind.
I frowned as I took a step forward. Aila’s straight eyebrows were pulled taut in a frown, and her violet eyes darted toward the fields harboring my firevyrn.
“What is it, Aila?” I asked cautiously.
Nuro was far enough away that he wouldn’t be able to hear us, but I still didn’t want to completely let my guard down. Out of all of the King’s Hands, I trusted Aila the most, but that was a very loose trust born out of force.
“Nuro was right,” the Tei’Lorran said. “It should be impossible.”
“The firevyrn?” I blinked. “I told you already. Starfall blessed the soil, and when the shard passed through--”
“It’s more than that,” the pretty soldier cut me off. “I understand why you’re trying to hide it. I would, too, if I wasn’t a King’s Hand.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Aila,” I lied through my teeth. “Talk like that is what’s put me under the magnifying glass in the first place.”
“I’m not a fool, Noah,” she said curtly. “I don’t know how you hid it this time, but Nuro won’t stop until he finds what the king wants.”
“So, you actually admit that you’re not just here to protect Gladewood?” I scoffed. “I’m surprised you had it in you.”
“Finding what we’re looking for will protect Gladewood,” the dark-haired half-elf insisted. “Once it’s in the king’s grasp--”
“If the king had what you’re talking about, he would destroy it,” I cut her off sharply. “Magic has helped Gladewood. It already is protected. And it doesn’t need Hands of the King riding in as its savior.”
“You’re wrong,” Aila said with a scowl. “I just wish you would see that before it’s too late.”
It wasn’t a threat. It was a warning.
I didn’t know what for, but Aila wouldn’t risk insubordination if it wasn’t worth it.
She still hadn’t named the shard. It was an unspoken curse between us, because saying it out loud would only solidify the truth I knew she was aware of.
I had the shard, and I wasn’t planning on letting it go anytime soon.
“Good day, Noah,” Aila said quietly. “I hope you soon see reason.”
With that, the half-elf whipped her horse’s reins and sent her into a sprint toward the rest of the soldiers.
Once they were all through the threshold, the green vines trickled out of the wall’s edge and slithered back into place. The Hands vanished out of our sight, and now that we were truly alone, I let out another long, ragged breath.
“They’re gone!” I called out to the farmhands, who I knew were still hiding in the barn.
One by one, they stumbled out and rushed over to me and Ellyn.
“What happened?” Andriin, the tall dark-haired elf, asked in a breathless voice. “Did they find it?”
“No, it escaped,” I said as I glanced around the farm. “I just don’t know where it escaped to.”
“It will come back,” Briony tried to reassure me, but the fact it still hadn’t returned made the pit in my stomach feel heavier.
“It has to,” Fergus, her blond husband, added. “It never strays far from you.”
I took another step away from my house until I was standing in the clear. Then I let my eyes slip shut and beckoned the shard to return to me.
Even before we’d been connected, I had been able to communicate with the shard inside my own head. Words weren’t needed, which was why this was my first instinct.
I stayed still for a few minutes and repeated the mantra over and over in my head.
Come home, come home, come home.
But nothing happened. No matter how many times I repeated it, I felt nothing inside of me. There was no familiar tug in my chest or pulse in my hands. Just… emptiness.
I opened my eyes as I tried not to let my anxiety get the better of me. There were too many possibilities about what could have happened to it as soon as it left my farm, and thinking about any of them made me feel nauseous.
“Alright, let’s try this again,” I said as I shook my hands out at my sides.
“It’s not answering?” Ellyn asked as her eyebrows furrowed.
“Not telepathically,” I said before I realized no one would understand what I was talking about. “It’s not responding inside my head.”
“Try calling it out loud,” Brom suggested.
It was worth a shot. Right now, I was willing to try anything, so long as it meant the shard came back to me.
I cupped my hands over my mouth and shouted ‘come home’ as loud as I could. I didn’t know how far away the Hands were, so I didn’t want to call the shard by name.