23. The bards tale
The bard's tale
A s evening fell on the second day that Leif and Felix had been gone, and Isolde was about to combust from the stress and worry, they returned.
Luella spotted them first, of course. She jumped up from where she’d been sitting and all but ran to the end of the gully. Isolde followed behind, hope surging in her chest. But Luella halted abruptly, and her hand moved to the sword at her hip.
“You were supposed to gather information, not pick up stray women! Where are your horses? What the fuck, Felix?”
Isolde barely heard Luella’s complaints. Felix was back. He was safe. She almost fell to her knees with relief at the sight of him. His eyes found her right away, dark and stormy. It had only been two days, but missing him had been like an ache she couldn’t suppress.
But he had brought a woman…? Not just any woman, either.
She looked like a storybook heroine, effortlessly pretty and graceful, but sharp around the edges, and there was something strangely familiar about her that Isolde could not quite place.
She carried a lute; was she a minstrel of some kind?
A thick braid of golden blonde hair draped over her shoulder, with a few loose strands artfully framing her fa ce.
Her large green eyes swept over the people assembled and landed on Isolde with a warm smile.
Leif, meanwhile, produced a squirming puppy from the folds of his cloak with a sheepish grin. “We, uh… met Mia in the city,” he babbled. “Um, and I found this little guy! His name is Biscuit!”
“You also got a dog?” Luella sputtered. “Is the rest of the travelling circus following behind?”
Garren crossed his arms and scowled. Felix gestured at the newcomer. “Mia, Luella. Luella, Mia,” he said. Then he paused, his eyes still on Isolde. The silence stretched, and the woman – Mia – grinned in Felix’s direction. He cleared his throat. “That is Garren. And this is –”
“Lady Isolde,” Mia finished for him, then stepped around Garren.
When she got closer, Isolde drew back reflexively.
Mia was not a mage, but she unmistakably carried a small, tightly coiled reserve of magic within her.
Her own power wanted to reach out to it, and she had to forcibly restrain herself from doing just that.
Mia kept a careful distance. “It is so good to meet you, Lady Isolde,” she said smoothly. “I apologise for arriving uninvited. Like you, I travelled north from Azuill. I am a bard, and I trade in… information. I have a lot to tell you.”
Isolde stared at her. Finally, she gave her head a little shake. “Forgive me,” she said, “but… how did you end up here? I can’t imagine Felix and Leif told you about me…”
“Felix and I are old friends,” Mia replied. “We ran into each other in Marsan. I suspected he was travelling with you, so I, ah… convinced him to take me to you.”
Old friends? Her eyes jumped back to Felix. He looked decidedly uncomfortable. An unfamiliar gnawing sensation settled in Isolde’s stomach. What did Mia do to convince Felix? Did he owe her a favour? Did she blackmail him? Or… something else?
“Convinced him?” she asked, her voice sounding small and stupid to her own ears.
Mia smiled disarmingly. “You sent those two to the city to get information. I think I have most of the answers you are after. I know who is ahead of you, who is behind you, what the mages are planning… ”
“And what do you want in return?” Garren said, his arms still crossed.
Mia did not take her eyes off Isolde. “To bear witness. At the Nexus. I want to be there.”
“What? You said you just wanted to meet her, then you’d leave!” Felix blurted out.
Mia threw him a dismissive glance, as if he had no say in the matter. Isolde bit her lip. Mia’s request – to bear witness, as she called it, caught her off guard. She stood and regarded the other woman in silence for a moment.
“You have magic,” she said finally.
Mia startled, but gave a single nod. “Not much, but yes.”
“Are you aware of what happened at the midsummer ball?” She kept her voice cold and distant. She did not like recalling that night, but she would wield the fear it inspired if she had to.
Mia squared her shoulders. “I am. It was a risk I was willing to take.”
Isolde regarded Mia for a long moment. Even though she didn’t really understand why, she was inclined to trust her.
Felix had brought her here, after all. He was always suspicious of people, but apparently he trusted Mia, or at least he did not consider her a threat.
She nodded once. “Then tell us,” she said, “and you can stay.”
Felix, Garren and Luella all talked over one another.
“Wait, what?”
“You’re going to let her come?”
“She’s a complete stranger!”
Isolde raised her eyebrows at Felix. “Isn’t she your friend? Why would you mind?”
He looked down, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. Isolde turned to Mia. “Will you share your information, then?”
“Where would you like me to start?”
“Hold on,” Felix said, looking grim. “We had some… trouble in Marsan.”
Luella’s head snapped in his direction. “Trouble? What did you do?”
“Um… it was my fault,” Leif said quietly, staring at his toes. “I had a few drinks… ”
Felix shot Leif a wry look. “Let’s just say that quite a few people in Marsan now know Isa – Isolde has healing magic,” he said.
Isolde looked down at the blue lines etched on her skin. Wouldn’t that be a good thing? Might they not be more sympathetic towards her…? But the others did not seem to echo that sentiment.
Luella rounded on Leif, hands on her hips. “Idiot! I knew you shouldn’t have gone.” She turned to Felix. “Were you followed?”
He shook his head. “No. That’s why we left the horses.”
“I’ll scout the area again,” she said with another glare at Leif.
Garren stepped up next to Luella. “We should be prepared for pursuit, regardless. If the mages –”
Isolde’s brain was spinning with too many things to keep track of at once.
She held up her hands, eyes squeezed shut.
“Stop, please. I understand this is important, but I want to hear what Mia has to say first.” She looked at the bard.
“Start at the beginning, please. What made you leave Azuill and travel north?”
Mia chewed her lip for a moment. She glanced at Felix, then focused on Isolde. “I heard a wild story about Felix leaving town in a hurry on midsummer night. Some mysterious job nobody knew anything about.”
Isolde pressed her lips together and nodded. Of course, the events of the midsummer night ball and her hurried flight from Azuill had not gone unnoticed.
“Then the rumours about the appearance, and immediate disappearance, of a leytouched started going around,” Mia continued, “supposedly also on midsummer night. Two noble houses and the mage circle tried their best to quash these rumours, but anyone with half a brain could tell you that the worst thing you can do if you want a story to die is to try to stop people from spreading it. Then it was said this leytouched was a noblewoman who had been smuggled out of town to be taken north to the Surgelands. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. ”
“Which two noble houses?” Garren asked.
Mia looked at him. “The Trevalyans. And the Laghains.”
Isolde’s heart sank at the names, even though it was hardly a surprise. Luella threw her a concerned look. “Tell me about the mage circles,” Isolde said, keeping her voice carefully controlled .
“They seem to be divided into two camps; the majority believe you should be… eliminated, but there is a small but vocal group who argue you must reach the Nexus for some kind of ritual. Nobody seems to know what it entails, including most mages. The Archmage, however, is firmly in the former camp. In addition, there are many rumours of the increasing instability of magic, and some say this ritual is the solution. The mage who arranged with your father to send you on your way –”
“Kaeloth,” Felix said. “I spoke with him that night. He talked to his colleague about a binding and an opportunity.”
Something told Isolde this was important, but there was too much information to digest. She’d come back to it later.
“Right,” Mia continued, “Kaeloth. He is the one who is travelling to the Nexus. Against the Archmage’s orders, if the gossip is to be believed.
He has a small contingent of mages with him, as well as a large mercenary force.
Black Bears. I believe he is ahead of you by a few weeks, considering he travelled by road. ”
“Well, but this is good news,” Garren said. “This mage is the one who told Lord Trevalyan that Lady Isolde might be cured at the Nexus. He wants to perform this ritual.”
Felix narrowed his eyes at Garren. “Whatever Kaeloth is planning,” he said, “I don’t trust him. I don’t think any of us should.”
“Lord Trevalyan trusted him,” Garren said dismissively. “That should be more than good enough for you.”
Felix looked ready to argue the point, but ground his teeth and crossed his arms instead. “You claimed to know who is ahead and who is following,” Felix said. “If that mage is ahead, who is behind?”
Mia glanced sideways at Isolde and grimaced before replying. “Your father.”
Isolde startled. Her father was travelling north?
Why would he do that? Did he regret sending her off?
Discomfort coiled in her stomach. She wished she could tell herself that he was coming to ensure her safety, but that was not the kind of man – the kind of father – he was.
If he was leaving all his affairs behind, it was not out of his great love for her.
There was something else. Questions upon questions, uncertainty in every direction. It made her feel cold, and alone.
She lowered her chin and closed her eyes. “And the bounty?” She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“The Laghains. Sorry, sweetheart.”
Isolde flinched as if Mia had slapped her. Bastiel? Bastiel was paying people to have her murdered?
When her father told her his family broke off the engagement, what may as well have been a lifetime ago, she felt nothing.
No anger or sadness, not even humiliation.
She understood she was no longer a suitable match for him, marked as she was.
But why would he want her dead? She had kissed him, envisioned a life with him…
slept with him. The memory now made her feel sick.
She’d thought of him as her future husband!
He had always treated her well, even if there was no fire or very much affection between them, unlike…
She glanced at Felix. He was staring murderously into the distance, his hand clenched around the axe at his side.
“Thank you, Mia, for everything you’ve told us,” she said, averting her gaze and struggling to keep her voice calm. “But I think I need a moment.” She turned and walked away into the gathering darkness without another word.