THE NEWCOMERS
10
- ALANIS -
I f what Siveral told us is true, I think we are well and truly screwed.
I look around the field and into the dark forest beyond. It looks a lot less menacing during the day. The sunlight casts a golden glow throughout the trees.
I glance at Hannah, who seems as if she is about to pass out or throw up. Maybe even both. I can feel Kailu and Siveral’s eyes on me, just waiting for me to speak.
If I’m honest, I don’t really know what to say right now.
I take a deep breath and try to clear my mind of the intrusive thoughts attempting to overwhelm me—thoughts of death and dying, curses and hell. Thoughts of my brother suffering while I stand here, too scared to venture into the forest.
I mentally slap myself. I need to pull it together.
“All right,” I say at last. “No, none of that sounds like something we want to walk into if it can be avoided. So now what?”
“The soldiers who chased after the ghoul lost track of it,” Kailu says. “We’re back to having no leads. I say we continue with our original plan and head to the patrol spot your brother was last seen in. Maybe we’ll find a new theory along the way.”
It seems as good a plan as any, so I gather my things and go wait by Zephyr, Kailu’s beautiful horse. “Hi boy, are you ready to do a lot of walking? I promise to get you treats at our next stop.”
I lay my forehead against his and enjoy the way he nuzzles into me.
“Stop trying to make my horse like you more than me, you insufferable woman.”
“I don’t need to try. He already does.” I scoff and mimic a new mother I saw at the market once, asking her baby if she wanted apples or oranges: “Don’t you, you good boy? Oh, yes, you do!”
When Zephyr bobs his head up and down, I grin and Kailu growls, deep and low, and swings up into the saddle without another word. He kicks one foot free of the stirrup, then holds his hand out to me. I’m not looking forward to sitting so close to him for hours yet again, but I take his hand, stick my boot into the stirrup, and push up off the ground to settle on the saddle behind him. When I wrap my arms around his waist, I try to keep my grip as loose as is safe. I learned the hard way my first time in the saddle with him to hold on tight if I don’t want to fall right off. I hate having to be so close to him.
Yep, I don’t like it one bit.
I don’t like feeling his heat on the front of my body or feeling his stupid muscles flex with every movement Zephyr makes.
It’s really a punishment for me, I think, how unbearable it is.
I’m so preoccupied with my thoughts that I don’t even notice Siveral standing by Zephyr, talking to Kailu, until Siveral is striding away and barking orders at his men. It takes only a moment to realize they’re packing up, too.
“Can they just leave their post to come with us?” I ask.
“Their shift is over. The new patrol takes over this morning.”
“I am thankful for the extra help in finding my brother, but what about their families?”
Kailu turns to look at me. “Those soldiers who went missing are just as much their family as the ones waiting at home. No matter what your first assumption of me might be, I do everything in my power to protect my own, and so do they.”
I can feel the burning behind my eyes and the warmth in my nose that I get right before the tears come. I look up towards the sky to try to keep them at bay. My brother may have joined the King’s Guard for the adventures it held, but he also got a family in return.
Part of me is so happy that he has that, but another part is sad. Maybe even a bit resentful. While I sit at home worrying, he was finding a family that doesn’t include me. Perhaps Kailu senses where my thoughts have gone, since he rests his hand on my knee and squeezes it, just once, as if in reassurance. I glance down at his hand, then up at his face, surprised to find something like sympathy in his gaze. The unexpected kindness means more than he can probably understand.
When Siveral’s men are ready, Kailu clicks his tongue at Zephyr and leads the way towards the forest where the ghoul took off, hoping to find some sign as to where it went.
- KAILU -
We are only about an hour into this dreaded journey and I’m ready to stop. I need to get off this damn horse and get some space from Alanis. I could hear her heart practically burst as we entered the wooded area. I squeezed her hand to calm her, since I didn’t need her freaking out Zephyr. But then she squeezed my hand back and I swear my heart stuttered in my chest.
What the hell is going on with me?
Now I’m stuck with her wrapped around my body and I feel as if I can’t breathe.
Siveral is leading the group since he doesn’t have a passenger to worry about, so when he raises his fist, everyone pauses, holding their breath.
The forest goes abruptly quiet. Glancing at the trees around us, I slowly reach for my sword only to startle when Alanis suddenly slips off Zephyr’s back. I whip around to spy her approaching a giant oak tree. She stops and stares for a second before I hear her whisper.
“It’s all right, we don’t mean to cause you any trouble. We’re just passing through.”
Two figures step out from behind the tree wielding daggers. The female has deep purple hair and emerald green eyes, her shorter stature making her seem less dangerous than her companion, who towers over her. He is the polar opposite, with silver hair that falls in his face. The only thing similar is their eyes and the cautious expression on their faces. All my and Siveral’s soldiers fall into a fighting position.
“Elves,” Siveral states, relaxing his stance slightly.
“What are you doing in the middle of these woods?” I call from Zephyr’s back. I don’t want to appear threatening.
The Elves give Alanis a smile. “We’re sorry to intrude on your travels. We were just collecting herbs for healing salves and such.” The female gives a slight incline of her head towards the satchel she carries.
The male Elf offers his hand to Alanis, and when she places her hand in his, he kisses the back of it and says, “I’m Novus.”
“I never did understand what the difference was between Fae and Elves,” Alanis says. “I just know our government said the Fae were too powerful and didn’t belong.”
“They were probably worried about their shapeshifting ability,” Novus says.
“Can you shapeshift?” She turns to me, and I give her a big smile that shows off my sharp teeth.
“I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”
I see the annoyance return to her eyes the second the words leave my mouth. She grumbles, “You probably shift into a mosquito. An annoying, buzzing, life-sucking mosquito.”
I smirk at her and shrug.
“Insufferable, smug, Fae bastard,” she grumbles under her breath before turning back to the female. “I’m Alanis.” Her voice now much softer when she isn’t grumbling about me.
The purple-haired Elf who only stands at about five feet tall, if she’s lucky, reaches out a tiny hand, her eyes looking up to Alanis. “Sarya.”
“Where are you two headed?” I ask.
The female swallows her amusement at my and Alanis’s squabble. “As I said, we were out collecting herbs. We got delayed by ghouls, though. They’ve been swarming the forest, and they pushed us further north than we wanted to go.”
Alanis perks up at that information. “Did you see them with soldiers of the crown?”
Sarya looks at Novus, who nods and says, “The beginning of the week, I believe. There was a group of ghouls heading towards us, so we hid in the trees. There were four ghouls, and each had a soldier chained with iron shackles.”
Four, when there should have been six.
Alanis pales. “Are you sure there were only four?”
The female nods. “They were headed in the direction of Bone Valley, so there could have been others we didn’t cross paths with, but we only saw four.”
I find it odd they were chained in iron, seeing as the soldiers who went missing were human. I whisper to Siveral, “Are any of the missing soldiers Fae?”
Siveral shakes his head. “Not that I’m aware of. The Fae on that patrol group all came home.”
“If it’s all connected like you assume, what did they find on that scroll?”
He looks at me with an unspoken question in his eyes. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
“I’m not sure either honestly. Something just seems off. Elion and his scroll going missing at the same time…”
Alanis whips her head to me with a questioning stare.
That nagging sensation is back. My mind races. This began escalating a year ago, right when the refugees began to arrive. What if this is all tied to the refugees, someone angry at the crown for taking in outsiders? Or worse, what if it’s somehow tied to Alanis and whatever sensation she had to make her stay here?
I look to Alanis. “What made you depart when the ship docked in the Primal Realm? Why didn’t you stay on and keep going to another land?”