Chapter 8
eight
. . .
Aten
The Jade is disorientating and tiring to navigate, and we all curse this natural defence of Kirrasia. I add it to the knowledge I’ve gained at just how well fortified we are, even before magic comes into play.
Riding through the green, we pick up something that could be a trail at the end of the second day.
Calix explains the rough location of the town, and the horses diligently go where we point them, until the third day, when we finally see a way-marker with a name, giving us an accurate bearing to our first destination.
We arrive at dusk, Novandia giving up for the day and drawing in his watch.
The houses and buildings are similar to some of ours in The Court: stone-built, thatched roofs, and a cobbled street.
But the random accumulation along the streets, this way and that, holds none of the same magic and community that The Court does.
We find a tavern with beds for the night and stables for the horses. Crimson and Kyra settle them in, and Calix makes quick work of making friends. Somehow, he manages to get dealt into a game of cards before I’ve come down from our rooms.
He lets his gold coins do the talking in exchange for information.
By the end of the night, he’s heard from more than one person of a cottage, south of here, past a woollen mill, that offers trade before reaching Osanor.
It’s what we need, and Kyra confirms the description is close to how Ever had described her home.
“How are you doing?” I ask her as we sit at the table along from Calix’s game.
Kyra twists the pewter cup around in her hand. “I thought about travelling. Going to see the others who’ve been sent to Estereah or Sunatora. Even Nehandun. But I don’t mind the position I hold, and I enjoyed being around my family. I’d miss them if I left.”
“And now?” I ask, not sure where this is going.
“I’m glad I have a purpose to do this. It’s the only thing I’m clinging onto right now.
That, and making sure Ever is safe because she’s the only one who can tell me what happened in that cell.
Why Micah was there, and what got him killed.
” Her words turn a few heads towards us, but we keep our eyes down and concentrate on our drinks.
Ever has been protective of Kyra, right from the start. She’s always insisted on involving Kyra in each step of her training and our plan to ensure she is ready for the trials.
I hope Kyra is here with the same courtesy to Ever’s safety, and not just for answers.
Tucked away in a small glen some way from the path towards Osanor, is a thatched cottage in a clearing. Bright window boxes filled with flowers and an open door are the only signs of life. I try to imagine Ever growing up here, away from everything that was at my fingertips in Kirrasia.
“Do we just go in?” Calix sidles up to me on his horse, who seems plenty eager to be here.
“I guess. It’s a trading post, after all.” I jump down from Nettle, and he happily plods to the small clearing next to the house to graze on the grass.
Leaving Kyra and Crimson outside, I cross the threshold and into an open room. Every surface I see is filled with trinkets and items for sale. A large wooden table takes up most of the space, the wood smothered with everything from teacups and horseshoes to books and blankets.
“Can I help—” Lyle walks in from the adjacent room and stops in her tracks as she registers me, then Calix. Her eyes widen for a fraction of a second before she looks past us in vain. “Ever?” Her strangled name claws from her throat, poisoning the air with her anguish.
“We don’t know. We came here for answers.” I watch as tears gleam in her eyes, but they are replaced in a blink, sheer steel cooling the blue in them. She shifts, as if preparing for a battle. Internal or physically, I’m not sure.
“Where is she?” Even with my muffled power, it’s hard not to be hit with the rush of emotion rising over everything else. Cold and ice chill the room around us, all emanating from Lyle.
The memory of Ever in the snow in that vision jolts to my mind, overtaking Lyle’s own fear.
The ice on the ground, the dark blood seeping in and tainting it…
Kyra’s voice draws me away from my personal nightmare. “Does Ever have a brother?”
Lyle looks at her, and I see Crimson’s also joined, all of us crowding into the room.
“No.” Confusion pulls at Lyle’s features as she scrutinises each of us. She crosses her arms and stands her ground. “It’s just me and Ever. Since she was a baby.”
“But you’re not her biological mother?” Kyra pushes, stepping toward her, as if the truth is hiding behind Lyle.
“No. But I’m her mother in every other sense.” She raises her voice and takes a breath, clearly rattled by our interrogation. “Every way that matters. Now, will you tell me why you’re all here?”
“We ask again. Does Ever have a brother?” Crimson’s voice matches Lyle’s, holding no warmth, and reeks of aggression and disbelief.
“No.”
“Yes.” The deep voice has us all turning towards the door. A tall man, similar in age to my father, blocks the exit. Calix is first to move, putting himself between the unknown visitor and the rest of us. “Yes. She does.”
“Kalan?” Lyle’s voice is only a whisper, and she covers her mouth with her hands as the truth rings out in the room.
If there was any doubt that she knew Ever’s secrets before, there is none now.
At least this secret.
“You need to explain yourself, Kalan. Now!” Lyle levels Kalan with a glare that reminds me of Ever’s.
“I will.”
“Hang on. How did you know to come here, now?” I ask the man buffering my position to him and Lyle.
He takes a breath and shakes his head. His hair is streaked with grey, his beard, too, but he’s still broad and has a sword hanging from his belt.
“Three trainees, one of whom is banished, leave Kirrasia after, if rumours are true, talk of a Fifth? It was only a matter of time. Besides, you didn’t exactly hide your questions in Orasia. ”
“You know Ever?” I ask, ignoring the rest of what he’s pieced together.
“In a way. But if you’re here asking about her brother, then I’m afraid that is not a good sign.”
“Enough. Is Ever safe?” Lyle’s voice thunders above all of us.
“She’s with her brother. He took her. After he killed my brother.” Kyra steps around me and Calix towards Lyle.
“Kalan, what’s going on?” Lyle’s voice quivers.
“Lyle, perhaps we should—”
“No. You tell us all.” Kyra stands her ground.
“No offence, but we,” Kalan indicates to himself and Lyle,” have known Ever her whole life. I’m not sharing this with you before Ever. Out of respect.”
“Out of respect,” I scoff. “You should have shared before now.”
“Hey!” Kalan barges farther into the room.
“Don’t push it, Aten Ciro.” Lyle points to me, interceding. She nods to Kalan, and we all take a breath. “I’ll talk with Kalan alone. You can all wait here.” She beckons him through into the house and closes the wooden door to the room she emerged from.
“Great. Left out while the grownups talk,” Calix adds.
“Did you expect that we’d arrive and get all the answers straight away?” Crimson closes the front door and turns to her twin.
“No, I thought she’d know.”
“If she did, then that was a really good act,” Kyra adds. “I believe her.”
We all pick a spot to wait, falling into a tense silence.
As the time stretches, the room fills with scattered emotions, misting with scepticism and doubt, and I have to wonder if Kyra’s being truthful, or if it’s just Calix and Crimson I’m picking up on.
Sensing emotions and using my power still feels odd, especially here, cut off from Aslendrix’s focus. But we need every advantage.
And we’ve got more knowledge than we left Kirrasia with. We made it here and have some kind of explanation now. Something to start pulling together, and, while I’m slower here, I’m threading the possibilities together. But there are too many gaps.
Doing this back in the training residence felt wrong, but I’m not beyond stepping over that line again if it means ensuring I have every possible advantage when it comes to Ever.
So, I unleash my power and push the net out towards Kalan in the next room.
It’s foggy, but I can still discern two people, their energies different.
Kalan’s is much stronger, and I theorise it’s because he hasn’t passed his magic through a Transference.
His power might linger, although he must be nearing the time when Aslendrix will revoke her blessing, Transference or not.
My power stutters, but I push it farther until it flows towards Kalan, searching for an opening, and with one clear thought in my mind, I shove all my intent and will towards him—to influence him to open up and tell us everything he knows.
A moment later, the door separating us from Kalan and Lyle flies open.
“Which one of you is the Guard?” Kalan bellows, staring at each of us in turn.
Oh, shit!
“No, not you two. Aster’s kids—Warriors through and through. So, you.” He turns his attention to Kyra.
“I’m the Guard.” I stand and close the distance, ready to face off against him if I must.
“Ciro, a Guard?” he questions.
“That’s a long story.”
“Well, you haven’t learned from your mother. I could feel you inside my head. Be careful who you pull that shit on, or there might be hell to pay.”
I don’t apologise, and I don’t back down. My hand clenches, and I think about the knife at my back, but Kalan’s shoulders relax.
“Come on. Lyle’s fixing supper. I’ll explain what I can. I’m not going to share everything, regardless of what you want,” he gives me a glance, “but there are things you need to know.”
“How noble of you,” Crimson’s words drip with sarcasm.
“That mouth isn’t going to help you against Fenix, deary.” He shoots Crimson down.
We all watch her as her face glows red with rage, aimed at him. He just chuckles and turns back into the room he was in.
Calix blocks Crimson with his arm to stop her from shooting after him. “If he’s got information, we need him on our side, so play nice.”
“I didn’t know Crimson could play nice,” Kyra quips. And I thought they were getting along. Just as I start to worry, the girls give each other a wicked grin.
“Not helping. Come on.” I follow after Kalan.
The kitchen, it turns out, is similar in size to the main room, and Lyle is busy at the sink, looking out of the window, busying her hands with peeling vegetables.
Her eyes are red and puffy, noticeable even from this distance.
She doesn’t acknowledge any of us as we file in and take a seat at the wooden table.
The air is thick with anticipation, like waiting for the next chapter in a story. Only this is Ever’s life, and I don’t like the idea of more secrets.
We wait, Kalan happy to take his time.
“I left Kirrasia twenty years ago. After the Battle of Decree.”
“The battle of what?” Calix asks.
Kalan grins, but Lyle freezes at the mention of it. “Yeah, I doubt the Orders will have willingly shared or taught what happened back then. That’s for another day.”
“No, we need to know,” I remind him.
“I thought you wanted to know about Ever and her brother.” Kalan tilts his head at me, and I know my answer.
“Ever and her brother.”
He nods. “Fenix, her brother, hasn’t had the same upbringing as Ever. He’s also never been back to Kirrasia, just like Ever. But he has been taken in, for want of another word, by those who see Kirrasia differently, who don’t agree with its traditions.”
“Fine. Okay. So where is he and why has he got Ever?” I rush.
“And how do you know all of this?” Lyle’s voice echoes over us. I guess he didn’t fill her in on everything then.
“I have made sure that both Ever and Fenix remain safe.”
“Safe?” I question, my jaw aching with restraint.
“She wasn’t safe in Kirrasia.” Calix backs me up and earns another cutting look from Kalan.
“She had been kept in the dark and needed us to help her understand what was happening to her. I spent hours helping her to even feel her power. And that’s even before she was declared a Fifth.
You know that’s what she is, right?” Kyra accuses him, and for once, he doesn’t seem to bite back, his eyes softening at the truth of what happened.
Kalan shuffles in his seat and clasps his hands in front of him on the table. “Fenix knows his power and has been trained and shaped into a weapon. Force and power. That’s all he knows.”
“Yeah. Got that. Thanks for the heads up,” Calix mumbles. His bruises are no longer visible, but I know they left more of a mark than he’ll ever admit. It’s the first time Calix has ever been bested, so how could they not?
“Ever hasn’t. She’s only just starting to understand her power.
And nobody was there to help her.” The frustration I feel for everything Ever was put through rears back to life, threatening to spill over and into violence.
“Where. Is. He?” I grit each word out rather than pull my knife and let the edge run over his throat.
“Nehandun.”
Fuck.
“And you know this how?” Calix takes over the questions, which I’m relieved about because my head is already running with what I know of Nehandun. And why her brother might be there.
“Both Ever and Fenix are aware of me. I have been in their lives for longer than anyone.” It’s Kalan’s turn to put a defensive bite into his words.
A sharp crack rings in the air, in the close-quarters kitchen, followed by Lyle storming out, whatever she was doing now broken and forgotten. Anger and betrayal follow her like they are her shadow, threatening to pull her into the dark.
We all look at Kalan—his words, the reason for her despair, not because of the details, but because of his proclamation regarding Ever, when we all heard Lyle earlier. She sees herself as her mother. Yet, she’s not been able to protect her—was ripped away from her—and also lied to.
If I were feeling gracious, I’d wonder if she didn’t deserve what she’s going through, but she put Ever through her own torture of secrets and veiled truths.
“Who exactly are you?” Kyra breaks the silence. “You talk about them both and clearly haven’t been honest with either. Why? And why have you let Fenix grow up away from his sister?” Kyra’s questions are reserved and intelligent, given they’re about the man who killed her brother.
“I am a Natural. A Shepherd, if any of you even know what they are. I have my own loyalties, and that is for Ever to share, once I’ve explained it to her.”
“So, you’re going to help us get her back?”
“Is that your plan? Get her back?” He laughs, pushing himself back from the table and turning towards the sink. “You’re assuming she’ll want to come back. That she’ll leave her brother to return.”
“Yes. She belongs with us.” With me.
“She might not feel the same.”
“She will.” There’s no question in my mind.