25. Chapter 25
Icould feel the change in the air the next morning.
It was a similar feeling to the one on the morning of the Black Shroud, an icy chill sinking into my skin as I readied for the day.
We were supposed to leave the camp and continue our way south, Malik’s army in tow. Yet something told me no such thing would be happening.
Our clothes brushing over our skin were the only sounds in the tent as Malik and I dressed.
The air between us had changed in the last few days, the remainder of the walls we had put up over the last ten years finally crumbling.
It was strange, to think again of our future.
That nearly losing one another in the avalanche had made us cling to each other, and now that we had made it through, I couldn’t help but wonder what the future would hold between us once we defeated the king and saved Rida.
Would we have to contend with our fathers and Therian?
Would we finally run away with one another like we had always dreamed of, or would we become strangers again?
I didn't let my mind dwell on it as I finished readying for the day. I could hear the rustle of the camp outside, ready for Malik and I to do our final rounds before we left.
But the moment we walked out of his tent, it did not take long for me to see what was amiss.
We stood there, taking in the sight before us, tasting the treachery in the air. The flags of the mainland king and his men were now littered throughout the encampment, their banners flapping in the wind in a predetermined victory.
I looked over at Malik, watching betrayal line his face. My heart ached for him, for how devastating it must be to watch everything you have worked so hard for turn against you in just a moment.
"This can't be right," he said.
Yet it made sense. Kain had told us that the mainland men had been spotted going through the strait, that they were right on our tail.
And looking out over the camp, it seemed as if some of their men had already made their way here, possibly before we even arrived, and had been hiding in plain sight this entire time.
The camp was positioned on the east side of the mountain range with easy access through the strait from the shore.
Seeing his banners fly in the camp before me, I had no doubt that the king had landed in Wellea right as we took off from Sorrel, dispersing his men to locate any citizens they could, spreading their rhetoric against the Mother Blessed before making their way to Rida.
It seemed change had spread slowly, much like the rot had, ever since I arrived at this camp.
That just a few days ago, Malik’s men had lied to us, saying that the rumors about the Mother Blessed’s desire for control were just speculation, but really it was corruption and indoctrination to the lies that the mainland men were determined to spread.
Once our presence was noticed, it didn't take long for the excited murmurs to drop to something much more sinister, much more hushed.
I felt the people's disdain for Malik, but even more so, for me.
They cast sidelong glances in my direction as they walked in front of Malik's tent, judgement passing with just a simple look.
Some looked at us with hatred, while others had sorrow on their faces, like they knew what was happening and didn't stand for it but had nowhere else to go.
A jeer came from the back of the camp where a large group of people were gathered around the lone centennial tree I had found before the blizzard.
They cut down the thicket leading to it, making quick work of destroying the trees there, the centennial now standing out in the open, exposed to the group that now surrounded it.
I had been right in feeling someone had watched me that night before the blizzard, that someone had seen me communing with the Mother and had thought the worst of it.
Seeing the crowd, Malik grabbed my hand, speeding through the camp, pulling me alongside him as he moved closer to where the men gathered. We approached the crowd, pushing our way through as sneers painted the men's faces, Malik's hand tightening on mine.
"They think we will just follow them into whatever battle they deem important!" a man at the front of the crowd yelled. "As natives of Uscal, we always knew that the Dures didn't really care about us, that they only used our home as their personal safe haven."
The men roared at this, their yells full of contempt and anger.
"I don't understand," Malik said as he tried to make sense of his men's jeers.
"And now he thinks he can just come back, bringing this harlot along with him!" The voice was familiar, and it only took us a few steps to see Kain at the front of crowd, commanding their attention with his words. The crowd cheered louder at this, their voices rising with every heckle.
"I will not stand for this," Malik growled, letting go of my hand and making his way deeper into the throng.
"Malik, no!" I exclaimed, but it was too late. He had already drawn attention to himself, the crowd moving to surround him on every side, lips snarled and swords drawn.
"Is this how you repay me after all I have done for you?
" Malik exclaimed as he entered the center of the circle of gathered men.
"This is how you repay me for all of the nights I spent with you all in the wilderness as we tracked down the mainland men who threatened your homes?
Your families? My family has come here to Wellea to further save you all from a bloody demise, but it seems as if you all care about power more than prosperity. "
"We care about not being taken for a fool," a voice from the crowd responded.
The men parted to make way for Beric, the healer who had examined me when I first came to the camp. Gone was the caring look of a healer, now replaced with disgust and contempt.
"Beric," Malik breathed. "You're the last person I thought who would be swayed by the mainland men's nonsense."
"Is it nonsense? Or is it the truth? You've made a fool of us bringing us all this way without telling us the truth of things."
"No one thinks you a fool," Malik spat. "If there is any fool here, it is me, for thinking you all were loyal enough to not be swayed so easily."
"I am swayed because you have not been fully truthful with us, sir," Beric said.
"And what have I not been truthful about?" Malik asked.
Beric pointed a finger towards me. "Your harlot is one of those filthy women who think the ground beneath their feet speak to them.
They think more of the dirt than a king with a mind of his own.
I saw her, speaking to that tree before the blizzard, like someone who had lost their mind.
There is no doubt she was the cause of the weather that set us behind.
We even lost some of our own in the blizzard she caused! "
A ripple of shock passed through the crowd as the weight of a thousand stares landed on me, the crowd looking at me as if I was other, as if we hadn't all spent the last days with one another, like I hadn't proven myself as trustworthy and more than a consort Malik dragged along on his travels.
"The Mother Blessed do not hold that kind of power," I spoke. "We only work with Yllsora. We do not control it."
"So you are one of them," Beric said, his eyes alight with giddy accusation. "You are the reason why we were forced from our home."
Disbelief shone on Malik's face at Beric's words before it hardened to stone at the realization that the mainland king had gotten to his men in perfect timing with my arrival.
I knew coming to Wellea had to be a shock to these people, and that being forced to leave one's home was one of the most difficult decisions someone could make, but I never thought Malik's men would hold so much disdain against the Mother Blessed for it, when in reality, it had not been our fault at all.
I wanted to believe that Malik's people were like him, with unwavering loyalties and a belief that the Mother Blessed were doing what was best for Yllsora, that the mainland men were manipulating those with little knowledge of our true work.
But when I took in the looks on their faces, I knew that could not be further from the truth.
Beric turned to Malik. "The mainland men have told us of what her kind is capable of. We will have nothing of it!"
"You think more of the king who destroyed your home?" Malik seethed. "The very same who caused us to flee?"
"I do, now that I see what his cause is, why he is doing what he is doing."
"All he wants is power," Malik argued. "And you're giving it to him by blindly believing his words."
"And all her kind is doing is killing the earth," Kain interjected, jabbing a finger at me. "We know the king wants her, and he has offered us a high station at court on the mainland, homes for our families, if we turn her in. And that is not an opportunity I will pass up."
The men's looks the previous day in the tent suddenly made sense. They knew who I was, what I was to the king, and had worked all night gathering their supporters for this very moment.
"She could be your lady," was Malik's only response.
This time, gasps filled the air, from both the crowd and from me.
If there was one thing I knew, it was that being a wife to a general was a great protection, a rank some women strived for.
And this crowd saw me as nothing more than a whore, a fleeting plaything Malik had picked up in his short time on Wellea, someone not worthy of such a title.
At the crowd's reaction, Malik moved me behind him, his body blocking me from those who surged forward.
"I have not introduced her properly to all of you, for her own protection.
She is the daughter of the Alsunia family, the other family that ruled Sorrel alongside my own.
She is the reason we came to this land. Not only because her father holds one of the most powerful armies on Wellea, but because she is a Guide of the Mother Blessed.
We need someone like her family on our side if we are going to defeat the men who pushed all of us out of our homes.
We need her if we are going to save Rida, and thus save Yllsora. "
"Yet your fathers launched into a fight because you proposed to her, didn't you, Malik?"
The jeers of the crowd only became louder, closing in on us as Kain continued to talk.
"And when she didn't accept," Kain mocked, "you decided to follow her on her quest to Rida, leading us all to our death. Admit it, you made your decisions in haste, and now you refuse to address what you have done."
Malik was silent at the Kain's accusations, for there was nothing he could say to refute them. Everything was true, and my being here only proved it further.
"I have known her my entire life, and we were once promised to one another.
So while my proposal to her may have seemed hasty to you, trust that it was done after a long period of patience.
Trust that I knew if she did accept my hand, we would be on our way to victory, and you all would have your home back. "
"You should have never taken our home in the first place," Kain said.
“You know well enough that my family did not take Uscal from you. We arrived with a spirit of peace, ready to make a new home. We did everything we could to make Uscal that home, learning your ways, teaching you ours. And when the mainland men arrived, we stood by your side, defending you. I lost my home that day too, my mother as well. And never once did I ask for anything but your loyalty to help me when we came here to Wellea. I’m asking you again, to stand beside me so we can fight the mainland men together.
After that, we can go our separate ways if that is what you wish. ”
Kain shook his head.
"We will not fight with one of those Mother Blessed at our side.
We will not have one of those Mother Blessed women be our lady, even if it means turning our backs on you.
Your mother was a great woman, but we won't stand for them crusading the world with their beliefs.
The mainland men have promised us that if we fight for their cause, fight for their king, we can reclaim what is rightfully ours.
And that is what we are going to do, because we are loyal to Uscal before we are loyal to you.
You have half an hour to get out of this camp.
After that, you no longer have our protection. "
Not a single emotion settled on Malik's face as he took each of his men in—the men he built a life with over the last ten years, the men he had fought beside, the people who had become his brothers—now strangers.
He looked at them all with detached, dead eyes, as if a part of him had known this was a possibility, something he had prepared himself for.
This was the first time he seemed the warrior I imagined him to be all these years. A hard exterior, and an even harder interior. A force to be reckoned with.
"Thank you for your candor, gentlemen. I'm glad to have fought alongside you while I did," he said, his voice telling nothing, the voice of a leader who knew what had to be done, even if he did not want to see if through.
And with those final words, Malik grabbed my hand in his, leading us out of the crowd and back to his tent one last time.