After the Fire (After the Fire: Book the First) (6 page)

“Your
name,” said Fin, looking at her. “It's not Daci, you
know.”

Eleni
nodded. “My mother told me. It is from the South. From her
homeland. She struggled with the women of the village when I was
born. They wanted me to have a Daci name. My mother refused, she said
they treated us like outsiders, so she would name me anything she
pleased.” Eleni frowned, her eyes losing focus.

“You
miss her,” said Fin.

“Yes,”
said Eleni. “She was very kind. She used to come to see me
after they forced me out of the village. She would comb my hair every
day and tell me I was...” Eleni looked away, her voice
trailing.

“Tell
you that you were what?” said Fin. “Special? Amazing?
Beautiful?”

Eleni
smiled. “
Capable of great things,
” she said.

“How
do you know she's still in there?” said Fin, pointing to the
village with a piece of grass he'd been nibbling.

“Are
you cold?” said Eleni. “I could start a fire.”

“Don't
change the subject.”

Eleni
looked at him. The raven had gotten bored and flown nearby and was
digging at something in the ground with its beak. “I do not
know,” said Eleni. “I only hope.”

“Good
answer,” said Fin. “Hope is a powerful thing. I don't
envy your predicament.” He looked down at his boots and
furrowed his brow. “What if someone could get her out, to bring
her to safety? What if she's not who you think she is, and she could
survive the winter? Survive anything, really.”

“I
do not want to speak of this any more,” said Eleni. “She
is a woman, and she will not survive. You would say anything to get
me to go with you.”

“That's
not true,” he said quietly. “I wouldn't lie to you.”

“My
mother used to tell me to never trust the words of a man who wants
something. That advice has always served me well with the Daci men,
and it will serve me well with you.”

“You
can't live like this, Eleni,” Fin said, his voice so low it was
almost a whisper. “No one should live like this, let alone you.
You're better than this. You deserve to be worshiped.”

Eleni
stood up. “I do not wish to be worshiped,” she said
coolly. “I wish to be treated like a normal woman.”

“Eleni,”
said Fin. “You will never be normal. You were born to be
extraordinary.”

“You
know nothing about me,” she said. “I must hunt now.”

“It's
only just sunset,” said Fin. “Stay a little longer. I'm
sorry.”

Eleni
turned away. “I have to go.”

“Eleni,”
Fin was up and touching her shoulder. She looked at him. Most were
afraid to touch her. Like they would catch whatever made her unique.
“Sometimes...” said Fin, seeming to be having a hard time
finding the words. “Sometimes we can't control the way
things happen.”

“What
are you trying to say?” she said angrily. “Are you going
to try to force me to go?”

Fin
smiled. “As if I could.”

“It
would be very difficult,” she agreed.

“I
hope you will come with me willingly. That you'll change your mind.”

“How
long will you wait?” said Eleni. “A night? A fortnight?”

“Yes,”
said Fin.

“A
winter?” said Eleni. She nodded at the look on his face. “You
see? You just want what you want.”

“I
just don't think your mother is in that village,” said Fin. He
glanced back at the raven, which was now watching them with a keen
interest. “I think it's wonderful that you have such hope, but
I wouldn't want to be around if you found out otherwise. I have a
friend that wants to meet you. Someone that knew your mother.”

“Who?”
said Eleni, studying him. He pursed his lips.

“You
won't believe me,” he said finally.

“I
may.”

“She
is something of a relation to you. Some call her the Crone.”

Eleni
narrowed her eyes. “Why has my mother never spoken of this
crone?”

Fin
breathed out heavily through his nose. “She asked me not to
say. You won't believe it anyway. You think your mother is a mortal.”

“The
crone asked you not to say,” said Eleni. “The old woman
that is a secret relation to me. Immortals who cannot die. Do you
think me stupid?”

“She
is...ow!” Fin exclaimed as the white raven alighted and nipped
at his ear before flying back to the ground again and surveying them.
Fin touched his hand to his ear and looked at the drops of blood on
his fingers. He scowled at the bird who squawked at him loudly.

Eleni
stared at him. He shrugged, as if he didn't know what else to say.
Eleni snorted. “My mother was right. Men will say anything.”

She
had hunted all she could carry by the time the moon was directly
above her. It was full and hung round and heavy in the sky. She
thought about going back and trying to talk to Fin again, but she was
still angry. She didn't really understand the argument that they had
had, but she knew that he had tried to tell her absurd things. He
thought her a fool. Perhaps he was a Reiver
after all. Luring her away so his friends could attack the village.
As she walked across the field toward the village, the wolf growled
at her.

She
turned back to look at her friend. “I am sorry,” she
said. “I am very tired.” When she got to the gate she
threw the large bundle of polecats and ermines on the ground.

“Is
that all?” said a high male voice from above. She looked up to
see Rastin.

“Make
sure my mother gets as much as she can eat,” said Eleni. She
walked to her box and, surprising even to her, she pulled the door
closed. She just wanted sleep. The door still hung open a finger's
width across. It would only lock from the outside, so she couldn't
lock herself in, but she wanted to. She didn't understand it, but she
wanted seclusion tonight, even from the wolf.

Eleni
was startled from sleep by a sound grating on her ears. Metal against
metal. She blinked, sitting up. It was midmorning, she could tell by
the feel of the air around her. But something was wrong. She rubbed
her eyes, trying to make out what it was. She was groggy from sleep
and her head ached. She hadn't eaten the night before and she was
lightheaded.

The
birds weren't singing
.

Eleni's
eyes opened wide as the thought burst forward in her mind. The birds
were always singing. Something was always making a racket in the
forest. She listened for a long moment. Nothing. No sound at all. But
then she did hear something. The crunch of a footstep. A muted growl.
And then she smelled it. The scent of almost-wolf, almost-man. A
mixture of wildness and the stink of sweat and the smell of meat.
Reivers.
The same scent she had smelled last full moon when she had come back
late from a hunt. They had taken the sheep and Cosmin had blamed her.

She
sprang out of bed and pushed at the door. It wouldn't move. The sound
that had woken her must have been someone pulling the iron bar
against the hatch.

“No!”
Eleni cried, pushing harder on the door.

She
heard the first scream, then the soft thunking of arrows being
unleashed. A second scream. The smell of blood.

Eleni
clenched her fists, feeling the power build inside of her arms. She
placed her palms on the metal and let the fire go. The metal grew
hot, smoking as it turned red. Another scream, then the shriek of a
child followed more alarmingly by a silence. Then chaos. Women were
screaming, men were shouting threats, men were screaming. Children
were crying. It sounded as though they were being chased. The smell
of blood was so strong that Eleni was sure she would choke on it.

Her
hands started to melt into the metal. She tried to fuel more fire
into the metal, but she couldn't make it go any faster. Her hands
were halfway through the thick iron now.

The
screams echoed in the box, filling up Eleni's head. There was a
sickening wet thud above her. The shrieks were growing fewer at an
alarming rate. Eleni's head was swimming, her stomach roiling. She
had to get out, had to stop them. Her mother was in that village.

Then
with a final surge, her hands burst forward to the other side. She
felt cool air and pulled her arms in, looking out through the holes
she had made. The white raven sat just outside, nibbling on
something. With a wave of nausea, Eleni realized it was a finger. The
raven watched her without a sound, its eyes unmoving. The smell of
Reivers
and blood was thicker outside. She put her arm in the hole and tried
to reach the iron bar, to pull it up so the door could open. She
touched the metal with her fingertips, but could not grasp it. The
hole was too small to let her shoulder through and the bar seemed
wedged somehow.

Using
everything she had, she pushed on the edges of the holes she'd made,
using her fire and what little strength she had left to melt and push
and melt and push. The screams slowly abated. Eleni felt cool tears
running down her face. She had to get out, had to help, had to save
her. She put her arm in the hole again and pulled up on the bar. It
wouldn't move. Peeking out, she looked down to see that the metal had
been bent around the latch. Eleni pulled her head back in and worked
feverishly on the edges again. She would have to make the hole big
enough for her whole body. Finally, with one last shove, it was
finished. She pulled herself through the hole and fell heavily onto
the ground outside. On the ground next to her was the sound she had
heard on the top of the box. It was a head that had been ripped from
its shoulders. Cosmin.

The
raven was gone, along with the finger. It was quiet, so painfully
quiet that it hurt. Eleni walked toward the gate. The smell of
Reivers
was fainter now than it had been, but the smell of blood was far
stronger. She knew the Reivers
were gone. They had worked fast.

The
gate was bent open, as if someone – or something – very
strong had just forced it open. The edges of the metal were bent
outwards, leaving a gap big enough for a large man to pass through.
Eleni could hear her blood pumping in her ears and smell her own
bitter sweat. She slipped through the gap in the gate.

The
dead lined the path through the village. Eleni stepped over a woman
she recognized as Agata, a girl she had known as a child. She used to
throw rocks when Eleni tried to play with her. Eleni stepped over her
unseeing corpse. She saw women, men, children, all dead, their
throats ripped or bitten out, limbs lying nearby, guts sliced open.
The Reivers
had been brutal. A small high voice whispered when she got to the
center of town.

“Please,”
it moaned. There was a desperate whine to the voice. Eleni looked
around and finally saw where it came from. At the side of a house, in
the shadows, someone was sitting propped against a wall. Eleni
stepped over a small boy she had never seen before, his head caved
in.

“Rastin,”
she said as she looked down on the man. So large before, and so small
now. He shivered under her gaze. There was a wound on his neck that
he grasped at with one hand, trying to stop the blood that flowed
between his fingers.

“Why
did they not kill you?” said Eleni.

“I...”
Rastin stopped, swallowed, caught his breath. “I hid,” he
said, his voice a hoarse whisper.

“While
your people were being slaughtered?” said Eleni. “You are
no man.”

“Please,
help me,” he said. “I apologize. I know I have made
things hard for you.”

“You
tried to have me killed,” said Eleni. “I was only a
child.”

“I...sorry...”
Rastin's eyes were growing glassy. “Please...cauterize it. I
beg you.”

Eleni
looked down on him, cowering under her, begging her. There were tears
in his eyes and he was covered in dirt and blood. He was a coward. He
had let children die, women die, to save himself.

“No,”
Eleni said.

“What?”
said Rastin, his expression uncomprehending. “Help me,”
he said, his voice weak but demanding. “Cauterize my wound or I
will die.”

“Yes,
you will,” said Eleni. “I will let the gods judge you.”
She took a step back.

“No!”
said Rastin, wincing at the pain it caused him. He swallowed again.
“Come back and help me.” Eleni took another step back.
His face changed to an expression of loathing. “You whore! You
bitch! I should have killed you when I had the chance!”

Eleni
snorted. “You could not have killed me, small man. Die in your
own filth.”

“You
are the reason your mother left, you whore,” he snarled. “She
left because of you.”

Eleni
stopped. “You lie. She is here.”

Rastin
coughed, his eyes rolling up for a moment. He focused back on her.
There was blood spurting through his hand to the rhythm of his heart.
“She is not here,” he said. He spat the words. Then he
closed his eyes and went limp. His hand fell away, the blood no more
than a trickle now. Eleni stood staring at him, at his corpse, for
what seemed a very long time. Then she felt herself take a step back,
then another. Before she knew what she was doing, she was running.
And then she was standing in front of the house that she and her
mother had shared.

The
door was caved in, splinters of wood littering the mud outside. And
in the mud, just outside of the door, her mother's door, was a
footprint. A giant clawed thing, neither man nor beast. Eleni forgot
to breathe. She almost hoped that her mother had run away as Rastin
said. Fin had said it too, though in a much gentler way. Her mother
was not here. But she didn't believe it. She had to see it with her
own eyes. If she were still here, and she wasn't an immortal as Fin
had said, then she was surely dead. Eleni stepped through the door.

A
woman lay sprawled face-down on the floor just inside. She had long
hair, as Eleni's mother did, though she couldn't tell the color. It
was matted with something wet that was probably blood. It could have
been red or yellow. Darkness soaked into the dirt floor around her.
Claw marks sliced across her back, three curved lines that had gone
through her dress, skin, and most of her muscle. Eleni crouched down
next to her. She grasped her shoulder and flipped her over.