Bones of the Empire (20 page)

“What does it matter?”

Growling softly, Feanne let Estin know in no uncertain terms that he should not be arguing that point. Still, it was not a topic he wanted to discuss. He was ashamed of most aspects of his life before Feanne. Every action he had taken since then had been to stay with her and leave behind that past.

“No, we’re not doing this,” he replied firmly, holding his ground as she approached with a glare normally meant to frighten foes. “There weren’t any wildlings in Altis who weren’t caged. We all made mistakes. It doesn’t matter now.”

Feanne’s expression said otherwise. Estin tried to walk away, but she shoved him, blocking him from going around her.

“Fine, Feanne, you want to have this argument? How many males were there before me? I know about Insrin and that first fox your mother disapproved of when you were young, but how many others? You want a number from me, I want a number from you. It’s only fair.”

Feanne blinked and backed away, turning sharply, and started to walk again.

Unwilling to let it go, Estin ran to her and grabbed her by the wrist to spin her around to face him. “How many, Feanne? You want me to answer the same question. If it matters this much, I want to know too.”

Flinching and looking anywhere but at him, she yanked her hand free. “You are right. We shouldn’t do this.”

“Now we’re doing this,” he insisted, stepping in front of her as she tried to go around him. “It’s obviously bothering you enough that the ‘no regrets’ rule has been tossed aside. We’re talking about this now and getting it over with.” Feanne started to walk away, but Estin followed her. “How many? Three?” Feanne’s ears twitched, a sign she was hiding something. “Four?” Another twitch. “Answer the question!”

Feanne turned and tried to push past Estin, but he shoved her back, getting a vicious snarl in reply. She hesitated a second, but then she leaped at him, claws and fangs attempting to get a hold on him. He blocked and evaded as best he could, eventually using a tree as a shield, narrowly avoiding a swipe of her claws that shredded the bark near his face.

Coming around the tree swinging, Estin nearly managed to get a solid hit on Feanne’s ribs, but she spun in a way that reminded him of Raeln’s fighting style. She hooked his arm as she came around, locking his elbow and forcing him to the ground.

“Do not ever make demands like that again!” she hissed near his ear. “I am not that child anymore, and there are far too many regrets that I will spend my life trying to avoid adding to. Do not ask me again.”

Rolling forward, Estin yanked his arm free and nearly knocked Feanne over in the process. He got to his feet as fast as he could, barely managing to turn before Feanne slammed into him, driving him backward into a tree with enough force that it drove the breath from his lungs.

The two of them held their ground, Estin locking his hands on Feanne’s wrists, while she used her greater strength to keep him pressed against the tree. When he tried to move his tail around to strike at her from behind, Feanne stomped on it, pinning it down with her claws dug into the fur. His whole body ached as he struggled against her. This was not a fight he could win. Even without her magic, Feanne was faster and stronger than he was.

“Shhhh!” hissed another person, and both Feanne and Estin froze, moving only their eyes. They found Turess standing nearby, furtively glancing from one part of the woods to another. He looked terrified. “Do you hear?”

Relaxing slightly, Estin stared at in confusion, listening for anything out of place. Aside from his and Feanne’s panting, there was nothing he could hear at all, though Feanne’s ears twitched as she sought the noise as well.

“Is soft noise,” Turess said quietly, bringing his boots down as gently as he could as he made his way to them. Lowering his voice to a whisper, he added, “Must listen.”

With Feanne and Estin still frozen midfight, Turess came to their sides and eyed their interlocked arms, then Estin’s tail still pinned to the ground. Shaking his head, he tapped Feanne’s shin with his boot until she moved her paw off Estin’s tail. Next, he peeled Feanne’s hand off Estin’s shoulder, and Estin’s hands off Feanne’s arms, until they stood close but not touching. They both stared at him in confusion, straining to hear anything.

Taking Estin’s hand in his left and Feanne’s in his right, Turess whispered, “You can hear it if listen. Very faint. Say nothing for now.”

Putting their hands together palm-to-palm and patting them as he let them go, Turess smiled at Feanne and Estin’s interlocked fingers. “There it is. Sound of lover squabble end. Much better sound. Next time angry sounds happen, I put both wildlings in magic cage until calmer. Big waste of magic, but Turess does not make fake threats.” Turning on his heel, he walked away, whistling softly to himself as he disappeared among the trees.

“What just happened?” Feanne asked quietly, still not moving.

“He scolded us for fighting…like how we used to scold the kits.”

Eyeing their hands, Feanne’s shoulders drooped slightly. “He’s right. This was not something that should have come between us at all. I am still remembering things that were lost…not all of them are good memories, and they make me worry about my past more than I care to. It was easier in my old life to forget things years gone…remembering them now for the first time, I find myself wishing I had done many things differently. More than anything, I fear discovering something about myself that I cannot deal with, and I think I’m putting that fear on you, as well. I dread learning something about you…or us…that I am not ready for.”

Estin leaned closer to Feanne and let his whiskers brush hers, making her smile. “I understand, and having you gone for so long has made me scared of what we say and do around each other. If you want to know, I’ll tell you anything, but does it matter?”

Feanne shook her head, tightening her hold on his hand and putting the back of it to her cheek. “Not at all. I would only ask one thing.”

“What?”

“Why furless?” she asked, smirking as her eyes twinkled with mischief. “You say there were wildlings in cages. Free them and find a mate for a night. Why would you bed a human, let alone pay for that? I would have been fine with almost anything else…but a human?”

Laughing and pulling Feanne into a tight hug, Estin clung to her as they both relaxed.

*

The last day of the ride brought them from the foothills into the mountains proper, crossing terrain no horse would have managed. Though the wolves might have been an accident, Estin could see the value in having them there. The beasts continued to run hard, even on the rocky and uneven slopes, more than once choosing to slide down a hill in the loose snow to maintain their balance. Horses would have fallen many times over or been forced to detour.

Then the wolves picked up a scent and came to an abrupt halt, forcing Estin to cling to his wolf’s back. Turess went flying, tumbling across the snow.

“I have no idea what they are doing,” Feanne admitted, sniffing as she turned her head about. “Do you have anything, Estin?”

“Nothing,” he said. The air was crisp and he could smell goats somewhere nearby, but there was nothing he would term dangerous. At most, a bear had wandered past within the last few hours. “It smells like everywhere else out here.”

Climbing to his feet and dusting off his robes and coat, Turess scowled at his wolf and came back to stand near Feanne’s. Lifting the coin necklace from his shirt, he held it up in the dim moonlight and waited as it spun slowly, casting a thin beam of light somewhat northwest. He held it there for a minute as the beam shifted a little more west. Once it had settled, Turess walked slowly, and the beam moved slightly as he went.

“Old friend close,” he said, putting away the necklace. “Leave wolves?”

Feanne gave Estin a nervous glance before hopping down and patting her wolf on his flank. The animal watched her for a moment, almost as though waiting for a new command. When none came, the three wolves took off east as soon as Estin got to the ground. Within minutes the animals were far out of sight.

“We do not need wolves if old friend is welcoming,” Turess announced, giving them a half-hearted smile.

“And if your friend isn’t?” Estin asked, knowing Feanne was likely thinking the same thing.

Turess winced slightly as he turned and walked in the direction the coin had indicated. “If she is not welcoming, wolves make right choice by running.”

The three of them continued down the sloping hill, steadily descending into a narrow valley. Soon even the trees thinned out in the distance behind them, leaving little more than stone walls and ground around them.

They had been traveling for more than an hour in the closed space before Estin slowed and stopped, putting a hand to the wall of the valley. “Why are the stones warm?” he asked, realizing there had been no snow on the ground for some time. The ground had dried as they traveled. So far north, he would not have expected anything like that. Even his thick clothing felt far too warm for the weather, despite having felt overly thin hours earlier.

Turess quickly replied, “She like warm places. Maybe old volcano. Maybe steam from ground. Maybe magic. I choose not to ask last time. Had bigger worries, such as death.”

“We are after a wizardess?” Feanne asked, squinting and slowly sweeping her gaze over the valley. “You believe she will be strong enough to help us against your brother and his army?”

The muscles near his eyes twitching, Turess nodded vigorously and clamped his mouth shut. Both Estin and Feanne stared at him for a minute, but he kept silent.

“Let’s be done with this,” Estin announced, marching on. “The sooner we can get help, the sooner we might find out what happened to Raeln and the others. I hate not knowing. Plus, if we’re running out of time, it’s a long trip back into Turessi from here.”

They continued for another hour, with Turess occasionally pulling out the coin to verify they were going the right way. Each time the beam of light was more accurate, wavering less. Eventually, they came to a curve in the valley and found themselves facing a small wooden hut with smoke rising out of a chimney. The coin pointed right at it, but then went dark, the beam vanishing. Turess jingled the chain on the coin, as though trying to make the beam come back. A moment later, the smoke stopped rising from the house’s chimney.

“What does that mean?” Feanne asked, eyeing the coin.

Before Turess could reply, the beam appeared again, the light pointing behind them.

“It means that I moved,” answered a gruff woman’s voice right behind Estin. When he spun, he found an elven woman with long grey hair down to her waist and a faded old dress standing within five feet. There was no scent that accompanied her appearance. Leaning to look past Estin, the woman added something in Turess’s native language.

“What did you just say?” Estin asked, backing up a few steps.

“I reminded him that he was going to die if he came back.”

From behind Estin, Turess replied, “I have died once. Times do change. Forgive?”

Growling, the woman grabbed Estin’s shirt and fur and hurled him against the wall of the valley with enough force that he blacked out briefly. When he came to, the old woman had Turess held off the ground while Feanne tore ineffectually at the woman’s back with her claws. Somehow Feanne’s claws did not appear to even be getting through the woman’s dress, let alone her skin. Armored men had fared far worse against her claws.

“I was reasonably clear that the prophecies were nonsense!” the woman roared at Turess, shaking him violently. “Why didn’t you leave it alone?”

As Turess tried to answer, the woman hurled him into the side of the house, shattering the wooden planks and dropping him inside. The woman turned on Feanne, making a curt gesture with one of her hands. As she did, Feanne froze midswing, her eyes going wide as she fought to move.

Taking a deep breath as though to calm herself, the old elven woman began studying Feanne, leaning first one way, then the other. She sniffed softly and shook her head before coming over to Estin. “Do not get up,” she warned as she approached, sniffing again. “I know why you are here, and I would hope Turess told you enough to keep you from being an idiot, Estin.”