Ember (53 page)

My skin quivered just slightly.

“That you might be capable of more than you
let on.” His body turned towards me then, arms dropping to his
sides.

I looked out nervously, an innocent
expression, but I don’t think it was working.

“Something like this.” He lifted his hand up,
grabbing my attention. Then a silver flame shot up in his palm. He
had a sly smirk beyond it.

I looked to it, swallowing once, then back up
with a forced smile. “What? You mean
magic
?”

His smirk simply grew, silver eyes almost
ghostly in the dark surroundings.

My breath shuddered and I turned my body back
out to the woods. “That’s just silly.”

“Oh, I don’t think it is,” he said as he
pulled my arm to make me face him.

I don’t like this.

He moved his free hand up and around mine,
feeling through my fingers till he was lifting it up between us,
palm out. The silver flame from his own was curling
disconcertingly, lighting the area around us. “Come on, Evelyn. I
know you can do it.”

His eyes were hitting me hard. I
swallowed.

“Stop, Holdan. You’re scaring me.” I turned
to tear my hand away and move off, but he just gripped it tighter,
pulling me close to him.

“Don’t be a baby. Just do one little
spell.”

My throat constricted. I didn’t want his hand
on mine any more.

“Holdan!” yelled a voice from the trees. My
breath was shaking considerably. The sound of it made my knees
melt.

“Do you have a death wish?” he asked
fiercely, moving into the light of the flame. Holdan let go
immediately, Jaden’s face was livid. “What the hell do you think
you’re doing?”

I wrapped my now free hands around my body
and turned down, sniffling slightly.

“Jaden, relax. I was just messing around.” He
shrugged defensively.

Jaden moved forward. “You
ever
treat
her like that again and I’ll make sure you’re thrown out of here
for good.”

I eyed the ground harder.

Holdan seemed surprised, but duly
intimidated.

“Get out of here,” said Jaden, moving closer
to me.

The silver disappeared a second later, then I
heard footsteps walking away, and a door close. I didn’t feel brave
enough to look up until Jaden reached for the hand Holdan had been
gripping.

“You okay?”

I immediately turned back down. “Yeah.
I’m-I’m fine . . . he really didn’t do anything.” I tried to hold
my breath as his skin touched mine.

“Maybe . . .” he pulled the hand out closer
to him, till he was holding it between his own. “But the last thing
you need right now is someone bullying you.”

His eyes were down. He traced the tips of my
fingers gently with one of his.

My breath quivered. It had to be one of the
best things I’d ever felt. My other arm tightened helplessly
against my stomach.

“Don’t . . . ,” I gasped.
Too
quiet.

“What?”
He didn’t hear me.

He’d paused in his stroking to ask it. I
pulled my hand away then, tucking a hair back as cover for the
removal.

I could still sense his reaction.

“Is everyone doing okay inside?” I asked. It
came out quite affectedly.

His chest fell once, then he nodded slightly.
“Yeah. They’re all doing okay. . . .”

“How did it happen?” I put a hand up to my
collar bone, trying to still my trembling body.

His head shook then he looked over into the
woods. “They were going from their track to the gate, not even a
regular route, and the Meoden ambushed them.”

His tone was dismal . . . I couldn’t help but
look over to check his face.

I don’t know whether he was already looking
at me or if his gaze moved just in time to catch my own, but as
soon as soon as our eyes met I had to look away. His stare was so
deep and unclouded, everything I wanted to, needed to . . .

“When will you be leaving again?” I asked,
forcing myself into reality. The wind blew up around us.

He paused for a long moment, then sighed. “I
came to get Holdan so we could go. We’re leaving now.” He said it
rigidly.

My eyes closed, heart dropping. Still I
turned my head over happily anyways.

“That’s good,” I smiled. “I hope you guys get
caught up with everything.”

His expression was dark and cold, too much
for me. I sniffled again, then turned around to head inside.

I only saw him once before they left, and it
was only across the room. I was okay though, re-concentrating my
thoughts on what I could do for the wounded men. Now that the
artisans had gone through everyone, I doubted they were in much
pain, but their exhaustion was beyond apparent. I planned to spend
the night downstairs with them in case they needed anything, but
before I could sleep I had to check on Tanis. Now that the only
conscious defense artisan had gone, the idea hit me that maybe he
could have taken a look at Tanis . . . then again I remember Ikovos
telling me once that they weren’t able to cure common
sicknesses.

When I reached the study he was still lying
down and hardly moving. I stroked him for a while, tried to get him
to eat, then dropped my head in my hands sighing heavily.

“Ugh! What can I do? I’m completely
useless!”

Jaden and Ikovos were both gone again. All
the others were out fighting too. We were losing territory by the
day. Now patrols were being attacked. And all without a single word
of a victory.

I fingered a bowl on the table.

How long before they attack us here? And I
can’t even use magic.

With a grunt I knocked it across the
room.

What am I doing?!

The bowl rolled across the floor, settling
finally with a resounding tap.

I looked over at it, past the coffee table.
Then my eyes caught something, attention perking. The book. The
silver book with the stories of the Meoden and the Gaeln, it was
sitting out -untouched for days now.

“But Ikovos said . . .” My eyes fell. Then I
narrowed. “Ah, to heck with Ikovos, I have to do
something.
”
A small voice inside me said that that book would tell me how.

I jumped up immediately, snatching it as I
left the room. When I’d gotten back downstairs I checked around to
make sure everyone was still doing well. There was plenty of pace
for them, about eighteen in all. Trevor, Nate, and Lucas had stayed
too. They were grouped together over in the corner. The candles
that lit the space were sparring, I blew out a few more as I
stepped through, then grabbed the last to take by an empty mattress
on the floor against the far wall.

Glancing about the silent room once more, I
slid down and opened up the glowing book. At first I started off
where I’d ended before, but I quickly began to skim through more
intently, searching for specific subjects. Before long I was once
again completely absorbed within the world it held . . . I barely
slept at all that night.

By the time I saw Ikovos the next day, I’d
made it through a substantial chunk of it. Enough to convince me
that it was worth bringing up to him again.

“. . . And if says that that’s where the
people would go to find them. It’s just that . . .”

I stopped in my fervent explanation of a part
of the book in time to see Ikovos’s head fall over to one side. He
was laying in one of the beds in the laundry room, or rather the
sickbay as it were.

Being that he was the most advanced defense
artisan, he’d arrived at the lodge this morning to help with the
injuries. I was glad for it too because his group had gone on
without him, which meant that he was going to be staying here for
at least two days. Once he’d finished with the boys and caught me
up on all that was happening outside, he went to rest on a bed.
That’s when I’d followed him to show my book . . .

And now he’s falling asleep.

“Ikovos,” I complained, “are you listening to
a word of this?”

He peeked one eye open with the slightest
smirk in his eyes. “You were talking about the cream guys again,
right?”

“Oh, whatever, you’re no help,” I said,
furrowing my brow then turning my back against the bed.

I opened the book back up to study further.
After a second rolled off the mattress to sit beside me on the
floor.

“Alright,” he said, more alertly. “Tell me
again from the beginning. I promise I’ll listen this time.”

I smiled brightly then closed the book.
“Okay, it’s too big to tell you everything, but the important part
is—”“

“May I?” he reached out a hand towards the
book..

“Oh, sure.” I passed it to him, then he
started scanning through it. “Anyways, the part I wanted to tell
you about is when it mentions the Meoden’s rise in power.”

He looked over to me, one brow lifted. I
nodded.

“It happens at different points throughout
the book. Things will be going well enough,
balanced
at
least, between the good and the bad. Then, for whatever reason,
different
reasons, out of nowhere they’ll gain too much
control. That‘s when things start to go south . . . usually.”

“And you think that’s what’s happening now?”
he asked. He was looking at it again, flipping through the pages,
checking the first and last.

I stayed quiet. Answer enough.

He darkened, but quickly rearranged his
features till they held a much easier expression.

“Alright,” he drawled, “so we got attacked a
few times. But, Evelyn, come on, some lost outposts and a dozen
injured hardly amount to what you’re talking about.” He flipped the
book shut, turning back down.

“I’m not stupid, Ikovos.”

His face frowned oddly, eyes shifting to
me.

A group of boys walked past us, then I
whispered softly, gaze still ahead.

“I know there are things going on that you
don’t tell me about.”

He clenched his jaw and leaned towards
me.

“I don’t have to know what it is.” I
interrupted with a gaze. “. . . I just don’t want you to keep
acting like everything’s okay.”

He darkened further, almost pityingly, as I
turned back ahead.

There was a long pause.

“You said usually.”

“What?” My head turned.

“
Usually
things go south when the
Meoden gain power,” he repeated. Then passed the book back to me.
“Is there another option?”

I warmed at his at least attempt of
interest.

“That’s what I was telling you before—” I
nodded to the tome “—when the humans go to find the Gaeln. . . . If
they do, and they are found worthy, deemed to have a righteous
cause, the Gaeln will help them.”

He narrowed. “How so?”

I shrugged. “Fighting usually. Remember I
told you before that they’re protectors? Well, supposedly they—. .
.” I stopped mid-sentence, eyes widening in recollection.

“Evelyn?” checked Ikovos, brows lifted
dubiously.

“The painting!” I jerked up, then turned to
him. “I can’t believe I forgot about it.”

He looked confused.

“The Gaeln, when they come to help, they
fight with the humans, with artisans.” I jumped onto my feet.

He looked at me derisively. “Okay . . . I
still don’t get why you’re—”

“Will you come with me?” I asked suddenly,
looking down at him and biting into my lip.

Hs blue eyes were scrunched at me like I’d
gone loony, but he glanced around the room and leaned up
anyways.

“Ah . . . yeah.”

I smiled at him, then grabbed and pulled his
hands up to lead him up to the study. When we passed by it he
pointed back hesitantly.

“That was—”

“I know.”

He pursed his lips.

I marched on past the doors, stopping when
I’d counted down to the one with the burn mark, the one that I’d
seen the painting in all those nights ago.

“Evelyn, what’s making you so determined
about this stuff?” he asked, grabbing my hand before I could reach
the knob. “I mean, it’s a book, and it
could
be true, but .
. .” He looked more interested than skeptical.

I thought about the question. It was a good
one, why
was
I so sure that there was something to this? And
how could I possible think that
I
might know the answer that
could help everyone? . . .

“I don’t know,” I got out, head shaking. “I
just have a feeling.”

He gave me an odd look then, something I
couldn’t read, but it made me feel anxious.

When he released my hand I opened the door
carefully. Dust burst up into the air around us. The whole room was
like that. It must have just been too dark to see it that first
night . . . not that it was really much lighter now.

I coughed once, then we both started into the
darkness.

He gestured to my hand after a second.

“Ah, no,” I answered. “You do it.”
I’m not
too capable of the whole magic thing right now.

I left this part out.

He perplexed once, then put his hand out
ahead, lighting the room instantly in a vibrant blue. I followed
him as he stepped out in front.

“What is this? Storage?”

I shrugged. “I don’t really know, I just
wondered in here once.”

“Snooping?” He guessed, eyeing me.

I winced innocently, but then I saw the
backside of the canvas. It was lying just where I’d left it.

I hurried over, dropping down. As I picked up
the edge, Ikovos leaned in beside me, bending onto his feet. The
blue off his hand lit the rectangular sheet clearly, much better
than the small torch I’d used last time.

Taken in at once it was rather jaw-dropping,
though
literally,
just as I remembered. Meoden on the left,
in the dark . . . crawling over rocks and jagged ice peaks. Then,
on the other side, a myriad of white creatures, and humans holding
colored swords or glowing orbs of fire. Clouds stretched across the
top of the painting: light on the left side, then growing darker to
the right, the middle held a clashing swirl of both.