Heir of Pendel (A Pandoran Novel, #4) (44 page)

"It needs to be bandaged," he said, "but we don't have any linens, so you'll need to keep it clean. And I suppose it goes without saying that you'll need to take it easy."

I was too weak to reply, but he didn't expect me to. And I realized that I'd just forgiven Myez for everything without meaning to.

With each day that passed, I grew more and more restless. I was sitting here, weak and helpless, in a cave with Myez—a man I barely knew—while this world was at war and Alex was who-knew-where. I still had no sense of him, and this unnerved me more than anything else.

I'd been keeping track of the days on the wall of our cave. So far, we'd been here one week. Myez seemed to think—and I agreed—that in one more week, we'd both be well enough to attempt the mountain passes. I'd since decided we were going to stick together, and, to my surprise, Myez hadn't disagreed. Still, the waiting was torture, so I tried to keep myself preoccupied with menial tasks.

The scabs on my shoulder began falling off and his artwork shone through. The ink wasn't as dark as I'd expected, but the swirls and writing were all perfect, curling around my arm and shoulder like thin vines, clean and precise and even more beautiful than I'd imagined. I liked having my family branded on my skin. It reminded me that I was a Regius and a Pandor, a sum of my parts, and no matter what Eris did to me—no matter how he threatened—he could never take that away from me.

I found Myez's company easy, and I think he enjoyed mine too. Sometimes I would catch him watching me. Not in a creepy way, or anything like that, but just watching me, quiet and thoughtful as if he were remembering something that brought him joy. Sometimes he'd ask me about my life and what it'd been like growing up on Earth. It was so strange talking about my life on Earth. So much had happened to me in the past year that the girl who'd grown up on Earth seemed like another person. A very naïve and ignorant person with whom I felt a sense of detachment. I couldn't help but realize she was the girl Alex had known. She was the girl Alex had said he'd loved, and I had no idea how someone so strong and so responsible and so…valiant, could ever find anything in that little, naïve girl to love so much.

Myez had said he'd heard about Alex well before ever meeting him, and when I'd bombarded him with question after question, Myez graciously told me everything he knew. How Alex had been in the top of his class at the Academia. How Alex had set almost every record there, and how his reputation had spread fast throughout mainland, for all his talent and all the good he'd done in such a short span of time. There hadn't been a lord who wasn't bartering to appoint Alex as their personal aegis. Even Lord Commodus Pontefract wanted Alexander Del Conte's service, despite Danton's protests, but in the end it hadn't mattered because Lord Roderik Tosca had won the bid with King Darius's permission. And I knew his winning probably had something to do with Alex's distance away from me.

This was the Alex I was only beginning to know, since I'd missed out on the last three years of his life, so I devoured everything Myez said about him—even when he said it was no secret that King Darius had sent Vera to serve in Alioth with Alex, because my grandfather thought it would make a suitable match. I remembered the dance at the festival, Vera in that voluptuous red dress, and, thanks to Lord Cethin, the memory was
very
clear. I didn't like remembering Vera in that way, especially after all we'd been through together. She'd become a good friend, one I trusted with my life, but hearing this from Myez struck a sour note in me. Because at the end of the day, Vera had been there for all of Alex's victories and I had not.

I asked Myez if my grandfather usually busied himself with aegis' love lives, to which Myez replied, emphatically, "no," and we both knew why my grandfather had busied himself with Alex's. Actually, according to Myez, the whole kingdom knew, though they pretended they didn't. When I asked Myez how the whole kingdom had known, when I'd been such a dolt about the whole thing, all he said was, "King Darius's beautiful granddaughter arrives, and he sends his most talented, promising aegis as far
away
as possible. You do the math."

I didn't need to be very good at math to solve that one.

Myez also added that when I arrived on Gaia, he didn't know if the kingdom's sudden infatuation with me was because I was a long-lost princess, or because I was the "girl who'd caught the eye of Aegis Alexander Del Conte." Apparently, the whole kingdom had been obsessed with catching Alex's eye, even though he'd never expressed interest in the kingdom. This made my heart feel a little fuller.

Myez let me stand up as long as I put most of my weight on my good ankle. He even let me walk around some, as long as I didn't walk very far or for very long. My ankle throbbed, but it wasn't nearly so bad now. All that rest had helped me heal. I still couldn't lace my boot all the way, but at least I could put it on—even with our feeble bindings. I was even able to explore some nearby sections of the valley.

I'd used more pumice stones to tag my path so I wouldn't get lost, even though I never walked very far. After that last venture, I wasn't taking any chances. There'd been a huge patch of huckleberries about a quarter-mile from the stone trench, and I'd gotten pretty good at hobbling my way from our cave and through the trench to that particular patch of berries. So good, I didn't have to look at my stone markers very much. The berries and bark helped stave off total starvation, but we were still famished. I even started dreaming about food. Strangely, those dreams revolved around hamburgers and French fries—which I hadn't eaten in forever. In fact, they were starting to feel like nightmares, since I'd wake even hungrier and more miserable than before. All those years I'd taken In-N-Out for granted. I wondered if the people of Gaia had ever had a hamburger and French fries before. If not, maybe I'd suggest a new business venture for Myez once this war was over.

We were well in to the second week, and I'd had it with the berries and decided to go hunting. Myez had suggested we do this sooner, but being that I'd never hunted before, the idea hadn't sat very well with me. I liked animals. I wasn't a vegetarian by any means, but I often thought that if I'd had to kill my own food on a regular basis, I'd probably become one. When I'd first come to this world, the Del Contes had done all the hunting along the way. I hadn't been the one to deliver that killing blow. I hadn't had to watch the life drain from that animal. I hadn't had to feel its pain or watch the glow of life die in its eyes.

But almost two weeks on a diet of berries cured me of my hesitation, and after I helped Myez construct a makeshift spear out of sharpened pumice and a tree branch, the two of us set out through the trench and into the vale. I knew there were small animals out here aside from the crow. Along my berry-picking escapades, I'd seen a few of what looked like rabbits with short ears, something else that resembled a fox, and another creature that looked like a squirrel with a tail the size of a feather duster. Of course, at the time, their sudden presence had almost given me a heart attack, as I'd remembered those shadow demons I'd seen, but now I was thankful I might have something to eat besides a berry.

Myez and I found a little patch of shrubbery to hide behind, and both of us crept into position, and we waited.

And waited.

For hours.

I was starting to doze off when Myez nudged me in the ribs. I lifted my head to look in the direction where he was pointing, and I saw a large rabbit there, nibbling on blades of grass.

I took a deep breath. We'd gone over this. Over and over again. Though Myez was undoubtedly the expert here, I had the benefit of two good arms (well, one good arm and one mostly good, post-tattoo arm), so we'd decided I'd make the kill. I'd had years of training, and my coordination was sharp, minus the bad ankle. I'd also had the more recent misfortune of witnessing death, so how hard could this be?

I crept closer, careful to keep my steps silent. Crouching low, slow and stealthy, as I raised the spear. And then, sensing me, the rabbit went still. It turned its head in my direction, unable to see me but watching the bush I was hiding behind with that glossy black eye, that blade of grass hanging halfway out of its mouth. And then I thought of Thad, chewing on grass as he smirked and smiled without a care in the world. I thought of my father, too, the moment he died, and then I thought of Stefan. Stefan, who'd been caught like this rabbit, unaware of the blade that would end his life.

Myez's hand squeezed my good heel, urging me to move before it was too late. Urging me to strike. The rabbit blinked. I raised the spear. I took a deep breath and clenched my teeth. And then I threw the spear.

It arced low and fast and impaled the bush behind the rabbit, and the rabbit took off into the fog. I exhaled, feeling disappointed and relieved, but mostly relieved, and Myez cleared his throat behind me. I looked over my shoulder to find him frowning.

"Did you want to keep eating berries, then?" he asked.

"I…I couldn't do it."

"I can see that." He nodded toward the bush.

I pinched my lips together and hobbled over to the spear, and when I returned to him he held out his hand for the spear.

"But you said your arm—"

"Never mind what I said. You can watch me today." He made a cupping motion with his hand, and I gave him the spear. Within the next thirty minutes, and even though he'd used his off hand, we had three squirrel-like creatures impaled and swinging from our spear, and apparently, they weren't called squirrels but scuriols.

Myez asked me if I was feeling up to making a fire while he skinned and prepared the scuriols. Up until this point, we hadn't made a fire because we weren't sure what other sorts of creatures it might attract, and we hadn't really needed one anyway because the nights weren't uncomfortably cold. However, if our presence here was going to draw any predators, like those shadow demons, it would've done so by now—fire or not. So tonight, we were going to have a fire, and I was going to make it.

Since we couldn't use magic, and since no one on this cursed planet had ever heard of a match, I was forced to make one the hard way—with grit, muscle, and sheer will power. Meaning, I'd have to use a bow drill, which, luckily for me, didn't require the use of both feet. There were other ways to make a fire, but this was the only method I was familiar with, though to say I was
familiar
was generous. I'd done it once, with Alex, in his backyard in Yosemite.

First, I needed something to use as a spindle, so I broke the end off Myez's spear (he wasn't very happy, but his hands were covered in blood so he couldn't do anything about it). I found a small rock to use as a socket, and for the bow, I broke off another slightly curved branch from the tree outside our cave entrance, and I used one of my bootlaces for the cord. I grabbed another piece of wood from the tree to use as a fireboard. It wasn't as dry as I thought it should be, but I didn't have a lot of options out here. I used a rock to carve a small notch out of my fireboard and to shave off bark and more wood to use as tinder, and I placed some of the tinder beneath the notch in my fireboard. Then, I looped my spindle in the bowstring, used one hand to apply pressure to the end of spindle with my socket, set my boot on the fireboard to hold it down, and with my other hand I started sawing. I sawed and sawed, back and forth, faster and faster until the board started smoking. Once I was satisfied I had a hot coal, I carefully removed my fireboard, lifted my now-smoking tinder and moved it to the larger pile of tinder, and blew gently on it until small flames sparked to life. I set the flaming tinder pile on the ground.

"Good work." Myez looked pleased as he observed my little fire.

"Thanks." I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. "Honestly, I'm a little surprised you trust me with a fire."

"That's why I waited almost two weeks before suggesting it." He grinned. His grin had taken some getting used to, since only one side of his face could do it, but now I found it charming. In a way.

I grinned back at him, and within the hour, we had three scuriols cooked and charred. It was our first meal in almost two weeks, if you could call it a meal. The meat was tough and dry and bland, like jerky without any flavoring, but having something other than berries in my belly felt like heaven, and I was so satisfied I fell asleep even before the fire died.

***

I stood in the middle of an endless desert, or what looked like one. The landscape was barren in all directions and the sun was hidden beneath a blanket of thick, black smoke. I'd seen this before, in my dreams when I'd first entered Gaia. I'd seen this very same scene when I'd stumbled into the fiori, and it had haunted me afterward, but now bodies lay everywhere, bleeding and suffering and dead after a great battle, and then I felt the pain. Sharp, overwhelming pain, as if every soul in the world were slowly being ripped from their bodies.

And then I saw Alex, just as I'd seen him before. Lying on the ground, dying, while his life seeped out of open wounds, soaking into the dry, dead earth. I fell to my knees beside him, sobbing, but it was too late. He was gone and there was nothing I could do to save him.

"There shall be much violence in your future, young daughter of Alaric and Aurora,"
said the same whispers from before, and they seemed to come from everywhere. But this time they went on to say,
"You are the only one who truly understands the choice before you. You are the only one with the knowledge and the heart to make the right decision, and you must be prepared for it, or all you see now will come to pass."

28

ALEXANDER

I
kept my breaths shallow to ward off the burning pain in my ribs. My jaw and temple throbbed, but I stumbled along after Theon, trailing my hand on the wall for support. Sometimes Thaddeus would grab hold of my arm to steady me, and this was usually followed by a quiet string of threats aimed at Denn.