Sea of Sighs (Empath Book 2) (10 page)

Next, he tended to all of the swords,
cleaning them down with a rag and making a mental note to run over
them with a whetstone later when he was on watch. It was going to
be a long night. Ross wouldn’t let them go to sleep without any
protection again. Quinn’s bloody shriek had sounded like a cry of
fear from the spirits themselves, jolting him out of sleeping and
into immediate alertness. Ross had woken just in time to see Quinn
dodged a swing meant to decapitate.

Sammah’s mercenaries moved liked shadows,
and were infamously deadly. None of them would have made a move to
wake the girl, so she must have used her ability to detect them,
somehow. The thought gave Ross pause. The mercenaries were so
useful to men like Sammah, because even when captured, they
couldn’t be made to talk. Beyond basic affirmation, the mercenaries
were useless. But with Quinn, they might be able to glean something
more meaningful. Ross knew, after her experiences with Sammah, he
couldn’t force her. Quinn would have to volunteer to interrogate
their captive, and if she refused, Ross would have to execute him,
information or no. The man posed them a constant threat.

After Ross had completed his menial chores
and double-checked the bindings on their prisoner, he returned to
the fire. The fingers of its flames were reaching higher now. They
weren’t afraid of being attacked again. Sammah didn’t have men to
spare, and hopefully couldn’t hire new men from the confines of the
Everfell gaols.

“Sorry, the fire got away from me. Is it
going to attract more of them?” Maertn asked in a timid voice.

Ross shook his head, no. “Quinn would
probably be able to detect them if they were coming, and she hasn’t
mentioned anything. I think she saved our lives tonight.”

Maertn hunkered down next to Quinn, stroking
her hair and tucking her in tighter. The shock of her dream had
exhausted her, and she’d fallen asleep as soon as Maertn had got
the fire going again. “These shocks always seem to take it out of
her the worst. At least this time she’s not ill. I wouldn’t know
what to do.”

“That’s why she needs to be in Sha’sek. I’m
hoping they’ll know what to with her.”

“I’m not sure they will, you know. Empaths
are rare, like you’ve said, and Sammah was
so
intent on
studying her. I don’t think it was just because he wanted to…”
Maertn baulked at the word, “
mate
with her. I’ve been trying
to read that book. Empaths always kept themselves, isolated, except
for the healers that helped them. I suppose, after seeing Quinn
grow up, I can completely understand why. I think the notes Sammah
has added to what Sammen already knew is equal to, if not far
beyond, what they will know on the islands. Who else has studied
empaths so closely? Who else would have dared?

“Their rarity would have hindered more
studying than any danger they might have faced. If Sammah’s
conjecture is true, then Quinn is going to be stronger than Nerren.
Little wonder that Sammah was obsessed. They’re going to either
adore Quinn in the islands, or they will try to run her through. We
can only pray that it’s the former; we can’t protect her if a mob
thinks that she’s going to turn into another Nerren.”

They sat in a miserable silence for a short
time, a thick silence joining the early morning air, along with the
cloying smoke from the fire. Ross couldn’t bear it for long. Maertn
wasn’t going to go to sleep, and if there was anything that made
the hulking veteran feel uncomfortable, it was awkward
silences.

“How do you feel about this journey
Maertn?”

Maertn, who had been sitting with his chin
in his hands, jerked his head up.

Maertn took too long, and Ross decided to
give him a prompt. “Don’t think about what you want me to hear,
think about what you need to say. It’s imperative that you and
Quinn are both completely honest with me, and with each other,
otherwise I won’t be able to help you properly. If there’s anything
you’re scared about, or anything you need, you must tell me.”

Maertn swallowed nervously, “Ah, well, I
don’t know what to say, Ross. I don’t know what to say, because I
don’t know
what
to expect. I came because I knew that Quinn
needed
someone
with her. I wasn’t expecting anyone else to
come with us.”

“And would you have still come with her if I
hadn’t been here?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then Quinn alone isn’t the reason you
came?”

“I do realise that I’m Sha’sekian too, and
that I’ll be finding out more about myself. But my motivation was
Quinn. I came with her to protect her, and I’m going to keep doing
that, whether you’re here or not.”

Ross smiled thinly. Quinn needed allies like
this; men who would stay by her side no matter what the outcome.
There were not many men like that in the world any more, and
thankfully for Ross, was Maertn was one of them. Ross didn’t know
if he was one himself, but he was willing to try for this girl.
“That’s good, Quinn will need you. She’s always needed you.”

Maertn looked bemused. “How do you know
that?”

Ross laughed, but immediately shushed
himself as Quinn stirred in her sleep. “You think I didn’t notice
the little people whilst I was running around after the nobles back
in Everfell?” Ross was playful, but kept his tone low to try and
let Quinn rest.

Maertn rolled his eyes. “Of course, I keep
forgetting. I don’t usually expect courtiers to be able to swing
swords like you do. I suppose everybody forgot that you were a
veteran in the wars once peace came.”

“Believe me Maertn, Vance didn’t forget it.
There was more than one reason he placed me where he did. Why just
have a captain of the guard, when you can pay to have a successful
mercenary at your back? I’m loyal to the king, no matter what my
history in the wars. My ability to fight was, of course, well
known. There were nobles overlooked so I could be at the king’s
side, effectively. Can you imagine the kind of reception I
got?”

“Is that why he’s willing to let you go now?
To keep the peace?”

Ross’s eyes twinkled. “I think so, yes.
Between us, Eden and I convinced Vance that having a grizzled war
veteran—a Sha’sek sympathiser, as some think—hanging around court
might not be a good idea. Your kind aren’t exactly this month’s
favourite food at court.”

“So the king has sent you away, because he
expects there might be a war with Sha’sek?”

“He let me go because he thinks there’s
going to be a war, and he wanted to make sure his most talented
healer was brought home alive.”

“Brought home? And when do you think that
will be? The way things are, I’ll be surprised if I’m still alive
by the end of this year.”

“Here now that, that’s no way to think of
things. You can’t help Quinn with moping around. What’s wrong, left
a nice lad behind, have you?”

Ross laughed as Maertn gaped. “Maertn,
please, you really think I missed
anything
whilst I was
chamberlain? I knew you before you knew yourself, Maertn, and I
also know that you had a noble admirer, though you’d have needed to
ask in some very particular circles to know that.”

“Quinn didn’t know,” Maertn said.

Ross was surprised by this, and said as
much. “Really? I thought being an empath, she’d have had a full
head start on you, on that front?”

Maertn smiled. “It was her ability that
confused matters. It seems that being an empath doesn’t make you
omniscient. Before, when her emotions weren’t selective...I mean,
when she didn’t have a choice at whose emotion she could feel and
who she could lock out, she could always feel the way I felt for
her when we spoke. She thought I was in love with her. I suppose
that is true, I do love Quinn, just not in that way.”

“I take it she was never around you when you
were speaking to the stable hands?”

Maertn blushed a furious red under his thin
layer of stubble. “She wasn’t.”

“This isn’t the end of your life, Maertn.
It’s just the beginning. She’s vulnerable now, but Quinn might not
always need you there. And, you never know, you might meet someone
else on the islands.”

“I doubt it; it was hard enough to meet
Petr.”

Ross grinned, feeling genuine pleasure at
having a benign heart-to-heart with this pleasant and blatantly
overlooked young man. “I think you’ll find that, contrary to
popular belief, Sha’sek is a lot more civilised than you think it
is. It doesn’t matter there, who you love. Man, or woman, no one
will bat an eyelid. It’s all about power, over there. As a
strongly-gifted healer, you’re going to be pulling in your fair
share of suitors. Some of them might even come from the noble
houses.”

“Men? And no one will care? Are you
serious?”

“Yes,” Ross said firmly and without
hesitation. “And why should it matter? Opinions like that should
have died years ago, with our ancestors. Only a few people in
Everfell now really care about those things, it’s just unfortunate
that the majority of those are in positions of power. If you spent
any time out in the city, and other parts of the kingdom, you’d
know. Though, if that’s your only concern about Sha’sek, you’ve got
absolutely nothing to worry about.”

“It wasn’t my only concern.” Maertn muttered
under his breath. Ross didn’t miss it.

“So what are you
really
worried
about?”

“I’m worried that me and Quinn will be split
up.”

“Well, that’ll happen at some point,
lad. You can
’t stay stuck to each other
forever. You grow up, you’ll meet people, and you’ll have your own
lives to lead. You’re not brother and sister anymore. That would
have happened in Everfell, never mind the islands. It might just
happen sooner, that’s all.”

Maertn threw a stick into the fire, not
meeting Ross’s worried gaze. The young man looked frustrated.
“That’s not what I mean, Ross. What if something…
happens
? What if they take me away from her?
And you from us? I mean forcibly. What if…you say they try to sell
gifted people? Well, that isn’t voluntary, is it? What if one of us
is kidnapped? Or if they see Quinn as useful, and me not, so I’m
just discarded? What can we do about that?”

Ross considered this, and wished he had an
ale to mull it over. It was a genuine concern, but it wasn’t
anything he could respond to, nor do anything about. He thought
about lying to the young lad, but that would go completely against
what he’d already said to Maertn. He couldn’t expect from them what
he couldn’
t deliver.
“You are right, any
of those things could happen.
Or
they could not. I don’t
know how the council is going to react to Quinn. Even worse, I
don’t know how she will react to them. But I do know that I will
put myself and my blades between her and anyone tries to hurt her,
or you.”

“I believe you. It’s everyone else that I’m
worried about.”

Eden splashed icy cold
water over his face, trying to wake himself up in time for the
meeting. He hadn’t slept at all the night before, after discussing
Sevenspells strategy with Rowan, and Quinn’s face had haunted his
dreams, in turns taunting him and giving him nightmares.

In one, she had been laughing in his face,
holding on to Maertn tight and kissing him deeply as Eden watched
on, unable to move. In other dreams, Sammah had been strangling
her. She was screaming in his head, and he’d been unable to move
again, incapable of helping her. In yet another dream, she’d thrown
herself from the top of the castle, screaming his name as she
plummeted from the parapet. He woke up in a cold sweat from that
one, and had been unable and unwilling to try and sleep since. Eden
were sure that he looked like a complete wreck, but he had to keep
it together in order to keep the charade for both the king and his
brother intact.

This meeting was critical for Vance to get
solidarity from the lords that remained loyal to him, and also for
Eden to show his brother—and therefore his father—that he was a
Sevenspells son. There was no room for tiredness, and no place for
complacency. His involvement in the trapping of Sammah was about to
come out. He still needed to seem loyal to Sevenspells, despite
condemning his father to Vance’s custody. Eden would need to choose
his words carefully, if both Vance and Rowan were to keep believing
he was their man.

A knock at his door
came
; Eden had been expecting it.

“Enter.”

“Excuse me, my lord, you’re requested in the
king’s chambers.”

“Thank you. I’ll be there directly.”

The page, a boy, perhaps no older than ten,
who Eden didn’t recognise, dashed out of the room. Running one
final hand over his chin, making sure there was still a show of
stubble there; enough to make him look like a man amongst other
men, Eden left his quarters. The king was holding the meeting in
his own chambers, and Eden didn’t want to be intimidated by this,
or by the other nobles who would be present.

It was important that he stood head and
shoulders above them, not just alongside them. He’d already won
King Vance’s respect, now he needed to earn it in the face of the
other lords, in order to keep himself safe, and in a position to
protect Quinn in the future. He also need to be able to think of
his father, and protect the interests of Sevenspells.

Eden loved Quinn, but he loved his people
too, and he couldn’t help Quinn if she was across the seas in
Sha’sek. As he walked through the corridors, he fell in step with
the lord Venn. He was a vocal man, and wouldn’t be holding back in
their meeting. He was in his lord’s finery, and immediately Eden
felt self-conscious. Eden looked down at his own captain’s uniform,
which was the only finery he had to hand. He still looked the part.
He’d worn parade attire rather than the gear he’d use fighting and
guarding the streets. Brown leather riding boots were pulled up and
laced tight over his breeches. His tunic, in the green and gold of
Sevenspells, was clean and starched, and he had his sword belted at
his waist, his scabbard spotless and the hilt gleaming. He’d even
gone so far as to put on his thin chainmail, the links forged from
the finest steel, sourced from the mines north of Mossvale. Eden
felt the part, and knew that, in his current standing, he looked
it. But he was unnerved that the bags under his eyes made him
looked panicked, and his hair was already dishevelled because he
had been running his fingers through the thick strands.