The Huntress (Legend and Lore Book 2) (5 page)

She felt the power surge through her, going down her arms to settle in the palm of her hands.
 

“Liv,” Amala groaned then, not in pain this time but in wonder, causing Liv to open her eyes. Her head was tilted up and she saw the treetops swaying gently against the clear, blue sky. She could not say how she knew that the wound was healed, but she did know, and she took her hands away. Blood still coated them, and Amala’s trousers, but where the wound should have been there were only smooth skin.
 

Amala propped herself up on her elbows, staring first from Liv, down to her thigh and back to Liv again. “What did you just do?”
 

“I healed you,” Liv replied faintly.
 

“Is that a common skill for witches?” Amala was frowning.
 

Liv licked her lips, and slowly shook her head. “I have healing abilities. I have not used them since I was a child and have never told anyone. I think... I think maybe it is what I want to do. Heal people, that is. You do so well with being the strong warrior protecting everyone from lindworms.” Liv met Amala’s stare. “I want to be there, by your side, but instead of doing the killing of the monsters, I want to heal those that have been hurt. I...” She swallowed heavily. “I think this is what I want to do. No, I know it is. Healing you now, it felt good, and not just because you are you, but because for once I mattered. I did not freeze up in fear. I actually did something good. And it makes
me
feel good.” A sudden calm settled over her as she said it, and she knew it was true. Being a healer, that was her calling. That was her destiny.
 

Amala continued to stare at her for long moments, then she sat up further and bent towards Liv... and Amala kissed her. Liv gasped, startled, but when it clicked in her brain that Amala actually
was
kissing her, she was quick to kiss back. Liv grasped Amala’s shoulders, holding onto her tightly. Amala was now perfectly fine, but for the first time, Liv realised just how scared she had been for this woman that she barely knew. She knew Amala enough to know that she wanted to keep on kissing her, for Amala to continue kissing Liv. Right now, that was all that mattered.
 

A creaking sound broke them apart. How long they had been kissing, Liv could not say. It felt like they had been kissing for hours and yet for no time at all.
 

“I got blood on you,” Liv said then, dazed, as she saw that Amala’s shirt was smeared with the blood that had coated Liv’s hands. “I’m sorry.”
 

“Liv...” Amala’s eyes were locked on something behind her. Liv slowly turned around, dreading what she would see. There was no lindworm, no new troll. What she saw was the splintered wood of the bridge suddenly shooting up from where it had fallen and growing back together. Before she had a chance to blink, the bridge was rebuilt, looking exactly as it had before the troll had crashed into it. Except now it had been repaired.
 

The two strange men from their first meeting with a troll were crossing it. Both Liv and Amala got to their feet as the two men descended the slope. Liv stared hard at the strangest of the two, the one with the black eyes. Only they were not completely black now. They were the eyes of a normal human being.
 

“How did you ladies manage to defeat a troll?” The one Amala said was a shifter asked, his strange eyes flickering to the heap of stones. “There is no direct sunlight in the woods.”
 

“I am a witch,” Liv told him in a low voice. “I did a light spell and it calcified the troll immediately.”
 

The black-haired one, the one with the now normal eyes, nodded approvingly. “Good work. Are you making it your purpose to get into it with trolls then?”
 

“We are just passing through,” Amala replied. “We aren’t looking for trolls. It seems, however, that they might be looking for us.”
 

The black-haired one smiled slightly at that, but his partner’s focus was not on them any longer. He turned his head to the road up the slope, watching it steadily for a few seconds. “It seems that more than trolls are out looking for you two,” he said then, his canine eyes flashing in the sunlight coming through the tree branches. “They have your horses.”
 

“That is our cue.” The other one started walking upriver, but stopped and turned to look back. “We make our permanent residence at Vortigern. If you ever find yourselves in need... you are welcome there.”
 

Liv started at that, but the two were already walking away at quite a speed.
 

“That has any meaning to you?” Amala cast her a wry look.
 

“Yes,” Liv whispered, “Vortigern... long ago, the University lay there until it burned down. They did not build it up again, for reasons unknown, and instead moved it to the capital. There are stories. Always there are stories.”
 

Amala looked like she wanted to ask, but the sound of hooves brought her attention to the road. “Let’s get up there. I don’t want to meet whoever it is all the way down here.”
 

Liv nodded mutely, following Amala up the slope. She came up behind her so that Amala shielded the road from her, and Liv hesitated for a moment before stepping to the side, worried about what she would see.
 

When she saw, she wished she had never moved
.

Chapter Three

The End

“Liv!”
 

The voice whipped out, terse and angry, and Liv flinched back before regaining her composure. Taking a deep breath, telling herself she was not afraid, she straightened her back and met her brother’s hard gaze.
 

“What are you doing here, Jorek?” She cast a wry glance Amala’s way, perfectly aware that she had never told the woman who she was. The cat would be out of the bag soon, so to speak. Jorek was not going to keep quiet now that he was here.
 

With him he had Bas. Bas sat atop his black stallion, face set in stone and eyes locked on Jorek. Liv put a hand over her heart, still not able to hear Bas’ heart beating in sync.
 

“You’re shutting me out?” she asked him incredulously.
 

Bas’ eyes slowly turned to lock on her. “You left.” His tone was neutral, but Liv knew he was being condescending. “One thing happens that you do not like and you leave.”
 

“I cannot let them decide my life for me,” Liv argued. “I have a right to have my own say.”
 

“No, Liv, you do not. Sometimes you just do not have a say in the matter. Not when you are a princess of the realm, and certainly not when you are a lowly shifter bonded to her.” Bas abruptly turned his head away and Liv realised he had not meant to let the last part slip.
 

What had Bas been forced to give up for her? She could not remember a time when Bas had not been there. What had he been, where had he been, before he had got stuck with a young princess with witch potential?
 

Amala moved restlessly next to her and Liv turned to her. Amala’s expression was closed, eyes hard as they locked on Liv’s.
 

“Amala, I—“
 

“You just neglected to tell me that you’re a princess?” Amala asked, voice low and terse.
 

“I just... It does not matter,” Liv replied meekly.
 

“Of course it matters,” Amala snapped. “If I’d known you were a princess, I never would’ve brought you.”
 

“Now that is unfair,” Liv accused. “Just because I am a princess I cannot experience the life you live? Simply because I have noble blood? I am no different than anyone, noble or peasant. I am me, and I want to live my own life.” She stared hard at Amala, trying to make her understand. “Amala... I never meant to deceive you. If I was open about whom I was, no one would treat me like an equal. I just want to be someone’s equal.” She bowed her head, swallowing hard.
 

“Of course they wouldn’t,” Amala said coldly. “No one treats royalty like equals.”
 

Liv’s temper flared again and she looked back up at Amala. “You really are no one to talk, Amala. You are doing the exact same thing. I do not even know who you are. Yes, I know you were banished from your tribe, but what tribe is that? Are you even from Lore? Shifters live in tribes, but you do not have a shifter’s eyes. So tell me, Amala, just who are you?”
 

When Amala did not answer, just stared at her, Liv turned to Bas. “Give me my horse. Now.”
 

He gave the reins over without a word and Liv took them angrily. She patted her mare’s nose softly, staring into one big eye. The horse was the only one here that was not currently angry at her.
 

“I do not care what you are up to out here in nowhere land,” Jorek spoke up. “You are coming home with us. Now.”
 

Liv stared up at him. “I will go home with you, Brother. But only to tell Mother and Father that I am renouncing my title.”
 

Jorek whipped his head around to stare at her. “You will not—“
 

“I will!” Liv shouted. “I will not live a life of luxury, being manipulated by cunning nobles and forced into a marriage of convenience. You might be happy living that way, as our other siblings are, but I will not!”
 

“It is part of being royalty,” Jorek argued. “You do not have a choice.”
 

“As I said, I will renounce my title,” Liv told him stubbornly. “That is my right. When I do, no one will have any say over my life. I can do what I want.”
 

“You will be poor,” Jorek pointed out. “You are a spoiled little twat, Liv. You really think you would be happy being poor? You cannot wear your fancy dresses, boss servants around, or expect to get your way all the time. You will have to fight to get food on the table every day. It will exhaust you and then you will be begging to come home.”
 

“How do you know how peasants live?” Liv asked him, voice rising with her temper. “I have been living like a peasant for some time now and I am not complaining. I have been happier this short while than I have ever been.”
 

“You really want to be poor?” Jorek asked incredulously.
 

“I think that commoners, who have to work for what they want and need, are happier and more appreciative than those who do not.” Liv firmly believed that, after witnessing these people since she had been on her own.
 

People in the villages she had visited were happy and content and knew how to have fun—real fun, without any motives behind it. It appealed to Liv, much more than court life. She hated living at the castle, surrounded by the cruel manipulations of the nobles.
 

“If you feel that way, Sister, then you will come home with us and tell our parents yourself,” Jorek snapped.

Liv gripped the reins tighter at the thought of facing her parents. She did not want to, but she knew she had to. If anything she owed it to them to be honest, to tell them herself. After running off like she had... she had to go home, show them she was fine, and tell them of her plans.
 

“I’m leaving.” Amala’s voice broke Liv out of her reverie. Liv did not have a chance to turn to look at her before Amala rode past, having got her horse back and mounted it without Liv even noticing.
 

“Wha—“ Liv blinked, confused for a moment before she realized that Amala was leaving. “Amala, wait!” She mounted her own mare, a little clumsily in her hurry, and hurried after Amala, reaching up to her right before the bend in the road.
 

“What do you want from me, Liv?” Amala asked her. “You just agreed to go home, so our adventure is over. I’m on my own again, I get it.”
 

“No.” Liv quickly shook her head. “I do not want you to go on alone. I want to go with you. But I owe this to my parents.” She stared into Amala’s silver eyes, silently begging the woman to understand. “But I do not want to leave you, so I would like it if you would come with me.”
 

Amala’s eyes were hard, cold. An astonished expression fleeted across her face at Liv’s last sentence before she schooled herself. “You want me to go with you to the capital?”
 

“Yes.” Liv stressed the word, hoping Amala would understand just how important this was to her.
 

“Why in the name of all the gods would you want that?” Amala demanded. “I do not belong in a city. And your parents—the King and Queen—will certainly not approve of me as your...” She stopped for several seconds, hesitating. “...your companion,” she concluded meekly.
 

“But you are not just my companion.” Liv steered her mare closer to Amala’s horse, so that their feet were touching. The kiss they had shared, it had been like nothing Liv had ever felt. She had never felt good when being kissed, the few times someone had dared, but when Amala had kissed her, the world had tilted on its axis.
 

Amala stared at her, face unreadable. Liv was not to be deterred by anything, not now that she was finally going to prove a point. So she reached out, wrapped her arm around Amala’s neck, tangled her fingers in some of the tiny braids, and drew Amala towards her. Liv bent closer as well and their lips met softly, neither of them moving for several moments.
 

Liv closed her eyes, hoping Amala would reciprocate, because Liv had taken the first plunge. Now it was Amala’s turn.
 

She took it, reaching out to grab a hold of Liv’s waist, drawing her body as close as possible when on horseback as she started kissing Liv for real. Liv sighed into it, opening her mouth and welcoming Amala’s warmth.
 

She did not know how long they kissed, just as their first time it seemed to go on both endlessly and in the span of a moment. All she knew was that Amala’s eyes had warmed and a small smile tilted one side of her lips up. “All right,” she agreed. “I will go with you.”