SWNOVELS Shadowblade: (A Dance of Fire and Shadow Book 1) – Chapter 16
MARIN REINS IN OUTSIDE a rough cabin in a forest clearing. It might have been a woodman’s hut once, not unlike the charcoal burner’s shack we used before. From the people busying themselves outside, I guess it now serves as a bivouac and meeting place for the Eldrin. Jared is with them, saddling a sturdy roan mare. I dismount and run over to him.
“Jared! Where are the others from our village?”
He looks round. “Heading back south, in several separate groups with the rest of the freed prisoners. Those that survived the tunnel. Some we got out of there died from their burns.” He makes an effort to put a brave face on it. “Ariel, I’m glad you made it back.” He leans closer and whispers. “They weren’t well pleased when they found you’d run off. Didn’t catch the reason. Best keep a low profile for a while.”
No time to explain and in any case I would rather not tell him how close I came to earning the death penalty for what I did. It looks like he is about to set off somewhere.
“I think I got the message about why they were… a bit annoyed. Where are you heading?”
He gives the girth strap a final tug. “Catch up with the others. We have to meet at the charcoal burner’s hut, then move the weapons you hid there to another place deeper in the forest. I have orders to fetch my tools from the village, use them to re-forge enough hardware to equip a new militia the Eldrin will recruit. If those invaders think they’re going to just walk in––”
He breaks off to acknowledge a tall warrior who comes out of the cabin and swings himself onto the bare back of a powerful bay gelding. I have not seen him before but he could be Deris’ brother or cousin with his slender build and dark hair. And… I still can’t help noticing. His ears. Jared turns back to me with a defiant grin.
“Ramil is coming with me to give our volunteers a spot of combat training. We’re going to have to adapt weaving, harvesting, forging and hunting skills in a fairly short time.”
I give his arm an encouraging squeeze. “You’ll manage it. What happened to our village gave me plenty of incentive to do a bit of training of my own. And I expect Ramil is every bit as fast and highly-skilled as the other Eldrin kingsguard I’ve met.”
Jared heaves his bulk onto the horse with a grunt. He waves once and follows the Fae warrior into the trees. Marin ushers me towards the cabin.
“We stop here for an hour to rest the horses. There’s food inside.” He disappears through the doorway and I follow. Nem is standing by the clay stove, stirring what smells temptingly like a pot of stew. I’m famished but the look on her face isn’t encouraging. Her gaze switches quickly from me to Marin and although she doesn’t speak her eyes say it all––and he knows it. He was not supposed to bring me back. Not alive anyway. He gives a dismissive wave.
“Situation changed. I’m going to let Jantian handle it. I don’t have enough experience.”
Nem shrugs, waves us to the stewpot and walks silently over to the bench on the far side of the room to sit with Deris and Brac. I grab my bowl of food and go back outside to eat. The atmosphere in the room is too tense to be comfortable.
This is the first time since the fight at the slave pen that I have had any quiet and time on my own. As soon as I have taken enough edge off my hunger to be a little less distracted by it, I snatch the opportunity to examine my various injuries in case I need to deal with any infection.
I stare at my arms in disbelief. The cuts and burns are already half-healed and fading. There was a deeper cut from the fight outside the pen where a Rapathian sword managed to briefly cut through the chainmail. I have to make sure that it isn’t getting infected. I gulp down the rest of the stew and scuttle across to a dense patch of shrubbery on the edge of the clearing where I can strip off undisturbed and check over my whole body. Cautiously, I examine the wound in my side.
It looks as if it has been mending for at least a week instead of barely a day. Is this part of the Blade’s gift? No doubt it will prove useful if life continues to drag me in the direction it has been going these last few days but it still brings a shiver of apprehension. I sink to my knees on the grass, trying to stay calm and slow down the sudden violent pounding of my heart. At what point do I cease to be human? I suppose my mother would have explained all this if she were still alive. As it is, I’m going to have to learn from experience.
A rustle of leaves behind me. I look up. Marin checking I haven’t run off again. Seems he was not expecting me to be sitting here naked and for the first time since I’ve known him he looks flustered. He turns his head away.
“Sorry. I wondered where you’d gone this time.”
“Just assessing the damage collection. Body seems to be doing all right but you’ll have to show me how to repair chainmail.” It is refreshing not to feel like the awkward party for once. Maybe I should give him a way out. “Give me a minute and I’ll come inside and check on yours. They were a lot worse than what happened to me.”
“Fine. If I can be sure you won’t disappear again.”
He glares at me until I nod agreement, then heads back to the hut. As I get dressed I wonder if he is waiting outside, still suspicious that I might try to escape. I see him slip through the doorway as I approach. He seriously doesn’t trust me now. I guess I can’t blame him after what I did.
He pulls off his mail and the leather undershirt and sits on the bench in the far corner. I kneel beside him to check his injuries and jolt of shock sweeps through me, numbing my fingers as I explore the various cuts and gashes. My chest tightens and my heart rate increases again, pounding faster than before… and it’s not entirely because I am running my hands over the toned muscles of a very attractive man.
His wounds are healing at almost the same speed as my own.
I look up and our eyes meet. Somehow I don’t quite dare to ask why. I know he can read the question in my stunned expression. I wait for a few tense moments, but I sense immediately that he is not going to tell me anything. My mouth is so dry that I’m finding it difficult to say anything at all.
“Everything seems to be mending well,” I mumble, turning away quickly and scrambling to my feet. Now it’s Marin who is giving me a way out. Or maybe just extricating himself.
“Sahan is out back. You might want to calm her down. They made her carry two of the casualties and she didn’t like it. She bit Jared.”
“Yeah, thanks.” I scuttle out of the door and find Sahan tethered with the other horses. As I already guessed, she has had time to calm down on her own. It’s me who needs reassurance. I throw my arms round her neck, leaning into the warmth and familiarity of her steady breathing.
What is it with Marin? He may be locked into his oath of loyalty, his commitment to discipline and responsibility, but I’d swear he is too honest to be prejudiced against me for what I am if he has done the same thing himself. I know he won’t tell me until he’s ready and I try to shut down the insistent need to know that is buzzing around in my head.
The others are coming outside. It must be time to move off. I swing onto Sahan’s back, glad now that I don’t have to ride squeezed close to Marin with this new uncertainty hanging over me.