Souls of Aredyrah 2 - The Search for the Unnamed One (30 page)

Dayn jumped off his mount, took hold of
Brina’s reins, and helped her down while Reiv placed his hands
around Alicine’s waist and lifted her off. They walked toward the
hut in silence.

When they arrived, Jensa was there to usher
them in. “Kerrik, go find Torin,” she said as the guests
entered.

They gathered on the floor around the fire
pit while Jensa poured them each a cup of honey sweetened water.
Reiv passed a basket of palm nut to Dayn with an unsteady hand.
“How long will you be staying?” he managed to ask.

“Not long,” Dayn said. “We need to be getting
on.”

Reiv nodded and noticed that Brina’s eyes
were red with tears. She didn’t say a word and for a long moment no
one else did either.

Torin arrived and Kerrik danced in behind
him. The man brightened at the sight of the visitors. “We’re so
happy to see you,” he said, but the downcast expressions on
everyone’s faces indicated they did not agree.

They partook of the refreshments with a
spattering of small talk, then Reiv rose and asked Dayn to follow
him outside.

“What route will you be taking?” Reiv asked.
“You are not planning to attempt the cave again I hope.”

“No,” Dayn said, “that’s out of the question.
I’m not really sure, but I guess we’ll figure it out.”

Reiv pointed in the direction of the
mountains. “Take the road that runs northeast of here, then follow
the river toward the first peak beyond the tallest one there. There
is a pass between them that will take you into a valley. Once you
have crossed it, you will find passage to the other side. You can
make your way down from there.”

Dayn cocked his head. “How do you know
this?”

“Let us just say I have seen it.”

Dayn nodded, then slanted his eyes toward the
hut. “Alicine’s anxious to go home, but she’s a mess about it.” He
studied Reiv’s face for a moment. “I’ll fetch her for you.”

Dayn left, while Reiv waited. He stared
toward the mountains in the distance, trying to picture Kirador in
his mind. Then he felt Alicine’s presence at his back.

“I guess this is goodbye,” she said
softly.

Reiv swallowed thickly as he turned to face
her. “I suppose it is.”

“You do understand, don’t you? Dayn and I
never had a chance to say our goodbyes to Mother and Father before
we left. They must be frantic. Besides, we’re worried about what
may have happened there, what with the earthquake and the smoke on
the mountain and all. We have to go back.”

“I know.”

She raised an inquisitive brow. “Where’s your
kohl?”

Reiv realized he was not wearing it, just as
he had not since the day he arrived back. “I did not know when you
would be coming and I knew how much you hated it.”

“I don’t hate it.”

He crossed his arms and stared at the ground.
“Well, anyway, now you can remember me without it.” He glanced back
at the hut. “Could you excuse me for a moment?”

“Oh…of course,” Alicine replied, looking
somewhat disappointed.

Reiv sprinted back to the hut where everyone
was still visiting, and headed straight for the trinket box he kept
by his bedroll. He tipped back the lid and retrieved the shell
bracelet he and Kerrik had worked so hard to perfect. Voices
hushed. Reiv could feel the eyes of everyone on him. He glanced up
and his face went hot at the knowing smiles aimed in his
direction.

“Well, I have to give it to her sometime,
don’t I?” he said. Then he grinned and headed out the door.

He resumed his place before Alicine and stood
in silence for a long, clumsy moment. It occurred to him that she
might not like the bracelet, that she might actually reject his
token of affection.

“What do you have in your hand?” Alicine
asked, interrupting his thoughts.

“Something I made…for you.”

“Well, let me see it.”

“Of course. Here.” Reiv opened his fist and
thrust the bracelet out to her.

A soft gasp whispered from her throat. “Oh,
Reiv. It’s beautiful. You made this?” She took it from his hand and
held it up, admiring its iridescent pink and gray swirls. A
glistening came to her eyes as she pulled it over her hand and
adjusted it at her wrist.

“Of course, I made it,” Reiv said. Then he
added hastily, “Well, Kerrik helped me…but I was completely in
charge.”

“As always,” she said with a laugh.

Reiv gathered her hands in his, then
stammered, “Would you—would you allow me to sin one more time?”

Alicine’s blush rose to match his and she
nodded, then raised herself on tiptoes and tilted her face to
his.

He kissed her on the lips, not hard and
passionately like he had the time before, but gently and with a
sweetness reflective of his feelings for her. She returned it, and
he felt his heart soar. How in the world could such a beautiful
thing be considered a sin?

“Be happy,” he whispered.

“I will,” she said as she wrapped her arms
around him. Every time I think of you.

* * * *

Dayn watched from the doorway as his sister
and cousin said their goodbyes. He glanced over his shoulder at
Jensa who was busying herself in the kitchen. “Jensa,” he said,
“may I speak with you for a moment?”

She walked toward him, drying her hands on
her skirt, and followed him outside and away from the hut. Dayn
shifted his weight and folded his arms. “About what happened
outside the cave…”

“Don’t give it another thought,” she
said.

“But I want to thank you.”

“Thank me? Whatever for?”

“Because I’ll remember it for the rest of my
life. You’re one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen and I
felt honored that you even wanted to—with me I mean.”

Jensa smiled. “The honor was all mine, Dayn.
I’ve grown up being stared at and groped by men, but
you’re…well…different.”

“I am?”

“Yes. You’re sweet.”

“Oh…sweet,” he muttered.

“I’d hoped we could get to know each other
better,” Jensa said, “but I guess it was not meant to be.”

“You know, if I’d planned to stay, things
might have been different, but the fact is, I’m going back to
Kirador for a reason other than to take my sister.”

“Your parents?”

“No.”

“Ah, the other girl then?”

Dayn smiled. “Falyn means everything to me,
and I’m going back for her.”

“Well, Dayn, you go back and find this girl
and don’t let go. She’d be a fool not to love you.”

“Well, I don’t know, but I guess I have to
find out.”

Then Jensa leaned in and whispered in his
ear, “Just kiss her the way you did me and she’ll be yours
forever.”

Dayn’s eyes widened and he looked at his feet
bashfully. But as they walked back toward the hut, he had a
newfound bounce in his step.

They all congregated by the horses, hugging
and saying their farewells. Brina found it particularly difficult
and could not seem to pry her arms from around Dayn’s waist. He
gave her a kiss on the cheek, the first he had ever given her, and
gently squirmed from her grasp. But his expression reflected regret
at having had to do so.

Dayn and Alicine mounted their horses and
gathered up the reins.

“Remember what I told you about the valley,”
Reiv said.

Dayn reached down and clasped Reiv’s hand in
his. “I’ll remember. Thanks, cousin, for everything.”

Alicine looked at Reiv one last time, but
said not a word and turned her horse and headed slowly up the
road.

Dayn glanced over his shoulder toward his
sister, then back at Reiv. “We’ll meet again, Reiv.”

“Of course we will.”

Dayn kicked his heels and urged his horse up
to Alicine. They headed into the distance as the others stood
silently watching.

Jensa and Torin excused themselves while
Brina stood with her body leaned against Reiv’s. He put his arm
around her and held her tight. A sob burst from her throat and she
pulled away to run back to the hut. Reiv and Kerrik were then left
alone to watch the fading images of Dayn and Alicine.

Kerrik tugged at Reiv’s arm. “Are they going
very far away?”

“Not so far,” Reiv replied.

“But they’re coming back sometime aren’t
they?”

“We will meet them again.”

“Good! Come on, let’s go. You can’t even see
them anymore.”

“I can see them.”

Kerrik twisted his mouth and narrowed his
eyes toward the horizon. “No you can’t. Come on!”

Reiv sighed with exasperation and looked at
the antsy boy. “Very well. Now, was there something we were
supposed to do today?”

Kerrik jumped up and down excitedly. “Yes!
You were going to teach me to fight with the dirk. You’ve been
promising me
forever
.”

“It has not been forever, Kerrik.”

“Yes it has. Gods, I’m almost eight. How long
do you expect me to wait?”

Reiv laughed. “Well, you still have some
healing to do and may not be strong enough yet.”

Kerrik lifted his good arm and flexed his
muscle. “Stronger than you,” he declared.

Reiv looked him up and down. With one arm
splinted and the other barely able to lift a weapon, the boy with
the crooked foot did not look much like a warrior. But the
determination that beamed in his eyes erased all doubt. Reiv
smiled. “Perhaps you are stronger than me,” he said. “Perhaps you
truly are.”

Reiv wrapped his fingers around the tiny arm,
finding plenty of room to spare. He took Kerrik’s hand in his.

It was time for the lesson to begin.

BACK TO ToC

The Saga Continues in

The Taking of the
Dawn
: Book Three of the
Souls of Aredyrah Series

Preview of Book Three:
The Taking of
the Dawn

Chapter 1:
Oblivion

D
ayn stood atop a
rocky outcrop, silhouetted against an iridescent palette of molten
fire. As far as he could see, a mesmerizing splendor stretched, a
great river of lava from which sparkling channels crept down the
mountainside in brightly braided patterns. Trees in the paths of
melted rock ignited like thousands of flaming candles. Some
evaporated into white-hot oblivion; others were turned to ebonized
shapes, gruesomely posed.

Dayn reached for his sister’s hand, squeezing
it so tight the tips of her fingers turned white. But she didn’t
complain. She probably didn’t even notice.

“Have you ever seen such a thing,” Alicine
whispered.

“I’m not sure I’m seeing it now,” Dayn
replied.

Alicine frowned. “Now what are we going to
do?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I took us the wrong
way.” Dayn shook his head. “We’ll have to go back.”

“You don’t mean
all
the way back.”

“No…I don’t know. But we sure can’t go this
way.”

“But Reiv said--”

“Well, he obviously didn’t know about this…or
maybe I misunderstood him. Don’t worry, we’ll get home. I probably
just didn’t take us far enough north or something.”

Dayn pulled in a breath, then released it
slowly. It didn’t matter whether his cousin Reiv had told them
wrong. It didn’t matter whether they had gone too far one way or
the other. The vale before them was impassable, or would be by the
time they reached it. Turning back was not a difficult decision.
Where they went next was.

The wind shifted in their direction, wrapping
them in a veil of vapor that reeked of sulfur and smoke. Dayn
covered his nose with his free hand and pulled his sister along
with the other. “Come on,” he said. “The horses are getting
nervous, and we can’t afford to lose them.”

Dayn scrambled down the slope, but a stab to
his heel suddenly sent him hopping. He cursed the ground, the
rocks, and everything else he could think of at the moment. His
feet were already aching, and this was yet another in a long series
of attacks upon them. It was time to put his boots back on, and he
dreaded it.

Where he and his sister were from, no one
ever went without their boots. And for most of the past fifteen and
a half of Dayn’s sixteen-year-old life, he hadn’t either. The
terrain in Kirador was mountainous and the temperatures almost
always cool, if not downright frigid. To go with bare feet was
something no sensible Kiradyn would do. But Dayn had not worn his
boots for months now, preferring to go barefoot. That was what the
Jecta of Tearia did. And that was what he considered himself
now--Jecta.

He pulled up his foot to inspect it, finding
an indention with a tiny white pebble lodged within. He picked it
out, then limped to the horse, grumbling as he yanked a bundle from
its back.

“Don’t tell me,” Alicine said with amusement,
“you’re actually putting your boots on.”

“Well, I have to some time, don’t I? I’m
tired of having to dance around every time I get off the horse.
It’s a lot rockier here than back home--I mean, back in
Tearia.”

“A lot rockier
and
a lot colder. I’m
surprised your feet aren’t blue.” Alicine scolded him with her
eyes, once again acting as if she were the older, then pulled her
shawl tighter around her shoulders. It was the last defense she had
against the decreasing temperatures, other than the ratty blanket
she had been using as a bedroll.

Dayn glanced at his sister, noting the
cold-swept features of her face and the stiffness of her body. The
dress she wore should have been warmer; it was long sleeved and
high collared, its full skirt reaching to her ankles in yards of
gold-colored material. But the fabric had been selected for its
beauty, not its practicality. It was a dress embroidered with
hundreds of tiny white flowers--a dress for a Summer Maiden, not a
girl trudging through the mountains. No, its weave wasn’t enough to
stave off this kind of cold. Even the molten fire on the other side
of the ridge did little to warm the environment.