Souls of Aredyrah 3 - The Taking of the Dawn (8 page)

“If you’d been told to turn your heart from
Vania, would you have?”

A hint of humor played on Haskel’s face, then
he cleared his throat again. “No, I s’pose not.”

“Then why is it so wrong for me to love
Falyn?”

“It isn’t wrong, it’s just—dangerous.”

“I’d risk anything for her.”

“Even her life?”

“Her
life
?” Dayn said with alarm.

“If she’s caught with ye, she’ll be more than
disciplined. Ye heard what her father said about purgin’ his
children’s souls.”

“You heard that?”

“Aye. And Lorcan takes his children’s souls
very seriously. From the look of the injuries on his son’s back,
I’d say Sheireadan’s soul was Lorcan’s primary concern tonight. No
father should do what Lorcan does, and no son should have to endure
it.”

It occurred to Dayn that although Haskel had
not, in Dayn’s mind, been the best of fathers, at least he had
never had a reputation for violence. If anything, he had only tried
to protect Eyan from people like Lorcan and the members of the
Vestry.

“Uncle?”

Haskel gave another grunt.

“What I said to you about Father, I’m
sorry.”

Haskel’s expression relaxed somewhat, but his
tone remained stiff. “I’m sorry, too.”

“Did you try to enter the cave? I mean—”

“Aye. But a landslide had blocked the path,
and we could go no further. I feel certain that’s where your father
met his fate.”

Tears stung Dayn’s eyes as he realized it was
his own fault that his father was dead. Gorman would never have
gone back to the cave if Dayn had not run away and entered it.

“You and your sister’ll have time to grieve,”
Haskel said in response to Dayn’s obvious anxiety, “but right now
your mother needs your courage.”

Dayn swallowed thickly. “She’s grave ill,
isn’t she?”

“Aye.”

“Am I the cause of it?”

“Aye.” He glanced at Dayn. “And no.”

Dayn remained silent, sorting through his
remorse.

“You and your sister are back now. There’s no
better medicine for her than that. But soon there’ll be more
pressin’ issues to deal with.”

Dayn did not have to ask what his uncle
meant. Memories of spell-work done at his parents’ house, and his
own recent altercation with Lorcan, made the meaning clear. “What
are we to do?” he asked.

“We must call a gatherin’ of the clans.
Lorcan’ll not let this go. He’s the one that started the crusade
against you and your parents to begin with. The anger of the
mountain gave him more leverage. Now that he knows ye’ve
returned…well…let’s just say he wasn’t bluffin’ when he said the
clans’ll be hearin’ from the Vestry.”

“But what can the Vestry do?”

“They can demand we turn ye over for
trial.”

Dayn reined his horse to a halt. “Trial? For
what?”

Haskel stopped in response. “Demon craft.
Taintin’ wells. Fire on the mountain. Take your pick.”

“There are no demons, so how can I be one?”
Dayn cried.

“Of course there are demons. The Word tells
us so.”

“No uncle. I know the truth of it. I do.”

“You’d best watch your words, boy.
Blasphemy’ll not endear ye to the clans or the Vestry.”

Dayn inched his horse to Haskel’s side. “I
swear, it’s not blasphemy. Alicine and I went to the other side of
the mountains, to a place called Tearia. There are people there.
And they’re not demons.”

Haskel’s mouth twitched, but he said
nothing.

“The Word says that pale-haired demons
survived after the Purge,” Dayn continued, “and roamed the
mountains as a message to us. But it was pale-haired people that
roamed the mountains, not demons. They were Tearian guards, sent to
keep the Kiradyns on their side of the mountain, even if it meant
killing them. Before the Purge, Tearians and Kiradyns were friends,
and visited back and forth, but when the mountain sent the fire,
the Tearians blamed the Kiradyns, so they stopped them from
crossing over.”

“Enough,” Haskel warned. “To speak such
things is to declare the Word a lie, and believe me, the punishment
for that would be far greater than any penalty for bein’ a demon.”
Haskel sounded angry, but not as angry as Gorman had been all those
months ago when Dayn had suggested there could be others living on
the island of Aredyrah. It gave Dayn hope that he could convince
his uncle, but he knew he would need to approach it from a
different angle.

“Did Father tell you he found me in the cave
when I was a baby?” Dayn asked.

Haskel’s lips compressed. He kicked his heels
into his horse’s ribs, urging it onward. Dayn followed, keeping
pace.

“Did he?” Dayn persisted.

“I was there when he found ye,” Haskel said
stiffly.

For a moment Dayn thought to rein his horse
to a halt again, but if he stopped every time Haskel said something
shocking, they might never reach home.

“We were young then, and foolish,” Haskel
continued. “Your father was desperate to save your mother. She’d
lost so many infants that he feared she would either take her own
life or die tryin’ to bear another one. He prayed—we all did. But
Daghadar didn’t answer. Your father grew angry, and in a moment of
desperation decided that if his own god wouldn’t help him, he would
find one who would.”

“What do you mean?” Dayn asked.

Haskel shook his head. “Your father confided
in me—god, I wish he hadn’t—that if Daghadar wouldn’t help him,
he’d turn to the underworld to bargain for your mother’s life.

“I tried to stop him, but that stubbornness
of his. I followed him to the entrance of the cave, then confronted
him and tried to reason with him. He would have nothin’ of it, so I
did what I had to do. I followed him in.”

“That’s what happened with me and Alicine,”
Dayn said. “She found me and tried to get me to come home. When I
wouldn’t, she went with me into the cave.”

“She has your father’s stubbornness in
her.”

“And I don’t.”

Haskel smiled sadly. “No, I s’pose not.”

“So when he found me, what then?”

“He took ye home to Morna and told her that
Daghadar had given ye to ‘em as a gift for their devotion. O’
course, he’d not really thought through the fact that ye had
demonic features. All he cared about was that for the first time in
months your mother was happy. That was all he needed. He did worry
for a time that the witch might come lookin’ for ye. He lost a good
bit o’ sleep over it, I’ll tell ye that. He eventually headed back
to the cave and hung chimes in front of it. He figured she wouldn’t
trespass beyond ‘em.”

“
He
hung those?” Dayn thought back on
all the ragged chimes he and Alicine had seen draped around the
entrance to the cave. Never in his wildest dreams would he have
imagined that it was his father who had placed them there.

“Aye, he hung ‘em, and it must have worked,
too. Never saw any more sign of the demon. At any rate, as ye grew
older, he was determined to treat ye as his own. I honestly think
he came to believe ye were. I warned him against takin’ ye to town
and pretendin’ ye were anythin’ but what ye were.”

“Is that why you never took Eyan to
town?”

“Aye.”

“Did you find Eyan in a cave?”

“Of course not!” Haskel sounded genuinely
offended.

“Then why do you think he is demon-kind.”

“Because he is…he must be.”

“How? You and Vania have always been faithful
to each other I’m sure. How can Eyan be a demon?”

“His blood is tainted by the ancient seed, o’
course.”

“Ancient seed?”

“Aye. Planted through the rapes of long
ago.”

“
What
?”

“There are tales of it amongst the clans.
Your father never told ye?” Haskel’s expression grew puzzled. Then
he explained. “As ye know, we Aeries live in the high regions,
those closest to the dwellin’ of the demons. Many generations ago,
after the Purge, but before the demons were driven back into the
mountains, they did despicable things. Since then, the taint of
their deeds has been watered down, but a few children are born now
and then with their features. Usually—” He stopped mid-sentence, as
if realizing he had crossed into a subject he did not wish to
discuss.

“What happens to the children with those
features, uncle?” Dayn asked.

“Never ye mind. It’s none o’ your
concern.”

“Of course it’s my concern. I have those
features, don’t I?”

Haskel frowned. “Very well. The children are
put to rest most times.”

Dayn reined his horse to a halt. “They are
killed
?”

Haskel stopped alongside him. “Most times,
aye. But not always.”

“You mean Eyan.”

“I argued that he had to be weeded out, for
the sake o’ the clan, but Vania refused to consider it.”

“That’s what my mother did for me, too.”

“What?” Haskel asked with confusion.

“My real mother is Brina, and my father was
Mahon. In Tearia, the people strive for purity, just like the clans
are doing here.” Dayn pulled back his collar, revealing his
birthmark. “This mark made me impure, so I was sentenced to die.
Brina was a royal and had no choice. She told Mahon she would kill
me herself, but instead she smuggled me to the mountains to ask the
gods to cure me. When she met Fa—I mean Gorman—she thought he was a
god. He made her think he was by saying he would cure me and return
me to her in a year’s time.” Dayn paused. “But you know all that,
don’t you.”

Haskel nodded.

Dayn felt resentment resurfacing. “So Gorman
lied to her, and stole me, and never took me back like he promised.
And while he was happy, and his wife was happy, I was miserable,
and my real mother was even more miserable. What right did he
have?”

“Sounds to me like he saved your life.”

“What?”

“I said, it sounds to me like he saved your
life. What would have happened to ye if Brina hadn’t turned ye over
to him in the cave?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“I think ye do.”

Dayn clenched his jaw, fighting the chink
that Haskel had just put in his mettle. But before he could form a
retort, Haskel said, “We’re home, boy. Best not say anythin’ about
all this, at least not yet.”

Dayn’s eyes shot forward, surprised to see
the house just ahead. It had seemed to take an eternity to reach
the springs when he’d stormed out earlier, but strangely, only
moments to get back.

As they drew nearer, he noticed a glow
radiating through the foggy windowpanes. No doubt the family was
waiting up for them. How in the world was he going to keep what he
had learned tonight a secret? His mother would be easy to fool, and
Vania and Eyan were Haskel’s problem, but Alicine? She could read
him like parchment, and he knew the moment he entered the door, the
events of the evening would be written all over his face. How could
he keep from her the fact that he was even less welcome than he had
originally anticipated, and that now, more than ever, he had to
leave this place, and leave it for good.

Back to ToC

Chapter 7: Affairs of the Heart

H
askel shoved open
the door and ushered Dayn inside. Vania and Morna rose from their
chairs by the hearth, while Eyan sat upright in his bed, blinking
at the sudden commotion.

“Good, we can go to bed now,” Alicine
mumbled. She lifted her head from her arms that were resting,
criss-crossed, atop the table.

“Dayn—” Morna began, but Haskel silenced her
with a wave of his hand. “Let the boy get some rest,” he said.
“There’ll be time for talk later.”

Morna pointed Dayn to a pallet that she had
arranged for him near the fire. “Here son. You can settle yourself
here.”

“I’m not tired,” Dayn said.

“I’ll heat ye some tea,” Vania said, hustling
over to the kitchen counter. She lifted the lid from the tea
kettle, then reached up and pulled a tiny vial from the shelf. “A
little somethin’ extra to take off the chill,” she said with a
wink. After adding a dash of its contents to the kettle, she hung
it over the fire and motioned Dayn to a chair by the hearth. “There
now, sit yourself down. You’re both half froze. Haskel…get those
wet boots off your feet, and Dayn…yours, too.”

Haskel yanked off his boots, then grabbed up
Dayn’s, which were now in a wet heap by the fire, and took both
pairs to the front porch.

“Back in a mite,” Vania said as she turned to
follow Haskel out the door. “Oh…Alicine, would ye watch the tea?
And Morna, dear, ye look exhausted. Why don’t ye take yourself to
bed? Dayn’s home now. We’ll hold off any talk ‘til ye get up.” She
glanced at Dayn, then back at Morna. “The boy just needs some
warmth in his belly. He’ll soon be ready for the pillow.”

Morna nodded, but after the door clicked
shut, she stepped to Dayn and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m
glad you're home, son,” she said softly. “We’ll talk later, all
right?”

Dayn did not respond. His eyes were focused
on the flames in the hearth, but his mind was somewhere else
entirely.

Taking his cue of silence, Morna headed for
her bed.

Eyan slid off his mattress and shuffled
slowly toward Dayn. His long hair was in a wild disarray, and his
dressing gown was a rumpled mess. “Where’d ye go?” he asked. “I
mean, if ye don’t mind me askin’.”

“Nowhere,” Dayn muttered.

“Well, ye can’t have gone
nowhere
,
eh?” Eyan said. “Otherwise Father would’ve found ye standin’
outside the door.”

Dayn turned to Eyan, expecting to see humor,
but Eyan looked completely serious. “I went to the springs,” Dayn
said, then returned his gaze to the hearth.

“Why’d ye go there?” Eyan asked. Then his
face grew concerned. “Are ye sick?”

“Something like that.”

“Let me get your tea then,” Eyan said.
“Mother says it can cure any ill. I’ve been sick plenty o’ times
and it always made me feel better.”