The Evensong (42 page)

Earlier, Calder had explained he lived with Linden and a few others when he was younger. Out of all of them, Linden was the most patient with him, so he naturally grew on him. He thought of him of a brother more than Nerio or other undines I didn’t know. That would explain why he resembled him in some ways. Looking back at the distant house, I realized I wouldn’t mind living there with Calder, too. My brain went in a million different directions then—the three of us could live together, then some of the others if they didn’t care, or maybe even Alysana and some of my old family. It could become the new boarding house.

“Nah, I can’t really live anywhere right now. Just in one place. I still haven’t grown out of letting the instincts drive me,” Calder said as he stopped to sit on the railing, facing the streets.

“They’re really that bad?” I asked, standing next to him.

“Once you get to a certain age they are. I’m still kind of there. It was worse about five years ago, and it’s only sort of slowing down now. But I still can’t really stay put for long.”

“That sounds tough,” I muttered, watching the ocean as I remembered how Linden had talked about it.

“Sometimes,” he shrugged, “but you learn to live with it.”

I sighed, the sound barely audible under the noise of the waves. “Is that why Nerio suggested Linden be with an undine instead?”

“Maybe. But mostly I think he’s just looking for an excuse to get you out of here,” he smirked.

I laughed and propped my foot up on the railing to tie my shoe. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

While I tied, Calder went silent and looked up at the guardrail against the road. Tourists were still going up and down the street, their shadows occasionally falling over us. The moon was just hovering over the ocean, covering it with a silver film. I hoped Linden would be back soon. Despite all the talking and fascination over some of the things about Calder, I was worrying about it all day. Had I done something wrong? He said it wasn’t me, but he could easily be lying. Somehow I had to get the truth out of him . . .

“Riley?”

“Yeah?” I looked up at Calder. He was staring up at the road, a slight crease between his eyes.

“Do you know anyone in this town? Besides us?” he asked, turning to me.

“No—no one,” I replied. “Why?”

“Don’t look right now, but there’s a guy up there who’s just been staring at you for a long time.”

It took all of my effort to keep my eyes on his and not look up. I hissed, “What does he look like?”

His eyes flicked up briefly. “I can’t really tell, the light’s behind him.”

I nodded slightly and bit my tongue. Trying to be casual, I looked around and finally up at the guardrail where there was a figure standing there. Calder was right, I could barely see who it was with the streetlight behind them, but the person was still staring in our direction.

“Come on,” I said quietly, feigning a smile as I took Calder’s arm. “Let’s just start walking back towards the house.”

He jumped off the railing and we backtracked. I tried to keep my walk calm, and Calder took my wrist, slowing me down. I wished we had gone walking on the street where there was light and people; neither existed down here.

After a few seconds, I glanced back, hoping there would be nothing. I was disappointed to see the person was following, half of their body exposed to the light. Fear flared up in me so quickly, my muscles immediately tensed.

“What?” Calder asked as I whipped around.

“It’s Omar, he’s with the vulcani,” I whispered fiercely. My heart was thudding so loudly in my ears, I could hardly hear myself.

“Is he one of them?”

“No, but this could be just as bad,” I replied. Looking down the beach, I could see the house was still fairly far away. But we had to make it. “We should run.”

“Is it that serious?”

“Yes—ready?”

“Hold on, give me your hand; I’m probably a lot faster than you.”

I gripped his hand hard, preparing myself. I hoped Omar wouldn’t follow; was he seriously stupid enough to come into the area of so many Elementals?

We took off suddenly, our feet pounding against the planks. Calder had been right; he was
much
faster than me. He pulled at my hand as I struggled to keep up, my lungs straining against my ribs for more air to keep me going. Taking a quick look over my shoulder, I could see that Omar was running along the street, and he was able to stay close since he wasn’t running on a winding wooden path.

That second of looking away from the planks wasn’t the best idea. My foot slipped against all the sand, and I fell, holding out my free hand to catch myself. Calder hesitated for a second with enough time to wrench me back up and plow on. My hand was smarting, but I ignored it as our feet hit the pavement of the driveway. I was about to head for the stairs, but Calder pulled me around the cars towards the garage.

“Where are you going?” I gasped.

“Around—it’s the best way, believe me,” he replied. He ran towards the dark rocks beside the house where there was a small space between the two. The garage door was unlocked, and he pushed me in first before closing the door behind him.

“I don’t think he came down the driveway,” he said quietly, his ear pressed against the door. I tried to keep quiet as I caught my breath. “I can’t believe he followed.”

“I—knew he would,” I said, still gasping. “Now why didn’t we just—just go to the front door?”

He locked the door before turning to me. “You’ll see.”

We went up the stairs to the house, creeping into the dark hall. Calder motioned for me to be quiet as I stepped inside. Down the hall by the kitchen, I could see a light was on and there were voices carrying very clearly. Rhys was talking to someone, and I was about to question Calder, but he held up a finger to his lips.

“I
was
being cautious.” It was Linden’s voice, and it sent my heart into a different kind of frenzy. Calder gestured for me to listen as he climbed the stairs to the second floor.

“I said you
might
be safe, Linden. That wasn’t a go ahead to put yourself and Riley in danger,” Rhys said.

At the mention of my name, I crept closer.

“Just because my dad went—”

“Listen to yourself!” Rhys hissed quietly. I’d never heard his tone so harsh before. “You are your father’s son, his blood is your blood, the lineage is direct. I’m going to be very frank with you: you will be lucky to get out of this intact as Linden, not the other.”

Linden didn’t speak. They were both quiet, and I held my breath in waiting.

“How are you feeling?” Rhys finally asked.

“Like shit,” Linden mumbled.

“I can’t do anything for you right now. Our only choice is to wait and see what else happens and what else changes. I think you should sleep in the spare room tonight.”

I jumped when Linden yelled, “I can handle myself, all right? I’m not going to lose it and attack her!”

Rhys was quiet, and I could imagine him shaking his head slowly. “You need to exercise caution, Linden. What I’m seeing now is that you’re completely unstable.” Linden tried to interrupt, but he went on. “I understand you’re doing your best to keep in control, but no one knows how serious this gets. We’re going off
stories,
how helpful do you think that will really be? Can you chance hurting anyone?”

Linden answered gruffly. “No.”

“Then you’ll take my advice and sleep in the spare room.”

Footsteps on the stairs beside me announced that someone was coming down. I pressed myself against the wall and waited, noticing Rhys was talking again. Instead of it being Calder on the stairs—as I hoped—Tally stood there and looked at me strangely. I motioned for her to be quiet, pleading silently that she wouldn’t tell anyone I was standing here. She looked confused, but when she heard the two in the kitchen, she looked like she understood. She walked right by me, and I hoped she wouldn’t say anything.

“God, Linden. You look like shit,” I heard her say as she entered the kitchen. He swore at her, and Rhys warned her to hold back the insults for a while.

“What are we dealing with here?” she asked.

“Possible auctorita,” Rhys said, his tone flat.

Tally didn’t respond for a long time, but when she did, I thought I could hear real fear in her voice. “Auctorita? Are you—are you sure?”

“No. But we have to be careful,” Rhys said. I heard a chair scrape against the floor, and I backed up towards the stairs.

“Go straight to the room, Linden,” Rhys called. I started going up the stairs quickly.

“What, I’m not allowed to talk to her?” I heard Linden reply.

“Just go to sleep.”

I rushed to the bedroom and closed the door behind my silently. My mind was reeling. Everything I heard was almost like a foreign language, but I understood something bad was happening. I barely had time to think about it some more when Linden burst into the room. He froze when he saw me, and even in the dark I could see his face.

“When did you get here?” he asked, his voice more hoarse than usual.

“Linden . . .” I didn’t know what to say. He looked so much worse than this morning. The dark circles under his eyes seemed to be even darker and his skin was very pale. He looked like he was about to collapse in exhaustion. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it,” he said, trying to smile. It was more like a grimace. My heart seemed to constrict painfully.

Forgetting anything I heard about danger or attacks, I closed the space between us and hugged him tightly. Under my arms, his muscles were quivering.

“
Please
don’t lie to me about this,” I said, my voice muffled in his chest. “I heard some of the things you and Rhys said downstairs.”

He didn’t say anything, but his arms slowly came up to hold me.

“What’s auctorita?” I demanded.

He sighed shallowly and held me away from him. “It’s um—it’s a mouthful.”

“Don’t joke about this!” I said, grasping his arms. “You
have
to tell me!”

Something about my words made him shudder, and he closed his eyes for a minute, fingers tight around my shoulders. When he had composed himself he looked at me.

“It’s a lot to explain, and I
really
can’t right now. Seriously, I can’t. But you can go downstairs and ask Rhys anything you want. He’ll tell you.”

I could see him trying to contain himself. He was fighting to stay in control of this.

“Okay,” I said quietly. “Do you really have to sleep in another room?”

He laughed weakly. “Yeah, I should. But come talk to me when you’re done. I’ll be on the first floor.”

I nodded, saying I would walk with him there. He was hesitant to agree, but it was just down the stairs. When we reached his new bedroom I stopped him for a second to look at him, hoping he wouldn’t get worse overnight. He read my thoughts and said he’d be okay.

I left him alone feeling like it was the worst I could do to him. I knew he wasn’t supposed to be around me, but until I understood why, I wasn’t satisfied. I left his door and immediately went into the kitchen.

Rhys was still sitting at the table as Tally walked by me. This time she actually looked at me sympathetically, but who knew if it was for the fact that Linden was ill, or that I could somehow become one of his targets. Rhys looked at me similarly, though he tried to hide it. He cleared his throat as I sat across from him.

“I take it you’re looking for some answers,” he said, smiling sadly when I didn’t immediately say anything.

“I was in the hall when you and Linden were talking. I heard some things,” I replied.

He sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair. “I guess we’ll start with your questions. That seems to be the easier way.”

I didn’t quite expect this, but I was relieved anyway. “Why is he sick?”

“That’s the big question,” he replied. “I don’t know exactly. I have an idea, but I could be wrong. It’s the only thing that could make sense.”

I nodded. “Okay. And it’s that auctorita thing?”

“Essentially. How much has Linden explained to you about the consequences of physical love?”

I choked up, not sure how to reply. No one had gone over the pregnancy talk, and at the thought I felt slightly ill.

“Um—we never really talked about it,” I said, blushing deep red.

“I didn’t think so,” Rhys said, disappointed. “Anyway, there are a lot of myths surrounding the whole ordeal. It was once believed that Elementals didn’t have what is widely known as a soul. People thought we only got them from engaging in the acts of physical love. This isn’t true; we have souls just like every other person. Did your mother ever teach you about the three parts of the soul?”

Rene’s face popped up in my mind and I tried to remember all of her lessons. “I’m not sure—I’m sure she did at one point, I just can’t remember now.” I could hardly think, how could he expect me to remember?