Dragonoak: Gall and Wormwood, page 61
“I’m proud of you,” I said, and it was all Claire needed to finally give herself over to sleep.
When I awoke, Claire was still in bed, by some miracle. I shuffled over and buried my face in the side of her neck, but a ripple of noise from the living area let me know that we didn’t have more than a few minutes. Claire made the most of them. She pressed her fingers beneath my jaw and tilted my head up to kiss me, and it took every ounce of willpower I had to roll out of bed and help her to her feet.
We dressed, grateful for the reminder of the way clean clothes felt on clean skin, and I brushed Claire’s tangled hair as she sat at the dressing table. It would’ve been a perfect start to a perfect day if not for… everything.
Varn and Akela were awake in the living area, and Queen Nasrin and Kondo-Kana had drifted back to the banquet hall. Kidira was asleep on the sofa, rested against Akela’s chest, while Varn leant over the back of the sofa, sharing Canthian words she hoped Akela understood. She said enough to earn genuine smiles from Akela, and glanced wearily at Kidira with every syllable.
Akela grinned at Varn’s unnecessary unease and offered fragmented phrases back.
“Ah! Good morning, good morning!” Akela said at the sight of Claire and me. “I am just about to be ordering breakfast. When is the last time you are eating?”
“Far too long ago, I’m afraid,” Claire said.
Shuffling over, Varn said, “The hell are you smiling about?” to me.
I dragged her into a quiet corner of the room and said, “Claire’s going to get rid of her leg.”
“You’re smiling ‘cause your girlfriend’s gonna cut her leg off,” Varn said. “Okay. Sure.”
“Nothing happened while we were sleeping, did it?”
“If you are whispering over there because you are worrying about waking Kidira, do not be!” Akela called across the room. “Kidira, she is waking up when she is wanting to. She is not letting something like sound disturb her.”
“I just wanted to know if anything happened while I was asleep,” I asked, switching back to Mesomium.
Shaking her head, Akela said, “Things, they are the same. Otherwise I am not sitting here still.”
I fetched breakfast for us, in the end. The bread was chewy, going stale, and the cheese was nearly too hard to cut through, but it was no time to be fussy. Of the servants on our side of the castle, few of them knew how to bake bread, and it wasn’t terribly far removed from the sort of thing we ate during tougher months back in my village. Claire and I ate our fill and once only crumbs remained, she had Varn accompany her back to the banquet hall.
I was determined to do something more useful than hover around Claire all day. I’d go to the kitchens and teach people how to get bread to rise without it caving in on itself.
But first, I spared a few minutes to talk to Akela.
I sat next to her and searched for some change within her. She was more contemplative than usual, barely aware that I was in the room, but that may have been a result of Kidira sleeping against her and having spent restless nights sharing a cluttered room.
“How are you feeling?” I asked. “It’s been a few days, and…”
Akela shrugged. The motion was too sharp, too sudden, when she made it.
“I… am thinking I am having to be honest with you, yes? I am already speaking to you once, so if I am saying one thing, I am saying it all.”
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I reassured her.
Not that I had any power so great as to make Akela do anything she didn’t want to.
“No, no. In some ways, I am thinking that talking about it is a relief. I am feeling—good. My head, it is clearer. I am not certain what it is, and I am not worried that it is fading. For the first time, I am glad, truly glad, that I am alive. Not that I am saying I am not enjoying my life before this! But I am taking it for granted and now, my perspective, it is changing.”
Her grin tapered off as she rubbed her chin.
“But?”
“Ah. Nothing. It is nothing. Perhaps I am just bitter that I am being struck like that,” Akela said, pressing her fingers as close to her faded wounds as she could without disturbing Kidira. “You are seeing the scars on my face, yes? Of course you are, they are very impressive. They are why so many are falling for me! But since I am joining the Kastelirian army, they are the only scars I am ever receiving. I am asking the healers not to be getting rid of them, yes, so that I am remembering I am not invincible. No matter what some people are thinking. Still, I am not looking in a mirror as often as I am needing to. I am not remembering it at all.”
Akela placed a hand against the back of Kidira’s head. As she’d said, nothing caused her to stir.
“When you were…” I had as much trouble saying the word dead as most had saying necromancer. “You said that you saw the Forest Within. Do you still remember it?”
“I am seeing it. I am knowing that I am seeing it, but when I am trying to focus again…” Akela’s mouth slanted to the side. She screwed her eyes shut as if fighting off a headache. “It is gone. I am knowing exactly how it is looking, how many leaves are hanging from each tree, until I am having to find the words to describe it. What I am feeling there, I am not feeling in this world. I am liking it. But I am also liking how I am feeling while still on Bosma, yes?
“Ah. But you are knowing these things, Northwood! I am not liking that I am able to say this, but both of us, we are going through many things. We are leaving the living behind.”
Akela gave me a thin, watery smile.
“Actually,” I said quietly, “I didn’t see anything. Not even darkness.”
Akela’s smile faded. She parted her lips to speak but didn’t know what to make of it. This was beyond her. Beyond pane and humans.
I knitted my fingers together, succumbing to an ebbing sense of unease.
Halla. I had to focus on helping Halla, and then things would start making sense to me.
Not wanting the conversation to wither, I said, “Kidira went through hell trying to get your body back. She was ready to die to save you.”
Akela propped her chin atop Kidira’s head, ran her fingers between her dreadlocks, and smiled in earnest.
“I am understanding that people, they are getting certain impressions of Kidira, and that this is being Kidira’s fault. But you are seeing that we are meaning very much to each other, yes? In my old life, I am having to tell myself so many things, just to be getting through a single day! I am telling myself that I am excellent, that no one is matching my skill with an axe, and that I am good, I am kind; that everyone else, they are being wrong about what I am. Who I am. I am saying these things over and over, I am making myself grin and boast, but I am not believing it. I am never believing it until I am meeting Kidira and she is telling me these things, and not simply agreeing with me.”
“I’m glad you have her,” I said, meaning it. “Kidira, she’s… I don’t know what she is to me. But she’s important.”
Akela nodded and said, “Kidira and I, we are both wanting to help this Halla very much. We are owing her a lot. Are you having any ideas how we are doing this yet?”
“I—”
“Commander Ayad!” Laus called as they skidded into the room. “We have… There’s a problem!”
“Rylan’s soldiers, they are crossing the line?” Akela asked warily.
Breaching the curtain of flame was as smart a move as setting off kegs of gunpowder in every chamber and hallway, whether they were full of Claire’s people or Rylan’s.
Kidira awoke exactly when she needed to. As if already aware of the situation she rose to her feet, ready for whatever else was bound to come her way.
“Some of the guards were, ah. Waiting for the Queen to return,” Laus said. “They’re—they aren’t happy with the way things are going.”
“Is anyone?” Kidira asked as she fetched Akela’s axe for her.
“Ah, yes. Treason. This is exactly what we are needed to improve our day,” Akela said, hooking the axe at her hip. “Come. Let us be dealing with this.”
CHAPTER XXXIV
We made for the banquet hall.
It had been less than a week since Rylan struck the castle, but the combination of poor lighting, debris and despair made it seem as though the castle had slumped into an irreversible state of disrepair. The corridors were dim and winter made its intent known through the cold winds that rushed down narrow passageways. Everything had always been tended to with such care and precision that even the gathering of dust was out of place, as though it had no right to settle there.
It was immediately evident what was happening. A dozen guards had barricaded the banquet hall shut and had no intention of letting Claire and Varn pass. Varn sneered, a single dragon-bone sword held in front of her, but Claire remained unnervingly calm as she tried to reason with them.
“It’s… it’s nothing against you, Your Majesty,” said the guard who’d taken it upon himself to speak for the others. He was built like a mountain but his mouth twitched uncertainly between his words. “But we know a hopeless situation when we see one. I have family out in Thule, Majesty. The city’s swarming with Agadians, everyone knows it is, and they’re starving the citizens to get to us. To get to you.”
Claire saw us approach and held out a hand, gesturing for us to stay back. I didn’t doubt the slightest provocation would cause the more nervous guards to strike.
“I see. And you believe that by handing me over, peace and prosperity will flow through Felheim. Rylan will dismiss the Agadians, who will most certainly leave without getting anything out of their alliance, and your new King will rule wisely. Is that it?” Claire asked.
Another guard, armed with one sword too many, stepped forward and said, “The Agadians were promised Kastelir and Kastelir alone. It’s a wasteland! Your Majesty, we’re grateful for the truth you’ve revealed but some of us can’t help but think that you care more about Kastelir than Felheim. Let them have it! Our wall still stands.”
Varn didn’t have to understand what they were saying to want to put an end to it. Claire placed a hand on her shoulder, subduing her.
“The Agadians were promised Kastelir and Kastelir alone? Interesting. Were you sitting in on the meeting when the alliance was drawn up?” Claire asked the woman. “You are aware of Agados’ policies, are you not? Have you spared a thought to as how they would spread and influence our own Kingdom when they rule over the majority of the continent, possess the bulk of the resources, and can manipulate trade as they wish? I understand that this is a stressful time. I understand that better than any of you, tasked with repairing the broken pieces of our Kingdom as I am, forced to stand against my family. But know this: there are no quick solutions. None of this is to be easy.”
Akela put her hands on her hips, content to let Claire handle things. Kidira seemed rather put out to have been woken up.
“I’m doing what’s best for the people,” the leader of the tiny rebellion said. “I’ve known His Highness since he was a boy. He’s always cared deeply for Felheim and he’ll make a fine King. He’ll do the right thing. No one will have to starve because their Queen is too stubborn to reach a resolution.”
The man had nothing more to say. His companions stepped forward in solidarity with him and he reached for the shackles at his belt, as though taking Claire prisoner would ever be easy. Akela and Kidira finally moved. Varn knocked the hilt of her sword against one of the guard’s jaws and Claire proved herself faster than any of them.
She pulled Varn’s twin sword from its sheath and swung it as an extension of herself. The blade cut clean across the back of the man’s arm, causing him to drop the shackles as blood rushed out at the command of dragon-bone.
“I will not be threatened in my own castle,” Claire said plainly, and handed the sword back to Varn.
With their leader crouched on the floor, clasping his arm, the would-be traitors didn’t know what to make of it. The task they’d undertaken was a grim one, heavy on their shoulders, but they hadn’t expected real difficulty from it. They hadn’t expected Claire to fight for her freedom as she did her country’s.
Varn grinned fiercely up at Claire and stepped towards the failed rebellion with both swords in hand.
“I warn you now: Varn is not nearly so forgiving as I am. I suggest you surrender,” Claire said. “You will be stripped of your position and weapons and sent to bake bread, but you will not be harmed.”
No one wanted to test Varn. Not with Akela looming over her shoulder.
The guards threw their weapons to the ground and raised their hands. None of them looked at Claire. They were not bitter with defeat; they were merely ashamed of themselves and the way they’d acted. Claire stood there until they caught her eye and left Varn and Akela to deal with them.
“This won’t do,” Kidira said as we marched through the banquet hall. “Your own guards are turning against you and the city is being starved by invaders. According to Haru-Taiki’s latest report, grain is being burnt and all else is being seized by the soldiers. It will not take long for all to become as deluded as the guards at the door were. You will not be able to knock them all back with your blade.”
“I am more than aware of that, Kidira,” Claire said. She took a seat next to Queen Nasrin, while Kondo-Kana sprawled across the table and paid attention to absolutely nobody. “All Haru-Taiki and Kondo-Kana managed to do was buy us time, and it is up to us to find a better way to use it than Rylan undoubtedly has.”
“Then we move. Send Rowan or Varn to assassinate Rylan.”
I, apparently, had no say in the matter.
Akela and Varn concluded business at the door and joined us. Akela threw an arm around Varn’s shoulders and said, “Varn is being a most excellent one-way necromancer! I am not recommending her enough.”
Not having the blindest idea what was being said, Varn ducked out of Akela’s hold and took her place behind her Queen.
“We’ve discussed this a dozen times,” Claire said. “We kill Rylan and power will fall to whoever is next in line. It only serves to prolong our struggle.”
“Rylan has been at the end of his tether for a long time. He has no true goal in sight: he is only blindly throwing all he has against us, exhausting his own resolve. He has no concept of what it takes to be a King,” Kidira said. “Perhaps power would fall to someone willing to see reason.”
“Like your daughter?”
It went on for hours. My plan of making myself useful in the kitchens came to nothing. I tried to back out of the room but Kidira snapped her fingers, demanding that I remain where I was. Growing weary of hovering, I took a seat next to Queen Nasrin and quietly translated for her.
Kidira wanted to assassinate Rylan and take our chances. Claire believed Rylan could be forced to stand down, providing guilt choked him first. I knew neither of them wished to argue or truly believed in what they were saying, but frustration was wearing away at us all.
Kondo-Kana sat sighing softly to herself, irritated by the constant interruptions to her writing. She’d dip her quill into the inkwell, hover thoughtfully over a page, only to have Kidira abruptly start another sentence with And yet—
Haru-Taiki was our only salvation.
He tore through the banquet hall as though he’d been loosed from a crossbow, and his talons dug into the polished tabletop as he clawed his way to a stop.
Ensuring he’d caught our attention with his latest entrance, he held up his wings and stretched out the first feather, lining them up above his eyes.
“… Kouris?” Kidira asked cautiously.
Haru-Taiki jumped on the spot, squawking, and scurried over to Kondo-Kana and Queen Nasrin. After a series of chirps and signs, Kondo-Kana smiled and scratched the top of his head.
“Kouris of Kyrindval marches down from the mountains,” Kondo-Kana said, rising to her feet. “An army at her heels.”
We didn’t need to hear anything more.
Akela broke through the barricades we’d made and we climbed to the highest point of the castle under our control.
There’d been no exaggeration in Haru-Taiki’s message.
His reports over the last week had spoken of nothing but disorder. Rylan’s army had filled the streets, surrounding homes and businesses alike and blocking off access to wells, but the tide was slowly turning. The Thulians had no intention of letting an army take their homes, but they had been disorganised, making weapons from whatever they could pry from their kitchens. They’d been unable to find a unified front. Not everyone could fight, and Rylan’s army had preyed on that disorder.
But now the people were beginning to move as one. Now they had a leader to look to; they had someone who knew how to build an army from the panicked masses like a tower built from nothing but jagged handfuls of rubble.
The people marched shoulder to shoulder. They held up banners made from blankets and stretched out shirts. I couldn’t take my eyes off the city spread before us and blindly found Claire’s hand, squeezing it. All this time, for all these years, she’d been working herself to the bone to save Thule and Felheim beyond, and there were her people: marching forward in her name, as ready to protect her as she was to protect them.
Kouris was at the head of the makeshift army, holding not a sword above her head, but Felheim’s green and gold flag. She sat astride Oak, leading all of Thule to the castle gates.
Rylan’s soldiers, Felheimish, Kastelirian and Agadian alike backed away from the bars. Their weapons counted for nothing with an entire army pressing down upon them, but the Thulians didn’t lash out. Oak used his claws and fangs to rip out the largest of the castle’s gates, and even with it toppled, Kouris’ army remained motionless.
They formed a ring around the castle, giving us the edge we needed.
Rylan couldn’t wait us out forever, not now that he’d lost the city along with the castle grounds.
The swell of noise was immense. The people were chanting, singing. It wasn’t the discord Rylan had hoped for, the chaos he relied on to grip Thule. Nobody screamed, nobody cried out for an end to things, no matter the cost. Their voices rose in unison, feet stomping against the ground in time to Fel-heim, Fel-heim, Fel-heim, over and over.
