Bitter Ashes (Bitter Ashes Book 1) (11 page)

Sivi pulled me toward the pool, then dropped down into a seated position, forcing me to follow suit. She curled her dainty legs demurely and smiled at me, then ran her hand across the surface of the water while her other still gripped my wrist. As the water rippled, the vines began to shiver. She swirled the water more and the vines came to life and grew outward, searching for something to grab onto.

I flashed back onto the experience of being pulled by vines into the ground, and tried to pull my wrist out of Sivi's grasp as my pulse sped. Her grip was like iron, and she didn't seem to struggle at all as I continued my attempt to pull away.

“Look,” she said pointing down to the water.

I looked down automatically. Before, the reflection had been of the stone ceiling, but now I could see trees and blue sky, as if I was in a lake looking up through the water, rather than looking down.

“What is that?” I asked nervously. One of the vines crept across my jean-clad leg, then continued its blind search.

She grinned, exposing pointy little teeth. “It's a way out. For
you
.”

“Alaric said the only way out was sealed,” I argued, though I couldn't really argue with the scene in front of me.

“Sealed from people coming in,” she countered. “Not from going out.”

“Why are you showing this to me?” I asked, suddenly suspicious. “What do you want?”

A thousand thoughts competed in my mind. I could escape and go back to my little house. No one would even know that I'd been gone. I would never have to see Estus or James again . . . until they found me and stole me away once more. Maybe I could go into witness protection.

“I am only trying to offer you your freedom.” She continued to smile, though now the smile seemed slightly strained. Her lavender eyes flicked to the door then back to my face.

“Why?” I pressed, more to delay making a decision than anything else.

She sighed and let the smile slip from her face with another glance at the door. “Are you always this ungrateful?”

I shook my head. “Not ungrateful. Suspicious.”

“Yet you are not suspicious of Alaric and Sophie,” she snapped. “Where does your suspicion draw the line?”

“I'm suspicious of everyone,” I answered honestly. “It's nothing to get offended over.”

“Do you not want to go home?” she asked, seeming increasingly impatient.

“I do,” I answered. “But-”

“But what?” she interrupted. “Either you do or you do not.”

“It's not that simple,” I interjected. “It's not safe for me to be around humans.”

Sivi cocked her head like she didn't understand me. “You've spent your entire life in that world-”

“And it was fine at first,” I finished for her. “I didn't kill anything, not until . . . ” I hesitated, not wanting to say Ray or Matthew's names out loud. “Eventually I had to be alone,” I finished. “If I go back, I'll have to be alone again.”

“And you hope Alaric can help you with this, alone-ness?” she questioned. “The Vaettir can die just like humans. There is no safeguard against being alone.”

“Well he's a lot less likely to die,” I replied sullenly.

Sivi laughed. “How many have died since you came to us? Will you be able to give Alaric the true death when his time comes? You would not need to do so for a human.”

I shook my head. “At least if I brought him death, it wouldn't be an accident.”

“If you went home,” she began anew, ignoring my argument, “you could learn to control your gift. Now that you know what you are, you can safely interact with humans. There is no need for you to hide in the dark any longer.”

Our conversation was making me nervous, like I was committing subterfuge. Why did Sivi want me gone so badly? She had claimed that she was doing me a favor, but favors aren't supposed to be forced.

“I'll think about it,” I said, hoping to escape her until I could think things through. She seemed to want me to jump in the pool right that moment.

She eyed me as if she didn't fully believe me. “See that you do,” she answered finally. “I may not want to help you so much tomorrow, and the next day I may want to help you even less.”

She stood, then crossed her arms and turned her back, dismissing me. I stood slowly and backed away from the pool, watching the vines warily. I backed all the way into the hall until I could no longer see Sivi's tiny form, then turned and ran back to my room. Panting and feeling shaken, I shut and locked the door behind me. 

Just that morning I'd almost felt like I was starting to fit in, even if things were a little complicated. It was funny how small things could change your perspective. In a few short hours I'd had cryptic warnings, I'd threatened a footless woman, and I was offered an escape through a vine-filled, magical pool. You know, small things.

T
o sound horribly cliché, the rest of my day went by in a blur. Everyone seemed too busy to bother with me. I understood, they were in the middle of a war after all, and I'd been ignored plenty over the past several days, but the fact that everyone was acting as if I didn't exist had me feeling anxious. In Maddy terms, anxious is another word for suspicious.

I had gone to the kitchen to find some dinner, expecting things to be fairly quiet as per usual. Instead I walked in on Sophie screaming at James. They had both given me identical looks that said,
Oh great, here comes naïve little Madeline, she really has some nerve interrupting us
. I tried to back out of the kitchen, but Sophie stormed by me before I had the chance.

I ended up slurping on a bowl of mushroom soup while James watched me like I was a new toy that he might purchase . . . though really he was more of the shop-lifting type.

“Maya was even more smug after she saw you,” he said suddenly.

“Maya?” I questioned, startled that he had finally spoken.

“The woman you met earlier,” he explained.

“Oooh,” I said, though I already knew who he was talking about. “The woman whose foot you cut off.”

“I had to make her talk,” he replied as if it justified his actions. “And I don't see that you're in any place to judge.”

“I don't torture people,” I replied coolly.

I could take people's lives and still be morally righteous . . . at least that's what I kept telling myself.  

He laughed. “Give it time. You'll be one of us soon enough.”

I laughed right back, though mine sounded tired. “So you're saying everyone else here is an egotistical sadist like you?”

“The sadist part at least,” he said with a smirk. “Even Alaric.”

“I'll be the judge of that,” I mumbled, not meeting his eerie white-blue eyes.

He laughed again. “We all have the same nature Madeline. Some just hide it better than others.”

When I didn't reply, he watched me in silence. As it became obvious that I was now ignoring him completely, he stood and left the kitchen. I let out a breath at his departure.

Now more anxious than ever to speak with Maya alone, I stood and threw the rest of my soup into the large kitchen sink. I had originally planned on visiting her late at night, but it occurred to me that I'd be better off going earlier.

I’d been informed that the creature who’d chased me my first day in the Salr was called a Lindworm. James lovingly called it Stella. Stella mostly roamed the halls at night, sleeping during the day.

Stella and I had gotten on slightly better terms since our first encounter, but the sight of her ripping a man's spinal cord out of his stomach was still too fresh in my mind. If I went to Maya sooner rather than later, hopefully I could avoid an encounter with Stella, who'd still be asleep at this hour.

The hall was empty as I left the kitchen. I strode confidently forward so that if I encountered anyone, they wouldn't think I was up to anything. When in doubt, act like you know what you're doing and people usually won't question you.

I went around a corner and let out my breath as I saw that the next hall was empty as well. Despite the fact that I was lucking out, I still felt a little bit wary that I wasn't seeing anyone. Even though most of the inhabitants of the Salr didn't speak to me, I still usually encountered them in the halls. It was odd walking around without the invasive feel of side-long glances and the drone of low whispers.

By the time I came to stand in front of the door to the torture room I felt queasy and cold. I took a deep breath and grabbed the knob. If someone was inside with Maya, I'd simply lie and say I was checking to see if they needed me. It was my job to be there, so they couldn't really question me.

I walked into the room confidently to find it empty. Completely empty. The manacles that once held Maya hung loose against the wall. At first I panicked and thought maybe James had killed her, but that wasn't right. He wouldn't kill her until he got what he wanted from her. Plus, if she was dead I would have been called to release her spirit . . . unless Estus decided to put her heart in a box.

I searched the room for any evidence as to where she might have gone, but came up empty. Other than the blood staining the floor and walls, there was nothing to see. She could have been moved anywhere within the Salr, and I hadn't even explored the entire compound to know how big it was, or how long I'd have to search.

I walked back into the hall, feeling numb and not knowing what to do next. At a loss, I crouched down and leaned against the wall of the hallway. Then I saw the blood. There wasn't a lot of it, but there was a definite trail of blood drips leading farther down the hall.

I stood and followed the trail through a few twists and turns of the hall, all the way to a gargantuan stairway leading downward. The stones composing each step were larger than my torso and had to weigh a few hundred pounds each. Speckles of blood decorated the large stones all the way down into the darkness. I paused to consider my options, then hurried down the huge steps awkwardly, straining my knees as I went.

The steps ended in a narrow corridor. Where the rest of the Salr was lit by means that weren't visible to me, this corridor was lit by torchlight, and the torches only went so far. Roughly twenty feet in front of me, the darkness was complete. I grabbed one of the torches off of the wall to light my way and almost dropped it, not expecting it to be as heavy as it was.

As I got a better grip on the torch, I began to tremble with anticipation and fear, but still I forced myself forward. I crept along, crouching every so often to hold the torch near the floor to make sure the occasional spot of blood could still be seen. The corridor began branching off into hallways on either side of me, but the blood drops led straight forward.

There was absolutely no light as I went deeper, and I began to fear that my torch wouldn't last long enough to lead me back out again. I almost turned back, but then I felt the pain. Not Maya's pain, as I couldn't feel anything from her, but old pain from others that had been kept down there. This place had to be where prisoners were kept when they weren't being tortured. The walls practically ached with despair. I blocked the pain out as much as possible and hurried onward, now sure that I was going in the right direction.

Just as I was thinking that I was lucky to only be going straight, as I probably wouldn't get lost, the blood drips took a turn to the right. I veered off and trotted down the new corridor, hoping desperately that I wouldn't have to make any more turns.

This time I was actually lucky. The corridor ended with a final turn that led to a cell. Behind the thick metal bars was Maya, who had to quickly cover her eyes at the sudden light. She looked even worse than when I'd left her. One of the hands that she held in front of her face was missing several fingers, and the left side of her face was a mass of swollen bruises.

“I'm surprised you came this far,” she rasped. “You didn't happen to bring any water, did you?”

“I'm sorry,” I said quickly. “I didn't think-”

She waved me off then lowered her hands as her eyes adjusted to the light. “I suppose I should just be glad that you aren't stupid enough to believe everything you're told.”

“Why are you being tortured?” I asked, itching to escape the dark corridors as soon as possible.

“Estus wants a certain object,” she said, “and I may or may not know where it is.”

“What is it?” I pressed anxiously.

“If he had this object,” she went on, ignoring my question, “the war would be over, and Estus would be the sole man in charge.”

“Well that sounds like a good thing,” I replied. “At least no one else would have to die.”

Maya let out a laugh that ended in a hacking cough, making me wonder if James had damaged one of her lungs. “Tired of your job already?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Can you blame me?”

“Don't get tired of it,” she snapped. “At least don't show it on the outside. You'd be a fool to believe that the last executioner was actually a traitor.”

“H-how do you know that?” I stammered.

She shrugged. With her injuries, the shrug should have hurt, but she didn't so much as cringe. “Word gets around, but we're getting sidetracked. You implied that letting Estus win would be a good thing, but you're not looking at the big picture. Of course having one leader cuts back on the bloodshed, but what if that leader is a tyrant?”

My mouth went dry. “I don't know . . . ” I trailed off.

“No, you don't,” she replied. “The Vaettir withdrew from the human world for a reason. They called us wights, the undead, and burned many of us alive.”

“So we're hiding so that they don't kill us,” I concluded, but Maya only laughed at me again.

“Things are different now,” she said. “The Vaettir have grown in number, and they've become twisted things. The humans were right to be afraid. We are not what we were meant to be.”

“And what was that?” I prodded, desperately hoping that what we were meant to be wasn't the terrible picture of the Vaettir that I was forming in my mind.

“We're nature spirits,” she explained. “We're supposed to be guardians of the land. In all of history we've never gathered together like this. The Salr is supposed to be a sanctuary, not a home, and definitely not a fortress.”