Eventide (Meratis Trilogy Book 2) (38 page)

“What made you come, anyway?” Jeff asked. “You’re early. The queen gave us two weeks.”

Basten frowned. “Harold’s horse turned up at the palace. No Harold. I took it as a sign that something had gone amiss and came myself.”

Jeff looked to the twins. “Trained men only, eh? I guess that means I’m out, too?”

“What would you do? Throw stones?” Jayden asked, not unkindly. “Yes, you’ll stay behind as well.”

“As will I,” said Maggie.

This announcement surprised Jeff more than Basten’s decline. He thought she would have jumped at the chance to avenge Brady and defeat Raul. How would they win without her?

“I don’t want to risk dropping my guard and giving Raul more power. Best that I stay behind, see if I can do anything from here.”

“Like send these two home if things go badly,” said Jasmine, with pointed looks at Jeff and Cassie. Jeff opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off with a glare as Maggie nodded.

“Then it’s settled,” said Basten, before Jeff could even process that the conversation had happened. “I’m glad it was so simple. When will you leave?”

“Within the hour,” said Jasmine. “Our men have been waiting ever since the messengers returned. They should be ready to ride.”

The advisor looked almost amused at her determination. “Do you know how long of a ride it will be? What weapons they carry? How many men they have?”

“He has minions, not soldiers,” said Jayden.

“Brady—” Jasmine started, looking up at the place against the wall where the scholar usually stood. She caught herself and pressed her lips together, then cleared her throat and reworded her question. “What’s on the southwest road?”

“Gaylan’s Keep,” said Basten.

“Ashforth Castle,” Jayden said.

“The mountains!” Maggie exclaimed, stepping forward. “If Raul wants to absorb the most energy, he would need access to the most bodies. Rumour has it you can see four borders from the top of the Kinnaeth Mountains. It would give him the widest reach. The fortress up there has been abandoned for years, ever since the river dried up.”

“Then that’s where we head.” Jasmine looked to Basten’s men. “I hope you packed something warm.”

***

True to her word, Jasmine had everything ready to go within the next hour. Five hundred soldiers—horsed, armoured in chainmail, and equipped with sword or bow—stood at the gate, ready to meet whatever fate awaited them on the mountains.

As much as Jeff feared for them, he knew they couldn’t not go. It wasn’t much of a choice. Either go or wait here for Raul to win, and kill them all with walking dead and mutated eagles. At least this way they could go down fighting.

He and Cassie stood on the bridge at the bottom of the stairs to watch them leave. Venn and Maggie stood with them, one sullen and bitter, the other holding back tears. Conrad had also come out to say his farewells, standing behind his wife with his hands on her shoulders. William stood beside him, claiming it was to say farewell, but Jeff noticed how often his attention shifted to Venn.

Once they deemed their men travel-ready, Jayden and Jasmine approached them, both armed in steel plate, the green and gold hawk of Feldall painted on their chests.

Jeff swallowed hard as they all stood there, staring at each other. He’d been here before, this awful moment of goodbye when the future looked bleak and uncertain. Last time it had ended better than he could have wished. He hoped they were as lucky this time.

“Oh for mercy’s sake,” Jasmine said, throwing her arms around Maggie’s neck. “We’ll be back before you know it. You’ll see.”

“I’ve no doubt,” Maggie replied in a choked voice. She used one arm to grab Cassie and pull her into the embrace.

Jayden held out his hand, and Jeff shook it.

“Best of luck. Brother,” Jeff added, uncomfortable with the title.

Cassie released Jasmine and wrapped her arms around Jayden’s waist. The warrior looked at Jeff in surprise. The surprise grew when she stood on tip-toe to kiss his cheek. “I wanted to say that I’ve always had a bit of a crush on you. It’s nice to know you’re less of an ass in person.”

Jeff smirked while Jayden threw back his head to laugh, squeezing his arm around Cassie’s shoulders and leaning in to give her a kiss full on the mouth. What else could Jeff do but roll his eyes as Cassie staggered backwards, her cheeks tomato-red.

Jayden gave Jeff a wink. “I’m riding off into certain danger and potential death, Author. You wouldn’t begrudge me one last favour from a beautiful woman, would you?”

“If you weren’t riding off into it, you’d be getting it here now,” Jeff replied.

Jayden grinned, the carefree roguish quality creeping back around the edges. The prospect of a fight seemed to have set his blood boiling, stripping away a few layers of bitterness at the recent changes in his life. In spite of the reason, it was nice to see.

When Jasmine came to hug him farewell, Jeff found he had a hard time letting her go.

“Be careful, all right?” he whispered.

“Always am,” she answered.

He pulled back, keeping her hands tightly in his and caught her eye. “And know that you have something to come back to. Fight for him, not to join him.”

Jasmine’s eyes flashed—with surprise or guilt, he wasn’t sure—and she nodded. “I promise.”

Not feeling very reassured, but knowing it was the best he would get, Jeff tugged her in for another tight squeeze.

Cassie slipped her hand into his as they watched the two march up to the front of the army and mount their horses. Maggie leaned back heavily in her husband’s arms, having trouble hiding the emotion brewing inside.

Unexpectedly, smaller fingers slid into Jeff’s other hand. He looked down at Venn, but she stayed focused on the road.

With so many soldiers mobilising, it was difficult to notice when they actually started to move. The gates cranked open and they saw Jayden and Jasmine lead the way out, but it felt like forever before the last man followed. Then only seconds later the whole troop was nothing more than a dark spot on the road.

Panic took hold of Jeff, and he found it difficult to breathe, spots dancing in front of his eyes. This was it. This was their chance to end Raul. And if they failed …. He wouldn’t know until everything was over.

In a strange way, he felt left out. His first experience here, he’d been caught up in the centre of things, whether he wanted to be or not. It had been scary, but at least knowing what was going on had given him a modicum of control, even if he didn’t realise it at the time. Now he was stuck on the outside, watching others go off. His author brain, the one that had spent years chasing after the greatest Feldallian adventures, rebelled, wanting to follow just for the sake of chronicling the details later. But this was bigger than him.

Bigger than any of them, he admitted. Their chances were slim, and his best hope now was that Maggie could send him and Cassie back in time. Maybe he’d get Maggie, her family, and Venn to come with them, just so they would all be safe.

Cassie gave his hand another squeeze, drawing him out of his thoughts. He draped his arm around her shoulder and kissed her forehead, Venn’s hand still tight around his fingers.

Maggie sniffled and blew her nose on her handkerchief. “Come along then,” she said, reverting to mother-mode. “No point standing around waiting for them to come back. William, you go home and keep your brothers and sisters from killing each other, all right?”

“Yes, mum,” he said. Jeff picked up on the hint of disappointment, how the young man’s dark eyes shifted towards Venn once more before he walked off.

Maggie clapped her hands together. “How about we play a bit of Aldromag to pass the time until dinner?”

She started walking back, Cassie falling into step beside her. “What’s that?”

“It’s a card game. Not too complicated, if you’ve ever played Triple Flip.”

Cassie looked back over her shoulder at Jeff with a teasing look of helplessness, and he tried to smile back. Cards were the last way he wanted to spend an afternoon, but anything was better than sitting around.

They headed down to the Haunt, and Maggie cleared off the bench, ordering a large platter of bread and meat and cheese for them to snack on while they played. Jeff had to give her cleverness credit. None of them had much of an appetite, but with the food sitting there as the cards were turned, they picked at it without thinking until their bellies were full and the tray was empty.

The game kept them occupied until their eyes grew heavy. The candles Conrad lit when they started playing were on their last legs, a second batch ready to replace them if needed.

Maggie yawned as she dealt another game, and as much as Jeff longed to stretch out on a soft mattress, he was grateful that no one else seemed ready to leave the table either.

“You must be looking forward to going home,” the enchantress said out of nowhere. Up to that point, their conversation had been limited to the weather, the blacksmithing business, and what crop prospects were for the coming year.

“It’ll be nice to see my bed again,” he said. “Unlike last time, when I managed to catch a glimpse of it once or twice.”

He aimed for humour, teasing Maggie for the two times the Meratis incantation had failed on the brink of success.

“Yes, yes, lay the blame at my door,” she huffed, focused on her cards, and he wasn’t sure if she was joking or genuinely annoyed. When he didn’t answer, she looked up to find everyone staring at her, and the hard lines around her eyes softened. “Maybe if you had focused on where you wanted to go that second time, you would have made it.”

Jeff accepted her attempt to smooth things over with a smile, which he directed first towards her and then at Cassie. “But if I had done that, how would I ever have got this one to believe me when I said I’d been visiting another world? Showing up for thirty seconds in the coffee shop gave me a certain amount of credibility.”

“And nearly gave me a heart attack,” Cassie pretended to scold. The false cheer around the table started to give Jeff a headache. “You’re lucky I’m made of sterner stuff, or you would have had no one left to persuade.”

“You guys are lucky you have somewhere to go when this is over,” said Venn, her heavy, lack-lustre tone breaking through the illusion that they were having a good time. “What will there be for those of us who have nothing left here?”

“Oh, pet, you don’t have nothing,” Maggie said. “We’ll make sure of that. You can stay here, get a job in the guard. Goodness knows you’re handy with a blade. You could make a home here.”

Venn tried to smile, but with little practice, it came out weak. “Thank you, Enchantress Maggie, but I’ve never been one for fancy Keeps and uniforms. I’ll probably head back to the stables at the Queen’s Head. No money, but at least the food was good.”

Jeff fought the urge to give the young woman a hug, but he noticed Cassie watching her, her dark blue eyes jumping around Venn’s face. He could almost hear the wheels turning in her mind and thought it best not to ask what about. At least not in front of the crowd.

They played one last round of Aldromage, and then finally called it a night, all of them getting up with reluctant, slow movements, bidding each other goodnight as if hoping someone else would suggest another round, or a late-night walk.

Maggie and Conrad left the Keep to return to their cottage and check on their children while Venn, Cassie, and Jeff headed upstairs.

They broke apart on the second level, Venn slipping into her room, and Jeff and Cassie lingering outside Cassie’s door.

He wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t want to impose on her, but he hated the thought of going back to his room by himself.

Cassie took the decision out of his hands, sliding her arms around his neck and brushing her lips against his. There was no fire in her kiss, only a soul-reaching comfort that he clung to. Taking his hand, she pulled him inside.

The second the lock clicked on the door, Jeff broke down. All day he’d tried to deny that one of his best friends was dead, but Brady’s absence was like a hole in his chest. The fear of what awaited Jayden and Jasmine at the top of that mountain worsened without Brady’s rational opinions. He would have traded almost anything with the Sisters at that point to bring him back, just so the scholar could say something reassuring. Or honest, but with a tone of voice that said, “This is what’s going to happen, so there’s no point worrying about it.”

Again the panic washed over him, grief, terror, confusion. Cassie embraced him, murmuring soothing words in his ear. Burying his face in Cassie’s neck, he wept.

***

The next two days passed without incident. No word came from the southwest road, no earth-shattering devastation that pronounced Raul’s victory. For the people inside the Keep, the time didn’t so much pass as crawl, the sun remaining in the sky twice as long as normal, the night stretching out until it felt like day would never return.

Maggie and Conrad were rarely seen, spending most of what might be their last days with their children, even forcing Joseph and Bess to stay at home with the family instead of tearing around outside, although they kept the reason to themselves.

Venn, Cassie, and Jeff spent their time wandering the Keep. Mostly they kept to the main drawing room to stare out the window, or into the empty fire grate.