Frey Saga Book II: Pieces of Eight (3 page)

“
What about
Junnie?”

I saw Ruby shoot a glance
at Chevelle but his eyes didn’t stray from the fire. She looked
away, busying herself as he answered. “What
about
Junnie?”

“
I saw her… when we were
being attacked.” I swallowed hard at the memory but tried to stay
on track.

He looked at me then, but I
had my own answer. My voice was weak. “She’s a member of council…
she received the calling just before I left the
village…”

He let me digest my own
words.

I was sure the fog in my
brain, the breaks in my memory, were keeping me from being able to
work through this. Junnie had been my only friend in the village,
all those years. But she wasn’t my friend, was she? She had been my
mother’s aunt, she was my
family
. She had come to see my
mother, to warn her. I tried to think back through my memories, the
days in her study, the lessons. She’d been kind to me, yes; there
was no question of that. But she’d never let on that she was any
more than, well, than my mentor. But that wasn’t right either.
She’d helped me with my studies, but she never taught me about
magic. Though I had been sure I couldn’t really do magic then. But
I’d had fire, Chevelle had shown me in one morning how to control
the tiny flame I’d been using since I’d arrived at the
village.

“
Frey?” Ruby’s voice
pulled me from the spiraling thoughts. I tried to clear my head as
I looked up at her, away from the flicker of the camp’s fire. I
could feel the tension in my face.

Pity was evident in her
eyes and it was easy to believe this group was as important to her
as it had become to me. It was all either of us had. She, alone but
for a half-brother and a missing father. And my only family a…
well,
two
aunts.
Though at the moment I couldn’t be sure whether I could count
either. Thoughts of Fannie replaced my stress over
Junnie.

And then something gnawed
at the edge of my memories. A forgotten dream? Aunt Fannie,
glorious in anger…

“
Frey?” Ruby was harsher
this time. She kept my attention. “It will be dark soon. We should
continue your training.” I had the feeling she was trying to
distract me. Someone always interfered when they saw the strained
look on my face, fighting with the bonds and the
memories…

She choked out a laugh as
she scrutinized my bruised face. “I’m guessing you don’t want to
try weapons today.”
Grrr…

Training was brutal, as
always, but I had a harder time than usual because I’d not been
able to stop my mind from returning to Junnie and Fannie. I wished
there was a way to retrieve my memories
now
. I cringed as I realized the most
likely way was the one we were taking, hunting down those who’d
bound me to destroy them. And then the worry set in. There was no
guarantee it would work, no guarantee that no one would be hurt,
not even certainty that
I
wouldn’t be hurt. I wouldn’t think of the flames
now…

But I did have that memory,
the memory of the flames. I thought of the diary then. I’d not
wanted to read it after the revelation of my human father, after
the description of my mother’s own father and his wicked plans,
after the madness that led her to destroy the North. I looked
around the fire as I sat alone with Ruby, the others speaking in
hushed tones across from us. It didn’t make sense, the reports I’d
seen of the northern clans had claimed extinction.

“
Ruby?”

She smiled automatically as
she answered, knowing I would likely say something stupid or
entertaining. “Hmm?”

“
What happened,” it was
hard to talk about, “when my mother…”

Her brow tightened as I
trailed off. “We don’t have to talk about this now,
Frey.”

“
I want to know.” I didn’t
sound convincing and I knew it.

“
You
think
you
do.”

“
Would you be happier, if
you never knew…” I couldn’t finish that sentence either. How could
I point out that she’d poisoned her own mother, and who knew how
many others, by accident?

“
Wouldn’t I?” she replied
coolly.

I sighed. She was probably
right. But not knowing was torturous. “But she couldn’t have… I
mean, you are from the North. And Steed, and Chevelle…” As I waved
my hand toward them for emphasis, I noticed Chevelle was watching
me. Staring at me. Yes, my mother had killed his clan. My throat
was thick but I managed to choke out my question in a whisper. “She
didn’t kill them all, then?”

Ruby’s face flashed with
sympathy and irritation and a half dozen other emotions before she
answered. “No, Frey. She didn’t. But most remained scattered until
things settled a bit.”

I let out a deep breath,
slightly relieved, and she eyed me suspiciously.

“
Frey…”

Uh oh
.

“
What made you think she’d
killed them all?”

“
Um, I read
it.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That
wasn’t in the diary.”

I hesitated for half a
second and then decided on the truth, mostly because I couldn’t
come up with a good enough lie. “It was in some papers from the
village.”

Her eyes flicked to
Chevelle and then back to me. I noticed he was still watching, but
now his face was hard. Her voice was almost accusing. “I thought
you burned those up?”

“
The ones
from the council, yes. These were from the library.” I glanced from
Ruby to Chevelle. Something about this troubled them, but I
couldn’t tell why. And then my brain caught up and I turned back to
Ruby, a little harsher than I’d intended. “Wait,
you
read the
diary?”

She almost blanched.
Almost. And then she answered matter-of-factly, “It was of interest
to me.”

Before I had time to
respond, Chevelle was beside us.

I was startled, and then I
flushed… this was the closest he’d been since my last failed
seduction attempt.

“
That wasn’t in the
documents you found at the library.” I tried to process the concern
in his tone but as his words sunk in, I flushed anew. He had seen
the documents I’d had at the library, researching him. He was
waiting for my answer.

“
Um, I found these
before.”

“
In the library?” Still
serious.

“
Yeah.” And then I
remembered. “Actually, they fell, from a higher level.”

They were staring at me
like I’d missed something obvious, something they didn’t
like.

Ruby interjected, “Frey,
are you sure you didn’t pull them to you with magic?”

“
I don’t think so…” But
how would I know.

They were quiet.

“
What?”

Chevelle was close, intense
in his “careful” mode, the one they used with me to protect my
delicate brain. I nearly snickered but held it, this was the wrong
conversation for that. “Were there any other documents,
papers,
anything
,
that you found?”

The way he said
found
had me confused.
“Uh, I don’t know.”

He waited.

“
There were those, and
then the ones in the library… the day you helped me study…” I tried
not to trail off as I realized he hadn’t been helping me study,
he’d been watching me. I huffed out a breath and continued, “And
then the ones in the council library.”

“
Nothing else?”

“
Only the scroll.” They
both looked away for a second and then he turned back to
me.

“
Are you sure?”

“
Yes. But it didn’t
matter, they were all messed up anyway.”

“
What do you mean, messed
up?”

“
They were all out of
order, just loose pages.” His eyes narrowed and I couldn’t stop
myself from talking. “The stuff about the northern clans was mixed
in with stuff about Fannie… and you…”

My voice cut off at his
response. I thought he might have paled, but I couldn’t be sure
because before I could get a good look, he was gone. I watched
after him for a moment, and then turned to Ruby, who sat beside me,
still. Expressionless.

“
What is it, Ruby?” I
whispered.

She composed a polite
smile. “Nothing, dear. You should get some sleep.”

I tried not to glare at
her. They weren’t going to tell me anything.

I flipped a blanket out a
few feet from the fire and flopped down, pouting. I wondered for a
moment if I could get someone else to tell me. Steed maybe. I could
try. I didn’t know about the others, they were not as open. I liked
Grey very much but I had my suspicions that he hung around more for
Ruby than my company. And Rhys and Rider were practically never in
conversation’s distance, always on the periphery, watching,
guarding. That only left Anvil. There was something about him. I
was drawn to him the first time I’d met him, wanted to be his
friend. It didn’t seem right, though. He was massive and should
have been frightening. Not to mention the fact that he could shoot
lightning from his hands. The feelings I had toward him, that
inexplicable pull, didn’t match my dreams. His tongue wagging,
being burned, torn away.
Ugh.

I tried to remove that
picture again. Maybe there was another way. There could have been
more in the diary. Maybe I should have kept reading it. I wondered
who had it. Probably Ruby. I couldn’t remember seeing it after I
woke. The last time had been the night Chevelle had tossed it
aside, when he’d held me as I wept…

Uh, there were so many
images I had to ban from my mind these days.

And then inspiration hit.
Surely we were still close enough…

I closed my eyes and
concentrated until I found what I needed. This new talent seemed
better all the time. I was in the mind of one of the large mountain
lions I’d left in the castle, seeing through its eyes. It wasn’t as
easy as the others, harder to stay focused here than in the horses.
He didn’t cooperate as well as I would have liked, but I was able
to get him to move from his comfortable spot… where was he? I tried
to look around but the cat became distracted by the sight of blood
and I had to focus harder to keep him moving.
Eee, hope that was whatever Dree was feeding them and not
Dree…
He’d been lounging high on a ledge,
in the throne room I thought. I wasn’t sure how to get where I was
going, still confused about the layout of the castle. But I thought
I knew where to go – Ruby’s room.

As we wandered through the
corridors my head began to ache slightly. The castle was pretty
empty, but I didn’t know if that had anything to do with the
presence of the cats. I tried several rooms, but most of the ones
that were open held nothing of interest. I was wondering how I
would ever find it when I came to a set of double doors that I’d
never seen before. They looked more ornate than the others, which
showed promise. With some effort, I reached a heavy paw up to pull
down the lever that released the latch. The cat was bigger than I’d
realized, its weighty body pushed the door right open.

He slunk forward, toward
the sheered bed and I let him, looking around as we went. It seemed
easier to “ride along” than to constantly try and control his
movement. He pounced the sheers, pulling them loose, and then
lazily plopped down on the end of the bed, looking out, around the
room. I wasn’t sure how to know when I’d found Ruby’s room, let
alone where to look for the diary, but this was definitely a
woman’s room. There were rich fabrics everywhere, dresses draped
over the wardrobe door. But, they were dusty,
very
dusty. I took a closer look at
the bedding, it was also aged. So, this couldn’t have been Ruby’s
room, it hadn’t been used for what seemed to be a exceptionally
long time. Why weren’t the servants cleaning it?

I tried to move down from
the bed to get a better look at the items on the vanity. We didn’t
budge. My head was almost throbbing now but I tried harder. He
didn’t behave as I wanted and I wondered if this was why so many
less had shown up at the castle than I’d planned. Then his head
turned suddenly, there was some commotion nearing the door. He was
moving now, but I concentrated on making out the sounds.

“
The seal has been broken…
Miss Vita’s room… no, no, by one of the cats…”

I didn’t know whether it
was the pain in my head or recognition of the name that brought me
back, but I was gone from the castle in a heartbeat. I sat up on my
blankets, rubbing my temples as I attempted to focus on the
memories.
Vita
. My
mother’s mother, I’d read it in the diary. She’d died, from grief,
it had said. My mother had tried to see her, and her room later,
but it was sealed, kept from her by her father.

“
Headache?” Ruby was
watching me. I had an audience. Big surprise. I opened my mouth to
speak but was too exhausted so I just shook my head and lay back
down. It was near impossible to examine the memories now, between
the exhaustion and pain. So I tried to not think as I drifted off
to sleep.