Splintered Fate (18 page)

She not only feared for the
children and Donn getting caught by Garin, but for Kaiden too.
There was something so deeply troubling about Garin’s eyes when he
had her in his grasp. Lana doubted that he would be quick to
forgive Kaiden for what he had done. She feared what he may be
capable of, that he might have no difficulty in taking his only
brother’s life for it. Kaiden had to leave with her, she couldn’t
risk him getting himself killed over trying to reason with a mad
man.

“
Keep moving. Ardin will lead you
safely. I will be right behind you.” Lana spoke to Donn as he
passed her.

“
Be careful child, a few seconds
too long and you may cause your wolf his life.” He spoke as he
passed. Lana felt the cold chill run through her. Why would he say
that?

“
I should speak to him, explain…”
Kaiden started as soon as he saw Lana slowing to him. His mind was
racing with the possibilities of speaking to his brother. He wanted
to try to have Garin see things his way.

Lana cut Kaiden off, not wanting to waste
precious time.

“
We need to keep moving. Your
brother is out of his mind with rage to the point of tracking us
down. Garin may love you but right now he doesn’t come in peace. He
wants me dead, Kaiden. Skilled fighters outnumber us. Who knows
what Garin will do to you or us if we are all caught? We need to
run, now.” Lana could see in his eyes that she had done little to
change his mind so she added “But if you don’t go then I am not
leaving you. If you are wrong you will cost me my life and Ardin's
for sure, there is no saying what will happen to Donn, Nadina,
Alex, nor my people.”

Kaiden looked at Lana with an odd
expression.

“
You wouldn’t…”

“
I WILL AND I AM!” Lana almost
screamed. “I am wasting precious time. If you are so sure he will
be kind then let’s do this, show me how forgiving and open to the
Madonian people Garin is. But I don’t think that deep down you
actually expect you can reason with him. I saw the hatred in his
eyes, Kaiden. Feelings like that take longer then a few nights to
go away.”

Garin was Kaiden’s brother, and
eventually maybe he would be capable of listening to reason and
understand why Kaiden had done what he did. But this was not the
time to find out. Kaiden looked hard at Lana. He searched for a
clue to know if she were bluffing or not, if she truly wouldn’t
leave. Lana met his eyes and wondered if he was willing to risk her
life over this.

Almost reluctantly, Kaiden gave
her a heavy nod in agreement, something that Lana could see was
difficult for him. “Lets go.” He spoke as he turned his horse
towards where the others had gone.

“
I have an idea,” Lana said,
taking the lead, staying close enough to be able to keep an eye on
Kaiden. She wasn’t planning on letting him slip away into the
darkness unnoticed. She could feel her palms sweating with nerves.
If anything were to happen to any of their little party, she could
not bear it. They were all here, in part, because of her, and all
were under threat because of her.

Lana led Kaiden through the
forest, close to the river. “Ardin took them through the river.”
She spoke over the sound of rushing water. They began traveling the
edge of the river till Lana’s white mare must have hit her toe on a
submerged rock. The horse’s knee was still bent and the leg
collapsed. Lana grabbed the horse’s mane as the mare’s neck and
head dropped. Luckily the horse extended its other leg and caught
its self before completely going down.

Continuing forward, the horse
cried out after a few steps. Its foot had been injured, making it
painful to maneuver the terrain with a rider on its back.
Dismounting the horse, Lana got a better view of its leg. There was
a nasty gash where the mare must have hit itself against something
sharp. The horse was too injured to ride and there wasn’t enough
time to wrap its leg and attempt to tie it to Kaiden’s horse to
take with them.

With an aggravated sigh, Lana
grabbed her bag from the mare.

“
Be safe,” she whispered into the
beautiful white horse’s ear before hitting its hind, sending the
horse away from the water to the opposite direction.

Lana turned to Kaiden who extended
his hand to help her on to his mount. His already racing pulse
quickened even more at her touch.

She wrapped her hands around him tightly and
he went off to the right, following her directions. They were
thankful for the blue moon on this night, providing enough light to
travel by. They rode for a while, following the water until they
caught up to the others.

“
That was good thinking to make us
go through water.” Donn commented, as Kaiden and Lana approached.
Lana’s brows came together in wonder of how Donn knew before
realization washed over her. His little lizard must have kept him
updated. Lana supposed that if Donn stopped to wait for them, they
must have gained some distance from Garin.

“
How fast is that lizard? You
would almost think there’s more than one.” Lana
observed.

“
There is more than one.” He
replied.

“
How many of those little guys do
you have out there?” Lana asked the old man.

Donn smiled a mischievous smile at her
question, replying, “Just enough”.

She wanted to know more about
Donn, not many people have more than one creature under their
control. In fact, now she knows of only two with such skills, Donn
and Arkhip Dukran.

“
Donn… the mare…” Lana began, she
felt bad about getting rid of such a beautiful horse who was not
even hers.

He waved his hand at her “You did what you had
to. I had given the mare to you to keep.”

Lana replied with a nod.

“
I think we need to keep traveling
throughout the night. Try and put some distance between my brother
and us. They will not stop.” Kaiden’s words were urgent. Lana
peered at him from underneath her lashes. It amazed her how his
heart seemed so set on seeing Garin and now it was set on getting
them as far away from him as possible.

“
I agree with the boy,” Donn
simply said.

“
I think I should ride with
Nadina” Lana spoke. Kaiden’s heart sank, he liked being close to
her. For her to be safe, within his reach.

“
The children should try and rest
some while we travel through the night.” Lana added and even though
Kaiden thought she was right, he couldn’t help feeling
disappointed.

Donn turned to his granddaughter. “Mind
sharing your horse, little one?” He asked gingerly.

Nadina simply shook her head
without a sound. The girl’s eyes were drooping with exhaustion and
Alex wore a similar expression. It was as if life had been drained
from both children. Fear sucked what strength they had like a
leach, leaving them a tired and trembling shell of the children
they were. Lana hoped that they would be able to rest as they road
on and that tomorrow they would feel better, somehow putting this
behind them.

Lana hopped off Kaiden’s horse and
made her way to Donn and Alex first. She paused, speaking to Alex.
“Try to rest while we ride. I promise I won’t let anything happen
to you.” Lana gingerly stroked Alex’s blond hair. Her gaze met
briefly with Donn’s, he offered her a nod of reassurance, before
she walked over to Nadina.

They began
riding through the night.

Every sound that came from the
woods sent Lana’s heart into a gallop. She knew that Donn’s little
creatures would warn them if Garin approached, yet she couldn’t get
herself to relax. There was a constant tightness to her muscles,
they were ready to snap into action at the drop of a
hat.

Once Nadina had fallen asleep Lana slowed,
allowing herself to get closer to Kaiden who brought up the rear of
their party.

She glanced back, meeting his
eyes, pulling him from his dark thoughts. Kaiden shook his head to
himself, seemingly deep in thought before he saw Lana watching
him.

“
I need to ask you a favor.” Lana
asked when she was close enough for him to hear her without need of
raising her voice.

“
What is it?” He asked
suspiciously.

“
Will you train with
me?”

Kaiden stared at her, this was not at all
something he expected her to ask him.

Lana spoke before he could reply.
“If I am to do this, if I am to take on this fight, I need to be
strong. There is no room for error. I need practice. I need to be
better prepared.”

Kaiden thought for just a moment
before he nodded in agreement. Normally he hated trying to teach
people things, the amount of patience it always seemed to entail.
But training Lana would be fun. She was always a quick study and he
never needed patience when it came to practicing with
her.

Before he could say anything more
Lana sped up, taking the lead again. They rode throughout the night
in silence, taking a small break at dawn and then continuing
throughout the entire next day.

* * *

Their first night of sleep after
running from Garin would not be a restful one for Lana, for she
woke to a feeling of free fall. Something was wrong, she knew
before even opening her eyes. When her eyelids did open it was with
a sudden purpose and a need to see. She sat in an open field, the
sun not yet over the horizon. Jumping to her feet, she spun around,
there was nothing there but brown fields of dry grass. She was
alone.

Ardin?

“
ARDIN!” Lana screamed in a
panic.

That’s what was wrong. She was alone, too
alone. In a frenzy she looked all around but there was nothing but
fields. Her mind raced in an attempt to put together the pieces of
how she got here, where here even was, and where were the
others.

“
It’s alright, child, he lays
right next to you.” A woman’s voice spoke calmly.

Lana spun around to see a
middle-aged woman in a long black cloak standing behind her. She
wore her brown hair in a single braid. Her face was pale yet not
unattractive and her body slender underneath her cloak. Yellow
golden eyes stared back at her.

Gaping up at the stranger, Lana
took a step back. The woman was not there a moment ago. She forced
her strength into her palm and a sword formed in her hand. It
seemed unnatural to act in such a manor to a lone woman with no
evident weapon but the whole thing seemed wrong. In fact,
everything seemed somehow off.

Lana’s eyes glanced at the sword in her hand,
to make sure it was truly there. The pull to form the blade oddly
did not drain her energy they way it normally did. She still had no
idea what was going on.

“
You are dreaming.” The lady
simply stated, as she lazily pulled her long thick brown braid over
her left shoulder. Lana looked around without a word. All that
could be seen was fields of grass in all directions. The sky was
beginning to change to lighter shades of blue. She didn’t know what
to think, this didn’t feel like a dream.

“
Who are you?” Lana
asked.

The woman smiled a very sweet smile, “People
call me Shade.”

Lana’s eyes grew larger and she
took a timid step back while tightening her grip on her sword.
“You’re… you’re the Shade?”

Very quickly her mind raced through everything
she knew of the Shade, which was almost nothing. She heard she was
dangerous and unpredictable, capable of a magic Lana had no
knowledge of. A folk tale is what Lana had always assumed the Shade
to be.

“
That implies that I am the only
one.” She answered.

“
Are you not?”

“
Discussion for another
time.”

Lana felt a
slight relief at the Shade’s comment,
another time
. It implied that Lana
should leave the meeting with her life.

“
Why am I here?” Lana
asked.

“
Curiosity.”

“
What kind of answer is
that?”

“
It isn’t much of one, I suppose.”
The woman took a step to the side, looking at Lana from an angle
underneath her long thick lashes. “We met once, you
know.”

Lana shook her head, confused.

“
You were a little thing. I knew
there was something interesting about you from the very
start.”

“
When was this?”

“
It was right after your mother
died. Valdor came seeking answers, you were there.”

“
My father, brought me to you?”
Lana asked. Shocked that Valdor would risk doing something like
that. The Shade wasn’t exactly a safe being to bring a child
to.

The Shade tilted her head to the side, like an
animal observing something new, before answering Lana.

“
It was a part of my condition to
meeting him. I assured him no harm would come to you during the
meeting.”

Lana just stared at the woman unsure of what
was happening. Why had her father brought her to this meeting, why
had he gone? Before Lana could ask anything the Shade
spoke.