The Silver Siren (20 page)

“
Yeah right. You dropped
the coal on your upper arm?” the soldier said sarcastically. The
soldier pulled up Narn’s sleeve to reveal a large red circle burn.
It was still swollen, an angry red blister had appeared, and the
edges had burned black. The smell was rank and the sight of the
yellow pus made me sick, but I tried to look closely for any sign
of a previous mark. It was just too hard to tell.

I wasn’t like Adept Lorna and I
couldn’t read him.

“
Kill him,” Karni spoke
softly.

I was surprised at her young voice and
the certainty with which she demanded death. Syrani looked to me
with a question in her eyes. Neither of us knew what to
do.

“
Please, please don’t kill
me! I’m innocent, I swear,” Narn cried out and fell forward to the
ground, burying his face in his hands. “I didn’t do nothing wrong.
I’m not a killer. I’m not like one of the others.”

“
Tell me what you know of
last night,” I demanded angrily.

It took Narn a few tries before he was
able to calm himself to answer. “Nothing out of the normal. We made
dinner, like normal. Same stuff we make at the Citadel. Nothing
new, soup, bread.”

“
Did you notice anything
strange?” Syrani prodded.

Narn started to cry again.
“N-n-nothing. Except that Donn wanted to bring out a case of cider.
He was very adamant that everyone get a cup. He said he was trying
out a new recipe.”

I thought back to last night. And how
everyone had happily been indulging in the cider. Hemi had brought
me a cup and ended up drinking my portion. So that was why I hadn’t
drunk any. I looked to Syrani and flat out asked her, “Why didn’t
you drink the cider?”

A blush ran up her face
and she refused to look at me. “I’m allergic to cinnamon. So I
never
ever
drink
any cider. I break out in an ugly rash.

I remembered when she
tripped me at the Citadel when I was carrying a pitcher of cider.
The drink went everywhere, but not a single drop spilled on Syrani.
I guess, if something as simple as cinnamon could mar her beauty,
she
would
be
extremely aware of it.

“
Well, I suppose that
leaves us no choice.” I looked over at Narn’s pitiful form. Snot
and tears ran down his nose. “Leave him with a few days of rations
and no horse. He can find shelter in that time, but he can’t do us
any harm if we leave him.”

Narn began to wail loudly. “No you
can’t leave me. I don’t know how to survive out here. There could
be bears, wolves, or monsters out in these woods.”

Enough. I’d just decided to spare his
life and now he was whining. “I’m the monster you need to worry
about,” I growled.

He shut up and began to sniffle and
cry.

We decided to tie him up until we were
ready to pull out. But where to now? We needed more men, more
protection. We were vulnerable to attack. I looked to Hemi and he
nodded his head at me. He knew what I was thinking.

“
We keep heading north. To
the Valdyrstal lands,” I announced. “Right now, out in the open, we
are under constant threat of attack. We need to get help, regroup.
We are closer to Valdyrstal than Haven, so I say let’s go
forward.”

The few soldiers that were left became
silent. I looked over the students, and even Syrani had a bemused
expression. Hemi stepped in and began ordering them to transfer
only their absolute necessities into the first three wagons. We
would leave the rest.

I only prayed that my father would
understand and forgive me as I led a ragtag bunch of Denai, his
sworn enemy, right into his home.

Chapter 18

Understand was a stretch. Not only did my father not
understand our arrival, Bearen was livid.

At first he was delighted to see his
daughter and his good friend Hemi return. His face dropped into a
scowl when the first wagon crested and he saw Karni on the seat
next to the driver. His face turned from red to purple when more of
the Denai students crested the hill behind us, escorted by
soldiers.

Fearful for my friends, Hemi and I
rode out ahead to greet my father. “Father, we need
help!”

“
Turn around, because you
will find none here,” Bearen threatened, pointing the direction we
had just come from.

“
We can’t. We were
attacked; we lost most of our men and many of the students. They
were taken, like I was before,” I whispered the last sentence so
only he could hear it.

“
Where’s the
SwordBrother?” he asked, searching for Kael. “He swore on his life
that you would be taken care of.”

“
He made sure I was safe
before he went after them. Father, the Adept Council and all of
Calandry are in a dilemma. We don’t know where to go. People have
even started disappearing from the city, the Citadel, the roads.
Nowhere is truly safe anymore. The Septori always seem to be one
step ahead of the Queen and adepts. This was the safest place I
could think of.”

Bearen rubbed his long black beard
thoughtfully as he listened to my words. Odin had come and stood by
to listen in, along with Eviir and quite a few others. The three
wagons continued straight into the middle of town, and the five
remaining students began to hop down and gaze in awe at the unique
architecture of our longhouses. Some started to shiver. I supposed
it was because we were high up in the mountains and it was cooler
than most were used to.

Women came out of the houses carrying
extra coats and blankets. Their own children followed closely
behind and were drawn to the beautiful Denai. Looking at those
left, I realized sadly that only the youngest were spared. The
Septori had taken all the older ones but Syrani. Whatever their
plan was, they didn’t need the young children anymore.

“
Of course it’s the safest
place. We are the best warriors, but I don’t think it would be
good—” Bearen started to speak again.

“
This problem is bigger
than our distrust of the Denai. The safety of these children is now
our responsibility. Help us get them home safely. That’s all I
ask.”

Odin, one of the older warriors and my
godfather stepped forward. “No one would blame you, Bearen, for
taking in children. Even we can make an exception. And as you know,
times are quickly changing. The borders are no longer
closed.”

My ears perked up and I gave Odin a
questioning look. He waved at me, signaling that we would talk
later. After a moment of consideration, Bearen stepped forth and
began directing families to volunteer and house the Denai students.
Hemi and I had expected a fuss among the clan members about the
taint of the heathen Denai. We thought we would have to force them
to shelter them. But without my Uncle Rayneld there, no one started
trouble. Apparently his hatred had died with him.

“
Where’s Siobhan?” I
asked, craning my head to see her among the crowd. I was hoping to
check in on her, to see how she was holding up.

“
She’s gone,” Odin
answered without any emotion. “She couldn’t handle the accusations
that kept floating around about her involvement in the fire. She
went to live with her aunt in the mountains. I don’t blame her. No
one trusted her anymore.”

We continued to oversee the delegating
of children to host families. My clan members surprised me when
quite a few stepped forward and gladly offered up their homes,
food, and shelter in the main barns for even the soldiers that were
left. The few remaining servants immediately went to work at the
cookhouse, helping with the main meal for the village.

Bearen stood looking around, his eyes
furrowed over his hawk-like nose in apparent disappointment. “I
really thought it would be more of an issue.”

I watched as young Karni attached
herself to Eviir and grasped his hand, refusing to let him go.
Eviir’s wife was laughing and talking animatedly to the younger
girl. I had forgotten that Eviir and Lina couldn’t have
children.

Hosting a young Denai
child might lead them into a few surprises,
Faraway chimed in, chuckling.

“
I’m surprised there
wasn’t more of a discussion either,” I agreed. But I remained
hopeful.

“
Maybe it was I who had
problems accepting change. The clan is much more willing,” Bearen
remarked.

“
But these are children,”
Odin spoke up. “The older one, that girl. I noticed that no one has
come forward to offer her a place to stay.” He gestured toward
Syrani.

Syrani stood off to the
side, for once looking completely out of her element. Maybe it was
because the men in my clan were giants. Or it could have been
because Fenri was close by. She probably recognized him by the fox
fur he wore, and realized
he
was the one who knocked her in the mud that
fateful day at the Citadel when my father had come to retrieve
me.

Maybe you should offer
your home, before Fenri sees her and knocks her in the mud
again,
Faraway said.

I guess you’re
right.

Course I’m right. I’m
always right,
he said.

And you’re always hungry.
So it usually comes down to whether you’re thinking with your head
or your stomach. You’re just not saying we should shelter Syrani,
so I can get you back to the barn for feed are you?

No…Maybe...Now I’m
hungry.

Figures.

I was about to approach Syrani, but
Fenri saw her first.

Syrani’s eyes went wide and her face
paled when Fenri came forth out of the crowd to stand in front of
her. She took two steps back in fright, and her hand flew up in an
attempt to keep him at a distance. He spoke softly, and I watched
as her hand dropped, her face flushing pink. She looked around
desperately, as if waiting for another offer from someone
else—anyone else. When none came forward, I expected her to balk
and lash out at Fenri with her viperous tongue. Instead, her
shoulders slumped and she nodded her head, following him with her
small bag of belongings.

She would be in for a bit of surprise
when she met Fenri’s mother, Gentri, who was just as demanding as
Syrani was. Gentri would keep her in line and may even teach her a
thing or two about homemaking. Of course, I was also aware that if
she couldn’t curb her spoiled ways, Syrani could very well be
running for the hills by the end of the night.

When everyone was taken care of, my
father sent off two messengers to Haven to tell them of the attack
on the caravan and ask how they would like them to proceed. But now
that our first duty was taken care of, all I could think about was
Kael. What would happen if I went after him?

He said he would come back. But the
waiting was torture.

It was strange, this new feeling of
responsibility for someone else’s life. It also made my emotions
swing like a pendulum from melancholy to anger. After a week among
my clansmen, Kael still hadn’t returned. My mood became perpetually
dark. I sat at the large table in my house poring over a map and
guessing possible locations the Septori might have headed. Though
I’d asked, Bearen had refused to let me leave to go looking for
Kael. I was tempted to sneak off and go after him anyway, but I
couldn’t leave the students. I was responsible for all of them, and
I couldn’t leave until we had heard back from the Adept Council or
the queen. All I could do was for answers.

I found Skyfell on the map, placing a
coin over the city from which Tenya had been taken and where we had
first encountered Talbot, Xiven, and Mona. I put another coin down
to mark the spot our caravan of wagons had been attacked. I put a
handful of coins on the city of Haven to represent all of the
students disappearing. Last, I put a coin on the riverbed where
Joss said he’d found me, downstream from where Kael and I had
escaped. Queen Lilyana had said that the underground hideout was on
the river that bordered Sinnendor and Calandry. She suspected
Sinnendor.

Everything about this seemed to point
to Sinnendor and King Tieren, but something just wasn’t feeling
right.

Something nagged at me.

Before I killed him, I asked my uncle
who the Raven was. He told me it was one of my precious
Denai.

And why was the hideout in Calandry,
if Sinnendor was the enemy? Why not take us into Sinnendor? Why
risk everything by hiding in their enemy’s lands?

No, something was off.

I wrote down every clan in Calandry
and found them on the map. I put another coin on each of the clan’s
lands. At first I had thought they were taking both human and
Denai, but that was because I didn’t believe I was human. Now there
was a thread of doubt. I believed the Raven was looking for
something specific in each of the clans. It was probably
blood-related, so the Septori hit the strongest clans first. When
that didn’t’ work, I guessed they went after the strongest
Denai.

No matter how I looked at
the map and the layout of coins, I couldn’t help but notice that
Haven was the epicenter of the movement. If Sinnendor was the
answer, then wouldn’t there have been more coins placed near the
border? In fact, other than the one I placed on my own home, there
was a noticeable
lack
of coins in that region.