The Silver Siren (3 page)

“
I’m just getting
comfortable,” he smirked.

“
Promise you won’t leave
me,” I demanded tiredly.

Kael nodded, and I let sleep finally
win. But I swore I heard him whisper under his breath.
“Never.”

Chapter 3

The
next day as we packed up camp, Fanny was apparently the only one
who noticed the bedroll I was sleeping in wasn’t mine. She shot me
a curious glance but then went back to tending to hers and Mona’s
things.

Kael had kept his word and stayed near
me. When I woke up, he was still in the same position. He looked as
if he hadn’t moved an inch during the entire night. I felt guilt
overcome me and eyed him gratefully as he woke.

“
Thanks,” I said
meekly.

Nodding his head, Kael stretched out
his arms and started to stand. “Any bad things come your
way?”

“
No.”

“
I’m glad,” and he smiled
at me. A small smile that made his eyes crinkle in the
corners.

He stood and stretched out his back
and then moved to start breaking down camp and to check on Mona’s
bonds. She was actually being a very easygoing prisoner. If it
wasn’t for the chains she wore, we could almost feel as if she were
part of the group. But we couldn’t let that fool us. Underneath her
friendly façade, she was still a member of the Septori.

I had never gotten the chance to speak
with Kael about what had happened between us. But it seemed like
water under the bridge since he wasn’t giving me the cold shoulder.
So we had come to a common understanding somewhere in the night,
and we wouldn’t speak of it.

When we stopped for lunch Kael
insisted on running me through training drills. He’d once been my
arms instructor at the Citadel, and we bickered constantly. I had
felt that he was being tougher on me than the other students, and
so I resented him.

Now he was no less tough on me. In
fact it seemed as if he was trying to make up for lost time by
beating me around the camp in circles. My anger rose, and I was
determined to show him that I would not be so easily bested, but I
dropped my sword on the ground.

Kael kicked it over to me and I bent
to pick it up.

“
Wait,” he
snapped.

I froze in a crouch. Without warning,
Kael attacked again, and I threw my arm up to block the downward
strike of his palm. Kael sheathed his knives, so now we were
sparring hand to hand. Hemi and Darren had stopped everything they
were doing to watch us fight.

Kael wasn’t giving me any openings,
and I had to work hard to get a strike in. Too late, I left my side
open and he feinted with a kick. Stepping and bringing up my leg
and arm to block, I missed the feint, and he punched me in the
solar plexus. Dropping to the ground, I grabbed my middle and fell
forward face first into the dirt.

“
What the heck do you
think you’re doing?” Joss yelled at him.

“
Saving her life.” Kael
spoke stiffly, refusing to look at Joss.

“
It looks like you’re
trying to kill her, not save her,” Joss growled back angrily,
stepping in front of my prone body to challenge Kael.

“
Move aside. This is none
of your business.”

Joss kneeled next to me. I pushed him
away as I struggled up from the ground. I glared at Kael, shifted
my weight to my back leg, and brought my fists up to the ready
position. I wasn’t going to quit.

Kael wasn’t harder on me because he
hated me. He was harder on me because he was scared for me. He knew
what I went through in the prison; he’d gone through it too. He
wasn’t trying to punish or demoralize me. Kael was trying to make
me into the best fighter he could, because he cared about what
happened to me. The least I could do was take what he had to offer
and dish a little back.

We continued fighting until Kael
called a halt and told us it was time to get back on the road. My
muscles ached and I had numerous bruises to show for my
stubbornness—sitting in the saddle was a constant reminder of
it—but I was happy. I grabbed my water bag and took a long drink
out of it when I heard a horse draw near.

Fanny rode up to me, her brows knit
with worry. “Thalia, I’m not even going to pretend to understand
you young ones, because I don’t. But all I have to say is that
letting a young man beat you to a pulp is no way to let him know
you like him.”

I choked and spat the water all over
Faraway’s neck. None too pleased, Faraway stepped sideways in shock
and rode into Mona’s horse. Still coughing and wiping my mouth, I
noticed Mona’s disgusted expression.

I had to clear my throat a few times
before I was able to speak without coughing. “I think you are
mistaken.”

Fanny raised one eyebrow. “Am I now?
Well I guess you can’t believe the observations of an old woman
like me. I mean, it’s not like I was ever a young girl who held the
admirations of a few gentlemen either.”

“
No, that’s not what I
mean,” I tried to apologize.

“
Thalia, you have to be
careful and pick one. Otherwise you could end up hurting both of
them.”

“
That’s nonsense. Nothing
could hurt Kael.” I meant to go on but Fanny raised her hand to
stop me.

“
Listen to yourself; you
mentioned one and not the other.”

My mouth dropped open in shock at her
quick observation.

“
But I don’t feel that way
about Kael, and he doesn’t feel that way about me. I love
Joss.”

The look that Fanny shot me read that
my statement was plain preposterous.

“
Your head loves one but
your heart loves another. That’s never a good mix, my dear. Think
about it.” And Fanny dropped back to ride next to Hemi.

And I did think about it. I thought
about it for hours, and I came to the same conclusion. Deep down, I
knew Fanny was right.

Now if only I could figure out which
one to follow.

Chapter 4

We
came upon a farm when we were still three-days ride from Haven.
Darren had suggested we knock on the farmhouse door and ask if we
could pay to sleep in their barn for the night.

Hemi looked at the farm skeptically.
“I don’t think they would even open the door to us.”

Darren waved his hands in
the air. “Nonsense. They wouldn’t open the door to
you.
A strapping young
man like myself who is traveling with his wife and children on the
way to Haven—yes.” Darren held out his arm to Fanny who laughed and
latched on to it playfully.

“
Yes, my darling husband,”
Fanny batted her eyes at him. Hemi looked at the exchange and his
face darkened, turning red.

“
The rest of you would do
best if you stayed back out of sight. Kael, that includes you. Your
whole body language reads trained killer. Hemi, you look…uh...hmm,
well.” Darren paused as he took in the huge muscular frame, the
wild red hair, his long beard and fur pelt Hemi wore around his
shoulders. “Umm let’s just say, you look like you could scare them
into saying yes, if it comes to forcing them to let us stay the
night.”

“
Darren, you don’t really
think we would force them?” Fanny looked up worriedly.

“
Of course not. Watch and
learn.” Darren had Kael and Hemi lead Mona into the woods along
with two of the horses. While Fanny rode one of our horses, Darren
led Faraway, and Joss and I walked demurely behind.

“
Joss, now remember you’re
my devoted son who wants to grow up and be just like his good ol’
dad.”

Joss snorted and his shoulders shook
in mirth.

“
Shhh, stop laughing.
You’re blowing our cover,” Darren admonished.

I had to bite my lip to keep from
laughing as we tried to play the parts that Darren assigned to us.
Fanny the worried mother, Joss the devoted son and—Darren spared
one look at my skeptical face and deemed me the mute
daughter.

No way on earth would this scheme
actually work. But sure enough, Darren slumped a shoulder, ruffled
his hair, and took on the persona of a worn out father who was
looking out for his family. He knocked and we waited.

The elderly farmer and his plump wife
were slow to open the door, but once they looked at Darren’s face
and saw Fanny and her children, the door opened wider.

“
What can I do for you?”
the farmer asked, his eyes crinkled in concern.

“
Well, good sir. We only
wish to take shelter in your barn for the night. We are on our way
to Haven, to take young Jon here to my brother’s to become his
apprentice. Our horse threw a shoe and we’ve lost the light. We had
hoped to make it to an inn by now, and my wife and daughter don’t
wish to sleep out in the open again.”

“
Oh, the poor dears.” The
farmer’s wife looked at us with understanding, leaving me to
believe that she had been in a similar situation. Faraway played
his part perfectly by favoring one hoof.

“
We would be willing to
pay for the use of your barn, hay, and some feed. We have our own
food stores so we won’t need anything else.” Darren spoke slowly
and calmly.

I shot a look over to Darren and had
to bite my tongue. Of course if I were the one negotiating I would
have asked for a bathing tub and maybe some food. The baked bread I
smelled coming out of the kitchen made my stomach growl. But then
we would have a hard time explaining why we ate enough food for a
party of seven.

When the deal was struck, Darren gave
the farmer and his wife enough money to seem generous but not make
them overly suspicious. He told them we wouldn’t need anything else
and to not worry about us, but the extra few coins paid them for
our privacy.

We led our horses to the barn and
waited till dark to motion for Kael and Hemi to bring Mona. The
barn was a great distance from the house, so none of us worried
that they would hear us talking. Still, few words were spoken as we
settled in to sleep, everyone grateful for the abundance of hay to
pad our beds. Everyone, that was, except for me.

Sleeping on the straw brought back
awful memories of being a prisoner of the Septori and how Kael had
set the whole prison on fire—an underground prison beneath a
stable. The similarities were too much, and every time I closed my
eyes, I saw the iron butterfly and the cold metal table.

Not to mention that the fever and
burning stomach pain was back. Rolling on my side, I tried to
concentrate on breathing until this latest episode passed. That is
what I had started calling them. Episodes. Which usually only came
during the night.

Joss had even taken a look at me and
couldn’t find anything wrong.

“
It burns. Everything’s on
fire,” I whimpered. Tonight, it wasn’t letting up. It was getting
worse. My body felt as if I were literally on fire. I wasn’t being
as quiet as I thought, because cool hands pressed themselves to my
forehead.

“
She is burning up,” a
soft feminine voice whispered. I felt a cool energy pass through me
as Fanny attempted to heal me, but the energy came and went. “It’s
not working. I can’t identify what is attacking her, so I don’t
know how to heal it. It’s not a regular infection. I don’t know
what to do.”

A few muffled words were spoken. And
someone mentioned Mona’s name in question.

“
No, I’ve checked for
signs. It’s not Mona,” Joss spoke.

More muttering and someone cursed in
aggravation.

You’ll be fine. It will
pass,
Faraway intoned sadly.

Do you know what’s
happening
? I gasped as another wave of
pain overcame me.

It’s as the Raven said.
You are changing.

AGHH.
I grunted and tried to think the words to my horse.
Into what?

Silence followed.

Let me guess. You’re not
allowed to tell me?
By this time, tears
poured down my face.

Is it almost over?
I screamed mentally to him.

No, it will get worse
before it’s over
. Faraway sounded
miserable. He didn’t want to be the one to tell me.

And for an instant, I saw it all in my
mind. I wasn’t trying to scan, but I could see what was happening,
and I wasn’t in any kind of condition to do anything.

“
FIRE!” I screamed loudly.
Opening my eyes wide in pain, I saw the shocked faces of Fanny and
Joss. “Fire!” I shouted again.

They just looked at me
confused.

Desperate, I searched for Kael and saw
him farther back, watching me with a helpless
expression.

“
Save them—fire.” I
mouthed to him. And I saw my warning register on his face. Kael
believed me. Running outside, he saw what I had seen in my
mind.

The farmer’s house was on
fire.

Chapter 5

A
high-pitched feminine scream erupted from inside the house. Glass
shattered as someone threw a chair through an upstairs window.
Smoke billowed out in waves.