The Steele Wolf (The Iron Butterfly) (14 page)

God must truly be a loving and forgiving God if he was willing to save a twisted monster like me.
 
All of a sudden, a bright warm light surrounded me and I was floating in the air. It was ethereal, until I was dumped, wet and cold, on the rocky embankment back at the top of the falls.

My eyes flew open and I spit up what must have accounted for half of the river. Choking and wheezing, I tried to calm the frenzied beating of my heart.

Joss was next to me, pale and gasping for breath as he leaned his sweat stained forehead against the ground. This was something I was very familiar with, a sure sign that he overtaxed his Denai abilities pulling me from the water.

 
Odin collapsed next to me and the large warrior broke down into sobs. “I thought you were gone. I saw you go over.” He sniffled. “It's a miracle.” And then he looked at me and gasped in horror. “What did they do to you?”

Silent and ashamed, I looked away and saw Kael slowly walk towards me, his shirt torn and bloody. When Kael saw my injuries he paused and stiffened, his eyes turned stormy in anger. I looked to Kael and flicked my eyes to where I last saw Bvork and he nodded slowly. It was all the affirmation that I needed; the SwordBrother had already avenged me.

Joss looked at me with joy in his eyes, and then sorrow.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I'm fine.”

“Thalia, don't you ever do that again,” he admonished. “I wasn’t even sure if I could.”

“You could have burned yourself out doing what you did,” I challenged him.

“I was going to try and slow the water and bring you closer but you let go. You left me no choice, I had to try.”

“Have you ever tried to stop a raging river?” I asked.

“Uh, no. I've never tried that either.” He looked sheepishly at me.

“Then don't get mad at me for a decision I had to make. You would have done the same thing in my shoes.” I smirked at him and then felt the pain flare up in my jaw.

He touched it and I felt a slight tingling go through my jaw. “It's not broken, just fractured. But I don't have the strength to heal you. I'm sorry.” He looked angry with himself.

I reached up and grabbed his hand. “Joss, don't be sorry. You saved my life... Again. As long as you get me back on the road towards home I'll be fine. The sooner I get home the better. How's Faraway and Siobhan?”

“Both are good.” This came from Fenri, who walked Faraway over to me. The horse leaned down and nuzzled me.

I felt a warm flicker of emotion touch me and then another thought.

In the words of the human, Don't ever do that again!

The human must be Joss. I painfully grinned at Faraway.

I won't do that again. I promise.

We are bonded, we go together. Okay?

Alright.

“Where's Father?” I asked, looking around.

Odin answered. “Thalia, he was injured in the fire and we wouldn't let him come after you.”

“Then what are we waiting around here for? Let’s get home.”

Chapter 15

The trip home took longer than the trip up to the falls, mostly because we had two injured, a very tired horse and night had fallen. We chose to stay the night at a halfway point and make camp using supplies that survived the falls. Joss was strong enough by then to heal me of the worst of my injuries, but I asked him to leave the bruises and my stitches alone.

“Let mother nature take her course on that,” I joked. “Save your strength for my father. Believe me; you'll need all the help you can get with that one, because I'm bound and determined to have you look at him when we are done. You are a much better healer than I am.” Joss chuckled and then headed to get some food.

Odin came and sat near me and I asked him more details.

Apparently Bearen had rushed into the burning house to try and save Aldo's child and the roof collapsed on him. The men were able to get him and the child out but he was burned quite badly. Bearen had protected the child from the flames by shielding him with his own body.

“How did you know I was gone?” I asked him.

Odin was chewing on a stick thoughtfully and pointed at Kael with the chewed end of the stick.

“That one came running up to me, swearing to no end that you were gone. I tried to ask him how he knew, and he said he just did. I thought he must be crazy, but we searched for you and sure enough we couldn't find you. We did find a note from Siobhan saying that her father and brother had taken you.”

Odin looked across the fire to where Fenri was leaning down giving Siobhan a bowl of soup. Fenri was really a caring man, and he was hovering over Siobhan protectively.

“She's had to live under their thumb for her whole life, and she found the strength to finally stand up to her brother. She could have died today, Odin,” I said.

“Well, what she should have done was come get us instead of leaving a crummy note. Or better yet, left us a map,” he complained gruffly. “We had to follow that one.” Again Odin pointed to Kael. “Back and forth around the village until he took off towards the mountains.
 
I'm not sure what kind of compass he's following but I'm pretty sure it's broken.”

I couldn't help it; I snorted and almost spit out the soup I was eating. Kael, Joss and the others looked at me in surprise. I muffled my laughter with my hand.

“So then,” Odin went on, “We are following the crazy wannabe clansmen. Oh, by the way, we figured out he’s not from the Stahler clan. We take off towards the mountains, and he starts to head in the wrong direction again and that huge wolf from the pass shows up, and starts dancing and spinning and acting all wild.” Odin did a sign to ward off evil spirits. “So here I am, a crazy old warrior following a crazy young man and a crazy grey wolf into the middle of nowhere in the mountains, on a hunt for you.” Odin waved his hands dramatically and I could see Kael leaning against a tree, listening in with a comical smile on his face.

I knew that Odin was having a little too much fun in retelling the story, but I knew that he did it for me, to make his goddaughter laugh. I glanced around the camp looking for the grey wolf and saw glowing eyes in the woods.

Wolf? I called him mind to mind.

Ja?

Thank you.

Then I realized how lame a thank you it sounded; but before I could say anything else, I felt a growl of appreciation from him and felt him melt into the forest and take off running. I chuckled.

“What about Joss?” I asked Odin, settling down.

“Lass, you will have to ask him yourself. That one came riding into town as if ghosts were chasing him looking for you. When he heard you were gone, he demanded to ride with us in search of you.”

I nodded in understanding and then caught Joss’ eye over the fire. He stood and made his way over to me. Odin politely stood up and gave him his seat.

He looked at the ground, then back up at me. “Are you strong enough to walk?” To show him that I still could, I stood up without help and we walked slowly around the camp. Joss led me into woods and pulled me into a close embrace, resting his chin on my head.

“I was so worried about you.”

Turning towards Joss, I looked at him curiously.

“Joss, why did you come here?”

“A messenger arrived from my family. My sister is missing, and we believe it has something to do with the Septori. I selfishly implored the Council to send me after you, in hopes that you would help me find her. You are the only one that has made it out from the prison and you may know more clues about how to find them.”

Shocked, I froze and felt my knees started to shake at the thought of hunting the Septori on purpose.

“No…um, not the only one,” I whispered nervously.

“What do you mean you’re not the only one?” He clutched my shoulders desperately. “You mean there’s someone else who can help us as well?”

“Well, if you can get him to agree to.”

“Who?” he demanded urgently.

I pointed with my chin over in the direction of Kael kneeling by the fire.

“How come you never said anything before?” he asked accusingly.

“It wasn't my place to tell his story,” I explained quietly. “Not everyone wants to the world to know what happened to them down there.”

I saw Joss’ eyes fill with pity as he looked at Kael.

“No,” I snapped. “Don't pity him. He would hate that. None of us want that. We are all stronger than that. We may be different now and changed, but please don't ever feel pity for us.” I didn't realize it, but that look he gave Kael cut me deeply.

 
“I'm sorry, Thalia,” he whispered as he cupped my cheek in his hand. “I won't feel sorry for either of you, even though I know what you went through.” He leaned forward and kissed each of my closed eyelids.
 
His lips pressed lightly against them before giving me a light and reassuring peck on my nose. I was too shocked with mixed emotions to do anything and I let him give me a soft, slow kiss on my lips.

It was warm and comforting; when he pulled back I saw a soft, caring look in Joss' eyes.
 
But not before looking over his shoulder and seeing the exact opposite emotions displayed in Kael's eyes. I stiffened at the hard, uncaring glance he shot Joss as he turned away and silently stepped into the darkness. The dark cloud followed him.

Joss felt me stiffen and turned to see the back of Kael. He let out a discouraged sigh. “Well, there went my chances of convincing Kael to help me. He's been very blunt in his feelings towards me.”

“It's okay, Joss. I will help you find your sister,” I said good-naturedly. I hated what I was about to do, but we needed to find Joss' sister and time was of the essence;.
 
Afterwards I would help break the curse on Kael. Who knew, maybe the answer lay in hunting the Septori.

“What about Kael?” he asked. A sliver of hope came through in his voice. “I'm pretty sure he won't want to help find my sister.”

“Don't worry, if I'm with you, he will surely be close by. He can't help it.” I grinned reassuringly to Joss, but felt my gaze search the darkness for Kael's form.

Sadness overcame me, as I knew my decision to help Joss first and not Kael would hurt the stoic SwordBrother and drive an even deeper wedge of hatred between us, one that I didn't think could be repaired.

Chapter 16

 
“Absolutely not! By all that is holy, I refuse to allow you to travel with this heathen.” Bearen breathed in deeply as if he were trying to make himself look more intimidating. At six foot four he was a bear of a man with his black beard and hawk-like nose, and his blue eyes were intense with anger.
 
But he was only scary until he started to cough great heaving coughs that shook the whole house, which were the after effects of breathing in smoke as he saved Aldo’s child from a fire. Then, the clan leader was reduced to being tended to like a sick child as my cousin Siobhan rushed in with water and a handkerchief.

Odin, Fenri, Joss and I didn’t tell him that when he was sick with fever and passed out from pain, that I had Joss sneak into his house and heal him of the worst of the burns and blisters from the fire. I thought it prudent to have Joss heal him this time, so if he awoke he couldn’t accuse me of disobeying him. Except that when he awoke he didn’t notice how much better he felt. I think the great warrior was trying to play up being sick to get as much sympathy as he could, except for the cough. We didn’t touch his lungs because it would draw too many unwanted questions.

But he wouldn’t let a little cough burden him when he was about to lose his only daughter that he just found again. He wasn’t about to let her leave with his greatest enemy. When his cough had settled, he once again turned those angry eyes on me. “You are still underage, and must obey my rules. That is, until you become clan leader.”

I had been, up until that point, sitting on a short three-legged stool next to my father’s bed; but I sent the stool flying as I jumped up in anger and pointed to him. “Father, you have to listen to me. You’ve ignored me every time I’ve tried to tell you about what happened.
 
But you can’t ignore it. Not anymore, especially when it was Rayneld that had a hand in my kidnapping. It was your brother that sold me to the Septori to be used as an experiment. It’s his entire fault that this happened to me.”

Siobhan, who had only a few days ago betrayed me and handed me over to my Uncle and cousin to be killed, stilled at my words. I don’t believe she would have done it if they hadn’t beaten her into submission. She had redeemed herself in my eyes when she rushed to the waterfall, sword in hand, and tried to save me from her brother. I glanced at her quickly to see if I offended her by bringing up her father’s involvement. But she seemed unaffected by my words and went on changing the bandages on Bearen’s almost healed wounds. It was as if, in her grief of losing her father and brother, she had sought comfort in caring for her uncle.

“You will listen because it involves your family,” I spat out. Bearen’s eyes widened in shock. “Your brother was trying to kill you at the pass.
 
He was the one who hired those mercenaries to ambush us so he could become clan leader. Bvork was the one who, months ago, drugged my drink and led me outside where your brother handed me over to the Septori.”