Veiled Innocence (Book One, The Soul Cycle) (35 page)

He didn’t even hear what she said.
He lay on his back and breathed deeply, staring into the too blue sky and not caring th
at the sunlight was blinding.

He was alive.

“Thank you,” he said.

Vishka stared at him with a distant look in her eyes before giving him a quick nod.

“Why did
you save me?” He eyed her suspiciously
. “Lianora, I can understand. There’s something special about her. But I’m nothing to you.
I dare say y
ou
even
hat
e me
.”

Something flickered across Vishka’s face as she stared at him. “You remind me of someone I used to know.”

Before he could ask who, she looked away and gestured to his right. “It loo
ks like this path is well-trave
led.”

He turned his head and sat up. 

She was right.  The dirt was smudged into large, thin straight lines, as if scraped by claws. The claw-scrapes gradually morphed into human footprints. 

He blanched.
She’ll figure it out, if she hasn’t already. Will she kill me when she finds out?

His eyes darted to Vishka, who was staring up and down the path as it curved around the bend in the mountain. 

“There is a cave ahead,” she said, closing her eyes. Her face was drawn in concentration. “There is… a man, I think, with her.”

He gulped. “A man, you say?”

She listened in silence a few more seconds before opening her eyes. “The girl is alive and well, for the most part.” She turned to face him. “Have you ever fought a Dracor? You’re going to need some sort of weapon.”

He rolled his eyes and rubbed th
e sore muscles of his arms. “Oh
? I thought I would
stroll
in there
and beat it up with my bare hands.”

Her face darkened. “Humans don’t know how to take anything seriously.”

“No, my L
ady, I think perhaps you don’t know how to lighten
your mood
.”

She glared at him, a look that most likely would have terrified someone who had spent less time in her company. He had come to expect it.

Her head snapped forward. “Something’s happening,” she said, taking off down the path. 

Rising
to his feet
, he
stumbled after her. 

He
already knew who they would s
ee once they rounded the corner
and the Dracor stepped out of the shadows. All the same, he had to brace himself for the inevitable shock wave that would hit once Vishka and Lianora realized who the Dracor was.

Or more importantly, that he had known all along.

Secret

LIAN SHUDDERED. SHE CLUMSILY
tried to put as much distance between herself and the shadow as she could, ignoring the pain when the cold, roug
h stone cut into her palms. “
I don’t unders
tand.
Why you?
”

The shadow stirred, and she caught a glimmer of a crimson cape. “Because if it were anyone else, then you would surely be dead,” replied the grating voice. “And
I
need you alive.
It took me a while to figure that out, but once I saw how your aura changed in the presence of the crystal, I knew I couldn’t dispose of you.
”

It occurred to her, like an afterthought, that she should be crying or at least be afraid for her life. Strangely, she felt numb, like she had
shed
all her tears by the river earlier, like every ounce of emotion she had left was soaking in the sand of the embankment. H
er f
ace was devoid of any emotion; s
he stared into the darkness with blank eyes. “All those times I was afraid of you…” Her voice was monotone, as
hollow
as she now felt.
My fear, my worries; i
t all seems so
trivial
in light of what’s happened. He’s the reason Gabriel is dead.

She should have felt angry, but she couldn’t. It was impossible for her to feel anything at all. She was simply
empty
.

The shadow stepped into the light, revealing a scarred face with hard-set eyes partially concealed by shadows. Darkness suited the face now that she knew of the darkness hidden in his soul. “Why, Orris? Why did you make me fear you so?”

His eyes burned bright as fire. “You were right to fear me. Perhaps there was some sense in that head of yours after all.”

She tilted her head to the side, her gaze never wavering from his face. “I look at you now, when I am more vulnerable than ever, and suddenly I am no longer afraid.

“I pity you,” she
continued
. “You who hold nothing dear to you, who would burn your own home, betray your people and your crown, for the satisfaction of
your own whims. Whether by the g
o
ds will or not, mark my words,
you will answer for this one day.”

His mouth curved into a jeer. “You’re still a naïve little girl.
I answer to no one.
”

She narrowed her eyes and straightened her spine as best she could. The wall of the cave pressed hard against her back, reminding her of how trapped she was. “That’s rather hard to believe. The black feathers on the floor speak otherwise,
Captain
.
Something made you this way, and it holds dominance over you now.
”

Orris snarled
,
and she flinched. “Hold your tongue, girl. You don’t know what it’s like to be hanging on the brink of the abyss, to only learn to
live after you’ve tasted death and
looked it in the eyes.”

She gave him a dark smile
. “Death and I have become rather good acquaintances these past few
days. You’ve made sure of that, you son of a –
”

He snarled and lunged toward her, raising his hand as if to stri
ke her. She steeled
her
gaze
, preparing for the red hot fire across her cheek
,
but it did not come. His voice was inches from her ear. “Perhaps I should have let you hit the rocks. Even now, I can barely stand the sight of you!” He stomped off, his footsteps echoing around the cave. 

She didn’t say anything.
With a heavy sigh, she slumped a bit, though her back was still twisted into knots.
Her mind was spinning.
Black feathers. Exactly
like in
my
visions
and at the palace the night of the fire. Like from Vishka’s demons.

What had Orris done?
Who – or what – was he really?

When Orris returned, he stank of vern. In one hand, he clutched
a
bottle.

She
tensed. If he was this strung out sober, what was she to expect with him drugged? Vern’s side effects were volatile at best.

He leaned against the wall opposite her and took another swig from his broken bottle, sloshing the drink onto the floor. It ran down his chin, and he reached up to wipe it away with the back of his glove.

“Does the drug make it any better?” she asked. “Is that how you deal with your choices?”

He studied her, his eyes still sharp and focused despite the vern. “It would take a lot more than this to take away the pain of what I did.”

She blinked, surprised.

“My mind, my body, no longer functions like that of a normal man.” The last words were strained, and he took another drink.

“What happened then?”
How did a man become a monster?

His
eyes shifted away from her. “
I will never forget that day for the rest of my long, miserable life.

“I married the love of my life, and we were so happy together. I had just been promoted to Captain of the Royal Guard, and it wasn’t long after our marriage we were expecting a child. But shortly after he was born, I was sent far away by your father to investigate a series of strange killings that had occurred near the Stradvärian border.” His expression hardened. “None of us knew what we were about to face. We were so unprepared.” He shook his head and stared at his reflection in the vern-laced ale. 

“It was dusk when we arrived. After three hard days of riding, we came to a small river town called Water’s Edge. Even before we drew near, we could smell the stench of decaying bodies on the wind. There’d been a blood bath; all of the townsfolk were dead, either lying in the streets, in their homes, or floating down the river. Everything was bathed red.

“My men and I were combing the buildings for clues and survivors when we were ambushed by a pack of savage black-winged beasts. Our armor did little to protect us from their razor sharp claws, and our weapons could not penetrate their hides. We fought a hopeless battle, and it wasn’t long before my men joined the townspeople in death. All but myself.”

He shuddered then, and something about that motion on Orris made her arms break out into goose bumps. She rubbed them furiously, suddenly very cold.

“I managed to get away,” he said, “but they cut me off and cornered me on one of the deserted streets. That’s when the most bizarre thing happened. Slowly, the beasts shifted into men, men who looked not so unlike myself but who wore black armor adorned with feathery capes. They were
Dracor
.”

She
held her breath, not daring to disturb him.

He smirked. “So you see, I didn’t really have a choice but to join them.”

“No.”

His eyes locked onto her. “No? What was I to do? I had a wife and a newborn son at home. I couldn’t abandon them! They gave me no choice.”

His voice matched the bitter look on his face, and for a moment she almost felt sorry for him. She remembered the men who had fought Gabriel, how the man she loved would have made it out of the palace alive had it not been for them. He was dead because of them, because of Orris. Ana-Elis
e, Alastor, Gabriel, her father. T
hey were all dead because of him. It was enough to make her sick. 

“There is always a choice,” she said firmly. “You chose the path of darkness, and look where it has led you. You burned Accalia to the ground.”

He barely nodded. “Yes.” He said this simply, as if he might have been commenting on the weather.

How d
are he act so calm and callous about this.

She could almost see the shadows weaving in and out of existence around him, some tangling with her own shadows before disappearing into her skin altog
ether. The darkness
sleeping within her stirred, and the first prickling of anger’s hot flames licked her insides.

“You’re a traitor,
” she
hissed
. “Have you no remorse for what you’ve done? Innocent people di
ed because of you.
Your own son
could have died because of you.
”

His face flushed, from anger or from the wine, she couldn’t tell. “You have no right! You
are just as much at fault as I am.
”

She drew back, stunned. “What do you mean?”

He jerked a finger toward her neck. She’d completely forgotten about the teardrop. “Haven’t you ever wondered where that thing came from, why your life has been turned upside down since the day it found you?”

She
looked down, fingering the jewel thoughtfully. “It was a gift.”
Or so I hope.

“It was a curse!” He laughed. “Make no mistake, girl. That thing chooses its masters, not the other way around. Gods.
” He downed the rest of the ale
and slung the
bottle
to the floor
, where it shattered.
“It has nearly cost you your life several times, yet you still treat it as if it were the grandest treasure in all of Eresea. And perhaps it is.” His voice trailed off, and she saw the lust reflected in his eyes as he stared at the gem. “Oh, it is very special indeed.”

She stiffened and twined
the crystalline chain around her cold fingers. “I don’t understand.” 

Orris took a step closer. “You’ve never wondered why creatures that couldn’t possibly exist now seek you out? Murdels, the Watcher in the Water?” He paused and lifted his eyes. “It calls to us, to anything bearing the touch of magic, good or dark. As long as you have it, you will not be safe.”

She
chewed on her lip. Was it true? Could something so beautiful really be so deadly? She thought of the murdels and the water demon, of how the necklace had protected her from drowning and how it had scorched the murdel when it tried to take it. Yet it had not burned away the poison when the murdel’s dart pierced her skin. She remembered the dreams, how horrible and frightening they had been.