Ember (32 page)

A while ago the fire lake had subsided. We
were now in purely stone surroundings. The area was far from flat
though, full of clefts and high plateaus. Deep drops, ahead there
was a distinct fork. Thoran was talking to two of the more heavily
armed men. They both nodded after a moment, then began walking to
the right. We of course wasted no time starting up again ourselves,
taking the left fork instead.

Jaden was beside me still. After a second I
whispered carefully, “Where are they going?” I looked ahead as we
were beginning to move uphill and I didn't want to fall, but I saw
his head turn to me, then back forward.

“To check on one of our posts here, they'll
be fine.”

I nodded as I hopped over a loose stone.
“Does every—”

“You do know that you keep asking me
questions, right?”

Just one . . . well, two. My brow furrowed. I
really was trying hard not to. I bit down on my lip.

“It's okay,” he sighed. “What were you gonna
say?”

I straightened. “Oh. . . . I just wanted to
ask if all the guys here were artisans.”

He nodded. “All but Kale.”

“Who's he?” I asked.

Jaden tossed his head back. “One of the ones
that left.”

“Are all of the others offensive?”

He turned to eye me. “No, you can't possibly
care about all this.”

My legs froze for a moment, but I pushed
myself forward. I was asking too many questions, I always did this
when I got nervous. I swallowed. “Sorry.”

His gaze lingered on me before eventually
turning back ahead.

The way was getting steeper again, forcing me
to keep my eyes glued to my feet. After a long while Jaden's hand
came into view, blocking me across my stomach.

“We're almost there. Remember, no eye
contact.”

I looked up at him.

“Keep your head down.”

I nodded seriously and he moved his hand,
beginning on again.

I checked ahead now, surprised by the change
in view. High up in front of us was a stone building. Compared to
the lodge it looked rather menacing, but amidst the present
surroundings it was like a safe haven. The walls of it weren't dark
obsidian, but a cool, grey, sufficiently normal, rock. It appeared
to be about two stories high. Lights glowed from openings on the
lower levels. A long, thin, bridge-like, stretch of rock connected
us to the island of stone the building sat on.

I didn't study much beyond that, I was now
somewhat eccentric about staying right next to Jaden. I was glad
for his belt full of weapons now, and half wanted to grab onto it
and hide behind him as we walked. The desire intensified when I saw
two Meoden standing a ways ahead, near the door of the building. I
had a good enough view of them to see that they were the same type
as Sylvanus . . . it was enough to set my skin crawling.

I was glad when we stopped before reaching
the bridge. Thoran was standing near a large boulder and the others
quickly formed a circle. Talks before meetings must have been
mandatory.

For the first time since we'd left, Thoran's
eyes grazed mine. Then he spoke in a firm voice. “You all know the
drill. There’s no reason everything shouldn't go smoothly. Still, I
want everyone on their guard tonight.” His eyes moved through the
group as he spoke, finishing with a look over to Boron. “Jaden, you
and Evelyn will keep watch out here during the meeting, we—”

“
What?
”

My eyes flashed nervously to the expectedly
irritated face.

“Why?” asked Jaden.

A couple of the men raised their eyebrows
uncomfortably. Thoran seemed unfazed.

“Because that's what I decided, and I don't
want flak about it.”

Jaden darkened. “I already missed the last
meeting because of . . . duties, what—” he stopped suddenly. I
followed his intense glare to Thoran who had a hand raised in
dismissal.

“
Enough.
When we get up there stay
outside.”

Jaden's eyes narrowed as Boron gestured a
hand ahead. “Let's get going men.”

They did and Jaden wasted no time walking up
to Thoran. The older man lifted an eyebrow challengingly, but Jaden
waved it off. “I just want to know what subjects you'll be covering
at the meeting.”

Thoran's expression softened and he looked
like he was about to answer, that is until I walked closer, his
eyes shifting to me and back. “No, not now.”

Jaden opened his mouth, but Thoran's eyes
narrowed.

“Concentrate on the job at hand, Jaden, it
will need your full attention.” With that he turned around and
started off towards the building.

Jaden's expression hardened fiercely, much to
my dismay, as he followed in step. I strummed my fingers a couple
times then did the same. This was bad. He was upset enough when I
was just a tag-along, now I'm keeping him from the meeting. Not to
mention the meeting was the entire reason I came. A walk through
hell was not worth getting Jaden this eternally infuriated at
me.

No time left to complain, I sucked in a
breath as the group approached the building.

We walked directly past the two Meoden who
gave unreadable looks as we moved by, before following alongside. I
dropped my head immediately, per instructions, but studied them
below the chest. Small bits of black leather and a disconcerting
number of weapons seemed their only possessions. The blades were
dark and cruelly shaped. Jeez, for a violence-free meeting there
sure were a lot of weapons hanging around. On both sides. . . .

I almost screamed when a strong hand grasped
my wrist roughly. “This way.” It was Jaden. We were close to the
entrance. The others headed in, he pulled me off to a space on the
side.

I glanced back just in time to see the door
shut. As soon as it did the air seemed to settle. We were standing
near a circle of rocks. Grey dust rose like steam from the ground,
giving off a very tomb-ish feeling. I realized that Jaden and I
were the only ones left outside.

“I can't believe this,” cursed Jaden,
releasing his grip on my arm. “This is just like him, I should have
known.”

He kicked a rock into the wall. My eyes
widened. I tried to appear un-noticing, wrapping a hand
uncomfortably around the base of my neck.

After a few seconds, he stilled, back turned
to me and both hands at his hips. I would have given him some
space, but there wasn't really anywhere to go . . . not to mention
I was still fairly afraid to leave him.

“He wouldn't even tell me the topics.”

“I think that was because of me.”

He scoffed, then stated matter-of-factly, “It
was
all
because of you.”

My head dropped and I pursed my lips.

See, this is why the disconnected plan was
smart. Now I'm not affected. . . .

My eyes lowered. “I'm sorry, Jaden. I
wouldn't have come if I'd known.”

His head shook and he walked over to lean
against the stone wall. “Save it, it wasn't your fault.”

My eyes narrowed slightly in confusion.
Isn't that what he had just said?

The seconds ticked by. His face was aimed
downward; he looked deep in thought. I decided to walk around, but
kept within a ten foot radius. Every step I took echoed through the
empty cavern. I stared over the edge into the dark, purple, abyss
for a while.

After
maybe
thirty seconds I walked
back and took a breath. “How long does it normally take?”

No answer.

My question hadn’t come out very loud, but
the place was dead quiet, no way he didn't hear me. His gaze was
still focused downwards.

“Jaden?”

His eyes jerked up now, though not to me,
past
me, seemingly towards the upper level of the
building.

“Jaden, what are yo—”

“Follow me.” With that he walked towards the
right side of the building.

I did as he said. We ended up near a high
wall made from a chunk of rock. It was large enough to dwarf the
building and seemed to make up most of its backside. Jaden stopped
at its base, turned around, took off his coat, and started to empty
his belt of weapons.

I stood there, awkward once again. “Jaden,
can you please tell me what—”

“Take off your coat.” He said it without
looking up.

My brow furrowed, but I was too nervous to
argue. I took it off.

He grabbed it immediately, threw it on top of
his pile of weapons, then looked at me. “You said you can keep a
secret, right?”

This caught me by surprise, mostly because of
his expression: completely and utterly focused on me.
How can he
possibly be so inattentive one second, then give me a look like
that, that makes me feel like I've never really been looked at
before?

“Umm . . . yeah,” I said, then considered his
words.
Wait, did I say that? When did I say that?

“And you want to see the meeting?”

I stared for a second then sighed. “Of
course, that’s why I came.”

A corner of his mouth tipped up ruefully. For
the situation it was totally uncalled for, I really wasn't going to
keep much gumption with him doing that.

*

The assumption proved true. Despite all my
wiser instincts, I followed him. Right up and over the stone wall
and in through a dubious-looking crevice.

We were now crawling inside of the
teeny-tiny, dark, space, later I would have to ask him how on earth
he knew this was here, but for now he had warned me to be quiet, so
I was concentrating on placing the balls of my feet gently.

Jaden barely made a noise ahead, despite the
fact that he was quite a bit large than me. When I knocked a rock
with my foot his head turned.

“Sorry,” I mouthed, though it was most likely
too dark to see.

He turned back without a word and started
moving again. I hoped whatever look he had given me wasn't
another
exasperated one. I shook my head slightly. All the
sureness I had gained from my resolution back at the lodge that we
just weren't going to be close was lost the moment he included me
in on this plan of his. I could already feel myself falling back
into worrying about what he thought of every move I made. . . .

My heart started to beat faster when I heard
muffled voices ahead.

Jaden hadn't told me much of what we were
doing. I knew we were going somewhere where we could at least hear
what was going on in the meeting, and I knew that I wasn't allowed
to speak about it to anyone, ever.

I
also
knew in my head that it wasn't
right and probably not very smart but . . . My eyes lifted to the
boy ahead of me . . .
Yes, I am that pathetic.

The voices were louder now, suddenly light
filtered onto Jaden's face. He stopped and ducked his head
back.

I started to crawl beside him and reached his
knees before his hand went up stopping me. His eyes were focused
intently into the hole, my ears perked when I heard Thoran's
voice.

“We let you have the southern portals
already, with
no
resistance. I'm not willing to discuss this
absurdity.”

“Absurdity?!” shouted a slivery voice. The
accent was odd. Though I couldn't see I would bet anything it was a
Meoden. “What's absurd is the amount of land we allow you to keep
in
our
dimension. Tell me, where is our place in yours?”

“I've seen dozens of keepers near the caves
of deep Sharadeen,” came an unfamiliar young voice, “don't try to
pretend you don—”

“Vaan, be silent.” It was Thoran now. Jaden's
eyes flickered. “Demian, this talk is pointless. Neither of us is
going to be giving up land anytime soon, I suggest we move on to
other topics.”

There was a pause then a voice like none I
had ever heard. “Agreed,” it, he,
something,
said. My heart
thumped double-time for a split second. It was full and cold. Not
cruel, but wrong. A Meoden to be sure,
Demian
from what I
had followed of the conversation . . . perhaps he was worse than
Sylvanus.

By the time I came back to my senses, I'd
lost the line of discussion going on below. I looked over to Jaden.
It would be much easier to keep up if I could actually
see.
His hand had fallen from its halting pose. I took a small breath
then carefully moved forward a couple inches . . . he made no
reaction, so I crawled up the rest of the way till I was lying
beside him. His face turned, then I looked at him warily.

Another expression I couldn't read,
undeniably intense though.

He looked back down, and I let out a
very
quiet breath only to suck another back in before
peering over the edge.

“Demian, we can't control what every single
civilian chooses to do,” said Boron. I saw him immediately to the
far right of a long, stone, table. Thoran sat beside him, closer to
us.

Apart from that, all I could see was another
Meoden to the left. It looked normal enough, for a Meoden. Dark,
purplish, skin. Silver eyes . . . it did have a peculiar sort of
crown on its head, fashioned from dark metal. I wondered if it was
Demian.

“Control yourselves first, gatekeeper, our
camp was not attacked by civilians!” That was the Meoden beside
Thoran, his voice was vengeful and rasped.

Thoran's gaze remained calm.

“Atmas, you're speaking out of turn . . .
though now that we're on the subject we might as well discuss
it.”

My throat constricted. There was the voice
again. Part of me wanted to pull my head back inside the hole, but
a much larger part had to see the face that matched it.

We were only about six or seven feet up, but
it was dark enough that there was little chance at being seen. I
moved my head further out, giving me a full view of the long table
below. Sitting on the right side with Thoran and Boron were the
other four men I had traveled with. Then there were three Meoden,
apart from the one I had already seen, that sat on the left
side.