Eyes of the Woods (19 page)

“And what will you do with the humans?” Daniel asked.

“Breed them. Enslave them. Feed upon them. For nearly a century we’ve hidden, fed on vermin, bided our time. For the first time since the Fall, we outnumber them. I’ve been waiting for you to lure Dyre into the woods alone. He’s the only lead Prior left, since you and Eris so effectively eliminated the head of the Trou Priory.”

Daniel and I traded glances. I looked back at Father.

“They were going to kill a young one, Father. We had to stop them.”

Father’s brows pulled in, and then he pulled up his ax, holding it with both hands. “What do you want from me, Elder?”

“Only to die. The territories will be more easily managed without the Priory.”

Daniel held out his hands. “This is madness, Evander! Kyah wouldn’t want this!”

“Kyah doesn’t see that the laws enslave us, Daniel. But once she sees the new way of things, she’ll understand. If she doesn’t, she’ll be in the way.”

“You mean to kill her? Our queen mother?” Daniel looked out among the dozens of nightwalkers. “Do you hear this, coven? Do you agree with this?”

Some of them traded glances, while others didn’t seem surprised at all.

Evander lowered his chin. “We’ll eliminate anything that gets in the way, Daniel. Even Kyah.”

Daniel shook his head in disbelief. “This doesn’t sound like you at all, Evander. Do you even hear yourself? You believe in the laws! You believe in the balance!”

“I believe in the immortal! And I believe we are gods who will no longer cower behind the trees!” Evander growled. He barely moved his head to the side, and an onslaught of nightwalkers ran in our direction.

“Run!” Daniel said, grabbing my hand. I grabbed Father’s. “To the stone wall! Run!”

As we made a break for the Helgren compound, Father was knocked off his feet, but he held tight to my hand while Daniel and I sprinted across the clearing.

“Helgren!” Father’s voice boomed. “They’re attacking! Open the gates!”

The gates opened slowly, but by the time we reached them, there was just enough space for us to pass through. Daniel, Father, and I climbed to the top of the wall, joining my cousins, who were already poised with arrows.

“Fire!” Father said.

The cousins let their arrows fly, hitting several nightwalkers at a time. They all fell, writhing and convulsing.

One of the nightwalkers screeched, “The arrows are laced with Eitr!”

“Eitr!” another cried out.

They stopped just a few hundred yards from the wall. “Retreat!” another yelled.

I took a bow from one of my cousins and targeted Evander. He took one look at me and withdrew. I let my arrow loose, but not in time. The arrow penetrated the soil. He was gone.

Clemens, Lukas, and Mother ran from the house into the courtyard and looked up at us. Clemens began to speak, but one of the cousins cried out.

“Nightwalker!”

I looked down to see Ilana standing at the gate.

“Wait!” I cried. I climbed down and cranked the gate just enough for her to step through. “What are you doing here?” I asked.

Ilana smiled. “I already told you, fool. I’m on your side.”

My family stared at my friend just as Father and Daniel climbed down from the stone.

“This…is Ilana,” I said.

They stared at the nightwalker in their midst. They had barely accepted Daniel and me.

“Eris saved my life,” she said. “So now I fight for hers.”

Father held out his hand. “Welcome, nightwalker.”

“It’s just Ilana,” she said with a smirk, shaking Father’s hand.

Clemens shook his head. “Incredible.”

“Be on your guard!” Father called. The cousins confirmed their orders. “Come. Let’s get inside. We have much to discuss before sunrise.”

WE SAT IN THE GREAT CHAMBER
, the shadows from the fire flicking across our faces. Clemens sat on the floor, below Emelen. She was leaned forward, with both arms wrapped around his shoulders. Daniel kept close to me, pausing every time Father took a breath to listen outside. They were planning an attack, and we all knew it.

The way Evander spoke of Kyah, we could only hope she knew nothing of Heinrich’s plan. The stone walls didn’t make me feel as safe as they once did. We were a band of humans and a few immortals. A pathetic army against Evander’s nightwalkers.

“Are you saying we should appeal to the nightwalkers who still follow Kyah?” Clemens asked.

Daniel shifted, restless. “We have to contact Kyah somehow. Warn her, if she isn’t already faced with a decision. Evander said that she essentially has to commit to the cause, or they’ll kill her.”

“If she’s unaware, she would be in the Skoran territory this time of year,” Ilana said. “If she’s heard, she could be in hiding. Where would Kyah hide from Heinrich?”

Daniel looked up. “Evander would anticipate us warning her. He’s probably already on his way to confront her. We’d never make it to her in time.”

The cousins yelled from their post, and Father tore out of the house. I beat him to the courtyard and then jumped to the top of the stone wall near the front gate.

“I don’t believe it,” Daniel said quietly.

“Believe it!” Kyah commanded. “Open the gate!”

“What assurances do we have that you won’t attack?” Father said.

“We could be over the wall by now, Prior,” Kyah answered. “Call it a show of good faith. I’m being polite.”

Father grumbled and then called to the cousins, “Open the gates!”

The cousins hesitated, but did what Father instructed. Nearly fifty nightwalkers loyal to Kyah followed her in. Some I recognized from our coven, some I’d never seen before. Women were carrying their young. She didn’t bring us warriors. They were refugees, fleeing from Heinrich and Evander.

Daniel jumped down from the wall and hugged her, their embrace highlighted by the torches. I felt a twinge in my throat, but I swallowed it down. Daniel had said before he didn’t feel a certain way for anyone but me. It was the jealousy from the first love of a seventeen-year-old girl trying to claw out, but we didn’t have time for such things.

I decided to take the ladder. The leaping around seemed to unsettle Father, as if my red eyes weren’t hard enough for him to get used to.

“Then you know,” Daniel said.

“Contrary to what Evander would like to believe, I’m not so wrapped up in politics that I couldn’t see what Heinrich was up to. I just thought I had more time.” Kyah glanced over at me. “I should have known when he allowed a Prior to be claimed and live among us that the plan had been put into motion. He hoped Eris would draw out the Priory. That’s what he did with the other four leaders. He targeted their children. Smoked them out with what was most dear to them. I’m surprised they didn’t think of it sooner, but of course, the old Priory didn’t have children. They were recruited.”

Mother pulled in a sharp breath and pulled Lukas closer to her.

Emelen went to the kitchen and brought back a tray of goblets full of cold water. Daniel and I both noticed looks from my family when we turned Emelen away.

The energy inside the Helgren home was different than it had ever been before. The humans were near panic, the immortals were restless. Ilana stood in a dark corner, watching, seeming to be the most calm out of all of us.

“Dyre,” Kyah said, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

Father looked to me. “You said the nightwalkers aren’t what we thought. How so?”

“Do you remember the boy you buried?” I asked. Father nodded. “He was just a boy, Father. The first year after a nightwalker is turned, male or female, they can conceive. They have real children who grow up just like we do. Remember the girl the Trou poacher spoke of?”

Father waited.

“I saw her in our coven. She was happy. Some of the nightwalkers took her away from her family because she was being beaten and starved.”

Mother’s mouth fell open.

“Maybe it was because of Evander and Heinrich’s plan that they accepted me, but they accept humans who are turned. They give them a home, and acceptance. I haven’t fed once on a human. The thirst is a myth, Father. We’re not savages. We’re not animals who kill on instinct alone. We have a choice, and most of us choose not to feed on humans.”

“Humans do taste better,” Kyah added.

Daniel and I craned our necks in Kyah’s direction.

“What?” she asked, surprised at our reaction.

I explained the last night of my life, how William ran, how Ayana chased me, and how Daniel saved me. I recalled my experiences and how I saw the nightwalkers live.

Father collapsed in his large chair and pulled at his full, red beard with his fingers. “I don’t want to believe it. I can’t. Only because accepting it would mean I’ve murdered defenseless children.”

“Not defenseless,” Ilana said. “An immortal child is twice as strong as you. They’re taught not to harm humans.”

Father covered his eyes. “Then they were defenseless.” He looked to me. “I have so much to atone for, Eris. Please tell me it’s not true.”

“I don’t wish to cause you pain, Father, but we have to keep our thoughts in the present. The choices we make now with the knowledge we currently possess will determine who we are. We are not monsters, Father. We must do what’s right.”

Clemens stood. “If their children are stronger than us, the only chance we have is arrows and Eitr.”

“I have a small number of loyalists in the woods.”

“Then who are the nightwalkers with you?”

“I am the queen mother,” Kyah said, lifting her chin. “They are my entourage, of course.”

“Entourage,” I said, dubious. “Those children out there are your entourage?”

Kyah’s confidence crumbled. “They’re loyal to me, and they’re vulnerable. I can’t protect them all in the woods.”

“Then we’ll protect them here. But we need the nightwalkers who are loyal to you.”

“Write a letter,” Lukas said. “Tell me the vicinity of where they are. I’ll find them.”

“No!” Mother said, grabbing him.

“He’s Priory,” Ilana said. “He’s trained. He knows how to spot signs of a nightwalker, he can defend himself, and he’s fit to run, which we’ll be doing a lot of.”

“You’ll go with him?” I asked.

Ilana nodded.

Lukas pulled away from Mother and ran over to the desk, pulling out a squeaky drawer. He hurried back, handing Kyah the quill and parchment without fear, as if he weren’t a foot away from an elder.

“Write a letter. Sign it. I’ll make sure it gets to your loyalists.”

“Excuse me?” Kyah said, clearly offended.

“I’m the fastest of all of us,” Lukas said.

“He’s right,” I said. “He is.”

Lukas held out the quill again, and Kyah narrowed her red eyes. She was just a tiny thing, not more than five feet tall, but when she was angry—and even when she wasn’t—she was frightening.

“He’s just in a hurry, Kyah,” Daniel said. “Please, do as he asks.”

She swept her flowing white dress behind her as she turned and walked toward the desk. Ilana pulled out her chair, and she sat. With perfect posture, she dipped the quill into the ink pot and began to scribble. She signed her name and drew a strange symbol at the bottom. She rolled up the parchment and handed it to Ilana.

Ilana tightened the rolled letter and held it in both of her hands.

Lukas stood at the front door and pulled it open, waiting for Ilana.

Mother’s bottom lip quivered, and she looked to me. “Tell me we can trust this woman with my son.”

“I trust her,” I said.

Kyah stood. “A little more than eight kilometers north of the falls in Ona’s woods.”

Ilana nodded. “We’ll bring the message to your loyalists, and then we’ll bring them back.”

Father stood as well. “Then we’ll keep their elders held off until then. We have enough Eitr to last us awhile, and I’m sure they know it.”

“They do,” Kyah said. She walked over to the window, to the stone wall. “Make sure they don’t use their bows unless they have to. Some of them may retreat if they see I’m here. It’s possible they may have been lied to.”

“Probable, I’d say,” Daniel said. He reached for my hand, and Kyah glared at our intertwined fingers as if they had insulted her.

“Stuck out here in the open with a handful of humans. I must have gone mad,” Kyah said. She sat down and touched her forehead.