Eyes of the Woods (21 page)

As my family slept, Daniel and I kept the fire kindled. The immortals loyal to Kyah were spread out in different rooms in the house. Some were keeping watch on the wall so the cousins could rest. None of us knew when Heinrich and Evander would attack the compound again, but one truth was certain: they would come for us, and even with those who had left Evander for Kyah, we were terribly outnumbered.

“Do you think Lukas is all right?” I asked in a voice barely audible to human ears. I knew Daniel would hear me.

“He’s with Ilana. She is one of the oldest and the strongest of us. It wouldn’t surprise me if when all of this is over, she is named as an elder.”

“You assume too much, Daniel. The only way Ilana could be considered elder is if the covens agree to a truce. She killed her mate to preserve the humans. If we lose tomorrow, they won’t want a leader who sympathizes with humans.”

“True.”

“What will we do if we lose?”

“We’ll take who we can and flee.”

I shook my head. “I can’t do that. I can’t leave the territories to be enslaved by Heinrich and Evander. They’ll feed off half and breed the others. It will be hell on earth.”

“Yes, but you’ll be alive.”

“What will it matter, if we leave those poor people behind?”

“It will matter to me.”

“I was born for this, Daniel. Not to kill nightwalkers for Vileon, but I was meant to protect humans. We are a new Priory. Our directive has changed, but it’s still the same.”

“A new Priory…,” Daniel said, lost in thought.

“What?” I asked, watching him.

“We can’t fight Evander with a handful of immortals and humans. But we can fight with an army of immortals.”

“That’s what Lukas and Ilana went to do. Gather those loyal to Kyah so they may help us.”

“What if we changed your father and brothers? What if we claimed the cousins?”

I shook my head. “No. They would never agree to it.”

“You wanted to be with your family. You could be with them forever, Eris.”

I stood and walked away from him. “That’s what caused the Fall, Daniel. It disturbs the balance!”

“What if we only change those who will fight for the humans? A new Priory, just like you said.”

I froze. Father walked in, still wearing his nightclothes. His eyes danced between Daniel and me. His large frame nearly filled the mouth of the hallway. “Turn us?”

I shook my head. “No, Father. It was just an idea. We would never do that without your permission.”

Daniel stood. “You can’t defeat them one-on-one, Dyre.”

Clemens joined us, his wife peeking at us from behind his shoulder. She wore a long braid over one shoulder, and her bare feet poked out from the bottom of her long cotton nightgown.

“No,” she said, her voice broken. “I can’t do that. I won’t.”

Clemens’s eyes sparked. “We only need the Eitr to penetrate an open wound. Why not use a pumper the farmers use to irrigate the crops?”

“How do we create open wounds?” I asked.

“We can use one pumper to spray them with fertilizer. It’s flammable. Light them up, and put them out with the Eitr.” He looked to me. “I won’t be turned, Eris. I can see it’s not what we once thought, but I can’t … do that to Emelen.”

His wife buried her face in his chest, and he hooked his arm around her and pulled her close.

“I’ll wake the cousins,” Father said. “Have them fetch the pumpers. Maybe that will hold them off until Lukas and Ilana return with the loyalists.”

Father let the door slam behind him, and Clemens took Emelen back to their room. I could hear her weeping, even though she meant to be quiet.

Daniel and I walked to the courtyard, watching from the other side as Father brought out a small group of our cousins, pointing and nodding while informing them of our plan.

“I wish Lukas were back,” Daniel said. “He could set some of his traps.”

”We’re still waiting on allies. We can’t risk it.”

Waiting was agony. I checked the walls, the outlying perimeter, scanned the trees, helped to fortify the house. Anything to pass the time.

The last hour before sunrise, Daniel and I sat together in Mother’s garden, drawing strength from each other. Somewhere in between falling into the ravine and walking away from everything I thought I knew, he had become my best friend, and more.

“Daniel?” I began, but a horn whined from deep within the woods. “What is that?” I asked.

Daniel frowned. “It’s Heinrich’s horn. He’s calling the other territories. They’ll be here soon.”

I combed my hair back with my fingers. “How many?”

“I can’t believe everyone would agree to fight with him. The laws are too important, but to many, Heinrich
is
the law. It could be hundreds. It could be thousands. It’s clear now why he’s allowed so many to breed. Why he’s allowed so many to be claimed. He was building an army.”

“If Ilana’s not back soon—”

“She’ll be back. I imagine they’ll attack at sundown. That gives them the day to find them and bring them here.”

“What about the people of Ona? The other territories are defenseless. We don’t have enough time to warn them.”

We heard whispers and the hum of quiet conversation, and looked to the horizon, in the direction of town. A sea of people was walking in our direction. Some women and children were on horses, but most were on foot. Lukas was leading them to the compound.

“Lukas!” I yelled, running toward him.

The townspeople screamed when they saw me approach, but Lukas quieted them down.

“What are you doing here?” Daniel asked.

“Ilana sent me back to bring in the townspeople.”

“Kyah’s people?” I asked.

“We found them. They’re being led by a man named Ganon. He had heard whispers of an attack on Ona. They asked me to come back, to warn the villagers.”

“And what of Ilana?” I asked.

“She led me back to town, and then she returnedto Ganon. They’re gathering nightwalkers who have defected. Heinrich is killing anyone who refuses to fight with him.”

Daniel walked away, interlacing his hands on top of his head. He walked back. “How many?”

Lukas’s shoulders fell. “Ganon said the Onan coven is down by half. They’ve gone to warn the other territories. We crossed some of them, Daniel. They’re killing the young ones too.”

I hugged Lukas.

“Ilana sent me to warn the humans. She said they would be too afraid to listen to her.”

“She was right. Did she say when they would come?”

Lukas shook his head. “She heard the horn, and she was gone. W-what was that?”

“Heinrich,” I said.

We walked the ragged group to the compound, and I called for the cousins to open the gate. Men, women, and children passed through, some crying, some too shocked to feel anything. Their faces were dirty, their clothes torn. Some had come from farther than our village. These humans were from all over.

Father stood at the gate and welcomed the people, while Mother hugged Lukas. Emelen and our chambermaid, Ursula, fetched them food and water.

Mother kept her voice low. “We don’t have enough room for all these people, Dyre.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Father said. “Just keep them as comfortable as possible, Ingrid.”

Mother nodded and then kissed his cheek. “I’ll fetch the blankets.”

“If we run out, look in the stalls,” Father said.

Mother agreed and then left us for the house.

By late morning the house and barns were full of huddled families. Men walked through the snow along the walls, trading out with the cousins in shifts.

Someone yelled, and the gates lurched as they cranked the gates open. Two pumpers that looked like enormous wine barrels with spouts where the hoses attached were being pulled through by a dozen or more men. The wooden wagons creaked under the weight. Each wagon had a leader, who barked at the others to pull in unison.

“We must fashion scaffolds, twice as high as the walls,” Father said. “We’ll use the pressure from the height and open the spouts completely.”

Another horn sounded. Daniel and I heard it, but Father didn’t seem to notice.

“It sounds farther away,” I said, confused.

“Agreed. But they’re not retreating.”

“Not likely,” I said. I braided my hair back, tying it with a thin leather strap. “Why isn’t Ilana back yet?”

“She’ll be here,” Daniel said.

While Father commanded the men outside, I went inside to check on my mother. She looked exhausted.

“You must get some rest,” I said.

She waved me away. “There are too many who need caring for, love. I’ll rest when this is over.”

She passed me by, holding a large pitcher of water and wooden cups.

I walked into the barn, and the humans stared at me with wide eyes. The children cowered behind their mothers. I knelt down by the first family and smiled at a small boy.

“Hello,” I said. “I’m Eris. What’s your name?”

He shook his head and hid his face in his mother’s chest. She held him to her, and I stood up.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to frighten him.”

“Then stay away,” she snapped, pulling the boy closer.

I nodded and walked away.

A small hand touched my fingers, cold like mine. I looked down. It was Moira. I grinned down at her, and she hugged my leg.

“I want to help, Eris.”

The small boy peeked up and noticed Moira. His eyes lit up. “Are you…have you been turned?” he asked, his small voice shaking.

Moira giggled. “Yes. They saved me. I was being beaten. My new mother is just there,” she said, pointing with her chubby fingers to a nightwalker passing by the open door of the barn.

“There you are, child,” her mother said. She was beautiful, her long chestnut hair falling in waves to her elbows. She bent down and hugged Moira. “Leave the human children be, love. They don’t understand. They’ve been raised to fear us.”

The boy took a step from his mother. “I’m not afraid.”

Moira’s red eyes sparked. “Do you want to play with me?”

“Tag?” the boy asked with a smile.

“Best ask his mother, Moira,” her mother said with a patient smile.

The mother looked to me and then to Moira’s new mother. “You changed her. Why? Was she truly beaten?”

The mother’s smile faded. “Nearly to death, and half starved. I couldn’t watch it any longer. I’m just glad I found her in time.”

The boy’s mother watched as her son and Moira bounced and giggled together.

“What is your name?” Moira asked in her sweet, tiny voice.

“Bjorn.”

Moira looked up at her mother. “I won’t run too fast for him, Mother.”

The nightwalker smiled.

“Please?” Bjorn begged his mother.

“All right,” she said. “Stay close.”

Bjorn and Moira skipped away, laughing and chattering like old friends.

The nightwalker held out her white hand to the human. “I’m Ashilda,” she said.

The woman stood and took Ashilda’s hand, bowing a bit. “Kalda. Nice to…nice to meet you.”

Ashilda shook her hand with a smile warmer than her skin.

I walked away, letting the two talk. It was as if the truce was already happening, and a wide smile stretched across my face when I saw Daniel. He was walking the wall, his eyes focused far beyond the tree line. I jogged over to where he stood and took one leap, aware the humans would be watching.

I wrapped my arms around him. “It’s happening.”

“What’s happening?” he asked, looking to the tree line.

I took his chin and turned it in the direction of the humans and immortals working together. “The truce.”

Daniel smiled and squeezed me to his side. “It all starts here.”

“Daniel?” Father called.

We both hopped down from the twelve-foot wall with ease.

“You and I need to talk.”

“Of course.”

Daniel slowly pulled away from my hand as they left me to walk inside together.

My chest twinged, seeing my father walk with an immortal—the man I loved.

Emelen stood next to me and reached down to hold my hand. “You’re so cold,” she said.

“Am I?” I said in a teasing tone.

“Did it hurt?” she asked.

I knew what she meant, and I thought back on the moments after Daniel claimed me. No one had asked me that question before, and I hadn’t thought about it.

“I was in bad shape when he turned me, Emelen. There was a lot broken inside my body that needed to be mended. It was very painful, yes. But I’m not sure how painful it would have been if I’d just been bitten.”

“I would like to know,” she said quietly.

“Why?”

“I’ve been thinking about what Daniel said before…about the Priory changing to nightwalkers to protect humans. If there’s no thirst, if we don’t feed on our young, if it’s not the nightmare we’ve always thought it to be, wouldn’t it make sense for us to be stronger? To protect the people in our territories against the nightwalkers who don’t wish for peace?”

“You make sacrifices. Nothing comes without cost.”

“I don’t want to die.”

“Immortals can die. They’re just harder to kill. Ask Clemens. He’s killed dozens.”

“What are the sacrifices?” she asked. Her cheeks flushed red, as if she was embarrassed to have to ask.

“I don’t eat food.”

“But you don’t feed on humans.”

“No. Elk, mostly. Sometimes deer.”

“You don’t sleep. You’re strong. You can nearly fly, it seems, the way you jumped over the wall earlier. You’re still…you. But better. Forgive me, but I don’t see the downside. And if it means better protecting our people…”

“Immortals can’t have children.”

Emelen glanced around us. “Some of them do.”

“They can only conceive in the first year after they’re claimed.”

“Not necessarily a sacrifice then,” she said.

“Emelen,” I began. She could see I had grown tired of the interrogation.

“Just a few more questions,” she begged.

“When I get back,” I said.

I left her to check on the wall. It was quiet. Too quiet, as if the woods were holding a secret from us. The wait was maddening. I wanted something to happen, to hunt. That was the way I was raised. Not to wait to be attacked. The irony of the role reversal was almost sad. It was always the immortals who had waited on us to find them. Now it was the other way around.