The Silver Siren (5 page)

He was mere inches from me and I
couldn’t help but reach out to him and touch the burn mark on his
face. A powerful current raced through my arm, overwhelming me as I
healed the blister.

“
Ouch!” Kael jumped and
stood back. Reaching up he touched his face and found the burn
gone, along with the scratch on his neck. In disbelief, he checked
his arm and the wound was gone.

“
I’m sorry.” I winced when
I realized the power had rushed from me and shocked him.

“
This could be useful,” he
grinned.

Have you noticed that
power is starting to draw to you?
Faraway
spoke up.
It comes to you almost naturally
now. You hardly ever have to pull from me.

Unfortunately, yes. And
I’m scared about what it might mean. That I’m still changing, still
transforming?
I thought as I mounted
him.

Kael swung himself up behind me and
took the reins from my hands.

“
He’s my horse,” I
grumbled, pulling the reins back from him.

“
Do you know where we are
going?” Kael argued, a little more stern than he had
been.

Looking around me, I couldn’t even
tell where we were.

“
Um, no,” I said
sheepishly.

“
That’s what I thought,”
Kael said. He tugged the reins back from me and steered Faraway
onto a northerly route. Embarrassed, I had no choice but to let
Kael wrap his arms around me and to lean into his broad chest. He
kept a quick pace and we seemed to make good time.

Unfortunately, I fell asleep against
him and woke up a few hours later. The sun was starting to set and
I had yet to see Fanny, Joss, Hemi, or Darren. I tried to clear my
throat but it was dry and scratchy. Kael handed me my water bag.
After taking a drink, I wiped my mouth and asked him about
them.

“
I don’t know. I told them
to take Mona and head immediately for Haven. I took your horse and
went after you, promising that if I found you, I would do the
same.”

“
You mean you left them
there to fight off the Septori alone?” I gasped.

Kael scoffed at me. “When I left,
there were no Septori remaining. Except for the girl. They didn’t
even try to rescue her or take her.”

“
What happened at the
cave? I saw you enter and I tried to warn you. Why in the world
would you walk into a trap?”

Kael’s eyes hardened and the muscle in
his jaw line twitched. “They’re dead. Well, not Talbot, but he ran
at the first sight of me.”

“
But how? You were
outnumbered.”

Kael refused to speak for a moment.
“It was a trap and a poor one at that.” He looked at me sideways.
“I doubt you really want to know how, do you?”

The look he gave me sent chills down
my spine. I had seen him fight; I had seen Kael kill ruthlessly. I
didn’t need any gory details.

“
We couldn’t save the
farmer and his wife. By the time I got there, I was surrounded by
an army of Septori.” Kael’s fists clenched and I reached out to
touch his hand. My touch instantly made him relax.

“
I know you tried,” I
spoke softly.

“
How did you know? How did
you know about the fire?” Kael asked and nuzzled the back of my
head with his chin.

“
Would you believe me if I
told you I had a vision? I saw it before it happened, so I tried to
stop it.”

“
Did you know about the
Septori?” He asked.

I had a feeling he already knew the
answer. “Yes,” I whispered meekly.

“
It was why you sent me
out of the barn after the farmer wasn’t it?” Kael growled into my
ear. He was angry and I couldn’t blame him, but I wasn’t afraid of
him.

“
Yes.”

“
You are one of the most
stubborn, stupid, selfish people I know. Do you realize that?” Kael
was furious and I let him vent. He needed to vent. I had put him in
a position where I knew the outcome and almost made him break his
promise to my father to protect me.

“
Do you realize what you
did? The barn almost came down. You could have died!” Kael’s breath
was coming quicker.

My silence was all the affirmation he
needed. He pulled Faraway to a stop and pulled me by the shoulder
so I had to look at him.

“
That was you? Were you
trying to get yourself killed?” His disbelief and anger made me
comprehend how foolish I was.

I dropped my head in shame. I had been
trying to kill myself, and Kael must have realized that, because he
wrapped both arms around me and hugged me.

“
Don’t! Don’t you do
anything like that again? Do you hear me?” Kael rocked me in his
arms and I cried.

“
You don’t understand,
Kael. I felt the monster I was becoming rise to the surface. It
loved power and didn’t care whether people lived or died. I had to
try and kill it before it consumed me,” I sniffed and tried to look
away from him, and not show him my silver eye.

“
You have been touched by
it, but you’ve survived. You are stronger because of it.” Kael
grabbed my chin and made me meet his eyes. “I won’t let the monster
get you. I promise.”

And like before, I believed him. Kael
pulled back to stare over my shoulder, eastward. His eyes took on a
faraway look, and I could see the muscle tick in his jaw as he
pondered something.

“
I want you to come
somewhere with me,” Kael said, never taking his eyes off of the
distant mountains. “There’s something I need to do.”

“
Where?” I asked and
turned slightly to see where Kael was gazing. It was the mountain
range to the southeast. A dry and barren range with little to no
life.

“
Why so many questions?
This will be just a little detour,” he said.

“
What about the others?
What about Hemi and Joss?”

Kael pulled away from me. “Thalia, I
promise you will get to see them again. It’s just been a very long
time since I’ve been this close.” His gaze drifted to the barren
mountains again, and I could hear longing in his voice. It became
soft and husky. “I’m so close, yet so far.”

Never before had he asked for
something from me. Demanded yes, but asked no. What harm could
there be in going with him? We would just be a few days behind the
others, and I knew that with our bond it would be easier if I just
went with him.

“
Okay, Kael. You lead,
I’ll follow.”

His face erupted into a smile of
relief. A smile that rocked me to my very core. I forgot to
breathe.

Kael wrapped his arms around me in a
completely unSwordBrotherly fashion and touched forehead to my
temple. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you.”

Chapter 7

We
spent most of the rest of the day on horseback. When we stopped for
a drink I switched places. Riding behind Kael, my hands lightly
resting on his hips, was awkward at first. But I was tired and
emotionally drained from destroying the barn. Frequently, I fell
asleep leaning against his warm back. He let me rest and didn’t
disturb me, only stopping when I needed a break. I could tell he
was in a hurry to get to our destination, so I tried to not call
for a rest too often.

Faraway was tireless, as if he could
sense Kael’s impatience, and we covered more ground than should
have been possible. We didn’t stop until after the sun had set, and
Kael had found a small out cropping against a rock wall.

Kael dismounted first and without
asking, wrapped his hands around my waist to lift me down. My legs
were stiff and my back sore from riding in the same position all
day, and I was grateful for the extra support from the ground.
Stretching out my legs, I walked the perimeter of the camp Kael had
chosen. There wasn’t much to shield us from the elements; large
boulders and rocks covered most of the terrain other than the large
outcropping. There was enough room underneath for two people to
sleep if it rained, but we had no supplies. No bedrolls, food, or
anything else.

I turned around looking for Kael but
he was gone. “Kael?” I called out.

No answer. My voice echoed into the
night, and the lack of response worried me. At night everything
looked larger, darker, scarier. I had to remind myself that I had a
SwordBrother nearby. Everyone was scared of them. Faraway had
remained silent most of the day and even now had moved off to the
edge and looked to be standing guard. I knew that my magnificent
horse loved to pretend he was invincible but in fact was far from
it. He was probably as exhausted as I was.

You should find some food.
You look terrible,
I thought.

His large equine head
turned my way, snuffing at me.
I look
better than you. I was carrying two today. All you did was
sleep.

I felt myself grin as I
took shelter under the ledge and pulled my feet up to my body for
warmth.
I plan on doing some more of
that,
I teased, my eyelids growing heavy.
I was still recovering from the ordeal. My body needed sustenance
and sleep to recover, and since there wasn’t any food, I was
choosing the alternative. At least sleeping was better than
blacking out.

Then I’ll wait a few more
minutes. He’s almost here.

Where did he go?
I asked yawning.

It looks likes he went
up.

Up?

He scaled the rock wall
and is now coming down. He’s got a pretty proud look on his face.
I’d say he probably found some dinner.

Great! I’m
starving.

Pebbles began raining down around me
and bounced off of the slab overhead to roll a few feet out in
front of me. It didn’t take much to visualize his strong body,
nimbly scaling down the rock wall above me. I could almost picture
the serious expression he would have on his face, his jaw clenched
in concentration, his blue eyes underneath a furrowed brow, with a
sheen of sweat across his forehead. I imagined his muscles bunching
as he neared the bottom, as he prepared to leap the rest of the
way. My imagination was almost impeccably timed with Kael’s actual
descent.

He appeared by my side a few seconds
later. It was a tighter fit under the ledge for him, and he had to
duck his head so he wouldn’t scrape it across the top of the
overhang. But he managed to squeeze himself impossibly close to me
and pull his knees up like mine. Our sides touched and neither one
of us pulled away. My breathing quickened, and I had to concentrate
to get it back to a normal rhythm, which was happening more often
the more time I spent with him.

Kael reached into the satchel at his
side and pulled out two large brown speckled eggs and handed one to
me.

“
Dinner,” he smiled and
took out one of his smaller knives that he kept under hidden away.
He poked a small hole in the top of the shell, tipped his head
back, and sucked. I watched him eat the large egg. When he was done
he tossed the empty shell onto the ground.

“
What kind of—” I started
to ask, but he shook his head cutting me off.

“
You don’t want to know.”
Kael took the large egg out of my hand and with the tip off his
knife cut a similar hole.

I took his suggestion and didn’t dwell
on what kind of egg it was. I closed my eyes, plugged my nose in a
childish show of being grossed out and tipped my head back. The
texture was slimy and I had to calm down the gag reflex. After a
few more swallows, I was able to ignore my distaste for the egg and
focus on counting instead. I got to twenty, and I was done. I
tossed the shell away like Kael’s and gave him an odd
grimace.

“
Want another one?” he
asked and pulled out another egg.

“
No,” I shook my head and
burped. I covered my mouth in embarrassment but Kael only smiled
and began to open the other egg. In record time he was done and
wiped his hands on his pants.

“
I’ll go see to your
horse.”

“
Don’t worry about it.
He’s gone.”

“
Gone?” Kael didn’t wait,
but scrambled out of the shelter and started running to where he
had left Faraway. “We need him. It’s too far to go on
foot.”

“
Kael! He’s fine. He’ll be
back after he’s found food.” Kael stopped running and stared into
the darkness. I could see his indecisiveness. He wanted to track my
horse, but he didn’t want to leave me alone.

A few minutes later, he joined me back
under the ledge. Once again he sat unnaturally close to me, but by
now I was starting to get cold and craving the warmth of
companionship.

“
How far?” I asked,
leaving it up to him to decide how much to tell me.

“
We covered more ground
today than I thought we would. A few days travel and we’ll be
there.” Kael turned his head to look at me, his dark hair looked
pitch black in the moonlight. I wanted to reach out and touch it. I
kept my hands to myself, wrapping them around my knees.

“
Will you tell me about
them? About your family?” He didn’t deny that we were heading to
the sacred SwordBrother sanctuary.