Текст книги "King of flesh and bone"

Автор книги: Liv Zander

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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 14 страниц)

Farther. North. Mule.

Elric.

Joah. Oh, where is my beloved Joah?

It started as a slight tremble in the ground, that moment where the truth of her betrayal stabbed between black ribs and squeezed my heart—twisted it, ripped it out, and held it before the eyes of a fool. No, she’d never even tried to return to my side… wicked, wayward mortal.

Liar!

The word dug its nails into a mind racing back, clasping, clawing, containing, but the madness at its core swelled until it spread across the lands. It shook the bone in the ground until the mountain behind me roared, rock crumbling as it sent billows of dust into the sky.

Yarin held his arms out, fighting for balance as he stared at the shaking ground. “Ah, we have no luck with women, brother. Mine run into my arms, only to slit their wrists; yours keep running away from you, only to have their throats cut.”

I mounted, letting an army of corpses rise so they may protect me while I hunted down my wicked, wicked wife. “Oh no, brother… death will offer her no escape from me.”

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Chapter 24

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Ada

Elric.

Elric.

Yes, I liked that.

Pure, unadulterated joy soared through my chest as I smiled down at the sprouted grains, dozens of bright green stems emerging from the seeds. And if she was a girl? Amelia… after her grandmother.

I pressed my hand against my belly, stroking the child growing beneath my palm. Even before the grains had sprouted, I had no doubt I was pregnant. Still, seeing the growing proof soothed over the feeble remnants of guilt and shame, banning it to the deepest, darkest crannies of my core.

Folded cloak in hand, I walked over to the table and placed it beside the provisions I’d stacked there. “I’ll head farther north at first, where fewer people pray to Helfa, which means fewer priests. That way, I can come down this passage here.” I grabbed the map I’d traded for salted fish with a traveling merchant, held it out to Pa, and tapped the crooked line that read Willow Road. “It’ll take a day longer, but I can avoid Hemdale. There’s a small tavern along this road, should I need it.”

Pa offered me a weak smile where he rested in bed, his features as pale as his hair. “Best avoid it… right along with people.”

Because I had no friends out here.

Only small groups of priests who supposedly rode from village to village, spreading word of the woman who might carry the devil’s spawn in her belly. On instinct, my hand went back to my stomach, drawing another protective circle around my baby.

My baby.

No matter how dire my circumstance, another smile stole over my lips. I couldn’t help it. When the morning sickness had refused to abate and my breasts started to ache, making a choice had become simple. It was one thing if I remained with Pa and ended up burned at the stake, but quite another if they wanted to burn me with my child growing beneath my heart.

Another circle.

I’ll keep you safe.

“I’ll bring everything to Thorsten and tell him to ready the mule and lead it here.” Cloak, pouches with dried fish, filled waterskins; I arranged it all in a wicker basket. “All I’ll have to do is climb onto its back and ride off. Even if he boasts about the stone down at the stables right after, I’ll be on my way.” A shadow came over my mood and I quickly kneeled beside Pa’s bed. “I’m so sorry. I should never have come back. You’ll be in danger.”

“Oh yes, they’ll come and cut me down from my youthful prime,” he mumbled, letting his jittery fingers stroke over my cheek. “But perhaps I won’t have to wander after, should you succeed.”

“I don’t know if I will.” Almost a month without a sign from Enosh didn’t exactly inspire confidence. “All I know is that I have eternity to get him to calm down. Per my estimation, it’ll take two hundred years for each month they hold him captive.”

Maybe more.

“Still too good, carrying the weight of other people’s problems, of the entire world, on her shoulders.” His throat bobbed with a stifled cough before he swallowed the blood right back down, as though it would burden me any less with doubts of leaving him behind. “Go now. And don’t let that god husband of yours ruin your damn tenacity.”

I reached my hand beneath his head to fluff the straw in his pillow, then gently lowered it back down, tugging the spit rag to rest right beneath his mouth. “We’re not saying goodbye yet. I want to find this bowl empty when I return from the stable.” I pointed at the fish stew on the stool beside him, tried myself at a stern look, then rose. “I’ll be back soon.”

Knitted scarf draped around my shoulders, I left our crooked hut behind. I headed down the trample path toward the heart of the village. The handle of the wicker basket dangled from my arm, holding everything I needed to make my way back to the Pale Court. Except for my knife, which rested in its leather sheath on my belt, along with a small purse of coins.

Lonely snowflakes drifted on the biting breeze that cut inland from the sea. Not enough to accumulate on the frozen ground, yet their scent climbed into my nostrils. It reminded me of Enosh, crisp and clean, with a cold undercurrent that rose the fine hairs at the nape of my neck. What would he say once he returned and noted my condition? Perhaps he would come when the child was already born? Would he be happy? Even angrier for being kept from it?

At my next footfall, a strange sensation ran through me, as though I’d stepped onto the heave of a boat with one step, and back down at the next. My legs slowed as I lowered my gaze to the ground. And there, right between the toes of my boots, did veins of white crack through the frosty layer atop the hard mud as though the earth wanted to gape open.

Had the ground just trembled?

My gaze shot to a nearby maple, its crown bare, and all the thin branches and spindly twigs did was bend to the wind. Nerves. Nothing but nerves, and it wouldn’t get better if I wasted more time.

The moment I turned toward the stables, my nose scrunched at a sour whiff. What had started as an unpleasant but faint smell three weeks ago now wafted around the few houses and stores, so gagging it put the stench of fish and manure to shame.

Rose stood at the corner of an empty merchant stand, watching how a man wheeled a corpse on a handcart toward the cellar. Another man squatted over the open hutch, yelling something at whoever was down there with the corpses.

Against the quiver in my stomach, I walked up to her. “What’s happened?”

“By Helfa, so many times I told Sigward to shovel the shit from his pig’s sty.” Fanning her face, she jutted toward the cellar. “Now they found a corpse somewhere in a ditch. The moment they opened that hutch to toss him in there… Oh, that stench! I’ve never smelled anything like this before. What is it?”

All blood drained from my face as I inched toward the cellar, my muscles so stiff that my lungs struggled to expand. Good thing they did, because the stench turned more nauseating the closer I came, yet the foreboding twitch of a smile tugged the corners of my lips. No, this couldn’t be…

A man emerged from the cellar, a rag wrapped around his mouth and nose. He shook his head and hiked his shoulders in nothing short of shocked disbelief. Across his arms lay a small body, its spindly arms speckled in dark patches of… of…

I froze.

Had he truly…?

“It’s the boy!” the man shouted, muffled through the fabric covering his mouth as he lowered the child to the ground, stepped back, and shook his head yet again. “Devil be damned, that stench. I’ve never seen anything like it. The bloated belly, the black fingertips, the… the green and gray on his skin. By Helfa, what is this?”

A whisper escaped me. “It’s rot.”

Tears swelled behind my eyes as I breathed through the heart-splintering sobs that built inside my chest. I’d seen enough rot that I could tell that this child had decomposed in there for a while—likely from the moment Enosh and I had left the Pale Court.

I heaved through an onslaught of warmth in my chest. Hating Enosh seemed impossible right then. Perhaps I even loved him in that moment, where my worth took on the shape of a rotting child. He’d stood by his word. All this time, children had been at rest across the realm, all over a vow of ‘til death do us part to my husband undying.

Rose hesitantly walked up beside me. “What is this?”

“I have no idea,” I said and turned back toward the stable, while more villagers poked their heads out of their homes, watching the commotion. “I have to speak to Thorsten.”

Had to return to the Pale Court and stand by my promise as Enosh had. No more delays. No more doubts. Pa hadn’t raised a daughter who broke vows, yet standing by it ever so faithful had never seemed as right as it did now.

Somewhere, a bell rang.

I found Thorsten just as he emerged from the stable and leaned a pitchfork against the filthy wall beside the muck heap. “What’s all this about?”

“Just the corpse of a child. A sickness, maybe. Who can say?” I unhooked the basket from my arm and reached it out to him. “I’ll take the mule saddled, with all these things stored in properly stitched saddle bags if you have them. If not, a harness will do. Just make sure it’s secure.”

He folded his arms in front of his chest and cocked his head. “You have the coin?”

“Something worth more than the coin you want.” When he took the basket, I glanced over my shoulder to ensure nobody was looking, then fingered the stone from my pouch. “Bring the mule to our hut, watered, fed, saddled, and ready. Do this, and you’ll get this stone.” A glint came over his eyes, but the moment he reached for it, I dropped it into my pouch. “If anybody sees me with this, I’ll have my throat slit around the next corner. You’ll do well keeping it to yourself until you take it to Airensty and sell it there for more coin than any militia would ever hand over for a mule.”

He pursed his lips for a moment, and his head tilted from side to side as he considered my proposal, but he eventually gave a curt nod. “Before the sun stands at its highest, I’ll bring him up to your hut. You better still have the stone then, or I’ll keep the mule and all your—” His attention shifted to something behind me. “And then I’ll sell the mule straight to them.”

I turned.

The blood stilled in my veins.

A robed priest led a black donkey toward the courthouse, while another sat on its back with a bell in his hand, letting its ca-lank-ca-lank resonate through Elderfalls. Everyone came together in earnest, torn between the gossip about the odd corpse and the shouts of the magistrate calling for order and silence.

Not good.

“Are you quite alright, Elisa?” Thorsten asked. I didn’t notice the sway in my legs until he gripped my elbow and steadied me. “You’ve gone ashen.”

“I’m fine.” The scratch in my voice betrayed too much fear. “You know what? I changed my mind. Toss a saddle on the mule and bring him here. I’ll do rest on my own.”

His brows knitted, but he turned away and disappeared into the stable, leaving me with my heart clanking against my esophagus. Damn it to hell and back, I’d waited too long. One wrong move, one flicker of suspicion, and they would be on my tail.

“Good people of—” The priest leading the mule turned to the other, exchanging mumbles before he returned his attention to the gathered crowd. “Yes, Elderfalls. High Priest Dekalon issued the capture of a woman. Fifty pieces of gold—” At the communal gasp, the priest raised his arms in an appeasing manner. “Yes, yes, fifty gold pieces shall be rewarded to whoever arrests her and brings her to the nearest temple, a priest, or any loyal servant of Helfa. Preferably alive.”

My throat narrowed to the width of a hair. Dead or alive, I had no intention of being handed over to the high priest.

I turned toward the stables, only to bump straight into Thorsten. “What about my mule?”

“Shh. I want to hear this.” He leaned against a wooden post and flicked a finger at the priests, then let his baritone shatter through the village. “Who is this woman?”

Dozens of eyes shot to us, slowing the beat of my heart as if the organ didn’t dare another beat. What was I supposed to do? Wait? Tell Thorsten I had changed my mind yet again and to bring the mule? If I walked away now, everyone would stare at me even harder. Some might even grow suspicious. Who didn’t want fifty gold pieces?

“The woman’s name is Adelaide.” The priest’s shout hurtled my pulse into helpless panic. “Blue eyes and of bearing age, with crooked legs.”

A sigh of relief parted my lips, but only until a voice asked, “What color is her hair?”

“She is light of hair,” the priest said. “The woman comes from Hemdale, is a knowledgeable midwife, and likely travels with her elderly father.”

I stared down at the mud.

Still, I felt them, the few eyes that wandered over me as mumbles rippled through the rows of people like the foreboding whispers of a storm. No, I was just imagining those nervous pricks needling my skin, urging me to run. My legs were straight, and I was a fisher. A poor one, to be certain, but my hair was as black as tar.

Without consent, my eyes flicked to Rose.

She stared right back at me.

I offered a smile.

She didn’t smile back.

Instead, she rounded the merchant stand and leaned into her brother, Henry, letting whispers hush between them. He straightened his spine, shifting his balance from one leg to the other.

Don’t look at me.

Don’t look at me.

Don’t look—

His eyes captured mine.

My muscles tensed, and I turned toward Thorsten. “You know what? I’ve changed my mind. Bring the mule to my hut. Hurry, and I’ll give you the stone, along with all the coins in my purse.”

I didn’t hurry away.

I walked, slowly enough as not to seem in a hurry, but fast enough that the cold air brought tears to my eyes. Or perhaps it wasn’t the wind after all, but the pressure that pounded inside my skull. I wasn’t safe here anymore. My baby wasn’t safe.

Just then, the priest’s voice chased behind me. “This woman has wed the devil, the King of Flesh and Bone.” Groans of disgust resonated through the crowd, but it turned into the roar of chaos when he added, “It is believed that she carries the devil’s spawn in her belly. Find her, good people of Elderfalls. Find her or this woman will cast the world into eternal darkness.”

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Chapter 25

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Ada

My heart slammed against my ribs.

I pressed a hand onto my belly, letting sheets of ice that had formed in the furrows crack beneath my steps as I hurried toward the hut. A sudden gust tore the scarf from my shoulders and when I turned to grab it, I saw them.

My heart stopped.

Henry followed me, staring at me from beneath the brim of his felt hat. Another man walked beside him, and Rose waddled not far behind. There was no way I could outrun two men—or fight them off should it come to that—but I wouldn’t let them harm my baby…

Oh god, my baby… my—

Why did everything spin?

Calm.

Breathe.

Despite the panic surging in my chest, I forced my expression to remain blank and turned my gaze back to the hut. Not far now. And once I reached it, what then? Ignoring them would do me no favor. I had to get them to leave. Damnit, how long until Thorsten brought the mule?

I hastened my steps.

Too fast!

I slowed them.

Forced my breath into an even rhythm.

The moment I reached for the door, still many steps away from it, Henry said, “Elisa. A word?”

His low rumble stilled my heart, but I turned and battled a slight curve to my lips. “My father is ill, and I need to look after him. What is it?”

He flashed the smile of a wolf as he pushed the brim of his hat up, giving me a good look at his narrowed brown eyes. “Well, Rose and I reckon you sound just like that woman the priests are looking for. This… Adelaide.”

“Me?” I tried myself at a chortle, saliva pooling beneath my tongue, but I didn’t risk swallowing it. “She sounds nothing like me. My father’s just a fisher, as am I.”

“A lousy one,” Rose said, casting her eyes over my belly. I needed to stop touching it. “She helped me with the baby pain. Knew just where to push and how. Sounds like something a midwife would do.”

The other man sidestepped and slowly walked around me, circling me like prey chased into a trap. “Legs look nice and straight to me.”

Rose snorted a laugh. “Maybe she broke them and they healed. Might’ve twisted an ankle. Her hair isn’t black, either. I saw it. Saw the false color rub off in her wimple.”

The stranger ripped my wimple off faster than I could dodge it, glanced down at it with a faint whistle, then gave Henry a single nod. “Looks like soot rubbed off on the inside.”

“I’m not the woman they want.” My voice trembled. “Now leave me be so I can look after my father.”

“Why hide your hair then, huh?” Rose asked. “You’re a stranger who suddenly showed up here with your elderly father, right after they caught the King.”

Enosh. Internally, I screamed his name, pleaded for him to help me, to protect my baby… to kill them all! Damn them. Damn all of them and how they shoveled their own graves. But they wouldn’t shovel mine!

I lifted my chin and straightened my spine. “I am not that woman!”

 “Maybe you are, maybe you’re not.” Henry sighed. “Either way, fifty gold coins buys us better land upstream where there’s still fish. You’ll come with us without a fuss, and we’ll let those priests decide.”

I took a step back. “No.”

Henry took a step toward me, placing his hand on the handle of a knife where it protruded from its sheath by his belt. “Or make a fuss… Preferably alive, they said. I’m no man of fancy words, but I reckon than means dead’s fine, too.”

My eyes flicked between his and how he slowly unsheathed his knife, letting horror freeze my muscles, my stiffening hand shifting to cover my child.

Big mistake.

“Told you she’s pregnant,” Rose said. “Retched behind the bushes more times than I went to piss.”

Hinges creaked.

Pa leaned against the frame and poked his head out, glassy eyes widened with shock. “Wh-what is this? What do you want with—”

“Go inside!” I shouted, and when Pa didn’t move, I turned toward him. “I said go—”

The stranger lurched at me.

I stumbled back a step, pulled my knife from its sheath, and pointed it straight at him. “Come closer and I’ll gut you!”

Anger seethed beneath my skin at the unfairness of this, my foolishness over wanting rot for the likes of them. Enosh could turn the three of them into cups for all I cared, and I would drink from them gladly. Wicked, wayward mortals!

“We should kill her,” Rose hissed. “We can tell the priests she attacked us and fell onto a knife. If she’s the one, they won’t care. And if she’s not… they won’t care, either.”

Pa whimpered.

I gripped my knife tighter.

Henry smacked his lips. “Might get us into trouble with the provost. Let’s just grab her and march her straight back.”

“And what if she makes such a ruckus that others snatch her from us, huh? It’s bad enough that I have to share with the two of you.”

“Almost don’t care about those coins anymore.” The stranger shifted his weight back as he pulled a knife from his mud-crusted leather boots, pointing it straight at my belly. “I say we kill her. Who wants to take chances when she might as well have the devil’s babe in her belly? World’s bad enough without the King’s spawn.”

“No!” Pa thrust himself away from the door. “By Helfa, how can you—”

Henry pushed against Pa’s chest. “Stay out of it, old man.”

Pa’s spine crashed against the wooden frame, ripping a bloody yelp from him before he collapsed to the ground.

“Pa!”

I hurried toward him.

Pain seared across my scalp. One tug, and the stranger pulled me back by my hair, nearly ripping me off balance.

Cr-shk!

Stabbing pain shot into my belly. It reached all the way through to my spine, from where it spread across my entire body. My knees wobbled and specks of darkness clouded my vision.

What… what was happening?

The ground shook.

I shuffled back.

I stared at the man.

He stared at my belly.

My gaze dropped to the frayed cotton of my dress, soaked red a hand-width to the right of my navel. Coldness encapsulated my skin, numbing me into the paralysis of shock.

My baby…

No.

No. No. No.

“Something’s not right,” Henry mumbled as another tremble shook the earth beneath my unsteady legs and screams resonated from the village center behind him. “Ground’s shaking like it did when they captured him. What if she’s truly his wife? What if the King’s sending corpses after us?”

The stranger tightened his grip where he still held on to my hair. “Then we best make sure the child’s gone.”

Another stab.

And another.

At the third csh of metal gliding into flesh, my legs gave out underneath me. My back hit the quivering ground to the sound of the blade clanking onto the frozen mud, shuffling feet, and screams… so many screams. The ground ripped open beside me. Trees swayed. Birds took flight.

Darkness hushed around the edges of my vision as the weight of the world squeezed down on me.

Cold… so very cold.

Pressure expanded within my chest. Iron seasoned my tongue. Hair clung to my cheeks. The ends tickled my lips as I trembled, the chill of winter sucking all warmth from my body.

“Ada.”

I blinked but saw nothing but an eagle circling the sky. And snowflakes, so many snowflakes. Beside me, before me, around me, next to the man—

I groaned, fighting how my eyes wanted to flutter shut on the man kneeling beside me. Wind swept through his long white hair, framing eyes entirely black. He had neither white nor brown in them, yet I sensed his stare.

“Come into my light, give me your breath.” Gentle fingers stroked along my jawline as he crouched over me, his thumb stroking blood-painted lips. “I cannot let him extend it a second time.”

“Eilam.” His name was a dying whisper on my lips.

Lips he suddenly suckled between his in a stiff kiss. It lasted only the fraction of a breath before he pulled back, his mouth and chin smeared with blood. My blood.

He dragged his tongue over it, licking it, tasting it, before he shook his head. “No, I do not understand. Now, come to me. Let me ease your pain. Life is precious to me, but I will not allow him to steal you a second time.”

“Come into my light,” his voice beckoned from where darkness faded into pure brightness. “Return to me what I let you borrow.”

Lightness settled upon my body as my head lolled to the side. One step of my mind, and light encapsulated me.

Pain. Sorrow. Grief.

It all vanished.

The earth shook with rage.

“How extraordinary,” Eilam’s voice wafted around me. “There is more life in you than in any before. More than I need to sate this hunger existence has cursed me with.”

The light faded away, leaving me with no pain, no warmth. Coldness gnawed on me from the inside, along with an overwhelming need to find warmth in Enosh’s arms.

I tried to call for him.

Lips refused to open.

My mind called to him instead, saying only one thing.

Master.

This concludes King of Flesh and Bone. If you have a moment, please consider leaving my story a review.

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