Bastial Sentinels (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 5) (24 page)

Her pale ears came to a point but were half the length of a normal Elven ear.

“And this is my half-brother, Vithos,” she said.

The Elf did look somewhat like her, showing the same bright smile as he shook Jek’s hand, then Calvon’s. “My common tongue need work.”

“So you speak Elvish?” Calvon asked.

“No Elvish. I know Kreppen fluently.”

Calvon showed Jek a perplexed look. Jek shrugged. He’d never heard of the language, either.

“It’s a long story,” Reela said, her tone implying it wasn’t worth hearing at the moment.

“So tell me instead,” Jek said, “what are you three doing here, and why are you with these Elves?”

“First, let me give you something.” Cleve produced a small pouch from his pocket and offered it to Jek. “Make sure you don’t lose this.” Although his face and tone were serious, Reela had a coy smile.

Jek untied the string, opened the pouch, and looked inside to find simple yellow seeds. He could feel tingles starting down his back as he thought of what they might be.

“Those are yours now,” Cleve said.

“What will grow from them?” he asked, barely managing to make his voice louder than a whisper as he felt tears coming to the back of his eyes.

“Have you heard of the evesal before?” Cleve asked.

“No.” Jek checked Calvon’s expression. His boyish face showed indifference as he shrugged.

“It grows as a vine and eventually produces fruit,” Cleve explained. “It’s quite difficult to maintain, as once it sprouts, it requires Sartious Energy each day, more so than water.” Usually Cleve was concise, blunt even. But this was different. Behind his words was a secret, and behind his eyes was a smile his mouth didn’t yet show. Reela glowed with a wide grin, staring at Jek.

He already knew what it meant. Tingles spread from his back throughout his body when Cleve clasped his shoulder.

“It absorbs SE, Jek.”

Jek couldn’t move as a flood of emotions suddenly overwhelmed him. Now he couldn’t think, only feel. The tears that had been building began to spill from his eyes. But he hid his face in his hands and tried to compose himself. He didn’t want to cry, not in front of everyone. So few understood what he’d suffered through every night for years. Years! Stricken by the same nightmare of dying gruesomely, losing sleep, bleeding, the constant dread of knowing it was coming…rarely had he even heard of someone enduring the same constant emotional and physical toll that surely had taken years off his life.

Lisanda had told him that there was a young woman a few years ago who went missing. After months they found her in a man’s home. She’d been held captive in his basement, raped every day. When Lisanda heard what happened, she demanded that her father invite the poor woman and her family to the palace. The monster of a man was hung, but no punishment given to him was enough to make up for what he’d done.

When Lisanda shared with Jek the details that this young woman had shared with her, it evoked the same feelings that his darkness caused him. He never told this to Lisanda; he couldn’t. She spoke of rape as the single most vile and unjust thing in the world. And while Jek genuinely agreed with her—knowing the woman’s predicament was worse than his—he still couldn’t help but see the similarities of their situations.

Selfishly, he wished he’d never heard of the young woman. It had changed the nature of his interactions with his darkness. He could feel himself slowly breaking from the powerless feeling of being unable to fight back. Already, he’d had many nightmares in which he’d done nothing but weep at the sight of his darkness as he coiled into a ball. Those nights, he’d awoken crying with thoughts of suicide—not close, yet not so far, either.

He cursed himself. The tears were coming now as he remembered that very same hopeless feeling. He felt his knees getting weak. His chin had fallen to his chest as he held his face, but he would not dissolve into a puddle in the dirt. He would stay standing.

Could it really be almost over? Would his darkness finally leave him alone?

He could feel their silent stares, waiting for him to say something. But his throat was too busy holding down sobs.

“I don’t understand,” Calvon said. “Why are you crying?”

Reela pressed close for an embrace. With both arms around him, she rubbed his back. “Why aren’t I sensing pure joy?” she whispered. “You know this is your cure, right?”

Then his strength fell out of him, sending him to his knees. His hope of maintaining his composure was completely gone. All around him, he knew people were staring. None of them understood or ever would. He wanted to shout at them for judging him.
You don’t know true suffering. Hunger is nothing compared to my darkness.
He couldn’t even feel the joy he knew was in his heart. Anger, shame, and the feeling of being misunderstood enclosed it.

He was alone.

As he wept, he couldn’t speak. Reela came down on her knees and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. “It’s alright,” she said. “There’s no need to worry about it anymore. We’ll help you grow and maintain the evesal until you can manage it on your own. Soon, you won’t ever have to suffer through your darkness again.”

As her hand caressed his back, and the thought of falling asleep cuddled with Lisanda came to his thoughts, his mouth opened in a smile and joy finally came. In a blink, it overwhelmed him.

“Thank you,” he muttered, tears still staining his cheeks but now for the opposite reason.

“Thank Cleve,” Reela said. “He wasn’t about to come back without first scouring Ovira for a cure to your darkness.”

Reela helped Jek to his feet.

“Luckily, I didn’t have to look very far,” Cleve said humbly.

Jek hugged the big man. “Thank you. This is the greatest gift I’ve ever received. To think about how little time we spent together, yet you still understood the torment I constantly go through…” His damn emotions, again he was crying too hard to speak. He parted from Cleve, then swallowed hard and forced out, “I’ll never forget this.”

There was so much more he wanted to say, but he simply couldn’t. Reela had her hand over her chest as she watched, but she dropped it as she came close to embrace him once more.

“Is everyone staring?” Jek whispered to her as he caught his breath. He was too embarrassed to look for himself.

“Just Calvon. But I think once you see his face, you’ll stop worrying.”

Jek checked to find his friend wearing a silly grin. Calvon even looked on the verge of crying. His expression held joy like a puppy, with most of his smile found in his big eyes.

“I can’t believe I just witnessed the Sartious mage receiving a cure to his darkness,” Calvon said.

It was difficult to remember Calvon knew so much about him before they met. After Calvon’s initial shock and questions, they’d barely shared a conversation about anything besides skunks, the forest, or food.

“But where are you going to plant it?” Calvon asked. “No sunlight gets into the bunker. And nothing planted outside will be safe.”

Bastial hell, he’s right,
Jek thought. Surprisingly, Reela looked even more disappointed than Jek felt. Her shoulders dropped as she let out a discouraged murmur. “You can’t plant it here?”

The need to console her came over him. He put his hand on her back this time. “If I can’t find a place for it to grow while I’m here, I will once we’re done.”

“Hopefully, that will be soon,” Cleve said.

It made Jek realize how many questions he still had. “And why do you think that?”

Cleve started walking again, gesturing for Jek to walk beside him. “For now, I’m going to ask that we don’t speak about Fatholl. There is something I know that you don’t want to know yet.”

That stopped Jek and Calvon. “No,” Jek said. “You can’t say that and expect me not to be curious.”

“You can be curious,” Cleve said. “So long as you trust me.”

“That depends,” Jek said. “What do you hope to accomplish here in Greenedge?”

It made Jek uneasy when Cleve shared a look with Reela and Vithos before turning back. “Why don’t I start at the beginning and tell you everything that happened back in Ovira?”

Jek felt rude for not asking. How could he forget about Cleve’s war? And what of the Elf who had come with him last time? Where was he? Vithos looked similar to Rek, but he was clearly very different. He had no scar, and he didn’t speak common tongue fluently.

“Why did Rek choose not to come this time?”

Vithos and Reela’s gazes fell. Cleve’s face went sour. “He died in combat. He was Vithos’ brother and Reela’s half-brother.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Calvon peeked around Jek. “I’m sorry as well.”

“I suppose returning to Ovira with Rek is a good place to start my story,” Cleve said.

By the time they reached the bunker, the sun had nearly set, and Cleve had just finished describing their experiences at the docks when they’d sailed back to Goldram.

“And what happened when you got to the palace?” Jek asked, when it seemed as if Cleve wanted to say no more.

“It’s best if we save that for another day.”

Chapter 22:

CLEVE

Thousands of men gathered at the base of the mountainside. They were all dressed in armor, none wearing metal, but they looked formidable nonetheless, dirty, tired, and hungry, but ready to fight.

“I’m going to go ahead to make sure there’s not another near battle between our armies,” Jek said.

Calvon jogged with him. “I’m coming with you.”

“We should go, too.” Vithos looked to Reela. His common tongue was slowly improving. Cleve had joined Reela in correcting Vithos when they weren’t busy in conversation with others.

“I’d rather you stayed here,” Reela said. “Let Klaiya speak for us.”

Reela had learned to trust the tall Elven woman long before Cleve had, but he’d come around during their trip to Lake Mercy. The confidence in her voice set his mind at ease. The only time he’d seen her panic was earlier that day—when she’d come under attack by the frogs before they realized they were allies. Cleve figured it was unlikely the same thing would occur now. So he was surprised when he heard shouts of aggression from the front.

The caravan stretched hundreds of yards. Thousands of pounds of food were stocked in crates and barrels on the connecting platforms. Men had gathered around at its front. From what Cleve could see, they were pushing and yelling at each other.

Reflexively, Cleve sprinted forward. “Reela, stay back,” he said over his shoulder as she and Vithos followed.

Anger crossed her face. “You promised you wouldn’t do that, and you’ve already done it twice!”

“No, I promised I would try.”

She caught up with him. “Then try harder.”

Cleve didn’t know if he’d ever be capable of ignoring his instincts to keep Reela safe. He could feel her pride suffering as she and Vithos ran beside him. He wanted to explain himself, but there wasn’t time to focus on anything else as he strained to hear what was being shouted.

“Back away!” It looked like the officer who had attacked Klaiya was screaming at his own men. “Back away, back away, back away!”

The men were close to the caravan. As Cleve ran closer, he could see their threatening glares.

“You’ll be fed!” the officer screamed.

“There’s so much food,” a man argued back. “Just open a crate for us here.”

“If you try it, you’ll die.” The officer pointed his sword. “We’re bringing this food inside, all of it. We’ll distribute it during mealtime.”

“To the officers,” someone shouted.

“While we get the same mush and are forced to skip lunch,” another added.

A chorus of shouts suddenly battled against each other, too many for Cleve to decipher. He was hesitant to push through to the middle of it, knowing Reela and Vithos would follow. So he watched from the outer rim where thousands of hooded Elves muttered to each other in Elvish, unaware how to defuse the growing anger of so many thousands of men.

Cleve found Klaiya standing just in front of the caravan. Taller than nearly every man around her, she raised her arms and screamed for quiet. But even her psyche didn’t appear to be enough, as only half of those near her stopped to listen. In just a breath, they were back to shouting. One man grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the caravan. She stumbled and fell into the sea of green tunics.

Cleve couldn’t stand back any longer. He rushed in, shouldering past Elves who seemed stunned by what was happening. As he moved closer, it became clear that everyone in the chaos had chosen a side. They either were protecting the food or ready to fight for it. Soon there would be blood.

After checking to make sure Reela was safe behind him, Cleve went deeper into the crowd to look for Klaiya. He came to the spot where he’d seen her fall, but he could barely see the ground. He heard a woman’s scream ahead. He saw a gap between bodies with men looking down at whatever was there.

Barreling through, he first noticed Klaiya’s long pale legs, as her dress had been caught up around her knees. She thrashed and shouted as two men searched her pockets with their knees on her shoulders. Another man, this one with long hair and a bow on his back, was trying to shove them off her, screaming at his own men to get off before he shot them.