Memory's Wake (2 page)

To her left, a bear-sized man came within reach. She cried out, pushing her body to move faster. Her vision blurred, sweat running into her eyes. She cringed, expecting the feel of rough hands locking around her arm, pulling her down. Nothing came. She turned to see why. The man was gone. She tried to look for her pursuer and still watch the treacherous ground under her feet. Trees flashed past. Shadows flashed between them, toward her. Something struck another man, just to her right. A dark form dropped from the branches above, bringing him to the ground.

A cry of pain and one more hunter was gone.

The trees above cracked as the dragon plunged again. Lichen shook from the bark and fell like green snow. She ran on, begging herself to wake up. Breathing burned her chest and rattled in her throat, but a deep inner dread kept her running hard. These men, chasing her, hungry for the hunt, boiled her emotions down to pure, distilled panic.

Still dragging her onwards by a hand, she heard Eloryn struggling to breathe as well, and something else, a mumbling between each crying breath. The running became easier. Fewer branches blocked their path. Fewer brambles and thorns tore at them. The ancient trees moved, bending away from her and Eloryn, then closing back in to hinder their pursuers. She blinked but the impossible images remained.

Reaching a sudden steep incline, Eloryn let go of her hand and ran toward a rocky outcrop. “In here!” she called out and disappeared into a dark crack in the mountain side.

Moving to follow Eloryn, the girl slowed, faint from exhaustion. Her vision dimmed and starred. Staring at that thin sliver of black, ringed by unwelcoming rocks, she shivered. Silly, she thought, to be scared of the dark, knowing what danger chased them there. She drew haggard breaths, and made her way over loose stones.

Just a step away, a creature landed in front of her, blocking the cave entrance. The shock stole her precious breath in a gasp. It also stole her balance. Scrambling backwards she fell hard onto the forest floor. No, not a beast, she saw, looking up from the ground. The figure looked back down with concerned human eyes. A young man; dirty and tattered and animal in nature, but a man. Soil darkened his skin and earth brown hair hung down bare shoulders in knotted locks. His knuckles were reddened with blood. She lay there like a deer in headlights, unable to move.

And then there were more men, pushing through the trees, growing more furious as they battled against the forest itself. Eloryn had left her, long gone into the slim crack in the mountainside. There was nowhere to go. Surrounded with the hunters behind and the beast-man blocking the way forward, she lay dumbfounded.

She wished her brain would work. Wished she’d just wake up. The beast-man reached down for her. She cowered but could see only worry in his features. Grabbing her arm, he lifted and threw her into the cave. She tumbled, barely missing Eloryn who crouched inside with her head against the stone, talking to herself.

The lost girl looked out through the cave entrance, shaking with adrenaline. The beast man stared back in. His eyes shone piercing blue even in the fading light. His shoulders shifted as though he was about to follow, but with the deep growl of a hunting cat he turned around.

The remaining men ran at the cave and the ground shook. Stones scraped against each other, tumbling and falling in a dangerous tide and the cave entrance sealed.

For the second time in the brief, harsh moments of her memory, all she knew was darkness.

Chapter Two

Earlier.

Why has it become so hard just to keep my mind on a simple book? Focus,
Eloryn ordered herself. Her eyes skimmed over words without absorbing any meaning. She pinched her forehead and flicked back a page, trying to find the last information she’d actually retained from
The Principles and History of Infantry Warfare.
Alward no doubt had his reasons for making this dull book part of her syllabus but she couldn’t see how it would ever be much use to her, either for her teaching or in practice. If she was learning things she couldn’t share with her own students, she’d prefer to be studying magic.

Learning used to be easy. As a child, Eloryn already knew everything Alward taught the farmers’ children. She went to classes with them anyway, enjoying being with the other students. They stopped coming at age ten, schooled enough for their lives tending fields. She became a teacher herself after that while her own education continued. Now at sixteen, teaching felt repetitive, and she rarely saw anyone her own age. Apart from her small clutch of young students she rarely saw anyone at all. They lived alone, just herself and Alward, here in the fortified old monastery high in the wooded hills, set apart even from the tiny rural hamlet; a place where no one might recognize Alward, or herself, for who they really were. A place they could be safe.

Eloryn brushed against the pink flowers that spilt over the garden wall where she sat. They released a syrupy fragrance and she breathed it deeply, hoping to quell the unnamed ache in her chest.

“Riddip.”

Grateful for a distraction, Eloryn smiled to the speckled frog who hopped up onto her knee. “Kiss you? Why do you want me to kiss you?”

“Riddip.”

Eloryn giggled. “Oh, a handsome prince under a curse, and just one kiss from a beautiful princess will set you free? I’ve known you since you were a tadpole, little fool.” Eloryn poked him and imagined he smirked bashfully in return. But really, he always looked like that. “I shouldn’t have read you that story.” Eloryn sighed. Night approached, stealing away the friendly light. The high stone courtyard walls loomed over her. “I shouldn’t have read me that story.”

“Riddip.”

“I don’t know. There might be romance like that out there, and adventure and charming princes, but not here. Those things happen in places far, far away.”

“Riddip.”

“Shush! Really.” Eloryn dropped her voice to a scandalized whisper. “Owain only comes by to deliver produce for us. I’m sure he’s taken little notice of me.”

But she couldn’t say she hadn’t noticed him, with his feathery brown hair and strong wide shoulders. Eloryn closed her eyes and turned her face into the sun, enjoying the last few warm rays. Rather than focusing on infantry warfare, Eloryn found herself developing tactics to be the one to greet Owain on his next visit. She wondered what it would be like to hold his work-worn hands, and the heat from the sun’s touch spread through her whole body.

“Eloryn!”

Eloryn jumped and a deep blush bloomed on her face.

Alward bellowed from his chamber window overlooking the courtyard. “In here. Quickly!”

The urgency in his tone made her bolt to her feet, dropping book and frog from her lap. She whispered a sorry to her friend and puffed her way up the stairwell to Alward’s quarters.

Inside, Alward had shoved all the furniture aside to clear the space, knocking precious books off shelves in the process. Shards of a broken porcelain cup lay ignored in a puddle of still steaming tea, and the floor mat had been lifted and thrown over an armchair. Alward wore his normal grey suit, the top buttons now undone and sleeves rolled up. He hunched over the floor, scrawling magical symbols and words in charcoal. Eloryn recognized with excited fear what he was doing. The workings of a Veil door.

“Ellie.” Alward stood up to inspect his work. Pushing his glasses back up his nose he left a line of black soot behind. His graying blond hair, tied back in its usual ponytail, frayed and escaped from its bonds. “We have to go; we’ve been found. I don’t know how. Someone in the village perhaps recognized me. I’m sorry child. Hurry, fetch the pack.”

Eloryn’s mouth turned dry. She always knew they could be found, but one thought stormed through her head, leaving her dazed.
Why now? Why have they found us now?
Her chest tightened.
Please don’t let this be my fault.

Forcing her body to move, she went to a large wooden chest and unlocked it with a spoken behest, pulling out a packed bag that had been prepared for just this day. Alward still focused on the complex spell words, so to keep busy and calm her nerves, Eloryn took a fresh loaf from Alward’s desk and tucked it into the top of the leather satchel.

Alward called her to his side and she skittered to him, stepping carefully within the wide ring of soot-black words and trying to hide her shaking. She tilted her head back to look up into his face, which had begun showing the deeper lines of age. A crash of noise rattled up from the monastery entrance, making Eloryn gasp. Alward’s eyes darkened and he put a hand on her shoulder.

“It will all be well, my girl. The spell is set. Stay close to me. Be brave, the experience is not pleasant.” His expression held sad secrets she often saw when their eyes met. It sometimes made her wonder if he was disappointed in her, in his responsibility to care for her. Her heart leaped about and she clung to the leather pack as though it were a stuffed doll.

The charcoal words hummed and glowed when Alward began incanting in his gravelly voice. The Veil door was a long and complicated spell that most would have to read from a page, but Alward knew the ancient words well from years of study. The spell markings on the floor exploded into magical fire, and tendrils of smoke twisted around them, moving in unnatural ways. The vapor enveloped them. Eloryn watched as her own body began to take on the likeness of the smoke, shimmering into the Veil. It was wondrous, terrifying and painful.

She turned to Alward for reassurance and saw a stranger standing in the doorway.

Eloryn cried out a warning. Lost in his focus on the spell, Alward continued to chant.

The man at the doorway also called out and more men joined him, pouring into the room. One man, with a scarred face and lion’s mane hair, drew a fine crossbow. He shot a splinter-sized dart that lodged itself into Alward’s chest.

Alward’s form became solid. Light exploded in the room, knocking back the other men. Magical fire and living smoke, no longer under control, sparked and hissed, shifting like violent shadows. Whipping mists ripped into Eloryn, still caught within the Veil, barely there.

Alward strained toward Eloryn with charcoal blackened hands. She reached back but her hand passed through his, and she was gone.

In the black of the cave, Eloryn took a moment to ease the burning in her throat and stifle the sob building in her chest. She choked. Asking the rocks to fall had seemed clever at first but now she wasn’t so sure. Dust hung in the air, thick and invisible in the darkness, clogging her throat with each breath.