Souls of Aredyrah 1 - The Fire and the Light (15 page)

Dayn picked his way among the jutting stones
of the shoreline, then turned toward the embankment. Surely the
woods would be less painful than the rocks now forcing him into
dances of pain. He reached the edge of the trees and stopped. There
were vines and undergrowth as far as the eye could see.

“Dayn! Dayn!”

He swiveled toward the voice, his heart both
leaping and sinking at the same time. So it had not been a dream
after all; it was Alicine, making her way through the woods. A
surge of joy coursed through his veins at the thought of rescue,
but then he realized his sister would not be alone, so rescue might
not be worth it. Their father would surely be with her, there to
order him back to the farm.

Hide. Just hide until they leave. There’re
plenty of places
. . . But it was too late. Alicine spotted him
and sprinted toward him, her Summer Maiden gown tearing through
brambles as she fought her way through the thicket.

She threw her arms around him, burying her
face in his chest and between the dangling boots. “I’ve been
looking for you everywhere,” she cried. “Oh Dayn. I was so afraid
we’d lost you.”

But Dayn could only stand there, muted by the
enormity of his sister’s sentiment and the realization that his
father would soon be rounding the nearest tree to cuff him about
the ears and drag him home. He pushed her away and took a step
back. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“What? I came looking for you, of course.”
She looked at him with startled eyes, clearly caught off guard by
his cool reception as well as his foolish question.

“Well, I didn’t need finding,” he said. “I’m
fine.”

Alicine looked him up and down. “Yes, you
certainly
look
fine.”

But Dayn knew he didn’t. His clothes were
damp and smeared with dirt, and his hair was cluttered by bits of
leaf and twig; his feet were covered with bleeding blisters, and
his fingers and toes were noticeably blue. But he didn’t need her
sympathies or her help. “Go home,” he said.

“What?” she said, drawing out the word. “Go
home?” Her eyes changed from the redness of happy tears to the
scarlet of acute annoyance. “Fine, but you’re coming back with
me.”

“Oh no I’m not.” Dayn turned to walk away,
but she grabbed him by the back of his tunic and tugged, tearing
the hem.

“Now look what you’ve done,” he said,
twisting around to inspect the damage to his best shirt.

Alicine’s eyes widened in mortification, then
she cupped her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter.

Dayn fingered the tear in the material. “Well
you’re going to be the one to mend it,” he grumbled. But one glance
in his sister’s amused direction and he was soon laughing along
with her.

“What happened to your feet?” Alicine asked,
her humor subsiding.

“Oh, these stupid boots,” Dayn said. “I
should’ve worn the other ones.”

“I guess that proves you didn’t
plan
this adventure.”

Dayn’s face turned serious. “No. I decided at
the festival.”

Alicine took him by the hand and pulled
gently. “Please come home, Dayn. We can make things right. I know
we can.”

Dayn removed his hand from hers. He crossed
his arms and turned his eyes to his feet. “I can’t go back.”

“Of course you can. You just walk over to the
horse, get yourself up on it, and ride home with me. It’s
simple.”

“No. It’s not.”

“Dayn, listen, I know why you left.
Sheireadan told you what the fathers have been saying, didn’t he?
About not wanting you to court their daughters and all. But they
could change their minds. They could. And Eileis could help.”

“It’s more than that. It’s . . .” Dayn
paused. How in the world was he going to tell her? He gathered her
hands in his. “It’s more than the issue of courting, Alicine.
There’s something else. I overheard Father and Eileis, that night a
year ago when she stayed at the house. The night I was attacked by
Sheireadan on the path. Remember? Well, I heard them talking.
Father said I wasn’t his son, that he’d gotten me from a
demon-witch in the cave. Do you understand what that means? I’m
demon-kind, Alicine. I’m not your real brother.”

“I know that’s what Father and Mother think,”
she said, “but—”

Dayn threw her hands from his. “You
knew
? You knew all this time and said
nothing
?” He
turned and stormed away.

“No! I didn’t know until just a couple of
days ago! Please, Dayn, I only just found out!”

Alicine ran alongside him, clutching his arm,
but he shrugged her off and kept his eyes averted, focusing them on
the barely navigable path instead.

“After you left we went to Eileis,” Alicine
continued as she struggled to keep pace with his long, determined
strides. “Father told me to stay in the wagon, but I snuck up to
the house and listened anyway. I heard them talking about how he
took you from a woman. Father said she was a demon, but Eileis
didn’t think she was. I don’t think she was either, Dayn. I think
she was just a woman like any other, except—”

Dayn spun to face her. “Except she looked
like a demon? And she just happened to be in the cave? Right,
Alicine, she was a woman just like any other.”

“But Eileis doesn’t think she was a demon.
And if you come back, maybe she can convince the others, too.”

“Did she manage to convince Father and
Mother?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“Well, if she can’t convince them, she sure
won’t be able to convince anyone else, now will she? No. There’s no
point in me going back with you. It’ll just be more of the
same.”

A strange expression crossed Alicine’s face.
Dayn cocked his head and eyed her suspiciously. “Is there anything
else you haven’t told me?” he asked, knowing full well there
was.

“Yes,” she said. “Falyn.”

“Falyn?” Dayn felt his empty stomach wrench.
“What about her?”

“I talked to her before we left the festival.
She’s frantic with worry about you.”

Dayn laughed. “Oh, sure she is. She can’t get
poor Dayn off her mind, now can she?” He turned to continue his
retreat.

“A matter of fact—”

“Enough of this, Alicine! I’m not going back
with you, do you hear? I’m going to the cave, back to where Father
found me, or rescued me, or whatever it was he did.” He paused and
scanned the woods around them. “Where is he anyway?”

“Home, I guess. I don’t know. I came
alone.”

“Alone? You came here alone?” He grabbed her
by the shoulders and shook her. “Are you mad? What were you
thinking?”

“I had to find you, to make you understand,
to bring you home. Eileis was arguing with Father and Mother,
something about them not coming after you. She thinks you are part
of some . . .” Alicine chewed her lip. “She thought you just needed
to work things out for yourself. That Daghadar would look after
you. But Dayn, you didn’t even take your coat, or food, or
anything.”

“Did
you
?” Dayn blurted, suddenly
reminded of how long it had been since he’d eaten.

“Did I what?”

“Bring food or anything?”

“Of course, right over there. It’s with the—”
Alicine’s face fell.

“Don’t tell me you’ve lost the horse.” Dayn
groaned as hope for some food in his belly slipped away.

They ran to the spot where Alicine had left
the animal and searched the ground for a sign of its tracks.

“There!” Alicine said. “It went that
way!”

“Well, at least it’s headed in the right
direction,” Dayn said, pleased to note the horse had gone in the
direction of the mountains.

Alicine scowled. “Well, it will soon be going
in the other direction.”

“No, it won’t,” Dayn said.

“Yes, it will.”

“No, it won’t.”

And so the argument continued as they picked
their way along the primitive path that wound along the river
toward the mountains.

The horse had wandered much further than they
expected, surprisingly far for such an old animal. But they had no
choice but to trudge after it, even if it took them away from the
river. The animal did, after all, have the food with it, and Dayn
would have followed the creature to the ends of Aredyrah for a bit
of sustenance in his rumbling stomach.

Alicine spotted the horse grazing in a nearby
clearing and she and Dayn took off running. When they reached it,
she snatched hold of the reins, and with the other hand pulled down
the bag that contained what was left of the food. “Here,” she said,
handing the bag to Dayn.

He grabbed it and thrust in a hand, then
pulled out an apple. He bit into it with the passion of a starving
man. “Wad-els-iz-enhere?” he asked through a mouthful. He rummaged
around in the sack, not caring what else was in there. Anything
would do. Even beets, which he despised, would have been welcome at
that point.

He gulped down another apple, a chunk of
bread, and a bit of cheese before realizing he hadn’t offered his
sister anything. Looking at her guiltily, he noticed she was
watching him. He paused mid-chew, then looked down at the bag still
clutched in one hand and the chunk of cheese in the other. He held
the bag out to her. “Sorry, Alicine,” he mumbled.

She smiled and took it. “You’re going to make
yourself sick, you know, wolfing your food down like that.”

Dayn glanced toward the horse and his eyes
lit up—his coat! He stuffed the last bit of cheese into his mouth
and wiped his dirty hands down his even dirtier pants.

“Oh, blessed coat,” he said, wrapping it
around himself in grateful relief, “I never thought I’d say this,
but I think I’d rather have you wrapped around me right now than
Fal—” He froze, horrified by the wickedness of his thoughts, and
turned his back to his sister, ashamed and praying she had not
realized his words.

“You know, Dayn,” she said, “I never did get
a chance to finish telling you about her.”

“Who?” Dayn asked stupidly.

“You know who. When I said she was worried, I
wasn’t lying.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Dayn gazed
toward a nearby clump of bushes, reminded of other bodily needs.
“I’m very relieved to learn you weren’t lying, Alicine, but right
now there’s something else I need to relieve.” He managed a feeble
laugh, aware his attempt to change the subject was a weak one, then
turned and excused himself to the shrubberies.

“You can’t evade the issue forever,” Alicine
called after him.

“Oh, yes I can,” he shouted back.

Dayn made his way between the brambles and
branches, but glanced back in Alicine’s direction. Though they had
always shared a bedroom, matters such as emptying one’s bladder
were kept strictly private, and he did not intend to change that
custom now. He twisted through a vine that had latched onto his
leg, then stopped midway down a sloping bank. He finished his
business, worried Alicine might come looking for him, and turned to
climb back up the hill. But a sudden moan, deep pitched like wind
in a hollow, filled his ears. He paused, scanning his surroundings.
He drew a sharp breath. Down the slope, barely visible through the
underbrush, yawned the wide black mouth of a cave.

He scrambled up the embankment, through the
undergrowth, and back to the clearing, screaming Alicine’s name the
whole way back.

“There—the cave—over there—behind the—” he
shouted between gulping breaths.

“No,” Alicine whispered.

“Yes! Just behind those trees! I saw it!”
Dayn then realized the disappointment on his sister’s face.
“Alicine, that’s why I’m here. I have to know what’s in there.”

“Please, let’s go home. What is there to
know? The woman is surely no longer there. And if there are demons,
why would you want to meet them, Dayn?”

“Because I’m one of them!”

As Dayn stared into Alicine’s tearing eyes,
it occurred to him that she was not a demon, so how could he even
consider taking her into the cave with him? The creatures might be
willing to accept him, but what of her? “You have to go back,” he
said.

“No. If you’re not coming with me, then I’m
going with you,” she said.

“It’s too dangerous. I don’t know what I’m
going to find in there and I won’t risk you getting hurt. You don’t
belong in there.”

“Well, you don’t belong in there either,
Dayn.”

“Yes, I do—”

“No,” she interrupted, “you don’t.
Regardless, I’ll be going with you.” She placed her hands on her
hips and narrowed her eyes into tiny slits. Dayn knew only too well
what that meant.

“Listen,” she continued, “you can go on in
there by yourself if you want to, but I’ll just follow you.”

And Dayn knew she would, too. As much as he
didn’t want his sister going into the cave with him, or back alone,
he wanted to return home with her even less. It occurred to him
that in the past Alicine had always come to his defense, but never
he to hers. Maybe it was time he became the man he had always
wanted to be. Maybe with his own kind he wouldn’t be so afraid
anymore. He clenched his jaw. If she insisted on coming, so be it.
And if the demons dared threaten her, he would make them sorry
they’d ever been born.

“Come on then,” he said, yanking the reins
from her hand. “But the horse stays.”

They took the water pouch and food bag and
released the horse to graze. They didn’t know how long they would
be gone and did not expect the animal to be there when they
returned. But there was no sense in taking a horse into a cave, and
if they weren’t able to make it back, it wouldn’t have been right
to tether it.

They headed across the clearing, then through
the brambles and down the hill toward the cave. As they drew
nearer, moss-covered stones could be seen slanting toward the cave
in a semi-circular pattern. Dayn and Alicine wound their way down
and in between them, and after a time reached the base of the hill.
There they stopped and quietly surveyed the area that stretched
across the mouth of the cavern. As Dayn recalled the stony benches
at their backs, it occurred to him that the place was an
amphitheater of old. There was one similar to it in the hills of
Kirador, mostly used for religious purposes. Who could have
constructed this one? Surely not the Kiradyns who dared not venture
to this place. But then again, evidence of them was all around.
There were chimes everywhere, clinging to the surrounding trees and
shrubs. They were old, many lying on the ground, broken and
scattered, others barely clinging to the branches, but the chimes
were obviously Kiradyn.