Solace Curse: Part I

17 - Suppression

The gravel crunched under my boots. I wiped a bead of sweat from my temple, squinting down the road to where it bent into the trees and out of sight.

"Any idea how much farther we've got?"

In front of me, Koren swung around to walk backwards, his own brown locks sticking to his forehead. "This late in the morning, we are definitely getting close. We have come this way before."

"You could take me in one big circle for a few days and I'm not sure I'd notice Koren," Andrin quipped from the front with Maeldok.

"I guess it all looks different than I remember," I said, shaking my head. "Maybe when I see the bridge I'll recognize it all."

Koren gave me a sideways look, but turned to walk forward again.

Tally's Naem-shul suddenly blazed past my shoulder and was gone in the blink of an eye—a halberd this time. I flinched, but otherwise ignored her for the third time in as many minutes. It was grating on me, her flashing her Naem-shul constantly when I couldn't hold one fiber of current back from the flow.

She lunged again, the weapon shimmering like glass for a deadly moment, to be replaced with clean cold air.

Koren turned with slanted eyes but she gave him a charming grin and jogged up to join the Balduk.

"Waste of energy." Koren was still glaring at her back. "Your Naem-shul still works, no need to prove it."

"Trust me, if Rune is gone, she won't need that to figure it out."

Koren slowed to match my stride, then studied my expression. "It's not the same having Tallion here."

I nodded and threw a bitter thought into the dirt.

"Lylisia was good at thinking things through. I always—it was always good to have her there."

Good to have her here. Even Koren had more words for the feeling than I did. "Tally and Maeldok... they're different to have around." It was lame of me. He was trying to actually talk about things. There was just too much to say.

"I don't trust them yet."

"Tally means everything she says."

"Nobody means everything they say Sedris. But the unsaid is what worries me more," Koren said darkly.

I knew what he meant. "Maeldok is here though, and helping us, even if he wants something he isn't telling us yet." The sharp clang of a smith's hammer rang in my mind—m'olon fintre.

"It's really what not if. It matters what else he wants from this."

"Maybe it's something we want too. What does Andrin think?"

Koren sighed. "Andrin... I don't know. I asked him, but he didn't really answer me straight. Maybe he just doesn't want to say he likes him."

I peered ahead where our three companions had just rounded the bend out of sight. "I don't know that I like him either, but I need him to teach me." And not just about magic. I didn't know how to bring up the soul forges, the m'olon fintre, with Koren and Andrin, but every obsessive idea was constantly threatening to slip from my lips.

"It's about trusting him, not liking him. I'm trying to keep us safe, and he's an unknown factor. Tallion, she's impulsive, but easy to read. Maeldok feels... different entirely."

"Maybe unlocking my magic will change things for us. It's strong, maybe I can use it to protect us too." There was warmth in the thought, a warmth that laid softly in my chest beside the smoking hole the soul forges burned through it.