Stormchild: Emeline and the Forest Mage

48. Awakening

Erdil

Avétk rested his head against a terracotta-coloured dirt wall, listening to Ketiya and smelling the strange mix of broth, smoke, dust, and the dankness of the cave just beyond the light.

'There I was half naked and drenched,' Ketiya said, 'four of the lord's men close on my tail and he comes tumbling out a building ahead, bloodied, and crashes clean into me.' She gestured wildly with her hands, a big smile on her face.

'I'd say it was you crashed into me, Kitty.' Avétk leaned closer to speak, then rested his head against the wall again.

Denirya's cape hood was down, her eyes full of amusement, her arms clutching her legs to herself, the tip of her tail flicking at Färin who sat beside her. And Färin's eyes were riveted on Ketiya. Ever since Brushä's death, it seemed the lording had acknowledged, even returned Ketiya's flirting. After all, they often fell asleep back to back or arm in arm.

What did Denirya make of it all? Avétk had been sure there was a flame between Denirya and Färin. Had he imagined it? And was there something between Färin and Ketiya now? Avétk rarely slept well, and he'd not once heard the grunts and moans often accompanying the...deeper kind of intimacy a man and woman might share during his sleepless nights. Maybe, as Ketiya often did, she'd taken him under her wing, caring for him like a mother or elder sister might.

'Dearie, does it matter?' Ketiya scowled his way. 'The point being, that was when I first laid eyes on this here Blackblood Cleaver, bane of the North.' She met the others' eyes while waving a hand Avétk's way. 'Though he'd just stumbled outside, less than a breath passed and he was swinging that axe at the lord's men. Four in all. Did I say that? Four of 'em, and he finished them off in no more than thirty seconds, I swear.'

Avétk groaned, cringed inside.

'I'd only just stuttered to a halt panting, and barely got a change to see him hack up the last one's middle with a tirade of quick strikes. Like pulp it was, all that purple and red and pink and brown mushed like a good broth and sloshing out of him.'

Färin's mouth gaped, lips curled down. 'Disgusting,' he muttered.

'Yes dearie, it was. I knew instantly I'd found an ally, but when he turned my way, his eyes clouded black with the curse. I instinctively lifted my shield, and just in time. His axe split the wood, the metal disc rang against stone at my feet. Holding onto shards and half a strap, I watched his eyes change after the blow, his tense muscles relax.'

Ketiya left them simmering in equal amounts of awe and horror for a few seconds.

'No need to make it out so dramatic, Kit.' Avétk couldn't keep the guilt out of his voice.

A groan echoed against the cave's walls, a soft groan that twisted his heart. Emeline. He uncrossed his legs and stood to approach Guiseila, on whose lap Emeline had slept. Approaching was difficult with the tirade of emotions fighting in him, something he needed getting used to again. Feeling. Was hard recalling he'd longed for this now it burned through him the way it did. Longing, fear, ache, love twisted together into a coil knotting his insides.

'Em?'

'She's coming to,' Guiseila said, patting her head. 'Best give her space. Never know what to expect the first few minutes...' her voice petered off as she watched Emeline's lashes tremble, then part.

#

Her first glance was accusatory she knew, and Avétk's approach faltered as her glare turned to guilt then pity. But she couldn't unsee what the Great Father had shown her. Couldn't take back the power she now recognised buzzing in every cell of her body either. How had she floated through life so numb all these years? Her hands, she looked at them, so pale and bony and petite. How had she not seen that she could not be human?