The Rogue Lady

Chapter Seven (E R I C ' S P O V)

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     Four days. It had been four days since Svana snapped at Christopher for mentioning her family. Four days during which her lips had been sealed and she had refused to say a thing about it. She dodged, or ignored, all the questions asked about the matter. Clearly it was a sensitive subject.

     Somehow, it come off as strange that she didn’t want to talk about her family, or about herself, or anything else that wasn’t related to what was happening now or would happen in the next few months for that matter. Not knowing would drive anyone crazy. No, that wasn’t entirely true. It was slowly making me crazy, but everyone else appeared unaffected. Not everyone was as perceptive; not everyone noticed the little odd things completely out of place. William trusted her; it was like he knew something about her that we didn’t. Yet, at other times, he seemed just as lost as we were. But, the bottom line was that he trusted her. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her; I simply wanted to know more things about her. I told everyone that it was nothing but curiosity. Despite that, I could tell William would push for answer sooner than I would; it was nothing but a matter of time.

     Trust was obviously all Svana wanted; she wanted us to trust her. Maybe it was a bad thing to do; trusting a girl we knew nothing about, a girl very capable of killing anyone who got in her way, a girl who just happened to be attacked in the woods when Darrick passed by to offer help, though he ended up needing help and not her. My thoughts wandered back to when she had been hurt. The pain on her face wasn’t what had struck me; it was the wide-eyed realization that she could get hurt was what struck me. And her, for that matter.

     I hadn’t been able to get my thoughts to focus on anything other than Svana and the mystery revolving around her for long. How could she possibly know Mathias and Christopher? Rather well, too, if the way they acted around each other was anything to judge by. She must have had some kind of importance in Silverley, or at least her parents did. And why didn’t she like to talk about her family? She had told me she used to enjoy talking about her family. But now she was completely locked, like the Shadows’ gate to Roseacre in front of us.

     William had decided we couldn’t postpone the attack much longer, so tonight would be the night of the attack. He had sent the five groups of hunters into the city before it closed for the night. Plans had been made days ago, or at least, details had been decided on; we were sticking to Svana’s idea. It had been weird deciding things without her because she came up with the outlines for it. About seven thousand men were at the Merchants’ gate. The fights had started about ten minutes ago, we could hear the noise even where we waited. Just under three thousand men were waiting at the Workers’ gate. They wouldn’t join the fights for another hour, if things went well; half an hour if things didn’t go so well. And one hundred men, all wrapped in cloaks, were waiting at the Shadows’ gate. Only one person wasn’t wearing a cloak.

     Svana was lazily pressed up against the wall, her bronze blades reflecting the flames of the single torch on the wall next to the gate. She looked peaceful as she kept her face turned to the ground. She almost looked bored, standing there like that. Heaving a heavy sigh, she lifted her face to the starless sky above our heads. I watched her raise her right fist to her heart before lifting two fingers of that same hand to her lips. She appeared to be mumbling something under her breath.

     Walking over to her I asked, “What does that gesture mean?”

     She jumped, bumping her head against the wall. She glared at me for a second before rubbing the back of her head. “Don’t surprise me like that.”