Land of Smoke and Ashes

Allies and Enemies

Thankfully they were out of the market in the next couple minutes, and Sam and Gwen made for what looked like a pub on the outskirts of the village. There were oil lamps burning on either side of the entrance way even though it was the middle of the day, and a neat green and white sign over the oak doors spelled out, "The White Stag". The brick walls were covered in clinging ivy, which was all very nice, but Natalie wasn't sure why they were here.

At first she wondered if they were going to get a drink—she was hardly the legal age—but her two hosts lead her past the door to the pub and up a narrow flight of stairs just beyond it. There was a wave of some strong-smelling beverage as they passed, and the floors were slightly sticky under their shoes. Sam winced.

"Temporary housing," he said. "They'll be looking for you and Gwen both, so we can't go back to the house right now."

Gwen, who had paused on the top of the stairs, looked grouchy. "Or ever," she said.

At the top of the stairs Sam slipped a rusted key out from a cord around his neck, and shoved it into the lock, rattling the knob bad-temperedly until the door swung open. The suite beyond was fairly bare, with stone walls and only a few items of furniture to speak of—a large canopy bed with a chest of drawers at the foot, and a wooden bench. On the other side, a makeshift kitchen had been set up, with a scattering of clay pots and brass pans across the stove and countertops. There were three people already in the kitchen, two women and a man.

Gwen was the first through the doorway, and when they looked up and saw her, one of them, a slender, dark-skinned woman with a cloud of curly black hair, broke away from the others, flinging herself forward with a shout of joy.

"Gwen!"

Gwen grunted in surprise as the other girl seized her in a hug, stumbling back a step. Then she wrapped her arms around the girl and buried her face in her shoulder, and Natalie looked away, feeling for the second time that she was watching the kind of reunion that should be private.

The others appeared to be slightly more reserved, particularly the male, who stood back and eyed Natalie suspiciously. He was the opposite of Sam in almost every way. While Sam seemed to fill up the entire room when he walked in, this boy seemed to fade into the shadows. He was as pale and dark as Sam was golden.

When Natalie stepped forward, pushing her hood back out of her face there was a number of mixed reactions from the others, the strongest from the dark boy, who actually stumbled back as if he'd been struck, eyes wide. His surprise quickly turned to a scowl, and he stared at her threw narrow black eyes. There was something resentful in his expression as he looked at her, that made Natalie want to take a step backward, perhaps to put Sam between them.

The curly haired woman finally pulled back, and then her gaze drifted to Natalie and she blinked. Natalie shifted from foot to foot, feeling incredibly awkward. She cleared her throat. "Uh, hi."

"This is Natalie," Sam said. "They were hunting her in the mountains. We couldn't leave her to the threshers."

The dark-haired woman flinched, her wide-eyed gaze swivelling between Natalie and Sam. "They had threshers? Is she..." she trailed off, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Yeah why?" The boy in the kitchen spoke for the first time, and his voice held a clear, underlying tone of accusation. "Why were they after you in the first place? Something you want to tell us about?"

"Edward." Sam's voice was sharp, and the dark boy flinched back and then lapsed into sullen silence for a moment before snapping, "She can't be here. Do you know how much danger you're putting all of us in right now?"

"Do you think I don't?" Sam's voice was terse, and the darker boy flinched. "Would you have me leave her to the mercy of the threshers?"

"She's human." Edward's voice was bitter. He hadn't looked at Natalie this whole time, as if he couldn't bare to look at her, and she felt her face flush, a mixture of embarrassment and anger crashing through her.

"I'm right here."

"She's right." Jewels looped an arm through Gwen's and led her over to the wooden bench. "You keep a civil tongue in your face, Edward, if you can."

He grimaced at her. "The type of bounty she would bring. If people downstairs see her for one second..." he sputtered, "and the penalties for hiding her—"

Sam's expression was thunderous. "We know all of that. But we aren't like her or her men. I won't allow her to be torn to shreds or handed over to her."

"He's just being a coward." Jewels shot Edward a narrow look, which he ignored. "And what if we had decided to just leave Gwen in the village, just not rescue anyone. If they found out what we just did, we would all be executed. Would you vote to leave her there because of that?"

Gwen turned to look at Edward, and he flushed deeply red, muttering that he would certainly not have left her. "But she's one of us," he waved vaguely toward Natalie, "and she's not. And she's human."

She didn't like the way he said "human". Like it was a dirty word, like it tasted bad in his mouth.

Sam turned to her, and his tawny eyes fixed on her face. "Ignore him. Let's get you into the back room and get you patched up."

"Patched?" Natalie mumbled, eyes still fixed on Edward. The dark-haired boy was still scowling at her. She flinched as Sam reached out and touched her face gently with the tip of his index finger. For a split second her heart fluttered—and then something on her left cheek flared with pain.

"Ow." She clapped a hand to his, anything to stop him from prodding her cheek, and Sam pulled back, holding his hand up. His fingertip was bright with blood.

"Tree branches got you. It's a pretty good slash. Let's get that cleaned up, we don't want it to get infected."

She trailed after him as he moved across the room, trying not to look too hard at Gwen and Jewels. The women were sitting on the bench together, arms still linked, black and blond heads bent together as they whispered. She also didn't look at Edward as they passed him, purposely fixing her gaze on Sam's broad shoulder as she followed. Natalie could feel his eyes on her though, and the back of her neck prickled. He was probably still glaring.

Sam led her through an archway at the back that turned into a second room, slightly small than the one they'd just been in. It was sparsely furnished as well, though there were two beds in this room, and a bedroll on the floor. In the corner was a tall set of drawers and a chair, and it was this that Sam led her to, beckoning for her to sit while he fished water out of a clay basin on top of the cabinet. He pulled one of the drawers open, fetched out a small square of cloth and dipped it into the basin, ringing it out before returning to Natalie's side. He grabbed the only other seat in the room, a stool, and dragged it over so he could sit in front of her.

"Hold still."

Natalie shut her eyes as Sam gripped her chin, tilting her face up toward his. Her face felt hot, and she hoped fervently that he couldn't see her blushing. It wasn't as if she hadn't been close to the opposite sex before, Greg Warner had tried to kiss her last year behind the beach house at the end of year bonfire party. But Greg Warner was no Sam.

There was absolutely no way she could look straight into his golden eyes while he was inches away from her face, while he touched her cheek with calloused but gentle hands. She felt the cool touch of the cloth, which dampened some of the stinging in her cheek.

"Sorry about Edward." Sam's voice was a deep murmur. "He doesn't always play well with others."

She forgot her determination to keep her eyes shut, and when she opened them it was to see Sam's face inches from hers. For a moment, she found herself entertaining the ludicrous thought that his mouth was very nice, and that it was just inches from hers. Then she sat up straight, pulling her chin out of his hand. She could feel her face burning.

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