Chapter Two
Daen gritted his teeth and forced his gaze back to the forest around them. The minute Aelys had closed her eyes to focus on her spell, he’d found himself studying her: her slender form, unadorned save for the gleam of the Bellatrix stone she wore at her throat, the curve of her cheek, the sweep of her blonde lashes as they closed over her distinctively icy blue eyes.
Blue eyes she once shared with me, he couldn’t help but think as a bitter taste filled his mouth. Blue eyes that faded when she cast me—us, really—aside like so much garbage. Good enough to keep her safe in the woods. Not good enough to be her Ageons, though.
A memory rose up behind his eyes. Aelys turned, wreathed in blue light, her eyes going wide as he and his brothers burst through the door. Her aunt’s lightning wrapped around her, her shield contracting as fear wrenched at Daen’s chest…
Left. Rejected. Protected.
Daen blinked, and pulled his mind out of that familiar, bitter path into a methodical scan of the trees surrounding this small clearing. Aelys stood stock-still on the small game path they’d followed from the nearby village. Slightly behind her, one of Daen’s sworn brothers, Romik, waited patiently with one hand resting lightly on the short sword hilt at his waist. Below that, Daen could see the aquamarine that adorned Romik’s bastard sword, the Naked Mirror.
Magic weapon, Daen reminded himself. Still keyed to Romik, though his eyes aren’t Aelys’s blue anymore either. But he says it will still show him the truth of things, if he asks. For whatever that’s worth. Not sure how that’s as useful as my quiver, but he doesn’t seem to mind.
Daen shifted his shoulders, resettling the quiver on his back. Like Romik’s sword, his quiver bore a single aquamarine set into the otherwise unadorned leather. It, too, was a magic item, for since it had been keyed to him, it always held ten arrows—no matter how many he used.
He pulled one now and nocked it, but did not draw. The exquisitely fashioned recurve bow that had been with the quiver took next to no time to come to a full draw, especially for an expert archer such as himself.
“You see something?”
The softly murmured words came from his other sworn brother, Vil. Daen hadn’t noticed the shorter man easing up behind his right shoulder, but that wasn’t unusual. Despite living in a city most of his life, Vil’s training as a thief had given him a knack for quiet, stealthy movements.
“No,” Daen said, giving his brother a tight smile. “Just getting ready. If this spell of hers works, she’s going to drag us off who knows where to find some damn weed or other.”
Vil stared at him from under the black hood he almost always wore. “This part of the forest is well traveled,” he said, his voice low as ever. “You said so yourself.”
“It is,” Daen confirmed.
“So, what has you on edge?”
Daen narrowed his eyes in a scowl and refused to look back at Aelys. “I’m not on edge,” he spat. “I’m doing my job. Isn’t that what we’re here for, to protect her?”
“Is that why you’re here? For a job?” Vil’s smile deepened, and Daen tightened his grip on the bow, lest he give in to the urge to punch his brother in the face.
“That’s why we’re all here, brother.” Vitriol dripped from every word. “She won’t allow anything else, remember?”
“That’s not—”
“I have it!” Aelys’s cry of triumph rang through the clearing, snapping Daen’s attention back to her, even as his eyes scanned the trees for threats. These woods may be well traveled, but not all travelers were friendly.
“Your seeking spell worked, Bella?” Romik asked in his gravelly voice. “You know where the herb is?”
“I know that it’s nearby,” Aelys replied, nearly quivering with excitement. “And I know that it’s in that direction.” She pointed to the left, about thirty degrees off the trail that led through the clearing.
Thank the Green Lady that she’s at least lowered her voice, Daen thought. He didn’t say that, though. Instead, he looked in the direction she indicated and shrugged.
“Upsloping terrain that way,” he said, keeping his words clipped. “Could get strenuous.”
“Then let’s move,” Romik said. “Before the day gets much hotter.” He stepped forward, taking a position just ahead of Aelys, and started toward the tree line. She followed closely enough that she could give him course corrections and point in the right direction. Vil walked beside her. He would range up and down along the left side, while Daen guarded the party’s rear.
Though when it comes down to it, in a pinch, Vil’s first priority will be to cover the Bella and get her safe. Which I guess is our job. Since we’re good enough to protect her…
Once again, Daen forcibly redirected his thoughts. It was a pattern he’d become quite used to in the last few weeks. He couldn’t seem to keep his attention from straying to Aelys, and every time his eyes traced over her form, he once again felt the bitter sting of her rejection. So, he’d tear his mind away and focus on the task at hand.
Fortunately for Daen, the task currently at hand was one he knew well. As a former Imperial Forester, he felt most at home in woods like these. The quiet serenity to be found between the soaring trunks served as a balm to his spirit. He had trained for years to exist as part of the forest itself, moving with no more sound than one of the myriad creatures that lived there.
Here in the woods, no one rejected him. Here, he belonged. Here…and with his brothers.
And nowhere else, Daen thought sourly, his eyes sliding to Aelys’s back before flicking away again. But that’s all right. I don’t need to belong anywhere else. I’ve got my brothers. They’re enough.
Without unnocking the arrow, Daen turned his wrists just enough to see the hint of the tricolored pattern of interlocking circles marked on the palm of his right hand. Brothers by the will of three goddesses, he thought with a smile, and marked by Them to prove it! Fuck everyone else. My brothers and I…we’re enough for each other.
Even if we’re not enough for her.