Janice Hardy - Darkfall

To the north of the farmhouse was a grid of dirt roads and buildings, the houses of those who worked Jeatar’s farm. He had thousands of acres and hundreds of farmhands, and some merchants and traders had established shops there like a small village. I didn’t know if it had a name, but Aylin called it Jeatown.

The fields closest to Jeatown were dotted with dozens of tents, makeshift homes for those who’d also fled Baseer. Horses grazed in roped-off corrals, with wagons nearby. I even spotted a few carriages mixed in, proof that wealth didn’t protect you from the Duke’s soldiers.

“It’s getting crowded out there,” I said. “We might have to start making food runs twice a day.” We’d been helping Jeatar’s people hand out food and supplies to the refugees, and the bags were going faster every day.

“I heard the guards say there are even folks from Verlatta now.”

“Verlatta? What are they running from?” Verlatta had been under siege by the Duke’s army the last six months, but when I’d shattered his palace and started a city-wide riot, he’d recalled the army to subdue his people. Verlattians should have been rejoicing.

Danello shrugged. “I don’t know, but rumours say there’s fighting in all the cities.”

Even Geveg?

I tried not to picture my city in flames, people I knew fighting in the streets, their bodies in the canals, but I’d seen far too much for those memories to stay silent. War was coming.

Saints, war was here, and I’d probably started it.

I still had nightmares about being trapped in the Duke’s weapon, locked to the misshapen pynvium by cuffs of silvery metal that made you do what you didn’t want to do. The pain cycling through me and the other five Takers chained to it with me. Being forced to trigger it, to flash its pain and kill.

Of losing control of it and turning it into something that drained life.

I prayed the weapon had been destroyed when the Duke’s palace was, shattered by its own pain when the walls came down around it, but I knew better. It was still there, and the Duke was still trying to make it work.

If he figured it out, none of us would ever be safe again.

A soldier by the perimeter fence waved at Danello and called hello. He elbowed another soldier and pointed at me, but they were done gossiping by the time we reached them.

It was the same everywhere we walked. Knots of people watching me, whispering about me. You’d think they’d be bored with me by now, but there was always someone new on the guard who hadn’t heard what I’d done. Their words reached me, some from people who didn’t even try to stay quiet.

“That’s the girl who destroyed the palace and almost killed the Duke.”

“It’s the Shifter, the one who rescued all those Healers in Geveg.”

“There’s Nya. She saved our lives in Baseer. Took on the Undying to do it, too.”

My skin twitched with so many eyes on me. I’d spent my whole life hiding who I was – what I was – but my secret was gossip now. And gossip travelled faster than a four-footed hen.

Maybe even fast enough to reach the Duke’s ears.

“Here we are.” Danello pushed open a gate to a low-walled garden. Cool green shade greeted us, smelling of honeysuckle and white ginger. It was beautiful, but my uneasiness was rising like the tide.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” I said. With all the new folks on the farm, one or two could be spies – or worse, trackers – for the Duke. He finally had control of Baseer again, and that was making everyone nervous. We should be preparing to fight back, defend ourselves if needed, not enjoying the sunshine.

“Nya, it’s OK. It’s quiet here, no one will bother us.” Danello squeezed my hand and rubbed his thumb across my knuckles. I took a deep breath and nodded. He was right. Until we knew what the Duke was doing, there wasn’t anything to prepare for.

We followed a stone path that curved among bright yellow flowers and trees with white bark and circled around a small pond. Danello stopped and pulled a blanket out of the basket. He shook it open and spread it out by the water.

“Breakfast is served,” he said with a flourish.

I sat, scanning the bushes while he rummaged through the basket. Leaves rustled in the wind like footsteps crunching through dry grass, but I didn’t see anyone around.

“Do you want fish cakes or stuffed peppers?” He held both up and wiggled them as if that made them more appealing. Didn’t help the food, but it did make him look adorable. His warm brown eyes. The cute little scar above his lip.

I was a fool. A romantic picnic with Danello and all I could think about was what the Duke was up to? Danello deserved better.

“What’s the pepper stuffed with?” I asked, scooting closer.

“Um…” He poked a finger into the breading. “Looks like fish.”

“The same fish?”

“Maybe, if it was a big fish.” He grinned.

I chuckled, the first laugh I’d had in, Saints, I couldn’t remember. It felt good. This was good. Me, him, together all alone for once, with no one trying to kill either of us. I needed more of this – lots more. “I meant the same kind of fish.”

“I know, but it made you smile.” He set the pepper on a plate and grabbed a knife from the basket. “We’ll split both. That way you won’t have to choose.”

Like I chose to leave Tali behind ? My grin faltered. I hadn’t meant to think it, hadn’t wanted to think it. Shouldn’t have thought it, not with the sun and flowers and a cute boy bringing me food.

A sweet scent drifted past on the breeze. White ginger. Tali’s scent. No wonder I’d thought of her.

Danello looked at me, uncertain. “You OK?”

I nodded and he resumed cutting.

It hadn’t been my choice to leave her. Danello and Aylin had kidnapped me, carried me screamingout of Baseer, thrown me on Jeatar’s boat, and locked me in a cabin until we were far enough away that I couldn’t swim back.

That’s not the choice you regret.

No, it was the one I’d made my first night in Baseer, when I could have saved Tali from the tracker Vyand and kept her out of the Duke’s clutches. But Danello and Aylin had been captured, too, imprisoned in a Baseeri jail and facing execution. Their certain deaths had weighed against Tali’s life.

And I’d chosen them.

Tali had been in trouble for sure, but Danello and Aylin would have been killed in just a few hours. I’d thought I’d have time to go back for her. Thought I could save them all, but I’d been wrong. I’d left her in a city tearing itself apart with a man who wanted to turn her into a weapon and force her to kill.

“Here you go.” Danello handed me a plate, a smile on his face but worry in his eyes. “One half of a mystery-fish-stuffed pepper and one full fish cake.”

I took my food. The first bite tasted like rock, but I kept eating. He’d gone to so much trouble, and all for me.

Footsteps thumped over stone and I tensed. Another couple appeared but kept walking around the pond. They didn’t even look at us. Maybe we were far enough outside the farmhouse grounds that people didn’t recognise me. My name was a lot more famous than my face.

“It’s OK, Nya, you’re safe here,” Danello said softly. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

He wouldn’t, either. He’d face any soldiers the Duke sent after me. Watch my back no matter what I tried to do. Even when he disagreed with it.

“Thank you,” I said. I should have said more, but the words wouldn’t come. I looked at him, hoping he’d know how I felt anyway. Eyes say more than lips ever could. Danello had nice lips. I smiled.