As dusk settled in Feydras’ Anula, Jenhiro grew even more agitated. He scouted every possible escape route twice. He checked the Water Pens, surprised that Macky and Avrimae’s friend were still both alive, alarmed to see Ashyn asleep in the middle of the day. He left the wizard alone. He couldn’t risk being seen.
He traced and retraced, hoping for some sign of Brodea, some sign of Eigron, but there was nothing. Either she eluded him, which was a real possibility, or she was secured within the Councilors’ sector.
He made his way back to the Voïre, and now he stood before a strangely exhausted Ferhym.
“We must move tonight,” Jenhiro pleaded with Relm.
Unsurprisingly, she shook her head no. “We’ve discussed this, Jenhiro. I’ve watched the Water Pens for months; we’ve planned this all week. You’ve seen how they’re treated. There is no hope for reclamation from those in the pens, only suffering and death.”
Jenhiro heard Relm’s words, he really did, but he thought he had a better understanding of Brodea, or at least a better acceptance of what she was, than Relm was willing to accept or admit.
“Besides,” the Voïre continued, “Avrimae is not ready to move.”
Jenhiro looked over to the corner Avrimae curled against. She was cold. Jenhiro didn’t know why, but she was. He could see her visibly shaking and her teeth chattered. The Ferhym picked up a blanket that Relm had nearby and offered Avrimae the woven fabric to wrap herself up with. Again she pushed herself harder into the corner to get away from him. She began shaking even harder, tears poured out of the corners of her eyes. He sighed and the placed parcel on the ground in front of her and backed away slowly.
“Avrimae will not befriend you in a single hour, or a single day,” Relm said from behind him. “We’ll be lucky if she realizes that we are allies even within a week’s time.”
Frustrated, Jenhiro ran his hands through his hair. It was all he could do to keep his own anxiety from growing.
“That didn’t seem to bother you when you left to parlay with Brodea this morning? Why didn’t you tell me?” He said, a little more anxiously then intended.
Relm stared at him in surprise, forcing Jenhiro to look away from her eyes. “I have obligations, Jenhiro. If I am summoned to the First Councilor, I go,” she said firmly. “Besides, Avrimae was getting much needed, actual rest, not druid-induced sedation. I am not some housemate that watches the children while you are away balancing skewers!”
Jenhiro’s ears flushed. “Your right, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. That was foolish and I overreacted.”
Relm visibly relaxed. “No, we are all on edge. It is a tumultuous time. You just need to sit down, Jenhiro, and breathe. Everything will come into play tomorrow.”
Jenhiro shook his head. “I am telling you, Relm, we have to act now! Brodea is ready to move now, we must move first.”
Relm surprised him by showing little signs of stress herself, she pointed at the human fiercely. “Avrimae has been a prisoner of ours for months, and the victim of repeated physical and sexual degradations by our people. We are enemies to her, Jenhiro. In her mind she is in the presence of her worst nightmares.”
He wasn’t getting through to Relm. Why wasn’t she listening? He let out a deep breath from his lungs. “I saved her from that. Surely she must realize…”
Relm interrupted, “She doesn’t know that yet. That was what Uriel was for. That was why he was moved in the same place as everyone else. Now they are all together, in one easy location. So relax. Just sit down already.”
“Not exactly. I already told you that it cost us Julietta. She’s nowhere near the pens,” Jenhiro pointed out. “And I don’t want to sit.” He really didn’t mean to sound negative; it wasn’t usually in his nature, but with Julietta confined to Brodea’s home, surrounded by councilors and guarded by a druid with the Gaur’s totem things looked grim.
Relm pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “Brodea is a hym who controls the flow of a situation. Surely you’ve realized that by now. She always has. She’s just ensuring the druids upheld their end of the bargain before the council gathering tomorrow. It would not do for the First Councilor to tell the council one thing, and then have our spiritual advisors not deliver on the appointed day.”
Jenhiro realized that Relm wasn’t the least bit surprised by Brodea’s turn of events in taking Julietta from the cove. “You were expecting this!”
“I was there,” she said. “Of course I knew it was going to happen.”
“But…” Jenhiro was at a loss for words. Had Relm kept things from him? Vitally important things? “Our plan was to infiltrate the druid’s cove for Julietta and Eigron.”
“That was what we talked about, yes.”
“They are not there now. So what happens next?” He asked. For the first time, the branch commander didn’t quite know how to proceed.
Relm smiled sadly. She turned and entered her room leaving him alone in the foyer. She returned holding a strange leather bound object in her hands. “Plan B.”
“What’s Plan B?”
“Something most unpleasant,” She said.
Jenhiro felt suddenly very cold. He didn’t like how Relm was acting. How she was sounding. What was it she was holding? Was it? It couldn’t be.
He looked at the way she was standing. Tall, erect, in charge. He saw the sternness on her face. He knew that face. Why did he know that face?
“What have you done, Relm?”
Her swirling eyes found everything but his, “I’ve done what was necessary to protect the interests of the people. All the people.”
“And that is?” Jenhiro asked reaching for his spear.
“She came to the First Councilor, of course,” a voice called from the other room. Jenhiro drew his weapon and turned, instantly ready to defend himself. As the owner of the voice walked into the room, Jenhiro felt a growing pain in his stomach.
Relm whispered, “Like I said. Brodea is a hym that controls the situation. I warned you she was not someone to go up against. I am sorry.”
She had betrayed them. She had betrayed him.
Brodea smiled a bright white smile, “I am surprised Jenhiro. How long did you really think this farce could last? How could you possibly think that I wouldn’t find out?
Suddenly Relm’s door flew open and Whísper and over a dozen hunters stormed into her small abode. Behind them all, followed Eigron, Jenhiro’s last target.
Jenhiro watched as three hunters collected around Avrimae and leveled their weapons at the terrified woman. She shrieked. A keen wail that pierced Jenhiro’s heart. There was no escape, no way to save her. He only had two options, surrender and hope they kept her alive, or fight to the death.
“I often wondered how it was that you of all people could defeat Ashyn where my daughter failed,” Brodea said. “How could a branch commander capture the Blood Wizard? Then it occurred to me.” Her dark eyes grew malicious, “By allying with him of course.”
Jenhiro stared at her, his eyes wide.
“To have fallen so low, Jenhiro. How does it feel to know that you have become that which you once hunted?”
Jenhiro looked directly into Brodea’s obsidian eyes, spitting, “You tell me. It was you who fell first.”
Brodea’s smile faltered for only a second. She looked over to the direction of Whísper and Relm. “Daughter, bring them, bring the tome, I want Ashyn to finally see that he has failed dismally.”
“I won’t come willingly,” Jenhiro scoffed.
“But I think you will,” Brodea answered. And then Jenhiro was looking into Relm’s swirling platinum eyes. He knew no more.
~ ~ ~
A few hours later, Brodea stood with Whísper as they both looked down into the Water Pens over one hundred feet below. She could see the gaur and the dui Nuchada at opposite ends of their cage, acting as if they couldn’t stand each other. But she knew. She knew the ruse. They were touching the water.
“I have you now, wizard,” she said confidently.
“You should have just let me kill him,” Whísper spit as she stared with hate down at the dui Nuchada. “I could have spared us the entire stampede.”
Behind the two women, Brodea heard Eigron still defending his caste. “There is still no evidence that the bull is responsible for the restlessness of the elk, regardless of its skill. It has to be the wizard, or the work of this traitor.”
Brodea turned and looked at the young hym condescendingly. Eigron was manipulating the wood of the great elm so that it encased Julietta’s hands and feet solidly. He already sealed both Avrimae and Jenhiro in the same fashion. Not even an axe could free them in a single stroke, and if anyone tried, Brodea’s people would be on them. Eigron was a fool, and a consistent failure, but he had skill, Brodea had to admit.
Jenhiro had fought like a Bristle Wolf against Relm’s subjugation. It was almost admirable. Still, like all Voïre dui Ceremeia, her influence was just too strong, and the branch commander submitted in the end. Though she would never voice it, Brodea still had a hard time accepting it. Jenhiro, the humble hero, was actually the traitor and hunter of her own people.
She knew so little of the hunter. He seemed filled with such promise. Brodea could only think that it was perhaps the putrescent words of the Blood Wizard that somehow polluted his mind. There was no saving him after his actions, and it made her a little sad that she was going to have to balance one of her own. Not just a Ferhym, but also a hunter, and a talented one.
Julietta, on the other hand, never spoke up, not once. Brodea was sure the fiery-haired young woman understood every word they were speaking perfectly. Brodea was confident Julietta was fully aware of the situation she was in, but she handled it passively, almost serenely.
It was hard to read any emotion at all on her face. Without her eyes, or the full functionality of the muscles around her eyes, it gave the woman a stony appearance. If anything, Brodea thought she looked disinterested.
Then there was Avrimae. Her mind was a wreck. The sight of Eigron sent her into a fit of screaming and terror. Once more she hung sedated so that her wrenching cries wouldn’t wake up all of Feydras’ Anula.
The First Councilor had to admit, she was tempted to call for an immediate convening of the Council of Elm. She wanted to show them that their worries were in vain. She wanted to show them that the Spirits did speak to her, and that she was in control of the situation, but she couldn’t. Not yet. Not until Ashyn was fully broken, or dead. Only then could she safely bring all to light, the Netherphage was invoked.
Brodea looked back at Eigron. “It is the bull. It always has been.”
“And how is that?” Whísper asked her mother.
“The secret is in the water,” Brodea told her. “That is where you will find the beast’s true intelligence. It is how I learned of everything,” she added, looking to Relm who stood off to the side of the council chambers looking down below.
Eigron scoffed, but Brodea’s icy glare back at him quickly stifled it. He approached the mother and daughter, and Brodea nodded at Whísper to move out of his way. She did, and Eigron leaned his head over the side.
“I don’t understand. They aren’t even looking at each other. All they are doing is staying near the edge of the murk. It’s disgusting, but they are just animals,” Whísper commented.
“They are intentionally ignoring each other,” Brodea told her daft daughter. “To appear apart.”
Whísper looked at her surprised, “Why would they do that?”
Brodea nodded with her eyes back to the Water Pens below. “The gaur has you all fooled. It is keenly intelligent. The wizard is helping keep its secret while still communicating with it. You underestimate the power of desperation. It can bring out the best and the worst in people.”
“And how would you know that?” Eigron asked, almost challenging.
Whísper hissed, “Careful how you speak to the First Councilor, fool.”
Brodea raised her hand to silence the two of them. She maneuvered the totem between the two so that the shimmering, egg-like stone on top divided them.
“I have watched them ever since Whísper threw the wizard into that cage. I have watched how the gaur acts around the boy, and how he acts around the hym.” Looking back to Jenhiro, she went on, “I have never taken my eyes off of the dui Nuchada. With the sole exception of when I was in the market saving a foolish druid.”
“But how?” Jenhiro asked now. “How were you able to maintain such vigilance without anyone able to see you doing it?”
Brodea looked to the druid and nodded, “Show him.”
Eigron walked away from the First Councilor, went to the basin of water and scooped up a small bowl. From there he took it to Jenhiro and held it up before him.
Even from where Brodea stood, she could hear the strange murmurings coming from the water. They were indistinct in form, but she recognized what it was. Communication. Ashyn and the bull were talking to each other. Though she couldn’t see it, she knew that the traitor was looking up at the wizard and gaur through the water. He recognized it immediately. It was, after all, one of the chief ways Councilors communicated with their Branches in the Shalis-Fey.
“Day and night, I watched the two this way. When you brought the other human to the Water Pens this morning, and I heard the commotion I immediately went to the basin with the Voïre dui Ceremeia. The sounds intensified, and then I heard you, speaking to the Blood Wizard. It was only compounded later when a druid approached about a curious elf that lied to him. Lied!” Brodea looked at Jenhiro patronizingly, “You can’t lie to a druid, Jenhiro. You know this.”
She watched with confidence as Jenhiro closed his eyes in shame. “Yes, I knew it was you, Jenhiro. You merely let me know what they were planning. I already knew you had Avrimae. I knew you were up to something. But I knew where she was, so it was no concern to me.”
Eigron stared at her in horror. “You knew where Avrimae was? And yet you let me live in fear of failure?”
“One does not drink all their water in the desert and hope for oasis,” she answered. “In order to make the Blood Wizard think he has a chance of succeeding, everyone has to believe it. Even you.”
“But what about the beast?” Whísper asked, truly in awe of her mother. “What gave it away to you?”
“I told her,” Relm said.
Brodea savored the look of horror on Jenhiro’s face when she spoke the words.
“Right after the stampede, when I looked into its eyes to sense its power. I just didn’t want to give it away in front of the wizard.”
“You bitch!” Jenhiro snarled. “You’ve been using me this whole time!”
Relm shook her head. “I told you not to act, Jenhiro. I told you not to do it from the very beginning, and what did you do? You killed a fellow Elf!” She said pleadingly, “You caused a stampede, and brought a skewer into my home! What was I supposed to do? I was terrified!”
“I trusted you,” he hissed.
“You betrayed that trust first when you murdered our people!” Relm snapped. “I want what is best for the Ferhym. And I want what is best for the humans. That means balance.”
“But you’ve marked the dui Nuchada. You are betraying the one you’ve bound yourself to!”
“Enough of this!” Brodea barked. It still ate at her what the Voïre had done so long ago. But her reasons, as she brought to light, paid off tenfold in the end. They were childish, and yet, in a small way, sound. The Voïre simply hadn’t wanted to see a boy her age hurt. It scared her to think a child could be murdered.
Brodea realized it was her own fault. She was proud, too proud for a Ferhym rightly to be, and she pushed the council to allow the child on the hunt for the dui Nuchada, when the elder, more experienced Voïre should have gone. It was a bitter lesson learned. Humbling, really.
“Bring the dui Nuchada, and bring the gaur.” She told Eigron and Whísper. “And round up the skewers in the water pens and corral them all to one location where we can see them from here.”
“Should I bring up the one the dui Nuchada is attached to?” Eigron asked.
“No. I want him out of reach.”