Chapter Eighteen

 

 

When the tears stopped coming, Aren sat in numb silence.

Nothing moved in the darkness; no water dripped into her prison. Time passed. She knew it passed, but had no idea how long she sat in the darkness. Her tears made her weary, and she must have drifted off at some point.

Jerking awake, she was confused, not understanding why everything was dark.

He had left her in darkness. That Rewel man was going to pay.

For a moment Aren’s anger flared, immediately pulled away by the conflicting forces. The throne and the manacle. She shook her wrist—the only motion she could manage—and glared at where she thought her hand was in the dark.

“You’d think one of you would be capable of making some damned light,” Aren said, trying to muster whatever emotion she could.

A light came down the steps. Slow, hesitant. Danya stepped into Aren’s prison, a light orb in her hands. Her eyes were wide when she spotted Aren, travelling slowly to the manacle on Aren’s left wrist.

“Why?” Aren asked as Danya came towards her.

The healer sat just out of reach of Aren, setting the glowing orb to the side. She looked at Aren and smiled just slightly.

“Who sits the throne, Aren?” Danya asked.

“I do,” Aren said.

The smile grew. “And Av is bound to you?”

“Yes,” Aren said, frowning at the healer. “Have you lost your mind?”

“No.” Danya’s head shook as she spoke. “This has happened many times in the past and could happen in the future.”

“I can’t keep this up; it’s hard to feel,” Aren said.

“You may just be in shock. Most are when they are first captured.” Danya reached for the glowing orb and pushed it gently towards Aren. “He knows I’m here but believes I am looking you over.”

“What is going on?” Aren snapped.

“I don’t know,” Danya said. “I’m sorry, Aren. I was very young when whatever happened, happened. Rewel is a little older than I am. He still doesn’t know what happened, only that we need your rank linked to the village.”

“And why me?” Aren asked.

“Because you are linked to the throne and I am so tired of this village, of this life,” Danya said. “If not you, then the next young woman to come through and you are the only one who might have a chance of getting out of here alive.”

“So I just sit here?” Aren demanded.

Danya nodded twice. “Yes, you sit there and think about whatever ladies from palace lands think about. The others had no problem sitting about.”

“I don’t want to sit about with nothing to do—that is not something I am interested in doing,” Aren said, lifting her manacled wrist. She stared at it for a very long time before the reality sank in. “There’s no chain on this. I’ve been sitting in the dark and there’s no chain attached to me.”

“Instinct,” Danya said. “You won’t get very far with that on you. Rewel can somehow control how far from the wall you can go. I don’t know how—sorry. He drags the queens down here and I told him I wouldn’t help him again. If we need queens to live, then perhaps we should just die.”

“He’s thinking about the village,” Aren said.

“The village is already dead,” Danya said.

“What?” Aren asked. “I heard others.”

“Everything is dead, the land, even the well is basically dried up. Rewel and I are the only living ones left. There were seven others, but they’ve passed.” Pain passed over Danya’s features. “The worst part was that even though they died, they are still here.”

Aren grimaced. “And I thought my childhood was unpleasant.”

“We could talk about that,” Danya offered.

“For starters, I don’t want to talk about that,” Aren said. “Secondly, don’t you have something you need to do up above in the village?”

“No. I could bring in wood, except no matter how big my fire, it would still be cold. Or I could boil already boiled bones in the hopes of getting something more out of them before I break them open for the marrow, but I was planning on doing that tomorrow and the next day.”

“Cleaning?” Aren asked.

“I clean after I work because I need something to do,” Danya said.

“Read a book,” Aren countered.

“I’ve memorized the books,” Danya said far too calmly. Surely the other woman should have been irritated with Aren for countering each excuse with another suggestion. “That reminds me, I can bring you the ones on the rights. We have a set of honour books, but they’re from around the time scribes started trying to label honour. They’re very confusing to read.”

“Telm says tradition says obey, and honour asks why,” Aren said.

Danya frowned. “Telm? Who is Telm?”

“She’s my head of house and house master, about…” Aren paused to think. “twenty years older than I am? I’m bad with the ages of older women. Men just want to boast about their age, but women like to hide it.”

“Like you like to hide your rank?” Danya asked.

“I had to hide my rank,” Aren said. “If I didn’t, my mother would have killed me, literally. And only if I were lucky. If I was as unlucky as the rest of my life has been, she would have ended up controlling my magic and using it for whatever it is she wants from life. But who needs her when I’ve got Rewel?”

The healer almost smiled. “Do many at the palace know how strong you are?”

“I don’t know how strong I am,” Aren said. “Jer said that’s because I don’t have a stick with which to measure myself by. If you think you know how strong I am, that means the healer who saw to me knows. She’d be about the only one. Av caught a glimpse once or twice.”

“Meaning your parents didn’t know at all?” Danya said.

“No, they found out when—” Aren stopped. “What kind of a healer are you?”

“There are kinds?” Danya asked. “I thought types only came about when multiple healers grew up around one another.”

“That was my reaction when I was told there were kinds of queens!” Aren exclaimed. “Apparently I’m an honour queen and there are types of rank, and apparently everyone knows that as well. Except the archivist who insists that even if others claim there are different types, we are all the same. Sometimes.”

“Like different breeds of dog are the same?” Danya asked.

“Perhaps. I’m wondering why you ask questions I wouldn’t normally answer, but for some reason I am answering.”

“That always happens,” Danya said. “Rewel would use me to get information out of queens, until he realized that I was telling him they all had people coming for them.”

“If I’m linked to the throne, they know and will come for me,” Aren said.

“No.” Danya shook her head. “The snows this way are very deep, Aren. If they tried to come before spring, they would get stuck. I’m amazed you arrived safely.”

“But I’m upset, and when I feel things, it goes through the throne and those at the palace react. They’ll come for me.”

Danya motioned to the manacle. “Your rank can direct the magic created by emotion into something specific. Direct it into the manacle.”

“That would fuel the village,” Aren said.

“If you directed your emotion into the chair you sat upon, would it go to the throne?” Danya asked.

Aren considered for a moment. “No, I don’t believe it would. The seat is a symbolic representation of the actual throne.”

“Push magic into the manacle. It has a magic of its own, but it’s not…” Danya struggled with an explanation, “in the manacle exactly, more of around it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Aren said.

“And I will go up now. I’ll come back and visit when I can,” Danya said. “Rewel spends most of his time talking to the Others. He doesn’t much notice whether I come or go. Keep that light.”

“Thank you, for not leaving me in the dark like Rewel did,” Aren muttered.

“Likely forgot,” Danya responded.

“He also hit me.”

Danya approached Aren cautiously and held out a hand. Aren took the hand. The healer’s magic roiled through her hand like a distant burn, through her body and finally back out again. Danya made a sound as she pulled away.

“That’s different,” Danya said. “I’ve never seen him do that before. I will see if I can speak to him about his behaviour.”

“Or about releasing me?” Aren asked.

“Like the throne, the link is until you die. Unless you know how to destroy the link?” Danya asked.

“No one knows how to destroy the throne,” Aren said.

Danya sighed loudly. “Then I suppose we’re both stuck in the village for the time being.”