A Veil of Secrets Page 8

  We waited until he seated himself and then we chose our cushions.

  “Sikya tells me you have journeyed here for knowledge.” Old Father began rocking in his chair. “She also tells me you have come for our dayflowers, as so many others have these past few months. The day will come when a traveler comes to our city with his hands out and all we will have to place in them is our own, but that day is not today. It is the will of the two gods that we help those in need, and I must abide by their wishes. So I will help you, but the price of my knowledge is information.”

  Beside me, Asher tensed. “What did you have in mind?”

  Old Father patted the air in his direction. “The secrets are hers, and therefore she must agree.”

  “I agree to your terms.” I saw no other way to secure his cooperation.

  “You have a touch of the plague about you,” he said. “Did Henri treat you for the infection?”

  I hesitated. “He did.”

  “This will only work if we are honest with one another.” His frown cut deep into his cheeks. “If I gave you violets and called them dayflowers, you would die no matter how well you purified them. If you give me lies when I ask for truth, my people might die no matter how well I forearmed them.”

  I twisted my dress in my hands. “It is a difficult answer, not an untruthful one.”

  “Give me the whole truth, and I will teach you what you must know to survive. It is a fair trade, and it will honor the gods.” He sat still. “This is what I can offer you. You must decide if it is fair.”

  “It is more than fair.” I exhaled. “I will answer your questions in their entirety.”

  Henri had told me how rare dayflowers were, and a spirit walker’s knowledge was even rarer. To offend Old Father now was to give him grounds for refusing me.

  “I will begin as a gesture of good faith.” He pushed off the floor and set his chair creaking. “For you to understand the magnitude of the gift being given to you, you must understand dayflowers are rare. They grow only on the shores of the rivers around Beltania. For that reason, they are also called Gods’ Tears. It is said after the gods created this land, they found it so beautiful that they wept. Their tears formed the rivers, and on the shores where they beheld the fruits of their labors, flowers grew.

  “We guard the dayflowers because they are the symbol of our lives, of our spirituality.” He cast me a shrewd look. “What few know, but I suspect you do, is my former apprentice, Kokyangwmana, discovered a cure for the yellow death. I have journeyed the spiritlands in search of answers, and the gods have shown me the way. Trust Mana, they say. Protect the old ways. Guard your people. And so I must. Their will demands that we put the gift they entrusted to our people so long ago to good use.”

  I spoke up then. “Henri confided as much to me once he had devised my treatment.”

  “Then you understand my fear.” He gestured. “They are small flowers with large destinies.”

  Once word leaked, Beltania would become a mecca. “Is that why the Mimetidae are here?”

  “That is part of the reason.”

  I wondered. “Is Pascale the other?”

  “Her worries are her own,” he chastised. “Her story is not part of our bargain.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Now it is your turn.” He gave no other instruction, offering me the chance to share as I wished.

  I made the decision to trust him with the entire truth, even if I must surrender it in small bites.

  “I attended a night market in Fortunia some months ago. On my way back to my master’s home, I was attacked by a winged female. She was a harbinger, though I didn’t know what that meant then. Her name was Idra.” My hand went to my scars. “She abducted me, and she placed her sigil on me.”

  I cleared my throat as the words cut their way free. “When I woke, I was in a room full of others like me. They had all been stolen from their homes by harbingers, and their throats…” I covered my mouth, swallowing to keep down my breakfast. “I will never forget the first time I saw a sigil, when I realized what it was Idra had implanted in me. The reality of it was far worse than my imaginings.”

  Old Father tapped his feet while he rocked. “Can you describe them to me?”

  “I— Yes.” I dug my fingernails into my palm. “As I said, harbingers create them. They are living creatures, but their shells are hard, metallic, copper colored. They resemble wasps to me. Idra called them sigils. From what I saw, a sigil lives on a harbinger until she removes it. Then, if she places one on a person, a host, they become what she is. Henri discovered sigils are venomous, and they infect a host with a variant plague strain that turns its victim into a fledgling harbinger.” I winced. “Into me.”

  By the time I had finished, Asher sat beside me, his hand resting on my shoulder.

  “Mana has cured almost all her cases,” Old Father said into the silence. “The sick who ingested the cure and died, died true deaths. They did not rise. Yet you are resistant to such treatments?”

  “Yes.” Life would be simpler if that weren’t the case.

  Both the cure and the preventative were derived from dayflower essential oil. It was safe to mix into a beverage of choice, usually herbal tea. My tincture included oil but also contained sigil venom. Thanks to the latter addition, it meant a lifetime of needles for me.

  He nodded gravely. “When I look at you from the spirit plane, I see the plague lives in you.”

  “The harbinger who took me…” My hand rose to the lump of scar tissue at my throat. “Her sigil was here. When Edan rescued me from Idra, he removed the sigil so the Necrita couldn’t control me. But Henri told me later that when the sigil was removed, it pumped venom into my body that would have killed me in a matter of days. If not for Henri, and your dayflowers, I wouldn’t be here today.”

  “Mana has told me he has a good heart, but I know his clan. The Araneidae give with one hand and take with the other.” His lips pursed. “What did they receive in return for offering such help?”

  “At first I was a novelty, I think. Henri wanted a live harbinger to study so that he could perfect the plague serum.” He had been kind to us both, though, and I could hardly blame him for wanting a return on such a dangerous investment. I had been out of my mind with pain and from withdrawal by the time he examined me. “I was released from study when another candidate became available. Her name was Lailah. She was a full harbinger, a vile creature beyond saving. She had murdered her son, Paladin Hishima of the Segestriidae clan. As punishment, she was exiled to Erania as a test subject.”

  I shared a reassuring glance with Asher. “But it was a ploy, you see. Lailah schemed to infiltrate the Araneidae nest, and Henri’s agenda gave her the access she required. Once inside, she discovered the weakest point in the nest’s defenses. After she escaped, she guided her army of risers through it.”

  “That was how the battle for Erania began,” Asher said.

  I nodded. “No one would have survived if not for Henri’s fiancée.”

  “Zuri accepted Lailah’s sigil in order to save her family,” Asher said. “Lailah had seized control of me by then, but I watched them climb the wall surrounding Erania. Lailah wanted a better view of the fighting.” He grimaced. “While she watched the spectacle, Zuri tackled her and they both fell.”

  Old Father had stopped rocking and leaned forward. “Zuri killed a harbinger?”

  “We think so, yes.” It burned to admit, “Zuri’s condition was critical. We were unable to search for Lailah’s body until after a contingent of risers had swept through the area. If she died, they would have consumed her remains. If she lived, they would have carried her to safety. We just aren’t sure.”

  He grunted. “To fight with a harbinger, she must be brave. Good for Henri. Is she well now?”

  “She was when we left.” I smiled. “Zuri is bold. I think she will b
e good for him.”

  “I wonder…” He tapped his foot. “How did she survive the fall?”

  We had been so deep in conversation that Asher’s voice startled me. “Marne saved her.” He looked at me. “Without her, Zuri’s bravery would have killed her.”

  “Huh.” Old Father pushed off the floor with his toe. “That explains the debt Henri owes her.”

  “Yes.” As thanks, he had offered me gold, medicine and security Edan and I never had before.

  Nodding thoughtfully, he hummed. “If she leapt from so high a wall, how did you save her?”

  My palms went damp as I pushed off the floor to stand. My clumsy feet tangled in the fabric of my makeshift dress. I reached for the top fold that I had pinned into a cape, took a deep breath and unpinned the fabric. Air rushed over my wings, and they rustled eagerly. I stood there, with shoulders hunched, grateful my back was to him so that I could avoid witnessing his reaction to my deformity.

  “By all that is holy,” the elder said with awe. Rough hands pinched the edge of one wing.

  I spun, arms raised to fend off an attack, but Old Father didn’t flinch.

  “Forgive me.” I eased a step back to calm the rush of blood in my ears. That slight provocation was enough to set my stomach growling and my fingernails curling. “I would rather you not touch.”

  “No,” he murmured. “Forgive me. I should never have touched a female without her consent.”

  “I understand the fascination.” I fanned them behind me for his inspection. “They are—”

  “Beautiful.” He squinted to see them better. “What a gift the gods have given you.”

  “Most days they feel like more of a burden,” I admitted.

  He began circling me. “How long can you live without treatment?”

  I put a hand over my unsettled stomach. “Several days.”

  “How long will your supplies last?”

  “Several days,” Asher answered for me, and since he had been my nurse, he would know.

  “How long will it take to distill more?” I knew from Henri the cure itself required days to create.

  Old Father laughed at some private musing. “Several days.”

  Asher tensed at that. “When will you begin teaching her?”

  “Tomorrow night. Be here at sundown.” The elder drew himself taller. “The fewer witnesses to what we do, the better.”

  My wings fluttered. “Thank you.”

  “Come alone.” He shook a crooked finger at me. “You must learn to care for yourself.”

  His words reminded me of how he treated Pascale. Clearly the Salticidae believed that a female ought to be able to support herself and care for herself without a male at her side. I rather liked that.

  Theirs was an ideal I could have embraced if circumstances had been kinder.

  I reached for the length of fabric at my feet. “I couldn’t agree more.”

  During the minutes it took me to retie the covering over my wings, Old Father began snoring.

  Asher stepped outside while I checked my work then waved for me to join him.

  Wishövi sat under the tree where we left him. “Come with me.” He put his knife through his belt and jumped to his feet. The soap creature he left on the arm of Old Father’s chair. “Old Father said it was the Araneidae’s wish you stay at Paladin Rhys’s house while you’re here. I will take you there.”

  I gestured toward Asher. “What about him?”

  The youth blushed. “He asked for a hammock, miss.”

  I folded my arms. “Why would you want one of those?”

  Wishövi’s gaze drooped until he stared at his bare feet.

  Asher patted the boy’s shoulder. “The house where you’re staying has an orchard behind it.”

  “I see.” I tapped my fingers against my elbow. “And you intend to make use of my trees?”

  A slight smile curled Asher’s lips. “That’s one way of putting it.”

  With heat rising in my cheeks, I took Wishövi’s arm and let him escort me to my lodgings.

  Chapter Nine

  Night sounds drifted through the open windows. Paladin Rhys’s Beltanian getaway was modest in a way that convinced me he must have owned it prior to marrying Maven Lourdes. I found it hard to believe the matriarch of the wealthiest clan in the Araneae Nation would choose so simple a home for them. While simple by the elegant standards of Erania, I fell in love with the place at first glance.

  I might live in such a home and be content all the days of my life, a shame those were numbered.

  My favorite amenity was its distance from the main street. It stood apart and gave me privacy other quarters in the city would not have afforded me. I relished the room to move, to breathe.

  How the paladin bore leaving this tranquil spot for the chill of Erania, I couldn’t imagine.

  Full on sleep and willing to put off unpacking until the morning, I went to explore my backyard.

  My night vision was excellent thanks to Idra, and I had no trouble finding the path leading to the small grove of apple trees planted at the rear of the house. Since I was in residence, I hoped no one faulted me for picking a ripe fruit from the tallest tree or piercing its tight flesh with my teeth.

  “It’s dangerous to walk alone in the dark.”

  “Asher.” I spun toward his voice. “What are you doing?”

  “I am a guard,” he said. “I guard things. Namely you.”

  I put a hand over my racing heart. “Well that certainly does explain things.”

  He prowled closer, underneath the tree limbs, until he loomed in shadow beside me. He wore the red-cheeked, pink-eyed look of a male who had drunk too much, but not enough to get the desired result.

  “I want to ask you a question,” he enunciated carefully. “I would appreciate an honest answer.”

  I braced myself for unpleasantness. “The honesty of my answer depends on the question.”

  “I have reason to doubt your relationship with Edan.” He leaned against the tree trunk.

  My laughter shocked us both. “You’re drunk. Find your hammock and sleep off this madness.”

  “I read your journal.” He removed it from his back pocket and shook it at me. “All of it.”

  My mouth went dry. “How dare you.”

  “Me?” He tapped my chest with the edge of the binding. “You have a lot of nerve.”

  I snarled, “Then you must have borrowed some.”

  “Did you know anyone can make an offering to Old Father, and if he accepts, he can divine their future mate?” He let me snatch the journal out of his hands. “The Salticidae belief in soul mates is so deeply rooted in their culture that before a person forms a strong bond with their significant other the couple must have their spiritual status confirmed. They bring Old Father an item that belongs to their beloved, and from that he can tell whether they are a match. I decided to test his process for myself.”

  “Why would you—?” A worse thought occurred to me. “You shared my journal with him?”

  “No.” He reached behind his back. “That would have been a violation of your trust.”

  “Trust? What trust?” My claws lengthened. “You read my journal without my permission.”

  His lips tightened. “I read your notes to save you, to learn how to care for you.”

  The joints in my wings began itching. “I am not a pet.”

  “You would have died if I hadn’t,” he pointed out to me.

  I tucked the journal, the memories of Edan, against my chest. “I wanted to.”

  He went still. “And now?”

  “I will do my duty to Henri.” Starting tomorrow, I would write. “Then I’m going after Idra.”

  He pulled the bowl I had used for breakfast from behind him.

  “Where did you—?” I groan
ed, feeling ten kinds of foolish. “You lied to me.”

  “I did. I had to know.” He tossed it to the ground. “Tell me.”

  Tell him. Not hardly. “I see no reason to answer your deceit with the truth.”

  “Tell me the truth.” He prowled closer. “Were you married to Edan?”

  The evasion came harder to my tongue than expected. “That is none of your business.”

  He stalked me until my back hit a tree. “A yes would have been simpler.”

  My pulse leapt when he braced a hand over my head and leaned closer. “Why does it matter?”

  “It might be what you are, or what was done to me, but I can’t stop thinking about you.” His jaw worked. “You can imagine how that conflicts my morals to covet another male’s wife, especially one whose husband obviously adored her.” He smiled, and it was hard. “Rather he doted on her, like one might a younger sister. After reading your journal, I thought to myself that I never saw you and Edan be affectionate in the way husbands and wives are. Rough as his edges were, he would have stolen a kiss from you, a real kiss, if he had wanted one. Yet he never did. Not that I saw. Why was that?”

  I shivered as his eyes searched mine. “Perhaps we believe in keeping our private lives private.”

  “No.” He brushed his knuckles down my cheek. “You have such fire in you and yet I never once saw that spark of passion in your eyes when you looked at him. You didn’t desire him, did you?”

  I clamped my mouth shut.

  “There it is.” His soft chuckle blew his warm breath across my face. “That spark I so admire.”

  I shoved his chest. “What did Old Father tell you to make you so bold?”

  What he read must not have been proof enough for him to act on his interest. What had he read? I thought I was being so careful. I never said we were or weren’t married or much else on the topic. I stuck to the facts in case we had reason to return to Erania as husband and wife. Was that the tip-off?

  Had he expected me to praise the man he thought was my husband in some softhearted fashion?

  “Old Father said only that the heart of the female who last used the item might yet be won.”