The Fifth Star - Chapter 16 (1/2) - The Hideout

The pair of them had ridden from the early morning onwards. Darius had brooded in silence all day. He was withdrawn and focused; Elowyn knew that he was more than worried about what they would find when they arrived in Kierton, but what he expected, he’d never told her. She could feel the anxiety practically pouring off him, and noted the tightly bunched muscles of his neck and jaw. She didn't bother interrupting the quiet. She didn't much feel up to conversation herself. Her legs were full of saddle sores and her heart seemed weary from the events in Reivic - it hadn’t bothered her at first, but now the reality of it was setting in, and would be for a long time she expected.

She was greatly looking forward to getting off of the horses and laying down to sleep when night came, but as the shadows lengthened and day eased its way once more into night, Darius showed no signs of slowing. "Not setting up camp tonight?" she prompted him, breaking the silence for what was only the third or fourth time that day, the others having been merely brief stops to feed and relieve themselves.

He shook his head. "Kierton is very close," he said, "I... can't bring myself to wait any longer when the village is all but a few hours hence."

"I understand," she murmured, stifling a yawn with her hand, and did not press the issue.

It was surely close to midnight when it was he who spoke again, "We should be coming up on it soon. It's dark but any minute we should be able to make out some lights at least..."

Elowyn had the gut feeling all day that they were wasting their time coming to the village, but the sad yet hopeful tone in his voice told her that this was something he needed to do, a task he couldn't put aside until he saw it through to completion. She felt for him, truly, but whatever ‘rumour’ it was that her charge needed to investigate, it didn’t seem wise to go there if the Empire knew where he was from; would they not send men to every possible place Darius had a history, especially with no other leads to follow regarding their location? He's not thinking clearly. Still, he's been so kind to me. I can't begrudge him the peace of mind this will bring.

There was little in the way of landmarks here in the flatlands. They had reconnected with the main road, and they rode a few hundred paces from the edge of a forest on their western side. The moon overhead was a waning crescent and provided little light to guide their way. Ahead of them, Elowyn thought she could just make out dark shapes, but she said nothing and waited until they were closer to confirm her eyes didn't play tricks. But her lids were heavy, and Elowyn didn't realize that she'd started to drift off until a sudden change in sound roused her: the quiet thud of the horse's hooves against the earth replaced with an unnatural crunch instead.

Darius heard it too, and immediately he tugged on the reins and his horse slowed to a stop, whinnying at the interruption. Elowyn sent a quick pulse of aethris to her own beast and it stopped instantly behind. He was off the animal before she'd stopped moving, dismounting in a fluid motion mid-stride in his haste to inspect the ground. He crouched down on his haunches and peered closely. Elowyn tried to see what captured his attention from the horse's back, and she noticed a slight twinkling when the sliver of moon edged out from behind a cloud. "What is that?" she asked with open curiosity.

Darius's face was drawn tight, his lips in a line, as he picked up one of the many small fragments that littered the area. He examined it between his fingers, then brought it up to his face, where he lightly touched it to the tip of his tongue. "Salt," he growled suddenly, flinging the substance away from him as if he'd been scorched. His expression morphed instantly to rage, and he was on his feet with such speed she hardly saw him move.

"Salt?" she questioned, uncomprehending of its apparent significance.

He flung himself back up onto the mare and spurred her onward the moment his feet were in the stirrups. Elowyn hastened to follow. "We're in Kierton's fields," Darius explained, his voice shivering wildly as he fought to contain himself. "Plants can't grow if the earth's been salted. The Empire was here!"

Elowyn knew there was nothing to be said. She only muttered a quiet "oh," when she understood. Out here, where the commonfolk depended on their harvests to survive, destroying the land's fertility might as well be a death sentence. Even if they had left the settlement itself untouched, its occupants would have no choice but to move on and try to start anew. However, a few moments later, even that proved to be a false hope.

The pair of them approached what used to be a village, but was now little more than a ruin. A moan of despair crawled its way out of Darius's throat and he dismounted once more, stumbling over to the nearest piece of wreckage before his legs gave out and he sank to his knees. Elowyn clambered from her horse to join him where he sat, mouth agape with disbelief, his hand slowly tracing a charred beam of wood that laid across the packed dirt road.

She was silent as he surveyed the destruction he'd wanted so sorely not to believe. He was still for a long time; Elowyn's knees turned numb where she knelt and protested for her to move, but she didn't shift a muscle, not wishing to interrupt what was surely a storm passing through her guardian's head.

Without warning, Darius threw his head back and screamed - a terribly mournful sound, filled with grief and edged with pain. It was so powerful her hair stood on end and sympathetic tears sprung to her eyes. He stood on shaking legs, his face twisted into a hateful scowl as he flung his hands into the sky. A great ball of burning red erupted from his fingers and shot up into the inky black, producing an incredible amount of both light and sound as it exploded and released a shower of sparks.

The horses, typically so sweet-tempered, reacted violently; one reared up on her hind legs with an ear piercing whinny of fear and made to bolt, the other already having started to gallop away. With alacrity that she surprised even herself with, Elowyn snapped a compulsion over the animals before they had gone more than a few steps, stopping them abruptly in their tracks. It was good she did, too, for another fiery explosion was quick to follow the first, accompanied by Darius's thick voice, "Damn you, Tibori! Curse you and your wretched empire to the bottom of hell!" Another ball, and he slumped forward, hands on his knees and gasping for breath.

Elowyn laid a comforting hand on his shoulder and he did not shrug it away. He took a few moments to collect himself, then straightened and met her concerned gaze. She nearly gasped aloud when her eyes took in his; he made no attempt for once to conceal how he was feeling. Quite the opposite - to the point where she wasn't sure she'd ever seen a face so clearly hurting. A bulky tear slid down his cheek and was halted in its path by the scarred flesh that rested there. Habitually she reached out her hand and swept it away, forgetting their connection. Even through all else on his mind, Elowyn saw the surprise register when she touched that damaged part of his face, but she didn't have time to consider it before a torrent of his emotion nearly flattened her. Though not her own feelings, she felt as if she'd been stabbed in the chest, and the blade cruelly twisted to illicit the strongest reaction. A sob borne of emotion not her own wracked through her and shook her frame as easily as a leaf in the wind. Darius's eyes, red-rimmed and anguished as they were, bored into her with acute focus. She could feel his presence in her mind, was disturbingly close to screaming herself trying to perceive so much, but she refused to pull her hand away.

Darius broke the contact, maintaining his intense stare as he took hold of her wrist through its sleeve and separated their skin. "Don't," he murmured, voice raspy from the strength of his prior cry, "we both don't need to suffer this."

Before Elowyn could say a word in response, something whipped past between their faces, too fast to see. Suddenly Elowyn was flat on the ground, again held beneath Darius, who’d thrown himself on top of her.

“Arrow,” he growled quickly, “stay down!”

Elowyn’s heart picked up its pace. I was right, they’re here waiting for us! She could feel her pulse thundering in her veins but she dare not even draw a breath; she held perfectly still until Darius dared to switch to a crouch, still protectively positioned between the direction the arrow had come from and herself. “Darius!” she hissed, “What are you doing?!”

“Show yourself, coward!” Darius yelled into the night. Elowyn couldn’t believe her eyes. “If you were going to shoot me, you’d have done it by now!” Elowyn held her breath again, sure that any moment another arrow would come and this time, land in his chest instead.

Elowyn had heard many dubious claims and drunken tales while she’d lived and worked at the Nest. One such tale, about giant cats that supposedly roamed the mountain ranges in the north, had always stuck with her – mostly due to the fascinating descriptions of how quickly they pounced once they decided to attack. So quickly, one man claimed, that a man was likely to be torn to shreds before he even realized the creature had moved. That description, she imagined, was an accurate way to describe Darius’s reaction to the person who’d caught them by surprise.

As soon as he caught sight of the form drawing close, Darius was moving. There was a moment of pause, a bare few seconds of a terrifying face off as Darius stared down the shaft of the arrow that could fly loose at any time, held cocked by the stranger in question as they stalked closer. Then, in the span of an eyeblink, he was on top of them, and together they slammed into the ground. The stranger screeched out in wordless surprise and the arrow released into the air, flying harmlessly away into the fields.

His dagger was out nearly as fast; he must have drawn it as they fell for Elowyn didn’t even see it until it was held to the person’s throat. Despite the touch of cold steel against flesh, the form still squirmed beneath him, bucking and flailing wildly. He held his own until the next scream broke through the grunting sounds of struggle, a voice both female and desperate: “Gods above, get off of me, Darius!”

That declaration gave him pause, and he stopped, studying her face for several long, tense moments. “Alysse?” he spoke with clear uncertainty, his tone bewildered.

She took advantage of his temporary confusion and bucked once more, releasing herself from his grasp and scrambling backwards, still on the ground. Darius, while visibly taken aback, had the foresight to reach down and retrieve her bow from where it lay forgotten, passing it to Elowyn without removing his eyes from her.

The woman stood, breathless from their encounter, and the two of them stared at each other. Her hooded cloak had been disheveled in the confrontation, and it revealed her face to them in the barest moonlight that graced them, along with long hair that even in the darkness was readily identified as red. Her expression was guarded and mistrustful, but Elowyn recognized it from Darius’s dreams; presumably seeing her hesitance, Darius sheathed the dagger with a nearly bashful smile, and held his arms out as a symbol of peace.

“How dare you?” she nearly growled at him, her eyebrows furrowed deeply in a glare.

“I’m sorry,” Darius started, “I didn’t know it was you-”

“Not that,” she interrupted. “How dare you come back, after all this time?” Alysse took a step towards him, her face turning red as she spoke. “You left me here, alone, with nothing! I waited years for you to return, to explain yourself, to take me away and marry me like you swore – anything – but not a word of you in over a decade.” Another step, harder this time, and even brave Darius looked almost fearful. “And you return now, when you thought I was dead and you no longer had to face me, with no need to own up to what you’ve done? How dare you?!” By the end of her rant, her finger was pointing, quite full of accusation, a mere few inches from his face.

“Alysse, I – I don’t even know where to start…” Darius ran his hand through his hair, pushing it away from where it hung near his eyes. “Firstly, I didn’t even know about this,” he waved his arm, indicating the remnants of the village, “until but hardly a week ago. I came here to see if it was true.”

“Well, you can see it as well as I,” she spat, indicating the ruins behind her, “Now leave this place, you’re not welcome.”

“Excuse me,” Elowyn piped up, having been soundly ignored by Alysse throughout this altercation. The redhead whipped around and seemed to finally look at Elowyn, brows furrowed even deeper. “You two must have a lot to discuss… Alysse, could you take us somewhere… not so exposed for now? Hear us out at least, and if you must send us away after, we will go willingly.”

Alysse’s eyes darted back and forth between the two of them, settling on Darius. “Fine,” she said finally, and Elowyn sighed her relief, “but only because you will be going, after.” With no more pleasantries than this, she turned and stomped away, leaving them to scramble to follow in her wake.

Darius’s hand reached to Elowyn’s when Alysse’s back was turned. Thanks, he sent the thought along their connection. He took the reins of the horses and they followed together behind.

She led them off, not into the burned village, but off a small path that meandered up a small hill beside it, stopping at the base of what must have been a truly ancient tree, massive with gnarled trunks that reached into the sky. Alysse knelt there amongst the roots, and brushed at the dirt with a hand until a small metal ring became visible, glimmering in the dark. She hooked her fingers into it and heaved, pulling up a trap door so expertly camouflaged that Elowyn knew she’d have never spotted it even in broad daylight.

The trap door revealed only a dirt tunnel that led downwards into the earth. Dark and cloying, it set all of Elowyn’s hairs on end just to look at it, much less enter. Alysse disappeared into the tunnel without delay and her voice called back, muffled by the ground, “Close the hatch once you’re in.”

Darius waved an arm expectantly at the hole, waited for Elowyn to enter first. She shook with claustrophobic fear and gulped. What was Alysse going to do, stab her in there? You’ll be fine, just go, she told herself, forcing one foot to go in front of the other and descend into the darkness.

When Darius came along behind her and shut the door, she was plunged into complete blackness, and she stopped moving. After several long seconds, her eyes adjusted to the dim and she could see an orange light further along. Elowyn’s feet moved faster towards it. A final sharp turn brought her into a subterranean room, an old solid oak door set into the dirt opened wide for their entrance.

Inside, it was surprisingly cozy. The walls were not bare dirt in here, but covered with planks of wood. Two oil lanterns in opposite corners provided the aforementioned warm light, and though there was no fireplace to heat the room, it seemed the ground must insulate it well for there was no bite of the outside cold in the air. There was little in the way of furnishings; one bed pushed against the wall, one writing desk and accompanying chair, and a set of shelves set into one wall that were covered with foodstuffs.

“What is this place?” Elowyn asked as Darius stooped to cross the low threshold.

“A hideout,” Alysse responded curtly as she opened the desk’s top drawer and swiped all the papers that had decorated the surface into it.

“A pretty well hidden one at that,” Darius commented, “almost like the rebels put it here. How did you happen to come across it?”

Alysse ignored the question. She turned the chair away from the desk to face the bed and indicated with an arm that they should be seated there. They both obliged, settling onto the straw mattress.

“You’d best get talking,” Alysse commented with a snarl when neither of them began to speak, “I’ve got little time for traitorous murderers.”

Darius’s brows flew up with surprise. “Murderers?”

“Don’t be simple with me!” Alysse practically exploded, face immediately nearly as red as her hair, “How could you do such a thing to Jolin and Laena, and now plead ignorance? You’re a monster!”

Now it was Darius’s turn to change colour. Elowyn could only watch as he stood then, fists shaking at his sides, “You know nothing of what you speak, Alysse. You should watch what wild accusations come flying off your tongue.”

“Then please, by all means - enlighten me,” she snapped back, now standing as well. They were inches from each other.