The Wrath Of Silence, page 16
part #6 of The Monster Of Selkirk Series
Rosslyn took a step forward. She wasn’t sure what she intended to do, but her fingers tingled, and she felt like wrapping them around Effie’s throat was the only way to get the tingling to stop. But she never got the opportunity as Tallis got between them.
She didn’t even need to put her hands out to stop them from attacking one another. All Tallis had to do was stand there and give them a look like a disappointed mother, chilling the hot blood in Rosslyn’s veins. By the admonished look on Effie’s narrow face, Rosslyn knew Tallis had the same effect on her as well.
“This has got to be one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard. Your grievances are legitimate, aye, but they aren’t worth what you’re risking. Do you even know what that risk is, Effie? We don’t get the support we need and you’ll never have a family. And you, Munro, will lose the one you do have. Know why? Because everyone will be dead. That’s no exaggeration, either. I know what Urban plans. I’ve seen it in the flashes the monster Vanir forced on me the first time.”
Tallis turned her disappointed look to Rosslyn. “Is this squabble, your pride—or whatever it is that’s hurt—worth this risk, Rozy? Can’t you say sorry or hug or whatever it is you need to do? Show you’re the better person and do the right thing. Apologize for your part in this, and Effie, you do the same. Simple as that. Then we can go, and hopefully you’ll all be alive long enough to really work things out and welcome any and all children into the world. But first things first. We need you to tell Finlay and Ishbel who we really are.”
Munro glanced at Rosslyn and Effie, his face blank except for the ghost of a smile at the corner of his lips. When both women remained too stunned to speak, he asked, “And who are you really, Tallis? Are you going to be the hero of Selkirk, rather than its monster? A promise of hope, rather than a warning of darker things to come?”
Tallis deflated a little. All that bluster she had when reproving Rosslyn and Effie was suddenly gone, and Rosslyn saw how exhausted her friend was. Tallis’s glassy-eyed stare betrayed her uncertainty, but she was determined to try her best, regardless.
“I’m someone who’s just trying to do the right thing. Someone trying to douse the fire I started before it consumes everyone. And I need help to do that,” Tallis paused, meeting Munro’s eyes before continuing, “All the help I can get. I’m not a leader…or, at least, I don’t want to be. Not really, anyway. But people follow and believe in me, so I’m doing the best I can. I’ll do as my cousin taught me, Wodan guard his soul. I hope and pray it’ll be enough to save Selkirk.”
Effie’s head hung low, her short curls shielding her blue eyes. Rosslyn knew Tallis’s words affected Effie the same as they had her. When Effie looked ready to apologize, Rosslyn beat her to it, refusing to be outdone by the wench.
“I’m sorry I made you feel unwelcome, Munro, Effie. I wanted us to stay together. I wanted to stay with my big brother, but I couldn’t leave Loren. Not after what happened and…my part in that. I guess it was selfish of me. I’d welcome any child you had the same as I welcome you now into the…family.”
Effie smirked and shook her head slightly before saying, “I apologize that you felt I forced Munro to choose me over you or your family. I only wanted to do what I thought was right by ’im, the man I love. I’m glad to be welcomed into your family, and welcome you into mine in return.”
The two women awkwardly embraced, the formal words of the apology sticking like sour honey in Rosslyn’s throat. But if Munro noted how stiffly they hugged or how quickly they let go of one another, it didn’t matter. He was all smiles, looking every inch like Tyree’s son.
He rushed at the two and embraced them in a spine-crushing hug before releasing them and shaking Tallis’s hand. Tallis looked to Rosslyn for clarification, but Rosslyn couldn’t find her voice to answer. She shrugged and turned her gaze to Munro and Effie as they walked to Finlay, Ishbel, and Soora, hand-in-hand, to inform them Tallis was worth following, even to the death.
But the bitter taste of her forced apology filled Rosslyn’s senses, making her vision cloudy, and an edgy, twitchy feeling gripped her extremities. She’d thought Tallis would have taken her side and forced Effie to admit to being the bitch she was. Instead, Tallis laid the culpability at both their feet, giving Rosslyn a dose of shame she was not prepared to swallow.
In a corner of her mind, she knew Tallis was right, that their petty family squabbles could wait and that Munro would have withered away outside of the clan. But Rosslyn hadn’t completely gotten over her feelings of blame toward Tallis. After all, if it hadn’t been for her and the bounty the nobility placed on Tallis and her friends by proxy, Rosslyn’s family wouldn’t be at risk, and she would be free to visit and see Loren. And now this?
Rosslyn’s throat tightened, refusing to let her swallow the rage building in her. She began thinking that maybe Tallis wasn’t the person she'd convinced Munro she was.
Stop it, Roz, she told herself fiercely. Thoughts like that aren’t you. Besides, forgiving that munter will be worth it for the reinforcements.
“You all right?” Tallis’s voice broke her sullen reprieve.
“Just fantastic,” Rosslyn said, rolling her eyes and trying not to flinch when Tallis gave her a one armed hug. “I’ll be better when we get on with what we set out to do. Feels too much like what happened last time we went after some monster in the forest. Just one misstep after another with our foe finding us, rather than the other way around.”
Tallis nodded in agreement and watched as Finlay, Ishbel, and Effie went farther into the camp to round up the refugees. Then Munro and Soora made their way back over waving at Chandrelle and Lorelei, letting the other women know it was fine to return.
Soora grinned at them, her smile brightening when the other elves joined them. “Finlay and Ishbel be good people. They tell them others to follow. It be good. You’ll be ready to fight Gayaer now. I knows it.”
Rosslyn found the tremps broken speech endearing. Despite feeling a sort of cold fear for the elves deep in her gut over the vivid memories around Loren’s attempted abduction, how childlike Soora acted made Rosslyn smile.
Her light voice and airy mannerisms were so at odds with her ravaged appearance that Rosslyn liked to believe she had fought a bit harder against the demon Vanir when it first clouded their minds, resulting in her scarred visage. Any alternative threatened to ruin the mildly comforting feeling Rosslyn felt in the woman’s presence.
Before Rosslyn could ask Soora more about herself, Munro draped his big arm over Rosslyn’s shoulder. “You plan on leaving as soon as the clan leaders gather all the volunteers?”
Rosslyn gave her brother a lopsided grin. “That’s the idea. Who you reckon will be joining? Any knights defect that’ll be lending us their skill and muscle?”
Munro laughed, making Tallis, Chandrelle, and Lorelei pay closer attention instead of watching the progress of the Sipsi leaders. “I wish. Nah, few knights joined. Seems like that friend of yours, Tallis’s cousin, what was his name again?”
“Donovan,” Tallis whispered.
“Right, right, sorry about your loss. Well, looks like blokes like Donovan aren’t common. We wouldn’t have counted on the pompous knights of the cities. But, very few, even from the baron’s barracks, wanted to risk their station—even if it meant helping their friends. Nah, mostly poor folk, farmers, and craftsmen the guildhalls didn’t want. Oh, aye, a few knights who couldn’t stomach the Bride Block anymore joined us. They were training the whole lot of them to defend themselves, but, well, you know how long that kind of thing takes, and there weren’t many knights to help with training to begin with…but, the people are better off than they were.”
Tallis’s mouth opened, then snapped shut, and Lorelei and Chandrelle exchanged a glance before the grizzly elf asked, “They be supplied, though? Your people. Have weapons, armor, and the like?”
“Most of them,” Munro said. “They have hardened leather and have been making weapons, if they didn’t have them. Soora has been helping with that. She’s remarkable with making spears and bows.”
Soora blushed at Munro’s words before nodding. “Bonnalurie say Vanir need all the help. Our help. People help. So, that’s what I dids. Helps.”
Soora looked so proud that not even Lorelei or Chandrelle wished to tell her that her humble efforts would not be nearly enough. Chandrelle kicked at the melting snow and glanced at Lorelei again, who remained stony-faced.
“Aye, well, it’ll have to do. Can train that lot too if we get the time. Been known to train worse in less time than that,” Chandrelle said, winking at Rosslyn.
“I hope Tomas has been met with more success,” Lorelei said simply. The words she didn’t say filling the air around them until Rosslyn felt as if she were suffocating.
Munro seemed oblivious to the heaviness between them as he smiled once more at Soora and watched as Finlay and Ishbel returned. He pinched Rosslyn’s cheek and gave her a quick hug once more. “Now that you and Effie are going to be family, real family, don’t be such a stranger, Roz. You come and see me when this is all done.”
He turned his attention to Tallis, and, with a seriousness that sounded strange coming from Munro, said, “My mum asked you to keep Roz safe once. I’m expecting you to keep that promise.”
“Like always. I won’t let anything bad happen to her if I can help it,” Tallis said, giving Rosslyn a friendly punch in the arm.
Munro nodded, kissed Rosslyn on the head, and went off to find Effie as the Sipsi leaders rejoined them. Ishbel pushed her pale hair from her face and said, “Forty-seven of the sixty-three who fled here are willing to join you.”
“That’s it? Not all of them? How many knights?” Rosslyn blurted out, her heart fluttering in her chest.
“Most of the knights agreed when we said your goal was to settle things on the throne when the forest be safe once more. But many….” Finlay trailed off and sighed, looking back to the camp where several people were doing their best to become scarce. “Well, many want to wait and see. Don’t really trust you or the Sipsis much, despite eating our food and sleeping in the shelter we provide. Ungrateful lot, but chaos is funny like that.”
“They sound like cowards. We be better off without sods like that, trust me. Can train a man who wants to fight, but can’t train a man who wants to run.” Chandrelle’s words were meant to be encouraging, but that’s not what Rosslyn felt.
Finlay smiled, and Rosslyn guessed he’d been a fighter or hunter before becoming the clan leader. “They’re collecting their gear now. You’re welcome to wait, or they can meet you at your campground.”
“Might as well stay,” Chandrelle said. “Gives me time to be inspecting the lot coming with us. Can look over their armor and the like. Gives them time to meet us, too. Find it helps to know who you’re fighting with before you enter the fray.”
Tallis nodded. “And hopefully more will decide to join us if they can talk to us before hand?”
Lorelei didn’t seem convinced, but the lovely elf didn’t leave, either. However, Rosslyn could stand no more. She loved her brother, but she could not stomach being near Effie, or even Tallis, at the moment.
“I’ll see you back at camp. I want to help the other Sipsi hunters with the night’s meal.”
It was a thin lie, one she was sure Tallis saw through, but Rosslyn didn’t give her the opportunity to press as Rosslyn fled back the way they came. Hot, angry tears streaked down her cheeks, and she felt a wave of betrayal wash over her that she knew, somewhere in the more rational parts of her mind, was undeserved.
Forty-seven people who could barely defend themselves to add to the hundred or so Arcadian Warriors could not—was not enough. It wasn’t enough to ensure Rosslyn would survive to see Loren again, buy the Lonely Tavern, show Adelaide what she was missing, and not enough to make forgiving someone like Effie worth swallowing the last remnants of her pride.
Effie had forced a wedge between her and Munro. Whether anyone else could see it or not wasn’t Rosslyn’s concern. She felt it and knew it was there.
Between Tallis, Adelaide breaking my heart, and Effie taking my family, what do I have left?
She wondered if Tallis had ever felt such harrowing feelings, if this was what she'd felt when her mum and Donovan died, and when Jon tried to sell her to Henrik. Tallis didn’t seem to harbor the blame she once had toward Rosslyn for shooting her cousin. Tallis seemed to forgive Rosslyn and find a way to barrel through those crippling thoughts to fight another day.
But Rosslyn was not Tallis; nor did she want to be.
Nursing her fury and hurt, Rosslyn disappeared into the forest. She hoped that by the time Tallis returned she’d feel better, but if not…well, she could always go back to Arcadia.
Chapter 13
Tomas glanced around the town as it crawled from the ashes of abandoned shacks, shops, and dead bodies. Tomas closed his eyes and willed the husks of the still smoldering homes to be no more than a nightmare. After seeing what had become of Kincardine, Tomas prayed his hometown had suffered the worst of the nobility’s wrath. After all, they could argue Kincardine had been the cause of all their current troubles.
But his prayers went unheeded. Even unremarkable places like Fife felt the squeeze of the monarchy’s long reach. The newly devastated homes before him had been standing when the elves first hunted for Tallis. They had survived that onslaught only to be burnt by the duke’s or baron’s men for most likely harboring someone who had spoken against the king and queen.
That knowledge ignited something within Tomas, something he hadn’t known was there before. A type of fury that had him finally understanding why so many people initially left the protection of the towns and cities to create the Sipsi way of life in the dangerous and foggy forests.
Had Tomas never left the monastery, he too would be looking down on the people in Kincardine, wondering how they could be so short-sighted as to revolt against their sovereign when they had done nothing but protect them. He would still believe their laws and decrees were to safeguard the people, that they were for the greater good. But after meeting a free spirit such as Rosslyn and a formidable woman such as Tallis, after having fought and killed alongside righteous men like Donovan, he knew better. He knew a better system, a better world, was possible. Such a land was worth fighting and dying for so others would never have to witness what he and so many others now faced.
Tomas studied Nichol as he cleared the shadows the Telchar Forest cast. He watched the young prince sniff at the smell of refuse mingling with the musky scent of torched and moldy wood. He watched his face contort as the rancid smell of the decaying bodies hanging from the nearby yew trees caught his attention.
Tomas tried not to take a kind of satisfaction in seeing the young man’s face pale before he darted away to vomit. Kincardine had seen its share of destruction, but Tomas guessed with the information Baron Maric, Henrik, Raghnall, and Jon had given the king and queen’s men, the town had been spared these kinds of public executions.
Colben glanced from the prince to Tomas and Lachlan, his hand rubbing the tip of his knife’s hilt as he puzzled over the scene. Unlike Nichol, Colben had seen dead bodies before. He’d even killed someone. Though when he stabbed Lord Bogdan’s Warrior, it had been because his mind snapped back to his traumatic time with Master Paolo in Theda. Tomas wished he could have spared Colben all of that pain, so the child could have been shocked like the prince was to see a dead and bloated body sway in the wintery gusts.
The creak of the strained ropes as they twisted in the breeze, struggling to support the bodies on the other end seemed abnormally loud in the stillness around the edges of Fife. The sound crept around them, folding in on their senses and pushing everything else away until there was no room for anything but the haunting sound.
Colben’s voice broke the spell. Looking to Tomas and Lachlan again, the boy asked, “Why wouldn’t they bury the dead, Tomas?”
Tomas turned to the knight, willing the man to admit what the family he protected had done. To explain to an innocent child why their rulers felt such displays were necessary. The old knight sighed, sensing Tomas’s gaze as he stroked his graying beard and mustache for a moment in contemplation.
“To remind people of their place. To show them who has the power. That going against such an authority’s got consequences.” To his credit, Lachlan explained his charge’s actions without flinching or hiding the disgust in his voice.
This confused Colben. “How does leaving the dead teach them who has the power? They’re dead.” Colben squinted at the uncomfortable look on Lachlan’s face before the boy jerked back, his hand flying to twist around the white lock of hair in his brown curls for comfort. “Oh. It’s not for the dead. It’s to remind the living.”
Tomas squeezed his shoulder, drawing Colben’s gaze away from the dead bodies, burnt down homes and shops as Nichol returned from retching. “That’s why we agreed to help Prince Nichol. He’s assured us that things like this”—he swept his hand out toward the dead—“such barbaric displays of power, will cease. That he will rule his people fairly and provide justice, not just judgment and slaughter the way his parents have. Or how Prince Dougal would continue doing. He’s agreed to follow Tallis because he…believes he fights for the same things she does. Isn’t that correct, Your Majesty?”
Nichol wiped away the last of the sick from his lips, his eyes darting between Tomas and Colben. He appeared as if he would glance back over his shoulder to look for the right answer, but then shuddered, avoiding looking toward the lifeless townsfolk swinging from the yew.
“That would be the idea, yes. I don’t think the nobility will like it much, but, well, I rather like the idea of creating another branch of power, I guess. Alongside the barons and dukes, of course. My hope is that by creating such a branch we can better elevate those with talent that aren’t born with the right heritage, I suppose. I’m not sure how it’d work yet. For now it’s just an idea, but, well, there’ll be time for that later, won’t there?
