Aerenden: The Child Returns (Ærenden) Read online

  “As ready as I can be.”

  He squeezed some of the gel into the palm of his hand, and then spread a thin layer of it onto her skin, covering her leg from her foot to halfway up her calf. He rubbed, his pressure light at first, but then he increased it, kneading her muscles with steady fingers. The pain ran up her leg as a stream of fire. To keep from screaming, she curled her fingers into her palms.

  “It should start working soon,” he said and a moment later, she understood what he meant. Her skin tingled and then cooled, almost as if he had applied ice to it. She uncurled her fingers from her palms. He continued to massage her leg, but she felt numbed to it now. She relaxed against the wall.

  “How did you know I was in pain?” she asked. “I thought you said you couldn’t sense emotions.”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Everything here seems to be,” she responded and smiled when he glanced up at her. “Try me.”

  He nodded. “I think it’s best to start from the beginning. As I mentioned before, I’ve trained my whole life to be a Guardian, but there’s a big difference between learning about it and doing it.” He picked up the leaf. After squeezing more gel into his hands, he continued massaging. “Before Guardians receive their first charges, they’re given a co-duty, taking over with experienced Guardians for a year. You’d know it as apprenticing. It allows Guardians to benefit from the knowledge of their mentors and it also gives less experienced Guardians the chance to practice things they may have forgotten from their studies.” He stilled his hands and looked up at her. “Does that feel better?”

  “You can’t tell?”

  “My ability to read emotions is limited. It’s not as fine-tuned as yours. I can sense your pain when it’s strong, but I can’t tell how bad it is. Is it better?”

  “Yes.”

  He reached for the cloth bandage and wrapped her ankle again. “Please don’t think I lied to you,” he said. “I forgot I could read emotions. It’s one of a dozen smaller Guardian powers. It stems from my sensing abilities. I learned about it ten years ago in school. This morning is the first time I’ve felt it.” He tucked the end of the bandage under itself and pulled down her pant leg. “That will help for now, but the ice bush isn’t as effective as jicab. You won’t be able to walk on it. We’ll go back to moving in tandem, but I want to stay here until the rain subsides some. Visibility is bad.”

  Meaghan hated the idea of waiting, but nodded, deferring to his judgment. He picked up the blanket again, drying his hands and she continued their conversation. “I’m confused. How could you forget you can read emotions? Even if you can’t read the degree of an emotion like I can, you’ve been around enough people to use the power on a regular basis.”

  “A Guardian can’t read everyone’s emotions,” he told her, “only the emotions of the person he or she protects. And even then, only certain emotions.”

  “So you can only read my emotions?” she asked. He nodded. “But you said you’d never used the power before. Weren’t you able to read the emotions of the other person you protected?”

  “What other person?”

  “Your internship charge.” He refused to meet her gaze and she frowned. “Nick, what aren’t you telling me?”

  “I’ve never had a charge before.”

  Dropping the blanket, he rose to his feet, then picked up his sweater and put it back on. Although it was still wet, he did not appear to notice. Leaning against the wall at the entrance of the cave, he stared at the horizon. Several minutes passed before he spoke again.

  “This isn’t how we planned things for you,” he told her, though he still faced the rain. “Once it was time to transfer your guardianship, Aunt Viv and I intended to take more than a year to do it. Because she raised you, she knew you better than most Guardians know their charges and she wanted to pass her knowledge on to me. We thought it made more sense than performing a co-duty so I was never assigned one.” He turned his head. His eyes met hers. “I’m your Guardian now because I was the closest living Guardian to you when Vivian died.”

  “It transitioned to you automatically,” Meaghan realized.

  Nick nodded. “I’m sorry. I still had a lot to learn, but I never had the chance. ”

  Meaghan did not say anything as she studied his face. His brows drew together, forming lines in his forehead. His mouth turned down at the corners, grim and set. His eyes appeared strained and shadowed. She did not need access to her power to understand what emotion plagued him. She had seen grief on his face too many times over the past two days not to recognize it.

  She stood. Although the pain had subsided in her ankle, it still throbbed when she applied weight to it. Gritting her teeth, she pushed forward so she could stand beside him. She wrapped her arms around him. He accepted the embrace, but only for a minute before letting her go. He turned his attention back to the trees.

  “You deserve better, someone with more experience,” he said. “Once we get to my village, I’ll make sure you’re reassigned. For now, I’ll do the best I can.”

  “Is that so?” she asked, frowning. “What other emotions can you read from me?”

  “Not many. Only the ones which indicate if you need help, like distress or intense fear.”

  “So you can’t tell what I’m feeling now?”

  He shook his head. “Why?”

  “Because it would be easier for me if you could sense the depth of my anger. It would feel a bit more like justice.”

  He retrained his eyes on her. “You have a right to be mad,” he told her. “The situation isn’t ideal for you. After everything you’ve been through, you deserve someone who can—”

  “I don’t care about the situation,” she interrupted. “I care about the fact you’re planning on pawning me off on someone else.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “And you abandoning me is fair?”

  “I’m not abandoning you,” he protested. “I’m trying to help you. You need someone who can protect you better than I can. I have no experience.”

  “You’ve saved me four times now,” she pointed out. “Once at home and three times here. I consider that protecting me.”

  He sighed. “It’s not. In each of those cases, I screwed up. An experienced Guardian would never have let you get so close to danger.”

  “You don’t know that,” she countered. “But you do know me, which makes all the difference. I trust you, Nick. It’s the only reason I’m here. No one else could’ve convinced me to follow him into not one, but two strange forests, let alone another world. No one else would’ve had the chance to guard me. I would’ve ignored him and gone home. To my death, I’m certain.”

  Nick smiled, though the gesture held only sadness, and he brought a hand to her cheek. “I know you trust me,” he said, “but there’s a lot you still don’t understand. If Aunt Viv had known her future, she wouldn’t have brought me over. She would’ve had another Guardian assigned to you. You would’ve known him and trusted him. Maybe not in the same way you trust me, but enough to let him help you.”

  “Mom wouldn’t have done that.”

  “Meg, I realize you mean well, but Aunt Viv’s priority was your safety. There’s no question she would have—”

  “She knew.”

  Meaghan only whispered the words, but the impact of them widened Nick’s eyes. “What?” he asked.

  “She knew,” Meaghan repeated. A tear rolled down her cheek and around Nick’s thumb. He brushed it away, and she covered his hand with one of hers, pressing her face into his palm. “I realized it when you told me she was a Seer. She told Dad to pack the backpack, didn’t she?”

  “Most likely, but that doesn’t mean anything. She could’ve had that ready for years, just in case.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t think so. The morning she died, when she and I talked, she told me to remember she loved me. I felt sorrow in her then. I thought the emotion was mine, because it was right after you’d told me you were leaving, but i
t wasn’t.” She withdrew his hand from her face. “Mom knew she was going to die, Nick. She knew and she let it happen.”

  “You’re certain?”

  Meaghan nodded. “If you trusted her as a Seer, then you have to trust she kept you as my Guardian for a reason.”

  Nick turned his attention to the rain again. When Meaghan realized he was considering her words, she continued. “You’re right. Mom wouldn’t have put me in danger, so I know I’m safe with you. I can’t say what her reasons were, but I think we’ll find out in time. At least, we will if you don’t give up on me.”

  “All right,” he agreed and returned his eyes to hers. “But if you change your mind when we get to my village, I’ll understand.”

  “I won’t.” She reached up to give him another hug, and then stepped back. Her foot sank into a puddle, soaking her sneaker and her jeans. She jumped away from it, regretting the movement as soon as her ankle buckled with pain, refusing to support her weight. Nick looped an arm around her waist to keep her from falling backward.

  “We’re flooding,” he said, turning her so she could see the stream flowing into the cave. It pooled in the center of the floor then flowed back out, exiting the opposite side of the cave from where it entered. “There must be a groove in the floor causing it to do that. I imagine it will spread soon, which means we need to start traveling before the rain eases.”

  He grabbed the blanket from the floor, stuffing it inside the backpack before handing the bag to Meaghan. She clutched it at her side, but remained rooted to her spot as she watched the stream. The water gurgled when it hit small pebbles in its path, creating a soft melody and triggering a memory in her mind. She frowned and dropped the backpack.

  Nick rescued the bag from the floor before the water claimed it. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yes.” She grabbed onto his arm. “Nick, it’s not natural.”

  “What isn’t?” He raised a hand to her shoulder. “Meg, are you sure you’re okay?”

  “The stream.” She pointed toward it. “It’s not natural. It’s magical. It’s flowing uphill.”

  He stared from her face to the stream and back again. “The Guide,” he realized. A smile spread across his face. “He’s controlling it.”

  “I believe so. And I remember now what he sang in the forest. He told me we had to follow the water.” She watched the river bend, beckoning to them. “Nick,” she said. “The water is leading us up the mountain.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  THEY FOLLOWED the stream for several miles. It deviated from the mountain path at times, detouring up steep slopes and across jagged terrain, wandering under bushes and behind boulders. Nick supported Meaghan when he could, and tested off-trail paths ahead of her when he could not. In silence, he pushed them forward.

  As rain pelted harder on their heads, the river swelled, stirring red silt with mud. The resulting orange flowed down the gray mountainside, reminding Nick of rust on steel. He enjoyed the beauty of the scene for a moment, but his joy soon disappeared when the river took a path he knew Meaghan could not manage. He refused to follow and familiar clouds gathered in her eyes.

  “We need to,” she insisted. She sat down on a boulder beside the path and crossed her arms over her chest. “Going up that hill is the only way we can get to the Guide.”

  “I wouldn’t call it a hill. It’s practically a cliff face. I can’t even figure out how the river’s getting up there.”

  “There has to be a way. He wouldn’t lead us here if there wasn’t.”

  “We can’t take the risk.” Nick sat next to her and lifted her leg onto his lap. The bandage wrapping her ankle, like everything else they wore, dripped water. It slipped in places, exposing swollen skin. “We need to take it easy. Your ankle is bad again. We’ll follow the path, and the Guide will have to get us there another way.”

  “Nick—”

  “You said you wanted me as your Guardian, so now you’re getting what you wanted. The path isn’t safe. We’re not taking it, and that’s final.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, but shut it when he shot her a warning look. He began unwrapping her bandage and she sighed. “I think I’m beginning to regret my choice.”

  He chuckled, continuing his task. After wringing out the bandage, he rewrapped her leg and stood. “Are you ready?” he asked.

  She nodded and he helped her to her feet, tightening his grip on her arm when she tensed. He did not have to ask what had caused her reaction. He already knew.

  “Mardróch,” he muttered. “They’re close.”

  Meaghan pressed a hand to her nose. “That smell is unmistakable.”

  “What smell?”

  “Their odor. It’s like rotting meat and composting garbage mixed together.” She stared up the path. “They’re coming from up there.”

  “I can sense them, but they don’t give off an odor.”

  “They do,” she insisted. She frowned at him. “I don’t see how you could miss it. It’s vile. It makes me nauseous.”

  Nick’s brows knit together. “I’ve never heard that before.”

  “I don’t see why not. They…” she grimaced and pressed her fingers to her lips. Nick put an arm around her shoulders.

  “Are you all right? You look pale.”

  She nodded and dropped her hand. “I’m sure I’ll get used to this after a while, but it’s hard for me to ignore today.”

  “Because you’re in pain,” he said. “What emotions do you sense from them?”

  “They don’t have any.” She turned her attention toward the stream. “We can’t stay here. Is there any way we can follow the Guide’s path? Or should we try to head back down the mountain?”

  “There’s no place to hide if we retreat. The slope may be our only option.” Looping an arm around her waist, he supported her as they walked the short distance to the point where the stream began flowing uphill. “I can climb using the rocks as hand and foot holds, but I don’t see how you could. Your ankle will never support you.”

  “I have to try. The Mardróch will be here any minute.”

  Nick glanced down the path. “If we went that way, I could carry you.”

  “You can’t outrun them normally,” she pointed out. “Adding my weight would only slow you down.”

  “The only other option is to fight.”

  “That’s not much of an option.”

  “I’m aware.” Nick moved around her, blocking her from the unseen Mardróch, then looked back at her. Her eyes locked with his, the hardness of her determination matching his, and he realized she would fight with him. But they would both die for their efforts. There could be no other outcome. His attention trailed from her to the Guide’s stream, which still babbled an oblivious song in the face of their danger. It had been a trick. The Guide had been a traitor, promising safety while leading them to their deaths. Nick scanned the length of the river, his stomach turning sour as he traced the impossible path. He saw only several large rocks hindering their escape. His eyes fell on one, and then his heart jumped when he realized what he had missed before. He took off running toward the hill.

  “Nick!” Meaghan cried after him, but he ignored her. Her panic spiked. It grew strong enough for him to sense it, but he ignored that, too. He had no time to explain what he had found. He had no time to point out what the Guide had been trying to show them. Hand over hand, foot over foot, Nick focused on grabbing the next rock, the next hold, pushing his muscles to work harder until he reached the ledge halfway up the hill. Blocked by a large boulder, the Mardróch would never see them there. He only had to bring Meaghan up in time.

  He reached into the river. The flow broke, and then disappeared, revealing a flash of angry green. Tightening his fist around the creeper vine, he whipped it toward Meaghan, and let it do its job. It twisted around her waist, but before it could tighten any further, he yanked on his end, pulling her up to the ledge.

  Retrieving his knife from his pocket, he cut her loose before pulling
her behind the boulder. She shook from fear, and panic turned her face white, but she was safe. He held her as the Mardróch rounded the bend and continued on their way down the path. Without the river to guide their focus up, they could not see their prey only feet above their heads.

  Nick shut his eyes, sensing them until they were no longer close, then he forced his heart to calm. Meaghan stirred in his arms, pressing her face into his neck. Tears wet his skin and he buried his hands in her hair, consoling her until her crying stopped.

  “I’m sorry,” he said when she lifted her head. “It was my only option.”

  “It had to be a creeper vine,” she muttered, wiping the last of her tears from her face. “That was too close. I thought for certain I’d be learning what it’s like to be frozen by them.”

  Nick slipped the backpack from his shoulders and rested it against the rock. “It’s not pleasant, but I don’t think you’ll ever experience it. I have a feeling you’re immune.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Because you can smell them.” He opened the pack, then pulled out two apples and handed her one. “Their power works by transmitting fear through their eyes. It’s so intense it’s paralyzing.”

  “And?”

  “And you can’t sense emotions from them. You said you didn’t think they had any, but they do. They’re malicious creatures and their emotions match their intent. Given your power, I imagine sensing them would be overwhelming for you.”

  “I see,” she said. “So I can’t sense them, but I still don’t understand why I would be immune to their power.”

  “I didn’t say you can’t sense them.” Nick set his apple down and took her hand in his. “I said you can’t sense their emotions. At least, not in the same way you do everyone else’s. With regular emotions, you can understand and interpret them because you experience them. With the Mardróch, you have no way of understanding the depth of their evil, and the emotions stemming from it. Your power receives them, but it has to translate them into something you can recognize.”