Chapter 43: The Owls and the Mice

Chapter 43: The Owls and the Mice

That evening, Laranya tied an oilcloth at waist height between two trees and said, "At this rate, you'll be juggling with the sparks before we leave the forest."

"When's that going to happen?"

"Probably four or five days, if we stay off the path. Maybe a little more."

"Are you going to tell me where we're going?"

She stretched out on the blanket beneath the cloth. "No rush. You need, uh ..."

"What do I need?" he asked, sitting beside her.

"A lazy stretch of time? To relax, to train, to remember. You lost yourself. I guess we both did. But you ... I keep calling you 'Eli,' but you're not the same Eli, are you?"

"I feel like the same Eli."

"No, you don't."

"No," he admitted. "I don't."

"And you're not 'Cloaked-in-Meekness,' either. You're ... " She rolled onto her side to peer at him. "You aimed yourself at the marquis like an arrow at a stag's heart. You blocked out everything else, except, I guess, revenge?"

Eli didn't answer. He didn't know if, while drugged, he'd mentioned his seething regret at leaving the skinny torturer alive. He didn't know if he'd mentioned that he'd burned the name 'Treli Trestan' into his memory ... and vowed that one day he would return.

One day he would extract a price.

"You put yourself in blinders," Laranya continued. "And you need a five-day to let things settle."

"How about you?" he asked. "What do you need?"

Her gaze turned icy. "I already asked and you said no. For a whole year."

"Not that. I meant, uh, um ..."

She snort-laughed at his expression. "I don't know what I need. I guess to make my own choices again, instead of obeying someone else's. To take charge of my life."

"Apparently to take charge of mine, too."

"Yeah, I ..." She eyed him, with a rare hint of hesitation. "I'm sorry. Do you mind? I just think ... maybe you need to step back right now, and I need to step forward?"

"You're a managing woman, Laranya."

"Lara."

"Lara," he said, then added: "I'll let you know if I start to mind."

She nodded, then chewed on her lower lip for a moment. "I gave him the reins to my life, but now I'm taking them back. That's what I need. That and to listen to night birds courting. To fall asleep with branches above me and leaf litter beneath. To remember the owls and the mice, and the scent of earthen caves hidden beyond the dangling roots of fallen trees."

Eli didn't need much rest, on account of his trollblood. And maybe because he'd spent days unconscious--that was a good way to catch up on your beauty sleep.

"C'mon, Fern," she told the donkey, taking the lead.

Eli tugged the hat onto his head. "Her name's Fern now?"

"You're just jealous 'cause she has a name."

Huh. She sounded grumpy, for some reason. Still, she picked a path through the forest with a dryn's unerring skill, seeing farther than he could despite her lack of sparks. Instead, she read the terrain: moss on a fallen branch, a lek of insects.

After a time, she gave him the donkey's lead and dissolved into the woods--and started peppering him with darts again.

Which got old quickly, but she claimed that training should hurt. And by the time the sun was high, he was detecting half of her darts. A few hours later, he was blocking a quarter of them, knocking them away before they reached him.

Operating by reflex, too. Weight flowed effortlessly from his core into the sparks as they flashed, fast as thought, to intercept the tiny fletched darts. Of course, blocking a quarter of the attacks meant that three-quarters snuck past his defenses.

Including one that caught him directly in the eye.

"Blessdamn," he snapped.

"Oh blight, oh no!" Lara yelped, from the trees.

He pulled the dart from his eye. Which didn't hurt much, but turned his stomach a little.

"I'm sorry!" She dashed toward him from the woods. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean--I'm so sorry."

"It's okay." He blinked a few times. "Half-troll, remember?"

Her eyes welled with tears. "It's not okay."

"It's fine, Lara. Doesn't even sting anymore."

She clamped her jaw. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I know that."

"But--but I have."

"Look at me, Lara." He widened his no-longer-injured eye. "It's all better."

"Not that! Not that, you absolute hedgehead." She sniffled. "I've been keeping secrets from you."

"Okay," he said.

"No! That's not okay, either. Y-you were right not to trust me."

"Well, too late now."

"You really can't get the balance right," she said, smiling through her tears.

"It's fine, Lara. Whatever it is, it's fine."

She took a shuddering breath. "There's something I need to tell you."