Chapter 32| Such a feat.

The cells were a miserable sight to behold. Her shoulder throbbed and her stomach was beginning to grumble, making her keenly aware that she wouldn't be getting the chance to sit at the banquet table. Her mouth watered, just thinking of the rich food she wouldn't even get the chance to taste.

Laochra had accompanied her, his grip gentle on her elbow until they were out of view of the Pretender. His silence was heavy, akin to that of a disappointed father. When the cells were in sight, he finally spoke. "You have a great skill for getting yourself in trouble, Aire."

"I do not try to." She spotted the same guard from yesterday at the door.

He glowered at her.

She grinned.

Laochra sighed. "Aire..."

Perhaps he was right. And if Laochra had any ideas what she was planning to do while the banquet was in full swing, he would sit outside her cell's doors until dawn. Or kill her. Depending on how severe he thought her actions were. 'Dramatic as always,' Aevran would have drawled, his hair like sun-silk in the dark dungeons. He would have been gliding behind them, a half-amused smile on his face but his eyes watchful and sharp.

As always, the thoughts of Aevran were too painful. Deeper than any wound could cut without killing her. So, Aire thought instead of the time she had landed on a tree branch and saw death in a constellation of stars above her. That had nearly been worse.

"Ferdia asked me to leave this with you," Laochra eased the cell door open. Even though she had rotted another Aether soldier, he was not defensive around her. He pressed a small clay pot into her hands, the soil dark and fresh.

"A little something to keep me company?" She cradled it in her hands.

The side of his mouth quirked. "A chance to practice."

The cell door was closed and Laochra left her there in the darkness. Aire slumped against the wall, down onto the fresh bedding. Did her guard leave that there for her? She would have to thank him.

"Sweet one," the Bloodbound's voice was soft. Curious. "What happened this time?"

She probed her shoulder and bit down a hiss. Wynn had done more damage than she assumed, but Brice's Wield still lingered like a sliver of fire along her shoulder, soothing what pain throbbed. She could feel it now, each pulse of magic weaker. She dreaded when it would fade in the dark.

"I lost control. Again."

"And you hurt yourself?"

"No." Aire shook her head. "I was sparring, and the man was going to pull my shoulder out."

Chains slid against the stone. "Why?"

"I am convinced the Pretender commanded him to do so." She looked towards his cell. He had moved in the soft clink of chains, across his cell to stand at the bars. He stared down at her stoically, cloaked in shadow. There was no expression on his face, but she felt an undercurrent brewing.

"What soldier did this to you?"

"So, you can congratulate him?" She queried. "Or perhaps scold him for not committing to breaking my shoulder?"

"I could give him some advice."

"Oh, you could?" She arched a brow, turning to look up at him. "You've broken many shoulders, have you Bloodbound."

The sharpness in his expression softened. "You would imagine so, Wielder. Tell me, what Aether soldier did this to you."

"Don't be so nosy, Bloodbound."

His brows rose, a moment of shock apparent. "I am not nosy!"

It was such a normal reaction that Aire forgot for a moment, who he was. Forget where she was. Amused bubbled in her throat at the indignant expression on his face. "You are nosy. Nearly as nosy as I am. It doesn't matter. I am going to spend the night amusing myself with ways that I can get revenge on him and the Pretender."

"They will only be ideas." The indignance was gone.

She peeked up at him. "You sound sure."

"You have gone docile, Aire. You fight like a rat when cornered, when asked. At other times, you let trouble wash over you like a wave."

She bristled, then regretted it. He read her expressions like she was an open book, a gleam in his eye. He waited for her reply and when none was incoming, he asked, "Did the healing Wielder not tend to you?"

"Her name is Brice," Aire clucked her tongue. "And she has been ordered not to aid me until morning."

The Bloodbound tutted. Aire decided to ignore him until she heard the soft click of metal. The very gentle tread of his boots. Her cell door eased open and the Bloodbound loomed over her, a shadow encased in the doorway.

The sudden appearance of him in her sent her pressing back into the wall behind her. Her heartbeat slammed inside her ribcage. Her fingers curled in the fresh bed of straw. "Are you going to kill me Bloodbound?"

"Would you fight back if I tried?"

"As you said-," Aire welcomed the way fear flooded her system, the way it lightened the Wield inside of her. She felt it humming at the edges of her finger and though the rot consumed, though it destroyed, it was a living thing itself. "- I fight like a rat when cornered."

"If I wanted to kill you, princess, I would have done so a long time ago."

"If you are going to insist on using a title, I am by all rights, the High-Queen of Cearna."

The Bloodbound knelt before her, reaching for her shoulder. His movement was slow, those gleaming silver eyes watching her carefully. Aire did not move as his fingers slid along her shoulder, soft and searching. "There is no High-Queen of Cearna. That woman who pretends to be Ríona Aryshalin cannot be because she has no relation to the throne, and you are not because you have not pledged your life and love to the throne. No soul can rule over Cearna without first pledging their loyalty and devotion to the people and land of Cearna."

He was too gentle for a creature as violent as he. He probed her aching shoulder, pausing as a hiss whistled between her teeth. His hand slid over her shoulder, easing along the edge of her shoulder blade. Aire knew she should have been shrugging him off, the gentleness of his touch was comforting.

"There are no Druids to hold ceremony any longer. There is no one to preside over such a thing."

"Your Druids were story keepers, lore-tellers, judges below the High-King. You will find one in everything but title. Besides," he eased out her arm, moving it back and forth. ", you do not need a pompous ceremony to declare to the world your loyalty to the Cearnain people. But, once you do, there is not returning to your life in the shadows."

"You are spitting poisonous ideas," Aire accused. Her blood hummed again, pulsing with each beat of her heart. Fear was so easy to fall into – it was almost comforting to stay there.

"I am not. Cearna is leaderless, but she will suffer further under the rule of an uncertain High-Queen."

His words mulled inside of her. Her parents, her grandmother had always been certain. Even Ríona, who was lined up for the throne, had always presented a strong front. She had never questioned her future. The throne was hers – her life would belong to the people of Cearna, and she would gladly die for it. And she had. Some days, it felt like she knew others better than she had known herself. For her parents, she had been quiet and restrained to avoid bringing attention to their only Wieldless child. For her young siblings, she had been protective and fierce. For Ríona, she had thrown herself into training with the Aether, determined to be a weapon that Ríona could Wield.

Would Ríona have wanted her to embrace the throne fully?

Was she still uncertain if she only considered it from what her sister would have wanted?

With a ball in her throat, Aire glanced at his cell. "How did you get out?"

He set her arm down and settled back. He was still too close, looking down at her as her heart thundered inside of her. She forced herself to look at him, hoping that he couldn't read the turmoil on her face.

"I am a soldier trained to serve the emperor in anything he requires. A simple lock, no matter what the metal is imbued with, cannot hold me for long."

"So, you could escape whenever you wanted to?"

"No." He rose and she follow him up. He rubbed his wrists absently. "You were right. Eoban is used to restrain us. It is used to control us. We cannot endure without...a specific version of it for long. I am contained to the mountain because the Eoban in those cuffs restrain me, but it also protects me."

'What I could charge for information like that!' Aire stared up at him, from the tattoo on each cheek. To the silver gleam of his eyes. Then, she glanced down at the silver scars on her hands from raw Eoban juice. "Your enemies would kill for knowledge like that."

"And yet, it would make no difference to the majority."

"Would it kill you to stop taking Eoban? You were once a Wielder – could you be one once more?"

The air grew heavy and though the Bloodbound's expression hadn't changed, she sensed the shift in his mood. She had never had the experience of growing with a Wield, but she had seen how it had become part of her brothers and sisters. It was another limb, a part of their soul granted by the land, by the gods who had long since left.

He spoke softly, "I dare not hope for such a thing."

Her curiosity pressed at her. "What was your Wield?"

His breath was short. He took a swift step away from her, turning back to the door. As he spoke, his voice was smooth. Unbothered. "I try not to dwell on the past, sweet one. And I would rather not spend the night avoiding your questions. The dear, fake Queen had spent most of the day attempting more impatient ways of getting me to talk."

"I will not pester you all night." Aire said. "I am taking advantage of a quiet night and sourcing some answers for myself."

He looked at her over his shoulder. "How devious of you. What a better way to spend our night together."

"We are not spending it together."

"I have decided we are."

Rankled, she stepped around him and glowered up at him. Her voice dropped to a hiss. "I am going to get some answers. You will stay here like a good little Bloodbound, and you can throw quips and insults at me when I return."

"How do you plan to keep me here?"

"By asking nicely." She bit out.

"Are you sure you can accomplish such a feat?" He asked.

She poked his chest. "You are grinding on my good nature. You forget, I have been thrown in here twice for rotting flesh. I could do the same to you."

"You will not. At least not on purpose."

She dropped her hand, annoyed. "I cannot stop you, but do not try and get in my way."

"I will be silent and follow your lead."

"Are you sure you could accomplish such a feat?" She asked sweetly.

"I am sure of it." He reached out, hands warm upon her arms. Slowly, he slid his hands up to her shoulder and gently pushed, shifting her to the side. He stepped around her and returned to his cell. Aire's arms burned and she stared after him, eyes narrowed.

"If your eyes were blades, sweet one, I could be dead. What is the matter?"

Calm Aire. She bit her tongue, shaking her head at him. There was a time to go before the banquet would begin. She would have to wait. To calm herself. Aire returned to the straw, pulling the empty pot in front of her. She would practice. That would do.

And she practised.

But the soil remained dark and empty. And the Bloodbound watched her failed attempts, never commenting.

>< >< >< >< >< >< ><

True to his word, the Bloodbound followed her out of the cell. After her many failed attempts, Aire had considered how to get past the guard. It didn't bother her that much. She had spent years skirting around guards. It was strange that there were so little guards to cover the cells when such a dangerous creature was contained within them. She didn't believe the Pretender to be dull and Laochra was certainly a clever man.

The Bloodbound waited as she slipped out behind the guard. He was working on something, head bent low as he sketched something over parchment. She was quick, her forearm locking around his throat. She bore down on him, a grip on her wrist. He startled, but her hold was strong. He went lax quickly and carefully, she eased him to the side.

She peered at his work. He had been drawing a woman, short-haired with a strong curved nose. It was obvious from the drawing that she was beloved.

"He will be out for a short while." The Bloodbound peered down at him. "Are you sure we will have enough time to get back here without arousing suspicion?"

"I am not sure, but I didn't want to strike him and accidently kill him."

"Killing him would solve our problem of time."

"And then everyone would discover the dead guard and know we had done something. The Pretender already seems determined to disgrace me."

"Lock him up in the dark." The Bloodbound suggested. "We could be back in our cells, and he would be locked in the dark. He would not see us returning if there is not light."

"Very well," Aire hefted the guard onto her shoulder. His weight bore down on her for a moment and the Bloodbound pressed a hand gently into her lower back, steadying her. She carried the guard back into the cells and lowered him into a cell far away from theirs. She dropped his drawing beside him and threw his cóta over him.

The Bloodbound just waited, watching.

"Let's be quick."

Aire didn't go to the Pretender's home first. Instead, she took the quick route to the door that led to the mountainside. The Bloodbound didn't question her, even as she opened the door and a cold, brutal wind cut at them. The mountainside was cold and quiet – empty.

The snow crunched under her feet. Aire waited for a moment, before movement caught her eye. Gaela.

"How are you?" Aire asked quietly.

Gaela observed her for a long moment, before turning her attention to the Bloodbound. He was just waiting, but Aire knew he could not see Gaela.

"She is a victim of the Pretender. A soul trapped here in the mountain." Aire explained. "I am not just talking to the wind."

"I would not question you if you were." He shut the door behind him. Wind whipped at his dark hair and snow settled upon it in glistening flakes. He was so still, so unbothered by the wind that he could have been apart of the mountain – stone carved into the resemblance of man. And yet, Aire was not fooled by his stillness. She knew better than to think that his passiveness was anything other than an opportunity to observe.

"I am trying to find out information about the Pretender." Aire told her.

Darkness shot across Gaela's face, her mouth pulling against the thread that bound it. Aire took a breath and reached out to her. She knew spirits, she had spent years with them. Whatever about flowers and rot, the souls who could not pass were easier to confront. Aire's hand wavered where Gaela's shoulder was, an invisible thing. She thought of the Pretender and her poisoned words, of her rot that ate at muscle and flesh. With the stir of anger, her Wield came alive. Colour bled into Gaela's features, and she became a spectral figure, almost there against the harsh white of the snow strewn mountainside.

The Bloodbound took a soft breath. "Brilliant."

Gaela's feet left imprints in the snow. Her hair, thin and soft like spider's silk, seemed to halo around her head. She bent low, writing in the snow. "I will aid you."

"Thank you," Aire inclined her chin, already feeling the strain of the Wield on her. "But – I need to know what she did to you. I need to understand what is happening here."

Gaela looked at her. Those eyes seemed too big for her face, sinking into the sockets. She would have been beautiful once, before death, before the stitches that marred her face. Gaela continued to write. "We were friends. Planned to hide here and Eimile would pretend to be a princess."

Aire sank to her haunches in front of the writing. Eimile. The Pretender's true name. "You planned this lie aswell."

"We wanted to be safe." Gaela faded as Aire's Wield slipped. Gritting her teeth, Aire pulled it back. "I sung a lie around them, and they believed it all."

"You sung it?"

Gaela touched her mouth and then, she quickly wrote, "I sang influences around others. Enough to convince them of something I wished. I used it only when necessary."

Aire thought of the Pretender's – of Eimile's muttered commands. "Valherin would have given you sanctuary without the lying."

Gaela wiped the snow and wrote again. "I had been betrayed too many times for being a Wielder."

"The Pretender can do that too." Aire's words garbled, the pull of the Wield becoming stronger. The mountain groaned as the effort heaved through her. She pressed on, "She convinces people to believe things."

Gaela rocked for a moment, her form darkening. Her rage came in a splice of rippling air, a moan eking out from her tethered lips. "She stole it from me."

Gaela's movements became more erratic, the long letters blurring together until they were illegible. She struggled to control herself and Aire felt her hold on the Wield slipping. Energy ebbed from her, the effort making her limbs heavy and awkward. She staggered back in the snow, taking a moment to steady herself.

Gaela's form diluted and the Bloodbound took a step forward, his grip warm on Aire's elbow as he steadied her. From over her head, he searched the snow-strewn mountainside for Gaela. "Is the spirit gone?"

"No." Exhaustion riddled her bones. "She is just not tangible any longer."

Her weight sunk, but his grip was strong and steady. He pressed into her side wordlessly. A quiet moment passed as Aire gathered herself, shaking away the dregs that weighed on her. Her tired mind raced. She wished that she had known how to make a spirit tangible in Irial. How tightly she would have hugged Daria, who had tied, betrayed by her parents. How she could have held Royden's hand as he stood at the edge of the water, staring at his broken mortal body. The little spirit children whose hair she could have stroked.

Only as her mind cleared, did she notice the heat pressing into her, the strong grip of his broad hand.

She pulled away, bracing herself. "Let's not waste any more time. The guard won't sleep forever, and we need to find some proof on Eimile."

The Bloodbound just hummed. "As you wish."

Welcome back to Aire's world! 

Things are beginning to stir. People are getting ... friendlier. Tell me your thoughts, theories and conspiracies. 

1. What awaits the trio now? 

2. Do you feel sorry for Gaela, knowing that she was in on the lie?

FYI: updates may be a little erratic for the month. I am off to Japan for the summer and I am very excited. I have chapters lined up to post so fingers-crossed! 

Until next time - Saoimarie.