chapter four;

v a l i a n t; chapter four

neroli

I waded into the surprisingly warm water of the river, watching as my dress billowed out around me in a circle.  I started to wash away the dirt and blood stains with my fingers, but no matter how hard I scrubbed, they wouldn’t budge.  Sighing, I made a quick glance behind me toward the makeshift camp making sure there was nobody watching.  Then I slipped the dress over my head, and sank down farther into the water.

Something bumped against my chest.  I looked down in surprise to see my necklace still hanging around my neck.  A lump rose in my throat as I studied the round globe, the raised bird glinting in the sunlight.  I pushed the thoughts that had risen to my mind hastily away.

I let my dress float away a little, grabbing onto the edge of it to keep it from escaping completely.  I had hoped the river would clean it up, but it looked like it was going to stay filthy forever, soiled with my memories of the horrible attack on my home.

I glimpsed at the clothes Celia and lent me, sitting folded on a tree stump nearby.  She had told me to take a bath, get cleaned up, and then had dumped a pile of garments into my hands.  I tried to protest, but she just started walking toward the river, showing me the way.  I hadn’t really paid attention to their appearance, but I wasn’t looking forward to putting them on.  I knew Celia was just trying to help, but I was more comfortable in my own clothes.  Although my dress wasn’t really an option anymore.

Celia and Win weren’t the only ones in the small and strange group I had encountered, but I had figured that out last night from the unknown voice I had heard from the other side of the fire when talking to Celia.  He was the person Win had referred to as Linx.  Well, he wasn’t really a person, more like an elf.  At least that’s what I thought he was, but I had mistaken Celia for one as well, so I could be wrong.  He had long, pointy ears that jutted out from the side of his head, but that had been all I’d noticed about him, besides his long red hair that glowed like the embers in the fire pit.  I hadn’t got a good look at his face.  I had only seen one small glimpse of him before he wandered off into the woods.  Then Celia had ambushed me with a heap of clothes and a promise of a bath.  Which I was trying to enjoy now.

I began to rinse my hair, combing through the tangles with my fingers, washing away the dirt.  The water was moving, a slow current passing around my body.  I looked down the way, watching the water as it curved around, making a bend, and vanished behind a clump of trees.

If you know it’s out there, why is it so hard to believe you’re part of it?

I clenched my teeth, Win’s words startling me as they popped into my head uninvited.  I don’t care, I thought, ripping my gaze away from the disappearing river.  I don’t care. 

But I knew I did.  The conversation we had had the night before still raced through my mind, even though I tried everything I could to not think about it.  It just wouldn’t stop.  The river seemed to pick up its pace then, the water snaking through it like blood in a vein.

You have magic that runs through your veins like blood.

I squeezed my eyes shut.  Stop it.  Just shut up.

I couldn’t be a part of the magical world.  I couldn’t be a part of those horrible, bloodthirsty creatures that killed my mother, destroyed my village.  I couldn’t be similar to that.  That wasn’t me.  I was human; my mother was human.  My father was…well, I didn’t know who my father was, but I didn’t really care.  I knew who I was.  Aria Elmilia, the fair-haired, shy girl who lives with her mother in a small, quiet village where nothing exciting ever happens.  She has a man pinning after her, who she doesn’t like, not in the least bit, but he’s persistent, trying to talk to her whenever he finds the chance.  She loves the outdoors, the forest, the sky.  And she’s not happy.  Not at all.

My stomach prickled.  My eyes instantly opened, taking in the forest in front of me.  I knew that girl was gone now, long having disappeared somewhere within the past few days.  She was never coming back.  And neither was the village, Milo, or my mother.

How could I believe what these people were telling me?  How could the things I had known to be true all my life, suddenly not be?  One horrible, terrifying, horrific event and everything I ever knew was gone, just like that.  Everything I understood had vanished right before my eyes, and now I had nothing left.  It had been ripped out from underneath me, and I had crashed, flat on my face with nothing there to help soften the blow.

Who was I?  What was I?  I didn’t know anymore.

The sudden crack of a twig and a rustling of branches made my head snap up and my ears perk at the sound.  My dress escaped my grasp and was taken down the river by the current.  My heart started to hammer.  I looked back and forth frantically across the trees, trying to figure out where it had come from.  I didn’t need to search long though; a figure made itself known by stepping out from behind a large tree.

“Hello,” the woman said.  She was eerily pale, and the sunlight made her seem even more so.  She was dressed in a tight black leather outfit that contrasted sharply with her complexion, and it was ribbed along the middle, reminding me of armor.  She had long black hair that cascaded down her back, and pinkish eyes that were now resting on me.  I realized I was naked, and wrapped my arms around myself so I would be somewhat concealed.

“Um, hello,” I said back, quite awkwardly.  She didn’t appear to notice my discomfort.

“Who are you?” she asked.  Her question was innocent enough, but it seemed to me like a mockery of my previous thoughts.  Who are you?  I had no idea.

“Aria,” I told her instead.  I didn’t know what else to say.  I realized this was kind of a stupid answer, for it didn’t really answer anything at all.  I wondered why she was asking, because I didn’t know anything about her or why she was here.  “Who are you?” I asked, repeating her question.

“I’ve come to speak with Win…do you know him?”

My eyes widened.  Oh, so that’s why she had asked.  I was in her territory in a way; she knew Win, and most likely the other two, and had come to the camp only to find a strange, and naked, girl just on the outside of it.  I blushed.  “Oh, yes, sorry.”

She lifted an eyebrow.  “I have never seen you before.”

“I…just arrived,” I said lamely, averting my gaze.

“Hmm,” was all she said.  I moved backwards across the sandy river floor, trying to cover myself a little better, feeling more than uncomfortable.  “I’d be careful if I were you, Aria,” she said after a moment.  “Being out here alone, by these woods, it’s not safe.”  Her words seemed to have a sneer behind them, and I gulped.

“Right, thanks,” I replied.

Her gaze traveled over my head and rested behind me.  “I’ll leave you to get dressed.  I imagine that you’ll be heading back to the camp?”

I nodded.

“So am I.  I’ve come for a visit.” 

With that she backed up a few steps and launched herself over the water, landing gracefully on the other side, not unlike a cat.  I watched her in fascination.  Obviously she was not human.  I could have seen that before.  She was lovely, yes, but something about her irked me.  I could see something behind her eyes, the way she looked at me.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, though.  I watched her walk away from me without a glance behind.

I finished scrubbing at my body, trying to avoid the tender spots along my legs and arms where I had fallen.  Then I hastily pulled myself out of the river, and dried off with a blanket Celia had also given to me.  I picked up the clothes off of the stump and let myself look at them fully.  I was relieved to see that they were something I would actually consider wearing.  A small smile spread over my face as I pulled on the white tunic and cropped pants.  They were soft against my skin, and very light, like the wind had wrapped around my legs.  I dropped my necklace beneath the shirt; it fell against the small of my chest, cold and hard, and then I followed the black haired woman back to the camp.

 I saw her first, her hair blowing slightly in the breeze, her eyes narrowed.  Win stood in front of her with his back to me, and I could tell something was wrong by the way his muscles were tensed, rippling against his shirt.  As I approached the woman’s eyes flickered to me, her gaze tightening even more.  I stopped short.

Win turned around abruptly, his eyes widening in surprise for a moment, but then his expression changed and he was glaring.  I cowered away, recoiling from their bitter stares.

“What are you—?” he started, but then stopped.  He seemed to think better of it.  “Celia is over there,” he told me, his voice strangely indifferent.  He gestured to the left toward a cluster of trees.

I nodded, as if she was who I had been coming for.  I didn’t mean to interrupt them, but he was acting as if I did it on purpose.  I had no interest in their conversation, even though I intensely wondered why the unusual woman was here.  Then again, I hardly knew these people, and had just gotten here myself, so I was in no position to question.  As far as I knew, she could be a regular, a friend, and I was the peculiar stranger.  I was the one who shouldn’t be here.

I obeyed Win and hurried off to where he had pointed.  The air was warm, and Celia’s delicate outfit whispered against my skin as the breeze blew around me.

I was almost to the trees when something shot out and grabbed my arm, pulling me into the shadows.  I opened my mouth to scream, but a hand clapped down over it, muffling my cry of surprise.

The hand suddenly released me, and I whipped around to find myself staring at the redheaded elfin man; Linx.  He had an intricate design that traveled across the side of his face in what looked like to be black ink, like a tattoo, and there was a puckered scar that ran the length of his cheek.  His bright brown eyes regarded me with a careful expression.

“What did you do that for?” I hissed, my heart still beating rapidly in my chest.  “You scared me half to death.”

“Sorry,” he said.  His voice was soft, almost musical.  He raised his eyebrows as if I was the one who had done something strange.  He didn’t say anything else.

I gave him a funny look.  “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Why did you just drag me in here?”

He shrugged.  “What were you doing out there?”

He was acting annoyingly childish.  “I was looking for Celia.”

“Oh…well you better stay away from those two,” he replied, glancing out to where Win and the woman stood.

“I was.  Where’s Celia?”  I wanted to ask him what the woman was doing here and who she was, but I knew it wasn’t any of my business.

“Here I am,” said a tinkling voice from behind Linx.  Celia stepped around him and smiled.

“Here she is,” Linx said to me, nodding towards Celia as if he had been the one to find her.

Celia rolled her eyes.  “Don’t bug her to death, please,” she said, repeating his words from the other night.

“He scared me to death instead,” I told her, glancing back up at Linx’s tall lean form.  His expression didn’t change, and he remained apathetic to my statement.

“What did you do?” she asked him, narrowing her eyes.

“He grabbed me and put a hand over my mouth, and pulled me in here,” I answered for him.

Celia sighed, obviously annoyed.  “You better get used to it,” she told me, and then to Linx, “You’re an idiot.”

He shrugged.  “Better than being a faerie.”

She gasped, putting a hand to her chest.  Her mouth dropped open in offense, but there was a gleam in her eye that made me think they were joking.  “You don’t mean that!”

“Of course I do.”

“Stupid elf,” she said, shaking her head, and confirming that he was, indeed, what I had suspected.  Linx just smirked.

“Sorry about him,” she told me.  “He can be a real prick sometimes.”

I smiled a little, despite myself.

Celia’s head cocked to the side then, her gaze drifting passed the trees to the woman and Win.  “I wonder what they’re talking about,” she murmured, taking a step towards them.

“I don’t like her,” Linx sniffed, crossing his arms and glaring in their direction.

“I know you don’t.  You say that every time,” Celia said.  “But it doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me.”

Celia gave a fleeting look in my direction, and Linx rolled his eyes.  “I want to get closer,” she said suddenly, starting to walk away.

“Celia, don’t,” he called after her, starting to follow.  I had no choice but to tag along.

“Why won’t Win let us listen?” she said, clearly annoyed.  “I don’t understand.”

“Because it’s private.  He tells us everything later anyways,” Linx answered.

“Yeah, and edits out all the parts he doesn’t want us to know.”  She kept walking, picking up her pace.  We were circling around behind them, I noticed.  Celia was going to spy, hidden by the trees.  It made me wonder why this conversation was so secret.

“Celia,” Linx warned again as we got closer, his voice dropping into a whisper.  She just waved him away, transfixed on the figures that were now about twenty feet in front of us.  They kept talking, unaware of the three people hidden in the shadows of the forest, watching.

“I can’t,” Win was saying to the woman, obvious distress on his face.

“Think about Blite,” she said, leaning towards him.  “It would be what he would want.  Trust me, I know.”

Win narrowed his eyes at her, his stare holding something I couldn’t place.  He looked away.  “He had a stomach for blood,” he told her, looking out into the woods.  For a second his eyes traveled right over me, and I thought he could see, but his gaze wandered on and I let out a breath.

“As do you,” the woman said.

“Not in the same way he did.”

The woman sighed in frustration.  “So you will not?”

Win shook his head.  “I already told you, I can’t.”

“You can,” she said, fists clenching at her sides.  “You just choose not to.”

“You’re right, I choose not to,” he said, his voice rising with anger.  “I will not put innocent lives at stake, just to kill a few incubi.  Or my people’s.”

She barked a laugh.  “You act as if you are king,” she said, a frown appearing on her face.  “Your people,” she continued, sneering the word, “consist of just three beings, including yourself.”

“Four,” Win replied.  “You.”

The woman looked genuinely surprised for a moment, her eyebrows rising and her hands dropping, though she quickly pulled herself together.  “Oh, yes, of course,” she said, brushing a stray strand of hair from her eyes.  “Four, then.”

“Neroli,” Win said, his face looking tired, “it’s too dangerous of a mission.  I can’t do it.”  I noticed that he called her by her name, and I rolled it around in my head, finally knowing what the mystery woman called herself.

“Fine,” she said abruptly, irritation returning to her features.  “Don’t do it.  Your cowardice will come back to haunt you someday.  I guarantee it.”

Win’s eyes lit up at that, and his expression turned to anger.  “I don’t think that fear is a factor here,” he said, his voice low, dangerous.  It made me shudder.

“Evidently, it is,” Neroli countered, her tone challenging him.  “You will never have the skill, the power, Blite possessed and you know that, Win,” she said darkly.

His eyes widened at the bite of her obvious insult, and the muscles in his arms flexed, fury clouding his face.  “Blite is no long here,” he spit out, and I could tell he was grinding his teeth as if trying not to shout.  “It’s me now, like it or not.”  Ready or not, his words made me think.  Here I come.

“I’m sorry to say, I dislike it,” she said, clearly not bothered by his rage.  “But I accept it.”

“You have to.”

She shrugged, the conversation clearly over in her mind.  “Oh, and, what you said reminded me of something.”  Win raised one eyebrow, the anger still not gone from his expression, but he relaxed his stance slightly.  “You said there were four of us, correct?” she asked, clasping her hands in front of her.  Win nodded once.  “I believe, if I am not mistaken, that there has been another addition.”

I felt Celia’s hand flutter to my arm.

Win looked confused; his brow knotted together.  Then his eyes widened with an understanding.  “Oh,” he said, his shoulders sagging.  “She’s not…”

“Hmm?” Neroli said, a small grin capturing her mouth.  “Who is she then?  The girl?”

A small gasp escaped my lips when I realized they were talking about me.

Neroli whipped around then, so suddenly I almost fell back with shock.  I would have too, if it not had been for the hard body of Linx, blocking me from hitting the ground.  Celia made a sharp sound in the back of her throat as Neroli’s quick eyes settled right on us, even through the trees hid us from view.  Linx grabbed my arms, squeezing hard, his nails digging into my flesh.

“You,” Neroli hissed, and I couldn’t tell who she was talking to.  Before I could do anything, Celia flitted forward, stepping out into the sunlight.  Linx reached for her, but it was too late; she had exposed herself.

“Celia?” Win asked, completely taken by surprise.  “What…?”  He left his question unasked.

“I’m sorry,” she said.  “I didn’t mean…I just heard—”

“Heard?” Win asked suddenly.  “What did you hear?”

“Nothing, I—”

“I thought I asked you to wait over there.”  His posture was stiff, but he didn’t seem angry.  Just…disappointed.

Celia hung her head.  “I know, I’m sorry.  I didn’t hear much, just that you asked about Aria.”  She looked at Neroli, but she just glared back.

Win seemed satisfied.  “Where are Linx and the girl?”  Something knocked around in my stomach when he didn’t call me by my name.

“Over there,” Celia answered, pointing to where we first had been.  “Talking.”

“Right, good.”  Win straightened up, letting out a little breath.  “Neroli, I think it’s time you got back,” he told the black haired woman, glancing up at the dimming sky.

She nodded.  “Yes, perhaps.  I’ll be visiting again soon,” she told him, not looking at Celia.  “I’ll bring news if there happens to be any.”

“Of course.”

Neroli glanced back into the trees with narrowed eyes once more.  Something told me she could see, and she knew I stood there still, not daring to breathe.  She didn’t say anything though and turned on her heel, her raven black hair flowing behind, and walked back toward the river where I had first seen her.

Linx’s fingers tightened on my arms again.  “Let’s go,” he whispered, close to my ear.  “We have to approach them from over there.”

I nodded, letting him lead me through the trees to loop around again and come out from where we entered, like a big, never ending circle.