“After I left you at Mena’s, I headed for the fallow fields like I said I would. I had Finn and Saira with me at one point, but we got separated.”
I remember this from her tale at the lake, but her memory had been broken, probably because the wraith divided her reality.
“I made it to our cottage,” she continues, “but my mother and sisters were already dead. I started toward the fields, but that’s when I ran into Vexx.” Again, she touches her brow, remembering. “When I came to, it was still dark. I ran to the green, and you were there, but I thought you were dead. You were lying so still, next to the Witch Collector, and I was…mindless. There was blood everywhere. And that knife, the one with the white hilt, lay on the green next to your hand, and I wanted some part of you with me, so I took it.”
A sigh escapes me, and I press my hand to my face. Gods’ death. No wonder I couldn’t remember what I did with the knife.
“After that,” she says, “I went east and found a way through the barrier the Eastlanders erected, a wedge of an opening filled with thorns. I ran through Frostwater until I couldn’t run anymore.” She glances at her hands, nervously picking at a nail. “I was devastated. I wanted to make someone pay.”
I reach across the space between us and take her hand. I know that feeling. I know what she went through.
“I stumbled upon Vexx’s men at the tunnel mouth, and they captured me. When Vexx saw the blade I carried, he confiscated it, but I don’t think he knew what he had until much later. There was no urgency until the next day, after we crossed the lake. He stalked out of the woods and ordered one of his men to bring him the knife. After that, we traveled harder and faster. They wanted to catch up to the prince; I remember that now. He was ahead with another band. Vexx wanted to kill me or at least leave me behind, but there’s a red-haired warrior in that group. Rhonin, they call him. He seems important, though not as important as Vexx. He demanded that Vexx let him keep me.”
“And of course, Vexx agreed,”I sign.
“Of course.”
Disgust roils through me. I want to kill both men, and I don’t even know them.
Hel looks up, and that fire of hers flickers in her eyes. “I realized by the way Vexx was acting that the weapon was important. I just didn’t knowhowimportant. Still, I managed to catch all of them unaware in the middle of the night. Even with my hands tied, I stole the knife from Vexx’s thigh and ran like the wind.”
She smiles, and I smile, too.“And Rhonin let you go?”
“It seemed that way. He came after me, and there was a moment when he was mere strides away, watching me through the trees. He could’ve taken me, but he didn’t do anything.” She shrugs. “He just told me to run.”
“And after?”
Afterwas the shadow wraith.
Hel pales and takes a shaky breath. “Still unclear. I remember seeing you. Being with you and Alexus. And I remember when the wraith left.”
The prince had to be watching. He had to know where she was. Why turn back inside the construct when his wraith could possess Hel and force her to return the blade? Why endanger his men any further for a hunt?
I’m glad Hel doesn’t remember; she would struggle with the memories of having that wraith inside her. I pray they stay buried forever.
Speaking of praying, I tell her about Neri. When I finish, she sits in shocked silence.
“Neri ishere,” she says. “Inside the Witch Collector.”
I feel guilty. Alexus’s stories were difficult for me to absorb, but Hel is coming to terms with even more. I’ve lied to her and everyone else who knew me for years, yet she seems to forgive me so easily. Reconciling what she’s always believed about the God of the White Wolf with the truth provided by a man who knows him intimately is what seems to shatter what remains of her belief.
“Neri has been such an important part of my life,” she says. “If what Alexus says is true, then…”
Then Neri wasn’t such a good, protective god like our history lessons wanted us to believe.
“Neri was manipulative and greedy,”I sign.“Toying with the lives of Northlanders over his desire for a goddess. He did not give us the Frost King for guidance and authority. He gave us Colden Moeshka, a product of his revenge.”
Resting her elbows on her bent knees, Hel buries her face in her hands. I don’t press or say anything more. She’s lost so much. Now she’s losing the god to whom she prays.
She looks up and exhales like she’s clearing her mind. “We can’t let the prince get that knife, and we can’t let him reach Colden.”
My face falls.
“What?” she says. “Why that look?”
I glance at the scrying dish.“Before you arrived, I saw the prince on WinterRoad,”I sign.“He was on his way to Winterhold.”
“Well, we can’t just sit here.” She gets to her feet. “Where’s Alexus?”
