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Crazy old dame.
The city center of Narh was busy in the evening. Crowds of people filled the streets and I wove my way through as people bumped into my horse. The gelding nickered when a child ran underneath him, giggling and squealing with delight. Merchants sold cooked meats and fresh produce, nourishing the air with savory and sweet aromas. Instruments sang melodic tunes, filling the atmosphere as people danced and spun to the music. Apparently there was a celebration for their God, Cethar, who had not chosen a Worthy during the Trial, and Lord Dainos remaining their ruler.
I hid the Roav pin on my cloak and pulled my hood farther over my head, so that I could leisurely move myway through without being spotted. I didn’t want to interrupt the blissful feel of the lively city. The sun was setting, and a crisp breeze blew leaves across the stone road, heralding the approaching autumn season and promising cooler temperatures from summer’s heat. I slowed my horse, wanting to absorb the joyful contentment of the night for just a little longer before returning to the grimness of reality. Even with so much corruption in the world, there was still the promise of life.
I slowly made my way to the other end of the street. The crowds started to dissipate the farther away I got. The noise of the people chatting and the music grew faint.
It was too quiet.
I wasn’t that far from the celebration, and there were people still around me. But everything slowly went silent. I got off my horse and stood on the street. I didn’t even hear my boots hitting the stone, and I felt nothing with my terbis—except something in the distance. Then I noticed that I could no longer scent the food or the sweat of my horse.
What is happening?
I looked around at the people passing, seemingly unaffected. Their mouths were moving but I heard nothing. Steam and smoke rose into the air from the merchants cooking, but I couldn’t smell it. My braid blew over my shoulder and my horse’s mane swayed in the breeze, but I couldn’t feel the bite of the crisp wind on my face.
My breathing quickened, and my heart began to race. I could hear slow thumping in my ears. I placed my hand over my chest, now burning unbearably, and felt fast beats opposite of the slow thuds pulsing in my head.
Deep, even breaths sounded, not at all like my panicked ones. My skin felt energized, as if electricity was flowing through me. I started to smell something faint and familiar—cedar and bergamot and something else. The breaths I could hear and theheartbeats I could feel were getting louder and faster, nearly matching mine. It was calling to me.
Driven by another force, I wove my way through the street, abandoning my horse and ignoring the crowd. I didn’t know where I was going, but somehow, I knew exactly how to get there. I couldn’t stop, the force inside, luring me to where I was going like a rope pulling me through the water. I couldn’t stop it.
I started running, the beating in my head getting louder and louder, more erratic. Compelled by the burning inside of me, I needed to find what it was drawing me toward. I turned down an alley filled with shadows, too dark for the night not yet reached.
Suddenly, the burning stopped.
My eyes locked onto another’s, ones of bright silver that seemed to glow. It was like I knew exactly where to look in the inky blackness that now opened and consumed me as I stepped closer.
As if the world around me fell away, all I could see washim,and my breathing stopped.
The male was tall, my head not high enough to come over his shoulders. His murky black hair was ruffled against the tanned skin of his forehead and fell just above his thick eyebrows. His broad frame was donned in black leathers that were tight against his muscular body.
“It’s you…” His voice was a strained whisper. But it was as soothing as the shadows around us, speaking to my very soul.
My breath rushed back into me at the sound. That scent of cedar and bergamot exuded from him and invaded my nostrils, causing my eyes to roll in the back of my head. Heat pooled in my lower belly. The urge to be even closer to him was overwhelming and irresistible.
I took a step forward but stopped suddenly when he braced an arm against the stone wall of the building and his nostrils flared.His other hand was clenched into a fist. His eyes were locked on mine and his face looked pained. As if he were holding himself back.
A moment of clarity hit me and my eyes widened.
He’s the Lord from the Trial.
I felt it then. It all made sense, the burning, the drive, the dream, the intoxicating scent…of him. My body trembled, and my breath was shaky and erratic. I knew what this was. I had read about it, dreamt of it, and hoped for it. But a Lord, another Worthy? One that likely saw me as a threat to be eliminated?
This can’t be happening.
Yet, his eyes pleaded with me as he snarled one word. One word that made my chest twist and shattered those childish dreams.
“Run.”
For less than a heartbeat, I hesitated. Then, not knowing what else to do, I did exactly as he demanded—I ran.
My arms pumped and my feet slapped the ground as I ran as hard as I could, pushing myself to go faster and faster. Tears bit at my eyes and I wanted to blame it on the wind, but I knew better. The shadows followed me through the streets, licking at my heels. I shoved through the throngs of people bustling about in the street. Finding my horse, I leapt on top of him. I gripped the reins tightly and dug my heels into the gelding’s flank, and he galloped through the town to the outskirts where my senses returned and the shadows finally receded. I pushed my horse faster still until we approached Nikan who was waiting next to Odarum.
The moonslight shone off the Spirit animal, creating a silhouette of his black form against the darkness around him. I jumped off my moving horse and stomped my way to Odarum, glaring at him with a fierceness that made him startle.
“Did you know?” I demanded in a near scream.
“Know what?”he questioned.
