Chapter Fourteen

The group found Samuel still awake, sitting beside the horses and singing softly to himself. He looked up when the men arrived and smiled slightly, his face clearly illuminated by the moon overhead. “Hello. I was beginning to wonder if you all were coming back.”

Iain nodded and helped Vanett mount one of the horses. “Samuel... We have to go. There are some very dangerous people after us, as you were already told, but they have found where we are and most undoubtedly where we are going. We won't be stoppin' overnight anymore.”

Samuel goggled at Selvas. “Where are your pants?”

Selvas blushed and shook his head. “I'll explain later. We need to go!”

Samuel promptly shut his mouth. The small group started down the road, avoiding the people who were still sleeping and trying to stay as quiet as possible. Vanett was mostly comatose on his horse, the only noise issuing from him being slight moaning every so often as the horse jolted and such. Everyone else was entirely quiet, except for Dany, who was humming softly and attempting to engage Tam in a hushed conversation. The actor was merely replying with vague smiles and slow nods, not really in the mood to be focusing on the elve as his chest was causing him the utmost amount of pain.

After a while, they began to slope downwards, and by dawn, they were about a quarter of the way down the mountain. Vanett, although much better than he had been during the night, was still feeling quite sick. He was speaking in quiet tones to Iain, who was nodding and laughing every so often.

Selvas had pulled another pair of pants out of his bag and put them on. He was now speaking with Dany and Tam, just trying to make friends. Dany, eager for a person to talk to, told his entire life story to Selvas, a long winded speech that stretched from his birth to now, an interval of some thousand years.

Samuel was leading the other horse, which had been loaded with a few haversacks containing food. The men were carrying the sacks containing their own possessions as to not over burden the beast. Samuel realized that it was going to be an excruciatingly hot day, at least until they reached the edge of the Eve forest.

The forest was visible from where they were, miles and miles of green treetops stretching from a point about eight miles from where the road leveled out. It stretched close to the horizon, and Samuel discovered that he could not see the Eve Highroad cutting through the green arbor of the forest. However, about eight or nine miles before him he could distinctly see where the road forked and split into two. The foliage below him was so thick that it was cutting off the view of the road.

Suddenly, the pretty blonde woman Selvas had seen Tam speaking to the day before ran up. She grabbed Tam's wrist and spoke, her voice musical and light. “Tam! Where have you been? Everybody has been worried sick about you!”

Tam smiled at her softly. “Jo... Can you tell Valk that I'll meet up with the troupe in Yllek? I'm staying with him”-he jerked a thumb towards Selvas-“until we reach the city, and then I'll come by the theatre and stay with you.”

Jo looked taken aback. “You're not staying with us? Why?”

Tam shrugged, obviously embarrassed. “Well... We're taking the Eve Highroad, and it could be dangerous, so I'm going to help him out.”

Jo glared daggers at the man, her pretty mouth set in a thin line. “The Eve Highroad? You're an actor, not a bodyguard, Tam.”

“I know...”

Jo shook her head. “And what happened to your chest?”

Tam smiled sheepishly. “Uh... I was injured in the line of duty?”

“If you die, Tam...” Her voice trailed off threateningly.

Tam grinned. “If I die what? You'll be missing your best actor?”

Jo smiled faintly. “I suppose. And my husband, but that comes after everything else.”

Tam pouted. “That hurts, Jo.”

Jo laughed an stood on tiptoe, kissing Tam on the corner of the mouth chastely. “Well, I'll watch out for you, then.”

Tam swept his wife in for a longer kiss, releasing her only after a minute or so. When he let go, he bowed deeply and grinned up at her. “See you soon, sweetheart.”

His wife giggled slightly and went back to the wagon owned by the acting troupe. Tam's smile remained on his face even as he turned back to the rest of the group, all of whom were watching him suspiciously.

Selvas finally spoke, his voice soft. “You're married, Tam?”

Tam nodded, obviously confused. “Yes... Why?”

“I don't know... It's very dangerous to come with us, and you... you could die. I don't think your wife would like that very much.”

Tam raised an eyebrow and leaned over in front of Selvas. He dropped his voice to a whisper and smiled. “If I can walk through fire and not get burnt, I believe I can survive the Eve Highroad with no problems.”

Selvas opened his mouth to protest but shut it again when Iain spoke softly, his voice barely carrying over the slight breeze. “I think we're in trouble, Selvas.”

Selvas looked over at the man. “Why?”

Iain gestured towards the forest. Distant, minuscule, yet very recognizable, the southern end of the forest was on fire. It was a solitary plume, perhaps caused by three or four trees burning in the same vicinity, but the rest of the forest may have been in serious danger of burning.

Samuel whistled. “What is that?”

Selvas and Tam exchanged knowing and nervous looks yet kept their mouths shut. The two men were pretty sure about who had caused the fire, but neither wanted to talk about Edo to anybody who had not been victim of his violent, sharp tongue.

The group continued onwards, reaching the forest by eight o'clock that night. They stopped at the very edge of the forest, setting up an impromptu camp that could easily be torn down. They dared not start a fire and merely sat there in the dark, watching each others shapes moving in the light cast by the moon. Samuel, Dany, and Tam were asleep a few minutes after camp was established, but Selvas, Vanett, and Iain stayed awake for awhile. Finally, Iain spoke softly, the calm in his voice far more terrifying than if he were yelling. “Why did you run away like that, Selvas?”

Selvas blushed, although this was not visible in the dark. “I... I heard you two talking the night before last and... I'm a dangerous person, aren't I?”

Iain looked at Vanett, whose eyes were glinting in the dark. The Gypsy's condition had improved drastically since they had come down off of the mountains, although he was still slightly nauseous and his head was sending shocks of pain through his body every so often. He spoke now, his voice dangerous. “You're not a dangerous person, Selvas, it's the people who are after you that are dangerous. And we did not want you to leave. Even if we are at risk by staying with you, that's something that we'll have to deal with.”

Selvas began crying. He threw himself on both men, hugging them as tightly as he possibly could. “Thank you... Thank you so much...”

Vanett and Iain glanced at each other and hugged the boy back. Iain's voice was still soft, and a little scarier than it had been before, but now a hint of sympathy had crept into it. “Don't think you're getting off easily, Selvas. We;ve still got to step in and make sure that you don't run off like that again, because... because it really scared us. We... We were terrified that you were going to end up dying and we wouldn't have been there to help you.”

Selvas squeezed his friends tighter and sobbed into Iain's chest. His sobs were hiccuping, pained, and obviously genuine; Iain knew that nobody except for an extremely good actor could fake such racking sobs, and Selvas was most assuredly not an actor. “I'll... I'll never do it again... I swear! Please... Don't be mad... I'm so sorry... It was selfish of me... Forgive me...”

Vanett could not stay angry at the boy for much longer. He spoke softly and detached Selvas from Iain and himself, wiping the teenager's eyes and assuring himself that Selvas was no longer crying. “Selvas... It's all right... We won't do anything.”

Iain spoke sharply. “What do you mean?”

Vanett shook his head. “Iain, we aren't his parents, no matter how much you tell yourself he's your son. We have no authority over him. If we exert whatever authority our age gives us over him, he's just going to run off again. You don't want that to happen, do you?”

Iain was about to reply with some smart remark when Tam yelped loudly and woke most everybody in the makeshift camp up. Vanett spoke loudly, his voice panicked. “Tam? What's wrong?”

Tam's voice came back, upset and confused. “The front of my shirt is wet.”
Vanett stood up and walked over to Tam, kneeling down beside the man's dark shape. “What do you mean?”

Dany cut in now, his voice bleary with sleep. “What's going on?”

Vanett touched Tam's chest, and his fingers came away sticky with an unknown substance. He sniffed it and coughed. “It's blood.”

Tam gasped and lifted his hand. It began to glow softly, flames licking his fingertips lethargically. He his hand closer to his chest and spoke softly, his voice awed. “My chest... Why is it bleeding like this? I thought it had scabbed over...”

Selvas blinked and was struck by a sudden thought. He moved closer to the light of Tam's hand and looked down at his wrist. His wound, which had been neatly bandaged by Dany and Samuel, and despite a crippling pain whenever he overexerted it, he had thought that it was healing nicely. He realized that he had in fact bled through his bandages, which were soaked entirely now. Tam looked up at the silver haired teen, his expression one of utmost worry. “Did it happen to you, too, Selvas?”

Selvas nodded in surprise, too shocked to speak. Tam stood up, wincing in pain as the nerves in his chest lit on fire. “There must have been something on those blades of his, Selvas. Oh...-” he winced in pain-“What are we going to do?”

Selvas shrugged slowly, attempting to ignore the throbbing in his wrist that made it feel as if there was a second heart growing in the flesh there. “I... I don't know, Tam... I'm not sure... It's probably a kind of poison that can't be found in Angulon, only in Kuse. At least... At least the bleeding is relatively slow.”

Tam smiled slightly. “Do you want me to cauterize the wound? It's going to hurt really badly, but it should stop the bleeding until we can get to a proper Healer.”

Selvas shook his head. “I'm sorry... Just the idea of being burnt is gruesome, even if it could help. Maybe... Maybe we can do something else.”

“But you could bleed to death!”

Iain, who had remained stationary and silent until now, stood up and walked over to Vanett. Leaning close to the Gypsy's ear, he whispered, “Ark can heal, Van.”

Vanett looked at the older man sharply and hissed, “Iain, are you insane? Bringing Ark out intentionally could create a huge problem and you know it!”

Iain sounded slightly sullen and defeated. “Van... He could bleed to death if we don't intervene... We have to face the lesser of two evils...”

Vanett still looked uncertain. “Iain... I don't know if that's the smartest thing to be thinking about doing... Ark is extremely dangerous...”

“If I tell him first...” Iain argued, his voice pleading.

Vanett sighed. “Fine... Do whatever you want. But if something bad happens, don't come crying to me.”

Iain ignored these last words and walked forward, taking Selvas by the shoulder and stating his idea clearly. “Selvas... I need you to bring Ark out.”

Selvas' voice was indignant and confused. “What? Why him?”

Iain explained carefully, using words that he knew would help Selvas to realize the urgency of the situation. “You could die if you don't get your wound healed. Back in Sarid, I saw Ark heal Ari. You need to bring him out so that he can heal you and Tam...”

“But... But he scares me...” Selvas whimpered, his voice sick with fear. “What if he takes over? You won't see me again...”

“Selvas... It's difficult for you to understand, but you have to take that risk. We, nay, the whole of the Continent, need you to live.”

Selvas nodded and spoke softly. “You have to call his name. He might come out that way.”

Iain smiled gratefully. “Thank you...” He paused for a few seconds then, feeling like a complete idiot, raised his voice to a near yell. “Ark? Ark? I need you to come out! Selvas is in danger!”

Selvas did not answer for a moment or two, then spoke impatiently, his voice deeper and sarcastic. “I know, I know. I heard the entire thing. I'm not deaf, fool. You need me to heal him, and maybe our noble little actor there.” He leaned down in front of Tam and grinned. “Impressive display of firestarting back in the cave, actor. Not many last as long as you did against Edo. He usually makes mincemeat of his opponents in about five seconds. If I hadn't been so out of practice... But never mind that now. Take off your shirt, actor.”

Tam obliged immediately. Dany and Samuel had bound his wound, which had been decidedly worse than Selvas', with thick pieces of fabric and tight strips of a kind of herb that was supposed to help clot ones blood, but now his bandages were soaked with blood and his wound was open and oozing a clear fluid that looked extremely unhealthy.

Ark knelt down and placed his hands over Tam's wound. “Edo did this, right?”

Tam nodded. “Right.”

Ark whistled. “I don't know... He's got those blades enchanted with something, and I might not be able to heal them... They were really dangerous back when we were at school. Caused a lot of people to be sent to the Healers back then.”

“Sc-school?”

“Oh, yes. We were classmates, along with Nexev. Before he was evil, of course. I can't stand him now, but we used to be close...” He shook his head and smiled. “But I'm veering off the track. Get caught up in those old memories sometimes, wondering what went wrong... But you're dying, and here I am talking away.”

He closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he possibly could. Even though he was putting all of his conscious effort into healing the man, the process was still a slow one. By the glow of Ark's hands, the rest of the group could see Tam's wound knitting together, the skin sewing back together and finally, after a grueling battle, leaving only a light pink scar across Tam's chest.

Tam gasped breathlessly. “Ow... That hurt...”

Ark smiled faintly, although the exertion had left him visibly winded. “Now... I suppose I have to heal little Selvas here... Idiot... Allowing himself to get stabbed like that...”

He unbandaged his wrist and whistled in amazement. “That's a nasty little cut.”
The wound inflicted on Selvas' forearm had actually pierced through one side and gone out the other, and it was bleeding steadily. Although Tam's wound had been far more serious, Selvas' was probably the one that hurt more.

Ark healed after waiting a minute, finally succumbing himself to another painful bout of magic. Once his wrist was healed, he examined the thick pink scars on both sides of his forearm and grimaced. “Those were pretty bad.” He glanced up at Iain and raised an eyebrow. “I expect you'll be wanting me to leave now. Am I right?”

Tam who was pretty much entirely engulfed in flames by now, watched Iain closely. Their camp was now entirely illuminated by the firestarter, and Iain suddenly found it near impossible to conceal his embarrassment. He shuffled his feet slowly and murmured something unintelligible.

Ark stood and spoke, his voice commanding and oddly compelling. It was now easy to see how such a young man had become the king's general so quickly. “What was that?”

Iain blushed and stammered, “You... You're right...”

“What if I don't want to go back in? I kind of like having a physical body again. And that fool Selvas doesn't know how to take care of himself.” He pinched his upper arm in order to demonstrate that Selvas had close to no fat on his sinewy body. “You're far better off with me staying out. I can actually use a sword, though not one as small as the one Selvas owns.”

Iain shook his head angrily, his former confidence flooding back as he realized that Ark was entirely serious. “We like Selvas, not you. We only called you out to save him.”

Ark grinned wolfishly. “So they owe me a life debt now, don't they? Why don't you let Selvas repay his debt right now?”

Vanett shot the man a particularly dirty look, coming to Iain's rescue after this statement. “Because he doesn't owe you anything! You share a body with him, Ark! If he dies, then you die, too! You can't owe each other a life!”

Ark scoffed derisively. “We have the same body, not the same life! If you haven't noticed by now, Salve-ass and I are nothing alike.”

Iain replied, his voice dry after recovering from his former anger. “So I've seen. If he's your reincarnation, then why are you two so damn different?”

Ark rolled his eyes. “Because Selvas is a little pansy compared to me!” After receiving another dirty look from Vanett, Ark sighed and spoke seriously. “Because even though we technically have the same soul, it has many different sides. It's as if... as if you're looking in a pool of clear water. You have a reflection, but that reflection may not have the same personality as you. Selvas and I... When I became one with his body, the soul that he was originally supposed to have stayed inside of him, and the aspect of my personality that would compliment his original personality fused the soul that was already in him. I suppose he got my battle side. Calmer, more responsible... It's a lot different from how I usually act. Anyway, your Selvas became a goody two-shoes and I remained a separate entity. I don't know how much longer that will last, though. One day soon, I believe, our souls will become entirely entwined, and there's really nothing that can be done about it.”

Iain and Vanett exchanged worried glances, and Tam entered into the conversation quickly. “If that's the case, then we need Selvas to come out. By the way that you're making this sound, I think that we should spend as much time with Selvas as we possibly can.”

Ark grinned. “You're absolutely right, my darling actor. I like you, so I'll go back to the deep recesses of the dark cave that you know as Selvas' mind.”

The man fell silent, his eyes changed color, and when he spoke again, he sounded as dazed as he would have if he had just woken up from a deep faint. “What happened? Did he come out?”

Iain shook his head. “No. He didn't come out entirely, but you fainted and your- and Tam's- wounds healed. I think Ark was working without coming out entirely.”

Selvas smiled blankly and almost immediately fell asleep. The rest of the group was entirely asleep in mere moments, and soon Iain and Vanett were the only two awake. Vanett immediately accosted Iain with an angry whisper. “Why did you lie?”

Iain shook his head. “He doesn't need to know anymore about Ark than we can help. I don't... I don't want him to become anything even remotely akin to Ark. But... He went to school with Nexev? What does that mean?”

“That he went to school with him? I don't know, Iain. You have to tell him eventually, and I'm not going to back you up when he blows up on you.”

Iain took a tone of superiority with Vanett, coming across as a little more of a megalomaniac than he had perhaps intended. “You don't understand what it's like to have to protect him, Vanett! He doesn't... He doesn't listen, and he doesn't think that I know what's right for him!”

Vanett spoke calmly, keeping his tone entirely level. “You aren't his father, Iain.”

Iain grabbed the Gypsy's upper arm tightly and spoke loudly, his jaw clenched in anger. It was a miracle that he didn't wake anybody up. “I know I'm not his father! But he doesn't have one, so why can't I be the person in his life who has the same kind of influence on him that a father does?”

Vanett's tone continued to be entirely devoid of any emotion except for that of complete and utter self-control. He was reasoning heavily with Iain, and it seemed to be working; the florist's breathing had evened out and he seemed to be calming down. “Iain... I know that you want a family. I understand that completely. But... There's nothing that you can do for Selvas. He's almost a man. You are probably the most influential person in his life right now, but you are not, cannot, ever be his father. Even if he agrees, you can't replace something that he never had.”

He was greeted by silence. Vanett peered at Iain closely in the dark. “Iain..?”

“I'm going to sleep.” With those four words, the man lay down, rolled over so that his back was to Vanett, and promptly fell asleep. Vanett sighed and followed suit, praying to the gods before he did in fervent hope that Iain would understand that he was just looking out for him.