Aurelie stayed in her room for the better part of the afternoon. When the girl who brought her breakfast returned with a rather hefty lunch, Aurelie asked her to call her when Kirin returned to the inn. He had gone back to the castle late last night as the King expected him at breakfast.
A knock sounded on the door about an hour after she had finished her lunch. A girl opened the door just a tad and peeked in.
"He's here," she said. "But he and Orken are in the meeting room."
"Where is that?"
"Downstairs," she cocked her head, "I can show you if you want."
Aurelie followed her out, keeping her head down to give the inhabitants of the inn a clear sign that she did not wish to be approached. After their reaction the previous evening, she was surprised that she found the will to leave her room at all.
The girl stopped on the bottom step and pointed to the right. There were three doors, one near the staircase that she said lead to the basement, one in the center of the two that led to the kitchen, and the one on the very right that led to the meeting room.
Aurelie thanked her and went outside to sit on the steps, waiting for Kirin to emerge. He had occupied her mind until she fell asleep. Mostly, his abilities as a shadow walker. Her aunt and uncle were still alive, hidden somewhere by the King. From the way his magic worked, she understood that he couldn't risk saving her uncle and dying himselfâshe'd never ask that of him in the first placeâbut he could, at the off chance of finding her aunt, save her.
When he and the old man, who had passed out on the grass during the festivities of the previous day, emerged from the meeting room, the sun had set. She sat at an angle on the stairs and watched the door, rolling a pebble under her big toe.
His eye caught her as he walked out behind the old man, the girl had called him Orken. Kirin tapped him on the back and started to walk toward her. As he reached the door, his eyes shifted to something behind her and he walked faster.
"I just wanted to know if you've heard anything about my aunt and uncle." Aurelie began but was finding it rather hard to capture his attention.
She was about to repeat herself as Kirin clasped his hand over her mouth. His other hand pointed at something. One of the residents walked out of the inn, as soon as he saw what Kirin was pointing at, he hurried back into the inn to warn the others.
A white tiger ran past the inn, it turned and looked straight at Aurelie. She went cold from her head to her toes, but something in the way the tiger looked at her, made her charge off the stairs. It looked to be pleading.
Aurelie had seen those eyes before, she was sure of it, on her journey through the woods, after she had left Neriss Pass.
A thickly set man followed the tiger, bow, and arrow in hand. The hunter released the arrow, and it flew over the tiger's head. He grabbed another, keeping his pace. This time the arrow split the tiger's fur as it flew past its head. The third managed to pierce the tiger. It leaped as the arrow struck its foot, and fell to the ground, wailing.
Its huge legs began to shift, growing human calves, thighs, and fingers. In a matter of seconds, a girl appeared on the ground, clasping her breasts in her hands. Her hair was so blonde that it shone silver in the pale moonlight. The hunter noticed the change too late and fired the fourth arrow as the girl hit the ground.
Aurelie's heart raced, she knew her. It was Leila.
"No," she yelled and leaped forward, jumping over the steps and running to help her. Kirin jumped after her, knocking her to the ground.
"Get off me. That's Leila, I know her. Get off," she screamed, struggling against Kirin's weight. Kirin looked at Leila, who was struggling on the ground.
The hunter lowered his bow, and dropped to his knees, his eyes wide with shock. He wasn't looking at Leila, but instead at the inn.
A bear or the darkened imaged of one rose from the hunter's shadow. It appeared behind the hunter before he could notice. The bear pushed the hunter forward. It didn't require much force.
Aurelie ran toward Leila and examined her wounds. Three arrows were pierced through her skin, her blood squirting out around them. Leila's head fell backward, her eyes were still open, but she was still as a corpse.
"Kirin," Aurelie yelled. "Kirin, it's bad, it looks really bad." Her hands were moving across Leila's body, touching her face, then moving to her wounds and sliding around the arrows as if attempting to pull them out. Aurelie held her index finger to Leila's nose. A weak breath warmed Aurelie's finger. She exhaled with relief.
The arrow in her chest had gone right through, the sharp end sticking out of her stomach.
"Leila, I don't know what to do," Aurelie said as Kirin sat beside her.
"Get her inside," he said, observing her wounds. He did not look hopeful, his mouth pulled into a straight line.
"I didn't mean... I didn't know. Please... You must believe me," the hunter pleaded, his head cupped in his hands.
"You realize what this means for him, don't you?" Kirin asked Aurelie.
"What?"
Kirin closed his eyes. The bear spread his paws and struck the hunter.
"What are you doing?" Aurelie shouted as the bear's claws stabbed into his neck. Specks of blood landed on her face, and her clothes. She wiped it off with a shaking hand.
The hunter attempted to breathe while blood seeped out of his mouth, struggling against the bear with his hands. The bear put its large paw on the hunter's head. His head bent backward, the ground bending in below it. There was a loud crack, and he went still. The bear dissipated into shadow particles.
Aurelie stood motionless, her eyes jumping between Kirin and the hunter. "What did you do?" she whispered, her eyes wide as the full moon above them.
"Burn the body," Kirin said and turned his back to the hunter.
"What?" she mouthed, staring at the body of the hunter, lying in an expanding pool of blood. She did not expect Kirin to notice what she said, but he did.
"Burn the body, we don't want anyone to see it," he repeated, his voice was calm, and his expression blank. It was as if he had just killed a pesky mosquito.
"I... I can't," she replied and averted her eyes from the corpse.
"Fine, Orken, clean it up," he said to Orken.
"And her?"
"Nothing, you'll do nothing! You can't!" Aurelie cried, spreading her hands out around Leila. "Take her inside like you said you would. Help her!" she said. Her heart drummed, sending bubbles of pressure into her ears.
"How well do you know her? Do you think she can be trusted?" Kirin asked her while taking off his cloak.
With each of Kirin's words, Aurelie's vision grew into a darker orange. She raised her hand, and fire burst out.
"Get away!" she warned. She would fight the damn bear too if she had to.
"I was just going to lay my cloak over her," Kirin said and threw the coat over to Aurelie's side. "Can she be trusted?"
Aurelie covered Leila with the cloak. "Yes." She remembered what she saw in the Dream Realm. Leila leaping away from her aunt and uncle's house, and at her. "Maybe," she corrected, "I don't know."
"What will you do if I don't agree to keep her here?" he asked her.
Aurelie looked up at him again, he sounded like he had already chosen. Leila meant nothing to them, apart from being a probable threat. How would she carry Leila? Tears emerged in Aurelie's eyes at the thought of having to leave. She could go back to Jermyn, he would be angry at first, but once he saw the state that Leila was in, he wouldn't turn them away. But there was no way that Leila would survive the long journey. If they made them leave, she would die.
"I will leave with her," she said, as more tears dripped down her cheeks.
"Then I suppose we have no other choice," he told her, and slipped his arms under Leila, lightly pushing Aurelie to the side with his elbow.
"I am taking her inside so that we can help her," he said. Orken kept quiet but shook his head.
People walked back into the inn, whispering to each other. Kirin pushed past them with Leila. "Orior," Orken said and pointed his hand toward the body.
The air reeked of charred flesh. Aurelie felt sick to the very pit of her stomach, her lunch gathered in her throat. Covering her nose with the back of her hand, she followed Kirin. The thick black smoke cut the air and disappeared into the night sky.
"Things are going to get much worse," Orken called after her.
She turned around and saw him pointing at the corpse.
"Everyone outside of this inn is your enemy. No person would pass up on the huge reward that the King is offering for you. He could have been innocent, we could never risk it. Whose fate would you choose?"
He must have seen how horrified she was at what happened.
Aurelie's cheeks puffed up, and her body tensed. She pointed at the inn. "He saw us. It is dark, but honestly, he wasn't going to miss a buzzing inn," she replied, frowning.
"Neither of them would have seen us, the inn and its surroundings are enchanted. No one can see us unless one of us reveals its location, which you did. We cannot afford to let strangers in that could jeopardize everything that we are working hard to achieve here," he explained, his expression calm, but poison covered each word.
How was she to know that the inn was enchanted?
Orken did not seem angry at all, or he did his best to hide it.
"No one can hide forever. Daerious seemed to believe that when he rescued me and risked everything. Why should we measure life by power or importance? By measuring him against a hundred others we will kill people, one by one, until the corpses that we leave behind become more than those that we save," she replied and turned to walk away. He was right, in a way she refused to accept. Perhaps it had to do with what happened with Marianne. She felt that she had to cleanse her soul of it still.
"You speak nobly, dragon, but this is not a matter of being right or wrong. We will leave behind hundreds of corpses, but that is the way with war. There is no comparison between your worth and his, you are a dragon and your power can win us this war. The simple fact that your life will save thousands makes it worth hundreds. You will understand this when you see the world through our eyes, rather than the protective shell that Kaiden brought you up in. That world no longer exists. It never existed. This is the real world," he told her as she walked away.
Aurelie turned to him; her shoulder slumped slightly in defeat. Again, she agreed, but at what cost? "How many do we kill until we become just as bad as he is?"
"As many as it takes to win." He shrugged. "We never said we were good, just better."