I do not own the Inheritance Cycle.
Edited 1/30/22 - all chapters are getting a overhaul. Things might not match until this process is complete
Enjoy,
Journey
Part 2
"So much for our plan," said Selena with a frown.
She looked over the flooded path and sighed. Taking that hidden path had gotten them nowhere all too quickly. She should have known better than to follow a path only Brom knew about, likely one of the many he used during the times the Forsworn were still alive, or the "Dark Days" as he once called them.
The man beside her shook his head. "It's not as if we had one to begin with," he grumbled. "We should continue or we'll be here all night."
Selena turned and studied him for a short moment, a frown settling as she did so. "You're rather grumbly today," she observed. "More so than usual. I know it's not only the kids that are troubling you, Brom, and I can't help if you do not tell me what it is."
Brom was silent for a time as he studied the flooded path. There was a current, though it appeared not to be strong that meant so very little. Water could be very misleading and there could be a very strong undercurrent, one that could pull the horses down when if they tried to cross.
"The Varden," he said at last. "I said before that I do not want to go there, and that hasn't changed. They will ask for things I will not give them- cannot give them."
"I highly doubt it. Very little was asked of you the last time you were there." She gave him a critical look. "What is this truly about, Brom? Are you going back to your claim that they're going to force the kids into swearing fidelity within the first week?"
Brom swung around himself on his white stallion to look at her. His eyes were unusually hard and his jaw was stubbornly set. "You cannot tell me it's something that you have put no thought into," he said. "Providing they get to the Varden, much will be expected of them and we'll likely have little say in what they cannot do. They won't either, if they want to keep the people at bay. It will be a dangerous game that they will be forced to play."
"I know," Selena said as she pulled herself onto her own horse. Starshine, Rose's horse was tethered to Arvid's saddle, much like Cadoc was to Snowfire's, and at times, like now, would nicker his discontent. "I have been playing that game for the last decade, in case you've forgotten. Ajihad shan't ask for more than what they're capable of, I'm sure. We will worry about this when the time comes but, right now, I'm more worried about them surviving."
His lips formed a hard line as he urged Snowfire into the water. Selena urged Arvid to follow him, checking every so often to make sure that Starshine was following behind. The stallion stayed close behind, calm and steady- something Selena was beginning to relay on.
"Foolish," Brom muttered lowly, angrily, after a time. Selena didn't think that he was talking to her, but to himself. "So utterly foolish. That boy needs to comprehend that he is not a simpleton. He has a perfectly good brain. If only I could get him to use it."
"Were you any different at his age?" Selena asked over the loud gushing of water.
"That's the problem, isn't it?" Brom replied, looking determinedly ahead.
"That he is far too much his father for his own good? Or perhaps that both of his parents were equally as foolish when they were young?"
Brom didn't say anything for a time, his focus on steering Snowfire through the water. It was a small fortune that the water hadn't flooded the path too horribly, and there was hardly a current at all. Truthfully, it looked worse than what it was. The water hardly went pass the horse's fetlock, still, despite the low depth it slashed up to their flanks soaking not just the horses but Selena, Brom, and their bags, as well.
"Perhaps it's both," he said as they neared the end of the flooding. "Or neither. I can never tell with that boy. There are times when he is listening but doesn't hear a single thing that I'm saying. He lives among the fay sometimes, that's what my pa would have called it."
"It's not too late, you know," Selena said after a time. "For Eragon to call you his father, I mean. He obviously holds you in high regards, and trusts you far more than any others he knows. You are important to him, more so than you let yourself believe."
Brom grumbled and looked away, though his eyes shone with emotion. "That's the problem with that boy," she heard him say very quietly. "He puts his trust in people far too much."
"Don't we all? At some point in our lives?" She frowned and looked up at the man as she urged her horse to walk beside him. "It's a lesson we all must learn within our lifetime, how much trust we should give another. Some people learn it earlier than others, sometimes it's later, but in the end it is something we all learn."
"You're thinking about your girl again, aren't you?"
"I am always thinking about my children," she said softly. "Both of them."
Brom was silent for a time. "She seems to have forgiven you rather quickly," he said. "When you told her who you were. She does not seem as if she is bothered about it."
Selena smiled sadly and looked down at her hands. "Hardly," she said. "Rose is furious with me, that's why she acts so civil. If we were on good terms she would not be anywhere as polite as she has been. Do not think that that if she had somewhere to go when I told her I was mother, she wouldn't have gone there at that very moment." Selena knew very well that Rose would have left, that she did even if it was for a short time. It had been such a relief when she had returned and even more so when Selena was certain she would not.
Things would have likely gone very different if Tornac was still about to soften the blow, to talk to her about it. If Selena hadn't been as unfocused that fateful day, their travels would have been very different. She could use Tornac at this moment, he at least would be able to provide some insight into this mess.
With a sigh, she shook her head rid it of such thoughts. "But this isn't about my relationship with Rose, is it?" she said. "No, it's about you telling Eragon."
Brom coughed. "Remind me," he said, "how exactly we got onto this subject."
Smiling, Selena shook her head but said nothing more. She knew that it was best not push the subject on Brom too much, if she did he would push away. With a slight frown she turned away and listened to the noises of the wild- she couldn't seem to find anything better to do.
That night they camped in a small alcove, which Selena would not have seen if Brom hadn't pointed it out to her. "I've camped here many times before," he told her, "many years ago." Although the alcove certainly looked as if it have many years since it had been used, it possessed a very strong sense of shelter, and this was something Selena hadn't felt in months.
"Eragon mentioned something to me the other night," she said, balancing a bag over her shoulder. The silence about the alcove held something of a haunting feeling, and this was something Selena wished to fill. She did not want to be left to her thoughts which were at the moment rather black.
"Hmm?" Brom grumbled from the other side of Snowfire. He was brushing the horse's back, stepping over the bags he placed around his feet. It was a mystery to Selena how he didn't trip over them as he moved about.
"He said that you told him I was conceited and dignified," she said as she set down her bag. A knife fell from the pocket with a broken strap. Lifting it up to examine how the fire light reflected off if it, she continued, "That those things were the reason for my downfall."
Brom looked up at her innocently. "Did he?"
"He did." She leaned against Starshine's chest, her arms resting across the mare's back, and raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you believe I'm so proud I'd let it bring me to my ruin?"
Brom coughed violently and dropped the brush. He lowered his head and began detangling the knots in Snowfire's pale mane. The horse stood obediently still, his tail swaying slightly in the breeze.
"I cannot be that foolhardy," she said. She drew back, and tucked the knife into her belt.
"You broke into Galbatorix's treasury," Brom grumbled after a moment, "with a plan that could have failed at any moment. You could have gotten yourself captured, endangering all of those you care for by doing so. You knew this but you did it anyway because you were sure that you could. And don't you tell me that rubbish you filled Eragon's ears with; we both know you wouldn't have done it if you weren't certain you could. So tell me, why exactly are you asking me-" he looked up at her with a teasing smile "-whether or not you're conceited?"
Selena scowled at him, and turning away she began shifting through the bags. Neither of them spoke for a time, and the sound of the brush scraping against the horse's coat took over.
She wished he hadn't of brought up that subject. Her days in Urû'baen had left her out of sorts for quite some time. They had reminded her of a past life, her time there many years ago when she had been a very different person, and it filled her dark thoughts and feelings. She had been much more jumpy than she should have, every person she passed in the halls set her on edge. If one of them, just one, recognized her…
Selena couldn't imagine what would have happened.
She had decided before she left for Urû'baen that if she had been captured she would do her best to kill herself. Death was much better than facing Galbatorix's wrath for her betrayal. Had that happened Rose would simply have to get by, at the time she had Tornac to guide her and Selena was certain he would have, somehow. This thought had always filled her with dread, and she hoped more than anything that she would not have to take these measures, that they were simply unnecessary precautions.
While she was there she wondered more and more often why she had not killed Morzan herself. She certainly had possessed the skills to do it, if not the heart. Even now when she out of that castle she still did not understand why she did not. Selena wished that she had, that she set aside whatever feelings she had had left for him and freed herself completely. At the same time she knew that if she had failed Morzan's treatment towards her and her daughter would have been so much worse- but would it have been worth the risk?
Being away from Urû'baen now, she didn't often think of such things. She has been far too busy to do so. She hasn't cared for Morzan in many years, and after what he did to her, he was not deserving of her thoughts, even the ill ones. And she had very many ill thoughts towards that man.
"If you wanted a dishonest answer you should have asked differently," Brom said as she moved on to build a fire. Selena however was still thinking about Morzan and she did not answer him, hardly even heard him. He turned to her with a settling scowl. "Selena?"
But she remained silent, ignoring Brom's grumbling pursuits until she had gotten a fire roaring. "I wasn't looking for a dishonest answer, Brom," Selena said slowly tossing aside a rather damp log. "I know there are times when I can be a little too proud."
Brom snorted and turned away from her, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. Picking up the broken tinderbox, Selena chucked it at him, hitting him between the shoulder blades. He turned and, bending down to pick up the tinderbox up, gave her a toothy grin.
"We might find a need for this," he said tossing the tinderbox beside her. "Best not try to break any more than it already is."
"You are such a pain in the-" Selena began but was cut off when Brom shushed her.
He pointed to the shadowed overgrown brush about them and picked up his sword. Pulling it out of its weathered scabbard he whispered, "Somebody has been following us."
Selena squinted into the darkness, but saw nothing. It was too dark. She gathered up her mind and imagined it past the stony alcove, and heard what Brom was talking about. There was the distant sound of large wings flapping in the air, wings without feathers, and she thought for a moment that the dragons had found them. Then she heard something ticking, like that of a chicken clicking its beak, and hisses as cold breaths drew in and out of leathery bellows.
Drawing back, she looked at Brom with an open mouth. "Are they-?" she whispered, not wanting to voice her fears.
Brow nodded, and muttered a spell. Instantly the flames changed, turning much brighter almost blinding wit their new light. She blinked and turned to her belt, pulling out a large throwing knife. Her gaze didn't return to the fire. "Isn't that a bit like saying 'here we are'?"
"Don't you think they already know that?"
Selena nodded and looked back up, fingering the knife in her hand. She knew what was coming, and though she didn't like it, they couldn't exactly run. The question was; how and why did the Ra'zac find them?
