After spending so long in the barren Glaivend Basin, the greenness of Volgran Forest was mesmerizing, though the musky air made it difficult to breathe at times. The old, familiar path they traversed towards Lanstonbel filled Rose with nostalgia for days long past.
Apparently Sorey was on the same wavelength, because he sighed wistfully before saying, "This place brings back memories."
"It sure does. You give nice piggyback rides, dearest husband." She grinned at him, waggling her eyebrows.
Although he laughed, his cheeks reddened. "That's it. Next time we see Sergei, I'm telling him the truth."
"You better," she said. "No chickening out this time, either. If all goes as it should, we'll be seeing him before the end of the week, so tell him then."
"But when has anything gone the way it should?" Edna said. She'd departed the cool, mucky forest, instead opting for the warmth of Sorey's head, and even now Rose still flinched at the incorporeal voice.
"Don't jinx it," Rose groaned.
The timing couldn't have been better—or worse. "Wait," Dezel suddenly said, stopping in his tracks. "Someone's coming."
"Is it a straggler?" Sometimes men would abandon the army and wander the forest. Rose scanned the immediate area, but nothing popped out at her as suspicious.
"Could be." He frowned, head slightly bowed. "He's headed straight for us, but judging by the path he's taking, I doubt he even knows it. Looks like his arm's broken. He's ..." His frown deepened, then his head shot up. "It's Talfryn."
"Are you sure?" What the hell would Talfryn be doing here? And for that matter, where was everyone else? She had a bad feeling about this.
"Positive."
As she was wont to do when she worried, Lailah had her hands clenched together. "But isn't he supposed to be in Pendrago, with the rest of the Sparrowfeathers?"
"Yeah," Rose said faintly, mind working furiously. Could they have finished their mission? She turned to Dezel, struck by his knotted fists and rigid posture. But of course—he'd be concerned for Talfryn and the Sparrowfeathers too, wouldn't he. "Lead the way, Dezel."
It didn't take long to find Talfryn. Frankly, he looked like shit; his shirt was ripped and his left arm was in a sling, but at least there wasn't any blood. His eyes widened as he took Rose and Sorey in. "Boss?"
Rose was by his side in an instant. "Are you okay? Where's everyone else?" He looked even worse from close up, dirt smudging his cheeks, bags beneath his eyes. "Did you find Lunarre?"
He winced. "More like Lunarre found us."
She stared. "What do you mean?"
"He and the knights caught us in Pendrago, hours after we arrived. Half of us escaped, but the others—if Eguille hadn't shielded me, I would've—" He let out a shuddering breath. "They're going to be strung up on the wall and executed in three weeks. We have to hurry." He cut off. "Sorry. I guess that's your call, Boss."
"Of course we're gonna save them," she said levelly, her tone betraying nothing of the panic welling up within her. Gods, this was just five years ago, just like the disaster that led to her being elected Boss in the first place. She tried to stuff her anxiety down, but didn't quite succeed; it wedged itself firmly in her chest, like a chunk of lead. She turned to Lailah. "Can we heal him?"
"May we?" Lailah, in turn, asked Sorey. He nodded.
Rose hesitated only a moment before murmuring, "Fethmus Mioma." Lailah's soothing presence flooded her senses as she placed her hands upon Talfryn's slung arm.
"Boss?"
"Shhh. Be still." She gently channeled a healing arte through her fingers, seamlessly knitting flesh and bone back together. As soon as it was done, she expelled Lailah from her body. "There. Now you won't have a broken arm holding you back.
"What d'you—" Talfryn stared down at his arm, his forehead creased, then moved it experimentally. "How ... Boss, how did you do that?"
"Let's just say it's a perk of travelling with the Shepherd," she said, and before Talfryn could say any more quickly added, "Who's with you? Is anyone hurt?"
He bit back whatever reply he'd meant to make. "It's—it's just me, Kira, Flav, Celine, and Thomas. Flav got a pretty nasty gash on his thigh, but other than that, we're all right." He'd untied the sling and now turned his arm this way and that, completely fascinated with his newfound wholeness. "For the past few days we've been trying to come up with a plan of action, to no avail. We need you, Boss."
The sincerity and desperation in his voice made Rose swallow. "I'm coming with you," she said. "It's just ..." She glanced at Sorey.
"You should go, Rose," he said. "We'll miss you, but we'll manage."
"Are you sure?" Even in a situation like this, she hated to just up and abandon them.
"They're your family," Lailah said. "We wouldn't dream of keeping you away from them."
She nodded. "I guess this is goodbye, then—for now, at least." But she hesitated; something didn't feel quite right, like she had unfinished business.
Her eyes fell on Dezel. As ever his arms were crossed and his expression stony, but there was something about his set jaw that made her speak without forethought. "You wanna come along, Dezel? I mean, if it's okay with Sorey."
"If Dezel wants to, I'm fine with him accompanying you," Sorey quickly put in. "I'd feel better if you had a seraph with you, anyway."
"A seraph?" Talfryn blurted out.
Rose raised a hand to shush him as she stared Dezel down. His shock at being so addressed was heavily apparent, from his arms now hanging limply at his sides and his mouth hanging slightly open. Well, she couldn't fault him for that, though in any other situation she'd have laughed at his incredulity.
"Why?" he finally asked.
"We could use some extra help," she said, making it up as she went along, "especially from a seraph. Plus, the Sparrowfeathers are kinda your family too, in a sense. Keeping you away from them at a time like this would be ... well, it wouldn't be right."
For some reason Lailah beamed at him, and for some other reason, he scowled. After he said nothing for a few moments, Edna prompted him with a hard jab from her parasol.
"Hey, quit it!"
"You're making everyone wait. Hurry up and decide."
He sighed. "All right, I'll go. If you're really okay with it."
"I am," she said, finding it was true. "Oh, Sorey, one more thing."
"Yeah?"
"If you see Alisha, tell her about Maltran."
He swallowed thickly. "All right."
"I mean it," she said. "If you don't do it, I will. And I'm terrible at breaking that kind of news to people."
"Don't we know it," Edna said, rolling her eyes.
Ignoring her, Rose said, "Then that's it. Come to Pendrago when you're finished up here—I'm sure it'll be easier for us to find you than for you to find us." Or at least, I hope so, she privately added.
Sorey nodded. "Sounds good. Goodbye, Rose. Dezel. We'll see you soon." And with that, they left.
"Lead the way," Rose told Talfryn, whose mouth hung open. Jeez, these two would have to get their acts together with all this mouth-hanging-open business, else they were liable to swallow a bee. Now that wasn't pleasant, she knew from experience.
Talfryn abruptly closed it with a shake of his head. "We're just at Tintagel Ruins. We thought maybe you'd come through here after checking out Glaivend Basin, so ..."
"Makes sense." She walked alongside him, with Dezel on her other side. She studied the wind seraph momentarily before turning back to Talfryn. "Anyway, um ... I know you can't see him or hear him, but this is Dezel." Talfryn's eyes followed her gestures, but they didn't light up in recognition. "And Dezel, this is Talfryn—but you already know him, I guess." Dezel nodded.
"Hi, Dezel," Talfryn said slowly, looking a little embarrassed. Rose supposed she couldn't blame him for any skepticism—the actual existence of seraphim was a difficult thing to take, even when you could see them.
"Hey," Dezel said, not looking any less embarrassed than Talfryn.
"Dezel says hey."
"You don't need to tell him that!" Dezel said at the same time Talfryn said, "I never thought I'd talk a seraph."
"That's pretty much been my life for the past few months," Rose said. "Among other things."
"Have you always been able to see seraphim?" he asked. "I don't recall you ever mentioning them before this."
"I don't think so," she said. "I guess just being around Sorey and his seraphim posse jolted my perception. Or something."
"... Posse?" Dezel murmured wonderingly under his breath. Then spoke louder: "You saw seraphim when you were younger, Rose."
"I did?"
"A few days after the Windriders found you, you saw me." His face coloured a little as he added, "You tried to pull my hair."
She had to smile at that. "Sounds like something little me would do." At Talfryn's confused look, she explained what Dezel had told her, and his eyes widened.
"You mean, Dezel's been around us that long?"
She looked to Dezel, and he nodded. "I'd joined the Windriders shortly after Brad took over. Someone ... introduced me."
"Wow," Talfryn said after she conveyed this. "It's a little freaky, no offense to Dezel. It's strange to think there's these invisible beings that could be around us at any time, even for years, and we wouldn't even know it."
That's what Rose had thought, too, when she'd been just getting started with Sorey and the others. But now ... now, she thought it must be lonely, spending your whole life around people who couldn't even see you, much less talk to you.
She wondered how the rest of the Sparrowfeathers would take Dezel's presence, or the news that he'd apparently been travelling with them for decades. She didn't know their opinions on seraphim, though she expected they'd skeptical of seraphim's existence; none of them were religious, seeing as how difficult it was to view the establishment in a positive light when you'd murdered countless corrupt priests.
When she'd first announced she was joining Sorey all those months ago, they hadn't said anything, but just from the looks on their faces she could tell they'd thought she lost her mind. They probably wouldn't be particularly receptive to the idea that seraphim actually existed. She could only hope that Talfryn's healed arm would be proof enough.
But all that was frivolous when compared with what lay before them. Rescuing their comrades from Rolance wouldn't be easy—she knew that much from experience. But she had no intention of letting things go the way they'd gone five years ago. This time, they'd use their heads. This time, they'd be careful.
She'd kept away from the Sparrowfeathers for too long, and it was hard not to blame herself for what had happened. If she'd been with them, she just knew it could've been prevented. If she hadn't ordered them to Pendrago in the first place, if she'd trusted her gut instinct to not let them go, then maybe—
"Don't blame yourself," Dezel said.
"Who says I'm blaming myself?"
"No one. You just have this look on your face," he said simply. "Lunarre's the one who decided to betray you all. He's the one at fault, not you."
"Oh," she said, chewing on her lip as she mulled on it. She appreciated the thought. He was right—Lunarre was responsible for his own actions, not her—but she still had to take responsibility, as leader of the Sparrowfeathers. She'd known the risks of ordering them to Pendrago, and now the worst had happened.
But beating herself up for it wouldn't save anyone.
Belatedly, she said, "Thanks."
Dezel turned his face away. "No problem."
She had to say, seraphim were embarrassed by the strangest things. Must've been the whole being isolated from society thing.
Talfryn glanced at her, clearly intrigued, but she chose not to sate his curiosity. He and the rest of them didn't need to know everything Dezel said.
From then on, they walked in silence, and Rose thought of Dezel's words. You just have this look on your face ...
She'd figured that Dezel had been with the Windriders a while, maybe a couple years before they disbanded, but it surprised her that he'd been with them for decades. He clearly knew her well, but to learn that he'd known her since she was little more than a toddler? How many of her worst moments had he seen, moments when she'd thought no one else was around?
He knew her. More than she knew him. But for him to have first known her as a frightened child on a bloodied battlefield, and then have used her for his schemes ...
He wasn't an evil person. Rose knew what evil people were like—after all, part of how she earned her living was discerning who was evil and who wasn't. Dezel clearly knew that what he did was wrong, he felt remorse for it, and what more, he seemed determined to never do it again.
But he'd still done it. Over, and over, and over again.
How could he do something so horrible to someone he'd known since she was a kid? That was what she couldn't wrap her head around. All that, just for revenge? She supposed she could appreciate that it had been revenge for the Windriders, however misguided, but ... it just didn't make sense.
