The Eternal Blade Saga Book 2, Chapter 42: A Precarious Truce

Sea water dripped from my hair onto mybloodied hands, and I winced as the salt stung my wounds. The screaming in myhead had finally subsided, but the pain still throbbed at my temples and theback of my head. My plan had worked—at least for now. However, the cost had beenso overwhelming I nearly gave up in the process. It felt like I was tearingmyself apart piece by piece. When I had finished, I desperately wanted to fallover and shut out the world for a while, but I forced myself to stay uprightand focused. One arm at a time, I slipped on Quint’s black longcoat. I thentore some material from my tunic and wrapped the cuts on my hands. They weren’tdeep enough to be serious, I made sure of that, but they would draw questionsif left uncovered.

I patiently waited while Whisper agents pushed a boat into the bay and rowed their way toward me. I picked up my axe, wiped the bloodied edge on my leggings, and hooked the weapon back on my belt. I found comfort in the hefty weight of it on my hip, knowing it was there to protect me if needed. As the boat grew closer with every moment, I could now count the number of agents inside. There were more than I had anticipated. I rested a hand on the axe pommel, ready to draw it if I was met with a confrontation instead of a rescue.

I glanced down at the damp coat I shroudedmyself in, and I let my thoughts wander a little. My former adviser’s suddendeparture hadn’t sat well with me. There was still so much to talk about, andwithout knowing where he was going or if he would ever be back, I had no ideaif we would ever get that chance. Bowing my head, I pulled his coat tighteraround me. There was a sharp pinch on my back and I winced. I loosened my holdon the coat a little until the sensation ceased.

As the boat neared, I recognized Dee perched nearthe bow. She likely had insisted on being front and center when the agents cameto pick me up. Despite any assurances they may have offered our people, Iimagine the norn demanded that at least one member of our group come on theboat. Her tall and broad stature as well as her position as one of our leadersbefore I abolished the guild made her the ideal candidate. I’m glad she came. Afterwhat had transpired, I could not bring myself to trust the Order of Whispers,or anyone other than my own people for that matter. I would have rather swam toshore myself, but my body was spent. I doubt I would have made it, and thistime I wouldn’t have had someone to pull me back up to the surface if I sunkbeneath the waves.

My rescue had indeed turned out to be just arescue, and I patiently waited inside the boat while Dee helped the Whisperagents pull it ashore. I pulled the damp coat around me as I shivered. Itdidn’t really help, but there was still comfort behind the act. She offered meher hand to help me out onto the shore. My pride would have stopped me fromaccepting, but without her help I knew I would have tumbled out of the boat andonto my face. I took her hand and my sleeve pulled back a little, revealing thedark lines crawling up my forearm. I tried to pull the material back down, butDee had already seen. She raised an eyebrow. No doubt there would be aconversation about it in the future.

After I was safely ashore, Dee looked beyondme, out to the bay. The creases on her brow deepened. “Where are Seren andSalara,” she asked quietly.

I shook my head. “We’ll talk about it later.”

“Did something happen? Are they-.”

“Nienna Valar,” a gruff voice bellowed. I flashedDee an apologetic glance and then turned to find Halvora Snapdagger making herway down the hill to the beach with a pair of Whisper agents at her side. Theolder charr had a heavy covering of white all along her muzzle, contrastingwith the dark grey fur shrouding the rest of her body. Her folded horns wereworn from battle and wrapped at the base with a thick linen. But her eyes, onewhite and one green, were as sharp as daggers and they cut right into me as shefurrowed her brow. “It’s nice to finally put a face to the thorn in the Order’spaw.”

“Preceptor,” I acknowledged politely as sheapproached. Although I had never met her in person, Halvora’s name and reputation,were well known amongst members in the Order—and to a few on the outside. “It’snice to finally meet the Order’s acclaimed tactician. Though, I wish it wereunder better circumstances.”

“Better circumstances,” she huffed. “Do yourealize the extent of containment we have to execute in order to keep thislittle fight of yours out of both the Vigil’s and the Lionguard’s hands?Captain Magnus is neither pleasant, nor easy to negotiate with.”

“Look, this wasn’t-.”

Halvora growled. “Don’t! If you hadn’t been socareless in the first place, or left the Order to haphazardly guard this weaponon your own, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Why do you think we allowed you tojoin us in the first place? We knew you had something special, and what betterway to keep an eye on it than keeping itand you under our watchful eye.” Shelooked me from head to toe and then over at the boat. “Where is it, anyway?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have it.”

The charr narrowed her eyes at me. “This isn’ta game. The weapon is said to be extremely dangerous and needs to be contained.Properly contained. Since you havefailed to do this, it’s up to the Order of Whispers to house it. The Vigil willonly want to use it as a weapon in their battles. The Priory will want to studyand experiment with it, and I think we can all imagine what sort of horrorscould come of that.”

“And the Order?” I asked, curtly. “What willthe Order want do with it? It’s only a matter of time before someone gets alittle too curious.”

“The Order would never-.”

“The Order is no better than the Vigil or thePriory. Nor are you immune.”

Halvora growled, her posture growing rigid andher lips pulling back to reveal her long fangs. She obviously felt differently.

A commotion rose at the top of the hill in ourcourtyard. Voices clashed and rose to levels that triggered a warning in mygut. Drawn to the uproar, I strode past Halvora, risking the negative stigma ofabruptly leaving a conversation with a preceptor without being dismissed. Ididn’t care. I recognized one of the voices, and I was not about to allow anyof my people to come to harm if I could help it. No matter how hard thepreceptor huffed.

“We are notfinished with this conversation,” she insisted, but I ignored her and continuedup the hill where the voices were.

“No! Don’t you dare move her,” Alena cried outas she guarded Ariella’s lifeless body from three Order of Whisper agents. Gordo,her flesh golem, had positioned himself in front of his mistress, swiping atthe intruders with his large club-like hands. One of the agents, a male norn,was carefully trying to reach in to pull Ariella’s body away from the enragedasura.

A female sylvari leaned around Gordo, doingher best to avoid his strikes, and tried to gently explain to the distraughtasura. “We have been told to clear the area. Her as well,” she said.

Alena thrust her staff in the agent’s face,her nose flaring and her teeth bared.

“She should be set on the pyre,” the nornagent said with less care than his partner, “so she can run with Bear in theMists.”

“She flies with Raven!” Alena snapped back.

I quickened my pace, despite the sharp pain Ifelt with every sharp movement. “Wewill set her on the pyre,” I replied with as much authority as I could muster asI stared them down. “She’s one of ours. It’s only right we do it.”

“We have our orders-,” the norn agentinsisted.

Drawing my axe from my belt, Ipurposefully stepped between the Whisper agents and Alena, who was still poisedover Ariella’s lifeless body. “I don’t care about your damn orders. Taking heris absolutely unnecessary. Your own, I understand. The Inquest and rogues,fine, take them. I don’t care what you do with them. But she is one of ours and if you lay one finger on herbody, I will remove all your extremities, starting with the one you love themost.”

The norn’s eyes went so wide I thoughtthey would pop out of his head. He looked aside at his fellow agents, and theyall slowly backed up, their eyes fixed on me until they were safely out ofreach.

“Are you threatening my agents?”Halvora roared as she crested the hill and made her way into the courtyard. Herdetail of two agents remained at her side, and they immediately drew theirweapons as soon as they saw I had drawn mine.

“Just making promises I intend to keepif they don’t respect our wishes,” I replied.

With an exasperated grunt, Halvora signaledto the two at her side to sheath their weapons. She then waved off the three agentswho had tried to take Ariella, and they joined with the others who were almostdone with clearing the area. The preceptor then turned her attention back to me,but her gaze lingered on my axe.

“So, not only are you keeping thingsfrom us, you’re stealing from us too?”

“How can you be so sure this isn’t oneof mine?” I challenged.

Halvora’s tail twitched sharply. “BecauseI put it there myself.” The charr then cocked her head to the side and aquizzical look came over her. “Though, I’ve never seen it glow like that before…”

“Maybe you weren’t holding it right,”I bit back.

She huffed so sharply, it sounded likea snort. Regaining her composure quickly, she turned to the two agents at herside. “Any sign of him?”

They shook their heads.

“Seen who?” Dee asked.

“He calls himself Quint Blackwell, atleast he does now. He was one of yours, but in reality, was one of ours,” sheanswered and then turned back to me, taking a few steps forward as she eyed mesuspiciously. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen him recently. He was wearing ajacket much like the one you have there.”

“I haven’t seen him since I escapedthe Chantry. You know, where your Order was keeping me prisoner and using me asbait,” I said.

“You haven’t seen him. You don’t havethe blade. Not very helpful if you ask me.”

“You’re welcome to look around,” Ioffered, “but I’m afraid you’ll find nothing here but ash and blood.”

She narrowed her biochromatic eyes atme. “You’re hiding it somewhere, maybe him too, I know it,” Halvora said,accusatorily. “Tell us where it is. You owe it to the Order for everything wedid for you when you were with us.”

“I owe nothing to the Order, especially not after being captured and usedas bait! So, if I even had what you wanted and I knew where Quint was, I stillwouldn’t give you what you wanted. The way I see it, you have two options. Youcan either exert your force here and risk another battle, or you can go back tothe Chantry and leave us to mourn our dead.”

The Preceptor and I stared at eachother in silence as the others gathered around, anxiously awaiting the outcome.Whisper agents, at least the ones we could see, outnumbered us by at leasttwo-fold. They stood shoulder to shoulder with my people. They eyed us and weeyed them, neither group trusting the other. Halvora’s clenched her jaw. Icould almost see the wheels turning in her head, and I imagined she was weighingthe pros and cons of each choice I presented.

“Pack it up,” the charr suddenly said,motioning for her agents to leave. She then took a step forward, her large,broad frame towering over me. I could feel her hot breath waft onto my face asshe huffed. I swallowed hard as her fangs came within mere inches from my face.“This is not over, Nienna Valar. We will find that blade and find thattraitorous man. No one steals from the Master of Whispers and escapes the consequences.Shadows are everywhere, and you know how well we hide in the shadows.”

Halvora Snapdagger and the rest of theOrder of Whisper agents retreated to the edge of the courtyard. As soon as theywere out of sight, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was more than happy to seethem leave, and by the looks on the others’ faces, they felt the same.

“Good riddance,” Clarkus grumbled ashe kept an eye on the perimeter. His tail flicked sharply back and forth. “Idon’t trust those spooks.”

Dee shook her head. “I don’t either.Did I hear her say that Quint stole something? Where is he anyway?”

Letting the questions sit in the airfor a minute, I knelt down next to Ariella’s lifeless body and placed a hand onher shoulder. She was so cold. It felt different than the chill I felt on myskin, though. It was bitter, an emptiness that ached deep in my bones. I tookmy hand off of her and the sensation faded into the background. Glancing up, Ifound Alena recoiling from me. My presence seemed to unnerve her a little. Whocould blame her? I had put on a destructive display when I had taken up theblade, and even though the shadow had faded, Alena had no idea if it was goingto come back.

“It’s ok, it’s just me.” My wordsseemed to assure her a little, and the asura relaxed a little.

“It’s strange, I can still feel itnearby, like when you-that shadow was here. It’s like—it’s like it’s looming inthe background,” she said. “You lied to them, didn’t you? It’s still here.”

I offered her a knowing smile as Irose to my feet. “Has anyone seen Danae or any of her crew?” I asked, changingthe subject. “Her ship went down in the south hills.”

Tuborg shook his head. “No sign as ofyet, but we will go look.” He turned to Clarkus, waved for the charr to follow,and the pair went off in search of survivors.

As soon as the two were out of earshot,Dee pulled me aside to speak to me privately. “Where are the girls? I saw themgo after you, but there’s been no sign of them since.”

I rubbed at my forehead, not wantingto dive into this right now. There was so much already to mentally digest and Ireally wanted to sleep. I felt like I was being pulled in too many differentdirections. But she needed to know. “They have both of them,” I said, trying mybest to stay composed. “The Byrnes’ have Seren and Salara. Quint is gone too.He pulled me from the water, and I have no idea where he went.”

She bowed her head. “In Bear’s name,this is a mess.”