Love and Tenacity

Chapter 8

“I think we have to talk to Jude Meyer before anyone else.”

The five women were gathered round the circular table once again. It had grown dark, and Quinn could barely see anything except flickering candles and Ember’s bright hair. Juvenis was completely invisible.

“I don’t think Morana’s gotten to all of the hunters yet, and some won’t be happy that Oliver’s in charge,” continued Ember. “Problem is, he moves around a lot. Caleb is widely known and easy to find, but Jude keeps to himself.”

“I heard he was in Wilkes not long ago, but he’ll have moved on by now,” said Juvenis. She held a small knife and was carving something out of a piece of wood, though it was too early on in the process for anyone to tell what it was. “My guess is that he’s still by the coast. He’ll be meeting up with his brother soon though, so if we want to find him, we should find Caleb and try to intercept him before then.”

“Realistically, is there any chance he’ll actually want to help us?” asked Quinn. “It’s one thing to dislike the new King, but it’s another thing entirely to play a key part in revolting against him. If we fail, he and his followers will be hanged for high treason.”

“I think we may be able to win him over,” replied Ember. “He and Caleb have their differences, and he may be more inclined to help us because of the relationship Juvy and I have with Caleb.”

“Explain that,” Desiree demanded crisply before Quinn could reply. Quinn and Ella stared at her in surprise. Desiree shrugged. “I want to know as much as you two do before going into this. I know you’re private people and all, but I refuse to risk my life and Quinn’s when I don’t have all of the information. If we’re going to work together, then we need to know all of the relevant baggage.”

Ember and Juvy exchanged a long look, and then Juvy shrugged. Juvy sat back in her chair and rested her heels on the table’s edge while Ember got up and went to look out a dark window.

“To know about my history with Caleb Meyer, you’ll have to know a bit more about my past. I was born and raised in a city in the Northern Woods, close to our border with Alsius, and I was the oldest of three girls. Like many families, my mother was a quiet, weak-willed woman, and my father was a drunk and a fiend. He was… unkind to us, and when my mother and I began to plan an escape to live with her family, he found us out and decided that the only worthy punishment for our betrayal was death. That night, he beat my little sisters and my mother until they died in front of me, and I nearly met the same fate. Luckily for me, I grasped his bottle when he was trying to strangle me and hit him over the head with it. Then I burned the house to the ground with the remains of my family inside it and didn’t look back. I don’t know if he died from the blow to the head or the flames, but to my knowledge, that was the last anyone heard of Thomas Rexroth.”

Desiree had her hand over her mouth and Quinn felt some of the blood drain from her face. Juvenis remained reclined in the chair, seemingly completely relaxed, but Ember’s spine was tense over by the window.

“Caleb Meyer comes in some years later. I stayed alive working as a prostitute and a thief, and, I must admit, an assassin when it paid well enough. I became good at being unnoticed, but it burned every time I saw a woman like my mother or a child like one of my sisters. You can tell them right away, you know. Their mouths are hard but their eyes are sad. I met Caleb Meyer when I was twenty. He hired me as a prostitute, but when I asked for the gold up front, he became enraged and attacked me. He tried to… take advantage of me, and he tried to injure me when I wouldn’t comply. I managed to fight him off, and in the process scarred his face. He never forgot, and he’s pursued me ever since.

“After him, I left that line of work and started targeting rapists in whatever town I landed in. You’d be surprised how easy that is to do – even the watchers only really watched out for violence between men, not necessarily men and women. Once I found them, I’d charm them and lure them to their house or an inn, and then I would take care of them and steal their valuables. Caleb tracked me for four years, and then he and a group of his cronies finally cornered me and nearly killed me. They left me for dead on the side of the road, and I wouldn’t be here right now if Ember hadn’t come walking down that same road only an hour later. When Caleb heard that I’d survived and was in the company of a witch, he was furious, but he was too afraid of Ember to actively seek revenge for a second time.”

There was a moment of silence as Juvenis’ coldly clinical voice faded. Even Ella looked disturbed, and she had already gained a pretty good idea of Juvenis’ origins. Quinn had a feeling that there was even more to the story, but she wasn’t about to push it. She’d never imagined hearing the silent hunter speak for such a long amount of time. The thought of Juvenis murdering an unknown amount of people disturbed her. She understood the reasoning, but the way Juvenis spoke of it was almost sociopathic. For the first time, she felt truly afraid of the woman in front of her.

“Shit,” said Desiree, and Quinn knew she felt the same way. Ember hummed in agreement, still with her back to the rest of the room.

“Caleb Meyer is a monster, but Jude is not,” said Juvenis, voice full of steely conviction. “For all those years, he never once came looking for me. Hell, there were times when we were in the same damn town, but he left me alone. My presence might be the wedge to fully divide him from his brother, and he and his faction of bounty hunters are the only ones left actually going after some legitimate criminals that the watchers report.”

Ember finally turned and came back to the table. “In a couple of days when Quinn’s vision is better, we’ll go into town and start trying to track Caleb down. In the meantime, Desiree, you should learn all you can from Juvenis about fighting. Ella, you’re my eyes and ears in Levamen.” Ella nodded dutifully. “That’s it for tonight. Go home, Ella, and tell your brother to come up here tomorrow afternoon. He’ll need to shoe Quinn and Desiree’s horse, and I need to talk to him about finding another one now that Quinn can start learning to ride on her own.”

Ella nodded again and wordlessly left, leaving behind a bundle of clothes that she had brought up for Desiree to wear. Her face looked incredibly young and tired as she exited the cabin, and Desiree frowned, wondering if it was wise to let someone so young hear such a disturbing story. When she turned back to face the rest of the table, Juvenis’ black eyes were drilling into hers.

“Don’t worry yourself about Ella’s innocence,” she said. “Sometimes the world is a dark place. The sooner she realizes that, the safer she’ll be on the whole. Innocence protects nobody.”

“She’s just a kid, Juvenis,” said Desiree defensively.

“So was I. So were you when you were orphaned. She’s already growing up quickly; it’s a side effect of having parents who are so busy shouting at each other that they forget that they have children. You can mother her all you want, but it’s not doing her any favors.”

Desiree opened her mouth to retort, but Quinn felt her tense and put a hand on her arm. “Let it go,” she murmured, and Desiree reluctantly shut her mouth.

“Everything’s going to have to wait until I do more work on your eyes, Quinn,” Ember cut in. “We can’t have you wandering around running into walls while we’re trying to gather information. We’ll head in to town and linger around the pub in a couple days, but until then, we’ll all just have to stay here and get along.”

“What about Ella, is she in this with us?” Quinn queried, keeping her hand on Desiree’s arm.

“I’m not sure yet,” replied Ember. “I know she’s young, Desiree, but being young and being naïve are not the same thing. On the contrary, young people like her are incredibly handy to have around. They’re loyal, eager to please, and there are things that the most hardened man will admit to a young girl that he’d never let slip to an adult. Not to mention, I doubt her parents would miss her too much, she’s always up her with Juvy and me anyway. We’ll see. But for now, that’s it. It’s been a long couple of days, and I think everyone should get some rest.”

Her tone allowed for no protest, and Juvenis quickly disappeared into the loft. Despite the detachment she had shown as she told her story, Desiree had a feeling that she was very uncomfortable laying herself bare like that. She then wondered absently how they fit two beds in the loft, and how they had gotten them up there in the first place.

*************

Nearly a hundred miles away, Jude Meyer was staring into his drink in a grungy pub. Next to him lay a letter from his brother, demanding that they meet at once in Tenebris. Apparently, they had orders from the King.

Jude mentally scoffed. King. He had a good idea of what kind of king Oliver Lee would be, and he wasn’t eager to have to follow his orders. He was already struggling to maintain some amount of respect in the ranks of the bounty hunters without upsetting his older brother too much, and this would put strain on their already tense relationship. He hadn’t seen his brother in over a year, but he could still picture him clearly in his mind’s eye; the stocky figure, the thin lips, that hated scar running down his cheek. He thought briefly of Rexroth, the woman who had put it there so many years ago. He had seen her once, unbeknownst to her or Caleb. He was barely a man at the time, but he knew a dangerous person when he saw one, and there was something in the way that she held herself, even in a split second from across a crowded street, that made him respect her. He wondered if Oliver was going to send them after her and the witch.

“No, probably not,” he muttered to himself. Probably after the renegade princess. She had been officially announced dead shortly after the seemingly random attack on Mulciber, but he knew better. He had friends in the Royal Guard, and he knew that no one had been able to find her body. She may have still been buried in the rubble, but no one had found her maid yet either, even after the servant’s quarters had been dug out and explored. Jude thought that they must have escaped during the attack and gotten away fast enough that the first search party missed them. But there were still men looking, and Jude almost hoped that the women had been smart enough to leave the country and never return. Princess Annabelle had a reputation for being smart and kind, but he knew that there was no way a blind, young, sheltered woman would be able to take power and rule effectively. Best she lived a decent, anonymous life in the East.

Jude finished his whiskey and took to the darkened streets, sweeping a long dark cloak over his shoulders. He needed to round up his men. They had a meeting to attend.

*************

Quinn felt a sense of déjà vu as Ember pulled her through the forest again the next morning. Once again, the usually outgoing witch was silent. She seemed to be in an odd mood that morning, strange green eyes often staring vacantly into space. It only served to remind Quinn that as friendly and helpful as Ember seemed, she was still an unknown. Quinn was hesitant to speak in the thick atmosphere that seemed to be surrounding them, but there was something niggling at the back of her mind that she couldn’t keep to herself.

“Ember,” she said timidly. “If it’s this easy for you to give me my sight back, why did you leave me blind ten years ago? Why didn’t you wait for me to recover a bit and then heal my eyes?”

Ember stopped so short that Quinn nearly crashed into her. Quinn braced herself for anger when she saw the harsh look on the witch’s face, but Ember wasn’t even looking at her. Instead, she was looking off into the trees, eyes hard as though she were remembering something unpleasant.

“Don’t you dare think for a moment that it was my choice to leave you that way,” she said after a moment, her voice low. “What you have to understand is that first of all, I am not a full witch. The man you saw in that painting, my father; he was human, like you. The reason that there are so few witches alive is that for one to be born healthy, they must have fully magical parents. In fact, to my knowledge, I’m the only half-breed to exist. The reason they usually don’t survive is that they’re born with the ability to channel energy, but not a body capable of sustaining it. I very nearly died because of that, it’s why my hair is white. Now, obviously I can heal people and use magic without dying, but only because I am extremely careful about how much I use my abilities. To bring you back from the brink of death, I had to stand at death’s door myself.”

Ember paused, obviously looking back and gathering her thoughts. Quinn, for her part, was surprised and moved at what Ember had done for her. “Ember…” she started, but she was quickly cut off.

“Hush. Listen. I had to stand at death’s door, but it was worth it to save the heir to my country’s throne. Don’t belittle me by thanking me. Now, I had made it clear to your father what would happen. I told him that if he’d just let me recover nearby for a few days, I would be well enough to finish the healing. He, however, couldn’t find it within himself to both let me have access to his daughter and stay in his own domain for more time than was absolutely necessary. He’s always been a bit paranoid, as I’m sure you know, and he thought that I was plotting against him. Once it became clear that you were on the mend, he sent me away and made it clear that I was not welcome back. He probably thought that I was going to try to manipulate your mind or something, or maybe he just liked the idea of keeping you from becoming too independent. I suppose we’ll never know.”

Quinn found herself wanting to respond, to let Ember know how much it meant to her that the older woman had put her life on the line only to be thrown out without a thanks, how kind it was that Ember once again take care of her despite having been treated so rudely by her family, but she held her tongue. The witch clearly disliked open gratitude.

Ember sighed again. “I suppose I shouldn’t be too harsh on him though. He was frantic when I got there; he really loved you, you know. I’ll never understand why he let happen what he did, but the thought of losing you nearly killed him.”

They began walking again, but Quinn had one more question that she needed to ask.

“Ember, this may sound stupid or childish, and maybe it is foolish to assume that you know, but you already understand so much more than I do about magic and energy, so-“

“Quinn! Ask the question. And stop sounding so damn proper all the time, it makes me tense. You’re not in a castle right now; you’re allowed to talk like a human being.”

Quinn felt affronted for a moment at Ember’s bluntness, but quickly shook it off. She may have been raised as royalty, but she had no qualms with trying to blend in with her people better. She shook her head, tried to let go of a bit of the strict tendencies she’d grown up with, and asked, “What happens after you die? I know what people always say: that you rest for a year and a day in either Heaven or Hell, depending on how you lived your life, and then you are reborn. But that just sounds so simple and childish now that people I know are actually dying, and I don’t want to think that they just blinked out of existence either. So, as a witch, do you think it’s true?”

Ember seemed to consider this for a moment, tilting her head to the side and looking to the sky. Even as her eyes left the ground, her feet, clad in beautiful, if worn, soft leather boots, never missed a step. She made no noise as she walked, and sometimes it seemed as though the grass and ferns parted for her before her foot touched the ground. The forest surrounding them seemed to bow to her.

“Even witches don’t have concrete knowledge about the Spirit Land, but sometimes it seems as though we can remember our old lives. Sometimes, when I push deep into my mind, I remember living another life with another name. Sometimes I even remember Juvenis, and I wonder if I’ve known her for longer than only thirteen years. I believe that the stories are true, that we have all lived many lives on this grand old earth. As for Heaven or Hell, I like to think that there is some sort of judgment between lives. I hate to think that power-hungry monsters like Morana don’t get the same treatment as the rest of us.”

“…Where do you think my father would’ve ended up?” asked Quinn.

“Where do you think he deserves to be?” replied Ember neutrally.

Quinn thought for a few moments. She remembered him as he had been before he died, small-minded and uncaring, but she remembered little glimpses of a different him. Once, he had cared for her. Once, he had loved his little princess.

“I don’t know,” she murmered in response. “I really don’t know.”