Chapter 64

And into the Freezer

Tanlor was already sitting up in his bed when Daegan entered the infirmary. A bandage wrapped around his head with a dark stain where the man had bled from. The dressings that Rowan had applied to his wounded leg already changed with clean linens.

“Tell this man that I’m fine,” Tanlor said to Daegan as he entered, nodding to the grey-haired healer from earlier.

“Yes, because I healed your wounds. But this healing comes with a price, yes? Surely a soldier such as yourself knows this. You are experiencing the adrenaline rush? Of course you are! This is not your body, I can assure, no, no. This is your edir. It is surging, you see? To accelerate the natural healing process of your body. It is a famous error to mistake this feeling for being completely fine but I assure you this; once your edir has finished the job, it will crash… This energy you have will flee from you faster than the winds.” The healer laid a gentle but firm hand on Tanlor’s chest and pressed him back into the bed. “Rest. Allow your edir to continue it’s work, and then your body to rest.”

“We’ll leave in the morning,” Daegan said reassuringly to Tanlor.

“No, no,” the healer whipped his head around to Daegan, “are you the healer here? No? You have a bloodstone on you? I didn’t think so. This man will stay here for two days, no less than this. He needs sleep. You young men are always all the same. Rush, rush, rush, but this will kill you if you continue this way. Allow your body to rest.”

Tanlor was rolling his eyes as the healer walked away from them, continuing to mutter to himself about the recklessness of younger men.

“So not tomorrow then,” Daegan said with a smirk. The two men’s eyes met awkwardly and Daegan shifted his step uncomfortably, “I wanted to thank you,” Daegan said.

“There’s no need,” Tanlor replied, “just doing my job.”

“Still,” Daegan insisted, “I was… being…” he fumbled.

“Really, it’s fine,” Tanlor breathed, laying his head back onto the pillow.

“Where’s Rowan?” Tanlor asked, his eyes closing, “I want to run over the plan with him for heading north. He remembers the trails around here better than me.” Daegan felt an anxious knot form in his stomach.

“We, uh,” Daegan started, “we’re not going north.” Tanlor’s eyes snapped back open.

“What?”

“I’m heading home—”

“—You can’t be serious!” Tanlor pushed himself back up on the bed, his brow furrowing. “You’ve seen Ferath fight and you want to just offer yourself on a platter to him?!”

“I need to get back to Reldon,” he maintained, “Rowan’s agreed to escort me to Nordock. I would have you too if you want to join us.” Tanlor’s expression turned dark.

“No,” he growled, “you’re staying up here until Duke Edmund calls us back.”

“I’m sorry, Tanlor, but no,” Daegan defended, “I need to return home… I need to figure out who is trying to have me killed and I can’t do that if I’m running off into the hills from assassins.”

“You owe me,” Tanlor rebuffed.

“You’re right… I do,” he granted, “and that’s why I’m asking you to stay with me… Let me repay you when we get to Epilas.”

“I’m not going to abandon my duty,” Tanlor said with resolution.

“What is Edmund offering you that I cannot?”

Tanlor went quiet for a few moments. The two held each other’s gaze with stiff expressions. Daegan admired Tanlor’s adamant loyalty to the Archduke, but there was a part of him that felt there was more to it than that. Daegan had spent the past two weeks seething at Tanlor for the way that he’d spoken to him. People had been rude to him his entire life, sometimes outright hostile but it had stung when he’d been on the receiving end from Tanlor. However throughout his anger he never put any thoughts to the words Tanlor had actually said.

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Tanlor’s jaw was tensing now, the way it had that day in the yard. And again, on the street in Urundock when Daegan had told Tanlor to go home. You’re not better than me. I’m not good enough for your halls, your parties… your daughters. The man clearly had issues when it came to nobility. He was a bodyguard to rich and powerful people but his own grandfather had been the Duke of Garronforn.

The healer seemed to take the gap in their conversation as an opportunity to walk over to them, “you’re Taran the Hunter’s son if I’m not mistaken?” Tanlor shot the man daggers with his eyes but the bespectacled man didn’t even look up from a notebook he was reading over to notice.

“Yes, yes… you are. Your brother, the red haired brute. I thought it was you two. I healed your father’s broken arm once before, you know.” Tanlor did take his eyes off Daegan as the healer spoke, nor did he respond to the man.

“Such a humble man, your father, a good honest man. I was so sorry to hear about his passing.” Daegan felt the fire in Tanlor’s eyes.

“Now is not the best time,” Daegan directed to the healer who didn’t seem to take the hint at all.

“Did your father tell you the story?” the healer continued, “He was hunting a ferrax, can you believe it?! Normally, I would scoff at such endeavours, but a hero like your father… well, yes, yes, if anyone was going to take down one of those, it would–”

“–He didn’t tell me it,” Tanlor scowled at the man, his tone had a sharp edge to it and the healer finally seemed to catch that he was pushing a sensitive topic.

“Ah, well, um, another time, so, yes,” and then he was ambling back to the other side of the infirmary.

Tanlor’s jaw was tense and Daegan sat down on the bed next to the man’s.

“You hate him?” Daegan tried, “Your father? For lying to you?” Tanlors eyes shot back to Daegan, his face curled in anger. He reached forward and Daegan jumped embarrassingly in surprise. Tanlor grabbed for his grey travelling cloak hanging by his bed and fished inside it roughly.

Daegan did his best to hold a face of understanding compassion. I’m your friend. He tried to convey in it, you can talk to me. Tanlor pulled out a topaz of all things. It was dim but Tanlor closed his eyes and breathed out a sigh.

“It’s ok to hate him,” Daegan said. Gods know that I hate mine. The anger seemed to melt away from Tanlor’s face, and he looked down.

“I don’t…” Tanlor faltered, “I never hated him… I idolised him.”

“And he lied to you.”

“No one ever asks about me. I’ve been in more battles than my father ever was. I’ve been the hero. All I’ve wanted…” he sighed, “Taran the Hunter, that’s all people want to hear about. Nobody cares about the things I’ve done.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Daegan offered, optimistically, “rescuing the kids at Crossroads. That story was being told in every town we passed through…” then he mused for a moment, “you’ve saved the life of a Reldoni prince… twice actually.”

“No one will ever hear of this story though.”

“Maybe… maybe not… come with me to Epilas. Let your story be known.” Tanlor met Daegan’s eye again. There was no awkwardness in it this time. No distrust or hostility. “I’m asking you as my friend,” Daegan implored, “I need you.”

Tanlor’s head bowed, his expression softening, turning thoughtful. Then his head twisted back to his cloak, he swung his legs out from the bed and reached for the cloak again.

“Hey, hey,” Daegan started to protest the movement. He didn’t want another scolding from the healer but Tanlor waved him off. He reached into an inner pocket in the cloak and pulled out a small piece of smooth jade and stuffed away his topaz. Daegan watched in confusion as Tanlor slumped back on to the bed, staring at the small green rock.

“That’s…?” Daegan started.

“A signal stone,” Tanlor replied quietly.

“Ah,” Daegan replied in understanding. Bondstone. A rare and expensive runestone, more valuable than bloodstone—or even a Foebreaker’s diamond. “The Archduke has its pair,” Daegan guessed and Tanlor nodded, not taking his eyes off the stone.

“It should turn red,” Tanlor said, “when its companion stone is activated.”

“What happens then?”

“I take you back to Rubastre.”

“And then?”

“And then Edmund gives me everything I’ve ever wanted.”

“And what is that?” Daegan asked carefully. Tanlor looked up from the stone.

“Danielle,” he said softly.

Danielle? Daegan’s mind flicked through the names and faces of the nobility he’d met in Rubastre. He’d met a lot of women in the months that he’d been there, but his mind rested on one. “Duke Harfallow’s daughter?” Daegan recalled her blond hair, her alabaster skin, her kind words. He’d met her on a few occasions. She had been cordial, but Daegan could tell she had only been meeting with him to appease a request from her father.

“We’ve been in love for years,” Tanlor spoke lightly now, his eyes sparking with a joy that Daegan had never seen in them before.

“Harfallow doesn’t approve?”

“He doesn’t know… he would never…”

“I understand.”

“If you understand then you know why I can’t let you go…”

A horn sounded outside and both men’s heads whipped around at the sound. The healer was on his feet again rushing to the door, his face a mask of alarm.

“What is it?” Daegan asked but the man had already disappeared through the doorway. Tanlor was getting up out of the bed and Daegan met his eyes, “what’s happening?”

“That’s a war horn… someone is attacking Twin Garde.”