From Iron and Ruin

Birchwood.

Chapter 38: Birchwood.

"Halon Birchwood?" Kohen murmured the name softly, scanning over the Half-Blood who sat opposite us. "I knew there was something familiar about you."

I didn't know if I recognised things on Halon's face, or that my brain was just inserting them in now that I knew who he was. That simmering anger, that unbent back...that could have been the boy I left in Aoak. I folded my shaking hands on my lap, aware of the attention shifting between the both of us.

"Should you?" Halon asked Kohen.

That bite. That could have been my Halon. He had been the brashest of the three, quick to defensive anger, even as a child but it had always come from a place of injustice. It had gotten him in trouble more times than I could count.

"I don't know who people are immediately." Kohen explained gently. "But I can work it out, depending on how they react to the world around them."

Halon's lips pinched, scouring us critically. Mahon was clearly thinking hard about something, his scowl heavy and his gaze intense. Heart thudding, I continued to stare at Halon. Wishing that I knew how to greet my brother after more than a decade.

Casually, Gwen picked at the food but her gaze slid between us quickly.

"So, is your village particularly big?" Mahon asked suddenly.

I recognised the questioning tone of his voice – he was gathering information before he struck. Halon turned to him and held Mahon's gaze without flinching. The fear of being murdered had seeped from him. He had our attention and he knew it.

"Aoak was once a small fishing village, but we have clawed our way to become a town. An important hub for trade along the north-east coast." Halon explained. "We are not so closed off that we haven't heard what was happening in the Empire, but we had escaped unscathed so far. Probably for far too long."

"It's funny isn't it?" Mahon asked aloud, "That Aoak would be attacked when Vanya failed an attempt on your life here in Adotlan and in Aldwynn?"

I wired my hands, bracing myself. "Mahon. This is not the time."

Mahon glanced at me, unperturbed. "She's clever, Seeker. She knows that you would drop everything, do anything to protect those you care about. This is a trap, can't you see?"

"An obvious trap." Gwen agreed uneasily.

"Oh, you agree with Mahon now of all times." Nerves bundling in my throat flamed to confronted anger. "Of course it's a trap. A brilliant trap because I'll walk into it knowingly. And Vanya knows it."

Halon broke in then, his voice bitter. "Why would our town be a trap for you, Seeker? Surely a trained warrior from a prestigious Keep would have bigger concerns."

Kohen shifted awkwardly in his chair, glancing at me reproachfully. "So much death in Dratlan. Silence after the white Keep fell. One Half-Blood survived, but no one believed that it was their blood. Why did you survive and she didn't?"

"But I am she?" I told him.

"He doesn't know that." Kohen told me. "Imagine he's a Nirani. You're braver with a weapon."

"Sometimes I wonder if Cat and Shiny have their own little language and quirks." Gwen declared. "Or that they can read each other's mind?"

"I often think that," Mahon said, almost with a touch of fondness. I needed to bring him to a healer.