by Erin Johnson
He only shook his head in response.
After another four hours (at least that's how it felt to my tired, bare feet and shaky muscles) our path descended down a mountainside. We rounded a corner and the trees thinned enough to see over the cliffside into the valley below. I gasped in a breath, not only at the sight that met me, but at the incredible force of magical power I sensed.
A massive camp stretched along the ravine at the base of the slope, under the ruins of a broken wood bridge covered in moss and vines. White and green tents dotted the ground and hundreds, no thousands of people milled about. They gathered around smoking campfires and turned spits of roasting meat. Others sharpened knives or huddled together playing games with dice. The murmur of chatter reached my ears.
My jaw dropped. "Wow."
Leo sidled up beside me. "Impressed?" His voice came out slightly strained. Tight with emotion?
I glanced up at him and found his jaw set, his eyes intense as he gazed down at the camp below. "That, Imogen, is your brother's Badlands Army. Is it what you imagined?"
I shook my head as I turned to watch the people going about their lives in this secret settlement deep in the forest. "It's—it's more, honestly. I didn't expect so many people or that they'd look so…." I searched for the right word. "Peaceful." And they did. I'd expected sword practice and maybe a few floggings for people who'd misbehaved. And I hadn't expected there to be so many women with swords at their hips or bows slung across their shoulders, or so many people who appeared to be from all across the different kingdoms.
We picked our way down the steep path, then pushed our way through the tall ferns and shrubs. Smoke from the cooking fires tickled my nose as we neared, and the sound of voices grew louder. I stepped into the clearing behind Leo. A woman sat nearby in front of her tent on a tree stump.
She looked up from brushing a brown leather boot and nodded at Leo, then her dark eyes fell on me. Her brows lifted, but after a brief glance, she returned to cleaning her boot. I bit my lip, suddenly nervous. Would my brother's friends like me? Leo certainly didn't seem to.
I mentally shook myself. Come on, Imogen, these are terrorists, why should I care what they think of me? I held my head higher and followed Leo, weaving through the tents, past dice games and men cleaning swords and magically self-washing dishes that dunked themselves in buckets of sudsy water for a rinse.
A few Badlanders looked up as we passed, their eyes flitting over me.
"Leo." A man with a deep voice nodded in acknowledgment, his eyes lingering on me.
I nudged Leo and spoke out of the corner of my mouth. "Do they know who I am?"
Leo nodded as he passed a man with a ponytail and a scar across his eye. "Probably. Horace has described you to us, and they know I've been assigned to watch you."
I shook my head. "Stalker."
"I'd have let you drown if I knew this was the thanks I'd be getting."
I gaped up at him, ready to retort with something along the lines of “red-headed step-terrorist,” but shut my mouth when I took in his appearance. Leo had grown even paler—a blue vein bulged at his temple and cracks creased his dry lips. I frowned. "Are you all right? You don't look so good."
He darted a quick glance at me. "Aaaaaaand the compliments just keep coming."
I rolled my eyes, then had to jump quickly to the side to avoid walking straight into a huge man with an armful of chopped wood. "Sorry."
The man scowled and grunted, "Watch your step," then continued on.
I cleared my throat. "Talkative bunch."
Leo, dark bags below his eyes, shot me a heavy-lidded glare and snapped, "Watch your step."
I clicked my tongue. "Why don't you like me?" I looked right and left, trying to keep up with Leo without tripping over a log or stepping into someone's fire while I took it all in.
"Why do you think I don't like you?" Leo practically grunted the words, his voice low and strained. He turned and led me back the way we'd come, skirting the outer border of the camp.
"You're rude to me, first of all." I frowned. "And why are we heading back this way? I haven't seen it all yet. Where's my brother?"
Leo rounded on me and I recoiled at his sunken cheeks and bloodshot eyes. "You've seen all you're going to see today. I'm taking you back to Kusuri."
7
A Good Impression
"No." I knew I was being childish, but I planted my feet and crossed my arms. "You can't make me."
He cocked his head.
"Okay, well yes, you probably could." I waved a hand. "But I meant, if Horace wants to see me, you can't disobey him. I have a right to see my brother."
He narrowed his eyes. "Maybe he doesn't want to see you."
That stung. It'd been the fear in the back of my head all these weeks—that I couldn't find Horace because he didn't want to be found… at least, not by me. I lifted my chin and tried to act assured. "Of course he wants to see me—I'm his sister."
Leo let out a weary sigh. "He's not here right now." He grabbed my arm and steered me back toward the forest.
I glanced behind him. A white tent, larger than all the others, sat back away from the rest of the camp, tucked in amongst the thick foliage. "Whose tent is that?"
Leo glanced at it, then dragged me a few steps away. "It doesn't matter."
I gaped up at him and my heart picked up its pace. "You're lying." I opened my mouth to protest but Leo held up a finger.
"If you don't come with me, right now, I promise you, you will never see this camp or your brother again."
My face fell. "That's a horrible thing to threaten."
A rueful expression flashed across Leo's face, but it faded a moment later when his pained expression returned. He jerked his head and turned his back to me. "C'mon, then."
My breath came in quick pants as Leo dragged me further away—away from my chance to see my brother. I licked my lips, glanced up at Leo's strained expression, then turned toward the tent. "Horace! Horace!"
My shouts echoed through the clearing. Faces whirled my way, the camp suddenly much quieter. Eep. I was committed now, though. I opened my mouth to call out again, but Leo's rough palm clamped down over my face, stifling my cries. I reached up and tugged at his strong fingers, struggling to pry his hand off my mouth, when an eerie screech filled the air.
Goose bumps prickled my arms and I froze. It sounded again, closer now.
Leo scowled down at me and hissed, "You've attracted the attention of a monster."
My stomach twisted. Guess that's why the camp had been so quiet….
"We'll have to clear the camp out now, move to a new location. We're going—now."
He dropped his hand from my face and dragged me forward by the arm. I didn't fight him, but I couldn't help glancing back at that white tent, just in case Horace decided to come out. The camp erupted into a flurry of movement, tents magically folding in on themselves, pots and maps and weapons flying into trunks, people scurrying about to break down the camp. I couldn't believe how quiet they were.
Finally I turned and followed Leo back up into the forest, my heart heavy. I had certainly not made a good impression on Horace's army. I felt bad that I'd exposed their camp. "Will everyone get out safely?" I whispered.
Leo sighed, his shoulders slumped. "Probably."
I glanced back one last time at the Badlands Army camp before we entered the thick of the forest and it disappeared from sight.
We walked the whole way back to Kusuri in near silence. Leo moved stiffly, his shoulders hunched, and by the time we reached the bridge that spanned the moat to town, he was practically limping.
I frowned. He'd fought a strong current to rescue me from the river and teased me for wimping out on the march to the camp—how was he now so worn out? I shook my head and filed it away as one of the many mysteries around my brother and his army.
Leo finally turned to face me. He swayed on his feet, his eyes half-closed, and sweat plastered his red hair to his forehead.
"Maybe your company is more exhausting than you know."
I folded my arms and sighed. "When will I see Horace?"
He turned and limped back the way we'd come.
I threw my hands up. "Good talk, good talk."
Leo glanced over his shoulder. "Horace will find you when he's ready to."
I rolled my eyes and called after him as he disappeared back into the shadows of the forest. "Great! So it's a don't call us, we'll call you type situation?" With a heavy sigh I plodded across the bridge back to town.
8
Kusuri
I wound my way up the main street of town, the stones that formed the road warm under my bare feet. I hoped someone had grabbed my sandals from the riverbank where I'd left them. They'd been a gift from Misaki and were really comfy now that I'd broken the leather straps in.
I entered the center stretch where shops and carts crowded together, selling produce, ceramics, and various other goods. The man who ran the tiny flower shop, which seemed to be squeezed into a gap between the bookstore and the quill shop, leaned out the open window and waved as I passed. Shimmering vines grew up around the window, and I'd noticed that if I stood and watched, I could actually see them creeping, slowly, but still visibly. I grinned and waved back, then continued on.
Luckily, the town was so clean and tidy, I didn't worry much about walking around barefoot—though I did jump out of the way of a group of giggling children who flew by, chasing a little boy with a wooden toy in his hands. I grinned as they dashed down one of the narrow side alleys. The little train, which magically puffed smoke out its stack, looked like one of Yann's creations. When he wasn't chopping wood or making repairs around the guesthouse for Jiji, he'd taken to sitting on the wide front porch and whittling little toys and trinkets for the neighborhood kids.
"Imogen?"
The woman's voice startled me out of my thoughts, and I whirled to find Mrs. Sato, the woman who wove beautiful silk scarves, at my side.
She chuckled. "Sorry to startle you."
I shook my head. "No—I should have been paying attention." We stepped to the side of the road to make way for a man driving a cart and stood in the shade of a shop's awning. "How are you?"
"Wonderful, thank you." She looked me up and down and raised a quizzical brow when she spotted my bare toes, but didn't comment. She held in both hands a little package wrapped in one of her silk scarves and tied with a knot. "If you're heading back to the guesthouse, would you mind passing this along to Miss Rhonda?" She lifted the gift toward me.
I pressed my eyes shut and forced a smile onto my face, willing myself not to roll my eyes. "Of course." I bit my lip, but couldn't help myself. "And what's she done this time?"
Mrs. Sato beamed and put the gift in my hands, which was surprisingly heavy for how small it was. "Oh, she used her wonderful gift." The middle-aged woman lightly touched the center of her forehead, indicating the spot where Rhonda glowed when she was receiving a vision. "She predicted a tree branch would fall on the roof of my silkworms' home." She flashed her eyes at me, as if I should understand what a great feat this was.
"Oh, wow." I lifted my brows and nodded along, though I had no idea why this was significant.
"Which of course would've startled them with the noise, or broken the roof and created a draft, at best, or it might have let in birds or rain." She clicked her tongue. "All of my potential silk would have been ruined—I might've gone out of business."
"Oh." I closed my mouth, begrudgingly more impressed with Rhonda's prediction. Mrs. Sato's magical scarves were real works of art, and multipurpose too. They could be worn, of course, but also held water (or repelled it), and were incredibly strong for being so gauzy and lightweight. I'd seen people in town use them to hold their babies to their chests, wrap them around their hands as oven mitts, and even once saw a man lash his cart to his horse with several lengths of her silk.
"And even worse." Mrs. Sato clutched her hands together, her dark eyes wide with emotion. "All of my babies might have been killed." She grew stern and shook a finger at me. "I'm not one of those silk producers who boils the poor things alive in their cocoons." She shook her head. "I wait till they hatch in their own time, and then take the shells after they've emerged as full-grown moths." She beamed like a proud mother.
I shook my head, not sure where to start. "Well, I'm glad that they were all okay… and that you don't boil them alive."
She smiled.
I lifted up the package she'd given me. "I'll be sure to pass this along to Rhonda."
"Thank you." She bowed, and I dipped my head also. "You're so lucky to be friends with her."
"Aren't I, though?" I forced another smile, waited for a woman riding a buck with a huge set of antlers to pass, then moved back on up the street. It wasn’t that I wasn't impressed with Rhonda, or happy that her gift was helping the people of Kusuri—I was. It's just, the rest of us were earning our keep at Jiji's by cooking dinners for twelve, scrubbing tubs and toilets and floors, weeding and harvesting the garden, setting traps for the gnomes, and more odd jobs around the place. And yes, we had magic to help, but it was still exhausting work.
Meanwhile, in our first week in town, Rhonda had predicted a fault in the wall that surrounded the city. The town was able to fix it, but just barely before a monster attacked that very spot. Ever since then, Rhonda (and Francis by association and charisma) had again become local celebrities.
The two slept all day, rolled out of bed in the late afternoon, schmoozed their way around town, and returned every morning with armfuls of gifts from locals showing their gratitude for Rhonda's visions. The seer passed these along to Jiji, who loved them, as her contribution for room and board, and then went back to sleep all day while the rest of us went about our chores.
I grinned at myself and shook my head. I couldn't begrudge those two their bizarrely strong charm. And besides, it was hard to be annoyed with the sun shining, the breeze blowing, and the birds chirping in the trees. I left the hustle and bustle of the marketplace behind, and just before I veered off the main road towards Jiji's, I passed what I thought of as the town's haunted house.
It rose two stories high with a peaked, shaggy thatched roof. Boards covered the windows at all angles and its large yard set it apart from all the other buildings in the town's center. It didn't help that its back wall bordered the cemetery. I frowned as I noted the flock of ink-black crows circling it, cawing. That was new.
As I passed through its shadow, goose bumps prickled my arms. Was it just me, or had the temperature dropped significantly? And was that the breeze rustling the tree leaves… or creepy whispers? I hugged Mrs. Sato's gift closer to my chest and hurried by, my eyes on the stone road.
Once past the creepy house, I let out the breath I'd been holding and ducked down a narrow alley toward the more residential area of town. I soon reached the guesthouse's beautiful, wild front garden and wound my way through the narrow, bamboo-lined path.
I grinned at the neat line of shoes when I reached the long, covered wooden porch—my leather sandals sat at the end farthest from the door. Someone had picked them up for me. No shoes to kick off today—though my feet were plastered in mud. I closed my eyes, summoned some power from the easy breeze, and magicked my feet clean before ducking through the blue curtains that hung over the open guesthouse door.
"Hello? Anyone home?" I looked around the empty lobby with its long, low wooden table. "I come bearing gifts?"
The footsteps padding down the wood hall sounded like a stampede, and a moment later the sliding paper door flew open.
9
Welcome Back
Misaki burst forward into the main room, followed closely by Jun, Captain Kenta, Ben, and Sam, who held Iggy in his lantern.
My smiled faltered. "Hey, guys…."
Misaki stopped, inches from my face. She pulled her normally full lips into a th
in, straight line and narrowed her dark eyes as she searched my face. "Did they hurt you?"
My eyes flew open in surprise. "No. What are you—"
"Good." She cut me off and leaned back, her expression hard. "Don't you ever disobey orders and wander off like that again. Understood?"
My lips twitched toward a smile. "While I appreciate the concern, I'm not actually a guard, remember?"
Her expression darkened. "True." She spoke through gritted teeth. "But we make an exception and allow you to venture out with us. If you'd like to keep that privilege, you'll follow orders—understood?"
I let out a heavy sigh. "Look, this guy Leo pulled me from the river—why would he do that if he was going to hurt me? Besides, I can defend myself—"
"Ha!" Iggy folded his little flame arms and glared at me.
I frowned at him, then looked back at the fuming Misaki. "I can. He took me to see the Badlands Army."
"And could you have defended yourself against all of them?" Iggy widened his round eyes. "Huh?"
"Yes, it was a little risky, but I made a judgment call." I looked around at Jun's pinched expression, Kenta's stern one, Ben, who hung his head, and Sam, who wrung his hands together. My shoulders slumped in exasperation. "Okay, fine. Maybe it wasn't the smartest move to wander off into the forest with a stranger."
"The monster-filled forest." Iggy raised a flame finger. "After you'd already scared us by almost drowning, I might add."
I raised my brows. "Noted." I turned back to Misaki. "I won't wander off alone again."
She lifted a thick, straight brow and pressed her mouth together in a look full of doubt.
I grabbed her shoulders and gave them a little squeeze. "I promise."
She blinked and her face softened. "Good."
Jun, who stood behind her, nudged her shoulder, and her eyes flitted to him, her mouth tugging toward a smile. She looked back at me and lifted a shoulder. "All right, let's have it then. What was it like?"
