She smiled at him and crept off toward the winery. Seeing her retreat, he released the young monks and stalked off after her.
Entering the building after her, he cornered her. “What were you thinking?” he demanded.
“Completing the mission,” she defended herself.
“It was too dangerous,” he seethed.
“What’s done is done, and I really had no choice,” she reminded him.
He grudgingly accepted, but he was more perturbed than she’d ever seen him, and it heartened her to know that it wasn’t just for his sake that he worried.
Kala placed a hand on his arm. “Thank you for caring,” she told him and handed him the book from her basket.
He took it and stalked off in a huff. She smiled at his back.
Grey spent the night studying the book. In the morning, he told her that they needed to head north of Bayre.
“That’s as good a place as any to go. We’ll deposit Lily there with a friend of mine,” Kala replied, looking over at her chatting with Skye. “Family meeting,” Kala called out good-naturedly, and everyone gathered close around her.
“Grey and I are heading to Bayre,” she started. She turned to Lily and Forest and added. “I have a friend there that I’d like you to meet.”
Lily smiled her acceptance. “This is your corner of the world. I’ll go where I’m told.” Her resignation since being separated from Cera broke Kala’s heart a little more every day.
“I guess this is where we part ways,” Jarom announced. In response to Kala’s confusion, he clarified. “From what Skye tells me, there are horsemen on the plains northeast of here, and Thorvyn and I are going to go see if we can enlist them to aid us.”
“They’re brigands,” Skye reminded him.
“Who’s a brigand and who isn’t is always a matter of perspective,” Jarom countered, and Skye rolled his eyes to signal that it wasn’t the first time they’d had that argument.
Forest took the opportunity to chime in. “I’m going with them.” Lily pivoted to object, but Forest took her hand gently. “I’m going where I’m useful. Besides, I want to see the lands of the horsemen. Sorry, sis. I won’t take chances,” she reassured her.
Lily hugged her. “I imagine that I couldn’t stop you any more than I could stop the sun from rising. Come back to me.”
Forest returned her hug and stepped back beside Nara.
“Grey has arranged for horses,” Jarom told them. “We’ll leave immediately.
Kala shot Grey an accusing look for keeping her in the dark, but he just shrugged.
“I think this is where I get off, too,” Skye added. Kala looked mortified, so he said quickly, “We need allies, and I know people north of Bayre on the coast. I have to do my best to press them into aiding us. We all do.”
Kala started to protest, so he pulled her aside and whispered to her, “I can’t live out this war in your shadow. Let me do this.”
A single tear ran down her cheek, and he wiped it away with his thumb and kissed her deeply. “This isn’t goodbye,” he repeated her words back to her.
She nodded, incapable of speech.
“Can I borrow your amulet?” he asked. “Dhara’s got mine, and Grey has his own.”
“Of course,” she said and pulled it from under her collar to hand to him.
Hawke strode up. “I’ll keep him safe,” he assured her.
“Do that,” Kala managed and hugged him.
She stepped back and looked at each person around the room. Their paths were decided, and their futures awaited.
“Gods’ speed,” Jarom concluded, and the party split up.
The airship in which Brother Grey, Kala, and Lily rode landed safely east of Bayre. “Safer than in the middle of town,” Grey concluded. “Even if it is a bit of a hike back to the city.”
They headed toward Bayre and Grey surprised Kala by leading them right to the hidden entrance to the tunnels that lay under Bayre.
“You’ve been here before,” she observed.
“I’ve been a great many places,” he replied and pushed back the vines for them to enter. He lit a torch once they were inside and led them under the walls of Bayre.
They emerged from a grate into an alley in a quiet part of town, and Grey turned the lead over to Kala.
“The last time I was here,” she said, “my friends were relocating to somewhere safer, so I’m not sure exactly where they are now, but I have an idea of where to look.” She led them to the place where she’d seen Celeste perform and asked the doorman, “Is Celeste performing anytime soon?”
“You’re in luck,” he replied. “She’s on tonight.”
Kala paid for their entrance, and they sat at a table near the stage.
“Shouldn’t we go see your friend backstage?” Grey asked.
“I wouldn’t miss hearing her sing for the world. Trust me. This will be magical.”
Grey looked skeptical but acquiesced. Lily looked around the lounge, lit as it was by a multitude of lanterns. Kala thought she saw a glimmer of a spark return to her eyes.
They bided their time, sipping on their drinks, Grey contenting himself with water. The band changed tempo, and a few lanterns were extinguished to dim the light.
“It’s starting,” Kala exclaimed, rubbing her hands together gleefully.
Celeste stepped out onto the stage and sat down gracefully on a stool. She canted her head and began to sing low and soulfully. Her voice rose and fell as she sang the story of star-crossed lovers.
Kala’s heart swelled in her chest, and she drifted away on the melody until it ended, and she found herself settling back into her body.
“Amazing,” Lily said, her cheeks wet with tears.
“Isn’t she, though?” Kala agreed, squeezing Lily’s hand, and rising to greet Celeste.
Celeste shrieked her hello, hugged Kala, and stepped off the stage to come sit with them.
“Tell me everything,” Kala demanded.
“Let’s see,” Celeste began. “Twill sold some paintings and bought Petr a new guitar. He was a bit shaken up by the beating and from seeing you take out those guards, but he’s bounced back all right. I don’t see him too much as he moved out with his girlfriend.”
“He has a girlfriend?”
“Much to Twill’s chagrin. I think he was always sweet on Petr, despite their bickering. But he says heartbreak only fuels his art, and I have to admit, he’s gotten quite good.”
“Never mind them. What about you and your makeshift orphanage? What about the Resistance?”
Celeste chuckled. “It’s still going strong, just relocated. Frey ran off to become a monk assassin. You had quite an effect on him.”
Grey raised an eyebrow in her direction, but Kala didn’t elaborate.
Kala took Celeste’s hands in hers. “How are you?” she asked earnestly.
“I’m well. I miss you and Skye though,” she admitted wistfully. “Can you stay this time?”
Kala shook her head sadly. “I can’t, but if my friend Lily could, I’d be grateful.”
“Is she an assassin too?” Celeste asked.
Lily spit out her drink “Sorry,” she said, wiping her face with a napkin.
“No,” Kala replied. “But she makes an impressive scone.”
“I’m not sure that’s a fair trade, but any friend of yours is a friend of mine,” Celeste declared magnanimously and reached across the table to hand Lily a second napkin.
Grey and Kala stepped out of the airship, surrounded by marsh as far as the eye could see, and were greeted by a plaintive wail carried on the wind.
“Why does it always have to be so creepy?” Kala asked.
“So we know we’re in the right place,” Grey replied.
28
Forest
Forest stroked the neck of her steed as they rode north. She loved the sensation when her horse surged forward and the feel of the wind in her hair. I was made for this, she thought. She breathed in the smell of her
horse and the grasses that the horses trampled with their hooves. It felt clean and alive, not at all like the smell of the woods that closed in around you and hemmed you in.
She looked beside her at Nara and Thorvyn, who were riding side-by-side, then ahead at Jarom, who led them, and behind at the rest of their small party. While they rode roughly northeast, they’d sometimes veer off course to hunt for water for the horses. They succeeded in finding streams that would appear out of the ground and disappear just as quickly, and pools of water hidden in hollows. Thorvyn had a sense for these things, and he would ride up alongside Jarom and give him advice about the direction in which to ride.
The plains rolled under their horses’ hooves for days on end, and at night they’d shelter under the stars beside any copse of trees that could provide wood for a fire and a place to rest their horses.
They hadn’t seen any trace of the peoples rumored to inhabit the northern plains, and Forest was beginning to wonder if they’d joined Soren in marching south, or whether they existed at all. Jarom crested a rise in front of her and pulled his horse to a sudden stop. Forest was yanked from her daydreaming as she followed suit and came to a halt beside him. Arrayed in front of them was a force of a hundred riders with spears pointed at them. As the rest of Jarom’s party crested the rise, the riders in front of them circled them until they were surrounded.
Jarom raised his hands in surrender, and the rest of the party followed suit.
One of the riders encircling them urged his horse forward. “Why do you trespass on our lands?” he asked.
Forest leaned over and whispered to Jarom.
“We’d like to talk with your leader,” Jarom told the man.
“I’m the leader,” the man declared, “so talk.”
“If it’s all the same to you, we’d rather talk to your actual leader,” Jarom repeated resolutely.
“Stand down, Gerald,” a man called from behind the self-declared leader, and Gerald wheeled and rejoined the host. A younger man rode forward. “What makes you think that Gerald isn’t our leader?”
Jarom looked at Forest, then turned to address the man. “My niece here points out that everything about Gerald indicates that he’s a man who rides to the right of the host.”
“So?” the man asked impatiently.
“A leader rides in the middle. Gerald is no leader, no offense to the man,” Jarom concluded.
“Interesting,” the man replied. “You heard the man, Gerald,” he called over his shoulder, laughing. “You’re no leader.” He turned back to Jarom. “I’m Jon, and I’m no more the leader of this bunch than that bush over there is, but you pique my curiosity, so I’ll take you to the person who is.” He motioned to his men to lower their spears and wheeled his horse toward the east.
Jarom spurred his horse to follow Jon, as did the remainder of his party. The hundred riders spread out to enclose them in a loose circle that still made it clear that they were at the horsemen’s mercy. Jon guided them between two low hills into an encampment of hundreds more men and women moving around a cluster of tents that filled the hollow.
“We would have ridden right past them,” Forest marveled to Jarom. “I wonder how many times we rode past similar groups.”
Jon led them to a large tent and dismounted while his horse still trotted. He jogged to a stop in front of the tent’s opening and called inside, “Cousin, we have visitors.”
A moment later, a boy around Forest’s age strode out into the daylight. He looked Jarom’s party over. “Why shouldn’t I have you killed where you sit?” he asked, bored.
Forest urged her mount ahead a pace. “I’ve got this,” she told Jarom, who signaled his deferral. She turned to the speaker and declared, “Because then you’d never hear our stories of distant lands, and you’d go back to being bored.”
He perked up. “I’m listening.”
Forest shifted in her saddle. “That’s piss poor hospitality,” she declared. “At least offer me a drink, and we’ll chat.”
The boy stood shocked, and his riders shifted in their saddles. “This girl has bigger balls than a hundred plainsmen,” the boy declared to his riders, then turned to Forest. “You’ve earned yourself and your friends a drink.” He turned to Jon. “See to their mounts,” he ordered. Jon bowed low and strode forward to collect the reins of Forest’s party’s horses.
Forest, Jarom, Nara, Thorvyn and the rest of Jarom’s kin dismounted and followed the boy into his tent. It was surprisingly spacious, with tall polls supporting the ceiling. Cushions were stacked on pelts that covered the floor. An enormous lantern hung in the center of the tent, and its light shining through a myriad openings created the illusion of a star-scape on the tent ceiling.
He boy bade them sit down and instructed one of his men to fetch hot cider. He sat down on a pile of cushions. “Allow me to introduce myself,” he said grandly. “I’m Addis.”
“It is our pleasure to make the acquaintance of a horse-lord of the open plains,” Forest replied. “I’m Forest, and this is Jarom, my uncle. The rest of our party are his kin or under his protection.”
“Forest,” Addis mused. “You’re out of your element here on the plains.”
“Not so much,” Forest replied. “I was named Meadow at birth.”
“Fancy that,” Addis replied. “What brings you so far from your home to my lands?”
“We’re seeking allies in the conflict that has embroiled the south. The barbarians of the northwest advance south and east, and we’ve been battling them.”
Addis whistled his appreciation. A man handed Forest a tiny glass of hot cider in an intricately wrought holder, and she took a sip.
“Thank you for this,” she lifted her glass to Addis.
“You’re welcome,” he replied, taking a sip from his own glass. “Why should the riders of the northeast concern themselves with the troubles of strangers to the south?”
“I’d say ‘for mutual self-interest,’ but I can tell that you feel no threat from the forces south of here, so instead, I’ll say, ‘for the glory of riding against a host larger than your own and immortalizing your name in song.’ Isn’t that what men of the plains live for?”
“I would say that you know us fairly well, Forest of the south, but there’s plenty of glory right here.”
“If you say so,” she concluded and put down her glass. “Thank you for the drink, but I think we’re done here,” she said and strode to the tent flap.
“Wait,” he called after her and rose from his seat. “Walk with me,” he requested.
Forest waited in the opening as Addis called over his shoulder to his man, “Feed our guests,” and exited with her.
Forest looked at Addis impatiently. “I don’t mean to offend, but we need to be on our way. We have allies to find.”
“Your friends need to eat. You have at least a little time,” he told her.
“Every moment we delay, people die.” She turned to look him in the eye. “I’ve seen villages put to the torch, my own among them. I’ve heard the cries of people I care about being cut down. I will not tolerate this to continue, even if I’m on a fool’s errand.”
“I admire your passion,” he told her. “Please join your friends at my table. I have things to take care of,” he told her and strode off, leaving her alone.
She returned to the tent frustrated and sat down glumly beside Jarom. He handed her a terra cotta bowl containing a steaming dish of lamb and chickpeas.
“I think we’re wasting our time here,” she said bitterly.
“Perhaps, but you followed your instincts well. Do you think Addis will interfere with our leaving?”
“He likes to bluster, but he has no quarrel with us. He’ll let us leave,” Forest concluded. “But if we can’t convince him to help us, I don’t think we’ll convince anyone. I think we need to return south and explore other options.”
Jarom mulled this over. “I’ll ask Thorvyn what he thinks, but it’s getting late in the day. We wouldn
’t make it far tonight. I suggest we stay here tonight, if Addis allows it, and in the morning, go wherever we decide.” He got up and left Forest chewing ruefully on her lamb.
In the morning, Jarom found Forest brushing her horse. “Thorvyn agrees with you. We ride south.” He stalked off to tell the others, and Forest saddled her horse.
She walked over to Addis’s tent to thank him for his hospitality, but he was nowhere to be found. Figures, she thought, and strode back to her horse, joining the others. They mounted their horses and rode south.
The horses needed a rest near midday, so they stopped and dismounted. Thorvyn looked north and called their attention to a cloud rolling in and the sound of distant thunder.
“That’s not weather,” Jarom declared and walked toward the roiling cloud of dust. Forest joined him.
A wall of armed riders crested the hill, chasing them down. Jarom put his arm on Forest’s shoulder. Addis rode out of the pack and halted his horse in front of them. “Which way to glory?” he asked.
29
Kala
Kala and Grey stepped out onto the marshes. Off the dais on which the airship rested, it was hard to spot solid land, and they had to be careful not to get sucked into the bog.
“Which direction?” Kala asked.
Grey scanned the horizon. “That way,” he said, pointing to distant hills.
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