She's the One Who Cares Too Much

by S. R. Cronin

  I stopped my horse.

  “Let’s keep moving. We need to be in Eds by nightfall.”

  We rode in silence for a while, me turning every bit of information over in my mind.

  Finally, Hana broke the silence right where she’d left off.

  “Natia doesn’t have to be in charge to do my bidding though. You don’t know this woman. Trust me, she’d enjoy arranging a fatal accident for Ryalgar’s little nephew. That’s how much she hates your sister. And that’s how desperately she wants to see me, her best friend, in charge of the Velka.”

  “Fatal? Fatal accident?”

  “Oh, everyone will feel just awful about it. Yet, it is true. The world is such a dangerous place for a curious little one year old, isn’t it?”

  I knew every bit of color had drained from my face, giving Hana the satisfaction of seeing my deathly-white panic.

  “So. We have an understanding. You will use your luski talents in whatever way I command, and your son will remain safe. Anything less than a report from me about your full obedience will result in an accident happening before anyone can prevent it.”

  Chapter 27. The Executioner’s Advice

  It’s one thing to make a bizarre threat like that, and quite another to be able to carry it out. I understood that. But Hana knew I’d take no chances with the life of my son, making this the perfect coercion for me. Also, based on her assessment of me, she thought her threats would leave me too paralyzed with fear to stop her. Not a bad guess, but not necessarily correct. Not anymore.

  The donkeys slowed us down and that first night we made a meager camp just inside the barren hills of Eds. Night came early and we opted to eat a cold supper by a small fire. As we huddled close to it, I shuddered at the sound of a wolf howling. I saw her smile at my reaction. She loved seeing my fear, seeing anything that confirmed her opinion of me.

  My first instinct was to prove her wrong. Laugh at my nervousness.

  No. I stopped myself. The more scared I appeared, the better. I gave a fearful look around and held my arms tight around my chest. I was cold and miserable; it was only a small step to add the appearance of being terrified into the mix.

  We had wine with our food. Hana drank little, but even the small amount loosened her tongue.

  “My mistake was thinking fear is the best way to coerce everyone,” she said as she handed me a hard biscuit and some smoked meat. I marveled at how she shared the information with no shame. She believed her scheming impressed others more than it repulsed them.

  “Seems to me fear works well.” I wanted her to keep talking.

  “It does with you. It compliments your nature. But I forgot how even luskies are motivated by different things.”

  Yes. Keep her bragging. Let her show me how smart she was.

  “I can’t think of another powerful motive,” I said, though I could think of several.

  “Oh, there are many,” she corrected me. “Greed is one of the best.”

  “You paid off a luski to do something?” My tone held a little more shock than I would have liked.

  She gave me a sly smile, pleased with herself.

  “You people gave me the impression you had such a moral code. Silly me for forgetting that someone will always develop flexibility for the right amount of coins.”

  “Who?”

  “I’m not telling.”

  “Come on, there’s only twenty to pick from. I can guess. Was it the guy?”

  She shook her head. “No, He’s an odd duck, alright, and I might have gone after him, but I needed someone who could go into the forest and spend time with the Velka.”

  “You used a luski on the Velka?” I tried to sound impressed.

  “Why not? You all threatened to use your timbre on me and I’m a Velka. We’re not immune.”

  Right. I didn’t mean to bring that up.

  “And it wasn’t a problem,” she said. “In both cases what I needed done made complete sense anyway. That’s how I persuaded Ewa …”

  I ignored her misstep. I’d already worried that the luski she recruited had to have a strong relationship with the Velka and not many did. My teacher and friend Ewalina was the most likely candidate. Why had Ewalina sold out? Did she need the money? I put those questions aside and tried to continue my subtle questioning.

  “You got her to do it not once but twice?”

  The sly smile again.

  “On anyone significant?”

  “Oh, only on Aliz herself and on that self-important Zurian Joli who thinks she runs things whenever Ryalgar isn’t around.”

  Bat scump. Hana had warped the decision making of two of the top Velka leaders? Forcing them to do what?

  “They were little things.” She answered without being asked. “That’s why they worked. I have been listening to you people, you know.”

  Great.

  “We persuaded Aliz to let your mother bring Votto into the forest to hide. It was absolutely the right thing to do, and the safest place for her and the baby, but Aliz resisted the idea. Ewa … my luski had no trouble rationalizing using her timbre to get Aliz to do the right thing. She didn’t think to question why I cared.”

  This made more sense. Ewalina could have been willing to pocket a few coins, maybe to help get her own kids to safety, if all she had to do was persuade Aliz to get past her decades-old anger at my mother.

  And now I knew why Hana cared.

  “You had to have Votto in the forest to be able to threaten me like this?”

  “You may be timid, Coral, but you do catch on quick.”

  “Well done,” I acknowledged. “Now, what sensible thing did you nudge Joli into doing?

  “Enough shared confidences for tonight,” she said. She wrapped her blanket around her as she stood, and I knew further revelations would have to wait until morning.

  On our second day, we headed north. Eds was sparsely populated and most people clustered towards the east side of the little river, which ran along Eds’ northwest border below the cliffs of Tolo. Hana told me Joli had arranged for a group of Edsers to stay behind, and they waited in this area. We’d spend this evening and tomorrow with them.

  “I should tell you,” she said as we rode, “because you’re soon to find out. Your sister worried that a second group of invaders might enter Ilari through the northwest corner of Eds. She sent Natia to scout the area last summer.”

  “That’s when Natia saw the horrible things?”

  Hana stiffened. She remained angry about this.

  “Yes. She did. What no one else knows is she rode off on her own while they were there, and she saw something she didn’t report. She confided in me, and me alone, that the Mongols did more than burn the land, the people, the crops, and the animals. Once they finished, they erected a big permanent tent and filled it with their supplies.”

  “Why wouldn’t she tell her group this? They should have investigated it. And Ryalgar should have been told.”

  “Probably.” The sly smile again.

  “Natia had to realize this discovery makes it far more likely the Mongols will send some of their people into Ilari thru northwest Eds.”

  “Oh, she realized it. Natia knew then how important the information was, but she also understood the importance of me following in your grandmother’s footsteps. Me, not your sister. She thought I could find a way to use this information, and I have.”

  I felt nauseous. These two women were so embroiled in a power struggle that they’d put all of Ilari at risk to gain an advantage over Ryalgar?

  I took a stab at the truth. “So Joli wanted to send oomrushers and archers up here to defend against a second attack, and you got Ewalina to talk her out of it?” Scump. Hana could have sold out the whole realm for some varmin chance of running the Velka! What was wrong with the woman?

  She laughed out loud.

  “Oh no. Just the opposite. Joli didn’t want to waste an oomrusher/archer team on this low probability. At least she thought it was a low probabil
ity. If she was going to send people, she knew they had to be good enough to handle the problem. Her best choice was her second-strongest team, but she hated the idea of not having them in Bisu, where she needed them. And she knew how badly they wouldn’t want to be sidelined.”

  This confused me. “Why would you want to get Joli to send a team up here?”

  Hana looked at me, and I don’t know if I have ever seen anyone more pleased with themselves.

  Then I got it. Of course. That was exactly why I was here.

  “Ewalina convinced Joli to send Aliz and Ryalgar up here to Eds?” I said.

  “It was the right choice. Joli knew it. She just had to overcome her irrational desire to please your sister. We helped her with that.”

  “So now ….”

  “So now you and I are going to spend some time making friends with the Edsers. You will do everything in your power to make them trust me and accept that I speak for those running this Chimera. You will ensure that by the time we leave they are prepared to take direct orders from me. In return, I will send word back to Natia that all is well. She’ll be expecting my message.”

  My father had been right. All that stood between Hana and world domination was the lives of my grandmother and my sister. If Hana had warring Mongols on one side and a small group of obedient Edsers on the other, it wasn’t unreasonable to think she could craft a way for Aliz and Ryalgar to end up dead.

  That night, we made camp with the hundred or so Edsers who’d been left behind to assist Ryalgar, Aliz, and their long-eyed archer Nikolo. They were a friendly group, at least by the standard of Eds, and our warm welcome was helped by their perception that we were all on the same side.

  I played the role of Hana’s meek assistant, dropping plenty of small references to her importance, knowledge, and wisdom. I put in enough timbre to elicit the respect she craved, and I got several approving nods from her.

  I held back a bit, though. Enough, I hoped, to better allow some of the Edsers to reconsider any order she gave that didn’t make sense to them.

  We spent the next day discussing plans. They were kind enough to tell Hana absolutely everything they knew, and every contingency they’d discussed with Joli and others over the last several eighths. By late afternoon I had no doubt Hana had all the information she needed for a reasonable chance of orchestrating the tragic set of events she craved.

  Before we left the next morning, I helped Hana convince two young Edsers to make their way south to the open forest to get word of our well-being to the Velka. I knew their message would keep Votto safe for a few more days. Then we began our slow journey north along the river to where the U-shaped cliffs of Tolo began.

  It was four days until Kolada.

  Hana confided she planned to spend the remainder of today and all of tomorrow in Tolo, on top of the cliffs, scouting Eds and its narrow entrance from this vantage point. The better for her to manage any contingency in the heat of the moment.

  She actually complimented me on my behavior with the Edsers as we rode, and she spoke of the various ideas she considered. I wondered what sort of disconnect in her mind allowed her to ignore how she discussed the deaths of people I loved. She didn’t really get the implications for me, only how this would benefit her.

  As we rode, I mulled over my options.

  We made it to where the cliffs began and started our ride along the crest. I’d never been up here. The steep rise and sheer vertical drop impressed me with its beauty and its danger.

  “We’ll be camping up here tonight?” I asked.

  “Yes, I don’t want to rush this part. We have plenty of time to do this right.”

  “Good. It’s pretty up here. I’m glad we’ll get another day.”

  Up until then, I’d thought I had two bad options. One. Assist in the possible if not probable death of my sister and my grandmother. Two. Set in motion events leading to the possible if not probable death of my child. Neither tragedy was a sure thing, and part of my decision involved weighing the relative likelihood of each horrible outcome.

  Tonight, in the dark, I had a third bad option. I could take a walk and jump off a cliff.

  Hana would have a rougher time manipulating the Edsers without me, though she might still manage it. Natia could cause Votto’s fatal accident anyway out of spite, though she might not bother. And while the other deaths weren’t a certainty, if I jumped off the cliffs of Tolo, my death was.

  So option three had some problems associated with it, other than the obvious issue of my being terrified of it and not wanting to die.

  I shivered in my blankets on the hard ground, but finally fell asleep, and woke at dawn to the memory of a dream. I’d been locked in a cold room with stone walls and almost no light, while a hooded executioner yelled at me. I had no idea what he was doing in Ilari; we’d eliminated executions long ago. But he was angry at me because I would not choose.

  “I must kill you. Or your baby. Or your sister. Pick one or I will kill all three.”

  “I can’t. I can’t choose. Who could make that kind of choice?”

  His exasperation grew. “Then pick the other.”

  “What other?”

  “The other one. Pick the other one, and she dies instead.”

  “That’s no less right. I can’t send anyone to their death. What’s wrong with you?”

  “What if I told you the other one put you here? It is she who insists you make this choice.”

  I woke up and I understood what the executioner meant. There was a fourth option, though I hadn’t wanted to think of it. I knew what I needed to do.

  I found it sad that Ewalina had been persuaded to help Hana. No matter how much the requests seemed reasonable, she must have known Hana would not use the outcomes for the greater good. Yet she’d done it anyway. I felt betrayed by this teacher and friend who’d found a way to justify actions leading to the mess I was in.

  But Ewalina had taught me well. Extremely well. And right now I had to put my frustration with her aside and focus on the wisdom in her instruction, so I could find a way to do something that made her crimes pale in comparison.

  What did Hana want? She didn’t want to die. She did want to impress everyone. This morning, she and I would go for a walk.

  “You’re right. You do see things on foot you’d miss on horseback.” Hana had been happy to accept my suggestion to walk the last part of the cliff that headed out of Ilari. We’d gotten further than we expected yesterday and left our camp this morning with the horses and donkeys tethered to a lone tree so we could cover this important piece of ground with care.

  “I thought about jumping off these cliffs last night,” I said, surprising her. I wanted her off balance in every sense of the word.

  “Well, I’m glad you didn’t.” She laughed but she didn’t seem amused.

  “I don’t want to die, and I was afraid you might kill Votto anyway out of spite.”

  She liked my reasoning. “Good.”

  “Are you afraid I might make you jump off?” More lack of balance.

  “Certainly not. I know how this works. I’ve no death wish, and I’m sure of it.”

  “You do have a lot to live for,” I agreed. “Do heights bother you?”

  “Oh no. Not a lot scares me, Coral. I’m a different sort of person than you.”

  “I suppose. It makes me nervous to be anywhere close to the edge.”

  “You shouldn’t be so cautious. These rocks are solid.” She stepped closer to the edge and kept walking. “See. There’s no danger, even in walking right along the lip.”

  She strode along the outer rim, showing me how brave she was.

  Yes. You are so courageous. So impressive. So admirable.

  “I can’t believe walking on the edge doesn’t bother you at all.”

  How I wish I could be as daring as you. You are so fearless.

  She flashed me a smile filled with pride. “I can walk right along this drop off all day if I like.”

  “I c
an’t imagine being so bold.”

  I took a deep breath. Do what you must.

  I’d stayed close enough to her to startled her when I turned towards her suddenly, with my palms out as if to shove her backward. She did the instinctive thing as I lunged. She took a step back; I didn’t even have to touch her.

  I counted to seven before I walked to the absolute edge and looked down.

  Her body lay crumpled; there was no movement. If she wasn’t dead now, she soon would be.

  What have I done? One voice in my head asked the question.

  What you had to, another voice answered.

  I hurried back to our camp, shutting everything but haste out of my mind. I didn’t know how long I had until Natia expected the next update, or how much wiggle room she’d allow.

  My mind raced. I’d ride Nutmeg, of course, and leave behind the small tent and much of the supplies. I’d need water, though, and some food, and a little firewood and some blankets just in case. So I needed one of the donkeys to carry things even though it would slow me down. Wait. If I brought one, why not bring both. Two was no slower and I could split the load.

  I turned towards Hana’s beautiful horse. I certainly didn’t need a second horse with me, but this creature didn’t deserve to die out here, tied to a tree. She’d miss Hana. I felt a pang of guilt as I untethered her and sent her on her way, hoping she’d survive.

  Then I and other the three animals retraced the path Hana and I had followed along the cliffs. I knew this would lead me to the Little River, which would lead me to the forest. Good. I needed landmarks. I didn’t know this part of the realm and I couldn’t afford to get lost. Not now.

  By the time the sun shone high in the sky, I became angry. Hana had forced me into this. She’d chosen to give me horrible options, turning me into what I swore to never become. I ranted at her in my head as I made my way back to where the cliffs began.