by Brad Carsten
Quinn scanned the miles of countryside stretching out before them, with the same misgivings. It could be days before they found anything, if they found anything at all.
Liam was about to jump down, when Quinn grabbed his cloak. “What is that? There—just over those hills. Is that smoke?” He pointed out across the plane with his spear.
It took Liam a few seconds to see it, but Quinn was right. It was a tiny pillar of smoke breaking through the blanket of fog.
“What do you think?” Quinn said. “Do you think it's a farm? Perhaps we can buy horses and something to eat. I need something to eat before my stomach finishes eating into my back.”
Liam's stomach was also digesting itself. They had eaten the previous night, but being out in the cold had sapped his energy. Kaylyn hadn't eaten more than a few goatberries in two days. He just hoped she had enough strength to keep going, or they'd be carrying her to Luthengard. “It's a little out of the way, but it's worth taking a look.”
Quinn glanced back at Kaylyn, who was repacking her saddlebags after everything had been shoved back inside, and he lowered his voice. “Even with Kaylyn here, I'd be a lot happier spending the night behind a solid wall. I'm not going to be able to rest until she has that cursed scent off of her.”
“I'm with you there,” Liam said. “At least we shook that hunter, but the problem is now if anyone finds out who she is, we'll have more than just the nightspawn coming after us.”
“Or what she is,” Quinn said. “I'm mean, she's the princess—I still can't get my head around that, but a wretched? We really know how to pick them, don’t we?”
“This isn't exactly what I had in mind when I set out. Come on.” He clapped Quinn on the shoulder. “We've still got a long way to go before nightfall.” This journey had suddenly become a lot more complicated.
Liam dropped down from the rock and dusted off his hands on his cloak.
Kaylyn had finished packing her things and Liam hefted the saddlebag onto his shoulder. He didn't know what she had in them but the sides were bulging and it weighed as much as an ox.
Dunwick was low lying with clumps of Elkmoss trees in lush Moorning grass. With all the moisture in the air, Liam imagined it would remain this green throughout the year.
“So, living so far to the East, have you ever seen the Umberlin ocean?” Kaylyn asked as they crunched through the damp grass. Here in the valley, the trees looked like masts in a lake of white. Liam half expected to see a ship with its massive bow forming through the fog.
“No. As a scout I’ve seen some interesting places, but I've never seen the ocean. Any ocean. I’ve planned the trip many times, but you know how it is: Life has a way of interrupting those plans.” He had heard that it stretched out as far as the eye could see, and the waves rolling in were strong enough to knock a man off his feet. He couldn't picture it, and like seeing the capital city of Norindale for the first time, wondered if his mind would even do it justice.
“I know all about that—about life getting in the way,” Kaylyn said. “We must go. As soon as this war's over, I’ll take you to Petu. It's a small island off the coast of Delwick. I've only been there once, and I don't remember much about it; I was only six at the time. My father couldn't come with us, of course, but my mother took us with her on a ship, when she had to negotiate with the Enjera for leather.” As she spoke, a smile played on her lips. “It has the quaintest village that runs all the way along the cliff, with white-washed walls and purple linch, and the beach sand is like the sand in an hourglass; If you pick it up, it runs through your fingers no matter how hard you squeeze it, and it tickles as it falls away. I always thought, if I ever got married, that's where I would like the ceremony to be—on the beach with just a few people there—not hundreds of dignitaries that are only there to be seen.”
“It sounds nice,” Liam said, and for a moment was taken back to Brigwell and his walks through the vineyards along the Kandwyn mountains.
“It is.”
“Well, once the war's over, I'm sure the kingdom would be glad for the distraction. You’ll be able to get married on the beach, or anywhere else you like.”
Kaylyn sighed. “It's a stupid dream to have, isn't it? When people are dying to keep this nation alive? I just wish it could be over, you know, and that we could go back to the way things were, but I don't know if things will ever be the same again—not in our lifetime.
The truth is, I'm almost afraid to go back to Petu, in case it's no longer as I remembered. Sometimes, I think it's better to keep your favourite memories locked away in your mind where there are no flies and rot and decay—and no nightspawn.”
The trees thickened, until Liam could barely make out the column of smoke rising through the canopy of leaves, but it was certainly smoke. Kaylyn said that the deeper they rode into Delwick, the worse the mist would become. According to the stories, it could get so bad, a man wouldn't see a horse’s hoof if it kicked him in the face. Liam decided if it was half as bad as she made it out to be, then they needed to find shelter behind a sturdy wall before evening. Even with her power, he didn't want anything—or anyone creeping up on them.
They were still some distance from the fire, when Liam felt eyes on him.
Kaylyn and Quinn were out front, lost in conversation. She had told him a little about the palace and he was astonished to hear that they employed a team of people to guide visitors around inside. He, who came from a farming village couldn't believe that such a comfortable job existed.
Liam listened to the sounds carrying through the trees. Spending so much time outdoors, he had become more attuned to their whispering. He caught the creaking of leather, and the patter of footsteps as, whoever it was, slipped from tree to tree. Liam's instincts weren't usually that attuned, but then he had never felt so on edge as he had since leaving Brigwell. That must have had something to do with it.
He upped his pace to catch up to the others.
“Keep going. Keep talking.”
“Why, what's wrong?” Kaylyn began to turn back, but Liam stopped her.
“Don't look. We don't want to give anything away but someone, or something's following us.”
Her back stiffened. “How do you know? I haven't heard anything.”
“I'd listen to him,” Quinn said. “He has a scary way with these kinds of things.”
“So, what do we do?”
“Keep on as normal. I'll try to slip off as soon as I can and see if I can double back on whoever it is.”
The ground along the path sloped up to the left, and Liam directed them towards it. As soon as they were over the ridge, he slipped behind a mottlebaub and then broke for a line of trees. He moved quickly, silently, and was hidden before Quinn and Kaylyn were out of sight.
From there he had a good view of the path.
It only took a few breaths before a woman slipped out of the trees and ran across the path to the other side. She moved as silently as any tracker. Whoever she was, she was good. Keeping low, she scrambled up the side of the valley and paused before slipping over the top. Within seconds, she was back behind cover.
Liam drew an arrow, and slowly slid the bow off of his back to minimise the noise.
The figure slipped to another tree, trailing Kaylyn and Quinn.
Stepping on the sides of his boots Liam covered the distance. He kept his breathing steady, and his mind locked onto her, yet he could feel everything around him: the breeze drifting over his left arm and cheek, the smell of the damp soil, the weight of the quiver on his back. She didn't seem to be armed, but after meeting Kaylyn, he knew that didn't matter.
The woman realised there were only two people ahead of her and her head whipped around.
Liam fired, and the arrow pegged into the tree, inches from her head. She jumped, and her sharp breath carried on the breeze.
Quinn and Kaylyn spun back, Quinn with his spear raised and Kaylyn holding out her hands.
Liam stepped out into the open with another arrow already n
ocked. “Why are you following us?”
Her eyes slid towards the arrow, and she swallowed. “Are you always such a lousy shot.” Her words were so unexpected, that Liam had to give himself a small shake. “Answer my question.”
“Okay, but let me just... I can't do this with this thing so close to me.” She slowly raised her hands and began working the arrow out of the tree. It pulled free, and, with a hand still in the air, she tossed the arrow back to him. “You're going to need that.”
Her hair was long, flowing over her shoulders, and her eyes were so green they seemed to be made of emeralds.
Liam felt them, moments before two of the largest cursed hounds he'd ever seen broke through the trees to either side of him. Growls rumbled like thunder. Muscles rippled beneath their skin, and each took him up to his shoulder. Even their necks bulged like a dockworker’s back.
Liam eased away from them, trying not to make any sudden movements. He kept his arrow on her, but his arms twitched to turn it on one of the hounds instead—both if he could. “Call them off.” He kept his face calm. With enough arrows, he could take one of them down if he needed to, but if they charged together, he wouldn't stand a chance. They would probably take him before Kaylyn could even do anything.
The hounds kept slipping closer.
“I said call them off.” He pulled back, upping the tension in his bow.
Panic slipped across her face like a shadow. “Just put down your bow. Put down your bow.” She held out her hands to her hounds to keep them back. “They're well trained. They'll take you at my signal.”
“My arrow is quicker, now call them off.”
“You have one shot at me,” she said carefully, but I have two lumbrocks, and at that distance, you're just as likely to miss.”
“I don't miss.” If he ran, he wondered how far he would get. He could smell the carrion on their breath, and switched to breathing through his mouth instead before he lost his nerve entirely.
“You've already missed once. But okay, say you get lucky, you couldn't get me and both my lumbrocks, right?” She spoke quickly as her mind raced for a way out of this.
“Right.”
“So, you would agree we are at an impasse?”
“You're forgetting one thing though.” Quinn's spear appeared at her throat. Her eyes slid down slowly, and she swallowed.
At that the hounds went wild, barking like cursed drums in Liam's ears. They hunched forward and leapt back, and hunched forward and leapt back, waiting to tear Quinn's throat out. Kaylyn had her hands out to each of them, but she wasn't casting. Liam couldn't feel the taint. Light failing, was it getting to that already?
“Now, who are you, and why are you following us? And I told you to call off your hounds.”
“Okay. Okay.”
She put her finger to the spear tip to ease it away from her throat. She whistled and the dogs stopped barking at once, but growls rumbled deep in their throats like rocks sliding down a slope. They would attack in a heartbeat if anything happened to her.
“I came across your tracks a while back and wanted to see what you were doing here.” She frowned at Liam. “How did you know I was there? There aren't many who can. It must be those big ears of yours.”
“Oh, you were like an elephant lumbering through the trees.” What was she talking about? He didn't have big ears! He suddenly had the urge to check them, but he realised what she was doing and brushed it off angrily. She was trying to unsettle him.
Her smile said it had worked, and he eased the tension in his bow. His hands were shaking anyway from the strain of holding it.
“So, what are you doing here?” she asked. “This is as far away from anywhere, as anywhere could be. You don't look like vagrants, or thieves, and if you were bandits, your purses would be rather lean if this is the road you were working.”
“We saw the smoke.” Liam flicked his eyes towards the column, and she turned to look over her shoulder. “Oh, that.”
“Is that yours?”
“It's my people's. There are more of us, you know. And more of those lumbrocks too.”
“Look. We got off to a bad start. We're not here to cause any trouble, and you're right. We're not bandits, or thieves.”
“So that leaves vagrants?”
“At this time, it certainly feels like it. No, we're just passing through, and we were hoping we could buy some supplies and perhaps a horse or two if you have any to spare.”
“We don't. But if you want something to eat, then I'm sure we can dig something up for you, but only because I feel sorry for you.” She took a deep breath, allowing her nerves to settle. She walked over to her hound and put a hand out towards it. Immediately, it dropped its head and she swung up onto its back like it was a horse. “With an aim like that, you must be very hungry.”
She clicked her tongue, and the dogs bounded off into the trees, with surprisingly little noise for such large animals, but not before Liam caught that satisfied grin on her face.
Only then did Kaylyn drop her hands.
Quinn almost collapsed onto his spear. “What in fate's name was that? Did you see the size of those things!”
Liam needed to find a rock to sit on until his heart had a chance to recover.
Chapter 16
Thirty or so wagons stood end to end, forming a protective circle around a small encampment. Smoke from the morning cook fires wafted up lazily, and sheep and cows and goats grazed between the tents. A few wagons in the center had been built into chicken coops, and others into vegetable gardens with lush fruit and vegetables spilling over the edge. Those had been moved into the sun, and workers were shoveling the night's manure on top of them. Whoever these people were, they had packed up most of their things and were getting ready to leave. The remaining goods were being packed into boxes and loaded into the wagons, shade canvases unhooked and rolled up, and the draft cows were being haltered.
The wagons looked too old, and too patched for these people to be fleeing the trouble in the capital, and they were heading in the wrong direction from the previous day’s tracks, and if they were hoping to take a ship to another kingdom, they wouldn't be growing their own food. No, these people must have been nomadic, living and dying in these caravans.
Some distance to the right, a man rode out of the forest with six more of those massive hounds, and he was followed by another rider with three more. Quinn grimaced at the sight of them.
To the left, another half a dozen lumbrocks watched from the shade of a mapire tree. There were other hounds as well, but Liam tried to keep his eyes away from them in case they mistook his stares for a challenge. Plight, they were massive.
“If we're going to be meeting other people,” Liam said to Kaylyn, in a low voice, “we need to come up with a different name for you. Your name isn't unusual, but we don't want people making the connection.”
“That's all we need,” Quinn said. “We’d have every vagrant and two-bit lout rattling their cups after us like bells to the nightspawn.”
“Do you have any suggestions?” Kaylyn said. “My mother's name was Evalyn, but I suppose that would also be too close to the truth.”
Liam was going to suggest Tarla, but decided he'd rather not share her name with anyone else. He'd keep that locked away in his heart where it was safe.
“What if I just dropped the K, and called myself Aylyn? That would be easy enough to remember, and I could use Torree' as my family name. Torree’ was my Grandmother's family name, which doesn't mean anything to anyone outside of the palace or a dusty little admin office.”
“That'll be fine,” Liam said, “but we'll have to come up with a story for you as well.” That would have to wait until later though, as they'd almost reached the tracker. She was with an older, rather stern looking woman, and Liam was grateful to see that the lumbrocks weren't with them.
The older woman was setting a ladder up against an old caravan to fix one of the shutters. The thing must have clipped a tree on the way in and
ripped out. The caravan had large, spoked wheels with a tiny veranda out front. A thick trail of smoke spilled out of the chimney, adding to the other trails, and the air smelled like freshly baked buns, reminding Liam that he hadn't eaten for a while.
The caravan, like the others, had once been painted a cheerful red with blue doors and shutters, but the colours were faded, and the paint flaking off to expose the bleached wood beneath it. As with the other wagons, a row of nasty looking spikes had been driven into the ground beneath it to keep any enemies at bay.
“Let me do the talking,” Kaylyn said. “I think I know who these people are.” Her face lit up when she said it.
“Really? You could have spoken up before,” Quinn said, “like when those hounds were trying to eat us.”
“Well, I don't know them personally. I've just had a lot of time to study. A LOT of time, and a really good teacher.”
“Is there anything we should be worried about? Besides for the obvious.” He shot another distrustful look at the lumbrocks.
“No, they're harmless enough—the people anyway, but they love ceremony, and are quite selective with who they welcome into their fold, and—well, there's too much to explain now, so just follow my lead. That'll be the safest. The tracker’s with their leader right now. You see the key around her neck?”
The woman wore a cord necklace over her top with a large key dangling from the end of it.
“That's the key to their archive, which is—” She picked out a bright yellow wagon in the center. It was an oddly shaped and clumsy looking thing that stood at least twice as tall as any of the others and half again as wide, and it was the only wagon that was still in good condition. “That's where they keep their books while they're on the road. They collect them, and write their own and once the wagon’s full, they drop them off in Sangoness and start again. That wagon’s worth more than life itself to them, and they would die to protect it. “I’ve read a lot about it, but I pictured something a lot grander. I can't believe it's them,” she giggled.
