Her hand found a place between the plates, where a thick leather band tethered his sword, and held on as he ducked beneath the trees. She fought the urge to look back, fearful of her expression giving away her sadness at leaving something, someone, precious behind. All her fears and hopes had been pinned on the words written in a book by a man she had little reason to trust. Keeper Ishkar had asked the right question, however, and the answer would follow her into the red city of Carn.
Will you risk your life to save his?
32
Upon exiting the Thorngrove, Dnara and her armed escort were greeted by the rest of Aldric’s soldiers. They gave Dnara uneasy looks from under lifted helm visors as a new dawn broke over the eastern horizon behind them. Dnara tried not to shrink away from them, but Aldric’s large form offered a welcomed shadow in which to hide. Aldric stopped his horse near a covered supply wagon and motioned to the soldier waiting at the wagon’s back.
“Ren,” Aldric said, and the soldier snapped to attention. “This is Dnara, the mageborne we have been charged to bring before the Red Covenant and King Lelandis.”
“May Faedra forever bless his name!” came the call from the soldiers with a clack of gauntlet to breastplate.
Aldric waited for the echo to give way back to silence before speaking loud enough for all his soldiers to hear. “This mageborne has offered no threat to us and has a valid case against her accuser, and so is to be treated as a guest until her actions prove otherwise. I leave her in your charge. Please see that she eats, rests and is prepared for an audience with the king.”
Ren saluted with fist to shoulder. “Yes, sir. It will be as you command,” Ren spoke with an unexpected voice, and Dnara peered around Aldric’s arm to find an armored woman staring back up at her. “Miss, do you require assistance down?” Ren asked.
Dnara let go of Aldric’s belt and looked at how far away the ground appeared from atop his large steed. “Yes, please. I’ve never jumped off a mountain before.”
The quiet rumble of swallowed amusement shook Aldric’s shoulders and Ren gave him a surprised lift of the eyebrow before holding her arms out to Dnara. “Ease down slowly and I will catch you.”
Dnara stretched out one leg towards the ground and slid from the saddle. As promised, Ren caught her with strong hands around the waist and eased her feet down to the earth. Dnara got her legs under her and glanced back up at Aldric, daunted by how far up she’d been.
“Not used to horses?” Ren asked as Aldric moved onward to the front of his soldiers.
“No,” Dnara replied. “My first time riding one was two nights ago. Well, riding one while conscious, at least. And it was a mule. Sort of.”
Ren stared at her for a long moment then ushered her to the wagon. “A wagon is a bit bumpier a ride, but it’s lower to the ground and you can sleep if you want.”
Dnara climbed up into the wagon, finding it full of food stock, rolled tents, spare armaments and a few barrels. She yawned, and considered sleep, but then her stomach gave complaint. “Do you have any rations? It’s been some time since I last ate.”
“Sure.” Ren climbed up and sat across from her near the open end of the wagon. “I’m Renata, by the way, but everyone calls me Ren. Helps the boys forget I’m a girl under this armor.”
Ren knocked twice on the sideboard with a metal fist, sending a vibration up to the driver. The slapping of reins and a whistle followed. The wagon jolted roughly forward then smoothed out as the oxen pulling it found their rhythm. Dnara glance back to the men on horseback following in rows of two behind the wagon. The two men in front openly eyed her with uncertain expressions. She pulled her cloak up around her and considered raising the hood, but she thought that may raise suspicions, too. Trying to ignore the stares, she focused on the soldier across from her.
“I’m Dnara, but I guess the commander already told you that.”
“He did,” Ren confirmed. “But he also said we are to treat you as a guest, so... It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Dnara.”
Dnara relaxed at Ren’s welcoming attitude. “It’s nice to meet you, too. I didn’t know there were women in the King’s Guard.”
“I’m the only one,” she replied, then looked around at the wagon’s inventory before settling on a canvas bag and dragging it over to her feet. “The commander picked me, I think, hoping I’d help with the womenfolk at the farms and such.” She laughed a bit at that. “After a few weeks, he said to me, ‘Ren, I’m glad you can hold a sword better than most of my men, because you’re worse at calming down the women than they are.’ Which is the gods’ honest truth.”
“I can imagine it would be difficult to calm anyone down who has to watch their farm burn,” Dnara said without thinking.
“True, that,” Ren replied without argument. “Been in the King’s Army for six years, though, and the Guard for two. We’ve all got families and have been touched by the blight in some way. I have to think there’s reason behind our orders. A bigger picture we can’t see, and thinking too hard on it can lead to blightmadness.”
Dnara knew all too well about only seeing part of a whole and how trying to see the completed puzzle without all the answers could frustrate to the point of insanity. “Well, you’ve helped me calm down, so thank you.”
Ren’s expression brightened at that. “You’re welcome. I don’t get to talk to women that much these days, so I sort of forget how to after a while. Boys are easy. They’re all grunts and posturing and whose sword is bigger than whose.” Ren finished with a snorted chuckle.
“Are there not many women in the King’s Army?” Dnara asked.
“More than you’d think are looking to sign up.”
“Safer to hold a sword than a baby, I’ve heard,” Dnara said then frowned at her own words. “Sorry, that sounds-”
“Like exactly how it is,” Ren interrupted as she rustled through the bag. “It’s a harsh truth of this world, not that I’m interested in holding babies anyhow. I’ve always preferred fighting boys than the idea of marrying one. Not that there’s much marrying to be had these days.”
Ren stopped talking, opened the bag wider then pushed her hand all the way to the bottom with a frustrated knit of her eyebrows. “It’s not often you see a grown mageborne out in the wild, either.”
“I’ve only recently come into this magic,” Dnara admitted in the face of Ren’s kind, talkative nature.
“Oh, strange, that.” Ren paused and pulled out a package from the bag with a tugging grunt.
“So I’ve been told.”
Ren chuckled a bit. “Normally, your kind are children when they get the magic.” She set the bag aside and unhooked a waterskin from a hook screwed into the wagon’s top beam. “And the parents give them over to a covenant without hesitation, otherwise...”
“Otherwise?” Dnara asked as Ren trailed off.
Ren held out the wrapped package and water skin before replying with slow, carefully chosen words. “Guess not everyone knows, because it’s so rare, but mageborne that ain’t had proper training can be dangerous. Not just to others, but to themselves, too. Once had a lad, a few winters younger than you, out near Northlake. His parents didn’t want to give up their only son and thought they could handle it.”
Dnara stopped unwrapping the corncake ration. “They couldn’t?”
Ren grimaced, as if regretting having brought it up, but answered. “Sometimes, those with the magic, they go mad. Not blightmad, like regular folks. It’s something else, like the magic’s fighting to be let out. Not his fault, mind you, but proper training and a covenant’s help might have saved them.”
“Saved them?” Dnara asked, leaning forward despite fearing the answer.
“The poor boy, he exploded, like that colored skyfire magic the Elvan have.” Ren made a gesture with her hands to illustrate the explosion. “Took his family’s house and the two neighboring ones with him. Nine dead in all, plus a smattering of chickens and two goats.”
Dnara tried to imagin
e it but couldn’t, having never seen Elvan skyfire. The loss of three houses and the families within was bad enough to think about. “That’s awful.”
“Aye, it is. I didn’t see the explosion myself, but I was part of the squad sent to clean it up. Nothing left of them houses but splinters, deep gouges in the earth, and starstones.”
“Starstones?” Dnara blinked. “From where? The upturned earth?”
“You don’t know?” Ren questioned in disbelief then shook her head. “Brodan’s balls, girl, you been hidden away in some cave your whole life?”
Dnara lowered her eyes to the untouched corncake in her lap. “A tower, actually.”
“Oh.” Ren cleared her throat. “Sorry. The commander says I need to work on my manners. I told him, if I were a proper lady with manners, I’d have joined a sewing circle instead of the King’s Army.”
Dnara glanced to Ren’s gauntleted fingers and laughed at the idea of her holding a sewing needle with them. “It’s all right. I’m not fond of sewing, either.”
“Right?” Ren let out a laugh of her own as the awkwardness evaporated between them. “Why hold some tiny little needle when you can hold a whole sword!”
Dnara laughed harder at that. “You and Jenny would get along well.”
“Who’s Jenny?” Ren asked.
“A friend,” Dnara replied, her fingers now picking at the corner of the corncake. Thinking of Jenny led to thinking of Athan, and with it arose the feelings she’d held back on her ride through the Thorngrove. She’d left him there, alone at the tower and in pain, because Keeper Ishkar had told her to. What if Ishkar had been wrong? Had Athan awoken and called out for her, only to realize he’d been abandoned? And for what?
‘You must go to the Red City,’ Ishkar had written. ‘To uncover the truth hidden within a kingdom of lies.’
“You miss her,” Ren said as a statement and not a question. “She can’t come with you? Having someone speak on your behalf could help.”
Dnara pushed away her lingering thoughts of Athan and forced a small smile. “No, this time she can’t follow where I’m headed.”
“Oh.” Ren said nothing further and cast her brown-eyed gaze out to the barren fields they passed.
Dnara nibbled on the corncake in silence, finding it a bitter, dry substitute for the wonderful cornbread Penna had made. She still worried for them, too, Penna and Tobin. She’d hoped the King’s Guard would go by Lee’s Mill on their way to Carn, but when they reached the fork Athan had taken to Rose Bridge, they continued southward, following the sign pointing to Bee Valley instead. Disappointed, she chewed on the hard cake then drank deeply from the waterskin to wash it down.
The wagon creaked as the wheels jostled over bumps and stuttered into groves. A side glance told her the two soldiers riding behind continued to watch her every move, as if she might suddenly shoot lightning at them. Or, perhaps they were afraid she’d spontaneously explode and take the whole squad with her.
“Ren,” she finally spoke once she’d had enough of the silence. “Where do the starstones come from?”
Ren met her gaze and held it for a second, then the soldier let out a quiet breath before answering. “They come from your kind, mageborne. When a mageborne dies, their body turns to ash, and all that’s left are starstones.”
33
The King’s Guard followed the southern road as it wound its way through the Howling Hills and into Bee Valley. Along the road, some people stopped to watch the armored procession pass while others rushed into their farmhouses and shut the door, fearful the squad would stop in front of their fields. The fields themselves, which should have been full of early spring tulips, hyacinths and daffodils to feed the coveted bee population, were as barren and empty as the beehives themselves, many of which had been left turned over and broken. Depressed by the disheartening view, Dnara decided it would be best to try and sleep than to continue sight-seeing in a world she wished she could have traveled to before the blight had taken its hold.
Ren helped lay a few blankets across the long tents taking up one side of the wagon’s floor. It made for a bumpy bed, but exhaustion coupled with the wagon’s movement eventually pulled Dnara into a deep sleep. She awoke sometime later in a confused stupor to a gentle nudge on her shoulder and startled at the blurred visage of an armored helmet looming over her.
“Sorry, Miss,” Ren said, pulling away and sitting on the sideboard to give Dnara some space. “Didn’t mean to startle you, but we’re coming up to Haden’s Crossing and the commander asked I should wake you. Seems we’ll be stopping outside the town for the night. There’s a creek nearby where we can get you washed up, and since it’s just us two girls, I’ll be your escort. Uhm, with a few men standing within earshot. Sorry.”
Dnara rubbed the sleep from her eyes and raised up her aching body to the opposite sideboard. “I understand. Honestly, I’m surprised to be allowed even that much privacy.”
“It’s a test,” Ren informed. “Please, don’t take the commander’s kindness for granted. He’s a good man, but an even better soldier.”
She spoke with clear respect for Commander Aldric, and Dnara could see the serious warning behind Ren’s words. “I won’t,” Dnara said, mirroring Ren’s seriousness. “He could’ve put me in chains and a collar, but instead I’ve been given a place to sleep, food to eat and good company on the journey. Your commander has my respect.”
Ren nodded once in acceptance then smirked. “Good company, am I? Oy, Nate!” She called out to one of the men riding behind them. “You hear that? I’m good company.”
The soldier, Nate, snorted and rolled his eyes skyward. “She ain’t had the pleasure of hearing you snore yet. Ask her again in the morning if you’re still good company.”
“My snoring ain’t that bad,” Ren argued back, the smile still there.
“You kidding?” the soldier next to Nate chimed in. “We don’t have to post near as many guards to keep watch, ‘cause bandits think we got us an armored bear.”
Nate snorted louder. “Good one, Liam.”
“Yeah, well,” Ren shrugged. “Just remember, this bear beat you at arm wrestling six bets running.”
Nate’s snort turned into a full laugh as Liam’s expression dropped into a glower. Liam started to offer an argument but quickly snapped his mouth shut and sat up straighter in his saddle. Nate was left laughing alone and oblivious as a horse rode up to the wagon.
“Keeping our guest entertained?” Commander Aldric asked.
Nate choked on his laughter. “No, sir. I mean, yes, sir. Well...”
“Good,” Aldric said. “You and Liam can accompany them to the creek.” Aldric kept riding past the line without waiting for Liam and Nate’s belated and slightly fumbled salutes.
“Nice, gentlemen,” Ren snickered. “Real nice.”
Liam slumped in his saddle. “Great. Bear washing duty.”
“Beats setting up the tents,” Nate said as Liam returned to his glowering.
A short time later, the squadron stopped in an overgrown field lined on one side with evergreen trees. Smoke rose in the distant sunset from the chimneys of Haden’s Crossing, a sign that at least here the fires continued to burn. The men quickly set about to task, a few leaving on horseback to gather provisions from the town and others yanking the tents from the wagon. Stakes were being hammered into the hard ground and firewood gathered as Ren led Dnara towards the tree line.
“Creek’s just on the other side of them trees,” Ren said. “Not a big river, mind you, but enough to wash the grime off. I’ve been on the road for two weeks. It’ll be nice to not smell like a horse for a while.”
“You’d need a waterfall,” Liam muttered as he and Nate followed behind.
“At least I can get clean,” Ren replied without looking back. “There’s not a magical fountain nor lake in this world that can make you less ugly, Liam.”
Nate snorted into laughter as they marched to the trees. Ren told the men to wait at the tree line, wh
ich they did after a few more disgruntled mutterings from Liam. The men turned their backs to the trees and faced the growing campsite, with Nate saying one last word of caution.
“Stay within earshot, yeah?” he said with a flickering glance to Dnara.
“Yeah, yeah.” Ren dismissed his concern and rebalanced the canvas bag hanging from her pauldron. “No peeking.”
“I would never spy on a lady,” Nate admonished.
“Aye, but Liam would.” Ren didn’t wait for an argument as Liam turned red with a sputtering of unintelligible words. She moved into the trees, holding back a thick pine branch and waiting for Dnara to go first. With Ren’s torch and Dnara’s lantern lighting the way, they entered the woods.
“You ain’t no lady!” Liam finally stuttered out past his agitation, making Ren chuckle as the drooping pine branches became a barrier between the field and the forest beyond.
Fifty yards into the trees, the vegetation gave way to a narrow strip of low grass, cattails and rounded stones banking a lazily flowing creek not more than ten feet wide. Dnara stood at the edge and looked into the water. It looked shallow and cold, but clean. Ren asked for help in removing her armor, and Dnara quickly learned how the whole set was held together with hidden leather straps and hooks. They shared a few laughs as Ren walked her through each step, and Dnara wondered who had the job of helping Ren into the armor in the first place.
“Nate, usually,” Ren explained as the last piece, a shin guard, plunked down to the earth. “He’s like my best mate, I guess. One of the few who don’t treat me different to the rest of the men.”
Ren stood poised in her underclothes; a thick cotton shive and patched breeches. Her arms flexed with muscles and her shoulders looked strong, like they could easily share the same weight as any soldier in the King’s Guard. Ren removed her shiv, revealing a tight wrapping around her chest. With a few painful looking winces, she slowly unbound the wrapping.
When the Wind Speaks (Starstone Prophecies Book 1) Page 28
