by J. K. Holt
“Yes.”
“We know the lampreys have a presence there,” Tess said.
“I know. But it’s the best chance for quickly finding a ship that sails directly to the capital. Many of the smaller ports along the northern edge of Alitura won’t travel that far, which means we would need to change ships multiple times, and every stop made on land is another chance to be caught. And if we travel by land, it will take weeks longer to get there.”
“But possibly still worth it,” Rosie countered. “To avoid a potential lamprey stronghold.”
“I won’t force the route on you,” Lenora said. “But it seemed earlier that time was of the essence.”
“It is. Reydon will be trying to find us now,” Tess said.
“Find you?” Lenora was puzzled. “I thought you said you’d captured him.”
“He may have escaped,” Rosie admitted.
Lenora stopped eating. “When? And where?”
They filled her in. “And he knew that you were coming to find me?”
“We’re not certain. But we have to assume that he knows.”
Lenora tucked her food away. “We should get going. And I’m comfortable with fewer stops.”
“Whoa,” Rosie said. “What’s this about?”
Lenora stood. She was short, barely five foot, and her shorn head made her appear even smaller. Still, she radiated intensity in this moment. Tess could see how she would be seen as a powerful figure in the capital. “This situation is more urgent than I realized. If Reydon is free, and knows your plan, then he will be working very hard to stop you.”
“What do you know of Reydon?” Tess asked. She could tell by the way Lenora said his name that he wasn’t just another faceless goon to her. “You said you don’t know him, but you were lying. Who is he to you?”
“I don’t know him. Not directly. But if he’s the Reydon I’m thinking of, then he has connections in Turand,” Lenora answered reluctantly. “He’s a bad person to have as your enemy. He’s cunning, and devious.”
“Yes, we know,” Rosie answered.
“He’s young,” Tess said. “He can’t be more than a few years older than me. How does someone like that become so powerful?”
“I was serious about riding,” Lenora said. “And we should get off the main road. We should be able to cut across the woods. A less used road runs parallel to this one up until the next town.”
“How on earth do you know that?” Rosie asked.
Lenora gave her a scalding glance. “High scholar. Remember?”
“Oh. That.”
They moved into the woods, Tess and Rosie leading the mules on foot as Lenora rode. When the main road was behind them, and the woods ensconced them on all sides, Lenora picked up the conversation again.
“Youth does not have to be a disadvantage. With it comes energy, motivation, and often, an excessive amount of confidence in one’s own abilities.”
“True. But that can be a flaw, as well.” Tess said.
“Granted. Two sides to the same coin.”
Lenora was hiding something. She kept her eyes on the woods ahead, and seemed on edge. “What else aren’t you telling us about him?” Tess asked.
Lenora shifted in the saddle. Tess could see how uncomfortable she was, but knew she would refuse another rest so soon. “Not all knowledge is power. Some of it only serves as a danger.”
“I understand. But I still want to know.” Lenora sighed and shook her head, signaling an end to the discussion.
“Does this have to do with a woman?” Tess asked, remembering how Reydon had responded to her voice in his head.
Her question hit its mark, and Lenora glared at her. “What do you know of it?”
“Please.”
“We’re risking ourselves to keep you safe,” Rosie grumbled. “The least you could do is answer Tess’s question.”
Lenora set her jaw and grumbled before answering. “I asked you before if you had proof. This is because the person I suspect of being in charge of the bogeymen you call the lampreys is not someone to be trifled with. She’s an adviser to the king. And she didn’t get there through kindness and good deeds. She’s a viper, and she buries anyone who questions her or gets in her way. She’ll do the same to you, if given the chance.”
“Who is she?”
“Her name is Phaedra Montaigne. She’s Reydon’s mother.”
∞ ∞ ∞
The ground split apart before them and the women took a weaving path uphill. To their left, the ground rose with them, creating a rift that rose in a sheer cliff face. “The high ground is always preferable,” Lenora told them as Tess and Rosie swore beneath their breath. She rode on Darla, a regal presence even with her chopped silver locks and skeletal face, but the young women had dismounted yet again, worried that the mules would slip on the loose dirt and gravel that followed the steep rise. By the top, they were panting and sweaty.
A small stream ran in front of them before spilling off the edge. Tess crept to the precipice and looked down, to find the water turning to a fine mist before it hit the ground. A small pool formed below, and the forest stretched out before them, some one hundred feet down. In the distance, Tess could see a faint trail of smoke. Green Springs, disappearing behind them. Daylight was waning.
“We’ll camp here,” Rosie said. “There’s water for the mounts, and trees.”
“Don’t make a fire,” Lenora cautioned. “We’d be lighting up a signal from this height for anyone searching for us.”
“A cold supper it is, then,” Rosie grumbled.
They brushed down the mules and ate. Lenora was exhausted from the day- she fell asleep nearly as soon as she’d laid down. Tess and Rosie sat on the edge, their legs dangling over, and watched the sky turn. As fuschia and bright yellow faded to deep purples and blues, and finally to a soft black, the stars began to shine. Then a pinprick shot across the sky, and another.
“Look,” Tess said, pointing.
They watched the meteor shower in silence. Tess wondered if Fish and Dray could see it from wherever they were. It made her feel better to think Dray might be looking at the same sky.
“Do you think they’re alright?” Rosie said, reading her thoughts.
“I don’t think I can consider any other option without going crazy,” Tess said. “I know that’s not what you asked, exactly.”
“No, I understand.” Rosie tilted her head back, her long neck extended as she contemplated the night sky. “Do you love him?”
The question threw Tess off-kilter, and she considered playing dumb before thinking better of it. “I think I’m beginning to.”
Tess leaned back so her frame was parallel to Rosie’s. “Do you? Love him, that is.”
Rosie exhaled a long, measured breath. “I don’t know. I’m not sure when I stopped loving Dray and started loving the idea of him instead. It’s all become confused lately. I never really thought about it until you arrived, truth be told. But when we first met, do you remember?”
“Yes,” Tess said. “It was at the Spilling Inn one night. Dray wasn’t there, but everyone else was. That was the night Ashe introduced me to you, Fish, and Russ.”
“That’s it, exactly. And I knew then somehow, that you would change our group. I wasn’t sure how, but I felt it.”
“I know. I think I felt it too.”
“I resented you for it. I’ll allow that it was petty of me. But I think some part of me saw even then what you would become to Dray. How you might fill a role that I’d been trying to get for years. We’d fumbled about, as children, teasing and flirting as kids do. And then when I thought it could become more, his father… well, you know. Nothing made sense to Dray after that. But I kept hoping he’d come around and remember what we’d started to feel, if I just stayed constant.”
Rosie continued. “My mistake was thinking he was still the same person. That he could come back, the same as he’d been before, with time. But since Russ… well, now I know how foolish that was. An
d I see that I was still pining for the old Dray. The one who no longer existed.”
“It wasn’t fair, what happened to you both,” Tess said. She felt sorrow for Rosie and what could have been.
“Only an idiot thinks life is fair,” Rosie said, not unkindly. “I’ll always love Dray, as a friend, a second brother. Just as I love Fish, and Ashe. But I’m glad he’s found someone who loves him for the person he is now. Even if that someone is regularly a pain in the ass.”
Tess snorted back a laugh. “Just when I think you’re being mature…”
“I’d hate to become predictable,” Rosie said.
The meteor shower had stopped, but the stars still glistened in the night sky. Tess turned somber. “Rosie?”
“Mmm?”
“I’m really scared about what we’re walking into.”
Silence. Then- “Aye, me too.”
“Even if we somehow avoid all the lampreys between here and the capital, if what Lenora says is true, Reydon’s mother could get rid of us without blinking an eye.”
“Possibly,” Rosie agreed. “But Lenora is the high scholar. She was kidnapped, and she knows that Reydon was behind it. We can attest to that as well. I think we might be able to do something serious. We could stop all this. Hold onto that thought when it all feels overwhelming.”
“Is that what you’re doing?”
“Yes. That, and sharpening my knife.”
“Sounds practical.”
“The lucky are the prepared.”
“I feel like that could be the next motto of the Boy Scouts.”
“The what?”
“Never mind.”
Chapter Thirteen
“What are the chances of that?” Tess said, pointing north. A long trail of smoke rose from the forest floor, signaling a small fire below the trees.
Rosie and Lenora stopped from their preparation of food to follow her line of sight. “Uh, that’s pretty common,” Rosie said, giving her a look that indicated Tess might have a few screws loose. “Someone’s making supper. Or maybe just trying to get a bit of additional warmth. We’d be doing the same thing if we weren’t worried someone might spot us up on this ridge.”
“Right. But I’ve seen a fire at about that distance below and behind us for three nights now,” Tess said warily.
Rosie stepped closer, taking a second look. “And you’re just now telling us?”
“Well, the first night I thought it was Green Springs in the distance. Though maybe in hindsight it was too close for that. And the second night, I thought what you just did. But now… three nights seems a little less like chance, wouldn’t you say? And I’d guess it’s getting just a bit closer every day.”
They watched from the ledge. They were still following the same ridge- it tore across the forest like a scar that seemed to stretch all the way to the coast.
“It may still only be chance,” Lenora said. “But we should keep an eye out.”
“And even if they are looking for us, they’re down there. They must not have caught that we took the ridge up. And we haven’t lit fires or done anything to give ourselves away.” Rosie was still glaring at the smoke, as if it insulted her. “They’re searching, but they’re blind.”
“Couldn’t they climb the ridge if they wanted to?” Tess asked.
Rosie sneered. “They’d be just as likely to break their necks doing that. Look.”
Tess did, craning her neck so she could see down the side. It gave her vertigo. “It’s steep, but it could be done.”
“Well, let’s not give them reason to,” Lenora said. “We’ve stayed this close to the edge because it’s an easy path to follow, and it will take us nearly all the way to Port Harbour. But we can move a bit east, put more distance between us and the ledge. It will give us some additional cover to be beneath the trees, even if we lose our advantage of a clear line of sight. And we can travel farther during the day than we have been. I’ve regained much of my strength, so there’s no need for so many breaks during the day. And the mounts can take a bit more pushing.”
They agreed to the new course, and pushed further into the trees for the night. The ambiguity of the smoke had filled them each with a slow but mounting sense of worry, which could not be satisfied with the slight change of course. But there was nothing else to be done.
∞ ∞ ∞
One day later, and they’d pushed hard. The trees and vegetation stayed thick on the ground, and for the first time, the green tangle of life seemed cloying, as if in league with the lampreys to slow them down. Every step the mules took seemed to leave tracks in the dark dirt, tramping the tender shoots and grasses around them. A clear path for anyone to follow, if they were able to find it. Every noise in the forest sounded dangerous, and Tess felt she was looking back over her shoulder more than forward.
They’d foregone a fire that night again and had eaten in silence, any excitement over the journey now marred by a feeling of impending dread. Rosie suggested a return to the ridge to check for any smoke, and they set off together, wary for any of them to be alone and unprotected, leaving the mounts behind at the campsite.
They’d traveled further away from the cliff than they’d thought, and by the time they returned to it the light was fading. The deep blues of night had slid over the forest, and no smoke could be made out across the sky. They’d missed their window.
Tess squinted, unable to give up. She gasped.
“What is it?” Rosie asked.
“Men. Following the ridge.”
“How many?”
“I can’t tell at this distance. At least three.”
Lenora was straining to see. “Are you certain? I see nothing.”
“Yes. They’re still a good distance away, but we should take cover. They’ll be here soon enough, if they stay the course.”
Lenora wasn’t having it. “Can you see them?” she asked Rosie.
“Of course not. But I’m not Tess, am I?” Rosie responded, and then seemed to check herself. “She has exceptional eyesight.” Tess rolled her eyes at the flimsy explanation.
“We can argue about this later, but for now we need to hide. Trust me.” She glared at Lenora until she shrugged. “Fine.”
They scurried several yards back to the trees, ducking behind a large rotted log. Tess tucked herself in so that she had the best line of sight to the ridge. They waited. And waited some more.
Lenora was becoming impatient. “I’m hungry,” she whispered. “And tired. You were seeing things. We’re all a little paranoid right now. But we should head back.”
Rosie turned trusting eyes to her. “Tess?”
Tess sighed. “I wasn’t imagining it. I suppose they could have turned around, or stopped. But- wait!” She ducked lower. “Quiet now. They’re coming.”
Figures emerged beyond the trees. Tess counted them as they came into view. Six, no, seven. “Oh rot,” she whispered, relaying the number to the others.
They were close enough now that the women could hear their footsteps. Lenora gasped softly, eyes wide. “They can’t take me again,” she hissed to the others. “Kill me, if it comes to that. Promise.”
Rosie unsheathed her knife, nodding at Lenora. They watched and waited.
The men advanced, speaking amongst themselves. Snippets of conversations drifted to them. “-think he’s… no sign…head back now.”
Another louder voice answered. “We’ll turn back at the next rise up. Being thorough isn’t a crime. Maybe the other group is having more luck.”
“We won’t pick up tracks in this light.”
“No, but we could see a fire, or hear their horses.” The loud voice was becoming irritated.
The women exchanged glances. Another group? How many men were in these woods?
Tess turned, scanning the trees behind them. As she moved, her foot slipped and slid, snapping a twig. Tess forgot to breathe.
One of the men stopped, turning towards them. “Hear that?”
“It’s the wood
s, Abe. Just an animal,” another answered. “Go look, if you’re so concerned.”
The women slid lower to the ground. They heard a cracking noise, leaves crunching as he broke off from the group. Snails! The other footfalls became more distant- the rest of the group had continued walking.
Tess angled herself so she could see through the space between the ground and the log. Large boots approached. Tess raised a hand in warning to Rosie. They couldn’t fight seven men. Their only hope was to stay hidden.
The hope faded quickly. He was still coming towards them, whether drawn to some minute sound or instinct she couldn’t tell. He stopped, two feet from the tree, and Tess watched his aura swirl outward as he stood. He need only look down now, and he would see the tops of their heads. It was only a matter of time.
Unless…
It was an act bound by desperation. Tess slid her hand out, reaching towards his foot. She concentrated, closing her eyes and calling his aura to her. It wasn’t working. He moved, and his foot touched her hand. He sniffed, and she could hear the moment he saw her hand, following it to the other side of the log. He grunted, and she threw caution to the wind. She grabbed his boot and seized his mind.
He fought her, grasping for control of his own body as she held him tightly. She concentrated only on the image of a statue, willing his body to still. She gritted her teeth. “Rosie,” she said, her voice strained. “Do it now.”
Rosie, who had been coiled like a snake a moment before, shot upright. There was a grunt, and a fine spray of blood hit Tess’s face. She ignored it as best she could, only concentrating on her grip on the man’s mind. He’d weakened in his fight against her, and after several seconds, she could no longer feel his presence. He still stood above them.
“Tess, let go of him,” Rosie said, her hand on Tess’s leg. “It’s okay.”
Tess released her hold, both physically and mentally, and the man fell like a crumpled stack of cards, landing in a thud at their feet. Tess heaved a lungful of air and then another, calming herself from the sensation of being in control of someone else.
