Raven Thrall

by J Elizabeth Vincent

  “Well, lady, you look better. Your face ain’t so green now.”

  “Thank you. I’m still a bit damp, but not so much as I was.” Her earlier exhaustion had returned, but she felt better now, as the pain had eased somewhat. Rose’s concoction was a miracle.

  “I’m sorry, but no one has seen your brother yet. Just give him a bit. I’m sure he just took a wrong turn. He’ll show up. Grof isn’t that hard to find. Only town for miles.”

  Rose stood up and set the tray aside. She pulled a blanket over Mariah and put a pillow behind her back and head.

  “Let’s let our guest rest. We’ll keep an eye out for your lost brother, young woman. We’ll send him up straight away if we find him.”

  Mariah wanted to stay awake more than anything. She needed to make sure that Xae was all right before she relaxed. However, her unfaithful eyes began to blink. The leftover bread was removed from her fingers, but she didn’t protest.

  “Sleep well,” she heard a feminine voice say before the door closed.

  From outside the door, their voices carried through to Mariah’s sensitive ears. “Shira, go find young Grelem. Give him a couple of coppers to come keep an eye on this here door.”

  “Ma, she’s fine. Do you think spies break their arms just so they can get a room here? All they have to do is pay for it.”

  “Shira Adalba Caden, you do what I say. I don’t care how grown you are.”

  “Yes, Ma.”

  Then, their footsteps retreated, and the world faded away completely.

  CHAPTER 13

  GROF

  When Mariah woke up, she was alone, and two more cups sat on the table beside her, one of that awful green liquid and one of tea that had gone cold. She drank down the herbs. This time, she just sipped at her second cup. The touch of honey delighted her tongue.

  Much to her relief, her pack was lying just where Rose had left it on the other bed. Her father’s knife was also still secured in its leather sheath, his belt wrapped around her waist twice. Glancing out the window, an ache filled her, but it wasn’t her shoulder this time.

  For the first time in seven years, she was back in Varidian. She could travel to Eaglespire to see whether her father had actually survived. If he had, she could throw herself into his arms and tell him how scared she had been, how she had hated leaving him, how sorry she was. She shook her head. It was too big of a risk. She had grown up in Eaglespire. People there knew her. After the way she had escaped, they probably all knew that she was Ceo San and that she was a traitor to the crown.

  No, she was here to find and rescue Xaecor’s family. If only she could find Xae first. She saw through the polished panes of glass that the sun had passed its zenith and was now well on its way west. Late afternoon already.

  Moving slowly and taking special care not to bump her right arm on the table, Mariah rose. She felt more clear-headed already. She would have to remember to thank Rose. She lifted her pack onto her good shoulder and started to make her way out of the room when she remembered her hair. If the stains on her fingers had been any indication, some of Bria’s paste must have washed out. Silver on a young woman was enough to draw all kinds of unwanted attention.

  What did Rose and Shira think? Would they report her? She went over to the window and let out her breath as she caught her reflection. Her hair was still orange.

  But there was no sense in taking chances. So, sitting back down, she opened her pack and dug around one-handed among its damp contents, pulling out one item at a time until she found the long brown scarf Bria had given her.

  She would have to reapply the dye eventually, but for now, the scarf would do. It took her a few minutes to get all of her things back into the bag and secured. Life with one working arm was already proving to be awkward, as trying to secure the scarf only reinforced.

  Too many more minutes later, she finally left her room, her face flushed in frustration but the scarf finally around the top of her head and gathered about her neck. She hoped it didn’t look ridiculous, but she couldn’t mess with it anymore. A young, dark-skinned boy disappeared down the stairs as she emerged. Was it Grelem? The one Rose had mentioned? After only a few steps down the stairs, she stopped, the sounds of several voices rising up from the common room below. Shaking off her surprise—the inn had a common room after all—she continued downward.

  A low, sonorous laugh rose above the noise of the room, and as she neared the bottom of the staircase, she saw that it was coming from the man behind the bar. He was tall with a medium build, white hair, and a matching beard. A couple of men sat on stools in front of the bar, the three of them all chuckling as if someone had just told the best joke. The tables were all empty, but they were spotless, ready for dinner, Mariah presumed. The boy had disappeared from sight, although the door to the kitchen was swinging lightly as if someone had just gone through.

  The air carried a faint fish aroma, and she wondered if it was coming from the two men drinking together at the bar. That smell was probably inevitable in a town where the main source of income was fishing. The white-haired man looked up and met her eyes with his own blue ones. His smile never faltered, but his voice boomed out of his chest, startling Mariah.

  “Shira, your guest is awake!”

  The men at the bar turned to look at her.

  So much for not drawing attention. She nodded, but before she could think of anything else to say, Shira came bustling out from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.

  “Hey! Lady! I’m glad to see you up and about.”

  The men turned back to their conversation.

  “Is that your father?” Mariah asked in a low voice, nodding toward the man behind the bar.

  “Yeah, that’s him alright. His name is Jahl. He’s the man all the fishermen come looking for at the end of the day. He who has the ale has their attention.” She laughed. “Need somethin’ else to eat?”

  “No, no. I’m good. You’ve all done so much for me already. I can pay for the care and my room, I want you to know. But right now, I’d like to look for my brother again.”

  “Oh, sure!” Shira said. “Wait here, and I’ll go with you.”

  Before she could protest, the other woman was hurrying back toward the kitchen, untying her apron as she went. Mariah sighed, but she didn’t have to wait long.

  Shira emerged from the kitchen a moment later. “Let’s go. I can show you around while we look.”

  Mariah followed her out into the warm afternoon, grateful to have someone to hold the door for her. Despite the herbs Rose had given her, her shoulder was still tender.

  “We’ll check the East Road first. You said you came from up the coast. Where exactly?”

  As they walked, Mariah struggled to remember the names of villages along the coast. She hadn’t paid much attention to the places on the map she hadn’t intended to pass through or fly over. Some she knew from her childhood, before she had fled Varidian. Names like Kilgereen and, of course, Eaglespire, which was inland. There was Kannuk, also inland, which was on the road to Glenley, and the Highlands, the range of mountains that curved along the south coast.

  “We kind of live between,” she hedged.

  It was then that she remembered something Magnus always used to say to her. “All the best blacksmiths live here on the plains, where iron is brought down from the mountains. The best potters are on the coast, where the clay is rich. Whenever the tradesmen come from the coast, I’m always looking for the ones from Quell, so I can get your mother a little something nice. Her eyes always light up at the sight of Quellian pottery.”

  “Near Quell,” she added, her thoughts still on her father and his unfailing generosity.

  “Are your family potters then?”

  Jostled out of her memory, she bit her lip. She knew she’d have to lie to get by, but she hated deceiving Shira, who had already helped her so much. Then, the conversation at the door to her room came back to her. They weren’t exactly
offering their trust to her either.

  “Uh, no, not really. Xae and I have moved around a lot since we lost our parents. We help where we can and then move on. That’s why we’re going to Glenley. More work in the city.”

  Shira nodded, her face pensive, but she didn’t press Mariah any further.

  “I like your scarf by the way. Must have been hard to tie it with only one arm.”

  Mariah laughed. “Yeah, it was a bit of a challenge.”

  “Don’t know why you’d want to cover up your hair, though. It’s so pretty, like a carrot, but all feathery, like goose down. Never seen streaks of gray in a woman so young, though.”

  Only streaks. That was something. But Mariah didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t dig her in deeper, so she just replied, “Thank you.”

  The two women passed through a small, open-air market where more than one fish monger was selling his daily catch. It was then that she realized that she hadn’t seen a single horse in the village. She remembered Eaglespire having had quite a few, and travelers often used them, but she realized that the plains were more suited to their use. Grof was surrounded by hills on three sides and sea on the other, which would make horse and wagon travel much more difficult. Did the king’s guard care out about things like that, or did they just go where they pleased? From the talk in Wellspring, she would have believed that every village in Varidian was crawling with them. So far, that was not the case in Grof.

  Near the far side of the market, there was a smaller stall with a man selling vegetables. Rose was there and had just finished her purchase when they approached. She carried a basket over her arm, and Mariah saw that she had a good number of fish wrapped in large leaves as well as a pile of beets and some kind of dark, leafy vegetable.

  “Shira. Mariah. I’m glad to see you out and about already. How’s the shoulder?” She touched Mariah’s good hand gently with her own.

  “Much better. Thank you so much. I don’t know what I can do to repay you.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing,” the older woman replied. “We’re a small village, so we take care of each other and the occasional stranger who wanders into town. Maybe you, and your brother when he arrives, can stay a night or two, give us some more business while you rest your shoulder, and we’ll call it even.”

  Mariah nodded. She did need time to rest, but if—when—she found Xae, she knew he would be anxious to get to Glenley as soon as possible. Admittedly, she was, too. The sooner she could get out of Rothgar’s territory, the safer she would be. And the sooner she could get thoughts of Eaglespire out of her mind again.

  “We’re just out looking for him now,” Shira said.

  “I thought maybe you were. I haven’t seen or heard anything, but maybe you’ll have better luck. Well, I’ve got to get back and start on dinner. Good luck.”

  They nodded to Rose as she headed back toward the Hideaway and then resumed their walk. It took them only about twenty minutes to reach the eastern edge of the village, where the narrow road curved out from between the last few small houses and up toward the hills. The hills themselves were covered with a mixture of beach grasses and sturdier plants as the ground transitioned from sand to a thicker, loamy gray soil.

  The road was empty, but they kept walking until they reached the top of the first hill. Mariah looked eastward at the road curving away out of sight. Thinking that Xae might be coming this way, she wanted to ask Shira questions about the road. How far exactly was it to Quell? Was the road dangerous? But she couldn’t since she was supposed to have walked it just yesterday, even if it had been during a storm.

  “I’m worried that my brother got hurt and is stranded somewhere.” At least that much was true.

  Shira’s face was as somber as Mariah had yet to see it. After a moment, she drew herself up and spoke. “Well, it’s too late in the day to go looking for him now. It won’t do either of you any good if you trip over something in the dark and get hurt even more than you already are.”

  Mariah nodded, although she was reluctant to acknowledge the truth in the other woman’s statement.

  “How about we go back to the Hideaway? I have to help Ma with dinner, but if your Xae doesn’t show up by morning, I’ll take you myself to look for him, even if we have to go all the way back to Quell.” Shira smiled broadly, her face transformed.

  “Why are you so nice? You don’t owe me anything.” She hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but despite the family’s caution in having someone watch her door, the question was certainly bothering her.

  When Mariah had decided to return to the land of her birth, she had prepared herself for derision and persecution. She hadn’t been prepared for friendliness and generosity from complete strangers. She had come to expect it from the people in her adopted home, but as a child in Varidian, she had spent her whole life in hiding. Of course, the people here didn’t know what she really was; they didn’t see her as some kind of hunchbacked monstrosity or a criminal in hiding. If they did, things would change in an instant. How could that thought hurt her so much already? She had known Shira and her mother for less than a day. Still, images of fear and, worse, hatred on their faces filled her with dread. Her stomach rolled.

  The younger woman put a hand on her left arm, her features serious again. Mariah seemed to bring that out in her. “I just know that we all need help sometimes. I want to be the kind of person I would want to meet if I was in your situation.” She wasn’t looking right at her, and Mariah wondered if there was something more to it than that.

  “Thank you, Shira. I guess I’ll just count myself lucky.” She swallowed down the bile of her overactive imagination, and they began to move again, Shira’s talkative manner returning. She pointed out the different areas of the town as they went and gossiped about the various residents. Before long, they were approaching the inn again, but Shira prattled on while Mariah fretted and wondered what to do next. No one had seen a strange teenage boy. What if Xae was waiting for her in an inn somewhere else? What if he was hurt somewhere? How long should she wait for him in Grof?

  “Now, Graham, the shipwright, is always busy in the afternoon. He likes to check all the boats when they come back in. Not all of them are as tiny as Da’s. We don’t catch much on our own, running the inn and all. Most of the fish the town catches gets brined or smoked and moved out over the pass by wagon to Kannuk and Glenley, even to Kilgereen. They’re so busy over there with trading all kinds of other stuff that they don’t have enough of their own fishermen. It’s crazy to think about a city on the shore like that needing to buy fish …”

  If Shira said anything else, Mariah didn’t hear it. Sitting on top of the sign above the door of the Herring Hideaway, swinging gently, was a large black bird. A raven, to be precise. Her raven. Xae.

  CHAPTER 14

  BROTHER

  “Hey, are you coming?” Shira asked. Her gaze followed Mariah’s up to the sign and the bird perched atop it. “What’s up?”

  Mariah forced one foot in front of the other, unable to keep the smile off her face. “Oh, nothing. I just like birds is all.”

  “Well, no insult, but we don’t need this one making a mess everywhere.” She rushed up the stairs and began waving her arms. “Shoo! Shoo! Get away from here, ya dumb bird!”

  Xae stared at her for a moment before lifting off as if it had been his idea.

  “That bird was creepy,” Shira said as she watched him flap away toward the beach. “Don’t know what you see in them, at least not the ravens. You know what they eat, don’t you?”

  “Well, ravens are very smart,” Mariah said, suppressing a chuckle. She stopped herself from defending Xae further. “Let’s get inside. I find I’m starving again.”

  * * *

  “Are you sure I can’t help?” she asked Shira again.

  “Yes, there is no way Ma is letting a guest help in the kitchen, especially a one-armed one. Sorry, lady, but you’d just be in the way. Why don’t ya go up to your
room? I’ll bring ya up a tray as soon as I can.”

  “No, it’s okay.” Mariah glanced around the common room, which was now about halfway full and smelled even more strongly of fish than it had before, but this time, spices had turned it into a savory and appetizing aroma. “I, uh, I’ll wait out here. I have had enough of being cooped up in the room for now.”

  “Suit yourself,” Shira said. She started for the kitchen and then turned back to her. “Listen.” She put a hand on Mariah’s good arm. “We’ll find your brother. After dinner, I’ll put together some provisions, and we’ll head off first thing in the morning.”

  “Oh, of course. Thank you, Shira. You and your family have been so kind.” She had to force herself not to look at the door.

  “Great! I’ll probably be cooped up myself in the kitchen for a while, but if you need anything, just tell Da there.”

  Jahl, who was busy filling a row of mugs, smiled at them when Shira pointed. “Hope you ladies had a nice stroll. Any luck?”

  Shira shook her head.

  “He’ll turn up.”

  The endless stream of optimism from the Caden family surprised Mariah, but in this case, she was glad. She nodded her thanks to Jahl, and Shira finally left for the kitchen.

  Mariah found a table near the front. She sat where she could easily see the door, slipping her pack off her shoulder and setting it beside her chair. She jumped when the door opened, but it wasn’t Xae, just a man and a woman, both obviously coming in from the water. Their clothing was wet around their ankles, their skin was deeply tanned, and they wore wool caps with wide brims. They pulled the hats off as they sat at a table near some of the other townsfolk. When they gave her curious, sidelong looks, Mariah wondered how many actual out-of-town guests this inn ever saw.

  After a quarter of an hour had passed, the common room was nearly full, and still, Xae hadn’t arrived. Had she been wrong? Had she mistaken some random bird for her charge? Her worry started again, now intensified. She tried to picture the raven that had perched on the inn’s sign. It had been Xae. She was sure of it … wasn’t she? Where had he gone? Was he waiting for her outside? She had just about decided to go out and look for him herself and had a hand on her pack when Shira approached her table with a bowl of fish stew and a cup.