“I need to let Silvia know about our new plans. If any of the other savants try to make contact with her, she might be able to find out where they're hiding and save us some trouble.”
Hawke sighed and rubbed his temple. “I really don't want to see her.”
“You don't have to. Go visit Luke or something while I do business. Once I'm done there, you can head off to wherever you were planning to go before.”
“Yeah, like there's anything to say to…” Hawke trailed off, his eyes glinting the way they did when he got an idea. “Actually, that might not be such a bad idea. Micasa, you interested in seeing Winter and Luke?”
“Uh, sure,” I said. I was getting uneasy with this sudden change of heart of his. Hawke and Luke Kamson, a journalist acquaintance of ours, were on fairly shaky terms. They almost came to blows the last time they met.
“Then it's settled!” Uraj clapped his hands together. “Get your things and let's get going.”
Hawke sighed and began sifting through his packs to find something more suitable than a sleeping shift for travel. Once changed, it didn't take long for us to pack up the few possessions we had brought with us to the inn.
With everything we owned slung over our shoulders, we stole our way through the back room and slipped into a musty alley where we were all but invisible. Uraj led the way enthusiastically, taking us to a small side street where a lone mule waited.
“Uh, what's this?” I asked. Uraj patted the beast's flank.
“My ride. He's as sturdy as they come and can go for a full day without rest.”
“Uraj,” Hawke said, “how long until the Conclave starts?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Just humor me.”
“Hmm,” Uraj stroked his chin. “We've got until the end of next month before the ship for Grankul sets sail. So about seven weeks?”
“Okay.” Hawke pointed to the mule. “That thing will take three weeks just to get to Liturgy. You have to take a horse.”
Uraj's face paled. As pale as he already was, it made him look deathly ill.
“But, my mule—”
“—will be fine in the stables, I'm sure,” Hawke finished for him. Before the Forge could make any other protest, Hawke started back around towards the stables. I followed close behind, pausing just long enough to make sure Uraj was following. He sulked a bit, but took his mule by the reins and led it regardless.
The stable door was secured by a small army of locks, but I didn't need any prompting on what we needed done. I stepped up to the door and yanked each one off as easily as if they had all been left unlocked by some careless stablehand. Uraj let out a low whistle.
“You really have been practicing a lot,” he said quietly. I held up the handful of devices and smiled.
“Oh, this? I could undo locks like these without touching them. If you could only see what my power can really do now.”
“Sir, lady,” Hawke cut in, “can we get the horses and get going?”
I pouted at him, but pushed past and made my way inside to find Sir Brown Horse. I found him sleeping in a stall close to the doors, the saddlebags with the rest of my worldly possessions hung alongside him. I coaxed him awake gently and fed him an apple from my supplies. I needed him in as good a mood as possible if we had an early day of hard riding ahead of us.
There came a strangled cry behind me, and I whirled around to find the stable boy from earlier in the day, dressed in a night robe and wielding a pitchfork with shaky hands. Hawke and Uraj both approached the boy and spoke to him for a moment. The boy's face froze in a rictus, and he keeled over. I jogged over to see what in the world they had done.
“You better not have hurt the poor kid,” I said as I knelt down to check on him. He was still breathing and didn't appear to be hurt.
“I was just trying to explain who we were and that we'd need another horse,” said Hawke, confused. I was a bit skeptical until I remembered earlier in the day. With how excited the stable boy had gotten just meeting Hawke, getting to see both the Old Kings in person might have just been more than he could handle.
“Well, what are we gonna do?” I said. Uraj looked around uneasily for a second.
“We'll, uh, leave a note?” He finally said with a shrug. Hawke returned the shrug and went to prepare Restless for the trip. Uraj took to browsing the remaining horses, trying to find one that wouldn't decide to simply bite him. Most of them failed the test.
By the time I had Sir Brown horse bridled and ready to go, Hawke was already leading Restless and another horse to the doors. He called Uraj over and handed him the reins of the new horse, a strong looking mare with a black coat.
“If I let you try and choose, we'll be here all night,” he said. We both waited while Uraj got his packs secured and struggled into the saddle. It took much longer than we wanted for him to find his seating, but eventually, he settled to the point where it didn't look like he'd immediately fall off. We mounted our own steeds with much more speed and grace and at last set off at a trot to the gate.
“I hope the stablehand doesn't get in too much trouble,” Uraj muttered as we made our way down the cobbled roads. “I explained the situation in my note as best I could and left quite the sum in compensation.”
“Don't we have more pressing concerns to be looking towards?” Hawke asked over his shoulder. Uraj shifted in the saddle a bit and almost took a tumble.
“I don't want to leave with people thinking I was reckless,” he said. “Lord knows I'd never want to be thought of as a second Scholar.” Hawke glared at him.
We were quickly approaching the gates, still closed and barred. Uraj shifted his hood and pulled up his scarves to hide his features. As we drew close, a pair of guards stepped up and crossed pikes. Uraj held his hand up in a fist, then raised his index finger straight up. Immediately the two soldiers stepped aside and unbarred the doors, pulling them open just wide enough to pass.
As early as it was in the morning, there were no travellers waiting on the other side, and nothing stood in our way as we struck the Astral Road and started our way east. I glanced over my shoulder as I heard the groan of the gates closing. One of the guards was staring straight at us, and I couldn't miss the familiar scowl of Captain Dagon, even from the depths of his helm. It was the last sight of Damkarei I had before the gates closed shut once more.
Chapter 6: Friends Long Unseen
I had grown accustomed to living with Hawke for quite some time. We had seen most corners of Astra that there are to explore, so it would have been hard to stomach all that travel without learning to deal with his quirks. What I wasn't prepared for was what it would be like to travel with both of the Old Kings.
Uraj was far, far worse at horse riding than I had ever expected. He was completely unpracticed sitting a saddle, so much so that I wondered how he managed to hold to it until we had made it out of the gates of Damkarei. Our first few days were mostly spent teaching him how to ride without threatening to fall every few minutes. I could see why he was so reluctant to leave his mule behind.
When I wasn't worrying about one of the rulers of the human world falling from his steed regularly, I had to deal with him constantly arguing with Hawke over any little thing they came across. A ruin in the distance would become an argument over who was responsible for letting it fall. A memory of helping build the Astral Road would devolve into trying to guilt trip the other for not doing more to get it finished. I had underestimated how deep over 400 years of history could embitter two people to each other.
At the least, the chill spring nights were little problem when it came to keeping warm. Hawke may have had Uraj's power over fire, but it was clear that the Forge was far better versed in his namesake ability. There wasn't even a need to gather firewood before we settled down for the evening. Uraj could have a campfire going on a dry patch of dirt before he had even sit down.
I was very thankful for one such night, when Hawke had fallen into a sourer mood than usual. Uraj had spent the day trying to tal
k to him about our plans for the Conclave, and Hawke had rebuffed his attempts again and again.
“I admire you, Micasa,” Uraj had said. “You must have the patience of a saint to deal with this on a daily basis.”
When I had made no comment on the remark, Hawke apparently took offense to it, and clammed up for the rest of our riding. When we finally stopped to camp, my companion only lingered for a few minutes before standing and wandering off into the pale darkness of the night.
“Does he do that often?” Uraj asked me when Hawke didn't come back after a few minutes.
“Only when someone really annoys him.” I shot him an accusatory glare.
“Believe me, it's not that I want this trip to be the whole way. It's just hard not to say some things to him when I've been holding them in for decades.”
Uraj leaned an arm against his propped knee and sighed. He stared off where Hawke had disappeared in silence while the fire crackled on its own accord. My shadow danced around in its light, twisting and turning along with those of the horses who were grazing nearby. Something about Uraj looked off, though. I was staring hard at him when his eyes met mine.
“How much has Hawke shown you of Astra?” Uraj asked. I couldn't tell if he hadn't noticed me burning a hole in him with my stare, or if he was just too polite to mention it.
“Pretty much all of it,” I said. I pulled out my old map from my rucksack. It was the same one Hawke and I had used to navigate the country when we journeyed for his soul. The parchment was crumpled from being folded and stashed away hundreds of times. I smoothed it out as best as I could to show him.
“You've certainly made quite a few revisions to this,” said Uraj. The map had been crossed and marked with a pencil over pretty much the entire surface.
“I marked off each town as we passed through.”
“Then you have seen quite a lot.” He nodded appreciatively at the progress. “How much has he told you about the history of our world, though?”
“Well, I know why everyone lives on Astra,” I told him. When I didn't continue on, Uraj scoffed.
“Figures he'd skimp on your education.” He clicked his tongue. “Look, you may be willing to follow Hawke to Grankul, but going in blindly will not end well for us. You need to understand why things are as dire as they are.”
“It doesn't seem so bad around here to me. Aside from the occasional bandit and grinel attack, I thought we were doing alright for ourselves.”
Uraj shook his head sadly. “If only that were true. Fact is, we're barely holding ourselves together here. Humans used to strive to create what was considered impossible. We strived to become something greater than the sum of our lives. Now, people are happy just to squander their days searching for little distractions. That stems from how small our world is. This world.” He tapped my map.
“Astra has sufficient resources to keep us alive,” he said, “but Grankul has all we have in surplus, and so much more. If people had more options, we could finally break free and start back towards where we once were. We need Grankul, and that means we need the grinel. Hawke can't bring himself to admit it, but it's true. If something doesn't change soon, humanity will fall apart, possibly within your lifetime.”
I gaped at him. “There's no way things could be that bad.”
“No. They're probably worse.” The fire began to burn hotter. I had to scoot back a couple of times to avoid being burned.
“Sorry, it's just frustrating for me,” Uraj said. The flames died down a bit. “There are forces at work in the Old Kingdom that are trying to directly undermine what I've been doing - and to an extent, what Hawke and you have been trying to accomplish.”
“You have no idea who's doing this?”
Uraj made a disgusted noise. “The problem is I pretty much know exactly who's doing this. It's Othenidus.”
The Lord of Val'Hala was a sore spot for both Old Kings, it seemed. “What could he have to gain from destroying yours and Hawke's work?” I asked.
“What he's always craved: power. He's been trying to replace Hawke and me as the king of Astra since he first came into his position, and no amount of negotiation has ever changed his mind on the matter. He's been sitting in Val'Hala for over two decades, slowly building his strength, waiting for the right time to strike.”
“Why haven't you tried to stop him?”
“We have. Or at least, I have,” Uraj said.
“No, I mean like, with more forceful means?” I leaned in a bit and pounded my fist into a cupped hand. Uraj's eyes narrowed.
“Micasa, if Hawke and I went around using our power to smash down anyone who opposed our decisions, how would that make us look?”
I paused as I thought on it. I got his point. “You'd be dictators then.”
He nodded. “We've managed to scrape out a semblance of peace by not using our strength except to defend people from the grinel or those who break the law. One wrong move and the people could turn on us.”
“But things have changed now,” I said. “Those walls around Damkarei looked pretty new.”
“Indeed. Somebody's been sending out small squadrons of troops and trying to stir up trouble. They always run at the first sign of resistance, and the few we've caught haven't said anything, but there's no doubt in my mind that Othenidus is behind it. He's the only one with the resources to do so. The problem is the timing.”
It took me a second to understand what he meant. “The Conclave.”
“You're sharper than I thought,” he said approvingly. I glowered at his backhanded compliment, but he continued nonetheless. “I think he might be using the impending Conclave to set his plans in motion. He almost certainly knows about my recovery.” His eyes flicked away from mine, a hint of embarrassment reaching his voice. “He'll also know how important it is to me that I make it to Grankul. If ever there was a time to strike Astra and claim it, it'll be when I'm gone.”
“So what are we going to do about it, then?” I asked.
“We?” Uraj looked a bit shocked. “This isn't your problem.”
“Like hell it isn't my problem. If this guy's trying to screw up Astra, I'm not going to sit by and just let him. I've already had a taste of their 'rule.' ” I rubbed my wrists instinctively. Uraj looked at me, stunned for a second, and then beamed.
“I appreciate the thought,” he said. “We may have need of every hand when the time comes. But first things first. We need to get those other two nullstones, and hopefully, find people worthy of them. Once we have those in hand, we can turn our attention to Val'Hala and its ruler's machinations.”
We sat in thought for only another minute or so before Hawke appeared. He was dragging the carcass of a young buck behind him by the horn. He tossed the felled beast by the fire.
“There's dinner for us,” he declared, a bit stiffer than his usual tone. “Hope you two had a nice talk when I was gone.” He gave Uraj a chilling look, saving a sadder look for my direction. “I'll go get a knife to prepare it.” He walked off to where Restless sat nearby.
“I think he might have overheard us,” I whispered to Uraj. He just smirked.
“Oh, I was banking on it,” he said. Then he pulled a knife from his side and began working on getting dinner ready.
* * *
We spent another week and a half heading down the Astral Road, passing a few smaller fiefdoms that lay just off the main path. Hawke was tempted to investigate them and see if anyone had seen Bojangles or the mysterious Giant's Shadow, but Uraj pointed out that the cities were sworn to Othenidus, and their rulers might not be so glad to see the Old Kings, enemies of their lord, show up and start poking around.
In fact, Uraj made mention that most cities in the Old Kingdom had changed allegiances to the Lord of Val'Hala. Hawke and I had been through all of them not so long ago, and I didn't remember any of them giving us trouble. Then again, Hawke was such a rare visitor to the realm he was supposed to rule over that most minor lords had probably forgotten what he looked like. S
ome might have never even seen him at all.
The news soured Hawke a bit, but thankfully our destination wasn't any of those places. Eventually, we turned off the massive stone road and took to the scenic dirt roads of the countryside, passing rolling hills awash in the fresh flowers of spring. Groves of trees exploded towards the sky, their leaves eagerly drinking in the sunshine as they grew wherever they could find space, even in the ruins of failed kingdoms from days past.
Passing through one such grove one afternoon gave us our first glimpse of Liturgy.
The town hadn't grown much over the years. It was only a score of buildings, tucked away in a forgotten corner of the country, with but a scarce few roads leading to it. Still, it had a way of stealing my breath away at the sight. Every building was painted a blinding white, traced with chrome here and there. It made the city seem to give off an ethereal glow during the day- an effect that I'm sure was quite intentional.
“I wonder if Luke and Winter even still live here,” Hawke mused out loud.
“I hope so,” I said. The couple were still keeping low in Liturgy the last time I visited, but that had been at least a year ago. If they had decided to leave, it's not like they could have told us anyways. I just had to hope for the best.
“Well, while you're catching up, I need to go find Silvia and have that word with her,” said Uraj. “Where should we meet when we're all finished with our business?”
“The church is as good a place as any,” said Hawke. “You don't know where the Kamsons live. Just make sure you don't bring Shepherd with you.”
“I can't promise that if we're meeting at the church, but I'll keep it in mind. We can meet up right after sundown then.” Uraj raised a hand in salute before nudging his horse to a trot and taking off ahead of us. He had come along fairly quickly in the last several days with his horse riding. It made me wonder why he had been so against it in the first place.
Hawke took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders a bit. “I don't look forward to our conversation with the Kamsons.”
“You plan on picking a fight with Luke from the get go or something?” I asked.
Savants of Humanity (The Scholar's Legacy Book 2) Page 7
