A Traveler's Fate (The Journals of Krymzyn Book 3)

by BC Powell

  “She’ll be back,” he says. “I don’t think it’s her time to die yet. You need to have faith.”

  “That’s about all I have right now, but it’s running a little low.”

  Larn looks down at my leg. “Take care of your wound.”

  “I will. Again, I’m sorry that I yelled at you.”

  “Apology already accepted,” he replies.

  “And thank you for saving my life.”

  He nods his head. “It’s what we do for each other.”

  After Larn heads towards Home, I use my spear as a crutch and walk back outside the gate. I step off the short path to the bridge and make my way along the gigantic marble wall. When I find a spot with a rock large enough to rest my injured leg on, I sit down with my back against the wall. Using both hands, I lift my leg and prop it up on the stone. Silvery-blue waves leap from the rapids in front of me and crash back down to the river, bathing my body in mist.

  For the second time in a couple of morrows, I find myself staring at the Barrens and waiting for Sash to return. But it’s different this time. She’s not just spying from a distance. She’s wounded, on her own in the wasteland, and there’s no way for anyone to help her. If that Murkovin woman catches up to her, I don’t know that Sash is strong enough in her current state to defeat her.

  I look up at the stationary clouds with a new question haunting my mind. If Sash never makes it back, if all that’s happened leads to her death in the Barrens, how can I tell Aven that it’s my fault? How can I explain to her that if I’d been stronger, if I hadn’t given in to the wild sap, if I’d just brought Tela back to the Delta sooner, none of this would have happened?

  I already know that if Sash doesn’t return, I’ll punish myself for as long as I live. There is no absolution for me putting her in this position. But I don’t know how I can live with the guilt of knowing that if Aven never sees her mother again, it’s because of me.

  Chapter 39

  Hidden by large boulders clustered on a hillside, the woman spies through a seam in two rocks. She’s certain that the Hunter is somewhere in the maze of narrow, intersecting canyons in front of her, but not aware of her exact location.

  After raising a hand to her face, the woman traces her fingers over the thick scab on her cheek and nose. The wound will leave a scar, but a scar she’ll wear with great pride. It will be a reminder to all who see it that she was the one who finally ended the extraordinary Hunter’s life.

  The woman and the former Watcher had often discussed the need to eliminate the Hunter. The Hunter’s glimpses of the future might somehow expose their plan to conquer the Delta. Now it will be the woman, not the former Watcher, who finally brings death to the Hunter. It will be absolute proof that she is the most powerful being in the Barrens.

  She may have led the former Watcher to believe that she needed his aid, but she was never as helpless as she presented herself to be when they first met. For the many pieces of her plan to fall together in a way that would result in victory, she required his knowledge of the Delta and his skill at making items from steel. But the scheme to overthrow the Delta was the spawn of her mind, planted in his spectrum like a seed in the dirt.

  He had many clever ideas, including hiding the steelworkers deep in the Desert, but only she could unite the Murkovin. Just as the tall Murkovin would never have put his trust in a former Watcher of the Delta, her kind wouldn’t have followed him. The first few Murkovin they recruited to join them only agreed because the woman was at his side. She and the former Watcher soon learned that it was better to keep his true identity hidden, better to let the people of the Barrens believe he was one of them.

  Before they ever met, the woman knew that he, a Watcher of the Delta at the time, had been observing her from a distance. She’d already witnessed several of his treks to the Barrens to secretly consume wild sap. When she finally let him see her, she pretended not to notice him. After the first time he spotted her, he searched for her again and again. It was obvious that she had captivated him in a way that no one else could.

  On the morrow of their first meeting, she saw him watching her cavern, no doubt hoping to catch a glimpse of her. She left her habitat with the weathered, wooden spear she’d once bartered for instead of the steel one she’d later taken by force from a man who’d thought he could make her serve him.

  When the Watcher approached her at a sustaining tree, she feigned a certain level of helplessness, desperation even, so that he might feel superior. Only after she gained his trust, only after he fell victim to her charms, did she slowly expose her gifts. And even then, never to the extent that he might realize that she’s just as remarkable as the Hunter.

  She couldn’t deny that she’d been attracted to him, and still is to this very morrow. Although they became close enough over their time together that she wanted to bear his child, she always knew that their time together would eventually need to end. It’s the only way for her vision of what Krymzyn should be to finally come to fruition.

  The woman’s ears prick at the faint sound of a rock moving on the slope behind her. Thirty feet? Forty feet? She hadn’t seen signs of her kind in the area, but that didn’t mean they weren’t nearby. Or did the Hunter discover that the woman was on her trail?

  She twists to her rear and swings her weapon up in front of her. Instantly recognizing her most trusted companion, she unwinds her muscles and relaxes her stance. He covers his mouth with his hand to signal her to remain quiet and then motions for her to follow him. Without disturbing the smallest pebble or making the slightest sound, she nimbly makes her way down the slope.

  As she nears him, he turns and heads down the hill. After they silently step to the base, he leads her to a concealed gorge in a nearby cliff. Once they’re inside the rocky crag, the tall Murkovin pokes his head out of the opening. Only when he’s convinced that no one else is nearby does he focus his attention on her.

  “What happened to your face?” he asks in a hushed voice.

  “The Hunter and a group of Travelers raided the camp,” the woman tells him. “I believe they meant to capture the former Traveler and return her to the Delta. I fought the Hunter, but she escaped.”

  “Was it you who wounded her?”

  The woman nods her head. “Where were you?”

  “Soon after Darkness fell, the former Traveler left camp with a bag of belongings and a sap transport. I followed her. She and the Hunter are both nearby. The Hunter’s wound is bad. She’s weak.”

  “Are they together?” she asks.

  “No,” he answers. “The Hunter is tracking the former Traveler.”

  “Do they know you’re here?”

  The tall Murkovin leans his head out the opening of the gorge, briefly sturdies the terrain, and listens for any sounds. Only when he’s convinced that no one is nearby does he return his attention to the woman.

  “The former Traveler has no idea that she was followed,” the tall Murkovin says. “She hid the transport and went to a cavern for a while. She soon moved to another. A dozen caverns lie in the canyons nearby. She’s smart. She’s staying on the move and keeping her eyes open.

  “The Hunter knows where she is,” he continues, “but she saw me as well. She spotted me traveling during Darkness and followed me to pick up the former Traveler’s trail. Once I realized she was on me, I watched to see where the former Traveler stopped and then disappeared.”

  “Does the Hunter know you’re still in the area?” the woman asks.

  “She suspects,” he answers. “She knows how to be careful. She’ll walk half a mile or so and then double back on a different route to see if she was followed. How did you find us?”

  “When the group that raided the camp escaped, one of them separated and headed to the north. I knew it had to be the Hunter by her speed. I followed her to this area, but eventually lost her. She knew I was behind her. Where is she now?”

  “Not far from here,” he says. “She’s tending to her wound.”


  As though the Hunter’s blade is lacerating her face again, pain seers across the woman’s cheek. “We kill her now.”

  “Not yet,” he replies.

  “Why not?” the woman demands.

  “Keep your voice down,” he says quietly. “As I said, the Hunter is smart. When she rests, she only stops on high ground with plenty of open space to escape. She’s staying close to the former Traveler, but she’s also on alert. If she sees us coming, she could flee long before we get to her.”

  “What do you propose?” she asks.

  “Patience,” he says. “She has rope with her. I can only guess that she plans on using it to tie the former Traveler and return her to the Delta. When she goes after the former Traveler, she’ll be vulnerable. We can kill them both.”

  “If we wait,” the woman counters, “her wound might have time to heal.”

  The tall Murkovin shakes his head. “She’s lost a lot of blood and doesn’t appear to have much sap. She’ll need what she has left to travel back to the Delta. Every time she moves, her scab tears open. She needs to act soon and she knows it. If she enters a cavern to go after the former Traveler, we’ll have her trapped inside. She’ll have nowhere to run.”

  The woman examines the point of her spear while considering the tall Murkovin’s plan. As much as she’d like to kill the Hunter at this very moment, the need for retribution is clouding her judgment. Patience is what has allowed her plan to progress as far as it has.

  No living being is as skilled at hunting someone in the Barrens as the tall Murkovin standing in front of her. She decides to trust his judgment.

  “You’re in charge,” the woman says.

  “Stay a few feet behind me. Don’t make a sound and watch our backs.”

  He leads the woman out of the gorge and past the hill where he found her. Firm under their feet, the dirt has already dried from the rains of Darkness. They carefully ascend another steep, scraggly hill. When they near the top, the tall Murkovin motions for the woman to stay a few feet below the ridge. After crawling to the crest, he spies through a crack between two large boulders on the labyrinth of narrow canyons directly below. With her back against the rocky ridge, the woman keeps watch on the terrain behind them.

  All they can do now is patiently wait for the Hunter to make a move. Once she’s dead, the woman’s greatest obstacle will be removed. The Hunter’s body will decay until it’s nothing but the dust of the Barrens.

  After the Delta has fallen, she thinks to herself, the army of Murkovin will learn who the Mür of my child really is—where he came from and what he once was. I’ll make certain of that. They’ll turn on him and end his life. If they don’t, I’ll carry out the task myself.

  As I’ve always known would eventually happen, our time together will come to an end. Although the thought of his death saddens me, it’s the only way that I can see my vision for this world come to pass. Nothing and no one in will stand in my way. All of Krymzyn will look to me to guide them.

  What was the word I once learned from the Mür of my child—the word he learned from stories of other worlds told by the Disciples to the children of the Delta?

  Queen.

  That’s the word, and that’s what I was born to be.

  Queen of Krymzyn.

  The Journals of Krymzyn

  Krymzyn

  The Infinite Expanse

  A Traveler’s Fate

  Barrens Rising (Release Date TBD)

  War of The Beginning (Release Date TBD)

  The 8th Purpose (Release Date TBD)

  Light of Krymyzn (Release Date TBD)