"But why would you trust me to do that? I fought against you."
"And during that time you still acted according to your conscience and treated Hal's family with respect. Since being captured you've worked without complaint and shown a tendency towards kindness and innovation. I trust you for this because at your core, you're an honest man. I believe sooner or later you will realize this is what's best for our kingdom."
"But I don't know the first thing about being a spy."
“Surely you used to pay attention to what went on in the capital and then talk about it with your friends...this won't be all that different."
"Except I’ll have to lie to get back in, and gossiping never could've cost me my life. Spying definitely could.”
Calistra waved away these protests. "You will be compensated for the danger. I give you my word that, if anything happens to you, I will do my best to ensure that your sister-in-law and nephew are taken care of once we reach the capital."
Jace looked conflicted. He ran a hand nervously over his head, not quite meeting her gaze.
"You'd have the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than just farming," Calistra said, lowering her voice and meeting his gaze with an intensity that seemed to unnerve him just a bit. "If you help us, we can change the world."
"I don't think I'm cut out for that kind of role,” Jace said. Calistra waited, and eventually he sighed and continued. “But I would like to see justice for my brother and take care of El—overthrowing the King seems to be the only way that'll ever happen."
"It's settled then." Calistra grinned at him broadly and handed him a scroll. "This will get you past the perimeter of the camp. You're pretty much on your own as far as getting back to Coledria...I assume you know the way?"
He shrugged, "’Tis easy enough to ask for directions if I don't. Are you saying you want me to leave right away? Tonight?"
"As swiftly as possible, yes."
"And what if I encounter soldiers before making it to Coledria? If I truly had just survived your attack on Kaltor, I would report to the nearest unit I could find, not go all the way back on my own."
"I trust you will come up with a suitable reason to convince them to ship you back to the capital, but not to keep you there too long."
"You seem to have an awful lot of faith in my abilities, for someone who knows next to nothing about me."
"It's been my experience, Jace, that when someone like you puts their heart into something, they will find a way to succeed. Your brother's family is counting on you, I'm counting on you, the very world itself is counting on you, so put aside your doubts and just do what needs to be done."
Calistra left him gaping after her, motioning to the two guards she’d brought to escort him to the inner perimeter of the camp.
“You know it’s unlikely he’ll discover anything useful,” Geri said mildly, watching her closely as her eyes followed the retreating figures.
“I know. But his being here is just too much of a coincidence...I’m hoping a bit of Ky’ara’s influence will give him the luck he needs.”
“You aren’t worried at all that he might end up being a source of information for them instead?”
Calistra shook her head. “I’m just hoping I haven’t sent him to his death,” she whispered, still looking in the direction he’d gone, though the three men were well out of sight by now. A comforting weight settled around her shoulders, and she looked up in surprise.
“It’ll be alright,” Geri said, not removing his arm from around her, but conveniently avoiding her gaze by looking out into the darkness as well. She thought she saw the ghost of a smile playing on his lips. Then he looked sidelong at her startled face. “Oops, sorry my liege.”
He lifted his arm away nonchalantly and tucked his hands behind his back in a more respectful stance. “After you.” He tilted his head, indicating for her to lead the way. She scrutinized him for a moment, trying to gauge what might be going through his mind.
Finally she smiled faintly and shook her head. “Sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to do with you Geri.”
In response he simply smiled and shrugged. She looked at him one more time, then, still shaking her head, she made her way back through the camp towards the command tent, Geri trailing obediently behind her.
* * * * *
The next week was a painful combination of drudgery and excitement. Ky’ara and the others adjusted to life on the battlefront, helping with the day to day upkeep of the camp and joining in the occasional excursion to the nearby towns.
A few days after their arrival Calistra announced it was time to move the base camp beyond the recently acquired villages and advance towards the capital. The sheer amount of work this involved was staggering. Because Calistra had the mages occupied providing services to keep the villagers complacent, most of the work had to be done by hand. Ky'ara and Joran often found themselves enlisted passing messages between Jenie and the workers, keeping things coordinated and assisting with the methodical packing and moving of tents, cooking paraphernalia, medical supplies, and weaponry.
The new camp was only a day's ride closer to the capital—within easy reach of two more towns and only a few days’ march from Gallagos. The Shaari were kept occupied guarding the new location and keeping watch along the route. There had been a small skirmish with a band of soldiers who tried to prevent the first load of equipment from being unloaded at the new site, but otherwise it seemed secure. On the final day of packing, Ky'ara found herself across from Lauryn, helping to pack a load of herbs and bandages for the healers. She tried to strike up a conversation, but the girl answered her in short, simple sentences when discussing the work, and flat-out ignored questions about herself.
"You need to talk to her, Joran, I know she's hurting, but she can't keep blaming Ky'ara for what happened," Calistra told him, watching the exchange.
"I think me talking to her is what caused the trouble in the first place," Joran grumbled. Lauryn had barely spoken to him either, and it had become a bit of a sore spot between him and Ky'ara—if she had just told Lauryn herself, Joran could have been the friendly voice of reason while still giving Lauryn the emotional support she needed. Instead he found himself in the unfortunate position of "bearer of bad news." So while Lauryn didn't blame him for what had happened, she struggled with being around him because to some degree, he had been the one to take Myrnai away from her.
"What's her story, anyway?" Calistra asked, "We accepted her pretty readily as Myrnai's apprentice, but she doesn't even have magic, and obviously she isn't a relative..."
"Her parents abandoned her when she was little, and she lived on the streets for a while before Myrnai took her in. That's about all I know."
"That's rough...obviously she feels a little like she's been abandoned once again, and that's why she's taking this so hard."
"Er, okay..." Joran hesitated a little. Talking about Lauryn’s emotions with his older sister was more than a little uncomfortable.
"Oh come on Joran, you aren't a total dunce. You may not be the best at expressing emotions, but you do know what it feels like to lose a parent."
Joran was quiet for a moment. "But I also still had you," he murmured.
Calistra looked at him in surprise. Her face softened and she gave him a sisterly nudge with her shoulder. "And she also still has you. It was obvious to me this winter that you mean a lot to her. Take some time to remind her that she hasn't lost everyone she cares about...or who cares about her."
“Just focus on the rebellion and leave my personal issues alone for a bit, won’t you?” Joran said, scraping the dirt with one foot while he stared at it.
Calistra raised an eyebrow. "I'm trying to do both. Why're you so testy?"
Joran sighed, "I don't know...sorry. I just have this urge to be angry at everyone and everything right now."
Calistra nodded. "Yeah I get that way too when I'm tired....unless..." She furrowed her brow. "Didn't you say that the Elysian girl wa
s acting that way? She was under the influence of something Dark..."
Joran looked at her in surprise. "Seriously? I'm a tiny bit put off because you're being nosy about my love life, and you automatically think it must be something occult?"
Calistra snorted, then put a hand over her mouth. "Sorry...it's just, you said "love life"...my little brother has a 'love life' ha!" She giggled.
Joran frowned at her. "That's really condescending you know."
Calistra shrugged, still smiling. "I'm your older sister, I'm allowed to be condescending."
Joran rolled his eyes and went back to arranging the wooden boxes in the cart to make them fit better. It was a puzzle of sorts, and quickly drew his mind away from the other issues at hand. They were almost ready to take a load to the new campsite. As soon as they finished packing up the medical tent they would be ready to go.
* * * * *
Geri looked at the neatly folded canvas with chagrin. He'd much rather be guarding the caravan route or scouting the surrounding area than pitching tents. But they didn't need him right now. Apparently Sukylar's new protégé was more than pulling her own weight with giving detailed reports on the terrain and discovering whether trolls or soldiers were nearby.
"Stop lollygagging and get to work. That tent won't pitch itself, Geri!" Jenie said as she passed him on her way to oversee the unpacking of the mess hall.
"I'm getting to it," Geri protested, unfolding the canvas and attempting to make sense of the wooden posts he'd been given.
"Well get to it faster, Calistra will be here later and she's going to be very put out if she doesn't have someplace to sleep tonight."
Geri turned and saluted smartly. "Yes ma'am!"
Jenie smiled and shook her head, then turned back to her own task. She had one of her children slung on her back, the small boy stared at Geri with wide eyes. He’d seen the other children around. They were usually attempting to “help” while generally getting distracted with some imaginary game or another.
The young captain looked back down at the tent and began swiftly laying out the large wooden posts for the corners. Jenie was right, Calistra would need her tent ready when she got here, not so she could sleep, but so that she had someplace to store her map and other papers she used for organizing and coordinating the invasion.
He enlisted the help of a few others who were finished with their assigned tasks, and before long the structure rose before him. Geri hunted down the wagon with all Calistra's furnishings and arranged them inside the tent, trying to replicate the set up he'd seen dozens of times before. He nudged a stool with his toe till it was next to the desk, then pulled the canvas wall till it hung more smoothly. Calistra wouldn't want a big wrinkle in the fabric messing with her view of the map she always put there. Finally, he took a look around, feeling unexpectedly nervous. Hopefully everything was to her liking.
A sudden ruckus outside the tent interrupted his contemplation of the decor and he poked his head outside to see what was wrong. The camp was in chaos. Somehow a group of Elrackon had made it past the sentry posts undetected, and now they were charging through the camp, scattering the workers before them.
He bolted for his sword, which he'd left sitting next to the cart. Before he could get there, a powerful blast of magic hit him and he flew in the opposite direction, slamming into a box of supplies and flipping onto his back. He rolled over and scrambled to his feet, wincing in pain and searching for something to use as a weapon. The troll whose magical blast had thrown him across the yard growled and started for him, clearly upset that his prey was still moving.
Geri hurled a piece of cloth in its face and stumbled towards a pile of tent poles. He grabbed one and heaved it towards the monster as well, working his way back towards his weapon. The distraction worked, and he grabbed his sword, standing and running towards the last place he'd seen Jenie, hoping the woman and her children had not been hurt in the rampage.
The troll tore the piece of cloth from its face and roared before running towards him at full speed. He turned just in time, frantically shoving his sword towards the charging monster as it crashed into him. Black lanced across his vision and he felt something snap. He fell backwards and screamed as the troll landed atop him, hot blood oozing out over the ground. Before he could tell whether it belonged to him or the beast, he blacked out.
* * * * *
Nori walked through the brush alongside the stream, pausing now and then to examine the ground for prints. The ground here was rocky, but there were enough soft patches for her to find the occasional impression of boot or foot. She frowned as she studied the angle of her latest find. It was different than the last one. It seemed to indicate that the troll who'd left it was headed away from the water. Back towards the base camp.
"Sukylar!"
The blonde-haired man looked up upon hearing his name and in a few quick bounds made his way down the riverbank to her side. She struggled not to roll her eyes. He was never very far away, as per the terms of his agreement with the rebel leader, yet he always seemed determined to be as close as possible when given the opportunity. He was meant to oversee her work, but did he have to stand over her shoulder every time she called him over?
"Looks like an Elrackon...or a small Ungh I suppose," he said after a moment, "Good work."
"Not just that," Norika replied, "Do you see how this side is deeper than this one? and the smudge caused by the lifting of the foot is here instead of here?" He nodded, and she continued. "He isn't following the stream. His foot might be facing this direction, but he was going uphill...that way." She pointed, and took a little bit of pleasure in watching the surprise flicker across his face.
"Are you sure?” he asked, examining the print more closely.
"Yes," she said simply. Either he could take her word for it or he could find himself a new tracker. She wasn't going to waste her breath trying to argue about it.
"Right then." Sukylar stood, brushing his hands off lightly on his breeches and then whistling for the others nearby to join them.
"We need to change our search and look back that way...if the troll really is headed toward the new base camp I want to know how long ago it was and how many there are. I don't know how we missed them on our way down here, but if they're close by we need to be ready to run...and if they're long gone, we need to get back to camp as quickly as possible. There are a lot of women and children there now, and half the soldiers are still back along the wagon route."
The three other scouts nodded, fanning out to search the underbrush for additional signs of what may have passed that way. Norika watched them curiously. They didn’t badger each other nearly as much as the members of her patrol unit had, but they also didn’t move quite as independently. She felt eyes on her, and looked up to see Sukylar watching her as she watched the others.
“Good find,” he grunted when she caught his eye, “Keep looking.”
Nori nodded, stepping over the undergrowth and scanning the hill for likely soft spots where more prints could be found. It irritated her that he hadn’t credited her with the find in front of the others, but if she was being honest, he’d still treated her as more of an equal that the Border Patrol in Brume had. The Scouts hadn’t taken her seriously until she’d proven herself over and over again. Maybe working with the rebels wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
Not much later one of the other scouts waved frantically from the top of the riverbank just to the northwest of where they had found the first footprint. Norika got there before the others and looked around to see what had caused the alarm. The scout pointed, his face grim. Smoke rose in the distance, precisely in the direction of the camp.
Norika looked over at Sukylar to see his reaction, but the man was already running for where they'd left the horses. The other scouts took their cues from him and within minutes they were all riding hard for the dark cloud ahead. Norika hesitated. This was her chance. No one was waiting to see if she followed. She could make her way back to Brume and
hope the Scouts accepted what she'd discovered about Vivek's death. Or she could ride north into the mountains and make a home with her Elysian relatives...she could even settle down in the forest somewhere and make a life for herself without any ties to anyone. The possibilities were endless. She could be free.
All this went through her head as she reached her horse and vaulted into the saddle. She looked to the mountains far off in the distance...then she rolled her eyes in annoyance and kicked her horse into a gallop following the others. Stupid man and his stupid trusting attitude.
A few hours later they rode up to the camp, relieved to see that most of the tents were still standing, though carts were overturned and it looked like the kitchen tent had caught fire and burned to the ground.
A sentry met them near the border and spoke to Sukylar in low, hurried tones. Norika dismounted, leaving her horse near the others, and walked through the camp, surveying the damage. The workers had started stacking the bodies of the trolls off to one side. It looked like just a small group had managed to make it past the sentries. Most of the bodies had been dragged from further out. There were only eight in the pile right now, but she could see a group of four men pulling another one towards her, and likely there were more further on.
On the other side of the haphazard heap was an orderly line of bodies with torn pieces of tent-cloth draped respectfully over them. She counted fifteen in all, including a tragically small bump that could only be the body of a child. She looked away, rubbing her arms as though to ward off a chill, though the summer day was hot enough to carry the rank smell of death towards her.
"It's not the worst we'll see before the end, I'm afraid," said a low voice behind her. She turned and found Sukylar standing closer than she’d thought. His gaze followed her line of vision and he wore a melancholy expression.
"Is it really worth all this, to throw off the King's reign?" She asked softly, indicating the bodies.
He tilted his head and gave her a searching look. "You of all the people here should know that it is. Brume may hide from the rest of the world, but many of the people there fled from injustice and violence that makes this look tame in comparison."
The Druids' Legacy Page 10
