Heart of the Land

by Sarah Prineas

  The room was thick with blood and the moans of the wounded. Several people were shouting.

  The ones doing most of the shouting, Rollan realized, were the Oathbound. He hadn’t noticed them in the fight, but they must have defended the leaders.

  He saw Meilin on the other side of the table, bending to help Princess Song out of her hiding place. Meilin tried to turn Song away from the sight of her father’s body, but the princess had a will of iron. She said something to Meilin and then jerked herself away.

  Taking a deep breath, the princess pointed at a tipped-over chair. The Oathbound guard leader, Brunhild the Merry, leaped to set it upright.

  Brunhild gave Song her hand, helping her to step onto the surface of the table.

  “I must speak again,” Princess Song began, her voice steady. All in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to listen. She stood there, her hair tousled, her gown torn, a smear of blood across one pale cheek. At her feet, her father’s body lay in a pool of blood that was already growing sticky. Yet she did not waver. “In this attack, the Greencloaks have shown their true colors. Not green.” She bent to touch the table, then stood and held up her hand, which was covered with her father’s blood. “Their true color is red. Bloodred. My father was right. We have seen what they are—traitors.”

  The princess stared at her own blood-smeared hand, and finally her control broke. She fell to her knees beside her father’s body and wept. With a tearstained face, she pointed straight at Olvan and Lenori. “Oathbound, don’t let the rest of the Greencloaks escape,” she ordered. “Arrest them at once!”

  CONOR KNEW ROLLAN WELL ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT he was going to do. “No time to argue,” he told his friend. Briggan bounded to his side, panting, his fur spotted with blood.

  “But—” Rollan protested, gripping his knife.

  “We can’t fight them,” Conor said. He sheathed his ax.

  On the other side of the table, the Oathbound were gathering. Brunhild pointed at the remaining Greencloaks. As a group, they started across the room, drawing their swords, while Brunhild, four steps behind them, called forth her spirit animal, the stone viper.

  “No, don’t,” Conor said, grabbing Abeke’s hand to stop her from drawing the last arrow from her quiver. “It’ll just prove what the princess said. We have to get out of here!”

  The black-clad Oathbound guards were closing in, seizing the remaining Greencloaks and forcing them to the floor. Lenori’s spirit animal, the brightly colored ibis, perched on her shoulder and spread its wings, a distraction to the guards. Lenori, who hated violence of any kind, stepped forward with her hands raised, trying to explain to the guards that they had not been part of the attack.

  “Arrest the Greencloaks!” shouted Brunhild.

  As Princess Song issued crisp commands, Olvan put his moose into passive state and gathered up Conor, Abeke, and Rollan; Meilin was still on the other side of the table. “You cannot be captured.” He started clearing their way to the door. “Come!”

  “Meilin!” Rollan shouted, pointing at the door. Conor saw Meilin nod and then sheathe her sword. Jhi, huge and implacable, lumbered into two approaching Oathbound soldiers, giving Meilin a path of escape.

  When they got to the door, Meilin quickly called Jhi into passive state. Olvan shoved them all outside, leaving Lenori and the other Greencloaks to hold off their pursuers. He almost caught Essix’s tail feathers in the door when he slammed it closed.

  “To my room—the Euran wing,” he ordered. “Hurry!” Bringing his spirit animal out of the passive state again, he left the moose to guard the door while he and the others sprinted down the hallway that led to the Euran wing of the Citadel. As they fled, Conor heard the sound of the moose trumpeting a challenge, and then the clatter of running feet coming after them.

  Breathless, they reached Olvan’s set of rooms, all decorated in a style very familiar to Conor—they looked like Devin Trunswick’s rooms back home in Eura.

  When they were all inside, Olvan quickly closed the door, locked it, and turned to face the kids.

  Briggan crouched at Conor’s side, his tongue lolling. Essix was nowhere to be seen, but Rollan didn’t look worried, so Conor knew the independent falcon was safe. Uraza was sleek gold and black as she padded around the edge of the room, sniffing at the heavy wooden furniture.

  Conor noticed that Meilin was very pale. He saw Rollan edge closer, so his arm was touching hers. She swallowed and then clenched her teeth, as if holding in tears. Then he remembered that she’d seen her own father cut down on the battlefield—maybe the death of the emperor was making her relive that awful moment.

  “All those Greencloaks were new recruits,” Olvan said, striding across the room to a carved chest. The box sat under a window with lots of tiny, diamond-shaped panes.

  “Not Greencloaks,” Rollan said angrily. “Fakecloaks.”

  Shaking off her distraction, Meilin nodded. “They were impersonating Greencloaks to make us seem like criminals.”

  Abeke was busy checking the string on her bow. “But who are they, really?” she asked, looking up. “Who sent them? Who hates the Greencloaks that much?”

  “The emperor,” Rollan answered. “Who’s dead.”

  “Less chatter,” Olvan ordered, opening the chest under the window. “The Oathbound are just behind us. Meilin is right—there is no coincidence that this happened in front of the leaders of Erdas. Someone is trying to sabotage the Greencloaks. Lenori and I are certain to be blamed for this attack, and arrested.”

  As if confirming his words, there was a rush of footsteps out in the hallway. A moment later came a loud banging on the door. “Open up!” shouted a booming voice.

  “You four have a chance to get away,” Olvan said hurriedly, tossing clothes out of the chest, searching for something. “There is something you must do.” He paused. “Ah, here it is.” From the chest he took a cloth-wrapped object, about the size of a baby’s fist. “For many years, this gift has been passed down from one leader of the Greencloaks to the next. There is a saying associated with it: When Greencloak fights Greencloak, that which is hidden must be revealed.”

  The door to the room shuddered under the blows of the guards trying to get in. The wood around the lock was starting to splinter.

  “And now that warning has come to pass. Greencloak has fought Greencloak.” Olvan held out the small bundle to Meilin. “Take it.”

  “What are we supposed to do with it?” Meilin said, taking the gift and shoving it into a little pouch that she wore on her belt.

  Olvan was about to answer when Conor noticed that silence had fallen out in the hallway. He turned and saw a slim flicker of brown slither through the crack at the base of the door.

  The stone viper—the spirit animal of Brunhild the Merry!

  “Look out!” he shouted. He seized Abeke’s arm and pulled her away.

  “What?” Rollan asked, looking for a threat coming through the door.

  “Snake!” Conor pointed at the floor. “It’s fast! Don’t let it bite you!”

  Briggan growled, on guard. “No!” Conor yelled. He gripped Abeke’s arm. “Don’t let Uraza near it,” he said urgently, and she immediately grabbed the scruff of the leopard’s neck, holding her back.

  The snake was no bigger than a pencil, but moved with terrifying speed. As the Greencloaks backed away, the stone viper darted to the middle of the room and paused, its tongue flickering, sensing the location of each body in the room.

  “Quick!” Olvan called, gesturing to another door. “Go that way. Straight along the passage, second right, then down the first set of stairs you come to. It’ll take you to the Citadel walls.”

  As she hustled toward the door, Meilin asked her question again: “Olvan, what are we supposed to do with the gift?”

  “Reveal it,” Olvan responded. He was about to add something when the snake made its choice.

  Moving with lightning speed, it struck like an arrow, sinking its fangs into Olvan’s
leg, just above his boot.

  Conor gasped as the viper’s poison already began to take hold. First Olvan’s leg froze in a rigid stance, then his other leg, and then his arms.

  Olvan spoke quickly as the stone venom crept over his chest. “You must find out who is trying to break apart the Greencloaks,” he wheezed. As he spoke, the poison crept up his neck to attack his face, turning his skin gray and pale. His breath rasped. “The same … force will try to divide you.” His voice slurred, his mouth hardly able to move. “Stay true to … each … ”

  The four kids stared in horror as the poison overcame Olvan. The big man’s body wobbled off balance, then he tipped over and crashed onto the floor. His green cloak settled over him.

  At the same moment, the door splintered under the blows of the Oathbound guards.

  “COME ON!” MEILIN SHOUTED, FLINGING OPEN THE DOOR Olvan had said led to a way out of the Citadel. “It’s clear,” she said over her shoulder. “Let’s go!”

  “What about Olvan?” Conor protested as the Oathbound fought their way past the door they’d broken open.

  Rollan’s heart lurched at the thought of leaving Olvan behind. But they had to flee. “We can’t help him now,” he answered, grabbing Conor and checking to see that Abeke was coming. “He told us to escape, so that’s what we have to do.”

  Snarling, Briggan and Uraza held off the Oathbound guards as the kids made it out of the room, then raced down the hallway.

  “Olvan said we should turn at the second right,” Abeke called, a step behind Rollan.

  “Second left,” Meilin corrected, and they pelted around a corner. Bounding, Briggan caught up to them, followed by Uraza, silent and deadly.

  “Are you sure it’s left?” Conor panted.

  “No!” Meilin shot back.

  They reached a crossroads where two passageways met. Meilin looked right, then frantically left. From behind them came the sounds of pursuit, growing louder.

  “I’m pretty sure it was straight,” Conor put in.

  And then, suddenly, someone else had joined them.

  “Gah!” Meilin shouted.

  Rollan was used to seeing better than anyone, thanks to his connection to Essix, but the Greencloak who appeared at Meilin’s shoulder had come out of nowhere. It was a woman, he could see that much. But her features were oddly blurred and … was her skin gray? Like the stone walls of the passageway?

  “Where did you come from?” Rollan demanded.

  “I’ve been here the whole time,” the mysterious Greencloak answered, “and I’m here to help. This way.” She pointed at a door that they hadn’t noticed, then flung it open and started down a set of stairs.

  No, Rollan was certain. The door had not been there before! Had this Greencloak hidden it somehow?

  Briggan growled. The Oathbound were after them. Rollan could hear their footsteps coming from Olvan’s room.

  “Hurry!” called the Greencloak woman. “I can hide you!”

  “Who are you?” panted Meilin as the four kids, Briggan, and Uraza rushed out of the passageway and onto the stairs, Conor quietly closing the door behind them.

  “Shhhh,” hissed the Greencloak. “Shut up for half a moment, if you can.”

  Rollan so wanted to snipe at her for that comment, but he saw the wisdom of staying quiet. The stairs were dark; even Rollan’s keen eyes couldn’t make out more than shadows. Their panting breaths sounded loud in the silence.

  “Won’t they just open the door and come after us?” Meilin whispered to Rollan.

  He shrugged, even though he knew she couldn’t see him in the dark. He was starting to suspect what the mysterious Greencloak’s spirit animal might be. If he was right, the guards wouldn’t even see the door.

  From above came the sound of the Oathbound pursuers. Their feet pounding, they ran straight past the closed door.

  Yep. Rollan’s guess was right.

  “Come on,” whispered the Greencloak woman from ahead. “Follow me, and stay absolutely quiet.”

  They did as she’d ordered, Conor putting Briggan into passive state and Uraza padding on stealthy paws at their backs. Essix, Rollan knew, was waiting for them outside, circling high above the Citadel.

  At the bottom of the stairs they turned right, down another long, dark passage. At its end was a doorway leading to a courtyard, and then the outer wall of the Citadel. Rollan could hear shouts in the distance: the Oathbound guards searching for Greencloaks to arrest. A booming echo was the portcullis at the front gate slamming closed. They definitely weren’t getting out that way. As he watched, two brown-clad servants rushed across the courtyard. The entire Citadel was stirred up, on the alert. Escaping was going to be impossible.

  Unless …

  In the light of the doorway, Rollan got his first really good look at the new Greencloak. She seemed to have dark hair in a long braid down her back, and skin the same light brown as his own.

  “Weren’t you … grayer before?” Rollan whispered to her.

  She shot him an annoyed glare. “Yeah, they warned me about you,” she said sharply.

  “The smart one?” Rollan asked.

  “Smart mouth, more like,” she whispered back.

  Rollan found himself grinning. He liked her already. “Chameleon spirit animal, right?”

  He saw a flash of surprise cross her face. Then she gave a brusque nod. Rollan caught a glimpse of a small lizard-ish shape on her shoulder, blending in with the green of her cloak. Chameleon. Without the keen sight he got from his bond with Essix, he never would have noticed it. “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Anka,” she answered.

  Meilin joined them. “I assume we’re getting out that way,” she whispered, pointing at a door in the outer wall of the Citadel, across a stone-paved courtyard. “But how are we going to get over there without being spotted?” As she spoke, two Oathbound guards clattered into the courtyard, swords drawn, clearly searching for the escaping Greencloaks. After seeing that the area was deserted, the guards rushed away.

  “Now,” Anka whispered. “Quickly. If I say still, stand against the wall and don’t move.” She turned her glare on Rollan. “And don’t talk. Don’t even breathe.”

  “But—” Meilin began to protest. Rollan knew her—she wanted explanations.

  But they didn’t have time. “Just do it,” Anka said, and Rollan nodded to reassure Meilin.

  Abeke had put Uraza into passive state, and the four kids, led by the mysterious Greencloak, Anka, started around the edge of the courtyard, keeping close to the stone walls that enclosed it. Behind them, the Citadel buzzed with activity.

  They were halfway around the courtyard, ten steps away from the gate in the outer wall, when they heard the sound of Oathbound guards approaching—from the passageway they’d just left!

  “Still!” came Anka’s swift order.

  Obeying, Rollan flattened himself against the wall, his shoulder against Meilin’s, Anka beside him. He knew Conor and Abeke had done it, too. Not one of them moved.

  Don’t even breathe, he told himself.

  The two Oathbound took several steps into the courtyard, looking around. Their eyes passed right over Rollan and the others, but they didn’t react.

  Without moving his head, Rollan looked aside at Meilin. He knew she was there, and his Essix-enhanced eyes had keener vision than most, but all he could see of her was the faintest of outlines. Thanks to Anka’s chameleon spirit animal, all five of them were invisible—they had blended right into the wall.

  “They’re not here,” one of the Oathbound guards said, turning away. “Let’s check the other passageway.”

  “Wait,” said the other, a tall man with a broad, handsome, brown-skinned face, framed by flowing black hair.

  Rollan realized that the man was Marked. He carried his spirit animal in the crook of his arm—it was a fluffy, brown, almost wingless bird that had two nostril holes at the end of a long, thin beak. It was a kiwi bird, from a small island near Stetriol,
and it had a dangerously keen sense of smell.

  Which meant the Oathbound who held it might not be able to see them, but his nose might tell him they were there.

  Trying not to move, Rollan sniffed the air to see if he could smell himself. Uh-oh. He should have taken a bath at the last inn. The others were probably just as stinky.

  In the center of the courtyard, the Marked Oathbound had closed his eyes and stood drawing in the air through his nose. The kiwi in his arms blinked its tiny black eyes.

  Rollan held his breath.

  Frowning, the Marked Oathbound opened his eyes again and looked carefully around the courtyard. He sniffed and took a step closer to where they were hidden.

  “They’re not here,” his partner said impatiently.

  “They were here,” the Marked Oathbound said. “And not that long ago, either.” Another sniff, and he shrugged. “But I don’t see them. We’d better report in.”

  Rollan let out a relieved breath as the two guards hurried away.

  At his side, Abeke looked confused. “He looked right at us,” she whispered.

  Rollan opened his mouth to explain.

  “Let’s go,” Anka interrupted, and started off before checking to be sure the kids were following.

  Quietly, the five of them slipped through the door in the wall and into the forest that surrounded the Citadel. For a while they could hear the uproar as the rest of the Greencloaks were arrested and the Citadel was being searched, but the noise soon fell away behind them. They padded on quiet feet through a shadowy forest, where the ground was thickly carpeted with pine needles. Ferns brushed at their knees, and the high branches of the pine trees cut off the light.

  “All right, that’s far enough,” Meilin said, stopping.

  Rollan went to stand at her side, along with Abeke and Conor, who had brought their spirit animals out of passive state. Briggan sat at Conor’s side, and Uraza crouched at Abeke’s feet, looking ready to pounce. Essix, he knew, was perched in a tree nearby, watching.