“First we find the harbinger.” His eyes gleamed. “Then we free you from your betrothal.”
“And if we fail?”
He held my face between his palms, and the kiss he gave me set my heart afire.
“If you are the prize,” he said softly, “fear not that I will win you.”
I pressed my lips to his one final time before I stood and gathered the spade I had dropped. I gave him privacy to adjust himself while pretending not to study him from the corner of my eye.
“See that ridge there?” He jerked his chin past my shoulder. “That’s where we’re headed.”
“The mountains will make for a harder journey.” Familiar as they were, I dreaded the climb.
“Saida Pass will shave a day from our travel if we keep up the pace we’ve set.”
“Won’t the others follow?” They must know the area at least as well as he did.
“They will, but that’s the point.” His arm brushed mine in passing. “If we lure them into the mountains, there’s less chance they’ll encounter Hishima, assuming they haven’t intercepted him already. That will accomplish two things. It keeps Hishima south of us, which gives the paladin a chance at detaining him upon his arrival in Cathis, and it gives us the help we’ll need to transport the harbinger back to Cathis in good condition. I doubt you and I could escort her that far alone.”
“I hope your paladin can detain mine for a day at least.” Though I doubted it. “Hishima will never allow us to reach the caverns. If we do, by some chance, he will see we never leave them.”
“We’ll think of something.” He sounded sure, and that relaxed me. I trusted him, I realized.
“I know you will.” Despite the fact our break had been anything but restful, I was energized.
“Can I ask you something?” He hesitated. “It’s personal. You don’t have to answer.”
He had said his secrets were mine. Could I do any less than allow mine to be his?
With no small amount of trepidation, I gave him leave. “Ask me.”
He took so long to speak again, I wondered if he’d changed his mind. “Why do you do it?”
Considering all the things I had done these past months… “You’ll have to be more specific.”
“Why chase the plague? What have you gotten for your trouble except being called a liar by the very people you’ve sacrificed to help?” He scratched behind his ear. “Others in your position would have made other, easier choices. Yet you chose to fight. You made a stand for your clan.”
I contemplated my answer, but settled on, “It’s a long story.”
A sweep of his arm covered the distance between here and the mountains. “We have time.”
“When I fled Titania, no one had the plague. I had never heard of the plague for that matter. Oh, I’m sure some were in the early stages. We had livestock die in bizarre ways, some from the same herds that had been butchered for market. But no people were sick yet. No one had any great concerns. Since wildlife had died also, we assumed it was an illness spread among animals.
“Fleeing Hishima meant my family was shamed for my actions. I had broken vows made to our paladin. They were the ones forced to remain in Titania and endure his wrath.” A hard choice I regret. “Their ignorance protected them. My parents had no idea I had gone until he confronted them. Until you found me, my whereabouts were a mystery Hishima despaired of ever solving.”
“You did the best you could to protect them.” Murdoch’s sincere endorsement rang hollow.
No matter how I tried, I saw only my cowardice in abandoning my family to his whims.
“They…disowned me.” Gods it was hard to say aloud. “I understood why they did. I don’t begrudge them what protection it afforded them. It hurt to hear of it, but I had made my choice.”
Murdoch bowed his head. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I was sorrier to live it.” I laughed bitterly. “From Hishima’s manor, I fled into a small town situated at the base of the mountains we’re about to cross. My favorite cousin, Maier, lived there. She was the one soul I dared trust, and I would have only stayed with her until I had time to think of where to go from there. Every third morning, she traveled into Titania and sold her charms. It was through her I first learned of the plague and that my family had fallen ill as everyone else. I wasn’t worried. If everyone else had it, how bad could it be? Even when Maier came home with a fever, I teased her about using the yellow fever, as it was being called then, to avoid the lengthy journey into the city. We thought the fever would burn itself out in a few days, but it got worse.
“Disowned and in hiding, I couldn’t use my parents’ name or mine to pay for a physician for her. There was nothing I could have done, I know that now, but it still haunts me.” It took several moments to work up the nerve to finish. “Maier died in her cottage with me weeping at her side.”
Murdoch stopped as if to turn, so I placed a hand on his shoulder to urge him onward. It was easier speaking of such things without seeing pity on his face. I could abide much, but never that.
“When the townsfolk came to claim Maier’s body to bury her among our kin, I learned all of my family had died. Most had been dead before Maier passed, but with her home sick, there was no one to tell me.” I tightened my grip on him. “Days, Murdoch. In a matter of days I lost them. I lost everything. The females succumbed to the plague. The males who had tied their life threads to their wives died alongside them. Only Uncle Ghubari, who had never married and been on a trip at the time, survived. By the time he returned, he assumed I had died too. That my body was one of many gone missing. Some blamed zealous townsfolk, saying they buried or burned bodies before families identified them. Others feared scavenging animals, but none suspected Hishima.”
“Did you know the plague was linked to the harbinger then?” he asked.
“Not then, no. But three nights after Maier’s body had been laid to rest, I snuck into Titania. My uncle had erected a memorial with the names of each of the departed carved into the crystal. I sat there and cried for my family, for my parents whom I had hurt so deeply at the end. I hadn’t gotten sick, and I didn’t know why. I didn’t care. I only knew that I didn’t want to be left behind.
“Then I heard it. Someone cried for help. I looked around, but I was alone. That was when I saw it. Maier’s hand. It pierced the earth and waved frantically for help. I clasped her forearm to let her know I was there.” My arm bore crescent-shaped scars to prove it. “I dug Maier out of her grave. I didn’t know what it meant, but she was a riser—a corpse who follows a harbinger—and she almost killed me. She would have if a harbinger hadn’t arrived to claim her before she could.
“After that night, I pieced together what the plague was doing, where I had seen a harbinger before. That’s when I began hunting my family. Risers are mindless, beyond salvation, and they deserve peace they will never know while a harbinger pulls their strings. Those first nights were the worst. I took beatings, endured scratching and clawing, all while I tried in vain to communicate with stout bodies that had no scraps of souls left in them.” My throat tightened. “When I find my family, I’ll have to…”
Murdoch tilted his head back and inhaled. “Someone’s coming.”
I sniffed, but forest and male were all I detected.
“Can you climb?” He darted from tree to tree, studying their structure.
“Trees?” I began measuring the distance between the lowest limbs. “I suppose.”
“Pick one and go high as you can.” He drew his sword. “I’ll lead them away.”
“The mountains are closer,” I protested. “We can run for them—”
“No.” His nostrils flared. “We won’t make it.” He pointed at the nearest tree. “Climb.”
And climb I did.
Ensconced high above the forest in my piney tower, I scanned for signs of Murdoch. He’d fled after boosting me onto the tallest branch we could find. I took care to sit above a thick limb fat with needles t
o better my chances of going undiscovered should anyone walk below and look up.
I kept a limp arm looped around the tree’s trunk. Climbing took more muscle than I recalled. I had been too long on flatlands. I had forgotten the pleasant burn, the fearsome view, of a climb.
Not long after boredom set in and I began fidgeting, I heard voices.
“…headed for the mountains…”
“…your nose works as well as your soap. His scent leads this way…”
Holding still as possible, I kept my eyes downcast while four males lumbered past my perch.
“We’ve got until sundown,” the tallest male said. “That’s when Paladin Hishima arrives.”
“Fat chance of making that,” another said. “Think how far we’ve tracked them.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. As far as they knew, Hishima was still heading straight for Cathis.
“Smells like him,” the third observed. “Murdoch came through here all right.”
“How can you tell?” The second chuckled. “Didn’t know you two were— Damn it.”
“Say it again,” the third snarled. “I need an excuse to buy new boots. I’ll shove these up—”
“Shut up the both of you,” the first ordered. He nodded to the fourth. “What do you say?”
“He’ll head for the mountains,” a familiar voice said. “It’s what I’d do.”
“Figured you’d say that.” He adjusted his pack with a grunt. “Come on then.”
Grumbling among themselves, they settled on a course and ambled in the same direction we had intended to take. Unsure what that meant for Murdoch and me, I missed the first prickling of awareness that I was being watched. I glanced down and found Bram staring up at me. He smiled and dropped the pack he carried at the base of my tree. When I frowned down at him, he winked.
Then he was gone, but I was too wary to crawl down and risk them springing a trap on me.
Instead, I sat on my hard branch until my bottom went numb and prayed Murdoch was holed up and safe. When not worrying for him, I stared at the pack Bram had dropped. Curiosity nibbled at me. What did he want me to have? Did he pity me? Had he left me food, water, coin?
Strained as the pack was, I saw that a long, slender item stretched it out of shape. But what?
I spent the next few hours playing a game. Study the pack. Guess its contents. Try again.
About the time I convinced myself the relief of knowing for certain was worth the risk of the climb down, a whistle snapped me out of it. Peering between my crossed legs, I spotted Murdoch leaning against the tree trunk. His chest was heaving, his lip bloodied, and I was at his side in two quick minutes. I ran hands over him, but he seemed unharmed on the whole. “What happened?”
He touched his mouth. “A poorly placed sapling.”
I wiped him clean with my thumb, then rubbed my hand on my pants. “I had company.”
“So I see.” He nudged the pack. “Smells like Bram.”
“It’s amazing how you know that.” I shook my head. “It was him. He saw me and left this.”
“When Bram was chosen as one of your guards, I lent him cloth with your blood on it so he could learn your scent.” He grumbled, “His nose is poor. I wish now I had left him scent-blind.”
“He didn’t tell the others I was here.” I bent to retrieve the pack.
He beat me to it, opening the front pocket. “If Bram wanted to lure you to him, he’d hardly let you watch as he told them he found you. He might have hidden to give his bait time to work.”
“Do you really think that?” I doubted it since he had come back for me and revealed us both.
“No.” He lifted a piece of rolled parchment. “But you should have.”
Properly chastised, I turned my attention to the paper. “What do you think it is?”
“It’s Isolde’s seal.” He sighed. “Gods only know what she sent.”
“Should we open it?” My fingers itched to see what she’d written.
“Bram wouldn’t have left it here if he intended otherwise.” He passed me the paper.
I flicked the wax seal open and unrolled the paper, reading it aloud, “Enjoy your trip.”
Murdoch snatched the scroll from me. “You can’t be serious.” He flipped it front to back, let sunlight stream through it testing for messages hidden in the material. He must have found none.
Plucking her note from his fingers, I peered at the pack. “What else did she send?”
He reached inside and produced my spade. Once I accepted it, he dug inside again and returned to me the crystal necklace I’d mourned leaving with Mana. Its clasp had been repaired, and I pulled it over my head, relishing the familiar weight about my neck. “Is that all? No supplies? No…anything?”
“She’s gone mad.” He discovered a second pocket and withdrew a length of black silk rope. Holding it aloft, he murmured, “Or perhaps not.” He glanced at me. “I believe this is her attempt at giving us her blessing. We can’t let Vaughn discover she did this. Being his mother won’t save her if she’s aiding us instead of him. He knows she has taken the loss of her station hard, but she is courting treason. What’s worse is she talked Bram into helping her. He ought to know better.”
“You really do care for her, don’t you?” I marveled.
“I swore allegiance to Brynmor, and to her. She treated me well when she had no reason to. I respect her. I won’t see her harmed.” He added the rope to his supplies. “She is still my maven.”
“I won’t breathe a word of this.” To prove it, I tore the parchment into tiny pieces and let the wind scatter them. For the sake of convenience, I shoved the spade into the pack and shrugged it into place. Bram’s knife went on my belt, and my necklace got dropped down the front of my shirt.
“The others are heading for the mountains,” I told him. “What will we do now?”
“The same.” His expression tightened. “We’ll follow them. Unless you have a better idea.”
“No.” The mountain pass was the fastest way to Titania, and that was the way we should go. “Bram must have realized we would continue as planned. He might have staged the conversation so that we learned that was their intent as well and could negotiate around them.” After saying it aloud, I found I believed myself. “I think we can trust him to keep his group separate from ours.”
“At least this way he’s given us a measure of protection. If Hishima has guards placed near the pass, they’ll encounter Bram and the others first. We can use them as a distraction if we need one.” Murdoch inhaled, pinpointing the direction they had gone. “They have a good lead on us.”
While he stood debating, I began walking. Say what you will about Isolde, but she was sly. I had theories about why she had risked so much to help us, but most were grim thoughts best kept for later consideration. What mattered now was we had a powerful ally, if an unpredictable one. I hoped that meant, despite Murdoch’s concerns, if Isolde spoke on our behalf that Vaughn would be obligated to at least hear her out. If we managed the unthinkable and we actually captured the harbinger, then words would be unnecessary. We would have proof. We would also be punished, I was sure. But a month in a grotto cell sounded far more pleasant to my ears than a noose fitting.
“They’ll know all the best spots for fresh water and camping.” He was catching up to me. “I know a few spots that are harder to reach. Most travelers are too weary to climb to them, but it’ll put us higher than Bram and his men, and higher means we’ll hold the advantage if things sour.”
“I trust you to do what’s best for us.” Even if it meant I climbed until my muscles gave way.
“I’ll ask you to remember that once you see the place I have in mind.” His smile was slight.
For whatever reason, Murdoch let me lead. He would correct my course once in while if his nose told him one direction was better or that an unsavory obstacle lay ahead. I remembered the times I’d stumbled into trouble while traveling alone and was grateful for Murdoch and his nose.
>
The only heightened sense I possessed was my hearing, and I was tuned into a range so high it was useless outside my work. Aural crystaliers, such as myself, possessed a specific talent. We taught crystal to sing. Or we sold ourselves that way. Ours was a precision trade, and those of my line had an ear for it. Even more delicate than song was the ability to amplify sound, or a specific sound. Consider this. Later in life, your hearing wanes. What if wearing a custom pair of earrings amplified sound to make hearing possible again? What price was too high to restore a lost sense?
Granted that concept had not yet been perfected…
A pang of longing swept through me. That had been a different dream for a different life.
No use dwelling on what might have beens when what will bes always prevail.
Our journey into the foothills was uneventful. Bram and his band of guards seemed to be the only ones set on our trail, which suited me fine. Briefly I worried we might be penned in the pass if a secondary unit arrived. But keen as Murdoch’s nose was, I trusted he could scent such a trap.
For my part, I kept an ear cocked for the hum of the harbingers.
One could never be too careful.
“See that ledge?” Murdoch indicated a sliver of rock cloaked in shadow.
It was three times his height from here to there. “It’s rather high.”
“I trust Bram and his comrades felt the same.” He backed up to me. “Can you manage?”
As long as I ignored the churning in my stomach. “Yes.”
“Good.” His fingers dug his first handhold. “I thought after your reaction to the window…”
He grunted and began his ascent. I achieved my first rung with more of a whimper, really.
“Has no one ever told you to face your fears so that you might conquer them?” I waited for a nod from him before saying, “They’re dirty, rotten liars. I have climbed rock, though usually not more than twice my height, since I was a child, helping my mother and father harvest promising crystals for their work. It made me sick each time my feet left the ground. It still does. But when it’s the difference between reaching the stone that might pay for your food for a month and being too cowardly to outstretch your arm, you must decide which will best you—your hunger or fear.”
A Time of Dying (Araneae Nation) Page 15
