“No.”
“What will you tell them?”
“You mean Selia?”
“No.” Jaden’s eyes were like molten gold. “Your men.”
“A few, your guards, I’ll tell the truth. Most believe you’ve already died of your injuries and the guard is for Selia’s protection.” Nathan hadn’t before entertained the thought that there might be southern spies among his men. He eyed the Svistra. There was something different about the way he carried himself. He still had that cocky, arrogant demeanor, but it was subdued somehow. “I need to ask you a question.”
A flash of something crossed the Svistra’s irises.
Nathan hesitated. This was different. It was more like asking for help. “I’m sending one of my men to the western king. I need to know how to get him past the Svistra between here and the crossroads.”
Jaden remained still long enough Nathan grew uncomfortable.
“Interesting question because, as you know, we don’t just rely on our sense of sight. We can also smell humans approaching, and our hearing is more acute than yours.”
Nathan ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t want a lesson on why Svistra were physically superior to humans.
“You can use that to your advantage. The Svistra can become lazy. They expect humans to use the roads because humans often get lost without them, and they expect to smell them coming from a long way off.”
“So?”
“Geranium.”
“What?”
“There are many geranium plants in this part of the forest. Have your healer collect some and concentrate it. Before your man leaves, have him roll in the compost pile or as much debris from the forest floor as you can gather, both him and his horse. Clothing too. Then sprinkle some of the Geranium concentration on him and for a few days, he’ll blend right in with the forest.” Jaden paused. “At least his scent will. He will still need to remove buckles and anything metal from the horse’s gear and remain alert to his surroundings.”
Nathan worked hard to keep his jaw from dropping. For a moment he pictured Matias approaching the western king looking like he’d just been dragged through the forest by his hair. He couldn’t help the smile.
“You don’t like the idea?”
“No. I think it’s the best chance we have. I’m not sure how Matias will feel, though.”
Jaden shrugged. “Matias is a good man. Even then, speed is your greatest ally. Warn him about fires too, even at night. We can smell the smoke.”
Nathan wasn’t sure how he felt hearing a Svistra praise one of his men. “It would help if I knew where the Svistra were.”
“You could wait until I get back.”
Nathan shook his head. “As you said, speed is our greatest ally. I can’t afford to wait.”
“If you’re planning what I assume you are, it’s a bold move. But there is one contingency you have overlooked.”
“What is that?”
“You have no proof.”
“I have to take that chance. There is nothing I can do about it.”
“But I can.” Jaden reached under the mattress and retrieved a folded parchment, offering it to Nathan.
Nathan turned it over in his hand. His heart stopped and then made up for the pause by beating twice as fast. It was a missive, wrinkled and worn but the broken seal bore Josiam’s mark. His gaze found Jaden’s.
“I took it about three months ago. It was on its way north. My brother found it when he captured Selia and me, but in his arrogance he threw it back in my face. I saved it and gave it to Selia. I asked her for it the other day.”
“What?” Nathan’s hands shook.
“I suggest you read it.”
The missive contained detailed information about Eagle Rock: its layout, how many men it contained and the fort’s weaknesses and strengths. Nathan stared down at the parchment in horror and dawning understanding. “That’s how?” Through his mind flashed the image of Svistra pouring effortlessly over the walls of the fortress.
“I can only assume.”
“Assumptions can be dangerous.”
“True.”
“Where did you find this? What happened to the courier?”
“Do you want to know?”
Nathan didn’t know if he did but he nodded.
“I took it from him while he slept. I have no idea what happened to him afterward.”
“I see.” Nathan was shocked to realize he believed the Svistra. “Thank you.”
“Will you move from this place?”
“No. Not until I hear back from you. I don’t want to move into a large force of Svistra.”
“Wise.”
“The weapons will be delivered with your dinner.” Nathan hesitated. “Have you told Selia?”
“We said our goodbyes.”
“Well, good luck.”
Jaden nodded. “Honor your part of the bargain.”
“With my life.”
Nathan returned the golden-eyed stare that had once so unnerved him and for a moment forgot the Svistra before him was his enemy. He offered his hand, and Jaden took it. Nathan squeezed once. Without another word Nathan turned and left the room.
Chapter Thirty
A knock sounded against his door. With care, Nathan rolled up the travel-worn map of Asild, tied it with twine and placed it to a side of his desk. “Come in.”
The candles fluttered as the ever-present draft from the hallway gusted into the room. A robed man took one step into the room, his face hidden by a deep hood. “You asked to see me?”
The healer. “Yes. Come in, Father,” Nathan repeated.
The man wore the green-cowled robes of a healer but moved with the smoothness of a seasoned fighter. He stepped farther into the room, shut the door and then, with hands so gnarled and twisted by time they resembled bird’s feet, reached up to pull back the hood from his face. “I am sorry I was not available when first you asked. I’d needed to gather herbs.”
Nathan thought to warn the healer about roaming the forests alone but thought better. The healer’s black eyes, almost hidden by wrinkled flesh, shone with intelligence. “I have some questions for you.”
The healer’s eyes flickered in the candlelight before he lowered his head and nodded. The action reminded him of someone, but he couldn’t place who or where he’d seen it. “Please, sit.” Nathan waited for the healer to lower into the chair, expecting the hesitation of movement that told of old age, but the healer’s motion was as fluid as his entrance into the room. “I need you to make a concentration for me.”
“Are you ill?”
“No, it’s a…I need a concentration of geranium.”
If the healer was surprised he didn’t show it. The dark eyes continued to observe him as though they saw more than Nathan cared to reveal. “How much?”
“Um, I don’t know, enough for a small bottle.” Jaden’s inadvertent warning about the possibility of spies in their midst caused him to be a little more cautious than he normally would have, even with a healer.
The healer nodded. “I take it this is a priority.”
Nathan nodded. “Speed is an issue.”
“These things cannot be rushed, but I will do my best.”
Who does he remind me of? “I understand.”
“Is that all?” The healer made as if to rise.
“Um, no.”
He settled back in the chair with an air of perpetual patience.
“What can you tell me about the Svistra?”
The healer’s expression hardened.
Nathan rose and, pulling the chair along with him, rounded the desk until he could sit beside the healer, their knees almost touching. “Look, in order for me to lead this army. I need all the information I can glean. I’ve been told some things recently and…”
The healer’s dark eyes lit up. “You’ve spoken to our guest?”
“Yes.”
“I was hoping I would have a chance to do so before his…untimely death.�
�
By the tone of his voice, Nathan knew the healer hadn’t bought the rumor the Svistra they’d captured had died, but then the healer would know the prisoner couldn’t have succumbed to his wounds. “I’m sorry about that.”
The healer waved his hand. “And you want to know how much, if any, of what the Svistra said was true?”
“Well, yes.”
“So your request is to learn about the Svistra people and not a particular individual.”
“Yes.”
The healer stared just past Nathan’s shoulder seemingly collecting thoughts from the cold stone wall. He blinked and turned to Nathan. “As you know, we’re not involved with the more violent aspects of humanity. Healers are a peaceful people, learning wherever there is knowledge to be gained.”
The healers’ passivity was well known. They may have separated themselves from the violence of humanity, but they died as easily as any other creature. Nathan kept the thought to himself. “Do you have information?”
“The Svistra have a far more advanced knowledge of plants and their uses than we do and have been gracious to share that knowledge with us.”
Nathan checked his reaction. What the healer had just said was akin to admitting he was part of an organization of traitors. “You mean our healers consort with the Svistra?”
“Consort? That’s meant to be pejorative, is it not? No. In the past, we’ve exchanged information with Svistra healers. If they gave a little more than we, they did not hold it against us. This information has been carefully passed down from healer to apprentice throughout generations.”
“I see.” He didn’t. But he could tell the healer was feeling him out, testing the waters.
“However, if I’m not wrong, what you seek is history.”
“Yes. Exactly.” Nathan leaned forward.
“Forgive me but I must ask. This information will affect your decisions, correct?”
“Correct.”
The healer’s wrinkles shifted into what could be a smile. “As you imagine everything having to do with the Svistra is…well, complicated.”
“I understand. Please tell me what you know.”
The healer took a deep breath. “Long ago, before the three kingdoms existed, there were numerous kings in the land and great unrest among men. For many, many years kings fought against kings, and the land traded hands over and over.”
“Forgive me, but I know this,” Nathan interrupted. “What I want to know is how the Svistra factor in.”
“Patience, Nathan.” The healer’s tone and his creased eyes rearranged into an expression of disapproval Nathan thought probably scared the hell out of his apprentices. It certainly unnerved Nathan.
“Svistra dwelt in the land north of the river S’ian and east of the Sulat Mountains,” the healer continued, “and if there were humans there, they called no man king.”
Nathan blinked. They were now north of the river S’ian, if it was indeed the same river, just south of the White Forest.
The healer’s gaze grew distant as he relived his story. “In time, King Haposet, of a northern kingdom, came upon an idea he thought would give him dominance over the other kings. He had fought minor battles against the Svistra—border wars, so to speak—and knew their strengths and weaknesses. He hired a Svistra lord to command his army, promising him and all his men a section of his land in exchange for their services…”
Nathan listened to the tale as he realized who the healer reminded him of. The man sitting before him could be Jaden in another fifty years.
Keldar rolled out of bed and away from Noe’s warmth. She didn’t stir, and he was tempted to pull the blankets away and expose her flesh to the cool morning air, but he didn’t. Instead he dressed in silence, listening to his men waking up and stoking the fires. The hastily constructed camp was not nearly as well situated as their last location, but it couldn’t be helped. It was the closest shelter that would contain all his men. He’d admit he miscalculated in his attack on Eagle Rock, but the forced retreat still caused his anger to burn hot.
He pulled the straps of his leather arm-guards taut and glanced at Noe. She should have been up helping him to dress. Worthless nobility. What good was it to trace your family back many generations when you couldn’t even serve your man? He’d have to get rid of her soon. It would be easy enough. He’d insist she ride into battle by his side. He didn’t think she was with child. It was an acceptable request. Once he drove the northern king to his knees, he could have his pick of any female.
But first he had to gather his forces and his allies. Keldar picked up a sealed document off his desk and stepped into the dawn. Immediately two Svistra approached, heads lowered. Keldar smirked; one of them was Tasir. The gods still favored him.
“I have a need of you.” He locked eyes with Tasir, then turned to the other Svistra. “Leave us.”
When the warrior was out of earshot, Keldar pasted what he thought would pass for a benevolent gesture on his face and extended his hand with the letter. “I have a mission of utmost importance for you. Take this to the southern king’s men. They wait three days south of the first crossroads. Give them this and wait for a reply. Even if it takes many days you are to wait. When you have it, race with all haste back to me. Understand?”
“Yes, Commander.”
Keldar lowered his voice. “If you’re successful, I will reward you. Perhaps even Noe shall be yours.”
Tasir’s dull black eyes snapped closed before opening wide. “Yes, Commander.”
Keldar calculated one more time. If the southern king was where he should be by the time he gathered his army, Josiam would be ready to march against the castle at Newhaven from the south, while the Svistra attacked from the north.
By the new moon, Asild would belong to the Svistra and he would be king.
Chapter Thirty-one
Jaden sat under a large fir, the gentle scrape of his knife against wood the only sound save for the sigh of wind through the branches above. He appraised the newly formed arrow shaft, tested its weight and placed it in a growing pile by his side. A gust of wind blew bits of decaying leaves and needles around him and strengthened the biting scent of the surrounding evergreens. He narrowed his eyes to ward against the grit pummeling his face.
Even this far south, the summer nights grew chilly but he wouldn’t risk a fire. Jaden weighed his stack of arrow shafts against a supply of heads. He probably should have taken some of Nathan’s arrows, if only for the tips. After jumping the fortress wall he’d searched the area for Svistra arrows but didn’t find as many as he hoped. And unfortunately he had no time to look for the kind of stone or feather he needed.
An owl hooted upwind. He tensed before deciding it was only a bird—a good and bad sign. Owls avoided his people. The Svistra’s scent drove away their prey, and his people used the owl’s call to communicate with one another in the forest. This owl meant there were no other Svistra in the area. Why? And where were they?
Jaden used more pressure than he intended and the new arrow shaft snapped in his hands. He threw it down at his feet. The nights were hardest. During the day he occupied his mind with the tasks of staying alive and tracking the Svistra. At night…Jaden glanced up at the stars. At night it all came back and like the fool he was he welcomed it.
He consumed his memories of Selia in small bites, with the self-control of a man savoring his last meal. He remembered how it felt to hold her in his arms, the weight of her head on his chest, the contour of her body. She had fit there as if made for him. It didn’t make sense, really, how by doing such a simple thing he could feel so much, but he did. Closing his eyes, he relived once again her first tentative kiss and then the scent of her body awakening to him. The spice of passion. His lips tingled with the memory.
In the dark they’d let the currents between them flow. It had taken every bit of self-control he possessed to pull away. How could he make love to Selia when he was leaving? Jaden wondered what she’d think if she knew they’d a
lready shared a more intimate ritual. The voluntary giving of blood, of nourishing another, was a sacred joining rite among his people. Mine. But he could never claim her. What did he have to offer? A life on the run from both their kind?
Besides, she hadn’t known what she was doing when she gave her blood. He wouldn’t hold her to the promise.
Jaden opened his eyes. That Selia returned his feelings should have thrilled him, but it didn’t. It only meant she’d have to bear the weight and the futility of those emotions along with him.
The night deepened and the owl took flight, its nearly soundless wings beating in a steady rhythm as it climbed. Jaden concentrated on the sound of wind over feathers as it dove, soon followed by the truncated cry of the bird’s dinner.
After stowing the arrow shafts, he wrapped his cloak around his body and curled into the tree trunk. He welcomed sleep, where Selia waited for him. Where he’d once again feel her weight against him, smell the lavender of her hair. He shouldn’t welcome the dreams, but he did. They kept the memories sharp enough both to comfort and torture him.
Selia sat up and threw the bed covers aside in frustration. Wrapping a blanket around her shoulders she tiptoed into the hall and slipped into the room that had been Jaden’s. There were no longer soldiers guarding the door, but she still moved with stealth so as not to attract the attention of the night patrol.
It was silly. Jaden had stayed there only a short while, but in his room she felt closer to him. Cold seeped into her bones. She adjusted the blanket around her shoulders and moved to his bed. Nathan hadn’t needed the room and it was just as Jaden left it. If she concentrated she could still catch the scent of musk and sandalwood lingering in the air. The bed was slightly wrinkled in the middle where she’d sat the previous nights.
On impulse she pulled the blanket down and climbed under, scooting down and pulling the cover to her nose. She breathed deeply. Jaden. She welcomed the ache that scent brought. The blankets proved a shallow imitation of the feeling of his arms wrapped around her.
Her life was full of missing those she loved. Her mother, Oren, Jaden.
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