“In a few hours, when he’s conscious.” Jakinda sounded uncertain.
“We don’t have a few hours,” Rusk said.
“Don’t you think I know that?” Jakinda whirled to face him.
“If you had the hours... If you could take him to the town...?” I let my words die out. The question was obvious.
“It’s bad, but he would have a chance. He could make it.”
“I don’t think they would detain you if I was not with you.” I enunciated my words carefully. They needed to know that I knew what I was saying. “And you could hide here and wait for them to pass.”
“We swore to you,” Jakinda said, balling her fists. Her face was twisted in pain and indecision. “We cannot leave you.”
“You won’t be able to put him on an elephant by yourself. Or to get him to the town without an elephant,” I said. “You’ll need Sesay and the elephant.”
Beside me Rusk stiffened.
Sesay shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. “I swore too.”
“You did,” I said, and then I took a deep breath, drawing in my courage. Could we survive without them? “You are hereby ordered to accompany Jakinda to the nearby town and both of you are ordered to see to Buhari’s wounds.” I pulled the last leather purse out of the bag—the one with the coin—and handed it to Sesay. “When he has recovered, you are ordered back to Al’Karida to join my other armsmen and servants there. You are to tell the High Tazmin and anyone else who inquires that you have done all of this on my orders. An armsman cannot be held in judgment for what he has been ordered to do. If orders are found wanting, it is the official who gave the orders who will bear the judgment.” My face hardened and I swallowed. I needed to steel my nerves to continue on without my guards. “I will bear any judgment.”
“You can’t do this, Tazminera,” Jakinda said.
“I can, and I do. Are you questioning my orders?”
“No Tazminera.” For the first time ever, respect shone in her eyes.
I nodded, acknowledging her unspoken words and then turned to Rusk. “If we’re found here with them, Amandera’s men won’t spare them. We must continue on.”
“Tylira,” Jakinda said, she had left Buhari long enough to stand and put a hand on my arm. “I am in your debt. Thank you.”
“Tend to Buhari and I will see you again when all of us are honored in Canderabai. We’ll bring the Teeth of the Gods back there together,” I said, trying to project confidence. All I could think about was Buhari’s wound. It didn’t look like something you could recover from.
Rusk and I mounted Alsoon again and as we turned a corner on the mountain path I looked back one last time to my remaining guards. They were huddled together in the growing light of the coming dawn, a cluster of dark shapes against the hard rock. They seemed small, as if I had outgrown them. But if that was true, why was I the one who felt abandoned?
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Alsoon
Our progress was painfully slow up the steep mountain path. It was too narrow for an elephant and Alsoon struggled to climb while jostling us wildly in the process.
“We need to dismount,” I said after twenty minutes and we dropped to our feet. Rusk flinched as his feet hit the ground and I moved in close, brushing his cloak aside. His dark shirt was wet. I ran my fingers gently over the wet patch. It was warm.
“Are you hurt?”
“It’s the old wound,” he said with a shrug, pulling his cloak back over his wound. His face was tight. Was that from pain or because he didn’t like me being nosy? “It reopened. It’s nothing.”
“We should stop and tend it,” I said.
“I’m not stopping,” he said, pushing forward, and leading Alsoon behind him. The tether jerked my wrist and I was forced to follow.
The path grew narrower, too hazy to see clearly in the pre-dawn light. Twice I fell and I gave up counting how many times I stubbed my toes. Rusk didn’t stop for anything, not even when I fell. Something was bothering him. Was he angry that I’d left our armsmen? Did he think it was a mistake? Maybe he was blaming me for bringing us out here or for failing to use the lightnings when it could have saved us.
“Tylira.”
I gasped as An’alepp appeared suddenly in Ra’shara. Hitting my toe painfully on a rock, I stumbled, caught myself on a tall rock and was tugged ahead by the tether.
“Could you please just slow down, Rusk?”
“We’re running from danger. Or had you forgotten?” He pressed forward unrelentingly.
I tugged my sarette higher and chased after him. An’alepp floated in my vision as I hurried, unaffected by the physical world.
“I see you changed your mind about finding the door in the mountains,” she said.
“What?”
“The door. You’re walking right towards it. You must have decided to follow my counsel.”
I rolled my eyes while still hurrying. Was it just me, or was this path getting steeper?
“I’m not looking for your door, Ancestor,” I said. “I’m running from danger.”
“And right to the open arms of the portal,” An’alepp said. “Follow the song when you get there.”
“Get where?” I asked, stubbing my toe again and cursing. “Muck in a bowl! Could you just slow down, Rusk?”
He answered with a tug on the tether. This was getting old fast. If I was meant to be looking for gold in him, I wasn’t finding it.
An’alepp pointed along the path. “Just keep following the Survivor’s Way.”
She disappeared again. My own personal djinn. At least the word ‘survivor’ had been in there. That was something. If I ever get that old, I’ll do things differently. I’ll tell people things plainly instead of using silly cryptic terms they’ve never heard of.
Why did Rusk have to walk so quickly? Even with my head down, stumbling over the path as quickly as I could, I could barely keep up. When dawn finally broke, the rain-heavy clouds grew so dark that they almost negated the growing light. Within moments the torrent was so intense that I could hardly see, and what had already been a difficult path became muddy as well. I slipped into Alsoon, bracing myself on his leg before continuing. How was he still walking in the midst of this?
Adventure. New smells.
Hang in there, old boy.
Excited, Wild Girl!
Well, at least his spirits were high.
A gust of wind whipped my soaking hair around my face, and before I could pull it all clear, I stumbled into Rusk’s back.
“Now you decide to stop,” I grumbled, pulling my hair back and tying it into a messy knot at the back of my head. I pulled up the tail of my sarette, wrapping it round my waist and tucking it in, tying up the skirts so I could walk with more freedom. Not that it would help when it was soaking wet and chafing me with every step.
“I think we need to find a path back down. We could skirt around the side of this mountain and come around our pursuers flank to escape them,” Rusk said, almost shouting over the sound of the rain. He was pointing into the thick undergrowth surrounding the path.
“There’s no room there for an elephant,” I said.
“We’ll have to leave him here, then. I’m sure he’ll be fine. Elephants are valuable. They’ll take him with them.”
I laid a hand on Alsoon. He’d been with me all along. And what if Amandera’s troops never came? Would he be able to find safety, or would he die out here alone and starving? Or maybe predators would eat him. Or a harsh person would take him and work him to death. I couldn’t abandon my only friend.
“If we keep following the path, there will be a door,” I said. Would Alsoon fit through the door? He would have to.
“A door? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means there’s another way,” I shouted. “A way that doesn’t involve abandoning my friend!”
Rusk’s face flushed and his hands gripped into fists. He closed his eyes for a moment as if he were praying and then he said, “Listen, what you say is
childish. Magic doors? Dragging an elephant on the run with us through the mountains? You need to grow up, Tylira, and realize you can’t have everything you want. We need to get off this path and start flanking our enemy, especially now that it’s light. It’s our only chance.”
“How do you know?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. “And it’s ‘Tazminera’ not ‘Tylira.’”
“Because, Tazminera, I am Prince of Hawks. I’ve ridden in battle. I’ve tracked through the woods. I’ve trained with the best of the Kosad Plains.”
“And how far did that get you? The Kosad Plains belong to Canderabai now.” He was going to rub my youth in my face? Well then, I’d rub his defeat into his.
The sound he made was incoherent but landed somewhere between a yell and a curse. He turned and tried to storm off into the wilderness, but it’s hard to storm off when you’re attached to a soaking wet woman. He yanked at the tether, and I lost my footing, falling into the mud. He pulled it again, so I sat firmly against a rock and held my wrist with the other hand, my shoulder pushing into the tether. Try dragging me across the mud, Rusk. See how far that gets you. I bet an elephant would be less difficult to carry out of here.
After a few minutes the tether slackened. Maybe he’d sawed his own hand off. I bit my lip and stood. What I wanted was to sit down and cry, but there wasn’t time, and no one would even care if I did. I took a deep breath and said, “If you’re done sulking, then let’s get going. We’re wasting time here.”
He spun and faced me, dripping wet, his dark clothes clinging to his muscled body. He looked...intimidating. Dangerous.
“We need each other right now, Tylira. If we don’t work together, we’ll die together. Please, work with me.”
Why did he sound so appealing when he said ‘please?’
“What exactly are you asking for?”
“We’ll try it your way for another hour. If there’s no door, then we try my way.”
“But I don’t know how far away the door is!”
“Two can play at your little trick, and you’ll have more difficulty slinging me over your shoulder and carrying me down the mountain than I will have with you.”
He had a point. My gaze flicked over all those muscles standing out under his dripping clothes. That much muscle had to be heavy.
“Fine,” I said, feeling my chest compress and my throat tighten as stress and worry filled me. “Let’s go.”
Come on, old buddy. Let’s find this door.
I follow.
I could always depend on Alsoon.
We followed the trail, forced into silence by the press of the rain and the exertion of our pace. I was falling into a rhythm I could maintain when something stung my arm. Searing hot pain filled my mind and I clapped a hand over my arm, stumbling to a stop.
“Tylira,” Rusk yelled, “Cover!”
Cover what? I took my hand off my arm and it came away red. Something had hit my arm! A narrow trail of torn flesh scored the surface of my skin. What...? I spun, expecting an enemy. Nothing.
I was still spinning, confused, when Rusk lifted me up off my feet, slung me over a shoulder and ran. Zipping noises were all around us. A loud thunk sounded in a tree next to me as a wrist-thick shaft pierced the trunk and vibrated in place. Rusk threw me behind a rock, leaping behind its protection right after me.
“Arrows and javelins,” he gasped.
I gulped down a breath. Alsoon!
He trumpeted in fear and pain and then thundered past our refuge.
Alsoon!
Hurts.
He’d been hit! I leapt up, chasing after him. Mud in a bowl! He was hit by an arrow. Was it mortal?
Rusk followed me, cursing violently. Arrows zipped around us. Ahead a wall of rock jutted out where the path twisted around it. Alsoon turned the corner and vanished from sight. We turned the corner in time to see him fall, a half-dozen javelins and twice as many arrows stuck out of his leathery hide. We were out of sight of the archers, but I didn’t care if they all shot at me.
My friend! My dear friend—bleeding on a trailside. The breath caught in my throat and tears flooded my eyes as I crouched over him, laying my hands gently on his great head. Blood trickled from his mouth, but his trunk wrapped affectionately around me.
The ground began to shake in one of the episodes that had become so common. It seemed even nature herself understood how grave this loss was. I clung to my old friend as the earth bucked and heaved.
Alsoon.
Wild Girl.
Don’t leave, sweet friend.
The ancient herd calls.
I love you, Alsoon.
Love Wild Girl. Love herd. Herd calls.
Alsoon! I sobbed, feeling his mind fluttering away from me.
I caressed his great head, stroking his cheek, clinging to his head like a child to her mother. Of all the horrors I had imagined—I had never thought of this. Never this. I’d rather it was me, and it should be me.
The shaking of the earth was so intense that I almost lost my hold on him, but eventually it stilled, slowly reducing to an intermittent rumble and then peace. In the pouring rain, I could barely make out when his eyes flickered.
Love, he said, and then his thoughts vanished and his eyes glassed over. I sank into him, my body shaking with sobs and my heart breaking, breaking, breaking.
I’d lost him—the only love I could always count on—and it was all my fault. If only I had stayed in Al’Karida. If only I had just been less selfish. If only I had been anyone but my bull-headed self, then Alsoon would still be alive and happy. I would give anything to take it all back.
The clash of metal on metal finally drew me out of my grief-induced stupor. The tether jerked and flexed on my wrist. I looked up to see Rusk surrounded by Amandera’s men, slashing and dancing his death-dance with that curved blade. He did not allow anyone to touch Alsoon or I. Any trespass was met with furious steel and death.
In the depths of my pain the sweetness of the gesture shone through and to my eye it was as if he glowed with a golden light. He would not let anyone touch my beloved friend. Could anything be more noble? I choked on a sob and coughed. My poor Alsoon. My beloved friend.
Wiping my eyes with the back of my hand and standing up, I saw Amandera behind her armsmen. She sat atop a gray dappled horse, a thick cloak protecting her from the heavy rain, but even from so far away, I felt her thrill of victory.
Rusk was too hard pressed. Our foes forced in closer and then one of them leapt up upon Alsoon’s flank, shaking his still form. Horror filled me. With a roar, I plunged into Ra’shara, reached out towards the man searching for his sword and then I had a thread and I was pulling it loose in quick, frantic jerks. I didn’t care if the lightnings came, or who they killed. I didn’t care if I split the earth. With Alsoon gone there was no one left to protect or to care about. The thread came free - whipping back and forth dangerously—and I let it loose.
Lightning shot through my hands, piercing him and throwing him backwards off Alsoon. A dark scorch mark burned right through his clothing and into his chest. More lightning crackled from my fingers. It was as if I held the bolts in my hands like swords. I flung them outward and they spread amongst my enemies, striking randomly and fatally. Men and horses fell, dead as stones, while others screamed in panic, scattering before the unpredictability of my attack.
After moments that felt like days, Rusk shook me. His pack was in his hand and his sword was sheathed. Around us, all was still. A few people and animals lay in sizzling wrecks in between the rocks, but the others had fled.
“Alsoon. We need to care for his remains.”
“No time,” Rusk argued. “We need to move. They will regroup quickly and we can’t outrun horses.”
The scream of a hawk punctuated his words and I turned towards the path. In the torrential rain and the earth shaking and the death of my friend I hadn’t noticed that the trail ended before us in a waterfall and a round pool.
“The path ends,�
�� Rusk said. “It led to nowhere but those falls. We’ll need to follow my plan and get off this mountain.”
The words of An’alepp’s song rang out in my mind and I started to hum it.
Ring around the mountains,
It baffles all the high plans,
Falling, falling, under the falls.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Ring Around the Mountains
“We’re getting off the mountain all right,” I said, stalking towards the pool. Could I get behind those waterfalls without having to go right into the pool? It looked like if I was careful getting around that rock face—
“Tylira, please stop.” There was tension on the tether. “Tylira, we don’t have time to waste.”
I glanced back at him. He looked frantic. His eyes were everywhere and unbelievably a red tailed hawk landed on his shoulder and screamed.
“Our enemies are regrouping. There’s no time for whatever you’re doing. I need you to please see sense and come with me.”
See sense? If I could find that door we wouldn’t have to break our necks running down the side of a mountain.
“I know it’s back there behind the falls,” I said, pulling him forward over the slippery rocks that lined the side of the pool. “It’s in the song.”
“Forget the song! Forget the Teeth. We’re running for our lives now. Believe me—I know what that means and I know exactly what happens when you fail.”
His beautiful face, usually so strong and hard was twisted with fear and sadness. I wanted to comfort him, to tell him I would make everything all right again. After all, he’d defended my elephant. But I didn’t know for sure if I could. What I did know was that this gamble was worth the try.
I reached up and held his shoulder. “Trust me.”
This had better work. If An’alepp was stringing me along, I’d pull her shadowy ancestor form right out of the next life and back into this one and then she could have a front row seat while I unwove her. Could I do that? Could I unweave people? I shuddered at the thought as the red tailed hawk shrieked like he could read my mind.
Rusk shook his head, torn and frustrated, but with a grunt through his teeth he followed me onto the tiny rock ledge that went under the falls. We had to move slowly across the slippery rock, only our toes on the ledge and fingers grasping at handholds. Good thing they pushed physical fitness in the Silken Gardens or my muscles wouldn’t be able to take the strain. Within minutes my arms and legs were shaking and felt jellified. I risked a glance at Rusk. He’d tied our bag of supplies to his belt, and his own muscles were tight as he fought to climb across on the ledge. He was favoring his injured side. Was he in a lot of pain?
Teeth of the Gods Page 18
