“Just follow this path.” He pointed in the direction the wagons had come from. “I managed to shake them off my tail before I caught up with you. The soldiers were heading southwest; they’re probably staking out this trail. Technically, that’s the best strategy.”
Valek jogged away along the path. I watched him go. He moved with the light grace and speed of a deer, his muscles rippling under his formfitting camouflage.
When he was out of sight, I crunched my feet on the loose stones of the trail, making noise. Twilight robbed the trees of color as darkness descended. Uneasiness settled over me. Every rustle caused my heart to jump, and I found myself peering over my shoulder, wishing Valek was here.
A shout pierced the air. Before I could react, a large shape rushed me, tackling me to the ground.
16
“GOT YOU!” SAID THE MAN sitting on top of me.
Even with my face pressed into the stones, and my mouth full of dirt, I recognized his rough voice from earlier in the day. He yanked my arms behind me. I felt cold metal bite into my wrists as I heard the snap and clink of manacles.
“Isn’t that a bit much, Janco?” asked Janco’s partner.
Janco moved off me, and I was hauled to my feet. In the semidarkness, I saw the man that held me was thin, with a goatee. He wore his dark hair buzzed in the typical military style. A thick scar ran from his right temple to his ear. The lower half of his right ear was missing.
“She was too damn hard to find. I don’t want her getting away,” Janco grumbled.
His companion was about the same height but twice as wide. Thick, sculpted muscles bulged through his camouflage uniform. Small, damp curls clung to his head, and from this distance his eyes held no color except the black of his pupils.
I wanted to flee. It was almost dark; I was manacled and alone with two strange men. Logically, I knew that these were the Commander’s soldiers, and they were professionals, but that didn’t stop my pulse from racing.
“You made us look bad,” Janco said. “Every soldier out here is probably going to be reassigned. We’ll all be cleaning out latrines ’cause of you.”
“That’s enough, Janco,” Colorless Eyes said. “We won’t be scrubbing floors. We found her. And take a look at that getup. No one expected her to go camo, that’s why she was so hard to find. But, still, the Captain’s gonna shit when he sees this!”
“And the Captain’s back at the castle?” I asked, trying to prompt them in that direction.
“No. He’s leading a line farther southwest. We’ll have to report to him.”
I sighed at the delay. I had hoped for a quick trip back. “How about you send Janco here to find the Captain, while we head to the castle?”
“Sorry, but we’re not permitted to split up. We’re required to travel in pairs, no exceptions.”
“Um…” Janco started.
“Yelena,” I supplied.
“Why are you so anxious to get back?” he asked.
“I’m afraid of the dark.”
Colorless Eyes laughed. “Somehow I doubt that. Janco, take the cuffs off her. She’s not going to run away. That’s not the point of this exercise.”
Janco hesitated.
I said, “You have my word, Janco. I won’t run if you take off the manacles.”
He grumbled some more but unlocked the cuffs. I wiped the dirt from my face. “Thanks.”
He nodded, and then pointed to his partner. “He’s Ardenus.”
“Ari, for short.” Ari extended his hand, giving me an honor. If a soldier offered his hand, he was acknowledging me as an equal.
I shook it gravely, and then the three of us headed southwest to find their Captain.
The trip to the castle was almost comical. Almost. If my stiff and sore muscles hadn’t protested my every step, and if the bone-deep ache of pure exhaustion hadn’t pulled at my body like a stone cloak, I would have been amused.
Janco and Ari’s Captain fumed and blustered when we caught up with him. “Well, well, well. Look at what our two sweethearts finally found,” Captain Parffet said. His bald head was beaded with sweat that rolled down the sides of his face, soaking his collar. He was old for a Captain, and I wondered if his surly disposition was the reason for his lack of promotion.
“I’m supposed to have the best scouts in Commander Ambrose’s guard,” Parffet shouted at Ari and Janco. “Maybe you can enlighten us as to which procedure you followed that took you over seventeen hours to find the bitch!” Parffet continued his verbal bashing. Even in the darkness I could see his face turning purple.
I tuned him out and studied his unit. A couple of faces smirked, agreeing with their Captain, some were resigned, as if used to his tantrums, and others wore bored and tired expressions. One man, who had shaved his entire head except for his bangs, stared with an uncomfortable intensity at me. When I made eye contact, he jerked his glance to the Captain.
“Nix, put the bitch in manacles,” Parffet ordered, and the man with the bangs pulled metal cuffs off his belt. “I see our two prima donnas can’t be bothered to follow this unit’s standard procedures.”
As Nix approached, I searched for a chance to slip away. My promise to Janco had only extended to a “hands free” trip back to the castle. Ari, sensing my frame of mind, placed a large hand on my shoulder, anchoring me to his side.
“We have her word, sir, that she won’t run off,” he said in my defense.
“Like that means anything.” Parffet spat on the ground.
“She has given her word,” Ari repeated. A low rumble in his voice reminded me of a huge dog growling a warning.
Parffet grudgingly allowed procedure to be modified, but savored his bad temper by harassing the rest of his soldiers into formation, initiating a fast march back to the castle.
I walked wedged between Ari and Janco like some prized trophy. Ari explained that the Captain didn’t handle surprises well, and had been frustrated by my daylong romp in the forest.
“It doesn’t help that we found you. He didn’t promote us to his unit like the others. We were assigned by Valek,” Janco said.
Parffet’s mood turned blacker when the dog team overtook our procession. Chaos erupted as barking dogs and more guards tangled together. I experienced a moment of panic when the canines rushed me. As it turned out, they greeted me with wagging tails and licking tongues. Their pure joy was infectious. I smiled, and scratched their ears, stopping only when Parffet scowled and shouted for order.
The dogs wore no collars. The kennel master was part of the tracking team. The dogs reassembled on Porter’s command, following his orders without fail. The commander of the dog team seemed disappointed that Porter’s dogs hadn’t found me first, but she took it with better grace than Ari’s Captain had. She introduced herself as Captain Etta and walked beside me to ask questions about my “run.” I liked her easy, respectful manner. Her mop of dark blond hair pushed the limits of military regulation.
I stuck to the truth as much as I could during our conversation. When it came to questions regarding where my scent had disappeared, I lied. I explained that I had walked northward in the water for a while before heading east.
Etta shook her head. “We were so focused on you heading south. Parffet was right to look east.”
“My eventual destination was south, but I wanted to try and confuse the dogs before I turned.”
“You succeeded. The Commander won’t be pleased. Good thing Ari and Janco found you. Had you stayed out till morning, both teams would have been demoted.”
The last two miles to the castle were a blur. Using every ounce of my dwindling energy to keep my feet moving forward, I concentrated all my strength on keeping up with the soldiers. When we stopped, it took me a moment to realize that we had entered the castle complex.
It was well past midnight. The noise of our arrival bounced and amplified off the silent stone walls. The dogs followed Porter to the kennels while the weary parade of soldiers trod up the steps toward the Co
mmander’s office. We finished our march among the empty desks of the throne room.
Lantern light blazed from the open door of the Commander’s office. The two soldiers standing guard wore amused expressions, but remained quiet and still. Parffet and Etta shared a look of resignation before going in to report to the Commander. I found a chair and collapsed into it, accepting the risk that I might have difficulties regaining my feet.
Soon the Captains returned. Parffet’s face was creased in a dark frown, but Etta’s showed no emotion. They dismissed their units. I was summoning the energy to stand, when Etta came over and helped me to my feet.
“Thanks,” I said.
“The Commander awaits your report.”
I nodded. Etta left to rejoin her unit, and I headed toward the office. I hesitated in the doorway; I was used to the semidarkness of the throne room, and the lantern light stung my eyes.
“Come in,” Commander Ambrose ordered.
I stood before his desk. He sat immobile and impassive as always, his smooth, ethereal face barren of wrinkles. A stray thought plucked at my mind, and I wondered about his age. Gray streaks painted the Commander’s short hair. His rank alone suggested an older man, but his slight build and youthful face made me guess his age was closer to forty. About seven years older than Valek, if my estimation of Valek’s age was accurate.
“Report.”
I described my actions for the day in detail, including my tree swinging and the magician. Giving the same version of my encounter with the southerner that I had told Valek, I concluded my report with the caravan and Valek’s orders that I return. I waited for the Commander’s questions.
“So Ari and Janco didn’t capture you?” he asked.
“No. But they were the only ones who even came close. They passed right below a tree I hid in, and were skilled enough to track Valek for a while.”
The Commander stilled for a moment. His golden eyes looked past me as he absorbed the information. “Where are the items Valek procured?”
I opened my backpack, and placed the pods and beans on his desk.
He picked up a yellow pod and rotated it in his hands before returning it. Grabbing a handful of beans, he hefted them, feeling their weight and texture. After sniffing one, he broke the bean in half. The inside was as unrevealing as the outside had been.
“They’re not native to Ixia. They must be from Sitia. Yelena, take them with you and do some research. Find out what these are and where they’re grown.”
“Me?” Stunned, I had expected to dump them on the Commander and forget about them.
“Yes. Valek is constantly reminding me not to underestimate you, and once again you’ve proven yourself. General Brazell gave you a good education. I’d hate to see it go to waste.”
I wanted to argue, but I was curtly dismissed. Sighing, I dragged my unwilling body to the baths. Painfully peeling off my leaf-covered clothes, I washed the mud from my face and neck before submerging into a steaming pool.
There, I luxuriated in the warmth, stretching my aching muscles under the hot water to loosen them. Hoping to dissolve some of the glue from my hair, I dipped my head back, pulled my bun apart and let the long black strands float on the surface. The gentle sounds of lapping lulled me.
Strong hands grabbed my shoulders. I jerked awake under the water. Liquid filled my mouth and nose. I pushed the hands away in a panic. They released their grip for a second. I began to sink. Instinctively, I clutched my unknown assailant’s arms. Before I could curse my stupidity, I was yanked out of the bath and dumped onto the cold floor.
I sprang to my feet to meet the next assault. But there stood Margg with a disgusted expression anchored on her broad face. Water dripped from her hands and had soaked her sleeves. I shivered and pulled wet clumps of hair off my face.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I yelled.
“Saving your worthless life,” she snarled.
“What?”
“Don’t worry. I took no pleasure in it. Frankly, I would have rejoiced to see you drown. Justice finally served! But the Commander ordered me to find you and see to your needs.” Margg grabbed a towel from the table and threw it at me. “You may have the Commander and Valek fooled into thinking you’re smart. But how smart can you be to fall asleep in a deep pool of water?”
I tried to think of a rude retort, remembering Dilana’s advice to be nasty right back. Nothing. My brain felt water-logged with fatigue. The idea that Margg had just saved my life kept sloshing around in my head. It was such a foreign concept that I couldn’t find a proper place to dock it.
Margg snorted, hatred oozing from her. “I followed my orders. Some might even agree that rescuing you was beyond the call of duty. So don’t you forget it, rat.”
She spun around to leave. Her skirts wrapped around her legs, and she stumbled through the door. So much for a dramatic exit, I thought as I toweled dry.
I felt no gratitude toward Margg for saving my life—assuming that was what she’d done. She might have pushed me under in spite, then “saved” me. And I didn’t owe her a favor. She had left me in a puddle of my own vomit after I had taken My Love, had refused to clean out my room in Valek’s suite, had written me a nasty message in the dust, and even worse, was probably leaking information about me to Brazell. If she had saved me from drowning, then, in my mind, it was a payback for some of those indiscretions, but not for all. As I saw it, she still owed me.
The hot soak helped restore some flexibility to my muscles. I peeled the leaves from my hands. Although green still clung to parts of my hair, I thought with some artful braiding I might be able to hide it.
The walk back to Valek’s suite seemed endless. In a zombie-like state of mind, I passed through countless hallways, intersections and doorways. My steps were fueled by the single-minded desire of getting to bed.
For the next few days I fell into a routine. I tasted the Commander’s meals, went to the library for research and took a daily walk around the castle complex. My day as a fugitive had caused me to crave the outdoors, and if I couldn’t swing through the trees, at least I could explore the grounds.
I used the map of the castle that I had copied in my journal to find the library. It was a multilevel suite of rooms, burgeoning with books. The smell of decay and dust floated in the air along with a sense of abandonment. I was saddened by the knowledge that this tremendous source of information was going to waste because the Commander discouraged his people from educating themselves beyond what was necessary for their jobs.
Within his military structure, a person was trained specifically for their position only. Learning just for the sake of learning was frowned on, and greeted with suspicion.
Once I had ascertained that the library was truly a forgotten place, I brought the pods and beans there instead of carrying the heavy books back to my room. I found a small nook tucked away in a corner. The nook had a wooden table which faced one of the large, egg-shaped windows that randomly perforated the back wall of the library. Sunlight streamed into the nook and, after clearing the table of dust, it became my work area.
Cutting one of the yellow pods in half, I discovered it was filled with a white mucilaginous pulp. A taste of the pulp revealed it to have a sweet and citrus flavor with a taint of sour, as if it was starting to rot. The white flesh contained seeds. I cleaned the pulp from the seeds and uncovered thirty-six of them. They resembled the beans from the caravan. My excitement diminished as I compared seed against bean in the sunlight. The pod seed was purple instead of brown, and when I bit into the seed, I spit it out as a strong bitter and astringent taste filled my mouth. Nothing close to the slightly tart and earthy taste of the brown beans.
Assuming that the pods were a fruit and the beans edible, I pulled out every botany book I could find in the library and piled them on my table. Then I went through the shelves again. This time, I grabbed any volume with information about poisons. A much smaller stack; Valek had probably taken the interesting ones
back to his office. My third trip through the shelves was an effort to find books on magic. Nothing.
I paused by an empty shelf, an oddity in this tightly packed library, and wondered if it had contained manuals about magic. Considering how the Commander viewed magic, it was logical to destroy any pertinent information. On a whim, I explored the lower levels of the bookcase under the empty shelf. Thinking that a book from the empty shelf could have slid back behind the other books, I took out all the texts on the lower shelves. My efforts were rewarded by the discovery of a slim volume entitled Magical Power Sources. I hugged the book to my chest as paranoia gripped me. Scanning the library, I made sure no one was there. With sweaty palms, I hid the book in my backpack. I planned to read it later, preferably in my room with the door locked.
Giddy with my illicit acquisition, I searched the various rooms of the library until I found a comfortable chair. Before dragging it back to my nook, I beat the dust from its purple velvet cushions. It was the most elegant seat I had seen in the castle, and I wondered who had used it before me. Had the dead King been a bibliophile? The considerable collection of books said as much. Either that or he had shown his librarian great favor.
I spent many hours in that chair reading through the botany books and discovering nothing. I planned to decipher the pod and bean puzzle while I researched information for myself. The tedious work was at least broken into small sessions by my tasting the Commander’s meals and by my afternoon strolls around the castle.
It had been four days since the exercise, and that afternoon my walk had a purpose. I scouted for a place with a view of the east gate, but where I wouldn’t be obvious to the flow of people passing through.
Valek still hadn’t returned from his mission, and closing ceremonies had been performed the night before at the fire festival, ending the weeklong celebration. Rand, looking hungover, had informed me this morning that Brazell and his retinue would finally leave the castle, via the east gate, to go home. My desire to see Brazell’s retreating back with my own eyes had driven me to seek the perfect position.
The Study Series Bundle Page 13
