Fate of the Fallen

by Kel Kade

  Mathias had not even unlatched the gate when his grandmother slipped from the shadows into the waning afternoon sunlight that cut across the front porch. The older woman’s jet-black hair was tied back tightly and wound atop her head so that the white streaks swirled in the dark like river eddies in winter. Her arms were crossed over her black riding jacket, from which spilled white lacy frills that climbed up her neck to frame a face bearing red-painted lips pursed in disapproval. She glared at them over the rim of her spectacles, the toe of her knee-high boot slapping the planks in a slow, methodical cadence—a sure sign they were in for a berating. Magdelay Brelle was not a patient woman.

  Mathias didn’t bother to check if Aaslo still followed him toward his doom. Aaslo would weather any storm beside him. As Aaslo had pointed out earlier, they were brothers in all things, and misery was best when shared.

  With the most cheerful smile he could muster, Mathias said, “Greetings, Grams! I’m glad to see you made it back in one piece—and quite swiftly, I might add.”

  Magdelay’s eye twitched. “Whose horse is that? No, never mind that. You can tell me later.” Her gaze slid to Aaslo. “Did he learn anything useful?”

  Mathias glanced at Aaslo hopefully but saw only the signs of his usual obstinacy.

  “Everything I do is useful,” Aaslo grumped.

  “Don’t take that tone with me, boy. You know what I’m asking,” said Magdelay.

  “I’m not a boy, and neither is he,” Aaslo huffed. “Most of the villagers our ages are already married or betrothed. Half of them have children of their own.”

  “You’ll always be a boy to me,” Magdelay said, her eyes softening briefly before she apparently remembered she was in the middle of a rebuke. “You two were off wasting time in the forest while you should have been studying. Cromley will be waiting in the clearing by now. When you’re finished with him, you can work on the list I left for you.”

  “Cromley isn’t coming,” Mathias said. “A rider came into town nearly trampled to death and shot full of arrows. The captain told us to bring the horse here.” Mathias stroked the mare’s muzzle and said, “She needs your help. She’s stuck with two arrows of her own.”

  Magdelay frowned. “A rider? Did he have any insignia? A uniform?”

  “I didn’t see anything that might identify her,” Mathias said.

  “She? Was she a very large woman?” Magdelay said suspiciously.

  Mathias glanced at Aaslo.

  “No, ma’am,” Aaslo said. “She was small, young.” He glanced at the horse. “I see what you mean.”

  “What am I missing?” said Mathias.

  His grandmother’s pointed stare nearly bored straight through him. She said, “Think, Mathias. What are you missing?”

  Mathias looked back at Aaslo, who scowled at him. He had no idea why his friend was angry, but he knew he would be receiving no help. He studied the horse, and it dawned on him. “The horse is too big. A woman that small probably would have needed a smaller horse for the long journey between here and—well, anywhere—if she’d had a choice.”

  “Precisely. I’ll see to the horse’s injuries then speak with Cromley.” Magdelay strode over to take the reins and looked up at him. Even with her high-heeled riding boots, the top of her head reached just above his shoulders. “You stay in the house tonight. If I find out you’ve been out looking for bandits, you’ll regret it. Get busy with that list you neglected to notice this morning.”

  “But what about dinner?” said Mathias.

  Magdelay smiled ruefully. “You may have dinner after you’ve finished your studies.” She glanced at Aaslo again and shrugged. “Of course, Aaslo is free to return to his father’s house for dinner whenever he wishes. I’m sure there will be plenty. Ielo killed a boar today. He left a haunch for us in the smokehouse.”

  Mathias’s stomach grumbled its approval, and without thinking, he frowned at Aaslo in envy.

  Aaslo caught the look and shoved past him to stomp up the front steps, grumbling all the way. “Don’t look at me like that. You know I’ll help you with your studies—for all the good it’ll do. You’re weeks ahead of me.”

  Mathias wrapped his grandmother in a hug, then bounded up the steps in Aaslo’s wake. “You shouldn’t have taken all that time off,” he said.

  “Time off? You call traveling over the mountain to help clear debris and replant everything destroyed by a fire caused by both molten rock spewing from a volcano and lightning from an ash cloud time off?”

  “You didn’t do anything the forest wouldn’t have done naturally,” Mathias said, turning away to hide his grin.

  “Yes, yes,” Aaslo muttered. “The forest might have grown back by itself—in a couple of generations. A good portion, though, would have been lost for good. We had to dig runoff channels and secure several steep slopes so all the topsoil didn’t wash away in the storms last week. If we hadn’t, the town of Jabois would have been destroyed by a lahar after the first good rain.”

  “I see!” Mathias said. “The Mighty Aaslo has saved the town and brought life back to the forest. We should have held a celebration—a parade! We’ll build a statue in your honor. It can stand right next to, but shorter than, the one of the Hero of Goldenwood.”

  Aaslo slammed down his pack in the middle of the floor and spun around with a raised fist. “I never said it was me. It was all of us—the foresters—as it’s supposed to be. And none of us are needing or wanting of parades and statues.”

  Mathias tucked his hands under his arms and rocked back on his heels with a grin. “But you want credit for saving Reyla.”

  “No! I told you, that’s not the point.” Aaslo pulled off his jacket and tossed it on top of his pack. With frustration, he mussed his hair, causing leaves to litter the floor. Then he looked up at Mathias and said, “You didn’t put her first. You don’t love her.”

  “Who? Reyla?” Mathias said. “Why would I—”

  “If she is to be your wife, you must put her first,” Aaslo snapped.

  Mathias was suddenly at a loss. He leaned back against the wall, and his breath left him in a rush. “What?”

  “It’s not right,” Aaslo said, and he began pacing in circles. Mathias had never seen Aaslo agitated in such a way. Sure, his friend would grouse and protest their studies or the necessity to leave the forest for any reason, but never had Aaslo seemed so—unhinged. “You don’t love her. She deserves to be loved.” Aaslo abruptly stopped to look at him, his fathomless green gaze filled with pain. “Did you know?”

  “Did I know what?” Mathias said.

  Aaslo swallowed and glanced out the window before looking back again. “Reyla is arranging a proposal—a proposal to marry you.”

  “Me?” Mathias exclaimed. “Why would she do that? She’s your girl.”

  “She doesn’t want me. She wants you.”

  Mathias sighed. “No, Aaslo, she doesn’t want me. She wants the next mayor of Goldenwood. Grams has received at least a dozen proposals for me over the years, and maybe a few of the girls even thought they were in love with me. Aaslo, Reyla is beautiful, and she’s nice—but, she’s a bit shallow—”

  “Don’t speak of her like that!”

  “She is. I’m sure she cares for you, but I always suspected she mostly liked to brag that she was seeing a forester. She doesn’t seem like the kind of girl who wants to live the way you do.”

  “She doesn’t,” Aaslo conceded as he dropped onto the stool by the hearth. He turned his back to arrange the kindling and said, “You’ll take care of her, though.”

  Mathias struggled to maintain only the slightest indignation as he said, “Aaslo, I’m not going to marry Reyla.”

  Aaslo paused. “You’re not?”

  “No, I’m not going to marry the woman that captured my best friend’s heart.”

  Aaslo exhaled heavily, and his shoulders dropped. “All right,” he said. “She might come back—”

  “No,” Mathias said. He threw his hands down and
dragged a chair over to sit across from Aaslo. “Reyla will come back. You can be sure of it. She wants to marry for recognition. She might have been willing to give up a forester’s honor for the convenience of marrying the mayor, but anything less won’t do.”

  Aaslo looked up. “You think? That’s good—”

  Mathias shook his head and met his friend’s gaze. “No, it’s not good. You’re going to say no. You’ll turn down her proposal.”

  Aaslo frowned. “Why would I do that?”

  “You deserve better. You’re a forester. You hold the highest honor in this town, and despite the ribbing I give you about it, you deserve that honor. What you do is hard, and it’s lonely, and even though the economy of this town—of every logging town, and in no small part, the kingdom—depends on you, you will never see wealth. Whatever riches you have, you find in the forest you personally nurture. You, Aaslo, will never settle for being second.” Sitting back, Mathias said, “Surely someone else has caught your eye at some point.”

  “I had Reyla,” Aaslo replied. “There was no point in considering anyone else. What does it matter if she wanted you? That doesn’t mean she cares for me any less.”

  Mathias sighed, resigned to the fact that Aaslo would marry Reyla despite her flaws.

  Aaslo grabbed a small box from the mantel and crouched in front of the hearth. Sparks jumped from the flint and steel, and eventually the kindling began to smoke. As Aaslo coaxed the flame, Mathias began rummaging through the books on the center table. The only task on his grandmother’s list that he had been looking forward to was the practice with Cromley, but that wouldn’t be happening. An hour later, Aaslo tossed a book in front of him. He flipped it open to the page Aaslo had marked and grinned.

  “How did you know I was looking for that?”

  “I read the list,” Aaslo mumbled as he dug through the pile in front of him to find the worn map of Aldrea.

  Mathias’s gaze lingered on the map, as it did each time he saw it. Every country known to the scholars of Uyan, the entirety of the explored world, was painted in detail upon its parchment. The brilliant landscape was filled with distant mountains, forests, seas, and rivers—and still, parts were blank. Mathias thought that if he had drawn the map, his kingdom of Uyan would be in the center, but the cartographer who had created it was not from Uyan. Like most maps, Mouvilan was at its center. The much smaller kingdom of Uyan occupied the northwest corner of the map, and Goldenwood was marked with a tiny point in the northwest corner of Uyan. The only reason the insignificant village graced the map at all was because his grandmother had added it on the day he had first laid eyes upon the masterpiece.

  A sound echoed in his mind, and he realized Aaslo was speaking to him. Mathias pulled his gaze away from the beauty of Aldrea and said, “What?”

  Aaslo scowled at him, obviously unhappy to repeat himself. “I asked why you haven’t married.”

  Mathias laughed, his usual mechanism for stalling the conversation until he could come up with an excuse to change the subject. “You first.”

  Aaslo sat back in his chair. “Why?”

  Mathias grinned. Pleasantries were supposed to be disarming, and he wanted Aaslo to drop the subject. Then again, mockery also worked. “Brothers in all things, right? You’re a year older. The oldest has to marry first.”

  Aaslo narrowed his eyes. “That tradition applies to sisters. We are men and not actually related. Besides, I’ve been planning to marry Reyla. We were supposedly waiting until the house was finished. You aren’t even betrothed.”

  “Come now, Aaslo,” Mathias said as he stood from the table to pour drinks at the sideboard. “Why choose just one when there are so many? There is plenty of time to settle down.” He kept his back to the room as he spoke so that Aaslo would not see his struggle. He refused to lie to his friend, even if he couldn’t tell him the truth.

  “There are not so many left,” Aaslo said. “Were you waiting on her?”

  Mathias paused and looked at Aaslo with genuine confusion. “Who?”

  “Reyla. Were you hoping I would change my mind so that you could have her?”

  Mathias’s shoulders relaxed; he was glad this was an issue he could address honestly. “No, I told you that I will reject the proposal.”

  “Only because you feel that you’ll be stealing her from me. If I had chosen another, you would be free to accept her without guilt.”

  “Honestly, Aaslo, it wouldn’t matter who did the rejecting. My decision would be the same.”

  “Why then?”

  With a roll of his eyes, Mathias said, “Because I don’t want to marry Reyla.”

  “No, I mean why haven’t you married.”

  Mathias met Aaslo’s accusatory stare, hoping it would appear as if he had nothing to hide, and immediately realized it wasn’t working. Aaslo was suspicious.

  “I knew it,” Aaslo snapped. “How long have you been keeping this from me? Why would you keep it from me?”

  “Keeping what? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mathias replied. “I didn’t say anything.”

  Aaslo slapped the table and said, “You’re leaving.”

  Magdelay lashed at him from the doorway like an angry wasp. “You told him?”

  Mathias glanced up to see his grandmother standing there with a disapproving glare, not unlike the one he was getting from Aaslo.

  “No! I haven’t said anything. He’s only guessing. You know how he is.”

  Magdelay looked at Aaslo. “Stubborn foresters.”

  “Determined,” said Aaslo.

  “Obstinate,” said Mathias. He wished he’d kept his mouth shut when Aaslo turned back to him. He said, “I would’ve told you, but Grams—”

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Magdelay said as she came into the room and began shuffling through the papers and books on the table. “It will be dark in an hour. We will leave then.” She took the map of Aldrea from the table, stacked it with a few more maps and scrolls, then rolled up the bunch before shoving them into a leather map case. She glanced over at Mathias and said, “Get packed. One bag of traveling gear only. We travel light.”

  Mathias said, “You’re kidding, right? We’re not leaving right now.”

  Magdelay continued sorting through items in the study, shoving them into a bag that she had somehow procured during his shocked mental absence.

  “Well, how long do we expect to be gone?” Mathias said.

  “Forever,” she said. “We’re not coming back.”

  Aaslo lurched from his seat at the table. “You’re leaving now? You weren’t even going to tell me?”

  Mathias shook his head. “No, I don’t know what’s going on. She told me we would be leaving someday. That was fifteen years ago!” Turning to his grandmother, Mathias said, “Is this because he knows? We have to leave because he figured it out?”

  Magdelay didn’t cease her preparations to answer. She muttered, “No, that was coincidence.” Then she paused and gave Aaslo a sidelong look.

  Aaslo crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who’s been keeping secrets.”

  “How did you know?” Magdelay said, taking a step toward the forester.

  Mathias was suddenly uncomfortable with his grandmother’s hostile demeanor. Aaslo must have picked up on the change as well, because he abandoned his mulishness to answer.

  “It was because of Reyla.”

  “Reyla told you?”

  “No, Reyla said she had given you a proposal, but he says he won’t marry her.”

  “So?”

  “So, the only reason I can think of that he wouldn’t want to marry Reyla is because he’s leaving.”

  A smile threatened Magdelay’s lips, and she relaxed her stance. “You place too much value in that silly girl. Mathias is meant for endeavors greater than she, greater than us all. Aaslo, I have helped raise you since you were barely a year old. You have been a second grandson to me. I hope you marry that silly girl
and live the rest of your days in the shade of the trees.” She looked to Mathias. “You’ve been friends for a long time, and this parting is abrupt, but you must say your farewells quickly.”

  She then swept from the room, dropped her pack in the foyer, and jogged up the stairs.

  Aaslo looked at him in dismay. “What’s going on?”

  Mathias held up his hands. “Truly, Aaslo, I don’t know. She told me a long time ago that I shouldn’t get too attached to anyone. I wasn’t supposed to make any long-term plans because someday we would be leaving. I couldn’t tell anyone—including you. She swore me to secrecy on my honor.” He leaned forward and whispered, “I tried to drop hints—like today on the way home. I tried to get you thinking about it.” His eyes landed on the pack on the floor of the foyer. “I think she’s serious, though. I—I guess I need to pack.”

  Aaslo crossed his arms. “You’re not going anywhere until I get an explanation.”

  Mathias said, “I don’t have one. I’m sorry.”

  Magdelay reappeared in the doorway looking none too pleased. Despite the matriarch’s demanding gaze, neither Mathias nor Aaslo moved. Magdelay scoffed and said, “Fine. I’ll explain, but only for you, Aaslo.” Her gaze softened. “I suppose I owe you that much. Did you know your mother left the day I came to Goldenwood with Mathias? You were only one and he a newborn. You’ve been a good friend to Mathias, practically a brother. We have no time for questions, though.”

  Perching upon the arm of a high-backed chair, Grams held her hands before her and began moving them as if she were knitting with imaginary needles and yarn. She muttered under her breath, and an image suddenly appeared, floating in front of her. It was bright and translucent. Mathias and Aaslo both jumped at the sudden intrusion of light. Mathias had never seen anything like it.

  “What is that?” he blurted. “What are you?”