Rose’s face glowed as she leaned back and looked at Mariah, her hand still resting on the other woman’s arms. “How is Xae?” There was a warmth in her voice and a bit of worry in her eyes. “And his family?” Rose had seen Ayla and Nya only for a very brief time, right after they had escaped from the drudge camp and were trying to get away to safety. From what Mariah understood, Xae and the girls stayed only briefly at the Hideaway, long enough to rest and leave word for Mariah, Shira, and Simone, before they left again to fly over the sea to Cillian.
“They are all very well,” Mariah assured her. “The girls are growing like weeds, and Xae … well, he is too. But he’s like a different person now that he has them back. In a good way, of course.” Her eyes met Shira’s, and although her friend smirked, Mariah could tell that she was happy to hear that the Tamsin family was all right. “Xae and my friend Zachariah even built the family their own cabin, and his mom has been working with Bria. They’re both seamstresses, you know.”
“You mean that boy’s actually good for somethin’ besides gettin’ other folks into trouble?” Shira chuckled, and Mariah’s mouth turned up at one corner. Xae’s impulsiveness had gotten them into trouble at least once, but he had done all right when things really counted.
Rose glared at Shira, silencing any further comments. “That’s wonderful,” she said, patting Mariah’s shoulder. There was something reluctant in her eyes as the middle-aged woman glanced at her daughter and then back at Mariah. “I want to hear everything, as soon as you’re ready. In the meantime, there’s breakfast waiting for you in the kitchen.”
Mariah glanced to Shira, and the other woman nodded. “They’re gone.” The soldiers. “Left about a half hour back.”
Tension she hadn’t realized she’d been holding eased out of her body, and Mariah followed Shira and her mother out into the main part of the inn.
* * *
“I know what you’re saying,” Shira huffed, pacing back and forth in the inn’s kitchen. “But it’s just not possible.”
Mariah sighed. “You know, when I left Cillian six months ago with Xae, I didn’t think what we were doing was possible then either, but here we are, still alive, and he and his family are safe and sound. Why can’t we do that for other families? Free other children and get them to safety?”
“Because they’ll be expectin’ intrusions now. And because the more you do that sorta thing, the more people start to notice. We got away with everything we got away with on sheer luck.”
Mariah’s heart felt like a stone in her chest. It had never occurred to her that Shira wouldn’t want to help. She had taken for granted that her friend would be open to any adventure that she suggested, especially if it meant going against the king and helping more Ceo San. Slumping, she rested her elbows on the big butcher’s block table where she sat and put her face in her hands.
“Oh, come on, don’t go lookin’ like that!” Shira threw her hands up. “It’s just that … It’s just that—”
“You see,” came a quiet voice, “it’s just that my daughter’s spent the last six months waitin’ for those soldiers to walk in the door and arrest her. You shouldn’t be surprised that she’s reluctant to do anythin’ that might draw their attention now.” It was Rose who spoke this time. She must’ve slipped into the room while they were arguing. “When the first few trickled in a few months ago, she locked herself in her room and didn’t come out until they were long gone.”
Mariah’s eyes darted to Shira, who was staring out the back window. “Why? Did someone see you change? Does someone know what you … what we …?” They had been so careful at the drudge camp, so careful not to let anyone see Shira in her human form. She was the only one of them who had to stay in Varidian, at least in open society—Ruby had already lived on the fringes, mostly in her wolf form, if she was even still alive. In any case, none of them wanted to draw the wrath of the king’s soldiers down on the Caden family.
Shira shook her head but did not look at Mariah.
“Then what? Why would they come looking for you?”
When she spoke, Shira’s voice was small, as if her throat refused to let the words escape. “Because o’ Cam … because of what I did to Cam. Ever since things calmed down, I can’t stop thinkin’ about it. Someone must’ve found him by now.”
How could Mariah have forgotten about Cam? She hadn’t really, but there had been so much else to think about. She could see in the tight set of her friend’s back, could hear in her voice, what her fear was really about. “Shira, you are not the guilty one. What you did, you did in self-defense. If you hadn’t”—it was her turn to swallow hard—“who knows what he would’ve done to you, to all of us? We’d have been lucky to only have been killed. He probably would have used us up and then turned us in.” The hate in his eyes, the hate and fear of their kind, it was like nothing she had ever seen. Her gaze strayed to Rose, who was looking at the floor, wringing her hands in a dishtowel tucked into her apron strings.
“No one else’ll see it that way.” Shira shook her head. She finally turned and faced Mariah, her forearms now brown and furry, each ending in five long, sharp claws. “This is all they’ll see.”
Rose gasped and rushed forward, pulling her daughter’s arms down and out of sight between them. “You want to be found, girl? That’s the perfect way to do it!” Her reprimand came out in an uncharacteristically strident tone. “You’ve known better than that since you were three years old.”
“Sorry, Ma.” When she slid down the wall to come to a cross-legged position on the floor, her hands and arms were back to normal. She let her head flop forward, her brown curls falling down toward the floor.
Mariah hurried over and sank to her knees beside her friend.
As she took Shira’s hand in her own, a rush of air announced the opening of the door to the common room. Grelem, the young, dark-haired boy who often did work for the Cadens, stood there in the silence. The three women looked at him, and his mouth hung open as if he had been about to say something but thought better of it. Rose looked to Mariah and Shira before she put her arm around Grelem’s shoulders and led him back out of the room, murmuring to him.
Shira’s soft voice filled the silence. “You know, that kid’s been living with us for a while now. The uncle he’d been staying with died not three months ago. He’s been passed on from relative to relative until finally, he’s got none left, at least not here.” She met Mariah’s eyes sheepishly. “I’ve kinda taken him under my wing. I always wanted a little brother.”
Mariah glanced back at the door before turning to sit on the floor next to Shira. “What happened to his parents?”
“It’s a long, sad story. His grandparents were from Lishorani. Like a lotta folks, they ran during the war. Weren’t soldiers from what I understand.” She let out a long sigh, shaking her head. “Went to Adis Ador with their son. The son, when he grew up, he met Grelem’s ma there. Kid was just a baby when the war came there too. His da fought, but he didn’t make it. Like his grandparents had, Grelem’s ma ran, came to Varidian. My guess is, she figured that the king wouldn’t declare war on his own land, and she had family in these parts. I don’t know what took her. Grelem doesn’t like to talk about it, but eventually he ended up here in Grof with his uncle.” Her eyes were so sad when she finished. “And now, all he’s got is us.”
Mariah had lost her own family at the age of nineteen, not to death but to … other circumstances. She had also found a new family of sorts, one that continued to grow. “That’s no small thing, Shira. At least he’s not alone. And there aren’t much better families to ask for than you and your folks.”
Shira raised her eyes again and met Mariah’s blue ones. Her expression was questioning. After a moment, she spoke the words already on the tip of Mariah’s tongue, “And there are a lot of little ones out there right now that aren’t half as lucky as he is, right?”
Ma
riah nodded.
“You’re right. Course you are. Eh, can’t believe I let all that stuff get to me. My mom says that if ya know a wrong is being committed and you refuse to do anything about it, ya can’t expect anyone else to. It’s up to us to show the rest of the world what needs to be done. That’s why she’ll tell me to go, even though it’ll kill ’er.”
Mariah didn’t answer. She didn’t like asking either, but she knew she had to.
* * *
Night had fallen, supper time was over, and Shira and Mariah had moved to a table in the common room, a map spread out before them and several sheets of paper scattered around and on top of that. One held a list of supplies, another a list of places like Direstrand, and still another a list of names like Daire Denholm, Tibbot, and Ruby. That list was pitifully small, and she had no idea where Tibbot or Ruby was and whether there were actually people in Direstrand who might support them, especially all these years after her mother had told her to go there. Or whether there ever had been. She could go only on rumor.
An ache blossomed in her chest as it often did when she thought of her parents. It was why she had asked Shira that they start their journey with a visit to Eaglespire, to see if she could learn anything of their fate after she had fled.
Now, she longed for the letter from her mother and the knife from her father, the mementos of her old life that she had lost when she was captured in the drudge camp. Back in Firebend, she still had the map her mother had drawn, the false one showing Glenley where Direstrand actually was, but that was far away. Even if she had been willing to go back home before leaving Cillian, she would not have taken it, would not have risked losing that last little piece of them.
“Hey, ya there?” Shira bumped her elbow with her own.
Mariah nodded silently and tried to bring her focus back around, wondering if anyone on the meager list would be able or willing to do anything at all.
Unfortunately, she knew from Dennari that Daire Denholm, the Keeper in Kannuk, might have her hands tied and be unable to do anything, even if she wanted to. But she also knew that if they were to save more than one or two children, they couldn’t do it alone. They needed to develop a network of sorts, connections of safe spots and people who would be willing to risk taking in Ceo San children and their families, help them along to the next spot, until they were eventually relocated across the sea or wherever they could find safety.
“Boats. We’ll need someone with seaworthy boats.”
Shira nodded. “I’ll get Da workin’ on that.”
Mariah swallowed. Another person involved in their illegal activities. When they had gone after Xae’s sisters, they had tried to keep their mission as secret as possible. Not even Shira’s parents had known. Even Shira’s involvement in the whole thing had been purely accidental. Mariah smirked: Actually, it had been due to Shira’s nosiness. She had followed Mariah and Xae when they left the Hideaway for Glenley. She had approached them as a great brown bear of a Ceo San, frightening them both, although she still swore it hadn’t been on purpose. It hadn’t been long before she had discovered Xae’s raven heritage and, later, Mariah’s hawk.
Well, no one would be involved in this against their will, Mariah assured herself, and that was quite different from the perfectly legal activities that the king and his soldiers performed every day.
“And I’ll need to send a letter home,” she continued, steeling herself. “Get someone working on that end. I’m sure at least Gwyn and Bria will help. And the folks in Wellspring have been amazingly kind to those of us who have shown up in the village, so who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky. But I didn’t want to ask until I knew I’d have some help here first.”
Shira bumped her again. “’Course, you’ll have help here. Always. I swear, sometimes I don’t know what you’re thinking.” She laughed as she bent over the map.
A little while later, Rose walked over, silently picked up the quill, and added the Herring Hideaway to the list of places. As she was setting it down, she stopped as her eyes alighted on Mariah’s short list of names. “Daire Denholm?” There was genuine surprise in her voice.
Mariah nodded. “She is a Keeper of the temple in Kannuk. We met only briefly”—she rubbed at a phantom pain in her long-healed shoulder—“but she was able to help me, and I hoped she might be willing to do so again.”
As Mariah spoke, Rose sank into the chair on the other side of her, shaking her head. Shira looked up past Mariah to her mother, her study of the map forgotten. “Ma, wasn’t that the name of …?”
Ignoring her daughter, the healer stared at Mariah. “Are you sure? Daire Denholm?”
Confused, Mariah responded, “Yes. Another Keeper though, this one in Cillian, told me that all of the Keepers share the same last name. Did you know somebody named Denholm? Another Keeper?”
Rose didn’t answer but instead asked another question. “And you say that she was in Kannuk?” Her attention shifted to daughter. “Why didn’t you tell me this? Especially after I told you about how we left Westholde?”
“I never met the woman, Ma. See, when we got to Kannuk, I sent Mariah, Xae, and Ruby to the market while I went to the Dragon. It was them that went to the temple. I never went inside. Hadn’t even heard the Keeper’s name until now.”
Rose nodded. “Oh, but you have. Daire Denholm was once my mentor.” She laid a gentle hand on Mariah’s forearm. “A long time ago, I studied with the Keepers. Back when I wanted to become a healer.”
A slew of questions suddenly jumped to the forefront of Mariah’s mind. Rose had worked with the Keepers? Maybe she could tell her more about the temples and how they worked. Did she know about the Keepers’ magic?
Before she could form a question, Shira’s face brightened. “So, she was the one in Westholde? The one who was there the day you escaped and took me to Papa’s cabin?”
Rose nodded, and her voice was a hoarse whisper when she continued. “Since the day Daire told me that you were meant for greater things, girl, I’ve tried to deny it. For greater things come with risks, dangers. I never wanted that for you. But the fact that she was in Kannuk when you were, that she spoke to Mariah, that Mariah is somehow tied up in the very fate of your … our people … I’d be a fool to deny it.”
Mariah considered voicing her own denial but kept quiet, unwilling to interfere.
She leaned back out of her friend’s way when Shira reached across the table and grabbed her mother’s hand. “Whatever happens, Ma, I promise I’ll be careful, but ya don’t have to do this.” She nodded toward the paper. “Just because I’m involved doesn’t mean ya need to have your name on that list. I’d feel better if you and Da stayed here, nice and quiet, out of harm’s way.”
Rose chuckled. “Girl, you know I can do that about as well as you can.”
Another thought rose in Mariah’s mind. “We’ll need a code.”
“A what?” Shira asked.
“A code.” Mariah rubbed at her chin. “If this is going to work, we need a code, a way to talk to each other without accidentally revealing ourselves to the guards. If we send someone here”—or anywhere along the network she hoped to build—“your folks need to know that they really came from us.”
“Well, you don’t ask for much,” Shira replied, pulling out another piece of paper that she had started yet another list on. Under Boats in her surprisingly beautiful script, she added Code.
“And weapons …” Mariah continued.
It was long after midnight by the time they had gathered up their scrolls and headed to bed.
* * *
“It’s either the road to Kilgereen or over Brywann Pass. If you’re dead set on going to Eaglespire, we’ll have to go through one or the other. This time of year, all of the other passes are just too dangerous. The pass between Kilgereen and Eaglespire at least has a good road.”
They were tucked away in Shira’s r
oom, and several days filled with planning and catching up had passed. Another map was spread out before them, but this time on Shira’s bed.
“But we can—”
“You can fly.”
“Can’t you—”
“Ya know, bears usually hibernate this time year. They don’t go trompin’ up and down through the mountains in the snow. ’Least, I don’t think they do.” Her eyes glazed over for a moment with a faraway look. She shook her head and focused again on Mariah. “I don’t want to get stuck somewhere, snow up to my chest and nothin’ to eat. Foraging won’t be enough in this weather. Besides, doesn’t seem fair for me to go takin’ what little the other animals have when I can carry my food with me.”
Mariah changed tactics. “But won’t there be soldiers coming and going from Kilgereen?”
“Lady, ya seen it for yourself. We’ll see them no matter which way we go. There’s soldiers everywhere nowadays, especially since the war ended.”
That news, that the king had finally taken over the neighboring kingdom of Adis Ador only weeks before, still sat in Mariah’s gut like stones. The war had raged for over a decade, so long that she thought it would never end. It had become normal, everyday to the citizens of both countries. Not good necessarily, but the life they had become accustomed to. Getting used to peace again might be a challenge for the people of Varidian, but Mariah knew that Rothgar wouldn’t let them adjust for long.
The conquest of Adis Ador itself must have almost doubled the kingdom’s size. Visions of the crude maps Magnus had scratched into the coal- and metal-flecked dust of the smithy floor floated across Mariah’s vision as she remembered her father explaining the history of Varidian and its neighboring countries in his rumbling voice. Despite being kept in her house or the smithy for nearly her entire childhood, she had not lacked in education. Her father had made sure of that.
From what Shira had gleaned through the rumors that ran through the Hideaway and the village itself, Rothgar was already recruiting new soldiers from Adis Ador. In his typical fashion, through his officers, Rothgar offered former enemies the safety of their families—safety that should have been inherent—in exchange for their loyalty. He had also redoubled his efforts to enlarge the guard in Varidian. Shira had witnessed soldiers approaching young folks in the common room, young people who were destined to take over their family’s fishing business someday. They planted ideas in their heads of joining the king’s guard, of seeing the world, of doing something more than just living a life of fishing, having children, and dying.
Revelation of the Dragon Page 6
