Dominion Rising: 23 Brand New Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels

by White, Gwynn

  Arwin scrunched up her nose, apparently disliking the idea. “That gaur of hers moves too slowly. We could ride a horse to Cleighton and back before Mabaya could get us even halfway there.”

  “Bruha is hardy, though! I wouldn’t know the first thing about shopping for a horse. Would you?”

  Her cheeks reddened. “No,” she admitted. “But it’s not like we’ll need one for long. Once we get to Cleighton, you can just tame some iron, I’ll find a way to sell it, and together we’ll be rich! So it doesn’t matter how much we spend now, as long as we make it there.”

  I paused at her reasoning. In a way, it made sense. We had to spend money to make money, and every day we weren’t in Cleighton was another day we weren’t fencing whatever iron I could get my hands on to tame for the highest bidder. On the other hand, though, it just seemed reckless to spend money frivolously. True, we’d only just come into this bag of coins, and fortune couldn’t have smiled any more strongly on us for giving it to us, but now that I had money, I didn’t want to lose any of it, even in the pursuit of greater fortunes.

  “We need to save at least half of this for Pilor,” I insisted.

  “Pilor?”

  “The person the strange man told me to pay off in Cleighton.”

  Arwin rolled her eyes. “Oh, right, your imaginary benefactor.”

  I lifted the bag of coins so she could hear them jingle inside. “Does this seem imaginary to you?” I asked challengingly.

  She couldn’t argue with physical proof. “Depths take Pilor,” she muttered. “All right, fine, if it’s so drangr important, we’ll save some for Cleighton. But, Mal, we can’t get there on our own on foot. It’s too far,” she insisted.

  I looked down at our feet. Hers were covered in thin straps of cloth, and mine were hardly any better; already I could see large portions where my skin showed through. My soles would be rough and thick with callouses before this trip was over. On top of that, though, I was worried about how well we would be able to run and fight, if it came to that, given the condition we were in. Our bodies had grown thinner even just over the past couple days, and my shoulder wouldn’t be healed for a few more yet. Arwin was my only protection, and if she was too weak from heat or thirst or hunger to pick up a blade, we’d be done for.

  “We’ll go to the stables,” I finally relented, and Arwin practically danced with glee. Her smile made even the hideous scar near her right eye less noticeable, wrinkles of joy now blending with those caused by fire long ago. “If someone is there taking a carriage to Cleighton, we can split the costs with them,” I reasoned.

  “Very wise choice,” Arwin said.

  “Are you mocking me?”

  “I would never,” she said somberly, keeping a perfectly straight face. “Any day where you agree with me is a day where your genius is truly showing.”

  “Lord of Clouds, preserve me,” I muttered.

  We exited the town by way of a different gate from the one we’d entered through with Mabaya earlier. Like the other one, though, this entrance was flanked on either side by imperial soldiers dressed in uniforms of leather and steel, with those wearing steel being of higher ranks and fewer in number. As expected, outside the town wall we found a large wooden structure that housed several horses under its slanted roof—two brown ones and a slightly lighter brown one. I didn’t know the specific breeds; nobody in Pointe had owned a horse, as far as I knew. I only knew of them by description, from stories told by Answorth or some other campfire wordsmith. The lighter horse had a mane of almost pure-white hair and a matching white tail.

  “Ooh, I hope we get that one,” Arwin said.

  I gave her a sidelong glance. She’d never struck me as the type to be sucked in by the physical beauty of something. But then, maybe as a thief it was in her nature to be attracted to such things.

  “We’ll see first if we’re getting any horses,” I reminded her, but my words didn’t seem to dampen her spirits. If anything, her steps grew even lighter.

  We approached the man who seemed to be in charge of the stables. He was crowded by four other people, presumably customers, and two of the customers were starting to raise their voices.

  “What do you mean, we can’t ride with you?” one demanded.

  “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re not an express carriage,” the stable master calmly explained. “If you want to get to Briarsworth without any stops on the way, you need to buy a horse and hitch it to your own cart. These good folks are—”

  The second irate customer, a woman who seemed to be paired with the first man, shouted over the stable master. “Bah, Depths take them all! We’re willing to pay good money for it, more’n you’ll make from the lot of them combined!”

  “As I’ve said, it isn’t about the—”

  “It’s always about the money!” argued the first man. “Codgy old bugger, tryin’ to extort more money from us…” And as his voice trailed off, the man aimed at the one wheel of the cart the stable master was standing on and delivered a solid kick.

  “That’s it, you’re out of here!”

  The stable master motioned to the guards standing by the gate, as well as his own guard that he had standing by, and in short order both the man and woman who’d been shouting were being carried away. Not to be arrested, of that I was sure, but just to be far enough away that they wouldn’t cause a scene anymore.

  “Wonder why they’re in such a hurry to get to Briarsworth,” Arwin muttered to me under her breath. In response, I just shrugged. There was nothing of importance in Briarsworth, as far as I knew; everywhere that had something worth doing or seeing was a major town or city in its own right. Briarsworth was hardly a hamlet, a tiny dot on the map that would be easily missed if one wasn’t looking for it.

  With an apologetic look, the solid-looking stable master—he resembled a horse himself, with his big teeth and long jaw—turned to the rest of us. “I apologize for that, folks. Now, who here’s on their way to Kinston, Norwood, Briarsworth, or Cleighton and doesn’t mind stopping at those other destinations on the way?” he asked, clapping his hands together.

  The remaining two would-be passengers seemed more than agreeable with the idea.

  “Five, ten, fifteen, and twenty silver for each destination,” he rattled off in a bored-sounding voice. Not an unkind voice, but it was clearly something he’d said many times in the past.

  Arwin looked to me. “Twenty silver for Cleighton? We could lie and say we’re going to Norwood, then just be stowaways for the rest of the trip.”

  I glanced dubiously into the covered wagon we’d all be riding in together. “Nowhere to hide inside,” I said in a low voice. “Besides, with so few passengers, there’s no way he’ll forget that the two of us didn’t get off at our assigned stop. And it’s only a difference of ten silver. I’m not willing to get us kicked off the wagon entirely—or arrested, even—just to save a little bit of coin.”

  For some reason, it bothered me to think that Arwin would go to drastic measures for such a small amount. If she’d lie and steal for ten silver, what would she do for fifty? Or a hundred?

  Arwin breathed out a sigh and held up her hand. “All right, I’ll count out the coin.”

  I handed her the bag without flinching. Arwin was many things, but thankfully thrifty was one of them. I knew she wouldn’t give a single silver more than she needed to, and with my one arm out of commission, I wouldn’t have been able to count out the coins easily anyway.

  She accepted the bag, withdrew a large handful of coins, and then handed the coin bag back to me without another word. Maybe she sensed that the day was wearing on and that we’d be better off with an easy start to our journey rather than making more trouble.

  I watched her jog over to the stable master and start talking animatedly with him. A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth when her waving arm suddenly pointed in the direction of the white-maned horse. The man shook his head, though, and after the coins were exchanged, Arwin came back my way with a sligh
tly dejected slowness in her step.

  “He won’t take the palomino out for us!” she said angrily before I could open my mouth.

  “Palomino?”

  She pointed. “The lighter one.”

  “It doesn’t matter which one pulls the cart, so long as we are carried to Cleighton safely.” My thoughts were on the guard back in Mitbas. I had no idea how quickly word could spread among the Empire’s soldiers, but my imagination was running on full tilt with carrier ravens flying all across the continent, carrying dire news of two fugitives who’d emerged dirty and dangerous from the abandoned mine shaft.

  Arwin seemed to sense my thoughts and nodded shortly. Together, we made a quick cut to the wagon, hopping inside and claiming a third of the bench on the right-hand side, sequestered far beneath the protective veil of the wagon’s canopy. The two other passengers climbed aboard, and though neither direct eye contact with us, there was something uncannily familiar about the broad-shouldered man.

  The woman I was sure I’d never seen before, but she kept her gaze fixed on two points—the white-robed man who I was certain I recognized, and the open back of the wagon that faced the city gate. As long as her attention was away from Arwin and me, I felt safe.

  After another five minutes or so of waiting, I felt the wagon shift as the driver climbed into the front cabin, and then we were off.

  10

  Night carried on, and the bouncing of the wagon’s wheels as it knocked into stones or branches did a fine job of keeping me and Arwin from falling into a restful sleep. Every so often, I would drift, only to be jostled back to wakefulness with a crick in my neck and lead weights pulling at my eyelids. Too tired to stay awake and too uncomfortable to pass out completely, I oscillated between the two, all the while keeping an eye on the other two inhabitants of the carriage.

  Or I tried to, at any rate. There was no lantern inside with us, and our view to the outside was hindered by a tarp the carriage driver had thrown over the back opening to cut down on wind and noise. A slit remained open between the two canvas flaps, though, and I caught sight of the light from a swaying lantern hung on a sturdy hook on the outside of the wagon. I figured it was there to ward off any predators that might see us passengers as an easy meal, though I couldn’t fathom any creature remaining close to the road when the cart we were in was making such a ruckus.

  “Hey, you over there.”

  I looked up at the sudden voice, startled. My eyes strained to pierce the darkness, but I knew that the deep voice had to have come from the other man who sat catty-corner to me, closer to the wagon’s entrance. “Yes?”

  “Can’t sleep, huh?”

  I shook my head in the darkness, then realized he likely couldn’t see me. “I’m just having a hard time getting comfortable,” I told him.

  The man grunted. “I used to be the same way too, when I was your age. Before Landis, I was stationed in Harcour, and before that in Orliander. Lots of time between stables to realize that wagon travel wasn’t for me.”

  “But you’re riding in one now,” I said, puzzled.

  “Aye, that I am. Seemed to me that it might be safest to move with a group, in a covered cart, under the veil of darkness.”

  Two pinpoints of light appeared in the darkness then, and it took me a moment to realize I was staring into the man’s eyes. In place of black pupils were a pair of pinholes that shone with an inner light. They were rimmed with pale blue irises, softer in color than that of a robin’s eggs, and these too shone faintly.

  “The Lord of Clouds will not look favorably on a runaway cleric,” the man intoned, then looked around the interior of the wagon. “So I stomach the discomfort, knowing that it is safer this way.”

  “Why are you a runaway? To be a cleric of the faith is—”

  “Every boy’s dream?” he said without mirth.

  “Not what I would have said,” I countered, “but your abilities are a gift. A divine blessing. Everyone knows this.”

  “Everyone knows this. Bah!” The man snapped his fingers, and a flicker of light burst to life between his fingertips. “Everyone knows this,” he said, “but not this.” At that, he widened his fingers and let the flame grow and then hang in the air, and with his free hand he rolled back one sleeve of his white robe.

  I squelched the gasp before it could rise. Underneath the cloth, his skin looked mottled, disfigured, like a flame had been taken to his flesh until it melted like wax from a candle, then cooled into an unrecognizable texture. “What happened to you?”

  A strong part of me wanted to glance down at Arwin, to make sure she was still asleep. She bore a similar scar, but while hers was always visible, it wasn’t nearly as horrible as the withered arm the runaway cleric had just revealed.

  The man rolled down his sleeve and cupped a hand around the flame, bringing it closer to his face. “I was reckless and irresponsible,” he said simply, as if that explained everything.

  I waited for him to elaborate, but when it seemed clear that was all he was going to say on the matter, I changed the subject. “You still bear the power of the Lord of Clouds, though…”

  He nodded. “And not a day goes by when I don’t wonder why. As soon as we reach Briarsworth, I’m ditching the cloth and heading back north.”

  “Why not do that back in Landis? It would have been quicker to get where you’re going.”

  “True, but that is where the citadel would expect me to go first. By coming east first, perhaps I can lose them for a few weeks.”

  I gulped, already fearing the response to my next question. “Why would they pursue you so fiercely?”

  The man tapped his temple, and when he blinked, the light inside the carriage from his eyes disappeared momentarily. I got the sense he was smiling grimly. “That is a discussion for another day, with another person. Who are you, after all? You and your companion, fleeing under the cover of dark with a coin purse larger and heavier than my fist.” He raised his large closed hand for emphasis. “What are you running from?”

  “We’re not running from anything,” I said automatically.

  My answer was too quick, though, and again I felt the man was smiling. “Everyone’s running from something,” the man said. “Most just don’t realize it.”

  “We’re going toward Cleighton, that’s it. I’m going to train to be an iron tamer.”

  “Is that so? What makes you want to beat swords with hammers all day in a sweltering forge?”

  “I…” I hadn’t thought about it all that much. Arwin had half convinced me it had been my idea to start with, but now that I thought about it…it really only benefited her. She wanted me to work all day and then smuggle her swords to sell to complete strangers. I’d work around iron, but whatever my ability was to manipulate that hard element, I wouldn’t be able to use it in plain sight. Taming iron was an honorable profession, and a rewarding one, but money had never been my objective. Now that I was away from Pointe and Answorth and everything I’d known my whole life…what did I want?

  The bright eyes disappeared again, and didn’t return until a deep sigh resounded from somewhere a few feet away in the darkness. “Pardon me for intruding,” the robed stranger said, suddenly sounding ten years older than he had before. “It’s not my place to provide advice to anyone, much less someone still so unmolded. I am hunched in the back of a darkened cart hoping to be delivered away from men with powers you can’t begin to imagine. I’ll be lucky to make it past this week.” He shook his head, and his eyes left little lazy trails of light in the air from side to side. “Find what you’re good at and do it, kid. It might not be what you want to do, but if you excel at something, don’t throw it away. You think you’ll be a good iron tamer?”

  “It’s not what I envisioned—”

  “That isn’t what I asked. Do you think you will be good at what you do?”

  I nodded. “It should come naturally.”

  “And it will be profitable enough to let you lead a life of comfort, I imagine.�
��

  “I guess so,” I said.

  The man grunted. “Then do that. And count yourself lucky,” he added with a short laugh. “Some men the Lord of Clouds didn’t see fit to grant with any exceptional qualities.”

  “But…that seems so wrong,” I argued. There was a hint of disgust in my words that even I could hear, but I couldn’t help it. “How can you say it’s right to give up on your dreams, on what you want to do, in favor of taking the easy way?”

  Arwin shifted against me, and for a moment I worried our conversation had woken her, but it was just a sleep twitch. Her head soon found its place against my shoulder again and she was still.

  “I never said it was the right thing to do,” the man countered, “just the sensible one.”

  “Well when you hear my name sung in taverns across the land, you’ll regret giving up on your dreams.”

  He snorted. “Have to have a dream to chase it,” he said. “How many songs d’you hear sung for a mere iron tamer? But I’ll humor you. What name should I keep my ears open for, should I outlast the week?”

  “Mal,” I told him.

  Out of the darkness, two pinpricks of light met my eyes. They grew slightly as he shifted toward me. “My name is Oren,” the white-robed man said. From the sound of fabric swishing, I knew he’d raised his arm, and I reached out slowly into the gloom with a closed fist. I found his fist, and our knuckles locked against each other briefly before Oren lowered his hand. “Perhaps my name will be heard across the land as well,” he laughed, “albeit for a different reason.”

  “I’m sure whatever you’ve done can be forgiven,” I assured him.

  His eyes flashed in annoyance, and for a moment I thought I saw their color shift. “It is the citadel that needs to be forgiven, not me!”

  At that moment, the cart rocked violently, and Arwin and I were flung to the other side. I narrowly avoided slamming into the woman who’d fallen asleep next to Oren, but my elbow caught Arwin in the stomach, and I heard a violent exhale of air rush from her lips as she was jolted awake.