Mistress Sabin’s thin blond brows drew down disapprovingly, and her lips set in a hard line. “These people rely on their boats to live. I won’t be a thief and leave a family to starve.”
“Then pray for better luck than we’ve had thus far,” Daks shot back with a shrug, and Ravi winced.
Mistress Sabin continued to scowl at him, but Shura stepped between them and lifted an arm. “Come, Fara. We should hurry.”
Mistress Sabin’s face softened as she turned her attention to Shura again, and she moved in the direction she indicated, only throwing a single disapproving glance back at Daks as they retraced their steps up the path.
Fidgeting in the heavy silence that followed, and overly uncomfortable with the large blue eyes of the white stallion trained on him, Ravi cleared his throat and moved closer to Daks. “What now?”
Daks grimaced. “We wait.”
Ravi hugged his bag closer to his chest and scanned their surroundings. Beyond the clearing with the abandoned house and the dirt track they’d used, all he could see were trees and more trees. The rush of the river nearby called to him in the vain hope that Daks had somehow missed a boat somewhere along the bank. It was a slim hope, but Daks was obviously not infallible, and anything was better than standing around doing nothing.
While Daks fussed with the horses, ignoring him, Ravi turned and followed the small track he’d taken earlier to the river’s edge. The bank was steep and rocky where it wasn’t choked with reeds or tree roots, but the water moved past at what seemed a fairly sluggish pace. Though Ravi hated to admit it, Daks hadn’t missed a boat among the reeds. He found nothing beyond a few frogs and birds as far as the eye could see.
He turned and glared at the towering trees behind him as if they were somehow at fault, before returning his frustrated gaze to the river. The opposite bank didn’t seem that far off. Maybe he could risk swimming it. He wouldn’t be able to carry a pack or cloak. In fact, he might have to leave his bag and extra clothes behind, which would hurt, but surely someone would take pity on him on the other side before he froze to death.
“If you’re thinking of swimming or bathing, I wouldn’t.”
He jolted at Daks’s voice and nearly pitched forward down the slope into the water. Daks caught his shoulder to steady him, but Ravi quickly shrugged it off and scowled as he stepped away from the edge.
How did someone so big move so silently?
“The bottom is muddy,” Daks continued, his expression unreadable as he stared at the rushing water. “It sucks at your boots if you try to walk on it, and that’s where it isn’t filled with rocks that could trap an ankle. The currents are a lot stronger than they look, especially where it gets deeper toward the middle. Plus, it’s cold as hells this time of year, and farther than it seems.”
He shot a glance at Ravi, and despite Ravi’s less than welcoming expression, his lips curved at one corner as he casually propped a shoulder against a nearby tree, folded his arms, and crossed his ankles.
“You know, yesterday, in that hiding place you found us that smelled like it came straight out of the Seventh Hell, you sat like a rock for hours,” he continued. “Today you’re fretting like a mare getting ready to birth her first foal. What gives?”
“Are you kidding me?”
“What?”
Ravi swung to face him fully and glared in disbelief. “Uh, there’s a whole company of soldiers camped on the other side of town that could discover us any minute. We don’t know why. We have no way across the river. You were dumb enough to mention luck twice now where the gods could hear you. And we’re in the middle of the woods, where who knows what wild animals or even Spawn could attack us at any second. I think I have good reason to be a little anxious.”
Daks quirked an eyebrow, and his infuriating crooked smile grew. “Yesterday you were in the same city as Blagos Keep, surrounded by brothers and King’s Guard, with a Finder hot on your trail.”
“But it was Arcadia, a place I know, with people I could ask for help. I’m useless out here. I don’t know anything about surviving in the wilds.”
Daks snorted. “This is hardly the wilds.”
Ravi’s fists balled at his sides. “Don’t mock me.”
Daks’s smile fell away, and he blew out an irritated breath. He pushed himself off the tree and turned back toward the trail to the cabin. “I need to check on the horses, and then I’m going to sit and rest while I still can. I suggest you do the same. It’s been a stressful couple of days for all of us.”
“And whose fault is that?” Ravi yelled at his retreating back.
Daks’s shoulders stiffened, but he didn’t slow his pace. “Stay out of the water,” he growled.
Ravi continued to glare after him for several long moments before he gave the opposite bank of the river one last longing look, huffed out a tired breath, and trudged back up the trail to the cabin. Daks was brushing down the white stallion he’d oh-so-cleverly named Horse, apparently, cooing praise at the animal, who seemed to be soaking it up and preening. For some reason this irritated Ravi even more, and he flopped onto the ground as far away from the two of them as he dared.
They occupied opposite sides of the clearing in uncomfortable silence for the next couple of hours, until Ravi felt as if he might crawl out of his skin with anxiety. He needed sleep, but he didn’t dare until they were on their way across the river. The air was damp and cool, but he found himself sweating as each hour the ladies were gone ticked past, and Daks’s own usually calm veneer sloughed away, bit by bit.
What’s taking them so long? Has something happened?
He didn’t bother voicing the questions aloud. Daks was probably thinking the same thing, given the way he was acting. Besides, Daks didn’t have any more information than he did.
The woods around him didn’t become any more comforting as the sun dropped lower and lower. The shadows grew, and his surroundings took on an even creepier, more ominous feel. The quiet noises of the forest were all wrong, softer than the bustle of the city, but that much more noticeable for the lack of anything beyond the soft susurration of the Matna.
By the time the sun actually sank below the horizon, casting the sky in eerie indigo light, he found himself jumping at every crack of a dead branch falling to the ground, chitter of a squirrel, or hoot of an owl. His hopes of getting across the river that night had sunk with the sun, until Daks finally crushed them altogether.
“We should start collecting firewood,” he said, making Ravi jump. “We’ll need to wait to cross until morning at this rate, and we might as well have a hot meal tonight.”
“Are you sure?” Ravi asked. “I mean, they could come any second, and we could be on our way.”
“Even if they show up before full dark, we still need to get to whatever boat they’ve found. The moon might still be nearly full, but I don’t relish a night crossing, and I’d imagine whoever they enlisted to help us won’t either. It will be simple enough to douse the fire should we get luc—uh, should they get here in the next hour, but we might as well be warm while we wait. I wouldn’t mind something hot to eat or drink either.”
He stepped up to the door to the cabin and tried the lock. It held against his first couple of shoves, and Ravi was about to offer to pick it if he could find a bit of wire or something similar in one of the packs when Daks threw his shoulder against it and the door gave way.
Ravi rolled his eyes.
That’s right. Why use thought and precision when you have brute force?
“It’s a bit dusty, and the mice seem to have had a grand time inside, but at least we’ll be under a roof if it decides to rain.” He went to retrieve the packs, and Ravi’s shoulders slumped in growing disappointment and defeat as he moved to help.
He only took two steps before the world spun and all the hairs on his body stood on end.
No!
He fought the Vision, imagining himself pushing at it, like Daks had said, but he failed miserably. It swept over him like a t
ide, and all he could do was go under.
Shura and Mistress Sabin hurried down a shadowed alley, away from raucous laughter and a borderline blasphemous tavern song Ravi had heard many times in Rassat. The women weren’t running, but they moved quickly, and their expressions were worried. Shadows followed them, calling after them, but Ravi couldn’t understand the words. The women stepped around a corner and ran straight into a crowd of men in King’s Guard colors. They turned, but more men stood behind them, drunkenly hanging on one another. These men also had splashes of guard blue mixed among their clothing.
“What’s your hurry? We just want to talk,” one of the men called, and several of the others laughed.
“Let us pass,” Mistress Sabin said firmly, lifting her dainty chin and glaring at them.
Shura seemed to be fingering something inside her sleeve, but Mistress Sabin laid a hand on her arm.
“Awww, don’t be like that,” another guard said. “Here we are, risking our lives every day protecting the kingdom. The least you can do is share a few kind words with us while we’re trapped here with nothing to do.”
“If you want to talk to someone, I suggest going to the town temple. I’m sure the brothers there will have plenty to entertain you with. Shall we call them?” Mistress Sabin shot back, but her eyes darted nervously around.
As if by some unspoken accord, she and Shura took a cautious step back, toward the smaller crowd of men behind them.
“Damn brothers are why we’re stuck here in the first place,” another of the men slurred out, and the crowd suddenly stilled and cast nervous glances around them.
“Careful, Roald, don’t let the red robes hear ya talkin’ like that,” someone cautioned, and the men sniggered.
“We have business elsewhere. Let us pass,” Mistress Sabin called, her voice turning a bit shrill with nerves.
One of the guards took a step forward. His uniform looked finer than the others. “And what business is that?”
“We’re visiting family.”
The man eyed them suspiciously. “She’s not visiting any family here,” he said, nodding toward Shura.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but we do trade with her family,” Mistress Sabin said, lifting her chin. “It was my understanding the King’s Guard is supposed to protect Rassans. Is this how you go about your work? Should I ask your superiors?”
The crowd around them grumbled, and the man who’d stepped forward shifted uncomfortably. “Very well, Mistress. You may go… but the Cigani can’t. We need to know what she’s doing in our land.”
The man’s words were almost as slurred as the others’, and Ravi’s stomach dropped.
“Ravi! Push it back! It doesn’t have to control you,” Daks’s urgent voice finally cut through the others filling his mind, and Ravi shook his head, trying to dislodge the magic somehow. He struggled out of Daks’s grip and nearly fell over when he actually succeeded. At least he hadn’t passed out this time.
“It’s Shura and Mistress Sabin,” he panted, fighting to stay upright as the clearing came into focus around him. “They’re in trouble, or… they will be. I… think.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. A tavern with music playing. An alley nearby.”
“What trouble?” Daks was already moving toward the horses.
“King’s Guard, a lot of them.”
Daks swore under his breath as he mounted Horse bareback. “Stay here.”
“Wait!” Ravi ran after him. “You don’t know where you’re going. There were over a dozen of them. What are you going to do?”
“Bash some heads!” Daks shouted over his shoulder, and Ravi would have called his tone almost gleeful if not for the worry tightening the man’s face.
Left with the packs, the mares, a churning mass of anxiety and fear gnawing at his stomach, and the beginnings of a Vision headache, Ravi let out a frustrated growl.
What the hells was he supposed to do now? Damn the man!
Daks galloping into town on a white stallion was sure to raise some eyebrows and call way more attention than anyone wanted, the idiot. Luckily, full dark had almost fallen, so maybe the entire company of soldiers wouldn’t be out looking for them before dawn. Ravi hugged himself and eyed the creepy forest surrounding him. When one of the two mares snorted, he nearly jumped out of his skin and clutched a hand to his breast.
He could hide out in the cabin and maybe try to start that fire Daks had talked about. The mares should be fine outside by themselves, right?
He worried his lower lip and glanced back and forth between the path Daks had taken and the cabin as another thought occurred to him. He didn’t really need them anymore. In the chaos Daks’s “heroic ride” was sure to create, he could sneak into town along the riverbank and find a small boat for himself and paddle his way across. Mistress Sabin might be too noble to steal, but Ravi hadn’t had that luxury in a long time. Surely one little boat wouldn’t mean the difference between life and death for a family. He could pick one of the nicer ones, a boat that looked like the owner had coin to spare. He’d leave it tied to the opposite bank, clearly visible from the other side so it could be retrieved in the morning. No harm. No foul.
His stomach clenched as he continued to stare in the direction Daks had gone. His chest tightened with a foreboding he didn’t understand, and shivers danced along his skin.
“Shit.”
He groaned, took two determined steps toward the cabin, and stopped. He spun on his heel and took two steps toward the path to the river. He stopped again and scowled over his shoulder. The feeling nagging him got worse whenever he turned away from town.
Was it his conscience or magic?
With a pained sigh, he closed his eyes and hung his head in defeat. Daks had said to listen to his feelings. And why was he following the word of that big idiot?
Because he was an even bigger one.
Or because Daks was the only person ever, including himself, to actually see something of value in the curse he’d been saddled with. For once in his life, his curse had actually been of some use, so how could he ignore it now?
Daks had saved him from the Brotherhood, no matter the circumstances. Ravi owed him, even if he’d never admit it to the man for fear of losing what little desperate leverage he had.
Even as he led the placid mare he’d ridden earlier to a rock to help him climb into the saddle, his hands shook and he continually questioned his sanity.
I’m not a fighter. What possible help could I be? And why should I try to help these lunatics anyway? I’d probably be doing them a favor going off on my own, wouldn’t I?
But the feeling driving him wouldn’t relent.
Grasping the reins tightly in his sweaty palms, he nudged the animal with his thighs the way he’d seen the others do. The mare ambled a bit but seemed loath to leave her companion or the clumps of tender spring grass surrounding the cabin. He nudged her a little harder, this time with his heels. She lurched into a trot that made him yelp, and it was all he could do to stay in the saddle.
This is a terrible idea. This is an incredibly terrible idea.
He should have tried to run to town instead. At least he would have gotten there in one piece.
By the time he saw the rooftops silhouetted black against the indigo sky, his ass and thighs were screaming. Pulling hard on the reins, he was nearly pitched over her head as the mare came to an abrupt halt. His dismount was something less than graceful, and the horse threw an accusing eye over her shoulder at him as he winced and patted her side clumsily.
“Sorry. Sorry. But just think, I could die tonight and you’ll never have to see me again, so there’s that,” Ravi quipped somewhat hysterically.
Without allowing himself any more time to consider what the hells he thought he was doing, he looped her reins over a nearby fence and trotted into town, his bag thumping against his flank with each step. If she managed to pull herself loose and wander off, he supposed he deserved it.
<
br /> Having never been to Urmat, Ravi didn’t know exactly where to go. The town was big, probably owing to its proximity to Rassat and having sprung up around the junction of two rivers. A large stone bridge connected the two halves, but Ravi was pretty sure his Vision had been on the near side of it.
As the houses and shops grew closer together and more people appeared in the streets, he stopped in an alley to catch his breath and think. Most taverns tended to be as close to the town’s hub of activity as possible—without being too near the temple, which dominated the center of every town and village in Rassa. If he could find Urmat’s temple—the very thought of which made him queasy—he could work outward from there. Surely the music would lead him the rest of the way, as long as he got close enough to hear it.
He closed his eyes and spun in a circle until the internal tug that had gotten him this far drew him in one direction. Light spilled from windows and the occasional lantern carried by passersby, but Ravi tried to stick to the shadows and avoid people as much as possible. He finally stumbled to a halt when that strange foreboding riding him simply vanished, leaving him bereft instead of relieved. He searched the darkened streets helplessly. Just as he was beginning to get desperate, faint strains of music reached his ears, and he took off running, recognizing the tune from his Vision. This is it. It’s happening now.
The street he blundered into was at once familiar and foreign as he tried to meld the memory of his Vision to the reality. A large door to a well-lit building opened, and that familiar music spilled out into the night, along with a crowd of young men in splashes of guard blue. Ravi’s heart squeezed as he panted for breath.
Now what?
Instinct more than anything had him ducking into the shadows as the men passed. He couldn’t see enough of their faces to know if he had the right group of soldiers, but how many gangs of drunken guards could there be in a town like this?
He probably didn’t want to know the answer.
The men ambled down the street singing, laughing, and being generally obnoxious to everyone they passed, until something caught their attention and the whole group stumbled to a halt.
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