“He’d rip it off if you did,” Kane sighed. “Just don’t get into any more trouble if you can help it.”
What little remained of the day passed without incident. Kane and Eder browsed the market until the stallholders packed up, Kane looking interestedly at everything as Eder stuck to weapons and food, although Kane caught him casting one or two glances over to the jewellery stall he had denied perusing before. Terrell remained within sight for most of the remaining time, looking as innocent as possible as he leaned against the fence he had almost been pushed into.
At one point, late in the afternoon, Kane glanced over and saw the girl Aideen had returned and was talking to Terrell again. He swept the marketplace for any sign of the gang of boys, but they were nowhere to be seen, and the next time he looked back over, neither were Terrell and Aideen.
Kane and Eder trawled the market for him as the stallholders packed away, but he had vanished from the square. After a quick debate, they made their way back to the inn, where Sampson had, as instructed, found them rooms and paid for a hearty evening meal for them all. In the dimly-lit tavern, Kane ran a quick head count and found he was still one short; Terrell was taking his sweet time about coming back. Not wanting to worry the rest of their travelling companions, nor let the meat pies in front of them grow cold, Kane bade Sampson bless the food and they ate hungrily, Sophia retiring to her room as was her custom. They were almost finished when, about ten minutes later, Terrell arrived, walking in a way that could only be described as a swagger, with his usual bright grin on his face.
“Punctuality is a virtue, Terrell,” Kane said, concealing his relief and waving at a spare space on the bench and a cooling pie before it. He ignored the look Sampson gave him; a scolding or lecture would serve no purpose at this juncture, and besides, Terrell was alive and well and presumably had not gotten into any further fights.
“Yes sir, sorry sir, won’t happen again,” Terrell mumbled through a mouthful of pie, and Kane considered that to be enough remorse to pass muster for now.
They finished their meal quickly, even though Terrell had arrived late his appetite was impressive and he had demolished his pie quicker than anyone else. They trooped up to their rooms, which turned out to be a dormitory for the boys, a side-room for Davena and Cahaya, and a separate small room for Sophia; at least Kane assumed it to be small, the door was firmly shut and as he knocked he received no answer from the professor.
In the corner of the main dormitory room there was a small stove, as the inn was very used to the requirements of the Child Guard. A maid brought up a small tin kettle of water and Sampson set it to boiling with the Elixir in the pot. Terrell sat down on the pallet by the window, kicking off his boots and drawing his knees up to his chest, trying to expose as little of himself as possible to the aromatic fumes.
Eder picked the pallet closest to the stove and gave Kane a pointed look.
Sampson was deep in prayer by the time Kane finally shrugged his pack off and sat down. Although the Elixir was not yet ready, the little Immaculatus had decided to start early, and from the words Kane caught on the edge of hearing, he was praying for safe passage through the Borderlands.
Kane looked over at Terrell, curled up next to the window, and wished he could somehow communicate with his friend through his mind. He didn’t want to think about Terrell getting hurt, or worse, in the wilds of the Borderlands, especially when the means of his protection was so close at hand. But Terrell had always, and would always be, stubborn as a mule, and he had firmly made up his mind he was never drinking the Elixir again. Though how he was going to get out of it in this enclosed room, Kane had no idea. Sampson wasn’t stupid and there was no convenient soft soil to absorb the spilled elixir this time.
Sampson measured out the draught for the three of them and himself, then set his cup aside and measured out a fifth dose. He took the cup out to the side-room where Davena and Cahaya were, and the door swung closed behind him.
Terrell casually tossed the Elixir over his shoulder out of the window, with a bored look on his face. Eder almost choked with shock, but Terrell only grinned in return, although he quickly composed himself when Sampson returned, said the prayer, and drank of his cup.
Kane was left with no other option than to drink. It must have been his imagination, but somehow it was not quite so bad, at least, he didn’t feel the urge to vomit right there and then in front of everyone. The smell was still vile and pungent and powerful, but he held his breath and managed to hold onto his dinner.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a disappointed look on Terrell’s face, which remained there until they finally settled down to sleep, and even then Kane fancied he felt eyes boring into him in the darkness.
It felt quite novel to sleep the whole night through again, but Kane still awoke groggy and disorientated, whether due to too much sleep or not enough, he couldn’t decide. He rose anyway, his back oddly stiff from the comfortable mattress, and dressed as quickly as he could. His limbs felt sore, somehow heavy, but he was sure he could work it off on the road.
Sampson was already awake, praying quietly over his morning dose of the Elixir. Kane had half expected him to wake them up with declamations and hymns, but it seemed Sampson was content to remain quiet.
Or perhaps he had decided not to compete for decibels with Terrell, who was snoring like a sawmill, one arm flung over his head, limbs at odd angles like he’d fallen from a great height. Kane shook him awake with difficulty, dodged a sleepy swing of Terrell’s fist and moved on to Eder.
He hesitated over Eder, who was still sound asleep. Kane hadn’t forgotten the strange sensation that had come over him when he had taken Eder’s hand yesterday afternoon, but after a brief mental debate decided Eder’s cloth-covered shoulder would be a safe bet. As he gingerly prodded his sleeping friend, nothing happened, and he relaxed.
Upon being prodded, Eder’s serene face was disrupted by a frown, as he stretched like a cat.
“Oh that’s not fair, I was in the middle of the most wonderful-“ he murmured, as his eyes fluttered open, barely. All of a sudden the strange sensation rushed up from the pit of Kane’s stomach to meet him again, although this time it felt muted, as though he were feeling it through thick cloth. He practically leapt away from Eder, stumbling over his own feet and landing on the hard floorboards on his backside.
Terrell roared with laughter at the sight, and Sampson opened his eyes with an irritated expression, his meditations disturbed. Eder sat bolt upright, bleary blue eyes staring around for the source of the commotion.
Kane scrambled to his feet, his face hot, keeping as far away from Eder as he could manage.
“I just tripped,” he said, although nobody had asked. “I’m fine.”
“I should hope so,” Sampson said, eyeing him severely from over the top of the chalice. “Otherwise I might accuse you of malingering in order to avoid your assigned mission.”
“I wasn’t-" Kane began, his face and ears growing even hotter at the suggestion.
Sampson held up a hand and Kane stopped, without thinking about it.
“I shall see that the rest of our party are prepared for the day’s journey,” he said. He drained his chalice without even a hint of disgust, and swept out of the room, leaving Kane staring after him, robbed of the chance to defend himself.
“Any more acrobatics for us, Kane, or is that it for the day?” Terrell was still chuckling quietly to himself.
“Shut up, Terrell,” Kane replied, dismissively, and Terrell’s face darkened.
“Are you all right?” Eder asked. “You haven’t hurt yourself or anything?”
“I said I’m fine,” Kane said, waving away Eder’s concern. He was sore and embarrassed and confused, and today was not the day to lose his wits. “I’ll meet you outside, we should get moving soon.”
He slammed the door without meaning to, desperate for some space and quiet in which to order his thoughts. He made his way to the stables to collect the pony, and the
stable boys mercifully left him to get on with loading the beast.
A side-effect, Eder had said, and it was possible he was right. It had certainly seemed less strong the second time, after he had managed to hold down a dose of the Elixir. But it hadn’t gone away completely, it wasn’t back to normal yet, and here they were, about to enter the Borderlands and face who knew what kind of threat.
If it was a side-effect, was Terrell experiencing the same? Kane hadn’t noticed him acting strangely, but perhaps he had not been paying close enough attention. As he loaded the last bag onto the pony he resolved to ask Terrell about it when a moment could be found.
That moment turned out to take the better part of the day to find. They left Woodedge as the town awoke, and within the hour they were in the Borderlands, the site of so many ancient battles and skirmishes. Back in the Citadel, such tales of valour and glory had been exciting; now the possibility of actually encountering the Sidhe was at hand, Kane felt significantly under-prepared.
The trees to their right were tall and ancient, majestic giants that seemed to have been growing since the world was young. Even though they were technically on the human side of the border, Kane remembered from his history classes the whole of the forest around them had once been the territory of the Sidhe.
The land to the left of the road bore a stark reminder of how that had turned out. The forest had been felled in a long, snaking scar about a mile or two wide, from one side of the immense forest to the other. The stumps of the trees had been uprooted and the ground burned, a clear line which indicated the Sidhe could go no further. It was along here Marcellina’s Border Guards patrolled, year in and year out, to ensure the Sidhe were not encroaching back out into human territory.
Kane wasn’t quite sure which was worse. To one side, the barrenness of the ground, coupled with the trees in the distance, sent a prickle of unease up his spine. It looked a good distance to the treeline, but once darkness fell, who knew what horrors could emerge and sneak up on them. Even the trees to the right of the road, ostensibly safe, human territory, were tall and forbidding. There were no real settlements in the Borderlands, and this made them perfect hiding places for bandits and outlaws, desperate men with nothing left to lose. And in the middle, the thin line of the road, the symbol of the law, of the Border Guards, of civilisation.
The feeling of unease pervaded the group, and they found themselves clustering quite tightly together around Cahaya on her pony as they walked. This didn’t afford much opportunity to speak without being overheard, and Kane couldn’t find a pretext to take Terrell away for a private word in his ear.
In fact, it took until evening, when they were setting up the camp, before Kane got a chance to talk to Terrell about his worries. As Eder set up the camp in as comfortable a spot of barren ground as could be found, Kane and Terrell disappeared into the treeline across the road to collect firewood. So tense was the mood, Sampson did not question the need for two of them to go on such a simple errand.
“Go on then,” Terrell said, almost before they had got out of earshot. “You’ve been chewing over something all day and I’d wager it’s no coincidence you decided to escort me out here into the big scary woods.”
“Have you been feeling… odd, you know, since you gave up the… the thing?”
“The Elixir, Kane. Just say it. Sampson’s hearing isn’t that good.”
“All right, the Elixir. Have you been getting any… strange feelings from being off it?”
Terrell looked sidelong at him. “Like what?”
“Like, a weird feeling in your belly. Not pain or anything, but warm and… strange.”
“Oh, that,” Terrell shrugged, picking up a branch as thick as his arm. “Only sometimes.”
He sounded so casual and calm Kane wanted to shake him. “That’s what made me fall over this morning. I was starting to think it was something to do with Eder but if you’re getting it too...”
“Eder?” Terrell sounded surprised. “I thought it was something to do with that girl that we’re escorting, the blind one. Or just girls in general. There was that one in Woodedge… but never mind. It’s obviously just something to do with the Elixir.”
“I hope so,” Kane said, fervently.
“I noticed you drinking it again,” Terrell said, tearing a low-hanging branch off a tree, despite the fact there were plenty of fallen twigs around on the ground. “What changed your mind?”
“Eder thought it might be dangerous to be off it, you know, going into the Borderlands and all.”
Another casual shrug.
“I feel fine,” Terrell said. “In fact, I feel stronger than I’ve felt in my life. That feeling you described, it gives me this rush, like I can do anything, fight anyone and I know I’ll win.”
“Really?”
“Maybe it affects people differently,” Terrell said. “But I feel great. If we do get into a fight or whatever, you can rely on me, Kane. I’ve got your back.”
“Glad to hear it,” Kane replied, and nodded that they should return to the camp.
The mood that evening was subdued, as the scrubby grass of the Borderlands failed to adequately wipe away the memory of the scorched earth that had once been there. Kane drank the Elixir without thinking about it, his mind elsewhere, focusing on the growing shadows amongst the trees, or the whispering of the wind amongst the branches. Every sound became louder in the darkness, every movement was a skulking enemy with knife outstretched. Kane did not sleep easily that night, between his discomforted stomach, the tension of the Borderlands, and the way he found himself shrinking into the furthest corner of their shelter to keep at a safe distance from Eder.
They passed a week that way, in the bleak and unchanging Borderlands, without seeing a single other soul. The wagon trains from Auris preferred safety over speed, and took the more westerly road, using Carmia as a halfway point to their financial advantage. The road through the Borderlands was for the Child Guard and the desperate alone.
Kane was feeling more like the latter by the day. He was beginning to get the hang of being on the road, and they had their daily routines down to a fine art, but there was something about the long, straight road disappearing off in either direction that made his head ache, and the oppressive weight of the forest on either side was not much better. Once or twice, on his watches, he had caught sight of what appeared to be a faint glow over the treetops on the Sidhe side of the woods, faint enough to be dismissed as his imagination but too bright to be explained away as moonlight. He kept his sword drawn when he was on watch, the naked blade resting across his knees, comforting in its weight and gentle brightness.
9. Eder
“From the loins of the Brother come the male energies of the universe: strength, valour, the sun which warms us, the vigour of young men and the power of a father. From the womb of the Sister come the female energies: beauty, gentleness, the moon which lights our way in the darkness, the sweetness of a maiden and the mildness of a mother.”
The Words of St Kyran the First and Wisest
It was on the sixteenth night of their mission, according to the scratched tally Kane had been keeping on the back of his letter of commission, that they heard their first Sidhe-song.
It began imperceptibly, right on the edge of hearing, felt rather than heard, as a faint sense of impending dread stole across the camp. The evening air was crisp, the wind blowing from the west, away from Sidhe territory, and the campfire flickered in the dancing breeze. Kane shuddered, and didn’t know why he had done so.
Sampson heard it, and began a prayer, too faint for Kane to distinguish the words, but the tone was one of supplication, not of praise. Cahaya heard it, and the tears rolled thick and heavy down her face, spilling from her white eyes like melting snow. Davena heard it, and prayed silently, as she murmured comforts to the distressed girl under her care. Eder heard it, and started violently, scrabbling for his bow and quiver which idly rested beside him. Terrell heard it, and peered fiercely into th
e shadows of the treeline, daring the Sidhe to come out and fight. Sophia, who had begun to emerge from her tent after her meals, heard it and stiffened, her body vibrating with tension.
Kane finally realised what he was hearing, and what it meant. The high-pitched, discordant whine was faint with distance, which hopefully meant the Sidhe hunting party were many miles away, chasing down some poor innocent creature to be torn apart in a blood-frenzy. Under the pitch dark of the new moon, the glow over the Sidhe forest seemed closer, filling the horizon from edge to edge, a knife-smile across the black sky.
“We shall take watches in pairs,” he said, breaking the bated-breath silence. Eder twitched and almost fired an arrow into the earth in front of him. “Sampson, Davena, Sophia, I know you are not trained as soldiers, but can you handle any kind of weapon, even a knife?”
“I’m a healer,” Davena said, and she sounded slightly apologetic. “I am not accustomed to using a blade to harm. But if it must be done I pray that the gods grant me the strength to do it in the name of the Sister, defender of the righteous.”
Eder was already moving before she had finished speaking. He unbuckled the sheath of his dagger from his belt and held it out to her. She took it, solemnly, and in her hand it seemed like a short sword. Kane saw she was shaking, and in his heart he doubted she would be able to use it, but there were precious few other options.
“I pray it will not be my destiny to fight and kill,” Sampson said, looking sidelong at Davena, “but I, too, will do what must be done.”
Eder reached to his other side to unhook his small hunting knife for Sampson’s use, but Sampson pointedly turned to Terrell.
“Private Terrell, if you would be so kind as to lend me your dagger, I should be happy to return it to you when we are out of danger.”
Terrell handed over his dagger with considerable reluctance, as Eder sat quietly with his hands folded in his lap. Even in the dim light, the flush in Eder’s cheeks was obvious.
The Child Guard Page 10
