“I’ll join you,” Aarez said.
“Roy or I should go,” Harvey offered.
“Aarez did a fine job keeping me company before you showed up.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Harvey said, frowning.
“He’s just looking out for you,” Roy defended, an ounce of anger heating his voice. “Both of us are. Look at what we gave up.”
“Aarez is a fine swordsman,” Cleo said. “I trust him with my life. Plus, he can serve as a hand if I need it. You or Roy could be recognized if spotted. I’ve got my echo to fall back on, should things get hairy. But they won’t because we’ll just be going and scoping out a lazy river. Come on, Aarez,” she said, tugging on his arm. They jogged down the hill, maneuvering with no care for stealth.
◆◆◆
A stoney-faced Harvey tracked Cleo and Aarez’s progress as they journeyed to the river’s edge. He looked away to offer greeting as Roy approached, but his friend gripped his arm with tight fingers.
“Harv! Look, a scout.”
Looking in the direction Roy had pointed, Harvey spotted the small form of a horseman riding parallel with the riverbank. Miles behind the scout came the rhythmic marching of another column of soldiers. Harvey clenched his fists as the scout closed the distance on Cleo and Aarez.
Without thinking, he was on his feet. If he ran, he could intervene.
His friend knew what he was thinking. Harvey had not taken a step down the hill before Roy pulled him back. “You can’t do anything right now!” he said. “We have to wait. You move now and it’s a guarantee that we’ll be found.”
◆◆◆
Cleo and Aarez had been staring at the muddy trench for a full minute before either spoke.”
“It’s—”
“Dry,” Aarez said. He glanced back to the east. Not ten miles away, the bridge connected the two banks, despite the lack of water running underneath.
Cleo glanced upstream and noticed that the river ran dry as far as she could see. “I wonder how far upriver it’s dried out,” she said.
“Uh, Cleo.” Aarez was turned around. Before him, high on a cream colored gelding sat a soldier bearing Lyrinth’s royal flag.
“Who are you?” The soldier asked.
Aarez stammered, tripping over his tongue. What came from his mouth was unrecognizable as speech.
“You must not be from the area,” Cleo said, the words flowing from her mouth before she could stop them or censor their pretentious tone. “My daddy owns all this here land. Built that there bridge your people are using,” Cleo said, banking on the soldier not knowing the area’s history, or its accent. “This here is Pidgeon. He’s my personal servant.”
“Your daddy knows that you’re out sleeping with his staff?” The guard asked, eying the two.
“Don’t be silly,” she said, stifling a fake laugh. “Pidgeon’s a eunuch, as any lady’s attendant should be.” Cleo felt Aarez wince next to her. She immediately hated herself for using him to further their disguise.
“Well, you’d best get. Lyrinth’s army, under the law and word of our King Dorothea, is using the bridge to transport troops south. So, lest you become a plaything passed around the barracks, I’d advise you to get home and stay out of sight.” The soldier reared back on his horse and galloped east toward the bridge.
Cleo and Aarez quickly returned to where their group was waiting, out of sight.
“What happened?” Harvey asked.
“The river is dry,” she said, avoiding Harvey’s true question. “We can cross it anywhere, any time.” She glanced around her group, but no one seemed to share her merriment. “What?”
“Look, Cleo,” Roy pointed to a hill marking the western horizon. The first companies of Lyrinthian horsemen had crested the hill. Behind them, came an even larger number of men on foot.
“We’re stuck,” Harvey said.
◆◆◆
Cleo sat close to their fire, though more for light, as she used it to aid her reading eyes. Harvey and Roy had returned from scouting. She felt Harvey’s eyes glancing her way before he spoke. “We should be fine here in the woods. You can’t see our camp anywhere along the river, thanks to the hills. And because we’re sandwiched between two armies, our smoke should go unnoticed, each thinking it from the other.”
“We can’t risk not having a fire. It’s too cold at night,” Roy said.
“It’s more imperative now that we have people up during the entire night as sentries,” Harvey said. “We could have two of us up at the same time.”
“Fine by me,” Cleo said, “though we have an odd number.” Before anyone responded, she offered. “I’ll take two watches.” Aarez volunteered to take first watch with her. Harvey took second watch with Cleo which left Roy and Kiren to close up the morning’s watch together.
“Nora, are you okay with that?” Roy asked.
“As long as you don’t try to make small talk,” she said, chuckling at his discomfort.
“All right, everyone,” Harvey said. “Shifts will be two hours. Since we can’t go anywhere, after the third shift, anyone can catch up on sleep as long as two of us are up.” Not long after, he had settled down and succumbed to a snoring sleep.
Cleo watched their other companions until she was sure they all had drifted into a peaceful sleep. She shifted her gaze to Aarez, who sat hunched at the edge of the campfire’s warmth and light. The dying fire cast sorrowing shadows across his face. “I’m sorry about earlier,” she whispered.
“You were keeping us safe.” Aarez averted his eyes. “Where I bumbled around like an infant, you managed to talk us out of danger.”
“It wasn’t right for me to use your condition as a crutch.”
“It’s not a condition, Cleo. It’s who I am. People wouldn’t think twice about a eunuch being with a young woman of your beauty, but if I was just some servant or even a cousin, alarm bells would be ringing.” Cleo did not know how to respond. She might have blushed at his compliment had it not come surrounded by the danger of their situation.
“Then why haven’t you looked at me since?”
“It’s stupid.”
“No, it won’t be. You can tell me.”
“I ended up in a public hospital after it happened to me. The doctors there were excited by my injury. They must have known people in power. I was visited by officials representing three politicians and nearly two dozen high merchants. Job offers.”
“That’s not good?” Cleo asked. She thought back to all the powerful visitors her father received in their manor across the ocean.
“No!” Aarez hissed, his whisper sounded as loud as a shout in her ears. “They wanted me to wait on their daughters and wives, knowing that I couldn’t try anything.” He chuckled, his laugh sounding bitter. “The whole time I could’ve worked for them without issue. But they come to me after my manhood is removed.”
“You’re still a man,” Cleo said. “It’s not what you have that makes you a man, but it’s the blood that courses through your veins, the life in your eyes, and most importantly, it’s what you want for yourself.” Aarez made no comment, but he seemed to relax. He rested his eyes closed, and for a few minutes, he remained quiet. Cleo said his name, whispering to make sure he was still awake.
“Hmm?”
“You remember the wolves?”
“How can I forget? I’ve got one of their tails warming my neck.” He fluffed the scarf, dusting snow from its fur.
“What about that one that got away?”
“Yeah, would’ve made a good coat. All that white fur is good camouflage right now.”
“Have you ever seen that wolf again?”
“For real?”
“I don’t know. Maybe the faint form of it in the distance, or a dream?”
“Cleo, every time the wind gets an itch, the snow shifts into a shape that could be that wolf.”
“I guess.” Cleo left her voice hanging, hoping that Aarez would realize that she was withholding information.
“Do you think that you saw it again?”
“No.” She shook her head, though the action was directed at her own lie. Why did she swallow back the confession?
“Cleo, that was a wolf. Yes, it was deranged. Had to be, to lead wolves to attack us like that, but I’ve never heard of a wolf following a fleeing prey like this for miles and miles, let alone over a hundred.”
“I guess,” she agreed. “Aarez, what does the word ‘harbinger’ mean to you?”
“Harbinger? Like forerunner?”
She nodded.
“It’s okay. Doesn’t ring any bells. But it’s just a word. I don’t have relationships with words like your teacher does.”
Cleo felt her heart squeezing tight in her chest. Crisp air chilled her throat.
◆◆◆
The fire flared to life as Harvey fed it fresh logs. He sat down next to Cleo. “Anything happen over the first shift?” he asked. Cleo rested her head on his shoulder. He tensed at the movement, then relaxed. He wrapped a spare blanket around their conjoined frame.
“No,” Cleo said, yawning after a moment.
“Do you want to call it early? I can handle the shift alone,” he offered. He felt her shaking her head.
“Harv,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “Does the word ‘harbinger’ mean anything to you?”
Harvey tensed again, which she obviously felt as she lurched up from her daze, though not quick enough to catch the shock on his face, he hoped.
“No, what?” Harvey managed to ask.
“Oh. Never mind. Someone told me that you may know of it.”
“Who? Gnochi?”
“No. You’d laugh if I told you.”
“I won’t.” Harvey’s voice softened. His heart thudded in his chest, struggling like a chained animal.
“It was some wolf. I’m not convinced that I wasn’t hallucinating or dreaming. But he said you knew him.”
Harvey’s eyes scanned the forest around them without moving his head. He wondered why Freki had made contact with Cleo when, according to his last report, she was to remain in the dark about the prophecy surrounding her.
“It may well have been a dream, Cleo. I’ve noticed you up for the past few nights during my shift. If you haven’t been sleeping, it could be that you are seeing and hearing things. How about you try to get some sleep now? I’ll cover for you.”
She did not respond, but he felt her breathing even out into a steady pattern. She leaned heavier into his body, and he feared moving her, so he let her sleep while he kept watch.
Chapter 26
The following day, the falling snow changed from the lightest of flurries in the morning to a blinding blizzard by the afternoon. Duke tried to push the prisoners through the storm, but when even his subordinates wanted to wait the blizzard out, he conceded. They found a bend in the river where the wall blocked much of the whipping winds. Prisoners and guards worked together, constructing the walls of an igloo to close them away from storm.
With the walls closed off as much as they could manage, Gnochi curled up into the river’s rocky wall, trying but failing to ignore the raging sound of the blizzard outside. He looked up as Ren inched over and sat next to him.
The pirate leaned over and whispered into Gnochi’s ear. “Just wanted to say thanks. For starting that fight the other day.”
Gnochi shrugged. In truth, he was hoping to be punished, pain being one of the only feelings he knew after so long without the others.
“I want another one,” Ren said.
Gnochi looked to him, expecting to see the grin of insanity on Ren’s face, though his eyes appeared lucid. He formed his hand into a gun, pointed it to Ren’s forehead, his glove touching the man’s skin. He motioned a shot, pushing air out of his mouth to make an explosive noise, an action which drew the attention of those close enough to hear. He formed a cough to cover his tracks.
Ren smiled.
◆◆◆
The crunch of footsteps announced Harvey and Roy as they returned from scouting. Outside the cover of the forest, a wild blizzard raged.
Cleo stood where she had been seated on the forest floor. After dusting the residual snow from her clothes, she pulled a wolf’s pelt over her shoulders. She hated wearing the fur from the wolf’s skull on her own head. It made her feel barbaric, as though she was a savage. Harvey had demanded that she keep it on to trap heat before it could escape to the omnipotent cold.
She tucked her ears under the fur-lined cap and shivered as her eyes saw the teeth that gleamed at the edge of her vision, hanging down like sharp bangs. The wolf’s pelt continued down her back, though she tied it around the front of her chest and stomach so it would not flail around in the wind. Even though she hated the appearance, the pelt kept her head, neck and back substantially warmer.
Harvey and Roy sat before the fire, rubbing their hands together within its quaint bubble of warmth. The group converged, offering blankets to help alleviate the numbing cold, though neither of them spoke.
After warming for a few minutes, Harvey sat back. “It’s as we thought. All movement has ceased because of this storm. We didn’t even cross any scouts. It’s dead out there.”
“For good reason,” Roy said.
“It’d make for the perfect time to cross the riverbed. We’d be totally undetected.”
“That’s suicide,” Roy said. “We’d never make it to a place where we could camp with a fire because we’d be whittled down by the storm. As it was, Harvey, we risked much just scouting in this weather.” He spoke as if he had already thought out his argument.
Knowing the pair, Cleo realized that the Harvey and Roy had already debated this amongst themselves.
“If we don’t march now, we are going to get blocked by both armies.” Harvey said, inching closer to the flame.
Cleo found her gaze fall to the fire. She watched as it licked up in an organic attempt to slither away from the ground. A rogue spark flew high, shining bright red, before a gust of the blizzard’s breath snuffed it out.
“What do we do?”
After a moment, Cleo looked up, realizing that Roy was looking at her, expecting her to decide. Harvey, too, had given her his attention. Cleo shook her head, unaware of the feral, wolf-shaped shadow she tossed through the woods behind her.
“This is our one chance to get across without having to wait for every soldier and their brother to file over. But if we try to go now, we’ll likely freeze in our boots. So, we wait.” It pained Cleo to say those words. “We wait for the first instance where the storm clears up. Then we move. Quickly, but quietly. And we don’t stop until we are on the south shore.”
“Then what?” It was Aarez who spoke.
“We are going to make a straight shot to the swamp. So, rest up now. The next time we move, we aren’t stopping until we can see the trees on the horizon.”
After another eight hours, as the first tendrils of day lit the overcast sky, Cleo and her group left the safety of their forest camp. The storm had quieted, though thick flakes still fell in lazy spirals.
They traveled single file to reduce their footprint. Cleo anchored the line. Looking past Roy, who rode ahead of her, she could barely make out the faded form of Harvey, in the lead.
Roy turned and whispered to her. “Make sure you stay close to me. In this low visibility, the last thing we need is someone wandering off.”
All the horses wore an extra cloak to help fend off the dying storm’s chill. They seemed happy to be moving again, even though the weather was less than ideal for them.
Cleo must have nudged Perogie to stop, for when she looked up from her thoughts, she could only see Roy’s faintest outline lumbering on Deb’s back. She was urging Perogie forward when she heard someone bumbling through the snow. She watched a man round a hill, fumbling at his pants as though he was preparing to urinate.
A single stream of yellow heat cut through the air and froze as it crackled into the snow below. Perogie snorted, l
oud enough for the guard to hear. Cleo turned her head down to hide her face.
“Wolf!” The man screamed. He fumbled, holding his pants at his belt and stumbled in the snow before he got a solid grip on his pants, running back to wherever he came from.
Cleo looked up to see Roy had turned back toward her. “What happened?” he asked.
She urged Perogie to close the distance. “That was a scout. I think he only saw my hood,” she said, uttering a quiet laugh. “He’ll realize soon enough that it was not a wolf riding a horse, as he thought. We need to hurry.”
They paused as Roy relayed the message up to Harvey and the rest of the group. Harvey upped their pace to a light canter. It was as fast as he was willing to push the horses in an environment with a coating of snow over the ground.
A few more minutes of rushed travel brought the group to the river’s edge, still dry, despite the thick layer of precipitate now filling it. Their horses slowed as they trekked over the muddy, snowy ground.
After making the cross, the group paused to survey the ground they had covered. The snow still fell thick, so after only a few minutes, a young layer of white down covered all traces of their river crossing. Harvey was quick to get the group moving again. Before them sat the southern stretch of the same desert which choked out Brichton.
At the lead of the group, Harvey kept their pace steady and swift. The desert sands were less conducive to snow accumulation, so it stood nigh taller than the horses’ hooves. After an hour of swift movement, when the last traces of the storm disappeared as the last flakes fell, the group paused to stretch and rest.
Harvey rode onto the largest dune nearby. He returned a minute later, excitement racing through his breath. “I saw the faintest trees on the southern horizon. We’re making good progress.”
◆◆◆
The din of movement within the small igloo roused Gnochi from his sleep. Next to him, Ren snored. The pirate was using his shoulder as a pillow, an action which struck a pang of sadness in his heart.
The Harbinger of Change Page 18
