“They’re so far away,” Kala complained.
“So they are,” Grey agreed and began heading toward them.
They threaded their way through the treacherous terrain, all the while accompanied by wailing on the wind.
“That’s creeping me out,” Kala admitted.
“Trick of the wind,” Grey concluded.
“I’m not so sure,” Kala replied, spotting movement beneath the water to their right and moving as far left as the narrow path through the bog allowed.
“I think we’re being watched,” Kala told Grey.
“Of course we’re being watched,” he agreed and kept walking toward the distant hills.
As they walked, she looked right and was startled to find that a woman was walking with them a short distance away. Looking back to tell Grey, she noticed a second woman walking to their left.
“Seems we have an escort,” he concluded.
They continued, and their escort grew until it numbered four women on either side.
“We’re surrounded and outnumbered,” Kala observed.
“I think we always were,” Grey mused.
Their escort said nothing nor even looked their way, but walked alongside them nevertheless. The hills loomed closer, and the swampy ground gradually receded as they climbed upward toward a break in the hills ahead. The pass that they were approaching grew closer and their escort abandoned them without their noticing.
“I wish I knew how they did that,” Kala said to Grey.
“Practice,” he concluded as they arrived at the pass. It was flanked by spindly spires of rock, and the wind howled through the narrow opening. Grey strode forward and passed between the spires, Kala following him closely.
Steaming pools surrounded them, and the smell of sulfur stung their nostrils. Fog rolled down the hillside, obscuring their view. They eventually climbed through the wispy bank of cloud and into the midst of a village nestled into the hillside. The villagers watched them unconcernedly as they advanced and sometimes glanced from them to an elevated building at the end of the street.
“I guess that’s where we need to go,” Grey concluded.
On the stairs of the building at the far end of the street stood a woman waiting for them. She wore light armor that suited her chiseled features, which were exposed by her hair tied back in a braid. She was neither young nor old, but somehow both. She stood proudly, and authority radiated from her. She seemed familiar to Kala, but Kala couldn’t divine why.
Kala and Grey strode up to the stairs, and with a wave of her hand, the woman bade them enter the building. From closer up, the building appeared to be a huge lodge. The woman passed between two massive doors, which she left open for Kala and Grey. Inside, she walked around a fire that lit the room and proceeded to the end of the spacious hall. She sat down in a high-backed chair and waved Kala and Grey to join her. They sat in a pair of chairs facing her, and she studied them for a moment before speaking.
“What brings you to our village?” she asked finally, having taken their measure.
“We come seeking allies,” Grey replied bluntly.
“And what makes you think we’d be allies?” the woman asked detachedly.
Kala jumped in. “To be honest, we don’t know what to think,” she admitted, “but the world is burning, and we aim to put it out.”
“We’re quite safe from fire in our wet little corner of the world, don’t you think?” she replied.
“I don’t think that’s your way,” Kala concluded.
The woman raised an eyebrow. “And why might you think that?” she asked.
“Your armor, and the way your scouts pass unseen. If you were truly content to hide from the world, you would not need such things.”
“Insightful,” the woman concluded, leaning back. “But why would we take your side? Why not the other side? There are always two sides.”
“Your reputation.”
“And what is our reputation.”
“That you prefer to plant than to prune.”
“I’m not sure you’ve heard correctly,” she replied, “but you’re welcome to enjoy our hospitality while we deliberate on your request.” The woman looked over Kala’s shoulder. “Brinn, escort our guests to their rooms.”
Kala looked behind her to see a woman who hadn’t been there a moment earlier.
“Follow me,” Brinn instructed.
Kala looked back at the woman on the dais to see if they were dismissed, but the chair was already empty.
“A bit over the top,” Kala muttered to Grey and got up to follow the woman named Brinn out of the room. She guided them out the doors of the main hall and led them down a side street to a small building. She held open the door, and Kala and Grey entered to find a pleasant interior with a fire already going in a small hearth and a pot of soup bubbling above it.
“Rest,” Brinn advised them. “You’re welcome to wander around the village as you wish.”
“Any restrictions?” Kala asked.
“Why would there be?” she replied over her shoulder and left them.
“Are you sure you weren’t raised here?” Kala asked Grey sarcastically. “They’re your kind of people.”
“I do like it here,” Grey replied and bent to stir the soup. “Hungry?”
“Starving.”
“Good. It’s been simmering for a long time and smells delicious.”
“I guess we were expected.”
“It was a long walk.”
Kala and Grey enjoyed the soup and found themselves overcome with tiredness.
“Do you think we’ve been drugged?” she asked him.
“No. I think we’re just fatigued.”
“Well, that makes me feel better,” she replied and wandered off to find a bed, which she found on the second floor. She called over the railing to let Grey know that there was a second bedroom beside hers, but she didn’t wait for his response before collapsing onto her bed. She was pretty sure she was asleep before her head hit the pillow.
Kala awoke in the morning to the smell of hot kai. She emerged from her bedroom at the same time as Grey and looked over the railing to see Brinn and the woman from the lodge sitting in the main room below. Two chairs sat across from them with steaming cups of kai resting on the table in front of them.
Kala wasted no time in descending, sitting down, and scooping up one of the mugs.
“I’m Tamara,” the woman from the lodge introduced herself.
“Pleased to meet you,” Kala replied. “I’m Kala, and this is Brother Grey.”
“You’re from the Church?” Tamara asked.
“No, but we’ve spent time in its midst – Grey more than I,” Kala replied.
“You move like you’ve been trained,” Tamara told Grey.
He sat up. “By a former member of your ranks.”
“That’s what we assumed. So you know the woman whom we called Winter when she lived among us.”
“That sounds apt,” Grey replied. “Although she goes simply by ‘Priestess’ now.”
“Her path diverged from ours a long time ago,” Brinn noted.
“I think that continues,” Grey agreed. “I’m not sure what her agenda is, but she seems to relish destruction a little too much for my liking.”
“And what is your agenda?” Tamara asked Kala plainly.
“To stop the bloodshed, and, gods-willing, to retire to a quiet corner of the world afterward,” Kala replied, equally plainly.
“Then our agendas align,” Tamara concluded. “We’ll help you to the extent that we can.”
“Thank you,” Kala told her, infinitely relieved.
“There is much to do,” Brinn concluded, rose from her seat, and strode to the door. “Enjoy our hospitality,” she said and left.
Tamara rose and followed Brinn out.
“I’m confused,” Kala admitted to Grey when the two women had left. “Who’s in charge?”
“I think they both are,” he replied and sat back.
>
“It bothers me that we didn’t have to try harder to convince them.”
“I think they know more about what is happening in the world than they let on,” Grey replied.
Kala finished her kai and got up. “I’m going for a walk,” she announced.
Grey simply waved, so she left their dwelling alone and glanced about, deciding which way to go. People moved about purposefully but unhurriedly. She spied motion down the street to her right and wandered over to discover that it was a schoolyard. She sat down on the steps of a building across the street and watched the children as they engaged in a sparring exercise. It seemed to be the opposite of what she saw at the temple grounds in the Priestess’s city. There, everything was order and repetition. Here, everything was fluid and organic. The children moved with a grace that defied prediction. Kala was mesmerized.
She looked up to see Brinn standing nearby, watching her.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Brinn asked.
“Amazingly so,” Kala admitted. “If Winter grew up here, why doesn’t she train her followers the same way you do?”
“I’m sure she does in a way,” Brinn conceded, “but she always had a desire for control than is counter to our teachings, and that’s probably why she was so unhappy here.”
Tamara strode up. “The preparations have been made,” she informed Brinn.
Brinn turned to Kala. “We’ll meet you on the field of battle,” she told her and walked away.
“Where? When?” Kala called after her.
“We’ll find you when it’s time,” Tamara told her. “I’m sure you’ll be wanting to get back,” she added. “I took the liberty of calling your ship closer.” She gestured uphill rather than down toward the bog.
“Thank you. I didn’t think there was a ‘closer,’” Kala said, recalling her journal.
“Not everything that exists appears on maps,” Tamara replied and strode off.
Kala sought out Grey and found him waiting for her and ready to go.
“We’ve had success here,” he concluded. “Let’s hope it makes a difference.” And with that, they strode uphill toward their ship.
30
Dhara
The healer looked at Kaia. “Go get your sister,” she told her and returned inside.
Kaia got up and chased after Dhara. She found her sitting at the river’s edge, looking out over the water. “The healer wants you right away,” Kaia told her.
Dhara threw a stone far out into the river and turned to join her sister as the ripples were swept downstream. “How can you accept him so readily?” she asked Kaia of their supposed half-brother Daryn.
“He’s family,” she replied matter-of-factly.
“He’s a slave,” Dhara protested.
“And still family,” Kaia replied as though it had no bearing.
Dhara mulled this over as they walked back to the healer’s cottage. They went in and noticed that Daryn had moved a second bed beside the one in which Calix lay, pale as a ghost.
The healer looked Dhara up and down. “I assume you’re willing to do whatever needs be done for this young man,” she stated, seeking confirmation.
Dhara nodded, and the old woman instructed her to lie down on the bed beside his. “He needs medicine that his body is too weak to process,” the healer told her. “You might be strong enough,” she added. “But then again, it might kill you.”
“Just get on with it,” Dhara replied and lay down.
The woman strapped down Dhara’s arm and turned to Kaia. “Get a wet cloth and sit by your sister’s side,” she told her, and pulled a knife from a pot of boiling water, wiping off the blade.
Kaia took a seat as the woman slit Calix’s and Dhara’s arms, expertly inserted tubing into them, and secured them in place. Soon, Dhara’s heart pumped her blood into Calix’s arm, and his heart feebly pumped his back into hers. The healer offered a cup of foul-smelling broth to Dhara. “Drink this,” she instructed her.
Dhara raised her head and drank the bitter concoction without complaint and laid her head back down. Very quickly, she began to sweat as her body fought the medicine that was starting to course through her.
Kaia wiped the sweat from Dhara’s body, which gave off heat like a furnace.
Dhara closed her eyes and began to moan softly.
Daryn passed Kaia fresh cloths as she did her best to keep her sister comfortable while her body warred with the medicine. Kaia had to hold her sister still as her body trembled and thrashed. She looked beseechingly at the healer, who simply shrugged and said, “What will be will be,” and settled into a chair with a cup of tea.
The sun sped across the sky and set. All the while, Dhara’s state worsened, and Calix’s did not improve noticeably. Daryn had lit a few candles but now sat slumped in his chair sleeping soundly. Kaia mopped her sister’s brow, allowing herself the briefest of moments to close her eyes until she also succumbed to fatigue and did not wake the next time she closed them. Only the old woman kept vigil.
Color returned slowly to Calix’s cheeks, and his eyes fluttered open. He looked at Dhara beside him, glowing from the heat that her body generated, and their eyes locked.
“Am I in heaven?” he asked.
“More like hell,” Dhara replied with a weak smile. “It’s hot as hell.”
“So I am dead, then,” he concluded.
“That would really suck,” Dhara replied, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.
Calix watched her sleep until he drifted off himself.
Calix opened his eyes to see Dhara watching him from the bed beside him. “I’m not dead, am I?” he asked.
Dhara smiled. “Doesn’t look like it.”
“Then why do I feel like it?” he grimaced.
“Tell me about it,” she replied.
Calix looked around the room. Morning sun edged its way in through partly-closed drapes. Disarray would be a generous way to describe the room that surrounded them. He spotted Kaia sitting on a nearby chair, flanked by a handsome young man sitting casually in the chair beside hers.
“How?” Calix asked.
“Cera,” Kaia replied. “I’ll tell you all about it when your strength returns.”
“I was wondering the same thing,” Daryn mused aloud. “What brings you back from banishment?” he asked Dhara.
She turned to him and propped herself up in bed before responding. “Mostly nursing this guy back to health,” she replied, gesturing to Calix, “but also, seeking allies in a conflict that is advancing southward.”
“You won’t find any support around your mother’s tree,” Daryn concluded bitterly.
“I didn’t expect to,” Dhara agreed, “but to be honest, I haven’t the faintest ideas where we’ll find allies.”
“Allies against whom?”
“Soren. His forces march south and burn everything in their path. It is only a matter of time before he sets fire to the jungle we call home.”
“I doubt even he can worsen our lot in life.”
Dhara looked at him, confused.
“Not yours… ours, the slave class. We toil for your mother and her ilk and are put to death for the slightest gaffe, if we aren’t shipped off in an airship to be sacrificed, or marched off at the front lines of some futile power struggle between rival tribes. We toil, and we bleed, and you don’t care.”
“We care,” Kaia countered.
“Well, maybe you do,” Daryn accepted.
“No – we care,” Dhara interjected. “That’s not right.”
Daryn looked at her skeptically, but Dhara returned his look so sincerely that he was taken aback. “It doesn’t matter,” he concluded bitterly. “What you think doesn’t matter – no offense – nothing is going to change here.”
“True,” she agreed. “Nothing is going to change here… but we’re not talking about here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your people have no land of their own. They work the land for my mother’s people. Correct?”<
br />
“Correct.”
“There’s ample land in the north that Soren’s forces have cleared by their advance. And the land here won’t remain free of this conflict for long. Either stay in the service of my mother and be conscripted to defend her lands when Soren comes knocking, or join us in fighting him and accept land in the north as your reward.”
“That is tempting, but who are you to make this offer.”
“No one, and I am not offering you anything… I’m just speaking the truth of things.”
Daryn mulled it over. “I’ll bring this to the elders,” he concluded and got up to go.
“Thank you,” Kaia said.
“I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing this for us,” he replied.
“Still, thank you for not sitting idly by while the world burns.”
He nodded and left the cottage.
He returned later that night. “It didn’t take much to convince the elders that taking our chances in the north is preferable to the way things are here. But the distance to there is great.”
“True, but the river flows north. We only need boats, and the village has lots of them.”
“Your mother guards them.”
“Lightly.”
“Still, she’s not going to sit by and watch us take them.”
“We’ll have to catch her unaware and move quickly then,” Dhara concluded.
“When?”
“How quickly can your people make themselves ready?”
“It’ll take three or four days to make all of the necessary arrangements, and for the fuss over the guard that was attacked at the landing pad to die down. That was you, I assume?”
“That girl walked into it,” Dhara deflected. “We move in four days then. Calix will be stronger by then.”
Four days went by quickly, and, as hoped, Calix regained the ability to move about in that time. Kaia hunted to put food on the table, with some extra set aside for their journey. Dhara spent time with her brother, scouting and planning raids on the armory, the village stores, and the boat launch.
Daryn was far more influential than he let on and had everyone organized when the day finally came. Dhara had come up with a distraction that she hoped would serve their purposes. She decided to hail an airship in broad daylight, and if it worked, that was the signal to set everything in motion. She wasn’t sure how the magic of the amulet worked, so she snuck as close to the landing pad with it as she dared.
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