Battle Born

by Amie Kaufman

  The faces around Anders were mean, worried, and pinched. They were the faces of people who didn’t have much, and knew what they had wouldn’t last very long. Everyone was looking out for themselves, and everyone was keeping an eye on their neighbors.

  What he didn’t see was any sign of the wolves, anywhere.

  “They must be camping somewhere else,” Viktoria murmured. “But the wolves know how to camp. We go out on excursions as part of our training. They could help here.”

  “Only if they’re wanted,” Ellukka said, “and I don’t think they are.”

  “What’s that up ahead?” Rayna asked, pointing as the top of what looked like a big tent came into view.

  They made their way toward it through the crowd, moving slowly to avoid attracting attention. After all, Anders, Lisabet, and Rayna had been on wanted posters all around the city not so long ago. Nobody was paying attention now, though—the hoods of their cloaks were disguise enough. They stayed together, trying not to look too hard at anyone, just in case it was taken as a sign that they wanted to steal their belongings.

  The place Rayna had seen did indeed turn out to be a huge tent. It was the only proper one in the camp, as far as Anders could tell, and out in front of it the mayor of Holbard himself sat on a real chair at a real table—both of those were also in short supply—speaking to a dirty man who was the first in a very, very long line.

  The mayor was not dirty. The mayor was wearing his gold chain of office and clean clothes. Anders recognized him from all the times he had seen him stand beside Sigrid, the Fyrstulf, on the dais during the monthly Trial of the Staff. But even if he had not known the mayor by sight, it would have been clear to him that this man was in charge. He was surrounded by several members of Vallen’s parliament and seemed to be taking requests or complaints. It didn’t seem like he was doing anything about them, apart from occasionally gesturing for one of his companions to write something down, and everyone who left the front of the line walked away crestfallen, occasionally glancing back, as if they weren’t quite sure what had just happened.

  “Okay,” said Rayna, “I think we should split up. Ferdie and Viktoria—and maybe you, Ellukka—you should go see who you can help. Maybe there’s some kind of hospital here, somewhere people are going to get treatment.”

  “What about you?” Ellukka asked.

  “Anders, Sam, and I need to take a look around here,” Rayna said.

  Anders knew exactly what she was thinking. “This is the only place anyone has anything to take,” he said. “Nobody from the street would ever take something from those other people, the ones camping under their coats. We all know what it’s like not to have anything. But here . . .”

  “The mayor and his clean clothes are fair game,” Sam finished for him.

  “Right,” Anders agreed. “And that means Jerro might be somewhere around here.”

  “He’d look for prime pickpocketing territory,” Sam agreed. “And so might other people we know.”

  In his heart, Anders wasn’t so sure they’d find Jerro—it was hard to imagine him pickpocketing when he could be looking for Sam and Pellarin—but he didn’t want to say so out loud.

  “This is also where we’ll get the best gossip,” Rayna said, clapping Sam a little too hard on the shoulder. Anders suspected she shared his worry about what might have happened to Jerro, but they had to try their best.

  “All right,” Viktoria agreed. “We’ll come back this way in an hour, or at least one of us will, to see what’s going on.”

  Viktoria and Ferdie took off, with Ellukka to keep lookout for them. Anders, Rayna, and Sam cast their eye over the scene before them, taking their time, slow and thoughtful, making sure they had the lay of the land before they committed themselves to anything.

  This is just like being back in the city, Anders told himself. You’ve done this a million times.

  And, of course, he had. Countless times, he and Rayna had sat on the edge of a roof, looking at the square below, scouting out every corner of it, making sure they knew who was there and what was where before they committed to any course of action. He had no doubt Sam had done the same thing with Jerro and Pellarin just as many times.

  “I’d like to get inside that tent,” Rayna murmured beside him with her usual audacity. “That’s where the good stuff will be. And there are a lot of people out here who need it.”

  “We’d need better clothes,” Sam pointed out, “or, at least, a much better cloak.”

  The two of them fell into quiet discussion about whose cloak might possibly be stolen, and Anders let them talk as he kept looking over the scene.

  He studied the mayor and each of the politicians in turn, then began to study the attendants around them. What sort of people were they? Did they understand that everyone around them had nothing, while they had food and clean clothes? Did they care, if they knew?

  His gaze shifted past a tall, heavyset man wearing glasses, and then abruptly flicked back to him.

  He was much taller and much broader than Anders. He had dark-brown skin, black hair, and a black beard, neatly trimmed. His glasses had thick, square frames. His trousers were gray, and they might almost have been the same color as an Ulfar uniform. His shirt was a dark green, still clean, neatly tucked in. He wore an amulet at his neck, though he’d tucked it inside his shirt, where it was mostly hidden.

  He looked like he belonged with the people all around him. Except he was far more serious than any of them.

  And Anders knew who he was.

  “Rayna,” he whispered, tugging at her arm.

  “I’m just saying,” she said to Sam, “when you go for the ones with the buttons, it might look easier, but once you tug the edge of the cloak—”

  “Rayna!”

  “What?”

  Then, before he had a chance to reply, she followed his gaze and went completely still.

  The man standing over by the tent was their uncle Hayn, a teacher at Ulfar Academy, a famous artifact designer, and perhaps the person Anders wanted to see most in the world right now. Hayn had helped them get their hands on their mother’s map. Had managed to get their augmenters to them, even after he’d been arrested. Hayn had always been on their side, trying to help them and protect them.

  Carefully, Anders began to walk a slow circuit around the edge of the gathering, forcing himself to move at a regular pace so nobody would pay any special attention to him. Rayna was by his side, and Sam a few steps behind.

  They were ten feet away when Hayn saw them, and he didn’t have nearly as much practice as they did at playing it cool in tricky situations. He started, then broke into a run, closing the gap in three big strides and gathering each of them up in one arm, lifting them clean off their feet. Rayna squeaked, and Anders didn’t even have enough air to do that. But luckily, their uncle set them down after just a few moments.

  “Careful,” Sam whispered from behind them, “someone will notice you.”

  Hayn looked up, white teeth flashing in a quick grin. “The one thing nobody notices around here right now is a reunion,” he said. “They’re happening all the time. My name is Hayn. You must be a friend of my niece and nephew’s.”

  He held out his hand to shake, and Sam stared at it for a long moment, before Rayna gave a tiny, encouraging nod.

  Very carefully, as though his own hand might snap off, Sam shook. “Sam,” he said uncertainly.

  “Pleasure to meet you, Sam,” Hayn said, just as if the introduction had been perfectly normal. “Come on, you three, let’s find somewhere private, and we can talk.”

  He led them around the back of the big tent to a couple of pale square patches in what was left of the grass.

  “Huh,” he said. “There were crates to sit on here a few hours ago. I suppose someone salvaged them for some shelter.”

  So instead they stood while they talked.

  “I’m so relieved to see you,” Hayn said. “I had no idea if either of you were okay. I thought if there was
any chance that you’d come to the camp, you’d come here, so I hung around and tried to blend in.”

  “You thought we’d come where the people were richer and the pickings were best?” Rayna asked, looking a little insulted, though that was in fact exactly what they had been thinking.

  “No,” Hayn replied, with much more faith in them than Anders felt they deserved. “This is where the decisions are being made. I thought you’d want to know what was happening.”

  “And we thought you’d be with the wolves,” Anders admitted. “None of them are here.”

  “No, they’ve made a camp to the north,” Hayn replied. “Up past Vadobrun, where the Ulfar students camp when they go out overnight. You remember it?”

  Anders nodded. He and Lisabet had seen the place the night before they’d stolen Fylkir’s chalice and run away to Drekhelm to find Rayna. “There’s nothing there,” he said. “Just a cairn with a few supplies, and the river.”

  “The wolves don’t need much,” Hayn replied. “They’ve trained for this. And they’re not welcome among the citizens of Holbard, any more than I’m welcome among the wolves. You know I was locked up before the battle, because Sigrid suspected I was dragging my feet on finding her an augmenter for the Snowstone. I wasn’t going back and giving them a chance to lock me up again. Not until I knew whether the two of you were safe.”

  “I don’t even know what to ask first,” Anders admitted. “What’s happening with the wolves? What’s happening here?”

  “The wolves are doing all right,” Hayn replied. “They salvaged supplies from Holbard and marched out to make a camp. Sigrid is missing, and Professor Ennar is in charge.”

  Anders’s heart skipped, then skipped again. It was good news that Ennar was in charge. When Hayn had been locked up and Sigrid had proclaimed Anders the enemy of the wolves, Ennar had had her doubts. She certainly wasn’t on their side, but she might be willing to listen to Anders, if he could find the right words . . . and stop the rest of the wolves attacking long enough to begin a conversation.

  But for Sigrid to be missing . . . he could already imagine Lisabet’s face when she heard the news. Though she disagreed with her mother on almost everything, she still loved her.

  And for his part, Anders was worried about where Sigrid was, and what she might be doing. He couldn’t help thinking of all the rubble back in Holbard, and no matter what she had done, he hoped that she wasn’t buried beneath it. If she was somewhere out there, though, on the loose, that would spell trouble for him and his friends.

  He and Rayna quickly relayed everything that had happened since the last time they’d seen Hayn, with Sam adding details once they got to the part of the story that featured him. As they reached the end, their uncle wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders.

  “You’ve both been so brave,” he said.

  “We’ve both been such failures,” Anders replied. “Look at the city.”

  “That wasn’t your fault,” Hayn said firmly. “I don’t know why the Snowstone or the Sun Scepter behaved the way they did. They’re both powerful artifacts, but they shouldn’t have caused this level of destruction.” His voice dropped lower. “I have a horrible feeling . . . ,” he began, then stopped.

  Anders looked up at him. “A feeling about what?” he asked.

  “They’re both such old artifacts,” Hayn replied. “I wasn’t sure there was any chance they would work at all. I thought the augmenters were necessary.”

  Anders reached up to touch the augmenter that hung on a strap around his neck next to his Ulfar amulet, an artifact that made sure he still had his clothes when he turned from a wolf back into a human. The Ulfar amulet felt like a part of him now, and he had almost completely forgotten about the augmenter. In the midst of the battle, he and Rayna had made their way to Hayn’s cell and found he had left a pair of augmenters behind, one for each of the twins.

  “You mean the augmenters made the artifacts so powerful that they destroyed the city?”

  “Maybe,” said Hayn. “I honestly don’t know.”

  “I don’t suppose there’s another artifact out there that we could use the augmenters on?” Anders asked wistfully. “Something that would rebuild everything?”

  “I don’t think it’s that simple,” Hayn replied, “but I can think of one thing you might be able to do with your augmenters. It’s only a rumor, but even so . . .”

  “What is it?” Anders was willing to try just about anything.

  “This wall you told me about that leads to where Drifa is hidden,” Hayn continued. “I don’t know what it can possibly mean, but I have an idea about how you could find out.”

  He was digging through his pockets feverishly, and after a few moments, he produced a crumpled sheet of paper. It was thick, shot through with fibers, and as Anders looked at it more closely, he realized some of the fibers were very thin threads of metal. The paper itself was an artifact.

  Hayn dug in his other pocket and produced a stub of a pencil, then gestured for Rayna to turn around and give him her back to lean on. He carefully inscribed a series of runes on each half of the paper, then folded it down the middle and tore along the fold, handing each of the twins one of the pieces.

  “You still have your augmenters?” he asked.

  Anders fished his out from where it hung down the front of his shirt. The little disc was covered in runes identical to the ones on Rayna’s augmenter.

  “Tonight,” said Hayn, “I want you to take these pieces of paper and wrap them around the augmenters. It would be better if a dragonsmith forged the runes for you, but the paper’s well made, and the runes I’ve designed are simple. I think it’ll be enough, if the trick works at all. Find some way to fasten the paper firmly around the augmenters, so it won’t fall off in the night. I’ve never actually seen it done, but if you’re right and Drifa is somewhere in or around Cloudhaven, it might be possible to connect with her via your dreams. She might have some answers for you. If she’s anywhere we can reach her, we need her badly right now. I don’t think we’ve ever needed her more.”

  “We’ll try tonight,” Anders promised, already thinking of his spot beside the fire, itching to get back so he could go to sleep, and maybe find his mother.

  But Rayna had caught something in Hayn’s tone that Anders had missed. “You’re coming back with us, right?” she asked.

  Slowly, regretfully, Hayn shook his head. “Now I know you’re safe, I’ll see if I can get close to the wolves,” he said. “It’s not safe for me to talk to them yet, but if I spot an opportunity, I have to be there to take it. They can’t keep themselves separate like this—I have to at least try to reason with them. The longer everyone’s apart, the harder it will be to bring them back together. They’re supposed to be protecting the humans—assuming the humans want anything to do with them. And what’s the pack going to do, live out on the plains forever?” He shook his head again. “I don’t know whether the humans or the wolves will be willing to talk, but I think it’s a good idea to at least know what the wolves are doing.”

  He paused, though, pulling open his coat and reaching into one of the inside pockets. Now Anders could see that every time Hayn moved, his jacket swung—before he had left Ulfar, he must have stuffed it full of everything useful that he could carry.

  He pulled out a little circular mirror of the sort Anders had seen the fancy citizens over on the west side of Holbard use. The mirror was inside a case that snapped closed to protect it. When you opened it, you could peer at your reflection and check . . . well, Anders didn’t really know what people checked, but it always seemed important.

  Since he’d gone to Ulfar, though, Anders had learned there were more uses for a mirror than inspecting yourself.

  Hayn turned it around so the twins and Sam could get a good look at it, and Anders saw the runes engraved inside the lid.

  “Have you seen a mirror like this?” Hayn asked. “The ones matched with this are exactly the same—the engravings are identi
cal. You said Drifa had a workshop at Cloudhaven—I never knew that. But if the rest of the set is going to be anywhere, it will be there. One of them was my brother’s.” He spoke the last word lightly, but he, Anders, and Rayna all exchanged a long glance. Felix now meant a lot to all of them, and his loss had left a mark on each of them in their own way.

  “It’s a mirror for communication?” Anders asked.

  His uncle nodded. “Felix and I used them, but his wasn’t on him when he died, and it’s never been opened since. If you can find it, we can easily stay in touch.”

  “We’ll hunt for it,” Rayna promised. “There’s a lot of mess in the workshop. It could definitely still be there.”

  “If you can’t find it,” Hayn said, “I’ll meet you back here at this time the day after tomorrow.”

  And with that plan made, none of them could afford to linger. They exchanged another long, long hug—Anders hadn’t hugged someone so much larger than himself many times in his life. Or, he realized, perhaps at all, before he had met Hayn. He liked the way his uncle’s arms wrapped him up tight, went all the way around him, and he rested his head against the big man’s chest for a moment.

  Then it was time to go.

  “The day after tomorrow,” Hayn promised. “And I’ll be watching my mirror until then.”

  He slipped away into the crowd, and the three children watched him go.

  When Anders looked back at the others, he saw the wistful expression on Sam’s face as the other boy tracked Hayn until he was out of sight. Sam was wishing for his own reunion, of course.

  “Well,” said Anders, trying to sound cheerful, “we came here because we thought Jerro might be around, right? Because this is the smartest place to look if you want to pickpocket anybody. So let’s look.”

  The three of them spread out a little to mingle with the crowd, making themselves unremarkable, keeping their hoods up and moving easily, exchanging glances to silently communicate. In a strange way, it actually felt good to do something so familiar.