by E. S. Maya
Safi swallowed and shook her head.
“They’re all dead!” Raven clutched at her chest and fell back against the carriage wall, snorting with stifled laughter.
Safi scowled at the girl, balling her hands into fists. She wasn’t in any shape to start a fight. Titans, she’d never been in one. But she wasn’t about to allow some girl to insult her father.
“I know you don’t believe me and I don’t care if you do.” She thrust a finger at Raven’s face. “If anyone can climb a Titan, my father can.”
“No one can,” Stiv said, watching the clouds drift by in the small rectangular window. “There’s no proof anyone’s ever climbed one of those things. That’s the kind of crud you hear in Titan tale. It’s impossible.” Raven nodded in agreement.
“It’s not impossible,” said a shaky, muffled voice.
The three of them looked to Goggles. His head was still deep in his arms. “Royalty has Siegestones,” he managed to stutter. “Gotta come from somewhere.”
Safi smiled. When her father finally came to rescue her, she’d beg him to free Goggles, too.
Raven opened her mouth to continue, but the carriage shook with a thump. Safi gasped, spinning to face the door. Were they caught? The thumping crawled up the wall and onto the roof, and the ceiling creaked gently. “Who—”
“Shh!” Stiv and Raven hissed.
Safi started as the carriage shook to life. There was a high-pitched whine outside, then the shadows of tree branches dancing across the floor. Somewhere in the squeaking wood and crunching gravel, she heard the hoofsteps of trotting horses.
They were leaving Ashcroft village.
Safi leapt to her feet, forgetting the chain bound to her ankle. It pulled taut, yanking the feet of the other children. She stumbled back down and banged her knee on the wood. Before she could cry out, a hand clasped her mouth shut. She hadn’t seen Raven move at all—the girl was blindingly fast.
“Easy!” whispered Raven. “Or you’ll have more to worry about than a bruised knee.”
Safi whimpered into Raven’s calloused hand. She twisted and wriggled, but the dark-haired girl held tight. Once her breathing had slowed and her body had gone slack, Raven removed her hand and sighed.
The carriage rumbled along the village road, stealing Safi even farther from home. She watched the other children for any sign of worry or concern, but Raven looked relieved, Stiv seemed almost bored, and Goggles hadn’t moved at all. These three, she realized, had been on the road for a long time.
Safi lowered herself to the floor, trying to ignore the hurt that shook through her with every bump of the carriage wheels. So much had changed in so little time. She closed her eyes, hoping that when she woke up, things would return to the way they were. The way they were supposed to be.
But sleep never came.
5
The Road
The beam of light from the window stretched its long arm and was gone.
Safi had dreamed of leaving her village, of seeing the faraway lands from her father’s storybook tales, but not like this. Never like this, curled up in a corner of wood so cold it felt wet against her skin.
The world outside was moving, but where?
The carriage rumbled on, slipping through a mountain pass and placing home farther behind her. Night fell, and she felt her tummy rumbling. She hadn’t eaten breakfast, and last night’s meal had awakened a hunger long forgotten in the months of stale bread and cabbage soup. Cradling her stomach, she began to regret that final meal. Hunger was far easier to deal with when you forgot what full felt like.
She watched the other children, wondering if they were hungry too. Goggles hadn’t moved in hours, and Stiv lay flat on his back, both hands tucked behind his matted brown hair. Raven sat up beside her, ever alert, shifting to a new position every few minutes. Her hands were always moving and her eyes always looking about. She reminded Safi of a stray bird that once flew in through the kitchen window, fluttering madly about the room until Mother chased it out of the cottage.
Eventually, the carriage lurched to a stop. Stiv sat up and stretched his arms over his head. Raven cracked her neck and groaned, “Finally!”
Safi heard the driver climbing down from the rooftop. Some minutes later, there was the clunk of the padlock outside. The high-pitched squeal of the door, the orange light of the campfire.
Strauss stepped into the carriage. His boots stomped all around them, chasing the weariness from Safi’s mind. “You brats better be hungry,” he said, bending over to remove the chain from its ring bolt on the floor. He fixed it so the four of them were free from the carriage but remained bound together by their ankles. “You won’t believe what’s for dinner.”
“Let me guess,” Stiv said, “the oldest bread you could find, beef mere hours from foulness, and…a seasonal selection of vegetables?”
“Sounds about right.” Strauss chuckled, then pointed his nose at Safi. “Don’t look so ungrateful. We’re eating it too.”
“Hurry the hell up then” Raven said, her little booted foot bouncing against the wood.
Strauss slapped Raven’s face with the back of his hand. Safi jerked backwards and yelped, nearly tumbling out the door and dragging the others with her. “Maybe I’ll take my time. Maybe the lot of you will stay inside tonight, without supper!”
Raven’s rosy cheek curled into a smile. “Don’t be such a tease, Captain.” She touched a hand to her face and squeezed her thighs together, all cute-like. “Besides, I really have to go.”
Strauss’s huge nostrils flared. “By the prophet’s red teat!” he cursed, taking Safi’s shoulder and pushing her out the door. “Out, the lot of you. Out!”
Safi landed hard on her feet, but the ground was spongy and wet. They were in a traveler’s campground at the edge of a great forest. A fire had been prepared. Squatting beside it was the man in the purple cape, who caught her staring and smiled.
Despite the circumstances, Safi smiled back at him. She stepped aside as Raven hopped out of the carriage behind her, followed by Stiv and Goggles.
“Bathroom break before dinner, Captain?” Stiv reminded him.
Strauss agreed, then waved over his subordinate.
Safi clung to Raven’s arm as Bernold marched them into the forest. The Blackpoint recruiter led the way with his torch, bringing to life many eerie shadows. Safi began to shiver, fearing that a gust of wind or burst of rain might put out the fire and leave them stranded forever.
“Lay off, Blondie,” Raven said, tugging her arm away. She pointed to the chain at their feet. “It ain’t like either of us are going anywhere.”
Bernold grunted, halting their march. With trees in every direction, and grass tickling their ankles, the four of them spread out until the chain went taut. Raven dropped her trousers, squatted down, and let nature flow. From the other end, Safi heard the boys’ trickles. She nervously rubbed her elbow. She’d never gone in front of strangers before…
“Whew!” Raven said, standing tall to hike up her trousers. Bernold responded to her outburst with a smack to the back of her head. Safi grimaced, then leaned forward, to see if the boys would object to the abuse. Both of them kept their mouths shut.
Then Bernold approached Safi, torchlight flickering over her. “Well? Are you going about your business, or aren’t you?”
Hands trembling, Safi reached for the hem of her skirt. She folded it over her knees and squatted low to the grass, waiting.
Bernold grumbled impatiently.
“I can’t go with you looking,” Safi whispered. Looking at her feet, she froze. There was a caterpillar crawling across the toe of her shoe.
“Yeah, look the other way,” Raven scolded him. “We’re only thirteen!”
“It’s nothing like that—for prophet’s sake, girl!” Bernold turned around and folded his arms. “You too, lads! Give the girl some privacy.”
Goggles turned his back to the girls while Stiv chanced a peek. Safi scowled at the boy, unfurling her
skirt down her knees.
“About face!” Bernold cried, grabbing Stiv by the hair and turning him away. To be safe, his large hand remained on the top of the Berrid’s head.
“Never gave me any privacy,” Raven muttered.
“He probably couldn’t tell you were a girl,” Stiv said.
Even Bernold laughed at that one. Then came Stiv’s turn for punishment, and what a punishment indeed, delivered at the hands of Raven herself. Chained by the foot, and held in place by the Blackpoint recruiter, the boy hadn’t a place to run. Soon his shouts filled the forest.
With a sigh, Safi closed her eyes and began to pee. It was the first of many wilderness breaks.
Each day, their prison spewed them out into the ever-changing world. Sometimes light, sometimes darkness, sometimes mountains or valleys or forests. Always cold, and occasionally freezing. On those days, Safi ate her meals more out of warmth than hunger.
Their breakfasts consisted of hot, tasteless grain, served in dripping wooden bowls and sprinkled with raisins. She plucked at the strange fruit, eating them one by one before forcing down the slop in slow gulps.
Dinner offered little variety, dried meat tossed in a black traveler’s pot, mixed with an assortment of whichever vegetables were not yet rotten, stinky cabbage leave and bent hairy carrots that Bernold, who always did the cooking, snapped into little pieces in his big hairy hands. “Helps capture the flavor,” he once told Safi, though she wasn’t quick to believe him. Lucky were the days they had bread, though the loaves came so hard that they couldn’t bite in until they were proper-soaked in stew.
The carriage driver ate alone. Whenever he caught Safi staring, he offered a smile. Though they shared no words, she decided he must be a good person. Who else could smile so often while looking so sad?
Each night, after the others had fallen asleep, Safi prayed to God and the Titans that her father might soon find her. Each morning, her father was nowhere to be seen. Ashcroft was now two weeks behind them. What if he simply didn’t know where to look? The Blackpoint carriages, she overheard from the men, were numerous, and traveled across many kingdoms. Full of children, she reckoned. Girls just like her.
On some nights there was no campfire and the black carriage traveled the midnight roads. When the cold became unbearable, and the manacles chilled their feet to the bone, Safi and Raven came to an unspoken agreement. Their hands felt for each another in the dark, timid at first, and then quickly embracing. They held each other close, allies against the cold.
In the morning they awoke with their bodies untangled. Stiv was none the wiser. Or if he noticed, he didn’t mention it.
Then came the day when they left the country roads behind them. Four weeks out from Ashcroft, beyond the Andolan border and deep into the central kingdom of Andera, they made their way to the city.
6
Wolf and Raven
Safi pressed her ear to the seam of the carriage door. She shut her eyes and listened. It took all her concentration to pull the sounds apart.
There were merchants, booming about their wares. There was the pitter-patter of footsteps, sandals and boots like raindrops on hard city stone. There was even the laughter of children, coursing through the chatter in every direction at once.
She backed away from the door, dizzy from the world but a plank of wood away. She traced the glowing seam up to the carriage window, then twirled toward Stiv, eyes bright and pleading.
“Forget it,” Stiv said, not bothering to look, to even rise from his back. “Knowing my luck, you’ll get a faceful of Captain Strauss the moment you look outside.”
Folding her arms with a pout, she turned towards Raven instead.
“Sorry, Blondie.” Raven raised a fist to her head and gave it a couple knocks. “I only take beatings for my own sake.” She offered her condolences in the form of a lopsided grin. “I’m sure you’ll see the city someday. How many years did your mama put you in for again?”
“That is none of your business.” Truthfully, Safi hadn’t the slightest idea. Raven didn’t need to know that. Then she looked to Goggles, but the boy had his face in his knees, and she thought better than to rouse him.
The carriage rocked as it turned a corner. The interior dimmed and the sounds of the city softened. Safi pressed her cheek to the door and gasped. They were slowing, she could feel it. Perhaps they were eating supper in the city! Perhaps a few suppers, and some breakfasts too.
She heard Raven and Stiv share a snicker, then the neighing of horses outside. The carriage jerked to a halt. There was a moment of breathy silence. The familiar clunk of the padlock.
Safi lowered herself to her hands and knees, smiling, eager, and ready.
The moment the door swung open, she thrust her head outside. Her eyes were anywhere but the man standing before her. They were up the pale stone building, scaling its towering height. They were down the dusky alley, counting the stray cats and several wide-eyed, staring children.
She crawled forward for a better look, and would have fallen straight out of the carriage, had the Blackpoint recruiter not shoved her back inside.
“Damned Southerlings,” Bernold grumbled. “Always crawlin’ around.”
Thinking fast, Safi tucked herself between the corner and Raven.
“Get in,” Bernold said.
Into the carriage climbed a broad-shouldered boy with an upright bearing. He swept the long black hair from his face, revealing confident hazel eyes that showed little regard for his present surroundings. He was also handsome.
Bernold stepped into the carriage behind him and pointed to the closest open corner, across the door from Safi. “Sit.”
The boy lowered himself to the floor, scooting against the wall beside Goggles.
“Here are the rules,” Bernold told him, as he unscrewed one of the empty manacles attached to the chain on the floor. “You’re to do as you’re told, and absolutely no talking allowed. Understood?”
Safi watched as the boy dipped his chin. His dark black hair swept over his face, though his gaze remained fixed on the recruiter.
“Good listener,” Bernold said, closing the manacle around the boy’s ankle and screwing it tight. Then he stepped down from the carriage and swung the door shut.
The carriage rocked on its wheels. The padlock clicked into place.
Safi looked up at the window and frowned. She would have days, if not weeks, to observe the new boy, but the city! The city was gone forever.
“Finally,” Raven said, grinning at Stiv, but turning her face towards the newcomer. “Something pleasant for us girls to look at.”
Stiv sat up from the floor for the first time that day. For a moment, he seemed ready to chide Raven for her remarks. Instead he locked eyes with the dark-haired boy. Safi watched the pair carefully, sensing a strange and unfamiliar tension between them.
“Wish I could have gotten a better look outside,” she said, if just to change the mood. Goggles looked up at the window, saying nothing.
Raven crawled towards the dark-haired boy, leaning on her palms and arching her back like a cat. “Tell me your name and I’ll tell you mine.”
Safi pursed her lips, watching the shoes of the handsome boy and listening for his response. It wasn’t fair to her at all. Raven, a girl of the city, was so mature, and hardly behaved as a thirteen-year-old should. How had she missed those dark, fluttering eyelashes? And to what depths could her voice reach?
Safi clenched her jaw, fearing her heart might leap from her throat should she not say something. “And here I thought you and Stiv made such a sweet couple.” It wasn’t exactly clever, but it was the best she could come up with under the circumstances.
Her shoulder shot with pain long before she saw Raven’s fist. She grabbed herself and keeled over, heaving against the carriage wall before sinking to the floor.
Raven’s pale cheeks went flush the moment she realized what she’d done.
“Titans! You didn’t have to hit her,” cried Stiv. “Look
at the size of her!”
“Well, she pissed me off!” Raven said.
Safi looked up at the dark-haired boy. Though he said not a word, his eyes were bright with concern. For all the pain, she found herself fighting the urge to smile.
Stiv raised a shaking fist. “How’d you like it if I punched you?”
“Just try!” Raven leapt to her feet, dragging the chain and all of their legs towards her. “I’ll show you how a member of the Serren Feathers takes the eye out of a man!”
“G-guys,” Goggles stammered out. His eyeglasses sat crooked on his face. His teeth were clattering. “Y-you’re going to get us in trouble.”
The five of them flinched when someone began banging the side of the carriage. Not another word was said. Not even from Raven, who folded her arms, tucked her hands into her armpits, and sat cross-legged on the floor.
When Safi looked at her, the Anderan girl averted her eyes, showing none of her usual confidence.
“The name’s Wulf,” the dark-haired boy said, in complete defiance of the danger that lurked outside. He smiled at each of them, even Goggles, favoring neither Safi nor Raven in turn.
Safi returned a smile, as did everyone else. They heard the horses snorting outside as the carriage shook to a start. Raven sat on her hands, Goggles lowered his head, and Stiv stretched out on the floor.
Safi and Wulf shared a look, and the five of them were silent for some time.
7
Sleight of Hand
They traveled for several slow hours before the carriage came to a lurching stop. Safi cracked her tiny knuckles and sighed. She had been so patient, waiting to learn more about the new boy. But there he sat, across the carriage, silent as stone itself.
For the longest time, Wulf had simply lowered his head. His eyes wandered nowhere meaningful. Nowhere near Safi at least, and, much to her satisfaction, nowhere near Raven, either. Then, as day gave way to night, she watched his gaze rise to the carriage window.