“That’s pretty,” he said.
“It is,” she agreed. “It used to belong to my mother and now it belongs to me. Do you want to hold it?”
He took it from her. Flipping it in his hands, he traced his fingers along the front, over the glass, and then smiled up at her.
“What’s your name?” she asked him.
“Aldin,” he answered. “What’s yours?”
“Meaghan,” she responded and then pointed to Nick. “That’s Nick.”
“Nice to meet you,” the boy responded, his manners automatic, though his eyes remained glued to the amulet. “Mata has pretty things like this, but they aren’t this big. Dat makes them.”
“Mata and Dat?”
“His mother and father,” Nick said, sitting down beside them. Aldin turned the necklace over in his palm before Nick took hold of his left hand. The boy looked up, startled by the intrusion, but giggled when Nick pushed the sleeve of his sweater halfway up his forearm.
“That tickles,” he said, and then tried to pull his sweater back down when Nick inched it up further. “Stop,” he protested.
Nick held firm. “In a minute, buddy,” he said, keeping his voice soft. He met the boy’s eyes and smiled. “I only want to see your mark.”
“I can’t,” Aldin said. “Mata said I can’t show it to anyone.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to,” Nick said and pulled the sweater back down, letting go of his arm. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll make breakfast then. Stay here and we’ll eat soon.”
The boy nodded and returned his attention to the amulet. Nick stood. Crossing the clearing, he picked up a pile of thick green branches, then brought them to the fire and tucked them into the dirt under the flames, shifting them so that their ends remained exposed.
He looked up at Meaghan. His face remained impassive, but a strong wave of concern washed over her, contrasting his calm demeanor. She realized he had dropped his guard on purpose to let her know they needed to talk, but she did not care. She refocused her attention on Aldin, and Nick’s concern changed to irritation.
Aldin found a small protrusion on the back of the amulet and fidgeted with it, grinning when his prodding opened a thin metal door. He poked his finger into the opening and Meaghan snatched the amulet from him, surprise causing her to take it too fast. She pinched his finger in the hinge in the process.
“Hey!” he protested, puffing out his lip. “That hurt.”
“Sorry,” she muttered. Aldin stuck his finger in his mouth to suck on the scratch and she locked her eyes on the compartment he had discovered. She only had enough time to see a slip of paper nestled inside before Nick came over. She snapped the compartment closed.
“Did he find something?” Nick asked.
“No. Is the food done?”
Nick frowned. His face darkened, but he nodded in acceptance of her lie. She slipped the chain over her head.
“It’s ready,” he replied and returned to the fire. He knelt in front of it, pulling the sticks from the soil and piling them on top of a long piece of bark he had laid out. Upon closer inspection, Meaghan realized they looked more like sugar cane than sticks. The long tubes had turned brown while they baked. Nick removed a knife from the backpack and cut the ends off each one before slicing them into smaller segments. Then he picked up a large leaf, and wrapped it around one of the tubes before handing it to her.
“Baktui,” he said. “It’s essentially a nature-made version of energy gel.” He wrapped another leaf around a second one and handed it to Aldin. “Have you had this before?” he asked him. Aldin nodded and pinched his fingers as he ran them up the cane. Thick, yellow goo oozed from one end.
“Careful, it’s still hot,” Nick warned him.
Aldin pursed his lips, blowing on the goo before he sucked it into his mouth. He repeated the process as Nick picked up a cane of his own, and Meaghan followed Aldin’s example, scooping the goo into her mouth with her tongue.
The tube may have looked like sugar cane, but it did not come close to the flavor of the sweet treat. The baktui cane tasted more like a cross between a semi-tart lemon and salt. Its texture felt like crystallized honey. Although it tasted better than the jicab root, she preferred Earth’s fabricated, chemical-laden energy gel to the cane. Still, she found it tolerable enough to eat, her hunger drove her to finish it, and a second one Nick handed her. She set the empty shells down, surprised to see Aldin devouring his fourth. The goo coated his cheeks and chin. He stretched his tongue out of his mouth to capture as much of the escaped goo as he could.
Nick chuckled. “You like that, do you bud?” Aldin nodded with enthusiasm and Nick pushed the bark toward him. “Have the last two. I need to talk to Meaghan for a few minutes.”
“Mmm’okay,” Aldin managed past a sticky mouthful.
Nick stood, offering a hand to Meaghan to pull her up. She left her hands in her lap.
“Don’t be like that,” Nick said. “We agreed to talk.”
“That was before.”
“Before what?” he asked, dropping his hand. “Before I made you mad? Or before you made me mad?”
She glared at him. “You have no right to be—”
“Like hell I don’t,” he snapped, and then glanced down at Aldin. “I don’t want to argue in front of him. Come on.” He stuck out his hand again and this time she took it. He drew her to her feet with more force than she expected, and indicated with a nod for her to follow him. He stopped at the edge of the clearing, far enough away from Aldin so he could not hear them if they kept their voices low, but close enough so they could keep him in their sights.
Meaghan faced Nick and crossed her arms. “Go ahead. Talk.”
“You first.” He matched her posture. “You’re obviously furious because I tried to stop you from doing something stupid.”
“It wasn’t stupid,” she spat back, stepping toward him in lieu of raising her voice. “I was trying to do the right thing. I was trying to save the boy. I can’t believe you wanted him to die.”
“I didn’t want him to die,” Nick responded, his tone turning to ice. “I wanted to keep you safe. You have more responsibility than one boy, Meg. What would have happened to the people of this kingdom if you’d been killed? Did you think of that?”
“No, I didn’t. I don’t belong here and I certainly don’t belong leading a group of people I don’t know. You want to talk about stupid? Then let’s talk about an entire population who thinks someone with no experience can save them. What do you expect me to do? I can’t even control my power. How am I supposed to control a kingdom? How am I supposed to stop a group of unstoppable monsters when no one else has been able to? You people expect too much of me.”
“You people,” he echoed. “These are your people, not some random group. And when did you stop thinking of me as your friend?”
“When you refused to help him,” she said, gesturing toward Aldin. “When you refused to help me.”
“I can’t help you, Meg. I can’t protect you if you keep working against me.”
“I don’t need your protection.” She turned to watch the boy as he tossed aside the shell from his fifth baktui cane. “Not at the expense of someone else’s life.”
“You do need it,” he countered, placing a hand on her arm. “You’re too valuable to—”
“I’m no more valuable than anyone else,” she said, snapping her arm away from his touch. “And it’s not like you even tried. You stood there and did nothing. They might as well have frozen you.”
“What was I supposed to do? I had no way to attack them.”
“You could have tried,” she repeated. Turning her eyes back to his, she lifted her chin in defiance. “You didn’t, but we did fine on our own.”
“You got lucky,” he corrected. “Though I’m still not sure how it happened. Do you have any idea?”
She crossed her arms, refusing to respond and he sighed. “You’re being chil
dish, Meg.” He put his hands on her shoulders and lowered his voice to a near whisper, forcing her to concentrate in order to hear him. “I know you think I was wrong for trying to stop you and I know you think I’m not doing a good job of protecting you, but this is important. Keeping information from me can be dangerous.”
“Why?” she asked, holding on to her defiance despite his pleading. “I don’t see how it can matter right now.”
“Because I know more about this world than you do. I realize that’s part of why you don’t feel like you belong here. That will change in time, but for now, it matters.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What do you know?”
“The names Aldin used for his parents—”
“Mata and Dat?”
“Yes. Those words aren’t from here. And neither is he.”
Concern emanated from Nick again and Meaghan ceded to it, dropping her arms. “What do you mean?”
“The terms are only used in the northern area of this kingdom, in a territory called Zeiihbu. It’s inhabited by people who have chosen to maintain tribal life, guarding and ruling themselves and following old customs and ways.”
“Such as?”
“Using single room huts instead of houses. Hunting and gathering for everything they need. Living simple lives with no outside exchange. Each tribal member is marked with a tattoo at birth on the inside of their forearm, close to the elbow.”
She nodded, understanding. “Like the one Aldin confirmed he had.”
“Exactly. I was hoping to see it so I could recognize which tribe he came from. Some of the tribes are peaceful and others are prone to violence and war. Knowing which he’s from would help me figure out why he’s here.”
She trailed her gaze to Aldin. He remained focused, intent on sucking the last morsels from the cane in his hand. Once he had finished it, he discarded the empty shell and began rooting through the backpack, removing anything that interested him. “He seems innocent enough.”
“He’s young. He hasn’t learned the ways of his tribe yet. But even if he is innocent, he’s not alone.”
Aldin found a roll of gauze and raveled it around his arm. Meaghan focused on him, feeling no deception or anger in him, no malcontent. He only seemed happy, as a young child of his age should be.
“Cal told me to rescue the boy. I’m sure he wouldn’t have told me to do that if he was dangerous.”
Nick snorted. “Cal sent you directly into the path of two Mardróch. I’m not sure he’s concerned much with danger.”
She returned her focus to Nick, her eyes hard again. “Then it’s obvious he knows something we don’t.”
“Cal doesn’t know everything, and he’s often reckless, but that’s beside the point. Aldin shouldn’t be here.”
“Why not?”
“The people of Zeiihbu are part of this kingdom and they’re not. Although they occasionally show up with magical abilities, their powers tend to be minor or weak. They value tactical fighting and manual skills, and are generally better at those than we are. Because of these differences and the cultural ones I’ve mentioned, they don’t consider themselves to be part of the kingdom any more than they consider themselves to be part of the Barren lands bordering them to the north.”
“So you’re saying it would be unlikely for Aldin’s parents to travel through the kingdom?”
“For many reasons,” Nick responded and then nodded toward Aldin. The boy had finished wrapping the roll of gauze around his elbow and forearm, immobilizing it in a casing of white. He held it up, grinning at Nick as he flailed it through the air, flapping it like a bird’s wing. Nick waved back.
“He is charming,” Nick conceded. “It’s too bad all Zeiihbuans aren’t like him.”
“What are they like?”
“Solitary, unfriendly. We don’t know much about them. In the past, attempts to visit their land brought hostility. Few advance parties came back and those who did often lost limbs. They always brought back the message the people of Zeiihbu wished for solitude. Even the peaceful tribes had no issue killing those they deemed as trespassers. Over time, our people got the message and stopped crossing the border. We maintained truce for a century or so, not including a few minor skirmishes at the border villages.”
“Then what happened?”
“The Mauraetus tribe came into power. Two brothers led the tribe with mantras of war and visions of taking over all the southern lands, to return them to their glory. The Zeiihbuans consider themselves the original inhabitants of this kingdom. We fought off their raids as long as we could, but eventually we had no choice. We waged war. The battles lasted weeks at times, magic equally matched to their skill, and many good people were lost on both sides. This went on for two decades, until your grandmother died and your mother took the throne.”
“My mother?” Meaghan asked, surprised. “I thought monarchies followed the male line.”
“Not here,” Nick said. “When the Queen weds, she can choose to share the throne, and often does, with her husband. But when your mother inherited the throne, she hadn’t met your father yet, so it became solely hers. At nineteen, she was a young ruler, but not without brilliance. She made contact with the leader of the Paecis, the second most powerful tribe in Zeiihbu, and offered to help him become the next Zeiihbuan ruler if he would sign a treaty with her. Zeiihbu would become a part of the kingdom only in name, but they would remain on their own land and we would remain on ours. Essentially, the treaty dictated we would leave each other alone.
“In exchange for joining the kingdom, the Paecis tribe would receive help from the Queen if needed, to ensure they maintained power. Before the ink on the treaty had dried, your mother led an elite force of Guardians to the heart of Zeiihbu for one last battle. They were some of the best Guardians of their generation, but the battle still claimed almost all of them. My father and Cal were two of the Guardians who lived. No one survived from the Mauraetus tribe.”
Meaghan turned her attention back to Aldin. He had curled up on the blanket, his bandaged arm cradled under his head as he slept.
“Nobody is allowed to cross the border on either side without permission,” Nick continued. “Technically, Garon holds the treaty at the moment. Since he advised your mother to annihilate Zeiihbu and its entire population in order to eliminate the threat of a future war, I doubt he would have granted permission for anyone to cross. That means Aldin’s family is either part of a new war, or they’ve risked their lives to come here for another reason.”
“Do you think the statues have something to do with their reason?”
“They might, though no one has ever heard of a Zeiihbu native with powers that strong and a young child with them from any territory is nearly impossible. Did Aldin say or do anything unusual?”
“I didn’t think so at the time,” she answered. “But I wondered after. He was scared and said a short rhyme that ended with the words ‘freeze and die’. Could he have turned them to stone?”
“A rhyme?” Nick asked. His face turned white. “It’s not possible.”
“What isn’t?”
A twig snapped to Meaghan’s right. Instead of answering, Nick dove at her, knocking her to the ground. She landed on her back in time to see an arrow lodge into the tree beside her, its feathers quivering with the impact. Both she and Nick scrambled to their feet, turning toward the direction from which the arrow had come.
A tall man stood before them, his flint-colored eyes darkened in loathing as he stared them down, his weathered, olive-toned face set grim beneath a thick head of curly, dirty-blonde hair. Holding a bow in one hand and the feather end of an arrow in the other, he lined up the arrow’s stone head for a direct flight into Nick’s heart.
“The first shot was a warning,” the man said, drawing his bowstring taut. “The second won’t miss. Now tell me, why should this day not be your last?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“YOU HAVE until the count of five to answer my question. One…”
“…two…”
Nick stepped in front of her, shielding her with his body. She thought the effort futile. Once the arrow pierced his heart, he would fall. Another arrow would find her in seconds.
“…three…”
“What do you want?” Nick asked, his voice steady, showing no hint of the fear that robbed Meaghan of her breath.
“The boy,” the man answered. “Four.”
“What do you want with him?”
“That’s my business. Five.”
“We saved his life once today,” Nick said, holding firm though the man steadied his arm, readying to fire. “We don’t intend to hand him over without knowing what you want with him.”
“What do you mean, you saved his life?” Though the archer’s fingers tightened on his bow, his gaze wavered. A quick flick of his eyes toward the sleeping boy, a slight increase in fear, and Meaghan realized what the man wanted. She moved to stand beside Nick, taking his hand and squeezing it to let him know she had a plan.
“Two Mardróch attacked him,” she answered the man’s question. “They didn’t harm him, but we didn’t know what to do with him so we brought him here to keep him safe.”
The man moved his arrow, refocusing it on her. “His arm is injured.”
“It isn’t. He was playing with gauze. He’s okay.”
“Stories,” the man responded. He drew the arrow tauter against the string. “Lies. Your type never tells the truth. For all I know, you mean to hand him over to the next Mardróch you see.”
The man’s anger overcame his fear and Meaghan fought to control her own emotions. He was uncertain of his accusations, so he had not killed them yet, but she realized the wrong word would settle his doubt. She tightened her grip on Nick’s hand to keep panic from shaking her muscles.
“The Mardróch are after me, too.”
The man frowned and she felt his uncertainty growing. “Why?”
“Because I’m meant to rule this kingdom.”
Nick inhaled a sharp breath. She ignored it and the reproaching look he shot her. Revealing her identity to a stranger might not be the smartest move, but it was all she had. She only hoped she had not misjudged the man’s intent.
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