Follow this map to “Glenley.” Keep your head down and your back covered. The road with the star, before you get to Kannuk, will take you to Direstrand. There’s help to be found there. Protection. It’s where you must go. You cannot come home, Mariah. Ever. The dreams, they …
A large water stain smeared most of the words at the bottom of the page. Mariah could make out only a few more.
… take care of your pa the best … send word if I can.
The gods are with you. Remember, they cannot hold … never hold …
The signature was blurred across the page where water had reached it.
Mariah dropped the letter back into her lap and rubbed at her eyes furiously, lest she add more smears to the page.
Her chest heaved. “No, no, no,” she mumbled. She felt Shira’s presence at her shoulder. “Why did I … I could have walked right past …” So long ago, but she remembered the face of the baker woman in her window. She had smiled at Mariah. She knew. “Oh, gods …”
It was all she got out before Shira’s arm came around her and the dam broke.
CHAPTER 20
DECISIONS
Mariah’s throat was raw. Her soul felt as if it had been drawn out and stretched from the mountain to the plains below. Everything she had known was a lie. She had spent countless hours over the years scouring her brain for the reason her mother had betrayed her. Ashanya had never been affectionate or fawning, but Mariah had never thought she hated her. Until the day the soldiers came.
Mariah had turned every detail of that day over and over again, searching for the flaw in her that had driven her mother’s actions. Had raising a tiny Ceo San crushed her dreams of having normal children, children she didn’t have to hide and shelter? Children she could show off to the world? The gods knew that her parents spent more time inside the house or smithy than they would have she had been normal. How many times had she wondered what her parents’ lives would’ve been like if she had never been born? Was that what had earned her mother’s hatred?
But it was all a lie. Her mother hadn’t betrayed her. Gwyn had. She had kept the note from her all these years, let her believe … Her head started to hurt again when she thought about it.
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Shira asked when she lowered her head to her knees. She had moved so that she sat across from Mariah, still at the mouth of the cave.
“I can’t,” she said hoarsely. “I’ll be fine.” As carefully as she could, she handed the folded letter to her friend, keeping her head down. “Would you please put this back for me? I’m sorry for making such a terrible mess.” She had made a mess … of everything.
“Of course,” Shira replied and moved away.
Mariah turned her face to the mouth of the cave. The light outside had grown brighter, and the sun was at its zenith. The fact that they had gone for this long without getting caught by Rothgar’s soldiers gave Mariah hope, but she was starting to worry about Xae. He should have been back by now.
* * *
The day had already started to wane when he finally returned. Shira had been pacing for at least an hour when the raven entered the mouth of the cave and croaked a hello.
“Oh, thank the gods,” Mariah breathed, even before he had shifted. Scrambling to her feet, she gave the boy a hug.
“Where in the Brimhorne Desert have you been, boy? We’ve been stuck here all day, worrying about you. Don’t tell me you got into more trouble with those soldiers –”
Mariah put a hand on the woman’s shoulder, stopping her tirade. “Let him talk, Shira.”
Xae’s eyes were wide as he watched them, but he didn’t speak at first. Instead, he took off his pack and pulled out his waterskin. He drank until he had emptied it.
He must’ve stayed in his bird form the whole day.
“Is it safe? Are they gone?” Mariah asked when he finally lowered the skin.
Xae nodded. “I left them at the fork to Kilgereen. All six of them. We’re safe for now.”
He started to say more, but Mariah stopped him and turned to Shira. “Why don’t you start a fire? I’m tired of sitting in the dark, and it’s starting to get cold. It’s too late to go anywhere tonight, don’t you think? We may as well get settled and hear what Xae has to say.”
They did just that. They gathered round Shira’s small firepit. They had the biggest meal they had eaten since leaving the Herring Hideaway, and they talked.
Mariah slowly gathered the things she had tossed out of her pack and resettled them as neatly as she could with a single hand. In the middle, she placed the pair of trousers containing the note from her mother.
According to Xae, the soldiers hadn’t spent too long looking for them before their captain ordered them back to the camp. The boy had heard no hints that the troops suspected them of being anything more than thieves, although the captain expressed some concern when he found his orders missing. He had told Zirana, however, that there was no need to send out a hunting party. It wasn’t as if their movements were secret. Zirana and Odrin had argued over the need to put out an arrest warrant for the trio. The captain apparently felt sorry for them. He was convinced that they were hungry and poor, and that’s why they had attempted to steal from the troops. Zirana had argued that no matter whether they were poor or hungry, they were criminals and should be treated as such.
The discussion still ongoing, the little troop had broken camp and moved on. Xae had followed them back through the pass and down the road until they had turned off toward Kilgereen before he had flown away, anxious to get back to his friends before darkness fell.
* * *
The next morning began quietly. There was a light drizzle outside the cave. They kept their morning meal spare this time and got ready quickly. Shira led them down a narrow trail that eventually ran parallel to the road. The path didn’t seem nearly so frightening in the light of day.
Mariah was reluctant to come out of the trees. There had been steady traffic up the mountain throughout the day, but eventually, the cliff face steepened to the point that for a while, the road was the only ground flat enough to traverse. When the trio climbed out of the trees from a shallow ravine and up onto the road, Mariah turned her face upward and let the rain fall onto her face. It cooled the blood singing under her skin from the exertion of the short climb.
The trek was longer than it appeared, and by midday, they were only halfway down the mountainside. When gaps in the trees appeared, Mariah could see that to the west, the land below was mostly flat and open, green fields and farmland stretching away beyond the point where she could see any end. The small line of the road wound between the fields and a dark forest to the northeast. The trees there seemed to creep down the slope and onto the plains like marching troops, shoulder to shoulder.
When Shira took their group back off the road in the early afternoon down a well-worn trail, Mariah followed without protest. Her stomach was rumbling, and sweat was running down the sides of her face in rivulets.
There was a small stream where they could refill their waterskins, and Mariah felt herself wishing that it was big enough to bathe in. As Xae took their waterskins to the small bank, Shira asked them to stay and, without waiting for their answer, walked through the stream to the other side and disappeared into the trees.
Mariah rubbed her shoulder with her good hand and was surprised to feel only mild soreness.
Xae caught her motion. “Do you need me to mix up another potion?”
She smiled and shook her head. “No, I’m okay. I think I have only a couple of packets left. I want to save them just in case it gets worse.”
“All right. Just don’t wait until it gets to be too much.”
Mariah laughed. “You sound like Gwyn.”
He smiled sheepishly. “I think she wanted us to take care of each other, not just for you to take care of me. She wouldn’t care much for me being alive if I came back without you.”
“I don’t know …” The implications of his statement left a hollow where her heart should have been.
There was a brief silence before Xae said. “I hope she’s okay.”
“Me, too. She definitely seemed to be on the mend when we left.” Mariah refused to entertain the possibility that Gwyneth’s upturn could possibly have been reversed. When they returned to Wellspring—which they would, Xae’s sisters in tow—Gwyneth would be well enough to scold her for getting herself hurt and for letting Shira find out what she really was. And they would have that talk Gwyn had promised her. Until then, Mariah would have to be content with her memories.
She was starting to worry about her newest companion when Shira finally returned about a half an hour later. She was carrying her cloak in her hands, pulled up at the edges in a makeshift sack. After she crossed the stream back to them, she laid it gently on the ground. As it flattened out, blackberries rolled from the middle in all directions. There were at least a dozen handfuls. Xae’s eyes lit up, and Mariah smiled.
“Your mother said you had a nose for finding things. How’d you gather these all so fast?”
“I know a spot,” Shira said with a shrug. “Help yourselves. I’ve already had mine.” Her hands were stained with purple as were her lips. She smiled, and Xae and Mariah dug in.
“We need to start planning,” Mariah said between mouthfuls. “We need to find out where Xae’s sisters are. We can’t do that until we get to Glenley.”
Her companions gawked at her sudden broach of the subject that was surely on both of their minds.
“Who could we ask without raising suspicion or getting caught? I don’t even know where to start. Do we go back to Xae’s home and hope someone will tell us? Is there a sympathetic neighbor or something?”
Shira’s eyes got wider. Mariah hadn’t thought it was possible.
“I’m beginning to think you’re a bit off, lady. You think folks right under the king’s nose are going to risk getting tossed in the tower dungeons just ‘cause we say please? They’re more likely to report us, hopin’ for a reward. People in the city, especially those that never go an hour without seeing one of the royal guard, aren’t so friendly as those in Grof or probably your village … What’d you call it again?”
“Wellspring, but it’s not my village. I live alone. I just visit Wellspring once a season or so.”
“Well, that explains a lot.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Xae tried to hide his laugh behind his hand, but he failed miserably. “Xae!”
Shira didn’t even try to hide her own grin. “Never mind that. I have an idea. There’s someone I know in Kannuk who loves to listen to all the latest gossip, and I happen to have ways of making him talk. I’ll bet he can give us something to start with at least. Kannuk sees a lot of travelers comin’ and goin’ from Glenley.”
“Is that the same man who told you about me?”
“What about you?” Xae asked around a mouthful of blackberries.
“Never mind that,” Mariah said, imitating Shira’s tone.
“One and the same,” Shira answered her. “He happens to be very fond of me, if I don’t say so myself.”
“Well, as long as you don’t let our business slip to him, I guess it’s worth a try.”
The younger woman beamed. “I know how t’ say a lot without really sayin’ anything, trust me.”
“So,” Mariah continued, “if we go through Laikos, how quickly can we make it to Kannuk?”
“We ain’t goin’ through Laikos, I told ya’ that.”
“No, you suggested it. But, Shira, think about it. Those soldiers could be reporting us soon as they get to Kilgereen. How long before all the soldiers know that we’ll be on the road to Kannuk?”
“We never told ‘em we were headin’ to Kannuk. For all they know, we could be heading toward Direstrand or even Eaglespire. Gods, we could be headin’ anywhere!”
“It’s too dangerous, Shira. We should stay off the road as much as possible, at least until we have an idea about whether there has been any word sent out about us.”
“Why would there be? Those soldiers got more ta worry about than someone who took a scrap of paper from ‘em.”
“It’s also faster,” Mariah insisted. “You said so yourself.”
“And I’m wishin’ I’d cut my tongue off before letting it run loose.”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. How can you—I mean, you’re a bear, for the sake of the Althamir—how can you be afraid of anything in the forest?”
Shira crossed her arms and turned away from them, her lips pressed tightly together.
Mariah waited, but Shira refused to talk. “Xae, what do you think? It’s your family we’re trying to save.”
The boy’s eyes widened, and he looked back and forth between the two women, who were both now staring at him. He scratched at the stubble on the back of his head before he spoke.
“If it’s shorter, faster, we should go through the forest. As it is, we might already be too late.”
CHAPTER 21
LAIKOS
That night, they camped in the forested foothills below Brywann Pass. Shira had led them a little way off the road and onto a path that was well sheltered by the trees. Again, shadows surrounded them by the time they reached the small clearing that would serve as their camp. They lit no fire as Shira was sure it would draw the wrong sort of attention.
“No reasonable folk would be caught dead camping in this particular forest,” she mumbled.
Xae was the first to ask why, but Shira refused to elaborate.
“Are you sure we’re far enough in?” Mariah whispered as they finished their meal. “Won’t someone be able to hear us from the road?”
“We’ll be fine, lady,” Shira said. Her cheerful demeanor hadn’t returned since their earlier argument. “Believe me, we want to keep to the edges as much as we can.”
The doubt was clear in Xae’s face. “I think I agree with Shira this time. This place is already creepy enough.” His eyes darted back and forth, scanning the area for danger. “Even here, I think we could end up someone’s dinner.”
Sometimes Mariah forgot that Xae had been born and raised in the city. This forest wasn’t much different from Mariah’s own territory around Edana, and she felt right at home.
Shira shook her head at Xae and pointed upward. “If you’re so worried, sleep up there, bird boy. You’ll be safer.”
He huffed. “I think I will.”
A wave of hot and cool air washed over Mariah, and in a moment, Xae flapped his wings until he disappeared into the trees above. He croaked to them before settling into silence.
“I’m pretty sure he just called me fuzz face again,” Shira said. When Mariah didn’t answer, she turned back to her. “We really ought to get some sleep. Might not be any chance ta stop tomorrow.”
“Actually, can you give me the herbs and cup before you lie down? I think they’re in your pack. My shoulder has had about enough of this day.” She stood up, her own pack in hand, prepared to head over to the stream she could hear gurgling beyond the trees. “And help me take off my sling? I’m going to make some attempt to bathe.”
“Here?” Shira gawked at her.
“Yes, here. I feel like I’ve got an extra hide, one made of grime, sweat, and dirt. I’m surprised you haven’t told me how much I smell yet.” She dearly missed her own little personal tarn in Firebend.
The other woman stared at her for a moment before shaking her head and rising. “Well, ya do smell, although I’m not sure this is the time to do anything about it. In any case, ya shouldn’t be alone in this forest. I’m comin’ with ya.”
Mariah started to argue but then realized that Shira probably needed a bath as much as she did.
“Fine. Did you hear us, Xae? We’ll be back soon.”
He cawed in answer.
“And no peekin’, bird boy!”
Mariah wasn’t sure
how it was possible, but his second call held much offense, and he warbled on for a minute afterward. The sound of it faded as the women headed into the trees.
The stream, tumbling over little rocks and pebbles in a shallow ravine, proved to be a little thing, no more than two feet across at its widest spot and less than a foot deep.
Mariah wanted to cry. “I’ll never be clean again.”
The corner of Shira’s mouth quirked up. “You’d think you were the city one, the way you talk.”
“Oh, shut up,” Mariah said without feeling. “It would just be nice for something to be normal for a change. Clean is normal.”
“Yeah,” Shira responded, sitting down next to her and handing her the empty cup. “I know what ya’ mean. Since the minute we saw those troops, I haven’t felt right.”
They spent a few quiet minutes as Mariah mixed and drank her potion and tried to think of the best way to get clean in the little creek. She was just about to use the corner of her cloak as a washrag when another idea came to her. It should have come earlier, but, she told herself, this was all still fairly new to her.
She laughed out loud at her own brilliance, set her cup down, and changed.
Letting out a shriek of hawkly satisfaction, she hopped down the bank and into a shallow part of the stream.
“Mari! What are you doing?” Shira sounded alarmed, so Mariah turned around and cocked her head at the other woman, but Shira had stood up and was turning her head back and forth, checking the forest in every direction.
Mariah didn’t know what was wrong with her. The sound of a predator bird in the forest at night was surely a normal sound. So, while Shira paced the bank, Mariah pranced around in the water, trying to get as wet as possible without submerging herself, even using her good wing to splash about. She hoped a clean bird would translate into a clean human.
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