by Kris A Hiatt
“Idiot,” Moff reiterated.
Treace didn’t take offense to that in the least. He was very happy to have the two of them with him.
“They’ll blindly follow you to their deaths if you let them,” Raythien observed.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Treace asked.
“I’m just saying they believe in you, that’s all,” Raythien replied, following the lead of the other two.
His words sounded hollow, but Treace decided now wasn’t the time to point it out. He gently put his heels into his horse’s flanks. The obedient animal surged forward, falling into line behind the other three horses.
Treace thought about his actions and wondered if he was making the right decision. It wasn’t the first time he had considered that question and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
~~~
“Same watch again tonight?” Raythien asked when they once again stopped for the night.
Treace didn’t see a reason to change anything up. After previously being caught unaware by Jass and being dragged back to Shamir as a result, he wasn’t foolish enough to not have someone posted as a sentry over their camp. At first, he was hesitant to allow Raythien a turn at watch. He feared the man might run off, but decided that sooner or later they’d find out if he was going to stay or run away. Treace preferred sooner rather than later. Moffred protested it and vowed to stay awake through both of their watches, but that ended on their third day out of Haven. “Sounds good.”
“Have I proven trustworthy enough to tell me where we’re going?” Raythien asked, clearing away snow for his bedroll.
“Nope,” Moffred replied immediately.
Treace thought about saying something to Moff, but he knew he shouldn’t. Moff still blamed Raythien for the deaths of his father and brother. He needed to come to terms with it, and until he did, he was going to continue to distrust the man and Treace couldn’t do or say anything he hadn’t already said or done before.
“We’ll go get wood,” Kiril informed them, taking Treace’s hand.
“I’m sure one of you will,” Moff said lewdly.
“Shut up,” came Kiril’s typical reply.
“Grouch,” Moff spat back.
Treace just shook his head and walked away, hand in hand with the love of his life.
“He can be such a child,” Kiril said when they were alone, obviously annoyed.
“Yes he can be,” Treace agreed. “But he makes me laugh.”
“Oh, so you think he’s funny?”
“Very,” Treace agreed. She was trying to sound offended, but he knew quite well she was playing around.
“Well maybe you should laugh yourself to sleep in your own bedroll tonight,” Kiril teased.
“Maybe I’d get some sleep then,” Treace told her. “Since you wouldn’t be snoring right next to me.”
That drew an instant smack to his shoulder.
“You are so mean,” she told him through her grin.
“I’m kidding,” Treace assured her. “Your snoring doesn’t keep me up.”
“Thank you!” she said, obviously quite happy that he took his words back.
“Your breath does,” he told her. He almost felt bad for saying it, but he knew she’d take it for the joke that it was. He loved her. He loved everything about her. Her kindness, ferocity, beauty, and not the least of all, her sense of humor.
“Oh, you’re going to get it!” she promised him, reaching down to pick up snow.
He turned his back, but a bit of the snow she threw still caught his face. They shared a laugh and he wiped away the melting snow. He turned her to face him.
“No! No, no, no!” she told him. “You’re not getting a kiss after that! I don’t want my bad breath to keep you up.”
She was giggling when she said it, and when she stopped talking he kissed her deeply.
She didn’t resist.
They kissed for several minutes.
“I love you,” he told her seriously, looking deep into her beautiful blue orbs.
“I love you.”
“And I love you too,” Moff replied loudly.
Treace looked around to find Moff halfway between them and the camp. “What are you doing?”
“Someone had to get firewood. You two aren’t.”
“So which of us were you speaking to?” Treace asked, giving Kiril a wink.
“The pretty one,” Moff replied.
“I always knew you wanted my boyfriend,” Kiril instantly called out.
Moff closed his eyes and grinned. A moment later he opened them with a shake of his head.
Treace was about to say that at least Moff didn’t have bad breath, but he knew that wouldn’t help his situation any.
“Look at the two verbal warriors losing at the same time!” Kiril exclaimed. “There’s a new champ in town, boys. Her name is Kiril.”
“You sound like an ass when you speak of yourself in third person,” Moff shot back.
“So now you know how you sound,” Kiril replied.
Treace wasn’t about to get in the middle of that fight.
“At least Moffred can get firewood without sticking his tongue down someone’s throat,” Moff told them.
“That’s because no one wants to kiss you,” Kiril replied.
“Moff’s going back to camp now,” he announced.
“Bye Moff!” Kiril said boisterously, giving him a pronounced wave.
“That’s good for him,” Treace pointed out. “You know?”
“No matter how good for him it is, he’s not going to sit and watch us make out,” Kiril replied with her mischievous grin.
“Not watching us kiss,” Treace clarified. “Joking around.”
“I know what you meant,” she assured him. “But just in case, you should kiss me again.”
Treace was happy to oblige.
~~~
He awoke with a start. Something cold had touched his shoulder. It felt like ice. He pulled back his thick blankets and the freezing air woke him up immediately.
“I can’t keep my eyes open anymore,” Kiril whispered.
She was hunkered over next to his bed.
“You’re freezing!” Treace whispered back.
“There wasn’t much wood left,” she explained, still in a whisper. “So I didn’t want to use it all.”
“I’ll get more.”
“I can get it,” she told him. “I just didn’t want to leave you unattended.”
“No,” Treace argued. While he appreciated her unwillingness to leave the group without a sentry, it was unnecessary and besides, they needed a fire. “You get in bed. I’ll get more wood later.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, now get in.”
Kiril did as he instructed and Treace hugged her tight, trying to warm her up. Her cold damp clothes seeped into his and it made his skin pop up in gooseflesh all over.
“I was thinking,” she whispered. “About what Drevic told you.”
His mind instantly went to what Drevic said about Emiah, but he assumed she was instead referring to the conversation about different emotions and new magics. That or the thoughts each used to bring them forth. “What do you think?”
“Why does anticipation make a distant barrier?”
“I don’t know, it’s what your dad said. I’d think the man that can do it might actually know what he’s speaking about.”
“It makes sense to me that anger makes fire and that sadness makes water. It makes perfect sense that love heals. But it doesn’t make sense that anticipation would make a distant barrier.”
“Then what does?”
“I don’t know. I was just thinking, that’s all. Pick it up tomorrow?” she whispered back. “I’m tired.”
He nodded and snuggled her in closer to him.
Once he was satisfied that she was warm and asleep, he slid out and pulled his boots on. They were near to the fire, but since there wasn’t much heat from the few flames left, they were cold.
He walked out into the cold night air and, after urinating, found enough firewood to get the fire going strong again. It was dark, and the sky was full of clouds, but with all the white it was easy to see where he was walking. He went back out, knowing full well he’d need much more wood to get them through until dawn. He thought about all of the emotions and the possible magical ties as he worked.
He went a little further out on his third run, probably a few hundred yards, thinking that Kiril’s ability to read minds had to be tied to an emotion close to love. It had to be. He picked up a stick to place on top of the small armload he had already collected, and something caught his eye.
He froze in place, the stick hovering just inches above the rest. All thoughts about magic disappeared from him mind.
He was hunched over still, but he turned his head to get a better look.
Firelight.
He focused on the light and trained his ears in its direction. He couldn’t hear anything. He thought it might be another camp. The light began to move and he realized it wasn’t a camp. The light was coming from torches.
Were they close enough to the border to be in the path of one of the patrols? He supposed they could be. With the snow and cloud cover, it was tough to tell exactly how far they’d gone. It was possible, but he wasn’t going to give away their location until he knew for certain.
He put down the sticks as quietly as he could and crept closer to where the light was moving. He chose a path that he hoped would intersect.
He wasn’t exactly experienced in any sort of stealthy approach, but as he got closer he didn’t think they were going to hear him at all. They were too busy talking, and they weren’t being very quiet about it. He guessed they weren’t too afraid of Shamir’s men showing up in this type of weather.
“Reinforcements are coming,” one man said to another as they neared his location.
“Good,” the man replied. “I’m tired of freezing my ass off out here.”
They were moving from west to east. They had to be the men on patrol. Liernin must have already sent word of their arrival. Still, Treace decided to stay put and wait.
“Oh, it’s not that bad,” the first, who was a little larger than the other, argued.
“Says you! My feet have been numb every damn night out here!”
“Couple hours more, that’s all.”
“And I’ll be staying in my bunk for hours. Least it’s warm in there.”
“I’ll be having some hot soup and spirits to wash it down with. That’ll warm me up,” the other replied.
“Great, now you made me hungry too.”
“Stop whining.”
To Treace they sounded just like every other bunch of men he’d been around. He thought about stepping out and announcing himself, but he thought better of it. He figured it would be best to know for certain before giving himself away. He decided to wake the others and then pick up the trail again.
He retraced his steps, which was easy considering how deep the snow was and how large of an impression his footprints made in the snow.
It wasn’t long before the low fire was in plain view.
As he neared the camp, he noticed that the footsteps he was following were misshapen. It was as if there was someone else who had stepped in his exact tracks. It reminded him of how the brothers would follow in each other’s footsteps at the College when they got lots of snow. He didn’t remember stepping in his own as he ventured back out, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities. He was deep in thought about magic then. He could have easily been stepping in his own tracks without thinking of it.
“Hey, wake up,” Treace called out as he got closer.
Kiril stirred, but Moff and Raythien didn’t move.
“I found a patrol,” Treace told them.
He walked into camp and kicked Moff’s bedroll.
“I’m up, I’m up,” Moff said groggily.
“You too,” Treace said, kicking Raythien’s bedroll.
Once his foot connected, he knew immediately that something was wrong.
Kiril pulled herself out of the bedroll and began to slide on her boots.
“Where are they?” she asked, though it came out barely more than a croak.
Treace reached down and pulled back Raythien’s blankets. Empty. Even his weapon was missing. “He’s gone,” Treace announced. “Damnit, he’s gone.”
“I told you we couldn’t trust him,” Moff replied. “You shouldn’t have given him a weapon in the first place.”
“He could just have just needed to find a tree,” Treace suggested. He didn’t want to argue the merits of giving Raythien a bow again. Moff had openly voiced his opinion on the matter, but Treace felt differently. Raythien had earned the right to carry a weapon.
“Bullshit and you know it,” Moffred replied, pulling himself up after he put his boots on.
Treace did know it was bullshit, but he had hoped that the man was being truthful with him. He wanted it to be true.
“Grab your weapons,” Treace instructed, picking his off the snow-covered ground. “Let’s go.”
“I told you he’d leave as soon as he got the chance,” Moffred went on. “That dirty bastard is one of Shamir’s spies. I knew it!”
“Tell me all about it later,” Treace replied. “Just get that bow ready and follow me. And be quiet about it.”
“If you found a patrol, why do we need our weapons?” Kiril asked.
“I can’t say for certain if it’s our patrol, or Shamir’s. We could have went right past our border during all this snow.”
“Be on the lookout for Raythien too,” Moff added. “I don’t want an arrow in my back.”
“If he wanted us dead, he would have done it while we slept,” Treace pointed out. “Now keep quiet.”
Treace again retraced his steps in the snow. It wasn’t long before he found where another set of footprints appeared to travel further east. He guessed they were Raythien’s. He wondered when exactly the man had broken off.
He found the trail the men on the patrol were following. At least it was what he thought they were following. The snow on that trail was beaten down from several pairs of boots walking over it.
Treace led his friends quietly, yet quickly down that path.
It wasn’t too long before the light became visible again.
“You see it?” he whispered.
“Aye,” Moff replied.
“What’s the plan?” Kiril whispered back.
“We have to find out if they’re our men or not,” Treace replied.
“How are we going to do that?” Moff asked.
“By talking to them,” Treace replied.
He wasn’t sure what else to do. He figured he’d walk into the edge of their light and announce himself. As long as both Moff and Kiril were ready to fight, he didn’t think they’d have much problem overtaking the men if they were indeed with Shamir.
“We’ll be ready,” Kiril assured him.
Treace was about to get moving again but the light was getting nearer to them. Must be their patrol was on its return trip.
It made it easier for him. He gave instructions to the other two on where to position themselves and he waited in the middle of the path.
The two men were idly chatting as they neared. When he guessed he was about to be within their sight, Treace said, “Hey guys.”
Both men stopped talking and drew their swords with the hands that weren’t holding torches.
“Who’s there?” the whiner asked.
“Easy gentlemen,” Treace told them, putting his hands up and stepping just inside their torchlight.
“Answer the question,” the other instructed.
“I’m your reinforcement,” Treace explained.
“Well, and my friends back at camp,” Treace went on.
“How many more?” the cold one asked.
“Just three,” Treace told them. He didn’t know if Exodin had sent word ahead of their arrival or not, but he figured being honest was the best way to go. “Is the post close to here? It was hard to tell with all the snow. We could have passed it for all I know.”
“We was expecting a few more,” the same man replied.
“Well the four of us are all you’re going to get,” Treace assured them. He couldn’t tell who they were just yet. There wasn’t enough information.
“No disrespect, but we was expecting a bit more than just four of you,” the bold man told them.
“You hear that Treace?” Moff said loudly. “Even they aren’t impressed by you.”
Treace wasn’t certain that was the best course of action, but he couldn’t do anything about it now.
The two men exchanged glances.
“I’ve got an arrow trained on you,” Moffred called out.
The glances turned to hard looks and their sword arms dropped to their hilts.
Chapter 12
“You can’t blame him for this,” Drevic asserted. “He was simply doing as he was commanded by a superior.”
“And if Treace had done the same, we wouldn’t be dealing with this!” an outraged Liernin spat.
“So you agree that the cell guard wasn’t at fault?” Drevic asked. The poor man was wrought with guilt and was terrified that he might not only lose his job, but that he might be thrown in the very cell he was instructed not to open.
“Nearly every man under my command would open that cell if Treace ordered them to,” Exodin added. “It’s not the young guard you’re mad at.”
“Well if Treace was here I’d yell at him!” Liernin continued to spout.
“Then yell at me instead,” Exodin told him. “I knew there was a chance Treace would do something like this.”
“Well why the hell didn’t you stop him?” Liernin bellowed.
“I said I thought there was a chance, not that I thought he’d actually do it.”
“Then why should I yell at you?”
“It’s better than you yelling at no one,” Exodin explained.