by B. T. Narro
“Believe me, I want to.”
“But you shouldn’t.”
“I shouldn’t.”
Someone stuck his head between us. “Whisper, whisper, whisper,” Darri teased. “Kissing might be less obvious.”
He was right, of course. The extraordinarily handsome guard sat on my other side. Shara leaned forward and asked him, “Has Laney spoken to you?”
“Do you mean about…?” Darri puckered his lips and kissed the air two times.
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“She has, and I won’t. Knowing her, everyone would find out, including Commander Jaymes.” He made a pompous expression as he reached out to grab some bread. “Even if she somehow convinced me she wouldn’t tell anyone, I wouldn’t do it. Every woman I kiss falls in love with me. It’s truly a curse.”
Shara and I scoffed in unison.
Falister sat on Shara’s other side, though he leaned forward to look at Darri. Pointing at Shara, he said, “This one left quite an impression on our king last night.”
Darri’s squinted eyes showed he’d gotten the wrong idea. “Was the queen part of it or did she just watch?”
Shara wagged her finger at him and spoke in a rhythmic voice. “Not like that, you filthy man. He needed some answers, to help him plan. I was surprised, when he trusted me. But to everything I said, he did agree.”
“Why are you rhyming?” Falister asked.
I finished my breakfast, and just in time. Jaymes stood across the great hall pointing at me. I raised my hand to acknowledge his call, then excused myself as Shara explained her rhyming habit to the two young men.
Remembering I wouldn’t be speaking with her anymore that day, I turned back for one last look. She paused to show me a sad smile, which I returned.
In the days that followed, if I wasn’t eating in the great hall or reading in my quarters, I was training in the armory with Laney. I only spoke with Shara once a day, usually at breakfast because we couldn’t hold out until lunch.
I noticed Charlotte in the great hall at times, always surrounded by other people. Darri was never one of them, though; the handsome guard stayed away from her as if she carried a plague. When I questioned him about it, he told me psyche was unnatural and hated by the gods. That didn’t seem like much of a reason to me but I didn’t pry.
I hardly saw Jaymes anymore. He would lead us to the armory after breakfast, watch us duel for the better part of an hour, and then leave, checking back sporadically three more times during the day.
Training with Laney sometimes reminded me how I used to train with Eizle, not that she was anything like him. It was the feeling of improving and sharing it with a friend, all the while driven by a healthy sense of competition. She’d beat me about once in every five duels. It took a while, but eventually she could win without bragging afterward…sometimes.
I spent a good amount of time each day floating, and it wasn’t long before Laney wanted to do the same. With only one arm, though, she couldn’t use my newer method of putting the py beneath her arms. Unfortunately, she struggled with the other method as well. It was the one thing in which she made no improvement as the days went by, and eventually she gave up.
The rain stopped sometimes for as long as two hours, but it always started up again. After ten days of it, even those not of faith like myself had trouble firmly believing something strange wasn’t happening.
Salary day came and went. I never would’ve known if Shara hadn’t told me she received three ruffs and two pits for her pay, then asked me what I got. It took some time to convince her I wasn’t joking when I gave my answer of zero ruffs and zero pits.
“Three silver and two pits, how much is that for the year?” I wondered, figuring she’d already asked herself the same question.
“About eighty-three silver and four pits. But I would’ve been paid four silver and two pits if it wasn’t for the one silver reduction I got for being late the first time we met Jaymes…and then talking back. Four silver, two pits is exactly one dalion, nine silver, and five pits for the year, and I’m sure I’m being paid less than most. No wonder people want to join.”
“My gods, you’ve solved the mystery as to why so many people are in the army.”
She patted my leg. “You can’t call something a mystery when money is the answer.”
“I was being sarcastic.”
“Oh.” She laughed.
“Did they finally tell you your official role?” I asked.
She handed me a small scroll from her pocket.
“Shara Solo H: military and healing adviser,” I read aloud. In wax at the bottom was the symbol of our kingdom, a dalion.
“Military?” I couldn’t believe it.
“I told you I made an impression on King Quince!”
So Shara was a military adviser. Even days later, it was a struggle to imagine her innocent face in a room with men twice her age, all of them discussing the best methods to kill as many enemies as possible.
After supper one evening, I entered my room to find a scroll on the table. Someone with a key had been in here, meaning the note had to be of official business.
“Neeko, your aunt’s house wasn’t damaged during the attack. However, neighbors confirmed she suffered from heart failure the next day. I’m sorry to inform you that she died.
—King Quince Barryn”
I sat there and thought of Aunt Nann, dead, as I made no sound, simply let my tears fall. I knew I was just another soldier, but I would’ve appreciated being told in person or at least getting to meet the man his majesty had sent to check on her. I had questions. What would her headstone read? Where would her grave be? What would happen to her house and her belongings?
I felt responsible to see to these affairs, yet here I was unable to leave the castle. It was quite clear Quince didn’t think much about this when he’d scribbled that note. He probably didn’t even write it himself.
Someone knocked on my door. I didn’t feel like speaking to anyone but Shara. “Who is it?”
“Cedri, can I come in?”
I wiped my cheeks and let her inside.
I started to close the door behind her but she grabbed the handle. “Unfortunately we have to keep it open. People saw me come in, and I don’t want to give them the wrong impression.” Her head snapped to me, her expression sympathetic as if I were a whimpering puppy. “What happened?”
Damn psychics. “Nothing.”
She looked around and found the scroll on my table. “I see…I’ve gotten one of those as well.”
For Callyn. Of course.
“May I ask who?” she inquired as I followed her to the other side of my room and away from the open door.
“My aunt.” The last member of my family.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Tell me if I can help you with anything.”
“Tell me if this request is inappropriate, but I miss my sister and you’re the only one in the castle who knew her. Could you tell me how you met?”
“Why?”
“I just want to feel close to her again.”
So I explained how Callyn chose my house the night the Southern army attacked Lanhine. Cedri quickly sensed there was something I didn’t want to say and eventually forced me to tell her what happened between Callyn and my father. I went on to tell her that it was my father’s fault and my own. Callyn was a good soldier, a good person.
It wasn’t long before I’d exhausted everything I could say about her. I hadn’t known her that long, unfortunately. Cedri seemed thankful anyway, asking me if there was anything she could do for me.
“I haven’t seen the others from Ovira. Has Charlotte told you anything about them?” I asked.
“While King Quince gave Charlotte one of the best rooms in the castle, Terren hasn’t been nearly as happy with her. He wants to take her back to Ovira.”
“Did he and the rest of them leave?”
“The castle, yes, but not Sumar. They’re
in Norret for now. Terren wants Effie, Alex, and Steffen to go back to Ovira with Charlotte while he goes to Nymre to search for more pyforial mages. They haven’t been to the Southern kingdom yet. The others don’t want him to go alone. It’s dangerous to escort an unknown pyforial mage without help. He’s refusing to let them come, but they’re threatening to go with him anyway. They’ve been like this for days.”
I felt guilty, for I could’ve saved them from this predicament if I’d agreed to go with them to Ovira.
We spoke about psyche and Darri’s irrational fear, which Cedri and Charlotte already knew about. We spoke about Swenn cheating at the trial, which was old gossip around the castle by now. We spoke about losing family and feeling alone, which was incredibly painful but difficult to stop, like peeling off a scab.
We spoke about many things, and by the end of it I somehow felt better about my aunt, not that I had any reason to. I suppose conversation can be like that at times, indirectly treating a wound.
Just after Cedri left, Big Henry appeared in my doorway. He walked in, handed me a slip of paper, grabbed my shoulder for a squeeze, then left.
“I made an error trusting Swenn. There’s nothing I can do to forgive my actions except offer my sincerest apologies to you and Shara. If I won’t be fighting beside you in battle, then I’ll be watching over her.” Shara was right when she said it was difficult to stay mad at him.
I picked up the most recent book Shara had gotten me from the library, this one about Drycer Dalion’s discovery of Sumar, and read. My thoughts bounced around between my aunt, this endless rain, and how any day now we would leave for battle.
Eventually I realized I’d gone through pages of words without even reading them. So I went back and forced myself to focus until my eyes refused to stay open.
CHAPTER THIRTY
The next day, Falister came by the armory a short time after breakfast. Laney and I were in the middle of a duel when he called to me. Naturally, I knew Laney wouldn’t stop for the king’s squire, so I didn’t either. Laney wouldn’t even stop if the king himself came in and called her name, not until she’d knocked me down or failed trying.
She was testing out a new strategy, squatting and forming py into a thin wall in front of her. Being small, she could extend it the length of her body before I got my own py over to her. The energy was nearly impossible to see in the dim armory, so there was no way I could navigate my py around hers. Instead, I tried to force it through.
She held her wall steady, keeping me out. As I tried to figure out what to do, I took a moment to call back to Falister.
“What is it?”
“King Quince needs to speak with you immediately.”
“You heard him, Laney,” I said.
“So go.” She remained crouched with her wall in front of her.
“Are we agreeing that this duel is over?”
“No.” She smirked. “Better not keep the king waiting.”
“Come on, Neeko,” Falister urged.
I held my py at the ready to knock her down, but she refused to move hers. I knew I could hold mine much longer than she could, but it would be minutes and I had only seconds.
I tried to push my py through hers. It felt like shoving against a locked door. There was give but not much.
I took a breath and then put everything I had into pushing past her py. Suddenly I broke though, but at the same time Laney jumped to the side so that my py flew past her, now too far for me to regain control. She’d let her wall break apart, but then she put it together right after, and now it was coming straight at me. I realized this all too late as the blanket of air smothered my torso and pushed me to the ground.
“Ha!”
“That won’t work next time,” I called as I hurried over to a very impatient-looking Falister.
He spoke as hastily as he walked out of the armory. “If you don’t know, we have two armies currently in Rhalon, one in Lanhine and one in Antilith. These were to be the men and women who would come together here in Glaine. You and the others in the castle were to join them. However, that’s all changed.”
Slightly out of breath and still thinking about my duel, I wasn’t ready for the barrage of words that had come out of Falister’s mouth.
“Are you following this?” he asked petulantly.
I cleared my mind of everything else as the meaning of his words sank in. This was serious. “Yes, go on.”
“Marteph’s largest army unit yet was seen approaching Lanhine nineteen days ago. However, they turned west to go through Jalljal Forest instead of facing our army in Lanhine. Our troops waited for them to emerge from the northern end, then followed to keep them from retreating. Our enemies continued north all the way into the forest west of Antilith. Remember, we have another squadron in Antilith, so it seemed idiotic for Marteph to send his men into that forest. We couldn’t determine what they had planned until now.”
“When did they get there?”
“Yesterday morning, and by yesterday evening Shara suggested what the king has come to believe must be our enemy’s true intention.” Falister grabbed my shoulder as he abruptly stopped. “Is the rumor true that you killed a terrislak?”
“Not by myself, but yes.”
“So you at least know what they are. Do you know anything about their history?”
“Some.” While none of the books Shara had given me were written specifically about the monstrous creatures, it was difficult to speak of Sumar’s history without mention of them.
He returned to his brisk pace. “They settle in one place for many years, then they all up and move. Shara realized the terrislaks have everything to do with Marteph’s plan.”
“I don’t see the relation.”
“The creatures are migrating tomorrow.”
“How did you figure that out?”
“I didn’t.”
We came to the closed door of the king’s quarters. Falister knocked twice quickly, then twice again.
“I know I still haven’t explained how the terrislaks are involved in all of this, but there’s no time.”
As the door opened from within, I realized Falister hadn’t explained how I was involved, either. A guard quietly gestured for us to enter, making a face that told me not to interrupt the king while he was speaking with Jaymes. Shara stood beside three men I didn’t recognize. All advisors, I figured, all ten to twenty years older than her.
When she didn’t greet me with any of her smiles, not even the most subtle one where the right corner of her mouth would twist, the severity of this issue really began to weigh on me.
Quince caught me out of the corner of his eye and stopped himself midsentence. “Falister, have his bag prepared. Rope, food, water, a seescope, a dagger, and a blanket, and make sure the pigeon master is ready. Neeko will be there shortly.”
I didn’t like how he started with rope over food and water. What would I be doing?
As Falister left, Quince narrowed his eyes at me. “Tell me how you might locate an army of ten thousand in Antilith’s western forest.”
Not a single idea came to me besides searching at random, which clearly wasn’t the right answer. “Look for tracks,” I guessed.
“It has been raining for nearly two weeks straight. Your chances are poor. What else?”
They would need food and water. “They wouldn’t be far from a clean lake or river.”
“Good. Do you know the route of the main river through the forest?”
“I don’t.”
“Do you know where the hills peak? Do you know where the canyons run?”
“I know nothing of that land.”
“Then we will need to send someone with you who does.” Quince rounded on Jaymes. “Do you have someone in mind, one of your scouts perhaps?”
“There are many who can help Neeko find them.”
“May I go?” Shara squeaked, clasping her hands timidly. She cleared her throat and straightened her back. “I know the area well. I’m confiden
t I can find them in less than a day once we’ve entered the forest.”
Everyone’s head turned to Quince. His brow furrowed as he put a finger to his chin. “This is war. I cannot have you succumbing to fright at the worst moment. Are you sure you are prepared for the danger of being caught?”
Shara stepped forward. “I’m aware of the dangers. They’ll have scouts and patrols, but I’m not scared, nor will I be.”
“Jaymes, have a bag prepared for her,” Quince said. “They will be taking one horse with a chariot. Make sure the most well-trained animal we have is waiting for them.” He turned to me. “Both of you should be outside the walls of Glaine within the hour. You are to detach the chariot when you reach the forest. Once you locate the army, Shara will ride back. She will tell you what you will be doing there.”
After a quick lesson with the pigeon master and then the stable master, and a short argument with Shara about who would be driving the chariot, we were riding south. My stubbornness had won out, and I would be the one directing our horse, Casp.
It was chaotic getting out of Glaine, forcing me to steer from the horse’s back with Shara in the chariot. Even with the storm, people crowded the streets and gave us strange looks. With most in black or brown overcoats, it was impossible for once to distinguish the wealthy from the rest.
Once we left the city, I joined Shara in the chariot. “Now will you tell me more about what I’m doing?” I shouted to be heard over the rain.
Shara had the pigeon’s cage in one hand. “We were trying to figure out why Marteph’s troops would let themselves get surrounded. I began to believe they had something planned with the diymas in the forest around Antilith, but I couldn’t come up with anything. Diyma behavior is impossible to predict. But then I figured the same isn’t true for terrislaks.”
Shara told me she searched through a dozen books about terrislaks before figuring out what she was looking for—a pattern of some kind. The terrislaks move every twenty-six years, and their twenty-sixth anniversary was tomorrow. They would leave Talmor Desert, but in no book was it written where they would go.
What Shara did find, though, was the location and date of each of their previous desert homes. They were found first in Thalcea, where they took over miles of forest, eventually flattening it completely. After a while, they went northwest and cleared another forest.