by Sharon Hinck
As we continued along the trail, I spent my time praying for them all, as treasured faces came to mind. Praying kept my mind off my aching limbs and empty stomach, but couldn’t fully distract me from worrying about Mark and Jake. The One had drawn us through the portal into Kahlarea when we hadn’t even known Jake’s location. He’d helped us escape an assassins’ enclave. I was alive and breathing against all odds. Why was it so hard to trust Him for the next need? When would His relentless faithfulness finally sink in deeply enough so that my first reflex wouldn’t always be doubt and fear?
“Awesome in majesty, perfect in power . . .” I sang quietly as we followed the path. The melody of sacred Songs fueled me, and by the time wood and glass buildings came into sight, hope had strengthened in my heart.
The town wore scars. The scorch marks from syncbeams still marred many buildings. Several looked deserted. As we entered, many of the faces that peered out from homes looked haggard, their eyes haunted by trauma. I recognized the expression. I’d seen it each morning when I’d looked in my bathroom mirror.
“Susan?” A thready voice carried from under eaves where the last of the afternoon rain dripped slowly. A thin woman stepped out. Dardon watched me closely.
Miles of hiking . . . the tunnel from Rhus . . . the pebbled desert . . . the long journey back to Lyric with all the refugees . . . shell-shocked, no energy—or trust—for conversation. Children who didn’t cry. Vacant eyes, trembling limbs.
Tears caught in my throat. “Aiyliss. It’s me.”
She took a few steps forward, arms open. A sob tore from my chest and I hugged her. I hadn’t realized how much I longed to be with someone else who understood.
Words and tears poured from us both until I remembered Dardon. He stood watching, rubbing the back of his neck. “I . . . I . . . apologize for not believing you.” Then he groaned. “And for knocking you down, and . . .”
I touched his shoulder. “You were protecting the clans. You did the right thing. Now can we get some help to search for Mark and Jake?”
He tossed his head back like an eager pup. “Yes. Of course.” And off he ran. Aiyliss’s neighbors gathered in front of her home, but after a brief reunion, she looked at my weary posture and shooed everyone away.
Aiyliss found me warm dry clothes and settled me at her table with a large bowl of clavo simmering on a heat trivet and a basket of small bread loaves. I breathed in the warm steam of the spicy drink and smiled my thanks as she sat across from me. “So tell me everything,” I said. “What’s been happening in the clans while I’ve been away?”
Chapter
25
Susan
A weary expression tugged Aiyliss’s lips downward. “We’re rebuilding. So many homes and workshops were damaged when the Kahlareans occupied the town.” Her eyes found mine. “But some things are harder to rebuild. How are you?”
While I held the steaming clavo close to my face, I wanted to give her a bright perky assurance that I was fine. Yet she deserved more from me. “It’s been hard. Nightmares. Jumping at the slightest sounds. Loneliness because others don’t understand.”
Relief bloomed across Aiyliss’s face, and I knew my deeper honesty had been the right choice.
“Yes,” she said in an eager gasp. “At first the other clans sent supplies. Some builders and transtechs from other clans came to help repair homes. Jake made sure of that.”
My mother’s heart swelled a few sizes. How had my son developed the skills to rally support and lead squabbling clans? He’d never even negotiated successful truces between his younger siblings.
“But then rumors started.” Aiyliss ladled more clavo into my mug. “People whispered about us because of the time we’d spent in Rhus.” She shrugged. “Besides, the other clans had their own worries. We heard Zarek had abandoned his interest in peace with the clans, and the chance of war made all the clans along the border focus on preparing.”
The last I’d heard, Tristan and Kendra were in Hazor with Linette and Kieran and some other songkeepers. “Do you know if all our people left Hazor safely?”
“I’m not sure.” She frowned. “Some people think it was wrong for them to be there at all, and they deserved whatever Zarek did to them.”
Loyalty spun into a flare of anger. “They aren’t enemies. They’ve each sacrificed and served the clans more than—”
“I know. But you asked about what’s happening. The Council in Lyric was in the middle of days of meetings when Jake disappeared. The worst possible time. And again, we’re left without a Restorer. Unless that’s why you’re here?” She leaned forward, the light of the heat trivet catching the flicker of hope in her eyes.
I pushed up my sleeve, where darkening bruises gave ample evidence that I no longer healed instantly. “I came to rescue Jake. Somehow Cameron got free and gave Jake to the Kahlareans. They wanted a Restorer.”
“Ever since Mikkel,” she said quietly. Mark wasn’t the only one from this border clan who carried deep scars from being targeted by Kahlarean assassins. He’d lost his father in a long-ago battle at Cauldron Falls, and perhaps worse, he’d lost his mother to assassins that were after him. All of Rendor had felt vulnerable long before the bargain that sold them to Rhus. Now they must feel doubly betrayed.
Aiyliss nudged the basket of bread closer to me. “Was Jake all right when you found him?” Compassion moistened her eyes.
I chewed my lower lip. “More or less. But he no longer has Restorer gifts either.”
“Shades of Shamgar,” she said under her breath, then covered her mouth and winced. “Excuse my language. The clans need a protector so much. And we need an advocate.” A dull, bleak look fell across her face. “Has the One forsaken us?”
“No.” I set my clavo down and lengthened my spine. “I don’t understand the shifts in power, the changes of Restorers, and why things have been so hard for your people. But I do understand one thing. The One will never forsake you. You said that Rendor needs an advocate. You have One. Oh, and you have another. Me.”
Although what I could do to help them was beyond me. I hadn’t even been able to recover from my own trauma in Rhus. Now my brief flare of energy fled like the last few drops poured from a bottle.
Aiyliss reached across and touched my hand. “It’s good to see you again. It’s a gift to my home that you’re here. Now I think you should rest.”
A knock at the door saved me from needing to protest. As much as I was struggling to stay upright in a chair, I couldn’t rest until Jake and Mark were safe. When Aiyliss opened the door, Dardon took a few tentative steps inside. “We have more than a dozen teams heading upstream to hunt for Markkel and Jake. I’ll follow them now.”
I pushed away from the table. “I’m ready.”
Aiyliss shot a worried look toward the young guardian. “Susan, you won’t do anyone any good if you collapse.”
“It’s true.” Dardon tightened his sword belt. “We’ll be moving fast to reach the outpost before dark. You’d only slow us down.”
I wavered. The search teams knew the terrain and hadn’t just spent a day escaping Kahlareans.
Aiyliss wrapped a gentle arm around my shoulders. “Let me show you to a pallet. I promise I’ll wake you at the first news. Just wait.”
Wait. My assigned task once again. “Wait” was a small lonely island that made me fume. For weeks I’d watched the calendar, looked for signs, wondered when I’d see Jake. “Wait” was the snarled terrain that had torn me in shreds before the picture in my journal came to life. Could I make the wise choice and be patient, trusting that the One would still protect my family?
Dardon shifted his weight from foot to foot in the doorway.
My shoulders sagged as I surrendered to common sense. “All right. But please . . . find them.”
He dipped his chin in a quick nod and left.
With Aiyliss�
��s help, I stumbled to a back room and collapsed. Too tired to organize my thoughts, all I could do was groan. “Find them. Help them. Find them. Help them.” I fell asleep with the desperate prayer still on my lips.
A hand on my shoulder startled me. I shot from deep sleep to heart-pounding alertness and sat up so fast my head spun. “What?” I gasped.
“It’s me. Aiyliss. You’re all right.”
I blinked in the gentle glow of dawn. As in many of the Rendor homes, large glass windows faced the river and offered a view of boulders edging the water and tall smooth tree trunks. Rendor. I was in Rendor. I was safe. And Mark and Jake—
“Any word yet?”
Aiyliss smiled. “A messenger ran ahead. Markkel and Jake found their way to the outpost before nightfall.”
I grabbed her hand. “They’re all right?”
She squeezed my palm. “I think so. I don’t know everything that happened to them, but you’ll be able to ask them soon. They’re on their way.”
I tossed aside the blanket and raced from the room, calling over my shoulder. “Thank you. Thank you for your help.”
Bolting from her home, I followed the main road to the upriver side of town and found the path to the outpost.
A group of men emerged from the forest. Trousers, tunics. A few guardians with swords. There. A large man with short wavy hair flecked with silver, wearing jeans and a buttoned shirt that looked out of place.
“Mark!” My whoop carried over the sound of the river, and he jogged forward to meet me. I threw myself into his arms. “You’re here. You’re all right.”
His lips found mine with the same joy and relief I felt, and a cheer rose up from the watching men.
Even while I soaked in the strength and love from his arms around me, I popped up my head to scan the group again. Jake laughed and strode forward with the others.
Relief made me sag. Mark’s arms tightened for one more hug, then he held me out to assure himself that I was all right, too. His mouth twitched. “Back to stockinged feet again?”
I looked down. I’d been thrilled to shed my Kahlarean assassin disguise and wear the soft knit sweater and drawstring trousers that Aiyliss had given me. But when I’d rushed from her home, I hadn’t taken time to find shoes.
“I stayed with Aiyliss. Maybe Dardon told you. I still have Voronja’s shoes, though. Those should work for me until we get to Lyric. We’re going there now, right? We never had time to make a plan past our escape, but now that you’re safe we should decide what to do. And you are safe, aren’t you? Are the Kahlareans tracking you? Will we need to stay here to help defend the city or—”
Mark’s laugh was rich and deep, and then he stopped my babbling with another very effective kiss. It wasn’t until I came up for air that I noticed a strip of fabric tied around his upper arm was stained reddish brown. “Were you hurt? Are you bleeding?”
He sobered. “A few Kahlareans caught up with us. Good thing we had some reinforcements.”
My heart froze. “They wounded you?”
“Don’t worry. Just a sword injury. Jake knocked the venblade from his hand before he could use it.”
A shudder passed through me as I thought of how close they’d both come to lethal poison. I wanted to savor the relief of their safe return, but the truth was that danger still hounded us.
With Mark’s good arm around me, we headed into town. The small contingent that followed us swelled as others of Rendor clan joined in welcoming Mark and Jake, a son of their clan and his son, the Restorer who had pushed back the Kahlarean occupation of their town. While the mood yesterday had been somber, today new hope lit the faces of the clan.
As much as I longed to talk with Jake alone and catch up on his life, I couldn’t begrudge all the friendly chatter and the atmosphere of a family reunion. We stood in the street as more people came by to greet us. Mark fielded questions and asked about relatives and friends, but I noticed Jake speaking to a few of the guardians. His serious expression stood in stark contrast to all the swirling conversations. And it was Jake who finally cut short the party.
“Thank you for your welcome and your faithful presence on our borders.” He spoke with confident warmth and the crowd quickly stilled. “But right now we have some clan business to take care of.”
“The business of wiping out the Kahlareans.” Dardon shouted, proudly clamping a hand on my son’s shoulder as if the young guardian were responsible for Jake’s very existence. “Markkel and Jake know the very nest of the assassins. It’s time we destroy their threat forever. I say we attack today.”
A mix of gasps and cheers rose from the group.
How easily we could be swept into a bloodthirsty enthusiasm for battle. I glanced at my husband. Fire sparked behind his eyes, but his furrowed brow revealed an inner struggle.
Jake stepped away from Dardon, shaking his head. “We need to prepare for travel, but not to attack Kahlarea. I’ve been told that the songkeepers have cancelled the feast day gathering.”
From a cluster of young guardians, Chell stepped forward. “Of course they did. It’s too dangerous to gather in Lyric right now. Who would protect the outlying clans?”
He had a point. Perhaps it would be best for all the clans to defend their borders, while we made our way to the portal and returned home.
Jake’s eyes blazed. “Who has protected our clans in all the generations past? Who has guarded our borders while we met at the tower? The season-end gathering is not a hollow tradition. It’s everything to our people.”
The passion in his voice, his use of the word our . . . My chest contracted as my hopes for the quick reunion of our family evaporated. Would the One ask me to surrender my plans and pictures of our future? Perhaps even to leave my son here to serve this world?
Jake stepped onto a crate against a nearby home so he could see more of the congregating families. “To cancel the gathering is to concede that we don’t trust the One anymore. That worship is no longer the first calling of every person who follows our Maker and Deliverer.”
Murmurs and arguments built, along with restless stirring in the crowd. A cry to arms was more inviting to most than a call to worship. I didn’t like either alternative. Mark saw my distress and drew me closer.
“Isn’t this a decision for the songkeepers to make?” I whispered. Some whining, selfish corner of my soul wanted to tell the clans to solve their own problems and leave our family in peace.
My husband’s squeeze on my shoulder was gentle, but his jaw was firm as he spoke to me quietly. “I don’t know how to explain how wrong that decision was. What it would mean for the clans. This is worse than Cameron convincing the Council to create alliances with other nations or to manufacture syncbeams against the teachings of the Verses.”
I almost understood. I’d spent enough time in Braide Wood and Lyric to have a sense of the healing, empowering, unifying strength of the One among His gathered people. But the Rendor clan members seemed as reluctant as I was to focus on those memories. Anger, stubbornness, and fear etched many faces.
“I have as much reason as any to wipe every Kahlarean from this land,” Mark said, his rich baritone cutting through the scattered debates. The grumbling stopped as his clansmen hung on each word. “But our job is not to seek vengeance. Our job is to remain faithful, to obey the One . . .” He paused and his eyes met Jake’s. “And to give the One time to unfold His plan for Kahlarea.”
The breath left me in a gasp. My husband’s entire life had been scarred by Kahlarean violence. His words shocked and humbled me. I’d never admired him more.
“What difference will our clan make, if none of the others are coming to the gathering?” someone asked.
Jake squared his shoulders. “We can’t answer for them or control their choices. We can only do what we know is right. I have no idea how to convince the songkeepers and Council to honor the Ve
rses, or how to persuade the other clans to come. Yes, the problems are huge. The danger is real. But we have to try. Rendor survived for a reason. ” Nobility shone from him. He wasn’t a reckless teen blundering into drama of his own making. He was a leader with a servant heart. I was his mother, and part of me still wanted to meddle, boss, and guide him; but listening to his firm declaration, even I was ready to follow him on any difficult path.
“Meet me here midmorning. We’ll travel together,” Jake said and stepped down from the crate. As people dispersed, I couldn’t read their reactions. Would they pack a few supplies and return ready for the journey to Lyric? Or would we be traveling alone? Either way, a quick exit through the portal seemed further away than ever.
“All right.” I reviewed the situation, ticking things off on my fingers. “We need to get to Lyric. We need to call for the feast day gathering. We need to help the Council and the guardians with a defense plan against an invasion by Kahlarea and Hazor. Anything else?”
A vulnerable expression flickered across Jake’s face. “I don’t have Restorer gifts anymore. That will complicate things.” His hand moved toward his hip, and I recognized the gesture—reaching for a sword hilt, even though he wasn’t wearing one at the moment. “And one more thing. Someone was helping Cameron. I don’t know who we can trust in Lyric.”
My toes curled against the bare ground and I looked down. “I guess I’d better get my shoes.”
Chapter
26
Linette
Caralad plucked the strings of the rondalin. A rich chord filled the air, and he beamed.
“He’s a natural,” said one of the Lyric songkeepers. We’d arrived a short while before, as the afternoon rains tapered away, and already Caralad had charmed all the men and women at the lodge. I only hoped the child wouldn’t do anything unusual or frightening here, and that the warm greeting would last. Was I wise to have brought him this far? Lukyan had insisted this was the right idea, and the child certainly hadn’t been upset to leave. Perhaps he sensed that his family was nearby?