Tobias chuckled. “But one can’t be safe for long with so many soldiers lurking about. When the land dried up a second time and we couldn’t pay the trade tax…King Bairndt sent more soldiers. They stole everything they could find, but it wasn’t much. Not nearly enough for Bairndt, anyway. We were soon the king’s indentured servants—it was either that or be killed. The Elders stood aside.”
“Why didn’t Tiersten organize forces here and with the neighboring towns?” Darin asked.
“The Elders wouldn’t stand up to the king—they worried we’d only be killed. Soon all the laws were being set by the king. Even the order of planting and the pasturing and slaughter of our herds was dictated by Bairndt or his soldiers. Eventually we tried to revolt, against the orders of the Elders. But the soldiers were better prepared.” Tobias motioned to his hunched back. “We were killed or broken. Now we’ve given up.”
Tobias stood and reached for his staff. He went to the cupboard and returned with more bread and jam. “I haven’t anything else to offer.”
“The bread reminds me of what my mother used to make,” Aysha said. “It’s delicious.”
“Your mother lived in this house…I remember watching her play in the orchard.” Tobias sighed. “Some memories are good. I’ve stayed here by the orchard so that I could keep some memories. And steal the fruit when the soldiers weren’t watching. I worked in the fields alongside my sons. They were both part of the uprising…Soldiers came to our house with their bodies. I suppose they thought I was too old to bother with killing, but they brought the cane to my back when I admitted the two were my sons.”
Aysha touched his hand. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine…”
“Yes, well, I’ve had enough pity. After my wife died last year, the neighbors decided they had to take care of me. Someone drops in with a bit of food nearly once a day. I think they all worry that if I die, the last of the Spurs will really be gone, even if my name was long since changed. Then their hopes will go as well.
“You should hide that locket. I knew you were kin as soon as I opened the door, but others will know you by the locket. Only some hope that we could go back to the time of Lady Spur.” He gestured to Darin. “And he’s not going to be welcome in many houses either. Northern soldiers have taken Tiersten women for wives and borne children that are now grown. They live alongside us, as Tiersteners, but Northern blood can’t be trusted. You’ll both keep to the barn. The Elders made me promise not to let you leave until they’d had a word with you. And keep an eye on the horse. The soldiers will steal him if you aren’t careful.”
Chapter Twenty-One
As ordered, Aysha and Darin stayed in Tobias’s barn all morning. Aysha had tucked the locket under her cloak, but Darin wished she’d take it off. She had an uneasy sense that it would lead to trouble.
By midday there still had been no visit from the Elders. The stench of rat nests and the sulfur odor seeped into everything and Darin wanted out of the barn and, even more, out of Tiersten. Aysha sat on her bed mat only a few feet from her, but as distant as if they were still at the dunes.
“We could go back to the river.”
Aysha shook her head.
“I don’t think we should stay to wait for the Elders.” Not that she had a better alternative to suggest. The neighboring towns likely had their share of soldiers too.
There was a knock on the door and a woman with silvery gray hair braided down her back leaned her head into the barn. She pointed to Aysha and without a word turned back to Tobias’s cottage. Aysha rose and followed the woman, leaving Darin to wait in the barn. After pacing for a bit, she got out her knife and decided to search out the rat nests. Her stomach was growling. If she could convince Tobias to add what she caught to the pot of stew she’d smelled cooking in his cottage, they would all eat better tonight.
* * *
Aysha came back from her meeting with the Elders looking even more distant than before. She didn’t volunteer any of the details of their conversation and Darin decided not to ask. After a quiet dinner of rat stew with Tobias, they returned to the barn to sleep.
Aysha fell asleep as soon as she lay down on her mat. Darin tried to sleep as well, but her stomach was balled up tight. Everything argued against their going east to Caratia and Darin refused to go west to the mountains. Aysha, she knew, was not about to turn back to the north. To the south, then?
Cobalt was uneasy too. He stomped in his stall; the bit of stolen grain and the grass Darin had gathered disappeared too quickly. Unable to rest knowing the horse was hungry, she got up to find him more food. He nickered as she slipped out of the barn. None of the neighboring barns were occupied by anything more than chickens, but she knew by the scent of it that good hay was close. Following the faint hint of oat hay, she took the road up to the castle. Before she reached the castle gates, she found a barn filled with freshly cut sweet oats. A soldier sat on a sawed-off tree stump guarding the hay.
As Darin walked closer she realized the soldier had dozed off. He was of Northern blood with pale skin and a sharp nose, reddened from the cold night air. He reminded her so much of her cousin Zane that she almost called out his name, just to test it. It would be simple to slip behind him and take an armful for Cobalt, but she doubted the risk was worth it. Instead she whistled through clenched teeth as her mother used to do to awaken her. The young man jolted up, his hand moving swiftly to the handle of his sword.
“You fell asleep.” Darin continued as the soldier grumbled, “I’ve come to buy hay.”
He stood up, keeping his hand on the sword. “This is for Caratian horses only. We don’t sell it.”
“And it’s worth enough to guard?”
He nodded.
“Where can I buy hay, then?”
“New here, huh?” He chuckled. “Good luck. The hay sold in town is rotten. This is brought in from Eldering.”
“Eldering?”
The soldier nodded. “South of here.”
Darin pointed to the wheelbarrow leaning against the hay barn. “I’ll buy a cart full.” She tossed him a silver piece.
He caught the coin, glanced at it and then shook his head and tossed it back. “No good.”
Darin stepped closer and held up a gold coin. “Two carts’ worth, then.”
The soldier snatched this immediately and slipped it in a hidden pocket at the seam of his pants. He glanced up the path toward the castle. Light was still thin and no one stirred. “You’ll have to go quickly and not a word, understand?”
Darin grabbed the wheelbarrow and immediately filled it with the best looking bale. “I’ll take one tonight and be back tomorrow for the other.”
“Take them both tonight or you won’t have another chance.”
She nodded and guided the wheelbarrow down the hill. As much as she wanted to rush, she had to make her way slowly, darting behind the shadows of trees whenever she heard a strange noise. Aysha was still asleep when she unloaded the hay and Cobalt nickered for a bit of it. She didn’t take time to feed him, turning the wheelbarrow back up the hill with only a glance at the sky, hoping dawn would wait for her.
The soldier was pacing anxiously when she got back to the barn. He tipped his hat when he saw her. The familiar gesture caught her by surprise. Since crossing the Barrier, she’d noticed that Southerners had few hand signals. He watched her load the second bale, glancing up and down the road.
As she started down the hill, he said, “If someone sees you, I’ll have to say that you stole the hay.”
Dawn was lighting the horizon. The view of the shadowy town below turned from gray to hazy gold. She couldn’t be careful and keep to the shadows this time. With one hand balancing the bale, she raced the wheelbarrow to Tobias’s barn. Cobalt nickered as she dumped the bale outside his stall, but still Aysha didn’t stir. She spun the cart around and ran back up the hill. By the time she parked the wheelbarrow in front of the soldier, she was dripping in sweat. He waved her off, his eyes on a group of soldiers mar
ching near the castle gates.
Instead of taking the road, Darin went through the orchard on her way back. She worried that some of the marching soldiers may have spotted her and hoped the soldier at the hay barn wouldn’t need to explain her presence. The soldier had clearly been raised in the North, but she didn’t trust him any more knowing this. She wondered how he’d ended up in Tiersten. With harsh conditions for soldiers in the North, there was always talk of soldiers defecting. Rumors of bribes to fight in the South had seemed farfetched before. Now the possibility seemed likely.
When Darin arrived back in the barn, Aysha was awake and rinsing her face in a wash bucket. Cobalt was happily chomping on his hay. “Enjoy that, Cobalt. You have no idea how much it cost me.”
Aysha dried off her face and hands. “Where did you find it?”
“I bought it. They have a well-stocked barn for the soldiers’ horses, but there’s little hay anywhere else.”
“Early spring is like this. In a few months, there will be more than enough for Cobalt’s appetite.” Aysha cocked her head and then added, “You know, you do seem more like a man now. You have a different walk, I think. And the way you are standing there…I think it is more than the short hair and those clothes. Your disguise is starting to become you.”
“Does that bother you?” Darin thought by her tone that it didn’t.
“It makes it easier for us, in some ways. Tobias said that it was common for the soldiers to have wives who were from here…We look the part.”
“I’ve never thought of having a wife,” Darin admitted. “But I guess I don’t mind the idea.”
“I didn’t think you would. Too bad you don’t have a soldier’s uniform. Passing on the road would be easier.”
“Are we leaving then?”
“Not yet. I promised the Elders we’d stay for a few days at least. And I don’t think Tobias will ask us to leave now.”
“I think he’d like you to stay. Perhaps not your husband, but…”
Aysha smiled. “I never thought I’d have a husband.”
“You know, we’ll need to figure out a better sleeping arrangement if we are staying for longer than a few nights. I’ve been cold.” Darin paused. “It was warmer when we were sleeping naked together.”
“We were alone on the river then. If anyone sees you and realizes you’re a woman, we’ll have more trouble than we already have…I’ll ask Tobias if he has any extra blankets. ”
Aysha headed out of the barn, and Darin followed her with her eyes all the way until the old man let her inside his home. With an old broom in her hand, Darin set to cleaning out the barn. Mice droppings and desiccated carcasses of small creatures long since unrecognizable came out of the corners along with cobwebs and dust cleared out of the rafters. She left the bats’ quarters undisturbed, knowing that they would keep to their own space and take care of the insects as well.
As she cleaned, her thoughts wandered from the soldier guarding the hay barn to the soldiers she had known in the king’s army in Trilout. She had been with a soldier once. Telvin. Alekander found out about their friendship and shortly thereafter sent Darin on a hunting trip with two men in his caravan. When they returned a week later, Telvin was gone. She had worried then that Alekander may have killed him, but now it occurred to her that Telvin might have defected. Although he had a good position, he had spoken of traveling the seas and if pressured by Alekander to leave, she thought it was likely he could have disappeared on a ship. South or wherever the destination, Telv would have agreed if only for the chance to be on the open seas.
She wondered how many of the Caratian soldiers were from the North. If they had been stolen away and indentured here, there was a chance that a more carefully planned uprising could work.
* * *
The next few days passed quietly enough. Aysha and Darin slept in the barn and ate their morning meal with Tobias, then parted ways as Tobias sent Aysha off to meet with the Elders or one of his neighbors. The meetings always took longer than expected, and Darin was left alone for hours.
Tobias came in one afternoon as she was drowsing off. With his hunched back and gnarled joints, he lurched more than walked, and his strange gait sent Darin’s hand to her knife instinctively.
“You’ve cleaned the barn.” He paused to cough and then caught his breath, balancing his weight on his walking staff. “I don’t trust you, but I’m not here to do you any harm. You can let go of the knife. I know you are quick enough with the blade to sever a rat’s head—that’s some skill—I won’t imagine what else you’ve killed.”
Darin relaxed, feeling foolish for grabbing the weapon against an old cripple. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. You’ve been gracious to let us stay here these past few nights. And I repay you by going for my knife…”
“Gracious, maybe, but I’ve had my hand forced. And I’m not certain this is for the best. One can’t be too certain of one’s enemy. I’ve known a spider to let a fly spend a night in her web.”
“I trust that we are safer than flies.”
He smiled wryly. “Thank you for cleaning the barn.”
“It’s the least that I can do, but if you have other work, I’d be glad to be put to use.”
“Aysha’s already sent you to do my other errands of gathering firewood and tending the well. I know you’ve been busy enough. I didn’t come to give you another errand.”
“What is it then?”
Darin watched Tobias’s eyes shift to the bales of hay.
“I came to speak to you about that.”
Darin wondered if he’d seen her hurrying back and forth with the wheelbarrow. “I bought it.”
He shook his head. “I know the rotten hay that is sold in town. You didn’t buy that hay. And I don’t want to know where you got it, but you must understand—the soldiers have us in a noose. They are only looking for a chance to kick the wood block out from under our feet. They kill for a lot less than stealing a flake of hay.”
“I paid for it,” Darin argued.
“Most everyone has gotten rid of their horses. Poor beasts have been shot and eaten, sold to the soldiers, or turned loose to fend for themselves. What few are left are shared amongst many families for the work in the fields. The hay has been withheld from all but the soldiers’ horses this past winter.” He hobbled over to Cobalt and raised his hand to let the horse sniff him. “You would be better off moving on when the hay you have there is gone. I wouldn’t stay long enough to watch him starve. He’s a beautiful horse.”
“He’ll go when Aysha goes. Cobalt belongs to her.”
Tobias muttered something under his breath, then, louder, added, “I wish she had been here at the time of the uprising.”
“Your own sons were killed. Why would you have wanted more killed?”
“We lost in the uprising because most of the town never came out of their homes. If we’d had a Spur leading us then…”
“But the Spur family was run out of town.”
“It was the Elders who decided Lady Spur must leave. She was well loved—not by all but by many. But the Elders didn’t like the power she held. They turned the town against her with lies. The moment she was gone, everyone knew the mistake that had been made.”
“What lies?”
“Lady Spur was a witch. They said she’d cursed the crops and brought on a drought.” He studied Darin’s face. “A witch’s skill is passed from mother to daughter. Aysha is a mirror image of her grandmother. And she has her locket.”
“Aysha isn’t a witch.”
“She’s still young, isn’t she? She can’t be much past twenty. I don’t remember that Lady Spur had any power at all until she was older.”
“Witch or not, I don’t see how her presence now does any good.”
“The town has nothing to fight for—they hate the soldiers and the king, but they can’t see a better alternative. All the towns around us have fallen too. And the Elders can’t convince anyone that there’s a reason to join togethe
r.”
Darin considered his words. She wondered why he was telling her any of this if he still distrusted her, as he claimed. “You think Aysha could convince them simply because she looks like her grandmother?”
“For as long as Heffen has stood, we have had a Spur guiding this town. Generation after generation. A witch can turn away a tide of soldiers. The people might come together instead of bickering amongst themselves and hiding in their homes.”
Darin calculated all that Tobias said and realized the danger Aysha was in, simply by being in Tiersten. They needed to leave—that night, if possible. “You’ve told all this to Aysha?”
“Aysha still doubts that her grandmother was a witch at all. She never knew Lady Spur.”
“Is that why you came to me?”
“She has to leave. I know what the Elders think, but the town has nothing left to plan another uprising. Aysha is too late. Or else, too early.” Tobias coughed again. “For too long, no one has dared to think that a Spur might return. Now they’ll put all their faith in her. Word will get back to the soldiers and she’ll be killed…We’ve had nothing to unite us against them. No power. If she stays, we have a witch on our side. The king won’t let her live.”
Tobias rubbed Cobalt’s head and then fished a bit of something from his pocket to give to him. “You shouldn’t stay another night.”
Tobias left Darin to wonder what of his story was true and what was an old man’s fears. She started in at the job of splitting wood to keep from worrying about Aysha. The witches Darin knew were wrinkled and gray. They could strike fear with a single look. But they had the same healing powers that Aysha had…
Still, she could hardly compare Aysha to any of them. Was there something different about a witch that came with age? Did their power grow with time? No one was revered, nor more hated, than witches. Even forecasters avoided upsetting them. But like forecasters, their ability to deceive was strong. A witch’s power came not in knowing the future but changing it. They could turn a healthy person ill as easily as cure a whole village.
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