“Why didn’t you tell me that?” Darin got up and quickly rolled her bed mat.
“What are you doing?”
“We need to leave. Jenner’s a forecaster, Ranik. He’s trying to warn you. Can you read your compass in this light?”
Ranik doubted that Jenner was sending him any message. And yet Darin’s conviction was hard to ignore. He pulled the compass out and squinted. The arrow spun and then stalled when the fine metal point found its direction. “I can see north well enough.”
* * *
By dawn, they had a view of the road leading to Tiersten. To be safe, they avoided the main road and kept to the deer path that coursed along the edge of the brown fields.
At the outskirts of town, the path widened and then abruptly stopped at a watering trough. Ranik and Darin hopped off and let the horses drink.
“I’ll go to Heffen and talk to the soldiers there to see if Aysha is still in the castle—and then I’ll look for Telvin. You stay here,” Darin said. “Talk to the farmers and see if anyone’s wanting help in the fields. Look around, keep your ears open but stay away from any soldiers. If you can get some of the farmers to talk, ask about the king’s medicine woman.”
“I think we should stay together.”
“Someone could recognize you,” Darin said. “You’ve been charged with murder, remember? I can’t be seen with you.”
Ranik felt the fear he’d nearly let go of take hold once more. Telvin had planned to bargain with King Bairndt to get the charges dismissed, but now that he was dead and General Alekander was in charge… Still, he’d come to find Aysha and he wasn’t going to stand around in a field after they’d come this far.
Darin mounted Onyx. “We’ll meet here at midday. Don’t draw attention to yourself and don’t go into town.”
Ranik watched her leave, making no promises. He pulled on Cobalt’s reins, planning on heading to the main road and then stopped when he felt someone watching him. He glanced around, until he spotted a figure leaning on a shovel across the field. Squinting, Ranik realized it was a young boy. The boy raised his hand and then started toward him.
“What are you doing in Hallard’s pasture?”
“Giving my horse a rest,” Ranik said. “He’s got a sore tooth and likes the tender grass.”
The boy looked at the horse for a moment. “He’s too fat to have a sore tooth.”
“It just came on. I heard there was a medicine woman in town. Do you know where I might find her?”
“You mean the king’s witch?” the boy asked, his face lighting up.
“I didn’t know she was a witch.”
“Oh, yeah, she’s a witch. Everyone will tell you as much.”
“Is she in the castle with the king?”
“You haven’t heard? The king was stabbed! Clear across his belly.” The boy drew a line on his own belly from one side to the other. “They tried to gut him. Wish I’d seen the fight…Do you have a sword?”
“No sword.”
“My dad would trade that horse for ours—if you throw in a sword since your horse is sick.”
Finding Aysha was going to be more difficult if he had to wade through stories of sword fights and witches. “Do you know where I can find the medicine woman?”
“I saw you with a soldier. You sure you don’t have a sword?”
“I only rode in with her. I’d gotten a bit lost.”
The boy looked incredulous. “Her? You thought that soldier was a girl? You need help seeing. That’s why you got lost!”
A voice called out and the boy glanced over his shoulder. “My mother’s coming. Don’t know about a medicine woman, but you might find the old crazy medicine man in the market today. If he’s not passed out drunk somewhere, he sets up his cart there. Tell him the horse is fine, but there’s something wrong with your eyes.” The boy laughed and then started toward his mother.
Ranik left before the boy’s mother had a chance to question him. As he rode into town, he asked those he passed to point him to the market. Compared to the markets of Caratia, Tiersten’s was small, but compared to the ones he’d known in Glen Ore, it was immense. He scanned the faces of the vendors, the buyers, and the few soldiers milling about, but saw no one familiar.
The medicine man wasn’t hard to find. His cart was decorated with glass bottles of amber and green liquids, long ropes of dried seaweed and bunches of dried herbs tied upside down on a long pole dangling from the front of the cart like a fishing rod.
“My horse has a bad tooth,” Ranik began as he approached the medicine man’s cart. The man was so wrinkled it was hard to tell if his eyes were closed in sleep or if he was squinting in the sunlight. He made a humming sound that Ranik took as acknowledgment. “Do you have something to help with his pain?”
The man motioned him over to the side of the wagon. He was seated on a stool and he hopped agilely off as soon as Ranik got close. A moment later his hands were inside Cobalt’s mouth. The horse reared at the touch, nearly tossing the old man to the ground. Ranik caught him before he fell, hearing a rant of curses flow from the man’s lips.
When he’d regained his balance, he hobbled back to his stool. “I have nothing for him. If it was your tooth, I’d give you this to soak in water and pack in your mouth each night,” he held up a leather pouch, its contents hidden. “But for that horse…I know a horse trader who would give you a good price.”
Ranik shook his head. He considered buying the leather pouch that the old man held in his hands but doubted it would do any good. He started to leave and then turned back and asked, “I’ve heard some talk of a medicine woman that the king kept. Do you know her?”
The medicine man spat and said under his breath, “Witch.”
“Have you seen her yourself?”
“Don’t need to. I’ve heard enough to know.” He shook his head. “Everyone’s looking for her. After the king died she went missing. General Alekander offered a reward for anyone who finds her. Gold. But no one will find her. She’s long gone by now. Probably killed the king herself.” He took a long swig from one of the amber-colored vials on his cart, plugged the vial and continued, “Or it’s possible that General Alekander killed the witch himself after he stabbed the king. That’s what some are saying. But where’s her body?”
Ranik felt his stomach lurch.
“There’s no body when a witch dies!” the old man shouted, answering his own question.
“Thanks for your help anyway,” Ranik said, feeling the eyes of the marketplace turn on him. He backed away from the old man.
“Go see the horse trader about your horse’s mouth,” another shopkeeper said, tugging on Ranik’s arm. The old medicine man was still shouting about witches. “Tell him I sent you. Garrent. He’s got a cottage behind the farrier’s stable. And then come back and I’ll sell you a new bit for that bridle.”
Unsettled by the thought that others had overheard his conversation, Ranik quickly left the market square and only stopped to ask directions to the farrier once he’d cleared the line of vendors. He had no intention of meeting up with a horse trader but thought a farrier might overhear talk of the soldiers. Aysha couldn’t be dead. She’d likely fooled the general and slipped away. That was Aysha.
The farrier was on the far side of town and Ranik had to walk the length of the main road. He spotted the castle on a hill above town and more soldiers than he’d seen even in Caratia. Everyone on the road kept their eyes to the ground and hurried past. He thought of Darin’s warning about avoiding the soldiers and kept his gaze down as well.
Ranik had to wait for the farrier to finish a hoof trimming on a mare and then replace a shoe on a feisty stallion. Short and balding, the farrier cursed whenever the stallion tried to kick but managed to avoid every strike. Once he’d finished with the stallion, there were no customers waiting besides Ranik.
“You need new shoes for him?” the farrier asked, eyeing Cobalt’s feet.
“No, he was shod last month. But he’s got
a problem with his mouth. I didn’t know who else to ask.”
The farrier nodded and took out a handkerchief to wipe his brow. A chilling wind cut between the farrier’s tie posts and the fire, but the stallion had worked a sweat on his forehead. He sat down opposite Ranik and took a drink from his flask. “Bit sore? You’ve got your reins clasped onto the halter. I did that once before with a mare of mine that had a canker on the roof of her mouth. Took me a week to find the sore.” He touched a scar on his chin. “Struck out with her front foot when I touched the spot and I went down like a fence post.”
Ranik nodded. “I thought it was a bad tooth, but now I think it’s as you’ve said. Only a canker. What’d you do for it?”
The farrier got up and went to open a trunk. He pulled out a bottle and shook it, then held it up. “There’s not much left, but I used this on my mare. Canker healed. Got it from Pattlin, who said it came from the North. Probably a witch’s potion, but I didn’t ask.” He chuckled and handed the bottle to Ranik. “Pattlin’s the horse trader. His place is down the road and he’s got a few horses you could pick from. Some aren’t half bad.”
“I’d like to keep this one. We’ve traveled a long way together.”
“Where you from?”
“The Glenlands,” Ranik answered, forgetting to come up with a lie.
“I kept the mare too…Don’t bother paying me for that. Don’t know that it did a bit of good on the mare anyway. If I were you, I’d keep the bit out of his mouth for a week or two. That’s all then?”
Ranik considered asking the farrier about Aysha, but he doubted the man would know her whereabouts, if he even knew of her at all. He opened his mouth and then promptly closed it. The farrier cocked his head and waited.
“I’m sorry. I think I just needed a place to sit for a moment—to clear my mind.”
“Your mind’s cleared now, then, eh?” The farrier laughed.
The sound of the laugh, a full-bodied rumble, put Ranik at ease. He laughed as well, aware of how odd he probably seemed. After a moment, he said, “I’m searching for my sister. She was being held by the king.”
At this the farrier’s expression changed. The smile lines vanished. “That king had a lot of women up in the castle, or so I’ve heard…took our grain, our money, and our women while the rest of us starved.”
“I doubt you would have any idea about her whereabouts, but I’m at my wits end. I thought maybe a farrier would hear stories from soldiers and maybe know a thing or two about what happens up in the castle.”
“A thing or two, yes, but none of them good…Was your sister—was she a lady of the king’s?”
“No, no.” Ranik paused, wondering how to answer. Finally he said, “She’s a healer. She’d been with the king for the past several weeks nursing him through his illness.”
“Not the king’s witch? She’s older than you by a generation at least, if not two.”
“She was in disguise. And she isn’t a witch.”
The farrier shook his head. He glanced at the road in front of his tie post and then to each side. No one was about, though the wind had kicked up dust and howled a bit louder. “Listen, if she was your sister, disguised as a witch or not, she’s long since gone. General Alekander wants her dead. She won’t live long if she’s found. Don’t go asking anyone about her. Alekander would likely take your life in exchange for hers.”
He motioned up the hill to the long low-lying rock castle, “Bairndt’s dead. Good riddance, aye. But your sister, who knows. Hope she’s alive and far from Tiersten. If I were you, I’d turn around and go back to the Glenlands. Maybe she’ll turn up there.”
Ranik sat on the stool for a bit longer. The farrier didn’t tell him to leave but turned and went inside the small house behind the tie posts. The sun was overhead and he decided to head back to the water trough to meet up with Darin.
At the sound of hooves behind him, Ranik glanced over his shoulder and noticed two soldiers on horseback riding up the road toward him. He hurried to mount Cobalt, though he doubted he could outrun them.
“Hold up,” one of the soldiers called out.
The soldier with a gray wool cap rode up next to Cobalt and pulled Ranik’s reins out of his hands while the other stared him down with a sword drawn. “You’re to come with us,” he said. Then he nodded at the other soldier. “Or he’s got orders to kill you.”
Chapter Forty
Aysha didn’t want to put Tobias in danger; if the soldiers found out she was still in Tiersten, they’d likely kill anyone who harbored her. But she couldn’t think of where else to go. The soldiers had burned Marian’s house and she hadn’t been able to find where she was living—if she was still alive at all. Aysha couldn’t risk asking about the other Elders. She didn’t know who to trust.
She managed to stay two nights in the barn without Tobias knowing, stealing food while he slept and slipping out of sight when the neighbors were near. He caught her on the third morning and made her promise to leave town, but she hid in the orchard instead. Every night at dusk, she climbed out of the trees to search the town for Telvin.
Finding him alone wasn’t as easy as she’d hoped. He seemed to move as the fog did, everywhere at once yet nowhere at all. And then when she did catch sight of him, he was always in a crowd of soldiers and never looked her direction.
She couldn’t go out in daylight for fear of being recognized by someone from town, and with the curfew, she had to avoid being spotted by the soldiers after dusk as well. If General Alekander heard any word of her, either as Lady Spur or the king’s old witch, she’d be quickly found and killed.
What made her predicament worse was that she had no plan beyond convincing Telvin to help her get back inside Heffen. She knew, though she couldn’t explain how, that she’d only stop Alekander if she managed to get back in the castle.
At times she wished she’d heeded Telvin’s advice and gone to Eldering. Darin would be at her side and they’d be far from Tiersten. Who was she kidding, thinking that she could do something to keep Alekander from becoming king? But she hadn’t been able to leave. The half-starved boy who’d given her the tunic haunted her thoughts. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw his pleading face.
When she’d nearly given up catching Telvin, he rode right past her spot in the orchard. He was astride a dappled gray stallion and as usual, a cluster of soldiers were with him. She didn’t dare follow him to the hay barn where he stopped to talk to the soldiers, but she lingered in the trees close enough to hear his voice. After a short meeting in hushed voices, the soldiers splintered off, each in a different direction. When they’d all gone, Telvin looked straight at the tree where she was hidden. She knew that he’d seen her and knew she was waiting for him, but he didn’t step foot into the orchard. Her heart sank when he climbed on his horse and galloped off. Still, she stayed for hours in the same tree, waiting and hoping. It wasn’t until sunset that Telvin returned. This time he came alone on foot.
Before Aysha could call out to him, Telvin held a finger up to his lips. “You can’t be certain who’s listening,” he whispered. He leaned against the tree trunk without looking up at her. “I gave you the chance to leave. Why’d you stay?”
“General Alekander—”
Telvin cleared his throat and silenced her again with another finger on his lips. “He hears his name on the wind. Now I have your brother and Darin to worry about as well.”
“They’re here?”
Telvin nodded. “Ranik was found this afternoon. He’s been taken to Heffen.”
“Alekander will have him killed.” Aysha felt a chill race to her bones.
“He’s alive at the moment.”
“Why did he come here?”
“I suspect he came for the same reason Darin came. To save you.” Telvin paused. “I won’t humor myself to think that either of them would come after me.”
“You’re not the one Alekander has everyone looking for. He wants me killed,” Aysha argued.
&nb
sp; “In fact, I think we have that in common…he’d prefer me dead as well. Two soldiers witnessed Alekander stabbing King Bairndt. Both separately came to tell me what they’d seen. For some reason, Alekander hasn’t killed them yet. It’s only a matter of time before he decides to wipe up the tracks he left. And he knows that I know.”
“Why are you still here then?”
“Same reason the others are here. Did you think I wouldn’t know you’d stayed?” Telvin gazed up at the clouds. The sky darkened quickly after the sun set with the heavy layer of clouds. “A storm’s coming. The rains will start tonight. You can’t stay in the trees.”
“I won’t. I have to get to Ranik. You have to get me inside Heffen. I doubt Alekander will keep him for long…” She couldn’t finish her thought. How long would Alekander let Ranik live?
Telvin shook his head. “You’re not going to Heffen. I’ll find him and get him out.”
“It isn’t just Ranik. I need to go back to Heffen—that’s what I’ve been waiting for—a chance to get back inside the castle. I know that’s the only way I’ll stop Alekander.”
“And what’s your plan exactly?”
“I haven’t figured it out yet—all I know is that I need to be back in that castle to stop him.”
“Ah, you sense it.” He smiled. “You’re not fighting it anymore?”
Aysha swallowed. “I don’t know what you mean.” But her stomach churned. “I’m not a witch. I’ve told you that.”
“Of course not. Did you know witches can bring about someone’s death as easily as they keep someone alive?”
Aysha’s hands shook and she gripped the branch near her. “You’re suggesting I’d bring about Alekander’s death?”
“Why did you decide to stay?” Telvin cleared his throat. “The clouds are already in motion. You’ve made your choice. Someone will die tonight because of you. The question is who.” He held his hand out as if to feel the breeze. “You have to find Darin. There’s a storm coming.”
Telvin’s words stopped her from arguing. Darin had said that she was meant to die in a storm—that was why she hadn’t been scared when she’d faced the soldier that first night in Heffen. That night the sky had been clear. “I’ve never liked the thought of anyone predicting the future.”
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