The Heron Kings

by Eric Lewis

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Where There’s Smoke

  “You know, it’s not so bad,” said Alessia.

  “Easy for you to say. It’s not your face.” Nandine kept her eyes forward and scanning while they talked, finding it easier by the day to pick out any movement that might signal danger or dinner.

  “I’ve tended many, many wounds, and I can tell you in a year you’ll barely notice the scar. Besides,” she shrugged, trying to sound casual, “I kind of like it.”

  “You do?”

  “Sure. Like in a…a fierce beauty sort of way.”

  Nan lowered her bow and stared at Alessia with a look of concern. “Are you feeling well?”

  Alessia looked away, face flushed. “I-I’m fine. What do you mean?”

  “Ever since we found that hot spring everyone’s been acting funny. Maybe there’s something in that water making people sick. Bathing,” she said, shaking her head, “it’s a dangerous business.”

  Clean bodies are a dangerous business, Alessia thought. Clean, soft…stop it stop it! Focus! “I don’t know. We’ll be gone from here soon anyway. Maybe—”

  “Aaargh!” The scream was followed by a series of snarls echoing through the trees.

  “Where did that—”

  “There! Come on!”

  They raced toward the sounds, all thought of scars and baths banished as arrows were notched. They leaped over a hillock and below them they saw it – two vicious hounds snapping at a huge, bearded man curled up on the ground in a ball and utterly failing to avoid the flurry of teeth descending on him. A limp chain dangled from a manacle around one of his wrists.

  “Gods,” hissed Nan, “shoot!” She raised her bow, and hesitated for fear of hitting the man. Alessia took a shot, which grazed one hound and sent it yelping off into the forest. Nan took hers and it speared the other clean through the heart, fixing it to the ground. They jumped down to the bloody site.

  “Are you all right?” Alessia asked, kneeling.

  “I…thought…they had me,” he breathed. “Thank you.” They gave him some water and sat him up while Alessia checked him for wounds. “I fear…the dogs get everyone else. Perhaps more still out there.”

  Nan eyed his mangled feet. “Can you stand?”

  “I try.” He winced when they lifted him up. “It hurts, but a short ways can I go. Is there somewhere…?”

  Nan looked at Alessia, questioning. Should we?

  Alessia looked back, nodded. “Yes, not far. Let’s go – wait, what is that?” She followed the chain hanging from the man’s wrist. It snaked along the ground behind him, and at the other end was another bloody manacle.

  The man gathered the length of chain up in his arms. “As I said, dogs get everyone else. The other fellow beyond hope was, so…I freed myself.” He spat a red clod of something onto the ground.

  * * *

  “They were hauling us north. For what purpose I know not. Only that they take folk such way before and none seen to return.”

  Alessia wrapped bandages around the man’s feet while Corren stood over them, brows furrowed. “They? You mean the queen’s soldiers?”

  “Yes. I know not whose idea to overpower driver and guard. Only I heard shouting, shoving. Then the wagon was turned over and we were free. We went in all directions – I and my chain-mate up the hill with two or three others. Then we heard dogs. I manage to fight them off, but….” He turned away. “I am ashamed.”

  “It’s not your fault,” said Alessia while Crander pried the manacle off the man’s wide wrist. “Sometimes getting away is all you can think of. And they chased you all the way up here?”

  “Dogs were starving I think, like everyone in Lenocca. They don’t return to their masters.”

  “You were in Lenocca?”

  “I was trapped in the city when war came. The soldiers wanted me, but I will not fight for that evil woman. Nor do they let me leave. Picking over trash, no life for a man, so after some recruits revolt I try to break out.” He spread his arms wide with a sour smile. “I injured four before I was taken. Maybe they decide I be most useful in the mines up north.”

  “And this revolt,” Corren said slowly, “what exactly happened? What caused it?”

  “I know not how it starts, only that many officers and men were surprised and murdered. Many fires set. Most of the rebels were caught and executed, but some escaped. Luckier than me.”

  Corren nodded. “Well you’re welcome to remain with us until you’re well enough to travel, so long as you heed our rules.”

  The man grinned broadly. “Thank you. I knew there is still kindness left in this dead land. You…you are in revolt also, yes?”

  Corren and Alessia exchanged a glance, just for an instant. “We,” said Corren finally, “are just trying to keep our heads low for now.”

  “Ah, a good plan,” said the man. He offered up a large hand. “Kryte am I called.”

  When Alessia finished her bindings Corren took her aside. “What do you think?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I never saw him in Lenocca, but it’s a big city. Or was.”

  “And his story?”

  “Sounds about right…it is a bit convenient though, isn’t it?”

  “Mmmm. Keep an eye on him, don’t leave him alone or let him go off alone.”

  “Me? Why me?”

  “You found him – he’s your pet.”

  * * *

  “Kryte! What are you doing?”

  The man looked up at Alessia with a surprised and hurt expression. “Only feeding fire, madam, to boil some broth. Was this wrong?” The little pile of tinder sent a dark column wafting up through the branches, stark against the solid white sky.

  Alessia grabbed a pail and doused the flames. “It’s too much smoke. It’ll give away our position.”

  “Ah,” said Kryte, looking down on the black mess of sludge. “I am sorry. I had not thought of that. This is very new to me.”

  Alessia sighed. “It’s all right. We’re all still learning. We need to—”

  “Who built that fire? You tryin’ to send up a godsdamn signal to the— oh.” Ulnoth came running out of somewhere spitting daggers at their new guest. He did not trust the foreigner or his story any further than he could throw him. Which was not very far at all.

  “It’s fine,” said Alessia. “It’s out now. There’s no harm done.”

  “You don’t know that,” Ulnoth countered. “Someone still coulda seen. And you,” he pointed a half-mended arrow straight at Kryte, “use dry wood next time.” He stalked away, muttering curses under his breath.

  “Sorry about that,” Alessia said. “Tempers are a bit frayed right now.”

  “You will move from this place soon, yes?”

  “Can’t stay in one spot too long. Crander’s figured a way to take the wagon apart so it can move through thicker forest, but that just means more to carry. And we’re weary.”

  Kryte nodded. “This can I see.” That was an understatement – the encampment presently looked as though some giant had smashed a great fist through everything. Clothes, half-finished bowstaves, odds and ends pilfered from a dozen raids and more lay strewn about the tromped-out space among the trees. The only thing that didn’t litter the enclosure was food. It dwindled once again even with the contribution from Plisten. True, the hot spring had lifted spirits at first. Just enough to remind them of the few comforts they’d once had but left behind. A mood of indolent despair hung over the place. “Is there some task I can do, to help? Perhaps not one with fire-building.”

  “Oh, there are a thousand things that need doing. But it might be better if you did join up to fight for the queen, then you could send some food and medicine our way.”

  Kryte rubbed his chin, a comically studious gesture from one so rugged. “Hmm. I cannot go back now,
but perhaps what you say is still possible. Before they send us from the city I hear many discussions – they think a man chained like an animal somehow cannot still comprehend, for the fools spoke openly. The queen pushes ever closer to Thoriglyn, but this means her supply lines grow longer. More and more must pass through Lenocca. One such train was spoken of, to be sent five days after us prisoners, along the same road. From what I see here, you could go and get it with little difficulty.”

  Alessia kept her stare perfectly neutral. She said only, “I see.” Yes, very convenient indeed.

  “Well,” said Kryte with more insistence, “will you not?”

  “I’ll speak to Corren about it.”

  “If you fear to risk many of your folk I will come to help.”

  Alessia looked at the man’s feet, still wrapped in bandages. “Does that mean you’re healed enough?”

  “Oh,” he replied, as though he’d forgotten the vicious dog attack and been suddenly reminded. “I…. If you think it so.”

  “Then I’ll speak to Corren. Until then no more fires, agreed?”

  Kryte smiled, and it sent chills down Alessia’s spine. “Yes madam.”

  * * *

  “Nah, too good to be true.”

  “You think so?”

  “Come on, it’s a trap. Even I can smell it a mile away.”

  “You’re getting cynical in your old age. So sad to see.”

  “Funny.”

  “Well what if it’s not a trap? We could really use that food.”

  “The dead don’t eat none, do they?”

  The five of them sat arguing in a circle inside a rough hide tent – Corren, Ulnoth, Alessia, and now Dannek and Nandine.

  “I’m not saying I trust him,” Dannek said now. “Just that it’s worth checking out, ken’ee?”

  “Much as it pains me to,” said Nan, “I agree with him. We need that food, and we’ve taken risks for less before.”

  “We’ll track ’em,” said Dannek, “get a good look first. The right team, we could keep up without being seen, I guarantee it.”

  “You know who to use?”

  “Aye, we been out enough times I know who can be counted on.”

  “Not Banwick I hope,” said Ulnoth.

  “No.”

  “All right,” said Corren finally, “do it. If you say yes, we go in. I’ll personally take Kryte along. Meanwhile keep him a bit away from everyone – no need to let him get too cozy just yet.”

  “And if it turns out he’s lying?” Ulnoth asked.

  “Then a pack of rabid dogs’ll seem like a pleasant memory.”

  * * *

  A day later twenty Heron Kings crouched with eyes and ears peeled for the approach of the prey they’d tracked for several miles. One ambush team waited on a slope above the road just south of the fork, another on the other side, with Alessia kept back just far enough to notice if any needed aid when the killing started. It was the last ambush point for miles, their last chance. They all wore the same drab brown as the tree trunks around them, bows strung and short swords loosened at their waists. They kept Kryte between and a bit in front of them, trusted only with a staff.

  An hour passed in silence and grim determination. A second hour passed with impatient sighs. Every so often hand signals flashed to and from Ulnoth’s team on the other side: When? Wait. Now? No, wait. When the third hour brought audible grumbling, Marella threw a little ball of packed snow at Corren’s shoulder and waved. When she saw she had his attention she pointed south.

  “There they are,” Corren said quietly, though they were still well out of earshot. “Get ready.” He spread his arms wide, palms facing downward, then knelt. As one, any still standing sank further into the brown, into nothingness. Across the road all movement disappeared.

  “Oh, godsdammit,” Nandine whispered.

  Alessia gave her a quizzical look. What is it? she mouthed.

  “I gotta take a piss.”

  The caravan rolled closer. They could make out individuals now, drovers and sloggers both. It seemed to be ten men altogether, and three wagons. Foolish to leave it so poorly guarded. She knew everyone would be picking out targets – first that one, then that one, I wonder could I hit that one on the far side? She wouldn’t have bothered, knowing how fast plans crumbled when things started.

  The caravan was almost right below them. The tension was given voice by the sound of twenty bows being drawn or half-drawn and Alessia felt the anticipation quivering around her.

  Movement. Not from the caravan or their guards, but from across the road. Corren glanced furiously toward Ulnoth’s team. Movement and noise, both frantic. To everyone’s shock, Ulnoth appeared halfway out of the trees and flashed the signal for No. No, no, no, over and over again.

  “What the….” Nan gnashed her teeth when she saw the gestures. Ulnoth made a new signal, one whose meaning she couldn’t remember.

  “Abort,” said Corren. “Dammit! Send it down the line.”

  “But—”

  “Do it!”

  One by one the word took each of them by surprise, and they relaxed their weapons with confused and disappointed expressions. Below them the caravan rolled on, oblivious to the halted attack. In stunned silence the Heron Kings watched it go by, wagons loaded high with whatever each person’s imagination supplied, lost and gone forever, leaving empty bellies growling behind. “He’d better have a damn good reason for this,” Corren said.

  “I do not understand,” said Kryte, only now seeming nervous. “Why did you not—?”

  Dannek and Ulnoth sprinted across the hard-packed track and up the hill in a mad dash. “Stay down,” hissed Dannek, dragging Nan to the ground when she tried to rise.

  “What are you taking about, why did you—”

  “Quiet!” Ulnoth took out his knife and held it to Kryte’s throat while kicking away his staff. “Especially you, shitpot.”

  “Wha—”

  “Quiet!”

  They stayed quiet without knowing why. Then they heard it – someone else, coming up the road. Many someones, with many horses. They moved in relative silence for mail-clad men bristling with weapons, and at a leisurely pace. Exactly the same pace, it seemed, as a supply caravan. Disciplined group, Alessia noted. Don’t look like sloggers, these. In fact they look a lot like….

  Her eyes turned to Kryte. Ulnoth pressed a knee into the man’s back, holding him immobile. “One move,” Ulnoth whispered, “one sound, and it’ll be the last you ever make.” Kryte only frowned back.

  The men passed by just as the wagons had, eyes darting back and forth as though in expectation of something, then faded away as well. Wind whistled through the trees for a minute more as they all stared at Kryte. The truth of it plain, there seemed little to say.

  “You were right,” Nan said to Ulnoth at last. “A trap. Mercenaries! If we had attacked we would’ve been cut to pieces. How did you know?”

  “I didn’t,” Ulnoth answered without relaxing his hold on Kryte. He cocked his head at Dannek.

  “Just a feeling,” the youth replied. “I was coming up to join you, then decided to make a quick double-back. That’s when I saw them riding up behind. I ran here as fast as I could chance it, told Ulnoth to call it all off.”

  “Glad you did,” said Corren. “Saved a lot of lives today, son. Exquisite work.” Dannek looked away, embarrassed. “Now, as for you….” The rest of Ulnoth’s team melted out of the brush to join them as a forest of blades pointed down at Kryte. “Here’s the deal. You answer every question I put to you and I’ll give you a somewhat quick death. Or we can drag this out. Your choice.”

  “I have nothing to say,” Kryte replied.

  “Ulnoth, take an ear.”

  “My pleasure.” In a moment his knife was out and biting into the Cynuvik’s earlobe. Alessia moved to stop him, bu
t something had taken away her will to do so. She just watched with an attitude of…what? Enjoyment? Righteousness?

  The man grimaced, ground his teeth, but did not cry out. Steam rose from the bloody wound. Ulnoth held the bottom half of the lobe in front of him. “Halfway there!” He tossed the raw slice of meat and cartilage onto the ground where a swooping cardinal quickly snatched it up then flew off.

  “No hurry,” said Corren. “Ain’t no one going anywhere. Let’s start with something simpler. That smoky little fire you set the other day. I’m guessing that was no accident, but a signal. Am I right?”

  Kryte said nothing.

  “Ulnoth, if you please…?”

  Kryte began to struggle and was met with three or four sword blades poking into his backside. Before Ulnoth could finish his task Alessia at last stormed between them. “Stop!”

  Ulnoth looked up. “Why?”

  “Because, he won’t talk, whatever you do to him.” She looked down at him. “That’s the way of it, isn’t it? You serve whoever pays the most. Merc’s code.”

  Kryte smiled through the pain of the wound. “Not so dumb as you look. No matter. You’re already dead. Only a matter of time.” He tried to laugh, but instead coughed on blood dripping into his nose.

  “Let me make you a better deal then,” she said, kneeling down to look into the Cynuvik’s eyes. “We’ll let you go, as whole as you yet remain.”

  Ulnoth and Corren and Nan all stared at her, brought for once to total agreement. “We what?”

  “There’s naught to be gained from simple revenge, we all know that.”

  “But he’ll tell them where we—”

  “We’ll be gone soon enough. He doesn’t know where we’re headed, what kind of shape—”

  “He knows we’re short of food!” Nan protested.

  “They knew that already,” Alessia countered, pointing up the road the way the caravan had gone. “We, on the other hand, don’t know anything. How about it, Kryte – is your life coin enough to turn your coat?”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “I don’t care if you believe me. You just need to believe that fellow above you just itching to slice you up like a saint’s day pheasant.”