Thawed Fortunes (The Guadel Chronicles Book 2)

by Murray, Dean

  Cor'an suddenly grabbed Jain's hand and pulled her over to a small booth where an old man was displaying a variety of beaded necklaces. "Have you ever seen anything like them? These here, with the shiny black stones."

  A quiet laugh from behind them made Jain spin around. Mali had followed them over to the booth, and one of the guards was standing patiently behind them, but neither of them had been the source of the chuckle. A tall, red-headed girl was smiling at Cor'an's excitement.

  "My pa was right when he said that you mountain people don't know anything about bargaining. Hello, my name is Miriam."

  "Hi, I'm Jain, and this is Cor'an and Mali. You mean the prices aren't fixed?"

  Miriam held her hand out to be shaken. "No, they aren't fixed, although the only reason they aren't is so that the unscrupulous can try and take advantage of those with poorer bargaining skills. Josh is more honest than most, but don't let him charge you more than four or five pennies for anything he's got on display."

  The man behind the booth snorted and made as if to argue, but Miriam waved him quiet. Jain got the feeling that the argument was one that the pair had jokingly batted around many times before.

  "You can all spend your money on things here if you want, or you can come to my father's inn, where I promise we'll give you a meal that will treat you to a wide variety of new tastes at an entirely reasonable price."

  Jain felt a flash of suspicion. "Why should you do that when it would be so much easier to charge us too much?"

  Miriam smiled. "Well, honestly you're all so exotic down here, that just having you in my father's inn will double his business today. Nothing brings in the boys for a meal like pretty young ladies."

  Ka'ti and Alis had both drifted over to the booth, followed by the rest of the guardsmen. At the mention of food, Alis squealed. "Oh, real food! We've lived on the same boring trail rations for days now. Please say that you'll all come."

  Everyone was so busy agreeing to go, that the clamor of voices almost drown out Mali's gasp. Spinning to see what had startled the other girl, Jain saw nothing out of the ordinary other than three or four men in blood-red cloaks, all of whom were rapidly headed in the other direction.

  Miriam followed their gaze and then said something under her breath that almost sounded like a curse. "Don't worry, the Baron's men won't do anything to you. His minions haven't tried anything this far north. Pa says that we're too fat of a plum to pluck. The Baron isn't willing to risk offending the rich gem merchants who line his coffers with tax money on their way here to trade with your people every year."

  Mali nodded, seemingly reassured by the explanation, but Jain noticed that she looked back towards where the red-cloaked figures had been several times as they all headed off to the inn.

  ##

  Va'del awoke with a groan as his stiff body told him it still hadn't forgiven him for all of the damage done to it recently.

  On'li must have heard him because she was waiting with a cup of hot tea when he finally managed to pull himself out of his tent.

  "Drink up, it's all but free down here. Are you feeling any better?"

  "I'm fine, I just got a little cold last night, so I'm extra stiff this morning."

  The Guadel nodded as she handed him the tea. "I understand that, blankets which are perfect for icy mountain tops are too much for down here. I must have spent half the night pulling them off when I got too hot, and then wrapping up in them again a cycle later when I realized I was cold again."

  Mar'li looked up from where she was making breakfast. "The fact that the platforms are so hard didn't help at all either."

  On'li rubbed her right hip in sympathy. "It's true, but they do help keep us up out of the dirt and insects. We'll still have to leave most of our gear outside for a couple days to kill anything that tries to come back home with us, but at least this way everything doesn't end up a distressing shade of muddy red."

  Mar'li and Va'del both chuckled as On'li turned and pointed south. "We're headed that way today, for a number of reasons really."

  Safely positioned behind On'li, Mar'li rolled her eyes, and Va'del nearly choked on his tea. Mar'li really was quite funny when she finally got used to someone. Not only that, she was particularly right in this instance. On'li meant well, but she sometimes liked to hear herself talk a bit too much.

  Once Va'del finally finished coughing, On'li continued without missing a beat. "We always assumed that the pressure driving the bag'ligs towards us was coming from below, and that Ja'dir's people were too stupid and trusting to realize that they were getting the runaround down here."

  Va'del nodded. "That was all in the original briefing we got before heading out, if not in so many words. What other answer is there?"

  "Well, based on the damage we've seen down here from bag'lig attacks, it is starting to look like they are having even worse problems than we are. When that group attacked us from the east, apparently Si'mon started wondering what would have driven them that way in the first place for them to be there to double back on us, but once he started talking to some of the foresters down here it started sounding like they all seem to be coming from the east."

  "You mean someone is driving them around the mountain?"

  On'li shrugged. "That seems the likely answer. I'm not that familiar with the maps, but it sounds like there is a natural badlands to the east of Crimson Rocks. The snow and ice higher up the mountain would tend to combine with the desolation below to funnel them around here."

  "Only when they get here, there are already bag'ligs in the area, so some of them get displaced north to our territory, and the rest come down and attack the villagers."

  The pieces were starting to fit together inside Va'del's mind, much like the strategy problems he'd been given by Guadel Jo'sep.

  "If that is all true though, shouldn't we be headed east in an effort to figure out what is driving the bag'ligs this way?"

  On'li smiled. "There is a petty warlord to the south who styles himself a Baron. He's been around for a number of years now, and his father was around for decades before, but recently he's started reaching out for more control of the surrounding land."

  The Guadel dropped her voice slightly. "The mayor is doing his best to keep it quiet, but Baron Vladir now effectively controls fairly large stretches of land to the east and west of here."

  "So we go visit him, put on a show of force, and try to figure out if he's somehow involved."

  On'li gently patted Va'del on the shoulder. "Exactly. Also the mayor asked us to emphasize our long-standing policy that we'll only trade with Crimson Rocks, and that only as long as it remains free to govern itself."

  The older woman shrugged. "For someone who doesn't particularly like politics, I sure seem to find myself getting more and more involved in them. At least the discussions with Vladir should be fairly straightforward. People are always reasonably polite the first time they meet over a negotiation table."

  ##

  For all that Jain hadn't ever really liked Mali, not even the newer, relatively quiet version that had made the trip down the mountain with her, she'd been as alarmed as anyone when she'd awoken two days ago to find that the other girl had disappeared during the night.

  Bell had immediately assumed the worst, and turned on the commander of their Guard detachment with accusations that his men had fallen asleep on watch, but all the evidence pointed towards there not having been a struggle. Mali had been sleeping only a few feet away from the rest of the Daughters, essentially in the exact center of the camp. It seemed impossible that anyone would sneak all the way into the camp just to kidnap a single Daughter.

  Once it became fairly certain that Mali had just run away, Si'mon had approached the mayor. The subsequent search of the village had been noisy and energetic, but hadn't led anyone to the runaway.

  Bell had wanted to start throwing around accusations, and delay leaving until they'd found Mali, but Si'mon and the Council members had overruled her, and instead they'd started o
ff on this trek into the blazing sun.

  The general consensus seemed to be that once Mali realized just how hard life down in the lowlands could be compared to how Daughters were treated in the Capital, she'd come back home. Jain tended to agree. If nothing else did it, sheer discomfort from the heat should suffice. Out of all the Daughters, Mali was the only one Jain hadn't heard complain about the cold on the way down the mountain.

  It didn't seem particularly fair that once the caravan left, Mali would come out of the woods where she was presumably hiding, and then be treated like a princess. Miriam's father had even volunteered to put Mali up in his inn, no doubt figuring that her presence would continue to fill his common room with paying customers eager to meet one of the People.

  Thinking about the heat made Jain remember that it was time to reapply more of the bitter-smelling cream that Bell had given her to prevent her face from getting sunburned. Cor'an had actually refused to believe that the sun could burn her. She'd been spectacularly wrong and would have to cover her head with a light cloth for days until the burn healed.

  Even with the cream, most of the group had still turned a little pink. Va'del was the most notable exception. Jain had always thought his darker skin exotically attractive, but this was the first time she'd heard her peers lament over the fact that they didn't have darker skin.

  Thinking about Va'del led to thinking about Vi'en, which made Jain frown. The entire time that Va'del had been injured Vi'en hadn't come by even once, but as soon as he'd recovered she'd arrived and demanded he talk to her.

  Miriam had told Jain it shouldn't take more than a couple days to reach Baron Vladir's castle, but the villager hadn't taken into account that their speed wasn't governed by how fast they could walk, but rather by how fast they could walk without overheating the gurra.

  Jain hadn't realized just how much the poor creatures would suffer in the heat. If the caravan hadn't been planning on returning to colder elevations so quickly, it would have made sense to shear the gurra, but that hadn't been an option. Instead the party had been forced to travel for only a few cycles in the morning and another few cycles in the late afternoon.

  The leather water bladders had also been something Jain hadn't anticipated. None of the Daughters had ever envisioned a place so dry that you had to bring your water with you rather than just scooping up snow for melting.

  On the plus side, the slower pace had been just what Va'del needed to finish recovering, and had allowed the pair to spend quite a bit of time together when they weren't studying.

  The fact that Vi'en had been conspicuously absent for the last several days had made the journey even more pleasant, right up until she'd confronted Va'del as everyone was preparing to head out on the first leg of the day's journey.

  It had been obvious that Vi'en just wanted to be able to tear into Va'del somewhere sufficiently private that she wouldn't have to worry about On'li or someone else putting her back into her place. Jain would have told her no, but Va'del had just nodded wordlessly.

  Jain and Mar'li had brought Va'del and Vi'en's gurra with them so that once the couple was finished they could just walk through the heat of the day, but knowing that Va'del would be back with the caravan before evening was small comfort against what Jain knew he must be going through.

  The road the caravan was following dropped down into a heavily-wooded ravine, but Jain didn't notice other than to hope that it wasn't too long. If the shade persisted, then it was all too likely that they'd end up travelling for an extra cycle or two rather than stopping like normal.

  As usual, thoughts of Va'del led to the question of whether or not they'd be able to marry. They both agreed that right now Vi'en had no intention of agreeing to Jain as a sister-wife, but Va'del still held out hope of finding some perfect combination of hoops to jump through that would change her mind. Jain was pretty sure the older woman was spiteful enough she'd never change her mind.

  The other three Daughters were lost in their own conversation, so as Jain often did these days, she was passing the time imagining that On'li would find some ancient tradition that would allow Va'del to marry her despite everything Vi'en could do.

  The fantasy was so real that the young lady nearly walked into Ka'ti when the other girl stopped.

  Craning her head around, Jain was just able to make out a group of metal-clad men mounted on the beasts that Miriam had called horses and wearing the blood-red cloaks of the Baron's guard, blocking the trail before them.

  For several seconds Jain couldn't understand why the Guadel pairs were all linking and drawing their weapons, and then she noticed that the horsemen already had their weapons out.

  Jain's heart leapt to her throat as she realized there was almost sure to be a fight. A sudden rumbling like thunder made the Daughters all turn to check the back of the column just in time to see an equal number of horsemen cut off the way back to Crimson Rocks.

  Cor'an and Alis both gasped in fear, and one of the guards standing just a few feet away from Se'ath looked away from the enemy just long enough to shoot them a comforting look.

  "Don't worry, there are more of them, but we've got a fair number of Guadel with us, and they'll each be worth two or three of the lowlander knights."

  Jain spared another glance at Se'ath, but he apparently couldn't be bothered to do anything as thoughtful as trying to reassure any of the girls. Instead Be'ter's oldest friend was motionless but for a slight tremor running through his limbs--something like how Jain imagined a snow wolf that had seen its next meal would act. His face was expressionless, but his body seemed to say it was all he could do to stop himself from attacking before the command was given.

  Jain had a moment to wish that Va'del was there, and then the biggest of the knights from the group in front of the caravan pulled off his helm.

  "Put down your weapons and you'll be ransomed back to your people without being harmed. You have my word as a Baron on it."

  The stone-faced Guadel allowed the silence to hang unbroken in the air for several seconds, and then Va'ma stepped forward flanked by Javin and Si'mon.

  Each of the three men moved with a controlled menace and inhuman grace that did more to calm Jain than anything the kindly guardsman could have said. It seemed impossible that even the large body of knights could do anything other than back down when faced with the sure evidence of just how deadly the Guadel really were.

  Va'ma shook his head casually, and when his voice rang out it was cold and unworried.

  "You have no right to take us hostage. Turn your men around, and we won't be forced to make the gem trade you depend on for taxes evaporate."

  The Baron laughed. "Ah yes, the fabled Guadel arrogance. You really think that you and your guardsmen can face down a group of mounted knights. Incredible. As much as I'd like to see you all trampled under, I'll give you one last chance to surrender before my archers loose on your wives."

  A sudden rustling from above them caused Jain to look up the ravine walls to the wooded edge above them.

  More than two dozen hard-faced men had appeared, all with longbows pointed at the knot of women in the center of the caravan. The male Guadel all shifted around, subtly rearranging themselves so that they were closer to their wives, but even Jain knew the balance of power had shifted. The Guadel were more than capable of knocking arrows from the very air, but all it would take was a single miss for an arrow to sneak past and kill one of their wives. Given a long enough fight, the odds were very much on the side of the women tiring before the archers ran out of shafts.

  Vladir waited several seconds. "I know all about your trick of knocking projectiles out of the air, but I think you'll find it's much more difficult to do that when they're coming almost straight down at you."

  "If you kill us all, your kingdom will be destroyed before the year is over."

  "I think not. If I cut you down, your pitiful Council won't have anyone else to send. I know just how overextended your Guard is right now, and the Guadel are even
more short-handed."

  At a gesture from Vladir, the rider to his left brought his horse forward and removed his helm with an oddly fluid gesture. The face was at once both familiar and alien. The classically handsome features that girls had been sighing over for years were mostly unchanged, but the eyes that had always been adept at reflecting back whatever emotion their owner wished had been replaced by cold orbs that made no attempt to mask the darker things that must have been there all along.

  Jain felt a chill pass through her as she realized where the Baron had gotten all of his information. Not only was Be'ter here, lording his betrayal over them, he moved with the smooth economy that all but screamed that he was being actively augmented.

  Oh Mali, what have you done?

  Be'ter looked at the Guadel arrayed before him with obvious hatred, his expression not even flickering when it passed over Se'ath, who looked as though he'd been struck. "Be reasonable, is the small amount of jewels the Baron will require to release you really more important than what will happen to the People if you are all cut down?"

  Jain hadn't liked Be'ter for months now, but his words, and the thought of the People slowly falling apart and dying without sufficient guardsmen and Guadel to run food caravans out to the newer villages, made her hate him with an intensity that would have surprised her if she'd been thinking about it.

  At the head of the caravan, Javin leaned forward as if prepared to cut Be'ter from the saddle, but he didn't actually move, and that was all the confirmation Jain needed to know that her fears really were correct. What was left of the Council could probably manage for a while without the resources the caravan represented, but eventually they'd run low on food and there wouldn't be anyone left to send down to Crimson Rocks for food.