If Rez and the gang hadn’t been depending on her, an untried novice weaver, things might have gone differently. It wasn’t her fault – not really – but would it have still happened if Shel hadn’t been there?
Had Rez died for her?
Shel wandered on in a daze, hardly seeing the forest all around her until it had thinned. She staggered out of the tree cover unexpectedly, and found herself standing at the edge of a wide meadow. In the distance, a flat ribbon of gray cut straight across the grass. The King’s Road.
Shel blinked, and almost ran blindly back into the forest for fear of being caught by Thorne’s soldiers. But there was no one else in sight, and after a moment Shel let herself sink heavily to the ground. Sitting there, she leaned her back against the tree and looked off at the road for a long time.
She could follow the road back, find the place where they had set the doomed ambush. From there, she could find her way back to the fortress. But would any of the gang still be there?
Shel might be only survivor now. That meant the others who hadn’t come along on the ambush wouldn’t know what had happened. But when Rez and the rest didn’t return, surely they would know it had gone wrong. If they had any sense – and Shel was pretty sure they did – they would abandon that hide-out immediately.
Tears ran silently down Shel’s dirty cheeks as she contemplated her predicament. In the end, she decided there was nowhere else for her to go. It would take her the better part of three days, and she would have to stay hidden out of sight all the way, and she would likely find only disappointment when she reached the fort. But she would go.
Having decided, Shel slipped into an unconsciousness that wasn’t quite sleep.
Chapter 14 - Shel Returns
Two days later, Shel crouched behind a large, flowering bush alongside a narrow country road. She had seen movement a moment ago, and ducked for cover. Now she scanned the road, but saw no sign of anyone.
She was tired and sore. Wherever her clothes didn’t cover her, her skin was marked with crisscrossing bramble scratches, most of them scabbed over. Where her clothes did cover her, the bruising from her fall out of the sky was only half-healed at best. She was dehydrated and thirsty, having been unable to find anymore fresh water since well before noon that day.
None of that worried her, though. Her other strength had refreshed itself and was full.
The sun was low in the sky and Shel had most of a day to go before she reached the abandoned fortress. That was all right. She had already chosen a camp. There would be fresh water there, and a patch of wild carrots she could dig up. She had felt these things out with scouting tendrils of invisible energy. They lay just a few minutes away – on the other side of this road.
She would have to cross, and when she did Shel knew she’d be exposed. She gave up straining her eyes in the failing light, and closed them instead. Clearing her mind, she imagined the burning white mass of her souls. She summoned that power for herself and sent it outward, questing delicately into the gathering twilight on the other side of the road for the complementary and telltale warmth of other living things.
She encountered it immediately. Shel’s eyes flew open, startled, just as the slender woman and burly young man stepped out of the foliage at her back and trained their crossbows on the base of her neck.
“Don’t turn around,” hissed the woman, and Shel recognized her voice at once. Other than herself and Kal, Rez’s gang was short on women and from the brief time she’d spent at the fortress Shel knew that voice.
“Rori,” she said, speaking slowly and clearly. “It’s me, Shel. I was with Rez and the others. It’s me.”
“Quiet,” snapped the man. “Don’t try to talk, and don’t turn around!”
“What?” Shel shook her head slightly. “What are you talking about? Why not?”
“Be quiet!” Rori shrieked at her. What was going on? Suddenly, Rori circled around in front of her and Shel saw the tip of the crossbow bolt pointed straight at her face. She sucked in a breath, eying Rori in confusion.
“Rori!” started the man, but Rori shook her head.
“You know it doesn’t work like that, Alban,” she told her companion, never taking her eyes off Shel. “With a Soulweaver, doesn’t matter if she can see us or not.”
Shel opened her mouth to speak, but the auburn-haired woman gestured violently with the crossbow. Shel closed her mouth.
“No speaking, though,” Rori said. “Not going to let you trick us with your words.”
The expression on Shel’s face was so incredulous, so stunned, that Rori lowered the crossbow about an inch and looked back at the other young woman speculatively.
“Where are you headed, then?” she asked.
“Rori!” said Alban, who had come around Shel’s other side. He was a burly youth, and might well have been related to Maul. Right now he looked exasperated, and he took his eyes off Shel to roll them at Rori.
“Hush,” his companion said. “I don’t think her magic depends on talking, either. You think Rez ever had to depend on his mouth to get him out of trouble?”
“Did he ever depend on anything else?” countered Alban. Shel drew her head back slightly, surprised by the retort. She had to admit, Alban made a compelling argument.
Rori just scowled, though, and tightened her grip on the crossbow. “Speak up, Shel. Where are you headed?”
Shel gave them each a pointed look before she answered. “I was looking for the gang,” she explained. “Thought I’d check the fortress first, in case you lot hadn’t split the second you got wind of what happened. Leaving was the sensible thing, so I wouldn’t blame you, but I had a feeling without Rez and Maul or Kal around, nobody else would think of it.”
Alban gave no sign of recognizing the thinly veiled insult, but Rori’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Watch it,” said the redhead. She licked her lips, betraying the nerves she tried to hide behind her strident tone and fierce glaring. “Just exactly what did‘happen’that we're supposed to've got wind of?”
“It was a trap,” said Shel with a shrug. “Thorne knew we were coming, and he was ready for us. Rez and I were captured. I didn’t see any of the others after that. I don’t know if any got away.”
“Some did,” said Alban. His voice was angry, and the way he looked at Shel left no doubt where he placed the blame.
“Who?” demanded Shel, eyes wide. “Tell me!”
“Kal, for one,” said Rori. “She told us how it went down, got us on the move.”
“Thank Dunmir for that,” breathed Shel, relaxing. Her breath caught, and she looked back up at Rori. “Maul? Sanook?”
Alban’s face turned murderous, but Rori just shook her head sadly. Shel deflated visibly, sagging forward where she sat on the ground behind the bush. Her lips pulled down in a miserable slouch, and her brow furrowed. She had only known Maul a short time, but she liked the taciturn giant. She had thought of him as a friend, or at least someone who would be her friend eventually. She was sorry to hear he was dead. And Sanook…if she had been close to anyone in the gang, it was the mysterious Shadowman. Without him, she could never have learned to control her power.
“I had so much left to learn…” she said, so quietly the others couldn’t make out the words. Shel looked down at the ground and the tears spilled from her eyes, hot and stinging. “Oh, merciful Dunmir.”
It wasn’t just her weaving. Right now, Shel didn’t care about that. Sanook had most definitely been her friend. He was stern and hard on her in their training sessions, but he was otherwise kind and understanding.
She remembered what he had told her about his people. He had told her also a little about Aemond, his dead clansman whose soul she carried even now. Without Sanook, she might never have known Aemond at all…she wouldn’t have been able to understand the memories and abilities he had bestowed her either.
Then there were the marks. Beneath the mask he was never without, Shel knew his skin was marked with dozens – perhaps hundr
eds – of small tattoo-like birthmarks. Diamonds and squiggles and stars and esoteric symbols Shel couldn’t comprehend. She might not understand them, but she had seen them before. They were the same as the marks around her hips, the irregular belt of dermal markings she’d borne all her life.
With Aemond gone, nothing but a vague reflection within herself, and now Sanook killed…Shel knew she would never learn the full truth about those marks. She had her suspicions, but only a Shadowman could tell her for sure.
“Why did the emperor kill the Shadowmen?” she suddenly wondered aloud. She had never given it much thought, even after meeting Sanook and learning the Shadowmen were more than spooky, half-mythical bogeymen made up to scare the kids.
Rori and Alban traded confused glances. “What’s that?”
“Nothing,” Shel said, shaking her head. She knew this pair had no answers for her, and so no reason to repeat her question. But she would find her answer, she promised herself. There was so much she didn’t know – about Sanook and the Shadowmen and even herself, about Rez and his true goals, even about the empire she had called home. She didn’t know where she’d get her answers, but she was determined that nothing would stop her from finding them.
Shel stood up, dusting off her legs as she rose. Alban took a hurried step back, and both he and Rori lifted their crossbows threateningly.
“Enough, already,” said Shel, annoyed. She took a deep breath. “Take me to Kal. She and I need to have a talk. And I've got some very bad news for her.”
Rori’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “How do we know you're not working for the archon?”
Shel’s answering expression was one of withering scorn. “Archon Thorne,” she said, cutting her out words bitterly, “is a monster. He isn’t a man with monstrous qualities. He is a beast that walks upright, and one day I will kill him.”
Shel squared her shoulders, daring Rori to have a problem with what she said next. “And if you ever think about suggesting I’d be in league with such a vile creature, remember this.”
As she spoke, Shel ripped the crossbows out of their hands with invisible claws. She flung them high in the air and incinerated them with twin fireballs. She did it all without moving a muscle. Alban and Rori both fell back, slackjawed and frightened.
“I'm not your prisoner,” Shel told them. “I'll never be anyone’s prisoner again. Now let’s go.”
Chapter 15 - Kal
The camp was hidden in a thick copse of trees, two dozen low-roofed tents staked out in a tight cluster near the densest undergrowth. Thieves bustled about, finishing up the tasks of setting camp before the last of the sun’s light disappeared beyond the horizon.
Kal strode out of the smallest of the tents, set at the exact center of the arrangement. With her hands on her hips, she looked around at the activity and nodded approval. Then she saw the three figures emerge from the deeper woods and set a course straight for her position. She frowned, recognizing Rori and Alban – two of the gang’s most junior recruits – and Shel.
Kal gasped and stared. The younger woman had clearly been through a nasty experience, but she was alive. In a flash, Kal considered the possibilities and decided that she and Shel would need to talk in private. She started forward to meet them.
“Shel,” said Kal when she reached the young woman and her escorts. “I'm glad to see you alive. Come with me.”
Alban and Rori exchanged a guarded look, and Kal’s frown deepened. “You two are supposed to be covering our backtrail,” she said.
“Our watch is almost over,” Alban said. “We passed Rodrik and Peele. They headed out early, so…”
“So we'll have four members watching for any pursuit,” Kal finished for him, ignoring the burly man’s expression of surprise and disappointment. “Get back out there. Now.”
Without waiting to see that they obeyed, Kal took Shel by the arm, turned, and headed back for her tent. She needed to know what had happened, but – perhaps more importantly – she needed to find out how much Shel knew.
It hadn’t proved easy, but Kal had managed to get the gang on the move. Those who had remained behind – close to forty thieves – had been reluctant in agreeing to even a temporary relocation. Kal had counted on their loyalty to and faith in Rez convincing the others to follow her, his only remaining lieutenant. But it was that same faith in the leader that proved her biggest obstacle: no one had believed Rez would ever betray the location of the secret lair, even under torture.
Fortunately, Rez had long ago issued his approval to a contingency plan in case of his own capture. The plan had been cooked up by Sanook and Maul, at Kal’s urging. Everybody knew about the plan, though the details had been restricted to the four lieutenants. No one else – especially not Rez – knew the fallback location, but everybody knew there was one. That had helped Kal’s case.
It still left the not insignificant problems of feeding this mob and keeping them all otherwise supplied. They kept gold at the fort, of course, but Kal had found the funds severely depleted. She had no idea how Rez had always kept them replenished. She had brought what there was, but it wouldn’t last long.
As for food, there was more than they could carry. Sadly, what they could carry was less than what they could eat. They hunted on the move, which helped. Once they reached the fallback lair, they’d be able to set snares and the like, but Kal intended to keep the lowest profile possible. That meant restricting hunting parties to a bare minimum. Their food might not last.
And now, on top of all these headaches, here came Shel – without Rez.
Kal lifted aside the tent flap and ushered Shel hurriedly inside. She was anxious to know where the leader was. Before she followed Shel in, Kal looked around the encampment. Activity was winding down, except where the cooks were busy building up their fires and preparing their ingredients. They tried to conceal their interest, but everyone in sight was sending surreptitious glances their way. She wasn’t the only one who wanted to know. Kal scowled and ducked into the tent.
“What happened?” she asked briskly, closing and securing the entry flap before joining Shel in the middle of the enclosed space. Shel had immediately collapsed on one of the large, overstuffed cushions that served as combination chairs and bedding in the tent. She cast a miserable glance upward at Kal.
While Shel told her story, Kal listened with half an ear. Her thoughts were racing. When the girl told her about Rez, her heart sank even though she had more than half expected it. So that was it, then. First Aemond, then Sanook and Maul. Now Rez was gone too. She was the only one left. Kal wasn’t sure how much longer the gang would follow her, especially without knowing the truth. She had delayed telling them anything, but now that Shel was back the questions would start firing again.
“Kal,” said Shel, looking at her with wide, very serious eyes. “There’s something else you need to know.”
The girl’s tone snapped Kal’s attention fully back to the moment. “What’s that?”
“This might sound crazy.” Shel hesitated, biting her bottom lip and peering speculatively at Kal. Then she blurted it out all at once: “Rez wasn’t really interested in stealing souls just because they're really expensive. The whole thing was just a front for a secret rebellion against the empire. I didn’t believe it at first but he admitted it, Kal. Rez admitted it was true.”
She spilled the words in a breathless rush, and at the end she sucked in a huge lungful of air and sat back on her cushion as if exhausted.
Kal just smiled sadly.
“I know,” she told the girl. “Relax, Shel. I know all about it. All of…the lieutenants knew.” Kal dropped her eyes mentioning the others, covering a slight hitch in her voice and wiping one hand at her eyes.
“Thank Dunmir,” said Shel, surprising the honey-haired, reluctant leader. “I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me. Does everybody know about it? Was I the only one kept in the dark?”
Kal pursed her lips, considering how to answer. There didn’t seem to be any poi
nt in lying about it now. “No, Shel. Only the five of us knew. Four by the time you came to us. I think Rez had his eye on you to replace Aemond in the group eventually.” Kal trailed off, glancing away at the side of the tent without really seeing it. “I guess we'll never know.”
“Will the others stay if we tell them?” asked Shel.
That was a question Kal had been asking herself for the last four days. She still hadn’t found an answer. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Right now, they're all following my orders out of habit and the belief that Rez will come back to us. He always has before. When they find out he’s dead…I just don’t know.”
“Then we can’t tell them,” Shel said. Seeming surprised by her own decision, she looked hastily at Kal to gauge the other woman’s reaction.
“How do you propose to keep it a secret…especially now that you're back?”
“We'll say Rez is still a prisoner. We'll say Thorne didn’t need me, didn’t think I was important. I was able to escape, but I couldn’t get close enough to Rez to free him.”
“But it’s a lie…” said Kal.
“So was that story about being thieves,” countered Shel. “Kal, you're the leader of a rebellion and none of your soldiers know they're rebels. They all believed that the gang stole souls to sell on the black market. They'll believe this, too. They'll want to believe it. And besides, you and I are going to keep them busy.”
“Busy?” echoed Kal.
“We've got to get started planning the next heist,” Shel said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Keep everybody busy and they won’t have too much time to think about things.”
“I don’t know, Shel…”
“Of course, they'll want to rescue Rez. And we'll let them believe that’s our ultimate goal. Thorne will go to the Conclave. We'll say he took Rez with him. How long do these things last, anyway?”
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