by B. T. Narro
Effie took over. “Eventually, we found Klemen and two horses by a lake. We knew one horse had to be Eizle’s, so we asked Klemen where he was. He didn’t want to help us until we explained that Eizle was a pyforial mage imprisoned for attacking people. After that, he told us the direction Eizle went and said he’d shout if Eizle came back before we did.”
“There were four of us,” Steffen said. “We all went searching for Eizle.”
“And there was no shout from Klemen,” Shara assumed.
“Right,” Effie said, sliding her wand into the holder on her belt. She sighed and shook her head. “After a long search, we came back to find Klemen and both horses gone. We didn’t know what happened. You said you found him in the lake?”
“Strangled.” I was thankful Shara answered, as I was having difficulty speaking. “Rocks were tied to him so he’d sink.”
“Eizle probably overheard Klemen say he would shout to us when he saw him,” Steffen said. “So Eizle choked him to get to his horse without alerting us.”
It didn’t seem right to me. “Then why hide the body?”
“To confuse us?” Effie guessed. “It worked. We didn’t know what happened when we came back.”
“I don’t think it was to confuse us, Eff, because why would he care about that?” Steffen mused. “He wasn’t going to come with us anyway.”
“Then why hide Klemen’s body?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
I did, though, and it hurt to say aloud. “He was ashamed about what he’d done. He didn’t want anyone to know, even people from Ovira he cared little about.” I couldn’t help but feel disgusted with myself, like I was just as responsible. No, more responsible. I’d left Eizle alone with Swenn. He would’ve turned out differently if I’d stayed. Was this how a brother would feel if his sibling did something heinous?
“Any idea what he wants to do in Glaine?” Shara asked them.
“He was looking for his brother when we last spoke to him,” Steffen said. ”Maybe after his escape he found out his brother’s in Glaine.”
“Or maybe Kayren is there,” I said, “the woman he was involved with.”
“I don’t know anything about her,” Steffen said.
Eizle had told me he was looking for her, but I wasn’t sure whether this was a lie. It seemed more likely he was looking for someone else—someone responsible for the rage that questions about Kayren seemed to stir. I doubted I even wanted to know.
Effie locked eyes with Steffen. “Terren and Alex will be worried about us. We didn’t get a chance to tell them where we were going before we rushed here with Shara.”
“Right.” Steffen nodded. “We should go back.”
“Maybe we’ll see each other in Glaine,” Effie said. She extended her hand and grinned at me when I shook it. “Not going to try to tag along this time?”
“Shara says it’s all easy riding from here to Glaine,” I told them. And traveling with them now would do nothing but increase the chances of them finding out I was a pyforial mage. They’d urge me to come to Ovira with them, threaten to tell authorities if I didn’t. Unlike Eizle, I didn’t have it in me to hurt them, and especially not to kill them.
Steffen shook my hand. Given his gentle disposition, his hands were surprisingly coarse. I guess it shouldn’t be that shocking when I just saw him impale a man with a sword. But as I looked at his face again, it almost seemed like a different person had committed that merciless act.
“Speaking of difficult riding,” Steffen said, “in Talmor Desert, we came across a dead terrislak with a knife wound in its head!” He laughed. “I haven’t the faintest idea how a creature that size could’ve been slain with a dagger through its scalp.”
The desert was flat and barren so I supposed it would be easy to spot a terrislak carcass. Shara and I smiled at each other.
“You know who did it?” Effie figured by our expressions.
“The two of us,” Shara answered proudly. “With Eizle.” The mood quickly became solemn. “And it was Eizle who stabbed the beast.”
“What about Priest Karvrek?” Steffen asked. “Did Eizle have some part in that as well?”
I nodded.
“Bastial hell,” Effie muttered. “If only Eizle wasn’t deranged! We’re never going to find a py mage who isn’t crazy or dangerous, because those are the only ones put in prison. And it’s not like the law against py saved Klemen. Shows how pointless it is.”
“Eizle should’ve left by now.” I’d had enough of badmouthing him for an eternity. “Let’s go,” I told Shara.
“Bye, Steffen.” Shara waved. “Bye, Eff.”
The rest of us said our goodbyes.
“Eff?” I questioned when Shara and I walked away.
“I like her nickname. I wanted to try it out. Eff—it’s cute, like she is. Do you think so?” Shara’s mood was much lighter than mine.
“It’s hard to call someone cute who just shot a man with a fireball and then called my friend deranged.”
She gently placed her hand on my back. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s best if we don’t talk about him anymore.” I still didn’t know how I felt, just that every mention of Eizle made me uncomfortable.
“Did you consider telling them about your ability with py?”
“I wouldn’t. I don’t want to go to Ovira.”
“Even though you can use the energy freely there?”
“I get to use it enough here. You would go if you were me?”
“I might if I got to take you with me.” She waved her hands frantically. “That sounded…I didn’t mean. Oh, Shara.” She broke into a rhyme. “He already thinks you’re strange. That opinion won’t change, when you arrange strange phrase after phrase.” She caught me smirking, and her mouth dropped open. “Now you’re singing, rhyming and stringing word after word without meaning. It’s getting worse. These rhymes are a curse. Blank verse after blank verse would be better, less adverse than this unrehearsed interspersed mountain of rhymes.”
Her eyes widened. “Neeko, you must stop Shara! She’ll rhyme no more and burst. Show me a scar-a, something bizarre-a, anything—oh gods, this is a first!”
“All right, all right.” I was chuckling by then. “I just wanted to see how far you would take it.”
“Let’s pretend that didn’t happen.”
I changed the subject quickly before my thoughts went back to Eizle. “Did you get what you wanted in Antilith?”
“Only one thing before I saw Eff.” She pulled a brush out of her bag.
“This was one of the things you needed? A brush is nothing but a waste of money.”
“A waste?” She was incredulous. “Have you seen my hair?”
“Untangled hair isn’t going to get us to Glaine faster.”
“If we’re going to meet the master of coin, I don’t want to look like a disheveled runt. I’m already going to have to find a way to explain the ‘terribly annoying’ attribute thanks to Betsy Baker. Might as well avoid any other issues.”
“You really think brushing your hair will help that much?”
“It did for you.”
What did she mean? I tried to figure it out, but she must’ve seen the confusion on my face.
“When you answered the door at your aunt’s house, I saw the way you looked at me before you realized it was me. It was different…to say the least. And when you found out it was me, it was like you couldn’t believe I actually could look decent.”
“I was just surprised. You never look awful.”
“What a relief,” she said sarcastically. “I’m never so vile that you need to turn away? You sure know how to compliment a lady.”
“Quit playing games, Shara. You know as well as I do you’re beautiful. You’re just even more beautiful when you’re clean and wearing nice clothes, as we all are.”
For some reason, this made her stop walking. “It’s not nice to tease me.”
Gods, this was becoming irritating. It r
eminded me of a blacksmith Wylen had introduced me to. The man would never call any of his weapons well-crafted, even though everyone knew they were the best in Lanhine, as did he. To deflect a compliment was one thing, but to deny the truth over and over was just plain annoying.
Sure, Shara wasn’t the epitome of beauty, but she still was beautiful in her own way. Yes, she was right that it had taken me until Cessri to notice, but the heart doesn’t see, it feels, and I’m sure my heart was too busy feeling the collapse of my life to be ready for anything else. I’d seen it well and good in Cessri, and I’d seen it every moment I’d looked at her since. Her bright smile, her dark eyes, the long raven hair that framed a face reflective of her innocence and kind heart. She had to see this whenever she looked in the mirror…didn’t she?
“I’m not teasing.”
She blinked at me for a moment, probably trying to determine how serious I was. “Well, thank you. I didn’t know you thought that way.”
I considered a terrible possibility. “Did none of your parents tell you that you were beautiful?”
“At first. Then they focused on what they didn’t like until they could pass me off to the next.”
“All of them should’ve helped you realize you’re beautiful. That’s every parent’s job.” It was something I’d heard my mother discuss with my aunt.
Again Shara froze, blinking at me.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know anything about this kind of stuff!” She threw her hands into the air.
“Just smile and say thank you. That’s what my mother told me to do whenever someone compliments me.”
She let out her breath, smiled, and thanked me. Then added, “Your mother sounds like she was nice.”
“I couldn't have asked for a better one. I could’ve been a better son, though.” My thoughts found their way back to the subject I’d been trying to avoid. “Eizle destroyed the good memory of our friendship, yet nothing I do will fix the way I feel about betraying my mother. Why is it that memories can only be ruined and not fixed?”
“It’s always easier to destroy than fix. But you can change the way you feel about your past. You just have to do good for the world, like ridding Sumar of the red priest.” She leaned into me for a bump.
“That was just as much Eizle as it was me.”
“Doesn’t mean you deserve less credit.”
“I disagree.”
She huffed. “Smile and say thank you?”
So I did.
CHAPTER THIRTY
There were four diymas standing near my horse. They made an arc of sartious energy at my appearance, and Shara squealed with delight. She made an arc just like theirs. Some seemed to notice, their silver eyes watching it disperse, but there was no response.
They waddled up to me, and one reached out his gnarled hand. I held it, hoping it was the right thing to do. When I saw a small smile curl his lipless mouth, I figured it was.
Shara reached out her hand, but none of the diymas went for it. They walked by us.
“Wait!” Shara tried. They didn’t turn. She made another arc of sartious energy. “Wait, look!” They didn’t. “Come back! We’re supposed to be the best of friends!”
I chuckled. “Says who?”
Shara watched the diymas with hopefulness, standing completely still until they disappeared into the shadows. She heaved out a sigh. “I always figured I could communicate with them somehow, and we would become friends. How did you do it?” She poked me in the arm. “You can’t even move sartious energy.”
I swung myself up on my horse, fighting against exhaustion. “I’ll tell you as we ride into Antilith. Can you light our path? It’s too dark for our horses without bastial energy.”
“Let’s sleep in the forest. I’m too tired to make our way to an inn.”
“We have to. The king’s guards in Antilith need to be warned. There are still enemy forces in the western forest that could attack.” For all I knew, the city could already be burning by the time we got there. But we had to try.
She hoisted herself onto her mount. “You know this how?”
I told her about the diymas approaching Eizle and me because they’d seen us using pyforial energy, about the red priest’s sermons of death, about the scout saying there were others ready for the order to attack, and how we’d sneaked into the middle of the army. Shara made a dull, citrine light come from her wand, illuminating the forest in front of us.
She didn’t need it any longer when we reached the city. With no trees overhead, the moon mixed with lights seeping out of windows made everything visible.
Antilith was a rich city, it seemed, at least the eastern part. Most buildings had at least two floors, and the wide streets were calm. Many sections of Lanhine had more activity when the sun set, shouting and cursing, bottles breaking—nothing that I heard here.
We asked the first person we saw for directions to either a guard of the city or of the king. All men and women at arms turned out to be gathered in the center of the city, and even some citizens wielded swords and wands. It turned out they’d already known of the army in the forest. They were waiting for support from the king. A carrier pigeon had been sent, but by the time those forces arrived, they would be too late to defend the city.
I took Shara aside so we could figure out what to do. “Not again.” She already seemed defeated. “Every city we visit. It’s like the fire’s chasing us all the way to the capital.”
“They might not attack without the order of their leader. They’ll probably send another scout to see about the delay. When they find the red priest encased in sartious energy, they could go back and decide to attack then, but it’ll be long into morning of the next day…I’d assume. How wide is Antilith?”
“They’re probably going around the city, not through it. It’s about two miles in every direction. Yes, well into morning if that’s the case.”
With hardly any food, and our horses probably as exhausted as we were, Shara and I decided it was riskier to ride out of the city now than to stay the night and stock up in the morning. But there was more to the decision than a calculation of risk. Guilt was the biggest influence for me. To leave now felt like abandoning yet another town. I was tired of running. This game had to end. If other citizens were gathering to fight, then we should fight with them. Shara and I said none of this to each other, but I could feel it was at least in her mind from her hard gaze as we looked for an inn.
We found one with a stable, and soon we were inside, the warmth from a fireplace making me gladly remove my overshirt. Shara rolled up her sleeves and approached a man scribbling in a ledger. “Be overly polite if he speaks to you,” she whispered. “But don’t say anything otherwise.”
He set down his quill and smiled at her. “Hello, are you looking for a place to sleep?”
“Yes, and for our horses as well. They’re tied up outside.”
“I’m terribly sorry for making them suffer in the cold a moment longer than needed.” He yelled for a woman to take our horses into the stables. She hurried off, apologizing and thanking us profusely. “Again, I’m so sorry about that.”
“It’s no trouble,” Shara said. “And this is a lovely place. We would be overjoyed if you had a room available.”
“I have a few, actually, though I’m not sure any of them would be good enough for you two. I’m sure this place is a farmhouse compared to where you’d want to stay.”
It was a three-story inn, with finely crafted furniture, exquisite paintings framed by bronze, and pristine rugs embroidered with intricate designs. I couldn’t imagine how many dalions had gone into the creation I saw before my eyes. There was even an aroma that made me think of fanciness—a mixture of oak and green apples.
“No, it’s excellent,” Shara rightly said. “Far better than what we’re used to.”
He frowned. “Please, I’m embarrassed to own a place like this. But if you would be so kind as to stay in one of
my rooms, I would be ecstatic.”
I didn’t understand what could make him think so poorly of the inn. Maybe I would be surprised by what we found in our room.
“I’m sure any room would make us feel like a queen and a king. What are your rates?”
“Please, I should be paying you to stay here. It would only increase the value of the place so I could rightly charge others to stay in the same building as you both.”
“Thank you, but we would be happy to pay.”
“No, I insist. Take the grand bedroom on the third floor. It’s the best I can offer, and anything else would be embarrassing. Go up there right now. Go ahead.”
I was too tired to care if this man was insane offering us his best room for free. I turned toward the stairs, but Shara grabbed my shoulder. “We couldn’t possibly accept such a gracious offer. Please let us pay for another room. We would hate to occupy one of your best when I’m sure one of your worst would still offer the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had.”
“No, you must take the grand bedroom. Anything else simply wouldn’t do. And I could never ask you to pay.”
“Thank you, but we insist. Please, how much for a less exquisite room? One bed is fine.”
His eyes bulged as if he’d offended us. “I cannot have you pay for any of the rooms! Please, take the grand bedroom. I’ll lead you there right now.”
“Please let us pay for another room. Please, sir. This is such a fine place. We must pay.”
“All right, if you insist.” He cleared his throat, the politeness in his tone gone. “One ruff for a one-bed. One ruff three pits for a two-bed.”
“How big are the beds?” Shara now had the same tone as his, plain and ready to negotiate. The switch was startling.
“They range from four feet across to eight. Four footers are in the rooms I mentioned. More coins for bigger beds.” He glanced at us knowingly, assuming correctly we wanted the cheaper room. But one silver was too much for a room, even with our horses staying in the stables.