Shrouded Sky (The Veils of Lore Book 1)

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Shrouded Sky (The Veils of Lore Book 1) Page 10

by A. Akers, Tracy


  “But Orryn said I could be one of them,” Chandra said. “How is that possible?”

  “You could be of their blood, a descendent. Thus you would be of the Lost.”

  “You stole me for my blood?” Chandra rubbed her temples. This was beginning to sound like a bad horror flick.

  “No,” Tygg assured her. “You were sent to us. You are a gift.”

  “No,” Chandra argued. “I’m not here as a gift. I’m here by accident.” She made her way to her pine-straw pallet and lowered herself down.

  “There are no accidents,” Tygg said. “Surely you know that.”

  “I know no such thing,” Chandra said, but then she thought on it. “All right, if my being here is no accident, if it’s all planned out, then what’s going to happen to me?”

  “One cannot know every future, otherwise there would be no purpose to life,” Orryn said. He tossed some kindling next to the rest of the wood. “Our god tells us many things, but He does not tell us everything, unlike Tygg’s so-called gods.”

  “So you believe in one god, and Tygg believes in many.”

  “No, it’s just that we do not follow the same teachings,” Orryn said. He glanced at her. “What do you believe?”

  The question caught her off guard. Not only was she not sure how to answer, but she wasn’t sure why he had asked. “I don’t know what I believe,” Chandra said, hoping that would suffice. “I just know I would have a hard time following any god that kills innocent people.”

  “There are no innocents,” Tygg said.

  “So says a believer in forced destinies,” Orryn added.

  Chandra glanced up to see Tygg and Orryn staring at each other as if primed for another argument. Tygg was the first to retreat. “I must hunt dinner,” he said, and turned and disappeared into the woods.

  It wasn’t long before they were seated around the campfire, eating an early meal. “Why is Tygg going to Syddia with us?” Chandra asked Orryn after swallowing down a bite. It had only taken her three days of hunger to gain an appetite for Bambi’s forest friends. “Isn’t it dangerous for him?”

  Orryn turned to Tygg. “Yes, Tygg. Why?”

  Tygg kept his eyes on his food. “I go to see that the Imela arrives safely,” he said.

  “All this talk about my safety,” Chandra said. “Why do either of you care how I arrive if I’m going to just get dropped on the Council’s doorstep?”

  “She’s right,” Orryn said. “Why is her safety your concern?”

  “She is Taubastet. I told you,” Tygg said. “But do not forget, Or’n, I also go to see that you arrive safely.” He shook his head. “You dismiss me so easily.”

  “No,” Orryn said. “I just don’t want to have to explain what you’re doing with me. I have enough trouble as it is.”

  “But we are at truce, are we not?” Tygg said. “I am with you as a gesture of good will, that is all.”

  “Except you know that’s not true,” Orryn said, eyeing him.

  “Do you think I am lying?” Tygg challenged. He tossed what was left of his dinner into the fire.

  Orryn leaned toward him. “I know you are.”

  Tygg rose. “Let us end this now.”

  Suddenly Orryn was on his feet. He whipped his knife from his belt.

  Chandra stood and stepped between them, facing Orryn. “Stop! I’m sorry. I won’t ask any more questions.”

  He straightened. “Saved by a woman,” he said, sliding his blade back into his belt. He smirked. “Be glad I allowed it, cat.”

  “I am glad only that your reflexes are slow,” Tygg replied, returning his own knife to its sheath.

  Orryn took his seat.

  Tygg grabbed Chandra by the arm and yanked her unexpectedly toward him. “Do not throw yourself in front of my blade again,” he hissed.

  “I was only trying to stop him!”

  “If he had wanted to kill me, you would not have stopped him.” He jerked her closer. “There is no loyalty between us, girl, only duty. Now do you see how it is?”

  “No,” she said. “I don’t.” Chandra pried her arm from Tygg’s grasp. “I just don’t want either of you to get hurt. All right?” She rubbed her arm. “Maybe you two don’t care about each other, but I do.”

  “You cannot mean that,” Tygg said.

  Chandra realized he looked more alarmed than when Orryn had drawn his knife on him.

  “You don’t have to get all morose about it,” she said. “It’s not like I want to marry either of you or anything.”

  “It’s a good thing,” Orryn said, his eyes sparkling with interest. “For I cannot marry, and Tygg—”

  “Enough,” Tygg said, turning on him.

  “—is not meant for you. Am I wrong?”

  Tygg did not move, nor did he reply.

  “I didn’t think so,” Orryn said. He grabbed a stick and poked at the fire, causing flames to leap from the pile.

  “What does he mean?” Chandra asked.

  “You would not understand,” Tygg said.

  “Perhaps she would,” Orryn said. He turned his eyes to Chandra. “Allow me to explain. Tygg believes in predestiny. Wherever his path takes him, it’s under the direction of his gods, like a pawn in a game. And yet he thinks ill of me for following the teachings of my god.”

  “You have no more free will than I do,” Tygg said. “In fact, you have no will at all.”

  Orryn puffed up, but Chandra interrupted before he could counter. “What does that have to do with me?” she asked.

  “Tygg was watching the borders that day, as was I,” Orryn continued. “And there you were, on the beach, the Syddian side I might add. He believes an error was made, and yet he also believes it was meant to be. The question is why he goes to Syddia. It cannot be for you, for he knows he’ll soon lose you, and it cannot be for me. Why does he go? I wonder.”

  Chandra felt a catch in her throat. “What do you mean he’ll soon lose me?”

  Tygg stepped toward Orryn, his fists curling at his side. “I do not deny that I go with purpose,” he said, ignoring her question. “But it is a mission of peace.”

  “Peace?” Orryn shook his head. “Yet they send one man.”

  “Sometimes one man is all it takes.”

  “You yourself said we are at truce,” Orryn said. “How will this help maintain peace?”

  “The Imela could be a symbol of trust between our people,” Tygg said.

  “And my part in it?” Orryn asked. “Surely I have one.”

  “Aye,” Tygg said. “You are to offer protection.”

  Orryn narrowed his eyes. “For whom?”

  “For Chandra, of course.”

  “And what of you, Tygg?” Orryn asked. “Shall I let them arrest you? Or is that when you’ll ask payment of my debt?”

  Tygg clenched his hands tighter. “I am only to go to Syddia. What you do for me once I get there is your decision.”

  “What a minute,” Chandra said, interrupting. “You aren’t trying to become some sort of martyr are you?” She grabbed Tygg’s arm. “Are you?”

  “Of course not,” Tygg said, but from the look on his face she wasn’t so sure.

  “Martyr?” Orryn rose. “Is that what this is about?”

  Chandra thought she detected concern in Orryn’s voice, but then he added, “If you’re determined to die, Tygg, I’ll escort you to the Sovereign Lady myself!”

  “Of course I do not wish to die!” Tygg said, rounding on him. “I have a child, do I not? But I am bound by the will of the gods. If they say go to Syddia, I go to Syddia.”

  “And if my god says that you don’t? What then?” Orryn asked.

  “Then I will have failed in my duty.”

  Orryn nodded. “I’ll not hinder you,” he said. “But I’ll not help you either.”

  Chandra’s eyes darted back and forth between the two of them, and for the first time she understood the meaning of their words. Their friendship may have been a fragile one, but she now realized i
t was as disposable as their lives.

  “What if you’re both wrong,” she suggested.

  Orryn and Tygg gave her a mystified look.

  “I’m just saying you both have very different beliefs,” she said. “Both can’t be right. One of you is wrong. Or maybe both of you are.”

  “Dare not utter that in Syddia,” Orryn warned.

  “Why? What would happen to me?”

  Orryn opened his mouth to respond, then set his jaw and remained silent.

  “Fine,” Chandra said. “You don’t have to say it.” She sat down, facing the fire. “Will your lady question me, too?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Orryn replied.

  “What will she ask?”

  He sat down next to her. “I don’t know.”

  “Is there any way to stop her from doing it?”

  “No. I don’t believe so.”

  “Well if you think of a way, let me know, all right?” The campsite became uncomfortably quiet.

  “What did you mean when you said I was not for Tygg?” Chandra asked Orryn.

  Tygg took his place across the fire from them and sat, cross-legged. “You ask too many questions,” he said.

  “I question everything,” Chandra retorted. “Maybe you two should try it.”

  “What a world we would live in, eh, Tygg?” Orryn said.

  “Well at least I still have my humanity,” Chandra said. “Can you say the same?”

  Tygg chuckled.

  “And you,” she said, directing her attention to Tygg. “You throw your life away. For what?”

  Neither of them answered.

  Chandra rose to her feet. “I’m tired,” she said. “You two sort it out. Or not.” She turned toward the bedroll Tygg had arranged for her under the pine.

  “Chandria,” Orryn said.

  She stopped.

  “About the Council and the Sovereign Lady.”

  “Yes?”

  “Use what you know.”

  Chandra decided not to ask for further explanation. She rarely understood what he meant anyway.

  She stepped to her bedroll and curled up on it, closing her eyes in an attempt to distance herself from the feeling of doom that was welling in her throat. Tomorrow they would reach Syddia, and what could happen once there, to her, to them, was a terrifying prospect. She brushed aside a tear that threatened to roll down her cheek. She refused to let them see her cry. If they insisted on going to a place where their lives weren’t worth much, and where hers was worth probably less, so be it. There wasn’t much she could do about it. Or was there? She rolled onto her back and stared at the stars breaking through the darkness.

  “Tell me what to do,” she whispered.

  A falling star suddenly streaked across the heavens. Chandra sat up with a start. Use what you know. A comet had played a role in the story she’d read. It had been spoken of in a prophecy and had ushered in a series of events that changed everything. She turned her eyes to Tygg and Orryn. They, too, were staring at the amazing light.

  The orb vanished as a chilly gust of wind swept through the trees, clattering the branches. Tygg stood and wheeled around. “Someone comes,” he said, reaching for his knife.

  Orryn and Chandra rose quickly. “What do you see?” Orryn asked him.

  “Not see,” Tygg said. He knelt on one knee and pressed a hand to the ground. “Horses. Several of them.”

  Orryn stepped to his side. “If it’s Syddians,” he warned, “I speak first.”

  “Aye,” Tygg said. He rose and narrowed his eyes toward the trees.

  Orryn turned to Chandra and motioned her toward him. “Remain silent,” he told her. “Stay at my back.”

  “But—”

  “Silence!”

  He turned back around and positioned his stance as a host of armed men on horseback thundered through the trees and burst into the campsite. A white stallion broke through the riders who were now circling the area. It galloped toward Orryn and Tygg, then came to a halt.

  “Orryn,” the man atop it said. “So we find you at last.”

  “I didn’t get the impression you’d been searching for me,” Orryn said, his meaning clear.

  The man scowled. “You will come with us.”

  “Of course,” Orryn said. “But first I’d like to know why a border replacement wasn’t sent.”

  “The Sovereign Lady didn’t order one.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I’m not here to explain her decrees, only to serve you this one: You are hereby temporarily relieved of your duties.”

  “Relieved of my duties? But I’m more than fit!”

  “Your temper proves you are not,” the man said.

  “I need lavation, is all.”

  “All the more reason.”

  Chandra peeked around Orryn’s back, allowing her a better view of the man on horseback. He was older, she noted, with tawny hair and blue eyes, dressed in a black tunic that was covered by a vest plate of metallic gray. Around his wrists he wore tooled leather gauntlets, and his feet and calves were protected by thick boots. A long sword hung at his hip, and at his belt a sheathed dagger could be seen. Definitely not a man to test.

  The man narrowed his eyes. “It is with the regret of the Council that you, Orryn of the House of Seth, be relieved of your duties until proof of your ability to perform them is determined by the Sovereign. Do you dispute this?”

  Orryn fisted his hands at his side. “No, Commander Pey,” he said.

  “An Imela, I see,” Pey said, spotting Chandra. He slid his eyes to Tygg. “And a prisoner. Perhaps that will sway things in your favor.”

  “The Taubastet came only to escort the Imela and myself,” Orryn said, “as a gesture of good will.”

  “He committed no crime?” the man asked.

  “No,” Orryn replied.

  “We’ll see.”

  Pey tilted his head toward Chandra. “Where did you find her? She does not look like the usual sort we get.”

  “Near the border,” Orryn said.

  “Our side of it?” Pey asked suspiciously.

  “Are you suggesting I trespassed and stole the girl?”

  “No, but I see no reason for the elementals to send one of her kind to us.”

  “It’s not your job to understand the elementals, nor is it mine,” Orryn said.

  Pey frowned. “Very well. The Sovereign can sort it out when we get there.” He nodded to one of the horsemen. “Secure the male,” he said, then to Orryn, “The Imela rides with me.”

  “Do you have formal release for her?” Orryn said, stepping more protectively in front of her.

  “I didn’t realize it would be required.”

  “Then you realized wrong,” Orryn said. “Until I see a release in writing, she’s under my care as finder. Do you dispute that I’ve a right to her?”

  Pey’s features darkened, but he conceded, though without the courtesy of a reply. He snapped a second order, and Tygg was immediately surrounded by a group of men who had dismounted their horses.

  Orryn grabbed Chandra’s hand and pulled her toward his horse. He quickly saddled it.

  “Get on,” he ordered and lifted her up. Chandra threw her leg over the horse’s back, while Orryn took his place behind her and reached for the reins.

  Chandra turned her eyes to the crowd of men, desperately searching for Tygg. She could see he was now bound at the wrists, and there was blood running from his nose. “Don’t let them hurt him, Orryn,” she pleaded. “Please.”

  “I cannot stop them.”

  “But he’s your friend!”

  Orryn jerked her head back by the hair. He pressed his lips to her ear. “Do not say that word again,” he hissed. He wrapped his arm around her waist and yanked her hard against him. “Or you will regret it.”

  CHAPTER 15

  The horses rode through the night, sweeping through a corridor bordered by pines and illuminated by moonlight. Orryn glanced down at Chandria whose back was limp against h
is chest. He could just make out her profile and realized how very close his face was to hers. He rested his gaze on her, keeping one eye on the road, the other on her features. Perhaps it was fatigue or the moonlight playing tricks on his eyes, but what he saw was a nose that was fine and perfectly placed, and the dusting of freckles upon it that made her seem younger than she probably was. Her lips were full and slightly parted, and he wondered what it would be like to kiss them. He aimed his attention back to the road, trying to fling the notion from his mind. He was not allowed the luxury of kisses, especially with a girl who wasn’t awake and wouldn’t be willing even if she were.

  He spurred the horse on, trying to clear his mind. He could not fall prey to such thoughts. He had his duty as well as his own survival to think of. He forced his attentions back to the brief conversation he had had with Pey. The Commander had said the Sovereign had ordered no replacement be sent to Orryn’s outpost. But why? Surely she knew he would require treatment. Surely she knew! He looked ahead, seeking Pey amongst the others. Why had the man refused to tell him more? They had served together before, though in different guardships, but there had been no conflict between them. Something unprecedented had happened; he could feel it. Orryn caught sight of Tygg. He was seated on one of the horses, his wrists tied to the pommel, a burly soldier seated at his back. Orryn felt a twinge of regret, but he shoved it aside. Tygg was Taubastet. And no amount of ink put to parchment could change that.

  The trail began to widen into a road, and it wasn’t long before a mountainous wall of rectangular stones rose from the landscape before them. Torch lights flickered along it, sending geometric shadows dancing along a seemingly endless barricade. The horses slowed, then stopped. Pey shouted a command in the direction of the wall, and a vertical stone of the same shape and size as the others swung slowly open. Beyond the portal Orryn could make out armed guards. They spoke words to Pey that Orryn could not hear, but as expected the party was soon allowed to pass.

  The men continued on, though at a much slower pace, beyond the wall and upward along a road that was now leading them toward a mountain in the distance. Against the dark night sky the mountain’s silhouette was dotted with thousands of torch lights, shining in such contrast to the black starless sky above it.

 

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