“But see, he doesn’t even know, I don’t think, that you know. Or else how could he stand to accuse you as he did? Why didn’t you tell him?”
“A wolf of Oren-yaro…” I began.
“Ah, right. This ridiculous notion of your people that you can bear more than others because of your bloodline or who you serve. You Jinseins are so hard to understand, sometimes.”
“You have ideals, too.”
“But they’re my own. Not anyone else’s. Certainly not passed down to me by ancestors who don’t care a lick about how they would ruin my life.”
“It’s so easy for you to say. You don’t—”
I stopped. I could hear something moving in the dark, and thought for a moment that perhaps the kunuti had returned. The trees rustled and I heard it again—a deep, low groan, rather like a dog who couldn’t decide whether to growl or bark.
I gathered my bedroll and plopped down beside Khine. Evidently, he thought this was too close and tried to inch further away.
“You’ve got to stop acting like that, you know,” I said. “I’m not going to order you to sleep with me. I just thought it would be safer if one of us was close enough to stop the other from getting dragged off into the woods.”
“The thought never even occurred to me.”
“Never?”
He stared at me as I began to spread the bedroll on the ground. “Er, order me to?”
“That’s what everyone thinks happened. They think I deliberately sample my guardsmen every turn of the moon. There was a time after I was crowned that every single meeting would devolve into these accusations. Not to my face, mind, but you could see them thinking it when they spoke to me. They—and some of them were friends of my father—sometimes hinted I could…widen my tastes, perhaps add warlord to the menu.” I shook my head in disgust.
“I’ve underestimated you. You knew how to handle Lo Bahn from the beginning.”
I gave a small smile. “That’s why Nor was appointed captain. Magister Arro made the call, insisted it was better I was shadowed by someone related to me instead of another whose name they could drag to the dust like they did Agos’. I shouldn’t have asked Agos to disappear that night. But I was afraid Rayyel would find him and that one of them would get killed. Would Agos stand by and just let Rayyel run him through with a sword out of devotion to me? Or would Agos crush my husband with his bare fists? I didn’t want to find out. I cared for them both. I don’t have a lot of people in my life, Khine. I didn’t want to lose either.
“But it became clear to anyone that his disappearance meant something. He had been by my side ever since he was appointed Captain of the Guard at Oka Shto. He had a house, you know, in Oren-yaro—they tore it apart, torched it. I never could find out who was responsible—I suspected the Ikessars Rayyel had left behind in Oka Shto. I was told later on that it was done for love of the queen. Like I would ever order such a thing. He couldn’t show his face again, could never enter the service of another warlord—not with me as Queen of Jin-Sayeng. Everything he was…gone overnight.”
“So you keep him around because of guilt,” Khine said, like he had stumbled onto a rare realization.
I shrugged.
“On the other hand, he would’ve done a commendable job back in the cave,” he continued.
I glared at him.
“I meant with the kunuti,” Khine stammered.
“Some soldier you’ll make. Those nerves…”
“My nerves are fine. It’s running across monstrous beasts I’ll have to get used to. You seem to have a knack for attracting them.” He shook his head. “It was cowardly that I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do and then it was over really fast.”
“I see. The true reason Jia left you.”
“I walked right into that one.”
I closed my eyes. “I’ll have to teach you to use that damn sword Lo Bahn gave you one of these days.”
“All right,” he said.
“I was expecting you to protest.”
When Khine didn’t reply, I cracked open one eye. I realized he had fallen asleep, arms crossed over his chest, the back of his head on the tree trunk behind him. I stared at this man and wondered when my fear of him had turned to trust. After a moment, I placed my head on his shoulder. He shifted slightly and cleared his throat, but he didn’t pull away this time.
The night wore on. The sun came up. We broke camp and went on our way.
Chapter Seven
The Featherstone Mines
Another day, and then the mountains began to flatten, exposing roads on the horizon that seemed invisible before. Suddenly, we didn’t feel so alone anymore, and I felt the chilling reality of what awaited me. I was lost in my thoughts as we followed the trail away from the riverside and up an overgrown path, blocked by hedges and brush. Khine swore repeatedly for the next while as we pulled out our swords and cut our way through. We reached a marshy meadow, in clear sight of the closest road. Swirls of dust rose from the surface at the first blast of wind.
“That’s the mining road,” Khine said, covering his mouth with his hand. “They closed it when the mines were shut down. If you follow it for north a few hours, it should take you to the southern border. We’re in Lay Weng Shio now.”
“I can’t believe you made me take the long way,” I sighed.
“It’s the safer way. Do you think we would’ve gotten this far with Qun’s men at our backs?”
“I beg to differ. The kunuti was anything but safe.”
“I think you had fun.”
“I think we should examine your idea of fun, Lamang. Your head too, while we’re at it. Do you have any physician friends? One who isn’t a quack?”
“I’m going to pretend that didn’t hurt. You could at least admit it was the scenic route. And we didn’t have to worry about Qun’s men the whole time.”
I slowly exhaled. “That’s about to change, isn’t it?”
He said nothing as we crossed the road. The sky above was orange with a hint of purple, marked with a faint scattering of stars. Khine looked up, squinted, and then turned to wrap a scarf around my neck. The movement was so swift it caught me by surprise; I stood still, my cheeks turning hot as he pulled it over my mouth. And then, almost as an afterthought, he tucked my hair behind my ears. “Don’t go walking into any white, fluffy patches on the ground or on rocks or wherever you see them.” He lifted part of his shirt collar to cover his own nose.
We arrived in the first town: a run-down settlement of abandoned buildings, just as Khine said. Most of the houses had become little more than piles of moss-covered debris. Some still stood—mostly the ones with stone walls. I paused at the doorway of one such house, noting a broken bed and an upturned table.
“So Hatzhi delivered goods to these mages here,” I said, glancing at the tattered curtains on the windows. I pulled back. “That must mean their settlement is somewhere close. Are there any other villages nearby?”
“None that I remember,” Khine mumbled distractedly. He was staring at one of the houses.
I came up to him and paused. “Yours?” I asked, noting the wistful look on his face.
He nodded.
It was a small hut. Only the frame and the roof remained, but I could see an outdoor kitchen with a stone stove and the rusted remains of a pump. “Sixteen years,” Khine said. “But I still remember it like yesterday. I remember…”
His eyes darted down the street and then up to one of the buildings. “The priest’s son was a miner. I was playing out here with my friends when he collapsed right there. Bleeding from the mouth and eyes. They thought he had a run-in with an evil spirit, a forest nymph of some sort, so they wrapped him up in cloth from head to toe and uttered prayers over him all night long. The healer from the next town arrived that morning, but he was dead by then.
“A huge argument erupted when my father said the boy had stumbled into a patch of featherstone the day before. The priest’s son had laughed and
brushed it off, but started feeling ill after lunchtime. The overseer thought Father was making mountains out of molehills. Said we had been mining featherstone for years and no one’s died yet. Except of course people have been falling ill for years, too…no one just made the connection until then.
“I’ll spare you the details of what happened after. It ended with my father packing our whole family and what little possessions we had on a cart for Phurywa. Some of the miners followed, weeks or months later. My father died before the actual mines were closed down. People remembered that about him, that if he hadn’t insisted we leave, everyone might’ve fallen ill and died.”
“Your father was a hero, Khine,” I said.
“You think?”
“Better than mine.”
His eyes fell on me and he was silent for a moment. “There is the mines itself,” he said. “A dangerous area, for more than one reason. White dragons are attracted to featherstone. They’re immune to its effects and like to use it for their nests. It warms up their eggs, I think.”
“White dragons,” I repeated. “Gods, it’s never anything fun, is it? Don’t tell me—you wouldn’t want to meet one.”
“They’re savage. Hornless, not like your Jinsein fire-breathers, and they don’t fly so much as they hop around and glide. When the mines were running, the men scared them off the ore piles at least once a month, more often during the mating season. A doable task if you have enough people and spears surrounding the creature. Still, sometimes they’d bring a man in ripped in shreds, guts everywhere…”
“And with the men gone, it’s a good chance the mines are overrun with these things. Wonderful. So where else would the mages be? They couldn’t possibly just whisk themselves off into thin air every chance they get.”
I paused as I saw Khine stiffen. I followed his gaze and saw figures in the distance. Taking a deep breath, I reached for my sword just as the two silhouettes drew closer: a broad-shouldered man and a tall, well-built woman. Agos and Nor.
The expression on their faces betrayed both relief and disappointment at the sight of me. “Beloved Queen,” Nor said. “Thank the gods. We thought the worst.”
“That’s a rotten trick, running off without us,” Agos added. “Lo Bahn arrests you in Qun’s name and then suddenly you’re not in prison and all the guards are gossiping about your escape. You should’ve gone straight to us!”
“We had to leave as soon as possible, and I didn’t want to risk you both,” I said. “Khine told me the featherstone in this area is dangerous, and I know you wouldn’t listen even if I asked nicely.”
“You never ask nicely,” Agos said.
“You would’ve disobeyed a direct order, too. You see why I didn’t have a choice? I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”
“Since when was that a problem?” Agos snarled. “And Lamang, this was your idea? Who the fuck do you think you are?”
“Leave him out of this,” I said in a low voice.
“With all due respect—what would Magister Arro say if he was alive to see this?” Nor broke in.
Her mention of Arro, instead of my father, caught me off guard.
“I understand it is not my position to scold you, but in the absence of your advisers, I feel like I have to say something,” she continued. “You are not a young girl anymore, Queen Talyien. This—what you did…running off with this man…” She turned to Khine, narrowing her eyes. He had been silent this whole time.
“It’s not what you think,” I said. “Khine knows his way around here. My only goal is to find Rayyel. If you both serve me, then stop questioning my every move! None of this is easy for me. I haven’t forgotten my responsibilities. Captain Nor, if protecting me is the goal, then get started. Look for signs of Qun’s men. The bastards have been tailing me the whole time.”
“We’ve been here since this morning. We already did,” Nor said. “We saw nothing.”
“Then look harder,” I grumbled.
She placed her hand on her sword. After a moment of deliberation, she bowed and stepped away.
I turned to Agos. “And you,” I said. “You’re not in the guard anymore, but that doesn’t change anything. You’re here now. Either you leave and you get to do what you want, or you follow protocol. Start deferring to Captain Nor, for one thing.”
“Haven’t killed her yet.”
“Good for you. Are you going to help find Lord Rayyel or not?”
Agos stared at me with a look that reminded me of the night I slept with him. His eyes skipped towards Khine, and I was suddenly, keenly aware of the both of them, that Khine knew exactly what the nuances in my conversations with my old captain meant. I felt the bite of shame once more and pulled away from Agos.
“Since we have everything cleared up…” Khine started.
Agos glared at him.
“I was just telling the queen we need to go down to the mining road. After our talk of white dragons, I was quite pleased to see the both of you. That greatly increases the odds of us walking out of those mines alive.”
“Should’ve considered that in the first place,” Agos snorted.
“Well, since you’re already here insisting you die of suffocation with us…” Khine gestured and began to walk. I folded my arms over my chest and turned to follow him.
Agos whistled to Nor and they caught up, their shadows as tall as prison towers behind me.
~~~
Khine explained that featherstone was popular in the cities as a building material, that it didn’t catch on fire and was useful for a variety of purposes—from making warmer walls to mixing with water as mortar. It was particularly valuable to builder-mages, because it offered micro-connections to the agan—not enough for large spells, but it did the trick to enhance runes in order to stabilize buildings or bridges, among other things. After word of its danger got out, some of the mines got shut down, but not all. Work continued in the mines that had good road connections to towns far enough not to feel the side-effects, and builders continued to use the material, reasoning that mixing it with cheaper alternatives rendered its unique properties inert.
People die. The world turns.
My father had tried to show as much of the commoner’s world to me when I was little, which consisted of the visits to the rice terraces and farms on the foothills, or the small fishing villages along both sides of the River Agos. I remembered enjoying the fresh air and the marked contrast to life at court, and sleeping at the crook of my father’s arm, one of the few times I remembered him as my father and not Warlord Yeshin. But listening to Khine’s stories made me aware of how fabricated those experiences had been. How much did I really know of people’s hardships, I who could return to a palace where I would be clothed and fed without anyone losing a finger? The gift of perspective, to a woman in my position…
I tried not to think it over too much. I was too far away from home to do much about it. But I did resolve to examine the conditions of the iron mines up the mountains where our lands bordered the Ikessars’ and the villages that relied on them. Ruling Jin-Sayeng was supposed to mean more than simply juggling the warlords’ whims. It was too easy to forget that sometimes.
We reached the entrance to the mines. There were upturned carts with missing wheels and mounds of dirt piled along the sides of the narrow road. “Don’t turn around,” Nor said, before I could take a step into the darkness, “but I think we’re being watched.”
“Mages?” I asked.
Nor grimaced. “Qun’s men, I think. A scouting group.”
“I wonder how long they’ve been here.”
“The rest must be in the other town,” Khine said. “It’s closer coming from An Mozhi, about an hour from here, and the water pumps might still work. This one’s closer to Phurywa.”
“We came from Phurywa,” Nor said.
Khine looked up in surprise.
“We went there first,” Nor explained. “We travelled with your siblings, Lamang. With news of Queen Talyien’s escape
and you gone from the inn the next day—we knew she was with you somehow and asked for their help. They decided to come with us—Anzhao didn’t feel safe anymore, not with Qun rampaging like a madman.”
“Are they well?”
Nor nodded. “We saw your mother, too.”
Khine’s face tightened. “Did she look healthy?”
“We didn’t stay very long,” Nor said. “We left as soon as we knew how to get here.” It wasn’t really much of an answer, and Khine looked lost in thought as we strode deeper into the tunnel.
“How did you know we were going here in the first place?” I asked.
Agos snorted. “Lo Bahn.”
“Inzali filed a complaint over Lo Bahn’s arrest,” Nor said. “Qun had no choice but to let him go the next afternoon.”
“Came up to him then,” Agos added. “Threatened to beat the shit out of him so he would tell us where you went.”
“That must’ve worked well,” I remarked.
“He deserved to have his skull bashed in for what he did to you.”
Nor scowled. “I told Agos that violence leads to nowhere. You’re right, my queen—Lo Bahn didn’t flinch. What he did ask for, in exchange for this information, was if he and his children could travel with us. He didn’t think he could trust anyone else in the city.”
“He’s there, then? In Phurywa?” I asked.
“I believe he’s planning his next move with his steward.”
Agos cleared his throat. “So what are we looking for, exactly?” he asked, waving the torch. His voice was muffled behind his shirt, which he had pulled up to cover his mouth at Khine’s insistence.
“Anything that stands out,” Khine finally spoke up. “The work here stopped a long time ago, so if you see something that says otherwise…”
“I think we have to talk about Qun’s men first,” I said. “A more pressing concern.”
Agos snorted. “Bastards. Think they know it’s the queen?”
“I don’t think so,” Nor replied. “Didn’t seem like they were at all interested when we passed by. But someone’s bound to figure it out soon enough. We have to act before they do.”
The Ikessar Falcon Page 10