Riana and Ash left at dawn’s break. Riana, a habitually early riser, didn’t mind it but Ash certainly did. She was convinced he was riding with one eye open, the other still glued shut with sleep. Eventually the motion of the horse woke him up and he was paying attention by the time they reached the far outskirts of Estole.
Ashlynn had told her that their master was outside of Honora, south and west of Estole. It was clear across the country, actually, which was why the journey would be so dangerous. No one thought that they would need to break into any buildings, as they weren’t on a rescue, so this time they chose to go light and fast. Just the two of them, traveling as incognito as possible, and avoiding people as much as they could.
In an effort to blend in with the populace better, Riana had a hat on to cover her distinctive red hair. Ash wore one as well, something with a low brim, but she doubted it was a disguise on his part. Belike more an effort to ward off the sun. His fair skin burned more easily than hers did. Riana, used to the sun, didn’t mind it much. Ash had a very different opinion.
They had a rhythm with the horses: a fast trot for an hour, a walk for an hour, pacing the beasts and themselves so that they didn’t exhaust either but covered ground quickly. Riana timed it so that the next time they were at a walk, she could ask, “Tell me more about yer master. Aside from a mention here and there, I do no’ know much about the man.”
“Gerrard is his name. He’s a large man, gruff, blunt to the point of leaving open wounds. He’s a good man, solid, and extremely capable. At one time, probably thirty years ago, he was acknowledged as one of the best in his field and the king himself appointed him as one of the wizards of the court. But it didn’t last long.” Ash snorted, shaking his head. “I don’t know why anyone thought it would. Master’s many things, but controllable is not one of them. The man has a stubborn streak as wide as an ocean and he doesn’t deal well with authority. To put him in a court position, of all things, was folly. The height of folly. He lasted a full year and then left as abruptly as he came in. He’s been on the outs with the magical community ever since.
“In spite of that, he was still well recognized enough to build his own academy. Well, I call it an academy, but he’s basically the only teacher. The older students are set to teach specific things to the younger ones, which is how he handles the workload. By the time that Ashlynn and I were given to him, he’d had the school for about five years.”
He was smiling, saying this. For all of his protests about his master not liking him much, he still remembered those student days with fondness, eh? “So he be running this school of his for thirty years?”
“About that,” Ash agreed. “He’s produced some amazing wizards, some even more talented than he himself. You wouldn’t think it, looking at him, but he’s a very good teacher.”
He must be that, to produce wizards as capable as Ash and Ashlynn. But in this story, Riana heard more than what he said. She started making her own plans of what to say if Ash failed because she had a notion that there was a possibility here, one that Ash had clearly not thought of.
Knowing well that she had only a map and a description to go by, Ash was kind enough to give her updates as to where they were as they rode. It gave her a sense of direction, certainly, but it also taught her the road. Riana was certain that if something happened, and she had to navigate her way back, then she could do it.
They stopped that night outside the edge of Estole’s borders, properly in Iysh but near no major cities. There were only trading posts and small villages along this part of the road, so small that some of them didn’t even have names. Avoiding people as they were, they didn’t stop at any of them, but instead found a depression off the side of the road that would give them shelter from the wind and a place to hide a cook fire.
Ash set up a charm in camp to ward off insects, which allowed them to be able to sleep comfortably. At dawn, they were up again, and back on the road.
They were at a walk, the sun warming up her right side, and thoughts of a mid-morning snack drifting through her head when Ash started fumbling for his front breast pocket. Riana frowned, shifted in the saddle, and finally heard the faint voice coming from that direction.
“Ash.” Ashlynn repeated again patiently. After a solid decade of using these devices, both siblings had learned that they weren’t particularly loud and sometimes you had to repeat yourself several times before the other person could hear you.
“Here!” he said, voice going up in a short victory as he finally got his necklace out. “Here. What’s going on?”
“Please explain to Edvard that he’s an idiot.”
Ash blinked and responded slowly, “I thought we had already established that?”
From a distance, a voice protested, “Hey!”
“What has he done this time?” Ash prompted, grinning at being able to rile his blood-brother even from a distance.
“We’ve been discussing ways to stop Iysh from marching against us. Edvard is dead set on his plan, which isn’t possible. He wants to sneak in and steal the treasury, or put a glamour over the treasury, or something along those lines so that the Iyshian government believes it’s broke and can’t afford to mount an army in the field.”
Ash pinched the bridge of his nose, hard. “And which fool idiots are supposed to sneak into a highly guarded facility and steal all of that money?”
“We are, of course.”
“And which other idiots are supposed to cart all of this away? Because two people won’t begin to manage it.”
“I told you it wouldn’t work,” Ashlynn said triumphantly to Edvard.
There was a distinct note of sulking that carried through the caller clearly. “I don’t see anyone else coming up with a viable idea.”
“I thought half the reason why I’m on the road is to find us a magical fighting force?” Ash responded, exasperated.
“I need builders just as much.”
Riana had to admit the truth of that. Most of the time, it was the building that took up so much of the wizard’s efforts. Not the fighting. Kneeing her horse closer, she pitched her voice to carry clearly. “We promise to think on it.”
“Anything else going on that I should know about?” Ash prompted.
“Not a thing,” his sister denied. “You do realize that this will be the last time we can talk? We’re straining the limits of our callers right now.”
“I know,” Ash assured her. “But it’ll be fine. We’re being very cautious.”
“Glad to hear it. I have a worried father over here fidgeting.”
Broden gave a wordless noise of protest that no one actually bought into.
“Stay safe, you two.” The caller abruptly went quiet.
Ash studied the gold medallion in his hand. “She must have been tying together at least two callers just to get that strong of a connection. Our system has improved, but not by that much.”
Riana had been faintly surprised it worked at all. Not that she really understood all of the magical mechanics behind it, just what had been explained to her, and the pieces she’d overheard as the three wizards had put their heads together to try and improve the system. Still, knowing that she was now completely outside where she could call for help sent a tingle of unease racing up her spine.
She spent the rest of the day riding under a cloud of trepidation. Riana might have grown up in a hostile environment but she had never been alone before. Well, she wasn’t alone now, but it was different. This was completely foreign territory to her. She didn’t know where to go to hide, or for help, or if help was even an option open to her. The only solid thing she had to depend on was Ash, and even he was questionable at the moment because he hadn’t quite gained all of his strength back yet. Instead of depending on him, it was more like she felt she had to be strong enough he could depend on her.
Not for the first time, she wished that they had been given another two or three days’ grace so that Ash could get his full strength back before taki
ng to the road. This was indeed nerve-racking.
They found a nice copse of trees that night that was set a small distance from the road. It didn’t have water, but it gave good shelter for a cook fire, so Riana was quite happy with the spot. She settled into making camp with a small sense of security.
It was a feeling that Ash obviously didn’t feel as he immediately went around to the trees and started setting up a ward.
She frowned while watching him. “Ash, be that necessary?”
“I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight out in the open like this without a ward up.”
While she did see his point, she had to wonder at this choice as he wasn’t supposed to use magic at all for another day. And even after that day had passed his sister had restricted him to minor magicks and not anything remotely on the scale that he had been doing.
Seeing him work magic set ill with her, but she let it lie and continued setting up camp. As he set his ward, she went out and gathered firewood, as she wouldn’t be able to do that later, and answered a call of nature while she was out of sight of him. That accomplished, she came back with an armful and set it in the middle, setting up a fire ring.
Riana turned to find flint in her packs when she heard a whoosh sound behind her and the crackle of flame. Snapping about, she found that Ash had set the fire magically ablaze. “Ash! Be still, man.”
Startled at this chastisement, he jerked his head up. “What? Oh, no, Riana this barely takes any power at all.”
She glared at him. “Yer sister be adamant on this, Ash. No using magic at all. The ward I let pass as it be dangerous out here alone, but the fire be a different story. That we need no’ use magic for. Use yer hands.”
He looked set to argue this but at the fierce frown on her face, he reconsidered that idea and subsided. The set to his mouth wasn’t quite a sulk but it was near enough to look ridiculous on a grown man. Riana stared at him, bemused and exasperated all at once. Was he in such a habit of doing everything with magic that he found it too tedious to do it the old fashioned way?
Trying to set aside her irritation, she reached for the pack of food and shifted through it. What to do for dinner? They still had bread, and jerky, and meats and cheeses. She could do some cold-cut sandwiches but they’d had that for lunch, eating in the saddle. Might as well take advantage of the fire while they could. A stew would require a lot of water, which they didn’t have, so perhaps roasting something in the coals would be the best ch—
From behind her, she felt it when Ash used just a trace of magic. She whirled about on her heels so quickly that she nearly upsetting her own balance. He had a finger on the ground, tracing a design into it that she recognized, designed to make the ground softer to lay on. Her temper flared hot and wild and she nearly tackled him. “QUIT!”
Ash jerked away from her, eyes wide. “Riana! Stop reacting like that, you’re scaring me.”
“I be scaring ye? Me?” It took great control but she didn’t reach out and start strangling him. “Ye be scaring me. Ash, be sensible! The comfort of a night’s sleep be no’ worth using magic now.”
He got that look on his face that said he was forcing himself to be patient. But this close to him, with their emotions running high, she knew he was feeling anything except that. “Riana, it’s little traces of magic—”
She had heard that excuse enough times that it grated along her nerves and she had no patience to listen to it again. “Lovenanty, man, but do ye take me as a fool? No magic at all be what yer sister said. Ye agreed with her at the time! And now ye find excuses here and there to cheat. It be akin to poking at an open wound over and over, just a little here and there. It will break it open again, ye know it will.”
“It’s not the same principal at all—”
“That be how Ashlynn described it to me, and at the moment, I trust her more than ye.” Riana knew the second those words left her mouth that she should have phrased it differently. It struck a chord in him that was better left alone.
A dark thundercloud swept over his face and he growled at her. “Then maybe you should have been her partner.”
She felt sorry for the way she had worded it, but her stance was still right, and it wasn’t something that she could take back. For his sake. So she held firm. “It would no’ have gone well for ye. Me dad’s like to clobber ye for rashness like this. Ash. It be another day. Ye can no’ wait another day?”
“Exactly. It’s one more day. What difference does a day make?”
Right. That tack hadn’t worked. Time to try another one. “We be alone out here, far from help, and I will no’ know what to do if ye fall again.”
“I’m not going to collapse!” he nearly shouted at her. “My magical core is fine!”
“Ye said that to me the very morning ye went down!” she shouted back. A dam burst open and she lost what grip she had on her temper. “Blessed be, Ash, I can no’ trust ye to take care of yerself. Ye proved that to me a week ago. For both our sakes, leave off on the magic.”
He abruptly stood and turned his back to her. “I’m not arguing this anymore.” Gait like a miffed tiger, he stalked out of the ring of the camp.
Alarmed, she shot up to her feet as well. “Where be ye going?!”
“For a walk!” he practically snarled, not even glancing back at her.
Riana stared at his retreating back in open dismay. That had not gone well. Not at all. They’d never argued before like this so she didn’t know if Ash was the type to sulk for long or not. This wasn’t the right sort of place for them to have discord between them.
Hopefully it didn’t take him long to regain his temper.
Chapter Seventeen
Three hours passed with no sign of Ash returning.
Riana had at first thought to let the man have his space. It was only after he had left that she realized where she had gone wrong with the argument. All of her life, she and her father had been partners. They worked together in every single aspect in order to survive, so she was used to depending on a partner and being depended on in return. It was as natural to her as breathing. Switching partners to Ash had been uncertain at first because she’d never worked with anyone aside from her father, so it was new and different. But at the same time, it was the same, as she was basically doing what she had always done.
What she had failed to consider was that Ash was completely different from her. He had never once had a partner growing up. While he and Ashlynn were twins, and worked well together, they normally didn’t team up on projects because their talents and specializations were different. To Ash, the concept of having a partner was welcome but radically different from normal. He was still getting accustomed to the idea of having her. Being an independent man most of his life, he didn’t really know how to depend on her yet. He was far more comfortable with having her depend on him, as that was how people had interacted with him most of his life.
All of that boiled down to this: telling him that he could not work, that he could not do what he had trained for years to do, would not go over well. That wide, stubborn, independent streak of his would make him rebel against such a saying. Whether or not it was coming from his partner would make no difference. Ash took care of the world—that was what he thought he was supposed to do. It had driven him into the ground to begin with. Her mistake had been in thinking that a simple word from her would change him.
Three hours of introspection had told her what she had said wrong, but that didn’t necessarily mean that she knew what to change to make it right. But she did know that she couldn’t afford to sit there any longer. It had become very late, the fire was down to embers, and Ash was wandering around in country he didn’t know that well. If he found trouble, he would be ill prepared to meet it head on, his condition being what it was. Riana sat there and debated for a full minute on what to do. Her first instinct was just to get up and track him but she couldn’t leave the camp as it was. There had been sparse traffic on the road today and she’d seen nary a si
gn of bandits, but that didn’t mean it wise to leave everything behind.
Finally, she decided to pack back up before looking for Ash. She stuffed everything back in the packs, re-saddled the horses, and then grabbed a branch from nearby to make herself a makeshift torch. With that lighting her path, the reins of the horses in her free hand, she set off in the direction Ash had disappeared into.
In pitch darkness like this with only torchlight to go by, tracking a man wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. The ground was hard, there were barely any signs to go by, and it became a guessing game very quickly if she was reading Ash’s tracks or someone else’s. Riana managed several hundred feet before she came to rocky ground and the tracks disappeared completely. She stopped dead.
Disgusted, she growled at the ground, “This be a fine pickle. When I find the man, I be giving him an earful, see if I do no’.”
At this point she only had two options left to her. She could go back to the camp and wait, hoping that nothing would happen to Ash during the night and that he’d find his way back to her at some point. She didn’t like that option at all. It sat ill in her stomach like bad food would.
The other option would be to put their bond to use and see if she couldn’t find him that way. In practicing at the settlement, she never had quite caught the knack of it. She could feel his emotions strongly now and she had a very good sense of his magical core, after concentrating on it for a straight week. But locating him using those two things had proven to be difficult in the extreme. She only had a vague indication that he was off in that direction, somewhere.
If she decided to follow the bond, then she would also be resorting to wandering around out here in the darkness, which wasn’t exactly a safe thing to do. Sitting alone in a camp was marginally safer but the idea still set ill with her. Stuck between two options, neither one of them that appealing, Riana wasn’t quite sure what to decide.
As she stood there debating with herself, Ash decided the matter for her. She was as focused on him as ever and she felt several emotions from him that spoke of nervousness, discomfort, and growing unease. It told a story to her—he was most likely lost.
Arrows of Promise (Kingmakers Book 2) Page 14