“Tried what?”
“To get the terl to let me go with you, but he won’t budge. I’m sorry.”
Karliss was touched. “Thank you,” he said simply.
“I should be there,” Ganbold continued. “I know you’re this powerful tlacti and all, but you’re still my little brother. It’s my job to look out for you and make sure you don’t fall and bang your head or anything.”
Karliss smiled, remembering the incident Ganbold was talking about. It was years before, when they were both still children. He and his brother were playing near the eroded bank of a stream, when suddenly it gave way and Karliss fell into the stream and hit his head on a rock. He would have drowned if Ganbold hadn’t pulled him out of the water. Ganbold got in a lot of trouble from their parents, who told him as the older brother it was his responsibility to look after his little brother and keep him safe.
“I had a lump on my head for days,” Karliss said, touching the spot on his forehead.
“It was huge. Like a robin’s egg, it was. I thought you were growing a horn.”
Then they both stood there in silence. Ganbold was the first to speak again.
“You take care of yourself, okay? Don’t make me come rescue you.”
“I’ll try.”
“Try what? To make me come rescue you? Or to take care of yourself?”
“The taking care of myself part.”
“You’ve always been a pain, you know that? Never doing what you were supposed to. Always getting into trouble. Never being a normal little brother. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to thrash you. But I’m proud of you. I wouldn’t want anyone else as my brother. I guess I just want you to know that.”
And with that Ganbold gave him an awkward pat on the shoulder and started to turn away.
Acting on an impulse that surprised him, and surprised Ganbold even more, Karliss threw his arms around his brother and gave him a hug. Ganbold hugged him back fiercely. When they pulled apart his brother’s eyes looked wet and he wouldn’t look directly at Karliss.
“Hurry back,” Ganbold said, and walked away. “I have sentry duty tonight, but I should see you before you leave in the morning.”
╬ ╬ ╬
“You’re going away?” Narantse cried, the moment Karliss entered the family yurt. She ran to him, and when he bent down, she threw her small arms around his neck. “I don’t want you to leave. What if you don’t come back?”
“I’ll come back,” he told her, squeezing her tightly. “I promise.”
She pulled back, put her small hands on the sides of his face and stared into his eyes. “You better. It’s bad to break promises.”
“I’ll be back before you hardly know I’m gone.”
She frowned at him. “I don’t think it’s going to be that fast.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not a little kid anymore, you know. I don’t believe everything.”
“I’ll do my best,” he assured her.
“I guess that will do,” she replied.
Narantse went back to what she was doing and Karliss straightened. His mother had been standing there, watching the whole thing. She had tears in her eyes. The sight of them made him feel choked-up too. Karliss had to swallow hard a couple of times to make his tears go away.
Munkhe threw her arms around him and squeezed him so tightly it was hard to breathe. “I know I’m supposed to encourage you, but mostly I want to turn you over my knee and spank you until you see reason and change your mind. I don’t want you to go. I’m afraid you’ll never come back.”
“Ana, I’m having a hard time breathing,” Karliss said.
She pulled back and took his shoulders in her hands. He realized with a start that he was now taller than she was. When did that happen?
“Promise me you’ll take care of yourself. Don’t do anything too reckless.” She gave him a little shake. “I know how you are.”
“I promise,” he told her.
“Don’t try to be a hero. Stay close to the warriors who are going with you. They’ll protect you.”
“I will.” The lie hurt a little. He imagined how worried she would be when she found out he’d gone alone. He had to hope she would understand and forgive him.
╬ ╬ ╬
“But you can’t leave!” Nergui cried. “Who will be our tlacti? Who will save us?”
“How about you?” Karliss asked with a little smile.
“Don’t even joke about that,” Nergui said with horror. “If I was tlacti, everyone would die. Maybe the first day!”
“Then I better make sure I come back,” Karliss told him.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? I’m good at driving a wagon. Hulagu said so. You can ask him.”
“I know you are. But we can’t take a wagon where we’re going. Besides, they need you here. You have to watch my things and make sure they don’t get lost.”
Nergui drew himself up straight and put his hand over his heart. “I’ll watch all of them every minute. I swear.”
“You can stop when you need to sleep, you know.”
“Nope.” Nergui shook his head vigorously so that his unbraided hair flew in all directions. “I’ll sleep with one eye always open.”
“I know I can count on you,” Karliss said. “If you have trouble, remember that you can get help from Batu and Hulagu. You know that, right?”
“Of course I know that,” Nergui told him happily, a smile breaking out on his face. “We’re friends now. We watch out for each other.” He closed one eye and peered at Karliss with the other. “Even when we’re asleep.”
Karliss walked toward his yurt wondering what was up with Batu and Hulagu. When he’d told them what he was doing, Hulagu said only, “Life’s too boring around here for you, is it?” and Batu kind of shrugged and said, “We’ll keep it all together here for you. Make sure you have something to come back to.”
He’d expected more, frankly. He thought they’d try to come with him or at least seem worried. It made him wonder if they were angry with him for going. But surely they saw that this was something he had to do for the good of the clan? It wasn’t like he had a lot of choices. In the end he just tried to put it out of his mind. He had too much to do with getting his departure ready.
Fortunately, no one thought anything of it when he began collecting food for the journey. The warriors who were supposed to accompany him were doing the same thing. He took as much jerky and flat bread as he thought he could carry and stuffed a pack with it. To the pack he added other things he’d need, like a flint and steel, a length of hemp rope and, of course, his new krysala. He thought about taking the old one, but decided to leave it. If something happened to him, the next tlacti—if there was one—would need it.
╬ ╬ ╬
Karliss waited until the camp was completely quiet, and then he waited longer. When he was sure everyone was asleep, he picked up his pack, slung his bed roll over his shoulder, and stepped out of the yurt. He was fastening the door flap when a voice spoke softly right next to him.
“I told you he would try to sneak away without us.”
Karliss jumped in surprise, his heart pounding hard. A moment later he realized that it was Batu’s voice he’d heard. He could dimly see another shape approach and join Batu.
“I was hoping you were smarter than that,” Hulagu said softly. “Shows what I know.”
“What are you doing here?” Karliss whispered to them.
“The question is, what are you doing here?” Batu replied. “It looks like you’re trying to sneak away without your friends.”
“But we know that can’t be right,” Hulagu said, grabbing Karliss by the back of the neck as if he was planning on shaking him. “So what it must be is you were just about to come find us.”
“You can’t come with me,” Karliss hissed. “I have to go alone.”
“I know,” Hulagu said, “that’s why we’re coming with you.”
“I don’t think you k
now what alone means,” Karliss said.
“And I don’t think you know what friends mean,” Batu rejoined.
“Besides, the terl told us to guard you,” Hulagu added. “You don’t want us to get in trouble with him, do you?”
“You’ll get into more trouble when he finds out you snuck away during the night.”
Karliss felt, more than saw, Hulagu shrug. “That’s a problem for when we get back. Now no more talk. It’s time to go. We need to be far away before they realize we’re gone.”
“I’m not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?” Karliss asked.
“No,” Batu said. “So don’t bother trying. Come on. We have horses tied over here, already saddled and loaded up.”
Karliss followed them out of the camp. He still thought this was a bad idea, but he had to admit that he felt a vast sense of relief. The thought of going alone was overwhelming. Knowing he would have his two closest friends with him made everything seem so much more possible and so much less terrifying.
They untied the horses, mounted up, and rode off into the darkness. Karliss’ eyes were adjusting to the darkness now, and he could see a fair bit by the light of the stars. They rode for a couple of minutes in silence. He was starting to relax and think they’d gotten away without a problem when a dark shape rose up from the ground almost directly in front of his horse.
Karliss got his second fright of the night and he jerked on the reins to wheel the horse, but the figure caught hold of his bridle and stopped him.
“Is that you, Karliss?” the figure said, and Karliss relaxed as he realized it was Ganbold’s voice. “And who else is with you? Hulagu and Batu. I should’ve guessed.”
“You startled me, Ganbold,” Karliss said. “I didn’t see you there.”
“That’s the point of sentry duty, you know. It’s kind of pointless if the enemy can see you. I admit though, I didn’t expect to find someone sneaking out of the camp.”
“I can’t take all those warriors with me,” Karliss said. “It will leave the clan too vulnerable.”
“You may be right, but the terl made the decision. It’s his call. You know that, right?”
“I know. But I still think—”
“Forget it. I know better than anyone how pointless it is to argue with my stubborn brother.”
“We know too,” Batu said.
“He’s impossible,” Hulagu chimed in.
“But I’m going with you,” Ganbold finished.
“No,” Karliss said.
“That would mean deserting your post,” Hulagu intoned. “That’s serious.” He was right. Deserting his post was one of the worst things a warrior could do. Warriors had been exiled from the clan in the past for it.
Ganbold swore freely for a minute. “How do you do this, Karliss? How do you always manage to get things your way?”
“I don’t know. It works out that way sometimes.”
“All the time.” Ganbold sighed. “Okay. I should raise the alarm, you know. That’s part of being a sentry too.”
“I hope you won’t.”
“No, I won’t. I’ll have to tell the terl I fell asleep. Or maybe something else. Crap. Even though I can’t come, I wish I could help. Wait. I know.” He reached over his shoulder and drew the huge tulwar. He started to hold it up to Karliss, then walked over and handed it to Hulagu. “Here. Maybe it will come in handy.”
“But you earned this when you killed the one carrying it,” Hulagu said, not taking the sword.
“I know, but it’s too big for me anyway. I was trying to find a way to quit carrying it without looking foolish.”
“They’ll know you gave it to us,” Karliss said.
“Not if I tell them it’s packed away in my things. Here.” Ganbold untied the harness he’d made to carry the tulwar and handed it over to Hulagu too. “Use it to kill something that’s threatening my little brother.”
“I will,” Hulagu replied.
“Now get out of here before one of the other sentries notices,” Ganbold said.
“Thank you, brother,” Karliss said. Ganbold muttered something and waved them away.
Chapter Fourteen
The three companions rode as quickly as they dared after leaving the camp, trotting the horses across the rolling steppes most of the time, breaking into a lope now and then. They forded streams that were smaller than normal. They rode through the night without stopping and when dawn came Hulagu peered to the north and pointed.
“I think I can see the mountains. There. Just the tips of them.”
“They look so small,” Batu said.
“That’s because they’re still a long ways away,” Hulagu said. “They’ll get bigger as we get closer. Trust me.”
“You act like you know so much, but you’ve never seen mountains either,” Batu said. The boys had all spent their whole lives out on the steppes, where the most they’d seen was a small hill.
“That doesn’t change the fact that I’m right,” Hulagu replied. “You wait. You’ll see.”
“Do you think they found out we’ve gone yet?” Batu asked, twisting in the saddle to look back the way they’d come.
“If they don’t, they will soon,” Karliss said. “We’d planned on getting an early start.”
“I bet the terl is going to be plenty angry. Do you think he’ll send men to chase us?”
“Maybe,” Hulagu said. “But we have a big head start and these are strong horses. I think we can get to the mountains before they can catch up, and once we’re there it will be easier to lose them.”
“Sube is probably making breakfast right now,” Batu said sadly. “I wonder what she’s making for me today. I hope she’s not too sad when she sees I’m gone.” He pulled a piece of jerky out of his pocket and began chewing on it glumly.
“If you ask me,” Hulagu said, “the poor girl could use a break. She doesn’t know what she’s gotten herself into, feeding you.”
“You think she’ll change her mind about me while I’m gone?” Batu asked worriedly.
“Only if she has any sense,” Hulagu said, and chuckled.
Karliss looked at the mountain peaks, blue in the distance, and wondered what they would find there. Mountains were the stuff of stories, magical places where gods and mysterious creatures lived. To be finally going to the mountains was something he’d never imagined.
╬ ╬ ╬
Over the next handful of days the landscape changed. The ever-present grasses of the steppes began to fade away. In their place came stiff, knee-high bushes and clumps of thorny cacti. Forage for the horses became harder to find and they were forced to allow them more time to graze at the end of the day. The hills grew steeper, more pronounced. Rock outcroppings appeared, knobs of eroded granite jutting up from hilltops.
And every day the mountains grew larger and larger on the horizon. They could see a half dozen peaks now, and a long, hump-backed ridge that ran off to the east. There was no snow on the mountains. They looked bleak and empty. Hulagu and Batu spent time every day arguing about which peak was most likely to be the one they were searching for.
“It has to be that one,” Batu said, pointing at a peak on the right. “See? You can see the eagle’s head tucked down under its wing.”
“Yesterday you said the same thing about that peak on the left,” Hulagu said. “Make up your mind.”
“Well, I can’t help it if it looks different today.”
“What about tomorrow? Won’t it look different then?”
“Stop trying to confuse things and admit that you’re wrong,” Batu said.
To Karliss none of the peaks looked like eagles. Or they all did if you tried hard enough. He thought the chances were good that they never would find a peak that looked right. They’d simply wander around the mountains until they gave up or starved to death.
Then one morning they left the steppes behind completely and entered the foothills of the mountains. No longer could they ride in a nearly straight line t
oward their destination, but had to pick and choose their way. Sharp-sided gullies appeared. Though dry now, they gave mute evidence to the power of the flash floods that had carved them. Karliss thought how dangerous it would be to be caught in the bottom of one during a hard rain. They were steep enough that often there was no good exit from them for some ways. He kept his eyes on the horizon, watching for clouds over the mountains, and insisted they camp on high ground.
Fodder became ever harder to find and the horses grew lean. Wild game grew scarce, then practically nonexistent. Their food supplies dwindled at an alarming rate.
“I thought our food would last longer,” Hulagu said one night. After they stopped to camp, he’d gone out on foot with his bow, hoping to find game, but he’d had no luck. He unstrung his bow and tossed it down onto his gear. “I didn’t see a thing. Not even a bird. We’re going to have to ration our food if we’re going to make it.”
“Ration our food?” Batu said, a worried look on his face.
“We need to take a thorough tally of what we have and figure out exactly how many days we can get by on it.”
“Maybe this is just a bad spot for hunting,” Batu said.
“Look around,” Hulagu said. “It’s all a bad spot for hunting.” He spread out his blanket on the ground. “Everybody put their food here so we can go through it.”
Batu began backing away. “Is this really necessary? I’m sure we’ll find a deer or something tomorrow.”
“I think maybe we need to check his pockets,” Karliss said. “I think he’s holding out on us.”
“Is that right?” Hulagu said, turning on Batu. “How much do you have squirreled away in there, huh?”
Batu took another step back and put his hands up. “Nothing. Only a little jerky is all.”
“Out with it,” Hulagu said, closing in on him. “Or do I have to hold you upside down and shake you?”
“Okay, okay,” Batu grumbled. “You don’t have to threaten me.”
“Yet it looks like we did,” Karliss said.
Batu turned out to have more than even Karliss had expected. It made a nice pile once he laid it out. “I was planning to share, you know that, right?”
Sea Born (Chaos and Retribution Book 3) Page 19