Just as dusk was falling over the mountainside, they reached a slope of a valley that cradled a town twice the size of the Tabuch. A river ran alongside, as well as one of the smaller roads on Yohanna’s map. He supposed it fell on some kind of trade route. Lights from the windows promised fires—which filled Nolan’s head with a happy, almost giddy idea of ridding his hands, feet, and face of the cold that had settled over them through the day.
“We should stop for the night,” he said. “The horses can’t go forever.”
Kris stirred slightly. “Stop. In a town?” she asked hoarsely.
Nolan debated. “A mountain camp didn’t help us before. And we need to make a fire anyway.”
Kris stared down the valley at the town’s lights and nodded slowly. “We must be a little ahead of them. If we’re in a crowd…maybe that’s safer,” she paused and took a pained, shuddery breath. “If there aren’t other Rusamites already here.”
“I’ll keep my eyes open. Just keep yours down.”
The horses picked their way down the path carefully—the daylight was all but gone by the time they reached the town streets. Nolan and Kris drew a few absent glances from the local people who were still out and about, but Nolan didn’t feel any kind of the fear or anger they’d found in other places. A trio of women gossiped casually on one street. They were shrewdly watching a teenage boy leading a giggling girl across the street, but spared little attention for the newcomers. Nolan didn’t see any purple eyes on the street, or black-robed priests.
“I think this town’s all right,” he whispered.
Kris didn’t answer, which he took for agreement. Her breathing sounded more labored than ever.
He followed the sound of music to a large log building with a small stable attached to one side. A bored looking stable boy stepped up to them and asked them a question. When Nolan didn’t answer, the boy rolled his eyes and reached for Star’s reins. He jerked a thumb at the building with the music.
Nolan nodded firmly, swung off of Star, and carefully lifted Kris off, catching most of her weight as she touched the ground. Gentle as he was, she still cried out when she tried to stand on her own.
“Why would anyone want to travel that way?” she gritted out, slowly flexing each of her legs. She kept one arm over Nolan’s shoulders and hobbled awkwardly after him as he dragged the pack with their food, money, and the star-jar off of the gelding.
“Your muscles need to get used to it. It’ll get better.” Even if it would likely get worse before it did so. With one arm around her back and one hand clenched around their pack, Nolan nodded to the stable boy and half-led, half-carried Kris to the inn door.
The door opened on the inn’s eating room, where dozens of people were in the full throws of a party. To Nolan’s right, eight couples were dancing, a small crowd around them was clapping and stamping their feet, and two fiddlers were playing a fast-paced jig. To his left, men and women were laughing, drinking, and eating food that made Nolan’s stomach rumble with envy while a mismatched pair of fair and dark-haired maids glided between the tables.
Nolan settled Kris into a chair, mimed his way through ordering a room from the innkeeper, and sank into a chair across the table from Kris. She was cradling her head in her arms with her eyes closed.
“Did you get a room?” she murmured.
“Yes. I think you should eat something before you sleep, though. If you can. Soup or something.”
Kris grunted. “I should be starving, but I’m not.”
The black-haired, blue-eyed maid flounced over to them and asked them a question. Nolan started miming eating soup, but the maid wasn’t watching him. Instead she was staring at Kris. Nolan stiffened with dread, but the maid started to smile.
“Kris?” she asked disbelievingly.
Kris startled and opened her eyes. “Rhea! What are you…how…”
“Thank the gods,” the maid breathed, and threw her arms around Kris, laughing. “It’s so good to see you. I’m so glad you’re safe! But what are you doing all the way out—”
A smile started on Kris’s face, but her eyes were frightened. “Are there magni here?”
Rhea shook her head, grinning. “Not here. A band of them passed through talking about ‘that Flynn girl’ a few days ago but I stayed out of sight. They haven’t been back.” She squeezed Kris in a harder embrace then stepped back, keeping Kris’s hands. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
Kris relaxed slightly, a small, wet laugh coming into her voice. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
Nolan was less convinced. He felt slowly for the knife in his belt and eyed the people around them again. He’d only been watching for purple eyes before, but here was a Rusamite with blue ones. The attention of the rest of the room was fixed on the fiddlers, though, who’d begun some kind of contest.
“What were the magni saying when you saw them?” he asked.
For the first time Rhea turned slightly from Kris to face him. “That Kris was on her way to be gentled. I’ve been so worried.”
Kris wiped at her eyes and cleared her throat. “Rhea, this is Nolan. He saved me from the magni. Nolan, this is my friend Rhea.”
Rhea raised her eyebrows and offered a hand to Nolan. “You rescued her? How did you manage that? Are you a mage?”
Nolan shook her hand and shrugged. “No. They broke an oath. And I got lucky.”
“You must have been very lucky, then,” Rhea said. “And now they must be after both of your blood.” She turned back and brushed her fingers over Kris’s cheek. “Kris, you poor thing—you look terrible.”
Kris’s smile turned slightly crooked. “I could use some food—soup, and sleep.”
“Of course. Just give me a moment.” Rhea turned and hurried away.
“You’re sure we can trust her?” Nolan asked softly.
Kris propped her head on one fist. “She’s my friend. I don’t think she’d hurt me.” She winced and sighed. “But keep your eyes open.”
The steaming bowls of chicken and barley soup Rhea brought back erased the last of the cold from Nolan’s body. Once they’d finished eating Rhea started fussing over Kris more and talking about having one of the chambermaids draw Kris a bath to help her saddle soreness. She chattered something in Ostmontian to a woman in her twenties, who took Kris’s elbow. Nolan rose, and Kris raised her eyebrows quizzically.
“I don’t need your help to take a bath.”
Nolan flushed. “I could wait outside. Or…” he cleared his throat when she only frowned at him. “Call if you need me.”
Kris snorted and let the other maid help her up the stairs. When no yells or blasts of magic erupted from the inn’s second floor, Nolan decided it was a good time to go check on the horses.
The boy had fed and rubbed down both horses, but Nolan took his time recurrying and brushing them, and combing tangles from their tails. He checked their bodies for saddle sores and their legs for any kind of heat or swelling. The gelding’s hooves needed trimming, and both looked tired, but otherwise they both seemed all right. He hoped they wouldn’t be stiff in the morning. By the time he’d finished with both an hour later, he thought it was probably safe to go look for Kris again.
She was sound asleep on the bed when he cautiously pushed the door open, curled around the star-jar’s pack with a small frown on her face. Already her face had gained back some of its color. To Nolan’s surprise, someone had thought to lay blankets and a pillow on a pallet for him. He kicked off his boots and burrowed into the blankets gratefully, wincing slightly at the aches in his back, legs, and feet.
He woke up to female voices. It felt too early. When Nolan opened his eyes, he could see that light was only just starting to come through the room’s window. He sighed and shut his eyes again when he recognized Kris and Rhea’s voices. He’d been spared a childhood of listening to sisters talk at all hours, but his friends had told him plenty of stories.
Though at least, in this case, it meant another mage was here
. She hadn’t hurt them last night, so Nolan was starting to think this could only be a good thing.
“Where’s Tylan?” Rhea was asking softly. “I thought they said you were here together.”
There was a pause. “He’s safe,” Kris said finally. “Away from here.”
“On his own? Kris, if they find him—”
“They won’t,” Kris whispered fiercely. “They took the bracelet off of him. They can’t find him now.”
There was another pause, and then Rhea started to chuckle. “How did you manage that?”
A slight rustling. “I convinced them I was worth more. He’s a mundane, like I thought. There’s nothing for them to do with him here anyway, except…” Kris let the sentence hang. The blankets rustled again.
“Well I hope he makes it.” There was another pause, and then, just as Nolan was thinking they might fall asleep, Rhea spoke again. “So what now? How can you stay ahead of them, now that they know to look for you?”
“By being quicker than them. Smarter than them.”
“You’re still pretty weak.”
“We won’t need to do it forever. Just until—” Kris caught herself. “Until things are different. We’re bound to go home eventually.”
“We’ve been here for months. Wherever ‘here’ is.” Rhea hesitated. “You think there’s a way to change it? Even you aren’t that strong, Kris. A hundred mages and magni linked together couldn’t do that.”
That startled Nolan, because Edeva was only one woman. When Nut said she was ‘more than a sorceress’, he must have meant more by it than Nolan thought. So some kind of god? Or demigod? He’d never really thought there was anything divine about what happened, but maybe the priests were more right than he’d guessed. Though he’d never heard of any goddess who actually talked to mortals.
“You think there’s a way to do it,” Rhea said disbelievingly, a statement this time. “How?”
Nolan held his breath, weighing the possible risk with the good that could come of telling this mage what they were doing, but Kris didn’t answer.
“You could hide here for awhile,” Rhea offered eventually. “The innkeeper’s wife’s a mage—or witch, whatever they call it here. She knows a little healing—she even taught me some. You could stay a day or two, anyway, to get your strength up.”
Kris grunted softly. “And bring them down on you? No. We need to get moving whenever Nolan wakes up.”
“I’m awake. And you’re right.” Nolan rolled over. Rhea and Kris were both lying on the bed, and Kris had tucked the star-jar underneath it. She still looked tired, but stronger than last night. He tried to guess if she looked better than she had at Yohanna’s, but he couldn’t tell.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
Kris sat up and shrugged one shoulder. “Better than I thought I would. You?”
“Well enough. Hungry.” He started lacing his boots up.
“I can get some porridge for us all,” Rhea said. She pushed herself off the bed and disappeared out the door.
“Do you still have the map?” Kris asked.
Nolan nodded and pulled it out. She traced her fingers over the lines through the mountains, over the border into the northernmost finger of Ustengard, and into the Twilight Mountains.
“How long do you think we have?” she asked.
“Maybe two months.”
“Maybe.”
Nolan jerked his head towards the door. “Do you think she’d help us?”
Kris startled. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.”
Nolan shrugged. “She’s your friend. She’s a mage. It’s her home too in the star-jar.” He hesitated. “And I think we need help.”
Kris grimaced. “We might. But I don’t know how she’d take it if we tried to explain. And with the magni following us…” she frowned at the inky marks on the paper. “You’re sure there isn’t some straighter way? It’s not like we’ll get lost if we just keep heading north.”
Nolan shook his head. “We’d be slow trying to pick through a forest. And there could be cliffs, or ledges we can’t climb, that the roads go around.”
Kris pursed her lips. “We’d be less likely to be caught off the road.”
Rhea pushed the door back open and came in with a tray of three bowls of porridge dotted with cream and dried berries. She settled herself on the floor and glanced at the map.
“Planning your next move?” She passed around spoons and napkins. “Did I hear you say north?”
Nolan took a bowl of porridge, glanced at Kris, and shrugged again. She nodded. “Yes, we are.”
Rhea swallowed her first spoonful. “Do you want a third set of hands? I wouldn’t mind moving on from here.”
Kris glanced at Nolan. “You’re safer here, Rhea.”
“And you’re the first person from Rusam I actually wanted to see. Don’t just disappear on me.”
Kris visibly wavered, a small smile touching her face.
“We still have the magni following us,” Nolan warned her, honesty making him speak up.
Rhea nodded solemnly. “I can help with that too.”
“To fight the magni? They don’t even know you’re here, Rhea.”
Rhea took Kris’s hand and squeezed it. “You’re my friend, Kris. I don’t want anything to happen to you. And you’re in no shape to fight them now.”
Nolan nodded to himself. He wouldn’t like putting a friend in harm’s way, but he’d definitely want to help one if he knew they needed it.
Kris sighed. “I don’t like bringing you into this. But okay. We’re headed north if you want to come.”
Nolan had braced himself for the same kind of hostile reaction Kris had to the star-jar’s origins, but Rhea’s response was very different. She was surprised, and then started laughing when she saw the jar.
“You mean the reason we all woke up here is because we were stuck in this jar of yours before that?” She snorted and pulled off one glove to run her fingertips over it. “How does that even work? It’s so small.”
“It’s a spell. It’s not a joke, Rhea. Almost everybody must still be trapped there,” Kris said, looking down at her oddly from Star’s saddle.
“I know. I know. It’s just—” Rhea strangled a giggle. “It’s just hard to believe. Hard to wrap my mind around.” She squinted at the jar, turning it slowly in her hands with a ghost of a smile on her face.
“And you really think these caves of yours are the best way to fix it?” she asked Nolan, craning her neck to look back at him where he was leading the gelding.
“I think so. That’s what other witches told me.”
“I’ve never heard of any place like that.”
“It’s my world. I’ve heard legends about the Dawn Caves all my life.” Nolan frowned to himself, wondering when the deadly fool’s errand had transformed into an almost sure bet in his mind.
Rhea handed the star-jar back to Kris and pulled her glove back on. “We should keep moving then.”
No outburst, no sparks flying at him, no sign of blaming him at all—Rhea didn’t ask any other questions about the star-jar, only about where he and Kris had been and the people they’d met. Nolan was confused but relieved. He didn’t have the energy or the time to deal with one more angry mage.
The Rusamites spoke quietly now and then. Rhea said the innkeeper’s wife had helped her get her magic under control and taught her a few spells, and raw healing was one thing Rhea had learned. It showed— with her help, Kris was nowhere near as stiff as she should have been from the last day’s riding. She sat straighter in the saddle than she had before, and finally settled a little bit into Star’s rhythm. Besides her own coat, hat, gloves, and scarf, Rhea had brought a thick round of cheese and the last of the fall’s slightly withered apples with her. She fed Kris a steady stream of food through the morning, and carefully melted some of the cheese over bread to give all three of them a hot noonday meal.
Snow started falling in the early afternoon, first m
elting on the moss, shrubs and pine needles around them, then slowly gathering on the path until they were all leaving clear brown footprints behind them. By sunset, the snow was two inches deep and falling in thick clumps. They bushwhacked their way off of the trail and made a quick camp. Nolan lifted Kris off of Star and settled her on a log while Rhea made a fire. He showed Rhea how to tether and feed the horses, but left the saddle on Star with the girth loosened, and the packs they didn’t need strapped to the gelding. If they had to leave in a hurry, Nolan wanted to be ready.
Kris looked tired, but much better than the night before. She forked up her dinner of potatoes and salted beef and crawled into the tent with Rhea and the star-jar’s pack without saying much. Nolan took the first watch, huddled over the banked fire with an extra scarf around his face and trying not to listen to the murmurs coming from the tent.
If he hadn’t been watching the horses, he wouldn’t have noticed when the gelding’s ears started to flick back and forth. Both horses raised their heads. Nolan stiffened and stood up, straining to hear what they did. He tapped on the tent.
“Kris. Rhea. I think we have trouble.”
He heard blankets rustle. Kris rolled out of the tent quietly, fully clothed and pulling on her boots without bothering to lace them.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“I don’t know it’s just...”
Star whickered.
“There’s something out there,” he whispered, even more softly. “Do you…how strong are you now?”
“Not enough.”
Rhea crawled out of the tent as just as the sound of voices finally reached them on the wind. One man’s voice, at least, and a woman’s. And hoofbeats, crunching on the snow.
Rhea squinted at the darkness towards the road. “Come on. Get closer to the horses.”
“We need to—”
“We’re not going to outrun them, Kris. But I can hide us. Come on.”
Balancing on his toes, Nolan edged closer to Star and put a hand on her muzzle. She breathed warmly into his hand, her ears swiveling back and forth as she listened to the new travelers.
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