Nathan opened his mouth to ask him what was wrong when a knock came at the door. Nathan turned to Jaden. The Svistra’s face was inscrutable.
“Who is it?” Nathan asked.
“Selia.”
Nathan relaxed. She’d said she might stop by for a cup of tea before she went to bed. “Come in.”
Selia opened the door then froze, staring at Jaden. She quickly stepped inside and shut the door. “When did you get in?”
“Just after full dark.”
Nathan glanced to Jaden. His voice had no inflection.
Her face dimmed. “I see. How long will you be staying?”
“After I brief your commander I have other duties I must perform.”
Selia looked puzzled.
“I’m sorry. I forgot about the tea,” Nathan said to fill the silence. Why the sudden tension?
“It’s fine. I know how busy…I’m sorry I interrupted.” She nodded to Nathan and avoided looking toward Jaden’s downturned gaze before leaving the room.
What had just happened? The Svistra continued to find something on the floor of interest. “I’ve spoken to our healer here,” Nathan said.
Jaden remained silent.
“He’s confirmed many of the things you’ve said.” Nathan faltered.
Jaden turned fierce eyes on him.
It was all Nathan could do not to flinch.
“Do you wish to apologize? Seeking absolution perhaps?”
The words felt like daggers and were not the reaction he’d expected. “No. But I understand a little better why the Svistra fight.”
“It is always a good thing to know your enemy, Commander. Now I believe I have fulfilled my end of the bargain. Am I free to go?”
“Will you take up arms against us?”
Jaden’s mouth turned up at one corner. “Will you continue to fulfill your end of the bargain?”
“Yes, I—”
“Am I free to leave then?”
How did the Svistra manage to keep him forever off balance? “Where will you go?”
Jaden’s smile had a hard edge. “By your leave I’ll scent out the fortress to avoid your men, hide in the room that was once mine until the guards change right before dawn. At that time I’ll sneak back over the wall and journey to Briar’s Point, where I’ll challenge my brother.”
Nathan leaned against the desk, ignoring for a moment how easily Jaden had breached his defenses and planned to again. The enormity of the weight resting on his shoulders settled all at once. “And if you win?”
“Then I will be the new commander of the Svistra, as my father always wished.”
“And if you lose?”
“Well, then I bought you more time.” He rose with a fluidity that was unsettling. “One more thing. I found this on the way. It might be of use to you.”
Jaden dropped a rolled piece of leather on his desk. Nathan untied the bindings and stared at the intact seal on a letter bearing the mark of the southern king. He looked up into Jaden’s face.
“I don’t know what it contains. I suggest you leave it sealed. The messenger was in quite a hurry to deliver this to my brother when I intercepted it.”
Nathan’s jaw still hung slightly open when the door had closed and Jaden was gone.
“Jaden.”
His hand on the door to his room, Jaden tensed and then attempted to still a shudder as Selia’s warm fingers settled on his shoulder. It had been easy to sneak down to the lower hall. Most of the men were in their chambers, and those on duty focused on keeping intruders out of the walls. Even if someone had seen him they would have assumed he was shadow, there and gone.
But he hadn’t heard Selia or even caught her scent until it was too late. Was it their bond or something else that robbed his defenses from him?
He took a breath and turned to face her.
She backed up a step when she looked into his eyes. A knife piercing his chest wouldn’t have hurt more than the pain in her gaze. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I have honored the bargain you made for my life.”
“That doesn’t answer the question. What aren’t you telling me?”
“There are many things I cannot tell you.” The strain of keeping his voice even built to a crescendo.
Emotion flickered in her dark gaze. “Why?”
He dropped his gaze. He couldn’t look into her eyes for another heartbeat. “I have duties I’ve long neglected. Forgive me.” He turned, opened the door and shut it behind him.
Selia stood, reaching for the door, then dropped her hand. Her body hollowed as her strength drained. He’d acted as though their last night together had meant nothing. No, he was acting like she was a stranger. She reviewed the conversation over in her mind. Your commander. Duties I’ve long neglected. Words designed to separate, but it wasn’t just the words, was it?
A sudden revelation almost buckled her knees. He’d never meant for me to know he was back. He would have come and gone without seeing her at all. She swallowed the sob that built in her throat and placed one hand against the wooden door. It felt cold and lifeless beneath her touch. She’d thought…what had she thought? That he loved her? That somehow they’d be together? She’d been a fool. Anger burned away the pain.
Selia turned and headed up the hall.
As soon as the door shut, Jaden’s body slumped against the wooden frame. She was just outside. If she knocked or came in he wouldn’t have the strength to turn her away. A part of him willed her to open the door and step inside, but a stronger part sighed in relief when her footsteps retreated down the hallway. She was angry. He could tell by the staccato of her feet against the stone floor. For some reason that detail comforted him. Her rage was much easier to deal with than her sorrow. He moved to the empty grate and stared into the blackened stone.
Not flinching when her eyes had filled with pain, not attempting to explain something she couldn’t possibly understand had been the hardest thing he’d ever had to do in his life. Yet he knew he’d caused her pain to save her from more pain in the end. It was mercy. There were too many unknowns, uncertainties. Some day she’d see.
Now he only had to wait a few hours until the guards changed. There was a time, not long, but enough for him to jump the wall and be gone before the new guards began their circular routes around the fortress.
He leaned back against the wall and caught the faint scent of lavender. He looked around until his gaze rested on the blanket. He sniffed. She’d been in here, and recently. Without bothering to think about his actions he took his knife, cut off a section of the blanket, carefully folded it and placed it in his pack. It would have to do.
Nathan paced the narrow confines of his office then stopped, placed both hands on his face and pressed in an attempt to slow the thoughts and images racing through his mind. Villages or the castle, but not both. Women and children. Forfeit. The word mocked him. There had to be a way to warn the villages and get to Newhaven, but if there was he couldn’t think of it. The Svistra army would roll over those settlements and it would take his entire army to stop them. Even if he gathered his men that far west, fighting in the forests gave the advantage to the Svistra. He imagined Selia in one of those places, his mother, father. Would he be so willing to sacrifice them?
Asild was caught between Svistra and Darmis with only the faint hope the western king would respond in time. Fuck. Since he’d been named commander, much of his time had been spent waiting. Waiting for information, trying to second-guess the Svistra, outmaneuver them, and now, now everything moved too fast. If Jaden defeats his brother…
He’d be damned if he was going to count on the Svistra’s victory. Perhaps literally.
With a calm he didn’t feel he stepped out of the office and walked the short distance to the entryway. Dark, cold rock surrounded the arched entrance that seemed to be filled with moonlight. Nathan stopped, staring at the echoing arch illuminated on the rock floor. Each stone screamed its individuality under the soft light. He�
��d stared as though he’d never before seen the rock, though he regularly walked upon it. Eagle Rock had been the home of Svistra healers. For a moment he thought to retrace his steps back to Jaden’s room and ask him more about it, but he changed his mind. In the whirlwind of uncertainty, one fact remained: if Jaden had a duty, so did he. And it began now.
PART FOUR
One who was distant came near to me in the morning, and still nearer when taken away by night.
Fireflies, Rabindranath Tagore
Chapter Thirty-three
The color of the darkening sky leeched onto the land, tinting everything dusky blue. Selia reached to pat the horse’s neck. Not long now. The outriders would have set up camp somewhere ahead—hopefully not too far away. After three days, she’d grown used to the path, but she still felt better with a fire between her and the night.
When Nathan had ordered his men to leave the main road and take Wynven path, there was silence. As many tales were told of the old path as of the White Forest, none pleasant. Some say the Ancients created it, and that their ghosts still wandered its length. A wave of apprehension had filtered through the group, but not one protested and, after a slight hesitation, all had followed him off the North road and onto Wynven.
It was a tactical decision. Wynven angled between the North road and the King’s road, bypassing the crossroads and saving them several days of travel. Selia had to admit, after her experience at the White Forest she was more likely to give credence to some of the tales. But they’d been on the path for several days now with no incidents. If the ghosts of the old ones haunted the road then they’d remained conspicuously absent.
The ground proved smooth and wide enough for seven to ride abreast. Trees arched overhead filtering the sun, and birds called or scolded from their branches. The forest grew to the edge of the road, lush ferns and the occasional berry thick under the trees, but nothing grew on Wynven itself.
After the first night Selia had inspected the flat road to find that under a thick layer of dirt and debris, the road was made of a peculiar flat rock that had crumbled along the edges to reveal small pebbles. The second day they came upon a monolith blocking the trees on one side of the road. Like a black hand it reached into the sky at least four or five men high. Its sides were smooth but the edges jagged and broken. It was something alien, left over from the Ancient ones. It didn’t belong in the forest. Even Nathan had quickened the pace, putting the thing well behind them by nightfall.
She rode in the column somewhere behind Nathan, but well forward with the archers. She didn’t wonder why she’d been placed among them. Though her skill with a sword was now legendary among Nathan’s men, when it came to arm-to-arm combat she was weaker, especially against a Svistra.
Newhaven. She’d often dreamed of the castle down the road from where her tavern stood, but not in her wildest dreams had she thought she’d see it. Now I will, and I will fight to protect it. The thought planted a seed of pride in her heart. Living on the crossroads in the Outskirts, even with the soldiers traveling by, she’d never really felt part of the kingdom of Asild. She knew in an abstract way that King Leisle was her liege, but it had been with the same knowledge that she knew Tim owned a farm. In reality, Tim’s farm affected her more directly than King Leisle ever had. Tim sometimes paid his tab in fresh vegetables.
Thoughts of Oren sent a wave of loneliness through her, but not as sharp and now tinged with the melancholy of memory. How was Jemima faring? And Abel and Dara? Did they leave? Where was Martha? Perhaps, once she returned home, the town would be deserted. What then?
Home. An image of Jaden formed in her mind. She shook her head. No. She no longer knew what home meant.
Selia watched the back of Nathan’s head. The strain of the past days had etched his face with fine lines. Purple shadows lived under green eyes so weary they seemed blurred, and though his muscular body still stood tall there was an effort to his movements she hadn’t noticed before.
The morning after Jaden left she emerged from her room to a fortress in uproar. Nathan had sent a dozen of his fastest horses with urgent messages for the rest of the soldiers to double their efforts and join him on the way to Newhaven. Then, with energy and an efficiency that could have been interpreted as chaotic, the men set about distributing provisions to leave Eagle Rock. They rode out the next morning.
Nathan had been preoccupied since they left the fortress, but she couldn’t blame him. He had a heavy weight on his shoulders. He’d disobeyed his king’s direct order and, without permission, solicited the aid of another king. That his actions were necessary to preserve Asild had little to do with politics and a king’s pride.
The compassion that washed over her was a relief compared to the oppressive emotions weighing down her mind. She’d done what she could to blend in with the men and ease Nathan’s pressure, or at least give him one less thing to worry about.
She scanned the solid wall of greenery to the side of the road. The soldiers kept a vigilant watch. At any moment they expected arrows to stream out of the surrounding forest but so far, halfway into their journey, they’d still not encountered a single Svistra.
To keep up with the men, Selia pushed her body harder than she ever had. She refused to be seen as weak or in need of protection. Even the first days, when her muscles ached from sitting in the saddle all day and walking was an effort, she carried water, chopped wood and took her turn hunting for small game with the rest of the soldiers. But the exertion wasn’t just for Nathan’s benefit. Constant activity kept her mind busy during the day and so exhausted at night, she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the bedroll. She would have done anything to keep the dreams of golden eyes away.
Jaden raced through the dim forest as the sun set somewhere ahead. In a way, the confrontation with Keldar had been inevitable since their youth. He was tired of wondering what he could have done differently. Tired of assuming that as the elder, he held the greater blame. Keldar was who he was, and now Jaden would face him. The sooner the better.
And so Jaden ran from the time he woke up and shook the dew from his cloak until he stopped and huddled in a shelter for a few hours at night. Although he ran toward the Svistra and his future, Jaden knew he also ran from something. But the images he sought to escape lived in his mind and were inescapable. Oren as he had been in the barn, gently tending a wounded stranger and then the blurry figure of the barkeep standing over him to protect him from human and Svistra attack. Selia’s face, the determination that hardened her eyes to flint and flared her nostrils as she bravely faced down the wounded Svistra she’d saved. Her laugh, her dark hair rimmed in a halo of red as the sun played with her locks, and her eyes, wounded with betrayal. Finally, her in Nathan’s arms where he’d deliberately thrown her. What he would not let himself remember was the last night together. Even he had his limits.
As he neared Briar’s Point he slowed down. The terrain had grown rocky and inclined toward the craggy peak covered in what looked like a soft purple down and surrounded by a rough, barren land. A dry riverbed circled the mountain, littered with round stones that, like himself, had once called the Telige Mountains their home. He glanced north toward where his late father’s estate lay, where his mother still lived. If he were successful perhaps he’d see her again. After Tinlor began his campaign and Jaden left, she’d gone to live among the community of healers. With his father’s death, she would don the green robes of healer and divorce herself from the petty matters of war and fighting. He was glad. Whatever happiness she could find would be found there.
Jaden discovered a hollow where he could rest for a few hours. He wouldn’t cross the riverbed and the flats during the day. Even a lone Svistra would be stopped and questioned. He couldn’t risk that. Crossing them at night was only slightly less risky. The land was dangerous. Though the ground appeared flat, in many places only a few inches of earth separated a trespasser from a network of caverns below. It seemed as though the earth had once been liquid, filled with b
ubbles then frozen.
Keldar was taking no chances. Only Svistra knew the paths across the treacherous land, and Jaden had a fair idea where Keldar’s army would be located.
Tomorrow he’d enter the camp on his terms.
Chapter Thirty-four
Nathan pulled his horse to a side and urged the column to keep moving. He waited until he saw Selia and spurred his horse forward to walk alongside her. Her dark hair gleamed in the morning light. For days he’d watched her around camp, making sure the dinners were edible, that the men didn’t get out of line and even checking the traps they’d placed before setting up camp. It was easy to believe she’d been a soldier all her life. Well, he supposed she’d been around them that long. He didn’t know how she’d turned out as innocent as she had, couldn’t imagine raising a child in such an environment, but he thanked whatever god was responsible for watching out for her.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Selia smiled. “Fraternizing with the rank and file?”
“You’re hardly rank and file.”
“Well, I’m not an officer.”
“Are you looking for a promotion?”
“Are you incorporating women into your ranks?”
Shock froze Nathan’s tongue until he saw the teasing light in her dark eyes. “If they were all like you, perhaps. Of course I’d be hard put keeping my men focused.”
Selia looked around. “Oh, I don’t know. They look pretty focused to me.”
Nathan watched his men as they marched forward, their eyes scanning the forest on either side of the road. Pride filled his breast. He smiled. “They are good men.”
“They are loyal men.”
“I was worried…”
“About the path?” She smiled again. “What’s a few ghosts?”
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