Penelope Ann stared at her. “Piwaka said that?”
Anna nodded again. “He wants to stop Aquilla from killing Menlo and starting another war, too.”
Penelope Ann squared her shoulders. “That settles it, then. If Piwaka cares enough to give you this, we’ll do it.”
“Then what?” Anna asked. “What will we do after their asleep?”
Penelope Ann’s face cracked into a grin. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Anna smiled back. “Right. We’ll get Menlo as far away from this village as possible. With any luck, he’ll be halfway over the Eastern Divide before they wake up.”
They turned to the counter together, and Anna dropped the object into a grinding mortar. She crushed it with the pestle, and they combined it with the food Aquilla and his Guard would eat.
They barely finished in time before the tread of feet on the balcony startled them from their work. Penelope Ann whirled away from the counter, but only Piwaka stood in the door. A dozen or more Avitras filed in behind him. They formed a circle in the middle of the room, and Aquilla came last. He took his place on the couch, and the Guard sat in a ring at his feet.
Then another group entered. They filed into the room in silence, but they just kept coming, more and more of them. The line never stopped. They formed successive rings outside the first circle until seven rings of men filled the house.
Anna and Penelope Ann kept out of the way, but Anna couldn’t take her eyes off those feathery warriors. Every shade of their plumage caught the light, and their eyes burned with mysterious fire. They filled the house until not a square of floor space remained. Piwaka sat at Aquilla’s right hand, and every face turned upward to listen to Aquilla. Anna touched Penelope Ann’s hand, and the two women slipped out of the house.
They waited on the balcony for the meeting to end. The sun went down, and the sky blazed with color. Stars twinkled overhead, and the voices of the treetop creatures died away. Lights glowed from windows throughout the Avitras village, but their light no longer warmed Anna’s heart. She no longer belonged in this village.
“What will you do when Aquilla wakes up and realizes what happened?” she asked Penelope Ann. “He’ll be angry when he figures out he’s been tricked.”
“I’ll blame you,” Penelope Ann replied. “I’ll tell him I knew nothing about it.”
Anna laughed. “Perfect.”
Penelope Ann didn’t laugh, though. She didn’t even smile. “The real question is what are you going to do when he finds out.”
Anna wiped the smile off her face. “I’ll go back to the Lycaon. I’m finished with the Avitras.”
Penelope Ann’s head whipped around. Then she sank back against the railing and nodded. “I didn’t want to admit to myself that you didn’t belong here, but now it makes sense. I wish it could have been otherwise, but I can see you’ve made up your mind.”
“It isn’t just all this mess with Aquilla,” Anna told her. “When Menlo leaves, I’ll have no reason to stay here.”
“When will you go?” Penelope Ann asked.
“Tonight,” she replied. “I’ll leave as soon as I know Menlo is safe.”
Penelope Ann’s eyes widened. “So soon? But you haven’t made any preparations for the journey.”
“Like you said,” Anna replied, “it won’t be safe for me to stay any longer. I’ll find my way to the Lycaon territory. Once I cross the border, their warriors will take me to the village. I can hold out that long. My cousin is one of them. She’ll make sure I’m all right.”
Penelope Ann shook her head. “I hate to see you leave like this. At least let me help you make you some food for the journey.”
“There isn’t time,” Anna replied. “In a few minutes, Aquilla will call us back in to serve the Guard their refreshments. We have to stay where they can see us until they fall asleep. After that, we’ll have to move fast to get Menlo out of the village without being seen.”
“What if one of the Guards doesn’t eat the food?” Penelope Ann asked. “If even one of them stays awake, we’re sunk.”
“I would be surprised if Piwaka eats the food,” Anna replied. “Maybe he’ll help us deal with anybody who gives us problems.”
Penelope Ann cast her a sidelong glance. “You’re making one mistake. They won’t be giving us problems. They’ll be giving you problems. Once the Guards fall asleep and you let Menlo out of the store room, you’re on your own. I can’t help you anymore.”
Anna took hold of Penelope Ann’s shoulders. “You’ve done enough, and I’m grateful for your help. None of this would have been possible if it hadn’t been for you. I only hope you can live in peace with Aquilla after this.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Penelope Ann replied. “Once Menlo is gone, Aquilla will go back to the way he was before. With the possibility of war off the table, he’ll settle down to the same quiet life we had before.”
“I hope you’re right,” Anna murmured.
“I am right,” Penelope Ann replied. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Anna’s head shot up. Penelope Ann gazed at her with steady determination. Then Anna smiled at her. “I should have known you would take control of this situation.”
“Aquilla is my mate,” Penelope Ann told her. “I love him, but I won’t let him ruin our lives with some crazy idea about the Ursidreans. You concentrate on getting Menlo away from here and leave Aquilla to me. Between Piwaka and me, we’ll quell any sign of unrest from him.”
“All right,” Anna replied. “I trust you.”
A bubble of voices rippled out of the house, and Penelope Ann pushed herself off the balcony railing. “That’s the signal. The meeting’s over. Let’s go.”
The Avitras milled around inside the house in clusters of conversation. Piwaka stayed by Aquilla’s side, but a delicate smile played on his lips. Whatever happened during that meeting, the result delighted him. Everything was going exactly according to Piwaka’s plan. All Anna had to do was keep up her end of it.
She and Penelope Ann carried the bowls and platters of food around the room. Every time one of the Guards took a handful of nuts or a sample of Penelope Ann’s delicacies, Anna committed the man’s face to memory. Under the guise of attending to the Guards, she made sure everyone present got something to eat, even Piwaka and Aquilla. Penelope Ann did the same thing.
Penelope Ann lingered at Aquilla’s side with his favorite seed mixture, and he smiled at her while he helped himself to it again and again. After more than two hours of constant attention, the food disappeared and Anna made less effort to circulate among the Guard. If Piwaka’s magic bullet didn’t do its job after all the food they ate, it wouldn’t work at all.
At last, Aquilla clapped his hands and announced they would play a round of issingass before they brought out the prisoner for questioning. He sat on the floor with Piwaka and the oldest Guards, and the game started.
Anna and Penelope Ann retreated again to the balcony, but this time, they kept the men in sight through the window. One by one, the younger men not included in the game relaxed in the corners of the room. They leaned against the walls or stretched out on the floor to watch. Their postures became more and more relaxed, and they observed the game with smiles and half-open eyes.
One by one, the players were eliminated until only Piwaka, Aquilla, and two other older men continued to play. The night wore on, and some of the younger men fell asleep where they were. Piwaka showed no sign of noticing them. He concentrated on the game. In the end, he and Aquilla eliminated the other players, too.
Penelope Ann leaned close to Anna. “You better go get him. You won’t have a better chance than right now.”
Anna shook her head. “Not yet.”
She clenched her hands together in knots. Her eyes flicked back and forth between the two men’s faces. Aquilla didn’t realize it, but they played for the future of the Avitras people. Aquilla might be the Alpha, but it was Piwaka who played to save his people from Aquilla’s madness.
He a
nd Aquilla played against each other for more than an hour before Piwaka leaned back in triumph. Aquilla’s laugh rumbled through the house. “You always were unbeatable.”
Piwaka reclined on the couch. “Then you should know better than to play against me.”
Aquilla sighed and leaned his head against his hand. “It must be later than I thought. Look at these louts. They’re all asleep.”
“What do you want to do about the prisoner?” Piwaka asked.
“We can deal with him in the morning,” Aquilla replied. “I got the Guards’ approval. That’s the most important thing. We can deal with the prisoner when they wake up. It will serve the same purpose.”
Piwaka nodded. “I could go to sleep right now myself. I never felt so tired. Maybe it was something in your mate’s food.”
Aquilla laughed again and leaned back on the couch. He threw his arm over his eyes......and the next minute, silence descended over the building. Anna barely breathed. Piwaka’s head lolled to one side, and his lips pouted open. The rise and fall of his chest moved his head up and down.
Aquilla slipped down the couch until his body stretched the length of it. His arm still shielded his eyes from the light. The gentle tide of breathing filled the room, and bodies covered the floor from the front door to all four walls.
Penelope Ann grabbed Anna by the elbow and spun her around. “Go!” she hissed. She propelled her toward the store room.
Anna didn’t hesitate. She hurried around the house and took hold of the bar across the door. She lifted it silently, but nothing could wake those men up from the influence of Piwaka’s sleeping drug.
The door creaked when she pushed it open. There stood Menlo in the same strong, straight, alert posture. His eyes flashed when she opened the door, and he brandished the weapon, but he relaxed when he saw her. “It’s you.”
Anna rushed into the room. She took his hand. “Come on. We don’t have much time.”
Chapter 14
Menlo didn’t ask any questions. Anna led him out of the store room into the night. The aurora lit the sky. She glanced both ways, but there was no one in sight, not even Penelope Ann. Anna’s heart sank. She would never get a chance to say good-bye. Penelope Ann had done her part. Now she had to protect herself by keeping her distance from Anna and Menlo.
Anna hurried to the edge of the balcony and started across the bridge to the next platform. She hadn’t taken more than three steps when Menlo’s hand slipped from her grasp.
She turned back. “What’s the matter?”
He peered down at the branch under her feet. “Will this thing hold me?”
She laughed and took his hand again. “It’s strong enough to hold Aquilla and Piwaka and every other adult male Avitras. It will hold you, too. Just don’t look down. Come on.”
She tripped across and beckoned to him to follow. He hesitated another moment. Then he took a deep breath and started walking. He didn’t look down, and he didn’t stop moving. Once he got out onto the branch, he found his balance and crossed with no trouble.
“That’s the hard part over with,” Anna told him. “Now all we have to do is climb.”
“I’m trusting you,” he breathed.
“I’ll help you,” she told him. “It’s a long way down, so don’t lose your nerve halfway. I’ll be right with you. Just keep going until you reach the ground.”
She swung her legs over the side of the platform and groped for the hand and foot holds in the bark. She held herself in position on the trunk until Menlo’s legs appeared over the side of the platform. She held on with one hand and guided his feet into the clefts of the footholds.
Once he stabilized himself, he found his own way down onto the trunk. She started climbing, but she waited for him so many times the climb took much longer than usual. Halfway down, his breathing strained and he missed his footing a few times, but he didn’t stop. Anna paused, but he didn’t need her help. He didn’t quit until he planted his feet on the soft forest floor next to her.
Anna smiled. “Okay?”
Menlo ran his wrist across his forehead and nodded. “Now I know where I am. I can handle anything now that I’m on the ground.”
Anna looked around. “There’s only one problem. I don’t know the way to the Eastern Divide.”
“I do,” he replied.
Anna gasped. “You do?”
“Sure.” He set off through the trees. “I’ve been here before, remember?”
Anna hurried to catch up to him. “But how can you find your way in the dark?”
“We aren’t in the dark,” he replied. “Besides, I can smell the forest.”
Anna took a breath, but she didn’t smell anything but cold, damp trees. “What do you smell?”
He didn’t stop walking. “Every forest has a distinctive smell. This forest smells different from my home forest, but I can smell my home forest coming from over there, beyond those mountains. That’s the Eastern Divide.”
Anna squinted into the dark. “How can you smell it from so far away?”
“The wind is coming from that direction,” he replied. “It brings the smell to me from there. That’s where I need to go.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“I’m sure.”
The farther he got from the Avitras, the more sure and swift his strides became until Anna had to run to keep up with him. Now she was the one to pant and sweat from the effort. At last, she called out to him, “Wait a minute.”
He turned around. “Am I moving too fast for you?”
She shook her head and caught her breath. “You go ahead. I’m going back.”
He arched his eyebrows. “You can’t go back. Aquilla will kill you when he finds out you let me escape.”
“I’m not going back to the Avitras,” she explained. “I’m going to the Lycaon. I couldn’t stay with the Avitras anymore, and I was happy with Lycaon. Their territory is back that way. You go on. You’ll be home soon. Don’t worry about me.”
He frowned, but before he could answer, a shadow moved across her field of view. She tried to warm Menlo, but the shadow materialized from behind a tree, and Aquilla stood before them. “You don’t have to worry about Aquilla finding out you let him escape. He already knows.”
Menlo jerked his weapon out of his waistband and rounded on his foe. He bared his teeth and roared a challenge that shivered the massive tree trunks. Aquilla drew himself up to his full height and crouched to spring. He paid no attention to the weapon in Menlo’s hand.
Anna stepped back to give them room. Nothing would please her more than seeing Menlo pay Aquilla back for his cruel treatment. She never doubted for an instant that Menlo would triumph over Aquilla in a fight to the death.
Menlo coiled in on himself with every muscle tensed. The knife meant nothing to him, either. He would tear Aquilla to pieces before he went back to the Avitras as a prisoner.
The two men sized each other up in a flash and would have rocketed toward one another with all the blood lust of mortal enemies. But at that moment, another figure emerged from the trees and stepped between them. Piwaka held out his hands to both men. “Stop where you are!”
Aquilla gnashed his teeth. “Get out of the way, old man. This has nothing to do with you.”
“You don’t think so?” Piwaka asked. “Who do you think drugged your Guards so this Usridrean could get away? Do you really think he could sneak past me if I had my eyes open?”
Aquilla paused for a fraction of an instant. Then he narrowed his eyes at Piwaka. “You call yourself my Captain? This is the last time you’ll ever interfere with me again. You’ll be banned from the Guard and sent to the frontier to live with the outliers.”
Piwaka smiled his inscrutable smile, but he didn’t move. “You couldn’t rule our faction without me. You could never have captured this Ursidrean in the first place without my help, and I won’t let you drive our people to ruin over some nonsense about your brother. This was never about your brother, and if you stand a
gainst me, I’ll make sure you lose your position as Alpha. No Alpha can stand without his lieutenants. You know that.”
Aquilla hesitated again, but only for a moment. “I don’t need any lieutenants who aren’t loyal. You drugged the Guards, and you tried to drug me, too. You’re finished. Now get out of the way. I have a job to do here.”
Piwaka turned his back on Menlo and faced Aquilla with his own arms flexed and his legs bent to attack. “You’ll have to kill me first before you harm a hair on this man’s head. You know what Donen will do when he finds out what you’ve done. I never should have gone along with your plan to capture him. I won’t let that mistake cost our people any more lives. Let him go, or do your worst with me.”
This time, Aquilla really did hesitate. He might have fooled himself that he could defeat Menlo in single combat, but he didn’t stand a chance against a hardened warrior like Piwaka. The glint in Piwaka’s eye told him he wasn’t joking around.
Still, Aquilla couldn’t back down without losing face. Piwaka would never tell anyone Aquilla gave up without a fight, but Aquilla couldn’t live with himself if he went back to the village in defeat. If he hoped to maintain his position as Alpha, he had to remain undefeated.
The wheels turned in his mind. He glanced over Piwaka’s shoulder at Menlo standing ready to take over where Piwaka left off. Even if by some slim chance Aquilla defeated Piwaka, Menlo was waiting for his turn. Aquilla would never beat Piwaka without suffering some injury or at least exhaustion. He couldn’t face Menlo afterwards.
He hardened himself for the first assault, even knowing it was hopeless. At least he would die in open combat. No one would call him a coward. He crouched to spring at Piwaka, but all at once, a voice echoed through the trees and called his name. The voice was female.
Anna whirled around, and Penelope Ann appeared between the trees. “Stop, Aquilla!”
His eyes widened, and his arms fell to his sides. “What are you doing here?”
She strode right up to him, past Anna and Menlo and Piwaka as if they weren’t there. She stopped in front of him and peered into his burning eyes. “What are you doing? You aren’t going to fight them, are you?”
Rhani (Dragons of Kratak Book 3) Page 49