“Not a clue,” said Daniel.
“Then let’s get her out of the ravine for now. One of Maravek’s men is still on the loose somewhere, and I have no doubt he’ll stay loyal to him.”
Moriah nodded. “Andrale.”
“Without weapons, we’re toast if he finds us.” She crouched over Kora. “Help me lift her up.”
The four of them toiled out of the ravine, carrying Kora’s limp body as best they could. When at last they reached the top, they hurried under the cover of the trees and stretched her out in the shade under a pine.
Tess grabbed Daniel and Ram by the shoulder. “Listen carefully. This girl is dangerous. She’s already shed blood—don’t let her do it again. The only reason I’m helping her is because Maravek acted outside the parameters of the law. If saving her life is the only way I can make up for the atrocities he committed, then so be it. Mind you,” she added, “If we cross paths again, justice will be dealt.”
Daniel frowned. “What do you mean? You have to stay with us.”
She shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t. Maravek is too much of a wild card to be left to his own devices. We have to make sure he doesn’t cause more trouble. What’s your plan?”
“Cerdania,” said Ram. “I have some family left there.”
“Good. It’s a start. Make to the bridge that crosses the Weeping north from here, and you’ll leave Akor. As soon as I can return to the capitol, I’ll do everything in my power to ensure the Order does not pursue you across the border. Without solid proof, it’s going to be my word against Maravek’s, but that’s not for you to worry about just yet.”
Daniel let out a long breath. “Thank you.”
A grin tugged at her mouth. “I’m the one who needs to thank you. Both of you.” Her eyes grew stern again. “You can make it to the border well before sundown if you don’t run into trouble. I’d give you a weapon, but I’ll have need of this.” She patted Maravek’s knife. “You’ll have to make do.”
“What about Kora?”
“Her fate lies with you, now. I can’t tell you what to do with her. You’re going to have to make a decision and act on it. Just……be quick about it, whatever you do.”
“That’s comforting,” said Ram.
Tess ignored him. “The best I can do for you now is wish you luck. And lots of it. Should we meet again, I hope it’s under better circumstances.” Then she and Moriah ran back towards the ravine, disappearing from view among the trees.
* * *
As Tess labored her way down the side of the ravine with Moriah close behind, she struggled to categorize the swirl of emotions she felt. It wasn’t an activity she was used to, but she gave it her best shot. There was guilt—she was sure of that. In the past few days alone, she had accused the man who saved her life of murder, turned on her superior officer to amend her mistake, and indirectly caused the deaths of several of her men.
She also felt fear—the recent yet receding fear for her life, of course. But also fear that she wouldn’t be able to make up for her mistakes. Fear that more people would die because of her. The weight of the responsibility that was hers pressed down on her as though she carried an anvil on her shoulders.
She tried hard not to focus on the guilt or the fear. She rationalized them away, telling herself it was all part of her job. No one in the Academy had ever told her that her life as a Preceptor would be easy, and she wouldn’t have believed them if they had.
Moriah broke the silence, interrupting her thoughts. “You made the right decision.”
“You didn’t give me much choice.”
Moriah concentrated on the next few steps. “You’d already made up your mind. I could tell.” A moment of silence. “I was scared.”
“So was I.”
“But it’s over now, right?”
Tess didn’t answer right away. “Maybe.” She needed to cling to the hope that Daniel and Ram would prevail, that the little girl around whom all this chaos swirled like a tornado would be safe, and that in the end, justice would be dealt.
Tess cut her musings short to focus on a particularly tricky stretch of the trail. If a cautious ascent out of the ravine had been hard, a hasty descent was bound to send her rolling the rest of the way down.
“What are we going to do with him?”
A shrug. “For now, make sure he can’t move when he comes back around.” Once she navigated her way between two towering boulders and hopped across a gap in the trail, she slid on her feet down to the ravine floor. She stopped and listened. All was quiet. She had to act quickly if she was to remove the two bodies and find a way to secure Maravek before he regained consciousness—or before Andrale turned a corner and started asking questions.
Satisfied they were alone in the ravine, she hurried south towards the spot where the fight had broken out. There, Tess stopped. The trampled ferns, the loosened rocks, the bullet shells…She spun around, searching among the foliage.
Moriah voiced the truth. “He’s gone!”
* * *
Ram led Daniel through the trees to a spot not far from the ravine, where a spindly oak had split near the base of the trunk and caught its branches in the canopy of a nearby sapling, forming an angled bridge between the trees. He grinned triumphantly and pointed. “There.”
Daniel laughed. He couldn’t help it. And it felt good. He laughed so loud that Ram had to shush him, even though that didn’t help much. Of all the scenarios he had envisioned, this was not one of them.
Litty hung from the fallen tree like a little caterpillar in a cocoon, suspended in a makeshift harness Ram had fashioned from Daniel’s denim shirt. Her lips puckered in a pitiful pout, her toes dangled just inches off the ground, and there was a leaf stuck in her hair above her ear. All in all, she looked thoroughly disgruntled.
“Where are her shoes?” said Daniel, once his bout of laughter had passed. He walked up to his little sister and gave her a playful pat on the head. She gave him such an exaggerated frown that he almost lost it again.
“On the ground over there,” said Ram. “For some unfathomable reason, she insisted on taking them off, and I’ll have you know, I was in too much of a rush to save your skin to argue with her.”
“So you hung her from a tree?”
Ram raised his hands in defense. “She got quite a kick out of it all, at least at first.”
Daniel chuckled again. “Come on, little one. Let’s get you out of there before the squirrels start bringing you nuts.”
Once she was freed from the contraption, Daniel slipped the shirt back on and fastened the buttons. He gave the fabric a sniff. “This really smells bad.”
“You haven’t exactly had a change of clothes recently.”
“I could say the same for you.” He grabbed the shoes off the ground.
Litty clung to his hand as they made their way back to Kora. The girl was still unconscious, but her breathing was back to normal. She was going to be okay.
Daniel quickly checked the knife wound, positioning himself between Kora and Litty so that his little sister wouldn’t see the ugly mess, and gently washed it out with a splash of water from Tess’ flask. Wet blood still stuck to what used to be his undershirt, but the wound was no longer bleeding quite so much.
“With any luck, it won’t get infected.” He re-wrapped the bandage and tightened it as much as he dared. “I have no idea how long it’ll take her to regain consciousness. Can you carry her?”
Ram rolled his shoulders. “As long as we don’t have to climb out from any more ravines.” He paused, rubbing the back of his neck. “She’s going to slow us down. A lot.”
Daniel sighed. “I know. But we can’t leave her here on her own. Not without food or water.”
Ram raised an eyebrow. “We don’t have food or water either.”
“I know that, too.”
“I’m just saying we can barely take care of ourselves and Litty. Anyone in our situation would think it perfectly logical to find a safe place to l
eave her. She’s clever enough to make it on her own once she’s awake.” He glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eye. “But it’s your decision.”
Daniel stared at Kora’s dirt-smeared face, and his mind went back to the first time he had seen her. Even back then she had been unstable at best, and her record hadn’t exactly improved since. But now, with her unconscious on the ground, he could almost pretend that none of that had ever happened and that she was just a hapless friend in need of help.
He looked back up at Ram. “We’re taking her. At least until she wakes up. If it would help you, we can take turns carrying her.”
“No, no,” said Ram, his nose in the air, “I’ll have none of that. You’ve been beaten and hanged and shot at. The least I can do is help carry the load. Literally.”
Daniel punched him in the arm. “Is it ever not a time for jokes with you?”
Ram feigned being hurt, tenderly rubbing his arm. “Do you always hit people this often?” He laughed and scooped Kora up in his arms as if she weighed no more than a load of firewood.
Daniel rolled his eyes and crouched down to let Litty climb onto his shoulders. Once she was comfortable, they set off.
“There was a time,” said Ram, the humor gone from his voice. “In Galaratheas. I didn’t joke there.”
Daniel met his eyes. “I know.”
Ram held his gaze. “Never give up on us like that again.”
Daniel gave Litty a gentle squeeze. “I won’t.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Tess ducked low and crawled through the ferns to the nearest boulder, her eyes sweeping the ravine floor as well as the ridges above, searching for any sign of Maravek. Nothing. He could be long gone by now, or he could be lurking nearby, waiting for a chance to ambush her. She sat against the boulder to sort her options.
In that position, the ferns came up to her shoulders—both a blessing and a curse, as they provided immediate shelter for her, but would also allow Maravek to remain invisible in the event that he was still in the ravine. For a long minute, she held her breath, listening for any sound that could give him away, and her head swiveled like a water sprinkler.
It was during this process that she noticed the trail of trampled ferns running towards the end of the ravine to the east, the same direction they had come from when Kora led the way. It made sense that Maravek would take the long route out and around the ravine rather than risk being spotted making the climb up the sides.
She found herself in a new dilemma. Should she and Moriah pursue Maravek alone, armed with nothing but a fighting knife? Or should they backtrack and try to catch up with Daniel and Ram? She gripped the hilt of the knife hard enough to make her knuckles turn white. Each second she spent deliberating could—and probably would—come back to bite her. She shook her head. With no knowledge of what Maravek and Andrale where planning, she would be of little or no help to Daniel and Ram. She beckoned to Moriah across the ravine. They had a lot of ground to cover.
* * *
Several hours of trekking through the woods, stopping now and then for Ram to rest his arms, passed before Kora showed any signs of waking. Then she groaned and her head lolled to the side. Ram jumped and nearly dropped her. “I think she’s coming to,” he said, stating the obvious.
They were following a dry riverbed where the water had dug out a deep trench, probably years ago, to minimize the odds of being spotted.
Daniel stopped and instinctively checked the surrounding area to make sure no one was following or watching them—although there was no way to be sure of that in this terrain. He put Litty down and kicked some dead branches away to clear a space on the left bank. “Put her down here, and keep her head up.”
Ram laid Kora in the crinkling leaves. She moaned restlessly, and her hand went to her wounded shoulder. Daniel grabbed her wrist to keep her from harming herself.
Suddenly, Kora let out a piercing, wordless scream. Her back arched, her fingers dug into the ground like claws, and her right leg lunged out and kicked Daniel in the chest, sending him tumbling on his back.
Litty jumped like a frightened rabbit and backed away a good five steps, her eyes wide, squeezing Ducky against her chest.
“What’s going on?” said Ram, frantically trying to hold Kora down.
Her eyes were still closed, but she thrashed around as though she were being assaulted by some invisible force.
“You’re asking me?” Daniel picked himself up and dove for her flailing arms. He latched on to her right wrist. “Get the other one! Help me pin her down.”
Ram managed to get a grip on her other arm and brought it to the ground. “One more scream like that from her, and we’ll have all the Preceptors in Akor swarming in.”
Luckily, Kora didn’t scream anymore. As if responding to their efforts to control her, her arched body went limp. Her back thudded to the ground, and her head rolled to the side.
Daniel sat back and ran his fingers through his hair, breathing hard. “It’s over, Litty. You can come back.”
His little sister ventured over to them with timid steps, still clutching Ducky like her life depended on it. Daniel pulled her into his lap and gave her a comforting squeeze. “That was scary, wasn’t it?”
She nodded vigorously.
After taking one last look at Kora to make sure she wouldn’t have another spasm, Daniel motioned for Ram to join him a little ways away. “Do you think that’s it?” He asked. “I don’t like staying in one spot for so long. Especially not out in the open like this. But I don’t know if that was just some weird nightmare she was having, or if we’re in for a rude awakening at any moment.”
Ram glanced at the girl over his shoulder. “Seems like she’s out cold again. But I know what you mean.”
Daniel shook the canteen Tess had given them. “We’re going to need water as soon as possible, for us, and to keep the wound clean.”
Ram nodded. “Leave that to me. It’s the Untamables. There’s bound to be a stream nearby.”
Daniel handed him the canteen and grabbed his wrist. “We can’t afford to stay here any longer than necessary.”
“Ten minutes, that’s all. If I’m not back by then…”
“You’ll be back by then.”
“Of course,” he said. “I’m just venturing out into the wilderness by myself, unarmed, with deranged Preceptors hiding behind every bush. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Would you rather I go?”
Ram blinked, and his eyebrows shot up. “Heavens, no.” He started up the trench, following the dry riverbed. “I’m going this way,” he said, “And I’ll come back this way. So if you hear someone coming from any other way, it’s not me.”
“And I’ll fight them off with leaves and sticks,” Daniel said. He switched Litty from his left arm to his right. “Be quick about it.” He watched his friend until he disappeared over a dip in the mountainside.
* * *
Just as Tess had been afraid of, the cavern on the eastern slope overlooking the valley was empty, save for a few packs the Preceptors had left behind that morning to lighten their load. There was no sign of Maravek, and yet Tess found encouragement in the knowledge that her prediction had been accurate. “He was here.”
Moriah kicked at a tangle of thin chain near the back of the main cave. “The dogs are gone. He took them, didn’t he?”
A nod. “He never meant to engage the Akorites. Daniel’s been his target all along.”
“So we chase after him. If we move fast enough, maybe we can catch him before he finds Daniel.”
Tess stared out across the valley, her mind racing. “Not likely. Not without help.”
Moriah watched her, confusion on her face, until realization hit her. “We have no idea where they went. They could be halfway across the Untamables by now.”
Tess turned back to her, a slight grin on her face. “They aren’t, and we know exactly where they are. Kora told us.”
“The outpost by the river? She made
it up—you know that. Maravek was going to kill her if she didn’t tell him where they went. She was terrified, so she said the first thing that came to mind.”
The grin grew wider. “Exactly.”
* * *
Daniel set Litty to take care of Ducky on a mossy rock between two trees before returning to Kora’s prone form. The Akorite’s thrashing had scared her into more silence than was usual, and he didn’t want her to be further disturbed by things she didn’t understand. He knelt by Kora’s side and watched Litty for a moment over his shoulder. She held Ducky close, rocking it back and forth like she always did, but this time, her lips didn’t move in silent conversation. Instead, she stared down at her feet.
He returned his attention to Kora. A quick inspection of the knife wound gave him some small relief—the bleeding had stopped, and he figured that with proper care she would mend quickly. What bothered him, however, was the knowledge that proper care was something she wouldn’t be receiving so long as the Preceptors were chasing after them. Nor did he have the material necessary to tend to her himself. Until Ram brought back water, the only thing he could do for her was hope that whatever had caused her spasms earlier would not happen again.
Daniel stared down at her peaceful face—as peaceful a face as he had ever seen on her. Since the moment they had first found Kora in the snapjaw’s nest, fear had clawed at her like a predator, and according to the stories from both Ram and Tess, fear had driven her to near madness before. Perhaps that was what Tess meant when she said Kora was dangerous. He had no doubt this was true, but looking at her now—unconscious, utterly dependent on others, and yet completely at peace—he felt all the more that bringing her with them had been the right thing to do. A bitter smile crept into his lips. Perhaps it was the only good decision he had made since Litty had been left behind.
Several minutes passed in which the only sound was the rustling of the boughs above and the occasional hazelspark in the brush. As he knelt there, the moisture from the forest floor seeping through the knees of his pants, he felt a sense of hope swell in him that he hadn’t felt in a long time. What fear was there to be had of Maravek or his men? Here, in the middle of the Untamables—a mere half-day’s trek from the safety that Cerdania offered—how would they be found? Maravek had power and determination in abundance, but Daniel figured that even the highest ranked Preceptor would be hard-pressed to track their motley band on foot, even with the added burden of the unconscious Akorite. The bitter smile became more genuine, and he turned.
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