Adversaries Together (36 page)

“
You know you don’t have to
be such a bitch all the time to me.” Goshen mumbled more to himself
than to Jena. In fact, he didn’t think she had heard him until he
looked up after a few steps to see her glaring at him.

“
It’s shit like that,” Jena
said calmly but her eyes were furious, “that leads me to treat you
the way I do.”

“
I’ve been nothing but
civil, yet from the first you’ve been needlessly gruff with
me.”

“
Needlessly gruff?” Jena
gave an incredulous laugh, “You & yours have harried me from
the first for simply trying to help you not die. I saved
you.”

“
Had some help wit that
tho.” Declan mumbled ahead of them.

“
Without us, you’d be
rotting in a hole guilty of nothing.”

Goshen looked down a bit cowed but then broke
in, “I wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for your
friend.”

“
He saved your life and
your precious alm! You’d be bloated sack in the lowlands without
him. And he didn’t have to get me to protect you. So, when you
think about it—for even a second—he’s saved your life at least
twice.”

“Where is he now?”

“That’s your answer?” Jena screamed in
Goshen’s face as Declan chuckled and turned away from the
bickering.

“
Yes, damn it, it is! I’m
no free ranger or…whatever the hell he is,” Goshen pointed after
Declan, stepped back and threw his up. “I have nothing and now
nowhere to go. I was a crusader. I served the Light. What do I do
now? Keep letting myself be shepherd…”

“
You find your friend.”
Jena broke in and the two glared at each other in sudden
silence.

“
Oi,” Declan called several
spans away, “If you two are done, I’ve found something that
actually matters.”

Jena didn’t break eye contact with Goshen but
took several steps back, “What this?”

Kneeling, Declan twisted around, “C’mere,
damnit.”

Goshen gestured for Jena to go ahead; she
smirked as she turned toward Declan.

“
Ya see this?” Declan
pointed to ground, and then raised his finger pointing to some
shrubs about fifteen feet away, “We aren’t the first folk to come
this way.”

“
How long ago do you
think?” Goshen asked. He couldn’t see the details that Declan was
point out to Jena but he didn’t doubt the man.

Declan picked up some leaves and crumpled
them up seemingly absent-mindedly, “Not more than a week, perhaps
soon. But the interesting part is that these tracks are coming
toward us.”

“
Toward?”

“
Someone came out of the
highlands this way.” Jena clarified for Goshen.

“
So it couldn’t be those
behind us.” Goshen ventured.

Declan nodded, “Naw, couldn’t be.”

“
Who could it be?” Goshen
mumbled.

“
Most likely,” Jena stared
ahead of them, her eyes darting as she took in the forest, “someone
with Roth.”

“
Ya think?” Declan
asked.

Goshen shook his head, “Isn’t it more likely
that your Roth has left?”

“
Hardly,” Jena pointed
through the woods, “We’re nearly there. By dusk will not be but a
few leagues away.”

“
That doesn’t really
invalidate my point.”

“
Which is?” Jena barked at
him.

“
Declan says these are the
tracks of someone leaving.”

“
And?”

“
Why are you being so
stubborn about this?” Goshen shook his head, “He’s left—if he was
even ever there.”

“
Do you hear yourself? He’s
left but he was never there. What sort of sense does that
make?”

“
Damn it, shut up, both of
ya.” Declan stood abruptly with a stunning authority, “We keep
going, and by tomorrow morning we’ll know one way or the other.” He
dug a finger into Goshen’s chest, then turned to point in Jena’s
face, “You need to figure out what we do if he’s not.” Before
either could reply, Declan left the two standing and began
following the invisible trail. Jena glared at Goshen, her hands on
her hips. Goshen was tired of it. He impatiently gestured for her
to follow Declan.

The Cruor,
32
^st
of Mabon

Wynne stood behind Roth watching him rig the
tripwire, “So that’ll open the cages?”

“
It should,” Roth tugged on
the line slightly as both he and Wynne followed it up the tree next
to them. It shook some leaves in the higher branches and Roth
seemed satisfied.

“
How many have you set
up?”

“
I’ve got a perimeter,”
Roth stood up and turned around point back the way they had come
and then off to their left, “of about seven set across the most
likely paths to the Cruor.”

“
And the road?” Wynne
asked.

“
Well, that’s pretty much
right in front of us so we’ll be just fine one we get into the
settlement proper.” Roth seemed satisfied. The two men began to
making their way back to camp.

“
So, there’s still a
lingering concern.” Wynne spoke softly.

Roth knew what he was getting at, “They’ll
get here.”

“
Soon?” The pair emerged
from the woods.

The sun was bright and although the highland
air was cool, the light immediately warmed the skin. Roth paused a
moment as they crossed the glen and grabbed Wynne’s arm, “I don’t
know how many more times I can say it.”

“
How long are we going to
wait? We can’t stay here indefinitely.”

“
How long did you search
for Fery before you gave up?”

“
I didn’t give
up.”

“
That’s not what it sounded
like. It sounded like you holed up in the last safe corner you
could find in that city.” Roth said flatly.

“
And waited.” Wynne
nodded.

“
And waited.”

“
It wasn’t the right
decision.” Wynne shrugged.

“
Know that now, do
you?”

“
Knew it then,” Wynne said,
“I lost her, but I wanted to keep looking but…the others demanded
more and more of me. I reasoned that the more I brought to safety,
the increased likelihood that she’d turn up. Or that someone would
have some information for me.”

“
They never
did?”

“
They always had some bit
of information,” Wynne nodded giving a ponderous chuckle, “And it
usually sent me on a chase.”

“
And it usually wasn’t her
you found.”

“
It got to the point where,
and I’m not proud of this, but it felt as though they were coming
to me because they knew I could find their loved ones. They knew
what I was looking for and they knew how to use me.”

“
You saved a
lot?”

“
I saved
hundreds.”

“
That’s
something.”

Wynne shook his head, “No, I let far more
than that die.”

“
You can never save them
all.”

“
Did that stop
you?”

“
I don’t save people. If
anything I hinder them.”

“
I hardly believe that,”
Wynne said, “You helped Goshen and Kira for no reason other than
they were in front of you. You had plenty of opportunities to walk
away…”

“
Yet here I am walking with
you.”

Wynne laughed, “To the Cruor, a place you
know quite well.”

“
It serves my
purposes.”

“
It’s more than that.”
Wynne wasn’t trying to pry, but he had been needling Roth all
day.

“
Hardly, a tinker
needs…”

“
This isn’t a tinker’s
cabin, some rover camp. Even if you just stumbled upon this place,
you wouldn’t have maintained it like you have.” Wynne
asserted.

“
Who says I’m the only
one?”

“
You did. The Athingani are
too sparse and scattered, too scared to collect in one place
anymore.”

“
I told you I’m not
Athingani.”

“
No, you’re a half breed.
But you’re more than that. You look can pass; you don’t have the
features of the Athingani. At least, not the ones every one
associates with them.”

“
Is my hair not dark
enough? My complexion too light?” Roth was annoyed.

“
It’s not. You’re tall,
you’re slender with long arms and legs, you brow is flat, your jaw
is narrow.”

“
So you’re saying I
should’ve gone to Elixem and let the tailors drape me to parade
their wares.” Roth laughed.

“
I’m saying I’m one of the
few people in all Syr Nebra who has seen real
Athingani.”

Roth stopped and turned with a start, “What
Athingani have you ever known?”

“
I traded in the far north,
the far east, and the south. I met Athingani wanderers in Far Port
and when I crossed the Ragan Mountains.”

“
Few have seen, let alone
met all the known peoples.”

“
I wouldn’t say I have. But
the Athingani I met were stockier, large hands like yours, stronger
than I could’ve imagined. The men seemed nearly to be a knot of
muscle. But it was their faces where I saw their difference from
me—a thick brow that seemed to hide their eyes deep into their
skull. Blue eyes but such shadows danced around their
faces.”

Roth nodded, “Sometimes Adrenine children are
born with straight hair and light skin. Sometimes, you Sovi pluck
them away from their family. Take them into your chapels, your
inns, your schools, and your armies. Make them forget who they
are.”

“
Did we do that with
you?”

Roth shook his head, “I was stolen away by a
far crueler people.”

“
That sounds like a longer
story than we have time for.” Wynne laughed as the two approached
the sheer rock face of the Cruor. In the stone were a series of
half-circle footholds and then about thirty feet up you could see
wooden pegs protruding slightly from the surface.

Roth lifted a leg, slotted a foot into one of
the cutaways, and pushed himself upward with momentum enough to
grab another cutaway above his head. He moved with certainty and
quickness, though not great speed. Wynne followed behind mirroring
Roth’s moves and choices of cutaways, though he didn’t demonstrate
Roth’s adeptness. When he reached the first peg, he paused and
looked back to Wynne, “Remind me to tell it to you, once we’re in a
safe, warm place.”

Climbing was difficult for Wynne and the
strain could be seen in his face, but he did smile back up to Roth,
“When will that be?” The two laughed as they worked to complete
their assent; they had another thirty feet to go, before they
reached the cavate landing where the four of them had made
camp.

Fery sat on the edge of the squat stonewall
looking out over the highland coulee from the safety of the cavate
landing. Behind her were two towers carved into the hillside, there
were tens of tiny slit windows in each perhaps no more than a few
inches across but at least three feet long. The sky was mostly
clear and Fery had become a bit hypnotized watching the shadows of
clouds move across the hills with remarkable speed. Kira emerged
from the doorway between the two towers and came up to Fery. She
gingerly kicked the two buckets of water Fery had set down behind
herself and forgotten. The noise snapped Fery out of her reverie,
she looked over her shoulder to see Kira stand with her hands on
her hips, eyes wide, and head nodding toward the buckets.

“
Sorry, I was waylaid.”
Fery turned back to the vista.

“
I wouldn’t worry too much
about it,” Kira moved next to Fery and leaned on the wall, staring
out. “It’s not like making your father wait for water to cook will
make his food any better.”

Fery laughed a bit, “He’s rather terrible
isn’t he?”

“
What was that he made
yesterday?”

“
He was sure he could make
that curcurbita soup that Reg had for us our first
night.”

“
That didn’t work.” Kira
shook her head.

“
How could something be so
salty and undercooked?” Fery pretended to be outraged.

Kira laughed, “I doubt we’d do any
better.”

“
True enough.” The two
gazed in silence for a time, and then Kira tapped Fery on the
shoulder.

“
Come, I’ve found
something.” Kira nodded for Fery to follow her back toward the
towers.

Fery spun and hopped down from the wall,
“Lead the way.”

As they stepped through the doorway, they
pause as their eyes adjusted to the darker interior. The tower room
was empty but for three ladders that with the doorway divided the
circular space into fourths. In the center of the room as a
stairway pit that disappeared in darkness.

“
You’ve been exploring?”
Fery asked as Kira lead them down the stairs.

“
Yes,” Kira ran her hands
along the walls of the staircase and when they reached the bottom
the passage opened up into a corridor that she had torch lit
earlier.

She point to the right, “So that leads down
to our camp.”

“
The great room.” Fery
nodded.

“
Right,” Kira turned to the
left, “But down here the corridor moves to under where we were
standing.”