From Across the Clouded Range (2 page)

“
I will do my part,” the
outsider sighed. “I will pull the weft as needed. The Church will
do everything in its power to see this pattern through.”

“
Do not fail us, Xi
Valati, or everything we know will be lost. The Order will
fall.”

Chapter 1

Just
breathe
, Teth told herself. She stared at
the dusty road before her, studied each pothole, every loose stone,
searched for anything that might catch her toe or disrupt her
balance. The beginning would be a sprint, she knew that.
They’re out for blood now,
she thought.
If they catch me,
they’ll get it
.

In confirmation, a hand shoved her
from behind. She stumbled slightly toward the white line across the
road. An elbow caught her shoulder as she rose, she didn’t
acknowledge it. “Bitch,” a voice whispered, “you’re goin’ down and
every one of us is gonna take a piece of ya as we go
by.”

“
. . . . over Cat’s Back
Hill and across the old wooden bridge,” the booming voice of the
governor droned, explaining the course they were preparing to run.
Teth already knew it by heart, so she let his voice fade into the
back of her mind. She pushed her short, fine hair behind her ears,
adjusted the rolled-up sleeves of her silk shirt, a gift from Ipid
meant for something very different from running.

“
You’re an Order-cursed
witch,” another voice whispered. “We’re gonna find ya after this.
You’ll get yirs.” A fist struck her left shoulder blade, nearly
sent her to her knees.

“
Just start the damned
race,” she hissed at the governor. But he was taking his time. He
was no more fond of her than the boys, was just as embarrassed by
the four first-place coins she had already taken, by the antics
they had pulled to keep her from winning more. For his own sake,
he’d do what he could to keep them from hurting her too badly, but
he would do nothing about the jostling, the name calling, the
trampling she’d receive if they caught her once the race
started.

“
No one’s ever gonna join
ya. You’ll be an ol’ witch hag just like yir aunt.” A thumb in the
kidney.

“
Not even a girl.” An
elbow to the ribs.

“
Should be in a travelin’
show, freak.” A boot to the calf.

“
Too bad ol’ man Ronigan’s
protectin’ ya. We’d be rid of ya and yir witch aunt.” A push in the
back of the head.

“
Does everyone understand
the course?” the governor asked. “It’s five thousand paces. Take it
easy, now. Most of you have never run anything close to that, and
it’s a hot day. I know you all want to win, but it’s not worth
hurting yourselves.” Teth was bouncing between the boys at the
front of the line like a bean in a rattle. The insults had stopped,
but the boys were only getting bolder with their assaults as no one
moved to stop them.

The governor looked straight at Teth.
“Does anyone want to bow out? There’s no shame in it. It’s a long
race, a lot of road to cover, and no help along the way.” His eyes
almost pleaded. He knew what Ipid Ronigan’s wrath would be if the
boys got their way. Ronigan & Galbridge owned the lumber rights
for the whole damned district, owned every man here. It wouldn’t
look good if the last remaining Galbridge was killed in a foot
race.

An especially strong shove put Teth on
her hands and knees. She shot back up, wiped the dirt and blood
from her hands onto her pants. “Just start the race,” she
snarled.

“
Very well,” the governor
sighed, “just remember, you brought this on yourself.” He raised
his hand and looked down the line. Teth studied the burly young men
on either side of her, the Durry brothers. They’d try to take her
down before she got off the line. She was ready. “Everyone set?”
The governor paused, drew a deep breath. Teth followed suit.
“Go!”

Teth placed a hand on a shoulder of
each Durry brother and pushed off to hurl herself above the feet
that swept toward hers. She leapt forward, ducking below an
outstretched arm, and ran for all she was worth. She had already
won the sprint earlier in the day. She knew that no boy here could
catch her in the first two hundred paces, but she had to save
enough strength to complete the rest of the race. If they caught
her halfway through, it would be ten-times worse, there would be no
one to stop them, no one scrape what was left of her from the
road.

From ahead and to the
side, she saw Ben Tullow shooting toward her.
Where had he come from?
She
anticipated his arrival, watched his arms stretching out to catch
her. He wasn’t even being subtle. He was going to tackle her. As he
hurtled in, reaching for her, she shifted, caught his arm and spun
around him. He lost his footing and fell in a tangle, taking down
the three boys that were closest to her. She landed smoothly, did
not miss a stride. She barely felt her doeskin shoes hitting the
packed-dirt road. They were used to forest trails. This was easy,
mindless.

Certain of the road now, Teth spared a
glance behind. The boys were fading. The first threat was past, but
she felt her heart hammering, her lung struggling to keep up with
the demands of her body. She slowed, allowed herself to recover.
The next wave would be upon her soon.

When she had arrived at the district
games that morning, the boys had jostled her, teased, laughed, but
they hadn’t taken her seriously. No girl had ever competed in the
games before, but as Teth had pointed out, there was no law that
said she couldn’t. The men seemed to think it an opportunity to put
the uppity girl in her place. They laughed and let her line up for
the sprint.

When she won by five paces they
stopped laughing. When she won at a thousand paces, took both
archery competitions, then lost climbing on a made-up technicality
and tracking to blatant cheating, they became angry. She did not
enter the brute force competitions: tree felling, log lifting, axe
throwing, and the officials drew the line at wrestling. That left
this as their final chance for revenge. She had heard them plotting
before the race, knew what they planned: trip her, then kick her as
they went by, leave her bloody, make sure she’d never run
again.

The thought gave her another charge of
energy. She looked behind her and saw the boys who had saved
themselves from the sprint pacing behind her, waiting for her to
tire. She had fifty strides on them, but she wasn’t gaining any
longer and her legs were straining. Coming into this, she had known
that the boys wouldn’t like it, but she had never expected this
kind of vitriol. Humiliation was their usual tactic, she was used
to that, knew all their insults, all their pranks, but this was
something new. She was not even sure if Ipid’s name could protect
her now.

Around a bend, she saw the
first big hill in front of her, Cat’s Back Hill. A rope line ran
along the side of the road to ease wagons down so they did not
overrun their teams. It was that steep. They would try to catch her
here. A look back showed six boys breaking into a sprint. Teth met
their pace, hit the hill, and felt her momentum stop.
Damn it’s steep
. Her
toes slipped on the loose dirt, she sprawled forward, caught
herself, and leapt forward, but that did not stop the whoop from
behind her. Her legs burned as her feet dug for purchase. She
spread her legs, used the inside of her feet to improve her grip. A
boy, she wasn’t sure who, closed to a few feet. His big strides
propelled him up the hill. Teth gasped. He was going to catch her.
She leapt forward and caught a glimpse of his outstretched hand as
it swept past her ankle and fell back down the hill.

Her desperate strides
launched her up the steepest part of the hill, leaving the boys
well behind. She slowed and drew gasping breaths. The cramp in her
side nearly doubled her over. Her heart felt like it would leap
from her chest if it didn’t explode first.
Just have to get to the top
, she
told herself. She struggled to the crest and stopped to catch her
breath. She could run for hours through the forest without stopping
but not at a sprint.

She took a deep breath, spit in the
dirt, and started down the other side. It was just as steep and
almost more treacherous going down, but she had a plan. If the boys
could cheat, so could she. She pulled a leather strap from the
pocket of her pants and wrapped it around her left hand. She angled
toward the tow line, threw the strap over it, wrapped the free end
around her right hand, and pushed off. She pulled herself up, held
her legs out straight, and slid down the rope, mere inches from the
dirt. The smell of burning leather filled the air as she flew down
the hill. She watched a huge tree approach where the rope was tied
at the bottom. If she hit it at her current speed, they’d be
scraping her off the bark. She planted her heels, felt the road
ripping through her shoes. She barely slowed. Desperate, she
unwound the thong from her hand, planted her outside foot, and
rolled. Her shoulder hit the ground with a shock, and she spun
violently for twenty paces before her momentum died. Rubbing her
shoulder, she rose, shook the cobwebs from her head and
ran.

The race was halfway through. A glace
behind her showed the first of the boys cresting the hill. They did
not start down after her. Instead they began pulling on the rope. A
new set of fresh legs had yet to come, and the race was only
halfway through. She ran on.

Chapter 2

“
There you are! Asleep in
the middle of your harem again.”

Dasen’s head shot up. He searched his
surroundings trying to remember where he was. A deep breath filled
his senses with the scent of leather, dust, and stale parchment. He
rubbed the sleep from his eyes then ran his fingers through his
overgrown hair to pull it back from his face. It felt stringy and
matted, in desperate need of a wash. After a great stretching yawn,
he wiped his mouth but found that he had not, thankfully, been
drooling on the ancient ledger that had been his pillow. He quickly
found the pivoting mirror mounted on his table, but it no longer
caught the light. Instead, he traced a dusty beam along fifty paces
of bookshelves to a glowing spiral staircase. The mirrors mounted
along those stairs and on top of the shelves showed steady sunlight
rather than the flickering oil fire that had illuminated his books
when he had succumbed to sleep.

“
What time is it?” he
asked the lanky young man who had roused him.

“
The second bell just
sounded but no classes today,” Rynn replied. “Not that the
counselors expect
you
to be at their lectures anymore.” Rynn’s starched cotton
shirt, black satin vest, and fine wool pants hung from his skeletal
form like an overdressed scarecrow. He was likely the single
thinnest person Dasen had ever seen, fine bones with the sparest
flesh to cover them. His face did nothing to further his emaciated
appearance. It was long and narrow with deep-set eyes, sunken
cheeks, and large round ears. His lips were thin and colorless.
Lifeless dishwater blond hair was pulled back and tied at the nape
of his neck. Only his ever-present smile, tainted as it was by
mischief, and lively blue eyes, marked him as anything more than a
wealthy plague victim.

The out-of-favor third son of a
Liandrian lord, Rynn had been exiled to Liandrin University to
train for a position as a counselor, a teacher and interpreter of
the Holy Order. He could not have been worse suited for the
requisite life of study, reflection, and judgment. He was in a
constant state of motion, shifting and fidgeting like a nervous
cat, unable to concentrate for even the shortest lectures. Logic
bored him. He read as little as possible. And his implacable
irreverence had put him on the wrong side of nearly every
counselor, valati, and student at the university. Still, he had
been Dasen’s friend from their first day. Long consigned to his
fate and never shy, Rynn had been the only one willing to approach
the son of Ipid Ronigan without expecting something in return. He
was still the only person Dasen trusted without
reservation.

Rynn plopped himself into
the chair across from Dasen’s and examined the mountain of
leather-bound tomes before him.
Imperial
Ledger: Liandrin District
was printed on
each broad spine along with a range of years dating back to well
before either of their grandparents were alive. “I see you spent
another night with your lovers. You are incorrigible. How many was
it last night? I see at least a dozen here, but with you, I can
never be sure.”

“
Very funny.” Dasen rubbed
his eyes again and shook his head to dispel the cobwebs. Meanwhile,
Rynn positioned the reading mirror so that the reflected sunlight
was aimed squarely into his eyes. Dasen squirmed away and batted at
the mirror. “That’s not funny. Are you trying to blind
me?”

“
My goal exactly. If you
were blind, you wouldn’t spend so much time with these musty,
leathery, old whores.”

“
I think you’ve carried
that metaphor far enough, haven’t you?”

“
I see that you, like me,
prefer your lovers on the thick side, though the curves on these
seem a bit sharp for my tastes.” Rynn pushed the books to one side
and leaned across the table. “Let us dispense with these easy
lovers and find some that are a bit softer and gentler on the eyes.
As I was searching for you, I passed a lovely gaggle of ladies from
the girls’ school. They seemed absorbed with some elderly, leathery
suitors, but I am certain that the famed Dasen Ronigan could pry
them from such inferior prospects.”