From Across the Clouded Range (55 page)

A hand clasped the side of his cheek
and ran up through his hair to the back of his head. Teth brought
her own head to his so that their foreheads met. She used her hand
to hold his hard against hers. For some reason, it eased the
throbbing behind his eyes. He opened his eyes and looked directly
into hers only a few inches away. He wondered if she was going to
kiss him again, but she just pressed her forehead against his and
stared into his eyes.

“
You did good last night,”
she whispered. “It would have been easy to give up, but you didn’t.
You kept going. I know this is hard, and it’s not going to get any
easier, but you showed last night that you can do it.” With that
she released his head and moved her hand down his face to his
shoulder, arm, and finally chest. But her head remained against his
until its angle shifted, her eyes drifted closed, her lips drew to
his, and she gently kissed him.

Little more than a brushing of their
lips, the kiss was enough to take Dasen’s breath away and send
blood flowing to all the wrong places, but it also seemed to dampen
his miseries. When Teth used the hand on his chest to push herself
slowly away, Dasen’s eyes drifted open and he released a trembling
breath.

“
Are you ready?” Teth
asked with a look back over her shoulder. Dasen nodded and somehow
fell in behind her.

#

“
So we agree that the men
we saw are from across the mountains?” Teth summarized the largely
one-sided conversation that had absorbed the last thirty minutes of
their hike.

Dasen just grunted his agreement,
drawing a look of concern from ahead. He motioned Teth to keep
going, which seemed to satisfy her. He was feeling marginally
better since they had found water – a small stream that they could
step over – food – a strip of dried meat and some sour berries –
and medicine – acrid higg bark that now seemed as much a part of
his life as breathing – but he could still barely manage to walk
much less maintain a conversation. His stomach was still decidedly
woozy, his head pounded, and his every muscle ached. His clothes
were either damp or stiff with dried sweat and mud, and they
chaffed everywhere they touched him so that he was constantly
trying to adjust them in one way or another. And the sun, standing
already near its zenith, was steadily pounding him with its heat
and light.

Though he did not participate much in
Teth’s musing, he appreciated it as a useful distraction. Overall,
he agreed that there was no other way to explain what they had seen
over the past few days. The only thing that still confused him was
how the invaders would know who he was, much less why they would
expend such effort to capture him. It could only have to do with
his father, which sent a spike of worry through him.

The scamper of feet over the forest
floor sounded somewhere in front of them. Teth pulled to a sudden
halt and pushed Dasen to the cover of a spiny bush that bordered
the faint deer trail they followed. Heart pounding, he watched the
trees before them. Teth kept one hand on his chest, holding him
back like a mother protecting a child from stepping onto a busy
street. The other clutched her long knife. Her legs were coiled,
ready to spring on whatever emerged. But nothing emerged. After a
few moments of watching silent trees, Teth relaxed. She removed her
restraining hand and returned the knife to the sheath at her
hip.

With a last scan of the clear sky
above, she stepped cautiously back onto the path. Dasen’s heart
slowly calmed. In the hour they had been walking, they had seen no
sign of pursuit by land or sky, but they both remained aware that
the creatures could be anywhere. As Teth had said the previous day,
the best way to catch game is to get it moving and wait for it to
come to you.

Despite that, Teth had decided that
they were better served by speed than stealth – “if they’re going
to pick up our trail, might as well make it a long one,” she had
said. As a result, they had used trails when possible and avoided
major obstacles. This made the going easier but also meant that
Teth expected him to maintain a faster pace. In his current state,
that had been about all Dasen was capable of. He was barely
following the conversation about the invaders and had no idea where
they were going or what their plan was from here.

“
So what about the
creatures?” Teth finally asked. She peeked back at Dasen. Her
bottom lip had crept back under her teeth. “They must have come
with the invaders, right?” She walked in front of him with a
noticeable hitch to her stride. It was clear that she was not
feeling much better than him, which gave Dasen a perverse sense of
accomplishment.

Dasen nodded then realized that she
was no longer looking at him. “That only stands to reason. I mean,
it’s too much coincidence to dismiss.”

“
But those things weren’t
normal. I mean, they weren’t like animals. Those were . . . I don’t
know, monsters or something, like in
The
Book of Valatarian
. You know, the old
stories about the Exiles and the war. How is that possible? Isn’t
that all supposed to be myth?”

“
I think the proper term
is dark parables.” Dasen sighed and brought his hand to his head.
“Legends designed to teach us the dangers of chaos, but yes, the
Church has maintained since the Reinterpretation that those
sections of the scripture are not true.”

“
Yeah, it’s also
maintained that women can’t do anything but cook meals and pump out
babies, so let’s not assume they have any idea what’s true.”
Dasen nearly choked.
So much for Teth
wanting to change.
“You might not want to
. . . .”

“
Might not want to what?”
Teth snapped. She turned on her heel and glowered. Dasen nearly ran
into her before he could arrest his momentum. She stared at him,
hand on her hip, clearly expecting an answer.

“
I . . . I mean . . . when
we get to the University. I mean . . . you may not want to say
things like that,” Dasen stammered. He suddenly remembered that he
did not want to be on Teth’s bad side right now.

“
Humph!” Teth turned and
resumed her walk, but, to Dasen’s dismay, at a much faster pace –
he had obviously upset her. “So your counselors are interested in
seeking the truth as long as it fits into what they already
believe. Is that it? How convenient. Why even bother? I mean if all
they’re going to teach me is that I shouldn’t know anything, why
bother learning?”

Teth glanced back, but Dasen could not
think of anything to say that would not get him into more
trouble.

“
And you’re their top
student?” she finally scoffed. “Maybe I should be glad we’re being
invaded. It may spare me from becoming so
enlightened
.”

“
About that, what is our
plan?” Dasen blurted, desperate for a change of subject.

Teth looked back at him
with a slight smile.
Was she playing
me?
Dasen asked himself with
dismay.
No
, he
realized,
her reactions were too genuine.
She is trying to soften it now, but at some level, she really
believes what she said.

Teth answered his question, before his
overwrought mind could consider that further. “I have to admit that
after last night I don’t know exactly where we are. I can guess,
but I don’t know this part of the forest.” She looked back
sheepishly and chewed her bottom lip. Dasen tried to hide his
disappointment. “We are walking north-east now. There isn’t much
out here, but eventually, we have to hit the road that runs from
Randor’s Pass to Gurney Bluff. Once we find that, we can make our
way to a village. Hopefully, we’re ahead of the invaders. Then we
try to stay that way as long as we can. You have anything better in
mind?”

Dasen shook his head. Teth looked
back, saw him, and nodded. They walked in silence for a long time,
but the conversation remained between them like a ghost. Finally,
Dasen had to break the stalemate. “I’m sure the Chancellor will
want to know what we’ve seen. We can arrange transport from one of
the villages to Wildern. We’ll probably even have an escort. Once
we’re there, we’ll be safe.”

He licked his dry lips and watched an
especially rough patch of ground before picking up again. “I mean,
how far can these invaders expect to get? How many men could they
have possibly brought across those mountains? The Kingdoms are not
strong militarily, but they’re big, most of the cities are
fortified, and Liandria will certainly come to our aid, maybe even
the Morgs.” Teth looked back at him with derision. “Don’t get me
wrong. A lot of people are going to get hurt, a lot already have.
And I am just as worried as you are. I mean my father and best
friend were in Randor’s Pass. But this is going to end. The
invaders are going to realize what they face and either leave or
get driven back. There’s no way they could have brought enough men
across the mountains for there to be any other outcome.”

Teth stopped and turned. Her eyes were
soft, held no scorn. She reached out and grabbed Dasen’s hand, held
it in both of hers. “I hope you’re right, Dasen. I hope they are
sent running back across the Clouded Range with their tails between
their legs. I hope that Ipid, your friend, and Milne all come out
of this without a scratch. But you were with me last night. You saw
the creatures. You don’t want to talk about it, but I’m convinced
these are the Exiles returned, that some part of those stories is
true. And if that is the case, do you think they would wait a
thousand years only to return without enough power to get through
the Kingdoms?” Teth shook her head to answer her own
question.

Nothing more was said. Teth released
his hand, and they walked silently through the trees, with one eye
on the sky and every step seeming to echo in their ears.

#

The sun had fallen behind the distant
mountains leaving shadows stretching across the forest when Teth
decided that they should look for a place to stop. They had been
making their way north-eastward as best they could for several
hours now with no sign of pursuit from land or sky, and she was
almost beginning to feel safe. Given Dasen’s condition and her own
stiffness – she could not remember the last time she had been so
sore – they had been moving slowly, following easy paths, and
stopping frequently.

Though she had done some things to
cover their path – wading along streams, leaving false trails, and
covering their most obvious tracks – neither of them had the energy
or motivation for the kind of antics that had kept them alive the
previous night. Teth knew that if the invaders wanted to find them
badly enough, they would. There was nothing she could do to fend
off a dedicated search as long as she had Dasen in tow. She could
only hope that the invaders had better things to occupy their
attention and that she had done enough to confuse anyone (or thing)
that was still searching.

With that thought in mind, she
examined the trees around her. The forest was now a mix of conifers
and deciduous with great broad leaf trees filling the gaps between
slender pines and firs. The spreading branches of the deciduous
trees left great expanses of empty ground between their mighty
trunks. It would be easier for riders here, she realized. There
were numerous fallen branches and some brush, but nothing a horse
could not navigate over or around.

That added to her worry – could the
invaders be driving them into a trap, using the creatures to push
them into the arms of the riders? With a sigh, she dismissed the
idea and turned her eyes to the darkening sky. Why all that effort
for Dasen? They must already have Ipid. Maybe they want to use
Dasen to control him. Maybe Ipid was killed in the raid, and Dasen
is the only Ronigan left. But why would the invaders care about
Ipid’s fortune? Try as she might, she could not come up with any
solid reason why the invaders would expend so much effort to
capture Dasen, certainly not enough for them to dedicate their
entire army to it.

A look back, showed Dasen stumbling
behind her like a drunk. He looked terrible. His ill-fitting
clothes were torn and stained. His face was grey with mud, shoulder
length hair matted and damp from his sweat, days of stubble
standing out around his chin and along his top lip in fuzzy clumps.
He walked as if his joints were rusted stiff. Each step was
punctuated by a small grunt. A hand held his stomach while the
other found whatever branch or tree trunk was available to steady
his stride.

He was lost, utterly overmatched,
unprepared in every way for what they were facing, but he was still
there, still going. And for some reason it was that vulnerability,
that dependence mixed with that persistence, that bravery that made
her long to wrap him in her arms, to kiss him as she never had
wanted to do with any boy.

“
It’s getting dark,” Dasen
said to break her contemplation. “How much longer are we going to
keep going?” He looked at the sky then the trees around them as if
seeing the forest for the first time.

Teth could not hold back
her small smile as she watched him.
Clearly he must see now
.
He knows who I am, has seen what I can do. He
cannot take it away now, cannot think I can be like the other
girls, cannot want a demure little housewife.