Nameless (30 page)

Not strangled. Just rendered unconscious.

The trees around her began to spin. Zo dropped to her knees and gasped.

Gryphon stepped out of the trees to join Gabe. The two men walked toward her like giant sentinels. Gryphon, dark as midnight. Gabe, light in both features and aura.

Gabe rushed forward and scooped her into a spinning embrace with his good arm. His left shoulder was bandaged over the stab wound Gryphon had inflicted on the platform.

It was too much to believe possible. Zo couldn’t find her voice.

“I never thought I’d see you again!” said Gabe. His grip on her was painfully tight.

“Gabe,” she gasped. “You’re such an idiot. You should have stayed away.” Zo didn’t remember giving herself permission to cry. She wiped tears on her sleeve and searched his face to make sure it was really him. “You died. I watched you.”

But he hadn’t died. And that could mean only one thing. She turned to Gryphon. “You spared him?” Her tone was laced with accusation and awe. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Who was this Ram? Why would he risk everything to save Gabe? She shouldn’t have been angry, but all she could think about was punching Gryphon in the face.

Gryphon glanced away. Harsh shadows cast heavy lines around the strong line of his jaw and beneath the heavy hood of his brow.

“What’s wrong?” She looked at Gabe. His smile faltered then died. He rested his forehead on Zo’s, cupping the back of her head with one hand.

Zo took him by the wrists. “What happened?”

Gabe shook his head.

Zo pushed him away. “Tess. Where are Tess and Joshua?”

Gryphon kept his voice even, but the muscles in his neck jumped and contracted as he spoke. “Tess is with the Gate Master.”

Zo melted to the ground. “How … .”

“The Seer sent the Gate Master as a decoy. She guessed we’d move Tess if he warned us of her visit. Spies followed Joshua last night. I’m sure he and Tess didn’t make it more than a mile from the house before they were captured.”

“And Joshua?” Zo whispered.

Gryphon cleared his throat. “Told the Seer I knew nothing of Tess. That he acted alone.”

Zo’s head whipped up. Gabe’s arms fell away as she took a step closer to Gryphon. “They’ll punish him. They’ll hurt him!”

Gryphon walked over to rest his forehead on the trunk of a tall pine tree. He covered his face in his hands.

“No!” Zo ran up to him in anger. “You don’t get to be weak! I trusted you, Ram! I
trusted
you!” Zo yelled. Gabe held back her arms, but Zo wasn’t through with Gryphon. “You should have known the Seer would do that.” She kicked and struggled until her whole body went limp in Gabe’s arms. “You should have stopped them!”

It was so much easier to be angry at Gryphon than herself. Zo had been so oblivious back home. Not seeing that her little sister needed her there. Not getting to know Tess well enough to predict her following. This was her fault. After her parents died she’d been too blinded by her own pain to recognize Tess’. The poor girl didn’t just lose her parents; Tess had lost her only sister as well.

Selfish
.

Through the trees Gryphon’s mutinous-looking friend Ajax stood like a stone statue in the forest. A livid rock with arms crossed in front of his chest, ready to kill someone. Zo was too distraught to care about him or his heavy glare.

Gabe rested a hand on Gryphon’s shoulder. “How do we get them back?”

“We have to break Joshua and Tess out at the same time. It’s the only way,” said Gryphon.

That much was obvious. “But they’ll know it was you,” said Gabe.

“Joshua will not take my punishment. This was not his fault. I let things get out of control.” He swept his hand in Zo and Gabe’s direction, as if they didn’t realize he meant them.

Zo’s anger flared again. “That’s right. You should have slaughtered me the moment you discovered I was a Wolf!” Zo had no right to goad him in his pain. But her own anguish was a venom she couldn’t contain.

“Zo, be reasonable,” said Gabe. “He’s just trying to do the right thing.”

But Gabe didn’t understand. Zo had had everything perfectly worked out in her mind. For as long as she could remember, she’d hated the Ram. By admitting Gryphon was a decent person, she was admitting that other soldiers inside the Gate might be somewhat decent as well. It was all or nothing, and she’d staked her life’s mission on the ideal that every Ram soldier needed to die for the world to be a better place. Every Ram. Without that foundation, what did she have? Where could her hate go?

Zo bent her head and buried her wet face in Gabe’s side, too confused to even meet Gryphon’s devastated expression.

A rustling in the trees sent Ajax running to discover the source. Moments later Eva, Sara, and a baby-carrying Ajax came to stand next to Gryphon. They all looked at Gabe like he had horns sprouting from his forehead. Ajax’s face was red with anger.

Gabe’s voice rumbled in his chest as he spoke. “What is your plan, Gryphon?”

Gryphon and the others sat in a circle on the ground, with the exception of Ajax, who stood guard behind his wife and sister-in-law. Ajax had remained silent throughout the whole discussion, leaving Gryphon, Gabe, and the others to sort out a great deal of the particulars.

Gryphon had suggested that he and Gabe retrieve Tess that night at the Gate Master’s home. Then, before sunup, they would go for Joshua. Ajax would stay with the women and help Sara prepare the baby for the journey. Gryphon would contact the Historian for help. If they didn’t find a way to open the gate without alerting the clan, all of their efforts of freeing Joshua and Tess would be for naught. For some reason, he felt he could trust the old woman to help them escape.

Timing would be vital to the plan, because once the Gate Master discovered Tess was missing from his household he would come immediately for Gryphon. And the last thing any of them wanted was the whole of the Ram forces on their tail.

Gryphon tried not to think about their chances if Barnabas sent a mess to recover them outside the Gate.

Eva spent most of the meeting scanning the forest, for what, Gryphon did not know. Sara rocked her already sleeping babe and kept glancing up at Ajax, as if making sure he was still there.

Zo hugged her knees to her chest and stared at her feet. She nodded her consent, and spoke up when her opinion was called for, but otherwise remained silent in her desperation. Every now and then she would catch Gryphon’s eye. Without words or gestures, she seemed to apologize.

Gryphon resisted the urge to comfort her. To pull her under the wing of his arm and hold her. If he was honest with himself, he needed the physical contact likely as much as she did.

But Zo had Gabe for that.

Gryphon met Ajax that evening on his way to their barracks to conference with Zander and the rest of the mess. He’d worn his long, dark cape made of fine-spun wool that wisped around his ankles as he walked. His father’s cape. It seemed fitting since the rest of Gryphon’s world was cast in harsh shadow.

The two mess brothers fell in line without a word. The rhythm of their swords hitting against the giant round shields at their backs mingled with the soft footfalls of their heavy, fur-lined boots.

After a while, Gryphon couldn’t stand the silence. “You’re angry.”

Ajax stopped on the road. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you spared the Wolf,” he hissed. “You, my shield brother and friend, deceived me and every other Ram inside the Gate.” He ground his teeth together and sneered. “Why did you do it, Gryph? How can you sleep knowing you’re a traitor?”

Gryphon felt like the ground beneath him gave way. “I’m just trying to do what I feel is right, brother.”

“Don’t call me ‘brother,’” Ajax spat. “And don’t expect me or my family to join you in your treason.”

“But the baby … and Eva.”

“I will take care of my family, just like you should have been man enough to take care of Joshua. Instead, you let these Wolves invade our home. You’ve betrayed the clan.” The fire went out of Ajax’s eyes and his head sunk so low his chin touched his chest. “You’ve betrayed me.”

He turned and walked ahead of Gryphon, even though they were headed to the same bonfire.

Sharp laughter carried on the breeze as they approached the fire.

“Poor Joshua,” said a hushed voice. “Must have seen how much fun Gryph was having with his Nameless girl, and thought he’d get his own.”

Gryphon stepped into the light of the fire and the men of his mess quieted. Ajax frowned and found a seat not far from Gryphon at the back of the group.

As the last of the mess brothers arrived, no one else commented on Joshua’s alleged transgression. It was a stain on all of them. A foe best handled by looking forward to the next victory.

Gryphon settled in as Zander spoke, careful not to meet Ajax’s reproachful gaze. “Now that we’re all here, let’s begin. Our orders come from the chief himself. The information gathered from the Raven we captured during our last mission has led us to the Raven clan’s stronghold. A hidden location less than fifty miles north of here.”

“So close?” Ajax interjected. “Why haven’t we discovered it sooner?”

Gryphon wondered the very same thing. Countless mess units had scouted the lands surrounding the Gate for Raven settlements. On his excursions the most they ever found were empty campsites abandoned by enemy soldiers. Never any sign of women or children.

“The settlement is protected by a natural canyon on all sides. Its only access is a hidden bridge of some sort. They’ll have a defensive advantage, but we should have surprise on our side.”

“How many mess units are joining?” asked one of Gryphon’s brothers.

“Ten.”

Ajax gave Gryphon a significant look. Ten of the fifty mess units in the Gate were commissioned. One mess of fifteen to twenty Ram could easily wipe out a hundred trained soldiers under decent circumstances. Gryphon shuddered to think what a force of two hundred would do.

This wasn’t your everyday excursion. It was a full-scale attack on the Raven population. A genocide, if women and children were involved.

“Why not just take their food?” asked Gryphon, in spite of himself. “They aren’t strong enough to be considered a military threat.”

Zander narrowed his eyes at Gryphon. “The Great Move is happening. Last year our dead soils barely produced enough food to keep us alive. Wild game in this region has dwindled as well. After harvest, the Ram will move south to confront the Wolves. But first we have to destroy those who would get in our way. For the sake of our children.”

“When do we leave?” Gryphon said, clearing his gravelly throat.

“We will report at the platform tomorrow morning for a briefing with the chief then leave the Gate by afternoon. We’ll attack under the cover of night. We can’t risk alerting them. This might be our only chance.”

Gryphon looked around at his brothers. They seemed resigned to the chief’s decision to attack not the just the soldiers of the Raven but their families as well. Their elderly, their women, their children.

What is happening to my people?