Rise of the Serpent (Serpent's War Book 2) (5 page)

Gor snorted into the cup Namitus had slipped him in exchange for the water-filled one that Namitus now held.

“So we have,” Jillystria said. “I agree with Sir Namitus. We should be off.”

Namitus winced and shook his head. “Just Namitus, please.”

“He’s modest,” Amra offered.

“Humility is the mark of a knight,” Jillystria stated.

Namitus smirked and asked, “Is not wanting to draw attention in a place filled with people who might remember you less than fondly an admirable trait?”

Jillystria nodded in deference to him.

“Then let’s be off,” Allie said. She glanced at the table and frowned. “Do we have enough to pay for these?”

“I’ve been sold snake oil,” Namitus cried as he reached into his pouch so he could toss a few gold on the table. “I’ll meet you outside. We need to tend to our table.”

Amra tilted her head and followed him back to their table. Namitus fished around in his pouch for a few seconds before tossing a gold on the table.

“You keep looking at the elf, Jillystria,” Amra whispered. “Should I be worried about something?”

Namitus raised an eyebrow, surprised at her perception. “Not worried, I don’t think.”

“Then what is it?”

Namitus glanced at the door as the others walked through it. He sighed and said, “She’s my grandmother.”

Chapter 4

“We have to ride this beast for how long?” Amra whined from her seat behind Namitus.

Namitus grinned. “Until we get there—a week, maybe two? Could be longer. I have no idea where he is...just south.”

“My back will be broken into a hundred pieces,” she moaned. “And my bottom—I’ve never been so sore! Even as a child when I was paddled for misbehaving.”

“I have a feeling you were paddled often.”

“Hey!” she yelped. A few seconds of silence passed before she grunted as Namitus’s horse stepped down hard. “Fine, I was. Are you happy?”

“I didn’t make him do that,” Namitus said. He turned and winked at her. “But yes, I am.”

She harrumphed again and tried to wrap her arms around herself. The horse’s swaying motion made her return her hands to his sides. “This is miserable.”

“You’ll get used to it. The ache will take a few days, but that will get better too.”

“I’ll not last a few days!”

“When we stop, I could rub the sore spots for you?”

Amra’s breath whistled through her lips. “That’s hardly appropriate! If you’d accepted my father’s offer of a dowry...well, then that would be different.”

Namitus chuckled and shook his head. “I’ll not take your bait and match wits with you. I know better than to fight unarmed.”

Amra chuckled until another awkward step made her hiss. She fell quiet and turned, studying the four people behind them. Allisandra and Gor rode horses. The elves walked, but even with their shorter heights, they moved with them without showing signs of tiring.

She turned back and leaned closer to Namitus. “Jillystria is an elf...how can she be your grandmother?”

Namitus lowered his voice. “Elves have excellent hearing, be careful.”

“Okay,” she whispered. “So how?”

“Her daughter is my mother,” he said. “It works the same way with elves as it does with humans. Your parents did teach you where babies come from?”

“Ha ha,” she mocked him. “Yes, they did.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Well, you’re a human and they’re...not.”

Namitus glanced back at her and smirked. “My mother was half elf, making me quarter. As I understand it, any part is considered the same as half.”

Amra let the horse carry them several dozen paces before she said, “I didn’t know that was possible.”

“It is,” he said. “You’ve got proof under your fingertips.”

Amra gasped and jerked her hands back. She returned them a heartbeat later as the horse continued on.

A clicking sound behind them was followed by the thuds of shod hooves striking the ground faster. They grew closer until Allisandra rode up beside them. She looked over and smiled. “You ride well,” she said to Namitus.

Namitus smiled. “Thank you. You’ve spent a fair bit of time in the saddle yourself. I recognize a skilled rider when I see one.”

Allisandra grinned. “I’ve spent my whole life around Brownie.”

“Brownie?” Amra asked.

Allisandra patted her horse’s neck. “Brownie’s always been mine. Patches is...was my father’s. Gor is riding him now. I feel sorry for the horse.”

Namitus glanced back and winced. Gor looked miserable. The horse wasn’t complaining, but he didn’t have a spring in his step with the large man on his back either.

“I’m sorry about your father,” Namitus said.

Allisandra’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t say anything about my father.”

“No, you didn’t. And that’s saying something,” he said. “All the more when a large man who you seem to have wrapped around your finger is riding the horse that was your father’s.”

She stared at him for a few paces and then stared ahead at the dusty road and the distant wagons ahead of them. The muscles in her cheek twitched a few times before she blinked her eyes and let out a deep breath.

“I lost my mother to a sickness that stole her breath when I was ten years old,” Amra offered.

Allisandra lifted her head and glanced at her. She tried to smile but it faded almost as soon as her lips crept upwards. “I never knew my mother,” she said. “She died in a fire…when the splisskin raided and burned Assurion’s Crossing to the ground. I would have too if my father hadn’t saved me. I was a baby.”

“I’m sorry,” Amra said. “I can’t imagine not having her at all.”

“It’s not so hard,” Namitus said. He glanced around, using the excuse of checking their surroundings to look back at Jillystria.

“You were an orphan?” Allisandra asked.

Namitus smiled and ignored her question. “You remind me of someone, a dear friend of mine, though you’re not quite as temperamental.”

“Is that a good thing?” Allie asked.

“I think so; she’s the queen of Altonia.”

“The Kelgryn princess?” Allie gasped.

“The same,” he said.

“You’ve either got a silver tongue or…”

“He doesn’t,” Amra said. “He paid a king’s ransom to help the merchants of Mira rally against the thieves and cutthroats in the Shadows District.”

“The Shadows District?”

“Sewers and tunnels beneath the city,” Namitus said. “They use them for smuggling and escaping the city watch mostly.”

“They call that a district?”

The rogue shrugged.

They rode on for several minutes, with Allisandra sneaking glances at him time and again. Finally Namitus turned and caught her doing it. “Go ahead, ask.”

“Ask what?”

“What it is that’s eating away at you.”

She blushed and looked to Amra for help. Amra shrugged. “All right, do you really know King Alto?”

“I’ve saved his life,” Namitus boasted. “And more than once.”

Allie’s eyes widened. “You’re messing with me!”

Namitus shook his head. “I’m not. To be fair, he’s probably saved mine twice as many times. One time, Patrina and I had escaped a band of goblins and followers of Sarya but got ourselves lost in a silver mine. Alto heard me playing my pipes and climbed down a chimney to rescue us. Except the rope didn’t hold.”

“How did you escape?”

“We went through the mines and fought our way free. Although I’m not sure who fought more, the goblins or Patrina and Alto.”

“Patrina…the queen?”

Namitus nodded. “The same.”

“And they fought?”

He chuckled. “They loved each other from the first,” he pointed out. “Took them a few years and a lot of blood and tears to realize it, though.”

Allie shook her head. “I can’t believe…I mean, I’ve heard stories, but to meet someone who knows them. Patrina and…isn’t there another woman warrior? A paladin?”

Namitus snorted. “Aleena?”

“That’s her!”

“She’s something, all right,” Namitus agreed. “First female Paladin of Leander in hundreds of years, if I remember right.”

“Amazing,” Allisandra whispered. “That’s what I always wanted—not to be a paladin, but to make a difference. To find adventure and do something meaningful. I would read my books and pine away for lost opportunities stuck tending to our farm.”

“Alto and Patrina used to complain of the same sort of thing. I expect they’ve had adventure enough to last ten lifetimes now.”

Allisandra had a sad smile on her face as she said, “I understand, I’d give up all my dreams to be safe at home with my father again.”

Namitus kept his silence and let the conversation lapse. Amra’s hands squeezed his side for a moment and then relaxed.

“What comes next?” Corian asked. His legs stretched out into longer strides until he fell in between Allisandra and Namitus. “This Lariki person, what do you know of him?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Namitus admitted with a smile he was sure would infuriate the elf. “I know he has a company of mercenaries by the name of the Vultures and that he’s rumored to be in the south.”

“I know nothing of the human lands to the south,” Corian said.

“Lots of fighting,” Gor called from behind them. “Goblins, splisskin, humans, ratkin, and last I heard, a few small colonies of minotaurs. And none of them get along worth a damn, even among different villages between the same races.”

“Sounds lovely.” Namitus turned as much in his saddle as he could with risking his or Amra’s safety and asked, “Have you heard of Lariki?”

“Not by name. I’ve heard of the Vultures,” he said. “Merciless and the best that money can buy.”

“How far are they?” Corian asked.

“My horse, a couple weeks. With you walking, longer,” Gor said. “Could try a boat along the coast—never tried that before. Might be faster.”

Namitus grimaced. “My luck with boats hasn’t been the best. I was captured by Kelgryn once. Another time we dared to take a ship to the abandoned Island of Britanley. Giant monsters though, magic gone awry that either killed or drove away the island-nation’s people. What remained was a tropical paradise for giant apes taller than most towers. I saved Alto that time, too; he’d been captured and hurt by the apes and needed me to keep him alive until we were rescued.”

Corian rolled his eyes. “All well and good,” he muttered. “If we’ve got weeks of travel ahead of us, we should find some horses for Jilly and me.”

“I agree,” Namitus said.

“We can’t afford horses!” Allie protested.

“I can,” Amra offered. “You can consider them a loan.”

Namitus turned so he could peer back at her. “You can?”

“Yes,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “I came into a small bit of gold before I started this journey with you.”

Namitus grunted to hide his chuckle. “Very well. We’ll see what steeds we can find in the next town. Pity though, I’d give much for a unicorn to keep us company.”

“You’ve ridden a unicorn?” Allie gasped.

Namitus grinned and began to tell her the tale of Alto and Winter, the unicorn that saved the young warrior only to leave him soon after to be with another.

* * * *

Namitus stirred the logs burning in the firepit, kicking sparks into the air. One of them landed near his grandmother’s thin blanket, inviting him to study her. The night was half spent and, judging by the stars and moon, he was nearing the end of his watch.

He studied her sleeping face, his elven features picking through the shadows cast by the trees at the roadside oasis. Other travelers and merchants stopped to camp for the night, ignoring one another out of mutual respect or disdain while they watered their mounts and refilled their waterskins. Each group had a watch posted, making certain none of the other travelers had the urge to wander.

A scuffle of a body moving drew Namitus’s attention across to the other side of the fire. Amra rolled over and sat up. She was looking away from him at first, but turned her head to take in the quiet and cool surroundings. As hot as the desert grew at day, it could drop to near frigid temperatures in the dead of the night. Amra saw him and drew her blanket around herself and rose up.

“You should sleep,” Namitus whispered when she came over and sat next to him with a grimace.

“I can’t,” she said. “Too sore.”

He gave her a half smile and nodded.

“So tell me about her,” Amra coaxed.

“I’m sorry?”

Amra nodded at Jillystria. “Your grandmother. How is it you recognize her but she doesn’t know you?”

“I could be wrong,” he admitted.

“You don’t think so.”

He chuckled under his breath. “You see things most miss. Yes, I’m sure of it. She looks like my mother.”

“Wait—you said you were orphaned?”

“My parents left me with my mother’s parents—on her father’s side. It’s confusing, I know, but they had hard travels ahead and feared for my safety.”

“Did they?”

Namitus tilted his head. “What’s your thoughts?”

“Well.” Amra shrugged her shoulders. “If I had a child, I wouldn’t want anyone to be with them other than me. Seems...I don’t know, selfish, maybe?”

Namitus glanced at Jillystria and nodded. “Perhaps.”

“What of your grandfather?”

“I don’t know. Killed before I was born. An accident, I was told.”

“And she’s here now,” Amra added.

“So she is,” Namitus agreed. “To what purpose or end I can only guess.”

“You have a guess?” she asked. “That’s something.”

“You’ve heard a little about this nonsense of half-bloods? Well, perhaps some forty years later she’s developed a conscience and has come to check on her daughter.”

Amra shook her head and said, “Forty years. That’s almost as long as my dad’s been alive.”

“I’m nearing thirty myself,” Namitus admitted. “And not a one of them dull.”

“If half the stories you told are true, I bet not. I especially enjoyed the one where you were teaching the merchant’s son while your friend accidentally started a fire that burnt his house down around you. Did you really save the entire family?”