Harbinger: Fate's Forsaken: Book One (26 page)

The boy caught
Kael’s orange and a girl next to him caught Jonathan’s bread. They looked at each
other, mouths hanging open liked they wanted to scream in delight. But instead
they tucked the food under their shirts and, with grateful nods, disappeared
into the shadows.

They made a game
of it. The children would crowd around, using their bodies to shield each other
from the guards while Kael and Jonathan tossed them rations. Kyleigh was next
to join their game, then Aerilyn. Soon the whole caravan was passing out food.
Horatio emptied every barrel and basket he had. Chaney cut dried meat into chunks
and dropped them down to Claude, who tossed them into the crowd.

The children
tucked their spoils under their shirts and ran back to their families, glee
showing clearly on their faces. The bright red of apples and orange of carrots
and green of cabbage — all the color stood out brilliantly in the gray
world around them.

When they
crossed some invisible line in the street, the children stopped following them.
They waved excitedly and Kael waved back, smiling as broadly as he could until
the caravan disappeared around the corner.

The deeper they
went into Harborville, the more the houses improved. Rotten lean-tos became
rotten houses, and then decent houses. It wasn’t long before they came to the
nicest part of town — and the part that was truly revolting.

In the center of
Harborville, men and women in gold-stitched clothes ambled through the streets.
They browsed at the windows of neat little shops and occasionally opened the
overflowing purses at their overflowing bellies to buy something. The men who ran
the shops all bore the symbol of the High Seas on their tunics. They sold goods
at Duke Reginald’s prices: no bargaining, and no exceptions. If a man couldn’t
afford the price of bread, then he had to do without.

A short walk
away, children were starving to death, yet these people in their fine clothes
were too worried about their latest wolf skin cape or glass bauble to bother
themselves with it. One man strolled by, swinging a gold-capped cane, and Kael
tripped him.

“Good heavens,
are you all right?” another man said as he helped him off the ground.

“Yes, quite all
right,” he grumbled. He glanced about him, brushing the dirt off his shoulders.
But Kael had already taken refuge behind Horatio. “Must’ve tripped myself on a
bit of cobblestone …”

The caravan
stopped at a sprawling inn called
The
Jolly Duke
. Just beneath its title was the painted image of Duke Reginald.
He flashed his white teeth and seemed to be enjoying his view of the village.

Kael tried to
spit on him, but the sign hung too high for his range.

Several long
tables filled the common area of
The
Jolly Duke
. They sat down and Horatio went to order their meals. When the
innkeeper named his price, he snorted in disbelief — but paid it anyways.
Several guards lurked in the back corner of the room, testing their blades
maliciously against their callused thumbs. And Horatio seemed to think that
arguing over a price wasn’t worth the maiming.

Dinner turned
out to be a bowl of watery, lukewarm stew. Flaky bits of fish and pieces of
shell floated aimlessly through it. Kael poked it a bit, but he was still too
angry to eat. Across from him, Aerilyn stared through grief-reddened eyes.
She’d scoop up some broth, then tilt her spoon and watch it trickle back into
the bowl.

“Listen up,
gentlemen,” Horatio said, though not a soul was talking. “I’ve been able to
secure us passage on a boat to the Grandforest. We leave at first light.”

The men murmured
that they understood, then went back to their solemn meals.

Kyleigh had
disappeared almost the second they walked through the door. But shortly after
the announcement, she returned. “I’ve got us a boat,” she said as she sat her
bowl next to Aerilyn’s. “We leave at midnight.”

Kael’s heart
sank. He knew this moment would come eventually — he just wasn’t ready for
it.

Aerilyn’s spoon
clattered onto the table. “But — but you
can’t
leave. What will I do without the two of you? No, you must
stay and winter with us in the Grandforest.” She wiped her eyes and sat up a
little straighter. “Please. Surely your journey can wait until spring.”

Kyleigh shook
her head. “I assure you, it can’t. We’ve got a long ways to go and the longer
we stay with the caravan, the more trouble we’ll cause.”

“I don’t
care
about the trouble!” she said
desperately. “Please stay with us for one more season.”

“No,” Kyleigh
said firmly, perhaps a little too firmly.

Aerilyn’s eyes
got perilously wet. “So that’s it, then? Now that we’ve taken you across the
Valley you’re just — just done with us? You’re going to fling us aside
like so — much — filth? How — dare you!” She took a great,
shuddering breath, then fled the room as she burst into tears.

No sooner was
she gone than Jonathan crammed himself into her spot, sitting as close to
Kyleigh as humanly possible. “I’ve heard the tittering of adventure coming from
over here,” he said in her ear.

She elbowed him
away. “Don’t make me kill you with my spoon.”

“All right, I
won’t.” He leaned away from her and for once, his face went serious. “I want to
come with you.”

“Absolutely
not.”

“Why?”

“Because where we’re
going is dangerous, and I’ve already got one life I’m responsible for. I don’t
need another.”

He glared at
her. “If you don’t take me with you, I’ll go anyways. There’s nothing left for
me back home. I may not have a sword as a third arm, but I still like to think
I’ve got a bit of value.”

“Oh? How so?”
Kyleigh said, her annoyance muddled by her amusement.

He flashed his
lopsided grin. “My charm and general good looks. Besides that, I’m no stranger
to the filthier side of society — if you’re going to deal with rats, then
you’ve got to know how they squeak.”

“And I suppose
you’re an expert in squeaking?”

“All three
dialects,” he said with a nod. Then he fell off the bench and onto one knee.
“Take me with you, and I swear I won’t lay a hand to my fiddle for three
hours.”

“Twelve.”

“Done.” He shook
her hand, grinning to either ear, and Kael could hardly believe it.

“You should
know that we’ll likely all end up dead — or rotting in a dungeon
somewhere, at the very least,” she said.

“I’m all for
that. Maybe I’ll even get a few scars out of the deal. Ladies really go for
blokes with battle wounds. Now,” he rubbed his hands together, “where’re we off
to first?”

She smirked.
“South. We leave tonight.”

“Oh, a bit of
mystery? I like that. Well, better get the old carpet bag dusted off.” And with
that, he rushed away.

“Are you sure
that was a good idea?” Kael said the second he was gone.

She shrugged.
“Only time will tell. Though I’ve found that having a rogue on your side can
often be useful. He’s friendly, at least — which is something you and I
aren’t very good at.”

Well, he
supposed she was right about that. He’d just mustered up the courage to take a
bite of his stew when Aerilyn returned.

She stomped up
to the table with her chin firmly in the air. Her nose was red, but her eyes
had a dangerous glint in them. “I’ve made a decision,” she declared. “There’s
no point in returning home right away — I’ll not spend the winter alone
with my tears. So, since you refuse to come with me, I’m coming with you. When
do we leave?”

*******

At just before
midnight, Kyleigh led them out the door of
The
Jolly Duke
. Chaney and Claude caught wind of their adventure and begged for
hours to come along. But Jonathan finally convinced them to stay with the
caravan.

“What’ll your
pap do come winter, when he hasn’t got anyone to help him in the shop?” he
said, and the brothers very reluctantly admitted that he was right.

When Kael
stepped out into the street, he heard the crash of a window slamming open.
Claude popped his head out first, followed closely by Chaney.

“We’ll miss
you!”

“Bring us back
something from your adventure!”

After swearing
he would, they waved and went back to their beds.

Horatio came
down to see them off. He’d been upset when Kyleigh said they were leaving, but
couldn’t deny the fact that their contract was up. “At least take your wages,”
he said, but Kael pushed the silver back into his hands.

“I’ve got no
room in my pack. Use it to take care of the villagers.”

Horatio nodded
stiffly, and then pulled him in for a bone-crushing hug. “You’ve always got a
place with us, if the mountains don’t suit you.” He nodded to Kyleigh. “And
make sure that girl stays out of trouble.”

He promised he’d
try.

Horatio seemed
prepared to let them go — that is, until Aerilyn came skipping out, a
full-to-the-seams rucksack hanging off one shoulder of her pale blue traveling
cloak. Then his face went purple.

“Absolutely
not!” he roared, snatching her by the pack. “You aren’t going anywhere but
home.”

“I’ll go where I
please!” she shouted back. “I’m a grown woman, it’s high time that I make my
own way.”

Horatio stepped
in front of her, using his belly to herd her back inside. “
Men
make their own way, ladies do not. The realm isn’t safe for a
woman anymore, and I swore to keep you safe! I’m not going to pack you off to
Kingdom knows where, to do Kingdom knows what — that’s the
opposite
of safe!”

She shoved back
on Horatio’s stomach, trying to use her shoulder to wedge herself out the door.
“But Kyleigh travels all the time — and she’s a woman!”

“A woman with
all of Midlan on her trail!”

Horatio yelled
until he was out of breath. Aerilyn huffed and stomped her foot at everything
he said. It wasn’t long before furious tears sprang into her eyes and she
started wailing about how unfair he was. Then someone leaned out the window
above them and said that if they didn’t shut it, he’d called the guards. And
Horatio was in the middle of telling the man exactly where to put his guards
when Kyleigh grabbed his arm and pulled him aside.

There was a great
deal of hissing and spitting on Horatio’s end and a lot of calm, even
whispering from Kyleigh. Eventually, she got him to speak at a normal volume.
Then came the arm-crossing and head-nodding. A few minutes later, they seemed
to reach an agreement.

“So we have a
deal?”

Horatio glared
at her hand for a moment before he finally took it. “Very well. But not a hair
on her head, do you understand?”

Kyleigh’s face
was serious. “For as long as I draw breath.”

When Horatio
turned and said, very reluctantly, that Aerilyn could go, she shrieked in
delight. She threw her arms around his shoulders and told him what a wonderful,
generous man he was. The two of them likely would have sobbed about how much
they would miss each other all night if Kyleigh hadn’t cleared her throat and
reminded them that they had a ship to catch. So they said goodbye to Horatio
one last time, and then they followed her down to the docks.

Kael couldn’t
believe how monstrous the ships were. Lanterns hung all along the path, spaced
a few feet apart. They were intended to warn travelers of the water’s edge, but
the light gave him a better view of the boats. He pulled the
Atlas
out of his pocket and made a game
of checking off the ones he saw.

Some he knew
were sailing boats: they were smaller than the rest and built for speed. The
Duke probably used them to pass around his ridiculous laws the second he
thought of them. All he had to do was breathe in to know that most were
wide-bottomed fishing boats: the stench of dead sea life hung in the air like a
rotten cloud. Even if he held his nose, he could still taste it in his throat.
Jonathan pulled his shirt collar over his nose and Aerilyn gagged quietly into
her handkerchief. Kyleigh had her hood pulled up, so he couldn’t tell if she
was making a face or not.

He’d be
surprised if she wasn’t.

Gruff shouts and
a chorus of laughter drew his eyes to the tallest ship. A group of bearded men
leaned over the high rails and beat their tankards against their breastplates,
trying to get Aerilyn’s attention. When she looked up, they whistled.

Jonathan pulled
her behind him before she could retort and clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Sorry, gents — she’s spoken for!” he said with a wink.

The soldiers
laughed and raised their tankards to him, and he saluted smartly.

“I’ll be sure
and give her a kiss for you!” he called. Then, out the side of his mouth to
Aerilyn: “They aren’t worth it, lass. They’re drunker than a full moon and
hanging over the ocean in armor. I’d bet my favorite toe that at least half of
them won’t live to see the morning.”

They weren’t
three steps away when they heard a loud
splash
and round of guffaws.

“See? What did I
tell you?” he said with a grin.

The ship Kyleigh
led them to was a merchant’s vessel, judging by the many large crates stacked
over its every surface. As they walked down the long bridge to the boarding
ramp, Kael felt an odd twist in his stomach. His legs shook a little and he
found that if he looked down at the water, the feeling got worse.

He was probably
just excited.

Most of the men
aboard the vessel were the Duke’s soldiers, all clad full armor. A very few
were normal sailors — and yet they seemed to be the ones doing all the
work. They weaved around, loading crates, tying them down, getting the ship
ready to set sail while the Duke’s men leaned against the rails and watched.

Kyleigh led them
up the ramp to a soldier who greeted them with a glare. “The coin you gave me
was for two, miss,” he said to Kyleigh. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to
recognize her face from under the shadow of her hood. “I’m not allowed to have
four passengers, and I don’t got the room for them.”