That meant trading with Zeikas
.
I caught Sarlice’s furious eyes, shaking my head slightly. There was no point arguing about this in such a public place. The rest of the patrons of the Silver Shell had stopped what they were doing to watch the altercation. Rekala returned to my side, growling and chuffing at the same time. Austo ran in from outside with Sarlice’s viperjay pies in one hand and his sword in the other. When he saw that the danger had passed he sheathed his weapon and set down the wrapped pies.
‘I thought I told you to stay out of trouble,’ he snarled in my general direction.
He moved to Sarlice’s side, squeezed her shoulders and arms as if checking for injuries.
‘I am hale,’ she told him, looking unimpressed by his fussing. ‘It is Talon who was pushed through a market stall and also nearly took a fireball in the face.’
I hadn’t noticed before, but my hair was a little singed and there was a painful bruise on my head where I’d knocked it on the underside of the table.
‘You have to teach me how to divert Zeika flames,’
I said to Tiaro.
‘If such a thing is possible.’
‘It may be,’
she replied.
‘But I think I need more time in proximity to them to figure it out.’
‘Next time may be the last chance you get,’
I replied. I was starting to wonder if we would ever get better at wielding our so-called Anzaii power.
‘I think we should leave,’ Sarlice said, pulling her fingers out of Austo’s clinging grip.
‘Stay in Sarm a while,’ Austo implored her. ‘It’s too dangerous on the road for Kriites. There are more Zeikas pouring into Telby every day. You are welcome to continue staying with me.’
‘That’s very sweet of you,’ Sarlice said. Her tone was gentle, but I received the impression of rolled eyes from Kestric. ‘But our mission is far more important than my safe-keeping.’
‘I can’t imagine anything more important than that,’ Austo said touching Sarlice’s chin.
She blinked at him, looked down and chuckled uncomfortably.
‘I am Talon’s guide and companion,’ she explained stepping back from him and looking in my direction. ‘We’re on a diplomatic mission to Telby City for the people of Jaria and Lyth.’
‘Then we’re bound for Watercrag and Tanza,’ I added, taking a sip of the expensive mead. ‘To see if I am an Astor.’
Austo spared me the tiniest glance. ‘What kind of false hope is that? I haven’t heard of an Astor in at least a dozen years. All four gifts? I wonder if it’s even possible anymore.’
‘What do you mean?’ Sarlice asked. ‘Isn’t it up to the Lightmaker on whom to bestow the great gifts?’
‘Yes, but the creator embedded certain characteristics in us from the beginning,’ Austo explained. ‘It has long been demonstrated that bloodlines play a pivotal role in the gifts of the Anzaii, Sleffion, Tolite and Rada. Maybe the ancient blood is simply too diluted nowadays.’
‘My mother was Anzaii,’ I replied. ‘My father a Tolite-Rada. When I was captured by Zeikas a few months ago, they spoke of an ancient line that I am supposedly descended from.’
Lira’s eyes were intent upon me, however Austo wasn’t impressed. His interest was only in Sarlice. I had seen that look before, on the faces of the couples that courted back in Jaria. A bubble of rivalry ascended from the foot of my being to my head. I glared at Austo, but was forced to soften my expression when Sarlice looked in my direction.
‘Talon’s lineage is not in question,’ Sarlice said, ‘and, even if it was, it is not my place to belay the orders of Jarian leadership. They send all new Anzaii on this quest.’
‘But you are Lythian,’ Austo protested. ‘What sway have they over you?’ He was almost whining.
‘Jaria and Lyth are tightly allied,’ Sarlice replied, ‘such that the leaders of one hold authority over the other’s people.’
My heart sank—was that the only reason she served as my guide? Because she had been ordered to? Austo shrugged and turned away from us, muttering something about not wanting to lose Sarlice to some pointless quest. His lack of faith did not disturb me, but I could see Sarlice was getting annoyed. She must have realised Austo was baiting her. Instead of responding to his turned back she cast her eyes at the ceiling and gestured for Lira and I to go to the store room.
‘Fetch your things,’ she said.
‘What about yours?’ I asked glancing around the room.
‘I’ve already put my belongings in the stables. Kestric is guarding them.’
Austo remained standing with his back to us, but I could almost feel his frustration. After smiling at Sarlice I downed the Zeika’s unfinished mead and followed Lira upstairs.
By the time Lira and I returned to the ground floor of the tavern Sarlice was marching out the door, leaving Austo standing in the foyer with his arms thrown up in defeat. I offered my hand to him as we passed and he took it grudgingly.
‘She may think she’s looking after you,’ he began, tightening his grip on my hand, ‘but you’d better see that no harm comes to her.’
‘I will,’ I replied.
‘She saved Mocinte and I once, you know,’ he murmured, still holding onto my hand. ‘Put herself right in harm’s way to do it. If she truly believes you’re destined to be an Astor there’s no telling what she’ll do to protect you.’
‘I’ll see that she gets the same protection from me,’ I promised him.
Austo looked me in the eye, holding my gaze for a long moment. Eventually he nodded and let me go.
Chapter Fourteen—Allies and Enemies
F
rom Sarm it would take us ten days to reach Telby City. Sarlice chose to avoid the dust-choked road and the caravans and brigands she said it would attract. Instead we travelled on the deer trails on the far side of the river, climbing small outcrops and winding through copses and woods when we had to. I saw distant settlements from time to time, many surrounded by crumbling walls—remnants of the Realm Wars.
Fields covered the lands around the settlements, growing everything from lavender to lemons. Between the populated areas were rugged, tussocky grasslands and rocky headlands. Occasional herds of fallow deer, oryx or sheep grazed there.
As far as the eye could see the hills loped on with occasional ravines or groves. The fields were peppered with flowers and alive with noisy bees. Soon the trees that flanked the river became so dense that we had to travel on the grasslands, out of sight from both river and road. We made our way back to the water each night.
The Rada-kin found plenty of game within the luxuriant forest and there was often a variety of crayfish along the river.
As promised I fashioned a crab pot out of the twine we’d purchased in Sarm and baited it overnight to catch breakfast. This succeeded less than half the time, but the big muddies were a welcome addition to our diet.
One afternoon, as we were crossing the plains we saw grey clouds in the distance and sheets of rain connecting them to the ground. The storm came upon us faster than expected. Sarlice and Kestric had chosen a good place to camp, near a small lagoon, but raised on a knoll surrounded by bushes.
As the wind lashed us and water poured down, we set up the canvas shelter, pegged it down and threw our gear inside. Lira, Sarlice and I piled in, dragging away wet boots and socks. Lira complained bitterly about the weather and I found myself apologising for the crudeness of our shelter. There was barely enough room for the three of us to lie down with all our gear. Worse, it smelled like unwashed bodies, horse sweat and wet canvas.
Sarlice lit a stub of beeswax and stuck it down on a small flint dish. Though it was still dark inside I could make out a black stain on the back of Lira’s shirt from the collar down. I wondered what it was, but didn’t want to annoy her further by asking.
We took turns getting changed while the others faced away. I went last to allow the ladies to get comfortable. Sarlice had her back turned, but Lira merely closed her eyes. Somehow I knew she had opened them again, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at her. I was unsure whether to be thrilled or affronted—never before had a woman showed interest in me like this. I couldn’t help but flex the muscles of my chest and arms a little more than was necessary as I donned a dry shirt.
The rain splattered down so hard on our shelter that I felt sure it would leak. It had been a few weeks since Sarlice or I had rubbed oil into the canvass.
Something hard landed in my lap.
‘Dinner,’ Sarlice shouted, to be heard over the storm.
I unwrapped the paper around a block of hardtack and stowed it carefully for use starting the fire in the morning. The bread itself was tasteless, dry and hard—an offensive meal for a quartermaster’s apprentice, but I was hungry and downed it in a few minutes.
Shoving our gear a little further down, the three of us managed to lie lengthways in the tent, side by side with Sarlice in the middle. There was no point having someone outside on guard tonight. Sarlice closed her eyes, lost in conversation with her Rada-kin. Even though their words were private I could sense Kestric’s focus on my guide.
I had put Rekala out of my mind, I realised, almost blocking her. She had continued to hunt in the rain, her great blue paws squelching in the mud. Her prey was upwind—a silverspotted doe with a fawn. The mother, limping, seemed unable to get out of the bog on one side of the lagoon. Rekala put her out of her misery, but spared the fawn. It was old enough to find the herd by itself.
‘Ah, so you are still there,’
Rekala said, sensing my attention on the waves.
‘Finished posturing before blacky?’
‘Her name is Lira,’
I replied icily,
‘and I wasn’t posturing.’
‘Sure you don’t want to come out here and skin this, first?’
Rekala asked, recalling our first hunt together.
‘You could mend the holes in your shirt with this unless, of course, you want them there.’
‘Nay,’
I replied, hearing another reference to Lira between Rekala’s direct thoughts.
‘I don’t want them there, but I’m far too comfortable in here.’
‘Indeed.’
As we neared Telby City Lira confessed to me that she didn’t enjoy living it rough. That morning she’d eaten fistfuls of mulberries without realising the dark purple juices would stain her pale skin for days. She was adamant about covering her face with a veil despite the late hour of our arrival.
‘Some people wear them in mourning,’ she said. ‘Nobody will know I wear them because I don’t know how to eat mulberries.’
‘It’s nearly midnight. You won’t even be noticed,’ I replied.
She slapped me on the shoulder from her position behind the saddle. Sarlice laughed, but my own chuckle died in my throat. The land had been climbing slowly for the past few minutes and we paused on a gentle crest. The walls of Telby City were before us, higher and more magnificent than any structure I had ever seen. The pure white gloss of the walls shone orange in the combined moonlight of Capril and Naeva.
When we reached the main gate in the centre of the West Wall I forced myself to appear apathetic. The shining white stone extended either side for close to one hundred horse lengths. Pale orange and blue towers lined the tops of the walls, casting pointed shadows over our path. As we neared the moonlit gate, three guards stepped forward. Sarlice swung down off Duria. Even at this hour I could see movement within the gatehouse. Beyond it the streets of Telby City were mostly empty.
‘Telby City greets you,’ a female guard murmured huskily. ‘State your business.’
The male guard to her right had a less friendly look.
‘We are ambassadors from Jaria and Lyth, here to seek audience with your king,’ Sarlice replied.
The female guard straightened a little and said, ‘You shall have to wait until tomorrow to be received at the palace. You’d best try your luck at one of the inns.’
It occurred to me that Rekala, Kestric or I could reach out to a Telbion Rada-kin to ask if we could stay with their human master, but it would be rude to at this late hour. I also wasn’t in the mood for the complications that might bring. Despite the expense it was easier to remain autonomous by staying at a tavern.
I reached down to stroke Rekala’s head as she came up beside my horse. He was used to her by now. The male guard stared at my enormous, blue tiger companion. I didn’t like the way he ran his eyes over her pelt, as if sizing up how much money he could get for it.
‘This is your beast, is it?’ he asked me.
My reply was drowned out by Rekala’s roar of challenge. The guard took a step back.
‘Here to see the king, eh?’ he stammered. ‘How do we know you’re not a Sleffion assassin with skyearl fiends hiding in the forest as well as these beasts?’
Sarlice intervened with a strong tone of voice. ‘We are what we said we are—on my word as a Kriite.’
The male guard was unmoved, but the female soldier nudged him and they retreated a few yards to talk. Little did they know that Rekala could still hear them. The male muttered something about wild Rada, but the female finally convinced him that if we were here with winged skyearls we wouldn’t have entered through the front gate.
‘Pass,’ the guard growled, ‘but stay away from the Zeikas or you won’t be coming out the way you came in.’
Sarlice crossed over the threshold between the huge blue-gold gates.
‘My first visit to Telby City and it’s riddled with Zeikas,’ I muttered.
Lira shifted behind me, wrapping her arms tighter around me.
I’ll protect you
, I thought.
A shiver went through my tired muscles. The gatehouse opened onto a broad slate road with rows of shops. I stared into them as we passed, amazed to realise there were enough people in Telby City to warrant a shop called
Buckle and Sash
. We passed bakeries, blacksmiths, jewellers, alchemists, cartographers and stone-masons. Buildings owned by the king were of ochre orange sandstone. Soon they became a blur of amber to my tired eyes.
I blinked and looked behind us. The slate road had given way to large, round cobblestones. They were dark from summer rain. I realised Lira was staring up at me as I looked around. With considerable effort I dropped my eyes to hers. Not being able to see her mouth through the veil gave me a strangely pleasant sense of frustration.