Chapter 11

Tara

Tara looked down on the plains below. She and her clan had finally made it to the top of the Rampart Range. The recovery of the winding road had taken most of the summer. She studied the vista and wondered where Andrew and the others had gone. She had avoided dream-walking to keep track of them. Tara was glad the roads on both sides of the range had been rebuilt. Now she would be able to locate and join Andrew, Aston, Ledger, Brena, Robin, and Aco.

Another issue was the caravans that had caught up to her. The team that had done the climb with her clan had one of the threats with them. Tara had investigated the danger and decided that Kaara was not going to be an immediate threat. The best Kaara could do was waddle slowly. She would give birth in another month by the looks of her belly. The second threat had arrived at the last village a week after they had rolled out. So far, Tara had not found out who posed such a threat. She was certain the person would expose themselves to her in due course. With that, she motioned for the lead scouts to begin the trek down the mountain road.

Kaara

Kaara cursed all men everywhere. She was due to give birth soon. Most of the women with her were in the same condition. Several had already given birth. One had died along with the baby when an infection claimed their lives. The Midwife had not taken time to clean herself and the woman. That Midwife in question suffered a terrible accident the next day for refusing to take care to clean her hands before helping the woman give birth. Kaara had taken precautions to avoid that fate. She had stashed a supply of cleaning agents to clean herself and the hands of the Midwife. She had a mission to complete, and no incompetent Midwife was going to stop her.

She picked up an empty bucket to take to the water wagon. She needed water to cook the evening meals. She had to make ten trips to fill the cook pots for the stew. She avoided men as much as she could. What pissed her off most; she didn’t know who the father was. She was certain it happened while they had been at an Inn during the period when the roads were gone. There had been one drunken party where every woman from the support team was taken and raped. That was the only way to describe what had gone on that one night. Whether she had a boy or a girl, she didn’t care. Kaara didn’t want the child. One of the milk maidens had agreed to take the baby off her hands. At least the baby would be cared for and fed. ‘I will find him. I will find him and kill him,’ Kaara thought. ‘I will kill you, Andrew Markenen.’

Ander

Ander hated life on the road. His continued travels with the road repair crew were slowly driving him insane. The last delay was in repairing a collapsed bridge just before the Rampart Range. The Caravan ahead of them had already begun the hard climb over the mountain. He had not been able to learn anything about Aston. All he knew was Aston had gone to the Cove. He wanted to kill the man, but he was worried that Aston was not as easy as he had been before the exile. Ander looked at the glow under the skin of his left hand. He had not heard anything from the voice in several months. He was beginning to wonder if she had abandoned him. He could wait for a chance. One thing Ander had learned was patience. He would wait, bide his time, then strike when the time was right. He would wait.