Chapter 27

Pavan wasn’t at his apartment in the city, so Leena Traveled to his family’s camp in northeast Sanvar, in the Ushto region.

Unfortunately, she arrived during the gift-giving ceremony for his upcoming wedding to Kala, another Traveler from the city. When the bride-to-be saw her, the smile slipped off the woman’s face. She shot glares in Leena’s direction in between thanking friends and family members for wedding gifts.

Once the crowd of well-wishers had dwindled away, Kala stalked over. Pavan followed behind more sedately.

“You come here now?” the other woman hissed at Leena. “Today?”

The Zidari may have understood the importance of careful interbreeding of their bloodlines, but no woman wants to be reminded she was her groom’s second choice. Certainly not during the most important of the three marriage ceremonies.

“I’m sorry—I didn’t realize,” Leena said. “And it was too important to wait.”

“Kala, enough,” Pavan murmured, a note of warning in his voice. “It’s the Empress’s business.”

“Of course,” Kala said, her voice overly sweet. “I wouldn’t want to interfere with business.” She found her nearest group of friends and whispered something to them. They snuck glances at Leena as they laughed.

Pavan sighed. “You’ll have to forgive her,” he said. “This wasn’t a good time to come. I take it you’re here because Yelena chose a second bondmate?”

“No, I—what? She picked two?”

“You didn’t hear? Do you remember Indirah?”

“The girl from Ochal?”

“That’s the one. I’ve started training her and Fareed. I’ll send them up to you when they’re ready.”

Indirah was a quiet young woman from the jungle region of southern Sanvar, while Fareed was Pavan’s own cousin.

“Yelena only had two bonds left,” Leena said. “I didn’t think she’d use both of them. How is that going to work?”

“For taking two, she’ll basically be your business partner for the northern expansion. There’s a complicated contract you’ll have to look over about how everything is meant to work.”

Leena nodded. “I’ll read it when I can, but that’s not why I’m here. King Rusol’s army is almost to the keep. They’ll reach us tomorrow.”

Pavan was silent for a moment. “Your friends weren’t able to stop them?” he asked. He’d visited the keep to help with Udit’s training, and was aware of the dangers they were facing.

“I don’t think stopping them was ever part of the plan. Corec just wanted to slow them down and tire them out, and he says we managed that.”

“How bad do you think it’ll be?”

“It’ll come down to whether there are any mages we don’t know about. Or if something happens that we didn’t plan for.”

“I could—” Pavan started, then bit off what he’d been about to say.

“No, you can’t,” Leena said. “It’s bad enough that I’m there. We can’t have you get involved too. Besides, what would Kala think?”

“You’re right—but you’re not a fighter, so why stay? What about Udit?”

“I can get away anytime I need to, and Udit’s already here—I left him with my grandmother. But I need to ask for a favor.”

“Oh?”

“Is there somewhere we can speak privately?”

Pavan glanced at his bride, who was still gossiping with her friends. “We’d better stay in sight,” he said. He led her to a tent pavilion where the remains of the gift-giving feast had already been cleared away.

Leena handed him the jade bracelet and her marked-up copy of Bobo’s map. “If something happens to me, you’ll need this. It’s how we’ll stop Snake from coming after our people.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Snake? You mean the snake cult?”

Leena shook her head. “No. Are there even any cult members left in Sanvar? And you’ve already taken out their largest stronghold in the Tablelands.” That had become a problem when the Council of Guardians—as the local warlords called themselves—had learned of it, but Empress Shereen had calmed them down and convinced them to join the hunt. “The cult’s not the real problem. We need to worry about whoever has been giving them their orders. Snake.”

“But there is no Snake. That’s just one of their delusions.”

“Why would any god allow so many of his or her priests go around lying about who they serve?” Leena said. “They must have been telling the truth. There were eight old gods once—we learned that in Tir Yadar—and Snake was one of them. Four died, but Snake didn’t. That has to be what the bracelet’s for.”

“Eight? Who are the—” Pavan shook his head. “Never mind. What does the bracelet have to do with it?”

“It’s a way to Travel to different worlds.” She indicated the paper she’d given him. “That’s a map. See the three lines near the bottom? The middle one is our world, and the one above it is the demon world, or the demon realm, or hell. I’m not sure what to call it. I’ve been there a dozen times and it’s different every time. Don’t go there unless you have to—some of the demons are just curious, but others will try to kill you if they see you.”

“I don’t understand. What do demons have to do with Snake, if he actually exists?”

“I’m not sure yet, but I have a guess. If nobody knows about him besides his followers, maybe he’s in hiding, either in the demon world or one of the others. I just haven’t had enough time to finish exploring. The world below ours is nothing but gray fog, and the one that crosses through at an angle makes me sick to even try. I only managed it once.” Leena shivered, remembering the flashing lights and the way the land had shifted below her feet. “Stay away from that one. The creatures there didn’t like me much.”

The way the six-limbed beasts had followed and surrounded her had been more frightening than the demon encounters she’d faced.

“What about the other lines?” Pavan asked.

“I haven’t figured out how to get to them yet, and you shouldn’t try,” Leena said. “I just need to know the bracelet is safe. If something happens, you can take it to the others. Someone will be able to figure it out. Maybe Satyana.”

Pavan frowned down at the items in his hands. “I don’t like this. I don’t like any of it. You shouldn’t stay at the keep if you’re in danger.”

“You sound like Rohav. I’m the safest person there, remember?”

“I suppose,” he admitted. “You should know, Queen Yassi of Larso is here, in the city. She’s clan—the Sanva camp.” The zi-Dari Sanva were one of the founding families. The founding family, it could be said, though the early families were so interrelated that there wasn’t much distinction between them.

“Her name sounded Zidari to me, but I wasn’t sure. Why is she here?”

“It all seems to be a mystery. I wasn’t in a position to ask any questions when I met her, and Shereen’s being coy about it all. But I could try to get a message to her if it would help.”

Leena considered the possibility, then shook her head. “We’ve got an army on our doorstep right now, and Corec’s focused on dealing with that. We don’t know anything about the queen, but I can’t imagine she could do anything to stop a war between wardens. If we make it through the next few days, I’ll ask the empress for permission to speak with her.”

“Do you have everything you need?” Katrin asked, looking over the contents of the wagon.

“Enough to get by for a few weeks,” her brother replied. “Never even had a chance to move any of it to the new building.”

“It’ll still be here when you get back,” Katrin said. That was a wild hope at best. The new inn was outside the fortress walls, and even Corec, who was optimistic about their chances in the battle, wasn’t sure they could prevent the mercenaries from burning down the village.

“You should come with us,” Barz said.

“I can’t,” Katrin said. “I’ve got to stay, at least until I figure out whether there’s some way I can help.”

“Then maybe I’ll stay too. Patrig said he’d watch over Ana and Robby.”

Those were his words, but his gaze was resting on his wife and new son—Katrin’s nephew. The two were waiting for him near the front of the wagon so the family could leave together in the final convoy of civilians who were evacuating Hilltop.

Katrin gave her brother the answer he needed to hear. “No, Barz, Ana needs you. Not someone else. And this isn’t a street fight. It’s a war, and you’re no soldier.”

“Neither are you!”

“I’ve killed men before,” she said. She’d never admitted that to him. “And if the worst happens, Leena will take me somewhere safe.” If she could.

“Promise me you’ll go if you need to.”

“Of course,” Katrin said, grinning broadly to hide her own uneasiness. “I grew up in the same neighborhood as you, remember. I don’t plan to die here—we’re not going to throw away our lives defending an old heap of rock. There’s always another way out, and we’ve still got plenty of cards left to play.”

After a few more reassurances, Barz headed on his way, helping Ana and the baby up to the wagon seat before leading the mules through the gatehouse tunnel so they could join with the rest of the convoy.

Katrin breathed a sigh of relief, then took a look around the courtyard. Nedley was giving the civilian militia members one final lesson before they departed as well.

“If it comes to a fight, do what the elven sentinels tell you!” the young man was saying. “Commander Alarein is in charge of military matters, and Patrig’s in charge of everything else. For anyone who hasn’t been out to the campsite yet, we’ve built some shelters there, but it won’t be enough for everyone. You’ll have to share, and hopefully you’ll all be back home before there’s time to build more.”

Before heading inside the keep, Katrin stopped to check the stable one last time to make sure the only animals left were the ones that were supposed to be there. The stables were Boktar’s responsibility, not hers, but the dwarven man had been locked in with Corec all afternoon going over variations in the battle plans.

Inside the stable, she found Harri grooming Dusty, Kevik’s warhorse.

“What are you doing here, Harri?” Katrin said. “You were supposed to leave an hour ago.” She’d watched him gather with the other workers to herd the few mules that didn’t have wagons to pull.

“There’s plenty of grooms already gone,” the boy said. “Someone’s gotta take care of the animals here.”

“We’ll take care of them ourselves! You’re not supposed to be here! What about your sister?”

A very human-sounding squeak came from one of the stalls.

“Ditte!” Katrin snapped. “Get out here!”

Ditte shuffled out from her hiding place, trying to look innocent. Her nice pink dress was coated in a layer of dust.

“Young lady, how did you get away from Nallee? What’s that behind your back? Where did you get a knife?”

Corec stood with Treya and Kevik under a white parley flag at the entrance to the village. Priest Conley had joined them as well, wearing his order’s traditional black robes and carrying Pallisur’s battle standard. Corec was of two minds about having Conley at his side, but with both Kevik and the priest, it would have to raise some questions in the minds of the knights arrayed against them.

The group waited in the open, just outside the new thorn wall and well away from the safety of the fortress’s stone walls. Treya was maintaining protection spells against both fire and lightning, and from farther away, Ellerie had extended her arrow shield spell to reach them. She’d also added a new spell, one designed to protect against arcane magic attacks. While a Knight of Pallisur was unlikely to violate a parley, Corec wasn’t sure just how much control Rusol had over the enemy forces. It was best to be safe.

The four of them had taken their position as soon as the army had drawn close enough to see the flag, but it was another half hour before the enemy forces sent a delegation. Barat rode at their head, accompanied by a squad of mercenaries and a priest of his own, as well as Sir Cason and Sir Osbert. Cason had the grace to look embarrassed, giving Kevik and Corec a sheepish nod. Osbert seemed more confused than anything else. The delegation remained mounted even after bringing their horses to a halt.

Corec checked the visitors with his warden senses, finding that this particular priest wasn’t a mage. To his surprise, though, Barat was. Had Pallisur chosen him? Or did he have some other gift that he’d kept secret throughout his training, just as Corec had?

“Sir Barat, welcome to Warden’s Keep,” Corec said. “Might I ask why you’ve brought an invasion force into my lands?”

“You know answer already, I think,” Barat said in his rough accent. “Corec Tarwen, you did dark magic and ... how say ... treachery against throne. You sent assassin after king. You must answer for crimes.”

What game was Barat playing at? He must have had a reason for sending that warning months earlier, but it seemed clear he wasn’t going to acknowledge it in front of his men. Yet of all the knights he had at his disposal, why select the two who’d accompanied Corec against the dragon? He was offering some sort of message, but Corec couldn’t interpret the meaning.

“I’ve never sent any assassin against the king,” Corec said. “I sent an envoy in peace, an envoy who Rusol himself tried to murder for no reason. As for dark magic, I reject the charge, and I challenge you to name a single instance of it. I left Larso to avoid breaking your laws—laws which don’t apply in the free lands.”