Mag-log inDarius’s PovAn hour later, I had to go and look at the ford. The crossing was the most dangerous part of the march, and I needed to see it for myself before the army reached it. Before I left, I put a full skin of water beside Ayla and spoke to the old warrior. "You stay here. Don't move even a bit," I told the old warrior."Yes, Commander," he said."If anything changes, send a boy," I said."I will," he said.I looked at Ayla. She was sitting on the crate with her knees pulled up and the gray fur around her shoulders. She seemed all right."I'll be gone an hour," I said."I'll be fine," she said."If you're sick, you tell him," I said."I will," she said."Ayla," I said."I will," she said. "Go."I went. I rode out to the ford with two scouts and walked along the bank for a long time, watching the ice, the mud, and the shape of the hills. The ford was wide, as they'd said. It was shallow in the middle and deeper near the far bank. It would take half a day. I counted the places an e
Darius’s POVI was looking at the map with the commanders when an old warrior rushed in. The sound of his boots made everyone turn. He stopped in front of us, breathing heavily with one hand on his side."Commander," he said. "It's the girl. She's sick again."I put down the stone I had been using to hold the map flat."How bad?" I asked."Bad enough that I came to get you.""Keep going," I told the commanders. "The patrol, then the river crossing. I'll be back."I left before he could answer and headed for the wagons. The old warrior followed close behind. When I got to the third wagon, Ayla was nowhere to be seen. Her cup was lying in the snow, and water had spilled onto the ground.I found her behind the wagon. She was down with one hand against the wood and the other holding her hair back from her face. Her shoulders were shaking. When she heard my boots, she tried to straighten up and almost fell."Don't," I said."I'm fine." Her voice was hoarse. "Don't look.""I'm definitely lo
Ayla’s PovThe next morning, I noticed something beside me. I woke up to find a cup of water beside my blankets. It hadn't been there when I fell asleep. When I lifted my head, the old warrior was sitting on his crate a few steps away with his chin on his chest, pretending to be asleep, and he didn't look at me at all."Did Darius leave this?" I asked."Couldn't say, miss," the old warrior said, with his eyes still closed.I drank the water. It was only the first thing I took that morning. When I went to the cook fire for bread, a woman I barely knew put another piece in my hand and told me the commander said I was to have extra. At the next stop, a boy brought me a folded blanket and said the same. On the march, whenever the line stopped for more than a few minutes, there was a wagon seat waiting for me. Twice I looked up and saw Darius watching me from his horse. Both times he turned his head away quickly, like he'd been looking at something else. He didn't make a big deal of any of
Ayla’s PovI sat there for a long time without moving.The cup stayed in my hands, and the water grew cold. All around me, the army was moving. Carts creaked, and somebody up ahead was whistling off-key. I barely heard any of it. I stared at the cart in front of me, where a sack of grain had a hole in it and a thin line of white was spilling onto the snow. I couldn't think about anything else but the baby.I said the word “Baby” in my head a few times. It didn't feel real. It felt like a word from someone else's life. The King had wanted this. I kept coming back to that. He had stood in his hall and said it in front of everyone, like he was ordering supplies. I was to stay with the prince until I had a child. Everyone had been waiting for it, and now it had probably happened, but Darius still didn't know.I tried to picture his face when I told him, but I couldn't. Maybe he'd be surprised and angry, or he'd probably go blank, the way he did when something caught him off guard. I had n
Ayla’s PovHe went.I sat on the cart for a while after he left. The old warrior came over and handed me a cup of water without saying anything, and then went back to his post a few steps away. I held the cup in both hands and sipped slowly. The water was cold and tasted like metal. The sick feeling hadn't gone away. It had just gotten quieter, a dull ache low in my stomach. I thought about the porridge, the dried meat and the cold. I'd gone over that same list all night. None of it fit anymore. Strong smells turned my stomach. Food I normally liked made me look away. And I was tired in a heavy, strange way that sleep hadn't fixed.I turned the cup in my hands. Something else was there, and I had been trying not to think about it for two days.The King had given his order the day he told me to pack to Darius's tent. I was to stay with him until I gave the King a child. I remembered it clearly. I had stood in his hall while he said it like he was talking about a load of grain. Then I h
Ayla’s PovI made it to the rocks just in time. I got behind the biggest one, where the campfires couldn't reach, and dropped onto my knees in the snow. My stomach turned over. I put one hand flat against the stone, bent forward, and waited. For a second nothing happened. Then the vomit came up all at once, and I was sick into the snow with my eyes shut and my hair falling in my face. It went on longer than I wanted. When it finally stopped, I stayed where I was, breathing through my mouth. The snow was cold against my palms, and my throat burned. I wiped my lips on the edge of my sleeve and told myself it was over, but it wasn't. A new wave started a moment later, and I bent over again.I was so annoyed. That was the strange part. I should have been scared, or at least worried. Instead, I just felt irritated, the way you do when a door sticks or a shoe pinches. Everyone else in that camp had real problems. People had died that morning. Twenty-three of them, and almost forty hurt, and







