CYRAN‘So. You’re the Bekkis twins everyone’s yapping about, eh?’ I exchange a confused glance with Saelyna. ‘”Everyone”? Who’s “Everyone”?’ she asks. ‘Well of course, the Network’. He shifts his glance from me to her and back again, reading our stares. ‘Oh. You don’t know’. ‘They talked about it earlier this evening’, Saelyna says, ‘Who are they?’ Quain puffs out his lips but he doesn’t wince from the scald like he does before I healed him. ‘Like the name suggests, we are a chain of folks with linked interests scattered over Quindar, though, we’re mostly south, and “headquarters” is in Tussel’. ‘How long? How long has the Network existed?’ Saelyna asks. ‘Since the rebellion. Still made up of wolvens and elves, but it’s not just to make a separate nation anymore. No, they’re too angry for that now’.I already know their agenda even without Quain saying it. I could see it in the green flash of Veesa’s eyes and the way Jenna banged the table hours ago in Argell’s hut. Quindar must be ta
RONNThe raveners have little in the way of kit. Nothing much to see; bags of clothes, fresh kill of deer and (surprisingly) a gazen, maps and the likes of traveling folk.It puzzles me still: how winter wolves would be this coordinated and organized. Striking without taking captives or loot. I’m not one for riddles, though. Besides, I’m grateful to them, though. The necessary distraction.The last tent Is larger than the others and has an odd smell of cheese and mothballs. I take it to be the captain’s quarters, the rather large white one that Caivan had chosen to spare. The one that killed Allos. I push his sneering face from my mind as my eyes fall on a long, silver coat laid out on a small box. ‘It fits’, Sirgil says, his yellow eyes gleaming in the darkness. ‘I’ll take your word for it’, I say and slip into the coat. Without second thought, I snatch the box as well.When I step outside, I half expect to see white shapes and fangs and more fighting. But there’s only Caivan, the ma
SAELYNAThe door opens and Quain walks out bleary-eyed, dark hair matted to one side of his face, covering the scar. He isn’t wearing the dirty brown coat he had on earlier, he wears a white shirt; on closer look, I recognize it’s Cyran’s.He releases a satisfactory sigh when a slight gust of breeze blows our way. I can guess at his thoughts; Quain lived in his family house on the hill overlooking the miller’s, and we used to spend afternoons on his toak tree in the fall, looking out over the northern plains and the kingsroad that we dreamed of traveling on one day, if we were to go to Qarax.That was a lifetime ago.‘Can’t sleep?’ I ask. He opens his eyes then, as if just recognizing my presence and gives me a wistful smile. ‘No’. He leans in and adds, ‘It’s just that your brother is a really good singer’. I chuckle at his sarcasm. The complete opposite in fact. ‘Sorry. Cyran snores like his life depends on it. I should know, I’ve lived with him all of my life’. ‘Oof. Talk about puni
SAELYNA I push myself to my feet, trying to find some chunk, some sort of thread of a lie in what Quain says. ‘I don’t believe you. I don’t’. I see their faces in the hut again, the inquisitive stare Caivan and Veesa shared, the way Cyran looked properly befuddled. It must be wrong. It all is. ‘How would you know, we were kids when it all happened’, I say. He stands up as well. ‘Yes we were. But there were others, remember?’ ‘How did you know, Quain?! Why did Veesa never tell me? What…what?’ I can’t think. My thoughts scatter over my brain incoherently, memories and speculations; I drop to the rock with the heaviness of it all. Quain squats in front of me, his face level with mine. I focus on the lines etched into the untouched side of his face, on the black hair and black eyes that seem to hold so so many secrets. ‘Obviously, this wasn’t how you were supposed to find out. I doubt Veesa even wanted you to know at all….I couldn’t tell you everything while she was there, I couldn’t be
SAELYNAHe smiles at me as I sit up on the cot. For a while, I’m completely disoriented, and it takes a while to recall I’m back in the hut.The hut. Last I recall, I was with…Quain? Caivan? I rub my eyes, attempting to squeeze out whatever sleep is left.‘Did you dream?’ Cyran asks, his eyes boring into mine with a fervent stare. I feel my brows crease at his pushy tone, and he seems to notice it too, because he shakes his head. ‘Sorry. That was odd’, he says. I don’t bother agreeing as I push myself to my feet.Sunlight falls into the room through the windows in large quantities, and I can’t hear a crow, so I know it’s past morning. I wonder how long I’d slept: four, five hours? It couldn’t be that long.I walk to one of the round windows, leaning against the clay wall, and take a peek outside. No one is about; the wind howls spookily through empty huts and a cuttard scuttles across the space as I watch into the forest on the other side. Eldad is silent.For a second, I get the absu
SAELYNAI finally find a spot to spend the morning alone and in silence. Around a curve in the creek, further down the plateau. The birds tweet rather sweetly here, and the air is soft and gentle. I wonder why it took me this long to find it.I drift off for a while before a strong smell penetrates my nostrils, that of smoke. I thought I’d had my fill of fires.When I trace the source, it comes from above me, on the tableland. Another funeral pyre.But it’s just Jenna. And an altar.She stands quietly, solemnly, her grey coat and dark hair billowing in the morning breeze, the smoke and smell of incense wafting around her in gentle curls. She looks serene, almost godlike in that posture, in the moment, until I remember the way her eyes had flashed and the fangs that protrude from her mouth. Wolves are not to be trusted, father would say, They give off an air of peace and certainty, like a foxan, but they cannot hide forever. Sooner or later, they’ll bite down and most times, it’s too l
CYRANThe bathhouse is where I head after the cremation. I hope for some quiet, but also Gylen.Before the fire had died down, Gylen walked away, conspicuous in his dark brown coat. I waited a while before following him, a decision I regret a bit. If a wolven wished to stay hidden, he would stay hidden.I push the door open, cursing and wincing when it creaks loudly. I blink once to adjust my sight to the darkness, and the first thing I notice is that the water is gone. Drained out, it seems, and the place is just an empty, normal hut with a small trench in the ground. Perfect.A wooden stool stands beside the door. The work of a seasoned craftsman, its four legs are carved with symbols…no, not symbols. Wolf faces, styled to resemble ideograms.‘Wonderful workmanship’. The dirk is in my hand before I turn, but it’s just Ronn.I right my stance as I lower the blade but I don’t sheath it. Whenever I see him, tall and threatening in his ash cloak, I see the silver wolven that attacked us
68. DEPARTURE.CAIVANGylen returns with Farden and Pedran from their scout and reports the area empty. "And what about Halden?" I ask. They exchanged glances, and Farden spoke: "It was... deserted." ‘Deserted?’ I repeat, "How is that?" "Not a living soul stirred." "It was like death had struck in one night," Pedran says. I smelled them. The winter wolves like they had been in the village. But if they had, they left little in the way of blood," Gylen quips.I nod. I avoid the temptation to start speculating and connecting ropes, instead turning to Argell’s hut. "Get ready, brothers," I say, "we're headed for Tussel."Someone, most likely Veesa, has cropped his hair so that it lies close to his scalp, low and spiky. It's almost like Keilen’s. They still haven’t seen her, not since yesterday, and I don’t want to bother Father about it. Lupion, I don’t want to think about it. There’s no telling how we’ll find her, dead or alive.I shut down the ill thoughts and walk up to him, where he s