Chapter 43 - Ro
Ro
Dae led me to the chef’s tent. I might have thought wearing his clothes would help me blend into this environment, but in his baggy outfit, I stood out like a sore thumb.
While Rahana had people assigned to patrols and defenses, at this camp, everyone dressed like a trained soldier. No one else swam in oversized clothes, and not one person didn’t have their weapons on them.
I’d left my bow and singular remaining arrow in Dae’s tent, a last-minute decision he didn’t catch me making. I thought an armed stranger would bring unwanted attention, but now I very much regretted it.
Dae retrieved two empty bowls, offering one to me. I extended it toward the man doling out portions from his ladle. He looked at me through his one good eye, the other under a patch. His hands were riddled with scars, not unsimilar to Dae’s torso.
I refrained from being outwardly polite, substituting a curt nod instead of thanks.
As if that’d diffused whatever sparking interest he held in me, he returned to his cooking duties.
Dae didn’t acknowledge me. He moved through this place like an unshakable mountain, unafraid and uninviting.
A shadow of the person he’d revealed himself to be over the past few days.
I didn’t like it, but it helped fuel my own facade. I practiced looking down my nose at anyone I locked eyes with, an interaction that looked as frequently used as currency in this place. In a camp of weaponry, intimidation was a trait that everyone armed themselves with. So I would do the same.
Dae silently led us back to his tent. I internally rejoiced when I remembered the way this time.
He lifted the fabric entrance, his stripping gaze on alert for those around us as I ducked inside.
Sitting on his bed, I barely waited until my butt reached the blanket before shoveling in a heaping mouthful of stew, avoiding the meaty bits.
Then another. On the third, my mouth could barely move to chew it was packed so full.
Dae ate equally as quickly, but didn’t let it pile up in his mouth as I had. I worked through the vegetable mush in my mouth and swallowed. “You said they are looking for power. How exactly?”
Dae wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his wrist. “The belief is that magic shouldn’t be suppressed.”
Well, I didn’t expect to agree with them on anything, let alone share the same belief. “They’re not the first ones to think that. But they’re mobilizing. To what end?”
“Don’t know.”
Of course it wouldn’t be that easy to find the answers I was seeking. Unless Dae was lying. I had to keep that option open to see all possible angles.
He drank from his bowl, draining the remains, then set it on the dresser beside the lantern.
“At first, I thought it was just to conquer the upper portion of the kingdom. Create their own state or sovereignty. Hell, probably half of Windguard would have joined overnight to hear something like that might exist.”
“But?” I asked before scooping in another spoonful, my body crying for more.
“The way they’ve done it hasn’t been…normal.” He leaned forward in his chair, rubbing his hands between his spread knees.
“What ‘o you mea’,” I asked, my words garbled around the food in my mouth without one drop of desire to slow down or wait to ask.
“They’re not just gathering those abused by the existing power structure.
They’ve been stealing wielders. You’d think those who believe in magic would accept magically blessed into their cause, but they’ve been sucking the power right from them.
Infusing other members until they wield excessive, unnatural amounts and combinations.
They’re building an army, one that would require a less significant amount of soldiers if one man on the field is worth five.
They speak nothing of their plans, only the belief that magic should be free.
I don’t know if they have enough to attack Taja, but my guess is that’s what they’re gearing up for. ”
“A full on attack on Windguard,” I said, my spoon hesitating in my stew. “Overthrowing the king. Civil war.” I couldn’t lie by saying that it wasn’t a plan I’d support.
“Something about it though,” Dae muttered, running his hand through his dark locks. “They never talk about ruling, or the castle, or the crown. At least, they don’t speak about it in front of us.”
“Who would they speak freely to?”
“Only the accepted. The ones who have submerged into the Black Pool’s depths and come out blessed by it. Blessed.” He scraped his hand down his face.
“So that’s who I need to investigate. The accepted ones.”
Dae’s eyes widened, and he shook his head slowly. “Ro, that’s nothing but a guarantee of death. I’ll do everything in my gods damned power to ensure they never lay an eye on you.”
Hm. That complicated things. Now, not only did I have to figure out who in the camp were members of the accepted, but also shirk Dae long enough that I could track them.
If Dae didn’t know the game plan, chances were that nobody else outside of the accepted did.
Smart, to keep that sort of information locked down, but that also indicated big plans.
A shiver skated down my spine. At least for the first time since this trip began, I had an inkling of how to proceed.
“Will you show me around?”
He leveled me with a glare that almost made me want to shrink.
“I can’t depend on you constantly being my shadow. What if you get called away on a hunt? I’m supposed to wither in this tent for a week? I have a deadline, you know.”
He sighed, a sign I’d proven my point. A small victorious smile splayed over my face.
“First, I’ll show you where we return our dishes.” Dae stood, taking his bowl and reaching for mine. “You’re not eating the boar?” He saw my leftovers.
I shook my head. “Could you eat me?”
He blinked, standing still as stone. In the silence, I heard it.
“I mean a person. Could you eat someone you conversed with, like a person. I just chose me as an example.” Gods strike me down.
He finally moved, tilting his chin upward in understanding. He cleared his throat, returning to instruction about navigating the camp.
“Stay behind me, always, and speak to no one. The less people who know of your existence the better.” He towered over me as I remained sitting on his bed.
I started to quite like the view, actually, but I wouldn’t dwell on it now, not when my scouting was about to begin.
He shuffled to the side, giving me room to stand.
This time, I wouldn’t leave unarmed. I slung my quiver over my shoulder with my one pathetic arrow and tucked my bow behind me.
“Ready.” I nodded.
He looked unsure, like he wanted to protest, but after assessing me from head to toe, chose against it. Good, I would have fought him on it, anyway. And won. Dae opened the tent flap, holding it for me. I dipped and stepped outside.
My steps halted before I could make it more than two steps out.
“Ro, I take it?” A man with long, sleek black hair stood poised before me, creating a wall with several others.
It wasn’t the darkness of their uniforms, or the charcoal smudged along their eyes in a line from one temple to the other.
It wasn’t the wide stance they had chosen, or the false casualness of holding their hands behind their backs.
No, none of those things made my stomach want to coat the ground in stew.
“Marvoe,” Dae said from behind in greeting. He stilled.
It wasn’t the way the man who’d greeted me smirked to one side at seeing Dae, either.
It was the black lines that ran beneath their skin, that spider webbed from their eyes, the way the world seemed to throb at their presence, like something malignant that should be removed. The air thinned and my heart raced.
face-to-face with death incarnate, the leaders of The Order of Darkness stood before me.
That was what made me drop to my knees and bow. Survival told me I had no other option. Nature seemed to whisper in warning that should my life end, it would be at their hand.