Chapter Thirteen #2
He tapped my chin gently with a finger. Reluctantly I lifted my eyes to peer into his face, which was little more than a pale shadow in the night.
“You will be stronger if you wear some of that softness on the outside, as you do now. Let some of that outer strength penetrate.” His hand tapped my heart.
“Let the hurt out,” he whispered, “and you will grow fiercer.”
“You sound like one of our healers,” I said.
“I speak from experience.”
I wanted to ask him what experience, but abruptly he set me aside and sat up.
He whispered something to Omira, who had paused on her patrol of our camp.
He joined her, moving soundlessly. They stood together, staring into the dark trees.
I studied the trees too, listening for hisses and grunts or the telltale sound of a twig snapping.
I heard nothing but leaves rustled by the wind and the chirps of insects.
Nothing moved in the darkness, but somehow I knew Gaz was out there. He might even be watching me now.
After what seemed like a very long time, Taio came back. “You should be sleeping,” he said, crouching by his bedroll.
I nodded and lay back down. He lifted the outer flap of his bedroll, and I thought about what he’d said to me last night. You must ask for what you want.
“Taio?”
He stilled, one leg inside his bedroll.
“Will you hold me?” My voice sounded small and whiny.
I immediately regretted the words. I would have taken them back if I hadn’t needed so badly to be comforted.
If I hadn’t been fighting sleep because I was afraid what dreams might come.
But if I was in his arms, perhaps I would feel safe.
Mayhap his presence would hold the dreams at bay. Ridiculous thoughts.
Without a word, he moved his bedroll close to mine, slid under the coat, and pulled me against him. My face was hot with embarrassment, and I appreciated his silence. He didn’t ask questions. He simply took me in his arms and held me close. “Sleep now,” he murmured against my hair. “I have you.”
I nodded and closed my eyes. “Thank you,” I said.
“I need no thanks for holding you.”
“I meant for”—I swallowed—“for taking care of Finnrey.”
He inhaled slowly and deeply. “It was my honor,” he said. “I did it quick and painless.”
My throat had closed and I couldn’t speak, so I merely put my arms around him and squeezed. He might have given me a hundred ornaments of pure tertanium and I wouldn’t have appreciated the gift as much as what he’d done for Finnrey.
“Have you ever...” I cleared my throat. “Have you ever done anything like that before?” I asked. He’d said they hadn’t encountered any Hollows on their way to Highcastle. Perhaps he’d never seen one close or taken a life.
“I have taken a life before,” he said. “In self-defense.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Another time, Mara. Sleep now.”
He seemed determined to tell me as little as possible about himself and his life in Zulen. “One more question, and this I need to know now that we’ve lost Finnrey, Gaz, and Nize.”
“Go on.” He sounded wary.
“Have you and your people ever fought Hollows before?” I knew what skills and training and experience my friends had, but I knew nothing about the Zulenii. If I was the only one with experience killing Hollows, that changed everything about our journey.
“All four of us have fought the Twilight Men,” Taio said. “We...” His voice trailed off. “The four of us have experience, though not nearly as much as you. Any advice you have, would be useful.”
I couldn’t imagine a kingdom where the threat of Hollows wasn’t part of everyday life. “Tell me about your kingdom,” I said. “What is it like?”
He sighed and his hand on my back moved in slow, drugging circles. “Zulen is full of music,” he said. “You will notice this right away as when I entered Earsleh the absence of music was deafening.”
I didn’t understand how silence could be deafening, but I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what he described.
“You heard Yung play the guitara. That is but one of many instruments we have. There are hundreds of them, and they all have beautiful and unique sounds. Every house you enter, every street you stroll, you will encounter the sound of music.”
The image he painted seemed like a fairy tale my mother read to me when I’d been a child. “And the sound of music doesn’t attract the Hollows?”
“Zleyval is protected from attack by geography. Not all of Zulen has been so fortunate. I worry...” His voice trailed off, and I lifted my head to look at him. “I worry our fortune is coming to an end.”
“And that’s why you need me. To teach your people how to defend themselves? You could teach them that.”
He grunted. “Your knowledge is priceless,” he said.
His phrasing was odd. He didn’t say my skill at killing Hollows. He said my knowledge. “Worth this long journey? Worth risking your life in the arena?”
“Worth all that and more.”
I lay my head on his chest again. “Tomorrow before we break camp, I’ll give everyone a lesson on the best way to kill Hollows.”
“Yes,” he said. “I look forward to it. Now sleep, mi guerrira.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, but he was warm and his heart beat steadily, lulling me to sleep.
“Sleep, Mara.”
I closed my eyes and slept.
***
I FELT LIKE I’D BARELY drifted off before Taio was climbing out of the bedroll. I opened my eyes and spotted Yung packing his bedding and Omira stretching. The light was still gray, but it would be morning soon.
I crawled out of my bedroll, pushing my hair back out of my face.
Somehow it had come loose again in the night.
Omira went with me to relieve ourselves behind a tree.
Then we used a little water from our flasks to wash our faces and rinse our mouths.
In the distance I heard the rumble of thunder.
Although it was the dry season, rain was still possible.
More likely, there would be thunder and lightning but no rainfall.
We called these dry storms. A flash of lightning lit up the trees around us for an instant, and I was relieved to see nothing hiding in the shadows.
As we walked back, Omira nudged my elbow. “Taio says you will train us this morning.”
I reached for my hair and plaited it as we walked. “Just some tips in case we see more Hollows.”
She gave a visible shudder. “I would prefer never to see one again.”
“How much further until we reach Zulen?” I asked.
She scrunched her eyes. “Two days or so until we reach the border,” she said. “Then another day or two until we reach the city.”
I tried to conjure the image of the map I’d studied on Dlyenko’s desk. “Zleyval, right?”
“In your language, it would translate to something like First City.”
“Is it walled like Highcastle?”
“No,” she said. “But it is well-fortified. Ah, the men are waiting for you.”
The men were waiting. Everyone had packed their belongings and stood in a circle eating what was probably the last food from their packs. I knew I had eaten the last of mine yesterday. Taio moved forward and handed me a piece of bread. I shook my head. “I cannot take your food—”
“Eat, Mara.”
My stomach rumbled, and Taio gave me a knowing look.
I took the bread and ate it, trying to chew slowly to make it last, but it was gone too soon.
We’d have to forage for food as we walked today.
We couldn’t make it four more days without sustenance.
I swallowed the last of my water—another thing we would have to find today—and wiped my mouth.
Everyone was already watching me, so I moved to the center of the group.
I tried to ignore how awkward I felt. I’d never taught anything to my peers.
I enjoyed giving lessons to children. The older always taught the younger in Earsleh, but that was different than teaching people my own age.
I also wasn’t a leader. Morll and my other patrol leaders always said I was too impulsive for leadership.
They tried to use routine and protocol to eradicate the traits that didn’t serve us on patrol.
Consequently, I was more used to taking orders than giving them.
“We’re, ah, likely to encounter more Hollows on our journey,” I said. Taio quietly translated for Kintle, who seemed the least familiar with our language. “When we do, I have some, ah, suggestions for what to do.”
“Kill them,” Yung said, his accent so thick I almost couldn’t understand him.
“Yes.” Well, this was helpful. So far I’d told them to kill monsters.
Very helpful. “Um, oh! You must go for the head,” I said.
“Nothing else will stop them. You can stab one right in the heart, and it will keep coming for you.” I unsheathed my skullcrusher.
“I usually go for the eye.” I showed them a practice lunge.
To my surprise, they all took their weapons in hand and imitated me.
“The temple or ear,” I said and illustrated with a slash to the side of my imaginary target.
“If you’re coming from behind, the base of the skull is the place to strike.
” I demonstrated shoving my skullcrusher upward and into my target from behind.
The Zulenii did exactly as I did, all of them showing remarkably good form.
I began to grow more comfortable with my role.
This wasn’t so different than teaching children.
“If you’re strong enough, you can take the head off or bash it in.
” I motioned slicing a head off and then bashing in a Hollow’s brain.
“I’m not that strong, so I go for the quick stab and release.
” I pantomimed stabbing a Hollow in the eye and pulling my skullcrusher back.
“You see how I go in for the kill and then back? You don’t want to be close to them or they might bite.
..” I pressed my lips together to ward off the emotion that flooded into me at the reminder.
“Keep your distance as much as possible.”
Taio nodded. “Go on, Mara.”