Chapter 27
CHAPTER 27
S omeday, Leofric thought, he would have to make things up to Laela and Sorex. The pace he set was not as swift as he would like, but it was far more than his family was used to. When they reached the royal villa in Papia, he told himself they would be pampered and spoiled by staff, able to rest and bathe and feast upon delicacies. Prince Alexios would never turn them away, or begrudge them anything. For all his brash impetuousness, Alexios was a good prince and a better man.
For his family to receive such rewards though, they had to make it to Papia alive. One more day, Leofric thought as they rode. Please, just one more day without trouble.
One more hour, one more minute.
Every moment on the road that passed without incident only served to put Leofric more on edge. When they made camp each night, they broke the night up into four watches, allowing everyone to get rest. Ozias, Leofric, and Cosmo each always took a watch, and Laela and Sorex switched off on the remaining one. Both of them insisted that they could take a watch every night, but Leofric was firm. He already felt guilty enough dragging them from their home, putting them in danger, and everything else. He would have only split the watches between himself and Cosmo—but Ozias was hale and alert and he didn’t really have a reason not to trust him. Just a feeling.
One night, a few days into their journey, Leofric was sleeping, and woke to a sound of rustling. Alert at once, he sat up to see a dark shape rifling through one of his bags. He waited, watching, until his eyes adjusted and he could see who it was. It was Ozias.
“What are you doing?” Leofric asked quietly.
Ozias jumped. When he turned, he looked very like the little boy caught with his hand in the sweet jar. “Oh, apologies,” he said, withdrawing his empty hand. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“That’s alright,” said Leofric, though it wasn’t—it merely wasn’t the cause of his trepidation. “What were you looking for? Perhaps I could help you find it.”
Ozias’s eyes flickered around the camp, to his sleeping brother, as if Cosmo would wake up and cover for him. “I was—I—” he stammered.
Leofric sat up straighter, and shifted his weight so that Ozias couldn’t help but see the dagger sheathed at his hip. “Tell me what you were searching for. Now.”
Ozias looked terrified. “I was searching for my brother’s grace,” he admitted.
Leofric narrowed his eyes. “ Why? ”
Ozias shrugged. “It’s hard to say,” he admitted. “I worry. I wanted to know where it was, make certain it was safe.”
“It’s safe.”
Ozias hesitated a bit before saying softly, “He’s my brother.”
Guilt surged through Leofric, and he tried to view the situation from Ozias’s point of view. “I understand that,” said Leofric. “But Cosmo gave it to me, to protect. To see safely back to Papia.”
“Why? Why would he give it to you?” Ozias asked.
“He trusts me,” said Leofric simply. He touched his chest, where a secret pocket behind his breastplate concealed the bottle of Kryos’s grace. It was cold against his heart, but in a bracing, refreshing way. “I keep it on my person at all times.”
“Cosmo trusts me, too,” said Ozias angrily. “It should be guarded by family. ”
Leofric fought to stay calm, but something about this had his hackles up. “Perhaps,” he made himself say, keeping his voice even. “But you’ll have to take that up with him. Now, I’m going to get some rest.”
“Fine,” said Ozias. “I’ll talk to Cosmo in the morning.”
“You do that.” Leofric curled under his cloak, as if he had no concern whatsoever about what Ozias might do, but he did not sleep a wink the rest of the night.
Cosmo was happy, for the most part, to be on the road again. He worried about their little party, and the future, but he was back at Leofric’s side, and it was invigorating. They set their bedrolls side by side at night, and though Cosmo would have wished they had been even closer, Leofric insisted on maintaining some propriety around his family. As they traveled, he felt himself settling into a routine, and it was comforting, in a way. Soon, they’d be back in Papia, and reunited with Auro. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Auro’s face when he saw Ozias.
One morning, however, Cosmo sensed something on Leofric’s mind. After a quick breakfast, they were on the road once again, and Cosmo could almost feel the dark storm cloud above Leofric’s head.
After several hours of monosyllabic grunts in response to any query, Cosmo was fed up. He slowed Hestia, falling to the back of their little column to ride beside Leofric. “What is wrong?”
“Nothing,” Leofric snapped. His eyes followed Ozias, who rode ahead with Sorex. Ozias pointed out something in a tree, and Sorex laughed before saying something back. Their conversation didn’t carry all the way back here, but both were smiling.
“Oh, well, yes,” said Cosmo, rolling his eyes. “It seems like nothing.”
Leofric sighed. “Apologies. You’re right, my mind is clouded this morning.”
“Perhaps it would help to talk of it,” Cosmo suggested. “Perhaps I could help.”
Leofric considered this, and Cosmo turned in his saddle to watch the muscles going in Leofric’s jaw. There was a time he would have pestered him, repeated himself, or ridden off in a huff. He wasn’t entirely giving up the idea of riding off in a huff, but overall, he knew better now. Leofric was a very deliberate man, and he weighed each word carefully. He needed patience. So Cosmo tried. And eventually Leofric pried open his mouth to speak, though he kept his voice pitched low. “Ozias was digging through my pack last night.”
“What?” Asked Cosmo, aghast.
“During his watch. I woke up when I heard something, and saw him rifling through my things.”
“Did you say anything?”
“Of course,” said Leofric. “He apologized. But he—Cosmo, he told me he was looking for Kryos’s grace.”
Cosmo frowned. “Why?”
“He claimed he wanted to be certain it was safe,” said Leofric.
“Well,” said Cosmo. “That’s not the maddest notion.”
“No, of course not, but…”
“But what?” Asked Cosmo, bristling at once.
“I wonder what would have happened had he found it.”
“What are you saying?”
“Cosmo, I know he’s your brother but…do you trust him?”
“How can you say that? Of course, I do!”
“Alright,” said Leofric gently. “Apologies. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Cosmo spent the rest of the day’s ride stewing, wondering how Leofric could be so insensitive. So untrusting. After everything. Hadn’t Cosmo done enough, finally, to earn the benefit of the doubt? Leofric had not wanted him to find Ozias. Had not wanted to wait. Told Cosmo he was chasing ghosts. And now, now that Ozias was here, alive, Leofric didn’t trust him. As he and Hestia plodded along, Cosmo stared at the back of Leofric’s head, in a foul mood. When they stopped and made camp for the night, Cosmo considered asking Leofric for the grace back. He’d given it to Leofric because he trusted him, implicitly. Now though, with this vendetta against Ozias…Unfortunately, though, Leofric’s words had wormed their way inside his head. There had been a few things that were peculiar, now that he thought about it. The night they’d gone out drinking, Cosmo had woken to their room being ransacked. Had he been looking for Kryos’s grace then? He supposed he couldn’t grudge him that, but, what would he have done had he found it?
Should he confront Ozias?
No. Cosmo was being ridiculous. Leofric was simply a wary and untrusting sort. Once his family was out of danger, once they all were, he would calm down. He hadn’t trusted Cosmo at the start, either. And for Ozias’s part, he had spent four hundred years on the run, afraid and alone, and Kryos was on his heels. Hadn’t Cosmo been just as afraid of a Kryos returned to full strength? He shook his head to clear it, and put Leofric’s suspicions from his mind. His brother was alive. He couldn’t let anything sour that.