Chapter 5
Soren let out another howl of frustration as her eyes roamed over the contents of her emptied rucksack. “It was right here! It should have been right under my cloak and gloves.” She slammed her fists into the ground, her body not yet registering the bite of the rocks as they embedded themselves into the soft flesh of her hands.
“When did you see it last?” Enara asked, gingerly lifting Soren to her feet.
Soren massaged her now throbbing hands and looked up at her with tear-stained cheeks. “I had it when I left the manor. I should have realized it was gone.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“I can feel when it’s close,” Soren explained. “Something in it calls to me … through my blood.” She began retrieving the discarded items from her sack as she spoke. “I should have noticed, but between my injuries from the fight and the chill in my bones …” She looked down, the guilt of disappointing her friends weighing on her like the boulders that lined the mountain’s peak.
“If any blame is to be placed, it is on those creatures, not on you or any of us,” Jai’s voice cut through the cloud of her self-loathing.
She did nothing more than nod as the group helped her find the rest of the items from her pack.
“So, what’s our next step, then?” Baz asked. “It doesn’t make much sense to go to Braexmirth without an artifact to destroy.”
Soren bit her lip. “You have a point.”
“They could still provide us with stronger weapons,” Enara reasoned. “Plus, their lands would give us protection from Adriel’s forces, should he attack again.”
The tracker stroked the closely trimmed beard on his chin while contemplating their statements. “You are all formidable fighters; I have no doubt in your capabilities …” He sighed in a resigned manner. “Unfortunately, skill and well-honed weapons can only get you so far when facing an army.”
“So, what do you suppose we do?” Enara asked.
There was a mischievous glint in Jai’s eyes as he responded.
“We gather an army of our own.”
* * *
“And how thehell do you suppose we do that?” Soren questioned, raising a brow—Baz and Enara had yet to fill her in on his true identity. “Last time I checked, we don’t have an army in our back pockets. Besides, who would believe us? We have no evidence to convince people to join our cause.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I have confidence in the people enough for the both of us.” Jai’s tone was bordering on cocky, but before Soren could lay into him, he finished with, “I am the rightful heir to the Patrovian throne.”
Soren started chuckling at his bad joke then quickly realized she was the only one laughing. She straightened herself, and Enara gave her a sympathetic look. Baz rubbed the back of his head, looking everywhere but at her.
Soren stared at the tracker, eyebrows raised up to her hairline.
He placed one arm behind his back, the other at a ninety-degree angle at his waist, and bowed.
Soren scoffed in disbelief. “Okay, say I believe you … what then?”
“Well, there are some necessary documents I require to prove my lineage. After that … we wing it.”
* * *
They followedtheir route to Edras Mora, traveling south to Murkwall. Their haggard appearances helped them blend in with the locals of Thorncrest. The towns and cities that lay within the mountain range were home to the worst of people. Being so far north and without a leading body, Thorncrest was avoided by most folk. This was where the thieves, robbers, and murderers of Entheas chose to live out their darkest fantasies.
No one raised so much as a brow when the group sauntered in, looking worse for wear, to one of the many worn-down bars that lined the streets of Murkwall. The inside of the establishment smelled no better than the alleyways full of detritus that they had passed on their way here.
The entire town seemed to be encased in a ring of hush smoke. The mind-altering substance was derived from the sap of the white pines that were native to Thorncrest. The sap was melted down, formed into crystals, and mixed with the dried, fermented stalks of various hallucinogenic fungi to create a potent combination. Soren had to hand it to the person who had created the addictive substance. They were nothing, if not clever. Hush could be snorted, smoked, or even sprinkled into food, and the effect was always the same.
Soren took note of the many patrons in the establishment that were already under the drug’s influence. Pupils were blown wide and unseeing, with their faces turned up into saccharine smiles. Hush was both a paralytic and a hallucinogenic, which allowed the user to enjoy its effects without pitching themselves off a cliff by accident.
Enara grimaced as she tripped over the foot of a burly man. “Sorry—” she started to say before cringing away from yet another inhumanly smiling face, unseeing eyes following her all the way to their table.
Baz let out a ragged cough, and Jai patted him on the back with a chuckle. “You okay there, champ?”
“Yeah”—he coughed a few more times—“just great.” Coughing fit over, he sat down next to Enara and put an arm over her shoulders.
“You don’t seem shocked by of this,” Soren said to Jai as she gestured to the bar’s drugged-out customers.
He barked out a laugh. “Well, as a tracker, I end up in some interesting situations. You should see the drinks they make in the Esinian Isles. I drank one once and swore I had an out-of-body experience.”
Soren rolled her eyes. “Must be nice to be so well-traveled.” The sarcasm in her tone was heavy.
Before he could reply, a barmaid in a tight, dirt-stained corset, with breasts pushed up to her chin, stopped at the table. “What’ll yuh have?” she asked, her accent was so harsh that Soren thought she said “waddle.”
“I’ll have water, thanks,” Jai replied.
The woman gave him a sensuous smirk, and he cringed at the crooked, yellow teeth that lay below her chapped lips.
She leaned in so close that her breasts were nearly grazing his shoulder. “There is much more I could offer yuh … later tonight,” she said with a wink.
“I’m fine, thank you,” he replied.
“You know where um at if yuh change your mind,” she said, tracing his sleeve before turning to the rest of the group. “What about the rest of yuh?”
“Three of whatever ale you recommend,” Baz said politely.
Soren and Enara just nodded in agreement.
“It’s all shite, but I’ll bring what we ’ave.” She sauntered off, swishing her rather large hips behind her.
“I think I lost my appetite,” Baz said once she was out of earshot.
Soren snorted, and Jai spat some of his water on the table.
Enara stifled a laugh as she looked him. “It’s a miracle. Baztien Greymark, for once, is not thinking about food.”
They all hid their smiles as the lady returned with their drinks. It wasn’t her fault, really. She was doing what she needed to do to survive, just like the rest of them. They all felt a little guilty about laughing at her expense.
The trio took tentative sips of their ale while Jai looked on.
“She wasn’t lying. This tastes like horse piss.” Soren cringed before snatching up Jai’s stein and downing the rest of the contents.
Baz and Enara made a few pained facial expressions before spitting the brown liquid back in their glasses.
In unspoken agreement, they stood and left, handing the barmaid a nice tip over the counter in thanks. She smiled her crooked smile and waved them off.
They found lodging two streets over in a ramshackle inn that was even less welcoming than the bar. Separate rooms were not an option, so the four of them agreed to split the night fifty-fifty, spending half the evening on the questionably stained mattress and the other half on the broken floorboards with the mice.
Enara spread out the canvas overtop the bedding and placed the three bedrolls they had previously acquired on the floor. She sat on the end of the bed, and Baz went to join her.
“Whoa, lover boy.” Soren held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks. She nodded in Jai’s direction. “You can sleep with Your Highness tonight.”
“And I thought we were becoming the best of friends,” Jai quipped back as he lay on the bedroll, leaning on his elbow, as if posing for a portrait.
Baz looked at Enara longingly before plodding over to Jai.
“I call big spoon,” the tracker joked as Baz settled in beside him, shaking with laughter.
The girls climbed onto the bed, choosing to sleep in their clothes, and pulled Soren’s cape over themselves. It was minutes before Baz’s soft snores filled the room, Jai silently dreaming beside him. Enara couldn’t help but smile as he murmured in his sleep.
“I’m happy for you two,” Soren whispered from beside her.
Enara’s cheeks warmed. “I wish I would have told him sooner,” she admitted.
“He understands you wanted to protect him. I wish you would have told me, though.”
Enara played with the leather cuff on her wrist that Soren had gifted her. “I thought you already knew.”
Soren grabbed her hand and squeezed. “I did, but I was hoping you would admit it to yourself.”
“What can I say? I’m stubborn.”
Soren loosed a laugh before covering her mouth, worried about waking the boys.
Enara gave her a look, eyes glinting in the dying light of the singular candle that lit the room. “We both are.”
“Thank you for finding me.”
“You’re my sister. Nothing in this world could have stopped me from coming for you.”
“Enara?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too, Sor.”
They embraced each other, allowing all the stress from the past few weeks to fade away as the flame died out and they drifted off to sleep.
* * *
Jai’s earsperked up and his eyelids fluttered open when a faint scratching noise in the corner of the room roused him from a fitful sleep. His back was stiff as he sat up, rubbing his neck and shaking his shoulder-length hair from his eyes. Baz stilled snored beside him, blissfully unaware that something scurried in the shadowed corners of their current dwelling.
The tracker looked to the bed where Enara and Soren were affectionately curled around each other and decided not to wake them. At least three out of the four of them would get a half-decent night’s rest.
He tip-toed to the tiny, circular window against the far wall and welcomed the cool air that drifted through. It was far from a fresh breeze, but it felt good against his skin. He kept his face in the shadows as he watched questionable figures slink down the streets.
Not long ago, he had been one of them—working in the shadows, ending up in all manner of dim, dark places. He would not allow himself to feel guilty for taking payment from those with more means than what they knew what to do with. The only job he had refused payment for was when Adaryn had been taken, but the king had insisted.
He played with the gaudy turquoise ring on his finger as he leaned against the side of the wall. The boards groaned beneath his weight, and he worried the whole decrepit building would collapse around them.
Behind him, Enara was muttering in her sleep. He couldn’t make out the words, but there was a pained expression on her face.
Baz, who had remained catatonic until then, sat up, looking around the room. He gave Jai a nod before sliding one of the bedrolls over to the edge of the mattress. He tucked himself back in, reaching one hand up to entangle itself with Enara’s dangling fingers. She stiffened at the contact then immediately relaxed, the bad dreams seemingly washed away by the touch.
Though Jai was happy they had found each other, the act reminded him of what he had been missing—a lover’s touch. Not the kind you found in a brothel, but the kind that set your soul alight. He’d had that with Adaryn, and now, by his own doing, it was gone.
He mentally cursed himself for leaving the way he had. He hadn’t even had the courage to tell her why. Knowing he would have to face her again struck more fear into his heart than fending off a thousand kestrels.
He blew through his teeth, pulling the window shut. The room had been aired out as well as it could, and he noticed Soren was shivering.
He removed his collared jacket and placed it over her shoulders from the head of the bed then shuffled back over on silent feet to the two remaining bed rolls. They were decently comfortable on softer ground, but the floorboards provided little in the way of cushion for aching joints. Even the snow-tipped mountain had provided more back support.
He lay sprawled out on his back, hands clasped above his waist, fingers resting on his ring, and accepted that sleep would not be joining him.