Chapter 14
NEAR CALLA, OVENNO
The tracker had worn Terena down on their journey south to Calla.
Terena had agreed to let Vassori send a note to her brother for news of Sonah’s whereabouts.
When they were close to the capital, Vassori had gone off alone to send word to Xoran and await his response.
While they waited, Terena had sent Migela and Gabriol north to fetch the cleric.
They were all to meet back up outside of the city.
Rydon had cautioned against splitting up, but Ren had told him of the story Orry had found in his research. A story of an amulet gifted to a shepherd that sounded very much like the one Xoran—and the emperor—were searching for.
Shortly before Migela and Gabriol returned with a smiling Orry, Vassori rode into their camp and pulled Terena away.
As she’d gotten up to speak with the tracker, Gabriol and Migela showed up with Orry.
The cleric’s cherubic face was bright red from the ride, his precious tomes stuffed in a bag he clutched to his chest. After exchanging greetings, Orry made his way to the fire behind Migela, and settled beside her.
A scream tore through the encampment.
Rydon took off running, his heart thundering painfully as his mind emptied of all but getting to Terena.
When he found her, she was crouched low, her head in her hands with Croak standing near her, shoulders slumped. Vassori stood over her, a piece of parchment clutched in her fingers as she looked up. Rydon skidded to a halt.
“What’s happened?” he shouted, arms spread as he stalked toward their small group.
“News from my brother,” Vassori said dismissively, her gaze falling back to Terena’s huddled form. Ren sprang up, her face bright red, eyes brimming with tears Rydon knew she would not shed in present company.
“He turned on us?” Rydon turned to Vassori, who flinched back at the look on his face.
To her credit, the tracker faced him with her chin lifted. “He did not turn on us. It’s all part of his plan.”
“Part of his plan?” Croak’s cruel sneer belied his fear for his sister. “What plan calls for him to lose Sonah?”
Rydon gaped at Croak a second before lunging at Vassori. Gabriol moved to intercept him, and Croak chuckled at all of them.
“He lost her?”
“He did not lose her,” Vassori snarled, shoving against Rydon’s hold on her shirt. She looked over at Terena, a desperate plea in her voice. “He did not lose her, goddess. The next part of his plan would not work without first making it look like he lost Sonah Yahn.”
“And what part of the plan is that?” Croak called out.
Without bothering to look at the boy, Vassori continued to speak to Terena.
“He cannot return to the emperor without Sonah Yahn, and he would not betray you, so he had a plan to make it look like they were attacked—”
“They were attacked!” Croak yelled. Rydon turned his attention back to Terena, who seemed at war with herself.
“Keep your fucking voice down,” Rydon growled, his eyes bulging as he glared at Croak. “If Ovenno soldiers patrol nearby, you’ve just given us away, you fool!”
Croak flushed and dropped his head. Rydon motioned for Vassori to continue.
“He needed a ruse to get Sonah away from his soldiers, I understand,” Rydon continued, stepping close to the tracker with a menacing glare. “So what happened? Where’s Sonah?”
“She did not meet up with the man she was supposed to find,” Vassori said cryptically. Lifting her hand, she held out the parchment to Rydon, who snatched it from her with a frown.
“What’s that mean?” he asked as he scanned the missive. He shook his head, not understanding what the note meant.
“She’s been taken,” Terena said, her voice choking on the last word. She pushed past Vassori, her movements jerky as she quickened her pace. Rydon followed, with Croak and Gabriol close behind.
“She was not taken,” Vassori was saying, jogging to catch up to Terena. “She escaped—”
“She was taken,” Terena spat, turning on her with the viciousness of a viper. Standing toe to toe with the tracker, Terena’s eyes burned. “By Rivermen. And now Solon will have her, regardless of what your brother promised.”
“Mayhap that was the plan all along,” Croak muttered, earning him a shove from Gabriol.
Migela reached out reflexively to steady Croak as the boy looked over at them, affronted.
“What? Don’t tell me none of you thought of that possibility?
We’ve known Xoran for years, and you’re surprised he’s gone back on his word? ”
“I know my brother,” Vassori argued, her breaths sharp as she raced after Terena, who’d stormed off once more. “The Rivermen were to meet up with Xoran to hand over Sonah but she escaped. He would not lie about that. He swore an oath—”
“Not to me,” Terena snapped, sparing a quick glance over her shoulder at the other woman. Vassori shook off the venom in Terena’s voice.
“Aye,” she conceded, continuing to follow Terena. The others kept a safe distance as they listened to the exchange in silence. “Aye, not to you. But to someone he would never cross.”
“Solon?” Rydon called out.
“No,” Vassori growled, not bothering to look at him. She stepped in front of Terena, her hands on Ren’s arms.
“He swore to—”
Before she could finish, a look of surprise came over her face and she fainted.
Terena leaned against one of the large bossena trees growing near the river.
This time of year, their graceful branches, filled with distinctive orange leaves in the summer months, were bare.
Swaying lazily in the breeze coming from the east, they resembled emaciated limbs with thin, bony fingers crackling faintly against one another.
They reminded Terena of the eerie sound the incense burners made when the priests in Metilai would wave them in front of worshipers on the high days.
Shivering against both the sounds of the trees and the cold air creeping beneath her fur-lined cloak, Terena looked over her shoulder, waiting.
She’d told Rydon to come for her when Vassori woke, but that was half an hour ago.
Frowning, Terena turned halfway, ready to make her way back to camp, when she spotted someone coming through the trees toward her.
Croak smiled when he caught sight of her, and she relaxed her stance, smiling back at him.
“Where’s Rydon?” she asked when he ambled to her side with a big sigh.
“With Vassori. She’s awake but when she tries to recall what happened,” he shrugged. “Nothing.”
“Strange,” Terena remarked quietly, almost to herself.
Croak clicked his tongue and bent over, swiping up a branch and waving it in the air like a sword. “Not really. Vassori is strange, so it stands to reason…”
Terena laughed lightly, shaking her head as she straightened away from the tree. As she walked, Croak fell into step beside her.
“Do you think she meant Hermes?” he asked as they came upon the camp.
Orry was sitting beside Gabriol, blowing on a cup he clenched between his hands.
As they approached, Gabriol lifted his head and gave her a slight nod.
She smothered a smile when she caught Gabriol’s glassy-eyed expression as he listened to Orry explain something he’d read in a priestess’s journal about how the shroud opened the portal.
“I don’t know who else it could be,” Terena answered Croak, taking a seat on a log in front of the fire opposite Orry. “Perhaps he bound her, making her unable to say anything he wants kept secret.”
“She said she didn’t know him.”
Terena shrugged as she stretched out her legs. “Wouldn’t be the first time someone’s lied to us.”
Croak sat next to Orry and sighed, taking the cup from his friend’s hands, despite the protest from both Orry and Gabriol.
“There’s plenty to go around,” Orry scoffed, even as he reached into his saddlebag for another cup. He poured the steaming brew and handed the cup across to Terena. She thanked him, lifting it to her nose and smiling as the bitter aroma made her shiver.
“The boy told you?” Gabriol asked, his voice gruff.
Terena took a tentative sip and shrugged. “He told me Vassori doesn’t remember anything.”
“She remembers. But she cannot say,” Gabriol replied.
When Terena lifted an eyebrow, he added, “Vassori is bound by an oath to a god. So she cannot tell you more. Literally.”
Croak looked over at her, twirling his fingers at his forehead as if doffing his hat. “Is the oracle rubbing off on you?” When he saw the quizzical look on Gabriol’s face, Croak grinned. “Ren said the same thing earlier.”
“You knew?”
Terena shrugged at Gabriol. “It was a guess.”
“I wonder what god would make her swear an oath like that,” Croak mumbled. “But there’s only one god in this realm I feel would definitely bind someone to keep quiet about his nefarious schemes.”
“That may be,” Gabriol said, his voice dropping lower as he leaned forward, his gaze still on Terena. “But this doesn’t feel like Hermes. She swears it wasn’t, and I believe her. He wants to get Sonah back, maybe more than you do.”
Terena twisted her lips at him and rolled her eyes.
“Regardless,” Orry said, his gaze on his hot cup as he blew on it once more, “do we still want to find this amulet for Captain Xoran?”
“No,’ Ren said softly. “We go after Sonah.”
“But you don’t know where she is,” Orry replied.
“We know where she was,” Croak said.
“Maybe we can let the captain continue his search for Sonah while we look for the amulet?”
“If you keep saying stupid shit,” Croak snapped, “you’re walking back to Olympia.”
“I know, I know,” Orry said calmly, shifting on the log with a wince. “Hear me out, though. I believe Captain Xoran will continue his search for—”
“So? Where do we go next?” asked Rydon, appearing behind Gabriol. His deep voice was threaded with exhaustion.
“That’s what we were just discussing,” Orry piped up, wiping the dirt off his cup on the sleeve of his robes. “I was telling Terena we cannot find the amulet without some clue of where to start. We could’ve done it if we were all back at the White Palace—”