Chapter 5
THE ROAD
"So how did your parents meet?"
We were moving through the forest, slightly separate from the rest. Moving was getting easier, my legs and ankle no longer threatening to betray me.
"My Da, he was caught in a hunting trap. Trapped there, running out of water, and then he sees moving through the trees the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Fierce, with hair of raven and lightning in her eyes. And he called out from his bonds, 'lady!’” A smile crossed Khal’s face. “‘Marry me.’"
I pushed under another low-hanging branch. "And she said yes?"
"No, she knocked him out with one blow, but she reconsidered later. He’s a talented person."
There were voices up ahead, concerned. Farkath and Gernaz were talking to each other. Khal jogged to join them. “Is everything alright?”
One gestured, started in Orcish, switched. "—on the road, turned over.”
"It's not an ambush?"
"We move better than they do. There's no one in the trees but us. Gernaz is certain."
Khal hesitated. His brow was furrowed. "We'll approach, then. Stay out of sight. I'll talk to them."
“Who is it?” I followed him.
“Humans. Their cart overturned. They are probably waiting for help.”
“Are we help?”
He was putting on a brave face, but I could tell he was worried. “If we are not, they will get into trouble. These roads are going to be crawling with highwaymen for the next few weeks, maybe months now that the armies are disbanded. A small group alone with a cart…”
I tried to put myself in his shoes, imagine a life where I had the luxury to worry about every potential enemy with a problem. “You’re very fond of good deeds?”
“They could die.”
We pressed through the underbrush.
It was strange to see the road again and realize how long we’d been away.
A cart, a normal wagon with a canvas cover, now spattered in mud, was turned over on its side, a woman holding onto the head of their ox.
A few children of walking age milled around a man in a faded blue coat, who was trying to wedge branches under the side.
Khal motioned to his comrades, and they seemed to understand without words.
With no mention to me, he stepped into the clearing.
“Greetings. It seems you could use help—"
The man shouted with surprise, the children jumping back, shrieking. “It’s an orc! Papa, it’s an orc—"
“You stay back!” The man shouted. His eyes were casting about for a weapon, fell upon an axe. Orcs tensed in the trees around me, and I looked for someone with a bow or a spear, someone who’d kill this man if he tried for Khal.
“I’m not your enemy. Just passing through.” Khal raised his hands. “This road is dangerous.”
The man picked up the axe, hands twisting on the grip. “Don’t come any closer!”
“I’m not. I’m not.”
The woman with the ox took a step to the side, grabbed one of the little ones. There were three of them.
“There's been fighting farther south. Armies have been disbanded, and there will be mercenaries traveling through here, men with no tie to the land. These woods will be crawling with people who have little to lose. You need to get your family out of here, and only travel in groups large enough to deter them. Sitting like this, you’re not safe.”
“Arthur,” the woman said, “there are more of them.”
Her eyes were sharp.
The man raised the ax to his shoulder. “You’re trying to trick me?” He shouted. “How many are you hiding?”
Khal hadn’t moved. “I’m trying not to scare you.”
The man took a step forwards, and half of the others materialized out of the trees, many I hadn’t seen. The woman started crying. One of the little ones pulled on her skirts. “What are they doing, Mama? Mama?”
“You stay back!” The man shouted.
Khal spread his hands. “If you try to hurt me, my friends will hurt you. You don’t want this. If you don’t accept help, you could die in these woods.”
“I’ve met your kind before! I won’t fall for this!”
“We are Drashik. We have no quarrel with you.”
“If you had no quarrel, you wouldn’t be here, showing your face!
” He was desperate, verging on hysteria, his grip choking on the axe.
The ox was nervous, shuffling. One of the children darted out from the other side of the wagon, toward her father’s leg.
And the world went slow and sick, the colors warping.
Fear was pulsing in my head, and in my fingertips, my stomach twisting like I was going to vomit, but something else.
And then I started hearing them, seeing them.
Khal’s thoughts- the wagon, the family stuck, the man’s anger- The woman’s thoughts, a string of bodies hung in trees, something she must have seen before- The man’s, creatures running out of the trees, how many, how many he could strike down, which direction, were they sneaking up- the child’s. The child wanting to grab someone safe.
Which direction? Which one first? Are they coming? They’re sneaking-
He had the axe high and the child was going to grab his leg and the axe and the child and the axe, we were moving in syrup, the axe-
“Stop!”
I’d screamed the word. I was three feet into the clearing, between the man and Khal. The child had frozen in the air, eighteen inches from the man.
“Your child,” I choked out. “That’s your child. Don’t hurt it.” The man looked back, down. The child released from that hold in the air, fell against his leg. He looked back up, his face fear and confusion and more fear. “Please,” I said. “Please.”
I was swaying on my feet, the power pulsing through me.
I saw myself through the man’s eyes, pale and shaking, my hem torn and my legs showing beneath the knee.
I looked like a feral creature, like something piteous and deranged.
But he wasn’t afraid of me. His thoughts jumbled through child, axe, child, girl, orcs, a barrage of thoughts and I clenched my head and gasped.
Khal stepped towards me. “Rowena—"
“You leave that girl alone!” The man yelled. His face was only terror. He thought he was going to die, and still he tried to defend a stranger. The woman sobbed.
“I’m alright,” I said, for Khal as much as him. The power was fading, the connection almost broken. I forced myself to speak. “They don’t want to hurt us. They’re travelers. They just want to clear the road.”
“Who are you?”
“I'm also a traveler. I've been moving with them. I’m coming from Belnor. They were fighting for the baron. You know about him. They’re loyal.”
The man hesitated, watching the figures in the trees.
“I’ve seen them fight. If they wanted us dead, we would be dead already. You’d have died before you found the axe. They mean no harm. Let them right your wagon. So your children will be safe. Please.”
The man slowly lowered the axe.
Khal moved up beside me. The man tensed as he neared me, but didn’t speak. Khal motioned to the wagon. “The branches were a good idea. But we should be able to do this with ten."
In a clipped voice, the man spoke to the children, ordered them to join the woman. I walked with them, somewhat to get out of the way- my muscles were not going to move a cart- but more because I had felt, had seen her fear, and I wanted to calm her. I didn’t want her to stay afraid.
Some of the orcs moved to the wagon, while the other half stood back. Khal- his form was slighter than most of theirs, more lithe, and it’s strange I hadn't noticed- was directing them, putting his shoulder to the side.
The woman's hand found my sleeve. The child on her hip had flax-colored hair, like Thea. This woman was looking up at me, her eyes brimming.
"Will they want the children?" she whispered.
I shook my head. "No. You're going to be safe." I'd imagined the same kind of ruthlessness days ago, hadn't I? "We're going to leave you. It's fine."
Her hands clasped mine. I couldn't hear her, just watched her mouth shape the words. "Thank you."
The wagon jolted back into place, some of the orcs complaining and laughing. The woman tensed, clinging onto my arm. They would seem like monsters to her. The children were staring.
"They respect you? Because you have power?"
I shook my head. "My father gave me in marriage."
Her eyes were spilling tears, and she clasped my hand. "I'm so sorry."
It was strange, having someone else cry over me. I hadn't cried. My father hadn't cried. A stranger shouldn't care more than me. Something tightened in my chest, but I couldn't break here, couldn't give in to tears in front of the orcs on the road. "I'm fine," I got out. "He's kind enough."
She didn't reply, just held my hand tight.
Khal strode back towards us. "We should get moving," he said. "They've already lost too much of the day, if they're going to reach the next town. We too will be traveling after dark."
The woman stepped in front of me. She was shaking. "Let me help the girl."
Khal frowned. "She's fine. We take care of her."
"Wherever you are going, she should arrive there dressed. Let me trade her a frock that'll cover her properly. Please."
Khal blinked, opened his mouth, shut it. I stayed very still. He looked at me. "If she wants, then."
Inside the wagon, two of the smaller children climbing around, and she opened a box. The dress there was blue, simple fabric, but clearly well-kept. I pulled off Thea's overdress, worn and earth-stained. "I'm sorry about the state of this. I hope you're able to find a use for it."
"Don't worry about that." Her mouth made a tight line. She pulled the blue frock over my head. It fit loosely over the bust, but I almost filled it at the hip. "There. You'll look decent, wherever you go." Her hand shook, just a little. "I suppose there isn't time to brush out your hair."
"I'll do it later. Thank you."
She nodded. Her eyes were rimmed in red. I fastened my belt around my waist, the pouch with the guard's stolen purse clinking against my thigh.