Palimpsest

Of the seven Cindorian houses that once held the lands between the Marra crossing and the Coldmarch, only three have surviving lines. The fourth was extinguished in the Varn War. The fifth was broken by the Crown's tax reforms forty years later, its hall sold to a wool merchant whose grandchildren still live there. The sixth and seventh refused the consolidation and were dissolved by writ, their lands distributed to the loyal three.

The records of the dissolution are sealed. The lands changed hands. The roads that connected the seven halls remain, though some lead now to fields, and some to forests that have grown back over what the halls once were, and some to nothing at all.

— On the Houses of the South, Cindorian Heralds' Register, abridged public edition

Chapter 30 A Stupid Story

The morning's chill had given way to a much warmer forest air. But because they kept off the road and pushed deeper into the woods, the trees had grown thicker and the heat lost what hold it had in the shadows. The sun had long since crested and was already sinking again behind them. Kaelin thought she could walk a while yet before she felt the cold again, and the aches she had woken up with had eased somewhat. Even so, whenever she touched the spots, the same dull pain answered. The soreness in her feet from hours of walking had begun to overshadow everything else, but until somebody else made a sound about it she had no intention of being the first.

Ravah, at the front, never slowed for hollows or rises in the ground. I would love to be as athletic and as solid as that woman, Kaelin thought. Whenever she looked at her, ideas crept into her head about how she herself would look that way. Veylith, on the other hand, was again at the rear, and every time Kaelin turned to glance back she met her eyes. Whether Veylith had been watching her the whole time, or only noticed each turn and looked back in answer, was impossible to tell. Beside her, Vaelra seemed to be walking far better than Kaelin had expected, but she could feel that the elf was pushing herself. Now and then, on the pretext of a word or a joke, she would slip an arm through hers and give her, however slightly, a hand. Vaelra was aware of it, and seemed willing to accept this invisible help so as not to fall behind. Tivver and Darian came along just behind them. The two of them got into an argument about once an hour. They would quarrel over the most ridiculous things and then carry on as though nothing had happened, which at least kept Kaelin a little entertained. She doubted the others felt the same way.

"All I'm saying," Tivver said, raising his voice again, "is that if you'd really seen what you said you saw, you would have told me at the time."

"I did tell you."

"You did not."

"I told you in Havern, at the Long Table, while we were drinking. But you were busy hitting on the serving girl."

"You told me she was using me."

"And?"

"But she wasn't!"

Darian walked a few more paces before answering. "Three months later she married the silk merchant, you moron."

"That has nothing to do with it."

"She married him for his estates."

"She married him because I left the city."

"You left the city because she wouldn't even open her door to you."

"She was busy."

"Yes — busy with the silk merchant. Every evening."

Tivver gave him a withering look but the curse he muttered came out in a voice that, in truth, sounded rather wounded. He walked a few more steps in silence, then said, "Her older sister liked me, though."

"Her older sister was eleven."

"Her eldest sister!"

"There was no eldest sister."

"There was. You never met her."

"Tivver."

"You never met her, because you were too busy being right about everything. She didn't find your stupid face attractive either."

Darian didn't answer that, as if he'd realized there was no point. Tivver took it as a victory and kept on walking. Eventually, with his nose in the air, he had even overtaken Kaelin and Vaelra. Kaelin was smiling at his strut when, at the front, Ravah stopped abruptly and raised her right hand in a closed fist. Everyone froze in place at once — except Tivver, who, lost in his own swagger, walked straight into her. He hit her, bounced back, and went down on the dirt. When he looked up he met Ravah's eyes; she was looking down at him with the most withering kind of pity. He picked himself up as if nothing had happened and started studying the sky. Ravah signed for the rest of them to wait, then went on alone.

While they stood there for several minutes, Kaelin noticed that Veylith, at the back, was growing more and more tense. She knew she was supposed to keep still, but turned anyway, and was about to take a step toward her when a rustle came from up ahead. Ravah emerged from the brush, signed them on, and disappeared again. They all plunged after her into the undergrowth, and a short while later came out before a stone building that stood among the trees as if it had been long abandoned. Two stories tall, but it didn't cover much ground. Right beside it, almost flush against it, stood a smaller structure — more like a barn that had been added on later than part of the original house. A great deal of the main roof had collapsed, and the wall facing them was nearly all the way down. The fallen ceiling had brought everything else down with it to the ground, leaving a heap of rubble in the middle of the house. The floor of the second story was nothing more than a few scraps of timber that had managed to cling to the side walls. The whole place stood like a skeleton, draped in long grass and the ivy that hung from the trees. Through the rubble on the floor the forest had pushed its own way in and begun to swallow the building from the inside. The smaller barn-like structure was almost entirely buried in tall grass; even its doorway was hard to make out.

Ravah was standing on what was left of the stone wall along the fallen face of the building, waiting for the others to come up. By the time Veylith finally arrived, the rest were already inspecting the inside. Ravah came over to her quietly and drew her aside while the others were busy with the house.

"From the southwest —"

"A rider is following us, I know," Veylith finished for her. "We can still make the village before dark. There's no need to stop here. But we could stop and try to do something about that scout while we have the chance. Got any ideas?" Then, almost to herself: "I didn't, until I saw this place." She touched Ravah's arm and stepped past her, walking toward the others, who were busy inspecting the inside of the building.

◈◈◈

The man who had been hours in the saddle had at last dismounted and tied his horse behind a low rise. Then he had crawled slowly up the slope and, taking care not to show himself, had begun to watch the ruin where they had decided to make camp. Once he had settled into a more comfortable position, he ate a few pieces of fruit from his saddlebag and went on watching them from a distance. He would have to keep an eye on them a while longer and then ride back to make his report. What he didn't understand was why they hadn't simply attacked them outright. If the rest of the band moved up a little, they could overtake them. Baltrik had said they had to set a proper ambush, to take the elf woman and the monk before they could ready themselves. But how dangerous could four women and a couple of runts be? he muttered to himself. Instead of sitting at the fire stroking his beard and toying with the whore, he could have finished this himself. At last he let out a breath, tossed the half-eaten fruit out toward his horse, and reached for the flask at his belt.

"For the road," he said, and took a long pull of rum from it.

◈◈◈

Tivver had finally got the fire going in the one piece of wall still sound enough to hold a hearth. As the stones warmed up they would throw more heat into the room, and the smoke would go straight up the flue. Out in the open we couldn't have done better, he thought to himself. Then he set aside the fruit from the satchels and began drawing out the small round loaves they had left. He arranged them carefully on the stone above the hearth, took a swallow of water from his flask, and sat back against the rubble beside him. He let his eyes wander over the others, and wondered where Veylith had got to. Darian had settled across the fire from him, his eyes closed, his back against the stone wall. Vaelra had pulled the cord from her hair and was shaking it loose as she came over to Kaelin. She dropped onto the long, natural bench the fallen stones had made where they had tumbled inward. Kaelin, sitting right beside her, didn't seem to register her arrival; she was staring out into the forest.

"Tell me a stupid story," Vaelra said, leaning into her and breaking her thought. "Anything," she added when Kaelin only blinked at her. "Whatever. I don't care. You barely said a word the whole way, and now you're just staring into space. Just — tell me something."

Kaelin looked at her for a moment, then turned her face back to the forest and started thinking.

"It was my sixth month at the Red Lantern, I think," she began. "I had this very polite client. I'd seen him in the house before. The other girls had said he was a real gentleman. And I knew that sooner or later I'd have to do more than just use my gift. You know."

Vaelra gave a small, almost imperceptible purse of the lips and went on listening.

"There had been offers before, but the Mistress had given each of them to someone else, because I wasn't ready. So this time I figured if it was going to happen anyway, it might as well be with this gentleman. He'd booked the whole night and was in no hurry. We had some wine. He asked me about what I did outside the house, that sort of thing."

"Sounds like you ran into the very last of the gentlemen, darling. I'd heard the species had gone extinct," Vaelra said, smiling, and laid her head on Kaelin's shoulder.

"That may well be true," Kaelin answered, "but my arse was sweating the whole time from how hard I was clenching it."

Vaelra let out a laugh against her will.

"After a couple of glasses we got to it. But it was much more ordinary than I'd expected. I might even have liked it. Afterwards we slept together, and I'd finally relaxed. But that wasn't the end of the night. He'd fallen asleep. I was still trying to settle in, and as I was loosening my back I stretched a little too much, and—"

"And — what?" Vaelra lifted her head and stared at her.

Kaelin, without turning to her, said, with the smallest flush of shame, "I farted."

"What?" Vaelra grabbed her arm and turned to her with eyes gone wide and an enormous grin spreading across her face.

"With quite a sound, too," Kaelin went on, and Vaelra had begun to laugh in earnest. "He woke up, scared half to death by the noise," she said, starting to laugh herself.

"No," Vaelra managed between gasps. "No."

"That isn't even the worst of it," Kaelin said. Vaelra wiped her eyes and listened, but didn't say a word. "I started pretending to be asleep. He, thinking it must have been him, got up and started walking around the bed waving incense."

Vaelra dissolved again.

"And I couldn't help myself. I pretended to wake up, and in a sleepy little voice I asked, 'What's that smell?'"

"Oh, you bitch!" Vaelra cried, still laughing.

"I know, I know," Kaelin agreed.

"And then?"

"He panicked. He tried to put me back to sleep, then crept out of the room without a sound. After that, every time he saw me, he turned and went the other way."

"Poor man," Vaelra said, working her jaw to bring herself back to something like normal. She couldn't remember the last time she had laughed this much. Kaelin was wiping the tears from her own eyes. When at last they both quieted, Vaelra said, "Are you all right?"

"Yes," Kaelin answered, and laid her hand on top of Vaelra's. "Actually, I'm much better."

"But," Vaelra prompted.

"But all of this is very new to me. For someone who's never even been outside the city, walking the road and making camp aren't easy. And worse, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. I just watch the rest of you," she said. She had been about to mention the pains in her body too, but stopped herself.

"None of us was born a fighter or a hunter, darling. Well, Veylith, maybe, but —" Kaelin let out a breath of laughter. "Still, this kind of thing takes time. And if you ask me, I'd say you're handling yourself rather well. You only need a little more time. Besides, where we're going is Nirali. At heart it's just one big Red Lantern."

"I've never been there, but you might be right. Still, what does that have to do with anything?"

"You don't really think we're going to spend the rest of our lives wandering the hills and sleeping under the stars, do you?" The way she put it made Kaelin understand the point at last. "When we get to Nirali, who do you suppose is going to be the one who knows what to do?"

"You're probably right," Kaelin said. She hadn't thought of it that way. In truth, where they were going had gone clean out of her head until Vaelra brought it up.

"Besides — do you really think the great hulking warrior monk and that strange gunslinger who can't seem to manage a conversation with another lifeform are going to know how to behave there?" The few different images this conjured up made Kaelin smile.

"I know exactly what to do," Tivver chimed in from behind them with a sly smile, turning the loaves on the stone. Kaelin hadn't realized he'd been listening, but it didn't bother her.

"Acting like a dick everywhere isn't the same as knowing what to do," Darian put in from his corner, without opening his eyes.

"Did somebody say something?" Tivver said, looking up at the ceiling. Darian didn't even react. Kaelin and Vaelra looked at each other and laughed.

Then Kaelin caught sight of Ravah just outside the ruin, watching the surroundings. She looked around the room for Veylith and couldn't find her. On reflex she put a hand to her stomach as the ache flared up again, and clenched herself tight to keep her face from giving it away. She turned toward Vaelra with a hesitant look on her face, then stared at the floor for a second or two, thinking. Hand still on her stomach, she turned to her again and was just opening her mouth to speak when her eye caught the back wall. From behind the grass that had swallowed it, through the small window opening, came a sudden rustle. Veylith vaulted in through the narrow gap with a swift, agile movement and came toward them quickly. Darian's eyes opened and he gathered himself up, while Kaelin and Vaelra were already on their feet on reflex. Ravah had seen Veylith from outside but hadn't come in.

"We're going," was all Veylith said as she reached for the satchel beside her, throwing a glance to Ravah outside. The rest of them began packing up before they had even understood why. Ravah, on that look, was already moving in the direction they would go.

"Oh, come on, I just got the fire going," Tivver muttered as he packed.

"Throw a few more logs on it and leave it," Kaelin said, turning to him. Tivver only stared at her blankly.

Then Veylith said, "Better still—" but didn't finish the thought. She drew one of the old garments from the satchel and hung it on the broken-down wall in such a way that it could be seen from outside. When everyone was ready to move, Veylith pointed to where Ravah was waiting and said, "Let's go." Then she began, "We've got a few hours before dark —" but Tivver cut her off, holding out one of the small loaves he had just been warming. Veylith took the warm bread from him and gave him a nod and a sincere look that said thank you. Tivver returned the look in kind, then turned to the others and started passing out the rest of the bread.

"We've got a few hours before dark," Veylith picked up where she had left off. "We may end up moving in the dark. But we won't stop again until we reach the village." Then she watched the others fall in behind Ravah. After one last sweep of the horizon, she fell in at the back and started after them.

…

The food had run out long before, and because they had been pushing harder than usual since setting out, they had drunk much more of the water as well. Since the sun had set behind them a short while ago, Kaelin had begun visibly to struggle. Even though her eyes had adjusted to the dark, the starlight didn't quite reach the forest floor, and seeing where to put her feet was nearly impossible. The others were affected too, but Kaelin was by far the worst off. So much so that at one point Darian, walking just in front of her, took her hand and laid it on his own shoulder. Holding on to him she more or less kept up, though weariness had begun to catch all of them out. Ravah, walking ahead, hadn't said a word the whole way, and didn't show it, but her breathing made it plain enough that she was tiring as well. Her water-skin had gone dry some time before. Kaelin was thinking, we have to find a stream at the very least, as she climbed the small rise in front of her. When she reached the top, Ravah had stopped without warning. She took a few slow steps further while the rest of them came up over the crest behind her.

"Finally," Vaelra said, the exhaustion plain in her voice “Crestwick”.

Up ahead the forest was thinning out and beginning to open. When at last the trees fell away entirely, a great cluster of overlapping lights glittered toward them. Veylith, when she came up over the rise, let out a quiet breath of relief at seeing the village. It didn't look very large, but the lights flickering at so many points gave the impression that they would find what they were looking for here. Drawing closer to one another and slowing their pace, they began to leave the forest behind.

"I desperately need a bath," Vaelra said, looking at the buildings whose shapes were slowly rising out of the dark.

"I desperately need a drink," Tivver added. Then, after his stomach gave a growl loud enough for all of them to hear, he amended: "—with food."

Kaelin had nearly forgotten the pain. She looked toward the village in the hope of, finally, a more comfortable night. She could feel the others were thinking the same thing. But when she felt for Veylith, walking behind them, the feeling there was a little different. She seemed more at ease, but Kaelin could feel an uncertainty rising in her. When she turned to look at her, their eyes met. Veylith looked at her and smiled, but Kaelin, without returning it, turned to face forward and walked on.