For my family.
Those I was born to, and those I chose.
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The missing are harder to accept than the lost. My parents had been dead five years, but my sister? She’d been missing only three months. I’d grieved those who’d died, but I didn’t know how to feel about Tali. Guilt, fear, anger, hope – they came and left as fast as water birds taking flight.
She was out there, somewhere. A prisoner of the Duke’s, stolen from me just as he’d stolen the city of Geveg, the pynvium from our mines, the food from our tables. His greed had turned to war, and he’d crushed all of us under his boot, racing to get even more power. No one was safe, certainly not Tali.
Late at night, safe at Jeatar’s farm, I wondered if it was time to stop looking for her. I hated myself for thinking it, but it wasn’t just my life I was risking by trying to find her. My friends put themselves in danger every time we left the farm, and some had even got hurt because of me.
But then my guilt would haunt me. How could I stop looking? I’d made so many promises. Others had sacrificed so much to help me. It wasn’t just about one lost sister any more, but thousands of families ruined by the Duke of Baseer and his desire to control everyone in the Three Territories.
If I gave up on Tali, was I also giving up on them? On any chance we had to be free of him? To just be free?
Someone knocked on the door to the room I shared with Aylin. I didn’t want to answer. I’d tossed and turned all night, worrying and planning, and was really hoping to grab a few hours of sleep this morning now that Aylin wasn’t hogging the bed.
“Nya?” Danello said through the door. “Are you awake?”
Yes, but I didn’t want to be. We’d argued again last night. One of those dumb fights that started over nothing and ended with both of us storming off. If I opened the door he’d smile at me, and then I’d want to forgive him, and I wasn’t ready to forgive him.
Trouble was, I couldn’t remember exactly why we’d argued. But it had been his fault. I was almost sure of that.
“Nya, come on.” Danello knocked again. “You can’t still be mad at me.”
It had been over scouting reports, hadn’t it? Troop movements outside Baseer. I’d said that gave us an opening to sneak into the city, but Danello said it could be the army moving around again to make way for more soldiers. I said I wanted to leave by the end of the week – he thought we should wait until we had more information. I said something stupid and he said something stupid back.
“I have food,” he sang.
My mutinous stomach grumbled and I sighed. That was cheating, plain and simple.
“I have good food.” His sweet voice was light and playful. Hard to stay mad at him when he sounded like that. I pictured him out there, leaning on the door, his hair a mess from the breeze coming off the fields.
OK, maybe it wasn’t completely his fault. Aylin said I’d been grumpy lately – probably from lack of sleep. It wasn’t like he was telling me I couldn’t go, just that I should be extra careful, think things through first. Without knowing why the Duke was moving those troops around, caution wasn’t a bad idea.
And Danello had brought food.
I slipped out of bed, walked