‘Lim,’ Dom tried, but his adopted brother wouldn’t meet his eyes.
‘Go to the temple and talk to Mother. You could use her wisdom.’ And they closed in around the wounded, their backs an impenetrable wall and Dom on the wrong side. Even Cam, the man who’d raised him like a son, the man who’d never once pushed him to use his gift despite what it might tell them, couldn’t meet his eyes. They blamed him, every one of them.
Dom’s breath hitched in his throat and he backed away, unable to turn from the sight of them ranged against him. They were his people that had been killed, his friends and neighbours. Theirs were the bodies littering the burning village he called home. But they were right, weren’t they? This was on him. He could’ve stopped it if only he’d pushed her. If only he’d used his gift, regardless of the cost.
He didn’t look away until he was inside the first line of trees, and then only because the girl touched his shoulder. He felt a tingle of understanding, a flicker from the knowing, and pushed it away. It was too late now. He didn’t care if she was important, didn’t care that such a momentary touch could ignite his gift. There wasn’t anything worth learning from her now and no one to tell it to even if he did.
Too late for Sarilla, for the other wounded. Too fucking late for the dead.
‘Go where you like, I won’t stop you. I’ve lost family because of you, friends, lovers. Their deaths are my shame, do you understand?’ Dom demanded, turning on her. He dropped the tent, grabbed her shoulders and shook, and then backhanded her so she fell into the mud. ‘Maybe Ash is right. Maybe you are a fucking spy. You couldn’t have done more damage if you’d fucking planned it.’
She rolled on to her back and wiped blood from her mouth and nose. ‘You expect me to trust you, to tell you everything I know when I’m as much a prisoner here as I ever was in Eagle Height?’ She stood up, shaky but tall. ‘I spent nine years slaving for the Mireces. Nine years you will never begin to understand. And for nine years I listened to their stories about the Wolves. How could I possibly trust you? All I know is what they told me.’
Dom laughed, a wheezing giggle tinged with madness. ‘What the fuck does it matter if you trust us? My people are dead because I didn’t want to scare you. Because I trusted that if you had something to tell us about the Mireces you would, that you had some touch of being Rilporian left inside. That if you’d killed their fucking king you’d have let us know.’ He bit off any more words. What was the point? Slumping, he picked up the tent again. ‘Just go. Go on, go.’
‘Go where?’
‘Fuck do I care? To hell, maybe, to the Afterworld. You deserve it.’ He hauled the tent on to his back and began walking southeast. She shifted from foot to foot, uncertain. Then she followed.
Eleventh moon, seventeenth year of the reign of King Rastoth
West Rank headquarters, Cattle Lands, Rilporian border
Mace Koridam, general of the West Rank, rested back in his chair and stretched his shoulders when Captain Tara Carter entered. ‘Report?’
Tara saluted and stood at parade rest in front of his desk. ‘There’s a lot of movement up there. Some sort of raiding or tracking party, it looked like. Found what was left of some dead Raiders, gear and weapons mostly. Animals had been at the bodies, but most had Wolf arrows in them. We got within five miles of the Sky Path, but the number of Mireces patrols forced us back.’
Mace frowned and crossed his arms. ‘Your orders were explicit, Captain.’
Tara met his gaze steadily. ‘Yes, sir. I’m aware I went beyond my remit, but there was too much activity, so I made the call. Sir.’
‘If this is about you proving yourself, Carter, I can assure you that you have singularly failed to impress me.’
‘It isn’t, sir. Word in the mountains is that Liris is dead, killed in his own bedchamber.’
Mace paused and eyed her. ‘You’re sure?’ he asked, though Tara was already nodding. ‘By the gods, this changes everything.’ With Liris dead, they could have an opportunity to force a battle and break the Mireces once and for all, ending the constant border threat.
‘My opposite number among the Wolves filled me in on that particular piece of intel,’ Carter said as there was a knock at the door. It opened and she gestured. ‘Dalli Shortspear. Turns out we weren’t the only ones sneaking around the Sky Path.’
Dalli gave Carter and Mace a strained smile and Mace winced. ‘Gods, woman, that’s the most impressive black eye I’ve seen in a long while.’
Dalli fingered the bruising. ‘Mireces spear butt, right in the eye. I will confess to a momentary confusion in the aftermath.’
Mace whistled. ‘I’d confess to being unconscious if it was me. But you’re otherwise well?’
Dalli gave a half-shrug, her usual energy missing. ‘As well as can be expected. Mireces war party on the hunt for an escaped slave. She made it down to us and they followed her, attacked the village. Burnt the village. We lost nearly seventy.’ She tapped her fingertips to her heart, commemorating the dead, and Mace and Tara copied her. ‘We’d had a few hours’ advance warning, but there were too few of us nearby to form an effective defence. We fought a holding action, then had to run.’
‘My sympathies, Dalli, to you and yours. Any help you need rebuilding, please do ask. I’ll increase our patrols in the meantime, give you a chance to recover.’
‘Thank you, General, we’d appreciate that. We’re stretched thin. For now we’ve sent the girl to Watchtown with Dom, to keep her safe and … keep her away from the other Wolves. There’s some bad feeling about what happened. The Mireces wouldn’t have attacked if she wasn’t there, and if she’d told us beforehand that she’d murdered Liris – well, let’s just say we wouldn’t have sent most of our warriors to winter in the smaller settlements.’
‘She killed him?’ Mace asked, incredulous. ‘A slave?’
Dalli touched her face again. ‘That she did, General. Or that’s what she told us anyway, and we believe her.’ She rested her hip against his desk and Mace was suddenly aware of her exhaustion. She was hurt and hurting, grieving, but she’d come to warn them anyway. She puts half my men to shame.
‘At least that fat old bastard Liris is dead,’ Dalli said. ‘Even if too many of ours are as well.’
Mace stalked to the window and back again. ‘You say there’s bad feeling around the slave? We’d be happy to host her here,’ he said, trying not to sound too eager. Her knowledge of Eagle Height must be extensive. This could be the turning of the tide. But why did she have to make her way to the Wolves? I could do so much with that knowledge, so much.
‘She and Dom will stay at the temple. With luck there won’t be trouble, but we’ll bear it in mind.’
‘Of course. If her presence in Watchtown becomes complicated, let me know and we’ll send someone to fetch her. In the meantime, if you learn anything from her, please do share it with us.’ He paused and Dalli dipped her head. ‘Do we know who the new Mireces king is yet? Or if there even is one?’
Tara sighed. ‘That we don’t know. I can take a patrol—’
Mace held up a finger. ‘You’ve done enough, Carter. Just let me have your full report by this evening.’ She opened her mouth to protest. ‘I’ve told you before, being a reckless idiot is not going to get you promoted any faster. If anything, it’ll make me more inclined to demote you. You are not the only captain with a Hundred in the