2nd Rew

Alaev sat by the fire, wondering why he’d joined the army in the first place.

His father and mother hadn’t wanted him to do so, that was for sure. Neither had his sister Brinna. They’d all begged him to stay. “You don’t need to prove the family’s honour, son,” his father had said, as he’d packed his small rucksack of belongings.

He sighed. “Yes, I do. We lost all honour because we housed a Thaenite spy.”

Brinna, pale-faced with streaks of tears, smacked him on the shoulder. “Thalaea wasn’t a spy!”

Normally he would have returned his sister’s smack with one of his own, but this time he didn’t. Sibling rivalry no longer seemed important. Min was at war and it was their fault.

The townspeople, of course, hadn’t given them up to the Duchess. If they had, none of Alaev’s family would now be alive. The Duchess was a capricious woman, and her love for her cousin had been deep. If she’d known Scoas and Natai had housed Kaz’s murderer….

The townspeople hadn’t given up Enendoa, either, for all that the murder had happened at her house. Heartpinners were loyal to their own. They might shun Scoas now when he came to town but they wouldn’t give him up to Daetus’ justice. He was a Heartpinner and his punishment would come only from them.

They might have shunned Enendoa, too, if the woman hadn’t gone missing. Shortly after Thalaea had disappeared, so had the elder wise woman. Her house was still full of books, her garden still full of herbs, but her clothes were all gone, as was her rucksack, and several of her copper pans and implements. Brinna had discovered it, two weeks after Thalaea had gone missing. She’d gone to visit Enendoa, for solace. The cottage stood cold and empty.

Alaev felt for his sister. She had been in love with the woman they’d housed for so long. Now Thalaea was missing, a murderer, and Min was at war with Thaen.

He wondered why Kaz’s friends hadn’t given up their family. They were the ones who had given up Thalaea, after all. He supposed Heartpin loyalty went deep, even in those men.

So Alaev joined the military when the recruitment officer came knocking. As far as he could see it was the only way their family would ever regain its old reputation, or anything close to it.

He kissed his mother and father good bye. He tried to hug his sister but she was too upset.

She looked at him with tears in her eyes. Her red hair was frizzy; she hadn’t washed it in ages. They’d had trouble getting her to eat, and she was skinnier than she should have been. “Now you’re going to leave me, too,” she said, despair soaking her voice.

He sighed. “I’ll be back.”

She shook her head. “No you won’t. You’re going to Thaen. It’s a dead land. Everything dies there.” She went into her room and shut the door.

Now he was sitting here, just over the border, between the mountains and the forests, trying to get lost in the easy camaraderie of his fellow recruits and failing miserably. Most of the lads hailed from Fallwoman Shire and Solai Parish; some came from as far away as Caegdeer or the capital itself. They didn’t know his family’s shame and he made new friends quickly and easily. It was a small unit. They were becoming close.

But tonight…tonight something was wrong. The trees looked darker; the sounds of the forest sounded more sinister. The officers had been holed up in closed quarters all day, after two had run out to the other camps along the forest’s edge. They’d returned looking anxious, even frightened, but they hadn’t told the lads anything.

Something was wrong. Shivers ran up and down Alaev’s spine.

The sounds began at midnight. A waxing gibbous moon rode the sky and the fire burned low as Alaev took his turn as sentry. He stood posted at the edge of camp, all senses alert.

As soon as the sounds began, the horses shied and whinnied; some tried to free themselves of their tie-ups, wild-eyed and shaking. Alaev suppressed a shiver and stood at attention, eyes on the forest.

The sounds grew louder. They were eerie cries, like the sound of a L’llara. Not that he believed in such fairy-tales; a creature whose song signaled your death was a tale for naughty children. He was older. He didn’t put much stock in it.

Nor in the part of the story that said the L’llara had glowing eyes, or that she was the spirit of a woman who had drowned during the Cataclysm who now sought vengeance on the descendants of the survivors. No. That was all fairy-tale.

“Just a fairy-tale,” he whispered to himself but his voice sounded less than reassuring.

The sounds continued, getting louder. A howling, like wind crying through a drafty attic. Then sharper, more distinct. Oh gods, were those wolves?

He’d heard there were wolves in these woods. He’d heard Thaen was overrun with wolves. Just over a week ago some of the men had gone on a hunting party, hoping to bring home some wolf meat.

They hadn’t returned.

Alaev shifted his feet and rubbed his arms to warm them. He was suddenly chilly.

The sounds had stopped. He relaxed a little. It was probably just the wind.

He paced for a bit, trying to bring some feeling back into his extremities. He’d thought he was prepared for cold weather, but Thaen was a lot colder than Min. The recruits had been warned but for some reason he hadn’t listened.

The time came for his relief to take his place. It was a friend, Reandif. The taller boy from Caegdeer arrived early, standing next to Alaev and chapping his hands, blowing into them.

“Cor, it’s cold. Not used to this back home.” He shifted from foot to foot.

“Thin-skinned southerners,” Alaev jested good-naturedly.

“Oi!” Reandif elbowed the Heartpinner in the side. “Watch it. I’m still better with a sword than you.”

Alaev just laughed. Slowly he felt the tension leak out of him. Everything was fine. His ears had been playing tricks on him earlier. The horses were skittish simply because they were in Thaen. There was nothing wrong.

Reandif leaned in closer to Alaev then. “So did you hear?”

“Hear what?” His friend whispered and for some reason Alaev followed suit.

“Some of the men was talking earlier. They overheard the officers. All the other camps are gone.”

The fear flooded him like water from a burst dam. “What do you mean, gone?”

“Well, what I heard was, the camps are still there, and so are the men. But their spirits ain’t.”

The chill froze every part of Alaev’s body; all his hearts skipped a beat. “You mean they’re dead?”

“That’s what I heard.” Reandif shrugged. He didn’t seem all that worried, but Alaev knew his friend well enough to recognize that causal shrug as bravado.

He was about to say that they shouldn’t spread rumors before getting the official word, that there was probably something else going on. Perhaps the men had been called back to Min and they would be soon, too? Then the sounds started again. Louder. Closer. So close, he felt he could reach out and touch them.

Alaev and Reandif exchanged terrified glances; then risked a look back at the forest.

Four pairs of glowing eyes met their gaze.

It was daylight when the two boys dared to look behind them. The land stretched far behind, ending in green forests, tall tree-tops reaching up to the violet sky. To their right were the mountains, sharp-peaked and forbidding; to their left, plains, going all the way to the frozen sea.

They couldn’t see the camp anymore. Nor could they see any other riders.

“Did the others get out?” Alaev asked, his breath coming rapidly. His hearts were beating so fast.

Reandif shook his head, shrugging. “I don’t know. Cor, I hope they did.”

Alaev nodded and wiped his face with the back of his gloved hand. It was spring but gods it was cold. “We should wait.” Reandif looked at him as if he were crazy. “For a bit. For the others. Maybe they got horses and got out too.”

“Maybe,” Reandif replied, but he didn’t sound hopeful.

Alaev still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened the night before. He and Reandif had seen the glowing eyes; the howls had increased. Someone had screamed “L’llara!” and then all hells had broken loose. Utter chaos. Reandif and Alaev hadn’t thought; they’d just run to where the horses were tied up and taken two. They were infantry, so they’d surely stolen officers’ horses, but they didn’t care. At that moment all that mattered was getting away.

They didn’t look to see if their comrades escaped. The two boys mounted the nearest horses and galloped south as fast as they could. Eventually they slowed, to give the horses a rest, but they didn’t stop moving. Didn’t look back. Didn’t think about what had just happened.

Now the daylight chased away the terrors of the night before, and Alaev started to feel bad about leaving the other men behind. They had overreacted, most likely. It was just beasts in the forest. The men in the other camps would laugh at Alaev and Reandif if they knew that a ghost story had scared the boys away. Hells, maybe the men in their camp were laughing, too.

“Maybe we should go back.”

Reandif shook his head. “No. I ain’t going back there. Full of spooks.”

“What about the other camps, though?”

His friend let out a bark of laughter. “No way I’m going there.”

Alaev glared at the other boy. “What if it was nothing? What if all the men are in camp, laughing at us for running away?” What if we’ll be in big trouble if we don’t head back right now, because we stole officers’ horses?

He didn’t need to say the last bit out loud. Reandif got his meaning.

The lad from Caegdeer expelled a great sigh. “Guess you’re right, ain’t you. Fine.”

Alaev nodded, and set his horse towards the camp they’d fled, easing it into a slow walk. He tried to keep his head held high, bravery etched into his skin, but his hands shook and he could barely breathe.

Lady Mi, protect me.

A strange sight awaited them at the camp.

Camp was deserted of soldiers and horses. Tents lay on their sides; the fire burned out. It looked as if a giant had come and flattened the camp with one stomp of a giant foot.

And a naked Minae stood in the middle of the camp, his back to them. Alaev didn’t think it was one of the officers or the infantry; too tall, for one, and the hair….

His horse was so skittish, he dismounted. As his feet hit the ground, his stomach dropped. He barely heard a whisper from Reandif: “What is it?”

He held up a hand to silence his friend and tossed the reins to the southerner. Walking forward as silently as possible, he approached the Minae with the white-green hair.

A relative of Brinna’s lost love, of the spy they’d housed?

Before he could get within ten feet, the naked Minae turned. Alaev saw it was Thalaea herself who looked at him. Her dark skin was streaked with something that looked like dried blood, as was her hair, almost stained pink with it, but the star on her forehead stood out clearly on her skin. She held his pack in her arms.

He froze, whether in fear, or shock, or joy he didn’t know. Thalaea had been part of their family, and, spy or no, he’d come to love her like a sister.

“Alaev,” she whispered, in a voice that sounded rusty, unused, tired. He thought he saw sadness on her face. Quickly, it cleared, and she looked at him dispassionately.

She threw his pack to him; he caught it and stumbled backwards, nearly falling. “Take your friend. Go home. Look after Brinna. Don’t come back to Thaen.” There was no question that was an order, not a request.

Before he could form a single coherent thought, a single question to ask this strange woman who had fallen into his family’s life and fairly ruined it, she turned and walked away. He shouted after her, asking her to wait, but she ignored him, walking away into the deep, dark forests of Thaen.

It wasn’t until Reandif’s hand grabbed Alaev’s shoulder that he realized he’d stood staring after Thalaea. He jumped in surprise, but when he looked up, Reandif looked more frightened than Alaev felt.

“We should go home.” Alaev found his voice back in the cavern of betrayal that was now his center heart. Reandif nodded as Alaev swung his pack over his shoulders and re-mounted his horse. “If you want to grab your things, I’ll wait.”

His friend looked as if he were about to say, No, thanks, I’ll survive — won’t I? Then he thought better of it. He wasn’t used to the cold, and he was wearing only a sweater and his coat. Alaev was surprised his friend from Caegdeer hadn’t already frozen to death on their headlong flight in the night.

Within minutes, both were riding south again. It wasn’t until nightfall, when they stopped to make a small makeshift camp, that Alaev looked in his pack, in search of his flint and tinder box.

Sitting on top of all of his things was a copper necklace with a serpentine design, and a note.

I’m sorry for whatever hardship I caused your family. Give my love to your sister.

-Thalaea

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