Down a Lost Road (24 page)

I swallowed it down obediently, glad it
tasted better than Enhyla’s nasty concoction. Shan took the dish
and set it aside, then helped me to my feet. He was even shorter
than I’d thought when I was laying down – he had a presence that
filled the tent, but face-to-face we stood almost exactly level. He
clasped my left hand, staring me intently in the eyes for a few
bewildering seconds.

“
Good luck,” he said. Then
he turned to Yatol, gripping his arm and fixing him with the same
look. “Yatol. Take care.”

He nodded to us both, kicked dirt over the
fire, and was gone. Yatol finally met my baffled gaze and actually
laughed.

“
That’s just his way,” he
said. “Come on. Let’s see what’s going on in the
pavilion.”

We made our way slowly across the camp. The
activity seemed to have died down around the pavilion, until we got
closer and realized that it had just moved inside. The men closest
to the entryway moved aside for Yatol and me, some of them smiling,
others with stares like hardened steel. I glimpsed Tyhlaur and
Kurtis up near the central fire, where a group of men stood with
Enhyla.

Yatol went to join them near the fire, so I
followed him uncertainly. No one sat. We stood around the fire pit,
facing one another, but no one seemed to be looking at any one
else. I wondered what they had been talking about before Yatol and
I had arrived.

The silence reigned for a few moments, then
Syarat turned to Yatol.

“
Enhyla says they are
coming,” he said. “Tell us.”

I frowned, wondering why he hadn’t asked
Tyhlaur that already. But Tyhlaur didn’t seem offended by the
oversight. He stood quietly to the side, almost as if he was glad
of his anonymity. I wondered if Syarat had heard some rumor of
Tyhlaur’s possible involvement with the rebels.

“
Tyhlaur and I ran,” Yatol
said. “We saw only the lower tip of the main force, and measured
their pace. They’re marching slowly, about an Eol’s tread. They
seem to be taking their time, but I don’t know why. They haven’t
yet breached the
Perstaun
. We didn’t wait to measure their
numbers, for they had just sent out a dispatch to comb the area
southward, toward Enhyla’s outpost. We traced around and thwarted
them just beyond the hut.”

“
You were at Enhyla’s?” one
of the men asked, and Yatol nodded. “How did you learn of the
Ungulion’s approach before they were upon you?”

When Yatol didn’t answer, Enhyla said, “We
had word from Khymranna.”

I glanced at Yatol. His jaw tensed, but he
just stared fixedly into the fire. The other men seemed
startled.

“
Khymranna? He was with
Talotyl near Urith’s camp, wasn’t he?”

“
Aye, but Urith was overrun
and Talotyl is slain. And…Khymranna.”

“
No!” one of the men cried.
“What will we do without Khymranna? What do we have anymore? All is
lost!”

Enhyla and Syarat exchanged a glance, and
Yatol still wouldn’t move. None of the three said a word.

“
What do you mean?” I
asked, finally, when I couldn’t bear the silence any more. “How can
you think all is lost when…”

They were all staring at me. I fell silent,
face burning with shame.
Smart, Merelin
. I knew I didn’t
have any right to speak here – me, a girl who knew almost nothing
about this world or its battles. Except no one rebuked me, they
just watched me, expectantly.

“
When what, little sister?”
one of them asked.

I scuffed my toe in the sand, my gaze
flickering toward Yatol. “When all we need is right here.”

Utter silence. I felt their gazes keenly,
saw Yatol shift his weight almost imperceptibly. I stood there as
long as I could, then turned and limped back to Kurtis. I
ran
away
from them. But I couldn’t go back. I sat down, facing away
from them, but realized ruefully that I could still hear their
words.

“
How did you come so far so
fast?” Syarat asked. “You say they have not yet breached the
Perstaun
, yet you are here. By my reckoning they should be
nearly here as well.”

A brief silence, then Yatol said softly, “We
did not make the journey by our own efforts.”

Another man broke in, “But even if you
believe Davhur’s accounts of a portal…” He fell silent, then went
on, “Well, I suppose we must believe
that
, now. But even so,
there is no portal that crosses this world. I don’t
understand.”

“
I’ve heard of it
happening, but only rarely,” Yatol said. “Merelin’s brother invoked
the passage.”

“
Is that him?”

I didn’t look, but I knew they were pointing
at Kurtis.

“
No. He didn’t come
through.”

I pulled up my knees and buried my head
against them. Kurtis laid his hand on my shoulder.

“
You don’t think he was
taken?”

I waited breathless for the answer, but none
came. At least, none that I could hear. But some of the men began
murmuring among themselves, and I glanced over my shoulder. Yatol
stood straight and still, while Enhyla stared at him in
disbelief.

“
You’re mad,” one of the
men said. “Mad, Yatol.”

“
You won’t get any help
from us.”

Yatol turned to fix the man with a stern
gaze, cold and hard. “I did not ask for your help.”

The man dropped his eyes, shamefaced, and
Yatol glanced back at Enhyla.

“
The fewer with me, the
better. I will pick my own party.”

He had hardly finished speaking when a
sudden commotion outside the pavilion caught everyone’s attention.
Shouting, footsteps, the crash of something knocking over. I
scrambled to my feet, doubling over with a flash of pain. Yatol and
some of the other men grabbed spears from the walls of the tent,
and Yatol circled back to stand in front of me. Everyone
tensed.

Chapter 17 – Aniira

A moment passed in anxious silence, and then
all at once two guards pushed into the pavilion, leading a young
woman between them. Or dragging her. She certainly wasn’t coming
willingly.

I couldn’t help staring. The first girl I’d
seen in this world and she had to be one of the most strikingly
beautiful people I’d ever seen. Figured. I couldn’t tell how old
she was, but she dressed like the warriors, a short green cloak
over her shoulders and the hood pulled back from her crown of
red-gold hair. Her dark eyes seethed. The guards could barely keep
hold of her, and finally she managed to wrench free. She stalked
straight up to Syarat.

Syarat sighed and lifted his hands.
“Aniira.”

The guards grabbed her wrists again, and she
twisted around and spat furiously at their feet. One of them must
have tightened his grip on her wrist, because she winced and was
still.

“
Master Syarat, we found
her skulking at the edge of camp again.”

Yatol moved a step toward them. He seemed
dismayed, or angry, I’m not sure which. Either way, her presence
upset him strangely. My heart sank clear to the soles of my feet. I
wanted to crawl away and hide somewhere in the shadows, scrawny
little me with my plain face. Like an idiot I’d assumed that just
because I’d never seen another girl here, I must be the first one
Yatol had seen too. As if lack of options might have made him
interested. But who would ever give me a second look if they knew
someone like
her
?

Much as I wanted to fall down a hole and
disappear, I couldn’t move. Morbid curiosity kept me rooted where I
stood.

“
I will not,” she began,
then furiously turned and pulled both her arms from the guards’
grip. Once free she went on in a rush, “I will not stay in Alcalon,
not this time. You can’t make me, Master Syarat. Zhabyr can’t make
me. He doesn’t need me there, but you need me here! Don’t you
understand that yet? What more do I have to do to prove that to
you?”

“
Aniira,” Syarat said
gently. “Your spirit is admirable, child, but this is not your
role. I cannot permit you to stay in this camp when your duties lie
elsewhere. It is not in my power to permit what the king would
forbid.”

So she thought she could disguise herself
like a warrior.
Nice try, sugar queen
. With that kind of
face, no costume could hide what she was. I couldn’t restrain the
slightest smirk. She gave an annoyed sigh and looked peevishly away
from him, and as she did her eyes fell on me. I felt suddenly
small, and my smug smile vanished. But I had my gaze fixed on her
and couldn’t force it away. Her lips twitched and her face went
white.

“
How dare you tell me I
won’t be permitted here, when you have a girl sitting right there,
probably taking part in your very counsels! What right does she
have…”

She would have gone on but her gaze shifted
from me and fell on Yatol, and she grew very quiet. I thought she
might be even angrier than before, though her face was perfectly
still. All of a sudden she broke into a fit of laughter.

“
You!” she said, pointing
at him. “You of all people…”

“
Come, child,” Enhyla
beseeched her. “This is no ordinary circumstance. You cannot be
angry at Yatol over this.”

“
I don’t need
this
to be angry with him.”

“
What wrong have I done
you?” Yatol asked, his voice quiet but not strained. Just quiet. It
seemed to infuriate her even more than if it had masked all the
pain or hatred in the world.

“
How dare you!” she cried,
coming around the fire to stand in front of him.

He regarded her in silence, and I couldn’t
tell from her face if she was closer to weeping, laughing, or
screaming.

“
You left me,” she
whispered at last. “You left me!”

I frowned. Why did I have to be here to see
this? I glanced at Kurtis, but he was too engrossed in the scene to
notice. Hoping to slip out of the tent unnoticed I took one step
back, but Yatol turned suddenly and fixed me with a pointed glance.
I didn’t want to stay, and I was on the verge of tears of
frustration, but I didn’t know why. I even felt angry with Yatol
for stopping me. But I stayed, sitting down where I stood as if
that could hide me from her. Yatol had already shifted his
attention back to Aniira, studying her somberly.

“
You still haven’t forgiven
me for that?” he asked. “It wasn’t my choice. You can’t blame
me.”

“
Can’t blame you, can’t
blame you. Everyone says it. But I do. Do you hear me, Yatol? I do
blame you.”

Enhyla suddenly smiled. “Ah, is
that
what you’re so angry about? My child, that was four years ago at
least.”

She looked archly at him, then back at
Yatol, and suddenly she covered her face with her hands.

“
You all think I’m a
fool!”

Was she crying? Suddenly – I have no idea
why – I almost felt sorry for her.

One of the other men threw down his spear.
“This is absurd,” he said. “Master Syarat, do you mean to let her
go on making a scene?”

“
Peace, Tamon. There is
enough hurt here without rubbing the wound raw again.”

“
Aniira,” Yatol said, “What
did you think would happen? I had a duty. So did you. If I hadn’t
been the first called, it would have been you. We knew all along
our paths would split, but it was pure chance that my time came
first – before any of us thought. I didn’t want it to happen that
way, but it did. You left Mene and Yamurin, and they don’t resent
you. So why do you resent me?”

“
Because yours was… I was
afraid it would cost you your life,” she murmured.

He didn’t move, but bowed his head. She took
her hand from her face and gazed at him. A deep anguish stole over
her features. She turned away abruptly, pursing her lips and
shaking her head as though trying to force away some thought.

“
Then you chose to follow
her?” she asked in a strangled voice.

“
Aye,” Yatol answered. I
almost couldn’t hear him.

I glanced from one to the other. They
weren’t talking about me. At first I’d thought they were…but
somehow now I could tell they weren’t. I had no idea who – or what
– they meant. That made me nervous. Aniira’s gaze flickered back to
me and she sighed.

“
What do you think to do
here?” Yatol asked at last.

She didn’t answer, but nodded toward me. “Is
it true then? Isn’t it too late? It’s such madness!”

“
What are you saying?”
Syarat asked.