Blackveil (51 page)

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Authors: Kristen Britain

Tags: #General, #Fiction, #fantasy, #Epic

BOOK: Blackveil
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“Your turn,” Karigan said. “Catch me up.”
Alton glanced toward Estral, who was teaching the Riders a new song. Lantern light glimmered off her hair and her smile made his heart wobble. He tore his gaze away, looked back to Karigan, and told her of his own travails with the wall, and he almost tripped himself up with laughter when he realized he was withholding details from her just as she had from him. She did not need to know, he decided, the depth of his madness after his time in the forest. Bringing it up would be like scratching a scab off a nearly healed wound. There was a time, he reflected, when they would have told each other everything. Now they acted a little like strangers. By the time he concluded, he had said nothing of Estral except to describe the basics of her arrival.
“I’m surprised she left Selium at all,” Karigan said, “much less came here of all places.”
“We’ve . . . we’ve enjoyed the music,” Alton replied, not ready to admit more.
They fell silent again and Karigan gazed at him as if she expected more from him. He tried to come up with something, anything, but only got warm beneath the collar. Fortunately Dale rescued him by coming over and plopping herself on the bench next to Karigan.
“My, aren’t we the maudlin ones,” she commented. “Everyone else is having a grand old time and you two look ready to cast your lot with beggars and undertakers.”
“We’ve been catching up,” Alton said.
“Speaking of which,” Dale turned to face Karigan directly, “what’s this I hear about the king’s masquerade ball and you being Mad Queen Oddacious? That was one of my favorite plays. ‘Mad Queen Oddacious has twenty-one cats, each named Precious and wears a hat—’ ”
“Auuugh!” Karigan wailed putting her head in her hands. “Even here, next to the wall I can’t escape it!”
“I’m afraid not,” Dale said, all chipper. “Tell me
everything.
”
As Karigan told the story of the masquerade, Alton glanced covertly at Estral. The Riders sat in a semicircle around her as she told them some tale. He became lost in a reverie as he watched her until Dale let go a high-pitched, “Assassination attempt?”
Now Alton paid rapt attention while Karigan recounted the attempt on King Zachary’s life. It sounded ill-conceived and inept. If the Weapons had not stopped the would-be assassin, Alton was certain the king could have done so himself blindfolded and one-handed, and yet the color drained from Karigan’s face as she told the tale.
“The king could have taken down that fool with a glance if need be,” Dale said dismissively. “He’s as well trained as any Weapon.”
“I
know, I know,” Karigan replied. “He’s our king and
I
... I don’t want him hurt is all.”
Alton scrunched his eyebrows together. There was more being left unspoken in that statement.
“Well, Queen Oddacious,” Dale said, “why don’t we go join the singing?”
Karigan groaned and Dale laughed. Dale took her friend’s hand and led her toward the others.
Alton could only breathe a sigh of relief that he’d gotten away without having to confess the truth about his affection for Estral.
DARK MIRROR
W
hen the evening wound down, a few Riders excusing themselves to go to bed, Dale sat with Karigan explaining to her what had happened to her shoulder in Tower of the Earth. Alton had already told Karigan about it, but now she got Dale’s version of events and it was frightening.
“So Merdigen is now consulting with the other tower mages about what to do?” Karigan asked.
Dale nodded. “We don’t know what happened to Haurris or his tower, and we don’t know what that creature in there is or how it got there in the first place.” She shuddered.
“And whatever it is could pose a danger to the rest of the wall,” Karigan murmured.
“Exactly, and there may not be a thing we can do about it. As if the breach wasn’t enough to worry about.”
When Estral finished playing and punctuated it with a huge yawn, the party truly broke up. She hugged Karigan on her way out and said, “It’s so good to see you. I want to talk more, but now I’m about to fall asleep on my feet.”
Alton was right behind her with his good nights, the last of the partiers dispersing after him, leaving Dale and Karigan alone in the tent.
“How is he?” Karigan asked. “How is he really?”
“Alton? Much better,” Dale replied. “There were some rough moments, but he’s come around very well.”
“I’m glad,” Karigan said. It was hard to discern Alton’s well-being for he was quieter than she remembered, and when they talked, it was as two acquaintances, not as friends who’d been much closer. His letters had been more personal. In fact, the Alton who had written about how anxious he was for her to join him at the wall seemed a different person than the Alton she’d seen today, almost aloof. Maybe all that time apart had turned them into strangers. If there was anything he wanted to say to her, he’d better overcome his aloofness and hurry up. She’d be departing the day after tomorrow.
And what should she say to him? That she was open to the possibilities?
“Well I’m done in,” Dale said. “Think you can find your way to your tent, or do you need a guide?”
“You’d probably better help me,” Karigan said. “I’ll never find the right one in the dark.”
And so Dale led her to the tent she was to share with Trace. Karigan hugged her friend once more.
“It is good to see you, Dale,” she said. “We’ve missed you.”
“And good to see you, too,
Sir
Karigan.” Dale snorted in laughter. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, still laughing. “Can’t help it. Don’t know which is funnier, Sir Karigan or Queen Oddacious. Good night.”
Karigan watched her friend stroll away with the lantern, sputtering with laughter as she went. If Karigan had any illusions of her recently bestowed title ever eliciting respect from her fellow Riders, they were now thoroughly crushed.
She smiled and ducked into her tent.
 
After Karigan’s late night, and with no duties assigned her, she slept well into the morning, the simple cot a luxury after all those nights on the ground. She’d have one more night on the cot and then it was into Blackveil, and she didn’t even want to think about what nights sleeping in the forest would be like.
When she arose, she found Trace gone already, but the Rider had fired up the little stove making the tent toasty warm. Karigan took her time, yawning and stretching, and getting ready for the day.
Finally stepping out into the world, she found no Green Riders in sight, but discovered Yates in the dining tent spooning hot porridge into his mouth.
“Where is everyone?” she asked, sitting down beside him with her own bowl.
“Alton has them all in a meeting in the tower to talk about assignments.”
“Already?”
He shrugged, and she remembered Alton had requested the help of more Riders months ago. She couldn’t blame him for being anxious to get everyone working as soon as possible.
“Lynx went off into the woods to talk to the animals or something,” Yates continued. “Too much civilization.”
“Ard?”
“Still snoring away in his tent.”
“And Estral?”
“In the tower with the others.”
Karigan sighed. She hoped they weren’t going to be in there all day, otherwise, how would she occupy herself?
“What are you up to today?”
“When Edna over there gets off breakfast shift, we’re going to enjoy each other’s company.” Yates smiled and gave a little wave to one of the cooks ladling out porridge to other latecomers. She was a pretty, petite thing.
Well, Karigan thought, there was always Condor for companionship, and she would soon be missing him, but she couldn’t help feeling rather desolate.
When she left the dining tent, she collected her riding gear and visited Condor, grooming him till his coat gleamed, brushing away winter coat that fell out by the handfuls. He bobbed his head and nickered in approval.
She then tacked him up and mounted, and rode through the encampment to the wall. Instead of heading west toward the breach, she reined Condor east. She put him through his paces, sometimes riding at an easy walk or lope, and then riding harder as the terrain allowed. All the while the wall remained unrelenting beside her. She could ride all the way to the Eastern Sea and the wall’s cold, hard facade would not change.
As she rode, she tried to remain in the present, taking conscious note of how the woods smelled, how sunlight played on the tips of evergreens. She listened to the chatter of birds and watched squirrels pursue one another around the boles of trees, oblivious to the dangers the wall protected them from. It was hard to believe that behind just a few feet of stone a whole other world existed, like a dark mirror of the one she now rode through.
Tomorrow, the equinox would bring not just balance between day and night, but spring. While this side of the wall grew brighter, enlivened by birds returning from southern regions and green growth replacing patches of snow and ice, she wondered what spring did in Blackveil, or if seasons there were irrelevant.
Whatever the case, she wanted to imprint on her mind what she might otherwise take for granted. No matter how she tried to stay in the present, however, it was impossible to prevent the noise of thoughts and concerns from filling her mind: what to do about Alton, when would the Eletians arrive, what would it do to her father if she did not survive Blackveil.
At midday she halted to eat the cold meal provided by the encampment cooks. She leaned against the wall, peeling a hard-boiled egg and watching Condor crop at the withered greenery. What would happen to Condor if she didn’t return? She expected he’d find a new Rider, just as he’d found her. It was hard imagining him partnered with someone else. It was as if he’d always been hers.
When she finished eating, there was nothing to do but turn back. As she reined Condor around, there was a fluttering above in one of the trees. A great winter owl still in its snow plumage perched on a crooked branch. It seemed to watch her without actually looking at her.
The owl nudged something deep in her mind, a hidden memory she could not grasp, and try as she would, she could not bring it to the surface. She shrugged. If it were important, it would come to her eventually.
She felt privileged to encounter such a magnificent bird on her ride, but in moments the owl itself became no more than a memory when it launched up through the branches of trees and beyond until it was out of view. Karigan let out a breath as though released from a spell.
She arrived back at the encampment just before supper. She’d taken her time on the return, as this would probably be her last ride of any length on Condor for quite a while. He seemed to sense it as well, for when she finished untacking and grooming him, he set his head on her shoulder and she wrapped her arm around his neck. He heaved a great sigh as she stroked him.
“Dale will be keeping an eye on you for me,” she told him. “So you better behave.”
He flicked his tail in a halfhearted way.
There was no way to heave horses over the wall to get them into Blackveil, plus the forest was no place for an oversized prey animal, so Karigan and her fellow Sacoridians, and presumably the Eletians, would be entering the forest on foot. There was something that felt very wrong about Green Riders being separated from their horses.
She would bid Condor her final farewell in the morning when they rode to the breach. She patted him on the shoulder, gathered her gear, and walked away.
At supper, the young Riders were as boisterous as ever. Yates was presumably with his Edna, and Lynx prowling the forest. She found Garth sitting with Ard, but no sign of Dale, Alton, or Estral.
When she joined Garth and Ard with a bowl of stew, Ard said, “Grant says we’re to be at the breach tomorrow before sunrise. I let Lynx know a while ago before he disappeared again. Told Yates at midday when his lass had to work another shift.”
Karigan nodded and blew on a spoonful of stew.

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