Clanless (22 page)

Gryphon gasped as realization dawned.

He’d almost walked away from Joshua forever. All because Gabe wanted Zo for himself.

“He’s a dead man,” Gryphon growled. But his anger was still overshadowed by the plain truth that Zo was alive, or at least had been when she left the hiding tree outside Ram’s Gate.

“Who’s a dead man?” asked Talon.

Gryphon gathered his pack. “Never mind. Let’s cover some ground.”

They hadn’t gone more than a mile when they heard the moans of what might have been a wounded animal. Talon darted off the game trail and after a few minutes called for Gryphon and Raca. “It’s a woman,” he said.

Soggy leaves and long grass made a bed for a creature so small she might have been a child were it not for her withered hands and white hair. Gryphon dropped his pack and knelt beside the old woman, taking her icy cold hands in his. She had no blanket and no supplies. She appeared to have lain down in this soft patch of earth to die.

“Who’s there?” Her weak voice was rough and parched of water. She rolled over to face Gryphon.

He jumped at the sight of the Historian. She was little more than a skeleton and one of her eyes was missing, with blood dried and crusted around the swollen socket. “Troy’s son? Is it really you?”

“Yes,” he choked. “I’m here. I’ll help you.” Though she looked far beyond his help.

The Historian was Barnabas’s grandmother and the former Seer of Ram’s Gate. She had betrayed Barnabas by helping foster the Nameless insurrection. The last time Gryphon saw her she had helped him and his friends escape the Gate.

“The Raven. Did you warn them?” she asked.

Gryphon might have grinned at her knowledge of his dealings. She always seemed to know what he was about. But after seeing her like this … he couldn’t muster a smile.

“They escaped before the Ram had a chance to reach them.”

Her features lightened in obvious relief. “Joshua … ” she smacked her wrinkled lips together, “the Wolf healer and her sister?”

“All fine and traveling with the Nameless refugees.” He hoped.

“Barnabas wants you, Troy. He’ll do anything to have you.” He accepted her icy hand, her skin translucent and frail.

Gryphon didn’t bother correcting her misuse of his name. Troy was his father. “I can’t believe Barnabas banished you. Did he discover your work with the Nameless?”

The Historian nodded. “Told me I saw too much.” She lifted a bent and bony finger to her gnarled eye socket.

How could he do such a thing to his own grandmother?

“He knows about the Allies. He knows Troy. The Ram will march … ” The Historian coughed. “Preparations … for the Great Move are … ”

Gryphon lifted the back of her head and poured water onto her dry tongue. “Try not to speak.”

“Help me die, Troy. Please. I’m in … so much pain,” she wheezed as Gryphon wiped water from her chin.

“I … I’m not brave enough.” If only Zo were here. She’d know just what to do to keep this woman comfortable until she passed away peacefully.

Raca knelt down on the other side of the Historian. “I will help you pass, old one.” She looked up at Gryphon, searching his face for permission.

“I … no. You can’t—”

The Historian used what remained of her energy to reach up and press her palm to Gryphon’s cheek. “You’re like him. I’ve always thought so.” She coughed again. “When you see him. Tell him … how proud … ” her hand fell and her one eye shut.

Gryphon felt for a pulse at her neck. It came, then seconds passed before it beat again.

For the last time.

Gryphon rested his forehead against the Historian’s shoulder and whispered, “Great men are mighty in life and in death.” A common Ram prayer spoken over the dead as they pass from this life. Strange that it triggered a buried sense pride for a clan he had betrayed. For a people who no longer claimed him as their son. “Rest in peace, old friend. Thank you for everything.”

Raca and Talon retreated a good distance from the Historian’s lifeless body. He assumed they didn’t want to have the old woman’s spirit haunting them for the rest of their lives, or something ridiculous like that. Shaking his head, Gryphon searched the ground until he found a good-sized rock with a point strong enough to cut into the dirt. He knelt next to his unlikely mentor and dug into the ground, thinking about the Historian’s final words.

The Great Move was something whispered about among the ranks of Ram mess units. It would be his people’s most extreme effort to secure a bountiful future for the Ram and their posterity. Gryphon couldn’t imagine his people leaving behind their mighty city and the towering Gate that defined them. But then he also couldn’t imagine Barnabas exiling his aged grandmother—a woman upon whom he’d doted.

Muscles burning and mind reeling, Gryphon set his rock aside. Only then did he notice the cuts and calluses from using only a rock and his bare hands to dig the shallow grave. His minor injuries were nothing compared to the fate of so many people around him—people he hadn’t been able to protect.

Afraid he’d break her, Gryphon tenderly lifted the Historian into his arms and then laid her in the earth to rest forever.

At first, Zo thought the fire catapulting across the sky was another nightmare. Only when one of the balls of woven brambles and flame crashed near them—shattering on the ground around the sleeping families—did she realize it was real. The Nameless cried out as they fought the flames. Bedrolls, packs, and the clothes upon their backs caught fire. The men stationed along the outer edge of the camp couldn’t attack the demons in the woods and help their families douse the flames at the same time.

Beyond the perimeter, Zo saw Clanless clutch balls of woven wood, light it ablaze, and launch it into the camp before Stone’s men could get to them.

Zo turned to find Joshua shielding Tess like a mother bird protecting her chick in the fold of her wings. Beside them, a little girl screamed as her mother rolled around on the ground, desperate to suffocate the flames eating her shirt.

Zo grabbed her blanket and jumped on the woman. When the fire was completely out, Zo pulled the woman and her child under a lone cedar tree in the center of camp. Joshua and Tess followed.

The light of the flames surrounding them was bright enough to see the exposed, melted skin on the woman’s back. Her cry was barely audible over the commotion of the camp—a deep, throaty sound that bespoke a lifetime of hopeless suffering.

The fires around the camp diminished. The skies cleared, and the stars became visible to witness the suffering of those burned and the loved ones who had to stand by and watch their pain.

Zo hooked her arm around the lowest branch of the tree and pulled herself up to get a better vantage. “Bring us your injured,” she called out. Jumping down, she unrolled her charred blanket on the ground. “Joshua, my kit. Tess, I’m going to need your help with—”

“The blessings,” Tess interrupted. “I know.” They locked eyes for a moment and a hundred small messages passed between them. Zo’s apology for not telling her sister about her broken ability. Tess’s forgiveness and confidence that Zo would recover.

The burned and wounded formed a line before Zo and Tess and, one by one, their wounds were tended and blessings given. By the time they finished, the first light of day crested the eastern horizon. All the color left Tess’s face as she crumpled into Joshua’s lap like a kitten. “Will you stay with her for a while?” Zo asked Joshua. The boy nodded—the freckles of his nose hidden under a layer of ash—and leaned his head back against the cedar tree, halfway lost to sleep already.

“I’m going to speak with Stone,” said Zo. When she closed her eyes all she could see was the charred, melted skin of the innocent. People—children—paying the price for her freedom. What had happened last night would never happen again.

“No.” Stone folded his arms over his muscled chest.

“But you lost another five men last night. And the injured … ” Zo worked to control a tremor in her voice. “Do you not hear the cries of the Nameless? One person is not worth the lives of so many.” Zo sighed. “Your only choice is to give me over to Boar. I can defend myself against him.”

Stone barked a “Ha!” and resumed his pacing. “You’re just a girl. Practically a child.”

“Commander Laden entrusted me with the task of spying inside Ram’s Gate,” said Zo. “I’ll handle Boar.”
Somehow.
The Clanless leader had proven himself to be much more clever than they’d originally thought.

Zo cleared her throat to purge another tremor of fear from her voice. “And besides, you don’t need me anymore. You know how to get to the Allies without me.”

Stone grumbled and paced some more while Eva studied Zo, her ever-present daggers in hand. She tilted her head to the side and said, “I think Zo is right. If she is willing to go, it isn’t cruel to let her.” She walked over to Zo and offered a military nod. “Let her take the honorable path.”

Zo didn’t know whether or not to be grateful to Eva.

Stone growled and continued making tracks in the dirt.

“This is your only option, Stone. Stop pretending like it isn’t. These people you’re leading aren’t fighters. They’re farmers. If you don’t give in to Boar, you won’t have anyone left to save.”

Before the Nameless set out for another day of hiking, Stone called a meeting with his little army of men, leaving Zo and Tess to organize their packs and bedrolls. Zo did her best not to stare at her little sister. She wanted to memorize every angle of her face, every shade of blond in her hair. When they finished, Tess asked if she could play with some of the children in the camp until it was time to leave.

“Stick to the center of the circle,” said Zo.

“I will. I will.” Tess shot away like a stone from Joshua’s sling.

Zo dipped her hand into a familiar pocket of her medical satchel and found a short piece of graphite and paper. The same paper and graphite she’d used to write messages to the Allies while serving as a spy inside Ram’s Gate.

If she was going to give herself over to Boar and his band of Clanless, she needed to make certain Tess and Joshua would be cared for. She had a feeling Boar would come soon to see if Stone had changed his mind about making the trade and wanted to be ready. Her cold hand shook as she wrote.

Commander Laden,

I write to you not as your spy, but as your adopted ward and friend. I have been ransomed to the Clanless leader, Boar, in exchange for the lives of many Nameless. I chose to do this against Stone’s will. Please accept these people—these freemen who once bore the title “Nameless.” They have risked everything to join you and have more reason to fight for our cause than most, though they lack the skill. Feed them. Clothe them. But most of all, respect them.

I’ve told Tess and our good friend, Joshua, that I’ve gone ahead without them. They will be very upset to know that I’ve lied to them when they arrive at the Allied Camp and discover I’m not there. They are my family. If I don’t find a way to return to the Allies, I need you to look after them for me. They have no one else.

For the cause of freedom,

Zo

Zo dropped the piece of graphite and massaged her hands into her face. How could she do this to them? How could she leave? Zo folded the letter and tucked it into a hidden pocket of her shirt.

“What is that?” Joshua said, startling her.

“A letter for the Commander Laden of the Allies,” said Zo. “Stone’s asked that I go ahead with a few of the men to ask for help against the Clanless.”

“Why you?” Joshua scrunched his freckled nose.

“I’m the only one Laden will listen to, and I know where I’m going.”

Joshua folded his arms. “I’m going with you.”

Zo knew he wouldn’t accept her lie without a fight. “Who will look after Tess if you come with me?”

“She can come too.”

Zo whispered. “People are dying, Joshua. I am planning to run the entire way. Tess will slow me down. She can’t come.”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“I won’t be alone, Ginger.” She sighed. “Who knows? I might be safer away from this camp than in it.”

Joshua seemed to consider that. “I don’t like it. We shouldn’t split up.”

“We don’t have a choice.” Zo understood how he felt. When you’ve gone through something as traumatic as escaping the Gate, you tend to hold tighter to the people you care about in life.

“When will you go?” asked Joshua, his head sunk low.

Zo surprised him by pulling him into a tight embrace. He was just barely taller than her, making it easy to rest her head upon his shoulder. She tried to infuse love, strength, and peace into the touch but knew that nothing extended from her beyond the surface.

She couldn’t even give that final gift to Joshua.

“Be careful. Please protect Tess.” She released him from her hug.

Stone approached. His head was newly shaven and a dark beard filled his face from ear to ear. “Are you ready?” he asked, eyeing Joshua with a frown lost in facial hair.

Tess chased another little girl in a circle around Zo and Joshua. Zo caught her by the back of collar, earning a wild complaint from Tess. “You said I could play!” Her words died when she saw Stone.