Traitor (28 page)

I blushed beet red. My ears were burning as I stepped out of the ferns to face my cousin. I half expected her to be angry, but she just seemed deflated, even a little disappointed.

“I’m sorry for eavesdropping.” I kept my eyes trained on the ground since she still hadn’t put her clothes back on.

It didn’t seem to bother her if she was dressed or not, though. She took her sweet time wringing the water out of her hair and stepping carefully back into her silken robes.

“S-should I give you some privacy?” I stammered as I instinctively covered my eyes.

“Why?” She sounded confused at first. Then she laughed. “Ah. Forgive me. Sometimes I forget that you aren’t familiar with our ways. Baths are not private things to our people. It is not seen as sensual to bathe. In fact, we rather like bathing together in groups. It’s a time to be social and exchange gossip.”

I dared to glance up at her. Thank Paligno she had finished dressing by then. My nerves couldn’t take much more of this. “So then why did you scream at Jace for walking in on you?”

There was a conniving, almost smug little grin on her lips as she quickly wound her long silver hair into a braid. “Because I knew it would embarrass him,” she said. “And I think he’s rather cute when he’s embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed?” I hadn’t gotten that at all from the way he’d acted. I’d been worried about it actually coming to blows. “Are you sure he wasn’t angry? It sort of looked like—”

“Jaevid, how long have you trained with him? He was the one who taught you to be a dragonrider, wasn’t he? So don’t you know him at all? When he’s angry, he says nothing. He pouts like a big child. And when he’s embarrassed, he won’t shut up.”

I swallowed stiffly. “And you think he’s cute?”

She shrugged, and I could have sworn I saw a touch of blushing color her cheeks. “When he isn’t complaining or acting like a baby, maybe. Just a little.”

I probably could have spent all night trying to figure out the weird relationship that was brewing between my war dog of a former instructor and my warrior princess of a first cousin. But that would have been pointless. Women still confounded me for the most part. Without Felix there to spell it out for me, there wasn’t much hope for me sorting it out on my own.

Fortunately, I had greater concerns to worry myself with. Once Araxie and I arrived back at the camp, and I’d spun up a pathetic excuse about getting lost on my way back from using the bathroom, I volunteered to take my turn keeping watch. It was time to send out messages and rally what allies I could to my cause.

I had more than a few concerns. First of all, I didn’t know how many of my friends were still alive. It had been long enough that anything could have happened; more battles, the spread of the curse, or something else. Second, I didn’t know where they were. Third, I wasn’t sure if they would agree to help me once I explained what I intended to do. And honestly, I didn’t know if this would even work at all.

But I had to try.

When things became quiet and I was sure everyone else was sound asleep, I went around the campsite and plucked a few fresh leaves off various plants. I found the perfect spot and sat down on the ground, spreading them all out before me.

I was still learning the method tapping into Paligno’s power. Those whispering memories served as guides, feeding me instincts and memories that made the process easier. I couldn’t create something from nothing, that much they had made clear. All things came from something else—that was the very nature of life itself. So to fashion my messengers, I had to start with some kind of raw material.

Leaves would be perfect—or so I hoped.

I let my thoughts become quiet and focused as I sat cross-legged on the ground. I let those soft voices and flurrying memories fill my thoughts, whirling around me like flakes in a snowstorm. I saw what I had to do and allowed the instinctual responses wash over me. Stretching my hands out over them, I pressed my will into the fibers and tiniest parts of the leaves. They all began to glow with brilliant green light, slowly rising into the air and hovering around me. The air hummed with energy. It sounded like music, like rushing wind through the arms of the trees.

The tips of my fingers tingled as I bade them take form, and the leaves obeyed. Enveloped in light, I could see their shapes slowly changing. They began to look less like leaves and more like birds—beautiful birds with feathers as green and bright as emeralds.

I whispered my message to them, storing it inside their very essence. And then, one by one, I sent them away. One to Felix. One to Beckah. One to Roland. And lastly, one to Sile. I asked them all to come to Mithangol and meet me at my family home. I would come to them there.

With each message sent, one of the gleaming leaf-birds vanished into a puff of glittering mist and disappeared. Soon, I was left alone in the darkness of Luntharda again. Overhead, the moon had begun to sink beyond the trees. I found myself calling out to Paligno again, hoping that he would answer me somehow. I wanted assurance that I was doing the right thing and that this really was going to work. I wanted to be confident and fearless because that’s what this task was going to require.

Of course, just like all the other times, I got no response. No comfort. No voice from the heavens or the earth. There was only me and the music of the frogs and crickets.

It made me miss Beckah.

I was about to give up and go back to the fire so I could sulk and feel sorry for myself until my shift was over, but a new, curious, and familiar presence trickled into my mind. Immediately, I remembered that I wasn’t alone. I hadn’t been alone in years. Mavrik’s colors swirled in my mind’s eye and I found myself smiling at their customary patterns. He was checking up on me, as usual.

“Show me again,” I whispered as I sent my thoughts to him. “I want to see the place where you came from.”

Mavrik eagerly obliged. He was excited that I wasn’t pushing him away anymore. I guess he had missed me.

Even as I sat back down beside the fire, my mind raced on the wings of a dragon. I soared through his memories, along the steep cliffs where his kind nested on narrow ledges and in ancient sea caves. They rode the powerful winds that blasted the gray, jagged rocks. The air smelled richly of sea foam, and the waves crashed along the coastline like the pummeling fists of the gods, sending salty spray hundreds of feet into the air.

It was soothing. Every one of my senses was entranced. And when it was time for Kiran to take over the next watch shift, I let those visions lull me to sleep.

We were up and moving again by daybreak. With Araxie in the lead, we had expectations of making it to the edge of the jungle by dusk—which suited me perfectly. I’d rather get to Barrowton after nightfall when there was less chance of anyone spotting us.

High in the trees, we stayed clear of the marshy, swampy portion of Luntharda that lay below us. I picked up the pungent odor of the silt mud. It reminded me of an unfortunate incident in my fledgling year of training that had involved gray elves and a huge, angry turtle. I was more than happy to stay out of the mud this time.

Blue was still following us, although he stuck by Jace’s side most of the time. Apparently they had worked out some kind of truce that had evolved into a friendship. I feared that it was doomed to end once we left for Maldobar. Blue would never be welcomed there.

Jace had already lost his dragon in battle. He hadn’t brought it up, of course. It wasn’t his style to let anyone see him grieve … or feel much of anything, for that matter. But I had difficulty imagining that he wasn’t at least a little upset over it. Ghost may not have been bonded to him the way Mavrik was with me, but they had still fought together in many battles. It was depressing to think Jace was about lose another animal friend.

I kept my eyes trained on Araxie as we pressed on, leaving the swamps and smelly marshlands behind. My body was sore. My boots were making my feet raw from all the unnatural movements. Dragonrider boots weren’t made for this kind of maneuvering. My stomach was growling and aching, as though it were scraping the back of my spine.

I was hanging by a thread, watching every move Araxie made in anticipation of a rest. Just one swig of water, or a small bite to eat, and I felt like I would have been a little less clumsy and chaotic. Maybe then I could have at least stood without my knuckles dragging the ground.

When she finally raised a hand, signaling for the rest of us to stop, I collapsed into a sitting position on the edge of the branch, letting my legs dangle over the steep drop to the jungle floor. My armor had me smothering in the miserable heat and humidity, and I could feel that my clothes under my breastplate were drenched with sweat.

As soon as Araxie gave the go-ahead for everyone to relax, I took off my pack and unbuckled my breastplate so I could breathe and cool off a little. Then I went fishing through my belongings, desperate to find what was left of my food rations. It wasn’t much. We were all getting low on food now. I doubted we could afford to go another day without reaching the boundary.

“How much farther is it?” Jace asked as he looked despairingly at his own rations of dried meat and nuts. It was only a few handfuls—about the same as what was left in my bag, too. It was barely enough to keep someone from passing out from hunger and not nearly enough to satisfy a hungry soldier.

Araxie was sitting with her legs crossed, munching away. “Five, maybe six miles. We should reach it before dark if we do not stop or slow down.”

“In that case, I’m going to take care of some business before we get moving again.” Jace crammed what was left of his food in his mouth and got up. He stretched, groaning and rubbing his back as he wandered away into the cover of the leaves and branches.

I didn’t think anything about it. None of us seemed to, in fact. Kiran, Araxie, and I just went on eating without saying a word. I guess we were all too tired to make small talk.

My thoughts were wandering toward how I would have loved a cold bath. Even Blue was lounging comfortably nearby, licking his paws and yawning like he was wishing for a mid-afternoon nap. We’d gotten complacent.

And that was our first mistake.

Jace came back a few minutes later with his arms full of something that looked like fruit. Each one was about the size a man’s fist and was bright pink with yellow spikes all over them. I gathered by the way he was squishing one in his hand that they were softer than they looked.

He was grinning triumphantly as he showed off what he’d found. “These are fruit, right? Can we eat them?”

I would be the first in line to try one.

Then I saw Araxie’s expression.

She was sitting perfectly still. Her eyes as wide as saucers and brimming with horror. The look on Kiran’s face was eerily similar. Neither one of them made a sound.

“What?” Jace frowned down at the fruit in his arms. He’d picked about a dozen or so of the bright, prickly things.

Slowly and carefully, Araxie got to her feet. “Do not move,” she warned. I could see her breathing heavily. There was a fresh sheen of sweat on her skin as she slowly stepped toward him.

He obeyed, although he appeared just as confused as I was.

I could see the fear in Araxie’s color-changing eyes as she stood in front of him, carefully reaching out to take the piece of fruit from his hand. She held it like it might bite her. “Where did you find this?”

“Just over there. There were a bunch of them. These are just the ones I could reach.” Jace was staring her down as though he were searching for some clue about what was going on.

Meanwhile, Kiran was quickly and carefully gathering our belongings. His eyes never left Jace, and he did an excellent job not making a single sound as he worked. He didn’t so much as rustle a leaf.

I decided to do the same. I slowly buckled my breastplate back over my body and stood.

“What are they?” I whispered as I slung my bag back over my shoulder.

“The fruit of the greevwood trees,” she answered breathlessly. She’d begun taking the fruit from him piece by piece and carefully placing them on the branch a few feet away from our group.