Once out of the shelter of their camp, the warriors set a brisk pace, jogging up the mountainside. Gennen led Inen and Wynne who were carrying the stretcher. Odallyan scampered hither and thither, leaping over boulders and dashing between the trees, always on the lookout. They bounded over rocky outcrops, plowed up the steepening slopes, and wove through the pines as if it were a merry jaunt. None of them so much as lost their breath as Adeya scrambled and panted and clawed after them, often going to her hands and knees because of the ascent. She lagged further and further behind until Inen shouted.
“Gennen! The mainlander!”
The warriors stopped.
Adeya dropped to the ground, fighting for breath and trembling.
With a scitter and leap, Gennen crossed the space to kneel next to her. “Are you well?”
“I’m sorry—I can’t!” She panted, shaking her head.
“Climb on.” Gennen offered his back to her.
She stared at the wry old man in disbelief.
“You’re wasting arclight!” he snapped.
Adeya clambered on and looped her arms about his neck.
The old man lifted her as if she weighed no more than his pack and jogged back up the slope to rejoin the others. They set off together.
Higher up the mountains they climbed. Rounding the shoulder of the slope, they entered a valley covered in deep green verge. Pale curves of rock jutted through the evergreens that clothed the mountainsides. Above, peaks gleamed white with snow. A shimmering lake of cobalt water filled the floor of the valley. Along its banks they trotted, Adeya bouncing and clinging to the old man’s neck; Kyen being jostled on the stretcher unnoticed by Wynne and Inen.
Near midday, one of the cougar fiends emerged out of the shadows of some tumbled boulders. Oda, seeing it first, charged it. He screamed a throaty war cry while he slung his sword in circles over his head. The fiend bolted, scrambling away over the rocks before he got close.
When he came trotting back, he grinned at Wynne. “That’s how you deal with fiends.”
“Shut it,” she growled, jerking up on the litter as she jogged over the rocks.
By the time they skirted halfway along the lake, the arc had sunk behind twin peaks to the east. It blazed like a line connecting one mountainside to the other, shedding a failing wedge of light over the valley. As it sank deeper, it turned the heights of pines black, the verdure brown, and the pale rock faces gold.
Gennen stopped in a sandy clearing under the shade of some old pines. The water glittered like fire on black glass a stone’s throw away.
“We stop here for the night.” He let go of Adeya.
She squeaked and squeezed her grip on his neck to keep from falling, and Gennen choked.
“Gerrouff!”
“I’m sorry!” She lowered herself to the ground.
He shrugged his cloak on straight and swung his head back and forth as if to work out a crick in his neck. “Oda, fish. Wynne, firewood. Inen, scout a perimeter.”
Odallyan gave a shout, a leap, and sped towards the lake. He stripped off his boots along the way, casting them haphazardly behind him. Water splashed high when he hit the shallows.
Inen lowered his end of Kyen’s litter to the ground; Wynne all but dropped hers with a thud. She sulked into the trees muttering under her breath.
As Inen set off to scout, Adeya hobbled over and sank to her knees next to Kyen. She put a hand to his forehead. Still clammy and pale, he mumbled under his breath and shifted in unconsciousness. She pulled up his tunic to check his wounds. Old blood darkened the underside of the bandages, and his gashes glared an angry red, veined out into the skin of his chest and shoulder.
Gennen stepped up next to her. “Well?”
“He’s not worse.” She replaced the bandages. “But he’s not better.”
His white eyebrows drew down into one fuzzy line.
“Don’t you know anything?” Wynne dumped a load of firewood down off to the side. “Ihnasah flower can heal everything.”
“Unless he wants to die,” said Oda from where he stalked in the shallows. “Nothing helps then.”
“Heh! I’d want to die if I was him,” she said.
He laughed as if it were a good joke.
Adeya frowned at them both, but before she could open her mouth, Gennen cut in.
“Quit squawking! The both of you,” he said. “I want dinner!” Then to Adeya, he said, “Still have that pouch? Get more of that in him.”
Adeya unslung the pack from her shoulder.
Wynne with two flint strikes and a puff had the fire crackling.
Adeya rose to fill her tin cup from the lake.
With a splash, Oda plucked a green pike from the water with his bare hands. He gave a loud whoop and charged back ashore with the wriggling fish, splattering water all over Adeya. She huffed and shook droplets off her sleeve. Scooping up a cupful, she took it to the fire. She refused Odallyan even a glance as he smacked the fish’s head with a rock until hung limp. He bared a dagger and set to gutting and cleaning it. On the opposite side of the fire, Adeya set the water to heat. She snatched it back a moment later as Wynne dumped an armload of wood on the flames.
“Don’t any of you have manners?” Adeya cried.
“What of it, mainlander?” Wynne squatted down next to her and thrust her face in close. When Adeya leaned away, she drew a knife from a sheath on her belt and wiggled it under her nose. Adeya lifted her chin, glaring back and gripping her skirts, but it didn’t hide her trembling. Wynne smirked. She looked at the knife’s edges glinting in the firelight then began picking dirt out from under her finger nails, all beneath Adeya’s nose.
Adeya’s jaw dropped open in a mixture of horror and outrage.
“Leave her alone, Wynne.” Inen stepped out of the trees.
“She’s just a chitling,” said Oda.
“Keh!” Wynne made a noise of disgust in her throat and sprang to her feet.
Adeya gave Inen a grateful look, but he sprawled out next to the fire, saying, “She’d probably hurt herself on a sword before she’d give you a challenge.”
Wynne and Oda chuckled; Gennen sat off to the side fixing himself a pipe.
“Kyen has been training me!” Adeya stuck her nose in the air.
Inen, Wynne, and Odallyan all stared at her for a long moment. They broke out in loud guffaws, laughing hysterically: Wynne doubled over clutching her belly; Inen fell over backwards; Odallyan paused scaling the pike.
Gennen puffed away at his pipe, ignoring them all.
“Kyen trained her! Kyen trained her!” Wynne wheezed.
“We should give her a sword,” said Oda, wiping tears from his eyes. “See if she even knows which end to hold it from!”
“Kyen is the best swordsman in all the kingdoms of Ellunon!” cried Adeya.
This sent Wynne laughing so hard she had to sit herself down.
“The kingdoms of Ellunon have some sad standards,” said Inen.
Odallyan snorted and flung fish guts into the water. “I wonder what they’d do if they ever met with a real warrior of Avanna?”
“Soil themselves,” said Inen.
“The mainland kingdoms know nothing.” Wynne clenched her fist and flexed her bicep.
“You! All of you!” cried Adeya. “You’re so—so—mean!”
The three looked at her: Odallyan grinned; Inen scoffed; Wynne leaned over.
“You’re like all the mainlanders,” said Wynne. “Soft!”
Adeya glared at them, but they all kept chuckling amongst themselves.
“My name is Adeya of Isea, Crown Princess and Heir to the Throne,” she interrupted them. “Not mainlander.” —she glared at Wynne— “Not chitling.” —she glared at Oda. “And you—stop laughing!” She snapped at Inen.
Inen shut his mouth.
Wynne shrugged. “Whatever you say, mainlander.”
“Will you get the fish on already?” snapped Gennen.
With angry tears shining in her eyes, Adeya put the cup on new coals and watched until the water heated.
Oda spit the fish and set it up to roast.
Turning her back on them, Adeya went to sit with Kyen, stir in the Ihnasah flowers, and blow off the steam. He lay unconscious on the stretcher, still and quiet for the moment, his dark hair damp on his pale skin. Biting her lip and with tears still in the corners of her eyes, she pulled up Kyen’s tunic and parted the bandages. Night had closed in around them, and the cool evening air redoubled his shivers. Taking out a wad of bandage, she dampened it with part of the tea, saving aside the rest, and washed his gashes with it. He mumbled under his breath as he stirred. His hand grabbed weakly after something beside him that wasn’t there.
“I’m here. I’m right here.” Adeya took his wandering hand in hers and gripped it as she kept bathing his wounds.
“It’s disgusting how she babies him,” said Wynne, not bothering to keep her voice down. “I’d die of shame if anyone smothered me like that!”
Adeya ignored her. She put Kyen’s tunic and bandages back in place then covered him up with the cloaks. As she did, his eyes opened. His stormy gray gazed wandered until it found her face.
“Can you drink this? It’ll help.” She lifted his head a little and held the cup to his lips. He choked on the first sip, convulsed once, but drained the whole thing down.
Adeya set the cup aside and lowered him back into the stretcher. “Are you warm enough? Do you want anything?”
“…you alright?” he asked, his voice hoarse and his eyes tired.
“Yes,” she said. “We’re safe.”
Shouts erupted from the fireside. She glanced back. Wynne gripped Inen in a headlock with one arm while holding the spitted fish far over Oda’s head with the other. Gennen, despite his slow pipe-puffs and his closed eyes, had a twitch working in the corner of his mouth.
“At least, I think we’re safe,” said Adeya.
When Kyen didn’t answer, she looked back at him. He’d dropped back into sleep. His chest rising and falling with deep, even breathing. She lowered him back to the stretcher to rest.
Adeya sat at his side. Warm firelight and the nonstop arguments of the others washed over her back. She looked up when Gennen approached her. He set a plate at her side without a word then returned to the fireside. She left the roasted pike to grow cold, untouched.
After having eaten, the three young warriors calmed down. Wynne sprawled out by the fire, picking at her teeth with a fish bone. Odallyan stretched out on his belly. Inen and Gennen leaned against the same tree.
“Found tracks when I scouted,” said Inen. “Two or three fiends at most. They seem to be tailing us.”
Gennen grunted.
“I doubt they’ll be a threat. They know we’ve got them outnumbered.”
“Unless they bring others.” The older swordsman growled around his pipe stem.
Adeya glanced over her shoulder when Inen mentioned fiends. She spoke up, “There’s a caladrius fiend, too.”
“Inen, take first watch tonight,” said Gennen, ignoring her.
She scooched closer to him, pointing at Gennen’s belt. “Can I have my knife back?”
His eyes narrowed on her.
“I want to help Kyen. You want to help Kyen. I’m not stupid. I’m not going to make enemies of you,” she said. “You—you do want to help Kyen, right?”
Gennen pulled out the knife and slapped the hilt into her outstretched palm.
“You told me you came for Kyen,” said Adeya, returning it to its sheath on her belt. “How do you know him?”
Wynne snorted and flicked her bone into the fire.
Odallyan chuckled to himself.
“We grasped the hilt with Kyen. We are his bladebrothers and swordsister,” said Inen.
Wynne made a noise of disgust in her throat. “Keh!”
Adeya looked to Gennen with confusion.
“Inen, Wynne, and Oda are Kyen’s peers,” said Gennen. “They grew up together, you might say.”
“And you?”
Her question brought another round of chuckles from the three, and it only deepened Adeya’s perplexed look.
“I am Kyen’s blademaster.” Gennen tapped out his pipe. “I’ve come to finish his training.”