The Well of Fates

CHAPTER 22

  The Ride

  They were traveling off the roads and pushing their horses hard as they skirted the border south. At least it was getting warmer the further they went. Elaina knew it was still too slow for Cade by the way he kept staring up at the sky marking the position of the sun.

  In three days of travel, he never scowled, but she was pretty sure she would have stopped if she were the sun, or at least slowed down. The stars were winking to life in the heavens when they finally halted each night—always the first break since around noon, when he would allow her to dismount and she and the horses could take a drink.

  Her and the horses—she felt a lot like one of them, actually, for all he noticed her. In fact, she thought the animals might have the edge in that contest. Clenching her teeth, Elaina patted her bay's round cheek while Cade built a small fire. Perhaps he was not intentionally being rude, perhaps he didn't realize that people generally exchanged more than four words if they spent an entire day together.

  Elaina remained determinedly silent and stared unblinking at the flames as Cade brought out some salted pork and hard bread from his saddlebags. He sharpened two long sticks and speared alternating chunks of salted pork and bread on them. One he handed to her and the other he held over the flames, sitting not an arm's length from her. She took the food with a nod and held it as he did, rotating to keep the juices soaking into the bread.

  Their dinner started to smell delicious in a very short amount of time, making Elaina's stomach rumble. She cast a sideways glance at Cade, who apparently did not think the food was done. She kept twirling the stick, trying to ignore her stomach. It was all she could do to keep from licking her lips while they waited.

  Finally, Cade drew his back from the flames to inspect it and was satisfied, resting his hand on his knee while he waited for it to cool. Elaina couldn't wait and set about tearing the food off the stick with her teeth, sucking in air to keep from burning her whole mouth at once.

  It was far too hot, and she looked like a fool, but she was well past caring that Cade watched with a hint of surprise. As her hunger receded, her frustration rebounded to its previous levels and then some. If he hadn't starved me, I wouldn't have eaten like a wild animal, Elaina groused in her head, watching Cade slide his food off piece by piece and pop them neatly into his mouth. Once finished, he tossed his stick on the fire and they both watched it burn and sizzle.

  "You are frustrated by our pace, but we can go no faster nor any longer—it would be dangerous for the horses to continue past sundown." Cade said without warning, making Elaina jump. For a long moment she stared at him, almost counting the words. That may have been the longest sentence she had ever heard him utter unprovoked. He looked back solemnly.

  "I know. I could not have gone on much longer anyway—I've been in better health." She thought she saw one eyebrow twitch upward at that and a blush spread across her face. Of course, he would know all about that. He is the man who force fed her multiple times a day for many, many days. The thought made her wince. He knew her far better than she wanted.

  "It is not the pace, then." He murmured. Elaina caught the obvious implication: it wasn’t the pace, but there was something bothering her. If he asked, she wasn't going to tell him why she was frustrated—let him stew on that for a while! He didn't ask. Naturally.

  The next morning, they reached the road that ran from Hurndrith to Matriem, the one they had traveled on only days before. Cade insisted on scouting up and down the road for the place the trees grew up closest, wanting to stay as hidden as possible.

  Elaina didn't argue, no matter how she wanted to. It really was a reasonable idea— how many times did things go wrong in the stories because someone was careless? And it was a relief to dismount. Even someone used to the saddle would have felt the last few days' ride. Well, anyone but the Watcher, he moved with the grace of a hunting animal regardless of how many days they spent riding. Annoying, to say the least.

  That was why she wanted to argue: because it was him, because he ordered her around from dawn to dusk. The offending person rode up just as she was beginning to scowl again.

  "Run now, well into the trees. Go!" he commanded quietly as he slid off his horse and darted across the road. Fuming, Elaina could do nothing but follow. How does he do that? How does he manage to order me around without ceasing, yet refusing always seems unreasonable? It was infuriating. Try as she might, she could think of nothing to say to him that didn't make her sound like a petulant child.

  It didn't matter anyway. By the time she was hidden by the branches on the far side, he was already mounted and moving south.

  Cade ducked under the low sweeping boughs of a pine and was disappointed to see there was no clearing on the far side. Tree trunks blocked every line of sight in a few paces, which didn't help his plan. He wanted to halt earlier tonight than last. The Wielder was exhausted. He pursed his lips. She wasn't just tired, she was in a towering rage.

  He had no idea what it was—and last night's guess hadn't helped at all. Cade could admit to himself that he was baffled. Women were a maze in the dark in the best of times, he knew, and he hardly had the experience to manage this one. It was clear that she was angry, and it only got worse when he spoke to her, so he kept his mouth shut as much as he could.

  Hopefully, whatever it was would go away if he left her alone. And if not, well, soon she would be on a ship to the Brethren in Vinyam. He found himself thinking about the two groups of casters that way: the Drethlords were those led by Keravel, and the Brethren were the exiles in Vinyam and elsewhere. He wasn’t even sure which those were, only that some of Keravel’s Brothers refused to join the Firstborn and Monren was one of them.

  It would take them four days to reach the river and at least two weeks more to make it to the City, the only settlement deserving the name in the whole country. The country was the city, actually, having grown and spread from the walls of Hennelea to gain some small autonomy in War of a Thousand Banners. From what Cade remembered of his schooling, that was largely due to the fact that they controlled trade going upriver to Loth Daer and Fiandar.

  Hennelea had been at war with Ronam on an annual basis from their creation through Cade’s grandfather’s rule. During that time, they came to an agreement: Hennelea would tax the ships going upriver, and Ronam would tax them going out to sea. If anyone tried to slip past, both navies would intercept them. Fortunately for the less scrupulous, Ronam and Hennelea hardly ever sank these ships, preferring to haul them in and hold them ransom.

  No one liked money as much as the people of the Bay. and in the Bay, money meant ships, so ships they had. All he had to do was get the Wielder to the docks, and there would be a ship for Vinyam willing to take her. She would be off his hands and on her way to the exiles in no more than a week's time.

  Unsurprisingly, Cade thought even less of the exiles than Elaina did. They had not meant for her to be chained, but they had never lifted a finger for him. The uncomfortable thought occurred to him that he had taken quite a while to lift a finger on Elaina's behalf. Even then it was spontaneous—not a matter of courage and honor, but sudden freedom and frantic flight.

  It made him wonder about that oath he'd given the day they were Linked, part of the Asemaline ritual, though given in the formal language of Arith, the language of the Guardians. He'd sworn to shield and to follow, his pain before hers, his blood before hers, his life before hers. Keravel certainly never expected my brother and I to fulfill it.

  He glanced back at her for a moment, struggling between thick branches. Perhaps that was the source of her fury: she had not forgiven him for holding her captive, but was too scared to part ways. Cade didn't delude himself, she was not frightened of the world at large and seeking protection—though he thought she should have been.

  If he knew anything of her at all, he would have wagered a great deal that she worried he would give her away to the Drethlords or something. With the Link, he was the only person in Arith t
hat could find her now if she got it in her head to disappear.

  She needn't have worried. His reasons to hate them were ten times what hers were. Keravel chained her for weeks, him for fourteen years. They killed her uncle, took her parents to their deaths, and turned to Wilds the land she would have grown up in. He lost a family, a country, a people, and a future. The newness of his freedom and the necessities of survival were distracting him from it, but Cade felt the raw emptiness of missing his brother constantly. It had been hell before, but at least he had not been alone.

  A curse word drifted up to him as the pine branches swished back to catch Elaina full in the face. It was one he had not heard before, which was impressive. Well, I am not alone now, for all the good it does me. He pushed back another limb and almost smiled. Finally, some good luck.

  Elaina burst into the clearing on Cade's heels, muttering under her breath at the ever-present trees. Her traveling companion was still as talkative as a rock and almost as expressive. As she scanned the clearing, Elaina felt her mood improve.

  At least there is enough space between the trees to take a free breath. Ten paces across, the openness was marred only by a tenacious willow that clung to the earth between two large moss-covered stones. A small brook meandered cheerfully off into the trees.

  "This is nice." She said in surprise, vow of silence forgotten for a moment.

  "It is." He agreed shortly.

  "We think so too." Elaina jumped and Cade spun, black sword out to face the wall of trees to the left. There was a rustle, and two figures emerged.