Bastial Steel (27 page)

Now that it was clear Jek didn’t see these kids as a threat, Cleve decided to try moving. His eyes opened easily, at least far easier than earlier.

Words came out of his mouth with no effort at all. “I’m awake.”

“Can you get up now?” Jek asked.

Cleve pushed. Expecting it to be impossible, Cleve was delighted to find his strength had returned. His appetite was back as well.

Sitting up straight, he said, “I’m starving.”

Jek stood and helped Cleve to his feet. “It looks like my friend is feeling better,” Jek said. “We’ll be leaving soon.”

He handed Cleve some bread and water. Although it didn’t taste as delicious as earlier, it still made his mouth water.

“What happened to him?” the girl asked.

The boy shushed her, trying to drag her away. But she held steady, waiting for an answer.

Cleve glimpsed them for the first time and realized his earlier assumption was right. They were young. He didn’t get a good look at the boy, who was turned around with his hand shielding the sun, as if looking at something. But the girl’s face was frightened, as if the wrong word would send her fleeing. Her whole body was leaned back except for her neck, which was stretched forward toward Cleve

There were hills ahead, but nothing else. Grass was everywhere.

“I was bit by mookers,” Cleve admitted. He didn’t see the harm in telling them. If they lived around here, that meant they were part of Zav—part of the territory allied with Goldram.

The boy turned around with wide eyes. “And you lived?”

“So far,” Cleve joked, letting out the first words that came to mind.

“I didn’t know there was a town around here,” Jek said, looking past the boy at the hills behind him.

“It’s just a small group of us,” the girl answered. “A village. We hardly get any visitors.”

The boy cleared his throat and took the girl by the wrist. He shook his head at her, and she let her gaze fall to her feet.

“What’s wrong?” Cleve asked.

“Nothing,” the boy answered for her. “We’d better be leaving. The only reason we came over was because we saw you and your horses, and we were curious.” He turned and pulled the girl with him.

She looked back over her shoulder at Cleve, and then the boy did as well.

Then they straightened up and started jogging. Something about it was on the verge of being suspicious.

Cleve checked Jek’s face. He seemed to have the same thoughts. His eyes were squinted, the corner of his mouth twisted with concern.

“What do you think that was?” Cleve asked.

“It certainly wasn’t nothing,” Jek said, a hand pressing into his cheek. “I’m hoping they just weren’t allowed to be out here and that’s the reason for their behavior.”

Jek let his eyes fall to the food. He knelt. “I’ll heat some of this meat for you while you start with bread.” He took out his wand and pointed it. “Then we should be leaving. We have a long road ahead, and I don’t want to stick around to find out what the deal was with those kids.”

“I feel the same way. Is Lysha going to be okay with Raymess and Vala?”

“She should be. She knows the land better than anyone—the towns as well.” Jek’s head turned to follow the boy and girl. “She’d probably know this area enough to realize what those kids were up to.”

Jek and Cleve ate quickly. They were running low on both food and water.

“We’ll need to find a town on the way back to buy more food,” Jek said. “Lysha took Raymess and Vala to Gajiri. It’s about a day’s ride northeast and is known to be controlled by the kingdom of Zav. They’ll help the Takarys, and they’ll definitely sell us food and water when we get there. We might even find some men from Goldram stationed there to help escort us back. I doubt we’ll run into any trouble crossing through Zav, but it’s better to be safe.”

“I’m more concerned about the kids anyway.”

When they finished eating, Cleve threw on his backpack, checked his Bastial steel sword, and then whistled to Nulya.

She galloped over, resting her head on his shoulder as he pet her.

“I can’t find my bandana,” Jek said, looking around him. He took off his bag to look within it. “I took it off before I went to sleep.”

“Could the wind have picked it up?” Cleve asked.

“It was half buried under my backpack,” Jek answered in a doubtful tone. “At least I thought so.”

Then Cleve remembered the boy stepping near them, the girl telling him not to do something.

“The boy took it,” Cleve realized.

A mixture of confusion and worry creased Jek’s brow. “How do you know?”

“I heard him rustling around you when I was waking up,” Cleve said. “If you can’t find it, he certainly took it.”

“But why would he do that?”

Cleve shrugged. “To impress the girl, to show he’s courageous, because he’s a dumb kid? I don’t know.” He paused for a breath, wondering if he should continue to speculate. He decided not to. “Let’s hope it’s one of those reasons and not something else.”

Jek seemed to be struck by sadness. He let out a long sigh. “I really liked that bandana. It meant something to me.”

“Should we go after them?” Cleve dearly hoped Jek would say no. Though sympathetic, Cleve was eager to get back so he finally could go home to Kyrro, and there was something about the kids that made it seem dangerous to follow them.

“We shouldn’t,” Jek answered to Cleve’s relief. “Lisanda’s not going to be happy. But she’ll understand.”

Oh, it’s that bandana.
Cleve remembered Lisanda’s story about her and Jek—the bandana played a big role early on.
That’s why it’s so important to him.
If there was something like that between him and Reela, it would be difficult for him to leave it as well.

He was beginning to change his mind. “You sure you don’t want to go after them?”

“I want to. But something’s telling me we shouldn’t.”

Cleve nodded. He had the same feeling.

They rode at a trot. The hills kept most of the wind from reaching them while the hanging sun gave the sky an orange glow.

“What happened after I left you and Lysha with the Takarys in the cabin?” Cleve asked, realizing there were many details he couldn’t figure out.

“All of the mookers chased you. We thought you were going to be dead for sure.” Jek had a wry smile. “You’ll never know the shock I felt when we found you.”

“How did you find me?”

“We saw the direction you went. It was the opposite way from the horses. Lysha and I carried Raymess, who was barely conscious. We put him with Vala on your horse and then went after you. It wasn’t too hard to find you. We just followed the sounds of the mookers, and then eventually we saw them.” Jek let out a laugh. “You attracted even more than there were in the encampment.”

“They kept coming out of hiding to join the pack.”

“I imagined so,” Jek said. “Who knows how many are really in the forest. Hundreds of thousands, I’m sure.”

“Now that I’ve had time to think about it, I was beginning to feel the effects of the poison from being bitten by the time I saw you and Lysha. But that memory is jumbled, fragmented like broken glass. What exactly happened?”

The answer didn’t seem to come easy to Jek, as he took a slow breath and let his eyes lift to the clouds. “It’s hard to remember. So much was happening at once.”

He turned his head to look at Cleve, the bouncing of their trotting mounts making it difficult to maintain eye contact. “Lysha was yelling at me to do this and do that. I remember focusing as hard as I could to produce the biggest cloud of SE that I could manage. Then I shot fireballs at the mookers near you, continuing to shoot more to keep them from following. I helped Lysha get you on her horse. You were still cooperating somewhat at that point. I don’t know how I found my horse again.” Jek leaned forward to stroke his horse’s mane. “Nor do I know how Vala kept your horse with us through that, while a nearly unconscious Raymess was holding on to her. But somehow we rode out of there together and got far enough from the mookers that they lost track of us.”

Hearing Jek describe it made the memories clearer. Cleve could see himself being put on the horse now. But he certainly didn’t remember anything after that.

“You said I was unconscious for two days?”

“Pretty much,” Jek said. “You were on Lysha’s horse with her the entire first day, definitely unconscious then. We rode until we were out of the forest and then practically passed out where we could sleep without being attacked by mookers. You were still asleep when we woke. That’s when you came down with a fever. You were in and out of consciousness after that, and soon Vala and Lysha decided they needed to leave to make sure Raymess got the attention he needed for his wounds.”

“You should’ve left me,” Cleve said, guilt pushing out his words before he really could consider them. “If anything happens to Raymess and Vala, then everything we did will be for nothing.”

“Cleve, even Vala wouldn’t have let me leave you. She saw what you did in the cabin. You killed Kasko, and then you risked your life to save the rest of us. Without you…” Jek shook his head. “I don’t even want to think about what would’ve happened.” The mage had a disgustingly humble tone.

“It sounds like you’re calling me a hero.” Cleve was feeling annoyed for reasons he didn’t quite understand. He figured it was because he didn’t feel like a hero. He’d just done what needed to be done. But the way Jek was looking at him—like he deserved to be crowned—made him painfully uncomfortable.

Jek slowed his horse, and Cleve did as well…reluctantly.

“I couldn’t have done what you did,” Jek said.

“Yes, you could’ve,” Cleve said, refraining from rolling his eyes.

“No.” Jek was firm. “I mean, I physically couldn’t have outrun all those mookers. I’m not fast enough. Lysha couldn’t have, either. That’s why we were sure you were going to be dead when we found you. If you don’t want to be a hero, fine. But at least accept our gratitude. There’s no way we were going to leave you sick and alone.”

Cleve felt the anger drain from him. He was even embarrassed he’d let it show. Jek was right. Cleve wouldn’t have left another person in his place. He felt as if he should say something.

“Thank you for staying,” he grumbled.

Jek extended his hand for Cleve to shake. “We’re not parting until we make it back to the palace, no matter what happens.”

Cleve shook the mage’s hand. “Jek, why are you being so dramatic?” He smiled to show he meant no harm with the question. “We’re in Zav already, the territory of Goldram’s ally. You make it sound like it’s inevitable that something will happen.”

Jek didn’t smile back. “That’s because it always does, at least to me.”

Cleve felt his grin fade. As he stared at Jek, he felt his decision changing. His mind was working like the wind in that moment, ebbing and flowing.

Just then, a big gust of it struck him from the side, turning his face north, toward the hills where the children had gone. With it, his mind changed as well, this time for good.

He looked at Jek and realized they were thinking the same thing.

“If we don’t go after them and figure out what they were really up to, trouble will find us,” Cleve said.

“I was about to say the same thing to you.”

They turned their horses.

Chapter 24

In hopes of catching up before the young teenagers reached whatever town they’d come from, Cleve and Jek pushed their horses to gallop, slowing only once they reached the hills that blocked whatever was behind them.

The sun no longer could be found in the sky by then, but it comforted Cleve to know that Jek could make light if they needed it.

Cleve still wasn’t feeling completely himself. It seemed as if sleep was waiting to strike every time his mind was at rest, sending his eyes shut and his head falling forward. Then in an instant, he was back.

He figured there was still poison running through his blood from the mooker bites. But by the rate he’d recovered in the last few hours, he knew it couldn’t continue to affect him too much longer.

Reaching the peak of the hill gave sight to a mountain about five miles in the distance. Halfway between the mountain and the hill they were on was a small village that must be where the boy and girl came from.

“Do you see them?” Jek asked.

“It’s too dark to tell.”

“And soon there will be no light left.” Jek’s tone was urgent, but he kept his horse slow as he started down the hill. Cleve figured it was dangerous to make the animals gallop down a slope, so he kept Nulya at the same pace.

“If we don’t see them by the time we’re close to the village, we should stop before going in,” Jek said. “There are some villages in every territory that do not abide by the rules of the kingdom.”

“They don’t pay taxes?” Cleve asked, amazed by the concept.

“They usually don’t even have money. Most of the time they don’t use currency—or at least the same currency as everyone else. These are usually barbaric people living among each other, most of them on the outskirts of Zav, Presoren, and Waywen, not so much in Goldram anymore since it’s surrounded by the other three territories with the Elves in Meritar behind it.”