Origin (25 page)

She woke a short while later, still tired, still tense, and still surrounded by the same general landscape that she’d fallen asleep to. She continued to ride northwest throughout the rest of the afternoon without spotting a village or settlement. It cemented her feelings that the map Ayron had found for them had been drawn incorrectly and that she and Thane must have misjudged the distance to Kren. Based on Thane’s calculations, she should have already reached the village. She was sure that Gemma chose the right path, so she continued to ride, watching out for predators and other possible threats. Elwyn was fairly certain that the area she was riding through would not be ideal for another shadow squad attack. There was a lot of tall marsh grass, but there would be very little opportunity for deep shadows to form here when the sun went down. It was getting close to evenfall, and she’d still seen no signs of a village. She believed if she kept moving forward, she would eventually find Kren, but she was facing a few problems. One was that there were very few free-flowing water sources and the standing water in the area seemed murky and filled with decaying vegetation. Another was that there was no place for the morden to graze. They were surrounded by tall, tough marsh grass but none of it was edible. And finally she was dead tired, sore, and hungry. She was especially tired of being in the saddle for so long without a break. Every muscle and joint in her body cried out for a rest, even a short one, from her journey. The problem with that was that darkness would be descending yet again within a few hours.

Elwyn tried to imagine what Thane would do under these circumstances and decided that he would have chosen to continue to ride through the night and not risk stopping again, no matter how tired and sore he was. She still had some jerky, biscuits, and had refilled both their waterskins at a stream near the crossroads, so she kept moving steadily forward along the trail, eating in her saddle when she was hungry. She slowed down a few times to let the morden graze when they came to any edible grass, but she stayed in the saddle ready to take off quickly if she spotted any danger. Nightfall started like the last, with dark clouds and a light drizzle. Eventually the rain stopped and a slice of moon accompanied by a myriad stars came out to light her way. The moon was bright and lit the trail ahead of her like a small lantern.

Elwyn, feeling totally exhausted, was starting to doze off again in her saddle, when she felt Kierra enter her mind.

“I spoke with Ayron and learned that your uncle is continuing to improve. They are hoping to arrive in Amarni very soon.”

“Thanks Kierra, good news about my uncle really lifts my spirits. I’m grateful that Ayron kept his promise to look after him. I’m also happy that he’ll be able to come and join me soon. I’m tired of all of this travel, I’m tired of feeling alone, and I’m tired of being the one in charge.”

“How are you doing? Have you been able to get any rest while you rode today?”

“I’m doing alright. I go through periods of feeling sorry for myself, and then I think of Thane or my uncle and what they would say to me, and I feel stronger and more able to cope with what may lie ahead. I realize that this is a temporary situation and that eventually it will pass. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to rest much. I’m still too nervous and shaken up by the events of last night to relax enough to sleep.”

“Hold on for just a little while longer, little one. Your uncle will be with you soon, as will my drakenhawk guard. You may find you have more company than you want after they all converge upon you.”

“That may be, but for right now I’m looking forward to it. Keroc is the same, by the way. The good news is that he doesn’t seem to be getting worse. I just wish that there was more I could do for him.”

“You are doing just fine. I will check in with you again as soon as I am able. In the mean time, take care and stay watchful.”

After sensing Kierra’s gentle presence slip from her mind, Elwyn reflected on their conversation. She felt somewhat energized and hopeful after hearing the news that her uncle was improving. She ate some more jerky, drank some water, and focused on the trip ahead. As she rode, she looked for signs of a village. The last thing she wanted to do was to miss it, and since she didn’t know how far it was from the trail, she kept watch for some tell tale signs of one; like plowed fields, lights, or a trail leading off to the left or right. When she grew tired, she tried giving herself pep talks to stay awake. She probably dozed off a few times during the night because there were occasional time lapses that she could not account for. But, for the most part she rode, watching out for attackers and fighting to stay awake. Just as the early morning mist was turning golden in the sunlight, she spotted a village in the far distance.

O
nce they were underway, it took Ayron no time at all to become impatient, yet again, at how slowly they were moving toward Amarni. He had ridden Gerrack and made the same journey from this location to Amarni in four or five hours only a few seasons ago. At the rate their little group was traveling, it would be past nightfall by the time they arrived in the city. He just wanted to get Rhys to safety quickly so that he could leave to search for Elwyn, or join her if she’d already arrived in Kren. He knew that she’d also faced delays due to the assassin’s attack, having to bury Thane, and then searching for Keroc. He wasn’t sure if she’d arrived in Kren yet, but was hoping she had and was, safe from attack for the time being, at least.

Ayron was positive that no shadow squad would be willing to take on an entire village. Their advantage lay in stealth, their excellent camouflage, and in darkness. They were also normally hired to take down a number smaller than their own. A village full of people would throw off that balance. In addition, paid assassins really hated to kill anyone but their target. They were all about money, and collateral damage wasn’t something they felt was cost effective. So if another shadow squad located her while she was in the village, they would probably wait until she left before trying to attack, and by that time he, his soldiers, and Kierra’s drakenhawks would be traveling with her.

The morning came and went as they moved steadily toward Amarni. At some point, Ayron felt Kierra gently enter his mind again.

“I wanted to give you another update about Elwyn. There were two attempts made on her life last night. We aren’t sure if it was two different groups, or the survivors of the first attacking a second time because there were only three assassins in that group. The first group attacked her in the middle of the night. One of the assassins ran onto the road and Gemma ran him down. Elwyn managed to either kill or wound two of them with her arrows before the heavy mist closed in and she couldn’t see them anymore. The morden sensed them coming and quickened their pace to make sure they got out of the range of any arrows as quickly as possible. She and the morden thought they killed two or three of them but weren’t sure since they were out of visual range very quickly.

The second attack occurred just before dawn. It was not as well organized. I think the fact that she traveled throughout the night threw them off. The strange thing is that there were only three of them. Elwyn wondered if they were the survivors from the first attack. This time she and the morden chose to stand and fight. They managed to kill all three so that there would be no survivors to return and report their failure. She is very curious about how the assassins got ahead of her since she spent most of the night traveling as fast as the morden could go, not stopping at all. She is also wondering how these assassins are able to track her down.”

“Kierra, someone is bound and determined to make sure that Elwyn never reaches Findara alive. I would have thought the fact that she was fleeing might have given Stefan confidence that she is not a threat to his throne. This whole situation just doesn’t smell right to me.”

“Unfortunately that is something that is going to remain unanswered for the time being. Elwyn did have some thoughts about making it more difficult for the assassins to find her. She thinks that they may be tracking her by her scent and heat signature, so she spread some marsh mud all over the two morden and herself, hoping to change their scent, so that they wouldn’t be as easy to follow. Just to make sure, she traveled east for a bit after she got to the crossroads and then circled back to the road going northwest through the marsh and grassy bogs.”

“You know Kierra, I am just amazed that she knows instinctively how to think about who is tracking her and formulate plans to evade her enemy. I know that she’s never had any type of military training, and yet she’s using techniques that we normally teach our military personnel.”

“I don’t think that any of us, including Elwyn truly know what she is capable of. I will tell you that she is extremely exhausted and her priorities are to get to the village, take a bath, and sleep in a soft bed.”

“I guess that is part of what I don’t understand about her. One minute she acts like a veteran soldier, and the next like a typical young woman.”

“Never forget that she is made of strong stuff just like you and her father, as well as Rhianna and Rhys. She will come through this challenge and be all the stronger for her experiences. I also wanted to tell you that Keroc is still alive, but unresponsive. I sometimes forget just how strong my young son is. He is also busy fighting for his life right now.”

She quickly passed along Elwyn’s message to her uncle and to him, but before he could say anything else, he felt Kierra slip gently from his mind. Ayron was a bit unhappy and frustrated that his communication with Kierra was always so short. There were so many things that he wanted to ask her. He had many more questions about Elwyn, he wanted to ask her what chance Keroc had of making a full recovery, and he really wanted to ask more questions about drakenhawks in general. He had come to realize, given recent events, that he and his people were under some serious misconceptions about their capabilities. Ayron disliked the fact that his people might be treating the drakenhawks dishonorably because of that ignorance.

Ayron was very curious, given his recent interactions with Kierra, why male drakenhawks never made contact with the female members of any species: At least not until Elwyn and Keroc began to interact. He was also curious why none of the female drakenhawks ever chose to life-bond with another species as the males did. He could understand that Kierra might be too busy seeing to the needs of her people to become a companion to someone, but he had no idea why the other females chose not to. Ayron really wanted to know more about the drakenhawk species, but realized that now was probably not a good time. He would just have to curb his curiosity and hope that Kierra would still be willing to contact him once Elwyn and Keroc were out of danger. He didn’t understand why both the drakenhawks and the morden were so willing to risk their lives to save his niece. It seemed that everyone who came in contact with her willingly gave her their loyalty. He also couldn’t understand why his young niece had so many capabilities that should have been impossible, given her breeding? He was very anxious to be present when the Companionkeeper discovered just how much he had to learn about the drakenhawks and the morden. He had a feeling that in this case the Companionkeeper would have to be instructed by a student; his niece.

Although Ayron did recognize that it was very difficult for Kierra to keep a link open between them at so great a distance, he really wanted to ask her advice about how to tell Azavon about everything that had transpired. It was very difficult for him to know how to communicate with Azavon about the events of the past few days. He knew that it was unfair of him to expect Torjon to keep secrets like this from Azavon for any length of time, and wanted to ask Kierra what she recommended he do. He knew that Azavon should be made aware that he had a daughter and that she was alive, but he was also concerned about informing him at a distance. While he knew that Azavon needed to hear the truth about the past, Ayron preferred to be close by when he heard it. Unfortunately, all these delays and problems were making it more and more difficult not to tell him. But on the other hand, if anything happened to him and his soldiers, he might never know of her existence, and that would be wrong. Ayron forced his thoughts back to his current situation. He knew that he wasn’t going to solve his dilemma right now, so he decided to focus on other things and hope that he had the chance to exchange thoughts with Kierra again in the near future.

After putting aside his troubling thoughts, Ayron decided to ride over to the wagon to give Rhys and Clayre an update. On the way, he crossed paths with Kormir and Alea. They were speaking softly to each other as they rode together guarding the wagon. He hated to interrupt them because he knew how much Alea was grieving, but he had a task to give Kormir. He interrupted them quietly and asked Kormir to ride ahead as quickly as he could to Amarni and let Hodari, the chieftain, know that they were bringing him two people that needed to be kept safe from an unknown enemy. Ayron also asked him to let Hodari know that they were moving slowly because one of people he was escorting to Amarni was seriously wounded. Kormir acknowledged Ayron’s request with a quick salute and immediately urged Kifaru, his morden, into a gallop, heading in the direction of Amarni. He watched him ride away for several minutes, still riding side by side with Alea.

“Sir, may I ask you a question?” Alea said, with a solemn expression on her face.

At Ayron’s nod she continued.

“Sir, I was wondering why you didn’t choose me for the mission. I have been to Amarni before and know the way far better than Kormir, who has never even crossed the border into Urafiki. If you think that I am too upset to do my duty to Silvendil, I assure you I am not,” she added with a shake of her head as if to provide emphasis.

“No Alea,” Ayron said in a gentle tone. “My decision had nothing to do with your capabilities; in fact, you would have been my first choice for this mission under other circumstances. The problem is that Amarni is still a great distance away and I had to send someone riding a morden to make the journey. As strong as your stallion Katesh is, I doubt that he could have made the trip at full speed without seriously damaging or killing himself. That is a sacrifice I am unprepared to ask either of you to make, especially in the wake of the loss you have already suffered. The trip to Amarni needed to be made by a morden, and a strong one at that. Remember that Kormir’s morden is named Kifaru which means “
strong as iron
” and he is what we needed for this mission.”