Shrouded Sky (The Veils of Lore Book 1) (12 page)

Throughout the trip they had spoken little of Syddia. Primarily they had exchanged only small talk, which struck Chandra as odd. They were both on some kind of mission, though she still wasn’t clear as to the purpose of it. The only thing they openly discussed had to do with deities, a topic on which they had clear and opposing views. This had led to several heated debates, which in itself was enough to make Chandra’s concerns multiply, but there was also the issue of Orryn. He was becoming more of an emotional mess by the day, and Tygg’s sense of humor was beginning to wane on account of it.

Orryn and Tygg were currently walking beside the horse, as was their usual position, with her atop it. As Chandra watched their profiles from her peripheral vision, she wondered what they planned to do with her. Neither had been unkind to her, though Orryn was sometimes a bit of an ass, but they were always watching her, hovering around her like she was fragile or untrustworthy. It made her feel uncomfortable, like there was something they weren’t telling her.

“Stop,” she said.

They glanced at her but continued to walk.

Chandra jerked the reins, forcing the horse to halt. “I said stop.”

Tygg and Orryn complied, then turned to her, awaiting explanation.

Chandra swung her good leg over the saddle. “I think we should stop here for the night,” she said. She held out her hand and Tygg helped her down. “You said we would be in Syddia tomorrow,” she continued. “I don’t think losing an hour is going to hurt, do you?”

Orryn folded his arms. “I don’t see how it will help.”

“Listen,” Chandra said. She leveled her gaze at him. “I have questions. And I refuse to go any further until you answer them.”

Tygg held his expression in check. “Perhaps she is right, Or’n,” he said. “An hour, as she calls it, will not make a difference.”

Orryn glanced at the horizon, then released a sigh. “Very well. But we leave an hour
earlier in the morning.”

Chandra nodded, but her appreciation was in a questionable state. Until now she had gone wherever they took her. What was the point in fighting when she had no place else to go? But if this place was real, if her mind wasn’t actually drugged or damaged, then she needed to start living like it wasn’t a fantasy.

“Come, sit,” Tygg said, interrupting her thoughts. He was preparing a spot for her under a nearby pine, scooping the needles at its base into a nest. He tossed her bedroll onto it and spread it out.

“I think I’ll walk around the campsite a bit,” she said, testing her injured leg. It still felt weak, but was well enough to move. “To get some circulation going,” she added.

Orryn watched as she slowly circled the area.

Chandra glanced up at him. “Are you watching me because you don’t trust me? Or because you’re trying to protect me?”

Orryn looked away. “To protect you,” he answered, gathering another stick for the kindling.

“Why?”

“It’s my duty.”

Duty.
Why did the word suddenly bother her? Chandra continued to circle. “What is your duty exactly, in regard to me?” she asked.

“I’m to escort you to Syddia where the Council will question you, to determine what you know and if you are one of the Lost.”

Chandra stopped. “The Lost? This doesn’t involve a plane crash does it?”

“No,” Tygg answered. He removed the saddle from the horse and set it on the ground. “We get few of those.”

“Then what are they, the Lost?” Chandra asked.

“Children stolen from the island many generations ago,” Tygg said.

“But Orryn said I could be one of them,” Chandra said. “How is that possible?”

“You could be of their blood, a descendent. Thus you would be of the Lost.”

“You stole me for my blood?” Chandra rubbed her temples. This was beginning to sound like a bad horror flick.

“No,” Tygg assured her. “You were sent to us. You are a gift.”

“No,” Chandra argued. “I’m not here as a gift. I’m here by accident.” She made her way to her pine-straw pallet and lowered herself down.

“There are no accidents,” Tygg said. “Surely you know that.”

“I know no such thing,” Chandra said, but then she thought on it. “All right, if my being here is no accident, if it’s all planned out, then what’s going to happen to me?”

“One cannot know every future, otherwise there would be no purpose to life,” Orryn said. He tossed some kindling next to the rest of the wood. “Our god tells us many things, but He does not tell us everything, unlike Tygg’s so-called gods.”

“So you believe in one god, and Tygg believes in many.”

“No, it’s just that we do not follow the same teachings,” Orryn said. He glanced at her. “What do you believe?”

The question caught her off guard. Not only was she not sure how to answer, but she wasn’t sure why he had asked. “I don’t know what I believe,” Chandra said, hoping that would suffice. “I just know I would have a hard time following any god that kills innocent people.”

“There are no innocents,” Tygg said.

“So says a believer in forced destinies,” Orryn added.

Chandra glanced up to see Tygg and Orryn staring at each other as if primed for another argument. Tygg was the first to retreat. “I must hunt dinner,” he said, and turned and disappeared into the woods.

It wasn’t long before they were seated around the campfire, eating an early meal. “Why is Tygg going to Syddia with us?” Chandra asked Orryn after swallowing down a bite. It had only taken her three days of hunger to gain an appetite for Bambi’s forest friends. “Isn’t it dangerous for him?”

Orryn turned to Tygg. “Yes, Tygg. Why?”

Tygg kept his eyes on his food. “I go to see that the Imela arrives safely,” he said.

“All this talk about my safety,” Chandra said. “Why do either of you care how I arrive if I’m going to just get dropped on the Council’s doorstep?”

“She’s right,” Orryn said. “Why is her safety your concern?”

“She is Taubastet. I told you,” Tygg said. “But do not forget, Or’n, I also go to see that you arrive safely.” He shook his head. “You dismiss me so easily.”

“No,” Orryn said. “I just don’t want to have to explain what you’re doing with me. I have enough trouble as it is.”

“But we are at truce, are we not?” Tygg said. “I am with you as a gesture of good will, that is all.”

“Except you know that’s not true,” Orryn said, eyeing him.

“Do you think I am lying?” Tygg challenged. He tossed what was left of his dinner into the fire.

Orryn leaned toward him. “I know you are.”

Tygg rose. “Let us end this now.”

Suddenly Orryn was on his feet. He whipped his knife from his belt.

Chandra stood and stepped between them, facing Orryn. “Stop! I’m sorry. I won’t ask any more questions.”

He straightened. “Saved by a woman,” he said, sliding his blade back into his belt. He smirked. “Be glad I allowed it, cat.”

“I am glad only that your reflexes are slow,” Tygg replied, returning his own knife to its sheath.

Orryn took his seat.

Tygg grabbed Chandra by the arm and yanked her unexpectedly toward him. “Do not throw yourself in front of my blade again,” he hissed.

“I was only trying to stop him!”

“If he had wanted to kill me, you would not have stopped him.” He jerked her closer. “There is no loyalty between us, girl, only duty. Now do you see how it is?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t.” Chandra pried her arm from Tygg’s grasp. “I just don’t want either of you to get hurt. All right?” She rubbed her arm. “Maybe you two don’t care about each other, but I do.”

“You cannot mean that,” Tygg said.

Chandra realized he looked more alarmed than when Orryn had drawn his knife on him.

“You don’t have to get all morose about it,” she said. “It’s not like I want to marry either of you or anything.”

“It’s a good thing,” Orryn said, his eyes sparkling with interest. “For I cannot marry, and Tygg—”

“Enough,” Tygg said, turning on him.

“—is not meant for you. Am I wrong?”

Tygg did not move, nor did he reply.

“I didn’t think so,” Orryn said. He grabbed a stick and poked at the fire, causing flames to leap from the pile.

“What does he mean?” Chandra asked.

“You would not understand,” Tygg said.

“Perhaps she would,” Orryn said. He turned his eyes to Chandra. “Allow me to explain. Tygg believes in predestiny. Wherever his path takes him, it’s under the direction of his gods, like a pawn in a game. And yet he thinks ill of me for following the teachings of my god.”

“You have no more free will than I do,” Tygg said. “In fact, you have no will at all.”

Orryn puffed up, but Chandra interrupted before he could counter. “What does that have to do with me?” she asked.

“Tygg was watching the borders that day, as was I,” Orryn continued. “And there you were, on the beach, the Syddian side I might add. He believes an error was made, and yet he also believes it was meant to be. The question is why he goes to Syddia. It cannot be for you, for he knows he’ll soon lose you, and it cannot be for me. Why does he go? I wonder.”

Chandra felt a catch in her throat. “What do you mean he’ll soon lose me?”

Tygg stepped toward Orryn, his fists curling at his side. “I do not deny that I go with purpose,” he said, ignoring her question. “But it is a mission of peace.”

“Peace?” Orryn shook his head. “Yet they send one man.”

“Sometimes one man is all it takes.”

“You yourself said we are at truce,” Orryn said. “How will this help maintain peace?”

“The Imela could be a symbol of trust between our people,” Tygg said.

“And my part in it?” Orryn asked. “Surely I have one.”

“Aye,” Tygg said. “You are to offer protection.”

Orryn narrowed his eyes. “For whom?”

“For Chandra, of course.”

“And what of you, Tygg?” Orryn asked. “Shall I let them arrest you? Or is that when you’ll ask payment of my debt?”

Tygg clenched his hands tighter. “I am only to go to Syddia. What you do for me once I get there is your decision.”

“What a minute,” Chandra said, interrupting. “You aren’t trying to become some sort of martyr are you?” She grabbed Tygg’s arm. “Are you?”

“Of course not,” Tygg said, but from the look on his face she wasn’t so sure.

“Martyr?” Orryn rose. “Is that what this is about?”

Chandra thought she detected concern in Orryn’s voice, but then he added, “If you’re determined to die, Tygg, I’ll escort you to the Sovereign Lady myself!”

“Of course I do not wish to die!” Tygg said, rounding on him. “I have a child, do I not? But I am bound by the will of the gods. If they say go to Syddia, I go to Syddia.”

“And if my god says that you don’t? What then?” Orryn asked.

“Then I will have failed in my duty.”

Orryn nodded. “I’ll not hinder you,” he said. “But I’ll not help you either.”

Chandra’s eyes darted back and forth between the two of them, and for the first time she understood the meaning of their words. Their friendship may have been a fragile one, but she now realized it was as disposable as their lives.

“What if you’re both wrong,” she suggested.

Orryn and Tygg gave her a mystified look.

“I’m just saying you both have very different beliefs,” she said. “Both can’t be right. One of you is wrong. Or maybe both of you are.”

“Dare not utter that in Syddia,” Orryn warned.

“Why? What would happen to me?”

Orryn opened his mouth to respond, then set his jaw and remained silent.

“Fine,” Chandra said. “You don’t have to say it.” She sat down, facing the fire. “Will your lady question me, too?” she asked.

“Yes,” Orryn replied.

“What will she ask?”

He sat down next to her. “I don’t know.”

“Is there any way to stop her from doing it?”

“No. I don’t believe so.”

“Well if you think of a way, let me know, all right?” The campsite became uncomfortably quiet.

“What did you mean when you said I was not for Tygg?” Chandra asked Orryn.

Tygg took his place across the fire from them and sat, cross-legged. “You ask too many questions,” he said.

“I question everything,” Chandra retorted. “Maybe you two should try it.”

“What a world we would live in, eh, Tygg?” Orryn said.

“Well at least I still have my humanity,” Chandra said. “Can you say the same?”

Tygg chuckled.

“And you,” she said, directing her attention to Tygg. “You throw your life away. For what?”

Neither of them answered.

Chandra rose to her feet. “I’m tired,” she said. “You two sort it out. Or not.” She turned toward the bedroll Tygg had arranged for her under the pine.

“Chandria,” Orryn said.

She stopped.

“About the Council and the Sovereign Lady.”

“Yes?”

“Use what you know.”

Chandra decided not to ask for further explanation. She rarely understood what he meant anyway.

She stepped to her bedroll and curled up on it, closing her eyes in an attempt to distance herself from the feeling of doom that was welling in her throat. Tomorrow they would reach Syddia, and what could happen once there, to her, to them, was a terrifying prospect. She brushed aside a tear that threatened to roll down her cheek. She refused to let them see her cry. If they insisted on going to a place where their lives weren’t worth much, and where hers was worth probably less, so be it. There wasn’t much she could do about it. Or was there? She rolled onto her back and stared at the stars breaking through the darkness.

“Tell me what to do,” she whispered.

A falling star suddenly streaked across the heavens. Chandra sat up with a start.
Use what you know
. A comet had played a role in the story she’d read. It had been spoken of in a prophecy and had ushered in a series of events that changed everything. She turned her eyes to Tygg and Orryn. They, too, were staring at the amazing light.

The orb vanished as a chilly gust of wind swept through the trees, clattering the branches. Tygg stood and wheeled around. “Someone comes,” he said, reaching for his knife.

Orryn and Chandra rose quickly. “What do you see?” Orryn asked him.

“Not see,” Tygg said. He knelt on one knee and pressed a hand to the ground. “Horses. Several of them.”