Three Coins for Confession (26 page)

Jessa and Jeradien were riding point, two others from the Aerachi
squad up front to keep them in sight. As Chriani watched the dark stain of the
forest ahead, Lieutenant Venry spurred up to his side.

“Is there a meeting point to be recognized?” he asked. “And will
we reach it before dusk?”

“The Ilvani will find us,” Chriani said, remembering Dargana’s
words from the throne room. “Hopefully tonight, but I don’t know exactly.” He
glanced back to the exile, riding behind him with Kathlan close at her side.
“We cross the frontier and wait.”

Venry’s snort of frustration was audible, but Chriani didn’t
bother with a response.

“With no messages run, how do you expect them to know where we
are?”

“I expect them to be watching from the far side of the river. I
expect they’ve been doing so since we left the ferry behind, marking our
progress.”

Venry shook his head with a certain amount of satisfaction. “I’ve
had my best outriders watching. They’ve seen no sign.”

“Neither have I. Which is what makes me think they’re out there.
When the carontir along the Brandishear wood want you to see them, you see
them.”

A smirk touched Venry’s lips as he slipped back to the side rank.
“Your tactical acumen is impressive, sergeant. I thank you for sharing it.”

Chriani was hoping, in truth, for contact before dark. But as
they advanced along the river and the wall of the Greatwood rose ever higher,
he judged the press of wet grey cloud following them from the north and called
a halt well before dusk. They had more than enough daylight left to enter the
Greatwood, but setting a camp within the darkness of the forest wasn’t
something he had any urge to try.

He sent one of the Aerachi riders forward to call Jessa and
Jeradien back. Jeradien returned but sullenly reported to Venry, so Chriani
talked with Jessa about potential sites for a camp.

“We saw just the place,” the scout said. “There’s a ruin, top of
a rise due south. Be there in good time, and plenty of view to all sides as
long as the weather holds.”

Chriani gave the order and Jessa led the way. The site was as she
described it — a broad, smooth hill with a rough circle of
foundation stones a dozen paces across, set with crumbling mounds of rock
poking out from under overgrown turf. It made for an excellent observation
point and defensive position, even as its tumbled stones would create a break
from the wind, rising now from the north. They were still a good distance from
the forest, but Chriani could hear that wind stir the sentinel trees of the
Greatwood to a steady droning hiss.

The horses were tended within a narrow poplar grove, the tents
pitched on open ground. As the rangers set camp, Chriani wandered the hillside
to gaze out at the forest, the swells and valleys of its canopy shifting
beneath the light of the falling sun. He was thinking hard about what their
next move would be if the Ilvani didn’t make their presence known. Wondering
how long the rangers should wait for them, or whether to enter the forest at
once. How to set patrols, how far to press into the wood. He would need to talk
to Dargana in private, but he knew that any approach to her involved talking to
Kathlan first. Not sure it was a conversation he was ready for.

Along a narrow ridge to the north, the encircling rubble of the
hill was punctuated by three larger standing stones. Part of the gatehouse,
perhaps, of whatever fort or frontier guard post this had once been. The stones
were too old by far to have been raised during the Incursions. However, many
older sites had been rebuilt or repurposed as staging grounds and watchtowers
during that conflict, then torn down by the Ilvani as Aerach and Brandishear
pulled back from the frontier in its aftermath. Despite their proximity to the
forest, there was no mistaking the plain construction of the stone slabs as
Ilmari work. Though cracked with age and weather, their original construction
was still visible, clean and plain. None of the dangerous beauty the Ilvani
imbued into all their craft.

“We’re ripe for ambush here.”

Venry’s voice sounded out from behind him, Chriani turning to see
the lieutenant pacing his way up the hillside, hand at his scabbard.

“You know a place half a league from the Greatwood and a day’s
ride from the nearest city that isn’t ripe for ambush, I would have been happy
to hear about it earlier.”

“Quick with mockery.” Venry took on a distracted tone as he
circled Chriani, creating the sense that he was talking to someone else. “Even
quicker to anger from what I’ve seen. No real sense that you care whether it’s
guards or officers at the wrong end of your invective.”

“You have a point to follow the talking, lieutenant? Or is the
talking really the best you get up to?”

“My point, Sergeant Chriani, is that if you’re a sign of the
caliber of commission in Brandishear of late, I have great fear for the Ilmar’s
future. This close to the Greatwood, when the Ilvani come calling, I don’t plan
to be sleeping.”

“We could set a watch,” Chriani said brightly. “That would show
them something. In fact, set the schedule yourself, and make sure you’re on
it.”

Venry stepped closer, voice low. “Pretend to authority all you
like. But you’re a simple-minded mercenary with an insignia you haven’t earned,
boy…”

Chriani drove forward and down, slamming his head into Venry’s
chest. It was a well-practiced move among the Bastion guard, granting the
advantage of leaving your hands and the target’s face unbloodied when the
counterattack came. It didn’t help with the beating you’d take, but it looked
good when you told the officers later how you’d been jumped without
provocation.

Venry nearly lost his feet as he stumbled back, fighting to
breathe and with murder in his eyes.

“Only one person called me
boy,
” Chriani said evenly. “And
you’re not him. That’s a warning…”

“Fuck your warning, sergeant, and watch your back. There are a
thousand ways to come to harm in the Greatwood.”

“Is that a threat, lieutenant?”

“Just advice, lord.”

“Thanks for that. I’ve seen a few of those ways myself, but I try
not to get killed as often as I’m guessing you do…”

“Lords.”

Kathlan’s voice clipped Chriani’s to silence, saving him from
escalating his taunt in a way he knew he would have regretted. She had slipped
up along a narrow track that swept the hillside, a rainwater rill carving a
narrow channel through the grass. Her dark look told Chriani she was still
focused on what had passed between them outside Werrancross, and that she had
been listening to him and Venry since their exchange began.

“What is it?” Chriani said as he paced away from Venry. His hands
were shaking, he realized.

“With understanding that you both clearly have more pressing
personal business, I wish to report that we’re being followed.”

Dargana was already waiting for them, lying still and alone on a
pitched rise to the north of the camp. She glanced back to see the three of
them approach, but said nothing.

“Dargana’s the one who spotted it,” Kathlan said as she motioned
Chriani and Venry to follow her down to the ground. “First morning after
Werrancross. So much traffic on the road then, I didn’t think anything of it.
Until the next morning, and the next. We’ve been watching. Making sure it’s not
just coincidence.”

Chriani scanned the horizon from the adjacent forest to the more
distant meadowlands. He saw nothing but the faint shimmer of the wind in the
grass, but his silence gave Venry a chance to make his thoughts known.

“Ilvani.” The lieutenant spat to the ground beside him, ignoring
Dargana’s dark look. “You’ve led us straight into…”

“No, lord,” Kathlan interrupted. “And begging your pardon. We’re
followed not from the west but from behind. Were they to mark our movement, the
Ilvani would be observed across the river or in the shadow of the trees.”

At the echo of his own words to Venry, Chriani saw the
lieutenant’s expression darken. He refocused his gaze to the north, though.

“This is something else,” Kathlan said. “They’re square behind
us, almost due north tonight. Following our path exactly. You can see them best
at dawn when the light’s off the meadow, but with the cloud breaking and bright
sky…” She pointed. “Look there.”

Chriani focused, unblinking. Beside him, Venry shaded his eyes.
Before them was the flat of the river valley, a twisting course that faded
quickly to become no more than a mud-brown stain against the green. The sky
above was bright, though, the cloud to the north torn to threads by brisk
winds. Caught side-on in that brightness, showing the gold shimmer of the sun
setting now behind the forest wall, faint shapes marked the horizon.

“I see them,” he said quietly.

“I don’t.” Venry’s tone was cold, but Chriani had no doubt he
spoke the truth. “You’ll forgive my skepticism, sergeant.”

“I would if I cared. Don’t trust me, though. Trust Kathlan.
Something’s there.”

A year and a half into service and Kathlan was already one of the
best riders in the prince’s guard. Called to the rangers as a tyro. Likely to
make rank before the next High Summer unless Chriani held her back. Even if he
hadn’t loved her, Chriani understood that he would trust Kathlan with his life.
A thing he vowed he would tell her before this night was done.

“Lack of traffic behind us notwithstanding,” Venry said, “it
could still be anything.”

Dargana spoke then. “Not three days running by dawn and dusk, it
couldn’t. They’re always a horizon away. A league, I’d mark it now. As far away
from us as they can get while still seeing us ahead of them. Not trusting just
to tracking. They’re watching.”

Chriani saw and felt a dark wave of animosity flicker in Venry’s
eyes. He realized this was the first time Dargana had spoken in the presence of
any of the Aerachi rangers.

They were losing the light. He had no time for this.

“Venry, get your best rider. Kath, that’s you for me. Pick the
five freshest horses, get them ready to go. We need to take a look.”

Kathlan’s expression was still cold, but she met Chriani’s gaze
at least as she nodded. She rolled off the ridge and out of sight from the
distant horizon before she stood, raced back to the camp at a run.

“Dargana, you’ll come.” Chriani still had no idea how much he
could give the Ilvani in the way of orders, but he wasn’t anxious to make it
appear in front of Venry that he was begging her for favors.

“This is too much. I will not ride…” Venry started, but Chriani
had his counter ready.

“You leave her here unguarded with your squad, you’ll come back
to half a squad and a nightmare’s worth of reports to make to your duke,
lieutenant. But more important than that, we’re losing the light. We can make
use of her eyes, especially if it is Ilvani watching us. If it’s a ruse meant
to split our forces, set a full watch with fires every twenty paces, archers at
the ready behind the stones. Anything that comes in, they’ll be able to see it
before it reaches them. If it’s us coming in, tell them to listen for the horn
but not to drop their aim till they count all of us off. Call your rider, and
quickly.”

“Jeradien,” Venry said coldly, his contempt for Chriani’s orders
clear. But he followed Kathlan’s lead as he slipped back along the hillside,
not rising until his body was blocked from sight to the north.

When the lieutenant had gone, Chriani spoke to Dargana. “Anything
else I need to know that Venry can’t?”

“How about your eyes being all the sight you need, half-blood?”
Dargana smiled.

Chriani said nothing as he fished the talisman from the pocket of
his belt. He cradled it in his hand to shade it from the light but saw it still
quiescent. No pulse of red within its gold-clasped stone. He slipped it back as
he motioned Dargana to follow him, shifting back along the hill, then away.

Kathlan had wrapped all the moving points of the horses’ tack
with felt to keep them quiet. However, the wind blowing strong from the north
as they set out would do a better job of masking not just their sound but their
scent as they made their way up and away from the river. Without the wind, it
would have been impossible to range as far on horseback as Chriani knew they
needed to without being heard. On foot, he wouldn’t have liked their chances of
reaching the target before full dark, the Clearmoon shimmering bright to east
and north but not ready to rise.

He took them on a wide course off the track they’d followed
through the day, looping south first, around the campsite hill and into a light
screen of scrub trees that provided additional cover in the fading light. They
were riding blind, shadowing the track they had followed during the day and
hoping they didn’t overshoot the resting place of the party behind them.

Chriani had no idea whether their pursuers would have moved off
the track, but it was a safe assumption that they had no fire burning, for fear
of it being seen from the rangers’ camp. That camp was a bright distraction
behind them now, watchfires lining the hill to crown it with bright points of
flame in the gathering dark.

Venry made the ride in silence but stayed at Chriani’s side, just
behind Dargana on point. Jeradien shared her lieutenant’s sullenness, but she
kept well back even of Kathlan in the third rank, like she was obeying some
need to stay as far from Dargana as possible.

They came in from the west, circling around through tangled
groves of witchwillow between the trail and the river. When they had measured
off a distance near to a league in Chriani’s mind, they approached to within
clear sight of the water, tethering the horses within the trees.

He used the fact of the pursuing party watching the rangers to
his advantage, keeping the fires of the camp in view behind them. Just as those
fires were nearly lost to sight, Chriani signaled for the others to slip
forward in a single line. They moved with bows and blades at hand, crouched low
and with Dargana leading. Chriani was behind her, the falling shadows bright
around him, as he knew they were for her. Meadow grass muffled their footfalls,
the wind still strong from ahead as they approached.