Trinity (20 page)

When Kiana remained silent,
Skaric shrugged away from her and stomped back across the stream.
The damp cloth of his trousers stuck to his legs as he squatted
down. Whilst they had been arguing, the Wolves had reached the
bottom of the path. Skaric placed his hand flat on the ground. He
could just feel the vibrations of the Wolves’ horses thundering
towards them. Skaric concentrated on twisting the spindle as fast
as he could, refusing to look up at the approaching danger.

His hands were
sore and warmed by friction when small flames ignited at the base
of the spindle. Skaric cast the tool aside, leant forwards and
shielded the fledgling flames as he blew on them gently, fostering
their growth. Sweat erupted in tiny beads on his forehead as the
flames grew in intensity.
It’s a mundane
fire. I shouldn’t be afraid.
But he was.
The dry grass accepted the fire easily. Flames began to spread from
blade to blade, aided by the wind and the intense dry summer heat.
Skaric pressed his hands against the ground, pushing backwards to
stand and run back to Kiana.

Flames crackled and heat built
up behind Skaric as he mounted the horse. He barely managed to
swing himself into the saddle before the scared animal started
forward. Jabbing the horse hard in the mouth, Skaric pulled it to a
halt again, though it kept shifting its weight from hoof to hoof
anxiously, the whites of its eyes were visible. Beside him, Kiana
was struggling to hold her own horse steady.

“
What have you
done?” Kiana said as they both stared at the fire.

The flames were spreading fast,
fanning out across the grass as the wildfire moved towards the
Wolves in a devastating wave.

Skaric’s only answer was to
relax his grip on the reins. Kiana did the same. Their mounts leapt
forward at a flat out gallop. Skaric glanced across at Kiana. She
curled her fingertips into the horse’s mane and hunched low over
its neck; her face drained of colour. She managed to turn her face
to look at him.

“
Where are we
going?” Kiana had to shout above the clatter of hooves.

Skaric drew in a long breath,
steadying his nerves. “The only place they can’t follow
us—Linden.”

Chapter
Twelve

Wagons thundered overhead,
creating a deafening noise that made Kiana wince. The deep shadows
beneath the arch of the stone bridge shrouded Kiana as she waited
by the river that cut Linden into two halves. She was alone.
Clutching Nidan’s cumbersome sword tightly in her hands, Kiana
peered into the gathering darkness beyond the shelter of the
bridge. The sky was gradually turning a deeper shade of blue as the
last pink hues of the sunset faded away. Linden seemed no less busy
even though the day was drawing to a close.

Mud from the riverbank was
slowly seeping through Kiana’s shabby slippers. The foul stench of
sewage floating in the water made her nose wrinkle, whilst her
mouth was downturned in disgust. Whilst travelling, she hadn’t seen
any stretch of water that was so dark, murky and filthy. It made
her feel physically sick.

Skaric had to come back
soon.

Not far away, music began to
play: the sweet, mellow sound of a lyre. It was the most cheerful
sound that Kiana had heard since fleeing Blackoak Tower. She missed
the gravely voices of her Guardians and the joyful sound of their
laughter as they played tricks on each other and her; they were all
gone. Pressure formed behind her eyes. Kiana allowed the merry tune
to comfort her. Gradually, the music tugged her lips into a slight
smile.

She leant her
head and shoulder against the underside of the bridge. The stone
was rough, cool and oddly comforting: something physically solid
and permanent in a life of flight and fear. Kiana half closed her
eyes and allowed the melody to drift over her. She longed to know
where the sound was coming from; it had to be somewhere warm and
inviting, surrounded by kind faces. But she had to stay where she
was.
My first time in a town and I’m
hiding.

The squelch of footsteps in the
mud shocked Kiana into movement. She opened her eyes as she pushed
away from the wall. Hands shaking, Kiana began to draw Nidan’s
sword from its scabbard. She halted her actions and sighed heavily
as Skaric half slid down the bank to join her under the bridge.

“
Are you all
right?” Skaric’s face was full of concern and guilt.

Kiana knew he hadn’t wanted to
leave her alone, but they’d had no choice. “I’m fine. What about
Nidan?”

Skaric shrugged. “I took him to
the temple of Pios. They’ll heal him up.”

Kiana handed him the sword; it
was more use in his hands than hers. “And the horses?”

“
The Guardian
at the temple let me leave them there.” He looked away awkwardly as
he spoke.

Kiana gave him a lopsided
smile. “At least we know that no one will recognise you as a
Wolf.”

Skaric looked down at the
ground; his stance was tense. He parted his lips as though he was
about to speak but frowned instead. Kiana heard footsteps
approaching on the bank and then a gruff voice startled her.

“
You there!
What are you doing?” A man holding a lantern slipped into view and
peered down at them. “Get out from under there.” He was wearing a
metal breastplate with Pios’ symbol on it and carried a shortsword
at his belt.

Keeping her
head down, Kiana followed Skaric out from under the bridge towards
the guard. She could see that Skaric’s quivering hand was hovering
near the pommel of Nidan’s sword.
Don’t do
anything stupid, please.
She stood
alongside him.

“
We don’t take
kindly to freeloaders,” the man said. “Find yerselves an inn, or
move along to the next place. Got it?”

“
Yes, sir.”
Skaric spoke quietly and respectfully, but he didn’t look the guard
in the eyes. Without waiting for the guard to respond, he scrambled
up the bank and then turned to help Kiana. Her slippers slipped,
throwing her to her knees. There was a squelch as Skaric pulled her
out of the mud and up the bank.

Skaric took a step away from
the bank but froze as the guard snapped at them both. “And don’t
think of coming back! I’ll be keeping an eye out. Understand?”

Skaric half turned and nodded
to the man before leading Kiana away at a purposeful pace.

They stopped in a dimly lit
alley a few streets away.

Skaric pressed his back against
the limed wall of a single-storey building. “We have to find
somewhere to stay the night.” He clenched his teeth together and
growled low in his throat. “This town is crawling with guards.”

Kiana nodded
in agreement. “Where can we go? We don’t have any money, and we
can’t go to the temples of Pios
or
Miale for help.”

Skaric, still staring at the
ground, remained silent. The golden glow of a lantern spilled into
the alley, illuminating his tense shoulders and the inky darkness
of his hair.

“
Do you
remember the graveyard we saw on our way into the town?” Kiana said
suddenly.

Skaric tilted his face up just
enough to look at her.

“
It spread
outside the town wall,” Kiana said. “It will be dry and I doubt
anyone else will be there at night.” She paused. Skaric’s
expression of doubt told her she needed to do more to persuade him.
“Ducarius told me that it’s bad luck to enter a graveyard at night.
Something about it being too close to the Darkness,” she waved her
hand absently.

Skaric’s lips became taught.
“We don’t know where Berend and his men are.”

“
Surely they
wouldn’t come so close to a town?”

Skaric shrugged.

Kiana rolled her eyes upwards
and raised her eyebrows. “If you can think of anywhere better…”

“
There are a
few Guardians marching the streets,” Skaric said.

Kiana watched
him closely. Fear danced in his eyes. She’d forgotten that he had
far more reason to be afraid than she did.
The worst that will happen to me is that I’ll be locked away
again.

“
I’ll keep my
head down. As long as the Guardians don’t see my eyes, they’ll have
no cause to stop us.” She reached out and gently touched his
sleeve. “It will be all right.”

Skaric sighed
and nodded reluctantly before attaching the scabbard to his belt.
He looked down at the sword. Kiana followed his gaze. The scabbard
was plain and made from dark leather, but the hilt and pommel of
the sword were both ornate. The hilt was a triangular shape with
the names of Pios and Miale carved on two of the sides; the third
side was blank. The pommel was the same shape with the symbols of
Pios and Miale on two sides.
The third
side must have been for Ysia
. It seemed odd
that the blacksmiths hadn’t changed the design. Instead, the blank
sides of the hilt and pommel were a sad reminder of the trinity’s
fate.
Things will change. I’ll make sure
they do.

“
Do you have
anything to cover it with?” Kiana asked.

She’d been so concerned about
Nidan that she hadn’t considered the consequences of being found
with a Guardian’s sword. Now Kiana understood why Skaric had left
it with her.

Skaric shook his head. He
closed his hand over the pommel and tugged the sleeve of his shirt
down as far as possible. They grimaced in unison; it wasn’t
perfect, but it was the best they could do.

Skaric glanced
up and down the alley. “Maybe we could stay here?” He looked Kiana
in the eyes, searching for the answer he
wanted
to hear, rather than the one
he was expecting.

“
We can’t stay
here. There’s too great a chance we’ll be seen by another guard. Or
the same one.” Kiana’s expression softened into a smile as Skaric
continued to hesitate. “This is my first time in a town,
too.”

Skaric’s pupils widened
slightly.

“
It’s really
intimidating. Big. Noisy. Smelly. The graveyard will be quieter and
there will be less people around. Hopefully none at all!” Kiana
grinned and tilted her head to the side. “Come on.”

*

Skaric’s nerves were frayed.
They had evaded three pairs of Guardians before reaching the
graveyard. With every footstep, he had waited for someone to shout,
“Wolf!” He had expected the town guard to surge on him and arrest
him or worse. Nothing had happened but that didn’t stop his legs
and heart quivering. Reaching the graveyard hadn’t made him feel
any safer.

The graveyard had outgrown its
boundaries inside the town. A gap in the wall marked the border
between the oldest and more recent graves outside. The graves
rambled up a steep hill overlooking Linden, which provided a good
vantage point; it had been the only high point that Skaric had seen
on their approach to the town. The wall had not been extended to
wrap around the new graveyard, which didn’t make Skaric feel any
better.

Lanterns on the walls and
spikes along the street that led to the graveyard provided a small
amount of illumination, allowing them to see the brambles and weeds
that strangled the headstones. Several of them were so old, it was
impossible to read the worn down engraving.

“
This is a
depressing place,” Kiana said as they paced through the graveyard
towards the wall. “Ducarius showed me a drawing of a graveyard
once, but the artist didn’t make it look this miserable.” She
hugged herself. “I can see why people wouldn’t want to come here at
night. Do you think the Darkness really is close?”

Skaric shook his head.

“
But how could
you know that?” Kiana asked.

Skaric narrowed his eyes as he
glanced at her. “I’ve seen the Darkness, Kiana. Twice. There’s
nothing here except bones of the dead.” He paused in front of a
grave and stared thoughtfully at the moss-covered headstone. “I
don’t get why you have places like this.”

“
Don’t the
Wolves bury their dead?” Kiana kept her voice to a low
whisper.

Skaric shook his head and spoke
equally quietly. “They burn them.”

He stopped suddenly as he
noticed two guards standing at the gap in the wall. There was no
gate, which seemed odd. On the other hand, the Wolves hadn’t had
the numbers to overrun a walled town in generations; it had taken
all of their strength to siege Blackoak Tower.

Kiana glanced at Skaric then to
the guard and carried on walking towards them. “We’ll be safer
outside the town, less prying eyes. Come on.”

Skaric rolled his eyes. He
didn’t have the energy to argue with her.

As they approached, the guards
snapped to attention. Like the man that had turfed them out of
their original hiding place, the two men wore metal breastplates
and scabbarded shortswords. Skaric gritted his teeth and clenched
the pommel of Nidan’s sword more tightly. He tried to relax his
gait, but fear made his movements stiff.

“
It’s a bit
late to be visiting graves, isn’t it?” One of the guards
said.

There was a lantern suspended
on the wall revealing him to be a tall, burly man with a shock of
red hair. His companion was slightly smaller and much slimmer.

Skaric suddenly became acutely
aware of the day’s stubble on his face. He had no idea what to say
without looking even more suspicious. He touched Kiana’s elbow with
the intention of tugging her away.

Kiana stepped forward and
smiled broadly at the guards. She nodded towards the hill. “We
wanted to look at the stars. Is that a problem?”