“Sorry,”
she muttered. Aldin stuck his finger in his mouth to suck on the scratch and
she locked her eyes on the compartment he had discovered. She only had enough
time to see a slip of paper nestled inside before Nick came over. She snapped
the compartment closed.
“Did
he find something?” Nick asked.
“No.
Is the food done?”
Nick
frowned. His face darkened, but he nodded in acceptance of her lie. She slipped
the chain over her head.
“It’s
ready,” he replied and returned to the fire. He knelt in front of it, pulling
the sticks from the soil and piling them on top of a long piece of bark he had
laid out. Upon closer inspection, Meaghan realized they looked more like sugar
cane than sticks. The long tubes had turned brown while they baked. Nick
removed a knife from the backpack and cut the ends off each one before slicing
them into smaller segments. Then he picked up a large leaf, and wrapped it
around one of the tubes before handing it to her.
“Baktui,”
he said. “It’s essentially a nature-made version of energy gel.” He wrapped
another leaf around a second one and handed it to Aldin. “Have you had this
before?” he asked him. Aldin nodded and pinched his fingers as he ran them up
the cane. Thick, yellow goo oozed from one end.
“Careful,
it’s still hot,” Nick warned him.
Aldin
pursed his lips, blowing on the goo before he sucked it into his mouth. He
repeated the process as Nick picked up a cane of his own, and Meaghan followed
Aldin’s example, scooping the goo into her mouth with her tongue.
The
tube may have looked like sugar cane, but it did not come close to the flavor
of the sweet treat. The baktui cane tasted more like a cross between a
semi-tart lemon and salt. Its texture felt like crystallized honey. Although it
tasted better than the jicab root, she preferred Earth’s fabricated,
chemical-laden energy gel to the cane. Still, she found it tolerable enough to eat,
her hunger drove her to finish it, and a second one Nick handed her. She set
the empty shells down, surprised to see Aldin devouring his fourth. The goo
coated his cheeks and chin. He stretched his tongue out of his mouth to capture
as much of the escaped goo as he could.
Nick
chuckled. “You like that, do you bud?” Aldin nodded with enthusiasm and Nick
pushed the bark toward him. “Have the last two. I need to talk to Meaghan for a
few minutes.”
“Mmm’okay,”
Aldin managed past a sticky mouthful.
Nick
stood, offering a hand to Meaghan to pull her up. She left her hands in her
lap.
“Don’t
be like that,” Nick said. “We agreed to talk.”
“That
was before.”
“Before
what?” he asked, dropping his hand. “Before I made you mad? Or before you made
me mad?”
She glared at him. “You
have no right to be—”
“Like
hell I don’t,” he snapped, and then glanced down at Aldin. “I don’t want to
argue in front of him. Come on.” He stuck out his hand again and this time she
took it. He drew her to her feet with more force than she expected, and
indicated with a nod for her to follow him. He stopped at the edge of the
clearing, far enough away from Aldin so he could not hear them if they kept
their voices low, but close enough so they could keep him in their sights.
Meaghan
faced Nick and crossed her arms. “Go ahead. Talk.”
“You
first.” He matched her posture. “You’re obviously furious because I tried to
stop you from doing something stupid.”
“It
wasn’t stupid,” she spat back, stepping toward him in lieu of raising her
voice. “I was trying to do the right thing. I was trying to save the boy. I
can’t believe you wanted him to die.”
“I
didn’t
want
him to die,” Nick responded, his tone turning to ice. “I
wanted to keep you safe. You have more responsibility than one boy, Meg. What
would have happened to the people of this kingdom if you’d been killed? Did you
think of that?”
“No,
I didn’t. I don’t belong here and I certainly don’t belong leading a group of
people I don’t know. You want to talk about stupid? Then let’s talk about an
entire population who thinks someone with no experience can save them. What do
you expect me to do? I can’t even control my power. How am I supposed to
control a kingdom? How am I supposed to stop a group of unstoppable monsters
when no one else has been able to? You people expect too much of me.”
“You
people,” he echoed. “These are your people, not some random group. And when did
you stop thinking of me as your friend?”
“When
you refused to help him,” she said, gesturing toward Aldin. “When you refused
to help me.”
“I
can’t help you, Meg. I can’t
protect
you if you keep working against
me.”
“I
don’t need your protection.” She turned to watch the boy as he tossed aside the
shell from his fifth baktui cane. “Not at the expense of someone else’s
life.”
“You
do need it,” he countered, placing a hand on her arm. “You’re too valuable to—”
“I’m
no more valuable than anyone else,” she said, snapping her arm away from his
touch. “And it’s not like you even tried. You stood there and did nothing. They
might as well have frozen you.”
“What
was I supposed to do? I had no way to attack them.”
“You
could have tried,” she repeated. Turning her eyes back to his, she lifted her
chin in defiance. “You didn’t, but we did fine on our own.”
“You
got lucky,” he corrected. “Though I’m still not sure how it happened. Do you
have any idea?”
She
crossed her arms, refusing to respond and he sighed. “You’re being childish,
Meg.” He put his hands on her shoulders and lowered his voice to a near
whisper, forcing her to concentrate in order to hear him. “I know you think I
was wrong for trying to stop you and I know you think I’m not doing a good job
of protecting you, but this is important. Keeping information from me can be
dangerous.”
“Why?”
she asked, holding on to her defiance despite his pleading. “I don’t see how it
can matter right now.”
“Because
I know more about this world than you do. I realize that’s part of why you
don’t feel like you belong here. That will change in time, but for now, it
matters.”
She
narrowed her eyes. “What do you know?”
“The names Aldin used for
his parents—”
“Mata
and Dat?”
“Yes.
Those words aren’t from here. And neither is he.”
Concern
emanated from Nick again and Meaghan ceded to it, dropping her arms. “What do
you mean?”
“The
terms are only used in the northern area of this kingdom, in a territory called
Zeiihbu. It’s inhabited by people who have chosen to maintain tribal life,
guarding and ruling themselves and following old customs and ways.”
“Such
as?”
“Using
single room huts instead of houses. Hunting and gathering for everything they
need. Living simple lives with no outside exchange. Each tribal member is
marked with a tattoo at birth on the inside of their forearm, close to the
elbow.”
She
nodded, understanding. “Like the one Aldin confirmed he had.”
“Exactly.
I was hoping to see it so I could recognize which tribe he came from. Some of
the tribes are peaceful and others are prone to violence and war. Knowing which
he’s from would help me figure out why he’s here.”
She
trailed her gaze to Aldin. He remained focused, intent on sucking the last
morsels from the cane in his hand. Once he had finished it, he discarded the
empty shell and began rooting through the backpack, removing anything that
interested him. “He seems innocent enough.”
“He’s
young. He hasn’t learned the ways of his tribe yet. But even if he is innocent,
he’s not alone.”
Aldin
found a roll of gauze and raveled it around his arm. Meaghan focused on him,
feeling no deception or anger in him, no malcontent. He only seemed happy, as a
young child of his age should be.
“Cal
told me to rescue the boy. I’m sure he wouldn’t have told me to do that if he
was dangerous.”
Nick
snorted. “Cal sent you directly into the path of two Mardróch. I’m not sure
he’s concerned much with danger.”
She
returned her focus to Nick, her eyes hard again. “Then it’s obvious he knows
something we don’t.”
“Cal
doesn’t know everything, and he’s often reckless, but that’s beside the point.
Aldin shouldn’t be here.”
“Why
not?”
“The
people of Zeiihbu are part of this kingdom and they’re not. Although they
occasionally show up with magical abilities, their powers tend to be minor or
weak. They value tactical fighting and manual skills, and are generally better
at those than we are. Because of these differences and the cultural ones I’ve
mentioned, they don’t consider themselves to be part of the kingdom any more
than they consider themselves to be part of the Barren lands bordering them to
the north.”
“So
you’re saying it would be unlikely for Aldin’s parents to travel through the
kingdom?”
“For
many reasons,” Nick responded and then nodded toward Aldin. The boy had
finished wrapping the roll of gauze around his elbow and forearm, immobilizing
it in a casing of white. He held it up, grinning at Nick as he flailed it
through the air, flapping it like a bird’s wing. Nick waved back.
“He
is charming,” Nick conceded. “It’s too bad all Zeiihbuans aren’t like him.”
“What
are they like?”
“Solitary,
unfriendly. We don’t know much about them. In the past, attempts to visit their
land brought hostility. Few advance parties came back and those who did often
lost limbs. They always brought back the message the people of Zeiihbu wished for
solitude. Even the peaceful tribes had no issue killing those they deemed as
trespassers. Over time, our people got the message and stopped crossing the
border. We maintained truce for a century or so, not including a few minor
skirmishes at the border villages.”
“Then
what happened?”
“The
Mauraetus tribe came into power. Two brothers led the tribe with mantras of war
and visions of taking over all the southern lands, to return them to their
glory. The Zeiihbuans consider themselves the original inhabitants of this
kingdom. We fought off their raids as long as we could, but eventually we had
no choice. We waged war. The battles lasted weeks at times, magic equally
matched to their skill, and many good people were lost on both sides. This went
on for two decades, until your grandmother died and your mother took the
throne.”
“My
mother?” Meaghan asked, surprised. “I thought monarchies followed the male
line.”
“Not
here,” Nick said. “When the Queen weds, she can choose to share the throne, and
often does, with her husband. But when your mother inherited the throne, she
hadn’t met your father yet, so it became solely hers. At nineteen, she was a
young ruler, but not without brilliance. She made contact with the leader of
the Paecis, the second most powerful tribe in Zeiihbu, and offered to help him
become the next Zeiihbuan ruler if he would sign a treaty with her. Zeiihbu
would become a part of the kingdom only in name, but they would remain on their
own land and we would remain on ours. Essentially, the treaty dictated we would
leave each other alone.
“In
exchange for joining the kingdom, the Paecis tribe would receive help from the
Queen if needed, to ensure they maintained power. Before the ink on the
treaty had dried, your mother led an elite force of Guardians to the heart of
Zeiihbu for one last battle. They were some of the best Guardians of their
generation, but the battle still claimed almost all of them. My father and Cal
were two of the Guardians who lived. No one survived from the Mauraetus tribe.”
Meaghan
turned her attention back to Aldin. He had curled up on the blanket, his
bandaged arm cradled under his head as he slept.
“Nobody
is allowed to cross the border on either side without permission,” Nick
continued. “Technically, Garon holds the treaty at the moment. Since he advised
your mother to annihilate Zeiihbu and its entire population in order to
eliminate the threat of a future war, I doubt he would have granted permission
for anyone to cross. That means Aldin’s family is either part of a new war, or
they’ve risked their lives to come here for another reason.”
“Do
you think the statues have something to do with their reason?”
“They
might, though no one has ever heard of a Zeiihbu native with powers that strong
and a young child with them from any territory is nearly impossible. Did Aldin
say or do anything unusual?”
“I
didn’t think so at the time,” she answered. “But I wondered after. He was
scared and said a short rhyme that ended with the words ‘freeze and die’. Could
he have turned them to stone?”
“A
rhyme?” Nick asked. His face turned white. “It’s not possible.”
“What
isn’t?”
A
twig snapped to Meaghan’s right. Instead of answering, Nick dove at her,
knocking her to the ground. She landed on her back in time to see an arrow lodge
into the tree beside her, its feathers quivering with the impact. Both she and
Nick scrambled to their feet, turning toward the direction from which the arrow
had come.