He doubted they would stay there. Farah was going to find Cobb and Evrouin, despite her feelings for the man, and Tadeo—Gavin didn’t really know
what
the man was going to do. Wait for Gavin’s answer, he hoped.
Gavin himself was still trying to figure out what he was going to do.
Men and women moved back as Gavin passed through the streets. Gavin hadn’t noticed it before, but now that he was watching for it, now that Tadeo had pointed it out to him, he saw the looks of awe. A plump, dark-haired woman bent down and whispered something to a small boy near her, gesturing toward Gavin as he walked by. The boy’s eyes widened and he started whispering back, jumping up and down and pointing with chubby fingers. A tall, scarred man nodded at him as he passed, eyes wet. A group of women about Gavin’s age smiled at him and then broke into a fit of giggles when they noticed he was watching. Gavin had to force himself not to flush. Everywhere he walked the people noticed him, saw him, pointed him out. Tadeo was right. They didn’t move out of the way because they were frightened or intimidated by him. They moved out of respect.
“There you are!” a voice shouted. Benji darted out of a space between two huts, dodging around a pair of other children as he darted toward Gavin. Gavin couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm.
“You weren’t at your hut this morning,” Benji said, tone accusatory. “I waited and waited, but you didn’t come out.”
“I left early this morning,” Gavin said, not slowing. Benji fell into step alongside him, which only served to increase the whispers around them.
How
had
he missed their looks before? Had he really been that focused on ignoring them? No, he’d simply been focused on keeping his own people safe. It had just gotten a lot bigger than that. Gavin felt a sudden weight settle on his shoulders.
“Where’d you go? I was waiting since dawn and then ran around the whole place looking for you when I realized you weren’t coming out ‘cause you’d left already.”
“I had things I needed to do. Alone,” Gavin said, noticing another group of children pointing and gawking at him. “I didn’t have time to wait for you.”
“That’s fine,” Benji said. “Just leave me behind. Everyone always does.”
Gavin, who’d only been half paying attention to the boy, stopped and looked down just in time to see Benji dash off into the crowd.
“Benji!?”
The boy didn’t stop. He vanished around a corner.
Gavin sighed and scratched at his beard. What had he done to make the boy so upset? One more thing to have to worry about. He shook his head and pushed thoughts of Benji out of his mind. There were more pressing matters at hand.
He started walking again, only then realizing that he’d come to a decision.
***
Shaw looked up as Gavin walked into the entryway of Brisson’s administration building. A few young boys waited next to his desk, ready to carry messages or run simple errands. They all turned to regard him as well.
“What do you want?” Shaw asked. “The other woman came in and got the work duties already.”
“Who came?”
“The short, blonde girl. Can I help you?” Shaw’s voice was ice and his posture was clearly hostile.
“I need to see Brisson.” What had Farah been doing here getting the work duties? She’d been by here
before
dawn?
“He’s busy right now—” Shaw began, but Gavin cut him off, temper flaring.
“I didn’t ask if he was available to see me,” Gavin said, stepping up to the desk, one hand resting on this hilt of his sword. “And I didn’t ask if he was busy. I said I needed to see him.” Gavin stepped around the desk as the messenger boys started whispering among themselves.
“Now see here,” Shaw said, but Gavin ignored him. He stepped up to Brisson’s door and tried the handle, finding it unlocked. Still ignoring Shaw’s protests, Gavin shoved it open and stepped inside.
Brisson sat at his table, the surface still covered in mounds of papers and miscellaneous items. This time, however, Brisson had a small wooden box bound with iron sitting open in front of him instead of just papers. Small, metal disks of various colors glinted in the lamplight from within. Brisson looked up, snapping the box shut as soon as he saw Gavin standing in the doorway.
“You and I need to talk,” Gavin said before Brisson could even open his mouth. Gavin shut the door behind him. “I know about the Orinai army.”
Brisson looked at him with open surprise, hand frozen on the lid of the box. He glanced down at his hand, as if realizing it was unmoving there, and then pulled it away, looking up at Gavin with narrowed eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Gavin felt his lips twist into a scowl. The stress and indecision that had plagued him all day and that had settled squarely onto him after seeing the army earlier that day bled into complete and absolute frustration.
“Don’t play games with me, Brisson,” Gavin said, striding up to the edge of the man’s desk in several long steps. Brisson leaned back, though he kept one hand on top of the iron-bound box. “I know Tadeo has spoken to you about this. The army is there. I saw it with my own eyes.”
Brisson narrowed his eyes. “You’re right. He did tell me. But there’s nothing we can do about it. I will not have my people living in terror and chaos, never knowing if one moment could be their last. Winter is just a few short weeks away. The snows will make passage up here to the valley impassable and give us the time to prepare.”
“You mean give me the time to make your people into warriors,” Gavin said. He’d come to that realization a little earlier, when Benji had run away.
“If it comes to that,” Brisson said, “which it won’t. The Orinai are a lazy, impatient people. They will grow tired of the cold after the first real storm. There is a reason this area here in the north is unpopulated.”
“Are you really that stupid?” Gavin asked, his frustration giving him license to be blunt. “That is the very reason
why
they’ll come for us before winter sets in. Unless we do something to deter them, they’ll be here before the first storms. We may already be too late.”
“They have to find us first.”
“It’s a wonder they haven’t yet. Their patrols have brought them as close as an hour away from the valley’s mouth. The smell of the dining hall alone should have let them know exactly where we are.”
“It won’t come to that.” Brisson shifted in his seat, not meeting Gavin’s eyes. He got to his feet, picking up the box with a grunt and setting it on the floor behind the desk. The metal disks inside it clinked.
“You can’t know that. You’ve got to start preparing your people now.”
Brisson spun back toward Gavin and slammed a fist down on the table, knocking papers askew. He leaned toward Gavin, finally showing some spirit.
“Do you know what it was like for my people, living their lives as slaves? Their lives were meaningless to the people they served. Beatings, death, abuse. Just for living. They’d wake up each day knowing any moment could and likely would be their last.”
Gavin almost stepped away from the sudden, fierce words.
Brisson leaned further forward, voice rising to almost a shout. “Hope was a luxury they never had. Happiness was something they could only dream about, something they didn’t even understand because every time they got a taste of it, it was snatched away. Family was a meaningless, broken word. A child could be sent away or sold. A friend, lover, mother, sister, brother, or babe could be beaten to death before your eyes and you would just have to sit there and watch it happen unless you wanted to join them.” Brisson raised a hand and then jabbed it downward, index finger extended toward the ground. “Here they are free. Here they have hope for their children. Here they
can
be their own people. I will
not
take that away from them.”
Gavin opened his mouth, his brain finally catching up with this surprise, but Brisson turned and jabbed his finger at Gavin instead.
“The Orinai are here for
you
. You and your people.
Your
actions brought this threat to
my
people. Nikanor died protecting
you
. Do your job now, and protect his.”
Gavin recoiled from the venom in Brisson’s voice. “That’s what I’m trying to do. Prepare your people.”
“No,” Brisson snapped. “You’re trying to destroy their hope. You will lead the Orinai army away. I don’t care how you do it, but keep them away from this valley until winter sets in. Then
I
will talk to the people. Until then, do your job and protect them.”
Gavin just stood there. Part of what Brisson had said was completely and irrevocably wrong. There were so many things wrong with what Brisson had said, so many holes in his reasoning. But the emotions of it. They resonated within him. The Rahuli had never dealt with having their families sold or taken from them by others, but they
had
known the sting of death. They’d known the fear and horror of broken families, of lost hope, of
no
hope. Gavin himself knew what it was like to be useless. But that had changed.
“Two weeks,” Gavin said. He kept his voice resolute and emotionless, not backing down. “I will give you two weeks. My people and I will patrol and do what we can to keep the Orinai army away from this valley. After that, and if we’re all still alive by then, I will tell them myself, if you don’t.”
Brisson’s eyes narrowed, but his fist on the table slowly unclenched.
“Fine.”
Gavin nodded and left. What Brisson had said, what he’d done, went against everything Gavin would have considered the correct course of action in this situation, but the man had, at least, given Gavin a plan. And opened Gavin’s eyes.
“After seven centuries, there has been little real advancement in the Orinai way of life.”
—From the Discourses on Knowledge, Volume 16, Year 1101
Gavin found Farah, Cobb, and Evrouin at the edge of the open stretch of land between where the populated part of the valley ended and the eyrie began. It was a long, if narrow strip completely devoid of life. Tadeo was there as well and the four of them huddled around a small fire they’d built. Gavin only took the briefest moment to marvel at the wonder in being able to build a fire like that whenever one wished. Tadeo looked over at him as he approached, Gavin’s boots crunching on the gravel that. The others followed Tadeo’s gaze. Farah smiled when she saw him.
“Where’d you run off to, boy?” Cobb grunted. “The girl here tells us there’s an army of Orinai only a couple hours’ flight away from here?”
“My name is Gavin.” He pointed over at Farah. “Her name is Farah. I respect you, Cobb, by using your name. I expect that same courtesy in return.”
Cobb looked affronted, bushy grey eyebrows scrunching together like a little cloud above his eyes, but he nodded. “Alright, Gavin.”
Gavin turned away from him, not bothering to worry about his reactions for now. None of them had the time. It had taken Gavin nearly an hour to get to their designated meeting place, an hour where he had time to stew, plan, and realize how much he needed to change.
“Farah,” Gavin said, turning to her. “Shaw says you took the duty assignments this morning.”
“That’s right,” Farah said, expression quizzical. “I assigned some of the mystics out to help the smiths and asked Shallee to take care of the rest of it.”
“Good. From now on, I want Shallee to be responsible for that. She’s good at interacting with the others here and knows what our people needs probably better than any of us do. Please tell her.”
“Alright.”
Gavin turned to Cobb and Evrouin. The former’s earlier affronted look had been replaced by simple curiosity. “You two need to form up your squads as quickly as possible. Cobb, I want regular foot patrols out around the mouth of the valley at all times. If you need more men, take who you will. Tadeo will have some of his men join your patrols for a few days until they get used to the terrain.”
“Yes, Gavin.” Cobb said. Gavin glanced over at Tadeo, who nodded. Gavin hadn’t asked permission and wasn’t going to. Still, he was glad Tadeo didn’t argue the point.
“Evrouin, you and I will be taking out air patrols. We’ve got to distract the army and keep them from finding the valley until the snows set in.”
“They’re not just going to up and walk away, Gavin,” Evrouin said. “What’ll we do when the snow melts?”
“We’ll take care of that when the time comes,” Gavin said. “For now, let’s focus on keeping the army occupied and this valley safely hidden.”
“What about Brisson?” Tadeo said. “He will need to tell the people this thing. They must plan how to escape, if all goes badly.” His voice was calm and steady, without the slightest hint of emotion. Gavin had no idea how to read him.
“He won’t tell them,” Gavin said. “I just spoke to him. He’s convinced the people will panic and throw themselves into chaos if they knew the army was out there.” Gavin hesitated, then continued. “He says it’s our fault they’re even here at all and it’s our job to take care of it.”
“That sands cursed fool,” Evrouin snapped. “He’s going to get us all killed.”
“That’s right,” Farah agreed, which surprised Gavin. “What are we supposed to do with only a few dozen warriors against an army that size?”
“How are we supposed to get help from these people if they don’t even know what it is we’re protecting them from?” Cobb added, starting almost before Farah had finished.
Gavin held up a hand and the others quieted, though Evrouin still looked belligerent. It was a testament to how Gavin had progressed as a leader that the man held his tongue. At least Gavin was going to assume that’s what it meant.
“I gave him two weeks. He’s convinced the snows will come in that time and that will close off all access to the valley. I’ll tell the people myself, then. Then we’ll be able to prepare while protected by the snows.” Gavin looked toward Tadeo. “Will the snows really offer that much protection?”
“This thing is true,” Tadeo said. “Snows will come soon and offer shelter from Orinai. Is sure thing.”
Gavin nodded. “Good.”
“Well that just makes it all that much better,” Evrouin said. “Two weeks and then we’ll be covered in snow and locked up in here. What’s to stop Brisson from turning his people against us when you make him look the fool? We should take our people and go.”
“Go where?”
“I don’t know,” Evrouin growled. “Somewhere far from here.”
“You’d leave them here to die?” Farah asked. Her voice was soft, almost a whisper, but drew everyone’s attention right to her as if she had shouted.
“If it saves my wife, my clan, and my people, yes.”
“And what about my family, my people? What about them when the genesauri came? What about them when you sided with Kaiden? What about the children, and the women, and the families?” Farah’s voice rose with each word and Gavin saw tears forming in her eyes.
Evrouin shifted and didn’t meet her eyes. “I can’t think like that,” Evrouin said. “It’s me and them. What protects me and mine is right. It’s them or us. That’s the way things are.”
Gavin held up a hand to stop Farah before she could continue the fight. “They
are
us,” Gavin said, “even if we don’t look the same. They know the pain of broken families, the despair of not having hope. Look at them sometime, Evrouin. Really look at them. They see us as heroes, as figures from legend. We’re the hope and dream of what they want to be. We can’t abandon them.”
Evrouin looked up and Gavin was shocked to see tears in the man’s eyes.
“Don’t you think I know that? When I look at the children in the streets, I see my son’s eyes staring back at me. He died when he was only four years old. The genesauri got him because there wasn’t anyone there to protect him. Not me, not the Roterralar, no one. There are no heroes, Gavin.”
Evrouin turned and pointed a finger at Farah, a tear spilling out of the bottom of his eye and slipping down the side of his craggy cheek. “You think I don’t know how you feel about me? That I can’t see the hatred in your eyes? You think I don’t know that I did a terrible, despicable thing in siding with Kaiden? I didn’t know what he was planning to do, at first, but he promised us safety. He promised us that no one else would have to die. He promised me my family, what was left of it, wouldn’t have to suffer anymore loss.”
“He was wrong,” Farah said.
Evrouin’s hand slowly dropped to his side. “I know. And so was I.”
None of them spoke for a long moment, the silence as powerful as any of the words that had come before it.
“I still don’t trust you,” Cobb interrupted. It was as if his words broke a pane of glass. The calm reservation and stillness that had settled over them shattered into a million jagged, tiny pieces.
“You don’t have to,” Gavin said. “You just need to work together. Evrouin, I need you.
We
need you. We can’t do it without you. This is your chance to come back from the edge.”
Evrouin didn’t look at him, but he nodded.
“Good. What you said is something we’ll have to deal with though. Brisson will try and turn the people against us, I’m almost certain, but we can change their minds. They already think of us as legends and heroes. We simply have to become them.”
“How will you do this thing?” Tadeo asked. He’d remained silent throughout their exchange. There was no way he could have followed the details of the conversation, but regardless of his own curiosity, he’d retained his questions for himself.
“By reminding them who we are,” Gavin said. “Warriors. And we need to look and act the part. We have to
be
their heroes.”
Slowly, they all looked at him. Tadeo frowned, but didn’t argue. Evrouin met his gaze and nodded. Farah smiled. Cobb looked tired and worn out, but he met Gavin’s eyes and nodded as well.
***
Several hours later, Gavin walked out of the supply building with the last piece of his plan firmly set in motion. Farah was meeting with Shallee to organize the women while Evrouin, Cobb, and Tadeo were gathering their patrols. They all knew which men would be a part of which unit, but they had to be gathered. And outfitted.
Uniforms had been a main part of Gavin’s plan to start at least looking more like warriors. He’d gotten the idea from the Orinai army and the Honor Squad that had come to kill them in the Sharani Desert. The uniformity of their appearance and the way they acted spoke of a lethality only fighters possessed. And it was what the former Orinai slaves expected to see from soldiers and warriors. The Rahuli uniforms would be different, of a necessity, but they would be uniforms and standards Brisson’s people would easily recognize and identify as belonging to warriors. Farah was confident that she and the other women could have at least enough to outfit the patrols already established, twenty-four men altogether, ready by morning. Gavin had just finished securing boots, hardened leather armor, and matching dark green cloaks.
Gavin hoped it would be enough. Though he’d acted confident and stern with the others, inside he knew that he was spitting into the wind and hoping it wouldn’t come back and hit him in the face. Ever since he’d seen that army out there, since Tadeo had told him, a small seed of fear had formed in the pit of his stomach. Everything else that had gone on since then had helped him confront and deal with it, but the fear had been there, slowly sprouting within him. Between that and the pressure of knowing thousands of lives rested on his shoulders, Gavin felt exhaustion seeping through him as the dark tendrils of night started to spread across the sky
He avoided the buildings and the people as much as he could, walking toward the lower half of the valley. When he reached the ridge and the switchbacks on the trail leading down into the plains where Tadeo made his home, Gavin almost missed the small figure sitting on the edge of the cliff, legs hanging over the side and dangling in the air.
“Benji?”
The boy looked over at Gavin, the evening light casting long shadows across his face that highlighted his scars. “Oh,” he said, voice hollow. “It’s you. What do
you
want?”
After everything that had gone on that day, the hostility in the question caught him completely unprepared. For a moment, Gavin floundered to come with an answer, then simply sighed and gave up. He walked over and sat down next to the boy, kicking his legs out over the side of the cliff. It wasn’t very tall here, only ten or eleven feet down to the valley below. Gavin picked up a rock and dropped it over the edge, feeling a small surge of satisfaction as it hit the rocks below with a clatter.
“I thought I’d toss some rocks off the cliff here,” Gavin said, picking up another rock and dropping over the edge. It clattered onto its companions below and bounced down the slope. Gavin picked up another rock.
“Want to give it a try?” Gavin asked, holding out the rock.
Benji gave him a flat look so full of condescension it almost made Gavin laugh. Instead, Gavin shrugged.
“Alright then, more rocks for me,” He tossed the rock over the edge, this time sending it a little further out from the lip. It rolled a good twenty feet after hitting the rocks below. A gust of wind picked up and tugged at the edge of Gavin’s cloak. He shivered.
“You know, it’s not even that cold yet,” Benji said. “If you’re shivering already, you’re in trouble when winter really comes.”
Gavin shrugged and held up his hands. “The Sharani Desert is a hot place,
was
a hot place. You know, even though it was hellish there, I miss it sometimes. It was all I had.”
Benji rubbed a hand across his face, passing beneath both eyes and smearing wet grime across both cheeks.
“At least you had a place to miss.”
Gavin looked down at the boy, once again seeing the scars there. He remembered Brisson’s words about broken families and his earlier suspicions about Benji’s supposed family. Looking closer, he realized Benji was wearing the same clothes he always wore. It wasn’t just another pair of the same clothes, but the actual same outfit. It was worn, frayed, and poorly patched in places with crude stitches and mismatched cloth colors. His feet were bare and dirty, but looked as tough as boot leather.
“You don’t have a home or a family anymore, do you Benji?” Gavin said.
Benji sniffed and turned away. Gavin wanted to reach out and put a hand on the boy’s shoulder, but just as he moved to do so, Benji reached out and picked up a rock. Face twisted, he threw the rock as hard as he could down into the valley. It sailed out over the path on the far side of the pass leading down into the valley and smacked hard against the wall before falling back to the ground and rolling down the incline. It came to rest further down the path, almost lost from sight.
“My mother died a few years ago,” Benji said, looking down at his feet dangling out over the edge of the cliff. “She weren’t old, but one day she just didn’t get up. The slave masters came before I got up and I saw them carrying her away. I knew she was dead; I’d seen death afore. I never knew my father. He was sold to another plantation before I could remember. My mother never told me his name.” He picked up another rock and threw it almost as far as the first. “Another woman, Margie, took me in and watched after me as best she could. Our master didn’t like that and used to beat me and her to teach us to stay apart. She always came back.” He sniffed and Gavin saw a tear run down his cheek, cutting a path through the freshly smeared dirt. “She tried to run away once. Took me with her. That’s how I got these scars.”