“You will do nothing of the sort, Ev,” Evrouin’s wife, Cather, strode out from the room they shared, her short, stout frame covered by only a simple robe. She pointed a stubby finger at her husband and gave him a look that would have made Khari proud. “You’ll not leave me here to go act the hero just to soothe your own conscience. You’ve set your piece and you’ve done your part. I won’t have this baby without you here for it, do you hear me?”
“Baby?” Gavin looked more closely at the woman and only then realized the woman’s girth wasn’t a factor of weight at all. How had he missed that?
“Keep your eyes off my wife, Gavin,” Evrouin said, though there was no real strength in his words. “And Cather, don’t lord over me like that in front of him.”
“I’ll do what I please. I’m a pregnant woman nearly into my fourth decade. I’m entitled to do as I see fit.” She turned to look at Gavin, face set into a commanding expression. “He’s not going.”
“I agree,” Gavin said, quickly. “I need him here. No, I was thinking we need someone who knows the terrain outside this place better than a Rahuli.”
Cather nodded. “That’s settled then. Now, if neither of you is going to allow my husband to resume his quiet thoughts out here, I would ask you both to leave. I was in the middle of a nap and would like very much to return to it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Gavin said, getting to his feet at almost the exact same time as Evrouin, who was busy buttoning back up his uniform coat. “We’ll leave you to it.”
“Good.” Cather sniffed and turned her back on them, disappearing back into her room.
Gavin looked over at Evrouin, who looked rather sheepish. With everything else going on, all the stress of the last few weeks, all the pressure, Gavin suddenly burst into laughter.
“Hush you,” Evrouin hissed, glancing sidelong at the door to his bedroom. “She’ll be back and then
I’ll
be the one in trouble.”
Gavin, if anything, laughed even harder, but followed Evrouin out the door. As soon as he did, something struck him a resounding blow to the side of his head.
Gavin reeled, vision swimming, stumbling sideways into Evrouin. Evrouin made a sound of surprise just as something bowled into Gavin and knocked Gavin, Evrouin, and their assailant to the ground. The force of it carried them a short distance across the ground, skidding against the rocks. Gavin reached out for his power, body and mind reacting instinctively while his vision swam. Energy
erupted
through him. Gavin felt it in that moment, felt the creation of energy as his back slid against the stones, felt it forming there and channeling up through him, feeling like a hundred tiny ants scurrying up his skin. White sparks flew from his arms and hands and sudden clarity tore through the shock and pain of the initial blow.
Evrouin yelped as the energy shot from Gavin’s hands in little crackling arcs, several hitting him and the other figure that had tackled them both.
“Darryn?” Gavin said, recognizing the cursing figure that leapt up from the pile.
The man danced back, hands balling into fists despite his obvious pain. Gavin dismissed the energy crackling on his arms and held out a hand to stop Evrouin, who had gotten to his feet looking murderous. Evrouin backed away from Gavin’s hand as if it were on fire.
“What in the seven hells are you doing?” Gavin snapped, rounding on Darryn.
“Why’d you send that idiot after me?” Darryn said, not lowering his fists. “I was almost out. What have you got against me, outcast?”
“Shut it,” Evrouin said, stepping around Gavin. “You will address your leader with more respect than that. How dare you attack him like that. If you’d been in my clan, I’d have you whipped.”
Gavin blinked. Had
Evrouin
just defended him?
“Well, I’m not, am I? Get out of my way, traitor. My fight is with Gavin, not you.”
Evrouin crossed his arms across his chest and gave Darryn a look of absolute unconcern. A little down the street, several of Brisson’s people stopped to see what was going on.
“Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” Darryn cut off each word, as if they were each their own sentence.
Evrouin yawned. Not a trace of the man who’d been driven from his own home remained. Instead, a cold, hardened warrior of the Rahuli stood in his place, staring down a much younger and more muscular foe. Darryn’s shoulders were half again as wide as Evrouin’s and his chest as broad as a barrel. Evrouin, by contrast, was thin and wiry. Gavin knew from firsthand experience, however, the whip-cord strength hidden beneath the deceptive frame.
Behind Evrouin, the metal clasp on the door ripped free of the frame. Darryn’s eyes narrowed in concentration as the bit of metal hurtled straight toward Evrouin, passing within an inch of Gavin’s side.
“Look out!” Gavin shouted, but even as he spoke Evrouin stepped to the side and the metal clasp shot past him and then toppled to the ground a few feet away.
Darryn looked confused for half a moment, then his face contorted in pain as Evrouin closed the distance between them in two quick steps and grasped the man’s outstretched fist in one of his own hands. Gavin didn’t see what happened next, but one moment they were staring each other in the eye, the next Darryn was on his knees, arm twisted up behind his back and Evrouin was standing to one side of him.
“Now,” Evrouin whispered in a growl that only he, Darryn, and Gavin could hear, “how about you calm down, son. You’re going to get up and come along with us nicely or I’m going to add a little pressure and break your arm in two different places.”
Darryn looked like he was in complete and utter agony, but he kept his tongue clamped firmly between his teeth. Gavin felt his earlier irritation return tenfold and he stepped up next to the two men, fully aware of the small crowd that had gathered to watch what was going on.
“I’m going to count to three,” Gavin said, voice loud enough to be heard by anyone listening with half an ear. “If you haven’t agreed by then, I’ll do worse than Evrouin.” Gavin scraped his foot against the rocks and, at the same time, drew on his powers. He pulled the energy generated by the motion of his foot against the rocks, and the rocks against each other, into him and channeled it into his hand. He held it out in front of Darryn’s twisted, pain-filled face as it came alight with crackling white energy.
“One.”
The energy he’d created by moving his foot was small, but Gavin found that if he concentrated hard enough, he could pull the energy back into himself just as the sparks started to dissipate and send them back out at full strength.
“Two.”
All this Gavin did on an almost subconscious level. He’d recognized that something important was happening as he’d skidded across the ground earlier, but his clouded mind hadn’t been able to process the information. Now, fully alert, he realized that he’d finally discovered what Samsin had been talking about when he’d said the relampago powers were the power of motion. More precisely, he realized, it was the energy created as things resisted movement forced upon them.
“Three.” He stepped forward.
“Alright,” Darryn gasped, flinching away from Gavin’s hand. “Alright. I’ll go. Ok? Now let me go.”
Gavin stepped back and dismissed his hold on the energy. The sparks vanished and Gavin, who was waiting for it this time, felt the energy fade into the air as heat. Evrouin glanced up at Gavin and then glanced down as if asking permission to release the man. Gavin nodded. Evrouin let go of Darryn’s arm.
“Come with me,” Gavin said, as Darryn got to his feet cursing and rubbing at his arm. “You too, Evrouin.”
The crowd that had gathered murmured softly to themselves. A couple of younger children scampered away, already shouting to each other slightly distorted versions of what had just transpired. Gavin knew that the entire valley would know at least some portion of the story before night fell. He ignored the rest of the crowd.
Darryn followed just behind Gavin as he started walking, headed for the dining hall. It was near the midday meal and Gavin hoped to find Tadeo there. Cobb was in charge of today’s foot patrols, so Tadeo was likely headed there to eat along with everyone else. If not, Gavin was positive Benji would be and he could always send the boy to find him.
Evrouin caught up to him before they reached the dining hall, though he walked in such a way so as to keep Darryn visible in his periphery.
“I didn’t think you had it in you back there, Gavin,” Evrouin said, soft enough so that only Gavin heard. They’d collected a following of children as they walked, singing and chanting behind them like newborn sandtigers following their mother.
Gavin didn’t answer. Part of him was sickened by the threat he’d been forced to use, though he’d known it was necessary. He couldn’t afford not to appear strong right now. His people couldn’t afford to let him be seen as weak. If that meant he had to threaten Darryn to do it, then so be it.
“The dining hall is that way,” Evrouin said. Gavin nodded and headed in that direction.
Tadeo wasn’t in the dining hall. Benji, however, was. The boy was just helping himself to a large and strange combination of meat and vegetables in a broth of some sort when Gavin entered with Evrouin and Darryn. He said Tadeo had just left, but had requested Benji let Gavin know he would be headed to the eyrie to finalize the plans for their first attempt at getting the Orinai army headed in the wrong direction. That plan was supposed to be implemented that evening.
Twenty minutes later, the three of them arrived in the eyrie.
“Ah,” Tadeo said on noticing them, his steely gaze taking in all three of them without betraying any hint of emotion. “The boy delivered his message. I was afraid this thing would not happen.”
Gavin shook his head. “Benji is a good boy. He just gets distracted sometimes.”
“This thing is true. I see he is not with you.” Behind Tadeo, Farah smiled at Gavin. He nodded at her, but didn’t feel in the mood to smile back.
“He stayed in the dining hall to finish his stew.”
“We have a problem,” Evrouin said. “This idiot just attacked us both in front of half the valley.” Evrouin jerked a thumb at Darryn. “He’s been acting like a heat-crazed lunatic since we got here. I, for one, would really like to know what his problem is.”
Gavin couldn’t help but agree. He turned to Darryn, crossing his arms in an exact replica of Evrouin’s earlier motion. Mimicry was a skill his grandmother had taught him at a young age, a basic staple of a novice performer.
“It’s none of your business,” Darryn said.
Gavin threw up his hands. He’d had this conversation with Darryn before and he’d refused to talk about it then too.
“I’m tired of this game, Darryn,” Gavin said. “You either tell us what’s going on now or I will throw you in the same prison where they kept Samsin and let you stew there all winter. I hear they can be long up here. Five or six months altogether.”
Darryn scowled, but kept his mouth firmly closed.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Farah said, adding her voice to the discussion for the first time. She walked up, looking from Darryn to Gavin and then back again. Her blond hair blew about in the soft wind. “He’s in love with Lhaurel. He wants to go after her.”
“What?” Evrouin blurted at the same time that Gavin said, “What in the seven hells?”
Tadeo, as was his way, remained silent and impassive. Darryn’s expression went slack and his hands, which had been fists only moments before, fell open at his sides.
“You can see it in his eyes,” Farah continued, “and in the way he’s so guarded about it. Men have a way of not saying what they really mean.” She shot Gavin a rather pointed look. “He loves her and is trying to figure out a way to go after her, poor fool.” She gave Darryn a pitying look.
“You can’t be serious,” Evrouin exclaimed, staring at Darryn as if he were seeing a ghost. “You only knew the woman for a few days before the Orinai took her.”
Darryn scowled at him, then hung his head, cheeks coloring perceptibly, though Gavin couldn’t tell if it was from anger or embarrassment.
“Even just once is enough, sometimes.” Farah said. She didn’t look in Gavin’s direction.
“Gavin,” Evrouin said, turning to him. “Don’t tell me you believe any of this. And even if he is in love with the woman, what right does he have to go running off after her on his own like that. He could have brought the whole Orinai army down on us.”
“Army?” Darryn said, finally finding his voice again, though his cheeks still showed a little color. “What army?”
“The one camped at the edge of the mountains, you idiot.”
“This thing could be good for us,” Tadeo said, his gruff voice a low rumble. “This man, he is wanting to leave. We need messengers to go out and find the others like old Nikanor, yes? I will take this man with me.”
Gavin blinked. “With you?” He wanted to ask the man how he even knew they needed to send out messengers, but couldn’t mention anything that would imply Samsin was still alive. Gavin hadn’t told Evrouin the whole truth earlier and Darryn he didn’t trust enough to even tell part of it.
Tadeo nodded. “Yes. I will go with this man. He is a mystic, yes?”
“Well, yes, he is, but—”
“I will do this thing. I know the Empire. I know where we will go and how to travel without being caught. This thing is decided already. Farah has given us one of the magnificent aevians to us for a short time this night.” Tadeo gave Farah a small bow, bending at the waist.