One Road

Hetcha

Chapter 44

After leaving the Lorel mountains, I’d traveled with Mira back to the outskirts of Stromholt’s territory. It wasn’t far as the crow flies, but the roads were rarely so convenient. We’d set up camp in the marsh separating it from the more eastern territories and started doing what we could to find groups of La’Darin.

I had an idea about where a few groups of my own people might have gathered, but they were quickly exhausted. Trying to help, Mira had been using her power more than usual. I should have paid better attention to exactly how much. Without warning she’d ended up collapsing from exhaustion and sleeping for most of two days.

We were lucky it happened while we were at our most recent hideout, rather than on the road. I cursed myself for being an inattentive fool but couldn’t do anything else. She’d refused to take time to rest.

“Hey bright eyes,” I muttered as I pressed a cool cloth to Mira’s forehead.

“Haha,” She said back, face pale from pain but smiling.

“We can-” I start only to find her finger pressed to my lips. I’d already brought it up before, but she was still resolute. She wouldn’t abandon our mission.

Our mission, despite the circumstances, the thought made me smile. As a human, she could have left at any moment and been accepted with honor in her choice of kingdoms. Instead she was tramping along with me in a gods forsaken swamp.

“It wasn’t that bad, I just had a breakthrough,” She explained. I nodded, though I knew that was horseshit. My attention was on her eyes rather than her words. Seeing her pale blue eyes focus, I was relieved. She hadn’t gone completely blind this time.

I knew it would happen eventually and it was an accepted consequence of her powers. It would have just been an inopportune moment, to say the least. When exactly she’d lose her vision wasn’t known. It varied between seers. In the tower, they would have trained her to be as independent as could be managed as it progressed and provided skilled attendants. Right now, all she had was me and I hadn’t been trained in caretaking.

Outside our hideaway I heard a goose call out of season from the direction of the road. Despite the signal, I still lingered until Mira gave me a shove with a grumpy look.

“The sooner you go the quicker you’re back,” She said flatly. I nodded and gave her a kiss, leaving while I could still bear to part with her. It was only ten yards to the road, but the thick vegetation hid our little shack completely.

“I’m not doing the bloody challenge, here’s your fucking letter!” A man with wolf’s ears shouted at me as I appeared. A moment later, his human form disappeared completely, and a wolf was running back the way he’d come. I picked the letter up with a harrumph.

His attitude had improved from the last time, which was a depressing fact. I took the letter back and handed it to Mira to read it for us both. She seemed pleased I did, but it wasn’t a special gesture. I just like the sound of her voice and would take any excuse to have her read me something.

“We don’t believe you, but we’ll send scouts,” Mira said, blinking heavily. She turned the letter over, looking for more text, but found nothing.

“Must they all be rude?” She asked unhappily.

“I’d say this is just blunt, compared to some of the others,” I said, feeling encouraged. Even if they didn’t believe, so long as they took a look, they’d know the truth. Even the Lepusan hadn’t responded much more enthusiastically and I was one of their kin.

“Shouldn’t that funny catkin be along soon?” Mira asked smiling despite herself.

“Depends on if he got distracted by the goose call or found an uncharted bit of swamp, again,” I said with a sigh. Felix was a lot of things and focused wasn’t on the list. He didn’t represent any specific group, but had been our go-between for the deeper territories.

As a courier he had connections and access we lacked. On top of that he wore a false slave collar that let him move with relative ease though the more heavily populated areas. Thinking about it had my hand involuntarily moving to my neck. He acted like it was nothing, but I knew I couldn’t have done the same.

“Are you sure about sending him to the valley? He’s sweet, but I don’t feel he’s good at keeping secrets,” Mira said. It wasn’t an unreasonable concern, but I had different thoughts. He was hard to get a handle on. Even under torture, I doubted anyone would be able to get a straight word out of him unwillingly.

“If he sees it, he’ll be able to speak honestly in our favor,” I said simply. He had worked with us to deliver messages so far, but that was it. It had been an impartial service, a business transaction. We needed him to side with us and spread the word as a witness.

“Getting more people on our side is all we can do without a solution for the collars,” I added. We had 42 on our side but she was a hermit and wouldn’t leave her valley. That limited her ability to help us with finding and convincing others, though I wouldn’t complain about it. She had helped us endlessly in any other matter when she could and was still working on the collar problem with Mira.

“I’ll write 42 and let her know to expect additional company,” Mira said with a wry smile. She didn’t share my conviction that any La’Darin who visited the valley would immediately want to relocate. I’d taken her to see the temple and she understood it was a marvel, but not how deeply it had moved me. Temples and churches devoted to gods and goddesses weren’t in short supply after all.

My own feelings were born of a sense that something was missing my whole life. Yes, there were plenty of choices, but none specific to my own people or the rest of the La’Durin. As if, somehow, we’d never built any places of worship or monuments of our own in all of our long history. It was an unnatural thing and had nagged at me even when I didn’t understand what made me so uneasy.

Now though, it was like a part of myself had been found. It was possible others wouldn’t feel so strongly as I did, yet I doubted it. Besides, even without infrastructure the valley was well protected and spacious. It wouldn’t be hard to set up some rudimentary homes, so it was still a safe haven.

“Hm? Oh, 42’s written back,” Mira said. Her eyes scanned a letter only she could see.

“She gives her thanks for the warning but isn’t concerned. There’s plenty of room for the wolves…” Mira said, eyes scanning back and forth. As the recipient, she was the only one who could read the message. Watching her expression shift from stiff to shocked I felt worried about what she’d say next until she broke out in a smile.

“Ban made it and will bring the rest of his clan to the valley,” She said finally. I sat stunned before bouncing in place and clapping my hands, ears straight up in delight.

“That’s wonderful!” I cried happily. He’d said he’d go and see the valley, but I hadn’t been sure he would make good on his word. He was responsible for a large group, I couldn’t have blamed him for changing his mind.

“Also, she’s working on how to make it easier to get to the valley. It seems she’s recently made a workshop to make studying magic easier and is optimistic about finding a solution soon. The collar problem is still slow going, but going more smoothly than before,” She said, grinning. I grabbed her up in a hug. Things were finally starting to look up.