REUNION
Alton could not remember being happier. He and Estral
spent long hours into the night talking, laughing, singing, and
holding each other close. He almost forgot the danger so nearby,
but there was not much he could do about the wall or the towers
until Merdigen returned. It surprised him he wasn’t as frustrated
as he normally would be. He was grateful for the respite actually,
as it presented more time for him to spend with
Estral.
Upon Garth’s
appearance at the wall and his news of the impending arrival of the
company that included Karigan as a member of the Blackveil
expedition, Alton had gone cold, not hearing another word Garth
spoke. He spent the interval between Garth’s arrival and Karigan’s
pacing in his tent and trying to decide what he’d say to her.
Hello, Karigan, I’m in love with your best
friend, did not seem like the best approach. Then he fell
into deep thought wondering how she looked, how she’d be. She was
“Sir Karigan” now, he reminded himself. How had she
changed?
Fortunately Estral
was absent from his agonizing. She was giving a music lesson to an
off-duty guard.
“You look like
you’re being pecked to death by a clutch of baby ducks,” Garth
said, poking his head into the tent. “That anxious to see
Karigan?”
“Anxious?
Yes.”
Misinterpreting,
Garth just laughed.
And then the Riders
rode into camp and Alton and Garth strode out to greet them. He
immediately picked out the rarely seen Lynx, and there were Yates
and Trace. The others were unknown to him. Except Karigan, who rode
at the end of the line with a man in forester’s garb.
Alton caught his
breath. There she sat mounted on Condor, her posture that of a true
horsewoman, the reins easy in her hands. Her long brown hair was
drawn back into a single braid, just as he remembered she often
wore it.
She grinned at him.
It was like a punch to the gut and he staggered back a step. He
remembered those dimples, the smile of her eyes, and a stolen kiss
or two. He remembered why he’d been so drawn to her. He realized he
was gawping at her.
Damnation.
“Estral?” Karigan cried, and it was followed by a
squeal that made Alton’s hair stand on end. Karigan jumped off
Condor and the two young women ran to each other for a hug. Alton,
who hadn’t even noticed Estral’s arrival, watched the two, feeling
a little left out. Dale gazed at him with a look of amusement. He
scowled at her. Garth laughed and thumped him on the
back.
After some excited
conversation between Karigan and Estral that was impossible to
follow, Karigan came to him for a hug. They were both, he noted, a
little hesitant, unsure. When he held her, she felt lighter than he
recalled. She smelled of the earth and balsam fir and her horse,
not at all an unpleasant combination. When they pulled apart, he
asked, “How have you been?”
“Well,” she
replied.
Her eyes—at first he
did not recognize her eyes. They were filled with night, or
something he could only describe as night. Darkness, endless depth,
as if there was another part of her looking out at him from some
vast space that even she was not aware of, but it was gone all in a
fleeting moment and her eyes were as bright as he always remembered
them. He shuddered.
The next moment new
Riders were being introduced to him, as well as the forester whose
name he promptly forgot. They chattered gaily, Yates making rude
comments about the cavalry soldiers who had accompanied them, much
to the delight of the others.
Dale and Garth led
them away, the laughing gaggle, off to the pickets to care for
their horses. Karigan glanced over her shoulder at him as she led
Condor away. Estral remained by his side.
“What are we going
to do?” he asked.
“The truth is
generally a good approach,” Estral replied.
What was the truth? he wondered. He thought he knew, but
seeing Karigan now? Estral reached for his hand and twined her
fingers around his. When their gazes met, he was no longer
confused.
At least for the
moment.
Alton felt torn in
too many directions. The Riders wanted food, they wanted a dry
place for their gear, they regaled him with questions, wanted to
explore the encampment, wanted more food, demanded a tour of Tower
of the Heavens. So long away from being in the midst of other
Riders, he had forgotten in all his dark, quiet time beside the
wall how boisterous his comrades could be, especially the young
ones. Lynx remained his cool, untalkative self, but his attitude
was interested. Karigan mostly gossiped with Estral about Selium
and the people they both knew at the school.
Fortunately Dale and
Garth were there to help manage the questions and arrangements. It
occurred to Alton that all the activity was actually an excellent
diversion because it allowed him to avoid admitting his feelings
for Estral to Karigan.
When they stood
before Tower of the Heavens for their tour, Dale demonstrated how
easy it was for the Riders to walk through the wall, with an
apology to the forester, Ard, who would be unable to join them. The
Riders gave it a try, first tentatively, and then with enthusiasm,
passing back and forth numerous times. The nearest guard on duty
watched in mortification.
Alton sighed. “Get
used to it, Dixon, they’re staying. Most of them,
anyway.”
When Alton entered
the tower himself, he found the Riders peering into cabinets and
flipping through the books on the table. He nearly pulled his hair
out for he had arranged the books precisely, but he forced himself
to calm down. Karigan, he noted, was gazing up at the hole in the
roof far above.
“I’d heard the tower
took quite a jolt,” she told him. “But I didn’t know there was so
much damage.”
Before Alton could
respond, Dale said, “We almost got squashed!”
Karigan’s eyes
widened. “I see you came through it all right.” When she noticed
Estral had followed them into the tower, her eyes grew even larger.
“Estral? How did she get in here?”
Alton smiled. “She
took me by surprise the first time, too. She sings to the
guardians. She says they like her.”
Karigan glanced at
him as if to make sure she’d heard him right. Someone yelped and
they both jumped. It was Fern—she had discovered the most
extraordinary feature of the tower—the grasslands in the circle of
columns. The others had to experience it for themselves and there
was much excited discussion and experimentation just as there had
been with walking through the tower wall.
“I imagine they’ll
tire of it . . . eventually,” Karigan said with a wry smile.
“Actually, I have little memory of this place myself.” She wandered
away, checking the various nooks and crannies of the chamber,
pausing to gaze for quite a while beneath the west archway, where
Captain Mapstone had found them both half dead after their
respective experiences in Blackveil almost a year ago. She drifted
away from the arch and joined the other Riders near the tempes
stone to view the grasslands.
Estral joined Alton
and watched the Riders with amusement lighting her eyes. “It’s
going to be a little more lively around here, don’t you
think?”
“We’ll see. Once I
assign them to their separate towers, we may be able to keep things
down to a dull roar.”
That evening turned
into a sort of celebration beneath the dining tent, with Estral
called into service to sing and play and Riders dancing up a storm,
with off-duty soldiers joining in. Alton left Dale and Garth in
charge of the Riders to ensure they didn’t break
anything.
He sat at a table
with Karigan, Lynx, and Ard. Karigan appeared deep in her own
thoughts, and Lynx smoked his pipe, his eyes half-lidded as though
he were in a different world altogether. Ard clapped to the beat of
a rousing tavern song. Yates, Alton observed, was doing backflips,
much to the delight of onlookers.
“I am beginning to
think Yates was an acrobat in a former life,” Karigan
said.
“I’m finding it
difficult to believe the captain chose him for the
expedition.”
“He’s good at
drawing maps,” Karigan replied. “And he volunteered.”
“Volunteered? Is he
mad?”
Karigan gazed
steadily at him. Besides himself, she alone knew what it was to
enter Blackveil Forest. No one else who did had survived. This, he
realized, was a bond they shared, a bond like no
other.
“Even from here,
guarded by the wall, I can feel the unrest of the forest,” Lynx
said unexpectedly. “Dark creatures with their dark
thoughts.”
Alton shuddered and
Ard ceased his clapping. “Your words do little to instill
confidence,” the forester said.
“And so they should
not,” Lynx murmured.
“Well, I did not
volunteer outright for this duty,” Ard replied. “My Lord Spane
recommended me to my Lord Coutre. I suppose it’s better me going in
than some younger, less experienced man with a family. Besides, I’d
do anything for my lord and lady, and especially Lady Estora.
Doesn’t mean I’m looking forward to it.” Silence followed his
pronouncement and he stood abruptly. “Guess I’ll see if there is
any more of that pie left.”
Alton watched after
the forester as he made his way through the tent to where the cooks
were stationed. He noticed that of anyone, Ard seemed the most
interested in hanging near Karigan. Even now, from across the tent,
he glanced back as though to check on her. She appeared completely
unaware of his attention. Alton wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Maybe the forester was just looking out for her. She was the only
female on the expedition and perhaps Ard did not realize she was
quite capable of looking after herself.
Alton supposed he
should be pleased Ard watched after Karigan, but it bothered him.
Could it be he was jealous? He almost laughed out loud at himself.
He’d no right to be jealous of her anymore, and besides, he really
didn’t think Ard was her type. He just couldn’t see
it.
“No sign of the
Eletians?” Karigan asked.
“Nothing.”
“I suppose they
still have a day before the equinox to get here.”
“If they don’t show,
what then?”
“Oh, they’ll come,”
Karigan said with quiet conviction. “They’ll come and we’ll enter
Blackveil Forest. This was their idea, after all.”
“What is it they’re
after?” Alton wondered.
“That is what our
king wishes us to find out,” Lynx said. “Blackveil was once their
Argenthyne and they’re going back to see what remains, I suppose.”
With this pronouncement, he rose and excused himself for the
night.
That left Alton
alone with Karigan. They gazed at one another in awkward
silence.
“It’s been a while,
hasn’t it?” Karigan said, smiling shyly. “We don’t know where to
begin.”
“Well, I’d like to
hear about everything that happened last fall,” Alton replied.
“I’ve gotten bits and pieces about Lady Estora and the Silverwood
book, but not the entire picture. You were on a training run with
one of the new ones, right? Fergal?”
“Yes, and I was none
too happy about it.” Karigan laughed and set to telling him about
the journey and her experiences with Fergal, though true to form
Alton could tell she was withholding certain details. For instance,
she did not say how Fergal fell into the Grandgent from the ferry,
and she was very evasive for some reason about the inn they stayed
at in Rivertown. When it came to the rescue of Lady Estora, she
emphasized the roles of others. She was not the type to boast or
claim the credit. In fact, the less she said about herself, the
more he was sure she had been integral to the rescue.
She’s Sir Karigan, he
reminded himself, an honor not conferred on anyone in two hundred
years, and the only one involved in those events to have earned it.
The king certainly believed her actions had been exceptional. He
half-smiled to himself, remembering Karigan the runaway schoolgirl,
but even then she’d accomplished extraordinary deeds that led
directly to the rescue of the king from his brother’s coup attempt.
Alton recalled the passing darkness in her eyes he’d perceived
earlier. He hadn’t seen it since, but he couldn’t help thinking
there was something much more complex about her beneath the surface
than there had been before. Something that—it sounded odd even to
him—but something that separated her from the rest of the
world.
“And so here I am,”
she said.
With some surprise
he realized his thoughts had distracted him from the summation of
her story.
“Your turn,” Karigan
said. “Catch me up.”
Alton glanced toward
Estral, who was teaching the Riders a new song. Lantern light
glimmered off her hair and her smile made his heart wobble. He tore
his gaze away, looked back to Karigan, and told her of his own
travails with the wall, and he almost tripped himself up with
laughter when he realized he was withholding details from her just
as she had from him. She did not need to know, he decided, the
depth of his madness after his time in the forest. Bringing it up
would be like scratching a scab off a nearly healed wound. There
was a time, he reflected, when they would have told each other
everything. Now they acted a little like strangers. By the time he
concluded, he had said nothing of Estral except to describe the
basics of her arrival.
“I’m surprised she
left Selium at all,” Karigan said, “much less came here of all
places.”
“We’ve . . . we’ve
enjoyed the music,” Alton replied, not ready to admit
more.
They fell silent
again and Karigan gazed at him as if she expected more from him. He
tried to come up with something, anything, but only got warm
beneath the collar. Fortunately Dale rescued him by coming over and
plopping herself on the bench next to Karigan.
“My, aren’t we the
maudlin ones,” she commented. “Everyone else is having a grand old
time and you two look ready to cast your lot with beggars and
undertakers.”
“We’ve been catching
up,” Alton said.
“Speaking of which,”
Dale turned to face Karigan directly, “what’s this I hear about the
king’s masquerade ball and you being Mad Queen Oddacious? That was
one of my favorite plays. ‘Mad Queen Oddacious has twenty-one cats,
each named Precious and wears a hat—’ ”
“Auuugh!” Karigan
wailed putting her head in her hands. “Even here, next to the wall
I can’t escape it!”
“I’m afraid not,”
Dale said, all chipper. “Tell me everything.”
As Karigan told the
story of the masquerade, Alton glanced covertly at Estral. The
Riders sat in a semicircle around her as she told them some tale.
He became lost in a reverie as he watched her until Dale let go a
high-pitched, “Assassination attempt?”
Now Alton paid rapt
attention while Karigan recounted the attempt on King Zachary’s
life. It sounded ill-conceived and inept. If the Weapons had not
stopped the would-be assassin, Alton was certain the king could
have done so himself blindfolded and one-handed, and yet the color
drained from Karigan’s face as she told the tale.
“The king could have
taken down that fool with a glance if need be,” Dale said
dismissively. “He’s as well trained as any Weapon.”
“I know, I know,” Karigan replied. “He’s our king and
I ... I don’t want him hurt is
all.”
Alton scrunched his
eyebrows together. There was more being left unspoken in that
statement.
“Well, Queen
Oddacious,” Dale said, “why don’t we go join the
singing?”
Karigan groaned and
Dale laughed. Dale took her friend’s hand and led her toward the
others.
Alton could only
breathe a sigh of relief that he’d gotten away without having to
confess the truth about his affection for Estral.