Clanless Page 13

  Gryphon stepped back. “You can’t be serious.”

  “We want to trust you.” Sani showed Gryphon his palms in surrender. “You have been honorable so far. But—”

  “Fine,” Gryphon snarled. “Follow me if you like.”

  Gryphon shouldn’t have been offended. These men lost their homes and were separated from their families. He couldn’t blame them for being uncomfortable with him. If anything, it reminded Gryphon just how alone he really was in the world. No one would ever fully trust a Ram. Certainly not the Allies. He had Joshua, but his conversation with Gabe before they left the Nest had severed even that little thread of peace.

  What was he doing with these Raven anyway? Could he risk traveling to the Allies to see Joshua one last time? He wanted to believe the boy would see reason and settle within the protection of a clan, but Gabe had a point. Joshua wouldn’t want to stay with the Allies if he knew Gryphon wasn’t welcome.

  Gryphon and Sani picked their way through the forest, weaving between bushes and briars until Gryphon spotted the familiar cluster of granite boulders next to a thick fir tree with low-hanging boughs.

  “I’ll only be a moment.”

  Gryphon left Sani by the boulders and dropped his pack on the ground before falling to hands and knees and crawling under the heavy boughs. The familiar smell of pine and lemongrass carried with it sweet memories. A miracle had taken place in this shadowed sanctuary. Two miracles, actually. Both at the hands of Zo.

  Yes, she’d miraculously healed Joshua from a deadly stab wound, but she’d also healed Gryphon. His wounds were less obvious but equally profound. His whole life, he’d tried to compensate for his father’s failings, but only when he and Zo held each other under this tree did he finally feel centered. She’d made him feel capable. Strong.

  These Raven didn’t trust him to take a simple walk through the woods without supervision, but she had trusted him with her and her sister’s lives. Her belief in him had made him invincible.

  And then he failed her. His own mess brother ended her precious life.

  “She wasn’t pretty in death.”

  Did she die beneath the boughs of this tree? Did little Tess see it happen? How much did Zo suffer?

  Digging his fingers into the ground, Gryphon pushed his forehead into the loose soil and fought a sob. How could someone hurt her? He should have fought harder. He should have found a way to take her away from this place. Gryphon’s hands and arms shook. He clutched two fistfuls of his hair, his forehead still pressed to the dirt. He couldn’t delay his revenge any longer.

  Bursting out from under the tree, he couldn’t catch his breath. Couldn’t get away from the tree fast enough.

  “What happened?” Sani asked.

  “We need to leave. We can’t rest here tonight.”

  Sure-footed Sani stumbled to catch up with Gryphon. “I don’t understand.”

  “I know.”

  When they reached the Raven warriors, every man stood. “What happened?” one asked.

  Gryphon adjusted the straps of his pack and said, “We’re leaving.”

  Sani must have given a signal to the men, because they all gathered their meager possessions and, without speech or ceremony, took off into the gathering shadows of night.

  Zo blinked, and looked between Boar and Stone. “You can’t be serious.”

  Boar shrugged. “It’s a fair trade. I give you three people in exchange for one.” He took out his own knife and spun it on one finger with a practiced hand before catching it.

  “Zo is a healer and our guide. She’s too valuable.” Stone crossed his arms.

  Zo whipped around and glared at Stone. Was the man seriously negotiating with Boar, as if she were no more than a valuable commodity? Stone above anyone else knew what it meant to belong to another person.

  “What you don’t seem to appreciate, Nameless, is that my little band here,” he stretched out his arms toward his men, “can be a nightmare to your people. We will slow you down. Pick off your people one by one. You will never rest without fear, always wondering if we are surrounding you, planning our next attack.

  As crazy as Stone was, Zo knew he couldn’t reasonably allow his people to suffer just for one person. Yes, she was a healer, and yes, she was the only person who’d traveled to the Allied Camp, but her life wasn’t valuable enough to sacrifice so many. She balled her fists and closed her eyes, waiting for Stone to agree to Boar’s terms.

  “I am willing to trade with you, Boar. I’m willing to give you something valuable to gain back what you’ve stolen from me. But Zo is a big reason we’ve escaped the Gate. I can’t reward her help by trading her to you.”

  Boar offered an exaggerated sigh. “I was afraid you’d say that.” He gestured to one of his men who, without hesitation, produced a knife and dragged it across the Nameless woman’s throat.

  “No!” Stone yelled. Zo’s knees wobbled beneath her. Stone’s men drew swords. The bleeding woman crumpled to the ground and the entire ring of men seemed to inhale at once. Then everything happened fast. Stone’s hand clamped down on Zo’s arm as he shouted, “Attack!” The Nameless charged the Clanless. Swords clashed. A few of Boar’s large, Kodiak-looking men pulled the other three Nameless hostages away. Stone held firmly to Zo’s arm and dragged her back toward the Nameless camp. At his command, the men who hadn’t fallen to the Clanless covered their retreat. Boar didn’t offer chase.

  The image of the woman being killed replayed over and over in Zo’s mind. When the forest was quiet again, and there was no sign of Boar’s men, she said, “We can’t leave her.” Boar considered Zo for a moment then nodded. “You’re right.”

  He sent two of his men to retrieve the woman, saying it was too dangerous to let Zo go herself. The men were fast. They returned with faces of stone and laid her reverently on the ground where Zo could administer to her.

  Blood covered her neck and chest. A familiar gurgling sound accompanied what Zo knew to be a severed trachea. Without air, the woman had died quickly. Even if she could perform a healing blessing, it wouldn’t bring this woman back from the dead.

  Zo, who had wept more in the past few days than she had since her parents were killed, didn’t have another tear to shed for this stranger on the ground, who’d escaped slavery only to die a savage death. This woman’s death was only the beginning of the terror Boar had promised to inflict on the Nameless refugees.

  Stone placed a hand on Zo’s shoulder, but she shrugged it off. For so long after her parents’ murder she had reserved her anger only for the Ram. But from her time spent in Ram’s Gate, she had come to realize her anger had less to do with the Ram and more to do with horrible people—people who strut around the world and take and take and take, just because they can. Zo expended so much time trying to preserve life, that the immorality of murder—of taking life—shocked her to the core. She’d never get used to it.

  “We’ll get the others back,” said Stone. His face was white. Even his lips drained of color as he looked down at Zo and the woman who’d died because of his decision. “We will protect our people.”

  Zo didn’t mean to laugh, but she did, a dark, sinister thing that snaked out of her mouth without permission. “You don’t even know how many men they have, Stone. How can you possibly know that you can defend against them?”

  It was the wrong thing to say. She should have been thanking him for not trading her to Boar. But with her fingers soaked in the blood of an innocent woman who’d unwittingly died in her place, it was hard to be grateful for anything.

  Shame came much easier.

  A heavy raindrop landed on Zo’s forehead and dribbled down into her eye. Another met her arm, and another the back of her neck.

  “We can’t stay here,” said Stone. He scooped up the woman’s body and they made a solemn walk back to deliver the news of their failure to the Nameless.

  Chapter 15

  Little by little, Gryphon fell back from
Sani and the rest of the Raven warriors as they ran. Sani glanced over his shoulder to check that Gryphon was still following, eyeing the growing distance between them with distaste. The more time he spent with the boy, the more he struggled to believe he was only thirteen years old. What thirteen-year-old ran around pledging his life to others? He spouted nonsense about honor when he wasn’t even old enough to grow whiskers. The boy had some nerve.

  The forest thickened with pines and spruces, forcing them to follow winding game trails. Gryphon lost sight of Sani on a turn and made a quick decision.

  He darted east, leaving the trail for an untamed path through the dense forest.

  It wouldn’t be long before Sani realized Gryphon’s absence and came looking for him to fulfill his duty as ‘Atiin, but Gryphon knew this mountain and was confident he could easily avoid them.

  He sprinted a half mile east then, ducking between a pair of lichen-covered boulders, crumpled to the ground knowing he would never see Joshua again.

  I’m doing this for him, he reminded himself over and over again. Joshua deserved a life that Gryphon simply couldn’t offer. Gryphon pressed his palms into his eyes. Without Joshua to care for, his focus fell to the one thing he had left to fight for: Zo’s memory. And he’d start by hunting Zander and Ajax. They’d feel every ounce of pain Zo had before she died, even if it was his final act in this life.

  It wasn’t long before the sounds of snapping branches and murmuring voices reached him. They were close enough that Gryphon easily distinguished Sani’s high-pitched tone from the other Raven, but distant enough that Gryphon didn’t bother running. The Raven didn’t seem to look for long before they moved on. Even the son of a chief couldn’t convince the warriors to give their time to a lost cause. And if they mistrusted him enough to think he defected to warn the Ram, they’d run with even more haste than they had up to now.

  Gryphon lay hidden between the boulders into the afternoon, long after the sun peeked over the horizon. Waiting. Hating the cruel blow life had dealt him. More hungry for revenge than for any morsel of food. He ran a hand over his face to feel the product of almost two weeks without shaving. His dark beard grew fast and thick and it wouldn’t be long before even his mother wouldn’t have recognized him.

  Gryphon plucked a blade of grass and tore it into strips, thinking about his mother and how she ought to have made his list of things and people to live for. Beneath her rough exterior, she had loved Gryphon, even though a chunk of her heart wasn’t available to him.

  Yes, he assumed it was because his father had abandoned them when he was a baby. She’d let the disgrace govern her and Gryphon’s lives, insisting that his father’s shield be hung above the family hearth—an ever-present monument to their shame. But as a boy, Gryphon couldn’t understand why the decisions of his father were his fault. He hadn’t left. He’d been right under her nose all that time. Searching for new ways to please her and ease her pain. She’d been so young when his father left, probably close to Gryphon’s age. Her whole life forfeit because she didn’t move on. Gryphon would have forgiven her emotional neglect a thousand times over. But forgiveness was never sought and, consequently, never offered.

  He bit off a piece of grass root and stared at the clouds shifting in the sky. His thoughts were broken by the faint sound of breathing behind him. People didn’t sound like that when they breathed. It was more like the slow and heavy pant of a dog. A very, very large dog. He craned his neck to look back, afraid to make any sudden movements.

  Two bear cubs with brownish-black fur backed behind their gigantic mother. They seemed to whimper at her feet. The mother wore a shaggy brown coat. Her long muzzle stretched into a wet, black nose raised to the sky as she sniffed the air.

  Gryphon flipped onto his stomach and eyed the massive creature. Its head was easily as wide as Gryphon’s shoulders, and standing on four legs, the beast’s back would have met his chest. He’d heard of mess units spotting Kodiak bears, but they mostly kept east to the Kodiak Hills. Men whispered stories about the size of these beasts, but people exaggerate, and Gryphon hadn’t believed them. Until now.

  Again, the bear sniffed the air around Gryphon. She sneezed and shook her head, as if disgusted by what she smelled. Tossing her head from side to side, she clacked her teeth together, her mouth opening and shutting.

  Gryphon slowly pushed up onto his hands and knees. “Easy, girl. I’m not going to hurt your cubs. I’ll leave.”

  The bear grunted and charged forward, then stopped only five yards away. With claws like daggers, it swiped at the air as it backed up.

  Gryphon shifted into a crouch and picked a dead tree branch off the ground. “I’m leaving. I’m leaving. It’s all right. I’m leaving.”

  He took a half step backward and the bear charged again, this time stopping just outside the reach of its claw swipes. The fur on its neck stood on end and its ears lay flat to its head.

  This was no longer just about defending her cubs. She seemed hungry, and he was prey. The giant Kodiak pushed onto its hind legs. The force of her growl sent Gryphon stumbling back.

  Gryphon raised the stick above his head and shouted his own battle cry before launching the stick at the bear’s face like a spear. The stick flew wobbly through the air and struck the bear’s nose. The roar that followed forced Gryphon to cover his ears.

  The Kodiak charged forward and pushed up onto its hind legs. This time, when it swiped out with a paw, all the bear’s weight went into the blow. Gryphon ducked and scrambled back against a tree. He scoured the ground for some kind of weapon to defend himself.

  Just as the bear reached him, an arrow shot from somewhere behind Gryphon, connecting with the beast’s shoulder. The bear howled in fury, biting at the arrow, desperate to pull it free of its body.

  Gryphon spun around and gaped at the sight.

  A woman stood on the shoulders of a man, a bow in her hands with an arrow aimed at the bear. The man at the bottom of the human totem kept a wide stance to support her weight and held the girl by the ankles.

  “Don’t turn your back on her,” the woman said, her accent clearly Raven. “She’s threatened by my size and knows now that my bite stings, but an injured Kodiak is a very dangerous creature.”

  Gryphon shook his head in wonder and obeyed the woman, turning to face the beast that seconds ago had almost killed him.

  “Good, now back away. Good. Almost there. Now stop.”

  Gryphon stood level to the pair of Raven, panting and unable to keep his hands and legs from shaking.

  The Raven man said, “Now it’s your turn, bear. Back up before this girl squashes me into nothing.” The man didn’t seem at all taxed by the weight of the Raven girl. The bear snorted and whined as it backed away, but no one relaxed until it disappeared over the crest of a nearby ridge.

  The Raven girl jumped to the ground and Gryphon turned to thank the strangers but was met by a drawn bow, its arrow pointed at his head. “Who are you?” she hissed. The Raven man also had bow drawn, any humor he shared with the woman gone.

  “You have Sani’s beaded bracelet hanging about your wrist,” the girl said. “What have you done to my brother?”

  If this was Sani’s sister, that also made her Chief Naat’s daughter. “Months ago, when I was on a scouting trip with my unit, we came upon a flock of Raven,” said Gryphon. “We attacked. I had the chance to kill Sani but instead spared his life. I’ve since left my clan to warn your people of a coming invasion. Sani recognized me and claimed he is my ‘Atiin. I just came from the Nest with him after helping convince your people to flee.”

  The woman sucked in a quick breath. “They left the Nest?”

  “Impossible,” said the man. His head was shaved on both sides, leaving a cropped strip of hair running from forehead to nape.

  “They escaped the Ram by boat and are headed to meet the Allies in the south.”

  The woman lowered her bow and tugged on the man’s sleeve. “They’
re safe, Talon.” She wiped a tear from her cheek. “They’re safe.”

  Zo didn’t bother telling Joshua and Tess about Boar’s desire to have her. They only knew Stone and Boar couldn’t come to terms.

  Eva stared at Zo across the burial pyre and offered a sharp nod, her Ram way of saying, “We will fight this.” Zo appreciated the show of support even though it was accompanied by a husband’s wails, as smoke carried a murdered wife’s ashes to the heavens.

  The fumes of death constricted Zo’s throat. Stone had spared her life, but at what cost? Now that Stone knew the Clanless were targeting them, he’d have everyone on high alert for the rest of the journey. If they could just survive another week, Commander Laden’s scouts would surely spot them and send help. Just another week, and Zo and Tess would be completely safe for the first time in months.

  After the short burial service, the Nameless refugees strapped their belongings to their backs and, as one compact group, marched south. Stone ordered they travel like they slept, with their best fighters traveling along the perimeter of the group. However, walking the game trails of a forested mountain pass forced the group to thin out like marching ants.

  Zo tugged both Tess and Joshua close to her sides. They walked behind Stone and Eva, who held hands. Eva carried a knife in her free hand, and Stone, a spear. Their eyes constantly scanned the forest for signs of movement.

  Joshua leaned over and whispered in Zo’s ear, “You’re keeping things from me again.”

  Zo watched Tess hop forward and kick a rock along the game trail. “Not now, Joshua.” She tilted her head toward Tess.

  “I can handle more than you think. If I’m going to protect you and Tess, I need to know everything that’s going on, Zo.”

  Tess must have heard her name because she abandoned her rock and pretended to be fascinated by a hole in her shirt.

  “You are not my protector, Joshua. You’re brave and strong, but if anyone is responsible for the lives of our little group,” she hugged them both closer to her sides, “it’s me. Do you understand?”