Clanless Page 14

  Joshua grumbled about her being worse than Gryphon and kicked his own rock down the trail. It knocked into the back of Stone’s heel. The Nameless leader turned and scowled at the boy then resumed his scouting.

  Joshua’s head drooped even lower, till his chin rested against his chest.

  “Cheer up, Ginger,” said Zo. “We’re only a week outside of the Allied Camp. I’m sure when Commander Laden sees what a skilled fighter you are, he’ll put you in charge of something important.”

  “Yeah, probably make me the Master of Cleaning Weapons. Or maybe the Captain of Washing Dishes.” He sighed. “I just … I wish Gryphon were here, is all.” The muscles in his neck flexed and he looked out into the woods, his head turned away from Zo, likely to hide his tears.

  Me too, Ginger. Me too.

  Chapter 16

  The Raven twins who saved Gryphon’s life were called Talon and Raca. They wanted to know everything that happened with their people at the Nest. Several times during Gryphon’s tale they shared knowing looks, but they never interrupted.

  “What I don’t understand,” said Talon, when Gryphon finished explaining how he, Sani, and a group of Raven warriors escaped the Nest, “is what compelled you to leave Ram’s Gate in the first place. I’ve never heard of a Ram abandoning his clan.”

  Gryphon thought of the shield hanging over his family hearth and swallowed. “That is a story for another day.” He had no desire to talk about Zo and Joshua.

  “So Sani is on his way to meet up with our father and the rest of the Raven at the Allied Camp?” asked Raca.

  “Your father is the chief.” The family resemblance was hard to miss. “You’re Sani’s siblings.”

  Raca smiled. “Sani is the baby in the family. A strange boy.”

  Gryphon nodded and took a long drink from his water skin. He wiped his whiskered face and cringed at just how unkempt he must have appeared. And smelly. No wonder the bear attacked.

  “If he is your ‘Atiin, why aren’t you still with him?” she asked. There was a note of sympathy in her voice that made Gryphon bristle. He refused to be the object of anyone’s pity. A Ram trait that followed him from the Gate.

  “I am going my own way.”

  Talon’s eyebrows rose. “And which way is that?”

  Gryphon lifted the water skin to his lips again and paused. “I have a score to settle. I’ll say no more about it.”

  If there was one thing his encounter with the bear taught Gryphon, it was that he was very different from his mother. He wanted to live. But more than that, he didn’t want to be a victim. If given a choice between predator and prey, he chose predator. No more running from problems. From now on, he’d run toward his destiny.

  Revenge.

  “I have a few questions of my own,” said Gryphon, hoping to wipe the pitiful look off of Raca’s attractive face. “Why stand on your brother’s shoulders to face the bear? Without him holding you, you’d have two arrows pointed at the bear instead of one.”

  “We didn’t want to kill the animal. Only to scare it away. Did you not see her little family? The poor beast was only startled by you and attacked to save her cubs.”

  A part of Gryphon wanted to challenge Raca’s logic. If the cubs died they wouldn’t grow up to attack another man. But in his heart, Gryphon knew that line of thinking was flawed.

  The clans weren’t so different from that bear. They, too, were afraid of what was strange to them and wanted to protect their families. They attacked when they should find a way to make peace. To coexist.

  “The Kodiak Clan fights like that bear,” said Talon. “Have you ever crossed them in battle?” He tugged on a leathery piece of dried meat and chewed with his mouth open.

  “Once or twice, but I’ve never engaged a Kodiak beyond the wall of my mess’s phalanx of shields. My people raided their clan before I was old enough to earn my shield and pledge a mess.”

  Talon nodded. His eyes unfocused while he chewed—probably thinking about how much he despised the Ram. “To them, the larger the man, the greater the man.” Talon smiled with a few chunks of food in his teeth. “They like big women too.” He held his hands in a provocative way in front of his chest.

  Raca smacked her brother upside the head. “Quiet, Talon.” And then to Gryphon she said, “Forgive him. He needs to get back to his wife.”

  Gryphon smiled and tried not to think about the fact that only a few months ago he considered Raven, and others outside the Ram, less than human. The thought brought him so much shame it was hard to swallow the final sip of water from his water skin. He climbed to his feet and dusted off his backside. “I should be going,” he said. If he didn’t get back to Ram’s Gate soon, he’d lose his chance at killing Zander and Ajax before they went back inside the Gate.

  “What about the redheaded boy?” Raca blurted. “He claimed you were his mentor. Will you abandon him?”

  Gryphon froze halfway through the motion of putting on his pack. “What did you just say?”

  “The boy.” Raca bit her lip, no longer looking at Gryphon, but instead reading Talon’s silent cues to stop talking.

  “How do you know about Joshua?” Gryphon said each word carefully. This young woman’s answer was so fragile to him.

  “We shared his fire two nights ago. He keeps interesting company.”

  The Nameless covered an impressive amount of ground before setting up camp for the night in a large clearing. Children used to working fields aren’t strangers to endurance, but by the time Stone and Eva settled on a stopping place, most of the small ones hung on the thin coats of their weary parents if they weren’t already resting on their mother’s hip or their father’s shoulders.

  Zo recognized this portion of the mountain because the trees were blackened and bare and the ground scorched from a fire that must have happened in the last year. Zo remembered traveling through this part of the mountain with Gabe when she was on her way to deliver herself up as a Nameless spy for the Allies. It was hard to imagine Tess traveling these woods behind them. They had taken two full weeks to get to Ram’s Gate, traveling at a much slower pace, but still, the fact that she had managed to stay hidden, that her short legs had carried her so far, was a miracle.

  Needing the comfort of her touch and the reassurance she was still alive, Zo tugged Tess closer to her side before the girl wiggled free and ran to say something to Joshua.

  Stone hopped up onto a fallen tree trunk and the Nameless went quiet. “The Clanless will come back and try to take more of our people. We must be ready to defend ourselves tonight.” Tight whispers scattered across the camp, but died when Stone continued. “Gather your firewood in pairs. Men, build your campfires, arm your women, then report to me in twenty minutes with a torch in hand.”

  Stone shouldn’t have any doubts that the Clanless knew their location. A toddler could follow the tracks of a group this size. They were less like tracks and more like a trampling of the earth.

  Joshua hopped over to Zo and dropped a dead badger that he’d caught earlier that day at her feet. “Stay here with Tess. I’ll get the wood!” He sprinted away, not yielding to Zo’s calls for him to come back.

  “You stay here,” Zo said to Tess. “I’m going to go kill that boy. I’ll be right back.”

  Tess wrinkled her nose with a smile. She knelt and scanned the ground for more rocks—something of a nightly tradition.

  Zo knew it wasn’t smart to set out into the woods alone, but she couldn’t let Joshua go without her. That boy! He was so excited about taking care of Zo and Tess that he forgot his own age. Sure, he was a decent fighter, especially for a thirteen-year-old, but he was still just a boy.

  A boy Zo couldn’t bear to lose.

  The evening brought with it new shadows that shifted as she walked through the woods, away from camp. A large bird cawed from its perch in the trees. Curious, Zo approached it and the bird pushed off from the thin branch, using its powerful black wings to ascen
d into the darkening night.

  Where are you, Ginger?

  A dead branch snapped, but the sound echoed around Zo, making it impossible to tell from which direction it came. She wanted to call out for Joshua, but didn’t dare alert her enemies to her whereabouts if they lurked in these blackened woods that offered so little cover.

  “Zo!” Joshua called from the direction of the camp. He didn’t know how foolish it was to announce that she was missing. He and the rest of the camp didn’t realize she was the reason they had to fear the woods. She was the reason that Nameless woman was killed this morning and that two other men were somewhere—hopefully alive—with Boar and his Clanless band of savages.

  “Zo!” he called again.

  Zo sprinted toward the clearing and practically tackled Joshua when she found him at the edge of the forest, carrying so much firewood she couldn’t even see his face over the pile.

  “You are in so much trouble right now.” Zo kissed his cheek, killing the power of her threat, but too relieved to care. “Pairs, Joshua. You’re supposed to go in pairs. Didn’t you hear Stone?”

  Only then did Zo notice the lanky Nameless young man at Joshua’s side, carrying his own large pile.

  “Oh. I didn’t realize … ”

  The little Zo saw of Joshua’s face turned red as his flaming hair with the embarrassment of being reprimanded in front of another boy. “See you at the meeting, Ruff,” said Joshua, striding away on his long, awkward legs.

  Zo jogged to keep pace with him. “I’m sorry for embarrassing you. I’m responsible for you, Joshua. I don’t want you hurt.”

  Joshua didn’t answer until he reached the place near the center of camp where Tess and their traveling packs rested. Tess had gathered enough rocks to make a small fire ring. She went right to work with the twigs Joshua gathered to make a teepee structure perfect for lighting a fire to cook their meal.

  Joshua retrieved a thicker stick of pine and used his knife to slice two intersecting lines into the top. He refused to speak to or even look at Zo as he skinned the stick then wedged the shavings into the splits to create a capable torch.

  “You can’t blame me for being protective, Joshua,” said Zo. She nudged his boot to try and coax a smile that didn’t come.

  Joshua stopped his work with the torch. “I’m the best fighter of the three of us. You can’t blame me for trying to protect us.”

  “Of course not, but—”

  “Let me do something, Zo. I want to help you and Tess. I need to do this … for Gryphon. Why can’t you understand that?” He snatched his torch from the ground and stalked away to meet Stone with the rest of the men in camp. To take on his foolishly assumed role as “protector” in their unconventional little family.

  Zo massaged her fingers into her temples, fighting away a throbbing headache. She glanced at the Nameless around them. Several men hurriedly worked on their torches with half the skill Joshua had. Gryphon had truly shaped the boy into something great. But Zo wouldn’t allow Joshua to put himself at risk … not even for the sake of Gryphon’s memory. There were others who could step in and protect the camp. Joshua and Zo had already done their part.

  Chapter 17

  Gryphon jumped to his feet and grabbed Raca’s shoulders, ready to shake her to get her to speak. “You shared a fire with my apprentice?”

  Talon stepped in front of Raca. “You will not touch my sister in such a way, Sheep.”

  Gryphon backed away. He hadn’t meant to scare the girl.

  “Stop playing guard dog, brother.” Raca gently pushed her brother away then said to Gryphon, “We met them a few days ago. They said they were tracking the Nameless refugees to the Allied Camp. But … ” Talon glanced at his sister and frowned. “These are dangerous mountains, Gryphon. We’ve heard a wild man has rallied the Clanless in the area. A banished Ram named Boar.”

  “What does that have to do with my friends?” said Gryphon.

  “Nothing, only we’ve heard from several wandering Clanless that Barnabas has offered a mighty reward for the person who brings him you and a Wolf healer called Zo. I didn’t want Raca to mention the boy only because I didn’t want to raise your hopes that your friends were still safe.”

  “What are you saying?” Gryphon remembered hearing the name Boar several years ago while he was still training for the opportunity to join a mess. A man by that name was banished for gruesome crimes committed against his own wife.

  “The Clanless man we met says Boar is completely crazy. He’s bullied many of the Clanless into following him, creating something of a small army in these mountains.”

  “An army of desperate men.”

  Talon nodded.

  “I worry for your friends, especially the Wolf. I’d imagine Boar would do anything for enough leverage to reinstate his citizenship with the Ram.”

  “I doubt Boar would be interested in Tess. He’ll know that bringing an innocent little girl back to the Gate won’t buy him anything.”

  Both Raca and Talon wrinkled their noses in exactly the same way and at exactly the same time. “Tess?” Raca asked. Then her expression cleared. “No, we’re talking about the other girl. The older Wolf. The healer.”

  Gryphon held his breath. The Raven woman had to be confused.

  “Zo,” said Talon. “The one Joshua claimed you were in love with. The one Boar is hunting.”

  Gryphon shook his head and momentarily closed his eyes against the aching hope. “You’re wrong. She died outside Ram’s Gate.” He paced the ground in front of them. “This girl. What did she look like?”

  “Tall. Brownish-black hair. Stunning blue eyes … ”

  “It’s not possible.” Gryphon sank to his knees. He gasped, remembering to breathe. “What did you say to her? How did she answer?” He found himself repeating, “It can’t be” over and over.

  A soft hand touched his shoulder. Raca’s concerned eyes met his. “She was kind to us. Invited us to sit at her fire and warned us of the Ram invasion. Unless there is another Wolf healer named Zo crossing this mountain, your friend is still alive,” said Raca.

  Gryphon gasped and jumped up, scooping Raca and Talon into one gigantic hug. “I could kiss you both.”

  “Please don’t,” said Talon.

  Zo was alive.

  Torches staked around the perimeter of the camp flickered in the wind. They lit the rim of the charred and blackened forest more than the Nameless camped in the clearing. If fear had a taste, it was burnt and bitter. Zo watched as the torches cast only half of the naked trees in light. They were gnarled fingers of wood that seemed to reach out at them. Zo couldn’t look away from their reaching fingers as she muscled down the badger stew concoction Joshua and Tess made for dinner.

  “Do you like it?” Tess asked. She’d taken a hand to “spicing” their meals with different kinds of plants and flowers she picked along the trail. The previous night, she’d almost poisoned them by adding wild foxglove to the cooking pot, before Zo had stopped her.

  Zo chewed and chewed on a stringy leaf that, even boiled, didn’t want to be broken down. “Delicious.”

  Joshua sat down next to them after meeting with Stone and the other men in camp. Zo felt like the term “man” was used a little generously in Joshua’s case, but didn’t want to argue with him anymore.

  “What did Stone say?” Tess asked before Zo had the chance.

  Joshua picked up his wooden bowl and served himself a big helping of stew, wrinkling his nose a bit at the smell. “He’s divided us into five groups with ten men to a group. Each group has a leader and the leader will report to Stone.”

  “Smart,” said Tess as she chewed.

  There was a lot of chewing going on around their little cook fire.

  “I’m not a unit leader,” said Joshua, “but the men in my unit are happy to have me at their side. Said at least they had someone who knew how to fight.” Joshua’s grin turned goofy, revealing his age, until it res
ted on Zo. He dropped his gaze to his humble meal and chewed.

  He was happy. Validated. And he couldn’t share his excitement with Zo because she had made him feel weak when he wanted to be strong. Tess reached her little hand out to touch Joshua’s leg. He flinched at first but Tess wouldn’t be avoided. She scooted next to him, this time touching his arm.

  After whispering a blessing of comfort Zo had taught her, Tess said, “You can be brave and miss him too.” She dropped her hand and went back to focusing on her food.

  That night, Zo only asked Joshua once if he would give up his watch. “I could talk to Stone. He’d release you from your position. No one would think less of you for it.” The idea of him sitting on the perimeter of the camp—with Boar’s men waiting to strike—made her ill.

  But Joshua shook his head and walked away from Zo and their dying fire to take up his watch.

  Eva also took a watch shift, much to Stone’s grumblings. She clutched her two favorite daggers and calmly waited for the Clanless like one might wait for a pie to bake.

  Every moment of Joshua’s watch was agony for Zo. She kept seeing Boar carelessly order one of his men to drag a knife across that Nameless woman’s throat. And worse still, she kept imagining men wild and hungry enough to eat another human being. The Ram had some savage customs, but even they didn’t resort to that level of inhumanity. And Joshua was out there on the fringe of the camp with only a makeshift spear for protection.

  When he returned to sit on the blanket to remove his shoes for bed, Zo pretended to be asleep.

  “I know you’re up. You don’t have a watch shift, Zo. You should be sleeping.”

  She kept her eyes closed and mumbled what she hoped was a convincing, “I am.”

  “Liar.” He didn’t sound mad. Just tired.

  Before Zo could properly apologize for hurting the boy’s feelings, a number of the torches surrounding the camp went out at exactly the same time. Dark figures retreated back into the woods.