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JANCO
A person could only listen to the forest sounds for so long before going insane. Janco sighed. Loudly. They’d been hiking southwest through the Snake Forest for hours and Little Miss Assassin had been as quiet as the grave. Her passage through the woods made no noise. Her bare feet padded on the cold hard ground with nary a whisper. Even her short black cape didn’t dare flap.
They would stay on the Ixian side of the border until they neared the town of Lapeer, where they would cross over and investigate the suspicious factory before heading east to the Emerald Mountains.
He tried to fill the silence with comments on the case or on the scenery, but he gave up because after a while it sounded inane even to him. And he’d long since stopped asking her questions. Little Miss Assassin was a woman of few words.
This was going to be a long assignment. He sighed. Again.
“Will you stop doing that?” she asked. Annoyance colored her tone.
Janco perked up. “Doing what?”
“That huffing thing. Like you’re leaking air.”
“It’s called sighing.”
“Well, stop it.”
A very childish “make me” pressed on the edge of his lips. He wisely kept those two words from escaping. Ari would be proud. Instead, he asked, “Why?”
“I can’t hear if anyone is following us.”
“No one is following us.”
“How do you know?”
Good question. He’d known it just as he knew when to stop bugging Ari—by a feeling deep inside him. “The forest is...unperturbed.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Do you think someone is following us?”
“I haven’t heard any indicators—when I could hear.” She shot him a sour look. “We need to remain vigilant.”
“For what? It’s not like they’re planning an ambush. If someone is following us, that’s good. It means we’re on the right track. We’re making people nervous. They want to see where we’re going, what we’re doing. In fact, we should be making more noise in order to lure them into coming closer.”
Little Miss Assassin stared at him as if he had four eyes and a spike sticking out of his forehead. “How do you know they’re not planning an ambush? With all your prattle masking any signs, we’ll probably stumble right into a trap.”
Janco hadn’t realized just how much his friends trusted him until now. Ari would never question him about ambushes. Why not? It wasn’t like he had magic. Perhaps years spent in the woods had given him a...forest vibe. If he told her that, she’d really think he was out of his mind. And why did he care what Little Miss Assassin thought? He didn’t. Not at all.
“The real danger will come when we’re in Sitia,” Janco said. “Until then, it’s just me, you and the birds.”
“What about at the border? Do you expect trouble there?”
“Nope. We’re going to slip into Sitia without a fuss.”
“You mean without stopping to inform the border guards?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Sounds like a challenge.” A gleam lit her pale gray eyes.
“It’s easier than you’d think.” Or was it? He’d always walked parallel to the border until he found a spot that was empty of guards. Then he simply crossed into Sitia.
When the Commander had taken over Ixia, he had closed the border to Sitia and had his men cut down all the trees and bushes, clearing a hundred-foot-wide space between the two nations. With the gap, the river and the scattered patrols it wasn’t easy to cross the border.
“Now that I’m thinking about it,” Janco said. “The crossing can be tricky, depending on who’s on duty. I’m gonna let you take point on this one.”
“All right,” she said. “And just to let you know, I see what you’re doing.”
“Me?” He attempted to look innocent—a hard expression for him to pull off. Janco hadn’t been guiltless since he’d been a baby. Then again...his mother had claimed he’d come into the world feetfirst just to be difficult.
“Save it for someone who has poor vision.”
“Ouch.” But Janco smiled. She had joked, which meant there might be hope for her yet.
When they stopped for the night, Janco tried asking her questions again, but this time he stayed away from the more sensitive topics. She had donned a pair of well-worn, black fur-lined boots.
He gestured to them. “Looks like Black Angus leather. I hear the people who live near the ice sheet will only wear those boots. Is that why you’re not cold? It must feel like the warm season to you down here.”
“Yeah. I only brought this cape along for the nighttime. Is Sitia really hotter?”
“Oh yes. During the hot season, it’s like swimming in the White Mist Springs up in MD-2. Do you know about them?”
“They’re near the place I grew up,” she said.
Aha! “Sweet. Did you go there all the time? I would!”
“No. Half the year the snow cats gather around them. And in the warmer weather, it’s not as much fun.”
“For you.” He shivered, remembering being on the ice sheet during a blizzard. Hands down, it was the coldest he’d ever been in his entire life.
She smiled and he marveled at the change. The harsh lines of her face softened, and for the first time since meeting her, he thought of her as truly pretty. Her nose crinkled and two tiny dimples marked her cheeks.
“I guess you didn’t grow up in the north?” she asked.
“Nope. I lived on the coast in MD-7. I could have been a beach bum, but I hate sand. Nasty stuff. Gets everywhere. And I mean everywhere. My dad tried to make me a fisherman, but I got seasick. Even now the smell of fish makes me gag.”
“What does he think of your job?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“Don’t know. He was out on his boat when a big storm came through. I was eleven. We never saw him again.”
“Too bad. Do you have any siblings?”
Janco laughed. “After I was born, my mother swore off kids. When my dad disappeared, we moved to my uncle’s farm and I had to deal with all these annoying cousins! What about you?”
“An older brother. He raised me until he couldn’t.”
A million questions shoved their way up his throat, but Ari’s voice sounded in his head. Don’t scare her off, you idiot. He swallowed them down. Instead, he asked, “Do you want to take first sh
ift?”
“Won’t the forest wake you if someone comes close?” Onora teased.
“Ha-ha. There’s no one around. But that can change. Besides, I thought you’d feel more...comfortable if we took turns on guard duty.”
She gazed at him a moment. A crease puckered the skin between her eyes as if she couldn’t quite figure him out. Janco repeated his comments in his mind, trying to determine what he’d said to cause such puzzlement.
“I’ll take the first shift.” Onora stood, removed her short cape and boots and tucked them into her pack.
“Won’t you be cold?”
“I’m used to it. Besides, the cape’s extra fabric can snag on the branches, and it’s hard to climb a tree with boots on. Don’t you do the same thing when on duty?”
“No. I find a good spot and hunker down.”
Alarmed, she asked, “How do you stay awake?”
“If I tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone?”
Instantly wary, Onora bit her lip before nodding.
“That’s when I compose my rhymes. Everyone thinks I make them up as I fight, but I have a whole bunch of them ready for my next match.” He tapped his temple.
“Oh. Okay.” She pinched her thumb and index finger together, touched them to her lips and twisted as if locking her mouth shut. “I won’t say a word.”
Grinning, Janco set up his bedroll and blankets by the small fire. He squirmed until comfortable. Each year, it seemed to take longer for him to find a position where his muscles and/or joints didn’t ache when lying on the hard ground.
Before closing his eyes, he scanned their campsite. Onora had disappeared into the forest. Probably climbing a tree. And then he wondered when he’d stopped thinking of her as Little Miss Assassin.
* * *
After a couple of days of hiking, they were close to the Sitian border. Instead of crossing into the Featherstone lands, they headed east, paralleling the edge of the Snake Forest. Janco thought it best to enter Sitia near the west side of Lapeer. He remembered a river that flowed nearby that would be hard to forge this time of year. Not to mention freezing cold. Brrr. Much better, and smarter, to use the bridge.
