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“I will come for him,” Revni seethed, whipping around, but Eavus caught her around the waist like she was an errant toddler and swung her back to the ground.
Put a knife in her hand. Kyrianos demanded it.
“Not now, you won’t. Settle. Settle!” he whispered hard in her ear. “You’ll draw attention.”
He was right, and she hated it. It took all the considerable strength she had—more strength than it took to wield an ax, to leap out of a ship straight into battle, to leave your mother’s corpse behind—it took more strength than that for her to still her limbs, to turn and march beside Eavus casually, as if going north was the only concern she had.
They reached the gate. The gray-eyed commander was standing in the shade, still talking business, but he turned narrowed eyes their direction. Revni tried to look impassive. Eavus didn’t notice, or didn’t care, because he was busy joking with the guard, some comment at Revni’s expense that made her injuries throb and her throat burn. But the large cross-piece had not yet been reset and the guard pulled at the heavy gate to crack it wide enough for them to pass.
Another crossing over, another threshold. A short wooden bridge spanned the defensive ditch, the inside walls lined with sharpened trees. Revni held herself in check, her jaw clenched tight. Eavus marched on in that determined way of his, but she kept pace, barely a step behind. Was he trying to outstrip her? He didn’t even glance back to check on her, didn’t even speak. Was she meant to be his slave again? His dog, like Kyrianos and the gods?
But when they’d gone enough distance from the eyes of any watching guards, Eavus simply unlooped his ax and passed it to her without a word.
The world breathed on.
THIRTY
Safe. It pulsed through Eavus’ brain. How to get her safe?
The map he’d been shown in Lordinius was rudimentary at best. It showed a few known rivers in parallel lines, their turns and bends unknown or unmarked, with other landmarks noted by sloppily scratched triangles. Aleteria had not, after all, established a base at the monastery on the coast, deeming the location too inconvenient on account of the marshes, but had instead temporarily stationed that northernmost division in a flat stretch of ground between the newly-named Coron River and the Bragi to its west. Eavus’ original intention had been to follow the Bragi until it started to widen, then turn east, serpentining his way until he found either the cohort or the other body of water. The ups-and-downs might have added a day to his journey, but it would have been worth it to find someone who could confirm the next set of landmarks, and to get one more night’s proper meal and sleep in a cot.
That plan was out, now. He couldn’t take Revni with him to an Aleterian camp. Even with no paper, without a tattoo she was as free as anyone else—but that didn’t mean she was no longer in danger. But take her with him all the way to Norbucum? She’d spoken before about the Isfolj there, how they were different, and he wasn’t entirely clear on what that meant, except that he knew it wasn’t safe for her—not as safe as he wanted. Not as safe as she needed. And what would he do? Casually bring her along while he delivered the message that would set the place on fire? He needed to get her somewhere safe, somewhere she could find her own way to the settlements she had been looking for, somewhere far away from Aleteria and the storm that was to come.
But he had a new problem to chew on before half the morning had passed. They reached the hard path that would take them east, around the gorge, and Revni refused to take it.
“I want to go west.”
“The coast is east.”
“I don’t need to go to the coast. I need to go north.”
He opened his mouth to explain that Norbucum was on the coast, but shut it quickly. He hadn’t yet decided to take her there. “The path east takes us around the gorge.”
“So does west.”
Hirene, give me patience. “But if we go east, we can then turn north. We can follow the Bragi River.”
“Can we not reach the Bragi if we go west? Go around the gorge, and then to your Bragi?”
“Then we’d have to cross it.”
“We’ve crossed rivers.”
Gods, the woman was infuriating. “Why do you care?!”
“Why do you?” Revni crossed her arms.
“Because the route I need to take—” Eavus chopped one hand in his palm and drove it forward, like an arrow, struggling to keep his calm. “—is east.”
“And north.”
“And north.”
She nodded sharply. She waited, for what, he couldn’t tell, but then—Then! The woman turned, and started down the wider path west.
“If you want to go west,” he called out after her, “go west! I’m going east!”
“Then I will see you at the Bragi,” she called back.
