"What if you can’t convince them to take me?"
"Then I’ll leave," John said it as though it would be easy.
"You think they’ll just let you go?" Ravishan gave him a skeptical frown.
"If they don’t, they’ll have you to answer to."
"I’m serious," Ravishan said. "How will you get out?"
"I’ll find a way." John kissed Ravishan again. His skin felt a little warmer. "This is the best option we have right now."
"If I say no?" Ravishan asked.
John sighed. "Then we start walking east right now."
Ravishan surveyed the expanse of deep snow and bare trees. "You just don’t want me to kill that redhead, do you?"
"No, I don’t," John said firmly. "I don’t want you to kill any of them. It would only make the situation worse and give them more reason to hunt us down."
"I don’t like the way the redhead looks at you."
"Would you rather he wanted to kill me?" John asked.
Ravishan gave him an annoyed glance.
John smiled at him and then kissed him deeply. Ravishan’s lips were soft, his mouth hot and inviting.
"You are the one I love, Ravishan. No one else." John held him close, feeling the tension melt from Ravishan’s body.
"So what do you want me to do?" John asked at last.
Ravishan pulled back from John’s embrace. "Go with them."
"And you?"
"I’ll be close by." Ravishan lifted his hand, splitting open the Gray Space. He said, "Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do," and disappeared.
Chapter Seventy-Nine
John marched with the Fai’daum. They bore west, through the stands of bare trees, up into rolling foothills. Steadily the deciduous trees thinned away and dark green conifers closed in over them. The sharp scent of pine surrounded John, dimly reminding him of Christmas in Nayeshi.
Thin trails of snowflakes poured down through the boughs of firs and pines. Close stands of trees blocked the wind and sheltered the ground from the heaviest snow, but they also obscured much of the afternoon light. In the dim twilight the Fai’daum soldiers faded in and out of the forest shadows. Snow caked their coats, hoods and pants, creating a powdery camouflage.
A few times John glanced up into the trees overhead and realized that someone was up in the branches looking back down at him. Saimura exchanged hand signs with one of the men high up above them.
"Gin’yu has reached camp," Saimura spoke softly. "She’ll tell them to expect us."
John nodded. He hoped that being expected might involve a warm meal and somewhere comfortable to rest. Behind him, his tahldi heaved a tired sigh. With each step the poor animal sunk nearly to its knees. It struggled through the deep snow, plowing through the narrow trench John carved ahead of it.
With their snowshoes, the Fai’daum left far less of a visible trail. They moved in single file, barely imprinting the snow. Only minutes after they had passed, fresh snow covered their shallow tracks.
They moved faster than either John or his tahldi could. Saimura hung back, keeping John company and directing him through the forest.
"We’re making good time. If you need to rest, just say so and we can stop," Saimura said.
"No, I’m fine." John caught the faint distortion of Ravishan’s presence hanging just above Saimura. A moment later the distortion flickered away. John guessed that Ravishan was moving ahead of them, following the other Fai’daum into their camp. No doubt, he was checking for traps and looking for weaknesses in the Fai’daum’s defenses. It wasn’t in Ravishan’s nature to wait if he could take action.
John supposed it would be fine so long as Ravishan didn’t take action outside of the Gray Space.
"It isn’t too much further," Saimura said.
John nodded. A thin wind sliced through the wall of dark pines and sent snow rolling over him. He shuddered and shoved his hands down into his pockets. His fingers brushed against the bone Saimura had given him. Its smooth surface still radiated warmth. John lifted it out of his pocket to study it.
In the shadows of the deep forest, the weathered bone looked dull gray, but the symbols cut into its surface were pale and luminous. It almost pulsed with a living heat. The creature that it had come from was obviously long dead and yet this sliver of bone didn’t feel inanimate. The thought disturbed him. As John turned the bone in his hand, Saimura glanced over to him.
"You can draw on the talisman, if you need to."
"But what is it?" John asked.
"Just a simple talisman," Saimura replied as if that were obvious, and John realized that he was asking the wrong question.
"What does it do exactly?"
Saimura paused and studied John. "You don’t know?"
John wondered what his ignorance implied. What had he just revealed about himself?
"Haven’t you had any training?" Saimura asked.
"I’ve trained in battle forms."
"But not in witchcraft?" Saimura began walking again and John followed him.
"No," John admitted. "My sister, Loshai, knew a woman who was teaching her, but they were discovered."
"They burned her?" Saimura asked.
"No, my sister is pregnant. They’ve taken her to Umbhra’ibaye."
"I’m so sorry," Saimura said quietly.
John didn’t reply. The sympathy in Saimura’s expression was almost too much for him to stand. John struggled not to feel overwhelmed by the horror of what had to be happening to Laurie. He walked in silence, concentrating on the deep snow and pushing his fear for Laurie back from his thoughts. He couldn’t help her now. Thinking about her would only increase the severity of the storm.
"The talisman will give some of my strength to you." Saimura ducked down below the low boughs of a heavy pine. John lifted the snow-laden boughs so that the branches couldn’t catch his tahldi’s horns as he led the animal deeper into the forest. "I always bring a few talismans, in case one of the men is injured or exhausted."
"And they draw strength from you through the talisman?" John asked.
"Yes, exactly."
"So is it like bearing a wound?" John asked.
"It’s similar, but not so dangerous. I don’t take on the injury myself. I make my talismans in advance and store power in them, so that they can be used later." Saimura glanced back at him. "It must sound strange to you."
"A little." John supposed that the talismans would have seemed much stranger to him if he hadn’t come from Nayeshi, where there were entire industries dedicated to the storage of energy. Saimura’s talismans sounded reminiscent of batteries. When John lifted the bone close to his face, he thought he caught the faint scent of another man’s body.
"How would I use this?" John asked.
"The easiest way is to just put it in your mouth. You’ll feel a rush of warmth and strength." Saimura lifted his hand and signaled to some distant sentinel. "Don’t swallow it, though. Even charmed with my blood, it’s still just a piece of sheep bone."
"Oh." The mention of Saimura’s blood disturbed John. It seemed that power in Basawar always required bloodshed, whether it was Fai’daum witchcraft or Payshmura incantations. John gently slipped the talisman back into his pocket.
As he followed Saimura up the incline of a hill, the pungent pine scent of the air changed. The scent of fire rolled through the cold air. The smell sent sick fear crawling through him and triggered memories of the searing heat of flames and the stench of burning bodies on the Holy Road.
A sudden, frigid wind rose and the snow began pouring down in huge flakes. Icy snow whipped around them in a whirlwind.
Saimura turned back instantly, his expression tense with knowing concern. "Are you all right, Jahn?"
"I’m fine." John realized that he had to calm himself. The smell was only from wood fires. Probably cooking fires. It should have reassured him with the promise of warmth and shelter. He was nowhere near the Holy Road now.