Ultrina stared at Mongen with flat eyes. She had no desire to go to Renate to ply a trade which had been outlawed for longer than she had been alive, yet she saw the writing on the wall. It was what the King wanted and thus she, a subject, would do it or die.
“When do we leave?” Ultrina asked. “I have to settle a few things here with the Widow Anne and the stablemaster.”
“You aren’t going to be allowed to go alone,” he said. “Lest you should try to run for it.”
“I don’t think you understand,” Ultrina said. “I’m choosing to go with you of my own will. I don’t like it, but I’m going to follow you into the lion’s den.”
“You speak of Renate as though you have had dealings with those of it before.”
“I have. Everyone has.” Ultrina shrugged. “I’m not so young as I might appear.”
“Yet you are young enough to have escaped the culling.”
“Yes.” Ultrina turned her back on him then, squaring her shoulders as she did. “I’m going to settle my affairs. I will bring myself and my horse back to the courtyard here before nightfall and we can leave tonight.”
Mongen placed one hand on her shoulder. “I don’t trust you.” The size of it encompassed her entire shoulder with the heel of his hand against her shoulderblade. The thought flashed through that if she moved fast enough she could cut his hand off, but she let it pass. There was no need for violence in the current moment, she needed to get away so she could think, preferably without the threat of violence hanging over her head.
“Test my word,” she said. “It’s all I truly have left.”
She had her word, her packs, her horse, and her blade. Her entire world could fit in saddlebags and make the trek anywhere she chose to go. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anywhere she could go to escape the influence of Renate.
Mongen released her and took one long step over to the door. He stuck his head out and before he could utter a word, a small woman appeared in the doorway. Against the bulk of Mongen, Ultrina thought the woman might be some spirit summoned through an object. She didn’t seem real.
Ultrina stood still as the woman approached, her headdress flattening her hair into a cascade of fabric held in place by a woven brass diadem.
“Sister,” Ultrina addressed her.
“You are made welcome here by association,” the woman said. “I am Tal. I will be your companion.”
Ultrina stiffened.
She had not taken a lover in several years of her travels. Now to have a companion thrust upon her brought her hackles up.
“I refuse.”
“You don’t get to refuse,” Mongen said. “She will be your companion. Travel with you and keep you in line.”
Ultrina’s throat threatened to close as her heart sped up, a touch of black showed on the edge of her vision.
Tal wore the brass headdress of a sister of Renate, one of those who had taken vows of chastity, but that meant little when in the service of the crown. The King could command the rescinding of those vows whenever he pleased. Such was the place of the King.
“Tal,” Ultrina bowed to the diminutive woman and then reached out both hands to take those offered to her. She kissed both of Tal’s palms. “My companion.” Then she tried not to shudder as Tal did the same to her.
They were bound together, by will and whim.
Mongen smiled down on them before stepping away from the door. With Tal in tow, Ultrina left the church.
The itch to take her ax and end this relationship before it truly began plagued her, but Ultrina kept herself in check. Fire in her belly, she walked to the Widow’s house where she found Anne sitting beside the fire pit with some embroidery in her hands.
“I’ve come to settle for my time,” Ultrina said. Anne took one look at Tal standing at Ultrina’s elbow and made a sign against wickedness across her breast.
“You owe me nothing,” the Widow Anne said. “I will, however, have you take that person out of my home this instant.”
She had left nothing behind and with the knowledge she did not have any further to pay, she left the Widow’s house and headed for the stablemaster’s.
He was mucking stalls when she entered the stable and Alba whinnied his greeting. The warhorse was not prone to making much noise, but the occasion of her return sometimes brought him to trumpet.
Tal kept to Ultrina’s shadow as the woman approached the man with the shovel.
“You’re back,” he said, his voice almost neighborly.
“I am.” Ultrina did not match his tone. “I would like my horse.”
“Have you the coin to get him back?”
“I do.”
“Then show it.”
Ultrina pulled out her coin purse and showed him the coins within.
“Now, my horse, if you please.”
Alba kicked the stall door in impatience. The wood did not sound sturdy enough to withstand much of his displeasure. The stablemaster moved to get Alba before he could kick a hole in the wood. Meanwhile, Ultrina tried not to feel Tal crowded against her back. If she could keep the sister hidden for just a little while longer, long enough to get Alba and get out of the stable, then things would be fine. However, there was no telling what the man would do considering how the Widow had reacted to seeing the sister in her domain.
“He’s been a great horse,” the stablemaster began. Ultrina rolled her eyes behind closed lids, she needed to hear this as much as she need a hole in her guts, but she would listen just the same. It was polite. For the moment, if that would get her Alba and out of the stable doors, she would be polite. She could hardly help the way her right hand closed tighter around the hilt of her ax just the same though. “I mean, what do you want for him?”
“I wouldn’t sell him at any price,” Ultrina said. The horse seemed to hurumpf in response to the idea. Alba, her longtime companion, undoubtedly felt her mounting displeasure. “Please, so we can be on our way.”
Tal kept in Ultrina’s shadow as the horse came toward them; however, it was not the stablemaster who saw her first. Alba snuffled at Ultrina’s hair and then seemed as if it might sniff Tal, who ducked down further to get away from his nose and teeth. It was then the stablemaster noticed the small woman.
He also made a sign against evil and released Alba as he stepped back hurriedly.
“What’s this you bring with you?” He asked the question as if he didn’t already know. The sisters were well known and perhaps more than well feared.
Ultrina took a deep breath. “Something I will take with me when I go,” she said. Her hand slid along the well-worn handle of her ax, bringing it into position should she need to defend or attack. Either could be possible. Alba’s tack was nearby and she had hoped to buy some grain to supplement the grass, but considering the way things had changed that was no longer an option.
The man positively quivered in his boots as he stared at them.
“You may go,” Ultrina said. “I’ll prepare Alba myself.”
He could not hide the look of relief which crossed his face. He made the sign against evil again and even spit in their shadows. The urge to separate his head from his shoulders died, but only because Ultrina fought hard to make it so.
Tal who had hardly moved and hadn’t spoken through the whole exchange murmured to Ultrina.
“We should hurry back to the church.”
They returned to the church with Alba walking behind, his reins dangling untouched. Ultrina did not need to lead him, he would go where she went.
Mongen awaited them in the courtyard. Tal stopped before him and bowed. Ultrina did not follow suit.
“Prepare to retire,” he said. “You will stay here tonight and we will leave with the morning sun at our backs.”
Ultrina would have preferred to leave immediately, but it wasn’t her choice. Instead, she moved to the edge of the courtyard where the horses were kept and prepared Alba to rest there. The horse stamped his feet and shook his head at the smell of the other horses, which should have brought him peace. Ultrina put a hand up to soothe him.
“It will be alright.”
Tal came over and stood on the other side of Alba’s head, seeming so small against the mass of the animal. Ultrina glowered at the woman.
“You need to rest.”
“I have rested for a day or more. I would rather be riding,” Ultrina said.
“It is a long way to Renate.”
“I have come a long way to get away from Renate. To go back is a death sentence.”
“Yet Mongen asks it of you and you do it?”
“I was not asked. I was told. And my life is forfeit one way or the other.”
Tal recoiled at Ultrina’s tone, her throat working as she swallowed whatever she meant to say next.
“Sister,” Ultrina said. “I have no desire to talk to you or anyone else for that matter.”
Tal sighed and closed her eyes. They were beautiful eyes and she would be denying her own sight if she said Tal wasn’t well proportioned, but Ultrina had little interest in sharing a bed with anyone least of all someone she didn’t choose.
“Come to bed.” Tal’s voice, melodious and low, offered some solace. Solace Ultrina had no desire to accept. “You need rest for the journey. It will be a long, hard trek across the mountains.”
The mountains. The World Spine offered no pity to those who traveled among their crags to reach the protection of the city of Renate.
Ultrina spit to one side and Alba looked at her, concern in his inky eyes. She stroked Alba’s nose and then put her ax in its holster on the saddle. She would leave him tacked for the night; he wouldn’t care. He’d slept many a night in his gear, just as she had slept in hers. Settling down beside her horse, she made as if to make a bed amongst the sparse hay.
“Will you stay here when there is a bed on offer?” Tal asked.
“I will stay here because the offered bed is not mine.”
Tal bowed, her head dress falling from her shoulders, and then took off into the church. Ultrina might not have wanted to make her bed on stone, but she would prefer stone alone to a plush bed with someone she did not choose.
Morning found her sitting in mediation position, her thoughts pulling in a dozen directions. She could have easily made a run for it in the night, but then she would be branded a criminal certainly and she would have an even harder time moving through the world. All humanity would be barred to her. For all her standoffish ways, Ultrina preferred some company when there was some to be had without giving away too much.
Dawn’s first tendrils climbed stealthily through the world, giving it a touch of light. Ultrina stood up and stretched.
So others would rise and she would be off to this new, could she call it an adventure when it would quite likely end in her death? If what Mongen said was true and the Princess was dead, there could be only one thing the King wanted. Something Ultrina was reluctant to even attempt. Again.
Mongen and Tal, a mismatched sized pair, came out of the church together, outfitted for distance travel. Renate was at the top of the World Spine, seemingly looking down on all others, and one had to trek through the mountains of the Spine to reach it. Days of traveling along chasms and in valleys. Lots of places where one could be swept off the side of a mountain and killed by the fall. That was assuming the beasts of the Spine didn’t kill them.
“Are you ready?” Mongen’s question was meant for her and Ultrina grunted in response. Beside her, Alba stamped his hoof. The horse did not care for the arrangement anymore than she did.
Tal approached and bowed to Ultrina. Alba looked at Tal with flat, unhappy eyes as she attempted to mount. Alba stepped away as she did, dumping her in the dirt of the courtyard.
“He won’t let you,” Ultrina said. “He’s my horse.”
“I have to ride with you,” Tal said.
“I ride with no one.”
Mongen watched the pair without voicing his thoughts. However, his face said he found this both amusing and exasperating. With one large hand, he took a hold of Alba’s bridle. To the horse’s credit, Alba didn’t rear up and put a hoof through Mongen’s face. With the other hand, Mongen scooped Tal up and deposited her in the saddle. Ultrina sighed.
“We don’t have time for games and antics,” Mongen said. “Now mount up.”
Ultrina did as she was told a moment later. The two women rode together to the gate of the courtyard in silence. The horse Mongen rode was Alba’s size and the giant seemed to make the thing appear a pony.
“We’ll meet the rest of the guard at our encampment outside of town,” he said before leading the way out of the church courtyard. “Come, we have a long way to go before we sleep.”
The encampment outside the town was a small one, undoubtedly a search party of some kind. Ultrina did not think they were looking for her, specifically, but the fact that they were so far from Renate in such a small number was interesting. Normally, where the guard went, they went in force to bring about the King’s will. Ultrina had never seen a group which numbered less than a hundred. Now there seemed to be fewer than ten.
Those at the camp had already doused the cook fires from breakfast when they rode up. Mongen did not dismount and gestured for Ultrina and Tal to remain seated as well.
“Mount up,” he called. Everyone within earshot turned to look and then scrambled for their horses. What wasn’t already packed would be left behind from the looks of it. It wasn’t much, but an encampment left behind was ripe pickings for the vagrants and the bandits.
Mongen trotted his horse to the head of the forming column.
“Don’t let them out of your sight,” Ultrina heard him say to those near him as he pointed at her and Tal.
With another slow sigh, Ultrina walked Alba up the column to take a place at Mongen’s right. If they were going to keep them in sight, there would be no running while they moved during the day. She might as well let them watch her horse’s rump for the entire trip.
Tal put her head against Ultrina’s back. For a moment, Ultrina thought the woman had gone to sleep, but then she heard her murmuring something, a prayer maybe.
“What are you saying?” Ultrina asked.
“I ask blessings and mercy on our trek.”
“From who?”
“It shouldn’t matter to you. You don’t believe as I believe.”
“You’re right,” Ultrina admitted. “But I would still prefer to know.”
“Mer’Cole.”
“Ah,” Ultrina said. “The master of roadways and travels.”
“Yes,” Tal said. “You know of him?”
“I know of many gods. I pray to none of them.”
The soft sound of Alba and the other horses moving across the plains toward the far mountains brought Ultrina some species of ease, but she kept her hands loose on the reins. They were still in bandit country and starving men might think even a caravan composed of the Royal Guard worth the risk.
One might well say she was too paranoid for traveling; however, Ultrina would contend her fears had so far kept her upright and taking in air, which was quite a feat considering some of the things she had come through.
They rode until midday, the high sun beating down on the plains. Then they took a break to eat and allow their horses some rest. Ultrina stayed near Alba and refused to eat anything from the rations the men ate from. Not that she didn’t trust them, but she didn’t trust their food. Better to stick to her own things which she had acquired over time than to end up being poisoned by one of those who were supposedly there to escort her.
At the setting of the sun, Mongen called a halt and said they were to set up camp. Ultrina whispered to Alba to kneel and the horse allowed her and Tal off to the ground. Tal stared at the horse as though it had changed color or grown another head at its behavior.
“How?”
“He is my horse,” Ultrina said. “He’s well trained and will do as I ask.”
Alba nickered and then rubbed his nose in Ultrina’s hair. Ultrina smiled for a moment before it faded. Tal went over to where the guards were building a campfire, leaving the two alone.
“Alba, stand guard,” Ultrina murmured. Then she walked away, leaving the horse between her and the camp.
Once she was out of the immediate range of the camp, Ultrina knelt down and put her hand to the earth. There were vestiges of death nearby. Something large, not a horse, but something large just the same. She didn’t want a human. A human would be too much trouble in the moment. However, something else, a plains wolf or even one of those great beasts would be perfect.
Kneeling on the ground, she sought the residual force of creation with her hands, feeling it like a thick mist through her fingers. Something had died nearby, not so recent as there were maggots, but recent enough she could still draw up the bones and make them dance if she so desired. For now though, she simply wanted the energy, just in case.
When she found the remains, soft dirt scraped away from the skull, she picked it up. It was indeed a plains wolf, a large one, from the wear on the teeth an old one as well. The pack had probably accompanied it on its final walk through their territory only three weeks before. That meant two things, there were plains wolves which claimed the area and the rest of its life force was still in its bones.
Ultrina sniffed the air and the ripe smell of decay and dirt met her nostrils. It was a welcome smell, comforting.
Tal came to sit near the fire and wrapped herself in the half-cloak hanging from her shoulder. Her brow furrowed as she stared into the growing flames. She did not blame Ultrina for her reaction to her. After all, there was nothing to connect them besides this forced march to the edge of the world. Renate stood far away and represented she didn’t even know what to the other woman. Of course, if she was what they said, then she had much to fear from going there. Tal snuck a glance in the direction of Alba. The horse was alone.
Tal’s breath caught.
Where was Ultrina?
Mongen was going to have her head. Tal jumped up from her place and furtively looked around, trying to hide the panic settling into her bones. She had allowed the puppeteer to disappear into the wildness. Tal walked back over to Alba and the horse did not move, instead it seemed to studiously avoid looking at her. Strange. Tal knew better than to allow herself to worry over the horse. What she needed to know was where was Ultrina and why she hadn’t come to the fire with everyone else.
When Tal went to walk away from the camp further, in the direction she hoped Ultrina had gone, Alba stepped in the way. Though she barely knew the creature’s name, the urge to reach out and correct it for its behavior crossed her mind. Perhaps fortunately, she remembered the horse in front of her was a warhorse, and physically correcting it would likely end up in her getting stomped by the animal. Tal thought better of her proposed course.
“Where has she gone?” Tal asked as though Alba could answer. Tal was too short to look over the horse’s shoulder, so she ducked beneath its neck to look at the world beyond its body. A distance away, she saw a shape, and fear added sharpness to her eyes. Ultrina knelt to the ground digging for something.
“Mongen,” she cried, her voice carrying across the distance back toward camp.
The giant, looked up from his care of his gear and cocked his head at Tal. Thunderclouds crossed his face as he considered where she was and how things appeared.
“Stop her,” he said his voice booming.
Ultrina looked up at the nearby commotion, her hands fixing the wolf’s jaw in place where it had once been held on by muscle and sinew. She sighed. They didn’t understand what she was doing, but then again, few ever did. Ultrina placed the skull and jawbone back in the depression of dirt she’d dug it from. Without finishing what she began, she got up and brushed the dirt from her breeches. Walking back to Tal, she did her best not to appear angry; however, the look in her eyes must have said as much. Tal shrank away from her as if she had truly reached out to strike.
“You cannot do that here,” Tal said.
“I cannot do what I do anywhere,” Ultrina said without missing her stride past the other woman. Mongen stood up as Ultrina approached, his eyes full of suspicion. Ultrina considered whether or not to try and explain she was doing nothing but creating a sentinel to guard the edges of the camp. Deciding against it, she sat down at the edge of the circle of light given off by the fire.
“Your magic is forbidden,” said Mongen.
“It is.” Ultrina made no attempt to hide her distaste for the implication. Her entire existence had been a problem from the beginning, now to have this happen, she knew better than to count it a blessing.
“Do not use your foul arts around us,” he continued. Ultrina rolled her eyes behind closed lids and snaked her tongue between her lips. Tal joined her by the fire, but stayed far enough away so as not to crowd.
Ultrina appreciated the seeming effort. With a sigh, she relaxed, feeling the life of those around her as their hearts beat and they breathed. In the close distance, she felt the waning life of the bones she had been forced to abandon. The wolf would have been an excellent sentry.
Unfortunately, fear prevailed as it often did when one considered something they didn’t know. Ultrina had been dealing with that her entire life.
Though she no longer read it every night, she had the remains of a tattered scroll burned into her memory. She had read it over and over again from the time she could read. Funny how her keepers had never been able to read it. They had always tried, asking her to recite what it said. The words meant little to them. Finally, their apathy had won over the curiosity and she had been left alone to pore over the piece without their interference.
Ultrina still kept the scroll hidden inside her ax handle. It was the only piece of an old life, a life she had left behind as much as she could.
A life where she had thought she could be happy.
Tal let out a deep sigh and Ultrina stole a glance at the woman. Tal had undoubtedly been told she had little choice in the matter of what went on. That would be a matter of course. One of the sisters assigned to a contingent of Royal Guard; she would have little if any say in anything that happened to her. However, Ultrina did not think that engendered sympathy. Tal did not have to be a Sister; she could have run like many did when that fate was given to them. Few chose the profession. Those few had something to hide or fear in their past.
What did Tal fear, Ultrina wondered. What kept her chained to the life of a Sister?
Mongen put his gear away methodically as Ultrina listened to the scrap of leather and steel. If he wore the tanned hides of his enemies, like some said the Royal Guard did, then he had to know he wore something she could use against him if she so desired. Of course, there were those who didn’t believe in such things as puppeteers; they had supposedly been wiped out. Did Mongen believe? Was he reconsidering his wardrobe in that very moment to account for what she might or might not do?
Ultrina wasn’t worried about the giant. He wouldn’t hurt her if the stories were true and his loyalty so absolute to the King on his throne in Renate.
Getting up, Ultrina considered the reality of those around her. They feared her. Or at least Mongen and Tal did, which was something Ultrina could use to her advantage if she so desired. Fortunate for them, she didn’t desire to disrupt things. Renate had not been her final destination; however, Ultrina had been traveling in that direction. This wouldn’t pull her far off course. Heading into the mountains, when one wished to hide, was a good thing. Therefore, she would travel with them and enjoy the relative leisure of having companions, even if they were afraid of her.
“I will bed down with my horse.”
Mongen fixed her with a steady stare. “You will stay near the fire with the rest of us,” he said. “You will not have the opportunity to run off in the night. If you attempt to, when we find you, then I will bind you.”
“If I were to chose to run, finding me would be a problem,” Ultrina said before turning her back to the fire. Alba had come closer as if in curiosity, so he wasn’t as far away as he had been.
Tal snatched a glance at Mongen before she got up as well. She moved over to Ultrina and placed a hand on Ultrina’s back. “I will stay near you.”
Ultrina opened her mouth to speak her mind and then shut it. There was no reason to take her distaste for the whole situation out on Tal. The woman had, so far, done nothing worthy of being treated as though she were less than human, despite her affiliation. Ultrina did not care for her, that much was true, but she did not have to be mean to her as well.
After Ultrina pulled out her things for the night, Alba knelt and then laid down. Content with how things were for the moment, Ultrina turned her attention to falling asleep. She did not intend to stay up near the campfire and jaw with those who were essentially her captors. Tal brought her bedroll over and laid close by, but not touching. Thus the pair drifted off to sleep.
Mongen waited until he saw the steady rise and fall of Ultrina’s chest before he closed his own eyes. She was right, finding her if she chose to run would be difficult; however, not impossible. She was a puppeteer, they practically couldn’t help themselves; therefore, she would be found eventually. There were few of her kind left causing her to stand out all the more.
He crossed his arms over his chest, leaned back and let sleep take him. If she wasn’t there in the morning, he would be upset, but he would make sure she paid for it when she was found. There was no hiding from the Royal Guard when it came to the finding of criminals.