Pathways Read online

  “If you know what’s good for you,” the guard said, “you’ll get out of Tau before you find whatever trash bones you and that animal are planning to scrounge for lunch.”

  Kade stood, repositioned his bag, and brushed road dust from his pants.

  “Look at the blighter,” the second guard joked. “As if takin’ a layer of dirt from the outside is gonna make a difference.”

  :Come on,: Kade said as he grabbed his stick. :We need to get out of here.:

  As they stepped away, the girl called out.

  “Winnie,” she said. “My name is Winnie.”

  Kade turned to her. “It’s a pretty name.”

  :Come on, lover,: Nwah said, feeling strangely angry.

  Watching Kade be threatened made her heart clench, but she felt his attraction for the girl—and while his ache for her was familiar to her own physical desires, his was different, deeper in ways she couldn’t understand. His went beyond physical. Where her mating was not meant to last, she knew humans often mated for life.

  That difference made her jealous.

  The mere fact she had become jealous was embarrassing, which again made her angry.

  It was a vicious loop that she could see was unfair even as she was thinking it.

  Kade was her bond, but Kade was also human. He would have human reactions, just as she was kyree and could never be anything but kyree. Would he call her on the hypocrisy of slaking her own physical desires while being fearful of him doing the same?

  :Thanks,: Kade said as they walked through the streets, nearing a corner.

  :For what?:

  :For being here,: he said. :And for not doing anything stupid.:

  She gave the audible click that meant You’re welcome.

  But as they turned the corner, her ears were sensitive enough to hear the guards speaking behind them.

  “Hey, Hivvy?” the second guard said. “What’s with that white streak in your hair?”

  • • •

  :I don’t care what the guards said, I don’t want to leave,: Kade said. :There’s too much to learn here.:

  They were sitting in the quiet nook of an alley, Nwah lying on her belly, paws forward and facing the open mouth that looked out onto the road. Kade’s back rested against a silvered slat that was the wall of a smithy shop. He ripped a hank of bread from the loaf he had purchased from the small collection of coins he had earned administering salves and root potions on their way across the land.

  Nwah was hungry, but she didn’t feel like eating.

  :They have an apothecary here,: Kade said. :I’m sure I could learn something from him. And I’m sure there are Mages here who could help you. Besides, we’ve barely had a chance to look for Rayn’s old haunts.:

  Rather than encourage this direction, Nwah pretended to clean her paw.

  The alley was narrow. Its smell wasn’t too horrific. It would be a good place to be alone in, she thought. If they were going to stay in Tau, she could see spending time here.

  Did all cities have such places?

  They would have to, wouldn’t they?

  Otherwise people would go insane.

  A pair of crates were stacked nearby. If she used them right, perhaps she could make it to the roof of one of the buildings.

  The idea of being higher up was attractive.

  Boot steps and the heavy sounds of leather-bound strides came from the mouth of the alley. The two guards from the market blocked the entrance. A third man, bigger and radiating more power, stood between them. His hair, complete with a beard, was curled, red, and in messy disarray. A heavy cape draped over his shoulders, and a large sword hung from his side. This man was older than the others, his face lined and weathered, though his body was still stout.

  The guard who had accosted Kade pointed a dirty finger.

  “Him,” he said. “He’s the Healer.”

  The new man stepped forward, his boots crunching on the loose debris of the alley.

  Nwah growled and took a sideways stance. The essence of the sword was sharp against her mind.

  Kade struggled to his feet, still chewing. “What do you want?”

  “I am sergeant-at-arms of this city,” the man replied. “I have need of your services.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You are a Healer, are you not?”

  “I am,” Kade replied, standing taller.

  “Then come with me.”

  :Don’t go,: Nwah said.

  “Why should I come?” Kade said, not glancing at her.

  “I have a sick man who needs tending. These two said you might be able to help.”

  :I don’t trust him,: Nwah said again.

  :Someone’s sick. I have to go.:

  Despite her fear, or perhaps because of it, the answer didn’t surprise her. Kade was a medic at heart as well as by Gift. She remembered the touch of his hands and the strength of his Gift as he had mended her own broken bones years before. She had touched his essence. She understood the pure nature of his mind.

  Kade was an idiot sometimes, but he was a man who cared about others.

  :I understand,: she finally said.

  “My name is Kade,” he said, extending a hand to the sergeant.

  The sergeant hesitated, but eventually took the hand. “Know me as Castigan.”

  • • •

  The man led them to the royal palace, or what served as one here in Tau.

  It was a castle at least—barely—built high enough that its three towers could look over the city proper. A stone wall barricaded it from the common people except for a main gate that was now open and guarded by more men with light armor and blue chevrons.

  Stables were built to one side.

  The manor yard seemed smaller than it probably was.

  They went around to a building Nwah realized was a barracks for the guard.

  The guard’s command center was at its northernmost point, which is where Castigan took them. It had its own tower, which was connected to the castle proper through a stone corridor running above like a bridge.

  “The animal will have to stay outside,” Castigan said at the doorway.

  “Nwah is my companion. I need her with me.”

  The sergeant appeared to be ready to argue the point, but his gaze flickered to the guards, who nodded. “It is acceptable,” he said. “But you will need to keep her out of the manor itself. The king will not brook such nonsense as a wild kyree in his keep.”

  “Understood,” Kade replied.

  :Are you my keeper now?: Nwah said.

  :They don’t need to know better.:

  This was the first thing Kade had said that made her feel better since they had entered the city.

  :I don’t like this,: she replied. :But let’s get it over with.:

  Castigan left the guards below.

  They entered the command center and climbed a twisting stairway to the upper reaches of the tower.

  Being inside felt stifling. The walls were tall and closed. She didn’t like the feeling of stone and mortar, and the stairs felt sharp. Unlike the caves she and Kade had sometimes sheltered in, these stone corridors felt dead. It smelled empty.

  :How can people survive here?: she asked.

  :Humans are different,: Kade replied.

  The room they stopped in was small, with a small slit of a window that looked to the south.

  Outside, it started to rain.

  Not a storm, Nwah thought, but a gentle rain that would be mesmerizing if she let it. Right now, however, she had no intention of being mesmerized.

  Right now, she was focused on the man who lay on a well-aged cot and was covered by a thin linen. He was probably as old as Castigan, but where the sergeant-at-arms was muscular and powerfully built, this man appeared to be wiry and thin. His skin was
ashen. Fevered sweat had once plastered his short hair to his forehead, but now there was no sweat at all. Now the man was dry, and his skin was reddened. The hair stuck to him in a crusted shell.

  As they came into the room, a nursemaid rose.

  Kade did a double take. “Winnie.”

  It was the girl from the market. She gave a sincere blush of surprise.

  Of course, Nwah thought. The girl was the sergeant-at-arms’ daughter.

  “I told you to stay away,” Castigan said to her.

  “He’s sick, Father. I can’t just leave him be.”

  “I’ve brought a Healer,” he exclaimed. “So you can leave now.”

  The man on the cot gave a pain-laden moan.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Kade asked as he knelt beside the cot and examined the now shivering man. A table at the head of the cot had wet cloths and a decanter of water sitting on it.

  “He’s been sick for a fortnight,” Castigan replied.

  “Fever,” Winnie added as she leaned over Kade’s shoulder to watch. “He won’t eat and can’t keep anything down when he does. And he’s delirious. He doesn’t do anything but sleep, dream, and moan.”

  “Who is he?” Kade said as he put the back of his hand to the man’s forehead.

  “He is my second in command,” the sergeant at arms said. “Lincecum Hale’s his name. Commander in the king’s service.”

  “He took sick after the planting celebration,” Winnie again added. “He hasn’t fully recovered since.”

  Kade examined the man’s eyes, which were yellowed. He ran a hand around the man’s neck and shoulders. “He’s still very warm.”

  “Is it the plague?” the girl asked, her eyes wide.

  “I don’t know,” Kade answered. “He needs to drink, though. He needs to get liquid into him, or he’s going to burn up.”

  Kade dug into his travel bag, looking for the kit he kept his medicines in. He removed one of the pouches he had made from squirrel’s hide, and shook out a pinch of the crumbled basil leaf he kept tucked inside.

  :Is it the plague?: Nwah said, suddenly afraid.

  :Please be quiet.:

  Distracted or not, the rebuke hurt.

  She padded over to the foot of the cot and sniffed the sick man’s feet. They reeked of death. She put her tail between her legs.

  :He smells awful,: Nwah said.

  Kade shut her down then.

  Or, rather, he put some clamp on his emotions that made her know she was to remain silent. Their link would always be there, but she felt the distance Kade was putting between them. Worse, she felt the attraction the human girl had on him even more strongly.

  :Fine,: she said.

  She snarled and sat down at the foot of the bed.

  “Hand me that decanter,” Kade said to Winnie.

  She gave it to him, smiling in a way she hadn’t while at the market. Her fingers brushed his as they exchanged the decanter, and she watched in fascination as he dropped the crumbled leaf into the water and swirled it.

  Kade glanced at her with an unspoken question.

  “I want to be a Healer,” she said. “Unlike my father, I admire them.”

  :She didn’t seem to admire Healers so much back in the market,: Nwah snickered.

  Kade’s brow furrowed, but he ignored the comment.

  He looked at the sergeant. “You should probably leave us.”

  Nwah understood now that Kade was going to use his Gift. This was always a personal moment for Kade, one he didn’t often share with others.

  The man nodded, then clomped to the doorway. “Winnie?”

  “I can use her help,” Kade said.

  Nwah’s eyes narrowed and another pang of jealousy hit. This time it was totally justified, though. Why was he letting her stay?

  “I’ll not leave my daughter alone in the same room with you,” Castigan said.

  “Father!” Winnie glared. “I am going to be a Healer whether you like it or not.”

  His jaw clenched, and for a moment, Nwah thought he might actually lash out at her. Instead, his eyes narrowed into tight beams aimed at Kade.

  “Yes,” he said. “I think that will be fine.”

  The jangle of his belts clamored as he descended the stairs.

  The room became silent, and Kade raised an eyebrow.

  “He means well,” she said. “But he is set in his ways.”

  Kade shrugged, then placed his hands on the man’s chest. “When I start, I want you to pour a thin trickle of water into his mouth.”

  Winnie nodded, her dark eyes growing wide.

  “I’ve seen Healers work before. Will this be the same?”

  “I don’t know. Everything I do is self-taught.”

  “Then it’s true you’re from the dark woods?”

  “Sure. But they don’t seem particularly dark to me. Just seem like home.”

  “Will you teach me what you know?”

  He actually blushed. “I can try,” he said. “But I’ve never taught anyone before.”

  Nwah flipped her tail impatiently. It thumped onto the floor.

  Kade’s interest in her had been so obvious that even the buffoon of a guard had called it, but now Winnie’s interest in Kade grew more transparent by the moment.

  Nwah wondered whether the presence of the other girls at the market had made a difference in Winnie’s attitude, or maybe it was the guards’ presence. She didn’t understand why it would, but humans, as Kade had said, were different. They hid themselves in the strangest ways.

  The man moaned again.

  Kade put his hands on the man’s chest, closed his eyes, and began working with his Gift.

  Winnie began pouring.

  Nwah watched the two of them work together, growing more angry at Kade’s snub as the water dribbled from the decanter.

  Kade’s fingers worked along the man’s collarbone.

  The man swallowed.

  “Come here,” Kade said to Winnie. “Put your hands on mine.”

  She put the decanter down and did as she was told. Her fingers looped between Kade’s. Their eyes closed and their breathing grew into a steady rhythm. The man breathed better, and a yellow aura seemed to ooze from him.

  Nwah couldn’t stand it anymore.

  She got up, and padded down the winding stairs and out into the manor yard, where, yes, it was now raining.

  She sat at the base of the doorway, listening to the rhythm of the drizzle.

  She could stay here, but she didn’t want to be anywhere near the manor if she could help it.

  She could go back to the alley.

  Yes, the alley. That’s where she would go. She would climb the crates and look out over the city. Kade could find her whenever he was done doing whatever he was doing.

  Nwah stood up and stretched.

  A familiar voice came over the pattering of rain. Castigan, the sergeant at arms.

  “When the boy’s done, grab him and put him in the dungeon proper.”

  It came from around the corner, Nwah realized—or rather, from the office with a window open. The voices were faint, but her hearing was good.

  She slunk along the wall to get closer to the window, being careful to keep from getting too wet.

  “What for?” the guard said.

  “He’s killed Hale.”

  “Killed him? He just went upstairs.”

  “Well, he hasn’t killed him yet, but he’s going to.”

  “The boy couldn’t kill a fire beetle,” the guard replied.

  “You’re not hearing my meaning, Hivvy.”

  A brief moment of silence hung in the air.

  “Ah. I see,” Hivenswirth said.

  “Do you now?”

  “Yes, sir. We all know the commander wa
s a spy for Hardorn and that you were trying to get him killed in a good and quiet way earlier.”

  “Who knew Lincecum Hale could handle his poison so well?” Sergeant Castigan said. “And worse, who knew my daughter, of all people, would nurse him back so near to healthy even with giving him another dose?”

  “So we’re gonna kill him for good and hang it on the kid?”

  “No reason to wait any longer. A traitor can’t be let free, and I can’t let the king know we let such a man into our ranks like that. Wouldn’t look right for any of us now, would it?”

  Nwah could almost hear the smugness of the nodding heads.

  “But a strange Healer from the Wild Woods comes to town with a lovesick eye for the sergeant’s girl, and gets himself kicked around by the guard . . . well . . . I figure pretty much everyone’ll be able to connect those dots. When they are done, you will both go upstairs and finish the job.”

  “What about your girl, Castigan? She’ll know.”

  “Word will be that he jinxed her, but between us she’ll get the point. I know how to keep my daughter quiet.”

  “I see,” the first guard said. “Hale’s gone, a Mage no one knows is responsible, and Winnie toes the line. That ties it all up.”

  “Yes,” Castigan said. “Yes, it does.”

  Nwah had heard enough. They were going to kill Kade for nothing more than the crime of being a convenient scapegoat.

  She should warn him.

  No. It wouldn’t work. She knew him better than to think he would leave the sick man—the poisoned man. And he wasn’t really listening to her now, anyway.

  She considered magic. The ley-line along the outer ranges of the city felt suddenly stronger, but the idea scared her. She didn’t know what to do with it, and a scan of the yard showed her how outnumbered she would be if anything went wrong.

  There had to be another way.

  The sound of chairs scraping the floor echoed from inside the room.

  Her time was gone.

  Yes, she thought. There is another way.

  Silently, she slipped into the rain.

  • • •

  Nwah raced through the city, ignoring flashing hooves and bitter exclamations.

  News that Commander Hale had died was rolling through town before she made it to the front gate. News of Kade’s arrest wouldn’t be far off.