Page 93 of Shadowlands Omega

I smile, though it feels shaky. I don’t think my fire can melt bullets, but I don’t dare tell Zelie that. Instead, I lie again, “I can do this.” She nods her head just once, looking longingly back at the castle, towards the small servants’ exit, but we take the other path.

25 | Kiandah

Orias highway line

Escaping the city is easy with the help of our industrious little friend and aided by the fact that most of the Crimson Riders seem to be gone — likely with Yaron scouring Paradise Hole and securing our northern border.It’s finding a horse once we’re in the village that’s difficult.

I didn’t think about money when we left and even though we aren’t tossed out on our asses when we approach several vendors — not like I was a fortnight ago — no one readily offers up their horse for our clandestine use. Instead, we manage to secure passage with a pair of merchants heading west along the highway line that splits from the Orias highway line and leads to Shadow Ridge.

They’re headed to the mining town just south of the Cliffs of Oblivion, Heatherlen, but have agreed to take us as far as they can. I anticipate that we’ll have to walk a good bit of the way to reach the cliffs, which means we’ll only arrive by nightfall.Yaron will have discovered my absence by then. I try not to outwardly wince every time the thought crosses my mind, but it’s difficult. It crosses my mind often as the cart, dragged by two horses, makes its towards Owenna and whatever else awaits. Whoever else.

Instead of dreaming up horror scenarios about what might happen when we arrive and what will happen if we have to confront Trash City, I try to focus on our surroundings. I’ve never been down the Shadow Ridge highway line before and, if this were any other journey for any other purpose, I’d have found it thrilling. The South Island has such beautiful topography. Microclimates separate regions that are pressed up against each other so tightly, it feels like walking through doorways to new worlds when they change. Today, the sky is even clearer than usual, helping me to see what lies before ourdoomedwestwardly way.

Unlike the Undoline highway line, which leads to more rolling fields and grasslands, or the Gold City highway line that leads south from Undoline through dry, arid deserts studded by high sandstone mountains or the Hjiel highway line that leads south from the keep through increasingly cold and harsh temperatures, the Shadow Ridge highway line will take us to stark, rocky hills and eventually, a harsh sea and winds that clash over jagged cliffs.

Already, I can see the rising of Shadow Ridge on the horizon as the road cutting to it veers ever closer to the forests of Paradise Hole to the north. The trees once sat well back from the highway line have started to encroach, especially with no heart trees left to contend with them.

In some places, dark roots looking like the limbs of an ancient god claw their way out of Gatamora’s black heart to cause massive bumps in the road. I watch them now with concern and suspicion. I worry that Yaron’s forces will have headed this way. I don’t know where they went within the dark woods, but they could be close. I stare into the trees, searching for any sign of a red cloak, but see nothing. Only shadows.

Shivering, I sit up straight and look at Zelie. We should probably come up with some scenarios around which we can form some loose tendrils of plans, but the wagon we’re on is small and I worry about our drivers overhearing us — they might not want to abet our insurrection if they know where we’re truly headed and who we’re planning to meet.

The two men driving the horse cart are father and son. The younger of the two appears my age, and when I try to get Zelie’s attention, I realize it’s on him, not me. He’s pointing up the road to a tall tree on our lefthand side. Its thick red trunk and vibrant dark blue leaves are a distinct contrast to the trees on the other side of the highway line, which are grey and darker grey.

“Do you see the tang bird’s nest? They migrate here and roost every year, coming all the way down from the North Island. They aren’t water birds and it’s incredible they make it, taking rests only on the boughs of crossing ships.”

I’m so caught up in wondering if the birds will have a way to make it back home or if they’ll all drown in the sea now that the port of Ruby City has been destroyed that I don’t immediately notice Zelie smiling and blushing and tucking her twists behind her ear.

“The birds are very beautiful, Desmond,” she offers coyly.Coyly.As if Zelie has ever once in her life been known to be coy.

Wait a second… This whole time that I’ve been sitting here panicking, has Zelie beenflirting? I guffaw loudly and unattractively. Zelie shoots me a dirty look, but the younger of the two men — Desmond, apparently — doesn’t notice.

He prattles on about the birds and other interesting facts about the landscape while his father gives a chuckle every once in a while and Zelie’s skin darkens and flushes. At one point, he makes a pretty poor joke about the state of the Paradise Hole trees and she giggles.Giggles. It fills me with both irritation and glee.

“It’s very kind of you to deliver us all the way to the western ridge crossroads. No one else was willing to take us so far.”

“It’s no problem,” Desmond answers with a wink that borders on the salacious. It makes me concerned that he’s just a flirt and that Lord Yaron is right — we Ubutu sisters don’t get out much.

“My boy is wrong,” his father says.

Zelie’s head sinks into her shoulders. His son gives him a stern look. Flustered, I prattle, “I’m — we’re — so sorry…”

“I wasn’t finished, m’Lady. I was going to say, we’re honored.” The boy’s father looks over his shoulder at me and smiles, his teeth glowing bright in his wind-chapped white face. “It isn’t every day that humble steel workers like us get to drive the Shadow Lady and her kinfolk to their destination. And we’ll take you all the way, m’Lady, if the cliffs are where y’all are headed. Don’t you worry about that.”

“Oh…I…” I hadn’t realized he knew who I was. I hadn’t realized anyone would know who I am. And I’m also not who he says…yet.Yaron may have made me an offer, but that was before I ran away.Again.He’s going to be angry. He’s not going to accept me on my return— I refuse to think about that, lest I puke. I forcefully return the father’s gaze with a smile of my own, no matter how brittle. “Thank you so much, sir, but we couldn’t ask that of you.”It’s too dangerous.

“Lucky for you, then, that you didn’t ask, m’Lady.” He winks and I feel a warmth in my chest astride the uncertainty that’s plagued me ever since we left the keep. Leaving was so easy. So impossibly easy.Maybe, we should turn back.

“I…” I don’t want them to come. I can’t be responsible for their lives. But I can’t think of any words to say that will make him change his mind. “Thank you,” I tell him.

“It’s what anyone should do for their Lady.”

I wipe my brow. He’s doing nothing for my pulse, which has lost its mind. I lean forward over my knees. “Zelie, we should turn back. We’re going to get these people killed. And ourselves along with them.”

“What? I can’t hear you when you’re mumbling.”

The cart is empty between Zelie and I save for a few canvas tarps, so there’s nothing to stop me from getting up and sitting beside her. I do just that, wobbling as we go over another rut in the road. I bounce down onto the seat beside her.

Zelie chuckles as she catches my arms and helps me untangle my skirts. “What are you saying, Kandia?”

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