Page 43 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Kase could barely lift his head off the tree trunk. “I don’t think…I don’t think I can even swallow.”
If he hadn’t been so tired, that might have scared him more. What in the blazes was happening to him?
A hand supported the back of his neck. Wincing, he cracked open his eyes to see a canteen being brought to his lips and Hallie’s father looming above him. “Hydrate first. Then sleep. I’ll help.”
Kase let him, because he didn’t have enough energy to argue.
For the next hour, Stowe took the time and care to make sure he drank the entire canteen. He also supported him as he heaved one more time, then gave him more water.
The next thing he knew, a sharp, stabbing neck pain woke him from a dreamless sleep.
His eyes flew open, but they no longer hurt. He reached for his pistol, ready to fire.
But he let his hand fall when he found only the outline of his stolen Cerl hover and Stowe propped up against his packs, using the scarce moonlight to read some book with a leafy plant on the cover. A small, soft voice inside him wanted to ask if he could borrow it when the other man finished.
He didn’t. Mostly because he wasn’t sure if he could hold the book long enough to read without his arms giving out.
Kase grumbled as he brought his hand up to rub his neck, but it caught on a thick blanket over his legs. He couldn’t seemuch in the waning gold of Secondmoon’s light, but the wool blanket glittered a soft blue color where the moonlight hit it. Like something had been woven into it.
Setting aside his read, Stowe looked up. Kase winced as the book met the ground. If Hallie had gotten her love of reading from her father, she must have gotten her respect for books from someone else; she would never commit such a heinous act as placing a perfectly good book on damp grass.
“Found blankets in that tiny cargo hold.” Stowe opened his pack and pulled out a few items. “Not real good with maps, but I figure we’re probably ‘bout halfway to the capital.”
Kase shook his head, wincing at the crick in his neck. He rubbed it harder and gritted his teeth against the sharp pain. When he slept next, he dearly hoped it wasn’t sitting upright against a tree. However, the resthadtaken the edge off his exhaustion. Parts of his bones still felt like they’d been formed from mazelberry jam, but he felt fit enough to fly again. He no longer felt like emptying the contents of his stomach, at least.
“There’s no way we’re halfway to the capital. That kind of trip would take us nearly a week.” Kase couldn’t tell exactly what Stowe was mixing inside the small vial he held, but he didn’t think it would help whatever ailed him. There was something wrong with that ship. Unfortunately, it was their only way to get anywhere without having to walk unless they could commandeer something else, and he didn’t feel like risking another hover-jacking like that.
Stowe stood with his vial and grabbed a folded sheet of parchment. “I never even left the mountains before this, but I’m pretty sure we passed Settler’s Barrows. Looked mighty like the little picture on the map.”
Kase extricated himself from the blanket and forced himself to stand, using the burly maple trunk for support. Without the blanket covering him, the crisp early morning airpenetrated every exposed bit of skin and worked its way into his bones. He glanced back down at the blanket and its glittering fibers. “You said you found those on the hover?”
Stowe handed him the vial he’d been carrying. Kase took it, but he didn’t drink. Stowe didn’t comment further, only retrieved the blanket. He folded it over one arm and shrugged. “Felt warm, and you looked awful cold.”
Kase tapped the stopper on the vial. “What’s in this?”
“Pick Up tonic with coffee shavings. Gotta be careful with ‘em; I could only get a bag of roasted beans from Rubikan traders once a year. Coffee don’t grow up in the mountains.”
Kase threw back the contents. He didn’t think it’d help his predicament, but it wouldn’t hurt either. He grimaced at the chilled concoction. “Definitely better hot.”
Stowe let out a barking laugh and handed Kase the map. “Would’ve warmed it if I thought banking a fire was wise.”
Kase handed back the empty vial and opened the map. It had to be an older version, because it still featured a unified Tev Rubika, but it was better than nothing. “Where’d you get this from?”
Stowe tied up his pack. “We’ve had it a while. Still has Ravenhelm on it.”
“Niels said something about that place. Not sure what it is, though.”
Stowe grabbed both packs and the strange blanket. “Ruins, mainly. Before this last winter’s attack, Ravenhelm’s was the worst in mountain history. Leveled the whole place. Killed everyone except a little boy not higher than a grasshopper. Killed the commander with a well-placed crossbolt, some stories say. Heard some crazier ones, but fifty years will grow a story good, and I wasn’t but a wee lad myself.”
Something about the story tickled at the back of Kase’s mind, but with so much else whirling through it, he couldn’t quite get his hands around the thought.
He looked back at the map instead, trying to ignore the odd feeling about the ruined town.
Stowe stuck a finger at Settlers’ Barrows. “Passed that a little ways back, I tell ya.”
Kase rubbed his jaw. The short beard that had begun growing in the last few weeks or so prickled his fingers. He briefly wondered if Hallie would approve of the longer style. Would she like it if Niels grew one?
Blast it.
