Taking Flight

Azraya gave up her attempt and stamped away, annoyed-not down the highway, but across the cornfield on one side. Kelder watched her go, wondering when she would be back-if ever. She was just as temperamental as Irith, though in a different way, and there was no prophecy assuring him that he would see her again.

Which was too bad; he did like Azraya, despite her temper.

Asha snuggled against him, and he looked down at her. Her blue tunic, the only garment she had, was wearing very thin-he wondered if Irith or Ezdral or Azraya could sew, an art he had never entirely mastered himself. They could buy fabric in Syndisha, though it would take a distressingly large portion of their money.

“Why didn’t you want to ride?” he asked her.

She looked up at him. “Because I can’t stand the way Ezdral looks at Irith when she’s a horse,” she said. “It makes me feel awful.”

Kelder nodded.

“I can understand that,” he said.

Together, they sat and waited.

Chapter Thirty

Azraya came back within a few minutes, and her next attempt to rouse Ezdral, a few minutes later, was successful. The four of them were on their way again shortly thereafter, and the sun was still only slightly past its zenith.

There were blue-uniformed guards at the Syndishan border, and without Irith along the party had no one they recognized; Kelder and Azraya had to make something called a “customs declaration,” informing a scribe of all the magical articles they carried (none), how much gold they had (none), what livestock they were bringing into the kingdom (none), and whether they intended to settle down or were just passing through.

Ezdral was only semi-conscious, so the officials informed Kelder that he was speaking for the Sot as well as himself. Asha being under age twelve, Azraya was arbitrarily chosen as her guardian and declared responsible for her actions as long as they were in Syndisha.

Azraya was not at all pleased about this, but tolerated it until one of the soldiers approached too closely. Then, suddenly, her belt knife was in her hand and she barked, “Don’t touch me!”

The soldier in question spoke no Ethsharitic, but he got the message. After that, the officials quickly finished up, and sent the party on its way.

They reached Syndisha Castle a little over an hour later, and as promised, Irith was waiting for them.

The castle was immense, incorporating the entire town; it was built in four concentric rings. Kelder could see that much, and Irith confirmed it, while admitting that she might have missed additional inner layers.

The outermost ring was a broad field between two stone walls that served as the public market, where farmers wheeled wagons of produce about, crying their wares, and various groups stood about, discussing various business.

The next ring was the town itself, a single circular street lined with inns and shops, with alleys branching off here and there and a single broad cross-street that led from the market gate across to the inner gate.

Irith said that the next layer in was where the wealthier townsfolk lived, and the king’s keep stood within that, but Kelder never saw those for himself except for glimpses through the gate.

“Why did they build it like this?” Kelder wondered aloud.

“Seems like good sense to me,” Azraya said.

“Seems excessive to me,” Kelder returned. “It must have been expensive.”

Irith shrugged. “This part of the Small Kingdoms has the smallest and nastiest kingdoms of them all,” she said. “I mean, there’s just one stupid little war after another, and it seems like half the princes go out and build castles and declare themselves kings. Maybe the Syndishans got thinking about that and got a little carried away.”

Attempts to locate a wizard turned up three warlocks, four witches, and a theurgist, but no wizards. Since Irith’s magic was purely wizardry, that meant no chance of finding a countercharm in Syndisha.

On Irith’s recommendation, they took lodgings at an inn called the Broken Blade-and took two rooms. “If this Azraya person is going to stay with us,” Irith said, “we have to. I mean, five people in one room is just too many!”

It didn’t seem all that excessive to Kelder, who had seen farmhands at harvest sleeping fifteen or twenty to a room, but he didn’t argue. Asha and Ezdral were in no shape to go any farther, so the entire party was definitely staying the night in Syndisha, and he wanted to keep things peaceful. Besides, dividing up three and two could mean that he would share a room with Irith.

It could, but it didn’t.

Kelder was never quite sure just how the decision was made, but somehow the question never even came up; Irith, Asha, and Azraya took one room, and he and Ezdral got the other.

This did not suit him much-particularly since the dividing wall was thin enough that he could hear Irith and Azraya arguing, and later, when they had quieted and Ezdral was out cold, he found himself fantasizing that Irith might slip into the room in the middle of the night…