‘Then I’ll send Jory to fetch her,’ Lucian said. Moss and Aldron nodded, liking the idea. ‘Tesadora can eat with us on the mountain tonight.’
‘No,’ his cousin insisted. ‘Tesadora’s not one for fetching and I want to surprise her.’
Lucian insisted that Isaboe share his mount.
They rode down the mountain with Aldron and two of the other guards. He had forgotten how much he enjoyed his cousin’s company and how little time they had spent together lately. After sharing family gossip, they spoke of market day in the palace village and Lord Tascan.
‘Be careful,’ she said. ‘Lady Zarah trills. Finnikin used to flirt with her when he’d visit the Osterian court during his exile.’
‘Yes, but that was before he met you.’
‘I overheard Finnikin once telling Sir Topher that Lady Zarah’s voice was a soothing sound.’
‘Hmm, soothing voices are in decline on the mountain … and in the palace, the way I hear it,’ Lucian said. He peered over his shoulder for her reaction.
Isaboe’s eyes narrowed. ‘If I had the power to make anyone in this kingdom mute, I’d begin with her trilling voice,’ she said. ‘Nothing soothing about it. She speaks softly so men can step closer to ask her to speak again.’
‘You’re mean,’ he laughed.
‘It’s true,’ she protested. ‘The first time Jasmina heard her voice she held her hands to her ears and cried.’
He reached back and poked her side with a finger and they both laughed again. But the closer they came to the valley, the more silent they became. He knew he would never speak the words out loud to her, but he had been disappointed that she hadn’t acknowledged Phaedra as his wife. After her death, Isaboe had sent her condolences, but Lucian wished that she had come to know Phaedra in life.
When they reached the point on the mountain where they could see the first glimpse of the Charynites in their caves, he heard her sigh.
‘What are we going to do about this valley, Lucian? If it’s true that Alonso has refused to send grain, I can’t take food from my own people to feed an enemy.’
‘Perhaps … they could fertilise the land and grow more of their own,’ he said. ‘I’ve only allowed them a small patch, but they could grow much more along the stream and between the caves.’
Hadn’t that been Phaedra’s idea?
‘Do you know how we fertilised Kasabian’s vegetable patch?’ Phaedra had asked him with delight one time when they were travelling back up to the mountain. ‘We climbed to the higher caves and carved holes for the pigeons to … you know.’
‘No,’ he had said, pretending ignorance. ‘I don’t.’
‘So they can … you know.’
‘So they can shit.’
‘Well, I would have put it more delicately.’
‘Trust me, Phaedra. There’s no delicate way to shit. It evens out the entire land. Humans and other creatures. Queens and peasants.’
‘Then we collect the pigeon … droppings and mix them with the water and soil, and that’s how we fertilise our garden,’ she said proudly.
It’s what he told Isaboe, without mentioning Phaedra.
‘People who plant gardens and vegetable patches become part of the land, Lucian,’ Isaboe said. ‘We can’t have them forming an attachment. It means they’ll never go.’
At her campsite on the Lumateran side of the stream, Tesadora was boiling a broth that smelt too repulsive to be considered dinner. She was surprised to see them, but held out her arms to Isaboe.
‘Stomach upsets in the valley,’ she said. She looked suspiciously at Aldron and the guards as they began searching the area.
‘If you’re so worried about the dangers, why bring her down here?’ she snapped.
‘Don’t talk about her as if she’s not here, Tesadora,’ Lucian said.
But no one seemed in a mood to jest.
‘You know they won’t risk crossing the stream,’ Tesadora said, irritation in her voice and still watching Aldron and the guard. She returned her attention to Isaboe and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. ‘You look tired, beloved.’
‘I’m not sleeping too well these nights.’
‘I can imagine why,’ Tesadora said. ‘Your husband’s an idiot. Have I not told you that many times?’
Isaboe laughed, but Lucian could see worry in her eyes.
‘I sent for you, Tesadora, but you mustn’t have received my notes.’
‘Circumstances have been strange here since …’
Tesadora sighed, looking at Lucian.
Since Phaedra. Since Vestie travelled down a mountain on her own in the early hours of the morning. Since a strange, savage girl took up residence in their valley.
‘I wanted to talk to you about the sleep,’ Isaboe said.
Tesadora looked perplexed. ‘You still walk the sleep? But you’ve not bled. And I’ve not walked it with you.’
‘It’s odd,’ Isaboe admitted. ‘Vestie walks it, too. Not alongside me. It’s as if we walk our own.’
Tesadora was unnerved by the news, her beautiful face creased with worry.
‘I’ll come up the mountain with you tonight and we’ll make a strong brew to ease those jitters,’ she promised.
Tesadora extinguished the fire under her pot and Lucian helped her pack up.
‘I want to meet the girl, Tesadora,’ Lucian heard Isaboe say. He watched Tesadora freeze.
‘Vestie says she’s a Charynite with no place to go,’ Isaboe continued. ‘That she’s frightened of her own people.’
‘She’s no one,’ Lucian said. ‘Just a stray who doesn’t want to be in the presence of Donashe and his cutthroats, if you ask me.’
Tesadora covered the pot. ‘They’re arriving from all over these days,’ she said dismissively. ‘Ever since the events in their capital. The girl can look after herself. You three,’ she said to the guards, pointing to her pots and jars. ‘Make yourselves useful and put these in my tent.’
‘And what if she can’t look after herself, Tesadora?’ Isaboe continued. ‘What if there’s something I can do for her? All those people in the valley, waiting for my permission to climb this mountain. Perhaps she’s the one. She is on her own with no kin. Take me to her, Tesadora. We’ll ease her fear.’
Lucian looked at Tesadora. As strange as the girl was, perhaps it was the first step. He liked the idea, but suddenly preferred that the conversation take place on the mountain and not down here in the valley.
‘Let’s get this over and done with,’ he said finally. ‘I want us all in
Tesadora was reluctant, but finally she agreed.
‘I don’t want the girl frightened,’ she said, looking at the Guard. ‘Lucian and Aldron only. The others can stay here.’
They travelled half a mile downstream. It made Lucian wonder how much contact Tesadora had made with the mad girl since they had encountered her the morning Vestie went missing.
‘We don’t even know her name, Tesadora,’ Aldron muttered. ‘If I get a blasting from Finn and Trevanion and Perri over this, I’ll blame you.’
‘Yes, well, I’m trembling at the thought,’ Tesadora said, but Lucian could hear the strangeness in her voice.
They passed the tree where they first found the girl with Vestie. Further downstream, shafts of light forced their way between tall pines. It was here that they found the girl on her haunches, close to one of the trees, with a blanket wrapped around her body that Lucian recognised as one of Tesadora’s. She was scrounging for something in
