I pressed a fist to my mouth, unable to speak. My companion wisely held his tongue. Had he said one cursed sympathetic thing right then, I think I would have clawed out his eyes.
I heard men talking and talking, laughing and joking. It took forever and a day exactly as if they were conducting a party and had forgotten me entirely. I would have run to find out what was taking so long, but I thought of crossbow bolts and did not. At long last strode a half dozen men into view with Rory among them, limping a little-his feet were still bare but he was otherwise decently clothed-and his head thrown back as he laughed at some soldierly quip.
I might have moaned first, as despair fled my heart, entirely routed. Then I shrieked. 'Rory!' I ran, and I flung myself at him so hard he staggered back at the impact and got an arm around me as I pressed my face into the coat he was wearing.
'You're safe,' I cried like a player in the theater. 'I thought you were dead.'
'They were too startled to manage an effective counterattack. And the remaining horses went wild. All but one bolted.'
I glanced up just as he licked his lips, looking suspiciously pleased with himself.
'I didn't know you could do that,' I said with a glance at the soldiers now watching us with the sentimental expressions of men who pretend to be big and tough but in truth dandle babies on their knee with the greatest tenderness and affection.
'Neither did I!' he replied with a grin. 'It just…came over me.'
We both started laughing, and I broke away and wiped my eyes. 'Are you hurt?'
'A shard of bone cut one paw. Nothing important. Now who are these fine fellows who have given me these fine clothes? And is that beef I smell?'
I introduced him as my brother Roderic without offering a single detail more, and our hosts graciously had another platter of food brought as well as a fourth camp stool. Rory chatted and laughed with Marius and Amadou, ever so charming, pausing at intervals to try on boots that soldiers brought in, none of which fit.
I stared at him, scarcely able to believe he had survived. His features, his gestures, his long black braid: All these had become as familiar to me as if I had known them my entire life long, yet I had first encountered him only a few days ago. I did not understand it. Was this what kinship meant? A sense, deep in your bones, that the person next to you is part of you? Inextricable from what you are? That you could not be who you are without their existence as part of the architecture of your very self?
We are none of us one thing alone and unchanging. We are not static, or at rest. Just as a city or a prince's court or a lineage
is many people in one, so is a person many people within one, always unfinished and always like a river's current flowing onward ever changing toward the ocean that is greater than all things combined. You cannot step into the same river twice.
'Philosophizing over there?' asked Rory, as if he could hear my thoughts. 'You don't usually stay silent for this long, Cat. Unless you're deliberately ignoring me, I mean.'
I shook off my reverie. 'Just worrying,' I said.
Lord Marius rose. 'It will be a long night. I suppose the company pursuing you may take it into their heads to attempt a night raid, so I'll keep half my men awake and half asleep in their boots.'
'I'll take the second watch,' said Amadou.
'My thanks, Legate' I said with what I hoped was a biting smile.
He had the grace to look shamefaced. He and Lord Marius left the tent to us.
'What is a legate?' Rory asked.
'A very important man in Rome. I cannot figure it. It seems true that he and his sisters and aunt fled from Eko-'
'Eko?'
'You don't know anything, do you?'
'No,' he agreed cheerfully. 'Not a thing! That horse meat was tasty, though.'
I laughed, and then grimaced, realizing he was not speaking of our supper. 'You stopped to eat not knowing if I was alive or dead?'
'I discovered, dearest sister, that I am not entirely myself when I am in my natural shape here in the Deathlands. It took me a while to come to myself. Once I had, I followed your trail immediately. And am very glad to have discovered you alive and unharmed. What is Eko?'
'It's a place very far away from here on the coast of a land
where once rose a rich empire. A terrible plague devastated the country. Those who could, fled and made homes elsewhere, but of course their descendants never forgot where they had come from. In recent years, some intrepid settlers rebuilt the old port of Eko, thinking to return to their lost homeland. But they were attacked and overrun. The survivors returned here to Europa to the families and clans from which they had come. I thought Amadou Barry was just a young man from a well-to-do Fula banking family, who happened to be among those who attempted the resettlement and ended up making a new life in Adurnam after the disaster. Now I hear him addressed as a legate, which means he is connected to Rome! In what capacity he could possibly carry the title of legate I cannot be sure, nor why he was masquerading as a student…'
Rory yawned. 'He smells clean. He and the other one mean us no harm, not like those hyenas waiting out beyond the old earth walls.'
'Hyenas? What is that?'
'Never mind. Foul creatures. I hate them. Hyenas, I mean, not our rescuers. I'm tired. I need a nap.'
He took possession of one of the cots and pulled the blankets up over his head. His breathing slowed immediately. Could anyone fall asleep that fast?
A cough startled me; a soldier poked his head in and gestured. 'If you would like me to turn down the lamps, mae-stressa? Stoke the braziers?'
'I thank you.'
He did what needed to get done, chores I would have performed in my own house. In the house I had thought was mine. The confusion that boiled in my heart made me restless. Aunt and Uncle had betrayed me, and yet they bad made an attempt to save me before giving up and letting Andevai take me. What had they thought would happen when the deception was discovered?
For no matter how hard I stared at the outcome, I had to believe they had not known they were sending me into mortal danger. Merely into lifelong servitude. The Barahals knew how to serve; that's how they made their living. Had Daniel known of the contract? Why had he and my mother left Adurnam right after the capture and imprisonment of Camjiata? Thirteen years ago. The same year, it seemed, that the Barry refugees had fled the disaster at Eko-1824 had been a very eventful year, hadn't it?
I rose, thinking to walk outside to calm my tangled thoughts, but as soon as I stood, my legs quivered and I almost collapsed. I staggered over to the empty cot and sat hard, trembling. I barely had the strength to lie down and pull the blankets up over myself as I shivered with exhaustion. I shut my eyes and plunged into sleep.
A man sang in my dreams, and the plucking of harp strings opened a path between this world and the other side, a shimmering ribbon of pure sound that ran as a river of silver fire. Rory was chuckling, or purring, and then a scattering of shouts and a clattering of weapons pulled me from the depths and into the night-bound tent. It was dreadfully cold but for a ghost of warmth drifting up from the last banked coals. The red gleam gave me just enough light to see that the other cot had no one in it.
Had I only dreamed Rory's return?
As if my thought were a call, he came into the tent. He was chuckling softly in that purring way he had, and he was sneaking, clearly unaware I was awake and perfectly attentive to his prowling. Where had that cursed fool gone this late at night? I meant to rise and speak, but try as I might, I could not rouse my limbs or move my lips to ask what was going on.
'Sleep, little sister,' he said as he stretched out on the other cot back among the blankets. 'The magister and his troops
made an attempt to attack over the ramparts, but they were sent scuttling with tails between their legs.'
I woke suddenly into dawn's gloom, eyes open and legs twitching, and inhaled a lungful of exceedingly cold air. Rory slumbered on the other cot. Shuddering with cold, I slid out from under the blankets, pulled on my boots
