'Too hot for the delta! We scorned it as shepherds' and woodsmen's rustic garb. Nice for durable bags and blankets, but-'
'Uncle.' Her tone altered as she slipped her bow out of its quiver and stood, an arrow fitted to the string. Seeing and Telling were flying back from the distant altar, and a Guardian on a winged horse was following them. Had they been careless? Or was it inevitable they'd be hunted down?
'Move back into the trees, Kirit.'
She did not move. 'I saw him before. On the rock with the others where they tried to kill Marit. He's one of the corrupted ones. I'll shoot him, like I did those soldiers. Do you remember when I did that by the sea, uncle? You told Marit we can't wield blades against the children of the Hundred. But once an arrow leaves my bow, it's not in my hand, is it? So maybe I can kill him. I'm a very good shot.'
The hells! Was this what he wanted?
Seeing and Telling cantered to earth. A man wearing the cloak of Leaves rode onto the grass, reining aside his horse to look them over. Kirit nocked her arrow and took aim, a terrible sight indeed with her pale complexion and deadly blue eyes. She did not release. The cloak was clever enough to stay out of range.
'I'll go talk to him,' said Jothinin.
'You can't talk to a demon,' said Kirit.
'He's a Guardian. Or he ought to be.' With staff in hand, he paced through grass that brushed his knees, his cloak rippling
atop the stalks. Seeing passed him, trotting toward Kirit, but Telling swung around, ears flat, as if wondering where he was going.
The man watched Kirit more than Jothinin.
'Greetings of the dusk, ver,' Jothinin called.
'I never saw you before,' said the man. 'You're the cloak of Sky. Night's been looking for you. Do you want to join us?'
'Neh, I don't suppose I do wish to join Night. But you're welcome to ride with us. You might find our company more congenial, if you take my meaning.'
The man licked nervously at his lips. He had the slick palms of a merchant always sure he is about to lose a good deal. His gaze flickered erratically toward Kirit in a way that disturbed Jothinin. 'That girl, she's very young. And an outlander.'
'Older than she looks. She says she's met you before.'
'Do you know where the cloak of Death is?'
'If I did, you can be sure I'd not tell you. My friend, you must know that I know what the situation is. What have you to say to me?' He scanned the horizon for signs of movement. Away to the west, he spotted three eagles, gliding in such high spirals that he could not tell if they were wild, or jessed with a scouting reeve.
'We could set a place to meet and talk further.'
'Where you might set up any kind of ambush. I see you have your staff.' He indicated the green sapling wand stuck in the man's belt.
The man's startlement brightened his face, and he grinned as abruptly as a child who unexpectedly answers a question correctly at school. 'You must still be Jothinin, to know which staff I carry! Foolish Jothinin, so Night told us, although no one's seen you for generations. She was sure you had given up long ago and released your cloak. She's been seeking Sky. Now here you are. I've found you. I've done it right!' His pleasure in this triumph was disconcertingly childish.
Kirit whistled sharply, and Jothinin's senses prickled at her warning. Foolish Jothinin, indeed! The cloak of Leaves rode alone now, but if he was searching for other cloaks he likely had soldiers nearby. If Marit and her allies were clever enough to figure out how to use other people to kill a cloak, then certainly Night had done so long ago. Indeed, now that he considered the matter, it was the only possible way Night could have taken control of the
Guardians' council and kept replacing newly awakened cloaks until she found ones she could corrupt.
How had he been so blind?
'Tell her to stand back!' cried the man, and then he reined around and galloped away.
Jothinin strode briskly to where Kirit had halted, having taken a few paces away from the woods. She tracked his flight with her nocked arrow.
'Kirit, keep your bow ready in case he has soldiers close by. I'm going to pack up our gear and saddle the horses. We'll be departing immediately.'
'Uncle,' she said without shifting her gaze off the cloak of Leaves, 'did you know there's another person in the woods, watching us?'
He jerked as if he'd been struck, then bent back to tying up the kettle and bedrolls onto the back of Telling's saddle as if nothing were amiss. 'More than one? His soldiers?'
'Just one. Its heart does not whisper to me. Do you see that snake a few paces behind me? It might strike.' Her tone changed. 'There he goes.'
The cloak of Leaves vanished over the nearest hill, in the direction of the unseen Crags. The sun set behind the high peaks in the west, its light across the meadow gilding the grass to a glossy gold in a last, tender kiss before nightfall. Jothinin, turning back, caught a slithering movement across the dark soil as a snake — easily as long as his outstretched arms — lifted its hooded head.
'Kirit,' he said softly, 'do not move even a finger. That's a very poisonous snake, and I can't be sure it's not simply a snake.' She was a courageous girl; she did not move, not even to look around at the threat hissing behind her.
He cupped hands at his mouth and called. 'If it is you, Eyasad, why do you hide from us? You've no call to frighten the girl. I'll chop that cursed snake in two, I swear it. She's innocent, even if I am not.'
The snake's hiss abated and it settled, not moving away but its hood vanishing.
'Kirit,' he said, 'step away slowly, and saddle the horses.'
'I won't leave you, uncle,' she said, her voice cracking.
'I'm not asking you to. But we must be ready to flee if cloak of Leaves returns with soldiers. Move now, very slowly.'
She slid her feet along the soil, and he sidestepped until he
stood between her and the snake, which raised its head with an exploratory hiss.
'Eyasad,' he continued, 'listen to me. You were first to see the danger. You were right, and we were not just wrong but foolish and blind. Night has indeed corrupted four of the other cloaks. Having therefore control over five staffs, she may destroy the four who remain. She has turned Sun, Leaf, and Blood although there remains a question about Twilight's loyalties. We seek him. If we can assure ourselves he will turn to our side and walk the true path of the Guardians, and if you will join us… then we are five.'
'You are two, Jothinin. Not five.'
The pines clustered beneath a rockier spur of ground along an elongated hollow where richer soil had washed down over the ages to create a welcoming bed for deep roots. He did not see her because the gloom hid everything except the shadowy pillars marking the trees.
T am one. Kirit is two, who wears the cloak of Mist. The cloak of Death seeks Twilight even now, to win him over. If you ally with us, we'll be five. I beg you, show yourself.'
'A cloak in the hands of an outlander! No wonder it is so degraded, considering what a useless piece of chaff Ashaya was, easily led as well as stupid.'
Her voice was thinner than he recalled it, remembering her hearty laugh and robust singing. 'You're as blunt as ever, Eyasad. How I feared your tongue set on accounting my flaws!'
'You will have at your tiresome jokes all day if I do not stop you. Where is Death Cloak, if she is your ally? For I will tell you, Night pursued him who wore the Death Cloak above all of us, knowing him most likely to find a way to turn her strength against her and destroy her. What happened to him I do not know. I think she captured him, and destroyed him, and that this Death Cloak you speak of, once a reeve, is merely another creature of Night. Why should she not fool you, as easily as you are to be fooled? What a cursed idiot you are, Jothinin! Flying in here in broad daylight, so lacking in common sense that you did not see the shepherds who, seeing you, fled to warn me. Have you any idea what you've wrought?'
'Neh, but I expect I am about to hear.'
From back by the horses, Kirit hissed, rather like the cobra, and to his surprise, the snake crawled away into
