She needed a few moments to find her bearings. She was on a boat, larger than she had expected. Nearly a half dozen Etari stood in silence near the crate, Azaleth among them. He handed her a red cloak, which she donned and threw the hood up.
Far off in the distance, she thought she could see the faint outlines of Tonno. She had escaped the city, but now she once again needed to decide where to travel.
She stepped out of the crate and gingerly tested her mobility. She was stiff, but didn’t suffer from anything that couldn’t be fixed with a bit of stretching and movement. Sooni watched her from the back of the boat. Once Alena felt comfortable enough to walk, she approached the leader. “Thank you, again.”
Sooni made a hand gesture. “Where would you like us to drop you off?”
Alena had spent some time considering that very question. Her problem was largely the same wherever she chose, though. Kye clearly had no qualms about spending enormous sums to track her down. Wherever she ran, he would be there.
She could only think of one solution, as much as she disliked it. This was a direction she’d never imagined her journey would take. “Would you take me with you to Etar?”
Several Etari around the boat muttered, but Sooni flashed a hand sign and they all quieted down. Sooni struck her as a wise leader. She would have suspected Alena had few other reasonable choices. Which also meant she would agree to Alena’s request.
“Etar is open to you,” Sooni proclaimed. Alena suspected the simple sentence held more importance than the words alone expressed.
The decision made, Alena found a certain sense of peace. If there was any place in the world she could be safe, it was in one of the only areas the empire had never conquered.
After three days of downstream travel, the boat came to a small dock, built in the middle of the plains. Alena had never seen a dock without an accompanying town, but the reasoning became clear soon enough. A large collection of carts and horses waited there, more Etari in their red cloaks gesturing at the incoming boat.
“Why are we docking here? Are we already in Etar?” she asked.
One of the young men next to her replied, “No, but there are rapids up ahead. We will dock and unload while another family from our clan will load new supplies.”
Soon enough the process began. Alena helped, carrying crates and placing them onto carts. She received a few questioning looks, but when Sooni flashed a series of hand signs the rest of the Etari relaxed around her.
She was going to need to learn that hand language, she supposed.
There was little talk and even less delay. Once the boat was unloaded, it was immediately loaded up with new crates, then it drifted back into the river again, a set of long oars emerging from below deck. With steady sweeps, the boat began the long journey back upstream toward Tonno.
Alena watched the boat with mixed feelings. It had taken her away from Tonno, and for that she would always be grateful. But it was also her last link to her homeland. She had little doubt they had sailed to near the edge of the empire. From here, it was an entirely new journey.
Alena shrugged to herself. What else was there for her to do? As far as she knew, this was the only way forward.
It still hurt to watch the boat sail away.
The Etari left her little time to mope. The now empty carts were reloaded and they began journeying further west, into a new land.
The ride proved to be more boring than the boat. The lands here were flat plains that stretched as far as the eye could see. The rest of the day passed with only small copses of trees to break the monotony.
After another day of travel, they came to a creek. A short but sturdy bridge spanned the water, and Alena thought little of it until she saw the looks on the faces of those around her. They were looking upon the nondescript bridge with undisguised eagerness. She didn’t understand.
She was sharing a cart with Azaleth, whom she had still never heard speak. She assumed he was mute, but after spending time with the other Etari, she wasn’t so sure. They weren’t a very vocal people, standing in stark contrast to everyone Alena had grown up with. Jace, in particular, would have been endlessly frustrated by the lack of conversation among the family.
As soon as they passed over the bridge, though, Azaleth looked at her. “Welcome to Etar.” His voice was deeper than she expected.
He must have noticed her surprise, because he laughed. “I can speak. I was forced to take a vow of silence after my failure in Tonno. It lasted until we returned to Etar.”
Alena turned to her now vocal companion. “How did getting beaten in Tonno make you a failure?”
Azaleth waved away her question, as though he could explain but she wouldn’t understand. Alena overcame her irritation at the dismissal by looking around. Beyond the small creek, now fading into the distance, she couldn’t tell any difference between Etar and the empire.
She had expected more.
What little she knew about the Etari came from basic civics lessons. The Etari were supposed to be fierce warriors who eked out their living in a harsh land. Looking around, though, the land looked no harsher than the empire’s lands. And if that creek was the border, it was mostly a joke. She could have gotten off the cart and passed through on foot anywhere in that creek.
“That was the border?”
Azaleth laughed and
