The sun was setting in the west, casting a golden light across the plains and gilding the surface of the river. Before long Leshie’s skin was scoured raw at the chest and belly, thighs and arms. “You look redder than ever, Lesh. Or pink. Maybe we should call you the Pink Blade instead.”

“Doesn’t sound as good,” Leshie said. She was looking upriver, eyes narrowing. “There’s that bitch again,” she said. “Look. Right there. Staring at me.”

Saska looked, against her better judgment, and saw that Savage was indeed staring their way. Ever since the incident where Leshie caught her with her husband, the two had become bitter enemies, sharing scowls and curses whenever they got close to one another. “Ignore her, Leshie. I’ve told you both already, I don’t want any violence.”

“Yeah, and she just snorted and walked away when you did. She’s going to try to get me, I know she is. When there’s a battle, she’ll slip a knife between my rips and claim she tripped.”

“She won’t. You just need to find something in common with her, and then you’ll become fast friends, I know it.” Leshie gave some snorting reply to that, but Saska didn’t care to hear it. She looked downriver, to where Rolly and Tantario were talking with some of the villagers at the top of the banks. She was not surprised that Rolly wasn’t washing. He’ll do so later, like the Tigress. He’ll want the cover of night before he unveils the ruin of his body. “I’m done, Lesh. If you want to keep on grumbling, there’s a rock there that’ll be only too happy to listen.”

She smiled at her, then waded out, skin dripping, smallclothes soaked and cleaned. She had washed her other garments too, which she bundled on a rock as she wrapped her soap back in its cloth and set it aside. The air was cooling now, as it did at dusk, and there was even a bit of breeze, brushing through her hair and caressing her smooth olive skin. Much colder and I may even shiver, she thought, delirious, as she picked up her spare shift and pulled it over her shoulders.

As she was doing that one of Tantario’s men came past. “Serenity. Are these your clothes?”

She looked down at the soaking bundle on the rock. “Yes, they are.”

“Then I will take them for you.” He reached out to pick them up.

She frowned. “What are you going to do with them?”

“Hang them to dry, my lady.” Some of the men were pitching camp some thirty metres from the river, she saw, raising tents and setting lines, driving torch-poles into the ground to mark the borders and help keep watch. It had been a clear day, but the sight of the clouds suggested it might be a dark night. They were gathering, closing in. We’ll have no moon tonight, she thought.

“Please, let me. You don’t have to hang my washing for me. That isn’t your duty.”

“My duty is to serve.” He bowed low, and smiled at her pleasantly. “It is no trouble.” Then he stepped away.

It still felt strange to her, being treated like this. Not so long ago it was me hanging clothes, she thought. It was one of the many duties she had performed at Willow’s Rise. Washing, cooking, cleaning, hunting, picking fruit and ploughing the fields and a host of others besides. She had grown used to being treated like a lady when she was Elio Krator’s captive, the maids Milla and Koya and Yasha all bathing and scrubbing her nightly, dressing her up for dinner with the sunlord. And in the palace too, where her grandmother’s maids and servers had attended her. But this was different. He’s Lightborn, she thought. Not a rider of sun or star, but a paladin knight of rich breeding. He shouldn’t be hanging my clothes.

Joy came loping up beside her as she walked down the banks to join Sir Ralston, water dripping from the bristles of her face. She smiled, scratching at the cat’s head as they went. “Are you going to go hunting tonight, girl? You must be happy to be out of that canyon?”

As ever, the starcat gave no verbal response, though that didn’t matter. Saska could feel what Joy was thinking. “Maybe I’ll come with you? Do you think Rolly would let us?” The open plains were calling to her. She had come to like her chestnut courser, but there was nothing like riding atop Joy, bounding over boulders and scampering up rocks, feeling that power and agility beneath her as the starcat ran and sprang and leapt across the world.

A few more villagers had gathered by the time she arrived, all talking over one another in a rapid, rattle-tat tongue. Sir Ralston Whaleheart looked exasperated. “I have no idea what they’re saying,” he said, leaning down to Saska. “Do you understand any of this?”

Her Aramatian was pretty fluent by now, but all the same, they were talking quickly and in a local dialect that made it difficult. “I get the gist of it,” she said. “They’re arguing about what we should be doing to help them, I think. I’m not sure what that means, though.”

The Wall grumbled and shook his head. “They were telling us just now about the troubles they have been facing,” he said. “Alym was translating for my behalf until several others got involved, and all this shouting began.”

“What sort of troubles?” Saska asked.

“The usual. Rioting in one town. A creature attack in another. Wells drying up. Fires ripping through local woodland.”

“Ever-War stuff,” Saska said.

The Wall nodded. “One of them claims that this monstrous sand drake we were told of was sighted only yesterday. He said it is burrowing underground, coming up in towns and villages and feasting on the people. It is growing bigger, he says.”

That didn’t make a deal of sense to her. “How can he know if it’s growing bigger unless he has seen it several times?”

“That was my question as well. I sense there is much in the way of exaggeration going on here. But we must be wary of this creature, should it come. Hunting it, however, is out of the question.”

“So they want us to kill it for them?”

“A request we can expect daily. Over this creature and others. But as I told you before, we must disregard these pleas. We defend ourselves if we must, but we do not seek adventure.”

It was the town of Banassy all over again, and its new lord and ruler, this monster-communing madman whom Saska had elected to ignore. I had no choice. If they had stopped there, then how could they then deny these pleas? And the rest that would surely follow over the coming days and weeks? It was all or nothing, as the Wall had rightly pointed out. All the people dying, she thought, and we’ll do nothing to help.

The villagers were still talking over one another, Alym Tantario doing his best to calm them, and hear them, as two of his men stood by, scribbling down their accounts. Saska listened in, trying to understand what was being said. She got something about a giant eagle, something about a bright light. There were bits and pieces about men going missing in the area as well, across these plains. That seemed to be the thrust of many of the villager’s concerns.

Eventually, Sunrider Tantario called them to be quiet and asked for them to disperse, telling them he would do what he could to help them. Saska raised her eyes at that. Tantario did not seem the sort of man to make idle promises. “You said you’d help them,” she said, when he turned to her.

“I did, Serenity. There is a garrison near here, away to the southeast, that may yet have a stock of soldiers. At your leave, I would send a man there overnight, to seek aid for these people.”

“Of course,” she said. “You don’t need my permission for that.”

He bowed. “The people will be thankful.”

More thankful if we drew our own blades. It can’t have been easy for him, telling all these poor beleaguered peasants that they had no means to help them. They were a powerful host, of knights and Lightborn riders, of Bladeborn armoured in godsteel plate bearing misting steel in their grasp. They would make short work of most of the troubles here. Yet no. We must keep moving. And none of these people know why.

“I heard something about an eagle. Was it to do with the sculpture?”

The Sunrider shook his head. “A herder made claims of a great shadow in the sky, eagle-shaped. He did not seem of sound mind, my lady. I suspect he may just have seen a dragon, or else a cloud.”

Or a regular eagle, Saska thought. There were many of those here. “There was a light also,” she added. “A bright light. Bright as the sun, I thought he said.”

“Yes, those were his words. There have been two separate reports of this, in fact. One far to the north, from several weeks ago, and one more recently, over a hundred miles to the west. Both men said the same thing. A sudden bright light, beyond the clouds, ethereal in its quality.”

Saska was intrigued. “Do you know what that could be?”

He shook his head, unsure. “I could not say for certain, Serenity. There are many strange phenomena occurring, and this one is no different. It might just be another curious weather event. As with this heat, and the storm we saw over the sea.”

The storm that killed Prince Robbert Lukar, Saska thought, sighing. “I heard people speaking about missing men as well?”

A dour nod from the Sunrider at that. “A troubling business. Campsites have been found abandoned in this area, we have heard. The tents and provisions all left behind, but the men and women…vanished.”

“Could it be the work of the sand drake?” Saska asked.

“I would not think so. A beast like that will leave more signs of destruction. This is something different, I think. Though I am sure there is a reasonable explanation. I will continue to gather information, my lady, and see what I can find out.”

To what end? she wondered. We can’t do anything to help anyway. She only nodded and said nothing, as the sound of hammering rang out as the camp was pitched. Up the length of the river, the knights and riders, sellswords and Leshie were still bathing, the last of the daylight shining off their dampened skin. Further off, Del had already been summoned by Kaa Sokari to train before the light ran out entirely.

It was a peaceful camp, the most pleasant they’d had since leaving Aram. The trickle of the river, the laughter of the men, the line of horses and camels all drinking along the edge. Maybe we’ll stay here a day or three, Saska thought. The air was cooler, the plains wide and open and beautiful, and that river was a great attraction too. All the same, she knew they wouldn’t. Before first light they would be up and on the move once more.

Leaving the troubles of these lands behind.

23

Be calm, she thought. Be calm, Neyruu. They will not fire upon us.