Blue Gentian: A 'Spies of Kwedregiol' novel

The Path Ahead

The wagon jolted down the dirt trail, rocking Salya back and forth inside it. She breathed like she was free. Here, there were no soldiers staring at her over the heads of the populace. Although their place was a middle spot in the caravan of wagons, a trail of horses and homes wending after it, she tried to look behind out the small window in the door.

The trail was thick, hard packed clay, and the wheels of the wagons fitted into wheel ruts carved into the side of the mountain by ages of use. The sky was a deep cobalt and the bushes gave way to scrubby trees with coin-sized leaves. No strange fires in the distance, no black figures in the trees.

She went back to her chair by Bren's bed, and picked up her pencil to draw him asleep, but the lines would not behave, wavering with the motion of the wagon. Instead, she put the leaves of paper aside and pulled a length of lumpy knitting from beneath her pillow.

The sun had tipped sideways a few hours before Salya notice that Bren's eyes were open. She knitted the rest of her row, and then tucked the work into her lap.

"Can I get you anything?" she said.

"No, thanks," he said.

The rumbling of the wagon wheels was loud.

"Maybe you could help prop me up a little?" said Bren.

Salya nodded. She grabbed her own pillow from beneath the bed, then bent over him and took his shoulders in her hands to tuck it behind his back. The little silver flower Mother gave her slipped out of her collar and glinted in a shaft of light.

"What's your necklace?" he asked.

Salya looked down at it, lying on top of her blouse. She sat back and tucked it back into her collar. "It's a Blue Gentian," she said. "I guess it's a kind of good luck charm. Mother gave it to me when I announced my Handcalling."

"Handcalling?"

"Dedication. When I pledge my profession. Gentian's are common for travelers."

"Why?" said Bren.

"Because of Michegua, because of the story," said Salya. "Don't you know Him?"

"Michegua? Yes. Head of the pantheon, creator of the world, great warrior."

"Great warrior? That one isn't in our tales. We say he's the creator of the world and he traveled all over the earth bringing gifts to humankind."

"Yes, that's the same Michegua," said Bren. "Also known for driving Dronmor off the earth with his flaming sword."

"You'll have to tell me that one," said Salya. "I don't know that tale."

"Yes, but continue with yours for now."

She nodded. "We believe that Michegua planted the Gentians as a gift to the people of the mountains. It's one of the reasons we travel through the Elum Pass. There are so many Gentians along the roadside. And everywhere Michegua stepped all over the world there are supposed to be more of them."

"Well, that's one I've never heard about Michegua myself," Bren said. "There's a garden of Gentians at the palace in Dregiol. Not just the blue ones, although I guess there must be some. They're all different kinds. There's a little red and yellow one that grows in the patchy shade of the bigger gentian plants, and that one's always been my favorite. I wonder if He set foot in the palace gardens, too."

"You've been in the palace in Dregiol?" Salya asked.

"Yes, most soldiers have been to the palace," said Bren.