Mara - The Lady Grief (Completed)

38 The Path You Seek

2650 B.C.E., The Banks of the Euphrates River, Outside the City of Tmari

Winter, Month of Shabatu, One Year and Eleven Months after Mara's Rebirth

Mara

I feel a tug on my waist. Thane guides me backward, bringing me back to the group on the rise below. Night has fallen completely. There are no lookouts in the sky and I wonder why. No wings can be seen. Is it that dangerous in the city?

Thane picks me up like a baby as I weep into his shoulder.

"We head north of the city," he discusses with Lier quietly. "I'd like to send you in, but I don't know how your Recondite friends will react to your re-appearance."

"Not well, not in wartime."

"We'll send in Ililie and Nasir, then. Ililie, you good with that? Your cat and Nasir's snake are the best in this situation. Stick low to the ground."

They start walking, our group heading back out into the desert. To go north, I suppose.

"You want us to make contact, Captain?"

I lift my head to look at Thane. "No. They'll think you belong to the First House," I tell him.

He nods, gently readjusting me so that I don't strain my neck to look at him. "Reconnaissance only. No contact if you can help it. Find a way inside War if you can."

"Bring Belen or Hanish out to us," Lier says thoughtfully. "Maybe the First House status will help us, who knows?"

"You're thinking spy tactics?" Thane muses.

I shake my head. "Love," I croak.

He skims his lips over my forehead, "true, Princess. We don't know if the goddess is in the First House. She'll know what we are, now."

He kissed my forehead. I hide my face in his shoulder again. I'm not going to think about it. I don't think I can, with the waves of grief in the city and from my Postites and poor Harku still curled up tightly in my arms.

"Mama?" Poppy's voice penetrates the fog of frightened confusion.

"Poppy?" I say blearily.

"Shh, Strawberry. Stay with Ililie. We need to go fast, alright?"

"'Right," she says sleepily.

"Any signs of refugees coming this way?" Lier asks as Rolle races over in his wolven form.

Rolle shifts back to feet, shaking his head. "There's nothing but desert out here. All the way north up the river. It's quiet out there. Like the gods themselves are waiting."

"We only need a safe place to rest tonight," Thane says.

"There are mountains, across the river. Safer than the open desert, Captain," Nasir says in a low tone.

"Not near the Fifth House," I gasp out softly. Fear is strumming through my body, stealing my mind. I don't know how these males, the Basru, remain so calm. The Postites are weeping softly. Patriarch Salbin is stoic, his stern countenance fixed, his jaw rigid, but I see the grief on his elderly frame. Maybe the old ones amongst us can bear the weight of grief better than we can. They have seen more of it than the young ones.

"No, Princess, much farther north than that," Thane rubs my back gently. "We won't be near the city. Completely out of sight."

We walk north until night falls completely. The rainstorms have blocked most of the stars and the moon. I can't see where we are going, anymore, but the soft rhythm of the Basru's many feet keep heading north at a steady pace. They aren't stumbling and aren't winded even though they are all carrying heavy loads... including Postites and me.