"Storm." Lessa stumbled to her feet.
Distress moved across their bond in waves. The dragon was high enough that she might have been an eagle, she tucked her wings in tight and dove like an arrow.
Lessa staggered away from Zar.
"Lessa?" His voice wavered, unsure.
Spikes drove through Lessa's core, the place inside where her soul must've been.
She was so small.
Lessa closed her eyes.
Storm landed hard, ash flew away in all directions, it washed over Lessa like a polluted baptism.
"Lessa, where are you going?" Zar grabbed her arm but she shook him off, she couldn't let him see the tears that were already falling.
With shaking hands Lessa climbed the ladder to Storm's saddle, and Storm jumped into the sky.
Laying over the saddle, Lessa sobbed.
The bodies she had seen burned into her brain. She wanted to, needed to forget. Never before had Lessa been exposed to such cruelty, such disregard for human life.
Such disregard for a child.
Who could do such a thing?
And the mother, who clearly died trying to protect her child.
Storm took them far.
There were no true mountains in this part of Kathardra, but there were hills high enough that they might pass for a mountain.
Storm took them to a peak. Blissfully absent here was any other person.
She dropped lightly to the ground and Lessa dropped from the saddle at once. She crumpled to the ground and Storm's snout met her chest, pressing into her.
Lessa wrapped her arms around Storm's nose and she pressed her head against her, tears falling freely.
It was dark before they found Zar and Worran. Storm had landed well away to avoid buffeting the small campfire with her wings. Side by side Lessa and Storm walked into camp. Zar and Worran stood as one and stared at her.
"Are you-" Zar started.
"I don't want to talk about it," Lessa cut him off.
She sat close to the fire, close enough that the heat nearly scalded her. She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
"This has all gotten very real. I don't know what I am doing here."
Storm shook her head, a peculiar rotation on her neck, almost like a dog shaking water from their ears.
"Little Lessa, I know this is a struggle. But it is only through struggles that we might test our strength."
She was too tired to respond.
The morning was refreshingly crisp. There was enough distance between Lessa and the trials of the day before that the internal wounds were not quite so raw.
As she sat eating the bland porridge given to her by Zar, Lessa noticed the boys giving each other significant looks.
None of them had said a thing since they had awoken. But the silence between the two was the silence of walking on a frozen lake with too thin ice.
Lessa snapped, "Would you two stop that?"
"Stop what?" Worran's innocence was false.
"I'm not going to explode. I had a bad day. I'm over it," she shrugged her shoulders and lied.
The look Zar gave her said he easily saw through her deception.
She met his eyes defying him to dispute her.
He said nothing and looked away.
"We'll be passing through another town today," Worran burst out.
"Timing, Worran!" Zar snapped.
"If it's still there," Lessa added darkly.
Their eyes turned on her.
"What? I'm not allowed to make jokes?" she deadpanned.
"Oh, you have a sense of humor again?"
"Joke all you want. But I have to know that you aren't going to be flying away again if there is trouble."
"I have a sense of humor, you just aren't funny," she said to Worran, then turned to Zar, "I'm not going anywhere."
He only gave her a nod and set about saddling his bay.
"I'm very funny. You just don't get Kathardrean jokes."
Full of pity Lessa shook her head at Worran. "Did your mother tell you that?"
Worran grasped his chest in mock pain, "Lessa! You wound me!"
"Not as bad as your jokes hurt the rest of us," Zar said as he swung his saddle onto his horse.
Lessa laughed out loud at Worran's overreaction to Zar's unexpected contribution, he stumbled back and flailed his arms.
"Now you're just being mean."
"How about this one," Worran was still pouring on the jokes as they approached the next town. It appeared fully intact, thank goodness. Storm had done some high-altitude scouting and it looked fully normal to her.
"A man complained to a friend that he was too thin, despite eating his worth, but unable to become more than a bean pole,"
"Zar, has Worran been complaining that he is too thin to you?"
"Hey now! Don't interrupt. So the friend says, "It's clear why."
In a dry tone, Lessa spoke the words she had learned was the customary Kathardrean response to this framework of joke. "What was clear?"
"You spend one hour taking it in and two ejecting it out!"
Lessa slowly blinked at him.
"Oh come on, that one is good! You get it right, he spends a single hour eating but spends more time-"
"That's enough," Zar, thankfully, cut him off.
This town was bigger than Traverston had been. Lessa idly wondered if it had always been larger, or if it had absorbed some of the people who had been displaced by the Traverston fires. The homes here were mostly built from wood, some of them had masonry foundations. Where stone was present it was reminiscent of the stonework of Bridgetown; intricately decorated yet very functional.
Careful to keep her eyes away from individuals she passed, Lessa studied the people, buildings, and culture around her.
Young children ran and played in packs. It seemed that the entire town's youngest were gathered for all to watch. They were kicking a leather bladder similar to the children she had observed in Bridgetown. Each of the young girls had braids tightly plaited down her head, some of them even had ribbons trailing from the tips of their hair.
That girl probably played like this too... The thought haunted her.
"Don't do that to yourself," Storm gently scolded. Lessa ignored her. Ignored her dark thoughts.
"Excuse me, ma'am. Where can we find a grain merchant?" Zar had stopped a passing woman with dark red hair down to her waist, she didn't say a word but pointed over her shoulder.
"Thank you," Zar said as she hurried away.
"Mighty friendly aren't they?"
Despite herself, Lessa glanced around at faces. Worran was right. Every face was full of wariness bordering on suspicion when the townsfolk's eyes landed on their little group.
"What do you think is going on?" Lessa whispered to Zar.
"I'll try to find out," he said grimly as he left his reins with Worran and walked into the shop they had been pointed to.
"Alright Lessa," Worran said leaning over a hitching post. "A Lord wanted his horse trained to not eat. When the horse dropped dead the Lord said 'Ah, just as he learned, he died!'" he watched Lessa expectantly.
She shook her head at him.
He hung his head between his arms. "How about this one, a king tells his so-"
"We're leaving," Zar strode out of the store and quickly began stowing bags of dried fruit and grains in Leo's saddle bags.
"What's going on?" Lessa asked as she and Worran drew closer.
"The regiment that we passed a couple of days ago was originally stationed here."
"They're gone now though," Worran pointed out.
"Yes, but their lieutenant stayed behind, and he kept a decent cadre with him. Apparently, he developed an attachment to some locals."
At a brisk pace, Zar led them through the main street, under the dubious stares of the locals.
A scream froze them in their tracks.
Lessa's eyes snapped up.
A woman staggered from a doorway just up the street from them. "No!" she half screamed, half sobbed.
Her ire was directed at a caped man who was dragging a girl through the dirt. The girl's hands grasped his wrist and her bare feet scrabbled to find purchase, feebly trying to keep her scalp from being ripped from her skull.
"If you refuse to pay the tax I'll take it out of your daughter!" the man bellowed with his finger thrust at the screaming woman.
"Take me! Take me instead!" the mother pleaded valiantly, she dropped to her knees, hand outstretched.
"Ha!" the caped man barked, "You've nothing left in you to pay with, woman."
"But she is betrothed," the woman cried, "take me, I'll do anything! Please!"
He turned his back and started stomping away, the girl struggled against him, "Let me go!" she shrieked.
"You shut it!" He shook her head like a rag doll.
"Leave it!" Worran snapped.
Lessa froze not even realizing she was taking steps forward. Then she understood. Worran had stepped in front of Zar and had a forearm against Zar's chest, preventing him from taking another step forward. Zar's steely eyes were fixed on the scene playing out in front of them, he looked as if he might be able to tear the man apart bare-handed at the moment.
"Think about Lessa, we can't put her in that danger," Worran hissed, braced right against Zar.
That got Zar to snap out of his trance.
"We can do this," she whispered.
"No. We shouldn't." Zar grabbed his horse's reins once more and started down the street.
Guards, who had been with the caped man bodily grabbed the sobbing mother and threw her back into her house just as Lessa passed. The soldiers shut the door to muffle her screams.
The entire street broke from its stupor and hurried about its business.
Fury boiled in Lessa as she set after Zar.
"We can take him!" she snapped at Zar the moment they cleared the hearing range of the town. "We can help her!"
"No, we can't," Zar fumed quietly, his eyes fixed ahead.
"Yes. We. Can." Lessa sawed her reins, making Leo throw his head and dance to a stop. "Give me one reason we shouldn't turn around and put a stop to this."
"Because, Lessa," Zar circled his bay around tightly to face Lessa directly. "We can't risk putting you in danger here for one girl. If you are seen by anyone you'll have a bounty on your head in seconds." His blue eyes blazed with intensity, his voice was tightly controlled but furious, "That was two. Now. Move. Your. Horse."
For years, they locked eyes, and a fire burned in the distance.
Lessa clenched her jaw. She would not back down from this.
"Yah!" Worran smacked Leo's rump, her horse bolted.
An indecipherable yell of frustration and surprise burst from Lessa's lips and she struggled to keep her seat. The urge to pull her reins again was strong, instead, Lessa kicked at Leo's sides and pushed him harder.
"Storm, can you see where they are taking her?"
"I'd have to dip below the clouds, I might be seen."
"Do it."
She pushed Leo hard. She knew that Worran could have outpaced her at any moment, but he chose to stay behind.
It wasn't until sweat started dripping down Leo that she let him pull out of his full gallop. They slowed to a canter and then a trot.
Miles had passed, but Lessa turned her head and glared at Worran anyway.
"Don't look at me like that. I don't know how I ended up being the one making wise choices but someone had to," he bit out at her.
"Lessa you understand why we couldn't interfere, don't you?" Zar was clearly trying to take the sting out of his earlier words.
She didn't respond, but she did cast her glare on him.
He squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm sorry."
To his credit, he actually did sound sorry, but Lessa wasn't ready to forgive him.
"We have to keep the entirety of Kathardra in mind. If we try to interfere with every crisis we come upon we will never make it to The Mountain."
As per usual they traveled until sunset. Zar found a campsite that was even more secluded than they normally chose. Lessa guessed it was in case their hurried departure had been noted and someone wanted to investigate.
She ate dinner silently. Worran had managed to take down a wild turkey, it was a welcome break from the venison Lessa had been pilfering from Storm's kills.
When Zar held out the chain for Lessa's sword, signaling it was time to spar, Lessa only glared at him.
She wanted to save her energy.
"I'm tired," she lied.
Zar clenched his jaw, he expelled a sigh of long-suffering. "Fine. You can rest tonight."
Glaring defiance into Zar's eyes, Lessa stood, only breaking eye contact when she turned away to lay on Storm's legs. Storm extended a wing over Lessa, forming her normal living tent.
"Let me know when they are asleep," her thoughts were full of grim determination.
"What are we going to do?" Storm asked excitedly.
"Something stupid."