OoOoO
The feeling of free-falling that accompanied those first steps beyond the gates of Vaelona was unlike anything Jatheryn had ever experienced before in his twenty years. He had traveled only infrequently before with the rest of the Saurivics, usually trips to Amenthere for grand galas at Castle Armathain. This time when the road forked less than a league south of Vaelona, Jatheryn and Awenis did not take the road to Amenthere. Instead, they struck out east to the mining town of Geristan.
It did not take long for the distance to begin wearing on their feet. They were children of the nobility, unused to all forms of menial labor, including walks longer than a stroll through the city. As the sun rose in the sky, sweat began to gather at their temples and beneath their collars. Neither complained though; they had chosen this for themselves. Anything was better than continuing to play at the farce that was their unplanned-for lives as a Saurivic lord and lady.
Traffic was high between Vaelona and Geristan, but not as high as it might have been if they were headed for the capital. Travelers to Geristan were more likely to be commoners than members of the nobility. Jatheryn and Awenis had dressed in their plainest clothing and cloaks, but the quality of their cloth still set them apart almost as much as their looks. People eyed them strangely as they rode past on horses, donkeys, and carts. Jatheryn realized they might have been a bit hasty in leaving Vaelona on foot.
Awenis, for her part, put up with the long, tedious walk with just as much quiet resilience as her brother. She looked more like herself though, with her white-gold hair free of its recent fancy coifs. Now her silky locks were left loose to tumble about the shoulders of her cloak like a cloud of dawn fog. Awenis spoke little as the hours passed, and Jatheryn would have worried for her if not for the defiant lift of her chin. Even when a peasant woman openly gaped at them from the back of her ox-drawn cart, Awenis's only reaction was to angle her jaw higher still.
For his part, Jatheryn enjoyed a strange sense of calm as the distance grew between them and Vaelona. They had nothing but the clothes on their backs, a few things in their bags, and their personal coin purses full of silver Luns mixed with a few gold Sols. By all measures, they were lesser now than they had ever been in their entire lives. Still, Jatheryn felt his spirit grow lighter even as his feet grew heavier.
The heady, carefree elixir of the open road was not untainted forever. As the sun began to set on the western horizon, Jatheryn and Awenis were forced to take stock of their progress. It had been almost midday when they left Vaelona, and Geristan was four and twenty leagues east from there. When Jatheryn and Awenis passed a wooden signpost announcing 'Geristan – 21 leagues' after almost seven hours of non-stop walking, they knew they had made a mistake.
"How far to the nearest inn?" Jatheryn tried asking a passerby.
The man took one look at Jatheryn and hurried along his westward journey, driving his two spotted heifers before him. The cattle lowed their displeasure at being made to quicken their pace, but the farmer did not as much as pause to look back when Jatheryn called after him.
"Perhaps I had best ask next time?"
Awenis spoke gently, but they both knew she was right. If Awenis could narrowly pass for normal in the fading light, there was no chance whatsoever for Jatheryn. When Awenis approached a man on horseback leading three other horses on a tether, Jatheryn hung back on the roadside with his hood up.
"Good sir, can you please tell me how far until the closest inn?" Awenis asked politely, having to crane her neck to call up to him.
One of the horses snorted, and the mounted man had to take a moment to tug on the lead rope before answering.
"They built them every five leagues or so on this road, far enough for a full day's walk or half day's ride. I myself left the Snapdragon Inn about two leagues back."
"Two leagues?" The dismay was obvious in Awenis's voice.
"Two."
"I see...thank you, sir."
"M'lady."
The man tipped his felt hat to Awenis before riding on toward Vaelona. Most of everyone on this road seemed to be headed west rather than east.
Awenis returned to Jatheryn's side, her light shoes dragging slightly in the gravel as she walked. They were exhausted, footsore, and hungry, and all that after having only covered three leagues since midday.
"Two more leagues to the closest inn, we'll never make that before nightfall," Jatheryn said, no doubt stating the obvious. "We may need to take shelter in a barn somewhere along the road tonight."
Awenis frowned. "I'd rather not; a barn would feel less safe than an inn for traveling nobles."
The first chill breeze of night ruffled the long grass on either side of the road. The lands here were vast and rolling, with farmers' fields and green hillsides as far as the eye could see in every direction. A faint, dark gray shadow was just barely visible on the eastern horizon. Jatheryn had never seen the infamous Teeth, but he imagined that shadow to be their first glimpse of the mountains. It wouldn't take but another hour or two for the last rays of sunlight to fade.
"We may not have a choice, Awenis. Without an inn, it's either that or sleep in the open."
The gleam of an idea brightened Awenis's spectral amber eyes. "Perhaps not...I have another idea."
"What do you mean? Awenis, wait!" Jatheryn called after his sister as she turned and darted away. Her dark blue cloak flipping behind her, she ran down the gravel road after the man leading the horses.
"Wait, sir! Would you consider parting with two of your horses?"
Jatheryn couldn't hear what the man said from where he stood, cautiously remaining at the edge of what could politely be ignored. Keeping his hood drawn deep over his head, he managed to avoid close scrutiny from a pair of passing farmers with long scythes over their shoulders. Awenis was shaking her coin purse, and the rider said something that didn't sound entirely dismissive. Then Awenis folded her arms, her head shaking. The rider picked up his reins and was just about to continue on his way when she replied somewhat tersely and opened her purse. Money passed between the two of them. The rider dismounted and went to the back of his line of horses, untying the final animal from the tether that led the rest.
With the reins clutched in her hand, Awenis returned to Jatheryn's side, leading a small blue roan horse. It was a rather thin, small creature, but its coat looked healthy, and as it approached it flicked its ears curiously at Jatheryn.
"Dare I ask how much you had to pay for that?" Jatheryn asked. Somehow he doubted the horse-driver had been generous.
"Six Sols."
"Six!" Jatheryn sucked in a deep breath. His own coin purse only had nine of the heavy gold coins nestled amongst the lesser silver. "That was hardly a fair asking price for just one nag."
"She is not a nag!" Awenis said indignantly. As if knowing its honor was being defended, the blue roan extended its neck to sniff at Awenis's ear. "Her name is Nightwish."
"A rather fancy name for a farm horse," Jatheryn commented. Nonetheless, he reached out to touch Nightwish's velvety black nose.
"She was a farm horse. Now she belongs to us, so I thought she needed a better name than 'Blackie'." Awenis leaned into the horse's neck. Jatheryn could already tell these two girls were going to be inseparable. "Unless you have a better name in mind?"
"Oh no, Nightwish suits her just fine."
Jatheryn honestly didn't care what they called the horse, so long as it had four legs that worked. His concern that the little mare wouldn't be enough to carry the two of them mounted when it came time for him to climb up behind Awenis. Awenis's six gold Sols had not included a saddle, and riding bareback was not among either of their skill sets. After much shifting, strange looks from passer-bys, and impatient whinnies from Nightwish, Jatheryn took off his cloak and spread it like a blanket across the horse's back. That made riding bearable for all three of them, if not comfortable.
With Awenis holding the reins and Jatheryn holding onto Awenis, they made much better time than they had before. The twilight shadows darkened the long grass from purple to gray, and they could hear crickets singing all around. Nightwish could not comfortably gallop or even trot with two riders on her back, but having someone else do the walking was a much-needed reprieve for Jatheryn and Awenis' feet.
By the time they saw the distant light of a building on the horizon it was well and truly night. Only the wan light of the waxing crescent overhead allowed Awenis to even see the road beneath Nightwish's hooves. The gravel crunched as they turned off the main road and into the courtyard. The Snapdragon Inn was a large, homey looking building with a thatched roof and painted shutters. Tired whickering of horses reached their ears from the barn beside the inn.
Stiffly, Jatheryn dismounted, almost getting caught up on the edge of his cloak. Turning around and reaching up, he helped Awenis down to the ground. Her fingers were almost as cold as his.
"Perhaps it should be you to go in and get us a room," Jatheryn suggested. He fished into his coin purse, trying to find the Sols in the dark. Giving up, he simply untied the thing from his belt and handed it to Awenis. "I'll wait here with the horse."
"All right."
Awenis sounded too tired to have much more to say. A square of golden-orange light cut through the darkness when she opened the front door of the inn. Jatheryn thought he just barely smelt the aroma of stew and bread. Such foods would have been way beneath the Saurivic family table, but after their long day of travel his stomach clenched greedily.
Waiting in the cool night air kept Jatheryn awake until Awenis returned, but only just. He was leaning against Nightwish's warm side wishing she were a feather bed when Awenis stepped back outside. The firelight from within cast her head in a reddish halo, and for a moment Jatheryn imagined that if his little sister were to have been born an Obad instead of whatever they were, she would have been a Red Obad.
"Well, we have a room?" Jatheryn asked, rubbing the oncoming sleep from his eyes.
Awenis's frown squashed Jatheryn's relief. "We do. It was their very last, apparently. We got here so late in the night and, well, the innkeeper said there's only one small bed."
"No matter, at least we have a room. Can we put the horse in the stable?"
"Yes, thank the stars there is space for her, according to the stable hand."
Jatheryn blinked hard to clear his foggy head. "All right. How much did the room cost?"
"One Sol, plus another four Luns for the horse. Food and drink are included though."
"Finally some good news." Jatheryn took hold of Nightwish's reins. The mare snorted and nudged Jatheryn's elbow with her nose. "Why don't you go and get us some dinner while I stable her for the night? I'll meet you upstairs."
A stable boy met Jatheryn inside the doors of the barn, and gaped openly as he passed off Nightwish to his keeping. Readjusting the hood of his cloak over his parchment white hair and face, Jatheryn trudged across the yard to the front door of the Snapdragon. He would be quick and subtle, and hopefully escape notice before he got upstairs.
Keeping his head down and gaze fixed squarely on his feet, Jatheryn bee-lined straight from the door to the stairs. He could hear the cheerful rumble of many conversations all around him and feel the warmth from the fire. Even more tempting still was the thought of food and sleep. Taking care not to meet anyone's eyes with his own ghastly white orbs, Jatheryn made it to the stairwell unnoticed, or at the very least, un-greeted. Strange how just days ago he would have walked into any room without a second thought. That was when he had had the status of the Saurivic name as a shield though. He and Awenis simply could not risk being singled out from the inn's patrons or worse, being evicted.
"Jatheryn, in here."
Awenis's head stuck out from a door on the far end of the upstairs hallway. His shoes scuffling along the faded rug, Jatheryn made his way to the doorway and ducked inside.
Their room was small, even smaller than the garden shed of the Saurivic estate. A brazier filled with hot coals gave off some heat from the corner, and Jatheryn went to it eagerly. It may have been midsummer, but nights still were cool this close to the Night Forest of the north.
"Here, I got us some food."
Awenis handed Jatheryn a wooden plate, the dip of it filled with a thick, savory meat stew. A piece of buttered bread sat on the side. It smelled like the best thing Jatheryn would ever eat, even over the lobster they had been served at a Yuletide gala in Amenthere one year.
"Thank you."
There were two chairs and a tiny table beneath the lone window, but Jatheryn was too hungry and enjoying the warmth of the brazier to bother with them. Sitting cross-legged on the floor with his plate in his lap, Jatheryn hungrily dug into his meal.
Awenis meanwhile did sit on one of the chairs, eating with equal gusto and silence. Her blue cloak hung on a peg by the door, her shoes set tidily beneath. Only then did Jatheryn notice the truth of what Awenis had said earlier; there was indeed only one bed in the room, and it was as narrow as a cot if not well made-up with a colorful quilt and feather pillow. The only way two of them would fit on that bed would be if one lay directly on top of the other. Jatheryn doubted either of them would get any sleep like that.
When they had finished their bread and stew, they stacked their plates on the table. Sleep immediately started dragging downward on Jatheryn's eyelids like heavy weights. A yawn so wide as to be almost painful split his face.
"Awenis, you take the bed." Jatheryn took the iron poker that leaned against the wall and stirred the coals in the brazier. "I'm plenty warm and comfortable right here. I'll just put my cloak down for a bed."
Awenis hesitated, then yawned too. "Are you sure? Making you sleep on the floor is not something I want."
"I'm sure. Besides, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Thus, the two of you outweigh me." Jatheryn looked meaningfully toward Awenis's still-flat stomach.
With a nod, Awenis conceded the point. She dragged her fingertips through her long hair a few times, trying to comb out any tangles while Jatheryn folded over his cloak on the floor next to the brazier. He shrugged out of his doublet and undid his shoes, leaving himself dressed in only his tunic and leggings. Using his bag for a pillow, he stretched out on the hard floorboards. The cloak smelled of musty horse odor. Jatheryn's gratitude for a ride became mingled with a desire to have Nightwish washed and scrubbed by a proper stable groom.
Awenis, meanwhile, undid the laces on her riding gown, a tailored indigo garment embellished with white thread meant more for fancy equestrian parties rather than hard travel, and hung it on the same peg with her cloak. Crossing the room in her bare feet and linen shift, she turned down the wick of the lantern where it sat beside the window.
"Goodnight Jath."
"Goodnight Awenis."
It was not as long a night as it could have been. As uncomfortable as the hard floor and lumpy bag for a pillow were, Jatheryn's exhaustion soon overwhelmed him. Slow, steady breathing filled their room from atop the bed and beside the brazier filled with glowing coals.
OoOoO
There were so many aches and knots in Jatheryn's back, shoulders, and neck the next morning that he felt he might not be able to sit up. Grimacing so hard his lips drew back from his teeth, he managed to haul himself upright. The embers from the coals had died in the night, but the sun was already rising outside. Through the floor Jatheryn could hear the voices of other people already gathering in the common room. It would be harder to remain inconspicuous in the light of day, he realized with a gulp.
"Awenis, Awenis...wake up."
Jatheryn's soft call produced no results. With several painful clicks from his neck, Jatheryn got to his feet and stumbled over to the bedside. Awenis lay sound asleep, her shell-pink lips slightly parted. She looked more doll-like and delicate than ever when she slept. Jatheryn hated to wake her, but they needed to be away now, before the common room and the yard grew crowded with people.
"Awenis, the sun is up, we have to go."
A firm nudge to Awenis's arm did the trick. Her liquid-gold eyes flew open, nearly startling Jatheryn. He hadn't realized just what a strange hue they were, almost as strange as his colorless eyes now that he saw them in the dawning. Awenis promptly screwed her eyes shut though.
"Ngggghhhh...did we not just go to sleep an hour or two ago?" she groaned.
Jatheryn figured he ought to be the one complaining after having slept on the floor. Still, with some coaxing, the two of them managed to get dressed and downstairs before the sun completely cleared the eastern horizon. Jatheryn went to retrieve Nightwish while Awenis bought them some food for the day's traveling. Now that he saw the sunrise, he could confirm that it really was The Teeth that they were seeing in the east. They were small at this distance, little more than tiny nubs silhouetted by the sun. Briefly Jatheryn wondered what the mountains would look like when they got to Geristan.
"What're you supposed to be, huh?"
A gruff baritone voice interrupted Jatheryn's musings. Turning around to face its source, he found himself nearly toe-to-toe with a tall, broad man. The fellow was dressed like a commoner in plain sackcloth, and his sunburned face was so close to Jatheryn's that he could smell the man's sour breath. He looked hungover, actually, judging by the redness around his puffy eyes.
"What do you mean?" Jatheryn asked, his grip on Nightwish's reins tightening. The blue roan shifted uneasily on her front hooves.
"I mean just what are you supposed to be?" The man reached up, as if to poke Jatheryn's nose, instantly making him go cross-eyed and recoil in the same instant. "An old man with'ow wrinkles? Some kind of ghost?" Then the man's ruddy, moon-shaped face screwed up in a sarcastic expression of horror. "Are ya dead?! Hey, Geralt, this fella here must be dead, dontcha think?"
The cold feeling in the pit of Jatheryn's stomach went well beyond the loneliness and resignation he was accustomed to from his life in Vaelona. When a second man rolled off the bench beside the Snapdragon's front door to come and join his friend, fear reared up in the back of Jatheryn's throat. These two were both head and shoulders taller than him, and built like men used to building or breaking things with their large fists.
"He looks dead to me, Tonny."
The man called Geralt tried to reach out and take hold of Jatheryn by the arm. Now Jatheryn didn't try to hide his alarm and disgust; he shrugged away from Tonny's reaching fingers almost a full step backwards into Nightwish's side.
"Keep away from me," he said, trying to summon up some of his father's commanding authority. "You are not to touch me."
"Ye're dead, I can touch you all I want." Tonny's watery eyes turned malicious. He swiped at Jatheryn again, this time far less playful.
"Maybe ya crawled out of yer grave and decided to go hauntin', huh?" Geralt was edging around to one side, moving as if to block Jatheryn between himself and Tonny. "Ya even got a ghost horse to ride too!"
"I am no dead man, and I want nothing to do with either of you. Now leave me be!"
Some of the other travelers in the yard were starting to pay attention to the confrontation, looking up from saddling their horses to frown uncertainly. Others ignored Jatheryn and his aggravators as if none of them were even there. Nobody came to Jatheryn's defense.
Geralt grabbed for Jatheryn's cloak and came dangerously close to getting a handful of it. "There's only one way 'ta tell that. Ghosts aren't solid, so if ya won't let us touch ya then we know why!"
Unnerved by the aggressiveness of the two peasants, Nightwish finally decided she had had enough. Rearing up, she flailed her hooves in the air only a matter of inches from Tonny's face. Jatheryn lost his grip on the reins and could only try in vain to stay close to the spooked horse's side. The near-impact sent the beefy man stumbling backward and to the ground.
"Jatheryn?!"
Dozens of heads turned all at once in the direction of the Snapdragon's front door. Awenis stood on the stoop, a small basket in one hand and the other to her mouth in a look of shock.
"Jatheryn? Saurivic?"
A bystander who had been saddling her horse and cart spoke their unwanted family name aloud, recognition dawning on her weathered face. When Jatheryn's response was stony silence and a curt nod, the woman immediately shouted at Geralt and Tonny.
"You two lead-heads, haven't you got a clue what you've done?! They're the white Saurivics! They could have you drawn and quartered and hung from Castle Aramathain with a word!"
Everyone in the inn yard was now looking at Jatheryn and Awenis with a mixture of terror and awe, as if the king himself had came riding down the road bristling with righteous fury on their behalf. The two ruffians who had been harassing Jatheryn practically scrambled over one another in their haste to make a run for it.
The innkeeper, who had come outside to see what all the commotion was about, rushed forward to bow to Jatheryn and Awenis.
"I am so, so sorry, milord, milady. I promise you, the likes of those two will be sent off with rocks the next time they come sniffin' around here. Please, it isn't necessary to call in soldiers here, is it?"
Aware of all the eyes on them, Jatheryn's only thought was for him and Awenis to get as far from here as quickly as they could. So much attention, they might as well have sent up a firecracker writing their names in the sky for their family back in Vaelona to see.
"Indeed, entirely unnecessary," he said, waving aside the innkeeper's prostrations. "No harm was done. Now then, if there's nothing else, we should like to be on our way."
"Of course, milord! And milady, please accept this as an apology for your troubles, and our hopes that you won't think badly of our poor inn."
Awenis could hardly refuse as the innkeeper pressed a jar of golden honey into her hands. With the man still babbling his apologies and appeasements behind them, Jatheryn and Awenis mounted up onto Nightwish and made for the road. No doubt every single patron of the Snapdragon would leave there with talk of the "white Saurivics" and the ruffians on their wagging tongues. Jatheryn cringed inwardly. If word got back to Vaelona, it would be all too obvious now that he and Awenis had gone to Geristan.
The same thoughts were no doubt on Awenis's mind when, less than an hour later, she cleared her throat. Beneath them Nightwish's steady walk set the blue roan's shoulders and flanks gently rolling like waves on a lake. It was a cloudy day, gray and overcast. Starlings fluttered from bush to bush on the roadside, and there were fewer travelers that they passed compared to yesterday.
"Do you think Geristan is still a good place for us to be heading, Jatheryn?"
Jatheryn shrugged, and no doubt Awenis felt it settle, as she was in front of him.
"It was the closest option for us, besides Amenthere. And Aryna knows, we would be far from inconspicuous there in a city packed with members of the nobility."
"Yes, but besides Geristan, perhaps there were, and still are, other options for us? We could have gone north, into the Night Forest and toward Hashodi."
"In hindsight, we could have," Jatheryn admitted. "Zhaiden might have been willing to help us once we got there."
Awenis shifted on Nightwish's back. Jatheryn's cloak provided little in the way of padding, and she was likely getting as sore as he was. Her cornsilk locks were fluttering in Jatheryn's face, and she reached back to twist them to one side of her neck.
"We're almost halfway to Geristan now. The other two closest cities from here now are Skidona in the north or Falerik in the south. Both of those would be almost a week's travel though. No wait, less than that now that we have hooves." She reached forward to pat Nightwish's neck affectionately. The mare flicked her black mane back at Awenis.
"I thought you had said you were even thinking about crossing The Teeth and going into eastern Goran?" Jatheryn looked to the horizon, where the mountains were beginning to take on definite shape and height. "You're the geographer; what's the first city past the Old Mountain Road?"
A small laugh rose from Awenis, making her narrow shoulders bob beneath her blue cloak. "That would be Trosk, although it's far from a city, and more of a village actually. I suspect strangers stand out quite a bit in communities that small, nevermind strangers that look like you and I."
At that, Jatheryn bit his lip and fell silent. His lack of response was hardly replaced by the clip-clopping of Nightwish's hooves and the low drone of the wind.
"Jatheryn? Is something wrong?" Awenis asked.
"No, nothing in particular. I was just wondering why it is that you and I look the way we do. For some reason, I always just assumed it was because of Mother's illness."
Awenis twisted her head to look back at Jatheryn. A slight pink flush in her cheeks was perhaps the first and only sign of her pregnancy.
"Is it not? Or are you thinking there is more to it than just that?"
"Well, think about it, Awenis. Expectant mothers fall ill all over Goran, and yet for some reason you and I seem to be the only ones like ourselves in the entire world. Have you ever even heard of other 'white Saurivics' in legends, books, and songs? Truly, I think we are utterly unlike anyone else who lives or has ever lived."
"No, not quite," Awenis said after a minute, speaking softly now. She threaded her lithe, pale fingers through Nightwish's black mane. "Do you remember the story of the inception of the Order of Obads?"
"Just a little. You have to admit, it is very long and very complicated."
"It is. But do you remember when the lore book referred to the Five Pointed Star?"
"Not really I'm afraid. Can you refresh me, little sister?"
Awenis drew herself upright on their makeshift saddle, clearing her throat as a bard would before beginning a ballad. Her voice falling into a sing-song cadence, she recited the old passage from memory.
"From the North, of the Land, to the Giants, the power of Earth. From the South, of the Sea, to the Serpents, the power of Water.
From the East, of the Sun, to the Drakes, the power of Fire.
From the Heart, of the Stars, to the Soul, the power of All and None."
Jatheryn bobbed his head in time to the ancient words, his mind automatically trying to set them to music. He missed his viol, left behind in his room in Vaelona. It had broken his heart to do it, but bringing a bulky musical instrument along had seemed just too impractical.
"It's a beautiful passage, but I hardly understand what it means, much less why you mention it now with regards to us," he said.
Awenis made a "hmm" noise in the back of her throat. A hare darted across the road in front of them, making Nightwish jump a tiny bit beneath them. Jatheryn hoped she wasn't too nervy a horse.
"I was just remembering when we met the High Obad in Amenthere at Yuletide. Do you remember his eyes? How bright, bright blue they were, like two chips of aquamarine in the light?"
Jatheryn nodded. He could see the stately head of Goran's Magicol in his mind's eye quite clearly. Even if Master Tomur weren't an impressive figure in his own right, those alarmingly blue eyes would have been unforgettable.
"I remember."
"And he wasn't the only one," Awenis continued, following her thread of thought. "The students, you saw their eyes too? How the Red Obads had eyes like rubies in lamplight, glittering at you like dragons?"
"And the Grey Obads—" Jatheryn started, seeing where Awenis was going with this.
"Yes! Their eyes were so pretty, like pearls, and pale like you would never see in anyone else. I was imagining that your eyes are a lot like theirs. Do you think maybe you and I were supposed to be Obads?"
"The thought has occurred to me before," Jatheryn admitted, recalling his earlier musing of Awenis haloed by firelight. "But my eyes are not pearlescent like a Grey Obad's. They are white as dead, and white as a corpse's."
Awenis spun around in front of Jatheryn, twisting sharply from the hips and neck. She glared at him, eyes narrowed in indignation.
"Don't say things like that! You're not a corpse, and you're not a ghost; you're my brother, and you are very much alive. I can hear your heart beating right now."
"You're right," Jatheryn said quietly. "I apologize, that was a self-pitying thing to say. Still, I'm not sure what to say about your theory. What if we were meant to be Obads? Does that mean something went wrong then, and we're somehow failed or improper Obads?" Another thought occurred to him then. "Do you think we were supposed to have been presented to the Magicol, and now we're technically untrained Obads?"
The notion made Jatheryn's blood run cold. It was the height of illegal to withhold a budding Obad from proper training in the capital. He and Awenis could be fugitives of the most dangerous and wanted kind if their musings had any basis in reality. Then he relaxed when he thought further into things. A second later Awenis came to the same conclusion.
"No, I don't think so. We have been to Amenthere many times as children, and we've met two High Obads. If we were supposed to be Obads, surely someone would have said something on one of those occasions?" Awenis sounded both relieved and disappointed that her theory had been disproven.
"It was a good try, Awenis." Jatheryn gave his sister a hug from behind, taking care to maintain his balance on Nightwish's back. "But I don't think that's the reason why we are as we are."
Awenis sighed, squeezing Jatheryn's wrist. "I just wish I knew. For us, and for him, or her." She laid a hand to her stomach.
"We will be alright, all three of us." Jatheryn gave Awenis one more squeeze before letting go. "I promise."
"So do I."
The Teeth grew taller and sharper on the eastern horizon as they traveled that long, gray road between fields of yellow canola, golden hay, and purple flax. Geristan no longer seemed the safe haven it once did, but it was their only destination for now. Their heads full of questions, half-formed answers and uncertainty, Jatheryn and Awenis rode onward on Nightwish's dusky back into the unknown.
OoOoO