“Because I knew you’d fight. So would Stone. You both feel like you need to make amends with me, and you have Robin to think about, which is more important than guilt.”
“Topside’s been good for you,” she said, smiling. “You’re smarter than you used to be.”
“I understand more how people think now. It doesn’t always make me happy.” I thought of Stalker when I said it, and melancholy twisted my heart.
Fade moaned then and I spooned some water down his throat. Thimble tiptoed out. Fade’s lips were dry and pale, his cheeks flagged with color. Knowing it would hurt him, I changed the dressing on his wound. It was seeping a little as Tegan had warned, but the poultices kept it from swelling up and turning red. I made more of the black goop and smeared it down the stitches; it didn’t look clean or healthy, but she’d promised that was what Doc Tuttle said had saved her life. And after it dried, it smelled horrible, like it was really drawing out the impurities. I washed it off and started all over again with the bandages.
My monthly started the next day, which Momma Oaks had told me meant I wasn’t breeding. That was a relief; and I made a mental note to ask her how to prevent brats when I saw her next. It wasn’t that I was against the idea, but I wanted us to be ready when we had our own. With him so hurt, it sure wasn’t the time.
Five days passed in more or less the same fashion, but that night, his fever broke. And when his eyes opened, they were clear as the night sky; and he knew me. I wasn’t even surprised, just overcome with love and satisfaction, as if my stubbornness had any impact on his health. His beautiful mouth curved into a smile.
“You look awful,” he whispered.
“Then we’re a matched set.”
“My side feels like somebody’s branded me with hot irons.”
“I’m not surprised. A Freak talon opened you up.”
He pushed out a breath, then reached for me. The movement prompted a cry of pain, so I scrambled onto the edge of the bed. “Stop, I’m here. I haven’t left you for a single minute.”
“I remember the battle … and seeing the Gulgur dodging around, slinging stones. They’re not fierce, but they’re annoying. I killed a lot of Freaks who were dumb enough to chase them.”
I nodded, smiling. “They pulled their weight. I wonder if Jengu’s still out there.”
“I hope so.” He winced, probing the stitches with his fingertips, and I stilled them by covering his hand with mine. “After our reinforcements arrived, I got careless. I tried to reach you, but I must’ve blacked out.”
“Gavin found you. I had been looking all day.”
“I owe him, then.” Fade shifted to favor his injured flank and drew me close. I must have smelled awful, but compared with the stuff slathered on his wound, maybe he didn’t notice.
“So do I.”
For the first time in days, I curled up and went to sleep. He improved steadily after that, enough to stay awake for hours at a time, eat on his own, and drink endless cups of herbal tea that Thimble claimed would hasten his recovery and Fade said tasted like weeds. I relaxed enough to take a bath and brush my hair.
“How’s Morrow?” I asked, the first time Tegan came by.
“Healing, slower than Fade.”
The deep shadows under her eyes said she was nursing him with the same care I’d granted Fade, but she probably didn’t realize what that meant yet. I wondered how long it would take for her to figure out that she loved him. She had help from his family, however, whereas I was like a mother bear with a single cub; I’d snarled and threatened to take the hand off anyone who came near my man.
“How many are left of Company D?”
“I’ve been going through Morrow’s journal while I tend him. Less than seventy.”
I bowed my head for a few seconds. “I need all their names.”
“I’ll put Sands on it.” Soon after, Tegan left.
Only one of Stalker’s original scouts had survived the battle. Since he’d been with us from the beginning, Sands would likely know the names of the dead and where they’d come from. Time for me to keep my promise. A little food and sleep had worked wonders, especially since I knew I could cross the river, and there was nothing much to fear anymore.
The next day, Fade protested when I kissed his forehead and said, “I’ll see you soon.”
He tried to follow me, but he wasn’t strong enough. A blue streak of cursing ensued, quickly staunched when Thimble stuck her head in the room wearing a ferocious scowl. “If my son picks up that language from you, Fade, there will be a reckoning.”
“Let me come with you.” Fade’s desperate voice followed me, and I turned.
“You need to heal … and I need to get this done before the first snow. Don’t worry. This is the last time we’ll be apart. That’s my promise to you.”
He didn’t like it, but he settled against his pillows. I ran back and kissed him properly, just to give him some motivation, then I hurried out of the cottage, knowing I couldn’t linger or my resolve would falter. I didn’t look forward to this task, but my conscience would plague me if I didn’t give these families the news about their loved ones. They deserved to know what happened, why their sons and daughters were never coming home.
After a little searching, I found Rex in the pub with Spence. Morgan had taken my request seriously, and before he’d left, he assigned my brother to look after Spence because he wasn’t even half sane after Tully’s death, and he still sought ways to do himself harm. I hoped his grief would ease in time.
“When Fade’s better,” I said to them both, “I need you to take him to Soldier’s Pond. Wagon is fine. I’ll come as soon as I finish one last thing.”
“Carrying word.” Spence’s blue eyes were flat and sad.
I agreed that was so. “Will you?”
“We’ll take care of him,” Rex promised.
Thimble met me at the cottage door with my pack; she was every bit as resourceful as I remembered from our days down below. She must’ve figured I’d be heading out as soon as possible, better to get the grim journey out of the way. I hugged her tight, but I didn’t say good-bye. Now that I knew they were here, I’d be back. I just had some traveling to do first.
To my surprise, Gavin met me at the docks. He still had the Company D banner, but he’d taken it off the pole, and he wore it around his shoulders like a cape. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he looked ridiculous; he seemed so proud of the dirty, disreputable thing. Maybe Momma Oaks could sew him a proper cloak when we got to Soldier’s Pond, possibly with our emblem, if it would make him happy.
“I’m going with you,” he told me.
I didn’t try to talk him out of it. “You know it’ll be a long, sad trip.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
The survivors of the company had split up while I tended Fade, leaving Rosemere in twos and threes, to return to their homes. Part of me wished I could’ve given them something worthy of their courage, but there were only words, and I had never been skilled with those. So it was best they went before I could ruin whatever good thoughts of me they might carry away.
A boatman took us across with an oddly deferential air, and when I stood to clamber out of the boat, he kissed the back of my hand. I pulled away, eyeing him in abject confusion.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you’re the Huntress,” he said. “And you won the War of the River. You made the territories safe again.”
I hadn’t done so without a lot of blood and pain, many sacrifices from people smarter, braver, and better than me. But I was so flummoxed by his words that I let Gavin drag me out over the side, into the water, and all the way to shore. I cast a look back, but the man was already trimming his sail and turning the little boat back toward the Evergreen Isle.
When Gavin and I returned to the battlefield, it had become a graveyard. Row after row of wooden markers stood neatly commemorating where brave men and women died. I stood for a few seconds, my throat too tight to breathe. The brat’s fingers stole into mine, and I squeezed them. It seemed so wrong that we were here when Stalker wasn’t, when Tully and Thornton were probably buried beneath these fresh black mounds.
“Do you ever wonder why them and not you?” Gavin asked.
“All the time.”
The trade routes were oddly clear. Breaking the horde had driven any straggling elders into hiding, where they would doubtless hunt small game until they died. If they grew bold again, the Uroch would send word. Now and then we saw our allies on the road, going about their business. They wore white armbands and lifted their clawed hands in greeting. I wondered if I would ever get used to that.
So blasted strange.
Gavin and I traveled without trouble; and in the fall, it was easy to find forage—berries and nuts, ripe fruit on wild trees and fat hares lazy from eating all summer long. In that fashion we traveled from town to town carrying our tidings. Gavin stayed with me as I found the families and told them, one by one. In Gaspard, there weren’t many, but the weeping was fierce in Lorraine. We stayed there for two days, telling stories so that grieving relatives could comfort themselves with the knowledge that their loved ones had been heroes. And they were, of course, every last one of them. It didn’t require daring deeds, only the courage to stand when everyone else was running.
In Lorraine, I also visited Stalker’s grave. As promised, the stone marker had been carved with his name, Stalker the Wolf, and I touched the letters with reverent fingertips. Gavin watched me in silence for a few moments.
“Do you miss him?” he asked.
“Every day.”
We won, my friend. I wish you were here to see it.
We went to Otterburn next, and it surprised me a little because I hadn’t expected them to send anyone, ever. The counterman had been so definite about the tithe and their determination not to get involved in the war. But there were fifteen names on my list, men and women who decided they’d rather fight than cower.
“This is an ugly town,” Gavin said, as we approached.
Though I agreed, it wasn’t polite to say so where the residents could hear. I shushed him. People were already gathering; at first I didn’t understand why, but then John Kelley called, “I wondered when you’d get here.”
As he had before, the trader must’ve carried word about my mission. So the people were already braced and waiting. Without further delay, I read out the names, and two women fell to their knees crying. Others comforted them. I was tired of walking, tired of bearing bad tidings, but I still had Winterville before I could return to my family in Soldier’s Pond. Rex, Fade, and Spence should be there by now.
I hoped so, anyway.
“Thank you,” I said, striding through the dispersing crowd to meet the trader. “The only reason we won at the river is because you blackmailed the towns into sending help.”
The trader grinned. “Not just me. Vince Howe and Marlon Bean got in on the action too. We all did some shooting that day. Haven’t felt so alive in years.”