Janco mounted Moonlight with one graceful movement. Impish delight lit his eyes. “They have me cornered on the north side of town. They believe I’m heading toward Ixia. We have another hour or so before the game is up.”
“How did you manage that?”
“Oh, a little silver here, a little misdirection there. All fun.”
After checking my saddlebags, I swung up on Quartz. Her ears perked up and the left one swiveled back to hear me.
“Where to?” Janco asked.
“East toward Ognap.”
We directed the horses, walking through the deserted streets. Even without horseshoes, the thud of their hooves on the stones sounded loud.
Janco leaned forward and stroked Moonlight’s black neck. “Quieter if you can,” he whispered. Both horses slowed. “Thanks.”
Surprised, I shot him a questioning look.
“Sandseed horses are very intelligent, and he’s one beautiful, bright boy.”
“And he allowed you to saddle him!” I said in an excited whisper. “How?”
He shrugged. “I introduced myself, and told him what was going on. Guess meeting the greatest swordsman in Ixia awed him into submission.”
“A swordsman who can’t handle a horsewhip. He probably felt sorry for you.”
He tsked. “Low blow.” Then smiled. “I’ve taught you well.”
We spent the rest of the night in silence. The tight row houses of Fulgor soon transformed into clusters of buildings. I steered Quartz onto the main east-west road. When we reached farmland and marble quarries interspersed with forest, we stopped to rest.
As we set up a makeshift camp in the woods and hidden from the path, I explained my escape.
“Devlen? Why?” Janco asked.
“He said he didn’t want to hurt me again.”
“Ha! He’s been playing the reformed man since we blasted him up on the ice. Don’t believe him, Opal. I’ve seen criminals use it to be released, but most of them are back to their old tricks in no time.”
“What about you? You’re reformed.”
“Not me. I just switched sides. I’m doing the same stuff”—lock picking, sneaking around, tricking and spying. Except now I’m doing it for Valek and the Commander. And it has more…meaning. When I was a kid, it was just a challenge. I didn’t steal, but I couldn’t resist a locked door. And I wanted to get caught—just to see if I could escape the holding cells. Drove everyone nuts.” He smiled at the memory. “I even broke into the jail, past five guards with none the wiser.” But then his humor evaporated and he rubbed the scar spanning from his right temple to his ear. “Ended badly. That’s how I have firsthand knowledge that you don’t ever believe the reformed-man act.”
He bustled about our small camp lost in his own thoughts. I yawned and shivered in the predawn air. The horses munched on their grain. I wondered if I could train Quartz to sound an alarm like Leif had trained Rusalka, who was also a Sandseed horse.
“Should we take turns guarding?” I asked.
“No.” Janco checked on Moonlight, running his hand along the sleek coat. “Moonlight will let us know if someone comes too close. Right, boy?”
The horse nickered as if in agreement.
“That’s seems too easy,” I said.
“Not everything in life has to be hard. Horses are prey animals. If they notice anything strange, they’ll alert the herd.”
“And we’re the herd.”
“Yep. Their sense of smell and hearing are far superior to ours. So you can sleep in peace. No worries.”
But what about the old worries?
“Who names a town Ognap?” Janco asked.
“It was probably named for a famous Cloud Mist Clan member.” I tried not to sigh.
After sleeping most of the morning, we had saddled the horses and headed east toward the Emerald Mountains. Ognap was nestled in the foothills.
“Ixia is far simpler,” he said. “Military Districts and Grid Sectors for location names. No weird town names. No bizarre clothing or lack of clothing. We have uniforms, so when you meet someone new, you know exactly who they are and what they do. No guessing if they’re going to zap you with their magic.”
Janco’s homesickness drove me crazy. He had been waxing nostalgic over Ixia the past two hours. The trip to Ognap would take another four days, and I didn’t know if I could stand his mooning that long. If we cut through the Avibian Plains, we could shorten the trip. Being Sandseed horses, Moonlight and Quartz could use their special gust-of-wind gaits, which only worked in the plains, but the Sandseed Clan’s protective magic would convince Janco we were lost and being watched.
I remembered the panic I had felt when I first entered the plains. My sense of direction failed and I knew warriors waited to ambush me. Leif introduced me to the protective magic. Since the Zaltanas were the Sandseed’s distant cousins, Leif and his sister, Yelena, were welcome in the Avibian Plains.
If the protection recognized me, I would be fine, but Janco wouldn’t. No sense risking it for a few days of peace.
“…Clan. Opal, are you listening to me?”
“Sorry. Could you repeat it?”
He slumped his shoulders in an exaggerated gesture of aggravation. “What’s the Cloud Mist Clan like?”
“They have a few small towns along the foothills of the mountains, but most of them prefer to live either up on the mountain or under it.”