Page 371 of Of Empires and Dust
“So you’re telling me that bird – which has no hands, mind you – either picked the lock with its beak or stole your key?”
Nala patted at her pocket, relief spreading across her face. “It didn’t steal my key.”
“So you’re sticking with the story that the bird picked the lock… with its beak.”
“Yes, my lord—I mean, Commander.”
“With its beak?” he repeated.
The girl stared back at him, her expression set in stone.
“Now I know how Aeson and Therin feel,” he muttered.
“What did you say? I didn’t hear you.”
“I said go get my cloak.”
The girl stared back at him for a minute, dumbfounded.
“Go!”
Nala set her bow back on Maria’s saddle and leapt into the river where it was only knee deep. Upon spotting her, the birdattempted to snatch up the cloak and flee. But all it could do was shift the cloak an inch or so before stumbling over, giving up, and darting away through the shrubbery faster than it had any right to.
“This means war, bird,” Dann whispered as Nala hauled herself onto the opposite bank and snatched up his cloak. “This means war.”
Beside him Drunir snorted, stomping a hoof.
“Glad to have you with me. And you, Maria?” What a stupid name for a horse. Maria?
But even as Dann pressed his fingers into his cheeks, the horse stared back at him with what looked to be almost a smile, her top lip lifting.
Dann scratched at her neck. “You’re not half bad.”
After Nala made it back across the river, changed her trousers, and set Dann’s sodden cloak back in the chest, she proceeded to triple-check it was locked. With a confident look on her face, she moved on to tend to the horses. As she combed Drunir’s mane, Erik strode through the wood and stopped at Dann’s side.
He looked out at those bathing in the stream, then turned to Dann, his gaze lingering. “How are you holding up? It can’t have been easy seeing that village the way it was.”
“I’m good.” Dann tucked his thumbs in behind his belt, his mind picking back through the images of mutilated corpses and burnt houses. “It’s just strange. I’d never even been to Erith before. Furthest I’d gone was Ölm. And that’s gone too. We’ll reach The Glade soon – what’s left of it. That will be even stranger.”
“We won’t let them do the same to Salme.”
“No,” Dann said, shaking his head. “We won’t.” A few moments of silence passed, filled by chattering and the splashing of water. “I’ve not seen my mam and dad in almost twoyears.” His throat constricted, the words growing heavy on his tongue. “I don’t know if they’re… What if…”
“We’ll deal with each thing as it comes, Dann. That’s all we can do. No more, no less.”
Dann gave Erik a nod. He’d grown to appreciate the man over the past few months. “I found myself thinking last night, were it not for you and your brother and your father, Calen and I would likely be long dead. And at the same time, were it not for you, Calen would never have killed that soldier outside The Two Barges either and the past two years would have been very different.”
“I never asked him to do that. He shouldn’t have been there?—”
“I’m glad he was there. Though, ‘glad’ isn’t a strong enough word. Whether he had been or not, the Uraks still would have burned The Glade, but there likely wouldn’t be an army marching to Salme’s aid… and Calen and I and everyone we’ve ever known would be dead.”
“It’s funny how one moment, one single event, can change so much. If we’d arrived in Milltown a day earlier or a day later. Or stayed in a different inn?—”
“Or you’d remembered your mantle.”
Erik laughed. “Or you’d not gotten so drunk and made enough noise to wake the whole town throwing axes.”
“What did me drinking have to do with anything?”
