Azure bonds - Kate Novak [50]
Olive sulked quietly, which was more nerve-racking than her constant chatter. Finally, Alias began describing the North Gate Inn, which lay at the top of Shadow Gap. She painted so rosy a picture that Olive began to look forward to seeing the mountain resort.
The pattern of the next several days-riding, setting up camp, dinner (prepared with surprising skill by Akabar), breaking camp-repeated over and over, restored Alias's confidence. This was the life she knew best-although a few saddlesores and aching muscles told her that she'd spent a lot of the time lost to her memory taking things too easy. Singing songs with Olive on horseback by day and lying beneath the stars at night gave Alias a feeling of contentment that had too long been missing. The sigils on her arms retreated in importance, becoming no more a threat to her and those around her than mosquito bites.
Stranger still, the farther north and away from the shores of the Inner Sea they traveled, the more cheerful Alias began to feel. Akabar was sorry to leave the green woods and fields of Cormyr, but the winds whipping across the stony soil of the vast plain north of the Storm Horns delighted Alias. She would face into the wind and smile, as though it blew away all her miseries. Despite the fact that they had to veer off the trail or cower in undergrowth occasionally to avoid parties of ores and goblins, the warrior grew steadily calmer.
Alias's new tranquility even prompted her one evening to apologize to Akabar as they stood watch together. She'd begun to feel guilty about the way she'd shamed him into following her north.
Akabar, too proud to show himself offended by so small a thing, shrugged off her apology, but Alias persisted in tryine to explain her reasoning.
"I know you're a wise man," she said, waving aside the pro. tests his modesty compelled him to make. "Fools don't get to be mages, and all your reasons for going to Westgate were good ones. But when you've been an adventurer for as long as I have, you begin to think with your gut. I had a gut feeling that Westgate was a mistake. Poking around in Yulash feels more like the right thing to do."
Akabar didn't know what to say. He was afraid to spoil her newfound peace of mind by speaking his own. Secretly, he was afraid the sigils were maneuvering the swordswoman toward Yulash. Once the site of a temple to great evil, it remained a place of unquestionable danger.
"You've also been very kind, helping me through a bad time and accompanying me. I've never led a party before. Usually, I traveled with bands who debated and voted on their plans. Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I didn't take your advice lightly, and I won't in the future, should you, well, give me any more."
Her sincerity left Akabar speechless for several moments Finally, he managed to say, "You honor me with your trust.
It was a ritual Turmish saying. Strangely enough, Alias knew the proper reply. "Your honor is my own."
They were silent for a while, until Akabar could no longer resist his curiosity. "Do you remember ever having visited Turmish?" he asked.
Alias shook her head. "No, I don't remember."
The next evening, their fifth out of Arabel, they camped at the base of the foothills of Shadow Gap, the high pass between the southern extension of the Desertsmouth Mountains.
10
Giogioni Wyvernspur
Giogioni Wyvernspur, sitting in the muddy road, cursed his bad luck. After all the misfortunes that befell me at Cousin Freffie's wedding, he complained to himself, you'd think it was time for a little sunshine to fall into my life. But no. I've got a cloud of Tymora's blackest luck following me.
"Daisyeye, come back here!" he shouted as he picked himself off the ground