Eliska swung her long-tailed gar by one leg on her way up the riverbank heading for the Watchmen’s camp. She felt pretty good about traveling with them, now that they’d found this Barbarian Servant, Anríq.

That was a stroke of good luck and the party needed all the good luck they could get.

She turned a bend in the river on her way back to the camp when she spotted Anríq coming out of the undergrowth farther up the bank.

He wasn’t wearing his axe, his club, or any of his shoulder bags. Instead, he carried another gar hanging by its leg from his muscular hand.

He froze when he saw Eliska coming toward him from the other direction with her own catch. The two of them regarded each other from a distance and then he shut his eyes and bowed to her.

She found herself grinning at him and bowed back.

He straightened up, saw her smiling, and froze again. He stared at her with a blank expression….and then his features softened. He didn’t exactly smile, but his eyes twinkled a little bit.

She crossed the rest of the way to where he stood. “Good morning,” she told him and dipped her eyes to his gar. “Great minds think alike. I didn’t think it was a good idea for all these surly Watchmen to go marching across the countryside on empty stomachs.”

He actually snorted under his breath and turned aside to return to the camp. She fell in next to him.

She tried to think of something to say to him. His silence made it difficult not to fall into the same silence, but she didn’t want to do that. She wanted to keep him engaged. None of the others would do it.

They all kept their distance from Anríq for some reason. Her explanations of who he was and what he was doing out here didn’t penetrate their thick heads. They insisted on treating him like a threat.

Rien kept his word by sitting up all night to keep watch on Anríq. Rien had been sitting there awake on his side of the fire when Eliska fell asleep.

Anríq pretended not to see Rien watching him. Anríq had curled up on the ground and slept right alongside the other Watchmen.

Eliska spotted Rien still sitting by the fire now. His stony expression gave him away. He must be in a foul mood from lack of sleep.

He wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever. He would eventually pass out from exhaustion. Then he would have to take his eyes off Anríq.

Rien stiffened when Anríq and Eliska reentered the camp. Wesh and the other Watchmen were all waking up, running their fingers through their hair, coughing and spitting into the bushes, washing their faces and necks in the river, and leaving for the undergrowth to relieve themselves.

Neils laughed when he saw Eliska with another gar. “They’re your favorite, aren’t they?”

“The gars in this Island taste the way I remember them. The others were disgusting.”

He got busy erecting a spit over the fire while she held up her gar by its hind legs. She used her staff to skin it.

She was just about to gut it when she noticed Anríq watching her work. She bit back a grin. Something about him made her happy to have him in their group. Maybe it was his boyish appearance. Niyazi was right. Anríq might be big, but he was just a boy like Yann.

She jutted her chin at Anríq’s gar and bit back laughter. “Do you need any help with that?”

He responded by holding up his gar with one hand. He swiped his other hand down in front of it in a grasping motion.

The skin stripped off easily and he caught it in his free hand. Then he traced his forefinger down the gar’s belly, sliced a thin tendril of magic into the flesh, and cut it open to gut the creature.

“Nice,” Eliska remarked. “I’m going to have to practice that one.”

Anríq actually smiled at her that time. She used her staff to gut her gar and they both squatted down by the fire while Neils put both carcasses on the spit.

He was the one who divided up the meat this time, too, even though he didn’t hunt the animals himself. The group had fallen into a regular routine where everyone trusted him to divide their food between everyone.

He always served everyone the same way starting with whoever happened to be sitting on his immediate left when he cut up the food.

Then he went around the circle in that direction and gave food to everyone one person after another.

Anríq and Eliska sat on his immediate right this time, so he wound up serving them last. Neils handed Anríq his portion first and then Neils handed Eliska hers—so she didn’t have to share hers with Anríq.

“I still say we look for a town that needs the Watch,” Vidal announced. “If we’re in as much danger out here as we are in a town, we should at least take advantage of additional numbers. We might even find a town that already has the Watch. Then we wouldn’t have to fight our enemies alone.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Nowhere in the Ancestral Empire has the Black Watch,” Eliska told him.

“We can’t go to a town if our presence would put the townsfolk in danger,” Yvan pointed out. “Whoever is hunting for us has sent Darklings after us more than anything else. We couldn’t lead the Darklings back to any town.”

“So what’s the solution?” Omer asked. “If you really want to protect everyone by keeping us away from them, then we might as well stay here where we know we can find food. The danger to ourselves will be the same either way.”

Yvan turned right and left and nodded at Wesh, Eliska, and Anríq. “What do you three think? Where do you think we should go?”

Wesh shrugged. “I suppose heading back south is as good a place as any. If the Dark river is threatening the west country, then going back toward the more stable parts of the Island only makes sense. It seems a shame to retrace our steps over all that territory we’ve already covered, but at least we’ll be staying on solid ground.”

“I agree with Wesh,” Eliska replied. “If Anríq is right about the Dark river taking out those towns, then the Island will probably collapse from there first. We should go back toward the center for as long as it lasts. We’ll probably wind up back in the Coil anyway, but we can delay it for a little while. We just won’t be able to delay the Voyant coming after us—if he is the one who’s coming after us.”

“What about you?” Yvan asked Anríq. “Do you have anything to suggest—anything other than what these two have already said?”

Anríq kept his eyes down and shook his head.

“Can you find out what it is he wants from us?” Barsali asked.

“He won’t be able to,” Omer told him. “Wesh already tried.”

Anríq looked up and studied each person in the group with those hard, sharp blue eyes. Then Anríq looked away again and shook his head.

Yann broke the silence. Eliska didn’t realize until that moment that Yann hadn’t spoken since last night. He went quiet and distant since Anríq joined their party.

“We could find out what the thing is if we really wanted to find out,” Yann murmured. “It would be easy if we split up. Then whoever is hunting us would go after the person who’s carrying the thing. Everyone else would be safe.”

The group burst out in protests as everyone started talking at once. The Watchmen rounded on him and yelled at him that they would never split up.

“Are you insane?” Vidal snapped. “We would all die out here if we split up!”

“No one is going anywhere,” Omer insisted. “We’re staying together. If one of us is in danger, then we’re all in danger.”

“I’m just saying,” Yann replied. “At least those who aren’t carrying it would be safer that way.”

“We don’t know that,” Yvan countered. “Maybe it’s all of us. Maybe it’s some magical combination of all of us together…..”

“Then breaking up the group would be better,” Yann reasoned.

His father shook his head. “It would only make it easier for whoever it is to hunt us down individually. We’ll stick together and head south. Finish eating and let’s get out of here.”

Finishing eating and packing up their few possessions didn’t take long. Anríq carried more baggage than anyone else.

Eliska checked on him while he slung his bags over his shoulder, hung his axe across his back, and hooked the loop thong of his club to his belt.

He kept his hands free while he walked. He didn’t do anything to make it easier for him to take his weapons down and get ready to fight if he needed to.

That struck Eliska as a strategic disadvantage, but he didn’t exactly go looking for a fight.

Keeping his weapons one step removed from use created a barrier between him and whatever he might actually wind up fighting.

Anyone seeing him for the first time might get the impression he didn’t intend to fight at all. No one seeing him for the first time would consider him a threat because he wasn’t armed—not yet.

He fell in line with the Watchmen. He didn’t try to hurry the journey along. He gave no sign that changing his course or retracing his steps meant anything to him or that he had anywhere else in the world to go.

Eliska found herself three places behind him in line. She would have liked to walk next to him, but that would have made it too obvious that she was trying to keep him engaged.

Yann wound up in the place right behind Anríq with Omer and Niyazi between Eliska and the two boys.

The group walked for an hour before Yann moved forward, stepped out of line, and pulled up alongside Anríq.

“Where did you learn to fight?” Yann asked. “Did you learn with your tribe?”

“Yes,” Anríq replied without turning around.

“Did your family know you became a Servant?”

“Yes,” Anríq replied in exactly the same tone.

“Eliska says the Barbarians shun anyone who becomes a Servant. Did that happen to you?”

“Yes,” Anríq replied.

“Does that mean you can’t go home at all? What would happen if you did? Would they try to kill you—or ignore you—or drive you off? What does it mean that they shun you?”

“Leave him be,” Niyazi interjected. “You heard what Eliska says. He doesn’t want to talk, especially about himself.”

“How would you know what he wants?” Yann asked over his shoulder. “Maybe he really does want to talk, especially about himself.” He turned back to Anríq. “Well? Are you allowed to go home if you want to—if you want to see your family? Could you if you really wanted to?”

“Yes,” Anríq replied.

Yann turned around to look at Niyazi. “You see?” Yann turned back to Anríq. “So they wouldn’t try to kill you?”

“No,” Anríq replied.

“What about other Barbarians on the road?” Yann asked. “Eliska told you not to go near the roads because the Barbarians were there. Would they attack you, too?”

“Do you plan to talk him to death?” Omer asked. “Eliska said he only talks when it’s important to his mission. What the Barbarians do isn’t important to his mission.”

“It would be important if they tried to kill him. It would be important to all of us, wouldn’t it?” Yann turned back to Anríq. “Well? Do other Barbarians attack Servants on the roads?”

“Yes,” Anríq asked.

“Do they go out of their way to hunt down Servants?”

“No,” Anríq replied.

“Will you leave off already?” Niyazi snapped again. “You can see he doesn’t want to talk.”

“I’m just trying to be friendly,” Yann replied. “Someone has to make up for Rien trying to attack him yesterday.”

“Eliska made up for it,” Omer pointed out. “She welcomed him.”

“She was the only one,” Yann replied. “I’m trying to show him that she isn’t the only one.”

Anríq glanced over at Yann and narrowed his eyes to study Yann more closely. At that moment, a deep rumble broke in on their conversation.

Eliska spun around to stare at the countryside around her. She didn’t see anything—not with her eyes.

The Watchmen who’d been in front of her turned backward to search the horizon, too.

A wave of cold dread swept over her even though the sun kept shining as brightly as ever. It baked on the dry grass underfoot. The same gentle breeze blew the smell of fresh hay across the landscape.

“It’s coming!” she whispered.

“What is?” Omer asked.

Eliska opened her mouth to say something. She had no idea what she would say. Words failed her.

Before she could make a sound, the rumble coming from the west cracked out of the distant horizon. She swiveled her staff in front of her. Something was coming from there and it wasn’t anything good.