The smell of warm sausages filled the air. Kiri arched her back and stretched her arms wide, keeping her eyes closed in the early morning contentment of a warm, soft bed with the promise of a delicious breakfast. Her hand touched a rough, hard surface, and her fingers crept along it, testing. Rock.
Her eyes popped open and she sat bolt upright. She was still in the cave under the Sceptre’s fortress. For a moment, in her mind, she had been back at the Academy, where any dangers she might face as the Firebrand in the rest of Laed were balanced by luxury and comfort. No such balance existed here. But that breakfast did smell delicious, so she dressed as quickly as she could and followed the scent to the little kitchen cave. It looked like Garon wasn’t up yet, but Riular was cooking. A little pile of toasted trail bread sat on the table, and he was turning sausages in Garon’s iron pan, set on the stone hearth just in front of the fire. The sausages were Garon’s as well. He’d bought them off a merchant they’d met on the road just outside of Laed, but Kiri hadn’t been able to convince him to cook them, yet. She wondered if Riular had asked Garon before digging into his stuff.
Kiri loaded up a plate with a couple slices of toast and Riular placed a sausage straight from the pan on top. Kiri bit it gingerly, not willing to wait for it to cool. Hot juices squirted into her mouth.
“This is delicious,” she said around the mouthful. “Thanks so much!”
Riular put the other sausages beside the bread and sat down across from Kiri. He didn’t take any food for himself, but sipped at a steaming cup of tea, both hands wrapped tight around it.
“I’ll take some of that tea,” Kiri said. She didn’t try to push any food on Riular. She wouldn’t have an appetite after a day like he’d had, either.
Kiri was sipping her tea, wondering how to start a conversation to fill the silence, when Garon came in.
He didn’t look like he’d just gotten up. He was already wearing his coat and boots, and he was carrying three large rolls of parchment.
“Morning,” he said, and without asking pushed all the dishes to the edge of the table, somehow managing to snag a sausage and tuck it into the corner of his mouth as he moved the plate. Kiri steadied the teapot and leaned forward. It appeared Garon had finished mulling over whatever had been on his mind, and it somehow involved...maps?
The first roll at least was a map. Garon unrolled it onto the space he’d made on the table and placed the other two rolls on either end to hold it open.
The map showed most of Laed, from Westfall Valley and the High Range on one side to Belir on the Eastern Sea on the other. Kiri wondered where he’d gotten it. It was too big to fit in his pack.
“This map is old,” he said. “The names have changed. Hilland is called Yar on this map. But it looks like the land is the same.”
“I had forgotten we had that map,” Riular said.
“I didn’t know Hilland was ever called anything else,” Kiri said. “How old is this?”
Riular shook his head. “Many generations. One of my forefathers must have been curious and bought it. We haven’t had any need to know of your lands. Until now.”
“The Thief Lord is probably home already, unless he’s going somewhere else for some reason,” Garon said. “Neal had further to go than we did after leaving Laed. Even with his head start, he could hardly have gotten to the desert much before we got here. The Thief Lord must have Traveled here with the stone almost as soon as he talked to Neal.”
“The desert?” Riular said. “That is too far for the stones. The stories are clear about that. Their range is limited. There used to be Traveling routes, with waystations for the Lords with their stones. But they are long gone.”
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“There’s no other way he could’ve gotten here that fast.” Garon said. “He had to have done something magic.”
“He must have some kind of waystations of his own, then,” Kiri said. “There’s no reason to assume he’s using some other Power when the stones explain it.”
“He understands the Power well, then,” Riular said. “I had a hope he would not know how to use the Sceptre, after seeing you struggle with the Brightwood Power, but it seems unlikely now.”
Calling it a struggle seemed like an exaggeration to Kiri, but it didn’t seem like the right time to argue. “So, do we have any reason to think he’d be somewhere other than the desert?” she asked.
Garon shook his head. “No,” he said. “I’m sure he went back to the desert. It’ll be two or three days’ ride from here for us by the roads. The backcountry is straighter, but too rough. It wouldn’t be any faster, and you might not find water.”
“So he might have up to three days before we can catch up to him,” Kiri said. “That’s not too bad, right?”
“Three days’ ride,” Garon said. “We only have one horse.”
“Ok, so walking,” Kiri said. “A lot longer. Ten days? That does sound a lot worse.”
“He will have time to prepare,” Garon said. “And so should we.”
“What do you mean?” Kiri said. “We’ve got all the Power we can get our hands on, and there’s really not much else to do.”
“The Kings in Riular’s story, they only thought about the Power,” Garon said.
“And that was a mistake, ok I gotcha,” Kiri said. “So what are you thinking of?”
“Neal,” Garon said. “He didn’t want the Thief Lord to get the Sceptre. We get his help. He has resources and he has Traveling stones.”
“So we go to Laed?” Kiri said. “That’s as far as the desert.”
“But then we use the Traveling stones to go straight to the desert,” Garon said. “So we’re not losing any time. And we’ll have help from Neal.”
“An inside man,” Kiri said. “He probably knows a lot that can help us. Which he’d better, or the Traveling stones won’t be any good for us. We have to know where we’re going, remember. That’s only useful if he’s willing to go up against the Thief Lord openly. Now that he has the Sceptre, Neal might be even less likely than before to do that.”
Garon shrugged. “He’s sneaky. I’m guessing he’ll still play both sides. But that’ll still be better than no help.”
“It’ll still take ten days to get to Laed,” Kiri said. “I mean, we might get lucky and catch a ride with a merchant, but we should assume the longest time, to be on the safe side. Oh, and speaking of the safe side, I had a question about the Sceptre. Riular?”
Riular had been looking between them in silence as they argued. He seemed surprised to be addressed. It took him a moment to say, “Yes?”
“Now that the Thief Lord knows who we are, can he use it on us?” she asked. “I mean, do I need to worry about dropping dead today?”
“He can only use it when his eyes are on you and the Sceptre is in his hands. I don’t believe he had the chance. I did not notice him unleashing the power, back there.”
“So we would’ve noticed?” Kiri asked.
“I would,” Riular said. “You might. Garon? Probably not.”
“Ok, well, I guess that’s a relief.” Kiri said. “But I still don’t like leaving it in his hands for ten days. He could do a lot in that time.”
“And the Sceptre will be corrupting everyone around it, all the while,” Riular said. “The sooner it is safe in its fortress, the better.”
“This is the best we can do,” Garon said.
“We still have the one horse,” Kiri said. “You and Riular should go to Laed. But I still am going straight to the desert. I’ll at least be a distraction until you can come with Neal.”
“No,” Garon said. “You can’t go alone.”
“One horse, remember?” Kiri said. “Don’t worry. The Firebrand works best alone.”
Garon humphed. “Not what I’ve noticed.” He picked one of the rolls holding it down, and the map snapped back into a roll with an audible whoosh. He didn’t like it, but it was settled. He tucked the map and the other rolls back under his arm, pausing to stuff another sausage in his mouth before he stalked out of the room.