Chapter 21
710 Words
21
Rasha followed Jak’s tracks into the woods. It took several tries to pick up his marks when they veered off of the path she was on. What was he doing all the way out here? The sound of voices made her hesitate, and she ducked into the bushes. She peered around them to see Jak talking with two men who were waving their hands in agitation.
One tall, dark man appeared to be Sidoan. The other was from Winaka, the seventh kingdom. Rasha stared, wondering what they could be doing here meeting with Jak. They didn’t talk long. Jak dashed away, leaving the two men alone. They didn’t have any animals with them. But they hadn’t walked this far out here. Instead of following Jak back to the cave, she followed the two men.
Ducking behind trees, she managed to follow them for half a mile to the north. They were in an encampment of more than a dozen men, dressed like the men that attacked them the night before last. The two seemed to be reporting something back to the others. Rasha couldn’t make it out, but her stomach felt queasy. She recognized the feeling: betrayal.
Rasha didn’t wait to be discovered. She raced back through the woods to the cave where the others were waiting. Lu gave her a look, but she shook her head. She wouldn’t explain now.
“Rash, what’s with your bathroom habits? Between you and Jak I don’t know who’s worse.” He was covering for her.
She nodded and laughed it off.
“My stomach always gets a little nervous before we go into unknown territory.” Rasha said as she eyed Jak. He was leaning against a tree as if he’d been waiting for hours.
Chiza was sitting on Lu’s beast. Rasha didn’t bother speaking to Jak for the moment—she’d let things play out. He was up to something, and she wouldn’t trust him until she knew what it was. Jak rode ahead of them most of the way. She needed a different way to go about getting information this time.
When they stopped to water and feed the animals, she pulled Lu away from Chiza. It was difficult, as Chiza didn’t want to leave his side. Their bond was closer than ever. She wondered how they would fare in the presence of the prince. She doubted he’d be okay with his intended choosing someone from the Twinlands after he’d gone through so much trouble to ensure she arrived at the first kingdom.
“I need something from you.” Rasha spoke to him without looking, keeping her voice low.
“Anything.”
“Tell me you brought some kind of listening device. Something you can pin onto someone without them being aware that it is recording.”
Lu looked up and tracked Jak’s movement from the animals back to Chiza. She was laughing at something he said.
“You know I do.”
“I need you to slip it to me without anyone seeing you. I’ll do the rest.”
“You still don’t trust Jak?”
“I don’t trust anyone who has secret liaisons in the woods with the men trying to kidnap the princess.”
“To what end?”
“I don’t know, but I think we need to be cautious.”
“We won’t get much out here. We’ve got no working communicators.”
“He may not use one.”
“I’m not trying to sound condescending, but have you considered just asking him?” Lu asked.
Rasha had considered it. Considered it and dismissed it as another chance for Jak to use her emotions against her. “Just get it for me, and don’t let Chiza see you,” Rasha said with a knowing look.
Lu gave her an indignant look before he turned to go back. Temi came over and looked up, expecting something.
“What?” Rasha asked
Temi growled and moved closer then sat and stared up at her.
“You want something?”
Temi gave her another growl. At a loss for what else to do, she stroked Temi under the chin before heading back.
“Your beastie is getting almost too big to carry,” she said to Lu. He was digging something out of his pack and, as she hoped, she got Chiza’s attention with her remark.
“He’s so big now, I can’t believe it. I wonder when he’ll stop growing,” Chiza said.
“It won’t be long now. We should see his true size. Did you take care of beasties at home Chiza?” Rasha asked, looking at Chiza to keep eye contact with her.
“Not really. We weren’t allowed animals inside our home. My mother thought it uncivilized.”
That was a word she hadn’t heard in a long time. Rasha recalled her own mother using just such a term to describe her only daughter.
- Writer
