Kael’s Errand

ANDRA

The next morning, Andra awoke to male voices and the crackle of the campfire.

As the day before, she was disoriented when consciousness came to her. But she remembered quickly, before she even opened her eyes.

~The kind elf. The flute. The burdened leader, Kael.~

~The purple fire.~

“But the Seer told us to capture him, not to kill him.” Andra recognized the voice of the gray-eyed Kael. He was distressed.

~“Capture the power of the manor…,”~ Colmen went on. “It’s practically a riddle, after all. But we all decided it must be Ledo. And what’s the difference if he’s captured or if he’s dead?”

~Ledo? Dead? Am I dreaming?~

“The difference is that we can’t use him as leverage for Castigo if he doesn’t exist anymore!” Kael burst out.

“Kael, don’t beat yourself up.” It was the third companion, Alik. “These things happen. As long as you’re certain he’s dead, we don’t have anything to worry about.”

“I’m certain. I stabbed him in the stomach. No man could survive such a blow,” Kael confirmed.

As the rebels discussed the situation, Andra’s head spun.

~Ledo is dead.~

To them, Ledo’s life was a tool, a political statement.

But to Andra…it was so much more. Ledo’s existence had meant that she had lived in fear for so long that she’d become numb.

Andra could hardly believe it.

The man who had tormented her for her whole life was gone. Her reason to fear was gone.

Andra felt relief so intense it practically crushed her. But she also felt an inexplicable sensation.

She felt like ~she~ had somehow changed, and she no longer knew how to understand herself.

~Who am I without him?~

“The only thing that went wrong was kidnapping the mute slave girl,” Alik continued. “As if we didn’t already have targets on our backs, now we have to take care of a runaway servant.”

Andra’s stomach was in knots. She was used to being silent and invisible, and now she was the topic of conversation.

“I don’t know why you didn’t just kill her when you had the chance! Now there’s another mouth to feed.” There was venom in Alik’s words.

Andra tried not to panic.

She cursed herself for becoming so comfortable with the rebels the night before.

Of course she was just a nuisance to them, just like she was to everyone else.

“The girl did nothing wrong,” Kael asserted. “I will not have the blood of an innocent on my hands, Alik. If we go around killing the very people we’re trying to free because they’re inconvenient, we’re no better than our enemy.”

Kael sighed, and it sounded as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

“I’m shocked that you would even suggest something so barbaric,” Kael went on. “Maybe you should join the Kingsmen instead.”

“It’s just that I already have enough to worry about without the servant around,” Alik said defensively.

“Well, don’t worry about her, then, if it’s so much trouble. I take responsibility for her,” Kael replied.

His voice was definitive and strong. Andra didn’t doubt that the conversation was over.

~Why is he protecting me?~ she wondered.

She was just a slave. There was nothing she could do for him.

A horse whinnied.

Colmen clicked his tongue and Andra imagined he was comforting the creature. Then he responded to his comrades.

“The girl is no problem in my eyes. I wish she would talk, but it’ll take time. I can’t imagine what they’ve done to her.”

“Fine!” Alik relented. “But if she’s coming with us, she’ll need some new clothes. If someone sees her collar, we’ll be in more trouble than we already are.”

“I was planning on it,” Kael replied. “There’s a tailor in the nearby village who is a friend of the Freemen. I’ll take the girl when she wakes. And then we’ll continue on to Eithne.”

“You’ll feel better when you see Eithne,” Colmen assured his friend. “We’ll travel with her to the rest of the Freemen in Bellris, and everything will be fine.”

~Eithne.~

~Is she Kael’s wife or his lover?~ she wondered.

~And where is Bellris?~

There was so much of the world that Andra had never even heard about, let alone seen with her own eyes.

Andra was curled up on her side. She was close enough to the fire to feel its heat, but she trembled as if from the cold.

She was overwhelmed by all she heard. The only thing she could do was continue pretending to sleep.

KAEL

Kael headed for the woods. He was going to get some berries for his horse and take a moment for himself.

Alik’s insinuations about the slave girl made Kael’s blood boil.

He knew that Alik was bullheaded and always looking for a fight. Usually, Kael didn’t let his comrade’s jabs get to him.

~Then why is Kael so worked up this time?~

It wasn’t like he particularly cared for the servant girl. He felt sorry for her, though, and responsible for her well-being.

He was prepared to defend her from his enemies, but he didn’t realize he needed to defend her from his friends too.

He picked a handful of raspberries from a thorny bush. He stroked the mare’s nose as she ate them from his palm.

Alik was off hunting, and Colmen was playing his flute softly, gazing into the fire.

The morning was cool and the sun was obscured by clouds.

~Maybe that’s how the girl manages to sleep so late,~ Kael reasoned. ~Or maybe she’s still exhausted from the manor.~

She was curled on her side when Kael approached and tapped her shoulder.

She recoiled, and Kael regretted touching her at all. He didn’t want to make her more afraid than she already was.

“We’re going on an errand together,” he told her. Kael wasn’t exactly a gentle person, but he tried to make his voice soft. “We’ll get you some new travel clothing.”

The servant glanced up at him before quickly looking away. She nodded.

He left her alone to gather herself, and she met him a few minutes later by the horses.

“Do you know how to ride?” he asked.

The girl was looking at the ground. She shook her head.

“Right. Of course not.”

He helped her onto the horse before taking his place behind her.

He made sure to keep as much distance between them as possible, but his arms brushed against hers as he held the reins.

She stiffened at even the slightest touch. As the horse moved forward, her back remained rigid, as if she would never relax.

As they set off through the forest for the nearby village, Kael wondered what the girl had been through.

Clearly she had been hurt. She was more fearful than an abused animal.

Part of him wanted to ask her about her life at the manor, but he knew she wouldn’t say a word.

And though it felt like remembering another lifetime, he ~did~ know how servants were treated there.

As a young student at the Hall of Riders, he had watched servants get punished and beaten for the smallest transgressions.

The Judges and their noblemen treated them like they were hardly people, which was part of why he had decided to join the resistance in the first place.

So he said nothing. They passed the journey in silence.

When they reached the village, he watched as the girl curiously turned her head back and forth, taking in the new landscape.

Small huts spouted smoke from their chimneys, and the din of metal work and farm animals filled the air.

Soon, they stopped by a small home with a thatched roof. Kael disembarked and held out his hand to the servant.

As soon as her feet were on the ground, she pulled her hand away.

He knocked on the door, and soon a woman with rosy cheeks appeared.

“What a pleasant surprise!” Marla, the seamstress, welcomed him cheerfully and invited both of them inside.

“Could you help us with some traveling clothes for our new companion?” Kael asked, gesturing to the girl. “We need something that could obscure her collar, if possible.”

“Give us an hour,” Marla replied before turning to the girl. “Follow me, young one.”

The servant glanced back at Kael before following after the seamstress.

He left the women alone. He tied up his horse and stopped at the baker.

When he returned with a loaf of bread and a few cookies, the girl was wearing all new clothes.

Instead of the thin brown dress, she wore dark-blue linen pants. Her shirt had long sleeves with cuffs at the wrist and there were buttons at the neck that obscured the collar.

“She looks handsome, doesn’t she?” Marla asked, admiring her work.

Kael watched the girl as she looked down at her new clothes, stroking the fabric between her fingers. For the first time, he saw a slight smile cross her face.

The girl ~was~ pretty. Now that she was smiling, Kael couldn’t look away.

~She is happy.~

And the hardened revolutionary found himself smiling back.

ANDRA

Andra waved to the seamstress, Marla, as she and Kael rode away on the horse.

She wanted to thank her for the clothes and tell her she had never worn anything so fine…but after so long without speaking, Andra had forgotten how.

Andra felt the soft blue fabric of her sleeve between her fingers.

She wanted to thank Kael as well, for taking her here.

He had been patient and kind. He hadn’t tried to make her talk.

“Here,” he said.

He held both reins in one hand, and with the other, he held a cookie out to her.

She turned around, looking into his eyes before she could stop herself.

He nodded, seeming almost amused.

She took the sweet, but blushed. She bit a small piece before she stopped herself.

It tasted delicious. At the manor, she was rarely allowed sugar—unless she snuck it from the kitchen with Talias.

It felt wrong to enjoy such a delicacy.

~You get new clothes, and you forget you’re a servant,~ she scolded herself. She tucked the remaining cookie into her pocket.

She should give it to Colmen, or even the horse. Anyone would deserve it more than she did.

They continued on through the forest.

When Andra considered how much had changed in the past few days, her head spun.

And now she had changed too—at least physically. She was a servant dressed in the fine clothes of the high-born.

Andra saw the clearing ahead, and immediately she had the sense that something was wrong.

She turned to Kael once more. His furrowed brow told her he was thinking the same thing.

They moved closer, through the trees, and that’s when they realized what was wrong.

Strange men were in the camp. Soldiers—with weapons at the ready.

They were under attack.

A pained grunt drew Andra’s attention as one of the soldiers emerged from behind a tree, holding Colmen captive.

The soldier had him restrained, a sword held against his neck.

Colmen’s blood dripped onto the blade as Andra’s heart seized in her chest.

Kael’s voice was hoarse as he choked out a single word:

“Run.”