In the morning Little Tim was outside looking over the wagons, counting the goats, making sure the barrels were topped off with water and the sacks of grain were full. He saw that an axle was crooked and he called on one of the men who had learned to be a wainwright. Another had learned to be a cobbler and was returning the shoes and boots to those who needed repair over the night. An older woman who was serving as the herbalist was also the florist, and she handed out wreaths made of flowers and leaves from the fields nearby to the children.
They had become a community of their own, Perenenda noticed. They were nearly as far from her father’s castle as they could be within Neredun, and they had all developed a sense of family that she knew they would need when they crossed the borders. When the world becomes foreign, they would find familiarity with each other. She knew adding Xaykansam would cause ripples in the rank, especially since she knew how hot headed Kamfongil was. But Dao spoke the truth last night when she told her that the slightest breeze moves all flowers, but when there is a storm there is no time to worry about gardens. They just needed to keep moving and keep busy.
The lower road was washed out from the rain and was too narrow for their train. The turned back and made their way to the higher road, the one she wanted to avoid as it took them through Nakhieh, the capital of Lanin. She was already not comfortable with two hundred marching toward Nakhieh, and adding a hundred horses almost felt like she was trying to insult Lord Laninilor.
Nakhieh was a city built along the red mountains of the Southern Marches. A road wound up the mountain to the city, and it was said that when the ancient Lanin kings saw the castles up in the neighboring Iron and Ash Mountains, they declared that they would not be outdone by the Soot. It took several generations and thousands of laborers, but Lanin finally got their fortress overlooking the high passage between the Soot and Kienne. The castle itself was called the Blood Perch, as it rested on the crest of a red mountain called the Noon Star Mountain, called so because of an eclipse that once blanketed all of Neredun and the northern star shone brightly at high noon. The Lanin king at the time saw this as an omen and thus named the mountain. While Nakhieh started as a fortress overlooking the valleys, it eventually grew into a fully fledged city.
Lanin always kept its eye on the movement at the fork between Neredun, Kienne, and the Soot. It was at the high pass where Perenenda met several Lanin guards, all of them disarmed as a show of good faith.
“Good day to Lanin,” Perenenda said, stepping past the vanguard of Captain Dao and her Reapers. Her other captains were beside her. “Why do you stop me?”
"My lord sees all from the Blood Perch, Princess," the guard said. "At the peak he has a view of the three kingdoms. He has a looking glass so he knows the comings and goings at the crossroads.”
"Then he should long have known of my goings," Perenenda said. "Let us pass."
The guard held up his hand. "We do not set you to halt, your grace. My lord grants you a safe passage and bids you a fruitful journey, wherever your aim is set. I am only delaying your journey for a moment to relay a message from my lord. He saw your husband the Song Lord depart with his Field Riders into Kienne months ago, and more odd he saw the Song Lord later return with the Grey Herald, but only to take the pass to the Soot. My lord has not seen him leave since. As there is no other passage out from the Soot, your husband should still be there.”
Perenenda had not considered the possibility of changing course. Sarengerel was closer than she had hoped. She could turn around and take the path to the Soot. She could show up with an army and join with him. But how would that look to her company? Were they truly only escorting a lovesick girl to her newly wed husband? Was this all it was? A silly game? Was there any great purpose at all? And why was he in the Soot? He had said the war was in the west, in Aredun. Her heart yearned to turn around. No, she could not go where her heart was.
"My lady, which way do we go?" Dao asked.
She looked at her and could not answer.
“If the Soot is where the Song Lord is, we must catch up to him,” Xaykansam said, his hands active in anticipation. “We must ride together under his banner.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Kamfongil snorted. “Who knows what he’s up to. And is he paying my Butchers’ salary? My contract is with the Princess.”
“Does it matter who pays your salary?” Xaykansam retorted. “A sword for sale cares not whose belt the scabbard hangs from.”
Perenenda looked out past the edge of the high pass and could see a bit of the crossroads. It was so close, but it felt like the furthest place. If she could only have some time to think about what she really wanted. If she could just buy herself more time to reach the crossroads.
“Easy now,” Big Tim said, holding her by the elbow. He pulled her back away from the edge of the road that met the sheer cliff only a couple of feet away. He led her away from her captains.
“My heart sings one thing,” she said when she was far enough away from the others, “but the pit of my stomach screams another.”
“We’ve come a long way, my lady,” Big Tim said. “But such long distances mean little if the direction of the steps are not clear. Little Tim and I will follow you as far as your direction takes us, and I suspect the others will as well. You see our band has rallied behind your purpose. We’re set to come upon the type of conflict that helps set the world right. But there are so many paths to get there, only you can decide how.”
“What do you miss most about home?”
“I haven’t been home in years,” Big Tim said. “Where I’m from, the weather is very different. It’s much colder than down here. The sun feels glorious on my arms and neck, and the sky is always blue. But I don’t think I’ve had an honest, good night sleep since I left home. It’s the cold of home, the way my head feels on a cold pillow, the warmth of a weighted blanket. So I guess I miss the weather. But I also miss my brothers.”
“You’ve never spoken about your brothers.”
“My lady’s never asked. My brothers are brave, clever, everything I aspire to be.”
Perenenda embraced him, taking him aback. “My heart knows what it wants. It wants to be complete with the one I love, to be together with him. Come.”
She walked back to the gathering of her captains.
“There’s going to be a war coming, I’ve long talked about it with the Song Lord,” Perenenda said. “He has been in the council of the Grey Herald Menquist for many seasons planning for this, even though the world today is still not ready to take arms. And here we are, at the borders of our home and at the crossroads where our decisions will reveal our purpose. There is a fight coming, but do we even know why we fight? For our sense of pride? Love? Duty? This morning Big Tim said it truly. We cannot take selfish actions for ourselves anymore. We must look out for each other. For our brothers and sisters.”
“Does not sound like you’re looking to venture into the Soot, my lady,” Big Tim said.
"We will go where the war will be," she said. "I paid you three silver apiece to take me to Kienne. Then to Aredun."
Kamfongil slapped his hand against his shield that hung on his horse. "Where the war will be."
The captain of the guard looked up at the Blood Perch, then stepped aside for Perenenda's company to continue on. Perenenda mounted her horse and her company began to follow.
“And what of the Song Lord?” Big Tim asked.
“I do not know his business with the Ash Men, but when the armies clash at night, we shall be there. If the Field God wills it, he shall be there with us.”
Perenenda rode past the Lanin guards, the red mountains, and the future she had once envisioned so readily. She left Nathamaket alone with her cloth sack of belongings and entered Kienne with an army.
