The TwiceBorn

A Gathering of Ghosts

"Oh,and the song she throws is not one I know...but it knew me."--Dermot Kennedy

"Islinn!" Aubery's squawk carried across the small clearing and Gre tightened up at the sound. Islinn had been staying in the background, making herself small, even though she probably knew she was only prolonging some unknown inevitable. She glanced up, brushing her hair back from her face. Syrus and Hack honed in on the simple gesture.

"Get these boys' horses, they'll be staying a while." Aubery commanded then glanced at Syrus and Hack with an easy smile. Gre watched as the man and the younger boy exchanged glances. They all silently watched as Islinn walked over and took the horses' reins, casually looping them through sun-browned fingers. Gre let out an explosive burp and watched as the boy called Hack glanced his way and sneered.

"She yourn?" There was a slight challenge beneath Hack's words.

Syrus's eyes never looked away as he watched Islinn tend to the horses. Gre could almost see him toting up the coin he'd make on selling her.

"Nope," Reluctantly Gre held out his aleskin, not wanting to share but knowing it was probably the only distraction that might work. Syrus' stare flickered away from Islinn and he reached for the 'skin. He slapped Hack's leg from over his shoulder and proffered the skin after a long swallow. Gre frowned. They were still a fair piece from Refuge as far as he could tell from his smudged map and he'd already had several horrible sweaty moments of thinking he might have to...ration.

"How far are we out of Refuge? Our map smudged in the rain." Gre asked, mournfully watching his aleskin go back and forth between Syrus and Hack. Syrus shrugged.

"Not too far'n. Hack and I...we been ridin' hard, so...it'll take you two...three...a little longer."

"Riding hard? Why?" Aubery's voice chimed in and Gre watched as Syrus and Hack glanced at each other again. It wasn't hard to see there was far more to their story but Gre didn't really care. It wasn't a mystery, they showed up, horses blowing hard from being ridden too long with not enough rest, they had a story that sounded like they'd thrown it together just before pulling up in their camp, barely any supplies by the look of their flat saddlebags and now they were reluctant to say why when asked?

Gre held his hand out and gestured impatiently for his skin.

"Well..." Syrus looked at Hack then brayed a nervous laugh. Hack shrugged. "We took in a spot o' trouble. We was workin' Woolsey's fields and he wasn't payin our wages. He kept his coin in the cuttin' shed so...Hack and I...well...we tole him we needed our coin but he said he didn't care. So...we went into the shed to kindly take our share,ya know?"

Gre knew. He remained silent and took a long swig from his alarmingly light aleskin. More like they snuck in there to steal everything the man Woolsey had. Syrus suddenly slapped his knee and brayed laughter.

"Now...ol Hack here and I, we went in there and guess what we saw? Heard some noise...thought it might be some slaves tryin to escape, hidin out til mornin. But it was ol' Woolsey, in the hay with this big ol bull plowin him up from behind. And Woolsey screamin like a girl wid his pants down and his hands a'diggin into the hay. Thought I was gonna sick up, right then and there."