Bazza'Jo

Chapter 16

"Rani-" Kal said to her when Gedron had left them alone in their tent. It was the same size as every other tent in the complex, but Gedron swore it was superior due to the weave of the floor - they were less likely to break an ankle here. "I'm sorry. Your uncle-" Raina cut him off.

"Don't. I can't think about that now. Please? We've got to just... just find Nat." She folded back a corner of the door flap and peered out over the camp. She took a deep breath of the fresh air and stood up straight, thinking she still wasn't used to seeing the world from up here. "At least that went well, hey? Hardest test we might have had to pass." She tried to keep her voice lively. Kal had been sullen since before they even went to see Ibli. It was up to her to keep them moving, to keep them from worrying too much. The implications right now were too much to try to break down. If fights and battles were mounting, Kal would have to decide what to do for his entire wood. Decide what side to choose. His brother had already chosen, making his situation harder. And now Raina's uncle had chosen as well - did that make him their friend or enemy? And if Kal chose to oppose them, where did that put Raina? Pushing those thoughts aside, she smiled at him. "Let's go look around. Maybe they've got kitchens here, hey?"

She threw the tent-flap wide open and had started to leave when she felt Kal grab her elbow.

"Thanks, hey? I wouldn't want to be here alone."

Raina smiled more genuinely this time as she looked into his face and read the concern in his familiar Kal-eyes. "You wouldn't be here at all if it weren't for me. I got us both into this mess. We're stuck together now."

"Somehow, I'll cope." Kal returned to his trademark grin.

There were no kitchens in the camp, to Kal and Raina's disappointment. Kreel kitchens, as it turned out, were dependant on steam ovens powered by heat and the excessive water from the swampy bottom of the Padravana forest. The way the North Wood had been drained left the Kreel there with no easy way to run steam ovens. Raina wondered, not for the last time, at the complicated web of causes and effects. She would never have guessed that she'd find herself having a frustrated craving for steambread in the North Wood just because some trees had been cleared near Fort Arnisson. But clearing the trees had caused the swamp to recede, and without the swamp, there were no steam ovens, and with no steam ovens... no steambread. She licked her lips. Little cooking fires burned here and there, but there was no central place to find food or - as they had hoped - the ever-hungry Nat.

Their next plan was to skirt the camp and learn something of how it worked or was organized, and hopefully learn where someone like Nat might be staying. They were quite sure that even if they did allow young boys Nat's age to fight, they wouldn't afford them each their own tents. They probably had group tents or barracks of some kind for the young hooligans Gedron had mentioned. Raina and Kal followed the pathway-branches as high as they could to get an idea of the layout of the camp, then took a wide circle around towards the west side. They passed many people on their way - women and men of all ages - all bearing bows and dressed in hunting gear. They were all friendly, smiling shyly at the two at they shimmied past each other on narrow branches, but the loud, boisterous joy of Kal's home was missing. Everyone was apprehensive and subdued.

They eventuially passed a boy about their - true - age who was carrying a huge bundle of newly carved arrows tipped with a shiny black glass arrowheads. So that's what those are, Raina thought, thinking of the little knife she'd found in the bottom of her new quiver all those moons ago.

Kal waved at the boy to stop instead of moving aside to let him pass. The boy was maybe 12, so pale that he nearly looked Keissarian, and had short cropped hair. He introduced himself as Amar when asked, but seemed impatient.