A Thousand Lives I've Seen

42 - The Voice That Calls Us

Roland felt the best he had in a long time as he walked away from Aesfrost. Forming an alliance with Svarog had gone a long way, and he already felt as if the pieces were falling into place. Of course, Roland had no idea what an alliance with Svarog was going to do for the group in the short or long run, but he doubted he would be granted that information even if he asked Quahaug. The timespeaker had a lot of sway within House Wolffort because of his extraordinary knowledge of the future, but he never quite used it in the ways others would have wanted him to. Quahaug kept a lot of secrets, and Roland doubted he would be able to break through that barrier even if he tried. 

At the very least, Roland wasn't stuck thinking about how anxious he was about the situation at hand. The group had a plan, and it all started with going to Hyzante to pick up the salt ledger and then present it to the Holy One. They had made the right call by making an alliance with Exharme rather than Sorsley, and Roland was glad to know that... But he still had a bad feeling about all of this. His group would be passing very briefly through Wolffort territory to check on how Landroi was doing in their absence, but they wouldn't be able to stay for long without being caught in the middle of a fight. Gustadolph had no doubt realized what they were up to, at least to a degree. He had to know House Wolffort was planning something by leaving their territory in Landroi's hands and then disappearing seemingly into the mist. 

Gustadolph. 

As nice of a distraction as Svarog had been, Roland couldn't stop thinking about the archduke of Aesfrost for long. Gustadolph's ambition had ruined so many lives, and he didn't give a damn about it. Roland didn't know what Gustadolph was planning for the future, but there was a deep aching in his chest that told him to be worried. There was something he should have been remembering, something he should have been worrying about in more detail, but he just couldn't pull the memory to the surface. Roland was remembering the past better now than he had in the past, yes, but that didn't amount to much when there was still so much out of his reach. 

The night after the group left Twinsgate, they decided to camp out in the woods near the edge of an active settlement. They would need to march for another day or so before they hit the abandoned village that they had taken advantage of on the way up to Twinsgate, so the wilderness would have to do as a decent enough defense for the time being. At one point, Roland had thought of camping as an adventure, a way to seem a bit closer to the common folk and the ways they liked to spend their time, but that initial thrill had long since faded. It was to be expected given the circumstances even if he didn't want to admit it openly. 

Roland, Frani, and Dragan would have to stay in the camp itself while other members of their group went out to pick up supplies and gossip. There were bound to be a few new nuggets of information about Gustadolph's rule, and even though Roland had a bad feeling about hearing anything about what the archduke was doing, he knew he would have to keep his ears open. If something bad happened to Cordelia while she was with Gustadolph, then he would have never been able to forgive himself. 

Cordelia was perhaps the greatest source of Roland's concern these days. Quahaug had told him time and again that she was safe as long as she was with Avlora, but none of that made a lick of sense to Roland. He wanted to understand just what Quahaug was talking about when he said such seemingly blasphemous things, but the timespeaker never told him the truth. He always seemed so uncertain when Avlora came up, almost as if he didn't even know her intentions. What was the point of gathering information for a century and a half if there were still a few facts that remained out of his reach? There had to be some way for him to figure out what Avlora was doing with Cordelia. 

And more importantly, Quahaug needed to know what Gustadolph was doing with Cordelia. 

Roland had been told over and over that he could place his faith in Avlora as a temporary guardian for his younger sister, but he just couldn't bring himself to actually commit to that. How could he? Avlora had very nearly killed Frani, and while Roland and his brother weren't necessarily on speaking terms at the moment, he still didn't want to see Frani dead. In every past timeline, Avlora had succeeded in killing Frani. Roland couldn't just let that go. She was an extension of the war machine Gustadolph had put together when he invaded Glenbrook, and Roland couldn't let that go so easily.