The Icon Unbound

Chapter Nineteen, Part A - The Icon

This chapter is a beast. May require cutting in the final draft, or splitting into three parts, but there is a lot of pay-off from the past. I'm not sure I like how the Icon's past is revealed, how the story gets told. Thoughts, anyone? I did make a few fixes here, just to smooth out some jarring language. --Elizabeth, UPDATED 06/20/2017

Once, a long time ago, all she had to do was stretch out her fingertips and Saiph would take her hand. Was there enough of he left over after everything she'd sacrificed for him to hold on to? Saints, why was this important? Why couldn't she focus on anything else? She was bound, and even if that were no longer true, she had no heart. She was dead.

Outside the door heavy footsteps broke their fragile moment. Saiph whirled around and Nadir struck like a snake. One moment she felt his warmth even through the mattress, and the next he was between her and the door.

A bare gasp later, she heard Rigel's voice.

"Saiph! Get up, we have to get the Icon out of here now."

Saiph went 4to the door, his face once again under the mask of the War Master, as if he had not just trampled all tradition and protocol by calling her name. It had sounded like nectar and ambrosia when pronounced by his lips.

"What's happening out there?"

"They gave us the wrong time for the train. They want to trap us here. Apparently, gold is more precious than we thought."

"Waters receding," Saiph cursed. He turned and pulled her out of bed and hustled her back behind the screen. Without pause for modesty, he helped her back into her dress, jerking at the laces and buttons with rough hands. She stomped into her shoes while he put his own clothes back on.

Once he had his sword resettled at his side, he turned the key in the lock and the door swung open. Nadir went out first, long neck arched like the back of an angry cat, bypassing Rigel and Corwin.

"What is all this about the train?"

Rigel was stringing his bow as he answered. "I couldn't sleep, so I went downstairs for a drink. A few minutes later a few people entered the room and asked if their rooms were ready, apparently they had been trying to negotiate their way onto the train all day, and failed. I asked them why they were so upset wait for the train tomorrow and they looked at me like I was crazy. There won't be another train for a month, they said."

"Are they sure?"

"I went to the depot to check. I spoke to the Chosen that conducts the train, and he said it's leaving within an hour. Apparently this Chosen can't stand these backwater sinkholes, and he's leaving as soon as the rest of his cargo is aboard."

"I take it the tickets the deputy sold us are worthless."

Rigel nodded. "Pocketed the money himself. We have to get to the station as soon as possible. We need to keep a watch on mother. She had her knife out again. Stars alone know what she'll do trapped on a train with a Chosen for a week."

"Better trapped on a train than in a town," Corwin said. "No one avoids notice in places like this for long. Especially ones that came out of nowhere dressed as you were. I should have known getting those tickets was too easy. That man is probably gathering his friends at this moment, planning the best way to rob us."

"Although it is tempting to let them try, I suggest a strategic retreat instead."

The Icon felt her patience wearing thin. Her first experience with people outside her domain would always be tainted by this. No one looked at her eyes, which were probably red from crying. If they did, she hoped they thought they were red from lack of sleep.