Deathless (Editing)

Chapter 5: The Proposal

The next day I woke propped up in ties on Penny, who walked at a lively gait. It was barely daybreak, and we were on the winding trail to the river.

Stunned that I was on a horse and not a cot, I stared menacingly into the back of Tolly's head. He must have felt the heat of my gaze because it was not shortly after that he responded, "Awake?"

I rubbed my eyes with the heel of my hand and let out a long yawn. "How far away are we from the river?"

He gave me a hooded sidelong gaze. "We're close."

"How do we cross?" I had not thought much about it, but it had been there, nagging at me. I strongly suspected that neither he nor the horses walked on water, so we would have to load into a boat.

He brushed my question aside. "I received correspondence today from Quetzalcoatl." His words were laced with excitement.

I stared at him, nonplussed. "Who is he? I mean, Quetzalcoatl?" More importantly, where did this man go? I hadn't seen him.

Tolly's eyes flicked up. Clearly, my ignorance had resurfaced, reminding him that, yes, we did live in two very separate, very different realities. "Quetzalcoatl isn't a he. Quetzalcoatl is the Lord High Commander's messenger bird."

"Messenger bird?" I had heard of the Imperial messenger pigeons. They were rumored to carry letters wrapped around their legs. "They name messenger birds now?" I asked, rubbing my eyes with the heel of my hand.

Tolly loosened a sigh and shook his head. "You are rather dim."

My brows furrowed at this assessment. Sure, I didn't know things about commanders and birds, but I knew other things, things that were necessary to surviving in an inhospitable land as a stranger.

A boyish grin thinned Tolly's lips at my offence. "The Lord High Commander has summoned me to the village near the river."

"Oh?"

Reading my face like a book, he elaborated, "We will not have to cross the river to have an audience with him."

"Why isn't he across the river?"

Tolly had dropped his pace to match mine until our horses walked side-by-side on the path. "He came to guard a caravan of supplies."

Oh, right. The commander was probably sent to ensure the proper aid made it to the warfront since his Lieutenant was presumed dead.

This realization, however, raised the bigger question: Why were two high ranking men of the Guard required to ensure supplies made it to camp? The obvious answer was that the Bone Priest's legion must have paid mercenaries to disrupt the supply routes because, otherwise, the townspeople of the Silts surely would have heard news that the Imperial Guard had failed to hold the Shadowlands that bordered the Veil.

"Mercenaries?" I asked meekly, the word hung between us, small and wishful.

Tolly nodded. "You're catching on," he said, condescendingly, and jabbed me in the arm with his elbow.

"So, we don't have to cross the river?"

Tolly rolled his eyes and tutted at my stupidly placed hope. He did not even dignify my question with a response as his horse strode ahead of mine.

"We will join the supply caravan with the Lord High Commander."

So, we were definitely crossing the river. I frowned and breathed a long sigh.

We continued following the faded trail for a few hours before we entered the town of Ailes. Ailes was a short distance from the Seamless, which was where the River Lee laid, tearing through the land.