realise you mustn’t want to be here with me when you could be with your own people. We face uncertainty when we return to my home, with those strange intruders. Who knows what we’re returning to? Something is wrong at Aequi Kentron. I would understand you wanting to be headed home because I would feel the same way should we stand in opposite places right now.”
Crow sighed deeply. “Something is wrong, I agree. But my home is well protected. My people are resilient and strong.”
“We don’t know this enemy or if they are an enemy at all.”
“My castle is many days trek from the northern shore, across steep mountains, snow, and ice. If an invading army survived the mountains, they’d be in no shape for battle once they reached the Northlands’ castle.” Crow met Tancho’s eyes. “Your castle is on the western shoreline?”
Tancho nodded. “We are water people. We live by the water. It’s who we are.”
“And of all four kingdoms, yours is the most accessible. The Eastlands is desert dunes and the Southlands is deep jungle. The Westlands is flat, accessible.”
Understanding crept over Tancho like a cold mist. “So if any intruder wished to invade, the Westlands is the path of least resistance.”
Crow gave a nod. “But how would a foreign army know this?”
“You think someone here told them?”
“Not here, no. But something is afoot at Aequi Kentron. Having the leaders of all four kingdoms there and intruders hit at the same time? I don’t believe in that kind of coincidence. They came to the west for a reason, Tancho.”
Tancho stared at him, and he knew Crow was right.
Someone at Aequi Kentron had betrayed them.
Tancho’s glare hardened. “We need Maghdlm to talk.”
Crow nodded. “So don’t think I regret not going north. What comes at you will be coming at me next. So heading west with you, facing whatever it is we need to face, is where I need to be.”
Chapter Eleven
They rode out at first light and, after riding hard all day, slept under the stars by a campfire when they finally stopped to let the horses rest that night. Crow saw a new determination in Tancho to get home, to get to answers.
Maghdlm had much improved and Karasu had said she was mostly lucid when awake. The medicinal tea kept her comfortable and helped her body heal, and Crow hoped they might soon get answers from her.
They rode through some remarkable scenery. Ornate bridges, beautiful waterways, peaceful landscapes, made even more magical by the golden hue of the sun. There were trees Crow had never seen before, with pretty blossoms and fragrance he couldn’t have imagined.
Trees in the Northlands were scarce higher into the mountains. Sure, there were trees and greenery in the rolling foothills, but the majority of Crow’s homelands were snow-covered alps. The mountains Crow could see to the north were his mountains, far off and getting smaller the farther they rode.
And he loved his country. He missed it, having never been absent from it for so long, having never visited another kingdom. But he had to admit, only to himself, he’d never seen anything so magical as the Westlands.
As they rode further west, the villages were closer together and larger in size. Bustling towns built in harmony with the rivers, with kind villagers who offered their king food and fresh horses. Though the people of Westlands were wary of Crow and Soko in their black cloaks and strange clothes, Tancho reassured everyone they met that they were amongst friends.
Crow knew this was to ease his people’s minds, not for Crow or Soko’s benefit at all, but Crow liked it, nonetheless. They had spent the last few days and nights not more than a few strides apart, constantly in each other’s company. They’d reached some kind of amicable agreement where bickering was fine, the occasional jibe was tolerated, but they hadn’t drawn their weapons on each other in almost two days.
There might be hope for them yet, Crow thought.
Maybe it was the urgency with which Tancho needed to return home. Maybe it was how Crow could sympathise with him, king to king, because Tancho’s homeland might be in danger. An attack on one was an attack on them all.
Maybe it was the way Crow caught Tancho looking at him from the corner of his eye, or the way he smiled or the sound of his laughter, or how his red hair caught the strange golden sunlight . . .
The next night they stayed at an old