“You would not believe me if I told you the truth. I do not wish to begin our journey with you thinking I’m untrustworthy.”
“You think me that narrow-minded?”
Kiora considered her response as the horse plodded through the tall grass. “I do not know you, Alcander,” she finally ventured. “But I know what I am, and I have it on good authority that you will not believe me.”
“You will not tell me?” Alcander’s chin rose high, imperialistic.
“Not yet.”
Alcander’s hands clenching the reins. “I don’t like it.”
They rode in silence for a moment. His back was rigid, elbows held tightly at his sides. Kiora cleared her throat. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?” she ventured.
“It is a rather brazen request considering you won’t answer mine, but continue.”
“Were you hunting us as well?”
“Tracking,” Alcander corrected. “I was tracking you.”
“Why?”
Alcander turned to her again, confusion etched between his eyebrows. “How can you not know?”
“There are a lot of things I don’t know,” Kiora said, drooping under the enormity of the unknown. Only a few days ago she’d felt she was finally understanding what was expected of her. Now she was back at the beginning.
“That is painfully obvious.” Alcander’s white hair flowed out behind him with the breeze. “I was tracking your magic. All good threads in this area have been eliminated one way or the other.” His eyes narrowed. “Yours was strong enough that things were stirring that ought not to be.”
Kiora was bursting with questions about the lack of good threads, him disguising his own, the world she had just walked into, and the Shadow. “I’m not from here,” Kiora started. “Can you tell me what happened? Why there are no threads like ours?”
One side of his mouth turned up before returning to his normal stern expression. “Not yet. Perhaps when you are ready to speak, I will be as well,” Alcander said with a hint of sarcasm.
Kiora stifled a laugh. “All right. I will make you a deal. When you are ready to believe whatever it is I tell you, ask me. And then you can explain everything I do not know.”
It took him a moment but Alcander finally agreed.
Kiora gave him a respectful nod and a shy smile before reining her horse to fall back between Emane and Drustan.
“I don’t like him,” Emane muttered out the side of his mouth.
Alcander’s head turned slightly, as if straining to hear the conversation over the hoof beats. Kiora called to Emane instead. I know, but he is on our side, and the only good thread we know of right now. You will have to be nice.
He asked if I could speak, Kiora.
He is testing us, she tried to reassure Emane. Trying to figure us out, that’s all.
Emane shook his head. He looks at me as if I am a disease. One he cannot decide whether he should feel pity for or be disgusted by.
After Emane had stopped vocalizing his displeasure and Alcander took over the bubble from Kiora, her eyes roamed over the countryside. The meadow had turned to beautiful rolling hills. Tiny homes dotted the hillside in random patterns. She couldn’t see any sign of a village, just homes within eyeshot of each other.
“Who lives here?” Kiora called to Alcander.
“Whoever likes to,” he answered over his shoulder. “Its rightful occupants have long since fled. A host of unpleasant things use them for shelter.”
The nearer Kiora got to the adorable little homes, the less adorable they became. It was clear they had not had a stable owner for some time. The roofs were in disrepair, holes peppering the tops of them. Doorframes sat crookedly with cobwebs laced through them. Drustan looked mournfully at the old homes.
What happened here? Kiora thought to herself. What am I supposed to save? It doesn’t look like anything is left.
They rode for three more hours, with Alcander and Kiora taking turns holding the bubble. She heard the pounding of the water long before they saw it. The air became thick with moisture that settled heavily in her lungs as the horses rode along the ledge at the top of the falls. A massive river flowed next to them, dropping with a roar to the valley below. Turning his horse without a word, Alcander led the way down the edge of the canyon to the base of the falls and into the river. All four horses stepped into the water, still foamy from its drop. Alcander dropped the bubble he’d been holding.