Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,31

can take us, though it’s only small.”

Crow didn’t care how small it was. A bed and a proper meal sounded good.

“Why?” Tancho pressed. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

“Just wondered if I had time to take my boots off,” Crow said.

“There are baths at the inn,” Tancho said.

Crow got up and clapped his hands. “Then let’s not waste any more time.”

Tancho smiled at that and they walked in silence back to the camp. Soko and Kohaku were having a literal pissing contest at a tree, but Karasu had Maghdlm sitting up. She held a bowl to her mouth. “Just a sip,” she urged.

The old woman appeared even smaller than before, and somehow even more frail. But in the new morning light, Crow could better see her injuries.

Her skin, wrinkled, swollen, and bruised, looked as if someone had pressed too hard on an overripe plum. Crow imagined it had torn much the same way. She was a healer, but how could she heal herself? How could she work her own magicks on herself when she could barely summon the energy to sip water?

Crow knelt beside her. “What do you need?” he asked. “Any herbs or seeds? Wort or hemlock, perhaps?”

Maghdlm gave a nod before she closed her eyes. “Tea,” she whispered.

Crow looked at Karasu, then to Crow. “Will we find that on our path today?”

“There is a farming village not far from here,” Tancho said. “We’ll find fruit for breakfast as well.”

When the fire was extinguished and the horses saddled, Kohaku took poor Maghdlm upon his horse with him, and they set off for the road. At first, Crow thought the sunrise was filtered through the clouds and that the sun would brighten as it climbed higher in the sky.

But it didn’t.

“Does the sunlight look different to anyone else?” Crow asked. “Do my eyes deceive me? Or is the sunshine a different colour in the west?”

“Different, how?” Soko asked.

Crow shrugged. “Diffused, somehow. As if dusk approaches instead of it just being dawn.”

Soko laughed. “I think your eyes are playing tricks on you, my lord. How can the sky be different? The Westlands follow the same sun and stars as we do.”

Tancho shifted in his saddle. “I agree. There is a certain . . . hue.”

Soko frowned up at the sky and continued to frown at the valley and at the river and at the bridges as they made their way to the farmer’s village. “A hue of what?”

Karasu smiled. “Humility.”

Soko gasped loudly and pulled his horse to a stop. “Is that a sense of humour? Blue skies above, she made a joke! I never thought it possible.”

She turned around, not even a glance. “Want to see how funny you find it with my boot print on your britches?”

Kohaku laughed. “I would find that very funny. A nice change for her boot to be aimed at someone else.”

Karasu rolled her eyes, but she did smile. Soko cantered his horse to catch up. “Should we make a wager as to who would win?”

“That’s not a bet you should make,” Tancho said, the corner of his lips lifting.

Soko countered with a good-natured barb and Crow smiled as they rode on, relieved and with a glimmer of hope that this motley band could get along. He doubted it would last long, but he’d take whatever small slivers of amicability he could get.

Around a sweeping river bend, a patch of buildings came into view. Homes built almost on the river, with stone foundations like bridges, white walls, and verandas under wooden shingled roofs, they were so different to Northland houses Crow was used to.

Northland homes were all stone and wood, built to hunker against the snow and cold. These homes were constructed to utilise the water, with water wheels and bridges. It seemed so . . . foreign. And peaceful and fantastic.

Soko grinned at him. “Have you ever seen anything like it?”

Crow tried not to smile too hard. “Never.”

As they drew near, a villager came to the road to greet them. He had long black hair pulled back in a braid, and wore a long linen shirt over pants with a sash at his waist with sandals on his feet. “Welcome.” He bowed his head, then did a double take when he saw Tancho. “My king! Welcome, an honour you bestow upon us.”

Tancho slid down from his horse and took the man’s hand. “Greetings to you. We require some supplies, if you would be so kind.”

The man smiled as if he’d just been handed a