to reveal the other person underneath, and my breath caught when I confirmed it was Kallindra. I had difficulty taking a new breath after that, as often happens when peace abandons us and we are besieged by storms. I blubbered and gasped and shut my eyes to the horror of her vacant expression and open lips past which no wind moved. When strangers die, you let that knowledge flow around and past your mind, perhaps thinking “How sad,” or “What a tragedy.” These sympathetic thoughts never affect your breath. But when someone you know personally dies, it is like a thunderclap in the heart. And the manner of Kallindra’s death was nothing more than a result of unreasoning hatred. It’s an airborne poison, hatred is, for I felt it filling my lungs and contaminating my thoughts. It is how violence thrives and peace withers. I caught myself hoping that Ponder had made a mistake and withheld breath from the Eculans a few seconds too long. Unworthy and wrong of me but nonetheless fervently wished in that moment. And I remembered the words Jubal spoke to me, that once I saw violent death, it would change me, make me capable of violence myself. I hoped he was wrong, but my thoughts suggested he might have been right.
Kallindra and the young man—perhaps her brother?—had been killed by slashes to their throats. The blood had stained her tunic and pooled underneath her neck, where her hair had become mired in it.
“Gondel. We need to be leaving,” Ponder’s voice floated into my consciousness and hung there until I could attach some significance to it.
“What?”
“Look.” I turned around and saw that there were more Eculans coming from the city. Many more, too many to count. “I can’t handle that many without resorting to violence.”
I wanted to tell him to resort to it immediately. Summon winds to lift them high in the air, as my brother had to the Hathrim, and let them fall to their deaths. These monsters had no regard for peace. But it was not my place to give such orders, and even if it was, it wouldn’t be in keeping with Reinei’s teachings.
“Her journal,” I muttered to myself. “Where is her journal?” If she had kept up with it, I might learn what had happened after I left her. I found it lying on her belly, her left arm draped over it as if to shield it from violation. I slipped it out and squeezed her cold hand. “I am so sorry, Kallindra. I hope you and your family are not haunting the winds here. Be at peace. Your story will be told.”
“Scholar, we really need to go!” Ponder said.
“Coming!”
I scrambled out as best as I could, fingers pinched tightly around the journal, and Ponder lifted us up and away from the reach of the Eculans. The wind didn’t carry us back toward Setyrön, however, which surprised me. Ponder instead floated us out over the harbor and set us down on the deck of one of the anchored Eculan ships, well out of spear range but still within their sight. They could try swimming out after us if they wished or board a boat to chase us, but it didn’t matter. We’d have plenty of time to react to anything they tried.
“What do you want to do now?” Ponder asked.
“Report to Setyrön that Möllerud is actively occupied and all their party is lost.”
“Should we do that, though, when they might see us depart and decide to follow us to Setyrön?”
“I don’t think it will make a difference,” I said. “They already knew the people they slaughtered came from that direction. And they saw us coming from that direction as well. We won’t be giving them any new information. But Setyrön doesn’t know about this. They should be warned.”
“Very well. And after that?”
“We will head north. Continuing to seek information here will lead us both into a situation where we must break the peace. Let us visit Göfyrd and then the capital. Trading facts with the pelenaut might be fruitful.”
The tempest nodded but said nothing. He folded his arms and frowned at the pale bodies collecting at the shore.
“Ponder?”
“Yes?”
“Do you know of any way to give the spirits you see here some measure of peace?”
He shook his head slowly. “I wish I did, Gondel.”
As if in answer the wind picked up and howled about our ears. I couldn’t bear to stand anymore, and I crumpled to the floor of the boat, hugging Kallindra’s