I chose to ignore the pang in my heart and focused on the security arrangements instead. In addition to the visible guards, I spotted several civilians whose level of alertness suggested that they were not the ordinary observers they pretended to be.
Good. The Elucians weren't taking any chances with their shaman. The blessings before the pilgrimages were the only known times of Saphir Fatewever's public appearances, and the Shedun would love nothing better than to take him out.
It would be a blow Elucia might not recover from.
"There they are!" Codric's exclamation drew my attention to the front of the square. "They made it here first."
Kailin sat cross-legged on the ground near the stage where the shaman would perform the blessing, her golden hairgleaming under the aurora lights. Shovia sat beside her, waving enthusiastically at us.
I blamed Codric and his gluttonous feasting for our late arrival. As Elurian gentlemen, we should have arrived first and saved a place for the ladies.
As I quickened my pace, Codric grabbed my arm. "Wait." He doubled over. "Drak, this hurts."
My cousin had a penchant for drama, and I was sure things weren't as bad as he was making them out to be.
"You should have thought about that before stuffing yourself." I softened my tone at his distress. "Just breathe through it. Once we're sitting down, it'll feel better."
Codric lifted a hand. "Give me a moment, please."
"A moment, but no more."
As a sharp, high-pitched bark sounded across the square, I turned to see Chicha straining at her leash, which was held by a woman who had to be Kailin's mother. They had the same delicate features, but the harsh mountain weather or maybe anxiety had etched deep lines around the older woman's eyes.
Kailin's grandmother stood beside her, and when she spotted me, she smiled and waved.
I waved back, oddly pleased by the warm greeting, then turned to Codric. "Okay to go?"
When he nodded, we continued toward the girls.
The crowd was still relatively light, but more pilgrims were arriving by the minute, and if we didn't claim those spots soon, Kailin and Shovia would have a hard time saving them for us.
When Chicha barked again, more urgently this time, I frowned and glanced back. The little dog was practically pulling her leash out of Kailin's mother's hands, but she wasn't trying to get to Kailin as I'd first assumed. Instead, she was facing one of the large planters that decorated the square. Maybe she needed to do her business, and the planter with the rosebush growing in its middle seemed like a good spot.
"Come on," Codric urged, not noticing my distraction. "I need to sit down before I explode."
I kept going while looking over my shoulder at Chicha. She was still barking, and Kailin's grandmother was frowning and saying something to her mother.
"Alar!" Kailin called, waving us over. "Better hurry. We can't hold on to these spots for much longer."
Already, the girls were getting nasty looks from Elucians who also wished to secure a spot at the front, as close as they could to the stage and the famous shaman that would soon stand on it.
I pushed my concerns aside and headed toward her. After all, what could happen here, in the most heavily guarded part of the most secure town in Elucia?
The Shedun would never be foolish enough to attack Skywatcher's Point.
Still, Chicha's frantic barking grated on my nerves, not because I was angry at the dog, but because I was afraid she was sensing something that was making her nervous.
"I think I'm dying," Codric moaned dramatically as we finally reached the girls.
"What happened?" Shovia asked.
"I ate too much." He sat down beside her and folded himself in half. "I think something about the roasted mountain goat disagreed with me. But it was so damn good that it's almost worth the suffering."
I settled my pack beside Kailin's, noticing that she smelled faintly of the herbs growing in the window boxes of her grandmother's apothecary. "Do you know if your gran's remedies are also good for stomach problems?"
"The ginger for sure. We can steep them later in the camp tonight." She looked at Codric. "I just hope he can make the trek to the foot of the mountain. It's not long, just about an hour and a half or so, but still. I don't know if they will let us stop for relief breaks."
As the image of Codric soiling his pants flashed through my mind, I wanted to suggest to him to go before the ceremony started, but another burst of barking distracted me.
