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Eva'shandspausedasa furtive rustling came from the tall grasses not far from where she stood.
One truth she'd come to understand in the months since joining the Trateri, a group of clans that had recently conquered a good bit of the Broken Lands—the Highlands were never quiet.
There was always something. Some noise or sound to keep you company. Even if you were totally alone, not another human for hundreds of miles, there would never be true silence. You only had to listen to hear the wind ripping down from the mountain tops to play in the valleys and ravines below. There'd be the call of birds or the hum of insects. Small animals rooting for food in the grasses and trees.
Eva had long become used to it. To the point she barely noticed anymore, unless a discordant note was introduced into the harmony.
Like now.
Whatever was out there was determined. If not for the way the sounds abruptly stopped every time she looked in its direction, as if fearing discovery, she'd say it wanted her attention.
But that would be ridiculous.
Except, not really.
For some reason, the thought felt right. True. As if there was a little voice in the back of her mind influencing her perception.
Just like before, the movement abruptly stopped as soon as Eva started paying attention.
Moments ticked by; the sudden silence loud. As if the world held its breath.
The dappled gray mare Eva was in the middle of brushing aimed a disgruntled look at her when she paused once again. Caia reached back, lipping Eva's hands in silent demand.
"Fine, fine, your highness. I won't slack off anymore. My bad," Eva murmured to the mare, still preoccupied by their hidden watcher as she resumed brushing, her strokes slower than before.
Caia shook her head, her mane flying in a wordless rebuke before she leaned further into Eva's hands. Even under the best of circumstances, the mare could be demanding, acting every bit the queen Eva sometimes thought of her as. She was even worse when it came time for grooming. Never satisfied until Eva felt like her hands would fall off her wrists from exhaustion.
Sure enough, as soon as Eva took her attention off their watcher, the rustling resumed. The creature's caution forgotten in the face of its goal.
Eva smirked. That didn't take long.
Then again, patience wasn't exactly the creature's strong suit.
At the renewed sounds, a man poked his head over the horse he'd been tending. Unlike many Trateri, he was fair skinned with dirty blond hair and green eyes, a sign that he had Lowlander somewhere in his ancestry.
The Trateri had a long tradition of co-opting others into their clans. A nice way of saying they kidnapped people they took a liking to. Strange thing was, a lot of those people ended up joining the very clans they had every right to view as their enemy.
That was the Trateri for you, though. They had a way of getting under your skin. Making you see things in a different light. Next thing you knew, you were going out of your way to prove yourself. Fighting for a place among them and accepting tents you had no idea how to erect.
Jason leaned his forearm on the horse's back and quirked an eyebrow at Eva in question.
Eva shook her head and rolled her eyes to the sky. She didn't know either.
A soft huff of amusement escaped him. It wasn't the first time strange things had happened around Eva, nor would it be the last.
At least their watcher didn't pose a threat. At least not to their lives. Their sanity and peace of mind? That was an entirely different story.
Eva checked on her guard for the afternoon. Specially assigned to protect her, he was an Anateri, part of a deadly group of warriors whose main responsibility was the protection of Fallon Hawkvale, Warlord and leader of the Trateri clans, along with his interests.
Somehow, Eva had managed to become one of those interests.
She was a Caller. The first in centuries. A title that had slowly faded from memory for all except a select few.
Her ability allowed her to hear the thoughts and desires of mythologicals, a group of beings with the same intelligence and cunning as a human. Mythologicals had long been considered absent from the Broken Lands. It was only recently they'd been freed from their imprisonment in the Badlands.
With them, they brought the potential for a new status quo—and the need for alliances.
