Chapter Nine
It didn’t occur tome until after Taio agreed to allow Gaz, Nize, and Finnrey to accompany us that I didn’t exactly have the authority to make that offer.I looked at Old Ceba, who squeezed my hand.“Leave it to me,” he said, as though reading my thoughts.
He departed with his great-grandson, and I remained with the Zuleniis.Omira stalked over to me.“If your countrymen so much as look at us in the wrong way, I will kill them.I do not trust any of you.”
“Noted,” I said.I didn’t add that I thought any one of us could easily defeat her.I would give anything for another chance at Taio in the arena.Knowing what I knew now about how he fought, I could beat him.I imagined his throat opening under my blade and his blood spilling out.Those thoughts kept me entertained until Gaz and Nize returned with Jolen.From the expressions on Gaz and Nize’s faces, I knew the men had been told they would also be leaving in the morning.I couldn’t tell if they were pleased or angry.They simply looked determined.
For his part, Finnrey’s brother eyed the Zuleniis warily.He cut an angry glance at me.I assumed that meant he knew Finnrey had also been tapped to go with us.
“Where should we put the books?”Nize asked.
“Here.”I cleared off Dlyenko’s writing table, and Nize spread the books and map over the top.Gaz, Nize, Jolen, and I stood on one side of the table, and the Zuleniis stood on the other.Gaz opened the atlas to the section with the western part of the kingdom while Jolen ran a finger over a map of the region.“This is Zulen,” he said, indicating an area colored red but with no markings other than rivers and mountains.Either Bothkin hadn’t known about any civilizations in Zulen or that information had been removed.Knowing my father, I suspected he’d had all information about other kingdoms scrubbed from our maps, arguing the knowledge of those places was dangerous.Well, at the moment,nothaving that knowledge was dangerous.
“Where do you live?”Jolen asked Taio.
He pointed to a confluence of two rivers.“This is Zleyval, our capital city.There is a lake here.”He pointed to a green area.I nodded.The city was surrounded by water.I was beginning to understand how the people there had survived.
Jolen studied the border.“Our furthest outposts are here”—he pointed to a northwesterly spot on the map—“and here.It’s so dangerous the patrols live in fortified structures.”
I let out a breath.The outposts were much closer to Highcastle than I’d thought.So much of the western border was unprotected.
“Were you at the outposts, my lord?”Gaz asked.
“No.I patrolled here.”Jolen pointed to an area south of the Zulenii capital and across the river in Earsleh.“That was the hardest patrol I have ever served on.We saw daily attacks by the Hollows who managed to cross the river.”
“Is it still like that?”Nize asked.
“We cleared them out and the builders made some progress on the Barrier,” Jolen said.“But a mile or two of Barrier comes at an enormous price.”He looked across the table.“We lost half our patrol in a coordinated attack by the Hollows.”
“Coordinated?That’s impossible.”
Jolen gave me a look that was very similar to the one Finnrey gave me when she thought I did something only a dusthead would do.
“What is this word?Coordinated?”Taio asked.
“It means they acted together,” I said.“But Hollows don’t act together.They travel in packs, but they don’t attack in a cohesive way.I’ve often seen one step on another or stumble over each other when they catch the scent of flesh.”
Jolen nodded.“That was my experience too.Until I saw that attack with my own eyes.They worked together, Mara.Do you think we would have lost so many otherwise?”
I stared into his dark eyes then looked away.I didn’t like the pain I saw in his gaze.I didn’t like the fear I felt when I looked too long.Before today I would have asked why I hadn’t ever heard about these coordinated attacks, but I had learned the court kept far more secrets than I’d suspected.What sort of panic might have ensued if word got out that Hollows could plan and work together?
Thank the gods Jolen’s patrol had killed that pack.I’d seen no sign of that behavior on my patrols.
I stared at the topography of the western part of the kingdom on the map.The river Jolen referenced ran from the kingdom north of Zulen, cutting through the western highlands of Earsleh, the forest, and much further south turning into a great waterfall.I’d patrolled there and seen those falls.Directly southwest of us, through lowlands and farming settlements, was the quickest way to Zulen.But the far western part of this trek was also the area where Jolen had been stationed.Northwest was the great forest.Everyone knew that was infested with Hollows.The builders had not even been able to extend the Barrier there yet.
“This way,” Taio said, even as I had the thought to ask the path he had traveled.I looked down at his long finger, which traced a path directly through the forest.
“Is that the way you traveled?”I asked.
“Yes.The fastest route.”
“And the most dangerous,” Gaz said.He put a finger on the map.“Hollows don’t like water.We stay by the sea and go north, then once we’re near the mountains, we cut west.The rocky terrain and elevations will give us the advantage as we move south, and we can stay near this river”—he pointed to one of the wavy blue lines that bordered Zleyval—“and enter the capital.”
“We will be killed as soon as we descend from the mountains,” Taio said.He pointed to the base of the mountains.“Great numbers of Twilight Men—what you call Hollows—are here.”
I blinked and cut my gaze to Gaz.This information was new to us and might be important to our defense.The highlands were always something of a natural obstacle, but we should talk to Ecdra and ask him to make plans to shore up the Barrier we’d built northeast of the highlands.Gaz nodded, as though reading my thoughts.
