Chapter 5 - Ty
Ty awoke in front of a roaring fire. Furs were thrown over him, and a scratchy but firm pillow supported his head.
It took his eyes a second to adjust to the dim lighting after the day spent in the blinding snow. He was lying on a sort of settee that looked like it had been pushed in front of the fire, if the bunched-up, threadbare rug was any indication. The flagstone floor was dull and stained with soot and ash, and the walls showed the same wear and tear. The room was tidy, to be sure, but bare. Besides the fire poker and the settee, he couldn’t see any other decoration or embellishment. This room was not in the palace.
Where was Kenna?
He sat up, the heavy blankets sliding down to his waist with the movement. A wave of dizziness hit him so hard that he slammed his eyes shut and gripped the back of the settee hard enough to dent it. Nausea rolled through him.
“You’re awake!” The chipper voice sounded from somewhere behind him. There was a patter of footsteps, and then a young girl appeared in front of him. She was bright-eyed with rosy cheeks. The dress she wore positively swamped her, dragging on the floor as she walked. Her long hair was separated into two braids at her ears.
“Here.” She thrust a warm bread roll into his hands. “Mammy said to make sure you eat once you wake up.” Her nose wrinkled. “It doesn’t taste very good, though.”
Ty opened his mouth to speak, to ask where his queen was, but he couldn’t seem to get his tongue to move or form sounds. Panic rose. Where was he? Where was Kenna? He looked around, but the room was empty save for the child staring into his soul. There was a door on the side wall, but it was shut tight.
“Mammy said not to let you get up until you’ve finished the roll.” The little girl plopped down onto the settee, sitting directly on his shins. Pins and needles he hadn’t noticed before now exploded through his legs. “The pretty lady is talking with Mammy right now. She told me to come get her once you woke up.”
The little girl got right up in his face, so close that he went cross-eyed trying to look at her. “If I go get the pretty lady, do you promise not to move? You could probably lie back down. That’s probably allowed.”
Ty nodded. Was this a fever dream? Was he hallucinating? Did he die? Was this death?
“Okie! Don’t move your butt.” The little girl vaulted off him. The pins and needles moved like lightning through his body. His arms and legs seized with pain, and his head fell back against the chair as he gritted his teeth against the onslaught of sensation. What the hell was going on?
He tracked the little girl as she skipped around the settee and toward the door. She threw it open wide enough that he could easily see into the little kitchen beyond. The countertops and shelves were crammed with jars of every size and color. There was a giant table in the center of the room, around which two women stood, their heads bent together in conversation. A lone candle cast long shadows on their faces, exaggerating their strained features and tense whispers. But the little girl cut right through and tugged on the skirt of the older woman. She pointed back toward Ty, and both women turned to him.
He met Kenna’s gaze immediately. She stood across from the older lady — the little girl’s mammy, he presumed — with a steaming mug in hand. She’d changed out of her riding habit and hunting overcoat. Instead, she wore a burnt-orange sweater he’d never seen before and a new pair of hunting boots. Did the other women supply her with clothes? Where the hell were they?
With another murmur to the little girl’s mammy, Kenna excused herself and joined Ty in the other room, closing the door behind her.
They were alone.
She perched on the edge of the settee, careful not to jostle him. She held her mug and a bowl of what looked like hearty stew. His mouth watered as the smell of lamb and vegetables wafted to him.
She leaned forward, and he noticed that her hair was tied back in a tight ponytail. She only wore her hair like that when she was being tactical; he’d rarely seen the style since she’d stopped attending the summer training camps with him on the mountain peaks.
Kenna pushed the bowl of stew into his hands. “Can you sit up to eat?” Her voice was a quiet rumble, interrupting the crackling fire.
With a wince, he pushed himself up into a seated position. The movements felt weirdly stiff and agonizing, and he noticed Kenna watching himwatched Kenna watch him struggle with a concerned look. “I’m so sorry you’re in pain right now. I should’ve been watching more closely; I should’ve noticed the signs of hypothermia sooner.”
He willed his tongue to move, to make sounds, garbled as they were. “Do not apologize to me for this.”
She cocked her head, and he hoped she could piece together what he’d meant. Careful not to slosh the hot mush, he took the bowl from her grasp and used the bread roll the little girl had left him to scoop the nutrients. It burned going down, but it was the kind of savory burn that warmed one’s insides after a long day of work. He took another bite. “Where are we?” he asked around a mouthful of bread and vegetables.
Kenna leaned back on one arm, watching him as he ate. She waited a minute before answering, “Korvo.”
He almost choked on his next bite. “The river port?”
“That is the only town named Korvo that I know of.”
“What the hell are we doing this far down the mountain? Why aren’t we at the palace?”
She adjusted the neckline of the sweater that wasn’t hers. The sleeves covered her hands. “We are in Korvo,” she began carefully, testing out the words, “because when we broke the tree line and made it onto the palace grounds, the first thing I saw was Savannahland flags flying from every turret. We hadn’t yet been spotted by the patrol guard, so I made a game-time decision.”
“To take us to Korvo.”
“That’s right.”
Ty bit off another piece of the roll. He chewed slowly as he thought. The patrol guards were mountaineers. They would be loyal to Kenna as the scion of the mountains. So why didn’t she run to them? Why didn’t she utilize her soldiers? He looked up at her, but her head was turned to the side, watching the flames dance in the fireplace. Her face was lit up in oranges and reds and golds, in shadows and highlights. She looked like a painting. Like a portrait of a goddess that an amateur had dedicated their life to recreating.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
She looked at him, and there was a hard glint in her gaze. He knew that look; remembered it from their summers spent at the training camps. It was a look that meant she’d made her decision and would stand behind it, even if she wasn’t fully comfortable with it. “I did try to get us into the palace,” she said. One hand rose to push an escaped strand of hair behind her ear. “I thought I could trust my soldiers. I got us close to the outer wall, so close. Close enough that, as we raced parallel to it, I could’ve reached and touched it with my fingertips.” She mimed the motion, the tips of her fingers dancing a breath away from his cheek. He didn’t dare move. He didn’t dare breathe.
“But then they spotted us.” She shrugged, but it was just a touch too stiff to be casual. “The soldiers on the wall in Savannahland uniforms tried to shoot us down from the horse, but we were practically hugging the wall, and they couldn’t angle their guns to reach us. We made it to the gates, but it wasn’t my men stationed there. And so, I chose to flee the palace as opposed to being gunned down by Savannahland men outside my own palace gates. It was a tactical decision.”
There it was. That word. Tactical. She loved to use that word when she switched her heart off. When it was just her brain working overtime to make decisions as the Mountains’ Sovereign. He knew he wouldn’t be able to shake her from the mindset, no matter what he tried. The only way out was through. However long she needed to operate in that mindset, he’d support her.
Ty sat up straighter. If his queen intended to think tactically, then he would too. “Why don’t I remember any of this?”
“You had passed out well before that point.” Kenna waved her hand. “It was all I could do to keep you centered on the horse.”
He leaned back and finished the last of his stew. Now that she’d mentioned it, there was an acute pounding in his head that beat in time to the flicker of flames on the wall. So she’d saved his life twice that day: first, by saving him from certain death by an assassin, and second, from the snow and cold.
“I was that bad, huh?”
A tiny smile. “Yeah. Should’ve kept those snow pants.”
He’d be dead if he’d kept that frigid thing. The water weight in them alone would’ve cost them precious time. He set the bowl to the side and carefully, so carefully, swung his legs over the side of the settee so he could sit up fully. The heat of the flames greeted him, and Kenna shifted to make room. Her hand fluttered around his neck, as if she wanted to assist but wasn’t sure how.
His head was spinning faster than his thoughts could keep up. They were both injured, yet somehow alive. How was that possible?
“Why are we in Korvo?” His voice came out in a grunt as sensation returned to his legs in full force.
Kenna leaned back against the arm of the chair, studying him once more. No doubt assessing his strength and readiness. “I know the healer here. Odie. It was she who tended to my parents in their final weeks. There is no better apothecary on this side of the mountain range. I didn’t know how bad off you were—what kind of state you’d be in—and I wasn’t willing to take any chances when it came to you. Traveling a little further to get you the care you needed wasn’t even a question worth considering.”
“So she knows you, then, this healer. Odie.”
Kenna quickly cast her eyes down. “No. She and I have never met officially before today. Grannie never let me near her when she’d come to the palace for my parents’ treatments. They didn’t know if she’d catch their disease, and Grannie certainly didn’t want it passing to me.”
“What did you say then, when you showed up on her doorstep? How did you convince her to help a seemingly total stranger?”
“She took one look at you and saw the greatest medical challenge she’d ever tackle,” Kenna said dryly.
“Kenna.”
“I traded Maple. She could keep the horse if she healed you. We’re lucky Maple is worth enough for her care and her silence.”
“Kenna.”
“Do not chastise me. I regret nothing.”
“How will we get back up the mountain without her? I don’t quite feel up to walking.”
Kenna licked her lips. “We’re not going back up the mountain. We’re going to buy passage on a boat and sail down the river.”
A beat passed. “Okay.” Another beat of silence. “Why?”
But Kenna didn’t answer. Instead, she stood and started pacing in front of the fire. He watched her wear a track into the already-ruined rug as the first crack in the lens of her tactical worldview appeared. Anxiety radiated from the way she wrung her hands together and pushed up the sleeves of the sweater in irritation.
It took every ounce of self-control Ty possessed to stop himself from reaching out to her. To halt her pacing with a hand on her elbow. To stand up and take her face in the firelight and look into her eyes and tell her it was going to be okay. He would make it okay, just so she could breathe a little easier.
Instead, he forced himself to lean back against the settee and spread his arms over the plain backing. He hooked an ankle over a knee, quite pleased that his joints didn’t seem to bark in as much pain as before.
“Hey,” he prodded. “Why are we going to sail down the mountain and away from your capital and palace?”
“Because I’ve been run out,” she whispered. “Barred entrance to my own palace by soldiers not under my command. The seat of my power is held by foreigners, and I am clearly worth more to them dead than alive, if earlier today is any indication.”
She swallowed, and Ty could practically see her mind re-bricking its tactical exterior brick by brick. She settled her face into one of no expression before continuing. “We need somewhere to go, somewhere to hide. No doubt they know by now that the assassination attempt failed. They will be searching for us. And Korvo is a big city. They will be on the way if they’re not here already.”
Ty nodded. As much as he hated to admit it, she wasn’t wrong. If he were searching for a fugitive, Korvo would be the first place he would look. Her logic was sound.
At last, she sat again and turned to face him. The barest hint of emotion shone on her face as she implored him. “We must find a ship sailing for the Beyond. It is your ancestral stronghold, and the one place no one from Savannahland would dare venture. We can rally troops and draft our response from there.”
“I agree.” With more effort than was appropriate, he stood. Black overtook his vision from the blood rush, but he stayed standing. After his vision cleared, he extended ahis hand to his queen. “Let’s go.”
“Oh, how wonderful! You’re on your feet!”
Ty whipped around to see the other woman, Odie, step into the room with a tray and fresh, steaming mugs. She took Kenna’s mug and his bowl before appraising him with a stern eye.
“Stand up straight, dear. Hold your arm out.”
He did as he was told, and Odie took his forearm, studying his skin intently. It was a bit awkward standing there. He met Kenna’s eyes over Odie’s bent head and asked, “Rings?”
“Rings.” She affirmed with the smallest nod.
After a drawn-out minute, Odie released his arm. “Almost back to perfection, my dear. Drink the rest of this tea to restore your energy, and I tucked a tin can of salve in with your pack of things as well. It’ll help with the longer-lasting nerve pain. You need to be more careful in the snow in the future, dear. You Hunters from the Beyond aren’t as agreeable to the cold as we Mountain folk.”
Kenna froze. Her shoulders rose to her ears, and she looked at Ty in alarm as he jumped into her head. “Did you tell her I was a Hunter?”
“No. Ty, I never mentioned the Beyond once. I told her we strayed from the mountain trail and got lost in the fresh snow.”
Ty pursed his lips and said to Odie, “I cannot thank you enough for your help, milady. But I fear you’re mistaken. I’m from Mountain Sira, not the Beyond.”
Odie tsked. “Do not repay my kindness with immediate lies, dear. I changed you out of your frozen hunting gear. I saw your scarring up close. It may have been the first I’ve ever seen, but even the blind would recognize a Hunter’s map to home.”
Behind Odie, Kenna mimed smacking her forehead as Ty’s heart sank. Of course. How could he be so stupid? In the Beyond, every Hunter had a map to home carved into them once they were inaugurated as Hunters. It was a traditional practice from when the Beyond was a lawless land, not yet a territory of the Mountain Kingdom. The map signified the child was ready to venture away from home and join their first hunting party. To be deemed ready for the map was the greatest honor and milestone in every child’s life.
Every map was unique to each Hunter but bore the same foundation. It had the outer perimeter of the Beyond, stretching from the collarbone to the hip bone, and the river that bisected the Beyond from east to west traced just below the ribs. The rest was arbitrary. Hunters would include their home camps as the biggest markings and most of the trails nearby. If their hunting parties had specific territories, those too would be outlined. Growing up, Ty had been taught that no two maps were the same; each had carvings that bore significance to the individual alone.
On his map, Ty had the border and the river, like the rest of his kin. He had the plateau that housed Fortress Beacon, his childhood home and the seat of the Beyond’s power, where his parents held court, in the divot at the bottom of his ribcage. His brothers’ villages were over his abs. The lowlands where his brothers and parents, and sometimes he as well, hunted. As well as the major trails connecting Fortress Beacon to his brothers’ homes and the lowlands. And a lone trail—passing through the border and curving around his side before ending between his spine and shoulder blades—that led to the capital of the Mountains and his home of the last fifteen years, the Grand Palace.
But the giant maps crisscrossing entire torsos also made the Hunters identifiable outside of the Beyond. And against those who did not understand the lifestyle of the Beyond, who only knew of the old prejudices, it made them easy targets. It had been drilled into Ty never to share that he was a Hunter, nor to share if he was from the Beyond, either, if he could help it. Being the ambassador from the Beyond to the Mountain Kingdom and the proclaimed heir to the dukedom made the latter harder to hide. But he had never told anyone that he’d been inaugurated as a Hunter. Never removed his shirt during the summers spent at the camps or at other training sessions in the Palace. Never shared the real reason for his two-month vacations back to the Beyond; yes, it was to see his family and his territory, but it was also to assist his brothers when their hunts turned particularly dangerous.
Kenna was the only person on this side of the Mountains who knew he was a true Hunter of the Beyond, not just in name only. She guarded his secret as closely as she guarded her Sacred Name, always making his excuses or stepping in with well-timed executive decisions to keep him from being outed. And now, in a moment of weakness, a well-known healer from the greatest city on the continent’s greatest river knew his secret.
Odie would die tonight.
Ty made up his mind in the blink of an eye. Determination settled on his shoulders, and he took one step forward. Just one.
Odie held up her hands. “What you’re doing so far outside of the Beyond is none of my business, dear. I am not foolish enough to be your enemy.”
“Ty.” Kenna’s voice was a whisper in his mind, but there was a note of warning in her tone that gave him pause. “She has a child.”
Odie’s hands were still up, her palms facing him. “I should like to count a Hunter as an ally. No one will ever know you were here.”
“It’s a shame I don’t need your alliance.”
The older lady barked a laugh. “I saved your life, dear. You certainly needed it a few hours ago.”
“Ty, I will not let you kill her. She is Mountain folk, and she is innocent save for the crime of knowledge. You cannot kill my subjects just because they lack the common sense to keep their mouths shut.”
He looked over his shoulder at Kenna, irritated. Didn’t she understand the threat this information would pose if it got out? If people learned that a rogue Hunter was roaming the mountainsides? There would be manhunts. It wouldn’t take the rebels at the palace long to connect the dots—to figure out who that Hunter was. But he snapped at the woman, “You have one chance to convince me to spare your life. I recommend choosing a different course than 'wanting to be friends.’”
The woman jerked her chin at Kenna. “I failed to heal her father. I failed to keep her mother by her side. I do not intend to fail this girl a third time.”
Kenna gasped, and Ty lowered his hands. That certainly was a different tactic than the power of friendship. He backed up, so that he was standing closer to Kenna, just in front of the fireplace with the settee between them. She held on tight to the wall; her face pale as if she’d seen a ghost. He kept his hands loose by his sides as he demanded, “Explain yourself.”
Odie offered him a razor-thin smile. “Did you think I would not recognize the face of my queen? The face with nigh-identical features to the other queen who I couldn’t convince to stay? It may have been fifteen years, but my memory has not failed me yet.”
Kenna raised her chin. “How can I trust you?”
“You trusted me when you thought you had the protection of anonymity. I don’t see why that has to change now. I fed and warmed you. Healed your companion. If I wanted to harm you, trust that I would have already.” When neither he nor Kenna said anything, she added, “I have been keeping your family’s secrets for fifteen years now, dear. Have I ever caused you a problem before?”
Beside him, Kenna took a big, deep breath. “We cannot tell you where we’re going. We cannot answer any questions. We were never here, and you never saw us.”
Ty whirled to face Kenna beside him, but she wouldn’t look at him as she stared the older woman down.
The older woman bowed her head. “You have my word and my loyalty, Majesty. I will fetch your cloaks. They should be dry by now.” She swept past Ty without so much as a look and bustled out of the room.
Ty was still watching Kenna as she sank back onto the settee, her eyes staring without seeing into the fire. “That was the last person to see my father alive before the disease claimed him,” she whispered. “It was she, not Grannie, who held my mother’s hand as the Goddess welcomed her back to her island. She says her memory is still strong; I should ask her what they looked like in those moments. I should ask her to fill in that which I couldn’t witness.”
Ty took a deep breath. On the exhale, he let the anger and fear whoosh out of him. He might not trust that woman, but he trusted his friend. If Kenna saw good in her; if Kenna chose to spare her soul from the Goddess’s judgement, then he would, too. He sat beside her.
Odie reentered the room, her little child in tow. She dropped the cloaks in their laps, blessedly warm and dry, and crossed her arms. “Listen closely, Majesty. There is only one captain in this city who would dare sail you into the Beyond, and she does not come cheap. I hope you have a plan for paying her.”
“I assume you also didn’t tell her about your plan to sail to the Beyond?” Ty asked.
“Obviously not,” Kenna hissed back through the ring.
Odie plowed on. “Don’t bother denying it. I know you won’t confirm your destination, but only a fool wouldn’t guess it. Instead of arguing with me, accept my help. There is a reason sailing into the Beyond is not done. In my life, three vessels have braved the passage; none has returned. You must be persuasive. Your being a Hunter is your greatest advantage. That map of yours will provide you with an edge none of the others had. Now is not the time to keep your identity secret.”
She took a deep breath, as if bracing for the next part. “The watchmen spotted soldiers entering the city gates. I’m told they had bushels of wheat on their breastplates.”
Kenna gave the woman a hard look but stayed silent. When it was clear she’d neither confirm nor deny Odie’s claim, the woman moved on. “I will not press you both on your true reasons for being here. Just as I will not give up your identities when those soldiers come tearing through. But you must move quickly. You must be discreet. I have attended enough Mountain Sovereign’s to last me a lifetime. Do not make me attend another.” She looked at Ty. “Nor am I keen on adding the sovereign heir to the Beyond to that list.”
This woman was far too intuitive and cunning for her own good. She didn’t realize how lucky she was that Kenna was here. Didn’t realize how lucky she was that he held his queen and her desires in such high regard. He stood and fastened his cloak. They needed to get out of this little room in this little house before she unearthed any more secrets he’d rather stay buried.
Wordlessly, from the corner where she’d been observing, the child held out his hunting satchel for him to take. Her eyes were still wide as saucers, still staring into his soul. He shivered. Yes. The sooner they were out of there, the better.
“Where is my crossbow?” He asked. If it were true what Odie claimed, that the Savannahland soldiers were already searching for them in Korvo’s walls, then he sure as hell wouldn’t take his queen out there unarmed.
Odie hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “Out on the kitchen table. I dug up some old cross bolts for you to have as well, though I’m not sure how good they’ll be.”
He nodded stiffly and went into the other room to inspect them. He heard Kenna’s voice drift through the open doorway on a sweet wind.
“I cannot thank you enough for saving his life. Truly, you do not know what he means to me. You have done me and your country a great service.”
Odie replied, “Your gratitude more than makes up for his lack.” Ty bristled at the jab. He’d be more grateful if he weren’t worried she’d stab them in the back and betray their movements to the Savannahland soldiers.
He studied the cross bolts laid out before him. They were old and brittle to the touch. But he imagined they’d pierce flesh just the same. Until he could get his hands on a proper weapons cache, he didn’t have the luxury of being picky. Quick as he could, he stuffed them into their quiver. Knives. Did she have any knives lying around? Would she notice if her cutlery went missing?
A creaking floorboard betrayed the approaching steps. “Keep her alive, dear, and I will consider us even.” Odie spoke directly into his ear, pulling his arm to bring his head down to her. Her voice was a harsh whisper. “Keep her alive, and I will consider the life debt you now owe me fulfilled.”
He turned to face her. In a moment of rash judgement, he responded, “There is nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her safe.”
Odie harrumphed and stepped away.
Kenna stood on the opposite side of the room, tightening her cloak around her shoulders. She strapped the satchel from the morning across her chest. Her fingers trembled as she did up the laces, her brow pursed in determination.
He needed to get her out of here. Out of this city and off this mountain. Once they were safely in the Beyond, his ancestral land that answered his beck and call, he would finally breathe.
Kenna finally looked up at him. “Are you ready?”
No. How could he ever be ready for this? To take her out into a kingdom that suddenly wanted her dead. It went against his very being to respond, “Yes. Let’s go.”
Odie followed them to the door and stood in the doorway, framed by the light of the fire in the other room. “Take this alley all the way down the hill until you reach the river,” she told them. Her hand worrying at the necklace around her throat was the only sign of her anxiety. “Follow the river until you reach the docks. You’ll find The Vigilant and her captain, Riiyali, docked there. Beg for passage.”
She and Kenna clasped hands and bowed their heads together in farewell. Ty spared them a glance before poking his head out the door and scanning the alley for threats and soldiers. But it was past midnight. The only motion in the alley was the laundry high above, swaying in the breeze.
“I will not forget this great mercy, Majesty,” Odie whispered. “I will not forget that it was on your order that my life was spared tonight.” Odie glanced at Ty. “Go now. Get out of the mountains and live long enough that I may repay you this kindness.”
About the Author
Madeline is a fourth-year student at the University of Iowa. When not focused on classwork, she can be found watching football and enjoying a mug of coffee. Madeline loves hanging out with her friends, reading anything fantasy-related, and getting inspiration from TikTok edits and cheesy Pinterest posts.
Instagram: @Madeline_Hussey @madelinehusseywrites
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