Page 8 of Tarnished Crown
Away from Theo.
The day only got more fun when the telltale pins and needles in my spine proved, once again, that my fictitious weather toe was never wrong. The only benefit to the mild snowstorm we rode through was that it forced Evander to slow down for a while.
Then it was back to our previous breakneck speed until the sun hung low in the horizon, outlining a sizable village.
The buildings were in slightly better shape than the ones in Elk and Viper had been, but the impoverished state of the people remained the same.
It was the villagers themselves that gave me pause. Since coming to Socair, I had seen people in Elk, Wolf, and Viper, and one thing had remained consistent. The lack of little ones. Theo had explained that a plague had swept through when he was a child, leaving many without the ability to have children.
But in Bear…
Children were everywhere. They were more subdued than the children back home, but running and playing all the same. The sound of their laughter was both a balm to my soul and a sharp, stinging pain, as I missed my younger sisters more than ever.
“How are there so many children here?” I asked Evander.
A few of the soldiers shot startled glances over their shoulders, but of course, didn’t deign to respond.
“I thought the plague had…” I trailed off, belatedly realizing that it was probably a sensitive subject for some of them, one that Theo had not broached lightly.
Evander let out a long sigh before speaking, his features hard.
“Yes. The plague destroyed much of Socair and limited its future. But Bear was mostly spared that when my father closed the borders.”
Closed the borders?I thought about that for a moment. It made sense, to keep the sick out in order to keep the healthy safe.
“I didn’t see any walls along the border,” I began, musing. “How did—”
“By killing anyone who tried to enter,” Evander cut me off with a clipped tone.
My stomach lurched.What?
A small voice in my head told me to stop asking questions that I wasn’t prepared to hear the answers to, but of course, I didn’t listen to it.
“So, anyone who wanted to visit family or friends, they were…killed?”
Evander nodded his head, still not meeting my gaze. “And any who showed symptoms.”
This time, my mouth fell open. It was unfathomable. Between this and the battlefield, Bear’s reputation for savagery certainly made sense. The sound of a child’s laugh rang out once more, and this time, it was hard to find any joy in it.
They had saved an entire generation, but at what cost? Could the end ever possibly justify those means?
CHAPTER8
We were stabling our horses at the inn when another contingent of soldiers appeared, dressed identically to the ones with us. Their white bear emblems stood out in sharp contrast on their sleek black sleeves, evidence that they had not been traveling as long as our party had.
“Taras!” Kirill greeted the man in front, a man who looked startlingly similar to Evander.
He was roughly the same height and build, if a little leaner. He had the same midnight hair and swarthy skin, but where Evander’s eyes were gray, his were bright blue. A small, relieved smile graced his full mouth when he looked at Evander, though his expression hardened when his eyes met mine.
He was easily one of the most handsome men I had ever seen. It was too bad he was apparently an arseling like his...brother? Cousin?
Taras’ eyes narrowed and he directed his attention to Evander. “I see we need to talk.”
Evander nodded with a resigned expression, and they walked a short distance away for privacy. I, of course, had no intention of granting that, so I strained my ears for any snippets of their conversation.
Evander spoke so low I couldn’t make out a single word, but I caught a few lines from Taras.
“Have you thought about howshewill react?”