Lovu

  Lord Vor’s estate overlooked the city of Kamvor in the Yufe Foothills – a small mountain range on the western edge of his fiefdom. Although it was a fraction of the size of Lavote, it was still the largest city in his territory and the historical seat of the Vor family’s power.

  Not long after leaving Ya’upuk, the terrain turned from flat forest into rolling hills. Less than a day later, Lovu and Topal started to run into the first real mountains. While the increased incline strained his body, they spent most of their time meandering through valleys instead of scaling slopes.

  Once again, he gave thanks to Fam’e for Topal’s guidance. Without her, he would have had no clue how to find his way through the winding path ahead. The forests were still just as thick, but combined with constantly having to change directions, he rapidly lost any sense of direction.

  What he did notice was the subtle change in the trees as they moved further west. The flatlands had what Lovu considered normal sized trees – significantly taller than the average human and a few times as thick. They were exactly what he had grown up seeing in gardens throughout the Residence. The trees in the foothills dwarfed them, almost completely blocking out the sky with a canopy a hundred feet in the air. It created a pleasant cover that kept the temperature cool and mild throughout the day, but at night he found that his cloak was no longer enough to keep him warm. Topal taught him how to tend the fire and they slept in shifts to make sure it always stayed fed.

  Their diet changed as well. Topal spent the whole day actively hunting instead of waiting until near sundown to look for prey. She was able to find and kill a handful of smaller creatures – mostly small snakes, birds, and rodents – but they were eating less each day than a single kill in the flatlands gave. To make up the difference, she taught him how to forage for berries and mushrooms that were safe to eat.

  Even though her prey was smaller than before, that didn’t mean that all the animals in the foothills were smaller. They constantly ran into beasts that loomed over the pair, even from a distance. One that Topal called a ya looked like a giant rodent with harsh, serrated spikes on its arms that it used to saw down trees. Another she called a tangyip – a clove-footed beast with long spindly legs – dug ruts in the ground as it walked, exposing roots and mycelium. The most upsetting was the wengkem, which looked like a bird with long, trailing feathers, only Topal insisted it was flightless. The one they saw was leaping from trunk to trunk high above the ground as it clawed its way up toward the canopy.

  Luckily, they were all herbivores and Topal assured him they were harmless… so long as they kept their distance. While they never encountered any carnivores directly, there were several times that Topal investigated huge marks torn out of trees, only to change their course entirely. From what he gathered, whatever made them was most certainly not harmless.

  The vit in the foothills were different too. According to Topal, they likely wouldn’t run into any Yirko again, as they tended to stay in the flatland forests. Instead, she informed him to be wary of sudden shifts in the wind, large patches of dead plants, and the distant sounds of animals screaming. For the wind, she told him to lay flat on the ground as soon as he noticed a change. For the dead plants, turn around and walk in the opposite direction until they were out of sight, then give them a wide berth. And for the animals, run as fast as he could toward the screams.

  When he asked about the names of the vit, she refused to tell him. Apparently, saying their names out loud made them more likely to appear. It wasn’t as big of a deal for less dangerous vit, which was why she hadn’t held back before, but the fact that she considered the Yirko “less dangerous” than whatever they could run into was enough to stop any further questions. It must have worked, because they never actually ran into any.

  Their time in the foothills was largely peaceful. The bigger issue was the lack of rivers and streams to rest at. They found more lakes and pools of water like springs, but Topal insisted that the water had to be flowing to be a truly safe place to rest. After his encounter with the Yirko, Lovu wasn’t tempted to test that out.

  That is, until they came across a hot-spring.

  “Can we stay here a while,” Lovu asked excitedly as he ran over to the water’s edge.

  “If it was closer to sundown, maybe,” Topal had said, looking up at the sky. “But it’s barely noon.”

  “Ah… I see.”

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  “Don’t pout,” she scolded him. “There are plenty of places that have settlements on hot-springs. You can take a trip to one of them once we’ve got you safe and sound.”

  “That is… unlikely,” he said sadly, bowing his head in prayer in front of the spring while he had the chance. “Before the night we met, I was rarely allowed outside of the Residence and never farther than the Merchants’ Quarter. If things go back to normal… it will likely be the same.”

  “Oh,” she said, looking at the water in front of them. “If you ask me, you ain’t missing much. It’s just hot water. That’s a big deal for someone like me, but I’m sure you’ve taken warm baths before. You had servants to boil it for you, right?”

  “We actually had an artifact in our villa that produced hot water in small batches, so they didn’t really boil it. But that’s also not why I want to spend more time here,” he said, dipping his hands in the water and gently splashing it over his face. He winced at the heat, but smiled. “The Pedestal may be Fam’e’s largest temple, but it isn’t her oldest. The First Advocate Hikim came from Atal. It is covered in hot-springs like this and he said that the easiest way to hear her was while soaking in their warmth.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Topal said, her eyes still fixed on the water.

  “Most people don’t,” Lovu said, finishing his prayer and rising to his feet. “While First Advocate Hikim’s origins are generally well known among Advocates, very little of his writings actually come from his time in Atal. After the Lords’ Council formed to oppose Phakfi, he moved to Lavote and founded the Pedestal. Its libraries still have some of his older writings, but they are not part of the canon that is required for Advocates to learn. Only the most dedicated – or in my case, the ones with more time to spend studying than acting – actually read them.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Topal said, finally tearing her eyes from the water to leave, her dismissive attitude absent for once.

  Nearing the end of their seventh day of travel, they found a stream to camp by. It was a bit earlier than normal, but he was not going to complain about that. As they were winding down for the night, she pointed at one of the mountains on the opposite end of the valley.

  “An hour or two past that mountain is Kamvor,” she said and Lovu could feel his heart fluttering. They were mere hours away from Akil’s family home – hours away from Akil. “We’ll get there just before noon tomorrow. The Vor estate is on the opposite side of the city from where we’ll be coming, so we’ll have to cross through the city to get there.”

  “If we’re that close, shouldn’t we just keep going?” Lovu asked, looking up at the sun still approaching the horizon. They’d have to push into the night a bit, but if it meant reaching their destination that day, surely it was worth it.

  “I’d rather get a lay of the land first,” Topal said as she cleaned their dinner. “Word of the attack should have reached Kamvor already, but there’s no way of knowing how Lord Vor will respond. He could be mobilizing to retake Lavote as we speak or he could be locking down and mustering his defenses in case the rebels march here next. That’s just talking about nobles – I have no clue how the Scars in Kamvor have responded to the bounty. Going in blind is too risky.”

  The gap between him and Akil grew, crushing the light in Lovu’s chest. “I see… What is the plan then?”

  “We’ll get closer to the city, then I’ll leave you hiding at the edge of the wildlands while I scout things out.”

  “Isn’t it dangerous for me to stay in the wildlands alone?”

  “I said at the edge of the wildlands, not in them. Kamvor has a pretty large hunting ground between the city proper and the wildlands. I’ll find somewhere to stash you where you’ll be safe from vit and unlikely to run into another person.”

  “Alright,” he said, hugging his knees close to his chest. Despite his buzzing mind, there was nothing left to do.

  So, he waited.

  The next morning, they did exactly as planned. Once they found hunting trails in the forest, Topal announced that they were out of the wildlands. She found a small creek that eventually joined the larger river that flowed through Kamvor and left him there with her weapons. With nothing better to do, he drank his fill first before doing what he could to scrub his face and body clean. If everything did go well, he wanted to be as presentable as possible for his reunion with Akil. Without soap or a rag, he used his nails to scrape off the filth of the past week. Once clean, he scanned the immediate area for fruit and mushrooms and was pleased to find enough of a snack to sate his hunger.

  Then, he found himself drawn toward the weapons she left in his care. Although he started their journey wary of her need for them, she never misused them. The knife only came out for utility, the bow for hunting, and the only time the sword left its sheath was for maintenance. Curiosity had started to sprout among his disdain for them.

  The bow was unstrung and, although he had seen her string it herself several times, he had no desire to risk damaging it, so his hand instead went to the sword. Poking it gently, as if to make sure it wouldn’t jump out and bite him, he found no ill-will in the blade. Wrapping his fingers fully around the hilt, he was shocked by how heavy it was. Lifting it wasn’t difficult, but when he saw Akil training, the swings seemed weightless. Without removing the sheath, he held it in front of him with both hands, much like the forms he had seen Honors use. No matter how hard he tried to hold steady, the tip wobbled and waivered in his uneasy hands.

  I suppose it is not just your heart that you need to strengthen to wield something like this.

  The curiosity he had cultivated dried up quickly as his unease set back in. Putting it back where he found it, he returned to waiting, passing the time in prayer.

  Topal left around noon and when the sun was halfway to the horizon he finally heard rustling in the trees nearby. He found her familiar face emerging, brow furrowed in concern.

  “What did you find?” he asked, already expecting a complication.

  “A friend… I hope.”