Chapter Two: Onward we must go…
'To be or not to be?' isn't that always the question we must ask ourselves?
The silence was deafening and with just four people it was a feat that should have stories written about it. Cari didn't move, she just continued her unseeing stare into the fire. Raza was still in his defensive place off to her side and he watched the other man with tense dark eyes. Toren stirred the soup without a word, probably too afraid of the three people she was sitting with to do anything else. Gard just flicked his eyes between the two spies. At least they could take heart that they wouldn't draw the guards by way of noise.
Toren sat back from the fire and the pot a moment later. "Dinner is almost ready." She didn't look at them, just went about her business setting the soup into bowls.
"You were spies?" Gard stayed on the subject at hand. His tone suggested that he didn't quite believe it. "You two?"
"Yes." Raza snipped, not liking the tone in the least.
"Not very good if you were found out an' chased about." Gard sat himself back, lounging with a crooked smile.
Cari reached over and retrieved a stick for herself and flicked warm embers at the long man who jumped back and glared at her. "We weren't being chased for being spies, you dolt."
Gard raised one eyebrow and glanced over at Toren who was giggling quietly to herself. Cari didn't like the two bonding over laughing at them. She poked at the fire more while Gard adjusted his clothing. "Why were you bein' chased then?"
"We trashed the rooms of the Baron before we left." She supplied. It was a tad embarrassing to say aloud, but the two sitting with them didn't understand what they had faced as spies. Besides who were they but peasants who had followed them?
"Trashed the rooms? What for?" Toren looked at her with her big, innocent blue eyes.
"Probably didn't suit lil' lass's liking," Gard kept his crooked smile. He shifted and fished a bowl out from one of his belt purses and handed it over to Toren who filled it up and finally passed out the soup.
Cari shot Gard another dark look and shoved away from the fire with a huff. She wasn't going to give the man any more fuel for him to laugh at her. Raza could speak for them from now on, she was through.
"Watch it." Raza warned as he took his own bowl and sipped at his soup slowly. "Brighteyes is tougher than you know."
Gard went back to his lounging position after taking his own full bowl. "Tough? Aye, I saw that earlier." He winked playfully in the dying light but only Toren saw and she giggled a little.
Cari let them talk, still staring off into the fire. She had to keep up the pretense that she knew what she was doing by going to Corus and then on to Pirate's Swoop. In reality, Cari had no idea why they should go to those places. George and Myles were dead; the spymasters were dead and the killer had yet to be caught by her knowledge. She wasn't the highest ranking spy in the network, but she certainly wasn't low and she had no idea who would replace them. Certainly the King and Queen were working on a solution, the kingdom could not be blind for long. Cari knew enough to know that enemies would take advantage of that without a second thought to the matter.
It still left her alone and without assignment. Raza looked to her for guidance and she didn't know what to tell him. She didn't know whether to go back and report to whoever was standing in for a spymaster, maybe the Provost, or to run back to the Court of the Rogue and see what could be found there. She knew that life at least and it was better than the others that could await her. She had no intention of being sent to another rich noble.
It would disappoint her mother horribly, who had thought that at least spy work was more respectable than being a criminal, if she went back to thieving. Cari didn't like to disappoint her mother, with her health so poor, but she didn't like many people. She had only agreed to do spy work after learning about George Cooper and him being the Rogue for a time. She trusted crooked people, she knew their nature. Respectable people were unpredictable and could turn in an instant.
She hadn't been aware of Raza until he poked her shoulder gently with his spoon. Cari turned her bright eyes at him, nearly filled with tears. "Always so serious, Brighteyes. Eat up."
Cari looked down at her bowl of soup and warily picked it up and shoveled a bit into her mouth. She didn't even taste it. "Someone has to be serious."
"Not you, ya know." Raza countered her quietly. He was watching her carefully but she kept her gaze away.
Cari nodded to show that she had heard him but she just spooned another mouthful into her mouth. He didn't understand. His decision was probably easy to make or he probably already made it. She had to decide to be respectful or to be a rogue again. To live her life on her own terms and disappoint her mother or to use her skills for Tortall and make her mother proud.
Raza had continued to watch her and after a moment, set his spoon down in his bowl. He gently put an arm around her and pulled her into him in a one armed hug. After a moment, she leaned her head on his shoulder but refused to let anything that had happened earlier in the day make her cry. She was only a girl and still a young one at that.
"I'm scared, Raza," she whispered for only him. "I don't know what to do."
"That's alright," he replied gruffly. "We'll head to Corus, like you said, boss." He squeezed her shoulders and looked over her head at Gard who was watching them and then at Toren who was setting out her sleeping gear.
Cari nodded against him. Raza, as tough, strict and generally uncolorful as he could be, was her friend and had been before they were spy-mates. She could rely on him to always be there to lift her spirits and keep her steady.
Morning came to soon in Cari's opinion and far too cool for her to be in good spirits. She had been forced to share a sleeping space with the quiet Toren in order to keep warm, which was awkward. Cari didn't know the girl and she just seemed too friendly for her to trust; a respectable person.
She was awake before the others, however, with the sun just coming over the land and slowly chasing away the fog that had settled on the roads. It would be a cool day if she could judge by the air and the breeze that came from the north. Fall was settling in sooner than she would have liked but Stil was close to Scanra and Corus was not. Perhaps it would be warmer in the capital than in the country, she hoped so anyway.
Cari walked a bit into the woods to stand close enough to see the road but not been seen from the passage way. She crossed her arms, careful about her burned forearm and shifted to stand on her good ankle. Her decision still weighed on her shoulders like metal but Raza's support had made it bearable for the moment.
"Early riser too, lass?" Gard's soft voice came from behind a few paces.
Cari turned her head to look back at him, then back to the roads. She didn't need to see him to know that he was coming up beside her, the corners of her eyes could do that much for her. "Just like the sunrise."
"Hmm. Didn' think ya were a sunrise type o' lass." He remarked pleasant enough.
Cari shrugged indifferently. "Sometimes, Gard, a girl likes to look at pretty things."
"Oh, I don' doubt that." Gard smiled that crooked smile of him and managed to nudge her a bit, which messed with her balance on her good foot. He reached out and steadied her with a little chuckle. She shoved him off.
Cari shot Gard a dark look and thought about showing him what a well trained spy and a good thief could do to a person, but refrained. She wasn't in top shape, no thanks to Gard, and in no position to start a fight.
"Why are ya headin' to Corus, little Brighteyes?" Gard kept her gaze with his own blue eyes.
Cari looked away, staring back at the road, this time trying to judge if it would be safe enough to travel on it. The guards probably wouldn't waste time searching for them until the Baron came home and she had a few more days before he arrived. "Do you think the road is safe to travel on?"
Gard sighed, sounding irritated with her, which was exactly how she felt about his presence. "Corus, Brighteyes, let's focus."
"It's the capital. Why else would we head there?" She clenched her jaw. Cari didn't like saying more than she had to with strangers.
"I don' think that's the reason." Gard walked in front of her, blocking her view of the road and making her look at him. "What's the real reason, lass?" After a moment in which she said nothing, he crossed his long arms across his chest. "Raza would make ya tell me."
He had a point there, Raza would make her tell him. Raza didn't care who knew what so long as it didn't get them thrown into some cellar with bars. Cari was of a different mindset. She told people only what they needed to know when they needed to know. "I'm not Raza."
Gard didn't budge, he was a patient man. "Lass… Why'd ya thrash those rooms of yer Baron?"
Cari sighed and rolled her head a bit to show her irritation. "I needed some funds."
Gard nodded, obviously pleased to be getting someplace with his interrogation. "Funds. Ya mean ya stole from the Baron? That's why ya were runnin'? Not very subtle."
"I didn't care for subtle at that moment, Gard." Cari snapped. She didn't like being judged for her methods. He hadn't been there when she found out. He didn't have to face the loss of their secret spymaster and finding a way out.
"That much is obvious, lass. You a thief on top o' bein' a spy?" Gard smirked, finding it funny.
"Before Cooper, I was." Cari admitted casually. No need to hide that fact anymore. She had already admitted as much, besides, she wanted him to realize that she was actually able to accomplish something before she met him.
Gard's smirk dropped and he reached out to grab her arms roughly and quicker than she would have thought. Cari didn't have time to jump back out of reach. "Cooper? George Cooper? Man who'd been Rogue afore?"
Cari tried to pull out of his grasp, but he only tightened his hands around her arms. "Aye, let go, Gardner."
"That's why yer headin' back to Corus. Yer goin' back to the Court of the Rogue. Yer not going to find out what really happened-who killed a man that so many had tried afore an' failed. Yer runnin'." Gard's voice was low and dangerous, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on edge.
"Running is perfectly respectable." Cari retorted defensively. "And I am going to Corus to find out what happened."
"But if it's too big, ya runnin' back to yer ol' lifestyle, that it? I'll tell ya, lass, the Rogue ain't like he used t' be. You're better off bein' a coward and runnin'." Gard's tone didn't change, it only got darker.
"Who says I'm running? I'm going to Pirate's Swoop too." Cari had to work to keep her voice down. He was insulting her and she didn't like it one bit. With a clenched jaw, she pushed away from him.
"Before or after ya turn back t' thieving? Tell me, lass, why you're runnin' from respectability? Lass like you should be married to some good man an' makin' an honest livin.'" He remarked, his voice still low, making her look ridiculous for getting all worked up.
"Married? With what? Two kids and sitting at home with a pile of laundry?" Cari looked at him with disgust. "Maybe you should follow your own advice, Master Gardner."
"At least I'm not runnin' away from what I'm scared of," he countered easily.
"No? Then what are you doing here?" Cari spread her arms wide, her tone challenging.
Gard grabbed her arms, pinning them to her sides. "I ain't runnin' away from somethin' I'm good at and I ain't afraid to be respectable, when it calls for it. Ya should be goin' back to Corus to report in like a good lil' spy and gettin' a new assignment. Hey, ya should even be the new spymaster, might be better than what you're doin' now. Of course, spymasters aren't cowards."
"Who are you to tell me what to do? Lay off." Cari tried to pull away again. This time, Gard let her go and with the force she was tugging away with, found herself on her bottom in the dewy grass. She looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "I haven't decided what I'll do, but I'll tell you what… Once I decide, you'll be the first person to know." She kicked out and connected with his shin.
"You little -" He began to curse and came toward her.
"Hey!" Raza's voice cut through the morning fog like a knife. He jogged up to join them and stood over Cari's fallen form protectively. "What's going on, boss?"
"Gard woke up on the wrong side of the fern this morning." Cari retorted as she extended a hand for Raza to help her up with. Once on her feet, she felt better about glaring at the lanky man. "Being too nosy."
"No harm done, lad." Gard raised his palm up in surrender. "Just a lil' argument between me an' the missus."
"Missus?" Cari repeated, wrinkling her nose.
"Cari." Raza's clipped tone cut her off from any other remark. "Did he hurt you?"
Cari kept her jaw tight and her bright eyes on Gard. Something didn't sit right with the man. "No."
"Good. We have to get moving. Toren's coming with us since I can't let her go back there to those men." Raza slowly turned away from Gard to look at her. He wasn't asking her permission, not that he needed to, but it still bothered her that he didn't ask. "Is he coming with us?"
"Ask him. I don't care." Cari retorted, trying to regain her calm and collected exterior. It was harder to regain her composure than she thought it would be.
"I need to reach Corus as well, for an entirely different reason, I can tell ya." Gard acted as if nothing had occurred in the previous moments.
"Really?" Cari cocked her head and earned a pinch in the arm from Raza for her attitude.
"My da's there and if what both of you say is true, then he and my brother need to know about it." Gard shrugged casually.
"Who are your da and brother that they should know?" Cari pressed. She didn't like the fact that their choice to tell these two had been a mistake. At least Toren seemed to be non-threatening to the well being of Tortall. Gard would be a torn in its side, or at least her side.
"In due course, lass." He actually had the nerve to wink at her as if it would put her in good spirits.
Cari, injured or not, lounged for Gard. Raza was quicker than she'd counted on and grabbed her around her waist to keep her away from him. Gard laughed as he stepped out of reach but it only made Cari that much more angry. "Stand still. Raza, let me go."
"What's going on?" Toren, sleepy eyed and with her blonde hair in disarray, stumbled through the trees to join them. "Why are we here and not at camp?"
Raza had turned to look at Toren when she'd spoken and the instant that happened, he dropped his hold on Cari. She stumbled to the ground, out of balanced where she kicked her spy-mate in the boot for his efforts.
"Those two were having a little spat." Raza offered as an explanation. Leave it to the man to develop a sense of humour in the wake of a pretty girl. "Back to camp with everyone."
Cari watched as the two started back toward their little camp then glared up at Gard, once again on the ground at his feet. She didn't like the position at all. Cari started to get up when she noticed a hand drop before her face. "No," she snapped automatically.
"Don' be a fool, lass." Gard wasn't teasing, or joking, or even threatening, he just was and that made her wrinkle her forward. "Take the hand, Brighteyes."
With a heavy sigh, she grasped his hand and he practically pulled her to her feet without any assistance from herself. She took the time to dust off the front of herself before looking up at him. Once they reached Corus, she was going to need a healer for her head.
Cari turned on her heel to walk back and once she was sure that Gard was following, she spun around and knocked him to the ground with a well placed shove. "Payback, for knocking me to the ground."
"Nasty lil' lassy, ya are." Gard remarked good naturedly, still staring up from the ground.
Biting her lip to keep from saying more, Cari stalked back to camp, trying to ignore that chuckles that came from behind her. Adding to her dismal start, she found Raza and Toren sitting cozily together as they worked on the morning meal. Gard paraded around her when she stopped and clapped Raza on the shoulder like a friend before taking a seat and the offered warm drink. Cari found herself on the outskirts of their little company, standing alone, looking awkward with her arms crossed and her foot shuffling.
Gard looked up at her and smiled. He shook his head, then filled up a mug and held it beside him. "Awe, c'mon here lil' Brighteyes. Who can't forgive you?" He patted the ground beside him.
Just as the sun was beginning to set, the four, oddly grouped people arrived into Corus. They had been lucky and had bartered at ride with a fast moving caravan and their wagons. It had cost them each a pretty coin, Raza paying for Toren, but it had been worth their trouble. They had arrived a full half day ahead of the time it would have taken them to walk without stops to eat.
Cari thanked the caravan leaders as they turned off toward a different entrance into the city, leaving the four to stand there and stare into the capital. For Cari, it had been nearly three years since they had been home. The city looked as foreign to her as if she had never set foot in the place and yet, the moment she stepped into the streets, she could remember their names, where they went and which were the best pickings for pick pocketing.
Cari turned toward her traveling companions. "My mama has a home not far from here. All of you are welcome to stay until you can pay for your own accommodations."
"All?" Gard asked, a little bewildered.
"All." Cari even surprised herself. She was a charitable person and Gard was no exception to her charity. He would just have to sleep on the floor. "Unless you would-"
"Make way for the Baron of Stil." A loud voice cut her off and made her blood run cold.
Gard and Toren exchanged confused glances and Cari simply stood there in utter bewilderment. The Baron was supposed to be in Stil, where he belonged, or he was supposed to be in his vacation house. Raza would have mentioned if his vacation house was in Corus.
"Boss," Raza hissed as he pulled on her arm and dragged her through a few alleys. He didn't stop, even when she started to cry out from his hold on her burns.
"How," Toren began as she caught her breath. "How is he here?"
"I'd like to know that too." Raza remarked with a shake of his head. "We didn't leave any traces behind to show him we were heading to Corus. A weird circumstance?"
"I don't think so," Cari replied as she cradled her now very sore arm. She was going to make Raza pay for the healing costs and already it would scar. From now on, she would have to wear and arm gauntlet to cover it or risk being identified.
"Know anyone who'd know? 'Nother spy, mayhap?" Gard crossed his arms, not looking the least bit winded.
Cari shook her head, but Raza answered for her. "No. Not unless we've got a mole and if that's the case, we've got a bigger problem than before."
Cari knew Raza was right. If there was one mole, there were others and more spies and their lives were in danger because of the break down of hierarchy in the spy networks. Spies, although loyal for those they work for, were opportunistic creatures when they didn't have anyone to answer to, which was why most had been thieves, mercenaries, or other low-life people. It would be chaos.
"Let's head to Mama's house. It's not far from here. It's the brightest one." She pointed down the lane. The house was the one with the most protection on the doors and windows. What luck it was that Raza had brought them so close, or was it skill? Raza had only ever been to her home once or twice before they were in Stil.
"Brightest one?" Toren looked at her oddly.
Raza laid a hand on her shoulder. "Boss, we can't see like you do. They're all the same in our eyes."
"Fine, just follow." Cari rolled her eyes. There were times when she just didn't understand why they couldn't see things like she could. Was it really a trait that was given to a person? Cari had always assumed it could be learned and grew frustrated with people who didn't learn.
Cari led the way, then hesitated when she reached the door. Her mother would be furious with her. They hadn't parted under the best of terms. With the three people at her back, watching her, Cari closed her eyes tight and rapped her knuckles on the door. A few moments and a few heavy steps later and a woman much shorter and heavier built that Cari opened the door.
Cari's mother was a light haired woman with dark eyes and shared none of Cari's looks save in the mouth. Mother and daughter had the same mouth. Her mother had always complained that Cari looked too much like her father, who had been a passing knight she'd met in a tavern for only a night, but Cari didn't mind. Her mother had her brother for similar looks.
For a moment they just stared at each other, dark eyes with unnatural bright eyes, until a smile broke across the woman's features and she pulled Cari down in a smothering embrace. "Brighteyes! I heard th' news an' was all sorts of worry for ya. Folk were talkin' what they'd do to people like my lassy if they found ya."
"Well, I'm here, mama. Mama… Mama, I can't breath." Cari struggled against her smaller mother. For all that the woman was in poor health, she still could keep her daughter in her arms.
"Right." She held Cari at arm's length. It was then that she noticed Cari's companions around her. She recognized Raza instantly and drew him into a warm embrace before she eyed the other two. "In, in." She ushered them into the small home with a wave of her rag.
Cari's mother smiled warmly at Toren as she passed, no doubt approving of her dress and her feminine manners. Cari had never been one for being overly girly. Then she narrowed her eyes at Gard. "I know ya, yer-"
"Shh, Mother." Gard held a finger to his lips. "Not time yet."
"Well," she sighed. "I'm Maureen Baker for our new folks. Cari, yer bein' rude, not introducin' yer mama an' all."
Cari cringed. "Mama, meet Raza once again, then Toren and that's Gard, who has been a thorn in my side." She waved to each of her companions in turn with her burned arm.
"Brighteyes!" Maureen cried out and grabbed Cari's arm, nearly dropping the girl to her knees in the shock of the pain. "What happened?"
"Nothin', Mama, leave be. I'm goin' to a healer in the mornin'." Cari replied with a sharp look at Gard, finding herself slipping into her lower common speech. She would have to fight the urge to do it as long as she was in Corus.
"Mama's got to worry, child. Now, go wash up, all of ya and I'll get ya somethin' to eat." Her mother glanced over at Gard darkly. Maureen shooed Raza and Toren upstairs to wash, which Cari didn't find a good idea, then she turned to the two remaining.
First she went over to Gard, waving her rag at him like she often did Cari's brother when he was being scolded. "Ya watch yerself, prince-boy." Cari had never heard such a threatening tone come from her mother before and it scared her. "Hurtin' my Brighteyes will find yerself in a ditch somewhere, whoever yer connections. Rogue loved my Brighteyes and will protect her."
"Rogue loves me, too, Mother." Gard answered her with his own tone, the very same tone he had used on her earlier in the day.
"Both of ya's, you, stop. I just want some good food, to sleep and then Gard and I are going to have a chat again tomorrow morning and I'll see a healer, got it?" Cari's eyes flicked between her mother and the man who'd found himself on the wrong side of her family. "I'm tired, mama, please?"
Maureen was silent for a moment before she went and patted her daughter's cheek. "Anything for my Brighteyes."
Author's Notes: Well on its way and I have no idea what path it is going to take. I'm just letting the characters parade all over me and hopefully something will come out of it. I have a general idea how each character will end up-some you'll guess, others, I'm not even sure of yet. Hopefully something will come of it.