Clanless (Nameless #2)(11)
Tess looked between Joshua and Zo, biting down on her lower lip. Zo blinked away another dizzy spell and leaned on her walking stick like an old woman. “The Ram have been too busy fixing the Gate and preparing their attack on the Raven to bother with the Nameless,” said Zo. “Don’t you think so, Eva?” Zo eyed the Ram girl and encouraged her answer with a nod.
Eva frowned. “Barnabas might not send a full mess, but I think it will be a miracle if we don’t come across one of his scouts. And let’s face it, this group,” she gestured at the four of them, “doesn’t stand a chance against a full Ram warrior.”
Tess whimpered. Zo reached back and slugged Eva in the arm.
“What?” said Eva. Her small mouth twisted and her eyes pinched as she narrowed her gaze. “Would you rather lie to the girl?”
“To spare her needless fear? Yes, I would.”
Eva let her long strides carry her in front of the others. She looked over her shoulder and a chunk of her butchered hair fell into her eyes—hair cut by the knife of her unwanted betrothed inside the Gate as part of an engagement ceremony. “There’s no such thing as needless fear. Without fear, you can’t be brave.”
Zo shook her head and let her gaze drop to the tracks left by the Nameless under her feet. There was no use in explaining human decency to a Ram.
Joshua snatched Tess’s hand out of the air and held it as they walked. He was so much taller than her that he almost had to slouch to make it work. “Wanna play a game?” His voice jumped and dived between man and boy.
Tess’s blond hair bounced with her step. “What kind of game?”
“Gryphon and I used to play it when I was younger. It’s a game where you practice not leaving any tracks as you walk. Gryph called it ‘Rabbit Foot’ because rabbit tracks are so hard to find unless there’s been a good rain.”
Tess nodded and Joshua led her off the trail where he and Tess wove between branches and bushes, keeping to the balls of their feet. Every so often he scooped her up on his shoulders and ran a hundred feet ahead of Zo and Eva to give Tess time to practice and travel at her slower pace. Once Joshua deemed her ready, he tested her by letting her get ahead of him while closing his eyes. After a minute of waiting, he’d open his eyes and start walking, but the moment he saw a trampled plant or a snapped twig that marked Tess’s passing, he sprinted toward her with fingers outstretched, ready to tickle.
Zo felt like crying every time a laugh escaped Tess as she ran from Joshua. Even after surviving months of slave labor inside the Gate, Tess’s spirits hadn’t fallen. She and Joshua both carried with them a beautiful kind of innocence that made Zo violently protective. A part of her looked at Joshua as a piece of Gryphon that she could keep when the real man had been ripped from her side.
“You know that Ram scouts are the least of our problems,” Zo said to Eva, taking advantage of the younger members of their little group being out of earshot.
“I’ve heard stories about the predators on the mountain,” said Eva.
Zo’s gaze fixed on Tess, her voice an urgent whisper. “The bears and mountain lions are one thing, but I’m more worried about the Clanless. Ever since your people invaded the Kodiak Caves the number of wandering men in these mountains has grown. The Kodiak chief, Murtog, refused to rally his men against the Ram after the raid. Many of his people were taken into the Gate as slaves. And many Kodiak deserted the clan in protest. The rest of the Clanless are robbers, thieves, and murderers banished from the other clans in the region. I hear they’re vicious.”
Eva nodded. She thumbed her boiled leather vest and weighed the dagger in her hand. “So am I.”
The small group traveled a few hundred yards off the Nameless trail to build a fire and rest for the night. Zo, Eva, and Tess gathered wood while Joshua set out into the forest with his sling to hunt for fresh game.
Eva dropped an armful of knobby, dry branches into the growing pile and continued collecting wood closer to Zo. “Why don’t you tell Joshua the truth about Gryphon? He deserves to know.”
Zo’s head swayed, and a bout of dizziness rushed her so fast and hard that she dropped to one knee and clutched the sides of her head. “He’s been through so much. I want to make sure that he is completely well before I tell him what happened.” Zo gritted her teeth and tested opening her eyes, but regretted the decision.
What is wrong with me?
“I think you’re afraid to tell him because you haven’t accepted Gryphon’s fate yourself. You avoid the topic because saying that Gryphon is dead out loud will make it more true.”
Zo flinched and clutched her stomach. The dizziness overpowered her and she vomited.
Eva’s voice softened. “You’re going to have to deal with this, Wolf. I know Barnabas. Gryphon is gone forever and the boy deserves to know.” She walked away to gather wood near Tess, leaving Zo to wipe the bile from her lips in peace.
Eva was twenty, only three years older than Zo, but she’d seen a lot in her life. At times, Zo wanted to hate the Ram girl, with her blunt comments and cold analysis. But the truth was, they shared a lot in common. They both gave their hearts away to men not of their clan and, unless Stone managed to escape after the Nameless revolutionaries attacked inside the Gate, there was a good chance neither would see the man they loved again.
Joshua came back just before dark carrying two dead rabbits by the ears and a giant grin on his face. “Dinner is served.” His smile shone as brightly as his red hair did in sunlight.