Clanless (Nameless #2)(43)
After the short burial service, the Nameless refugees strapped their belongings to their backs and, as one compact group, marched south. Stone ordered they travel like they slept, with their best fighters traveling along the perimeter of the group. However, walking the game trails of a forested mountain pass forced the group to thin out like marching ants.
Zo tugged both Tess and Joshua close to her sides. They walked behind Stone and Eva, who held hands. Eva carried a knife in her free hand, and Stone, a spear. Their eyes constantly scanned the forest for signs of movement.
Joshua leaned over and whispered in Zo’s ear, “You’re keeping things from me again.”
Zo watched Tess hop forward and kick a rock along the game trail. “Not now, Joshua.” She tilted her head toward Tess.
“I can handle more than you think. If I’m going to protect you and Tess, I need to know everything that’s going on, Zo.”
Tess must have heard her name because she abandoned her rock and pretended to be fascinated by a hole in her shirt.
“You are not my protector, Joshua. You’re brave and strong, but if anyone is responsible for the lives of our little group,” she hugged them both closer to her sides, “it’s me. Do you understand?”
Joshua grumbled about her being worse than Gryphon and kicked his own rock down the trail. It knocked into the back of Stone’s heel. The Nameless leader turned and scowled at the boy then resumed his scouting.
Joshua’s head drooped even lower, till his chin rested against his chest.
“Cheer up, Ginger,” said Zo. “We’re only a week outside of the Allied Camp. I’m sure when Commander Laden sees what a skilled fighter you are, he’ll put you in charge of something important.”
“Yeah, probably make me the Master of Cleaning Weapons. Or maybe the Captain of Washing Dishes.” He sighed. “I just … I wish Gryphon were here, is all.” The muscles in his neck flexed and he looked out into the woods, his head turned away from Zo, likely to hide his tears.
Me too, Ginger. Me too.
Chapter 16
The Raven twins who saved Gryphon’s life were called Talon and Raca. They wanted to know everything that happened with their people at the Nest. Several times during Gryphon’s tale they shared knowing looks, but they never interrupted.
“What I don’t understand,” said Talon, when Gryphon finished explaining how he, Sani, and a group of Raven warriors escaped the Nest, “is what compelled you to leave Ram’s Gate in the first place. I’ve never heard of a Ram abandoning his clan.”
Gryphon thought of the shield hanging over his family hearth and swallowed. “That is a story for another day.” He had no desire to talk about Zo and Joshua.
“So Sani is on his way to meet up with our father and the rest of the Raven at the Allied Camp?” asked Raca.
“Your father is the chief.” The family resemblance was hard to miss. “You’re Sani’s siblings.”
Raca smiled. “Sani is the baby in the family. A strange boy.”
Gryphon nodded and took a long drink from his water skin. He wiped his whiskered face and cringed at just how unkempt he must have appeared. And smelly. No wonder the bear attacked.
“If he is your ‘Atiin, why aren’t you still with him?” she asked. There was a note of sympathy in her voice that made Gryphon bristle. He refused to be the object of anyone’s pity. A Ram trait that followed him from the Gate.
“I am going my own way.”
Talon’s eyebrows rose. “And which way is that?”
Gryphon lifted the water skin to his lips again and paused. “I have a score to settle. I’ll say no more about it.”
If there was one thing his encounter with the bear taught Gryphon, it was that he was very different from his mother. He wanted to live. But more than that, he didn’t want to be a victim. If given a choice between predator and prey, he chose predator. No more running from problems. From now on, he’d run toward his destiny.
Revenge.
“I have a few questions of my own,” said Gryphon, hoping to wipe the pitiful look off of Raca’s attractive face. “Why stand on your brother’s shoulders to face the bear? Without him holding you, you’d have two arrows pointed at the bear instead of one.”
“We didn’t want to kill the animal. Only to scare it away. Did you not see her little family? The poor beast was only startled by you and attacked to save her cubs.”
A part of Gryphon wanted to challenge Raca’s logic. If the cubs died they wouldn’t grow up to attack another man. But in his heart, Gryphon knew that line of thinking was flawed.
The clans weren’t so different from that bear. They, too, were afraid of what was strange to them and wanted to protect their families. They attacked when they should find a way to make peace. To coexist.
“The Kodiak Clan fights like that bear,” said Talon. “Have you ever crossed them in battle?” He tugged on a leathery piece of dried meat and chewed with his mouth open.
“Once or twice, but I’ve never engaged a Kodiak beyond the wall of my mess’s phalanx of shields. My people raided their clan before I was old enough to earn my shield and pledge a mess.”
Talon nodded. His eyes unfocused while he chewed—probably thinking about how much he despised the Ram. “To them, the larger the man, the greater the man.” Talon smiled with a few chunks of food in his teeth. “They like big women too.” He held his hands in a provocative way in front of his chest.