Nameless (Nameless #1)(53)
Living with an actual Ram soldier on the outskirts of the city made things both better and worse for Zo. Better, because, like today, she noticed when Gryphon left on excursion, warning the Allies to have scouts follow them, worse because it made reaching the heart of the city, where all the tactical decisions were made, nearly impossible. Still, she had to confirm her suspicions about the Ram’s relocation. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the Valley of Wolves was the targeted destination.
Zo dropped her last bottle into the rushing river and settled to rest against a nearby mulberry tree. The sound of water always brought back memories of Gabe. Not many people found tromping through a freezing river invigorating. Gabe had. The only thing he liked better was throwing Zo over his shoulder and dunking her with him. Tess would laugh and Zo would hold his head under for as long as she could before marching out to find dry clothes and a fire.
At least he died fighting. Gryphon had given him that small gift. Zo ripped apart a piece of newly shed bark. The wood crumbled in a satisfying way in her hands while a hundred questions zigzagged across the streets of her mind.
Zo shook her head, blinking away tears of guilt.
If she had accepted Gabe from the beginning, she likely wouldn’t have come on this suicide mission. Tess wouldn’t have followed her into the Gate. Gabe wouldn’t have brought his men so close to the wall to wait for her. He’d still be alive, resting his lean muscled arms around her on cold spring nights like this one. Promising there wouldn’t be another raid. Vowing to protect her and Tess.
Zo wiped at tears with her forearm and laughed. It wasn’t a healthy laugh—the kind that begins in your stomach and rolls out unaffected. It was dark delirium, without the slightest bit of mirth attached. Hollow.
It wasn’t reasonable to think of such things. Zo’s hatred of the Ram clouded every other emotion. She could never have been happy with Gabe. He wasn’t broken like she was. He could have given a woman everything she could ever want or need from a man. His whole self.
Zo didn’t have room enough to love him and hate the Ram. Hers was an all-consuming hatred. The kind held until reaching the grave. Zo had been broken so long, she didn’t know how to fix herself. She didn’t care to fix herself.
Run bottles. Run.
Chapter 27
It didn’t take long for Gryphon and his mess to find remnants of the small enemy outpost the Wolf prisoner had mentioned. The grass lay flattened where tents once sat. A circle of hollow logs surrounded charred ground where a fire had been. Gryphon walked to the bank of the river where a small, man-made dam and rigging of nets had been hastily destroyed.
“Someone warned them,” said Zander as he squatted near the fresh tracks.
“Scouts?” asked one of Gryphon’s mess brothers.
Zander rested his thick forearms on his knees, still crouched on the ground. “S’possible.” He turned to Gryphon and narrowed his gaze. “But my gut disagrees.”
Gryphon’s hands turned cold. Rushing water tugged on what remained of the wrecked nets. The stale air tasted wrong. He jogged over to the ashy circle where the campfire had been. “Warm,” he said, more to himself than anyone else.
“A scout couldn’t have given them more than a half hour’s notice. We’re only five miles from the Gate,” said Ajax.
Gryphon slowly rose to his feet, his golden eyes unfocused. He refused to believe Zo dropped bottles this morning before they left. She wouldn’t. Not after he’d just taken her sister in.
But he had mentioned that he was leaving …
Gryphon looked around the small clearing and wrinkled his brow. “Something’s wrong here.” He marched to the edge of the abandoned camp and scanned the thick trees. The rest of the men followed his example, fanning out to form a standard search along the perimeter.
A deafening blast erupted from the camp as one of the hollow logs exploded. Lethal flying darts of debris soared in every direction. One of Gryphon’s mess brothers cried out in pain.
Gryphon spotted the distant figure of a man through the thick forest.
“Jax!” he called, through the chaos. His voice sounded muffled in his ears.
Ajax was only a few feet away. “There.” He motioned with a slight tilt of his head in the direction where he’d spotted the movement in the forest. Ajax nodded his understanding and the two brothers took off in opposite directions under the cover of the commotion to investigate.
Gryphon ran in a wide arc around the spot where he thought the scout was positioned. Wild rose thorns snagged his pant legs and tore his skin as he silently covered ground. The flower’s deadly beauty made him think of Zo. He closed in on the point where he thought his enemy lay hidden and spotted a lone soldier with long black hair braided down the middle of his back. Two feathers hung from the leather band about his neck.
Raven. Low rank. Probably here to report the damage of the blast.
The young soldier carried an unstrung bow in one hand and a hatchet at his hip as he crouched behind the trunk of a tree.
Gryphon couldn’t spot Ajax in the dense foliage. Of course, that was the whole point. The man was more panther than human.
Trusting Ajax to be in place, Gryphon picked up a dried stick from the ground and snapped it in two. The Raven whipped around and strung his bow with eerie speed.
Gryphon stepped out from behind his cover and caught the Raven’s arrow with his shield. Ajax exploded from the brush and tackled the Raven to the ground. They bound his wrists behind his back and hauled him away without a word. The interrogators would get all the information they needed from this kid. If they were lucky, they might even learn the location of the Raven’s grain stores.