The Jack of Hearts (House of Cards Book 1)

Chapter 5 | Calling Bluff

The Cluvani Wilderness

They travelled under the cover of darkness with the cloaks on their backs. Ladies doubled with guards, each shadowed by two delegates.

The Cluvani warriors were creatures of the night. They walked confidently as in day, one with the shadows and wood. The Aertisians jumped as they slipped out of the darkness, appearing at their side without the warning of sound or sight.

It would have been a comfort if their attackers could not likely do the exact same.

They rode their mounts to exhaustion each evening, stumbling off their mounts, and collapsing in a little alcove of trees of the Cluvani had scouted out.

Lady Sarcelle seemed as though she had never left the pavilion tent in the clearing. Even in the few hours they had to rest, Mina and Rosalyne laid awake, and when Sarcelle would start to kick and whimper, they would take turns soothing her brow and brushing away the dreams.

Lady Dys shrouded herself in her woollen cloak each evening, staring into the flames of their cooking fire, and retreated so far into herself that Rosalyne resorted to Influence to make her eat. The solution was temporary, but Rosalyne knew it would sustain her until they made it to safety.

The guards and servants did not fare much better. Most teetered on the edge of insanity. No one slept. Each broken twig or bird taking flight woke them with a start. Every sound was the beasts coming, an arrow drawn, claws biting flesh.

Lack of rest lead to shorter tempers — even among their own people. Much of their food stores had been lost, and made for pinched bellies all around.

The jaquelle lost another servant to his injuries and two guards within a week. Infection and the gruelling pace swallowed them with fever.

Rosalyne had refused to abandon them without a pyre, despite Lord O'rian's ravings about the smoke.

«I will not condemn their spirits to this god-forsaken land,» she hissed.

A vein in Lord O'rian's brow throbbed as he loomed over her. «And who will burn you when your assassins follow us here?»

«I'm sure his lordship will enjoy setting my corpse alight.»

He flexed his fingers and stormed away.

Jaquelle Rosalyne held her ground. Hope and dignity were most of them had left.

Lord O'rian lead them away from the roads and cities where they could, and trekked through the foothills where they would take the northern road to Fort Khadi.

Lady Nuru of Mazantsi claimed it to be the fastest way now that they were not transporting carts and carriages.

The young warrioress had lost her aunt in the attack, and was not of a mind to be contradicted, but Rosalyne didn't know how much longer they could endure the rough road into the mountains. Lady Sarcelle fell asleep against her guard as they rode the day before, and Dys and Mina could hardly walk from riding sores.

They were spotted several times by herdsmen and other travellers on the road. Most of the young boys screamed when they caught a glimpse of pale faces, and farmers walked away from them as far and as fast as they could.

The day after the attack Lord O'rian sent Lord Adofo du Naitani ahead to Fort Khadi with word of the attack and a request for reinforcements to meet them in Du'ol.

Lord Adofo had handed his horse to his cousin, and pulled his grey-fur cloak up over his head. In a process that looked both like tearing and enveloping, he transformed into a dire wolf with a long, sharp snout, and double pointed ears. The giant creature had the same bluish glow of the beasts in the clearing. It rolled its shoulders and its form shimmered, like the sun lighting a shifting cloud.