So Speaks the Ruinous Light || To Herald a Dawn Book 1

Chapter 10 (One's Name)

On our fourth day of walking, we reach a river. The same river as by the castle, but we walked in a roughly straight course southeast across the plain, while the river meandered south and then east (or technically it flowed west, then north, since we went upstream, but for simplicity's sake, south and east).

I thank Michael for the geometry lesson, then I half-ignore his pointed remark that this is geography, not geometry, instead staring across the water at an open field of black rock. It looks like a bubbling pan of burnt pudding, only frozen in time. "What happened there?" I point. Not even any grass grows.

"That would be geology." Michael crosses his arms. "Those are lava rocks."

My hand drops to my side. "Are we going over there?"

The river here has no rapids; it's just a placid, brown thing, but it stretches twice as far as the river by the castle.

"No." He starts walking, up the riverbank. "We're going to follow it for a while, then angle northeast, then take a passage up into the mountains."

This makes me sigh in relief. His mist bridge stretched across the river by the castle, but I don't know if he can make one across this distance--so I thought he was going to make us swim. Which I can't.

I jog after Michael, my sore legs and pulsing feet protesting. I would have blisters, but when we stopped for midday meal, also known as more rabbit jerky, I healed them. I also thought I healed my leg muscles and sore feet, but hardly any time later, they started hurting again. We haven't stopped for third meal yet, to give me time to figure out why.

"It actually is geometry," I tell Michael, blood-stained sandals crunching through stubby brown grass, "we are walking in triangles to shortcut the squares."

He shakes his head, unkempt hair bouncing. "We're walking it. So it's geography."

"But without geometry, we wouldn't have taken the shortest path, and we would have followed the river in a giant rectangle. Or, three sides of a rectangle."

He huffs. "Then technically, we're not walking in a triangle either, we're walking three-fourths of a trapezoid."

I open my mouth. "But--" I stop. I don't know what to say to that.

"This is a stupid argument." He walks, faster than me, things inside his backpack clunking.

I jog and catch up. "It didn't have to be an argument."

"Whatever." He waves a hand.

I purse my lips. "Why are you annoyed all the time?"

He snorts, not looking at me. "I'm not annoyed. I'm just walking."

"You're not looking at me."

"Does me not looking at you imply I'm annoyed?"

"Yes." I nod. "Yes it does."

"Well, that's stupid." He keeps staring at the flat, grass-covered terrain before us. "I'm not annoyed at you. Happy?"

"I...guess?" I nearly trip over some pebbles, trying to keep up with his pace. "Never mind, no not really."

"Hmm." His hands curl around the backpack straps and he still just keeps walking, pulling ahead of me.

I stick my tongue out at his backside.

"Actually, I thought of a question." He glances back at me, briefly, faster than I can slurp my tongue back up. I wipe my lips. "How did you end up in that castle with a bunch of Night Warriors? With your light powers?"