Queen of Embers

XIII. Ugliness

The path back to Mauléon flew by once Zhou had his own horse. Sorne didn't think he'd lied to them at any point, but he certainly could dance around things. By the time they were in sight of the Wood, Sorne felt like she'd learned almost nothing about the Mourners other than the fact that they were commoners wronged by Aldana. Zhou was more interested in asking her questions than answering anything sensitive while they were on the road.

At least, until the last morning of their journey.

"You never answered my questions about why you wanted to know about my markings," Sorne said as they walked their horses the last stretch through the wood. They were almost to Amets's cottage. It felt good to walk after days spent in the saddle.

"Ah, that," Zhou said thoughtfully. "I think I have a sense for you now. Yes, we can discuss it. Do you recall when I told you that another wears similar markings? Well, his are golden, but the script is very similar....anyway. The King has them. Zahuv or whatever it is they're called."

Sorne stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "What?"

"Shortly after he was gifted with mages, after the fall of the Princes of Iron, they appeared. He conceals them in public, of course, but I'm quite close to a chambermaid who works in the Royal Palace. She described them and mentioned that the mages were very interested in them. It was accident, really, learning about you. I heard one of the stories about northern warriors covered in magical tattoos. It was a twisting and turning path, but it led me to you."

Vipsania tensed. "The mages found something."

"Or Aldana did," Sorne said grimly. There was a knot in her stomach that had nothing to do with the mages now. "Katalin said he has a power at his command no army could match. He always was ambitious. I wonder how much she knows about all of this."

Amets's cottage came into view. "Ah, how is the witch?" Zhou asked. "One of the others sent an agent to question them about you, but that poor man never returned."

"Perhaps he was the body in the cottage," Vipsania said quietly.

Sorne grimaced. "Given what we know about Amets, I think that's probably the case. Though he wasn't ash."

Zhou cleared his throat slightly, clearly a bit bothered by the idea of a Mourner agent being dead. He hadn't taken Idowu's death terribly hard, but then again, he'd also seen Idowu as part of the problem that was the nobility. Hopefully Katalin would be a bit easier to stomach. "I take it the witch in question isn't keen on answering questions?"

Vipsania shrugged. "In my limited experience, it's hard to tell with that one. Certainly, many mysteries in one body."

Footsteps rapidly approached, thudding from around the other side of the cottage. Sorne recognized the tread and swung down from her horse just in time to be tackled by a very happy, very relieved orc. "Good to see you too," Sorne wheezed through the crushing hug.

"I knew you'd be alright," Vridash said, grinning as he released her. "What'd Ezkibel say?"

"He seems interested. He wants to meet with Katalin," she reported. "What are you doing out here?"

"Ekaitz and I were looking for tracks. One of the villagers reported seeing strange lights out here last night. It's probably just a wisp or something, but I figured someone should look into it," Vridash said as Ekaitz rounded the edge of the building after him. Beside him was Lady Katalin. "No tracks. Oh, and advance scouts saw riders on this path. I thought it might be you, so I fetched Lady Katalin.

"There aren't wisps this far south, at least that I know of," Sorne said. She gave Ekaitz a polite nod, trying to be less antagonistic with the man, and a deeper nod to Katalin.