Shopping, Maps and Doubts

The market was not that different to what Lily might have found in Haven. Larger, of course, and far more people in one place than she’d seen for a long time…

But for the most part, the market was orderly.

It had wide rows lined by people seated on flagstones or moving from side to side to barter. Goods usually rested on blankets but some food-sellers had small crates.

Those folk were the busiest, but Lily was able to collect enough fruit and vegetables for a few meals while Gabriel and Sasha traded for bullets. On her way to rejoin them, Lily stopped at a blanket where a young boy with a shaved head sat. He grinned up at her. “Is there anything you need, lady?”

Lady, huh? I’m not that old, she thought… but it wasn’t really important.

Because something had caught her eye.

A single page from a newspaper. It lay between two pieces of glass. Even though it had survived the ravages of time, it was still yellowed and torn. One section even bore smudges from moisture.

“We found it in the basement.” He lifted the page with a shrug. “I’ll keep the glass but you can have the paper if you’ve got something to offer. Not like I can read it, anyway.”

Lily knelt before him. “I hope I have something.” For there was an important name on the page.

Cornucopia.

She rummaged around in her pack and pulled out a pair of dice.

A gift from the Olana, the dice were carved from bone with golden dots to represent the numbers. “You can play games with these,” she said.

His eyes widened. “They’re more valuable than most of my junk. Are you sure?”

She smiled. He seemed a kind, honest boy. “I’m sure.”

He accepted the dice, then freed the paper to complete the trade.

Lily moved away from the flow of people, leaning against a low stone wall to read… and yet, she couldn’t understand as much as she’d have liked due to the paper’s condition. The page needed further study, but there had been one thing that was easy to read: Cornucopia had offices in the old capital.

Worth hunting down? she wondered.

It would have to wait, since she had to find Gabe and Sasha.

Once she found them, it seemed they’d been successful in finding more ammunition, and so they headed for the city’s northern end.

Guards waited there. Fewer than those at the Warden’s place, and thankfully, one man was happy to share information about the road ahead.

“Mountains get pretty steep. Not too cold this time of year, but them toxic nettles always come back.” He shrugged his narrow shoulders. “We do what we can. Especially with more people heading on down from them High Villages now, so the way’s plenty clear.”

The nettles? Meaning, Death-marked hearts, surely. “What do you mean when you say the nettles come back? That sounds like you’ve been able to drive them off?”

He rubbed at his stubble. “For a little while. Captain’s not here, but he can give you the details when you pass through.”

“Thank you, we will,” Lily said. “What about the High Villages? Are they welcoming?”

“More so since Miss Anita started to clean up Koy, I’d say.”

She thanked him again, before leading Gabriel and Sasha back to the Warden’s grand building, arriving just as the sun began to set. There, Lily paused on the bottom step. She lowered her voice to make sure the guards at the top wouldn’t hear. “Any final thoughts?”

Gabriel grinned. [If you wanted privacy we could have had this conversation while walking here. Or, let’s just do it all with our hands.]

She thumped his arm, not too hard. “I know. But anyone could have been listening. And Sasha isn’t that far along, right?”

The Olana nodded. “No. But I suppose nothing much has changed for us. We need one of their vehicles. If we can’t get one, we know from where to leave.” Sasha switched to signing. [Are we being watched?]

Lily sighed. But the sigh was not about Sasha’s skill – her question was generally clear. No, it was doubts. More doubts. “I don’t know… but I just don’t want to be caught by surprise.”

[Time to do some negotiating, then,] Gabriel said.

[Right.] She started up the stair and at the top, this time the guards took them to a large room on the second floor. “You can wait here until the Warden sends for you,” one said as she closed the door.

The room was spacious, with four beds of varying sizes, and a soot-stained stove and table in one corner. [I’ll take that large bed,] Gabriel said as he lay back and closed his eyes. He kept his hands up over his chest. [Since I’m the tallest, of course.]

Lily didn’t bother with an answer. He wouldn’t have seen her hands and he was right anyway. Since had some time to rest, taking a nap was tempting. Sacha seemed to have the same idea. Yet when Lily did lie down, she found it impossible sleep.

She couldn’t even drop into a light doze.

And so, she rose and took out the original map – the one they’d copied from – and did her best to re-commit the details to memory. After all, her memory would be all she had if they lost all three copies.

Not to mention, the two carried by Gabe and Sacha weren’t as detailed, considering the lack of decent writing material available when they’d made the copies. We got the names right but none of us can draw like Virren, she thought with a rueful smile for Gabriel’s attempt at the ruined city. Or my own, if I’m being honest.

But the path was clear, leading to a point in the far north.

There waited the Ringwood.

Supposedly, a forest of patterned leaves lay hidden within a ring of mountain peaks, their sheer sides forming a crown.

Tracing the path back toward Koy, she passed steep cliffs above a stretching plain covered in tall grasses, ran along a restless coast and seemingly, a little way into the waves themselves, before turning back through an enormous, ruined city that took up a large amount of the map.

After that, hills and a roaring river that twisted across the page like a furious serpent.

The river was so detailed on the original map that she could see the spray where the water hit rocks. That river most likely lurked in the hills above Koy, considering its position on the map.

Frustratingly, going over their path for the twentieth time didn’t offer any answers.

Not about how or why their trail went into the sea, nor how they were meant to enter the crowned peaks.

Or, above all, whether Virren had actually provided an accurate map in the first place.

Across the room, the door swung open. One of the guards strode into the room. “The Warden wants to speak with you all.”