No one bothered Kaye and the others after the duels ended. Masked and unmasked men moved out of the way as if they were royalty, seemingly incapable of conceiving of a scenario where anyone would seek to attack one another. Perhaps they saw the massacre and the duels as two separate events, the tter turning them into something that was neither foe nor ally.

  Those who fled were long since gone, the only sign of their existence were the trails that continued up the road. They weren’t allowed a wagon or cart, not even a pack animal. Whatever rules of spoil the Headhunters followed, that seemed to have been the reward for the sughter.

  Having packed belongings and foodstuffs, Kaye and the others simply left. Alive, but far from safe. The closest city was still ten or so days away, but the caravan’s protection was gone. The Headhunter army had been one of many. Perhaps the northernmost one at this time, but there was no way to be sure.

  Dawn eventually settled, but the afternoon that preceded it was drawn-out suffering. Kaye, Hogog, Aien, Uruoro and Loho dragged their feet through the road, saying nothing but what was necessary, shambling this way and that, unable to follow a straight line. Loho had only patted the worst of the blood away with a piece of cloth, saying that there was not enough water to clean himself, and was adamant in saying he would not remove the mask even to clean his face. Uruoro was the only one who still had some stamina in him, and he spent most of the journey a score paces ahead, while Kaye, Hogog and Aien were the face of exhaustion.

  She wondered if they felt as miserable as they looked. She certainly did.

  Only when the sun turned dark purple did they search for a pce to rest, and id their belongings down in the first rock-shelter that looked halfway decent.

  They had no tents anymore, only thin bedding, each carrying their own. No one even suggested lighting up a fire as each of them picked a spot. Kaye had learned plenty about the correct way to breathe and stand from her hunting lessons, but all of it was forgotten now. Thinking was hard and too tiresome to be worth the effort. Without a drop of consideration for the others, she slouched down and closed her eyes.

  Sleep came in uncomfortable bursts. Every short-lived moment of awareness was punctuated by Kaye realizing she had shifted into an awkward position. None felt comfortable, all of them hurt. Malformed images crossed her mind like faces in the smoke, and when her eyes opened yet again, she couldn’t tell with which parents she had spent the night of dreaming. If it could be called that.

  Hearing nothing, Kaye thought she was alone for a moment, then picked up on faint sounds. Shallow breathing here, the hustling of clothes as someone shifted in their sleep there and a single, distant buzzing of some unseen insect. Her mind was trying to remember something, voices. This was familiar. Mencholic.

  Pushing herself to a sitting position, Kaye checked her surroundings. Only one shape was clearly distinguishable nearby, most likely Hogog. What she thought were Loho and Aien could as well have been boulders, for the longer she stared, the less sure she was.

  Kaye put all the care in the world in keeping quiet as she stood up and picked her way around. Far from recovered though she was, she didn’t feel like sleeping. Besides, they should have pushed themselves to set up watches.

  Guiding herself by the stars and what little moonlight there was, Kaye turned east. The road was west, and not that far. Chances were slim that someone would be close enough to see her, but she’d rather not risk it.

  Kaye walked normally when she was far enough away. She found a gentle incline and ascended it, staring back. It was the best spot she could find to watch over the others, though far from ideal.

  So numb she was that when a shape came into view, Kaye didn’t react. Thankfully, it would have only been a waste of energy.

  Uruoro had tied his hair, accentuating the size of his head. He was sitting down cross-legged, eyes open but tired.

  “I thought it was you,” he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper.

  “Why did you think that?” Kaye asked as she approached and sat down by his side, legs outstretched.

  “Your underestimate the lightness of your steps, Kaye Nanur.”

  She pondered his words for a moment. Kaye could easily distinguish her family’s footsteps, Jane also could, but Uruoro had known her for just a few days.

  Leaning back, supporting herself on her palms, Kaye stared at the night sky.

  “Doesn’t feel like it was just a few days.”

  “Years can pass in the time it takes for gnces to be exchanged.”

  Kaye smiled. “How old are you, Uruoro?”

  “I am not sure. My people think more about seasons than about years, and I have spent at least half of my life without seeing any of them. You would be surprised to know how easy it is to stop counting, when there is no one to share it with. I believe I am at least forty in the way you count it, and that my parents were around this age when they died.”

  “Can I ask what happened to them?”

  “Diseases happened, all in quick succession. One night happened to be colder than the previous ones, and their eyes never opened again.”

  Then you might have spent twenty years alone. Longer than any of my lives.

  Uruoro continued, “I never saw another boruodan since then, and at times I wonder if I am the st.”

  Kaye started at him. “That can’t be true.”

  “I also held to that belief, and so I searched through the mountains. Now I know that the pce I come from is deep within the east and north of Mor, in the opposite end of this continent. My search brought me ever south, always hiding, following the coastline when possible. I was captured when trying to cross the desert, and have been sold many times in the past two years. They were fascinated with my intelligence, and so they taught me how to read and speak their nguage. There are plenty of tales regarding the boruodan, you see, and that kept the embers of my hope burning. Ironically, the men who bought my life and body kept bringing me south, that is when we met. If there are any boruodan alive, they are far from here, where they should stay.”

  “We can look for them.”

  He gnced at her, a thin smile on his broad features. “I deeply appreciate the sentiment, Kaye, but you must not make empty promises. However,” Uruoro added before she could think of an answer, “perhaps I had been searching in the wrong pce all along. Had I simply descended the mountain, things could have been different. There are no sves in Mor. Suffering there is, I am sure, but if only I had known that…”

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “Tell that to the thinking worms in my head. Sometimes they convince me otherwise, and make me dwell on how things could have gone differently. A truly unwise, wasteful thing, is it not?”

  Kaye fought back the urge to sigh. Why did you have to say that?

  Uruoro stood up, grunting as he stretched his body. “Will you forgive me if I leave you alone now?”

  “I’ll keep watch.”

  Uruoro moved away. Kaye watched his boruodan gait wavering from one side to the other until he disappeared from sight. Then she turned to the stars, and embraced the dwelling on unwise, wasteful things.

  Some coincidence of air currents and rock tunnels made their shelter a most welcome fresh spot, and Kaye was gd for the opportunity to let her hair down. She was in desperate need of a bath to untangle its mess. The tan in her skin didn’t bother her in the slightest, but the dryness of it did.

  Rubbing the sleep from their eyes, they gathered in the shadow of the rock shelter. Uruoro took it upon himself to hand each of them their rations; strips of meat and figs, both dried.

  Loho raised a hand to Kaye. “We should decide where we are heading, and as far as I am concerned, it is your decision.”

  “I didn’t think there was anything to discuss,” Kaye said. “That army headed south, and we are halfway through to the next city.”

  “But that city isn’t Headhunter,” Loho said.

  “They wouldn’t let you in?” Hogog asked.

  “I wouldn’t be allowed within a thousand paces of its walls, and that would mean I can’t protect her.”

  Kaye gestured for Loho, some part of her mind telling her she shouldn’t feel comfortable addressing this man. “It would help if you expined what exactly you owe me. What a debt means to the Headhunters.”

  “Simply put, it is my duty to guide you away from this war. Where exactly is your decision, but it would be foolish to look for a ship instead of heading to Mor—and you listened to me when it mattered, which tells me you are no fool.”

  “A dead Headhunter can take no more heads, but he may yet live to kill a thousand, because you saved him. Grim as it is, we cannot deny that it also saved us. It is this potential that you delivered back unto him that he has to repay,” Uruoro said.

  “It is as the small man says.”

  Kaye gnced at Aien, but he seemed to have nothing to add, distracted by eating and staring at nothing in particur.

  “If we continue north, we cannot go into any city?” Hogog asked.

  “Just so,” Uruoro answered.

  “There is respect among the Headhunters, remember? This is not Sarak, and whoever we stumble upon on the road or in any city on our path north, has no reason to adhere to the customs and besides, there is a war raging. I doubt travelers with a Headhunter will be welcomed, whether you leave me outside the city gates or not. If you say that is where we should go, I will follow, but it would be wiser for us to continue east. In Sarak, I know the nd. In Sarak, no unmasked will touch the followers of a Headhunter, and the masked ones will come to me. From there, we can turn north once again.”

  “We would also be avoiding the worst of the war. Since Sarak is invading,” Kaye said.

  “That as well.”

  “What happens if you lose a duel?”

  Loho leaned back, looking displeased. “Can you conceive of that happening?”

  “Answer the question,” Kaye demanded. To her side, she noticed Uruoro smiling.

  “You will be allowed to leave, but you might lose all your belongings. Regardless, it shall not happen. Then again, it is your decision.”

  Kaye looked to Hogog. In his face she saw compliance.

  North is faster, but more dangerous. East is safer, but a longer journey.

  It was an easy decision.

  “We go to Sarak.”

  Not long after, they were heading east. When Kaye questioned him further, Loho expined that the first few days would be nothing but walking through the wastes, that he could not say how far they were, but would know where to go when they stumbled upon something, anything, for he knew the nd of Sarak as well as the grooves in the skull he wore. Since his debt seemed to turn him incapable of denying her, Kaye was willing to believe him.

  They trekked much farther that day. A short rest by noon was all they needed to continue without compint. Their supply of water was limited, so they took to collecting plump pnts from the underbrush that were succulent like cacti, a knowledge they owed to Uruoro. Hogog caught two snakes with surprising ease, and the prospect of a decent meal was enticing to the ex-sves. For most of the day, Kaye, Hogog and Uruoro stayed close together, with Loho leading the way and Aien to the side, quiet as a hunter himself, carrying a new curved sword he had taken from a corpse. More than once, he headed in another direction for a few minutes, only to come back without a word on what he had been doing.

  Bellies full and the sky dark, they agreed on the shift order. Kaye didn’t argue when Hogog said she should be st after spending half the past night awake.

  Sleep wasn’t comfortable, not exactly. She dreamt of the survivors on the road, but in her dreams she saw them moving away, disappearing into the horizon’s line, while behind her the Headhunters did the same. The visions didn’t shake her up like a nightmare, but when her eyes opened deep into the night, she knew that once again sleep would elude her. At least she was better rested now.

  The others were sleeping nearby. Not so close that they would share heat — there was enough of that in the air —, but close enough for her to tell them apart from their shape. Hogog, Uruoro and Loho. That meant it was Aien’s shift, and she was next.

  Kaye couldn’t remember hearing Aien’s voice the whole day. He had helped them back in Kakinse, looked for them in Riin, and stood around Kaye and her uncle when they needed it on the road. They owed him a lot — their lives, Kaye realized for the first time, much like Loho owed her. She didn’t bme Aien for retreating into himself after the massacre, but they would be traveling together for at least a few more months — if she understood the distance to Sarak and then to Mor correctly. If she could do something to help him, she would.

  This is a good opportunity.

  She raised herself to a sitting position too fast, and heard the others shuffling in their sleep. After making sure she hadn’t awakened any of them, Kaye left her bedding.

  If I am right about this… At least I have the courage now.

  Kaye saw Aien before he saw her. He was where they had agreed to watch from, but standing, new sword in hand, pointing it forward at nothing. He started at seeing her, sighed.

  “You can rest some more, I just got here.”

  “I can’t sleep anymore,” she said, finding a boulder to sit on.

  Aien turned in the other direction, assumed the same stance he had been at before, then shifted into a lower one. His movements were deliberately slow, Kaye guessed both to keep from making much sound and to get used to the weight of the new sword. His previous one, the one that Loho wouldn’t give back, was double-edged, straight and one-and-a-half handed. Aien now held a curved one of simir length but single-edged, and whatever difference in weight and styles there were, they were clearly bothering him.

  “I’m sorry for the sword. I tried to convince him to give it back, but he said that is one of the few things he can’t do for me.”

  “It’s fine. I’ll have it back one day.”

  Kaye frowned. “He sleeps with it in his hands.”

  “I can duel him for it and no, before you ask, I’m not trying to get myself killed. I am well aware of how much he outmatches me, even if I hate to admit it. If we find a better one soon, then I won’t bother. It’s just a sword, after all.”

  “Where did you learn how to fight?”

  “By myself. Sticks at first, then I bought a practice sword from a traveling merchant. There was no one in the farm who knew how to fight, so no one could teach me.”

  “Not even some guards?”

  “Guards don’t know how to fight, that’s why they are guards. I mean a swordsman, a knight, an Armsmaster.”

  A Headhunter. Kaye heard the unspoken words.

  “Have you ever killed someone?” the words tumbled out of her mouth.

  Aien froze in between two stances.

  I shouldn’t have asked that. It has nothing to do with—

  “I have,” Aien answered after a moment, then started moving again. “It was necessary.”

  “This world is cruel.”

  “It is.”

  “I wonder if there are others. If they are also cruel.”

  “Uhm,” Aien mumbled, moved into another stance. He didn’t take the bait.

  “I’m sorry if I’m bothering you, but I thought to say thank you again. I noticed that you were distant today, and it would be better if we stuck close together. Especially us. We’re the same age, aren’t we? Sixteen?”

  Aien moved to another stance before answering. “The others are much older, aren’t they?”

  Kaye could read right through his words.

  “And we’re the only ones with the weird hair.”

  Aien held the pose for longer than he had all the others. For a moment Kaye thought he would simply ignore her, but then he stood up straight and turned to her.

  “The day I was born, a star fell,” Aien said.

  “And so too does one fall now,” Kaye answered.

  “From me into you.”

  “And from me into you.”

  There was silence then.

  Kaye broke it. “You know the words. I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “My grandfather was Nagra. He passed them to me.”

  “Your parents?”

  “My parents died when I was four.”

  “Which ones?”

  Aien turned away.

  “These ones,” he answered, his face hidden.

  Kaye waited for him to eborate, but he didn’t.

  “Were you fifteen too? When it happened?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Older? Younger?”

  “Younger.”

  That expins some things, Kaye thought. Some behaviors. But… younger? I spent my st years barely awake. How was it for you?

  “I don’t think I have to tell you about my parents. You saw Gairin and Taya that day. I think it was another Nagra, but he’s across the sea now, and we are here. I can go back if we go to Mor and Odanas, but that will take longer. If it weren’t for you, me and my uncle would have followed them.”

  “It’s the best I could have done.”

  If I could have done better, they would still be alive.

  “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Kaye said, “but can I ask about your parents? Have you been alone since then?”

  “No. Not alone, I mean. I still had grandfather. My parents were killed by an Abyssal. The thing just…” still looking away, Aien gestured with his free hand as if swiping something off a table, “… passed through, and that was enough. Later, I learned that Armsmasters killed it. They didn’t have an Acolyte with them and it took three squads, and every single one of them died, at least that’s what I heard… What do you think we’re meant to do?”

  The question caught Kaye by surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “We… stumbled upon each other, didn’t we? There has to be a reason. Something we’re here for.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because my parents didn’t die for a reason like fate.”

  Aien whirled around, his mouth open.

  It was a moment before he answered, “I’m sorry Kaye, that’s not what I meant to say.”

  It’s the worst thing you could have said.

  “It’s fine.”

  “What I mean is, why us?” Aien pressed on, “I asked my grandfather about it, when I started to remember things, and he told me I was promised for greatness, that I was the only one to embody the star of my life like this. I didn’t expin what I remembered, but the hair, how fast I grew and learned, it impressed him.”

  “If it had happened before, we would have stories about it.” Kaye agreed with that part of what Aien was saying, but unlike him, she hadn’t grown up any faster. She decided not to say that, not to point out that chances were, he simply happened to be tall for his age.

  “Yes, the Nagra would. It might not have been God, but something did this, and I can’t imagine that it just… happens. And I know it was something, because we gained something.”

  “I got my hair back. Green, this time, like how I always wanted it. It’s… perfect.”

  “Cancer?”

  Kaye nodded. “Leukemia. What about you?”

  “I drowned.”

  Younger, Kaye remembered.

  That made her stand up. She’d hug him, if he hadn’t turned away. Instead, she walked up to his side. Her heart sunk.

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I really am. It must have been frightening.”

  “I’d say you can’t even begin to imagine, but I think you do.”

  “Let’s not dwell on that. What did you…?”

  “Gain?” Aien interrupted her, “The body of a man. Like how I always wanted it.”

  “That is… lovely,” Kaye said.

  “See? So again, why us?”

  Both staring in the same direction, Kaye answered, “I don’t think we are special in that way, Aien. This world hasn’t been kind to us. Much less to you. Whatever it was, it simply happened to be looking at us when we died.”

  “Are you telling me you don’t think about it?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “Why?”

  How should I put it into words that won’t hurt you?

  Ahead of them, the wastes they would be heading into could only be told apart from the night sky because of the sudden apparition of stars in the horizon. There were so many stars, thousands of them, and a gaxy that drew something of a twisted shape above, like the gentlest of blue waves.

  “Because if it had gone out of its way to look for those most worthy of it, then it wouldn’t have been true compassion.”