The Bonds of Stone by A.R. Knight

Author:A.R. Knight [Knight, A.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781946554994
Publisher: Black Key Books

Chapter 28

Midnight Motes

Keeping watch, to put it frankly, sucked. Every second Torny sat, her back to the small fire, her eyes staring off into the middle, black distance carried with it possibility’s baggage: things Torny could’ve been doing instead, like reading the diary and learning whether Yarvick was as crappy a father as he was a bandit leader. Sharpening her weapons or messing with her thieving tools would make too much noise, demand too much concentration to be a good guard.

Or so Sledge had told Torny, several times, in their journeys through Foti’s awful wastes.

At least Whent offered a better temp. Torny would take a chill wind and a thick coat over Foti’s blistering days and suffocating nights. Frosted tundra and snow drifts, while annoying, offered softer steps than hard lava rock, not to mention the lava itself and its tendency to melt anyone who wasn’t careful.

Otherwise, the deep Whent night was about as crap as Foti’s, with little save Torny’s fidgets to keep her awake.

That and the knowledge that Wax, and even Bliss, might excise her from the group should she fall asleep. Coupled with the thievery and its attendant disaster back in the city, Torny figured her Guardian scale was tilting too far in the wrong direction.

So when an odd, green-tinted light rose up on the horizon, like a star that’d lost its spot in the cloudy sky overhead, Torny saw it, and thanked Noctia for something interesting. The light grew slow, like a candle finding its wick and emerging into full brilliance. Growth meant the light might be coming closer, and Torny saw, now, its reflection on the snowy ground a ways off into the distance. Beyond bowshot, beyond being able to pick anything out, but close enough to warrant a response.

The bandit stood and the light stopped. Flickered there, a wisp in the night, but it came no closer. Torny ransacked her memory for anything about Whent, about what might be waiting in its cold wastes, but found nothing. Not that she expected any revelations there: Whent hadn’t been a stop in her travels before, no reason to brush up on its wildlife.

Because that’s what she stared at now, right? Wildlife? Torny drifted a hand to one of the dagger pair on her waist, huddled beneath her coat’s ankle-length fur. The light could belong to a fiend, but Torny figured a monster would just come charging into camp. The green mote’s hesitation suggested caution, nature’s mediating instinct.

Torny cocked her head, lifted her off hand and gave a slight wave at the light.

Wax and Eujo hadn’t discussed the rules of the watch, no parameters or particulars over what was worth waking up the soundly-sleeping crew. They’d hiked hard all day, with little rest the night before, so Torny wasn’t surprised the other three snoozed so hard. She’d been the same before a near-delirious Wax shook her awake for her shift. With another hard day coming, breaking serenity for a harmless glow seemed a poor choice.

At her wave, the light bobbed.

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