Chapter 6

Her first petal hadn’t fallen yet. It was absurd to think about it. The first petal would choose to fall with either sinister drama or surreal insignificance.
She was dreading the thought with disbelief in her mind yet awaited it with sick curiosity. It was a little ironic; “curiosity killed the cat”. Her real name meant Silver Cat. No one had called her that for a long time.
Pens’ real name was PerrygOrien and her more frequently used name was Perigan, it was the only one that her father approved of. They were very different girls, both idolised each other.
Kathio was a fair haired girl with bright, cobalt blue eyes and curves in all the right places. She was witty and intelligent in the way of politics and was very able to fight. Men lost line of virtuous sight when she walked into a room, which amused her brother but not her father of course.
Perrygan was slim and tall with rich brown hair and emerald green eyes. She was intelligent in the way of literature and crafts and creativity. Her father was fond of her, she was talented in many ways, but often dismissed her as no important political woman. She proved him dreadfully wrong in that way.
“On what do you ponder?” The fog of thoughts in her mind was split open when she heard Pen talk.
“Nothing.” Kathio said a little too quickly. “I mean… I was just thinking about home.” There was a sour tone in her voice that she didn’t attempt to conceal.
“What? What about home?” Pen persisted.
“There’s more out here for us than where we were born. This wasteland is oppressive, but we can move and we can prove ourselves as you have done.” She explained. Peak crawled around on her lap. Peak was a gift from the desert people, given with the words “he will aid you, Silver Kat.” The white ball of fur was warm and comforting, even if he wasn’t a sign of home which was what other people would think she was looking for.
“But you love home, don’t you?”
“Of course I do!” Kathio objected. “However, I’ve inherited father’s pride. I need to prove him wrong… What?”
Pen was smiling and there was a hint of disbelief in her eyes, and something sparkled just above her lower eyelashes. Perhaps, it was a tear. “Kathio, people listen to you and follow you. You are clever in every word you say.” There were gaps in her words as if she believed them so much that they were hard to say and hard to explain.
“But…”
“Father never had faith in us but you’ve had faith in yourself and others have believed in you. You have been my idol since you were old enough to have your will and it has only developed since then, even if I am older than you.”
“P-Pen…” Kathio stuttered and looked at her squarely. Her blue eyes were narrow and there was a single bead of sweat on the left side of her face. She felt guilty and selfish when she considered how she’d been feeling. “I’m nothing to idolise, I was useless when you needed help the most. I couldn’t even be mature enough to realise that I needed your help… You’ve always been stronger than me.”
There was quiet between both of them. It was only broken when Thargon arrived.
“We are going to start moving again. We need to make sure every one knows what happens if we are captured.”
“Why would we be captured?” Kathio asked, clearing the hair from her eyes but less obviously wiping a tear and the sweat from her cheek.
“We will pass the tower, very closely. With such little time, we can not hope to avoid the base. You will both need to take fake names and have fake life stories that would keep you alive and would get you released. Whatever happens to us, you must make it home safely.”
Pen and Kathio looked up at Thargon. His expression was grim and serious. His face was darkened with dirt and stress. His shoulder length dark hair was tangled and some stuck to his neck with sweat.
“Pen, you are clerk of the river lands. The colour of your hair makes your blood seam purer than Kathios’. Kathio, you are to play the part of her servant and Atheilel has already decided she is to be the medic. We are all on a journey home and Pen is our guide. Understood?”
They both nodded and he stepped back, his features engulfed by shadows.

Kathio routed through her sack while Peak played with the strings. He’d obviously adopted some cat behaviour in his creation. That was probably why the desert women said “we have made him of you, Silver Cat.”
There were few things she could bare and thickets of dark, unknown plants were not among them. She tied back her hair and tugged her hood over it. She’d changed- a skirt would get in her way so she was wearing leggings and boots. Her falchion was sheathed at her hip and she could see the snakes glance at her with golden gazes as the torch light gaze over them when she moved.
Bent over her knees, she was busy tying the shin armour when she saw two feet enter her line of sight. She looked up with her blue eyes already fixed on the figure above.
She could not see who it was for a while but knew, by the wide shoulders, he was a man. He stood as but a silhouette, a dark shape full of shadow. He was as still as a standing stone and she could only stare up. No doubt, it was Thargon checking that she was being quick.
As she focused on him more, she felt a little more uneasy. Completely transfixed by him, she didn’t notice that sparks from the torch had spurted from the stick and fallen onto the reeds. They spread surprisingly quickly, as if purposefully. In the wider light there was gold down one side of his body and something else.
Across his chest, like a network of gold veins was embroidery. It must have been slightly metallic to have picked up more light than the rest of his shirt or perhaps set out a little. The pattern was that of an orb with great flames going in all directions. They were in exact proportion with each other. This was a crest.
“Oh my god! Fire!” Someone called and Kathio shuddered out of the hypnosis. She looked over to her side and the brilliant light was beautiful though only covered a foot square of ground.
She looked back and he was gone.

“You’re just lucky some one else spotted it.” Thargon wasn’t going to make a point of how negligent she’d been. He was quieter than usual. He’d barely mentioned it apart from to say that it was fortunate she wasn’t hurt. “A fire can spread quickly while no one is looking.”
“However, we are in a marsh.” Pen defended Kathio who remained silent.
Everyone was split up into groups of three and Thargon reasoned that Pen and Kathio needed to be under his custody to keep them safe. Kathio suspected it was for something else.
“How did you get distracted so easily, though?” Pen asked.
“I… I don’t know.” Kathio thought she sounded convincing enough. “Perhaps I was daydreaming. I don’t remember.”
“Wow. I wouldn’t have forgotten something like that.”
“Did he say anything to you?” Thargon asked, out of the blue when Pen was about to open her mouth to say something. Her jaw dropped but she stopped with a quizzical expression on her face.
“Wh-“
“No, he didn’t.” Kathio knew what he was talking about.
“Do you know who he was?”
“No. He said nothing and it was too dark.”
“Who are we talking about?” Pen burst in.
They didn’t answer, they only kept walking. It didn’t take long for her to give up. She lost interest in their peculiar silence and foreboding frowns.