Jaku strode to the one in the center, a muscled beast with a rich chestnut color whose eyes held a hint of wildness. The stallion pawed at the ground even as Jaku dug his foot into the stirrup and threw his leg over the mount’s back. With a start, I realized the horse beside him used to belong to my family. Vagach had insisted on selling him after they died, and without stables on the estate or a field to work, Blaeze would have been miserable.
Withholding my affection was difficult as I attached my pack to the rear of the saddle, fumbling with the unfamiliar straps. I glanced at those around me for guidance before making a few adjustments. When I finally mounted him, a sense of peace washed over me. At least I had something good from my old life to bring with me into the new one. As casually as I could, I stroked his mane.
Unbidden, a memory of my sister rose. The first time she’d vaulted onto Blaeze’s back, she’d flown right over, having missed her grip on his mane. She landed in a pile of hay, and we’d both laughed until we cried.
The back of my nostrils burned at the memory, and I forced myself to smother the sorrow that the Reaper claimed her far too soon. One of the males eyed me, and I quickly smothered my emotions and switched into impersonating Vagach. “You know, this horse once belonged to my wife’s family,” I offered Jaku in my haughtiest tone. Vagach was a braggart, endlessly talking about himself and his impressive accomplishments.
“Interesting.” Jaku clicked his tongue. His stallion shot forward, prancing as he pulled up on the reins. Beside me, the Demons that had been shouting orders were settling in for the ride and nudging their horses to follow the Százados.
“Listen up!” he shouted, letting his horse sidestep toward the main road that led away from the Stryi. “We’re going to march until mid-afternoon in an attempt to rejoin a larger force within the next few weeks. I don’t want to hear any complaining about tired feet or aching backs. You are soldiers now, and I expect you to act like it.”
“Yes, sir.” The reply was disjointed, and only those already clad in leather armor sounded enthusiastic.
Hoofbeats filled the air a moment later as Jaku took off, and the others followed him. Spurring Blaeze forward, I trotted toward the front, keeping my nose in the air as I passed familiar faces marching in the dust left in the horses’ wake. Vagach was aloof with the villagers at the best of times, and offering them kind words of encouragement was not in his nature.
As we rode past the wild bushes of the estate, I tried my best not to gaze longingly through them in hopes of seeing Olrus. But my glances must not have been as surreptitious as I had hoped, for one of the leather-clad males of equal rank with Dromak angled his horse toward mine.
“Missing your wife already?” he asked, and I startled, recognizing the male who had led the soldiers on the chase through the streets after me the previous day.
How far did Soli spread the information Olrus offered her?
Plastering my face with a snobbish, prideful expression, I replied, “I had hoped that she would be with child by now. It would be a shame for my noble house to die out.”
I hated that I had to say that because it was the exact opposite of what I wanted for my life.
The male regarded me with an intensity I was unaccustomed to, as if he were trying to work something out in his head. I smothered the disarming grin I would have normally offered as a female.
Finally, he introduced himself. “I’m Izgath.”
“Vagach,” I said, not bothering to remove my nose from its lofty place in the air.
“I know,” he replied, offering me a momentary reprieve from his assessing gaze as another one of his comrades joined us. Glancing over my shoulder, I took in the trail of recruits, eyes lingering on the handful of riders at the rear. These soldiers weren’t leaving desertions to chance with the way they penned in the group of recruits.
“Izgath, why is your–our–company so small?”
“This is only a fraction of our battalion.” Jaku emphasized the last word, and I cursed myself for not knowing the proper military terminology. His eyes narrowed slightly, causing the scar that slashed the left side of his face to wrinkle. “The other squads have spread out across the southern region in an attempt to recruit and return to the front faster. We will rejoin some of them in a week or two, and the rest outside of Uzhhorod.”
Izgath nodded, scrutinizing me similarly. A knot twisted in my gut. Did they know already that I wasn’t who I said I was?
“Jaku is the Százados of the Lovak Squad, but Parancsok Olet sent other Százados and Vezető, others like myself and Uzadaan here,” he jerked his head toward the ruby-eyed Demon riding beside him, “to the vidék beyond yours, since they are smaller. Other parts of the army remain on the battlefield or in the capital,” Izgath explained.
To the east, there were two other vidék, and those Kormánzó, like Vagach, spent most of their time in their villages. Our pastoral life in the south didn’t interest any of the higher ranked nobles like the Nayúr beyond how many crops we could spare to send north. They preferred to remain in the capital and reap the benefits our hard work afforded them.
The middle part of the Demon Realm was arid, with little rainfall due to the high altitude of the Skala Mountains that divided the continent in two. Opposite the wall that ran along those high peaks, that part of the Angel Realm wanted for nothing, with lush, green forests dripping with exotic fruit. My favorite roses hailed from there, and I hoped that Olrus would revive them.
They deserved to flourish, like me.
Jaku turned in his saddle, and I immediately straightened, not wanting to give any further impression that I might not be Vagach. “Are we close enough to the Graz here to march alongside it toward the mountains?”
The Graz River was the division of the Angel and Demon Realms in the south, its expanse so thick and wide that no one dared cross it. I’d been to its shores a handful of times, and the icy spray that drifted off it as it pounded against the jagged rocks piercing its surface was enough to make me shiver then, even under the heat of the rising sun.
“We are. If we turn along that path,” I pointed ahead to a small cut into a copse of trees that lead west, “we should reach it within two hours.” It was our proximity to the river that gave life to the crops grown on the open plains of the south. “There are also some offshoots within the woods where the recruits can stop to fill their waterskins and for the horses to safely drink.”
I wasn’t certain any of these males had been this far south and understood the dangers the river posed. A dividing wall with the Angel Realm here was unnecessary when the river offered a natural deterrent for crossing into the other’s sovereign territory.
“We will rely on your expertise to guide us in the right direction, Vagach,” Jaku said before turning around and pulling a skin from the front of his saddle. Around me, the others did the same, and I mimicked them, certain that whatever these experienced males did was likely in my best interest.
But if they wanted me to guide them further than a few day’s ride north, I had no hope of maintaining the pretense that I was indeed Vagach. Dread settled in my gut along with the water.
What was I thinking, running off to war and pretending to be my dead husband?
By the time we stopped that evening to make camp, my magic was waning. The copious amounts of water I sipped throughout the day did nothing to ease the sweating that came from the summer heat or my exertion. Thankfully, Vagach’s overindulgence gave me an easy excuse for the excess. I’d convinced Jaku and the others to ride along the road adjacent to the river, with the Skala Mountains looming ahead, massive despite the weeks of riding it would take to reach them.
