Chapter 30: Leaving Again
I went to replenish the bone sigils first.
The magical artifacts stall was in the middle section of Cairn's main road, an open-air wooden platform displaying various talismans arranged in piles by function. The shopkeeper was an old man missing two fingers on his left hand. After I said I wanted bone sigils to suppress curses, he glanced at me and retrieved a small box from beneath the counter. The box was lined with cloth, upon which lay three intact suppression sigils.
I took out all three from the box and examined the direction of the runes on each one.
"Are these all from the same batch?"
"Came from the north last month," he said. "This batch was carved steady, no warping."
"Price."
He named a figure nearly half again what they cost in Elarin's lower district, but the precision of the runes was a grade higher. I paid, wrapped the three talismans in paper, and tucked them close to my body.
As I walked north from the magical artifacts stall, I noticed a small stone house.
The stone house stood at the end of a side path, its door half-open. From outside, I could see paper piled inside—a massive quantity stacked from floor to ceiling along both walls, leaving only a narrow passage down the middle. A wooden sign stood by the entrance with just one word carved on it: Paper.
I pushed the door open.
The air inside was dry, carrying the settled scent of paper and ink aged in perpetual cold. The owner was a man in his thirties, seated at a low table at the very back of the shop, holding an extremely fine pen as he drew lines on a piece of parchment. He looked up when I entered, then returned to his parchment.
"What are you looking for?"
"Maps."
"Of where?"
"The north. The farther north the better. And above."
He set down his pen and pulled three scrolls from the pile behind him. He unrolled them one by one on the low table.
The first was a conventional northern map, somewhat more detailed than the one I'd brought from Elarin, but still within known territory.
The second extended farther north, covering areas beyond the mountains.
The third's edges reached a region I'd never seen documented on any map before.
"How much for this one?" I pointed to the third scroll.
"Very expensive."
"Price."
He named it. Five times the cost of the first.
I took out my coin purse and paid.
My silver coins were all gone. All that remained was the two gold pieces sealed in the innermost compartment of my pack—I could only hope I wouldn't need them so soon.
He didn't immediately roll up the map. He studied a blank area at the edge of that map for a moment, then used his fine pen to add two lines.
I waited for him to finish.
"What are these two lines?"
"You said you wanted 'above' as well, so I've added the wind channels," he said. "Farther north of the mountains, there are several fixed wind channels. Wind blows down from certain heights, in fixed directions, at fixed times. In the wind channels, you can see things you normally can't."
"What things?"
"High-altitude silhouettes."
I looked at him.
"The elven sky city."
He paused for a second on that name. Then he set down his pen and leaned back slightly.
"That's what you came to ask about."
"I came to buy a map. I'm asking as an afterthought after purchasing."
He looked at me. People in places like Cairn evaluate the questioner first when they hear certain questions, then decide whether to answer.
"In the northwest corner of the third map, there's a settlement called Aethon," he said. "It's the closest human point to the sky city that can be marked on a map. Four to five days' journey from Cairn."
"Aethon."
"A gathering place for scholars and religious figures," he said. "Wizards can't establish themselves there."
"Why?"
"They have their own knowledge system. Older than the wizards' system."
"How much older?"
"Old enough that I can't say," he said. "When you get there, ask for yourself. Ask the right person and you'll get answers."
"What kind of person roughly?"
"There are temples and libraries there," he said. "Go through them one by one, and someone will have what you need."
I rolled up the third map and tucked it into my inner pocket.
"Those two wind channels—what are they meant for?"
"For things that fly," he said. "You can't walk up there with just legs. What you can do is stand below the wind channels and look up. Under certain weather conditions, you can see the silhouette of the sky city. That's all you can do."
I thanked him, tucked the rolled map behind my back, and walked out of the small stone house.
When I returned to the physician's, Cade was asleep in the outer room.
The physician was organizing medicines by her workbench. I spread out the new map and marked several locations. Aethon. The sky city was west of Aethon, represented on the map by a vague cloud-like symbol with the notation "celestial phenomenon/uncertain."
I rolled up the map and returned to the inner room.
Cade was still sleeping. The wound on his left side was stable in sleep, his breathing rhythm even.
The physician came in from the outer room, glanced at Cade, then at me.
"He needs at least a week before he can move."
"I understand."
"When are you planning to leave?"
I fell silent. The answer was obvious.
She didn't expect me to answer, turning back to her workbench to retrieve a bottle of green medicine.
"This will let you sleep properly. Put it on Cade's tab."
When morning light came through the window lattice of the back room at the physician's clinic, the sky wasn't yet fully bright.
I'd been awake for a while.
After drinking that green medicine, I truly hadn't had any more dreams. But the nightmare from the previous day still bothered me.
The danger hadn't been eliminated. I couldn't stop. I had to keep going.
I began packing.
I reorganized everything: herb inventory in the innermost layer, the new map in the inner pocket, notebook in its usual place. The sealed envelope Osric had given me was still in the deepest part of the inner pocket—it stayed where it was. And the curse-suppressing bone sigils—I'd bought two more and placed them where they'd be easiest to reach.
I made these movements quietly, trying not to disturb anyone.
"You left your knight behind."
Cade's voice sounded behind me. My hands stopped.
"Now you're going to do the same thing to me."
His voice was flat. It was a statement.
"The two situations are different," I said. "You're injured. You can't travel."
"Same result," he said. "And do you think if something happens to you, I'll be fine?"
I finished folding the last change of clothes and put it in the cloth pack.
"I can't stay here indefinitely," I said. "That's a fact."
"A fact," he said. "Fine. Then I'll state a fact: you're not planning to go alone because I'm injured. You were always going to look for the sky city alone. My injury just made it more convenient."
"Why?" he asked, not accusingly, but with a trace of sadness.
Only then did I turn around.
He was half-sitting in bed, left arm still in the sling, back against the pillow. His face looked much softer in the morning light. I didn't look at his eyes, just stared at the floor.
"Because no one's been there," I said. "I don't know what will happen. I can't..."
My voice stopped on a trembling syllable. I cleared my throat, trying to reorganize.
"If something goes wrong, I'd rather it only be me."
"Are you serious?"
I could feel his gaze burning through me, but I still kept my eyes on the floor.
"You push everyone away," he said. "Then tell yourself it's to protect them."
His tone was gentle, harder to handle than anger.
"Have you ever considered," he said, "that maybe they just want to stay by your side? They care about you as a person, nothing to do with prophecies or curses."
I grabbed his collar, the movement so fast I didn't even register it myself.
My entire upper body leaned toward him. The height of the bed brought our faces very close. I could smell the disinfectant on him, mixed with some herb the physician had used when changing his dressing last night. His breath fell warm on my cheek.
He didn't move, meeting my gaze.
We stared at each other at that distance for about three seconds—three seconds that felt like eternity. All the emotions swept through my heart rapidly. I wanted to shout at him, curse him for being so foolish, or just hold him and cry, ask him if he knew he'd nearly died because of me. But I couldn't do any of that now. Any vulnerability would kill me, or kill someone else.
I released him, my shoulders sagging. A bitter atmosphere spread throughout the room.
"Stop following me, Cade."
After saying this, I took his coat from the chair back, folded it, and placed it on the bedside table. I picked up the stack of care instructions from the table and set them beside the coat.
The two items sat side by side there, like some kind of ending.
I walked to the door and shouldered the cloth pack. I paused for a moment but didn't look back.
I opened the door directly, went out, and pulled it closed behind me.
Outside, Cairn radiated a peaceful atmosphere in the morning sunlight.
There were few people on the street. I circled from the back door of the physician's clinic to the main road and walked north along it. Beyond the northern town entrance was the direction toward Aethon.
When I reached the town entrance, I stopped and looked back toward the clinic.
That door was still closed.
Good.
I kept walking, following the road into the distance.
In the clinic.
Cade leaned against the pillow, maintaining the same position as when I'd left.
He looked at the two items placed side by side on the bedside table. He looked for a long time.
His right hand rested at his side, clenching and releasing, clenching and releasing.
Outside, the sound of a passing carriage came from the main road.
He just kept looking at that coat, for a very long time.