Angelfire | The Whispering Wall #3

Forty Two: Agreements

The last time Jordan had been alone with Marick, the man had almost crushed his windpipe. Though the bruises had faded now, he still felt an ache in his throat as he crossed the length of the beer hall, heading for the closed door at the far end. He didn't notice when Usk left him, but by the time he reached the door the Varthian was no longer at his shoulder.

He swallowed, and his spit seemed to stick in his throat. His knees trembled. It took all his willpower to knock, and it occurred to him in that split-second that he'd rather be facing down another Listener than attending this meeting.

"Come in."

The room beyond was dim except for a single candle. Marick sat behind the narrow desk, his face calm but not quite pleasant. As Jordan entered, he gestured for him to close the door, and then stared for a long time as if he could see beyond Jordan's coverings.

"Arlen's told you why you're here?" the guild leader finally asked. It was impossible to say whether his voice was any colder than usual, though Jordan was painfully aware that his month was almost up for the task Marick had set him.

He nodded, and then forced himself to speak as Marick's eyebrow twitched. "Yes, sir."

"I hope you have information for me." It was then Jordan noticed the parchment laid out on the table, the lines resolving into what he guessed had to be a map of Nictaven. It was much sparser than the copies Nika had shown him, but the shape was vaguely recognisable. The borders of Nictaven were considered to be where the Whispering Wall lay, and that cut the contours of the map into strange curves and angles that wouldn't have been found on a map defined by political borders.

"Only as much as has been decided," Jordan replied, willing his voice not to crack. After he had received the message from Usk about this meeting — the Varthian had appeared at his window in the middle of the night and Yddris, who'd been the only other person in the house at the time, had been conspicuously unobservant about it — he'd gone straight to Cara and explained. From there they had decided which details were safe to divulge and which weren't; he needed to provide enough detail for Marick to be satisfied, and have it be true enough that it could be verified. But the particulars of who would be going and what exactly they would be doing, Cara hadn't even told Jordan.

Marick gestured at the map. "Make all the notes you need. I want your route."

The route hadn't been completely finalised, but Jordan knew the major stopping points. He stepped close to the desk and looked over the map, a cold sweat breaking out on his brow. Cara had shown him everything on a map of her own, but he'd never had a talent for orienting himself with one. He remembered everything by sight, and there'd never been much need for orienteering around his hometown. Everywhere else, Grace or their dad had done the map-reading, or else they'd used the Sat-Nav.

He found the Guildtown and the Reach, and turned his gaze to the opposite end of the map, reciting the names of the stopping points Cara had given him in his head. Their first stop, a small agricultural town outside the city, was already marked on the map, but the mountain pass they would have to go through he had to add from memory. Their route stopped at three villages and a Varthian tribe's summer camping ground, due to arrive at their final stop, Klinort, where they would rest for a week or so before travelling to the lodestone. Anyone who wasn't fit to withstand the pressure of being so close to the Wall would stay behind in Klinort, and a small band of Unspoken would be the ones to make the last leg of the journey.

Jordan had asked Cara why they planned to bring so many, if only a few Unspoken would actually finish the trip. The Guildmaster had just chuckled. "It's a very long journey, Thorne. A handful of Unspoken cannot carry everything they need for a journey so arduous, and there is strength in numbers." She'd sighed. "It is also highly unlikely we will make it back to the city before dark falls on us again, and thus Shadow's Reach cannot afford to lose as many Unspoken as I would ideally be bringing with us. We are too few for that."