The Story:
Kauria

She had been walking for two days; there was no possibility of going back anytime soon. It wasn't exceedingly hot, but a she had been walking without food or drink.

She trekked along the side of the road although it was rather risky; she thanked the magical sense that warned her of approaching carts. If it weren't for that ability, she had no doubt she would have been caught by then.

Had it only been the other morning? she pondered. She had not been asleep long, or so it seemed to her, when a pounding at her door awoke her. She had been having a nightmare about being chased in a dark corridor. . . she groggily stood up and unlocked her door.

It was Gedry. He was out of breath, as though he had run across the small village to warn her.

"You have to leave," he hastily told her. "Get dressed and grab only what you can carry. Nana Myriah's already packing some food for you."

"What time is it? What's going on?" she demanded, snapped awake by the urgency of his voice. "What's happening?"

"It's early morning. They're coming!" He began to hurry her along, grabbing a bag and stuffing it with clothing. "They mustn't know you're here." She dressed while he talked, her mind jumping to conclusions.

"Why here? How did they know?" she questioned rapidly. "Belin's a small village; we're not even on the most detailed map. In fact, the only people who've even visited here since the New Rule began were those lost traders last week who-" She stopped cold in the middle of her sentence; she had guessed the informant.

He tossed something small and dark at her. It was a piece of bark. She examined it, and it bent easily in her hand. She glanced to Gedry. "This is from the Tree!" she gasped. He nodded.

"They were very interested in the Tree, if you'll remember," he said. "So I looked at it, and found that piece on the floor. It's because of you, Kauria."

"Then they know..." she dared not breathe. Had the Emperor truly learned she practiced Magic?

"Hurry!" Gedry snapped her out of shock. "You've got to leave now. Word has it that the Emperor's men are on their way here already." He grabbed her by the arm and hauled her out of her room, carrying the clothing in the other hand. She stuffed the bark into her pocket. Nana Myriah met them outside the orphanage, holding a basket. Kauria nearly fell over the stoop at the door, her eyes blinking to adjust to the early morning darkness.

"Hurry, dear," the older woman said, thrusting the basket on Kauria. "We've got a Talle saddled for you." As she said that, a stable hand came by with the mare. Before she knew what was happening, Gedry and the stablehand had managed to lift her up and seat her on the horse. She grappled for his hand.

"Come with me, Gedry!" she implored. "I can't go alone."

Her friend and companion smiled at her, but shook his head. "No, I have to stay here; they'll immediately notice if their spy was missing."

"But they'll surely kill you," she insisted. "They'll know you've been lying to them."

"How was I to know those traders were really Torrel's men?" he assured her. "I'll leave before I'll let them take me to Crowns, I promise, dear one. I was only here a few weeks; they might believe me if I say you fooled me." He tried to look optimistic, but she could see the doubt on his face. He reached up to her momentarily, brushing the hair from her face. She smiled sadly at him. "Good-bye, dear one," he said.

He lowered his hand and struck mare sharply. The horse took off so fast Kauria barely had time to balance herself.

"I'll meet you in Carul!" was the last thing she heard Gedry yell after her.

Things had not boded well for her. It was with the barest of margins she escaped Belin; not long after she left, she nearly ran into a group that was undoubtedly Torrel's troops. She wondered if Gedry was still living, and if he was, if he was still of his own mind. Gedry had risked everything to hide Kauria, and for a while, luck was on his side. Who expected anything unusual in a small place like Belin?

The first night a disastrous storm had blown in. She sought shelter underneath trees, but her mare proved easily spooked by the lightening. She fought to keep the horse under control, but lightning struck not far from where she had taken refuge. The horse bolted, knocking her down, causing a gash on her face. The foolish animal ran off with her food and nearly everything she owned. The gash was partially healed with a judicious use of her Magic, but she knew that the gash still remained and wouldn't completely heal for some time.

The next day, there was not trace of the storm other than the muddy roads and fallen trees. Kauria knew she looked a mess. Her raven-black hair was tousled, this way and that; she was wounded, sore, tired, and caked in drying mud. This day, the second after the storm, boded no better. The sun as shining brightly, a she was developing a sun burn through her thin, battered clothes. She wished she could change, but the horse made off with the bag Gedry had stuffed.

A few hours passed, and she sensed a cart approaching. She ducked behind a nearby growth of trees and waited for the traveler to pass. There was no way for her to tell which carts belonged to ordinary Ajirians, and which were agents of Torrel.

The cart passed by quickly, and she carefully began walking along the road again. She hoped she was on the way to the Carul border. Gedry had told her repeatedly the way to the trading post, Farlin, but she had never traveled there herself and didn't know how far away she was; Gedry had estimated how long it would take if she were on a mount. So she continued walking onward, and hoped that she hadn't misjudged where she was. She missed Gedry and wished he was there to give her encouragement, or to brush away her hair from her face, one of his favorite gestures. But he wasn't there.

She recalled when she first met Gedry: at the Tree outside Belin, in the spring. It was a hibt of hers to go there whenever she was listless of village life. He said he was an Empirical messenger taking a shortcut to Havelin, and didn't know there was any village nearby. He was wondering what a Frozen Tree was doing so far away from Crowns.

At first she was wary of him, a stranger who worked for the Emperor, yet there was something about him that made her like Gedry. He was only a few years older than she was, and he had a bright personality and a quick mind. When he made his return trip from Havelin, they met again. It was followed by a string of such meetings over the next few months, where they gradually learned more of each other. She no longer recalled when he had started to call her "dear one," but she remembered the day he told her he was a spy sent to investigate rumors of a Frozen Tree and a hidden village: Belin. He said that he was sent to find a possible Magician living in the nearby, since he had passed through the area, and didn't want to lie to her about why he was there. She knew without him asking that he knew she was the Magic user, but she also knew he wasn't going to turn her in.

They had hoped that Gedry could simply claim that Belin was an ordinary village with the exception of the Frozen Tree, but Gedry had underestimated Cor, Kauria bitterly realized. Cor had sent the "lost" traders and discovered Gedry's insubordination.

Gedry and she had planned for such an eventuality by escaping to Carul. Gedry knew of some Carullian traders who might smuggle them out. He had told her that Cor didn't trust him and there were only two reasons Cor had never turned him into a mindless Dark Star: there was no proof of disloyalty and Gedry still had a use as a spy.

Yet here she was walking alone to a place she didn't know. There was no one she could trust, and no one to offer help. The afternoon passed slowly, and to Kauria, each step was a step up a steep hill. She didn't know how much longer she could go on, or when she would arrive in Farlin. Night began to fall and Kauria pressed onward, forcing herself to stay awake. At last however, her strength slowly gave out, and she feel asleep on the side of the road.