Page 50 of The Half King
“Even so, the less we all know about our guide, the better,” Daerick said. “Not even I know his name—or what he looks like. He doesn’t interact with the public. I hired him through one of my contacts in the city.”
“Why the need for secrecy?” she asked. “Is it because of the sunset runes? Do you think someone would try to steal them from us?”
Daerick wobbled a hand as if to saypartly. “It has more to do with the talents our guide will use to lead us on the right path and to help us find water.”
“Talents?” she asked. “What does that mean?”
“You won’t like the answer,” Daerick warned her.
“Oh, just tell her,” Kian said. “She has to grow up sometime.”
Cerise turned and glared at Kian, who grinned and winked in response.
“If you must know,” Daerick called over his shoulder, “he’ll use magic.”
“Is he a rogue priest, then?” she asked. “Like the soothsayer?”
“Neither one of them are priests.”
“Well, not anymore,” she clarified. “They ran away from their temples.”
“I mean they never were priests,” Daerick told her. “They’re not second-born, and they never lived at a temple.”
Cerise shook her head.Impossible. That contradicted everything she’d been taught. “But priests are the only wielders of Shiera’s magic. Any other abilities are unnatural.”
Daerick turned and gave her a look of disappointment. “I thought I taught you better than that. There’s no such thing as an unnatural tendency. If something occurs within nature, it is by default natural. What’sunnatural is to vilify it and criminalize it and force people into hiding for being born the way they are.”
“But…” Cerise stammered, trying to make sense of it. “Are you saying there’s no such thing as sorcery or dark arts, that there’s onlymagic, and all of it is the same?”
“Maybe not the same,” Kian interjected. “I’ve never seen magic in the wild that can match the power of my priests. But all gifts, whatever they may be, originate from the same source, wouldn’t you say?”
“From the goddess,” Cerise said. She began to see the logic. “If Shiera created all things and all life, then everything in creation has to be in accordance with her will.”
“I agree,” Daerick told her. “But the priests don’t see it that way.”
“Which is why our guide operates in secret,” Cerise said. “All right. So where are we supposed to meet him?”
“Just there, up ahead.” Daerick nodded toward a boulder, or rather two halves of what used to be a boulder, flanking the entrance to a small cave at the base of the northernmost mountain. He slowed his horse and shielded his eyes. “I don’t see him yet.”
“If he’s smart, he’s inside that cave,” Kian said.
“That’s where I would be,” Daerick agreed.
They rode ahead until they reached the split boulder, where they tethered the horses within the shaded mouth of the cave. Cerise unfastened her sling and let Blue walk beside her, though she kept a close eye on him. She had taught him to stay on command, but even though his abilities were uncanny, he was still just a pup.
The air was marginally cooler in the cave, growing more crisp with each forward stride and smelling faintly of animal dung. From the darkness ahead of them, a young man stepped into view, dressed in linen and standing so tall that Cerise had to tip back her head to look him in the eyes. She recognized him at once, even without his elderly soothsayer companion.
“You,” she said. “The one from the city.”
“Me,” he answered flatly in a deep voice. “Your guide.”
The young man didn’t seem the least bit surprised to see her. Clearly, he had known that she would be there, which made her wonder what had changed since their meeting in the secret den in the pleasure district, when he had bristled at her and ordered her to leave.
He hitched his upper lip and pointed at Blue, who stood faithfully beside her, tipping his wrinkled puppy head to and fro and studying the guide. “What’sthat?”
“Heis my hound,” she answered. “His name is Blue.”
“That’s no hound,” he said.
