Chapter 1

Tay watched at the soldiers filed past the road leading to her village. They were impressive. Of course to an 1311 year old the bar for being impressed was not that high. Just that morning Tay had been exceedingly impressed by the installation of a new water wheel along the river just outside of her village. In fact that water wheel was the only reason that Tay was still on the road home when the soldiers went past. 

Stepping to the side of the road she sat on a little rise and watched the men go by. There were so many different pieces of armor and weapons and tools that Tay quickly ran out of names for them. There were soldiers in leather, and cloth, and even some in bits of metal chain or plate metals. There were soldiers walking with long poles, on horses with swords, in carts among their fellows. Even a few carriages dotted the line, though Tay couldn’t see who was inside. The line of men went on and on so that she could not see the end. After her eyes began to hurt from strange so much Tay thought about walking away from the river of men and supplies, but that was when she hear it. In the distance there was a deep tromp, tromp, tromp, the steps of many men walking in unison. 

The beginning of the line of men walked along the road, this next group marched. Tay felt a feeling dread and awe spring up inside her stomach. All her life she had hear of the Emperor’s most elite fighting force, the best of the best. They never did anything well, they either did it exceptionally or died trying. Tay had never seen these soldiers, and now she could hear the difference as they slowly and steadily marched along the road. Officially they were called the Grand Bastion Battalion, because they were often left as a last resort of attack and defense. Unofficially they were called the Grey Shield because of the color of their shields and uniform. No one on the outside could tell one Gray Shield from another because on the outside they were perfectly uniform, with only some slight variation in height and musculature. They all wore the same simple round helm with nose bridge and chain mail shielding their lower face. They all wore the same armor with unidentifiable markers showing rank. Even their boots were all the same, all grey leather, sturdy and functional. Of course they all carried round shields that were a flat grey and reflected no light. It was said that each shield was enspelled so that with a certain word they could cast light to blind oncoming attackers. Lastly they were all equipped with two swords, a long two handed sword on their left hip and a shortsword on their right. 

Tay watched as the company came into view over the other side of the hill. They were like a grey wave washing across the vast green and yellow hillside. Their foot steps thrummed in time and even shook the earth causing birds to rethink their roadside perches. Tay saw rabbits hop farther into the field and even the dandelions lost their seeds to the wind. It was a breath taking scene. As they neared Tay’s perch along the road she stood up, stood straight and tall and watched in awe as the men passed her by waiting until the disappeared around the bend in the road and into the woods. 

This of course meant Tay was very very late to return home. To say that her mother was unhappy would be to call a tsunami a mere ripple in the sea. Tay tried to sneak into the kitchen with some luck, her youngest baby sister began to cry providing a timely diversion. However when she took her seat next to her twin brother, one of their younger siblings began to chant her name.

“Tay, Tay, Tay, Tay, Tay, Tay,”

“Meime, shhh, come on shh.” Tay desperately tried to shush one of her sisters. “Please.” she begged.

It was too late, Tay’s mother had finished consoling the infant and had heard Meime’s chants. She now stood facing Tay with a dark expression on her face. Without looking her mother reached over to the wall where a thin willow branch was leaning and took hold of it. Tay cringed, it clearly had not been a good day for her mother if she was reaching for the switch already. 

“Where have you been all day?” Tay’s mother approached her and grabbed her by her arm yanking her to her feet. “I told you not to take long brining the wheat to the mill, and now you return, it’s nearly dark!”

Tay’s mother was nearly screaming as they went out behind their small house. There she threw Tay over to the stump that her father used for splitting firewood. Tay was trembling, but she stood next to the stump and stared back at her mother, determined to not show how afraid she was. Kay stood at the back door to the house and he kept motioning for his twin to get on her knees and beg for their mother to forgive her. But Tay was still in awe of the number of Grey Shield she had seen. And she had practiced being as invincible and stoic as them all her way home. Now was the time to see if she could remain stalwart in the face of fear. Of course this seemed to only anger her mother more. 

“Lift your skirt girl.” Tay’s mother ordered. “Stop being insolent and do as you’re told.”

When Tay didn’t move her mother shoved her forward to the stump and lifted her skirt, exposing thin legs and an old petticoat that barely covered Tay’s knees. Seeing the welts on her lower legs from one of the previous whippings her mother paused.

“Why can’t you just do as you’re told child,” she sighed. “Do you think I enjoy this? Why can’t you take after your brother and just do as you’re told?”

Having lost some of her earlier displeasure, Tay’s mother whipped her lower legs with less force than Tay expected. The flexible twig hitting her tender flesh still hurt and Tay bit her lip to stop from yipping at the pain. But the welts left behind were red and pulsing but not bleeding. After a few good hits her mother stopped and without a word went into the house and the stove where she was making dinner. 

Kay came over to his sister and handed her a rag that he had soaked in the water barrel. The water was warm after the hot sunny day, but it still felt cool on her hot skin. She sighed in relief as he started dabbing the back of one leg with another wet cloth. 

“So what was it this time?” Kay’s voice was curious and exasperated sounding very much like their mother’s. 

Tay stopped dabbing at her other leg and looked up into the darkening sky with a wistful look. Her brother looked up at her and shook his head side to side. Knowing she was lost in thought he poked harder than needed at one of the redder welts on her leg. 

“Owww!! That hurt!” Tay gave her brother a look and then went back to trying to cool the welts on her other leg. 

“It was amazing,” she said wistfully. “This morning at the mill they were changing the water wheel, it was fascinating. A man was there from the big city at the mouth of the river. He had all of these little wheels with spikes on them, he called them gears. They all fit together in a row like a puzzle. Some would turn one way and then others turned the opposite way. The water wheel would start them turning and then suddenly the millstone would start turning. it was moving so much faster that Miller Franz had to rush to dump more grain into the middle. The city man said that he would probably have all the grain done by the end of tomorrow with the new wheel and the, umm, gears. Mama will be happy when she hears that!”

Kay said nothing as his sister rambled on about the mill. He finished cooling her welts and started to gently smooth some of his healing salve on it. The immediate cooling relief startled Tay and she looked back over at her brother. 

“Is this that the new mix you were making yesterday?” 

Kay only nodded and kept applying the salve. They were the opposite like that, Tay could talk and talk until all the water in the land dried up, but Kay would only say a few words here and there when he did speak. Kay also loved trying to make new medicines and salves or tinctures from the plants around them. He spent more time with the village “Mother” than he did with his own family. The Mother was in charge of every type of healing the village needed. She was old. Far older than anyone else in the village. She also had no patience for Tay as she was always opening pots and trying to taste or touch things she shouldn’t. So the Mother had long ago banned Tay from coming into her little thatched roofed cottage. This meant Kay could learn in peace and take his time finding answers to questions only he asked. 

Tay of course ignored her brother’s lack of answer and went on to describe what she learned at the mill. Then she started to talk about the army and the soldiers. “It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. All those Grey Shields marching together like that; it was more beautiful than the village wedding dances. And even though you couldn’t see their faces, I bet they were all staring dead ahead. The probably didn’t notice someone like me, an insignificant villager. They just kept matching on by. It was like beating one of those big temple drums, where the boom shakes your heart. Boom, boom, boom, they marched. It was beautiful.”

Sitting down on the stump with caution for her sore legs Tay told her brother, “one day I am going to be a Grey Shield. I just know it. I am going to learn how to fight with any weapon and how to climb stone towers, and I’m going to learn the secret of their shields. I’m going to become one of the greatest warriors in Andora and then I will win all sorts of tournaments and everyone will want to have me at their weddings and banquets. Then I will have lots of gold and you and mother and all our siblings can live in a nice house in one of the big cities. I promise one day I will be the best Grey Shield to ever live!!”

With that declaration Tay jumped to her feet and pulled a long weed from the wood pile. She began to swish it back and forth as she imagined herself fighting enemies and winning purses of gold. Kay took her place on the stump and rested his face in his hands…he wondered what the army was doing in their part of Andora. As far as Kay knew there were no raiders nearby, the boarders were several days travel in any direction and their local lord lived near the mouth of the river in the city, not out here in the country. It was strange to see so many soldier all together, and all but unheard of to see Grey Shields. This worried Kay but he pushed the thought away as his mother called for him and Tay to return to peeling the vegetables. 

Tay’s mother made them finish peeling the vegetables and then handed each of her children a carved wooden bowl of thin broth and biter vegetables. Used to such food the children ate and then all of them were ushered into bed. Tay shared a straw mattress on the floor with her other sisters and Kay had a straw mattress near the back door to himself. Kay took some time to fall asleep, the world was weighing on his mind and he felt that the morning might not be as peaceful as he would wish. when he finally did fall asleep the sky was just beginning to shift from the dark inky black of night to a slowly lightening shade of navy. 

Tay was usually the first one awake in the house. She would start the fire and fill the pot with water and make the morning tea. Today was different however, as soon as she moved around the tiny kitchen her brother woke up. He looked sleepy and there were dark patches around his eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept at all. He helped Tay to get the small cook fire going and to make the tea. From a lifetime of experience Tay knew her brother was a bear in the morning and let the quiet morning stillness lay between him until he was ready to talk. There would be no other reason that he was awake so early and up to help her, but to talk. Finally with the tea made and ladled into two earthen mugs they went outside to the sit in the growing sunlight against the house. 

“Mother was furious at you yesterday, even after you went to bed.” Kay stated as he blew on the top of his tea. 

“Oh,” was Tay’s response. 

“She was so furious she was awake pacing for hours. She wants to send you away.”

Tay was shocked. Of all the things she expected that was not on the list, her mother wanted to send her away. Away from home, away from family, away from Kay! Her mouth hung open as she stared at Kay without the ability to even whisper a word. Her hot tea mug heating her hands to a point of being uncomfortable to hold. Still she just stared at her brother.

What!, her mind screamed. How can he be so calm as he told me that?! Why isn’t he outraged. Why would mother send me away! I just…I can’t even think straight. What does that mean?!

Tay started to try  and form words but she just kept bobbing her chin up and down, opening and closing her mouth. Kay looked over at her and she reminded him of a fish, caught out of water and trying to breath, eyes bulging wide. 

“I don’t think she wants to send you anywhere nice. She muttered something about sending you to Miller Hargrave in the next town over. Said something about his last wife dying in child birth a few months back.” Kay started to sip his tea as he sat thinking about their situation. 

Mina is dead! Tay thought with horror and disgust. She had only been 15 when she was sent to marry the miller. Just a few years older that Tay and now she was dead. That dirty disgusting old man, I will never ever go there!

“You know that he gave her family 10 sacks of grain when they sent her to him. Full sacks, fed the rest of the family for almost a year. I heard mother say he sent 10 more sacks when he sent them the body, there being 8 of them now it won’t last a year, but it will keep their bellies full for the winter.”

Kay waited a moment before he continued. “We could used the grain.”

Tay stood up in a rush. Spilling her tea to the side as she flung down her mug, shattering it into several large pieces of sharp pottery. 

“WHAT!” she yelped like a kicked puppy. 

But before she could say more Kay had jumped up and covered her mouth hissing, “Don’t wake mother!”

Realizing what her twin meant she swallowed whatever objection had come to mind and nodded. Relaxing Kay removed his hand from her mouth and let go of her shoulder. He walked over to the garden away from the house. 

Tay was fuming but followed her brother. If he knew all this then he had been thinking about it all night. Nothing she said or did would hurry his thoughts along to their destination. He was the slow and steady twin, always thinking and planning, always precise and never jumping into things. She was the hot head twin, always running into things before thinking, always jumping at the chance to do something before even thinking how to do it. Sometime she needed to remind herself to wait for Kay. 

“We need the grain Tay, you know that. The little ones won’t make it through the winter.”

Tay thought about her sisters. Little Meime was 2, she was so fun and full of life. Tay wanted to say that she didn’t care, that Meime would make it though the year. IN her mind she hear Meime chanting Tay’s name as she raced the town boys in the fields. Callie was just now learning to walk, she loved holding Tays hands as she tried to race across the room. Her cubby little hands each grabbing one of Tays fingers. Callie was so little, and little Eva was smaller still. Tay wanted to say Eva would survive because she was still being fed from their mother. But Tay knew deep down that if it came to some one going hungry the baby would likely be first to lose. Their mother was cruel and selfish. She would make sure she was well fed at the expense of her children’s lives. 

Tay didn’t blame her mother. Telgar was a hard place to live and an easy place to die. Tay and Kay were only the older children because the others before them had died. Her mother had three children before the twins. All but one died in the fire that also killed their father. The third died a few months later from a burn that festered and a fever that went to his mind. Tay and Kay’s father was a ghost of a memory in Tay’s mind. Her mother said he drowned, but Tay always saw sadness in her mother’s eyes when he mentioned her father. Once when her mother had a fever she said how much Tay looked like him, but that was all Tay knew. The girls father died almost a month after Eva was born. He had been taking wheat to the mill when a cart broke loose of its horse team and rolled right over him. The men didn’t bother to drag his broken body back to town for last rights, they just buried him in the ground by the road. ‘Too many pieces and squishy bits to pick up’ Tay had heard one of the men say later that night during the last rights. Tay’s mother was a survivor and she would survive the winter, even if her children didn’t. 

“But what can I do about that?” Tay whined. “I would rather die than go to Hargrave.”

“No,” say Kay. “You would rather die than stay with Hargrave.”

Tay stared dumb founded at her brother. Surely he was losing his mind. Wasn’t going to live with Hargrave the same as staying with the monster?

“Remember when Mina left. Hargrave came in his wagon right? He brought the grain and some other gifts. So when he was about to go with Mina the cart was almost empty. And instead of wasting time to ‘just take the girl back’ he bought wheat from the town and piled it in the wagon. So the back of the wagon was full right?”

Tay thought for a moment and nodded. 

“Remember how the next day Farmer Weldon’s son was missing and no one ever found him, so they thought that he had been eaten by some bear or wolf when he had gone hunting the day Mina left?”

“Yeah,” Tay nodded slowly. 

“What if I told you that he was in the wagon? Tucked up between some hay bales.”

“What?” Tay plopped on the ground near the carrot patch and crossed her legs and arms. “Says who.”

“Says me.”

“How would you know. You weren’t even there to say bye to Mina. You were off picking herbs.”

“No I wasn’t.” Kay responded looking rather smug. Crossing his arms across his chest he grinned down at her. “I was helping Jake into the old Miller’s wagon.”

Tay looked at her brother with a bit of awe. He wasn’t nearly as well behaved as she thought. Seems like he had been causing all sorts of trouble when she wasn’t around. Tay was jealous that he had been part of such an exciting adventure and big secret. She was also furious for having been left out. 

“See even fooled you!” Kay plopped down next to his sister with an air of triumph. “You’re not the only clever one around here.” He fist bumped her nose and laughed quietly.

Swatting at his hand Tay responded, “Ok, ok, so you helped sneak Jake onto the wagon. What then? How does that help me?”

“Easy! Jake got out when the two stopped for the night at the Inn on the main roadway. He waited till it was dark and wiggled out from under the bales of hay. I gave him some of my herb mixes, like the one for when Farmer Lythiel drinks too much. When he got to the Inn he sold them to get a ride to the river, and from there to the capitol.”

Tay narrowed her eyes at her brother and gave him a glare, “Or he was caught on the road by Hargrave and trampled by his horses before Hargrave tossed his body to the wolves.” 

“Well its possible. But then how did I get this?” Reaching into his shirt Kay pulled a long thin piece of leather out from underneath. On the leather hung something Tay had only heard of, a God’s Mark. “Jake sent me this when he was at the temple school in the capitol.”

“Ohh…” was all Tay could say as she looked at the God’s Mark in awe. It was a small brown metal circle with a hole in the center strung and tied on to the leather cord. Markings were cut into the front and back of the circle. In theory, if one could read the markings, it would tell the reader what temple school the wearer belonged to, and indicated their level of learning at the school. Tay had no idea what it said or what level it meant, but was awed all the same by its mere existence.