Epilogue
~ TEN YEARS LATER: JOSLYN ~
The sword master stood gazing out from the doorway of the small cabin, arms crossed, watching the progress of the figure silhouetted by the falling sun. From experience, the sword master knew that the climb up the mountainside was not an easy one, which meant that whoever approached possessed more than a little determination.
The figure, still more blocky shadow at this distance than actual person, stopped at the point where the rocky slope gave way to flatter, smoother grass.
“Ku-sai?” said the shadow.
The sword master’s posture finally relaxed. “Kuna-shi.”
Joslyn stepped from the cabin’s doorway as Linna ran the last few yards to meet her former mentor. She didn’t mind at all when Linna threw both arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace. Joslyn patted her stiffly on the back.
“I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to make it up here,” Linna said, breathless as if she’d sprinted the whole way up the mountain. She pushed away and gazed up into Joslyn’s face. “The villagers don’t want to talk about this place at all. Getting information from them – I might as well have been interrogating nomads about how large their apa-apa herd is.”
“Good,” Joslyn said, grinning wryly.
“Any time I asked about the Mizana living on top of the mountain, they muttered something about sorceresses and nightmares.” Linna laughed. Then her eyes narrowed playfully. “Would that have something to do with you two?”
Joslyn only smiled.
“Then there was the pack of mountain leopards that chased me halfway back down before I remembered that mountain leopards don’t hunt in packs,” Linna said. “Oh – and let’s not forget the blazing inferno I had to walk through.” She cocked her head. “Is that… did she do that?”
“Tasia has a great many skills that she didn’t used to have,” was all Joslyn said by way of explanation.
“So it’s true – the Empress is here, too?”
For the first time since Linna’s unexpected appearance, Joslyn frowned. “She won’t answer to Empress anymore. You know that.”
“But she’s here. She lives here, and she’s the one who put up all those illusions along the mountain.”
“Yes. But I think you knew that, too.”
Linna glanced about, probably hoping to see Tasia emerging from the cabin behind them, or rounding a corner to greet her, but other than Joslyn, the only other living creature in the yard was a solitary hen, pecking at bits of grain and seeds that the other hens, who were already inside the coop for the night, had missed.
“She’s at the creek, filling waterskins and gathering firewood,” Joslyn supplied, answering Linna’s unspoken question. “I expect her back before full dark. And she’ll be delighted to see you – though perhaps a little surprised that you found us. You do realize you owe us an explanation?”
“Oh.” Linna dropped her gaze. “You and the Empress… you won’t send me away, will you?”
“Not the Empress anymore,” Joslyn reminded her. “And not until you’ve stayed for supper, no.”
Linna chewed her bottom lip. “Right, but… What should I call her? When I see her?” She hesitated. “Princess?”
Joslyn shook her head. “She won’t answer to Princess, either.”
“Then what?”
“You should ask her,” Joslyn said, a hint of amusement playing at the corners of her mouth. “I’m guessing she’ll tell you to call her Tasia, but that’s up to her to decide.”
“Tasia.” Linna said the name slowly, like it was in a foreign tongue she struggled to pronounce.
“Joslyn? Is there someone with you?” called a feminine voice from the far side of the clearing. Anxiety laced the syllables.
Linna whipped towards the woman emerging from the forest.
To the woman on the other side of the lawn, Joslyn said, “Yes. We have a visitor, my love. But it’s someone I think you’ll very much want to see.”
Tasia shrugged off the pole across her shoulders, the waterskins on either end of it sloshing as they met the ground. She dropped her bundle of firewood along with it, dusted both hands on her buckskin breeches, and crossed towards the place where Joslyn and Linna waited.
Joslyn smiled when Linna let out a small gasp and Tasia froze mid-step.
“Linna!” the latter exclaimed, and ran the last few yards. She wrapped her arms around the younger woman with an enthusiastic hug.
“Mother Moon, let’s have a look at you!” Tasia said, holding Linna by both arms as she inspected her up and down. She clucked her tongue. “Palace blacks! And finally filled out enough for them to not swallow you whole.”
Linna grinned sheepishly, and Joslyn was relatively certain that if the evening light were stronger, she’d see Linna blush.
“How on earth did you find us?” Tasia asked. She glanced at Joslyn, a question in her eyes, but Joslyn only shrugged. “Did those villagers –”
“The villagers wouldn’t say a word. Unless you count their complaints about bad dreams,” Linna said. “But I was in Paratheen – well, Del was in Paratheen, so therefore I was in Paratheen – and I happened upon this ancient seer breaking her fast at a café. She invited me over to eat with her, and when she saw my uniform, she started talking about a Mizana she’d met years ago, not long before the day the shadows …” Linna trailed off, glancing at the faces of her two former mentors. Both of them were smirking, and Joslyn rolled her eyes ruefully. “Did I say something funny?”
“Was she at least twice as ugly as she was old?”
Tasia elbowed Joslyn hard in the ribs. “Be nice!”
“She was … not as beautiful as she might have been in the past, I suppose,” Linna said. “Called herself Grandmother Adja?”
Joslyn groaned. “Remind me to haunt that pesky woman’s dreams.”
Tasia laughed. “I suppose we should be glad she told you where to find us. But we’re not being very gracious hostesses.” She swept an arm towards the cabin behind them. “Come in. I’m sure finding the village and making your way up the mountain was no easy task. I’m sure you could use something to eat. And a cup of tea – it’s getting chilly already.”