The wagons trundled along over the well-worn road. It was a trade-off that Rori thought was worth it. The road being more used meant that there was a greater likelihood of meeting someone else or being found by people trying to collect the money for killing him. But it also meant that the wagons could move at a much faster speed. And besides, though the road was more traveled it was still nothing so common as a well-kept Lorenthian highway.
Besides it couldn’t be helped. Clan Giselle had agreed to meet them, and this was the road that had led to the location. Rori’s clan had gotten there as fast as they could, and after two days the details were hashed out and they were on the move again. Now they could go back to wandering the countryside preparing for the upcoming conclave.
On the whole it hadn’t been that hard to get Clan Giselle to agree to be one of the co-hosts. They’d been initially reluctant but when Rori said that his clan would be willing to bear most of the financial burden, their reluctance had all but dissipated. Having one clan to be lead Pomosh was evidently a common way to do it.
The point of having three hosts had nothing to do with sharing the burden of cost as Rori had originally suspected. Instead, it was meant to be a sign to other clans about the safety and nature of the conclave. If three aggressive clans were acting as host, you could expect the conclave to be rowdy and violent. In this case, with Clans Giselle and Clan Orrich co-hosting with Rori’s clan, it would be a clear sign that the conclave would be a large, friendly party. Or at least that is what they hoped.
They had agreed on having the conclave on the edge of Lake Loenz. Rori had initially resisted that choice, given his recent experiences on the shores, but he’d ultimately relented because there just weren’t that many places that were both big enough to hold a multi-clan party and was a location every clan was likely to be familiar with.
In the past the obvious location to have had the conclave would have been in the hidden Cunāe retreat up in the mountains. But word about what had happened there had spread through most of the Cunāe clans. It was hard to gauge what the other clans thought had occurred, but what was clear was that none of the clans wanted to go there any time soon.
The time for the conclave had been set for the beginning of summer on the twenty-sixth day of Lorendan. It was probably later than Dade would like, but it was enough time that word of the conclave would spread and there should hopefully be a decent turnout.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Clan Giselle had agreed to travel to Clan Orrich to make sure everyone was on the same page as to the details and that meant Rori’s clan could use the time to gather everything they would need to be good hosts. Which wouldn’t be particularly hard given that Dade would be paying for most of it, a detail that Rori decided not to reveal to the other two clans.
They would need to head to Lake Loenz several weeks before the event, but that still left them over three months with little to do. This was why Rori was now lying on top of one of the wagons as it rolled through the bright afternoon sunshine.
“Rori, what are you doing?”
Rori raised his head and looked around. He was momentarily confused by his surroundings. He expected the afternoon sun and gentle rocking of a wagon. He wasn’t expecting to be lying on the stone ledge that surrounded a large manmade pool.
Meredith sat a quarter of the way around the edge running her fingers through the water.
“Sorry,” he said. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.
“Didn’t you?” she asked. “Why else climb on top of the wagon? What else were you going to do up there?”
“Training?”
“I’m disappointed in you Rori.”
The words stung Rori deeper than he could’ve expected. He closed his eyes to both gather his thoughts and to try and hide his pain from her. Eventually he swung his legs around onto the ground and sat up.
“I am truly sorry. But what did I do?” he managed to say it in a voice that nearly sounded normal.
“It isn’t what you’ve done, more than it is what you aren’t and haven’t done.” Then after a pause Meredith added, “Rori, why are you with the Cunāe?”
“I’m one of the clan leaders,” said Rori with obvious confusion now in his voice.
“Are you? And what does that entail? You once said that riding in a wagon was reserved for the women, the children, the old and the sick. Which of those are you? From where I sit it looks like your job is not much more than a lot of sleeping and very little leading.”
“We’re waiting for the conclave to happen. What else could I be doing?”
“Actually training would be a start. Researching? Studying? Learning? Any of which would do a better job representing me than you have been doing.”
Rori hung his head in shame. The sting from her comments had now changed into a lump of lead in his stomach. He looked for some words to speak that could explain but there weren’t any worth saying.
“I have two final questions for you Rori.”
“What are they?” he finally managed to say, no longer able to conceal his emotions.
“Think carefully before you answer. My first question is this. What is it you really want to do? My second question is this. What is it that you think I want you to do?”
Rori wasn’t sure if he was supposed to answer, but it didn’t matter. Before he even had a chance to respond he was back on the wagon. And then everything exploded.
