It’s the Exciting Final Installment of ‘Allaigna’s Song: Oburakor’ by JM Landels!

We marched, five leagues a day or more, while the clearmoon went from dark to bright, and half-dark again. The map allowed us to avoid the larger settlements — what few there were — and we filled in details of scattered crofts we came near in the spare and hilly landscape. And gradually, as the days wore on, the air got thinner and colder, and our steps carried us higher up the foothills to the feet of the Ursumma mountains.

I sat with my back to the largest boulder I could find, meagre shelter though it was from the wind that came skidding down off the mountain behind me. The small gully we had chosen to shelter us for the night did nothing to stop the wind, which had switched direction from south to west. Imerian and Goff had gone in search of brush for firewood, and the rest of our small party took what protection we could from the landscape as we sorted our belongings, consumed scant rations, mended clothing, and attended to our weapons.

Rennielle sat opposite me, running a lump of beeswax over her bow. Since her revelations, attitudes towards her had changed. Goff was outwardly hostile, almost hurt. The rest were friendlier, as if knowing that she was actively trying to foil the mission made her less of a personal threat. For myself, I wasn’t sure. There were things I still didn’t understand. The question was how to draw out answers. Perhaps bluntness was the key.

“So,” I said to her, “how did you manage to fool Goff all this time?”

She looked up at me from under eyebrows so pale they almost were not there. “Please,” she said. “Do not tell me you’ve never seduced a man for purposes other than amusement.”

I shrugged. “Never for so long.” In truth, I didn’t need to. What a charm sung over a mug of beer couldn’t achieve, a suggestive tune hummed in the ear usually could. But such a lengthy scheme — to become Goff’s lover and then his prisoner, just to ensure he’d take her along …

I mused out loud. “He’d never take his lover on a suicide mission. So you did something — not heinous enough that he’d kill you. But clearly he couldn’t just arrest you and leave you behind. Why?”

She looked up again and smirked.

I continued. “What did he say in his pillow talk that high command in Rheran must never know?”