Land of Salvania

  The trackers listened carefully to the queen's emissary, Blue Eye. The rapid cadence and accent of her Bird Speech were hard to follow, and the news was too important to get wrong. "The insurrection leaders are in the forest about a crow-hop away," she chirped. "What is a crow-hop?" Mishka asked as the bird paced along his finger. "Is it longer than the queen's castle wall?" "Yes, maybe two walls long," Blue Eye said. Mishka looked at his cousin. Vinka's striped hood was pulled up, and he swore it helped trap sounds coming from ahead. He was kneeling and looking at the clearing they would need to cross. Vinka cast off his hood and shook his head. "We cannot cross without being seen. You should claim your favor." "Favor?" Blue Eye asked as she looked from one face to the other. Mishka seemed to think it over, and he signed heavily. "It is a shame to waste it." Vinka shrugged. "I can't th

  A crowd of insurrectionists with red banners came up the cobbled road. Some had rusty swords, but most had farm implements or kitchen knives. They stopped a stone's throw from the queen's sentries at the south gate. The lead insurrectionist stepped forward. He had teeth the color of river mud. He needed a bath a month ago. "We are twenty, and you are four. Give way, for we mean to enter the castle." The sentries did not move or show any reaction. Except one. One guard in a leather beret stepped forward, stopping within a spear-thrust of Brown Teeth. "Hello my fine fellow. I can see that you are distressed. Was it from missing a night in your sister's bed?" He roared with laughter, and a few of Brown Teeth's fellows twittered at the barb. The other guards might as well have been statues. Brown Teeth blinked in surprise, his face reddening. "We have the advantage. Step aside." The sentry said, "You would do well to go home.