Brightly Woven

come with me, though, in case something happens and I can’t get there myself. I need you.”
    I shook my head, struggling to pull away. The wind was picking up around us, howling through every crack and crevice of the mountain pass.
    “You’re a wizard,” I cried. “Can’t you do anything?”
    “There’s nothing you or I could do against that many men,” North said. “Any sign of rebellion and they’ll burn the village to ashes. Westfield already suffered that fate, and I won’t risk more innocent lives.”
    “You mean your life!” I cried. “You won’t risk your life!”
    I cast my eyes to the familiar landscape below. The villagers remained huddled together as the soldiers continued to rip through the streets, taking livestock, blankets, anything of value. There would be nothing left in a place that already had so little.
    What were wizards if they couldn’t protect the powerless? I had heard the story of their inception thousands of times, in temple and at home. In the great competition deciding which goddess would have authority over men, Astraea had granted the chosen people of our country, Palmarta, the magic to defeat the evils of the world, while her sister, Salvala, had merely given swords to her people, the citizens of Auster, Saldorra, Ruttgard, Libanbourg, and Bellun. When only the wizards were capable of defeating the wicked dragons and sinister men, they became Palmarta’s champions. Their purpose was to protect us, even against the worst of odds.
    “You said before that you had no choice,” North said. “But here’s one right in front of you. You can go back down to your people and suffer quietly with them, but if do, you really will be trapped there, with no relief. It’ll be at least a month and a half before I get to the capital, and longer before the Wizard Guard can come to help you.”
    “Trapped with them or trapped with you—” I began.
    “Not forever,” he said. Something hard and unbearable had wedged itself in my throat. “If you help me get to the capital, I swear on everything good in this world that afterwe deliver the information, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. It will be your choice.”
    It was happening too quickly, with no time for good-byes, for lingering last looks. Was it possible that only yesterday it had rained for the first time in years, that people had been singing and dancing instead of crying and screaming? Now the rain was gone again, leaving behind only a fine gray haze, and the only thing left for me was to go with the wizard.
    It was a cruel twist of fate, I thought, finally to have the chance to see the world beyond Cliffton but only in the worst, the most terrifying of times.
    “Why did you pick me?”
    North picked up my bag and loom, helping me to my feet.
    “Why me?” I repeated over the deafening wind. “You could have had anyone!”
    “Yes,” he said, taking one last look at the village below. “But I only need you.”

    The sun hadn’t fully arched into the sky when we found the first soldier. I don’t know why I hadn’t expected to find them lurking up in the mountain passes, waiting to see if they could catch an escaped villager or a traveler trying foolishly to enter the valley.
    North saw him a moment before I caught the flash of the arrow tip, strung on the scout’s bow. There was a chance thescout hadn’t seen us at all, but North yanked me back against him. For a moment, I thought he meant to use me as a shield, but the force of it sent us stumbling behind the nearest rock formation in a tangled heap. I pressed my hand against my mouth.
    I glanced around one side of the rocks, searching for some path I recognized. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw North rise to his knees, his green cloak in one hand.
    “Don’t you dare!” I hissed. “If you use magic against that scout, you’ll call the rest of them to us.”
    “It’s the only choice we have,” he said. “We can run for it in all the confusion.”
    “What’s so confusing about a wizard using magic?” I asked. “They’re likely looking for you, and if you do this, you might as well paint the targets on our backs.”
    “If you’re going to knock down my suggestion, you’d better have one to replace it.” The irritation was plain on his face.
    I glanced around the side of the rock again. The path we were on was one Henry and I had used many times before, but instead of going left, toward the caverns, North had taken us right. We needed to