Moments later she was standing amid the Rovers, listening to their conversation with Challa Nand.
The morning passed slowly but uneventfully. They flew northeast along the central corridor that partially bisected the Charnals from north to south and would eventually lead to the Tiderace many days farther on. Railing remained at the helm for the greater part of the time, although both Farshaun and Skint dropped by to chat with him. Mirai pointedly stayed away. Mostly, when he saw her, she was working the lines with the Rovers, joking and laughing and seemingly at ease. He found himself looking for Austrum, but only once did he see the two in close proximity and that was only for a few moments.
The sun was just reaching its zenith when Challa Nand found him sitting forward of the mainmast, his back against the heavy wooden pillar, and sat down next to him. Surprised, the boy glanced over at the giant Troll, but his newly arrived companion simply stared ahead toward the bow and said nothing.
Then, after a few endless minutes of silence, Challa Nand said, “Thinking of your brother, Railing?”
The boy stared at him. “How do you know about Redden?”
The other shrugged. “Men talk. Everyone talks. On a ship this size, there aren’t many secrets. I found out about your brother this morning. I found out a few other things, too.”
Railing reached up and tightened the headband that held back his red hair, which he hadn’t cut in weeks. It had grown long and unruly.
“It seems you haven’t been in the least forthcoming with me,” the Troll added. “Shame on you.”
Railing almost laughed. “What is it that you think you know?”
“That your brother is missing and you want to find him. That he might be someone’s prisoner and you want to free him. That you are twins. That we are going in search of your great-aunt the witch because, for some reason, you think she might be alive after more than a hundred years. And that if she is, she might be able to help your brother.” He paused. “All of which suggests that we might be on a fool’s errand, just as I feared, and therefore I have every right to abandon you at the first sign of trouble.”
No mention of the Forbidding. None of the Ellcrys or the Straken Lord or the danger to the Four Lands. His informants were being selective in their disclosures, it seemed. Railing supposed it was inevitable that some of what he was keeping from Challa Nand would leak out. He was only surprised it wasn’t more.
What he wondered, all at once, was how much of it was worth hiding from this man—especially when he was hiding so much more from the rest of them. He had believed it a good idea to be discreet, to reveal as little as possible, but now he was questioning himself. Was he exercising good judgment or just being stubborn in his refusal to trust the only man aboard who could get them where they were going?
“You don’t know the half of it,” he said finally.
The Troll nodded. “I don’t expect I do. Why don’t you just tell me the rest? You’re going to have to sooner or later.”
So Railing did. Just like that, he made the decision and he told the Troll everything. About the collapse of the Forbidding, about his brother’s capture and imprisonment by the Straken Lord, about the destruction of the Druids and their companions, about the failing of the Ellcrys—all of it. Except for what he was hiding from the others aboard—about his meetings with the King of the Silver River and the Grimpond and what they had told him. That, he continued to keep to himself.
He felt surprisingly better when he had finished. Perhaps it helped relieve him of the stress he was under to give up a few of his secrets. Or perhaps it was just the right thing to do.
“I would say you were lying, except no one could make up such a story.” Challa Nand growled, a deep rumbling in his throat. “It might be better if you were lying, given what this all means. At least I see the point in agreeing to guide you to Stridegate. Not that I am persuaded for a second that what you are trying to do is even remotely possible.”
“No one really thinks it is possible—no matter what they claim—except me.” Though he wondered about Mirai.
Challa Nand went quiet for a few long minutes. “The witch might still be alive and might be persuaded to come back with you to face the Straken Lord. You believe this to be true?” The big man shook his head slowly. “Either you are deeply delusional or you know something that the others don’t. Which is it?”
“I’m just trying not to give up in the face of what seem impossible odds.” Railing kept his eyes lowered. “I don’t want to lose Redden.”