These damnable fields go on forever. The weather is hot and dry and I think I shall never be clean again. The flies, attracted by our sweat, hover around us awaiting their chance.
We walked for days before the wild grasses of this great plain gave way to crops. During that time we hungered. Geoffrey might have caught us something but everytime the opportunity arose I saw him hesitate and I knew. He shies away from the kill because he has no weapons and to kill with his hands brings back the memories of the Gilboch.
On the third day I was too hungry to care. I had noticed these small burrowing rodents that lived in colonies. They watched us with great curiosity from a distance but when ever we came near they scrambled quickly into the safety of their holes. I watched them as we walked. As one colony would pass from our vision another would appear before us. I began to see patterns and soon I could tell them apart. Some were guards, others were gatherers.
On the third day I took the thongs from my boots and joined them together. At one end I placed a loop. I walked towards the colony and as usual the animals took cover in their holes. This time though I did not turn away. I placed the loop around the hole of the largest guard and sat back very quietly. The wind, what little there was, blew across the burrow towards me so I knew that the creature could not scent me. I used the square breathing that Father had taught me to center myself and I became very, very quiet.
Soon enough his curiosity got the better of him and his head popped up for a look. A quick tug on my laces pinned him to the side of the hole and an equally quick blow with a rock silenced him. An hour later I had captured enough. Geoffrey had thoughtfully started a fire and gathered some leaves that he said would add flavour to the meat. For once I agreed with Richter. After three days without food, they needed no spice besides appetite which we had in plenty.
We rest now in a Way Inn on the Asgolan Route. The keep had looked at us in askance when first we entered. I can forgive him for indeed we were a sight. What few clothes we had were well tattered and we stank of wood fire and sweat. Silver silenced his tongue and paved the way for baths and new clothes.
Never has ale tasted so sweet
We had emerged from the Gilboch far to the south of where we had planned. Nearer the center of Tanisor. Even worse was the comfirmation that a full season had passed while we were lost to ourselves. Midsummer was upon us. Geoffrey arranged jobs for us as Caravan guards with a company going to Hrelar Amali. I had thought that strange until he told me that rumours amongst the caravan guard spoke of great unrest in the Duchy.
They came upon us when we were close to the Dangaie border. They had waited in ambush, closing upon us from both sides as we rolled through a shallow gulley. Richter saw them first and I heard him call to the prophet as he ran to the thick of it. I barely had time to breathe my own prayer when a man landed beside me on the wagon I rode. I dodged his blade and sank my dagger deep within his belly. He looked at me in confusion for a moment then slid off my blade and fell from the wagon.
I jumped from the wagon and rushed towards Geoffrey whom I could see dimly through the clouds of dust. A brigand reached for him from behind and I focused. Blood sprang from his mouth and nose and he fell to the ground choking, his attack on my brother unfinished.
Another rose before me and I gathered the light that spun from his breastplate and threw it back into his eyes. Then while he was blinded I stabbed him in the throat. It becomes hard to remember after that. I know that at one point I was standing back to back with Geoffrey and then later I stood over Richter tying off a cut to his thigh while Geoffrey kept them away from us. Cool and efficient he slashed and thrust while I prayed to the Blessed Mother that no infection set in.
Richter flashed me a smile and was back on his feet. His shining blade flinging droplets of red on most every stroke. Then just when I thought that I had nothing left, it was over. Those few of them that survived broke off and fled while we stood there gasping among the dead.
I felt a fly crawling down my arm and when I looked I saw that I had been cut to the bone on my forearm and yet I had felt nothing. I couldn't recall which one of them had raked me and I stood there dumbly trying to remember. I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw Richter standing there with his sowing kit.
"Come little brother," he said. "Let me be your seamstress now."
We arrived in Hrelar Amali less than we started. All of the guards save ourselves perished in the ambush. The trail master was grateful and paid us the wages of those who died as well as our own. He asked us to hire on for the return but we declined. He left shaking his head and talking about bandits. I looked at Geoffrey but neither of us spoke. Those men had been too well equipped and too well trained to be simple bandits. They were within riding distance of the Dangai and to me that spoke volumes.
Hrelar is a breathtaking city. It is much smaller than Frowal but it has an air about it that I have never felt before. The streets are paved with cobblestone and the buildings coated with a white plaster of mud that is mixed with quartz and other shiny rock. The resulting finish causes the buildings to sparkle and dance in the daylight. At nighttime the buildings catch the fires from lamps and torch. Then they reflect it back as though from thousands of miniature mirrors.
Geoffrey and I have chosen to take the yellow while we are here. Richter refuses. "Be damned if I hide my calling beneath some robe. If any ask I'll tell them that I cloth myself in the words of the prophet and gird myself with the actions of the Prince."
I woke from a dream in the middle of the night. In it I saw the captain of the coastal trader that we had left to the red. I saw his men being fed body and soul to the ship. The captain was strung aloft and as his veins were opened he called out to me...
Most would call this a night terror. Not I. Not anymore. I think I was about five when I had my first nightmare. I remember that I awoke crying in my bed and as I lay there Father entered the room. He looked at me for a moment then bade me follow. We went to his tower. To the room with the circle etched in the floor. He sat me in the middle and gathered things from around the room. Now, today, I know all those things he gathered, but then I knew only that Father had taken me from that which scared me and was including me in what until now I had only been allowed to watch.
I remember that Father entered the circle and began to sing. In my child's mind I thought it odd that his voice which was normally so smooth should be so dark and rough. While he sang I saw movement outside the circle and I was glad to be on the inside with Father. The nightmares on the outside began to press close as though trying to enter but they were held at bay.
Father picked me up then and spoke to me. Even though I was but five I remember well what he said.
"Fear is an emotion. If you allow it a place in your mind it will one day destroy you. Master your mind, Master your fear."
And he threw me out of the circle.
I am a man grown now and I have mastered all my fears save one. I look over at my brothers and see that they watch me. "Father is in town," I say.
They nod and close their eyes. How they can sleep I don't know. They are older than me and have chosen their own paths. Maybe they have already fought the demon that confronts me. If they have I wish they would tell me where they found their courage.
It looks like dawn is a long way off.
More Later......
(yep. I'm back from Sunny Calif. Had a great time. Would like to thank the proprieter of "Risky Robinson's Wayside Inn and Home for Unwed Mothers" Neil let us crash at his place on the way down and the way back. He threw in beer and conversation at no extra charge. I heartily recommend his company to any who ask. )
Bill Thompson
"I remember gaudy days
when the year was springing:
Tammuz, Gilgamesh, and I
Clinking cups and singing..."
JMM-Silverlock
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