Lost on Jord

by Allan Joyal

  Victoria moved over next to Steve. She whispered something to him and received a whispered reply. With concern on her face, she guided him to a corner of the raft. I watched as she gently coaxed Steve to speak. Moments later, she was holding his head on her lap as he sobbed brokenly. Realizing that we needed a distraction, I turned to the coeds. "Who has the dice?" I asked. "Let's pay something while we travel."

  My suggestion met with eager replies. Jennifer produced the dice from her pack, and we settled in a circle, prepared to play away the rest of the raft journey.

  Chapter 23: Fear of Falling Feathers

  The dice kept us busy for the next four hours as the raft made its way up the river. At first we taught Hencktor and Kariy how to play Liar's Dice, but eventually we started inventing games. Lydia proved to be particularly good at coming up with new games for us to play.

  We might have kept playing had not the raft gently bumped into the shore. We looked up in surprise as Jennifer gathered in the dice. A moment later, something massive shoved the raft and drove it onto the shore. The abrupt movement and sudden stop caused two packs to fall off the front of the raft and land on the sandy shore.

  I stood up, shaking a little as the adrenaline left my body. "Well, I'm guessing we're at the end of the ride."

  Heather laughed and started picking up packs, handing them to their owners. "You think?" she asked me as she shoved my pack and spear into my hands.

  Swinging the pack onto my back, I jumped from the raft onto the shore. The raft had come to rest on a narrow and steep sandy beach. I had to scramble up the slope before I could look out over the region.

  I found myself standing on the top of a very small ridge. It appeared to function as a levee for the river, confining it and keeping it away from a low field. Across the field of cut grass, I could see a cart path or road in the distance.

  Jennifer was standing next to me and pointed at the road. "I'm guessing that the road will take us to the Academy, but do we go right or left?"

  "Left!" Heather shouted from the shore. "We were going south on the river, and will now be south of the Academy. Left will take us northward. Hopefully it will turn east soon though, as the Academy is several miles east of the river."

  "She was checking the map," I admitted. "So left it is."

  I turned back to help the others climb up the bank. It took a few moments, but eventually everyone was standing and looking out over the field.

  "This one looks cultivated," Jennifer noted. "The ones we were following earlier had tall grass. This one has been cut."

  "Food for the nearby cities," I mused. "At least it should be easy to cross."

  I looked back at the water thinking to thank the spirit that had towed us. The water of the river was peaceful. I whispered quiet thanks before starting to walk across the gently sloped field, heading towards the road.

  The rest of the group quickly started to follow me. By the time we reached the road, we were once again marching in a scattered column. Victoria, Lydia, Steve, and Henck were currently at the rear of the group. Heather, Esme and Natalie were in the middle, talking with Kariy about something. Al was walking with Lisa and Jennifer just behind the group. This left Martha to walk to my right as we made our way down the road.

  Martha proved to be a pleasant companion during the walk. I realized that I did not know her or Jennifer very well and decided to try to change this before we reached the Academy.

  "It's going to be tough if we can't go home," I mused.

  "Oh please!" Martha said with a moan. "We already know that the chances of going home are slim. You don't have to try to cheer me up."

  "I wasn't thinking of cheering you up," I said. "I'm trying to think of a way to talk to you. We've never really talked, so I don't know what to say."

  Martha shrugged, her pack bouncing around. "I was an undecided freshman college student going to Iowa State. Thanks to some friends, I was at Daytona for spring break when we all got in that cursed elevator."

  "Not really cursed," I said. "But definitely affected by magic."

  "Cursed, magicked," Martha spat. "It's all the same to me. My family has to be wondering what happened to me and demanding action from the Daytona police. My mother will age every day no one finds me. I even had a young man who might have been my husband someday. Now instead of that, I have sore legs from walking for miles each day."

  "I'm sorry. I find that I try not to think of my family. I have a brother and a sister who are probably missing me. Plus, my employer just lost his entire sales team and his son."

  "The son wasn't a loss. I never saw a punishment that so fit the crime as what that sorceress did to Eddie."

  "The sorceress had a name," I reminded Martha. "And she was quite helpful when she did not have to be. If the maps were to scale and I read them right, we were walking between twenty-five and forty miles a day. The river ride was about eighty, so it saved us about three days walking. In the swamp, it might have been even more."

  "So she saved us some time. She didn't send us home," Martha said with a frown.

  "Are you really that ungrateful?" I asked soothingly.

  "No," Martha admitted. "I'm just so tired, sore, and scared. I miss my family. I miss home. Heck, I miss listening to Tim spend three hours talking about the latest baseball game."

  "Your boyfriend?"

  "Yeah. The guy simply loves baseball. Even during spring training he took time every day to review the results, check on his favorite players, and post online about how his team was doing."

  "And you aren't a big baseball fan?"

  "Never really thought about it. Father is a huge football fan, so I watched a lot of that growing up. Summer was always busy through. My father owns an old feed store in one of the small towns of Iowa. During the summer, everyone is coming in for food and advice. He'd have my brother and me in there every day to help."

  "So you never watched much baseball. Makes sense. So what were you thinking of studying?"

  Martha seemed to pause to think. I looked around and realized that the road was curving to the right. Already on our right was a large field of cut grain. Movement at the far end of the field caught my eye, and I slowed slightly to look.

  The first thing I realized was that the far border of the field was made by some hedge that was just slightly taller than a man. Beyond the tall bushes I could faintly see movement and occasional flashes as sunlight reflected off something shiny. My walking slowed a bit more as I realized that an army was lining up for battle just out of sight.

  Martha was now a few feet ahead of me, but slowed as well, looking over her right shoulder with a puzzled expression on her face. Behind me, I could hear confused voices asking why I had slowed. I did not answer as a swarm of men emerged through a gap in the hedge. The first five or so immediately turned to their right and began moving along the bushes, but after that one noticed us.

  He shouted something and the entire group quickly formed up on a long line. They turned so that their left sides were closer to us and stuck their left arms out. At that distance it almost seemed like they were pointing at us. I stopped for a moment, trying to understand what was going on.

  Suddenly, the men leaned back in unison, pointing their left arms into the air. Several seemed to almost jump forward as one shouted something. Flashes of light appeared just past their hands.

  "Shit!" I shouted as I realized what I had been looking at. "Archers! Take cover!"

  I dashed to my left and the shelter of the trees that lined the road. Behind me, screams of panic made it clear that the others were following me into the trees.

  Martha stood where she had stopped. She was turning back to look at us. There was a faint whistle, and then a series of soft thunks as yard-long arrows seemed to sprout from the ground. The whole episode lasted less than thirty seconds.

  "Martha!" I heard Jennifer shout. Our friend was still standing on the road. She completed the turn, revealing the feathered shaft that had penetrated her left shou
lder. For an instant she stood, staring at us and then dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

  "Martha!" Al shouted. There was a crash as he shoved a branch out of the way and started to run out to where her body lay. I reached out to grab him and hold him back.

  "Not now! They might shoot again!" I told him.

  The archers were still standing at the far edge of the field. They made no move towards us, but their silent vigilance kept us from attempting to recover Martha's body. A couple of the archers did try single shots towards us, but the range and the trees meant that the arrows never came close to us.

  We had been staring at the archers for several minutes when one of them stepped out in front of the others. He shouted something, and they quickly reformed into two rows. Then they started to walk across the field at a deliberate pace.

  "I could shoot back," Lydia offered.

  "You'd get one shot!" I shouted at her. "Killing one won't help us much."

  "What do we do then?" Steve asked.

  I stared at the approaching archers. They were about ninety yards away and slowly marching towards us. Their left arms were pointed at the ground, but the readiness to shoot again was clear.

  "We want to keep following the road," I said. "Al, Steve, we're going to have to leapfrog forward in the trees. Hopefully this unit gets dragged back into the battle on the other side of that hedge."

  "Got it," Al cried. "Jen, Lisa, Victoria, stay in the trees, but run past Ron and find a spot you can take cover in. Make sure you don't leave the trees."

  There was a rustling behind me as the girls followed Al's command. I continued to watch the slowly approaching archers until I felt a light touch on my left shoulder.

  "You're the last in line now," I heard Steve whisper. "It's your turn to move. Lydia and Henck have you covered."

  I let out a long breath and then eased back deeper into the trees. The path the rest of the group had taken was clearly marked by broken branches, and I hurried down it. As I ran, I passed Heather and Kariy huddled behind a fallen log. I slowed to give Heather a reassuring touch before continuing on. I found Steve at the end of the group and moved beyond him about ten feet before pushing through the branches of a deadfall. Once through, I scampered up to the edge of the forest and peeked around one of the trees.

  My dash through the woods had only covered about thirty yards. Still it was enough for me to see that the archers were still approaching the location where we had entered the trees. They had not spotted our mad dash through the underbrush and I waved behind me to indicate that the others should continue to move.

  The archers continued to march forward cautiously. They were about a quarter of the way to the edge of the forest, when a flash of light to my left alerted me to a change in the situation. I turned slightly to see a band of about a dozen men emerge from the hedge. The flash of light had come from a shiny breastplate one of the members wore, and as I watched they formed a small block of spearmen. Then, without a word or cry they charged at the archers.

  I turned and looked for any other member of the group. Jennifer was passing behind me, and I grabbed her and handed her the spear. "Cover me!" I hissed urgently.

  Jennifer squeaked in surprise, but quickly took a position behind the tree where she could watch the soldiers charging the seemingly unaware archers.

  Once she was settled, I dashed towards Martha. I heard a gasp of surprise from someone behind me as I emerged from the trees and sprinted to the body of our friend.

  I had just reached her when a cry from the archers forced me to look up. I could see one of them pointing at me, but before any of them could fire, another gave a cry of alarm and pointed at the onrushing soldiers.

  I pressed my fingers to Martha's neck, seeking a pulse. All I felt was her skin, which was cooling to the touch. I reached up to look at the arrow. Only about a foot of wood was outside her body. It had caught her in the shoulder at a steep angle, and had punched through her collarbone and ripped into her chest. The head of the arrow had not emerged, but a quick glance at a nearby arrow that had missed made it clear that it had penetrated at least two feet before coming to rest.

  The cries from the archers had grown tenser, but no arrows fell near me. Before running back to the safety of the woods, I picked up Martha's body and threw it over my shoulder in a rough fireman's carry. As I arrived, Esme ran up to me, already slipping her pack from her shoulders. I shook my head as I gently laid the body on the ground.

  "She's dead."

  Esme nodded, but knelt down and put her ear to Martha's chest. A moment later she was pulling Martha's blouse up. As the skin of our friend was revealed, a large black bruise was evident on her right side. "I thought so," Esme sighed. "The arrow must have cut through at least one artery."

  "Did she suffer?" I asked.

  "I doubt she suffered for long," Esme said. "The damage has to be rather extensive if the arrow penetrated that deep. What should we do?"

  I risked a look back at the field. The unit of soldiers had suffered several casualties while charging the archers, but was now among them. A few archers were running away, heading away from us on the road, the others had drawn long knives and were fighting for their lives against the soldiers. Neither group appeared concerned about our band.

  "We should bury her," I said. "It's the least we can do for her. I only wish..." my words ran out.

  Heather smacked me on the back of the head. "You wish what? You were the only one who realized what the archers were doing. Heck, you were the only one who realized that those men were archers. Everyone else ran when you did. Martha froze. You can't save everyone."

  "I promised that I would."

  Lydia put her hands over my mouth. "Shut it! You only promised to do your best to protect us. There are times when your best won't be good enough."

  I nodded miserably and looked at the still body of the girl I had been talking to only a short time before. She had dreams and hopes, but would never get the chance to realize them. In despair for my failure, I slumped to the ground and buried my face in my hands.

  Someone put her arms around me. Then I heard Steve sigh. "He tries too hard sometimes. We appear safe, so let's handle burying Martha while he recovers."

  "Will he be alright?" Heather asked. The voice was right next to my ear, and I realized she was the one who had put her arms around me.

  I wanted to say something to reassure her, but could not find the words. Lydia jumped in. "He just needs time to accept what happened. He accepted responsibility for our safety and now feels like he failed her."

  "But he didn't," Natalie replied. "He tried to get her to run. And I watched the archers once they saw the soldiers. Beyond about thirty yards they are just shooting at an area. Look at the volley at us. Twenty arrows were shot, but only one hit Martha and none hit the rest of us. You could park six cars in the area the arrows covered."

  "Give him a moment," Steve said. "Meanwhile, we don't have a shovel or the time to dig that deep. Everyone find large stones."

  There was a chorus of agreement. I could hear footsteps heading away from where we were gathered. Heather's arms remained, and I felt her lips on my cheek. "You didn't fail," she whispered.

  "It's just so unfair," I replied. "She had a family back on Earth. Now they will never know what happened to their daughter. Right now she should be preparing for a test for one of the classes she was taking. Instead we were all walking, trying to reach a city that may or may not allow us to stay for the winter."

  "But she had a chance," Heather said. "We all have. And don't think she wasn't finding this rewarding."

  "Oh yes. I know every woman would find living like a homeless vagrant rewarding."

  Heather squeezed me. "Well, I won't say I wouldn't like a modern bathroom and clothing. But I can't complain about the rest. You realize that I've talked more to Jennifer, Esme, and Natalie than I did with my roommate back at the university?"

  "I'll admit that without coming to Jord
I never would have met you," I muttered, raising my head from my hands and turning to look at Heather.

  Heather's face looked directly at me. A stream of tears ran from her eyes. She gasped as she noticed my own tears and then kissed me soundly.

  We held the kiss for several minutes, finally breaking it when Lydia stood above us and coughed.

  "Sorry, Ron," she said when we looked up, "but the battle appears to be breaking through the hedge."

  I looked over my shoulder. The hedge that had blocked us from seeing the battle was shaking violently. As we watched, a large section broke, releasing a mass of men to tumble into the field. Many jumped up and started stabbing and slashing at those still on the ground.

  "We can't stay," I said. "How are we doing on burying Martha?'

  "We have it all set up, but what about her pack? The arrow has it pinned to her shoulder," Steve said.

  I looked at Heather, who shrugged. Victoria stepped forward. "She only had her own spare clothing and her bedroll."

  "So little?" I asked.

  Victoria shrugged. "We don't have much. It's rather easy to spread the food and cooking supplies between the men. Why is this important?"

  "Let's just bury the pack with Martha," I said as I stood up on shaky legs. "But let's do it quickly. That battle appears to be spreading towards us."

  We gathered around the still body of our fallen friend. Esme took a few moments to fold her arms over her chest and straighten her legs. Small rocks were found to cover her eyes and hold them closed. Then as Steve, Al, Henck and I piled rocks on and around the body, Victoria spoke.

  "Martha, we did not get to know you for long. Like the rest of us, you were shoved out an elevator in a new world just two weeks ago. Despite being torn from your family, you were always cheerful. As we have fought our way across the land, you were helpful and caring. Even when we heard we might never leave this land, you held out hope that we could all end up with a better life."