The Ravenous Siege (Epic of Haven Trilogy Book 2)

by R. G. Triplett

  "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, alright? It's just ..."

  Portus stared in confusion at his friend, still not understanding why her anxiety had so suffocated her senses.

  "I'm sorry, Margarid is right. Let's ... let's just be on with it, alright?"

  "That's okay, Kahri!" Georgina said as she reached out and took the hand of her friend. And it was with that gesture of grace that the lot of them followed Margarid off into the mountain, eager to find the tomorrow that she believed in.

  Hours and hours passed as the seven of them walked deliberately into the unknown. Their bodies and minds were exhausted, but they were propelled onward by the bumps and clanks that crashed and echoed with a haunting consistency in the passage behind them. The high, stone walls with glittering veins rose upwards on either side of the sliver of a walkway that the seven of them traversed. It wasn't until the granite monotony was interrupted by a vast and empty space that their hope and pace halted.

  "What in the name of the THREE who is SEVEN is this place?" Portus said in a stunned whisper. The very pathway that they had marched steadily upon for the better part of a day suddenly terminated at the mouth of a vast and darkened abyss.

  "It must plunge for leagues!" Harmier said in amazement. "I cannot see its depths, not with a thousand lit torches would I hope to see its depths."

  "Do you see a way across the chasm?" Portus asked the rest. "Look! There must be a way across."

  It was as if the very mountain had hollowed itself out here to accommodate this massive pit in the belly of Haven. The stone path ended completely and the ceiling above them rose to great heights while the granite floor plummeted to unfathomable black depths right before their eyes.

  "There!" Georgina blurted out. "Do you see it? Right there!" The young farm girl held a wavering hand out before her and pointed towards the other side of the cavern. The group peered into the darkness and before long they could make out the rock face on the opposite side of the abyss with a small, amber, glowing northward arrow carved into the granite walls.

  "I see it!" Margarid shouted in excited relief. "Well spotted, indeed!" She grabbed Georgina in a genuine embrace and tousled her hair kindly.

  The young lady smiled with a self-satisfied expression, feeling for a moment that she was more than just a child, and that perhaps she too could—and would, in fact—contribute to this new family of hers.

  "That is all well and good, but how do you suppose we are to cross this chasm?" Kahri said in fearful defiance. "It has to be thirty paces wide! There is no way to get across!"

  "I do not see any way either," Harmier said, defeated. "But there must be one … somehow."

  "I can't believe for a moment that a way was made for us just so that it would end like ... like this!" Margarid said, doing her best to steel the resolve of both her friends and herself. "We must have eyes to see it, we must look harder."

  The seven of them dropped their bags, and a few of them plopped to the floor in defeated exhaustion. Though the way through the mountain was barely lit by the violet glow, here at this place of wounded hope, this impasse on the edge of the abyss, the violet light seemed to wane in response to their weariness.

  "What do we do now, my lady?" Portus whispered. "I cannot for the life of me make out a way across this ravine, though something tells me that across the ravine is where we must go."

  "I do not know, dear Portus. Perhaps," she said as her eyes scanned the downtrodden faces of her fatigued friends, "perhaps our eyes might be more keen after some sleep?"

  "Aye, let's hope so, huh?" the tanner said as he rubbed his eyes with his massive hands. "Should we keep a watch?"

  "I cannot see it doing much good, can you?" she said as exhaustion overcame her speech. "Not like this, it won't; besides, I doubt a single one of us could keep our eyes open."

  Portus nodded and laid himself down, stretching his body out across the entrance to the ravine's great corridor. "Well, if someone does come, they will have to trip over my tired body first," he said as he took a leather satchel and propped it up underneath his head.

  "Thank you, Portus," she said with a grateful smile. "Your bravery has not gone unnoticed."

  And with those words, it was not long before the massive cavern under the mountain rang out with their heavy breathing. The small remnant slept hard and fast, all save Margarid, for her mind was churning with thoughts of Michael and Engelmann and this impasse that loomed right in front of them.

  "What would you do, Engelmann?" she whispered to the dark silence. "What kind of magic would you conjure, what kind of prayers would you pray? What is the answer to this riddle that seemingly mocks our trust? Oh, I wish ... I do so wish that you were here." She spoke to the emptiness as she rose to her feet and determined to look again for the way that could not be seen.

  Her mind shifted to Michael, the groomsman that had become her champion, but she swallowed back the lump in her throat as she pushed the thoughts of him aside. She could not dwell long on his absence, so she said a brief prayer for his safety as she began to kick the rocks and pebbles that had littered the ground floor.

  Portus awoke at the sounds of her boots meeting the loose gravel of the passageway floor. He realized that Margarid was the only other person awake, so he quietly watched her and listened to the worried prayers of his friend's heart.

  "I cannot see anything!" she whispered desperately to the ancient air. " I have tried ... I want to see it, I want to see a way out ... a way across. But I have stared half the night away and still nothing."

  Margarid continued to pace along the ledge of the ravine, sending rock and stone over the edge of the chasm with each step that punctuated her prayers. "What would you have me do? What would you have us do?" She kicked again, sending a spray hard into the emptiness. This time, unlike each time before, the sound of pebbles and dust landing upon a ledge met her astonished ears.

  Portus jumped up at the sound and moved quickly towards her. She felt him approaching and whirled around to face him, eyes wide.

  "What was that?" Portus whispered excitedly. "Did you hear that?"

  "I did!" she replied as she stood, slack-jawed and speechless. She turned back to face the cavern, and they both peered into the abyss.

  "I can see it too. There, right there, floating out in the middle of the cavern!"

  "There is a way, Mar!" Portus said, grinning in satisfied approval. "All you had to do was ask to be shown."

  There, right out in front of them, a thin line of scattered pebbles seemed to be floating in the middle of the void. It appeared that this spray of discarded dirt now marked a path of sorts across the emptiness. "Quick!" Portus said excitedly. "Follow the line all the way back to our ledge! Do you see where it starts?"

  Margarid studied the line for a moment, then repositioned herself. She crouched down and gestured to the starting point of this secret walkway. "Hidden in plain sight! Can you believe that?"

  "I think that is the point, is it not?" Portus asked with a sense of wisdom in his voice.

  "You have been spending quite a bit of time with Engelmann, haven't you?" Margarid said with a laugh. "All of his wise riddling is rather contagious, I think."

  Portus smiled as he bent down and examined the thin sliver of rock that protruded to make a narrow line across the cavernous void. He reached out and touched its smooth, granite surface, pushing his weight upon its sliver-like form, doing his best to test the trueness of its strength.

  "Do you think we can cross upon it?" he asked nervously.

  "I think that is the point," she teased.

  "I know it is the point," he said with feigned exasperation. "It is not that I don't think we are meant to cross here. I guess, well, I am wondering if we can cross here."

  She looked at him quizzically.

  "It's not much wider than my smallest finger. And this ravine, from ledge to ledge, has to be thirty paces across," he said with little confidence in his voice.

  "This is the way that Elmer made, that
the THREE who is SEVEN made for us!" she insisted. "I know it is narrow-"

  "Impossibly narrow, Mar," he argued.

  "But it will lead us to life!" she argued back. "We have to cross it, Portus. We have to."

  As this disagreement brought them to a different sort of impasse, muffled noises came from back in the trench, and the two of them paused to listen in dread as they heard the hurried pounding of boots upon the granite floor. Fear and tension rose at the realization, and the urgency they felt made this impasse seem all the more impossible.

  "They are in the passage," Portus whispered.

  Chapter Forty-One

  "THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY, and we have to take it now," Margarid urged Portus with a resolute certainty.

  He nodded his understanding, though the very thought of balancing precariously over this abyss on nothing more than a mere sliver of granite made his large hands wet with nervous sweat. Portus wiped them against his dusty pants before he spoke again. "Did he pack us any rope?"

  "No," she said, shaking her head. "I already checked the satchels while the rest of you slept."

  "Well, then, how do you suppose-" he begged aloud.

  "We could just hold hands!" a sleepy voice said from behind them.

  The unexpected reply gave the two of them quite a shock, and they turned to find a young girl with wide eyes and a hopeful gaze.

  "Yes! We could just hold hands! Margarid could go first, or maybe Harmier could ... yes, probably Harmier," Georgina continued on. "He could slowly make his way, while one of us held his hand, and when they could stretch no longer, then those two would venture out farther while holding the hand of another. And so on and so on ... we can do this until we have stretched across the chasm and reached the other side safely. I think we could cross it that way, don't you?"

  Portus looked back at Margarid and studied the eyes of his auburn-haired friend, searching her face for her agreement. At last she answered, brow raised in a bemused wonder at the young girl. "Yes, I think that you might be right, Georgina. Perhaps we can cross it, if we but hold hands?" She directed her question to the tanner whose face was still a bit skeptical.

  He paused, but only for a moment, for his ears caught the worrying tones of scuffled rock. "Very well, then," he conceded. "We have not the time to think of anything better. This … this just might work. This had better work."

  The face of the farm girl lit up with pride, and in her excitement she could wait no longer for her tired friends to rest. "Wake up! Come on, everyone! We can cross, we can cross now!"

  The remaining four rubbed their tired eyes and pulled at their road-weary faces as they slowly woke to the understanding of Georgina's enthusiasm. "We can cross now, you say?" came the hopeful albeit groggy voice of the merchant. "Perhaps providence has not left us just yet."

  "How did you find a way? What happened?" Kahri asked.

  "It was here the whole time," Margarid declared. "I just wasn't looking in the right place."

  She called the remnant over to the edge of the ravine and pointed out to them the sliver of a passageway that forded the abyss before them. The relief of the moment was stolen as the faces of her friends clouded over with nervousness; the length of the pass and the meagerness of its way did not produce a confidence that this would be at all safe.

  "Don't worry, though, we have each other to keep steady," Georgina proclaimed proudly.

  Portus and Margarid explained the girl's plan, and soon everyone had cinched their travel sacks and pulled their bootstraps tight, steadying themselves for the peril ahead.

  "I'll go first," Harmier said, more unsure than he tried to let on. "That way the tanner can hold on to me from here, so as to keep me from plummeting to my death below."

  "And when you get across, we will expect the same." Margarid replied.

  Hurried footsteps bounced and echoed again off the passage walls behind them, and their unwelcome reverberations broke the concentrated efforts of these seven. "Did you hear that?" Kahri whispered. "Someone is coming. We have to hurry!"

  Fear gleamed in the eyes of the remnant as they listened to their approaching pursuers.

  Harmier nodded to Portus, and the men grasped arms in an effort to bring their own luck to this most unlucky moment. "If you fall after several have gone out, I cannot hold you all for long," Portus whispered. "We have only one chance at this, so keep your head about you," he said as he looked back over his shoulder to the echoing mountain pass. "There is no time for fear or second guessing."

  The young merchant nodded his understanding, and in an effort of desperate bravery he placed his boot upon the sliver of granite and took his first step. It was Georgina that reached up and took the hand of her friend, and Portus in turn took the hand of the farm girl. They stood facing sideways, ready to shuffle their feet one person at a time as surely and as carefully as they might along this treacherous pass.

  "Steady now, just move one foot and then the other," Margarid said as evenly as she could.

  "Hurry! Hurry now!" Kahri begged. "The noises are getting closer!"

  Portus shot a disapproving look towards the woman. "Shhh! Do not distract them, Kahri! They are moving as quickly as they can."

  When the merchant had shuffled down the pass far enough for Georgina to step atop it, Portus squeezed the hand of the farm girl and moved his grip higher up to take her by the forearm. "Alright girl, now it's your turn. Nice and even now."

  The two disheveled blonde braids that had once crowned her head flopped in agreement as she nodded to the tall tanner that held her arm.

  "One at a time now, alright?" Margarid urged. "First Georgina, and then you, Harmier."

  Georgina took her first step, giving the merchant room to take his next step, and as she did, her foot rolled atop one of the scattered pebbles. Georgina let out a desperate cry, her knees wobbling and her heart pounding as she franticly tried to regain her balance. Margarid's breath caught in her throat at the sight, but the strong arm of the tall tanner held firm, and the merchant stood his ground. To the great relief of the terrified travelers, Georgina found her footing again there between the strength of her two friends.

  "Are you alright, girl?" Harmier asked, his own voice shaken by the near mishap.

  "I think so," she said, choking back her fear. "I ... I am sorry."

  "Another now," Portus encouraged. "You are doing well, lass."

  The collectively held breath of the remnant eased, though not all of their confidences were restored at Portus' calming words.

  And so this slow dance of nerves proceeded; first the girl and then the merchant until the length of their reach was exhausted. Portus remained as the anchor upon the ledge, calmly helping each traveler to join the line. But when the time came for the next of his friends to place her boot upon the granite pass, her distraught fumbling disrupted his concentration.

  "Hurry, please! Hurry!" Kahri blurted out as she grabbed Portus' shoulder. Her frantic voice began to disrupt the balance of the four who walked the line. "Let me go now, it is my turn. We have to cross now before they are upon us." Her eyes bulged and her breath came in short gasps as she stared fearfully at the passageway behind them.

  Portus looked at Margarid. His gaze begged her to do something, anything, to calm the frenzied woman down. Margarid understood the silent pleading of the tanner's eyes. She firmly grabbed Kahri's hands and held them in her own. "You cannot speak like this—you must control your words," she hissed. "Do you want to cause us all to fall to our deaths?"

  "I don't want to die, Margarid!" she said, both her hands and voice shaking under the pressure of so great a fear.

  "Kahri!" Margarid demanded, trying to quiet her own anxiety. "Please, calm down!"

  "Mar, we need another!" Portus said steadily. "Is she ready?"

  The auburn-haired woman held the uncontrollably shaking hands of her friend, and she knew that Kahri was not ready at all. She calmed her voice and her eyes, trying to find kindness when all she felt was frustration. "
I need you to wait here; you cannot cross like this. You have to steady yourself, first. Please. Just breathe! Please." Margarid turned back to the tanner and spoke again. "How much further do we have to go?"

  "Ten, maybe fifteen more paces!" Harmier shouted back to them. "We have passed the halfway mark for sure!"

  Margarid nodded to herself. "I'll go next!" she said, knowing the risk she must take. "Calm yourself, Kahri, we are nearly there," she whispered her words to her friend before she turned to take the grip of the butcher's wife who held tightly to Portus' massive hands.

  "What are you doing?" Portus asked.

  "She cannot go yet, she will bring the whole lot of us down," Margarid said as she reached out and calmly, gently took the arm of the silver-haired woman who waited upon the edge. "Hopefully Harmier can make it to the other side without her, and once he is on solid ground," she looked over Portus' shoulder at the tear-streaked face of the nervous woman. "Then it will be a little easier for her to cross."

  "Let's hope that Harmier is not as stingy with distance as he is with his coin," Portus said.

  "May it be so," Margarid prayed in agreement. She took a deep breath and steeled herself for the challenge to come, and with great uncertainty she took her first step. Each successive step followed the one before until the whole line had moved a pace. One after the next the steps were taken, like ripples upon the surface of lake waters.

  Portus looked at the woman who held herself, pacing back and forth across the cavern floor. Her eyes were wild with fear and although she knew where salvation waited, she could not find peace enough to walk towards it. The footsteps in the pass were growing louder and louder, for whomever it was that hunted them was coming closer and closer.

  "You have to come now," Margarid said to Portus. "We are nearly there ... she will be fine for a moment."

  He squeezed her arm in agreement and then, like the five who had gone out before him, he too took his first step upon the edge of the granite knife. The ripple of shuffling boots flowed out across the abyss, and the chain of arms stretched and twitched as they yearned for the safety that waited mere paces before them.