“Dad! How did you—”
“Shush, don’t wake him up!”
Trevin pointed at the snoring mass only a few steps away, blissfully unaware of what was going on. Naurus was now starting to realize this really wasn’t a dream.
“How did you find me?”
“I’ve been following you this whole time. I can’t risk anything stupid to try to free you though, I’m just one man and not an army.”
“Wait…have you been that figure in my dreams who keeps haunting me?”
“Are you drunk right now, son?”
“No! I swear I…never mind. Well, let’s go then!”
His father looked at him endearingly, then in a split second his eyes narrowed into slits. He cocked his head. Suddenly the solid, undeniably tangible body of his father melted into a thick, black smoke. An arrow tore through this smoke and whistled past Naurus’s ear. He frantically looked around, seeing no sign of his father and no obvious sign of where the arrow came from. That is, until a tall and gaunt figure stepped out of the shadow, an arrow nocked with wide eyes glowing like that of a predatory cat in the lantern light.
“Where’d he go?” The elf asked in a silvery voice.
“Who?”
“Don’t play dumb! Who was that?”
“Huh, what? Whose there?”
Naurus looked over to see Rahlo sitting up and looking around, clearly having no idea what just transpired.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out!” The elf snapped. “I saw him sneaking past our perimeter, then lost track. Now he’s just disappeared! Some sort of changeling I’m guessing. Sneaky bastards!”
“Shit! Where’d he go?”
“Hell if I know!” The elf shot back.
“What time is it?”
“Just about the crack of dawn.”
Rahlo stood up and looked around as if indecisive.
“Where’s Limlee?”
“He’s back with the others, I must return too. The operation has been a success…so far.” The elf said cryptically before dashing out of the cavern and into the murky grey light outside.
“Well, get up then unless you want to be captured by these damn savages!”
Naurus figured better to go with the devil he knew over the ones he didn’t but could hardly comport himself enough to pack up. Will he still follow me? What happens now? I can’t believe he was just here…but just disappeared? How? He said he hasn’t been able to do that in decades! Maybe he was still lying to me, maybe—
“What are you looking at?”
Naurus snapped to, realizing he was simply standing there, holding his bedroll and staring at a dark corner of the cavern.
“Nothing…just tired I guess.”
“Well come on then, let’s go. I ain’t sleep very good either, but maybe we will hit a town if we make good progress today.”
Right, good progress. Into the great fucking nothing of this stupid place. I just want to go home. He thought glumly as he mounted his horse, who also seemed too tired to put up much of a fight at this unholy hour. They set off into the dull, grey morning, towards the faint light of a rising sun behind a wall of clouds that looked like broken stones. Naurus looked around casually, but secretly trying to see if any more signs of his father were to be had. Sadly, there was nothing but the occasional call of a gull and the distant hoot of an owl. The ravine was suffocating, like a stone prison that reminded him with every inch that the road of fate was only as wide as Fortune opened her hands.
✽ ✽ ✽
“Well? Why are ya lookin’ at me like that?”
“I just found him…couldn’t save him though. Got ambushed…”
He trailed off, wiping the sweat from his brow.
“So he ain’t alone?”
“No…but I’m not sure who exactly he’s with. Some elf almost put an arrow through my damn back! We’ve gotta get a move on, come on.”
They made haste to mount back up and set off into the next leg of this seemingly never-ending journey. Except the end was nigh, at least as far as Trevin was concerned. He also had a suspicion as to what direction the pursuit was heading next, and this suspicion was confirmed by a quick peer down the ravine from the ridgeline. He quickly stowed the spyglass away. It was only a cursory glance, but he knew that was his son and the yet unknown man who had been accompanying him this entire time. They soon disappeared behind a curve in the ravine off in the distance.
Trevin dug his heels into the sides of his horse and set off into the perilous terrain. He cursed under his breath, knowing that his rocky and rough path would slow them down more than he would like.
“So, where’d’ya think they’re headin’ too?” Gully asked, piercing the otherwise all-encompassing silence of daybreak.
“I think…” Trevin started, yawning and rubbing his eyes. “I think they’re heading out to find civilization again. My memory is foggy, but I think there’s a town no all that far off. Forgot the damn name though!”
“That’s alright, at least we ain’t goin’ into the den of elves!” Gully chuckled, eliciting the same from Trevin.
“What, you’re telling me you don’t want to go back there and take in all the sights and sounds of a wilderness full of noble savages?”
“You couldn’t pay me enough! It tickled me that yer son of all people got to shell them after all this time. Lucky guy!”
“Yeah well, as much as I envy him I really don’t. Something is majorly wrong with the situation. An elf was the in cavern with them but was all alone…very strange. They are heading out away from the dominions though, as if…” Trevin lost his tongue, not sure how to add up the sum of all he was seeing.
“You think, maybe they’re workin’ with the elves? Or at least some o’ them?”
“Perhaps…that would be a possibility. This needs to end yesterday though. This is quickly going from a curious little hike to a very dark and dangerous game, the likes of which he isn’t ready for.”
“So…what then? What’re we gonna do once we get ‘im?”
Trevin thought long and hard, stroking his thick scar over his eye. “I don’t really know. I want to just say we all go home and forget about this mess. But I have feeling it’s just not gonna be that simple. My life rarely is ever simple. Ah well…it’s nice that my kid really is a chip off the old block.”
They shared a laugh and continued the steady push onwards. The cloud cover finally broke to reveal the midday sun high above. They couldn’t stop to eat, they knew they were falling behind as their pursuit was dogged down by terrain that those they chased didn’t have to face. Finally, the ridgeline they were on flattened out into a rocky hill that sloped gently downward. Ahead of them, a valley bisected by a winding, silvery blue ribbon curved ahead. Trevin pulled out the spyglass once again and scanned around. He couldn’t see anyone at first, his stomach started to sink thinking he was somehow shaken off the tail. He was able to take a deep breath and relax though, when he saw two little blobs with four legs off in the distance, clearly horses drinking from the river. Two other smaller blobs walked around nearby.
“I see them! Come on now, trails hot!” Trevin called out, feeling a sudden burst of energy seeing the end of this pursuit within his grasp.
They made it down to the valley floor and unfortunately had to lose some time by letting their own horses drink, but the thought of having to walk all this distance was a far worse fate. The one thing they couldn’t control, however, was the sun and its inevitable sinking below the horizon and the dangers that travelling at night brought with it. They pitched camp up in a rocky crevice and settled in.
“You’ve been awful quiet Gull, something eating you?”
“Nah, just…this place feels very familiar and I’m not sure why.”
“I was thinking the same thing. But I think I know why. This I recall being where we hid back after the Dyzlat Pass Incident, remember?”
Gully’s eyes went wide, then narrowed down almost immediately.
“Yes…now I do. I really wish I hadn’t remembered that.”
“There was nothing we could do, bud. Morra had command of the entire Southern Shock Division at that point. She wanted to quash the insurgency out here once and for all. She thought that pass was the main thoroughfare for arms and armor supplies being used against us. Don’t you remember all of that?”
“Yes…yes I do.”
“Then surely you remember that when we mined the pass, we were told that a large contingent of insurgents and partisans was passing through. Only there was one problem—”
“Morra was a fuckin’ moron?”
“Well yes, that too.” Trevin chuckled. “But as it turned out there were no enemies, just a caravan of civvies fleeing the violence in the Elven Dominions. Some of the elves only wanted peace, yet we gave them no option by landing on their shores and laying waste to their forest homes. My…that forest fire could be seen from coast to coast. The sky was nothing but orange for nights on end.”
“And that’s why we lost out here.”
“Yes, that tends to happen after you bury hundreds of innocents under piles of rubble and boulders. We never learned how to win hearts and minds.”
Blind Trust
Thunk-thunk-thunk. It was that odd twilight zone between asleep and awake, that state of being where one can’t particularly tell if they were woken up by their dream or something else.
Thunk-thunk-thunk. “Time to get up! Rise and shine, boy!”
It definitely wasn’t a dream that time. There was no window in this room, but punctuality had been the name of the game since he landed on the shores of this unforgiving land.
“Yeah…coming!” He croaked.
The discomfort of getting out of the warm, straw pallet was only eclipsed by knowing what lay beyond that door. He knew damn well that nothing was stopping that door from swinging open at a moment’s notice, but thankfully he was afforded at least that modicum of privacy by his unwanted steward. He could hear muffled conversation and the creaking of floorboards outside his modest room. He finished dressing himself and swung the door open with a tinge of anxiety. The loose, rusty hinges squealed and an all too familiar face looked down on him.
“Mornin’! Let’s go, got some places to go and people to see!” Rahlo said, waving Naurus on to follow him.
They stepped down the old staircase, so worn in the middle that it looked as if the wood was painted a pale yellow, with the edges being dark and natural. On the ground floor, the familiar smells of an inn presented themselves. Perpetual stew, old vomit from the night before, stale beer, and unwashed drunkards that had not even stirred from where they fell after finally losing the battle to alcohol poisoning.
Stepping over one such specimen who had not quite made it outside, they made it out into the street that had hardly been visible the foggy night before. The fog had not fully abated yet was mostly burned off into a distant haze in the intense morning sun that reflected harshly off the tin roofs and water filled ruts in the cobblestone street. Naurus wasn’t sure where exactly they were. He wasn’t even sure what this town was called. All he knew was they arrived late last night and checked right in for much needed sleep. He wished he could sleep in just like a lazy morning at home, with the ever-present risk of suffocation by his beloved cat.
That would, however, remain a hope and a dream for now as Naurus followed his unwanted steward down the street to a destination yet unknown. The silence between them would have been uncomfortable if it were not for the clopping of horse hooves, creaking of passing carts and wagons, and the call of hawkers opening their stores and selling their wares and food. This town wasn’t nearly as large or bustling as Wedgewood, but that mattered little as they twisted and turned through a few side streets and came to a sudden stop. They were standing in front of an abandoned looking, square brick building. An uninviting, partially rusted wrought iron door stood in front of them.
Rahlo banged on the door heartily, then set up patiently as if rooted like a tree. A viewport that wasn’t immediately apparent snapped open, but Naurus couldn’t see anything at the angle he was standing off to.
“Password?” A gritty voice asked from behind the door.
“We regulate the oppressors and liberate the oppressed.”
There was no response on the other side of the door, the answer of silence was punctuated by the viewport snapping shut. The clinking and clanking of locks and bolts was quickly followed up by the door swinging outward. Rahlo extended his hairy arm for a firm shake with the doorman. Naurus then stepped through and was only greeted with suspicious eyes by the elderly, scarred man by the door. The murky atmosphere was lit through a large but dirty skylight, illuminating the zig zag path through walls of crates, barrels, and piles of junk. They came to a room in the back, walled off from the main room.
Inside this room was a round table and with no one seated. A candelabra blazed in the middle, lighting up the space.
“Ah, first one’s ‘ere! Pop a squat, meetings about to start.”
“What meeting?”
“You’ll see.”
They sat in deathly silence for a minute, before hearing more footsteps approach. In walked a pair of regulators, tipping their hats to Rahlo and pretending like the one sitting next to him didn’t exist. The pair whispered in hushed tones, but then another set of footsteps approached. This time there was only one man. Tall, dapperly dressed in a dark three-piece suit with a gold chain flowing from his pocket watch. Big Boss had arrived, and made his rounds shaking hands with everyone, Naurus included. He sat down, taking off his black wool hat and slicking back his greyed hair.
“Good morning, gentlemen.” He said with disarming ease. “This here meetin’ ain’t nothin’ too serious, but we do need some updates on the Elves.” Big Boss looked hard at Rahlo.
“Certainly, sir! We successfully completed Operation Pushback. All is accordin’ to plan right now.”
“You’re positive nobody has tailed you out here?”
“Absolutely! I—”
“Do you need anything, before the meeting, Boss?”
Rahlo couldn’t finish, as he was interrupted by the elderly man, who poked his head in.
Big Boss rubbed his eyelids but managed to contain his annoyance for the most part.
“Yes actually, some food. Go on now, get!”
The elderly Regulator disappeared behind the wall.
“You were sayin’?” Big Boss motioned over to Rahlo.
“I sort of lost my train o’ thought.” He chuckled nervously. “But anyway, they got a good hard look at Naurus here, so they have their man. The equipment was left on site, as requested. No doubts in my mind they are buzzin’ like angry hornets!”
“Good…good.” Big Boss replied broodingly.
He looked like he was about to speak again when the elderly doorman made his way back in, bearing a tray in one hand and a carboy in the other. The tray was full of bread and cheese. As soon as both were set down, he scurried back out of the room.
“Gentleman,” Big Boss started, “Operation Static Pressure is in effect.”
✽ ✽ ✽
“You sure are takin’ your sweet time over there!”
Naurus didn’t bother replying, instead he kept dragging his feet and adjusting his saddle straps with geriatric speed. The distant rumble of thunder rolled in from the menacingly dark squall line speeding off in the distance. He sloshed through the mud and finally mounted up with the reflexive speed that can only be ingrained by a skittish horse with no name.
“Come on now, times a wastin’!”
Of course it is…it always is. A big waste of my time…Why did I ever leave home? The impressed Astranian thought to himself, spurring his horse on to start following Rahlo, who was certainly itching to get on the wet, muddy road. Naurus as ever was clueless as to the destination or the end goal, but after the events of the last few days he was increasingly wary of his part to play in this whole piece. Nothing was adding up, yet for some r
eason these strange people continued to spend their time and effort on him. For as worthless as he felt, the feeling of being forcibly chauffeured around like someone valuable was a confusing feeling to say the least.
“Long day ahead of us partner, you get enough sleep?”
“Yeah, all good there.”
In truth he had hardly slept, partially due to a mind that wandered and raced, but also due to the fear of the figure in his dreams. The figure was tied into everything that was happening, or so he thought. He had to make sense out of what little there was to be had, lest he lose his composure and make an impulsive decision that could cost him life or limb. The last day was nothing but preparing for this new trip, fixing and replacing torn tarps and clothes. Naurus was not granted the privilege of newer clothes, ostensibly because he would blend in easier if dressed like the locals. He washed as best he could in the wash basin at the inn, but it hardly helped him feel less alienated even with clothes that didn’t reek.
It was a small comfort that at least the terrain had leveled out, and there were no more limbers to be towed either. The thunder grew ever more distant, and the sun came burning in with an intensity that made the humidity feel more like a sauna. A double rainbow arched high overhead, feeling like it never came closer no matter how far they traveled. Eventually, it disappeared, all too like the figure that haunted his dreams. By the afternoon, they came upon a sight that was both new and familiar at the same time: the tracks that carried the locomotive. But the steel beast and its heaving smokestack were nowhere to be seen, just a deer that scampered away into the woods nearby. Rahlo stopped in the tracks and looked around.
“Know what these are, partner?”
“Uh…no. No I don’t.” Naurus lied through his teeth, trying at all cost to play dumb.
“This ‘ere is what them dwarven folk use for their behemoths. Huge beasts, you’ve never seen anythin’ like ‘em!”
“Oh…uh huh. Sounds like quite something!” He was hardly a thespian but feigned amazement as beast he could. “Where is that uh…behemoth?”
“Well she sure ain’t here! We will meet her soon, if all goes to plan. Come on now, follow me.”
Empire's Edge (Path of Light Book 2) Page 19