Blade of the North

by Jones, Heath

  Another scream comes from nearby – someone else has been hit or run down. There’s another shout, then another. That one sounded like – suddenly I’m falling. My arms and legs are flailing, and I hear my own voice screaming. All I can see below me is a roiling mist that quickly envelopes me, then I’m freezing, deep underwater, and unable to breathe. Thrashing my arms about, I try to swim up towards the surface. But I’m deep down and not moving. Frantically I kick up with every ounce of strength I possess, until I finally burst to the surface, gasping for breath. Looking up I see other shapes falling from the cliff into the river. Above them, the three riders watch us struggling in the water before turning their horses away.

  The river is swift and icy cold. My body shivers as I am swept downstream. Boulders rise out of the water in front of me and I kick out, desperately pushing away with my legs to avoid being dashed against them. I’m not a strong swimmer and am struggling to reach the shore. I slam into a large rock and bounce off, back into the flow of the river. My legs, arms, my whole body is aching. I will myself closer to the shore, arm over arm, kicking my legs behind me. The river continually drags me under, and it’s all I can do to force my head back above the water and breathe.

  My body is dragged down again, and my strength is ebbing away – I’m losing the fight against the river. Suddenly my feet touch the ground. Flooded with renewed hope I kick up, the surface only just above my head. Closer now to shore I can feel the weakening pull of the river. It’s only another few moments and I am able to stand with my head clear above the water. Then I lurch slowly to shore. When my feet are finally clear of the water I collapse, head first, onto the sand.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Sara?” I hear my name, somewhere off in the distance.

  “Sara?” I hear it again, closer this time.

  Slowly I open my eyes. Rose is looking down at me.

  “Thank goodness you’re alive,” she breathes.

  Memories come flooding back to me. Running through the forest. Falling off the cliff. Nearly drowning in the river. And Bree.

  “How is Bree?” I ask.

  Rose closes her eyes and shakes her head.

  I sit up. Dawn is lightening the sky. Behind me, Dain, Alek, and Jarryd are talking quietly. Aveline is sitting with Theolin and Miya.

  “Where is she? What happened?”

  “She was hit by an arrow,” Rose explains, “then… then when we came to the cliff… I saw you fall off. I was running too fast to stop. Then…” She stops, unable to go on.

  Dain turns to us and finishes for Rose. “We had no choice. We jumped, Alek and I, holding Bree between us. But… when we hit the water she slipped out of my hand.” His eyes are red, and his voice is breaking. “It’s my fault.”

  “Rubbish,” Aveline scolds him. “You did the best you could. It’s lucky any of us survived the fall into the river.”

  “You didn’t grow up with her,” Dain says, near to tears. “I was playing with Bree before either of us could walk. And I killed her.”

  Miya looks up at them with a tear-streaked face. “She was my twin sister.”

  “I’m sorry, Miya, I tried,” Dain says, choking up.

  “We did our best,” Alek says. He sounds the exact opposite of Dain – unemotional, as though nothing important has happened. “Aveline’s right. We did what we could. Now we have to look after ourselves.”

  “She was my twin sister,” Miya says again. At first, I think she’s accusing them, but then I look more closely. Her eyes are empty. In her grief, it’s all she can say.

  I know I should be grieving for Bree, but I’m not. Too many people close to me have died. Instead of being a friend, Bree chose to antagonise me with Theolin. To my shame, her death leaves me feeling… nothing.

  “Come on,” Jarryd says, helping Miya to her feet. “We have to keep going.” His voice is gentle but firm. Miya allows him to help her up.

  “Where?” Theolin asks. “Where do we go now? Bree was one of my best friends. And now she’s dead. Just like my family, and almost everyone else I know. Where are we going to go? Are we still going to look for these imaginary assassins? What good will that do us now? What good will it do anyone?”

  “Everyone’s dying,” Aveline says. “People from your town, from mine, from everywhere. Tigranik’s Peace Bringers are conquering wherever they go. And death and suffering follow them. We can’t change what has happened to us. But maybe we can stop Tigranik’s senseless war. If we can save some people from suffering, it’s still worth something.”

  “And Tolos can only hold out for six months,” I add.

  “Of course,” Theolin replies, “I wouldn’t want your father to die like mine did.”

  “That’s not fair,” I protest.

  “You’re right – it isn’t,” Theolin spits. “Let’s get going then.”

  We set off in silence, the warming sun drying us out. Following the river south, we keep to the cover of the trees. The going is easy, but I quickly discover the cuts and bruises I picked up in the river. I hadn’t noticed them before, but I am aware of them now. Thankfully none of the cuts are deep, and no blood is flowing from them. But I am sore in more places than I can count.

  We trudge along in relative silence for the next few days, a cloud of gloom hanging over us. Miya repeats her single sentence at various times but otherwise remains quiet. More than once Aveline and Jarryd walk with her, trying to comfort her. She has had no interest in food since Bree died, but Jarryd spends time with her every day enticing her to eat. Absently she accepts food from his hand and he feeds her like a pet goat. But at least she eats.

  Theolin’s face is set in a constant scowl. She doesn’t want to talk to anyone or be near anyone. She trails behind for the most part, her eyes boring into our backs. When we stop to eat or sleep, she does so by herself.

  Dain and Alek take turns leading the way for us. We know the Ariven River will eventually take us into Naren, so leading isn’t that difficult. We simply follow the river. Dain tries to talk to me occasionally, but he is preoccupied with Bree’s death. He still blames himself.

  So, like on the way to Tolos, I walk mostly with Rose. She has recovered remarkably and is showing few ill effects of our flight from Tolos. But even between us, there isn’t much conversation. What is there to talk about?

  Following the river, we at least have a source of clean water. Our only problem is hunger. There are enough berries, nuts, and edible roots to keep us going, but not enough to satisfy our stomachs. None of us have the energy to try and catch anything. So, we walk on, hungry, but thankfully not thirsty.

  After five days of walking, Alek and Jarryd are finally fed up with their rumbling stomachs. We take a break by the riverbank and watch as they fashion a crude net out of vines and cast it in the river. The net would be laughed at by real fishermen, but when they pull it in, we are delighted to see a single, glistening fish. Encouraged, they throw the net out again, and over the next hour pull in enough fish for us all eat. Sitting around the fire at night, watching the cooking fish, my mouth waters. The catch has put us all in better spirits.

  “How much farther do you think?” Rose asks.

  “Probably another five days to the border with Naren,” Aveline replies. “Another two or three to the edge of the Daishen Forest. From there? Who knows how long it will take us to find them in the forest?”

  “If they’re real,” Theolin says, but not with as much venom as usual. I don’t know if she’s coming around to the idea that the assassins may actually exist, or if she just couldn’t be bothered baiting us about it. I don’t have that luxury though. The assassins must be there! Tolos and my father have less than six months.

  “How will we pay them?” I suddenly blurt out. The thought has been lurking around the back of my mind ever since I came up with the idea of hiring the assassins. But now it explodes to the forefront of my mind. What if we don’t have anything to pay them with? If we can’t pay them – who will stop Tigranik and th
e war? Who will save my father?

  Theolin looks at me with contempt. “Your whole plan was to find the assassins and hire them. What do you mean ‘how will we pay them’?”

  Everyone is looking at me. I feel like a complete fool. It’s the most basic question of all and I haven’t thought of it until now.

  The silence grows, and Theolin’s anger with it. Finally, she bursts. “Bree died for this! How could you lead us down this path and not even have thought of something so simple!”

  Surprisingly it is Aveline who comes to my defence. “No, Bree died because we wanted to flee the Peace Bringers.” She stares at Theolin, defying her to object. “And besides, we all agreed this was the only course open to us. We’ll find a way to pay them. Even it means serving them in some way. It will be worth the price.”

  Theolin is still glaring at me, no doubt contemplating another outburst.

  “It’s not her fault,” Miya says, and all eyes turn toward her. It is the first coherent thing she has said since Bree died. “The Peace Bringers killed Bree, not Sara. We can’t blame each other – or let her death be for nothing.”

  Miya’s short speech seems to have a calming effect on us all. Even Theolin relaxes a little.

  I look across at Aveline, thankful for her words. Our group could have been torn apart right then. But she defended me and kept us all on course. Her and Miya. Poor Miya. To have lost her twin sister… We have all lost so many people we love. I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like to lose your twin.

  The next few days are just like the last. We walk. We eat. We sleep. Gradually, I find myself talking more and more with Aveline. I didn’t think she liked me at first, and I certainly didn’t like her. Everything is so easy for her. The way she makes friends. The way she commands respect and orders others around. The way people obey her as naturally as they breathe. And the way Jarryd stands beside her no matter what. I’m not like her at all. I’m the opposite in fact, and we have nothing in common. But then, I realise, we do share something – both of our homes have been destroyed and people we love have been murdered by Tigranik’s armies.

  Whenever I walk with Aveline, Rose drops back with Dain. They talk quietly for a while and I’m glad. Dain needs to come out of his dark mood. He can’t blame himself for Bree forever.

  We pass small villages as we continue south. Farrow, a tiny place with only a few huts a little way from the river. Thenvale, a more sizeable village that we decide to skirt around to avoid being seen. It’s safer, we agree, to bypass the larger villages as much as we can. Who knows where the Peace Bringers will turn up next? Or where they already are.

  Passing on from Thenvale, the Ariven narrows and descends rapidly over submerged rocks, turning the river into a seething cauldron of foam and spray. The mist blows across our path, drenching us. It’s impossible to hear anything over the deafening roar of the water as it crashes over the rocks, so we continue for a long time in silence.

  As the rapids fade into a distant rumble behind us, I find myself walking with Dain. He is still brooding, and I’m worried about him.

  “Are you okay?” he asks, breaking the silence.

  I’m taken aback. I was about to ask him the same question.

  “I know you were never close to Bree,” he says, “but…”

  “You’re right,” I answer, filling the silence for him, “we weren’t close. It’s Miya I’m concerned about – and you.”

  “Maybe Alek is right,” he replies. “We did the best we could. We can’t blame ourselves.” He shrugs his shoulders. “I’m fine,” he finishes.

  “Are you?” I ask, locking eyes with him. “Are any of us, after what we’ve been through?”

  He returns my gaze for a few moments, then turns away. I reach out to take a hold of his hand, to show my care for him, but he pulls away.

  “I’m fine,” he says again, but with less conviction than before.

  Ten days after our flight from Tolos, we finally come within sight of the town of Rila. The Ariven River plunges south through a valley, and Rila, the last town before the border with Naren, lies at the bottom of the valley. Beyond the town is a small line of hills running east to west. Named the Iron Hills because of the metal that was once mined there, they form the natural border between Naren and Hammel.

  “What do you think?” Dain asks.

  “It looks safe enough,” Jarryd replies.

  “Safe?” I say, disbelieving. “How can it be safe after the Peace Bringers levelled it?”

  “That was three months ago,” Theolin says. “It looks as though it’s already been resettled.”

  Rila does look peaceful enough, I reluctantly admit. And that fits with what Father told me of Tigranik’s conquests.

  “Come on,” Aveline says.

  We leave Rila behind, and after another mile or so we cross the Iron Hills into Naren.

  I always imagined a different country to be… different. I don’t know how I’d pictured Naren, but I somehow thought it wouldn’t be the same as Hammel. That it would look different. Or feel different. But after crossing the Iron Hills, there is nothing to suggest that anything has changed - other than having crossed a line on a map.

  Just beyond the border, the Ariven River turns west. It continues south and west to Argol, the capitol city of Naren. But the Daishen Forest is another 3 days walk southeast of us. So we turn that way and leave the river we have followed since our flight from Tolos.

  Head cross-country, we follow the folds of the land as best we can. Game trails make going a little faster and easier, but they are few. Here it is mostly rocky hills and open plains. Tall mountain ranges lie far off to the east. Thankfully, we don’t have to cross any of those.

  The next night we see the lights of a small town in the midst of the plain to our south. It is the first settlement we have seen in Naren.

  “Can’t we go around it, like we have the others?” Miya asks.

  “Not this time,” Aveline replies. “We need to buy food before we go wandering in the Daishen Forest. We have to enter a town eventually.”

  “Here is as good a place as any,” Jarryd says, agreeing with Aveline as always.

  There is little debate. We need food and we don’t know if we’ll have a better opportunity to obtain some. Cautiously, then, we make our way across the plain.

  The ground levels out as we approach the town. My foreboding, though, increases - what, or who, will we find in a town that has been subject to Tigranik for years?

  There is no wall around the town. From the ruins on the ground, it looks as though a wooden palisade once surrounded the town. That would have posed no protection at all against the might of the Peace Bringers.

  The town itself is smaller than Farley, nothing more than a large village. Probably less than a thousand people live here. Smoke from small cooking fires fills the air, as does the smell of roasting chicken. My stomach rumbles at the thought of eating chicken.

  “I’m hungry too,” Rose says, smiling at me. Apparently, my stomach rumbled just a little too loudly.

  I don’t know what I imagined a town under Tigranik’s rule would be like, but I certainly wasn’t expecting this. The houses in a town this size would usually be built with wood and thatch. But here, the small houses are made of stone with tiled roofs. The streets are clean and there is no refuse to be seen anywhere. Was the town always like this, or has it been rebuilt more prosperously since it was conquered? Even the people here appear friendly. We’re strangers to them, but they greet us when we approach and enquire after our travels. I learn that the town is named Seam.

  “Doesn’t seem so bad… so far,” Rose whispers.

  Despite my hatred for Tigranik, I can’t help but agree. But I wonder - what has happened to these people? Why have they submitted so easily to the rule of a tyrant?

  Then I see them, and my blood freezes. Two Peace Bringers, walking down the main street toward us. Swords are strapped to their side and their polished, black armour gleams over
their equally dark tunics.

  “What do we do?” I say, my voice trembling.

  “Nothing,” Aveline says. “We’re on our way to visit friends in Naren. We’re simply stopping here to buy food.”

  “Keep up the happy faces,” Theolin adds, sounding more worried than happy.

  I look behind for a way to escape or a place to hide. There I see four more Peace Bringers, walking down from a crossing street. They continue on, disappearing behind the row of houses.

  “Relax,” Jarryd says, coming up beside me. “Let’s go buy one of those chickens.”

  He leads me off to one of the cooking fires. After talking with the man there, Jarryd offers to buy a chicken. The man happily agrees, accepting Jarryd’s money and handing over a chicken. Nervously I keep glancing over my shoulder to watch the Peace Bringers. They seem to have no interest in us, merely casting their eyes over everything to ensure all is in order, before moving on.

  “Go on, eat,” Jarryd whispers to me. “It’ll take your mind off them.”

  I take a bite and the juices of the chicken explode in my mouth. It is delicious. It reminds me just how hungry I am. A smile spreads on my face but then it freezes in place.

  “You aren’t from here,” I hear the Peace Bringer say.

  I turn around and see they have stopped next to Aveline. “No,” she replies. Then she tells them the story she has devised about us all visiting friends in Naren. Not once does her voice waver – even I begin to believe her story.

  The Peace Bringers listen to her, asking questions, probing, and Aveline effortlessly answers each one. I admire her composure. Under their questioning, I know I would be a stuttering mess and would have given myself - and everyone else - away! But Aveline’s performance is flawless, and eventually the Peace Bringers wish her a good day and continue on their way.