War's Ending

by A J Park

  He dragged her to her feet and pulled out his sword. It was over. Time was up. Her breath was a strangled gasp of panic. “No!”

  Before he could strike, there was a sudden clash of weapons outside the door. The feathered man turned toward the sound of fighting and saw the last of his men running away.

  Shalyrie rolled away, out of his reach for the moment, huddling into the corner. Someone else came in with a sword in his hand, and Shalyrie could see lantern light reflecting off the blade. The feathered man turned away from her, and the newcomer confronted him. With a shock, she realized she recognized his voice. It was the angry man from the bridge.

  For a moment, she’d hoped someone had come to save her, but he wouldn’t be here for that reason—he hated her.

  The man with the feathers traded blows with the angry man, but the feathered-man was backing up quickly, obviously overmatched. The angry man knocked the sword from of his hand, and the feathered-man turned and disappeared out the door.

  There was no one left in the room with her, except the angry man. Shalyrie could feel her breathing, short and shallow in panic.

  This was bad. She’d known she needed to stay away from him. Maybe he would go away. But instead he came nearer, the sword still in his hand. She stared at the blade, waiting. He came nearer, and she shrunk as far into the corner as she could.

  He stared at her.

  She was waiting for him to raise the sword. When he moved his arm, she sucked in a terrified breath.

  But he didn’t attack her. He put the sword back in its sheath at his belt. “Come,” he said and, thanks to Kellji’s lessons, she understood him. He wanted her to go with him? It was too dangerous. She stayed where she was, still frozen in fear. He said something else that she didn’t understand. He sounded annoyed. “Come,” he repeated.

  She still shrank away from him. There was no way around it. He was going to hurt her. He came nearer. She closed her eyes, trying to brace herself against what was coming, and waited for the blow to fall. Nothing happened. Finally, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. He towered over her, but he hadn’t taken out his knives or his sword. His dark eyes looked frustrated, but instead of attacking her, he just stared down at her in the light of the lantern as she shivered.

  “Cold?” he asked quietly.

  Slowly, she nodded.

  Moving carefully, as if he wanted to appear unthreatening, he set down the lantern and took off his own cloak. He knelt and wrapped it around her. She stared at him. The last thing she had expected from him was kindness or help.

  “Come,” he said again, more gently. Then, very slowly and distinctly, he said, “Help Kalleck.”

  What had happened to Kalleck? She didn’t know the words in Yalkur to ask. The only way she would find out was to go with the angry man.

  He repeated himself, “Come.”

  Slowly, stiffly, she got to her feet and took a step forward. He picked up the lantern again. Would he blindfold her? Probably. He stopped at the door and pulled the hood of the cloak up over her eyes. She could still see her bare feet, at least, but that was about it. It was too dark to see much, anyway.

  He took her arm to lead her, and she followed his big black boots, walking in a small pool of light from the lantern. The night was silent and cold around them. The only sounds were his heavy footsteps and the near-silent patter of her bare feet on the stones. She could smell the fresh scent of the pine trees.

  She heard him open a door. They turned corners and climbed stairs, and then entered another room. Once inside, he pulled back her hood. There were several people surrounding a bed. The angry man led her over to it. A man lay there, his face still covered by a mask. Was it Kalleck? He wasn’t wearing his armband.

  “Kalleck,” the angry man said.

  So this was Kalleck! He lay still, as if he was sleeping, except his eyes were open. She’d never seen him like this. She had only seen him strong and capable. She didn’t have to know him well to know that he wouldn’t have wanted her to see him like this. What could have happened? Was he injured? Was he sick? She was sure if he’d been able, he would have sent away all the people hovering around him. One of them she recognized as the old man, the healer who had helped her.

  The angry man spoke, giving some kind of instruction to the healer. The old man beckoned her forward and pulled back the covers to show her Kalleck’s leg. He pulled back a bandage to reveal a small puncture wound. It had turned black, and the whole leg was swollen. Dark lines were spreading out from the wound.

  Poison.

  It looked just like… It took her a moment to remember. She’d seen a something like this years ago, when she was still a child. A man had been brought to the physicians with a similar wound. Had it looked just the same? No. It had been two punctures together, not just one.

  Sea snake.

  She remembered now. In a rush, the memory came back to her. The man had been bitten by an Almorian sea snake. They had done everything they could, applying the antidote quickly, but it had been too late. How could this have happened? She hadn’t seen a sea snake since…

  Galenor. He had kept several of them in a glass tank. We’ve learned much from our studies here…

  Could he have learned to make the snake venom into a weapon? It seemed ridiculous, but was it possible?

  There was a cure. The plant used to make the antidote was fireweed. It grew commonly in the ocean, and she’d seen it a thousand times while she was swimming. The sea snakes were rare, but the cure was found everywhere. If only she could get some fireweed! The problem was that it was often too late by the time the cure could be administered. But somehow, Kalleck was still alive. If he’d hung on this long, maybe there would be time to get the cure to him.

  “I think I know what it is!” she said. She turned to the angry man beside her. He stared at her blankly, not understanding. Shalyrie looked around the room. Black masks looked back at her. “Please! Isn’t there anyone who understands me?” She didn’t know of anyone besides Kalleck himself. She knelt beside the bed. “Kalleck! Kalleck, you have to help me. I need them to understand that the cure grows in the ocean. We have to get there!”

  He turned slightly to face her, but his eyes were unfocused.

  “Shalyrie,” he whispered.

  “Kalleck, please listen. We want to help you! You have to tell them that the cure is in the ocean.”

  “It will be all right now, Shalyrie,” he said.

  She turned to the angry man. “Ride. Big water.” She didn’t know the word for ocean or medicine. “For Kalleck.”

  He stared back at her not understanding.

  Kalleck said something in his own language.

  “Please! Tell them we have to get to the ocean. There’s no one else who can understand me. Your only chance is if you tell them. You’ll die otherwise. Please tell them!”

  Kalleck spoke again, and finally Shalyrie saw the angry man’s eyes light with understanding. “Ride, big water, help Kalleck,” he repeated.

  “Yes!”

  He understood. Maybe there was a chance.

  “You ride?”

  Suddenly, she realized what this meant. He was asking her to go with him. He was the one who would ride to the ocean. Not someone else who was kinder or who didn’t hate her so much. It would be him. Was he just trying to get her away from the others so he could kill her? She took a deep breath. That didn’t make sense. He could have killed her a little while ago. They had been alone. No one would have stopped him.

  He wanted her alive so they could help Kalleck. She would have to go with the angry man if there was to be any hope of this. Kalleck had saved her life. Now she would save him, if she could.

  She took a deep breath, gathering her determination. “Ride,” she agreed.

  The angry man conversed with one of the other horsemen, one who had a band of silver on
his armor just like the angry man did.

  Kalleck wore gold on his armor, and these two wore silver. Did it mean that Kalleck was in charge and these two were his helpers?

  They had made a decision.

  “Come,” the angry man said.

  In spite of the knot in her stomach, she went with him. He pulled the hood over her eyes again, took her arm, and led her down the stairs and out into the cold night air. He was walking so fast. It was difficult to keep up, and the rough ground hurt her feet. She was breathing hard now, and it made her dry mouth worse. Her head ached.

  “Please. Water?” She hoped that she had said it right. Would he help her?

  He stopped and asked her something she didn’t understand. All she could do was stare up at him blindly. After a moment, he put a cup in her hands. She would have preferred to see what he was offering her, but she drank deeply anyway. He filled the cup twice more for her, then he took it and said, “Come.”

  The water felt so good. Now, if only she could have something to eat. Her empty stomach complained. She’d never gone so long without eating in her entire life.

  They stopped again and she heard the angry man banging on a door. A gruff voice answered from inside. The angry man spoke, and Shalyrie thought it sounded like he was threatening someone. She stiffened, afraid. The two voices argued back and forth for another moment, and then she heard the door slam.

  The angry man lifted the hood of her cloak, and she looked into his dark eyes and black-masked face. What was he going to do? Impatiently, he handed her something and she looked down to see that he was offering her a pair of boots.

  He gestured that she should put them on, and she obeyed quickly. The boots fit well enough, and she was even more grateful. “Thank you,” she said, surprised. When she was finished putting them on, he covered her eyes again. He walked even faster after that, but she kept up better. Her feet no longer hurt with every step.

  They went down through the city she had never seen. There were many stairs and, unable to see, she stumbled down them, clinging to his arm to keep from falling. Blindly, she guessed that maybe they were going the same way that Kalleck had taken her when they had ridden out to find Galenor. It seemed to take about the same length of time. Dawn had not yet come, and the city was silent around them. They came to a place where she could hear and smell horses. They sounded close to her, and she couldn’t tell where they were exactly or what they were doing.

  She clung to the angry man’s arm. He called something in Yalkur to another person, and she heard a horse coming right up to them. A moment later, she was lifted into the air. She gasped, but managed not to shriek. He was not nearly as gentle as Kalleck had been, and he had seized her without warning. She felt very high up, and it was unnerving not to be able to see.

  Sitting on the back of the horse, she could feel its smooth hair against her legs. Was it going to run or jump suddenly? She tried to hold as still as she could. It would surely hurt if she fell off.

  She heard the creak of leather and felt the angry man settle into the saddle just in front of her. Terrified of falling off, she clutched at him. The horse began to move, and she held on even more tightly. Her grip made her wounded shoulder hurt. The horse seemed to be going steadily faster, and its hooves clattered over stone as it left the city. She heard the sound of its footfalls change as they struck dirt outside. There were other horses with them. She couldn’t tell how many.

  Her shoulder was throbbing again. Why, why was she back on a horse? And now she was next to the man she had wanted to avoid at all costs. What had she been thinking?

  She couldn’t see, and all she could do was hold on to the horseman. For a long time, he felt tense, every muscle taut.

  He hates me. And it’s worse when I’m close to him. He doesn’t want me to touch him. If only she could get away. But if she let go of him, she would fall off and die.

  They had ridden for a long way when the horse stopped, and the blindfold was pulled from her eyes. She saw the angry man looking at her as he turned in the saddle. The sudden view surprised her, and she stared around her in wonder. The dawn had come, and they were in the mountains. She could see the new light in deep canyons between the peaks, still pink as the sun rose. It took her breath away.

  The angry man urged the horse forward, and she held on again. It was better now that she could see what was happening and where they were going.

  The angry man handled the horse skillfully, and it seemed to know what to do. They were descending a narrow, winding trail. Their mysterious hidden city must have been on the other side, just out of sight.

  She took a deep breath of the clear mountain air. She could see so far—it was almost like being on top of the world.

  There were three other riders with them. They all had armbands that were mostly red, like Kalleck’s. She spent a while wondering if any of the patterns were familiar. The armbands were helpful for distinguishing between them. Otherwise, in their black clothes and armor, they all looked nearly identical to her.

  Very slowly, the angry man relaxed until she could no longer feel the tension under her hands as she held on to him. They rode on and the sun rose higher. Shalyrie’s empty stomach growled. She hadn’t had anything to eat since the night before the feathered man had taken her from her room. “Please,” she said to the angry man. She didn’t know the Yalkur word for “food,” but she pointed to her mouth.

  He asked her something. She caught the word “days,” but she didn’t know what else he’d said. He didn’t stop the horse, but he took something from a bag on one side of his saddle and handed it to her. It was a piece of dried meat. “Thank you,” she said in Yalkur.

  She chewed slowly as they rode on. The path took them into a long, steady descent. When she finished the meat, he handed her a piece of bread, which she devoured gratefully. They rode, never stopping, and he was silent and still in the saddle.

  She spent hours working up the courage to try to speak to him. Finally, she asked, “Name?” He turned and stared at her over his shoulder, and she was sure he wasn’t going to answer. “Name, Shalyrie,” she said, pointing to herself.

  “Sinnar,” he answered, gruffly.

  She didn’t dare try to ask him anything else.

  They kept going downhill. The land was a mixture of forest and meadows, and the leaves were a patchwork of green, red, orange and yellow.

  Shalyrie didn’t know her way around well, but she thought that Sinnar wasn’t going toward Newport. He would know to avoid Galenor and his men, wouldn’t he? There was no way to ask him where he was going, but she thought he was turning southwest, away from the bridge and the road to the city.

  The day lengthened. She was so tired, she just wanted to lie still and let the pain ease. When the sun went down, it turned cold quickly. Shalyrie still wore the nightdress she had been wearing when they took her from her room. She began to shiver.

  Just as it became completely dark, they arrived… somewhere. There were other men there, and horses. Some kind of outpost. Sinnar and his fellow riders dismounted and spoke to the men. Shalyrie wanted to get down too, but she was so exhausted and her shoulder hurt so much that she wasn’t sure if she could by herself. She sat there, shivering.

  Finally, Sinnar came back. He looked at her, then helped her get off the horse. She was so tired, cold and miserable that she could barely walk even when leaning heavily on him. They went to one side, out of the way of the horses. She sat down on the ground. It wasn’t comfortable, but she was so tired and so grateful to be still that she laid her head on her good arm and slept.

  She woke with a start a short time later when someone touched her arm. Was it Sinnar? It was hard to tell in the dark.

  “Ride,” Sinnar said.

  Shalyrie realized it was time to leave again. They had to save Kalleck. They didn’t know how much time he had left. “Ride,” she agreed.


  He offered his hand and pulled her to her feet. It was still night, but the moon had come up and was shining brightly, spreading its pale light over the hills. He offered her a jacket and gestured that she should put it on. She pulled it over her head and eased her left arm carefully into the sleeve. It was much too big, but it was very warm. Then he gave her a pair of riding pants—also too large, but she pulled them on under her nightdress—and a thick warm cloak.

  “Warm,” she said gratefully in Yalkur. Then she added, “Thank you, Sinnar.” It was so much better. He nodded and pointed to a horse. It didn’t look like the same horse they’d arrived on, but he gestured that she should get on. She pulled herself up as far as she could with her good arm. He boosted her the rest of the way onto the horse’s back and mounted behind her.

  It was wonderful to finally be warm again. But she was still so exhausted that, in spite of the jarring pain in her shoulder, she couldn’t stay conscious.

  When she opened her eyes, she saw the gray light of dawn. She was still astride the horse, slumped against Sinnar. Had they been riding all night?

  She saw rocks all around, and between them she could see the sand and the ocean. They stopped the horses and dismounted.

  The horsemen checked their weapons, and Sinnar took two or three extra knives out of a saddlebag and put them in his belt. Were they expecting a fight? Shalyrie didn’t see anyone else around. She left the cloak on the saddle and took off her boots and the trousers and jacket. Sinnar put them into one of the bags.

  She took a deep breath, looking out at the water. She had never felt less ready to swim.

  I love to swim. It’s a warm morning. I can do this. It would be just a morning swim, like every morning back home on Almoria.

  But she’d never been hurt like this before. Her shoulder throbbed and ached. Was it possible to swim with one arm? It was time to find out.

  Sinnar was watching her. She pointed to the water and made a gesture like diving down, and then she acted out cutting a plant. She pointed at one of his knives, hoping he understood.