by Jared Ravens
“Ahhh,” said the man in orange, taking off the helmet that obscured his face. “I cannot apologize too much for keeping you waiting.”
He had some difficulty getting off his animal, a thing called an Isbit, that he said had come from the edge of the world. It happened to be quite hardy in the conditions of the desert. His armor was a not metal but organic with a beautiful flow to it. Whatever creature it had come from had to have been enormous. He took off pieces of it, dropping each to the ground.
“I wasn’t sure what I was walking into here,” he said, a yellow-toothed smile on his face. “But you seem harmless.”
His guards eyes did not seem to agree with this but he instructed them to dismount and they did as they were told. He introduced himself as Eryck, pouring out charm as he took each lady’s hand. Though none of them were in any mood for this, he melted them with his charm and he managed to have all sides relaxed by the time they sat down in the tent.
Martel explained to him that they needed to locate Fairfax so they could convince him to come in peacefully. It was Genesee’s direct orders. There was to be no more fighting on their end until this process had run its course.
“No more soldiers, eh?” Eryck said, picking his teeth. “That’s not been what I’ve seen. Whose that out there, then?”
“I heard them,” Martel said. “They aren’t with us.”
“Then who with?”
“I don’t know. What did you make of them?”
“Oh, maybe a thousand, looks nicely armed, but only from a distance. They’re your people all right. It’s what delayed me so long. That and the friends we have visiting.”
“What friends?” Asked Martel.
“Bern Douglas, he’s going to write something for us. Give us some words to put out there to your Sigma people. He brought along one of your women from The Hill, seems like. So, see, we just see that you’re watching us from all the angles.”
“I see,” Martel said, confused. “I don’t know anything about troops and I don’t know anything about Bern or his companions. It does make our mission to negotiate more imperative, though, if others are trying to find Fairfax as well.”
“Par for the course, miss,” Eryck said shaking his head. “He’s not coming, not with all this. I mean, I believe you, I do, but I don’t think he trusts you.”
“You said there was a spy from The Hill that was with this Bern fellow?” McKenna asked. “Who was it?”
“Don’t know, we are keeping her from the camp. Just heard about it from Bern.”
“Was she a handmaiden?” McKenna asked.
“Said so, Bern did. I think that’s what she is.”
McKenna and Martel looked at each other.
“Eryck,” Martel said, slowly. “I would not let that girl into the camp.”
“Oh, I won’t,” Eryck replied. “No, she’s not there. I won’t let her in.”
“She’ll tell Celia,” McKenna said. “Immediately. She’ll know immediately.”
“That she will. But we have guards watching for her, and if need be we have a back way out.”
His relaxed demeanor disturbed the two girls. He didn’t tell them that he had instructed his people to begin packing up as he left. He knew they would have to leave sooner than later. It was only a matter of time before the girl found the camp.
Martel stood up slowly, walking to the open flap of the tent, looking east.
“She’s not getting in,” Eryck said, leaning back to see where Martel was going. “And neither is your army. They can’t travel trails like us. They will get trapped and cut off. We would be out the back way before that army gets in.”
“How far is it to your town?” Martel asked.
“I’m supposed to tell you that!” He laughed.
“I don’t need you to tell me,” Martel said angrily. She picked up several bags and ordered the guards to begin packing. Eryck watched her, confused, until he, too, spotted what she had seen. Deep in the mountains a thin black line of smoke rose up. Martel came to his side, speaking in his ear.
“That isn’t just any girl from The Hill.”
The Cave
Shayne tried her best to delay Ally, telling her they should stay put until Bern returned. But Ally insisted that they press ahead and try to find the path to Fairfax themselves. Shayne deliberately trailed behind, attempting to slow her down. Ally pressed on. Ally would disappear for long periods of time, then Shayne would round a corner to see her sitting perfectly still, eyes closed in deep concentration. She assumed that his was the girl communicating with Celia and it frightened her a little. She kept her distance and wait for her to open her eyes.
After a time Ally would hop up, declare they should continue moving, then walk confidently forward. As time went on she became more annoyed by her companion’s slow pace. When Shayne declared they should set up camp for the night Ally glared at her with astonishment.
"Look at the sky," she said. "There's daylight for hours."
"Yes, but we are in a canyon and it will get darker soon, and I don’t want you or I to get hurt. What would Celia think if you were injured!"
As if to punctuate this Shayne rolled her ankle within ten minutes of this request, falling on the ground and crying out. Ally looked at the ankle which appeared red but not particularly swollen.
Ally looked ahead anxiously. She didn’t need this woman any more. Shayne pleaded with her not to leave her.
“I’ll be back before dark,” the girl told her. Both of them assumed this was a lie.
The girl up the trail, winding her way between two mountains. She could hear voices in her head though she could see nothing. She was reaching for a single, faded tone, one that was easily lost. She would lose the signal one moment and gain it the next. She became frustrated and sat down on a rock, folding her legs and closing her eyes. She listened for a voice, a noise in the darkness, concentrating on the vibration that she knew contained the girl. She was getting closer and closer, feeling it move towards her. Then a voice spoke to her.
"Sleepy hun?"
The smell of stale breath overcame her. She opened her eyes. A man with blistered skin and straw hair was laughing at her. She cared at him and his laughing halted. He nodded politely and turned away from her, heading up a trail. Her eyes followed him and then continued up to a cliff where a pair of eyes peered at her from over a ledge.
Her stomach became tight. She hopped off the rock and walked back down the trail, out his sight.
It was dark by then. She waited patiently. She tried different forms but none of them worked. She was not experienced making herself look like the other gender. She settled on a form with a thick chin and forehead but her face still seemed too feminine to her. She found a small puddle of water and used it as a mirror. She cut her hair with a knife and mixed the water with dirt to form a clay. She used this glue and patch together a dirty looking beard.
Near dawn the guard finally changed. She walked by the new lookout and when his eyes fell upon she felt his suspicious relax. The knot in her stomach did not reappear.
She continued up the trail and around a tight curve. It ran due west until curving into a canyon and moving upwards for some ways. The walls became higher and the shadows darker and the people more frequent. She was able to pick out the plain clothed guards keeping watch, their eyes following each body walking up the path. She was as tall and motley looking as any man and they looked away quickly, their suspicion falling elsewhere.
The hollow noise of the canyon walls reverberated with activity. A city appeared, its multicolored building levels leaning against the rock walls. Carts were being loaded and people were hauling items out of their homes. She pushed past people, searching any crevice for to see if it was a cave. At the other end of the town she saw an entrance. Several haggard men and women stood guard. She walked back to the city center.
She found a cart and pulled it away before any owner could claim it. She threw several sacks and wood boxes into it and head back to
the cave.
“What’s this?” the woman asked.
“Need to pack up,” she replied in a gruff voice. “Bern says they got to leave.”
“Is that so?” The woman asked suspiciously.
“They saw her on the road, we got to get going.” The woman did not budge. “Come with me, then, I need to pack up this shit.”
The two of them walked to the back of the cave slowly, leaving the other guards at the entrance. There was body at the back of the cave, glowing in the firelight, the large shoulder growing larger with each step. He was alone, covered in blank made of animal hide, and he was writing very slowly and deliberately on a piece of paper. As she got closer she she saw just how slow. It seemed he was writing, at most, a word or two before stopping. Was he being cautious in his writing or was he just dull? She tried to pry into his mind. He looked up immediately and she stopped.
“Sir,” said the woman. “This man says that Bern wants you to pack up.”
Fairfax landed back from the fire. “I thought we had a little time.”
“Better late than never,” Ally said. “Got to get out.”
Fairfax and the woman looked at each other. Ally looked to the woman.
“You too,” she said. “Its time. I’ll pick his shit up.”
Fairfax nodded at the woman and stood up as if snapping out of a daze. The woman walked back to the front and Ally bid Fairfax to stay still.
“I’ll get it, you don’t have to move.”
She walked towards him but he still moved to hand her a stock of worn, rough blankets. When she took the blankets their fingers touched briefly. She paused, holding the blankets in her hands, and stared at him. He sat back down looking a little dazed as he tried to assess what he needed to take. When he looked back over at her their eyes met.
“Its sudden,” he said.
“Yes,” she said, moving the blankets to the empty sack in her hand. “But these things will keep happening. Just keep moving here and there. Those damned… Here, don’t move.”
She walked in back of him to get the stack large stack of papers on his his other side. She shoveled them into the bag carelessly, eyeing his neck and back instead of the watching what she was was doing.
“I supposed,” Fairfax sighed.
“But there’s a always a way to stop these things. You read the stories?”
“What stories?” Fairfax asked distractedly.
“The ones in school.”
Fairfax glanced at the bearded person.
“You went to school.”
“I got an old book,” Ally said, walking towards the wall to conceal her face. “All the old stories about them people on The Hill and such.”
“I guess,” he replied, fumbling through a pile of clothing. “I had to read them at some point.”
“Well, it just seems like there’s another thing we could do here.”
“Oh, really…” Fairfax said distractedly.
“Yeah, well,” she said, dropping down on a log, “those stories they’re dramatic and all but at the end of them, they all work out for those that just work together.”
Fairfax looked back at the man.
“Work out for who?” He scoffed.
“For those that work with that woman, that Celia.”
“I don’t remember that story.”
“Just think, Staley, that was rough but he got his own place, does his own business and everything just works out. And with Curson and Spaulding and all, it wasn’t great at first but I don’t see why they should complain.”
“I can see their sides of the story, too.”
“Really?” She said, forcing a smile. “I don’t know. I mean, if we all just listened to one voice. Don’t you think that that’s better than many voices?”
“Depends what voice that is.”
“The strongest one.”
She noticed something from the shadows, a humming that grew louder with the approach of a small figure. The girl, dark skinned with her eyes closed, walked across from some adjoining room with a rag of a shirt in her hands. Sophi stopped when she was nearly to Fairfax, stopping her tune and letting her sewing project fall to the ground. Fairfax watched her as she stood silent, looking around the room with blank eyes.
“I’m not dealing with Celia,” Fairfax said. “And she won’t deal with me.”
“You might be surprised,” Ally said, standing up and turning away to hide her face again. “Everyone really wants the same thing, don’t they?”
“Dictatorship?” Fairfax scoffed.
“No,” Ally said, turning to glare at him. “Peace.”
Fairfax looked at the bearded one, dissecting him.
"You want peace," she said. "From her."
“I don’t think that’s possible."
“She might be here to offer it to you. The only things you know are what other people are telling you. It might be worth it… think about what you can offer each other.”
Sophi began babbling and rushed to Fairfax, clutching his side and attempted pushing him away. He hardly noticed her in his agitation.
“I’m not offering her anything,” Fairfax said loudly.
“I think she’d offer you a lot.”
“What, imprisonment?”
“No,” Ally said. “A way out of this cave.”
Fairfax took a step back. Before he could say anything a voice called from the entrance.
“Fairfax!”
A guard was yelling at them. They turned to see a woman doing the same, trying to get their attention. The guards were pushing her way.
"Fairfax I have a message for you!" yelled the woman. Fairfax looked at Ally and then to the woman again. Sophi suddenly grabbed him again and pulled him up and away from the fire. Ally watched as the woman from the entrance pulled against the vice grip of a guard. It was Shayne, her ankle miraciously healed.
"What is this?" Fairfax asked, pushing Sophi off of him.
“She forced her way into the city, yelling hysterically,” the guard called out.
“I’m Bern’s wife," name yelled, guard holding her arm. “You’re in danger!”
Fairfax motioned for them guard to let her go. They followed as she ran towards him.
“She’s here somewhere,” Shayne panted.
“That’s why we are leaving,” Fairfax said, nodding towards the bearded one.
“She’s here now, somewhere. I followed her but got held up by guards. You have to go now.”
“Ridiculous,” Ally said.
“Fairfax!” Sophi said in a panicked voice, pushing against him. Fairfax looked down at her. “Go, now!”
“Wait!” Ally yelled, her voice higher than she intended. “If she’s here, then she might be here to talk.”
“No chance of that,” Fairfax said.
“None at all?” Ally said, gritting her teeth. “Not even the consideration?”
“I’m not ending up her slave.”
Ally held up the sack of blankets and papers.
“Then take this and get going,” she seethed.
He gripped the top of the sack. She thrust her other hand out of her cloak, thrusting the knife directly towards his chest. The guard saw the hand and pushed Shayne to tackled Ally. But before the guard could put himself in front of the knife, Shayne had met it with her own chest. Suddenly the clear path to Fairfax’s heart now contained a mortally wounded woman. Shayne fell to the ground, breath leaving her chest in an awful sucking noise. The blind girl screamed and Fairfax drew in a breath of shock. All eyes turned to Ally, whose pale expression had somehow gone even whiter.
She had done this. She, not he, but she had done it. But she had done it because of him. He had caused it. He had caused a woman, a lovely woman, to fall lifelessly to the ground. A man had pushed her. A burden of hate built up in Celia. She pulled at her beard to reveal a red, bitter face. The floor rumbled as the Fairfax, Sophi, and the guard ran for the entrance. Celia's clothes tore off of her as her body grew, her shoulders and h
ead pressing against the ceiling and moving the mountain above her.
She hoped to cause a cave in, killing everyone before they reached the entryway. She pushed against the rock with everything she had to make it move. The figures moved closer to the light of the entrance. She focused on her thighs, forcing them to grow. They burned and her shoulders roared against crumbling rock. The mountain above her moved. The light creaked shut into blackness as a terrible noise thundered across the cave.
The White Room
The thin band of light collapsed, then expanded just as quickly. Fairfax was moving still, but he was walking, casually, across a great, white room without end. It felt aware of something happening outside this place but was unconcerned. The noise has stopped when the roof of the cave had fallen in and his ears now had a muffled quality to them that seemed to match his brain. All emotion seemed distant and faint.
He walked towards the two men, recognizing them from before. The room became a soothing, focused grey around them, matching the sleek, identical suits each of them wore as if they were on their way to a business meeting. The shorter one had fleshy cheeks and a wider body, his attractive youthful face eyeing Fairfax with a delicate smile. The taller, thinner man was older with a lined face neatly cut, black hair and a pleasant, relaxed smile.
"Keep going," said the shorter one firmly.
"Keep going?" The taller one asked him. Fairfax looked in back of him. It was only blackness. He looked down at himself. He had a messy, dusty shirt and animal skin pants on. He should have smelled abysmally but he could not smell at all.
"I would like to," he said, not really understanding the other options. The shorter one gave him an affirmative answer while the taller one was much more coy.