by Blink, Bob
Fortunately each of the four had spent considerable time in the wilderness and were familiar with the kind of country they would have to travel through. None of them would be unprepared for the difficulty of the effort.
“What about the horses?” Kaler asked.
Ash’urn shook his head. “I really doubt they will be able to go all the way. We’ll take them as far as we are able, but I would count on having to turn them loose to fend for themselves at some point.”
That wasn’t good news. The horses could carry far more than they could, and once they hit the Ruins they would have an uncertain supply of food and water. Of course the horses consumed a great deal as well, so it was somewhat hard to judge what was best. The animals also represented a last resort supply of food and if they had to leave them behind, they would lose that.
Rigo looked at the others. “Let’s go then,” he said finally. He mounted his horse and headed eastward toward the mountain they hoped to cross. They rode most of the day moving slowly along the base of the mountain range they eventually must cross. Most of the hills were made of steep dark stone that offered no chance of passage. Several times they found narrow valleys that headed back into the hills, but each time they could only go so far before they came to an impassable barrier. Patiently they repeated their trek. It wasn’t until afternoon on the second day that they discovered a way into the hills, and they almost missed that.
“Wait,” objected Kaler as the group moved slowly past another of the many unpromising dips in the hills.
The others reined in their animals and turned to look where Kaler was pointing.
“Up there. You can see how there is a gap in the trees and the land seems to wind up from the floor.”
“Perhaps, but how do we get past this first level?” Rigo asked.
“Back there I think,” Kaler said. “There is a slight incline that I think we can climb.”
The incline had been facing away from them and everyone but Kaler had missed it. Daria rode into the brush where Kaler was pointing.
“I think he’s right,” she hollered. “We’ll have to walk the horses, but I think we can make our way up from here.”
She climbed down from her mount and taking the reins proceeded to walk slowly up the bank. Fortunately the land here was packed dirt rather than the loose slippery rock that covered so much of the area and the horses were able to make their ascent without slipping. She had to move slowly and encourage the animal, but after a few minutes was almost thirty paces above them.
“It levels out up here. We can ride for a while. There is a flat that works between the trees for as far as I can see.”
Encouraged, the others followed behind her. Soon they were all up where she had called down from, and they mounted up and started up the way Kaler had pointed out. The going was slow, and more than once the horses had to be led. They had been traveling almost two hours when Ash’urn suddenly said, “Wait.”
Rigo brought his horse to a stop and looked over at the other. “What’s wrong?”
“I want to check something out,” he said. So saying, he slipped down off his mount and walked off to his left where the rocked slabs of the mountainside merged with the grassy flat they were following. Ash’urn slipped between a couple of trees and appeared to be looking into a small hole in the rock.
“Rigo, can you come here a moment?” he asked.
The others had dismounted by this time, and handing his reins to Daria, Rigo grasped his staff and walked over to where Ash’urn waited.
“I need some light,” he said, and pointed toward the staff.
Rigo saw that Ash’urn was looking at a very small cave, and wanted to see inside. Still wondering what the other was about, Rigo accommodated him by creating a bright ball of light and thrust the end of the staff into the hole so Ash’urn could see.
“Perfect,” the scholar said after only a moment. “This will do.”
Quickly Ash’urn stood and hurried over to his packhorse which he lead over by the opening. He pulled the two heavy bags of journals off the mount, rummaged round inside one and set two of the books off to one side, then pushed the rest into the small opening. He added a few others items of little use on their current journey, then after a final look inside he backed out slowly. As he backed out, he softly muttered something. Rigo who was standing close to hold the light heard Ash’urn mumbling, but wasn’t able to fully make out or understand what the other was saying. It didn’t sound at all intelligible and he assumed the older man was simply muttering to himself. He’d caught him doing it before.
“Did you say something?” Rigo asked.
“Just a wish that nothing happens to my books,” Ash’urn replied, but there was something in his eye that suggested it was more than that.
“Now what?” Kaler asked after Ash’urn was standing upright several paces back from the opening.
“If a couple of you could help me roll that rock in front of the opening,” he said. “That should secure it well enough.”
“What exactly are you doing?” Rigo asked after he had used his magic to push the indicated rock into place.
“I’m leaving my journals behind. It is obvious enough that we are going to have to leave the horses and I won’t be able to carry them myself. There’s almost two years of notes there. They will be safe here and I can come back and retrieve them at a later date.”
“You’ll never find them again,” Kaler said looking around.
“I’m rather good at remembering, and I’ll make a map in one of the two books I’ve retained. I’ve done this before you know. Just because you become lost in the woods so easily doesn’t mean the rest of us do.”
“Have you ever retrieved any books you’ve stored this way?” Daria asked doubtfully.
“Well, no. I’ve been too busy. But I know where they are and I’m sure they are just fine.”
“You’re not concerned about bugs and worms and small animals destroying them?” she asked. “What about rain or snow?”
“Well, the cave is dry enough and it doesn’t appear that water gets inside. As for the smaller beasties, I have the bags packed with small chunks of a substance that they find unpleasant. I learned about it from some people in northern Lopal and it has proven its worth before. I think all will be fine.”
“That would be handy to know more about,” Daria said. “Do you have any more of that stuff?”
“I’m sorry. It’s all in the packs with the books. I’ll keep my eye out and when I find some more I’ll show you what it looks like,” Ash’urn said.
“If you’re ready to go?” Rigo asked.
Ash’urn nodded, then took a long careful look around as if he was committing the area to memory, then led his packhorse over to his other mount. “We should get started,” Ash’urn said as if he hadn’t been the one holding them up. “We will want to be finding a camp before much longer.”
Luck was with them and within another glass, they found a valley nestled in the hills with a large shallow lake that was a pleasant place to stop. They stopped earlier than was necessary as they still had two more glasses of light, but this place was so appealing they all wanted to stay. Each took a turn at bathing in the cool water, and some clothes were washed and left out to dry. Rigo brought down four plump rabbits, and they cooked them on a spit seasoned by leaves that Ash’urn gathered from surrounding bushes.
“Risos be cursed!” Rigo swore the next morning as he rubbed at the swelling on his arms and legs. He wasn’t the only one with the sores. Kaler and Daria both had some of the reddened and blistered swellings as well. Ash’urn seemed unaffected.
“Idiots!” he said when he saw what had happened. “Don’t you know enough to stay away from the poisonberry bushes?”
“What are you talking about?” Rigo asked.
“Those,” Ash’urn said, pointing at a large bush several paces away down by the water. There were many of the bushes close to the lake.
“What’s special about them
. They are just common darkberry bushes. They grow everywhere where I came from,” Kaler said. “It’s too bad you can’t eat the berries.”
The scholar sighed. “These are the southern cousin to the common darkberry you speak of. These are quite poisonous and the bushes will give you a nasty rash as you’ve discovered. I thought you knew about them, but I guess none of you has done much traveling in the southern regions. They only grow in this part of the lands. Wait here.”
Ash’urn headed off into the brush and when he came back after being gone for some time he carried a branch of a tree that was covered with numerous thick waxy looking leaves. He set the branch down in front of the three unhappy travelers and pulled one of the leaves off the branch. He broke the leaf in half and handed it to Daria.
“Rub the juices on the swellings,” he said. “Rigo, you and Kaler do the same. Then strip the leaves off the branch. You’ll want to use them anytime it starts to itch again.”
A bit later they were feeling better and had stripped the leaves, splitting what they had gathered between the three of them.
“Is there anything else we need to be careful of that we might not have encountered before?” Kaler asked.
“Well, don’t play with the yellow vipers if you see any,” Ash’urn said. “And once we get into the Ruins I suspect it would be best to be suspicious of almost everything there.”
They got a late start and spent the day winding through the pass between the mountains. They had lost all sight of their starting point, and the mountains soon became so similar it was hard to tell one from another. They used the sun to guide them and could tell despite the twists and turns they were generally headed in the direction they wished to travel. Rigo could tell without looking. Since starting toward the mysterious destination in the back of his mind, the sense of where he needed to go was stronger than ever. He could tell how far they were deviating by simply looking straight ahead and then imagining where his destination was relative to his heading. When they had started, the target was just slightly left of straight ahead. At the moment it felt to be almost a sixth of the way around a circle to his left. Indicating they were headed a little south of where he ultimately hoped to go.
They camped by a large stream the second night, and by morning the welts were mostly gone thanks to Ash’urn and the medicinal properties of the leaves he had provided. A couple of hours after starting out they came to a spot where they would have to leave the horses. The only way forward was more a climb than a walk. They backtracked a quarter glass, and left the animals in a large meadow filled with water and grass. It was uncertain if the animals would be able to find their way back to the valley far behind them, but it was the best they could do. The saddles they stacked behind some large rocks, not that it was likely to matter. Hopefully they wouldn’t be forced to return this way.
For the first day as they headed into the mountains, Rigo had an uncomfortable fear that Burke and his friends would suddenly appear. While he couldn’t explain why, he was certain that whatever had happened to Burke in the sphere, it hadn’t been harmful. Rigo was certain the wizard had been simply sent to wherever he’d planned to take Rigo. When no one appeared and time continued to pass, Rigo felt an uncomfortable pressure ease as he became convinced they had escaped the wizards, at least for now.
On the third day of their travel, they encountered indications that others had passed this way. They had crossed into another of the many small valleys and found a trail coming from between the range of mountains just to their north. The trail merged with the path they were taking, and within a couple of glasses of walking they located the remains of a fire pit next to a small stream. The ashes in the pit were cold and old, but others had clearly come this way. The news was encouraging and unnerving at the same time. They would have to be alert to the possibility of others, but the fact that others had been here suggested they might be on the right course.
Two days later they saw someone else. Three men leading heavily burdened animals passed them coming the other direction. They had heard them talking well before they were able to see them and had hidden off to one side in the trees until they passed. The presence of the other travelers indicated they could expect to find civilization ahead.
“There must be a way to get the horses through,” Kaler said after the men had passed.
“The other trail we encountered must have an easier path out of the mountains,” Daria observed. “It doesn’t matter. There would probably have been too many people that way. It’s done in any case.”
Another two days and they could see the end of the trail in the distance.
“I think we’re through,” Ash’urn said happily as they gazed at the wide valley in the distance. They still had a number of mountains to work their way across, but each peak was lower than the previous one and they could see across them all to where they wanted to go.
Chapter 39
The flatlands they sought had appeared deceptively close. Before they had worked their way out of the mountains another twelve days had passed. While the eastern flank of the mountains was less rocky with far fewer of the treacherous rock falls and landslides, it was no less steep overall. The land was covered with rich timberlands and lush meadows. Sadly, each range of mountains required climbing down into deep valleys where the decision had to be made to seek north or south for a way around the ranges and which appeared to be a questionable task that could take weeks, or to climb up and over the next range. By the time they reached the top of the following range they were weary from the climbing, and they searched to see if a better way through the next set of mountains could be spied from their lofty perspective.
It was clear why no villages had formed in these mountains. While the hunting was plentiful, there were few areas where one could have raised more than enough crops to support a single family or two. Rigo expected to see more in the way of farms and ranches once they got a little closer to the open flatlands ahead. They did encounter one sign of activity. They nearly stumbled into a large mining operation that supported several hundred workers along the valley on the third range of mountains. A well used road disappeared into the thick woods heading north. It was tempting to consider following the road, but given the number of wagons that were present, it was likely they would be unable to make their way unobserved, which was now a high priority. They were well into the interior of Lopal, and foreigners such as themselves would not be expected or easily explained away here.
The horses they had left behind would have been useful here. The slopes were softly padded in rich soil and grasses, and were not nearly so steep as before so the animals could have done much of the work had they still had them. As it was they hoofed it themselves, the weight of their packs a constant drag as they clawed their way uphill and only a little less burdensome on the downhill stretches. Surprisingly Ash’urn was less affected than his younger counterparts. With his makeshift walking stick, he showed what a life in the wilds had done for his stamina. The others had thought themselves in shape, but found that they had grown somewhat soft after days in the saddle.
On the eighth day of walking since reaching the highest peak, now well behind them and visible when they chose to look back from where they had come, they halted for a day and a half. Rigo had brought down a large deer, which they cooked for dinner, then set about curing the meat for transport. Ash’urn had a supply of pepper and salt which they applied to the thin strips they had hung from the branches of the plentiful trees that surrounded the small lake where they had made camp. They had chosen an area surrounded by rock, and Rigo had used his fire magic to heat the stone until it was like an oven where the strips had been hung. It probably wasn’t good for the trees, but it accelerated the drying of the meat. They wouldn’t be able to dry the meat as thoroughly as they might have wished, but it would last for as long as required before they consumed it in the coming days. They were uncertain what hunting options would be open to them once they reached the open lands ahead.
The long walks and the evenings around the campfires had given them a chance to learn more about one another. Each had told their story to Ash’urn, who had in turn shared the story of his adventures. He was surprisingly well traveled, and over the years had visited almost every corner of the three kingdoms that made up the continent. He’d even been into the area that Rigo had been hoping to go, and had seen nothing of anyone with magical powers. Ash’urn was somewhat doubtful that was where Burke and whatever compatriots he had really were located there. He voiced the opinion he almost wished they were going there so he could check again, and was tempted to make a trip in the future to see what he might have missed.
Over the decades his travels and attempts to chase down stories and rumors had put him in contact with many different groups. He revealed he had even traveled with the Wanderers, Daria’s people, for several years, but that had been long before KalaBhoot had become known. He’d had a wife for many years, but she had been taken by illness over ten years earlier. Something even the Wanderers hadn’t been able to cure. He had stayed with them for companionship while the pain of his loss had slowly softened.
He had learned small tidbits from different groups, even when language was a barrier. A few of the more isolated groups had their own language with only a few of the members able to converse in the standard language now spoken almost universally. The tales told by some of those more isolated villages along the eastern borders near the Ruins had been the most unbelievable, but also had never been supported by any personal observations of his own. Still, he had picked up a few useful bits of knowledge, and had often thought that the Ruins might be where he’d find his answers. What little time he’d spent on the very edges of the desolate wasteland had discouraged deeper adventures, although given his age he’d about decided he had little to lose and had been considering such an adventure when they’d found him.