The Darkness at the Edge of Noon: a Thalassia novel
Page 28
She found him on the end of the dock, just staring out over the dark water. The slump of his shoulders said it all. “Logan?” She said quietly.
He looked around and smiled. “I should have known it was you.” He looked up at the dim moon shining through the thin clouds. He thought that it might be Lethe. “Sorry I walked out on the music. I was acting dumb.”
She touched his arm. “No, you weren’t, Logan. You were acting human.”
“I guess the dumb thing was falling in love with a goddess at all. As if she could ever love me back, or anything.” He chuckled bitterly. “Me being a human and all.”
“Don’t give up on it yet, Logan.”
“I know. Good things come to those who wait.” Aileen nodded silently. “So does death.” His voice grim in the half dark.
“Don’t talk like that. We’ll all get out of this all right. You’ll see.”
“You know, my granny used to tell me stories of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The problem was that we couldn’t get outside to see a rainbow because the monsters would eat us.” He glanced up and there was a fey look in his eyes. “It’s always like that, isn’t it? There’s always a catch.” He reached out and patted her cheek. “Go to bed, Aileen.” He looked out over the black water and back to her. “I won’t do anything—stupid.”
“See that you don’t!” Even in the dim moonlight he could see her glare. She spun and was gone.
Tanden stood at the heavy tiller, and bellowed commands in a voice that would have made any drill sergeant proud. “Grady! We’re tryin to back the bloody boat OUT into the water, not run er aground.” Grady’s paddle flailed for a moment before he got the hang of it. “That’s better. Now, stroke...stroke... come on the rest of you!” The small warboat slid out into the cold, choppy water. As promised, the wind was brisk, and from the south. When Tanden first felt the wind he seemed surprised. When Logan first sensed it, all he felt was relief. The hemp rope was rough in his hands as he and Padraig raised the wide sail, but soon the Darter was gathering way on her long journey upriver.
The wind blew steadily for eight hours, and Logan felt his fingers getting numb from holding the tiller and a shiver shook him. The temperature was dropping.
As if reading his mind, Tanden was at his side. “She be gittin’ a bit chilly.” His breath puffed a small white cloud in the air. “Steer er towards shore.” Logan pushed the tiller. “A bit more.” Logan pushed harder. “There!” The faint line on the horizon began to draw nearer. “If’n we’re lucky, we’ll find us a island, mebbey a league er so from shore. If not...” He just shrugged.
It was an island, and it was a league from shore. With the wind still blowing from the south they were safe enough from unwanted visitors. There was, however, no wood, no vegetation and no drinkable water; only rocks. The nine huddled in a nook between boulders, safe at least from the wind and ate a cold supper washed down with a spare mouthful of water. Later, the small band clustered together under their blankets. Mutual shivering seemed to keep them all a little warmer. Four days later it began to snow.
“How much further to the headwaters, Tanden?” Logan’s teeth were chattering.
“If’n we could sail the whole way, three days.” He glanced first at one shore and then the other. Dark and ominous forests loomed over the riverbanks. “Wind won’t be able to push us no further soon. Then we’ll have ter get out en walk.”
“How long?”
“Two day, give er take.” He reached out a weather browned hand and stroked the railing in a gentle, almost loving manner. “She be a nice little boat. I’ll hate te leave er here like this.”
“Maybe we’ll come back this way and we can take her back down river.”
Barr barked a grim laugh. “When pigs fly, sir.”
Their progress stopped abruptly two days later when they came to a series of frothing rapids. They had broken out the sweeps that morning, but even with the sweeps and sails, they couldn’t get the boat over rocks. Finally Tanden grounded the small craft and they dragged it up above high water mark by mutual agreement. Standing with their packs on their shoulders, they quietly looked down on the Darter, before turning into the deep woods.
There was a constant rumble now, and a perpetual mist in the air. Tanden told them that it was from the falls. Logan dreaded the thought of what would happen if the temperature dropped below freezing. Ice would coat everything and make their journey impossible.
Logan laughed out loud.
Her voice was teasing.
The cave was long and deep, and Logan felt that it was safe enough and they were cold enough to warrant a small fire. The squad members went about their duties quietly, each aware that the last easy stretch was now behind them.
After dinner Logan puffed on his new pipe, sending clouds of fragrant blue smoke wafting to the top of the cave. The cold rock wall was hard and uncomfortable against his back, but he really didn’t care.
“They say it’s bad for your health.” Padraig murmured quietly, as he filled his own long stemmed pipe. He picked up a twig from the fire and puffed the bowl alight.
“That’s what they say.” Logan concurred just as softly, still puffing.
Around the men the others prepared their sleeping rolls or checked their weapons. No one suggested music. Logan tapped the ashes from his pipe into the fire, and then placed it in a small inside pocket in his coat.
“I suppose I should go and relieve Max on guard.” He winced as he realized what he’d said. “Ryanne is on guard. Sorry.”
Padraig gave him a sympathetic look. “We all forget, sometimes.”
Logan just shrugged, feeling lousy about the whole thing. “I suppose.” He got to his feet. “You have guard next?”
“That would be Maeve. Have a quiet evening.”
“I certainly hope so.” Logan chuckled.
Ryanne’s head turned before he ever reached her, and he grinned inwardly. “I heard you coming, Logan.” Her voice was soft, and the faint lilt very pronounced. “You just can’t sneak, and that’s the truth of it.”
“I wasn’t trying.” He lied. “Quiet night?”
“Yeah.” She turned slightly to face him, and he could see her pale drawn face.
“How are you and Aedan getting along?”
She was quiet for several long moments. “Oh, Logan, I never knew that it could be like this. We’re such good friends that...” Her voice trailed off. “We argue sometimes, like you and Jade, but mostly we get along. Getting Aedan was the greatest gift anyone could ever give me.” Sh
e stood and straightened her thick cloak. “And you’re the best brother a girl could ever have.” Ryanne bent quickly and kissed his cheek.
“Ryanne.” He said in surprise. “I’m not your brother.”
“Aren’t you?” Her smile was mysterious, but then it faded. “Something has changed, Logan. When we first started we were just a squad. You gave orders, and we carried them out. Now we follow you because we want to, because...” Her words drifted off.
“I think that it has something to do with love, my dear.”
“You mayhap be right.” The young woman said with a speculative note in her voice. “It does in my case, anyway.” She turned and disappeared into the night.
Logan put his head into his hands.
“Logan?” He’d been daydreaming about warm summer days, and never heard the woman approach.
“Ryanne?”
“It’s Maeve.”
Logan glanced up at the position of the bright stars in relation to the glowing planetary rings. “You’re early. You’re not supposed to be here until...”
“I know what time it is. I wanted to talk.” Logan remained silent. “I’m sorry for what I said the other night. I never meant to hurt you. I...” She looked at the ground. “I just didn’t.”
“That’s all right.” He touched her arm, and laughed bitterly. “I’ve only ever loved two women in my life. One was my wife.” He paused to watch a falling star blaze its way across the heavens. “It was my misfortune to fall in love with a woman I can’t possibly have a life with.”
“Why not?” Her voice was soft, and held a curious intensity.
“She’s a goddess, and she’s not human.”
“Does being human make such a difference to you?”
“No.” Logan sighed. “Not at all. But one thing I learned in my marriage is that for a relationship to work you have to be on a more or less equal footing.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Rhiannon is a goddess, and she always will be. I’m a human. Like it or not, she will always be on a pedestal.” He chuckled. “I’ll be in the mud.”
“Love can conquer anything.” She muttered doggedly.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it, Maeve. A relationship takes hard work and dedication. Love is the cement that binds it together, holds it from flying apart in adversity. But love can’t perform miracles. It can’t bridge the gap between goddess and human.”
“So, you’re just going to give up?”
Logan chuckled. “No, Maeve. I’m stubborn. I’ll love Rhiannon and no other, until the day I die.”
“You sound so bleak.” Her voice was like velvet, and Logan felt her fingertips touch his cheek. “There is still hope.”
“I’m sorry.” He reached up and removed her hand from his face, kissing her fingertips before releasing it. “I just can’t see it. You should go now. I’m in a fey mood.”
She stood up and turned, so he couldn’t see her smile. “You will see it, Logan. I promise you.” She said to herself as she headed back to the cave.
Two days later they reached the foot of the escarpment that bordered the massive range of mountains. After days of heavy moisture-laden clouds, the threatening snow had never materialized, thank the gods, Logan thought to himself and the sky had turned a pale washed-out blue. Eagles drifted down over the thousand foot cliff, and the squad felt small and insignificant next to the grandeur of nature. Logan sat down.
“OK. It’s time for you to earn your money, scouts. Find us a way up that cliff.” He took out his pipe as the others sat. “Well, what are you waiting for?”
Bel gave him a flat look, and pointed at the escarpment standing at his back. “Your way is right there, oh great leader. If you’d opened your eyes, you would have seen it.”
Logan muttered something obscene under his breath as he looked over his shoulder. “That?” His face turned the color of chalk. “Are you suggesting that we climb up THAT?”
THAT, was a dry cut in the sheer cliff face that had once carried water. Rather than a comfortable winding path, it was a vertical chimney, lined with tumbled rocks and splintered trees a thousand feet high.
“Gaaaa!” Was all Grady could say. Megan began to laugh. Padraig shook his head in disbelief.
“All right you two.” Logan fixed the two scouts with a glare. “Since you suggested it, you get to climb first.”
“What!” Ryanne exploded. “It was her idea.” She pointed at the shorter scout.
“You wanted the adventure of scouting, Ryanne.” Logan pointed at the cliff. “There’s your adventure, just waiting for you. Don’t forget to use a rope so that the rest of us old people can hobble along after you.”
Despite the glare that she was giving him, Ryanne’s full lips were twitching at the corners. “Big brothers can be such bullies, don’t you think, Bel?”
“Brother?” The small woman asked as she picked up the coil of rope.
“It’s a long story.” Logan muttered.
“It’s a long way to the top. We have the time.” Bel raised an eyebrow to her.
“We’ll need all of our wind to make the climb.”
Logan tapped the ashes out of his pipe, stuffed it into his pocket and stood. “Scouts first, then Padraig and Grady. Aileen, Maeve and Megan next, followed by Tanden. I’ll pull up the rear.”
“It figures.” Bel muttered to her fellow scout. “He took the easiest spot.”
Ryanne turned to the other woman. “It’s his job to try and save anyone who falls. If I know Logan he would die trying to do the impossible.”
The smaller woman flushed to the roots of her hair. “I didn’t know. I... I misjudged him.” She thought for a second as Ryanne began to climb. “Big brother indeed. Now I understand.” She gripped a fractured rock and pulled herself up after the first scout. “I never had a brother before.”
“Neither did I.” Ryanne puffed. “I rather like it, myself.” Deep within the woman’s body Adedan the K’Dreex redirected oxygen to muscles to give increased stamina and strength - and listened.
Twice loose rocks bounced down the chimney, loosened by the scouts. The moaning wind carried away the dust and small particles, but the second time, a scant two hundred feet from the top, Tanden was struck by a head-sized rock and began to slide, one arm hanging limply by his side.
Logan jammed his fist in a crack for leverage, and caught the man by his pack as he tumbled by. They hung like that for a full minute, suspended by Logan’s single arm before Tanden was able to secure himself to the rough rock face.
The rest had stopped and were staring back.
“You all right, Tanden?” Logan called down.
“Yeah.” The big man gasped out. “That rock numbed me arm when it hit, but she be better now.” He flexed the offended member to show Logan.
“Can you continue?”
“Better damn hope so.” Tanden replied with a growl. “Don’t much relish the thought of spendin the night here alone.”
“You wouldn’t be alone, my friend.” Logan chuckle out his reply. “Now, I’ll move aside a little so that you can pass me, and we’ll continue.”
Just below the top, Bel nudged Ryanne. “Big brother indeed, Ryanne.”
“Told ya.”
“Any time you’re ready, ladies.” Logan called up from below. “The sun will be setting soon, and I don’t relish climbing in the dark so that you two can have a little chat.”
“Slavedriver.” Ryanne called back, but she continued on with a smile on her face.
Chapter 21
“Oh, gods!” Grady groaned, for the fourth of fifth time since they’d reached the top. He lay sprawled on his back, eyes shut. “I think I’m dying.”
Logan nudged the man with his toe as he walked by, and Grady opened bloodshot eyes. “You’ll live.” Logan chuckled. He continued along with a touch or a word, checking his people. He stopped at the scouts, and touched t
heir shoulders. “Good job, you two. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Sorry about the rocks, Logan.” Bel murmured apologetically.
“It happens, Bel. Don’t let it bother you.” He glanced up. They were sprawled on the top of the rocky escarpment, a half mile from deep woods that led up into impressive mountains. He could still hear the dim rumble of the river a few hundred yards to the east, but it wasn’t the earthshaking roar it had been below, nearer to the falls. “When you’re ready, we could probably use a place to spend the night. Try to find something sheltered, where we can start a fire. We all need a warm meal.” When they began to get right up, Logan put out a hand and held them down. “Give yourselves a breather.” He glance up at the sun. “A half hour more won’t matter much to us, but it will to your bodies.”
Ryanne reached out and took his hand. “And what about you, big brother? When will you rest?”
Logan put his hand over hers. “When it’s all over, sister.” He smiled. “And you’re the best sister I’ve ever had.” He turned to the others, and her hand slipped away.
They spent the night in another cave, sandy floored and slightly smaller than the one on their previous night. The big plus was that it was drier, and quieter. Rumbling out a low mutter in the distance, the river gave them a soft serenade, while the song of the crickets was steady and reassuring. Logan volunteered for first watch, with no intention of waking his relief. Elysium’s light lent an unreal blue tint to the landscape, and he pulled his cloak over his head to keep off the night’s dew. The chill air seemed preternaturally crisp, the tang of pines and cedars sharp in the soft breeze. He could feel his muscles quivering from the day’s exertions.