by Blake, Bruce
The single drop proved enough to tease, but not enough to satiate the thirst burning in his throat. Hoping for one more, he shook the pitcher; none came. He threw it across the barn where it thumped on the dirt floor and rolled to a stop against a barrel stuffed with rusted weapons and tools. The man sighed and licked his rough lips, seeking to return moisture to them with a tongue possessing none of its own.
He wiped a frustrated hand across his face and returned his attention to the dog. Kooj had stopped feasting and sat with head tilted and ears pricked. At first, he thought the pitcher hitting the ground had disturbed the canine’s meal, but the dog stared off into the air, not at him or at the jug.
He’s heard something.
The man jerked in the direction of the dog’s stare and listened. The barn creaked, a baby bird twittered in the rafters, his own stomach gurgled. Nothing else. Kooj rose and trotted toward the side of the barn, leaving his feast unattended.
The scent of spilled blood wafted to the man’s nose, making his belly gurgle again. He swallowed hard and leaned forward, clambering to hands and knees with a clank of the chain attached to his ankle. A quick glance showed him Kooj standing near the barn’s side wall paying him no attention.
Despite the protests in his head, the man’s aching gut drove him scuttling across the floor in the direction of the half-eaten vermin lying flayed in front of the door. His stomach growled in hunger and nausea at the thought of it as his hands and knees scuffled through the dirt throwing puffs off dust into the air.
Two body lengths from the rat’s corpse, the chain attached to his ankle went taut. He peeked back at it, pulled with a clank, then returned his attention to the dead animal. He lay flat on the dirt floor, stretching out to his fullest, reaching, grasping.
The potential meal, equally tempting and nausea-inducing, lay beyond his fingertips. He strained, reaching further, wiggling his fingers, but to no avail.
Kooj snarled, barked. The man froze, waiting for the dog’s jaws to clamp around his outstretched arm, his razor teeth to tear at his flesh as they’d done the rat’s.
Instead of biting, the dog barked again and the man jerked his head around to peer over his shoulder. The beast stared at the wall, lips pulled back from savage teeth, a string of saliva tinted pink with rat’s blood hanging from its jaws.
The man scuffled back from the canine’s food, happy to forgo the stomach-turning meal in exchange for saving his own skin. He climbed to his feet and wiped sticky spit off his lips with his forearm, directed his attention to the wall Kooj stared at. Movement flickered in the space between the boards.
The dog leaped forward a half-step, barking furiously. The man fell into a crouch, squinting against light shining through the gaps to see if it was Jud-dah who’d returned, or someone come to rescue him.
Whoever was outside moved toward the front of the barn, the dark shape blocking the sunlight squeezing between the wall boards in succession as it went. Kooj followed along with it, barking and slathering all the way.
A moment later, the barn door’s handle rattled. The dog stalked toward the sound, a growl rumbling in its throat and chest, one paw stepping in the remains of the disemboweled rat, then leaving a bloody print in the dirt with its next step. The handle clattered a second time and the door opened a crack. He glimpsed a hand wrapped in a dirty bandage before Kooj launched himself against the wooden panels.
The dog hit it with a heavy thud, but the fellow outside must have expected the beast’s action and leaned against the door to prevent it opening. It moved but the width of a finger.
Kooj fell back to the floor, his furious barking renewed, muzzle prodding the space between door and frame. He stood on his hind legs, front paws pushing against the wood, and the intruder slammed the door shut.
Movement flickered again, this time headed away from the building. The man watched the silhouette beat a retreat toward the tree line, a dark shape making its way through the grass. Kooj trotted around the inside of the barn, growling and barking, pacing first one direction, then the other. The dog’s dark eyes gleamed with what the man might have interpreted as anger and hatred had the beast been human, but it wasn’t. It only sought to protect its home.
Or so he thought until the dog directed its attention toward him.
Kooj glared at him, lips still pulled back from his sharp teeth. The dog took one slow step his direction, then another. He backed away a step, arms raised in defense. He cast his gaze around for something to use for protection, cursed himself for having tossed the pitcher out of reach.
The dog took another step and he bent over, grasped the chain binding him in his prison. He looped it once around each hand, unsure what he meant to do with it, and backed up as far as his tether allowed.
Kooj took one more slow step, then launched himself across the barn.
XVIII Ailyssa—Juddah’s
The day passed, the sun warming Ailyssa’s cheeks. The same sun coaxed sweat on Juddah’s back and arms and she did her best to find separation between herself and her rescuer—a difficult task sitting together on horseback. His perspiration dampened the front of her smock despite her attempts.
They stopped once during the day to slake their thirsts at a stream and eat cured meat and hard cheese. She thought to ask him what kind of meat he fed her, but her grumbling stomach preferred not to know. After emptying her bladder—dubious of her privacy—they were back ahorse and continuing their journey.
The comparative chill of night touched the flesh of her arms, the white haze of her blindness changing little as the day’s light faded. The rhythm of the horse’s gait lulled Ailyssa into a state of semi-consciousness. Whenever her chin sagged toward her chest, she jerked her head back, waking herself for fear if she truly dozed, she’d fall from her perch. Would he stop for her if she did?
Each time a sliver of sleep came, she saw Claris’ face, imagined her children, and she’d jerk awake with the pain of regret poking her heart.
At least I’m alive. I couldn’t help her if I was dead.
The night passed, like the day before it, and after what felt an impossibly long time in Ailyssa’s unseeing world, the sun rose again.
“How much longer before we reach your home?”
“Soon,” Juddah grunted in reply and said no more.
Ailyssa knew ‘soon’ was a relative term, with no clear definition to any but he who spoke it. And so the morning dragged past with but one more stop to eat, drink, and piss. By her reckoning, midday was near when she noticed the change.
Juddah’s aroma and the forest’s scent disguised it at first, but her nose detected another odor beneath the perfumes of cedar trees and loamy earth; a tang she’d not experienced before. It tickled her nostrils and gave her hope the end of their journey neared, an eventuality her aching thighs and buttocks longed for.
They continued to ride and the day’s fragrance changed and changed again. She detected not just the aroma of the forest warmed by the sun’s rays, but also the sweetness of drying grass, and a salty bouquet she guessed must be the sea. Excited relief brewed inside her, but she resisted the urge to ask Juddah again if they were near. She’d found him a man of few words and could already guess his vague response.
A short time later, he reined their steed to a stop with an accompanying ‘whoa.’ A few heartbeats passed before he directed words to his riding companion.
“We’re here,” he said, shifting his weight.
Ailyssa took the action to mean he intended to dismount, so moved her grip from his coveralls stiff with grease to the edge of the hard leather saddle. He slid off the horse, the heel of his boot bumping her arm. She jerked away from the impact, clutching her forearm, the movement unbalancing her. A fearful hoot escaped her throat as she slid sideways, flailing to regain her hold on the saddle, but she missed. The horse’s firm haunches slipped from under her and she braced to hit the ground.
Instead, she fell into Juddah’s arms and he caught her for a second time. H
e held her awkwardly for a moment, the smell of his stale sweat permeating her nostrils and obliterating all others, then he set her down and took a step away.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, I think so,” Ailyssa said rubbing the sore spot on her forearm. Her heart continued fluttering against her ribs, its pace slowing to normal.
“Wait here while I take care of the horse.”
Ailyssa nodded and a breeze caressed her as Juddah swept past, then the horse’s hooves tapped soft ground. She waited with her arms crossed for her rescuer’s return, finally inhaling air not tainted by his unwashed flesh.
The salty tang was strong, but smells mingled with it: the grass she’d detected before, the warmth of fresh-turned earth, old manure, and another odor she didn’t recognize, a sour fragrance she wasn’t sure she wanted to name.
After a short while in which Ailyssa listened to Juddah removing the saddle from their steed, the man returned and the cloud of sweet, stale sweat came with him. He stood close for a few heartbeats, breathing heavily before he spoke.
“Take my arm.”
Ailyssa hesitated but then reached out tentatively in her blindness. Her fingers found thick hair on his forearm as he’d rolled up his sleeves while unsaddling the horse. With her hand upon him, he led her away from the spot where she’d dismounted.
Long grass tickled the soles of her feet as they walked. A gentle wind rustled through the blades and made the boards of an unseen structure creak. High above, the cries of gulls reached her ears; she longed to see them wheeling through the sky.
The tall grass grew sparse, then disappeared, and they crossed dirt scattered with rocks. Pebbles pressed into her feet, occasionally causing her pain, but she ignored their bites, concentrating on keeping her worry and fears at bay and counting her steps to distract herself. Juddah didn’t speak as he guided her across what she assumed to be his yard, but his lack of verbosity caused no surprise in her; had she counted the words he’d spoken over the course of their journey on her fingers and toes, she’d have a few left over.
The temperature on her cheeks changed, suggesting they’d passed into shadow. Beneath the trees of a forest? The shade cast by a building? The creak of boards coaxed by a breath of wind led her to suspect the latter. Soon after, they stopped and a door handle rattled, dispelling any question.
“This is where you’ll stay,” Juddah said. “For now.”
The handle rattled again and he stepped back, swinging the door open with a moan that sounded to her more akin to rope rubbing on wood than hinges. Dank air wafted out of the building, redolent of stale hay, fresh manure, and that other, sour odor she’d detected before, but stronger. She forced a smile of thanks on her lips and nodded her head in case Juddah was gazing upon her.
The big man stepped into the doorway, dragging her along with him, but came to a jarring halt and Ailyssa walked into the back of him.
“Kooj?” he said, the word tinted with notes of surprise and distress. “Kooj!”
Juddah shook Ailyssa’s grip off his arm and rushed away, leaving her without support, and a wave of vertigo swirled around her. She reached out with the hand she’d used to hold on to her rescuer and found the door frame, a splinter from the aged wood pricking her finger. She stuck the injured digit in her mouth and leaned her shoulder against the lintel, thankful to be steady again as she wondered who or what Kooj was. A heartbeat later, a dog whined in its throat, and she suspected she knew the answer.
“Kooj, what happened?”
Juddah’s voice floated from in front and to the right of her, where the dog’s cry had come from. The animal whined again.
“Oh, Kooj.”
Juddah’s feet shuffled and scraped against the dirt floor and, for an instant, no other sounds came. Then the dog cried once more and Juddah spoke.
“You did this,” he accused, the words sounding as though he’d spoken them from between clenched teeth.
Ailyssa’s unseeing eyes opened in surprise and she shook her head. How could he think she’d hurt his pet when she hadn’t been here?
“You did this and you’re gonna pay.”
The Goddess Mother cowered against the door frame, an arm raised in front of her face as the man’s footsteps tromped across the dirt floor. She didn’t realize they headed away from her until she heard the meaty thunk of a fist or foot striking flesh.
Another impact, followed by the dog’s cry. Was he beating the animal he’d sounded concerned about? Ailyssa lowered her arm, leaned in, listening, appalled. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Amongst the sound of the drubbing, Ailyssa heard the whoosh of breath leaving lungs. The dog whined, its pained expression emanating from a different place than the thud of punches and kicks. She gripped the door frame tight with her fingers, nails digging into wood only a season or two from rotten.
A man moaned.
Ailyssa held her breath. Was it Juddah? Or was someone else in the building?
Another thump. Another thud. A whispered word with a pleading tone; a groan. She realized these last didn’t belong to the man who’d rescued her. One more blow fell, then all other sounds became lost to the heavy pant of Juddah’s breath.
“Why’d you do it?” he asked between heaving breaths.
No response. After a few heartbeats, the man’s footsteps crossed the floor again. They stopped to Ailyssa’s right, then shuffled in the dirt. The dog whined, Juddah grunted with effort, and his footsteps resumed, coming closer to her.
Ailyssa shrank away, back pressed against the jamb. Juddah squeezed through the space between her and the other side of the door, fur too thick to be his brushing against her arms and chest. She realized he must be carrying the dog he’d called Kooj. He stopped when he’d pushed past her.
“Get in there,” he said, breathless.
A shiver shook its way up Ailyssa’s spine and she swallowed hard, but didn’t move. She clutched the door frame at her back with both hands like a chunk of driftwood keeping her from drowning.
“Get in the barn!” Juddah bellowed.
Shocked by his sudden ferocity, Ailyssa released her grip on the lintel and stumbled into the building, her bare feet scuffing in the dirt. She parted her lips to ask her rescuer what happened, what she might do to help, but the belabored slam of the door closing cut off her words. The bang made her jump; the thunk of a bar sliding into place, locking her in, followed.
Ailyssa stood facing the door, frightened to turn around and discover what or who he’d left her in the barn with despite—perhaps because of—her inability to see. Outside, Juddah’s heavy steps crunched away across the yard, his gait changing as he climbed a short set of wooden steps. His footsteps disappeared, leaving Ailyssa to the silence of the barn.
She closed her eyes and listened. The wind lifted something hanging on the outside wall of the barn and let it drop with a gentle bang. A bird twittered in the eaves overhead. A cow lowed. Ailyssa turned, careful not to make too much noise with her feet, then settled again, waiting. Blood hammered through her veins, making it difficult to detect anything but the pounding of her heart. After a short time, she realized she’d have to take matters into her own hands.
“Hello?”
The word echoed up to the roof and she heard a sound that might have been a cow’s tail swatting away a fly, but no other response. The muscles in her jaw twitched, pulling her mouth into a frightened grimace. She took a half-step forward, the sole of her foot dragging along the dirt to prevent her from tripping over anything laid in her path.
“Hello?”
Whether the answering groan was meant as a response or not, it let her know she was not alone. It came from the far side of the room.
“Who’s there?”
A long pause, then another moan.
“Are you all right?”
Labored breathing. The bird twittered, the wind sighed.
Ailyssa crouched, then got down on hands and knees. She had no way of knowing what might lay between her a
nd the beaten man, and she didn’t want to trip and hurt herself like she did alone in the forest, so she shuffled forward, lifting one hand after the other then placing them carefully, dragging her knees and toes in the dirt. Pebbles and clumps of earth or dried manure skittered across the floor.
“Hello?”
The word squeezed out of her throat choked tight with fear. She understood the chance she was taking reaching out to this stranger locked in a barn, but could it be any worse than relying upon the man who’d put both of them here and beaten the fellow? Her entire life, she’d learned the way of the Goddess, and part of the gospel taught her to offer help and comfort whenever it could be given. Judging by the man’s moans, he was in need.
Ailyssa continued across the floor, pausing when she touched cool metal. She ran her fingers along the crude links of the chain, following the end away from the man’s groans to find it locked onto a stout spike.
She followed the chain the other way, listening to the quiet clink of metal as her fingers passed along its surface. Her palm touched a muddy spot on the floor—spilt water? Blood? She jerked away, wiping it on the skirt of her smock.
A few more paces and she’d come close enough to make out the breath wheezing in and out of the man’s lungs. She hesitated, unsure how to proceed.
“Are you all right?” No response. “I am N’th Ail…I am Ailyssa. I won’t hurt you.”
A sighing moan answered her, but no words, leaving her to wonder if the mystery stranger could speak. He might have lost his voice as she’d been deprived of her sight. After a sigh of her own, she continued following the chain.
A distance equal to the length of her own arm later, her fingers touched a metal cuff. Her hand slid off it and brushed the man’s leg. The white blindness of her vision disappeared, replaced by darkness and vague lines.
Ailyssa gasped and leaned away, hands covering her mouth as the bright haze returned to her eyes. She blinked hard, as though she might clear it. As it had since she woke after her expulsion, it remained.