The Forsaken Call

by Jamie Murray

  "Okay, just one more thing," Meg said, gripping the sleeve of his shirt. "Tell me your name. Will you at least tell me what your real name is?"

  "Jameson," he said without hesitating a second.

  "Your real name," Meg repeated.

  "It's my real name," Jameson said simply.

  "It is?" Meg looked absolutely astounded.

  "And I've met you before you found me," Jameson continued. "I remembered."

  "How? Where?"

  "Ten years ago, your father offered me a ride from my home in the Forest and then allowed me to stay in his home with his two daughters. You were one of them. You were sick back then."

  "Oh no," Meg said, putting her hands over her mouth. "That's not it. That can't be it!"

  "My name is Jameson," he said firmly. "I am the Jameson you hardly remember. That's me."

  She took a few steps away from him.

  "How could that be possible?" she said.

  "I've been experimenting a lot with destiny and fate recently," Jameson said. "You were destined to find me and bring me here. And you were destined to give me my name. My real name."

  "How can I believe something like this?" Meg asked, except now she looked more intrigued as opposed to frightened. She approached Jameson again and put her hands on his shirt collar, pulling him down a little bit so she could see his eyes straight on. Jameson sat down on the table behind him and allowed Meg to look at him as intensely as she wanted.

  "Sorry," Jameson said.

  "Everyone said you were dead," Meg said.

  "That's what they all thought," Jameson said. "It's not true. I'm right here."

  "Prove to me that you're not the Forces," Meg basically commanded.

  His mind raced for a method for which he could go about proving something like that. He did feel slightly intimidated by her so close to him, staring into his eyes, gripping his shirt. Finally, he raised both his hands and cupped her face, leaning in to kiss her on the lips. At first, he didn't think she would take kindly to his gesture, but she quickly reciprocated, letting go of his shirt collar and wrapping her arms around his neck.

  Slowly, she began to pull away from him, and he allowed her to. When their lips were no longer touching, she looked at the floor in between them. Jameson was also unsure if that did anything, or if he could pass off his moment of insanity as a botched attempt to prove his manhood.

  "I think I might have known," Meg said.

  "Known what?" Jameson asked.

  "That you're Jameson," Meg said. "The real Jameson. I mean, when I called you that. It was you all along."

  "Yeah. It was me."

  "So what now? Where were you for ten years when we all thought you had died?"

  "That's the problem," said Jameson. "I can't remember that part, so I still don't know. Hopefully it will come back to me eventually."

  "How did you get this much of your memory?"

  "Baloric used his magic," Jameson said.

  "Can he use his magic to get the rest of it?"

  "I don't know. Right now, he can't really do anything. He's really weak after he was captured by the Forces. We've got a place we're trying to take him, but there's an issue. We don't have a way of transporting him comfortably unless we go all the way back to Miner Town."

  "You're asking to use my carriage, aren't you?" Meg said.

  "That was the plan," Jameson said with a smile.

  "How would I say no?" Meg sighed as she let go of him and turned around all at once, which somehow disappointed Jameson even though it was a relief that she had already said yes. "Of course you can have it for your trip."

  "It might take a long time."

  "Take it for as long as you need. We all want Baloric to get better. Besides, I personally owe you one for saving my life ten years ago."

  "You don't owe me for that," Jameson said. "You saved my life just a few days ago, remember?"

  "I remember," Meg said as she went straight to the carriage parked in the corner of the room.

  She handed him the reins which he would have to hook up to horses outside the building.

  "You have to leave right away," she said. "Are you going to come back again?"

  "Yes," said Jameson. "I'll have to come to return this. Don't worry. Things are going to work out, okay?"

  "And…maybe you can tell me more about your adventures," Meg suggested.

  "I'll tell you about anything you'd like."

  Jameson took her around the waist and kissed her again. If not for the fact that Baloric needed the carriage right away, Jameson would have sat down and explained everything to her much better but, instead, a mere promise that he would return and explain things was good enough.

  "I think I love you," Meg said quietly when he pulled away from her and attached the reins to the horse.

  Jameson looked over at her and, for a few moments, he thought maybe he would leave it at that. Her face was practically begging him for a response with equal weight.

  Jameson did not have one but he did have one which was close, "Can you give me a chance to come back to you?"

  "I think I can do that for you."

  30. I Can Handle It

  Chapter 30

  "The fact that he moves a little bit now might mean he's getting better," Johanna hypothesized nervously as she laid out several blankets across the surface of the covered cart. Their goal was to leave as soon as possible, but their biggest concern was obviously Baloric's condition, so they wanted to ensure he was at least comfortable.

  "Or worse," Louisa said.

  Erestina and Johanna both raised their eyes in response to Louisa's comment, yet chose not to respond perhaps on the basis that they wouldn't know how to refute it.

  Johanna had at least been right that Baloric was moving, but they had no way of telling what that indicated. As the three girls spent their time organizing the inside of the cart, Jameson, Luke and Cyrus gathered up any food or supplies they could scrounge from around while in the small house. Unfortunately, there was not much.

  "We'll have to stop someplace and buy provisions on the way out," Cyrus said. "How much money do we have?"

  "I've got none," Jameson said.

  "I haven't needed it," Luke admitted. "There are no stores where I'm from."

  "Princess Erestina and I have saved a little," Cyrus began. "But not nearly enough to supply seven people."

  Jameson immediately thought about Meg again. His thoughts dwindled on the notion of going back to her to ask for some money, but he quickly dismissed this idea as asking too much. Perhaps he just wanted to see her again.

  "We're going to have to get as much as we can and then be really meager with our rations," Jameson decided.

  "Couldn't we just split up?" Luke asked. "Some of us can go to Miner Town and get the other cart you guys were talking about, and we can meet up in Gislan."

  "We can't split up," Jameson said. "You heard Devin back there. He knows about me and he knows what we're trying to do. If we're separated at any point, he'll use that to his advantage. The only reason he didn't kill Baloric is because he needs him alive in order to do that ritual."

  "That means he might not kill Jameson, or Louisa, or me, because we would complete that ritual," Cyrus said with a nod. "But he wouldn't hesitate to kill you, Luke."

  "And Jo and Erestina," Luke added.

  "There's really no safe way for us to split up anymore," Jameson said. "So we all have to stay together as long as there's a chance we could be vulnerable to the Forces."

  "I understand," said Luke.

  "Are you guys almost done?" Johanna asked, opening the door. She nodded her head towards Baloric who was still laying on the bed, laying still once again.

  With all care, yet still extreme hesitation, Cyrus took it upon himself to lift Baloric up and carry him out the door. Johanna kept her eyes on Baloric, and glanced briefly at Jameson as Cyrus passed her, then hurried out the door. Jameson noted the strange interaction and then followed the others. He climbed in
to the cart first and helped pull Baloric in, trying to keep him steady, and then carefully set him on the padding previously arranged.

  Baloric drew in a labored breath and exhaled shakily, though his voice did not produce any sound. He was gripping his shirt fabric tightly in his hand, laying it across his chest, as if in protection, but otherwise did not change.

  Jameson inched around him and climbed outside the carriage.

  "I'll drive the cart first," Cyrus offered.

  "I'll ride with you," Erestina said quietly.

  "How many of these horses should we bring?" Johanna asked.

  "There's enough room for two people inside," Luke reported. "Let's hook one up to the cart and ride the other two. The less mouths we have to feed, the better."

  Jameson looked up and down the horse he had taken from Miner Town and had forgotten until just then that he actually had basically stolen it. The horse seemed to look at him out of the corner of his eye, slyly and knowingly, as if to say, "I know what you did."

  Jameson put his hand on the horse's nose and pet it. "I'll ride this one," he said.

  The others didn't seem to mind or notice the fact that the horse belonged to nobody, so they took Jameson word as acceptable. Luke decided to take his own as well, though he admitted it was getting old and would likely not be good for sprints.

  "I made her sprint all the way to Market City from the Forest," Luke said. "She wasn't too keen on that."

  "We'll be moving fast, but hopefully not so fast that we'll be sprinting," Jameson said.

  "Then Jo and I will be in the carriage with Baloric," Louisa said. "You, me and him. The three of us. It's like old times."

  "I wish it were better circumstances," Johanna whimpered, once again indicating she might be upset. Jameson wasn't sure if he had established a well enough friendship to ask her if she wanted to talk about it, but he was fairly certain she would get whatever counseling she needed from Louisa when they both got inside.

  He mounted the horse and situated himself on top of it. The sun was setting so there were very few people still wandering around in Market City, all of which seemed content in ignoring the large party exiting the city. Jameson was satisfied with passing through unnoticed since the last thing he needed was for anyone to notice them to cause anymore trouble. After all, Market City had been sufficiently terrorized over the past day, so Jameson didn't think it was necessary for any commotion.

  They transitioned onto the largest street in the city and a man came outside his shop just as they were passing, clearly just intending to close and lock the doors for the night. He waved innocently at the group out of good neighborly behavior, and Jameson awkwardly waved back, but this minor action appeared to attract his attention. At first, he looked as though he would just dismiss whatever he was thinking in his mind and return inside, but then he took a few more strides towards the slow moving cart and gasped out loud.

  "You're the one who rescued Baloric!" he cried, pointing at Jameson.

  Jameson tried to think of a way to respond, but he didn't realize there was any way to deny the fact. He had jumped up on the stage in front of the entire city and shown his face to everyone, which hadn't originally occurred to him.

  "You're the hero!" the man exclaimed, trying to situate himself in front of Jameson's horse so he couldn't just run off. Cyrus, seeing the distraction, pulled the cart to a stop as the man frantically called out to a couple passing by, for them to come and see the hero.

  Jameson uneasily tried to pull the horse back and thought maybe it would have been a better idea for him to ride inside the cart. Luke only laughed from riding on the other side as more people exclaimed and others came running out of their shops to see what the commotion was all about.

  Jameson did his best to try to calm them down, but then something particularly interesting began to occur: the merchants and townspeople were offering their goods to him. At first, one man offered a sack of sugar, which Jameson politely declined, but then a woman emerged with a basket of apples, begging him to take them since she had just picked them in her garden.

  "Jameson, don't tell them Baloric is in here," Louisa whispered as Jameson dismounted. "As far as they know, he just left the city again, all mysterious. Don't let them know he might be dying."

  "You're saying I should take these gifts?" Jameson said.

  "We need them, don't we?" Louisa said skeptically.

  "It seems weird to take it from them."

  "These are gifts Baloric should have been getting for the past ten years but of course he always said no," said Louisa. "So think of it like that."

  Feeling strangely guilty, Jameson accepted the gifts, mostly comprised of food from shops close by or whatever women could find when they fished through their purses. Johanna made sure to situate herself right in front of the opening to the cart to make sure no one would be able to see Baloric lying in the back as not to alarm them. Jameson felt as though he were betraying the citizens of Market City once they began to ask how he knew Baloric: "I know him as well as anyone else." One man asked where Baloric had gone after he had been saved, and Jameson only lamely answered, "He didn't say."

  He didn't like lying to these people, but he knew it wouldn't do them any good to worry, so he only tried to omit truths rather than distort them. It certainly solved their problem of having no provisions for the trip, and it quickly became a very real notion that if they crammed anymore into the carriage, then Louisa and Johanna may have to walk outside. The villagers made it a chore for them to finally break away from the generous giving and press forward. Most of them came to the edge of the city to see them leave and disappear into the distance.

  "That solved our problem," Luke observed as he rode his horse up next to Jameson.

  Jameson couldn't help but agree, but it still made him feel weird, especially since the entire rescue had originally been staged by Devin as a distraction. Still, the simple truth of the matter really was that they needed food and provisions to survive in the Gislan wastelands.

  Instead, Jameson decided to change the subject entirely and asked, "Is it weird, Luke? Being out of the Forest, I mean."

  "Yeah, it's weird," Luke admitted.

  "You could always go back and we could come get you once we finish up," Jameson suggested.

  "No, I'm not leaving this time," Luke said adamantly. "I still want to get some answers from Baloric. This is all a plot of yours to make me stay longer, isn't it?"

  Erestina leaned over the side of the cart to look back at Luke, clearly not understanding that his comment had meant to be joking. Luke didn't appear to notice Erestina's questioning expression.

  "I never asked," Jameson began. "About your grandfather. I know he was sick when I left."

  "Oh," said Luke as if he had completely forgotten. "He hung on for a long time, actually. A few months. Then, once we had to move everyone out of the Forest, I guess he didn't see the point of staying alive any longer. He died on the way to Market City."

  "I'm sorry," said Jameson.

  "He wasn't in any pain," Luke said. "Though, I wish he could have died in the Forest. That's where he would have wanted to be buried."

  "So what did you do to find a new Elder?" Jameson asked. The villagers always needed an Elder, but it didn't necessarily have to be the oldest person in the village. As a matter of fact, generally he was not the oldest, but was actually a young and fit man who could protect his neighbors.

  "Things were complicated," Luke said. "I mean, we were all separated and then Grandfather just died so suddenly. I guess we never really got around to finding a new one. I left pretty soon, so I really don't even know how the others are doing."

  "How old were you when you left?" Erestina asked the question, oddly enough, because Jameson was pretty sure she had decided not to listen after the previous comment she had overheard. She leaned over to look at them again and repeated her question, "When you left. How old were you?"

  "Sixteen," Luke answered simply.

&n
bsp; She looked at the ground and then back at Luke. "I was only fifteen when I abandoned Louisa and Baloric," she said.

  "Princess," Cyrus interjected. "You didn't abandon them."

  "You told me to stay, but I came with you," Erestina said. "So I abandoned them."

  "Look at it the other way," Luke said. "You didn't abandon Cyrus."

  "So…" Jameson said slowly. "That means you were only thirteen, Cyrus. Is thirteen old enough to go running off on your own?"