Guardians of the Light (Book One of The Nebril Riverland Chronicles)

by Leslie MacPherson

  Chapter 14

  I looked up quickly, terror and curiosity quelling my laughter. A small figure approached from the southern pathway, purple skirts dancing from side to side with every sway of her hips. It was Salare in her very favourite Sunday dress. I wondered if they had sent her to find me, thinking that maybe I wouldn't see her as a threat. As she walked out into the clearing, I noticed she was wiping her nose with a handkerchief and only then did I hear the sniffling. What could she be so upset about and why did it drive her out here?

  "What is she doing out here?" Jalya rasped. "Is she crying?"

  "Shhh."

  "Well, it's only Salare. What's she going to do?"

  "It might be a trap, Jalya. Some of the men could be right behind her just waiting for me to come out."

  "But Emerin, she could tell us what happened in the village last night. It could be important for us to know. She might know something about Ashel!" Her voice was rising to a pitch that I was sure Salare would be able to hear. And she had a point. The more knowledge we had about last night's events, the better. I just didn't want to get caught and have our plans ruined in the process. If they found me now, I was likely destined for Lock Up by tomorrow morning.

  I stared down the pathway from where Salare had emerged, straining my eyes through the sunlight to focus on any figures that might be lurking there. The forest was still, and I could hear no other footsteps or crumbling that would indicate someone climbing the rock wall on the other side. I only heard Salare's sobbing as she reached the cabin and began peeking in the windows. She was clearly looking for one of us. We waited for her to circle around to the other side of the cabin before daring to speak again.

  "Okay." Jalya's tone was stern. "Maybe you should stay here then. When she's not looking, I'll sneak out of here over to the path over there and pretend I'm just coming out of the woods. I'll tell her you're not here....I don't know where you are.....then maybe I can pump her for some information. If I hear anyone else coming then I go back into hiding."

  "But if she sees you come back here, she might tell them where we are."

  "No, Emerin. Do you really think that if she hears someone coming, that she's gonna stick around to talk to them or to watch what I'm doing? She doesn't want to get into trouble, and she really would be if she's found out here."

  I only nodded in response, because Salare emerged from behind the cabin just as Jalya finished her sentence. She stopped and looked around, surveying the clearing. When she saw no signs of human activity, she turned to try the door, finding it slightly ajar. In our haste to get away, we hadn't made sure to shut it properly. She pushed it gently, then after a short pause, poked her head cautiously inside.

  "Jalya?" she squeaked, barely audibly and then with a little more force. "Jalya?" She pushed the door a little further and slowly inched her way inside. "Jalya, are you here? Ashel?" She took another tentative step forward and her body disappeared from view.

  "Go Jalya, now!" I urged, realizing this might be the only time for her to emerge from the bushes unnoticed. She jumped up and dashed along behind the row of yolder bushes toward the path that led from their cabin into the southern woods. Ashel often took that route when he went hunting, so the earth was well worn. I kept my eyes glued to the door, hoping Salare would not come out in time to see where Jalya had come from. I couldn't take the chance of her knowing my hiding spot, just in case she wasn't alone. Luckily, Salare took so long poking around the cabin that Jalya managed to get to the path, take it to the clearing and had almost reached the front porch before she came back out the door.

  "Salare! What are you doing here?" Jalya feigned surprise. "What's going on? You could get into a lot of trouble if anyone knew you were here, you know." I smiled at the thinly veiled threat. Jalya certainly wanted to make sure that Salare felt insecure about her adventure.

  Salare sobbed and sat down heavily on the porch step. "Oh Jalya, I don't care...I just don't care anymore....I hate it here and I want to leave."

  "Why....what happened?"

  "David....you know, from Nebril City?" she said. Jalya nodded and her face grew hard at the mention of his name. I leaned forward, as I could barely make out what they were saying from my spot in the bushes.

  "Well," she continued. "Maybe you noticed that since he's been here this time, we've become quite good friends." Jalya nodded again, though I knew she hadn't really noticed. Neither one of us paid much attention to Salare's love interests. Besides we'd had quite a few other things to think about.

  "So, he left...last night." Her voice wavered, and she began dabbing at her eyes again. "He told me that he would take me with him when he left. That he would take me back to Nebril City and marry me, so I could have a better life. He told me all kinds of great stories about the place. It sounded so wonderful compared to here. I mean, did you know....."

  "You actually believed that crap?" Jalya interrupted. She never did have any patience with Salare. "I mean, you knew the guy for what, two days and you thought he would take you away with him, like some prince in a fairy tale?"

  I was getting nervous. Jalya was getting off topic. We needed to find out what happened last night and then get out of here as soon as possible. And now Jalya was counseling Salare on her love life? Didn't she know that once she started talking about it that she'd never stop? I'd unfortunately been on the receiving end of Salare's long winded romantic stories many times before. It was never a brief discussion.

  "Oh, but he was so handsome, don't you think Jalya? And I'd met him before, don't forget....the first time he came to the village. We talked then, too. And being swept off to a faraway land...it's so exciting! Don't you have a romantic side at all Jalya?"

  "Not after watching this town operate for the past seventeen years. Romance just doesn't seem to be a priority in this place."

  "See, that's exactly what I mean," Salare said sadly. "I can either run off with someone that I want to be with, or I can stay and next Sunday find out what twit the church elders want me to be with."

  I had forgotten that her birthday was coming up this week. I wondered who they would pick for her. As much as Salare irritated me at times, at that very moment I felt sorry for her. I knew exactly how she was feeling.

  "But Salare, you don't know that it will be a bad choice. I mean, Lenal Hendleman is still free, right?" Jalya smiled, doing her best to be reassuring. I hoped she would be steering the topic back to last night's events very soon.

  "Ugh, I won't get Lenal. My sister is convinced that they're saving him for you, Jalya. If they give you a desirable husband, then maybe you'll decide to stay in the village. But they're not worried about me running, so they'll probably stick me with Bainie, or maybe even Callum if Emerin doesn't come back."

  "What do you mean, 'if Emerin doesn't come back'?" Jalya asked in mock surprise. I certainly had to admire her acting ability. She arranged her features into an expression of great shock. "Did something happen to Emerin? Is she with Ashel, because I can't find him anywhere…I'm getting worried."

  Salare stopped crying and stared at her. "You mean you don't know about any of this? I was afraid that you might not know. That's one of the reasons that I came out here, I mean other than to see if you were okay after what happened with your mother and to get away from all the crazy commotion that's been going on...."

  "Any of what Salare? I haven't been back to the village in two days. I heard the church bells ringing last night." She raised her voice an octave to indicate panic. "You have to tell me what the hell happened!"

  "Well, I woke up because of the bells." Salare settled into her best gossip voice, seeming to have suddenly forgotten all about her lost love. "Then they wouldn't let me go outside because I'm a girl, of course, so I had to listen to all the yelling and little snippets of conversation that I could hear from the window. I could hear someone yelling, 'Emerin, Emerin.' I'm pretty sure now that it must have been Ashel. I guess he went crazy or something, because when my father got back he to
ld my mother that he kept talking to Emerin, but she wasn't even there."

  "He was talking to Emerin? What was he doing in the village?"

  "Well, apparently he said that he followed Emerin there. I don't know really what happened; no one does. All I know is that the men said he was raving like a lunatic about Emerin, but she was nowhere to be found. Emerin's mother said that she'd woken up right before the bells started ringing and Emerin was gone. No one has seen her since."

  "Well, how do you know he didn't see her then?" Jalya said, presumably to add to the confusion in Salare's mind. Both she and I knew that I had not seen Ashel last night. If what Salare said was true, what was it that he'd been raving about? Dreaming, sleepwalking perhaps? Maybe someone had drugged him also. After all that I'd seen and heard last night, it seemed like anything was possible.

  "I don't know that he didn't see her; all I know is that by the time the men got there, she wasn't around." She stopped to take a deep shaky breath. "Then the men couldn't figure out what to do with Ashel. I mean, they thought he was crazy, right? And now that your mother's gone.....who knows what he would do."

  Jalya glared at her. "Ashel is not crazy!"

  "Oh, I'm sure he's not Jalya; I'm sure it was a misunderstanding. The point is that the elders thought he was crazy and a possible threat to us, and then David...."

  She stopped and swallowed hard, evidently fighting back tears again. ".....David offered to take him to Lock Up so they wouldn't have to worry about him anymore. Then, without him in the picture, you would be more likely to stay in the village also. Let me tell you Jalya, your father was all over that idea. He held Ashel down himself while the others tied him up, cackling the whole time!"

  "Shut up about my father would you! Just tell me what happened to Ashel."

  "Okay, okay, I'm sorry Jalya. Anyway, the men tied him up and put him in David's cart and tied him to the cart just to make sure he didn't get away. And then he left....David drove away with Ashel in the cart."

  She collapsed into tears once more. "I didn't even find out that he was gone until I heard my father say so after I went back to bed. I was supposed to be sleeping, but I listened at the door. Then I cried all night; didn't sleep at all. He's gone now....and I'll never be happy again." She sobbed against Jalya's shoulder. From where I was quietly observing, I was sure that I could see Jalya rolling her eyes. It seemed that Sharl had been right about Ashel's fate.

  But what was Ashel doing in the village in the first place? Had he been looking for me or......I didn't even want to think about it. Maybe I had been there, maybe I did see him that night....I couldn't be sure what I did before I woke up. Maybe I hadn't even been asleep; maybe I was drugged or even put under some kind of spell. Maybe it was some kind of plan to get rid of Ashel, now that Hallen was gone and everyone was in on it...even my parents. Suppose, in some kind of unconscious daze, I'd gone out to the cabin and lured Ashel back to the village where the men were waiting for him. His capture could be all my fault. I shook my head, not wanting to contemplate such a horrible thought. The sound of irritation in Jalya's voice as she tried to soothe Salare, brought me back to the present moment.

  "Honestly, Salare, if David was willing to just run off without you like that, he probably isn't worth wasting your time crying over. I mean, it's better that you find out what a jerk he is now, than after you move to the city with him. What if he abandoned you there, where you don't know the area and you don't know anybody that can help you out. It's better this way, trust me."

  "I guess maybe you're right," sniffled Salare. "I just liked him so much you know."

  "I know, I know, but I think you should go back to the village and wait and see who the elders pick for you. They might make a good choice, you know. You should think more positively about it." Jalya paused, searching for something else to say. "And I really think that you should go home now. Somebody's bound to be looking for you, and I gotta say if they find you out here, they'll think you're rebellious. And rebellion doesn't look good on a future bride. If they think you're a problem, they won't want to waste a good man on you!" Jalya stood up as if to encourage Salare to do the same. I had to hand it to her; she could really lay it on thick.

  "Yeah, I guess you're right, Jalya," she said, standing up. "I suppose I'll have to play the good girl this week, that is if they haven't already made their decision. I swear if they unite me with fat Bainie, I'll kill myself. Or I'll run away on my own; I'm not kidding!"

  Jalya laughed. "I'm sure you're not. I think that's probably why they haven't united him with anyone yet...the elders are afraid that whatever poor girl they pick will just run away, then they'll pick another and she'll run away too, and then another and another until there's no girls left in the village anymore!"

  "Then there will be no new babies and eventually the place will become a ghost town. Bainie alone will be responsible for the extinction of Carper's Village," Salare said and they both had a good laugh at poor Bainie's expense. As much as I was happy that Jalya was finally having a bonding moment with Salare, I was eager for her to cut it short. I gritted my teeth together to keep myself from yelling at her.

  But no sooner had these thoughts crossed my mind, then Jalya abruptly stopped laughing and peered into the forest in the direction from which Salare had come.

  "Shhh....someone's coming," she said.

  A panicked look crossed Salare's face and before any of us could hear anything else, she had taken off running and jumped into the bushes on the other side of the clearing. Jalya turned and quickly took the hunting path back toward the row of yolder bushes, being careful to return to our hiding place the exact same way she had left in case Salare was watching where she went. I doubted she was looking in our direction at all, however, as the voices that Jalya had noticed a few moments earlier were coming from the opposite direction, and they were getting closer. They must have been coming from the bridge; the men from the village had come looking for me at last. Jalya ran up to me and plopped herself down in the bushes once again.

  "Who is it?" I asked.

  "I don't know. I wasn't about to stick around to find out."

  "See, I told you we should've left earlier, but you had to stay and joke around with Salare!"

  "Shush, Emerin....here they come!"

  Two men emerged from the trees on the other side of the clearing, and strolled by the bushes where Salare was hiding, apparently not noticing her. It was hard to make out their faces, but by the drunken drawl, I could tell that Jalya's father was one of them. Jalya stifled a gasp next to me and I imagined she was agreeing with me now that we shouldn't have stuck around.

  "So y'know that Reverend Grell say he wanna find me a new wife, but he don't do it, y'know," he slurred. "Everyone I suggest he turns down...a man needs someone to keep his bed warm, y'know?"

  "Yeah, yeah, Silan, I know, I know," said the other man, who sounded like Towa, the blacksmith. "Come on, let's forget about women for a while and concentrate on finding the girls. You think they're in there?"

  He strolled over to the open door and peeked inside. On closer inspection, it was definitely Towa. We'd always liked him as kids. He used to let us come into the smithy and play with his tools, while he joked around with us. There were a lot of people in the village I was actually going to miss.

  "Jalya! Jalya!" Her father screamed at the top of his lungs, as he stumbled around the compound. Beside me, Jalya was shaking her head. She had been so embarrassed by his antics while she was growing up.

  "I don't think they're here, Silan," Towa said, as he emerged from the interior of the cabin. "There's no one inside."

  "So thar hidin' are they?" Silan looked up and screamed into the sky. "You hidin' from me lil' girl? You gonna git it when you git home!"

  "Silan, calm down; there's no one here to hear you. Let's just go home. You could use a nap I think."

  Silan prowled around the outside of the cabin, muttering to himself, stopping only when he noticed Hallen's grave. He
stared at the little wooden plaque that Ashel had carved the day before. He had etched butterflies into it--Hallen had loved butterflies--as well as her name and the words 'We'll miss you Mama' in the midst of the picture. It had taken him the whole afternoon to do it and it was actually quite beautiful. Then he had brought it out and staked it into the ground, where it still stood, mesmerizing Silan. Its presence seemed to sober him up somewhat.

  "Uh, Towa, lissen, you head on back," he said slightly more coherently and much calmer. "I'm gonna jus stay here a bit an wait. Maybe she'll come back."

  "No, uh, I'm not leaving you out here by yourself. No telling what you'll get yourself into while you're in this state."

  "Come on now, I'm feelin' much better now, can't you see? The fresh air's helpin' I think."

  "I don't think so, Silan. Come on now let's......whoa, what was that?"

  I wrenched my gaze from them and looked up just in time to see Salare dart out from behind the bushes and take off down the path back toward the village. Her impatience would be her downfall. Towa ran after her and overtook her in an instant. It was terribly hard to run in such a long, bulky skirt.

  Silan turned toward her and squinted to see who it was. "Dammit, Salare," he said, finally recognizing her. "Whaddya think yur doin' out here, little girl?"

  "I...I," Salare stammered, eyes darting wildly. "See, someone grabbed me during all the commotion at the village..."

  "Yeah, yeah, tell it to your father," Silan snorted. "Maybe he'll believe ya." He turned toward Towa and smiled. "Well, now you got somethin' to do, don't ya, Towa. Escort this young lady home. I'll be stayin' right here." As if to emphasize his statement, he plopped down on the freshly packed earth of Hallen's grave.

  "Fine, have it your way, Silan," Towa sighed, evidently realizing the futility of arguing any further. "But if you're not back in a couple of hours, I'm coming back for ya. And I'll be bringing Niel with me...the both of us should be able to drag you home. Or maybe carry you if you're passed out by then."

  He turned to Salare and gave her a huge smile. "Well then, sweetheart, let's be going. And maybe for part of the way home, you can tell me the real reason that you're out here. And then the rest of the way, you'll have the pleasure of hearing me lecture you on why it was such a bad idea." He took her arm and led her back onto the pathway and into the trees until they disappeared. Jalya and I watched quietly as they left. Silan watched chortling to himself.

  Jalya and I looked at each other, not daring to say a word. I knew that she was thinking the same thing that I was. Just how long would her father be staying and was he drunk enough to not notice if we quietly slipped off into the woods behind us. We had a long journey to make today, and the sun was already high in the sky.

  Silan got to his feet for a moment and stumbled about. Then he bent down and grabbed a couple of rocks which he hurled carelessly at the house. The sound of shattering glass told us that one of them had found a window. I felt Jalya tense up next to me and I put my hand on her arm to try to calm her somewhat. It was the biggest movement that I dared to risk making.

  "There ya go!" Silan yelled. "Thought you'd have it better out here, eh? Dammit, Hallen, went and got yourself killed that's all!" He stumbled around the cabin chuckling, grabbing more rocks and tossing them randomly. Some made contact with the cabin; some flew into the trees. "Didya have fun with yur savage?"

  He grabbed the porch railing, which had been loose for years and ripped the boards free, falling on his back in the process. He struggled to his feet, walked to the other side of the cabin and smashed the other windows with the wooden planks. I could hear his heavy panting as he staggered around the back of the cabin and appeared at the other side, collapsing in a heap on Hallen's grave. Jalya was shaking now, her arm quivering under my hand. I was so glad that Ashel wasn't here to see this. I doubted that Silan would still be alive if he was.

  Silan pushed himself up from his belly and crawled over to Ashel's carving. He held it in his hands for a few moments, just staring at it. His shoulders began to shake and I realized he was crying and muttering to himself. I couldn't understand much of what he was saying, but once or twice I thought I heard "why didn't you love me?" eke out from between the sobs. He fell back down on the ground again and lay in the dirt, cradling the carving to his chest.

  I looked over at Jalya and saw that she too had tears streaming down her face. I felt her arm pulling away from my hand and her body tensing as if she were about to stand. I grabbed her arm firmly and shook my head. "You can't, Jalya; you can't," I whispered. "If you talked to him, he probably wouldn't even remember anyway."

  I knew how she must be feeling. I mean, even I felt sorry for him at the moment. If only I could just go to him and tell him that it wasn't Hallen's fault and it really had nothing to do with him, that there were forces at work beyond anyone's control, then maybe he could feel better. But I knew it was too dangerous, and I knew that he was far too inebriated to understand the story I would have to relay to him in order to explain. It had been hard enough to wrap my own head around and I had been sober when I heard it.

  Silan's eyes were now closed and his sobs died down to sharp, shuddering intakes of air. I realized that he had probably passed out and this might be our chance to leave. I put my arm around Jalya as we waited a few more minutes to make sure he was really out. Her body shook uncontrollably under my touch. I realized then that leaving might not be as easy for Jalya as I had previously thought. Even after how badly he'd treated her, she still probably worried about leaving him all alone. I hoped that my father would look in on him every now and then.

  "Come on," I said and stood up only partially to keep my body still mostly concealed by the bushes. "I think it's safe to go now." Jalya stayed in the same position and just stared at her father.

  "Let's go," I repeated, just a little more firmly. "He'll be fine. You heard what Towa said. He'll be back for him later. Right now he just needs to sleep it off."

  I held out my hand and she reluctantly took it, standing slowly so as to minimize the noise. She glanced back briefly toward Silan, then followed me along the back of the yolder bushes to the hunting path once again. I gave a quick glance down the path to make sure that no one was there and then tugged Jalya in the direction away from the cabin and toward our adventure. By this time there were tears rolling down my face as well, blurring my vision as I stared ahead into the unknown. On trembling, reluctant legs, we pushed forward into the woodlands and didn't look back.

  PART TWO

  ~

  THE JOURNEY BEGINS