by Heath Pfaff
A cold wind blew through our campsite, bringing with it the first few flakes of winter snow. Even with my fur clad limbs and my body's amazing ability to adapt to any environment, that cutting, icy wind still stung. Malice walked over to me and put one of her arms around my shoulders, pulling me close. I returned the gesture, and we huddled together, fending off the cold while watching the darkness for any signs of movement. A light snow began to fall as we kept watch.
I felt her eyes upon me before I noticed that she was no longer watching the trees, but looking at me instead. I turned and looked at her, feeling suddenly awkward beneath her gaze.
"What's wrong?" I asked, for her face seemed touched with a hint of sadness, and her eyes seemed far away.
She turned away then, looking out into the trees once again. "It's nothing. I was just remembering better times." She stopped for a minute, and then a small smile touched her lips. ". . . and thinking about how good it is to see you alive."
I squeezed her tight once more, feeling her warmth close against me. Malice, my friend, the one person still alive who'd stayed beside me through everything terrible that had happened. Every time I found myself near her, it became difficult to figure out what she was to me. She was my friend, and we had been lovers in the past, but what did she think of me? Was I simply a friend to her, or did she have other feelings for me?
What did I feel for her? Was there something more between us? Was I falling in love with my long-time friend, and what would that mean for our friendship? I didn't want to betray Kyeia's memory by loving someone else, but could I honestly keep telling myself that Malice did not mean more to me than a normal friend? What would happen if I told her?
"Do you think they will come for us?" Malice said, her words breaking my spiraling train of thoughts, and saving me from having try and understand what was happening with my emotions. It took me a moment to figure out exactly what she was talking about since I had become so lost in my own musings.
"The Hungering." I said as the realization struck home, and Malice turned to look at me, an eyebrow raised. "Yes." I said, without pausing, without thinking about my answer. Once I'd said it, I realized that the answer was true. I did believe they would come for us. I couldn't have said why I believed that, but something deep inside of me told me that it was only a matter of time, if they were not already on our trail.
Malice nodded. "I thought so." We sat together in the cold silence, watching the darkness for the enemy we knew lurked somewhere within it.
Morning came without event, the first rays of dawn rising over the horizon filling me with a sense of calm that had not existed over the course of the seemingly unending darkness. The Hungering probably would not attack us during the day, and that meant that we had a few more hours of safety. The reprieve would offer no chance for rest, but safety from attack would have to be its own rest.
Liet and the other survivors were rousing themselves from sleep, taking care of natural functions and preparing to travel again. Malice and I recovered our cloaks. Both of us were eager to be wrapped within the magically sparked warmth again. Even staying close together, the night had dropped below freezing, and we had felt every agonizing hour of the cold.
I attempted to rouse Silent, but he was still fast asleep, locked in a healing slumber. I had faith in Malice's prediction of where the king would have gone, but I would have felt better if we could have confirmed her suspicion with Silent. Our futures depended upon us reaching help as soon as possible. We quickly gathered up our gear and began our trek towards an uncertain destination.
Once more, Malice carried the children, and Reana hung close to Malice, but now Liet seemed to hang close to Reana, protectively. I sensed a subtle change in the relationship between the two of them. I did not bother to ask. What existed between them, if anything, was no business of mine, and my prying would not have been welcome.
Malice checked our direction, looking to the sky, though she barely needed to. We had spent the entire night staring at the stars, and watching the silent woods. Both of us knew the direction of travel necessary to reach our destination, and it was easy to get one's bearings when outside. We had decided, in the night, to keep to small game-trails and back roads, avoiding the kingdom's main trade route at all costs. It would be far too easy for a fast moving enemy to catch up with us if we traveled the main road. Backs paths would make us harder to track, though the light snow from the night before had left a few inches of white fluff on the ground. Covering our trail across the snow would have been difficult to achieve, and would have slowed us down further, so we were forced to accept that we were leaving an easy path to follow.
I suspected the Hungering, if they really were following us, would not have any trouble tracking us, snow trail or not. I also worried about the prospect of us leading the Hungering directly to the king's forces, but I suspected, as well, that they already knew where the king had gone, and were simply rebuilding their forces for another attack. So many men could not move without leaving clear sign, especially when there were hundreds of untrained refugees to move.
I wondered if humanity would survive another wave of the Hungering. I guessed that depended entirely upon Lucidil, and what he was able to manage in the form of defense. It was strange to think that the man who had once verbally condemned humanity in my presence was now working on its behalf. I wasn't sure if that could be construed as a positive turn of events or not.
I did not trust Lucidil, and my opinion was unlikely to change. He served only his own purposes, I knew, and would seek to achieve them at any cost. What cost, I wondered, was he paying to reach his ends now? What would he give in order to destroy the threat of the Hungering? Worse, what would he force others to give in order to reach his ends? It was that last question that I feared the most. Lucidil had Kay, and I did not doubt that he would use her to whatever advantage he could. That thought infuriated me, and I had to force myself calm again.
I had done my best not to think of my daughter, not to dwell on what might lie ahead, but the hours of silent walking, with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company, left me far too much time to consider the possibilities.
The terrible truth lay not far ahead of me, and as I drew nearer, a great trepidation built up in the pit of my stomach. I had feared my approach to Kreo, feared what I might discover there, but that had been nothing compared to what I felt as I approached Lucidil. He was a man driven, and the knowledge that he had sent me, like a blindfolded assassin, after the king while he held my daughter hidden away, did little to make me feel better about dealing with him. He was clever and ruthless. I considered trying to kill him, and not for the first time.
Lucidil would say that I wanted to kill him because I feared him, and that would be partially true. It would be nice to say that I had desired his death because I felt that I would be freeing the people from tyranny, and the madness that stems from tyrannical rule, but that would be a pleasant self-deception. I wanted to kill Lucidil because he had killed Wisp, and he had taken my daughter away from me, leaving me to believe she might be dead, or something worse. I did not doubt there were worse things than death.
There was no nobility in my desire to end the life of the red-eyed Knight of Ethan, master of the Broken Swords, and now king of the lands of men. I only wanted him to die to pay for the suffering he had caused me and my family. I wanted him to die for the storekeeper who I had never known, the one he'd killed after I'd first met him. I no longer doubted what had become of that terrified storekeeper and his wife, having become aware of what Lucidil was capable of doing. I wanted him to die for every corpse he'd stepped over to climb his way to the top.
The day slowly wore on, but not slow enough for my liking. The sun began its descent across the sky, reaching for the horizon as if it too feared the coming darkness. I looked to Malice, who walked onward with a determined pace, her face paler than normal, dark circles forming under eyes, the only marks on her otherwise pristine features. I worried about her. S
he was beyond her limits, and there were still three more days to go.
We made as much progress as could be expected, with many breaks necessary for Liet and Reana, as well as the children who were becoming restless. As the light fell away and darkness crashed down upon us, we broke for camp, eating further into the dwindling rations that Liet and Reana carried with them. In truth, Malice and I did not eat. It was another concession we could make for the betterment of the entire group. We could go for weeks without eating if necessary, though we preferred not to. Rest, though, after an exertion like we'd made fighting in the city, was the real problem.
Liet and his group finally laid down, the children looking at Malice and I expectantly, for they were children, and no longer feared us since Malice had carried them so far. They thought of us as they did any other adults, and we had something they wanted. We parted with our cloaks and prepared ourselves for another cold night.
"Tonight or tomorrow." Malice whispered to me once the others had laid in slumber for a few minutes. "If they're coming, it will be tonight or tomorrow."
I nodded my agreement. I had come to the same conclusion myself. "I hope they come tonight." I added. "If they don't, I'm not sure I'll be able to fight tomorrow."
"One of us should sleep." Malice said, looking at me, determination behind her eyes.
"One of us sleeping cuts our ability to keep watch in half, and leaves us vulnerable in a rush attack. We can't afford to sleep." I answered, and though I would like to have said I was simply being chivalrous, and not allowing Malice to stay the night alone, I was only stating the truth.
"Where will that place us tomorrow, Lowin, if they do not come tonight? Tomorrow we will barely be able to walk with our burdens, let alone stand and fight. One of us must sleep this night." She insisted, her voice taking on an edge of command.
I was tired, and it was difficult for me to discern if her argument was logical. I supposed it was a gamble. If one of us slept this night, we would be at a loss for solid defense for the night, and would suffer if attacked. If one of us didn't sleep, and the Hungering came the following night, we would be lost because neither of us would be ready to fight.
"You know I'm right in this." She insisted, pressing the point.
"Fine, then you sleep. I'll keep watch." I said, deciding that if we were going to do this, than she should at least be the one to get the rest. After all, she was the more skilled fighter. If I would be unable to do much the following day, we would need the most skilled fighter ready to fight.
"No, that's not what. . ." She began, apparently surprised by my reply, but I cut her off.
"We'll need our best fighter ready for tomorrow. That is not me, and you know it." I cut her off mid-sentence, though it brought an angry look.
She looked about to argue, but, this time at least she had to concede that I was right. She knew it whether she wanted to admit it or not. Finally, she gave a heavy sigh.
"You'd be a better fighter if you'd learn to improvise your technique." She said.
"What?" I asked, confused. It was the first time she'd said such a thing.
"You're fast, and powerful, and your reactions are better than any I've ever fought. Where you always fail, what keeps you from being truly great, is that you always stick to the rule of the techniques you were taught. You do so flawlessly, and that is commendable. Even without your strength and speed, there are not many who could best you in a fair fight. The truly great, though, those who are remembered forever for their combat prowess, are those who learn to adapt the forms to suit the situation. I've tried to show you that, but you can be quite thick about these things." Malice clarified, before walking over to lie down on the ground, between Silent and the other sleeping forms, but separate from both.
She curled up tight, looking so cold and vulnerable on the ground that I wanted nothing more than to reach out to her, to lie next to her. That was not an option for me, and I had nothing to even cover her with. I couldn't bring myself to watch her shiver in the cold.
I walked to the perimeter of our camp, my mind on her last words before she went to rest. Was my fighting truly most flawed by my own proficiency? Had I really become so adept at the forms, that I had lost my ability to improvise? I had never, even once, defeated Malice in a fight. Whether hand to hand, or sword to sword, she had always taken the win. In the heat of battle, it was too easy to fall back into natural patterns, to let the course of the battle flow in its own way.
It was easy to admit to myself that my stringent adhesion to the forms was a problem, but it was quite something else to break that habit. I wondered if it was even possible, or if I would be forever trapped in the patterns I had bonded myself to. I had always struggled with combat. I remembered only too well getting repeatedly beaten by Silent and Malice during my training days with the Knights of Ethan. That seemed like a very long time ago.
I watched the darkness, and the darkness watched me. I could feel its eyes upon my back.
Where did they hide during the day? I wondered, as the night finally began to wear thin. If the Hungering disliked the light, what did they do when they had to make a forced march? It was a question I had not considered before. Being unable to move about during the daylight hours, and needing darkness in which to rest, could prove a serious problem to them on the open stretches of ground throughout the human territories. Even the woods we were traveling through only provided sparse cover, leaving plenty of area for the sun to shine down through.
A shuffle behind me caused me to spin around, my sword coming to the ready before I'd even completed the turn. My eyes ran through the darkened tangle of trees, trying to pull out details from the black, looking to track any motion that might exist. Snow was falling at a steady rate, great large flakes tracing bright lines through the air, lines only present to the distinct motion tracking vision of the Knights. Rain and snow were the greatest hindrances to our vision, though rain was worse by far. A heavy rain could make us nearly blind to anything further than an arm's length away. Snow, though, was also a problem. No two flakes ever fell in exactly the same pattern.
My eyes and ears searched for the source of the errant shuffle I'd heard, but only silence and the swirling snow met my attentive senses. A twig snapped in the direction I was looking, and I readied myself for what might come, though I could see nothing. Something was out there. I backed towards where I knew Malice to be resting, intent upon not waking her unless it was absolutely necessary. Though if the moment came, I would need to rouse her quickly.
Faintly my ears picked up on the sound of motion, further away than the first two noises. Was whatever had disturbed the quiet moving further away? Perhaps, I tried to tell myself, it had just been an animal, making its way through the winter world at night. My instincts told me what I'd heard had been no deer.
I waited anxiously, watching the woods about me as though they might attack at any moment. I was so tired that I wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep for a few hours, but I knew that I could not do so without betraying everyone, possibly to their deaths.
Finally, at long last, the first rays of sun fell over the land. The eternal night was at an end. The others stirred with the coming of the light, rousing themselves to the morning. Malice was up first, the dark circles under eyes gone, and the pallor to her skin diminished, though she shivered viciously in the morning chill, a thin layer of frost covering her body. She recovered our cloaks from our waking charges, and quickly put hers on. She handed me mine, and I tossed the welcomed fabric about my shoulders, though over the course of the night I had been thankful for the cold, for it had kept me alert.
"Anything in the night?" Malice asked.
I nodded. "Just before dawn something was in the woods watching the camp. It fled before the light, but I don't believe it was local wildlife." I figured it had been a scout for the Hungering, and if their scout had reached us in the night, it would not be long before their hunting party caught up to us. We still had two more days of tr
avel ahead.
"Our rations are low. Perhaps we should see if we can catch some local game." Liet's voice sounded from behind us. Malice and I turned as one.
"The enemy could be upon us any day now." I said. "Not only must we move immediately, we must go faster than we have up to this point." Neither Liet nor Reana looked happy to hear that. "We have the day, since they do not like to move in the light, but they will come with the dark tonight. Do not doubt that." I could have added that only Malice was in any condition to fight, but I didn't feel that letting them know exactly how dire our situation had become was necessary.
Reana's mouth tightened into a tight circle. "You can't keep driving us like animals. We're human, and we need rest and food, but I suppose you wouldn't understand that since you're a monster." Her brown eyes locked on to my deep purple ones, and she did her best to keep her gaze fixed there, but it faltered, and she looked away. My own eyes never wavered.
Perhaps, after all, it was time to share the gravity of the situation. "A Hungering scout was at our camp last night while you all slept, and scouts are never far beyond the full hunting party to follow. It is impossible to say exactly how the Hungering organize, but I would guess that a larger hunting party is no more than a few hours behind the scout."