by P. G. Thomas
Chapter 20
Ryan spent the following day listening to Lauren cry from outside her bedroom door. While he tried to go to her, she had pushed something up against the door.
Logan heard his sister’s pain, “She just needs some time. Let her cry herself out. Trust me, give her some time.” The words did little to comfort Ryan, as her sobs ripped through his being, like a feral beast trying to claw out of his chest.
*******
Rising early the next day, Lauren went down for breakfast. Her eyes were puffy from crying, her cheeks rough, red from wiping away the tears. Gor was absent, so one of the cooks on duty took her food order. She then went to the front room, finding Eric asleep on the couch in his armor. Zack, the wolf, was still curled up in a ball at the front door. Going back to the kitchen, she took a cup of hot bean juice out to the backyard, and a few minutes later, a cook brought out her breakfast.
“Where’s Gor?”
“Earth Mother, he never told me.”
Lauren sat at the table, poking at her food. Looking around the empty table, she felt so alone, and once again began to cry, as thoughts of Alron flooded her mind. They’ll bury him today. They bury him, and I should be there, but he wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for me. Throwing the mug at the wall, clay shards and hot bean juice exploded onto the grass. When the cook came rushing out, he saw her crying.
The cook knocked on Ryan’s door, “The Earth Mother could use your comfort in the backyard.”
Dressing, he went down to the backyard, “Rough day?”
“I need a distraction to take my mind off all of this.”
“No, Lauren, you need time to mourn. To get it out of your system.”
“How do I mourn? How do I mourn for somebody that I killed?”
The comment ripped through Ryan like a bullet, tearing into his emotions, slashing deep into freshly awoken memories and nightmares. “Tell me stories about him, remember him. The time you spent together exploring the midlander villages, the trip to the tree, anything, just talk to me about him.”
“No, that won’t work. I hardly knew Alron. I don’t know if he had a family. If there was anybody that loved him. If somebody will miss him now. I know he cared about me, but I don’t know anything about him. He was like a hall monitor, just there making sure everything was safe. I never thought this could happen. I remember how we butted heads. How he pleaded with me to find Mother’s children, and the conflict on the trip south. He was my protector, and he wasn’t supposed to die. I should’ve listened to him. I should’ve discussed more with him. All I can remember is the…..” Then Lauren started to cry again.
“Start with the good stories, when you first met him. Let’s just start there.”
Lauren wiped the tears away from her eyes, “You don’t get it, do you. Maybe you were groggy or asleep, but our first meeting gave birth to twin deaths. I was attacked, and while I killed one, he killed the other. My introduction to Alron was through death. Death introduced us, and now death has separated us. In truth, it was death or the threat of it that kept us from getting to know each other. There was always a black-clad threat that we were running or hiding from. His focus was on my protection, and now he’s dead because I couldn’t grant him the one thing that he tried so hard to give me every day: protection.”
Lauren was getting angry, and Ryan knew that was the wrong route, “Maybe he was your protector, but he cared about you. He knew this quest or whatever it is would tax you. I think he tried to push you to be a better, no, to be a stronger person. While your challenge may have been to find the children, I think his was to make you into the person you are today. Lauren, in less than a month, you’ve routed the traitors and spies…”
“I don’t care about any of that. Alron is dead. Dead!”
“He cared about you. He showed that by making you a stronger person. So that you can do what you have to do.”
“He died. If my quest isn’t over, why did he have to die?” Looking down at her hands, she could still see Alron’s blood on them and started to cry again.
Ryan talked with Lauren all day, and when her anger at herself or this world welled up, he would find a way to bring her back down. They talked about how Alron helped change her from the scared schoolgirl to the feared Earth Mother. He spent most of the day just holding her, letting her get the denial and anger out of her system.
As the first sun sank behind the horizon, Lauren stopped, “He’s with Mother now.” The tears that had ended an hour ago started again. Crying so hard and for so long, Lauren exhausted herself. After rocking her back and forth, he picked her up, taking her upstairs, and watched over her until Gingaar came in to relieve him. While he was tired, he was not tired enough. He wanted to be so tired that when he laid his head down, the nightmares would not arrive. Climbing up on the outer town wall, he watched the northern lights for hours. It was well past the midnight hour when he headed for bed, and his last thought was of Laurens face, which quickly changed into Samantha’s, and with the gate now open, the nightmares flooded in.
*******
The small group had traveled north and then west for two days. When the road ended, they spotted a small hill that was clear of trees, facing the rising suns. They carefully extracted the body of Alron from the wagon, making their way through the forest trails. Once on the hill, the Ironhouse brothers dug the grave, as the Earth Mothers stripped Alron of his bloody clothes, cleansed his body, and dressed him in his burial robes.
Finding a large rock, Bor carved it:
Alron Icefeather
Greatest Elf Earth Guard
Friend of Dwarf
Proud member of Ironhouse
Friend of Midlanders
Protector of the West
He Serves Mother Now
In small letters at the bottom, he added; Desecrate this grave, find you I will, and signed the bottom: Bor Ironhouse.
Each took a few minutes to say goodbye—not a dry eye was to be found, and when done, Aaro and Bor gently placed Alron into the cold ground, filled in the grave, and placed the marker. As the first sun slid behind the horizon, the others joined hands, asking Mother to welcome her son home. When Arora sang an ancient song, the fresh ground turned hard, forming a stone tomb. Bending down, Nur planted a tree beside the gravestone. She talked to it, stroked it, watered it with her tears, and it grew until it was six feet tall. “Shade for you, brother, now rest.” Then they all returned to the wagons in silence.
*******
Ryan tossed and turned in his bed, wrestling with his dreams about Samantha. Ultimately, his brain separated the dream from reality, as a commotion from downstairs quickly broke the nightmare’s hold. He raced and stumbled down the stairs, finding Lauren standing at the front door with Erust blocking her passage.
“I want to go for a walk in the town.”
“No, Earth Mother. Panry was specific, and you shall not leave this house.”
“Out of my way, Erust!”
“No.”
“I’m Earth Mother, you are Earth Guard, my Earth Guard. Let me out!”
“No!” Then Erust slammed the door shut.
Even though Lauren was banging on the door, Erust refused to open it
Ryan made it to the ground floor where he noticed Eric, looking rough. “Go to bed. I’ll keep an eye on Lauren while you get some rest.” As Eric shook his head in disagreement, Ryan walked over to Lauren.
“They can’t do this to me.”
“Lauren, calm down.”
“I’m not a prisoner. What am I supposed to do here?”
“Nothing right now.”
“I need to do something.”
“I know, as it’s your nature. You were always moving and never could sit still. You always had to be in the lead, to be the one in charge. Right now, it’s complicated.”
“I don’t know what’s happening out there.”
As they talked, Ryan slowly escorted her to the table in the backyard, “I’ll go see Pintar, a
sking him to drop by and give you an update. Okay?”
“Yes, at least that’ll be a start.”
Ryan continued, “I was thinking about you and what’s going on right now. I remembered a time when you, Samantha, and Logan were over at my house. It was a long time ago, and we were much, much younger. The Winter Olympics were on TV, and we were watching the bobsleds. You made us get the cushions off the couch, and then the four of us made our own sled. You had to be the driver, making sure that we moved as the bobsled crew on the television did. So that we could hit the curves as they approached on the TV. You would get so upset when Logan would lean the wrong way, making us crash.”
“Dumb bastard,” Lauren smiled, “I remember that.”
“Right now, you’re the captain of a very large bobsled team. If you take off too fast out of the gate, you’ll leave some of us behind. If you don’t call the corners correctly, we crash or lose speed. You may be in the lead, but you’re not alone. You couldn’t have arrived here, or where you need to go on your own. As a team, we can bring home the gold.” Ryan took a deep breath, “Lauren, I don’t understand this presence you call Mother, but I do think it guides you. I think your actions are causing things to happen, to happen before the other side wants them to. Just remember, while you sit in the front of the sled, it’s the actions of those behind you that win the race, not you.”
Laurens mood changed to somber, “And of death? What words do you wish to share on that topic?”
Ryan paused for a few seconds, “There are three possibilities: none, some, or many will die. I doubt if none will die, as I don’t believe that there’s a peaceful solution to this conflict. Those clad in black have already shown how they favor a violent solution. At the opposite end, many could die, but I think you were sent here to stop that.”
“So, some will die?”
“Yes.”
“How many is some, Ryan?”
“More than none, less than many, but others will die. Some you may not know and others you will, but I think more will live because of what you do than die.”
“How do you know this?”
“It’s just a feeling I have.” Ryan went to the kitchen as the cook brought out a cup of hot bean juice for Lauren, who just sat there, looking up and wondering.
As Ryan watched Lauren from the kitchen, Logan joined him, “With the Earth Mothers away, I seem to have a few days off. How’s my sister doing?”
“She hurts, is confused, upset, angry. How’re you doing?”
“I liked the little guy, and he took a bullet for my sister, or in this case, a dagger. I’ve never seen that kind of—what would you call it? Service? Obligation? Duty? Is it Lauren’s fault that Alron died?”
“Fault and blame, they’re like raindrops in a storm, as they touch all too some degree,” began Ryan. “They attacked the Earth Mothers, including Lauren. If Zack hadn’t warned us, Hoyle would most likely be alive, and the Earth Mothers would all be dead. If that attack had been successful, this game would have changed radically. As for fault or blame, those are words we don’t need to speak of, and instead we need to talk about healing. Your sister could use your support. You know how she thinks, how she feels.”
“Zack wasn’t kidding when he said Lauren received all of the good traits. She has the looks, brains, emotion, and passion.”
“Well, what did you get?”
“Short changed. I’ll go talk to her, and see what I can do.” Logan then accepted a large mug of hot bean juice before walking into the backyard, “So a bear walks into a bar. Pintar says, why the long face?”
“You need to start writing down your jokes, so you can keep them straight,” replied Lauren. “It’s a horse walks into a bar.”
“Really, bears can walk on two legs, horses can’t. That doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“Then it wouldn’t be a joke. Horses have long faces, and bears have big paws.”
“Maybe I need a new iceberg to start conversations.”
“Icebreaker, not iceberg, though in your case most of the conversations you start do end up like the Titanic. Maybe you do need a new iceberg.”
“Well, now that we’ve completed our ritual exchange of disruption, how’re you doing?”
“Alron is dead, I’m a prisoner, Mother still isn’t talking to me, and everybody hates me. How’re you doing?”
“I watch two old ladies play mayor all day. For fun, I hide John’s pencils, which drives him crazy.”
“You’re such a bastard.”
“Do one thing, do it good.”
“Well, not good.”
“Whatever. Ryan tells me you’re angry, upset, confused. He talks like he has never met you before. Have you changed on me?”
Lauren felt like she should be crying, but Logan’s presence provided her with a sense of comfort, of family. “Alron died. He died because I was arrogant and rash. I made them bust into Hoyle’s house. I was angry about the attack. I’m sick and tired of being in second place. The black-clad spies and traitors know everything about us, and I’m completely in the dark. At some point, you know they’ll attack but when? I can’t prove there’s a threat, well, maybe now that some of the citizens saw the attack, maybe now they’ll believe me.”
“Everybody’s talking about it. There are some that don’t believe it, but most are shocked that the Earth Mothers were attacked.”
“So what’re they saying? What’re they going to do?”
“They’re talking,” began Logan, “still trying to figure out what it means. Give them a few more days. It’s like a giant pimple on their foreheads, and they don’t know if they should pop it or wait a few days to see if it goes away. However, they’re looking at it and talking about it.”
“Well, I guess that’s a start.”
“Look, you didn’t do anything wrong. Hoyle had black-clad soldiers in his house. We were attacked that night. He probably had his main plan and a backup. Yes, Alron died, but he had already faced a number of life-threatening situations with us. If it had been Mirtza that had died, it would be different. He didn’t sign up for this and he was sucked into this crazy mess like us. Alron had taken an oath to protect and serve, so he made a choice to save you. He could have pushed you out of the way, knocked your legs out from under you, jumped higher. Alron didn’t die. He let you live.” She never realized it, but the eyes of Logan dilated just a little, “If you don’t honor his sacrifice, finding a way to free the lands, then his death was a waste. Lauren, he gave you a gift, a very important gift, he gave his life for you. He always knew that you were more important than he was. That you had a mission that exceeded the value of his life. If he had failed, the loss would be great. Alron did what he had to do, and now Lauren needs to do what she has to do.”
“Have you been drinking with Zack again?”
“Sort of. It’s funny to watch him lick the beer out of a dish.” Then he stood, “I’m going to wander through the town and see what I can hear. If I stumble across anything interesting, I’ll let you know.” Then he mimicked an elf speech, “Lauren, what you do, not any other can. It shall be Lauren that…”
The look on Lauren’s face changed, hearing those words from her brother caught her attention.
“Just pulling your leg, sis. It wasn’t your fault, so don’t blame yourself.”
“Bastard.”
“Do one thing, do it good.”
“Stupid bastard.”
Smiling, he headed back into the house.
It was late in the afternoon when Pintar arrived. A servant led him to the backyard where Lauren still sat.
“Earth Mother, I am so sorry for your loss. Alron was a great elf, and I will miss his counsel.”
“Not like I will. It seems that I’m under house arrest right now, but I was wondering if you could give me any news.”
“The town is shaken. Many saw the bodies and the blood. Some have left the town and the shantytown. The dwarves rounded up six traitors that night, who all took their
own lives. Eric instructed the possession seized and brought here, but your Earth Guard denied us entry, so we took it all to the Town hall. I am also helping with the town watch while Eric stays here. So much gold, Earth Mother, I was unable to believe it.”
“I haven’t seen John around. How is he?”
“He does his work at the town hall. We have hired many guards, good guards, so he is well protected.”
Lauren nodded, “They buried Alron last night. He is with Mother now.”
“When will the Earth Mothers return?”
“In two or three days. The Ironhouse clan is absent from the house. Have you seen them?”
“They work in front of the town hall, carving an impressive-looking statue to honor Alron, and many of the dwarves are helping. Never have I seen a piece of rock transformed so quickly, as they work all hours of the day.”
“Why would they do that?”
“To make sure none forget his sacrifice, Earth Mother.”
“Of your Postal Service? What news?”
He provided a quick update on the hubs: construction duration, maning them, rider deployment, and anticipated arrivals.
“The mayors?”
“The two are scared, as they fail to understand what has happened. News of the traitors spread quickly, and no one mourned the death of Hoyle. Instead, the celebration was huge, standing room only. Especially if you are the only bar with beer.”
“Who manages the bar in your absence?”
“My wife and I have hired on several as business demands.”
“What about the watch?”
“Ramy has stepped up his game and is a good man, and I am helping him smooth off the rough corners of his plan. After the attack, I hinted that similar could happen. We found three tunnels into the fort, in addition to the one in Hoyle’s house, and he had them all filled in. They cleared the bushes away along the east and west walls, and now illuminate the walls with torches at night, and he is putting them through drills to sharpen their senses. Ramy has also set up posts about a day’s ride away. We have hired many, Earth Mother, and have more we want to hire, but the wolf will not leave the house until the Earth Guards return.” Pintar paused.