“You must not work during Winterfest,” Sita said quietly. “Tradition dictates it is a time of celebration. You look tired, faerie girl. Eat and rest, for the winter will be particularly long for you until you bloom with a child.” She appeared almost sympathetic, Lara thought.
“Thank you, lady, for your kindness,” Lara told her. “And I wish you a joyous Winterfest.” She gave Durga’s wife a small smile and then returned to her own quarters.
Darkness fell quickly that day, and the moon would not rise until late. From her windows through the bare branches Lara watched the red-gold sunset, and then the fires began to spring up as if the light had been transferred. Soon Lara could hear the singing and carousing from both Durga’s hall and the village below. She ate what she could, and wrapped bread, cheese, apples and pears in a napkin which she tied up carefully. Next she transferred the wine from her carafe into a water skin that Og had given her. She dressed herself in all three of her chemises and gowns, tucking her pearwood brush into the pocket of her cloak, which lay across the foot of the bed. As an afterthought she added her sewing implements. Then she lay down to rest, and slept for several hours until she was awakened by the sound of pebbles being thrown at her window. Rising, she went to the window and opened it.
“Og?” she called softly.
“It is time, Lara,” his voice whispered back.
“A moment while I gather my things,” she said to him.
“Hurry!” he returned.
She had barred her door earlier when she heard Durga outside fitting a great timber across the portal from his side. She had noisily turned the lock, and set the small iron bar into place, hearing his grunt of approval as she did so. Now she quickly donned her cloak, strapped the wineskin across her chest, and gathered up her packet of food. Opening the window she called down to Og to catch her pack so her hands would be free to climb. Then she dropped the shawl, hearing his grunt as he caught it.
Carefully, Lara climbed out onto the thick wide branch, her only light coming from the fireplace in her bedchamber. Turning slowly, she pulled the window shut behind her. Then following Og’s whispered instructions, she inched out upon the branch, remembering not to look down. The giant instructed her to sit down upon the branch, and to her relief, she felt the tree limb below her feet, as sturdy as the one above. She stood upon it, and moved out upon the second branch. Her heart was hammering, for it suddenly occurred to her she could easily be killed if she fell. She stopped, frozen.
“Just a few feet more, Lara,” Og encouraged her gently.
She forced herself forward again. Praise the Celestial Actuary that there was no wind. The night was very cold, however. Above her the black skies were filled with twinkling stars. She thought for a moment how very beautiful it all was, and then she heard Og instruct her to sit down carefully on the branch. Lara did, and immediately she felt him pick her up. She was set down in the pack on his back, and she smiled to discover he had lined it with furs, and there was a fur robe to keep her warm. Her pack had been set there, too. Lara undid the strap of the wineskin, and laid it aside. Her quarters were not commodious, but there was enough room to be comfortable.
“Are you settled?” he whispered to her.
“It’s lovely!” she told him.
“Then we are off!” he said. “Remain quiet, Lara, particularly if we are stopped.”
But they were not stopped. Og moved quickly and quietly from the vicinity of Durga’s hall and its village into the deep Forest. He carried a small lantern with him to light his way, carefully avoiding the villages of other Forest Lords and the Winterfest fires that blazed in some of the more remote locations. Finally the full moon arose, and he put out the lantern, hanging it on the wide leather belt he wore around his tunic. His stride was great, and halfway between the darkness and the dawn he exited the deep woods, finally reaching the scrubland of the border. He had kept off the main track, and now the ground beneath him became more sandy. Around him, great dunes began to arise.
Deep within the pack, Lara lay sleeping. She was warm, and felt safe for the first time in months. The rhythm of the giant’s steps lulled her, and although she had meant to stay awake she couldn’t. When she finally did awaken she reached instinctively for the crystal about her neck. Ethne? she whispered softly.
I am here, the guardian of the crystal answered her.
What will happen now?
You will simply continue your journey, Ethne responded. It is yet the beginning.
When will my journey end? Lara asked.
When you have completed it, Ethne told her. Do not ask foolish questions of me, child.
How will I know when I have completed my journey? Lara persisted.
You will know, Ethne replied, and the flame flickered, and grew dim again.
“Og,” Lara called. “Are we free of the Forest yet? It seems the air is growing warmer. I have thrown off the furs.”
“We are already in the Desert, Lara, and it is almost dawn. I am seeking a place for us to shelter, for the day will be hot. I believe there is an oasis up ahead. Remain safe within my pack for a bit longer,” he advised.
She took his advice because as long as she remained his passenger, he was able to travel faster. She had never seen a Desert, and did not know what to expect, but it was certainly getting hotter with each step he took. She had never before felt such heat, but after the damp winter’s chill of the Forest she could not complain.
“Ah, there is the oasis up ahead. There will be shade and water for us,” Og said. “Or so at least my memory recalls.”
“Are there people there?” Lara asked him.
“I don’t know,” he answered her. He took several more steps, and then they were there. “I am going to lift you out now, Lara,” he told her. “I shall set my pouch down so you may exit.” Carefully he undid the buckles that had secured the pouch to his big body, and then he gently set it upon the ground.
Lara stepped forth, blinking in the startling daylight. She looked up. The sky above was a clear bright blue. There wasn’t a cloud to be seen. The sun shone down upon them hot and fierce. The trees around them were tall with rough-barked trunks, and leafy green fronds; they were nothing like the trees she had seen before in either the Forest or the City. There was also a small pool with a waterfall, which she thought amazing in the midst of all this barrenness. Looking further, she espied a stone well at the oasis’s center. And then turning, Lara gazed beyond the border of strange trees. An endless sea of sand stretched before her. There wasn’t a living soul to be seen anywhere but for her, and Og.
Chapter 8
“IT IS BOTH BEAUTIFUL and frightening,” Lara said softly. Above her, a hawk soared.
Og nodded slowly. “I have the knowledge of what the Desert is from my collective memory,” he noted, “but like you I have never before seen it. It has great majesty, but I sense it can be dangerous. I think because of the sun and the heat we would do well to rest here during the day, and not travel until the night. Perhaps we should remain here until we can learn what phase the Desert moon is in, for it will not be full as the Forest moon is now. We have food, and if the well is not dry, we have water, too.” He walked over to the stone edifice, and lowered the bucket.
Lara heard a splash as the bucket reached water and watched as Og tasted the liquid in the returned bucket. “Is it sweet?” she asked him.
“Aye, we are fortunate,” he told her.
“Why is it no one lives here?” Lara wondered aloud.
The giant shrugged. “The Desert folk wander part of the year, and the other part of the year they live at the foot of their princes’ castles. We must find a settlement in the next few days before we run out of food. I doubt there are many oases such as these. We will not be as fortunate when we leave here.”
“Perhaps we’ll find a village, Og. Or we could walk across the Desert into another realm,” Lara suggested brightly.
“Beyond the Desert is the Outlands,” he told her. “It is the
most dangerous place on Hetar with no form of government, or laws. The people there have loyalty only to themselves, or perhaps their clans or tribes. You have said yourself that it is very uncivilized. I don’t want to go there, nor should you.”
“What if we have no choice?” Lara asked him.
“Pray the Celestial Actuary that we do,” the giant told her.
“Search your memories, Og. If there are giants in other provinces of Hetar, perhaps there are giant clans in the Outlands as well.”
“Aye, there are giants there, too, but I will not speak of them,” he replied. “Are you hungry, Lara? You have not eaten since last night.”
“Are we far enough into this Desert not to be caught?” she asked him.
“We are many leagues from the hall of the Head Forester,” he reassured her. “Even if they rode out at sunrise today, they could not catch us for several days, and we are well into this kingdom.”
“We have no papers,” she said. “What if we meet a caravan?”
“We are a giant and his mistress traveling through the Desert,” Og said. “And there is no caravan. This oasis is off the main track. Now I shall set up my pack as a tent for you to shelter from the sun, lest your fair skin be burned. We will eat and rest. Perhaps you would like to cool yourself in the pool by the waterfall.” As he spoke he emptied out the knapsack in which Lara had traveled the previous night. Several wooden poles had been used to give the pack its shape. Og removed them, and used them to make a shelter. He hung Lara’s wineskin, and spread the furs tanned side up for a bed.
“I am going to seek what wood I can find, and any dried fronds from the trees. We will burn them tonight in a fire to keep any beasts away,” Og told his young companion. “See the ring of stones there? Others have made fires here.”
The sun was growing hotter. Lara coaxed Og to cease his work, and come into the tent. He could not stand in it as she could, but he was able to crawl in and sit, provided he kept his head low.
Lara fed them from her small stash of food, and Og surprised her with several loaves of bread he had managed to secrete for himself. They drank a little of the wine to assuage their thirst in the heat of the day, and then lay down to sleep. When they awoke, it was early evening. They were hot, and Lara felt a headache coming on.
“I can’t swim,” she told Og, “but I can cool myself in that pool. Come with me, and enjoy the water, too.”
“If I went into that pool,” he chuckled, “I fear I would cause all the water in it to flow out. But I will certainly soak my feet.”
Together they walked to the little pool, and Lara waded in up to her neck, sighing with delight, for the water was indeed cold. She had earlier removed the extra garments she had worn on their escape, and now wore just a fine cotton chemise, which would dry quickly enough in the hot Desert air. The bottom of the pool was soft yellow sand, and she scrunched her toes in it happily. In her entire life she did not think she had felt so free, and she smiled at Og, who sat on the edge of the pool, a look of bliss upon his face as he soaked his feet in the cold water, lifting a hairy leg now and again to let the waterfall splash over his feet, ankles and shins.
The hot air dried them swiftly, and as night began to fall the air grew first cool and then almost cold. They were glad of the furs in the tent. They ate the remainder of Lara’s bread and cheese, and finished her wine. Og lit the fire by simply pointing a finger at the kindling and saying, “Fire light!”
“How on earth did you do that?” Lara wanted to know.
“All giants have certain abilities,” he remarked. “The Forest giants can light fires by just pointing and commanding. How do you think I heated the water for your daily visits to the bathhouse? We must take turns keeping watch, Lara. I will take the first shift, and awaken you in several hours.”
“Why do you need to watch?” she asked him. “Do you think Durga and Enda will come after us?”
“Nay, but there are wild animals here in the Desert. Now get some rest, Lara. Soon it will be your turn to watch.”
She lay down in the makeshift tent to sleep. She had never known such quiet and such peace. Not even the Forest had been so silent. She was safe, she knew, as Og sat cross-legged before the fire singing softly to himself. Lara’s eyes closed, and she slept a dreamless sleep until Og gently shook her shoulder to awaken her for the watch. Drowsily, she arose.
“I have built up the fire, and there is no wind tonight,” Og said. “The Desert moon is high in the sky. Awaken me just before it sets,” he instructed her.
Lara sat by the fire, and soon the air was rent by the sound of the giant’s snores. She grinned and then grew serious, considering the day she had just lived through. At this time the previous night she had been in her chambers in Durga’s hall. Now, if Og was correct in his estimation, they were many, many leagues away from that hall, and from the Forest. He had told her that each step he took was a full league, and he had traveled many hours once they left Durga’s realm. When had they discovered her missing, she wondered, and what had they done? Had they discovered Og missing yet, or just dashed off seeking her? Knowing Durga and Enda, they had mounted up, and with their men, gone racing off to find her. It would not be until they discovered Og missing, too, that they might realize that Lara was with the giant. But Og had encountered no one since leaving Durga’s village. It would not be known in which direction they fled.
Suddenly Lara heard the faintest of rustles in the growth by the pool. She stared hard into the darkness. “Is someone there?” she asked softly, but there was no answer, and she was surrounded by deep silence again. In the sky above her the copper moon was in its first quarter, and a shadow of cloud moved swiftly across it. She shivered briefly, hugging herself with her arms. Then laughing softly at herself for being foolish, she turned back to the warm fire. A rat, most likely, she decided, come to drink from the water of the pool.
In the darkness the man stared quietly at the beautiful maiden. She reminded him of a faerie, but she could be only part faerie, because there was also something very human about her. He had seen her but briefly from the air this morning, and wondered who was camping at the oasis of Zeroun. It was well off the beaten track, and her giant companion would have to travel almost an entire night to reach a settlement. Drawing his cloak about him the man became invisible and quickly slipped into the tent where the giant lay snoring. Bending down, he murmured into the large fleshy ear, “Go north tomorrow evening. By dawn you will reach safety. Remember, north. The great constellation, Belmair, will guide you.” Then he departed the tent, and was gone. Og stirred restlessly, but did not awaken.
Lara nodded by the fire, half asleep now. The shadow gently placed more wood upon the blaze so it would not go out, and then disappeared into the darkness. Lara started awake. She had no idea what had roused her, but everything seemed to be fine. The fire was burning high, and she could hear Og’s snores coming from their tent. She smiled, thinking how wonderful it was to be free of Enda and Durga. What foolishness to believe having children of her body could end a curse placed upon them by a faerie queen! She had no magic, although Og said she merely lacked the knowledge of how to use it. But if she were interested in this alleged magic, who would teach her how?
She was glad for the fire, and surprised that the night had grown very cool. After the heat of the day she would not have thought it. She watched the quarter moon make its journey across the skies. She had now seen three of Hetar’s four moons; the pale blue moon of the City and the Midlands, the light green moon of the Forest and finally the copper-colored Desert moon. She had heard that the coastal moon was a warm butter-yellow. Of course, in the Outlands, one could see all four moons at once-but each shone a silvery white on that side of Hetar. The moon before her was now ready to set. Rising, Lara went into the tent and wakened Og.
He rose sleepily, giving her a warm smile. “You will sleep again,” he said. “We will remain here today, and then tonight we will go north. I think we will find some sort of se
ttlement to the north.” Crouching, he shook out the furs for her.
“How can you travel so far with each step you take?” Lara asked him, laying down again. “Your legs are long, but certainly not long enough to go a full league with each step that you take, Og.”
“It’s my magical boots,” he said. “I asked Durga’s grandfather, who found me in the Forest, if I might make myself some boots. I was only eight at the time, and had been barefoot all of my life. I told him my feet grew cold in the winter months, and if I lost my feet I should be of no use to him. He liked having the only surviving Forest giant for his own slave, and so he said he would have boots made for me, for what would a boy know of making boots? I was grown when he finally died, and without anyone else’s knowledge I then made my own boots according to the knowledge I inherited from my people. No one noticed that the boots I wore were different. I walk normally, except when I tell the boots they must walk a league. Then my stride lengthens, and I can cover great distances,” he explained.
“Why didn’t you run away before?” Lara wondered.
“There was no reason to,” he told her.
“But the Forest folk were not kind to you, Og,” Lara protested.
“Nay, they were not, but they were all I had, faerie girl. For better or for worse they were the only family I possessed,” he told her. “But now you need me. You are young, Lara, and you have no idea of the powers within you. Until you learn how to access those powers, and use them wisely, I must be there to protect you. In my mind’s eye I remember the faeries of the Forest. Your mother was surely one of them. The Forest giants were the faeries’ allies. It is my duty to keep you safe for this part of your journey. Eventually you will not need me, but now you do.”
She smiled up at him. “I want you with me forever, Og,” she told him, and then closing her eyes, she fell asleep. She did not see the love he had for her in his pale eyes.
Lara Page 19