by Sohan Ahmad
“Master never gives me a free day,” Tyr said, dragging the two boys at his back as if they were children. “Please don’t ruin this for me. I just want to give this to your sister so we can be friends.”
Thena tugged at her brother’s sleeve with all the might in her slender arms. “Please stop, don’t hurt him.”
But it was for not. “Friends?” Erik questioned, laughter seeping out from his hyena mouth. “A piece of trash like you wants to be friends with my sister? Look at you! The only thing filthier than the rags on your back is the skin on your face.”
As long as Thena keeps smiling, I don’t care what you say about me. Tyr convinced himself.
However, Erik’s cruelty extended beyond mere words. “Where did you pick this up?” he asked, grabbing the bauble out of Tyr’s distracted hands. “Did you pull it out of the garbage when you were digging for scraps?”
“Stop, you’ll break it,” Tyr warned, his shield of calm wilting as Erik pulled at the chain.
“You see?” Erik cackled through his hyena mouth as links of locket shattered and scattered to the street. “It’s a cheap piece of junk, just like you.”
Tyr ceased his feigned struggle. I tried, but no more. A cold looseness returned to his body as Erik swung his closed fist. Thena shut her eyes, dreading the thud of clashing bone, but to her surprise, the sounds of pain came from her brother’s lungs. Tyr easily escaped the feathery grasp of goons who were virgins to true violence. His captors crumbled to the ground as he caught Erik’s wrist, gripping it in a twist. I was trying to be normal! He shouted within his heart as the hyena attempted a second strike, but Tyr was in his killer’s mind. You can break too. It’s only fair. Tyr thought, swaying his head to latch onto the bend in Erik’s elbow.
The more Erik struggled, the tighter Tyr’s grip became, grinding bones like the patient squeeze of a python. “Get off me!” he shrieked, his once dominant tone shrinking further with each futile movement. “Please, let me go. I’ll do anything,” he squealed, tears pouring down his hyena cheeks.
The sight of tears melted the ice that had consumed his gaze. What have I done? He thought, staring at his steady hands as his eyes shuddered. It was so easy. I couldn’t even stop myself. He’s right, I am a freak. Erik, I’m so sorry. “Please forgive…”
Before the apology could leave his mouth, Thena shouted at her brother, “That’s what you get for acting like a troll!” She grabbed Tyr’s hand, and ran off, leading Tyr toward the nearby river.
As the two faded from sight, Erik warned, “Sister, I swear that Mother and Father will hear of this!” However, his threat scattered into the wind, vanishing before it ever reached their ears.
The young couple finally emerged at the riverbank, a small hill of grassy green. Once Thena’s ragged breath return to her chest, she plopped down on the cool spring grass, placing her hands beneath her dress as a pillow. “Tyr, please don’t be angry with my brother,” she said, gazing beyond the moon bridge that stretched across the water beside them. Wide enough to carry catapults and gate crackers, it led into a vast distance of meadows and mountains that stretched for miles ahead of them. “I know it is hard to see, but he is actually a good person once you get to know him. Just be patient with him, and I’m sure he’ll like you as much as I do.”
A cold sweat moistened Tyr’s palms as he hesitated to join her on the green. Even after what I did to him? He wondered. Why would you like a killer like me? Every tick along his skin wrote the anguish upon his face.
“Tyr, it’s okay. You’re safe now. Come sit with me. Erik can’t hurt you anymore”
“You don’t have to apologize for him,” he said, her words washing his tension away like leaves in the nearby stream. “I never had a brother or sister, but I think he’s just trying to protect you. If I had a sister as kind and pretty as you, I’d probably do the same thing.”
Her olive cheeks flushed pink. She slowly inched her quaking hand towards his. “So, Tyr, is it true that you live with a swordsman?”
I can’t tell if she’s curious or scared. Unable to find the truth in her hidden eyes, he nodded. “I don’t have a mother and father. I’ve been living with my master for as long as I can remember.”
“I’m so sorry, Tyr,” Thena said, glancing at him with glazed eyes before turning her gaze to the grass once more. “I had no idea. Did you lose your them to the wars?”
“That’s a good question,” Tyr answered. There was blood I think. Thena inched closer and his hold on the blurry memory crumbled. “To be honest, I don’t know,” he said, his cheeks red as beets. “I just don’t seem to have any. When Master found me, I was alone in the woods near the capital. There was no sign of my mother and father so Master took me in.”
“You’re so brave Tyr!” Thena said with a tremble. “It must have been so hard for you.”
That look…He saw a familiar fear in her eyes. Is that how I looked when Master found me? “I don’t need your pity,” he said with a grimace as she inched back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…Thank you, but I can’t miss them since I don’t remember them, and besides, I’m happy living this way.”
“It’s not your fault. Sometimes Erik says I talk to too much.” Thena dared not meet his eyes. I’m so blessed to still have my mother and father.
“Don’t listen to him,” Tyr advised. “I love hearing you talk.”
“Really?” she asked. The burst of red within her cheeks renewed her courage. “So, Tyr, what is your master like?”
“He is never far from his books or his blade,” the boy answered, regaining the smile that she had first inspired. “Master is as wise as he is strong, and he is the strongest person I have ever seen. I remember when I first saw his face, it was cold and frightening, but now my heart warms every time I see it. Sometimes he can be tough, but I think he’s doing his best to look out for me, so I don’t complain.”
“What do you do for fun?” she asked, ever more curious.
“We fight and hunt all the time,” Tyr replied, a grin painting the width of his face. “I usually end up in bandages, but one day, I am going to get him, you just watch. Oh, and whenever he patches up my wounds, he tells me stories of all of the famous warriors he has faced. It’s the best.”
Thena did her best to appreciate his methods for merriment. “That sounds . . . wonderful.” But she could not hide her concern for his safety.
“My life must frighten you,” Tyr said, passion fading after seeing the troubled glaze in her eyes. “But there’s no need for worry. I have lived this way for so long that the fear doesn’t bother me anymore.” It keeps me alive. His easy words about difficult matters did little to dampen her angst. Oh no, I’m scaring her again. “What about you? What are your mother and father like?”
Her head cowered in the folds of her elbows. But my life is so boring compared to yours. A murmur, as quiet as a mouse’s whisper, rose to the surface. “My father is a merchant, and my mother tends our home.” She poked her eyes, ever so slightly, above the rim of her forearms to witness his reaction.
Tyr’s eyes were as large as an infant’s. “Tell me more. I always wondered what real mothers and fathers were like.”
Thena felt an awkward sense of comfort wash over her. She slowly lifted her head from hiding with each word. “Well, my father is the smartest person I know, and people always tell me how fair his prices are. He can see a man’s true character with one glance, he always says.”
His eyes continued to span open with interest. “Wow, I thought Master was the only one that could do that. What about your mother, what is she like?”
Her earlier hesitations melted away like lingering winter snow in the first days of spring. “Mother prepares meals for the children who lost their fathers to war. She’s everything I want to be when I am older: kind, compassionate, and beautiful.”
Tyr grabbed hold of her olive hands and gazed at her with the purest eyes she had ever seen. “You already are.” As the warmth of her milky skin tickled his f
ingers, he panicked. So soft and warm, but I can’t catch my breath. What happened? His heart was touched by thunder, pounding so furiously that it nearly pierced his chest.
Thena felt the slipping grip of his sweaty palms and pulled him toward her. “Don’t leave! Please, stay a while longer.” Their shared existence stood frozen in time, if only for a moment, unifying the beats of two thudding hearts. They sat together on the cool spring grass, staring into the setting sun until a heavy, unsettling rhythm woke them from their dream. Waves rippled within the still river and clouds of dust scattered from the rocky pillars of the moon bridge as a large formation of soldiers began to cross it.
Soldiers! Tyr’s eyes burst with excitement as he darted up the hill with her in tow. “Follow me, Thena.” She was frightened but could not break free of his passionate hold. There were nearly one hundred men at arms marching, traveling west through the border town. Lines of infantry moved to the synchronized orders of their commanding officer, a man of little glamour. Four feathers dangled from the top of his helmet, as if they were plucked from a dying bird, and the gleam of his breastplate had been dulled in a bath of mud and grass. Are they going into battle? Who are they going to fight?
Tyr’s thirst for answers went unquenched as none of the men would brake formation to humor a child until an oddly exuberant voice called out from behind, “Mind your feet, little one.” The speaker sat atop the gold-plated eagle head of a magnificently brutal gate cracker, protected by a roof of steel as jagged spearheads spun at the center of each of its eight wheels. The rolling spikes brushed by the two children, inches from scraping the flesh from their legs.
Despite the warning, Tyr hardly noticed the danger at his feet as Thena took shelter behind him. “Where are you heading?” he asked the jolly soldier.
“No place that concerns boys and girls,” the soldier answered. “Now forget you seen us and enjoy the sweet winds of spring while you can.”
However, Tyr ignored his warning. “Are you going west to fight the Radink?”
“Hush, boy,” the bowman said, reluctant to speak as he scanned the perimeter for his commanding officer. “Not supposed to speak to civilians,” he whispered. “Quiet your voice and I’ll tell ya.” Tyr tightened his lips and opened his ears. “Three days past, a pigeon flew a long ways east from the village of Sun Branch to the castle coops of Tempo. The frightened little sky mouse carried a blood-smudged message within its tiny talons. ‘The land is overrun with Sand Rats,’ it said.”
Tyr had heard of such creatures from his master. Sand Rats are the finest scouts of the Radink, feared as much as they are hated for what they do to their victims. Strips of tattered, mud-soaked rags mask the twisted flesh of their scorched faces. They travel in packs and swarm through villages and unsoldiered towns like a plague, burning everything to ash with no interest in spoils or captives. Still, the most terrifying thing is what followed them. If rats are present, their masters are never far behind.
Though Thena was too blessed to fear his words, the bowman caught the angry glint in the boy’s eyes. “Worry not, young ones. We been ordered to cut em off. The dead’ll have their vengeance before long. Now shoo before I find trouble.” He fished around in his pockets, retrieving a large chunk of chocolate. “Here’s something. Help ya forget such bitter tales. It was meant for my son, but go ahead and take it for your girlfriend. Can always get him another one before I come home.”
Tyr had never tasted such delights, but one whiff and the sweet scent danced from the hairs of his nostrils to the bumps of his tongue. “Thank you, good sir. My name is Tyr. May the gods grant you luck in battle.”
The bowman chuckled. “Many thanks, boy, but not quite a knight. Simple Robyn Whisp from the forests of Rain Feather. If ya’re good children, I’ll bring more chocolate for ya two too,” he said, waving his hand with back turned as the parade of soldiers continued their march westward across the bridge. The children bid them farewell and returned to the raised grass on the riverbank full of intrigue.
Tyr ripped through the wrapping of paper wax and snapped the chunk in two. They each chomped down into the sugary morsel, swirling the slowly melting brown between their teeth and tongues. The pink walls inside their cheeks burst with the most sensational tingle. Their once pearly white smiles turned dark with candied gunk causing each to double over in laughter. “I have never been so happy,” Thena claimed as she leaped forward and threw her soft olive hands behind Tyr’s slender neck in embrace.
Tyr’s most tense nerves melted away like the chocolate on their lips, and his arms dangled limp for a moment before returning the gesture. “Me too.” Unfortunately, the sun’s once golden glow had turned amber amid their tiny adventure, signaling the return of dusk. “Thena, I don’t want to leave, but I need to return home before Master gets worried.”
"I should do the same, my father and mother can be overly anxious at times. Can I see you again?” she asked.
“Of course!” Tyr answered, his words quicker than his thoughts. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.”
Though it saddened them to part, Thena waved farewell with a smile, believing that dawn would eventually reunite them. Tyr returned to the woods that evening with head raised high, a wide, gleeful grin painting the span of his face. Zephyrus feigned slumber as he entered their home. I should warn the boy that his happiness cannot last, and yet I cannot.
As the boy’s head caressed the rough cloth casing of stuffed straw, his sleeping mind began to wander the twilight planes of fantasy. Vague glimpses of the future flashed across the blank mirrors of his dreams where he grew taller and grayer as his eyes shined softer and brighter. Thena stood with him in each image as wife until she became a mother in the last when finally, the chirps of morning birds awoke him to reality.
A wet gloss glazed his crusted eyes as if his mind still gazed into illusion. Tyr’s lost all desire for the sword. I should warn him. The Wind worried.
“What’s wrong Master,” Tyr asked, equally concerned. “You’re starting at me. Do I have something on my face?”
I should… “No, it’s nothing.” He still could not find the words to warn his disciple of the hidden dangers of happiness. Gods, let his fate be unlike any other who has been forced to walk the crimson road, Zephyrus prayed. An oddly naive notion for such a schooled man, but he cared not. Prove me wrong, prove us all wrong.
Seven moons vanished through the black night skies until it came time for Tyr to restock their home. Upon completing his tasks, he searched Scilia with the unrelenting spirit of a hound. Where is she? The usual places did not hold her. I’ll find you, please wait for me. He combed through each corner of the town until he found her sitting beside the largest wind tower the eastern Sky Crafters had built there. She was alone, basking in the breeze of the tower’s spinning blades until her eyes caught his. They ran toward one another as if they had been separated for years.
A tight embrace warmed their bodies and their hearts. “Come with me,” Thena said, leading Tyr toward the patch of grass where she had been sitting. As they sat, gazing upon the cool, blue sky, a timid tension wriggled down her neck. “Tyr, what is your dream?” she asked the green between her feet. “What do you want to be when you are older?”
Lately, you’re all I’ve been thinking about. But, he had nearly forgotten his promise to the Wind. “There are many things I’d like to do, but only one thing is certain. One day, I will be the greatest swordsman in the world,” he said, his tone as steady as the sky before them. “What about you?”
Thena’s cheeks grew flush with a rose’s red as tiny sparks of lightning coursed to her fingertips, causing her speech to stutter. “I suppose . . . umm . . . I would very much . . . like to become the greatest swordsman’s wife.”
“That’s a good dream too,” Tyr said, nodding his head until it finally dawned on him, Does she mean me? The corners of his lips stretched so wide that they nearly split his bright red face in half. Did we have the same dream the other nigh
t? He wondered, his mind soon going blank with bliss.
Growing ever concerned by his silence and frozen feet, Thena inched closer and kissed him softly on the cheek. He fell into a trance; his body was a cloud drifting endlessly toward the heavens with no hopes of returning to the ground. The gift did not end there. From a tiny fold within her dress of blue and spotted white, she removed a disk of sugar painted like the rainbows born of spring rain.
However, just before she could place it in his hands, a voice called out from the distance, “Thena, get over here this instant!” A man and woman ran towards them upon shuffled feet from within the shadow of the square. His tunic was finer than most within this border town, blue satin trimmed with gold lace and jade straps.
“Father! What are you doing here?” Thena asked in a panic. Zacharya Pelamar was a farmer by blood but a merchant by trade, amassing a sizable estate from the sales of local harvests. His wife, Marina, was raised a farmer’s daughter, simple in her styling. No jewels or gems ordained her canary yellow gown, only dread-filled sapphires where her eyes should have been.
Marina quickly threw herself in front of their daughter as if she were protecting her from a beast. Why do they stare at me like I’m a rabid dog? Tyr wondered as he broke the bitter silence. “Sir Pelamar, it is nice to finally meet you,” he said, formality forcing its way atop his common tongue. “Thena has told me such wonderful things about you both. Please allow me to . . .”
The back of her father’s hand snapped across his cheek like a lash. “Shut your mouth, killer. I know exactly what you are! My son has told me everything about you and your murderous master. The pits will ice over a thousand times before I allow you to touch my daughter again.”
Zacharya and his wife dragged Thena home by the width of her wrist. “Let me go, Father!” she begged, a stream of tears muffling the ferocity of her lungs. “Brother lies. Tyr is kind and gentle, give him a chance,” she pleaded, digging her heels against the grass as best she could, but it was not enough.