Haven (War of the Princes)

by A. R. Ivanovich

  He swayed when he stood, and I didn’t even consider feeling uncomfortable by slipping an arm around him to help him walk. If you would have asked me whether I’d ever put my arm around the waist of a stranger twenty-four hours ago, I would have asked if you were crazy. There was more at stake here than traditional meekness. If I didn’t help him, he could die. It was that simple.

  Heat radiated off of him like the sun at midday and set my shocked nerves to tingling. He didn’t seem to mind that I was pretty much a walking icicle.

  “You’re freezing,” he noted.

  “You’re burning,” I replied.

  “Surprise, surprise,” he said sarcastically and I smiled.

  “Come on,” I said forcing us forward. “One foot in front of the other.”

  He struggled ahead, pushing and pulling me this way and that as he fought to maintain his equilibrium. The weight of his arm around my shoulders was already very uncomfortable.

  “Yes sir,” he said, with an inflection on “sir” that I had never heard before.

  “If you don’t pull it together, you’re going to squish me,” I complained, battling to stabilize him as we shambled along.

  “Sorry,” he apologized honestly. After a few deep breaths he’d made a considerable improvement. He still needed to rely on me for balance, but at least we weren’t swinging like a hammock in a windstorm anymore.

  As we began our trek, I wondered how lucky I’d be at finding us a way out of the cave. I had absolutely no idea how to picture the outside, so I imagined seeing a big sky, unobstructed by caverns. Couldn’t go wrong there.

  Finding what I was looking for had never been so risky, and the consequences of failing had never been so grave.

  Chapter 11: Finding The Sky

  The phrase, “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” kept leaping to the forefront of my thoughts. Part of me recognized that I must be completely out of my mind for straying so far from home when no one else in history ever had, not to mention leaping off a cliff to help a stranger who could die because he was fighting something called a “Lurcher.”

  I should have been terrified out of my wits. I shouldn’t have blundered into all of this, but didn’t dwell on it. Save for the irritating squeaking of the voice of reason in the back of my mind, I was too busy focusing on getting Rune to safety.

  The good news was that I wasn’t freezing anymore. My skin was damp and clammy, but between my physical exertion and the six-foot tall guy with a fever hunched beside me, I was beginning to feel a combination of uncomfortably toasty and annoyingly waterlogged.

  The only thing more difficult than keeping my balance was holding the heavy lantern up under the weight of Rune’s arm on my shoulders. I wasn’t sure how long we had struggled along, winding our way through the narrower tunnels of the crystal-flecked cave. They all looked the same and intersected so frequently, it was easy to respect Rune’s loss of heart.

  “How did you manage to get so deep in this cave in the first place?” I asked him between heavy breaths.

  “You’d be surprised how far you can stumble when you have an angry Lurcher on your heels. I didn’t want to run,” he murmured weakly. “Mick ordered me to. It wasn’t that he wanted to help me to save my life, it’s just that my life is worth more while my heart is still beating... for now.”

  “That’s horrible,” I said, understanding what he was saying but not the reasoning behind it. The idea was not something I could relate to. Why would a person want to keep another alive, but not care about them?

  “That’s life,” he replied bitterly.

  The next few moments felt uncomfortable to me. “What is a Lurcher?” I asked with earnest curiosity.

  “A very nasty animal with a book full of tricks and a taste for human blood. We hunt them. Dragoons, I mean, and the militia helps us. The more we kill, the better. The Commanders take the bodies,” Rune said, his voice trailing off, like he was about to say something else. He didn’t.

  “At least you’ll be able to go home soon,” I offered, trying to cheer him.

  “Home,” he smiled, and there was such softness in his eyes. “I have a little sister named Lina. She should be seven years old by now. Close to eight. I see her sometimes, when I make my way through town. I don’t think she understands that we’re not allowed to know each other. She’s a smart girl. Maybe she just doesn’t want to understand.”

  I still didn’t grasp the reason he wasn’t allowed to keep ties with anyone. So many things didn’t make sense, and I wasn’t sure if they ever would. As soon as I was certain he was safely out of here, I’d be homeward bound. There was only so much adventure a girl could take in one night.

  “You and your sister’s names don’t start with the same letter. Do you have different last names?” I asked as we limped around a sharp corner. I figured it was good to keep him talking.

  “No. We’re both Thayers. Why should our names start with the same letters?” he asked, sounding baffled.

  “Where I come from, almost everyone has the same letter in their first and last name. I’m Katelyn Kestrel,” I explained. “My little brother is close to your sister’s age. His name is Kevin, my dad is Keller, and my… mom is Kassey.”

  Rune began to shake, and at first I was worried about him, until I could hear the dry chuckle that followed. “That is ridiculous.”

  “It’s normal to me!” I said defensively. “You’re the weirdo.”

  “Weirdo?” he echoed.

  “Just reporting it like I see it,” I said with a grin.

  “Do you always prey on the weak?”

  “You’re an easy target,” I joked.

  “I won’t argue that.”

  “Good. I win at arguing.”

  “Is that something you should be proud of?”

  “When you’re as good at it as me, yes. I keep my prize ribbons right next to my ‘Talks-too-much and sounds-like-an-idiot’ trophies.”

  He chuckled between heavy breaths. There was something about making him laugh that made me feel good. Maybe it was just an unusual sound coming from someone who was obviously so unhappy… and feverish.

  “I think I’m eligible to win the sounds-like-an-idiot award,” he said cheerfully, belying the exhaustion in his voice. “I’d like to watch an event like that.”

  “It’s a lot less enjoyable when you’re participating. Right up there with looking-like-an-idiot,” I said remembering being thrown into the river by Calvin.

  “When I was twelve I won a city-wide award for one of my paintings. I was so surprised, I didn’t go up to claim the prize… I just stood there in the crowd. Everyone around me just stared. How far does that one get me?”

  “Silver.”

  “Tough break. I’m going to have to try harder at embarrassing myself,” Rune said, and I could see the flash of his white teeth in the corner of my eye when he smiled.

  “Hang around me long enough and there will be embarrassment in abundance,” I said with a droll grin.

  Was that fresh air I tasted? I’d hoped it wasn’t wishful thinking. My lungs were starting to hurt and I was beginning to feel very thirsty. It would be a shame if I were leading us into the belly of the world.

  “Where are you from?” he asked suddenly, squinting at me through the relative darkness. “You really are different. You treat me like a normal person.”

  “Maybe I’m from the moon,” I said noncommittally.

  “A ghost from the moon,” he said, weighing on me a little more, almost swaying again. “Odd combination. Maybe I’m dreaming this conversation. Maybe you’re just someone from Breakwater making up stories. I honestly can’t tell… not right now. But if you really are from another place, do me one last favor.”

  “Tall order. I’m already full on favors,” I said, joking again. This time he didn’t smile or laugh. “Okay, what is it?”

  “When we get outside,” his blue eyes flashed to mine and held them with an intensity I didn’t expect to see. “Leave me. Forget
we’d ever met. Go back to wherever you came from and never return here again.”

  “So much for making friends,” I said, evasively. I didn’t want to make a promise I couldn’t keep. My passage was a huge discovery that was not something to be selfish about. How could I go home and not think about showing someone what I found? How could I not come back?

  As long as I’d known him, which really wasn’t very long, Rune had seemed very tall but youthful to me. It wasn’t exactly mature to insist that someone right next to you was a ghost. When he talked about Lurchers and Dragoons, his expressions had become morose, but when I made light of his request, it seemed as though he alone carried the very weight of the world on his shoulders, and that burden transcended his years. He had transformed into a different person entirely.

  “Katelyn,” was all he had to say, and my silly little façades crumbled.

  “I’m planning on leaving right away,” I assured him.

  I was studying his tired face, wondering who he was and what the rest of the outside world was like, when the wind hit us. The blast of fresh air was so absent of pine that it confounded me. I never imagined that even the air would be so different. It smelled faintly of dried flowers and sage.

  Without exchanging another word, we hastened to the cave entrance. We’d made it. My luck had prevailed again. I straightened my sore back with the exhilaration of triumph.

  If the air was a surprise, our surroundings were anticlimactic. The maw of the cave opened to a moonless, starry night, obscured by rocks and the dark shapes of unfamiliar trees. I couldn’t see much else in the night.

  “We’re out,” I said, feeling the rising excitement of another discovery. A smile crept across my face and I looked at Rune to see his relief, but he had gone pallid, his head lolling to one side. I recognized the exact moment that he lost consciousness, his body going slack and pulling me down with him.

  I skidded to the rocky ground, awkwardly crumpled beside him, and managed to hit my bruised shin again. I barely had time to recoil in pain before his body began to slide down the crumbling slope of the cave’s lip. I dropped the lantern, ground my heels into the gravel and put all of my weight into stopping him from tumbling down farther.

  That woke him up.

  It looked like it took him a minute to register where he was and who was crouched beside him.

  “I’m sorry,” he breathed, when his eyes focused on me with recollection.

  He staggered slowly to his feet, gestured for me to retrieve the lantern, and with my help, made it to the foot of the slope without falling.

  I was gasping with exhaustion when he told me, “Just a little farther.”

  We ventured into the dry grasses and shaggy trees that stood too far apart to be called a forest. The trunks were bone white in the lantern light.

  This time Rune was leading. His breathing was ragged, nearly louder than the hapless crunching of our feet over the dry tall grass.

  I felt very unsafe, very exposed in the unknown night. As good as it felt to see the sky again, and as much as I hated the confines of small spaces, the cave was familiar now, more so than this place.

  We came upon the large broken trunk of a dead tree when Rune stopped walking. He shrugged away from my helping grasp and turned to face me, taking one of my hands.

  “I don’t have enough words to thank you,” he said formally, his accent curving his words. I could see how hard he struggled to stay on his feet. “I never thought I’d have a friend again. For that, I could say all of this was worthwhile.” He indicated his mauled arm. “If I survive until they find me, if I make it through this, I will never forget your kindness.”

  He released my hand and put his back against the dead tree, sliding down to sit.

  “Now, with all that you have left,” Rune Thayer implored me. “Get away from here.” He produced a tube from one of the pockets in his trousers and pulled the flare so that an unnaturally red flame shot high into the air, arched, and landed just outside of our circle of trees. “Get home. Run if you have to. And if you want to live a long and happy life, forget how you came here and that you ever knew me.”

  He was frightening me. The way he was talking reminded me of exactly how dangerous my circumstances were, especially considering I knew nothing about his world. Another part of me felt offended and defiant. We didn’t know each other very well, but what if I still wanted to know him? What if I still wanted to be his friend? I didn’t move.

  “Go!” he snapped at me and I jumped a little, shocked by the biting tone of the order. This was the older Rune speaking. The difference was like night and day. “Go home,” he added more softly, almost pleading.

  Thinking about the light on in my living room and my stepmother’s cold finger sandwiches that were waiting for me on the kitchen counter, I took a few steps back.

  He stared at me, leaned his head against the back of the tree, and closed his eyes when he saw that I really was leaving.

  It didn’t feel right to abandon someone as injured as him in the cold, open wilderness. Back home, that would be begging for a bear attack. Not to mention, the only light he had was the pale red of the flare. I had a sick feeling in my stomach, but I kept walking away... until I saw it.

  Just up ahead, something stared at me, barely within reach of the lantern light.

  It looked pale in contrast to the darkness, its wide black mouth open and gasping in its breaths as it faced me. It took me a split second to recognize that it had the head of an eel and the body of a dog, only it was much bigger. I swallowed a scream and felt my heart slam to a stop, and it was gone.

  There was no sound, nothing between me and the cave in the distance.

  It had vanished.

  I knew I saw something. I wished I didn’t.

  Now more than ever, I wanted to be home. If only I could magically appear in Rivermarch and skip all of the things in between.

  Involuntarily, my steps carried me backward, away from the swift and silent thing I’d seen in the night, until I had returned to Rune and the dead tree.

  I opened my mouth to tell him what I saw, but he was on the ground shaking. His eyes had rolled back and froth edged his mouth. He was having a seizure. I had known a girl in middle school who suffered from them, so it wasn’t the first time I’d seen it, but it frightened me. Here was the only person I knew on the outside of the world, seizing up and maybe dying, after all my efforts to save him. I was worried about myself and worried about him.

  If this attack was because of the infection in his arm, it was very, very bad news.

  By the time I reached his side it had stopped, and he lay there limp on the ground. He was still breathing and he hadn’t bitten his tongue, so I was relieved, but he also didn’t reawaken.

  I didn’t know what to do.

  All of my thoughts about home, helping Rune, and seeing a monster in the dark came to a screaming halt when I heard movement in the grass all around us.

  We weren’t alone.

  Chapter 12: Sounds In The Brush

  Until that moment in my life, fear had never boasted such a hold on me. I could hear several things moving toward us through the underbrush and my imagination was free to declare itself superior to my senses. I was a victim of the nightmarish conclusions that I formed, and since the sounds were coming from all around, I couldn’t even run away. All I could do was crouch protectively and helplessly over Rune.

  I wished I could have disappeared into the grass or been home in bed where things were safe and familiar. For a moment, as I spun, turning to face each noise, I wondered if I was going to die.

  The words written on the wall by the aquamarine pool came back to me with impeccable clarity.

  Forms broke into the light and I should have been relieved, but I wasn’t. They were horses, not the burly mountain stock I was accustomed to seeing, but long legged, wiry muscled beasts with their proud heads held high. They stamped and snorted, pinning their ears as they bore forward the riders on their bac
ks.

  I never had a real reason to fear another human being. As a child, running barefoot through the forests and pretending life was more dramatic than it really was, I had enjoyed hiding and fleeing from pretend intruders. When I was eleven I got into a wrestling match with a boy at school. Even after being pushed into the river by Calvin, I knew that none of those people would really hurt me.

  There, in the strangeness of an unknown world, my instincts cried out in alarm, but I clung to my naiveté, forcing myself to believe nothing could actually happen to me.

  I counted seven riders: six men and one woman. They were all dressed in gray and tan leather armor, with mechanized crossbows, copper pistols, knives and swords strapped to their waists and saddles.

  Haven Valley may have been peaceful, but weapons were still made and used for hunting, and there had even been a controversial fencing class at my school for a while. I knew what these things were when I saw them hanging in their holsters, and I knew what it meant when the weapons were drawn at the sight of me.

  “That’s Thayer alright,” an old bearded man said, kicking his horse a stride nearer.

  “But who’s the creature beside him?” the woman rider demanded coldly. In the dim light, I thought I could see scars running across her face.

  They all had the same unusual accent as Rune. It was logical. I was in a completely unfamiliar place, but the accents added to my foreboding feeling of displacement.

  “Back away from the body, girl,” the old man ordered me, pointing his mechanized crossbow directly at my chest.

  I felt like I had lost my ability to breathe. I was like a hare, knowing that I had been spotted by a wolf, wide-eyed and frozen.

  “Stand up and move away from the body,” the old man repeated in a tone more commanding than the last.

  The body? Could they have thought that Rune was dead?

  “He’s still alive,” was all I managed to say as I lifted from my crouch and skittered back a step. I was already thinking about the fastest path to escape back to the cave. With my “luck” I could make it there in less than five minutes. They’d take Rune and I’d leave, simple as that. I’d be home in less than an hour and have a story to tell that no one would believe.