The Destroyer

by Michael-Scott Earle

  "Hurmph! Awww. What?" Greykin rolled out of his blankets with a rough moan. He squinted against the fire and said something I didn't understand. Nadea whispered back to him. He sighed and untangled himself from the covers, sitting up straight with a growl that really did sound like a bear's. When he realized I was standing, he pointed at me and said something to Nadea. She responded and he seemed satisfied with her answer.

  I took the next two steps toward Nadea and handed her my empty cup. She nodded and her brown eyes met mine. Her face wore a complicated expression of relief, fear, lust, and disappointment. I smiled back at her and shrugged my shoulders. Paug told me that we had a few weeks of travel ahead of us. There would be a time soon where Nadea and I could explore our passions.

  I returned to my bedroll without looking at her or the big man. The stars became the white birds of my dreams. If I jumped high enough I would reach them. I heard the sound of the water cascading off of the islands as they disappeared into the cloudy gray mist beneath me.

  Chapter 5-Paug

  "Can we go around them?" Kaiyer asked Iarin as we ducked behind the small outcrop of rocks and branches.

  "No. The range here is impassable." The quiet woodsman shook his head.

  "We should just wait them out," Nadea said. She poked the top part of her head over the rocks and then slowly shifted down behind cover. The four of us were about a hundred yards ahead of our horses, Greykin, and Jessmei. We were on the border of Vanlourn and Brilla. Nia and Brilla had an intact truce, so we had almost reached a country of relative safety.

  The only thing that stood between us was the canyon up through the mountains, the guard post at the border, and about forty soldiers on patrol. Iarin had mentioned the obvious to those of us that knew this country: the mountain range that separated Brilla and Vanlourn went almost sixty miles in each direction.

  "There were three guards here when we came through a month ago. They must know Jess is with us now," Nadea said, exasperated. Jessmei had really made the whole mission difficult.

  "Can we disguise her?" I asked.

  "I doubt that will work. The only people that pass between the borders are traders, and we have no goods or wagons. Also, I don't know how we could disguise Jessmei. She is very easy to spot, even if I dyed her hair, her blue eyes might give her away," Nadea said with a frown as she looked back toward the princess.

  "I can take her up the . . . rocks." Kaiyer said as he pointed to the steep sides of the canyon. "But do they see you?" he said as he looked at us. He had learned our language amazingly fast but I had to clarify his last question in his own language.

  "He thinks he can climb up the cliff face with her, and meet us in a few days on the other side. But if the guards at the border have information about us, they might capture us there," I translated.

  "It won't work. We'll be stopped at the border. They may be looking for the princess but I doubt they think she is traveling alone. I would bet all of Nadea's gold that they have our descriptions as well." Iarin smirked.

  "We all climb." Kaiyer pointed at us and then the cliff wall.

  "We would lose our horses and supplies. It would make the trip very difficult. Also, we are assuming they don't have guard posts on the top of the cliff faces." Nadea said with obvious frustration.

  "I look," Kaiyer said as he crawled back to the horses.

  "No!" Nadea tried to whisper, but Kaiyer was remarkably fast and had already retreated out of earshot.

  Nadea seethed a curse before she pushed away from the outcrop and crawled the twenty feet after him. Iarin and I followed, coming to our feet when the pebbles and rocks had turned into a mossy grass. It was still stiflingly humid and hot. The canyon walls were covered in dense green foliage; small streams of water poured off of them. I had seen Nadea climb similar faces during our exploration of the ruins, and it hadn't appeared that difficult.

  At least for her.

  "You aren't going up there," Nadea said to Kaiyer, as he browsed through the pack on his horse. "Listen to me." She stepped into the small space between him and the steed so he would be forced to meet her gaze. He didn't take his arm out of his pack, so it lay across her shoulder. "You are not climbing the cliff. It is too risky; we'll find another way. Hey!" She poked him in the chest with her finger when he went back to his pack. "Now you somehow don't understand what I am saying huh?" She looked to me. "Tell him he can't go up there."

  I didn't need to translate. He looked over at me and spoke in his language.

  "Tell her she has an hour to figure out a better idea. I am bored." Kaiyer looked back to her as he finished. "Tell her she can come with me. That is what she really wants."

  His face broke into a smile. Nadea frowned as he stepped away from her and walked twenty feet from the horses to stretch.

  "He said you should think of another idea within the hour or he'll go. He said you can come with him,” I told her.

  "What is this about?" Greykin said. "What does the guard post look like?"

  "There are at least three dozen of them at the entrance to the canyon. There could be many more at the actual border," Iarin replied to him.

  "Shit. So the scrawny guy wants to climb the walls of the cliff? Let him! He'll fall and we won't have to worry about him anymore!" Greykin smacked his hand on his knee with pleasure.

  "His original idea was to take Jessmei up with him and let us go through the border without her," Nadea said, as she looked over at Kaiyer stretching.

  "Oh, now I am certain this guy is an idiot," Greykin spat out. "He's not going anywhere alone with her."

  I looked over to Jessmei. She glanced back and forth between Greykin and Kaiyer in frustration. I guessed the beautiful girl was too timid to voice her actual opinion.

  "Alright. Time for the grown up to figure this out. I've let the children run the show for too long. Keep an eye on Jess while I take a gander." Greykin walked toward the outcropping, dropping into what looked like a painful crawl for the last twenty feet.

  "Nadea, I don't think I can climb that wall," Jessmei said to her cousin, her perfect face creased with worry.

  "Don't worry. You won't have to. We'll find another way," Nadea said. She turned to Kaiyer and I could see the worry on her face. The journey had turned sour when Jessmei had joined us. Her presence made the whole situation more dangerous. We needed a full company of soldiers to properly guard her. Not the four of us.

  Greykin returned within ten minutes. He had a sparkle in his eye. The danger seemed to be giving him more energy.

  "It's going to be tough. They are running patrols back and forth from the main road. They will figure out we are hiding in this part of the jungle sooner rather than later. We'll have to camp a mile from here and keep the fire very low. I'm beginning to wonder if Skinny has the right idea. Climbing that cliff face would be less dangerous than dealing with a company of Vanlourn's army. Let's camp out tonight, drink the rest of our whisky, and think through our options." Greykin stroked his beard as he collected his thoughts.

  "Okay. Paug, tell Kaiyer that we are going to camp the night. We'll make a decision in the morning,” Nadea commanded.

  I ran over to him to explain the situation, aware that he might want to argue with Nadea again since she wasn't going to do anything until tomorrow. He seemed pleased after I told him, which confused me until he spoke.

  "I'll climb the cliff and see if there are any guards. Then I can attach a rope so it will be easier to get up tomorrow." He began to take off his swords and walk toward his horse. When he got there, he fished out a rough looking rope from the pack.

  "What is he doing?" Nadea asked me.

  "He is still going to climb the cliff face. He said he'll look around up there and then attach a rope so we can get up easier later," I explained.

  "No." She walked up to him and put her hand on the rope. "Tell him to wait until tomorrow. I don't want to risk him being caught.”

  "He said he won't get caught. He'll be okay."

  "What
if he falls?"

  "He said he won't fall."

  "Tell him no again. Tell him to wait." She was insistent now. Her dark brown eyes were fierce as she looked at his. I started to translate but I didn't need to. He spoke quickly and I struggled to understand what he was saying.

  "He says that we can get a clear picture of what awaits us up there, so we can plan for it tonight. Also, he wants to ask if you are ordering him not to go. He wants to know if he is your prisoner or your friend." The question took her aback.

  "No, he isn't my prisoner." She looked at him with concern. Then she sighed in defeat. "Tell him I will go with him. I have the proper equipment, and we are less likely to fall if we are tied to each other." She glanced over at the face of the cliff as I relayed the message.

  "Good. We climb," he said, smiling. She nodded and went over to her horse, unpacking various smaller bags, rope, and well-used spikes that ended in loops of metal.

  "Tell him I will lead and place the pitons," she said, as she inspected each of the spikes and her rope. "We will set up at the base of the cliff. It will probably take us a few hours to reach the top. We'll do a brief reconnaissance, attach a top rope, and then come back. Tell him."

  I relayed this to Kaiyer and he nodded.

  "It still might be better if I go alone. What if we are seen by patrols?" he asked her.

  "If we approach that face to the right, we should be less visible. See how it angles away from the main road and forms a hollow chimney?"

  Kaiyer nodded. I looked far in the distance where the vertical ridge in the cliff face she spoke of was only a finger-sized dent. It looked like the gorge would be impossible to view from the road.

  "Iarin, can you lead the horses back to the clearing we passed an hour ago?" Nadea asked. Iarin nodded. "We'll meet you there after nightfall. Keep the fires low. Ready?” she turned to ask Kaiyer.

  She had a few small packs and thin silk rope slung over her shoulders. Kaiyer nodded. He had the long rope from his pack wound around his upper body. I couldn't tell how many feet it was, but it wrapped around him so many times that it looked like he was carrying enough to sail a boat. He had tossed his extra long sword and just wore one over his shoulder. He still had the strap that carried a multitude of daggers. "Okay. Let's go. See you all tonight." And they moved deeper into the jungle.

  We waited in the spot for another three quarters of an hour until they began to ascend the cliff face over the trees of the jungle. It was not easy to spot them, even from our better angle, so I assumed they would be safe from patrols.

  "Let's go set up camp. Watching them won't make the time go faster," Greykin said as we strained our eyes to follow them. We grabbed the horses and made the trek back to the clearing.

  Chapter 6-Kaiyer

  It took us half an hour to make it to the top of the six-hundred-foot cliff face. Nadea was a fast, capable climber. Her placements of the pitons were perfect, even if I hadn't needed their aid. Much like the earlier battle against the Vanlourn soldiers, climbing seemed very comfortable to me. My hands naturally found holds, my legs seemed to know when to push, and I had to restrain myself from moving up past Nadea.

  Nadea had taken the lead in the ascent to hammer in the pitons, which allowed me a perfect view of her legs and ass while she maneuvered the sheer face of the cliff. The view of her body from below made me think about the two nights ago when Greykin woke up at the most inopportune time. Perhaps tonight I would have a chance to taste her.

  The stables were empty except for the two of us and her horses. With a casual ease she ascended the ladder to the hay loft. “Follow me human,” her voice was a seductive purr that controlled my body like reins.

  The wind on top of the canyon carried the scent of a drier jungle to my nose before it dashed off the side of the cliff to the valley below. I looked down at the jungle beneath us. It seemed to stretch on forever, like a green rolling ocean that curved down the edge of the planet, beyond the reach of my vision. I didn't recognize any of the scenery, but the scents in the air and the sense of accomplishment that penetrated my hands and legs after the climb were familiar.

  I turned around to contemplate the jungle on top of the canyon. It seemed thicker than what lay on the valley floor, and there were no game trails through the foliage. There did appear to be a twenty-foot-wide gap that separated the green tangle of plants from the edge of the cliff. We were going to have to explore to see if the edge could be followed west and then northward. If it appeared too treacherous, then we would have to figure out a way through the guards. I did feel much stronger from the food, water, and travel, but I had been lucky with the eight in the jungle clearing. Killing forty would be impossible for our small group.

  "Let's walk around the edge," I said to Nadea as she finished tying off the rope. She glanced at me over her shoulder and the wind picked up again. I could smell her salty sweat on the breeze. I hadn't perspired at all, but the scent of her skin and the wind brought me a memory. A man's voice.

  Wind and Water are two sides of the same Element. They both crash into the Earth and wear it down to the smallest particle of energy. Earth and Wind create Fire, Earth and Water create life.

  I shook my head to clear it of the cobwebs and focused back on the sound of Nadea's heart beating.

  "Okay. But we have to go back as soon as we can," I guessed she said, as I set down the coil of rope I had carried up the cliff face.

  We moved away from the edge twenty feet, then followed it west toward the main road that cut through the canyon. If we were lucky, then the ridge would be free of the jungle for a few more miles north of the canyon's corner. Then we would be able to get back onto the road safely behind the guard post.

  Nadea handed me a water skin and I took a small sip as we walked. I went to hand the skin back to her, but she shook her head and untied her hair, retying it tighter. The movement brought up another memory. It was of a woman, beautiful like Nadea, but of sharper facial features, hair a darker shade of brown, and eyes that sparked green. I put the skin back into my pack as the memory faded.

  Within a quarter of an hour of shadowing the canyon precipice, we arrived at the edge, where the cliff made an acute right turn to head north. The other side of the cliff was about sixty feet away. I studied the gap for a few moments and wondered why I believed that I might easily make the jump across the chasm.

  Nadea crouched down and crawled to the sudden edge. I followed, trying to keep my focus on the task at hand and not the way her leather pants wrapped around her pert ass. On the road six hundred feet below us were two dozen soldiers, garbed in the cream and yellow colors of Vanlourn. They yelled and laughed to each other but I could not understand most of the words. I turned my head to the right and confirmed that the road continued for another hundred yards or so and then bent to the east. The brown, mossy walls of the cliff hid the eventual destination of the road from my view, but I imagined that it would continue northward into Brilla's border.

  Careful not to disturb any dirt or rocks, we crawled back from the edge. When we were about thirty feet from the side, we stood up and faced each other.

  "Let's go to the guard post." I pointed to our right, where the canyon bent to follow the road. I wanted to get a better idea of how many guards were stationed at the border and how long it would take us to travel there.

  "Good. Yes." She nodded. I smiled at her and set off, bounding from rock to rock. The wind pushed from the south and it felt invigorating. The raised cliffs we traveled atop made up a series of foothills, which gave way to larger mountains that folded in on the canyon like the edges of a bowl. I understood how the ridge to the north would make an excellent border for a country. Especially if there was only a single road through them.

  In a few minutes the road veered right like I had seen earlier. We continued on the path and I noticed more switchbacks in the walls of the canyon beneath us. I guessed that the elevation of the road was gradually rising to meet us. I leapt over a small stream blockin
g our path, its flow of cold water cascaded down the side of the cliff like the islands in my dreams. My legs begged to sprint faster, but before I could do so, Nadea called out behind me.

  I slid to a halt across the slick mud, moss, and tropical flowers on the edge of the stream. She was covered in sweat and breathing in ragged gasps. She raised her arm, signaling me to halt and I bounded back to her in a few steps.

  "Are you okay?"

  "Yes. You are fast. I can't keep up." She smiled and let out a painful breath. "Can we break?" I nodded and handed her the water skin I still carried. She took a long drink and sat down on a rock, exhaling while she looked at me. I took back the water skin and sipped on it again. Then I filled it up at the stream.

  By the time I returned Nadea seemed ready to move again.

  "You lead," I said.

  "Thank you," she said as she set off wading through the cool current of the stream. I did the same, even though I had cleared it before with an easy leap.

  After the stream our makeshift path grew rockier. We were traversing the fifty or so feet of bare, coarse ground that separated the dense jungle from the edge of the drop four hundred feet to the road beneath us. Up ahead the trees were drifting closer to the edge, so I imagined that we would have to hack through the jungle to keep going.

  "I don't think we can go any farther because of the jungle," I assumed Nadea said to me seconds after I made the same conclusion.

  "We can cut through with the sword," I tried to say. I might have butchered the words, but I pointed to the jungle, then the sword on my back, then made a cutting motion. She frowned for a moment and considered.

  "It is getting late. We need to go back." I understood her, but she pointed to the sun, back to where we came from, and made the sleeping motion with her hands.

  "We need to check the guard post." I pointed at my eyes and then pointed down toward where I thought the guard post would be.