Jarek’s spirits shot up. “Do you know where to get the plants?”
“Sure, that’s easy. They grow along the streams and rivers. This streambed here’s kinda rocky, but I’ll bet they grow farther up.” He paused and then asked, “Why? Is CeCe got a, what do you call it… infection?”
“Looks like it, yeah. I need you to find some of those plants. Can you do it in the dark?”
“Yep. I’ll be right back.” And with that, the boy disappeared into the darkness, following the stream.
◆◆◆
“You were right. This stuff smells horrible.” Jarek had washed his hands as best he could, having no soap, before spreading the pungent paste on the two infected wounds.”
CeCe reacted immediately, wincing and moaning even louder.
Jarek touched her shoulder. “Easy. I’m just putting some poultice on. It should help.”
Aristan’s voice again invaded his mind. “Listen to me, Jarek. The infection is not just in the wounds. It has spread. She needs to eat some of the paste.”
He had a large gob of it left on the leaf in front of him. He turned to Ben, speaking softly, “Get a cup of water from the stream.” He bent down closer to CeCe’s face. “Hey, you’re doing good. This is going to work.” He took a deep breath. “I’m going to need you to eat some of this stuff, okay?”
She continued to moan and twist her head.
“Please, CeCe, open your mouth.”
Her lips parted. Having nothing else to work with, he took a bit of the paste on his finger tip and placed it on her tongue. “Please, try to swallow it. I’ll get you some water.”
Ben shuffled up next to him and handed him the cup.
Putting one hand behind her head, he lifted it slightly. “Here’s some water.”
She swallowed the paste and water together, shuddering and scrunching her face with clear distaste.
They repeated the process until the poultice was gone. Jarek hoped that he had heard Aristan correctly. The mixture certainly didn’t smell like it was meant to be consumed. But if the god sensed Jarek’s question, he didn’t respond.
CeCe fell quiet and stopped moving, although the rise and fall of her chest assured Jarek that she was still alive. He turned to Ben. “Thanks. You did good. Now, get some sleep. I’ll stay up with her.”
Chapter 55: Ebon Hills
The fever broke early the next morning. Although still weak, CeCe managed to take in some dried meat and water. Jarek remained by her side as she slept and while she was awake. With each passing hour, his outlook improved.
“I’d say you’re over the worst of it.” Jarek reacted when the third day brought a smile to CeCe’s face. “I wish I had something better for you to eat, but it’s either dried meat or nuts—take your choice.”
“Thanks. I’ll have the dried meat and nuts.” She had almost gained a sense of humor, something that she’d never displayed before. “But before you get too confident, I still have no idea how we get out of this mess. We’re only a stone’s throw from the guardhouse. It’s not like there’s a lot of cover nearby.”
“Yeah, I know. We’ll just have to keep doing what we were doing—travel at night.”
She shifted and struggled into a sitting position. “I should be able to move by tomorrow night, I think.”
Jarek wanted to tell her to take it easy, take more time for healing. But he knew that was impossible. They needed to go. For one thing, their food was dwindling. They were down to the last crumbs with no prospects for more readily available. “I guess we head north, keeping to the high grass until we hit the forest.”
A different, although not unfamiliar, voice entered the discussion. “Unfortunately, that is not your path.” A faint red glow materialized in front of Jarek and Aristan’s image clarified.
Ben shrank back in terror, his eyes wide. CeCe, who had seen the god before, in the ruins, gazed with interest. Jarek sighed. He didn’t like the sound of that.
“Things are set in motion and you are needed elsewhere.”
Jarek stifled the urge to retort, although he was not at all happy with the news.
“I spoke to you earlier about some visitors that will arrive. They will be here shortly.”
“And just where is ‘here’?”
The image smirked. “I see we haven’t lost our sarcastic attitude.”
Jarek resisted the urge and remained silent.
“Master Whit, you arrived on this world to the south and west of what you know as the rebel camp. That spot is where the new visitors will show up. And you must be there to greet them. Otherwise, they will make their way to the camp, which would be most unwise. You will escort them to the brotherhood and we shall go from there.”
CeCe nodded. “I wasn’t with the party that found Jarek, but I think I know the general vicinity.”
“That will be close enough. When they come, it will be through a red portal of light. If you are in the area, you will see it. Three will come—an elf, a human that you know as Mathias, and a young Azyrean boy named Tovi. They will arrive in two days’ time. You must make haste.”
◆◆◆
The going was slower than Jarek had hoped for. While CeCe had improved, she was by no means able to set a fast pace. They shuffled along in the darkness, breaking at least every two hours.
Making their way to the south, they neared Bart’s house just before daybreak on the first day. The smell alerted them before they could see the place—the odor of burnt wood and… something else.
“Smells like his place must have burned.” Jarek peered ahead into the darkness, but saw nothing.
CeCe paused, catching her breath. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”
The response puzzled Jarek. “Why not? Who would have done it?”
She smirked as she dropped into a kneeling position to rest. “The boy got away. They didn’t catch us. And as far as we know, they haven’t found the commander or the brotherhood. All in all, Bart hasn’t proved very helpful. And Wyndred, or whatever his name is, doesn’t take well to failure.”
“But it wasn’t like it was the old man’s fault. He was just an informer, right?”
“Doesn’t matter. Things don’t work that way. You either succeed or die. My guess is that the other smell mixed in with the burnt wood is….” Her words trailed off.
Ben stood and stared in the direction of the house with a look in his eyes that suggested a mix of regret and relief.
“Let’s keep going.” CeCe stood and began plodding forward again.
Within ten minutes the darkness began to give way to a gray dawn. And with that light, the burnt-out hulk of a house came into view. Jarek started toward it to have a look.
CeCe warned him off. “Stay clear of it. There’s nothing to be seen, and there’s a better than even chance that there are eyes watching it, just in case.”
The trio stood for a moment as the sky lightened. The moment passed and they retreated to the cover of high grass.
Chapter 56: Ebon Hills
What should have taken a few hours took all night. As the sky began to lighten in the east, the party arrived at the edge of a forest. Jarek had been feeling increasingly nervous and agitated during the trek. As trying as it was being the only Azyrean around, the prospect of another arriving irritated him. To make matters worse, it was a young boy, if Aristan was to be believed. And this kid supposedly was to play a crucial role. What was it that the boy could do that Jarek could not? Why bring someone else?
“If Virgil’s account was accurate, this should be the general area.” CeCe motioned the group to a stop. Turning to Jarek, she continued, “You said that, when you came out of the portal, you were in the woods, right?”
“Yes. There were large trees but also a lot of brush low to the ground. And there was a stream nearby.”
“Then let’s find the stream and see if we can work it out from there. This particular part of the forest doesn’t have any real ground cover.” She limped forward, beckoning the others
to follow.
They found the stream less than ten minutes later. As it turned out, there was lots of brush around the brook. Jarek stood, hands on his hips, surveying the area. Daylight had arrived in the woods. “I don’t know. This looks familiar. But I was only here for a few minutes before I started running. And that was a long time ago.”
“Then I guess this spot is as good as any. Fill your skins from the stream and let’s take stock of our food. I don’t know about the two of you, but I don’t have much left.”
Ben started rummaging through his pack.
Jarek pulled out what was left of his supplies. “Not much here—four strips of meat and a handful of nuts.” He reached up and scratched his ear. “Maybe the ones coming through the portal will have some food. How far is it from here to the old ruins?”
CeCe sipped water from her skin as she leaned back against a tree. “Well, my leg is a little better. Assuming that they come through sometime today, we can start tonight. I’m guessing it’ll take us three nights unless I improve a lot, and fast.”
“Well, the good news is that Mathias is coming with them. That’ll be two of you that know your way around… well, not counting Ben.” He kept forgetting that the boy was actually adept at moving around the region. After all, he had tracked the party quite a way without being seen. And he’d stolen and dumped the wagon, leaving a false trail. So, truth be known, he was probably more useful than Jarek.
Ben fell asleep beneath one of the trees, his head resting on his pack. Jarek took the opportunity to shuffle over next to CeCe. “Why don’t you try to get some rest too. I’ll keep watch.”
She seemed not to have heard him. “Jarek, I need to tell you something. And I need you to listen without arguing. First, thank you for saving my life. But you should have followed my orders. I know that you think what you did was right, but it could have cost the two of you your lives and resulted in a complete failure of whatever it is that Aristan expects of us. I won’t lie to you. I am glad to be alive and will always be in your debt. But—and I don’t mean this to sound harsh—I need to know that when I give you an order, you will follow it.”
He lowered his gaze and nodded. He understood everything she said. Aristan had told him essentially the same thing. And he knew that what she said was right. But he also knew in his heart that, given the same circumstances, he would do the same thing again. “What are you going to do when all this is over? I assume that there won’t be a need for rebels. Will you try to rebuild your family home?” He recalled the ruins of the Dubois estate, the rolling hills, with grass waving in the breeze. It seemed a pleasant place, perhaps in different times.
“I don’t know that I can think that far ahead right now. And to be honest with you, I lived for revenge so long that it will take me some time to adjust. I suppose the first thing I need to do is to make peace with Em, Commander West. Whatever happened between my father and hers, it was not her fault.”
Jarek had heard only what had passed between the commander and CeCe that day she’d betrayed him. The subject of her family and West’s had never come up again. He tried to recall his days in Pangrove. Were there hostilities there and he simply had not noticed them? How did people get to the point where they could kill each other? “Do you have any other family?”
“No. My mother died when I was a child. I had a nanny, but, sadly, she passed before I was out of my teens. We had servants and field hands. They used to talk and joke with me. I liked them. They were almost like family. When the rebellion broke out, they turned on us, though. I was just a teenager, but I thought I knew everything about what happened. As it turned out, I only knew half the story.” She turned her head toward him. “How about you? You have family back where you live?”
Jarek shook his head. “Nope. My parents both died young, we had a fever come through. They fell sick and didn’t recover.” His eyes misted up. “I was just out of my secondary studies, so I was old enough to live alone. I got that job as a beam keeper,” he chuckled, “and you know the rest.”
“I guess you’ll go back to Pangrove when we’re done here, assuming that Aristan can work that out for you?”
“For a long time, I thought so, but now I don’t know.”
“Why not?”
“I confess, I never had any real friends back there. My job was okay, well, sort of okay. I can’t say that I really liked it, or that I was particularly good at it. Here, well, there are people that actually talk to you. There are things to do—real things. And…” he gazed up into the canopy of leaves as he thought about it. “I like you humans.”
She laughed—the first time he’d heard that sound from her in, well, forever. “I don’t know much about these things. But I’d say that with what you’ve learned about crystals, portals, beams, and travel, you might be quite valuable around these parts if you decide to stay.”
He considered her words. Oddly, the notion struck him as… not so bad.
Chapter 57: Ebon Hills
By mid-afternoon, Jarek had taken over the watch duties while CeCe slept. He’d managed to catch a few hours rest but felt some anxiety about the expected arrivals. It would be good to see Mathias again, but he hadn’t seen another Azyrean for at least a year or so. This kid, this Tovi—what was he supposed to do? And how was Jarek supposed to help? He shrugged and tried to put the thought out of his mind. He would find out soon enough.
“How long do we have to wait here?”
Jarek twisted around to see Ben, scratching his head. “I don’t know. We just know that this is where we are supposed to be, or at least somewhere close.”
The boy dropped onto the ground and sat facing Jarek with his back against a tree. “I only have a little food left.” He searched through his pack, retrieving a handful of nuts.
“Yeah, I know.” Jarek considered the boy for a moment. Not so long ago, Ben was the enemy. He had turned Jarek, Burns, and Mathias in to the king’s cavaliers. He had spied on Virgil’s party. And Jarek had seen him as they left the brotherhood’s enclave in Ebon Lake. But now he seemed more like a frightened child than a foe. “How old are you, Ben?”
“Twelve.”
“When did you take up with Bart?”
The boy leaned his head back, staring up into the canopy. “It was ‘bout two years ago, I guess… maybe less. With Ma and Pa gone, I would have stayed around the house, you know, since there was food and stuff. But the king’s men burned it down, so I had to go somewhere. I went into the town and old Bart saw me and took me in.”
“But if the king’s men were the ones that burned your house, why did you help them?”
“I don’t know. At first, I was just doing chores for Master Bart. But every once in a while, he’d send me to the soldiers to deliver a message. It wasn’t like I was helping them. After a while, I just didn’t care anymore. I did what I was told and got to eat and sleep in the house. There wasn’t much else I could do—I was hungry and I needed to eat.” The boy hung his head and looked at the ground.
Jarek thought back to his first days with the rebels. It was sort of the same thing. He wasn’t a rebel himself. He just did what he was told so that he would have something to eat and a place to sleep… and of course, not be killed. But then something changed. He had started to care. He stared at the boy, wondering whether Ben would ever care about anything.
The Azyrean stood, stretched, and wandered over to the edge of the clearing. “I’m going to look around over here. I’ll be back in a minute.” He parted the branches of the short trees and stepped around the brush. The place looked familiar, but he couldn’t be sure. Was this exactly the right place? Maybe they should follow the stream a little farther. What would happen if Mathias and the others came through and they didn’t connect?
When he returned to the clearing, CeCe had awakened. She knelt beside the stream dampening a cloth. She turned and acknowledged his return. “Where have you been?” The words came out as casual.
“I was just checking the area. Nothi
ng out there yet.”
She nodded. “Stay close, though. We can’t afford to get separated.” She stood and limped over to her pack, her face wincing with pain. She clumsily sat and leaned back against a tree, closing her eyes.
“You okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s getting better. I guess it’s just going to take some time.”
Jarek marveled at her. Despite her wounds, she had made the trek from the guardhouse area to the forest without complaint. And, once Mathias and party arrived, they still had at least a three-day journey back to the old monastery. “Do you think….”
“Quiet.” The word came out as a whisper. She put her hand up as she struggled to her feet. “Listen.” She peered around the clearing.
Jarek eased over next to her. “What? I don’t hear anything.”
She put a finger over her lips, shaking her head. She continued to survey the area.
A soft crack, like someone stepping on a twig, broke the silence. Jarek jerked his head in that direction, his body stiffening.
CeCe drew her two daggers and turned to face the sound.
A brief sound of rustling brush came from the opposite direction. She whirled to face that.
Jarek drew his knife instinctively, although he knew that his skills as a fighter would render him mostly useless if there was danger.
After the sound of another broken twig, a strange voice called out, “Drop your weapons.”
Chapter 58: Crystal Sands
“Thank you all for coming.” Myhrren set plates of goodies in the center of the table and gestured toward several pots. “Please, help yourselves to the sweet cakes and biscuits. There is tea and talonberry nectar, and of course, Tovi knows where I keep my brandy.”
Marzi looked askance at Tovi, then eyed the others around the table—Empress Ariessa, Captain Virgil, and Klunk. It struck her that this represented the leadership of the three races, sort of. The problem, of course, was that Ariessa did not speak for either the frost elves or for Saige’s group. But this was Myhrren’s meeting. He’s a god, after all. He must know what he’s doing.
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