The Exodus

by Garry Ocean

  “Right. Say that to the Alvars!” the young woman brushed off the mane of her blond hair, as if throwing a challenge. “What will be your odds of staying alive then?”

  She smirked and continued, “I may not be as good with numbers as you are, Brine, but something tells me the number would be closer to zero.” Either to illustrate her point, or to make her interlocutor feel angry, the woman put together her thumb and index finger into the O shape and looked at Brine through the resulting hole with one eye.

  “Why bring them up?” Brine shrugged his shoulders in response, “Barbarians!”

  “These, as you say, barbarians,” the woman’s face displayed a stinging smile, “are protecting our clan from the day when our ancestors first came here, if not earlier. Some sources are quite straightforward in stating that it was the Alvars who accompanied the first craftsmen from the Lost City.”

  “Ah, Silva, you are back to retelling the legends again!” Brine put his arms up in feigned fatigue. “At this rate, we will soon start seriously discussing the predictions of Nora the Foreteller.”

  “I wouldn’t dismiss this so easily if I were you,” Silva looked at Brine disapprovingly. “Not everything in this world can be explained by your beloved numbers and their derivatives.”

  “Perhaps, you should put off your squabbles for some other time?” Maga said firmly and meaningfully. “The world we know and love so much, founded on centuries-old traditions, is falling apart right in front of our eyes, and you are still bickering.”

  “I have no squabbles with him,” Silva shot back. “He does notice nothing beyond his numbers and calculations! Besides, he thinks too much of himself,” she pshawed at Brian and added, “Completely undeserved, by the way!”

  “Maga is right, Brine,” an elderly man with a croaking voice seconded the old woman. “And you should not be so dismissive of the Original Debt. It is, first of all, Faith!” he raised his index finger above his head. “This is something that has sealed our alliance with the Alvars for hundreds of years! Do you think they can’t live without us? They certainly can. Perhaps they can live even better than with us. But we definitely cannot survive without their support. Take away the idea of the Original Debt from them, and we are all done. In the best case, they will leave us to face the barbarians by ourselves. In the worst case, they will kill us all, to the last child.”

  “We have the ancient weapon!” Brine jumped out of his seat. “You all know this perfectly well. And with this,” he pointed his finger at the cube in the middle of the table, “We can even use it!”

  “The weapon…” the elderly man stretched the word, “you, younglings, are always so eager to play war. This cube is not meant for this!”

  “It’s better to use the power that it has accumulated for the benefit of the Enclave than for the long-lost and unredeemed Debt no one knows who to redeem to!”

  On the other end of the table someone cleared his throat. The others immediately stopped bickering.

  “You all will be surprised, but right now we need to talk about Nora as well,” a man of sturdy stature got up from the table. It was difficult to tell his age by the way he looked. His face, carved with deep wrinkles, was a sharp contrast to his lively eyes, full of sparks and energy. “To be more exact, about her most famous prediction.”

  He looked at everyone one by one as if he wanted to make sure that they were listening attentively. Then he nodded in satisfaction and continued calmly, “I am responsible for the Craftsmen’s Enclave security and right now I don’t want to dwell on various interpretations of her predictions, to search for coincidences or, on the contrary, to contradict them. I will just tell you the facts we have, and you all then can compare and assess them and decide for yourself to what extent her predictions were close to what is happening today.”

  “About ten decades ago, the Near-Forest hunters found a stranger on the swamp. He did not speak our language. He did not know the simplest things that were well known even to the foresters. The Foundling, as they called him, possesses strong physical prowess, superb reaction, was a master of all arms and combat skills. But the most important thing was…” the man paused meaningfully for a second and then continued, “He was not subject to the Gift.”

  Everyone at the table moved.

  “What are you trying to say, Borg?” several voices asked at the same time.

  “I don’t want to say anything. I’m just giving you the facts.”

  “The Man from Faraway?” Silva asked what everyone was thinking.

  “Has this been verified? If so, how?” questions started to be raised, “How accurate are these facts? Is that the man who won the Ritual?”

  “The information has been verified. It was received from many different sources and checked by my people,” Borg seemed to be unperturbed. “This is the first thing.”

  “The recent Exodus was of such a devastating force that it rolled all the way to the Rapid Waters and, as you know, several of the flouds sank in near proximity to the White Rocks. I have received reports, even though they are not very…” Borg stumbled for a second, searching for the right word, “are not very credible. But, judging by indirect indicators, I am inclined to believe the reports. The cradle of the steppe dwellers was fiercely attacked by the beasts and is completely destroyed, and, what is more important it is completely overtaken by them. This is the second thing.”

  “Wow!” Silva’s voice broke through the complete silence. “The heart of the High Ghurt has been destroyed?”

  “They will come to the City,” Maga said quietly. “They have no choice.”

  “Yes,” Borg agreed, “the middle lands are already being rummaged by the hungry nomads.”

  “So, just to sum up,” Dyke said, “If we interpret Nora’s words, we have a man from the Faraway Lands, the Great Exodus, the attack by the steppe dwellers…”

  “The coming of the Great Chaos,” Maga continued for him. “All of this is true. But for the Circuit to connect and for the Day of Redemption to come, along with all this, there must be the Chosen One and the girl from the Hild clan.”

  Maga looked at everyone with a twinkle of sarcasm in her eyes, and then continued with a feigned sigh, “Please correct me if I forgot something. I’m not a spring chicken any more, you know…”

  “A decade ago the daughter of the Supreme One, accompanied by Gunn of the Terr clan, crossed the Rapid Waters,” Borg retaliated calmly. “According to my estimates, they should be approaching the Near Forest now.”

  Complete silence fell in the chamber again, with only the torches making their loud crackling noises.

  *****

  This was perhaps the highest point of the Bony Ridge. From the top, the companions could see the entire savannah spreading from the mountain foothill to the Near Forest. The treacherous fog disappeared as if it had never been there. Instead of it, there was a colorful blanket of various plants and flowers, as far and wide as one’s eye could see. At the very foothills, there were still wide stripes of rocky ground, but further away they turned into small islands surrounded by the wild green on all sides. And at the horizon line, the Forest was standing like a powerful unbroken wall. Despite the distance, it was exuding animal-like power and danger that felt almost palpable.

  This is where the smoke signal fires were set up. Their black smoke was immediately noticeable as the background of local flora’s wild colors. From Sith’s broken and confused explanations Nick realized that this was a good sign. This was how the hunters let each other know that they had survived and had enough food. Nick did not quite get which tree or bush was producing this bluish-black smoke when burning, but it was giving a good signal visible for many miles around.

  Now the adventurers were standing on a ridge that was jutting out from the mountain. Everyone was silent. The initial joy from the news that the Near Valley residents had survived the Great Exodus was replaced by realization that they still needed to come down the mountain and walk across the savannah for at least t
wo more days.

  Nick was lazily looking around the valley spreading around the mountain. He caught himself thinking that he did not want to search for the most convenient paths through the colorful plants. His eye kept returning to the horizon. The dark fence of the Forest attracted him like a magnet. He was suddenly overwhelmed with tiredness, anxiety, and an unknown feeling of becoming blunt. He wanted to sit down, and better yet, to lie down onto the cool ground and to sleep.

  “I am so sleepy!” Nick thought. “Why am I here? What am I doing? I could have been sitting at a table in Niya’s tavern, drinking Pak’s wonderful home brew with him. And then, a rescue ship with a fast response team would finally catch up and I would get out from this damn planet!”

  “What’s wrong with you?” suddenly a sober thought broke through from the back of his mind. “You think like you were drinking all night long. Sober up!”

  Nick breathed deeply in and out several times, replenishing his blood with oxygen. His head started to hum. Thousands of melodic bells began ringing in his ears. He forcefully rubbed his face that for some reason had gone as numb as a plaster mask. It helped a little. The drowsiness went away. Nick tensed his muscles, straightened his shoulders and looked at his companions.

  Their eyes were glued to the dark monolith wall of the Forest at the horizon. Whisperer half-closed his eyes, moving his lips silently as if he was repeating some magic spells. Sith was swaying from side to side, with his hands on his temples. Cleo’s face was frozen with anxiety. Her wide-open eyes were looking at the horizon without blinking. Gunn-Terr was standing like a statue, not moving at all. He seemed to be in a stupor. His face was calm and composed, and only his hand’s white knuckles tightly holding his sword were showing that he was tense.

  At that very moment, a long and loud howl came from behind. The people trembled with their entire bodies, as if shaking off the trance, and turned around at the same time. At the very edge of the rock, with his paws widely spread and his muzzle looking straight and up, stood a magnificent beast. It took Nick a second to realize it was his Gray. He was completely changed. His metal-color fur was standing at the root. His body muscles were convulsing, and the claws dug into the rocky ground. The long howl changed into a loud trembling roar. A chill ran up Nick’s spine. His Gray, his little puppy was now throwing a challenge to the danger lurking in the dark wall on the horizon.

  The companions exchanged an understanding look and started to come down the mountain trail in silence.

  Afterword

  Thank you for reading my book. I hope you enjoyed it. Please write a review of this book for Amazon.com All feedback is greatly appreciated. This is the second book in the series. For further information and to order other books in the series they are available on Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01N0TX3XP Your reviews help to bring my books to the attention of other readers.

  Thank You

  Notes

  1. Descobridor – path finder (Portuguese).

  2. Floud = flying cloud

  3. Mimosa pudica is a creeping perennial herb of the pea family, often called sensitive plant, shy plant, humble plant, or touch-me-not. In height, it varies from one to two feet. The plant is native of the South American and the Caribbean regions.

  4. A traditional Russian layered teakettle.

  5. Type of a sea creature.

  6. Phenotype (from the Greek words φαίνω (phainō) – “shining,” or “appearance” and τύπος (typos) – “type” or “sample”) is the totality of characteristics that defines an organism at a certain stage of development, what an organism looks like as a consequence of the interaction of its genotype and the environment.

  7. Pi is a mathematical constant, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, commonly approximated as 3.14159. It has been represented by the Greek letter "π" since the mid-18th century, but it was also known as the Lunar number.

  8. In 1811, A.Avogadro came up with a hypothesis that under the same temperature and pressure, the equal volumes of ideal gases contain the same number of molecules. It is now known as the Avogadro’s constant, the number of units in one mole of any substance (defined as its molecular weight in grams), equal to 6.022140857 × 10 23. The units may be electrons, atoms, ions, or molecules, depending on the nature of the substance and the character of the reaction (if any).

  9. Terra-forming (Latin terra – earth, forma – kind) is the artificial change of a planet, satellite or another cosmic body to make the atmosphere, temperature and environment approximate the conditions of the Earth and suitable for living by earthly animals and plants, as well as for comfortable living of humans.

  10. Mountaineering crampons are metal devices, flat platforms with 10-12 spikes to move on ice and dense granular snow (firm), that are fastened onto the boots. The crampons are used in climbing, mountain tourism, and icecap-climbing.

  11. Ice-fifi is a climbing ice-&-snow tool designed to climb steep, vertical, and even “negative” ice walls. It can come equipped with a shovel to climb snow and firm and overhanging walls.

  12. Bivouac (French) is a place, a site where people can stay for rest or overnight camp in the natural conditions when they are engaging in sports associated with natural obstacles and rough terrain (mountaineering, climbing, tourism, speleology).

  13. Graviresks or gravistabs (gravitation stabilization/rescue) is a part of the mandatory safety gear for those who work on high altitudes, as well as a part of the belay system in mountain tourism, climbing (including industrial), and mountaineering.

  14. Harness is a part of the belay system, an element of the climbing gear that the climber puts on his/her body. The belay rope and other elements of the climbing equipment are fastened to the harness.

  15. A couloir (French for "passage" or "corridor") is a narrow gully with a steep gradient in a mountainous terrain. It’s usually wider at the top and narrower at the bottom.

  16. An original verse in Russian by Elizaveta Resnikova.