by Jacinta Jade
Siray stared at Baindan, unbelieving, an image of herself tied to the back of a large running cripwof appearing in her mind.
Baindan chuckled at her expression. ‘It’s the truth. No one in that smaller party had a yeibon form, so you should be thankful that Roalger is such a large cripwof.’
When Siray leaned forwards, keen to ask another question, Baindan held up a finger.
‘I’ll give you one more question, and then it’s my turn to ask you something.’
Siray narrowed her eyes in mock concentration as she looked back at him. Then she actually thought of something she had been wondering about earlier and sat up straighter. ‘I want to know how you got to be here with Roalger’s group.’
Baindan stiffened slightly, a slight frown creasing his forehead. ‘Why do you want to know that?’
Siray raised her hands in a why not gesture. ‘You know my story and how I came to be here. I want to know yours.’
Baindan looked across at her and ran the back of his thumb across his chin, considering her for a moment. ‘I came from one of the other cities. Like you, my inability to Change was discovered at the Change ceremony.’ He smiled grimly. ‘Unlike you, I was lucky enough to have a cycle guide who was aware that students who failed to Change were being taken. Once I failed to Change, I was instructed to wait in the tent away from the ceremony by the masters.’ He breathed deeply. ‘My cycle guide found me there while the ceremony was being concluded and told me to run.’
Siray blinked. ‘He told you to run? Did he say why?’
Baindan nodded. ‘He said that youths who failed to Change at the ceremony were being rounded up. Not that there were many of us, but that we were of great interest to some people in power. He told me that to stay would mean capture and imprisonment. He said my only choice was to leave—to run into the wild and stay hidden.’
Siray crossed her legs as she listened intently. ‘So that’s what you did?’
Baindan nodded. ‘I did. But only after I stayed around long enough to watch the members of the Faction arrive to collect me.’ He gazed off past Siray’s shoulder. ‘Not that I knew that was who they were at the time.’ He shrugged. ‘I trusted my cycle guide, but I just couldn’t believe this. So he took me to the tent’s entrance that faced out towards the ceremony and pulled the flap back a tiny bit, just enough for me to see through to the outside.’ Baindan’s voice had grown softer.
Siray leaned forwards. ‘What did you see?’
Baindan’s face became stony, and his voice become harder. ‘I saw one of the master’s assistants talking to a group of strangers. They were all standing apart from the rest of the ceremony, talking at a time when all attendants and assistants should be focused on nothing but the ceremony itself. My cycle guide told me that the assistant had summoned them, that he was one of the new “circle” that belonged to the Faction. He told me that they were there for me.’
Siray was listening intently still and, when Baindan paused, nodded to encourage him to continue.
‘My cycle guide urged me to leave immediately before they came to take me. When I looked through the tent’s flap again, the assistant was pointing at the tent, and the strangers were heading in our direction.’
Siray was almost holding her breath. ‘So that’s when you left.’
Baindan shook his head. ‘Not quite. To the relief of my cycle guide, I left the tent, heading out the back in the direction of the forest. But unbeknownst to him, I circled around and crouched to the side, watching as the strangers reached the tent and entered.’
Siray’s chest stilled as she held her breath.
‘I could hear everything from where I was with only the side of the tent between me and them,’ Baindan said, swallowing. ‘They questioned my cycle guide about where I had gone, and he told them that I had headed back into the city. But these Faction members were quick to point out that they had just come from there and hadn’t seen any youths upon the road.’ Baindan looked at Siray. ‘My cycle guide stuck to his story, insisting that I had indeed headed back and that they must have missed me.’ He paused again. ‘He stuck to his story when they started beating him, asking him over and over where I had gone. I can still remember the sound of them hitting him, the snaps, as his bones broke.’
Siray’s hands had risen to her mouth in horror as she listened, a cold chill spreading through her. Suddenly aware of her gesture, she promptly lowered her hands to her lap again, linking her fingers tightly.
Baindan continued in a flat voice. ‘They only stopped when my cycle guide screamed and the assistant who had been speaking with them came down and entered the tent. When he saw what they had done, he became annoyed, telling them they had to get rid of my guide so that he couldn’t report to anyone.’
Siray paled and began berating herself for her curiosity as a mixture of expressions, including anger and sadness, flashed across Baindan’s face.
‘I wanted to run in there and take them out,’ Baindan murmured. ‘I wanted to beat them and break them apart. But I had enough sense to know that I had no chance against seasoned fighters.’ Baindan ran a hand through his brown hair. ‘So I did the only thing possible, the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I left. I crept away from that tent and headed into the forest that night.’
Siray swallowed, knowing what was being left unsaid.
Traces of regret flickered across Baindan’s face, but he kept going. ‘I travelled for days, drinking water when I found it and eating when I could. I stayed clear of the cities and just headed deeper into the wilderness. Beyond avoiding contact with anyone, I didn’t have a plan. So I just roamed the forest. Then one day, after a season of wandering on my own, I looked up, and Roalger was there.’ Baindan’s lip twitched now as he glanced at her.
‘Roalger told me he had been tracking and watching me for some time, as, without my knowing, I had once wandered very close to one of their hideouts and been spotted by their scouts. He guessed some of my story, and, not having much choice, I told him the rest.’ Baindan paused and smiled. ‘He told me about the Resistance and what they were trying to do, and not long after that, I became one of them. They showed me how to Change, how to fight, and since then I’ve been working to bring down the people who destroyed my life and murdered my guide.’
A long silence fell between the two of them, Baindan looking away from her.
Siray could only sit there, processing what he had just told her for a while. Then, drawing herself out of her own thoughts, she looked over at Baindan. ‘Thank you.’
Startled, Baindan looked up at her and blinked. ‘What?’ he said in a startled voice.
Siray made her voice soft but firm. ‘If you hadn’t done what he said, and left, you never would have been here to save me. It took strength, to do what you did.’
A small, slow nod. ‘I guess that’s true,’ he said reluctantly.
Siray watched as he gathered his legs underneath him and stood, facing the door to their hideout. She also looked out and saw the light had now turned the dusky colour of twilight. She pushed off the hard ground and stood, her stomach rumbling as the movement awakened her body more fully. She pressed a hand to her stomach, a small motion that didn’t escape Baindan’s attention.
‘Hungry?’
She nodded. ‘Aren’t you?’
He nodded back at her. ‘Not much we can do about it right now, but we still have enough water to get us through to the mountains.’ He gestured to the flat water pack sitting against the wall. He had obviously grabbed the pack before the group had left the cavern in the ridge.
Siray watched as Baindan stepped right up to the opening between the two boulders, looking up and out.
‘Mmmmmmm.’
Frowning, she walked over to stand next to him and looked out, curious what he was looking at. ‘What’s the matter?’
Baindan pointed up at the span of sky they could see. ‘We could be in for a tough night. Those are pretty heavy storm clouds.’
Siray looked up
at the sky and, through the fading light, she saw what Baindan had spotted. Rolling, dark clouds were gathering in the distance, and, as she looked, she thought she spied a flash of bright-purple lightning.
Baindan left her side and returned a moment later, carrying the water pack. After fidgeting with the straps for a moment, he shifted around onto his back. ‘At least the storm should keep the scouts out of the skies,’ he said, the cheery tone to his voice sounding forced.
Siray appreciated his effort, but she also didn’t like the look of those clouds.
Impatiently, Siray waited with Baindan as twilight began to give way to a deeper creeping blackness. As night drew closer, the temperature slowly dropped and a wind began to rise.
Once the last vestige of twilight had disappeared, Baindan twisted towards her. ‘Stick close behind me and move quietly. We’ll have to travel through the night to make it through the territory of the Lost Ones by dawn.’
Siray nodded, her heart beginning to thud with anticipation and hoped her body wouldn’t become addicted to the adrenaline rushes she had been receiving of late. She watched as Baindan moved to the entrance and eased sideways through the boulders and, breathing deeply, slipped through behind him to face their new path.
Beside her, Baindan tweaked the straps of his pack one last time before he looked to her once and then took off at a jog.
Siray began moving after him at once, too nervous to be far from her one companion in this place. She noted that Baindan continued on the straight course from which they had started last night, and she knew that each step she took was taking her farther into a place she didn’t want to go. That no one should go.
As they ran, the wind grew gradually stronger, pushing against them, and Siray eventually had to tilt her chin into her chest in an attempt to stop her eyes from streaming as she ran behind Baindan, making it harder to watch his steps ahead of hers.
Around them flashes of lightning began to crack across the sky with greater frequency, throwing the rocky and bare landscape around them into startling relief. Worry began to nibble at the edges of her mind. Sure, no scouts could be in the sky with this weather, but anyone within a short distance would be able to see them clearly in those dazzling moments when everything was lit brighter than the day.
At times, the purple lightning filled the whole sky with a flash that was softened by particularly dense clouds, while at other times brilliant jagged forks speared through the sky to strike randomly at the ground with frightening speed and power. The accompanying booms that rolled through the air grew increasingly louder and would have drowned out speech if Siray could have spared enough breath to talk, but keeping pace with Baindan was taking all of her breath.
Her body did seem, however, to be handling this trip much better than the one of the previous night and Siray thanked the Great Mother that she had been able to rest during the day just gone.
Underfoot, the land became rockier now as they continued on, and Siray paid careful attention to the placement of her feet as they jogged down slopes littered with loose rocks. They must have been on the path Roalger had mentioned, as apart from weaving around boulders that were too big to pass directly over, there was a clear but narrow path to follow across the terrain. On either side of this narrow path, boulders ranged from fist-sized stones to rocks the size of trees, and as she passed these massive specimens, a separate part of Siray’s mind wondered how they had come to be.
The lightning continued to rage, its crackling light showing them that the landscape was now bereft of any trees, only sparse shrubs and twisted brambles breaking up the spaces between the rocks.
As they jogged up and down hills, fighting against the wind all the while, fat drops of water began to fall on and around them. The wind shifted direction just enough to drive the rain into their faces, and Siray struggled to both shield her eyes and to track Baindan as he ran ahead of her.
Without warning, a thundering boom sounded right over their heads, and a blindingly bright flash dazzled Siray, causing bright dots to dance before her eyes as hair stood up all over her body. As she felt heat blossom from somewhere to her left, Siray closed her eyes and spun instinctively away from the danger, falling to her knees as she waited for her blindness to fade. She felt a sure hand at her elbow and let it guide her to her feet again.
‘That was too close,’ Baindan muttered from beside her.
Siray opened her mouth to reply, but another crash of thunder, even more deafening than the last, had them both drop to the ground, heat blossoming from close by as the inside of Siray’s eyelids turned bright with purple-white light. When the light died away, Siray opened her eyes and looked at Baindan with wide eyes. Together, they stood and, without speaking, began running through the storm once more. It was obvious that to stand still was even more dangerous than running through this maelstrom.
As the storm continued to swell in fury, Siray could feel the tension of power in the air and didn’t dare to stop again, even when she felt her legs begin to cramp. The only comforting thought she had while she ran was that the storm itself was probably the only reason they hadn’t run into any of the Lost Ones.
Now almost on top of them, the impressive storm battered the surrounding rocky landscape, and growing rivets of water ran down and over all surfaces, including the path and their bodies. And as lightning flashes reflected off the wet surfaces, Siray nervously wondered how much water the lightening needed on the ground to travel across it. She and Baindan weren’t the tallest objects in the area by a long shot, yet the way this lightening was behaving, she didn’t trust that fact very much.
As they ran down another hill, Siray noticed that the next incline appeared quite steep. Tucking her head to shield her eyes again, she impatiently brushed a long, wet strand of hair out of her face so she could peer past Baindan to see the path ahead. Definitely a steep hill. And rocky. And the path …
Ahead of her, Baindan slowed to a jog, then a walk, before coming to a complete stop as they reached the base of the hill ahead. ‘The path,’ he murmured, ‘it disappears.’
Siray stopped beside him and saw that the path they had been on was completely blocked by an enormous boulder. More rocks around it prevented even a hint of which way the path might continue to head from being seen.
The hill in front of them was broad and rose up and to either side of them for some distance, leaving them standing in the middle of a storm before a wall of wet stone.
Roalger’s last words to them both played through Siray’s head, and she shivered.
Head straight through. Don’t stray, and don’t lose the path.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE PATH WAS LOST to them. Baindan stood next to Siray, his face staring at the boulder before them in bewilderment as rain pelted them both.
Siray tried to make herself heard over the sound of the storm. ‘What do we do?’
Baindan shook his head at her, water flying from the ends of his short soaking hair. ‘I don’t know—the path should be here!’
Siray brushed away the water dripping from her nose as Baindan squatted down before her. As she hugged herself against the cold, her clothes almost at the point of saturation from the driving rain, she saw Baindan examining the ground before them. After a moment, he stood quickly, turning to her as he held a hand out to shelter his eyes.
‘It looks like a rockslide must have taken out the path,’ he said, leaning close to her as he shouted.
Siray leaned closer still to him, greedily drinking in the warmth of his body. She didn’t so much care why the path wasn’t there as much as knowing which way they should go to get out of this storm.
‘So what do we do?’ she yelled back, shivering.
A thunderclap shook the sky overhead, and Siray was forced to wait for its echoes to roll away before Baindan could reply.
‘We go up and over. It’s the only way to be sure we’re headed in the right direction. We can pick up the path again on the other side.’
Siray wasn’t sure if she had heard him right, but when she leaned back to look at Baindan’s wet face, he nodded in reassurance. Her gaze turned doubtfully to the mammoth boulder that was streaming water before them. Climb that?
Baindan moved past her and positioned himself to one side of the boulder’s face, gesturing for her to come forwards.
She did, frowning and unsure what he intended to do.
Baindan gestured again, and this time she realised he wasn’t just gesturing but holding his hands out in particular way. He wanted to give her a boost.
With the thunder continuing to sound in her ears, Siray swallowed her nerves and reached up to place her hands as high as she could up the face of the boulder. It took her some breaths before she was sure of having any kind of grip at all, due to the water that ran over the rocky surface. Once she felt she had the best grip possible, she lifted one booted foot. Tilting her head to watch as Baindan put his hands under the bottom of her boot, she exerted pressure on that foot as she transferred her weight from the ground to his hand.
With a strength that surprised her, he heaved her up into the air.
As she was lifted upwards, Siray extended her reach and began trying to pull herself up with her arms, yet as she tried to use her other foot to assist her efforts, the rain caused her to slip, and she scrambled for an instant as she fought to maintain her grip against the slippery surface.
She started in surprise and almost let go entirely when a firm pressure was suddenly applied to her rear end, but when she realised it was Baindan attempting to stop her from falling, she swiftly forgot her dignity and returned her focus to scrambling up the face of the boulder.
With an immense last effort, she managed to throw most of her weight onto the rounded top of the boulder, pushing herself forwards far enough to ensure she was securely on top. Siray didn’t hesitate but carefully slithered around in that spot so that she lay looking down at Baindan a moment later. Spreading her legs out behind her and hooking the toes of her boots over whatever edges her feet could find, she stretched out a hand to him.