by Alan Black
Tanden thought of his lost friend, “His death is my fault. How can I comfort Tuller when I’m to blame. I lost vigilance and let death move in among us.”
“No!” he screamed in his mind. “I will not blame myself for this. Gadon’s death falls on the heads of those mutinous son’s of the dark demons who stole our ship. Without their treachery, we wouldn’t be here. I call upon the six gods to help me mete out justice for a good man’s death and not because of the anger in my heart.”
Summoning gods that were nothing more than lifeless rocky moons reflecting the light of the sun caused Tanden to calm himself. He put a hand on Tuller’s shoulder and gave him a gentle squeeze. He knew nothing needed to be said now. Both men would talk later over a drink to honor their lost one.
Seenger said, “My water skin didn’t hold. Its seams rent as we ran.”
Tanden said, “Tuller, your water bag is still full. Hand it to me and I’ll give water to Durrban and the girl.”
Tuller shook his head, “I’ll do it. You first.”
Tanden shrugged and drank. He handed the bag back to Tuller, who in turn passed it to Seenger. Moving off, Tuller stood over Durrban and I-Sheera where they collapsed on the ground. He retied the water bag after Durrban and I-Sheera drank their fill.
Tanden said, “We move up and over this hill. Where one dragon lives, there must be others. We’ve lost one good man here. I have no desire to lose any more.”
He walked to I-Sheera, took her arm and lifted her to her feet. Climbing the steep hillside caused them to breathe in gasping gulps as they had not taken the time to recover from their long run. Small stones rattled and slipped beneath their feet. He increased his grip on I-Sheera’s arm and pulled her up behind him. Without complaining, the woman scrambled to keep up with Tanden’s longer legs. By the time they reached the top, he was almost dragging her behind him.
At the top of the hill Tanden stopped to get his bearings. In front of him was a hundred foot escarpment dropping to a river below. Across the river was a wide valley cluttered with clumps of trees and rolling hills before turning into a forest in the distance. On the far side of the valley was a series of high, rugged-looking ridges.
He saw no signs of human habitation. He was not aware of any Holdenite villages in this region, but the Hummdhars and Coodhars may have filtered down from the high mountains in recent years, to resettle near the coasts. Both tribes had warred with each other and Holden for years. The Holdenites drove them back to the mountains time after time.
Tanden thought to himself, “Can I do this? Do I have time to reach the sea before Heraclius and Gregin pass me by? Is this even right? Maybe I should leave vengeance to the fates. Look what I’ve done, I‘ve killed my friend in this mad rush to regain a ship, a silly pile of floating wood.” Though he doubted himself, he could not deviate from his course.
A stifled whimper caused him to look down. He still held I-Sheera’s arm in a tight grasp, holding her at his feet. In horror, he released his grasp on the woman. Welts were already sprouting on her skin. He turned and strode to the edge of the escarpment. He wanted desperately to apologize, but could not bring himself to speak.
Durrban dropped to the ground next to I-Sheera and spoke gently to her. She nodded quietly to him and responded, but Tanden could not hear their words. He tried to think of what to do or what to say. He had abused these people for his own goals. Now he had lost his best friend and he was sure he was beginning to lose his own mind. Unable to formulate even the right questions in his mind, Tanden found himself at a loss of what to do.
He felt a presence beside him. It was Durrban. The man put an arm around Tanden’s shoulders and turned him to face south across the valley. Durrban said, “We should move on, Captain.”
Fiercely, Tanden flashed back at the man, “Do you command me now?”
Durrban responded softly, “I saw my mother and father die before my own eyes at the hands of the Surr. I know that’s no comfort to you. But listen, Captain; I lost the ability to think for a long time. The ache in my heart clouded the thoughts of my mind. We all follow your lead. We need you now. We’re all lost here without you. There will be time enough later to grieve for our lost comrade. He was a good man who’d want us to go on.”
Tanden calmed himself. “Yes, Durrban. We should go on. Delay won’t bring him back.” He tried to say Gadon’s name, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. “I hurt the girl. She was fond of Gadon and I treated her so rough, she probably hates me for it.”
“No one here hates you, Captain. She’ll be fine. You’ll see.”
Tanden could not bring himself to speak to the girl. Calling Seenger over to join them, he told Durrban to stay with Tuller and I-Sheera. He pointed to the left and instructed the ogre to look for a way down to the river below. He moved off to the right, carefully searching for a path off the ridge.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Staring down at the river from the hilltop, it appeared deep and slow, though looks can be deceiving at a distance. They could not turn and go back, there was nothing behind them. To move on they must cross the river somewhere. Around a small grove of trees, Tanden saw a rugged path angling down to the river, apparently a deer or goat path.
He called to the others to join him. Tanden sighed and stepped onto the steep path. He was able to keep his footing as long as he moved slowly. The others called to one another as they began to follow him down the path. A tumble here would send him crashing down the rocky escarpment into the unknown waters below. His sailor’s balance held him in good stead all the way down to the river's edge.
The muddy water gave no clue to the river’s depth. It flowed faster than it appeared to when they first saw it. Their best course of action was to swim across the river. Tanden would have preferred to build a raft, but they had neither the tools nor the time.
Swimming in the sea was difficult enough, but the uncertain currents of a river could quickly pull them under or sweep them away. The speed of the water would be tough for a strong swimmer and they had two non-swimmers among them.
Tanden formulated a plan. It wasn’t a good plan, but it was all he had.
Seenger, the last one down, sent a small shower of loose rocks splashing into the water. Tanden laid out his plan.
He set Seenger to re-sealing his wolfskin waterbag. Sealed tight, it might hold air and give the ogre support in the water. Tuller drained the wolf’s bladder of all remaining water. Blowing hard into the opening, he stretched the bag and tied the end closed. With a long strip of cloth from his tunic he tied the ballooned bladder to I-Sheera’s chest where she could grasp it with both arms.
They tore the rest of Tuller’s tunic into two long strips to use as straps. One end of each was tied around I-Sheera’s torso. The other end of each was tied to Tanden’s and Durrban’s ankles. This was an awkward task due to the short length of the straps. They accomplished the goal by having the woman sit at their feet as they were tied together.
Tanden planned for them to tow I-Sheera across the river first. The straps would keep their hands free for swimming. The air in the inflated wolf bladder would help her float and keep her head out of the water. Once across, Durrban and I-Sheera would wait on the other side while he swam back for Seenger.
Tanden commanded Tuller and Seenger to make the wolfskin as air tight as possible and wait for his return. The current looked so strong Tanden believed it would take two strong swimmers to help a weak one across the river. Though Durrban was not a strong swimmer, I-Sheera was much smaller and lighter than Seenger. His plan should enable them to successfully tow the woman across to safety. Then Tanden would return to help Tuller tow Seenger across.
Tanden said, “Durrban, we must synchronize our strokes as much as possible. We can’t allow the river’s current to pull us away from each other.”
Durrban nodded his understanding and the two men stepped to the water’s edge with I-Sheera scooting along between them. Tanden noticed the man and woman exchange glances of a
ssurance. He was still unable to look the woman in the face, so he focused on the river. He felt her warm hand on his leg, just above his boot top. Her hand squeezed lightly sending a shot of heat through Tanden’s body. He stepped forward into the water with Durrban at his side and I-Sheera slightly behind them. Tanden chose a spot far up river as a point of reference. As they swam up the river, the current would carry them downstream. He was sure this would allow them to reach the other bank almost directly opposite Tuller and Seenger.
The water was warmer than the Black Sea had been yesterday. The early afternoon sun warmed them as they stepped into deeper water. The river tugged and pulled at them, testing their strength. Tanden believed they could beat the river as long as they stayed united. If they separated, one or all of them would fail to reach the opposite shore.
Tanden lost sight of his reference point almost immediately. The current was far stronger than he guessed. It tugged and yanked in every direction except toward the other side. At first, Tanden thought they were making no forward progress. The current swirling around them kept pushing them back toward the bank they just left. Glancing behind, he saw they were already farther downstream than he had planned.
I-Sheera passively floated behind him, her eyes wide with fear, her clamped jaw clenched in determination. Tanden instantly regretted not speaking to her about his roughness. He would not be able to forgive himself if she drowned in this river before he healed any rift he had caused between them.
Drowning was becoming a possibility for each of them. He longed for Durrban to cut himself loose so he could swim free, the man might survive without I-Sheera’s weight dragging behind him. Tanden choked back his command realizing he could not save the woman from drowning single handedly.
He shouted to Durrban, “Try to swim straight across to the far bank. We’re wasting our strength fighting upstream against this current. We’ll make shore where the river takes us.”
Changing directions was easy enough as an individual, but swimming in tandem was more difficult than Tanden had anticipated. He was a much stronger swimmer than Durrban and neither man could use the full power of their legs without kicking the woman.
A large ripple washed over the swimmers, rolling them over and over one another. Durrban and Tanden grasped at each other. It rolled them over again. Both men sputtered and spit out muddy river water to gulp in air. I-Sheera was gasping for air behind them. Her tether pulled hard at his leg, the current pulling her in the opposite direction, but the strap held. Tanden grabbed the collar of Durrban’s tunic, swimming for shore with his free hand. He kicked as best he could with his free leg, driving at the water, trying not to kick his companions.
Tanden released his hold on Durrban once the man regained his swimming stroke. Together they pulled at the water; hand over hand, crossing the river. Tanden tried to synchronize his swimming to match the other man stoke for stroke. Suddenly, they shot forward as the current let them go. Tanden’s feet struck bottom. Looking up, he was disappointed to discover that the far bank was still a long way away. Below them, underwater, was an unseen sandbar, blocking the stronger current. Tanden pushed against the shifting sand with his free leg, calling for Durrban to do the same. They were unable to stand on the sandbar, because I-Sheera’s tethers were too short—doing so would pull her head under water.
He said, “Keep moving forward. This sand may shift enough to take hold of our feet.”
I-Sheera smiled weakly. She pushed forward through the churning water clutching the float to her chest. Not having to pull her weight was a relief to both men. Tanden looked back at the bank for Tuller and Seenger, but they were out of sight. The three had been carried much farther down the river than he expected.
Again, the current grabbed at Durrban and Tanden, yanking them downstream. The sudden jerk pulled I-Sheera off balance into the swiftly moving current. She was sucked under water before she could draw a saving breath. The water ran quickly in the channel between the sandbar and the bank. Barely able to stay afloat and continue breathing, neither man could reach the woman.
Partially pushing against the bottom and partly swimming, the two men quickly reached a calm backwater near the far bank. Reaching back to grab I-Sheera, Tanden was startled to see her head bob up out of the water right before his eyes. Coughing and gasping for air, she continued to clasp the inflated bladder to her chest. Tanden noticed it was beginning to lose air and she would soon sink, but he knew they could now reach the bank safely without it.
Grabbing Durrban’s ankle, he untied the strap and pushed the man toward the nearby bank. Putting his own head underwater, he untied the strap from his ankle. A few stokes moved him close enough to the shore he could stand on the bottom. He pulled the woman through the shallow water a few feet closer until she was able to put her feet down on the river bottom. Still clutching the float to her chest, she followed Durrban up to dry land.
Tanden stood for a few seconds, staring into the reeds flourishing along the side of the river. The unseeing eyes of a dead man stared back at him. A chill crept into his bones and raised the hair on the back of his neck. He splashed over to the bloated, pudgy body, pulling it free from the entangling weeds. An arrow protruded from the man’s neck. Pushing the body into the river current, he watched it swirl and bob away. Then waded his way to the bank and climbed up beside Durrban and I-Sheera.
He said, “You both saw?”
They nodded quietly.
“Good.” He continued, “I know we’re tired, but we must stay alert. This river is the least of our concerns now. Tuller and I will be able to bring Seenger across to this side. I must leave you two here. From the man’s clothing, he was either a Hummdhar or Coodhar. Any arrow that long definitely came from a long Hummdhar bow. The poor bastard ripped open his own throat trying to pull the arrow out before dying.”
He shook his head “I don’t know what’s happening in this valley, but we shouldn’t take any chances. Let’s get you out of sight and then you stay that way as much as you can.”
A small grove of trees edged up to the river. Tanden led the two into its shadows. He detected no evidence that anyone had been in or near the spot. Indicating the two should stay hidden in the grove and watch the river, he reminded them to keep an eye on the area around them as well. He reluctantly agreed to let Durrban make a small fire to dry their clothes, warning him to keep it as smokeless as possible.
After leaving the two in the grove, Tanden moved cautiously upriver from one cluster of trees to the next. He glanced at the other bank, watching for his crew, but his true concentration was on the valley around him. He had no desire to be taken by either tribe. He, like most Holdenites, considered both tribes barbarians.
He began to think that in his caution he had passed where Seenger and Tuller waited for him. Then, he spied them. Both lay asleep in the shadows, propped up against rocks. If he had not specifically been looking for them, he would not have seen them against the escarpment rocks. He thought to shout, but changed his mind, thinking it was better to let them rest, they would need their strength for the river swim.
Continuing upriver, Tanden watched the terrain around him finding no indications of hostile tribes. Moving back into the river without hesitation, he refused to think about another swim or the one after that. If he had, he might not have been able to get back into the river.
The water tugged and pulled at his body. He felt he was being pulled in all directions at the same time. One swirling eddy twisted him around to face the way he had come. He locked his thoughts on the far bank, driving his mind to drive his body through the water, ever watchful for his crew.
He reached the foot of the escarpment, but there was no bank to climb. He was sure he had not passed his men, so he allowed the current to float him down river. Each time the current threatened to push him back toward the middle of the river, he swam a few strokes to keep himself in easy reach of the bank.
He soon spotted Tuller and Seenger. Two swift strokes brought hi
m to a good handhold. He pulled himself out of the water into the sunlight. Shaking like a wet dog, he remembered I-Sheera complaining on ship that his crew did not bathe often enough. His group had spent so much time in the water lately, they were beginning to slosh when they walked.
Tanden wanted to rest beside the two men, however, he didn’t want to leave Durrban and the woman alone any longer than necessary.
He said softly, “Tuller. Seenger. Time to go.”
Awakening with a start, Tuller said, “I was beginning to think you’d decided to drown and leave us here.” He yawned, stretched, and stood. “We watched you shoot out of sight in the current. The river runs faster than it looks.”
Seenger said nothing, but he got to his feet and began tying the inflated wolfskin to his bare chest. Seenger had used his shirt to make straps and both sailors had torn their trousers from ankle to thigh to give them enough material to tie the float to the ogre. There was just enough cloth left over to tie Seenger to Tanden and Tuller.
Tanden noticed they had turned the skin inside out and some kind of pitch or resin had oozed out and dried around the seams. Tanden was sure no profession in the world made a man more self-reliant or adaptable to the tools at hand than a sailor.
Tanden said, “That looks like an excellent float. I’m certain if we had more skins we could make a boat to carry us across the river. Seenger, finish tying us together, let’s get on with it.”
Tuller looked down at his own barely covered body and said, “I hadn’t thought of needing more wolf skin. If we need more cloth than we have, Seenger and I’ll be as naked as the day we were born, but so far we seem to have what we need when we need it.”
Tanden said, “Let’s get going. I’m uncomfortable leaving Durrban and the girl alone.” He told the men about the dead body he found.
Tuller tsked loudly when Tanden said he had freed the body and let the river take it away. “Wasteful. I could have used a new shirt and some pants, from a dead man or not.”