Suddenly, there came a loud rustling in the bushes behind her. Adelaide looked around desperately for her knife, but it was nowhere to be found. She reached weakly out for a sharp stick lying nearby as the sounds of approaching footsteps drew nearer. Her fingers finally clasped around it as the newcomer emerged from the brush. She winced as she stretched her arm out as far as she could, grasping the stick loosely with her fingers, preparing to strike out should she be attacked. She braced herself and turned her head out, giving a sharp cry as her neck pulsed in agony.
“Are you alright, wet fish?” Adelaide blinked her eyes, rubbing traces of water from of them as she beheld the identity of the speaker.
“Mimi?” Mimi Varrow laughed and shook back her long frizzy locks. She had changed since Adelaide had last saw her back in Havendale. The petticoat and skirt she’d worn to the Guild ceremony were gone. Her outfit now consisted of a worn down pair of leather slacks and a ragged poncho. Brass welding goggles covered her eyes and a checkered handkerchief covered her mouth. The entire ensemble resembled something a Red Hand would be expected to wear. Adelaide even noted the way Mimi’s hands were stained to the wrist with some form of berry juice.
“Adelaide !” she exclaimed. “I thought I’d never see you alive again. Tripper said he’d found you floating down under the waterfall and I….I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t rotting believe it! I’m so glad you’re here.”
“How did….Tripper? You mean Tripper Wetherby?” Mimi nodded her head. “Yes. Dakota and I found him killing off one of those mangy dogs just inside the Wallowing Woods the day after Huglund arrived. Together, we cut north around the corn fields until we reached the Obrillo Forest. Once inside, Tripper figured we could avoid being seen until all this chaos blew over. He is truly wonderful, Adelaide, really he is. After that, we soon found ourselves fearing the worse. There were no signs of life here and no one knew how to hunt. It was days before someone came to help us.”
“Who helped you?”
Mimi smiled.
“Have you found your Acryptus Tree yet?”
Adelaide looked at Mimi, completely dumbfounded. “You know?” “Of course we know. They’ve been collecting information on the mark for nearly ten years. It turns out to be the workings of someone you admire, Mr. Jonah Longstreet.”
“Have you found him?” Adelaide asked ecstatically. “Has he revealed himself to our plight?”
“By Sorra, Addy; keep your squeezer dry!” This remark bewildered Adelaide, who had no recollection of Mimi using such crude lingo. Apparently living on the run had influenced her as well.
“ No,” Mimi continued. “The man has not come to our aid beyond some hasty scribbling on paper. But through his work, we identified the mark and have attributed it to the story of the Two Mothers and the eternal struggle betwixt all good and all nefarious.”
“Have you got any idea what it’s got to do with us?” “Not at the moment. Mason has been actively pursuing leads all over Amber.”
Adelaide’s look of curiosity caught Mimi’s eye. “ Who is Mason, you are wondering? Mason Ware, the Red Handed King of Sanctumsea. He’s been living here in the Obrillo secretly for almost ten years, building an army. It’s an army of us, Adelaide, of marked Red Hands. He’s kept them all safe from Huglund for years, always staying out of sight. As long as they stay past the falls, they cannot be detected. I don’t know why. Neither does Mason. No one really gives a rot as long as we can all stay safe and survive.”
Adelaide’s head was still throbbing as she struggled to make sense of everything being said. “Don’t you see?” Mimi laughed. “We’re fighting back. Mason has armed us all with confiscated weapons and put us to work. Take me, for example. With these goggles, I can handle highly unstable lorbs and use them as missiles. There is so much we don’t know about them yet, Adelaide, you wouldn’t believe. When projected at an adversary, they react in a truly magnificent way. There is normally a flash of white light followed by a powerful blast of energy that incapacitates and often annihilates anyone around it. We’ve been using them as household generators and they can truly supply us with so much more. I am a member of the movement against Tibris Tiberion. The Red Hand Army protects all of Sanctumsea…or at least Amber, anyway.”
“What about Clayton, Finn and Raoul? We all made it out together. Have you found them yet?” Mimi shook her head. “I haven’t seen any of them yet, sorry. We have patrols out scouring both sides of the waterfall day and night. If they’re out there, we’ll find them.”
“T here were two others; a givie with a spear and a little girl,” Adelaide continued. “They weren’t Red Hands. They came along with us from a town in the woods and I lost them both over the falls.”
“You’re all I’ve found today. A few friends of mine were scanning above the falls a while ago, perhaps they had better luck. Our camp is just north of here. Can you walk?”
“I think I can; maybe with some help.”
Mimi nodded and placed Adelaide’s arm around her shoulder for support. Together, the pair marched off into the forest.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
The afternoon sun beat down on Adelaide’s face as they walked along. She struggled to stay awake as Mimi rambled on about her adventures, and what had transpired between her and Tripper.
“I mean , who knew that he and I would find all these hidden feelings, you know? I honestly felt terrified from the start that Dakota was going to snatch him right up. But, after some time, he just came out and told him how he felt. I could have swooned right then and there, Addy, I swear I could have. It went so well, right from the start, he couldn’t keep his hands off me. I actually started feeling rotting guilty about it all in front of Dakota. Thought about inviting her in for some of the fun, but the idea scared Tripper half to death. It was so cute to watch, he really is a gentleman. At least in public company, anyhow. I always hoped Clayton would make a move on me, but now…now I wouldn’t have anyone less than Tripper. He truly is one in a….oh wait, look at that. We’re here.”
A pair of towering oak trees stood before them. Mimi whistled a sharp tune and immediately two men appeared. The left one was a husky fellow with an outfit that stretched across his form to the point of tearing. Even with his uncombed hairstyle and second-hand clothing, Adelaide picked up a subtle attitude of prosperity, hinting at a previous lifestyle that involved shine and multiple luxuries. The man beside him stood over seven feet tall. He had a sharp, stubbly beard and a grizzly head of hair hidden under a tattered, black bowler hat. His skin was coarse, leathery, and freckled, which whispered of a life spent on the open seas. The heftier man carried a double edged broadsword with various runes inked along the blade, while the taller one supported a homemade shillelagh, the top dipped in molten iron, strapped across his back.
“That there is Arbus Spyrbank,” Mimi announced , pointing to the man in tight clothes. “His pap is one of the wealthiest fellows in all of Sanctumsea. Their family was Raoul King’s competition in the selling of lorbs. Rumor is that Mr. King had to reach into illegal sales of TOX just to stay ahead. Arbus doesn’t say much about his pap. He’s been with Mason and the Red Hand Army, or as we call it, the RHA, since the beginning.”
“I see.” “And tha t colossus of flesh is Hagan. He arrived in the Obrillo not long after Arbus. They are two of Mason’s top fighters and trusted comrades, and practically inseparable. Now fellows,” Mimi continued, placing her hand on Adelaide’s shoulder and calling out to the two figures. “This is Adelaide Stokes, from Havendale. She was my neighbor and my friend. I trust you both can show her as much respect and courtesy as you can.”
Hagan looked Adelaide from top to bottom, mumbled something quietly, and nodded.
Arbus whipped off his cap and gave a tremendous bow. “Welcome to the Obrillo, milady,” he declared. His voice was enriched with culture and education. “Any cherished acquaintance of Mimi here is a one to us as well.”
“Thank you,” Adelaide said. “Please, do you
know anything about my friends? There were five of them and they couldn’t be far from the falls. Have either of you heard anything?”
“We sent out a patrol across the wat erfall almost an hour ago,” Arbus informed her. “They’ll find your friends before nightfall, I’m quite certain.”
This seemed to contend Adelaide and the group headed on towards the camp. A few minutes more brought them in sight of a hundred small lorb filled pits, each with three or four people crouched beside them. Every man, woman, and squirm appeared to be exhausted. They huddled together and murmured quietly as they saw Adelaide limp alongside Mimi through their midst. It appeared that every single one of them had stained their hands in the same berry substance which Mimi, Arbus and Hagan has used.
Dotted amongst the camp stood multiple wagons, much like the one Taz had borrowed to aid their escape back at the creek. From what Adelaide could see, most were overflowing with various confiscated Hammerstahl firearms. One or two of the wagons appeared to fully stocked with crates containing lorbs and complicated equipment, somewhat resembling the fiery mechanisms involved in constructing the Flammeau-11. Curious as this was to see, it was the collection of Red Hands huddled fearfully together than completely grabbed Adelaide’s attention.
“They look starving” she murmured to Mimi. “Mason has been scraping these parts clean looking for food. It’s never safe to leave the Obrillo, even at night. He puts himself at great risk leading out expeditions outside the forest.”
“Look there, Mimi,” Arbus laughed. “I think someone wants to wish you salutations.”
Up ahead, a young woman could be seen kneeling in front of a small tent waving her hands. “That’s Sevigne,” Mimi informed Adelaide. “She’s been a Red Hand for a couple years now. Mason found her wandering alone in the dark somewhere outside Obrillo and brought her here. He claims the moment he saw her, he understood every ballad, sonnet, and painting about love. She felt the same way, but could hardly understand his affections for her. Some people had…well she didn’t get a lot of help on the run. Those that did made her do things no one should ever have to in order to survive. By the time Mason rescued her, she had been…well, see for yourself.”
As they drew nearer, Adelaide was taken aback. Sevigne had to have been one of the most tortured beauties she had ever witnessed. Her hair, once surely full and luscious, had been hacked crudely off and all remnants scraped away with a dull razor. A hundred healing scars covered her face and arms, some too violent for even her sun-kissed skin to hide. Her smile was deformed in part to a slight divot in her bottom lip, the result of some sadist with a fish hook and an unhealthy imagination. Adelaide wanted to rush ahead and embrace her without saying a word. Instead, she offered Sevigne her hand. She shook it kindly and looked to Mimi for information.
“This is my friend, Adelaide Stokes. She comes from my village,” Mimi informed her. “She made it out just like me.” Sevigne smiled and clapped her hands together.
“Oh and Adelaide,” Mimi started. “One thing you need to know about her is….”
She was interrupted as Sevigne began forming shapes and symbols with her fingers.
“She’s a Hush?” Adelaide asked.
Mimi nodded. “Since birth , I’ve been told. We’ve all done our best to learn her language. Some things still go misunderstood in the odd conversation, but we’re getting along.”
“Mimi…I don’t know a word of it,” Adelaide whispered awkwardly.
“It’s fine. She’s very understanding. Just pick up what you can.”
“Um….well……she’s saying she’s…she’s happy to meet me and….welcome me here?” “Not bad ,” Arbus grinned. “You’re a born natural.” “You’ll learn soon enough,” Mimi assured her.
Adelaide smiled. Sevigne pinched her cheek amusedly and beckoned to another nearby tent. Adelaide almost leapt with joy at what she saw. Clayton and Finn were being tended to by a pair of Red Hands, serving them plates of dried fruit and applying warm bandages. She rushed over, embracing them both with tears in her eyes.
“I thought you were both dead,” she sobbed. “I thought Huglund had found you. What happened back there? Where’s Raoul?”
Finn cleared his throat and looked away. Clayton cast his gaze downwards and shook his head.
“What? Where is he?” “W hen I was looking for Finn,” Clayton began, “some Tibris Guards followed me up the cliff. Raoul saved us both. He’s a hero, Adelaide, he really is.”
“What are you saying?”A sick feeling was growing inside Adelaide’s stomach. Clayton ushered over to a nearby tree. At its base rested the body of Raoul King Jr, wrapped tightly in a ceremonial shroud. Adelaide gasped as she nearly toppled over.
“I’ve spoken to some of the Red Hands here and…and they’ve agreed to give him a proper burial,” Clayton announced grimly. “We’ll lay him to rest at sundown.”
“I…I wish,” Adelaide stammered. “I was so cruel to him…he never heard me…I never got the chance to…”
“He forgave you, Addy,” Clayton smiled, resting his hand on her shoulder. Adelaide wiped her eyes and nodded. Her attention was quickly drawn behind her by the sound of approaching footsteps. She turned to see Arbus and Hagan come to a halt with looks of concern growing in their eyes.
“What is it?” “Deepest condolences , milady Stokes, on the loss of your friend,” Arbus solemnly remarked. “I know you must be in a state of shock but…it’s only that your other friends…the residents of Pinewood…they’ve just been brought in.”
“Taz and Cherry are here?” Adelaide laughed. “I knew they’d make it. Where are they?” Before Arbus could speak she tore past them both and glanced anxiously about the camp. She called out Cherry’s name several times, expecting her to leap out from behind some tree and embrace her happily like she always did. Finally, she saw the back of Taz’s colorful head looking down at something in her arms. Adelaide smiled broadly and rushed over to see what it was.
The same, innocent smile that Cherry had always born with unending joy was still visible upon her cold, dead lips. “I….I lost her.” Taz began. “I had….I had her, she was so scared, you know. I had her and then…then when I saw you and that Tibris Guard go over, I cried out and I…lost her. She just slipped away and…and disappeared. I tried to grab her again, but she just….she just…” and then she started shaking and sobbing. Her tears dropped down onto Cherry’s marble white forehead.
“They found her floating among the rocks below,” said Arbus. “She died on impact. There wasn’t any pain.” Adelaide stared down at Cherry’s corpse. A thousand screaming voices rang throughout her head. Loud as they were, she failed to heed them. Her thoughts were merely paper now, being ripped apart again and again while her swayed from side to side, admiring the image before her. She saw Cherry’s eyes shoot open, her pupils soaking with blood. Time froze around her as the painful ringing from long before returned with a fury.
“Milady Stokes, are you alright?” Arbus asked. Adelaide sighed, the ringing slowly abating and the unusual smile on her lips retreating from sight. She laid her hand down on Cherry’s hair, stroking it fondly one last time before turning to face Arbus.
“Take me to Mason Ware,” she whispered. Her voice was frightfully relaxed. “We have a lot to discuss.”
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
As the group awaited an audience with the Red Hand King, Arbus gave them some background. Before his time in Obrillo, Mason Ware had been a rather successful thespian roaming the lands of Amber in the company of likeminded performers. Their leader had been Alfredo Morelli, a jolly orator from a shoeshaped land somewhere in Memoriam. Alfredo, who felt like a father to Mason, had brought him up to be his heir. When the Tibris Guards had come for him, Mason’s comrades had sacrificed their lives to give him a head start. Morelli himself had tackled Huglund to the ground before being executed. Ever since that day over a decade ago, Mason Ware had sworn to aid any like him and those who had the courage to protect those cursed with
the Tree of Acryptus. He estimated around four hundred Red Hands in the camp, all whom had Mason Ware to thank for their survival. He asked for no shine, no favors, only that anyone choosing to stay as one of his army dedicate their lives to helping out fellow victims, and any who sought their aid.
“He’s managed to keep us all breathing,” Arbus laughed. “Everyone here was found by him. All our weapons, food, and drink come from loyal supporters or are confiscated by those who try turning Red Hands in for profit. Mason has no tolerance for rot.”
“Any luck finding Longstreet?” Clayton asked. “Mason has sent out small patrols to inquire about his whereabouts. So far as I know, there has been no luck. All we have is what the story tells us before…”
“Before ending abruptly,” Adelaide coldly finished.
Mimi no dded. “A tree is planted by a man fueled by ambition. The more good the man accomplishes, the greater the fruit it bears. The naughtier his actions, the more it withers. Finally, after succumbing to a life of selfishness and arrogance, the tree dies.”
“We all know the story,” Arbus said. “Just when all hope seems lost for Acryptus, Longstreet had to go and end the tale on a rotting cliffhanger.”
“Well , until we find the man and ask him ourselves, we won’t learn anymore about why the rotting tree is tattooed on our skin,” Arbus concluded. “Mason has made it a priority, right behind saving more Red Hands, of course.”
“What’s taking him so long anyhow,” Finn grunted. “I imagine he’s seeing to important issues within the camp,” replied Clayton.
The Acryptus Tree Page 22