We were still passing through fairly forested area though the land was climbing gradually and as it did so the underbrush thinned. This was not a good situation for what I had in mind but no harm was done as we would need to double back in any event and hopefully come in behind our pursuers were the vegetation remained thick.
We cut over several hundred yards and then began to head in the direction we had just traveled through with such haste. My companion lapsed into absolute silence and seemed to follow me much as one would expect the blind to. All life had left her and she most resembled a zombie. I became very concerned for her but there was no time to do anything about it for now and if we failed then it was just as well.
We camped in continued silence and before sleeping I thought my plan through to its completion. I could find no flaw.
12. Attack
He was a straggler and about to suffer the fate of stragglers in combat everywhere. I lay in wait and estimated that if I struck properly he would fall without warning his two companions. I had left Sofeeah a distance behind me for she could be of no help now.
He was slender and shorter than average. He was well armed but poorly clothed as every outlaw I had ever seen was. Clothing did not survive the forest well and could only be obtained in raids. Looking at him I thought as how banditry was not a particularity desirable occupation and I wondered just how merciful the courts were in imposing banishment rather than death as a sentence.
I waited until he walked passed my position and then I took him from behind. He seemed to have injured his foot and I supposed that this accounted for his position far to the rear of his companions.
My attacked was utterly lacking in finesse but it was brutally effective. I swung the short finely honed Doridian sword which I had stripped from the body of the guard killed by Sofeeah with every bit of strength left in me. I expected to cause a debilitating injury and was somewhat surprised when I decapitated him. It was as quiet and sudden a death as any could experience.
I then set myself in his place. This would fool no one, of course, for I was a good foot taller than the dead man, but the two in front of me were accustomed to hearing the sound of someone behind them and if I walked lightly as I closed the gap on them. I doubted if any warning would alert them. I approached with an arrow notched in the crude yet sturdy bow I had managed to fashion in the days before I was certain we were still pursued.
In a short distance another outlaw came into my vision. The first who seemed to do most of the tracking was far ahead, I thought, and out of sight. This one was bigger than the one I had just slain but I was confident I could take him. I was less confident that I could take him in silence, but fortune was with me. I was about five feet from the man and had just decided to draw my blade when he heard me, and assuming I was the straggler, muttered a good natured comment and turned about.
My first arrow took him through his windpipe and struck a main artery for blood flooded from the wound and the only sound he made was gurgling and soft. I plunged my sword in his heart before he had even touched the ground.
I left him and went in pursuit of the last man. There was no need to kill him in silence for there was no one left to warn and this made my task much easier. I saw him crouched upon the forest floor studying some sign and apparently deciphering it. I said nothing and I made no attempt to be fair, for survival was at stake and this was no time for necessities. As soon as I was in certain range I drove an arrow into his back. It was not a very good shot, piercing his lung. He cried out and rose instinctively to face his attacker. He was a dead man and must have known it for a wound such as that is always fatal as the lung fills with blood and the man drowns. The death is just a little while in coming.
He was courageous if only an outlaw and charged me. I planted two more arrows into him as he charged and drew my sword to finish him when he fell to the ground at my feet. He was breathing in great rasping sounds but death would follow soon.
I returned to the second man and let the arrows do their work on the tracker. Methodically I stripped the body of all that could possibly be of use to us and then returned to the tracker, now dead, and stripped him as well. I made my way back to the first body and finished my task. I was heartened by the items I took from them for they made our survival more certain.
~
I made little pretext of security this night for there seemed little cause and I thought that a show of control might help. Sofeeah I found in exactly the place I had left her. I built a fire, only partially concealed and broke out the food I had taken from the dead. I ate heartily and made no attempt to save any beyond this night. I placed food before Sofeeah but did not push her to eat.
I made constant, lighthearted conversation and talked endlessly of Taslea, of Runah and of Lathanah. I spoke of my friends, Lonnan who had saved my life and was courting the Lady Shelba and of Koptos and Ctesias who I found amusing. She ate all I put before her and before finishing it began to listen to me and by the time she had consumed her repast was nodding to my tales. Once I thought I saw the hint of a smile and I felt much relaxed. She would be all right after all, for as long as we have our sense of humor it is impossible to destroy the spirit.
“You have done many things,” she said at last.
“I have seen some things, yes, but I have only just begun to see Doridia. I hope in time to see all of it.”
“I have never known anyone who has been to all of known Doridia or for that matter even one who wished to,” she commented in an attempt at conversation.
“I intend to see all of Doridia and when I have finished none of it will he unknown.” She laughed at my audacity and I laughed with her.
“You are young,” she said, “and the young can have such dreams. But you will take a wife and she will bear you sturdy children. You will become content to make a living and you will never fulfill your dream. It is always so.”
“You are mistaken. Perhaps I shall take a wife as you say and no doubt if I do she will bear me many fine children but regardless I shall see all of Doridia and none of it shall be unknown when I have completed the task.”
“And where will you go from here, once you have returned to civilization?” she asked. This pleased me very much for it was the first time she had talked as though anyone had a future. In time, perhaps, I could get her to know she had a future.
“It is said that Ramalon and Sarpedon intend to make war over the great Tirsenos Jungle, for gold has been discovered there. War for such reasons is never good and perhaps I shall journey there. Perhaps war can be averted and if not then I will know that I have tried and I will have seen more of marvelous Doridia.”
A time passed in silence and when she spoke her voice was soft. “You are a strange man, to think of others. I wish you well in your journey and I to hope that war will not come to any city or people.”
I was exhausted by this long day and prepared to sleep. We now had robes stripped from the dead and there was no need for us to bundle in order to survive but as I drifted off in sleep I felt her lay her frail, slender body beside mine and in the light of the dying fires she caressed my face with the gentle, soft tips of her fingers.
~
I slept deeply and without dreams. I did not awaken until nearly midday and was surprised that I had managed to remain asleep with the sun up. My companion still slumbered. I covered her with a robe and went in search of fresh game for we had exhausted all the food the three dead men had carried. One of them had a well-crafted bow and over 30 metal tipped arrows. I thought that this would make my task easier. I was right and shot a deer near dusk. It was dark before I skinned it and carried the carcass to camp. Sofeeah remained asleep exactly as I had left her.
I built a fire and spit a great roast upon it. The pleasant aroma filled the still night air as I prepared the rest of the meat for cooking that night and the following day. The smell of the meat roused my sleeping companion. I cut hunks from the roast for her and fed them to her as fast as she ate them. I w
as astounded at how much she consumed. I gave her a flask, also taken from a dead outlaw, and she drank all of the water in it. And then still dazed from sleep, she stretched out upon the robe and was instantly asleep.
I smiled and continued to work the meat. Sleep is the great healer.
14. I Become a Leader
We journeyed to the foothills of the great mountain chain before us. This was the very mountain chain I had crossed the previous spring and the one in which I had been caught by a snow storm, nearly costing me my life. While I had been told that this was by no means the mightiest chain of mountains in Doridia, it was formidable and I had no intention of crossing it now. There was also no reason to.
Our flight from the evil Kanchoh and his band of outlaws had taken us towards the mountains but also in a generally southern direction roughly towards Lathanah, the destination of the caravan which I had commanded before the debacle in the forest. To go northward along the foothills and towards Runah, my companion’s home would increase our danger considerably for it would take us within range of Kanchoh’s band and then too, other outlaw bands prowled the area just north of Kanchoh, closer to the city. South was the only route open to us but in taking it we must ford the Beerah River, so named because it flowed from the mountains of Garhan to the sea at the city of Beerah. It also was not the mightiest river of known Doridia, that distinction goes to the mighty Tirsenos River which winds from the foothills of the Tharason Mountains through the Tirsenos Jungle and by the city of Sarpedon into the sea were it creates a great delta; nevertheless the Beerah River is major and a serious obstacle. We were fortunate that we would cross it nearer its source, before it grew to full maturity.
I stopped several times on high places to survey the terrain through which we traversed for I was not as yet prepared to believe that we were no longer pursued by any from Kanchoh’s band of cutthroats. I found no trace of men at all and we crossed none in our forward progress, but this area while inhospitable might still possess some small outlaw bands and we continued in a cautious manner.
The venison lasted us that night and through the next two days. Freed of the need to hunt more game we had been able to make better progress. My companion continued to be in a more optimistic mood and while still somber and subject to moodiness she was in far better spirits than at any time since I had first met her. I hoped that our good fortune would continue but that is anticipating too much when one is alone in the great forest.
Our luck turned for the worse. We were required to cross streams of icy water which flowed down the foothills from the snowcapped mountains, melting under the warm spring sun. Some of the fording were quite treacherous and I became fearful that we would be unable to cross the Beerah River once we came to it.
Following it to the point where it intersected the caravan route seemed foolhardy to me, for Kanchoh guessing our direction might well chose to operate from that region in hopes of catching us still. He could not be accepting the loss of the Urak Tonalah’s daughter lightly.
We camped the third night after slaying the three men under a clear and moonless sky. I prepared the last of the venison and knew that if I failed to kill game the following day we would become hungry once again. I had no wish to be hungry but most of all I had no wish to see the progress made undone by cruel fate. I held back only a small portion of the meal for breakfast the following morning. To dispel the mood of unease I anticipated I built a fire larger than usual. My companion appeared unconcerned with my worries.
“You seem preoccupied,” she said after finishing off her meal.
“I suppose so. I am concerned at the lack of game in these parts and fear we will become hungry if I am unable to make a kill tomorrow.”
“I am not worried. You have taken good care of me since you helped me escape from Kanchoh and I have confidence in you. If you are unable to find game it is because no game exits and if we are hungry then we are hungry until the situation improves. I have been hungry before.” Her attitude came as a surprise to me for I had expected any further difficulties to break her spirit. “I have been in the valley of despair and I will never return to it again. The worst that can happen to me is a slow and painful death and I now accept that. Kanchoh kidnapped a girl in the forest and broke her until she was almost nothing. You rescued a shell of a human being but I am now whole and I have been tempered by the experiences of these last months. I may die, Hunter, but I will never be broken again.
“I will return to my father’s house and hold my head up for I have done nothing to be ashamed of and much to be proud of. I have slain my enemy with my own hand and how many save Sekers can boast of that? Do not look at me with such concern. I am whole and nothing, nothing ever again will make me less than that. I swear it.”
I saw a strength of will in her that I had never perceived before and I realized that she had lost something this past winter, something of little value and of as little consequence as her virginity, but it was not what I had feared. She had left her childhood, and nothing else, behind her. She had become a woman and one which any man would be proud to hold, and cherish a lifetime.
~
We had been two days without nourishment save the small morsel of dry meat we had consumed the morning of the previous day. We had crossed three streams each more difficult than the last and we now faced, at dusk, a fourth which I feared we would be unable to ford at all. I realized that we must turn east and risk marching into the hands of Kanchoh and his men or perish.
I lit a small cheerless fire and huddled over it, confronting each option in my mind and always arriving at the same conclusion. The woman with me was unconcerned by it all and glowed in her confidence in my abilities. I wished that I had half the faith in myself that she did but then I remembered the 100 brave men who had marched into the forest with me at my command, many of whom were now dead.
I could see no acceptable solution to our dilemma and with heavy thoughts and no spirit within me, I wrapped myself in the dead man’s robe and slept fitfully, visions of disaster and of monsters filling my dreams. Later the woman pressed herself to me and intoned, softly, “Sleep, sleep, sleep…” Thereafter I remembered nothing until daybreak.
~
They were a motley crew and poor excuses for outlaws. They were the first band which I had seen who were poorly armed as well as poorly clothed. They numbered about 25 and appeared to have not eaten much in the last year. This was an encounter which I had not anticipated and could prove our salvation.
We had turn eastward with the rising sun and watch the swollen stream beside us grow with each step we took towards the sea. Our one desperate hope lay in penetrating Kanchoh’s territory without detection and in reaching the route unobserved there to wait until a caravan arrived large enough to offer us protection and transport us away. It was the only possible plan but one which I feared was doomed to failure. But I could see no other alternative, until I had spotted the fire of this outlaw band. Now other options were open to us.
I explained my plan to Sofeeah and was not surprised that she saw it as being too risky because I also thought it was, but compared to the other choices, it seemed the only one which offered any chance of success. Leaving her in concealment, with all the goods she might need if I did not return, I bid her farewell and turned to enter the outlaw camp. I saw tears in her eyes at my departure.
Their camp appeared to me to be a temporary expedient and not their winter bivouac. They were not much worse off physically then the men of Kanchoh’s band had been but as I say they were a motley crew. My entrance into their camp caused considerable agitation and it was essential to my plans that they not gang up on me.
“Greetings,” I shouted at the edge of the camp. The air, I noted, was as always on Doridia rich and heady this clear morning. Perhaps some part of me feared that these would be my last breaths and for that reason made me more aware of them. The men milled around and looked behind me to see if others were with me. Apparently satisfied that I was alone, one of
them stepped forward to confront me. This was not very well organized group, for others I had known would have attack me without warning and without command from their leader. These men held back once they were satisfied that I was not an immediate threat to them and left the confronting to the large, unkempt and burly man before me.
“Who are you? We have no need for more men, be gone or I’ll cut you down where you stand.” His face was scared and the small finger of his right hand had been removed, the universal sign on Doridia for a thief.
“If you are the leader, then I challenge you for your place in this band,” I shouted for all to hear. The ruffian stammered and strutted and looked behind him for a few to step forward and dispose of me, but he remained alone and, if anything, the men pulled back from him. This was not, I thought, a very popular leader.
“Now, in single combat, let it be decided,” I shouted, pulling my sword from its sheath. I decided to make quick work of him if at all possible in order to impress the others with my prowess and thus prevent challenges to my leadership. I had not sought to join this band only to decimate its ranks in so doing. I needed men.
JH02. Caravans of Doridia Page 9