He rolled to the side, propped himself up on an elbow, and realized that he had been lying up in someone’s lap. He looked up and saw Alyanna there behind him and Shayna behind her. Each girl met his gaze with open curiosity and concern, and he started chuckling again, once again unable to stop himself. He reached over, took the bottle of Rush from Erin, and took a swig from it. She allowed him to take the bottle freely, but she lurched forward the moment he tipped it back like a bottle of whiskey, practically prying it out of his fingers. She stashed it away once she had it in her possession again, scowled at him, and then said, “You are an idiot.”
Madison’s smile grew to nearly split his face at the sound of her voice. “How long?” he asked. It was the same question that Davion had asked of her when he first met Erin after leaving the testing room in K’yer Utane, and it was the same question he asked every time he came to in the infirmary.
She shook her head as an answer, and Madison interpreted it to mean not even a full day. It was daylight in the same strange way that it was ever daylight in the forest, which meant that it was more or less a brighter haze than the pitch-black haze at night, and he guessed that it was some time just before noon.
“Warren’s scouting?” he asked, and she nodded her answer. Madison nodded back his understanding, and the shit-eating grin finally left his face. He rubbed his hand against his forehead and then scratched his beard. “Well, that sucked. You guys are all alright?” He looked each of them up and down in concern as he asked. They were all showing the signs of a rough night. They were as filthy and blood-covered as he was, and there were dark bruises covering most of their exposed skin. Their faces were streaked black with soot and blood and mud, and there were obvious bandages in more than a few places on Alyanna and Erin. Shayna was still wearing her armor, so he could only guess what she looked like underneath.
Shayna crossed her arms in front of her protectively and looked at him crossly. “Don’t look at me like that, you pervert!” she said accusingly. “I feel like you’re molesting me with your eyes!”
Madison sighed deeply and heavily, and it only caused a small twinge of pain in his side.
“Nothing that we won’t recover from,” Alyanna said quietly. She hadn’t taken her eyes off of him since he had awoken, and he searched her face for an inkling of why as she responded. He met her gaze and looked at her curiously, slightly cocking one eyebrow questioningly without saying a word. She smiled softly, leaned forward as much as she could while kneeling, and bowed her head respectfully. “Thank you for saving me,” she said softly. “On behalf of my people, thank you for saving my father. It is a debt that cannot be repaid, yet I know that I must try. I belong to you.”
Madison nodded even though he knew she couldn’t see the simple action—it was a natural response when he didn’t know what to immediately say. He opened his mouth to respond, but Fox’s gruff voice cut him off as the old man appeared from the forest.
“Raise your head, you fool girl,” he said crossly. “The debt will be paid in gold and gems as it must be. Your life belongs to the people of Stargrave.”
When Alyanna didn’t move, Madison simply said, “You’re welcome.” He had absolutely no idea what else would be appropriate. This was the second time she had told him that exact same thing: that she belonged to him. He knew it wasn’t a master-slave type relationship, but that it had something to do with the strange ‘way’ she and her people followed. Still, he knew very little about her beliefs, and while he may have been quick to insult Fox in the past in order to rile him up, he had no such desire to offend her. She sat back up, apparently satisfied with his response, and smiled warmly.
“When can we get moving?” Madison asked.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Warren responded as he appeared. The woodsman didn’t seem to be nearly as bedraggled as everyone else. He was slightly disheveled, and his short hair was mussed, but that was about it. He didn’t carry any of the same grime or injuries as the others though he looked equally as fatigued.
Madison grunted as he pushed himself to his feet, tentatively poking at the mostly-healed scar on his side. He caught Erin staring at him, and he didn’t understand why until she thrust the handle of his boot knife at him with a large scowl. He took it from her with a slight shrug, and it earned him a punch in the shoulder.
Shayna marched over almost immediately and followed her sister’s example, punching him several times in the same shoulder as well. “Idiot! Idiot, idiot, idiot!” she huffed angrily. “I told you not to do that! And you did it! Why can’t you just do as you’re told just for once!”
Madison’s grin returned once again, but it was not nearly as large as before. He leaned forward and asked conspiratorially, “Don’t you know who I am?”
All three girls looked taken aback by the question, and Lord Fox actually took a step forward before Madison broke into a laugh. Shayna and Erin both started punching him again as the tension broke, and Fox loudly let out a breath along with a guffaw.
“North and west,” Madison said spinning about until he was pointed in the correct direction. “Let’s get this man home before something else goes wrong.”
-----
The journey north went off without so much as a hiccup. They traveled north until they were just past the bulk of the mountain and then hooked back around it so that they were able to take a northwesterly route and make a beeline toward Stargrave. There were still numerous groups in the area, many of which were undoubtedly trailing behind them, but with Lord Fox and Alyanna safely in tow, there was no longer any need to confront any of them. Instead, Madison had Warren guide them around each of them with plenty of room to spare.
Eventually, even the roaming bands appeared less frequently and then disappeared completely, which was just well and fine for Madison. He was effectively dead on his feet, only being propped up by Erin’s magic and the effects of the Rush he had taken after she revived him. He’d march into a fight if he didn’t have a choice, but that didn’t mean that he felt like he was in fighting shape by any means. The laceration on his side was holding up well enough on its own, but it still hurt whenever he moved too quickly or twisted the wrong way. Shayna had tried to explain to him why it or his other major injuries hadn’t fully healed, and while he didn’t understand a single thing about magic, it basically boiled down to the fact that his body wasn’t willing to give up the energy required to fully heal it.
So, the forest whizzed by as they sped toward Stargrave under the assistance of Warren’s speed buff. Thankfully, the young ranger was still in better shape than everyone else, or Madison doubted that even he would have been able to keep up the spell for such a long trip. They took breaks every few hours once they were certain that no one else was around, and Madison passed most of the time silently contemplating everything that he had seen and learned since coming to this world.
Everyone seemed to know more about him than he knew about himself, which was slightly unsettling. Strangers whom he had never met knew more about who he was—or who he supposedly was, anyway—and his past than he did. He puzzled over the strange dream that had come to him during his fight with Garin, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was something more. It haunted him in the same way that a bad memory did—he couldn’t forget it no matter how hard he tried, and every time he stopped to rest or close his eyes, the images flashed through his mind’s eye unbidden with horribly-accurate details. The more he thought about it, the more he convinced himself that it actually was some type of memory and not just a dream. Even more convincing was the fact that Alyanna had been with him when it occurred. Even though Madison had been unconscious at the time, he had woken up with her on top of him, working some type of magic. The chilly, unsettled feeling he got whenever magic was being done around him had been testament enough to that fact.
If the dragon lady was to be believed, Alyanna was the likely key to recovering the memories that had been stolen from him by the witch. He still had absolutely no re
ason to believe her, but he had no real reason to distrust her at this point either. She had provided him and his friends with armor and weapons when they needed it most, and she had delivered him and Shayna from underneath the mountain and right to Warren and very close to Erin—exactly where they needed to be. She had told him Alyanna was the key, and that Alyanna was present when he remembered something had to be more than just simple coincidence.
Without any other information, however, all he had was a single recollection of a single event. It more or less confirmed what he had already begun to suspect—that he had run into the witch somewhere before. If that memory was correct, he had witnessed the exact moment they had met, and she had sent him . . . somewhere. She claimed that he was being punished for crimes that he didn’t remember committing, and the dragon had confirmed that she had sentenced him to death, but that didn’t give him anything else to go on. He still had no true idea who the princess was, why she was running away from her father, or why there had been a ‘purge.’ The questions weighed on him heavily, but no matter how many times he chased them around in his head, no new information offered itself up, and he couldn’t reach a single conclusion.
Almost two full days later, the terrain began to change in earnest. The forest quietly disappeared around them as the trees thinned out, and the towering trees with colossal trunks and multiple layers of canopy gave way to smaller, deciduous growth that was much more in line with what he was familiar with back home. Eventually, however, even that began to disappear. The trees grew farther and farther apart, and the undergrowth disappeared as the terrain became rocky; and then, eventually, they were traveling over hard-packed soil and rock. Madison had been so lost in his own thoughts for most of the trip that he only noticed the changes without truly processing what they meant.
The land rolled away underneath his feet at a terrifying but steady pace, and he had long since given up trying to keep track of how far they had traveled under the assistance of Warren’s magic. Light grey clouds accompanied by a stinging cold wind that was driven from the west dumped the first flurry of snow on the fourth day of travel. It was already late in the evening when it started falling, and Madison called an early halt because of it. They normally would have pushed on until past dark in order to make time, but he felt like everyone could use the rest, and he wanted to make sure that they didn’t slip on the frozen ground and twist an ankle.
They set up camp in a large cave that was sheltered from the winds, and Madison finally relented and allowed them to start a fire. While the cold didn’t really bother him in the same way that it did the others—he was only vaguely aware that it should be cold without actually feeling it—he wanted to make sure that they were comfortable. Everyone was exhausted, and he knew that no one was doing anything more than setting one foot in front of the other all day. He hoped some warm food and a semi-warm night with a fire would do something to bolster their mood for the next day, and he seemed to be somewhat right.
Even though he was still under the effects of the Rush, he was beginning to doze off from time to time. The images and dreams still haunted him every time he closed his eyes or allowed his mind to relax, but his body had been pushed so far beyond the point of fatigue that it couldn’t avoid resting any longer no matter how much magic was coursing through his veins. Thus, he woke up the next morning with a body pressed up against him. He had fallen asleep while sitting against the wall of the cave, and when he woke up, Alyanna was pressed up against his chest. She had covered them both with a blanket, which was thoughtful though unnecessary, and then seemingly fallen asleep. To his amusement, Lord Fox was already awake and glaring at him for a transgression that he hadn’t even committed.
Progress slowed down substantially now that they had to travel through ankle-deep snow, but at around noon of that day, they intercepted a contingent of soldiers traveling south from Stargrave. The snow hadn’t stopped falling since it started, and it was piling up at what Madison considered an alarming rate, although Alyanna didn’t seem too concerned. She mentioned that it was common, even during this time of year, and that it would sometimes continue for days at a time. The soldiers had apparently spent most of the morning dallying about for some unknown reason, and they were only just getting ready to depart when Madison and his small group found them.
He had Warren slow down and drop his magic, and Madison took the lead as they approached the company of men despite Lord Fox’s insistence that he should be the one to take the lead. The company was just over a hundred strong from Madison’s estimations, and he had no idea what they would do to a group of strangers walking up on them unannounced in the middle of what promised to be the start of a snowstorm. To make matters worse, not a single one of their small party had so much as bathed in over a week. They were covered in dirt and grime, their clothes were barely more than threads, and Madison was certain he’d never get the blood scrubbed off. In short, they looked like shit, and he knew it.
Fortunately, things proceeded without much of an incident. Madison was able to explain to the guards who they were and why they were there without any of them drawing a weapon on him for being a raving lunatic. While no one believed the claims that Lord Fox was standing in front of them wearing nothing blood and mud and rags, they weren’t willing to risk the ire of the superiors if it really was him. So, in the end, they passed it up chain of command and made it someone else’s problem.
It turned out that the group’s sole reason for being there was to search for Fox and his overdue party. It took several different soldiers and an agitated aid, but the Captain was finally summoned when no one was willing to send them away outright. Much to his chagrin and embarrassment, he recognized Fox right away for who he was. He even paled a bit when he realized that Alyanna was present as well and what condition she was in.
The small group was led into the midst of the company with soldiers watching from every angle. Most were disciplined enough not to make any comments, but that didn’t stop them from standing and gawking in utter confusion. News of the group and their exploits—the parts Madison had shared in order to convince the soldiers that Fox was who he said he was—had already traveled through the ranks, earning him more than a few disgruntled scowls as they pieced together what had happened, but Madison didn’t mind. For the moment, his job was done. He had delivered Fox back to his own soil and to his own men just as Burke had asked him to. There had been more than a few bumps along the way, but everyone he had set out with was somehow alive if not in horrible shape.
Fox exchanged a few quiet words with the captain as they walked, and the group was led to the back of a small covered wagon where they were given blankets and bowls of some lukewarm stew clearly left from the night before. Fox disappeared with the captain almost immediately, presumably to take command and find out what he had missed while he was out of touch, and the company started moving soon after, turning about and heading north instead of south.
Madison set the bowl of half-eaten stew on the floor of the wooden cart and looked around at the others with him. “I think this is the end of the road,” he said quietly, looking each of them in the eye in turn, his gaze settling on Alyanna last. “As much as I would like to see your home, I don’t think this is the time.” He cast a sideways glance at Shayna and Erin as he said it. He knew the two would be anxious to get home and find out what had happened to Burke. They all met his gaze, and a simple understanding passed between them. They set the bowls down next to his, and the group silently vacated the wagon before anyone could so much as come back to check on them
He meant it when he said that he wanted to see her home. He was bonded to her in a strange sort of way that was different from the one he shared with everyone else. There was a certain understanding that had developed between everyone because of the things that they had gone through together, but there was so much more that he had with her. She was more or less his ward for the next few months, her magic had tied them together when she glimpsed his future and h
is past, and she was the key to recovering and unlocking his missing memories. He had known her for less time than anyone, and she had even tried to kill him at one point, but he couldn’t help the fact that he wanted to get closer to her—and that meant seeing the land she loved so dearly.
The group silently slipped out of the camp with Madison and Alyanna in the lead. They all knew that they had come in with someone claiming to be Lord Fox who had the captain kowtowing, and that was sufficient enough to allow them to walk out without being challenged. Madison turned the group south as soon as they were outside the lines.
-----
Madison sat down on edge of the cliff and allowed his feet to dangle off over the edge while he watched the sun come up. The brilliant orange and red rays peeked over the tops of the trees to the east and slowly crept over the valley stretched out below him. He knew that the people in the buildings below would just now start waking up to start the day, and before long, there would be a rush toward the large building that served as K’yer Utane’s food hall. As with everyone else in this world, it was first-come, first-serve, and no one wanted to be the one who showed up last or was left behind.
The rest of his small group sat beside him, except for Warren, who insisted on standing, and they all watched in silence, each lost in his own thoughts for some time. They had arrived almost a full hour earlier while it was still dark, but Madison had quietly sat down on the ledge, and the others had taken up position next to him. No one seemed eager to head back into the fortress despite the countless hours they had spent trekking through the wilderness. They were each on the verge of exhaustion, and no amount of medicine or magic would have been able to carry them back any faster. What they needed was old-fashioned sleep and time to recover the natural way.
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