by Emma Hamm
“Ruric?” She asked quietly, standing still as he stood behind her shoulder. His shadow fell over hers. “We’ll need to make camp soon.”
“We brought…” He paused for a moment as he struggled for the word he had never used before. “Blankets and sticks.”
“Tents.” Jane had gotten into the habit of correcting his words. Yet now that kindness felt awkward.
He nodded. His hesitation was enough to let her know he felt the same way. “Yes. Tents.”
“Are you sure that will be enough once the sun comes out?”
“No.”
Her eyebrows slashed down as she looked at him. “Do you know what will happen if you are exposed to the sun?”
“No.”
“Ah.” She responded. “That is not good.”
Ruric’s head inclined towards her as he stepped back towards the goblins. “No, it is not.”
The tents were made of thick grey hides. Jane had never seen the creatures these skins had come from, though Ruric assured her they were animals from Above.
Just as the sun crested the horizon, the goblins were able to duck into the three tents that they had created.
“Jane.” His voice sent a shiver through her spine. The deep timber had crept into her dreams as of late.
He did not need to know.
“Yes?”
“Come.” She watched as a clawed hand reached out from the opening of the tent. Skin which she had always thought was green, now yellowed in the golden light streaming towards it. The black nails were suddenly more stark than before.
She sighed. She had never considered herself a woman who fell in love easily. She certainly wasn’t a woman who made foolish decisions because of that love. Yet the sight of him reaching for her twisted something in her chest.
She would forgive him everything because her heart hurt when he was not with her. And that was a foolish thought.
“I’m going to put sand over the tents. I don’t want anyone to see us.”
“We are safe enough.”
“We aren’t.” She whispered, though she knew he was capable of hearing her. “We’re all hungry, I’ll make what food I can.”
The excuse was not a good one and she knew that it would only prolong the inevitable. Her eyes traced the shadow left by his hand as he slowly withdrew back into the tent.
She kicked sand over the tents so that the dark colors could not been seen from afar. Jane had never heard of raiders in this area, but she knew they travelled.
They were men and women who had left the mining camps and were trying to make a life for themselves on the sands. Everything she had heard painted them in a dark light. They were a desperate group of people taking what they wanted from anyone they could.
Once the tents were covered, Jane rifled through the packs to see what she could find. The goblins had been thorough. They brought only dried food that could last a long time in the heat. The dried fish wouldn’t taste very good, but it would fill their bellies.
She made quick work of dishing out rations. Water was added to each plate and she delicately opened the flap of each tent so that she could slide it in. She knew the light was going to be painful for their eyes. The less they were subjected to the better.
Ruric’s tent was saved for last. She could see that they had intended for her to sleep in the same tent as him. Three tents. A goblin to each. Jane wasn’t going to be sleeping with the other two goblins.
Apparently they weren’t going to be letting her sleep by herself.
Sighing, she ducked into the tent with the last two plates. There wasn’t a choice in this situation. Stay outside and bake in the sun, or join him and get over her discomfort.
He was curled in the corner on his side. His large body took up most of the small tent. It was relatively dark once the front flap was closed, but Jane could still see him clearly. He had covered his eyes with more of the hide.
“Is it painful?” She asked him quietly.
A grunt was her only response.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She said as she settled herself down onto the sand. Her hand touched his shoulder. “I brought something to eat.”
“I cannot think of food.” He responded.
“Water?”
He rolled his head towards her and let the hide slide off of his face. She had never seen him express any pain before. But now his face was scrunched and his eyes watered.
He wasn’t looking in the right direction.
“Ruric, can you see me?”
His large black pupils readjusted their direction at the sound of her voice.
“No. It is too bright.”
Jane had never thought she would pity them. They were a strong race and did not seem to ever have troubles.
Now, pity made her rub her palm against her chest. This powerful race were reduced to cowering in a corner as the light blinded them.
Her fingers stroked over his forehead, drifting down to cover the eyes that were the cause of so much pain.
“Close your eyes then, Ruric.”
His eyes drifted shut.
Jane wrapped his head with the hide. For good measure, she tucked her own cloak around his head as well. The double layer hopefully would bring more relief than one.
“Here.” She said as she scooped a hand underneath his neck. “I’ll hold the fish for you.”
He twisted against her hand. “That is not your place. I will be fine-”
Jane interrupted him with a finger against his mouth. His sharp teeth pricked at her hand.
“Let me take care of you.”
She shouldn’t even want to. She should be planning her escape while they were incapable of following her. After everything that had happened, Jane was certain she would be justified in her actions. Yet even so, there was a tight knot around her soul that was connected to his now.
Not for some fantastical reason of romantic love or even that she felt that she owed him. But because Jane cared about him as though he was family. In such a short amount of time he had become important to her. No matter the mistakes either of them had made, they were forever bound.
She fantasized at night what her family would think of him. Willow would surely like him. Her little sister had always been the one to welcome adventure. The goblins would be nothing short of a new challenge. Luther, however, would likely be appalled that she was anywhere near them. He had never been the type to accept such differences.
Her lips curved into a smile as she thought about the shocked expression on her brother’s face. Both Willow and she had spent countless hours plotting how they were going to horrify him next. Jane was supposed to be the mature one because of she was the oldest. She had taken on the role of mother, after all. But it was too much of a temptation to not indulge her sister in her pranks. Luther had been an easy target.
“You’re smiling.” Ruric’s voice burst through the bubble of her thoughts. His hand rose to gently touch against her lips.
She caught his hand in hers and laughed. “How did you know?”
“I always know.” His fingers moved slightly in her grasp as he attempted to free himself.
“You can’t always know when I’m smiling.” She teased. “And you are blindfolded.”
“I know because your heart skips a beat whenever you are happy.” He reached out to touch a single claw to her cheek. Lazily it drifted down her lips, her chin, her throat, until his hand could spread between her breasts and press hard against the bone. “Your heart always lets me know what your thoughts are.”
She shook her head. “You cannot hear my heart beating.”
“I can. The sound soothes me to sleep and reassures me when I wake.”
She would never understand how such a hardened warrior could speak words of poetry to her. Her shoulders relaxed on a long sigh and she stretched herself out next to him.
They did not touch other than his hand laying warm against her ribs. Her head pillowed against an arm, she reached out to touch a fing
er to his chin.
Jane wanted to ask how they were going to continue on. She wanted to know the answer to so many things. What were they now? Did he think they could fix this? Was part of this mission to throw them back together? She didn’t know if she even believed they could stitch the hole torn in the past few weeks.
But she did not ask these questions. It was neither the time nor place for such talk.
“Do you think we will find him?”
“I hope so.” And though she could see him clear as day, Jane felt as though they needed to speak in hushed whispers. As though they were curled in bed on a dark night.
“What will happen if we don’t?”
“I have no way of knowing. I do not wish to think of it.”
“Oh.” She whispered.
There was a long pause before Jane spoke once more.
“Are you still in pain?”
“Yes.”
“Can you sleep?”
“I don’t know.”
She shifted slightly until her hand was resting over his heart. She did not move closer to him. Jane was not prepared for that yet. But she could at least be next to him.
“Sleep well warrior.”
“Dream of our cave, Bright one.”
As much as she tried to dream of good things that night, Jane found that she could not dream at all. Her mind was as still as one of the glassy pools in the caves that Ruric had shown her so long ago.
Jane found that frightened her far more than any nightmare she had ever had.
6
“She does not know where she is going.”
“I think she might.”
“Look behind us. Our tracks are nothing short of wandering. We need to consult the map again.”
“Shusar.” Ruric turned abruptly. “We just consulted the map.”
The other goblin harrumphed loudly. “We have travelled since that time.”
“We have travelled but a few steps!”
They were all starting to get tired of each other. The goblins had been pleased to find that when the sun drifted down and darkness fell once more, they were still able to see. Unfortunately the pain continued to linger. A deep pounding behind their eyes plagued the three goblins that followed Jane.
She was a bright stream of light in front of them. Her blonde hair whipped behind her and her lily white skin shone like a beacon in the moonlight. Ruric had never seen her quite so stunning. Here she was no longer the ethereal otherworldly creature. She was more real in this land. His hands itched to touch her. To possess some small part of this world so different than his own.
“I still don’t think she knows what she’s doing.”
Shusar continued to grumble until they caught up with Jane who refused to stop moving. If they had taken their eyes off her, she might have disappeared over a sand dune and never been seen again.
Ruric shot a censoring look towards Shusar and picked up speed. “Jane!”
She didn’t appear to listening to him. Her brows were furrowed in concentration and as he watched she started to run.
Her long legs ate up considerable ground. What started as a jog soon turned into a sprint. She was running from them.
He heard angry growls from behind him. If he didn’t do something soon, they were going to come to the wrong conclusion. He couldn’t imagine she was running away from them.
No matter how much he did not trust her, Ruric also knew that she was smarter than this. If she had wanted to run, she would wait until they could not stop her.
“Jane!” He called out as he ran across the sands. He wasn’t as fast as he should have been Above. The sand grabbed at his feet and made him sink into the ground. His weight suddenly made him weaker.
His heart beat hard in his chest. She had promised. He had thought… It didn’t matter what he had thought. If she was running there was only one fate for her.
“Please don’t be running.” He muttered to himself as he slowly caught up to her.
The three goblins crested a dune only to skid to a stop as they caught sight of Jane in a valley.
There was a strange contraption buried in the sand between two large dunes. Rusted metal creaked and groaned, muffled by the sand that surrounded it. It rose higher than two goblins and cause the wind to whistle loudly as it filtered through the curls of rust and steel.
Jane was crouched next to the strange beast, her hands twisting a small wheel.
Ruric was the first to wander towards her, though he held back from the scene. They had never seen machinery before and worried it might bite.
“What is it?” He asked as his head cocked to the side.
She grunted as her forearms strained to turn the wheel that had long ago rusted shut. “A well.”
He watched as the muscles of her biceps stood out in stark relief. They cast shadows where the moon touched the curves of her flesh. His Jane was a strong woman, not weak. The sight made him stand tall with pride.
Finally the beast gave way with a shriek of metal on metal. He jumped back when the water started to spout from what he could only imagine was the creature’s mouth.
Jane stepped back and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “The first settlers made them a long time ago. I thought they were a myth.” She shrugged. “Guess not.”
The other two goblins stepped towards the water, Shusar held out a finger to the water and licked it.
“First settlers?”
Jane was startled to hear the goblin repeat her words back to her. Perhaps the older one knew more of her language than he had originally let on.
“The ones who were here before the mines. Before the City.” At this point all three men were staring at her. Jane remembered then that goblins dearly loved a good story. So she stepped back, turned the water off once more with great effort, and then nodded towards them.
“We should set up camp here. It’s not necessarily safe, but we could use the water.”
Between the four of them it was short work to set up the meager tents. They had not travelled quite as far as Jane had hoped, but they would need to refill their skins with water.
Tomorrow they would make better time. Tonight was to ensure they were well rested and hydrated before they began the long journey again.
They had gathered in a small circle in the center of the tents. Ruric settled himself beside her. His great form cast a shadow over hers, yet filled her with warmth. Shusar settled across from the two of them and pulled out a wicked blade. He cleaned his nails with them and filed the points. Illyrin shied away from the rest of them and sat at a safe distance. He was tilted so he could watch the dunes as well as the rest of their company.
“The first settlers were always a myth to us. It is said they were great people who came across the sands to create a world that was different. The land they came from was green as emeralds. The ground, the plants, even some of the people had green things growing from them.”
Ruric flashed his teeth. “Perhaps we are your green people.”
She smiled. “Somehow I doubt they were quite as large or as terrifying as you. They were the ones that created these machines. Great minds and intelligent beyond all knowing. My mother used to say that they arrived to these lands on the backs of great beasts. Taller than four people high with wide ears and tusks so long that they could be used for furniture. Atop these beasts were small homes that people lived in.
“The green people who brought water to the sands.” She said softly.
Her finger hooked as she pointed to the well behind her. “They left these wherever they went. They would drill so far into the earth that she started to bleed. Every wound she gave willingly so that her green people could survive in this new and harsh land. They were the first to build the City. But then they disappeared.”
“What happened to them?” Jane had never heard Illyrin speak before. The honeyed tones came from a deep timber that was pleasing to the ear. She smiled at him.
“No one knows. Some say the green peopl
e with the flowers in their hair simply died out. My mother said that the machines swallowed them whole. That the monstrous machines they had created eventually took so much from the land around them that they turned upon their creators. The green people gave themselves up so that their work may remain.
“I had never seen a well before. But it was their machines that allowed us to make the mines in the first place. We never would have been able to drill so deeply without the work of the green people.”
As Jane spoke, she could see in her mind the way her mother’s hands had twisted and turned. She had been everything graceful and beautiful in their lives. Even as her health had failed her, Jane’s mother had been like a feather floating on the breeze.
Jane was exactly the opposite of her delicate mother. She was stocky and far too tall. A gangly girl who had turned into a woman more suitable to be a man. Jane had always thought her mother would want someone to become the spitting image of herself. Who wouldn’t have wanted that? Her mother had been perfect.
“No these green people weren’t goblins.”
She looked up when Shusar spoke. His blade flashed in the moonlight. Ruric translated his words for her.
“Why do you say that?” She asked.
He grunted. “No goblin would make those.” He gestured towards the skeletal remains of the well. “It is too loud.”
The entire company burst into laughter. They were all equally shocked that the aged goblin could make such a joke, but were pleased to lighten the mood. In that moment, the tension that had been strung tight between them was released.
Laughter had a way of doing such things.
A clanking sound was what alerted Jane the next morning. Metal striking against metal had a way of carrying over large distances. She had not heard such sounds in a very long time. The goblins were always quiet in their actions, and the mines had been metal striking against stone.
She was surprised she could still tell the difference.