Her mouth turned up in a sly grin. “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”
“Ha-ha.” Jerin shook his finger in her face. “Very clever, very clever.” He climbed on the centaur saying, “Behave yourself!”
This caused Stitch to grin even more.
The sun shown down through the dwindling forest, heating their faces until beads of sweat began to form. Stitch stayed in the lead. Katrina and Alyra fought desperately to not laugh when he would ask Jerin to scratch his back from time to time. At first the boy obliged, until the itchy spot kept moving.
“Must be a flea. Can you get it for me?”
“I’m getting off of here,” Jerin readied to jump off despite his hurt leg.
Stitch swore on his sweet mama’s honor to behave. Of course, his promise only lasted an hour before he found something else to joke about.
Finally, after mid-day they came to the plateau where tall cliffs fell into the open plain below.
Jerin climbed off the centaur and hurried to the edge of the precipice. His wide grin floundered. Katrina let out a gasp. Alyra joined them, and thought her heart would fall right out of the bottom of her boots. To their horror and astonishment, the plain below was filled with hundreds of black clad soldiers. They were like coffee grounds scattered across a yellowish-green tablecloth.
The girls ducked down and hid behind rocks, hoping they hadn’t been seen.
Stitch pointed. “Look, the path goes right through the middle of their camp.”
From their vantage point, the White Road went straight out from the foot of the cliffs, and across the basin until reaching another stand of trees. In the hazy distance beyond, mountain spires rose into the sky. What appeared to be several villages surrounded the sharp peaks.
Alyra pointed, “Is that ... Aloblase … do you think?”
A scowl took over Jerin’s face and he threw his shield and pack down. “I can’t believe this. All the trouble we gone through to avoid trouble and...they are still blocking our way! I can’t—” He kicked at the white rocks, and yelled out in pain.
Alyra wondered if he’d ever learn. With an angry yell, he stormed off into the trees, away from the path.
Chapter 37
Stitch stared at the Racan soldiers camped in the valley, their star and moon flags waving in the breeze, whipping like the flick of a lizard’s tail. His eyes widened as he stepped back with a whimper.
Katrina, on the other hand, nestled behind a large stone with the book of King’s Letters in her lap. She rummaged in her pack and pulled out a couple of carrots, crunching on one as she flipped the pages.
Alyra liked the strange girl but found her to be a big question mark at times. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Katrina blushed, “Oh, how rude I am.” She pulled out a few more carrots. “Would you like?” She offered some to Stitch who gladly accepted one.
“No, thank you.”
“I also have wafers the Logorian’s gave me. You prefer?”
“No, thank you!” Alyra stomped her foot, frustrated. “How can you sit and read at a time like this? We are obviously in deep trouble here.”
Katrina looked up innocently. “Because this time reminds me of something I read before. Something about trouble. See?”
Alyra had no idea what she meant. She stormed after Jerin, hoping he’d gotten over his temper tantrum. He leaned against a tall pine, yanking needles from a low hanging limb and crushing them up in his big hands.
“So…” Alyra’s fist rested on her hips. “Katrina is going to sit and read. Stitch is eating, and you’re–what? Collecting scented foliage for spice bags?”
“What do you want me to do?” He growled with exhaustion.
She knew he wasn’t feeling well and pity tinged her heart, but they couldn’t give up now. “Jerin, we can’t just sit here. We have to find a way to get around them. Something.”
He sent a pine cone flying into the woods with his sling shot. “None of my plans work out. Matter of fact, seems my plans only end in disaster. You’d think I learned after nearly losing my own life. But no, I have to keep going until someone else gets hurt, or killed for all we know.” He rubbed his eyes, leaving teary smudges along his temples. “I’ll not allow anyone else to get hurt because of my...”
“Jerin…”
“Oh, Shaydon help me!” Jerin’s damp eyes met hers. “You know, I thought I understood bravery. I’m not afraid of a fight.” He got up and stomped around the tree, fist pounding his open palm. “Lotari stood there taking arrow after arrow trying to make sure I reached the hill.” Jerin stopped, his voice beginning to break.
“He…an arrow was coming right for me. He…he pushed me aside. Knocked me down to the ground and took it himself.” Jerin hid his face in his hands. “I spent most of our journey together looking down on him and calling him names. Thought I was so much better than a creature. He never even hesitated in blocking me from harm. I didn’t deserve what he did. I should be the one struggling to live, not him.” His chin trembled as he bit back his emotions.
Alyra couldn’t help herself. She wrapped her arms around him as tears flowed. “None of us deserve it.” She pulled out her medallions and held them up for him to see. “The messenger died trying to help me get free. I don’t know if I will ever understand what it means to give up your life for someone else. But I think their love for King Shaydon and for Prince Issah drives them to do so willingly. I certainly don’t know if I’ll ever love like that.”
Jerin wiped his sleeve across his face. He cleared his throat a couple of times. “In the King’s letters, he wrote that there is no greater love a person can show another than to lay down their life for them.” He took in a shuddering breath. “I hate how I keep…that all I think about is what I want. How will all this work out for me? When can I get what I need?” He began to pace. “I don’t want to be like this.”
For a long moment, he watched Katrina with her nose still in the book. Stitch, now lying beside her, rested his head next to hers as he read along. Both continued to munch on carrots. “What do you suppose the Prince would tell us to do?”
“Stay on the path. Stay on the path. Stay on the path. Stay…” Alyra chanted.
Jerin snorted a laughed. “Sure wish he was here.”
Alyra didn’t respond. She wished he were too. He’d call in his warrior armies to chase away those brutes down below. Yet his absence was no oversight. Jerin must have felt the same.
“When Issah saw me after the battle, his only words were, ‘Son, why didn’t you trust the path I laid for you?’ Talk about breaking my heart.”
“Wow, I guess so.” She wondered if Issah meant for them to stay on the White Road, even with such a large army blocking the way. Her thoughts rolled around like leaves on a wind as she tried to figure it all out. To walk right into their camp would be madness.
Failing to come up with an acceptable plan, she offered to make a meal while they waited. For what, she didn’t know.
As the day waned into late afternoon, they all sat around, lost in their own thoughts. Jerin slept on and off. Katrina’s nose never came up out of her book. At times she would rub at her eyes, but she never stopped searching. Stitch ate, dozed, peeked over the rocks from time to time, and picked fleas from his coat. Alyra grew increasingly bored of staring into the flames. She cleared her mind the way Lotari had instructed, tried to listen, but came to the conclusion Issah was no longer speaking. Her only reflection was of Lotari reminding her that the path was safe.
“You can trust Issah,” he often said. “You can trust the path.”
But could they simply stroll though the enemy camp like strolling through a spring time meadow. How? “How!”
“Pardon?” Katrina looked up from the book.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Alyra’s cheeks burned from speaking her thoughts out loud. “I’m just trying to figure a way out of this. We’ve tried going around, which ended in disaster. If only we could fly over…or dig under. An
ything besides going through.”
“Yes, that’s the one!” Katrina yelled, leaping to her feet as she flipped to a new page. Her eyes darted across the words. “I find it. At last! Listen to this:
‘He who trust in the King and walks along his pathways, has nothing to fear.
He will cover you as a mother bird covers her young with her wings.
He will be your shield and rampart.
Don’t fear the terrors of the night, nor the arrows that fly by day.
A thousand my fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand,’”
She began to bounce excitedly. “Get this, yes?”
‘They will not come near you!’
“You see?” She giggled. “Yes? We are safe. The path keeps us safe. We will walk. Yes?” She motioned with her fingers walking across the open book. “We walk right through. He promises. Yes? He promises they won’t hurt us.”
Stitch pointed beyond the army. “Oh, look!” he gasped.
In the distant mist, a light began to burn. Not simply city lights, but instead the whole mountain glowed.
“Trust the path.” Jerin’s eyes were as round as full moons. “That’s what Issah asked me. ‘Why didn’t you trust the path, son?’”
Stitch threw his arms around Alyra. “We must be brave. His book says so.” He stared at the camp below. “Oh, help me to be brave.”
Alyra looked from Stitch’s nervous face, to Katrina’s calm, assured face then to Jerin’s resolute face. She knew what they needed to do, but if they looked at her face, would they see the fear she felt inside?
Jerin stood. “Let’s get ready to go.”
“Now?” Alyra protested. “Shouldn’t we wait until morning?”
His eyes focused on the luminous mountain. “No. The darkness might provide a little cover.” Jerin readied his sword. “I want Aly and Kat to hold the shields. Stitch, ready your arrows. But don’t shoot unless I tell you.”
Stitch nodded. “You can still ride, if you need to. I’ve been trained to fight with a rider on my back.”
Maybe the sight of Shaydon’s mountain renewed Jerin’s strength. All Alyra knew was that his face turned grim with determination. A light she had never seen before shone in his eyes.
He shook his head as he thanked Stitch. “I’m better now.”
As they descended, the King’s Highway became a narrow, winding footpath, carved in the crevice of the cliff. For the most part the rocks kept them hidden from view to those below until they reached the bottom.
The moon’s soft light glowed upon the ocean of swaying grasses. The camp seemed to float right in the middle like a dilapidated old sea-barge.
Alyra’s legs trembled like twigs, and her heart raced as if she’d run all the way down the incline. Stitch huddled close to Jerin, who kept giving him odd looks. Katrina clutched her book in one hand, and the shield and spear in the other. Jerin put the girls in front of himself and the centaur. If the enemy were to shoot, he said they were to kneel behind the shields. Jerin had his slingshot readied, and Stitch held his bow loaded.
A few campfires still burned, and dark forms roamed among the shabby tents. The majority slept outside, as only the higher-ranking officers had the privilege of shelter. The White Road flowed from their feet like a beam of light shooting across the dale.
“Everyone quiet.” Jerin ordered in a harsh whisper. “Stay together. Either we will be protected, or not. If I’m to die, I’d rather it happen while I’m on the path than off.”
The others nodded in agreement. Each may have been full of fear, but none wanted to give up now. In the distance, the mountain glowed even brighter as if beckoning them like a warm flame on a freezing night.
“Let’s go, then,” whispered Stitch.
They all moved forward quietly except for their heavy breathing and the scuffing of boots on the rocks. Stitch tried to step lightly so his hooves wouldn’t make too much of a clatter.
As the camp loomed larger a particular smell, or more of a stench, permeated the air. The girls pinched their noses. Alyra’s stomach churned at the familiar odor.
Stitch leaned close to her ear. “I haven't missed that evil stink.”
Jerin hushed him with a nudge of his elbow. Alyra glanced around at the sleeping brutes. Most were trolls, which would account for the smell, along with scowling dwarfs and even some Okbolds like DezPierre. Prowling in the darkness were familiar twisted canine-like creatures with spikes running down their backs. An ear-splitting howl rent the night. One of the deranged wolves charged toward them, stopping at the edge of the rocks and barking furiously.
“Keep going,” Jerin ordered everyone as his pace quickened. “Don’t run, but walk faster.”
The camp erupted with commanding shouts and clanging weapons. Soon both sides of the path were lined with all sorts of sinister creatures, yelling, jumping, and waving their spears and swords.
Alyra stopped, finding it impossible to focus on the highway. Jerin nudged her back, but her feet had embedded into the ground.
“Don’t let them scare you, Aly. We have to keep going.”
The angry soldiers thrust their swords and spears, but never got near the white rocks.
When she didn’t move right away, he growled, “Don’t make me pick you up and carry you.”
The imaginary roots disengaged and her feet started working again. Katrina walked on beside her, not bothered at all by the enemy surrounding them. A calm smile slipped across her peaceful face as she stared dreamily at the lighted mountain ahead.
Stitch, on the other hand, rested a hand on her shoulder, his fingers digging into her collarbone. “I don’t have enough arrows for them all.”
“You don’t need them unless they actually try to come at us.” Jerin replied. “Doesn’t look like they are too willing to take that chance.”
The moment his words met air, a long spear sailed over their heads and landed behind them right between the feet of an Okbold. Stitch aimed his bow. The girls walked faster, holding the shields up to protect their bodies. The wonderfully lightweight guards covered them from the chin down to their knees. Jerin stopped Stitch from actually shooting, but loaded a large rock into his slingshot as well.
Another two spears flew out from different directions. They each landed to the right and to the left side in the dirt. Alyra’s breath caught in her throat, blocked by a scream threatening to rise up. The spears teetered a moment, then fell over with a loud clatter.
Next, the soldiers sent a rain of arrows into the sky. All four ducked holding the shields over their heads. There was no sound of contact. No ping, ping of deathly tips. When they peered over the armor, the shafts lay all around along the sides of the path, but not on the rocks.
“It’s true,” Jerin breathed.
They stood again, and continued on, eyes wide as saucers at the weaponry lying next to the trail.
“See?” Katrina grinned.
Stitch whooped. “We’re home free!”
Their spirits soared and they strolled a bit straighter and faster. The path had become wide enough for a horse-drawn carriage to easily travel on. As long as they stayed close together, the enemy’s spears and swords couldn’t touch them.
Stitch laughed at them and stuck out his tongue. Jerin elbowed him again telling him not to get cocky.
“Almost there.” Katrina’s encouraging words eased Alyra’s fears.
The band of trees surrounding the plains grew larger. They only had to reach the end of the valley and then cross the bridge leading into King Shaydon’s lands.
Before the thrill of victory settled on Alyra, she caught a movement from the corner of her eye. To her horror, a cloaked figure followed them next to the path. His long, bony hand reached up and pulled back the black hood hiding his pasty face. Bezoar! Remembering his last threat, her throat tightened. Her feet seemed to forget how to work, and she stumbled. Both Jerin and Stitch grabbed hold of her to keep her from falling.
“What, Miss?”
“No, not the Captain of the Chief Guard. Oh no! He has that whip, Miss. I hate that whip.”
They started to jog.
“Princessss,” came his throaty hiss. His dark, sunken eyes gleamed at her. He cracked the whip against the dirt, sending several of the soldiers diving out of the way. His strides matched theirs as he jeered, “Princessss, I’ve been waiting for you.” His cold voice wrapped around her like a serpent, dragging her steps.
Katrina circled her arm in Alyra’s. “Try not to listen. He lies. Yes?”
“Is it lies, Princesss that your Prince Issah has not come to save you? Now that he must face me. Is it lies that he has left you to contend with me, all alone. Not lies at all!”
Alyra tried to fill her mind with more pleasant thoughts.
“Shaydon knows all about you. Everything.” Bezoar spat the words out one at a time, slowly. “That you are dirty. Disobedient. Rebellious. You…are…a…traitor.” This last word he emphasized. Even he knew Darnel had obtained the black powder with her help. A gray wolf, twisted and demented most likely from that very poison, followed Bezoar, growling and snarling.
Alyra buried her head as tears burst from her eyes. Issah said he knew, yet did he really know everything as he claimed? He couldn’t possibly.
The Captain didn’t let up. “Do you actually expect him to take you back, Princessss? After you abandoned the Kingdom? Aided the Racan King in gaining power? Watched, and yes, even aided in destroying Shaydon’s own people? To think you’ll be received with open arms is also a lie.”
How could she expect anything? She certainly deserved nothing. She’d already had everything, except her Mo. She’d been too young, perhaps, to understand. But, no, she knew Mo had gone to the wonderful lands beyond Shaydon’s throne where no one ever got hurt and everyone lived in peace. And Da was right; they would have joined her there again someday. That hadn’t been good enough. She’d wanted what she wanted right then and didn’t bother to think of the consequences. In truth, she hadn’t changed much.
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