by I. B. George
The master stayed put, surveying the garrison through the spyglass that Captain Cavas left for him. After a short while, he counted seven soldiers guarding the Outpost who, because of the heat, had left their positions on the western side of the wall surrounding the tower which was now bathed in a blinding glare.
The master had already decided that that was the best place to infiltrate the Outpost. He scrutinized the courtyard of the fortress once more, watching the soldiers getting bored and sluggish in the heat. In these circumstances, rescuing the prince looked like child’s play.
Suddenly he noticed a silhouette sneaking past that same wall. He adjusted the telescope in an attempt to see the person’s face. It couldn’t have been one of the soldiers because he seemed to be avoiding the men at the watch tower and had chosen the same way they would’ve chosen into the garrison.
“Who are you, pal?” wondered Azar, struggling to get a better view of what the intruder was up to.
He saw him rotating a rope a few times then throwing it. The iron claw at the end of the rope caught onto the wall edge and, after checking it held, the individual started climbing the wall, clad in his cape.
“You’re very skilled, my friend,” said Azar again out loud. “I’m afraid you’ll hinder our plans with your mad attempt at getting into the Outpost.”
Radius and Cavas approached the master.
“I hope you’re not getting sunstroke, Azar… I thought I heard you talking to yourself,” interrupted Radius, crawling next to the master.
“No, Professor, I just saw someone trying to sneak into the garrison.”
“Who?!” cried Radius in surprise.
“I have no idea. He’s just climbed the west side of the wall, the same way I would have chosen to get into the Outpost.”
“Surely it can’t be one of Tyreas’s men… he would have come in the main gate. I think all we can do for now is wait and if nothing happens in half an hour, we attack the garrison.”
***
His hands under his head, Robert was gazing at a spot in the ceiling, pondering what he could do to escape his captivity.
He had heard the commotion in the fortress’s courtyard and the orders shouted by a certain Captain Kolar, as the soldiers called him, and he’d guessed they were getting ready to leave.
He thought this could have been a good time to try and escape with the help of the lizard-shaped medallion which he always wore ever since the Professor showed him how to use it. Except that, before the soldiers left, he’d heard voices on the other side of his door which meant that someone had placed guards outside his cell and he felt his last chance of escaping was lost.
His only hope was that his friends were nearby, planning to attack the garrison, especially now when it looked like the number of soldiers in the Outpost had decreased.
He decided that he should preserve his strength while he waited for his friends and hold on until the right moment to open the door and try to sneak behind the walls.
Behind the door, in the corridor, the guards were laughing and talking out loud. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it sounded as though they were poking fun at one them.
He heard shouting and the rattle of weapons coming from the Outpost courtyard, quiet at first, then louder and louder. He tried to climb up to the window but to no avail. He listened intently, trying to make out the voices of his friends among the bustle in the courtyard, but couldn’t distinguish anything. The only voices he could hear were those of soldiers shouting furiously or screaming in pain.
The silence descended into the courtyard and then he heard the guards outside his cell calling out warrior cries. He heard once more the sound of swords gnashing, which could only mean that those attacking the garrison had infiltrated the tower.
He strained his ear again, paying attention to the voices behind his door, but all he could hear were the soldiers cursing the attackers.
The fight didn’t last long and, judging by the silence which descended on the Forgotten Outpost, it looked like the attackers had taken over the garrison.
The handle on his door rattled, meaning that someone behind it was trying to get to him. A few bangs followed, but the heavy door, secured by iron slates, withstood the assault of whoever was trying to get in.
Dying to see his friends, Robert decided now was the time to open the door which stood between him and his freedom.
He unclasped the locket around his neck and held it close to the lock on the door.
“Open up!” he said calmly, waiting to see what his father’s heirloom did next.
The lizard started to move in his hand, slithered along his wrist, then entered the lock. Robert struggled to stifle a cry of fear when he felt the lizard coming alive in his palm, touching his skin with the coldness specific to reptiles.
At last, the lock opened with a metallic sound amplified by the echo in the cell.
Robert placed his hand in front of the lock and the lizard came back through the keyhole, obediently returning to his palm and turning into a medallion once again. He placed it back onto the chain and pushed the door handle which gave a frightening gnash.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw that the six guards had been knocked down and were now sprawled onto the cold stone of the corridor.
He noticed the person who had freed him but he couldn’t see the face because it was hidden by the hood of his cloak. He stood inside the door, undecided, wondering whether he could trust the person who had helped him.
The person threw his hood back, revealing the fine features and Robert’s eyes widened in surprise as he saw the face.
“You?!” he called in surprise, as if he’d seen a ghost.
“How are you, Robert?… How glad I am to see you again.”
Robert threw himself into her arms with tears in his eyes, not able to believe it was possible.
“Aryana,” he whispered, “I thought I lost you.”
“I thought the same thing about you,” replied the queen, hugging him. I think it’s time we left now, Robert. The other soldiers could come back at any time. We can talk later, as soon as we find shelter.”
They climbed down the stairs together and headed towards the main gate. Robert remembered his bag which contained his father’s objects and went back to get it from the garrison’s commander’s office before leaving the Forgotten Outpost.
***
“By all gods!!” exclaimed Azar looking through the spyglass at the two riders coming through the gates of the Outpost. “One of the riders is Prince Robert and the other… either I’m going crazy or my eyesight is failing me…”
“Who is it?” asked Radius impatiently, confused by the surprise and fear in his friend’s voice.
“By Zathar,” continued the master, “judging by the clothes and appearance, I could swear is Queen Aryana!”
“What?!” called the Professor in shock. “Are you sure?”
“No, but I will be in a minute,” replied Azar while he positioned the spyglass towards the sun, directing the light towards the queen’s face.
Aryana slowed down her horse and looked up in the direction of the light which glittered playfully on her face. She remembered how, when she was a child, Master Azar used a mirror to project the light onto the ceiling of her room to call her to the morning training.
She said a few words to Robert and they both started towards the ridge of the hill where their companions were.
Half an hour later, everybody bowed before Queen Aryana and Prince Robert, looking happy and ruddy cheeked like children.
On the horizon, the sun was gliding on its way to bed and the reddish clouds were chasing each other, covering the star on its route to sundown.
Chapter 11
Ice and Fire
Sheltered by the thick foliage of the forest, the horses and their riders were ambling along, relaxing for a while after the stormy events of the past days.
Flanked by Radius and Robert, Aryana was leading the group of friends,
which now included Captain Cavas and thirty of his people. The Captain had expressed his wish to accompany them to the Wizard’s Gorge the place leading into the land of everlasting snow, which people from around there knew by the name of Boundary.
“I can hardly believe you’re with us once again, Aryana,” said the Professor watching the Queen of Akros with tenderness.
“That’s true!” added Robert. “I don’t think I’ll ever experience a greater joy than the moment I saw you outside the cell at the tower. For a moment I thought my eyesight was playing tricks on me and because I was being held captive, I was no longer able to distinguish between reality and the phantasms of my wondering mind…”
“I’m grateful to the gods for keeping me alive and that I was able to catch up with you,” replied Aryana simply. “At that moment, when I was pushed over by that Hagor and fell off the cliff, I thought my life was over. I wouldn’t have felt any regrets since my death would have been worthy of a warrior and I would have died in battle like a true daughter of Akros. The moment I fell over, my only regret was not being able to join you and be there for you to help you accomplish the destiny that the gods have bestowed on you.”
“I ask for forgiveness from the gods for what I’m about to say, but the moment you fell off the edge of the cliff with that beast on top of you, I thought that maybe they wanted to punish me somehow by snatching away from me the last remaining member of my family. I thought then about how much those from the Eremon House must have sinned if the gods have taken everyone in the family, one by one…”
“Zathar didn’t want you in the After World, Aryana,” added Azar who had approached Robert in the meantime.
“Yes, Master, perhaps it’s not my time yet…”
“It’s a miracle… not only you escaped unharmed, but as far as I can see, you didn’t sustain any serious injuries either as that might have hindered you when you started looking for us.”
“I was lucky, Master. I kept wondering in the past few days how come I was still alive. The only explanation I could come up with was that the gods have turned their face towards us again, after having punished the Eremons for such a long time.”
“How did you manage to survive?” asked Radius with curiosity. “I bet it’s a great story… and, since we have nothing better to do, we would love to hear it.”
Aryana narrowed her eyes, trying to recall what happened.
“I guess you all saw the moment when beast threw itself upon me, right?” she asked, looking at her friends who nodded in agreement to the queen’s words. “Well, the instance it launched itself towards me, I managed to pull out the dagger from my belt and thrust it into the neck of the beast attacking me. I was already close to the edge of the chasm when I tried to fight back the attacking beast, so when the blade pierced his throat, with its last breath the animal threw me over the abyss that gaped behind me…”
***
As she fell off the cliff, Aryana felt a sharp pain in her chest, on the left side, where the Hagor had struck her hard. At length she felt another pain, this time in her back, caused by the knotted roots of a plant which grew in between the cracks of the cliff.
The roots bent under Aryana’s weight, arching elastically, but didn’t give way under the strain. They sprang back into shape, making the queen’s body roll slowly along the canopy of branches until she landed under a cliff wall.
Everything lasted just a few moments, so when Robert and Azar looked over the edge of the abyss, they didn’t see any trace of Aryana, which made them even more certain that she had perished after the fall.
But Aryana was still there, hidden by the cliff where the plants that saved her life grew. She had fallen into a deep slumber and didn’t hear Robert’s desperate cries.
For hours she dozed in the shelter that fate had reserved for her until, at long last, she was woken up by the cries of some ravens which circled the place she was hidden under.
She tried to get up but the pain in her back pierced through her body and forced her to lay back down. She knew she had to stay there at least a few hours longer and rest. She chased away the ravens which were ravenous and getting closer and closer.
For hours on end she watched the clouds until the stars began to take over the sky. She tried again to get up and finally she succeeded, controlling her pain. Like any Fire Chosen, she was able to see very well in the dark, her eyes taking on that spark which made everything around appear as clear as during daylight.
Before fighting the beast that hurled her over into the chasm, she had wrapped diagonally across her body a coil of rope. She pulled it over her head and placed it next to her then looked down into the abyss that opened under her sheltered place.
It started pouring and she felt revived by the raindrops that touched her face. She lay down on her belly and dank the water which had gathered into a small hollow in the cliff.
Eventually she tied one end of the rope to the branches that had saved her life and allowed the rope to fall along the stone wall. She climbed down carefully, holding tight to the rope. The rope was wet and a wrong move could have made her loose contact with it.
Finally she reached the end of the rope and started balancing sideways, pushing with her legs against the cliff. Nearby she saw one of the stone notches that her friends had used just a few hours before to climb down into Elementis.
The pain in her back shot through her body with every move but Aryana knew it was her only chance to get out alive and try to catch up with her friends. She ground her teeth each time her feet pushed against the cliff wall, getting closer with every move she made.
Eventually she gathered her courage and jumped with a wide circular move which allowed her to grab with her left hand onto the rock she had set her eyes on. She had a few moments’ rest, holding in one hand the rope which has started dripping with water and in the other hand, the stone notch.
At last she let go of the rope and hung onto the step with both hands then, using her legs, climbed on top of it, screaming with the strain of the effort.
Drained, she took another quarter of an hour break. At length she got up and started climbing down the steps towards Zathar’s Trail, helped by her athletic built and her ability to see in the dark.
After one hour of struggle, she placed her foot onto the damp ground in Elementis and fell to her knees, exhausted and chuckling like a child, enjoying the rain falling on the top of her head.
Judging by the amount of time that had passed, she reckoned she must have been at least half a day behind her friends. It could have been even more than that because Aryana knew this was the place that the man her husband had sent was supposed to wait and her travelling companions had surely continued their journey atop the horses brought by the Khalari soldier.
She started on foot towards the Kingdom of Water and after half an hour she came out of the forest at the foot of Zathar’s Trail.
She kept walking until dawn, keeping away from the paths, afraid of meeting any travellers who would have surely been intrigued by a woman dressed as a Khalari warrior and who, on top of that, was walking on such nasty weather.
At one point she thought she had seen a trail of smoke coming from behind some trees. She imagined it must have been a house or some travellers who had camped there and lit a fire.
She proceeded carefully that way and as she was advancing towards the place where the smoke was coming from, she stepped with greater care, straining her hearing.
Behind the copse of trees she saw a house but the windows didn’t show any sign of light. Aryana double checked the surroundings, scrutinizing all around the house before leaving her hiding place.
She broke into a run towards the house and stopped outside the stable near the house as she thought she heard a horse snorting. She undid the latch, went in then carefully close the stable door behind her.
After all the rain and damp she had endured in the last hours, the warmth of the stable put some colour in her cheeks and made her forget about the s
trenuous past hours. She saw the horses, there were four of them, tied up by a huge wooden beam. Two of them had thick strong legs and she could tell they were being used for ploughing. The other two had long thin legs, which suggested they were the horses that the owner of the house used for getting around or for his carriage.
One of them, a well looked-after black stallion moved nervously when Aryana came near him, shaking his head anxiously. The queen approached him without any fear and stroked his thigh as she whispered a few words to calm him down. She then stroked his mane and reached for his nuzzle, scratching him gently. The animal calmed down and lowered his head, placing his nose in Aryana’s open palm.
The queen noticed a long raincoat lying carelessly on a stump of wood and she put it on at once. The owner of the house was clearly a big man since the sleeves of the cape hung over Aryana’s hands and she had to roll them up to fit her.
In one corner she saw a few items for harness. She saddled the black stallion who didn’t fight back the led him away by the bridle towards the stable exit.
She opened the big wooden door but the horse took a step back, frightened by the awful weather outside. Aryana whispered to him again in a gentle voice and stroked him and the horse obeyed her and followed the queen out of the shelter.
They walked slowly past the trees in front of the house then Aryana mounted the horse and spurred him on ahead and off they went, leaving his owner’s house behind them.
***
“Decidedly, Your Majesty, you have been a tenacious person ever since I used to train you in the courtyard at Sardar Castle,” said Azar, watching the queen with awe.
“Your teachings, Master, have come in handy. I remember even now when you trained me to tame even the most unruly horses.”
“I’m glad it hasn’t been a waste of time, princess.”
Radius, who had until then listened quietly to the queen’s story like everyone else, added: