Taking Flight

by Lawrence Watt-Evans

  They walked on.

  Irith seemed tireless, and after a time Kelder found himself trudging wearily along while she scampered ahead, looking at flowers and butterflies. Stones and dust didn't trouble her at all, even though she was barefoot, and he marveled at that. His feet ached, and his own half-boots, new a sixnight before, were visibly worn, yet she was scampering about like a squir­rel, her feet in nothing but her own skin.

  Kelder wondered again just who she was—and what she was. Her story about being a wizard's apprentice made sense enough on the surface, but no matter how he figured it, the times were all wrong. She was only fifteen; how could she possibly have done and seen everything she claimed?

  There was a mystery here, and if Kelder was going to ful­fill his destiny and marry Irith, he would have to unravel it. How could a girl younger than himself have traveled so widely? Why was she roaming about by herself, with no fam­ily or friends, yet apparently known everywhere she went? How did she keep from tiring? Was that more magic, per­haps?

  She was a marvel in many ways, certainly—her wings and her beauty were merely the most obvious. When he brought her back to Shulara as his bride, when his family and his friends saw her, that would surely put an end to any teasing about his desire to see more of the World and his belief in Zindrés predictions. If there were creatures like Irith to be found, then obviously the World was worth seeing.

  He was tempted simply to ask her, right now, to turn back and go to Shulara with him and marry him, but he didn't dare.

  For one thing, she would almost certainly say no; while she was friendly enough, he didn't think she was so carefree, or so fond of him, that she would abandon her own plans— whatever they might be—to accompany him. And surely, she would have more sense than to marry a stranger she had just met. She had no reason to do so save to please him, and she had no reason to care that much about pleasing him.

  Better to wait and let their relationship grow naturally.

  And he didn't really want to go back home yet, anyway— not while there were more wonders to be found and the rest of his destiny to find. Great cities, vast plains, strange beasts, more magic—they were all out there, still waiting for him.

  And now he had a guide to show him the way. He would never have found the Weary Wanderer and its almost mirac­ulous food without Irith, and she might show him other mar­vels, as well. He wasn't sure whether those biscuits qualified as a wonder, but they certainly came close.

  So for now he resolved to carry on, to try to impress Irith in any way he could, and to learn whatever he could about the World.

  Another hour or so brought them to Yondra Keep, a small, old, vine-grown and weather-battered castle atop a hill, with a quiet little village clustered about its walls. Irith looked up at it and a faintly worried expression crossed her face.

  "Kelder," she said suddenly, "maybe we should stop here for the night."

  "But it's scarcely midafternoon," he said, puzzled. "Why stop so early?"

  "Well, it's a good four or five leagues yet to Castle Anga­rossa, that's why," she explained. "We couldn't possibly get there before dark, or at least you couldn't, and I don't want to fly on ahead without you, that wouldn't be any fun. And Angarossa isn't . . . well, there are other places I'd rather be after dark than on the road in Angarossa, let's just put it that way."

  "Oh," Kelder said. "Ah .. . why? Are there dragons or something?"

  "Dragons?" Irith asked, startled, turning to stare at him. "On the Great Highway?" She smiled, then giggled. "Oh, Kelder, you're so silly! No, of course there aren't any drag­ons." Her smile vanished, and she said, quite seriously, "But there are bandits."

  "Oh," Kelder said again. While the prospect of meeting bandits might have seemed exciting once, right now, footsore as he was, it didn't have any appeal at all. He looked up at Yondra Keep and its surrounding village. "All right, let's stop here."

  "Good!" Irith said, clapping her hands gleefully. "I know just the place!"

  Chapter 4

  The inn was not on the Great Highway itself, but tucked back in a corner of the village, behind a row of houses that was itself behind a row of shops. It was a very small inn, with only four rooms upstairs and one of those occupied by the innkeeper himself, and a dining room that held only a sin­gle large table, with seating for a dozen or so.

  The food and accommodations were excellent, though. Kelder shuddered to think what the bill would be.

  And of course, as he had half expected, everyone knew Irith by name—not just the innkeeper, but the steward and the scullery boy and the other guests, as well. Irith introduced Kelder to them all. He bowed and nodded politely, quite sure he wouldn't remember all the names and faces.

  The other guests, half a dozen in all, were traveling mer­chants, which was, when one thought about it, hardly surpris­ing. Kelder sat and listened to them swap stories about remarkable deals they had made; the merchants found this endlessly amusing, but Irith politely excused herself and spent the remainder of the afternoon playing with the kittens in the kitchen, instead.

  Kelder thought that Irith had probably made the better choice; half the time he didn't even know what the merchants were talking about, with their markups and discounts and per­centages.

  At least everyone along the Great Highway seemed to speak Trader's Tongue. Kelder had heard other languages spoken, but only in the background; travelers and strangers al­ways seemed to be addressed first in Trader's Tongue.

  Which, of course, was why it was called Trader's Tongue, and why it was such an easy language to learn—this was what it was for.

  It was after dinner that night—a good but unremarkable dinner—that Kelder discovered one great advantage of stay­ing in so small an inn. With only three rooms, he and Irith had to share.

  And with just the two of them, they were given the small­est room, with only one bed.

  Kelder thought about making some noble gesture like sleeping out in the stable, or at least on the floor, but then he looked at Irith's smile and realized that she must have known, when she led him to this out-of-the-way inn, exactly what the situation was and what she was getting into.

  It would seem that he had, indeed, been courting, and more successfully than he thought. He had not seriously anticipated so quick a conquest—if conquest it was. The question arose in Kelder's mind, and was immediately suppressed, as to just who had conquered whom.

  It didn't really matter; they were, he knew, fated for each other.

  They talked for a long time about nothing in particular— Kelder learned a great many new words in Trader's Tongue, and felt himself becoming more comfortable with the language—and in the end they did more than just talk.

  It was wonderful.

  It was very late indeed when Kelder finally fell asleep.

  By the time they were up and dressed in the morning the other guests had eaten their breakfasts and departed. Kelder was in no hurry, but for once Irith seemed a little impatient, so they ate quickly and set out without dawdling.

  At first he found himself wondering about little things he had noticed about Irith. She never removed the bloodstone choker, for example, not even when sleeping—but maybe the clasp was hard to work. He hadn't really gotten a good look at it, in the dimness of their shared room.

  She also always wore six or seven narrow bands of some sort tight around her right ankle, none of them particularly attrattive, and from what little he had seen Kelder was unsure if they were bangles, or bracelets, or possibly even tattoos. Three had designs involving feathers, and one gleamed like mother-of-pearl. He was determined to get a better look at them sometime.

  There was no hurry, though.

  After they had been walking for a while, Kelder's attention turned to the journey itself. They were meeting far fewer trav­elers now; traffic east of Yondra Keep was apparently less than traffic farther west. Also, the distance from the Keep to the Angarossan border was roughly three times as far as to the Keep from the Amramioni
c border, which seemed odd to him. Shouldn't the Keep be in the center of the kingdom?

  Well, it obviously wasn't, so he trudged on and on, ex­pecting every minute to cross the border into Angarossa.

  "Tell me," he asked Irith around midmorning, as she danced on ahead of him, bare feet skipping lightly across the highway's stones, golden hair flashing in the sun, "what's the route, exactly?"

  She turned and looked back, her hair settling to her shoul­ders like a flock of doves landing. "You mean where the Great Highway goes?"

  He nodded, somewhat out of breath.

  Irith pointed eastward. "Through Yondra, and then Angarossa, and Sinodita, and Dhwerra, and then out across the desert to Shan," she told him.

  "And how far is that? To Shan on the Desert, I mean."

  She looked ahead and considered.

  "About fifteen leagues, I guess," she said at last.

  "Oh," he said. He glanced back at empty roadway and then asked, "How far have we come? I'm not very good with dis­tances."

  "Oh, four or five leagues," she answered, with a vague wave indicating that her reply was little more than a guess.

  He stopped and looked back, and then at the road stretch­ing endlessly on ahead. They had covered no more than a fourth of the journey?

  That was a depressing thought.

  Of course, he'd come a good distance before even reaching the highway, and Irith wasn't counting that.

  And in stories people journeyed for sixnights on end, or months, or even years.

  And he wasn't really in any hurry to get to Shan, was he? He had no business there; it was just a convenient goal, an ex­cuse for traveling. The real reason he was going to Shan, after all, was to fulfill the prophecy, and that spoke only of the journey itself. A longer journey also meant a chance to spend more time with Irith before proposing marriage, and that was a good thing, too.

  So why hurry?

  "Hai, slow down!" he called to Irith, who had not stopped when he did. "What's your rush?"

  "I don't like bandits," she called back. "Come on!"

  He sighed and hurried to catch up.

  They passed an empty, crumbling watchtower just before midday.

  "We're in Angarossa now," Irith said. "You don't see too many robbers in Yondra, though they'll cross the border sometimes to catch people off guard, but the hills of Angarossa are full of them." She peered warily to either side and spoke in a tone far more serious than her usual chirping, cheerful manner.

  "Really?" Kelder asked, a little more skeptically than he had intended. For one thing, the gently rolling countryside hardly qualified as hills, by his standards—in Shulara or Sevmor such terrain would have been considered effectively flat.

  "Yes, really," Irith snapped back.

  He looked about, studying their surroundings, then stopped and pointed ahead. "Look!" he called, "What's that?"

  Irith followed his finger and suddenly spread wings that, a second before, had not been there at all. She flapped, and Kelder was almost bowled over by the wind as she rose into the air.

  "What is it?" he called. "What's the matter?"

  "I'm getting a better look," she called down to him. "I'll be right back."

  He stood, watching helplessly, as she rose into the air, pro­pelled steadily upward by the great iridescent wings. Then he turned his attention back to the spot on the horizon that had attracted his attention.

  He still couldn't make out details; whatever it was was big, and its color not very different from the color of the highway itself—probably, he supposed, because it was dusty. It was at the top of a rise and disappearing slowly over that rise even as he watched.

  Then Irith was settling back to the earth beside him, her wings folding away into nothingness. "It's a caravan," she told him. "A big one."

  "That?" he said, pointing at the distant object. "That's a caravan?"

  She put her hands on her hips. "Well, all you could see from down here, silly, was the very last wagon!"

  "Oh," he replied, feeling foolish.

  "Come on," Irith said, starting to run, "if we can catch up with them, we can all travel together. It'll be safer."

  "It will?" Kelder asked, breaking into a trot.

  "Sure!" Irith said. "They'll have guards and everything!"

  Kelder was still unsure just why, but he ran after Irith. The girl seemed as tireless as ever, but long before they reached the caravan Kelder was panting and stumbling.

  "Wait," he called, "I have to catch my breath!"

  With a worried glance at the caravan—its nature now plain, as they had crossed another low ridge—Irith slowed to a walk. She danced impatiently as Kelder trudged along.

  When he had stopped gasping and was fully upright again, she called, "Come on!" and started running again.

  "You go on," he said. "I'll catch up."

  She frowned and then nodded, and there were wings on her back once again. She spread them and leaped upward, soaring into the air.

  Kelder trudged on.

  He could see the caravan for what it was now; he counted five wagons, and others were over the next hill, he was sure. There were people sitting in and on the wagons, and outriders on horses and oxen along either side, and a few people walk­ing along on foot, as well. This was no casual grouping such as they had sometimes seen west of Yondra Keep; this was a serious expedition.

  The wagons were big, solid things, brightly painted and al­most the size of houses; the last in line was a saffron hue that happened to blend fairly well with the dust of the road, but the others were red and green and blue, with gilded or sil­vered trim that sparkled in the sun. They didn't bear much re­semblance to the open farm wagons Kelder had seen back in Shulara, or the ox-carts the local merchants had used, or any of the other vehicles he had encountered previously. Each one was drawn by at least four oxen; two of the five he could see had six oxen apiece on their yokes.

  With all those people and beasts the caravan, of necessity, moved at a slow walk. Kelder had no trouble in keeping up with it even while catching his breath and could gain any time he was willing to pick up his pace a little.

  He didn't bother to catch up, however. He was in no hurry.

  Irith, on the other hand, flew directly up to the caravan and over it. People looked up as her shadow passed over them, stared and pointed, and called to one another.

  Kelder smiled. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but they probably all knew her by name. Maybe he and Irith would be able to ride on one of the wagons, or share a meal with the merchants.

  Then someone walking alongside the third wagon from the end picked up a stone from the roadside and threw it at the winged girl. Someone else had drawn a sword; a third rum­maged under the seat of the rearmost wagon and brought up a bow and arrow.

  "Hai!" Kelder screamed, and broke into a run.

  Irith veered off, away from the caravan, away from the highway. The stone had missed her completely. She flapped, turned, hovered for a second, and then turned again and came sailing back toward Kelder.

  He slowed, and she landed before him, and he embraced her, hugging her tightly to him, relieved that she was un­hurt.

  Her wings had not vanished, which made the embrace somewhat awkward, so he released her quickly.

  "Are you all right?" he asked.

  "I'm fine," she said. "Are you all right?"

  He nodded, then looked up. He had intended to ask why the caravan's people were so hostile to her, but the words died on his lips—a horseman was approaching them. The caravan itself was moving steadily onward as if nothing had hap­pened, but one of the outriders had peeled away and was trot­ting toward them. Irith saw Kelder's face and turned to face the horseman.

  They stood and waited as the man rode up.

  "What do you want?" Kelder called in Trader's Tongue, in an angry attempt at bravado.

  "To give you an apology, and a warning," the horseman re­plied in the same language.

  Irith and Kelder glanced at e
ach other and then back at the horseman. "Go on," Kelder said.

  The horseman bobbed his head in acknowledgment. "First," he said, "the apology. If you are no more than the in­nocent travelers you appear to be, then we regret our actions toward you."

  He paused, but neither Irith nor Kelder answered.

  "And the warning," the horseman said. "There are bandits in these hills . . ."

  "We know that," Irith interrupted. "That's why we wanted to join your caravan!"

  The stranger nodded and continued, unperturbed. "There are bandits in these hills, and they have been known to use several tricks and ruses. Accordingly, we cannot trust anyone we meet here—and most particularly not a person like your­self, who clearly has great magic at her command. So while we mean no harm to anyone, if you approach again the guards will do their best to kill you."

  "Kill me?" Irith squeaked. "But I'm Irith the Flyer! Every­one on the Great Highway knows me! And this is Kelder, and he's harmless!"

  The horseman shrugged, palms up. "Perhaps you are what you say," he said, "but we will not risk it. I'm sorry."

  Before Irith could say anything more, he turned and snapped the reins, sending his horse cantering back toward the departing wagons.

  Irith blinked, then turned to Kelder, furious.

  "They can't treat us like that!" she said.

  Kelder shrugged. "Why not?" he asked. Almost immedi­ately, however, he regretted the words-—a reaction like that was not going to impress anyone. He didn't want Irith to con­sider him a coward.

  "They don't own the highway!" Irith shouted. "We can pass them if we like!"

  Kelder reluctantly shook his head—appearances or no, and even if it meant an accusation of cowardice, common sense was on the side of caution. "It's not right," he said, "nor fair, but I wouldn't try it. There are an awful lot of them."

  Irith looked at the wagons for a moment, considering, and then stuck out her tongue. "Who needs them, anyway?" she said. "And did you notice that weird smell?"