by Ijaz, Usman
Even as he watched the distinction between Iris and other children was made clear to him. The girl stood among the crowd of onlookers, watching with a faint smile. A boy a few years older than her came to stand at her side, then deciding he did not like the spot moved away. The girl looked around, and her face changed from childish glee to pure disgust as she saw the boy about to walk away. She spun around in lithe motion, grabbed the cutpurse by the hair and pulled him back. The boy crashed into one of the tables and dropped the pouch, staring wide-eyed at the girl. The commotion caused all eyes to turn towards the scene.
Amon watched from his stool as Iris went to where the boy lay and picked up her pouch. He noted the anger and disgust on her face with some delight and pride. The girl reattached her pouch to her belt and, to Amon’s disappointment, turned away. The cutpurse looked around at all the faces that were laughing at him. He lunged after her. Iris wheeled around and struck with an open palm. Her hand connected with the boy’s nose, and a fine spray of blood erupted. The cutpurse staggered back and fell on the floor, cupping his broken nose, blood leaking through his fingers.
All eyes were on the girl as she came to the counter. Amon looked at her with his eyebrows raised and a thin smile upon his lips. He reveled in the hate that ensued on her face. Perhaps she would not be a lost cause.
“I want to go to our room,” she said to him.
“Things have gotten stale?”
The two headed deeper into the inn with the eyes of all the patrons on their backs.
Chapter 11
Strangers in Bramble Woods
1
Alexis came around the tree with both guns drawn and held out before him, his fingers already bearing down on the triggers. His first sight was of Connor, standing half-slumped against the tree and his eyes wide in shock, his breeches pooled around his ankles. Then his gaze shifted to where Connor’s lay.
Alexis saw what he first mistook to be a large man huddled before Connor on the leaf-strewn ground, thick arms wrapped over his shaggy head and knees pulled to his chest. His guns were aimed at the large man and blood rushed through his head, making it hard to hear anything but a strange sound that threatened to drive him mad. When he did recognize the sound for loud, guttural sobs, he thought it must be from Connor. Then he understood that it came from the man.
Adrian came around the tree and stood dazed. He looked first at Connor and then at the large man before him. “Alexis ... what is it?”
Alexis could only wish he knew. He realized that his fingers were still bearing down on the triggers, and forced them to ease up. What he did know was that what lay huddled before them was no ordinary man. The man was nearly twice the size of any ordinary man. His entire build was broad and large. His arms were as thick as tree branches and covered with the same horrible scars that marred his legs, making the Legionnaire think that he must have been the recipient of some terrible beatings. He wore a large, coarse, simple gray tunic and pants of the same color and material that stopped a little past his knees. There was also that harsh weeping noise, penetrating down to the center of Alexis’s mind and driving him mad.
Connor pulled up his breeches and came to stand behind him. Alexis give him a cursory glance to make sure he was all right. Looking at the weeping hulk before them, he realized that whatever the creature was, they had frightened him badly. He lowered his guns, confident that he could blow the man’s head off if he so much as made a move towards any of them.
“Who are you?” Alexis asked, but still that relentless weeping continued. “What are you?”
They watched the large brute continue to bawl, until they couldn’t stand it any longer. From his peripheral vision Alexis saw Adrian rush forward. He stuck his arm out and held him back.
“What are--”
“He’s afraid, Alexis!” said the boy. “Can’t you see it? He’s only frightened.”
Alexis shook his head. “I can see that, but I can also see the size of him. He could rip your head right off your shoulders.”
“I don’t think he will,” Adrian said. “Let me talk to him.”
Alexis let him go then and readied his guns. He watched as Adrian knelt a little way back from the large man.
“It’s all right,” the boy whispered gently to the large brute, but the weeping continued. “We’re not going to hurt you. We’re friends.” His words fell on deaf ears.
“What do we do now?” said Connor.
“We move on and leave him here,” Alexis told them. “If he found his way here, he can find his way out again.” Idiot, you found your way here, and can you find it out again?
“Wait!” Adrian cried as he turned to face him. “Alexis, start whistling!”
“What? What good would that do?”
“Just whistle!” Adrian said impatiently.
Alexis shook his head and whistled a few cheery notes. The weeping continued, and then abruptly it trailed off into sobs and then stopped almost at once. The man on the ground turned and looked towards the source of the noise. Alexis saw his face, and his grip tightened on his guns. The face that looked at him seemed to slope outwards. Under a shaggy mat of black hair, the large man’s eyes were small and appeared sunken beneath his large brow. The nose was large and stuck out like the side of a hill. The man smiled then through the tears and grime, chapped lips splitting apart and displaying large gravestones of teeth.
He’s nothing more than a mere boy, Alexis thought, looking into the man’s gleeful black eyes. He might be large on the outside, but inside he’s a simple child. He stopped whistling then, but the joyful delight remained on the man’s face.
“All right, now,” Adrian said gently. “Who are you?”
The man turned and looked at him, and then at Connor, and then at Alexis again. “M-m-me?” His voice was a deep rumble, like gravel inside a drum.
“Yes, you,” Adrian said.
“I’m ... I’m Milen!” They watched as his face began turn to despair once more.
“Whistle some more,” Adrian said over his shoulder. Alexis did so, and Milen’s face lit up again. “Milen, listen to me. We are friends, we don’t mean you harm. Do you understand that?”
Milen looked from Alexis to Adrian, but it was clear that he wanted to face the music man again. Adrian repeated the question, and Milen nodded slowly, eyeing them carefully.
Alexis stopped whistling and holstered his guns. “Good,” he said. “I’m Alexis, Milen, and this is Connor and that’s Adrian. Do you live in these woods?” Again Milen nodded. “Where?” Milen pointed to some deeper depth of the woods. “Can you take us there?” Milen nodded.
Within a few minutes they were following Milen deeper into the woods.
2
Adrian had decided that he liked Milen upon first seeing the large man smile. It was the simple innocence that his smile seemed to exude. Milen led them through the woods, picking his way as easily as though he followed a visible path.
“Milen, you live in these woods?” Adrian asked.
“Yup!” Milen cried, smiling cheerfully. He stopped suddenly at the sound of a woodpecker and stood staring at the bird with his head cocked to the side. Adrian exchanged a puzzled glance with his companions. When Alexis reminded him to keep going, Milen jumped and looked at the three of them as though just seeing them. Then he smiled and led them deeper into the woods.
“You live here by yourself?” Adrian asked as he pushed a branch out of his way.
Milen nodded rapidly, though whether it was to the sound of the woodpecker or his question, Adrian couldn't tell. They all soon found out for themselves, however.
Adrian became aware that he could hear the sound of rushing water. The sound became louder the farther they followed their guide, and was clearly audible as Milen led them into a wide clearing. In the center of the dirt clearing was a large conical hut with a thatch roof.
“Milen, what took you so long?” came a woman’s voice from around the hut.
Milen’s face broke in
to a large grin as he ran towards the voice. Adrian exchanged a wondering look with Alexis and Connor.
“Ma! Ma!” Milen shouted in his rumbling voice. “I brought friends!”
“What are you talking about, Milen?” the woman’s voice suddenly grew cautious.
From around the hut stepped an old woman, her gray hair tied in a bun. She wore a faded green dress that had seen many washings and sandals that looked ready to fall apart. She startled as she saw them standing there just on the edge of the clearing. She began to back away from them, shaking her head in disbelief, her eyes wide with horror. She tripped over her own feet and collapsed to the ground. Milen ran to her side, jabbering in worry.
“What do you want?” screamed the woman from where she lay. “Leave us alone!”
Adrian looked at his companions, startled, and then back at the woman. It was clear how much they frightened her. But why?
Alexis stepped forward. “I’m sorry, madam, but we don’t want anything from you. We simply met Milen and we are hoping to find a way out of these woods.”
“Ma, they’re friends!” Milen cried, kneeling beside the woman.
“No they’re not, Milen!” cried the woman. “Stay away from them! They lie!”
Adrian stepped forward, and the woman cried aloud and fell back, trying to drag Milen back with her. Adrian retook his former position. “We don’t mean you any harm.” What’s the matter with her?
“You lie!” she shouted at them. “You all lie!” Tears began to overspill her eyes and roll down her weathered cheeks.
“Ma, they’re friends,” Milen said, and stood. The woman grabbed him by the arm and tried to hold onto him, but Milen gently pulled his arm free and walked towards Adrian and his friends.
“Milen, no! Don’t go near them! They’re bad men!”
“See, ma? Sanin, Alessi, and ... and Cotton!” Milen said, pointing at them and matching them with completely wrong names. Adrian looked at him in silent wonder. He can’t even remember our names clearly. “They’re my friends. And he’s a whistling-man!” This last Milen added with clear excitement as he pointed at Alexis.
“No,” the woman sobbed, “they’re not your friends.”
Adrian watched as the Legionnaire stepped forward with a determined step. He went to the woman on her knees and she shrank away from him. Alexis peeled off his left glove as he bent down before her.
“I don’t know what’s happened to cause you to react like this,” Adrian heard him say, “but I want you to see that I am a Legionnaire, and I promise not to harm you or yours as long as my companions and I are unharmed.” He showed her the mark on the back of his hand. From where he and Connor stood, Adrian watched the woman’s eyes grow wide with recognition and understanding.
For a long time the woman simply stared at the mark. Then she looked up into Alexis’s face. “But you’re too young.”
Adrian saw Alexis give the tiniest shake of his head and understood how tired the Legionnaire was of hearing that. Yet when he spoke his voice had a tinge of amusement. “I realize I’m young, but I’m still a Legionnaire.”
The woman’s eyes slid to Adrian and Connor. “And those behind you?”
“Companions,” Alexis explained simply. “Now, do you believe that we don’t mean you harm?”
The woman nodded slowly. “Yes. I know what the Legion stands for.”
Alexis helped her to her feet, and then had to step aside as Milen ran over and hugged the small woman. He seemed to swallow her up into his immense arms, and Adrian feared that he would break the woman in two, emitting the dry snap of bones breaking, but when Milen put her down she was smiling.
“Ma, they’re my friends, see?”
“Yes, Milen, I see,” said the woman, wiping away her tears.
Once they had introduced themselves they were invited to sit down and eat. As they sat around a small fire on wooden logs pilfered from the woods and eagerly wolfing down bowl after bowl of vegetable stew, the Legionnaire asked the questions that were on all their minds.
“Rebecca, where are we?”
Her voice was as steady and composed as her features as she watched them. “We’re deep in the heart of Bramble Woods.”
“How long have you been living here?” Alexis asked
“Since Milen was a small boy.” She watched Adrian and Connor eat with a smile. “My, you two could almost match my Milen for how much you eat.”
Adrian turned red immediately. He began to stammer an apology but Rebecca cut him off.
“Don’t be sorry at all, it’s good to have company.”
“Why live all the way out here?” Connor asked.
Rebecca was quiet for several minutes. She looked at Milen, playing with his small toys, which were no more than pieces of wood tied together to give them some semblance of human form. Her voice was soft and sad when she answered. “Some people are not so eager to accept those who are different.”
Adrian felt a bitter twinge as she said those words. He looked at Milen, who seemed oblivious of their stares, and thought he understood all the scars covering his body.
“You three are the only people we have ever had out here,” Rebecca said. “I feel that that is a good thing. I don’t want Milen to be ... viewed as different again.”
Adrian’s mood darkened and grew heavy. He understood too well what Rebecca was saying. They ate in silence for a few moments. Adrian looked up once and saw that Rebecca seemed to be studying him. “You are also quite different,” she told him, setting him on edge at once. “It’s in your eyes.”
From the corner of his eye Adrian noticed Alexis tense at once, as he himself felt, though he didn’t understand why. There was no harm in Rebecca’s words or in her tone, but the simple fact that she knew what he really was made him wary.
“I used to know a few Ascillians back when we lived outside of the woods,” Rebecca said with a smile. “They were good friends, kind to Milen. This was before the--.” She looked away from him with a small shake of her head.
Before the slaughter began, she had meant to say, Adrian knew. She gave him an apologetic look that was full of sympathy. It didn’t make him feel any better.
“They’re dead,” Adrian said quietly and bluntly.
Rebecca’s smile had waned and disappeared, now a deep sadness ruled her face as she looked at him. Adrian wanted to hide from that look, to flee before her sympathetic gaze.
“The world has changed since then,” Alexis said into the silence.
Both Adrian and Rebecca looked towards him, and Adrian felt sure the words that they both wanted to ask were: Has it, has it really? Alexis perhaps caught some of this in their steady gazes for he lowered his own eyes and commenced eating.
Connor pulled them all back to the present. “You couldn’t have constructed the hut on your own, or maintained the garden.” Rebecca had shown them her garden on the other side of the hut.
Rebecca gave him a small smile. “No, we couldn’t have. My husband constructed the hut and began the garden. Milen helped, of course.” Milen looked up at his mention and gave a hopeful grin. His mother returned it. “We have much of everything we need here. My husband made sure of that before he died. He’s buried just beyond the garden. As for foodstuffs, when we run low I journey out west through the woods and go to the market in a small village called Enin, where I trade my woven baskets for seeds and flour.”
“But aren’t you lonely?” Connor asked in wonder.
Rebecca gave him a small smile, humored by the question. “Lonely, yes. But also peaceful. It all depends on what you want from the world around you. I learned long ago the best thing for me and my son was to seek peace and solitude.”
“Does he ever get lonely?” Alexis asked.
“He will forever be a child in his mind ... so he is lonely all the time.”
Silence settled in the brief pause of words. Overhead the night was still and cloudless, a sickle moon clear amidst a sea of stars. All around, the woods surrounded the
m, making Adrian glad for the light of the fire before him. The flames danced shadows across their faces and lighted them in a peaceful orange glow.
Rebecca looked from Milen to Adrian and Connor. “You boys must be tired. Come, I’ll show you were you can lie down.”
Adrian looked towards Alexis and waited for the Legionnaire’s nod before rising and following Rebecca. She led them inside the hut, which Adrian found was more spacious than it looked from outside. Rebecca fetched some blankets and laid them on the ground.
“I’m sorry, but this is the best I can do.”
“It’s as good as we need,” Adrian told her, attempting to rid the shame he saw in her eyes. “Thank you.”
Adrian lay down on his little pallet as Connor sat down on his. Rebecca tried to coax Milen into his cot, but he insisted on staying awake and talking with his new friends.
“It’s all right,” Adrian told her. “We don’t mind talking a little.”
Rebecca gave him a grateful smile and left them.
3
“Rebecca, what’s wrong with Milen?” Alexis asked.
Rebecca didn’t seem to mind the bluntness of the question. “He has been different since the day he was born. It was not much when he was a babe, but as he grew he did so faster than the other children, and as you can see quite differently. I remember when he used to come home with bloody gashes upon his face because the other children had been throwing rocks at him. The older he grew, the worse it became. We were driven from town to town because no body wanted a mutant living close to them. They said to take him to the Ruins and leave him there.” She seemed unaware of the tears that filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Alexis said. He wished that he had never asked the question.
Rebecca waved the apology aside as if it were not necessary. She fixed him with a curious stare. “What are you doing this far into the woods?”
Alexis found himself telling her the truth, or as much as he could. “I have a mission to guide Adrian safely to a certain destination. We were with others, but were attacked and became seperated.”